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A Man with a Ph.D. - Richard Gayle's Weblog
 Saturday, September 7, 2002
How to Get Rich: "A young man asked an old rich man how he made his money. The old guy fingered his worsted wool vest and said, "Well, son, it was 1932. The depth of the Great Depression. I was down to my last nickel. I invested that nickel in an apple. I spent the entire day polishing the apple and, at the end of the day, I sold the apple for ten cents. The next morning, I invested those ten cents in two apples. I spent the entire day polishing them and sold them at 5 pm for 20 cents. I continued this system for a month, by the end of which I'd accumulated a fortune of $1.37. Then my wife's father died and left us two million dollars." [From the Desktop of Dane Carlson]
An oldie but a goodie. 10:41:07 PM 
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High-Tech Investment. High-Tech Investment If you read your business pages, you might well think that business purchases of computers are way down. Guess what? They're not. This year it looks like America's businesses are going to buy 13% more in the way of quality-adjusted computers and peripherals than in any previous year. In 2001--the only year in which real investment in computers and peripherals fell--quality-adjusted purchases fell by only 3%. Spending on computers and peripherals has indeed fallen. But that's because computers... [Semi-Daily Journal]
So, it is NOT true that we are really spending less on computers. We are buying MORE computers than before, they just cost less. Moore's law is the main reason high tech is so cut-throat. Everything is faster and cheaper every year. It is a losing Red Queen's race. And it is not helped when companies apply 19th century accounting techniques (i.e. 10-15 year amortization of digital switches that are obsolete in under 5, necessitating massive write-offs) while using 20th century approaches to lining the pockets of the executives. I think it will be quite some time before we come out on the other side of this mess. Just remember Voltaire's quote (see below). 10:26:01 PM
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Hearts and Minds. Jim Henley explains how Yasser Arafat and company permanently and totally lost their battle for the hearts and minds of him, me, and I would bet most Americans in the summer of 1972. Some of my schoolmates were on the airplanes flown to Jordan and blown up in 1970, so Palestinian terrorism seemed very real as we watched the Munich Olympics Massacre on TV... Unqualified Offerings: ...I was twelve years old at the time of the Munich Olympics and I... [Semi-Daily Journal]
A very interesting bit of writing, one that comes close to describing my thoughts. The difficulty I have now is watching the Israelis moving down the path to becoming what the Palestinians are and have been for over 30 years. It is a path that I hope we can turn away from. 9:47:38 PM
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Think Analytically!. Think Analytically! I remember one day during the first Clinton Administration when Joe Stiglitz came into the room to chair a meeting, looked around, noticed that--so far--only economists had shown up, and announced that nobody who did not have a Ph.D. in economics would be allowed to speak at the meeting. All of us cheered and applauded. We did so not because we Clinton-era economists all agreed on all the issues--anybody with half an ear to the ground would know... [Semi-Daily Journal]
I do agree with him about being able to accomplish a lot more when everyone tries to think analytically. Some arenas are more amenable to this, sucha as science, while politcs would be an example of an arena where the ability to think analytically is not a major requirement. Simply finding ways to raise the most money is much more important. 9:34:53 PM
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He Who Controls the Past Controls the Present. I used to think that Paul Krugman was being too shrill when he described the Bush Administration's tactics as "Orwellian." I hereby confess: I was wrong. He was right. The Bully's Pulpit: ...Ari Fleischer's insistence that Mr. Powell and Mr. Cheney have no differences over Iraq seems to have pushed some journalists into facing up, at least briefly, to the obvious.... "The Bush team has always had a credibility problem with some reporters because of their insistence on saying 'up... [Semi-Daily Journal]
While this is not something that is unique to the Bush administration, it does show the general cowardice of the mainstream media and the lack of any backbone when it comes to describing either party's agenda. Its need to show balance means that any loony is put on the same basis as an expert. But, since the media's only reason for existence, at least in the eyes of its owners, is to sell ads for its customers, getting the consumers to buy more, I do not think this will change anytime soon. 9:18:28 PM
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Tuesday, September 3, 2002
FOX is looking for a rich family willing to move from the big city to the boondocks for a reality-TV version of the 1960s sitcom "Green Acres."
Earlier this week, CBS announced plans to turn "The Beverly Hillbillies" sitcom in to a reality show about poor people moving into a mansion. Fox claims to have had its "Green Acres" idea first, according to the trade newspaper Variety.
It's official, television has run out of ideas. Time for the Adam's Family I guess :) [Adam Curry: Adam Curry's Weblog]
Think of the possibilities: Mission Impossible, Gilligan's Island, Bewitched, All in the Family, The Jeffersons. NO need to come up with anything new. Let's make reality TV of old shows. A sign that the media moguls are running very low on creativity. We are about due for something incredible that no one can see until it hits. Like the British invasion. 11:58:36 PM
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Too efficient. Left my cell phone in the room. Checked out. Went back. Got a key to the room. Housekeeping had already cleaned up. Went back to the front desk. Receptionist called housekeeping, they had the phone. Excellent. Housekeeping dispatched someone to deliver the phone to the front desk. The item was bagged and tagged. The tag had my name, address, room rate, and credit card number complete with expiration date. Hrm... [Sam Ruby]
The wonders of modern technology. The horrors of modern technology. All in one tale. 11:54:50 PM
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Monday, September 2, 2002
George Bernard Shaw. "The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it." [Quotes of the Day]
M. Cartmill. "As an adolescent I aspired to lasting fame, I craved factual certainty, and I thirsted for a meaningful vision of human life - so I became a scientist. This is like becoming an archbishop so you can meet girls." [Quotes of the Day]
Benny Hill. "The odds against there being a bomb on a plane are a million to one, and against two bombs a million times a million to one. Next time you fly, cut the odds and take a bomb." [Quotes of the Day]
It took me a little bit to get the last one. Remember it is Benny Hill. A little gallows humor ;-) 11:37:22 PM
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Sunday, September 1, 2002
More Thoughts on Technology and the Division of Labor. Andrew Tobias drinks his coffee, and ponders both the incredible sophistication of our division of labor and the incredible depth of our technological knowledge and collective capital stock. Andrew Tobias - Money and Other Subjects: ...I would like to see someone write book called, quite simply, A Cup of Coffee. It would have a chapter on each element that[base ']s involved [^] or at least as many as could fit (decaffeination? color printing on the sides of coffee cans?). And it... [Semi-Daily Journal]
What a neat idea. So many things are taken for granted because we have no experience of anything else. But so many things are interconnected. Starbucks exists and is successful because of a million little things that make it so. Being able to see the interconnections, to focus on something as simple as getting a cup of coffee, is a fascinating proposition. 10:22:50 PM
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