Garth's Blog

Upon reaching 'Critically Undercapitalized' liquidity and reserve requirements status (less than 2%), IndyMac was closed by the Office of Thrift Supervision and seized by the FDIC. At the time (July 11), this is what they looked like:

• Total assets: $32.01B
• Total deposits: $19.06B
• Size of depositor bank run before reaching 'Critically Undercapitalized' status: $1.3B (6.8% of total deposits)
• Projected uninsured depositor loss: $1B (5.2% of total deposits)

• Combined deposits at all failed banks: $3.60B (Inflation adjusted to 2008: $54.23B)
• Combined bank run size causing failure: $0.39B (Inflation adjusted to 2008: $5.96B) (11% of total deposits)
• Total depositor loss after government intervention: $0.54B (Inflation adjusted to 2008: $8.13B) (15% of total deposits)

Slashdot and sources all over the web are reporting the death of Dungeons and Dragons creator Gary Gygax, after an extended illness and several strokes. That game, and others in the roleplaying genre, had such a profound impact on so many people close to me.

I'm not much for making new year's resolutions, but I like to make predictions around this time of year. I've been keeping these for the last 4 years, and Kirsten suggested that I start writing them down. Here they are:

• 2015 - Personal (Desktop) computers have a minimum of 64 processors (or cores on a die), and have largely abandoned a global shared memory architecture.
• 2016 - The first third party candidate since Millard Fillmore is elected to the Presidency of The United States.
• 2017 - At least 50 million deaths are directly attributed to climate change related environmental catastrophes.
• 2018 - It is legal to buy, sell, and smoke marijuana in the state of California.

I stumbled across this as a comment to a story here. I think it's an incredibly eloquent analysis of the intractable hopelessness of our moment in history.

"I evade my personal responsibility for the things I choose to do. I blame the government, the oil companies, George Bush, the economy, the wealthy and anybody else I can think of for the destruction that my lifestyle causes.
I put my comfort, my convienence and my conformity ahead of the lives and livlihoods of thousands of future generations, and I try not to think too much about my daily contribution to the destruction of the world that was left to me by thousands of past generations. I put myself far, far ahead of my ancestors and decendents and take from them for the most trivial of reasons.
I ignore the real human pain, suffering and death that my behaviour causes. I turn the page, switch the channel, and change the topic of conversation. I pretend that the science isn't definitive yet, or that there's no point in changing before others do, and I convince myself that 'scientists' will come up with a technological solution that will make my lifestyle and me OK.
I avoid, I deny, I justify and rationalise, I pretend, I project, I squirm and sqeeze and do whatever I can to maintain my concept of myself as a good person while still doing what I do. I evade my moral responsibility a day at a time in the hope that reality will somehow be different tomorrow morning.
I steal from those who live far away from me, and who I do not know because I see their pain as cartoon pain, and not fully real. I casally destroy what future generations will depend upon to live because they have yet to be born and it is only me, and my time and my normalcy that is important.
I am like those who, sixty years ago, did their jobs and lived their normal lives and didn't ask questions about where their jewish neighbours had gone. I am like those who participated in slavery and other atrocities, except that the effects of my crimes will outlast all those others.
And it is OK, because today I am normal, and busy, and have other things on my mind and, if what I do is really so bad so many people wouldn't be doing the same, would they?
But when, in the hours before I die, I think back upon my life and what it has meant, I must do one thing. I must hope and hope and pray and pray that there is nothing beyond life and beyond time and beyond myself, that there is no balance, no karma, no morality and no justice.
Because if there is, and I do what I do, knowing what I know....
Well, lets not think about that."

I was reading this AP article today about the Supreme Court hearing the Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency case. Something stuck out, and I realized something that has been irritating me about mainstream media coverage of global warming (and all issues involving science). The author of the piece is confusing "scientists" with "science". "Many scientists believe..." is used to indicate the opinion is somehow part of the scientific consensus.
There is a very important distinction between what a "scientist" may believe and what constitutes the "scientific consensus". Because a scientists believes something to be true, it is not necessarily part of the scientific consensus, unless there has been science done to make it so. For example, just because my brother (a scientist) makes a claim (e.g. "I'm the King of the World"), does not make it part of the scientific consensus. Saying that "scientists agree" on something is equivalent to saying that "some people agree". Both are logical fallacies of appeal to majority, and the first is a fallacy of appeal to authority.
Given that the article generally agrees with my belief that global warming is a serious problem that should be addressed presently, why am I concerned about such a pedantic issue? I believe that this kind of language perpetuates what I see as an epidemic misunderstanding of the practice and value of science. That widespread misunderstanding is used to coerce the public into believing there is doubt where there is none, rejecting good science because of the words used to describe it, and accepting bad science just because someone who has a Ph.D. happens to have a positive opinion of it.
Science is not a rank by which arbitrary opinions become valid, it's a rigorous activity which allows us to come to objective consensus.

A while ago, I blogged about the beauty of the City of Palo Alto, and how I was surprised that despite its beauty and temperate climate, I infrequently see people walking in their neighborhoods. I've been walking to work for over a year now, and other than the same three people I see and greet on my route everyday, the pedestrian infrastructure is empty.
Yesterday morning, as I was nearing my office, I was stopped by a Palo Alto Police officer. Apparently, a resident along the route I take to work had called the police after seeing me pass his home on my way to work. According to the officer, this is also not the first time a report to the police has been made of "suspicious activity" by someone fitting my description. The officer went on to explain that there have been a series of residential burglaries since January, two of which occurred along my route to work. As I found out after looking through the online edition of the Palo Alto Daily News, the number of burglaries has indeed doubled in a single year. However, Palo Alto seems to be scratching its head as to the cause of this recent spate of crime.
Since Jane Jacobs' death two weeks ago, I've been thinking about Palo Alto's (and many other cities') total failure to encourage residents to be the "eyes of the community". On any given weekday, a two mile walk through Palo Alto may yield only three or four encounters with other pedestrians, if that. Jacobs points out that even the most immaculately maintained and patrolled neighborhoods cannot avert crime if their streets are empty of members of the community. Her observations in the 50's were that police forces of any magnitude were ineffective in deterring crime when community members did not spend time in public spaces with their neighbors.
Mixed-use zoning, wide sidewalks, and development that places the social part of buildings in the front (porches, sidewalk cafes, etc.) are some tools she cites as effective in drawing people out and encouraging communication among neighbors. Palo Alto has none of these. Furthermore, most of the tear-down construction happening here today creates more fortress-like residences, with longer driveways and higher fences.
After realizing that I was not a realistic suspect in the residential burglaries, the officer turned his dictation to instructing me to call 911 if I were to see anything suspicious. I told him that I would, but not to hold his breath -- In over a year of walking the streets of that neighborhood, the only suspicious thing I've seen is a lack of other people.

