Blog de Humpty : commentary

Bizarro World

Humpty — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 06:00:00 GMT

This country is crazy. Just read how Obama is going to start being concerned about the middle class again. Did it really take the loss of Edward Kennedy's seat to a Republican to bring about this sudden change of heart? Obama, did you think your actions concerning the middle class were sufficient while you were busying yourself supporting Bush's bank bailouts and trying to sell us out to health insurance companies? I appreciate your newfound concern Mr. President, I really do, but your previous actions demonstrate the kind of policies you'd prefer to pursue.

The thing that gets me the most about this whole mess is how much money there seems to be available for fighting wars, but when it comes to helping Americans suddenly the country's tapped out. Domestic programs get cut while the war in Afghanistan gets tens of thousands of new troops. Seriously, how crazy is a country that so enthusiastically supports war on foreign soil but cares so little about its own.

"These become the elite. Through these, the attempt begins to create a condition whereby the remainder of the planetary entities are enslaved by their free will."

The people I can't get are those that support decisions like the Supreme Court's to allow corporations to spend unlimited amount of money on political campaigns, because of free speech. The beneficiaries of this money I can understand being excited, they're greedy. But the people who won't get any direct benefit from this, the people who are far more likely to be harmed by this ruling, I don't get their support. Screaming and shouting about defense of free speech, really? The same corporations that admitted to lying about the addictiveness of smoking, the links to cancer, these are the corporations you want to empower to be able to spend money on political candidates? Am I living in bizarro world! You want to support a foreign owned company spending money on a candidate that'll support laws favoring their country to the detriment of the U.S.? Free speech, really?

This whole left vs. right, liberal vs. conservative fight isn't getting this country anywhere productive. While we fight it out over abortion, gun laws, or any myriad of social issues our pocketbooks get lighter and lighter while prices get higher and higher. Bank fees become more numerous and punitive. But hey, let's argue about something else instead.

An open letter on the need for universal health care

Humpty — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 18:34:00 GMT

I'm writing this to express my support for universal health care. I formerly was against this as I didn't want to support the health care costs of someone who, in my opinion, led an unhealthy lifestyle and thus incurred avoidable health expenses. But as I've been listening to arguments both for and against a universal health care system of some form I've decided universal health care is the way to go.

Financially I think such a system would work better than the patchwork system we have in place now. Administrative costs could be greater lowered by centralizing this function under one, or few, entities. The prime goal of insurance, to mitigate the costs of a product by spreading it over a large population, could be better met with a universal system.

Admittedly much could be done to lower health costs without going to universal health care: increasing the number of doctors in the country, lowering prescription drug prices by relaxing regulation somewhat allowing generics to be even cheaper, focus more on prevention so the greater cost of treating a problem can be avoided. I also have to wonder how much cheaper it would be to do business in this country if employers weren't burdened with providing for their employees' healthcare. Freed of this responsibility entrepreneurs would be able to take greater risks in starting a business, and businesses of all kinds could afford to pay their workers more. Health related insurance is the only one that is so commonly tied to an employer, neither home nor automobile insurance ends when a person changes jobs, why should health?

More philosophically I think a private for-profit system is antithetical to the goal of providing health care cheaply. If it were not for the experience of people in this country with this system I might think otherwise. But stories abound of people being denied insurance coverage because of pre-existing medical conditions, of being denied a particular treatment because the insurance company deems it not necessary (though the doctor does), or a person having their insurance flatly revoked because they're utilizing its services too much. What is the point of having health insurance if the insurer will not honor their end of the bargain? Unfortunately the existence of a profit motive has shown itself to create a pernicious incentive for health insurers to deny care.

It seems many in this country do not like the idea of a public health care system, or said another way a government health care system since government is the public. I've seen arguments where they state it's not the role of government to provide health care, that it's not a right, that's it's not a delineated power of the U.S. Constitution. I counter by saying there are many social institutions that the Constitution has not precisely defined but over the years America has decided should be a public service. Services such as the protection of dwellings from fire, providing a minimum education to children, establishing a financial safety net for those retired from working. This fear of socialist institutions is unfounded given the many socialist institutions that are currently in place.

