Tuesday, August 12
from the beach party
Two pictures I managed to (somewhat) salvage, from the beach party with A - the rest of them came out completely unusable :(
Friday, August 8
Are we measuring time, or defining it?
On the morning of the first of January of this year, around five thirty AM to be more precise, I was on my way home, from the New Year's party, when it struck me how artificial the delimitation of days is and how this perception breaks the actual continuity of our existence (it's a perception I have relatively often, when I remain awake through night fall and am not terribly busy with something specific).
I wrote this thought down, and came back to it from time to time. Nowadays (that is, after thinking about it some more), I see a clear distinction between the natural delimitation, a delimitation that doesn't break continuity (like light and shadow cast by the Sun) and the artificial delimitations we all make: instead of seeing our continuous existence, "flowing" from one "present moment" to the next "present moment", we see ourselves having a discrete existence, composed of different episodes, disconnected, discontinuous.
Instead of seeing the continuity, we see "day", "week", "Monday", "last year", "during lunch break", "when I exited the office building last evening", et caetera.
It's a useful abstraction, enabling everything from business contracts to most technology, to weekend plans, to cookie recipes.
It's still an abstraction though, and as useful as it is, it can be equally useful to look behind it.
When you try switching back from a discrete perception to a continuous one (that is, if you actually do try), you start seeing lots of other illusions you cling to, constructs relying of other constructs, things we all accept as "in the nature of things" ...
Lets take age as an example.
We have a minimal age for legally drinking, you can be too old or too young to behave in a certain way and your rights vary depending on what age-group you happen to find yourself in.
Age as a measure though, is not telling you something specific about a person. If anything, it's actually telling you how many times the Earth rotated around the Sun, since that person was born. Thus, age is an affirmation about the Earth's movement, giving that person's existence as a reference point, and not an affirmation about that person itself.
Further more, it seems that time itself is an illusion.
To that regard, I found an interesting article on the nature of time itself, that directed my thoughts to a different perspective: the article argued that time, in a scientific context, cannot be perceived as an orthogonal dimension but is in fact, always expressing a measure of movement (one second being, for example defined as the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium 133 atom).
It's an interesting read, if you have the time for it (pun intended).
So in the end, do we measure time, or define it and cling to our definition?
I wrote this thought down, and came back to it from time to time. Nowadays (that is, after thinking about it some more), I see a clear distinction between the natural delimitation, a delimitation that doesn't break continuity (like light and shadow cast by the Sun) and the artificial delimitations we all make: instead of seeing our continuous existence, "flowing" from one "present moment" to the next "present moment", we see ourselves having a discrete existence, composed of different episodes, disconnected, discontinuous.
Instead of seeing the continuity, we see "day", "week", "Monday", "last year", "during lunch break", "when I exited the office building last evening", et caetera.
It's a useful abstraction, enabling everything from business contracts to most technology, to weekend plans, to cookie recipes.
It's still an abstraction though, and as useful as it is, it can be equally useful to look behind it.
When you try switching back from a discrete perception to a continuous one (that is, if you actually do try), you start seeing lots of other illusions you cling to, constructs relying of other constructs, things we all accept as "in the nature of things" ...
Lets take age as an example.
We have a minimal age for legally drinking, you can be too old or too young to behave in a certain way and your rights vary depending on what age-group you happen to find yourself in.
Age as a measure though, is not telling you something specific about a person. If anything, it's actually telling you how many times the Earth rotated around the Sun, since that person was born. Thus, age is an affirmation about the Earth's movement, giving that person's existence as a reference point, and not an affirmation about that person itself.
Further more, it seems that time itself is an illusion.
Clocks don't measure time; they measure themselves.
hairy university professor with young girlfriend, The Man from Earth
To that regard, I found an interesting article on the nature of time itself, that directed my thoughts to a different perspective: the article argued that time, in a scientific context, cannot be perceived as an orthogonal dimension but is in fact, always expressing a measure of movement (one second being, for example defined as the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium 133 atom).
It's an interesting read, if you have the time for it (pun intended).
So in the end, do we measure time, or define it and cling to our definition?
Wednesday, August 6
Randy Pausch's Last Discourse
So ... the guy knew he was going to die and came here for talking about childhood dreams.
Absolutely inspiring.
Absolutely inspiring.
Monday, August 4
Friday, August 1
Thursday, July 31
Friday, July 25
in office again
Well ... I'm in office again, on antibiotics. The day before yesterday I started getting a fever, and I left for home around three o'clock.
I ended up sleeping the day away (well ... that and drinking water, sweating and doing Reiki on myself), then S came, saw me, became very worried (sorry about that) and took me to a doctor.
I got shots with antibiotics and some anti-inflammatory serum (which didn't hurt, but I still dislike syringes) and by the time I got home, my fever was down, along with my shivers.
I spent yesterday at home, taking it easy (that is, I slept some, rested a lot, took pills and sweated some more) then went to W in the late evening to talk about Saturday.
Now, I'm in the office again, compiling stuff.
I ended up sleeping the day away (well ... that and drinking water, sweating and doing Reiki on myself), then S came, saw me, became very worried (sorry about that) and took me to a doctor.
I got shots with antibiotics and some anti-inflammatory serum (which didn't hurt, but I still dislike syringes) and by the time I got home, my fever was down, along with my shivers.
I spent yesterday at home, taking it easy (that is, I slept some, rested a lot, took pills and sweated some more) then went to W in the late evening to talk about Saturday.
Now, I'm in the office again, compiling stuff.
Monday, July 21
Eventfull Saturday :(
Ogün and Abdullah died on our dive, on Saturday.
For me and S, it had started as a normal weekend; we had driven to the northern part of Cyprus, looking forward to a weekend in camping, some diving, and maybe a bit of sunbathing.
We arrived on the beach around eleven after hooking up with A, in a small village West of Kyrenia, waiting to get in the water.
An hour or so later, we had gotten our gear set up and were getting our gear on the boat, all eight of us. We were diving 'The Paradise', a dive-site for Advanced Open Water divers; The plan was to stay around 25 meters until we got to a pressure of minimum 100bars, then turn back, and go back to the starting point, on the current.
As I would find out later, fifteen minutes into the dive or so, one of the guys panicked and bolted to the surface, with the instructor and his diving buddy going after him.
I'm not sure what happened next; A. said that, by the time he got to the surface, the instructor was doing CPR on the guy and that at some point, he saw the other guy, dropping like a stone, towards the bottom. I understand the group leader went to the deep after him, with no bottom time left on his side (he ended up in the hyperbaric chamber for this, but I understand that he fully recovered).
On our side, at some point I noticed that there were only four of us left; I was completely narked, as were the other guys, so nothing seemed strange to me about it (I was watching S' depth control at the time :( ).
I made sure we started ascending properly, checked the safety-stop counter so we made our ascent by the book, then broke surface, to find that no-one was waiting for us at the exit point.
The guys' English was a bit broken, and I was still in the dive's afterglow, so it was some good minutes in the water until I understood that something bad had actually happened.
At first, I understood that someone had panicked and the instructor took him to the surface; then, I heard A. saying telling about two dead divers, and I thought he was telling us a story (it was too surreal to even understand that he was talking about the current dive).
Some minutes later, our dive leader surfaced; it turns out he went back down to finish his decompression -- I think. We started going towards the shore in a subdued mood.
As we neared the shore, I expected to see some guys asking questions, and maybe an ambulance or two.
Instead, we got on the shore to find the two bodies on the sand, covered in dark-blue towels, and people moving all around them.