Since my 30th birthday, I've been trying to make a few incremental lifestyle changes. In addition to reducing my regular intake of alcohol and removing some unnecessary carcinogens, I've changed my diet significantly. Grape Nuts with soy milk in the morning, fruit and some variety of salad for dinner (when I'm not at Patxi's), and a moderate portion of whatever shows up at the office for lunch.
When I went to pour my Grape Nuts this morning, I noticed a URL on the side of the box for the US Department of Agriculture's "new" food pyramid. MyPyramid.gov appears to be trying to curb the obesity explosion in the US by providing easy to understand information and guidelines on diet. After clicking around a few pages, I filled out the box labelled "My Pyramid Plan". The input is age, sex, and daily physical activity (the last two are apparently unrelated). Okay:

• Age: 30
• Sex: Male ("infrequently" was not an option)
• Physical Activity: This is where it got a little complicated. The options presented are "Less than 30 minutes", "30 to 60 minutes", and "More than 60 minutes". Since March of last year, I've been walking to work everyday. When you work for a startup, that means six or seven days a week. My walk is about 1.5 miles, and takes me just under 30 minutes if I walk briskly, meaning I walk for about an hour a day. However, since the cold and rain have come, I've been taking advantage of my coworkers' generosity, and I've been taking a ride home on most evenings. So, given that brisk walking isn't exactly strenuous physical activity, and I've been only walking one way recently, I selected "Less than 30 minutes".

• age=30
• gender=male (gender, not sex - thus the source of my confusion)
• activity=sed

I've grown very fond of saying, "I don't use computers, I just make them work." My relationship with computers has been based in programming since my first interaction with an IBM PC (yes, the original one), that my father brought home in 1981. Basic first, Pascal later, and even some 8088 assembler mixed in. Administering and tweaking WildCat on that same box (with the addition of a Hayes 1200 baud modem) for my late night BBS adventures kept me sane through adolescence.
One downside of this strange love-affair with computers is that your friends automatically assume that because you live your life in them, you must be good at fixing them. This is partially true. There are many things about the machine that I know well, and can fix quite easily. However, when it comes to the most popular desktop operating system, I'm almost at a total loss.
Microsoft Windows seems to have been built by labyrinth designers. The primary metaphor of configuration and troubleshooting is opening boxes, only to be presented with an array of more boxes, which are mostly labeled with particularly misleading phrases, which contain an even more confusing set of boxes, et cetera, et cetera. To make it even easier for one to troubleshoot, often the opening of one of these boxes, prohibits the view of other windows that might contain information needed for input into this box. This is how I feel today after a few incidents in the last week of helping friends and coworkers mend their hobbling Windows computers:

Most computer users have probably never used a command line interface (specifically, a UNIX command line). If they are known by the user, they're regarded as an arcane way of interacting with a computer that the windows graphical user interface "fixed". The reality of the command line, is that after learning a few new verbs and nouns, it's quite like talking to another human being -- with much more control than graphical interfaces normally provide. "Move this file from here to there." (mv <origin> <destination> ) "Go to this web page and download all the images." (wget -r -l 1 -A *.jpg,*.gif,*.png <web page>) "Find a file with 'book' in the title on my hard drive." (locate book) Additionally, configuration is achieved, not by stumbling through a series of boxes, but by editing simple, and well documented text files.
It may look a little Greek at first, but after you know a few of the primary verbs, you can just ask the computer to tell you about them with a simple "info <verb>" or "man <verb>". The descriptions are very complete, and often give the exact example you're looking for. In any case, they do a great job of telling you exactly what the command is going to do, which is much more than I can say for the terror of clicking "OK" in a box, when you're not quite sure what you're responding to. An additional benefit, is that it is very simple to help someone else remotely, by simply telling them the commands to use, rather than trying to verbally give them directions through the labyrinth.
I don't imagine people are going to run out and start using the command line, but I think a little exposure to this kind of control could be very powerful for the normal computer user.

After I left Just Arrive last year, the kiosk software was ported to the Windows platform so that it could run on a Radiant kiosk that was hardened for outdoor use. It appears that a blogger that lives close to the installation at the National Aquarium at Baltimore found a way to cause the kiosk to malfunction. It turns out that the exploit he found isn't really significant, as it doesn't allow escalation of privileges. I wonder if the same vulnerability applies to other versions of the kiosk that run Linux (our preferred OS, but impossible on the Radiant kiosks).
In any case, it's interesting that everything out there that can be hacked, probably will be. I wonder if similar exploits have been discovered for ATMs? For electronic voting machines? If there were, would they be reported so freely?

