Bad times for men – census data and median income

There have been several article today about how household income is down to very low levels. But household income kind of hides some things – like how many people are in the household have income as times have changed.

A household 40 years ago might have just had a single earner while a household today might have two or more.

So I went to the census site and looked at more of the data, especially that for individuals. The numbers go back to 1947 and are quite interesting.

Blue are male incomes, green are female incomes and yellow is the total. Household incomes are shown in red.

What you can see is that male income has simply been flat the last 30 years or so. In fact, a man in 1968 made more money than a man does today. Women make twice as much as they did in 1968.

No wonder so many people, especially men, are worried.

Men today make less money than their fathers did.  The only way households have been able to maintain any living style is to have two earners in the family.

A fan in a tablet is like a two-stroke engine on a hairdryer

This Commercial Reminds Me of the Upcoming Intel-Based Windows 8 Tablets
[Via Daring Fireball]

If you’re going to put a fan in your tablet, why not go the extra step? (Via Frederik Danvig.)

Update: Via numerous DF readers, here’s an even better spot by Nissan with the same concept.

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Here is the first ad:

and here is the second:

Luckily Renault and Nissan  are in alliance with one another so we should not see any copycat lawsuits.

Whaahhh? A tablet with a Fan? One that makes to much noise?

by Ryk Neethling

‘However, Fan Noise Is Very Noticeable, as Is the Heat Coming Out of the Top Vent’
[Via Daring Fireball]

Hands-on report with a prototype iPad 3, or a Windows 8 Samsung tablet — you make the call.

[More]

That’ll be your problem right there. The iPad has no moving parts. BUt the upcoming windows tablets need a fan to keep them cool enough to work.

With a nose that is noticeable? What a great selling point.

And what about battery life? I’m guessing that having to run a fan will shorten battery life a lot.

Possibly one of the greatest movies ever is not going to be shown in Washington State

PHD Comics Movie is coming, providing an inside view of science
[Via Ars Technica]

Earlier this year, graduate students suddenly found themselves deprived of a major source of procrastination when updates of the Piled Higher and Deeper (PHD) Comics suddenly reduced to trickles. The hiatus led to a widespread speculation that Jorge Cham, the creator of the comics, fell victim to (*gasp*) procrastinitis after advocating for the habit over many years through his worldwide speech tour titled “the Power of Procrastination.”

PhD Comics is a humorous and point-blank accurate take on the everyday struggles scientists face in grad school that are often hard to explain to people on the outside—like our parents. The comics earned their worldwide popularity soon after Jorge started writing them in 1997 for this exact reason—they finally gave us a way to laugh at ourselves for banging our heads against the lab benches and computer monitors.

While graduate students everywhere were waiting impatiently for a new comic strip, the reason for idleness was soon revealed: Jorge teamed up with some uber geeks at Caltech to produce a live-action film adaptation of his comics—the popular comic characters Cecilia, Mike Slakenerny, Tajel, and the Nameless Grad Student finally come to life, their roles played by real-world gradstudents. The long wait is now over, and the film is being released on academic campuses worldwide this Thursday, September 15th.

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Here is the trailer for Piled, Higher and Deeper.

And the CalTech location brings back fond memories. Yep, all the acting, locations, music, writing,, etc were handled by students at CalTech.

Explaining all the lawsuits between Apple, Smasung, HTC, Motorola and so on

Feature: Owning the stack: The legal war to control the smartphone platform
[Via Ars Technica]

In the last few weeks, the smartphone industry appeared to produce more lawsuits than phones. Apple briefly managed to stop the sale of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in all of Europe, and is now going after the whole Galaxy line. Back Stateside, Google first complained that Microsoft and Apple were using “bogus patents” to target Android, then spent $12 billion for Motorola and its patent arsenal. These are big, high-stakes fights—and the last company left standing may walk away with control over nothing less than the smartphone market itself.

In the flood of stories about tactical filings and counter-filings, it’s easy to get lost in the details. But step back and it’s clear that the Smartphone Wars aren’t just a war of all against all; there’s an underlying logic to these disputes. Most companies are fighting to control one part of the hardware-software stack, then use that control to pry money free from the layers above them.

But the really big players—the Apples and Googles of the world—are fighting over the stack itself. Their combat arena: the global legal system.

[More]

Here is their picture of the stack:

At the top are the apps, followed by the OS, followed by the hardware, followed by the network at the bottom. There are conflicts at each level – horizontal – and there are conflicts between each level (vertical).

Only a few companies are active at all levels – Apple and Google being the most successful. Their goal is to own all the levels, or at least be major players in each level. As in the Tour de France, they want the Gold jersey for overall leader, even if someone else is the sprints champion.

It’ll be interesting to see how al these suits play out, especially since there is a great chance of conflicting and contradictory decisions from al the different jurisdictions.

But the overall result will go a long way to defining just what 21st century companies will be like.

You’ll win at exercise!!

In the style of Idiocracy. We are beginning to live in that world.

AWESOME!!!