Steve Fischer's Random Blog

Author: fish1964

  • Take Care of Yourself

    I read two simple things on random blogs today. The first was a poem I really liked and almost posted right away. But I hadn’t heard of the author and googling him showed he was also a socialist politician and these days I’m avoiding politics on the blog. But screw it, in South America in the 60’s lots of people were socialists and it’s a poem.

    So via Om Malik who may have the best URL around, a poem by Pable Neruda called Dies Slowly:

    He who does not travel,
    who does not read,
    who does not listen to music,
    who does not find grace in himself,
    dies slowly

    Follow by John Scalzi (who could be a socialist, who knows?):

    Take care of yourself. You’re not getting any younger, you know. Do things that give you joy, with people you like and love. It’s more important than you might think.

    Do things that give you joy…

  • Vive la France

    Following Macron’s victory, a funny article about the “Macron voter”:

    Arriving at the nearest patisserie, I ask the owner, Claude, if she knows where I might find some Macron voters to talk to. “They are probably at work right now,” she says. “Or picking up their kids. Are you sure that it’s not Le Pen voters you want to meet? That’s what the journalists usually say.”

    …

    The final man, François, chips in. “I remember the “good old days”. Merde! Did you know our service stations only gave up those toilets where it’s two footplates and a hole about 15 years ago?” He shakes his head. “I would like a little more globalisation, frankly.”

    And the best line:

    “Does Marine Le Pen not understand that being French is all about being insouciant, not shouting endlessly about how terrible it is when women wear veils? The only article of clothing a Frenchman should be against is the sock with the sandal.” He shudders. “We are not . . . Germans.”

     

  • Origami Risk – Better than AirPods

    Regular readers of the blog may remember me promoting the fact that our company Origami Risk did very well in an independent software review. The key number to me was the “Net Promoter Score” (NPS), a marketing term I wasn’t familiar with. It basically rates how much your clients are promoting your product to their friends. In the survey, Origami Risk had a Net Promoter Score of 93. That sounds good since our nearest competitor had a 34, but I really didn’t have much context for the metric.

    Yesterday, John Gruber at Daring Fireball posted a link to a survey of Apple’s AirPods. It discussed how extremely satisfied AirPods users are and specifically talked about the NPS number:

    Apple’s Net Promoter Score for AirPods came back as 75. To put that into context, the iPhone’s NPS number is 72. Product and NPS specialists will tell you anything above 50 is excellent and anything above 70 is world class.

    Origami Risk, world class software, thank you very much.

    NPS.png

  • Nate Silver’s ELO Rating

    Nate Silver’s ELO Rating

    This is hilarious if you read FiveThirtyEight.com. You need to hover your mouse over the picture to get the alt text and truly appreciate the joke. This is via SMBC.

    I like to imagine this is what it's like at Nate Silver's house.

    Of course, if you don’t read FiveThirtyEight.com this is probably stupid to you…

  • Goals are better in Spanish

    Messi’s dramatic extra time, walk-off goal. Turn the volume up.

    https://twitter.com/ESbeINSPORTS/status/856247455033249792

  • Wait But Why Meets Neuralink

    Regular readers know I’m a huge Wait But Why fan. Elon Musk is apparently also a fan and he has given Tim Urban (the blog author) tremendous access to learn about his latest venture Neuralink.

    call-1

    Neuralink and the Brain’s Magical Future may be the longest Wait But Why post ever, and that’s saying something. Carve out some time to read it. It breaks up into sections so read it over a couple of days. Just read it because it’s fascinating.

    I like how he breaks Elon Musk’s general company strategy down to this:

    elon-company-formula-1

    Tesla and SpaceX already do this. Here’s the SpaceX version:spacex-formula-1

    The blog post ultimately figures out how a BMI (brain machine interface) company fits this model. But in typical Tim Urban fashion, he zooms out and explains everything first.

    It’s long, but read it anyway…

  • Department of Justice Pisses off NYPD

    Largely due to lack of facts. From the DOJ:

    New York City continues to see gang murder after gang murder, the predictable consequence of the city’s “soft on crime” stance.

    That statement is basically a load of crap. So the NYPD responds:

    New York City is experiencing a steady decline in overall crime that includes major reductions in murder and shootings. In fact, 2016 saw the fewest shootings ever in New York City history since record keeping began. Year to date the City is down an additional 17% from last year’s record low.

    Since 1993, murder has decreased 82%, shootings have decreased 81%, and overall crime has decreased 76%. These are the facts.

    Additionally, over the past year the NYPD has hosted dozens of other police departments from across the world to share our best practices of precision policing, which focuses on the most serious criminals.

    Separately the NYPD commisioner said:

    I’d like to think of myself as a pretty calm and measured person…but when I read that statement by DOJ this afternoon, my blood began to boil,” he said. “To say we’re soft on crime is absolutely ludicrous.

    Trump vs. the NYPD. Get your popcorn…

  • Second Biggest Housing Boom

    Kevin Drum posted an interesting chart showing inflation adjusted housing prices since WWII. He points out three interesting items:

    1. From 1963 to 1997 average housing prices were completely flat. 0% increase.
    2. Bush era housing boom was historically insane (well, duh)
    3. Current housing boom is crazy big with no sign of stopping

    blog_home_prices_1949_2017_1

    How far will this one go?…

  • Brooklyn Real Estate – Still Insane

    From Brownstoner comes Q1 2017 Brooklyn real estate stats. The median price per square foot number is just crazy. This only covers actual sales, but it is for all of Brooklyn, not just the crazy hot neighborhoods.

    brooklyn-real-estate-douglas-elliman-first-quarter-report-corc-chart-2

    Of course, this place just sold for $15 million…

    brooklyn-real-estate-douglas-elliman-first-quarter-report-corcoran

  • Who Moved My Teachers?

    I’m a Brooklyn guy, but I grew up in Milwaukee. My brother is a University of Wisconsin system professor and his wife was a long time grade school teacher. She literally retired because Governor Walker made her job miserable. So this article hit home…

    The school of education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison never used to have trouble attracting applicants with dreams of becoming teachers. Its graduate program is ranked fourth in the country by U.S. News & World Report, and until recently, its undergraduate program in elementary education typically received between 300 and 400 applications for its 125 spots. Now, says Michael Apple, a professor in the program, it only gets about one applicant per opening.