Checksum Arcanius

The Seattle Times’ Danny Westneat wrote about a “Glaring gap in Sea-Tac security”

At the end of the article, he asks a question which led me to believe that Danny doesn’t have a firm grasp of economics. So, I attempted to provide some analysis for him. My response:

In your article, you ask: “Shouldn’t homeland security make more sense by now?”

No.

Why not, you ask?

– Who loses their job if those cameras aren’t turned on? (Nobody)
– Does SeaTac lose customers over this? (Nope, they are a monopoly on air travel in the region)
– What is the ultimate response? (SeaTac security – the very people who screwed up — get more money.)

In fact, it’s amazing that the right thing ever happens under these circumstances.

On the other hand:

– “Super” mall owners probably gave a bonus to the manager that secured this government money for the cameras. (This manager has a strong incentive to get the cameras to the mall)
– If something like this happens at the super mall, the negative press scares some customers away. (The mall has no monopoly, so they have to get it right or lose customers)
– Malls want to avoid theft to be more attractive to current and prospective tenants (The mall has a strong incentive to have cameras turned on)

Is it any wonder that the mall gets it right and that homeland security and the airport once again get it wrong?

Of course, its a whole lot easier as a journalist to simply ask “Shouldn’t homeland security make more sense by now?” and not provide any reasons. Much more striking article that gets people running around in “Do Something Syndromeland,” virtually ensuring that the end result is more tax money going towards the airport’s security. Sometimes I hate being right.

Via Daniel at Carrotlife

1) Four Jobs:

Pacific Landscape Management
Polaris Resturant Server Assistant
Blockbuster Video CSR
Microvision Intern, Software Test

2) Four things I wish I had done earlier:

Made a plan
Found the truth
Broke the habit
Learned how
(And I’ve only done one)

3) Four places I have lived:

Bellevue, WA
Issaquah, WA
Provo, UT
Seattle, WA

4) Four countries I have been to:

South Korea
France
Mexico
Italy

5) Four countries/places I would like to visit:

New Zealand
Australia
China
Mars

6) Four of my favorite foods:

Lightly grilled copper river salmon with pepper and lemon juice
Carnal Tacos!
PBJ Sandwhiches
Nachos!

7) Four sites I visit (almost) daily:
google.com
gmail.com
Craigslist Seattle
Checksum Arcanius

8) Four software applications I cannot live without:

Firefox
Thunderbird
foobar2000
putty

9) Four things I’ll never forget:

Geysers of Flame in Orlando
The kindness of my friends
The fallibility of humankind
My own unworthiness

10) If you read this, you are tagged.

Yesterday I skipped out of work early to play a game of ultimate at the UW. The other team was down a person, and they were all graduate Bioengineers, and they had some hot girls, so I volunteered to join their team. Well, good impressions were not exactly made. I played sloppy — missed some easy catches and throws — and before the end of the shortened half, I found myself quite out of breath. I couldn’t really figure it out. Afterwards, I discuessed the possibility of Asthma with my teammates. Later on that night, I decided that the more likely culprit was a food allergy (perhaps chicken, or something else on the chicken sandwhich I ate for lunch). At any rate, I didn’t die, and later on that night I went around greenlake with my roommates on bikes, and I was breathing well once again. When going hard, I’m managed a single lap averaging 18.8 miles an hour, and over the last two laps I barely missed 18 mph average. So I’m pretty happy with that.

I have never been terribly fond of Seattle proper. From traffic jams to panhandlers, it has never evoked a positive image from me. Indeed I live here merely as a convenience while I finish school and I fully intend to live quite happily in the glorious suburbs thereafter. The latest installment in Ryan’s ongoing drama of life reaffirms this desire.

Last night, someone decided it would be a good idea to rummage through my car and take anything that looked valuable. There wasn’t much in there, but there was certainly more than I would have liked. Among the lost items were my radar detector (they took the detector but apparently thought it would be a good idea to detach and leave the cord that powers it), and a box full of miscellaneous electronics including a soldering iron, very crappy night vision monocular, Prometheus Jr (a mini-sumo robot that won 2nd place at Robothon 2004), a bunch of miscellaneous electronic parts (resistors, capacitors, LEDs, distance sensors), and I’m sure a few other things that I didn’t remember. Annoying me much more than the goods lost, though, is the fact that there are still these people that view taking this stuff as ok, and that the Seattle Police don’t give a damn. Sure, they take the report, but they don’t take fingerprints, they don’t ask around for witnesses, they don’t do anything else. And they wonder why Seattle — and every other major city — has a crime problem? With this kind of enforcement, it might as well be legal to commit minor robberies.

My view — perhaps tainted again by these most recent events — is that people that knowingly commit crime that hurts others do not belong in the society at large. Indeed, such people should be removed from society until they are no longer going to commit such crimes. A slap on the wrist doesn’t stop a thief — but cutting off said wrists can help. Since we’re not so much in the dismemberment business in this society, it seems to me that the logical choice is to simply deny criminals the right to walk freely, forever or until cured. People like me dealing with this kind of crap on a semi regular basis is just not right.

I drempt this morning in the murky twilight of my sleep that I has missed my Physics 123 final, causing me to flunk the class. I was even ready to declare that now I knew what I would be taking with that final open slot left in my two-year schedule, until my mind cleared and I realized that I wasn’t taking Physics 123 this quarter, and that I’ve had credit for it since my first quarter here at the UW. Funny how the real and imagined can blend together so flawlessly in dream.

I find the result somewhat interesting — I would have guessed the reverse in the grades between BioE 301 and CSE 321. I’m not complaining though.

The one thing that really really bugs me about Google Calendar is the apostrophe s. Case in point, I inserted “Jeana’s Wedding,” and later searched for “Jeana,” which was not found. What in the world were they thinking? And is this the case with all Google search technology? Worst Feature Ever.

I’ve decided to try using Google Calendar anyway, and just try to use words that I might search for in the future, taking care not to use apostrophes. However, with everything else they have going on, how did they miss this?

Oh, and in case you didn’t know, Jeana is getting married.