Raw Daylight

On the shortness of life

2010-10-05T18:59:00.001-04:00

I'm reading "Steppenwolf" and I'm very impressed with the perspective the author takes on his characters approach to life. To me it's a great contrast between Steppenwolf and Seneca, who I've also been very impressed by. Both approach the subject of how a man can become a slave to his passions, and rather than mastering the thing he loves, become a victim to it. However, they both approach it from different angles. Seneca has mastered his passions, or has at least mastered appearing to have them mastered. Steppenwolf is still a victim to them; seeing the conflict they put him in but still drawn in by their decadence. I find myself in the same conflict. Can I really be a master of myself, or will I always be subject to the currents of the culture I'm in? I'm constantly tempted by the easy path of going along with the common thread, but I'm repulsed by it at the same time.

I don't know. I'll keep reading, and see where it takes me. Would the benefits of going with the flow outweigh the costs? I doubt it, but I could be wrong. There's not just me to consider either. Whatever path I take will influence my son. Do I want him to have a simple, contented life or a conflicted, up-and-down life? I'm genuinely torn about the right answer.

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Amazing visualization of our environment

2010-09-15T19:02:00.001-04:00

Someone hooked the real-time location of satellites around Earth into Google Earth. The result is amazing. I know this is a minuscule fraction of the available space around the planet, but you've got to wonder when we'll reach a tipping point with the number of satellites we have. I'm sure the amount of smog we produced from burning coal seemed tiny at one point.

via: Boing Boing

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On time for yourself

2010-09-14T21:47:00.001-04:00

When most people say they want to be rich I think they really mean that they want to be free from many of the seemingly unavoidable traps of modern life. Doesn't it follow that you could become rich by refusing to participate in a lot of the social rituals take for granted? I'm a big believer in the Stoic school of thought that says a man who forged his own chains of gold is still chained.

What's an apparent anarchist in-potentia to do? For the last little while my strategy has been to laugh at the insanity of people, but I'm feeling more and more that it is possible to make a difference, even if only on a local level. Realistically, where else can one start? If you try and change a huge system without understanding the underpinnings, you're guaranteed to fail. If you're lucky, there won't be many side-effects. Bottom-up beats top-down in any group bigger than about a dozen people. I wonder if that has anything to do with our enjoyment of team sports. I don't know of any seriously popular sorts that have more than about a dozen people on the field at a time (per team). Our monkey brains have a hard time understanding anything greater than the tribe level, and that influences us more than we care to admit.

I like to think the incredible connectivity of the Internet will make our lives better, if the designers can make sure it still appeals to our monkey brains. Maybe I'll go buy some shares in FourSquare and Facebook; they seem like good bets in that sense.

I should probably also find out if they're publicly traded.

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Government as a service is toxic

2010-09-08T20:02:00.001-04:00

It's amazing what governments are able to get away with, and how easy it would be to change. The technology exists, it is too cheap to measure, and its advantages far outweigh the costs.

Why are we not pursuing a truely open government which enables innovation rather than squashing it? Because of those with vested interests, both in and out of office. We need to insist on a government that empowers individuals rather than pigeonholing them. If we keep expecting to just pay taxes and get results back we're going to be disappointed. If we get real time feedback from them it will be so much easier to alter our environment to get optimal results.

Please stop supporting the status quo, we can do so much better.

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Life is beyond parody

2010-05-17T13:29:00.001-04:00

Russian yatch to offer pirate-hunting cruise
The comment by a yatcher about sums it up: “They are worse than the pirates,” said Russian yachtsman Vladimir Mironov. “At least the pirates have the decency to take hostages, these people are just paying to commit murder.”

On the one hand, it's funny in a morbid way and may actually help get rid of some of the pirates. On the other hand, it's really, really messed up.

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Finally watched 'Rocky'

2010-05-12T22:43:00.001-04:00

I have a confession. I'm 25, male, and I've never seen <i>Rocky</i>.

