The Official Aki & Travis Site

Another perspective on the financial Crisis

Travis — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 16:49:20 -0800

Michael Lewis wrote this excellent article on the collapse of wall street investment banks.

I think its a level headed view of how bad things really are (they are bad), and what happened as we got there. It was written from the perspective of someone who actually saw it coming (and made a great deal of money betting on it).

Google blog search is broken

Travis — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 22:52:59 -0700

My house was built in 1908. That means that when the rice cooker turns on, the television turns off, and the dog gets shocked. Normally that’s pretty cool since it gets the dog outside when we are cooking dinner.

Unfortunately, I’ve recently upgraded our television and I’ve started to wonder if it will clash with our electrical system’s personality. My solution is a voltage regulator. My computer has one and its worked great for two years (after a series if blown power supplies). This time around I’m thinking of an APC BR1500LCD but I want to be sure this can handle voltage dips without engaging the battery (its a rather loud click). Naturally, product information was too vague and amazon reviews focused on blowhard analysis of sound system “bloom” and “emptyness”. That was useless so I went to google blog search.

When I searched for “br1500lcd” all I got was a bunch of cheesy retailers. I was stunned and a bit confused. I felt like it was 1999 and I just got a search result back from Yahoo or Alta Vista. Anyway, I just didn’t have the energy to page through twenty pages of crappy web retailers and I just bought the UPS.

Hopefully it will work out OK, and perhaps someday Google will fix blog search.

Canon EOS 5D MKII

Travis — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 23:02:48 -0700

This is a short film created with Canon’s newest SLR camera. (yes, it does stills too… but imagine filming with the selection of lenses you get with an SLR.)

I can’t wait to see what amateurs do with this thing.

High def version is here. Yes, the camera films in 1080p.

How is the liquidity crisis affecting business?

Travis — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 14:35:15 -0700

This is a great summary. Today its bad, hopefully after yesterday it will stop getting worse.

Oh, the first politician to claim yesterday’s bill didn’t work because we’re in a recession gets a virtual bag of steaming dog poo on their front doorstep.

The TED spread

Travis — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 07:50:52 -0700

Do you want to know if the economic crisis is getting better or worse? I recommend you watch the TED spread. The stock market noisy, but this is a good representation of how much cash in euros and dollars is fleeing toward treasuries. In other words, this is a good judge of how scared people with lots of money are.

Mad Men

Travis — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 22:14:06 -0700

Its an interesting show. It moves slowly but I’m fascinated by New York in the 1950s. It amazes me how far American culture has changed in such a short time frame.

Best quote so far? “Do you think you’d be the man you are today if your father didn’t hit you?”

I’m curious if an academic has studied cultural change and compared various rates of change. I wonder where America would end up in the rankings.

Death to phone menus.

Travis — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 11:29:18 -0700

I’d love great ideas like this. The technology exists, but its a completely new application.

A call to logic.

Travis — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 19:41:54 -0700

I was sent this by someone today.

When we get swept up by the rhetoric of either side in a political debate, we are resigning our responsibility to vote. We vote for someone nonexistent, or vote against someone nonexistent. This rhetoric is not debate, or argument, or even logic. It is simply meant to appeal to your emotions so you suspend reason, and do what the writer/speaker wants you to do. The writer does not respect her readers, she feels she can manipulate them. If you fall for it, you are a pawn.

Think about the tactics lawyers use. A defense lawyer tries to appeal to your pity and your guilt so you’ll ignore the damning evidence and set his client free. A prosecutor appeals to your anger so you’ll overlook the testimony of a key witness. Both are done not in defense of what is right, but in the interest of advocacy.

In politics, advocates focus on something objectionable and generally unpopular and rant about it. They scream how horrible it is, and inexcusable it could possibly be to even recognize the existence of said candidate. In this case, Do you hear what she is saying? She is saying “Stop listening. Stop learning. Stop Thinking.”

If you cannot argue both sides of an argument to the satisfaction of those that disagree with you, then you should shut your mouth and start listening. And if you’re listening to someone like that, stop.

I really believe that this is the first election in my lifetime where both candidates would be good for this country. They have deep philosophical differences and each have their advantages and disadvantages. Lets not dismiss either candidate through emotion. Lets figure out what characteristics and issues matter to us and vote based on those.

The true international language

Travis — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 19:02:30 -0700

What do you think she is trying to say?

It gets better as it goes along. Second time I watched it I laughed even harder.

Stormpulse

Travis — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 09:24:06 -0700

Its hurricane season, are you or someone you know in the path of a storm? Stormpulse is a pretty cool site that gives you the important information about current winds, path, etc. Oh, and there are no idiotic reporters standing in the wind yelling useless information into a mic.