Turtles all the way down

Since when is it illegal to solicit sex? Sure, maybe it violates some form of the law, though I’ve got to admit I can’t imagine how. So let’s take a look at the applicable Minnesota statute, which I found here.

609.72 DISORDERLY CONDUCT.

Subdivision 1. Crime. Whoever does any of the following in a public or private place, including on a school bus, knowing, or having reasonable grounds to know that it will, or will tend to, alarm, anger or disturb others or provoke an assault or breach of the peace, is guilty of disorderly conduct, which is a misdemeanor:
(1) Engages in brawling or fighting; or
(2) Disturbs an assembly or meeting, not unlawful in its character; or
(3) Engages in offensive, obscene, abusive, boisterous, or noisy conduct or in offensive, obscene, or abusive language tending reasonably to arouse alarm, anger, or resentment in others. A person does not violate this section if the person’s disorderly conduct was caused by an epileptic seizure.

Subd. 2.[Repealed, 1969 c 226 s 1]

Subd. 3. Caregiver; penalty for disorderly conduct. A caregiver, as defined in section 609.232, who violates the provisions of subdivision 1 against a vulnerable adult, as defined in section 609.232, may be sentenced to imprisonment for not more than one year or to payment of a fine of not more than $3,000, or both.

Reading the police report, the only clause that could possible apply to Craig’s conduct is “Engages in offensive, obscene, abusive, boisterous, or noisy conduct or in offensive, obscene, or abusive language tending reasonably to arouse alarm, anger, or resentment in others.” We can knock off abusive, boisterous and noisy conduct pretty easily as being inapplicable to the facts. Likewise with offensive, obscene, or abusive language, as no talking was involved.

That’s leaves us with offensive or obscene behavior. Was Craig conducting himself in an offensive and obscene fashion? Bumping someone’s foot in a bathroom stall? Sliding his hand along the divider? Annoying and creepy, sure. Still a stretch to call it offensive or obscene.

I could have written this myself.

Assume it is true what an undercover officer claims about his encounter with Senator Larry Craig in an airport men’s room: Mr Craig was asking for sex. What we would have is an adult propositioning another adult. If that is a crime, then an entire industry of singles bars across the nation should be raided. If Mr Craig can be booked, then haul off the thousands of men across America who routinely hurl lascivious suggestions at women who happen to cross their lines of sight.

In Mr Craig’s case, no words were uttered, lascivious or otherwise. No one gestured obscenely or touched anyone else, unless you count one guy’s shoe touching another’s. To get arrested in a bathroom, you generally have to do something sort of sexual. Expose yourself. Grab somebody. In Mr Craig’s case, no one claims he bared a private part, groped the cop, had public sex. Or any sex. In fact, throughout the encounter, a stall divider separated the senator from the officer. Whatever else Mr Craig says about his arrest, this much is undeniably true: he should have called a lawyer.

“If we didn’t spend four hours on placing a man and placing him right, we’d spend four hundred hours on cleaning up our mistake and that time I wouldn’t have.” — Alfred Sloan to Peter Drucker

Ok, so you need to hire someone. Maybe several someones. In the broader perspective, this is a good problem to have. On the other hand, hiring is typically the beginning of a medium to long term relationship between an organization and an individual. In many countries, it is much, much easier to bring someone on than to let them go. And the difference in effectiveness between a poor hire, a mediocre hire and a strong hire is non-linear; that is, the strong hire will be orders of magnitude more effective than the poor hire. Putting this all together (and adding emphasis to make sure you know that I’m being serious for a moment) hiring decisions are some of the most important you’ll ever make.

Ok. So if the goal is to hire excellent people and only excellent people, because non-excellent people are significantly less productive, how can you achieve that goal? I don’t pretend to have all of the answers as hiring is something that I’ve agonized over many times. And honestly, when you end up with a strong hire, it’s hard to tell whether it is because of a diligent hiring process or just dumb luck. But here are a few things you can do in order to increase the probability of successful hires.

