http://laniels.org/weblog Proud member of the reality-based community since 1978. Sat, 05 Jul 2008 15:12:12 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I'm probably going to buy an iPhone on or about July 11, partly because the Treo 650 really sucks (welcome to Windows 3.1, as my friend Josh Mahoney puts it) and more because of a larger issue: phones should just be small computers. Apple seems the closest to realizing this. Text ... http://laniels.org/weblog/2008/07/05/phones-should-just-be-little-computers/ If you're into economics, find it a little disappointing, and would like a more-philosophical (while still firmly mathematical and rigorous) take on the discipline, this book is for you. In two earlier, exceedingly hefty and fascinating books -- Sunk Costs and Market Structure and Technology and Market Structure -- Sutton has ... http://laniels.org/weblog/2008/07/02/john-sutton-marshalls-tendencies-what-can-economists-know/ You know how some people say, "I don't believe in religion, but I believe in God"? Thomas Geoghegan doesn't necessarily believe in labor unions, but he believes in labor. Or maybe: he doesn't believe ultimate salvation is to be found in unions, but that there's no alternative to them for ... http://laniels.org/weblog/2008/07/02/thomas-geoghegan-which-side-are-you-on-trying-to-be-for-labor-when-its-flat-on-its-back/ The subtitle certainly captures what this book is about more than Patent Failure's did. For sheer accuracy of synopsis, maybe the subtitle ought to be "Practical Epidemiology, What We Know About Solving the AIDS Crisis, and How the Politics of International Aid Complicate Matters." Though Pisani probably wants to sell ... http://laniels.org/weblog/2008/06/23/elizabeth-pisani-the-wisdom-of-whores-bureaucrats-brothels-and-the-business-of-aids/ Anyone who happens to be in Boston this weekend and is not familiar with how the subways work, would be well-advised to note the following: the T will not be going over the Longfellow Bridge that connects Cambridge (in the MIT area) with Boston (near Beacon Hill). They will be ... http://laniels.org/weblog/2008/06/21/the-mbta-this-weekendys-wo/ Quick synopsis of my bacterial experiences of late: Got a tooth removed and braces put on on May 31. Was supposed to go to a friend's wedding in deepest Virginia on June 1. Ended up instead confined to bed for 24 hours after developing an infection during the aforementioned dental love. Stayed on ... http://laniels.org/weblog/2008/06/20/antibiotics-horrorshow/ Amidst the awfulness of today's FISA decision (Greenwald's synopsis is as good a place as any to read about our national shame), I take solace in one fact: every blessed member of the Massachusetts delegation -- all ten -- voted against the "compromise". A coworker pointed out that in the 1972 ... http://laniels.org/weblog/2008/06/20/the-tiniest-shred-of-silver-lining-in-todays-sham-fisa-compromise/ Rushdie has often been torn between two opposing interests. On the one hand, he often has a moral that he wants to impart. Midnight's Children was about the dissolution and insanity of India; Shalimar the Clown was an overwrought, heartbroken thing about Kashmir; The Moor's Last Sigh was an impassioned ... http://laniels.org/weblog/2008/06/16/salman-rushdie-the-enchantress-of-florence/ If this book keeps going the way it's been going, it will be the best Rushdie book I've ever read. It will combine the best of the 1001 Arabian Nights, Philip Roth's Operation Shylock, Rushdie's earlier The Moor's Last Sigh, and Gabriel García Márquez's Love In The Time Of Cholera. ... http://laniels.org/weblog/2008/06/14/initial-thought-on-rushdies-enchantress-of-florence/ Imagine I have some number n that I'd like to factor, or whose primality I'd like to test. If I can show that n is the difference of two squares, then I'm done: if n = a2-b2, then n = (a-b)(a+b). Determining whether a number is the sum of two squares ... http://laniels.org/weblog/2008/06/12/identifying-a-number-as-the-difference-of-two-squares/