Comments for Hyperextended Metaphor http://innocuous.org Richard Tibbetts on Various Topics Wed, 10 Mar 2010 04:34:29 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 Comment on 10 Days with the Google Nexus One by Mike http://innocuous.org/articles/2010/01/18/10-days-with-the-google-nexus-one/#comment-166 Mike Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:04:52 +0000 http://innocuous.org/articles/2010/01/18/10-days-with-the-google-nexus-one/#comment-166 I’m using the Nexus 1 on T-Mo right now and I’m talking and surfing at the same time. It’s a great feature of GSM that CDMA does not have. I’m coming from the iPhone 2G and then 3GS (before that I had the Bold and BB 8700g)…Android definitely needs a little work, but the openness is fantastic if you’re a geek (I am at least) I’m using the Nexus 1 on T-Mo right now and I’m talking and surfing at the same time. It’s a great feature of GSM that CDMA does not have. I’m coming from the iPhone 2G and then 3GS (before that I had the Bold and BB 8700g)…Android definitely needs a little work, but the openness is fantastic if you’re a geek (I am at least)

]]> Comment on Parque de las Ciencas aka Space Rocket Plaza by Carl Alexander http://innocuous.org/articles/2010/02/08/parque-de-las-ciencas-aka-space-rocket-plaza/#comment-155 Carl Alexander Mon, 08 Feb 2010 11:51:21 +0000 http://innocuous.org/articles/2010/02/08/parque-de-las-ciencas-aka-space-rocket-plaza/#comment-155 "... a barn full of old cars (and one steam engine and one lunar lander)" Makes perfectly good sense, in light of the earlier deer, chickens, and peacocks.... The rockets had me going for a while, mostly because I thought they were side-by-side (and thus the same height) and partly because the tail fins on the one on the right are not quite as I remember them from the models I made when I was nine or ten. The one on the right is a Mercury capsule on a Redstone rocket; the configuration that was used in the first two American manned space flights: basically a cone with a guy in it, on top of an ICBM. (The rest of the Mercury missions used the Atlas rocket and were orbital.) The one on the left is a Gemini capsule on a Titan II; they gave us the first space walk and the first docking. “… a barn full of old cars (and one steam engine and one lunar lander)”

Makes perfectly good sense, in light of the earlier deer, chickens, and peacocks….

The rockets had me going for a while, mostly because I thought they were side-by-side (and thus the same height) and partly because the tail fins on the one on the right are not quite as I remember them from the models I made when I was nine or ten. The one on the right is a Mercury capsule on a Redstone rocket; the configuration that was used in the first two American manned space flights: basically a cone with a guy in it, on top of an ICBM. (The rest of the Mercury missions used the Atlas rocket and were orbital.) The one on the left is a Gemini capsule on a Titan II; they gave us the first space walk and the first docking.

]]> Comment on Project Euler, MIT Mystery Hunt Edition by Andrew http://innocuous.org/articles/2010/01/10/project-euler-mit-mystery-hunt-edition/#comment-107 Andrew Fri, 22 Jan 2010 20:49:17 +0000 http://innocuous.org/articles/2010/01/10/project-euler-mit-mystery-hunt-edition/#comment-107 Badness 10000 is still up, just at a non-static IP differing from the one on the page... which is less than useful. Now that we have bits to the archives again, I'll see if I can fix this in a more permanent fashion. Badness 10000 is still up, just at a non-static IP differing from the one on the page… which is less than useful. Now that we have bits to the archives again, I’ll see if I can fix this in a more permanent fashion.

]]> Comment on Advice to Those Giving Birth at Mount Auburn Hospital by Susan http://innocuous.org/articles/2009/12/21/advice-to-those-giving-birth-at-mount-auburn-hospital/#comment-87 Susan Mon, 28 Dec 2009 00:30:45 +0000 http://innocuous.org/articles/2009/12/21/advice-to-those-giving-birth-at-mount-auburn-hospital/#comment-87 Heh. We also noticed that at dinner, at least one item would be randomly omitted from each tray -- from a fruit cup to a hamburger. We were ordering at 6:25 both days, which is not really wise. We'd heard and taken Camilla's advice, though, so nobody starved. Heh. We also noticed that at dinner, at least one item would be randomly omitted from each tray — from a fruit cup to a hamburger. We were ordering at 6:25 both days, which is not really wise. We’d heard and taken Camilla’s advice, though, so nobody starved.

