Abuse of Power Behavior, Meet Consequences

Late 2011 I posted about the jackass who pepper sprayed a bunch of kids for absolutely no reason. He was a University of California Davis campus police officer. I'm still stunned thinking about the restraint of each and every one of those students in the video... I'm glad my 20 year old self wasn't there. I'm pretty sure at that age my righteous rage would have gotten the better of me -- I would have tackled and restrained him and probably sparked a riot. It's just difficult to watch one human being abuse another one, doubly so when the abuser holds a position of trust and authority.

I have wondered what happened to that guy and saw this today. I assumed he would be fired and, well, I was right. Turns out he was fired after a stint on administrative leave and went on disability due to stress. The school payed him 38k for disability and ended up settling with the students.

Decisions and Consequences

I don't know all the details-- there were probably confidentiality agreements-- but I do know that HTC opted to start paying patent blackmail (aka patent licensing) fee to Microsoft. HTC's other option was to lawyer up and fight to defend the free and open source operating system on which they based their phones. HTC's phones would not exist if not for the work shared in the commons by scores of companies and individuals.

I got my HTC phone before this all went down, but I'll never buy another. Samsung is the new king of Android based phones now. In some small part, I think HTC's behavior helped that change along.

HTC posted a loss of 101 millon in last quarter. I wonder how many units they shipped? Rumor has it, the patent deal was $5 per unit. I'm betting that five bucks a phone give away is looking pretty bad about now.

I love it...

...when a plan comes together.

"Greyhound officials on Wednesday unveiled plans to shut down the bus station and relocate to the city-owned Green Bay Metro bus depot at 901 University Ave."

Putting these bus depots together is a good thing. I always envisioned a new Greyhound station where Olde North Crossing is now but if there's room in the existing facilities, even better. I believe this will result increased ridership on both Greyhound and Metro, more convenience for the passengers, and reduced costs for both organizations.

The next phase in my mind is a car co-op and/or car rental company in the immediate area and an express bus to the airport.

Like wave bouncing around the ocean, it's hard to know how much of a difference your splashing made. I don't recall anyone talking about this back then but I did. In my own mind, I'd like to think I had something to do with it.

Government Data Collection vs Privacy

Much has been said about how the government isn't grabbing the contents of communications, only the metadata about those communications. The government believes this is ok, to track who is talking to who but not what they are talking about. I do not agree and here's a brilliantly implemented historical perspective on why. Would we be an independent country now if the British had this?

Climate Tit for Tat

We're not sure what is driving global warming and it cannot be linked to extreme weather.

vs.

We know what's causing it and the alarm bells are ringing.

Which is FUD? I get why conservative folks want to deny climate change, they are concerned about the impact a carbon tax or the like would have on the economy-- and the energy business owners that fund their campaigns. What I don't get is how scientists profit by putting their ideas out there. They are simply sharing their view that the longer we wait to manage out of the ground carbon going in to the atmosphere, the worse the impact on Humanity. Where is the ulterior motive for the vast majority of scientists? I see this as a battle of fact based altruism vs moneyed interests. Who do you believe?

Parenting...

...the right way?

Government Overthrow?

The gun lovers think it'll be taking away guns that brings us to revolution.

I beg to differ, I think this trend explains what puts us on a collision course with unrest:



To me, income is income.

Wealth transfer due to death should be taxed as income. I understand this will force liquidation of the family farms and other businesses. I also understand it will begin to break down the forming aristocracy and return us to a meritocratic society.

If corporations share legal rights with individuals, then they should share the same income tax rates too. Make compensation of all citizens (salary and benefits) 100% tax deductible up to 100k or 10x the poverty rate or something.

Flatten the tax rate, give us all, including the corporations, the fist 40k tax free and only tax income earned above that amount.

Other policies that free up wealth and steer it toward providing opportunity for people.

Why? While it would cause quite a stir if government began to crack down on guns for real, I don't think it would be enough to stir the population to rebellion. When the have-nots begin to despair because they come to believe that there are so many resources in the hands of the few that it is impossible to find a job or even take a hand out to eat or feed your children, that's when there will be revolution. I'm not opposed to someone earning, especially if they are creating. I am opposed to people who make money off money having a lower tax rate. I am opposed to aristocracy in the United States. Nobody should be rich just because their great, great, grandparent was and the family hired good money managers. That just doesn't benefit society in any way I can see.

Employment Based on Browser Browser Indecision and Big Data

Apparently companies are starting to apply "big data" techniques to decide which applicants to hire. One of the criteria is if you have installed a non-default browser on your system. Apparently the data suggest, "...that those applicants who have bothered to install new web browsers on their computers (such as Mozilla's Firefox or Google's Chrome) perform better and stay in their posts for 15% longer, on average, than those who use the default pre-installed browser that came with their machine."

