Saturday, December 08, 2007
Sunday, December 02, 2007
Saturday, December 01, 2007
Promoting Indonesia
I found a great site promoting tourism in Indonesia - the best I've ever found.
Unfortunately it looks like it's down at the moment... :/
Unfortunately it looks like it's down at the moment... :/
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Technologically and financially you are giants, morally you are pygmies
Yahoo pays up for sending Chinese dissidents to jail for 10 years.
Google and other search engines also "cooperate" with the Chinese government by (for example) self censoring their search results.
They say they are following Chinese law, but what they are really doing is making the twisted (and often quite evil) views of the Chinese government look internationally acceptable.
This is tantamount to internationally credible people twisting their views so that their view would be available in Nazi Germany, Apartheid South Africa or New Order Indonesia for example.
Google says that Chinese citizens are better off with their service than without. I suspect China would actually be better of without another internationally credible organisation parroting the Chinese government - there are more than enough of those already.
Google and other search engines also "cooperate" with the Chinese government by (for example) self censoring their search results.
They say they are following Chinese law, but what they are really doing is making the twisted (and often quite evil) views of the Chinese government look internationally acceptable.
This is tantamount to internationally credible people twisting their views so that their view would be available in Nazi Germany, Apartheid South Africa or New Order Indonesia for example.
Google says that Chinese citizens are better off with their service than without. I suspect China would actually be better of without another internationally credible organisation parroting the Chinese government - there are more than enough of those already.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
The Economist's Oath (II)
In the first part of this blog post I implied that economists make 99% of their money out of one simple idea.
This isn't as fantastical as it sounds - but economists rarely let the cat out of the bag without forcing you to buy their latest book or signing you up for an undergraduate degree in economics (and even then most undergrads don't "get" it - economists are a stingy bunch).
---------------------
The one useful idea in economics is this:
"People can cooperate very successfully together, but sometimes they don't and need to be coordinated."
The "sometimes" is the contentious part. Libertarians/capitalists would tend to say that individuals cooperate well most of the time without out any outside interference and socialists would say that people mostly need to be coordinated by government.
Most economists naturally tend to fall on one or other side of the cooperation vs coordination divide without being extremists - economics is a science after all, not a dogma - so each case should be examined on its own merits regardless of one's natural inclinations.
One of the major success stories of cooperation over coordination is China since it began free market reforms in the late 1970s. The Chinese were highly coordinated beforehand, being told by a central authority where to work; how much to produce; what to buy etc. (needless to say, coordinating billions of people in such small detail can be quite tricky!). Under Deng Xiaoping they were allowed to cooperate more, each Chinese citizen was given more economic freedom.
China's free market reforms are probably the greatest single achievement of economic theory.
A looming cooperative disaster however is global warming. People don't cooperate well together when it comes to global warming because the price I pay for fuel for my car reflects the costs of production - ignoring the costs inflicted on the environment (e.g. the cost to the tourist industry in Manado because of the coral bleaching caused by global warming).
The usual coordination solution is quite simple: tax fuel so that the price reflects the estimated cost to the environment.
A slightly deeper cooperative solution may be to allow freedom of movement across all borders, i.e. remove government's "coordination" of movement.
---------------------
Now that you have a grasp of cooperation vs. coordination, there's no need to waste your money on Freakonomics II or sign up for that economics undergrad course, you're probably better off studying something more intellectually stimulating like statistics.
This isn't as fantastical as it sounds - but economists rarely let the cat out of the bag without forcing you to buy their latest book or signing you up for an undergraduate degree in economics (and even then most undergrads don't "get" it - economists are a stingy bunch).
---------------------
The one useful idea in economics is this:
"People can cooperate very successfully together, but sometimes they don't and need to be coordinated."
The "sometimes" is the contentious part. Libertarians/capitalists would tend to say that individuals cooperate well most of the time without out any outside interference and socialists would say that people mostly need to be coordinated by government.
Most economists naturally tend to fall on one or other side of the cooperation vs coordination divide without being extremists - economics is a science after all, not a dogma - so each case should be examined on its own merits regardless of one's natural inclinations.
One of the major success stories of cooperation over coordination is China since it began free market reforms in the late 1970s. The Chinese were highly coordinated beforehand, being told by a central authority where to work; how much to produce; what to buy etc. (needless to say, coordinating billions of people in such small detail can be quite tricky!). Under Deng Xiaoping they were allowed to cooperate more, each Chinese citizen was given more economic freedom.
China's free market reforms are probably the greatest single achievement of economic theory.
A looming cooperative disaster however is global warming. People don't cooperate well together when it comes to global warming because the price I pay for fuel for my car reflects the costs of production - ignoring the costs inflicted on the environment (e.g. the cost to the tourist industry in Manado because of the coral bleaching caused by global warming).
