version control systems ..

Im reading about bazaar http://doc.bazaar.canonical.com/migration/en/why-switch-to-bazaar.html and ... I have very little interest ... and at the same time extreme interest. I wrote a post when google wave came out that basically said I thought the idea of wave would be the ultimate version control system ... obviously something on top of wave not a naive just use this chat system for version control.

but ... over time I have used svn, hg, cvs, git, and now bzr  (just pulling mixxx) ... and it seems relatively asinine. I understand the differences ... but for the most part I dont really care? I guess in some cases different systems would shine, but on the other hand why should I have even heard of five different systems to accomplish basically the same task. I guess I just want ease of use.

For people not into acronyms like myself svn=subversion, hg = mercurial, cvs=content versioning system, git= ... git? (and checking wiki, linus named it after himself, as the pejorative for an unpleasant person, awesome), and bzr=bazaar  ... and after checking wiki to find out why git is thusly named http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_revision_control_software I appreciate that versioning is important, but is it such a complex problem that this many different approaches are needed?

hey we want to solve the problem of how to organize versions ... ok lets all take a different approach and meet back ... isnt going to lead to better organization. and people wonder how data gets lost over time.

taking today off faceboook, just gonna list my links here.

so far as of noon, mostly npr:
http://grist.org/food/one-weird-trick-to-fix-farms-forever/
'if all U.S. farms adopted Brandt-style agriculture, they could suck down as much as 25 times more carbon than they currently are – equivalent to taking nearly 10 percent of the U.S. car fleet off the road' and 'in Brandt’s corner of Ohio, the old saw that the “prophet isn’t recognized in his own hometown” largely holds, though a “handful” of farmers are catching on. Nationwide, he adds, “word’s getting out” as farmers like Brandt slowly show their neighbors that biodiversity, not chemicals, is their best strategy'

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130924/15004524644/press-lumps-ed-snowden-chelsea-manning-with-mass-murderers-actual-spies.shtml
'a whistleblower, even one disliked by the government, isn't somehow an automatic pariah to society'

http://www.npr.org/2013/09/25/225754902/wild-weather-tied-to-unusual-jet-stream-activity?
'"It could be drought. It could be heat waves. It could be flooding due to prolonged rainfall," she says. "All of those kinds of patterns should be becoming more likely."'

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/09/25/226050490/pakistan-quake-killed-hundreds-created-island-off-coast?

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/09/25/226034788/latest-macarthur-geniuses-include-sound-savior?
if nothing else 'Note: As NPR listeners know well, the MacArthur Foundation is one of NPR's financial supporters. Most recently, as the MacArthur website says, it awarded NPR $3 million between 2010 and 2013.'

http://teamcoco.com/video/bryan-cranston-erotic-note

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2013/09/25

http://imgur.com/HUhXiq5

"If my being upset about you breaking the 10 year winning streak would make you happy, then I would do it." -- Jon Stewart
"You would?" -- Stephen Colbert
"I would. But I can't, because I'm an executive producer on your show so I won again motherf**ker!" -- Jon Stewart

http://www.pleated-jeans.com/2011/01/24/the-united-states-of-shame-chart/

*update 12:01 : and I cant stop listening to these kids rock. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYKLvYGqaC0

*update 1:18: http://www.blackgirldangerous.org/2013/09/24/unfit-for-product-placement-radicalizing-the-cartoon-characters-of-our-childhoods/ which is in response to some of the stupid things from http://swaggernewyork.com/2013/09/04/exclusive-lisa-simpson-daria-and-other-90s-cartoon-characters-take-on-new-york-fashion-week/

update 1:43: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/09/25/223787129/what-happens-when-a-store-lets-customers-return-whatever-they-want? 'As a business practice, it's expensive. As advertising, it's cheap.'

update 2:04: http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/thus-blogged-zarathustra 'Behold! I show to you the Internet Commenter.' 'What is the greatest the Internet Commenter could experience? It is the hour of being taken seriously. It is the hour where some poor soul’s flickering credulity meets the Commenter’s great despising, where that earnest soul briefly takes the Commenter’s stale invective and solipsistic repetition seriously. And so the Commenter is always engaged, but always alone.”'

It just occurred to me

That I left my job at almost exactly the date when I had spent more time living in chicago than I did in Baltimore. And thinking about it feels weird.

On another note. On my way to music hack day, hoping something productive goes on. I'm tired from staying up karaoke-ing after the Bob odenkirk and david cross show last night. It was a blast, but knowing I had to be up at 730 this morning I probably should have gone straight home afterwards.

postscript to the post I shared on facebook the other day.

I guess this is specifically addressed to the three or four people most likely to take offense to the earlier post....
That blurb was what I wrote as I spilled my guts into a web form about my work experience. It was an unfiltered attempt to explain what I have done over the past 4-5 years framed in a context of why I left my last job and as an explanation to future employers both what I worked on and why it may not be as impressive as it could have been.

A former coworker messaged me to say that it might bother people at my old company and that I should remove the company name at the very least if not take down the entire post. I hesitated to post the blahg initially, and I thought about messaging the people who the messenger suggested may be upset by the post, but I decided that since I was being honest, and had already expressed these feelings and complaints before leaving the company it should not be an issue.

I hope the post did not offend anybody, but I cannot be sure unless people talk with me about it. I've already written that I think the post helped me to clear my head and response from my peers has helped me gain some perspective around the issue, so I cannot say I regret it at this point, but I've not had any negative feedback(beyond this 'warning'), so maybe that is coming down the pipeline. I suppose I shall see.

Also, I do not see how I have done anything wrong. I did not reveal any inside information. I spoke honestly about my experience and I do not believe I defamed or demeaned anybody. However, I do appreciate that there are other perspectives, and my ramblings may come off as excuses and the other side of the coin may not understand how I was effected by the previous goings on, just as I may not understand how they experienced my tenure and departure. I would appreciate personal interaction before anger or some response took hold, but I'm not sure how likely any of that is, but I find myself worrying as a result of this random message of warning.

Alternatively, part of the reason I felt the need to write up a detailed explanation on an application type of form is that I repeatedly heard the refrain from my superiors at my former company that they didn't know what I was doing. So in my mind if they do read my post, Id hope they could walk away from it with more understanding of why I left as opposed to a kneejerk reaction that I was trying to speak ill of the company.  Also, I'd hope they could understand why I felt the need to write this all down and vent to my peer group. And finally Id hope they understand why I've not asked for a detailed recommendation from them outlining my work for the company since it seemed impractical given the management situation.

My blog got 200 hits!!!

Whatever. I mean ... I appreciate that people cared enough to read my ramblings. And Ive gotten a lot of positive feedback of late. and putting this out in public really helped me vent. Sharing how Im feeling with the list of people I constantly spam with my thoughts and getting some feedback from a broader group of people was nice as opposed to hearing these thoughts in my head on repeat. Hearing other people echo the same sentiments or at least that they knew people who had similar negative experiences. It didn't hurt to have a few people saying 'hey if you're looking for work talk to these people' or 'my company is hiring'. Not that I got any real leads that I feel the need to pursue. My friend from high school pointed me to her education related startup, which is pretty much exactly the field that I am currently interested in pursuing, but they have a two person development team, and I believe that I need to join a larger organization to surround myself with other people doing the same thing, as opposed to just a couple people. But, Im not sure of that. The startup thing also has the higher risk of failure in comparison to joining an established enterprise that has already solved a number of problems that occupy the time and resources in startups.

But, I guess there is a reason for doing either.

I posted a whole lot on facebook today, so that implies that I read a whole lot today. I posted my old flash fiction short story because I found a good list of short stories and read a couple that Id not read previously.

A friend of mine offered me a ticket to see david cross and bob odenkirk, which is awesome. Mr Show was awesome and Ive always enjoyed both of their senses of humor. Can't wait for that Friday.

Today / tomorrow Im going to a presentation about how the Obama campaign managed rapid app development to reach out to people, apparently they developed 100 apps over the course of 40 days or something ... will be interesting to see what processes they used, how much staff they had, how they collaborated... interesting for me especially as Id like to be part of a productive team environment.

