Wikipedia has an article on smoothies, but that really doesn't do this delicious treat justice.
There is a real elegance to the smoothie concept. The fruit is frozen for storage purposes, and that coldness is also used to cool down the treat and make it taste good.
There are 3 key components to making good smoothies.
First, you have to have a great blender. I really don't like traditional blenders because they are bulky, take up precious counter space, and most importantly, they're hard to clearn. Costco saved the day when they carried Cuisinart hand held blender of the gods. This little device is absolutely perfect for making a single smoothie. It's actually better than a table top blender because you can move it around and get those wayward bits of fruit.
Second, you must have vanilla flavored soy milk. Don't get me wrong, I do drink milk. Soy milk is pretty gross in most everything else (although it does work quite well in mashed potatoes, I must say!). But for smoothies, normal milk just won't do. It is important to add enough soy milk such that the fruit is almost covered. Any less, and it will be too thick to drink.
Third, you must have a good selection of frozen fruit. My personal favorites are mango and rasberry, and the local Trader Joe's stocks bags of this stuff for cheap. A recent discovery at Costco of a large (10lb) bag of 'berry mix' turned out to be quite delicious: Rasberry, Blueberry, and Marion berries. Mix a cup of that mix, one slightly overripe banana, vanilla soy-milk, blend well, and enjoy!
If you have the hand-held blender and the ingredients you like, you can make a smoothie in about 3 minutes (including cleanup which involves running the blade of the blender under hot water for about 10 seconds) for a cost of about $.50.
I suppose if you were quite ambitious and wanted to do the full "Jamba Juice" treatment, you could add other stuff (mix-ins). But who wants a femm boost anyway - the soy milk has enough estrogen for that. :(
Seriously, avoid ice for two reasons: first, it's unnecessary because the fruit is it's own ice. Second, unless you eat a lot of ice in your drinks or other foods, it tends to sit in the freezer and evaporate very slowly out of its tray, tending to ice up the freezer and humidify the thing quite badly.
As for other ingredients, I must wonder, why bother? The soy milk gives you the creaminess, the fruit gives you sweetness, flavorfullness, and coolness. And these are the essential properties of a smoothy: creamy, sweet, flavorfull, and cool.
How Many Programming Languages are on Your Computer?
Last night I got to wondering, how many kinds of programs can I write on my computer? If I was stuck on a desert island, how many kinds of programs could I write to keep myself amused? I have a JDK installed, so I can write Java programs. I have a browser that can run my JavaScript programs. I can write Windows batch files. I used to be able to run Quick Basic, but apparently that's gone.
Interestingly, I can write programs inside of two games I have installed. Half-Life 2 has a complete suite of development tools, as does Neverwinter Nights Aurora Toolset. Both games have a Turing complete scripting language inside of them.
You can write VBA programs in MS Office. OpenOffice.org is scriptable in BeanShell.
I heard somewhere that Photoshop CS2 is scriptable in JavaScript.
Steinburg Cubase probably has a macro language, although I've never needed to use it. Certainly Cakewalk had a full-blown macro language.
I used to have Cygwin installed for those times when I absolutely had to have a bash prompt to do something in windows, and if I had that installed I would have almost the full array of Unixy programming languages at my disposal, most of which are represented by Perl (shell, sed, awk, etc). IIRC it comes with gcc, allowing me to write programs in C or C++.
I have an IBM ThinkPad, some of who's utilities are written in Python, so I probably have a python interpreter lurking around somewhere.
There are a handful of languages that are based on Java worth mentioning. I would consider JSP (odd that the wikipedia article is called 'JavaServerPages' when the meaning of JSP is officially undefined) to be a Java language variant that is text-oriented. In the same veign, I have an XSL interpreter (Xalan), and XSLT is definitely a full-blown computer language. 'Ant' is kind of a language, too (it has conditionals, assignments, and 'functions', but no arithmetic AFAIK). At some point I had a Groovy interpreter installed, but heaven knows where that is. I'm almost certain something I have installed is using BeanShell, which means I could write programs with BeanShell, too. Because I have a Resin appserver installed, I can write programs in PHP. (I used to have an Apache 2.0 win32 binary installed with PHP support, too).
The very esoteric languages like OCAML or Scheme are nowhere to be found as they aren't used in any of the software I use. Alas.
Interestingly, I can write programs inside of two games I have installed. Half-Life 2 has a complete suite of development tools, as does Neverwinter Nights Aurora Toolset. Both games have a Turing complete scripting language inside of them.
