Jeremy's Journal http://stein.everybody.org/journal Random thoughts; you know... the usual Mon, 09 Aug 2010 18:34:30 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 en hourly 1 Chip on my shoulder http://stein.everybody.org/journal/posts/chip-on-my-shoulder/ http://stein.everybody.org/journal/posts/chip-on-my-shoulder/#comments Mon, 09 Aug 2010 18:34:30 +0000 Jeremy http://stein.everybody.org/journal/posts/chip-on-my-shoulder/ While driving to work this morning, I thought I felt something brush past my pants leg near the pedals. Glancing down, I couldn’t see anything on the floor of my car. I decided to inspect more closely once I got to work.

A few moments later, I felt something land on my shoulder. My startle must have startled it and it jumped right back off. As I pulled over in a panic, I glanced in the rear-view mirror and saw a chipmunk in the back of the car.

I believe that is the first (and I hope the last) time I have ever had a chipmunk on my shoulder. I’m quite glad it wasn’t a mouse or rat.

I opened the door and after a few minutes the chipmunk departed and ran into the woods. I think I shall henceforth be careful to close my windows when parking in my own garage.

]]> http://stein.everybody.org/journal/posts/chip-on-my-shoulder/feed/ 0 From Chase, for FREE! http://stein.everybody.org/journal/posts/from-chase-for-free/ http://stein.everybody.org/journal/posts/from-chase-for-free/#comments Fri, 12 Feb 2010 15:11:21 +0000 Jeremy http://stein.everybody.org/journal/?p=159 I just noticed this email from my Chase credit card:

Dear JEREMY STEIN:

The Year-End Summary for your credit card ending in 1234 is now online and ready for review. Your 2009 Year-End Summary is a valuable resource that’s available to Chase OnlineSM customers for FREE!

Your personalized summary is an easy and convenient way to review your entire year of transactions. It’s a great tool to help you:

  • Prepare your taxes
  • Track yearly household spending
  • Plan an annual budget

[etc]

Is it really the case that there are so few benefits from using their credit card that they have to mention the FREE year-end statement? My only other theory is that Chase is hoping to distract me from the fact that they’re too cheap to mail me my statement.

]]> http://stein.everybody.org/journal/posts/from-chase-for-free/feed/ 0 Single sign-on http://stein.everybody.org/journal/posts/single-sign-on/ http://stein.everybody.org/journal/posts/single-sign-on/#comments Wed, 19 Aug 2009 15:03:19 +0000 Jeremy http://stein.everybody.org/journal/?p=153 Here is part of a telephone conversation with a member of our ITS support staff while he was having me test an issue with Citrix. I was trying to make small talk about the lack of single sign-on.

[It's not funny when you have to explain it, but it's even less funny when no one understands, so I'd better explain. Single sign-on is when you only have to sign-on to your local network one time. When you want to access any system on the network, your credentials are forwarded to the system by your computer. As long as you're logged in to your machine, you shouldn't have to explicitly log in to any other system on the network. This is tricky when using multiple authentication servers, but we're standardized on Active Directory.]

Me: So I log in with my network credentials?

ITS: It should be your first initial, last name. [So, yes.]

Me: So why doesn’t it log in automatically?

ITS: Just your first initial and last name.

Me: I mean, why doesn’t it use NTLM to authenticate?

ITS: Just enter your network password.

Me: No, I mean, shouldn’t we have single sign-on?

ITS: That’s right, single sign-on.

[I gave up.]

Single sign-on: when you have the same log-in everywhere.

]]> http://stein.everybody.org/journal/posts/single-sign-on/feed/ 2 Abandoned no. Interesting yes. http://stein.everybody.org/journal/posts/abandoned-no-interesting-yes/ http://stein.everybody.org/journal/posts/abandoned-no-interesting-yes/#comments Tue, 11 Aug 2009 18:22:56 +0000 Jeremy http://stein.everybody.org/journal/?p=136 I’ve got a slogan for this site:

Abandoned no. Interesting yes.