My friend Matt at TiVo noted that it's been far too long since I've added an entry to my blog, and that I am at risk of being removed from the list of sites he checks on a daily basis. I've been busier than a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest with my new job at 4INFO, and I've been terribly delinquent in sharing my opinions with the world. I've actually been keeping a few notes on what I might blog, so I decided to sit down tonight and hammer them into a readable state. If you, like Matt, have been disappointed with the recent lack of content, imagine that you've simply been too busy to check up on me. Fortunately, you were clever enough to TiVo my life, and you're just now getting around to watching the episodes TiVo saved for you. Working backwards through the past 6 months:
Edinburgh bound. In what will be my first vacation since starting work at the beginning of the year, I'm going to join the clowns (see below) of All Wear Bowlers in their show's run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. For those new to the alternative/experimental theater scene (I certainly am), the festival at Edinburgh is the height of achievement for any actor or theater group. Geoff and Trey are playing at one of the festival's most watched and acclaimed venues. I'm already so pleased to see the way the show has played in the US, and I can't wait to see how it's received by an international audience. Good luck guys, and I'll see you soon!
WAP is no longer crap. WAP, or wireless application protocol was developed as a way to get networked content and applications to mobile phones. Although WAP has been around for over 8 years, it's seen a series of false starts in the US market because of a variety of factors. Most annoying of the problems with WAP, was that the carriers' networks were so slow, that it made browsing WAP pages on the phone almost impossible. Another problem was that most handsets made at the time, had dismal support for any sort of standard implementation of WML (the markup language that allowed content providers to send content to the phone), and almost all had displays that could only render a few lines of text at a time (not to mention lack of image or scripting support).
Well, over the past few years, carriers have been quietly upgrading their networks, while consumers have been buying handsets with bigger, more colorful displays, from manufacturers that started to realize that adherence to the WML and XHTML-MP specification was actually a good idea. The final problem to overcome is that most content providers that have built mobile applications, are simply trying to repackage something they are doing on the web, while ignoring that interaction with a phone requires a fundamentally different paradigm.
The shameless plug part of this post is that 4INFO just launched a WAP version of it's mobile search product. You can access it from any phone with a browser at wap.4info.net. It's currently in beta, but I think we're doing a good job of understanding the different nature of search on the phone.
Molly kicked me to the curb, Part 2. Well, I did try dating again (see below). About two months after politely letting me down, Molly and I decided to try it again. Seemed like things were going very well, until a cataclysm of cruelty on my part killed it for good. I think, this time, I'm a little more in-tune with why it happened, which I wish was more comforting than it is. I suppose we all wear masks in different parts of our life. I was getting pretty good at the easy-going, "everything's negotiable" mask, until I was put under just enough pressure. I guess that in my heart, I'm a cruel, stubborn and impulsive person. When emotions are on the line, I need to just stop trying to wear that mask at all. In any case, I think I validated everything I feared -- everything that kept me out of romantic relationships for years. And by writing it down for the world to read, hopefully I can warn off and brave souls that might try to break me of this ethic again.
I bet they taste like Tasty Wheat. In a moment of clarity, late one night, my brother informed me that our eyes are filled with snot (or something quite like it). I was left wondering what it might taste like, and if it would be possible to inject some food coloring in there for fun. Right now I'm suffering some sort of sinus infection that is causing my nose to drain gallons. Do you think I should put some in the freezer in case I need it for my eyes in the future?
Your car makes you an asshole. I'm sick of driving. I'm sick of cars. I'm sick of how easily people turn into douche bags when they're on the road. We go from our home boxes, to our car boxes, to our work boxes, back to our car boxes, and finally return to our home boxes. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. The car culture of America has done something far worse than pollute. People are desensitized to the struggles of their fellow man because they can live their lives totally within a series of protected (and air conditioned) boxes.
California (specifically the San Francisco Bay Area) is one of the most beautiful places on the planet. People want to live here so badly, that you'd be hard pressed to find a two-bedroom house here for under $600,000. You might guess that in such a utopia, you would see people outside enjoying the ubiquitous sun, walking and biking to work, waving to their neighbors, sharing public spaces, etc. You would be wrong.
Okay, rant over. In any case, I decided to do something about the driving part of the equation for me. I got rid of my car, and moved down the hill into Palo Alto: 1.5 miles from my office, 2.5 miles from Patxi's Pizza, and 2.5 miles from the Stanford campus. All that's left to do now is inflate my tires and start riding my bicycle again.
Molly kicked me to the curb, Part 1 In an uncharacteristic display of affection for the opposite sex, I dated a woman for a few months. It's been the first time in almost 8 years that I've actually re-entered the dating game. After years of stubborn resolve never to date again, I realized that I was getting pretty lonely (in a whole host of ways). Molly was able to break my monastic orbit with one simple difference from most of the other women I've ever been interested in: She asked me out. Only one other time in my life has this ever happened, and it breaks the fundamental mold that I had become so accustomed to, and have so much disdain for. Is it really so hard to ask for what you want?
I spent a few incredible months with her, but she ultimately showed me the door. However, the execution of the breakup was more pleasant than I have come to expect. She delivered it as an "It's not you, it's me", which was good, considering I was starting to get pretty emotionally tied, and probably would have been more devastated had it been messy. In any case, I'm really glad I'm starting to make it out of my funk, and I think I'll try this again soon.
Cell phones for cigarette lighters. I went to the U2 concert in San Jose a few weeks ago. They put on a great show (of course), and played a set that ran the gamut of their entire career. They played one of my favorites ("Running to Stand Still"), and the show was energizing to me.
At one point during the show, when Bono implored the audience to register for his new ONE campaign by sending a text message to their short code, they cut the lights in the arena, but the entire place was lit by a more colorful display than cigarette lighters could have produced -- cell phone displays. After that, I noticed that this wasn't only reserved for this moment, but backlit mobile phone displays have replaced the ubiquitous cigarette lighters during ballads also. Hopefully, fewer people are ending the night with burned thumbs.
Breathtaking. Geoff Sobelle and Trey Leyford are going to be superstars. In case you're living close to New York, and haven't already seen it, "All Wear Bowlers" has reopened in Manhattan at the HERE Arts Center. The show's first run was entirely sold out, and the current schedule is filling up fast. To give a little background, I've been working with Geoff off and on for years, since I helped with a short film by Mike Glass called "The Shitter". During Mike's years at film school, Geoff acted in almost all of his films for school. A few years ago, Geoff hooked up with Trey to complete a project that Trey had been noodling on, that plays on early silent film and vaudeville clowns. The result of a few years of development is "All Wear Bowlers", and it must be seen to be understood. Here are some wonderful reviews.
My former employer continues disrupt my life. In a predictable show of paranoia, Just Arrive, LLC continues to pester me with threats of legal action. The most recent salvo was a response to some inquiries I had made at other ticketing companies following my departure from Just Arrive. While I was unemployed, I figured I would talk to some of the ticketing companies in the space, to see if I could turn the 3 years of industry experience into a contracting or full-time position.
Essentially, their claim is that the point of my contacting various ticketing companies was not to seek new employment, but rather to "sell" technology that I had "stolen" from the company upon departure.
The funny thing to me, is that despite the fact that every claim made in the letter was an invention, their "investigation" into the matter seems to turn the damage on its head. While I'm out trying to find a job, they're simultaneously talking to everyone they can think of in the industry, casting huge doubt on my credibility by spreading a group of unfounded rumors and baseless accusations.
The CEO of Just Arrive told me a story once about his early employment at an entertainment software company. When he decided to move on to a competitive company, his manager became enraged, and decreed "You'll never work again in this valley. I'll make sure of that." I guess I thought he was relating the story to me to show me the stupidity of that kind of behavior. Too bad I was wrong.
I'm hoping (and have been hoping for six months now) that this will go away. Other than some hurt feelings, I can't possibly figure out what else needs to be mended here. Just Arrive, pretty please, with sugar on top, leave me the fuck alone.
8 Muh-jillion dollars. Almost immediately following my arrival at 4INFO, we raised a round of venture financing from two valley venture capitalists, USVP and Draper, Fisher, Jurvetson. I was initially hard pressed to figure out what we were going to be spending the money on, but we appear to be doing a good job. No Aeron chairs or office massages, so I'm glad to see we've grown up a little since the boom/bust. We're growing fast, and the new products we are working on appear incredibly promising. I'm getting very excited for the next few months.
My brother is a stud, Part 2. Chris just launched his political blog Marching Orders. For frequently updated commentary and political news, more entertaining and informative than the crap in the papers or on TV, tune in regularly.
My brother is a stud, Part 1. I had a chance to take the morning off and go to the federal courthouse in San Francisco to watch Jason argue in front of judges. I never had the opportunity to see him debate when he was in high school or college, and I was only ever able to relate his rhetorical prowess through the anecdotes of his peers. Having actually seen it now, I can honestly say I take a great deal of pity on his opponents. He's working on two incredibly interesting cases right now, and I'm hoping to catch another episode if comes back to San Francisco.

You might think that after four of them, I would be getting sick of startup companies. Every startup I have been with has afforded me the chance to work on really cool technology, but not one of them has yet been a 'hit'. After spending most of my twenties sitting in front of a computer for endless hours every day, I realized one thing: I love it. I've always been really happy working with a small group of intelligent individuals, imagining and implementing new technologies. After seeing some of my friends have successful startups that left them with fistfulls of cash, I've started to understand that even if I had the same luck, I would be back to it before I'd have a chance to spend a dollar.
Since the beginning of January, I've been working with an equally luminous group of people. 4INFO brought me on to help them launch their production application, and start rearchitecting the system for higher performance and high availability. We made a public launch of the product today, and I've decided to stay on as they try to grow a user base and prove the revenue model. The first product is a simple mobile search application. You use it by sending an SMS message (most mobile phones can do this) with a query to 4INFO (44636). Queries can be of many formats, as the application is intelligent enough in most cases to figure out what you are asking for:

• Need to know how your Google shares are doing? Send 'goog'.
• Want to eat beef for dinner on a trip to Omaha? Send 'steak omaha'.
• Trying to impress a date but have no idea how to make a White Russian cocktail? Send 'white russian'.
• Need tonight's Lakers score to settle a bet? Send 'lakers' or 'nba'.
• Running late for the airport and want to check flight status? Send the airline and flight number.

