Category: starred

Religion in China.  That was the topic of a recent excellent Economist article.  Here is one good excerpt: It is hard even to guess at the number of Christians in China. Official surveys seek to play down the figures, ignoring the large number who worship in house churches. By contrast, overseas Christian groups often inflate […]
via Marginal REVOLUTION
The world’s biggest and most important ideological battle

Today I read an article about how company X has improved things by amongst other things ditching JSON after 2 years of using it. Before I start on this subject I should say that JSON does have its place. If you have a web application where a browser is talking to a web server and in particular uses JavaScript then JSON is a good fit.
I’ve discussed this issue several times before with Brian Aker who works with me at HP’s Advanced Technology Group and in the past I have been hit with the issues I’m going to talk about here.
JSON is human readable and easy to parse, that cannot be denied and for prototyping is good in a pinch. The first problem comes when you need to validate data. I’ve been stung many times by one end trying to read/write the JSON in a slightly different format to the other end, the end result is always not pretty. This is one advantage that XML and SOAP has going for it over JSON since validation is easier. I’m personally not a fan of XML but there are many who are.
There are additional problems when you start using mobile platforms. Mobile networks are unreliable, you may have a good 3G signal but it is possible to only get dial-up speed through it due to all the other users. JSON is verbose, XML more so which requires more data transfer. Whilst this can be resolved with protocol compression it will require additional decoding on the client side to do this. In addition data conversion will be needed in many cases for numeric fields.
The biggest problem with JSON is versioning. As you add more features to your application there will likely come a time where you need to change the data structure for your messages. Often you can’t guarantee that your client is using the same version of the software as your server so backwards and forwards compatibility problems can arise. Resolving these often makes the JSON messages very complex to create and decode. This is not as much of a problem for web applications because the browser usually grabs an update version of the JavaScript on execution. So changing the data format at any time is easy as long as both ends agree on the format.
The solution
For many applications the data you are sending is directly from a database or at least data that has been modified since being read from a database. So you will likely want the data model for your messages to match this as much as possible. This is where Google’s Protocol Buffers fit nicely.
Protocol Buffers allow you to specify a schema for the data in a human readable format, it actually looks a little like a database schema. They will automatically validate the data for you and have versioning built-in. This means you can make your code easily backwards and forwards compatible.
There is a positive and negative side to the data transfer of Protocol Buffers. It is a binary protocol. This means it takes up minimal bandwidth on the wire but also means that it is very hard to interpret the data without the schema. The same could be said if you were given InnoDB table data without the schemas. It also means it may be possible to compress the data further with something like LZO or DEFLATE.
I recommend application developers consider Protocol Buffers instead of JSON when they are next developing a server/client application.
via Planet MySQL
Why JSON is bad for applications

These series of statistical graphics show that, while there’s still plenty of war, hunger, sickness, and poverty in the world, things are much better than what they were only a few decades ago—not to talk about centuries ago. We are still far from utopia, but the data is stubborn: We are getting there. Fast.

Check out this graphic of death in wars since 1947—when the Indo-Pakistani war started two years after the end of World War II (the deathliest human conflict in absolute numbers.) Even while the doomsayers argue that we are in another valley of relative peace preceding a major worldwide conflict, even while we there’s the ISS, Syria, Iraq, Israel, Ukraine, and Afghanistan, it seems the world is pretty much in calm.

But while war and conflict have terrible consequences, they are temporal events. More important through time is the level of poverty, food consumption, or child mortality. Here’s the map of food supply. Click on the years to see the differences since 1961:

# World Maps of Food Supply (kcal per capita per day) 1961-2009 – Max Roser⁶

This data comes alive in this two insightful (andpresentations by Swedish statistician and expert in development Hans Roslin:

Make sure to visit Our World In Data to dive into all these fascinating stats.

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via Gizmodo
The world is now safer and better than ever and here’s the evidence

Standing desks are not cheap. Or at least, the extremely handy motorized ones aren’t. That’s why everyone—including this desk-agnostic blogger—freaked out when IKEA announced that it would sell a sit/stand desk powered by electricity for less than $500. Finally, a healthy desk option for the masses. Finally!