Does that make you want to bookmark this site or what!

No, of course not. You probably hadn’t considered the possibility that I’d abandoned this site until you saw me deny it. If I really want a slogan for this site, I should either completely ignore the topic of how often it’s updated, or better yet, I should brazenly advertise the fresh relevant content.

Claiming that your product is not X, only serves to bring attention to X. Consider the story of the pressure cooker:

After World War 2, pressure cookers were an increasingly popular way to cook. They cooked faster than traditional methods by applying high amounts of pressure as well as heat to foods. There was a problem though… sometimes a poorly-attended pot would explode, presenting a hazard to anyone nearby.

Concerned manufacturers built in pressure release valves to solve this problem, and happily advertised their “new and improved” design. They figured that it’s only logical that people would want to buy the safer design, and looked forward to increased sales.

In fact, sales plummeted. Despite the fact that the new cookers were undoubtedly safer, the general public wasn’t aware that they could explode at all. source

I guess “less likely to explode” wasn’t the best marketing angle.

Our children’s dentist warns parents to shut up about the dentist before bringing them for their first visit. Parents tend to say “don’t worry; it won’t hurt.” Naturally this has the opposite of the intended effect. We reveal by our denial that it’s something we’re worried about. And they should worry too.

I like reading Daniel Pinkwater’s Ice-cream Larry to the kids. The polar bear (Larry) becomes the spokesbear of an ice cream company. His slogan: “I do not feel sick.” I always laugh when I think of that slogan. It’s funny for the adults reading the book because it’s so obviously a bad marketing statement.

I wrote this whole post to mock Fiber One (General Mills), which chose the following tag line for it’s cereal: Cardboard no. Delicious yes.

I liked Fiber One before they started printing this on the back of my cereal box. Now all I can think about is whether it does, in fact, taste like cardboard. I think they’re right: it doesn’t. Now pass the frosted flakes.

]]> http://stein.everybody.org/journal/posts/abandoned-no-interesting-yes/feed/ 2 Jailed 14 years for contempt http://stein.everybody.org/journal/posts/jailed-14-years-for-contempt/ http://stein.everybody.org/journal/posts/jailed-14-years-for-contempt/#comments Mon, 12 Jan 2009 15:54:45 +0000 Jeremy http://stein.everybody.org/journal/?p=133 Judges can put people in jail for contempt of court. Reporter Judith Plame was jailed for refusing to reveal a source to a grand jury. People are usually jailed or threatened with jail for less noble causes than she.

H. Beatty Chadwick was put in jail for contempt because his wife (who was suing him for divorce) claimed that he had hidden $2.5 million while he claimed he had lost the money in a business deal. The judge didn’t believe him and he’s sat behind bars for 14 years.

He hasn’t been charged with a crime, and yet he sits in jail. For longer than many convicted murderers. He’s now 72. This is a life sentence.

Judges tend to be pretty smart. I’m guessing he did hide the money. But shouldn’t he be charged with a crime and tried by a jury of his peers? There appears to be a gaping hole in American justice system, and H. Beatty Chadwick has fallen in.

Update: he has finally been freed.

]]> http://stein.everybody.org/journal/posts/jailed-14-years-for-contempt/feed/ 3 Georgia in 2008 = Czechoslovakia in 1938? http://stein.everybody.org/journal/posts/georgia-in-2008-czechoslovakia-in-1938/ http://stein.everybody.org/journal/posts/georgia-in-2008-czechoslovakia-in-1938/#comments Tue, 19 Aug 2008 14:14:10 +0000 Jeremy http://stein.everybody.org/journal/?p=129 I’m not a good student of history or of global politics, but it did occur to me that the situation in Georgia is awfully similar to that of the infamous Munich Agreement. Will Ossetia be just Russia’s first step to taking all of Georgia while the West is too timid to intervene?

