Printing costs and a minor surprise

This evening, I decided to compare prices on printers and printing supplies. I've always believed that ink jet printers cost more per page than other kinds of printers, but as it turns out, the reality is not as simple as that.

The economy isn't making people eat poorly - laziness is.

For quite a while now, the self-appointed food cops, politicians and their lackeys in the press have been claiming that the economy is why people aren't eating healthy. They claim that the poor are eating so badly because all they can afford is fast food.

Well, it just ain't true. According to a University of Washington study, healthy foods do not cost more than junk food. Sure, there are some very expensive healthy foods, but most of the basic staples (rice, beans, chicken, carrots, etc.) are much less expensive than fast food and are plenty nutritious.

So why do the people eat so badly if it's not because of cost? According to the article, it's time and convenience. It takes 9-16 hours a week to shop for groceries and cook and serve them at home. In households where all the adults work, nobody wants to take that kind of time, so they eat out, and fast food is cheaper than other kinds of restaurants.

In other words, these people are not eating fast food because they aren't making a lot of money. If they suddenly make more money, they will still not want to go grocery shopping or cook meals for the family. I suppose some might start going to more upscale restaurants, but most families are going to require a really huge raise if they want to eat like that every night.

CCF comments on the Nanny State

The Center for Consumer Freedom writes about the rampant increase of "nannyism" in our government, where in the name of "it's good for you", lawmakers are trying to literally control every aspect of your life because you might prefer something different for yourself.

They quote H.L. Mencken: "The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false face for the urge to rule it." He got it right over half a century ago, and it's far more true now than ever before.

The above link also links to three YouTube clips of a TV interview that the article summarizes: part 1, part 2 and part 3.

I'm pretty much in agreement. If I want to eat really tasty food and give up the chance to live an extra year in a nursing home, that's my right. The government can issue press releases telling me that they think I'm making a bad choice, but they have absolutely no right to force me into agreeing, or raising my taxes for daring to disagree.

Israeli dew collectors

Ganked from yourish.com. Also read the article it links to.

An Israeli tech company has developed a passive device that allows plants to collect dew and excess rainwater, while also cutting off sunlight to weeds. Farms using these (at a cost of about $1 per plant) can use 50% less water - a real boon when growing crops in the desert.

iPhone 3GS and whiney pundits

Yesterday, Apple announced the new iPhone 3GS. It looks like a really nice new model - faster processor, more memory, a compass, etc. Apple announced pricing of $200 for the 16GB model and $300 for the 32GB model (and $100 for the older 8GB 3G (no "S") model).

But these prices are for "qualified customers only", meaning they are subsidized prices. You can get them if you are a new AT&T customer or if you are approaching the end of a contract (making you eligible for a new phone at subsidized prices. If you're not "qualified" and don't want to wait for your contract to expire before upgrading, then you have to pay full price (See the fine print at the bottom of this page) which is $400 higher. But in an unusual gesture, AT&T is offering "early upgrade" pricing of only $200 higher for customers who have less than a year left in an existing iPhone contract.

As far as I know, this is standard for the cell phone business. If you want to buy a new phone and you're nowhere near the end of your contract, then you have to pay full price, which is several hundred dollars higher than the subsidized price. That was the case with both of my phones from Verizon and is (as far as I know) the case for all phones from all carriers in the US.

But apparently, many iPhone users are completely clueless about this, or they just enjoy complaining. This afternoon, I ran across this article which was apparently written by someone who has never done business with a cell phone company before. He makes it sound like existing iPhone customers are being punished, because they have to pay more than new customers. (He doesn't make any mention of the fact that existing customers can get the same price if they wait for their contract to lapse.) And the people commenting on the article seem to be taking it as a personal attack by Apple Corporation itself.

To these people: get a life, get a brain, and learn to read contracts before signing them. You're not going to get something for nothing, no matter how loudly you scream "but I want it and I want it for free and I want it now". If you want to act like a 6-year-old child, then my only answer to you is "go to your room until you learn some manners."

If you want to complain about industry-standard pricing practices, fine, but this is hardly isolated to the iPhone. If you don't want a contractual obligation, then you aren't going to be able to get a subsidized price. But given the hatred Apple got in return for selling the first-generation iPhones without a subsidy (for $600), I doubt the whiners would like that either.

Atlanta Investigation Uncovers Deceptive 'Humane Society' Agenda

Atlanta Investigation Uncovers Deceptive 'Humane Society' Agenda

Just another reason why I tell people not to give any money to the so-called "Humane Society of the United States".

If you support animal welfare, donate to the American Humane Society or even better, to a local animal shelter. They have a greater need for the money and they will spend it on helping animals instead of on political activism.

Dry Bones on Obama's image

Million vs. Billion

Normally, I don't post comics here (I save that for my LJ, where I put the less-serious posts) but this one tells a world of truth.

xkcd

New iPod shuffle, now without any controls!

Update 3/17/2009: New information about the controls (seven operations on the middle button, not five), fixed a typo, and added a little more commentary.

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This week, Apple released the third generation iPod Shuffle.

This unit is even smaller than before, if you can believe it. 1.8" x 0.7" x 0.3".

So how'd they get it this small? Simple, they removed all the controls.

Well, not really, but it seems that way. On the iPod itself, there is only a slider switch (off, sequential play, shuffle play) and the headphone jack. It is charged and attached to computers via the headphone jack and a proprietary USB cable.

So how do you actually control the thing? It uses a special set of headphones, with three buttons on the cord. This is the same kinds of headphones introduced for the iPhone, for "hands free" operation. On the cord, the "+" and "-" buttons control the volume. Between the two is a big flat button, whose behavior will depend on how you push it:

• Click once to play/pause
• Double-click to skip forward a track
• Double-click and hold to skip forward within a track
• Triple-click to skip backward a track
• Triple-click and hold to skip backward within a track
• Press and hold and a voice synthesizer will say the title and artist of the track currently playing
• Press and hold until you hear a beep tone to skip to have your list of playlists recited to you. Click to select the playlist last-announced.

If you think this seems unusually complicated for an Apple product, then we're in agreement. It may be sleek and "kewl" to eliminate all the buttons, but when that design forces you to cram seven distinct features onto a single button, it's a bad design. Sure, it's documented, but let's be honest - how many iPod owners have ever read the documentation?

And, of course, there's the problem of what to do if you don't want to use Apple's headphones. Maybe you've got better-sounding ones, or you want to plug your shuffle into your car stereo or something. Without the proprietary earphones, the shuffle starts playing when you turn it on and stops when you turn it off, and that's all you can do. Not at all acceptable unless someone starts selling a set of controls you can attach in-line with a generic headphone/line cord.

My prediction is that this iPod is going to be quickly replaced with something more like the second-gen model, that has actual controls. Or there will be a new accessory to provide a more proper set of controls for those people who don't like the Apple headphone buttons and/or want to use a different set of headphones.

Yet another buraucracy overgrows its usefulness.

In recent news the Author's Guild has decided to take a legal stance against the Amazon Kindle. Specifically, they object to it text-to-speech ability (where it can read books to you.)

The guild thinks that this infringes on their right to license audiobooks separately from the text.

Neil Gaiman thinks this is BS. I concur.

And since I'm not a guild member that might have future retribution to consider, I'll go so far as to say that if the Author's guild thinks it's a good idea to follow in the footsteps of the RIAA and MPAA, screwing over content creators in favor of the lawyers, then their organization no longer has a reason to exist at all.