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.

Two publications.

2008-05-11T07:18:00.000-07:00

This morning, I found a publication that reminds me of another publication. Let's call them "A" and "B".

"A" has a link to "B", but the reverse is not true. Clearly, "B" is more popular, and therefore correct.

"B" also has a little "Hacker Safe" sign in the upper right hand corner, so it's got that going on, too. Really. Check it out. It says "Hacker Safe". This guy really hates the idea of evolution; even hacking skills can't evolve!

Here's the kicker, though; both of these comics provide about the same level of support for their various belief systems. Both seem to say, "I'm right, but I'm just a comic; you'll have to check external sources for the evidence. But how can you doubt me? See how the other side looks stupid when I portray it?"

At least the atheist one has a sense of humor about it. And it's free. But not "Hacker Safe".

Things.

2008-05-10T00:15:00.000-07:00

So, I've been using iGoogle for a little while, and it's been kind of fun. There's games and newsfeeds you can throw up on there. S'cool. But just tonight, I found out that a webcomic I've recently fallen in love with has a gadget that is a special kind of clock. Now, I loves me my special
clocks, and this one is pretty awesome: it shows you the time, then it shows you which prime numbers you would have to multiply to get that time. And yes, I do find myself trying to get there faster than the program. I am a happy man.

And also, there's a print comic you should be reading, as well. Thank me when you are no longer curled into a little ball, half from hysterical laughter and half from blood-chilling fear.

Good day.

2008-05-08T22:09:00.000-07:00

I had two interviews today for jobs, and they both went well. In the morning, I had a telephone interview, which turned into an appointment for a live interview next week. Rockin'.

In the afternoon, I had a live interview, which I'll hear more about next week. But I have a good feeling about it. Also rockin'.

In other news, there's an item that caught my attention. It seems like this sort of thing just will not go away, right? "Oh no! I know society as we know it didn't end the last thirty times, but this time we're in REAL TROUBLE!!!"

Seriously, get over it. Music and video games will not cause your child to join a gang. Spending too much time away from your kid and trying to get the state to babysit, will. I personally guarantee it. Because I run that gang.

Speaking of video games, there's a new educational game that looks like it's going to be fun. Well, fun for me; I don't know how you feel about protein folding. Give it a try. (I haven't played it yet, though, so if it sucks, blame the programmers. I cannot guarantee the game's awesomitude. It's not in the gang.)

<--- It's over there!

2008-05-02T00:22:00.000-07:00

It's my new toy. I done made it myself. If you want to see a bigger version, you can find it here. If you want to have more information on the subject, you can go here. That's really all I have to say for now, but I may have even more exciting news later. Who knows? Anything's possible.

My interview.

2008-04-30T21:14:00.001-07:00

So, I got a call the other day for an interview, for a life insurance company. Short version: I did not get the job. (The long version is much, much funnier.)

I was told by the recruiter on the phone that they got my resume on Monster, and would like to set up an interview with me. I had to ask what sort of company they were, and what kind of job they were looking to fill. That was my first warning; that information should have been volunteered freely, and without me having to ask.

I checked out the company's website beforehand; it was a real company, but they didn't have a record of the office I was headed toward. I chalked it up (tentatively) to the recruiter's explanation that "We only opened this office about a month ago". A red flag still went up in my mind.

So, I pulled up to the building at about ten minutes before the appointed time. It was a nice, professional looking office building. Points for them. I looked at the building directory, which not only didn't list the company, it didn't list the office I'd been sent to. The gates are down and red lights flashing at this point.

Undaunted, I went up the stairs and down the hall to a door, next to which the suite number I'd been given by the recruiter was printed out on a piece of paper and taped to the wall. This was the only suite in the building not to have its number etched in a glass plaque next to their door. "Danger, danger Will Robinson!" sounded briefly in my head.

I walked inside, and it looked more like a conference room than an office. There was a smaller room inside, containing two desks. If I were going to put up some "official"-looking business in a day or two, I like to think I'd have spent a little less on inspirational posters every two feet, and more on nicer chairs. Or, at the very least, I would have printed out two sets of business cards; one for each person in the "office". Several fog horns blasted simultaneously at my consciousness.

I handed them the requisite resume, and got an application in return. It was not quite the professionally laid out and Xeroxed thing I've come to expect from McDonald's (or my last employer, for that matter). (It asked for, among other things, my SSN. I did not give it.) The navigator from the Titanic asked to have a word, urgently.

Before I had a chance to finish filling out the resume, I and the other applicants were interrupted by the guy organizing this whole thing, "Ben". (The quotes aren't indicative of an alias; I just don't trust him to have given his real name.) He wanted to give a little talk about what this company was all about, and assured us that we were free to leave at any time. That's right- he just assured us that we were not, at the moment, imprisoned. Then his partner locked the door (from the inside, of course; I never felt as though I couldn't actually get up and leave). Then we got folders with papers inside. I idly pondered my chances of survival, should I have found it necessary to jump out the second-story window.

During Ben's spiel, one of the other audience members asked some question about the company. Ben's answer was reasonably eloquent and reflected well on the company. I wondered briefly how long they'd rehearsed it. While Ben talked, I leafed through the papers in the folder his cohort had handed us. I found a price sheet for training that the company offered. I got up and left.

There is a perfectly innocent explanation for everything I've seen. There's also the explanation I'm actually going to believe. Call me biased.

Zap.

2008-04-29T06:48:00.002-07:00

I read about a health enhancement today. It just seems like a bad idea on the face of it: "Hey, we're going to open up your brain and put a wire inside!"

*BZZZT*

Okay, so maybe it's not so bad; I mean if it helps people...

*BZZZT*

You will get the government-issued implant.

Seriously, though, I have to wonder: can you get wifi on this thing?

Surprising news

2008-04-27T08:09:00.002-07:00

Two items caught my eye the other day. One was from CNN, and presents the story of a soldier who is claiming harassment because he's an atheist. The story presents him as a reasonable guy who just doesn't want to subscribe to any religious doctrine. It presents the military as a bunch of jerks who won't leave him alone because of his beliefs. I'm not sure this would have been a news story ten years ago, so that's cool, but let's think about this:

Maybe religion makes you a better soldier.

I have heard that athletes who lie to themselves successfully do better in competitions. Maybe soldiers who would not be religious in civilian life adopt religion as a self-defense mechanism ("I know these guys say God's on their side, but God's really on ours!"). Maybe this spurs soldiers on to fight harder and feel more confident about their abilities, which may make them react to dangerous situations more quickly. I don't know any of this for certain (as is always the case), but it's worth some thought.

And on the subject of thought, I saw an interesting article over at Slashdot. It asks a philosophical question, and the people who respond give surprisingly philosophical responses. I'm pleased; usually, even when you ask a very smart group of people a philosophical question, they end up yelling nonsense. (My new formula: H = i / (q * n). The average IQ of the group (i) divided by the philosophical interest of the question (q) times the number of people in the asked group (n) equals the amount of time between when the question was asked and when people start yelling at each other.)

Here, however, the responses have a surprisingly high ratio of intelligent, worthwhile responses. I was really impressed.

Do I even have content anymore?

2008-04-26T13:13:00.003-07:00

Or do I just link?

I only ask, since the guy mentioned in the above story actually does seem to produce content, but also quotes other stories. How much "blog" must a blogger have to call his blog a blog? (Man, that's a tongue-twister!) What happens if you don't hit that critical level of content? Is it not a blog anymore? This is going to keep me up at night.

No, wait; I live with my 3-year-old nephew and his parents. I sleep like the dead.

In other news, I'm getting a haircut today. I had to actually make an appointment. The place at which I'm getting shorn is more modern than what I'm used to. I admit, I'm a little nervous, but worst-case scenario: a minor scissors slip-up nicks one of my arteries and I bleed to death before anything can be done, being buried with a bad haircut. Worst-realistic-case scenario: I get a bad haircut, followed soon after by 1) a better haircut, or 2) the beginning of this sentence.