• Hire people you know are good. Worked with someone fantastic in a previous job? Have an open position that fits their skills? Target people that fit in this category first. The interview will be a rubber stamp because you’re certain will be strong hires. The tough part will be convincing them to join you, especially if they are comfortable where they are.
• Work your connections. Get the word out that you have an open position to your business network. Some of the best referrals come from people you trust. But make sure that it is clear to both the recommender and the recommnedee that the usual interview procedures will still take place.
• Phone screen candidates first. Most people look great on paper…that’s the point of resumes, right? You’ll find that the majority of candidates with strong resumes don’t prove out after a round of questioning on the phone.
• Interview rigorously. Spend at least half a day, perhaps a whole day or even more for top positions, interviewing. Get a good cross-section of your organization to sit with the candidate. Technical people should come prepared with technical questions, while non-technical people will provide valuable insight into character. Make sure you get a chance to evaluate the candidate both on-the-spot in a traditional interview environment, as well as in a more casual setting, perhaps over dinner and drinks.
• Have your technical people start with basic questions. You’ll be surprised how many applicants will not be able to answer these appropriately. For example, hiring a programmer you might ask them to sketch out an algorithm to reverse a string array of arbitrary length. Assuming they get it right, which some won’t, determine the efficiency of their algorithm. For example, if the string is a billion bytes long, does their algorithm require two billion bytes of memory?
• Sniff out their honesty. Ask them for an example of something they have screwed up or done wrong, and what they did the rectify the situation. If they don’t give you at least one example, then they either (1) don’t realize they’ve made mistakes, (2) are afraid to acknowledge their mistakes, or (3) lying. Any of the above preclude making an offer.
• Call their references. Sure, references will almost always give nothing but positive remarks about the candidate, but talking to a reference gives you a chance gather some between-the-lines information. Several years ago I was sitting on the fence as to whether or not to extend an offer to a candidate and decided to call his reference. While the reference gave the expected glowing evaluation of the candidate he also mentioned, “…and Sammy can be a real hothead!” I had gotten a gut feeling that Sammy was on the aggressive side but wasn’t sure if it was my imagination or not. Needless to say, I didn’t extend an offer to Sammy.

If your candidate passes all of these tests, congratulations. Talk to everyone who interviewed the candidate. Most of the staff should like him or her at this point but some may not. Find out why. Are their concerns issues that could be overcome or potential show-stoppers?

Finally, check your gut. If you have a good gut feeling about the candidate and everything else about them looks good, start working on an offer. If there is something about the person that made you uncomfortable, even if you couldn’t put your finger on it, think twice about taking the next step. Maybe think three times. Usually, this is your subconscious mind sending you a signal. Listen to it.

Hiring ain’t easy but it is so worth doing right.

WOWIO offers a wide variety of online, downloadable ebooks for free. Free as in carbonated water mixed with fermented grains and hops. At first, I was as skeptical as you probably are right now. I was expecting there to be a catch, such as having to give out my credit card number, fill out a survey or hand over my firstborn male child. However I was pleasantly surprised with a simple email based validation and then I was up and downloading my first book. I can’t say much about the selection just yet but it seems reasonable…and free.

A few phrases I’ve run across recently.

We’ll work with you. Usually told to a potential customer by someone trying to win their business. Translation, “We really don’t want to do what you’re asking, will try to get out of it and don’t plan on doing it,” or “We have no idea what you’re talking about but don’t want to risk this deal so we had to say something.”

If you want something done, ask a busy person. Some people who aren’t busy or haven’t been busy can’t seem to find time for anything. Then there are those who juggle a demanding job, family, hobbies and still have time to get extra work done. Bottom line, consider giving work to productive people rather whoever happens to be free at the moment.

It’s not just the deals you win, it’s also the deals you walk away from. Winning deals is great and any business has to win them from time to time, but a bad deal can suck your resources dry, frustrate your staff, and never lead to much revenue. Keep a good nose for bad deals and when you sniff one out, run away. Fast.

And not because someone is talking about me.

