Jason Tate's Blog

U.S. sales of Windows devices in the last month are down by 21% compared to the same period a year ago, with Windows-powered notebooks — generally in decline since the rise of tablets and smartphones — down by 24%. Desktop devices were down, too, but less, at 9%.

It gets worse. Microsoft has make a big bet on the touchscreen and tablets with Windows 8, but so far, NPD’s Stephen Baker says that Windows 8 tablet sales “have been almost non-existent.”

Well, this is not a good start.

So far, I've loved it. Think it's a great redesign and much, much better. I still mostly use Rdio for music though.

Most of the $690 million Obama raised online came from fundraising e-mails. During the campaign, Obama’s staff wouldn’t answer questions about them or the alchemy that made them so successful. Now, with the election over, they’re opening the black box.

So, could they have succeeded? If James Bond hadn’t foiled these plots, could these Bond villains have fulfilled their dreams of financial glory? We looked through their schemes, and asked Jean-Jacques Dethier, a development economist at the World Bank (and a lifelong Bond fan), what he thought.

If you look at President Obama's biography and policies, you see one unifying theme more than any other: Obama wants to reduce income inequality.

His policies seem designed to achieve other objectives. The 2009 stimulus sought to end the recession. The 2010 Affordable Care Act strove to expand health-care coverage as widely as possible. And in the upcoming tax policy debate, Obama is seeking to shrink the nation's deficits over time. But in each case, Obama is also trying to reverse three decades of growing income disparity in the United States.

Here's the story of Obama's approach to inequality in eight charts.

I was saying this from the start - and it's one of the reasons I think the show was dramatically overhyped. They put all this shit together and didn't tie it all up. The mythology wasn't well crafted, the stories weren't well designed, and in the end it was a giant clusterfuck. Planning is key in something like this ... and I've always felt Lost was the most overrated show of all time.

Realistically, nobody’s going to stop you from pirating it, but you can’t argue that you’re justified in pirating it. Admit it: you’re ripping it off, it’s morally questionable at best (and illegal), but you don’t care. You’re pirating a TV show because you don’t want to pay for it or wait for it to become available in the ways you want. You’re not making any kind of statement or participating in a movement — you’re just being cheap and/or impatient. If you don’t have the fortitude to cope with that, then don’t pirate.

I actually agree with a lot of this. I just flat out know most people are impatient. I know I am. I am impatient as shit. I own every single Breaking Bad episode on DVD, and watch them on Netflix as well ... that's my "justification" for not wanting to wait when the new episodes air until it hits iTunes or DVD. But I also know it's kinda a load of shit on my part. Also, see the follow-up post about this, it's also good.

For me, The Dark Knight Rises is specifically and definitely the end of the Batman story as I wanted to tell it, and the open-ended nature of the film is simply a very important thematic idea that we wanted to get into the movie, which is that Batman is a symbol. He can be anybody, and that was very important to us. Not every Batman fan will necessarily agree with that interpretation of the philosophy of the character, but for me it all comes back to the scene between Bruce Wayne and Alfred in the private jet in Batman Begins, where the only way that I could find to make a credible characterization of a guy transforming himself into Batman is if it was as a necessary symbol, and he saw himself as a catalyst for change and therefore it was a temporary process, maybe a five-year plan that would be enforced for symbolically encouraging the good of Gotham to take back their city. To me, for that mission to succeed, it has to end, so this is the ending for me, and as I say, the open-ended elements are all to do with the thematic idea that Batman was not important as a man, he’s more than that. He’s a symbol, and the symbol lives on.

Absolutely dead on with how I think it should be, and how it should end. Great, great trilogy.

Hypocrisy will never go out of style in American journalism or American life. But sitting there and watching the rewrite and sports desk mobilize to surround the sexual wanderings of a sportscaster, I remember making a decision: Enough. This is just sex. This is nothing more than the odd, notable penis or the odd, notable vagina staggering off the marked path and rubbing against the wrong tree. This is just people.

