Category: Google Plus Archive

One day more (and then I’ll stop bugging you all about this!)

One day more (and then I’ll stop bugging you all about this!) I’m raising funds for food allergy research & education, motivated by the fact that I have life-threatening allergies myself.

With any luck, J won’t need to worry about any of this (except second-hand), but it would be great if no one had to carefully read ingredients on food, worrying that they’ll end up in the E.R. after eating something that most people can handle just fine.

A huge thank you to those who have donated so far: Lee & Jim, Brion, Julianne & Craig, Susie, Don, Jason, Wayne, Pavana, Marisa, Daniel, Devin, Greg, Lia, Ken, Damon, Jesse, and Christopher.

To everyone else: please take a look, and consider sponsoring me for the event. Thank you!

The Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network Walk for Food Allergy

Words mean things. Unfortunately, when you’re dealing with jargon…

Words mean things. Unfortunately, when you’re dealing with jargon, they don’t always mean the same things to different people.

Phil Plait: Scientists are from Mars, the public is from Earth | Bad Astronomy

A couple of days ago here on G+ I linked to a table that shows words scientists use, and how the public hears them – and it’s not the way the scientists think. I had more to say, so I wrote a whole post about it.

Bottom line: if scientists want to sway public opinion, they need to make sure what they say can be understood.

–GP

What scientists say, and what people hear, isn’t always the same thing. That’s a problem with any kind of jargon, but when you get into things that have been politicized, it’s important to be clear.

–FB

My review of the relaunched Flash comic book.

For the comics fans, my review of the relaunched Flash comic book.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect other than fantastic art (which it delivered), but the new team managed to present a Barry Allen who was actually likable for the first time since his return in 2008. That went a long way toward making me like the comic.

Full review at the link.

Review: Flash #1 (The New 52)

Wayne comments on Google+: The fact Flash had chosen Hope as his lantern color is indicative of your old Barry. The impression I got in the Brightest Day tie-ins was he shut himself in to protect himself from the darkness he’s been seeing since his return. Whatever the case, I agree he should shake himself off soon. Flash had always been the more quipper of the JL bunch. Hope held is one thing, expressing happiness and optimism is still needed. At least he’s smiling. 🙂

And yeah, what did happen to Wally? Is he just lost in the Speedforce?

Storm, smog and sky above LAX.

They’re finally replacing the broken window in my old 11th-floor office. (It’s been held together with duct tape for months.) I’m still in the same suite, so the air pressure just started pulling a serious breeze from the vent in my ceiling.

I should really go grab lunch…

—

Why, yes, that was thunder I heard. Good thing the window replacement is done.

—

Storm, smog and sky above LAX. I’ve seen one lightning bolt and heard a few thunderclaps. The darker clouds are bunched up over Palos Verdes.

The user’s space has been used up

It’s rare that translating from English to (in this case) Chinese and back to English improves things, but “The user’s space has been used up” is clearer than “Mailbox over quota.”

Wayne suggests on Google+: lol might be because Chinese like to be more formal in their phrasing so Chinese probably translated to something like “The user’s space…”

Interesting theory: Amazon could buy Netflix, but wouldn’t want…

Interesting theory: Amazon could buy Netflix, but wouldn’t want to buy the current business with all its shipping centers in places where Amazon doesn’t have to pay/collect sales tax. If Netflix spins off the discs first, then Amazon gets Netflix’s catalog, technology…and most importantly, the zillions of TV sets and set-top boxes that have the streaming client included.

Netflix split to set up Amazon streaming merger? | ZDNet

Netflix’s move to separate its DVD-by-mail service may pave the way for Amazon to buy the company, argues an analyst.

Comments on Google+:

Brion: Possible… but I’ve always found netflix’s streaming catalog to be insufficient as is… best of a bad lot I guess!

Me: Yeah. That’s the main reason we still have the DVD subscription: 80% of our queue isn’t available streaming. In this theory, the big win for Amazon would be the install base.

Brion: Yep… hell, with any luck Amazon can strong-arm better deals with the studios. 😛 But I’d still love blanket non-exclusive compulsory streaming licenses: if the content’s out there for sale to the public on little plastic disks, anybody should be able to stream the same material for a nice standard fee (like ASCAP etc’s public performance, radio, & streaming systems… but maybe not as annoying. The reason Pandora doesn’t let you choose exactly which songs to play is to comply with the hoops necessary to qualify for the compulsory licensing, since they presumably think they can squeeze more money for on-demand services. A couple years out of date, but good overview of the lay of the land there from JWZ: http://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/webcasting.html )

Me: Wow. That is profoundly screwed up.

Updated Netflix thought: Dairy farms get together to raise prices…

9/15: Netflix thought: If dairy farms got together and hiked up the price of milk, would you blame your grocery store for raising their prices?

9/16: It must be the Netflix/studio milk/dairy farm analogy that’s got @Peerindex convinced that I write about breakfast cereal.

9/20: Updated Netflix thought: Dairy farms get together to raise prices, putting the squeeze on your local grocery store. The local store raises their prices to cover their higher costs. People blame the grocery store.

Then the grocery store responds by spinning off a separate store. One store will only sell milk in cardboard cartons and cheese. The other store will only sell milk in plastic bottles or yogurt. This is, of course, to make your life easier.

On Facebook

Of course, there’s always The Oatmeal’s explanation: https://theoatmeal.com/static/netflix.html

Brion adds:

One store pipes fresh delicious milk direct to your faucets, but only carries 1% because the dairy cartel is being paid by another grocery chain for an exclusive right to whole, skim, and 2%.

It turns out that Facebook allows you to log in with two variations of your password…

Interesting: It turns out that Facebook allows you to log in with two variations of your password: One with the first letter capitalized (because so many mobile phones automatically capitalize the first letter of a field to “help” you) and one with all the capitals/lowercase flipped (so that you can still log in with CAPS LOCK on).

Facebook passwords are not case sensitive (update) | ZDNet

On Facebook

The longer someone stays on a website, the more likely they are to stick around…

Anyone who’s used some sort of traffic analytics knows how high bounce rates are on the web, but what’s interesting here is that the longer someone stays on a website, the more likely they are to stick around – and that the behavior fits a standard statistical model.

How Long Do Users Stay on Web Pages?

Users often leave Web pages in 10-20 seconds, but pages with a clear value proposition can hold people’s attention for much longer because visit-durations follow a negative Weibull distribution.

Graphic showing consolidation in the US telecommunications industry

Interesting timeline.

Consolidation in the Telecommunications Industry – Graphic

AT&T’s proposed $39 billion purchase of T-Mobile USA would cap two decades of deal making that has left the U.S. telecom industry with just a handful of major players. Today’s AT&T…

The US government broke up the AT&T monopoly in the early 1980s, leaving the original AT&T doing little more than long-distance service. NYNEX, US West, Pac Bell and the rest were all separate companies until they started buying each other up again.

Looking back at it, what I find weird is that while Pacific Telesis ended up as part of AT&T, and MCI ended up as Verizon, their wireless divisions ended up owned by the opposite companies.