Changing locations for my blogging

I have started blogging at https://econdatascience.com. Check it out.

Best Tablets with Stylus, Evernote and PDF Max

Business News daily has a nice summary called the Best Tablets with Stylus.

I use the pens of my Lenova X220 Tablet PC (windows), Samsung Galaxy Note 4 phone (Android, Verizon) (or phablet) and my Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 edition tablet (Android)  daily.

I was checking out the review Best Tablets with Stylus because the X220 is getting old, but is still quite serviceable and because I am tempted to move to the unified environment of Windows on all devices, but that is currently too costly and may leave me with a phone incompatibility unless I swap it out. Yes I want all three devices to do the same thing and run the same programs -- too much to ask?

Until that day arrives I can share hand written documents between all three devices most easily through Evernote. I can sketch a supply and demand graph on my tablet and almost instantly grab it on my laptop to include in the email I  am composing for my student. I can create a to do list on my tablet or laptop and have it available and editable on my phone as I happily scratch off and add to it wherever I am. I have long been an advocate of digital ink and associative technology, but in every case the value is in the Apps or programs that make digital ink computing ubiquitous.

Another cool thing for the Samsung Note family, it allows the syncing of the proprietary S-note between the tablet and phone and makes them available to the desktop. Not perfect, but really useful.  I am an Evernote Premium user and for my use would think of nothing less, but you can explore the features at this Evernote link.

I am also quite the fan of a program called PDF Max 4 which will allow you to read, annotate & edit PDF documents and fill out PDF Forms! You can check it here and like Evernote it will let you annotate pfd forms on your phone and tablet (I use the android version). There is no desktop equivalent.

By the way I used to be high on Bluebeam.com for desktop annotations of pdfs and it is an excellent program, but they do not have an Android solution. They do have an iPad solution. That is where they lost me.

Samsung's Galaxy Note 10.1

Samsung's Galaxy Note 10.1

Samsung's Galaxy Note 10.1

Samsung's Galaxy Note 10.1

Oppose Net Neutrality

Putting on my economist hat! (and declaring I am not an economist on anyone's payroll except the University of Akron)



Economic Reality versus Wishful Thinking again!

Please learn about Net Neutrality and write the FCC to oppose it. (Comment here http://www.fcc.gov/comments on proposal 14-26)

Too many people on all sides of the political and social spectrum seem to favor it. The Internet is not a telecommunications utility. It should scare you that all the large companies are in favor of it. Regulations are often packed with the nicest sounding words, but this is not in our (read the consumer's) benefit. It is in the benefit of the huge corporations. Regulation often protects the status quo which is the large businesses. This passes and the future possibilities of starting a business on the internet or starting your own blog may be so encumbered that the new business or media won't take place.  You may have to give you permission or a license to start your business or media site. This will protect the existing cable and internet providers.

Right now you don't need to fill out forms and pay taxes to start up a business on the internet, but after the FCC rules on net neutrality you may have to, in fact I think you will definitely have to. This will return the sales tax on the internet -- imagine how you will have to know the tax rates in all jurisdictions in the country, collect the tax and disperse it. That alone will discourage new and little business. Big companies, no problem they can afford a department of accountants and programmers and they will pass that cost on to you.

I have decried the appalling lack of economic literacy for my 35 years of teaching. I have tried to do my part to get people to understand economic reality versus wishful thinking. Net Neutrality being able to improve things for you is wishful thinking. Contact the FCC now and complain - do not support the new rules. You must get your comments by Feb 26. Make your voice heard or you will be sorry. Netflix will cost you more (I know they say it will be less, but they want this) and a competitor to Netflix will not be able to get started without satisfying the regulators.

Check out this video to see my point made.

Regulation is helpful when the market is not competitive if the goal is to deal with the competitive elements by causing them to lower price and increase service.  This is the classic text book use of regulation moving the market to increased efficiency. If the government goal was to lower Netflix's price and forcing them to increase service then perhaps.... but Netflix would not be the major company in favor then would it?

