Thank you to the roughly 170 individuals who have made donations to date via the “Donate” widget on the right hand side of the blog.
Donations have totalled A$7,730, of which about $800 has been for Michael Hudson’s talk in Sydney (on Friday October 23rd at Customs House, Sydney at 6pm).
I have just made the first purchase using those funds, of a Dell Studio 17 inch laptop that I will use while researching with my systems engineering colleague Trond Andresen in Europe later this year.
It will also get a workout this weekend, since I’ll be in Adelaide for the Economists Conference. I’ll let you know how that (generally neoclassical) audience reacts to my paper on endogenous money creation and financial instability on Tuesday.
For the last six months now I have been using an Asus netbook to give my public presentations and academic lectures. While it is very good for that task, it is not suitable for research for several reasons:
- Screen size–a maximum resolution of 1024×600 is OK for a slide show, but useless for developing the medium scale systems of differential equations that are the core of my research;
- Memory–it has 2 Gig of RAM and a 256 Gig hard disk, large by Netbook standards but constricting for symbolic and numerical processing in Mathcad; and of course
- Speed–the Netbook uses a low power Atom processor, which conserves battery power at the expense of processing speed.
I use a desktop for my analytic work, and there the problems are different. While the screen size is to die for (I use a Dell 30 inch monitor with 2560×1600 pixel resolution), it isn’t what you would call portable. But when I went to Canberra to work with the CSIRO recently, I drove down with the desktop tower in the boot and the screen on the passenger seat, because I couldn’t have done that research on a Netbook.
The same arrangement will not of course work on Qantas; so this Dell laptop will be my “Goldilocks” machine when travelling. It doesn’t quite have the resolution or size of the desktop monitor–17 inches and 1920×1200, which gives 56% of the screen real estate of the 30 inch monitor–but it’s big enough to display most of the equations in one of my medium scale models.
The Dell Studio also has some other advantages, notably 8 Gig of RAM running under Windows Vista (soon to be Windows 7) 64 bit. The current version of Mathcad also has a bug that means its memory usage keeps growing with every save–and after about five saves of my Debtwatch statistical analysis routines, it eats more than a Gig of RAM. This takes total system usage to about 2.4 Gig, at which point Windows starts to swap portions of itself out to hard disk space (since the maximum RAM that a 32 bit operating system can access is 3 Gigabytes). The machine starts to slow to a crawl, and I have to shut Mathcad down and restart it.
With a 64 bit operating system, the RAM ceiling grows to 18,446,744,073 Gigabytes, and memory limitations become (in the trivial sense of the word) academic. I should be able to write Debtwatch without bothering to shut Mathcad down and start again–whereas I currently have to do that every hour or so–with 8 Gig of headroom on this laptop.
The main benefit though while working in Norway will be screen size. The three images at the end of this post show the same Mathcad sheet–which simulates a 2 sector model of the economy–on the Netbook, the laptop, and the desktop monitors (all have been reduced in size by 50% to make the images viewable).
Obviously the desktop is the way to go; but it doesn’t work as carry on luggage. So the Dell Studio will let me do some serious work with Trond in Norway (and I’ll also soon upgrade the motherboard in the desktop to support more than 4 Gig of RAM).
I’ve also learnt something about marketing recently: accessibility is vital. The donation widget was going gangbusters when first installed, but I then felt it was a bit presumptuous of me to simply have a “Donate” widget on the front page with no explanation of why I should be funded, or how the money might be used.
So I moved it to the Research page here–which is poorly organised–and explained my objectives and needs. Funding dropped off substantially.
I then moved the widget back to the front page to facilitate people supporting Michael Hudson’s visit. Funding, not merely for Michael’s visit but for my research in general, resumed.
It appears that once someone has visited the site, they’ve already decided whether they should support my work or not, and accessibility of the funding widget is key.
At some stage next year, I may put out an appeal to raise funds to support work on my book Finance and Economic Breakdown–the main need for which is time, which I can acquire by buying out my teaching at UWS. That will require substantially more than I have raised to date–something of the order of A$25,000–but for now, the support from blog members and visitors is most appreciated.
Asus Netbook monitor--1024x600 resolution
Dell Desktop 30 inch monitor--2560 x 1200 resolution
September 25th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
Hi Steve,
yes 3GB – though they tell you 4GB (since 2^32 ~ 4GB). I think Vista allots whatever the memory card needs and other things I don’t know. In fact I got Dell to refund the cost of my 4th GB of my Dell XPS Notebook.
September 25th, 2009 at 7:33 pm
The DELL 30″ has a resolution of 2560×1600
)) (two times FUll HD — or 4 Megapixel)
September 25th, 2009 at 7:50 pm
mmmm WUXGA. big screens are beautiful.