Your genes at work.

2008-04-25T04:56:00.002-07:00

Okay, so maybe not your genes. Put differently, maybe not your genes. Still, biology's pretty weird, isn't it?

A couple of quotes hit me from those stories, though. First:

Brown and Nobles calculate that the approximate area needed to produce ethanol with corn to fuel all U.S. transportation needs is around 820,000 square miles, an area almost the size of the entire Midwest.

They hypothesize they could produce an equal amount of ethanol using an area half that size with the cyanobacteria based on current levels of productivity in the lab...

So all we need to do is cover 410,000 square miles of land with bacteria. Great! Energy problem solved! Because they'll friggin' eat us! Hooray!

Next, your brain:

Human errors are often put down to a momentary loss of concentration. But it now appears that sometimes a localised change in brain activity can be involved.

So, the big surprise is that your brain may be involved some how in your thought processes? Astounding! Somebody call Guinness! I know I'm going to need some stout after that.

Honestly, I don't know which is less shocking: lack of perspective from scientists, or lack of awareness from civilians.

Oh, the hilarity.

2008-04-24T18:44:00.002-07:00

I can only hope that, should I ever choose to have kids, they will be clever enough to write something like this.

Also, the very last of the states haiku (I promise; any more and I'd be in the Pacific!):

Through Nevada, I
saw desert, desert, desert.
Then, surprise! City.

The end of the trip.
California, here I come!
No, wait; I arrived.

Run! More Haiku!

2008-04-23T11:14:00.003-07:00

You were fairly warned. I feel no pity for you. Here are some more states:

West Indiana
looks so much like Iowa,
I noticed no change.

Nebraska is a
nearly straight line from one end,
through farms, to other.

I hit a blizzard
in Wyoming. Laramie
is where I felt chill.

Okay, you've suffered enough. Next time, more haiku; the last in the set.

Weirdness and haiku.

2008-04-19T17:21:00.002-07:00

First, some weirdness. It makes you wonder about the newfound power of the rumor; it used to only be scary in local circles. Now, it's in the literature.

Also, some haiku, inspired by my journey across the country:

Back in Michigan
Unforeseen delays let me
say all my goodbyes.

I know I must have
driven through Chicago, but
I don't recall it.

And that's just a taste! More locations are to come. (Yes, I know they're bad.)

Bonus question: How many haiku are in this entry?

On the road: I've arrived!

2008-04-16T07:08:00.002-07:00

So, sorry about the delay; I've been a little overwhelmed, what with the getting used to my new life in California thing. Here's how the whole deal shakes out:

I successfully drove to California. It was pretty cool.
I am looking for a job and an apartment. I hope these things will go well.

Mostly, I'm doing all right; I just turned in a bunch of applications to a local university, and I'll be turning in more applications as the week goes on. I have no idea whatever of what I want to be doing with my life in the grand sense, so for now I'm just going to keep taking whatever jobs come along; as long as the bills get paid, I'm not complaining. (The problem, of course, is that up until now, the bills have not, in fact, been getting paid. I live in hopes, however, that that will change.)

You need to see this.

2008-04-15T06:52:00.002-07:00

You lose some, you win some. That's just how it goes.

On the road: Fourth and Final stop.

2008-04-12T20:51:00.002-07:00

I am in Lovelock, NV. I'm a hundred miles or so east of Reno, which I remember distinctly as being featured in The Wizard.

Thanks to Harold, I have been turned on to Picasa (as it is a Google product), and have made a little album of photos. You should go there now.

Nevada is more or less as I expected it to be. Slightly garish cities separated by oceans of scrubland. I am always surprised by the cities, though; I'll see a sign for a town, and have no idea of how big it is until just after I've passed the exit for it on the freeway. Only then will the road curve around the mountains and reveal the secret surprise that is the town. Is it a bustling mini-metropolis? Or perhaps just a trailer park with good PR? I have made a game out of trying to guess correctly based on the number of times it is mentioned in other signs; I'm getting quite good. There is precious little else to do on the road, as I have listened to all my audiobooks. Tonight, I get some more. Hooray Librivox!

On the road: Third stop.

2008-04-11T19:35:00.004-07:00

Sorry about the radio silence; I wasn't able to hop online last night. For the record, I did almost try.

So yesterday, I got up in Kalamazoo and fell asleep in Nebraska. In between, I drove a whole bunch. Most of that was through Iowa, which has the "World's Largest Truck Stop". I found a sign that said "Electrical Employees Only". I would have snapped a photo, except for the fact that it was opposite the hallway that led to the men's room, which means it was in the hall that led to the women's room. On sale at this particular truck stop were:

Katanas

Everything you would need to cosplay the villain in an old west movie

More testicle-shaped truck adornments than I've ever seen in my life.

Okay, that last one isn't hard (I've never seen any, and wouldn't have known what they were if not for a particularly dirty-minded coworker). My only other thought on Iowa: wifi enabled rest stops. In retrospect, I should've availed myself of them.

Then, on to Nebraska! I first saw Omaha, home (evidently) of Paypal. It was well after sunset, though, so I didn't see the parts of Omaha that weren't as brightly lit as the Paypal building.

Lincoln was similarly dark, but there was a home there which was full of dog hair. Also dogs. Also my good friend Wendy. Her dog Bear is actually larger in person than I'd expected from the photos. Check her blog. You know you want to.

This morning, I drove through the rest of Nebraska, which was windy, which killed my gas mileage. It was unfortunate, but I was going to have to drive through the wind anyway, so I'm still proud of my little Rio and the gas mileage it got under adverse conditions.

Then I went through Wyoming, where the wind was joined by it's friend, blizzard-like snow! Yay! I would give you a sample of my thought process while dodging a half-dozen semis careening around mountain roads in like three feet of visibility, but children might see this blog.

In Wyoming, I went to Laramie, Wyoming. I stopped at a Wendy's. I got a Frosty Float. I overheard one of the employees use the word "gay" as a synonym for "bad". I left Laramie. Okay, I tooled around the campus a bit (it reminds me of a technical college more than a state school), but I think I got all the impression I need.

On a happy note, here are the states whose license plates I've seen since the last update:

ME	TN	IN	OK	WI
MN	NE	OH	IA	ND
MO	MA	TX	FL	WA
NH	NY	KS	VA	SD
UT	VT	AL	CO	GA
MT	OR	NJ	ID	NV
AZ	WY	DC	KY	MD

Wow. I'm impressed with me. You should be too. If not, know this: I have also seen three Canadian provinces. Manitoba remains elusive, in every sense of that phrase.

Here's an updated map.

On the road: First stop.

2008-04-09T19:05:00.002-07:00

Here I am in Kalamazoo (former motto: "Yes, there really is a Kalamazoo"). This is what I'm calling my second stop on the trip; from Monroe, I went to my parents' house, then here. It's nice to be able to say goodbye to the places I've spent the overwhelming majority of my life.

The friend with whom I am staying has a cat and a dog. I have taken photos of them, but I don't have the cord that connects my camera and my computer handy, so you'll have to wait for them. That's something to take into consideration tomorrow morning, when I have more sunlight.

Also, I have purchased a small notepad and a couple of pens. Hopefully, they will be extra useful in my travels; making notes of gas mileage, places to stay, places to avoid, and things to remember to record here. So far, all I've written in it is a list of states whose license plates I've seen so far this trip. That list reads:

I expect to get Indiana and Ohio before tomorrow is done, and maybe several others. But we'll see what happens then. In the meantime, here is a google map of my progress so far:

View Larger Map

On the road, at last.

2008-04-08T21:49:00.003-07:00

Okay, I haven't officially officially hit the road yet, but I've made hella good progress. I'm at my parents' house for the night, while my car gets checked out for damage by someone professionally qualified to do these things. Assuming all goes well (and when has it ever?), I'll be heading out to Kalamazoo tomorrow, and from there, points west.

