Confessions of a Payara

A couple of Jackson quotes

2007-05-01T15:54:00.000+09:00

From a talk that Noam Chomsky gave at Trinity College Dublin, I was exposed to the following interesting quotes by Robert Jackson, the chief US prosecutor at the Nuernberg Trials (Chomsky introduced these with regard to 'universality'):

"If certain acts of violation of treaties are crimes, they are crimes whether the United States does them or whether Germany does them, and we are not prepared to lay down a rule of criminal conduct against others which we would not be willing to have invoked against us." (couldn't find a more definitive source)

"We must never forget that the record on which we judge these defendants today is the record on which history will judge us tomorrow. To pass these defendants a poisoned chalice is to put it to our own lips as well. We must summon such detachment and intellectual integrity to our task that this Trial will commend itself to posterity as fulfilling humanity's aspirations to do justice." (link)

If you have the time, listen to the talk, it is quite revealing!

3 minutes

2007-04-24T18:33:00.000+09:00

'Nuff said.
[UPDATE]..well almost - updated to add another 20 seconds!

If all your VMWare Server hosted images' networks suddenly become unable to bridge....

2007-04-18T23:52:00.000+09:00

....then go into network host settings and disable all inappropriate networks (e.g. Hamachi, etc) from being used for bridging!

Having installed a USB-Skype cordless phone for the office yesterday we suddenly had a shed-load of IP address conflicts from the image servers on the network. Since, we had recently had some other trouble with the routers (for some bizarre reasons we have a chain of them!) I spent most of the time going through all their settings (which actually also turned up a few problems that were then solved) but unfortunately only succeeded in increasing my frustration with the ongoing issue at hand. Arrggghhhh!

However, after a good night's sleep my googl'ing powers were refreshed and I found this hint which led me rapidly to the solution. :-) I'm slowing down in my old age, I tell ya.

Hole in the Wall

2007-04-16T16:47:00.000+09:00

A very cool project - call me soppy if you want, but I felt gladdened whilst watching this.

WSD as a stepping stone to GTD

2007-04-06T17:10:00.000+09:00

Awesome (WSD - an idea whose time has definitely come) - A baby step for people having trouble getting organised (GTD-style).

Freehand circles

2007-04-03T15:19:00.000+09:00

Did you know that there is a world championship for the drawing of freehand circles ? No, me neither - check out this guy. Also, check out this which is very "The Iron Man".

New Year's Resolutions March 31st Results

2007-04-02T21:52:00.000+09:00

My New Year's resolutions now stand at 5% achievement (down 1% from 4 weeks ago). 95% to go!! :-(

My typing regressed somewhat - presumably because I haven't made any effort on it over the last few weeks.
My finances went up a bit beyond where they started.
My fitness is a little better, but didn't improve quite as much as I was hoping for.
My bodyfat percentage is basically back to where it started.

Overall, I put this down to an extremely busy past 3 weeks, where exercise, diet, etc (incl blogging) have been pushed aside for work. Thankfully, that wave has been ridden now and normal programming should soon resume.

Golf continued

2007-03-04T12:29:00.000+09:00

So, I am getting right into the driving range thing. Yesterday, courtesy of a friend's kindness, I received a set of clubs (not a ladies set so the clubs were heavier and the grip thicker) that I tested out my new glove on, and had a lesson with.

It was a lot of fun and I am glad to say that despite hitting quite a few balls relatively quickly - at one point I think I was already halfway through the backswing whilst the ball was still being set - I have no aches or pains today. The lesson still focussed on the basics, but they are beginning to sink in - I think. Full swings feels fine, but the "training exercises" and half-swings feel very weird - I guess it is just one of those things that you get used to eventually.

Next time at the driving range I will try and be a bit more objective about how it is going.

New Year's Resolutions: March 2nd Results

2007-03-04T12:02:00.000+09:00

My New Year's resolutions now stand at 6% achievement (up 1% from 2 weeks ago). 94% to go!!

My typing improved a good bit.
My finances went down a bit due to the recent China sell-off.
My fitness is probably better, but my next test piece is in a couple of weeks so I haven't updated that.
My bodyfat percentage is on its way down but there are still fluctuations (unfortunately, the last one I measure being a fluctuation the wrong way :-( . I don't think it was related to the couple of big nights out that were had just before...).

Disinterested passion

2007-02-09T08:45:00.000+09:00

Whilst many of the Americans I have met have outside of U.S. appear to have a balanced viewpoint about what is happening in the world, the impression I get domestically is that there is a severe lack of critical thinking taking part in there that engages the general populace (no questioning of god, unpatriotic to not support a war, etc). Whether I agree with someone or not is besides the point, I want my co-citizens to challenge assumptions and decisions (especially those made by elected representatives). This is arguably the most patriotic thing they can do; this is something that has taken a back seat in the U.S.

Anyway, now that that stage is set, it was with some pleasure and subsequently hope that I found the following:

The movie "Why We Fight" - on the origins of the "military-industrial complex" quote
Fora.tv (videos of lectures)

From Fora.tv two lectures that quickly caught my attention were (and I recommend you watch them though they are long - particularly the Q&A parts):

Scott Ritter on Iran
Richard Dawkins talking about his latest book

In the former, although I don't agree with all his opinions I do respect his vociferous challenging and apparent passion and recognise that there are other viewpoints to situations. The latter, ...... well let me just say that I learned something about public speaking from him. :-)

New Year's Resolutions: January 31st Results

2007-02-02T07:56:00.000+09:00

So, the time has come around to show progress on my New Year's Resolutions.
After having overestimated my current starting state I went to -6% in early January, but am pleased to report that I am now at -1%, with the main improvements being bodyfat and typing related. My investment target is down a small amount purely from the portfolio value (part of that category's target is to inject further funds). The ergo results remain the same as at the start of January because my training program has no test (2km in this case) pieces at the moment.

2007 Goals Rating: -1%(@Jan31)

What is on your bookshelf ?

2007-01-31T22:34:00.000+09:00

In case you are interested what is on my bookshelf then you can now see it in all its glory here (well, only part of it in fact as I haven't finished going through my books and entering their details).

This is from a service called "Shelfari" and I quite like this virtual browsing idea (it is also easy to export a list of titles in your library which may be useful in the future). I am also hopeful that it will be a good source of identifying new books (though Amazon also captures what books you looked at in addition to the ones you bought as well as having a large network to draw data from, they have no information about books that you have obtained through other channels).

Golf (continued)

2007-01-29T20:30:00.000+09:00

As a result of a my new found fondness for hitting small spheres (actually, there is nothing new in that at all) I am aching. At first, I didn't realise why but then it was made clear to me that this was from the session at the driving range - I was asked if I had any pent-up stress during the session, maybe that had something to do with it :-)

Basically, it feels like I've bruised a rib or two (!) on my left side and slightly sprained the top of my ankle of my right foot (I guess from the foot-lift at the end of the stroke). Oh, before I forget I also managed to get a couple of blisters on my left hand....ahhh, the joys of taking up a new sport :-).

Still, I think I will give it a year and see where it goes.

Golf

2007-01-28T15:48:00.000+09:00

Just to give everyone fair notice - I am getting into golf. Tips welcome! :-)

[Random topic jump: this is very neat!]

New source

2007-01-20T09:59:00.000+09:00

Sweet!

A new source of high-quality movies/documentaries. The Sundance film festival is hosting a lot of films online after they have been premiered.

Bees

2007-01-17T11:14:00.000+09:00

Fascinating!
Evolution is good as long as your environment doesn't change too abruptly over too short a timescale!
[Are the big hornets suzume bachi ? Those things are scary!]

Flying start

2007-01-16T22:44:00.000+09:00

So, my New Year's Resolutions are decided, and have specific metrics, and goals. However, it seems my fitness had deteriorated more than I had anticipated over the holiday period - hence I am quite ashamed to report that a little interim measurement action has resulted in my progress being an inspiring -6% :-( (at least my typing improved :-(( ).

Still a long way to go yet though :-).

Game of the week + finding content

2007-01-14T16:52:00.000+09:00

Who would have thought that simulating McDonald's would be so addictive ?

I survived to the year 2042 (let me know if you manage to beat that score) before succumbing to the perfect storm of: consumer action, over-farmed land, anti-globalisation, health scares, worker dissent, animal health, ineffective advertising, and an obesity-conscious society. :-).

I found a better way to surf Google Video and YouTube! It is called VideoStumbleUpon and has 20 or so channels each one made up of recommended content. The Martial Arts channel has some fascinating stuff on it (there is also an intriguing series from BBC3) - here are some links (to the actual videos):

Resolutions for the new year

2007-01-09T21:10:00.000+09:00

After the horrible effort that was last year's goal setting I am back with a new philosophy and tracking method. You may have noticed the small graph-like image in the sidebar to the right. That is a sparkline that represents my progress (suitably normalised - current state is 0%; achievement is 100%) towards my goals (generated from this very friendly web-service). I plan to update the data as I progress through the year with measurements once a month.

