Phibiophillia
Posted by ungraspiness Thu, 24 Apr 2008 07:09:00 GMT
True Stories About the Future
Posted by ungraspiness Thu, 03 Jan 2008 02:08:00 GMT
A movie with a cast including Ray Kurzweil(as himself), Marvin Minsky, self-help guru Anthony Robbins, Alvin Toffler, Mitch Kapor, Bill Joy, Aubrey de Gray and more.
This is a joke right ? Wrong. It’s near, apparently some time in 2008.
Plot outline : “Computer avatar saves the world from self-replicating microscopic robots.”
On a similar singular note, James Cameron’s Avatar is another sci-fi flick coming soon in the slightly further off but still near future.
What is the original promise of the World Wide Web ?
Posted by ungraspiness Tue, 18 Dec 2007 07:10:00 GMT
(watch the complete interview)
’ Restoring the Promise of the World Wide Web “Commercial aspects of the web have diverted its potential. Firmage wants to untangle the web and inspire young minds,” concludes Doug Fabrizio about his interview with Joe for KUED’s Utah Now. ‘
A very optimistic(and a seemingly very much needed) attempt to bring the internet back in line with it’s original purpose and to lessen the outright commercialization of this important and quite recent breakthrough for us all. However I’m not quite certain how that implementation might pan out for such a project.
What if the web were more like PBS in some ways ? (please come up with something more than suggesting that wikipedia fills this role already).
check out ManyOne Networks / Digital Universe
and more about the guy behind this, Joe Firmage
Readers may recall that there was some controversy around his personal beliefs that he made public back in 1998 shortly after getting very rich from a successful Silicon Valley startup called USWeb. This led to media types calling him the ‘Fox Mulder’ of Silicon Valley.
All those giga-monkeys can't be wrong (or can they ?)
Posted by ungraspiness Tue, 06 Nov 2007 22:48:00 GMT
On Oct. 9, 1903, the New York Times wrote: “The flying machine which will really fly might be evolved by the combined and continuous efforts of mathematicians and mechanicians in from one million to ten million years.”
On the same day, on Kill Devil Hill, N.C., in his diary, a bicycle mechanic named Orville Wright wrote:
“We unpacked rest of goods for new machine.”
Travis Louie – Unusual Circumstances / minty
Red vs. Blue (or don't be so blue man)
Posted by ungraspiness Thu, 12 Jul 2007 22:05:00 GMT
Pointing out the cons of a language like Java can be risky. The responses sometimes are that such attempts are based on highly subjective opinions. Let’s take byte code manipulation for example. Many Java coders find this invaluable for doing anything remotely interesting in Java. After all it’s heavily used in servlet containers and object-relational mapping tools such as JDO implementations. How is this not an invaluable feature ? Well, a Lisp hacker knows Java byte code manipulation to be a con because they can’t help but compare it with Lisp’s macros. Byte code manipulation is still a con for Java programmers too, it’s just that many of them may not be aware of why this is so. It’s really not a case of subjectivity but of awareness(or lack thereof) on the part of those that make the statement against anyone that’s able to see the cons of Java byte code manipulation (or any of Java’s other cons). Seems obvious enough and probably one of the reasons that Sun has so happily backed the current JRuby project.
This entry started after reading a somewhat biased comparison of Ruby and Python which still made some good points (or at least it made me write this !).
First off, Ruby’s meta-programming is superior to Python’s in terms of simplicity and power. Nothing new here .
Now that we have that stuff out of the way here’s another biased article with my points of view. Let’s look at some issues with Python/Django…
Snake Bites
Are the following pros or cons of Python ?Have you ever seen a switch statement in Python ?
result = {
'a': lambda x: x * 5,
'b': lambda x: x + 7,
'c': lambda x: x - 2
}[value](x) class Example:
def method(self, x):
print "method was passed ", xclass thing:
count = 0
def __init__(self, value):
self.value = value
thing.count += 1
def getval(self):
return self.value
def getcount(cls):
return thing.count
counter = classmethod(getcount)There are so many examples that could follow but let’s leave it at these and figure out why we have…
Too much gas
If a framework implemented in a certain language shares the same ‘DNA’ with that language in sense(e.g. Rails code borrowing from Ruby design) then this is very obvious with Django too:- White space: (there I said it) Python’s significant white-space is part of the reason for Django’s crappy and almost unusable template syntax.