I will be writing my commentary on the movie as I watch it. Exciting, earth-shattering stuff.

About 10 minutes in, Rocky seems to relate to animals better than people. I'm not sure if this has to do with how open he is, or how many times he's been hit in the head.

He's a debt collector. I can see that. Punching people without gloves ties in well with punching people with gloves.

I like the mob boss's (?) coat. Fits him well, good colour, good cut.

I thought fedoras went out of fashion with Kennedy? Why is Rocky sporting one?

I like this "take a shot" line. Surprisingly proactive thinking. I hope this message continues.

Rocky is really bad at charming ladies. There's times when you shouldn't talk dude, even I know that.

And an hour has passed.
I really do like Rocky's philosophy of taking the chance, even if it means failure. Better to take the risk and fail than to wonder whether you could have done it.
I write all this before the fight starts, and I won't edit afterwards. I think I know how this will end. Not just because I'm not a complete cultural retard.

Rocky only weights 10 lbs more than me. That's something. For some reason I thought the heavyweight threshold was higher.

Fight about to start. Is Creed supposed to be a parody of pro-wrestling?

Geez, I've had fights like this in videogames. Except Rocky never hit back.

At round 14 I get the feeling Apollo's will is about to break. This is the Homer Simpson strategy. I don't see it working.

I'm sure jokes about Rocky's brain damage are trite by now, but this inspired generations of fighters. Is brain damage a noteworthy goal?

I like how the cutman had the knife ready when Rocky asked him to cut him.
"Cut me!"
"No!"
"Do it!"
"Ok." *has knife*

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Facebook charging for uploads

2010-04-28T08:34:00.001-04:00

I don't know why people keep thinking Facebook is going to charge people for any kind of access. They because successful because they're free, and they continue to make metric assloads of money by staying free. If they were to start charging it would become a ghost-town overnight when people immigrate to a new, free service. They make their money from ads on the pages; the more people they can encourage to come on the site the better. It's like radio. You 'give away' the content, but the people listening hear ads as well as what they're there for.

Snopes post about it

It would be a terrible business decision for Facebook to charge for access, and they're smart enough not to do it. It would be like Google charging for searches.

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Robots really are replacing people...

2010-04-16T06:30:00.003-04:00

I saw an interview with a roboticist who writes fiction about how to survive a robot uprising. Maybe it's just the early morning quiet, but one of the things he said stuck with me. <blockquote>“My robots do not throw people across rooms, then slowly stalk toward them. If by some odd quirk a humanoid robot has to kill a person (and a more specialized cousin is not available for the task), then this robot will grab the person by the face and close its fist. End of story.”</blockquote>
There's a name for a slow stalking. Persistence hunting. Who are the original persistence hunters? Us.

We're not faster than most animals, we're not stronger, but we have excellent endurance. We don't leap out and kill quickly like a cheetah or wolf, we wear down the prey.

Maybe I'm over thinking it, but it's funny how the things we make resemble us; even if we don't mean for them to.

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Robots really are replacing people...

2010-04-16T06:30:00.001-04:00

Maybe I'm over thinking it, but it's funny how the things we make resemble us; even if we don't mean for them to.

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Bad decision on my part: working in the print industry

