Jaunty, Relased

After 6 months of hard work, the Ubuntu community is proud to release
Ubuntu 9.04, the Jaunty Jackalope. Silly names aside, this is release
continues to affirm the community's ability to release solid, cutting
edge software to the world for FREE. (as in speech AND $$)

A basic install requires only 1 CD and comes with more software than
anything ever produced by Apple of Microsoft. A single CD includes an
open-source office suite (compatible with MS Office), web-browser
(firefox) email client (compatible with Exchange 2003), multimedia
software, image software, and other goodies. For us geeks, it includes a
basic install of tools such as perl, python, xulrunner, etc.

In an economy that's diving faster than a submarine, it's nice to know
that some things are getting better every single day.

The first two links are official Ubuntu marketing stuff. The last link
goes to a site called phoronix that is well known for reviewing
open-source software and being brutally honest, warts and all. (Hey,
nothing's perfect.)

http://www.ubuntu.com/news/ubuntu-9.04-desktop

http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/904overview

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=ubuntu_904_features


If anyone reading this would like a free CD, let me know. I'm going to place my
order this week.

Everything is Temporary

In recent months, the government has "bailed out" a number of large financial institutions, such as AIG, who were "too big to fail". In spite of the great cost (and risk), I think the government made the only rational choice.

However, now that we have averted (at least temporarily) the imminent meltdown of the US economy, I think we should re-visit the idea of a company that is "too big to fail". It is ludicrous that the US, or any other nation, should be so dependent on any corporation of set of corporations. Companies such as AIG, GM, etc. should be broken up into small competitive companies that can survive in a global market place. As an added benefit, the failure of any one of these companies would not result in an imminent financial disaster.

Everything is temporary. Pax Romana ended. The British Empire crumbled away. America's time as the global supoer-power will one day come to an end. Rather than deny this fact we should prepare ourselves and the structure of our economy on the assumption that someday we may be #2. I do think it is entirely rational for the US to take effort to preseve it's position of global power, but preparing for a future where we may not be a lone super-power only seems prudent. I believe an important aspect of this preparation is to make sure the economy is adequately diversified to survive global competition in a world where we do not necessarily dictate the terms of the marketplace.

It's Coming

It's Coming

http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/904overview

Synergy

I would like to introduce you to, Synergy. This incredible cross-platform application makes it EASY to use a single keyboard / mouse combination to control multiple computers. It even syncs the system clipboards, screensavers, etc. Today, more and more of us use more than one computer at a time. There have been hardware solutions to this challenge for years. Synergy is a software solution, eliminating the need for clunky switches and other hardware-hacks.

Right now I have two computers sitting on my desk at work. My "primary" machine uses Ubuntu. My secondary system is a Windows XP machine with SQL Server 2005. Ever since my neck-pain / headaches returned a couple of months ago, I have tried to improve the rather dismal ergonomics of my workstation. Running two laptops on a desk is hardly "ergonomic" but it does have it's uses. I have considered buying an external keyboard/mouse combo for work, but I didn't feel like playing the plug-it-in game. Synergy eliminates this dilemma. With this and a few other tweaks, it should be possible to really create something nifty.

First Ride

I took my new mountain bike out for a spin today. It was a damned cold day, but I wore plenty of layers and was fine. I thought I would ride out at a local state park called Thatcher State Park. Before I rode, I went in to their main office to ask what trails were OK for me to ride. Turns out that most of the trails at Thatcher are not "zoned" for multi-use, so I drove back to Albany and rode at the Pine Bush. It's a little flat, but the bike handled well and I had fun. Other than getting a little lost at one point, the ride worked out well.

I'm going to enjoy this whole mtn. biking thing. I can tell that already.

Tonight Karen and I are going to a friends's birthday party. Should be fun.

Data should tell a story

Data isn't useful because it's fun to look at. It's only useful, when it is used to tell a story. In turn, that story affects how people make decisions. Otherwise, it's just math.

http://www.intelligententerprise.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=196602724

Duh!

I rode my bike today for the first time in 2009. I crawled out of bed to the sound of Karen harassing the cat and the opportunity to pedal in a crisp 45 degree, foggy morning. I put on my riding clothes, mounted the bicycle and headed off for work.

I took my time, but it was a beautiful ride. A touch chilly in the beginning, but I was nice and toasty by the time I got to work 50 minutes later.

When I pulled into the office, I realized that somebody needs to beat me with the stupid stick. Yesterday, I left a clean change of clothes at the office. Unfortunately this stack of clothes does not include a belt (minor problem) or a pair of shoes (more significant problem).

So if you see a shoe-less guy walking down 4th Street in Troy holding up his khaki pants, it might just be me.

