News Of The Day, and the stuff from yesterday that's still relevant
I'll try a slightly different format for this post; it's closer to something that I've wanted to set up for a while, but haven't found the time to do, yet. So, I'll list the titles first, then do the analysis in the later part of the post.
Dollar down (source), jobs up (source), but US media playing job growth as disappointing
US military judges can use proof admitted under torture in cases (source), but the media needs to give a definition of "torture", and clarify the difference between mental torture (sleep deprivation, threats, various chemicals) and physical torture (stuff that physically harms people, like removing limbs)
Microsoft notes that blogging exists (source), doesn't realize that blogging is non-profit or, in many cases, an expense with no hope of profit.
1: Dollar down (source), jobs up (source), but US media playing job growth as disappointing.
Dollar's fall is not new or unexpected. A drop below 1.35 or 1.38 euros might get Europe a bit worried, as it may allow some deeper cuts into exports, and overvalue the euro even more.
Now, the jobs report. I believe that, just a few days ago, The Economist said that about 130,000 jobs were expected to be created, but this number is from my memory, and subject to inaccuracy. However, the 483,000 new jobs were offset by a large increase in the US labor force, of about 439,000. The growth of the labor force over the last two months seems, to me, rather higher than normal. Labor force growth averaged about 100,000 per month over the last 8 or so years, but the growth per month deviates quite a lot from that average.
2: US military judges can use proof admitted under torture in cases (source).
The most important detail in this is the definition of "torture". The US is able to use sleep deprivation, reversing day and night cycles (really messes with someone's head if the timing of days and nights becomes erratic), and similar stuff to persuade someone to talk. Most Americans think of torture as a non-surgical removal of limbs, or other very painful things.
Now, the mental tricks, in my opinion, should be allowed. You can break down a person's mental resistance by keeping them awake for a few days at a time. These 'tortures' usually are claimed to have no long-term effects on the 'tortured'. To the best of my knowledge, these methods can be very effective for getting accurate information from someone who doesn't want to talk. And, if a person isn't able to provide anything after the US messes with their head a bit, there is a pretty good chance that the person may not know anything (they are innocent). However, using torture to determine if someone is innocent or guilty is a very bad idea. And, if someone is innocent, release him with an apology and enough money to make them like the US again. Sucks to release an innocent person who hates you so much that he joins the terror cells that a bunkmate talked about. Most people probably don't know what "mental torture" actually is, and act as though it is close to harmless, when it is quite the opposite. From what I know, there are two goals to mental torture: to break down a person's resistance, or to make them fear that they will be physically tortured. Both happen to be cruel, and can cause Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder of a rather unique form.
Physical pain shouldn't be used, for many reasons. First, it results in notoriously bad confessions, because anyone will confess to anything if you hurt them enough. Second, there is no guarantee that information from terrorists will be accurate, because the terrorist can give BS information to stop the torture, and never reveal anything that he actually knows. Also, there aren’t really any indications that someone may be innocent from this method (of course, people who have a chance of being innocent shouldn't be subject to torture). Finally, the US shouldn't lower itself to physical torture, and shouldn't use physical torture on anyone, because it is only effective as a form of punishment.
In order for this ruling to mean anything, or to be justifiable/unjustifiable, torture must be defined. The media has done a shameful job by not giving any hint as to what torture means. Let me list some things that the US allows:
1: forcing people to stand for long periods of time, maybe about 18 hours, possibly several times more than that, or a fraction of it. Doesn't sound like "torture", does it? Think again. You can be forced to 'stand' in several different types of positions that really start to hurt after a few hours. For example, one Iraqi volleyball player was forced to stand in a proscribed position for about three days; several years after that torture, he can not stand for more than 15 minutes at a time. Oh yeah, and the shackles have left permanent imprints in his skin, because his muscles expanded against the metal so much.
2: sleep deprivation. After several days, the victim can develop some real mental problems. The torture isn't entirely that he can't sleep, but rather it's that he is being prevented from sleeping by someone whom he identifies as the "torturer". It's a big difference.
3: put a bag over someone's head and let them sit for a few days. I could also call this "letting paranoia sink in", as that's a far better description. If you don't know where you are, what angry people are around you, or what they intend to do to you, you might get quite paranoid.
Time to end this segment, it's getting a bit too depressing.
3: Microsoft notes that blogging exists (source). Microsoft doesn't realize that bloggers will attempt to circumvent the filter. It also doesn't realize that bloggers don't like even the possibility of censorship. Finally, Microsoft doesn't realize that bloggers aren’t eager to work with a company that will make a buck whenever possible; this means that Microsoft may attempt to put advertisements on all the blogs that it hosts.
