Quotulatiousness

March 8, 2011

Lastest boon to spammers? The move to IPv6, apparently

Filed under: Technology — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 08:50

John Leyden reports that with all the good things about moving to the vastly larger address space of IPv6, we can expect at least one negative:

The migration towards IPv6, which has been made necessary by the expansion of the internet, will make it harder to filter spam messages, service providers warn.

The current internet protocol, IPv4, has a limited address space which is reaching exhaustion thanks to the fast uptake of internet technology in populous countries such as India and China and the more widespread use of smartphones. IPv6 promises 3.4 x 1038 addresses compared to the paltry 4.3 billion (4.3 x 109) addresses offered by IPv4.

While this expansion allows far more devices to have a unique internet address, it creates a host of problems for security service providers, who have long used databases of known bad IP addresses to maintain blacklists of junk mail cesspools. Spam-filtering technology typically uses these blacklists as one (key component) in a multi-stage junk mail filtering process that also involves examining message contents.

“The primary method for stopping the majority of spam used by email providers is to track bad IP addresses sending email and block them — a process known as IP blacklisting,” explained Stuart Paton, a senior solutions architect at spam-filtering outfit Cloudmark. “With IPv6 this technique will no longer be possible and could mean that email systems would quickly become overloaded if new approaches are not developed to address this.”

March 7, 2011

Your energy consuming future

Filed under: Britain, Economics, Government, Technology — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 11:00

Britain is facing a very different future, from the point of energy consumption, according to Steve Holliday, CEO of National Grid:

Because of a six-fold increase in wind generation, which won’t be available when the wind doesn’t blow, “The grid is going to be a very different system in 2020, 2030,” he told BBC’s Radio 4. “We keep thinking that we want it to be there and provide power when we need it. It’s going to be much smarter than that.

“We are going to change our own behaviour and consume it when it is available and available cheaply.”

The more of your electricity that is produced from wind power, the more there will be very noticeable peaks and valleys in available electricity. Not only do you need more sources, you need over-capacity in some areas to generate sufficient power to supply to areas which are becalmed.

Under the so-called “smart grid” that the UK is developing, the government-regulated utility will be able to decide when and where power should be delivered, to ensure that it meets the highest social purpose. Governments may, for example, decide that the needs of key industries take precedence over others, or that the needs of industry trump that of residential consumers. Governments would also be able to price power prohibitively if it is used for non-essential purposes.

Perhaps it’s just the libertarian in me that finds the term “highest social purpose” to be very disturbing: just who the hell is going to be making that determination? And on what basis will the new high priests of the lightnings be making that call?

Smart grids are being developed by utilities worldwide to allow the government to control electricity use in the home, down to the individual appliance. Smart grids would monitor the consumption of each appliance and be capable of turning them off if the power is needed elsewhere.

Like the idea that someone at your local electrical board can decide that you don’t really need to run that TV set or that toaster right now? If the control freaks at the utilities manage to foist this off on us, we’ll be techno-peasants who are only allowed to run electrical devices that meet “social purpose” guidelines.

UN shows true colours again on eve of International Women’s Day

Filed under: Bureaucracy, Middle East, Politics — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 10:11

As a self-parody, the UN can’t possibly go much lower than this, can they?

On the eve of International Women’s Day, which celebrates its 100th anniversary on March 8, the United Nations has delivered a serious insult to women around the world: On March 4, the UN appointed Iran to its Commission for the Status of Women.

Iran has an abysmal record on women’s rights. Its police can arrest women for getting a suntan, wearing too much makeup, or dressing “immodestly.” One of its religious leaders made headlines around the world last year when he blamed women’s immodesty for causing a series of earthquakes. In 2003, Iranian state thugs raped, tortured and killed Iranian-Canadian photographer Zahra Kazemi because she photographed a Tehran prison.

As a sign of its relative unimportance, I only just realized that I didn’t even have a tag for the UN. That’s a pretty strong indication that they’ve lapsed from view.

Bullet train sports big nose to cure big noise

Filed under: Japan, Railways, Technology — Tags: — Nicholas @ 10:02

It looks rather odd, but there’s method to its ugliness:

The nose of the E5 Series, at 15 metres, is a massive 9 metres longer than the previous incarnation of the bullet train (shinkansen), the E2 Series. This, according to its designers at JR East, will help eliminate the phenomena of “tunnel boom”.

Japan’s rail tunnels are somewhat narrower than their European counterparts, so when the shinkansen enters a tunnel at speeds above 200 kilometres per hour, the sudden increase in air pressure can cause a loud “boom” at the other end of the tunnel. In some cases, such shock waves are thought to have damaged tunnels in Japan, ripping chunks of material from tunnel ceilings.