Write the FCC now or your use of the internet will forever change for the worse. The FCC commissioner has commented that the media on the internet needs to be controlled so you have a more truthful source. That should scare you to death. The bad parts on the internet and the quacks that write nonsense is the price of freedom. I do not want all my news pre-approved which could happen.

Economic reality is far more important than wishful thinking.

What if your wages were sequestered?

An employee who makes $50,000 per year goes in for a meeting with his boss.  The boss looks glum and tells the employee he must cut his pay by $13,238 as he has no choice, he is being forced to do it by the Board.  The employee begins to sweat trying to figure out how to pay his bills on only $36,763 and panics, shouting at his employer how bad this is.  “I can’t lose $13,000….”

The employer takes pity on the employee and says … “Let me explain.  You do not understand the new (Washington) math.  The cut in your pay is indeed over $13,237 but that is over 10 years.  Also, it is out of planned spending not on actual spending.  You see I have planned to give you a 10.3% increase each year and I now find that is impossible so I have to cut somewhere.” The employee notices a tear forming in the employer’s eye. “The Board is making me cut a total of 2.4% of my planned spending and that means I can only increase your current salary by $3,829 and not the $5,152 I had intended.  Over 10 years that is a $13, 236 cut in your pay.  You do know it’s the evil Board, not me don’t you?“ 

The employee now really confused says, “You mean you are only cutting $1,324 next year and you are not cutting it from my $50,000 pay, but from my $5,152 increase you had planned to give me and which I have not even yet received?”

“Yes,” the employer replies with much remorse, feeling so bad he has to hurt his employee by cutting his pay.  The tears are flowing now.

And the employee says, “So actually, you are not cutting my pay of $50,000 and you are INCREASING my pay by $3,829 next year?”

“Yes” says the employer, “I am so sorry to hurt you so much.  I know you will have to stop doing so much, maybe not be able to pay your mortgage, make your car payments, and send your kids to school.”  At which the employer bursts out in tears sobbing uncontrollably and wailing about the impending disaster to come.

The employee looks at the pathetic employer and states, “So this year I make $50,000 and next year you are going to pay me $53,829, a nice raise, but you think I am being cut $13,236 over 10 years because you can’t raise my pay as much as you want?”

“Yes” sobs the employer now on his phone begging the Board to avoid the cuts at all costs.  I am trying to tell them how much it will hurt you and all my other employees.

The employee rises and leaves the bosses office smiling and imagining the good an increase of over $3,800 is going to do.  

Now you understand sequester.  $3.6 trillion today is planned to be $6 trillion in 10 years, but $2.4 percent cut must be taken from the planned increase meaning that government spending will still increase.  The problem is that over 60% of the economy is entitlements and cannot be touched by the sequester and that means the cuts fall most heavily on federal expenditures that are discretionary.  Passing smarter cuts and entitlement reform could go a long way, but as long as our “employer” wails and doesn’t act, we are stuck.  But wait, aren’t we the employers of them?

Reference: http://blog.heritage.org/2013/02/24/chart-of-the-week-sequestration-cuts-2-4-percent-out-of-total-spending/

Economic Writing Contest

2013 Creative Writing Contest http://www.clevelandfed.org/Learning_Center/For_Teachers/contests_for_students/writing/2013/index.cfm

Tips for leaders of online programs

Tips for college leaders to make online programs work http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2013/02/11/tips-college-leaders-make-online-programs-work

Design may be coming full circle

Tablet PC Review reports that the Samsung Galaxy Note includes a pen.  A pen for taking digital ink notes.  This is a great step in the right direction.  I love the flexibility of the tablet (iPad, Zoom, etc), but without a pen I would not consider them.  Add the power to run compatible software to my Tablet PC and the perfect traveling machine is born.  Online learning, including interacting with the lecture in the classroom, might be enhanced with more of these devices.  Let's see.

Campus Technology misses the Tablet PC

Are you kidding me?

Campus Technology has a product focus on interactive whiteboards as a collaborative tool.  It also has a long list of alternative technologies, but they miss the ultimate collaborative tool.  Each of the technologies are involved in trying to get the written and drawn image on a white board projected or saved and transmitted electronically to students in the classroom or at a distance.

