The New Yorker Fiction Podcast Picks (05-03-2007 to 07-15-2011)

Most all of the new yorker fiction podcasts are great. The linked podcast are favorites of mine. In bold are my favorite favorites.

John Updike’s – “A & P”
John Cheever’s – “The Swimmer”
Steven Millhauser’s – “In the Reign of Harad IV”
Leonard Michaels’s – “Cryptology”
Joshua Ferris’s – “The Dinner Party”
Frank O’Connor’s – “The Man of the World”
Carson McCullers’s – “The Jockey”
Edwidge Danticat’s – “Water Child”
Vladimir Nabokov’s – “My Russian Education”
Peter Taylor’s – “Porte-Cochere”
George Saunders’s – “Adams”
Sergei Dovlatov’s – “The Colonel Says I Love You” 
Denis Johnson’s – “Emergency”
Eudora Welty’s – “Where Is the Voice Coming From?”
John Updike’s – “Playing with Dynamite”
James Salter’s – “Last Night”
Shirley Jackson’s – “The Lottery”
Andrea Lee’s – “Brothers and Sisters Around the World”
Vladimir Nabokov’s – “Symbols and Signs”
James Thurber’s – “The Wood Duck”
Tobias Wolff’s – “Bullet in the Brain”
John O’Hara’s – “Graven Image”
William Trevor’s – “A Day”
Jorge Luis Borges’s – “The Gospel According to Mark”
Grace Paley’s – “Somewhere Else”
Donald Barthelme’s – “I Bought a Little City”
Junot Díaz’s – “How to Date a Brown Girl (Black Girl, White Girl, or Halfie)”
John Cheever – “Reunions”

Advertisement

Phone Data Plans: Why not offer rollover?

In my last post I argued that throttling a users bandwidth after they exceed a monthly usage cap is a reasonable way of providing customers with a service free of data overage changes while still limiting the amount of data consumers can download.

An alternative to throttling, that provides some protection from overage fees, is giving consumers data rollover. It would function identically to rollover minutes and for many provide smoothing required not to incur data overage charges.

Better yet though, add rollover to plans with throttling.  Throttling is protection from overage charges and rollover is protection against throttling.

If I was to create a set of plans with the general customer in mind I would market them based off the unthrottled bandwidth they provide and almost silently include unlimited throttled bandwidth. I would offer a rollover option that does not reset at the beginning of the year but cap the amount of data that can be accrued to 3x the plans data.

Phone Data Plans: Conditional throttling is fair.

Virgin Mobile jumped on the bandwagon. The fine print is clear; it is fair.

http://virginmobileusa.marketwire.com/easyir/ceom.do?easyirid=F4ABAEBA3A27ECD9&pagesec=vm_price

As long as the rules around when you trigger bandwidth throttling are clear and the trigger point is set at a reasonably farout location, 2.5GB is probably good for most, it is a great solution for most consumers. The average consumer gets the security of having month long access to data, with no risk of overage charges. The existence of conditional throttling allows the carrier to provide this “unlimited” access at a more reasonable rate.

For those who turn their phones into a wi-fy hotspots (I do it when I go to central park…) it was great while it lasted but as long as throttling is reset at the start of each month and only triggered when you go over a published cap it is hard cry foul.

One year of TED picks. (4-4-10 to 4-4-11)

Some I like and agree with some I just thought were interesting.

Google’s driverless car
http://blog.ted.com/2011/03/31/googles-driverless-car-sebastian-thrun-on-ted-com/

It’s time to question bio-engineering
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/paul_root_wolpe_it_s_time_to_question_bio_engineering.html
Lot of crazy awesome things. Ignore the last ethics blurb.

Printing a human kidney
http://www.ted.com/talks/anthony_atala_printing_a_human_kidney.html

Understanding cancer through proteomic
http://blog.ted.com/2011/02/24/understanding-cancer-through-proteomics-danny-hillis-on-ted-com/
Interesting intro to proteomics.