We went on the shore, carried the equipment to the dive centre, thrn stood there an hour or so, not knowing what to do or say.
After that, we went with A on the harbor, walking and chatting this and that. My guess is, that we were trying to put some distance between what happened and us.
Ogün and Abdullah died on our dive, on Saturday.
I feel like writing something else, but nothing comes to mind :(
For me and S, it had started as a normal weekend; we had driven to the northern part of Cyprus, looking forward to a weekend in camping, some diving, and maybe a bit of sunbathing.
We arrived on the beach around eleven after hooking up with A, in a small village West of Kyrenia, waiting to get in the water.
An hour or so later, we had gotten our gear set up and were getting our gear on the boat, all eight of us. We were diving 'The Paradise', a dive-site for Advanced Open Water divers; The plan was to stay around 25 meters until we got to a pressure of minimum 100bars, then turn back, and go back to the starting point, on the current.
As I would find out later, fifteen minutes into the dive or so, one of the guys panicked and bolted to the surface, with the instructor and his diving buddy going after him.
I'm not sure what happened next; A. said that, by the time he got to the surface, the instructor was doing CPR on the guy and that at some point, he saw the other guy, dropping like a stone, towards the bottom. I understand the group leader went to the deep after him, with no bottom time left on his side (he ended up in the hyperbaric chamber for this, but I understand that he fully recovered).
On our side, at some point I noticed that there were only four of us left; I was completely narked, as were the other guys, so nothing seemed strange to me about it (I was watching S' depth control at the time :( ).
I made sure we started ascending properly, checked the safety-stop counter so we made our ascent by the book, then broke surface, to find that no-one was waiting for us at the exit point.
The guys' English was a bit broken, and I was still in the dive's afterglow, so it was some good minutes in the water until I understood that something bad had actually happened.
At first, I understood that someone had panicked and the instructor took him to the surface; then, I heard A. saying telling about two dead divers, and I thought he was telling us a story (it was too surreal to even understand that he was talking about the current dive).
Some minutes later, our dive leader surfaced; it turns out he went back down to finish his decompression -- I think. We started going towards the shore in a subdued mood.
As we neared the shore, I expected to see some guys asking questions, and maybe an ambulance or two.
Instead, we got on the shore to find the two bodies on the sand, covered in dark-blue towels, and people moving all around them.
We went on the shore, carried the equipment to the dive centre, thrn stood there an hour or so, not knowing what to do or say.
After that, we went with A on the harbor, walking and chatting this and that. My guess is, that we were trying to put some distance between what happened and us.
Ogün and Abdullah died on our dive, on Saturday.
I feel like writing something else, but nothing comes to mind :(
Thursday, July 17
Windows doesn't suck; it lies!
So, yesterday I got myself a new HDD, for extra storage space, at home. I installed it with no problems, then booted Vista (for the more familiar interface) and attempted to format it using FAT32.
Apparently though, 150Gb is way too much for a FAT32 partition and Vista only allowed me to format using NTFS.
I would respect that it didn't allow me to perform an invalid formatting, that would have ruined my new hard-drive, except it isn't so: I booted under Linux and was able to format the partitions with no problems whatsoever.
It turns out that windows is simply lying to you, so that you'd be forced to use a proprietary partition format (leading to platform lock-in) :(
At least, that's the only conclusion I could come up with.
In this case however, all they managed was make me give another vote to Linux.
Apparently though, 150Gb is way too much for a FAT32 partition and Vista only allowed me to format using NTFS.
I would respect that it didn't allow me to perform an invalid formatting, that would have ruined my new hard-drive, except it isn't so: I booted under Linux and was able to format the partitions with no problems whatsoever.
It turns out that windows is simply lying to you, so that you'd be forced to use a proprietary partition format (leading to platform lock-in) :(
At least, that's the only conclusion I could come up with.
In this case however, all they managed was make me give another vote to Linux.
Friday, July 11
disadvantages of an elite education
The essay is about how elite schools, subtly sacrifice an elite education, in the name of "success at all costs" (among other things).
The essay, written by William Deresiewicz is hosted on The American Scholar. It's an interesting read, to say the least.
What happens when busyness and sociability leave no room for solitude? The ability to engage in introspection, I put it to my students that day, is the essential precondition for living an intellectual life, and the essential precondition for introspection is solitude. They took this in for a second, and then one of them said, with a dawning sense of self-awareness, “So are you saying that we’re all just, like, really excellent sheep?” Well, I don’t know. But I do know that the life of the mind is lived one mind at a time: one solitary, skeptical, resistant mind at a time. The best place to cultivate it is not within an educational system whose real purpose is to reproduce the class system.
The essay, written by William Deresiewicz is hosted on The American Scholar. It's an interesting read, to say the least.
Hyakujo's Fox
Once when Hyakujo delivered some Zen lectures an old man attended them, unseen by the monks. At the end of each talk when the monks left so did he. But one day he remained after the had gone, and Hyakujo asked him: `Who are you?'
The old man replied: `I am not a human being, but I was a human being when the Kashapa Buddha preached in this world. I was a Zen master and lived on this mountain. At that time one of my students asked me whether the enlightened man is subject to the law of causation. I answered him: "The enlightened man is not subject to the law of causation." For this answer evidencing a clinging to absoluteness I became a fox for five hundred rebirths, and I am still a fox. Will you save me from this condition with your Zen words and let me get out of a fox's body? Now may I ask you: Is the enlightened man subject to the law of causation?'
Hyakujo said: `The enlightened man is one with the law of causation.'
At the words of Hyakujo the old man was enlightened. `I am emancipated,' he said, paying homage with a deep bow. `I am no more a fox, but I have to leave my body in my dwelling place behind this mountain. Please perform my funeral as a monk.' The he disappeared.
The next day Hyakujo gave an order through the chief monk to prepare to attend the funeral of a monk. `No one was sick in the infirmary,' wondered the monks. `What does our teacher mean?'
After dinner Hyakujo led the monks out and around the mountain. In a cave, with his staff he poked out the corpse of an old fox and then performed the ceremony of cremation.
That evening Hyakujo gave a talk to the monks and told this story about the law of causation.
Obaku, upon hearing this story, asked Hyakujo: `I understand that a long time ago because a certain person gave a wrong Zen answer he became a fox for five hundred rebirths. Now I was to ask: If some modern master is asked many questions, and he always gives the right answer, what will become of him?'
Hyakujo said: `You come here near me and I will tell you.'
Obaku went near Hyakujo and slapped the teacher's face with this hand, for he knew this was the answer his teacher intended to give him.
Hyakujo clapped his hands and laughed at the discernment. `I thought a Persian had a red beard,' he said, `and now I know a Persian who has a red beard.'
Mumon's comment: `The enlightened man is not subject.' How can this answer make the monk a fox?
`The enlightened man is at one with the law of causation.' How can this answer make the fox emancipated?
To understand clearly one has to have just one eye.
Controlled or not controlled?
The same dice shows two faces.
Not controlled or controlled,
Both are a grievous error.
(Koan from The Gateless Gate, by Mumon)
My comment: Close one eye, you still have two. Remove one eye, and you have a functional eye and a missing one. You still have two.
Mumon is playing a dangerous game.
on self-respect
You can search the whole universe and not find a single being more worthy of love than yourself. Since each and every person is so precious to themselves,
Let the self-respecting harm no other being.
Buddha
Thanks, D.