The time for excessive and continuous debate is nigh over. People are going bankrupt over high medical costs now. People are going without their healthcare problems being treated because of high cost now. The time is now to enact healthcare reform, and it's my hope and belief that reform takes the form of universal health care, supported by America for America.

Blaze of Glory

Humpty — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 06:08:43 GMT

What is up with all these people going out in a blaze of glory. Just read about a guy in Miami who killed four people at a family gathering, then went home and killed himself. He may have even set his home on fire before killing himself -- couldn't quite tell for sure from the article. It was just last week I read about two similar mass murder / suicides.

I understand people have hard times, difficult moments in life, but you don't solve it by taking your rage out on other people and yourself. If you feel compelled to kill someone just confine it to yourself. That guy you thought crossed you probably didn't have a personal vendetta against you like you thought. More than likely you just sucked at your job and instead of admitting that you put the blame on someone else. If your wife decides she's going to leave you is it really necessary you take her out before she can? People change, relationships change, sometimes they end, it happens. It's usually the case the dumpee is pissed about it, you needn't kill them (or random strangers) to express your anger. If someone loved and cared about you for a long time chances are they still do, even if they decide it's best to go separate ways.

If you're reading this and are contemplating suicide by cop, sawed off shotgun, or some other fantasy; stop, don't. Life is rarely that tough that you can't deal with it. Honestly look at yourself and think about why you want to kill everyone around you, or just yourself. I suspect most people who contemplate suicide in varying ways are just running from facing themselves -- it was my reason. Things do get better, life is worth living.

(I now return you to your regularly scheduled, soapbox-free, existence.)

Spineless Democrats!

Humpty — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 05:33:00 GMT

I found this image somewhere and wanted to preserve it for posterity. We must not forget how utterly inept, cowardly, and spineless the current Democratic party is! The image refers to the Iraq war but in reality it applies to the entire party on many issues. It seems their definition of strength is being able to repeatedly take it in the ass from the Republicans.

Mainly I'm pissed about them passing the updated FISA bill, complete with telecom immunity, but also for actively blocking attempts to hold the Bush administration accountable for their crimes. Yes, I'm talking to you Ms. "Impeachment is off the table" Pelosi.

We really have to start changing how we elect leaders and representatives in this country. The current plurality requirements encourage the two party system we currently have. Basically the winner of a race is the person with the most votes, not the one with majority support from the voters. If you can manage to get 25% of the vote and keep your opponents from getting higher than that, then congratulations, you win! You may be a total scumbag but you'll still be awarded power.

FairVote.org has a number of ideas to address this, primarily instant runoff voting (IRV). With this setup you rank your votes for the candidates. A first round of vote counting is done by looking at everyone's first choice. If no candidate gets a majority of the votes then the lowest vote getter is dropped from consideration for a second round. The people who had voted for the removed candidate have their votes transferred to their second choice and vote counting proceeds again. This goes on in multiple rounds of vote counting until a majority winner is determined. With something like this you could vote for a non-Republican or Democrat and not worry that your vote will be wasted if not enough other people vote for that candidate. Essentially being free of vote-splitting. This will allow 3rd parties a better shot at getting elected and make the Democrats actually work for our votes by actually doing stuff in Congress. Instead of the mentality of, "Vote for us because you don't want a Republican to win, do you?"

Family Meals Around the World

Humpty — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 05:27:02 GMT

My officemate shared an email with me that showed the meals families around the world ate. The email was intended to draw attention to rising food prices. But what I found interesting was all the junk food the American family ate compared to the other families. You look at every other family and there are plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables. If you squint you can see some grapes and tomatoes amongst the pizza, chips, soda, and fast food in the American family's pile. And people wonder why we spend the most money on healthcare yet are still sick, and fat...

