Surf Roots, Software Thoughts

Learn Django and you’ll be revitalized.  Django is like drinking from the fountain of youth when it comes to web programming.  It makes your life better by being insanely intuitive and generally unbelievable.  Expect a more in-depth post hopefully soon.

I can say with a strait face that Django has made my quality of life higher.

Django: web programming nirvana.

I ranted pretty hard yesterday about American automakers getting bailed out.

Jack and Sierra just shared this, and I had to share it as well:

Photo credit: here.

Have you run a bad business?   A business that has failed to cater to the market’s needs?  A business that has continued to sell bad, unreliable products?  A business that should be filing Chapter 11?  A business that is utterly inefficient, plagued by unions and bureaucracy, and completely inferior to its competition?

It’s OK.  The government will give you billions of dollars.

U.S. automakers are “very likely” to get bailed out.  This infuriates me, because they absolutely don’t deserve it.  My first new car was an American car.  It needed a new transmission only a few months after I drove it off the lot.  I have heard similar horror stories from many of my friends.  For these reasons, my current car is a Toyota, and I couldn’t be happier with it.  I have done 360s on ice, hit snow banks, forcing me to go on 2 wheels, been hit while parked, offroaded like a mad man, and my Tacoma runs like a dream (knock on wood).  My whole family has gone from entirely American to entirely Japanese, and we couldn’t be happier.

All reliability concerns aside, I have two favorite things about American car companies:

Unions
American automakers pay nearly double for their unionized workers when compared to most foreign automakers, whose workers are not unionized but are on average happier.

Warning: the claim I have just made is not supported.  I heard this quote from a friend, who read it in a book.  Please do some digging if you plan to use this claim, research that I am too lazy to do :).

Product Development
You’ve heard of these hybrids, right?  You know, those cars that get good gas mileage?  I got an idea.  Let’s take our disgusting large SUVs, put hybrid engines in them so their fuel efficiency goes up by a few miles-per-gallon, and sell them for thousands of dollars more.  Sounds like a great idea, right?  GM would agree.

The most irritating thing about this bailout, though, is that the foreign automakers who have ran their businesses well will not see a dime of money.  The U.S. government is giving money to failing businesses and not providing any reward for businesses that have succeeded (as far as I know).  This is not capitalism.  This is ridiculous.

I should say, though, that it is easy for me to be annoyed, because I do not know anyone employed by any U.S. automaker.

Update: make sure you take a look at this photo.