In support of yield circles

Thankfully, the city just widened a lightly used street around where I live and replaced the old four-way stop with a yield circle. It's so much more efficient now that you only have to stop to yield to other cars.

I have always felt that stop signs are massively overused. In so many cases, yield signs or circles would be much more efficient. Every time you break you are just wasting your time and the energy your engine created. Therefore, less breaking yields better gas mileage and more money saved, less pollution, and more time. Actually, since driving at 30 mph is more efficient than driving at 70 mph due to wind resistance, the only thing that prevents cars from achieving more MPG in the city than on the highway is all the stopping and starting. Just look at the Prius. It gets better city MPG than highway simply becuase it captures some of the energy that would otherwise be wasted during deceleration and breaking and recycles it. Getting rid of the waste works just as well.

Safety is a concern of course, but I'm not advocating replacing every stop sign in America, just the unnecessary ones. I think replacing them with yield circles would be hardly less safe than stop signs since traffic circles force cars to slow down enough to maneuver around the circle.

This may all sound like a drop in the bucket, but it would save a little time, money and environment.

George W. Bush's great redeeming quality

President Obama's first pitch at the All-Star Game today has to make you wish he would suck it up and take a few lessons from the gold standard of first pitchers: George W. Bush. For all his failings, the guy really knew how to burn it down the middle.

Microsoft's problem

Very good article about what's been ailing Microsoft for the past few years. Basically they have reached the point of good enough. Really, there was no major improvement from XP to Vista, and it doesn't sound like there will be any from Vista to 7, at least nothing worth spending $100 on for the upgrade. The same applies to Microsoft Office. Office 2007 was basically a cosmetic update, and Office 2010 only really adds online Office (which I tend to think will be more valuable than some people say). The only time I upgrade anymore is when I get a new computer every three or four years or so, which is why I have Vista and Office 2007 now.

The EC's ubsurd attacks on Microsoft

Recently the European Comission has made the destruction of Microsoft its mission in life. Previously, the EC has forced Microsoft to market an edition of Windows XP without Windows Media Player, called Windows XP Edition N (the EC didn't like Microsoft's preference that it be called Windows XP Reduced Media Edition, even though that's exactly what it is). Of course, practically no one bought Edition N.

More recently Opera filed a complaint with the EC claiming that Microsoft's inclusion of Internet Explorer with the forthcoming Windows 7 is anticompetitive. The EC couldn't have been happier to take up the case of the only European browser on the market.

Microsoft finally caved and said they will offer a IE-less version of Windows 7 in Europe. What was good enough for WMP apparently isn't good enough anymore according to the EC. They prefer that Microsoft find a way to offer consumers a choice of web browsers. Opera, for its part, wants Windows 7 to have a screen when it first boots-up that gives the consumer a choice of browsers to use.

These attacks are just ubsurd. There's obviously no lack of competition in the browser market, seeing as Microsoft's browser share has been tanking in recent years and there are four other legitimate competitors in Google's Chrome, Mozilla's Firefox, Apple's Safari, and Opera. Furthermore, all of these browsers are totally free of charge. Truly, competition in the browser market is stronger than it has ever been.

I suppose the EC will next take on the evil toothpaste industry for their rampant anticompetitive behavior. I mean, think of all those free toothbrushes Crest and Colgate and the like give away with tubes of their toothpaste. And instead of just taking away the free toothbrush, the toothpaste companies need to be forced to offer me a choice of free toothbrushes of different brands. This isn't a perfect example of the ridiculous precedent the EC is setting since all the alternative browsers are free and alternative toothbrushes cost money, but I think it gets the point across.

I can only hope that, if Microsoft is forced to adopt the boot-up browser choice screen that Opera desires, there be a 1% market share requirement for inclusion so that Opera remains ignominiously in the cold.

On Sarah Palin

All this media obsession with Sarah Palin baffles me. Everything she does is scrutinized to determine how it is actually a deft move to position her for a run in 2012. Okay, maybe she really will run in 2012, but who cares? Let me break some news that I wouldn't have previously deemed newsworthy either: Sarah Palin has a zero percent chance of ever becoming President. Have we forgotton the last campaign so soon? Or is the media just trying to draw viewers in with the reality show life of the Palins? I suspect it's the latter, and I hope it is too.

My new food addiction

Tabasco sauce. It's so good. I can't get enough of Chipotle burritos with every bite doused in Tabasco. I think it's burning a hole in my throat though.

Californians: They love spending, but they simply refuse to pay for it

I find it funny that Californians constantly elect politicians to spend lots of money and then they always vote down the ballot measures those politicians propose to pay for all the spending.

Clearly California desperately needs a new constitution. Unfortunately, I suspect a new Californian constitution would only serve to make it easier for the state to raise revenue.