techno.blog("Dion")

I have seen a few people a little saddened by some of Obama’s recent moves, especially geeks on the FISA vote, which upset me too. It is wrong. We need new privacy policy.

As I thought about this, I started to think about expectations. By taking the higher ground, and telling us that he will do so, Obama has set himself a higher standard. This relates to me, as I have talked in the past about the higher standard that Google has to live up to thanks to “Don’t be evil” and other such things. As an employee, and a person, I actually like the somewhat constraining higher standards. It means that colleagues can’t take shortcuts, and things can’t sneak by… and if they do? Then we pay for it as a company. Our trust is tied to our business, which is tied to who we say we are.

The same is true for Obama. If McCain does something, sure we can use it as a talking point, but there is more leeway. Ah, he is an old school politician, that stuff just happens. Not with Obama. If he does anything that we don’t agree with, he can get jumped on by many sides. This can be hard as what one person thinks is moral, isn’t the same for another. He has a tough road ahead, but the benefits are that people believe in him and we will come to a new presidency with that Hope that we have been hearing about. With the entire RNC coming after him, the battle is just about to start.

What if he does get in? Those expectations get in too. The tone gets into the office. He could go to Iran and say “let’s put some history behind us and make a change that benefits all of us.” People will be more receptive to change, and boy do we need it. So, even if he isn’t as perfect as some make him out to be, he will have to live up to the image to survive, which means a better, stronger, president of the USA.

I also got to see a fantastic and entertaining talk at Google that is now on YouTube. The talk was by Dan Ariely, an MIT professor working on Behavioural Economics. Really though, it was one of those talks that reminds you that us humans…. we are animals man.

Professor Dan Ariely visits Google’s Mountain View, CA headquarters to discuss his book “Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions.” This event took place on July 1, 2008, as part of the Authors@Google series.

In a series of illuminating, often surprising experiments, MIT behavioral economist Dan Ariely refutes the common assumption that we behave in fundamentally rational ways. Blending everyday experience with groundbreaking research, Ariely explains how expectations, emotions, social norms, and other invisible, seemingly illogical forces skew our reasoning abilities. Not only do we make astonishingly simple mistakes every day, but we make the same types of mistakes, Ariely discovers. We consistently overpay, underestimate, and procrastinate. We fail to understand the profound effects of our emotions on what we want, and we overvalue what we already own. Yet these misguided behaviors are neither random nor senseless. They’re systematic and predictable—making us predictably irrational.

In the talk Dan shows so many cases of how we trick ourselves such as:

• Spouse: A group was given a questionnaire. Half of the group was asked to write down 10 things you love about your spouse. The other were asked to note just 3. When complete, the next question was about how long you think you will stay married. What is interesting is that the people who were asked to jot 10 things thought they would last a lot shorter than the group who only had to think of 3 because….. thinking of 10 things is hard!
• Signing: Asking someone to sign “what I am about to do is true” versus “What you just signed is true?” made a huge difference. Dan worked with an insurance, who did A/B testing on a form asking how many miles you drive and there was a drastic difference. It turns out that the majority of people lie, but just a little.
• Comparisons: Dan saw that The Economist had a purchase page that allowed you to choose between a Web version, print version, or both. The strange thing was that the both and print version were the same 129 pound price. With that comparison people were much more likely to choose ‘both’ than the cheaper Web only version. Take away the choice, and the game changes.

And this leads us to the tie in to politics. He showed that comparisons happen with people too. Showing three photos of “similarly attractive people”, where one of the photos was a slightly uglier version (via Photoshop) meant that people selected the good looking double way more frequently.

With this election we have a young up and coming chap, and an old geezer. If a third candidate came around who was a slightly worse old geezer it would help McCain…. maybe if Nader does well? Or what about running mates, how much of the look will matter there as well as policy?

Watch Dan’s talk. Great stuff.

I hate the fear ads, and seeing the Clinton one was sad to see. Showing pictures of kids etc… are you kidding me?

I know Hilary is scrapping for her life, but still. I really don’t understand the experience line too, since she has only been a Senator for a few years. How she comes up with 32 years baffles me.

Anyway, it all reminded me of the fear-monging around Rails scaling.

I actually got to listen to some podcasts as I flew back West to California (and my wife and son were in front of me!).

As I went through the list I came across the latest TalkCrunch: Interview With 2008 Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney.

I like Mike. Ajaxian started to take off right when TechCrunch did. I feel like Ajaxian is the developer version, and TechCrunch is the business version. Of course, TechCrunch is now huge and Ajaxian… well it is doing well, but it ‘aint no TechCrunch!

Ben and I setup a little dinner with a tech journalist form the Wall Street Journal a few years back (right after Ajax/Web 2.0 was taking off) and Mike graciously showed up and was a lot of fun. That was the first time I met him. Mr. Gomes was a liberal, a touch ashamed of the editorial page in his paper (god knows what he thinks of it now it is FOX!), and I quickly learned that Mike didn’t lean that way…. and that I should never talk politics with him.

Fast forward to today, and I see he has a 10 minute chat with Mitt Morman Romney. The questions are softballs and the transcript could read like this:

MA: Mitt, would you raise taxes?

MR: Mike, no. Americans have to pay too many taxes.

MA: Mitt, Do you think we should abolish the H1-B visa limits?

MR: I can’t exactly say what I would and wouldn’t do buy I believe in the American people and we want smart people in the country paying taxes… but not too many taxes.

MA: What about capital gains taxes for VCs?

MR: Erm, erm.

MA: PC or Mac?

MR: PC, but 6 out of 12 of my kids use Mac’s and swear by them. The other 6 love PCs. I love all types.

