http://toosigma.com/archive far from normal Sun, 23 Oct 2011 20:40:26 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I've tried many times and many different ways to explain my mild antipathy for Apple software and products - but I think I've finally come up with an analogy that accurately illustrates my complaints. Imagine that you're a boss trying to hire someone to fill a particular job description. You end ... http://toosigma.com/archive/2011-10-23/analogy-for-why-i-dont-like-apple/ During the email debate on Immigration and Consumption taxes, one of my friends invoked Godwin's Law, accusing me of being a fascist. Given that we were all a little intoxicated at the time, and the context in which it was delivered suggested some confusion on exactly what fascism entailed, I ... http://toosigma.com/archive/2011-08-11/response-to-criticism-part-two/ America already no longer produces much of anything, so at the moment all we really have is the ability to tax labor. Maybe I'm a little confused on some of the statistics, and their general meaning - but:The US has one of the highest GDPs in the world - typically second ... http://toosigma.com/archive/2011-08-10/response-to-criticism-immigration-and-consumption-taxes/ Picking through my second-degree sources (i.e. Wikipedia), I find information which breaks down the estimates into three types:Measuring immigration via income tax forms (1040, 1099, or under the table) isn't mentioned, nor would I expect it to be, given that it's undoubtedly a gross underestimation, and would be difficult to ... http://toosigma.com/archive/2011-08-09/more-immigration-and-consumption-taxes/ (this is part of an email debate I had with several friends) According to the best estimates of folks who are paid to do these things (instead of ball-parking based on gut instinct, like we were doing), the approximate number of illegal immigrants (of whatever type) is approximately 12-15 million. This ... http://toosigma.com/archive/2011-08-08/immigration-and-consumption-taxes/ A friend of mine asked:What are the short- and long-term economic benefits and costs associated with our current high federal government budget deficits? Do you think the economic benefits outweigh the economic costs, or not? Why? If we wished to reduce the budget deficit then how would you advocate that ... http://toosigma.com/archive/2011-08-07/an-economics-question/ These two videos are a rendering of the Mandelbox - a 3D representation of the Mandelbrot Set. This is why I don't believe in Intelligent Design - if a math equation two lines long can generate this much complexity and variation, can we really think that the relatively minor differences in ... http://toosigma.com/archive/2011-08-06/math-is-wicked-cool/ I have a fairly broad area of expertise, with a substantial degree of depth in some fields. This has led many friends and some family to suggest that I should sign up for Jeopardy - because, they say, "You'd be sure to win." I typically respond by mumbling some sort ... http://toosigma.com/archive/2011-08-05/why-i-dont-sign-up-for-jeopardy/ While I'll generally agree that Unions fulfilled a useful and necessary purpose in the past, they are currently granted far too much power, often by laws passed at their insistence. A monopoly is a single firm that controls the production and sale of a given good. Good examples are Standard Oil, ... http://toosigma.com/archive/2011-08-04/how-is-a-union-not-a-monopoly/ The future is largely unpredictable - especially in the long run. As an example, physics represents arguably one of the most successful areas of human knowledge and prediction. Given two bodies, with sufficient knowledge of initial conditions, we can determine their exact conditions at any point in time from now ... http://toosigma.com/archive/2011-08-03/my-investing-strategy-and-assumptions/