Alex A. Hutnik

I recently had a need to install Stata 10 on Ubuntu 7.10.  It’s actually pretty easy.

1. Open a terminal
2. We’re going to have to do a few things as root so type ‘sudo su‘.
3. Type ‘mkdir -p /usr/local/stata10 && cd /usr/local/stata10‘
4.  Put the Stata 10 CDROM in your computer.  In the terminal, type ‘/media/cdrom0/install‘.
5.  Answer the appropriate questions in the installation wizard.
6.  When it’s done installing, it will ask you to run ‘./stinit‘.  Go ahead and type that in to the terminal.
7. After entering your licensing information, type this: ‘ln -s /usr/lib/libtiff.so.4 /usr/lib/libtiff.so.3‘
8. You can now start Stata 10 from the commandline with ‘/usr/local/stata10/stata‘ or ‘/usr/local/stata10/xstata‘ if you want the xwindow version.
9. Optionally, you can run ‘ln -s /usr/local/stata10/stata /usr/bin/stata‘ if you want to run Stata with just ‘stata‘ at the commandline (or you could also include the install directory in your path)

Popularity: 36% [?]

A really interesting interview with Warren Buffett:

Underground Value: Notes From Buffett Meeting 2/15/2008

Popularity: 30% [?]

Unless I’m missing something because I stopped watching MTV 5 years ago, why is Facebook selling paper as one of their cheesy gifts?:

Honestly, I think the idea of Facebook gifts is ridiculous.  From a business standpoint though, it’s brilliant.  Because, unfortunately, the company has made millions selling little icons to people for a dollar.  How much does it cost to produce one?  Maybe a hundred dollars or so in wages?  You could probably crank out 2 or 3 a day, put them online, and the next day you’ve made a couple hundred thousand dollars or more.

Popularity: 33% [?]

Jeff Frankel (via Greg Mankiw):

“Despite the EITC and child credit, the poverty trap is still very much a reality in the U.S. A woman called me out of the blue last week and told me her self-sufficiency counselor had suggested she get in touch with me. She had moved from a $25,000 a year job to a $35,000 a year job, and suddenly she couldn’t make ends meet any more. I told her I didn’t know what I could do for her, but agreed to meet with her. She showed me all her pay stubs etc. She really did come out behind by several hundred dollars a month. She lost free health insurance and instead had to pay $230 a month for her employer-provided health insurance. Her rent associated with her section 8 voucher went up by 30% of the income gain (which is the rule). She lost the ($280 a month) subsidized child care voucher she had for after-school care for her child. She lost around $1600 a year of the EITC. She paid payroll tax on the additional income. Finally, the new job was in Boston, and she lived in a suburb. So now she has $300 a month of additional gas and parking charges. She asked me if she should go back to earning $25,000. I told her that she should first try to find a $35k job closer to home. Also, she apparently can’t fully reverse her decision to take the higher paying job because she can’t get the child care voucher back (the waiting list is several years long she thinks). She is really stuck. She tried taking an additional weekend job, but the combination of losing 30 percent in increased rent and paying for someone to take care of her child meant it didn’t help much either.”

Popularity: 30% [?]

Does This Analysis of Test Scores Make Any Sense? A Guest Post - Freakonomics - Opinion - New York Times Blog

Interesting commentary on a report publish by ETS (the same folks that made us take those terribly boring standardized tests in 8th grade).

Popularity: 72% [?]

To support their cause, Purebuttons.com purchased Radiohead’s new album for $1,000.

http://digg.com/music/DIGG_THIS_Radiohead_s_In_Rainbows_Just_got_bought_for_over_1_000_PICS

It’s a cool idea.  Recently, Madonna also cut ties with her record label, as have Oasis (they’re still around?).  It will be interesting to see how this will affect contract negotiations between labels and artists in the future.

Popularity: 20% [?]

An Excerpt:

You know the plot. Young, idealistic teacher goes to inner-city high school. Said idealistic teacher is shocked by students who don’t know the basics and who are too preoccupied with the burdens of violence, poverty and indifference to want to learn. But the hero perseveres and at great personal sacrifice wins over the students using innovative teaching methods and heart. The kids go on to win the state spelling/chess/mathematics championship. c.f. Stand and Deliver, Freedom Writers, Dangerous Minds etc.

We are supposed to be uplifted by these stories but they depress me. If it takes a hero to save an inner city school then there is no hope. Heroes are not replicable.

What we need to save inner-city schools, and poor schools everywhere, is a method that works when the teachers aren’t heroes. Even better if the method works when teachers are ordinary people, poorly paid and ill-motivated - i.e. the system we have today.

Marginal Revolution: Heroes are not Replicable

Popularity: 17% [?]

What do basic economic principles have to say about the war in Iraq?

Lessons on the surge from economics 101: Rutland Herald Online

Popularity: 14% [?]

Somewhere in Nebraska, I saw the following sign:

Since when were antiques and subs complementary goods?

Popularity: 21% [?]

I wish I had this when I was in school:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/19/nyregion/19schools.html?ex=1339905600&en=d810d7899bd844d5&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

Popularity: 20% [?]