Letters of Note has the story behind how Bond came to carry a Walther PPK instead of a Beretta, as well as how Q came to be named Major Boothroyd.

Polarization is good. Traveling the middle road, as broad and tempting as it may be, is always and unequivocally bad. Like people, brands are defined by the company they keep. But they’re also defined by the company they don’t keep.

This is so spot on that I am almost afraid of posting it here because maybe it'll convince the other vanilla music blogs to stop being boring. Everyone has their opinions. Embrace them. You may not piss anyone off if you don’t, but no one will remember you either.

The reality is that minimalism in site design is almost always a good practice to follow. So long as your website is able to maintain easy to use, intuitive functionality, there should be no problem with keeping its look and function as clutter free as possible in all cases. The basic definition of a minimalist design is one which strips down a website to its bare essentials of needed function. Since in most cases your visitors aren’t coming to your page for the sake of admiring its look, you’re almost certainly alright in maintaining a website that follows even an intensely minimalist layout and function.

But while companies like Pandora, Spotify and Rdio build out businesses based on advertising and subscription services, Radical.FM is trying something a little different: in the spirit of public radio, it’s pushing its catalog of 20 million tracks in a wholly-listener-supported model to fund its operations.

“A man with a conviction is a hard man to change. Tell him you disagree and he turns away. Show him facts or figures and he questions your sources. Appeal to logic and he fails to see your point,” wrote psychology legend Leon Festinger, who pioneered early work on motivated cognition, the study of stubbornness.

It does not require an algorithm to deduce that the sort of employees who might be willing to donate substantial money to a political campaign might also be those who would consider working for it.

If Democrats have the support of 80 percent or 90 percent of the best and brightest minds in the information technology field, then it shouldn’t be surprising that Mr. Obama’s information technology infrastructure was viewed as state-of-the-art exemplary, whereas everyone from Republican volunteers to Silicon Valley journalists have critiqued Mr. Romney’s systems. Mr. Romney’s get-out-the-vote application, Project Orca, is widely viewed as having failed on Election Day, perhaps contributing to a disappointing Republican turnout.

This isn't a totally theoretical argument. Over the years, a few U.S. states have considered taxing ads. The Florida legislature passed such a tax in 1987, though it was repealed six months later after an outcry. In 2006, Pennsylvania mulled a 6 percent sales tax on advertising. And France has occasionally flirted with the idea.

Norquist and his pledge changed more than the conversation. They changed American politics. The question isn't how we'll increase taxes and by how much. It's whether we'll increase taxes. For a Republican to simply consider a tax increase is considered a massive concession. That helps them ultimately agree to less in taxes, as having conceded so much philosophically and politically, they're expected to do less as a matter of policy.

No research has found a causal relationship yet. What we know is a correlation: At the same time the abortion rate took a big drop, use of more effective contraceptives had recently increased. That seems like it could be one factor explaining why the abortion rate recently dropped, after years of holding steady.

In fact, sales over Thanksgiving weekend tell us virtually nothing about retail sales for the full holiday seasonlet alone anything meaningful about the economy as a whole. Paul Dales of Capital Economics analyzed the relationship between retail sales during the week of Thanksgiving against the overall change in retail sales for November through January. As the chart shows, the relationship is a very weak one, with dots all over the grid. But if there is any conclusion to draw at all, the relationship is actually negative! (That's why the line is sloping downward).

If we lifted that cap, if we made all income subject to payroll taxes, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that it would do three times as much to solve Social Security's shortfall as raising the retirement age to 70. In fact, it would, in one fell swoop, close Social Security's solvency gap for the next 75 years. That may or may not be the right way to close Social Security's shortfall, but somehow, it rarely gets mentioned by the folks who think they're being courageous when they talk about raising a retirement age they'll never notice.

That doesn't mean we can wave away the long-term problems with the federal budget simply by continuing on the current course.

