Today my car wouldn't start. I guessed the battery died.
I try to use Lyft. Their app says it is a bad connection and so it won't work (using iPhone on Sprint in Charlotte, NC - the 17th largest city in the USA). Sad but ok, whatever, deal with it. Ok try my iPad mini with ATT. Lyft connects and doesn't let me use it requires putting in a phone number before it will do anything so that I can get pin and give it to them. Ok, give them the number. Nothing ever comes from them.
Ok try Uber on iPhone. Uber asked for permission to spy all the time (not just when you are using Uber. Decline that intrusion. Now it can't find my current location. So I type it in. It finds it. Uber says it isn't available where I am and only offers their "luxury" options.
Now I could go directly to work but I have a mover scheduled to unload my large moving items at my new house this afternoon. And my dead car is blocking the garage (and there is a fairly steep hill up to the house) so backing the truck to the garage seems like a much better option so I want to move my car out of the way before they arrive (it is parked front in so jump starting it would be very hard I figure).
I select the closest Walmart (that I went to the night before 3 miles away or so). Driver shows up in the most beat up car I have ever been picked up with by Uber or Lyft (including traveling around SE Asia (where actually they were always very new and clean). This is Uber's luxury option remember. They then drive me to some other Walmart at least twice as far away.
I get a trickle charger (to charge my car battery) at Walmart and am back on my way. I use my iPhone to request Lyft and they show up. The signal strength is actually good. Now I am late to my 3rd day onsite at a new long term client. So I ask the driver to wait and let me take 5 minutes to setup the trickle charger and then he can take me to work. He asks me to add the new leg to the Lyft app. I tell him it might not work since my Sprint signal is so bad usually and I try and it fails. He says he will wait but you can tell he isn't thrilled with it. I guess that Lyft has a bad process to deal with situations like mine (or maybe he just wasn't certain how it would work).
I try calling someone at work using my iPad mini (while the ATT signal is bad, Sprint is much worse) and it connects but constantly breaks up.
But he says he will wait. I hurry up and set things up and am going out the door in maybe 3 minutes and I see him driving away. I try Lyft again and it fails again (on both phones just like earlier).
Then I try Uber and decide to give them my address again and they come pick me up. I type in the wrong address (a leading 4 instead of a leading 1, sigh). It doesn't seem we are going the right way, I figure that out and ask what address we are going to... I am amazing able to update the address in the Uber app (the connection barely works). The driver and car were nice for this trip.
Now I am late to work but am able to put in a partial days work then have to leave to meet the mover. My workplace is one of these huge building with big delays for visitors checking in... I have no idea how you can get Uber or a taxi or anything or any idea who you can ask (those I did ask have no idea either). So I decide to walk out (the equivalent of a few blocks to a sensible public street. I actually have 4 bars on 3G on Sprint (the iPhone) which is the best I have seen yet in Charlotte. I try to use the iPhone Lyft app. Won't connect due to bad connectivity. Seems much more likely it is some caching bug but whatever it doesn't work. And of course the other Lyft app (on the other device) won't let me use it (due to it not sending my pin number). So I open up Uber on my iPhone (which as with other other times today Lyft said it couldn't work due to bad connectivity the Uber app on the same phone worked fine. But now the wonderful Uber app (that I didn't allow to continuously spy) has decided that the only place I can be picked up is my house that I entered the first time. They won't let me change it.
So I have now use 3 of the 4 ride hailing options I have at hand. So I try my 4th and final option, the Uber app with full spying privileges and thankfully it works. And the can is new and clean and the driver is professional.
I get home go look at my car. The charger is off. I think wow that is pretty good I didn't think it would be finished. Put everything away and try to start the car and nothing. I put everything back the way it is and it all lights up like it is fine and charging and in about 15 seconds turns off. It must not like something, I try it a couple more times and finally reach a state where it won't turn off.
Of course when the mover arrives I the car won't start. Actually we tried to back it up the driveway some but it was too steep and couldn't make it anyway.
The modern convinces really did help in many ways (I am still hoping the trickle charger will help, though as I write this it is still questionable). The battery is about 10 months old. But while it is great to have cell phones and apps to help us when we are stuck it is very annoying to have such bad connectivity in the 19th largest city in the USA and such lame usability failure in the Uber and Lyft apps. And it is frustrating to have to deal with your own lameness that likely caused the battery to die (I left the lights on in the car - the garage had lights on so I didn't register the car lights were no going off...) and putting in the wrong address...
And this is one of what seem like several such episodes each day for the last few weeks. I agreed to move states within about 10 days to a full time job on site with a client. I didn't really have a desire to do so but I have worked for the company as an offsite consultant for years and understood the situation they were in where I really was the best option and it was fairly important. So far it has been a struggle. I hope soon I will have passed through this spate of frustrations. If I had this one episode happen some week it wouldn't bug me much. But day after day of multiple such things is wearing me down.
And since I have no decent internet connection I can't even Netflix and chill :-(
Wednesday, June 27, 2018
Friday, May 25, 2018
More Bad Ux by Google and the Value of RSS Feeds to Avoid Bad UX Practices
These are my slighted edited comments on the Vlogbrothers video by Hank Green on the very bad User Experience of YouTube Subscriptions that Google made even worse recently (I take it that is what happened, I avoid that by using RSS feeds to access the content I want to view).
Google has been really bad at UX (user experience) for a long time. I use RSS feeds to manage the content I want to enjoy and it works great (for blogs and You Tube and podcasts). Thankfully Google hasn't broken this yet (though given their track record in the last 10 years it would not surprise me if they do at some point).
Of course it will be easy for creators to generate their own RSS feed for their videos if Google does break it. I created several feeds on my personal site for (selected blog posts by John Hunter and a time travel feed for my blog posts*).
By the way Hank, it would be great if you would create RSS feeds that let me do things like subscribe to specific courses in crash course. Frankly, I have long thought it is pretty lame that this doesn't exist. This link to Crash Course literature videos for example should have an RSS feed of all the videos. Given Google's lame Ux it isn't so amazing that it is missing an RSS feed. But it is super easy to create a RSS feed from some [whatever your corporate overload name is - nerdfighters or ?] that let people easily have feeds that have good Ux and give them the granularity to pick what they want to add to an RSS reader.
As you mentioned in your video, while many users may have failed to take advantage of RSS readers, many power users have. So cater to them. Also encourage others to use this extremely useful tool which does many great things including shielding your from the extremely bad Ux practices of many of the huge internet giants.
* the Curious Cat time travel feed adds a new post each day using posts from my blogging history (which stretches back 14 years now).
Related: Curious Cat Travel YouTube channel - Filter Out Links to Lame Websites on Reddit - Getting Around Bad Web Page Layouts - Poor Web Site User Experience (Ux) for Investing Data
Google has been really bad at UX (user experience) for a long time. I use RSS feeds to manage the content I want to enjoy and it works great (for blogs and You Tube and podcasts). Thankfully Google hasn't broken this yet (though given their track record in the last 10 years it would not surprise me if they do at some point).
Of course it will be easy for creators to generate their own RSS feed for their videos if Google does break it. I created several feeds on my personal site for (selected blog posts by John Hunter and a time travel feed for my blog posts*).
By the way Hank, it would be great if you would create RSS feeds that let me do things like subscribe to specific courses in crash course. Frankly, I have long thought it is pretty lame that this doesn't exist. This link to Crash Course literature videos for example should have an RSS feed of all the videos. Given Google's lame Ux it isn't so amazing that it is missing an RSS feed. But it is super easy to create a RSS feed from some [whatever your corporate overload name is - nerdfighters or ?] that let people easily have feeds that have good Ux and give them the granularity to pick what they want to add to an RSS reader.
As you mentioned in your video, while many users may have failed to take advantage of RSS readers, many power users have. So cater to them. Also encourage others to use this extremely useful tool which does many great things including shielding your from the extremely bad Ux practices of many of the huge internet giants.
* the Curious Cat time travel feed adds a new post each day using posts from my blogging history (which stretches back 14 years now).
Related: Curious Cat Travel YouTube channel - Filter Out Links to Lame Websites on Reddit - Getting Around Bad Web Page Layouts - Poor Web Site User Experience (Ux) for Investing Data
Friday, February 16, 2018
Critical Thinking is Needed to Counter Propaganda
As everyone expected the continuing investigation by the US Justice Department has further detailed the attempts by Russians to spread propaganda and influence the USA election. I find it amazing that the Trump Administration and many Republican representatives have continually attempted to discredit the attempts to investigate the actions taken by Russians to interfere in the USA election.
As with any attempts to manipulate people through propaganda, misinformation and distraction the solution is critical thinking and transparency.
The attempts by talking heads to turn the focus to the paper and pencil used (or the which particular websites were) to spread the misinformation and propaganda should be a transparent attempt to misdirect our next steps. What is needed is for this investigation to continue and expand. And I really don't understand how political leaders can be cooperating with attempts to block investigations into the attempts to subvert democracy by foreign actors.
Acting as though Facebook or Twitter are the focus is about as useful as saying text and spoken language are responsible. Sure there is some amount of looking at the lack of transparency of any speech (and who is hiding behind the lack of transparency). And to some extent that specific risk (people pretending to be something other than what they are) is an issue on various webs sites. But the issue isn't the website it is the lack of transparency and that lack of transparency is what needs to be addressed (whether it is on Twitter or using front interest groups to hide the identity of those special interests, or using advocacy groups to run ads on TV without disclosing clearly who is funding those organizations, etc.).
