The technological revolution is more intertwined every day with our economy and our societyamore than 50 percent of America's gross national product comes from information-based industriesaand most political leaders today have had no background in that revolution. It's going to become crucial that many of the larger decisions we makeahow we allot our resources, how we educate our childrenabe made with an understanding of the technical issues and the directions the technology is taking. And that hasn't begun happening yet.
Posted: December 29th, 2010
at 9:20pm by Koookiecrumbles
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One of the major issues with the surge of 'news' blogs taking over the internet is that many of them have an obvious bias. This is considered a negative in the journalism world but can actually be a positive online. Instead of hoping your local newspaper doesn't have an opinion on whatever you're reading you can read many opinions and views then form your own. Online journalism is simply the practice of taking something that has been done for centuries (the reporting of news and indepth articles) and putting it on the web.
Posted: December 29th, 2010
at 7:39pm by Koookiecrumbles
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Irvine consultant Joe Vranich has made a name for himself in the past couple of years documenting companies that are moving jobs out of California, expanding outside the Golden State because of its business regulations/ taxes or packing up and leaving completely. So the California Chapter of Americans for Prosperity asked Vranich to come up with a David Letterman-type top 10 list of reasons businesses are leavingACalifornia.
Posted: December 29th, 2010
at 5:56pm by Koookiecrumbles
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Rebuilding the Greek economy will require creative interaction with the underlying realities of Greek society: the family, the small business, the habits of rentocracy and of low-trust opportunism.
Posted: December 29th, 2010
at 5:53pm by Koookiecrumbles
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In reality the world is a chaotic place. With an always changing environment and an infinite amount of possibilities its highly probable that an amazing opportunity could fall into your lap. Hell. Its even likely it happens all the time. However - an opportunity equals shit if you don't do anything with it. It takes intelligence and adaptability to take advantage of an unpredicted opportunity - and unless you don't have it - you will never experience a "lucky break".
Posted: December 29th, 2010
at 5:49pm by Koookiecrumbles
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Holiday parties are a time for conspicuous production: "Would you like some bread with sun-dried tomatoes - I just baked it this afternoon? The tomatoes? Oh, they’re nothing - I had stacks of them in my garden this year, so I dried them in the solar-powered food drier that I built last summer."
Posted: December 29th, 2010
at 4:15pm by Koookiecrumbles
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I think that one of the reasons that the coding standards are so different is because the principles that they follow are very subjective: readability, clutter, clarity, they depend on the developer that writes or reads the code. The styles also have to find a compromise between readability and code size: for example mixed case naming occupies less characters than using lower case with underscores, and indenting with tabs occupies less bytes than using spaces; but these advantages are quite negligible in my opinion.
Posted: December 29th, 2010
at 4:09pm by Koookiecrumbles
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I hear you boggling. "Huh?" you say, "There's lots of the U.S. and the world where the cell coverage sucks." That's right; it's because there isn't enough expected volume and return from extending coverage to justify the capital cost. For years now the carriers have only been extending their networks to avoid losing market share against each other, not to increase overall coverage. From the financial-minimax point of view, the cell buildout is done. We won't see dramatic coverage improvements before a technological break that dramatically lowers cost per square mile covered.
Posted: December 29th, 2010
at 4:03pm by Koookiecrumbles
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Japan’s Stereo (The Dismemberment Plan)
The Dismemberment Plan played together from the late 90s to the early 00s. The sort of people who care about bands like this REALLY cared about this band.
(By the way, if their band name is making you think they’re some sort of violent, angry death metal act, then please note that it is a quote taken from the decidedly less threatening environment of Groundhog Day, a Bill Murray comedy)
The reason why they were cared about has to do with how they actually sounded - an indie-art-punk aesthetic at their core, with all sorts of bits and bobs thrown in. Vocals were stuttered, spoken, sung, rapped; the lyrics were both intelligent and funny, something which is incredibly hard to achieve.

They broke up in 2003, but played a couple of shows in 2007 to raise money for a friend with spinal muscular atrophy. That, as it turns out, wasn’t the end - early January sees a re-release of the ‘Plan’s best album, "Emergency & I", and to celebrate they’re playing a few more gigs.
Not many, mind you. A handful, mostly in America. But Japan’s lucky residents will get the chance to witness this rare treat: in Kyoto on February 7th, and Tokyo on the 13th.
Posted: December 29th, 2010
at 3:59pm by mnp
Tagged with music, japan, youtube, Japan's Stereo, the dismemberment plan, emergency & i
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