But it's also a reminder that part of the reason that the federal deficit has recently hit new heights is because of cyclical factors an outgrowth of the economic downturn and the government's efforts to put the brakes on the recession not just structural ones. And the reason that it's now coming down is that the government has undertaken austerity measures that will remain in place regardless of how lawmakers handle the fiscal cliff.

Kind of a must read for those wanting to know all they can about the ACA.

This is going to be the central sticking point of the next month: Obama wants to tax now. Boehner wants to promise to tax later.

Taxing now has a couple of advantages for Obama. For one, it ensures that the question is, "Should we raise taxes on the rich?" rather than the thornier "How should we do tax reform?" For another, the Obama administration doesn't quite trust House Republicans, or Congress in general, to construct a tax reform plan that will raise revenue. They want revenues they can believe in now, because that gives them more leverage to reject tax reforms they don't trust later.

Promising to tax later has a couple of advantages for Boehner. For one, it makes sure the tax revenue isn't locked in before the spending cuts are figured out. For another, it pushes the negotiations out a couple months -- which means they coincide with the next time the country hits the debt ceiling, a crisis that Republicans think will give them added leverage.

That won't make Papa John's feel better, and it shouldn't. The Affordable Care Act isn't helpful to their business strategy. Rather, it's helpful to the business strategies of companies that have sought success by paying their workers good wages, giving them reasonable benefits, and delivering a higher quality product. Which should make us feel better.

Wal-Mart has become so big and so pervasive that it effectively sets prices for everyone who sells to it, and everyone who competes against it. It has lowered prices for American workers -- even those who don't shop at Wal-Mart -- even as it has done much to destroy the American labor movement and to encourage the offshoring of American jobs. It has changed how goods are shipped, packaged and produced. It has, at different times, encouraged devastating environmental practices and admirable ones. Any accounting of Wal-Mart's effect on workers has to go far beyond a simple look at the wages they themselves pay to their direct workforce.

"I got my reasons to live, I've worked to figure out what they are, and I'm not just handing them over to you.... If you wanna tap out 'cuz your life is shit, ya know what, it's not your life, it's life ... Life is bigger than you, if you can imagine that. Life isn't something that you possess, it's something that you take part in."

"People tell you who they are, but we ignore it - because we want them to be who we want them to be. You want some respect? Go out there and get it for yourself. When a man walks into a room, he brings his whole life with him. He has a million reasons for being anywhere, just ask him. If you listen, he'll tell you how he got there. How he forgot where he was going, and that he woke up. If you listen, he'll tell you about the time he thought he was an angel or dreamt of being perfect. And then he'll smile with wisdom, content that he realized the world isn't perfect. We're flawed, because we want so much more. We're ruined, because we get these things, and wish for what we had."

It’s a pretty drastic redesign, and one that focuses intently to navigation. Evernote already has many of the features that were re-crafted today, like multiple Notebooks (both shared and private), tag search, and a left-hand organization bar.

Personally, like the iOS updates, I really like it. One of my most used apps on the phone/computer - and I'm a fan. - JT

Speaking from The Daily Beast's Hero Summit, Sorkin disclosed that the entire movie "is going to be 3 scenes, and take place in real-time." Further, each of the three 30-minute scenes will take place backstage before a major product launch.

There's no way I won't love this. Sorkin? Jobs? Yeah, I'm in. - JT

Were you struck by how very far from awesome the Awesome Pretzel Chicken Tenders are? If you hadn’t come up with the recipe yourself, would you ever guess that the shiny tissue of breading that exudes grease onto the plate contains either pretzels or smoked almonds? Did you discern any buttermilk or brine in the white meat, or did you think it tasted like chewy air?

Holy shit is that a bad review. I think I'll pass. - JT

The situation still sounds painful, but it’s not bad at all. The record labels are happy with Spotify’s progress so far because internal data has shown that it is growing the digital music market, not cannibalizing sales on iTunes and other competitors, according to sources. The service has stayed so popular with users, meanwhile, that churn is nearly zero.

