December 2010
42 posts
The Decline Effect and the Scientific Method →
One of the most eye-opening elements of my time at Cornell is that we expect Ivy League professors to be experts on the topic they study. The value of the expertise is, in many ways, debatable when it is situated in findings affected by the Decline Effect or research designs that are assured to generate findings that are impacted by the Decline Effect more quickly than others. As an example,...
The Layman's Guide to Understanding What I Work On
When I talk to extremely productive, high performance computer software engineering professionals about the research that I work on, sometimes they don’t immediately understand its fundamental value. This post is designed for me to practice explaining it to a person that is not familiar with machine learning and statistical modeling. So, feel free to complain to me that I over-simplify,...
Buy vs. Rent: An Update - NYTimes.com →
The data looks clear. Buying a house in NYC or Seattle is a bad idea if you care about relative value. Philadelphia is ok depending upon the micro-area.
Apple, App Makers Sued Over User Tracking |... →
Another Wired article lulls people into believing that deleting cookies stops tracking.
Managing Scientific Inquiry in a Laboratory the... →
Citizen scientists, ignore these calls that your work is not valued. My dissertation deals with methods for taking your less than perfect (to an elitist expert) work and synthesizing it into useful knowledge.
The Finite World - NYTimes.com →
This column discusses a topic that I frequently discuss with people. China is the next price-setter and Americans are along for the ride. In this scenario, it’s perhaps best that we reduce our dependence on critical resources that we can no longer control.
University Spin-Offs (4): Professor as CEO? -... →
This set of writings matches my general set of beliefs about university-to-entrepreneur transitions. See here for the whole series of articles. For students asking me questions about this, please read this stuff first and then I’ll add additional information to the discussion that is tailored for your situation.
Change in My Browser Usage Habits
For about 2 years, I’ve been using both FireFox and Safari on my Mac to browse the Internet. Safari was a secondary browser that essentially operated in private mode all of the time while I used facebook and one Twitter account. This move thwarts facebook’s aggressive tracking of my Internet browsing behavior. At the same time, FireFox was used for reading news and general web...
Holiday Cooking: Thor's Twins (Molecular...
Alec Baldwin’s Schweddy Balls don’t compare to Thor’s Twins. Designed as a holiday themed topping for French Laundry Parmesan Crisps w/seared fois gras, Thor’s twins are liquefied grana padano with calcium lactate formed into a sphere, bathed in sodium alginate and rinsed in a cold water bath.
The result is basically a liquid cheese ball with a thin external gelatinous...
Absolutely Epic 1974 Letter From Cleveland Browns... →
This response from the Cleveland Browns (if truly their response) to a fan letter of complaint speaks of a time when people were not expected to be so politically correct.
Facebook Will Thwart Google, Says Ex Googler →
This is another work related discussion about ‘social’ applications. Is it really impossible for Google to ‘get’ social? It seems like they work on a lot of stuff that is tangential to advancing BigTable.
The Real Life Social Network v2 →
A number of my friends have been passing around this 200+ page presentation for months. Have I been in a social networking group (Harvard) and an Information Science program for so long that I think everything in this presentation seems like it was discussed for years?
“However, he [Thomas Gilovich, chairman of the department of psychology at...”
– Retired Cornell professor finds some evidence of ESP | theithacajournal.com | The Ithaca Journal
My commentary: I read this as the head of the department of psychology saying that, despite creating 10 solid experiments with 1000 subjects and generating a significant finding, this paper is...
Amazon Pays You $5 for Access to Your Private... →
Amazon is running a promotion which pays you $5 to let them look at your private DM Tweets? Really? Why is that necessary? Link is attached. Scroll to the bottom of the page and look for the “Tweet and Get $5” button.
Google Says My Writing is Not Appropriately...
Google’s advance search page allows one to compute the reading level required for the site. The New York Times and other news publications (even wonky ones) are essentially in the > 80% intermediate reading level. My blog falls 20% basic, 40% intermediate, 40% advanced and my home web site is even worse (it contains more advanced reading level content).
Why is the distribution of my...
Brady wears a T1 Wetsuit Under Uniform →
Many people that have never worn football pads don’t realize that catching and throwing a ball in the pads is a learned skill. The lack of flexibility in the pads, for the most part, overwhelms the stiffness of clothing under the pads. When I wore a T1 wet suit from DeSoto to open water swim, I remember joking about using it to shovel snow back in the Northeast. Now Tom Brady, Matt Cassel...
Cayuga Bird Club seeks volunteers for count on New... →
It’s a little disappointing that I was told that Thor cannot participate in the bird count. I’m certain he was really looking forward to it.