In other news, I'm really excited about a new printer. It is a 3D printer; it builds physical objects layer by layer. That's not the only reason I'm excited, though. I'm also geeked about the mentality behind the people who are doing this project. First off, they want to make the design for their machine open source. This is a very good thing; it'll help people get their hands on the technology and start playing around with it in cool and fun new ways, which is good for all involved (and even those who aren't).

Second, they're working really hard on making this printer capable of making one of these printers. Yes, it will (hopefully/eventually) be capable of producing all of the parts necessary to make another printer. I think that's kickass.

So if you could make a physical object with any shape you choose, what would you make?

(Okay, I know what shape you would make, but get your mind out of the gutter for a second.)

False start.

2008-04-06T17:18:00.002-07:00

Although today was supposed to be the first leg of my cross-country jaunt, I wasn't able to get everything settled in time to head out on schedule. Fortunately, I'm the one in charge of the schedule (mostly), so I get to relax tonight and not worry about missing appointments or anything. I really do enjoy this sense that I am a free man, able to make his own decisions and set his own pace. I highly recommend it to anyone.

Other than that, I'll probably be setting out tomorrow. If I feel like it.

Links to pictures!

2008-04-06T04:24:00.002-07:00

I have found a standalone image, an image with accompanying text, and a whole set of images. They all make me pretty happy, especially that first one; it describes exactly how elementary school made me feel pretty much all of the time.

Just click.

2008-04-03T16:01:00.000-07:00

Oh, hells yes.

Gasp; can it be... follow up?

2008-04-03T03:56:00.002-07:00

So, I noticed a story, linked from Slashdot, which helps me with an earlier point: I believe I said that there isn't enough mass in the solar system to make a black hole. According to the article, the smallest known black hole is a mere 3.8 solar masses. So how does that compare to the mass, not only of our sun, but of our whole solar system? Do the planets make up 2.8 solar masses collectively?

No. No they don't.

Wikipedia tells me that Jupiter is 1/1000th of a solar mass, and that it is not only the largest planet, but also the heaviest. And there is a major dropoff in mass after that. The next biggie on the list, Saturn, is a mere 0.3 Jovian masses. But let's assume that every planet in the solar system was as heavy as Jupiter, and that, additionally, there were like 50 extra planets we just hadn't seen before, because scientists kept putting their thumbs over the camera lens or something. Here's the math on that one:

1 solar mass
+ (50 x 1/1000) solar masses
= 1.05 solar masses.

We're still a good 2.75 solar masses away from being the tiniest of black holes in the known universe.

This is, of course, not to say that there can't be a smaller black hole, but this newly discovered tiny black hole thing is almost four times the weight of our entire solar system, and is packed into a fifteen-mile sphere. The weight of the entire Earth would have to be packed into a pocket-sized volume to even approach that density.

Also, the danger of a black hole is that it has a massive gravitational field because it has, well, a lot of mass. These scientists at CERN aren't playing around with entire solar systems; hell- they aren't playing around with entire atoms. Worry not, good people of the earth: You'll have plenty of time to destroy the earth the conventional way before a black hole ever does us all in.

Just how much is grounds for a lawsuit, anyway?

2008-04-02T04:02:00.005-07:00

There is a slight change in today's color scheme; can you see it?

It is in response to a cease and desist letter sent by one large group of people, whom I've never met, and who are probably richer than I against another, slightly less large group of people, whom I've never met, and who are probably richer than I. I have chosen to take sides in this conflict, partly because the basis of the conflict is a color, and partly because I do not enjoy sports.

My normal color scheme should return tomorrow. I hope.

(Edit 4/3/08: I turned off the change. The titles were all magenta for a day. If you missed it: too bad. Sorry. Still, read the links; it's a bit weird.)

A science suit.

2008-03-31T03:38:00.002-07:00

No, not a suit made of science; that's something else. I'm talking about a lawsuit, filed in the US District court of Hawaii, against CERN (roughly, Central European Nuclear Research), asking for an injunction against them that will prevent them from starting up their Large Hadron Collider. It seems that there are some fears that the thing could create a black hole and destroy the solar system.

For legal reasons, the plaintiffs are required to state why they think an injunction is the appropriate relief, instead of waiting for actual harm to occur and, if it does, have monetary or other reparations for the actual harm. I think that's the easiest part of the lawyers' job on this one: I mean, if you don't have a solar system any more, how's the post office going to deliver that check?

(By the way, allow me to alleviate your fears: black holes are caused when a certain body reaches so much density that light passing near the body gets pulled into it. Under current theory, this happens when a massive star collapses in on itself. I'm reasonably certain that there is not enough mass in our solar system to cause this to happen, and the LHC is not adding mass to the solar system. We're safe from this one. Or if we're not, blame me after the world ends.)

The Future Soon.

2008-03-26T14:19:00.002-07:00

Two articles were referenced on Slashdot today. Their chronological proximity made me laugh. Here is a song which shares their communal subject matter.

Interesting discussion.

2008-03-25T13:57:00.002-07:00

There is, in the world, a movie of recent interest. It is about the horrible oppression of a people based on their religious beliefs. Of course, they're being "oppressed" because they're trying to force their beliefs on the rest of the world, but let that go for a minute. You can go back to being irate when you're finished here.

This movie generated a bit of press, but that press is at the New York Times website, which requires a login. So here's the upshot: Evolutionary biologist PZ Myers was kicked out of a screening of the movie, because he believes in evolution, and does not believe in God. This movie is about allowing people with dissenting viewpoints to express their ideas freely. Yeah. It hurts me, too.

Anyway, there is a video about it, straight from Mr Ed's mouth. (Fair warning: this video takes a fair bit of processing power. Avoid multitasking while it's running.) You may wish to bone up on your film theory here, though. Trust me; you'll be glad you did.

I don't have much to add that hasn't already been said; it's an intellectual travesty, it makes a mockery of the very theme of the movie, hypocrisy, assholery, blah blah blah. I just felt that your attention needed to be drawn to it.

...

Here's something I just found out. (This is in addition to the post above, which I wrote before I discovered this interesting, interesting fact.) This film stars Ben Stein. I did not know that, despite everything I'd read and heard about it. Nobody is mentioning that it's Ben Stein in the movie. The full title of the movie is, in fact, "Ben Stein is EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed." I only found this out when I went searching for the movie's website to make that first link up there. It took me several tries, mostly because I couldn't fit what I believed about Ben Stein with what I believed about this movie. Obviously, I am going to have to shift some of my beliefs. I will now spend some time in penance and feeling gullible. If you need me, check penance. I'm probably there.

Well, damn!

2008-03-24T15:13:00.003-07:00

I quit my job today. Called up my boss, gave my two weeks' notice, and now I'm not looking back. I'll be moving across the country once I'm out of this job, and it should be quite the adventure. I've been told that this trip will take me:

Three days

A week

As long as it takes

... But I figure I'm pretty likely to get there at some point and in pretty close to one piece, so I'm really looking forward to it. One of my brothers suggested that I bring along books on CD, to make the going more enjoyable. My dad immediately suggested The Grapes of Wrath, and I couldn't help but think of On the Road. I've already got a copy of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance; what else would make good cross-country listening? If I'm feeling practical, perhaps a cookbook from the RoadKill Cafe? Or maybe something light, like Misery? Thoughts?

Progress!

2008-03-20T04:06:00.002-07:00

I saw a couple of stories on Slashdot that, taken together, provide a nice example of how I often feel about the world. I know I usually keep you in suspense until you click the link, but here I'm going to outline them directly, because that's called "trying something new".

The first one describes an advanced kind of cooling fan for your computer's processor. It is ingenious, efficient, and will make computers easier to build and operate. This is a good thing on all accounts, provided it can be produced in a way that is not prohibitive. Really cool, right? (Sorry, it's early- ignore the pun.)

