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What are the options for “low-cost surveillance camera” setups? Read more »

Comments Off on Perverse Incentives

“Perverse incentives” is a phrase I seem to use quite often, lately. We create (or accept) the perverse incentives that create the perverse outcomes we detest. Read more »

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Everyone seems to be criticizing the search of a blogger’s home-office by a law-enforcement task force, following the blogger’s report (at Gizmodo.com) about an iPhone prototype, which he said he’d purchased from someone who found it in a bar.

While I’d love to join the chorus criticizing both Apple and law enforcement, I simply don’t have enough information to make a reasonable decision about the conduct of various parties. Read more »

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Because of a flood of spammy comments, I’m considering whether I should change the way I allow comments to be posted on this blog.  Read more »

Comments Off on About Mark Welch

In the 1990s and 2000s, I was  both a web publisher and an internet marketing consultant.  Read more »

Comments Off on Mark Welch – Publisher Role

As a web publisher, most of my time [was] spent developing and maintaining “niche” web sites focused on specific audiences, communities, and product categories.  “Relevant and Useful” is my web publishing philosophy.

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Comments Off on The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education

After reading some very positive reviews, I was quite disappointed with this book (The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education, by Diane Ravitch). While there are many good ideas in the book, it’s excruciatingly repetitive, poorly organized, and fails to persuade. Read more »

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I was intrigued by a brief mention of 101 Theory Drive: A Neuroscientist’s Quest for Memory (by Terry McDermott) in a local bookstore’s newspaper insert, which led me to search out some reviews online. Based mostly on one positive review (by B.T. Shaw, in The Oregonian), I bought the Kindle edition of the book from Amazon on the day it was released.  After finishing the book, I was satisfied because I felt that I’d learned a lot about the biology behind memory; but I was also disappointed because the review had left me with higher expectations. Read more »

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When I discovered that the City of Hayward simply couldn’t keep up with the hundreds of graffiti reports I have submitted, I decided to try another strategy during my daily walks: I’m trying to clean some graffiti myself.  Here’s my initial report of the products I used, and my results. Read more »

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Updated March 20, 2010: Alas, my submission of hundreds of Hayward graffiti reports has far exceeded the city staff time allocated for graffiti cleanup. The original goal of two-day response has stretched to weeks and now to six months. Read more »