GERMANY:
The Melander family of Bargteheide - 2 adults, 2 teenagers
Food expenditure for one week: 375.39 Euros or $500.07

UNITED STATES:
The Revis family of North Carolina - 2 adults, 2 teenagers
Food expenditure for one week: $341.98

JAPAN:
The Ukita family of Kodaira City - 2 adults, 2 teenagers
Food expenditure for one week: 37,699 Yen or $317.25

ITALY:
The Manzo family of Sicily - 2 adults, 3 kids
Food expenditure for one week: 214.36 Euros or $260.11

MEXICO:
The Casales family of Cuernavaca - 2 adults, 3 kids
Food expenditure for one week: 1,862.78 Mexican Pesos or $189.09

POLAND:
The Sobczynscy family of Konstancin-Jeziorna - 4 adults, 1 teenager
Food expenditure for one week: 582.48 Zlotys or $151.27

EGYPT:
The Ahmed family of Cairo - 7 adults, 5 kids
Food expenditure for one week: 387.85 Egyptian Pounds or $68.53

ECUADOR:
The Ayme family of Tingo - 4 adults, 5 teenagers
Food expenditure for one week: $31.55

BHUTAN:
The Namgay family of Shingkhey Village - 7 adults, 6 kids
Food expenditure for one week: 224.93 ngultrum or $5.03

CHAD:
The Aboubakar family of Breidjing Camp - 3 adults, 3 kids
Food expenditure for one week: 685 CFA Francs or $1.23

Corruption and greediness

Humpty — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 20:35:45 GMT

I just watched an hour and a half long video about the dangers of genetically modified foods. I don't want to get into it here though, but if you want to check it out here it is http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5888040483237356977&hl=en. The part that just got to me though was how other people on the planet could put money above the health of other people. It was dismaying. After many weeks now of studying how the Bush administration has really messed up this country I just felt like I couldn't take any more negative information. There just seems to be so much widespread corruption I really felt like I just wanted to be numb to it, tune out and entertain myself and pretend it's not going on.

I can see how a lot of Americans can become sheeple. You get desensitized to things after being repeatedly exposed to them. After a while even outrageous and blatant corruption becomes tolerable. Or perhaps you get too tired of fighting all the damn time. Every day it seems like someone's preaching about something that's going to kill you.

As much as I want to get dismayed though, and perhaps muster up the conviction to pick up a picket sign, the kind of corruption and greed that "evil" corporations exhibit comes from individual people. And not just a few people, but really most everyone. It's been said many many many times over just as many years that power corrupts. If you had the power to do something would you? Would you do something that benefited you at the expense of another? It's probably easy to say no you wouldn't when you don't have any power, when the question is just hypothetical. I like to think I wouldn't either but I wonder. All that evil corruption out there didn't just come from nowhere, it came from individual people, people just like me...

Universal healthcare in America

Humpty — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 05:16:45 GMT

I watched Sicko on Saturday and cried when I saw 9/11 volunteers suffering from chronic respiratory problems and other problems, unable to get treatment because they couldn't afford it or were flat-out denied by health insurance companies. After watching the movie I was very much for universal healthcare in America even though I've usually been against it. I'll admit I bought into the rhetoric against it, my main reason was along the lines that I didn't want to pay for someone getting diabetes from eating a diet loaded with sugary foods and drinks. Basically, I keep myself healthy so why can't you. But, after the movie, I saw how easy it is for anyone to have an accident and more importantly, to have insurance and still be denied treatment by your insurance company!

I've been doing more reading on universal healthcare lately because this movie really touched me, probably since health is a high focus of mine. It really is disgusting how our healthcare system is setup: designed to minimize its members utilization of it. This NewYorker article proved very enlightening on this subject. With most insurance schemes nowadays they're setup to minimize your use of it. Take an auto insurance policy, you cause a wreck your rates go up. It's an incentive for you to not utilize the service. In this case it's a good thing because it encourages you to be really careful behind the wheel. Health insurance though doesn't work well under this scheme, in fact it fares much worse. Disease gets worse the longer it goes unchecked so the sooner you treat and cure it the better. In terms of health insurance this means you want to utilize the service as soon as you can because it'll actually turn out to be financially cheaper than waiting. But the current U.S. health insurance schemes are setup like auto insurance, the more you use the more you pay.

I actually switched to a Health Savings Account (HSA) the moment I could a few years ago thinking it was the greatest thing. I was young, healthy, and rarely got the benefit of the high insurance premium I was paying so it seemed like a no-brainer. Now I feel like a total heel because by taking my money out of the insurance plan I was in, the sicker people that utilize the service will ultimately have to pay higher premiums. Man, HSAs are probably the worst thing, a complete antithesis to universal healthcare. I really don't like to get partisan on my blog and try to be fair, but I can't help but think the people who masterminded and presented HSAs knew about the long-term effect of them, i.e. as people switch to them there'll be less money in traditional health plans so rates will rise such that they become too expensive for anyone. Really have to wonder if the same forces in America that are against universal healthcare thought this up.