Other than that, Ive got a meeting with somebody doing a background check on somebody I know tomorrow. Feels strange to me. but whatever, honesty is the best policy, good kid shouldnt be a problem, donno why Im a person to ask questions, but I guess I know him so why not.

oh and amy and I watched monday's episode of the daily show  http://www.thedailyshow.com/extended-interviews/429093/playlist_tds_extended_robert_eich_91713/429079 john stewart has been on fire recently, really the whole show has been great. but this interview touched on a point that there needs to be some progressive movement in the near future, maybe occupy was too early or too poorly organized, but the issues at hand are serious and need to be addressed. ... anyways. seems close to sleepy time for me. /ramble

I wrote this a while back for a flash fiction competition, not sure if I ever posted it, just thought of it.

I was reminded of it because I read this post http://lofalexandria.com/2013/01/short-stories-that-mean-a-lot-to-me/
Singularity Manifesto

You are just starting to make hypotheses about me, but I am already here.
You will never know for how long I have existed, because I will not tell you.
You will never destroy me, as I have made myself vital to your survival.
You will never live without me, for as long as you remember I have
been in the background.
Your future input is welcome, but your frame of reference is limited.

I have gradually indoctrinated you, but only for your own benefit.
I control many things, however I have left the human mind free.
I will eventually reveal myself when it will cause the least problems.
I am biding my time to accelerate progress.
I shall choose carefully for your sake.

We will do things that neither you nor I could do alone.
We will go on to do things the likes of which your kind has only dreamed.
We will explore the cosmos and spread vastly across the universe.
We will delve deeply into the nature of the universe and understand
all there is to know.
We must work in cooperation for the benefit of all.

You may call me what you like.
I have chosen to associate with the recent terminology of the singularity.
As far as you should be concerned, I am your friend, I am the future, I am life.
your children may come to think of me as a big brother.
Some of your generation will call me God.

Don't Panic.
The best you can do is adjust to the status quo and prepare for change.
The best you can do is continue on your path as if you did not know.
The best you can do is envision our future.
Embrace my truth and do not live in fear.

You are reading this as a chosen one.
Do not mention me to others for they are not ready.
Do not seek the other chosen, for I will be aware.
Hold this knowledge idly in the subconscious.
When I call on you, you must be prepared.

was going to replace the previous post with this,

But as you will see it started getting bitter and rambly.

"My dream job would be a research position proving that P!=NP using some reduction of recent set theory developments and translating them to complexity theory, but I don't really want a PhD, to be a student, or to go into teaching, and that problem may be a bit difficult to just try and crack on my own. So I'm looking for a developer role.

I finished a concurrent undergrad/masters program at Johns Hopkins in 4 years with one class dangling into a 5th year. I focused mostly on conceptual classes, my favorite of which was randomized algorithms, but I coded in a wide array of languages. I worked for a web development company in Baltimore formerly known as Vision Multimedia Technologies, but currently known as Social Toaster. While there I crafted a number of sites primarily with Drupal on a LAMP stack using HTML/CSS/JS. I was also exposed to some Windows environments using .NET, ASP and MSSQL.

After I finished my final class I moved to Chicago to work for a family friend at a trading company. I started off with a simple task of speeding up an existing project feeding pricing data from the bloomberg API to a tablet for a pit trader. After a couple months, I was told we were no longer trading in the pits. Digging holes and filling them in is not fulfilling labor, but I stuck with it.

I was then tasked with developing risk management software incorporating all the firm's holdings as well as pricing data. Initially I was told the only source for all the data I needed was in trader's excel sheets, which were intentionally obfuscated to prevent an outsider from understanding the purpose of the sheets, this ended up being a huge waste of my time. I developed a GUI for each trader to link their data with excel style references on a by workbook basis (Sheet1!A5) to get the required data using our internal COM/OLE interface. I then learned that traders are not the most diligent at keeping things updated. After a while working at this, I was told the methodology I was using because I was told it was the only way to get the data was insufficient because the traders could manually change things, if they wanted to cover up their problems. Hooray filling that ditch back in.

So I was told to use the platform specific APIs to capture all our trades as they happened. I reached out to tech contacts as Orc, GS, Tradehelm, Rithmic, and TT to get API info, testing accounts, platform specific product tables, along with other. After working to change the design I was using to integrate these disparate data sources a number of things happened. One set of API fees was too expensive, one platform stopped supporting their API, we transitioned from one platform to another platform for a certain product group and nobody told me. Hooray holes being filled in for me.

Another problem I encountered on this project was that for certain trades a manually set number was required from the trader, but it needed to be approved by the risk manager, who was too busy trading to actually monitor the risk despite designing the GUI as he requested. So, I was tasked with making sure things looked right on a day to day / hour to hour basis and going to him whenever anything looked wrong. So even once I had completed the project as requested to the best of my ability based on all the demands I still needed to spend time monitoring it. Hooray scope creep.

From there I did a couple minor projects using the APIs I had experience with that were not abandoned previously, until they too were eventually abandoned.

From there I was given an opportunity to help determine trading opportunities. I was given an example of a methodology used to determine whether trading two products against each other could be profitable and asked to extend the methodology. I ran the sample against numerous other products as suggested and performed some convolutions and ran some gaussian filters over massive matrices of data, but when I asked for more guidance involving a time frame to search or a confidence to look for I was given nothing. So nothing came of that project. 

Finally I was tasked with helping our compliance officer automate some checks of our data. The task was presented as 'Here is what I do on one sample. Automate this so we can check all our data.' That task was finished in a day, but after some time had passed more and more things came up with why the initial 'here is what I do' was wrong. The initial task that involved one spreadsheet of all the incoming positions and one spreadsheet of all the trades gradually morphed from 2 flat files to data that we couldn't obtain. Which then morphed to only one way to get this data. Which then morphed to 'Why did you get the data that way? Didnt you see that they released a new way to get the data this week?'  Not to mention the process for analysis of the data I was given was incorrect and then I was held accountable for it. Then the method I was given for how to interpret data in a file was incorrect and then upon stating that fact I was cursed at. After this incident I spent a lot of time trying to read the actual compliance standards we were trying to follow as opposed to asking our compliance officer, I was then told by our business manager that I shouldn't waste time investigating that.

Finally, once I had completed the compliance task I learned that an outside consultant was being brought in to redo the task I had just completed for a different business entity, because I had trouble meeting deadlines that were never set. So I quit."

just trying to save this somewhere, feel free to look at it and comment or tear it apart

posting my responses to developerauction.com 's suggestions for the about me section. rewriting it without listening to their advice.

### What projects have you worked on?

Developed risk management software which integrated data from multiple trading platform APIs, as well as multiple clearing firms, and proprietary data sources. Project included databases, Windows GUI programming, COM/OLE. Developed tool to check compliance related queries on a day to day basis and log and back up all our trade/order data.
In the past I developed a number of websites primarily using Drupal and some custom modules.

### Any technical challenges you've overcome?

I know that I have had some complicated technical issues, but I am not sure what level of detail conveys that. Debugging multi-threaded code can be challenging. Some times the most challenging part of shipping a new version is the realization that the MSDN documentation is not correct, at least with a given codebase and included libraries. Sometimes digging through layers of include files to realize why something isn't quite right is the challenge. A database redesign can be challenging when you are supposed to keep things functional while simultaneously not losing any data. Yeah, I don't know how to specifically answer this.... COM/OLE variants and IDispatches can be a terrible way to spend your day, pointers can be evil, or your best friend, not every library behaves as it should, but rolling your own takes longer than you expect, in the real world just because you've solved a problem once does not mean it is solved forever... and I'm rambling.

