kaiyen: pepper

kaiyen: pepper

the life and times of Allan Chen

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BBC NEWS | UK | Scotland | South of Scotland | Bomber publishes appeal documents

BBC NEWS | UK | Scotland | South of Scotland | Bomber publishes appeal documents.

So…as if it weren’t controversial enough that Scotland released the terrorist behind Pan Am 103, now he has released documents that “prove” his innocence.

Newsweek had a mini-article – the stuff they have in the front now, that are analysis but not a full blown article – about how Scotland asserted itself with the release of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi as a legit international state.  It wasn’t clear whether it was a good move or not, just that at least Scotland pushed forward their existing compassion for convicted felons with terminal illnesses.

For all the times that I have been tired of rhetoric, especially lately, where it feels half of what the administration says is because it needs to say it, not because it’s what should be said…I am behind all those that have condemned this move.  I have two reasons.

The first is personal.  I do remember Pan Am 103, even though I was only 10 when it happened.  No, I did not quite get the fact that this was a terrorist act, or what it meant that someone had done this in the name of something.  What did hit me was that someone had meant to do this.  And why would anyone want to do something so terrible?  Selfish reason, I guess, to let my own pre-teen shock be a factor.  But it’s my blog so..

The second has to do with a book I read a few years back called “Explaining Hitler.” *  The book put forth the following notion – is Hitler on the spectrum of morality within which we all exist, but on the very, very extreme edge?  Or is he actually off the chart (meaning that we exist in a “normal” range, though with some pretty crazy extremes nonetheless)?

I think that the same question can be asked here.  Megrahi is at least at the far extreme, IMO.  I don’t think he’s off the chart, if indeed Hitler was, and I don’t think he’s as far over as Hitler, either.  But the point is that there is a spectrum, and if Megrahi is towards one end, then maybe Scotland’s political history of compassion shouldn’t apply in this case…

*NB – I don’t think anyone will ever be able to explain or help us really understand Hitler.  But Rosenbaum tried to examine each of the arguments for what forces created such a…I’m loath to say “monster” in general but maybe it’s right this time and their validity in terms of history, etc.

NB^2 – I am not saying that this book is “the” book on the topic.  Just one that I read.

September 18, 2009 Articles from the Web, Getting Political 0 Read more >

Review: Linda Kamas, Economics, Leavey School of Business

ECON 405:  Macroeconomics
At a glance

  • Workload:  Moderate
  • Teaching Style:  Lecture
  • Interest in students: High
  • Relevance to outside world: High, especially if you’re into economics

Overall Professor Rating: 3 (she can get a bit impatient at times)

Overall Course Rating: 4 (but she can also make the course entertaining while getting the teaching across

The Review

This is the latest of my reviews on the professors I’ve had while an MBA student at Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business. There are lots of sites out there that provide feedback and rates – ratemyprofessor is the most notable. The SantaClaraMBA Yahoo group also has a big database of comments and lots of additional information in its message archive. That database can be a bit hard to wade through, and the comments are short and often just link to other threads, which are themselves pretty short and superficial. Only here can I write as much as I want  🙂

I review professors from a variety of perspectives.  First, I explain the context(s) under which I took the class.  Time of year, time of day, etc.  Then I talk about the quality of the class and the professor, and finally about the professor as a person.  After all, we are trying to learn about our interactions with people, so knowing that side of a teacher is critical, too.  So these would be interactions outside the classroom, etc.  I also just write whatever it is that I think is relevant or will be helpful to others.  That is my overall goal.

The facts

I took ECON 405, Macroeconomics, in Winter 2009.  This is the second of two required economics courses, and Professor Kamas teaches several sections.  I took the later section of the evening, and I think that some of my comments about her patience, etc might be a result of that.

Them’s the facts (slim as they are). Now read on for the review.
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September 18, 2009 Reviews of Professors, , , , , 0 Read more >

master




master

Originally uploaded by kaiyen

This is the fencing around a building that caught fire…probably a year ago. It’s been quite a while for the renovation, of course, and it’s been locked off like this for some time. They have finally started work, and the bricks in the background are from ones ripped out by the renovators and contractors.

I’ve had a chance to photograph this building quite a bit. It’s on my way to work, and it makes for good fodder when I’m carrying my camera around with me. I am pretty happy with with the sharpness of the image, with the fence in focus and the bricks much blurrier.

In this case, I think the combination of the low-grain film, shallow depth of field, and sharp lens worked really well.

September 17, 2009 Uncategorized 0 Read more >

CogDogBlog » Hashtag Per Post Works!

CogDogBlog » Hashtag Per Post Works!.

I caught this post by Mr. Cog Dog via my RSS feeds the other day.  It’s the ability to add a hash tag automatically to WP posts, which are then posted to one’s twitter account.  Hash tags – such as #educause or #hiking – are ways of saying “this post belongs in this general group of tweets” and makes for easy searching.

