Long overdue cell phone feature For the past year, the lack of the following function on modern cell phones has really bothered me.
The ability to turn cell phones silent for a given duration. Instead of having a switch that makes the cell phone quiet or noisy, there should be an option where I can tell my cell phone;
"Be silent for the next 3 hours" or "Be silent everyday from 10pm to 8am"
I can't believe the programming would be that difficult, and with the majority of phone functionality based in the phoneOS these days, I doubt it's even much of a technical hurdle. My iPhone, for instance, has an interface within the programming where I can, using the software interface, change the ringer volume, vibrate features, etc. Surely the programming to allow "Silent for this duration" would not be difficult. No more forgetting to turn your ringer on after movies. No more being awaken by errant calls or text messages while asleep...or, if you turn off your ringer at night, no more worries about turning it back on in the morning.
So simple, so useful...how does this not exist?
Addendum I sent this post, pretty much verbatim, to the Apple as an enhancement request for the iPhone.
Looking for a place Looking for some Seattle information.
My board game group (boxcar gaming) is looking for a new place to have our board games on Wednesday nights. We have previously been gaming at the Wayward Coffeehouse on Tuesdays, but the change in game night in combination with Wayward's Wednesday activities means we have to find a new place.
The requirements of the new place are as follows.
1. Must have a large table or the ability to create large playing surfaces. 2. Must not play music so loud that you have to shout to be heard 3. Must supply a reasonable variety of edibles 4. Must be open till at least 10pm
Jake's Washington Initiative Voter's Guide I realized with the election coming up, I haven't really discussed the initiatives that are in this election. Here are the issues I feel most strongly about.
Ppl. Ini. 960
Ballot Title Initiative Measure No. 960 concerns tax and fee increases imposed by state government.
This measure would require two-thirds legislative approval or voter approval for tax increases, legislative approval of fee increases, certain published information on tax-increasing bills, and advisory votes on taxes enacted without voter approval.
This one sticks in my craw, because it's an Eyman...whom I hate. However, putting aside my animosity for the man, I don't find anything particularly offensive about this bill. It requires a 2/3rds vote by the legislature or voter approval for tax increases.
With the recent abuses of governments on all levels, I'm very much in favor of defanging a simple majority. We've seen at great length the damage caused when there is no power by a dissenting group. Wars, budget plans, health care reforms that devastate low income families have been caused by slim majorities. Since our current tax base is mainly percentage based, it automatically grows with the economy. I'm in favor of 2/3rds majority or voter approval for tax increases. Really, what is the worst case scenario? A new tax requires additional support? It certainly beats the alternative.
Yes on 960
Ref 67
Ballot Title The legislature passed Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 5726 (ESSB 5726) concerning insurance fair conduct related to claims for coverage or benefits and voters have filed a sufficient referendum petition on this bill.
This bill would make it unlawful for insurers to unreasonably deny certain coverage claims, and permit treble damages plus attorney fees for that and other violations. Some health insurance carriers would be exempt.
This is a no brainer. I believe insurance companies should be on the hook for heavy damages for withholding claims or denying reasonable claims. Certainly, without any sort of sufficient inducement to the contrary, it would be in their interest to deny most claims if the worst that can happen is they have to pay the original due amount, plus small penalties. Insurance companies know full well most people can't afford lawyers, and take advantage of that excessively. In addition, most insurance companies are FLUSH. They aren't teetering on the edge. Making them accountable for unethical behavior is only just.
Yes on Ref 67
Hs. Jt Reso. 8212
Ballot Title The legislature has proposed a constitutional amendment on school district tax levies.
This amendment would provide for approval of school district excess property tax levies by simple majority vote of participating voters, and would eliminate supermajority approval requirements based on voter turnout in previous elections.
Should this constitutional amendment be:
Approved Rejected
For the love of god, this needs to be rejected. This constitutional amendment needs to be rejected, stomped flat, and tossed out the door.