The shape of the front car has evolved gradually to combat this danger, and the striking “Long Nose” design of the E5 Series is the result.

QotD: Mercantilism

Filed under: Economics, History, Humour, Quotations — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 09:56

You actually had a short, but interesting chapter in your book explaining why you think our trade balance with China is mostly irrelevant. Could you give people a short, but sweet synopsis of that argument?

Adam Smith was the first to point this out in the Wealth of Nations. The common wisdom at the time, mercantilism was the name it went by, was that the way a nation got rich was by exporting things. In return for the exports they’d get gold. And Smith’s going, I’m paraphrasing broadly here, “You can’t eat gold, you can’t kiss gold, and gold won’t keep you warm at night. Gold is just gold.”

He said the exports, that’s real stuff, and you’re giving it away in favor of gold. He said imports are the good thing. Imports are when you’re getting something you like. You’re getting French wine. You’re getting American tobacco. You’re getting furs from Russia, getting whatever they were getting back in those days. He said exports are the way you pay for those imports. So imports are Christmas morning. Exports are January’s Visa bill.

People getting so upset because everything seems to be made in China — I understand it on the level of the jobs have moved overseas. I think it’s probably an important thing to remember that if the jobs hadn’t moved overseas, they probably would have just gone away. So, it’s not like the Japanese have all of our car making jobs.

John Hawkins, “The P.J. O’Rourke Interview”, Grendel Report, 2010-10-11

March 6, 2011

Don’t worry, liquor fans, they’ll soon stop over-serving you

Filed under: Cancon, Economics — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 12:05

Did you know that the US shot glass is ever so slightly larger than the Imperial one? These guys didn’t, but they do now:

To be fussy about it — and who’s fussier than a liquor tax auditor? — a U.S. fluid ounce works out to 29.574 millilitres while the imperial (that is, Canadian) ounce is 28.413. While that may not sound like a big discrepancy to you, it means Canadian bars using U.S. shot glasses, as virtually all of them do, have spent years serving countless more litres of liquor than legally required. The upshot for your shots is that they’ll soon be 7% lighter.

Owners had no idea there was a difference between a U.S. shot and a Canadian one. “I’d say it’s totally unrecognized,” Tweter says. Finding imperial shot glasses proved impossible, and Tweter and Wilson took matters into their own hands. They sourced a factory in China to make a slightly smaller-than-usual vessel. Meet the Can-Pour, probably the only imperial ounce shot glass on the Canadian market.

As a result of rounding, the standard U.S. shot glass actually works out to 30 millilitres while the Can-Pour pours an even 28. Tweter points out this falls within Weights and Measurements Canada’s tolerances. A chart on Tweter and Wilson’s website shows how a bar with annual liquor purchases of $360,000 could save more than $25,000 by pouring a little less. Doesn’t that cheat the customer? “The two-millilitre difference is virtually undetectable. It’s literally drops,” Tweter says.

So drink up, Vancouver shot fans: you’ll soon be paying the same for slightly less alcohol per drink.

Foreign troops in Libya?

Filed under: Africa, Military — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 11:52

While some are debating the possibilities of providing troops to help the Libyan rebels, others may already be there:

The rebellion against the Kadaffi dictatorship in Libya has not produced any official outside help, but Egypt has apparently sent some of its commandos in to help out the largely amateur rebel force. Wearing civilian clothes, the hundred or so Egyptian commandos are officially not there, but are providing crucial skills and experience to help the rebels cope with the largely irregular, and mercenary, force still controlled by the Kadaffi clan. There are also some commandos from Britain (SAS) and American (Special Forces) operators are also believed wandering around, mainly to escort diplomats or perform reconnaissance (and find out who is in charge among the rebels).

The Egyptian commandos come from Unit 777, a force that was established in the late 1970s, but underwent some ups and downs in the next two decades before achieving its current form. Today, the 250-300 -man Unit 777 is a significantly improved force. They fall under the command of the Army Commando Command, both of whom are based in Cairo. Force 777 trains with the help of the German GSG-9, French GIGN, and American Delta Force commandos.

The economics of urinal cakes

Filed under: Economics, Humour — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 11:34

Tim Harford uses Bastiat’s “broken window fallacy” to explain the economics of urinal cakes:

Dear Massimo,
When I read the first sentence of your letter, I was wondering where you were going with this. Not to worry: your question is easily answered. The 19th century French economist and essayist Frédéric Bastiat anticipated it with his famous “broken window fallacy”. A broken window seems good for the economy because it creates work for the glazier. But Bastiat pointed out that the money that the window-owner pays to the glazier is money he can’t spent on something else. The glazier is richer, but the tailor or the restaurateur or the escort girl is poorer. The broken window hasn’t stimulated the economy at all.
In short, don’t think you’re doing anyone a favour by aiming squarely at the urinal cake in front of you. And don’t even think about aiming at the urinal cake in front of someone else.