I have a 17″ 8GB wuxga HP – 8710w. Great price.
Firefox browsing alone will eat over 1.5GB after awhile.
I ran from Dell with nightmares from their customer service, but then this was their consumer end. A business class notebook should get better service.
September 25th, 2009 at 11:20 pm
Got a dell and its ok but is not durable. The plastic starts to fall apart and it is not even 1 year. Hopefully, it will last for 2 years. Just wish I could afford a mac book pro they are just superb!
September 26th, 2009 at 1:11 am
Steve why are you using Mathcad?
September 26th, 2009 at 4:18 am
BTW here is a good example to demonstrate the CAPM folly– something close to your heart
http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/FormingTheEfficientFrontierWhenReturnsAreNonNormal/
September 26th, 2009 at 9:09 am
Am wondering if I could bring to the surface an undercurrent that I often see flowing through this blog?
Reading about the GFC I am yet to find a simple explanation of trade and the
monetary system, that does not reference a complexity of institutions, policies
and processes. Barter and trade began after all as a very human activity, easily
understood – before it was organised and rendered arcane to most people. A good
friend advised “… when things get complicated go back to basics”!
The idea here is to grasp the essentials and clarify the human aspect of commerce
– before thinking about commerce today.
Let us posit a group of people who each have something(s) ‘of value’ that they would like to trade with each other. Variables in the situation are:
Number of people can change;
People can change their sense of ‘value’;
Quantity and quality of commodities can change;
Hence, supply of or demand for commodities can change.
What imbalances may arise in the system?
People may ‘value’ self above the group – i.e. the inherent ‘value’ of the system could be impaired by the lesser ‘value’ of individual profit;
People could falsify ‘value’;
People could harm each other, steal commodities or fake their quantity or quality.
People could manipulate supply and demand to appropriate ‘value’.
Let us now say that as a matter of convenience, a new commodity $ is introduced to the system as both a ‘store of value’ and physical token who’s utility is ‘price’. ‘Price’ is a concept that reflects ‘value’ and relates one commodity to another.
Systemically, $ may behave exactly like any other commodity, however its
individual ‘value’ is one-dimensional (purchasing power) – absent is the intrinsic
multi-dimensional ‘value’ of other commodities – their qualities. $ (if its
‘value’ is recognised and accepted by others within the system) is used primarily
to access quality;
Besides this useful function, $ has an additional power – the risky theoretical
potential to both buy-up and control the whole system: previously no other
commodity could achieve this;
Because of this, $ is introduced as a commodity manufactured at will by
a few people exercising a monopoly on the commodity – (unlike other commodities
that are often difficult to monopolise, produce and control);
Obviously, $ cannot function beneficially in the system unless people can
trust in its legality, regulation and utility.
Because of $ power aspect, two potentials arise dependent on people’s sense
of ‘value’:
If people are ‘valued’ to be of greater intrinsic worth than the mere exercise
of power, or possession of comforts afforded by qualities arising from commodities
(particularly those surplus to basic livingness) – then it is a commitment
to discovering and uncovering of human potential, happiness, well being, health,
socialisation, education, evolution, development, ability to love and harmony
in relationships that will be prized above all else – human beings could enjoy
the maximum freedom from commodity production their desire for qualities will
allow, and the power of $ would be harnessed to human GDP (Greatest Development
Potential);
Conversely, if the exercise of power or desire for the comforts and qualities
of commodities is in the ascendant then human development will suffer inversely,
through systemic imbalances such as:
a. poor living conditions and constrained opportunities at one end of
the spectrum, and
b. the illusion of human betterment and dissatisfaction in the effort
spent concentrating power, commodities and their qualities at the other;
c. environmental degeneration through plunder of natural resources;
d. a lifetime wasted trying to find contentment in the use and possession
of the concretised energy that $ symbolises –
People’s time on this earth, the roles that they act out , their very life
– which is the most precious and richest asset they possess – will be harnessed
to a play (construct); rather than used to explore their real human potential.
Looking at the world today the results of both of these foci are apparent
and at war.
Greed is very easy to understand; so is kindness and generosity. Society offers
people happiness via the formulae of GDP (the current opiate for the masses).
Everybody knows it doesn’t work so there is no reason why we shouldn’t clean
the system up – or focus on something that is real such as ourselves.
Human desire begins with satisfying the body and its instincts, progresses
to creature comforts and possessions and unfolds as delight in form colour and
sound, science and the use of the intellect. Underlying these are a universal
desire for peace, harmonious relationships with each other and the beautiful
white blue green jewel of a planet with which we have been gifted; and the yearning
to experience true love – which ultimately lifts the human heart to seek its
Creator. It is our own nature that needs to be understood and ‘valued’ – allowed
to blossom, before $ can be harnessed to its true potential. When we lived in
caves security mattered. Today, it is people that should matter.