But, well, it’s… IKEA. The Swedish flat-pack furniture giant is known for forward-thinking design, innovative assembly methods, stores that you could live in, and delicious meatballs of questionable origin. It is not, however, known for quality or durability. This is not a surprise or a problem, necessarily, because IKEA’s products are often impossibly cheap, and, well, cheap stuff is cheap. So I went into my experience with the Bekant Sit/Stand desk with a measured amount of skepticism. IKEA did not let me down.

What Is It?

The Bekant Sit/Stand desk is a desk at which you can either sit or stand. Without the motor that elevates the desktop, it would be a totally satisfactory however entirely unremarkable surface on which you could rest your laptop or draw detailed pictures of scarabs (or whatever). But that motor. Boy does it turn a simple solid tabletop into the convertible piece of furniture you never knew you needed.

It moves much more than that. In fact, the range of different heights is impressively large.

All that said, this piece of furniture is probably not for very tall people. The maximum height is 48" which is high for a desk but not high enough for someone who’s, say, 6′ 6". I’m 6′ 2", and the most comfortable height for me was just a couple inches below the maximum. A tall drink of water like, say, Shaq could certainly use the desk, but the standing feature wouldn’t be as useful.

Who’s It For?

Honestly, this thing’s for anyone who uses a desk. A second ago, I referred to myself as desk-agnostic, and I meant it. My entire life, I’ve always thought of desks as a surface for doing work. Some are big. Some are small. Some are cheap. Some are expensive. But a desk is a desk. I also had—shall we say—a negative attitude about the standing desk trend. It’s not as bad as the treadmill desk trend, but it strikes me as one of those groupthink things. To me, standing desks are the CrossFit of furniture.

But guess what. Trendy things are sometimes trendy for a good reason. Now that I’ve spent a couple of weeks with one, I am inclined to believe that the standing desk is one of those things. Sit/stand desks, as opposed to standing-only desks, are even better. IKEA’s Bekant Sit/Stand desk is perfect for someone who wants to enjoy the proven health benefits of a standing desk, while also maintaining the option of sitting in a chair like our forefathers did—all without breaking the bank. In other words, this desk is for everyone.

Design

IKEA furniture is famous for its utilitarian simplicity, and the Bekant Sit/Stand does not disappoint in that regard. It’s almost identical to the standard Bekant desk which is a simple particleboard desktop with a stain-resistant veneer and a handy cable management net hidden underneath the surface. The only real difference is the motorized frame, controlled with a small push-button interface tucked under the right side of the desktop. This comes equipped with a safety, in case you ever want to disable the motor.

This handy net contains any and all cables you might need to keep them out of the way.

The Bekant desk also makes an effort to keep your cables out of the way. Depending on the location of your power source, this may or may not work. My outlet was placed right in the middle of the desk, so I ended up kicking the cables quite a bit which is annoying but not the end of the world. I probably could’ve done a better job tucking them in, but since I constantly had to pull my laptop charger out to move to a different part of the apartment, I got a little bit lazy.

See how they dangle?

All things considered, it’s a pretty nice-looking piece of furniture. It’s no Herman Miller Aria desk in terms of elegance or eye-catching design, but the basic design and sturdy construction do the job just fine. The Bekant desk has that office feel. (I’m not sure how else to describe it.) The cable management net is almost completely concealed. The up/down button module could be a little less ugly, but again, it does the job just fine.

For the record it took four pillows to get to the right height. You get the idea, though.

The motors, by the way, are built into the legs and entirely out of view. They also makes very pleasing whirring sound when the surface goes up and down, but it’s not loud enough to be disruptive. Also, the speed seems just about right. It goes from bottom to top in a little under 20 seconds, but most of your adjustments will be small and last only a moment.

If you’re someone who puts lots of heavy stuff on your desk, you should be wary. I put two heavy boxes of books on the surface and could definitely hear the motors strain a little bit. It’s supposed to work with a load as heavy as 154 pounds, but I’d imagine the long-term integrity of the motors could be comprised if you’ve got even 100 pounds of stuff on your desk. But seriously, who keeps 100 pounds of stuff on their desk?

