Thoughts - Sep 8, 2011 22:43 - 0 Comments

A New Beginning

I know you’re out there…I can feel you now. I know that you’re afraid.

You’re afraid of us, you’re afraid of change…I don’t know the future…I didn’t come here to tell you how this is going to end, I came here to tell you how this is going to begin.

Now, I’m going to hang up this phone, and I’m going to show these people what you don’t want them to see. I’m going to show them a world without you…a world without rules and controls, without borders or boundaries.

A world… where anything is possible.

Thoughts - Aug 21, 2011 21:26 - 1 Comment

The Price of Convenience

One of the pitfalls of modern life is the convenience of the financial transaction. Computers make so many things in life literally as simple as pressing a button, but convenience always comes at a price.

The current household debt situation is a great example of convenience gone wrong. Sometimes the price of convenience manifests itself in debt, or sickness, or addiction and can often become a precursor to a lack of choice within a system.

I am not going to argue that the lack of choice in a system is always a bad thing, but I will bet that if you make something “more convenient than nature”, you are always once step closer to some kind of catastrophe.

For me the lure is usually coffee. I drink way too much of the stuff. Living in the city places me in less than 5 minutes walking distance of 11 outlets serving coffee “to go”.

• Sportellos
• Flour
• Dunkin Donuts 1
• Metro Cafe 1
• Au Bon Pan
• Channel Street Cafe
• Dunkin Donuts 2
• Metro Cafe 2
• Sleeper Street Cafe
• Dunkin Donuts 3
• 7-Eleven

The coffee bill really sneaks up on me, because I frequently buy some food item along with it. Why just get coffee when I can get coffee and breakfast too? It is just so convenient! And then there is the almost unavoidable “Business Coffee”.

Creative Saving

I have been taking a course on finance recently, which encourages the student to find creative ways to save money. So to tackle my insanely high coffee-bill, I bought a coffee machine that was on sale at a local store.

OK perhaps that is not so creative, but it does save money. When I was at the store buying the coffee machine, I noticed a dent in the side of the box. When I got to the check out I asked if they would reduce the price on account of the damage?

“Yeah I think we can do you a deal on that!” said the cashier, as rung the coffee machine up for $0.00!

However, a few weeks in to my coffee machine, I realized that I was still buying too much coffee in the wild. And to be completely fair, coffee is a scapegoat, a greater of many evils. It is not just coffee that is convenient to buy.

Services like iTunes and Amazon are just a few clicks away from your bank account. It is almost “too easy” to spend money.

The Ratio of Convenience

One thing I have been thinking about recently is the ratio of convenience between earning and spending, comparing life today with life 20 years ago.

I remember buying my first tape cassette from W. H. Smiths when I was about 12 years old. I had to physically go to the bank, by train, withdraw some cash, walk to the store, purchase the item, go home on the train (I did not have a Sony Walkman at the time), and switch on my stereo cassette deck.

As a kid, buying music took me the best part of a day. As an adult, buying music takes me the best part of a minute. Yesterdays experience was an adventure. Today’s experience is a whisper. And what of tomorrow?

First consider the record highs in the CPI (cost of living), which warn us here in the USA that we are not getting as much purchasing power for each hour we work as we had in the past. Then consider the obvious increase in convenience, brought about by electronic purchasing systems and the proliferation of the web.

These two things (CPI & Convenience) seem inversely proportional. Not only is it more expensive to live. It is also easier to spend. And subsequently, harder to save.

You might guess that as life became more convenient, each hour of the working day should become more profitable. Sadly that is not the case.

Changing Behavior

I am pretty good at doing things I don’t want to do. But pretty bad at not doing things I would do better not to do. And so I have devised an amazing technologically advanced way of saving money. I call it… “The Lock Box”

I bought a cheap but hefty lock-box from Home Depot. It came with two keys. I made a tally of how much money I would need this week, which I withdrew from the bank with a little extra in case of emergency.

I locked my credit cards, ID and checkbooks in the box, and gave the keys to two friends and told them to hide them away at home. If I need my credit card for some kind of big emergency, I can get on my bicycle and ride 30 minutes to get it from my friend’s house (I do not drive). A process that is way too inconvenient for buying coffee, music or whatever it might be from Amazon.

Now if I want to have coffee, I will have to make it myself. And if I want to buy music, I will put it on my shopping list and get it on the weekend… if I still want to buy it.

My hope is that I will be able to take the impulse out of the buying experience and retrain my brain to put more planning into my purchases.

I can already smell the money I’m saving!

If only I could convince President Obama to give this a try.

Thoughts - Jul 6, 2011 7:46 - 0 Comments

Development In Mind

While computers are incredibly powerful tools, there is one thing they have not come close to achieving. Thought. A computer has absolutely no idea how to deal with abstract concepts.

