The Chamberlain Effect
598525
Fore-warned is fore-armed!  This is a strategic move that Mr. Chamberlain did not consider.  Peace was all that mattered, without totally estimating the enemy.  History now shows us the consequences of this blunder.  This situation is repeating itself with Iran.  Iran tells us in no uncertain terms that she will destroy Israel and the USA, and whoever comes to their support.  Yet the West, especially the Liberals in the US, and the EU are still burying their heads in the sand, a thing not even the Ostrich does!!  The Final Move Beyond Iraq pleads with all nations not to be duped by weak-bellied leaders and allow radical Islam to destroy and massacre human beings.  The Muslims of Gaza and West Bank have shown us that human life is never to come between lustful leaders power.  If we all stand up against the Islam the resolution will come very quickly.  The book is captivating and its arguments I am sure are persuasive.  Very good reading.
4540331
Drawing on the theoretical insights of Emile Durkheim and Erving Goffman, Randall Collins sets out a detailed account of what it is that micro interactions accomplish and the structure of those interactions. In the first portion of the book, Collins lays out his theoretical contribution, presenting a compelling logic of micro interactions. The rest of the book involves applications of that logic.

Successful interactions, for Collins, are ones that produce a number of important outcomes: collective symbols with meaning for those involved, a sense of boundaries uniting those participating in a given interaction and bounding-out those that aren't, developing a sense of norms, and, most importantly, providing what Collins calls "emotional energy". This understanding provides a very specific meaning/purpose to the interactions people have and why they are driven to have them and have them in certain ways.

Collin lays out specific components of a successful interaction. Mutual entrainment is perhaps the most important - that participants are focused on some common locus of attention. In addition, Collins sees embodiment - the actual physical presence to one another in an interaction - as another necessary prerequisite for successful interactions.

While I quibble over some of the requirements that Collins delineates (particularly the need for co-presence for an interaction to be successful) and the elevation of emotional energy to the position of the chief motivation for interaction, the theory itself is of immense utility - both as a synthesis of Durkheimian and Goffmanian lineages of thought and as a more complete formulation of a theory of micro-interactions.
35473
I've been using Sears Craftsman openers for years.  Thought they were loud and jerky.  The Chamberlain (I have two now) were easy to install, very quiet, the remotes work from a long distance and will open/close the doors a couple of seconds faster than my Craftsman.
3752926
This book is very interesting as significant evidence of a shift in the upper reaches of the economics profession away from the elaborate algebra and abstract models with little relevance to the real world which have done such damage towards a much more realistic attempt to explain how human economic behaviour is grounded in human psychology and emotions.
460963
David explains how the laws of human behaviour operate for the advantage of those few who truly understand their impact on human behaviour. I threw logic out the window as I became increasingly aware of the raw power of emotion to guide and direct our lives. I now have a feeling of being behind the wheel instead of being the passenger.
2370381
I got a better understanding and appreciation for the adaptation process of technology because of cultural environments.  I agree with the authors' points of the limitations of technology as they are today.  But as our social environment evolves and as technology advances to promote new social interactions, I do see the possibility of using bots as decision makers, of having employees work from home, and etc.  The authors' assessment of the social culture as being static simplifies the dynamic interactions between social culture and technology.
3772659
Works better than I expected.  Total install time was about 15 minutes and that includes setting up with the app.  The added features, when compared to my older chamberlain opener, are definitely a bonus.  The remote shut gives an audible warning before shutting the door and there is a motion sensor that kicks on the garage light when you walk in.  Setting up the gateway was simple, just plug n play.  For the price, you can't beat this and now I know if/when the garage door is open.
624459
This thing is really cool.  If you have two doors, you will need another door sensor to activate both doors.  Surprisingly had to spend an hour on phone with Chamberlain tech support to get it working, but they are unbelievably good,  The process is a little finicky and if you make a wrong move at the wrong time in the set-up it will lock you out of the application login and you are screwed.  But tech support to the rescue.  I am sure they spend more on my support call than the product costs.  But they cheerfully did it.

