Napkin Notes

Yesterday was rather taxing. Too much of Nawth Alibam’s Shining CIty on the Hill – and its less than competent motorcar drivers. The sad thing is that they estimate their skill by how well they survive and not by how well everyone survives. And the intriguing part is where does the difference arise? In Greater Metropolitan Arab the opposite is the case; most of the drivers are concerned about general flow, except maybe during rush hours when they do try rather heartily to kill themselves and all those they collide with.

The other day, I ran across [Link]

this cartoon and it struck home.

Well, not literally. My father never wrote notes on napkins or otherwise, and my mother would have summarily executed us on the spot for doing so. But the behavior has become part of my behavior after I became an adult. At least chronologically.

Back when I was in shule this was not a problem since I always had a notebook or several with me, and in the early days of working I had a briefcase or a notebook. And I never did this at home because the place was littered with notebook and notepads. But when I went out to restaurants or socially such were not really smiled upon. So I wrote on what was available, which were usually paper napkins. And despite the folk tales, one never writes on table cloths. You have to pay exorbitantly for them or lose the information and regardless you incur the unhappiness of the proprietor. I have been banned from several restaurants before I learned the lesson. Besides the rise of chain restaurants has killed off table cloths.

Those places that use paper place-mats are good. The place-mats are usually blank on the backside so one can turn them over and have much writing space. Of course that means the meal orts end up on the table and make the bus boy unhappy but they don;t have banning privileges.

After I got to the point where I couldn’t carry a notebook because I was a manager, I took to carrying those special 7.5 x 12.5 cm^2 cards in a leather pocket case. These are not very good for real note taking because they are too elegant. Now that I am ORF I carry a very nice Japanese spiral bound pocket pad. It works quite well. Apparently the Japanese understand this much better than we Amerikans.

Some people try to take notes on their cellular telephones. I don’t because it is klutzy. One has to use a keyboard, one can’t do maths or diagrams easily, and the medium is too low resolution. But then the same is almost true of real computers as well. That may be what is destroying our society and civilization. Not only are the bogs a calculate but the nerds can’t write stuff down. And without stuff written down, things don’t happen.

humans, behavior, paper, notes, exinction

Pedaling, not Driving

Two day and the gym still moderately sparse. And while the podcast episodes today – Science – were not particularly sticky – except Smolin’s discourse on time – I did come to a couple of pre-Wednesday realizations:

• Corporations are Predators;
• Adverticement is Falsehood; and most significantly,
• Consensus is NOT Causality.

That’s all, folks!

society, civilization, insight, science

Chaotic Stupidity

Mundane day is back. And joyously! No noise pollution courtesy of the city parents, and the gym was delightfully sparse. The podcast was another episode of the CBC’s “Best of Ideas” series on secularity and it was quite good, finally getting around to the advancements in society being directly the result of increasing secularity and the inherent controlling nature of organized religion. And the evil (?) of fundamentalism. There was even a bit of humor about the latter which is rather refreshing for one who lives in the religionist pig pen of the old Confederacy. They even talked about how the obsession with end times is a direct fallout of reconstruction.

On a more intriguing azimuth I ran across an article [Link] about the half-century anniversary of the beginnings of the study of chaotic behavior. Unlike James Glick and others I am not quite comfortable with calling it Chaos since the origin of the term is non-STEM. I also had to reflect that much of the original maths development, especially with the classic logistic differential equation, was simply bad maths. That was always a problem for me, on the one hand the finite difference maths types talking about error propagation and instabilities of too large a step size and the chaotic behavior folks talking about BOOM! behavior at step sizes far beyond the stable. Why, I wondered, couldn’t they get their stories straight?

Also intriguing is an article [Link] about an academic study that indicates human intelligence has decreased since the reign of Victoria. This is another brick in the wall that suggests that technology makes us stupid. Not that we didn’t know that, but it is nice to have it made sorta official.

Now we just have to wait for the politician to pass legislation that makes it illegal for us to not be stupid.

humans, maths, intelligence, civilization, technology

Noise Pollution

Ice cream day and it is hoped to be less than yesterday. Last night was a horror, noise pollution from the nearby park, hours and hours of unwanted music of the most irritating form. Doubled my affection for folk.

On a more positive note I ran across this article [Link] yesterday. At last a W8 tablet that I would consider buying. And why would I buy a W8 tablet? Because I didn’t have to boot it. I am not a strong fan of Swiss Army knives. I own several, both branded and, perhaps, generic. The best is one issued by the German army and, I believe, made in China. Other than a hideously poorly designed spring in the scissors, it is vastly superior to any of my other multi-blade knives.

And that is what this tablet is, a three blader – Ubuntu, Android, and W8. And it comes with a keyboard. So I can probably change the Unity GUI to something utile like XFCE or LXDE – not sure I want the overhead of KDE on a small RAM, limited CPU slab – and use the Ubuntu for “work” and the Android for “play”. And the W8 is there if a bog colleague is in need of rescue, purely as a social insurance thing.