You can write VBA programs in MS Office. OpenOffice.org is scriptable in BeanShell.
I heard somewhere that Photoshop CS2 is scriptable in JavaScript.
Steinburg Cubase probably has a macro language, although I've never needed to use it. Certainly Cakewalk had a full-blown macro language.
I used to have Cygwin installed for those times when I absolutely had to have a bash prompt to do something in windows, and if I had that installed I would have almost the full array of Unixy programming languages at my disposal, most of which are represented by Perl (shell, sed, awk, etc). IIRC it comes with gcc, allowing me to write programs in C or C++.
I have an IBM ThinkPad, some of who's utilities are written in Python, so I probably have a python interpreter lurking around somewhere.
There are a handful of languages that are based on Java worth mentioning. I would consider JSP (odd that the wikipedia article is called 'JavaServerPages' when the meaning of JSP is officially undefined) to be a Java language variant that is text-oriented. In the same veign, I have an XSL interpreter (Xalan), and XSLT is definitely a full-blown computer language. 'Ant' is kind of a language, too (it has conditionals, assignments, and 'functions', but no arithmetic AFAIK). At some point I had a Groovy interpreter installed, but heaven knows where that is. I'm almost certain something I have installed is using BeanShell, which means I could write programs with BeanShell, too. Because I have a Resin appserver installed, I can write programs in PHP. (I used to have an Apache 2.0 win32 binary installed with PHP support, too).
The very esoteric languages like OCAML or Scheme are nowhere to be found as they aren't used in any of the software I use. Alas.
How to choose CMS software
Giuseppe Persiani wrote:
> I was a consultant for one of the most expensive CMS around and I know that
> sometimes moeny doesn't really pay.
Indeed. I was on the customer side of the CMS dance not too long ago, and I noticed a few things. First, the definition of "CMS" has become extremely "fluid" (that is, ill-defined). Second, management is almost always willing to throw money at a problem if they are guaranteed it will "just work". These two facts combine to create a recipe for disaster.
THEOREM:
When the customer doesn't know what they want, and they are willing to pay through the nose to get it, they will get something expensive that doesn't work.
ANALYSIS:
Customers with vague requirements are led-astray by salesmen and analysts enjoy describing all possible features. The customer starts thinking about what they *could* do with this software, rather they *need* to do with the software. In other words, the sales person is *creating* user requirements and changing the scope of the project from under the user's nose. That's bad.
The hidden bad thing about such over-featured software is that those features are often obtrusive and difficult to remove if you end up not needing them.
SUGGESTION:
Know exactly what you need, and systematically look at all options. Software evaluation is very demanding work, and it's tempting to farm it out, but don't if you have a skilled person able to do the evaluation work who is a permanent employee. They will take greater care because a) they know the requirements (both user and developer), b) they will have to live with the decision and c) the quality of the decision could affect their future salary.
There is an interesting article on CMS at the wikipedia. If it can be believed, Vignette was spun out of CNET and was the first CMS as we know it today. (And I've heard the horror stories about Vignette, too.)
> I was a consultant for one of the most expensive CMS around and I know that
> sometimes moeny doesn't really pay.
Indeed. I was on the customer side of the CMS dance not too long ago, and I noticed a few things. First, the definition of "CMS" has become extremely "fluid" (that is, ill-defined). Second, management is almost always willing to throw money at a problem if they are guaranteed it will "just work". These two facts combine to create a recipe for disaster.
THEOREM:
When the customer doesn't know what they want, and they are willing to pay through the nose to get it, they will get something expensive that doesn't work.
ANALYSIS:
Customers with vague requirements are led-astray by salesmen and analysts enjoy describing all possible features. The customer starts thinking about what they *could* do with this software, rather they *need* to do with the software. In other words, the sales person is *creating* user requirements and changing the scope of the project from under the user's nose. That's bad.
The hidden bad thing about such over-featured software is that those features are often obtrusive and difficult to remove if you end up not needing them.
SUGGESTION:
Know exactly what you need, and systematically look at all options. Software evaluation is very demanding work, and it's tempting to farm it out, but don't if you have a skilled person able to do the evaluation work who is a permanent employee. They will take greater care because a) they know the requirements (both user and developer), b) they will have to live with the decision and c) the quality of the decision could affect their future salary.
There is an interesting article on CMS at the wikipedia. If it can be believed, Vignette was spun out of CNET and was the first CMS as we know it today. (And I've heard the horror stories about Vignette, too.)