How can they miss the Tablet PC?  Really folks, I can write or draw on my tablet screen and broadcast it anywhere.  One can simply use Microsoft Journal to create a white space to write on or write on any of the Microsoft Office products and with other apps can write on anything.   I have been doing this for years to great success.  When the screen in the classroom is in front of the classroom whiteboard as it is in almost every classroom I walk into, the Tablet PC is both the projector of content and the electronic whiteboard.

I think this reaches a new height with using DyKnow Vision in a 1:1 computing environment.  Each student needs a computer to receive the message and a free client download and they do not have to be Tablets.

New Tablet PC

I picked up my new Tablet PC today. This Lenova X220 replaces my HP2107p. So far the form factor win goes to the HP2107p. I am starting to set up the Lonova X220 and ergonomically I really dislike it. Why would you design a Tablet that is awkward to hold. I do like the touch screen, but little else on first impression.

The dock is ridiculous. Compared to the thin dock of the HP2710 the Lenova X220 dock raises the keyboard up over an inch. Getting used to typing at this height and angle will take some adjustment. If the DVD weren't in the dock, the dock would be in a drawer.

Overall the X220 has to edge out the 2710p, but perhaps only because it is 4 years newer.

More later.

Are You Using a Tablet (PC) at Work?

TabletPCReview.com is conducting an online survey of Tablets in the business space. Take the survey here: Are You Using a Tablet at Work?

I was thrilled to see that the concentration was not only on what the consumer world now calls "tablets," i.e., ipad, zoom, etc, but included the Tablet PC. One of my responses was: "The Tablet PC is a full computing environment and adds the luxury of a stylus and pen / electronic ink input and markup. It is the best of both worlds."

I remain a fervent evangelist for the Tablet PC as my only computer for my business. i still think to buy a laptop without giving oneself the luxury of a pen interface is short sighted for everyone who takes notes on paper, grades papers, gives presentations, reads articles and books, and more. In short, the Tablet PC remains the best platform for all around computing.

The recession hasn't ended from a jobs prespective.

A Graph from Calculating Risk shows the relationship of this recession to all post-depression / post-WWII recessions. What ever the administration is trying and has tried is clearly not working. Of that there can be little debate.

Click on the chart to see a larger version.

Unemployment. The cost grows.

Current unemployment measured by U-3 falls to 9.0 percent, and total unemployment measured by U-6 is at 16.2 percent for October 2011. (see Table A-15, Bureau of Labor Statistics).

The Blog Calculating Risk often produces the best graphics of what is happening. In the article which you can find at the link you will see two graphs. The first shows Unemployment by Duration. As everyone can see, long term unemployed from 1969 to 2008 was always less than the short term unemployed as a percentage of the civilian labor force. Since 2009 the effect is dramatic as the long term unemployment dominates the short term unemployment. This is unarguably a structural change in the labor market and has to be correlated with economic policies since 2009.

So who are the long term unemployed? The second chart in the Calculated Risk blog shows the Unemployment Rate by Education . The chart illustrates the answer in part. Labor economists know the answer without looking. That is, the long term unemployed are most likely to be with the least human capital, the least experience and those in jobs that have been structurally depressed or eliminated. While the second chart does not deal with all three reasons, clearly a change is visible. The brunt of the unemployed is always born by those with the least education, but look how dramatically that too has changed since 2009.

What can we conclude from this? Well two graphs do not predict or even explain what is going on and is simply a description of the events we are experiences, but the circumstantial evidence is that policies designed to deal with the 2007 recession are sadly ineffective and wrongly applied.

What The New Patent Reform Act Means For Innovation | Fast Company

Is this a game changer in new job innovation? Clearly the pace of patent approval and innovation will be affected.

What The New Patent Reform Act Means For Innovation | Fast Company

The Great Recession and Government Failure | Hoover Institution

Gary Becker, 1992 Nobel Prize inning economist and a personal hero of mine, weighs in on the
The Great Recession and Government Failure.

