cat-v

Even asshats can get it right

uriel@noreply.cat-v.org — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 22:22:34 +0100

[Cory](http://corysucks.com/) [Doctorow](http://www.doctorouch.com/) is one of the most obnoxiously abhorrent 'personality' of the 'blogsphere', but even he can see something is very wrong with the so called '[intellectual property](/economics/intellectual_property/)'. He has written a short article for The Gurdiang(sic) titled: ["Intellectual property" is a silly euphemism](http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/feb/21/intellectual.property).

Of course he still thinks government should regulate information and knowledge (for our own good, as usual), to save ourselves from our own wicked thoughts Oh, no wait, I bet my hat it is to save us from the abuse of those evil corporations! because we all know special interests could never manipulate government regulation to further their... well, special interests. Again the lack of understanding of the most basic economic principles (regulatory capture in particular) shows. 

Still, it is a positive development when more people come to realize the 'property' para...

The Unfairness of Fair Trade

uriel@noreply.cat-v.org — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 04:15:25 +0200

[I wrote a rant about all the silly hype around so called fair trade](/economics/fair_trade).

Bizarre Swedish politics

uriel@noreply.cat-v.org — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 01:55:23 +0200

When all mainstream parties are in favor of doing away with ancient and archaic system of conscription which results in around forty people being thrown into jail every year for their principled opposition to military service, who speaks in favor of continuing stealing a part of the precious life of young men? The Left! 

Sweden, where left wing politics and militarism unite:

["*Only Left Party leader Lars Ohly has consistently spoken out in favour of retaining military service.*"](http://www.thelocal.se/8342/20070830/)

["*Ohly does however enjoy the support of Håkan Syrén, Supreme Commander of the Swedish Armed Forces, who Fokus says is likely to talk up the importance of strength in numbers should a threat arise on Sweden's borders.*"](http://www.thelocal.se/8342/20070830/)

The wonders of biofuels

uriel@noreply.cat-v.org — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 14:05:37 +0200

Because if something sounds like a good idea, it must be a good idea, so why not have government push it down our throats, I'm sure it wont have any unintended consequences. From the Guardian:

"*[Increasing production of biofuels to combat climate change will release between two and nine times more carbon gases over the next 30 years than fossil fuels, according to the first comprehensive analysis of emissions from biofuels.](http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/aug/17/climatechange.energy)*"

Spirituality

uriel@noreply.cat-v.org — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 23:55:25 +0200

[Charles Brooker's screen burn at the Guardian](http://www.richarddawkins.net/article,1513,Charles-Brookers-screen-burn,Charles-Brooker) is the best rant I have read in a long time:

*'Welcome to a dangerous new era - the Unlightenment - in which centuries of rational thought are overturned by idiots. Superstitious idiots. They're everywhere - reading horoscopes, buying homeopathic remedies, consulting psychics, babbling about "chakras" and "healing energies", praying to imaginary gods, and rejecting science in favour of soft-headed bunkum. But instead of slapping these people round the face till they behave like adults, we encourage them. We've got to respect their beliefs, apparently.'*

*'Well I don't. "Spirituality" ...

The Project Zero meta FAQ

uriel@noreply.cat-v.org — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 00:52:01 +0200

[Think Corporate Gibberish Generator meets Web 2.0 Bullshit Generator.](http://diveintomark.org/archives/2007/07/03/mother-faq-er).

What does dynamic linking and communism have in common

uriel@noreply.cat-v.org — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 03:24:22 +0200

Roman Shaposhnik has written a wonderful article about the evils of one of the most insidious ideas in the software world: [What does dynamic linking and communism have got in common?](http://blogs.sun.com/rvs/entry/what_does_dynamic_linking_and).

And I have to share his feeling that the more pro-dynamic-linking propaganda I
read, the more angry I get, which is one of the reasons I have not not got
around writing about it here yet.

Static linking works just fine, and dynamic linking didn't make sense even back
when computers had less than one Mb of ram, say 'No' to the insane complexity
of dynamic linking.

Edit: Another wonderful post in Roman's blog: [Why do I love multiple versioned symbols with the same name](http://blogs.sun.com/rvs/entry/why_do_i_love_multiple). If you can't smell the sarcasm in that title from a mile away you need to have your brain checked.

Clerics and copyright

uriel@noreply.cat-v.org — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 11:02:15 +0200

A couple of interesting links about two of my favorite subjects, the harmful effects of religion delusions and intellectual property.

* [How Things Would Work in a Copyright Free Universe](http://www.ilanamercer.com/Copyfree.htm).
* [What if Muslim clerics were held to the same standards as Pfizer?](http://american.com/archive/2007/june-0607/double-standards-in-nigerian-health)

In a more positive note, evil capitalism is destroying the wonderful traditional Indian social system:

* [Economic development in India is wearing down the Caste system](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118256120981545474-search.html).

Patents IP and wine

uriel@noreply.cat-v.org — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 04:12:44 +0200

I found a beautiful essay by John Perry Barlow titled ['Selling Wine Without
Bottles, The Economy of Mind on the Global
Net'](http://harmful.cat-v.org/economics/intellectual_property/economy_of_ideas)
written in in the beginning of the 90's, and its premonitory power is only
comparable to that of Neuromancer ten years earlier.

