http://disqus.com/by/ketan/enSat, 13 Nov 2010 03:18:40 -0000http://techcrunch.com/2010/11/12/tripadvisor-is-a-great-advertisement/#comment-96813166<p>"paris vacations" is NOT the problem. The problem is putting up a garbage page for ad/SEO reasons instead of saying "We got nothin'."</p>ketanSat, 13 Nov 2010 03:18:40 -0000http://www.daemonology.net/blog/2010-10-22-naming-a-datastore.html#comment-90851238<p>Honeycomb<br>Keybasa (like "kielbasa" and -base)<br>Keyesta (like "fiesta")<br>Scatterbrain</p>ketanWed, 27 Oct 2010 16:04:04 -0000http://www.ketan.org/post/1741/#comment-381048<p>Pfft. You and your reality-based thinking.</p><p>Phosgene? Like the poison gas? Lovely.</p>ketanFri, 25 Apr 2008 16:24:42 -0000http://www.ketan.org/post/1731/#comment-350433<p>There's suspending disbelief, and then there's suspending intelligence. Might as well argue why they can't make the plane out of concrete or something. It's one thing when it doesn't stand up under close scrutiny; it's another thing when it's obvious the second it happens. This applies to movies as well.</p>ketanThu, 17 Apr 2008 22:55:50 -0000http://www.ketan.org/post/1729/#comment-349568<p>That's why I used taxis as a model. They don't explicitly charge for that, but they do fine.</p>ketanThu, 17 Apr 2008 18:16:20 -0000http://www.ketan.org/post/1716/#comment-327563<p>I believe there are lots of people who are ignorant about cars, but there are lots of people who know more about cars than they really need to.</p><p>Heh. "Honest mechanic." So deadpan.</p><p>Simpler interfaces are only beneficial with simpler devices. Cars may have internal complexity, but the interface is simple because there are only a few things most people care about from them: on/off, drive/reverse, left/right, faster/slower. Computers can do anything, and we're going to see more logic embedded in more things. There will be some consistency, but the applications will be so diverse that there won't be sufficient consistency to eliminate the need for this kind of literacy.</p><p>Apple prices are not expensive; they just choose not to sell on the low-end. Price them, and you'll see.</p>ketanFri, 11 Apr 2008 22:16:13 -0000http://www.ketan.org/post/1718/#comment-318453<p>I hear Egyptian Arabic is widely understood because it's the Arabic-speaking world's most populous country and the source of many popular television programs. I am not a scholar of Arabic, so I can only repeat what I have been told. Supposedly Mexican Spanish is in a similar position.</p><p>I didn't find German easier to learn than French (referring to my second brush with the language). I could never get the hang of the word order. While English may be a Germanic language in origin, it's had a heavy influence from French going back to 1066 and all that. Besides, if Mandarin Chinese and Arabic are on the list, I don't think ease of learning for a native English speaker is really going to be relevant.</p>ketanWed, 09 Apr 2008 19:50:40 -0000http://www.ketan.org/post/1718/#comment-316397<p>Wow. That's a lot of effort to put into spamming. Searching for the same keywords every 30 minutes or so and then posting on every weblog post that matches? That'll eat up some time...</p>ketanWed, 09 Apr 2008 11:19:20 -0000http://www.ketan.org/post/1711/#comment-309136<p>My boids are totally awesome.</p>ketanMon, 07 Apr 2008 14:28:53 -0000http://www.ketan.org/post/1710/#comment-299790<p>That is beautiful.</p>ketanThu, 03 Apr 2008 23:40:09 -0000http://ketan.org/post/1708/#comment-294714<p>It's a benefit to me, a benefit that is effectively free because I'd still buy the same house, and also because the hit to efficiency is spread over so many people other than me.</p>ketanWed, 02 Apr 2008 15:10:56 -0000http://www.ketan.org/post/1707/#comment-294711<p>Yes, the company still pays some of the bill. I'm ok with that, even if it's not perfectly balanced.</p><p>I believe the child tax credit also phases out at certain income levels.</p><p>I really have no idea what the child tax credit is for. Is it social engineering to encourage having kids? Seems like a pretty weak incentive.</p>ketanWed, 02 Apr 2008 15:09:15 -0000http://www.ketan.org/post/1707/#comment-294680<p>Well, does he take $17,000 in child tax credits every year? If so, then we're already paying. If he can't, then just apply the same logic that excludes him from those credits to the paternity leave.</p><p>I wouldn't want to cap the number of times or the number of partners because that's too much like social engineering via the tax code.