Another interesting quote, "...for customer-support calls, people with a criminal background actually perform a bit better."

The Econimist's brief article mentions other criteria too.

H1-B Visas - Indentured Servitude and Unemployed Americans

I understand why businesses want more H1-B visas-- it's so they can hire more skilled workers at less cost. But it's more insidious than just displacing an American from that job. As if displacement weren't bad enough...

Foreign nationals who come here to work under an H1-B visa usually end up making less and-- truly, I've seen it-- are sometimes treated like indentured servants. The company promises them lawyers to help with their green card (permanent residency) but strings that process along for *years*. All the while, the worker is stuck at the company unless they want to start over at a new one.

There are actually businesses that specialize in running adds for programmers where the job requirements listed are actually impossible to meet. That is then used as proof that a company tried to hire a citizen or resident but was unable to fill the position proving that they need to bring in someone from another country.

It's in the news again. A new record, in fact. All of this year's visas were depleted in 5 days. So, of course, a bunch of rich people have come together to lobby for more visas. Here's a warning about it from the IEEE. Seriously? How can anyone even consider this when we have the lowest percentage of Americans employed since President Carter. And for those who have jobs, the number of underemployed is unbelievably large. Seriously.

I've said this before and I'm going to keep saying it. Why not just let anyone come here and work but impose a flat percentage tax on it at the federal level? 20%? 50%? I don't know the right number, but I do know that would give the businesses the flexibility to bring anyone eligible in from anywhere, reduce the deficit, and give Americans a better than fair shot at the job (which, btw, would also reduce the deficit.)

Learning What Companies Know and Share About You

California has a bill in the sausage grinder that, "...would require any business that retains customer data to give a copy of that information, including who it has been shared with, for the past year upon request. It applies to companies that are both on- and offline."

People have no idea how much information is collected about them by companies. The idealist in me thinks this would be really cool in my state too! The pragmatic computer guy in me wonders what's to stop me from social engineering my way in to ask a company for someone else's information?

Guns

When you hear about the low rates of gun crime in European countries, you might think we're the only ones struggling with this issue. I agree with this editorial that covers how the issue is more wide-spread.

I don't really feel the need to own a gun. Never have. But when I read stuff like this from the National Rifle Gun Manufacturers Association I really think about getting one just to protect myself from right wing extremists. I mean, seriously. It bugs me that we use war language for political sound bites. It bothers me more when gun people like LaPierre do it.

Mattress Recycling?

Yes.

And a good thing too. Those hundred pound mattresses take up a ton of space. I had a summer job filling in on city garbage trucks when I was in college. We had a friendly competition for who could stuff the most weight on a truck. Most stuff you just threw in and then ran the hopper once it was full. Couches and other furniture you could use the blade to break down. But when you got mattresses, those were the worst. They just didn't pack down and you knew you had no chance to win that day.

Privacy is Dead- I don't like that.

While I'd want control over my theoretical HR department, I don't have a problem with the efficiencies found with outsourcing very specific, repeatable requests such as verification employment.

What I do have a problem with is when it results in wholesale privacy invasion as described in this article.

The government uses private companies to dodge constitutional protections as well. If someone has a file on me, I should have the right to at least SEE what's in it for free. Though, I'd prefer that sharing information about private individuals was an opt-in thing by default.

What Americans Want

Washington, D.C. – Senator Ron Johnson (WI) today commented on President Obama's inauguration:

“The American people Republican redistricting elected divided government. They want the President and Congress to work together to address the serious challenges facing our nation.”

There, fixed that for you, Senator.

I am sick of both sides claiming that, "The American people want this, the American people want that," in their press releases. It strongly implies all of the American people agree on something and, as we all know, that just isn't the case for anything. There are more than 42 of us, some of the American people will support and oppose just about anything. If you want to make a genuine argument, cite quality polling with publicly released data.

Using conclusive statements for persuasion as Senator Johnson's staff did in this case is just offensive.

Electoral Votes and Districts

Governor Walker and RNC Chair Priebus want to split electoral votes based on who won congressional districts. Given the gerrymandering that occurred in 2010, this means WI would go from sending all electoral votes to the Democratic presidential candidate to giving over half to the Replublican presidential candidate.

In principal, I could agree to that if the senate electoral votes were split among the top two vote getters unless one person won 2/3 of the congressional votes. The state would always end up 6/4 as things stand and the majority of folks probably wouldn't have to deal with all the adds anymore. That gives you most of what you want, right?

But here's what I want in return: eliminate districts and make the WI Assembly a party-proportional election every two years.

So, the Republicans get some presidential electoral votes due to the congressional seat gerrymandering but the people get an Assembly that actually matches the way Wisconsinite votes were cast instead of what we have now. Deal?