The New York Sun has a nice little article that compares this conflict to similar situations in modern European history.

]]> http://stein.everybody.org/journal/posts/georgia-in-2008-czechoslovakia-in-1938/feed/ 2 Frogger: Game Over http://stein.everybody.org/journal/posts/frogger-game-over/ http://stein.everybody.org/journal/posts/frogger-game-over/#comments Mon, 11 Aug 2008 18:28:37 +0000 Jeremy http://stein.everybody.org/journal/?p=126 Part of my jog route takes me down Clover Street along the park. It’s a major road, and the frogs from the pond don’t stand a chance. It’s like Frogger on the impossible level. I often jog around their little corpses.

I assumed that crows and ants cleaned up the remains, but the truth turns out to be a bit more gruesome:

]]> http://stein.everybody.org/journal/posts/frogger-game-over/feed/ 1 Telemarketer vs. Google http://stein.everybody.org/journal/posts/telemarketer-vs-google/ http://stein.everybody.org/journal/posts/telemarketer-vs-google/#comments Tue, 05 Aug 2008 01:40:17 +0000 Jeremy http://stein.everybody.org/journal/?p=123 Hello, Mr. Stein. My name is Susan. I’m calling on behalf of the Cancer Fund of America Support Services. We give aid to the ill and needy and provide support and services to cancer patients who can’t afford treatment. May I confirm your address to send you a pledge card?

[Walking to computer] What organization did you say you were calling from?

Cancer Fund of America Support Services.

[Typing] OK. Cancer… Fund… of America… Support… Services… Ah, yes. It appears that you spend over 60% of your money on fund-raising. I think my contribution would be better spent elsewhere.

*Click*

]]> http://stein.everybody.org/journal/posts/telemarketer-vs-google/feed/ 2 My first political cartoon http://stein.everybody.org/journal/posts/my-first-political-cartoon/ http://stein.everybody.org/journal/posts/my-first-political-cartoon/#comments Fri, 11 Apr 2008 13:40:28 +0000 Jeremy http://stein.everybody.org/journal/posts/my-first-political-cartoon/ In reference to the public reaction to the FLDS raid:

]]> http://stein.everybody.org/journal/posts/my-first-political-cartoon/feed/ 3 SQL Server Performance Benchmarks http://stein.everybody.org/journal/posts/sql-server-performance-benchmarks/ http://stein.everybody.org/journal/posts/sql-server-performance-benchmarks/#comments Fri, 28 Mar 2008 14:26:50 +0000 Jeremy http://stein.everybody.org/journal/posts/sql-server-performance-benchmarks/ I’m not allowed to tell you how slow SQL Server is.

Seriously.

To install Visual C# Express, I had to agree to the following:

SQL SERVER BENCHMARK TESTING
You must obtain Microsoft’s prior written approval to disclose to a third party the results of any benchmark test of the SQL Server software that accompanies this software.

They must have included that clause because, while SQL Server is the fastest database, it doesn’t do well on benchmarks. Kind of like your barber’s kids are really smart but they just do poorly on tests.

Can you imagine Google forbidding search results comparisons? Or Amazon forbidding price comparisons? Or Toyota forbidding reliability comparisons?

You use Google because when you compared their results to what you were getting from Yahoo (or Lycos, or God forbid MSN), you found you got better results from Google. You shop at Amazon because, although you’ve looked for lower prices, you found it’s usually cheapest at Amazon. You bought that Camry (or Prius, or Gore forbid Highlander) because your research showed that Toyotas last longer.

These companies are all vulnerable to misleading benchmarks. Yahoo has better search results for “elliptical machines”. Buy.com has a better price on Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul III. Your coworker had a Volkswagen that lasted forever. For Google, Amazon and Toyota, the best way to combat unflattering “benchmarks” is simply to encourage more of them.

I’ve never performed a benchmark on SQL Server, but I don’t think I need to. Microsoft has made it pretty clear what kind of results they expect.

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