Product works great.  Exactly how I would have designed the user interface.  Android and Apple (boo, hiss) apps are available and work perfectly.
1387859
The Chamberlain Clicker works well, although it may be a little confusing to setup at first. I successfully programmed 1 button to a Linear Multicode that had dip switches and the other button to a Craftsman via smart learn.

With the Dip Switch:
- Initially I matched the Dip switches to be exactly the same as the Linear Multicode and it did not worked. As the instruction suggested, if it did not work then I should reverse the position of the clicker and then redo the process. After reversing the position of the Dip switches, it worked perfectly.

With the Craftsman via Smart learn:
- When looking through the instruction on how many clicks to use on the chart, I did NOT see the Craftsman. I realized a little later on the note posted under the chart that Craftsman, along with a few other brands are COMPATIBLE with Chamberlain technology so you needed to refer to the Chamberlain clicks along with the color of the smart learn of your garage opener. Worked like a charm.

Range is great with it, no issues. Very happy that I was able to put 2 different remotes on to 1!
3650603
While many parts of this book are somewhat dated it makes one wonder why some of the very poor design fundamentals pointed out in the book continue today.  Why is it that you still find new buildings going up with a pull bar on a door that needs to be pushed to be opened?  I even encountered a sliding door last week that had a vertical pull bar.  How would a person know by looking at the door that it should be slid instead of pulled?  Of course, you don't know and that is the sort of thing that is covered in this book.  There is really no reason not to make things much easier to use except poor design.
How relevant is this book?  I became exposed to it as required reading for computer engineering studies.  Maybe the next generation of designers will be able to think ahead about things and design them better.  Heaven knows it won't hurt Microsoft to have someone who understands a user interface better.
So, is it of value to people other than designers?  I think so.  For one thing it has changed the way that I look at things and when choosing a purchase I look at design considerations.  After all, why shouldn't I pick the one that is better designed on the outside?  Maybe that reflects a better design on the inside.  I've even found that I think of things I learned in this book when doing something around the house such as adding a set of doors to enclose my bookcase or when I enclosed my porch.  It has affected a lot of things that I do not to mention it is simply a delightful read and written in a very easy style.
4282880
This is a solid book, based on a very interesting insight: that in a lot of cases, more information doesn't lead to better decisions, but worse ones. As it turns out, the additional information only serves to obscure our view of the most important factor in the decision. This isn't just true for fallible human brains, but also when all the data is plugged into a computer for a big, nasty regression equation.

Cool, huh?

So why not five stars?

Because the book peaks in the first two chapters as Gerd Gigerenzer (truly one of the all-time great author names) very clearly explains his insight to you using the fascinating concept of how humans catch a fly ball. (Hint: it isn't by doing all sorts of subconscious calculations about speed and trajectory)

From there on out, it's just one example after another of the same concept. By chapter four, when new examples get introduced, you're already projecting out exactly how people traditionally view it and how Gigerenzer's research shows things actually work. The good news is that shows Gigerenzer is a good teacher; the bad news is that the book is clearly too long.

So I'd highly recommend this first two or three chapters of this book to learn about Gigerenzer's very interesting, counter-intuitive and well-explained insight. As soon as you feel like you get the idea, though, I'd move on to your next book - you won't be missing any new ideas.
77567
I am not one for writing a review but felt it was time with this product.  This replaced our existing Chamberlain that was 15 years old.  The install was very straight forward and took me just over 2 hours from start to finish.  I was able to use my existing sensors and wiring so that cut some time off of the install.  This unit is extremely quiet and I mean quiet compared to my old unit.  I love the adjustment features that allow you to adjust the up and down of the door right from the unit.  I also love the ease of programming additional accessories from the wall mount unit.  Well done Chamberlain!!
3997232
The internet has changed our ability to interact with one another profoundly.  Seems obvious to those who actively use the tools so easily available to us like facebook, twitter, whatsapp, etc...  Tom Standage gives a perspective on how people have interacted given the mediums of their time in the past and perhaps not so surprisingly, our patterns today resemble patterns of the past.  After an era of centralized broadcasting catalyzed by the radio and TV, social participation has reverted back to peer to peer.  Writing on the Wall discusses our history and some specific technological breakthroughs that changed the way we interact with one another.

