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Big 3, no bailout for you!

I’ve little sympathy for the big 3, less for the unions. The failure of the bail out seems to reinforce my grim outlook for both bodies. I know it will suck for the economy, and suck for most of us in some way or another, but really, they made their beds. Did the government step in for Home Grocer? Or any other start ups that flopped? Did they step in when Apple stock was 8 bucks and less a share?

Sure we let the auto makers get as big as they are, big mistake, hopefully we learn from it, but protecting and bailing out bad business practice, not a wise decision.

If my reading of the news is correct, the UAW wasn’t willing to make concessions as part of the bailout package. I mean, why do their part to help their employers? Why should the union bosses let their people take pay cuts, which lowers dues, which lowers union boss pay? Why can’t the American people just give more? Why should the screw turners take a pay cut, or lose the cushy retirement they’ve earned that few other employees anywhere, even get?

Don’t get me wrong, the UAW isn’t the only one at fault, apparently someone (I talk more about this below) thought the bailout package should include a pay raise for federal judges, cuz you know, they need a raise, and this was a best way to get it.

From the Forbes article:

McCaskill said judges’ pay raise, inserted by Reid, “sends the wrong message to the United States of America at this scary moment.”

Well duh. Yeah it sends the wrong message, it sends a message that in troubling economic times, our politicians are still interested in injecting whack crap like this into emergency bail outs. What do judges have to do with it? Nothing as far as I can tell, certainly it’s not the place, let alone time for that kind of junk!

Labor, lawmakers and the auto industry bargained in unprecedented private talks at the Capitol Thursday night…

I think it’s funny that these talks take place in private. After all it’s my money, shouldn’t I know what deals are being brokered? Shouldn’t those doing the dealing be held accountable? Wouldn’t the process go smoother if all parties knew we were watching that they had best act in good faith, lest we see how scummy they are? Is it just me that thinks that?

The House-passed bill would create a Bush-appointed overseer to dole out the money. At the same time, carmakers would be compelled to return the aid if the “car czar” decided the carmakers hadn’t done enough to restructure by spring.

Really? do we need more Czars? an IP czar, a car czar. Yeah that’s a solution. Appoint a fall guy, that way we have some one to draw and quarter when things go south!

Pushing to convert skeptics in both parties, Democrats agreed to drop at least one unrelated provision that threatened to sink the measure, a congressional official said. They were eliminating a pay raise for federal judges after Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, who represents an automobile manufacturing state, announced she would oppose the carmaker aid unless that provision was removed.

Good for Sen. McCaskill! I’m ashamed it was my own party that put such a turd on this package. I may be opposed to the bail out, but really? Adding crap like this is just embarrassing.

The auto industry and their union cronies had no problem during the big years, maybe we see how they handle the lean ones. As far as I’m concerned, if I (as a taxpayer) bail out the big 3, I want ownership. I want shares, I want them to answer to me (us, the people giving them money for being lame businessmen, and greedy union mongers) in exchange for my money!

Fat chance, I know, but a guy can dream

Tags: Business

How would I change education?

What happens when you have a bunch of United Air miles that are about to expire, but aren’t enough to use for anything? They offer you magazine subscriptions, lots of them. One of mine was Time. The latest issue, had an article that really struck a nerve with me, it was on education, specifically the Chancellor of the Washington D.C. school district.

As a product of public education, I’m 100% opposed to private schools and vouchers. I’m more opposed to our current school system, which I think needs to be completely scrapped. Not just a little, but scrapped and started over, get rid of the teachers, the principles, the assistant principles, and even some of the guidence counselors (though that’s just cuz I think they’re lame).

One of my biggest beef’s with my pals the democrats, their allegiance to teacher’s unions. They’re as bad the auto makers unions, and unfortunately for us, they’re mess ups, are children, not just crappy cars.

Teaching is one of those jobs, where all you have to do is make it 10 years, or 15 years, and you’re set. You can suck as much as you like after you’re earned tenure. Man I wish I had that deal, so my job well enough to not get fired for a while, then coast until retirement. SURE not every teacher is that way, a great many are heroes in the truest sense, and have my undying respect, but easily as many, are terrible. I’m not being over dramatic, I’ve suffered through them, their not really caring about the students, or the curriculum, simply fullfilling the lesson plan requirements, whether we learned something or not.

What should we do? Make teachers live in the same world we do. If I start sucking at my job, EUI will fire me. If I’ve worked there for 10 years, they’ll still let me go if I start to do a poor job. Why should a teacher be any different? Why should we give them that break that gives them the freedom to stink it up?

