January 2012
3 posts
“Every year, we allow approximately 140,000 employment visas, which cover people...”
– The No-Brainer Issue of the Year: Let High-Skill Immigrants Stay
December 2011
1 post
October 2011
2 posts
September 2011
4 posts
On Meditation
(Let me start by saying this is complete bs. Right, you knew that.) I’ve discovered the very simple reason for why meditation is popular here in the East, and less so in the West. It’s LOUD here. I’ve yet to find a place where I found peace and quiet in India. And that’s coming from someone who lives in downtown Austin, and can hear the constant buzz of the HVAC systems on nearby roofs, the...
Digital Communication in 2011
We can politik about Facebook all day long, but one thing that is strikingly well-done by Facebook is their communication platform. They recently introduced the standalone Facebook Messenger application, which allows users to communicate, regardless of the technology they use. You can SMS, send an web-based message, use the mobile app, use a Jabber client, or email.
The Facebook messaging...
“Gov. Perry avers that we can handle ourselves down here, and I believe it....”
– Tyler Smith — The State of Texas is burning down, but Perry really should just focus on the Presidential campaign. We’re probably better off that way.
The Damn Dogs
I simply must write a quick retort to the story Mr. Beckley shared the other day in regards to his experience in the first days being in Hyderabad.
adamglasseye:
Across the street, a pack of wild dogs roam slowly from a ramshackle tent. All yellow and lean, most likely brothers. They walked together slowly until one of them, the leanest of the brothers, breaks away from the pack, he crossed...
August 2011
17 posts
India - End of August Update
It’s a funny thing, I’ve written a not unreasonable amount since I’ve been here. Sent some (quite long) emails, written several draft posts, but haven’t felt quite right about publishing anything thus far, for a variety of reasons.
I’ve been in Hyderabad for over a week now. It’s been absolutely fascinating, to say the very least. From taking an auto (aka...
Goodbye Austin
I’m currently on the plane leaving Austin. I’ll be in India in a few days, but not before a short stopover in Atlanta to see my sister.
Thanks to technology, I’ll still be rather connected. I won’t have a phone with me, but my 512 number will ring on my laptop. And then there’s always Google Chat for text, video, audio if you’re into that sort of thing.
If...
Why BART Should Be Privatized
The set up to this is almost too easy: SF tends to lean more liberal, and is typically characterized as being anti-corporations. But I’m going to take the bait, and dive into this.
BART recently received a fair amount of bad press for their decision to physically unplug the cell phone nodes underground in their terminals in response to a potential protest. This was done because BART had...
The next month, or so.
A few things are happening in the next 6 weeks — and I’m making a conscious effort to make a few changes around those events. First off, work is getting incredibly busy again. Which is great, I thrive in that environment. Except this time, it’s not here in Austin, it’s in India. I’ll be leaving in less than a week or so to spend about a month in Hyderabad, India. Which...
WatchJon Stewart on his trip to Afghanistan — If this doesn’t get to you, you aren’t human.
“No socialisation of losses and privatisation of gains: Whatever may need to be...”
– The Black Swan, Nassim Nicholas Taleb.
“only 2 percent of AT&T broadband customers use 20 percent of the bandwidth...”
– AT&T — I want to know what the bottom 2 percent, or even 20 percent utilize. I bet it’s less than 5%.
“I work with Facebook engineering, and I can say the answer is kind of, not...”
– Facebook Engineer — They have a freakin’ sign? What the hell?!
July 2011
18 posts
WatchPreservation Hall Jazz Band on Letterman
“All over the world, poor people resist vaccination campaigns in the belief that...”
– The Economist — This is entirely unacceptable. There is enough FUD going around about vaccines in the educated first world, let alone the rest of the world. The CIA contributing to the insanity around vaccines is disgraceful.
“In the fight against the common cold, a patient’s feelings about a...”
– WSJ — So it’s not entirely BS, just mostly.
WatchThe Roots, Justin Timberlake, and Jimmy Fallon — The History of Rap, Part 2.
“You can’t just say, ‘I have a college degree, I have a right to a job, now...”
– The Start-Up of You
June 2011
18 posts
“If we wouldn’t describe a book to someone we wanted to sleep with, we shouldn’t...”
– Elizabeth Gumport
WatchMatt & Kim - Block After Block