Every member at BarCamp 2008 was asked to answer a question: “What will we be talking about in five years?” My answer was “The entropy of information”. If I could go back in time, I would clarify my answer as: “The entropy of apobetics”.

Apobetics — from the Greek word, apobeinon, is the highest level of information hierarchy. It questions the purpose, objective, plan or design, being transmitted in order for the receiver to achieve the desired successful goal or outcome.

Instant Gratification

The internet gratifies us almost instantly. In the development field, it is so easy to walk into a new job, and Google your way through almost every problem. I know this because it is how I started my first big contract in London.

When I stepped out of my comfort zone, and my area of expertise, I was forced to learn fast. The excitement of rapidly researching small code solutions to reach the larger goal of a program was very addictive.

What was I learning in such a hurry? Primarily, I was learning how to rely on the collective human intelligence. I definitely learned many things along the way. But this kind of behavior is a completely different animal from the contemplative study of a subject and the logical deduction of a solution to a problem.

I have heard it said that the way we use computers endangers our ability to think critically¹. Admittedly, I always considered this to be a non-issue as I assumed the human mind would not change significantly as the common development skill-set shifted. But as time goes on, I am becoming more concerned (because I have seen it in myself), that the we really are loosing something very important.

The apobetic. The depth of the understanding. The living consciousness of the abstract concept, where the problem and solution are realized as two sides of the same coin. I think in some general sense, as we solidify the “how” of a thing in our collective consciousness, we begin to loose sight of the “why”. We begin to loose our ability to reason.

Two Modes

There seem to be two basic modes to any action taken in life. Impulsive or contemplative. I will say from my own experience that the conditions under which I am developing software will more often than not, preempt the particular mode into which I fall.

When rushing to a deadline, rational thought can often be thrust aside in favor of the “square peg round hole” process. Trying to guess your way through a problem is a deadly game. Sometimes it can give you great momentum, but it will inevitably lead you to an impassable object.

I find it particularly easy to fall into this mode of development, in which I use the computer as my primary thinking tool.

1. Have an idea
2. Open up the code editor
3. Program towards a fuzzy solution

But what happens when you sit silently and really think? How many bits of data can your mind process? How many pathways can it navigate, how many rabbit holes can it go down? Is your brain not an infinitely complex machine running at a quantum level? Why slow it down with a computer?

Edit, Save, Run, Error — Edit, Save, Run, Error…

Not now computer. Lets go there after I have the solution.

1. The Future of Social Media & The Internet [↩]

ps -ef | grep <process name> | grep -v grep | awk '{print $2}' | xargs kill -9

  tar jcvf <filename>.tar.bz2 <dir>/

  tar jxvf <filename>.tar.bz2

RANDOMIZE TIMER
SCREEN 13
CLS

speed = .001
StepDown = 30
ScaleWeight = .25
ScalePhase = .0001
OSCedit = 1
Debug = 1
Col = 32
ColRot = Col
ColDiv = 8

OSCnum = 3
DIM Amp(1 TO OSCnum)
DIM Frq(1 TO OSCnum)
    FOR Osc = 1 TO OSCnum
        Frq(Osc) = 10
        Amp(Osc) = 0
        Arc(Osc) = INT(RND * 2) + 1
        Spd(Osc) = 0
        NRG(Osc) = 0
        Col(Osc) = Col + (5 * Osc)
    NEXT Osc

y = 239

DIM lwall(1 TO OSCnum, 1 TO 320)
DIM oldlwall(1 TO OSCnum, 1 TO 320)
DIM lsum(1 TO 320)

DO
FOR n = 1 TO 320
  lsum(n) = 0 + 100

  FOR Osc = 1 TO OSCnum
    lwall(Osc, n) = 0
    NRG(Osc) = NRG(Osc) + Spd(Osc) / StepDown
    SELECT CASE Arc(Osc)
      CASE 1: lwall(Osc, n) = lwall(Osc, n) + COS(n / Frq(Osc) + NRG(Osc)) * Amp(Osc)
      CASE 2: lwall(Osc, n) = lwall(Osc, n) + SIN(n / Frq(Osc) + NRG(Osc)) * Amp(Osc)
    END SELECT
    lwall(Osc, n) = lwall(Osc, n)
    lsum(n) = lsum(n) + lwall(Osc, n)
    NEXT Osc

    LINE (n, y)-(n, y - lsum(n)), ColRot + (lsum(n) / ColDiv)
    LINE (n, y - lsum(n) - 1)-(n, y - lsum(n) - 4), 15
    LINE (n, y - lsum(n) - 5)-(n, y - lsum(n) - 50), 0

    IF Debug = 1 THEN
      FOR Osc = 1 TO OSCnum
       PSET (n, y - lwall(Osc, n) - 100), Col(Osc)
       PSET (n, y - lwall(Osc, n) - 99), 20
      NEXT Osc
    END IF
NEXT n