Photo of the White House in Washington, DC
There is a great deal of history of Russian money being used to finance Donald Trump's businesses. Donald Trump's refusal to provide transparency about that should have been enough to keep people from voting for him to be President but it was not. Given that history and the evidence that has been known to our political representatives for more than a year it is unconscionable that many of them have not demanded investigation into these very deep ties and the deep ties to others in the administration (such as Jared Kushner).
That Russians used propaganda and misinformation to attempt to get voters to vote for Trump is important. But the main thing that should have prevented those attempts is sensible critical thinking. The best defense against propaganda is critical thinking and transparency. If the population is trained and accepts being lead to conclusions with obvious propaganda it doesn't matter if you shut off one path for propaganda, others will emerge.
What you need to do is create an expectation of reasoned debate. Sadly the USA has done a very poor job of this. We have allowed politicians get away with obviously false claims. We have promoted not critical thinking but the unthinking following of propaganda.
Until we greatly increase the respect for critical thought and debate we are in trouble. It doesn't matter much what form those seeking to use propaganda use to manipulate people what matters is how susceptible a large number of people are to propaganda.
All talking heads that are interested in democracy and patriotism should be calling on the exploration and the making visible the ties between those with large financial ties to Russia and the attempts to block and weaken efforts to investigate the meddling in our election. My guess is we will instead see the continued attempts oto hindering investigations into making visible what should be made transparent.
On an somewhat related and important matter, for at least 10 years the extremely poor computer security of the voting process has been noted by computer experts and ignored by our governments (federal, state and local). It doesn't appear that direct hacking of votes took place in the last election. The continued failure to adopt secure voting methods is a disgrace. And it seems we may well continue to neglect this matter until an election is impacted with direct evidence of large scale abuse. This is obviously an extremely poor way to manage a process that is critical to a functioning democracy.
Related: Preaching False Ideas to Men Known to be Idiots - The USA Should be Ashamed of Who We have Elected - The People We Elect Recently Are Dramatically Falling Us - When You See the Problem as Capitalism Instead of Corruption You Seek to Solve the Wrong Problem - Money Is Corrupting Our Political Process
As with any attempts to manipulate people through propaganda, misinformation and distraction the solution is critical thinking and transparency.
The attempts by talking heads to turn the focus to the paper and pencil used (or the which particular websites were) to spread the misinformation and propaganda should be a transparent attempt to misdirect our next steps. What is needed is for this investigation to continue and expand. And I really don't understand how political leaders can be cooperating with attempts to block investigations into the attempts to subvert democracy by foreign actors.
Acting as though Facebook or Twitter are the focus is about as useful as saying text and spoken language are responsible. Sure there is some amount of looking at the lack of transparency of any speech (and who is hiding behind the lack of transparency). And to some extent that specific risk (people pretending to be something other than what they are) is an issue on various webs sites. But the issue isn't the website it is the lack of transparency and that lack of transparency is what needs to be addressed (whether it is on Twitter or using front interest groups to hide the identity of those special interests, or using advocacy groups to run ads on TV without disclosing clearly who is funding those organizations, etc.).
Photo of the White House in Washington, DC
There is a great deal of history of Russian money being used to finance Donald Trump's businesses. Donald Trump's refusal to provide transparency about that should have been enough to keep people from voting for him to be President but it was not. Given that history and the evidence that has been known to our political representatives for more than a year it is unconscionable that many of them have not demanded investigation into these very deep ties and the deep ties to others in the administration (such as Jared Kushner).
That Russians used propaganda and misinformation to attempt to get voters to vote for Trump is important. But the main thing that should have prevented those attempts is sensible critical thinking. The best defense against propaganda is critical thinking and transparency. If the population is trained and accepts being lead to conclusions with obvious propaganda it doesn't matter if you shut off one path for propaganda, others will emerge.
What you need to do is create an expectation of reasoned debate. Sadly the USA has done a very poor job of this. We have allowed politicians get away with obviously false claims. We have promoted not critical thinking but the unthinking following of propaganda.
Until we greatly increase the respect for critical thought and debate we are in trouble. It doesn't matter much what form those seeking to use propaganda use to manipulate people what matters is how susceptible a large number of people are to propaganda.
All talking heads that are interested in democracy and patriotism should be calling on the exploration and the making visible the ties between those with large financial ties to Russia and the attempts to block and weaken efforts to investigate the meddling in our election. My guess is we will instead see the continued attempts oto hindering investigations into making visible what should be made transparent.
On an somewhat related and important matter, for at least 10 years the extremely poor computer security of the voting process has been noted by computer experts and ignored by our governments (federal, state and local). It doesn't appear that direct hacking of votes took place in the last election. The continued failure to adopt secure voting methods is a disgrace. And it seems we may well continue to neglect this matter until an election is impacted with direct evidence of large scale abuse. This is obviously an extremely poor way to manage a process that is critical to a functioning democracy.
Related: Preaching False Ideas to Men Known to be Idiots - The USA Should be Ashamed of Who We have Elected - The People We Elect Recently Are Dramatically Falling Us - When You See the Problem as Capitalism Instead of Corruption You Seek to Solve the Wrong Problem - Money Is Corrupting Our Political Process
Tuesday, July 18, 2017
Follow me on Twitter: @aJohnHunter
Follow me on Twitter @aJohnHunter
Also see:
I provide a resource showing how find links to me elsewhere online, for those that are interested.
Also see:
- RSS feed for select John Hunter blog posts
- Reddit: /u/curiouscat
- Curious Cat Travel videos
- John Hunter on Google+
I provide a resource showing how find links to me elsewhere online, for those that are interested.
Saturday, July 15, 2017
Businesses Misusing Required Private Information
It should be the law that if you are required to provide private information such as phone number, address etc. to a business that they cannot use that information without expressed written permission.
So if a financial institution requires a physical address due to the laws our politicians have passed they shouldn't be allowed to then use that to send you junk email, sell your name and address to others to send you junk mail, etc.. If they have a legal requirement to send you something, fine.
I had a large financial institution send junk mail and then refuse to not send junk mail without a phone call from me. I can buy and sell stocks online, I can send big amounts of money to and from the account online, but I can't stop them from misusing my private information without calling them.
Such institutions also call me to marketing various services (though usually there is some way to stop them doing so if you can figure out where they have hidden the process to stop them from misusing your private information). Again they should be required to separately collect private information for marketing efforts (or to sell it to others...).
It is unacceptable we are required to provide private information and then need to jump through hoops to not have it misused. They should have to request the information specifically for their own marketing and other purposes. They should not be able to misuse legally required private information. They should have to collect private information from you explicitly for such purposes.
So if a financial institution requires a physical address due to the laws our politicians have passed they shouldn't be allowed to then use that to send you junk email, sell your name and address to others to send you junk mail, etc.. If they have a legal requirement to send you something, fine.
I had a large financial institution send junk mail and then refuse to not send junk mail without a phone call from me. I can buy and sell stocks online, I can send big amounts of money to and from the account online, but I can't stop them from misusing my private information without calling them.
Such institutions also call me to marketing various services (though usually there is some way to stop them doing so if you can figure out where they have hidden the process to stop them from misusing your private information). Again they should be required to separately collect private information for marketing efforts (or to sell it to others...).
It is unacceptable we are required to provide private information and then need to jump through hoops to not have it misused. They should have to request the information specifically for their own marketing and other purposes. They should not be able to misuse legally required private information. They should have to collect private information from you explicitly for such purposes.
Sunday, July 02, 2017
Filter Out Links to Lame Websites on Reddit
The Reddit Enhancement Suite is a great browser extension to enhance Reddit browsing. One of the very useful features is the ability to filter out all the links from sites that are not worth your time. I use it to filter out links to Twitter in several subreddits and for "newspapers" that post clickbait and misleading content (several UK "newspapers). I also use it to filter out links to sites with bad practices such as autoplay videos or popups.
Follow this link to add a filter. I have found it hard to locate by browsing but at the current time it is found under the [SubReddit] section and then [filteReddit]. Hopefully they keep the url and don't force you to try and figure out where it has moved to (if you are browsing this after they make updates to the software).
I first discovered this since /r/CollegeBasketball was full of all sorts of useless Twitter links. Removing them made the subreddit much better for me.
And now using it to remove the poor usability sites and to eliminate all the clickbait "newspapers" makes it much better. Having to try and remember which UK "news" sites were even as reliable as a random middle school kid was too complicated. I knew The Guardian and BBC were pretty good but sorting through the links from all the others was wasting my time. Now they no longer clutter up my Reddit browsing.
The image shows the options which include removing matching content from specific subreddits, removing it from everywhere and also removing it everywhere except specific subreddits (which I can imagine is occasionally useful - I put in an example just to show how it works).
I am adding more sites to improve my experience with Reddit and figured I would take the opportunity to share this useful feature in this blog post.
Related: Most Popular Links on Management Sub-Reddit in 2016 - Curious Cat List of Super Useful Websites (2012) - Curious Cat Interesting Web Sites to Browse
Follow this link to add a filter. I have found it hard to locate by browsing but at the current time it is found under the [SubReddit] section and then [filteReddit]. Hopefully they keep the url and don't force you to try and figure out where it has moved to (if you are browsing this after they make updates to the software).
I first discovered this since /r/CollegeBasketball was full of all sorts of useless Twitter links. Removing them made the subreddit much better for me.