If you believe that within each human being is the greatest treasure,
then you should fight (as I believe Steve Keen does in tipping his lance) to
free that diamond from the clay.
September 26th, 2009 at 1:25 pm
You would have been better with a MacBook Pro with VMFusion added for Windows applications.
September 26th, 2009 at 1:59 pm
I tried it. You know what the problem was? No right mouse button! Almost all of the non-mainstream programs I use (especially Vissim and Mathcad) make heavy use of the right mouse button, and that made the MacBook/VMWare combination a source of frustration rather than liberation.
Yes I know there’s a work around (from memory two fingers on the touch pad and then click the sole mouse button), but two fingers also slides the pointer off into the blue, and I got so &^@%!! frustrated with it that I installed an external mouse AND an external numeric keypad to get Page Up/Page Down and other navigation keys as well as a numeric pad…
And that was real fun, trying to balance that lot on a podium while I gave a speech. So I gave up and bought a small Netbook for a while; the MacBook gathers dust.
The Dell also has serious grunt for the money–8 Gig of RAM and a terabyte of hard disk space is pretty hard to beat for under $4K of donations.
It also appears that Windows 7 will finally be a decent operating system, and since my main programs are Windows-specific, I’ll stop fighting Microsoft and learn to live with them.
Ultimately I gave up and thought I’d be better off
September 26th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
Very good question mikeh1980–one which will take a blog entry to answer properly. The short answer though is that I find its interface much easier to design in and one that lets me focus on the maths rather than the syntax of the program. Its error messages are also very “human”, compared to those for Mathematica which I often find quite opaque. But I’ll mock up a demo of the two (I have Mathematica 5.0 and Publicon 1.0 as well, plus Scientific Workplace) to make my point clearer.
However nothing is written in stone on software. I did my work in Mathematica using its NDSolve routine for years before Mathcad implemented its own ODE solving system, and then improved the interface out of sight. If Mathematica (or Scientific Workplace for that matter, or Maple) did as good a job, there are other features in those systems that would make switching from Mathcad back to Mathematica very attractive.
September 26th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
It looks like your new model is going to 2 firm sectors FK and FC instead of the previous 3 (omitting FKC). Do you have posted anywhere the current parameters you are working with?
I notice that you’ve gone back to growing productivity and population. I had set up your prior 3-firm-sector model as a spreadsheet and noticed it kept running out of money due, I suppose, to constant population and productivity.
September 26th, 2009 at 6:19 pm
Why not pre-sell copies of your new book? I’d buy (pay for) one right now on the strength of what I’ve read in this blog.
September 26th, 2009 at 6:50 pm
Not yet Warren; I want to set up the system so that I can generate the code for an arbitrary number of sectors, but in the rush to get the CSIRO contract done, I started with 3 sectors, and then finished with 2 simply to have a fully written up version. I’ll send you a PDF of the file with the parameters etc visible in it by email.
September 26th, 2009 at 6:57 pm
Hi Pragmatist.
That’s something I have considered doing, but of course I have to be sufficiently advanced with the book to make that a viable option for the publishers Edward Elgar to agree to it. Since I only barely started the book before my teaching load derailed me this year, I can only contemplate that in a year or more from now, once the book is (say 75% finished).
To get to that point, I need time–hence my intention to purchase out my teaching next session (March-June 2010) so that I can focus predominantly on the book.
September 28th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
Steve,
I noticed that you have a lot of wasted “screen real estate” to the left of your formulas, while even the best of your monitors cant show all formulas at once.
I have a similar problem – I will rather see more lines of code at once rather than fewer lines and wasted space on the wide screen (sometimes labeled “short screen” by grumpy users).
There is a neat solution to this – try using the monitor in portrait mode.
On the software side you need a graphics card that supports 90 (or 270) degrees rotation. Most recent cards do, see this page: http://www.intel.com/support/graphics/sb/cs-016829.htm for the intel chips.
On the hardware side you need a monitor that can stand in portrait mode and quite a few models can. You need to detach the monitor from the stand and use a screwdriver to re-mount the mounting bracket sideways.
And with a bit of luck you can have the best of both worlds – use your good monitor in portrait mode and attach it to the external VGA port of your new laptop. Hopefully you can turn on rotation only for the external VGA port. Then extend your desktop across both monitors.
September 28th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
Thanks vk, I think I should be able to do that sometime next year. The screen’s 2560×1600 would be brilliant rotated 90 degrees to give me 2560 vertical by 1600 horizontal.