The internet regulation battle rages on. In what’s being called a major victory for the music industry, a New York federal judge has ordered the P2P(peer-to-peer) software maker LimeWire to immediately and permanently stop distributing and supporting its file-sharing software. This works because it’s a business within America being regulated, and LimeWire does have other avenues it’s pursuing and implementing, but as a whole I surmise this will destroy the company. Not only that, but it will only temporarily help the music industry. A LimeWire copycat will set up outside American jurisdiction, or an existing one will now get the power to become the new #1. However, I do actually agree with decision. No it won’t fix the problem, but the best we can do is take a stand ourselves. If the whole country takes a stand, even better.
Random thoughts 2!
Weekly thoughts!
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
-An awful lot of people get engaged in the fall, it’s kind of disheartening.
-When bringing people into a team with you, work or otherwise, find people different than you.
-It seems like some people are pushing to get more women into CS. I understand how we should not discourage people, but it sounds like people are pushing for things like “teach you daughters to program!” and I don’t see the urgency.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
-I think Micah thinks I might be debating coming back to WoW. If so he’ll be disappointed.
-I think I need to be around Kjersti less, or at least control my thoughts better. Not in a dirty way! I keep wondering if we have dating potential, and I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t work. I can’t allow myself to entertain the idea of dating her, it’ll just lead to hurt. Am I not striving to care less and be less active about dating?
-I keep feeling like my weeks take forever, because so many events seem to have happened since an event I’m thinking of. (Example: me, “So remember when that one thing happened at that place?” You, “yeah, you mean 2 days ago?” Me, “THAT WAS ONLY TWO DAYS AGO!?!”) It also feels like time is going fast though, at the same time it’s weird. But I think I figured out why. When I played video games 4/6/8 hours a day, I only had 1/3, 1/2 my daylight hours to do other stuff. But now I fill that time with other events, so twice as much stuff happens all the time! I’m still weirded out.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
-Not sure what to do about certain friendships. I frequently feel like I’m a killjoy around them, straight up. But I wouldn’t change it. If the two of them have been hanging out they are as giddy as school girls, but also as vulgar as the stereotypical modern male, without the cussing (well, with rare cussing.) I swear there was some scripture about avoiding boisterous laughter, but I can’t find it… maybe it was a prophetic quote, but anyway I always associated boisterous laughing with being super drunk, but I’m pretty sure this is a similar thing. When I wrote this our apartment white board said, “STFU! Tits or GTFO!” to me, this is over the line. They’ve combined making light of pornography, making light of swearing, making light of sex, and objectifying women, all into a single statement. But it’s “ok” because “it’s effin’ funny!” and now I can be a killjoy because I don’t support or laugh or join in with this type of humor, and I have no plans to slacken. But I sure miss my pair of friends who took their values seriously more consistently.
Monday, October 18, 2010
- You used to form powerful connections with strangers by being pen pals online. Why not be pen pals with people you actually have met?
- I came to the somewhat sad conclusion that I will definitely need glasses as I row up. Probably in the next 10 years or less.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
- When you encounter turbulance in life, slow down, and focus on the basics. (“Of things that matter most”, Uchtdorf, Oct 2010)
- I love feedback. I think it's largely due to my confidence. I feel I know myself pretty well and can back up my motivations for most things. So if someone calls me out, I don't feel guilty or defensive like I did something wrong, I can just take their information into the mix. If it's entirely off base, I can just discard it except maintaining the possibility some people feel that way. If it applies, it may open my eyes to how stupid I was being, and I'm fine with being wrong.
- “Human beings are social creatures—not occasionally or by accident but always.” (Peopleware, pg 14)
- Micah says I'm the greatest back-seat gamer ever, hecks yeah!
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
- Just made the connection between all the managerial things Dr. K. has been talking about (not motivating by force, having trust, etc…) and why our government is doing so bad.
- Lab retrieving instinct faith example, they automatically want to follow you. A trainers job is to tell the lab to stay, then go as far as the lab can take before it gives in and follows you against orders, once it’s at that almost breaking point you call (reward) it. Heavenly Father is like that with our faith, waiting as long as possible to help improve and stretch our faith before rewarding us.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
- It’s funny (and somewhat annoying, but maybe that’s just because I’m admittedly irritable today) that since people are so used to me being happy, if I’m sad at all they assume it must be something monumental and they worry a lot about me. I can be sad too folks! I’m not going to kill myself it’s ok!
- “nothing is more dangerous to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future” - Chris McCandless
Sunday, October 24, 2010
- Dr. K. frequently mentions how employee productivity differs by a factor of 50. I think how fun I am on any given day (or hour) can also differentiate by a factor of 50 as well.
Two genealogists are better than one.
