jkslade.net

A great opinion piece from P.J. O’Rourke: Fairness, Idealism, and Other Atrocities. A few of my favorite bits below.

On fairness:

Well, I am here to advocate for unfairness. I’ve got a 10-year-old at home. She’s always saying, “That’s not fair.” When she says this, I say, “Honey, you’re cute. That’s not fair. Your family is pretty well off. That’s not fair. You were born in America. That’s not fair. Darling, you had better pray to God that things don’t start getting fair for you.” What we need is more income, even if it means a bigger income disparity gap.

On idealism:

Don’t chain yourself to a redwood tree. Instead, be a corporate lawyer and make $500,000 a year. No matter how much you cheat the IRS, you’ll still end up paying $100,000 in property, sales and excise taxes. That’s $100,000 to schools, sewers, roads, firefighters and police. You’ll be doing good for society. Does chaining yourself to a redwood tree do society $100,000 worth of good? Idealists are also bullies. The idealist says, “I care more about the redwood trees than you do. I care so much I can’t eat. I can’t sleep. It broke up my marriage. And because I care more than you do, I’m a better person. And because I’m the better person, I have the right to boss you around.”

What it really comes down to is this: go out and do something, make something, create value. That’s where real power and influence come from. If you want the people with power and influence to be aligned with the values you support, then make yourself one of those people.

It’s been a long time since I posted a general update. We’ve been busy. Most recently we built cars for the Pinewood Derby race. Trent is almost official in scouts, and Alec decided to make one, too, so we got to build three. It was rather involved trying to get them all done at once. At least they were all black…

For Easter we had a lot of fun decorating and hiding/finding eggs, as usual…

I made the mistake at one point of tossing one of Mark’s eggs into his basket. He immediately decided that throwing the eggs looked like much more fun than picking them up.

This past week we started the spring soccer season, with Caleb, Trent and Alec all playing again. Kim and I are team-coaching Alec’s team, which should be fun. We didn’t really account for Mark in planning how to run practices, however, so that will be an interesting challenge as always.

More photos from the last few months here:

I work in Intel’s Itanium microprocessor design group. Our most recently completed project was the Tukwila processor. Intel’s Itanium line has not had a lot of positive press in it’s 10+ year history, due to delays, underwhelming performance and slow market adoption. Tukwila looks much better so far.

These are enterprise-grade microprocessors, not like your standard Pentium or Core Duo chip. This baby packs 2.05 billion transistors, the little switches that control all the logic, store memory and such. For comparison:

Intel 4004 (1971): 2300
Intel 8088 (1979): 29,000
Pentium (1993): 3,100,00
Pentium 4 (2000): 42,000,000
Core 2 Quad (2006): 582,000,000
Tukwila (2008): 2,050,000,000

I’m a geek, I think that’s cool.

My job, specifically, involves writing software used to design and test the billions of tiny wires that connect all those switches together. At least, that’s one part of my contribution to Tukwila.

Each one of these projects lasts 4-5 years all together, though I’m only involved in the first half of that (design before it gets manufactured). After the first manufacturing samples — actual silicon parts we can plug in and test — my focus shifts to the next project, Poulson in this case. Poulson is my 5th major project in the 11 years I’ve been with the group.

I actually rather enjoy the work I do. I work with great people on challenging projects, doing a combination of long-term strategic development and daily problem solving. The challenges change frequently as we try to push the envelope.

Only problem is, I don’t see myself doing the same thing for another 20-30 years. So now I’m trying to figure out what’s next… Stay tuned for that!

Tk::GraphViz v1.00 is now available on CPAN. Alternately, download it here.

This perl module uses the GraphViz graph visualization engine to display directed and undirected graphs within a Tk::Canvas. It makes it easy to bind actions to nodes and edges of the graph for interactive applications.

I thought this was extremely well done:

FMF gave a few questions to consider regarding effectiveness of government welfare versus private charities. Here’s my take: The basic principle is that we should all be engaged in doing good things to bless our families and neighbors. Ultimately any good that happens comes about because of individuals acting to benefit other individuals.

So the question is, what provides the best vehicle to enable individuals to minister to each other at that level. Institutions are necessary to provide organization and scale, tuning and amplifying individual actions. Government institutions certainly have scale, but are notoriously inefficient and even corrupt. Such institutions are made up of individuals, but it tends to be self-selecting to a population motivated by power, greed, or laziness.