And now using it to remove the poor usability sites and to eliminate all the clickbait "newspapers" makes it much better. Having to try and remember which UK "news" sites were even as reliable as a random middle school kid was too complicated. I knew The Guardian and BBC were pretty good but sorting through the links from all the others was wasting my time. Now they no longer clutter up my Reddit browsing.
The image shows the options which include removing matching content from specific subreddits, removing it from everywhere and also removing it everywhere except specific subreddits (which I can imagine is occasionally useful - I put in an example just to show how it works).
I am adding more sites to improve my experience with Reddit and figured I would take the opportunity to share this useful feature in this blog post.
Related: Most Popular Links on Management Sub-Reddit in 2016 - Curious Cat List of Super Useful Websites (2012) - Curious Cat Interesting Web Sites to Browse
Thursday, May 18, 2017
Economically Lucky or Not?
Most people on earth today and people on earth in all of history and people in the USA even in the last 120 years had it much harder than young people in the USA today. There is a very small window of people luckier economically: The USA Doesn’t Understand that the 1950s and 1960s are Not a Reasonable Basis for Setting Expectations.
Yes, that group of even luckier people is often some of those a few decades or even 50 years older in the USA (there may also be a few places in Europe in the last 50 years).
So while it is true compared to some of the luckiest people economically in all of history those young people in the USA today have it harder when compared to most every group (those in the USA previously, those alive today elsewhere...) they are extremely lucky.
I do agree that the policies in the USA that last 50 years that have dramatically helped trust fund babies and increased income inequality are unwise and harmful. We should fix those problems. But even with those problems there are very few places that someone could be randomly placed into where their economic luck is as good as those born in the USA in the last 30 years.
Yes, that group of even luckier people is often some of those a few decades or even 50 years older in the USA (there may also be a few places in Europe in the last 50 years).
So while it is true compared to some of the luckiest people economically in all of history those young people in the USA today have it harder when compared to most every group (those in the USA previously, those alive today elsewhere...) they are extremely lucky.
I do agree that the policies in the USA that last 50 years that have dramatically helped trust fund babies and increased income inequality are unwise and harmful. We should fix those problems. But even with those problems there are very few places that someone could be randomly placed into where their economic luck is as good as those born in the USA in the last 30 years.
Saturday, May 06, 2017
Moz Page Authority and MozRank History for Some of My Web Sites (May 2017)
MozRank compares to the previously interesting Google pagerank (a measure of the pages linking to the page, with greater value given to links from high ranking pages). Moz Page Authority is meant to more closely measure the importance of links by considering not just the number but also the quality of the links. This is oversimplified but essentially can be seen as if a page had a high number of links (even from other pages with high numbers of links to them) but those links were not deemed to be high quality the Moz Page Authority would be lower.
In the chart below the MozRank is shown inside ( ) after Aug 2014. [] indicate Google PageRank measures. Those without parenthesis are Moz Page Authority divided by 10 (because SEO Moz also decided to scale MozPA up to 100 while Google PageRank tops out at 10 and I already been listing the data listed in the 10 scale the last few years).
* internal pages
** new url or old url forwarded (so Google losses track of the page rank for awhile)
- didn't exist yet or google didn't rank it for some reason
[blank] I don't know what the pagerank was, sometimes the site didn't exist yet.
Related: Moz Page Authority for Various Sites (April 2016) - Moz Page Authority for Various Sites (May 2015) - Historic PageRank and MozPageAuthority for Various Sites (December 2013)
In the chart below the MozRank is shown inside ( ) after Aug 2014. [] indicate Google PageRank measures. Those without parenthesis are Moz Page Authority divided by 10 (because SEO Moz also decided to scale MozPA up to 100 while Google PageRank tops out at 10 and I already been listing the data listed in the 10 scale the last few years).
| Site | May 2017 | Apr 2016 | Sep 2015 | Aug 2014 (MozRank) | Dec 2013 [GPR] | Oct 2011 | ||
| MozPA > 5 | ||||||||
| Curious Cat Management Blog | 5.7 (6.3) | 6.1 (5.8) | 6.0 (6.1) | 5.9 (6.0) | 6.1 [5] | 5.5 [5] | ||
| The W. Edwards Deming Institute Blog | 5.5 (5.8) | 5.7 [6.6] | 6.4 (6.2) | 5.2 (6.0) | 5.5 [5] | - | ||
| Curious Cat Engineering and Science Blog | 5.4 (6.4) | 5.8 (5.7) | 5.6 (6.0) | 5.5 (6.0) | 5.8 [5] | 5.3 [6] | ||
| Curious Cat Investing and Economics Blog | 5.3 (6.3) | 5.7 (5.9) | 5.5 (6.1) | 5.5 (6.1) | 4 [5.7] | 5.3 [4] | ||
| John Hunter | 5.0 (6.4) | 5.0 (6.1) | 6.2 (6.1) | 4.8 (6.1) | 5.0 [5] | 5.4 [4] | ||
| @CuriousCat_com | 6.3 (5.1) | 5.6 (4.3) | 5.8 (4.4) | 5.8 (4.6) | ||||
| My Kiva page | 5.3 (5.3) | 5.5 (4.4) | 5.8 (5.1) | 5.6 (4.7) | 5.8 [-] | 4.0 [-] | ||
| Curiouscat.com | 5.0 (5.0) | 5.1 (5.8) | 4.9 (6.1) | 5.0 (6.0) | ** | 5.6 [4] | ||
| MozPA > 4 | ||||||||
| Curious Cat Travel Photo Blog | 4.9 (6.1) | 5.3 (5.8) | 5.1 (5.9) | 5.0 (5.9) | 4 [5.0] | 3 [4.9] | ||
| Curious Cat Management Improvement Connections* | 4.7 (5.7) | 4.7 (5.5) | 4.6 (5.7) | 4.6 (5.6) | 3.3 [**] | 5.5 [5] | ||
| Economic Strength Through Technology Leadership* | 4.3 (6.2) | 4.0 (5.4) | 4.1 (5.8) | 4.1 [5.8] | 4.2 [-] | 4.7 [4] | ||
| W. Edwards Deming quotes | 4.3 (5.6) | 3.9 (6.5) | 3.3 (5.7) | new | ||||
| Six Sigma Management Resources* | 4.3 (5.4) | 4.6 (5.3) | 4.8 (5.7) | 4.7 (5.6) | 4.9 [**] | |||
| Living in Malaysia | 4.2 (5.6) | 4.3 (5.7) | 5.2 (5.8) | 3.9 (5.8) | 4.0 [4] | 4.1 [3] | ||
| Living in Singapore | 4.2 (5.4) | 4.4 (5.7) | 5.1 (5.8) | 4.0 (5.7) | 4 [4.1] | 3 [4.0] | ||
| Curious Cat Code (programming) | 4.2 (5.4) | 4.3 (5.4) | 4.8 (5.6) | 3.8 (5.5) | 4.1 [4] | 4.2 [4] | - | |
| Curious Cat Gadgets | 4.2 (5.4) | 4.4 (5.6) | 4.7 (5.7) | 3.9 (5.5) | 4.1 [4] | |||
| Architecture and home design inspiration | 4.2 (5.1) | 4.2 (5.6) | 4.5 (5.6) | 3.9 (5.5) | 4.0 [3] | - | ||
| Curious Cat Comments (this blog) | 4.1 (5.3) | 4.0 (5.3) | 3.9 (5.3) | 3.8 (5.1) | 3.9 [3] | 3.8 [-] | [3] | |
| Life and Legacy of William Hunter | 4.0 (5.8) | 4.0 (5.4) | 3.9 (5.6) | 3.7 (5.5) | 4.0 [4] | 4.5 [4] | ||
| Good Process Improvement Practices* | 5.0 (5.5) | 3.9 (5.2) | 4.0 (5.2) | 4.2 (5.2) | 4.0 [3] | 4.1 [3] | ||
| Multi Site PageRank Checker | 4.0 (5.2) | 4.2 (5.2) | 4.2 (5.2) | 4.1 (4.9) | 4.1 [4] | 4.7 [3] | ||
| Site | May 2017 | Apr 2016 | Sep 2015 | Aug 2014 (MozRank) | Dec 2013 [GPR] | Oct 2011 | ||
| MozPA > 3.5 | ||||||||
| The Future is Engineering* | 3.9 (6.2) | 4.1 (5.2) | 4.2 (5.8) | 4.3 (5.7) | 4.3 [4] | |||
| The Aim Should be the Best Life – Not Work v. Life Balance* | 3.9 (5.4) | 4.5 (5.2) | 4.3 (5.3) | new | ||||
| The Engineer That Made Your Cat a Photographer | 3.9 (6.2) | 3.5 (5.2) | 3.8 (5.8) | 3.9 (5.7) | 4.1 [3] | 4.7 [4] | ||
| Curious Cat Management Comments | 3.9 (5.2) | 4.2 (5.3) | 4.2 (5.3) | 4.1 (5.0) | 3.9 [3] | 4.5 [3] | ||
| Management Articles* | 3.9 (5.1) | 4.1 (5.5) | 4.0 (5.6) | 4.1 (5.5) | 3.9 [3] | |||
| Management Matters (my book)* | 3.8 (5.8) | 4.0 (5.3) | 3.8 (5.6) | 3.5 (4.6) | 3.8 (5.4) | 3.5 [4] | - | - |
| Management Dictionary* | 3.8 (5.0) | 4.4 (5.4) | 4.3 (5.6) | 4.0 (5.4) | 2.6 [**] | 5.4 [5] | [4] | |
| Curious Cat Travel Blog | 3.7 (6.1) | 4.3 (5.9) | 4.0 (5.8) | New | ||||
| Curious Cat Travel Destinations | 3.7 (5.8) | 3.9 (5.7) | 3.6 (5.8) | 3.4 (5.7) | 3.2 [3] | |||
| Management and Leadership Quotes | 3.5 (6.1) | 3.8 (5.4) | 3.7 (5.8) | 3.6 (5.7) | 3.7 [4] | 5.2 [2] | ||
| MozPA > 3 | ||||||||
| Statistics for Experimenters | 3.4 (6.1) | 3.8 (5.3) | 3.6 (5.7) | 3.7 (5.7) | 3.9 [4] | 4.5 [3] | ||
| Improving Your Search Engine Ranking Blog | 3.4 (5.5) | 3.3 (5.3) | 3.1 (4.1) | New | ||||
| Freelance Lifestyle, Finance and Entrepreneurship Blog | 3.3 (5.2) | 3.5 (5.1) | 4.5 (5.2) | new | ||||
| Curious Cat Travel Photos | 3.3 (5.0) | 3.7 (5.2) | 3.2 (4.7) | New | ||||
| Hexawise blog | 3.3 (?) | ? | ? | 3.6 (4.9) | 3.8 [4] | |||
| Justin Hunter (my brother) | 3.2 (5.5) | 3.4 (5.1) | 3.4 (5.4) | 3.3 (4.8) | 3.4 [-] | 2.9 [2] | ||
| CuriousCat Wordpress | 3.2 (3.4) | 3.4 (3.9) | 3.6 (4.4) | 3.4 (3.8) | 3.5 [1] | |||
| Site | May 2017 | Apr 2016 | Sep 2015 | Aug 2014 (MozRank) | Dec 2013 [GPR] | Oct 2011 | ||