Lord of the Rings - Voiceover
Oh man this is hilarious. Simple, and hilarious. It's a voiceover of the LOTR reunion scene. Mostly grunts and moans - I have no idea why it's so funny.
War: always bubbling just under the surface.
Jane's Information Group provides an amazing resource for people working with, well, force. Weapons, tactics, political crises, deployments, are all fodder for Janes.
Did you know that Greece and Turkey almost went to war in 1996, and very recently two of their F-16s collided over the Aegean? It's true.
Did you know how many nukes China actually has that can reach the US or it's Asian neighbors? You do now.
It is telling that Jane's writers themselves refer to this all as a "game", for example in this article about Japan "joining the main game" by joining the "United States' SM-3 (Standard Missile 3) naval ballistic missile interceptor programme".
Indeed, with the right abstractions, it is hard not to see world-wide security status as something of a game. It's a game that must be played and played well or else you (and your country) will die. It is a simple fact that the relationships between nations are at their heart barbaric. "International Law" is meaningless unless it has broad, impartial, and universal enforcement. Tensions exist between nations, each seeking to gain advantage over the other, governed largely by the morality of selfishness.
There are startling exceptions to this rule. The Tsunami of 2004 engendered widespread altrusim throughout the world. Even so, in a way this altruism reenforced our military thinking, as our help was largely dispensed by the military. Movies like "Armageddon" similiarly reenforce the need for military technology as guarantees against large-scale emergencies (in that case that big nukes can be used to save the Earth by blowing up large bodies on collision courses).
I grew up, as most boys do, playing with war-like toys, and playing war games. I enjoyed it. I still enjoy it. I would go so far as to say that most people enjoy war games (e.g. chess), and indeed revere great leaders of war, even on the opposing or losing side. We are taught to respect Yamamoto as well as Nimitz, Eisenhower as well as Rommel, Grant as well as Lee.
Recent conflicts are different; there is no respect. Who were the great commanders of the Korean War? Vietnam (Westmorland comes to mind - the opposition?)? The Gulf War (Schwartzkopf comes to mind, but the opposition?) The second invasion of Iraq?
Did you know that Greece and Turkey almost went to war in 1996, and very recently two of their F-16s collided over the Aegean? It's true.
Did you know how many nukes China actually has that can reach the US or it's Asian neighbors? You do now.
It is telling that Jane's writers themselves refer to this all as a "game", for example in this article about Japan "joining the main game" by joining the "United States' SM-3 (Standard Missile 3) naval ballistic missile interceptor programme".
Indeed, with the right abstractions, it is hard not to see world-wide security status as something of a game. It's a game that must be played and played well or else you (and your country) will die. It is a simple fact that the relationships between nations are at their heart barbaric. "International Law" is meaningless unless it has broad, impartial, and universal enforcement. Tensions exist between nations, each seeking to gain advantage over the other, governed largely by the morality of selfishness.
There are startling exceptions to this rule. The Tsunami of 2004 engendered widespread altrusim throughout the world. Even so, in a way this altruism reenforced our military thinking, as our help was largely dispensed by the military. Movies like "Armageddon" similiarly reenforce the need for military technology as guarantees against large-scale emergencies (in that case that big nukes can be used to save the Earth by blowing up large bodies on collision courses).
I grew up, as most boys do, playing with war-like toys, and playing war games. I enjoyed it. I still enjoy it. I would go so far as to say that most people enjoy war games (e.g. chess), and indeed revere great leaders of war, even on the opposing or losing side. We are taught to respect Yamamoto as well as Nimitz, Eisenhower as well as Rommel, Grant as well as Lee.
Recent conflicts are different; there is no respect. Who were the great commanders of the Korean War? Vietnam (Westmorland comes to mind - the opposition?)? The Gulf War (Schwartzkopf comes to mind, but the opposition?) The second invasion of Iraq?
