On the shortness of life

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.

Posted via email from Iain's posterous

Amazing visualization of our environment

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

Posted via email from Iain's posterous

On time for yourself

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.

Posted via email from Iain's posterous

Government as a service is toxic

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.

Posted via email from Iain's posterous

Life is beyond parody

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.

Posted via email from Iain's posterous

Finally watched 'Rocky'

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*

Posted via email from Iain's posterous

Facebook charging for uploads

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.

Posted via email from Iain's posterous

Robots really are replacing people...

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.

Posted via email from Iain's posterous

Robots really are replacing people...

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.

Posted via email from Iain's posterous

Bad decision on my part: working in the print industry

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.

Posted via email from Iain's posterous

Extreme Tourist: Afghanistan

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.

Posted via email from Iain's posterous

Program or be programmed

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.

Posted via email from Iain's posterous

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

`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.

Posted via email from Iain's posterous

ACTA - Draconian laws to cripple my generation

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

Posted via email from Iain's posterous

Regulating geoengineering

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.

Posted via email from Iain's posterous

The Milgram experiment repeated as reality TV

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.

Posted via email from Iain's posterous

Tech, people and learned helplessness

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.

Posted via email from Iain's posterous

Really? Guns can kill people?

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.

Posted via email from Iain's posterous

"Thank you for smoking" - hilarious

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.

Posted via email from Iain's posterous

I'm not usually one for music

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

Found via Boing boing

Posted via email from Iain's posterous