March 5, 2011

Expanding the already expansive interpretation of the “Commerce Clause”

Filed under: Government, Law, USA — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 11:51

Rich Lowry explains why the recent court decision by Judge Gladys Kessler has such wide-reaching implications:

The easy-to-grasp distinction between an activity and inactivity is one of the most powerful legal arguments of ObamaCare’s opponents. But they hadn’t yet run up against a jurist as ingenious as Judge Kessler. She brushes aside the activity/inactivity distinction because not doing something is a choice and therefore “mental activity.”

Why hadn’t someone thought of this before? The sophists in Eric Holder’s Justice Department must be embarrassed that they didn’t themselves dredge up this killer rejoinder.

[. . .]

Kessler writes, “It is pure semantics to argue that an individual who makes a choice to forgo health insurance is not ‘acting,’ especially given the serious economic and health-related consequences to every individual of that choice. Making a choice is an affirmative action, whether one decides to do something or not do something.”

[. . .]

Under the Kessler principle, there’s no nonconduct that the federal government can’t reach. Every day, most Americans engage in nonactivities that affect interstate commerce. If you decide not to buy a house, not to buy a Chrysler or not to buy a Snuggie, you’ve impacted interstate conduct through affirmative mental actions. We’ve gone from the Constitution giving Congress the power to “regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian tribes,” to regulating on the basis of the mental activities of individuals deciding not to do something.

If this precedent stands, the Commerce clause has effectively swallowed the bill of rights: there will be no sphere of human activity that the US federal government can’t regulate.

H/T to David Harsanyi for the link.

xkcd re-interprets the Nolan Chart

Filed under: Humour, Liberty, Media — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 11:36

Nolan Chart

Robert Fulford on feminism

Filed under: History, Law, Liberty, Politics — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 11:10

Coming up on the 100th observance of International Women’s Day, Robert Fulford takes a step back to view the feminist movement:

Some organized attempts to improve the lot of humanity claim limited victories; others do more harm than good. Only feminism can claim to have broadened, permanently, the lives of half the humans in the West. Its success, based on earnest arguments and improvised political strategies, is without parallel in the last century. Nothing since the Industrial Revolution has done so much to expand opportunity.

Feminism has altered a whole culture’s ideal version of sexual roles. It has changed the professions, most strikingly medicine and law. It has affected how children are raised, how the law deals with domestic life, how corporations and public institutions are staffed.

Like all revolutions, feminism is at war with itself. Many one-time feminists have quietly abandoned that term after watching former comrades flock behind every dubious new faction in the grievance culture. Radical feminists consider feminism a failure because it has not wiped out poverty, which should have been its goal. Events have so addled the radicals that they believe anyone who calls feminism a success is a covert enemy. Radicals believe we are living through a long dark night of conservatism and therefore have a right to be miserable, indefinitely. Celebrating anything, even the success of a movement they helped start, would rob them of their bitterness.

The world still needs the feminist spirit. It should shine a consistent light on the many millions of women who are caged by misogynistic religions and male-made dictatorships. Freeing them should become the central feminist project.

Local SCA group gets a bit of newspaper coverage

Filed under: Cancon, History, Randomness — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 10:57

Actually, compared to a lot of newspaper articles on the SCA, this one isn’t too bad:

The Society is a global organization with some 30,000 registered members reliving the world before the 17th century. Most stick to European history, but there are plenty of katana-wielding Japan enthusiasts among the ranks. Members get together and do any and everything medieval and renaissance, from armored combat and blacksmithing to the craftier trades such as glass-etching and embroidery.

The Toronto group is know as the Canton of Eoforwicof, one chapter of the Kingdom of Ealdormere, which encompasses most of Ontario and is one of 19 worldwide kingdoms. Each kingdom has its own King, Queen and handful of other royals and nobility.

Unlike a Renaissance Faire, these gatherings are not for anyone’s entertainment but their own.

“We’re not playing to an audience, we’re just doing things for fun,” Ms. Carroll-Clark says.

No mention of rapier combat (my bit of the SCA), but that’s not surprising — even in the SCA it’s a minority interest.

This week in Guild Wars 2 news

Filed under: Gaming — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 00:03

I’ve been accumulating news snippets about the as-yet-to-be-formally-scheduled release of Guild Wars 2 for an email newsletter I send out to my friends and acquaintances in the Guild Wars community.

