My favorite economist blogger is sending some much deserved praise to my favorite overall blogger. I completely agree with her…Radley Balko’s blog really is probably the most valuable one out there right now. His efforts to catalogue injustices perpetrated by those responsible for maintaining our safety and security are invaluable.
It is cool to read about someone else I respect who is reading and enjoying the same blogs I pay attention too. I check every one of the blogs/websites listed over there on the right hand side of my site on a daily basis. Each one has earned my respect and I’m grateful for the effort they all put into providing me with their ideas and information free of charge! If your bored select one at random and give it a look.
UPDATE 3/18/2008 6:55: While I’m handing out blog love I figured I’d pass out a mention to what is becoming the most consistently entertaining read in the whole Utah bloghive. If you haven’t got Glen Warchol’s blog in your RSS reader you really should put it there. The Trib isn’t paying that guy nearly enough.
I’m usually pretty open to admitting I’m wrong about things I’ve written on this site. I was a big booster of the Iraq invasion when it started and eventually, after being smacked down by Ed and a couple others who left comments, I came to see what a huge mistake that was. It is time again for me to use this blog to publicly correct my position on an issue and change my course.
I’ve made several posts on this site critical of UTOPIA and other public efforts to create new communications networks. I was wrong. Jesse has a great post summarizing the history of telecommunications and the terrible mess our government has made of things. I highly recommend that anyone interested in this issue check out the linked post above and FreeUTOPIA.Org. A lot of political forces are aligned against UTOPIA and that is unfortunate because it seems to be the only possible chance for Utah to break out of the current mess.
UTOPIA is not just a cool gadget that local governments are promising residents or an effort on the part of those governments to get involved in providing phone/cable/internet services. It is an effort to create an environment where real competition exists between providers of communications services on a completely new and neutral network not controlled by the regional telephone companies that for decades have bribed, threatened and sued anyone threatening their dominance. The current communications market is anything but free. Qwest and its counterparts in other areas of the country own congressmen, senators and whole state legislatures that they’ve paid dearly for in an effort to defend their government granted monopoly. It is time for an end to the status quo.
UTOPIA and other local municipal broadband efforts should be applauded and supported by those who claim to believe in the efficacy of free markets.
Bruce Schneier is my hero.
If you set up the false dichotomy, of course people will choose security over privacy — especially if you scare them first. But it’s still a false dichotomy. There is no security without privacy. And liberty requires both security and privacy. The famous quote attributed to Benjamin Franklin reads: “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” It’s also true that those who would give up privacy for security are likely to end up with neither.
H/T Agitator
Pete Ashdown and XMission will be forced to shut down the free wi-fi system XMission has basically donated to downtown SLC if Rep Daw’s HB139 is passed. HB139 introduces civil penalties if a minor is able to access any pronogrphy over public wireless internet.
We need fewer efforts on the part of legislators like Rep. Daw to protect us from pornography and more action aimed at making sure families have the tools to ensure their families can safely use the internet. XMission has done an awesome job at this. Check out Pete Ashdown’s statement in response to Rep. Daw’s lack of foresight.
Awesome. Thanks Cody for the link!
I love having this outlet…this blog…where I can vent whatever thoughts I want to publicly vent. I first started blogging in March of 2003. It has brought me a lot of pleasure and a lot of knowledge as people have interacted with me online. All of this is just a hobby for me and I don’t contend that the world is any better a place because I have this silly blog posted out on the internet.
When this same technology I enjoy as just a hobby is used by people we have elected to run our government something special takes place. An extremely effective channel of two way communication is opened up between voters and and those endowed with the power granted by those voters.
The Senate Site has a post up today asking for suggestions on how they can make better use of technology in furthering their goals to maintain an open line of communication with Utahns willing to hear them out on their webpage. Check it out and give them some feedback. I usually disagree with their policy positions but am still really grateful for the work done on that webpage to keep all of us connected to the political process.
I lived in the DC Metro area when I first heard about UTOPIA, a public residential fiber optic utility backed and garanteed by several Utah municipalities. I was skeptical and blogged about it back in 2003. This Deseret News editorial did a great job putting into words the concerns I had about the project:
Yes, fiber optic is far superior to anything currently available. Yes, it is inherently superior to wireless communications. But 20 years is an eternity in the telecommunications realm, and private markets tend to have minds of their own. It would be dangerous to leave taxpayers vulnerable to an industry that is best wrestled with by men and women who want to risk their own cash.
…When the market is ready, private companies will build fiber optic networks, or perhaps something even better. The good thing about that approach is that taxpayers will benefit, rather than having to pay.
They were right…and oh how I hate them for it! Now that I live in Layton, UT (a UTOPIA city) I check the UTOPIA website nearly every month to find out if they have more information on when my city is going to get hooked up to the fiber optic goodness we have been promised. I just hope they’ll get to my house before Layton’s government picks up on what a bad idea this is and backs out of the project.
Utah Taxpayers Association is sounding the alarm today in a post about what a failure UTOPIA’s sister project iProvo has turned out to be. Even though I agree with them about how bad an idea these projects are I almost wish they’d wait a year or so until my house is wired before they ratchet up public opinion against it!
UPDATE 4/25/07 10:24AM
Jesse Harris, one of the excellent Utah bloggers on my blogroll to the right, has a blog dedicated to the support of UTOPIA and municipal fiber optic networks that is worth checking out if you are interested in this topic. I’m not completely sold on the idea that government should make a run at a market that private entities aren’t willing to try investing in but he makes some great arguments. I definitely agree with his disgust with Qwest and Comcast and their pathetic nearly non-existent efforts at providing a viable second generation network in Utah.