OCJUG Videos From June 2006
Giuseppe Persiani Part 1 - Main Talk on DWR (an ajax library)
Giuseppe Persiani Part 2 - Answering questions
Giuseppe Persiani Part 3 - Answering more questions
Jim White Pre Talk Rant on Java GUIs - Part 1
Jim White Pre Talk Rant on Java GUIs - Part 2
Jim White IFCX Talk - Part 1
Jim White IFCX Talk - Part 2
Giuseppe Persiani Part 2 - Answering questions
Giuseppe Persiani Part 3 - Answering more questions
Jim White Pre Talk Rant on Java GUIs - Part 1
Jim White Pre Talk Rant on Java GUIs - Part 2
Jim White IFCX Talk - Part 1
Jim White IFCX Talk - Part 2
The importance of non-conformity: Addams Family Values & Martin Luther King
Lazing around today, I got to watch the last half of Addams Family Values (1993). What a wonderful movie. I enjoyed the playfulness, the dark humor, and the underlying message that love is really the key, no matter what it looks like. This movie is a strong champion of the message of non-conformity, and what that really means. It shows us what is important by lampooning what is not: what we wear, our perkiness, the way we decorate our houses. Sexual mores are also not important. Gomez and Morticia Adams have a strong and loving relationship, very passionate, albeit based on S&M. This movie is an ode to acceptance, not just of others but of oneself.
As if to reenforce this, driving home I was listening to Studio 360 show on the Lincoln memorial and it's important role as "America's Soapbox". It was interesting to learn that Frank Lloyd Wright despised the memorial as it stands today. And yet, so many non-conformists, like Martin Luther King, Jr., have used it to spread their message: peace, love, harmony, no matter what you look like.
Good stuff.
As if to reenforce this, driving home I was listening to Studio 360 show on the Lincoln memorial and it's important role as "America's Soapbox". It was interesting to learn that Frank Lloyd Wright despised the memorial as it stands today. And yet, so many non-conformists, like Martin Luther King, Jr., have used it to spread their message: peace, love, harmony, no matter what you look like.
Good stuff.
Roger Ebert's pithy take on French Sexuality
In Roger Ebert's review of the 1999 film Romance he says: "It is said that for the French, wine takes the place of flirting, dining takes the place of seduction, smoking takes the place of foreplay and talking takes the place of sex."
That's pretty funny.
(Rather suprisingly he gives this film a thumbs up.)
Also, I looked up this film for 2 reasons. I recall an erotic trailer for it when I say Run Lola Run back in '99, but I never saw the actual movie. Much like the question about tattoos, I decided to satisfy my curiosity here as well. In addition I was reminded of this mystery by a new French film out called District B-13 which has gotten rave reviews.
That's pretty funny.
(Rather suprisingly he gives this film a thumbs up.)
Also, I looked up this film for 2 reasons. I recall an erotic trailer for it when I say Run Lola Run back in '99, but I never saw the actual movie. Much like the question about tattoos, I decided to satisfy my curiosity here as well. In addition I was reminded of this mystery by a new French film out called District B-13 which has gotten rave reviews.
Next time you think life's unfair, remember Aung San Suu Kyi
She is my hero. Read her story in the wikipedia.
But why don't Tattoos dissappear?
So, I've often wondered why ink injected into the skin doesn't get shed as the skin cells are replaced. Today, I thought to finally figure this out by reading the Wikipedia article on tattooing. Unfortunately, it doesn't address this important concern of mine.
Programmer Psychologists Needed
It strikes me as a rather necessary specialization of the field of psychology: programmer psychologists. And indeed, there is a huge economic incentive. After all, if programs are products of the mind, and programmers are intellectual people, it makes perfect sense to keep that grey matter in peak form. Combine this with the fact that many have social issues and might have a difficult time talking to others, this is a concept long past due.
So forget the chefs, and the massueses: bring in the psychologists and counselers. Or better yet, don't forget the chefs and massueses.
What about just improving the health-plan to include counseling? This is certainly better than nothing, but not optimal. An in-house shrink will better understand the context of whatever problem the programmer is bringing her. The will understand the political, social, and economic environment. And it would probably be cheaper for the company, to boot.
Certain conditions must apply: there must be anonymity. There must be an unbreakable patient/client priviledge.
In many ways this function is already filled by HR departments. But really, its not adequate. First, there is no priveledge (AFAIK), there is not enough time, and most importantly, that is not the HR persons job and they don't have training. Certainly they tend to be empathic and naturally good counselers, but that's pushing it.
So forget the chefs, and the massueses: bring in the psychologists and counselers. Or better yet, don't forget the chefs and massueses.
What about just improving the health-plan to include counseling? This is certainly better than nothing, but not optimal. An in-house shrink will better understand the context of whatever problem the programmer is bringing her. The will understand the political, social, and economic environment. And it would probably be cheaper for the company, to boot.
Certain conditions must apply: there must be anonymity. There must be an unbreakable patient/client priviledge.