Rather neat.  Downside is that if you don’t put a hash there you got a problem.  DB errors like crazy.  It tries to put an empty value in the database.  Since my blog isn’t specific to any one topic, I might have a problem.

Still a nice feature, though.

September 9, 2009 Articles from the Web 0 Read more >

Stanford study: Media multitaskers pay mental price

Stanford study: Media multitaskers pay mental price.

Just an interesting article about multi-tasking.  I think that what needs to happen is for those that are studying this breed of “new” students (the NetGen, the Millenials, whatever) to consider that there are perhaps more than one generation already.  There are those that grew up with computers, then there are those that grew up with the rise of Facebook and social networking by the time they were in, say, their middle school years or earlier.  I think there is a major difference in how those two groups approach multi-tasking.

I know that the way I look at multi-tasking, and the way I looked at it during college, seems very different from how those I know from the ages of around 20-25 do at the university in general and the law school in particular where I work.  And these are upperclass undergrads and graduate students.  Think about high school students and those just entering college.

If the NetGen is allowed to extend back to 1977 (end of Gen X and a liberal interpretation of this next generation, which is also often identified as starting in 1982), then the debate about Napster would have come out around age 22-23 or so.  Facebook reached my alma mater when I was 26, and the masses at 28.

For those born in 1982, they would have been ages 19, 23, and 25, respectively.

For those born in 1999 (so back to my argument of the 20-25 year olds), we’re now talking about Napster hitting the big scene when they were just 12 years old.  Facebook would have reached them at age 17, when their current age restrictions kicked in.  I argue that there is a pretty big divide between gaining access to P2P music-sharing all the way to iPods and iTunes when one isn’t even in his or her teens, and then using Facebook before even leaving high school, and those that are at the early reaches of the NetGen.

September 9, 2009 Articles from the Web 0 Read more >

for sale




for sale

Originally uploaded by kaiyen

As I have mentioned in the past, I bring a camera just about everywhere I go, and have one in hand while I am walking to and from work, in particular. I walk a relatively mundane, residential route to work, basically the same route, and the truth is that even when I’m in full “there is a photograph everywhere, you just have to look for it” mode, I do end up taking a lot of the same photos.

I’ve walked by this truck for sale a number of times, wanting to find a good way to take its picture. It’s at a gas station literally right at the corner from where I live – maybe 500 feet. It’s this big, old (but not classic-old) truck. Probably a major gas guzzler, and the kind that has little hope of selling unless a buyer is needing something to haul stuff.

I think I might have finally found an angle that works. I wish a bit more of the FOR SALE could be read, but it’s there. And it’s been fun doing straight black and white lately.

Slides will be next for my camera…

September 8, 2009 Uncategorized 0 Read more >

reconsidering MAD

Under the Eisenhower administration, Secretary of State Dulles pushed forth a nuclear policy known as MAD – mutually assured destruction.  It’s a rather frightening approach, but the idea was that if we had enough weapons with enough range and power, we could basically ensure our safety by raising the stakes so high that no country – not even the Soviet Union – would ever dare start a nuclear exchange.

Eisenhower’s and Dulles’ strategy had some particular flaws – their pursuit of a MAD policy lead to one particularly powerful bomb that, should it be dropped from a bomber aircraft, the explosion would be so large that the plane would not be able to get out of the fallout zone even at maximum airspeed.  It was also instituted early enough in the nuclear standoff that neither side had truly considered how to conduct diplomacy and brinksmanship in such a situation.  MAD led quite directly, in my opinion, to the Cuban Missile Crisis, which is easily the closest we ever came to being blown off the face of the earth.  This has some interesting parallels to our current situation with Iran and North Korea and their respective nuclear programs.

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September 8, 2009 Getting Political, Musings, Rants, and Random Thoughts 0 Read more >

I wish I were a better blogger

I wish I were “blogfamous.”  Where I wrote stuff on here and people would comment on it, put it up on digg, etc.  I wish I stirred people’s imaginations or whipped them into a frenzy or whatever.  I wish I were more interesting, maybe.

This is more, I think, than just wanting to be famous or being a hero or having my 15 minutes of fame.  Of course, I would love it if I did something, preferably more like a career than a flash-in-the-pan kind of moment, that made me pop up on the radar of others.  It’s more that I want to write things that are meaningful to others, that resonates with them and makes them think, or laugh, or motivates them to do something (comment, yell at me, get upset, whatever).

I’ve always thought of myself as a good writer – someone who can string a few interesting sentences together and generally uses proper grammar.  I have no illusions of currently or ever being a notable satirist or anything extraordinary like that, but perhaps good enough in general.