Monday, July 7
zen
Perhaps one of the reasons for this silence is that you have to know how to read the music. For instance, the scientific article may say, "The radioactive phosphorus content of the cerebrum of the rat decreases to one-half in a period of two weeks." Now what does that mean?
It means that phosphorus that is in the brain of a rat -- and also in mine, and yours -- is not the same phosphorus as it was two weeks ago. It means the atoms that are in the brain are being replaced: the ones that were there before have gone away.
So what is this mind of ours: what are these atoms with consciousness? Last week's potatoes! They now can remember what was going on in my mind a year ago -- a mind which has long ago been replaced.
To note that the thing I call my individuality is only a pattern or dance, that is what it means when one discovers how long it takes for the atoms of the brain to be replaced by other atoms. The atoms come into my brain, dance a dance, and then go out -- there are always new atoms, but always doing the same dance, remembering what the dance was yesterday.
Richard Feynman, The Value of Science
So then, Who are you?
Buddhist proverb
To every man is given the key to the gates of heaven; the same key opens the gates of hell.
Unfortunately, it comes with no instructions.
Wednesday, July 2
Tuesday, July 1
Saturday, June 28
We Must Act Now!
... or must we?
Michael Crichton is a writer. He wrote Jurassic Park and Twister (among lots of others). He's not an ecologist, and nor is he an environmentalist. Still, he brings one of the sanest counter-arguments I've ever seen to the "Save the Planet" attitudes (in short, "stop thinking we understand what we're doing").
If you believe that the fact he's not working in these fields is the most important issue here, feel free to look up argumentum ad hominem.
If you believe that the fact he's not working in these fields is the most important issue here, feel free to look up argumentum ad hominem.
Friday, June 27
incredible kung fu ...
... or actually, some prestidigitation.
Close Up Magic Trick of Shaolin Kung Fu Finger (Revealed) - video powered by Metacafe
Taken from here.
Close Up Magic Trick of Shaolin Kung Fu Finger (Revealed) - video powered by Metacafe
Taken from here.
ooops! did I break del.icio.us?
So ... I've been learning from Collective Intelligence ... and this morning I made a script to get links from del.icio.us, score their top users in regards to how similar their tastes are to mine, then recommend me links they preferred, that I haven't bookmarked ...
In short, it's a recommendation system (yeah ... buy the book!).
Either way, I omitted the time.sleep(4) between failed requests to the del.icio.us api and I ... kind of started getting this:
Del.icio.us guys, if it was me that caused a denial of service on your website, I'm sorry!
In short, it's a recommendation system (yeah ... buy the book!).
Either way, I omitted the time.sleep(4) between failed requests to the del.icio.us api and I ... kind of started getting this:
danone@utnapistix:~/work/python/CollectiveIntelligence$ python deliciousrec.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "deliciousrec.py", line 51, in
del_data=buildPostersDict(<tag>, <user>)
File "deliciousrec.py", line 43, in buildPostersDict
users_dict=initializeUserDict(tag)
File "deliciousrec.py", line 8, in initializeUserDict
for popular in get_popular(tag=tag)[0:count]:
File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/pydelicious.py", line 786, in get_popular
return getrss(tag = tag, popular = 1)
File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/pydelicious.py", line 774, in getrss
return dlcs_rss_request(tag=tag, popular=popular, user=user, url=url)
File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/pydelicious.py", line 414, in dlcs_rss_request
rss = http_request(url).read()
File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/pydelicious.py", line 261, in http_request
raise PyDeliciousException, "%s" % e
pydelicious.PyDeliciousException: HTTP Error 503: Service Temporarily UnavailableDel.icio.us guys, if it was me that caused a denial of service on your website, I'm sorry!
Thursday, June 26
Joshu's Dog
A monk asked Joshu, a Chinese Zen master: `Has a dog Buddha-nature or not?'
Joshu answered: 'Mu.' [Mu is the negative symbol in Chinese, meaning `No-thing' or 'Nay'.]
Mumon's comments: To realize Zen one has to pass through the barrier of the patriachs. Enlightenment always comes after the road of thinking is blocked. If you do not pass the barrier of the patriachs or if your thinking road is not blocked, whatever you think, whatever you do, is like a tangling ghost. You may ask: What is a barrier of a patriach? This one word, Mu, is it.
This is the barrier of Zen. If you pass through it you will see Joshu face to face. Then you can work hand in hand with the whole line of patriachs. Is this not a pleasant thing to do?
If you want to pass this barrier, you must work through every bone in your body, through ever pore in your skin, filled with this question: What is Mu? and carry it day and night. Do not believe it is the common negative symbol meaning nothing. It is not nothingness, the opposite of existence. If you really want to pass this barrier, you should feel like drinking a hot iron ball that you can neither swallor nor spit out.
Then your previous lesser knowledge disappears. As a fruit ripening in season, your subjectivity and objectivity naturally become one. It is like a dumb man who has had a dream. He knows about it but cannot tell it.
When he enters this condition his ego-shell is crushed and he can shake the heaven and move the earth. He is like a great warrior with a sharp sword. If a Buddha stands in his way, he will cut him down; if a patriach offers him any obstacle, he will kill him; and he will be free in this way of birth and death. He can enter any world as if it were his own playground. I will tell you how to do this with this koan:
Just concentrate your whole energy into this Mu, and do not allow any discontinuation. When you enter this Mu and there is no discontinuation, your attainment will be as a candle burning and illuminating the whole universe.
Has a dog Buddha-nature?
This is the most serious question of all.
If you say yes or no,
You lose your own Buddha-nature.
(Koan from The Gateless Gate, by Mumon)
So ... what is nothing?
Monday, June 23
the tao circle ... of defects
To become whole, accept your defects.
When you accept your defects, you then have none.
Still, if you think you have no defects, you are not whole.
Let me expand that ...
As you evolve, you get the (somewhat justified) feeling you can do more. You also get the feeling that you're better than before, superior somehow (which in turn is not justified).
Then, you start telling yourself you're a new person, and forget that all the problems you've been having are actually still there, and in the end, you become ... infatuated (?) with yourself.
Or, of course, you can stop all that, by simply remembering your 'darkness', remembering that you still bring all your defects and problems, that in the end, you're nothing special.
So, you have to, on one side accept yourself as you are ("dark side" and all) and see yourself as both "dark" and "light" at the same time.
I guess that's, in the end, the meaning of the tao circle.
When you accept your defects, you then have none.
Still, if you think you have no defects, you are not whole.
Let me expand that ...
As you evolve, you get the (somewhat justified) feeling you can do more. You also get the feeling that you're better than before, superior somehow (which in turn is not justified).
Then, you start telling yourself you're a new person, and forget that all the problems you've been having are actually still there, and in the end, you become ... infatuated (?) with yourself.
Or, of course, you can stop all that, by simply remembering your 'darkness', remembering that you still bring all your defects and problems, that in the end, you're nothing special.
So, you have to, on one side accept yourself as you are ("dark side" and all) and see yourself as both "dark" and "light" at the same time.
I guess that's, in the end, the meaning of the tao circle.
Friday, June 20
Thursday, June 19
code_swarm - Python
This is a visualization of the commit history of python:
code_swarm - Python from Michael Ogawa on Vimeo.
Pretty spectacular!
code_swarm - Python from Michael Ogawa on Vimeo.
Pretty spectacular!
newest episode: it's the actions of "some soldiers"
Until now, it wasn't there;
It seems it was there, just ... it was the actions of "some soldiers" ...
Sad ... sad ...
It seems it was there, just ... it was the actions of "some soldiers" ...
Sad ... sad ...