In many ways this function is already filled by HR departments. But really, its not adequate. First, there is no priveledge (AFAIK), there is not enough time, and most importantly, that is not the HR persons job and they don't have training. Certainly they tend to be empathic and naturally good counselers, but that's pushing it.
Imogen Heap's Cyborg Piano
This actually sounds really neat, and useful! Hey Imogen, can I have one?
Imogen Heap Interview: "This is a ridiculous thing, it’s a dream of mine to have this cyborg piano, which looks like a piano but it’s not. I love playing the piano live, a real piano, I hate playing a keyboard on a stand in front of 1000 people. I hate that, it’s so embarrassing, I just look like a stick insect stuck behind this piece of plastic. But at the same time I need a keyboard, because I need to trigger off all my stuff. So, in the beginning, if I have to tour the States or whatever, I won’t be able to afford a band so I was thinking how can I do it all by myself, and have a piano, and have all the laptops. So I’ve got this company who do the sets for Star Wars and Troy, and they’re making this white piano that looks like wood, but it’s not. And where the music stand would be is a flat screen, and there is a weighted keyboard that you can also MIDI up and is triggerable, and a Starship Enterprise main seat with all the gadgets and everything built into it. Then on the side of the piano, where there’s a curve, it’s going to be made of a frosted, see-through, plastic coating, and each note on the keyboard is gonna have a corresponding light, so when I play the piano you’ll see the lights move exactly as when I play the notes. And then, inside, when the piano opens up there’s gonna be little lights projected onto it, and a big white light that floods out from underneath the piano… it’s gonna look wicked."
Imogen Heap Interview: "This is a ridiculous thing, it’s a dream of mine to have this cyborg piano, which looks like a piano but it’s not. I love playing the piano live, a real piano, I hate playing a keyboard on a stand in front of 1000 people. I hate that, it’s so embarrassing, I just look like a stick insect stuck behind this piece of plastic. But at the same time I need a keyboard, because I need to trigger off all my stuff. So, in the beginning, if I have to tour the States or whatever, I won’t be able to afford a band so I was thinking how can I do it all by myself, and have a piano, and have all the laptops. So I’ve got this company who do the sets for Star Wars and Troy, and they’re making this white piano that looks like wood, but it’s not. And where the music stand would be is a flat screen, and there is a weighted keyboard that you can also MIDI up and is triggerable, and a Starship Enterprise main seat with all the gadgets and everything built into it. Then on the side of the piano, where there’s a curve, it’s going to be made of a frosted, see-through, plastic coating, and each note on the keyboard is gonna have a corresponding light, so when I play the piano you’ll see the lights move exactly as when I play the notes. And then, inside, when the piano opens up there’s gonna be little lights projected onto it, and a big white light that floods out from underneath the piano… it’s gonna look wicked."
That Wacky Mbira
What a cool, wacky instrument. Looks like something that's perfect to make on your own.
(I looked this up after reading an excellent Imogen Heap interview which tells of her "lugging it around on her tour.")
This instrument has it's own .org. Neat!
(I looked this up after reading an excellent Imogen Heap interview which tells of her "lugging it around on her tour.")
This instrument has it's own .org. Neat!
The future of blogging?
Electric Sheep is a rich comic book experience for the web, done by Patrick Farley. Check out these two: delta thrives (which is a psycadelic and amazing example of what blogging could look like in the future. warning: adult content), apocamon (a look at the book of Revelations if it was a Pokemon cartoon-hilarious!). Many more strips can be found in the contents.
The site design uses a lot of flash, but it is not exclusively so. Very vool design.
(Thanks to Andrea Accary for posting this on her Thoughtworks profile which I clicked on on a lark while researching Domain Specific Languages).
The site design uses a lot of flash, but it is not exclusively so. Very vool design.
(Thanks to Andrea Accary for posting this on her Thoughtworks profile which I clicked on on a lark while researching Domain Specific Languages).
The Hacker Vanacular and the Silver Screen
Google's Gregor Hohpe gives a Preview talk about how we model our software, and why the code itself can sometimes emerge as hairy. This was given on May 9 at the 2006 TheServerSide Java Symposium in Las Vegas. He makes a good point about usability testing for APIs (talk to the programmer who will be using the interface). He also talks about the problem of avoiding graffiti code, and hwo the solution is really to write something beautiful that inspires those that come later.
He makes some interesting points about this important topic, but I got to thinking about a) his presentation style (which is very similair to other technical presentation styles) and b) my relationship to the talk.