The Ubuntu (real (?) Linux) tablet has been promised often and never, that I can see, delivered. So I am not holding my breath on this one. And it is hideously expensive. I can go buy a laptop workstation (almost) for this price. Or a really good laptop from a Linux house.

On which note, I also ran across [Link] an avowedly partial list of Linux GUI. This is the Linux equivalent of the Grand Canyon, an awe (?) inspiring sight. You have the great, colorful depths, like KDE and XFCE, the shadows like LXDE, and the cess pools like Unity and Gnome 3. And unlike the tyranny that is W8, choices. That is what counts.

And lastly, from England, [Link] the un-news that PC sales are down and tablet sales are up. But the telling stat is

“In the same three-month period, 2.3 million PCs were sent into channels, possibly to moulder in unsold piles, representing a decline of 15 per cent. This included a 20 per cent fall in portables and a six per cent decline in desktops.”

Note, pray, an 0.2 decline in lap boxes and an 0.06 decline in desk boxes. The article claims this is because lap boxes are more amenable to replacement than desk boxes. I would say that what is done with lap boxes is fundamentally different from desk boxes. Simply put, desk boxes are used more for creation and work than lap boxes which are used more for consumption and entertainment.

humans, music, computers, tyranny

Puritan Heat Death

End of week in. No gym. Slept in till 0430. Must be Friday?

On which azimuth I ran across an article yesterday about the end of work. [Link] The idea is that robots/computers will take over so much of the work load that our current situation will be turned head over heels.

Right now we have about 0.1 unemployment, rough order of magnitude. It appears this is pretty well a magic number that has to exist for society (and civilization) to operate. But as is, it is a matter of great political and social hand wringing and garment tearing. Whether due to our Puritan work ethic or just New Deal propaganda, we have the idea that everyone should e employed. Every adult, that is. Except the retired. But not the infirm or mentally or physically unable. They;re just slackers and parasites.

Now let’s turn that upside down. How about 0.1 employed? That’s 9 of 10 without work responsibilities. The very idea brings Hobbesian shudders to the average Amerikan. They can’t imagine how society will function without honest labor. How can anyone live without earning money. Horrors!, everyone on welfare. Everyone white/black/… trash.

I have to admit I can’t imagine it very well either, but I can’t buy the idea we are all going to become gentlemen/lady philosophers/academics/crafters/……. Mostly because 0.9 of humanity are bogs and bogs don’t do those things very well. They especially don;t do intellectual things. So can we expect an increase in violence, gratuitous pursuits, and shortened lifespans?

Probably.

This is a good topic. Lots of room for cognition. Not clear it is good for the species.

humans, behavior, unemployemnt, disaster

Punishment of the Innocents

Last gym day of the week, and pleasantly sparse with folks, especially boisterous educationalists. As shule winds down its session, they get fewer and fewer, which, of course, leads to the hypothesis that educationalists exercise in direct proportion to the teaching (?) of students?

Anyway, much ado about the Yankee government scandal over the Internal Revenue Service investigating special interest non-taxable groups. From my experience with the IRS, its the non-taxable part that attracts the boll, they could care less about one’s politics so long as taxes are paid with proper humility and proskynesis.

It has become evident however, from the posturing of the chief executive, that a stage of post-glitch governmental operations has been reached known as the “Punishment of the Innocents.” This usually follow the “Hiding of the Guilt” phase. At this point the YG will conduct an investigation that will – probably – determine that career civil servants acted improperly and will be severely punished by being fired or worse. This will not be what actually happened; it is only a scapegoat activity. What likely actually happened is some overzealous political appointee (and yes, I know that is redundant) will have instructed the civil servants who work for this pol to do this evil.

Why do such happen? Simply, because we have political appointees. They have no controls other than elected politicians who appointed them. And civil servants cannot talk to the elected politicians. So any improper or illegal instructions from a political appointee have to be obeyed or the civil servants will be fired or labeled whistleblowers.

This is the tyranny of modern bureaucratic democracy. We do not trust those who work for us but we do trust those who steal from us.

And we punish those who work.

government, politics, tyranny, evil

Shule Show

Two day, and the gum was relatively deserted. Must be getting close enough to summer for the denials to mount up. Science podcasts today and aside from a rather extended discussion of dark energy on one of the NPR ‘casts, not particularly sticky. So unsticky in fact that I find myself at a loss to offer comments on anything.

Except a rather naive segment on a road show aimed at exposing high shule students to climate change. The come-on is that climate change isn’t taught in public shules. Thud. Flat.

Why isn’t it taught? Probably for the same reason that evolution isn’t and mysticism is. Political pressure. It isn’t on the tests because politicians don’t want it on them. It’s one more symptom of what is wrong with the shules and our country.

But the question I want answered is why was the presentation permitted? Are there still rebels out there?

education, science, climate, politics, tyranny

Phone Religion

Mundane day again and week in. Happily back to gym although the podcast, an episode of the CBC’s “Best of Ideas” in their series on secularism was too PC, trying to press the idea that religion should be more than an individual matter. All they managed to do was further the argument that religionist organizations are all about control and only pretend to be about religion.