This evening our Kidde Nighthawk combination CO / explosive gas detector kept going off. I can usually smell natural gas a mile away and typically know when the oven has been turned on. I can even smell the water heater when I’m near it. But this evening I smelt nothing. And yet, 85 high-pitched decibels were killing my brain cells at 5000 per second.

I’ve had this thing false alarm before, most notably anytime alcohol, such as an open bottle of wine, gets too close to its personal space.

My wife, who is the wiser one in our marriage, insisted on calling the gas company. They came and ran tests with their industrial strength gas detector. Nothing. The service tech rolled his eyes at the Nighthawk and said that they get false alarms “all the time” and we should call the Kidde and explain to them how much we enjoy being freaked out as we’re getting ready for bed.

Checking out Amazon reviews, one can see that this is not an isolated incident.

Not much worse for the wear and somewhat enlightened, we’ll be tossing the Nighthawk for a plain old CO detector and relying on our noses from now on.

I finished the final Harry Potter book last week. It was ok.

Not great. Pretty good. Maybe.

It, and the previous books in the series as well, fell into the trap that most science fiction and a great deal of fiction in general falls into - internal inconsistency. Science fiction is particularly prone to this sort of downfall because of its basis in the fantastical, but any genre is susceptible.

Here’s how it goes… A science fiction writer creates a new technology / world / universe, etc. Throughout the story, some aspects of this new thing are explained and others are not. And then, usually towards the end, a deus ex machina occurs. The reader suddenly learns a new aspect of the technology / world / universe, etc., which is actually a plot device for the conclusion of the story.

For example, the ending of the Harry Potter book, which I won’t spoil for anyone, had me thinking, “Yeah, right.”

The internal inconsistency ending can work in science fiction because the abilities of this technology / world / universe can be made up as the plot thickens. However technique can quickly cross over into abuse and in my opinion, it has. Just because the reader is asked to suspend their disbelief about spaceships, time travel or magic swords doesn’t mean that anything goes. People are still people, everyone has an agenda.

All writers, not just those playing in the science fiction sandbox, need to focus on character development, human motivation as the rationale behind events, compelling plots, and consistency within a universe. Get those down and the rest won’t be easy, but you’ll be well on your way.

One of the most disheartening aspects of working out is when you end up with an injury. Often this is because you’ve pushed yourself too hard while working out and now you are limited in what you can do. The temptation to not work out at all may be present, as could be the frustration associated with not be able to work out or the feeling that your progress is being hampered.

Last year I injured my left wrist, which prevented me from doing any arm curls or motions in which my wrist wasn’t straight. It took several months to heal, and now almost a year and a half later, there are still some movements which cause mild pain. I worked through this injury by focusing my upper body work outs on abs, shoulders and pushing exercises with lighter weights. Over time, I was able to ramp up to heavier weights while incorporating more pulling and curling. In retrospect, I doubt that I lost much while rehabbing the wrist, though the process was discouraging.

Two months ago I overdid some leg presses and triggered a flare up on an old lower back injury. Unlike my wrist injury, for which I realized what I had done immediately and obviously, this was a stealth injury. Several hours after completing my workout, my back began slowly nagging me. Within a day or so, simple motions like standing up and sitting down needed assistance from my arms. In this case, I took a couple of days off from jogging and lifting, then slowly got back into with low impact lifting and short runs. Within two weeks I was at about 90%. As a general rule, you can easily use your abs and back in almost any exercise without realizing it and this can lead to mystery injuries where you are never quite sure what caused the problem.

Unlike the previous two injuries, a hip injury I suffered two years ago completely prevented me from running. Walking did not bother me but running did. I had to take several months off from running and did not do any weights with my legs as well. Slowly I returned to jogging and then running though some residual discomfort lasted over a year.

The message here is not to let an injury stop you from exercising unless there is no other choice. Do what you can. Do a limited workout focused on non-injured muscle groups. Use lighter weights, less impact and shorter distances. Work your way back to full strength. Don’t lose your workout momentum or routine.

As for preventing injuries, this is something I’d love to get better at. However, when you push yourself to the limit to maximize your gains, you become more prone to injury. It’s a delicate balance.

