Why Republicans Really Do Have Blood on their Hands

Ezra Klein and others correctly point out that one can't infer causality from the direct inflammatory statements (e.g. the Sarah Palin's crosshairs map) to the shootings in Arizona yesterday, particularly if the shooter is mentally ill.

But, it's deeper than that. Causality is about the over-the-top Republican rhetoric that passes for policy argument these days. The health care bill isn't just policy we disagree with, it's unconstitutional. President Obama isn't just someone we disagree with and didn't vote for, he's illegitimate and has a secret Muslim agenda. Gay people are destroying American families. Democrats are socialists threatening our basic way of life. Throw in some violent imagery and veiled threats from Rush, Glenn Beck, Sharron Angle, etc.

Given that many people learn about current events only from Fox News and other conservative commentators that use this kind of "argument", it's absolutely no surprise that violent crazies emerge.

Republicans created and/or condoned a rhetorical environment which fosters violent acts. Thus, they share responsibility for the injuries and deaths which took place yesterday.

If you're a Republican or a conservative "independent", you should be deeply, deeply ashamed. You have blood on your hands now. As you always did, but now more than ever, you have a responsibility to object, both publically and in private with your like-minded citizens, to these absurd, offensive, and un-American ways of discussing our (legitimate!) political differences. And if you're a famous Republican for whatever reason, that goes tenfold for you.

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Edit: Please note that the comments are not a space to post inane right-wing drivel. Such postings will be deleted. Thanks!

The Worst Error Message in the World, Part II

The other day I wanted to set up my new printer on my Debian box, which uses the CUPS printing system. Supposedly this is pretty easy. I downloaded a PPD file from Brother and used the CUPS web interface to add the printer. It saw the printer already so it was just a matter of going through a few wizard screens, right? Not so much:

Bad device-uri "socket://10.0.0.3"!

OK, so I googled around a bit, looked in the readme, and you can do this using the command-line interface too. The program "lpinfo" shows all the visible printers, including "socket://10.0.0.3" which matches the IP address of the printer. I then use "lpadmin" to add the printer. Easy, right? Not so much:

lpadmin: Bad device-uri "socket://10.0.0.3"!

CUPS has a log. Maybe it has useful information on what's going wrong? Not so much:

CUPS-Add-Modify-Printer client-error-not-possible: Bad device-uri "socket://10.0.0.3"!

Two hours of screwing around later, including verifying that I can ping the printer and even telnet to it on all the right ports, I give up and decide to try removing and reinstalling the package. There's too many dependencies for this, so I settle for reconfiguring it. And guess what? CUPS on Debian has a notion of "backend programs" that can be turned off. It is not mentioned in the README. And "socket" was turned off.

So if you have this problem, try:

dpkg-reconfigure cups

and ensure that your desired printing interfaces are active.

Filed as Debian bug #599660.

From the Department of Stupid Warning Labels

On the power cord of my electric razor, purchased this afternoon.

Economics Is Bullshit

I recently read a very interesting and powerful book, Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely. Basically, it's an accessible tour through all the science that shows -- contrary to the basic assumption of standard economic theory, which underpins basically everything we do as a modern financial and political society -- that people do not act rationally when making decisions. We can pretend they do, and make policy decisions accordingly, or we can look at the science, which says they don't, and make policy decisions accordingly.

From the last chapter:

Standard economics assume that we are rational -- that we know all the pertinent information about our decisions, that we can calculate the value of the different options we face, and that we are cognitively unhindered in weighing the ramifications of each potential choice.... [T]he standard economics perspective suggests that we will quickly learn from our mistakes either on our own or with the help of "market forces." On the basis of these assumptions, economists draw far-reaching conclusions about everything from shopping trends to law to public policy.

But, as the results presented in this book (and others) show, we are all far less rational in our decision making than standard economic theory assumes. Our irrational behaviors are neither random nor senseless -- they are systematic and predictable. We all make the same types of mistakes over and over, because of the basic wiring of our brains. So wouldn't it make sense to modify standard economics and move avail from naive psychology, which often fails the tests of reason, introspection, and -- most important -- empirical scrutiny?

Wouldn't economics make a lot more sense if it were based on how people actually behave, instead of how they should behave?

Now, the books doesn't argue against standard economics quite as vigorously as the title of this post does... but with billions of dollars of self-interest (i.e., greed) slobbering over the bogus notion of people as consistently rational actors, I think it's time to strongly advocate for reality.

Weird Neighborhood House with Creepy Decorations

One of the houses in our neighborhood has a habit of excessive, somewhat creepy inflatable holiday decorations. It's even more creepy when the decrepit, broken-down Christmas decorations aren't removed before the Easter decorations go up (this was taken March 15, so the Easter decorations aren't yet seasonally inappropriate).