On which azimuth, I see [Link] that MegaHard is going to recant their stupidity – which demonstrates theirs is less than Canonical’s? – and reinstate the START button with their first major update of W8. Or could it be that they have discovered that they have a product without a market? Stats I have seen indicate box users are avoiding W8 like Vista while sales of slabs and smarts are well below the cut-and-run level.

What this does tell us is intriguing, especially in light of the whole ‘it’s the apps, not the OS’ theory. Evidently the OS does matter if it keeps you from running the apps. Gee, who would have guessed?

I noted yesterday in an eNewsLetter that sales of FaceBookFone are even worse than those of W8. Isn’t it wonderful that MegaHard now has something to brag about?

On which azimuth, I see [Link] that the Ubuntu phone is eminent. Wonder how big a thunk this one will make? But the really big question is whether Canonical will come to their senses and get back to being an OS and not a disaster?

I hate to say it, much as I dislike Gooey, but at least they are a secular organization to Apple’s religionist one.

computers, cellular telephones, OS, nonsense

Perpetuation of the Species

Ice Cream Day! And I am still desensitizing my newly exposed roots after oral surgery, so no frozen yogurt for me. There is however a promise of absence of precipitation from the weather beavers this day which is the holy day of maternity. And they also fortell a last coolness of spring before the early onset of torrid summer. 

Of all the holy days, this is one of the few that actually make sense. Never mind that it was invented by the greeting card industry to sell bad poetry and ugly paper, it still makes sense that we should acknowledge and honor the biological imperative of perpetuating the species. So while Easter and Christmas are sheer mysticism, Mother’s Day at least has some grounding in actuality.

While I’m on the azimuth of mysticism, I should mention a somewhat clumsy article [Link] arguing – that’s the clumsy part – that Android is the new “Windows”, as in the predominant OS. That’s not my criterion but I won’t quibble since the primary reason I cite the article, pointed to me by my erstwhile colleague Magnetic Inductance Force, is to quote

“When users can’t view several windows simultaneously, they must keep information from one window in short-term memory while they activate another window,” writes noted usability expert Jakob Nielsen. “This is problematic for two reasons. First, human short-term memory is notoriously weak, and second, the very task of having to manipulate a window—instead of simply glancing at one that’s already open—further taxes the user’s cognitive resources.”

This is an indictment of tile GUIs at the fundamental level of how humans operate. And it supports my independent (?) assessment that tile GUIs only work for people who work sequentially, not those who work cumulatively!

So micturate on you Unity, Gnome 3, and whatever MegaHard call Metro this week!

Next, some research from U Tel Aviv indicates that Facebook – and other social networking sites – may cause psychosis. [Link] I fear this has to be considered just official, i.e., academic, confirmation of what most nerds and geeks who use FaceBook already know, that there are a LOT of whack jobs on FB. Maybe all but one, maybe two, as in the Amish saying about weird.

Next, a study out of Nawth Carolinia State U that indicates that old coders are better than young coders. [Link] Duhhhhh! What you lose in endurance you more than make up for in guile and deceit. But it’s nice to put that to bed, or at least to strike a counter bow to young coder insecurity expressing itself. Deal with it pups, that’s how you get to be an old, good coder!

Along those same lines, a study from U Washington indicates that the dinosaurs became dominant because of opportunistic success after a major biodiversity crash. [Link] So the rise of mammals – and the demise of dinosaurs – after the Yucatan strike is fair game. And DUMB luck. Remember that homo sapiens!

On which note, a study out of U Colorado indicates that humans who hold extreme political views do so as a result of an illusion of understanding. [Link] This confirms what I have hypothesized for a long time: no one understands politics and those who think they do are wrong and deluded.

This is one of the reasons we need to do away with politics, or at least, political organizations. Firing parties for all members of such may be considered.

And lastly, an article [Link] about a rather telling argument that science and religion cannot be reconciled. Does this mean we can quit humoring the mystics?

humans, behavior, science, politics, religion

Spoil the Moment

Yesterday I ran across this cartoon [Link]

and I was struck by the accuracy of the presentation. It managed to summarize the television news so accurately I was whelmed.

First that the news people seem to have no compunctions about decency, integrity, or honesty, to say nothing about their overt practices of cruelty and inappropriate happiness at misfortune and suffering. I have yet to understand how it can be policy for any organization, not dedicated to the extermination of the human species, to relate on pain, agony, and/or misery with a garish smile. Somehow this seems the epitome of evil.

Only when the matter touches the lives of the folks who own the broadcasting instrumentality does any respect or regard creep in. Any other time it is blatantly false and pretended. And even when they are batted down, the respite is short before their evil pours forth undiminished.

Only the weather forecast is partly worth while since it deals with useful information. And the commercials are a relative respite, which, a mixed blessing, are growing in duration as a fraction of the broadcast.

And the apparent bias in the news read is disturbing. I am not sure which is worse though, the repeated protestations of fairness and objectivity, both of which are clearly subjective in the professional activities of the news media, or their natty lectures to the populace for holding them accountable.

All in all, a good cartoon. It remains to see if we do anything about this cancer it prods.

corporations, prevarication, evil, journalism