Another reprinted and edited article from Avant Music News.

There’s a joke that went around some months ago that the current generation in their late teens to late twenties get most of their news from the Internet and the Daily Show, rather than the traditional outlets of print and television. Being at least 10 years too old to fit into that category age-wise, I find myself fitting in nonetheless. I rarely watch TV news anymore except to get a quick weather report or to check coverage on a big story such as an election, natural disaster, etc. At our house we get a daily newspaper but it is mainly for my wife, and I view it as a waste of trees that requires additional effort on my part each garbage day.

Bottom line, I don’t get my news from print or TV.

The next obvious question is…why? My answer is to take a look at these sources and it should be obvious. Both local and national US outlets in the US, especially the so-called “24-hour news channels” have a signal-to-noise ratio rapidly approaching zero. Sit in front of CNN, MSNBC, or if you particularly masochistic, Fox News. Try to measure how much of an hour’s broadcast is actual news, rather than commercials, commentary, entertainment or spin. Probably just a few minutes, if that. TV news is virtually content-free.

Print news is not in such a bad state, but has its own problems and annoyances, aside from quickly refilling the recycling bin. Most of the physical volume of a newspaper is ads. It is hard to “get in and out” quickly with a newspaper, as you have to find what you’re looking for amongst all of the overhead. I don’t find too many articles interesting and those that are interesting are often buried. My best luck is with a local paper that focuses on my hometown.

The Internet, through its many sites, blogs, and feeds, allows one to pick and choose the news they see. You can focus on the news sources and topics you’re most interested in. The variety can be broad or narrow, but it is to your choosing. By using news aggregation from multiple sources, you can get in and out quickly. A newsreading session can be a detailed hour-long affair or just last a few seconds as you move from task to task. You can mix local, regional and international news along with reputable and not-so-reputable sources. You can keep up with your friends and family.

Rather than forcing you to adapt your lifestyle to the media, Internet news can be made to adapt itself to your lifestyle. I find that very appealing.

When I read my town’s local paper, I find myself tending to focus on two areas more than others: the opinion page and the comics. While discussions of city council meetings, local crime, and school board issues are important to me, I tend to just skim those articles. But I give my attention to the spin and entertainment. Perhaps this is another root of my dissatisfaction with traditional media, as I don’t appreciate the affect it has on me. As someone who prefers “real news”, I’m a bit embarrassed in my choice of reading. When I do use the traditional media, I head for the lowest common denominator, so to speak.

There just isn’t enough real news going around for the print and TV media (especially the 24-hour news channels). Rather than repeat the same pieces over and over, they differentiate by branching into an areas that have proven popularity: opinion and entertainment. We only have capacity for taking in so much on the latest Iraq casualty figures, government scandals or evidence for global warming. Its not a matter of putting our brains in neutral either; millions of years of natural selection has programmed us to be drawn towards lively social debate and fun. We can’t help but enjoy it, at least at some level.

All major forms of DRM have been broken. That should send a very clear message to those still relying on DRM for…something. Shouldn’t it?

So eMusic and AT&T have launched a new service where AT&T mobile subscribers (without an iPhone) can download from eMusic.

The new deal will cost $7.49 a month for access to five songs, and browsing and downloading can both take place directly on the phone.

Problems, problems, problems. $1.50 a track is still way too much, especially since eMusic users can download tracks to their PCs for a fraction of that amount. To their credit, eMusic will allow the subscribers to download those same five tracks to their PCs for no cost.

I’m a heavy user of eMusic and very happy with their service, mainly because of the great selection of DRM-free music. But even if I was an AT&T subscriber, I wouldn’t find this offering attractive.

Cell phones are slowly subsuming the role of all your personal gadgets: PDA, camera, and MP3 player. For the later, I don’t want to my MP3 player to be limited just because it has a cellular interface. I should be able to sync it to my MP3 collection on my PC via USB, Bluetooth, etc. Why use the thin pipe of cellular data when a better solution already exists?

Cellular operators have made a lot of money with ringtones, which is fine. However I don’t see that model applying to MP3s in general.