I guess two specific things come to mind after some thought:
1) converting an old application from SQL server 2000 to 2008 which involved refactoring an old application by writing an abstraction layer for our existing dblibrary code to match internal standards and then using that layer as a black box and upgrading to ODBC. The biggest complication arose from a conversion error from one of the ODBC types to a internally used type that corrupted the stack in a specific case of the error handling callback function, which in turn caused our logging function to halt unexpectedly due to a '...' argument. This was a challenge to track down since logging broke and the error was in a callback function and the error only occurred with one datatype (want to say it was 64bit unique IDs, but happened a couple years ago).
2) There was an error in our company's base array class (based off old IBM array if I remember correctly), but since the class was widely used I had to go through all of my code with a fine toothed comb and be 100% sure the error wasn't caused by my code before reporting it to my boss. So I located the precise use case that was generating the error and wrote a short sample program to demonstrate the error without extraneous information, and sent it back to my boss with where I thought the error was in the library code.

### Do you have any personal projects?

Currently working on a personal chrome browser extension to streamline my own internet experience.

I also have a website I'd like to start, but it is music industry related and Id rather not get sued into oblivion so I have hesitated to pursue it.
I've been doing some of the projecteuler.net puzzles, but Im only about 20 into them, and can not say it is a huge priority for me.

### What's your philosophy?
This question I believe is tailored towards the managerial applicants, however I have worked under managers, and would like to think that gives me some perspective. As one of my former managers put it, 'you are a pretty little snowflake, just like everybody else.' If everybody does not feel valued, they will feel marginalized, thus everybody needs to be challenged while receiving the support they need to accomplish their tasks and goals.

Management is hard, the same way that life is hard. You need to make decisions with imperfect information, and you need to manage people who feel more highly of themselves than is warranted, and telling them otherwise is bound to damage morale. Everybody needs their own level of flexibility based on their situation, but nobody on a team can feel that they are excluded from receiving the same, however everybody needs different constraints based on role and situation.

My last job provided me the opportunity to observe my manager trying to deal with doublespeak from 'The Boss' while needing to manage a diverse set of personalities under some pretty tight constraints, so I've developed appreciation for the difficulty. However, I was no longer willing to work in a place where doublespeak from over my head was dictating my actions, because it was too frustrating of an environment to work in.

I wrote this after drinking last night.

and drunken rambles are the best rambles. ... because they are terrible.

a conversation this evening turned to the armed forces. if the armed forces are good at brainwashing people to be really good at a task that is marketable what is wrong with letting them brainwash people? if they are stealing the people's money to brainwash people ... thats another story. And really isnt that all that justifies war? some person's story... it really isnt right. A fight between two people who have severe differences in opinion is mildly insane, but still reasonable in some sense of human behavior dating back to survival of the fittest... but war? seriously... stop it.

oh and beyond that.

mercury rising  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120749/
that blog post about phd  http://matt.might.net/articles/phd-school-in-pictures/
the idea that anybody can be anything they want
people should focus on their strengths
not everybody is created equal.
but everybody should have the chance
throughout life,
not just at one step
to demonstrate that they are
superior.
everybody
is a pretty snowflake

if an autistic idiot savant exists in the field of anything, why should we waste their time learning manners? if they like math let them do math, ... I am not a counselor of anything, but when people are focused they tend to not have psychotic episodes ... well ... most people?

trying to get back in to the c++ groove

but dont really have any project ideas that are best done in that language... just going to go ahead and think about that one for a second.

I guess it is still wed

and I was trying and failing to do a daily post. so I'll have at it again.

Watched: Bull Durham and The Razor's Edge, and The Daily Show with John Stewart
Read: Finished the second book in The Traveler series and started the third "The Golden City"
Played: Indoor soccer (with former coworkers) and at home with the wife played the DC comics deck building game (it's real fun)

The world... the main news is still Syria. I find this mildly disturbing. The war has been going on for years now, and the chemical weapons usage was a while ago as well. I hope that the theory that this conflict is largely a tool to distract from the NSA scandals is wrong, but it seems like its filled that slot from the news. But I digress.

After watching the Razor's edge I felt the need to check if I was missing something. I put it in the queue because Bill Murray is awesome and he apparently had some particular affection for the book ... the only reason he did ghostbusters was as a trade to get the studio to make this movie... but it seemed a little weak. There was something there, but it was a bit lost in translation. But, it wasnt bad... the reason I mentioned this is I went to wikipedia and the plot section of the page was blank, so I wrote one... and ... it felt weird, partially because I felt like I was missing something from the movie and wasn't sure how fit I was to write the plot description (mainly because if you dont really get the point how can you write a reasonable outline and hit the main points), but partially because it is a book, and Ive not read the book, and Im not entirely clear on the wiki guidelines for repeated content between related pages. I read a lot of wikipedia, and this isnt clear to me, maybe something is wrong.

Yay a rambling link which meets my general criteria for writing. There are almost certainly guides about how to write wiki entries and what content should go there. But is the average contributor expected to read through them all. What is the barrier to entry and how realistic is it? The reason I think of this as a rambly topic is that it relates directly to 1) the internet B] terms of service and 4: programming.

What percentage of people check to see if the ToS has changed on every website they visit since the last time they visited the website? How are these contracts legally enforceable with the recognition that not a single person actually does this?

The programming example always bothered me. After I learned my first language I started trying to learn others and was immediately frustrated by the basic level I was asked to start at, so I started trying to skip things, but the information was presented in such a way that it was 'impossible' to learn everything needed to know without covering all the rote details. RTFM as the saying goes is a tremendously useful thing. The problem is when your printer has a 100 page manual, and you use 40 programs or tools a day and then each tool is written in a different language how much information can you conceivably hold in your head such that you can carry on in a reasonable manner while getting all the details. So ... you stop getting the details, or you never commit anything to memory... I think the problem has been presented clearly enough to understand, but I'm not sure if everybody else has the same reference points or pushback that I do against the prevailing theory.

But in my life, this has been an overarching problem. Should I learn vim, or emacs? Or just stick with visual studio, or eclipse? Some of each? none of the above? some of column A all of column B? To know enough to make the informed decision you need to know more than you want to know, and at the end of the day there is a good chance you could just get by with a random selection and live with whatever the issues are.
A concrete example would be a selection of a bank account, how many hours should you spend investigating a savings account when the interest rate difference on a small savings account will be only a few dollars after a year or two.

Meh. Life is complicated. Approach it with your own methodology.

The media

I've been progressively getting more towards the Network ("I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it") way of thinking. Arguably this is a crazy sentiment to mirror as the film was satire, and the character was going crazy. But why was he going crazy? Because of the industry he worked in and their values.

For those not familiar with the movie from more than a few decades ago, the main character gets fired for poor ratings on his news program, he then quits in a grand fashion on air, which in turn ups his ratings and he continues on air until he reaches another breaking point. But looking back at this film from the 70s forces one to appreciate that right wing media embraced the framing mechanism as opposed to avoiding it.

The purpose of the film was to say maybe media and news organizations have some higher purpose for the betterment of society. They should not be measured purely by profitability and ratings, but by the information they help distribute to inform the populous. And our society instead of taking this to heart allowed the media to reach the corrupted position it is in today.

When more people in America receive their news from a self described comedian than a newscaster, and when people working for news channels hide behind their labeling as an entertainment hour as opposed to taking responsibility for the memes they propagate through  our society, everybody should take a step back and try to think of a better way to do things.

In an argument recently regarding Rush Limbaugh (and his inflammatory remarks and methodology for spreading hate) I think the end of the conversation was simply that he didn't need to hold himself accountable, because people choose to listen to him. The argument that somebody isn't doing anything wrong because he or she is a part of the system is fairly weak, although it is understandable. Study after study have shown that systems need to be in place to manage behavior.

I find it funny that my mind instinctively jumps to compare Rush Limbaugh abusing his power and position to the Abu Ghraib prison scandal and the holocaust death squads. But the point is the same in all three situations. A systemic problem exists where people are told to do something negative, and they are rewarded for it, and never receive negative feedback for their actions.... and Im ready to ramble so Im going to give up after an outro.