My favourite question was about what Mitt has on his iPod:

Country (and Western?), 60s music (Beatles, Stones), and “inspiration music”.

Wow. cover the bases my friend. I wonder how Mitt and Mike got in touch? Does Mike contribute to the campaign? Is Mitt a fan of TechCrunch? Will Obama be on TalkCrunch next?

I am in a mixed mood at the moment. It is fantastic that we will have checks and balances with the Democrats taking the house, and maybe even the senate (although I fear for the long drawn out process in Virginia).

Locally though I am quite dismayed at the referendum voting.

How people can vote discrimination into the constitution is mind boggling to me and is quite disgusting. I also feel the moral compass when it comes to the death penalty. Wisconsin was the first state to get rid of the death penalty, and that is something that impresses me, and now we can face having it back? This is the direction we want to take? Showing our children that killing is bad by killing people?

This all goes to show the purpleness of the state, or more correctly the blue pupils of Madison and Milwaukee compared to the red iris. Pull back and you see a purple that is telling.

I am heartened by the vote on bringing the troops home even though it was flabbergasting to read some of the verbiage in some of the communities.

One of the ballots basically read like: “Do you think that we should stay in Iraq until all organized terrorism is eliminated”. This basically means: forever.

I was fortunate to go to a screening of “Good night, and good luck”, hosted by the Capital Times, a fantastic local paper in Madison.

The crowd was full of people who were around in the McCarthy era, and their faces were stern, and you heard “deja vu” a few times.

The fear of that time was quite palpable.

It is no mistake that this film is out at this time. The parallels to the current fear-mongering, and lies, are quite apparant.

John Nichols, who writes for the Cap Times as well as The Nation, started off the evening talking about why we were all there.

I hope we can turn things around. I am hopeful, especially as friends from the right are acknowledging that the current regime does not match them as republicans, and more and more lies come out.

The evolution-schmevolution debate keeps going.

Latest we have New evolution spat in schools goes to court.

I love it when the school board gets sin there with gems like:

The school board says there are “gaps” in evolution, which it emphasizes is a theory rather than established fact.

Ahh the theory argument. Well guys, The onion published the long anticpated Theory of Intelligent Falling. Gravity is only a theory after all.

Science needs to work with things that are provable. Intelligent design is a tough one to proove (although I know that some groups are trying to do so).

Another classic is:

Fifty-five percent of Americans believe God created humans in their present form, the poll found.

Wow. In 2005. And we wonder why we

I know this is a little old news, but if anyone hasn’t heard, viewed, or read what George Galloway said at the committee meeting discussing “Oil For Influence: How Saddam Used Oil to Reward Politicians Under the United Nations Oil-for-Food Program”, they should do so right now.

The Brad Blog had it right when it said:

Not since attorney Joseph Welch confronted the soon-to-fall Anti-Communist Crusader/Idealogue, Joseph McCarthy in 1954 with his now famous “Have you no sense of decency, sir?” testimony can we recall such a direct shaming of a Congressional Committee as that which took place earlier today in a Senate Subcommittee Hearing on the trumped-up U.N. Oil-for-Food “Scandal” which Bush Lackeys and Fox & Friends have been flogging ever since it became apparent that there were no WMD in Iraq, and thus, no justification for this trumped-up war.

The transcript was tweaked on the goverment website, but can be found at The Times, here.

You can view a PIECE of the footage here, but read the transcript to get more details.

Update: The entire piece is found here.

Of course, I don’t know about the claims made about George Galloway. But his words are correct, and I am proud of the scottish! :)

Madison is just about to vote on a referendum or three, regarding giving our schools enough money to STOP the cuts that currently have to occur.

The problem is that the Bushistas setup all of this testing for schools. Unfortunately after setting the rules, they kinda forgot to BUDGET for it. This means that the States have the burden, and can’t afford it, so they ask local school districts to do more with less.

In fact, there are LIMITS on the state giving money to schools. It is a joke.

Madison has always been proud of their schools:

Madison has fine public schools, the sort of schools that convince businesses to locate in and around this community, the sort of schools that help convince great academics with young children to join the faculty of the University of Wisconsin, the sort of schools that led Money magazine to rank this city “the best place for education” among the nation’s 300 largest metropolitan areas.

How good are Madison’s schools? At one point in recent years, the Madison Metropolitan School District was the only district in the entire country to have schools at the elementary, middle and high school levels rated as National Schools of Excellence by the U.S. Department of Education.

However, my wife is a teacher in one of these schools, and they need a lot of help.

So, we come to the referendi, which asks for money from the residents to help the bleeding. As usual, some people without kids in the schools come out crying foul. Why do people think that they need a kid in school to care. WHO IS YOUR DOCTOR.

Hopefully Madison will come out in strength and push this through as they have historically done. There is nothing more important than education. THAT is the trickle down. Good education trickles down to everything else (health, crime, …)

“Don’t pray in our schools, and we won’t think in your churches”

This is great news. I was really concerned that the lobbyists were going to push through their agenda, and then all hell would break loose.

This doesn’t meant that the book is closed of course. The fight will continue. However, congrats to everyone involved in winning the battle.

I know a lot of Essex Boys aren’t the sharpest tools in the shed. So it seems to make sense to me that Dubya is actually an Essex Boy. But I was really surprised to hear that Kerry also has heritage in Essex.

In fact, both Bush and Kerry are related. Back in the 1600’s the common ancestor of both candidates hailed from Wickford, Essex, England.

For those who don’t know what the hell I am gabbing about… Essex is a county that borders the Greater London area. These counties are known as home counties, and Essex is where I come from.

Essex boys are known as being likely lads, and Essex girls? Well, think of the blonde jokes, substitute s/blonde/essex/g and you will have the same jokes.

Lovely jubly!