| MozPA < 3 | ||||||||
| Hexawise.tv | 2.8 (?) | 2.4 (5.3) | 2.8 (5.4) | 2.8 (4.9) | 2.8 [2] | - | ||
| Investment Dictionary* | 2.7 (4.1) | 4.5 (5.5) | 4.7 (6.0) | 4.6 (5.9) | 4.8 [**] | 5.2 [4] | ||
| W. Edwards Deming on Management* | 2.7 (?) | 2.0 (4.4) | 4.7 (5.5) | 4.7 (5.3) | 4.9 [**] | 4.5 [4] | [4] | |
| Curious Cat Travel Destinations: Marina Bay Sands (Singapore) | 2.4 (4.8) | 3.6 (5.3) | 3.2 (5.3) | 2.9 (5.3) | 2.9 [2] | - | ||
| Curious Cat Travel Destinations: France | 1.9 (?) | 1.9 (5.2) | 2.0 (5.2) | 1.4 (5.1) | 1.3 [-] | |||
| Public Sector Continuous Improvement Site* | 1.6 (?) | 2.9 (4.8) | 4.8 (5.5) | 4.8 (5.4) | 5.0 [**] | 5.0 [5] | ||
| Management Improvement Resources | 1.5 (?) | 3.0 (5.1) | 3.1 (5.1) | 3.0 (4.7) | 3.1 [3] | 3.8 [3] | ||
| Johor Bahru Real Estate | 1.3 (?) | 3.0 (5.0) | 3.0 (5.4) | 2.8 (5.3) | 3.0 [2] | - |
* internal pages
** new url or old url forwarded (so Google losses track of the page rank for awhile)
- didn't exist yet or google didn't rank it for some reason
[blank] I don't know what the pagerank was, sometimes the site didn't exist yet.
Related: Moz Page Authority for Various Sites (April 2016) - Moz Page Authority for Various Sites (May 2015) - Historic PageRank and MozPageAuthority for Various Sites (December 2013)
Thursday, May 04, 2017
The USA Should be Ashamed of Who We have Elected
The bill passed by the House of Representatives in the USA today to cut taxes for the very rich and eliminate heath care coverage for tens of millions of people was a disgrace.
Every Republican who voted for this abomination must be held accountable
He is right. We have to stop voting in such reprehensible individuals.
The last 2 administrations have been very disappointing. The actions of the administration and the Republicans in the House and Senate now though are taking things to a level not seen since at least Watergate and maybe back to McCarthism.
It is shocking to see the country so let down by those we vote in and day after day see that disgrace trumped by even greater failures of basic decency, honesty or competence.
Every Republican who voted for this abomination must be held accountable
I won’t mince words. The health-care bill that the House of Representatives passed this afternoon, in an incredibly narrow 217-to-213 vote, is not just wrong, or misguided, or problematic or foolish. It is an abomination. If there has been a piece of legislation in our lifetimes that boiled over with as much malice and indifference to human suffering, I can’t recall what it might have been. And every member of the House who voted for it must be held accountable.
He is right. We have to stop voting in such reprehensible individuals.
The last 2 administrations have been very disappointing. The actions of the administration and the Republicans in the House and Senate now though are taking things to a level not seen since at least Watergate and maybe back to McCarthism.
It is shocking to see the country so let down by those we vote in and day after day see that disgrace trumped by even greater failures of basic decency, honesty or competence.
Friday, April 14, 2017
Naming the Results of Corruption as "Free Market" Failures is Damaging to Society
We shouldn't allow those using plain corruption to call it "free market." They, and their talking heads, seek to do so in order to prevent sensible actions being taken to address the corruption. It is much better for them if people think what they are doing is capitalism instead of just being criminals. That is the same as allowing kleptocrat dictators to call what they do "democracy."
Corruption destroys the potential value to the public. It does that when it corrupts free markets. And it does it when it is used for other purposes (corrupting the rule of law, etc.).
If we call corruption - "free market" - it makes it difficult to design the correct counter measure to address the damage being done to society.
Those practicing corruption win if those that what to have society address the damage being done think the problem is free markets instead of focusing on the real problem which is corruption. There may well also be some issues with how free markets work and therefore putting in place political adjustments is sensible to discuss in terms of "free market" adjustments. But most often people complaining about the failures of "free markets" are complaining about straight up corruption. And failing to address the problem for what it is results in what we see now - those problems growing instead of being addressed.
Related: We Need to be More Capitalist and Less Cronyist - Political and Corporate Cronyism are not Capitalism - Monopolies and Oligopolies do not a Free Market Make
Corruption destroys the potential value to the public. It does that when it corrupts free markets. And it does it when it is used for other purposes (corrupting the rule of law, etc.).
If we call corruption - "free market" - it makes it difficult to design the correct counter measure to address the damage being done to society.
Those practicing corruption win if those that what to have society address the damage being done think the problem is free markets instead of focusing on the real problem which is corruption. There may well also be some issues with how free markets work and therefore putting in place political adjustments is sensible to discuss in terms of "free market" adjustments. But most often people complaining about the failures of "free markets" are complaining about straight up corruption. And failing to address the problem for what it is results in what we see now - those problems growing instead of being addressed.
Related: We Need to be More Capitalist and Less Cronyist - Political and Corporate Cronyism are not Capitalism - Monopolies and Oligopolies do not a Free Market Make
Sunday, January 29, 2017
The Continued Fall of the USA's Political Leaders that We Give Power To
A few days into the new President's administration and it is as bad as anyone paying attention would have expected. It is very sad the USA elected Trump and the Senators and Representatives standing with him. The consequences of electing Trump and the others that support his actions and that are choosing not to protect the USA constitution will be very damaging.
Photo of the White House by John Hunter. This house should be a place worthy of respect (even for those with political differences) but the current occupants are straining that hope.
As a kid in high school I couldn't understand how the USA could fail as badly as McCarthyism; Japanese internment; Nixon's enemies list, watergate etc.. Other failures I would witness later, while a shockingly abhorrent, such as the Iran-Contra scandal flaunting of the rule of law and the failure to do anything about it I saw as sad but not surprising.
The USA we created isn't a binary no-Trump = good v. yes-Trump = bad. The current situation was created by us voting for who we did for decades. The actions of the people we put in power, created the system where Trump could be elected and have huge support from the others we elected.
There were many warning signs of how bad it was during the last 2 administrations. True, it is much worse now, but we were on the path here. But we have created a toxic system that was intentionally shaped by those we granted political power. They shaped a system that ignore facts, devolve discussion into 1984 News Speak, ignore the rule of law when it was convenient for whoever was on your side in the battle for power, pretend complex realities have simple solutions, badly distorted democracy with unconscionable gerrymandering, etc..
The current president and his leadership team certainly are taking the toxic situation created by those we elected for the last few decades and are taking it extremes even more damaging than those that designed it wished for it to be. But when you create and promote a dumpster fire in order to get whatever your short term desires are you can't disown responsibility for the damage that dumpster fire continues to do after you.
Photo of the USA capital by John Hunter. If those elected officials voting in this building the next few years continue as they have done in the few decades we are going to suffer greatly for the mistake of electing them.
The kids of kids today are going to be wondering the same thing about us that I did about our McCarthyism, Japanese internment... supporting ancestors. It is devastating that for decades we allowed our political parties to destroy the fundamental aspects of what the USA should stand for.
The challenges we face as a society are great enough without continuing to put in power the people that have lead the USA to the extremely sad state of affairs we see today with the actions of the current president and his supporters in the White House, on Capital Hill and in the State houses and legislatures around the country.
