Gabe Ortiz » economics

On Flattr

gabe — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 03:45:44 +0000

Flattr is a micropayment system, brought to you by the fine folks at The Pirate Bay, sort of as a moral proof-of-concept for a system that can work in a post-copyright world. Users select a monthly payment amount (minimum of 2 euros) that they can afford, then you “Flattr” other people who have bought into the system. Your Flattr monthly payments are shared among the people you Flattr. Think of it as a Socialist Internet Tip Jar. Pay what you can afford.

It sounds great in theory; the problem of course, is that it has not yet hit critical mass for it to work on a large scale. Most of the users are crazy open source people from Germany and Sweden. Most of the projects posted are not from English speakers and not a lot of people know about Flattr yet.

HOWEVER, right now for me I’ve actually just hit break-even. So, enough people are paying me money because they think I’m awesome for me to pay other people because I think they are awesome. I mean, I know I’m sort of a minor Internet Folk Hero, but hey. It actually works.

So anyway, it’s currently in an invite-only beta, but if you’d like to try it out, I’ve got 3 invites remaining. The first three comments get an invite. Comment, email me at gabe at signalnine dot net if I don’t have your email address already and I’ll hook you up.

Why I won’t buy an iPad (and think you shouldn’t, either)

gabe — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 16:42:18 +0000

The model of interaction with the iPad is to be a “consumer,” what William Gibson memorably described as “something the size of a baby hippo, the color of a week-old boiled potato, that lives by itself, in the dark, in a double-wide on the outskirts of Topeka. It’s covered with eyes and it sweats constantly. The sweat runs into those eyes and makes them sting. It has no mouth… no genitals, and can only express its mute extremes of murderous rage and infantile desire by changing the channels on a universal remote.”

The way you improve your iPad isn’t to figure out how it works and making it better. The way you improve the iPad is to buy iApps. Buying an iPad for your kids isn’t a means of jump-starting the realization that the world is yours to take apart and reassemble; it’s a way of telling your offspring that even changing the batteries is something you have to leave to the professionals.

Cory Doctorow and I do not agree 100% on many occasions, but he really hits the nail on the head with this piece. The iPad is very bad for the future of computing. I believe that I have a moral obligation not to support that kind of content model, no matter how shiny its packaging is.

Source – BoingBoing

Google Fiber for Albuquerque

gabe — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 00:17:25 +0000

As some of you know, I’m working with Eric Renz-Whitmore, Chantal Foster and the fine folks at the Albuquerque Economic Development office to create the Google Fiber proposal for our fair city. We’re in the home stretch now. It’s been a lot of work, but thanks mainly to the tireless efforts of Eric and Chantal, we’re almost done.

Now we need your help.

Visit us at Googlequerque.com and fill out the survey. Then, nominate Albuquerque at Google’s website. It’ll take you maybe a couple minutes and it could potentially make Albuquerque a much cooler place to live.

Thanks!

Fear the Boom and Bust

gabe — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 22:48:08 +0000

Remarkably, a pretty accurate summary of Keynesian economics vs the Austrian school AND fairly fresh rhymes. Now there’s a sentence you don’t utter every day.