But then comes the second story, in which scientists have managed to make a room-temperature superconductor. What's so great about that, you ask? Well, for starters, superconductors don't generate any noticeable amount of heat when electricity flows through them. So if you build a processor out of this stuff, you can probably get away with not installing a cooling unit. At all.

So we have an invention which does its job better and more efficiently than previous inventions of its genre, and is a kind of revolutionary. Then, two seconds later, there's an invention that totally invalidates and obsolesces (hey, spell check didn't ding me on that!) the first gizmo. (There's the spell check ding.) I kind of feel for the folks who came up with the first invention. They're obviously very bright and talented; they've made something that should, for all the world, change the way we think about cooling processors. Except that if this superconductor thing gets off the ground, we won't have to think about cooling processors at all.

Kind of makes you think, huh?

Drowning in information...

2008-03-13T17:28:00.003-07:00

I'm having some kind of fun here. It's the kind of fun that's scary and intimidating and humbling and makes me want to crawl under the covers and never ever ever come out. Yay!

I'm trying to learn to code. I don't feel the need to develop Turing-tested artificial intelligence or make a billion dollars; I just enjoy being able to write a program and have it work. If I could make enough money to afford food, that might be nice too, but honestly, I don't want to dream about that fancy upper-crust stuff. Anyway, my brother (a professional coder) sent me a link to a blog. This guy seems to have a lot of requirements for someone he'd hire. I'm in absolutely no position to argue; he codes for a living for a well-known outfit, and I don't code for pay (yet, I hope). Still, it is intimidating to see all that stuff I don't know, and have someone say "Yeah, I know it's all basic, but you'd be surprised at how few people know all this stuff".

Looks like I have some studying to do.

Oh noes!

2008-03-10T15:33:00.002-07:00

There are a couple of doom-based news stories floating out there. The general gist is, "We're all gonna die!"

Well, I, for one, am not surprised. I have known, for a long time now, that I was doomed. I didn't intend to make it forever. This is kind of laughable to me. So, in order, my analyses of these stories:

1. Drinking water contains chemicals.

As I understand it, these drugs are the residue left over after people take the drugs, pass a fraction of the drug into the sewer, where it gets processed by the municipal water utility, and a portion gets put back into circulation. No one knows what kind of effect this has on the human body.

Other stuff in the sewer: E. Coli! Oh crap! There's e. coli in the water! No, wait; I'm sure the good people at your local water utility thought of that, and treat the water with antibiotics. Now, all they have to do is figure out how all those damn drugs got in the water supply...

2. Death ray star.

I was reading about the death ray star, and they make the claim that

Since the initial blast would travel at the speed of light, there would be no warning of its arrival.

Further down the article, they point out that

This pinwheel is about 8,000 light years away, roughly a quarter of the way to the center of the Milky Way Galaxy.

So, it travels at the speed of light, and it's 8000 light years away. Granted, we won't know that the thing exploded until the light from the explosion hits us (right along with the gamma rays), but nobody said "The way this thing looks to us, right now, it appears 7999 years away from going boom.", which would actually scare the hell out of me, since we only see an 8000 year old snapshot of the star. Instead, they're talking in the hundreds of thousands of years range. If we, as a species, don't wipe ourselves out by then, I'm not going to worry too much about this planet getting fried; we might not live here anymore!

At least, I won't.

Emotions.

2008-03-04T14:04:00.002-08:00

Sad.

Happy. (You'll need this link if you followed the last one.)

But more seriously, today marks the passing of a massive name in geek culture. I feel like I should wear a black armband to work tomorrow or something.

Man, even Code Monkey Dance isn't cheering me up. The knowledge that the voices of a billion geeks cried out in unison, only to be silenced, does ease the pain somewhat. (In a commiserating way, not in a schadenfreude way.)

Sigh.

No Numa Numa, but still fun.

2008-03-03T17:25:00.003-08:00

I found a video on YouTube while researching my last post. It has many versions. I thought it might be enjoyable. Tell me if you enjoy it.

The science makes me smile.

2008-03-03T16:59:00.002-08:00

Here, we have a couple of sites that have amazing videos on the subject of (drum roll please): Science!

Let's face it: chemists are the badass punks of the lab-rat set. "Oh, look, my sleeve caught fire" is less a cause for alarm to these folks, and more an opportunity to study the exothermic reaction caused by the various kinds of fiber in the garment. "Hmm, I seem to have spilled some acid on my arm" is their version of "I'm now in the club". They blow things up just to see why things blow up. Man, I should've taken a few chem courses in college. Oh well; that's just one more bad decision I made that I can learn to live with. That, and my face, which is neither horribly disfigured by having hydrochloric acid melt my forehead, nor shorn of its eyebrows from an unexpected reaction in what I thought was my snack, but was actually a volatile solution that should not under any circumstances be moved. I have to live with that, too.

Oh well.

For more information on Science!, consult the authorities.

Puctuative resurgence.

2008-02-20T13:52:00.002-08:00

An article in the New York Times can be found here; I hope it will be illustrative and useful in your daily existence. I particularly enjoyed the correction to this punctuation-themed piece, which follows:

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: February 19, 2008
An article in some editions on Monday about a New York City Transit employee’s deft use of the semicolon in a public service placard was less deft in its punctuation of the title of a book by Lynne Truss, who called the placard a “lovely example” of proper punctuation. The title of the book is “Eats, Shoots & Leaves” — not “Eats Shoots & Leaves.” (The subtitle of Ms. Truss’s book is “The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation.”)

In other news, I hope you'll get a chance to see the lunar eclipse tonight! 8:43 pm ET is when it starts; check your local listings for updates.

Select groups

2008-02-19T15:39:00.002-08:00

There are a few stories on slashdot today that seemed thematic to me. One is about a group of people who are given special privileges. So is another. In fact, they all are. But in these stories, one is clearly wrong, while two others are less objectionable. Now, I'm going to talk about why I think that is. You have been warned.

By the by, I have a little complaint about my Mac here. I'm writing this post while installing some updates, and it's a major lag. I'm about midway through this paragraph, and every so often, I glance up and check how it's coming. The cursor is now writing the word 'post'. It's eerie- like having a ghost editor. It's actually fun, in a way, but more fun is having a computer which does what I tell it when I tell it.

(Put another way, I finished the last paragraph, set my laptop down, threw my laundry in the dryer, fed the cat, walked back to my computer, and watched the end of said paragraph appear on the screen. True story.)

Back to business. My first instinct was to say that any power given to the group in the first story is wrong, because they're freaks. Then I decided I didn't want to get sued. Which is, incidentally, why I'm not using their real name. So I need a more rational delimiter on the subject. They are a category of people. The same could be said, though, of students, or citizens of the US who have internet access. Clearly, not enough. So let's change that to "The group in question is a religion." So are the Jews. No big deal. How about, "In this instance, a religion has been given the right to interfere with commercial transactions between people who may not even subscribe to that religion"? Sounds good, doesn't it? But it's missing something. I want certain commercial transactions interfered with (e.g., slave trading and illegal weapons sales). I don't care if the person interfering has a religious affiliation or not.

So where's the line? Here: "In this instance, a religious group is interfering with lawful commercial transactions." The fact that I'll let a devout person stop a slave trade doesn't mean I'll accept their piety as a source of authority; I would still want a secular law or set of laws on the books that allows that sort of thing. It doesn't look, on the face of it, like any law is being broken by these deals, so why should anyone kowtow to their pressure?

Also, in the other two stories, the product is being freely distributed to users, while the first story is an instance of prevention of distribution. And I'm all for the distribution of goods. Especially to me. Give me your stuff!

(Little update update: My computer finished updating about three paragraphs back. The rest of the post flowed smoothly, like molasses. Well, molasses in comparison to wrought iron at 12 degrees Celsius. Anyway, it went smoothly.)

How... sweet?

2008-02-15T16:31:00.002-08:00

As some of you may know, yesterday was a significant day. In celebration, one of my coworkers handed to me a baggie with various sugared treats inside. Sadly, my old standbys (turkish delights and baklava) were not present in the baggie, but it was a kind effort on her part nonetheless.