Last year, I had too many goals and as a result found it easy to lose focus and make progress on only a small fraction of them. This year, I have limited myself to 4 goals (albeit one having a couple of subgoals) and made them sufficiently aggressive (at least a 50% improvement and in some cases 100%...) that I should hopefully knuckle down and just get on with them.

That said, I have chosen to measure them in such a way that over achievement is also possible, and therefore compensation for weak sections (also part of my psychology, that if something isn't proving to be worth the effort I can switch and double my efforts on another area). If this setup works (and I am currently inclined to believe that it should) then I believe other smaller goals will just kind of happen (I will get caught up in a wave of achievement if you will - success breeds success and all that).

I can tell that you are dying to know what the Payara-deems-to- be-most-important-to-change-in-itself categories are. They are:

bodyfat percentage (reduce..significantly!),
fitness (=ergo scores; 2km time and 30min distance--this year is going to hurt...bigtime),
typing speed (yes, this is a re-entry from last year's top 10 - and needed now more than ever), and
investment (increase exposure and return - have to develop another skill that helps my financial position).

Why have I normalised all the results ? Well, I wanted to make sure that I do not reveal too much personal information...anonymity and all that (you would be surprised what someone gifted in data mining can do to identify you in a dataset if steps aren't taken to hide you (e.g. by adding random amounts to your datapoints in such a way that the main statistics of the entire set/large subsets is not changed....actually, with massive computer simulations being more and more the norm these days (think terabytes a day) some people are throwing away the real data and only keeping a compressed copy...where the compression scheme itself is lossy but preserves macro-statistical properties...but I digress)) - I might share specifics if asked.

Some people have suggested that I adopt a more "life changing" approach and phrase the goals in a looser fashion, e.g. "become healthier". Whilst that might work for some people, for myself, and my obsessive-compulsive mind, I need hard targets that I can get into competitions with myself about.

Anyway, if I forget to report one month (the next data point should be out just after the new month begins) then please remind me that I have been remiss! Encouragement is also welcome.

How to spend USD50 Billion ?

2007-01-07T23:30:00.000+09:00

Prioritisation and the Copenhagen Consensus on the world's biggest problems. The question is "is anybody listening and will any attributable action result?"

The US gets it!

2007-01-06T10:29:00.000+09:00

Costume ready ? Action!

Worth my weight in...

2007-01-05T17:05:00.000+09:00

...GOLD!

Further recognition of my eco-friendly stance was garnered today with my taking receipt of a gold driving license (unfortunately, only in colour and not composition).

A popular posit around here is: "If you have a gold license, you likely don't own a car."

And in my case it is true - I do not own a car; though I am not entirely a paper-driver (=someone who is legally allowed to drive, but likely has forgotten how/are not confident to go out on the road).

[Yes, today is a slow news day!]

Anyway, so my gold license comes complete with two PIN numbers and an embedded IC chip. Apparently, if I forget those numbers then nobody can find out where I originally came from (although I think they will be able to guess "not from around here!" - I am not sure why this is such a disadvantage (especially since my name, address, and birthdate is printed on the front of the card) although it is bound to be required at some point as part of stepping stone to a more invasive national id system. I am willing to bet (a small amount - did I mention I do not get paid?) that to prove my identity for something unrelated to driving I will have to provide my PIN numbers at some point and thereby disclose my "private" information to some totally unrelated 3rd party.

Does anyone have an RFID reader ? I am interested in seeing what info I can find out about myself from my driver's license and my passport (already hacked though the system was stupefyingly weak to begin with).

Snap - external link previewer

2007-01-03T14:17:00.000+09:00

I have added some code I got from Snap to the template of my blog which provides previews of links (maybe it is too small to read, but maybe it gives you an idea about whether you want to follow the link or not). Enjoy ... if you want to.

Here are some random links for you to test with:

The Boa lacing system
An article arguing (somewhat weakly) that the half-life of market dominance is contracting with each 'age'.
An interesting piece on F. W. Lanchester (1868 - 1946 ) and applying his combat equations to marketing!
A free utility for fixing "stuck" (and sometimes even "dead") pixels on LCD/plasma screens.

internet discoveries

2006-12-30T20:36:00.000+09:00

Three new discoveries today:

DivShare - an unlimited, permanent, file-sharing service (no registration required).
VideoJug - a load of how-to videos on a wide array of subjects (here's one on mulled wine creation - note to N.O .: the alcohol does not evaporate).
ViralVideoChart - a ranking of the most blogged about videos now/today/this week (this is funny).

The 80/20 Principle & Maverick

2006-12-30T13:00:00.000+09:00

Recently, I have read "Maverick" by Ricardo Semler and "The 80/20 Principle" by Richard Koch.

Maverick - explores what happens when a company embraces participatory management. The results are very impressive though I am not sure how quickly it can be introduced (a certain paradigm shift in thinking needs to occur within the workforce and that requires a certain amount of trust/education/will). Anyway, please read it and let me know what you think - I am interested in discussions about this (read the reviews on amazon for an overview).

80/20 - I liked this quote early on in the book:

When I was student at Oxford, my tutor told me never to go to lectures. "Books can be read far faster," he explained. "But never read a book from cover to cover, except for pleasure. When you are working, find out what the book is saying much faster than you would by reading it through. Read the conclusion, then the introduction, then the conclusion again, then dip lightly into any interesting bits." What he was really saying was that 80 percent of the value of the book can be found in 20 percent or fewer of its pages and absorbed in 20 percent of the time most people would take to read it through.

Taking his advice, I skim read the book which basically looks at the 80/20 rule from various angles and tries to apply it to just about everything (I want to think some more about this and how it applies to my investment strategy - 20% of my portfolio is likely generating 80% of my returns).

The book also contains the following quote from General Erich Von Manstein (1887-1973) on the German Officer Corps which I think there is some truth to.

There are only four types of officer. First, there are the lazy, stupid ones. Leave them alone, they do no harm…Second, there are the hard- working, intelligent ones. They make excellent staff officers, ensuring that every detail is properly considered. Third, there are the hard- working, stupid ones. These people are a menace and must be fired at once. They create irrelevant work for everybody. Finally, there are the intelligent, lazy ones. They are suited for the highest office.

(Lifehack has an article that discusses how it applies to the workplace.)

Hard Sudoku Variant

2006-12-27T21:56:00.000+09:00

I came across this Sudoku variant (Greater than Sudoku - forget about the partial sums at the side they are from a different puzzle variant) whilst investigating a puzzle from the recent vanishingpointgame (where the key is "wh0isl0ki") viral marketing campaign. It is not as bad as it sounds in this article (about half-way down; where it is taken from) but will probably take an hour or so to solve - If you have a lot of freetime this festive period then remember it is good to think!

Present to self

2006-12-26T23:04:00.000+09:00

So, I went ahead and got myself a present on Christmas eve. I got the "World's Most Advanced Mouse" :-). It had some really good reviews and I figured I seem to be spending more time than ever working with electronic documents, so...

After using it for a while now I have to admit that it is pretty sweet. It is a Logitech MX Revolution and has the following:

Low friction contact pads
Geared mouse wheel (for fast scrolling and fine movements)
Browser back and forward buttons (though you can program them to do other things)
Search highlighted term button (mine now googles)
Thumbwheel for alt-tab like application switching
Wireless (=bluetooth?) - so no wires
High-precision laser so works also off troublesome surfaces (I need to check this)
Rechargeable battery and indicator (survives about 15 days off one charge) and charger
Auto-battery conservation when not used for a while

Videos

2006-12-23T11:47:00.000+09:00

There are some interesting videos of funky fluids and driver's license applications up on my Google Reader shared feeds (Payara's recent reads from the sidebar). Have a look (dated Dec 22nd)!

Bayesian stuff

2006-12-23T11:40:00.000+09:00

I think I hinted that I was going to write some stuff up about Bayes theorem a while back but never got around to it. :-)

Recently, I came across some items though that probably do a better job of explaining it than I could so I present them here for your delight.

An article describing how Bayesian probability (Proof here) is non-intuitive (plug the numbers from here in this calculator).

Will it Blend ?

2006-12-20T10:04:00.000+09:00

What is this guy on ?

Milgram's experiment

2006-12-19T17:17:00.000+09:00

I came across the Milgram experiment (psychology) today whilst reading a profile about Derren Brown - scary but fascinating stuff!

A joke

2006-12-10T09:35:00.000+09:00

One day, while a woodcutter was cutting a branch of a tree above a river, his axe fell into the river. When he cried out, the Lord appeared and asked, "Why are you crying?"

The woodcutter replied that his axe has fallen into water, and he needed the axe to make his living.

The Lord went down in the water and reappeared with a golden axe. "Is this your axe?" the Lord asked. The woodcutter replied, "No."

The Lord again went down and came up with a silver axe. "Is this your axe?" the Lord asked. Again, the woodcutter replied, "No."

The Lord went down again and came up with an iron axe. "Is this your axe?" the Lord asked. "Yes," he replied. The Lord was pleased with the man's honesty and gave him all three axes to keep, and the woodcutter went home happy.

