Ouchy

So Google just missed targets and dropped $75 bucks a share today.

Thats got to suck for somebody. So thats like down 25% since January 1st.

Facinating

You must read this study:

http://www.livescience.com/othernews/060124_political_decisions.html

Iron law of oligarchy

Its a pretty interesting concept. Basically put its the idea that any system regardless of how it is started will migrate to an Oligarchy.

Be it polical, social, or even now networks and machines.

Okay so here's the scineros:
a) Start as a Monoarchy or Dictatorship. As the system grows the monoarch or dicator will gradually start delegating tasks and decision making to those he assigns simply because there are too many decisions or tasks or simply wants a break. In turn those will start to specialize and become essential to the functioning of the government and will at some point challenge the leader. This then is the begining of the Oligarchy. Oligarchy doesn't say that all the few share the power equally, only that a few control the majority of it.

b) Start at a Democracy/Republic. Either everybody elects a leader or votes on every issue. Eventually people get sick of this and will elect representatives to make those decisions for them. Eventually those representatives can institutionalize themselves though the appathy of the people. And an Oligarchy is born.

Whats facinating to me isn't the nature of people, its how it even occurs in machines and networks. My best guess is its only related for our natural tendancies as engineers of these systems to put them in a hierarchy. And in general as systems get larger our ablity to create the master computer is limited to our technology we end up reverting to several imply massive computers to manage the rest of the system. Each of those is specalized to due certain tasks. While not quite to the point of making network changing decisions (some systems are very close to being able to detect intrusions and self heal the last time I checked) because we have not given them that sort of programing. I would have no doubt in time that we could have at least moderate AIs running our large computer systems.

Of course the peer2peer and distributed processing movements could end up changing the hierarchical approach so we just to wait until we have more decision making ablities built into computers.

Editors note:
I bet you could make this a Ph.D. thesis. First develop two computer only models. The basis of these models are computers need to make "important" decisions or simply calculations. Give the programs on these computers the ability to know what the performance of the others in the group are. Allow each one to decide to do the decisions themselves or allow them to delegate the task. First start with a small group of equal performing computers. Then start inserting more powerful computers and less powerful ones. See if they move to an Oligarchy. Then try the other massive computer first making all the "decisions" and start adding smaller computers it can chose to delegate to, then add even less powerful ones.

HD-DVD vs Blu-Ray

So back to the days of the Beta-max and VHS we have the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray battle heating up. Blu-Ray by far has the greatest support but HD-DVD has already been shown to consumers. Now lets break it down:

HD-DVD:
Can be made using standard DVD processes
No extra licensing fees
Ready to go, players are ready
Players can play standard DVDs at the same quality or better
Players cost half as much as Blu-Ray players
Microsoft is on board.

Blu-Ray:
Needs complete new lines to make
Has roughly twice the capacity of HD-DVD
Requires seperate licenses for playback on computers (uses Java)
Players cost twice as much as HD-DVD
Players can no play normal DVDs
Players are not yet available
Blu-Ray discs are not yet in production

Hrm...HD-TV is catching on.... which matches HD-DVD or Blu-Ray?

Okay okay what about content? Well its split pretty evenly right now... except HD-DVDs are actually being produced and ready for sell in march, many of which will include a standard DVD playable side... Blu-Ray discs? Unknown.

And one of the major backers of Blu-Ray? Sony. I wouldn't want to be the Sony side this year with how many flops and disasters they've had recently.

So I think HD-DVD will the the winner really quickly. I just can't imagine a format that costs more on both the supplier and consumer end (remember if you double the supplier cost that is the markup the consumer will see, making Blu-Ray anywhere from twice to three times as much as an HD-DVD disc in my best guess), requires hardware that will not play current DVD collections and still costs twice as much, and supported by a company that has already proven to be no consumer friendly with their copy right systems.

Why didn't I short...

Google is already down $40/share since Wednesday and keeps on dropping.

Would you...

So if you could give up 20% of your brain to the smartest workaholic you know in exchange for 20% of whatever he/she produces/invents, would you?

What if you could conviced three of your friends to do it... would you?

Is google growth unsustainable?

Well as I've suspected... just maybe

Gender Disparity

Wage Statistics from Bureau of Labor Statistics for 2004 & 2005

I guess it pretty much shows women still make less money on average. Of course just like any statistics it doesn't show why or what data they left out. But still interesting

Omega-3 Fatty Acids

For those who haven't read about them I suggest a google and/or wikipedia search now.

So while a lot of the data is debated hotly right now I find this bit of information very interesting.

The United States instituted a rationing system in the 40s. During this period of time families with Children were allowed virtually unlimited access to Cod Liver Oil. This down home suppliment was in amazingly high use to combat all kinds of supposed maladies. It was known then as a good source of vitamins A and D.

Now if you take the Children that grew up during the 40s and extrapolate their careers... you end up with interesting things... during they 60s they were 20-30.. 80s they were 40-50. When you match that up to normal engineering and science profesions and normal ages of highest productivity it is very interesting.

Anyway enough random connections that may or may not be relavent. But have fun reading what you find.

Notes: Your brains are mostly formed of different kinds of fats. Your brain forms of course while in the womb all the way up until about puberty when it simply goes into maintence mode and you then start to lose a certain amount of brain cells as you age... maybe what kind of fat your body has available to it is important? :)

Funny Math

So before I left for vacation I closed a checking account I had with a very small local bank about 3 hours away from where I now live. It was your standard run of the mill feeless, intrestless checking account. I had about 50 bucks or so in the account which they simply cashed out and gave to me.

Anyway when I was going through my stacks of mail I found two notices from that bank saying my account was 20 CENTS overdrawn. Needless to say I'm baffled by this.

It of course probably cost them more than 20 cents to send me two notifications for being overdrawn.

Hawaii Photos

So I have some pictures of my winter vacation of the Big Island of Hawaii posted here

I plan on posting more details later.

First do no evil.

Those were the word of Google's credo. Now there is Google Pack.

Okay so the bundle isn't terrible.... but everything NORTON IS EVIL.

And RealPlayer honestly can be easily lived without. I have a Media Center PC that has never had it installed. Also while I personally love Trillian, and in all honestly never tried the purchasable version, I still suspect some underlying memory management problems with the software.

In fact ZDnet says it all.

Further thoughts on free internet software. I don't know what it is about Firefox but I need to see it play a little better with others. It seems like whenever I try to use it either a) crashes horribly or b) fails to render the page (okay that is probably Microsoft's fault). The crashing part of Firefox really bothers me. I use so many different computers and configurations I would like to see a web browser function on more than 50% of the non-freshly-wiped PCs.

Now if you wander over to Sourceforge there are a few gems I would like to see more mention. Such as The Gimp and Realterm.