Chaotic Good

Aretae postulates four axes of political thought. Or maybe political goals. I'd have to say I agree with him, and his conclusion. Though I have trouble fitting it onto the standard Alignment chart.

Been There, Done That

Dave Airlie is apparently not having a good time with glibc. Warning: there's some strong language at that link.

While I wouldn't express myself quite the same way as Dave... having been on the receiving end of glibc maintainer arrogance in the past, I have to say that I do understand his frustrations...

Just Do it

A Message to Garcia.

The point I wish to make is this: McKinley gave Rowan a letter to be delivered to Garcia; Rowan took the letter and did not ask, "Where is he at?" By the Eternal! There is a man whose form should be cast in deathless bronze and the statue placed in every college in the land. It is not book-learning young men need, nor instruction about this or that, but a stiffening of the vertebrae which will cause them to be loyal to a trust, to act promptly, concentrate their energies; do the thing - "carry a message to Garcia!"

Just Do it

A Message to Garcia.

The point I wish to make is this: McKinley gave Rowan a letter to be delivered to Garcia; Rowan took the letter and did not ask, "Where is he at?" By the Eternal! There is a man whose form should be cast in deathless bronze and the statue placed in every college in the land. It is not book-learning young men need, nor instruction about this or that, but a stiffening of the vertebrae which will cause them to be loyal to a trust, to act promptly, concentrate their energies; do the thing - "carry a message to Garcia!"

Thick Enough to Cut

Irony.

Why does health care cost so much?

Here's a clue:

When asked why he didn't just buy a laxative he responded, "I didn't have a slot on my Medicaid and would have had to pay for it. The hospital is free and has cable."

How To Run A Protest-Proof Grocery Store

At The Agitator. Amusing, and probably a touch too close to reality for some folks' comfort...

• You should be a good corporate citizen, and donate regularly to charity and political causes. But only those causes that disapprove of commercialism. A good rule of thumb: If the cause you’re considering doesn’t think you, a business, should be legally permitted to exist, it’s probably a safe donation.

Heh!

People Unclear on the Concept

"Evidently, the British are a bit unclear on how a monarchy works.". Heh! Full snark over at The Gormogons: How It Works.

Engineers vs. Economists

Over at Aretae.

I was actually thinking about something similar earlier today. I think that people generally have the idea that "simpler is better". Meaning that given a complex system that accomplishes a goal, and a simple system that accomplishes roughly the same goal, someone will prefer the simpler system.

This was brought about by thinking of tax day, and the snaggle-toothed monstrosity that is the US tax code. I think I would actually be happier paying higher taxes, if the payment was much simpler - a flat 20% tax, for example. I figure that would increase my Federal taxes to about 2.5x what I pay now. In return, though, I'd understand my tax payments, and the uncertainty associated with the current tax system would be eliminated.

So... how does this figure into engineering/economics? Well, if economic problems are unsolvable, then why not select the simplest solution? Anything you're going to try will be inadequate in some way. Given that, it would seem to make sense to pick the simplest, most understandable economic system you can design that at least solves some part of a problem. At that point, you've made progress - you've solved 90%of X - and because your solution is simple, you're at least able to understand where it doesn't work, and possibly compensate for it's failings in other ways, or at least route around the conditions where it breaks down.

Phone Screens

A co-worker pointed me at these Five Essential Phone Screen Questions for developers, and I wanted to put it someplace where I'd be able to find it again. So... here it is.