Sure the current president is a huge mistake we will suffer greatly for voting into office. But the problem is much deeper than just him. The political leadership has been allowed to rot to the core. He is merely a symptom of how bad we have allowed things to get.
We need to fundamentally change who we give power to if we want change. We need to provide power to those that seek to fix problems. We need to give power to those that acknowledge scientific and economic reality. We need to elect people that appose hate. We need to elect people that care more for the country than for personal aggrandizement and reward. We need to elect people that care more for the country than following the orders of their party.
Things are much worse today than a year ago but if we believe the problem is the current president we will fail to address the real problem. He is just a symptom of how messed up our country is. Replace him with his Vice President or most of the other leadership of his party and maybe a few of the most extreme embarrassments to the country would go away but the core of what they stand for doesn't change. The president is not a King or Dictator. The Courts, House and Senate can (and the Constitution depends on them doing so) block actions that damage the country. But the House and Senate are not doing so.
As the current system has evolved the politicians state a few words about they believe in such and such and don't support this other thing and then they go ahead and vote for this other thing while undermining such and such. They have created a system in order to promote the belief that what they actually do isn't what matters but what they say. That way they can fully support actions that they claim to not support. Sure the current president is even less concerned with the truth but he is just extending the policy of News Speak that became the standard practice for both parties over the last few decades.
If we are lucky a few Republicans will stand with the USA and the Constitution and join Democrats that mainly will appose just because the current president isn't from their party and we will avoid some of the worst of what we can expect. But we may very well not be lucky for a several years. Being stuck in a position where we have to hope for a few politicians to be courageous is not a good position to be in given the poor performance of our politicians the last few decades.
Related: Living Through Your Society Becoming a Police State (2013) - Security Theatre Thinking is Damaging the USA (2013) - Freedom Increasingly at Risk (2008) - The Aim of Modern Day Political Parties is To Scare Donors Into Giving Cash (2014) - Selling Out the Country: We are Electing the Wrong People to Control Our Government (2015) - SWAT Raids – Systemic Failures? (2007) - Anti-Market Policies from Our Talking Head and Political Class (2011) - We Need to be More Capitalist and Less Cronyist (2011) - Preaching False Ideas to Men Known to be Idiots (2010) - Adding More Banker and Politician Bailouts is not the Answer (2012) - Failure to Regulate Financial Markets Leads to Predictable Consequences (2009) - Don't Excuse Immoral Looters (2009) - Lobbyists Keep Tax Off Billion Dollar Private Equities Deals and On For Our Grandchildren (2007)
Photo of the White House by John Hunter. This house should be a place worthy of respect (even for those with political differences) but the current occupants are straining that hope.
As a kid in high school I couldn't understand how the USA could fail as badly as McCarthyism; Japanese internment; Nixon's enemies list, watergate etc.. Other failures I would witness later, while a shockingly abhorrent, such as the Iran-Contra scandal flaunting of the rule of law and the failure to do anything about it I saw as sad but not surprising.
The USA we created isn't a binary no-Trump = good v. yes-Trump = bad. The current situation was created by us voting for who we did for decades. The actions of the people we put in power, created the system where Trump could be elected and have huge support from the others we elected.
There were many warning signs of how bad it was during the last 2 administrations. True, it is much worse now, but we were on the path here. But we have created a toxic system that was intentionally shaped by those we granted political power. They shaped a system that ignore facts, devolve discussion into 1984 News Speak, ignore the rule of law when it was convenient for whoever was on your side in the battle for power, pretend complex realities have simple solutions, badly distorted democracy with unconscionable gerrymandering, etc..
The current president and his leadership team certainly are taking the toxic situation created by those we elected for the last few decades and are taking it extremes even more damaging than those that designed it wished for it to be. But when you create and promote a dumpster fire in order to get whatever your short term desires are you can't disown responsibility for the damage that dumpster fire continues to do after you.
Photo of the USA capital by John Hunter. If those elected officials voting in this building the next few years continue as they have done in the few decades we are going to suffer greatly for the mistake of electing them.
The kids of kids today are going to be wondering the same thing about us that I did about our McCarthyism, Japanese internment... supporting ancestors. It is devastating that for decades we allowed our political parties to destroy the fundamental aspects of what the USA should stand for.
The challenges we face as a society are great enough without continuing to put in power the people that have lead the USA to the extremely sad state of affairs we see today with the actions of the current president and his supporters in the White House, on Capital Hill and in the State houses and legislatures around the country.
Sure the current president is a huge mistake we will suffer greatly for voting into office. But the problem is much deeper than just him. The political leadership has been allowed to rot to the core. He is merely a symptom of how bad we have allowed things to get.
We need to fundamentally change who we give power to if we want change. We need to provide power to those that seek to fix problems. We need to give power to those that acknowledge scientific and economic reality. We need to elect people that appose hate. We need to elect people that care more for the country than for personal aggrandizement and reward. We need to elect people that care more for the country than following the orders of their party.
Things are much worse today than a year ago but if we believe the problem is the current president we will fail to address the real problem. He is just a symptom of how messed up our country is. Replace him with his Vice President or most of the other leadership of his party and maybe a few of the most extreme embarrassments to the country would go away but the core of what they stand for doesn't change. The president is not a King or Dictator. The Courts, House and Senate can (and the Constitution depends on them doing so) block actions that damage the country. But the House and Senate are not doing so.
As the current system has evolved the politicians state a few words about they believe in such and such and don't support this other thing and then they go ahead and vote for this other thing while undermining such and such. They have created a system in order to promote the belief that what they actually do isn't what matters but what they say. That way they can fully support actions that they claim to not support. Sure the current president is even less concerned with the truth but he is just extending the policy of News Speak that became the standard practice for both parties over the last few decades.
If we are lucky a few Republicans will stand with the USA and the Constitution and join Democrats that mainly will appose just because the current president isn't from their party and we will avoid some of the worst of what we can expect. But we may very well not be lucky for a several years. Being stuck in a position where we have to hope for a few politicians to be courageous is not a good position to be in given the poor performance of our politicians the last few decades.
Related: Living Through Your Society Becoming a Police State (2013) - Security Theatre Thinking is Damaging the USA (2013) - Freedom Increasingly at Risk (2008) - The Aim of Modern Day Political Parties is To Scare Donors Into Giving Cash (2014) - Selling Out the Country: We are Electing the Wrong People to Control Our Government (2015) - SWAT Raids – Systemic Failures? (2007) - Anti-Market Policies from Our Talking Head and Political Class (2011) - We Need to be More Capitalist and Less Cronyist (2011) - Preaching False Ideas to Men Known to be Idiots (2010) - Adding More Banker and Politician Bailouts is not the Answer (2012) - Failure to Regulate Financial Markets Leads to Predictable Consequences (2009) - Don't Excuse Immoral Looters (2009) - Lobbyists Keep Tax Off Billion Dollar Private Equities Deals and On For Our Grandchildren (2007)
Monday, January 16, 2017
Government Debt - How Safe or Costly is It?
My comments on: Debt’s a Funny Thing // Plus: Why We’re Not Prepaying Our Rental Mortgage
Government debt is indeed different than personal debt. It is true some of the USA debt we owe to ourselves (we also owe a lot to China, Japan and others). The situation is fairly odd now for the USA in that the interest rates are extremely low. That makes the huge amount of debt less painful - but even now 15% of the spending by the government is just paying interest. And that could easily double without interest rates really even getting high. That is a real problem. To the extent we owe it to ourselves it is less of a problem but we owe lots to people overseas which means we are going to be paying back hundreds of billions of dollars to people in China, Japan... At these rates it might be fine (or even a good deal) sometime in the next 20 years it is likely to be very costly.
I wrote about the issue of government debt and the different impact of it being held overseas or within the country.
Japan has far more debt than even the USA. But it is also much more owed to themselves than is true in the USA.
The USA also has significant advantages over other countries. We can hold more debt safely than other countries due to the perception of the safety of the US$ and the size of the USA economy.
Related: Chart of Net Government Debt from 1980 to 2013 by Country - Which Currency is the Least Bad? (2012 - USD) - Who Will Buy All the USA’s Debt? (2009) - USA Federal Debt Now $516,348 Per Household (2007)
There’s also the national debt, which it turns out is not really like debt you or I might have at all, and — this was mind-blowing to me — most economists don’t even think the national debt is bad, and some actually think we should have more national debt...
Government debt is indeed different than personal debt. It is true some of the USA debt we owe to ourselves (we also owe a lot to China, Japan and others). The situation is fairly odd now for the USA in that the interest rates are extremely low. That makes the huge amount of debt less painful - but even now 15% of the spending by the government is just paying interest. And that could easily double without interest rates really even getting high. That is a real problem. To the extent we owe it to ourselves it is less of a problem but we owe lots to people overseas which means we are going to be paying back hundreds of billions of dollars to people in China, Japan... At these rates it might be fine (or even a good deal) sometime in the next 20 years it is likely to be very costly.
I wrote about the issue of government debt and the different impact of it being held overseas or within the country.
Japan has far more debt than even the USA. But it is also much more owed to themselves than is true in the USA.
The USA also has significant advantages over other countries. We can hold more debt safely than other countries due to the perception of the safety of the US$ and the size of the USA economy.