Wednesday, June 18
A Philosopher Asks Buddha
A philosopher asked Buddha: `Without words, without the wordless, will you you tell me truth?'
The Buddha kept silence.
The philosopher bowed and thanked the Buddha, saying: `With your loving kindness I have cleared away my delusions and entered the true path.'
After the philosopher had gone, Ananda asked the Buddha what he had attained.
The Buddha replied, `A good horse runs even at the shadow of the whip.'
Mumon's Comment: Ananda was the disciple of the Buddha. Even so, his opinion did not surpass that of outsiders. I want to ask you monks: How much difference is there between disciples and outsiders?
To tread the sharp edge of a sword
To run on smooth-frozen ice,
One needs no footsteps to follow.
Walk over the cliffs with hands free.
(Koan from The Gateless Gate, by Mumon)
Mumon is leading you astray on this one. The outsiders, what are they outside of?
sleepless at four thirty
It's amazing how the mind works.
I decided I'd sleep at home tonight, as I had some stuff to do (I have to prepare some materials for my first Reiki 1 initiation).
As a result, my mind's been active all night, going back and fro through meditations, almost-speeches (and I'm not that good as to not be boring) and imaginary conversations.
I know it's simple, and I'm not sure why I complicated it so, but I decided that, since I couldn't sleep, I'd start actually working on those materials and get them off my mind.
Also, since I was actually up at four thirty, I caught the pre-dawn light outside ...
I decided I'd sleep at home tonight, as I had some stuff to do (I have to prepare some materials for my first Reiki 1 initiation).
As a result, my mind's been active all night, going back and fro through meditations, almost-speeches (and I'm not that good as to not be boring) and imaginary conversations.
I know it's simple, and I'm not sure why I complicated it so, but I decided that, since I couldn't sleep, I'd start actually working on those materials and get them off my mind.
Also, since I was actually up at four thirty, I caught the pre-dawn light outside ...
Saturday, June 14
zen
The man pulling radishes,
Pointed the way
With a radish.
Haiku by Issa
Few people believe their
Inherent mind is Buddha.
Most will not take this seriously,
And therefore are cramped.
They are wrapped up in illusions, cravings,
Resentments, and other afflictions,
All because they love the cave of ignorance.
Fenyang
The most important thing is to find out
what is the most important thing.
Shunryu Suzuki
Those who see worldly life as an obstacle to Dharma
see no Dharma in everyday actions.
They have not yet discovered that
there are no everyday actions outside of Dharma.
Dogen
My comment:
My friend said all actions
redefine self.
Same, same.
'This is a reckoning, Mistress Weatherwax,' Tiffany added.[...]And Granny Weatherwax smiled, as if she'd done all that was expected of her.
'Ha! Is it now?' she said. Very well. Come and see me again before you go, and we'll see what you may take back with you.'
Tiffany asking how to take pain away with her hands, Terry Pratchett, Wintersmith
Thus is the true nature of the master: the master never gives, not as such; A master just is. Receiving is then, something taking place within the student, not the master.
Wednesday, June 11
Tuesday, June 10
Saturday, June 7
first initiation
Today, was the first time I gave someone a Reiki (2) initiation. It was an interesting experience, and I was both very calm and very excited at the same time (before today, I didn't think you could combine these two emotions at the same time).
Have a nice weekend everybody.
Have a nice weekend everybody.
Thursday, June 5
Tuesday, June 3
magnetic fields
Apparenlty, scientists at NASA managed to make magnetic fields visible (and very very spectacular):
Youtube video comment:
Natural magnetic fields are revealed as chaotic, ever-changing geometries as scientists from NASA's Space Sciences Laboratory excitedly describe their
discoveries.
The secret lives of invisible magnetic fields are revealed as chaotic, ever-changing geometries. All action takes place around NASA's Space Sciences Laboratory, UC Berkeley, to recordings of space scientists describing their discoveries. Actual VLF audio recordings control the evolution of the fields as they delve into our inaudible surroundings, revealing recurrent 'whistlers' produced by fleeting electrons. Are we observing a series of scientific experiments, the universe in flux, or a documentary of a fictional world?
Animated photographs, using sound-controlled CGI and 3D compositing.
Youtube video comment:
Natural magnetic fields are revealed as chaotic, ever-changing geometries as scientists from NASA's Space Sciences Laboratory excitedly describe their
discoveries.
The secret lives of invisible magnetic fields are revealed as chaotic, ever-changing geometries. All action takes place around NASA's Space Sciences Laboratory, UC Berkeley, to recordings of space scientists describing their discoveries. Actual VLF audio recordings control the evolution of the fields as they delve into our inaudible surroundings, revealing recurrent 'whistlers' produced by fleeting electrons. Are we observing a series of scientific experiments, the universe in flux, or a documentary of a fictional world?
Animated photographs, using sound-controlled CGI and 3D compositing.
Monday, June 2
Paper (official CCTV music video)
I got the story from /.: The Get Out Clause, a music band in England started locating CCTV cameras around the city, then set up their gig there and started playing.
They, they contacted the CCTV owners and asked for the footage, under the Freedom of Information Act.
Here's the result (and a pretty good one at that):
Edit: or ... well ... apparently not ... well ... not completely.
They, they contacted the CCTV owners and asked for the footage, under the Freedom of Information Act.
Here's the result (and a pretty good one at that):
Edit: or ... well ... apparently not ... well ... not completely.
Sunday, June 1
a god saturday
Yesterday, I did lots of things ... Actually, the only thing I did yesterday was playing some rounds of TF2 in the evening, but lots of things happened, before that, at the reiki meeting.
Now that I think about it, I didn't do much of anything ... and I slept through the trance :)
It was a good Saturday though.
Now that I think about it, I didn't do much of anything ... and I slept through the trance :)
It was a good Saturday though.
Tuesday, May 27
so ... anyone up to explaining this?
So ... anyone up to explaining where the movement is coming from?
I have my own theory, but I'm curious what others think.
Here's the experiment:
More Science experiments at 5min.com
I have my own theory, but I'm curious what others think.
Here's the experiment:
More Science experiments at 5min.com
Monday, May 26
be serious! management
Usually, I browse while programming.
That is, at times, I go through some reddit links, some slashdot article, and do my job in between; some other times, I do my job and browse in between (and of course, sometimes I only do one, or the other).
I used to feel guilty about it and then I realized: most people in the company do the same. Most people in my previous company did the same (and I think they still do).
Most people in the company before that, didn't. At all! Working in that place was never fun (of course not, it was supposed to be professional, not fun; Thus, you usually ended up chatting with a colleague, bothering (or not) somebody else, which was unprofessional also (and interrupted two persons instead of one).
I think being serious all the time sounds nice, but only in theory, and only to serious people.
This seriousness at my last employment place was imposed by management; it was a we're busy and have no time to loose on company time or we have a deadline to reach or simply well ... you're payed for eight hours of work!
In my view though, it was simply we take ourselves too seriously around here, so stop trying to have fun, while working.
I realize that, taken to extreme, if nobody does anything, you - as a company - have nothing to sell. My argument though, is not about the extreme cases, except to say that in both extremes, somebody looses (all work and no play makes nine hours of your day extremely dull and all play and no work makes your employment kind-of short, as the company will have no money to give you).
The seriousness at my last employment place was also one of the main reasons I left (well ... that and the BS I got when I asked for a salary raise).
Still, this half-half division is something I feel is beneficial to both the company and myself. I will probably not try to justify this to the CEO anytime soon, but I still think that.