This is another attempt to reduce the checks and balances of a decent all people democracy. The change from a super-majority to a majority is from 60% to 50%. You may wonder, why do they want to reduce the effort required to create excess levies 10%? The reason pretty much speaks for itself. Currently, more than 40% of the people generally are not in support of these excess levies. This amendment is expressly created to take power from that section of the people. Super-majority and 2/3rds vote requirements are there for a reason. The reason being, too often the majority tromps on the minority opinion. Approving this measure is actively tromping on minority opinion.
Let's keep in mind that super-majorities are attainable! You can still have your excess levies, but it requires you to have a convincing argument and be able to get a 60% yea vote. Please, do not quiet the little guy.
PSA If you are driving north on Aurora today....Go the SPEED LIMIT.
On my way back from lunch (going the speed limit) I passed;
3 people pulled over 1 cruiser and 2 motorcycle cops hanging out on a side street north of the bridge, waiting 2 cops with radar guns standing on the pedestrian overpass at 41st st.
Baseball Excitement Single Game Playoff for the NL wildcard today. San Diego vs. Colorado.
I'm rooting for Colorado, because, come on, they won 13 out of 14 to drag themselves out of the cellar and become contenders. It's like bad baseball movie type drama.
Jaap Penraat Today is the Birthday of Jaap Penraat (burgunder, thanks for the reminder).
Jaap Penraat is in my pantheon of truly heroic people.
He forged papers for Nazi prisoners being sent as slave labor to the Atlantic Wall area of France during World War II. Through forging papers, he managed to smuggle over 400 people out of the Nazi occupations. In the middle of his operations, he was captured and tortured by Nazi interior guards. For two months he was forced to share a tiny cell with 4 other people, with only a bucket for their waste. They were forced to stand 20 hours a day, and were frequently beaten. He did not break, and when he was released, he went back to making papers. He was forced into hiding for several years near the end of the war. He got married, had 3 daughters, and became an architect. He was awarded the Israeli Medal of the Righteous Among Nations.
However, when asked why he took such risks, he said,
"You do these things because in your mind, there is no other way of doing it".
If you would like to visit his grave, and leave flowers, it's located in Catskill Cemetary in Catskill, New York.
What am I doing here on the floor? Today during my boxing session I got knocked out. Not knocked down (though that happened as well), but knocked out. I was in the middle of an uppercut, trying to get under his high guard, when he hauled off a roundhouse punch that connected right above my right eye (on the headgear), and I then I was on the floor and he was standing over me. According to him, I was only out the briefest of seconds, but wow, quite the jarring discontinuity.
Erica C Barnett....full of crap again Here is what The Stranger lists as "News" this week.
It's by Erica C Barnett, and I think the first paragraph sets the whole tone.
"The Winning Option Tuesday, March 13, wasn't even on the ballot. After Mayor Nickel's tunnel netted a paltry 30 percent of the vote (70 perecnt against) and the state's elevated highway option got barely 45 percent (55 percent against), the clear winner was the surface/transit option."
Ok, let's take a look at this "news" piece. First I would like to note her choice of adjectives, before I get to here faulty logic.
the state's elevated highway option got barely 45 percent (55 perecnt against). Why use the word "barely" to describe 45 percent? It's an attempt to minimize it...and if you don't think so, consider this. If it got "barely 45%" then it received, at least, 45%, probably a little bit more. That means the people voting against it were a little less than 55%. However, does she say "Not quite 55% against" or "pretty much 55% against"? No, she says "55% against" with no adjective. If she had said "45% for and 55% against" that would be fine. However, why give one a minimizing adjective and not the other unless you have an agenda?
Ok, moving on to the logic of "The clear winner was the surface/transit option". Really? Do we have that information? To know that, we would need to know how many of the votes were "no/no". We don't have that. In fact, if I was going to look at the information logically, I would assume most people who voted yes voted yes for one or the other (It is possible there is a flurry of "yes/yes" votes, but it seems unlikely, and certainly, nothing in Erica C Barnett's article discusses it one way or the other).
So, if we assume people who vote yes on one voted no on the other, then what we would see is.
45% voted Yes elevated highawy, No tunnel 30% voted Yes tunnel, No elevated highway 25% voted No tunnel, No elevated highway
If this is the case, we would get exactly the stats Erica C Barnett reports. The clear winner? The elevated highway.
