Much as we might like to think that environmental awareness should be enough to make people change their habits, the real driver of change is economics.
Making a point that I’m sure had been made many times before and has been made many times since, Wired claimed back at the end of 2005 that high gas prices were good for America because they pushed more research money (and interest) toward alternatives. Fast forward to today — we haven’t seen that $5 gas yet, but already there are signs that the economics of high gas prices are getting things done. Three articles in the past two days:
… and this is just a small selection of automotive impacts.
So the next time you want to affect sweeping social change, forget the appeals to morality and good-conscience — just hit people in the wallet.
So one interesting new feature of 10.5.3 is that it apparently enables syncing of the Mac OS X Address Book with one’s Google Contacts. This is great, but there is some funny business…
Are you one of those people who find that no matter how hard you try to keep your contact info organized, it always winds up scattered all over?
Yes — tell me more!
We’re happy to tell you that starting today, it’s easier to sync up your contact lists. The Address Book application in Mac OS X 10.5.3 now lets iPhone users sync their Address Book with Google Contacts. [Emphasis added.]
Uh… only iPhone users? What does syncing my Google Contacts with my Address Book have to do with my iPhone? What, only iPhone users would be interested in having access to their contacts from any computer at any time? Au contraire, iPhone users already have their entire Address Book on-hand at all times. They are probably even less excited about this new feature than other people.
But wait, there’s more!
To try it, go to the Address Book menu, choose Preferences, and then check Synchronize with Google. It’ll ask for your Google account and password, then automatically update your contacts every time you sync your iPhone. [Emphasis added.]
So you’re telling me that if I change something in my Address Book and then want to have that change reflected in my Google Contacts (or vice-versa), all I have to do is… sync my iPhone? WTF? I ask again, what does syncing my Google Contacts with my Address Book have to do with my iPhone?
Funny business, folks — I smell some behind-the-scenes negotiations between Apple and Google, and it smells suspiciously like… .Mac.
Update: Ars has the scoop on hacking a regular iPod plist file to enable syncing for those without iPhones, evidence that this really is an arbitrary restriction. It’s unclear when exactly syncing will happen, but perhaps when said iPod is synced with iTunes?
According to Apple’s release notes,
[This update] resolves an issue in which switching to a different space and returning back to the original space may reorder the application windows with a different active window.
But no, it doesn’t. Starting with two empty spaces, try this:
- Launch iTunes in space 1. iTunes is now active (“has the focus”) in space 1.
- Switch to space 2. With no open windows, Finder becomes active in space 2.
- Switch back to space 1. Guess who still has the focus, even with no open windows in space 1? (A: Finder.)
Now try this:
- Go back to space 1 and launch Safari.
- Open another Safari window (now you have two in space 1) and move one of them to space 2 (via whichever of the various ways of doing this is your favorite).
- Go back to space 1 and make iTunes active.
- Switch to space 2 — Safari takes the focus, because there are no iTunes windows in space 2.
- Switch back to space 1 — guess who still has the focus? (A: Safari.) Guess who is now covering up your iTunes window? (A: Safari again.) Guess who didn’t fix the window-ordering bug? (A: Apple.)
And I was so hoping, too.
This post resolves an issue in which claiming to have fixed something but not actually fixing it makes the author very grumpy.
Actually, no, it doesn’t.
PS Submitted to Radar back in February, 5743904 and 5744015. Closed as duplicates shortly thereafter.
James Duncan Davidson, telling it like it is:
The price of oil and gas may fluctuate down again in the near future, but if it does, it’ll come back up and go even higher. It’s a simple story of demand meets supply of a finite resource. [ More… ]
You don’t have to be an economist to understand that concept. A few-month break from the federal gas tax may sound like “relief”, but best enjoy the current prices while you can. Boo hoo.
Hat Tip: Dan Benjamin
Recently asked to name “a credible economist” who supports her plan for gas-tax relief, Hillary responded:
Well I’ll tell you what, I’m not going to put my lot in with economists.
And that, folks, is how you roll an opportunity to make some sense into not one, but three more points down the hole.
(For those keeping score: −1 for failure to express a rational argument, −2 for the insultingly colloquial tone.)
Well played, Hillary.
Hat Tip: Justin Wolfers.
Gas-tax relief:
- Voters buy gas, support paying less for it;
- John McCain knows this, wants votes; and
- Hillary Clinton wants in on that action.
Clue that a proposed economic initiative is a bad idea:
Barack Obama says:
don’t be stupid.
In a past life, the DR was powered by Blogger. Posts from that era still haunt Blogger-land. Some are good, some are not.
If, for whatever reason, you want to dust off some of the old material, here are a few respectable entries:
And
this one too, just so that you don’t think that everything in there is about word-use. (Just the good ones.)