There’s been so much information this week, thanks to the early leak of information that ArenaNet intended to release next week at PAX East, that I’m dividing the newsletter into sections:

Part 1: Commentary on earlier information

Part 2: New information on Guild Wars

  • The latest issue of GuildMag is now available for download.
  • NCSoft is introducing new password security features for your Master Account. Check the page for details.
  • Wartower.de video interview with John Stumme on the new (March 3rd) Guild Wars update. Includes information on “the Embark Beach Content Update, featuring the seven hero group, a new mission-hub, enhancements to the user interface, changes to pre-searing Ascalon, Titles and a new hero mechanic.”
  • Summary of the GW2 Thief introduction and the March 3rd GW game update.
  • Kill Ten Rats looks at the GW March 3rd update: “This update will change the game to such a degree that it might as well be Guild Wars 1.5 now.”
  • FAQ on the new Mercenary Hero feature (where you can “hire out” your other characters as heroes — a nice, but potentially expensive, way to fill out your new seven-hero parties).

Part 3: New information on Guild Wars 2

  • Localization for Guild Wars — Localizing is a big issue for software, especially one with as rich a selection of user interface options, text prompts, storylines, and all the rest of the things that set Guild Wars apart from other MMORPGs. I work in the software industry, and localization is one of the big ticket items for smaller companies (in this context ArenaNet counts as a small company).
  • J. Robert King talks about the process of developing and writing Edge of Destiny, the second Guild Wars 2 tie-in novel.
  • The next new GW2 class is officially theThief.
  • Walkthrough of a new Norn Guardian’s first quest and dynamic event.
  • A Thief packing twin pistols beats up the wildlife in a high-level area.
  • A Thief demonstrates interesting attack skills, the downed skill, and being defeated during a high-level dynamic event.
  • Massively reviews the new Thief profession.
  • Even more on the Thief, including the importance of an attribute called Initiative: “Initiative regenerates at one point a second, which allows you to fight at a fairly consistent pace without letting you spam your strongest skills. There’s a profession ability (not tied to which weapon you’re using) called Roll For Initiative (ha!) that moves the Thief well away from his current position, while giving him an Initiative boost.”

March 4, 2011

The complicated NFL labour situation

Filed under: Football, Government, Law — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 13:16

Update: Twitter rumours are now that the CBA will be extended for another week to allow further negotiations. New deadline is Friday March 11 at 5pm Eastern time.

A model of how government pension schemes work

Filed under: Economics, Government, USA — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 12:04

It’s all so immense that it’s hard to understand, so Karl Denninger reduces it to an easy-to-comprehend model:

Let’s start with the model but take it into the real world. We’ll use you and I.

You set up a business. I’m a “trustworthy guy.” You have employee who you wish to provide a pension.

So every week when you pay them, you take out $100 from their paycheck. You have 10 employees (including yourself) and you come to me with your $1,000 every week and give it to me. I take it.

But instead of sticking it in an account somewhere with your name on it (as a trustee would) I instead give you a piece of paper. It says I owe you $1,000. But it’s not a debt security. You cannot negotiate it like a check, nor can you sell it to anyone else — it’s only valid if you bring it back to me. It says so right on the face. I promise that if you bring it back I’ll give you the $1,000.

Here’s the problem — as soon as you leave I call up my 10 stripper friends and the local liquor store and throw a party. Guess what I use for the money? Your $1,000.

Now here’s the rub — I don’t have any other money. At all.

In fact, I’m in hock up to my neck. I earn $100,000 a year but I spend $170,000. And how do I do this? Well, among other things I have people like you giving me money to “save.” I also have a bunch of credit cards, and everyone thinks I’m a great guy — kind of like an uncle (just call me “Sam”) and so they keep raising my credit limit.

It’s a wonderful life, isn’t it?

Well, maybe for a while.

But there is a problem with this model. First, this isn’t a “Trust.” A Trust can hold funds for someone, and can even invest them in something, but the funds cannot be converted to the trustee’s use. They must be held segregated and not inure to the benefit of the trustee. Further, the trustee must act solely in the best interest of the beneficiaries of the trust, not their own interest. That’s black-letter law.

Then there’s the second problem — I didn’t invest the money. I blew it, and all of the rest of my money.

One day you come and ask me to redeem one of your $1,000 IOUs. I don’t have any money, but I have a cash advance available on the credit card — or at least I think I do. So I go to the local bank and pull a $1,000 cash advance, giving you ten crisp $100 bills.

Notice what just happened: As soon as you showed up, your IOU, which in fact had no legal status as debt, had to be turned into actual debt at that point in time. Now there really is $1,000 in debt out there — it’s on the credit card.

This is exactly what happened with Social Security and Medicare since Reagan’s “reform” of the systems in the 1980s. Every single Administration since has taken all the money and immediately blown it. There is no money.

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