Things are bad, but they are only going to get worse. Look for the retail market and commercial real estate to follow the collapsing home market into oblivion.
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March 18, 2009 • 1:22 am 0
Harvard has a skewed view of Capitalism and Free Markets
This article serves as a great reminder that the Keynesians failed to predict our current situation (and others through our history), while the Austrians have been spot on. The single greatest “regulation” we have is that of our money, and it can be directly tied each economic bust since the Federal Reserve’s inception.
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March 8, 2009 • 3:57 pm 0
An Inquiry into Language Learning
While studying Finite Automata, I realized that programmers become proficient in languages through repeated use of the language and having an understanding of the rules of the language. But what is a language but a definition of patterns that may be imposed on a finite set of symbols, a.ka. alphabet. So through being repeatedly exposed to a pattern, one begins to understand it innately. However, recognizing the pattern and logic of a language can accelerate apprehension of the language much faster than mere exposure. I believe that understanding the rules of a language can help one become proficient in the language much faster.
I plan on exploring this topic in more detail and reporting my findings.
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March 4, 2009 • 11:23 pm 0
My Experience with Comcast’s Internet Service
Comcast began routinely blocking my router from connecting to the internet. I called tech support on several occasions and I was told that the problem was my router. I knew that it wasn’t the router, but I purchased a new anyway because of other reasons.
My old router was a Belkin (which works fine with Charter Communications). In order to get my new router to work with Comcast’s service, I had to clone my mac address. Then I would find that my connection would be arbitrarily dropped. Once my connection was established, I was greeted by a Comcast page asking me to enter registration details for a service that had been up for a year!
So I went through the procedure and then a webpage instructed me to install Comcast’s software. However, the software only works with MS Windows. I was running Ubuntu Linux. I installed the software on a virtual machine running Windows 7. I was able to get the connection running under Windows 7, but not Ubuntu Linux.
I called tech support and the customer service representative ask what operating system I was running. I told him Ubuntu Linux. He said that it wasn’t supported! I should be able to connect to the internet using any internet device regardless of the operating system. I informed tech support that my connection was working in a virtual machine. He then asked me if the virtual machine was a router. I explained to him that it was an operating system running on top of an operating system. He then responded by saying that it was not supported.
I was quite frustrated then because the connection is independent of the operating system. I could have an iPhone, PDA, or some other internet enabled device and should be able to connect to the internet. I believe this is a fine example of poor customer service and not providing the service that for which they were contracted.
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