My idea? It’s easy, make teaching pay what it’s worth in the market like any other job, and make it no more guaranteed than any other. Teachers should be paid what they’re worth, and fired when they stink, it’s really that simple. We shouldn’t promote poor teachers to principle, and poor principles to super-intendant. Sure every industry has it’s share of “promoted to highest level of incompetence” but teaching seems to have institutionalized the concept, and codified it into their very fiber.

This quote is awesome,

She says things most superintendents would not. “The thing that kills me about education is that it’s so touchy-feely,” she tells me one afternoon in her office. Then she raises her chin and does what I come to recognize as her standard imitation of people she doesn’t respect. Sometimes she uses this voice to imitate teachers; other times, politicians or parents. Never students. “People say, ‘Well, you know, test scores don’t take into account creativity and the love of learning,’” she says with a drippy, grating voice, lowering her eyelids halfway. Then she snaps back to herself. “I’m like, ‘You know what? I don’t give a crap.’ Don’t get me wrong. Creativity is good and whatever. But if the children don’t know how to read, I don’t care how creative you are. You’re not doing your job.”

Damn straight!

The data back up Rhee’s obsession with teaching. If two average 8-year-olds are assigned to different teachers, one who is strong and one who is weak, the children’s lives can diverge in just a few years, according to research pioneered by Eric Hanushek at Stanford. The child with the effective teacher, the kind who ranks among the top 15% of all teachers, will be scoring well above grade level on standardized tests by the time she is 11. The other child will be a year and a half below grade level–and by then it will take a teacher who works with the child after school and on weekends to undo the compounded damage. In other words, the child will probably never catch up.

I can’t agree more. I came from what I consider a pretty bad district, my high school opened with not enough teachers, and an empty library. I sat on the floor for more than a month in my 70ish kid english class. Several of my classes the first year, we had to share text books. The Gym, never had showers, etc. etc. I had a history teacher, and while I thought he was nice and a cool guy, he never spoke to the class. He assigned chapters, and tests. I went to that class about once every two weeks and passed with an A, and don’t recall a damn thing! I was in an AP class that so horribly prepared me for the AP exam, that I failed miserably. What Senior AP Lit class spends the class reading a loud? Mine did.

Teachers are brave souls, and I think we treat them mostly like dirt, but I think too many of them are doing our (actually ‘your’ since Nicole and I aren’t breeders) a terrible disservice, and we as a society have empowered them to do so. We bitch and moan about the state of education, yet parents don’t get involved, we throw money at “no student left behind” which really means, “pass the dummies so they’re some one elses problem”, rather than holding students AND teachers accountable. Every job has metrics, every single one. Yet somehow teachers don’t? Test scores aren’t good metrics, blah blah blah. There MUST be a metric, and we owe it to students, and teachers a like to find it, and make it standard, and hold all parties to it. That’s it, it’s not rocket surgery, it’s not impossible.

Tags: politics, teaching

I bet on the wrong horse, can the government help me out?

This nonsense with the big three and the banks, really has me thinking our government is made up of suckers. I’m thinking of writing a letter, or maybe flying (southwest) to Washington to beg in person. I mean, I went to the track, I pick the horse I thought would win, even though he had three legs and wasn’t expected to survive the race. He died, and so did the Jockey even. I lost my shirt, my wife is mad, and I’m not sure I can pay for my new Audi RS6.

I’m thinking the government can help me out, I mean, I don’t need 25bil, so a few thousand should be easy, right?

Mitt Romney has an op-ed piece in the NYT, and man, that guy gets it.

But don’t ask Washington to give shareholders and bondholders a free pass — they bet on management and they lost.

Emphasis mine. They bet, they lost. That’s it, that’s how markets work.

To top it off, the three paupers, came to washington in private jets. Not in the same private jet, but three different private jets. Thankfully the Committee called them out on it.

“There is a delicious irony in seeing private luxury jets flying into Washington, D.C., and people coming off of them with tin cups in their hand, saying that they’re going to be trimming down and streamlining their businesses,” Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-New York, told the chief executive officers of Ford, Chrysler and General Motors at a hearing of the House Financial Services Committee.

“It’s almost like seeing a guy show up at the soup kitchen in high hat and tuxedo. It kind of makes you a little bit suspicious.”

He added, “couldn’t you all have downgraded to first class or jet-pooled or something to get here? It would have at least sent a message that you do get it.”

Clearly, they don’t get it. They haven’t gotten it for a long time. Executive dining rooms, private jets, etc. I mean really? Is the corporate tower a castle or a place of business? The entire auto industry is so out of touch with business in the 20th, let alone the 21st century, that simply propping them and their “Standard policy” up is not going to do anyone any good. Not them, and more importantly, not us. This out of touch-ness is exemplified by Tom Wilkinson,

“Making a big to-do about this when issues vital to the jobs of millions of Americans are being discussed in Washington is diverting attention away from a critical debate that will determine the future health of the auto industry and the American economy,” GM spokesman Tom Wilkinson said in a statement.”