I was less impressed, however, with the Tootsie Roll company. In an effort to "cash in" on the more familiar chalk-based candies, Tootsie Roll packages came to me with such romantic sentiments as (and these are direct quotes here):

"C U L8R"

"WYSIWYG"

Now, it seems to me that, when people can go out and simply buy these heartfelt comments, it cheapens it for the rest of us who bother to spell out "What you see is what you get." And common farewells between passing aquaintances, like "See you later", are simply too precious to be commercialized on a candy wrapper.

It is time for those of us who are truly romantic to wrest our apathy from the major corporations and tell the ones we care about, in a heartfelt manner, "I could pick your face out of a very small crowd".

Thus spoke PETA?

2008-02-15T02:47:00.002-08:00

There's a story here which kind of puts a damper on my day. This is quite a feat, since I got almost no sleep last night and it's too friggin' cold for my taste out there, but I suppose things could be worse; I could, for instance, have my house set on fire. (Sorry about the links that don't go to the actual story; I don't feel like signing up for the LA Times subscription service this morning, and it wouldn't help you much anyway if I did.)

On the plus side of this whole crazy "existence" thing, I like the idea of electric clothing. I bet it's made from the wool of electric sheep, about which androids dream...

Competition

2008-02-13T13:49:00.002-08:00

Oh, crap. To everyone else, the writer's strike ending means new episodes of their favorite sitcoms; to me, it simply means that people will have something to do other than read my sporadically updated blog. Well, something additional to do, anyway.

Although, it does seem kind of convenient that it rounded out to a nice 100 days. I figure, someone in the WGA said something like, "We could concede today, but who would go see a movie about a strike that lasted exactly 96 days?" You magnificent bastards!

Yeah, I can't believe either.

2008-02-06T13:46:00.000-08:00

"Atheism is bad? Why?"

This is the entirety of the note I found on my blog this morning.I was honestly shocked to find it; I wasn't aware anyone read my humble musings.

The actual part of the post that this person is responding to was an attempt at humor; a parenthetical aside designed to explain that, although I wished to comment on the discussion, I did not want to really become part of it. That's really my fault. I should have known, before I said anything, that you can't fairly do that sort of thing. So allow me to clarify my thoughts:

I don't think atheism is bad. I just happen to think that people who make a big deal of their atheism can be jerks, even though I've done this myself on occasion.

I don't think vegetarianism is bad. I just think that PETA needs to tone it down and get some damn perspective.

I don't think prayer is bad. I just think that anyone who tells me I have to pray a certain way, before I've had a chance to ask them, should mind their own damn business.

I don't think animal sacrifice is bad. My dinner last night (chicken burrito) can attest to that fact.

I don't think anyone has got it Right so far. I'm still struggling with the paradox that, to give one line of thinking (e.g., a religion) a fair opportunity to present itself, you have to deny another line of thinking (e.g., "no one should ever listen to any religious person ever") that same opportunity.

On a related note, here is an update on the University Club that started this whole huge rant of mine. It seems that the offensive phrase was "without religion". I'm a little conflicted here. On the one hand, if a Buddhist or Jewish club were interested in exploring life "without Jesus", I think that would be validly offensive. On the other hand, you can't really define atheists in terms of their positive beliefs (i.e. science), since those beliefs are widely held by people of various religious backgrounds, as well. The core of atheism is not a belief, but a denial; you can't really describe an atheist club without "without".

Ultimately, though, I've only heard the one side of the debate. I'm pretty sure that if I personally went to this university and asked them, in a calm and reasonable way, why they made this decision, I'd find that their point of view was pretty reasonable, as well, and that their justifications for their actions made good sense. I'm not discounting the possibility that this is exactly what it is made out to be (an obnoxious attempt to silence atheist voices on campus), but I'm not going to bet on it. (Incidentally, as I am writing this post, my coworkers are trying to decide
which of them is the luckiest, as that person will have the responsibility of purchasing the groups lottery tickets. I'm not betting on that, either.)

Wallowing in geekdom.

2008-02-04T17:08:00.000-08:00

Today at work, I wrote a program that writes webpages. I'm feeling very proud of myself. So, I have geek, geek and geek, to celebrate.

And if you were wondering, my nerdiness on that second one works out thus:
Check, check, no check, no check, check, no check, check, check, no check, check, check, check, check, semi-check, no check, check, no check, no check, semi-check, no check. That's a geek score of 11/20 (counting each semi-check as 1/2 point). Pitiful. I must try harder to be nerdy. Except the only thing I'm not already into on the list that appeals to me is Battlestar Galactica. I wonder if other people have problems like "insufficient geekiness". Also, they left "dead languages" off the list, as well as the biggy: "Computers"! Onion's AV Club, you have failed me.

Art is, evidently, kickass!

2008-02-04T03:53:00.000-08:00

So, I've been reading this webcomic for a while. When I started, I think it only took me a half an hour to get through the archives. It's pretty cool. Check it out. It even has an ancillary comic. Like a little comic strip moon. Orbits are fun!

Anyway, it turns out, the artist likes to show off his technique. He's using some crazy technology called, I guess, the cintiq. It's pretty cool-looking, though not for me; I like my keyboard, galdurnit! I'm not in love with it; I'd still like to see an uprising of the Dvorak layout, since this machine is just a wee bit faster than the typewriters the standard qwerty keyboard was made to optimize, but I'd be happy to switch.

Anyway, I can easily see how someone in the graphic arts would be inclined to use the "draw on the screen" system. It seems to work out pretty well, especially when replayed at high-speed. I'm still thinking about what sorts of revolutions in input media would be really awesome; possibilities that are kind of dumb and me-specific include:

Knitting: you move your needles in certain ways to make things happen onscreen.

Juggling: you throw things in the air, and a couple of cameras built in to the computer track the things and things happen onscreen.

Funny faces: This one is almost in use; they've already got the technology (I think) to track your eye movements and react to that, but I'd like to see things happen if you stick out your tongue at the machine.

Anyway, that's just my list. And as long as the computer continues to be used primarily as a document creation/storage device, the keyboard will remain king.

Do you believe this stuff?

2008-02-03T17:29:00.000-08:00

Here, we have links to a couple of blogs that I've just discovered as part of "Blogroll Amnesty Day", which (apparently) has dark and disturbing origins. Spooky!

While I'm doublespeaking on this subject, I have a link here to a note, written by a university official to a student attempting to start up a campus unreligious group. It speaks of tolerance and acceptance toward others' religious views and practices. I have to wonder with this sort of thing: If someone starts up a Christian group, do they have to pray toward Mecca five times a day and keep kosher and keep vegetarian and sacrifice goats? Because it seems just a little religiously intolerant if they don't.

(As an ass-covering side note, I don't personally endorse animal sacrifice, vegetarianism, prayer, or atheism. All those things are bad, bad, bad. I guess.)

2008-02-02T07:08:00.000-08:00

I haven't actually heard this video yet, but from the look of it alone, it's kinda cool looking. I'm going to mess with the size a little bit, but hopefully, it will still be viewable.

They happen where?

2008-02-01T04:53:00.000-08:00

Microsoft has decided to get themselves into yet another market. To ruin the surprise a bit, it is a comic strip. About IT guys. Who are, y'know, IT guys. Yeah.

More from the blah blah blah: Pope is anti-gene-manipulation (big surprise there), tiny ingestible tech may save your life someday, your cell phone might become smarter... than itself, and hey! jet packs!

Also, as part of an ongoing attempt to better myself... through learning, I am manipulating this post, not in my usual way of cheating and using the Blogger "compose" tool, but by typing in the raw HTML, for your computer's interpretation delight. (At least; I'm mostly doing it that way.) Maybe if I get a little cocky, I'll start trying to break my blog with some crazy HTML, but not this morning.

Maybe this afternoon.

Precious fame.