I heard about this on NPR this morning, and I almost couldn't believe it: A study by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation found that one in three high school students believe that the First Amendment (yes, the same First Amendment that allows me to blog all of my unpopular ideas), goes too far in the rights it guarantees us. I won't repeat them here, but you can read the CNN article for more shocking statistics.
I've been thinking a lot about the growing anti-intellectualism in the context of the voting majority, but I hadn't realized that it had infected children's minds as well. I guess it only makes sense that fundamental misunderstandings about our government would be passed on. My worry is that this is only a trend that will worsen over time as these teenagers grow up, and that our government will be quickly taken over by those who would seek to exploit that ignorance, as opposed to fighting it.

I imagine it's making its way to your email inbox right now, but in case you miss it, take a look at this news from Palestine today. Richard Gere is featured in a television advertisement that's being broadcast in the West Bank and Gaza, urging Palestinians to participate in the upcoming election that will replace the late Yasser Arafat. Apparently, Palestinians like Manar an-Najar, who is quoted in this article, are a little confused as to why they're seeing a Hollywood star, as opposed to someone they're familiar with and respect. Most don't even know who he is.
I didn't really think much about celebrity endorsements during this past US election season, partially because most celebrities were supporting my candidate. "I'm rich, and I'm a shitty actor. You're dumb and poor, and can't conjure a reasonable case for either candidate, so just vote for who I support." It's not hard for me to see why I ignored the whole thing. Furthermore, most of the celebrities that were endorsing either candidate were American, so it didn't seem so out of place. What's interesting to me about this piece, is it illustrates what is probably the pervasive American attitude about the rest of the world, especially toward the Middle East: "Those heathens need us to take care of them; To pull the serfs out of the mud and bring them Democracy and Christianity."
The reality is they could really care less. They're probably wondering why, after we've spent the last 50 years supporting this dictator or that, giving military support to this oppresor or that, and bombing the place further into the stone age, we're suddenly able to see ourselves as the dove. It's not just the famous or those in government, but much of the US seems to really believe that we're the saviours and "liberators". It just seems supremely arrogant and narrow minded (which, coming from me, is a huge slap in the face).
I'm fully behind Manjar's attitude to this American hubris. I don't imagine you'll ever read this blog, Manjar, but you seal the deal as my new friend when you say, "We don't need the Americans' intervention. We know who to elect. Not like them -- they elected a moron". Strong work.

For many years, I maintained the romantic notion that at 6:57AM on my 29th birthday, I would just cease to exist. That my candle would have burned so brightly for a few short years, exhausting all creative and other energies, and suddenly be extinguished with a quick breath. Well, I'm still here, and I think I was dreaming about Strawberry Shortcake (the doll, not the food) at 6:57 this morning.
I'm really not so surprised or disappointed to still be here. For while the world looks at the notorious (not that I am at all notorious) who had their lives stolen at an early age as heroes, I think it would be a bit of a bummer to be gone so soon. Having accomplished so much and built such wonderful friendships -- only to have it end so suddenly.
However, when I do look back at the things I have done, I worry that too much of my time was spent on things that I did because I was somehow coerced, or made to feel fear of guilt or punishment. That sounds like extreme language to use, but I see so many examples around me of people doing things because they're worried about disappointing someone, their love for another allows them to turn a blind eye to exploitation, doing things they are uncomfortable with simply to avoid admitting they were wrong, etc. I suppose if I am lucky enough to have another 29 years, I'd like to feel like the last half of my life was spent on things I want to accomplish, as opposed to those tasks I should do.
Anyway, happy new year to everyone, and have an extra glass of champagne tonight for me.

If you saw South Park creators' Team America: World Police this fall, you probably guessed that this post's title was inspired by the rockin' theme song to which the members of Team America keep the free world's enemies at bay.
I split some of my time this holiday between two of this country's political poles, Nebraska and California. In both places, although more numerous in Nebraska, the sayings of the season were plastered next to inflatable Santas and glowing statues of Rudolph and his cohort. Often written in lights "Peace on Earth. Goodwill among men." made me laugh like the jolly old elf himself (bowl full of jelly included). Originally coopted from the pagans, Christmas has turned into a time for the many armchair Christians of the world to reflect on their religion, and feel proud for being part of something morally 'right'.
Aside from the holy war raging in the name of their favorite theocrat, such pride in the correctness of their religion is especially funny to me in light of a recent study from Cornell University showing that 44 percent of individuals in the US say that we should limit the civil liberties of Muslim Americans. Apparently the goodwill among men only applies to "men" who happen to not be Muslim. Or maybe the application is more strict than that: Is peace on earth only for those who are Christian? If that's the case, why not restrict the civil liberties of atheists, Jews, Hindus, etc. And why stop there? Theocracy? Fuck yeah!

Following up on a childhood dream, and something I made an earlier post on, I went to a lecture by Burt Rutan on the Stanford campus, sponsored by the Aero/Astro Department. Burt spoke to an auditorium in San Jose last night, but this was an opportunity to see him in a more intimate setting with about 50 other people.
The talk was decidedly more technical than I had heard before, and it was satisfying to see him speak to an audience without fear that he would have to explain every other term. I had assumed that the questions would also be highly technical, but aside from the question I asked before the lecture about the design considerations in overcoming the high dihedral effect his team experienced in their first private sub-orbital vehicle, SpaceShipOne, the question and answer period took a political u-turn. In hindsight, I guess I shouldn't have been so surprised: Most of the people in the room are at various stages of completing an advanced degree in Aero/Astro, and it is assumed that most of them will be applying to, if not working for NASA or one of the top tier aerospace companies. Burt is one of those institutions' most outspoken critics.
Other than in journalists' accounts of his attitude toward NASA and pork-barrel aerospace contracts, I had never heard someone so angry with the state of space exploration today. And for the first time I was able to empathize with his feelings. He related a short anecdote about growing up in the heyday of space exploration. Watching as Gagarin to Armstrong blazed an unbelievably fast trail of exploration and progress. Orbital flight? 3 years. Moon mission? 8 years. Space station? 4 years. The most moving part of his delivery was when he said, "And I was so lucky to be young at the time. Young enough that by the time I was grown, I would be going to Mars, and the outer planets, and back." But it all stopped, NASA asked congress to spend a huge amount of money to build a vehicle (the shuttle) that would cut the cost of routine payload lifting to 10% of what it was before. By the time it took its first flight, the costs were over 10 times what they had been with earlier disposable vehicles. By the time Burt came of age, and realized his dreams weren't going to happen, he felt cheated.
He has channeled those feelings into a very effective and well crafted critique of the way experimental aviation and aerospace is done today. A critique that is hard to ignore given the award-winning and commercial success of the 36 aircraft (and one spacecraft) he has built "his way". On the future of manned spaceflight, Burt's hopes rest squarely in the private sector.