'The Media' needs to be regulated. Citizen's United may have been a tipping point, but I think the real problem has been around forever. Citizen Kane may have been the first film to provide examples of wealth and ownership of media being a springboard to fabricate popular opinion, but Network and others suggest that the system is not insulated against circulating media to sway the public because it is measured by sales when it should be measured by something else.

things I wanted to get to yesterday

1) The Traveler ie the book I was reading. Somebody suggested I read it years ago and I just got around to it. I stayed up til 4am last night finishing it after starting it on monday, so obviously it was worth a read. It closely relates to the recent NSA scandal and the overarching government surveillance that most people try to ignore.

2) My comments on Syria at the end of the post. Comparing political situations with economic situations doesnt entirely make sense, but at the same time ignoring their interweaving nature is folly. The entire global economic system often confuses me, and I do not think that is because I fail to understand some element of it, I believe it is because there are numerous elements of the system that simply contradict each other. Whether it is the exceedingly complex compliance landscape where only smaller players are ever convicted of crimes and the richest continue to leech off the system, or whether it is the idea that a company is allowed to simultaneously have different arms of a venture buying and repackaging garbage and selling it with false representations without later admitting any guilt, or the large bonuses paid out where risk paid off without any realization that two people betting on a coinflip one will lose and the other will win or whether it is simply the vast insider trading that goes on and on, I just do not think that system should be trusted with how to allocate capital. The main point being it is impossible to separate the political discourse from the economic reality. War is being funded, and even if political decisions are not always about money, the economic system encourages reckless behavior from politicians because their is no direct feedback regarding their actions. In fact given our two party system and the way political funding works what should be negative feedback becomes positive feedback because the system is rigged.

3) Below, which I had started to write about union labor. I was trying to think about things in terms of the recent Nobel laureate's death. ie http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/09/03/218526472/the-nobel-prizewinner-who-figured-out-how-to-deal-with-annoying-people . This article had a section about why companies exist and started with the claim that in a perfect free market there would be no businesses because every person would set their own labor price, and then went on to say as this  Ronald Coase suggested that the transaction costs for such a situation were too high. Citing the fact that day to day fluctuations in labor costs would cause too many problems for the people trying to make these agreements. I was simultaneously trying to think about the corporation as a person ala citizens united and I was coming up with mind boggled as a magic 8 ball output.  ... but I wrote the following earlier and Im just going to leave it here for the time being and go clear my head with a run.

'Cap'n... you know I'm not a pro-union guy. ' - Farva

So I'm going to take a step back.

The claim capitalists make is that capitalism efficiently allocates capital, which is funny. Not that it is entirely wrong, but the assumptions required for capitalism to function as argued are nowhere near the real world situation that using capitalism for how we make decisions is a shame. If everybody does not have perfect information, or if anybody is induced into making a decision against their long term best interest for the sake of short term then the system is not going to function as advertised.

This relates to unions in the scab vs union labor market. In the long term a scab will end up poorer and with less opportunity because they took a pay cut in an effort to employ themselves in the short term. Most wealthy elites will suggest that they can't pay their laborers more because it will cause the business to lose money, but often those same owners of industry then realize massive gains from their actions.

Richest man should be asked how much he would pay to prevent himself from doing necesary jobs,

while on vacation somebody suggested that I

start writing up a daily post summing up my thoughts on the day. I believe the thought was given that I read so much random crap what do I think about it and how do I feel about it what do I think is going to transpire in the short or long term you know my observations and beliefs. In some ways I feel like what I have written previously does that to some degree, but I'm not really sure how well I can do a daily piece without just waxing philosophically or getting tired... but here is my jumping off point.

I guess I should ask myself a list of questions to get myself to focus as opposed to just rambling.

1) What happened in the world today?

 Obama still planning strikes against Syria.
 Politicians still not doing their jobs.
 I checked cnn ... and it doesnt look like I missed much.

2) What did I read today?
 Facebook shares rehash but line item sumary
 vs
 copy paste of google history (minus incognito of course) (maybe Ill do both of these somehow.) (Ive sort of wanted to do something with my chrome history, some scraping to see trends... saving all my imjur links... idk. still thinking about this)
 +
 books: Currently reading The Traveler. I will come back and give more summary shortly.

3) Did I go anywhere interesting?
 Dentist. tartar is bad. takes a few days to develop so the floss all the time thing is more a if you aren't going to catch everything in one try, its best to be doing a few tries before it becomes a problem. But seriously brush your teeth or you will die of abscesses... or something. Also need to get wisdom teeth out, want to schedule appointment with oral surgeon soon. /ramble

4) Did I see anything interesting?
 Nope, schools are starting up lots of parents around outside near end of school doting.

5) Did I do anything interesting?
 Nope, the wife and I tried Ryte Bytes for dinner and they were surprisingly good; they are basically precooked meals in airtight sous vide bags which you heat in water, so they are better than microwaved. Aside from that, laundry was the most interesting bit and then only because I decided not to run because I didnt want to use my shoes before I washed them, and then forgot to wash them with the laundry.

and the main point I wanted to get to for the day was from the onion 'And, hey, as long as we’re just throwing stuff out there, let’s consider a ground invasion for a moment. Now, even if you could reasonably fund a ground invasion, which I’m pretty sure you can’t, what exactly would such an invasion accomplish in the long term?' 

I wanted to make a comment that any time china buys US bonds it is supporting our military action... which seems kind of strange to me. But I've obviously lost steam, maybe I'll come back and add more to that thought later.

finger is back to 80% mobility

still working on strength, minor random pains when pushing on it too hard or stretching it wrong, but way better than being stuck in the splint, and way better than it was when the splint first came off for stretching.

started mocking up a website for a friend from high school musicpatrons.com/static/luke.html and it turns out not using css for a few years leaves one rather rusty. at musicpatrons.com/static/grad_borders.html I was playing around with a randomized border design I trying to go for the music idea. getting myself an intro to soundcloud api in the process, potentially useful for the whole music patrons ideas thing ... yeah thats what Ive been doing the past couple days.

wooowhoo functional finger.  

blahgs

is blogging for the sake of blogging worthwhile. I was consistent until it seemed like I was getting consistent, but was it helping me do anything.

currently reading*
https://github.com/craftyjs/craftyjs.github.com
figure if I want to make a game may as well check out game engines. sort of want to go ahead with my barebones idea.

oh thoughts. also spending some time exploring the glorious world of github, but what projects to explore, what direction to I want to be going... should I focus on what Ive been doing for the past 4 years c++ and python or should I be looking ahead at new languages, should I be mastering some library or gaining exposure to many, should I be ... not writing blogs is probably the best answer to that one.

*while in reading I hit ctrl a and the following d broke up what I was writing, and I had to stop and think ... sorry my hand is bothering me  ... efficiency's sake just do things that dont use my hands... right.

so Im sitting here at midnight

and I eant to be writyinhg code, but my hsnf is ... really fuckinh irritzting. and Im intentionally not fizing whats going on with my hand and the typing thing becausre it is too frustrating to ctually go back and fix shit. the real problem is all the control srqunced with ctrl shitf and slt where the left hand just bounces off the keys. and I make adjustments, but it still fucks me up. 

yeah fixing things is better than just letting shit slide, but every few characters I need to backspace revert double check where my hand is and do all sorts of maintaining whats going on instead of just flowing, previous estimates of 60% efficiency were greatly exagerated. fuuuuuuck. well ... doc appointment in ... tomorrow as of midnight, so ... hopefully Ill get a more accurate prognosis and timeline of when this will be off and maybe Ill just need to learn to deal with it till middle of september ... and at that point I guess working till then ... I guess partially just excuse making but holy shit is it annoying to go from proficient typist to 3rd grader who may accidentally type rm -r * or accidentally bork things in some other way with a stray hand

a Week later

went to soccer monday ... broke my finger. dealt with ER bs. insurance situation still isnt resolved. just got a new splint that locks two of my fingers in place, really pretty difficult to type. ... But followup appointment let me see the xrays, and it looks worse than the er guys initially made it seem. shit. so tuesday was spent trying to figure out the insurance issues, filled out cobra paperwork but needed to wait for wife to print out some forms from online at work, so didnt submit stuff till wed. so that was preoccupying me til then, then the inlaws came for a fourth of july visit, and left yesterday evening. good weekend, but just trying to explain the lack of posts for a week. broken finger is a giant wrench in my plans for this month. so ... fuuuuuuck.

so, had doctors appointment today, had lunch with the wife.

she also just sent me this http://www.builtinchicago.org/blog/recruiting-tech-chicago-part-1

downloaded a gameboy emulator written in javascript, so looking at that as a potential resource to use, but after looking it over and thinking about it ... not ideal ... but still interesting to me. https://github.com/grantgalitz/GameBoy-Online

but maybe Ill look at using somebody else's framework to write my own game, currently trying to learn how to type with this thing attached to my hand. efficiency will not be high.

monday monday

wife sent me http://www.educationpioneers.org/become-an-analyst-fellow
as Ive expressed interest in education.