Oh and one more thing: this is a big desk. Let me rephrase that: If you live in a cozy, New York City apartment this is a very big desk. I had to rearrange my bedroom to accommodate it. It’s helpful, however, that the tabletop goes down almost all the way to coffee table-height, so it feels less intrusive. (The low mode is also good for pillow-sitting, if that’s your thing.) All that said, a large surface area means you have a lot of surface to work with—duh. The desk could easily double as a dinner table, and in fact, I think I might just do that.

Using It

This is the fun part. Like I said before, I’ve always been a bit of a Negative Nancy when it comes to expensive standing desks. That’s not to say I don’t work standing up from time-to-time! My IKEA Hopen dresser—you can see it in the background of the photos—is almost the perfect height for me to use it as a standing desk. But I never really do that because my toes hit the bottom of the dresser, and I don’t know, I just feel weird working on top of my dresser.

I’m a bit of a minimalist so I didn’t end up using most of the desktop.

The up/down action changes everything. What I like best about the Bekant Sit/Stand desk is how quick and easy it is to make adjustments to the height. This seems embarrassingly obvious, but it’s actually thrilling to work on a surface that is at the perfect height for whatever posture you’re in, sitting or standing.

Quick note about ergonomics: be nice to your body. I just used my aging MacBook Pro when working and found myself slouching quite a bit. But since I do not want to become a hunchback, I plan on elevating my laptop to eye-level and using an external keyboard and mouse. Obviously, the need to make a desk more ergonomically friendly exists for any desk, but don’t expect this magical, motorized IKEA creation to magically fix your bad posture.

Oh, and assembly is a breeze. I did not assemble the desk—although I wish that I had in retrospect. A couple of very nice fellows that IKEA hired to deliver the desk did, because that was the plan for press who were reviewing the desk. (I think IKEA was just trying to be nice.) The process only took about 15 minutes. Basically, you have to bolt the tabletop to the motorized legs and plug it in.

Like

I seriously can’t believe how much I liked working at the desk when it was at standing height. Even with the back injury I got from rowing in college, I tended to average about four hours per standing session. Thanks to the expansive desktop I found myself moving around a lot more than I would while sitting on my ass, and this even made the time pass a little more gracefully.

Once my feet started to hurt from standing, I’d sit, and that felt great, too. I was actually incredibly surprised that I didn’t really think about sitting at all during my four-hour-long standing sessions. It’s more comfortable than you think! If my posture was good, I could adjust the desk to the perfect ergonomic position. If I was feeling slouchy, I could slouch the desk down a couple inches. (My comment above about ergonomics still apply, however.)

This is me lowering the desk. The buttons are located in a pretty handy spot.

Aside from how much fun it was standing up and smashing laptop keys for hours at a time, I was also surprised by the quality of the desk. It feels rock solid, especially compared to my dirt cheap Arlik swivel chair. The motor works better than I expected, and the desk just glides up and down when you’re adjusting it. Finally, the surface seems like it would look new for years, and if something happens to the desk, IKEA’s likely got you covered with a 10-year limited warranty. They probably don’t got you if you sit on the desk, however. Again, the load capacity is 154 pounds, so this desk is not for sitting—unless of course you weigh less than 154 pounds.

No Like

This is a big desk. It’s entirely possible that IKEA is planning to offer sit/stand options for its smaller, more city-friendly desks, but for now, you’re pretty much screwed if you’re trying to squeeze this thing into a small room with other furniture. There’s also no way to add a shorter desktop due to a support beam that connects the two legs. The control is also fastened to the tabletop, so that annoying. Then again, if you do the dinner table trick, the tabletop will fit six people, snugly. And you can even adjust the height for a standing dinner!

The pin works kind of like those things on treadmills. Meanwhile, the buttons are pretty much flush with the surface of the device so they’re kind of hard to feel. But only sort of.

