Do I know you?

Back online, feelin' fine. Except new gphone only lets me edit post TITLES! WTF?!

2009-02-07T15:22:00.000-08:00

I feel pretty, oh so pretty...

2008-08-17T10:42:00.000-07:00

There's an article over at slashdot on the subject of getting a computer to make your photo prettier, or in the worst case, make it a photo of someone prettier than you. The application mentioned in the article was "increasing privacy" for when Google wants to take a photo of somewhere where you happen to be.

(Incidentally, Google makes Street View maps by sending out cars with big, obvious cameras stuck on top of them. I've gotten caught behind one such car in traffic. It freaked me out.)

This new technology might be used to protect privacy, but I think we all know where this is headed: internet dating is about to get even more disappointing for everyone involved. What's that? You didn't think it was possible? Never doubt the powers of technology!

Easy come...

2008-08-16T12:56:00.000-07:00

Last night, I went out and bought a new phone. Specifically, a BlackBerry Curve PDA/smartphone. It is a very shiny machine. Most of you probably don't care about the technical specs I so love, so I won't include information about the processor speed, onboard RAM or network. It still had a bunch of nice features you will appreciate:

QWERTY thumb-sized keyboard

High resolution camera

Sprint's live TV service (I could watch CNN anywhere I got cell service)

A "trackball" mouse thingy that is just a joy to use

This morning, I returned it. I owned this device for a sum total of thirteen hours. It turns out, the return process is pretty quick if you don't even bother to activate your new phone service. I would have really liked to have kept it, but let's face it- the money is better spent elsewhere.

For now, it is more than enough that I know I can go out and get something I really want and don't need in the slightest; I don't have to keep it. I just like that the option is, if necessary, open. But I guess the nature of that option is that it will never be necessary.

Can't sleep- future will eat me.

2008-08-14T21:25:00.000-07:00

Okay, first of all, a rant about George Jetson's car. You know what the coolest aspect of that car was? No, not that it flies. We don't have flying cars yet, but we do have airplanes, and frankly, that's good enough for now. I'm not saying we shouldn't have them; I'm just saying it's not what made the Jetsonmobile so badass.

Power source? Guess again. If you're looking for a really slick power source, you've got to go warp drive. Old GJ probably has a run-of-the-mill nuclear reactor under the hood.

No, what always amazed me about George Jetson's personal transport was that it folds up into a briefcase, which can then be lifted by a middle-aged professional button pusher. Think of it: A vehicle so lightweight, it can be lifted by a human being, yet powerful enough to transport said human being through the air. Whatever fuel that uses, it's gotta be getting great miles per joule. And think of how nice folding is! No worries about whether your car is getting broken into- just look under your desk and check for yourself!

I apologize if I'm repeating myself here, but there is something about the future that I'm looking forward to with less enthusiasm. Apparently, Boeing has gone and built itself a nasty little machine. Okay, maybe not so little, but it's still enough to scare the willies out of me. I saw the opening scene to "Real Genius". I know what's the what.

I'm a greedy, greedy man, and my eye is always a bit green for hints that science fiction loses that pesky "fiction" moniker. But c'mon, couldn't we work more toward the kinds of medical advances everybody loves on Star Trek? Or how about the materializer- who doesn't like a super-cheap source of food for anyone who wants to eat?

*Sigh* At least the cloaking device is coming along nicely. And hey- the holodeck can't be too far behind, can it? (Or at the very least, we now have some furniture to put in there.)

No f^@%ing way.

2008-08-13T22:04:00.000-07:00

I'm all for mad science, I mean really mad science, but even this weirds me out a little. And all I've got to go on are the headlines from the various science-based blogs I so love. The Future Soon, indeed!

Also, if you have some bandwidth to spare, here is a nice little collection of things you can do to make your life ever so slightly more efficient. You don't have to do any of them to make me happy. Do them to make you happy.

Visitations.

2008-08-11T19:52:00.000-07:00

My dad came to visit me over the weekend. We had a good time, and indulged in one of my great new personal obsessions: a certain furniture store that is lauded in tale and image and song. It was kind of nice to know that, with relatively short notice, I am capable of hosting a guest, even if my current accommodations leave something to be desired.

