Vending Machine Economics

Perhaps it is because I work in a business school, but the soft drink vending machine near my office is helping teach us all the economic theory of supply and demand.

You see, it features two buttons, both of which dispense an identical 20oz. plastic bottle of Diet Pepsi. However, the first button dispenses the Pepsi for 1.10, while the second costs an additional .15 for a total of 1.25.

So, early in the week, while supply is high in the newly stocked machine, we can drink Pepsi for 1.10. But as demand increases throughout the week and supply decreases, the price jumps to 1.25.

In reality, it's probably just a mislabeled button that used to be Snapple or something, but still, I'd like to think they planned it.

Design Eye for the Usability Guy

Anyone who works with the web will most likely know the name Jakob Nielsen. He is the defacto usability guru for the web, and on his site useit.com he spouts off advise about making the web more usable. Ironically (apparantly, irony is not Jakob's strong suit) useit.com is one of the ugliest, most un-user friendly sites in the history of the web.

Enter Design Eye for the Usability Guy... five designers offer some tips for how Jakob can make his site less of an eyesore, which is long overdue, and preserve usability ala his rules. Thank god... maybe more people would care about usability and follow Nielsen's guidelines, if it weren't so damn painful to read them in the first place!

What exactly is "ineffective"?

"En route to Iraq for a surprise visit Thursday, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told reporters traveling with him that administration lawyers oppose releasing the photos on grounds that would violate a Geneva Convention stricture against presenting images of prisoners that could be construed as degrading."

Okay, so, let me understand this... the "Rumsfeld" Pentagon apparently either 1) doesn't have enough authority to stop troops from torturing prisoners or 2) orders troops to torture prisoners. And now, after violating all kinds of human rights and the Geneva Convention, Rumsfeld is suddenly concerned about not violating it by releasing photos of our atrocities? Wow, am I the only American that sees through this bullshit? I doubt it.

And Rumsfeld has the gall to say he'd only resign if he were "no longer able to be effective"?

So... the Red Cross warned the Pentagon and Bush administration about "abuses" (read: torture) in January. But the President, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and the Secretary of Defense didn't learn about these "abuses" until 60 Minutes II released the photos? 60 Minutes II!! Question: How much more ineffective as Secretary of Defense can you be?!

I think it's about time the American public handed Bush Rumsfeld and Myers asses on a platter. Maybe Wolfowitz can snap some photos.

P.S. I think it's somehow fitting that my spell checker wants to replace "Wolfowitz" with "Halfwit". :)

Finally, Good Election News from California!

Finally, we get a bit of good news related to elections coming out of California. It seems the Secretary of State has de-certified all electronic voting machines, and is asking for Diebold to be criminally prosecuted! Thank god, maybe this will wake some people up to just how insecure these systems are, and how Diebold has been lying about them all along.

So just exactly why can't these machines print paper verifiable ballots? There is no valid reason.

We're Moving.

My building has every convenience
It's gonna make life easy for me
It's gonna be easy to get things done
I will relax alone with my loved ones

Loved ones, loved ones visit the building,
take the highway, park and come up and see me
I'll be working, working but if you come visit
I'll put down what I'm doing, my friends are important

We are moving into a new condo in less than two weeks (yikes!) more details to come.