Some time later, the woodcutter was walking with his wife along the riverbank, and his wife fell into the river. When he cried out, the Lord again appeared and asked him, "Why are you crying?" "Oh Lord, my wife has fallen into the water!"

The Lord went down into the water and came up with Angelina Jolie. "Is this your wife?" the Lord asked. "Yes!" cried the woodcutter.

The Lord was furious. "You lied! That is an untruth!" The woodcutter fell to his knees and cried, "Oh, forgive me, Lord. It is a misunderstanding. You see, if I had said 'no' to Angelina Jolie, You would have come up with Catherine Zeta-Jones. Then if I also said 'no' to her, you would have come up with my wife. Had I then said 'yes,' you would have given me all three. Lord, I am a poor man, and am not able to take care of all three wives, and I love my wife such that I don't want her to share me with anyone, so THAT'S why I said yes to Angelina Jolie."

The moral of this story is: Whenever a man lies, it is for a good and honourable reason, and for the benefit of others…MOSTLY his wife’s!

That's our story, and we're sticking to it.

THE GUYS.

new low-tech project idea ?

2006-12-07T10:06:00.000+09:00

This type of project is becoming more appealing to me - perhaps I am just looking for an excuse to spend an inordinate amount of time doing something in a low-tech way...

Good week

2006-12-06T22:37:00.000+09:00

So far this week is proving to be a good one:

I have managed two times out of three to get back over my "semi-fit" threshold on the rowing machine (ergo). Now I am within 3.5% of my best distance over this time (30 mins) - my travelling in the latter part of this year has had an intensely adverse affect on my fitness, so it is good to see it coming back. My goals for the year are out, but hopefully next year will see more traction (though I did read a scary article about the annual decrease in oxygen uptake once you are above a certain age - which I am).

Today - we got our first payment (an actual cheque!) since incorporating our company and should have another payment via bank transfer by the end of this week!

"Awesome"

2006-12-05T07:59:00.000+09:00

...is the only word that truly captures the depth of this idea.

New Server

2006-11-26T09:22:00.000+09:00

I recently bought some computer parts and built a server (with some help from my friends). Here is a quick photo-diary of the build event:

The case (CMStacker)

A 4-in-3 disk-holder

A couple of the disks (320GB, 7200rpm, 16MB cache each)

All the disks loaded (6 in total)

...and inserted into the case (and also an optical drive at the top)

The Motherboard (K8N Master2-FAR)

..with processors (2x AMD265 64bit DualCore Opteron = 4 cores!!) and crossflow fan (at top of motherboard)

...with processor fans

...with initial memory (2x2GB PC2700 ECC/Registered = 4GB)

...with memory(!) fan

Video card and card with manual speed switch to control some of the fans

The power supply (Silentist)

Initial wiring

Tidied wiring (sufficient for me :-) )

Compared to my desktop this machine is a giant!

The finished product!

In total it has 9 fans comprising: 2 case fans, 1 power supply fan, 2 processor fans, 1 memory fan, 1 motherboard fan, and 2 disk fans making. If things still manage to get hot then there is space for another fan on the left-side cover.

It still needs more memory - it will have 12GB in the end!

It will be used as a virtualisation host with each virtual machine running on its own disk. This is in response to having to work with some finicky-to-install and resource-heavy software - we have spent (wasted?) far too much time trying to get the installation just right (only to find other things subsequently installed can affect these) and a shortage of machine powerful enough to run the software (mainly from a memory standpoint). Once we outgrow this then Amazon's EC2 will be utilised - I was going to start out with that, but in the end I needed to get the server setup quite quickly whilst having a million other things to do (plus there are actually some legal considerations with regards to Amazon's datacenter strategy...but that discussion is for another time).

[N.B. No animals were harmed during the building of this server, though nabe and beer was consumed.]

Seriously cool

2006-11-19T11:48:00.000+09:00

So, as well as a stream running through, my ideal garden has one of these in it too.

amateur robocop?

2006-11-18T19:39:00.000+09:00

I like this sort of project.

Do you wonder what I read ?

2006-11-18T19:33:00.000+09:00

Whether you do or not, here is a link to items I deem worthy of letting people know I have read (I use google reader to read my feeds now (I am finding it faster to get through than netvibes; basically because it is easier to see if something is uninteresting and skip over it) and that allows you to share items that you deem shareable).

Raw view; feed. - I will add them to the side sometime soon.

Passport issues

2006-11-18T18:52:00.000+09:00

Unfortunately, I have a passport like this... :-(

The people who designed this should be fired! Why do governments consistently let amateurs do poor amateurish work ? Security is hard, but there are good people who know a lot about it - unfortunately it seems that none of them were involved in this...

The real bummer though is that this less-secure passport is more expensive (passport holder pays)! I want my money back and a new passport that doesn't open me up to new identity theft opportunities.

Why do I like insects so much ?

2006-11-10T22:58:00.000+09:00

Random fact about these guys (found this particular one the other day just on a tree outside a nearby house): their large eyes mean they can see up to 60 feet away! That strikes me as being darn good.

That said, I think the furthest I have ever seen is 200 miles from dinosaur national park to some far off (perhaps it was only 200 miles away!?) mountain range in the US (admittedly the air condition was good on that day).

But, how should seeing power scale ?
1 mile is apparently 63360 inches. If it scales linearly then her/his eyesight is pretty poor compared to mine; if quadratically, then it is of the right order of magnitude; if cubically, then it is impressive. Anyone know how to compare insect eyes and human ones ? I am guessing that they should scale linearly, but the type of eye obviously should have a significant influence. Who knows about this stuff ?

Rakuten head and WoW

2006-11-06T17:31:00.000+09:00

Joi Ito made the following statement in a recent interview with the Japan Times (I do not know whether the interview was conducted in English or not):

"When I go to my WoW guild, my raid leader is a night-shift nurse. We have bartenders. We have unemployed people, lots of military folks, policemen -- there is a community made up of a very diverse set of people. And what's interesting is that every single MBA who has tried to take the leadership role in the guild has failed. Leadership in these kinds of situations is much more about listening, and leadership is not exclusive to people in the leading class."

And further down talking about Rakuten he makes the following statement:

"I think Mikitani-san [Rakuten CEO Hiroshi Mikitani] knows the world. He speaks English. He went to Harvard. I don't think he's been very stifled."

A little search reveals that Mikitani got an MBA from Harvard in 1993. So, that got me wondering: although Joi is not saying Mikitani is stifled, is he implying that he cannot lead an agile organisation ? ;-)

Great post

2006-11-04T07:56:00.000+09:00

This is a great post from a great blog and it made me laugh out loud!

Actually, there are a lot of articles that I want to share with you all after I have read, but I don't have the time/inclination to make a massive link posts, so I am entertaining the idea of using the new Google Reader's share feature. It let's you post any blog entry you have read to an RSS feed that is then publicly viewable (e.g. Robert Scoble's shared feed). I need to work out how I can manage my identities for this though (more specifically, I need to see what identifying information leakage there might be).

Fighting

2006-10-29T18:44:00.000+09:00

At the risk of confessing something of my violent side, I do have a bit of an obsession with the mechanics of fighting (much much more the theory side than the practic-al/e side). I want to do a kind of party video (humour me) of the best movie fight scenes - you know one of these random video monitors of some random out of context action that just makes the party/bar scene more complete than if it were absent (it could also be great sporting moments or the high-speed cinematography of billiard ball interactions, but for the moment I am thinking fight scenes - actually car chases would also be a good theme).

So, to that end, what are the great fight scenes ? The opening fight scene in Reloaded is definitely going to be in - that is a really nicely choreographed scene (my preference is definitely for techniques in the trapping range). The stilted (perhaps punctuated is a better term) style of the Thai boxer in Mach (Ong-bak?) and Tom yum goong (sorry, I am not sure what the English titles are) is quite appealing for its screen effect. Bruce and Jackie would obviously feature. Who else ? The close-in fight at the end of Equilibrium with the hand guns is also very well done.

To what degree would this fall under fair-use ? Can I post it to YouTube without fear of repercussions ?

10 years to the day!

2006-10-29T15:25:00.000+09:00

Today marks my tenth anniversary outside the country I was born in and in the country I moved to! So that is two anniversaries to celebrate! :-) [Is my world-view too positive?]

How have I spent my day you might ask ? Well:

I started with getting up late (7.30am)
Read some RSS feeds (anybody interested in my OPML file?)
Returned some DVD's to the shop
Went to starbucks and 'wrote' a small app in a MDA development environment
Was happy to see it build and run on the mobile device emulator on my 5 year old laptop running on batteries (stamina mode) in a semi-reasonable amount of time (the sweet thing about developing in meta-data is that subsequent deployment to different platforms (with different form-factors!) is trivial).
Made some notes from a book I recently read (Purple Cow - Seth Godin)
Had an organic hamburger lunch - unfortunately what on the menu said "red hot chili" came across as "someone waived a chili over the top of it".
Went to the supermarket and looked at some bags (!) and bought some supplies for the week ahead.
Returned home, opened a nice bottle of red wine, sat on the balcony (the weather is perfect (really perfect! :-)) and read a magazine/did some email/wrote this entry.
It's now 3.36pm and I am wondering what to do next.....