'FOR j = 1 TO 10000: NEXT j

kbd$ = INKEY$
SELECT CASE kbd$
  CASE "[", "{": Arc(OSCedit) = 1
  CASE "]", "}": Arc(OSCedit) = 2
  CASE CHR$(0) + "M": Frq(OSCedit) = Frq(OSCedit) + ScaleWeight
  CASE CHR$(0) + "K": IF Frq(OSCedit) - ScaleWeight > 0 THEN Frq(OSCedit) = Frq(OSCedit) - ScaleWeight
  CASE CHR$(0) + "P": Amp(OSCedit) = Amp(OSCedit) + ScaleWeight
  CASE CHR$(0) + "H": Amp(OSCedit) = Amp(OSCedit) - ScaleWeight
  CASE ">", ".": Spd(OSCedit) = Spd(OSCedit) - ScalePhase
  CASE "<", ",": Spd(OSCedit) = Spd(OSCedit) + ScalePhase
  CASE "+", "=": OSCedit = OSCedit + 1: IF OSCedit > OSCnum THEN OSCedit = 1
  CASE "-", "_": OSCedit = OSCedit - 1: IF OSCedit < 1 THEN OSCedit = OSCnum
  CASE "D", "d": IF Debug = 1 THEN Debug = 0: CLS  ELSE Debug = 1
  CASE ELSE: IF Debug = 1 THEN GOSUB OscDebug
END SELECT

LOOP UNTIL kbd$ = CHR$(27)
END

OscDebug:
  COLOR Col(OSCedit)
  LOCATE 1, 1: PRINT "OSC"; OSCedit
  PRINT "Amp"; Amp(OSCedit)
  PRINT "Frq"; Frq(OSCedit)
  PRINT "Spd"; Spd(OSCedit)
  PRINT "Arc ";
    IF Arc(OSCedit) = 1 THEN PRINT "sin" ELSE PRINT "cos"
RETURN

(function( global, doc ){

  var speed         = .001
    , StepDown      = 30
    , ScaleWeight   = .25
    , ScalePhase    = .0001
    , OSCedit       = 1
    , Debug         = 1
    , Col           = 32
    , ColRot        = Col
    , ColDiv        = 32
    , y             = 239
    , OSCnum        = 3
    , oscs          = []
    , i             = 0
    , lsum          = new Float32Array( 320 )
    , drawLoop
    , context
    ;

  var Osc = function(){
    this.index    = oscs.length;
    this.Frq      = 5 + Math.random() * 8;
    this.Amp      = .5 + Math.random() * 2;
    this.Arc      = !!parseInt(Math.random()*2);
    this.Spd      = .01 + Math.random() * .03;
    this.NRG      = 0;
    this.col      = Col + (5 * this.index);
    this.lwall    = new Float32Array( 320 );
    this.oldlwall = new Float32Array( 320 );
  };

  Osc.prototype.sincos = function( arcType ){
    return arcType ?  Math.cos : Math.sin ;
  };

  Osc.prototype._lwall = function( n ){
    this.NRG = this.NRG + this.Spd / StepDown;
    this.lwall[n] += this.sincos( this.Arc )( n / this.Frq + this.NRG ) * this.Amp;
    lsum[n] += this.lwall[n];
    return;
  };

  function init(){
    for( ; i < OSCnum; i++ ){
      oscs[ i ] = new Osc();
    }
    context   = document.getElementById( 'canvas' ).getContext( '2d' );
    drawLoop  = global.setInterval( draw, 40 );
  };

  function line( x1, y1, x2, y2, col){
    context.strokeStyle = col;
    context.beginPath();
      context.moveTo( x1, y1 );
      context.lineTo( x2, y2 );
    context.closePath();
    context.stroke();
  };

  function draw(){
    for( var n=0 ; n< 320; n++ ){
      lsum[ n ] = 0 + 100;

      for( var o=0; o< OSCnum; o++ ){
        oscs[o]._lwall( n );
      }

      var col = 20-((1+(lsum[n]))*2.5);

      line( n, y, n, y-lsum[n], 'hsl('+ col +', 100%, 70%)' );
      line(n, y - lsum[n]-1, n, y-lsum[n]-4, "#FFF" );
      line(n, y - lsum[n]-5, n, 0, "#000" );

      for( var o=0; o< OSCnum; o++ ){
        context.strokeStyle = 'hsl('+ (30+oscs[o].col*50) +', 100%, 60%)';
        context.strokeRect( n, y-oscs[o].lwall[n] - 180, 3, 5) //, Col(Osc)
      }
    }
  };

  doc.addEventListener( 'DOMContentLoaded', function(){ init(); }, false );

})( window, window.document );