Nice organising principles for Wikipedia entries.
Archive for February, 2006
Cosmic Variance has a lovely explanation of how the quantum interrogation aspect of counterfactual computation might work. So I’ve moved on from last week.
Mind Hacks links to discussion of eBay auction silliness. In trials, people prefer to pay $5+$6 shiping for a CD than $10 for a CD with free shipping. It was a controlled trial:
multiple auctions with different price-postage ratios revealed a net preference for low item price and a poor correlation between auction success and stated postage costs
Now the obvious thought is that we’re sub-rational idiots. However, if I was presented with 5+6 or 10, I’d not buy the 10 because I’d be looking to satisfice 5+x<10. It’s one of my big gripes about online shopping that sites try to hide shipping charges. I’ve abandoned many shopping baskets due to unexpected shipping charges that weren’t at least mentioned at “add to basket” time.
Ortholog has a nice tie up with “Influence“, which looks like a good discussion of why we do the things we don’t want to.
Mike Cross talks to the importance of Government Connect. He’s right, and there’s a lot of changes coming in that space.
Yet more funked up subway maps.
Democracy TV looks like a nice integration of Bittorrent and RSS to get channels to you for watching when you want. On the other side of the media, FluidEffect has a useful before/after feature in its portfolio to show you quite how much photoshopping we don’t know about or notice these days.
It has to be said that the default Mac desktop + Dock + menu bar with addins + some downloads you haven’t yet removed from your desktop is pretty busy. Here are some nice tips from 43 Folders plus others on how to unclutter. Full screen mode + dock hiding really make sense (especially on what feels like a tiny 1024×768 screen - even if it is a 28 inch LCD TV!).
Interesting to see the US starting to wonder what effect Tesco might have, given that WalMart isn’t doing well against them in Blighty.
I’m quoted in a news piece about wikis.
What the f**k? Take a quantum computer that could run an algorithm if it was switched on. Through quantum interrogation, you can learn the result of a computation without running the computer. And someone has done it for real. So this must mean that our thinking is woolly, rather than bizarro things are happening.
UK local government tried life events and moved on. Directgov has life events and they seem OK. Now the EU wants them as part of the new i2010 framework so that Jonas and Gabriella can get married:
- “life-time events”
- “business-events”
- semantic
interoperability (e.g. transalation between “forms”) - technical interoperability
I still don’t think that people work on the “multiple tasks on the same visit” that these events suppose. Certainly in my head I have a list of things I need to do at one of these events and then do them one-by-one, mostly because I’m not sure how the information flows work as we move through the system.
I guess this is where joined up government could help, in saying “we’ve done the thinking for you, just trust us”. And that’s where it would all fall down - the “t” word.
Apparently waving your hands more equals better (more effective) teaching.
An article which made me think. I strongly believe that I’m seeing and hearing fewer and fewer ads in my life thanks to:
- Sky+ (almost never watch ads now, even on live Rugby matches, because we just hit pause)
- TV downloads (kind Canadians have removed the adverts from, e.g. Lost series 2 - just getting good at episode 8, by the way)
- MP3 player (never listen to podcasts, just chunking through my 6000 songs)
Does this mean that I’m weakening some of the implicit associations that I’ve built up over thirty years?
An interesting look from the economist’s point of view at some libertarian questions:
- Do you think a minimum wage is an effective way to help the poor? [Answer: No]
- Do you think wealth accumulation is the result of exploitation? [Answer: Not always]
- Do you see profit-seeking business as a hindrance to ethical consumerism? [Answer: it shouldn't]
- Do you lament the tastes of others? [Answer: everyone does, but you shouldn't really mean it and certainly not be absolutist]
All the tube maps you could ever want in one place together. I love the German one (we live at Bogenweg).
Nice interface to scan the use of words in State of the Nation speeches. Useful to see how politicians change their tune over time.
MoonEdit looks useful - it’s a multi-user, multi-platform collaborative text editor - with simultaneous edit goodness.
I saw this photo mentioned in LbL and it gave me quite a shock. The more I look at it, the more I think it is Caroline (but the coat sleeves look wrong, but what would I know). Freaky.
* Most memorable tube experience?
Only I suppose because I immortalised it, but when I took this shot - without getting caught:
A taxpayers lobbying group has an interesting model of how a flat tax might work. What does the quote suggest - we have an infinite tolerance for financial pain?
Remarkably, the UK Treasury’s model of the economy, as well as those operated by private think-tanks, assume that if the top tax rate were to double from the current 40% to 80%, revenues would also double and taxpayers would not modify their lives in any way, choosing to work almost for free for Brown. The truth, of course, is that such a massive tax increase – or even one which took the top rate to 50% or 60% – would trigger economic Armageddon. Millions of people would quit their jobs, leave the country or shift to the underground economy – as Ayn Rand put in her bestselling classic novel, Atlas Shrugged, the wealth-creators, thinkers and doers would go on strike.
There aren’t many shows currently available, but a useful place to book your free tickets to various recordings. Oh yes, and Chris A is top of the list, currently.
