The Intermission

Microsoft Announces Office Live Workspace - Like a “SharePoint Lite”

Ars Technica reports on a new “software plus services” offering for Microsoft Office. Office Live Workspace is basically just 250 MB of online storage that’s exceptionally well integrated with Microsoft Office. If you’ve ever shared files that are stored on SharePoint, I expect this will be very similar. This will be more notable if I find out that OLW provides all the nice check in/check out/versioning features of SharePoint. If so, this is a nifty little service.

I’m not quick to praise Microsoft, but SharePoint is a pretty nice piece of software. Well, “nice” might not be the right word. It’s extremely powerful and extremely complex. For a lot of applications, though, it’s an obvious choice over other web portal offerings. I’m hopeful that OLW will be simpler in proportion to is lesser feature set.

Use Coke’s MyCokeRewards to Get a Free Coke

All you have to do is enter a special code and tell them where you ship your free 20 oz. Nice This one comes courtesy of TechBargains.

European Finance Group is Worried about the US Dollar

Understandably, the leader of the G7 (now called G8?) is concerned about the declining value of the dollar. An article in the International Herald Tribune explains his plea to the US to do something to reverse this trend. I’m sure this plea is based on the interests of his and other countries, and less based on his concern for the US. But it still shows that other countries are worried about a recession in the US. And if they’re worried for their own sake, maybe we should be worried for ours.

Alternate Sleep Patterns (or, How I Got Through College)

Do you remember that Seinfeld episode where Kramer learns about how DaVinci didn’t sleep at night, but instead took little naps throughout the day, and then he tries the same technique for himself? I actually used this technique fairly often in college. If I had to stay up late to finish a project, I’d prepare by taking a 30 minute nap and then washing my face. All in all, I’d say it worked pretty well. But, in retrospect, I have no idea how I got by with so little sleep in college.

Well, Wired has a how-to page that describes how to Cheat on the Need to Sleep. Apparently, there are legitimate techniques that are intended for use in situations that require people to be awake for long periods of time. For example, if you’re in a long distance solo boat race. The techniques are similar to what Kramer tried, except a little more sophisticated. Here’s my favorite part of the article:

Scientists say that a successful midday nap depends on two things: timing and (no kidding) caffeine consumption. Experiments performed at Loughborough University in the UK showed that the sleep-deprived need only a cup of coffee and 15 minutes of shut-eye to feel amazingly refreshed.

1. Right before you crash, down a cup of java. The caffeine has to travel through your gastro-intestinal tract, giving you time to nap before it kicks in.

2. Close your eyes and relax. Even if you only doze, you’ll get what’s known as effective microsleep, or momentary lapses of wakefulness.

3. Limit your nap to 15 minutes. A half hour can lead to sleep inertia, or the spinning down of the brain’s prefrontal cortex, which handles functions like judgment. This gray matter can take 30 minutes to reboot.

So what have you found online that’s interesting?

Earlier, I questioned how reasonable it is for Ron Paul to say that the American economy should return to the gold standard, rather than the fiat currency we currently use. I still don’t have a good idea of he would make that transition, but now I have a much better idea of why he believes it’s important.

Let me recommend this long but very interesting essay from Ron Paul about the state of the US dollar. What I now understand is that Ron’s desire for an economy based on the gold standard is not just an idealistic goal (like saying “wouldn’t it be great if communism really worked”). It’s a financial and even moral imperative for our society.

Ron’s essay reads a little like a conspiracy theory (e.g. U.S. military involvement in Venezuela, Iran, and Iraq were based on our need to keep oil prices tied to the US dollar rather than the euro), but it reads more like an extremely rational and historically compelling theory.

If I thought Ron’s essay was crazy, I would say “read it with an open mind.” But I can confidently urge you to read it with a critical mind. Honestly, is there some crackpot element that I didn’t notice?

I almost hate to use the name Ron Paul in my blog, because he’s already all over the internet (my friend Ian would, at this point, rub his palm on an invisible computer screen in front of him and say “Eww! Get off my internet!”). But I just can’t help it.

I’ve watched several video clips of him in interviews and debates, and the guy is just so stinking honest and articulate. He says what he thinks, regardless of the negative reaction he might receive. He is also unflinchingly bound to the constitution. It seems that, no matter what the question, he’s always referencing the constitution to back up his point of view. I like that, and I like that he does it skillfully.

I won’t even bother linking to videos of him in interviews because there are hundreds of them on YouTube. Just do a search and you’ll find something good.

But, for more substance, you might check out his Wikipedia article, a review of his stated views and voting record on various issues, and this interesting piece Ron Paul wrote about why he is pro-life (something I did not expect). Interestingly, Ron is personally pro-life, but he favors letting the states set the laws regarding abortion (and nearly everything else for that matter).

Of course, he has some ideas that are a little more off the beaten path. He favors a return to the gold standard, free market health care, as well as withdrawal from NATO, the WTO, and the United Nations (for reasons of national sovereignty). He would like to abolish the Federal income tax, the IRS, and federal control over education (letting states handle their own educational standards instead). Many of those things sound a little crazy, and maybe they are. But I think part of the reason they sound crazy is because we (or at least I) have a hard time imagining how you would jump from our current economy back to the gold standard. Or how the US could reasonably withdrawal from the United Nations. If Ron Paul really holds these points of view, then I think he needs to:

1. Say whether he thinks these are just good ideas, but impractical to implement, or whether he would actually try to make these things happen as president.
2. Explain how he would make these things happen. If you want to return to the gold standard, how would we do that without massively disrupting our economy?

Ron Paul is an interesting guy with a lot to contribute to our government. His campaign is the first thing that’s gotten me really interested in politics in a long time. It’s just unfortunate that he gets no attention from the mainstream media.