Ultimately the decision on whether or not we have universal healthcare in America rests not in issues such as costs, but whether or not we want to care for every citizen of the republic. Do you care more about yourself or society as a whole. I can't be a fence-sitter anymore, I want to help out other people and I'm willing to pay higher taxes to do so. If we really want healthcare for every citizen we can figure out the logistics and get it done. We do the same thing with the K-12 education system, we all pay taxes so our children can learn readin', 'ritin', and 'rithmetic. One thing's for sure, I need to cancel my HSA and switch back to a traditional group plan.

Another public service announcement

Humpty — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 02:27:33 GMT

If you wear glasses type, don't run to, www.zennioptical.com, and pay like $20 for glasses! I found out about this site from the same place that I bought my pinhole glasses. If you do wear glasses paying hundreds of dollars is what you're probably used to, but this site seems to be the real deal. I just bought two pair for $58 and I'll post again about them when I get them. I'm planning on using these as part of my vision recovery process, because as cool as pinhole glasses are they can't completely replace prescription glasses. Anyway, thought I'd mention this place.

My feelings on Tab Mix Plus

Humpty — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 07:46:00 GMT

I've just released LastTab 2.0.5 and it fixes a problem on Mac OS that finally allows LastTab's tab list to function properly on it, well coupled with Firefox 2.0. I was actually somewhat reluctant to even release the fix though after reading this thread over at the Tab Mix Plus (TMP) forums, http://tmp.garyr.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2385&highlight=mac. In order to fully comprehend everything you have to realize that the control-tab functionality, including the tab list, that TMP has comes directly from LastTab, my extension. So on that thread a TMP user is asking about the tab list not working on the Mac. And what does one of the TMP authors suggest to him? See if it works in LastTab and if so let him know because then he'll copy its code and incorporate it into TMP.

God that burns me. I think what pisses me off the most about this is that the co-author is basically using me as an indirect developer of TMP yet I get no credit for this. Yes, he did mention me by name -- and I really appreciate that -- but the fact is TMP would be nothing without the extensions that it's incorporated to provide its functionality. And all of the wonderful accolades heaped upon TMP would be nonexistent. Even though only two people currently maintain TMP we individual extension authors have directly contributed to TMP and we deserve to be recognized for this. And not just in some forum thread but I mean in all the places where the TMP authors are mentioned. Hell, even TMP locale translators get more credit than we do, yet we provided the core functionality that TMP is using.

If I sound a little bitter and pissed, well, it's because I am. To spend your time figuring out some problem and then have some guy come over and just take your work sucks ass. Feel like I'm in high school or something and the valedictorian is peering over my shoulder trying to look at my test.

In the world of open source about the only thing you have going for you is satisfaction in your work and recognition of it, people who release their code freely usually aren't getting monetary compensation. Many times the projects are labors of love. Seriously, why else would you spend days/months/years working on something for basically no gain? So yeah, I'm extremely peeved at TMP and their assimilation of other extensions and not giving the extension developers their proper due.

I wasn't going to write about this because I really feel the TMP co-author in question basically agrees with my grievances so there would be no point for this post, but I'm just so pissed I have to get this off my chest. I want recognition for the contributions I've made to TMP, and not just for me but for all the extension authors whose extensions have been included in TMP.

And just in case the forum thread over there mysteriously vanishes, I'm posting an image of the relevant part that got to me.

I've had it with CSS!!

Humpty — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 22:17:00 GMT

I am sick to death of CSS and I ain't gonna take it no more. Why is it so damned difficult to lay out elements horizontally on the page! Geezus. I want to move away from layout tables, trust me, I do, but not being able to lay out elements horizontally is just killer. The only options are tables, floats, or absolutely positioned elements. Can't use tables, since, hunh, I'm trying not to. Floats work, until you put one next to another and then decide, maybe, that you want to put something underneath the second float... See, according to the specs if you want to put something under a float you have to clear it, which unfortunately places it underneath all floats before it! So what's next, position:absolute. Pretty nifty, I like it, only one problem, it's not in the flow of the document so you can't wrap anything around it, can't use percentages, footers, blah blah blah.