2010-04-14T14:16:00.001-04:00

The company I work for regularly attends webinars put on by PODi, which is a sort of market research company for digital printers. They often have good stuff, but the last two presentations they put on unintentionally confirmed my belief that the print industry is headed for an even bigger shrink than most people expect.
We're already seeing the first wave as the high volume printing disappears. This is stuff like newspapers, catalogues, and phone books. The only reasons I get a phone book is because I haven't asked them to stop. I can honestly say the only time I picked one up in recent memory is when I tried to see if I could tear it in half (not yet).
Second wave will be medium run, mostly books and magazines. Although I'm not convinced the iPad will be a huge success, mobile devices more powerful than a phone, but more usable than notebooks are definitely feasible. The main barriers are screen size and battery life (magazines don't run out of power). There will probably still be a market here. People will want first editions, and books tend to have more permanence than the high volume stuff. Who wants yesterdays newspaper? (except historians) Books tend to stay on your shelf a little longer.
Finally the marketing/advertising print is already on its way out. It's becoming cheaper to buy a big screen and put your poster sized ads on there than to print them. Unaddressed ad mail has had pitiful response rates, and mass marketing is giving way to direct marketing which is better accomplished through other channels.
Print will still eke out an existence with packaging on the one end of the quality spectrum and first edition books on the other, but aside from the difficulty in making copies, and the uneditability of a printed piece, print really doesn't have much to offer that a digital device can't deliver.

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Extreme Tourist: Afghanistan

2010-04-09T15:13:00.001-04:00

My favourite line: "He gets treated for stress by a scorpion doctor". I think it'll do great things for improving people's view of the country. Let's face it, most people don't watch documentaries, and if they do they aren't memorable. Right now most of what people think about Afghanistan is terrorists or women in burqhas. Why? The most emotional stuff they've seen about the country has one of those elements. A goofy show will get an emotional reaction, and make the people on the show seem more like us.
Reading an article about it, it does sound he pissed off a few people. He got shot at a couple times, and rollerskated in spandex through Kandahar.

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Program or be programmed

2010-03-30T20:27:00.001-04:00

Great message by a man with great insight. Understand the biases of the medium for society, and you will be one of the elite. When we invented text, the power was with those who could read. When we invented the printing press, the power was with those who could write. Now that we have the internet, the power is with those who can program. Learn to program, or be programmed.

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I'll keep it simple: if you're into tech, read this

2010-03-29T19:59:00.001-04:00

`The operating system of the internet
Draws a great parallel between computing in the 1980s and now. Back then, people were struggling to make different programs play nicely together. MS Windows stepped in to fill the gap. Now we have the same sort of challenge with websites. Who is stepping in? Google mainly, but also open applications like XML and the like. The whole idea is allowing developers to move to a higher level of abstraction. If I don't have to worry about driver compatibility, I can spend more time making my program really great. The same applies with the web. If I don't have to worry about making my code compatible with a dozen different formats, I can focus on making a powerful web-app.
It also includes a nuanced discussion of content control online (as opposed to the normal knee jerk reactions). He also implies other coming technologies, like the new wave of advertising (focused on social networks) which my generation may not be immune to, the way we are the advertising of our parents.
He's also upfront about some unsolved problems, like keeping your coworkers separate from your social friends online. How can I bitch about my boss if he's my friend on Facebook? We need to figure that out.
Overall, great article. Some insightful perspectives, but also leaving some questions open.

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ACTA - Draconian laws to cripple my generation

2010-03-29T15:49:00.001-04:00

I've just been reading about ACTA, which is an international copyright agreement that nobody but the negotiators and some trade groups (like movie companies) has been able to see. Someone recently leaked a copy, and it's even worse than expected. If you're accused of copyright infringement (and let's be honest: who in my generation is entirely guiltless?) your property can be seized and you can be forced to pay damages far in excess of any potential damage without the accuser even having the need to prove damages. Yeah, I can't see that being abused.
It also mandates imprisonment for infringement for commercial purposes, which includes "significant willful infringements that have no direct or indirect motivation of financial gain." So now we've defined 'commercial' to include non-financial gain. Do these people even live in the same world as us?
I've emailed my MP (also leader of the Liberal party) to ask his opinion, but I haven't heard back yet. Personally I'm doubtful I will.
There's plenty more wrong with this agreement, like the insane liabilities ISPs would carry if they allowed copyrighted traffic on their networks, but I need to get back to work.