Actually, I think the shock of my current living space is really wearing off. I will move as soon as I have the money to put up a month's rent and a security deposit pretty much anywhere else, but I'm willing to be patient until that time comes. In the meanwhile, I'm sleeping through the four a.m. discussions that are held on Sunday mornings, even if it took my dear father a bit by surprise. Dad is, incidentally, on his way down from the bay area (me) to the Los Angeles area, where his brother is spending his retirement. Dad took the train this morning, and when I checked on its progress, it turned out to be a mere two hours late in departing.

I cannot help but reminisce on the amount of time I spent in K'zoo's train station, waiting for my transport, while he waited at home to come pick me up at the other end of my visit from college. Memories, like the sharp pointy corners of my mind.

Talks worth listening to.

2008-08-02T10:54:00.000-07:00

So, I've recently rediscovered TED talks, which claim to be "ideas worth spreading". They accomplish that goal, but they cast a pretty wide net for what ideas they're willing to put up on a stage. I admit, the guy folding origami blindfolded while his buddy played a 5-string electric cello was entertaining, but for me, it's not exactly an idea I can successfully spread. (I know, the presence of that sentence on my blog is self-contradictory, but unless you bother to hunt down that video, I call it valid.)

So, one video that really caught my attention was A.J. Jacobs talking about his book, The Year of Living Biblically. He puts forth some really interesting ideas, which I now wish to spread:

As far as I know, many psychologists now agree that performing actions will mold your intentions to agree with those actions. But did you know that "Smile and you'll be happy" is in the Bible? This I know, for A.J. Jacobs tells me so.

If you want to be skeptical about the existence of a God, but still accept that there is something important, even sacred, about the rituals observed by people of faith, you can call yourself a "reverent agnostic". Me, I'm going to start thinking of myself as a "reverent atheist".

Beards should be well-maintained and kept trim at all times.

I hope this gives you some food for thought.

Happy Birthday, NASA!

2008-07-29T18:54:00.000-07:00

NASA turned fifty today. Hooray!

Falling up.

2008-07-26T08:34:00.000-07:00

In a new blog I've recently taken to, there's a story about a woman whose inner ear betrayed her, and what she did about it. This sort of thing always makes me sit up and pay attention. I love the idea of the human brain, and how it gets changed. The story includes a link to a book called The Brain that Changes Itself, but that seems a little misleading to me. Does the brain really change itself? I say, no.

That's not to say that the brain isn't an amazing piece of biological hardware, or that it doesn't change in strange and fascinating ways. But in this particular instance, the first change was brought about because of an overdose of antibiotics, and the corrective change uses some clever electrical engineering worked into a helmet. That's the brain reacting to outside influences in my book- something my car does on a daily basis.

Let's get a little more philosophical about this: both changes, the drug and the helmet, were the products of other people's brains. Human brains made these tools, and human brains decided to use them. And the decisions in this case were brought about because of the patient's brain going wonky. Shouldn't that count as the patient's brain changing itself, then changing itself back (albeit through a strange route)?

Again, I say no. Once you get back to first causes, the human brain seems to react to its external environment. Stuff happens to the brain, and it reacts according to a poorly understood rule-system based on its structure and chemical makeup. At least, that's how I understand it. People have evolved to have exceedingly complex behaviors, but I believe any given behavior is just the simultaneous expression of a number of rules, any one of which evolved because it gives an advantage for reproduction over competing rules for behavior in a given situation. And any given "rule" is really just a way for the brain to send signals around itself, or more specifically, for one part of the brain to send signals to another part, or even more specifically, for one neuron to either fire or not.

For more on the subject, track down the most recent episode of Radio Lab that I know of. It's called Emergence. Hey, look at that! It's tracked down.

Of course, I'm not a neurologist, so take everything I say with a grain of salt. Unless not doing so gives you a reproductive advantage.

A voice in the crowd.

2008-07-25T22:09:00.000-07:00

Do you remember the days of pirate radio? Sure you do. Such carefree times, when a lone nerd could usurp some of the power of the major radio corporations, broadcasting to his/her entire neighborhood whatever s/he wanted. As long as you knew what frequency to tune into. And you were within range. And the playlist didn't suck.