The other problem with government organizations is funding. The law allows the government to take money from me against my will, and give it to someone else. The law may allow it, but it is questionable at best. There are appropriate functions for the government to fulfill, but wealth redistribution is not one of them.

When thing’s are done the right way (the Lord’s way), all parties benefit — one person doesn’t have to suffer for another to be lifted. I’m in favor of wealth redistribution as directed in the scriptures:

I, the Lord, stretched out the heavens, and built the earth, my very handiwork; and all things therein are mine.

 

And it is my purpose to provide for my saints, for all things are mine.

 

But it must needs be done in mine own way; and behold this is the way that I, the Lord, have decreed to provide for my saints, that the poor shall be exalted, in that the rich are made low.

 

For the earth is full, and there is enough and to spare; yea, I prepared all things, and have given unto the children of men to be agents unto themselves.

D&C 104:14-17

When we are able to give, we are to do so cheerfully. We should be actively engaged in “[bringing] to pass much righteousness” (D&C 58:27). When we are on the other side of the table, we have to overcome the natural tendency to envy and entitlement, endeavoring to provide for ourselves, while being gratefully receiving help when it is offered.

Wo unto you rich men, that will not give your substance to the poor, for your riches will canker your souls; and this shall be your lamentation in the day of visitation, and of judgment, and of indignation: The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and my soul is not saved!

Wo unto you poor men, whose hearts are not broken, whose spirits are not contrite, and whose bellies are not satisfied, and whose hands are not stayed from laying hold upon other men’s goods, whose eyes are full of greediness, and who will not labor with your own hands!

 

D&C 56:16-17

I think there is plenty of challenge in either situation. The point is that all have the chance to improve both their temporal and spiritual situation. That is something that government welfare can’t accomplish.

I’ve started listening to last.fm as I work, and I’ve really enjoyed the swing tag — a nice mix of upbeat swing, not too distracting.

Kim wanted to have family pictures done for her birthday.

We’re not entirely thrilled with the pictures, but it will be a nice memory in the future. More pictures here:

The pictures here are scans of the originals, so the quality is not great.

Stop reading now unless you want to know about the experience…

We had them done at Portrait Innovations at the Centerra shopping center. I hate big shopping centers, and I hate the assembly-line, herding operations like the studio was. But it certainly wasn’t all bad.

They claim to have ‘re-invented the studio experience’. I admit it ran pretty smoothly overall. We took the photos, all digital, so we could immediately review them on the large flat-panel displays right there in the studio. The photographer did a pretty good job of getting everyone, including Mark, to look at the camera and smile — no small task. After we selected the poses and package we wanted, it was just 1/2 hour to pick up the finished prints.

So, it was fast and streamlined, but very impersonal. The studio was crowded and ‘hopping’, and it wasn’t even at a peak time — I can’t imagine doing it earlier in December with the Christmas card rush. We certainly didn’t have a chance to look at some of the initial pictures and make adjustments — we ended up not using the whole first set in our solid-colored shirts because the background didn’t work and poses were off. There was definitely pressure to keep things moving along. To be fair, we had our own pressure to finish before Mark gave out, and we didn’t quite make it.

We’d really like to do a more laid-back session with a photographer who was a bit more interested in us personally, ideally a friend or family member — when are you going to come to Fort Collins, Lindsay? Plus, we have a strong preference for outdoor settings.

But, we did it, and we’re have some decent photos to capture this moment in our family history.

From a commencement address by Elder Ballard at BYU-Hawaii:

“We cannot stand on the sidelines while others, including our critics, attempt to define what the Church teaches,” he said.

“While some conversations have audiences in the thousands or even millions, most are much, much smaller. But all conversations have an impact on those who participate in them. Perceptions of the Church are established one conversation at a time.”

 

That struck me as rather interesting, especially that he specifically encouraged the use of blogs and other “new media.” I know I need to open my mouth more in sharing what’s important to me — I find it way too easy to sit back and let others do the talking. I will make an effort to share more, including through this blog. If nothing else, writing my thoughts down helps me to crystallize what it is I do believe.

Here’s something I’d love to build:

It’s an RC car modified with a kit to replace the battery power cells with a compact hydrogen fuel cell system. It’s a bit expensive, unfortunately — the whole system would probably be ~$2,000. But it would be educational, right?