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2022 Posts

Running a six seat lunch counter

posted: December 30, 2022

tl;dr: A proposal to allow our politicians to show us how well they each can manage a simple business...

Is your database is missing some records?

posted: December 24, 2022

tl;dr: Tips and tricks for finding and fixing missing database records...

Book review: The Rise of America: Remaking the World Order, by Marin Katusa

posted: December 18, 2022

tl;dr: An attempt to build the bull case for the United States that unfortunately relies too much on Modern Monetary Theory...

Book review: The Fourth Turning: An American Prophecy, by William Strauss and Neil Howe

posted: December 18, 2022

tl;dr: A generational, seasonal view of American history that foretells a terribly difficult present-day period...

De-duplicating database records

posted: December 17, 2022

tl;dr: Tips and tricks for finding and fixing duplicate database records...

Write-only APIs

posted: December 9, 2022

tl;dr: I’ve grown to appreciate the security and simplicity of write-only APIs...

Hiking Camelback Mountain Cholla Trail

posted: December 3, 2022

tl;dr: Great views abound, but getting to the top takes preparation and effort...

How to create inflation

posted: November 26, 2022

tl;dr: Policy recommendations for creating inflation that have been proven to work in the real world...

E-bikes are the new EVs

posted: November 19, 2022

tl;dr: The electric-powered vehicle that most will own in the future will have two wheels, not four...

The next pandemic

posted: November 12, 2022

tl;dr: There has to be, and will be, another pandemic before we start addressing root causes...

Not your company

posted: November 5, 2022

tl;dr: The company owners can burn the place to the ground if they want to...

A Marxist sees the light

posted: October 28, 2022

tl;dr: That time I bore witness to an academic Marxist giving up the dream for revolution...

Book review: Agency, by William Gibson

posted: October 22, 2022

tl;dr: A return to the commingled timelines of The Peripheral’s world that left me wishing for more...

A critique of Salesforce Marketing Cloud

posted: October 14, 2022

tl;dr: When you just keep adding and adding features, you get software like Salesforce Marketing Cloud...

Single system software experts

posted: October 8, 2022

tl;dr: A good living can be made by becoming an expert in the right software system...

The Matrix 2022

posted: October 1, 2022

tl;dr: Blue pill consumption is on the rise...

Electronics company towns, from old to new

posted: September 23, 2022

tl;dr: I think I’ve seen the future of China’s huge electronics factory towns...

Management via food and coffee

posted: September 17, 2022

tl;dr: Everyone loves a free lunch, but when the coffee disappears it is never a good sign...

Bike safety by route selection

posted: September 10, 2022

tl;dr: Some tips for choosing a safer route while bicycling and motorcycling...

Great motorcycle roads: Hawaii 550/552 Waimea Canyon, Kaua`i

posted: September 3, 2022

tl;dr: Katy Perry truly did capture the mood of motorcycling in Hawaii...

Internet access fit for a king

posted: August 26, 2022

tl;dr: Most U.S. citizens have a much faster Internet connection than the richest man in the world 25 years ago...

Book review: The Best American Short Stories 2020, ed. by Curtis Sittenfeld

posted: August 25, 2022

tl;dr: A well-curated assortment of stories...

AWS Lambda batch jobs

posted: August 20, 2022

tl;dr: AWS’s Lambda service makes it easy to write, test, and deploy batch jobs...

A second bad omen for a risky journey

posted: August 13, 2022

tl;dr: California tried its best to deter us, but we persevered...

Great motorcycle roads: Arizona 89/89A Wickenburg to Flagstaff

posted: August 6, 2022

tl;dr: The first of a long-running series in which I document my favorite motorcycle roads...

Breakfast at the Law School

posted: July 29, 2022

tl;dr: The people least connected to the real world on any university campus are found in the law school...

The productivity recession

posted: July 23, 2022

tl;dr: It’s debatable whether we’re in an overall recession right now, but we’re definitely in a productivity recession...

Superficial security scans

posted: July 16, 2022

tl;dr: Although imperfect and potentially misleading, security scanning by checking version numbers has some benefits...

Another war for oil (energy)

posted: July 9, 2022

tl;dr: It’s hard to forecast how the war will end, but it is becoming more clear what it is about...

Movie review: Top Gun: Maverick

posted: July 4, 2022

tl;dr: The best feel-good movie about the U.S. military since, well, 1986’s Top Gun...