Related: Chart of Net Government Debt from 1980 to 2013 by Country - Which Currency is the Least Bad? (2012 - USD) - Who Will Buy All the USA’s Debt? (2009) - USA Federal Debt Now $516,348 Per Household (2007)
Saturday, December 24, 2016
Most Popular posts on the Curious Cat Comments blog in 2016
The most popular posts on our blog (by page views in 2016):
The publication year of our most read posts this year:
2015: 1 post
2013: 3
2011: 2
2010: 2
2009: 1
2005: 1
Related: Most Popular Post on the Curious Cat Comments Blog (2011) - Most Popular Posts on the Curious Cat Comments Blog (2015) - Most Popular Posts on the Curious Cat Comments Blog (2014)
- Utopia (Dreamland in the USA) is an Amazing TV Program (2015), available on Netflix
- Security Theatre Thinking is Damaging the USA (2013)
- Liberty and Support or Control and Hate (2013)
- Blog Readers (for Reading RSS Feeds)
- Netflix is Well Managed - People are Overreacting (2011)
- Society is being shaped for us while we are busy making other plans (2011)
- Curious, Joyful, Happy Kids Grow Up: Unfortunately
- Why Copyright Extension is a Very Bad Idea (2009)
- Bikinis For Liberty (2010)
- Manufacturing Job Losses: USA 2 million, China 15 million (2005)
The publication year of our most read posts this year:
2015: 1 post
2013: 3
2011: 2
2010: 2
2009: 1
2005: 1
Related: Most Popular Post on the Curious Cat Comments Blog (2011) - Most Popular Posts on the Curious Cat Comments Blog (2015) - Most Popular Posts on the Curious Cat Comments Blog (2014)
Wednesday, December 07, 2016
Subscribe to blog posts by John Hunter
I have added an RSS feed to the blog posts I add to JohnHunter.com. I add items there for some, but not all of my posts, from my various blogs.
There is a list of blogs I author on my Curious Cat blog site. I write on several topics including
I am currently in the process of adding items for the past few years (as I stopped updating this part of the JohnHunter.com website for awhile).
I believe RSS feed readers are one of the most valuable tools for those learning online. I wrote about what RSS feed readers are and how to use them previously.
There is a list of blogs I author on my Curious Cat blog site. I write on several topics including
- Management and Leadership
- Money, Investing, Lifestyle and Personal Finance
- Travel
- Technology, Computer Programming, Engineering and Science
- Society
I am currently in the process of adding items for the past few years (as I stopped updating this part of the JohnHunter.com website for awhile).
I believe RSS feed readers are one of the most valuable tools for those learning online. I wrote about what RSS feed readers are and how to use them previously.
Wednesday, July 27, 2016
The Worst Aspect of TPP That Gets Nearly No Attention
Sadly among the worst aspects of the Trans-Pacific Partnership TPP (and also the TTIP) is the promotion of the copyright cartel's agenda along with very bad patent policy. Almost no one with political power is even talking about these huge problems with it.
I support free trade. I don't support the politically motivated trade agreements that impose the USA political donors' wishes on citizens of the USA and other countries.
The point that I most agree with, that those with power who are opposing the TPP mention, is the ludicrous abdication of national rights expressed in the trade deals (allowing companies to sue countries, say for enforcing their reasonable patent rules that the company doesn't like and has bought differing rules from the USA political parties).
It is true that we have to work together, and in doing so we need to reach agreements between countries that require making compromises. The TPP just has many horrible provisions paid for by USA political donors that are being imposed on other countries (and those countries are being paid to give the USA donors the favors via promises of USA military protection, access to USA markets etc.). It is a bad deal for nearly everyone. But the favors create a few huge winners that can pay to grease the wheels to buy passage in the USA (and elsewhere).
We need free trade that removes barriers to trade not that gives payoffs to USA political donors. Along with removing barriers a few conditions are justified but they should be kept as small as possible (things like no child labor, no slave labor, environmental requirements, safety requirements on exported material, etc.).
Related: Money Is Corrupting Our Political Process - Why Copyright Extension is a Very Bad Idea - We Need to be More Capitalist and Less Cronyist - I Can Spy on You, But You Can't Spy on Me
I support free trade. I don't support the politically motivated trade agreements that impose the USA political donors' wishes on citizens of the USA and other countries.
The point that I most agree with, that those with power who are opposing the TPP mention, is the ludicrous abdication of national rights expressed in the trade deals (allowing companies to sue countries, say for enforcing their reasonable patent rules that the company doesn't like and has bought differing rules from the USA political parties).
It is true that we have to work together, and in doing so we need to reach agreements between countries that require making compromises. The TPP just has many horrible provisions paid for by USA political donors that are being imposed on other countries (and those countries are being paid to give the USA donors the favors via promises of USA military protection, access to USA markets etc.). It is a bad deal for nearly everyone. But the favors create a few huge winners that can pay to grease the wheels to buy passage in the USA (and elsewhere).
We need free trade that removes barriers to trade not that gives payoffs to USA political donors. Along with removing barriers a few conditions are justified but they should be kept as small as possible (things like no child labor, no slave labor, environmental requirements, safety requirements on exported material, etc.).
Related: Money Is Corrupting Our Political Process - Why Copyright Extension is a Very Bad Idea - We Need to be More Capitalist and Less Cronyist - I Can Spy on You, But You Can't Spy on Me
Sunday, June 19, 2016
Active Photos
I don't know how I did this but I am looking through some photos I took a few weeks ago and I have a video that is a string of photos with a few seconds of video on each side. I believe some version of Apple iPhones have added this active photo mode with a second of video or something. I managed to do it with my Canon PowerShot SX60 HS Digital Camera.
I have occasionally managed to turn on the video without noticing so I get a bit of video instead of a photo. But this is weird it is a video that jumps from place to place. It is really weird. I have no idea how I would make it do this if I tried. If it was one long video I could understand but it isn't it is like it started and stopped when I tried to focus for a photo and then a bit after the photo was taken.
In addition to that video I have the individual photos that I took while the video was recording.
See Curious Cat photos.
I have occasionally managed to turn on the video without noticing so I get a bit of video instead of a photo. But this is weird it is a video that jumps from place to place. It is really weird. I have no idea how I would make it do this if I tried. If it was one long video I could understand but it isn't it is like it started and stopped when I tried to focus for a photo and then a bit after the photo was taken.
In addition to that video I have the individual photos that I took while the video was recording.
See Curious Cat photos.
Tuesday, June 14, 2016
Netflix Throws Users Under the Bus
First Netflix was an awesome streaming service that just worked and was focused on providing users a great experience.
Even at the beginning (or at least my beginning) they through Ubuntu users under the bus and just said we won't serve you. So I didn't use it. Later I got a Mac and then I decided to give it a try and it was wonderful, it just worked (well after requiring you install Microsoft Silverlight).
But most large companies just expect users to fit themselves into whatever constraints the big companies wish to impose (see Comcast, United Airlines, Verizon etc.). So compared to these really bad companies using Netflix was wonderful.
There are many issues with bad connections etc. and Netflix while not perfect (they would often only buffer a short amount and fail when the bad connection failed or got to slow) but they were much better than others at just working.
The last 6 months though it is more and more like the typical experience of some huge company that just expects you to cope with whatever they force you to do.
They continually won't work when I forget I have to sign off my vpn to use them. They blame others for this bad service (blaming others for treating customer badly is of course what all the companies people originally sought to escape the Time Warners, AT&T, etc. of the world by using Netflix. Oh well so one more time Netflix is selling us out.
Then then continually degraded the usability of the website. They seem intent on reducing the usability so that they can only bother to design as if we all were limited to smart phones. So if you have a computer and want to have more information available on your screen too bad, we are going to force you to pretend you are limited to a smart phone interface.
I found it frustrating. Netflix had gone from one of the few companies I really enjoyed dealing with (Trader Joes's is one on that short list) to the typical company that I could tolerate. Instead of the joy of it just working it became a relief when it just worked and if I was surprised it wasn't because of something good but yet another annoyance as they moved from a company that was a joy to yet another Comcast of the world.
And the latest disgrace from Netflix they won't play the show at all. They break the playback with one of their typical "we are treating you now just like Microsoft treated people in 1995" you are doing something we decided to not allow you to do. We now have the market power where we can just have you jump through whatever hoops we want and you can't do anything about it.
The latest message "Please ensure your monitor is HDCP compliant and is not mirrored using Airplay."
Why am I being bothered with this junk. Just like dealing with Microsoft decades ago when they would just have you jump through hoops try and figure out what they would let you do in order to use what you paid for. Netflix now justing just not "just work" it is constantly a struggle for how they are going to break things now.
I have never had a company I found to be really good fall so fast and completely lose any concern for their customers experience.
The shows they pay others for (including most of those they brand as Netflix but many of which they don't even own - they just are licensing certain rights to them) are decent. A few are really good. And Netflix is cheap for what you get. But I am very disappointed I now have to feel like I do using the typical disaster customer service companies (Comcast, any USA airline, Verizon, etc.). Every time it isn't a disaster I feel relieved (but having anxiety every time I use a service that the company is going to annoy me is not what I want). My expectations are just please don't torture me or completely block my ability to use what I pay for since you do that so often all I can hope for is the absence of lousy treatment. Actually getting good treatment is a distant illusion.
It is so sad. As I say the content isn't bad if you can fight through the lousy roadblocks they have put in the way of getting to it in the last few years. And the price is cheap. I would gladly pay double the price to just go back to the "it just works" Netflix instead of the current we are going to make it hard for you to do what you want Netflix we have now. And while I wouldn't be as happy I would pay 3 or even 4 times to get that back.
But this lousy treatment is moving me closer and closer to just dropping them. Something I never thought would be possible 2 or 3 years ago.