This might have been easier if Microsoft bought MovableType, LiveJournal, or something similar. That way, Microsoft could offer something that already works. However, Microsoft decided to launch something that makes all blogs look exactly like www.msn.com, but with slightly different content.
When I see the blogs that MSN is publishing, I can describe the layout and graphics in only one way: 1995. Everything looks like it was made in 1995. Don't believe me? Go here and here, and this looks only slightly better. I'm not insulting the blogs I just linked to, I picked them at random, but I just needed something to link to (the actual content on the Cambodia blog actually looks interesting, I'll check it for updates in the future. Justin's pictures are quite nice, also. Good work to you two bloggers, and Microsoft should be ashamed of itself). The "stuff that matters" blog has a Windows Media Player theme, it seems.
Let me tell Microsoft what to do:
1: those little | lines between items are no longer cool. They never were cool, to be honest, but now they are getting to annoy people. Either make the entire box graphic, or don't make it at all.
2: trash the colors. Blue with a hint of green and gray doesn't work, and it never will. Blue on white background is just as bad. If you have a white background, you use a bold, dark gray text. A sharp black-white contrast is horrible on many CRT monitors, and also on my LCD monitor (MAG's greatest flaw seems to be that it is too bright, but this is adjustable). A webpage that is entirely shades of blue is an eyesore, and more colors are needed. I think Blogger did a nice job when designing pages (they need some modifications to accommodate a respectable width, though), so copy Blogger if you must.
3: redo the sidebars. Here's what you need to include: profile box, links box 1, links box 2, links box 3, archive, and a box with all the MSN Home/shopping/hotmail stuff. People want to put all the MSN stuff in as rarely looked a place as possible, so let them, or else they will abuse the system to cover MSN logos or ignore your blog hosting completely. The "music" box thing is utterly useless, and unexplainable. Sidebars are auxiliary items, a reader should be focused on the content of the website. Content is in the main column, always.
4: there is a tag in html called "center", and it centers things on the computer screen. Use it.
5: If you actually want to be better than blogger, design pages so they have a column on the left and right, and the main content in the center with an adjustable width. Have maybe 50 to 60 pixels of a neutral background color outside the columns as padding (like the gray on my webpage, thanks to Blogger). This way, someone with a wide computer screen will see the webpage take up the entire screen, and someone with really low resolution will see everything on the webpage even though the main column is very thin. This setup is probably the most desired template for a blog, and it is unexplainably rare.
6: add some new graphics that don't remind people of some other Microsoft product. In fact, maybe you should create an array of graphics that a person can choose from when creating their blog. For example, you can use the default title image (note: add a title image) with the background and column images that would normally go on another blog. If you do this, you will have a good advantage that Blogger doesn't, and I don't honestly think that it would be so difficult for Microsoft.
7: everything that says MSN or .NET Passport, delete it. It's the user's blog, not MSN's or Microsoft's. Either drop the images, or let the user move it wherever they want.
8: get rid of that "report abuse" link. Replace all the Microsoft/MSN Legal stuff and the "Help" button with a single blogger-friendly link to a page that Microsoft is happy with. The only "abuse" that I know of in the blogging world is physical threats. Face it, you have to make your system susceptible to what Microsoft thinks of as "abuse", because bloggers don't want to have limits. I don't think that "abuse" would actually cost Microsoft much, either.
9: release a legal statement claiming that you will not interfere with any blog or the content thereof unless serious legal action is verified beyond the reasonable doubt. Often, an ISP will take a website down without verifying a claim that the website included some copyrighted material (usually a picture or graphic image, but not always), thus allowing a person who disagrees with the content of a website to lie to the ISP and have the website removed from the internet. Scientologists have been known to use this method. If the content on a website is enough to get the blogger arrested, then you can take the blog down. Otherwise, leave it up, and take stupid whiners to court if you have to. The best way to make bloggers happy is to make them feel protected, whether it's from viruses, hacking, or legal challenges.
Actually, protecting bloggers from hackers and legal challenges is so important that it deserves its own line.
10: stop copyrighting everything. You've just copyrighted the words "space", "gleam", "contact card", and all that other stuff. If a word in the middle of a sentence is capitalized, and you don't think it's a name (like "Bill" or "France"), then it refers to some type of product. The word might not actually be copyrighted, but just stop capitalizing every word that you can throw into a product's or feature's title.
Do those things, and you will have a product worth using. Something isn't worth using just because it's free; especially if better free versions are around. I wish I could charge consulting fees.