Not everyone loves a good proxy war

posted: July 2, 2022

tl;dr: I’ve nearly given up hope of ever living in a United States that is at peace...

Keeping a bike upright while stopping

posted: June 25, 2022

tl;dr: Some tips on how to avoid the most common type of fall from a bicycle or motorcycle...

A bad omen for a risky journey

posted: June 18, 2022

tl;dr: Fortunately, I don’t believe in omens...

Jerome Powell: junk bond salesperson of the decade

posted: June 11, 2022

tl;dr: Jerome Powell’s primary job is to inflate away debt by creating negative-real-interest-rate bonds...

The namecheap.com “You are a winner!” scam

posted: June 4, 2022

tl;dr: Why cybercriminals love NameCheap and ICANN...

AWS Glue: the not-so-good stuff

posted: May 28, 2022

tl;dr: These are the aspects of AWS Glue that could use some improvement...

AWS Glue: the good stuff

posted: May 22, 2022

tl;dr: These are the aspects of AWS Glue that I like...

Doing the wave

posted: May 14, 2022

tl;dr: Why I’m always waving at my fellow vehicular operators...

Reality is more accurate than a model of reality

posted: May 7, 2022

tl;dr: As a pragmatic realist, I have good reasons to doubt all models of reality...

The easiest black trail at Steamboat

posted: April 30, 2022

tl;dr: The article I wish I had read before I tried my first black trail at Steamboat...

Book review: The Lords of Easy Money: How the Federal Reserve Broke the American Economy, by Christopher Leonard

posted: April 26, 2022

tl;dr: Confirms the feelings of anti-Fed folks, but won’t convince the money printers to stop...

Solo female biker

posted: April 23, 2022

tl;dr: I haven’t met many solo female bikers, and I’ll never forget the first...

Where I'd go to college today

posted: April 16, 2022

tl;dr: I’m pretty sure I would not go to Cornell if I was starting college in 2022...

Choosing the wrong college

posted: April 9, 2022

tl;dr: I did not choose the absolute best college to attend, but it doesn’t much matter...

Ski Arizona

posted: April 2, 2022

tl;dr: Surprisingly good skiing coupled with other attractions makes Arizona well worth a trip for skiers, believe it or not...

Moving to Arizona FAQs, part two

posted: March 26, 2022

tl;dr: More questions I am most often asked by others considering moving to Arizona...

Moving to Arizona FAQs, part one

posted: March 19, 2022

tl;dr: Questions I am most often asked by others considering moving to Arizona...

Riding a hog

posted: March 12, 2022

tl;dr: What red-blooded American motorcyclist wouldn’t want to ride a Harley-Davidson?...

Why I ride

posted: March 5, 2022

tl;dr: If motorcycles weren’t fun, there would be no point...

Why I got back in the saddle

posted: February 26, 2022

tl;dr: Why I returned to motorcycle riding after a 30-year hiatus...

Getting back in the saddle after a long break

posted: February 19, 2022

tl;dr: How I returned to motorcycle riding after a 30-year hiatus...

Parsing Francis Collins’s comments on what happened in Wuhan, part four

posted: February 12, 2022

tl;dr: Collins has already prepared his defense for if/when it is proved that the COVID-19 virus leaked from WIV...

Parsing Francis Collins’s comments on what happened in Wuhan, part three

posted: February 5, 2022

tl;dr: Collins flunks Outsourcing 101 and treats Fridman like a child when he first brings up gain-of-function...

Parsing Francis Collins’s comments on what happened in Wuhan, part two

posted: January 29, 2022

tl;dr: Collins incorrectly sees science as above politics, and is therefore naïve about politics in China...

Performance review: NOJO7 featuring Cyrille Aimée at Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts, January 16, 2022

posted: Janaury 22, 2022

tl;dr: The world needs more New Orleans jazz right now...

Performance review: Branford Marsalis Quartet at Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts, November 4, 2021

posted: Janaury 19, 2022

tl;dr: Great to see Branford and his exemplary sidemen back on the road...

Parsing Francis Collins’s comments on what happened in Wuhan, part one

posted: January 15, 2022

tl;dr: Collins’s truths, deceptions, and omissions about what happened in Wuhan lend credence to the lab leak theory...

Mistakes weren’t made

posted: January 8, 2022

tl;dr: I avoid people who cannot admit they made a mistake...

How to fool a PhD

posted: January 1, 2022

tl;dr: The most interesting thing is what happens after you do so...