Now, this is assuming people voted Yes/No, and not Yes Yes. We don't have this information, since ballot results are not returned as batch votes. But let's consider this a bit more.
In order for No/No to beat the elevated highway, 45% of the ballots cast would have to be No/No.
We know that 55% of the ballots voted no on the elevated highway, the question is, how many of those No votes were yes votes for the Tunnel?
Well, in order for the No/no ballot to beat the Yes tunnel vote, you must assume that 66.6% of the votes for the tunnel were also votes for the elevated highway. That would break the balloting down to this.
Yes elevate/yes tunnel = 20% of the vote Yes elevate / No Tunnel = 25% of the vote Yes tunnel / No elevate = 10% of the vote No Tunnel / No elevate = 45% of the vote
It seems highly unlikely that the voting would have been so heavily Yes/yes, but it's possible. The election results certainly don't provide information to that level. If Erica C Barnett has access to these numbers, she doesn't publish them. I must then assume that either A) She has no more access to these numbers than I do or B) She has access to these numbers and does not publish them because they weaken her case. I'm guessing it's A.
impetus v. cause I want to explain something about my thinking and writing, which I think causes some confusion, and oftentimes, some miscommunication.
I have thoughts that brew in my mind constantly. Ideas ...theories ...Observations ...Inventions are pulsating around my mind and developing all the time. If you hang out with me, you'll often hear me say something along the lines of "I have a theory about that" and rattle off some, usually ridiculous, theory or set of observations. What has occurred is that my brain has found the impetus to spout its musings forth. This happens for my journal and writings in general. Sometimes a person will say something that will be my impetus for a post...which is different than being the cause of my post. I realize I'm splitting hairs, but it's an important distinction, I believe.
It's seldomn if ever meant as a direct attack or response to the event that caused the impetus, though the timing would seem to suggest it could be nothing but. It's just the final push or pop that causes me to actually say something on my own.
It is likely a bad habit that I should consider modifying, as I can certainly see that it takes the form of something more directed.
Public Service Message If you are thinking about buying one of the new Trio condos at the intersection of Western and Denny, in Belltown. Here is a good question to ask.
What structural reinforcement does this building have? If there is a fire, is the entire building likely to collapse utterly? From my window, I can see the construction take place day after day, and every day a conversation is spawned about the fact that the building seems to be constructed almost completely of prefab particle board components. There doesn't seem to be any general overall building support structure...just layers of floors put on top of one another, kept aligned by short pieces of metal that crosses between the floors.
I hope to god they put in a very aggressive sprinkler system!
But....it's art Last week, I was standing in the cafe at work looking out the window. Our cafe has a majestic view over the sound. I remember sitting there, with my coffee, thinking how beautiful it was. The Olympic Mountains in the distance stood shrouded in clouds. Mount Ranier was dominating the southern view with its grandeur. The water of the sound reflected the west Seattle city scape, and glinted with the sun. I remember thinking, this view moves me...if only they would install a rotating neon red ampersand, this view would be divine.
Well, apparently the suggestion box works, because as of this morning, my view includes a glowing red neon rotating ampersand on a pole...
Now what passes for the News Today on the front page of one of the Seattle papers is a talk about the snow disasters. Ok, that's news of sorts, so I begin to read it.
I start to wonder what kind of nonsense holds for journalism these days. The article discusses how "Most Seattleites don't know how to drive on the snow or ice", which may or may not be true. However, it then goes on to prove this by saying that in the Northeast, they go to work with 3 feet of snow. Well, yes, this is true...but what the article fails to mention ANYWHERE is that in the Northeast there is a civil infrastructure of Snowplows, Sand Trucks, and Salt Trucks that jump into action when the snow starts to fall. You generally aren't driving on snowy roads...you are driving on plowed, sanded, salted roads. It makes your car the filthiest thing you've ever seen...but it also keeps your tires adhering to the road.
Seattle suffers from not having enough "winter" to justify the cost of a civil infrastructure to deal with the weather, on the rare moments when it snows.
This, after reading the news completely mess up what happened at the accident on Queen Anne and Denny a couple days ago leads me to believe that journalists have long since abandoned the art of writing factual news and instead are just glorified storytellers.
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