It appears genealogy efforts are focused on applying the “two brains are better than one” concept. While doing today's reading, something that kept kind of grating on me was how many resources are offered to bring together different people who are working on the same family line. Apparently I'm o a terrible genealogist mindset, but my natural inclination is to think, “bah! I don't really care about what some stranger is working on, I'm sure it doesn't overlap with mine” but apparently it happens quite frequently, or they wouldn't have these tools. It really hit home when I thought about it in connection to chapter 1 of Peopleware, where it emphasizes that everything we do at some level is a team effort, and improving those teams tools and communication increases their effectiveness. I'm sad to report at this phase of my life I don't personally get excited about doing genealogy work, but I hope to someday.
Diffidence and Doctrine
Have you ever thought doubting yourself was a sin? Neither had I. I actually just wanted a good attention grabbing one-liner. However, I do think there’s a fair amount of basis to it. Cecil O. Samuelson said, “If you demean yourself in any way, you need to remember your theology about who you are really criticizing.” Our doctrine does say we are blessed with certain talents and weaknesses, but we are also children of God, which means our potential is essentially limitless. If we consider ourselves incapable of doing something we’re promised everyone can do, like overcoming sin, are we essentially scoffing at our own doctrine? I for one will think twice before proclaiming “I can’t do it!”
Random Thoughts
Random life thoughts
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
-As a consistent repeat customer of fast food places, I’ve found the workforce in any given fast food restaurant changes very frequently.
-I cut my average food spending by 30% this month. Take THAT dating!
-It hit me today that one day, Google will fall from glory. It’s not something I’m looking forward too, to my knowledge right now everything about them is great. I can’t possibly imagine how they’d fall, or what could be ‘better’, but the point is they probably will. People couldn’t picture anything better than gigantic mainframe computers, anything better than basic cell phones, where the crap did Facebook come from? It’s amazing we even care about it! New ideas will come, as they always do. I’m just very curious what will dethrone Google.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
-Happiness is a choice we make through the choices we take
-How unproductive can a Corby be in a single day? I feel like I’m trying to set a record today, and it’s only 10:00 AM, and I’m not even using video game assisted time wasting techniques.
Monday, October 04, 2010
-It would be a lot easier to enjoy the rain if I was fatter (didn’t get so thoroughly cold so easy) and ditched my laptop.
-The first girl who shows interest in Jason, he will either scare away by being too clingy, or he will get upset at how “they don’t care about me” (which means they won’t always pick up on/choose to react to his needyness) and he’ll give up.
Wednesday, October 06, 2010
-You can learn a lot about someone by their Facebook status updates. If I was hiring someone, I’d be very interested to see their last 20 status updates. Business/app idea?...
Thursday, October 07, 2010
-A debt collection agency took a debtor to court and got their money out of him by showing that he recently posted pictures of his new corvette. The radio show was recommending things not to put on your Facebook so places like this can’t hold them against you, but I’m pretty sure the real safe bet is PAY YOUR DEBTS!! Or stay out of them. Yeesh society!
-What other kind of stuff can people derive and use from Facebook though?
-You should figure out how to write a Facebook app that datamines the last 20 facebook status’s. Apparently the interface is not that difficult.
-I got asked by Professor Knutson to join his Seqoia research lab today, to research stuff that interests me. What interests me?
-Somehow I changed from someone content to play WoW 8 hours a day, to someone who is interested in reading things like the psychological reprocussions of facebook, how did that happen? How could I study this?
- what kind of conclusions about people can one datamine from social networking?
- Social structure of a software development team
-Kjersti thinks I should be a ‘computer psychologist’
-"Simple, Average, Intelligent" was written here.
-What break downs DO I believe are more absolute than others?
-“there are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don’t.” – yep.
-“2 types, people who never feel like they’re enough (humble, low self worth) and people who never feel like they’re doing as much as they can (prideful, confident)” – mostly true as a primary characteristic in my opinion, but people dabble in both feelings.
-“2 types, givers and takers” – not true to generalize. I mostly feel like a giver but I have taker moments. Jason is the reverse.
- I love class google groups, they are so useful for getting help, and for giving assistance, which makes me feel warm and fuzzy.
Friday, October 08, 2010
-It’s funny how the back of your head becomes itchy magically after realizing you’re raising your hand for no reason, or that you don’t actually know the person you’re waving at.
-I’ve found having people who understand and agree with your ideas is very valuable, even if they don’t bring new ideas to the table.
Monday, October 11, 2010
-I’ve concluded I won’t be getting married anytime soon. I really need to be at peace with this. I don’t like hanging out and thinking it’s a waste of time because there isn’t a girl there I’m trying to woo.
- So I have a friend who developed alopecia, which is when hair stops growing anywhere on your body and falls out. She made the comment that it's much harder to tell if a fly is walking on your arm (apparently we normally notice it disturbing our arm hair, even if it's just the peach fuzz variety) and that when she gets a runny nose, there's nothing to stop it so it just drips out. Yum.