I just don't get it. Laying things out vertically on the page works fine, but try doing things horizontally and all hell breaks loose. When I designed the interface for my Firefox extension I used XUL and marveled at how well it layed things out, both vertically and horizontally. I don't want to turn this post into a XUL primer but trust me, it's cool. Why can't CSS be this easy in laying things out?

CSS zealots say don't use tables, well give me something better and I won't, and no CSS is not better than tables. A lot of their argument is basically, "but think of the blind." Well, I say the blind should get better screen readers. I swear I'm going to start using class="thisaintadatatable" on my layout tables. So if you're a screen reader manufacturer key on the text "aint a data table" and then you'll know, this ain't a data table.

Are clothes getting larger?

Humpty — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 00:51:00 GMT

I went clothes shopping a few weekends ago because quite a number of my garments had holes in them, and this is the only reason I go shopping for clothes. So I go and spot a few shirts I like. Up till now I've always bought shirts in a size large, even though I'm a thin guy these fit me well. Well, I go home and all of them look too big on me! WTF, I've always gotten large before and they fit!! I was able to replace one with a medium and washed the other two in hot water to shrink them. But still, I was shocked that I now seem to have to wear medium-sized shirts.

The last time I went clothes shopping -- a year ago maybe -- I noticed that the medium's fit me well. Hmm, I guess it's not a fluke then, I now wear a size medium. Strange, and I thought Americans were getting fatter, not slimmer.

But wait! A quick search on Google revealed the likely answer: vanity sizing. It seems that companies, in an attempt to get more sales, have started making clothes larger but keeping the same size label! All this in an attempt to help make fatter people feel slimmer. You used to wear a size 10 (or whatever that means in women's sizes)? No problem, if you wear Brand X you now wear a size 6! Feel better about yourself? And you didn't have to work out either...

Crud, what a mess. Although the problem seems to be worse for women's clothes my experience is showing me this affects men's clothes too. This just makes clothing sizes meaningless. I mean, if you go to store A and a large is too big for you but at store B a large fits you just fine how do you know what size you wear anymore!? Ridiculous.

Having said that, check out this Burger King Chicken Fries Commerical, it's hilarious!

How to drive like an idiot

Humpty — Tue, 29 Mar 2005 23:57:00 GMT

This is probably going to become a series regular here.

The one thing I don't get is why people slow down before getting into their turn lane. Why don't they move into their turning lane and then decelerate. This will keep the traffic behind the person going smoothly without requiring them to brake and slowing up me and everyone else.

Oh, and there's nothing worse than being at a light waiting for the car coming towards you to pass so you can turn left. It's even worse when they put their left turn signal on right as their turning! WTF!! What's the point in putting on your goddamn turn signal if you do it right as you're turning!! Turn signals are like telepathy for the road, they let other people know what you're going to do so they don't have to spend extra time on their lunch break waiting for you to pass when you're not planning to because you're just going to turn to the left too!! Grrr.

Maxthon the Great!

Humpty — Thu, 24 Mar 2005 05:11:00 GMT

With all the hype surrounding Firefox you'd think it was the Second Coming or something. I feel it is my sacred duty as a blogger to help balance the forces that seek to tip the balance of browser usage :). Firefox isn't that bad, the thing I don't like about it isn't the browser, but all the hype surrounding it. It's a freakin' browser, that's all! This has got to be the most over-hyped product I've ever come across. There's a quasi-religion around it; you dare not speaketh any evils about Firefox lest the standards zealots come knocking at your door and hang you by your gonads. Maybe I've just been reading too much anti-Microsoft spiel over at the Firefox forums but I just have to say something about the browser state of affairs.

Most people probably don't care what browser they use and most just use whatever's on their computer, which means you're probably using Internet Explorer (IE). Now if you're like me you probably love to try out new things, in this case new browsers. I've used the following browsers at some point in time: Firefox, Mozilla, Netscape 7, Maxthon, IE, SlimBrowser, Opera, and Avant Browser. After using all of them I settled on Maxthon. Wanna know why? Quite simply it combines all the features I'm looking for in a browser.