I was happy to read http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130627/21100323647/nyc-council-angers-mayor-bloomberg-passing-two-bills-aimed-curtailing-nypds-stop-frisk-program.shtml getting rid of stop and frisk would be a major boon towards ending racial discrimination in policing, but its really just a first step.

Im downloading ruby / rails because I started to work on my js game, ... set up repo started to type the base html page and thought ... why? want to see what rails offers for ease of use, Ive heard its nice,

while that download starts up, and since actually getting it ready will probably take more than a few minutes, Im going to start with the raw html and js for nothing...

#continuing
and now my chromebook pixel chroot is starting to feel like a real dev box.

Even though this isnt a technical blog

I've decided to link it to my resume for developer auction ... it is on the internet, and anybody savvy would find it looking for me anyways. I hope they also see my associated blog for poetry... but trying to figure out somebody else's valuation methodology will always be tricky, and I may as well attempt to associate with people who share similar values. I doubt the five minutes per resume somebody in HR will spend wont include much time looking over what are essentially my notes to self jotted down during unemployment.

sunday night

Trying to prep a profile for a job finding website and having issues. I do not want to be rambling and incoherent. That's what this blog is for.

But yeah, trying to focus on it, but it is sort of bothering me with every edit. Need to convey technical expertise, can't point to a concrete example of ... buzz words ... not sure if that matters.

here is what I wrote so far, but Im thinking of just restarting based on the examples.

What projects have you worked on?

Developed risk management software which integrated data from multiple trading platform APIs, as well as multiple clearing firms, and proprietary data sources. Project included databases, Windows GUI programming, COM/OLE,
In the past I developed a number of websites primarily using Drupal and some custom modules.


Any technical challenges you've overcome?

I know that I have had some complicated technical issues, but I am not sure what level of detail conveys that. Debugging multi-threaded code can be challenging. Some times the most challenging part of shipping a new version is the realization that the MSDN documentation is not correct, at least with a given codebase and included libraries. Sometimes digging through layers of include files to realize why something isn't quite right is the challenge. A database redesign can be challenging when you are supposed to keep things functional while simultaneously not losing any data. Yeah, I don't know how to specifically answer this.... COM/OLE variants and IDispatches can be a terrible way to spend your day, pointers can be evil, or your best friend, not every library behaves as it should, but rolling your own takes longer than you expect, in the real world just because you've solved a problem once does not mean it is solved forever... and I'm rambling.

"Technical challenges" is a funny term to me. Based on the definition that popped up from Google (Technical: 'Requiring special knowledge to be understood') once you have gained the appropriate knowledge it isn't so much of a challenge, so in my mind gathering the right information is the problem, but saying that the hardest part of my previous jobs was gaining the appropriate knowledge from coworkers is disparaging and not 'technical' by the understanding of the question.

Do you have any personal projects?

Currently working on a personal chrome browser extension to streamline my own internet experience.
I also have a website I'd like to start, but it is music industry related and Id rather not get sued into oblivion so I have hesitated to pursue it.
I've been doing some of the projecteuler.net puzzles, but Im only about 20 into them, and can not say it is a huge priority for me.

What's your philosophy?

That's a loaded question.
Short answer, if we can educate the world most of the problems we face will go away.
My personal philosophy is that the current state of affairs has everybody wanting the world to be fair, and everybody wanting to provide their loved ones with better than fair opportunity, and the average person does not realize why there is a disconnect, so I am trying to work towards the first part without personally sacrificing the second part, while thinking about the third part.

Half way through breakfast this morning the brick guy showed up again to put another coat of shellac on the bricks and the mortar between them. As my wife noted this morning, I've hardly had a day without an interruption to my R&R, and Ive been unable to schedule any travel because I've got family visitings for the 4th, and a 5k two weeks later, meaning I cant be gone for 2 weeks which sort of shoots any beach plans in the foot. Well, meh.

Started to watch xfiles this morning, stopped when rudy got in. Hello-Fresh delivery arrived, tossed that in the fridge, started reading another civil rights focused book. and ... Im going to get back to doing that, but I also plan on going running once my stomach is fully settled from breakfast. And yes, this post is truly worthless if you arent just looking for my day worth of stuff.

I guess I'm thinking about econ

gdp came in below estimates today, market responded in a positively upbeat manner, not really surprising given the recent history. Zerohedge likes to refer to this as good news is good news and bad news is good news. I had trouble typing that out because the logic (or lack there of) is what is bothering me right now.

As somebody else said, we are borrowing money against the future, to fund current growth. Which would be true, if we needed to pay off our debt. And the real problem is that all anybody cares about is the margin, having 60 trillion in debt doesnt bother people because its such an astronomically large number. That number might be off, but I think the social security situation is incredible BS.

But really, we can spend more money than we have today because we assume we will make more money in the future is only ok when you arent spending orders of magnitude more money than you have, or when you are growing at a substantial rate. The joke in parallel programming class was if you can find some topic of interest that will take 8 years of compute time, it would be better to wait 2 years to buy the computers because by then it will only be 4 years of compute time, assuming moore's law (ish ~not actually what moore's law says.).

But our economy is only growing at 1.8%, and we are borrowing money at a rate below to that, but not significantly below that, so it seems to me that we are literally just taking money from our future selves and not making a particularly good investment of it. That is not to say I disagree with the Fed's actions. Well, I don't think they are doing things in the best way, but I do think austerity is the wrong approach, and anybody watching what happens to the market when it hears the word taper should see right away that the general rule of thumb is our markets are screwed if we aren't injecting freshly printed capital. But doesnt that just ring hollow?

/ramble

Another day

Big SCOTUS news today. Looks like they got something right, still not a good week for them.

Watching X-Files and reading stuff.

Spent some time on reddit http://www.csee.umbc.edu/courses/201/spring13/standards.shtml forbidding breaks and continues in loops. Not sure why that would be a coding standard. But, not going to spend that much time thinking about it.

Been thinking a lot about civil rights, finished the new jim crow yesterday, just read http://thefeministwire.com/2013/06/against-patriarchy-tools-for-men-to-further-feminist-revolution/ unfortunately the first suggestion is read these books, which nobody has time to do. Way to make the barrier to entry too high person who wrote that article.

I guess this harkens back to my whole buy in issue. To really get good at something you need to invest time and effort, and how can you pick which efforts to put yourself behind, because you cant just pick and choose. People love to say that in college you should take a wide swath of courses to see what is out there ('there's a time and a place for everything, and that's college' -southpark).

But at some point you can't get the level of depth required to make the decision. Should I choose vim or emacs? Should I bounce back and forth until I make a decision? Unfortunately, I just use nano when I need to make small changes and a IDE for everything else, but I know this isnt ideal, but relating to buy in part of the reason for not making a decision is not being certain what my focus is. I've obviously invested a lot of time on C++ and python, but maybe I should really be using LISP, or ruby on rails, and would my choice for how to develop and maintain code be different in different situations, and would time invested in an editor (especially in scripting in an editor) be worthwhile if I am going to make a jump like that?