Whoop - Everything Mobile

Whoop - Everything Mobile

Creating Mobile Apps seems to be just this easy. I haven't contacted them to find out how much they want for their product, but the first glance at their web pages is very impressive.

They promise a Whoop App Agent installer by texting 'whoop' to 53000, but all efforts to get that failed. I was trying to see what apps were available and in particular see the new Red Cross app that was created in Whoop. I do not recommend this site. I am impressed with their presentation and intrigued with the concept that anyone can create apps for mobile phones.

Perhaps more later.

Our latest article on program assessment is out in the latest issue of Journal of Economic Education 42 (2).

Assessment of the Undergraduate Economics Major: A National Survey (co-authored with Drs. Nelson and Stratton) "reveals that nearly two-thirds of the departments have a formal assessment plan. There is substantial agreement on the most important student-learning outcomes, which are consistent with the Hansen proficiencies. The most common approaches that departments employ to measure learning outcomes are course-embedded assessments and senior exit surveys. Capstone courses and senior projects as program assessment methods are most common in departments that are not in business schools and are without doctoral programs. Finally, more than half of the departments have adjusted their curriculum based on the results of their own assessment plans."

I think one of the most important lines in the abstract above is : "There is substantial agreement on the most important student-learning outcomes ... consistent with the Hansen proficiencies."

iPads for College Classrooms? Not So Fast, Some Professors Say. - Technology - The Chronicle of Higher Education

iPads for College Classrooms? Not So Fast, Some Professors Say. - The Chronicle of Higher Education

Best paragraph damning with faint praise:
For some professors, an older, less-hyped model of tablet computer offers far more advantages. That device is the tablet PC. It's clunkier than the iPad—and so uncool that it runs Windows—but it allows instructors and students to write precisely because it uses a penlike stylus, and to type quickly on its attached keyboard.

I remain a fervent advocate of the Tablet PC. I use it every day and every day that I am teaching class. I would enjoy an iPad or Moto Zoom for reading and browsing and reference work, but for serious work in the econometrics classroom nothing can touch a Tablet PC. For me I need a very good way to do writing with digital ink, drawing graphs and writing complex equations. Until a tablet can do that I will be supporting the Tablet PC.

New Tablet: Is the Revised Galaxy Tab 10.1 an iPad 2 Killer? More importantly is that "digital ink" I see?

New Tablet: Is the Revised Galaxy Tab 10.1 an iPad 2 Killer? [GALLERY]

This one got my attention. In image 6 of 9 of the original story is an on screen image of "PenMemo" with pen ink control and an illustration of a drawing having been made on the screen. While I don't see evidence of a stylus in the article, the ability to write on the screen is the right direction.

(image grabbed from linked page)


Anyone who knows me and the way I use my HP2710p Tablet PC in the classroom will know that a device that offers ink capabilities will be high on my list of things to have. Using DyKnow Vision with the Tablet PC in a 1:1 computing environment has been a great experience, but the entry price for students is they must purchase a Tablet PC (a harder and harder to find item) and not what students show up to class with. For $499 -- if this could support the wireless capability of a powerhouse like Dyknow (and I know I am dreaming) I would be in line the day it comes out.

I do like "For business users, the new Tabs both include Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync support, and Quickoffice HD Editor for managing office documents via Android." (source: pcadvisor.co.uk)

Apparently no USB or SD card slot, but the Moto Zoom has at least the USB. (source: engadget).

So after some searching I can find nothing about "PenMemo" that excites me and nothing about a stylus being able to be used on these new Tablet PC's. (I really hate that the real Tablet PC's have lost the branding war with the Tablets that are out now.)

Someone find me a good digital ink solution in these new fangled Tablets. (Hey APple if you get there first I could jump ship...)

Motorola's Xoom Is iPad's First Real Rival - WSJ.com

Motorola's Xoom Is iPad's First Real Rival - WSJ.com

Is this the one for you? Or do you prefer the iPad. And what about full funcion Tablet PCs. How do they rate with you?

Does government spending create jobs?

Very thoughtful and sadly for the road we are on, this is dead on. Russ Roberts on
Does government spending create jobs?