I should actually get some work done, huh?

Sorry: today was just one of the flat-out nicest days out since spring started.  Shorts weather here – finally – so of course I’m not all that inclined to fiddle with the computer overmuch.  All I lacked was a reliable source of decent soft-serve ice cream. Maybe I’ll hit a Rita’s tomorrow, although it’s not the same as a beach-side ice cream shack. Which is maybe unfair to Rita’s, because they can’t sell me ice cream that tastes like it’s 1986 again.

Hey, @mkhammer and I have something in common!

We both like Chocolate Chip Mint ice cream.  As for the psychological aspects:

If your favorite flavor is Mint Chocolate Chip, you’re more likely to be argumentative, frugal and cautious.

Argumentative? Well… yes, obviously. Cautious? Not particularly.  Frugal? Oh, hell no.  If I was frugal I wouldn’t be rattling the tip jar to pay for my Ogre habit*.





But then, these sorts of surveys usually don’t look for pinpoint accuracy. In fact, I believe that the term of art is “Delphic.”

*Admittedly, I’m rattling the tip jar for luxury items, not necessities.  But that’s because I have an excellent monetary policy: to wit, whenever I get some that isn’t from Amazon or PayPal I go home and give it all to my wife, who then does… something… to it that magically makes it available to us later.  It’s all very black-box.

Bureaucracy triumphant, San Franscisco ice cream parlor edition.

I’m not sure that Cory Doctorow quite understands the true message of the video below.

…although I’m pretty sure that Glenn Reynolds does. Doctorow linked to this as part of his rapid-blink reaction to the number of hoops (both in terms of time and money) that small businesses have to go through in order to start a business in the iconic-Blue city of San Francisco.  To summarize: would-be small business operators can expect delays of years and several hundred thousand dollars in costs.  It’s so bad that the San Francisco planning department itself hates the process: yes, that video is from an official city government office.  But changing it… well.  They’re considering changes to streamline the process. Continue reading Bureaucracy triumphant, San Franscisco ice cream parlor edition.