Mark's journal

What makes the world go round

Fri, 28 Dec 2007 04:18:55 GMT

I'm not a (corporate) libertarian, but I think this article about cold medicine is worth reading.

Asch's Conformity Experiment

Fri, 28 Dec 2007 04:04:54 GMT

This page has grim news about how we conform, even in the face of contradictory reality.

Possible future tattoo idea

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 19:10:22 GMT

I had a strange dream last night in which some kind of Resistance was working against the prevailing order, and they all wore tattoos like this:

The icons are all electronic circuit schematic symbols:

The OR gate represents the conveyance, or leakage, of truth whenever truth is available.

The resistor symbol, in this case, represents resistance.

The third symbol represents an iron-core transformer.

The fourth symbol is a speaker, the wire connection reaching left toward, though not always consistently connected to, the truth of the OR gate.

The fifth symbol represents a male connector, or in this case a male perspective.

Stark choices

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 05:53:03 GMT

This morning, on the radio, two sportscasters were talking. Then, some kind of collective speech disorder must have kicked in, because for the next 20 seconds, they both started saying "woob woobwoob woob woob" really quickly. It was like they were both trying to get back on track, and repeatedly failing.

That's ok, I'd rather hear Three Stooges than John Madden. If those were the only available choices.

My friends have interesting lives

Thu, 04 Oct 2007 01:20:58 GMT

<dakota> i had the weirdest game of monopoly in my life, with two guys from iran. we played the usual way for awhile, so they could learn the rules. and then one of us said, "ok, abdullah, i want to buy baltic avenue." and he said "all right. it's one million dollars." <dr.bez> hahaha <dakota> we explained that this wasn't how the game was played. and that there wasn't a million dollars in the box. but his price was firm. <dr.bez> what happened in the end? <dakota> he didn't sell. eventually the game lurched to a halt. <dr.bez> doh

Grace, a breath, and thanks

Wed, 19 Sep 2007 07:37:14 GMT

11:05:41 PM: mona: greetings 11:08:09 PM: veevi: whee 11:10:55 PM: mona: I'm eating pistachios. 11:11:02 PM: mona: Why are they green? 11:11:04 PM: veevi: i'm eating watermelon 11:11:09 PM: veevi: aren't they always green? 11:11:16 PM: mona: Yes, but why? 11:11:26 PM: veevi: because they reflect blue and yellow light? 11:11:52 PM: veevi: that's just a guess 11:16:14 PM: Bezoar: oink 11:16:29 PM: Bezoar: two of my favorite ladies here on the channel, what a surprise 11:16:56 PM: Bezoar: today, for me, was Christmas Day with a hydrogen bomb on top. 11:17:13 PM: Bezoar: my accountant said that instead of owing 15k in taxes for 2006, I only owed about 300 11:18:02 PM: mona: awesome 11:18:45 PM: Bezoar: I can finally see my way through to a place of grace. 11:19:11 PM: Bezoar: just want sustainable happy life 11:20:56 PM: Bezoar: I start at Collab tomorrow. 11:21:02 PM: Bezoar: whoda thunk? 11:21:41 PM: Bezoar: the Bezzattleship sails in grace.

Note to self

Sat, 15 Sep 2007 02:24:30 GMT

As I enter another chapter in my life, I've realized that I will soon need to engage in major rehabilitation of my body.

Score

Fri, 14 Sep 2007 23:35:11 GMT

I was offered a job today, and I accepted.

Update: The job is in the Bay Area. I'm staying here for now.

My life is a circus

Fri, 14 Sep 2007 08:59:34 GMT

With luck, tomorrow will be the last day of a 3 month period of unemployment.

I was let go from MTV Networks/Viacom at the beginning of July. I took a bit of a break at first, attempting to unwind and heal from my time there. I began looking for a job in August, and met with resistance. I adjusted to the feedback I was getting, and had increasingly successful, though still incomplete, job dances.

I had what felt like a really successful interview yesterday. I hope they agree. If they do not, I could end up leaving the Bay Area. For which I have prepared, somewhat: I found some suitable jobs in Columbus, Ohio, where I grew up. They are called, in the industry, LAMP jobs. Web servers are built somewhat like a layer cake. LAMP stands for Linux (operating system), Apache (web server), MySQL (database, to store stuff), and Perl/Python (business logic), the names of various technologies in the cake. I'm good at those technologies, and the job leads I've followed in Columbus have been very fruitful. Once I've financially recovered, I'd like to mail a goodie basket to everyone who I've worked with during the job search, here and back in Ohio. Well, most of them, anyway.

But yet I still feel like I belong here, in the Bay Area. I have a lot of friends here, and more of them have stepped up for me in recent months than I can count. I felt alone until recently, but now I'm reaching out to people, and strengthening my connections. I need a way to do that which doesn't require me to quit my job.