What worries me is that maybe I’m simply…boring.  And more than a little bit lazy.  The former is just rather sad.  Maybe I don’t have that many interesting thoughts to share with others, or that those that I do aren’t fodder for conversation (I do post now and then, after all, but the issue is whether the infrequency of my posts is due to a lack of interesting ideas).

The laziness has to do with how often I make myself get up and post something when I’m struck by a bit of news or some commentary by others.  There are lots of really interesting people out there that really do make me think, for good and bad (the myth of the Death Panel gets me riled up a lot), but I don’t get up out of bed, away from the work computer when I’m in the middle of some administrivia e-mail, or jump on the computer in general when I read something that whips up a thought or two of my own.  For some reason I just don’t.  But I should.

So..anyway.  I wish I weren’t so full of self-pity, either :-).  I blog because I need an outlet for commentary when I feel I have something to say.  I know a few people follow what I write.  I know that that number is not large.  I don’t blog to be famous, but I think all of us wish we were the kind of writers, bloggers, commentators and thinkers that make others stop and want to blog about us.

Hm.  This was rather random.

September 8, 2009 Can't be Contained 0 Read more >

sitting room




sitting room

Originally uploaded by kaiyen

This post is not really about the photo…of course, I think all of my photos on flickr are great (or at least pretty good, since I only upload those that I like and think are worth showing to others), but something weird happened.

I got my first flickr comment spam on this photo. It has since been deleted, and the flickr account is now gone, too.

It was a fairly well-worded one. My photos show up on facebook eventually, as part of my news feed. Someone apparently got to this photo somehow, and wrote something along the lines of:

“nice photo, very calming. I wish that everyone used their FB name on flickr, too – so much easier to find people! Comment on one of my photos in return or I’ll come and get you!”

kaiyen, which I use on flickr, is kind of an internet alter ego that I have. And of course on FB I am listed as Allan Chen. So that was rather specific. Also, it’s common to expect that if one comments on another’s photo, there should be at least some perusal of the former’s photostream and make comments, if possible. Not a requirement, and failing to do so doesn’t justify retaliation, but it’s not abnormal.

However…the one photo the person had would generally be considered not safe for work (NSFW) unless one worked in a pretty private location. And if you read the caption for the photo there is a reference to some singles site and how to find her on it.

And now the account is gone. I did a quick FB search of something along the lines of her flickr name to see if I found some crazy, in appropriate profile but no dice.

I think…I think I got comment spam on flickr. Weird.

August 27, 2009 Uncategorized 0 Read more >

making lemonade

I have to admit – I’m a big fan of the phrase “when the world gives you lemons, make lemonade.”

It’s not that I’m some die-hard optimist, nor that I always see the sunny side.  Actually, I might like that phrase because it helps me get through the day sometimes, when I’m being more pessimistic.  But fundamentally, I think it’s a good way of looking at the world, the curveballs that life tends to throw one’s way, and how to come out of things feeling positive and productive.

I have been thinking more about the phrase, though, and how making lemonade can be very different when put into a different context.  In this case, a business one.

Let’s say that we have various beverage producers out there.  To keep up the analogy, different groups and organizations make different kinds of beverages based on their ability to make better quality lemonade than others.  Perhaps great efficiency or even just staff, stuff like that.  I’m going to split off of the actual lemonade analogy now, but stick to the beverage one.

Some groups out there make wine.  These groups are far from those that must remind themselves to make at least lemonade.  They are not only efficient at dealing with problems, but have the skills and/or resources that allow them to produce a high-quality beverage that requires great skill, lots of equipment, land, etc.  They have the machinery, people, and organizational structure to take, say, sour grapes and make at least decent wine.  That’s pretty impressive.  And such organizations are in a completely different league than those trying to make lemonade.

One step down are those that can make, say, sparkling cider.  Not as much skill is required here – there can be a bit of variation in the flavor, perhaps, as long as it still tastes apple-ish, and one can probably use some artificial flavoring to make up the difference.  Equipment and resources are still needed, though.  Skilled workers must be present to operate the machinery to make the actual juice, convert it to cider, and then carbonate it before bottling.  These people likely won’t have the expert-level knowledge of a winemaker or many of the people that work in a winery.  But they are well-trained, and they can make cider.

So where does that leave people who are just trying to make lemonade?  Well, first of all, while this low rung might not be competing with those that can make wine, those that can make sparking cider present a challenge.  When an organization is surprised by something, or has to work with less-than-ideal tools, if one group has the infrastructure to make cider but the other one can only squeeze lemons, perhaps manually and therefore inefficiently, and throw just sugar in there and mix, then something is amiss.  And if the latter group does not move from lemonade to sparkling cider capability at some point, then that group isn’t growing.  And the leader of that group is not doing his or her job.

It’s rough trying to make lemonade in a market where people only recognize the wine, and may, at times, acknowledge the cider…

August 25, 2009 Musings, Rants, and Random Thoughts, Work-related 0 Read more >