The only other gripe I can think of are those ugly buttons. Not only are they ugly, they’re also a little bit finicky. They’re barely buttons, really. They’re more like little bubbles, not unlike the buttons you find on shitty stereo remotes. When you’re adjusting the desk, moving your finger even slightly to one side or the other will disengage the button, and the desk will stop moving. You get the hang of it, though. It’s just a bummer that IKEA did so much great work building a beautiful desk and then skimped on the gadgety bit. Then again, IKEA’s never been into gadgets.

Should I Buy It?

Yes. Ok, let me dial that back. If you’re in the market for a motorized sit/stand desk and you don’t want to spend a lot of money, this is an excellent option. You can buy a fancier sit/stand desk that will do things like learn about the way you work and automatically adjust itself, but I don’t really believe that justifies the high price. The price tags on many of the competing desks are north of $1,000, and even the "most affordable, automatic sit-to-stand desk" Kickstarter project is expected to retail for $600. The Bekant Sit/Stand Desk starts at $490.

I’ll admit it. That $490 price tag is a sturdy mark-up from the non-sit/stand Bekant desk which costs just $190. But the versatility that a magical moving desktop affords is more wonderful than I ever expected. I’d pay the premium, and if you’ve been thinking about giving this standing desk trend a try, you should too.

Note: IKEA tells me there is currently product delay on the BEKANT sit/stand desk. Please note that this delay only affects the sit/stand desk and does not affect the rest of the new IKEA BEKANT series of professional desk/tables. I’ll update this post as soon as they give me a release date

This is what I look like when I am blogging. Believe it or not it is a very exciting activity.

IKEA Bekant Sit/Stand Desk Specs

• Desktop materials: Particleboard, Ash veneer, Stain, Clear acrylic lacquer, Foil, Clear acrylic lacquer, ABS plastic

• Underframe materials: Steel, aluminum, polyester powdercoating

• Dimensions: 63" x 31.5" / Height ranges from 22" to 48"

• Max. Load: 154 lb

• Price: $490-$1,200

• Warranty: 10 years

Photos by Nick Stango

via Gizmodo
IKEA Sit/Stand Desk Review: I Can’t Believe How Much I Like This

The sales pitch for automatic license plate readers is how great they are at helping cops solve crimes. From hunting down stolen cars to tracking pedophiles across jurisdictions, ALPRs supposedly make policing a breeze by gathering millions of time/date/location records every single day and making it all available to any law enforcement agency willing to buy the software and pay the licensing fees.

The systems come with civil liberties baggage — privacy issues that aren’t completely articulable, at least not in terms of what the courts have held to contain sufficient expectations of privacy. A single photo of a car on a public road isn’t a privacy violation. But what about dozens or hundreds of photos that more resemble a passive tracking system than a set of public snapshots? That’s a bit more of a gray area — one that hasn’t been fully explored by the courts at this point. Adjacent decisions notwithstanding, ALPRs are mildly intrusive and have troubling implications due to their capabilities, but at this point, they still operate within the confines of the Constitution.

So, if civil liberties are still intact, what’s the next point of attack? Maybe it’s the alleged efficiency. Are law enforcement agencies getting their money’s worth?

It’s a trick question. First and foremost, it’s the public’s money paying for these. In many cases, DHS grants have paid for ALPRs, with local agencies name-checking terrorism and extremism to increase the odds of obtaining funds. Even when paid for out-of-pocket, it’s still the public footing the bill.

The systems aren’t cheap. And from what VPR (NPR Vermont) has uncovered, they’re not really worth the expense. (via Digital Fourth)

Over the past five years, law enforcement agencies in Vermont have invested more than $1 million in technology that gathers millions of data points every year about the whereabouts of vehicles across the state.

Yet even with the millions of scans, the system has not led to many arrests or breakthroughs in major criminal investigations, and it hasn’t led to an increase in the number of tickets written for the offenses the technology is capable of detecting.

No one sells a city council (or the general public) on the wonders of ALPRs by highlighting how many unregistered vehicles might be ticketed or pointing out other mundane traffic enforcement benefits they might provide. Probably just as well, considering these systems have had no discernible effect in these areas.