- Design: Unrelated (but still annoying) is Django’s broken MVC design. Django calls a controller a view, there’s an unnecessary model layer for form handling (manipulators and now forms which are really just new manipulators) and views are templates that support a funky object-oriented hierarchy similar to ASP.Net (but easier to grasp).
- Badly used meta-programming: Decorators are used in Django to change parameter types and not in the way that you may find useful like for form handling, where converting strings to integers would be useful.
- ORM: The Object Relational mapping features require a degree in HtHdtW(How the hell does this Work!). e.g. Entry.objects.exclude(pub_date__gt=datetime.date(2005, 1, 3)).exclude(headline=’Hello’) Why all the double underscores ? Tried multi-table queries recently ? or how about database transactions (they need to be defined in a view?!). SQLalchemy is supposed to transmute this lead into gold in the near future and it honestly does look like a big improvement.
- Debugging: Trying to debug a Django application more complex than “hello world” can be really difficult. Django has no logging facility so some pretty cool folks have taken this upon themselves
- Community: Has anyone had any success in submitting bug fixes for these ? (I don’t know anyone that has) Any sizable project I’m aware of has had to do a fork of the framework.
- Why is Django’s version number so close to 1.0 at this point ?
This provides some valid reasons as to how language can play a role in the frameworks built using them. Language effects how programmers think about problems (more so than they realize sometimes) and this can effect what and how certain things are built with a language.
Now, to the person who first responded to the comparison article: Are most of Python’s(and as an extension Django’s) cons just highly subjective ? It seems more like we all love to call them just “preferences” and repeat the mantra of peaceful language/framework co-existence in spite of what we remain unaware of in other languages (or worse, remain in denial of).
Co-exist ?
Is it great that Ruby and Python continue to both co-exist now and for the future ? Would we want to co-exist today with Neanderthal man running down main street and vandalizing cars ? (Please ignore the obvious jokes about those with language preferences different to yours). My point is that what was important and necessary in the past may likely be a problem today. Obviously we want to move on(certain species sometimes have to become extinct or evolve) and hence one of the possible reasons for Django copying Rails in many respects as it tries to ‘evolve’ instead of becoming extinct. The same holds true for the evolution of programming languages. Certain steps are required in the process to reach the next plateau(well maybe not Lisp it kind of just showed up!). It seems like a waste of resources in duplicating such framework efforts and giving new programmers(or web programmers) the chance to learn some really bad habits can’t be good either. Why not help some new/potential programmers learn some good habits and have fun while they do so, we could send them over to hackety.org and rubyonrails.org and possibly prevent more snake bites and severe gas from too much “Bebop cola”.
Negativa
The best programmers approach programming in terms of what is possible instead of what’s not possible (obviously staying aware of a language’s limitations but not making this their primary focus). Afterall, why look at life primarily through the shades of negation instead of the eyes of opportunity ? (Do you see what I’m getting at ?). The negative approach is usually more suited to other subjects. Who really wants a mind full of caveats when it comes to a language/framework ? Obviously they all have these to a degree but isn’t less of these better than more ? How is a programming language that does not work consistently the way you would expect it too as good as one that does ?So Python/Django are pretty cool but Ruby/Rails are much better and Lispy frameworks are best(but just not as widely accessible… ...yet). Hopefully Ruby/Rails heads even further in the direction of Lisp. It does seem very likely with cool projects like RLisp starting to take shape.
the end
Those insurance commercials with the intelligent cavemen are really funny because they may reflect some truths about the society we live in that finds them appealing.The pros(and cons) of Ruby (or feelin’ lovey dovey)
Coming soon to this blog !
"Oh, what a tangled web we weave..."
