Cheery Vitriol

Ok, I give up. I’ve switched to Google Reader. I dislike web-based RSS readers in general, the primary reason being that they show items that I’ve already read. But the newer Ajax-based readers work a lot more like desktop readers, with the added benefit of being accessible from anywhere.

I was using NewsGator. I like that it plugs into Outlook and was better than the other Outlook options, plus it had a slick web reader version. But the Outlook integration was very poor at work; it may be due to our internet connection or might be Newsgator’s fault, but it was rarely able to update during the day. So since I found myself going to the web viewer most of the time anyway, I cancelled my paid account.

But yesterday even the web viewer started acting strangely. I went a day and a half with no updates, and that never happens. I have a few rarely-updated feeds, but Yahoo News, Eschaton, Slashdot, and a few others update a lot, and there was nothing in the list.

I’d played with Google Reader, and it’s good but wasn’t as usable as NewsGator. But they did a big update last month, and kicked it up several notches. It now allows you to mark a whole feed as read, updates periodically (no need to click Refresh), and has a ton of keyboard shortcuts. And I’m sure there’s plenty of momentum behind it, being Google and all, so it’ll only get better.

electoral-vote.com is currently predicting 226 Democrats, 205 Republicans, and 4 Ties for the House. This is the widest margin I’ve seen, and with any luck it’ll widen even more in the next few weeks. It would be great to take back both the Senate and the House, but personally I’ll settle for just the House.

The House can impeach, and has subpoena power and will finally hold the corrupt republicans accountable. Of course not much else will get done in Washington for the next two years, but we’re used to that - nothing much productive has been done in a long time.

Just installed Google Maps for the Treo. It’s pretty cool - basically the same UI as the web version, with one difference being that it doesn’t overlay maps and satellite. But it does support satellite view, and traffic too.

The direction UI is a little weird, but it’s a hard form factor to work in. There doesn’t appear to be a way to just list all the steps; instead there are back/next buttons to cycle through the steps.

This is very convenient for me because I use Yahoo Maps for driving directions, but they’re migrating to their new version. It’s Flash-based, so it doesn’t work on the Treo; the old version is still active, but if they drop support for the HTML version I’ll need a replacement, and it looks like Google has come to the rescue.

They do have a funny hint though - “Don’t operate while driving”. Yeah, right

Interesting quote at the end of this story about a new restaurant in a Mumbai suburb called “Hitler’s Cross”:

Engineering student Anand Dhillon sat with friends, sipping soft drinks. “I think the name is quite interesting. Tomorrow if someone keeps a name like Saddam Mutton Shop or
George Bush Footwear, there’s nothing wrong with that, is there?” he shrugged.

Yep, that’s about right - Adolf Hitler, Saddam Hussein, and George W. Bush.

I live in Davis Square and work in Mansfield - we moved last January from the original office in Providence to the current location. I drove for several months, but it wasn’t that bad since I have flexible hours and could avoid a lot of traffic, and it’s a reverse commute so once I get out of the city it’s pretty quick. But it’s still a long commute and I’m unable to do much of anything other than listen to the radio.

There is a commuter rail station in Mansfield, but it’s about 1.25 miles from the office. I was already used to driving when we moved, and it’s 15 miles closer to home, so I just continued to drive. But it kept nagging at me that I live 1/4 mile from the Davis T stop and wasn’t using that convenience.

So I tried out the commute for a week and it was great - riding on the train, being able to read a book or just do nothing was pretty cool. I found a cheap mountain bike (to get between the train station and the office) on craigslist so I wouldn’t have to leave my good bike locked up at the train station overnight, and switched to taking the T.

Rainy days I’d walk instead of biking since I could use an umbrella, and since I have audio books and MP3 on my Treo, I was able to listen to them for an extra 20-25 minutes each way. Eventually I stopped riding the bike altogether and now walk from the train station to work and back, both for the exercise and for the listening time.

A few weeks ago I found a deal on a good Toshiba laptop, so I grabbed that. I have an HP desktop-replacement laptop that’s huge, heavy, and has terrible battery life, so although the new laptop isn’t quite the powerhouse that the HP is, it’s very portable and goes a long way between charges. So now I’m even able to write code during my commute.

Of course as I write this on the commuter rail, there’s a pinhead all the way at the other end of the train talking loudly enough into his cell phone that I can hear his entire conversation, so there are some disadvantages to this, but all in all I actually tend to look forward to my commute so I can get some coding, reading, or even sleeping done.

MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough has been getting a lot of attention for his recent piece that asked the question “Is Bush an ‘Idiot’?” (clip here). There’s another excellent post here that answers the question in the affirmative. If you Google the phrase George Bush idiot you get over 8 million results. He’s an easy target but lately I’ve been pushing back when people dismiss him with a comment along these lines.

Don’t get me wrong - I’m not defending him. Dubya will go down in history as our worst and stupidest president. He’s a war criminal and should die in prison. But it’s too easy to call him an idiot.

The ironic thing about Dubya is that he’s made me realize that the President isn’t really that important. What’s important is the Executive Branch. Sure, I’d prefer to have brilliant presidents who are students of history, are intellectually curious, who take politics seriously. But even the best President depends on advisors and staff. So if you consider the President not the single most powerful person in the US but rather the Executive Branch’s most senior spokesperson, then we could get by with a personable, articulate President who looks good on TV, but has no real power and defers to the judgement of a White House team of experts that make up his advisors, cabinet, and staff.

That was clearly the plan for Dubya, but unfortunately he didn’t work out as well as they’d hoped - he’s what happens when you take that approach to its absurd extreme. He makes a fool of himself nearly every time he goes off-script. His swagger and his sneer betray his true self.

So is he an idiot? Yes and no. Clearly no if you take the question literally - he’s not stupid. Even given the special treatment that he must have received as a son of privilege while in college, he did attend and he did graduate. But it’s not a literal question - it’s a relative one. Given that we’re not really asking if he’s an idiot compared to the general population but rather in comparison to other Presidents and world leaders, then yes, he’s clearly in the single-digit percentiles for intelligence and capability.

I’ve had my Treo 700p for a couple of months. The primary reason I upgraded from my 650 is EVDO. I use the internet features a lot, including RSS reading (using QuickNews), web browsing (mostly travel directions) and checking email. It’s great to even have an internet-capable device in my pocket, but service can be slow on an older 650 connection, so it was worth it to me to upgrade to the significantly faster EVDO.

A couple of weeks ago Maria and I went to San Diego for a mini-reunion with some of the folks I worked with at StatSoft almost 10 years ago. Having a high-speed connection was very convenient. I had never been to San Diego so I used it a lot for directions. The big deal with directions and connection speed is getting lost. If you plan ahead and get directions for where you’re going, speed isn’t much of an issue. But when you’re lost, getting back on track is a lot less stressful when you’re not waiting several minutes for a page to load.

In addition, we were able to find lots of great vegan and vegan-friendly restaurants. Unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to visit the raw foods place in Chula Vista, but perhaps next time.

The keyboard is a lot easier to use, especially with one hand. They moved a couple of keys around, so that took a while to get used to, but after I had been using the 700p for a while I picked up the 650 and then the cheesiness of the older keyboard was a lot more apparent.

There are a few other minor enhancements:

• the caller ID feature tells me the caller’s state if the number isn’t in my contacts
• when a call comes in there’s a new “Ignore with Text” option that turns off the ringer and brings you to the SMS message app
• the camera is a lot nicer than the one on the 650
• perhaps not new, but recently noticed - the USB sync cable charges the battery
• muting the volume vibrates briefly to indicate quite mode
• voice recorder with dedicated side button
• more memory