2008-01-26T04:42:00.000-08:00

Some have it. Some are making it for themselves. Some others are, too, in less positive ways.
That is all.

Some kickass photos...

2008-01-19T18:39:00.000-08:00

... that are not mine, can be found here.

Also, robots lie.

Also, cellphones might soon pick up a new trick. This is kind of the one that interests me the most, since I was thinking about input devices earlier this week, as I sat at my desk in front of my primitive keyboard that hurts my fingers to use (and LCD flatscreen monitor; figure that expense report out). I was wondering what might be used to more effectively manipulate data on a computer; and along comes this cellphone story. Also, there is news about speech recognition software, but I don't see that as useful around my desk, which is not in an office of my own, but part of a more collective unit. If I had a way of preventing other peoples' voices from controlling my computer, then maybe I could use it. Or I could just get hired as a monkey on a treadmill.

Lots of links.

2008-01-18T15:13:00.000-08:00

Just a damn ton of them. I haven't even read all of these. Go now.

Here. And here. and here, here, and here. Oh yeah, and here.

Good news day. I am particularly happy about the creation "science" museum going broke. That makes me tingle. Happy.

An appropriate place.

2008-01-17T04:02:00.000-08:00

I have long believed that there is nothing a person can't do if he puts his mind to it. As evidence, I present this story, hot off the AP, um, thingy.

Also, I'm not sure how I feel about this one. I mean, on the one hand, I want to shout "Never forget!", but then I remember that that is the motto for another controversy; one in which the good guys become bad guys (though not vice versa). I feel conflicted, and it's all the Pope's fault. I mean, you'd think it was the guy's job to force people to examine complex moral quandaries, or something.

I don't think so; do you?

2008-01-16T14:00:00.001-08:00

In The Know: Are We Giving The Robots That Run Our Society Too Much Power?

Well, sh**t.

2008-01-13T05:41:00.000-08:00

I'll be with you in a second. I'm reading an article from slashdot. It's thrown me for a little bit of a loop. (Is the word 'loop' appropriate? I don't know anymore...) Honestly, I'm a little embarrassed for academia. I know it isn't immune from idiot bureaucracy, but it's supposed to have a buffer layer of professors to keep the very stupidest of bureaucrats out. The article ends by asking, "...has university surveillance of online identities gone too far?" I ask, "Can somebody direct VSU's president to the nearest dictionary?" (Okay, not if the nearest dictionary was written by Big Brother, but the nearest good dictionary.)

Eleven volumes of... what?

2008-01-07T18:53:00.000-08:00

So, I was talking with a coworker today about the "His Dark Materials" trilogy, which I am reading at a high rate of speed, not necessarily because of their intriguing plots or well-fleshed-out characters, but because they go pretty quickly. Like potato chips, but less fattening, and more culturally significant. Okay, maybe not that second one. Potato chips are pretty significant, you have to admit.

Anyway, I mentioned that, "I've been reading that series that starts with 'The Golden Compass', and the big controversy is that it promotes atheism, but I'm just not seeing it."
She responded with the question, "Have you read the 'Left Behind' series?"
"I've heard of it; it's the one that starts with the apocalypse, right?"
"Yeah. It's twelve books long."
"And just so we're clear, it starts with the apocalypse, right?"
"Yeah."
"The apocalypse where everyone dies?"
"Yeah. Have you read it?"
"... No."

I had been trying to make the point that the controversy surrounding the supposedly atheist series is a lot of pointless noise (for another example, see any controversy ever), but I think I got unwittingly trumped. I don't know whether to be deeply irritated or deeply impressed.

(And the 'Dark Materials' series actually isn't that bad; it's a pretty standard fantasy series, as far as I'm concerned. I don't know that you can call a series where the Christian monotheistic god is a character 'atheist'; at best, you might be able to call it Nietzschean.)

Philosophy is not "mere"!

2008-01-04T14:50:00.000-08:00

I was reading an article that I found on slashdot which describes, as part of it, the "The universe is just a VR Simulation" theory. It says that, "without testable predictions about the universe that would distinguish this idea from other theories, the VR hypothesis is pure philosophy."

Okay, they said 'pure', not 'mere', but still, that sounds a little dismissive of philosophy to me, but whatever. They're just egghead scientists, right? Besides, it taught me about "Boltzmann Brains", which is a fun philosophical concept. Take it out for a spin and tell me what you think!

Also, I wish I was a media person. Not like I actually am, but a media person who mattered. Then maybe I could get free stuff, too.

Hoo ah.

2008-01-03T14:06:00.000-08:00

Recently, there was a hacker convention in Berlin. I would provide a link, but you should really find out how to find out about it on your own.

I think the TSA found out about it. They may have also found their old copy of 1984. I don't know. All I know is that I'm not confident in my ability to not react to an approaching security officer with a mixture of apprehension and mistrust, and have that read clearly on my face.

Seriously, if you were traveling and a uniformed TSA person walked up to you and started asking you about your trip and plans and things, wouldn't your first reaction be to freak, just a little? Could you really prevent yourself from thinking, "Oh, crap, I'm in trouble"? It's not hard to see how that would be a self-fulfilling prophecy. And that's why I wear a beard; to hide my face.

The sting of citric acid.

2007-12-13T15:03:00.000-08:00

So, if you look below this post, you will find a link to a story that I found, well, inspirational. A true tale of simple human kindness prevailing in the face of fear, ignorance and violence. I don't believe in much, but because of this story, I believed, for a moment, in people.

So filled was I with warm fuzzies that I decided to relate this story to a coworker. I explained the specifics, and stressed the mindset I imagined young Mr. Askari must have had when he made a more noble decision than I think I would have under the circumstances. I didn't actually use the word "hero", but I don't think that misses the mark.

After I'd finished, she told me "That's why I say 'Happy Holidays'." I guess the Wonderful Time is over now.

Life gave those kids on the subway lemons. At least all I got was collateral squirting.

Whenever life gets your down, Mrs. Brown,

2007-12-13T04:00:00.000-08:00

and things seem hard or tough,
and people seem stupid, obnoxious or daft,
and you feel that you've had quite enough...

things start looking up. Or Graham Chapman sings a song to put everything in perspective. I almost wish it were the Graham Chapman thing, but what can you do?

Seriously, read that last story. It will help rekindle your belief in humanity. Which, I know, is not something I normally try to do here, but hey; when life gives you lemons, you can't make bitter, bitter apple juice.

Rapid fire.

2007-12-06T18:56:00.000-08:00

See below for a post just a few minutes older than this one. Oh, but what a few minutes they were! I checked out the news, and as it turns out, Congress is dumb. Also, according to the news, Congress is dumb. But in other news, scientists are smart. But to switch subjects, people are dumb, dumb, dumb monkeys.That is all.

A meme!

2007-12-06T18:20:00.000-08:00

So, for those of you who do not know, generally, a meme is the thought-equivalent of a gene; it gets passed on from one person to another, sometimes mutating in the process. In blogging, a meme is typically a set of questions that you answer and pass on to others, with the expectation that they, too will answer.

In one of my favorite blogs, I read a meme that encourages mutation, and had to pass it on. Here goes:

The rules:

There are a set of questions below that are all of the form, "The best [subgenre] [medium] in [genre] is...".

Copy the questions, and before answering them, you may modify them in a limited way, carrying out no more than two of these operations:

You can leave them exactly as is.
You can delete any one question.
You can mutate either the genre, medium, or subgenre of any one question.
For instance, you could change "The best time travel novel in SF/Fantasy is..." to "The best time travel novel in Westerns is...", or "The best time travel movie in SF/Fantasy is...", or "The best romance novel in SF/Fantasy is...".
You can add a completely new question of your choice to the end of the list, as long as it is still in the form "The best [subgenre] [medium] in [genre] is..."

You must have at least one question in your set, or you've gone extinct, and you must be able to answer it yourself, or you're not viable.