Link

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Regulating geoengineering

2010-03-24T16:07:00.001-04:00

Link
Apparently there's going to be a conference where scientists try to come up with some good guidelines. This is probably a good thing. Full scale geoengineering, much like bioengineering could be considered an act of war in the right situations. If I use the technology to make Canada a better place to live, but turn Florida into a wasteland in the process, you can bet some people will have a serious problem with that. (ok, maybe Florida was a bad example, but still...)

I think Caldeira is being a bit wrong by saying he won't be involved because it's not being held by “established professional societies and non-profits without a stake in the outcomes.” Have any stepped forward to organize one? Is so, why wasn't it attended? It not, why not? Many non-profits would have a large stake in the outcome as well. Greenpeace wouldn't host an entirely neutral conference, neither would the Cato Institute. Non-profit <> objective.

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The Milgram experiment repeated as reality TV

2010-03-22T19:08:00.001-04:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8573755.stm
Only 16 of 80 participants stopped before the lethal shock. The original study had a 65% compliance rate, compared with 80% on this show. Not a huge jump, but it does make you wonder how much a game show environment and reality TV will change behavior.
On the plus side, most participants in the original experiment reported they were glad to have done so, since it made them more aware when they were submitting to authority, versus acting of their own. Hopefully the very public broadcast of this will make even more people aware of the potential for abuse.

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Tech, people and learned helplessness

2010-03-22T13:23:00.001-04:00

I've had the most frustrating morning of dealing with basic computer issues, and re-explaining things to the same people who pretended to understand them weeks ago. It got me thinking about designing systems that people interact with. It seems that if you ask a normal person their response is either to train the person, or add some instructions to the tool. The idea that the tool might be flawed seldom comes up, and only after it's clear that the person isn't at fault.

Explanations are a flawed method because people only go to them after they have problems, which means they'll already have decided that a) they don't understand the tool or b) the tool sucks. Once someone has decided that, it's very difficult to change their minds. That's why so many older people are terrified of computers, despite how much easier they've become. Back when they first tried, missing a comma on a command meant you had to start over. I'd be paranoid in their situation too.

What I'm still puzzled about is whether or not there's a good way to reverse that learned helplessness. The only way I've found is to throw out the existing tool and replace it with a new one. Reformatting the existing tool often doesn't work, since the underlying structure or premise is where the real problem is. The model the developer used to describe what the program does is out of sync with the model of the user. This is usually exacerbated by the fact most users can't accurately describe their models. If they could, they'd be programmers.

So now my task is to try and figure out people's models without actually asking them to describe them, since they'd probably get it wrong. I don't mean this to suggest most people are stupid, just that they don't have the skill set or experience to accurately break down something to the point a machine can understand it.

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Really? Guns can kill people?

2010-03-19T22:55:00.001-04:00

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2010/03/16/toronto-brass-rail-testimony.html?ref=rss
This kind of irresponsible thinking absolutely infuriates me. "Edward Paredes, 24, admitted in court Tuesday that carrying a loaded gun was wrong, but he said he had no intention of killing anyone" Then why the fuck were you carrying a loaded gun?! What do you think it's for? I'm in favour of looser gun laws, but the fact morons like you don't slit their throats shaving kinda hurts my credibility.
He says he was carrying it for protection. If you want protection, but have no intention of killing anyone, carry pepper spray, or one of those loud alarms. Guns are good at killing people. That's why cops carry guns instead of swords. They're better at killing people than what we used to use.
"The former Bay salesman told the court he was simply forgetful or too lazy to have left the gun in his car."
You're too lazy to keep track of a lethal weapon? Your laziness killed an innocent person. This piece of garbage deserves to be sentenced as first degree murder. The death wasn't an accident, it was the result of criminal negligence. If you're drunk, or seriously pissed off you shouldn't be holding a gun, just the same way you shouldn't be driving or doing anything else that might endanger another person. If you do, you're culpable. A reasonable adult sees these kinds of situations and distances themselves.
Rant over. Excuse making assholes piss me off.

