May 16th, 2008
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I’ve been a bit silent on the blogging front until recently, however I’ve picked up the pace again.
My posts will generally be found at FourStarters.com from now on though, unless it’s about very specific programming ramblings.
enjoy!
I’m one of the four main bloggers at Four Starters, where I just posted my first article. This blog will stick around but with less traffic and only for programming related material.
This is nintendo? - the company that openly screwed game producers in the most morally corrupt way possible and didn’t give a damn, riding the coattails of a decade worth of virtual monopoly?
There are so many companies out there (like, say, Disney and their crusade to destroy culture by appropriating it. Q: how long does copyright last? A: however long ‘mickey mouse’ has been copyrighted - anytime that copyright is almost over, disney lobbys for an extension) which I just don’t like because they appear to be involved in moral or ethical corruption. You know - abusing monopolies, misleading people (FUD), lobbying for crappy laws that benefit only them financially, hypocritical actions (lobbying or acting in such a way that companies that use tactics they use or once used no longer stand a chance. Nestle and Disney are very guilty of this one), and other such things.
Even apple’s renowned customer service record doesn’t hold a candle to that treatment.
Talk about knowing you can’t win and then winning anyway - nintendo is doing everything they can manage EXCEPT build the most powerful game console, because that’s the one thing they can’t win on. So they decide to win at everything else. Looking at their stock value and the sales numbers, this strategy is working stellarly well for them. I think there’s a lesson in there for all companies.
Play nice. Be innovative.
Just in case that last post left a sour taste: This should cheer you up!.
Well, today is the day that marks the one hundreth spam comment caught in akismet’s filters.
No false positives. No false negatives - perfect score. That’s some serious spam catching performance.
xkcd delivers every time - obscure geek humour. not the usual old standby of either LoTR or star wars references. For example, for the one linked you need to know a bit about Nash/game theory (or at the very least have seen Beautiful Mind) and know a bit about Feynman (such as by reading Surely you’re joking, Mr. Feynman!, a book I recommend, by the way).
If you so happen to know who both of these characters are, this strip has you rolling on the floor.
Some other highlights:
It’s really true, String theory, redux, Can’t put my finger on why but I laughed at this one the hardest, It’s good to be an atheist, True Romance, Political punchline, Not so much true romance, Whoa, that’s an insult, You have to read this one to get it, cat?, Livin’ the blog, Old meets New gaming. Enjoy.
What to do when you’re suffering from incurable Leukemia?
You live life.
‘Train surfing’. How DO you come up with it. Brilliant. Especially considering that that’s a eurostar high speed train. Note the high-tech magnet gadget he used. Fun stuff. The new king of Urban Exploration is here.
Here’s to making the best of things.
Here’s an interesting essay that deals with motivation. Specifically, two observations about motivation:
For more details including a description of an experiment that tests this theory, read the article.
So, here’s a thought: Perhaps this applies to blogs?
A lot of people, apparently, start a blog mostly for themselves or for a close-knit band of friends. So did I. However, at some point, you get your hopes up, or you make something for general consumption.
For example, I had high hopes for the bush countdown widget which Alper and I posted to digg and reddit (bombed, though since then on digg a site with a very ugly widget did make it. I’m not bitter 
). A post with critique on a temporary measure by reddit, a news aggegation site, did not bomb and generated a lot of traffic.
Almost immediatly since then, I sort of lost interesting in blogging, and eventhough I did have plenty of time, this is the first new article in over a month. Trying to analysing my own reasons for starting to blog, and then losing interesting like this, I do get the feeling it’s a simple question of being no longer satisfied to do it ‘for myself’, since the more or less ‘external motivation’ of having a popular blog.
Interesting? Maybe it applies to you? Eh. I think so.
Here’s the plan: It’s sunday, and its your birthday. You know your work buddies will throw you a surprise party during lunch one day in the upcoming workweek.
Now, lunch always starts at 12:00 sharp, and you are absolutely certain that one of the five upcoming workdays will feature the surprise party.
One of your workbuddies calls you later today and hints at the surprise party. However, you confidently explain that they cannot possibly throw one. You proceed to explain exactly why this is impossible. Then, on tuesday, they throw the party and you are surprised anyway, mostly at the sudden fallability of your math skills.
Here’s the explanation you give:
Let’s say its thursday, 12:01. In that case you know with certainty that the party has to be on friday, but then it wouldn’t be a surprise when you walk into the lunch area, so the surprise party couldn’t possibly be on friday.
Knowing that, however - let’s say it wednesday, 12:01. In that case its either thursday or friday. But you know it can’t be friday, so it’ll have to be thursday. Except, then, it won’t be a surprise, again.
yadayada - using the exact same reasoning you eliminate all 5 days as a possible opportunity to throw a surprise party - because you’ll be certain that it has to be that day BEFORE you walk into the lunch area.
Quite elated at your advanced understanding of the theory of induction, you smugly walk to lunch on tuesday, and stand flabbergasted as your work buddies throw you a surprise party.
How’d that happen?
I don’t actually know. Discuss.