So, here's today's question with regard to this blog. Should I....

Start another blog under my real name (optional exercise: define real) - note that this does not imply that I want my identity linked to this blog (though I will consider a migration path for existing readers).
Start another blog under my real name talking about my company.
Come up with a more definite theme for this blog (suggestions welcome).
Continue with this blog as is (=ad hoc updates about random topics).

Your vote counts!

(In some sense :-) )

Funny who you see...

2006-10-15T01:52:00.000+09:00

...at the traffic lights at the end of Jardine's Bazaar in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. I thought I recognised a Mancunian accent (though it took an embarrassingly long time to do so despite standing right behind him). I have to further confess that it wasn't until I was looking through a magazine later that I saw his picture and subsequently deduced who he was (and still is as far as I am aware).

[For those that can't be bothered to follow the link, he was/is Ian Brown, former lead singer of the Stone Roses.]

Vista Vociferocity

2006-10-07T20:01:00.000+09:00

This is a bit of old news now (I found it lying around in a draft post that I forgot about) but interesting to see the potential for increased productivity (entertainment ?) that Vista promises to bring....

nonsensical fashions ?

2006-10-07T13:41:00.000+09:00

For those who have read "Fashionable Nonsense" in which a couple of physicists managed to get essentially meaningless text accepted to a peer-reviewed social sciences journal, a social scientist has got his own back (albeit to a smaller degree) 10 years later.

Cognitive illusions

2006-10-07T00:20:00.000+09:00

I just finished reading "Inevitable Illusions" (one of the books on the several that I got a while back) and I was going to write up the cognitive illusions (as the book is a bit waffly) but I just found a blog entry that does that job. The book also claims that several of these cognitive illusions come from people's lack of intuition concering conditional probabilities - so perhaps I will write up Bayes' rule to see if we can't sort everyone out on that front :-).

Before this book I read the "The Eudaemonic Pie" which was fascinating - I like these long term amateur yet serious project books. It's about a group of people who set out to beat roulette with a computer in a shoe (no small feat given that this was done around 1977). The experiments they did to gather the raw data, the subsequent analysis and modelling, the prototyping, the miniturisation, the problems in the field, etc......all great stuff!

Chat

2006-10-06T07:51:00.000+09:00

So, you probably noticed the new chat window at the side there (unless you a new visitor, in which case "Welcome!") - now you can chat with me (oh joy!) even if you aren't on any of the IM networks I use, or don't know who I am... :-) .

[I also added my delicious bookmark link below the chat for easy access - I know everyone is keen to follow the hop-points of my herd of electronic sheep.]

A glazed torus...

2006-10-05T08:33:00.000+09:00

I had wondered what was behind all that...

...makes you think...

2006-10-04T19:58:00.000+09:00

This and this.

Comments ?

Google's internal seminar videos

2006-09-27T23:18:00.000+09:00

On google video there are a load of videos posted by user "Google engEDU" of internal seminars like this one on SCRUM - an interesting 2-3' anecdote starts around 31'30" or so (actually, the rest of the talk really resonated with my experience at a certain large enterprise software house).

These videos seem like a bit of a find - though possibly only really of interest to people working in software - if you watch any then do let me know if they good.

Machinima

2006-09-21T20:56:00.000+09:00

Since giving up TV you may have noticed I have spent more time on YouTube and Google video. Additionally, I have also been watching some Machinima - movies that make use of the rendering engines available in the various multi-player video games rather than expensive things like actors and sets. They are scripted, planned, produced, and directed by a lot of people who wouldn't be able to get funding for real-life versions. People are gaining more and more experience with this medium and the results are already quite impressive. There is still a lot of maturing that needs to happen (some of it with the rendering engines; though the quirkiness is not necessarily detracting), but they do a decent line of holding attention (though note, mine is not so difficult to grab :-) ).

Some links:

Bloodspell - arguably the most ambitious project to date
Red vs Blue Out Of Mind bonus series - picks up from episode 2.
Only the Strong Survive

There is also this that is interesting but it is more a remix than machinima.

Oh yeah, there is also an article in the Telegraph today.

USB memory stick woe

2006-09-20T20:54:00.000+09:00

I have a funky issue with a USB memory stick. It works in my laptops but not my desktop. I can see the problem in device manager but it refuses to install any drivers (I didn't need to install anything on my very old USB1.1 laptop....). The problem (yellow exclamation mark) appears under "Other devices"-"USB Mass Storage Device" whereas my fully functional memory stick appears under "Univeral Serial Bus controllers"-"USB Mass Storage Device". Trying to force the install of the relevant working driver fails, as does disabling the device and reconnecting.

Does anyone have any ideas ? I did some searching but didn't turn up anything useful unfortunately.

Delicious

2006-09-18T22:01:00.000+09:00

So, I was finally prompted into using a social bookmarking site - 'ave a gander and be better able to 'pigeonhole' me (as far as I know there are no sexual connotations associated with that expression)! My initial bookmarks are now in place (50+ tabs as my home pages (actually from firefox's session saver extension) was getting a bit much every time I opened my browser). [Basically, I would use scrapbook to take a snapshot of things I wanted to have available offline and keep links I wanted to look at open in tabs....actually it was/is worse than this as I regularly use 3 different machines!]

Anyway, we'll see how it goes - let me know of any links that you think might be of interest.

By the way, I am using a firefox extension to tag pages - 'tis a relatively painless process.

Have Data will Travel

2006-09-16T11:23:00.000+09:00

The trend that this is no doubt just the beginning of is just too scary. How long before this is added to the war on terror campaign (plus a little industrial espionage seems to be a sideline for a government monitoring program) - you don't mind if we just check through those new product/research files do you sir (and take an image of your disk for future mining) ?

In the UK there are also laws that mean that you can be legally bound to decrypt any encrypted content you might have. Failure to do so of course implies suspicion of being a part of a terrorist cell.

This is all very sad!

[UPDATE: You can do some things that are technically not encryption - the data is in plain view (would the courts agree?). Couple with all-or-nothing transforms (transforming is not encryption - there is no key) for added effect.]

Dr Spock

2006-09-11T20:46:00.000+09:00

...lays down the rules!

Ear phones

2006-09-10T14:57:00.000+09:00

These in-the-ear earphones Shure are sweet. Even with my iPod on its lowest volume setting (one pixel wide on the volume bar!) I have trouble making out what someone is saying to me. These were a complete life-saver on a recent long-haul flight...if it weren't for the frantic sign-language of the attendant I would have missed dinner!

Humour from a German-speaker :-)

2006-08-23T02:17:00.000+09:00

Funny: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3934788900154749704&hl=en

Caterpillar id

2006-08-15T13:25:00.000+09:00

Is anybody good at id'ing caterpillars ? I found this geezer the other day trying to break into my apartment. I did some internet searches but unfortunately didn't turn up anything that looked quite like him.

It turns out that when you talk about caterpillars in Japanese (='kemushi'; literally 'hairy insect') this is the type of creature that you are referring to. Rather than become a butterfly, this guy will become a moth and the spines (='urticulating hairs') are likely venomous (this seems to explain why Japanese people don't like kemushi; whereas my image of a caterpillar is of something eating lettuce leaves that is pretty much harmless). In fact, some of the venoms produced by caterpillars are the among the most potent in the animal kingdom (pretty cool huh). Actually, on a remote Okinawan island a few years back I managed to freak out our guide by presenting a funky caterpillar to him on a kayak paddle. Apparently, it was the most feared creature on the island (I am not joking) and it was looking fairly angry (its urticulating hairs which normally down were standing upright)!

Anyway, the other random bit of information that I learned about caterpillars in this process is that they do actually only have 6 legs near the front. The rest are things called "prolegs" that are not jointed and are based upon hydraulics and are pretty funky when viewed up close (as they have these things called 'crotchets' which look like minature venus fly traps).

If anyone knows what kind of caterpillar this is then please let me know!

"History of God" Author interview

2006-08-05T12:31:00.000+09:00

Really interesting interview with Karen Armstrong whose book I have been trying to read for sometime now.

Misunderestimation

2006-08-01T10:07:00.000+09:00

Too funny!

Cheap car

2006-08-01T09:50:00.000+09:00

After a couple of posts mentioning electric cars with decent performance characteristics here is a "regular" petrol one that is more affordable.

1.5 minutes of fame ?

2006-07-31T11:40:00.000+09:00

Two crazy people on google video:

Eclectic post

2006-07-24T21:06:00.000+09:00

Another electric car (I like the pictures of the front from the side).

Still reading the Shackleton book - it starts a little slowly, but I am completely gobsmacked with the conditions these guys faced and the amount of bad-luck that they had...this is one incredible story.