My movie collection has reached an epic size. Tipping the scales at 1,001 DVDs (not to mention almost 200 LaserDiscs remaining after several purges) this week with my purchase of The Lost Boys from the used section at Tower, I realized that I really enjoy film partly because it is an incredible benchmark of the changes in my life.
I remember sneaking into Omaha's Cinema Center to see this in 1987. I also remember being genuinely terrified by the story, and, as I did after sneaking into other horror movies, needing my mother to come tuck me in at night if I wanted a prayer of falling asleep. My expectation when I watched it last night, was that I would be similarly scared, but able to deal with my fear in a more mature manner. I was a little shocked to find that the movie was still good, but what I remember as being "good" was very different. Instead of being scared, I found myself noticing the odd fashions, sculpted hairstyles, ridiculous dialogue and the overuse of Vaseline on the lens during the romantic scenes.
When I saw it the first time, I think I identified more with Cory Feldman's dirt-bike-riding, comic-book-peddling vampire hunter than I did in this viewing. I'm not sure I identify with any of the characters now, except maybe the mother, who seemed rather perplexed by all the fashions and strange events. I felt much more like a voyeur, looking back on a different time and alien place: A new experience, as satisfying as the first.

Enjoying the first day of clear, blue sky we've had in a few days, I spent much of Saturday walking and catching up on reading on the Stanford campus. As the time closed in on 2PM, there was an exodus from the undergraduate dorms to the stadium for the afternoon football game. Coeds dressed in their Cardinal best skipped, walked and rode their bikes over to watch the team get spanked by Oregon State.
It was definitely not the first time I had noticed such a thing, but I had never witnessed such an abundance of young women in jeans with VERY low waistlines. For years, I have been exclaiming, "God bless Britney Spears", as waistlines have plunged, while the bottoms of shirts have risen. However, I hadn't realized that, for me, there is a limit to the descent. Many of the woman on their way to the game, especially those bent at the middle to ride their bicycles, were showing BUTT CRACK. Now, I'm not talking about the hint of crack below, but a good one to two inches of full-on butt crack.
I spent most of my adolescence obsessed with cleavage and legs, and assumed that butt crack would never be something I considered sexy. It was for those uncomfortable moments when the plumber or gym teacher happened to bend over and reveal his hairy crack directly in your line of sight. However, it appears the butt crack has finally been inducted into the "glimpse of parts we want to see, but can't outside of a nudist colony" hall of fame right next to cleavage.
So I'm left with one question: What's next?

It appears my early prediction of a decisive Kerry victory in the US Presidential election was incorrect. The voter turnout was indeed remarkable, but did not expose the America that I expected. Apparently my primary hope for this election, the hope that as long as everyone was empowered and encouraged to vote, they would vote in their, and their country's best interest, was terribly flawed.
As I watch the coverage and analysis of the election today, the consensus among many major US television and Internet news sources is that most Americans voted for the candidate who most closely aligned with their "Moral Values". To my surprise, that candidate was overwhelmingly George W. Bush.
I, and many other voters in California, chose to vote in alignment with issues that are important to us such as the protection of civil liberties, the protection of womens' access to an abortion, the protection to gather and practice the religion of our choice, separate from government mandate, etc. However, I'm having trouble understanding why the issues I chose as drivers to my candidate choice are inconsistent with "Moral Values". I consider myself a moral person, and, perhaps naively, would define "Moral Values", as the protection of civil liberties, speech rights, control over our bodies, etc.
It turns out that "Moral Values" has nothing to do with morals, but is just a code word for Christian religious fundamentalism and intolerance, hysterical homophobia, rape of the environment for business gain, and the sacrifice of civil liberties in the name of crushing dissent (which they have also redefined as "patriotism"). In the same way that the last three and a half years showed neither "compassionate" or "conservative" behavior from the Bush regime, the next four will likely not be "moral", but the most corrupt and destructive we have ever seen. I suppose America is going to get what it asked for.

Recently unemployed, I'm spending the election day watching the exit polls and news coverage of the day's events. I started the day in Philadelphia, where all night, Kerry supporters were in the streets rallying voters to make sure they would get out the vote despite the threat of rain. After flying back to the Bay Area, I voted and immediately made my way to Patxi's Pizza where I've been drinking, eating and watching for the past few hours.
I'm making my early prediction for Kerry based on three factors: 1. Record turnouts have historically favored the challenger. 2. The Iowa Electronic Markets and other sources are reporting that political betting markets have taken a huge swing in favor of Kerry (referenced in an earlier post). 3. The polls predicting the election prior to today have fundamental flaws in their methodologies, based on their exclusion of young, transient voters and those who use cell phones as their primary telephone.
For the benefit of the Bay Area locals who read my blog, I'll be buying pizza and beer at Patxi's until Tara kicks me out. Feel free to stop by -- Because I'm certainly not driving home for several hours.

John Stewart of the Daily Show was a guest on CNN's Crossfire "debate" program this week. He took the opportunity to argue that Crossfire is not actually good media or debate, but part of the political "spin machine" and largely playing into the hands of political strategists. I abandoned television news a few years ago in favor of printed news and NPR because of its insincerity and lack of real examination of topics it presents. He alludes to his dissatisfaction with the show's (and many like it) presentation as a true discourse, when it's actually closer to slapstick theater. And that such entertainment's popularity as "news" illustrates that very few people actually understand the difference between an argument and just arguing.
You can read a transcript of the show, or if you are a BitTorrent user, you can download the video and watch it. His presentation and well-timed humor are priceless, and his courage is inspiring.

Aviation pioneer Burt Rutan made history yesterday, winning the $10 million Ansari X Prize when his SpaceShipOne experimental rocket plane reached an altitude of 368,000 feet under the control of Brian Binnie. I was at the first prize flight last Wednesday down at the Mojave Civilian Flight Test Center. Since the first successful attempt by the SpaceShipOne team to reach the arbitrary boundary of space, there has been a buzz that this will usher in a new era of civilian space travel, equivalent to Charles Lindbergh's transatlantic flight signaling the beginning of the aviation revolution. I'm having a hard time figuring out what new era they're talking about. It may be an overly simplistic view, but where exactly is space travel going to take us? Aviation as a disruptor made sense because it facilitated international business and travel (to existing destinations). It allowed connections and virtualization that wasn't possible when your only opportunity to cross oceans was 2 weeks by ship. Sub-orbital (and even orbital) space travel doesn't seem to have applications beyond tourism itself. Even though Richard Branson of the Virgin Group has announced that he'll be licensing Rutan's technology and offering flights at $200k a pop, I'm not sure there is much potential beyond entertainment. And even then, the price will have to come down to 1% of what it is now for me to be capable of taking a flight. Despite my skepticism, I'll keep watching this as my childhood science fiction dreams become reality.
Since I was shooting the event on a credential for Wired News (Thanks Dan!), I took the opportunity to add pictures to my little blogging script. Here are some of my images from the first launch:
    