Then answer your possibly mutant set of questions. Please do include a link back to the blog you got them from, to simplify tracing the ancestry, and include these instructions. Finally, pass it along to any number of your fellow bloggers. Remember, though, your success as a Darwinian replicator is going to be measured by the propagation of your variants, which is going to be a function of both the interest your well-honed questions generate and the number of successful attempts at reproducing them.

My ancestry:

My (great)^11-grandparent is Pharyngula.
My (great)^10-grandparent is Metamagician and the Hellfire Club.
My (great)^9-grandparent is Flying Trilobite.
My (great)^8-grandparent is A Blog Around the Clock.
My (great)^7-grandparent is Primate Diaries.
My (great)^6-grandparent is Thus Spake Zuska.
My (great)^5-grandparent is a k8, a cat, a mission.
My (great)^4-grandparent is Monkeygirl.
My (great)^3-grandparent is DancingFish.
My great-great-grandparent is "No One".
My great-grandparent is Field Notes.
My grandparent is The Clutter Museum.

My parent is Adventures in Ethics and Science.

The best children's novel in SF/Fantasy is: The Dragons of North Chittendon.
The best recent movie in comedy is: The Davinci Code.
The best karaoke song in rock ballads is: "Don't Stop Believin'"
The best cult novel in classic fiction is: Flatland.
The best high-fat food in Mexican cooking is: Taco salad.
The best economics-related words I ever received from a scholar are: "Nobody ever said, 'I have enough money now. I think I'll stop.'"
The best syndicated column in free weekly newspapers is: Savage Love.

So enjoy, have fun, and mess with it as much as you like! (Incidentally, the rules are unclear; by inspecting a couple of previous generations, I learned that you are allowed two changes overall, not per question. Or at least, that is how people have been playing it.)

A couple of stories:

2007-12-04T13:57:00.000-08:00

First, a play.

Next, a sci-fi thriller bound to kill a few minutes.

Lastly, a news article.

In other news, this is my big post! Yay #256! (That's 2^2^3, for those of you in binary land.) Today's hidden message is: availability of communication.

Politics! The Blogpost!

2007-12-03T13:56:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking about our political system ever since I heard one of the songs in the new musical, Caucus.

You really just can't make this shit up.

Anyway, I was thinking about the problem that most people have with our political system, which is, of course, everything. So let's narrow it down a little to the electoral process.

Most people seem to fall into one of two camps: Either they feel that it is every citizen's patriotic duty to vote in an informed, reasonable matter, or they feel that their own vote is just one drop in an ocean, except it doesn't matter quite as much.

So should you vote in an informed manner, or should you just stay home? Me, I say, vote according to your party lines without thinking about it.

Here's my thinking: You don't want a small group of informed people voting for everyone else; that's an oligarchy. (Yes, I know; that's also Congress, but read on and then let me know if you have any better ideas.) So you want the vote open to a lot of people.

But you also don't want all those people to vote so many different ways that, statistically, the last place candidate did about as well as the winner. That's a pretty random distribution, and that doesn't reflect the will of the people. So you want to polarize votes into a small number of groups: political parties.

Then, you invent a bunch of "controversies" and pretend that they actually affect the lives of the voters, so that they will care deeply about their parties and supply votes without thinking too much about it. That way, the votes by one large, unthinking mass are balanced out pretty well by the votes from the other large, unthinking mass(es). This means that, for the most part, peoples' votes don't matter, but those people don't think about politics, so they don't care. The very few people who DO care will then have a disproportionately large amount of power to sway elections one way or another, but those people (by definition) care about the issues that actually affect them, and so they will vote intelligently. That, my friend, is democracy.

At least, if I wanted to subjugate a large populace without having to worry too much about uprisings, rebellions and coups, that's how I'd go about it.

Topsy goddam turvy.

2007-12-01T04:58:00.000-08:00

I saw this report from Reuters a few days back. It concerns a study from U of M (that's the actual University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, not that Urethra of Mine). I take care to cite sources here because these are not institutions well-known for fucking things up, or promoting muzzles for the media. So what the hell? How do they even find this out? Are there really that many adults running around who, as children, played hours and hours of Halo 3? Oh, wait; that would be impossible. So I have to wonder about their methodology here. I imagine some sort of crystalline sphere plays a central role in their research; or perhaps they have a more scientific method.

Then, in honor of World AIDS Day, I find out that (after a mere two and a half decades) some church somewhere is being instructed to actually go out and help people with AIDS. It seems like the guy doing the instructing here would have been less enlightened on the subject. Who'd have thought that faith could be used for something other than evil? It almost gives me hope to see a church doing something moral.

But I guess getting my hopes up would be too much to ask. Oh well. If we're all going to hell, at least, to quote Tom Lehrer, we will all fry together when we fry.

Early to bed and early to rise...

2007-11-30T02:27:00.000-08:00

Well, you know the rest.

I found all these stories before 5:30 in the am! I should do this more often.

Just some links.

2007-11-28T14:07:00.000-08:00

My life is pretty stagnant these days. I am like a rock. Wait... damn.

Maybe my life is just stable, like a career in law. Wait... damn.

Maybe I'm just secure, like the code to a game I've been curious about. Wait... damn.

Oh well.

Worst spokesperson ever?

2007-11-22T01:55:00.000-08:00

Good message, bad outfit. Such is life, I suppose.

Anyway, Happy 138th Anniversary of the launching of the Cutty Sark! And, y'know, whatever else you might celebrate today.

Ah, science.

2007-11-16T20:31:00.000-08:00

Controlling your mind for a better tomorrow. Stories one, two, three and four tonight come to us from Slashdot, and, when taken collectively, add up to one perfectly reasonable and, at this point, inevitable conclusion:

You brain is about a decade away from being hacked. Fifteen years, tops. Get ready now.

Yes, the future is bright: Your brain, newly implanted with a direct neural interface that can carry a previously unimagined amount of information, will access wirelessly the Google network for new commands, which will be gently reinforced by our robot "accomplices". Since Google owns this site, they might not be happy about me spilling the beans about their plan. On the other hand, since Google owns this site, they know my readership, and probably don't care much about me.

Sometimes, it's good to be the invisible child.

Named.

2007-11-14T17:45:00.000-08:00

So, I stumbled across an article describing how to name something after yourself. This, I thought, would be a great idea. I should totally have something named after me! Now, what should bear my last name? A law? A rule? Should I prefer a lemma? Or bow to popular pressure with a T-square distribution?

That article should really get into the specifics of what to do if your last name is already taken. But I suppose that would be surpassing the Arbesman limit.

Somebody called it!

2007-11-14T03:48:00.000-08:00

So, I was listening to Car Talk a few months back, and the caller had, instead of a question, an idea. He had been driving down the highway, when he happened to drift over on to the rumble strips, which, by sheer coincidence, rumbled at the base tone of the song he was listening to on the radio. So naturally, he thought to himself, "Why don't they adjust the size of the rumble strips so that, as you are driving down them, you hear a little tune?"

Well, as with all things strange and beautiful, Japan has the answer. My only question: What is this going to do to Japanese tires?

One of those questions...

2007-11-08T03:34:00.000-08:00

This seems like one of those questions that I like to ask and which pisses people off. Mind you, I don't ask just to piss people off; I'm genuinely concerned about the answer. In fact, people's negative reaction is detrimental to the whole process; the more pissed off someone is, the less likely I am to get any useful information. I am usually left with the phrase "well, but you know what I/they mean!" and an empty feeling in the depths of my soul.

So why do people get frustrated with me when I ask things like, "What does organic mean at the grocery store?" or "Why should you have to live in this city to work for its government?" (Should there be a second question mark after that second quote? Are these more of those kinds of questions?) The answer, as near as I can tell, comes (as I so love) in several parts. A: People think that they know the answer because they're used to the situation. B: Once actually asked about it, people realize they do not know the answer, or the one they made up isn't as satisfactory as they'd thought. C: They think that I know the answer, and am just asking the question to be an asshole. And finally, D: People really hate displaying their own ignorance, so they just stop being curious about anything so they can look smart when they know something, and dismiss what they don't understand.

