Why I Voted No on Proposition 8

I voted in California by Absentee Ballot a few weeks ago, and I've been talking about my votes in this space over the last few days.

Today, I want to talk about why I voted NO on Proposition 8. For my friends who don't live in California, the Wikipedia definition of Prop 8 is:

Proposition 8 is an initiative measure on the 2008 California General Election ballot titled Eliminates Right of Same-Sex Couples to Marry. If passed, the proposition would "change the California Constitution to eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry in California." A new section would be added stating "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California."

In essence, Prop 8 takes away the rights of same sex couples to marry in California. I find this not only un-American, but disturbing at a very deep level. Prop 8 is bigotry codified in law. Americans should be better than this. We should know that in our country all people are equal under the law and have the same rights under the law.

I was so proud when I read that my employer publicly took a position to oppose this proposition:

However, while there are many objections to this proposition -- further government encroachment on personal lives, ambiguously written text -- it is the chilling and discriminatory effect of the proposition on many of our employees that brings Google to publicly oppose Proposition 8. While we respect the strongly-held beliefs that people have on both sides of this argument, we see this fundamentally as an issue of equality. We hope that California voters will vote no on Proposition 8 -- we should not eliminate anyone's fundamental rights, whatever their sexuality, to marry the person they love.

This morning, I saw a link to a video that Lawrence Lessig made about his opposition to this initiative. Take a look at what Lessig has to say on Prop 8:

Why I Voted for Obama

There are many, many reasons that I voted for Obama a few weeks ago. Today I want to share a video with you from a campaign event in Ohio.



"There are no real or fake parts of this country. There is no city or town that is more pro-American than anywhere else. We're one nation. All of us proud. All of us patriots."

Why I Voted for Obama

I voted awhile ago by absentee ballot, and I voted for Obama. There are a lot of reasons, but the main one is education not experience. When I interview someone, the first thing I look at is where they went to school and how they did there.

Why do I do this? Because the school you go to is a great filtering mechanism. If schools didn't filter we would all go to Harvard, Berkeley, and MIT. We would all go to the best schools because we want to ensure that we get the best education. So, while the school a candidate went to isn't the only determining factor, it's an important one.

Then I look at how that person did at school. Did he graduate at the top of his class at Harvard? Did he graduate at all? Did the candidate work hard in school? That's important. The only reason a person has to work hard at school is if they are motiviated. For the first time in a person's life, they are on their own, and no one is really pushing them anymore. There is no external scrutiny, and that tells me something about their character.

Now, I apply those decision criteria to the people running for office, as summarized on this blog:

Barack Obama:

• Columbia University - B.A. Political Science with a Specialization in International Relations.
• Harvard - Juris Doctor (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude

Joseph Biden:

• University of Delaware - B.A. in History and B.A. in Political Science.
• Syracuse University College of Law - Juris Doctor (J.D.)

vs.
John McCain: United States Naval Academy - Class rank: 894 of 899
Sarah Palin:

• Hawaii Pacific University - 1 semester
• North Idaho College - 2 semesters - general study
• University of Idaho - 2 semesters - journalism
• Matanuska-Susitna College - 1 semester
• University of Idaho - 3 semesters - B.A. in Journalism

 I have to say that is a pretty stark difference, and that difference is one of the biggest reasons for me to vote for Obama. I want smart people in office. I want people who are smarter and have worked harder than me to represent me to the world.

Reading Books on iPhone 2.0

I've always been a fan of ebooks, and have read them for years on Palm devices with software from eReader.com.

I wrote a short article a year ago about reading ebooks on the iPhone, and another one last September on using Books.app, but the conclusion in each of those cases is that the iPhone would be a great platform for ebooks, but the software wasn't there yet.

I'm really glad to say that the software is "there" now with the release of several software packages on the iPhone. In particular I've been using eReader, and Stanza for reading on my iPhone, and have been very pleased with both.

In each case the app provides a full screen text view, with a tap or slide motion to turn the pages. Both are extremely easy to use. eReader works with all of my books from eReader.com, and allows me to download books that I have purchased in the past. Stanza will read several formats, but it's biggest use for me is a library of free out of copyright texts that I would otherwise pay for at eReader.

Of the two I would say that Stanza has the best UI, but eReader has the best book selection (by virtue of their online store). They are both free in the iTunes store, so give them a try and let me know which you like best.

Missed it

If you follow my tweets, you know that I was in New York last week for a couple of days. This was a rare trip for me for two reasons. First, Jenna was with me, and second I wasn't there for work. This trip was strictly about seeing New York, and more importantly deciding if it was someplace that Jenna and I would like to live when we are done in London.

One of my ulterior motives for this trip was a visit to The Museum of Modern Art to see Van Gogh's The Starry Night. It is one of my favorite paintings, but I had never had a chance to see it in person. When we went to the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam a few months ago, I learned it was in New York at MOMA, and was looking forward to seeing it there.

Sadly, when we got to the gallery we learned that the painting was now traveling, and I wouldn't be able to see it.



According to the sign it will be back in New York in Autumn, so maybe I'll get a chance then. If not, then it's coming to Amsterdam in 2009, and I'll go over to see it there.

Keeping up with friends

I've been using twitter for about a year and a half, and other social aggregation services like FaceBook and FriendFeed, but recently I've found that there are a couple of developments that, combined, really make the service worth the time.

First is the growing convergence between these services. When I write post on twitter, it goes into my status message on Facebook, and is also aggregated on FriendFeed. When I comment on a post on FriendFeed, the comment can be sent to twitter as well, and when I write a post on my blog, it ends up on Twitter and FriendFeed.

Second is the number of people watching these services. From my point of view that number has finally reached a majority of the people I try to keep track of, and in many cases I'm starting to connect with old friends who I haven't heard from in years.

Third is the amount of activity on these sites. People are really starting to use them and even better, people are really starting to interact on these services.

I ran into Christina Kuhn today at work, and we got to talking about the fact that she knew I was in town because she saw my status on Twitter. The she mentioned that one of her friends just announced her pregnancy on Twitter. I had to laugh when she brought this up, because I follow the same friend, and found out about her news the same way.

Over the last few days I've had a bunch of replies from people I knew in high school, former jobs, and old friends. It's starting to feel like a real community. Do other people have similar experiences?

Google Translate for iPhone

One of the things I love about working for Google is the 20% time. While it's popularly touted in the media as "one day a week to do whatever you want", it's really just an acknowledgement that there are times when you get an itch, and have to scratch it. The company let's you do that on their time for up to 20% of your time.

This is a great way to explore new areas, and try new things. It's also a great way to get a product out the door that might not happen otherwise.

My latest 20% project is an iPhone interface for Google Translate. You can see the blog post where I introduced the feature over on the Google Mobile blog.

This was a fun project to work on. First I got to dive deeper into client-side javascript and HTML5 AIPs. Second I got to work with some great engineers like my friend David Singleton.

So far the response to the app is pretty good. There are about 1200 links on a relevant Google Blog search, and about 40 results on the same search in Google News. So far, I've seen a lot of great recommendations, and will have to plow through all these articles to see what people are saying.

I'm already hard at work on adding recommendations and incorporating feedback, expect to see more updates in the future.