We had them nearly eradicated worldwide a few decades ago thanks to widespread use of pesticides…but they’re back.
Here’s a story about how bedbugs in Salt Lake City closed down a fire station.
Story and photo courtesy BOING BOING
Daniel talks about incentives for drug innovation over at his blog.
Joseph Stiglitz, a Noble Prize winning economist, has written an interesting article arguing that medical a medical prize fund could improve the financing of drug innovations. The prizes would be funded by governments in advanced industrial countries and the prize winner would not own the intellectual property to the drugs or treatments.
This is an interesting idea, and I would endorse the plan if private individuals, not governments, financed it. Bureaucrats don’t make good decisions on the whole better they don’t have good incentives. Their incentives lead them to do things to increase their power and prestige, not the quality of their product.
His analysis is right on.
America hasn’t had a problem generating new drug patents. In fact we have been bearing most of the burden for drug development for the past 20 years. Nearly every new useful drug patent is developed in America or by an American drug company. Single payer healthcare systems like Canada’s or England’s eliminate much of the financial incentive drug companies have to develop new drugs. Americans currently end up subsidizing drug development for the rest of the world because our system doesn’t use the power of government to eliminate higher drug costs. As socialized medicine becomes the norm in more and more nations (Democrats will be pushing hard for it here over the next decade) governments will have to come up with creative ways to artificially provide incentives for drug companies to innovate. This is unfortunate because the market does a much better job of rewarding developers for inventing drugs people want/need than any prize fund manager could.
Medical innovation over the past 100 years has improved peoples’ lives more than nearly any other technological innovation. We will all be worse off when it is turned over to bureaucrats with competing agendas instead of being left to the market.
Lisa and I have made it our goal to save up enough money by our 25th anniversary to buy a plane. I’ve found the one I want. It is the first flying car. You can drive it to the airport or a nice long stretch of road, extend the wings, then take off.
PERFECT! I’m so excited that stuff like this is finally being made. We should have had flying cars 20 years ago!
Hat Tip: Hit and Run
This Washington Post story is about the flushing of nearly $200 million dollars by the FBI on a failed computer systems upgrade.
I’ve been involved in the creation of a major government department computer system replacement before. Even with competent government administrators and completely reliable, knowledgable and pro-active contractors there is a lot of waste in these projects. Extra people get hired where they aren’t needed just so a contract can be enlarged and competition between different contractors working on the same project contributes to delayed timetables.
Even with the obstacles inherent in government contracts, for the FBI to spend $170 Million on a new major system then to declare it dead is sickening. SAIC (I have a few friends who work for them) is a major technology contractor used often by the federal government and clearly some of the blame lies with them in this case but it is hard for any contractor to produce a working product when the client doesn’t present them with a realistic set of requirements. I’ve seen this happen multiple times on smaller projects and if the contractor doesn’t work very hard to try to guess correctly what the government really needs and find a way to implement the impossible the project is nearly always a failure.
Free Advertisement Follows!!!!!!
My former employer was better than most at figuring out what our clients needed in these situations and was nearly always able to implement the impossible. If you are a government procurement officer for the FBI looking to fork out another $200 million for your next system be sure to check out PaL-Tech.
The gyrobike allows kids to learn how to ride a bike without falling. A gyroscope attached to the front wheel base stablizes the bike and assists kids who are learning to ride a bike by automatically steering bike into the direction they are beginning to fall and preventing an accident while at the same time teaching the learner how to correctly keep the bike upright when the gyroscope isn’t there. Very cool…and tons better than training wheels. I know what Corryn is getting for her next birthday!
The people who make Scotts fertilizer are close to making it through all the red tape and government regulation so they can release genetically modified grass that resists weeds, crab grass, and doesn’t need as much water or mowing. Very cool. This would have been available quite a while ago if it weren’t for the mamby-pamby crybaby “environmentalists” who have an irrational fear of anything “GM” (genetically modified) related.
Read this very cool Wired article about the grass and the guy who is going to make it happen. I was surprised by how much turf there is planted in North America and what the positive and negative effects are. Hopefully this technology will go a long way toward making everyone happier…cleaner water…cleaner air…less time spent mowing, fertilizing and weeding.
I love computer games…in fact…I love them more than I should and have wasted countless hours of my life playing them. Here is a great op-ed by Will Wright, the creator of The Sims and many other computer games, describing his philosophy about the value of videogames as a form of entertainment and an outlet for human creativity and imagination. It is really a fun piece to read. Here’s my favorite part:
Society, however, notices only the negative. Most people on the far side of the generational divide - elders - look at games and see a list of ills (they’re violent, addictive, childish, worthless). Some of these labels may be deserved. But the positive aspects of gaming - creativity, community, self-esteem, problem-solving - are somehow less visible to nongamers.
I think part of this stems from the fact that watching someone play a game is a different experience than actually holding the controller and playing it yourself. Vastly different. Imagine that all you knew about movies was gleaned through observing the audience in a theater - but that you had never watched a film. You would conclude that movies induce lethargy and junk-food binges. That may be true, but you’re missing the big picture.
Cool. Of course if you really do need to cut back on your videogame consumption I can say from experience that starting your own business and having two kids is a good way to do so…but even with that I still like to sit down to a little World of Warcraft from time to time :-).
Glenn Reynolds has a fascinating article today at Tech Central Station about the re-birth of cottage industries and small family businesses due to technological innovations of the past 10-20 years. I especially think it is interesting because my family and business are a great example of the results of changes in the economy and in technology he describes in his piece. Read the whole thing.