Gregor's style is chatty. He is very expressive with his hands. He tends to move a lot of information and anticipates a lot of questions about detail and addresses those systematically and with precise language. I say without criticism that he is very much "in his head". It is clear that he is a very abstract thinker. He appears to be quite comfortable speaking to a technical audience, and while his language is more precise than an average speaker, he uses traditional and well understood hacker vernacular. "Looking through the code, I found some funny things". "This is wrong, it should be that way." (in reference to source code) "There's a method that says 'get me that account'." (anthropormorphisation of code) It is an informal shorthand that presupposes a shared context, and it is quite extensive.
For a large part of the talk, he is speaking in front of a two tone background, neatly seperated at his neck. I am only half-seriously suggesting that this reenforces the seperation between mind and body.
Sitting here in front of my computer (a laptop, sitting on my desk), I am confronted with the "thinness" of the experience. The wiggling lights of the computer screen are so very small and insignificant. And yet as a programmer I have learned to attach significance to these wiggles, and know that each one can be meaningful. In this very narrow sense, television is an important precursor to the personal computer - it got people used to attaching significance to pixels. Even writing this blog entry, I am only causing very small wiggles on the screen.
The actual, visceral experience is very sugary. Empty calories. It is thin, weightless, disposable. The image is small, the sound tinny, and the vastness and reality of the "real world" and "real people" beckons.
In that case one can breath life into the abstract ideas which are being expressed, ignore the mechanics of how the information has been delivered, and start animating the mind in an almost visceral way.
In terms of energy, the computer is very low powered. It moves information, not physical objects (well, not exactly, but moving electrons or even hard-disk heads are pretty small). The action of the computer is fundamentally delicate. The computer is very much in its head, just like the people that work with them day-to-day.
Given that computers are becoming more important to so many people, does this mean that a) computers will not be adopted by those who are not abstract thinkers or b) will it turn the population into more abstract thinkers? Anecdotal evidence points to B.
He makes some interesting points about this important topic, but I got to thinking about a) his presentation style (which is very similair to other technical presentation styles) and b) my relationship to the talk.
Gregor's style is chatty. He is very expressive with his hands. He tends to move a lot of information and anticipates a lot of questions about detail and addresses those systematically and with precise language. I say without criticism that he is very much "in his head". It is clear that he is a very abstract thinker. He appears to be quite comfortable speaking to a technical audience, and while his language is more precise than an average speaker, he uses traditional and well understood hacker vernacular. "Looking through the code, I found some funny things". "This is wrong, it should be that way." (in reference to source code) "There's a method that says 'get me that account'." (anthropormorphisation of code) It is an informal shorthand that presupposes a shared context, and it is quite extensive.
For a large part of the talk, he is speaking in front of a two tone background, neatly seperated at his neck. I am only half-seriously suggesting that this reenforces the seperation between mind and body.
Sitting here in front of my computer (a laptop, sitting on my desk), I am confronted with the "thinness" of the experience. The wiggling lights of the computer screen are so very small and insignificant. And yet as a programmer I have learned to attach significance to these wiggles, and know that each one can be meaningful. In this very narrow sense, television is an important precursor to the personal computer - it got people used to attaching significance to pixels. Even writing this blog entry, I am only causing very small wiggles on the screen.
The actual, visceral experience is very sugary. Empty calories. It is thin, weightless, disposable. The image is small, the sound tinny, and the vastness and reality of the "real world" and "real people" beckons.
In that case one can breath life into the abstract ideas which are being expressed, ignore the mechanics of how the information has been delivered, and start animating the mind in an almost visceral way.
In terms of energy, the computer is very low powered. It moves information, not physical objects (well, not exactly, but moving electrons or even hard-disk heads are pretty small). The action of the computer is fundamentally delicate. The computer is very much in its head, just like the people that work with them day-to-day.
Given that computers are becoming more important to so many people, does this mean that a) computers will not be adopted by those who are not abstract thinkers or b) will it turn the population into more abstract thinkers? Anecdotal evidence points to B.
Regret
Going through some old relics of mine (books, photos, scraps, tapes, etc) it is an occasion for deep regret. It is not the (apparently) more common reaction of 'nostalgia' so I decided to write about it.
In almost every case, the regret is of some personal flaw that resulted in a "failure". These failures range from large to small, to personal to impersonal. It may be a failure to complete a project, or to master a subject, or to retain a friend.