The main thing I want as a browser of the Web is to be able to view pages, I don't give a shit about standards. As long as a page looks good to me I'm happy. Of the browsers I listed there are really only 3 browser engines among them. As I'm defining it, a browser engine is the part of the browser that actually renders the page for you. It's becoming common for browser engines to be componentized; basically someone can develop a different exterior around the browser engine. You may or may not know that IE is a browser engine, the actual program called IE is itself a shell around the engine; Maxthon, Avant Browser, and SlimBrowser are all shells around IE. Firefox, Mozilla, and Netscape 7 are all shells around the Gecko rendering engine. And Opera is just Opera :). I'm only going through this little lesson about browsers to make a point about why I like Maxthon. Because it is a shell around IE I get all the rendering of IE but with a lot of extra features that Maxthon provides. And for better or worse many sites just look better in IE, so by using Maxthon I get sites that look really good, and the goodies I love.

And the goodies in Maxthon are pretty much what you'd find in Firefox: tabbed browsing, popup blocking, ad blocking, mouse gestures, skins, and extensions. So with Maxthon I get the best that Firefox has to offer but with the benefit that pages that look best in IE render their best. Now you might hear some people exclaim that Firefox is way better than IE in terms of security. Well, maybe. You see, something a lot people fail to mention when it comes to comparing Firefox's security with IE's is that a lot of IE's problems can be simply turned off. Yes, you don't have to switch your entire browser to get a more secure browsing experience, you can just turn off the potentially troublesome parts. I don't know how this has failed to be mentioned. You have a problem with cookies on your computer? Go to the options in IE and block them. Don't like ActiveX, go to the options in IE and turn that off. Some of IE's problems are due to its popularity though. Hackers target the biggest payload, and with IE having about 90% of the browser marketplace hacking IE is profitable. If Firefox ever gets more popular it'll become a more tempting target for hackers too, and much of the rhetoric currently spewed against IE will be applicable to Firefox too.

So in conclusion, use Maxthon, it's cool :).

Terri Schiavo

Humpty — Sun, 20 Mar 2005 21:30:00 GMT

I've been living under a rock the past couple of weeks and never heard of this lady, but I kept seeing the name Schiavo amongst my top stories links on the portal I use to get news, so I figured it was time to check out just who this chick was and why she was making headline news.

Oh my All-That-Is! It's a case of legalized euthanasia, again. Geez, this country, America. Why is Congress getting involved in the fight to keep this lady alive? We have a war in Iraq going on, record deficits, and whatnot but this case about one lady makes headlining news! The Republicans are even convening special Sunday sessions, pledging to come in the minute after midnight on Monday to discuss it, President Bush is cutting short his stay at his Texas home to be able to quickly sign any bill Congress passes in favor of keeping Terri alive, wtf! I wonder how many other families are going through this same situation right now, or have been, but weren't able to get practically the entire country involved.

Now I'm not some big meany I'm just saying our government has more pressing matters to attend to than pushing political agendas. Tom DeLay in particular has been rather active in this, according to what I've read. In case you don't know about him he's been under increasing scrutiny over abuse of power and is taking a lot of heat in Washington. I wouldn't be surprised if he's using this case to soften his image. Politics...

On a more philosophical note, whose right is it to decide what a person can do with his/her own body? The person, the person's spouse, the person's parents? Looking past all the political maneuvering, this is the real issue. See, Terri never said on paper what her wishes were if she were to be in a situation where she was being artificially kept alive for 15 years. So since she didn't state this that opened the door for a lot of fighting between her husband, who contends Terri wouldn't want to be maintained as a vegetable, and her parents, who want to do anything to keep their daughter alive. I can see both sides of the argument and it's a shame, really, Terri isn't coherent enough to say what she feels either way because that would quickly put an end to all this mess.

Personally, I think this is a family matter and it should stay that way. All the special one-time laws being written to keep her alive is crazy man, it's just crazy! Once it left the arena of the family, and politicians came in, this moved from being a family matter and became a political sounding board used to further agendas and careers. This is what taxes go for...