I was really pleased to see this thorough article in the New York Times on Sunday. Reporters at the Times have put together a well researched piece on what many of us have already guessed: The case for war in Iraq was not clear at any point, and was sold to the public by the Executive with rhetoric based on old, misleading and often factually incorrect data. Lies were told at many levels by those who knew that facts told the opposite story that they would eventually relate to the media.
It's amazing to me that these people are so willing to distort facts and opinions to suit their agendas. That discussion, debate and evidentiary standards are annoyances instead of responsibilities. That dissent to their fundamental case for war (the aluminum tubes) was such an inconvenience, even though it was corroborated by expert after expert, that they would choose not to reevaluate sending thousands to their death -- it's devastating to me. Olympia Snowe comments that she, "cannot comprehend the failures in judgment or breakdowns in communication." You can't comprehend them because they aren't failures or breakdowns. Their "judgment" was that they would intentionally deceive the public despite compelling evidence to the contrary. Their "communication" was listening to expert opinions, and turning around and saying the opposite thing. Calling them failures and breakdowns assumes they weren't intentional and calculated, which they were.
I hope more journalists realize their earlier errors of complicity, and start uncovering stories like this.

My brothers and I are fond of saying alarmist things to my mother. This often comes in the form of something like, "Oh, Christopher got arrested", when we come home from a night out and he's not with us, or "Don't worry, I was just smoking some rabbit tobacco", in response to her inquiry into the evil smell emanating from the bathroom. At this point, she is clearly aware of our continuous deception, but plays along with surprise almost every time. Since we're only together now once a year over the holiday season, the most popular thing to say is that "[insert brother name here] ruined Christmas". This phrase is uttered no fewer than once every 15 minutes during our holiday vacations. It's usually in response to something like realizing we've bought our mother the same gift, the turkey is a little dry, or that the firewood supply is infested with ants. Most times, though, it's just entertaining to yell it at my mother to fill a lull in the conversation.
So, George Lucas is not my brother, so how can he be the culprit? I just spent $20 at Fry's to buy the Director's Cut of his first feature, THX 1138, just released on DVD. Now, I already have a copy of the movie on LaserDisc, but I was duped into buying the new collection on DVD because of the additional features, including documentary footage of a young George Lucas, before he decided that he would deface all of his own artwork. Since the re-release of the original Star Wars movie with his enhancements and extensions, I've been disappointed with everything he's done. These idiotic additions are what ruin the once-pure THX 1138. Sometimes directors release an additional cut of their films on video with slight editorial alterations to the story. This I can handle, and in many cases, I prefer these cuts to the original theatrical releases. In most cases, the directors are compelled to specifically call out that the releases are "Director's Cut[s]" and continue distribution of the original. Lucas, on the other hand, seems to think that it's his opportunity to add clutter to the landscapes, obscure action sequences with more fire and explosions, fundamentally change the nature of characters (e.g. Han murders Greedo, not in self defense), and add poorly rendered digital attack monkeys whenever there is a lull.
In a recent interview, he responded to criticism that he was changing his movies for the worse simply by saying "I'm making the movies, so I should have it my way", and, "The other movie, it's on VHS, if anybody wants it". The "other" movie he is referring to is, of course, the original release of the film before he decided to revise history without telling anyone. As a billionaire, I suppose he's used to doing whatever he wants. I just wish he wasn't so content on destroying the masterworks of his youth, and obscuring the evidence that they ever existed. Burn baby, burn.
Don't waste your money on the new versions of THX 1138 or the Star Wars Trilogy. In the meantime, it might be worth tracking down a good copy of American Graffiti before he destroys that one too. And brothers, you'll have to give me some idea of what you want for Christmas, as I've just had to eliminate two options.

A ten year old ban on assault weapons in the US lapsed today after little resistance. The ban came after several shootings using such semi-automatic and automatic weapons left many innocent citizens dead. One such incident was a shooting spree at a law firm at 101 California right here in San Francisco. Family members of the 8 dead were some of the most vocal supporters of the original ban, and now the most disgusted at the apathy of lawmakers at all levels. Mr. Bush has voiced support of the ban, but has placed no apparent pressure on Congress to extend it. The NRA is going ape shit about it, claiming victory for gun owners everywhere.
This made me think about why we have the right to bear arms in the first place. The airwaves this morning were full of callers talking about the need "to protect ourselves". I agree, but I think I have a different take on what we need to protect ourselves from. The framers of the 2nd Amendment ("A well Regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free state. The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.") were primarily concerned about the ability of individuals to form groups and arm themselves for the purpose of defense of the state. Many citizens today are so wrapped up in the idea of protecting themselves from "evildoers" and "criminals", that they've forgotten the law's primary intent.
We are at a point in history where there is a significant threat to the state. However, it's not coming from "terrorists" or "Islamic fundamentalists", but from within: It is in the form of a systematic erosion of our liberties, justified by fear of "the enemy". While the tough guys in Washington are making us feel safe from the dark man (who is somehow compelled to do horrible things with no provocation whatsoever), we're slowly surrendering our precious civil liberties to a few elites. And public opinion has been manipulated to make most believe that this sacrifice is simply the cost of living in a changed world.
I'm going to keep a close eye on this threat, and think more critically about the good reasons to arm ourselves in the face of our current situation as a country. While I don't think automatic weapons in the hands of those who would oppress is a good thing, maybe we need to have the right in order to defend ourselves... from ourselves. George Mason said during Virginia's ratification convention in 1788: "I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people...to disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them."

I love it when a plan comes together. A few weeks ago, I went to a San Francisco Giants game with James Hong and Jim Young from Am I Hot or Not and a few of their interns. During our conversation at the game, James proposed the idea of using a monetary incentive to get citizens to vote in this November's Presidential election. The idea is to set up a contest that would be entered by voting, and would pay out a large sum of money to a randomly selected voter, assuming he could prove he actually voted. Two of the assertions that lead James to the idea were: 1. Lots of people don't feel empowered by the democratic process and thus don't vote. 2. People like to play games of chance with money. We found out that it is impossible to verify whether a voter has actually voted, but it is possible to verify voter registration status, so they decided to base it on registration. In the span of a few weeks, they created Vote or Not. They've put together $200,000 in prize money for their "Register to Vote Sweepstakes".
While the idea may not be as viral as rating pictures of hot coeds, I'm hoping it encourages people to send in their voter registration card, and make it to the polls in November. Hit the site and sign up. You too could be a winner....