I actually tried to get a preview of Amazon Video (or whatever they call their thing) but couldn't find how to do it. I tried to use their help system but it failed (I know from experience they have a poorly coded website that has fragile code and breaks in the help area and that happened again so I gave up. I might try HBO. I really am amazed Netflix has managed to make using their service so annoying I don't want to put up with it.
I hardly see any commercials anymore (only when watching sports) but there is one where one company makes fun of the takeover by some horrible cable company making all sorts of idiotic steps. I know that didn't happen to Netflix but as a customer that is exactly what it feels like. Some bozos took over and just decided to drop any care about the customer experience.
It is annoying that so many companies have this attitude but often I can just avoid dealing with them. Though sometimes you have no real choice - you need to fly someone there is a good chance Southwest Airlines [the only non-horrible USA airline in my experience) might not fly there or you have to choose Verizon or Comcast or even have no choice for an ISP... But Netflix was something I had really grown to enjoy. I fear Amazon's isn't likely to be very good for Ux. But I think I will try it. And even if that doesn't work I may still drop Netflix just to avoid the pitiful Ux practices they have adopted in the last few years.
Related: Utopia (Dreamland in the USA) is an Amazing TV Program (2015) - Netflix is Well Managed - People are Overreacting to Short Term Issues (2011) - Curious Cat List of Super Useful Websites (2012), Netflix wouldn't make the list now, but it did then
Even at the beginning (or at least my beginning) they through Ubuntu users under the bus and just said we won't serve you. So I didn't use it. Later I got a Mac and then I decided to give it a try and it was wonderful, it just worked (well after requiring you install Microsoft Silverlight).
But most large companies just expect users to fit themselves into whatever constraints the big companies wish to impose (see Comcast, United Airlines, Verizon etc.). So compared to these really bad companies using Netflix was wonderful.
There are many issues with bad connections etc. and Netflix while not perfect (they would often only buffer a short amount and fail when the bad connection failed or got to slow) but they were much better than others at just working.
The last 6 months though it is more and more like the typical experience of some huge company that just expects you to cope with whatever they force you to do.
They continually won't work when I forget I have to sign off my vpn to use them. They blame others for this bad service (blaming others for treating customer badly is of course what all the companies people originally sought to escape the Time Warners, AT&T, etc. of the world by using Netflix. Oh well so one more time Netflix is selling us out.
Then then continually degraded the usability of the website. They seem intent on reducing the usability so that they can only bother to design as if we all were limited to smart phones. So if you have a computer and want to have more information available on your screen too bad, we are going to force you to pretend you are limited to a smart phone interface.
I found it frustrating. Netflix had gone from one of the few companies I really enjoyed dealing with (Trader Joes's is one on that short list) to the typical company that I could tolerate. Instead of the joy of it just working it became a relief when it just worked and if I was surprised it wasn't because of something good but yet another annoyance as they moved from a company that was a joy to yet another Comcast of the world.
And the latest disgrace from Netflix they won't play the show at all. They break the playback with one of their typical "we are treating you now just like Microsoft treated people in 1995" you are doing something we decided to not allow you to do. We now have the market power where we can just have you jump through whatever hoops we want and you can't do anything about it.
The latest message "Please ensure your monitor is HDCP compliant and is not mirrored using Airplay."
Why am I being bothered with this junk. Just like dealing with Microsoft decades ago when they would just have you jump through hoops try and figure out what they would let you do in order to use what you paid for. Netflix now justing just not "just work" it is constantly a struggle for how they are going to break things now.
I have never had a company I found to be really good fall so fast and completely lose any concern for their customers experience.
The shows they pay others for (including most of those they brand as Netflix but many of which they don't even own - they just are licensing certain rights to them) are decent. A few are really good. And Netflix is cheap for what you get. But I am very disappointed I now have to feel like I do using the typical disaster customer service companies (Comcast, any USA airline, Verizon, etc.). Every time it isn't a disaster I feel relieved (but having anxiety every time I use a service that the company is going to annoy me is not what I want). My expectations are just please don't torture me or completely block my ability to use what I pay for since you do that so often all I can hope for is the absence of lousy treatment. Actually getting good treatment is a distant illusion.
It is so sad. As I say the content isn't bad if you can fight through the lousy roadblocks they have put in the way of getting to it in the last few years. And the price is cheap. I would gladly pay double the price to just go back to the "it just works" Netflix instead of the current we are going to make it hard for you to do what you want Netflix we have now. And while I wouldn't be as happy I would pay 3 or even 4 times to get that back.
But this lousy treatment is moving me closer and closer to just dropping them. Something I never thought would be possible 2 or 3 years ago.
I actually tried to get a preview of Amazon Video (or whatever they call their thing) but couldn't find how to do it. I tried to use their help system but it failed (I know from experience they have a poorly coded website that has fragile code and breaks in the help area and that happened again so I gave up. I might try HBO. I really am amazed Netflix has managed to make using their service so annoying I don't want to put up with it.
I hardly see any commercials anymore (only when watching sports) but there is one where one company makes fun of the takeover by some horrible cable company making all sorts of idiotic steps. I know that didn't happen to Netflix but as a customer that is exactly what it feels like. Some bozos took over and just decided to drop any care about the customer experience.
It is annoying that so many companies have this attitude but often I can just avoid dealing with them. Though sometimes you have no real choice - you need to fly someone there is a good chance Southwest Airlines [the only non-horrible USA airline in my experience) might not fly there or you have to choose Verizon or Comcast or even have no choice for an ISP... But Netflix was something I had really grown to enjoy. I fear Amazon's isn't likely to be very good for Ux. But I think I will try it. And even if that doesn't work I may still drop Netflix just to avoid the pitiful Ux practices they have adopted in the last few years.
Related: Utopia (Dreamland in the USA) is an Amazing TV Program (2015) - Netflix is Well Managed - People are Overreacting to Short Term Issues (2011) - Curious Cat List of Super Useful Websites (2012), Netflix wouldn't make the list now, but it did then
Tuesday, April 05, 2016
Moz Page Authority and MozRank History for Some of My Web Sites (April 2016)
MozRank compares to the previous interesting Google pagerank (a measure of the pages linking to the page, with greater value given to links from high ranking pages). Moz Page Authority is meant to more closely measure the importance of links by considering not just the number but also the quality of the links. This is oversimplified but essentially can be seen as if a page had a high number of links (even from other pages with high numbers of links to them) but those links were not deemed to be high quality the Moz Page Authority would be lower. So things like having links from trusted authority sites would pass on that trusted authority (a bit) to the linked site. And things that are seen as lower quality (could be lots of different things: poor links from that page, text that seems spammy or not of high quality, lots of pages without much content, slow loading site or things like Moz detailed in the Spam Flag Score, etc.) would harm the Moz Page Authority number.
Therefore, the Moz Page Authority number is more important than MozRank. MozRank however is closer Google pagerank.
In the chart below the MozRank is shown inside ( ) after Aug 2014. [] indicate Google PageRank measures. Those without parenthesis are Moz Page Authority divided by 10 (because SEO Moz also decided to scale MozPA up to 100 while Google PageRank tops out at 10 and I already been listing the data listed in the 10 scale the last few years).
* internal pages
** new url or old url forwarded (so Google losses track of the page rank for awhile)
- didn't exist yet or google didn't rank it for some reason
[blank] I don't know what the pagerank was, sometimes the site didn't exist yet.
Related: Moz Page Authority for Various Sites (August 2014) - Historic PageRank and MozPageAuthority for Various Sites (December 2013)
Therefore, the Moz Page Authority number is more important than MozRank. MozRank however is closer Google pagerank.
In the chart below the MozRank is shown inside ( ) after Aug 2014. [] indicate Google PageRank measures. Those without parenthesis are Moz Page Authority divided by 10 (because SEO Moz also decided to scale MozPA up to 100 while Google PageRank tops out at 10 and I already been listing the data listed in the 10 scale the last few years).