Ah, but now, we have the magic of the internet. And it turns out, the internet is pretty damn big. It's bigger than magazines and catalogues put together (I assume). Follow the link, and you'll find that in 2000, the big milestone we hit was a thousand times smaller than this one. In eight years, the internet has increased a thousand fold. Much of it is for good, some is for ill, but mostly, it's a bunch of people just trying to find a way to pass the time.

And I, for one, am grateful. Now if only they'd invent a time machine so I could find a way to make it all go even faster.

From A to B.

2008-07-19T23:50:00.000-07:00

Well, I did it. (I haven't spent the entire time from the last post to this working on it, just so you know.) Here's my list of links:

Reinoso
Spain
Water Sports
List of water sports
Water Polo
Water Polo World Championship
1998 FINA Men's World Water Polo Championship

I'm almost afraid to try this again. Well, we'll see how bored I get at work.

Kevin Bacon: Six degrees to anything.

2008-07-19T20:08:00.000-07:00

There's a game out there. It can be played anywhere with an internet connection, has no time limit (unless you want there to be one), can be played with friends or alone, and the only skill it really requires is creative thinking.

The best way to play solo is to click on the Random Article link twice, then try to connect what you find. Seriously. Waste some time with this.

Incidentally, I just took my own advice, and came up with Reinoso and some sports thing. I have no idea how I'm going to connect anything to that first one.

Boomdeyada, indeed.

2008-07-14T20:27:00.000-07:00

I don't know if you've been watching the Discovery Channel lately (over the past year or so), but if you have, you might have seen this commercial. It is, quite possibly, the best commercial ever. It is not a comedy or the intro to a porn, like so many commercials out there. It is simply a statement that, yes, the world we have around us is actually kickass. Go out and look at it.

Or stay in and make something. Or draw something. Just take a minute and think about the general kickassness of the world.

And if you still doubt the power of the commercial, know this: it has its own entry over at Wikipedia. Me, I'm gonna go learn to play the saxophone. Boomdeyada.

Today has been... interesting.

2008-07-12T22:44:00.000-07:00

So, I went out book shopping today. I got up to the used book store in Mountain View. Funny thing about that book store: it's right next to one of the local branches of a particular well-known group, which tends to creep me the hell out. Outside, there were a bunch of folks in Guy Fawkes masks, or various other face-covering garments. They held signs saying "Ask me about my mask" and "Sci--------- Kills". I'm not sure what exactly they were all up in masks about, but they've got my vote. Hail Xenu.

Anyway, while I was in the bookstore, I picked up a copy of the camel book, which is well-known in the computer science industry. I'm very happy with the purchase, and having just tested out the first hundred pages or so, I already feel like more of a real, honest-to-nerdness programmer. Hooray for nerd fun.

I was embedded in writing some quick scripts for my own amusement, when, at about 7 pm, there came a loud thumping to my attention. At first, I thought, "Ho-hum, this must be one of those 'earthquake' things I've heard so much about. How interesting." But I quickly ascertained that the force that was rattling the structure of my bedroom was both rhythmic and accompanied by a melody. I grabbed my book and headed outside, where the source of the vibrations turned out to be the stereo of a car parked on our front lawn. I hopped into my own vehicle and headed to quieter frontiers. A few hours later, when I returned home, I found out that the police had been called. I have the vague feeling that someone around here might think I'm connected with the cessation of the impromptu concert, but so far, no one has accused me of anything. I think I'm in the clear.

Let's see what tomorrow brings. It might top today, but I'm hoping it won't.

I must be losing my mind.

2008-07-12T09:42:00.001-07:00

Today, in a desperate measure, I searched out hospital job openings in the area. I don't want to leave my current job, but I figured an additional part time gig would help me make enough money to really spoil myself. I'm talking food every single day, and a bank account that doesn't go into the negative every single week.

Oh, to be rich.

Anyway, I found a spot as a phlebotomist at a local hospital. Not only did I consider it, I was halfway through filling out the online application when I remembered just how much I hate stabbing people for money. Then I remembered the corollaries that job would entail: crazy hours, crazy nurses, crazy patients. So I scrapped that idea, but now I'm at kind of a loss for what to do with the scraps of time I'm given; maybe I'll go apply at Ikea or something.

Back in black.

