OO vs. PP (KDE vs. Gnome)

In the flame war between Gnome and KDE, the leading desktop environments for Linux, I’ve always been on the side of KDE. As you may recall, KDE was first: based on the QT libraries from Norway’s Trolltech (now part of Nokia), KDE was the first real desktop environment for Linux. Then a Stallman-esque backlash at the licensing of QT generated a group that wanted a fully open-source product, and out of GIMP (the Gnu Image Manipulation Program) came Gnome.

Acer Aspire 1 (Linpus 8GB SSD)

This is the first laptop I buy that comes with Linux preinstalled. Unfortunately, it’s a relatively unknown distribution, and I will have to replace it with Kubuntu – but otherwise it’s amazing to see thing finally moving in the direction of economic logic.

The Aspire 1 is a netbook, which by now defines a very clear category in the market – a category that is oddly much more consistent internally than other notebook segments. We have a small form factor (screens are 10" or below in diagonal, weight is typically under 3 lbs), an attention to productivity vs. gaming, and the adoption of standard operating systems (Linux or Windows XP, mostly).

The Armchair Economist (S. Landsburg)

I felt like an addition to my review of Landsburg’s book was in order after completing the read. I am as enthusiastic as I ever was, but I think I have a more nuanced look now.

First of all, I read the book as an attempt to popularize both economics and its fundamental tenets. In that attempt, Landsburg succeeds spectacularly: the way of thinking of economists, which is probably the most important thing right now about their achievements, is brought forth with great clarity and persuasive power.

Food, Recipes, and Health

It’s my birthday tomorrow, and I decided to get myself a homemade dessert. I looked up recipes for mousse au chocolat, wanting one that is original both in time of creation and inventiveness.

I got in one of my baking books that I shlep around from move to move, without really having a good reason for them. I started writing down the list of ingredients and found something that puzzled me: it called for egg yolks and whipped cream.

Intrade: Obama vs. McCain

Amazing what the web will do! I have been a fan of Intrade for years, using it first to gain a better idea of how the 2004 Presidential election would shape up, and then following the 2006 and now the latest 2008 election. Well, the platform is ever improving, and now Intrade officially tells you to embed the image of their current trades in your site. Here is the probably most important chart of the year, the Obama vs. McCain daily trades:

Cloudbow

This is the first time I’ve seen this natural phenomenon, although it must be quite frequent: the cloudbow. That’s a rainbow (a circular diffraction pattern caused by water droplets in the atmosphere) made by clouds, not by rain.

I walked out onto the lanai to enjoy the (extremely rare) evening sunshine. The sun had already set on Hau`Oli Mau, but it still shone on the ocean, unencumbered by Mauna Kea. There was a giant cloud right ahead of me, towards the wind. And from it rose a vertical rainbow.

The Armchair Economist (S. Landsburg)

I love economists. They are a special breed of scientists. They tower high above all the other ones in their all-knowing wisdom and dispense it to the rest of the world in little parcels, mostly at dinner parties and economic summits.

Ok, maybe I don’t love economists in general, only some of them. People that tell me something that is unexpected, especially when they combine an obvious piece of information with another one and come up with something totally unexpected. The Peter principle, for instance, is a really good example.

Ninole, mon amour

There I go again – to Ninole, for two weeks. I wanted to come back much sooner, but between the gas prices and the inflated expectations of airlines with less competition, I couldn’t bring it over myself to fork out the money for a ticket in July or August.

September is a great month in Hau`Oli Mau. The weather is nice: sunshine in the morning, overcast at noon, then rain in the afternoon and at night. Oh, wait, that’s every month here!

Linux and the Polar F6 Heart Rate Monitor (2)

In the first post in the matter, I introduced you to a quick way of getting your Polar data into a Linux computer. I found that the transfer of data using sound is a nifty way of doing things, and the utilities written work pretty well.

There is one thing, though, that totally annoyed me about the process of transferring data: once you get the FRD files out of the watch, you have to manually add each exercise into SportsTracker – which is a tedious task at best, especially because it’s obvious SportsTracker is meant to track distances more than anything else. I mean, after all it was born as a way to track cycling and running workouts.

Checks - a Bizarre Anachronism

When I closed escrow on the house in Hawaii, the escrow service asked me to send the difference between the escrow amount and the bank loan by way of electronic transfer. It was several thousand dollars, so I walked down to the Wells Fargo branch, filled out a form, and declared myself done with it.

The odd thing was that I wasn’t allowed to do the transaction using a personal check. I guess that had to do with the amount of time it takes to process a personal check, and the escrow service was not willing to perform their function until the money was in (understandably). What was puzzling was that it cost $30 to perform the transfer.