Things I tripped over on my way to the internet

sds:

‘Cause their online video player sucks—big time. Perhaps they intended the interface and usability to be bulky and counter-intuitive. Or maybe they’ve just never actually seen Hulu to get an idea of how it should work. Some reasons why ABC’s player stinks:

• It requires a special plugin. It doesn’t just run on Flash, like Hulu.
• Much of the time the “player is unavailable” for no apparent reason. Other than from intentional removal, I’ve never had a video on Hulu not play.
• The ads are ridiculous. If you’re watching a show in full-screen and it breaks for an ad, ABC auto-toggles your browser out of full-screen to view the ad.
• During ads, ABC gives you a 30-sec countdown that runs with a blank screen for at least half the time. Then the ad starts, but you are allowed to click “continue” before the ad finishes because the 30 seconds are up. I’m sure ABC’s sponsors are excited that viewers have the option of catching only 75% of their commercials.
• Once, in the middle of a show, it started lagging and then I got an error that said something unexpected occurred and could not continue. So I clicked “okay” and guess what? It continued.

When I suddenly realized last night that we had a LOST episode to catch up on, my wife said, “Oh yeah! I knew there was a show we were forgetting” (besides Fringe and 24). The reason we forgot about LOST? It’s not on Hulu like everything else we watch.

Ditto. Every word.

jeffmiller:

President Obama pushed for his stimulus package by claiming, rather questionably, that ”economists from across the political spectrum agree” that such a stimulus package was necessary.  Hopefully, Obama will similarly push for other policies that reflect the broad consensus of economists.  Here are some uncontroversial economic principles, along with the percentage of economists who agree with each principle:

• A ceiling on rents reduces the quantity and quality of housing available. (93%)
• Tariffs and import quotas usually reduce general economic welfare. (93%)
• Flexible and floating exchange rates offer an effective international monetary arrangement. (90%)
• Fiscal policy (e.g., tax cut and/or government expenditure increase) has a significant stimulative impact on a less than fully employed economy. (90%)
• The United States should not restrict employers from outsourcing work to foreign countries. (90%)
• The United States should eliminate agricultural subsidies. (85%)
• Local and state governments should eliminate subsidies to professional sports franchises. (85%)
• If the federal budget is to be balanced, it should be done over the business cycle rather than yearly. (85%)
• The gap between Social Security funds and expenditures will become unsustainably large within the next fifty years if current policies remain unchanged. (85%)
• Cash payments increase the welfare of recipients to a greater degree than do transfers-in-kind of equal cash value. (84%)
• A large federal budget deficit has an adverse effect on the economy. (83%)
• A minimum wage increases unemployment among young and unskilled workers. (79%)
• The government should restructure the welfare system along the lines of a “negative income tax.” (79%)
• Effluent taxes and marketable pollution permits represent a better approach to pollution control than imposition of pollution ceilings. (78%)

Since Obama is committed to generally accepted economic principles, I look forward to Obama ending the minimum wage, expanding free trade, allowing outsourcing, and ending agricultural subsidies.