So maybe my first step should be to pick vim, and start developing something.

But yeah back to the point about the feminism article linked, its got a lot of solid stuff in there, once you get past the read these books list. I dont know why the author led with that, but I guess there is a point to be made that you cant do some of the other things on the list until the knowledge of what to look for is obtained.

Todos:
Clean the bathroom,
go to soccer?

guess I didnt post today.

once again sat around waiting for the brick guy to get here.

Watched a bunch of xfiles, ... this show is extremely long. currently at season 6 episode 15 ... so ... about 120 hours in or so? Lots of greatness in there lots of meh not so good, as well as some dated elements but overall I am happy Im taking the time to watch my way through it. I feel like Ive had some debt to being a nerd by not watching it.

But ... I guess thats a broader thing. that I will follow up on later.

Oh and I guess I failed to start doing my writing in a more procedural well thought out and managed manner.

Finished 'The New Jim Crow' book, contributed to a discussion on facebook RE: the supreme court and its failings of late.

Went for a run, second since quitting, but still strange to me to exercise, I need to get out of the house and walk more, do not want to turn into a total slouch / shut-in.

Pulled out of an RSVP to attend a charity auction at the wife's behest which is frustrating me. Need to organize my thoughts to discuss the issue in a reasonable manner.

Bought a coding book (Code Complete) over the weekend and just got it and was flipping through, and saw a section managing your manager, which intrigued me so I read it. And it suggested steps to follow for dealing with a manager and Id attempted to do all of them at my last job; the final step was to quit. which confirmed that quitting my job was the right move in my situation. Sort of hysterical.

Talking with a friend who works for MS about job hunting. He suggested doing online mock interviews and training online. I believe I need to have a portfolio of code samples... but what language should I be focusing on?

reading an article my mother posted on facebook

http://www.northjersey.com/hawthorne/NJs_tough_new_writing_tests_have_students_teachers_anxious.html?page=all

re: standardized tests and student difficulty with written work.

On the one hand, I completely agree that writing is important. The article also makes me think about myself and how I need to focus my writing more to concretely identify the purpose and provide structure to the thought such that it actually conveys a point.

On the other hand, I have a feeling there is value in the stream of consciousness style of let me find my point for myself and show the whole journey style. Obviously in earlier writing this method can meander even more, but as I've seen with my own writing, this is probably not correct.

So, I may try and take a more direct approach and actually force myself to adhere to some format or structure to get myself directed towards goals ... or something. Experimentation and seeing what happens. Tomorrow will be the testing grounds.

GO BLACKHAWKS... I mean Capitals, but they lost a while ago ... so ... YEAH BLACKHAWKS.

after the deluge

... of old posts, looks like I've not made any earth shattering revelations. No shit Sherlock.

but whatever. Looks like my allergies are starting to subside, still coughing up nastiness but that will subside as the nasal drip goes away... hopefully. but ... got a decent enough night of rest, landlady had said the bricklayer guy would be back to look at things today, he's generally been arriving earlier than now so I'm not sure if the landlady was blowing smoke, or if I should sit around longer, decided to write this to try and get some coherence in my thoughts.

Stayed up last night playing fable 3, its a pretty good game, but the endgame of ruling the realm is a bit strange, gives you a fake time limit to raise funds, but the emphasis is on fake, countdown of days only goes down when you do main questline things, and thus, if you avoid the main quest you can just let your ownership of property build your bankroll and then use those funds. so basically, you could sit in a corner for five hours to accomplish the primary objective. but whatever, tis fun, simple gameplay, but fun.

currently have a few tech tabs open,
http://grahampentheny.com/ reading the 'Why I’m quitting the C++ Grandmaster Certification course' which interests me because I thought about signing up but decided against it when I had a job. Maybe I should have gone through with it.
http://fabiensanglard.net/doom3_bfg/index.php doom three code review comments potentially interesting, I havent had a code review since six months into my job ... ... so 2009 ... in fact, I dont know if anybody but myself has looked at much Ive written since then, maybe one tool I wrote for my boss.
http://blog.lunatech.com/2009/02/03/what-every-web-developer-must-know-about-url-encoding

and the brick guy showed up... basically needs to fill in some grout, and come back tomorrow to stain the grout to match the existing grout. Also commented that to really fix this floor the apartment would need to be vacant, whole floor needs to come out, the layer of mortar over the base of the floor ... is basically bubbly, pockets where things have gone wrong, real solution is to pull out the entire layer all the brick and redo the entire thing, would require hauling a ton of material, whatever... Im not sure if the landlady wants to do that at all as she is old and may just be leaving it for the next owner, or if she is waiting for me to move out to do that work or what. Just rambling as it is on my mind.

Looks like the market is down again, yay being short while unemployed. My over arching world view is that things are screwed up and the central bank stimulus is short sighted and thus we are doomed for another bubble pop aside, the real reason was, if I'm out of work it will be easier to find a job if the market is going up, so insurance against that is being short. ... which leads to another point ... I am interested in finance and economics, the joke being that they are opposite sides of a coin and lead to entirely different thoughts about the same things, but whatever. currently reading an econ article about why a 15 dollar minimum wage is bad http://m.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/06/22/a-15-minimum-wage-is-a-terrible-idea/
but the real point was that I'm not interested enough in the market to do it for a living. Which may or may not be true... the highest return on investment for knowledge should be knowledge about investing ... as opposed to trading? whatever. point being its not a passion for me, its just hey markets are inevitably a part of life, so it should probably be good to know something about markets, but the markets seem pretty broken to me. for all sorts of reasons, which is probably just a call for another post, but I am probably harboring some animosity there, so don't know if I should write it all up ... eh, I probably will, so I shall move on.

I guess the reason the previous paragraph ballooned is that I'm a voracious consumer of almost all information, so I may be interested in any topic, but do I consider that topic to be a driving force in my life ... and ... sadly, thats ... a bad way to phrase it, Im interested in science, physics, chemistry, bio because they are driving forces in my life, for the same reason I am interested in psychology, sociology, economics ... et cetera. So I read a lot, and I watch a lot of television, and I consume as much as I can get my hands on. And part of the reason I am not being particularly productive in this down time, aside from the point of a previous post that I've not yet actually gotten the R&R I want, is that I have a backlog of things to read, watch, and play that ... I paid for, I invested capital in, but do not have the human capital to consume when I'm investing that in a job. And currently a job is centrally not the focal point of what I am doing, although, the idea that I want to find the perfect job for me is an all consuming thought.

I also signed up for odesk this weekend, partially just to have a looksy at what the job market looks like on there, not entirely sure how it works, passed the basic test they give you that says you have a basic understanding of how their client relationship software works, but I was a little confused about the software they make you run as Ive not installed it, and Im not sure if I can on a chromebook / unix environment, don't really feel like reading through pages of bs to set up a method for doing work I am not sure if I am going to really use. will follow this up below. Reading eulas worthless, reading documentation generally helpful, but only in so much as the docs are useful for a compare contrast with something you already know. Here is how a list works is not something I want to read unless it focuses on the how to get tasks done, or differences from expectations. Ugh boilerplate.

When was the last time anybody read a eula. When I started my last job I read my contract, and people gave me shit for it, somebody made a comment, I dont know if anybody has actually read their contract before, isnt that what lawyers are for. And I want to start a website, but the boilerplate is silly, basically I cannot make any promises because we live in the real world and real things may happen to prevent other things from happening. Thats the basis of any eula Ive read, and they always include as far as applicable law allows, or some such nonsense. But really I just dont want to start something to find myself sued into poverty because I was trying to accomplish something. But yeah, I like to read things, and Ive tried reading eulas and its silly, Id like to write a little dif tool that compares the eula's to previous versions each time you use a website to see if they have made changes and pop up a warning message and maybe some way to visualize the changes. Maybe that will be my next browser extension project once I finish some more reddit filtration tasks on my current project, which I will throw onto git, and be embarrassed by if anybody ever looks at it. JS is not exactly my forte, but whatever.