Dollar down (source), jobs up (source), but US media playing job growth as disappointing
US military judges can use proof admitted under torture in cases (source), but the media needs to give a definition of "torture", and clarify the difference between mental torture (sleep deprivation, threats, various chemicals) and physical torture (stuff that physically harms people, like removing limbs)
Microsoft notes that blogging exists (source), doesn't realize that blogging is non-profit or, in many cases, an expense with no hope of profit.
1: Dollar down (source), jobs up (source), but US media playing job growth as disappointing.
The dollar crumbled to $1.3458 per euro , according to Reuters data, a decline of nearly 1.4 percent and a new record low. It also fell more than 1 percent against other currencies.
It was the dollar's biggest fall against the euro since early August and the eighth time in the last nine sessions that the dollar has made a new low against the euro.
Employers added 112,000 workers to their payrolls in November, the government said Friday in a disappointing employment report for the holiday season.
[…]
a separate survey of the job market, conducted by a Census Bureau poll of 60,000 households, presented a brighter picture. It showed 483,000 jobs were created in November, causing the national unemployment rate to drop from 5.5 to 5.4 percent.
Dollar's fall is not new or unexpected. A drop below 1.35 or 1.38 euros might get Europe a bit worried, as it may allow some deeper cuts into exports, and overvalue the euro even more.
Now, the jobs report. I believe that, just a few days ago, The Economist said that about 130,000 jobs were expected to be created, but this number is from my memory, and subject to inaccuracy. However, the 483,000 new jobs were offset by a large increase in the US labor force, of about 439,000. The growth of the labor force over the last two months seems, to me, rather higher than normal. Labor force growth averaged about 100,000 per month over the last 8 or so years, but the growth per month deviates quite a lot from that average.
2: US military judges can use proof admitted under torture in cases (source).
The most important detail in this is the definition of "torture". The US is able to use sleep deprivation, reversing day and night cycles (really messes with someone's head if the timing of days and nights becomes erratic), and similar stuff to persuade someone to talk. Most Americans think of torture as a non-surgical removal of limbs, or other very painful things.
Now, the mental tricks, in my opinion, should be allowed. You can break down a person's mental resistance by keeping them awake for a few days at a time. These 'tortures' usually are claimed to have no long-term effects on the 'tortured'. To the best of my knowledge, these methods can be very effective for getting accurate information from someone who doesn't want to talk. And, if a person isn't able to provide anything after the US messes with their head a bit, there is a pretty good chance that the person may not know anything (they are innocent). However, using torture to determine if someone is innocent or guilty is a very bad idea. And, if someone is innocent, release him with an apology and enough money to make them like the US again. Sucks to release an innocent person who hates you so much that he joins the terror cells that a bunkmate talked about. Most people probably don't know what "mental torture" actually is, and act as though it is close to harmless, when it is quite the opposite. From what I know, there are two goals to mental torture: to break down a person's resistance, or to make them fear that they will be physically tortured. Both happen to be cruel, and can cause Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder of a rather unique form.
Physical pain shouldn't be used, for many reasons. First, it results in notoriously bad confessions, because anyone will confess to anything if you hurt them enough. Second, there is no guarantee that information from terrorists will be accurate, because the terrorist can give BS information to stop the torture, and never reveal anything that he actually knows. Also, there aren’t really any indications that someone may be innocent from this method (of course, people who have a chance of being innocent shouldn't be subject to torture). Finally, the US shouldn't lower itself to physical torture, and shouldn't use physical torture on anyone, because it is only effective as a form of punishment.
In order for this ruling to mean anything, or to be justifiable/unjustifiable, torture must be defined. The media has done a shameful job by not giving any hint as to what torture means. Let me list some things that the US allows:
1: forcing people to stand for long periods of time, maybe about 18 hours, possibly several times more than that, or a fraction of it. Doesn't sound like "torture", does it? Think again. You can be forced to 'stand' in several different types of positions that really start to hurt after a few hours. For example, one Iraqi volleyball player was forced to stand in a proscribed position for about three days; several years after that torture, he can not stand for more than 15 minutes at a time. Oh yeah, and the shackles have left permanent imprints in his skin, because his muscles expanded against the metal so much.
2: sleep deprivation. After several days, the victim can develop some real mental problems. The torture isn't entirely that he can't sleep, but rather it's that he is being prevented from sleeping by someone whom he identifies as the "torturer". It's a big difference.
3: put a bag over someone's head and let them sit for a few days. I could also call this "letting paranoia sink in", as that's a far better description. If you don't know where you are, what angry people are around you, or what they intend to do to you, you might get quite paranoid.
Time to end this segment, it's getting a bit too depressing.
3: Microsoft notes that blogging exists (source). Microsoft doesn't realize that bloggers will attempt to circumvent the filter. It also doesn't realize that bloggers don't like even the possibility of censorship. Finally, Microsoft doesn't realize that bloggers aren’t eager to work with a company that will make a buck whenever possible; this means that Microsoft may attempt to put advertisements on all the blogs that it hosts.