If anyone has accidently deleted there camera pictures then I can recommend using Digital Image Recovery to get them back (I found this because one friend whilst showing off her France holiday pictures to a friend in a somewhat inebriated state managed to have the friend go through each picture - 200 of them - and delete each one individually!!).

Finally, this gives some food for thought.

New books

2006-07-09T14:17:00.000+09:00

I've just bought some new books and am wondering which to start with. I figured I would share this list with you, dear reader, so that you can make some random assumptions about me :-) , and also to potentially expose you to some book ideas you might not otherwise have.

Of course, in return for this increased transparency I am interested in reading order suggestions (who knows maybe there IS a right order to read them in for some deeper insights :-) ), and also other reading material suggestions.

South - The Endurance Expedition
Free Culture - The Nature and Future of Creativity
The Eudaemonic Pie
Inevitable Illusions - How Mistakes of Reason Rule Our Minds
Influence - Science and Practice
Maverick - The Success Story Behind the World's Most Unusual Workplace

Anyway, let me know ok.

Another new user interface

2006-07-05T15:24:00.000+09:00

Neat!

Blogging distractions

2006-07-04T07:40:00.000+09:00

The title says it all!

Things have been getting progressively more hectic this last month and this caused me to not turn my attention to blogging. Anyway, I am back now and the news is that I have left the big corporation that I was working for - handed my phone and laptop and passes and everything over yesterday - phew! So, now the real fun begins about building a business...

Some links that have caught my attention the last couple of days:

What if you lost your job tomorrow ? How long could you survive on your savings ? I am very surprised at these results.
The West is doing this too! Forget about data privacy violations in far off places...
Tilt-shift lenses are seriously cool!
One man's brain rewires itself! Has anyone done any research into the mechanisms that could be at work here ? Is this a general maintenance procedure that is affected because of the major brain damage, or is it an emergency repair procedure that kicks in because of the major brain damage ??

Commercial innovation ?

2006-06-24T12:19:00.000+09:00

From a blog entry about killing creativity in organisations:

"Slowing down, making time and space for innovation and its inevitable mistakes and false starts, isn't just a better idea. It's the only idea that works if you want to be around for the long term."

It is arguably the type of innovation stiffling middle-management style described in the entry that is responsible for me and my current employer taking different paths from the end of next week!

Anyone who doubts the future will be very different...

2006-06-21T10:30:00.000+09:00

...should watch this video (5 mins) - the world is going to be a very different place (and continue to get more different at an ever increasing pace!).

Fertility costs - a bigger picture

2006-06-21T10:18:00.000+09:00

Very interesting!

Giving away fertility treatment has a longterm large payback (analysis for the UK):
"... a group of mathematicians and economists used a modeling exercise and calculated that for the average 13,000 pounds ($23,960) it costs to produce a child through in-vitro fertilization (IVF) the government would recoup 143,000 pounds in taxes alone.
Japan, with its low birthrate (1.29 - you need 2.1 to have a sustainable population (life-expectancy changes aside)), definitely needs to start spending more on getting people procreating. Instead at the moment they seem to be doing more (increasing taxes/pseudo-taxes, etc) to cause people to view kids as too expensive...

Getting Things Done with Six Thinking Hats

2006-06-10T12:19:00.000+09:00

[N.B. I did try and keep this post shorter but the necessity brevity did not come to mind - my humble apologies!]

I recently finished Edward de Bono's "Six Thinking Hats" which I found quite resonant with David Allen's "Getting Things Done". The central theme to both books seems to be about doing a> one thing at a time and b> (not quite as strongly) that one thing once.

These two principles are surprisingly strong and when employed/applied, and subsequently relieving (for GTD David Allen made the analogy to a golf swing - to hit the ball further you don't focus on hitting the ball harder but on getting the swing so that it flows naturally).

GTD is split into 5 activities:
* Collect - "gather all the stuff"
* Process - "decide if anything has to be done"
* Organise - "decide where it should go - in the bin, file for reference (project), or in a someday/maybe list"
* Review - "decide next actions"
* Do - "do it, delegate it, or defer it"

The strongest idea here is that you only do something once and then once done you can forget about it because you trust the system. At present a lot of people (my old self included) keep their emails that require some action from them as unread in their mailboxes. This means that everyime they open their mailbox they see this implicit reminder that there is something still to be done, so they open the mail and decide again that they are not in the mood for doing it today or that it still requires some other information or something and so leave it unchanged (and therefore unprogressed) as unread in their mailbox...

GTD is, at its most basic level, about separating out mails that require action from those that don't and identifying the next action required to move things forward. The rest of it is about removing the low-hanging-fruit and prioritising what to do next (and implicitly in that tracking progress).

6TH is about getting groups to 'more fully' debate an issue in a "cooperative" way as opposed to the more traditional "combative" forms of argument. It does this by having everyone wear the same hat (the "hats" are symbols for different "directions" of thinking; there are six in total) at the same time.So, for instance, a "white hat" is for just facts and figures and no interpretation; a "red hat" is for (unjustified) emotions/feelings (you yourself can perceive them as being justifiable, but that is just window dressing to everyone else); a "black hat" is for analytic, crticical thinking; a "yellow hat" is for looking at the positive aspects; the "green hat" is for being creative; and finally the "blue hat" is for "thinking about thinking" (=putting a framework around everyone's input to drive to a conclusion).

I'm interested in other people's views of these books/the techniques described in them...

[By the way, some info about de Bono: he coined the term "lateral thinking" in 1967 and started the concept of "neighbourhood watch" in 1971. Two ideas in his book "Simplicity" really stood out to me: polluting factories should be downstream of their river outputs, and anybody who eliminates their own job should keep half the pay of that job.]

The 3C's

2006-05-14T17:25:00.000+09:00

Chemistry : At last, one of the lessons of my dreams (ever put 2g of Rubidium in a bathtub?).

Concept2 Ergometer : Today marked the completion of over 2.5 million metres on my rowing machine, as well as current season's best for my time over 2km. I hope my training keeps generating results like these.

Critical Comedy : Although I have to confess I don't get all the references, the question is does Bush ?

Ollies and Copyright

2006-05-12T19:48:00.000+09:00

I bet you are wondering what those two things have in common, aren't you. Well, I was thinking that I needed to put an entry about both items up and then remembered a comment I got recently about this blog and so I thought I would try following their advice and see what happens :-) [cheers KS!].

So, if you ever wondered how to ollie (amongst other tricks), then that is the page for you. I used to have a skateboard as a kid but never got into the trick side of things (just going downhill fast - wait a minute, that reminds me of my snowboarding - hmmm).

On a more serious note, this interview with Lawrence Lessig, though long (47'), is very well worth the listen. As well as covering business-motivated changes in copyright law it also has some interesting angles on how America is saying "do as I say, but not as I did"...[pdf format]. I've been meaning to read some of his work for sometime and this interview has made me more eager.

The Da Vinci Code Quest

2006-05-11T21:45:00.000+09:00

So...the quest (a widget on the google personal homepage) is now over! Shame it wasn't significantly harder. There are some nice prizes but everyone and their dog will have submitted their entries by now (so my chance of winning is probably the same as the chance that I can stay awake all night). [Have to admit though, that I did enjoy the daily 5 minute bit of puzzle solving - will have to find something else as a daily piece of mental exercise now.]

Dining Technology

2006-05-07T10:55:00.000+09:00

I guess this was always going to happen but seeing it for the first time really blew me away:

It is a wireless touch screen tablet pc that sits on each table in a restaurant (the entire menu, and some limited explanations, can be viewed via this).

The tablet can come off its docking station and be passed around (no wires/locks) and means that the only staff that need to walk the floor are the ones carrying orders. Better yet, it is easy to review what you have ordered and how much you have spent - I think there was even a price per person calculator (with more options than simply divide by n) but has taken me a while to get this photo off my phone and so my memory may be a bit fuzzy [correction: my memory is fuzzy but my feeling is it did have a bill-split calculator].

Next time I will have to take my laptop and run a network scanner and packet sniffer to see how robust their solution is: "Table#7, I know you ordered this but there is no garlic bread beer set...?!"

Christmas present

2006-05-06T19:31:00.000+09:00

OK, I know it is early, but I believe I have found the item that will top my Xmas list. Anybody care to contribute to my Xmas fund ?

Update frequency is low

2006-04-26T19:29:00.000+09:00

Although my update frequency has gone down quite dramatically recently it is not because I am running out of ideas about what to write about. It is because I am running out of time to research/write them up properly.

A big factor in my recent time-demise (despite having given up TV and getting up at 6am everyday) is my new training program (if you recall, I recently achieved a benchmark level of fitness that allowed me to say my back had recovered and so start a proper training program). The new training program is proving to be pretty tough going, but I am feeling a LOT better for starting it. Although the work-outs are tough, the improvements are beginning to come (hand in hand with Mr Fatigue that is).