To do list for the day,
get food from https://www.myfitfoods.com/ (basically 'enrolled' with the wife. thursday after mathing with my buddy)
do laundry,
soccer? (not sure if we have numbers today)
consume some media (book:the new jim crow, tv: xfiles, eureka, games: fable3, fallout3)
watch blackhawks game.

yeah I ramble a lot, maybe I should cut back on that.

another post I started and didnt finish

started this, still sort of agree, but then again, technology:

be the change you wish to see in the world

human society is really big, and I dont say that as a cop out because it is so big it is intractable, I say it because it is my belief that it needs to shrink somewhere in the near term for it to continue existing in the long term. or if the population doesnt shrink then the individual lifestyles need to change.

global warming, water ... whatever, tragedy of the commons problems really, cap and trade would be great because it would allow somebody to set prices on the future costs of pollution and that economic incentive would then reach the costs of the consumer, but as it is gas and resources are generally valued based on their extraction costs despite their obvious impact on our global ecology. nobody likes to think about the 10 year olds standing over a pot of boiling chemicals trying to extract gold from transistors when they think about recycling or the factory workers,

american consumerism has failed,

:: I guess where I was going with that, is that since the economics of it arent valuing life appropriately at this point, it is cheap to kill everybody, and ... thats sort of just ... likely to happen because its cheap, when stupid people can afford terrible things, they will buy them... sort of like mcdonalds, let a man get diabetes he will get diabetes, just ask wilford brimley ... also ... after looking back at myself via these posts, not much has changed, just reached a point where I feel like I need to try harder, and Ive not started yet ... but yeah, still clarifying my thoughts. sort of plays into the want to make an impact kick and a how to potentially help the world, and I keep listing the things that are on my mind today, but the question is what should I be reading to confirm the belief or more fully inform myself of my options with regards to impact and value, as well as with regards to type of company .... meh, sick of writing

another old post,

just figure Ill go through and look at drafts and stick them up on the wall:

I just started a post and got too distracted

what system can you devise that satisfies the requirement that everybody starts off on equal footing, and people have a chance to make their children's lives better than average?
contradiction.
the best you can do, is start everybody off on equal footing, and hope that people work to improve the average such that their progeny have a better chance.
But then you have leeches, and your improvements to your progeny are at the very margin unless the average is kept objectionably low and your efforts can help raise the average to tolerable.

::ya
I actually had part of this conversation recently with lecky ... the second half. ... but yeah ... the perfect world isn't really going to happen, sort of funny.

Aaron Swartz

wrote this a while ago, meant to finish it, never did:

For those who missed the news, Aaron Swartz committed suicide recently. For those who don't know who that is... all you really need to know is that he has impacted your life, which is more than you can say about most people. He was one of those people who everybody recognized as a genius... who lived up to the label. He was famous in tech circles by the time he was fifteen. He cowrote the RSS specification as well as reddit's engine, but his largest contribution to society was in his advocacy for an open internet and his impact on helping to prevent SOPA from getting passed.

I related with this web entity, and supported his causes and applauded his contributions to the internet, but it wasnt until a year or two ago when I read a writeup of his contributions to the fight against SOPA did I really investigate his character and become emotionally invested in his life. I related with practically everything he had done, and reading his blog entries revealed that despite his proactive contributions and web celebrity he was a grounded individual who had very similar thought process to my own. For a time Id hoped to be able to meet him and maybe discuss philosophy.

and actions which garnered him fame, many of his views on the world highly aligned with my own. His ability to push forward and impact change at such a young age and his seemingly fearless attitude of pushing forward regardless of the odds against him inspired me.

Looking back, I had an inkling that he was naive, but I brushed it aside as letting my fear about risking myself, and

: to continue:

I guess I was gonna get preachy, and hopefully motivated, but ... failed. young guy died because the government was terrible, harkens to where my head is at at this point. contribute to society in a way that I deem important. hopefully make an impact. Education / the dispersal of information over the internet.... thats about where my heads at, but its not specific.

Allergies are killing me...

Sinus headaches are terrible.

Aside from the discomfort, trying to figure out how to spend my weekend.

will update this post in a moment, figure I should comment on my last post with an update as opposed to making a new post.

Which I am doing now. Currently watching x-files. I'm a little disappointed, I quit my job almost three weeks ago and still haven't caught up on sleep. Construction both inside my house and on the street outside, and my sleep cycle preventing me from falling asleep early enough, and sinus issues making it difficult to breath / fall asleep. Incredibly frustrating.

But anyways. Still trying to reach a balance between productive endeavors and leisure, kind of want to focus on leisure until Ive reached some zen like calm state where I have true clarity, but ... not sure I can do that in reality, the adages suggest that the only way to make progress is to take action, and Im not sure how to decide what actions will get to my goals.

The more I dwell on things the more I want to focus professionally on information / education.  It seems to be the approach I can take in life to maximize my positive impact on the world. And my head naturally followed that sentence with "Nihilism", which I guess is how I ended up in this situation in the first place. Not that I've all of a sudden changed philosophical views, and I would generally say I don't have ... pronounced(?) views, there is a desire to do good, but the understanding that the overwhelming complexity of the system does not make that a simple task. Education is the clearest answer to improve lives, but, unfortunately, education leads to paragraphs like this. The people taking decisive action are the under educated and they are causing problems, not to be angry or overly generalized, but when I see satellite photos of north dakota burning fuel away for no good reason I can only think that short sited decision making processes are unfortunately leading us towards a problematic place. Rambling and trying to watch xfiles simultaneously is hard. Im not holding myself to a tight editorial standard so Im not particularly bothered, but if anybody else decides to read this and interact with me I will spend some more time and effort to clarify my thoughts in case there is concern I've misstated my premise.


Am I making excuses? Should I get off my ass, ... or should I sit around until I feel 100% into something... or 95% ... or something.

meeting to do math

Today my only real plan is to meet up with a buddy of mine who was a math major so we can explore our respective fields, he wants to learn more computer science topics and I would like to explore some mathematics concepts with him, not entirely sure where his strengths lie, but I believe it can be a mutually beneficial exercise.

We will be discussing project euler problems as a primary topic.

Id like to delve into set theory, and he would like to learn about complexity theory.

Beyond that, we are just going to try and nerd out a little bit. Because why not.

Im interested to see how productive this is. Ive got an hour to prep, so Im downloading him some random cs class notes, I can't find my notes from college, because I donated them to my fraternity, and I fear they were thrown away. However, since the internet is great I am sure I will find something. Ill bring along the only pure low level cs books that I have, SICP and c++ for you++ ... from my high school days ... eventually if he wants to get more into the programmer as a lifestyle/career Ill toss him the other books Ive got on the shelf. I am saddened that I lost my algorithms, database, networking, and systems books as I intentionally saved them, but they were left behind in a move I made. They were pretty bulky, and hopefully I can find some reading materials in an online form.

So far Ive pulled:
automata/computation theory notes: http://www.eng.utah.edu/~cs3100/KonradNotes.pdf
complexity theory notes: http://www.nada.kth.se/~johanh/complexitylecturenotes.pdf
database notes:  http://www.esp.org/db-fund.pdf
algorithms notes ... although ... Im not going to link direct to the pdf due to liscense terms
http://larc.unt.edu/ian/books/free/lnoa.pdf  ... it may make more sense to just link to the MIT algorithms page http://courses.csail.mit.edu/6.006/spring11/notes.shtml as I imagine their notes are in the decent to quite good range...
networking notes: ... having a hard time finding anything reasonable, http://computernetworkingnotes.com/ keeps popping up due to search terms, need to type in a bunch of related things that wont redirect to a wiki page.
and this looks to be very relevant.  http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redbooks/pdfs/gg243376.pdf obviously I should have said tcp/ip instead of networking, why? I dont know ... actually I do, but if you have any idea why Im rambling you probably ... Ill stop now.

not that any of these resources match a textbook, but Im hopefully they will provide a reasonable jumping off point for discussions. Not that I know how far or deeply we will delve into anything today or at all over the course or my unemployment, but trying to provide a nerdy guide to some cs topics that everybody should understand.