This might have been easier if Microsoft bought MovableType, LiveJournal, or something similar. That way, Microsoft could offer something that already works. However, Microsoft decided to launch something that makes all blogs look exactly like www.msn.com, but with slightly different content.
When I see the blogs that MSN is publishing, I can describe the layout and graphics in only one way: 1995. Everything looks like it was made in 1995. Don't believe me? Go here and here, and this looks only slightly better. I'm not insulting the blogs I just linked to, I picked them at random, but I just needed something to link to (the actual content on the Cambodia blog actually looks interesting, I'll check it for updates in the future. Justin's pictures are quite nice, also. Good work to you two bloggers, and Microsoft should be ashamed of itself). The "stuff that matters" blog has a Windows Media Player theme, it seems.
Let me tell Microsoft what to do:
1: those little | lines between items are no longer cool. They never were cool, to be honest, but now they are getting to annoy people. Either make the entire box graphic, or don't make it at all.
2: trash the colors. Blue with a hint of green and gray doesn't work, and it never will. Blue on white background is just as bad. If you have a white background, you use a bold, dark gray text. A sharp black-white contrast is horrible on many CRT monitors, and also on my LCD monitor (MAG's greatest flaw seems to be that it is too bright, but this is adjustable). A webpage that is entirely shades of blue is an eyesore, and more colors are needed. I think Blogger did a nice job when designing pages (they need some modifications to accommodate a respectable width, though), so copy Blogger if you must.
3: redo the sidebars. Here's what you need to include: profile box, links box 1, links box 2, links box 3, archive, and a box with all the MSN Home/shopping/hotmail stuff. People want to put all the MSN stuff in as rarely looked a place as possible, so let them, or else they will abuse the system to cover MSN logos or ignore your blog hosting completely. The "music" box thing is utterly useless, and unexplainable. Sidebars are auxiliary items, a reader should be focused on the content of the website. Content is in the main column, always.
4: there is a tag in html called "center", and it centers things on the computer screen. Use it.
5: If you actually want to be better than blogger, design pages so they have a column on the left and right, and the main content in the center with an adjustable width. Have maybe 50 to 60 pixels of a neutral background color outside the columns as padding (like the gray on my webpage, thanks to Blogger). This way, someone with a wide computer screen will see the webpage take up the entire screen, and someone with really low resolution will see everything on the webpage even though the main column is very thin. This setup is probably the most desired template for a blog, and it is unexplainably rare.
6: add some new graphics that don't remind people of some other Microsoft product. In fact, maybe you should create an array of graphics that a person can choose from when creating their blog. For example, you can use the default title image (note: add a title image) with the background and column images that would normally go on another blog. If you do this, you will have a good advantage that Blogger doesn't, and I don't honestly think that it would be so difficult for Microsoft.
7: everything that says MSN or .NET Passport, delete it. It's the user's blog, not MSN's or Microsoft's. Either drop the images, or let the user move it wherever they want.
8: get rid of that "report abuse" link. Replace all the Microsoft/MSN Legal stuff and the "Help" button with a single blogger-friendly link to a page that Microsoft is happy with. The only "abuse" that I know of in the blogging world is physical threats. Face it, you have to make your system susceptible to what Microsoft thinks of as "abuse", because bloggers don't want to have limits. I don't think that "abuse" would actually cost Microsoft much, either.
9: release a legal statement claiming that you will not interfere with any blog or the content thereof unless serious legal action is verified beyond the reasonable doubt. Often, an ISP will take a website down without verifying a claim that the website included some copyrighted material (usually a picture or graphic image, but not always), thus allowing a person who disagrees with the content of a website to lie to the ISP and have the website removed from the internet. Scientologists have been known to use this method. If the content on a website is enough to get the blogger arrested, then you can take the blog down. Otherwise, leave it up, and take stupid whiners to court if you have to. The best way to make bloggers happy is to make them feel protected, whether it's from viruses, hacking, or legal challenges.
Actually, protecting bloggers from hackers and legal challenges is so important that it deserves its own line.
10: stop copyrighting everything. You've just copyrighted the words "space", "gleam", "contact card", and all that other stuff. If a word in the middle of a sentence is capitalized, and you don't think it's a name (like "Bill" or "France"), then it refers to some type of product. The word might not actually be copyrighted, but just stop capitalizing every word that you can throw into a product's or feature's title.
Do those things, and you will have a product worth using. Something isn't worth using just because it's free; especially if better free versions are around. I wish I could charge consulting fees.
posted by Chris at
10:37 PM
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