Why You Should Avoid US Federal Credit Union

I'm a customer of US Federal Credit Union. Today, I opened a letter from them dated January 6 (I've been out of town for a couple of weeks), explaining that:

Effective Wednesday, January 27, 2010, the US Federal Credit Union ATM located in the McNamara Alumni Center ... will no longer be in service.

This seems to be the final chapter in the demise of credit union service for the University of Minnesota community. Let me tell you a story.

I came to the U in late 2001. I chose to bank with the University of Minnesota Federal Credit Union. They rocked. Why? First, they treated me like a human being. Second, they gave me a very nice auto loan when TCF laughed in my face (and rolled their eyes vigorously when I told them why TCF turned me down). Third, they were located extremely conveniently right in the middle of campus in Stadium Village. I was happy.

Fast-forward to early 2007. The UMFCU membership was asked to vote on merging with US Federal. I voted no, but the measure passed. On April 1, UMFCU disappeared and everything was re-branded US Federal. Aside from the now-rather-corporate look and feel, so far so good.

Then, US Federal torpedoed the Stadium Village branch. (I don't recall the exact date, but I believe this was sometime in 2009.) WTF? The "closest" branch was now in South Minneapolis, near Lake & Hiawatha. Note that I don't ever bring a car to campus (and this is very common among the University community). The Minneapolis branch is a moderate detour when I'm biking to work, but it's not in a neighborhood where I like to lock my bike outside, and when I'm bussing it would burn an hour to stop in. This wouldn't be so horrible because there was still an ATM on campus, except it didn't take deposits. Banking went from extremely convenient to a major chore.

Now, they are removing the ATM too. The closest alternatives appear to be somewhere in Prospect Park ("just blocks" from the existing ATM according to the letter, but it's actually a full mile) and at Bullwinkle's at Seven Corners on the west bank. Neither takes deposits.

The bottom line is, US Federal Credit Union either doesn't want business from University of Minnesota people or is so utterly clueless about the University community that it appears so. I encourage you to immediately close your accounts and take your business elsewhere. If you wish to make your displeasure known, write to:

Bill Raker, President/CEO
US Federal Credit Union
1400 Riverwood Drive
Burnsville, MN 55337
bill.raker@usfed.org

(As an aside, I also discovered that back when the merger happened, savings accounts were silently converted to a type carrying life insurance, for a fee of course. This garbage was "disclosed" in the fine print - clearly designed to discourage people from realizing they are paying for a service they don't need and thus opting out. Again, more customer-hostile behavior.)

I find this situation particularly amusing in light of US Federal's "Statement of Commitment to Members", which reads in part: "We will uphold our fundamental responsibility to actively serve the many communities within our field of membership. We will treat all members with respect and dignity.... [W]e will continuously improve and communicate our services in a meaningful way.... The credit union ideal is to extend service to all who need and can use it."

Sadly, I do not have any suggestions on alternatives. Certainly, you don't want to deal with TCF, the monster bank that the U is in cahoots with. Any such suggestions would be most welcome in the comments.

Weekend Imbecile Report

Last night I heard a loud "crunch" and looked outside to see some unidentified junk hanging off the rear bumper of the rental truck that's been parked next door for the past week. Then, a gray sedan with the passenger door missing backed into view and drove away.

I went outside to find our neighbor, Tim, on the phone with the police and so I went around the corner a bit to see if he'd stopped close by (he didn't).

Indeed, someone had (a) crashed into a parked object, (b) left their passenger door hanging of that object's bumper, and then (c) driven away.


A few minutes after the cops arrived, I overheard them saying that they'd found the car but not the driver, and there was blood in the car.

Frankly, I don't have a lot of sympathy for people whose behavior is so incredibly stupid. I hope they found the guy. I wonder if the car was stolen and that's why he ran.

The truck was bent up a bit, but probably not enough to merit any repairs.

Incidentally, this image was 2.5-3 stops underexposed and I managed to recover the above. I'm pretty impressed.

Vignetting Analysis: Pentax DA 18-250 vs. Nikkor 18-200 DX

One of my key beefs with Pentax was the nasty asymmetric vignetting (falloff), and one of my hopes with switching to Nikon would be that I could have a superzoom that doesn't have that awful behavior.

The Nikkor is much better, though still not perfect -- I'll still need to stop down significantly to shoot blue skies, but the horrible gray fleck in the upper-right corner that plagued me on both copies of the Pentax that I had is gone, gone, gone.

Here's a falloff analysis of the Pentax and Nikkor at 30mm and f/4. Each color band is another 3% luminosity falloff, except for the red band which is the limit of the visualization, so red = serious bad. Pentax is first.


And here's the images that produced the above. Quite a difference.



Verdict: Pentax SMC DA 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3 ED AL [IF] = fail. Note that the Tamron AF 18-250mm F/3.5-6.3 Di-II LD Aspherical (IF) Macro is the same lens, so also fail I would assume.