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"Thank you for smoking" - hilarious

2010-03-19T22:33:00.001-04:00

Oh man. The movie came out in 2005, and it's hilarious. The protagonist is a lobbyist for tobacco companies. It's got the kind of dark gallows humour that horrifies my relatives and makes me feel like I'm at a dwarf toss. The kind of justifications the characters come up with are great in how twisted they are. "That's the beauty of argument, if you argue correctly, you're never wrong." "If you want an easy job, go work for the Red Cross.

It's so great. If you enjoy dark humour, and siding with the minority (the extreme minority in this case) watch this movie.

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I'm not usually one for music

2010-03-19T18:45:00.001-04:00

But this lady is really good. Amazing story too. Grew up in Ethiopia, where her gender prevented her from performing.

Found via Boing boing

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On children's birthdays

2009-06-06T22:13:00.004-04:00

My son had his fifth birthday party today. Busy would be an understatement. We had the party with his friends from school in the afternoon, and then the family came by at night.

Overall, it was just what you'd expect from a kid's party: running, screaming, too much candy, etc... One particular thing stayed with me. He got a button with a card that said 'Cool Kid'. At a quiet point, I asked him to read me what it said (he's at the point where he can get easy words). Since it was on his chest, he was reading it upside down. Here's what he said:
"Lah-oh-keh .... deh-keh"

Say it out loud to yourself. Remember how he's seeing it: "looc dik" Or as he said it: Lock Dick.

Moments later, I open my eyes and he says "Daddy, why are you laughing?" Rather than explain, I tell him "Go read it to mommy."

Two minutes later my father-in-law is taking video of him reading it. I hope he doesn't remember this when it comes time to decide on my retirement home.

Morning workout

2009-05-25T14:39:00.002-04:00

I decided to restart the kettlebell basics with the 24kg bell. I never
really did the Program Minimum properly, and I think my skill suffered for
it. The only minor change I made was DARC swings instead of regular ones.

I did the five minutes of get-ups without too much trouble, although my
right side is definitely weaker than my left. I've had that issue for
awhile. If anything will fix it, this will. It was the twelve minutes of
swings that killed me. I think I need a proper interval timer to make sure I
don't spend too long resting. It's easy to lose track of time without
something objective in front of you. Time swinging always feels longer than
time resting.

Stretching tonight, while watching old Star Trek episodes. Tomorrow: bodyweight drills

Training Log

2009-05-23T08:23:00.002-04:00

First workout since I had my little operation. I didn't think I'd lose so much conditioning in a week. I did two or three intervals of DARC swings (like regular one-arm swings, but you switch hands at the top of each swing) and it fried me.

This was also the first time I've trained outside with my kettlebell. I don't think I can go back. I'll have to figure out some frostbite-safe way to train outside in winter with iron. You can go to a much higher intensity because property damage isn't a worry. I must have dropped the thing a dozen times. That would definitely ruin the hardwood inside.

The only thing left to decide is what to do tomorrow. I'm thinking I'll go up to the heavier bell (24 kg) and keep with swings and get-ups. A week of inactivity did more harm than I thought, and I need to get back to basics.

On picking my battles...

2009-05-22T18:17:00.002-04:00

I used to work for a software company. Part of the reason I left was that I had serious reservations about the quality of the product. Part of what drove home those reservations was the fact that the company that hired me away hired me to fix their installation of that product.

Today I was dealing with the support department, and I noticed a small gap in the program. Passwords for an outside service were stored in plaintext in the database. Since the module isn't even in general release yet I didn't think it was a big deal. I reported it, and got this answer:

Afternoon Iain, as you're aware there already multiple levels of security needed to access the tables within SQL. Once there a user would have to know what they were looking for to find this information. In most cases anyone who was able to find the password would probably already have access to it. In speaking with our product developer she does not feel this is a security gap to a proportion that would warrant a change. If there is anything else I can do for you on this issue please just let me know.