Also, all this theory aside, when we have an emergency I leave the auxiliary activities down and focus on the emergency.
That is, at times, I go through some reddit links, some slashdot article, and do my job in between; some other times, I do my job and browse in between (and of course, sometimes I only do one, or the other).
I used to feel guilty about it and then I realized: most people in the company do the same. Most people in my previous company did the same (and I think they still do).
Most people in the company before that, didn't. At all! Working in that place was never fun (of course not, it was supposed to be professional, not fun; Thus, you usually ended up chatting with a colleague, bothering (or not) somebody else, which was unprofessional also (and interrupted two persons instead of one).
I think being serious all the time sounds nice, but only in theory, and only to serious people.
This seriousness at my last employment place was imposed by management; it was a we're busy and have no time to loose on company time or we have a deadline to reach or simply well ... you're payed for eight hours of work!
In my view though, it was simply we take ourselves too seriously around here, so stop trying to have fun, while working.
I realize that, taken to extreme, if nobody does anything, you - as a company - have nothing to sell. My argument though, is not about the extreme cases, except to say that in both extremes, somebody looses (all work and no play makes nine hours of your day extremely dull and all play and no work makes your employment kind-of short, as the company will have no money to give you).
The seriousness at my last employment place was also one of the main reasons I left (well ... that and the BS I got when I asked for a salary raise).
Still, this half-half division is something I feel is beneficial to both the company and myself. I will probably not try to justify this to the CEO anytime soon, but I still think that.
Also, all this theory aside, when we have an emergency I leave the auxiliary activities down and focus on the emergency.
Friday, May 23
sad and sadder
The fact that racism still exists is sad; The fact that censoriship exists (self-censorship is still censorship) is sadder, for the US (this was published by AlJazeera).
Thursday, May 22
the most important question
We as humans, often ask ourselves some deep questions, such as ...
Is there a god?
What is our purpose?
or
What did you say your name was?
err ... never mind the last one.
Anyway, google has this amazing relevance mechanism, that pushes to the top of the first page, the most relevant results it finds, on a given topic.
... such as ... say, the will of God.
All in all, an amazing feature!
Is there a god?
What is our purpose?
or
What did you say your name was?
err ... never mind the last one.
Anyway, google has this amazing relevance mechanism, that pushes to the top of the first page, the most relevant results it finds, on a given topic.
... such as ... say, the will of God.
All in all, an amazing feature!
Tuesday, May 20
quote
There’s no way out of this mess, except to become enlightened and then enjoy it.
- Robert Thurman
a step forward
Sometimes death is an ending.
Sometimes it's a sudden finish of unfinished plans or a stop in day-to-day continuity.
For some reason though, right now I see it as some kind of a step forward, from a conjecture that didn't represent you much anymore. I have the feeling you finished what you set out to do and moved on.
Literally, moved on.
At least, that's how I want to see it; I'm not so sure about this at the moment.
Rest in peace.
Sometimes it's a sudden finish of unfinished plans or a stop in day-to-day continuity.
For some reason though, right now I see it as some kind of a step forward, from a conjecture that didn't represent you much anymore. I have the feeling you finished what you set out to do and moved on.
Literally, moved on.
At least, that's how I want to see it; I'm not so sure about this at the moment.
Rest in peace.
Monday, May 19
something sensible
I should probably do something sensible and go to sleep. It's a quarter to four AM, and I just arrived from Vienna (via Frankfurt).
It was a good trip (I almost finished another Terry Pratchett book) although we left Vienna almost an hour late, due to the storm (that was interesting!)
I didn't see much in Vienna (didn't feel like walking a lot) but I got myself some stuff (starting with t-shirts and ending with a proper meditation bowl).
Either way, that's about it -- I'm going to sleep. Don't let anyone tell you I'm not being sensible (well ... after updating my blog-thingy).
It was a good trip (I almost finished another Terry Pratchett book) although we left Vienna almost an hour late, due to the storm (that was interesting!)
I didn't see much in Vienna (didn't feel like walking a lot) but I got myself some stuff (starting with t-shirts and ending with a proper meditation bowl).
Either way, that's about it -- I'm going to sleep. Don't let anyone tell you I'm not being sensible (well ... after updating my blog-thingy).
Friday, May 16
random update
I'm writing this mainly, because I'll be spending two days with no internet, just going through Vienna (oh, the horror!)
I left my photocamera in Cyprus, mainly to lower my luggage volume, and I'm not really regretting it: my trip here was at night and I'll be going back the same way; when tiredness is an issue (that is, most of the night here and back), an extra luggage just spoils your fun.
Because of this, I might get a small pocket camera tomorrow morning (depending on what I find), just for the mobility of it (that, and my phone camera is a joke and the phone battery is out).
Also, I've moved to a smaller hotel (Sofitel is very nice, but it's also very 'over two hundred dollars a night').
What else ... what else ... what else ...
Tomorrow I'll go on a small shopping spree (need a new backpack and I'm sure there will be a lot of junk that will 'seem a good idea at the time'), and maybe see some more stuff (I've been recommended to go see Hundertwasserhaus by two different people, so I probably shouldn't miss that).
What else ... what else ... what else ...
... Oh, yeah! Everybody keeps saying how Austria is famous for it's Snitzels and it's Apfelstrudels. I can't say much about the Snitzels but the Apfelstrudel I've eaten confirmed it: it was in a class of it's own.
Also, I still have to check out the Sachertorte: it's apparently a speciffic thing, designed for Austrohungarian emperror this or that, because he was a workoholic and liked to have 'a byte of something fresh'; in the middle of the night, that is.
Wish me a Happy Apfelstrudel!
(yes, another one)
I left my photocamera in Cyprus, mainly to lower my luggage volume, and I'm not really regretting it: my trip here was at night and I'll be going back the same way; when tiredness is an issue (that is, most of the night here and back), an extra luggage just spoils your fun.
Because of this, I might get a small pocket camera tomorrow morning (depending on what I find), just for the mobility of it (that, and my phone camera is a joke and the phone battery is out).
Also, I've moved to a smaller hotel (Sofitel is very nice, but it's also very 'over two hundred dollars a night').
What else ... what else ... what else ...
Tomorrow I'll go on a small shopping spree (need a new backpack and I'm sure there will be a lot of junk that will 'seem a good idea at the time'), and maybe see some more stuff (I've been recommended to go see Hundertwasserhaus by two different people, so I probably shouldn't miss that).
What else ... what else ... what else ...
... Oh, yeah! Everybody keeps saying how Austria is famous for it's Snitzels and it's Apfelstrudels. I can't say much about the Snitzels but the Apfelstrudel I've eaten confirmed it: it was in a class of it's own.
Also, I still have to check out the Sachertorte: it's apparently a speciffic thing, designed for Austrohungarian emperror this or that, because he was a workoholic and liked to have 'a byte of something fresh'; in the middle of the night, that is.
Wish me a Happy Apfelstrudel!
(yes, another one)
zen
The further something is, the smaller you see it.
Zen is opposite: the further it is, the bigger you see it.
Zen is opposite: the further it is, the bigger you see it.
Tuesday, May 13
Monday, May 12
on the way
Through all the travels I've done, I've become accustomed to the idea that, no matter how I prepare for a trip, there will be something I will probably leave out.
Because of this, I try to keep a mental list of the important things, and check and recheck if I got all of those.
This time I forgot the codecs.
I mean ... I took over an hour choosing between my unseen films and copying them to one of the laptops I carry (thank FSM these things are small!).