Posted by ungraspiness Sun, 10 Jun 2007 21:23:00 GMT
The Arnolfini Portrait –
Jan van Eyck, 1434
Oil on oak panel of 3 vertical boards
82.2 (panel 84.5) × 60 (panel 62.5) cm, 32.4 × 23.6 in
National Gallery, London
The following quote usually comes to mind when thinking of this famous work —“Who drinks well, God shall see. Who drains at a single draught, Shall see God and the Magdalene.” – Rene d’Anjou 15th century king
RIA/D
Posted by ungraspiness Thu, 24 May 2007 21:10:00 GMT
Thanks John for bringing this one up.
The Regressive Imagery Dictionary (RID) is a coding scheme for text analysis that is designed to measure ‘primordial’ and conceptual content. Primordial thought is the kind of free-form, associative thinking involved in fantasy and dreams. Like Freud’s id, I guess. Conceptual (or secondary) thought is logical, reality-based and focused on problem solving.
RID contains about 3,000 words grouped into categories that are themselves classified as primary, secondary, and emotional. A piece of text is classified by what percentage of its words fall into each category.
In other words in general terms the text analysis apparently maps out how much left vs. right brain activity was occuring in the author/s minds when they wrote/spoke the content.
John also provides a Python tool and Matt Hower did a Ruby version
Blackmore's "The Meme Machine"
Posted by ungraspiness Thu, 24 May 2007 07:16:00 GMT
The book presents a fairly good intro to the topic of memetics. I agree with Dawkin’s indirect reference that the theory of memetics deserves a shot. I’d say that Blackmore’s theory on memetics deserves a shot too, at least up to chapter 13. These chapters are a pretty good spring board into the pool and for me they seemed ‘less koolaid’ than Brodie’s “Virus of the Mind”.
When Blackmore gets to Religion, New Age and Philosophy from chapter 14 onwards and to the end of the book then things seem dogmatic, contrary and too nihilistic in spite of the fact that she does well in pointing out the typical hooks that these meme-plexes use to hook into minds, replicate and cause damage to an open and mutually beneficial society/culture.
It’s fine to go with the opinion that human beings may have no soul, spirit or actual ‘self’ to speak of in any concrete terms but these chapters read as if it’s just a closed case. What about giving the theory a chance ? The buddhist philosophy in conclusion also doesn’t help the argument.
The book was penned almost a decade ago so there’s likely more that the author would add or change now regarding her theory. Still worth a read for the useful meta-memes.
Memetic Malkovich
Posted by ungraspiness Sat, 05 May 2007 06:39:00 GMT
‘Being John Malkovich’ is a 1999 film written by Charlie Kaufman and directed by Spike Jonez. The movie stars John Cusack, John Malkovich, Cameron Diaz, Catherine Keener, Charlie Sheen, Orson Bean and Mary K. Place.
*warning – mini spoiler below *
The film centers around Craig Schwarz(John Cusack) who finds a portal into John Malkovich’s subconscious. He exploits this to win the affection of Maxine(Catherine Keener) who he is in love with but has no interest in Craig.
There’s far more to the story but what stands out is how all the characters that wanted to enter John’s consciousness(and two that undesirably enter his subconscious) all seemed to represent memeplexes.
See previous posts here and here.
Many of the characters that do so speak of being ‘immortal’ by being able to inhabit their host and there is also planning of preparing a new host when the current one dies.
Things like horizontal meme replication are mirrored by the characters(strangers of no relation) that enter John’s mind for most of the film. Vertical meme replication towards the end is obvious between John and his daughter when John share’s with Charlie that they have a new host because they are both getting old.
There’s even more to it which I’ll touch on at some point in a later post.
Meanwhile if your interested in seeing this for yourself drop into the ‘The Meme Machine’ by Susan Blackmore for an intro and then watch the movie.
Perception of Corruption
Posted by ungraspiness Sat, 25 Nov 2006 21:55:00 GMT
From wikipedia, the ‘World Map Index of perception of corruption’:
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