How Not to Write Bug Reporting Guidelines

These directions are from the Debian Samba package (which provides Windows-style file- and printer-sharing).

This kind of attitude is sadly common among free software, and it's extremely counterproductive if your goal is actually finding bugs and improving the software. The 3rd paragraph is where it gets really rich (note that it is trivial to change the bug's severity after submission).

2. Reporting Bugs
-----------------

If you believe you have found a bug please make sure the possible bug also exists in the latest version of Samba that is available for the unstable Debian distribution. If you are running Debian stable this means that you will probably have to build your own packages. And if the problem does not exist in the latest version of Samba we have packaged it means that you will have to run the version of Samba you built yourself since it is not easy to upload new packages to the stable distribution, unless they fix critical security problems.

If you can reproduce the problem in the latest version of Samba then it is likely to be a real bug. Your best shot is to search the Samba mailing lists to see if it is something that has already been reported and fixed - if it is a simple fix we can add the patch to our packages without waiting for a new Samba release.

If you decide that your problem deserves to be submitted to the Debian Bug Tracking System (BTS) we expect you to be responsive if we request more information. If we request more information and do not receive any in a reasonable time frame expect to see your bug closed without explanation - we can't fix bugs we can't reproduce, and most of the time we need more information to be able to reproduce them.

When submitting a bug to the Debian BTS please include the version of the Debian package you are using as well as the Debian distribution you are using. Think _twice_ about the severity you assign to the bug: we are _very_ sensitive about bug severities; the fact that it doesn't work for you doesn't mean that the severity must be such that it holds a major Debian release. In fact, that it doesn't work for you it doesn't mean that it doesn't work for others. So again: think _twice_.

Ely Parking Regulations Fail

The obscured portion reads "No Parking 2-6 AM" or something similar. From most reasonable angles it is impossible to even see that there's anything there at all.

Emerald Ash Borer's Come to Town

The emerald ash borer, a nasty invasive insect highly effective at killing ash trees, arrived in Minneapolis and St. Paul a few weeks ago. Above is one of the traps they're using to try to determine how far it's spread.

After Dutch elm disease killed off most of the elm trees in the city, they planted another monoculture, this time ash. Brilliant!

We don't have any ash on our property (anymore -- one rotted out and fell due to other reasons a couple of years ago), so we're not looking at any personal losses. But, they're very common in the neighborhood and all over the city.

We have one apple tree, one buckeye sapling a few years old (planted after the ash fell), and one catalpa sapling one year old. The neighbor has a great big maple which gives us some shade too.

University of Minnesota Cyclists Get Screwed, Again

I wrote a letter to the editor of the Minnesota Daily about the above situation, and they ran it, yay! I'm reprinting it here too:

With the closure of the Kolthoff Hall sidewalk and the walk-only restrictions on the western silver bridge, it is once again impossible to safely get from the Washington Ave bridge to north of Washington on a bicycle. I find it hard to believe that the University consulted with any cyclists on closing the silver bridge, as it is unnecessary and focuses cycle traffic into the Washington/Church intersection, thus creating a dangerous concentration of bicycle, pedestrian, and motor vehicle traffic on the southwest corner of the intersection.

I submit two alternative approaches:

1. Replace the "Bicycles Dismount" signs on the silver bridge with a 5MPH speed limit. There is plenty of room for cyclists and pedestrians to coexist on that bridge in light summer traffic, and a 5MPH speed limit would allow ticketing of reckless cyclists (who are the real motivation for the closing, I would assume).

2. Close the west silver bridge to pedestrians and leave it for cyclists - the east silver bridge is a short distance away and unsuitable for cyclists anyway due to the stairs.

I realize that construction is disruptive, and we need to share the burden. But forcing major disruption on cyclists while while other modes are largely unaffected is not sharing.

Another UMN Fail

This is a rendering of the godawful new Science Classroom Building. I oppose "architecture" in general, because it's expensive and dumb (let's prioritize effective use of the buildings, perhaps?), but the University is suffering massive financial problems at the moment. Stupid architecture is the last thing we should be spending money on.

Sod

Every spring, the University re-sods this stretch of grass, and every winter, they kill it again with salt from the sidewalk.

It's things like this -- and also resolving the University's budget problems by taking educational opportunities away from the lowest-paid workers while continuing to pay the basketball coach over a million dollars per year -- that make me extremely disinclined to ever donate to the U as an alum.

Monitor Fail

This is what greeted me yesterday morning when I woke up my computer. Doh!

Erin worries that it's because she spilled water on it while watering the plant that hangs above it about a month ago. Perhaps, but I'm the one who put the plant there in the first place. So even if that's why, I don't blame her.