]]> Comment on Advice to Those Giving Birth at Mount Auburn Hospital by Camilla http://innocuous.org/articles/2009/12/21/advice-to-those-giving-birth-at-mount-auburn-hospital/#comment-86 Camilla Sun, 27 Dec 2009 20:19:47 +0000 http://innocuous.org/articles/2009/12/21/advice-to-those-giving-birth-at-mount-auburn-hospital/#comment-86 My experience with the food there was that I had to remember that most items are portion controlled, so it's important to order far more items per meal than would seem reasonable in a restaurant (for lunch and dinner, at least one item from every category on the menu). Just ordering french toast and bacon won't get you a reasonable breakfast, you need to order bacon and sausage and pancakes and eggs and toast and grits, etc. or else be specific that you need three or four orders of french toast on one tray. Oddly, however, french fries come in huge buckets, and you just need to make sure to ask for the ketchup. (I think the postpartum ward needs a flag for meal service that says "don't put less than 900 calories on any of my meal trays".) My experience with the food there was that I had to remember that most items are portion controlled, so it’s important to order far more items per meal than would seem reasonable in a restaurant (for lunch and dinner, at least one item from every category on the menu). Just ordering french toast and bacon won’t get you a reasonable breakfast, you need to order bacon and sausage and pancakes and eggs and toast and grits, etc. or else be specific that you need three or four orders of french toast on one tray.

Oddly, however, french fries come in huge buckets, and you just need to make sure to ask for the ketchup.

(I think the postpartum ward needs a flag for meal service that says “don’t put less than 900 calories on any of my meal trays”.)

]]> Comment on The Real Reasons for Eliminating Non-Competes in Massachusetts by Amrith Kumar http://innocuous.org/articles/2009/07/11/the-real-reasons-for-eliminating-non-competes-in-massachusetts/#comment-53 Amrith Kumar Fri, 17 Jul 2009 22:28:01 +0000 http://innocuous.org/articles/2009/07/11/the-real-reasons-for-eliminating-non-competes-in-massachusetts/#comment-53 Richard, you mention the paper by Matt Marx. I found references to his paper on http://prohibitrestrictiveemploymentcovenants.net/ and that page provides a link to http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/07-042.pdf. I read that paper and my understanding is at http://hypecycles.wordpress.com/2009/07/17/marx-paper/ What that paper concludes is "We found a relative decrease in Michigan mobility of 33.9% once noncompetes began to be enforced, with an additional 14.2% effect for highly-cited inventors and a 17.3% attenuation of mobility for specialist inventors." If you have pointers to additional work that make the other points (re: moving to larger companies and occupational detours) please let me know. Thanks, -amrith Richard, you mention the paper by Matt Marx. I found references to his paper on http://prohibitrestrictiveemploymentcovenants.net/ and that page provides a link to http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/07-042.pdf.

I read that paper and my understanding is at http://hypecycles.wordpress.com/2009/07/17/marx-paper/

What that paper concludes is “We found a relative decrease in Michigan mobility of 33.9% once noncompetes began to be enforced, with an additional 14.2% effect for highly-cited inventors and a 17.3% attenuation of mobility for specialist inventors.”

If you have pointers to additional work that make the other points (re: moving to larger companies and occupational detours) please let me know.

Thanks,

-amrith

]]> Comment on The Real Reasons for Eliminating Non-Competes in Massachusetts by Scott Kirsner http://innocuous.org/articles/2009/07/11/the-real-reasons-for-eliminating-non-competes-in-massachusetts/#comment-52 Scott Kirsner Sun, 12 Jul 2009 18:30:11 +0000 http://innocuous.org/articles/2009/07/11/the-real-reasons-for-eliminating-non-competes-in-massachusetts/#comment-52 Great post, Richard. I think the only reason for bringing CA into any of these discussions is that it's quite obvious that the situation there - most non-competes being totally unenforceable - has not damaged the business climate or affected the willingness of venture capitalists to invest there. In fact, I find it interesting that companies like EMC and Akamai, which are so fervently in favor of non-compete agreements here in Massachusetts, still find a way to operate in California despite their inability to force employees to sign non-competes in the Golden State. Why wouldn't they simply refuse to open offices in CA, or avoid acquiring companies there, if non-competes are so essential to doing business? Great post, Richard.