Doctoral degrees: The disposable academic | The... →
Like most academic papers, some of the analysis and evidence could be better. But this is certainly a perspective on the prospects for the PhD graduate.
Landis Reported To Have Worn Wire In Meeting With... →
As if it weren’t already clear, don’t take meetings with Floyd Landis.
Google Instant Has No Brand Bias →
Amit Singhal is a ranking god (and graduate of my research area at Cornell), but the assumption for my dissertation is that mathematical models make the ranking biased in some way, almost by definition. I sent an email to Amit to ask him for more clarification, but he appears to be on work vacation until January 3rd, so I won’t wait for an answer.
alexainslie:
“I’ve said this many times:...
Wonderbar used in 3 Stooges Episode
The word “wonderbar” was used to mean “wonderful” in the “Income-Tax Sappy” (1954) episode of The Three Stooges. When people have used the word, I’ve wondered where it came from. This isn’t an origin, but it dates usage back at least 56 years.
NY Times Exec: You Won’t Be Able to Fool Our... →
When the Dinosaur News Agency (aka NYTimes) issues a statement that their new Internet pay-wall can’t be hacked, it’s like a 2 year old issuing a challenge to take their lolly-pop away.
FT.com / Arts - Ke$ha Haz Mad Skillz →
One has to love when the FT covers Ke$ha.
In France, Civil Unions Gain Favor Over Marriage -... →
Excluding the ability to easily divorce and the social stigma of the word ‘marriage’, I’m having difficulty determining what the difference is between a marriage and a civil union.
The Flaming Martyr
While searching for the correct drink to celebrate milestone events, we have created a new mixed drink, the Flaming Martyr.
Procedure:
Heat 2.5 oz of Crystal Head vodka in a microwave for 20 to 25 seconds.
Ignite vodka fumes using a lighter.
Drop vodka shot into a pint glass of Ithaca Soda Company Root Beer and some muddled mint (alternatively, use a peppermint flavored candy shot glass) .
...
How Hedge Funds Create Criminals? →
The linked blog post examines academic research that suggests that the hedge fund environment may create criminals. The evidence provided by the author is unconvincing to me, but, without doing any research, I can imagine that an environment with huge payouts at stake, lax to non-existent regulatory oversight, and even less interest in law enforcement can lead to a situation where some actors are...
You want me to subscribe to your paper? Give me 4... →
If this report is accurate, it is truly mind-boggling that print journalism spends this much money on printing. Print journalism should be *begging* every person in America to switch to Internet delivery.
Time Warner / Roadrunner Policies on Cable Modem /...
I’ve had an interesting day with Time Warner / Road Runner support today. My Internet connection has been performing at Dialup speeds. On a good day, it would hit 1 mbps down and 0.7 mbps up. After 4.5 hours on hold to their customer support, they finally agreed to send a technician to my home. The technician (and subsequent phone calls with RoadRunner tech support) explained that I had...
In Obama Tax Plan, Boost for Job Creation - David... →
This “unbiased” article from the NYTimes fails to mention that if you gave an economist $900 billion to create effective stimulus and measured them on effectiveness at increasing GDP next year and in subsequent years, none of them would choose anything remotely related to this deal.
A Product Review of Diaspora and a Call for Help
The Diaspora project did a good job of gaining notoriety as a potential social network competitor to Facebook, but now they need to gather momentum. Unfortunately, they face a head-wind caused by a number of product and technical management complications that need to be addressed before the world gives up on them. They face a daunting challenge.
First, few people may know that...
Heights deer plan hearing draws a herd →
120 of my neighbors showed up to debate the #1 political issue in my village (population: 3,372 people). I have sympathy for all sides of the discussion.
Picante de Pollo Tonto
When I don’t feel like cooking, I turn to the water bath because it’s easy to get great results. Tonight, I took a few pieces of chicken out of the refrigerator, paper toweled them dry, sprinkled liberally with kosher salt and pepper (and less liberally with ghost salt and cayenne pepper) and then “vacuum packed” them in a baggies (use a straw to suck the air out of a...
FTC Staff Issues Privacy Report Offers Framework... →
I am already working on a critical review of the FTC Staff Report. People that are interested in joining as co-authors or wish to read the working drafts are welcome to email me.
It's 4 PM: Does Comcast Know Where CNBC's Viewers... →
Few people will remember that in 2008, I constructed a profitable shadow portfolio by betting against stocks that were simply mentioned by some CNBC analysts, contributors, and regular guests. The decline of CNBC ratings seems appropriate, given the value of the information.