</p>ketanWed, 02 Apr 2008 14:59:47 -0000http://www.ketan.org/post/1704/#comment-282695<p>If only Amazon still sold Veggie Booty... That would be something to subscribe to. They haven't had it since the recall, though.</p>ketanSun, 30 Mar 2008 14:46:26 -0000http://www.ketan.org/post/1704/#comment-278987<p>Yeah, Purex is a cheap detergent. It's also apparently just as good or even better than the more well-known brands. Sadly, like with numerous other brands, you can't get BOTH stink-free and high-efficiency; you have to choose. Given the noxious Tide wafting off my supposedly clean darks, we're going to pay a little more for All.</p><p>There seems to be some collective intelligence on the Interwebs about how to manage cloth diapers. I'm not concerned. The action of the washer seems like it would be more effective, and ours can easily be programmed to do extra rinses.</p>ketanFri, 28 Mar 2008 23:14:32 -0000http://www.ketan.org/post/1697/#comment-252397<p>I don't download movies, just TV shows, and thus far it's only been shows that are broadcast over the air anyway. We don't have a portable Tivo, but we do have a portable DVD player.</p>ketanFri, 21 Mar 2008 14:30:15 -0000http://www.ketan.org/post/1694/#comment-237237<p>I had a set of Dewalt bits that served me well, and the new Milwaukee ones I got are certainly stronger than the cheep Skil ones that keep breaking. My guess is that good bits come from the same brands that the good tools do.</p>ketanMon, 17 Mar 2008 14:37:17 -0000http://www.ketan.org/post/1639/#comment-188723<p>Pfft. Nobody was further from the actual than you were.</p>ketanThu, 28 Feb 2008 17:30:12 -0000http://www.ketan.org/post/1671/#comment-137563<p>I'm not questioning the science; I'm questioning the economic structure. Where the economic structure is sensible and the science sound, the results tend to be pretty good.</p>ketanSat, 09 Feb 2008 21:22:01 -0000http://www.ketan.org/post/1669/#comment-137562<p>I'm referring to the people who dislike Hillary Clinton (or George W. Bush, or...) as individuals in a seemingly personal way. The feeling is so intensely emotional and visceral.</p>ketanSat, 09 Feb 2008 21:21:12 -0000http://www.ketan.org/post/1658/#comment-137560<p>I think you're right, though it depends on how you define "much better."</p>ketanSat, 09 Feb 2008 21:19:44 -0000http://www.ketan.org/post/1637/#comment-68060ketanWed, 09 Jan 2008 12:06:03 -0000http://www.ketan.org/post/1633/#comment-60059<p>Is that supposed to be a 2 girls joke? Because this is a family weblog...</p>ketanFri, 04 Jan 2008 19:02:34 -0000http://www.ketan.org/post/1627/#comment-56128<p>I just used the number of pages Amazon claimed.</p>ketanWed, 02 Jan 2008 20:18:28 -0000http://www.ketan.org/post/1623/#comment-38314<p>The economic issues that I "wave away" are the macroeconomic ones, and what I'm waving away is the evidence that the minimum wage is bad at a macro level. At a micro level, I certainly agree that the minimum wage has a substantial impact on poor families. The issue isn't that it is worthless, but rather that we could be doing more good with the same expenditure. Also, note your numbers: only 15% of the increase in minimum wage went to poor families? That's pathetically inefficient. It's $11B more wages with only $1.6B going to poor families, while the EITC expansion alternative would have been an expenditure of $2.4B to yield $1.4B to poor families, or about 58% of the money.</p><p>I don't think corporations are part of us. They have too many privileges (not rights; only people have rights). Rather than add responsibilities, I'd rather take away privileges. Furthermore, your comment about the costs being passed on to the rest of "us" is much like the trickle-down theory of tax cuts for the wealth, except in reverse. I'm not sure it happens like you suggest, and even if it does, it's still an economic distortion leading to waste.</p><p>Finally, I care nothing for "income redistribution." What I care about is absolute levels of poverty. We should spend what it takes to make sure that every American has:</p><p>1) water<br>2) food<br>3) shelter<br>4) medical care<br>5) access to education</p><p>If we can make sure that the elderly poor don't have to choose between heart medication or heating oil, or that little kids don't go hungry, I don't really care the minimum wage is $0.02/hour.</p>ketanMon, 17 Dec 2007 14:14:19 -0000