I think the only reason for bringing CA into any of these discussions is that it’s quite obvious that the situation there - most non-competes being totally unenforceable - has not damaged the business climate or affected the willingness of venture capitalists to invest there. In fact, I find it interesting that companies like EMC and Akamai, which are so fervently in favor of non-compete agreements here in Massachusetts, still find a way to operate in California despite their inability to force employees to sign non-competes in the Golden State. Why wouldn’t they simply refuse to open offices in CA, or avoid acquiring companies there, if non-competes are so essential to doing business?

]]> Comment on The Real Reasons for Eliminating Non-Competes in Massachusetts by Amrith Kumar http://innocuous.org/articles/2009/07/11/the-real-reasons-for-eliminating-non-competes-in-massachusetts/#comment-51 Amrith Kumar Sun, 12 Jul 2009 15:35:48 +0000 http://innocuous.org/articles/2009/07/11/the-real-reasons-for-eliminating-non-competes-in-massachusetts/#comment-51 Richard, I've posted a long response to your post on my blog. I apologize for the "bouncing blogs" but it is hard to type a long response in this box. My response is at http://hypecycles.wordpress.com/2009/07/12/why-retain-noncompetes/ I appreciate your point of view and all that goes into your questions and responses. Thank you for engaging in this conversation. It is a conversation not about California and Massachusetts but what is best for Massachusetts and the innovators and innovation that we all want in the state. -amrith Richard,

I’ve posted a long response to your post on my blog. I apologize for the “bouncing blogs” but it is hard to type a long response in this box.

My response is at http://hypecycles.wordpress.com/2009/07/12/why-retain-noncompetes/

I appreciate your point of view and all that goes into your questions and responses. Thank you for engaging in this conversation. It is a conversation not about California and Massachusetts but what is best for Massachusetts and the innovators and innovation that we all want in the state.

-amrith

]]> Comment on Android G1 and Palm Pre versus iPhone and BlackBerry Benchmarks by Kevin Riggle http://innocuous.org/articles/2009/06/20/android-g1-and-palm-pre-versus-iphone-and-blackberry-benchmarks/#comment-39 Kevin Riggle Sun, 21 Jun 2009 03:59:23 +0000 http://innocuous.org/articles/2009/06/20/android-g1-and-palm-pre-versus-iphone-and-blackberry-benchmarks/#comment-39 Hayden: I don't know about you, but I use enough JavaScript-heavy sites that JS performance makes a big difference in how I perceive snappiness. I've actually just switched to the Google Chrome Linux beta on my EeePC largely because it handles JS significantly faster. (4.3x faster, when I ran the SpiderMonkey benchmark out of curiosity. Dunno how it compares on page-rendering speed.) Hayden: I don’t know about you, but I use enough JavaScript-heavy sites that JS performance makes a big difference in how I perceive snappiness. I’ve actually just switched to the Google Chrome Linux beta on my EeePC largely because it handles JS significantly faster. (4.3x faster, when I ran the SpiderMonkey benchmark out of curiosity. Dunno how it compares on page-rendering speed.)

]]> Comment on Android G1 and Palm Pre versus iPhone and BlackBerry Benchmarks by Hayden Schultz http://innocuous.org/articles/2009/06/20/android-g1-and-palm-pre-versus-iphone-and-blackberry-benchmarks/#comment-38 Hayden Schultz Sun, 21 Jun 2009 03:46:44 +0000 http://innocuous.org/articles/2009/06/20/android-g1-and-palm-pre-versus-iphone-and-blackberry-benchmarks/#comment-38 Web page rendering speed is what users experience. That's probably more important. Don't know how the iphone stacks up against the G1, but it's apparently about 11% faster than the pre. That's nice, but not a big deal (at least to me). http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/06/19/iphone_3g_s_faster_than_palm_pre_500k_sales_conservative.html Web page rendering speed is what users experience. That’s probably more important. Don’t know how the iphone stacks up against the G1, but it’s apparently about 11% faster than the pre. That’s nice, but not a big deal (at least to me).

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/06/19/iphone_3g_s_faster_than_palm_pre_500k_sales_conservative.html

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