Anyway, for those that are interested in my training program, you can find it here. The instrument of choice in this instance is a Concept II model B (see below; really quite old and noisy by today's standards, but it brings back found memories from when I rowed at uni) rowing Ergometer (here is the brochure for the recent model D in case anyone is interested - basically smoother and a lot quieter).

Hiring: Defence Against Spirals and Flooding

2006-04-23T01:27:00.000+09:00

There is a term to describe the process by why many large companies are filled with mediocre people, and the term for that process is "the hiring spiral". I first encountered this phrasing in the book "The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture" by John Battelle. The book describes how Larry Page and Sergey Brin were so worried about the hiring spiral occuring at their company that they were personally involved in the interview process for just about everyone until to it became really impractical.

The hiring spiral goes something like this: Consider a company started by some "A" people. They go ahead and hire another "A" person and then another one. Then they let these new people take over hiring. Those people then (being somewhat shortsighted) hire a "B" person who is no threat. Over time, more "B" people are hired who then themselves start to be involved in the hiring process and proceed to hire more people. They hire, you've guessed it, "C" people. Eventually, you have a pyramid with a handful of "A" people, more "B" people, and many many more "C" people. Thus, mediocrity overwhelms (ironically; it underwhelms).

Now part of this is due to the fact that there are just not enough "A" people to go around (though I think this has a lot to do with the misguided amount that companies are willing to pay - ie they are cheap) and also because some people don't need to be "A" people for the job at hand (though I do think that there are "A" people at all levels...).

Now, restricting this discussion somewhat to the software industry (though I see no reason wy this shouldn't be applicable across many others), some investigation has been made into the productivity of programmers. It seems that there is an enormous variation in the time it takes different programmers to do the same thing. Basically, the summary is that the spread in programmers' productivity is huge (of the order of an order of magnitude in difference).

Therefore there is a somewhat compelling case for paying top dollar for the best programmers. In my experience the best programmers in a company will get at most 30-50% more than the average programmer. However, their productivity will be something of the order of x4 over the average. Rather than think you need one or two senior programmers and many junior ones, simply hire the best programmers you can. Even if you pay them double what the average programmers are paid you are still likely to get a factor of 2 improvement in productivity (actually, the productivity gain you see will actually be even bigger because the number of communication channels is kept to a minimum - remember communication channels among n individuals scales like n**2).

So, if you are with me so far then you want to hire from the very top end of the pool but the people who are doing the hiring, having insecurity complexes and blinkered views, will do their best (perhaps subconsciously) to stifle this plan. They want job security, so they do not want their underlings coming up and overthrowing them from their fiefdom. This is an extremely shortsighted view. Since managerial productivity is largely measured by how the team performs they would be better off proving that they can create an environment in which the individual superstars pull together to behave as a superstar team. Just because their (the manager's) technical skills might be in question, their recognition for leading such a team would grant them serious qudos.

OK, so, you want the best of the best and are willing to pay top dollar and everyone buys into why this is the right thing to do. Unfortunately, you now face the problem with the actual interview process itself; that some interviewers don't interview well and some interviewees don't interview well (= "not well enough" & "too well").

What should be done in my (oh so very :-)) humble opinion is that the good interviewers at a company should take over this role (this leads to secondary issues about their job expectations and career/compensation path but we'll leave that subject for another time) . The good interviewers have a natural talent for identifying people that are spinning a yarn and for drawing out that are not so forthcoming. Smart technical people who specialise in interviewing can be more objective about someone's skills than someone in a team who is facing a potential competitor for promotion can. Teams will of course reject this approach and argue that they need to have a say in the hiring process so they can see whether the person would fit in with the team and all that. In matrix organisations most of the (perhaps mediocre) people you actually end up working with on projects are from completely different teams (that have a different "culture" to yours) and this diversity is actually a good thing (this talks about the advantages of racially diverse juror groups but I think it is a small jump to get to different backgrounds/perspectives being good for groups - stimulating ideas and fresh attitudes). So, getting the best people that provide fresh ideas/viewpoints/stimulation to a team should be the priority, not satisfying all the team members' egos that the new person isn't such a threat or if they are then they are a likeable threat.

So, as long as this selection process isn't made into a bureaucratic HR one then I don't see a problem with this process being outsourced away from the team that is looking to some specialist interviewers with a proven track record.

The other thing that I think a company can do when sieving for candidates is to post a real problem to be solved that way even if the candidate isn't hired their thoughts on the problem at hand might help the team find a workable solution thus bringin some positive contribution to the company (for the investment the company makes in the time/effort spent interviewing the candidate). This also has the advantage that only people serious, and capable, apply (it probably gets rid of 70+% of the applications that would otherwise be received, and gets around headhunters submitting the CVs of all and sundry in the hope that one of them will be selected).

Look at the way Google labs did their hiring process; ''{First 10-digit prime found in consecutive digits of e}.com" (this was just step #1) - it doesn't even mention that it is Google that is hiring! OK, so it wasn't a real problem, but the skills to get it are real and it saves their time by them not having to look at the people who punt their CVs just to see if they get from anywhere.

I think this is a great approach for getting noticed/hired. Perhaps rather than publishing a specific problem for applicants to solve, a company could post areas they are looking to strengthen and only look seriously at applications that follow that pattern....seems to me to be an idea not entirely without merit.

Time passes

2006-04-22T13:55:00.000+09:00

[This is very appropriate given my latest attempts at updating this blog.]

I got a random call this morning from a number that wasn't registered. The other party hung up before I could answer but it was more rings than the infamous "one-ring con" calls.

After a while I called back to see who my potential interlocutor was. It turned out it was someone whom I hadn't been in contact for an age (you'll see a lower bound on how big that age is below) and hadn't gotten around to migrating his contact details to my upgraded phone. The conversation went something like this (I'm blue):

Hello
Hello?
Err...you called me earlier... ?
Ah yes, that was my kid playing with the phone. Sorry.
Your kid ?
Yes, it's James, my kid was playing with the phone.
James! It's been a while! How are you doing ? Sorry, did you say "kid" ?
Yes, 1.5 years old.
Kid... ? 1.5 years old... ?
Yes.
Wow! Congratulations!
Thanks!
So, ummm, I guess that means that you are married then?
Yes!
Wow! Congratulations!
Thanks.
Are you still playing pool ?
Yes, I still go to the old place, sometimes I even take the young one.
Wow!
We should hook up sometime.
Definitely.
Pop in at the old place sometime.
Right, will do.
Seeya.
Bye.

Apart from my horrible communication skills this conversation really brings home how quickly time is passing by. I mean, the last time I saw James, he wasn't even dating...

Persistence

2006-04-09T15:59:00.000+09:00

The thing with the information age that we now live in is that it is becoming increasingly difficult to get away from the past and have a new beginning. In the old days if for whatever reason something bad happened and your name had some unwelcome associations you could move areas and start again. However, now that we have this online identity, it has this persky persistent quality to it.....

Further to this article, here are some other developments:

Someone I know found out they were working with a believed ex-mobster.
Some MySpace teenagers are finding out that what they are putting on MySpace is coming back to haunt them legally.
Employers are googling people before they hire them; and also it seems googling them whilst they are hired and then firing them if they don't like what they see.
The social photo sharing sites have some content on there that I am sure some people would rather not have made public (but are now easily searchable through the tags - riya.com seems to also put a box around the face and ask "Who is this?" !!).

Now, the latest one seems to be DontDateHimGirl.com. This site is apparently really catching on. It looks like the submitted data is anonymous and unverified which means that it is going to be easy to submit false reports - either to get at people you don't like, or bury any real write-ups about yourself in the middle of a lot of obviously crazy ones thus making the it-is-obviously-just-some-crazy-person-out-to-get-back-at-me-for-something story seem more believable.

This whole online persistence (particularly, persistent links between content/rumour and identity) thing is basically why I am keeping no easily searchable online linkage of this blog with my name - I have no idea what direction this might go in the future, nor what other people will forge in my name, and nor (perhaps most importantly) what people (with power) in the future will think of any today-considered-innocent content (see for example this). I don't mind my friends knowing I write this but I do mind anybody being able to find out (=> don't post my name in the comments or any links please).

Quick and dirty fixes made permanent

2006-04-07T22:31:00.000+09:00

It is confession time again!

I have this habbit of not wanting to replace/pay for an expensive repair job on things that apart from a single defect are otherwise in perfect working order. Below are two examples of what I am talking about:
The snowboard in the pictures is a Burton 167cm Floater with Drake step-in bindings (think Switch with a hi-back) mounted on top of Palmer plates used in conjunction with Northwave boots. Two full seasons ago I broke the tension adjuster (a lever-like thing to push the hi-back into the boot once you've stepped in) for the last time (I think I broke them about 6 times in total (my riding style can be somewhat aggressive at times) - but then it became impossible to get the replacement part; they had stopped making the model and I had bought the last remaining stock already). After pondering about the cost of getting new boots and bindings I decided to see if there was any makeshift solution I could come up with to buy me more time to consider the intracacies of such a significant purchase.

[UPDATED 09/04/2006: I found one of my broken tension adjusters. I've included a picture for reference.]