It’s the "big ticket" crimes that sell ALPRs and push them past the complaints of those concerned about citizens’ privacy and civil liberties. Kidnapping, auto theft, child pornographers, terrorism, etc. These are the sort of thing that put lead in legislators’ collective pencils, stirring them to approve funding or sign off on grant requests, and so on. How do Vermont’s ALPRs stack up against capital-C "crime?"

In the 18 months leading up to Jan. 1, 2013, the 61 license plate readers operating in the state at the time did a lot of recording. A VPR study of public information from local, state and federal law enforcement showed that during that time period, police across the state logged 7.9 million license plates and stored them in a central, statewide database along with the time and location they were scanned.

Despite the financial investment in the systems, they were helpful in solving fewer than five crimes in 2013. The number of tickets written for driving with a suspended license and driving with an expired registration (two violations that ALPRs can detect) hasn’t gone up since the technology was introduced in mid-2009.

Millions of plates. Five (5) crimes solved. Number of tickets issued flat.

So, what do you do? As a legislator who approved funding for this, do you accept this as part of the learning curve or do you demand more from the technology? Do you tell the public, "We appreciate your input but feel that a literal handful of successful criminal investigations far outweighs any privacy issues or budgetary concerns"?

An interview with an officer who uses the ALPR system adds some nuance to the discussion, including the fact that law enforcement’s civil liberties precautions contribute to the perceived inefficiency of the system. But underneath it all, it’s viewed as just another "tool" for local law enforcement to use, albeit one that can’t seem to pull its own weight. No one wants to say the equipment is non-essential or possibly redundant, but the officer interviewed (Sergeant Cram) makes this damning statement.

Despite the $25,000 tool, Cram says the majority of the Winooski Police Department’s traffic stops are still done the old-fashioned way, with officers stopping drivers for infractions like rolling through a stop sign or failing to yield at a crosswalk.

Still, Cram says the federally-funded ALPR is a valuable tool, even though he doesn’t think the city would have put up $25,000 of its own money to buy one.

The city wouldn’t have ended up with one if the DHS wasn’t giving them away. That’s how extraneous this "tool" is. The lack of successful criminal investigations backs this up. The fact that traffic enforcement has remained stagnant even with the addition of several million plate scans per year is the final nail in the coffin.

No one — at least not in Vermont — needs this technology. But if someone else is willing to pay, they’ll take it. And they’ll use it. And years down the road, they’ll likely still have nothing to show for it but a massive database tracking the movement of millions of non-criminals.

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via Techdirt.
Vermont’s Automatic License Plate Readers: 7.9 Million Plates Captured, Five Crimes Solved

Here’s how to give (or at least try to give) your network a little holiday chill.
via Ars Technica
Scare your neighbors with a spooky Halloween network name

For everyone out there who’s spent a feature-length-film amount of time trying to find something good to watch: What Is On Netflix is about to seriously streamline your selection process. The site lists streamables, ranked in descending order based on their respective Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB scores. Yay!

How cool is this?? Reddit user BelgianMyWaffle posted about this cinematic accomplishment on the r/movies thread this morning and I think the best part is how varied the top results are, in terms of genre and year of release; for example, there’s a seamless run of Apocalypse Now to Jiro Dreams of Sushi to 20 Feet From Stardom, all ranked up at 99% on the Tomatometer and all ready to watch right this very moment. The rating Netflix imagines you’ll give its recommended titles is… not always accurate, even when you can compare it to its general average amount of stars, so these two, maybe-a-little-bit more authoritative takes are nice for perspective.

Sure, it’s a pretty bare-bones interface and there are some limitations—it’s not comprehensive, and doesn’t dip down into the lower-rated films—but for an at-a-glance decision-maker, it’s pretty freaking great.

This really, really makes me realize how much I need to hunker down and commit to seeing way, way more movies. Also: Has anyone done this for the AFI’s 100 years categories yet? C’mon! [What Is On Netflix, via Reddit and @nickbilton]

via Gizmodo
You’ll Never Not Know What To Watch On Netflix Again