This irritated me. The guy is fairly new, so I don't know if he's lying on purpose, or if he's repeating lies someone else told him. I especially like the implication I should already know what he's about to tell me. He's half right.

There is one poor level of security, not multiple levels. The username and password for access to the DB are stored in plaintext file (the .ini file). Even if they use Windows authentication, it requires all users to have db_owner access, so as long as you have shop floor level access, you have access to the table. Finally, a simple glance through the table names can suggest 'BusinessRules' is valuable.
I agree it isn't a huge gap, SMTP isn't very secure to begin with, but I will point out that user passwords are stored more securely in the SFSUsers table, and they have exactly the same level of access as sys_BusinessRuleSettings.
I understand you will not be resolving the issue soon, but I would like it put on the list. The reasoning for not including it doesn't hold up.

I'm not too fussed about the gap in general. We have a good firewall, strict group policy, all that sort of stuff. It would be easier to hijack another SMTP account on the network than that one, but the message just annoyed me. I'm fine with it not being a high priority. I agree. But don't try and BS me that a program with a 25 year code legacy has "multiple layers of security". The only layer of security it has besides a password is that it's so opaque to anybody who hasn't been trained on it.

Can't follow my own advice

2009-05-16T14:25:00.003-04:00

I had some very minor surgery yesterday. One of the things the doctor said was to avoid any kind of lifting for a week, and only light weights for the week after that.

Naturally, I assumed this sensible advise applied to everyone but me. I made a post on one of the forums I visit asking for mild exercise I could do while "benched". I only got one answer:

Do some visual drills. Go to the movies. You have the rest of your life to train......unless you blow your guts out doing drills involving abdominal pressure before you are ready to.

He's right of course. I don't like that he's right, but he is. And I'm sure I've given exactly the same advice on that same forum before. I'm sure I'm not the only person who fails to follow their own advice.

6 days left until I can start light training, and the most strenuous thing I've done is carry a plate of burgers to the BBQ. This will be an act of will, but I'll manage.

Open source healthcare

2009-05-16T12:20:00.001-04:00

I was watching a video with Tim Ferriss and Kevin Rose last night (link) and one of the things they talked about that really struck me was a site called Cure Together. Check out the site, but basically it's a source for people to track their own success or failure with treatments for medical conditions, as well as get some ideas on what they might have by entering symptoms.

Users enter their own results, which is added to the pool. You can literally track anything you want (they have a widget for it). Stealing from one of their blog posts, people are tracking things like:

Exercise (minutes)
Hydration (%)
Laughter (units)
Productivity (pages)
Web-networking (hrs)

(not a complete list, by any means)

I love the concept, and their implementation is amazing. Some of the odder things being tracked would have a hard time getting funded in a traditional study (web-networking?) but can be useful for the day-to-day lives of those with the condition.

And since my wife has anxiety, it's a good source of data for my family. I've almost convinced her to try kettlebells (best form of exercise I have ever found).

Why blog?

2009-05-16T10:38:00.000-04:00

Why am I doing this? I've been thinking about the future a lot. What I want to do. What I don't want to do. What goals I have. I think putting some of it out in public will help make me more accountable. Even if my traffic is low, having made the public statement will encourage me towards action.

There are other reasons. Two of my friends encouraged me to "build my online brand". They're right. The internet isn't going anywhere, and the next time somebody wants to know something about me, they're going to Google. A smart person will be proactive about what they're going to see.

This blog isn't going to have any kind of theme. I haven't done any proper writing in years, I'm sure it'll be a mix of musings, training log, anecdotes and politics. If I make some cash off it, great, but that isn't the goal.

Curious anecdote to close this out: I've always found the hardest part of something like this is choosing the name. True to my internet reliance, I found a tool to mix adjectives and nouns that let me keep trying until I found something I liked. I got some weird ones too. "Solid Organ" would have been a lousy blog name. "Notorious query" was pretty good, especially with all the time I spend in SQL.