I'm pretty sure I do the same thing, though (perhaps because of natural assholery) I can't think of any good examples off the top of my head. It does surprise me, though, that there aren't more Trivial Pursuit related shootings. That you hear of, anyway.

Good damn day.

2007-11-06T14:23:00.000-08:00

So, as you may know, my job does not provide the intellectual stimulation and challenge of my previous employ (aka, "Locate vein, insert needle, do not kill anyone." To be fair, that last part was added to all the jobs at the hospital.) In order to combat soul-crushing ennui, I have started learning to program in Java. Today, I made a breakthrough in a game I'm making that will hopefully make the whole thing go much easier. I'm only one breakthrough away from getting the whole thing off the ground and into cyberspace. When that happens, I will be sure to direct you to this wonderful, wonderful game's home on the interwebs. Muy excellente.

Also, one of my webcomics suggested pick-up lines I might have to learn.

Also, medical freaks! (I know it's rude, but who doesn't love medical freaks?)

All in all, this has been a very good day!

Who's sailing the authorship?

2007-11-03T17:49:00.000-07:00

Okay, that title is a godawful pun, and I apologize right off the bat for not being able to think of anything more clever.

Moving on, this story caught my eye, mostly because I wasn't aware it was supposed to be a story anymore. Book written, sold, anger ensued, suit ensued (see? I am capable of better puns!) and I thought that was it. But no, now we need a tally of everyone who felt cheated enough to go to the effort of getting their money back. What really interested me, though, was the ratio of dollars going to the lawyers who fought and lost the case to dollars going to the people who, according to the principles of justice and law, kind of won the case. (They won, incidentally, the right to return a book full-price, when they could've simply sold it for slightly less money online. Or, who knows? Maybe more money!) That ratio is pretty fucking big. More than 28 to 1. I checked.

So, to recap: a.) The lawyers for the publishing house did not win. b.) For every dollar these poor cheated readers received, the legal firm got 28 dollars. And change. Probably for coffee. c.) I left law school because of my grades, which were bad, which I thought would prevent me from having a successful legal career.

Clearly, I'm an idiot. Wish me luck on learning to program; it's fun to get frustrated at a machine that is so incredibly stupid, you have to literally tell it how to do everything. At least, if you're into my kind of fun, you perverted freak.

Pointlessness.

2007-10-25T03:11:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, a coworker told me the things I'm interested in "don't matter". This, after a twelve-minute discussion she had with another coworker about some damn TV show. Yeah, I suck.

Still, at least my life isn't as stupid as it could be. Seriously, do video game designers have to get permission to use images of buildings? Am I soon going to have to pay a tax to look at the town I live in? Paris will clean up with a special "tourist toll" for anyone caught painting, photographing or looking too pleasurably at the Eiffel Tower, or any of the other iconic structures they've put so much effort into building/transplanting there. I'm in no mood today, world; be on your best damn behavior.

Puzzled.

2007-10-21T23:27:00.000-07:00

So, I spent some time tonight looking up various puzzles on Wikipedia. Fascinating stuff they have there; just fascinating. I was particularly taken by a puzzle invented by a guy during a physics lecture being given by Heisenberg. I like that sort of thing. Here's this bored physics student, listening to some boring physics professor drone on about physics, and to kind of keep himself awake, he invents a three-dimensional puzzle.

All I did in law school was write song lyrics, none of which should ever have been recorded (even in print.) Anyway, turns out the guy who made the puzzle was also a poet. Good for him!

After I got done on Wikipedia (motto: We know everything you know, you know?), I hopped over to Amazon to see if I could get an actual puzzle of this type to play with. I found a book that teaches you to build your own, instead. That looked pretty interesting, so I previewed some pages and saw the tools needed to build these wooden mind-games. Page 1: Clamps, straightedges, a square or two, a power drill, some bits, etc. No big deal. I could pick those up pretty cheap. Page 2: A miter saw, a table saw, drill press... These things are not as easily gotten. Where's the book for the guy with a saw, a hammer, and a lot of good intentions? These puzzles aren't supposed to be much larger than a Rubik's Cube; why do we need to break out the heavy artillery? I think that, if I go over to someone's house and see that book on their shelf, I will know I am dealing with a person who doesn't understand the meaning of the word "overkill". I will then back slowly out of their house and run screaming down the street, awakening neighbors, alerting police, and detonating the bomb I left discreetly under my chair before I ran away.

What, can't I be one of those people too?

Silver lining time!

2007-10-19T03:18:00.001-07:00

In this first news bit, a scientist has a record of being insensitive. Given his life's work, it seems a bit odd for him to have made a racist remark, but he feels badly about it (though he carefully avoids confirming that he actually said it), and, most importantly, he says that there is no scientific basis for racism.

I like that last bit. If we can all agree that racism is stupid, in significant part, because there is no scientific basis for it, then maybe we can start applying that particular criterion to other aspects of life. Give me a demonstrable, measurable basis for believing something is true, and I might argue with your methodology or the conclusions you're deriving from your experimental results, but at least we'll be attacking each other on a rational basis.

Story two is outside of my usual sphere of interest; I only heard last week that the defendant in this lawsuit existed. It's a couple of celebrities going at each other in the courts, which satisfies two requirements to make me stop paying attention: celebrities and lawsuits. So why am I wasting precious time writing about it? Because the case is so choked with stupidity that the fact that it's gay sex that is alleged here is kind of lost in the shuffle. You read this story and you get so burned out with crap you don't care about that "Oh, and they're gay" just seems stupid and tacky to add on; like pointing out that OJ and Nicole were an interracial couple.

Hilarity itself.

2007-10-18T17:41:00.000-07:00

Today, I was told by my roommate of a musical piece I'd not heard of before. It is by John Cage, who brought us such wonderful "works" as 4'33" and a bunch of arrhythmic music students at breakfast. He did, on occasion, it turns out, write music. He wrote a piece in 1987 which provided only the following tempo instructions: Play the piece as slowly as possible. He even included special "silent notes" in the piano version: you hit the key so slowly that the piano doesn't actually sound the note. I'm not sure how well that would work on an organ (that'll make sense in a second), but for a piano it actually does affect the sound, even if no human could possibly hear a difference.

Anyway, some music students and (surprise surprise) philosophers got together to discuss just what was meant by "As slowly as possible". They decided (for some asinine reason) that 639 years would be a good amount of time in which to play this particular piece, written for organ (see? I told you!) because of the expected lifespan of the organ on which it is being played. I'm not sure, but I got the sense from the Wikipedia article that the organ hasn't been fully built yet; they're adding pipes as necessary. Who could blame them? They've got the time. Anyway, to listen to the current chord (instituted on May 5, 2006; due to change on July 8, 2008), go here. This is the sound the organ is making. For more than two goddamn years. But it's by John Cage, so hearing anything at all is a pretty good start.

Today's post brought to you by parentheses. Maybe I need to spend less time coding at work.
... Nah.

What a squeaker!

2007-10-15T15:01:00.001-07:00

It was close, but once again, America won this year's Nobel prize count! Woo-hoo! Now, it's time for me to sit back and collect the accolades that are my due.

Moving on, does the description of this game strike anyone else as odd?

I can't really say I called it...

2007-10-12T03:52:00.001-07:00

The Nobel Peace Prize is out. I realize now what I missed in my last post: Gore did do a lot for climate change concerns, but is that really "peace"? Going over to Wikipedia, I find Nobel willed the peace prize to "the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses".

Does work on elimination of global warming really foot that bill? Have nations really come together to fight this, or is everyone still pursuing the same goal in their own ways? Did the people who set up the Kyoto accords ever get a Nobel?

You'll find out next time... you look it up for yourself.

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MN	NE	OH	IA	ND
MO	MA	TX	FL	WA
NH	NY	KS	VA	SD
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