Uh, vital jobs like the CEO’s? Like his? Sure a great many auto workers will likely be out of work, I feel for them, but like everyone else, they bet on management, and lost. They also bet on their union, and it failed them. It fought with management so that a guy who turns a wrench makes $50/hour, maybe the union shoulda been making that guy learn to program computers? Or learn to maintain robots? Rather than simply raising his dues, fighting for more pay, to raise his dues some more.

What’s truly sad and amazing to me, is that not just management and the unions are out of touch, the mouthpieces (like Tom) and the PR tards are too. I mean out of hundreds if not thousands of PR turds between the three paupers, did not a single one stop to say, “Hey listen everyone, we’re sending our three leaders to Washington to beg for money. They’re going to say the jobs and the very US itself depend on us continuing to exist. We should show them that we get it. We should have all three CEOs, drive (in American cars) to Washington. They should make a tour of it, showing that they’re willing to do what it takes to make the companies work in the 21st century. I know they’re going to say they’ll make a buck in salary, but since they should have done that a year ago, to try to keep us out of this mess, it’ll really impress the American people and the politicians, that they (the CEOs) understand the situation, and aren’t simply looking to have their corrupt antiquated system propped up on the taxpayers backs.”

No one thought that? None one?

Tags: Business

A conversation on the state of music

I mentioned earlier my cool lunch conversation with Jonathan Yarmis, at Defrag on Tuesday. We got to talking about Music and movies, and how the RIAA has (as we all know) completely missed the boat.

Jonathan pointed out that he subscribes to Rhapsody, spending about $200 a month year on music, he doesn’t get to own, and when he wants to own it he buys it outright. above and beyond his Rhapsody spend. I admitted that I hadn’t pirated a single song since getting my first iPod. Spending hundreds, probably over a thousand, on music, and devices to play it on. I calculate I’ve spent more on music in the last 3-4 years than in the previous 27 of my life.

Yet as far as the RIAA is concerned, we’re the enemy. We can’t use the music we pay for how we’d like, we can’t have it on too many devices, can’t put it on CDs, we can use it in only the prescribed way, or else face prosecution.

We likened it to the RIAA being more concerned with the $1 they could get today over the $2 they could get tomorrow. By restricting use, suing customers, in general treating us like crap, the industry forces us to find alternatives; indie musicians, streaming services (while they exist), outright piracy of music, etc.

Ford once said people had their choice of colors of Model T, black, black or black. That worked really well when there was only one choice, not just of color, but of car. You either wanted a black Model T, or you walked or rode a horse. Unfortunately, the music industry doesn’t realize, that they’re Model T ISN’T the only choice, it hasn’t been for a long time.

Just look at the music sales figures on the iTunes store, the proof is in the pudding, people are buying music, so why make it a painful process for us?

Tags: Defrag, Music

Obama Rally in Denver; 100,000 in the park

Juan and Grace joined me in Civic Center Park yesterday for the Barack Obama rally.

Obama website banner

I wasn’t sure I wanted to go, but when Juan pinged me to ask if I was going, I figured why not. I walked down to 16th st and took the mall ride to Civic Center park.

I was there by 10am. Found the (long) line, and headed towards it. At the end of the line, was a volunteer telling people that we needed to go to the other line, that was running down Colfax and around Bannock. I merged in with that line, which was moving, surprisingly. We wind into the park, and abrutly hit a volunteer telling us that our line wasn’t going anywhere. Imagine a stream of water hitting a wall. That was us.

I met up with Juan and Grace on my way to the end of the line (again). The line went down Bannock, to 12th, then headed toward Lincoln (I think it was) and headed north again. It ended just about where it began, near the park. There was a nice volunteer waiting at the end to tell people, that those at the end, wouldn’t likely get in to the rally.

We headed back into the park, figuring we’d at least hear Obama even if we couldn’t see him. Then suddenly, some of the gates opened up and we found ourselves quite a bit farther into the park, yippee!

Once we suffered through the usual politico-speak from congressmen and senators seeing who could use the most metaphors, Obama came out, a little after noon. The above clip, is a short bit of Obama’s speach. It was very very good.

Oh and all those folks in the video, according to the Huffington Post, there were 100,000 people at the rally. The filled the park, overflowed up the steps of the capital. It was amazing.

Somewhere around the red oval, that

Despite the frustrations of getting in, I’m glad I made it down to the park. Hearing Obama speak was very powerful, and moving. While I hope this isn’t the case, i’m guessing, once he’s Prez rally’s will be much harder to attend.