I'm not usually not one to revel in others' misfortune, but there appears to be much critical consensus on this one: Catwoman sucks. I have consistently disliked Halle Berry in every movie she's starred, and have noticed a downward spiral of showing more and more flesh in order to please audiences. She's not talented, and she didn't deserve an Oscar for Monster's Ball. In fact, she deserved to have the Oscar taken away after implying she was the first African American woman to win an Oscar during her tearful, convulsive attempt at an acceptance speech. Yes Halle, it IS so much bigger than you: Claiming to be an acolyte of a race often includes keeping informed of the accomplishments of others -- Like Whoopi Goldberg winning an Oscar before you.
Hold on to that vinyl body suit and ridonkulous hat. There might be a place for you in the circus if you're lucky.

I attended my high school reunion last weekend in Omaha, Nebraska. I had the privilege of planning the reunion, which comes with the added bonus of having to take a few thousand dollar loss when several people decide not to pay the fee. Before the reunion weekend, I took the week off for vacation, mostly relaxing, eating mom's wonderful (and excessive) cooking and rereading Tim O'Brien's July, July. Nicole Baran, a friend a few years back, introduced me to the author, and I've been devouring his works ever since. I read July when it originally came out in 2002, but decided a reunion (also the subject of the book) was a great time to see if O'Brien's prose would have any connection to my experience.
Even though the Darton Hall class of 1969 was having its 31st reunion (you'll have to read the book to figure that out), O'Brien was able to create characters that are ageless in their stereotypes and behavior. While nothing as compelling as the Vietnam stories O'Brien is famous for weaving, we did have own Spook Spinelli and teenage outcast turned ordained minister.
Go to your reunion. Read the book.

I suppose our parents and grandparents probably felt the same thing during the Cold War and the Great Wars, but this morning I found myself just shaking my head and, for the first time, accepting defeat. Today's Newsweek magazine and other sources are reporting that the US's ruling government is looking to postpone or cancel the November Presidential elections "in the event of another terrorist attack in the US". So it appears that if the elections aren't going the way of the current party, there will be a justification for them to stay in power by fiat alone.
It seems rather contradictory that Mr. Bush was telling us to fly, buy, and otherwise participate in the economy and our "daily lives" following the terrorist attacks on four commercial airliners, the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, but is now pursuing a course of action that would prohibit us from participating in democracy. You might think that all the "you're letting the terrorists win", and "they're trying to shake our resolve" bullshit rhetoric would apply to our great constitution that enables, facilitates and protects our way of life -- apparently, you would be wrong.
Looking back at a short history filled with war, crisis and change, there has never been a Presidential election canceled. Faced with the Civil War, there was great pressure on a popular President Lincoln to cancel the election. His response was, "We can not have free government without elections; and if the rebellion could force us to forgo, or postpone a national election it might fairly claim to have already conquered and ruined us." I tend to agree.
Now all that's left for us to do is decide if we will fight to stop such a terrible insult to our experiment of democracy, or just vanish quietly. A one-way ticket from SFO to Auckland for November 3rd is currently $1320.

I've been following and studying computer viruses, vulnerabilities and their malicious exploits in earnest for the past few years, and this has the potential to be the most disruptive vulnerability in a long time. There has been severe security vulnerability discovered in Microsoft's Internet Explorer web browser that allows virtually limitless (in number and severity) attacks to your computer. This vulnerability is exploited simply by visiting web sites. The US Government's Computer Emergency Readiness Team has made announcements and recommendations regarding the vulnerability.
If you are using IE on Windows, I agree with CERT's recommendation and would seriously recommend discontinuing use of Internet Explorer. There are alternatives to IE such as Firefox and Mozilla. Both are very capable browsers, and are not currently vulnerable to severe and known attacks.

Spam is your fault. That is, spam isn't going to go away if individuals' behaviors in response to spam don't change. I overheard a conversation tonight that made me laugh out loud. I won't go into the severity of the participants' ignorance, but I'll start by clearing up some misconceptions about spam:

1. (For my mother) Spam, for the purpose of this discussion, is not the potted meat with which you have some mysterious obsession.
2. Spam is a solicitation of any kind, resembling junk mail you might find in your mailbox.
3. Spam is traceable back to 1978 on Arpanet, 1994 on the Internet, and has seen widespread use on the Usenet for at least the past 10 years.
4. While much of the spam in circulation are scams, there are several 'legitimate' businesses that are using spam as a marketing tool.
5. Spam poses a significant security risk to all computers connected to the Internet. Both because spammers use unsecured computers as relays for spam, and it is sometimes used as a vector to carry computer viruses and other malicious attacks.
6. Spam comprises a significant portion of the Internet's traffic. AOL alone claims to be blocking 2-3 billion messages a day.

Former President Bill Clinton's autobiography landed at bookstores this morning, and I joined the fray to grab a copy. While standing in line, with my copy obscured beneath this month's Wired Magazine cover story, I noticed many others in line purposefully searching through the pages. I watched as one lucky patron struck gold, and exclaimed a page number out loud. Everyone around me gasped and giggled as they made their way to the prescribed page. What had he found? Everyone else seemed to know but me, so I put the Wired under my arm and flipped to the noted page. What he had found was the beginning of Clinton's description of and apology for the events surrounding his past with Monica Lewinsky, where he apologizes to the reader for doing what he did, "Because I could."
Unlike many, who are appalled and devastated by such a confession, I'm immediately asking myself, what's the big deal? I had an extra cookie after lunch because I could. I wore the same socks three days in a row because I could. I bought a television as big as my refrigerator because I could. Few would argue that these behaviors are worth apologizing for. So I started thinking, where do we start to draw the line between "because I could" as an adequate justification and as a lousy defense?
Maybe it's about other people.
The optimist in me would like to believe that there's a message in Clinton's confession. He's taken the selfless stance to the extreme; leaving no room for justifications or excuses between him and his guilt. Perhaps he's saying to the reader, "There is no greater apology I can give, other than to say I didn't think about YOU when I lied to you." In making such a bold statement, I'd like to believe that there is also a challenge to the reader to think critically about the "because I could[s]" in our lives.
While the cookie and Clinton's lie are rather polar examples, what about some grayer areas in the middle? People buy SUV's because they can. People build gargantuan energy-sinking homes because they can. So what? An entire region of the world is destabilized and oppressed by our rabid consumption, our government has to fight a trade war, almost a thousand poor GI's have to die, and the executive branch has to create elaborate lies so that we can continue to believe it's about "terrorists" and not our lust for oil.
Maybe the things we do everyday, without thinking, are actually the most important ones to consider. Maybe most of our mistakes aren't malignant, but just happen because we don't think about their consequences. Maybe when we hurt each other, we never bothered to think about "each other" before the hurt happened. Maybe fashions, political, moral and physical, that are so easy to follow blindly, are the ones we should confront eyes wide open.
We live in a country where our current President has justifications for everything he does, and can't rightly think of a single thing he's done wrong while in office. Yet, I think we'll look back at George W. Bush as one of the greatest deceivers of all time. By accepting full responsibility, history will eventually forgive Clinton. For my part, I already have.