Writing on the Wall documents aspects of social interaction through the ages starting its first analysis with Roman Civilization.  The author describes how messengers constantly delivered messages back and forth among the elite to keep each other abreast of the social and political spheres they operated within.  The style was conversational and scribes for brevity had systems to efficiently condense common phrases to transcribe more efficiently.  The author moves onto the origin of Protestantism with Martin Luther and the use of the printing press to disseminate information via pamphlet.  The use of the printing press in spreading information was instrumental in igniting popular discontent with the corruption in the ecclesiastical system.  The author discusses how in England poetry and clever and subtle rhymes were a means of earning a reputation and a source of creative outlet for the better educated.  The author then discusses the role of the coffee house in the enlightenment and the migration from the social atmosphere of an ale house in which some of the darker aspects of social interaction happened to the coffee house facilitated lively debate and cross polination among intellectuals.  The coffeehouse acted as a level playing field for all those who could afford the simple beveridge.  The author moved on to the newspaper and how it spread throughout the US and provided for lively political commentary.  The stamp tax catalysed a backlash from the media who would be directly affected and were an example of how again, the printing press was a strong force to enable dissemination of information.  In the US having multiple points of view was applauded with the hope that the best explanations and reasons would be appreciated, in France papers were used as tools to attack ones enemies.  The author shows how public media can be a force for informational dispersion as well as a force for creating chaos and paranoia.  The author moves on to how the radio was used and the TV as well. The radio being more peer to peer initially as the cost of being a reciever and a transmitter is not particularly different but after specific incidents where individuals were seen to be interfering with state business, radio transmission went into a more regulated environment dominated by RCA (in the US) and BBC in the UK.  The use of centralized media was instrumental in the spread of propoganda and controlling society (as in germany) as well as a medium to advertise, as in the US.  The author then takes us into the modern world with the internet and the rebirth of peer to peer communication.

Writing on the Wall is a lively history of ways in which people have interacted through history.  Peer to peer dominated social media interactions and marketing is becoming the norm again after a long period in which centralized media was the norm but in reading this work it is clear that this form of interaction has been the norm in the past as well.  I enjoyed reading this, its definitely not all new- the ability to publish different points of view as a consequence of the printing press is pretty obvious to most, but the authors discussion of how that medium was used in different ways in different times gives good perspective.  Definitely worth reading.
3677841
Daniel Kahnemans Thinking, Fast and Slow, reveals many of the fallacies in our thinking, whether we are ordinary men and women or scientists, statisticians and policy makers. He partitions the thinking self into two entities with the generic names System 1 and System 2. System 1 is the intuitive part of our thinking self: the part that after training executes skills spontaneously; the part that generates impressions, feelings, and inclinations, which when endorsed by System 2 become beliefs, attitudes, and intentions. System 2 is the analytical part, which checks System 2 through critical analysis but which is often too lazy to act.

Whenever System 2 fails to check System 1, there is likely to be errors in our judgment, decisions, and thinking. Kahneman, through his research throughout the years with colleagues, discovered these thinking errors including heuristic and biases such as putting too much emphases on low probability events, being influenced by how a statement or question is framed, giving more weights (in terms of probabilities) to incidences that we are familiar with or that are dramatic, ignoring base rates and focusing only on the representative features of event or person to decide probabilities. Other fallacies are overconfidence through the illusion of understanding, where through hindsight we create artificial items for success (successful companies, CEOs, startups, etc); through the illusion of validity where the environment is so noisy that practitioners have difficulty mastering the skill (stock picking); through neglecting the outside view (the base rate) and only focusing on what is in front of us. Also, we make bad decisions because we are not the rational individuals that utility theory, decision theory, and other economic theories presupposes (we don't maximize expected utilities because emotions such as fear from System 1 interferes).