Tags: Denver, Obama

The American CTO. Not the Technology Czar?

saw this on techcrunch. Business week is talking about soon to be President Obama’s plan to create a cabinet level post of CTO, and who the front runners are for the job.

The top names according to BW are:

Vint Cerf - Cheif Internet Evangelist for Google. I’m not sure I want some one from Google in that position. Google’s great and all “Do no evil” but I’m getting less and less convinced as time goes by that their motives are so altruistic.

Steve Balmer - uh no. Maybe CCO; Chief Crazy Officer, but CTO? Sorry Steve, you seem smart and all but I wouldn’t put in in front of a crowd of anyone. Microsoft fanboys seem to like you, but from the outside looking in, you seem a bit crazy, and not really in touch with technology that doesn’t come from Redmond.

Jeff Bezos - CEO of Amazon. I’d buy that for a dollar. I’ve never met Jeff, but from everything I’ve read about him, he’s down to earth, cool, and generally a fun guy, with a good head for business.

Ed Felton - Comp Sci professor from Princeton. I don’t know a single thing about him, but A Princeton Prof, can’t be too bad a choice.

Lawrence Lessig - I’d buy that for a buck too. I read his blog (when it’s not over my head) he seems to be spot on with technology, and politics, which seems to be sorely lacking in Washington, just look at most of our existing tech legislation, and oh god, the Patent and Copyright office.

Techrunch has a poll, so go take a look, and drop your opinion.

Tags: Obama, politics, Technology

The IP Czar cometh

So our soon to be ex-President has gone ahead and created a really lame goverment post. I thought republicans were anti big government? Didn’t this new Czar make government a bit bigger?

the Pro-IP Act, essentially makes being a consumer a crime, yippy!

Techcrunch has a good write up on.

I’m completely opposed to the idea. I think IP should be protected, but I think making everyone feel like a criminal for using their purchased goods how they want, is not the way to go about it.

Not only will laws like this Pro-IP act make pirates more active, but it’ll further hurt innovation, and make purchasing that much more difficult. People will not want to create for fear of whatever DRM is in place making their offering less interesting.

TC has a good point, and I agree. Either candidate in our current election, would really shine in the tech sector if they can ignore the reationary, “If it ain’t broke…” industry lobbyists and guide American IP and copywright law into the current, let alone the next century.

Tags: government, IP

in other news, we don’t know where the number came from

Apparently 750,000 americans are out of work because of IP piracy. Leading the US Chamber of Commerce to push for a Copyright Czar.

My first point of contention is that according to wired, no one knows where the 750,000 number actually came from. Several groups cite other groups as the source, even circling back on themselves. Gotta love that.

My second point of contention is this; the drug czar doesn’t seem to have done much for us, unless we won the war on drugs and no one told me. Now we’d have an equally useless position pushing draconian laws to augment the already incredibly terrible copyright/patent process we have today.

We don’t need czars, they didn’t work in Russia, they don’t seem to work for us either. We need reform. We need the copyright office to not suck. We need the patent office to do it’s job, and not rubberstamp “Device for viewing internet materials” type patents with no actual device to back up the patent. Copyright needs to make sense.

I agree those who get copyrights, should be protected, but copyright as it stands now is whack. It’d be nice to see copyright replaced with Creative Commons, it sure seems to make more sense to me. If content creators were more interested in their work, than suing everyone who quotes it, we’d all be in better shape.

Tags: government, IP

Is Adobe even trying?

I was watching the live feed from the DNC today, via Silverlight, and Move, and it occurred to me. Microsoft has scored the two biggest online video deals around. Who knows, the RNC too? Making three.

So I got to wondering, is Adobe even trying? Yeah there’s 5 gagillion Flash player downloads, oh wait 5.5 gagillion now, but really, do we think the Olympics and the DNC won’t boost the Silverlight numbers rather dramatically? I installed it after all.

From techCrunch:

NBCOlympics.com may have streamed 72 million videos and racked up 1.2 billion pageviews, but Yahoo Sports still edged it out with an average of 4.7 million visitors a day versus 4.3 million (source: Nieisen Online). And Yahoo didn’t even have video.

surely not unique to users, but still 4.3 million visitors a day? That’s a lot of Silverlight installs.

I don’t disagree that Flash player is still the king of the hill, but is sitting on the hill not defending your position, really the way to move forward?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m under no delusion that M$ didn’t pay a ton of money for their tech to be chosen, no doubt in my mind, but still, was Adobe in the bidding war?Simply outbid, or too proud to participate?

I’m in favor of the high road approach, Tom and I try to take that road more often than not, but at the same time, defending your position is kinda important. What’s there to say when Silverlight installs equal Flash player installs?

Tags: Adobe