Besides, now I have an excuse to buy a real photo monitor, like the supposedly gorgeous HP LP2475W which is now in the mail.

But I think I'll move the plant. :)

New Stadium, Yecccch

Here is the new stadium which we are paying godawful sums of money for and which is not needed. U of M sports, bite me. And stop sending spam hawking tickets.

I am told that for a few days the giant grey sign read "TCF Band Stadium".

Neighbor Fail Double-Header

In Minneapolis, if you put bogus stuff out with your trash, you get one of these orange tags complaining about it. One of our neighbors attempted to submit some concrete pavers for trash collection, which are bogus. They received both this orange tag as well as a blue one. I didn't look closely and didn't see what the blue one was about, though, it seemed to be the same at a casual glance.

About a month ago, I complained about water pouring out of the ground in front of a different neighbor's house. Long story short (Erin queried not one but two city councillors), apparently it's the neighbor's problem, not the city's, even though somehow it's related to when the city turned off a water main???

Anyway, this is our slacker neighbor, who hasn't shoveled his driveway once in two years, almost never mows his lawn, and has ten-foot weed trees growing next to his house. So I was unsurprised when it wasn't until Monday when people came by and started working (and turned off our water at a different time than the door hanger said they would, but that's a different story). But now Erin's told by the city councillor's office that something went wrong and they're not coming back for another two weeks! Yeeesh.

Public Works Fail

This stream of water is emerging from the ground in front of my neighbor's house, since Friday at least which is when I noticed it. We called 311 and they told us that they'd "bid it out". It seems strange to me that the city does not have a crew of people on-call for these sorts of emergency repairs.

I wonder if Tim has any water in his house.

Project 100, #107.

Zappos.com Doesn't Understand or Doesn't Care that Your Address Is Private? (Updated: No, They Just Communicate Badly)

(Important update 4/26/09. See below.)

Zappos.com has a neat new real-time visualization of orders and their locations (http://www.zappos.com/map/#). Publishing locations of orders seems like a big privacy problem to me; I contacted them using their online form about the issue. Both my note and their completely useless/clueless reply are below.

Complaint:

Hi,

I was just looking at your visualization of orders at http://www.zappos.com/map/#. It's an extremely cool visualization.

However, I have a concern: Addresses and locations are private data. If you're not adding a fuzz factor or taking other steps to protect your customers' privacy, then you are committing a quite severe privacy violation and need to take down the visualization immediately.

If you are adding a fuzz factor, you need to add information to the visualization clearly explaining how you are protecting said private data, to avoid worrying your customers.

Thank you!

Reid

Reply:

Hello Reid,

Thank you for contacting the Zappos.com Customer Loyalty Team.

Here at Zappos, our customers are our first priority. We work hard to preserve the trust that we build with our customers.

Zappos.com respects your privacy and wants to protect your personal information. Please know that Zappos.com does not share or sell any of our customers' information.

If you have any further questions or concerns, please let me know.

Reid, I hope this information was helpful to you and we look forward assisting you again in the future!

We are constantly striving to improve our service. If there is anything more we can do for you or if we could improve your experience, please do not hesitate to let us know. We are always here for you - 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. We are a service company that just happens to sell...shoes, bags, clothing, and accessories. 1-800-ZAPPOS-1 (1-800-927-7671) or 702-943-7677.

Thank you for shopping with us,

Lauren S.
Customer Loyalty Representative
Zappos.com
Powered by Service!
The Web's Most Popular Shoe Store!
Phone: Toll-free 1-800-ZAPPOS-1 (927-7671)
e-mail: cs@zappos.com
http://www.zappos.com

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Update 4/27/09:

I received another e-mail from Zappo's customer service on the 20th, as follows, emphasis mine:

Hello Reid,

I hope you are having a good day. I wanted to contact you in regards to your concern over our new order map program. Zappos.com is a service based company that genuinely cares about our customers and would never reveal information that would affect their privacy. We do not reveal any details in the map beyond the zip code of the purchase and what item was purchased. This can be a great trend-finding tool to help our customers in their shopping. If you click on the picture of the product, it will take you to the page for that item on our site. All of our customer's identifying information, including name or specific address, is kept private and only used for the purpose of their orders.

I apologize for any confusion with this new program. If you have any further questions or concerns at all, please do not hesitate to contact us back. We want you to be assured that we care about our customer's privacy. Please also see our Privacy Policy:

http://www.zappos.com/privacy.zhtml

I hope this helps to clear things up for you. Again, please call or e-mail us any time if we can be of any additional assistance.

So, it appears that while Zappos is rather clueless about communicating it (there still isn't any indication of the granularity of locations on the visualization), they aren't committing the gross privacy violation I was originally concerned about.

Traffic Fail

This is I-94 evening rush hour on a fairly light day. Suckers!

Project 100, #74.