Posts in category Software / Usability

When Bad Jokes Become Reality, Who Wins?

Oct04
2011

On September 4th I tweeted this:

“Downloaded MSFT security essentials. It says Chrome is a risk”

This was my first Tweet to be Favorited (and by top tier comedian @JimCoughlin nonetheless) so I remember it…

twitter MSFT SE chrome

On September 28th, Essentials did indeed begin flagging Chrome as unsafe, and removing it from PCs!  Read about it in Wired.

Background:

It was a simple joke, based on MSFT’s history of abuse of Windows power. Security Essentials is a highly recommended FREE program for protecting your PC  (it happens to make redundant Norton and McAfee’s offerings*).

With the power to remove viruses and malware, it was easy to see how MSFT might “define dangerous down” to include software from competitors like Google, which makes the Chrome browser. Remember, MSFT set out to destroy Netscape Navigator back in the 90s, which is why to this day it has to recommend alternatives to Internet Explorer for European PC users.

But my Tweet was just a bad joke. I didn’t think MSFT would purposely remove competition. Nor do I think it acted in bad faith with Security Essentials. There was a basis for mistaking Chrome for malware… and the corrections have been made on both sides.

* more irony: MSFT destroyed Navigator by giving away IE. Now MSFT is giving away Security Essentials, putting Norton Anti-Virus in peril.. but the government could care  . less.

Posted in Jokes - Tagged , ,

Big Boost to Let Sister

Aug09
2011

A pro designer has donated artwork and style advice to LetSister.com!

New look:

letsister1

Thank you, KPH!!

Tagged

I’ve Let Sister Keep Me Busy

Jul31
2011

I haven’t posted until today because I have been occupied on a few fronts:

1) I travelled in Europe. (Poland, Germany, Spain, UK, Belgium).

2) I was twice hit by a vehicle while riding my bike. This has left me sore and dizzy, but I am recuperating.

3) I was coding feverishly to launch LetSister.com, a web service for performers to schedule gigs and track bits / songs.

VID00596

Here’s my destroyed bicycle. I had bought it as a guest bike last year, but began riding it when my friend left town. It is nimble and swift.. and easily defeated. Had I been riding it for the most recent Monday collision, I’d have flown above the handlebars.

On more pleasing news, here’s a picture of Brugge, Belgium. I like the town tres much.

VID00540

Here’s a screen shot of LetSister.com. My friend Jim and I have been using it.

letsister3

Posted in Matt News, Travel & Adventure - Tagged , , ,

Preventing the Spread of Perishables

May26
2011

Summary: it is not always wise to discard an expired food product.
***
Sometimes you have to knowingly keep an expired item in the fridge for the very simple reason of avoiding further expiration. This would happen in cases where you cannot soon remove the item from the household. Take for example, an instance where you discover that your mayo (or Miracle Whip!) has been ‘bad’ since two months ago. You may feel upset, and wish to banish the item from the fridge, either as a punitive measure or so that you (or others in house) “won’t be fooled again.” So, you toss it in the trash… then what? The item’s condition will worsen, and the family welfare will suffer for it. Imagine if you did the same with old meat. (Hello buzzards!)

So, unless you are planning to take the trash OUT, you should not simply put the old mayo in the kitchen’s trash bin. Instead, preserve it in the fridge, perhaps in a designated ‘Expired’ zone. Then you can schedule a time to evacuate expired items. Yep.. just like the end of Vietnam. Get yourself a chopper!

Posted in Random / Consumerism - Tagged

Traffic Jams: 2 lanes merge into one lane

Mar20
2011

Yesterday I was in the slowest-moving traffic of my life experience. A seven-mile trip to Folly Beach removed 75 minutes from my life. There were several factors contributing to the inefficiency, such as it being the first hot weekend beach day in the area; cars not at full capacity (several were with neither passengers nor drivers); hotel check-in period for visitors; two-lane road turning into a one-lane road. This last factor was most important, and the subject of our post. In yesterday’s case, it was the right lane that ends, requiring its cars to move over into the left lane. It is now my belief that the ‘ending’ lane always moves faster than the ‘ceding’ lane, so you should take the non-ceder if you are aware of the situation. This theory is based on human psychology and probability. Here are the issues that favor the ‘dead-end’ lane:

  1. Fear. More people than not want to be safe and not risk depending on the mercy of others. It is also more common to fear angering other motorists, by pestering them for an opening. The fearful lane is more populated; the dead-end lane less populated, so it moves faster. At the point of the merger the driver who fears displeasing another motorist will let other car(s) merge ahead of her.
  2. Reciprocity. Among the occupants of the ceding lane are former dead-enders who migrated to the single lane. Of these, a majority will be prone to let a cohort inside due to empathy and feelings of fair play.
  3. Nature. The true nature of these respective lanes force an action in the drivers’ favor. The dead-end would seem to require ‘yielding’ but actually the ceding lane must yield. That is why it is the ceding lane. A dead-end driver cannot possibly yield to the other lane–there’s no place to go. The traffic must be merged. So given the weight of that necessary movement, it will happen (sooner rather than later). This third factor relates to the aggregate of the lanes and the cars, and is therefore a check on the individual hostilities or whims of people.  Even if many people in the ceding lane are vengeful and hostile, they will, as a whole, cede to the other lane out of necessity.

Conclusion: Take the fast lane and ye shall be rewarded.

Posted in Math & Science, Random / Consumerism - Tagged
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