2008-07-05T19:03:00.000-07:00

Ok, so the only thing on me that's reasonably described as "black" are my socks. But still, I'm back online, and from my very own bedroom. I went out this morning, got myself a decent wireless router, and haven't really left the room since.

I might've better spent that money on a mattress, but for the past ten hours (since I got online), I haven't really felt as pressing a need for one.

Anyway, now that I have my anytime internet connection back, I feel much more able to hunt around for the best deal in mattress technology that I can get. So if I save a few bucks on a mattress, it's like the wireless router has started to pay for itself, right?

My setup is interesting; my roommate pays for cable & internet. He let me set up the router in his room, because that's where the modem is. Once it was all done, he offered to chip in a few bucks for the cost of the router. He has yet to charge me for the Comcast bill.

Before you start the hate, I will tell you that no, I did not accept any money from him. There is some kind of a limit, after all.

A slice of my current life.

2008-06-25T19:00:00.000-07:00

I live in a house. When I moved in, there was a car in the back yard. Well, not so much "a car", as "enough of the remains of a car to positively identify its genus". It was, in fact, a Volkswagen Jetta, which I only discovered once I'd found out where somebody had placed the top of the trunk.

The other day, I noticed that the largest piece of the vehicle was missing from the back yard. If they had dispensed with the roof or the front doors, I wouldn't have known it had happened; those parts were placed unobtrusively behind some of the other debris of the yard. But this was not the case. One day, there was a huge chunk of Jetta chassis back there, the next- nothing. It is an absolute mystery to me how this was removed. I don't think there is an opening large enough in our fence to admit such an object.

You may at this point ask, and fairly so, "Well how do you think they got it there in the first place?" My working theory is that they drove the whole Jetta into the yard, and only afterwards did they a) erect the fence, and b) dismantle the car, probably with a chainsaw. I don't know in what order those last two events occured, and it's only a theory anyway. I don't intend to stick around long enough to find out for certain.

Well, here I am.

2008-06-17T18:32:00.000-07:00

Floating in space. I wrote a post last night in my happy little Mac text editor, but quite frankly, it's too damn depressing to put up here. The internet is emo enough; I don't need to go around making it worse. Instead, I shall describe to you my current surroundings.

I'm in a library; the West Valley branch of the San Jose Public Library System. It is a nice enough building, I suppose, and has free wifi, so that's a major plus. Still, the CD rack outweighs by many hundreds of times the section on computer programming, and one of their sections has the heading "Adult Nonfiction", and the subheading "Paranormal/Astrology", etc. I took a picture, but I don't have the connecting cord on me to place it in this post. Next time, perhaps.

Meanwhile, I'm downloading Firefox 3. I tried it out a couple of weeks ago; it was pretty cool.

That's about all I've got for the time being. Work is going all right, and looks to be going better in the very near future. I have decided not to pursue the lab manager job I've already turned down; things at Stanford are satisfactory for now. (How can a person as damn poor as me truthfully write a sentence like that? What is wrong with my life? ...And, we're back to emo.)

Freedom's just another word...

2008-05-31T20:24:00.000-07:00

I'm sure you know the rest. Anyway, I'm out here in California, living out of hotels. My mother and little brother have moved in with me; they're visiting for a week, and my older brother couldn't put them up in his house.

I get that. I really, really do. I mean, he's in the process of moving into a condo, so his housing situation is all up in the air, his financials are pretty tight, and his job doesn't leave him with a lot of time to spend with them. I understand all of those things. Really, it'd be hard to blame a guy in that situation for telling his mother and sibling, "No, I'm sorry; you can't stay with me. It's just a bad time for me."

On the plus side, I managed to finish up a couple of projects I was working on as an independent consultant. It makes me happy to feel that sense of accomplishment. I designed and built something which works, and I did it in a little over a week. The wonderful feeling I have right now can only be topped by the one I'll have next Monday, when I pick up my second paycheck from these guys.

My spam box.

2008-05-26T13:21:00.000-07:00

This weekend, I've spent a lot of time cleaning out my un-listened to podcasts. I came across an "Apple Tip of the Day" podcast which taught me how to take screenshots. It's fun. I've tested it out.

Later that same today, I got spam from a famous personality.

Damn you, Ira! And here I was, about to get "This American Life", the TV show, on iTunes!