The initial solution was to take the cork of a wine bottle and cut it in half lengthways (after consuming the wine of course). I would then step-in and then whilst pushing the hi-back in with my hand push the cork into the gap between the hi-back and the curved metal at the base. This wasn't so bad except that it was a bit fumbly what with thick gloves and all that. The solution was then further refined to make use of Champagne cork and to stick it to the curved metal at the back/base of the hi-back and then wrap the whole structure in masking tape. Although a little more difficult to step-in (though cork does give so it wasn't tooooo bad) this actually worked very well; about one-and-half-season's-worth-of-trips well (I also think it made a fairly strong fashion statement with one hi-back having brown masking tape and the other (in the picture) having white)!

As this season has now drawn to a close I have decided that the board, boots, binding (and some of my wear) should be retired after years of good service. I am now looking forward to seeing what modern technology can do to enhance my white powder experience! If anyone is interested in the stuff I am retiring then let me know...

The laptop in the picture was purchased about 4 years ago and after about 24 months the screen began to fall down of its own accord (I understand this is due to the (largely inaccessible) screws that hold it in place wearing a grove into the pivots). This was really quite annoying as the laptop rocks! It's a Sony Vaio SRX7F/PB and has 384MB RAM, 850 MHz P3, 80GB HDD, 10.4" display, and only weighs 1.25Kg. Additionally, although it is 4 years old it still has 4 hours of battery life, runs XP Pro, has an integrated 802.11b wireless, and a Firewire port which is most needed as it connects to my 2nd generation 20GB iPod (which thankfully still also has good battery life). For my uses (not as light as you might assume) this is still very adequate (well, it could do with more RAM, but unfortunately this is the limit that its motherboard will handle) so I decided to apply the same "let's find a makeshift solution" to see if I couldn't get the screen back to its former supporting-its-own-weight-whilst-tilted glory.

The solution was to take some yellow post-it notes (the thin kind) and fold them in half and then slide them into the gap between the two halves of the laptop at the base of the monitor. This simple fix has completely restored the screen's abililty to support its own weight at any angle. This, needless to say, is awesome as it is effectively as good as new again (well, better, as now it has a funky piece of yellow post-it notes sticking out the top).

And it gets better! I can even close the laptop without needing to remove the yellow post-it notes, thereby putting this makeshift solution on a par with the masking taped cork one....!!

Another quick video

2006-04-06T20:50:00.000+09:00

Wow!

Ali G's business case

2006-04-06T20:04:00.000+09:00

There must be some copyright violation (by the uploader) going on here but this is great:

Software Development

2006-04-04T23:15:00.000+09:00

For all the fans of the Waterfall software development methodology, here is a conference for you - be sure to check out the following:

"Working Harder, Not Smarter",
"Put Testing Where It Belongs--At the End" (keynote speech),
and the "Register Now" page.

;-)

Actually, according to the wikipedia link above the inventor of the method (W. W. Royce) criticised it on the second page as being "is risky and invites failure" (mainly because of the effects of cumulative delays). If you have any experience with large company software development projects you should know exactly where this is coming from...

Changing subject slightly, here is an interesting home page - it belongs to Bjarne Stroustrup, the creator of C++ (he has quite a lot of very sharp insights).

My back is officially back!

2006-03-29T21:12:00.000+09:00

Just a small note of self-congratulation; today, I managed to break my target for getting back into serious training (yay!).

After last August's trip to Ireland I got out of the training habit for while (which was a shame as just before I went on the Ireland trip I did set a reasonably impressive personal best) and then due to some bad luck (and perhaps some overtraining) managed to hurt my lower back. This resulted in me having to take 3 months off from training (and also all billiard playing :-( ) to let my back recover. For the last couple of months then I have been gradually easing back into my workouts pushing myself a little harder each time. Today I finally succeeded in passing the somewhat arbitrary target I set myself for getting back into serious training so I am quite psyched (not least because the workout I have been doing for the past few months has become somewhat monotonous and I was beginning to doubt I would ever get back to a reasonable starting point, from tomorrow I now get to do a much more progressive workout tailored specifically for a shorter, more intense event with the whole micro-, meso-, and macro-cycle works).

So, I reached a small but significant stepping stone goal today - I am happy; life is good!

Favourite Authors

2006-03-26T23:13:00.000+09:00

Who are you favourite authors ?

This morning I started to read Haruki Murakami's "Kafka on the Shore". It is a great book. I started to read the book this morning and then I finished it around 7pm this evening. It is a seriously good book and difficult to put down.

I like Murakami's style of writing and he certainly seems to have a good deal of insight into the darker side of things (though it has to be said that this is probably the least dark of the his books that I have read). Anyway, whilst reading the book I came to the conclusion that this is quite possibly the best book I have ever read (of course it could just be that I have forgotten the other great books that I have read - DH Lawrence's "The Rainbow" definitely also ranks very highly)!

In addition to Murakami, Paul Auster is another of my favourite authors. If you haven't read either of these authors' works then I can heartily recommend that you do so. If you have any favourite works/authors that you think I should read then please let me know!

In terms of non-fiction I recently came across this funky literary work. It describes why especially in this day and age that the customer experience is the most important thing for a business to get right. The moral of the story is "make sure you don't have any customer facing idiots" - the risk is just too high that they will do more harm than any salary savings you may make.

Personal DNA

2006-03-20T19:39:00.000+09:00

Hmmm, sharing the results of personal self-analysis has never been a strong point of mine, but I discovered this quite interesting site today and did a quick 10 minute survey to find out more about what I think about myself.

Animated Inventor

I came out as an "Animated Inventor" (mouse over the above blocks to see the various categories) but I think I must have let my perception of myself interfere with who I know myself to be. I say this because half-way down the report it mentioned that "Those who are as outgoing as you are often need to remind themselves that time alone can be just as fulfilling...". Errrr.....I most certainly do not need reminding of that. I can quite easily spend hours without the company of others - actually, if I don't get my fix then I quite often get edgy because I need to do this.

If you know me then please review me (use ae20e9ab40df for the receipt) from your perspective so I can see where I am kidding myself (well, either that, or where I am not expressing myself as honestly as I should be (well, if I wanted to be totally honest that is :-) )).

Here is the full personal DNA report.

State of the Union 2004 address remix

2006-03-17T11:32:00.000+09:00

This remix is really quite an impressive piece of work (N.B. contains some strong language).

McPassion & Freakonomics

2006-03-14T22:44:00.000+09:00

Two quick things:

I am not sure whether this McPassion promotional video is real or not :-) .
I was going to write a review of Freakonomics, but I discovered something that should give people a better idea about the book; an interblog debate on a section of the book (1-2-3).

A Kabuki Actor's Wedding Reception

2006-03-10T16:00:00.000+09:00

Continuing on the quest to understand Japanese humour, this is hilarious (unfortunately though you need to understand some Japanese to appreciate it). [In Kabuki theatre the (hardcore) audience calls out the name of the Kabuki actor to show their appreciation (think of it as a bit like applause).]

Fear

2006-03-09T08:54:00.000+09:00

...and random aspects thereof...

"Fear of girls" is funny. I wonder how true it is (I've never been into RPG's myself):

I am very seriously fearful about what might happen to our privacy in the future (anyone up for buying a country (needs to have natural resources for self-sufficiency but nothing too in-demand by other nations) and making sure it is a haven for sensible people with secrets to keep?). Keeping secrets is a very basic human thing to do, I really cannot get my head around people who say "well, if you are not doing anything wrong...". It is not healthy to be comfortable with complete transparency (my secrets (selectively distributed) are the glue that connect the various aspects of me together. Nor is it healthy for governments to want to second guess its citizens (stifles creativity and all that). Though, think for a moment, how different the world might be if the British intelligence service was able to take out key people and prevent the signing of the US Declaration of Independence...[N.B. I thought that one US document granted US citizens the right to overthrow an unjust government, but I couldn't find any proper references. If true then an all seeing government is then in the rather frightening position of being able to define itself as just and still claim to be a democracy. Anyone know if there is such a document ?]

I fear that modern science is moving along quite steadily without my being able to keep up...now we have computers that work best when switched off (they might produce fewer errors that way, but how on Earth (or should that be "earth"?) do you debug it ?).

I also fear that J. Tupper has too much free time to concoct a formula that draws itself! I hope he didn't try each parameter value one by one until it worked (have you seen the size of n ?).

What fears do you have ?

Where to take this ?

2006-03-04T23:44:00.000+09:00

So, I have been doing this blog thing now for 3 months (ok, recently I've been a bit slack) and am wondering where to take it. I have recently actually started to tell people about it in an attempt to drive up the interactive side of things (you know...comments, questions, suggestions for future articles, criticisms of writing style, etc - i.e. to change the focus from a monologue to a dialogue).

Anyway, aside from my own selfish motivations for doing this, I am interested in what your (is there anybody there ?) thoughts are on what the best direction to take this blog in.

