Hyphenated last names (11) Feb 6, 2008
Parents who give their kids hyphenated last names might as well just admit they're a couple of jerks.  What better way to screw up your child's life than by giving them a hyphenated and complicated last name that will cause them problems and give them grief for the rest of their life.  That poor child will develop carpel tunnel syndrome from signing their excessively long name.  Their computer login name will be completely screwed up.  Their passport will likely have significant problems being processed.  College applications, loans, job applications, and anything that requires a child to identify their parents will inevitably lead to phone calls asking, "So Bob Smith, are you the father of John Smith-Jones?"  It'd be nice if we lived a world where computer systems weren't set up with logic like this:  
if (child_lastname != parent_lastname) {
   epic_fail();
}
But alas, it is what it is.  It's interesting that parents who "hyphenize" their children happen to have long and complicated last names to begin with.  You don't hear about a Smith-Jones.  I've heard of a Jones-Drew, but he's a professional football player, so it doesn't count (plus he chose to hyphenate his name in honor of his father).  The three hyphenated names I can think of who I've either known personally or am separated by no more than two degrees of Kevin Bacon are:  Lichtenberg-Scanlan, Dewey-Mattia, and Ersner-Hershfield.  What a bunch of selfish, jerky parents. 

To be fair, I realize it's a serious sacrifice for a woman to give up her last name when she gets married.  I personally wouldn't want to do it, even though a name change wouldn't be entirely bad.  I periodically thank Wendy for kindly taking my last name.  It's almost like losing your identity.  If parents don't have any male children, their last name will pretty much end.  That's sad. 

But I think there are better ways of keeping a maiden name in the mix than by hyphenating a child's last name.  You could go for the middle name.  You could come up with some other idea because that's the only one I can think of.  But whatever it is, don't punish children by giving them a hyphenated last name.  What a travesty. #language
Product comparison matrices (1) Feb 6, 2008
Whenever I buy a new gadget, I make a product comparison matrix.  This might be one of the geekiest things I do, but it's also the best idea any human being has ever come up with.  It turns out I'm not alone:  One of the guys I work with does the same thing for camping gear.  I got Wendy into it when she was thinking about buying an iPod.  What can I say; it works. 

The system is simple.  All products have features, and all features have some sort of value.  Size, weight, megapixels, LCD size, storage space, price, etc.  Depending on the device and the user, each feature will have a different weight.  For example, I might place more emphasis on LCD size and less emphasis on megapixels.  So a 5-megapixel camera with a 3-inch LCD will be rated higher than a 10-megapixel camera with a 2-inch LCD.  The rating system is sort of fuzzy, or at least it can be.  Technically, ratings should have numbers, so the final choice will be as simple as picking the highest number.  But unfortunately, things don't always work that way.  It's hard to quantify my desire for a bigger LCD versus my desire for more megapixels.  I'll often make my final choice based on an array of time-sensitive and hard-to-explain reasoning, such as, "This one's the better camera, but that other one is $100 less for the next two days.  I'll get the other one." 

It turns out this is actually something I learned in college.  It's a way to choose a final design based on several choices.  I didn't realize I was using something I learned in school until I learned it again in another class.  Damn my education!  It stuck with me! 

It also turns out this method can be applied to choosing political candidates, as Wendy has figured out.  It's really the same idea, but with different "features".  Each candidate has a position on each issue, and each issue has a relative weight depending on the voter.  I might value government subsidies for poor, homeless, illegal immigrants (I don't) while another person might want to nuke the moon.  My point is not that politics is a big stupid waste of time (though it is), but that you can choose a candidate as easily as you can choose a digital camera. #products
Bible study resources online (4) Feb 6, 2008
I have one thing to say about Bible study resources online:  They're extremely lacking.  I think this is the only thing the internet lacks.  I previously found the internet to be no good for math and engineering, but things changed over time.  I'm hoping the same change will happen for Bible study resources.  All I'm looking for are simple, free, small group Bible studies for adults.  I realize they're available in Christian bookstores, but sometimes I don't have time to go to a Christian bookstore, and sometimes I don't feel like buying an entire book just for a one-time standalone study.  In my many [many, many] hours of internet travels, I've found a total of two websites that have even remotely useful stuff:  GodSquad and the Christian Arsenal.  Everything else either costs money or is so incredibly poor in quality and topic that it's useless as a legitimate tool to lead a Bible study.  I'd really like to see the internet pick up in this area. #religion