When I first came out here 11 years ago to work at Netscape, I would keep staring at the mountains surrounding the Santa Clara Valley, feeling a real sense of personal adventure here. Even after all this time, I still sense more adventure waiting for me.

Fri, 14 Sep 2007 04:25:46 GMT

Sometimes it gets a little tiring to think that everything in my life unfolds in the weirdest possible way. Whose ass did I kiss so long ago for this?

Thu, 13 Sep 2007 09:27:31 GMT

From chat:
> ok, I've applied to Lucasfilm. > they apparently want someone to write some software for them. > how cute.

Thu, 13 Sep 2007 07:00:39 GMT

My uncle tried to help the US turn over to metric back in the 70s.
They thought he was part of a communist conspiracy.
So, we have mile markers now.

Fire!

Wed, 18 Apr 2007 20:18:19 GMT

<dr.pie> apparently there is not a graceful failover when one catches fire :)

A happy hint to brighten your day

Wed, 11 Apr 2007 20:58:22 GMT

Anyone who thinks we aren't thoroughly ruled by giant demon machines has never had a credit card transaction declined, or heard a clueless idiot say "I'm sorry, that's just company policy."

Fire in the Airlock

Mon, 09 Apr 2007 21:39:36 GMT

My friends talk about interesting things.

<gage> there's some "game" that's basically a machinima toolkit <gage> you create actors and scripts and sets and stuff <gage> and doodle with camera angles <dr.jd> Dear Sir or Madam or Troglodyte, thank you for gifting us with your 83 interchangable made-for-sci-fi disaster movies. I was especially impressed by the special effects, which were way better than I could do on my Video Toaster back home. Unfortunately, your term "machinima" sucks. Please make sure that whoever came up with the term dies repeatedly in your upcoming movie, "Fire in the Airlock." Sincerely, me. <dr.hoo> thanks <dr.jd> glad to help <dr.jd> unfortunately I made up the part about them making a movie called "Fire in the Airlock" <dr.jd> it'd be a short movie <dr.jd> opening scene: an airlock, in space. suddenly, a fire breaks out! the heroine screams! the airlock opens! fire and heroine disappear. the end. [ ... ] <dr.hoo> Airlock Day is coming up, in fact. <dr.bez> when is airlock day? <dr.hoo> April 17th this year <dr.hoo> so, only a few shopping days left.

Trial of the Century

Mon, 19 Mar 2007 23:18:30 GMT

Supreme Court hears "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" case:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/03/19/free.speech/

"Suppose that this particular person had whispered to his next door neighbor, 'Bong Hits 4 Jesus, heh heh heh,' " speculated Justice Stephen Breyer.

As a responsible American citizen, I plan to keep close tabs on this important free speech case.

Update: On the radio this morning, a caller said the following:

"Obviously the school is forgetting its history. Richard Bong was a highly decorated World War II fighter pilot. His decisive hits against the Japanese helped shorten the war and save lives. Now that he has passed away, he is clearly dealing decisive blows on behalf of the Kingdom of Heaven. Bong Hits 4 Jesus!"

And to my complete surprise, I discovered that there really was such a pilot.

Java geekery

Fri, 16 Mar 2007 15:52:16 GMT

I spent most of last night banging my head against Java. In the hope that someone else can learn from my head wound, here's what I learned.

Let's say for a moment that I have a POJO (plain old Java object) which I will call a Lump. I want to be able to drop a number of these Lumps into a List. Let's then say that I want to be able to sort these Lumps that are in the list, according to an attribute which I will call an Index.

The method to sort a List is Collections.sort(list). The elements in the list have to be able to compare themselves with other like objects; this is handled by building a Lump.compareTo(Object) method. This is all well and good, except that it doesn't quite work. The compiler complains about a lack of type enforcement in the Lumps. Sure, the compiler only gives out warnings, but anyone who has done a lot of work in this industry knows that warnings often mask deeper problems, and should just be eliminated from the outset.

After struggling with the compiler all night, I figured it out. It turns out that my List has to be a Java generic, which looks like: "List<Lump>". The idea behind a Java generic is to provide stronger guarantees about your data structures.

But there's more to this. The Object.compareTo() method compares two Objects. What the sort() method appears to need is for the Lumps to implement an interface called Comparable, but using generics:

public class Lump implements Comparable<Lump> // Whaa?
{
    public int index;
    
    public int compareTo(Lump otherLump) // note: compares Lump! not Object.
    {
        // do comparison based on what we know about Lumps
        int ourIndex = this.index;
        int theirIndex = otherLump.index;
        
        if (ourIndex < theirIndex)
            return -1;
        else if (ourIndex > theirIndex)
            return 1;
        else
            return 0;
    }
}

So once I got all this into place, the compiler was happy.

Clone Jesus

Wed, 07 Mar 2007 10:38:46 GMT

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6397373.stm

If this filmmaker's claims hold up, we now have the technological means to bring about the literal second coming of Christ, by cloning his DNA.