In general, System 1 is useful in our day-to-day lives since the shortcuts that we have developed over our lifetimes saves time and mental energy. However, at key moments, we must recognize that these shortcuts will harm rather than help us. By pointing out these fallacies, by turning these unknown unknowns into known unknowns Kahneman has alerted us to the tendencies for us to prejudge, to under-plan, to ignore the birds eye view, to select the wrong path, etc. Now that we are aware of the danger, we must design formal structures or informal alarms to guard against these fallacies. Since they affect personal finance, individual happiness, as well as national policies and international economics, we cant afford to avoid them. Overcoming these fallacies will improve our individual, national, and global wellbeing.
3533589
Regardless of whether you accept Putnam's rather inclusive defintion of social capital, I believe you cannot quarrel with his empirical results concerning the decline in civic engagement.  Using an amazing array of sources, he shows that many different forms of civic participation, as well as just plain sociable interaction, have declined drastically over the past 4 decades.
I am impressed by his determination to leave no stone unturned in looking for data.  He uses Roper polls, Gallup polls, the General Social Survey, trade association data, Census Bureau information, and a myriad of other sources. He entertains alternative interpretations of patterns and then shows how his is, usually, at least as plausible and often better.  In his thoroughness, he presents a model for other social scientists to follow when they are trying to convince skeptics about the existence of previously unnoticed events.
Most impressive, he clearly explains what a "cohort effect" is, and shows that almost all of the decline in civic engagement is due to younger, less-engaged generations replacing older, more-engaged ones.  That is, it is NOT a matter of people changing as they aged through the turbulent 60s and 70s, but rather a matter of our children and grandchildren failing to adopt our -- the older generation -- civic habits.
I wasn't particuarly happy with his decision to use state-level measures of social capital in the last third of his book, but by then I had already become convinced of Putnam's major point: times have changed, and the 1940s and 50s were special decades.  We won't see their level of civic engagement again, unless something changes radically in our society.
I highly recommend this book to those of you who love Malcolm Gladwell's work.  This is what Gladwell would do, if he had Putnam's training in data analysis!
4433559
You can't knock on a book this popular, can you? I'm skeptical about Kahneman's model of the human brain and its impact on behavior, and I'm just a fan in general of picking on experimental psychology, *but* all-in-all this a well-designed book that summarizes the rise of a now-key discipline: behavioral economics/psychology. The focus of the work is genius: identifying and correcting standard cognitive errors that we make on a regular basis. This gives the work wide value to many kinds of readers.
3667655
Update: I broke my garage door sensor recently while moving a heavy object in my garage.  I ordered a replacement, but turns out to be completely unreliable.  It synchronized properly with the control unit, and it initially detected when the door closed.  But after a short amount of time it reports that the door is open, even though it remains closed.
I have replaced the battery.  I have removed the sensor from the door and resynchronized it.  I have relocated it to the other end of the door.  Nothing changes its behavior.  I don't think that there's a problem with the signal, because the previous sensor worked fine in the same location for two years.  As it stands, this device is no longer useful.

I bought this to replace a Chamberlain garage door alert that stopped working after two years.  This is a decent improvement, but has some shortcomings.  The Chamberlain was wall mounted, and this one sits on a table.  You can't wall mount it easily because the access door for the Learn button is on the back, and so is the Mute button.  Two improvements over the Camberlain: 1): If you use it with more than one door, you can assign it to one of four zones (LEDs).  The Chamberlain has only one light (or zone), regardless how many sensors you add.  2) You can choose between silent (light only), alert (loud beep), and alarm (very loud).  The one thing that I liked better about the Chamberlain product is that its sensors are small and compact, and can go anywhere on the door.  They detect when their angle changes as the door goes from vertical to horizontal.  The Skylink detector has to go at the bottom of the door, and has a detector "foot" that rests against the floor.  When the door raises, this detects it by dropping down.  One last observation.  The Skylink borders on being an alarm system, because you can buy more kinds of detectors for it and add more than one to each zone.  I am considering purchasing detectors for my regular doors.  But because these cost so much (currently near $20), it quickly stops being cost effective.  Buying four additional door detectors would push the price of this system past what a decent entry level home alarm system costs, but with substantially fewer detectors and capabilities.