| Site | Apr 2016 | Sep 2015 | Aug 2014 (MozRank) | Dec 2013 [GPR] | Oct 2011 | Dec 2010 | ||
| MozPA > 5 | ||||||||
| The W. Edwards Deming Institute Blog | 5.7 [6.6] | 6.4 (6.2) | 5.2 (6.0) | 5.5 [5] | - | - | ||
| Curious Cat Management Blog | 6.1 (5.8) | 6.0 (6.1) | 5.9 (6.0) | 6.1 [5] | 5.5 [5] | [4] | ||
| Curious Cat Engineering and Science Blog | 5.8 (5.7) | 5.6 (6.0) | 5.5 (6.0) | 5.8 [5] | 5.3 [6] | 4 | ||
| Curious Cat Investing and Economics Blog | 5.7 (5.9) | 5.5 (6.1) | 5.5 (6.1) | 4 [5.7] | 5.3 [4] | [3] | ||
| @CuriousCat_com | 5.6 (4.3) | 5.8 (4.4) | 5.8 (4.6) | |||||
| My Kiva page | 5.5 (4.4) | 5.8 (5.1) | 5.6 (4.7) | 5.8 [-] | 4.0 [-] | [3] | ||
| Curiouscat.com | 5.1 (5.8) | 4.9 (6.1) | 5.0 (6.0) | ** | 5.6 [4] | [3] | ||
| Curious Cat Travel Photo Blog | 5.3 (5.8) | 5.1 (5.9) | 5.0 (5.9) | 4 [5.0] | 3 [4.9] | - | ||
| John Hunter | 5.0 (6.1) | 6.2 (6.1) | 4.8 (6.1) | 5.0 [5] | 5.4 [4] | [4] | ||
| MozPA > 4 | ||||||||
| Curious Cat Management Improvement Connections* | 4.7 (5.5) | 4.6 (5.7) | 4.6 (5.6) | 3.3 [**] | 5.5 [5] | [4] | ||
| Six Sigma Management Resources* | 4.6 (5.3) | 4.8 (5.7) | 4.7 (5.6) | 4.9 [**] | [4] | |||
| Investment Dictionary* | 4.5 (5.5) | 4.7 (6.0) | 4.6 (5.9) | 4.8 [**] | 5.2 [4] | |||
| The Aim Should be the Best Life – Not Work v. Life Balance* | 4.5 (5.2) | 4.3 (5.3) | new | |||||
| Living in Singapore | 4.4 (5.7) | 5.1 (5.8) | 4.0 (5.7) | 4 [4.1] | 3 [4.0] | |||
| Curious Cat Gadgets | 4.4 (5.6) | 4.7 (5.7) | 3.9 (5.5) | 4.1 [4] | ||||
| Management Dictionary* | 4.4 (5.4) | 4.3 (5.6) | 4.0 (5.4) | 2.6 [**] | 5.4 [5] | [4] | ||
| Curious Cat Travel Blog | 4.3 (5.9) | 4.0 (5.8) | New | |||||
| Living in Malaysia | 4.3 (5.7) | 5.2 (5.8) | 3.9 (5.8) | 4.0 [4] | 4.1 [3] | |||
| Curious Cat Code (programming) | 4.3 (5.4) | 4.8 (5.6) | 3.8 (5.5) | 4.1 [4] | 4.2 [4] | - | - | |
| Architecture and home design inspiration | 4.2 (5.6) | 4.5 (5.6) | 3.9 (5.5) | 4.0 [3] | - | - | ||
| Curious Cat Management Comments | 4.2 (5.3) | 4.2 (5.3) | 4.1 (5.0) | 3.9 [3] | 4.5 [3] | |||
| Multi Site PageRank Checker | 4.2 (5.2) | 4.2 (5.2) | 4.1 (4.9) | 4.1 [4] | 4.7 [3] | [2] | ||
| Management Articles* | 4.1 (5.5) | 4.0 (5.6) | 4.1 (5.5) | 3.9 [3] | ||||
| The Future is Engineering* | 4.1 (5.2) | 4.2 (5.8) | 4.3 (5.7) | 4.3 [4] | ||||
| Life and Legacy of William Hunter | 4.0 (5.4) | 3.9 (5.6) | 3.7 (5.5) | 4.0 [4] | 4.5 [4] | [4] | ||
| Management Matters (my book)* | 4.0 (5.3) | 3.8 (5.6) | 3.5 (4.6) | 3.8 (5.4) | 3.5 [4] | - | - | - |
| Economic Strength Through Technology Leadership* | 4.0 (5.4) | 4.1 (5.8) | 4.1 [5.8] | 4.2 [-] | 4.7 [4] | [4] | ||
| Curious Cat Comments (this blog) | 4.0 (5.3) | 3.9 (5.3) | 3.8 (5.1) | 3.9 [3] | 3.8 [-] | [3] | ||
| Site | May 2015 (MozRank) | Aug 2014 (MozRank) | Dec 2013 [GPR] | Feb 2013 | Oct 2011 | Dec 2010 | ||
| MozPA > 3.5 | ||||||||
| W. Edwards Deming quotes | 3.9 (6.5) | 3.3 (5.7) | new | |||||
| Curious Cat Travel Destinations | 3.9 (5.7) | 3.6 (5.8) | 3.4 (5.7) | 3.2 [3] | - | |||
| Good Process Improvement Practices* | 3.9 (5.2) | 4.0 (5.2) | 4.2 (5.2) | 4.0 [3] | 4.1 [3] | |||
| Management and Leadership Quotes | 3.8 (5.4) | 3.7 (5.8) | 3.6 (5.7) | 3.7 [4] | 5.2 [2] | [2] | ||
| Statistics for Experimenters | 3.8 (5.3) | 3.6 (5.7) | 3.7 (5.7) | 3.9 [4] | 4.5 [3] | [3] | ||
| Curious Cat Travel Photos | 3.7 (5.2) | 3.2 (4.7) | New | |||||
| Curious Cat Travel Destinations: Marina Bay Sands (Singapore) | 3.6 (5.3) | 3.2 (5.3) | 2.9 (5.3) | 2.9 [2] | - | - | ||
| The Engineer That Made Your Cat a Photographer | 3.5 (5.2) | 3.8 (5.8) | 3.9 (5.7) | 4.1 [3] | 4.7 [4] | [4] | ||
| Freelance Lifestyle, Finance and Entrepreneurship Blog | 3.5 (5.1) | 4.5 (5.2) | new | |||||
| MozPA > 3 | ||||||||
| Justin Hunter (my brother) | 3.4 (5.1) | 3.4 (5.4) | 3.3 (4.8) | 3.4 [-] | 2.9 [2] | [2] | ||
| CuriousCat Wordpress | 3.4 (3.9) | 3.6 (4.4) | 3.4 (3.8) | 3.5 [1] | [-] | |||
| Improving Your Search Engine Ranking Blog | 3.3 (5.3) | 3.1 (4.1) | New | |||||
| Management Improvement Resources | 3.0 (5.1) | 3.1 (5.1) | 3.0 (4.7) | 3.1 [3] | 3.8 [3] | [3] | ||
| Johor Bahru Real Estate | 3.0 (5.0) | 3.0 (5.4) | 2.8 (5.3) | 3.0 [2] | - | |||
| MozPA < 3 | ||||||||
| Public Sector Continuous Improvement Site* | 2.9 (4.8) | 4.8 (5.5) | 4.8 (5.4) | 5.0 [**] | 5.0 [5] | [4] | ||
| Hexawise.tv | 2.4 (5.3) | 2.8 (5.4) | 2.8 (4.9) | 2.8 [2] | - | |||
| W. Edwards Deming on Management* | 2.0 (4.4) | 4.7 (5.5) | 4.7 (5.3) | 4.9 [**] | 4.5 [4] | [4] | ||
| Curious Cat Travel Destinations: France | 1.9 (5.2) | 2.0 (5.2) | 1.4 (5.1) | 1.3 [-] | [-] | |||
| Curious Cat Travel Destinations: Australia | 1.9 (5.0) | 2.1 (5.1) | 1.5 (4.9) | 1.3 [-] | [-] |
* internal pages
** new url or old url forwarded (so Google losses track of the page rank for awhile)
- didn't exist yet or google didn't rank it for some reason
[blank] I don't know what the pagerank was, sometimes the site didn't exist yet.
Related: Moz Page Authority for Various Sites (August 2014) - Historic PageRank and MozPageAuthority for Various Sites (December 2013)
Thursday, March 31, 2016
Stopping Selfish Jerks From Abusing Society
Fake service animals would be criminalized under a bill that just passed the Colorado House
It has taken decades, Walpole said, for service animals to be respected and understood by society. He fears any trust that has developed is in the process of crumbling due to posers who slap a vest and phony credential on their animal to sneak it into restaurants, shops and other public places.
Exactly right. If you allow selfish people to abuse society you risk society deciding that accomadations for those with needs isn't worth the costs of selfish people.
In a similar way those that abuse handicaped parking have resulted in handicapped parking being seen by many people as just parking for selfish bozos. Most people in society want to provide accomadations for those that need service animals, special parking etc.. But if what happens is society is taken advantage of by selfish people society will eventually just decide the accomodations are mainly just for selfish bozos and eliminate them.
What we need to do instead is stop selfish jerks from screwing over society and those with real needs.
Sadly, while the number of people so obnoxious they would abuse the idea of service animals is very small. The abuse those few jerks subject society to is so great their selfishness risks the tolerance of society for those with real needs.
Related: Appeasing Rude Selfish People Just Makes them Behave Even More Selfishly - Reasonable Accommodations Becoming Unreasonable - Acting Considerately
Saturday, March 12, 2016
Prioritizing the Important over the Urgent
I put a priority on blocking all time grabbing activities that I don't place a high value on. That way I make sure I have plenty of time for what I most care about.
But I see most people get overwhelmed with what they feel is urgent and fail to do the things they talk about being important to them. They would benefit greatly from making sure they don't allow the "urgent" items to crowd out those items that are most important to them (non-negotiables).
If I did look at things as non-negotiables one would be the NCAA basketball tournament and another would be hiking and also using the internet.
response to: Do you think a non negotiable list could help you?
Related: The Aim Should be the Best Life – Not Work v. Life Balance - Working Less: Better Lives and Less Unemployment - Chomphet Hike, Luang Prabang, Laos - Financial Independence Retire Early (FIRE) and Location Independent Working
But I see most people get overwhelmed with what they feel is urgent and fail to do the things they talk about being important to them. They would benefit greatly from making sure they don't allow the "urgent" items to crowd out those items that are most important to them (non-negotiables).
If I did look at things as non-negotiables one would be the NCAA basketball tournament and another would be hiking and also using the internet.
response to: Do you think a non negotiable list could help you?
Related: The Aim Should be the Best Life – Not Work v. Life Balance - Working Less: Better Lives and Less Unemployment - Chomphet Hike, Luang Prabang, Laos - Financial Independence Retire Early (FIRE) and Location Independent Working
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