In many cases this regret is accompanied by shame and embarrasment; the realization that I have left so many disappointed people in my wake is almost paralyzing in its dreadfulness. They know me for the sham that I am, and my very name is cursed by so many mouths. The depth of my concern about what other people think about me shocks me.
Going through these artifacts, I can see a cycle that has occured several times. Mine is a life punctuated with the deep discontinuities of shame-faced retreat and then bright-eyed resurgence. The evidence of the previous cycle is hidden in boxes, but not thrown away. My life has been like the Motie civilization.
This cycle is the cause of great misery, and it must end. Since I'm far too happy when NOT going through old junk, let's think about solutions.
The simplest would be not to go through old junk anymore. But I really would like to have more continuity in the life; I talk to people my age who've had the same friends since kindergarden, and my mind boggles. I don't talk to anyone from college!
The key is to always act out of love. Even if I feel bad, assume the best of others, and act accordingly. Fight negative assumptions. Have conflict, but do not make enemies. Have intense dislike, but do not make enemies. Suffer great harm, but do not make enemies - encapsulate the harm, realize it for the small thing that it is and do not let it grow out-of-proportion to all existance. It would be lying to say 'harm is good' but it would also be lying to say 'harm is useless'. Harm is bad, but it is useful. Be cautious in the responsibilities that you take on. Do not overextend or take great risks in that, as you risk not just your own well being, but that of others.
The 'now' is a precious thing, filled with potential for creation, adventure, excitement, wisdom, fear, love, loneliness, wealth, and destruction. It would have been better, perhaps, to have acted differently in the past. But do not get caught saying the same thing about 'now' in the future!
Peace out.
In almost every case, the regret is of some personal flaw that resulted in a "failure". These failures range from large to small, to personal to impersonal. It may be a failure to complete a project, or to master a subject, or to retain a friend.
In many cases this regret is accompanied by shame and embarrasment; the realization that I have left so many disappointed people in my wake is almost paralyzing in its dreadfulness. They know me for the sham that I am, and my very name is cursed by so many mouths. The depth of my concern about what other people think about me shocks me.
Going through these artifacts, I can see a cycle that has occured several times. Mine is a life punctuated with the deep discontinuities of shame-faced retreat and then bright-eyed resurgence. The evidence of the previous cycle is hidden in boxes, but not thrown away. My life has been like the Motie civilization.
This cycle is the cause of great misery, and it must end. Since I'm far too happy when NOT going through old junk, let's think about solutions.
The simplest would be not to go through old junk anymore. But I really would like to have more continuity in the life; I talk to people my age who've had the same friends since kindergarden, and my mind boggles. I don't talk to anyone from college!
The key is to always act out of love. Even if I feel bad, assume the best of others, and act accordingly. Fight negative assumptions. Have conflict, but do not make enemies. Have intense dislike, but do not make enemies. Suffer great harm, but do not make enemies - encapsulate the harm, realize it for the small thing that it is and do not let it grow out-of-proportion to all existance. It would be lying to say 'harm is good' but it would also be lying to say 'harm is useless'. Harm is bad, but it is useful. Be cautious in the responsibilities that you take on. Do not overextend or take great risks in that, as you risk not just your own well being, but that of others.
The 'now' is a precious thing, filled with potential for creation, adventure, excitement, wisdom, fear, love, loneliness, wealth, and destruction. It would have been better, perhaps, to have acted differently in the past. But do not get caught saying the same thing about 'now' in the future!
Peace out.
The Dream Factory
Wired has a story about a company called eMachineShop that allows you to "print" 3D objects. Very handy for people who do car restorations, etc.
What is wrong with Africa?
A Tampon shortage in Zimbabwe makes me wonder, not for the first time and almost certainly not for the last time, what is wrong with Africa? It's hard to convey the sense of not just sadness, but also exasperation that an entire continent apparently cannot get its act together. It is difficult to look at the situation from the outside and feel neither pity nor anger. Indeed, since I am all-but-helpless I might as well feel nothing.
The movie "Airplane!" sums up my emotion, when a man is confronting a woman thrown into hysterics by news of their impending crash, shaking her by the lapels, and the camera pans back to show a long line of people waiting to confront her, each carrying a progressively larger weapon. It's true, I just want to "smack some sense" into Zimbabwe. The knowledge that it rarely, if ever, helps is no deterrent to the emotion. I'm sure that this Airplane effect is what partly motivated Bush's Iraq adventure, and look how well that's going. And that's a situation where not only did we remove a dictator but started pumping vast quanities of money into the region. And people are *still* so unhappy that they're blowing stuff up.