The Talk Show is one of the view Podcasts I listen to -- and "Looper" was one of the best movies of the year. Definitely worth a listen. - JT

All of us on the show would have preferred to go out on a high note—and we tried to do that as best we could, turning in a strong , final season that we are very proud of. We wanted to go leaving a lot of great shows—and nothing but good memories and good will behind.

But things just didn’t turn out that way.

This wouldn’t be hard if they had been making a more honest case on the budget: the truth is that deficits are actually a good thing when the economy is deeply depressed, so deficit reduction should wait until the economy is stronger. As John Maynard Keynes said three-quarters of a century ago, “The boom, not the slump, is the right time for austerity.” But since the deficit scolds have in fact been demanding that we make deficits the priority even when the economy is depressed, they can’t go there.

A number of polling firms that conduct their surveys online had strong results. Some telephone polls also did well. But others, especially those that called only landlines or took other methodological shortcuts, performed poorly.

Silver's book is the next one I read. - JT

In other words, you're not imagining it: This economic recovery has been a big disappointment relative to what the United States has usually experienced after a recession. Growth has been 9 percent below what was seen in past recoveries on average in its first three years. The CBO report tries to disentangle where that underperformance is coming from and its answer is deeply unsettling: The U.S. economy just isn't as good at growing as it used to be.

When Romney thinks he's behind closed doors and he's just telling other people like him how politics really works, the picture he paints is so ugly as to be bordering on dystopic. It's not just about class, but about worth, and legitimacy. His voters are worth something to the economy -- they're producers -- and they respond to legitimate appeals about how to best manage the country. The Democrats' voters are drags on the economy -- moochers -- and they respond to crass pay-offs.

Honestly I love watching the Lakers struggle. - JT

Stealing magic has become a commonplace crime. Teller, a man of infinite delicacy and deceit, decided to do something about it.

Pathetic. - JT

I think what bothers me about this is the focus on filters. If Twitter wanted to make it easier to post photos as tweets, and improve the presentation of inline photos in your tweet stream, that I could see. But adding filters to the Twitter mobile apps seems like a complete distraction, a sign that they’ve been afflicted with everything-but-the-kitchen-sink-itis.

In saying this, I don’t mean to minimize the very real economic dangers posed by the so-called fiscal cliff that is looming at the end of this year if the two parties can’t reach a deal. Both the Bush-era tax cuts and the Obama administration’s payroll tax cut are set to expire, even as automatic spending cuts in defense and elsewhere kick in thanks to the deal struck after the 2011 confrontation over the debt ceiling. And the looming combination of tax increases and spending cuts looks easily large enough to push America back into recession.

Why? Because Republicans are trying, for the third time since he took office, to use economic blackmail to achieve a goal they lack the votes to achieve through the normal legislative process. In particular, they want to extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, even though the nation can’t afford to make those tax cuts permanent and the public believes that taxes on the rich should go up — and they’re threatening to block any deal on anything else unless they get their way. So they are, in effect, threatening to tank the economy unless their demands are met.

"Climate scientists agree the Earth will be hotter by the end of the century, but their simulations don't agree on how much. Now a study suggests the gloomier predictions may be closer to the markThat means the world could be in for a devastating increase of about eight degrees Fahrenheit by 2100, resulting in drastically higher seas, disappearing coastlines and more severe droughts, floods and other destructive weather."

Interesting nugget: State polls showed Romney winning big among independents. Historically, any candidate polling that well among independents wins. But as it turned out, many of those independents were former Republicans who now self-identify as independents. The state polls weren't oversampling Democrats and undersampling Republicans - there just weren't as many Republicans this time because they were calling themselves independents.

The Congressional Budget Office warned again in a report released Thursday that the U.S. economy could get slammed back into recession, with unemployment hitting 9.1 percent by the end of next year, if President Obama and Congress don't act to avert the fiscal cliff.

But there were other interesting nuggets in the report, as well. In particular, the CBO gave its most detailed look at how the expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts would affect the economy. Apparently, it would do little harm, the numbers show.