If we're particularly unlucky, corporate advertisers might get a hold of such a child, creating a terrifying but insanely lucrative media feedback loop. If 6-year-old Clonejesus won't eat his green beans, green bean futures would plummet. Likewise, if Jesus prefers one brand of breakfast cereal, or uses a certain toothpaste on camera, millions of faithful would jam the stores that very day to buy a temporary feeling of grace. And who knows what kind of disruption he could cause by saying the wrong words at the wrong time? Every little thing that Clonejesus would or wouldn't do would be the subject of endless scrutiny and debate. It could well be argued that Clonejesus would leave the same kind of social wake as that left by the original Jesus back in the Middle East.

It should never be done, not if we value our stability. But I just know that given a long enough timeline, somebody will clone Jesus.

The American narrative

Wed, 07 Mar 2007 10:16:27 GMT

http://www.amconmag.com/2007/2007_02_12/feature.html

Sure, it's a conservative magazine, but the essay, while dense, is worth reading.

Update: While reading this article, I was reminded of a passing sentence Bill Clinton said back in 2001. I thought I heard him say: "We ought to be setting up the kind of world we'll want to live in when we're not as powerful."

I didn't find that sound bite, but I found a speech he gave in December 2001 that really touched a nerve or two in me.

Joe Lieberman stole my sleep

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 09:05:17 GMT

... so I called into the Bernie Ward radio program.

My voice, in real life, sounds nothing like what came out over the radio.

A discussion I wish we could have here

Sat, 17 Feb 2007 00:16:48 GMT

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/6367273.stm :

Children were often attracted to gangs if they lacked a father figure, he added.

Mr Cameron said: "We have got to sit up and realise we are running things by the wrong values. We need to support families."

Regardless of whether I agree with the points raised in the article, I get this overwhelming feeling of envy that British politicians bother to think about what they're discussing.

Briefly Balinese

Thu, 15 Feb 2007 08:27:16 GMT

I played briefly in a Balinese-style gamelan in Cambridge, MA in the early 1990s. I would love to play with such a group of people again in this life. The learning curve is quite modest. There is no other sensation quite like sitting amid the instruments in a gamelan when everyone plays a note simultaneously. There is an otherworldly beating sensation in the air, caused by the deliberate detuning of each of the metallophones from each other.

Is it a feeling, or a yearning that I have? Something in me says that I will someday visit Bali, tour several villages, and listen to the people and their music. If I have enough money at that point to become a pensioner, I'd intensively fund an existing gamelan here in the States, of which there are many. Or, I'd attempt to endow a new one, spending time in Bali learning as much about the culture and music as I could, then buying and shipping a complete set of instruments here. I'd hire traveling Balinese music experts to show people here how to make beautiful music. If I had limitless time and resources, I'd do this.

Meanwhile, a friend of mine is traveling to Bali shortly. I hope he gets a chance to travel around.

I want a transcriber

Thu, 15 Feb 2007 07:20:05 GMT

Transcribers don't yet exist, not in the form I need. But I have an idea of how they could function. Thanks to a lot of people working on this kind of thing, I think it will one day come to life.

A transcriber, as I see it, would convert my messy spoken English into highly functional written English, error-free, translating my colloquialisms in real time. It would generate text wherever I tell it to, and where possible, the transcriber could also leave an annotated audio recording of my original voice. Maybe the audio recording could be embedded in a printed page just underneath the text. Wave a wand at a sentence and my voice would start playing.

That, to me, is the next big Killer App. When transcription is sufficiently error-free and cheap, typing will hardly be necessary for many people. Developers would still need keyboards, because a lot of what we do is tied into keyboard shortcutting. I can write a for loop with a keyboard much more quickly than I could speak it. But, if I had to write a big long paper in English for other people to read, that's where the transcriber would shine.

Why I love the net, reason #4138473104

Thu, 15 Feb 2007 06:39:49 GMT

I talked with someone in N'Djamena, Chad this evening. He's an old friend of mine who usually lives in Australia. I asked him about safety, given recent events in that region. He said that he felt safe in the capital, but not so much in the countryside.

He took some really nice photos of the countryside. If I can get in touch with him again and get permission to pass along the link, I will.

The power of poetry

Thu, 08 Feb 2007 10:42:17 GMT

A close friend sent me a poem yesterday morning.

I have had a hit-or-miss relationship with poetry. I have not been able to read straight through all of Shakespeare's work, for example. But on the other hand, recent translations of poetry written long ago, by Sufi mystics such as Rumi and Hafiz, bring me such love and joy, even if I still struggle to fully understand what I'm reading.

In any case, the poem I read yesterday electrified me. I felt like the words were playing a subtle melody on my neurons, ducking in and out of resonance with my experience. I couldn't stop thinking about it all day.

I want more such moments of beauty in my life.