That being said, I've never found blowing my nose very useful. Pretty much nothing comes out. Also, the hair on my head is undeniably some of the thickest hair people I know have ever encountered, including my sister, and she cuts hair for a living. So I had the thought, I wonder if my nose hair is also thicker? And thus hangs on more powerfully? So blowing my nose is less effective? The end.
-The first step is to accept the fact of change as a way of life, rather than an untoward and annoying exception. (Mythical Man Month page 117)
-When’s the last time you REALLY sat and thought about how you want to be remembered, or how you want people to see you? When’s the last time you wrote it down?
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
-when talking about gender representation in fields, are people hoping for 50/50? With any luck, the majority of women get to be stay at home moms, do the numbers take that into account?...
Simple, Average, Intelligent
So recently Neal, Micah, and I were up talking, and Neal mentioned this quote by Eleanor Roosevelt, "Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, and small minds discuss people." Micah thought it was interesting enough to post as his Facebook status, which was followed by discussion with Andrew and Drew. Andrew asked if it’s a specific person we love, or the idea of love we love. Drew responded with an awesome comment that I think should be slightly more immortalized in note fashion, he said:
“When you talk about that person, you aren't necessarily talking about them, you are talking about how they are important to you, how they make you feel, and how you appreciate what you do with them. All of which are ideas.
Example: Person number 1: I like Mary. (Not so smart). Person number 2: (I like Mary because she kickboxed a jaguar. (Average). Person number 3 (I just saw Mary kickbox a jaguar. I like that because jaguars are pretty aggressive killing machines and Mary makes me feel safe around jaguars. (Smart). Person number three got the same point across with an idea and therefore is probably going to be considered a little smarter in general.”
That’s kind of a tangent though. Another thing brought up in the conversation spurred by Micah’s status post is that “there are X types of people in the world” generalizations are generally stupid. Take the aforementioned on for example, so small minded people talk about people? If I ever talk about people then I’m a simpleton? That’s not very fair, and doesn’t seem accurate. With most any of these X types of people generalizations, people go between the different categories all the time. In fact, the only one I can think of that seems absolute is “there are 10 types of people in this world. Those who understand binary and those who don’t.” And I’m not sure it counts because, despite its truth, it’s actually a joke.
I think the better way of rephrasing Eleanor Roosevelt’s quote is, “Simple conversations are about people, average conversations are about events, and intelligent conversations are about ideas.” This sits much better with me personally. I don’t feel like I’m being called simple if I’m talking about people, and I’m certainly willing to acknowledge that “Did you hear that Hugh Jackman is making a new movie?” is more a simple conversation than “if chemically balanced people can show behaviors of chemically imbalanced conditions, is it ever really possible to diagnose someone with a chemical imbalance when observing only behaviors?”
To further explore this the thought behind this quote, what about what we choose to do with our free time? Do we prefer people? Events? Or ideas? This thought occurred to me because I have quite a bit of reading assigned by a teacher who I have two classes with this semester. He is certainly one who encourages ideas. I’m a bit behind on my reading and wondered why it got this way. My first thought was “I just haven’t had time” but I really have. In fact, I read The Hunger Games, and The Way Of Kings (which I’d guesstimate is 6x the length of Hunger Games) so far during the semester. What makes them more desirable than my assigned reading? My conclusion was my novel reading is somewhere between people and events, while the assigned reading fits in the ideas category. Apparently in my free time, simply pursuing ideas isn’t quite a full driving force to me. However, I submit that great minds of the past came to great conclusions because even in their free time they frequently (yet not exclusively, balance much?) choose to interact with ideas.
That’s pretty much my train of thought so far, at this point I should stop procrastinating by writing notes about my ideas, and actually go read some of the aforementioned reading that I’m behind on. But I’ll leave this with a few questions.
#1. What are your thoughts on this?
#2. What other aspects of life do you think this measure can be related to?
#3. Do you think novels (Twilight, Harry Potter, The DaVinci Code, etc…) are better compared to talking about people, or talking about events?
#4. If we have a current measuring method that looks like
<- Simple — Average — Intelligent->
<- People — Events — Ideas ->
What are ways we could modify it to improve its clarity?
To infinity, and beyond!
In reading the articles for today, the thing that stuck out to me the most is how little we are living up to the potential of modern technology. This church article talks about how they are using computer assisted architectural design, member statistics management , a massive centralized genealogy database, and magnetically coded temple recommend cards. This is all great, but the most interesting thing is this was in the 1984 Ensign, only 3 years after the (debatable) debut of the personal computer! Sometimes it feels like ‘A Google! A Google! We have got a Google and there cannot be any more Google.’1 But if they could do things like this in the 80’s, our capacity to produce beneficial software today has limitless potential of which we’ve barely tapped.