Then, I tried actually watching one of them, only to discover I have no codecs.
Thank the gods of the internetz for free wireless connections! :)
Because of this, I try to keep a mental list of the important things, and check and recheck if I got all of those.
This time I forgot the codecs.
I mean ... I took over an hour choosing between my unseen films and copying them to one of the laptops I carry (thank FSM these things are small!).
Then, I tried actually watching one of them, only to discover I have no codecs.
Thank the gods of the internetz for free wireless connections! :)
Friday, May 9
good management lesson
A manager went to the master programmer and showed him the requirements document for a new application. The manager asked the master: "How long will it take to design this system if I assign five programmers to it?"
"It will take one year," said the master promptly.
"But we need this system immediately or even sooner! How long will it take if I assign ten programmers to it?"
The master programmer frowned. "In that case, it will take two years."
"And what if I assign a hundred programmers to it?"
The master programmer shrugged. "Then the design will never be completed," he said.
Excerpt from The Tao of Programming, Book Three
Zen
You can have Zen the hard way, or the easy way. The hard way is very hard and the easy way is very easy. So, why do so many people choose the hard way?
Robert Allen
I needed to read that.
Later edit:
I just remembered A's comment when she heard this: What's interesting about this is that whatever you do, you will have zen anyway!
This is something most of us completely miss.
Thursday, May 8
a new day
Today's a new day, full of potential, and a fresh start for lots of things and all that. Usually, I wake up in the morning full of ... cheer (for lack of a better word), full of energy, and with a smile.
Not today.
I went to sleep around half past one last night, and something I'd been pushing to the back of my mind for some time got back to me, triggered (I think) by the words of a friend: it's not OK to do overtime, regularly.
I'm actually OK with giving more from myself, for a few afternoons, in the case of an emergency in the office. I find that ... reasonable, for a reasonably small definition of "a few".
What triggered me instead is the feeling I get now, that this is not an exceptional situation, but "the new normality": that "a few evenings in the office because we have to have something in hand by next week" turned in that, and "a few more evenings next week and three weeks after that, and a few more whenever we feel we could reach some milestone, if we just had three more persons on the team".
So, now I'm the position of choosing between saying "no" to all this (which I don't want to do, not as such), getting used to overtime (which I don't want to do either - I'm not my job), or doing something else to fix this situation (and I'm not very clear on what that could be).
Edit: On the other hand, maybe I'm just grumpy; I didn't get much sleep, and the last three hours of what should have been sleep, were spent tossing and turning in my bed, and what should have been a six hours of uninterrupted sleep became three hours of sleep and some (un)rest. Besides, we're not doing that much overtime (even though yes, the situation still needs to change).
Not today.
I went to sleep around half past one last night, and something I'd been pushing to the back of my mind for some time got back to me, triggered (I think) by the words of a friend: it's not OK to do overtime, regularly.
I'm actually OK with giving more from myself, for a few afternoons, in the case of an emergency in the office. I find that ... reasonable, for a reasonably small definition of "a few".
What triggered me instead is the feeling I get now, that this is not an exceptional situation, but "the new normality": that "a few evenings in the office because we have to have something in hand by next week" turned in that, and "a few more evenings next week and three weeks after that, and a few more whenever we feel we could reach some milestone, if we just had three more persons on the team".
So, now I'm the position of choosing between saying "no" to all this (which I don't want to do, not as such), getting used to overtime (which I don't want to do either - I'm not my job), or doing something else to fix this situation (and I'm not very clear on what that could be).
Edit: On the other hand, maybe I'm just grumpy; I didn't get much sleep, and the last three hours of what should have been sleep, were spent tossing and turning in my bed, and what should have been a six hours of uninterrupted sleep became three hours of sleep and some (un)rest. Besides, we're not doing that much overtime (even though yes, the situation still needs to change).
Tuesday, May 6
Monday, May 5
Sunday, May 4
Tuesday, April 29
Thursday, April 24
I'm impressed
Granted, it doesn't take much to impress me, but still ... it's got to count for something.
It's 1 AM on Thursday morning, and I've just installed kubuntu again. It's nothing important, but the installer provides assistance under windows, in case you're unable to convince your system that it wants to boot from the CD.
Now all it has to do to keep me impressed is recognize my webcam, play steam games and set the monitor's native resolution seamlessly.
It was a tall order for the last kubuntu version I had, but I'm optimistic (or naive).
Wish me luck!
Edit, Apr 24, 2008, 10AM: Well ... One down, two to go: it recognized my monitor resolution with no problems (which is more than can be said for windows vista come to think about it); One down, two to go.
It's 1 AM on Thursday morning, and I've just installed kubuntu again. It's nothing important, but the installer provides assistance under windows, in case you're unable to convince your system that it wants to boot from the CD.
Now all it has to do to keep me impressed is recognize my webcam, play steam games and set the monitor's native resolution seamlessly.
It was a tall order for the last kubuntu version I had, but I'm optimistic (or naive).
Wish me luck!
Edit, Apr 24, 2008, 10AM: Well ... One down, two to go: it recognized my monitor resolution with no problems (which is more than can be said for windows vista come to think about it); One down, two to go.
Wednesday, April 23
Mind Over Matter
The Intention Experiment is the largest public scientific experiment (that is, using a double-blind setup) in the influence if intention, over matter.
From the website:
It's interesting to see actual scientific rigor applied to this (I've seen many experiments in this field that could have been easily dismissed due to either placebo effect or observer bias).
Actually, I'm planning to participate in this and follow the results closely.
Edit: I forgot to mention: I found out about this at GNN.
From the website:
In the pilot experiment, McTaggart asked a group of 16 meditators based in London to direct their thoughts to four remote targets in Dr. Popp’s laboratory in Germany: two types of algae, a plant and a human volunteer.
The meditators were asked to attempt to lower certain measurable biodynamic processes. Popp and his team discovered significant changes in all four targets while the intentions were being sent, compared to times the meditators were ‘resting’.
It's interesting to see actual scientific rigor applied to this (I've seen many experiments in this field that could have been easily dismissed due to either placebo effect or observer bias).
Actually, I'm planning to participate in this and follow the results closely.
Edit: I forgot to mention: I found out about this at GNN.
Tuesday, April 22
another python easter egg
PS C:\work> python
ActivePython 2.5.1.1 (ActiveState Software Inc.) based on
Python 2.5.1 (r251:54863, May 1 2007, 17:47:05) [MSC v.1310 32 bit (Intel)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> from __future__ import braces
File "", line 1
SyntaxError: not a chance
Monday, April 21
Why I'm interested in Python
It's been said that Tim Peters succinctly channels the BDFL's guiding principles for Python's design into 20 aphorisms, only 19 of which have been written down.
-- (pep0020)
... and that is why I'm interested in python ... or maybe not.
-- (pep0020)
>>> import this
The Zen of Python, by Tim Peters
Beautiful is better than ugly.
Explicit is better than implicit.
Simple is better than complex.
Complex is better than complicated.
Flat is better than nested.
Sparse is better than dense.
Readability counts.
Special cases aren't special enough to break the rules.
Although practicality beats purity.
Errors should never pass silently.
Unless explicitly silenced.
In the face of ambiguity, refuse the temptation to guess.
There should be one-- and preferably only one --obvious way to do it.
Although that way may not be obvious at first unless you're Dutch.
Now is better than never.
Although never is often better than *right* now.
If the implementation is hard to explain, it's a bad idea.
If the implementation is easy to explain, it may be a good idea.