For instance, I could:

keep it much the same as at the moment and put out (suitably) random posts on whatever takes my fancy on a (more) regular basis,
move a little into group blogging and open up one day a week to a guest bloggers (are you interested in writing but don't want to blog yourself ? Perhaps you already have a blog but are interested in a more anonymous environment or seek access to a more sophisticated audience :-) ),
have theme days (e.g. Monday is Japanese language day, Tuesday is science+computer day, Wednesday is fun stuff day, Thursday is "what-has-annoyed-me-recently-and-how-I-would-fix-it" day, Friday is book review day),
introduce some educational segments ("let's learn together" ?),
seek requests (from you!) for post subjects,
start podcasting (does blogger support podcasts ?),
start video blogging (does blogger support vlogs ?),

or some combination of the above...let me know ok.

By the way, how do you read this blog (this assumes the existence of a reader of course):

Do you just visit this URL now and again ?
Do you use a feedreader of some description (by the way, in case you don't know the Atom feed for the full text of this blog is available from: http://payara-confessions.blogspot.com/atom.xml - I guess I should really add it to the site template...) ?
Do you use a desktop based feedreader or a web one (like netvibes, protopage, or even by adding it to your my Yahoo! page for that matter) ?

[Personally, I like netvibes for handling all my feeds and protopage for web-based sticky notes of links/agendas/things to do/etc. I am actually getting more seriously into the whole "GTD" side of things and will definitely be writing some things up on this in the future - once I have perfected my system.]

Guide to Japanese humour

2006-03-04T15:28:00.000+09:00

I am not sure whether the following were designed with making people laugh in mind, but these signs from a recent ski trip (especially the second one) gave me a new appreciation for Japanese and humour (not the best pictures I've taken I admit).

The bottom picture was on the room phone and I think I can now see what it was trying to say. The middle picture's Japanese says "Thankyou for using Penke Panke, the staff are all waiting for your next visit" (Penke Panke is the name of the hotel). I have to say though I do prefer their somewhat more creative translation.

That said, to truely appreciate the subtleties of Japanese humour you need to see/listen to the following (if you don't speak/read Japanese then you may need to find a native to help translate why these are funny)....

Nomaneko (music flash animation - took an age to find; there was some controversy...)
Kikkouman (original version)
Kikkouman (smaller but with English subtitles)
ShimBASHI
Piano teacher Perry
Perry's request

Last but definitely not least, this guide to Japanese sushi (with English subtitles):

Interview puzzle questions

2006-02-20T22:43:00.000+09:00

So, for some random reason the other night we (I will say no more than we were a small group and out drinking) started to talk about using puzzle questions in interviews.

One question that a friend uses goes something like this:

In a tournament where there are 80 teams how many matches (where a match is between two teams) are played before the winner is decided ?

Personally, I don't like using mathematical puzzles in interviews as I feel they are quite artificial (I remember having the hardest time with some pure maths in uni but no problem at all when seeing the same ideas in quantum theory (ok, so you could argue that I had already been exposed to them, but I do think that framing alone (e.g. abstract vs practical) can quite significantly alter the ability of someone to "get a grip" on the problem at hand - and let's face it there are lots of people who don't think the same way (I know this from personal experience :-) ).

Anyway, my gut feeling is that if you get the answer right then the interviewer assumes you had seen it before (as my friend did when I worked it out mid-pint) and if you get it wrong they use it to flatter their own ego.

Recently, I have been using a method inspired by "Blink", the book written by Malcolm Gladwell of "Tipping Point" fame, which involves chatting to the person in a general way and then after 15 minutes going with your gut feeling. This actually worked surprisingly well (and I felt really good as I had gained 45 minutes from the process!). I know it worked well by comparing notes with a couple of other people who were using more orthodox techniques....

I will write up my thoughts on the Gladwell books another time, but for the moment I would like to confess that I actually like puzzles. However, I'd like to qualify that by saying that I don't think they are appropriate for interviews unless they are frighteningly hard and you get the interviewee to verbalise their approach to the problem.

Here are some mathematical puzzles in "gradually" increasing level of difficulty:

there are three submarines and a ship. Each submarine fires a torpedo at the ship, and each has a 30% chance of hitting it. What is the probability that the ship is hit ?
you are given many matches and two pieces of string that take one hour to burn but do not burn at a uniform rate - how do you time 45 minutes ?
differentiate x to the power x with respect to x
make a wireframe cube from eight one ohm resistors - what is the resistance between diagonally opposite corners ?
repeat 10 times: toss a coin - if heads put a white marble in an urn otherwise a black marble. Someone who knows the population process then selects a marble at random from the urn, examines it, and then returns it. They do this 10 times. If all the drawn marbles were white what is the probability that the urn only contained white marbles ?

Actually I have an additional confession: an interviewer once asked me the burning string question. Not liking these questions in interviews I replied that I would attempt it if they attempted the wireframe cube one for me (thinking it only fair that I get to evaluate their abstract problem solving ability if they are looking to do the same to me)......the interview didn't last very long :-)

After getting through this long post you need some light entertainment. What about the screen tests for the roles in star wars (you will need to hit play twice, about 5 seconds apart - but this was better than the autostart it would do otherwise) ?

The Law

2006-02-19T16:33:00.000+09:00

If you are thinking about going to Australia then you should have a think about whether to take your iPod or not. You could get arrested!

Voluntarily giving up privacy is very very very scary to me. If they ask me for a sample I will tell them where to go and I will likely be thought a criminal for doing so - be afraid, be very afraid!

Although I might not have anything to hide, what happens when the database that contains all this information is compromised and someone alters the results from some forensic DNA test to have the same electronic signature as mine ?- Afterall, they will probably outsource the maintenance of it to some company that has similiar employees to this one.

What happens when some insurance company gets hold of this information and starts to increase my premiums because of my genetic vulnerability to disease X that they just happened to find out about through some access to this database ? Actually, it is worse than it seems, because even if I can avoid inclusion in this database it is still possible that they could use it to identify me/my genetic susceptibilities. The UK also has some scary privacy developments.

On a lighter note, here is an interview on a deep and serious subject involving one of our greatest interviewers:

Birthday typing

2006-02-14T19:56:00.000+09:00

Today was supposed to be my birthday. Today, many, many years ago was the day I was predicted to be born on by the doctor at the hospital. I wasn't born on this date though, so today is not my birthday. Hmmm, I think I'll still celebrate it though :-).

That aside, one of my goals for this year is to significantly improve my typing speed by developing touch typing skills. I tried some free typing tutors but quickly got bored of typing repetitive rubbish and so stopped using them. I realised I type enough rubbish everyday that I should really use that for my typing practice. From learn2type I found the following useful pictures which I now try and force myself to follow:

It is still quite awkward but it is definitely getting easier (before starting this exercise I was a 2-3 fingers each hand typist; 54wpm). Fingers (un?)crossed that I can make some significant improvement in a reasonable amount of time (100wpm is the initial goal - how long will it take?). Actually, I should also investigate keyboard ergonomics some...but that can be for another post.

no TV means vids

2006-02-12T08:49:00.000+09:00

Last week I switched off the TV. Last Sunday to be precise. Not only did I switch it off, but I also switched it off at the button on the front rather than just switching it off with the remote. Not only did I switch it off at the button, I also switched it off at the plug-board. I switched off the TV last Sunday, and I haven't switched it back on since!

As a result, I spent way more time on the computer, quite a lot of which was really productive. However, regular breaks when doing intense work are important and rather than vegging out in front of the TV, I did spend a little time doing some random searches.

I found out about the following video from AnDy and frankly I am somewhat blown away by the possibilities afforded by this way of human-computer interaction (I am sure there is a whole swath of new interaction patterns that will be enabled by new UI's like this). My vision of an executive desk now definitely incorporates one of these.

There has been a huge furor recently over religious blasphemy and freedom of speech. In the interest of furthering the debate I found "The Passion Reloaded":

Whether this is artistic license or intent to incite religious uproar, I know not.

I found three crazy (as in cheeseburger?) commercials:

The first for its originality.

The second for its humour:

The third for its crime deterrent phone (how long before the lawsuits come from copycat usage?).

This is a sweet assembly of some amazing soccer:

American college kids have too much time on there hands. That is the only explanation I can think of for trying this (don't worry, it isn't one of these drunken frat type things):

And finally, here is a humorous parody pop-video:

PodioBooks

2006-02-07T23:17:00.000+09:00

I came across PodioBooks today which is a pretty neat service. Basically once you've created a free account with them you can subcscribe to the podcasts of books you want to listen to (the selection is mainly sci-fi at the moment but type and number of books they are providing seems to be growing - everything is free so the authors/site are relying on donations (currently no adverts)). For each book you then get an RSS feed that you can put in your aggregator and PodioBooks will send you a chapter a time at an interval of your choosing (each book can have a different interval).

This actually works really nicely with netvibes (my preferred online RSS aggregator) which was a very pleasant surprise - I wasn't aware that there was an embedded mp3 player.

[Several things have caused me to question my use of time recently so I was looking for ways to make my dead-time more productive...]