February, 23, 2002 archives

well, if i had actually purchased shares in apple a year ago, when i said it sound like a good idea, i would have seen a healthy 20% return on my investment. my hypothetical investment in yahoo would have more than wiped out those returns, though.

one of the wacky ideas that is part of extreme programming is continuous integration. i think it's a great idea. tools like tinderbox take this even further. one of the things i've regretted never doing in my previous projects is really good automated testing.

one sort-of-related thing i can't live without is continuous peer review, by way of automated emails from cvs. i have a finely-honed unified diff reading muscle.

first off, the people behind the california official voter information site and the mailed booklet deserve a huge pat on the back for some really strong design. los angeles county could learn a lot from these folks.

anyway, because i can, i'm going to start writing about how i plan to vote on the various ballot measures, and perhaps the primary races (although i haven't decided what party's primary to vote in—i'm registered as a non-partisan).

prop. 40 would authorize $2.6 billion in bonds for natural resources conservation, state and local park acquisition and improvement, and historical and cultural resources preservation purposes. these are all extremely worthy causes, but on general principles, i'm opposed to spending money that isn't in hand. so this will get a no vote from me. (the actual cost to repay the $2.6 billion in bonds would be about $4.3 billion, or $3.2 billion in today's dollars.)

there's a vote yes on 40 site (pretty weak design). there's no specific 'vote no on 40' site, as far as i can tell. the la times says to vote yes.

crazy eggheads have figured out how much static electricity insects generate when they walk around, and are looking at ways to use this static electricity, which helps makes pollen stick to the insects, in traps that use insect-killing spores.

dave doesn't like how google chose to recognize the close of the winter olympics. it's a little goofy, but no more so than their numerous past efforts. and with the ioc being such sticklers about usage of the five-rings logo, i can't blame google for being a little abstract. i think someone put on their cranky pants today.

a new day, a new ballot initiative.

prop. 41 is one of the two the post-2000-election measures on the ballot. but this one is a bond measure, for $200 million, to allow counties to purchase modern voting equipment. again, a very worthy cause, but a bond measure is a poor way to finance it. so i'll be voting no on this one, too.

there's a yes on prop. 41 group (whose website is broken mozilla—white-on-white text!), but once again there's no organization specifically opposed to the measure. the howard jarvis taxpayers association is opposed to both bond measures, though. the la times says to vote yes.

david p. reed (of reed's law) wrote a great article about what he calls middleboxes. pieces of hardware and software that are being inserted into communications pathways that end up crippling those pathways. i think it isn't a stretch to contend that laws like the sssca are intended to create middleboxes inside the boxes on the edge, and make it illegal to tamper with them. they are similarly disastrous for innovation.

from the new york times, this report of how costly democracy can be is very enlightening. it is clear that building a successful democratic government isn't as simple as holding elections. (after all, we're still fumbliing about trying to get it right after a couple of hundred years. i don't think legislation for sale to the highest corporate bidder can be described as an ideal. it's also a shame to not see the benefits of federalism talked about as highly as those of democracy. democracy doesn't scale terribly well.)