Namespaces are one honking great idea -- let's do more of those!... and that is why I'm interested in python ... or maybe not.
Friday, April 18
quintessential question
So ... the feature I've been working on, suddenly worked.
Does this mean god exists?
Does this mean god exists?
Thursday, April 17
Tuesday, April 15
Monday, April 14
Tuesday, April 8
the engineer
Team Fortress 2: The Engineer - Watch more free videos
no comment.
Edit: I do have a comment afterall ... It seems this is not the only TF2 character presentation;
Meet the Heavy:
Meet the Demoman:
Meet the Soldier:
Crayon Physics
This game was developed in a week, by one guy (apparently). It's no fancy graphics, no marketing effort, no sophisticated game-play, just fun.
The purpose of each level, is to make a rudely-drawn crayon ball, touch a rudely-drawn crayon star, and it seems geared towards three year-olds (of all ages).
Game-play movie:
The purpose of each level, is to make a rudely-drawn crayon ball, touch a rudely-drawn crayon star, and it seems geared towards three year-olds (of all ages).
Game-play movie:
new computer
Well ... I switched back, from laptop to desktop; a very BIG desktop.
I had been looking for upgrading my computer for a while, but I figured I didn't want to get a new laptop, as virtually all laptops I've seen have had a problem or another, once you get past "I just use it to watch movies and browse the net" and in laptops is not really easy to fix problems and I didn't want to get a bulky desktop either, since I'm planning to leave Cyprus towards the end of the year.
In the end, I kept getting by with my old laptop, knowing I couldn't watch movies under Windows (drivers problem), play games under linux (linux problem), had to tear it open every five months and clean the fans or it would overheat enough to shut down (hardware problem), and a bunch of other stuff (like not supporting anything with more than basic graphical requirements, old hardware problem).
Then, my laptop broke some more (Kubuntu, my primary OS then, started putting the laptop into sleep mode, or just restarting it, at random times), and I got fed up.
I decided I'd get a desktop, and I'll "somehow manage" when leaving Cyprus. I got the motherboard, graphic card and processor from Belgium (thanks R!), then I found out the graphics card had the biggest cooler I'd ever seen (on a graphics card) and it wouldn't fit in a normal computer case.
Thus, I ended up getting the mother of all computer cases, something that's the natural enemy of computer mobility. It's modular, extensible, durable, black, and I can barely lift it.
All of this happened last week.
Since then, I've been having trouble going to sleep: there are all these nice games to be played, movies to be seen and pictures to process ...
It's good trouble though ...
I had been looking for upgrading my computer for a while, but I figured I didn't want to get a new laptop, as virtually all laptops I've seen have had a problem or another, once you get past "I just use it to watch movies and browse the net" and in laptops is not really easy to fix problems and I didn't want to get a bulky desktop either, since I'm planning to leave Cyprus towards the end of the year.
In the end, I kept getting by with my old laptop, knowing I couldn't watch movies under Windows (drivers problem), play games under linux (linux problem), had to tear it open every five months and clean the fans or it would overheat enough to shut down (hardware problem), and a bunch of other stuff (like not supporting anything with more than basic graphical requirements, old hardware problem).
Then, my laptop broke some more (Kubuntu, my primary OS then, started putting the laptop into sleep mode, or just restarting it, at random times), and I got fed up.
I decided I'd get a desktop, and I'll "somehow manage" when leaving Cyprus. I got the motherboard, graphic card and processor from Belgium (thanks R!), then I found out the graphics card had the biggest cooler I'd ever seen (on a graphics card) and it wouldn't fit in a normal computer case.
Thus, I ended up getting the mother of all computer cases, something that's the natural enemy of computer mobility. It's modular, extensible, durable, black, and I can barely lift it.
All of this happened last week.
Since then, I've been having trouble going to sleep: there are all these nice games to be played, movies to be seen and pictures to process ...
It's good trouble though ...
Monday, April 7
difference in attitude (a.k.a. misguided management)
Last year this time, I was working for a corporation (I don't want to give names here, but hi guys! :) ). One of my pet peeves working there, was the "eat your own dogfood" decision, which had a CRM system forced upon us.
The explanation I had always gotten was that, if we showed that we didn't have enough confidence in it to use it internally, no customers would want to buy it.
It's a good marketing decision, but that's just it: it's a marketing decision, not something you'd impose on your developers (though, in this case I guess it's also something you'd impose on your developers).
I realized how wrong this is, as I read an article about World of Warcraft, where Wartenberg talked about how "eating your own dogfood" means “actually using your product before subjecting the consumers to what may be an ill-conceived and poorly designed product.”
Read that again: the first reason to use your own product internally, is to improve on it, to take it back to the design board. That is, to not shoot yourself in the leg, when you get it out in the market.
Think about it!
Then, please think about it, some more! (because I still have friends who suffer from that thing, every day).
Edit: I just remembered: the software had been bought, along with another company, probably for their marketshare (so, that lays the blame - if any - somewhere else). In fact, I doubt that, said company had been using this software internally, though they might have been.
Still, all this ended up as an environment most developers hated, something to be avoided, and part of the reasons I left (not because of this specific product, but because of the attitude that made decisions like this, the Modus Operandi).
The explanation I had always gotten was that, if we showed that we didn't have enough confidence in it to use it internally, no customers would want to buy it.
It's a good marketing decision, but that's just it: it's a marketing decision, not something you'd impose on your developers (though, in this case I guess it's also something you'd impose on your developers).
I realized how wrong this is, as I read an article about World of Warcraft, where Wartenberg talked about how "eating your own dogfood" means “actually using your product before subjecting the consumers to what may be an ill-conceived and poorly designed product.”
Read that again: the first reason to use your own product internally, is to improve on it, to take it back to the design board. That is, to not shoot yourself in the leg, when you get it out in the market.
Think about it!
Then, please think about it, some more! (because I still have friends who suffer from that thing, every day).
Edit: I just remembered: the software had been bought, along with another company, probably for their marketshare (so, that lays the blame - if any - somewhere else). In fact, I doubt that, said company had been using this software internally, though they might have been.
Still, all this ended up as an environment most developers hated, something to be avoided, and part of the reasons I left (not because of this specific product, but because of the attitude that made decisions like this, the Modus Operandi).
Sunday, April 6
Thursday, April 3
portal and half life 2
Here at the enrichment center we believe that if at first you don't succeed, you fail.
Half life2: Portal:
Still alive:
Half life in 60 seconds:
Gordon Freeman at Coast to Coast:
Wednesday, April 2
a good day
- lunch in Latci in the middle of doing 230 km on the motorbike
- getting stung by a bee, in the chest (of all places to get stung in)
- a dead bike and waiting in the middle of nowhere for an hour and a half, for the towing car to arrive (I hope your bike gets better :))
- two glasses of wine and an interesting conversation (nice meeting you N, you have some cool music!)
It was a full day yesterday ... a good day!
Monday, March 31
continuity
This perception is repeated, virtually every time I spent the better part of a night awake: the world is a continuous experience.
I realize the affirmation doesn't make much sense (if it makes sense at all, that is), but I don't see much into it (and if I need an excuse for that, tell yourselves it's five o'clock in the morning - I'll tell myself that's just the way I am).
Usually, I effortlessly split the world into "day" and "night", my existence going between waking up, doing my daily things and going to bed. To my perception, I virtually don't exist at night, at all.
In all this sequence, I try to salvage some time in the evenings, by going to sleep later, and taking some time for myself, or in the mornings, by going later to office.
More or less, my life is, to me, an array of days, one coming after the other.