Congratulations to my brother Jason Patil, Ted Belch and their debate teams at Glenbrook North on winning the all three major national policy debate tournaments this year. By winning the Tournament of Champions (TOC), Catholic Nationals, and NFL Nationals, all in the same year, the Glenbrook teams have accomplished a rare and extraordinarily difficult task. For those of you not familiar with the activity, winning all of these tournaments, even with an exceptionally talented team, is so difficult because each tournament emphasizes totally different strengths. Judges at these tournaments have such a huge range of expectations in terms of speed, persuasion and evidence, that it is almost impossible to effectively convince all of them of your arguments.
I still look back on high school debate as one of the most influential experiences of my youth. It was an incredible opportunity, where we learned not just the nature of a rigorous argument and how to use evidence effectively, but also a broad range of real-world topics from public policy to international affairs. Such a wonderful community of thinkers is hard to find, and I'm sad to have left it.
Ted, have a great retirement, and I'll see you in Vegas.

During the bubble, this was a good way to say, "I'm not going to do this. But if it happens, you can count on me take credit for it." When the third company to sell dog food online hit the market, VC's and entrepreneurs alike could be heard saying something to the tune of, "Yeah, I had that pet food idea a long time ago. I'm way beyond that. I'm working on electronic postcards now. This is going to be the next big IPO."
Fortunately, this time I'm not referring to the new dot-smack of the week, but an idea I have been lobbying for with Zachary's Pizza comment cards for the past 6 years. For those of you not familiar with Zachary's, it's a two location pizza joint in Berkeley, California, whose Chicago-style stuffed pizza rivals that of native Giordano's and Piero's. I've been going there since my friend Spartacus (a pseudonym he uses when reserving our seats) convinced me to take the 40 mile drive from Palo Alto.
Recently, a few long-time employees of Zachary's, discontented with the lack of career advancement and ownership opportunities, broke away and capitalized a new venture: Patxi's Pizza in Palo Alto. Patxi (pronounced pah-chee), formerly a cook at Z's. has concocted an entirely new riff on the Chicago standard: unique from both its native and Berkeley roots. Two partners of Patxi's, also former Z's employees, are managing the new business with the same enthusiasm and friendliness I became accustomed to at Z's.
Eight days after they opened, Spartacus and I sat down over a stuffed pepperoni pizza to take the taste test. As testament to our long relationship with Z's, everyone who had defected immediately recognized us. I felt a little like a food critique who was being a over-indulged, but the attention was agreeable and didn't' seem contrived. Following the first few bites, I cracked a huge smile; unable to contain my elation over the flavor (and the 35 fewer miles I'd had to drive). The sauce is a little sweeter than Z's, and no chunky tomatoes. Cheese and sauce have both been cut down to curb the watery mess characteristic of a Z's pie, and the crust is flakier and less buttery. All of the changes left me with a lighter feeling than I usually get at Z's.
I give the pizza an A+, but I do have one complaint: The ambiance is way too Palo Alto. The stone-tile floor, dark wood tables and chairs, enormous brass-accented bar, gaudy mirrors and pictures on the wall (you guessed it, of the Chicago skyline) left me feeling like they were trying to impress someone that will never come in there. I much prefer the community center feel of Z's College Ave. location, and I think Patxi's would be best served by lightening up the environment. In any case, if you're around Palo Alto and have a craving for "the bad thing", don't drive all the way to Berkeley, try Patxi's, and tell them Spartacus sent you.

Yesterday evening, I attended a lecture at the Stanford Graduate School of Business by associate professor Justin Wolfers on prediction markets, and the relationships between markets and politics. Wolfers started the lecture by showing data from the Iowa Electronic Markets, a real futures market hosted at the University of Iowa, on securities trading related to the outcome of the last and current presidential elections. He contrasted the data against that of the Gallup polls, and concluded that the market (even though much smaller than a traditional financial market) was more accurate in predicting the outcome of the 2000 presidential race than the poll, and less inaccurate than the poll as time before the election increased.
At this point of the lecture, I'm totally sold on the efficiency of these prediction markets. This is terribly old news to those who have been evangelizing the power of markets like these, but I'm having a rush of ideas of how they can be applied for the first time. My first idea relates to large scale software development projects. One of the chronic problems with every software project (even as small as 3 or 4 people) is accurately evaluating status and completion time. Would a market where programmers and managers could trade option contracts based on functional test acceptance time and quality more effectively aggregate the disperse information than status reports, conference calls and company meetings? Is anyone currently using a market like this to assess software projects?
Wolfers also explores the IEM data against that of real financial markets, oil prices, soft money campaign contributions, etc., making claims that politics directly (and predictably) drive markets, and vise versa. While not as compelling as the simple prediction market claims, he makes a very convincing case and presentation. Too bad Stanford will be losing him to Wharton next year.

Even though I ended up dry heaving half way through my first viewing of Morgan Spurlock's documentary, Super Size Me, I went to see it again tonight. I originally assumed that some residual illness from the previous night of debauchery, and the low quality of the Hyatt Cinema Theater (Did I say theater? I meant damp warehouse.) were the cause of my mid-movie nausea. However, in better health and at a different theater, I had the same reaction the second time. Much of the film is shot hand-held, from strange angles, with the sickly, pale color reproduction of a digital video camera. But it's the subject matter that put me over the edge.
If you haven't seen it yet, 'Super Size Me' takes a look at America's growing obesity problem, and what Spurlock unapologetically fingers as one of its chief culprits: Fast and packaged food mega-corporations. He takes a pseudo-scientific, but balanced approach to the subject, using himself as a guinea pig who will eat three meals a day at McDonald's for an entire month. Over the course of this month, he also travels across the country, interviewing consumers, experts, lobbyists and at various public school cafeterias.
While not presenting a complete solution, I think he does a good job of at least encouraging the audience to take a critical look at our food consumption habits. My two critiques of the film involve the decision to include Spurlock's girlfriend in the story. While I was not put off by it, the simple fact that she is a gourmet vegan chef, and that she talks about their sex life (and how his new diet affects it) explicitly, will only serve to alienate large groups of a potentially sympathetic audience. I wish it weren't so, but credibility isn't built objectively. Criticism and nausea aside, I would definitely recommend the film, and am glad to see it getting significant distribution.

I guess it's time to get some ink on my fingers and join the blogging world. I've been reading blogs since they were something called "personal homepages", and I didn't really make the parallel between the 'ink wretches' of revolutionary America and bloggers until recently. Everyone with at least cafe or school cluster access to a computer can be a publisher. You don't even have to buy a press. Services like Google's Blogger provide all the tools you need for publication, and even syndication of others' work for FREE (sounds like one of the bad business models I was pursuing in the late 90's, but I'll bet they're going to pull it off). An instant worldwide expression medium for everyone.
I'm going to keep my blogging expectations to a minimum, and I'm hoping the same for anyone that happens to read this. At the very least, this is a good opportunity to:

1. Stop being a perfectionist regarding my writing, and just punch the keys.
2. Share the crazy shit I find on the Internet with my friends.
3. Alarm my friends by writing exhaustively about the things that make them walk away from me at parties.
4. Give my mother something talk to me about on Sundays other than why I don't have a girlfriend, why I seem so sad, and why I work all the time.