What is truly disturbing is the knowledge that if this note of mine recieved wide circulation, it would no doubt reach those whose immediate reaction would be "How dare you criticise Zimbabwe! The US is no different, and in fact Z's problems are caused by the US." This sounds too pat and ignorant to be anything but flamebait, so I would simply ignore it. I'm open to understanding the role of globalization in z's problems, but to completely abrogate responsibility on behalf of Z's people is irresponsible. Change *must* come from within (as Iraq is constantly teaching us).
The movie "Airplane!" sums up my emotion, when a man is confronting a woman thrown into hysterics by news of their impending crash, shaking her by the lapels, and the camera pans back to show a long line of people waiting to confront her, each carrying a progressively larger weapon. It's true, I just want to "smack some sense" into Zimbabwe. The knowledge that it rarely, if ever, helps is no deterrent to the emotion. I'm sure that this Airplane effect is what partly motivated Bush's Iraq adventure, and look how well that's going. And that's a situation where not only did we remove a dictator but started pumping vast quanities of money into the region. And people are *still* so unhappy that they're blowing stuff up.
What is truly disturbing is the knowledge that if this note of mine recieved wide circulation, it would no doubt reach those whose immediate reaction would be "How dare you criticise Zimbabwe! The US is no different, and in fact Z's problems are caused by the US." This sounds too pat and ignorant to be anything but flamebait, so I would simply ignore it. I'm open to understanding the role of globalization in z's problems, but to completely abrogate responsibility on behalf of Z's people is irresponsible. Change *must* come from within (as Iraq is constantly teaching us).
German 'Robin Hoods' give poor a taste of the high life
German anarchists break into high-end restaurants, steal the food on the buffet tables, and then give it away to the poor. The police call it "thieving, plain and simple."
In my opinion it is theft, but it is hardly the standard story. There is a huge political message. While I myself am by no means an egalitarian, I appreciate the message. Of course, if I was a restauranteur I'd be very unhappy at the theft.... Hopefully this gang is not targeting hard-working entrepenuers.
In a society as tightly regulated as ours, it is refreshing to see the rules be broken for something other than evidence of petty greed or an emotional outburst. The boldness of the attacks, combined with their silliness (the thieves wear superheroe uniforms) make them difficult to get angry about. I feel strangely conflicted about it: on one hand I know that stealing is wrong, and that people were harmed. And yet on the other hand I admire the immediacy of the action to "right the wrongs". No, it doesn't generalize terribly well into the political realm (pass laws forbidding high-end food?) but it works as socially aware performance art. Yes, it's written in someone elses blood, but it's not enough blood to get worried.
In my opinion it is theft, but it is hardly the standard story. There is a huge political message. While I myself am by no means an egalitarian, I appreciate the message. Of course, if I was a restauranteur I'd be very unhappy at the theft.... Hopefully this gang is not targeting hard-working entrepenuers.
In a society as tightly regulated as ours, it is refreshing to see the rules be broken for something other than evidence of petty greed or an emotional outburst. The boldness of the attacks, combined with their silliness (the thieves wear superheroe uniforms) make them difficult to get angry about. I feel strangely conflicted about it: on one hand I know that stealing is wrong, and that people were harmed. And yet on the other hand I admire the immediacy of the action to "right the wrongs". No, it doesn't generalize terribly well into the political realm (pass laws forbidding high-end food?) but it works as socially aware performance art. Yes, it's written in someone elses blood, but it's not enough blood to get worried.
Anti-Americanism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Anti-Americanism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Heidegger wrote in 1935: 'Europe lies today in a great pincer, squeezed between Russia on the one side and America on the other. From a metaphysical point of view, Russia and America are the same, with the same dreary technological frenzy and the same unrestricted organization of the average man.'"
It is strange that these criticisms, while they don't ring completely true, still have some resonance. And yet I can't help but think that the Chinese, and perhaps even the Indians, will be even more breathless and hasty in their rush to organize the average man. And too, the sense I get is that the majority of Americans have grown lazy and complacent, delegating the hard work to immigrants, preferring to sit back and let the "passive income" roll in.
It is strange that these criticisms, while they don't ring completely true, still have some resonance. And yet I can't help but think that the Chinese, and perhaps even the Indians, will be even more breathless and hasty in their rush to organize the average man. And too, the sense I get is that the majority of Americans have grown lazy and complacent, delegating the hard work to immigrants, preferring to sit back and let the "passive income" roll in.
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