How to use experts
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/noreena_hertz_how_to_use_experts_and_when_not_to.html
Experts suck.

The linguistic genius of babies
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/patricia_kuhl_the_linguistic_genius_of_babies.html

Born to Run
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/christopher_mcdougall_are_we_born_to_run.html

How I built a toaster from scratch
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/thomas_thwaites_how_i_built_a_toaster_from_scratch.html
Milton Friedman’s pencil again.

Your brain on improve
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/charles_limb_your_brain_on_improv.html

Collaborative Consumption
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/rachel_botsman_the_case_for_collaborative_consumption.html
We don’t need the rule of law to engage in economic activity.
As the cost of knowledge drops it is less costly for people to self-organize.
Sharing resources, the power drill example is great.
Loved this she even brings up reputation networks.

Parenting Taboos (http://www.babble.com/)
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/rufus_griscom_alisa_volkman_let_s_talk_parenting_taboos.html

Why not eat insects
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/marcel_dicke_why_not_eat_insects.html

Why work does’t happen at work
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/jason_fried_why_work_doesn_t_happen_at_work.html
The analogy of work/thinking with sleep rings with me. I think the other stuff is a bit over the top.

A theory of beauty
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/denis_dutton_a_darwinian_theory_of_beauty.html
An argument for a non-subjective definition.

Brain
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/gero_miesenboeck.html

Games and the Brain
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/tom_chatfield_7_ways_games_reward_the_brain.html

The Brain in your gut
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/heribert_watzke_the_brain_in_your_gut.html

I am my connectome (Brain)
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/sebastian_seung.html

The quantified self
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/gary_wolf_the_quantified_self.html

How pig parts make the world turn
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/christien_meindertsma_on_pig_05049.html
The reverse but reminds me of what Milton Freedman use to do with a pencil.

Our Natural Sleep Cycle
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/jessa_gamble_how_to_sleep.html

Child driven education
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/sugata_mitra_the_child_driven_education.html

The oldest living things
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/rachel_sussman_the_world_s_oldest_living_things.html

keep your goals to yourself
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_yourself.html

Monkey economy
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/laurie_santos.html
She is a dirty hippie and takes the wrong lessons from her research but the research is still interesting.

When ideas have sex
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/matt_ridley_when_ideas_have_sex.html

Mandelbrot
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/benoit_mandelbrot_fractals_the_art_of_roughness.html
I just like Mandelbrot…

Legos for grownups
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/hillel_cooperman_legos_for_grownups.html

Learning disorders
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/aditi_shankardass_a_second_opinion_on_learning_disorders.html
Diagnose them with the machine that looks at the brain not by behavior.

The pattern behind self-deception
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/michael_shermer_the_pattern_behind_self_deception.html

How architecture helped music evolve
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/david_byrne_how_architecture_helped_music_evolve.html

4-chan: Case for anonymity
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/christopher_m00t_poole_the_case_for_anonymity_online.html

Lawrence Lessig: Re-examining the remix | Video on TED.com
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/lessig_nyed.html

Lessons from fashion’s free culture
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/johanna_blakley_lessons_from_fashion_s_free_culture.html

Why I’m a weekday vegetarian
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/graham_hill_weekday_vegetarian.html

Fannie-Mae History and the Financial Apocalypse Explained

First check out the history of Fannie-Mae thanks to Bruce Carlson

http://myhistorycanbeatupyourpolitics.blogspot.com/2008/09/fannie-mae.html

Then check out ARNOLD KLING’s explenation of the mess complements of WILL WILKINSON.

http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/14744?&in=00:18:17&out=00:32:31

Eyewitness Research

The September 2008 issue of Applied Cognitive Psychology is a special issue on eyewitness research. The Psychology and Crime News blog has this summary.

http://www.crimeandconsequences.com/2008/09/eyewitness_research.html