Why I Don't Care

The recent spat of the AIG bonuses serves as an excellent example for why I think tools like the Google Visualization Toolkit API are important. Here are the basic facts. AIG received something on the order of 170 billion dollars from the US government. That is A LOT of money. They then paid executives, including executives who helped cause the mess, 165 million dollars in bonuses.

In was, politically, stupid as hell. In the middle of a financial crisis, you don't reward failure. In fact, I don't understand why a company would ever reward failure, but that's not really the point.

My point is that this got BLOWN wAY oUt oF PrOpOrTiOn. Click on the convenient picture to get a graphical understanding of AIG's financial malfeasance. A mere 165 million is a laughably small proportion of 170 billion, although it doesn't look like it until you stick in all the zeros.

Bailout - 170, 000, 000, 000.00
Bonuses - 165, 000, 000.00

I'm not going to sit here and defend the logic of rewarding failure. It doesn't deserve the effort. But, the resulting hoopla has been equally outrageous. To help us all understand this, let's break this down into numbers we have all dealt with. If I give you 100 dollars because you are in financial trouble, I am not going to worry too much if you spend 10 cents on a piece of bubble gum at Wal-Mart. The bubble-gum isn't actually necessary and is probably not a good use of the money I lent you, but it is nearly the exact same ration as the bonuses paid by AIG. It is literally pennies on the dollar.

For the Precision Nazis - I rounded. It would be more accurate to say that it would be as if you spent 9.7 cents of the $100.

Data Presentation - The future is the web.

After watching a recent Hand Rosling video (this guy is incredible), I started thinking more and more about how we use data to inform our understanding of the world around us. Before reading any further, you gotta watch this first:

Hans Rosling Shows the Best Stats You've Ever Seen

There are two important things that I want to focus on in his presentation, and neither of them have to do with his actual message regarding our understanding of the "Third World".

1. The presentation is NOT boring.
2. Because it uses dynamic graphics (video).

Rosling does a good job keeping his presentation engaging and focused. He does this by being an entertaining presenter and using rich multimedia presentation methods. This is not another boring Power Point presentation. Instead, it uses complex graphics to make it easy to see the relationships and ideas that he thinks are important. Furthermore, you don't really need Rosling to tell the story. Because the technology he uses can be embedded into any website, there's no reason why his presentation could not be prepared and presented by a website, in an entertaining and engagin manner. The only thing you would lose are his fun jokes about the state of medical students and faculty as they relate to the understanding of chimpanzees.

Compare his presentation to a typical government report, written by a consulting company like the one I work for. Sure, we have graphics and data in our report; but it is not engaging like Mr. Rosling's presentation. In fact, our report can never be as captivating as Mr. Rosling's presentation because our work is always designed to be presented on paper. Paper is not a dynamic medium. We can show two dimensional graphics, but showing how relationships change over time would require the use of 3-D graphs, which tend to confuse most people. Rosling's presentation is incredible simply because you don't have to be a quant to get something out of it.

Fortunately, this software was deceloped in an open manner and is now being made available by Google for everyone to play with. The software is called gap minder. To play with a version similar to what Mr. Rosling was using follow this link. To learn more about the current underlying Google API, see this link.

Not that I need "Yet Another Project" but I really want to look at this some more. I am a real nut when it comes to data analysis. Typically I use tools like R, PSPP, etc. Although these tools are good, I have typically used them to present data in a traditional chart or graphic on a piece of paper. But, both of these tools (especially R) are much more flexible and could be used to prepare an analysis that is more dynamic. Plus, programs like R and PSPP provide a way to test hypotheses, which I presume the Google Presentation API does not. (I could be wrong about this, I haven't looked yet.)

I think technologies like this can be and SHOULD be used to engage the general public more in data-driven debates. Often these debates are dominated by a simplistic understanding of the numbers, driving the discussion in directions that are not always in our best interest. Numbers do not lie, people do. (In fact, people use creative numbers to lie.)

More thinking must be done. And, in a moment I will give you an example of how the public can be easily led astray by faulty numerical analysis.

I am required to use Microsoft Access at work. I don't like it, but that's how life is. Unfortunately, OpenOffice.org does not provide file compatibility with Access .mdb files. This has been a real problem in my efforts to use Ubuntu as my primary desktop operating system at work (quietly).

When I'm in the office, it's not a problem. I have another computer with Access on it that works just find. But, when I'm on the road, it's not fun to carry two computers around, just to make sure I can open an Access file. To solve this problem, I started Googling. Most of the stuff on the Internet makes it clear that you can not use Access under Wine emulation. Fortunately for me, these resources are wrong. It can be done. In fact, I posted a long How-To on the Ubuntu Forums this morning. Here's a link.