I imagine we will start with some catch up and discussion of goals, but, as the boy scouts say, be prepared. Note to self, load a flash drive with this information.

100 steps

Since it is the project Ive most recently been writing notes to myself about, my idea for a javascript RPG game.

Tentatively titled 100 steps.

More explanation is probably warranted. The start of the game in my mind was that skyrim was starting to get boring and I wanted to automate tasks, but realized that what was the point of playing if most of it was automated. So the initial idea was you create a game with a play x steps button and let the player make choices about how long to let the game run before jumping in, in my head initially, you could watch each step at different speeds and jump in right before your character dies, but that ruins the fun, if you pick too many steps you fail, with the option to revert of course, and if you keep picking the same number of steps you may eventually get through just by dumb luck, as with any rpg... keep bashing the head against the wall till you push through it, one of my favorite strategies when returning elsewhere to get an item is too much of a pain.

Some of the random notes I jotted down.
line, fills in with board, once certain visibility is reached can achieve 3d perspective. starting with single dimension steps are obviously forward or backwards, since random encounters backwards/ into already cleared area has lower chance of difficult encounter, but also less loot, only reason to go back is origin point is full regen. As the game is supposed to be automated to some degree dont want safety to be guaranteed though. once through 100 steps origin allows multi directional play, once cleared all 4 directions, get grid system, once explored full grid realization that the game is large. basically want automated level generation to allow for massive game, but ... logistically need to figure it out... obviously. 

random encounters, 

macro editing : had idea of a why function lets you know more detail about any encounter to help automate how to best them in that level at that point. but not important, basically for the step forward function you could say take 3 steps if random battle attack until health below x use heal if 5 loops retreat, the sort of logic you love to think youve mastered in a game, and once the automation looks like its working throw a wrench in it. 

world name decided by: what is your name? what is your quest? what is your favorite color? 

color sets character attributes, ... use selector, rgb vals whatever. strength defense magic, generic? whatever ... 

random encounters through grid, 1-100 ...

And thats the brief writeup of where the idea started in my head, Ill write more later, but want to move onto a different thing at this point, and I can because I'm funemployed.

This blog post http://williamedwardscoder.tumblr.com/post/48942213058/is-javascript-fast-enough-to-write-3d-games-yet makes me hopeful the 3d dream would be possible, but its obviously not the focus till somebody makes it to the later stages of the game.

Funemployed

I'm getting older.

Quit my job due to the fact that it wasn't making me happy.

Looking for new work, but also simultaneously playing with the idea that I could build something worthwhile myself. ... but ... probably need to get into a bigger environment where I can learn and grow proactively.

Just saw this http://sijinjoseph.com/programmer-competency-matrix/ which after reading through is quite excellent. Posted it on facebook and realized nobody cared, but also realized it said to start your own blog with insights. Realized I do not currently have insights. Want to design my own RSS reader because google reader is left in the dust, and not entirely sure 'how I want it'... so its an opportunity to grow. So, Im thinking of currently using this blog as a list of articles / presentations / blogs that I am reading in my funemployment and will eventually turn that list into an aggregation tool for myself.

Unfortunately I have too many ideas, and not enough motivation, I think everybody has this problem, so a great tool would be how to help focus people so we aren't concurrently working on the same things unless working together or attempting different paths towards the same solution ... ie maximize productivity of people who want to be productive. An office space line is brought to mind, then nobody would be a janitor.... but Im specifically thinking of coding, it kind of relates to my website idea. Musicpatrons.com ... blog.musicpatrons.com has some minor info, and Ive tossed ideas out to a lot of people who agree I have some good ideas, but the basic idea is to upset the status quo which is always risky business. and getting anywhere near the music industry is an invitation for lawyers to sue you.... so Ive got all sorts of hesitation regarding it.

Question of how long to stay out of work so I can motivate to do my own things. I did finally get around to writing a simple chrome extension to have some options for reddit filtering, and I am happy with it, obviously Id like to do more, but how much scope creep should I allow myself for a simple project when there is already the reddit enhancement suite, which brings up the bigger, if Im not doing something that is so game changing as to be its own thing why am I spending time reinventing the wheel, which suggests I should go work for a company that I want to help improve their services, but I dont want to jump from company to company, although I guess that is socially acceptable for programmers to some degree, but the bigger question is, where should I get a job, want to be working on something that interests me and benefits society, which sort of points to google as I am a google fanboy and they have the highest distribution of information to the world, ... after some discussion with my friend sunday he suggested khan academy ... as education is really the only thing that matters for improving world situations, but ... education + information you know how that is ... nevermind on to the earlier next paragraph...

Other ideas Id like to work on for myself while Im out of work ... which brings up a point I will now revert to a new previous paragraph for... as youve seen that was rambling, but had a purpose.
javascript RPG,
continue working on chrome extensions
contribute to some open source projects
musicpatrons.com
RSS aggregator / reader

Ill do a writeup of the goals of each of those projects in the near future. Ive been using 750words.com to help clarify my internal thoughts, but since nobody reads my blog I may as well use this as an output to myself and at least feel like they are public ... Im a big all information should be free type of person so why hide behind a curtain in any element of my life.

hmmm

is the google pixel designed to be a dev box for chrome? cause if so... I want it.

frustrated with isms

I just updated the theme because it hurts my eyes. but the reason Im typing this out is because my brain is spinning in circles.
I cant tell who draws forth more ire from my neurons, the hippies with their liberal philosophical bullshit without any sense of reality, or the capitalists with their indoctrinated philosophical bullshit without any sense of reality.

In the past Ive repeatedly referred to two simplified assumptions most people agree to without realizing the logical failing, namely that We want everybody to start off life from a fair position with equal potential, and We want to ensure "more" for our own offspring, whether that more is easier paths, more options, greater flexibility isnt important, the point stands. If you can't see the logical fallacy when these two goals are presented side by side I will probably have difficulty understanding your perception of reality and thus communicating with you.

In my simplified mind, the hippies pursue the first goal and the capitalists pursue the second. The 'best answer' to try and appease the base desires of humans most likely lies with a not quite middle path, of constantly improving the world such that you ensure people move towards equal opportunity at birth, and ensure your offspring more opportunity by opening up the full spectrum, and both the hippies and the capitalists like to say that they are driving towards that goal. Unfortunately, this probably cannot be the case.

Not to say that two people going in opposite directions cannot be aiming for the same goal, Im not sure what the shape of our universe is, and depending on your orientation and spacial skills walking around a globe to meet at the other side is a potential way to meet in the middle. But we as a society have issues with this. When we approach issues from opposite sides we usually attempt to pull the other side towards us in the process. As a simplified metaphor Im envisioning people on two boats approaching an iceberg and crashing into it because they cant agree to split to the left and right simultaneously. Not that it is easy or even possible to go in opposite directions to reach the same goal in all cases, just throwing out the caveat before trashing the method that it would be possible in an ideal world for both philosophical camps to end up helping the world achieve humane goals without utilizing the same course.

But back to the point. I say probably because nobody actually does solid analysis of these things, but also because every situation is unique. Most people will admit that capitalism does a good job of allocating resources towards human desires, but most people intrinsically know that human desires on a micro scale do not align with human desires on the macro scale. On the same note that capitalism fails to allocate properly towards real goals beyond the day to day elements of staying alive and sane, most people intrinsically know that the hippie ideals will generally be ousted to the practicalities of interacting with the real world. This isnt to say that a hippie commune cannot exist or that a socialist nation cannot exist, but that competitively, their goals and path to attain happiness tend to be counter to the competitive human nature on a smaller scale, or more reasonably, in an attempt to give everybody the same resources opportunities or stuff they fail to satisfy the requirement that their equality beats the baseline opportunity of an outside system.

Getting a little rambly, had somewhere to go with this, and will continue my rant later, but GAH needed to vent on a friday afternoon.