Ah, who'm I kidding? I'm still going to get it. Ira Glass, I forgive you!

The diginity of stupidity.

2008-05-26T07:30:00.000-07:00

I'm listening to Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, and they've mentioned a kind of a stupid thing: evidently, the President's Council on Bioethics has come out against eating ice cream in public. It's offensive to human dignity, or some damn thing like that. Want to read more? Go here.

Since I don't have much to add on the whole ice cream controversy, I'll instead direct your attention to the Table of Contents of the 555-page report, which includes the phrase, "How to Protect Human Dignity from Science". That seems even more funny to me than the ice cream thing. I imagine a bunch of septuagenarians in lab coats at chalkboards, examining trajectories of banana-cream pies to establish a maximum of hilarity and a minimum of dignity.

How can I get a job there? Do I have to apply directly to Gary Larson?

And how does this "protection" work, anyway? I mean, Bush has already come out against condoms; what kind of prophylactic could he possibly endorse to prevent science/dignity interaction? A giant rubber sheet? It would work well, but is it too much like a dental dam? You tell me. I'm not on the President's Council for Bioethics, so obviously I'm an idiot when it comes to this stuff.

Redwood City, CA

2008-05-24T18:51:00.000-07:00

That's where I am now; Redwood City. I went out for Chinese for dinner tonight; I can't really afford that kind of luxury, but my dietary options are pretty limited. Buying a week's worth of groceries and starving are both out, and most other places were closed. At 3 pm. On a Saturday. What the hell is up with this town?

As it turns out, I have an answer to that question. The waitress at the Chinese place was rather nice and talkative, and there weren't any other customers, so we had a little chat about local history. Apparently, this town used to be home to quite a few major tech companies. But rents on office space changed, the Sacramento area offered better rates, and everybody pulled out. Now, the people who're left have to try to continue to hack out a living, now that all the money has been sucked out of town.

I walked around town for a while after dinner. It's not Detroit. It's more like Monroe. This isn't a cavity in the San Francisco Bay area; it's just a town that has to rely more or less on itself, and it's struggling. Is it any wonder I can relate?

Breaking news!

2008-05-21T07:35:00.000-07:00

I got up pretty early this morning. Too damn early. Oh well. Anyway, I turned on the news, and there was President Bush, making a speech. His big announcement? I think MSNBC puts it best with this teaser:
"Pres. Bush: Cuba still suffers under despotism of the Castros"

That's right. We, as a country, are just now dealing with Cuba. Apparently, Bush's big plan is to allow Americans to send cell phones to their family members in Cuba. Because that's the big problem: not enough Cuban text messages. Hey, Bush: How about sending them MEDICINE AND FOOD? Do you think they might like that?

Or here's a thought: instead of looking at Cuba, try cleaning up your own mess in Iraq. Of course, I'm not sure there's anything that can be done to prevent Iraq from turning into Vietnam, but hey- it's not my war.

I wish my hotel got Cartoon Network. It's so much less stupid.

All we wanna do is rule your brains...

2008-05-18T15:52:00.001-07:00

We're not unreasonable; I mean you can still control your eyes! But seriously, this is pretty freaky. And as I recall, there's a helmet that forces you to walk all funny like, too. Basically, they're figuring out how to manipulate people's brains; is that too creepy?

No. No it's not. And the free trial helmet the government sent me is stylish and comfortable, as well! (Of course, they can force me to do all kinds of things. But they can't stop me from doing things on top of that! And thanks to my inherent stupidity and self-destructive tendencies, I'm almost certain to chew through the power cord. Freedom! Zappy, charring freedom!)

Poor Detroit.

2008-05-14T05:26:00.000-07:00

It's like they've just given up and said, "Okay, Japan, you win." I don't know if you've heard that the DSO had a special guest conductor the other night. Well, the show was sold out (that's right- the Detroit Symphony Orchestra sold out a show!), and the final piece got what sounds like a standing ovation. Sure, to symphony goers, it may have been a major accomplishment, but I'm surprised at the musicians' response; don't they know what happened to the auto workers when robots started doing their jobs?

(Incidentally, I was not this worried when I saw the performance abilities of this guest's cousin; he didn't make much of a musician. But a conductor? That's the sort of thing an overgrown metronome would be perfect for!)

Anyway, here's some video.