Openness
Thursday, March 10, 2005, 08:38 PM - Politics, Tech
I just finished listening to this podcast from the Gillmor Gang (yep, just got an iPod, for that extra 20 minute walk to work). Towards the end, the Gang riffs on openness - open source, open standards, open formats, open economics, and open systems.This got me to thinking about priorities. The normal hierarchy of these opennesses seems to be:
1. Open systems: this is the utopia of complete interoperability with little or no external constraints, what the Gang talked about with the constraints of proprietary silos; akin to the radical democracy of one person, one vote without the influence of money and influence peddlers.
2. Open economics: this is the free beer ideal, where prices are directly tied to costs of production and their is no extra margin due to proprieatry control on processes.
3. Open standards: similar to a standard legal code, where the everyone plays by the same rules.
4. Open source: allow the free examination and modification of the code which drives the applications.
5. Open formats: keep the data free of constraints so it can be ported to any system without impediment. This extends to the metadata, too, such as the formatting data of a word processor.
Practically, in the management of an IT organization, my priorites run in other directions:
1. Open formats: the foundation of my job is to protect the data. If the data is constrained, then someone else has control over my data.
2. Open standards: to reduce the constraints in communication between applications.
3. Open source: this cuts two ways - reducing the cost of licensing and allowing examination of what the application is doing to my data.
4. Open systems: keep focusing on open interoperability of all components. This becomes a decision factor when all else seems equal - Red Hat or Suse?
5. Open economics: most consumers, both business and individual, are dealing with the same economic conditions, so the field, while not ideal, is relatively even. Sometimes that $150 proprietary app doesn't muck with my data and is certainly cheaper than having a developer toil for three days.
Almost-free Music
Wednesday, March 9, 2005, 01:51 PM - Economy, Tech
This suggestion makes a lot of sense to me. I'm not a music afficiando. I don't follow the trends. I don't listen to music that much.I buy music on a whim, and 15 bucks per whim is more that I'm willing to fork out. Even a buck per track makes me hesitate. Instead, I'm willing to spend the time scouring the web for legitimate free mp3s. But a nickel, even a dime, per track is something I'd seriously consider, particularly if there's the ability to stream a preview of the track and a link to the performer's site.
See, for me, scouring the web is in itself entertainment. If I'm sitting down for a couple of hours of mp3 searching, checking out the visuals and content of sites is as much fun as finding a good couple of free tracks. So the purchase threshold for me is very low.
Even the annual-fee, unlimited-download sites make me pause. Since my purchase barrier is about a dime, that means I need to buy about 250 or so tracks per year. I'm not going to make that kind of commitment for something that's a whim. It reminds me of the times I've signed up for gym memberships - great intentions that didn't pan out.
On top of it all, I'm offended with the current pricing because it has no relation to the cost of production. I don't buy the industry song-and-dance about the ancillary costs such as talent development, marketing, etc. and etc. I feel like I'm getting taken, particularly when I read that the artists still get squat out of the deal.
I think there's plenty of folks out there like me. Give us a price point that makes sense, and we'll fork over the money. Otherwise, we'll either a) keep scouring, b) download illegally, and-or c) ignore that market.
Social Security and TSP
Thursday, March 3, 2005, 01:56 PM - Politics
From the Washington Post, this article discusses the comparison with the federal Thrift Savings Plan:For most federal employees, the TSP serves as one leg of a "three-legged stool" of retirement income; the other two are the traditional Social Security benefit and a government pension. But because many businesses no longer offer defined-benefit pensions, many employees in the private sector have only a two-legged stool -- their 401(k) plan plus Social Security.The article goes on to discuss possible hidden costs to employers, particularly small businesses:
The money that workers divert to Bush's personal accounts, plus 3 percent interest, would come out of their guaranteed Social Security benefit. So, in effect, the president would be shaving down one of the legs and hoping that a new one -- the individual account -- would grow at least enough to compensate for the loss.
...diverting a portion of Social Security payroll deductions into TSP-style accounts could be an expensive and logistically difficult task, experts say. A 2001 Social Security Administration study concluded that "infrequent wage reporting . . . could delay the time between when IA [individual account] contributions are withheld from pay and when they are credited to individual IAs." Such delays could be minimized, the report said, but only through higher administrative costs. Running such a system would cost the government between $700 million and $3 billion annually, the report's authors wrote, adding that there would be unspecified costs to individuals and employers that they did not study.People are going to howl if their set aside isn't creditted to their private account immediately. Congress will then shift the burden to business, requiring more detailed reporting on a more frequent basis, thereby adding another administrative cost above their current contribution to Social Security.
Truck Stopping
Wednesday, February 23, 2005, 03:15 PM - Tech
Roland has an interesting bit about truck-stopping technology. Trucks are mounted with a device which, when activated by remote-control, Developed by the Lawrence Livermore Natl Labs, the intended use is two-fold. Cops can stop trucks suspected of being hijacked by terrorists. Sensitive installations, such as chemical plants, can set up a perimeter that stops all trucks from entering. All well and good.
But let's look at the moral hazard. The chemical plants relax overall security because of the perimeter defense. That's not a good thing. And what about the terrorist who removes the activator before setting out to plow into a chemical plant? The perimeter defense is disabled.
Or the unintended consequences. Can you imagine the mess caused by a prankster on the LA freeways during rush hour?
Liability Reform
Wednesday, February 23, 2005, 02:06 PM - Politics
Yet another Bush "belief" crumbles under the scrutiny of fact. The NYT has an article today about the impact of malpractice lawsuits on the cost of medical insurance premiums. Bush's own Health and Human Services Department reports that in the past year malpractice claimes dropped 8.9%.Lawsuits against doctors are just one of several factors that have driven up the cost of malpractice insurance, specialists say. Lately, the more important factors appear to be the declining investment earnings of insurance companies and the changing nature of competition in the industry.I doubt these facts will change Bush's rhetoric because his real target always has been the money trial lawyers contribute to Democrats.
The recent spike in premiums - which is now showing signs of steadying - says more about the insurance business than it does about the judicial system.
Programming Planning
Monday, February 7, 2005, 06:45 PM - Tech
Dror Eyal has a good piece on how to survive in today's software market.At work, we do a great deal of our own development, and over the past couple of years, I've settled on the following as the proper way to develop smaller projects:
1. Describe the purpose of the application in less than two sentences.
2. Meet with affected departments and negotiate the scope of work and requirements.
3. Determine the interaction of the application to existing standards, both internal and external.
4. Mock-up user and administrator interfaces.
5. Define data flows and structures.
6. Mock-up programming flow and structures.
7. Code project; test; modify; release.
The design of an application should be modular. Here's another take, another way of conceptualizing it, from Roland Piquepaille.
Update: A more detailed and expanded write-up is here .
Swamped
Tuesday, February 1, 2005, 10:29 PM - Tech
Poor stolenchildhoods.org. It's one thing to be slashdotted. It's another to have Aaron Brown plaster your url across News Night. Call it being CNNed.Ownership
Friday, January 21, 2005, 10:24 PM - Economy
A friend recently moved to Italy. She wanted to take her car with her. To avoid taxes, she had to prove she had owned the car for more than six months (I think the time is correct, but it really doesn't matter.) No problem, she had bought the car about three years ago.Not so. It turns out that the Italians have this quaint view of ownership, e.g. they mean that you really own it. If there is still a note on the car, then you don't own it.
I keep thinking of this little story when I hear talk of an Ownership Society.
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