The usual coordination solution is quite simple: tax fuel so that the price reflects the estimated cost to the environment.
A slightly deeper cooperative solution may be to allow freedom of movement across all borders, i.e. remove government's "coordination" of movement.
---------------------
Now that you have a grasp of cooperation vs. coordination, there's no need to waste your money on Freakonomics II or sign up for that economics undergrad course, you're probably better off studying something more intellectually stimulating like statistics.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Wasting Energy
I used to live in East Germany, quite close to the iron curtain.
What struck me most of all about the Berlin wall, the Stasi etc. was that on a very simplistic level, undemocratic countries waste so much time, people, energy and money on things which retrospectively are incredibly stupid.
For example Singaporean censorship, China with their spying programs on Chinese students abroad (I kid you not) and Malaysian tear gassing of peaceful protesters.
What struck me most of all about the Berlin wall, the Stasi etc. was that on a very simplistic level, undemocratic countries waste so much time, people, energy and money on things which retrospectively are incredibly stupid.
For example Singaporean censorship, China with their spying programs on Chinese students abroad (I kid you not) and Malaysian tear gassing of peaceful protesters.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Fair Trade Tirades
Yesterday I was in a café, which (among other coffees) sold fair trade coffee from Indonesia. The problem was, it /only/ sold fair trade coffee.
I never buy fair trade products. Why?
Fair trade implies that other types of trade are /not/ fair. In fact, trade is a wholly voluntary activity, by definition it only takes place when both buyer and seller are satisfied with the deal.
Fair trade gives consumers and producers wrong minded incentives.
Western consumers believe that buying non-fair trade products from developing countries is detrimental to those countries - which is clearly not the case.
Producers are lured into participating in markets (like the volatile coffee market) with the /hope/ of better long term prices, rather than diversifying into other more stable markets. The costs of employment increases which increases unemployment in societies where underemployment is endemic.
Compared to buying fair trade, donating to charity is a less destructive way of helping people out, it may take a bit more of an effort, but at the end of the day your Euro will be more effective.
I never buy fair trade products. Why?
Fair trade implies that other types of trade are /not/ fair. In fact, trade is a wholly voluntary activity, by definition it only takes place when both buyer and seller are satisfied with the deal.
Fair trade gives consumers and producers wrong minded incentives.
Western consumers believe that buying non-fair trade products from developing countries is detrimental to those countries - which is clearly not the case.
Producers are lured into participating in markets (like the volatile coffee market) with the /hope/ of better long term prices, rather than diversifying into other more stable markets. The costs of employment increases which increases unemployment in societies where underemployment is endemic.
Compared to buying fair trade, donating to charity is a less destructive way of helping people out, it may take a bit more of an effort, but at the end of the day your Euro will be more effective.
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Pro Evo 2008 on the Wii
Had a glance at the newly released Pro Evos on Xbox and PS3 on Friday - looked like the same as Pro Evo 6 with new licks of paint - definitely not worth €500+.
Saw this by chance, and was blown away...
Saw this by chance, and was blown away...
Football & Globalisation
Economist Dani Rodrik asking some interesting questions about football and globalisation.
My take: globalisation pushes up the standards of football played and makes competitions more competitive and entertaining, which can only be a good thing!
My take: globalisation pushes up the standards of football played and makes competitions more competitive and entertaining, which can only be a good thing!
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Me and Jay
Me and JayZ have been through some tough times together; back in the day while I was struggling through college his lyrics would punch me straight in the stomach and goad me back on my feet. At his best he's like a lyrical fight club.
[Marilyn Manson's Holy Wood was also an often needed brutal shot of adrenaline back then too]
Jay's last album was dodgy (who said rapping is a young person's game again?!) but with songs like Oh My God on his new record there's always that hope that he'll get back on track.
[Btw, JayZ/DangerMouse's Grey Album is THE best album of all time - bar none]
[Marilyn Manson's Holy Wood was also an often needed brutal shot of adrenaline back then too]
Jay's last album was dodgy (who said rapping is a young person's game again?!) but with songs like Oh My God on his new record there's always that hope that he'll get back on track.
[Btw, JayZ/DangerMouse's Grey Album is THE best album of all time - bar none]
Saturday, October 20, 2007
WPA with RT2500 on Ubuntu Gutsy
I've just upgraded to Ubuntu Gutsy, had a bit of a problem with WPA this time round too, but fixed it by removing the "network-manager" package. So if you include that step for in my Feisty howto it should you should get WPA to work on both Feisty and Gutsy.
[BTW, that howto is by far the most popular posting on this site - even though I am certain my regular readers wouldn't know a Kernel module from a Beowulf cluster :)]
[BTW, that howto is by far the most popular posting on this site - even though I am certain my regular readers wouldn't know a Kernel module from a Beowulf cluster :)]
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Saturday, October 06, 2007
Saturday, September 29, 2007
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