And as an extra I rescued a [collection of quotes about patents](http://harmful.cat-v.org/economics/intellectual_property/quotes_on_patents) that includes gems like this:

"*Of course, nothing is easier than to excite people on the argument
that everything should be made in this country and not imported:
though what would happen if anybody really tried to carry that out is
the same as would happen if everybody expelled his breath from his
body and never drew any breath in.*" -- Viscount Simon, Parliamentary Debates, House of Lords, 1949.

Which reminds me, I should should create a page about tariffs and other trade
barriers to complement the [subsidies](/economics/subsidies) page.

The sick wacko

uriel@noreply.cat-v.org — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 18:22:16 +0200

Cato@Liberty asks: [Is Michael Moore Sicko or Wacko?](http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2007/05/24/sicko-or-wacko/)

> * Moore frequently refers to the 47 million Americans without health insurance, but fails to point out that most of those are uninsured for only brief periods, or that millions are already eligible for government programs like Medicaid but fail to apply. Moreover, he implies that people without health insurance don’t receive health care. In reality, as Michael Cannon and I have pointed out, most do. Hospitals are legally obligated to provide care regardless of ability to pay, and while physicians do not face the same legal requirements, few are willing to deny treatment because a patient lacks insurance. Treatment for the uninsured may well mean financial hardship, but by and large they do receive care.
> * Moore talks a lot about life expectancy, suggesting that people in Canada, Britain, France, and even Cuba live longer than Americans because of their health care systems. But most experts agree that life expectancies are a poor measure of health care, because they are affected by too many exogenous factors like violent crime, poverty, obesity, ...

t

uriel@noreply.cat-v.org — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 07:30:37 +0200

Technorati Profile

Infinite stupidity

uriel@noreply.cat-v.org — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 02:06:28 +0200

[When chemistry is outlawed, only outlaws will do chemistry](http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2007/06/when_chemistry_is_outlawed_onl.php).

I should write about the *war on drugs* some time, but it is so *stupid* that it makes my brains cringe.

George Carlin

uriel@noreply.cat-v.org — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 16:21:08 +0200

George Carlin is one of my heros, I don't agree with him in many things, and
his understanding of economics is a bit lacking, but he is an absolute genius,
and I love how he trounces political correctness and other generally accepted
nonsense.

Here are two great shows by him:

* [George Carlin - You Are All Diseased](http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8683046848311681223).
* [George Carlin - What Am I Doing In New Jersey](http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8522695233374950514).

His rant [on religion](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uBAPbOWLxc) is as close
to perfection as a rant can be. 

And his [essay about children](http://harmful.cat-v.org/society/children/fuck_the_children) is beautiful.

New documents archive and ifdef considered harmful

uriel@noreply.cat-v.org — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 19:42:08 +0200

There is a new [doc.cat-v.org](http://doc.cat-v.org) site that intends to collect interesting papers and other documents, it is slowly being populated, but please feel free to send in any interesting things that are worth including.

One of the first things I posted there is the excellent, and sadly completely ignored, paper by Henry Spencer and Geoff Collyer: [#ifdef Considered Harmful](http://doc.cat-v.org/henry_spencer/ifdef_considered_harmful), well worth reading to learn about how to write portable software without abusing the wicked C preprocessor.

The the evolution of language

uriel@noreply.cat-v.org — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 00:24:22 +0200

... [from Descartes to the W3C](http://harmful.cat-v.org/software/xml/the_evolution_of_language).

Autohell

uriel@noreply.cat-v.org — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 11:26:45 +0200

One of my favorite subjects, the total stupidity and idioticy of the gnu autotools. Thanks to sqweek for this gem he found in busybox:

    /* Lie to autoconf when it starts asking stupid questions. */
    if (argc == 2 && !strcmp(argv[1], "--version")) {
        puts("This is not GNU sed version 4.0");
        return 0;
    }

Twenty years of software progress

uriel@noreply.cat-v.org — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 11:52:01 +0200

[Mac Plus(1986) vs. AMD DualCore/WinXP(2007)](http://hubpages.com/hub/_86_Mac_Plus_Vs_07_AMD_DualCore_You_Wont_Believe_Who_Wins).
Confirmation of what we suspected all along: that in the last twenty years the
software industry has made zero progress.

    When we compare strictly common, everyday, basic user tasks between the Mac
    Plus and the AMD we find remarkable similarities in overall speed, thus it can
    be stated that for the majority of simple office uses, the massive advances in
    technology in the past two decades have brought zero advance in productivity.

And they don't even evaluate reliability which is probably the most important
and has certainly been going steadily down over the years.

This reminds me of what is still the most powerful programming paradigm: Unix
shell programming with pipes. The most basic Unix tools have become so
Byzantine that they are slower than they were 25 years ago. But got to thank
PoSix and GNU for all those *really useful* 'fea...

Blogs suck so we got a blog

uriel@noreply.cat-v.org — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 11:40:41 +0200

So we have a blog now! Even with an rss feed... *yuck*

And to celebrate I added a bunch of new entries:

* [Andy Tanenbaum](/softare/andy_tanenbaum/) had not learned anything in 92' and I doubt he has learned anything since then.
* [Agnostics are wimps](/society/religion/agnosticism/).
* [Gay marriage](/society/gay_marriage/) is silly and hypocritical, stop the discrimination against singles, polygamists and romantic relationships with non-human entities!

And probably a few other items that I forgot about. Enjoy!