Every time I stay awake through a significant part of the night though, the continuity of it all strikes me: my perception shifts from the last week-yesterday-today-tomorrow kind of abstraction, to a continuous flow passing through "here" and "now" image, a view of day changing into night and back into day again, with no interruption.
Maybe I should spend more nights awake, just to break my "discreet view" of things. On the other hand, I already know I'll be sort-of paying for it tomorrow, most probably through concentration lapses, while working, or through drinking more coffee (neither of which I'm particularly fond of).
It doesn't matter though ... have a good night ... wherever you find yourselves.
Edit: It seems I'm not the only one describing this sensation:
I realize the affirmation doesn't make much sense (if it makes sense at all, that is), but I don't see much into it (and if I need an excuse for that, tell yourselves it's five o'clock in the morning - I'll tell myself that's just the way I am).
Usually, I effortlessly split the world into "day" and "night", my existence going between waking up, doing my daily things and going to bed. To my perception, I virtually don't exist at night, at all.
In all this sequence, I try to salvage some time in the evenings, by going to sleep later, and taking some time for myself, or in the mornings, by going later to office.
More or less, my life is, to me, an array of days, one coming after the other.
Every time I stay awake through a significant part of the night though, the continuity of it all strikes me: my perception shifts from the last week-yesterday-today-tomorrow kind of abstraction, to a continuous flow passing through "here" and "now" image, a view of day changing into night and back into day again, with no interruption.
Maybe I should spend more nights awake, just to break my "discreet view" of things. On the other hand, I already know I'll be sort-of paying for it tomorrow, most probably through concentration lapses, while working, or through drinking more coffee (neither of which I'm particularly fond of).
It doesn't matter though ... have a good night ... wherever you find yourselves.
Edit: It seems I'm not the only one describing this sensation:
I also didn’t decide to stop because of the general weirdness of polyphasic sleep. It took me many weeks to psychologically adapt to this pattern of sleeping, but I did eventually adapt. It gave me a whole new perspective on the passage of time. I saw time as passing continuously rather than being chunked into individual days. That was such an interesting experience. (from Polyphasic Sleep: The Return to Monophasic)
Wednesday, March 26
mouse of the future ... err ... apparently
(via Things From Life)
The thing's website is futuremouse.com. I'd definitely like one, but at the time they come to market I expect the would be very very expensive :(
Tuesday, March 25
plastic fair play
I will probably post fewer pictured for a while as my new camera produces RAW files that open very slowly (14Mb per file). This means that until I manage some hardware opgrades (that is, until I buy a new computer) I will limit my post-processing somewhat.
Monday, March 24
new office
Well ... we moved. The office is more or less at the same location (three hundred meters down the road) but we have mountains view, sea view, more space, more light, and all kinds of other good things.
As it is now, I feel a cool breeze in my back (large thermo-pane windows are open wide), and everything is right in the world ... or something (this will probably change somewhat when the AC unit on my side will need to be turned on but who cares?)
There are also cardboard boxes and packaging wraps all around, people are still unpacking stuff and part of the network hasn't been set up yet, but this comes with the territory.
In the meantime, I can see the mountains, right in front of me. I'll probably put some pictures up at one point or another, but right now my home laptop is kind-of broken and I need to get something new so ... in the meantime ... no pictures processing :(
As it is now, I feel a cool breeze in my back (large thermo-pane windows are open wide), and everything is right in the world ... or something (this will probably change somewhat when the AC unit on my side will need to be turned on but who cares?)
There are also cardboard boxes and packaging wraps all around, people are still unpacking stuff and part of the network hasn't been set up yet, but this comes with the territory.
In the meantime, I can see the mountains, right in front of me. I'll probably put some pictures up at one point or another, but right now my home laptop is kind-of broken and I need to get something new so ... in the meantime ... no pictures processing :(
Friday, March 21
Monday, March 17
the most common-sense filled statement on quantum mechanics
On the other hand, I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics. So do not take the lecture too seriously, feeling that you really have to understand in terms of some model what I am going to describe, but just relax and enjoy it. I am going to tell you what nature behaves like. If you will simply admit that maybe she does behave like this, you will find her a delightful, entrancing thing. Do not keep saying to yourself, if you can possible avoid it, "But how can it be like that?" because you will get 'down the drain', into a blind alley from which nobody has escaped. Nobody knows how it can be like that.
Excerpt from Quantum Mechanics by Richard P. Feynman (The Messenger Lectures, 1964, MIT).
Quite rarely do I find something so filled with common-sense, regarding a subject so far apart from common-sense as quantum mechanics is.
Later edit: Who knew Feynman practiced zen?
Friday, March 14
Happy π Day!
Thursday, March 13
Wednesday, March 12
Tuesday, March 11
wherever you go, there you are!
I'm back in office again. Yay!. Luckily yesterday was a public holiday, because I needed Saturday and Sunday to recuperate.
I slept a lot through the weekend, and yesterday I got out of my burrow for two hours, and went to Kurion to take some pictures. I was aiming for the kites people are raising on Green Monday, but they were not that interesting to photograph.
In the end I took some pictures of the sunset (that look like all other sunsets methinks :-\) and generally caught my fingers in my new camera.
It was fun though, and I might get a pleasant surprise when I start post-processing.
Meh! I need a coffee.
I slept a lot through the weekend, and yesterday I got out of my burrow for two hours, and went to Kurion to take some pictures. I was aiming for the kites people are raising on Green Monday, but they were not that interesting to photograph.
In the end I took some pictures of the sunset (that look like all other sunsets methinks :-\) and generally caught my fingers in my new camera.
It was fun though, and I might get a pleasant surprise when I start post-processing.
Meh! I need a coffee.
Sunday, March 9
Saturday, March 8
B, drinking water
This is among the first pictures taken with my new Pentax K20D, this evening (incandescent light, no flash).
Thursday, March 6
random impressions
Well ... Sofitel is nice ... and so is Vienna; the flight was a bit too long to be nice.
We arrived yesterday afternoon, after an escale in Zurich, and I only managed twenty minutes of sleep or so (that's what I get for bringing good books with me on the way).
I took some pictures with my camera phone, but I'll probably manage to put them online only after getting back :(.
Doesn't matter much though.
We arrived yesterday afternoon, after an escale in Zurich, and I only managed twenty minutes of sleep or so (that's what I get for bringing good books with me on the way).
I took some pictures with my camera phone, but I'll probably manage to put them online only after getting back :(.
Doesn't matter much though.
Tuesday, March 4
change
Sometimes, change is so slow that you could swear that today repeated yesterday and yesterday repeated the day before, to perfection.
Sometimes ... well ... sometimes tomorrow I'll be in Vienna. The whole ... party started with "we're going to need to send either you or X to these guys, probably sometimes this week".
Now, my ticket's on my desk, I'm rambling stuff on my blog about it and I need to go home and start packing. I also need to decide how much money to take along, what to take with me, and if I will have any time to take pictures.
As far as changes go, this one is a nice change, although I don't think I'll have much time actually see things around there.
Wish me a good trip :)
Sometimes ... well ... sometimes tomorrow I'll be in Vienna. The whole ... party started with "we're going to need to send either you or X to these guys, probably sometimes this week".
Now, my ticket's on my desk, I'm rambling stuff on my blog about it and I need to go home and start packing. I also need to decide how much money to take along, what to take with me, and if I will have any time to take pictures.
As far as changes go, this one is a nice change, although I don't think I'll have much time actually see things around there.
Wish me a good trip :)
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