Friday, November 18, 2011

An Algorithm for Parents

Here is something I sent to a friend whose wife just gave birth:
-----------------------------------------------------------

while (baby.isCrying())
{
baby.Burp();
if (!baby.isCrying())
{
output("your baby had gas");
exit;
}

if (baby.needsDiaperChange())
baby.changeDiaper();

if (!baby.isCrying())
{
output("your baby needed a change");
exit;
}

baby.Cuddle();
if (!baby.isCrying())
{
output("your baby needed a cuddle");
exit;
}

baby.Feed();
if (!baby.isCrying())
{
output("your baby was hungry");
exit;
}

baby.holdAndRockGently();
if (baby.isSleeping())
{
output("your baby was tired");
exit;
}
}

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Update to Occupy X

One of the things I had mentioned in my previous post was that I wished the Occupy folks had more direction, and I did wish them to succeed, but I had no idea (nor did I believe did they) what success meant.

I found this article that goes one step further and clarifies what their goals SHOULD be:
http://www.prosebeforehos.com/article-of-the-day/10/12/giving-direction-to-occupy-wall-street/

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Occupy X

Someone should make a game called Angry People. In this game, you have a bunch of people encamped outside some sort of buildings where financial stuff goes on. On each level, you have different cardboard signs and you have to fling them at the financial structure to try and knock it down. Except the signs are made of cardboard and the buildings are made of bricks.

Where am I going with this? Every day, I walk past the Occupy Boston encampment, and I stop and read all the different signs that they have on display. Many of them from people with valid issues, many of them with poignant and moving quotes. My favorite one says "We spilled blood on the ground and expected flowers to grow?". The movement itself is very touching and I truly sympathize with what they are trying to achieve. What is that? I don't really know, but I do sympathize. Which gets me to my next point.

You cannot be truly successful unless you can measure your success. Unless you know what you are aiming for, you cannot tell whether or not you have reached your goal. Or as my father used to say to me, if you cannot see the goal on the soccer field, you will not be able to score a goal. In order to be successful, you have to have a way of measuring whether or not you were successful.
In other words, unless you know what you are trying to achieve, you will not be able to achieve it. Which brings me...to my next point.

The Occupy Boston'ers have many many signs with messages about what they do not like. These are clearly stated and often make me really mad at "The Man". I very rarely see a sign that says what should be done about these problems. A manager of mine once said..."Don't come to me with problems, come to me with solutions. I will sympathize with your problems, but unless you tell me what you want me to do, I can't really do anything, and that's not useful to me." I feel that the OB-ers have not clearly stated what their demands are. Yes 1% of the country "controls" 99% of the wealth. How can we fix this? What concrete steps can our government, our lawmakers and our financial leaders take in order to fix this? What clear goals do they have and what timeline do they have in order for these goals to be met? And how are they monitoring the progress of these goals? (more on this when I find out)

Friday, September 30, 2011

Excellent article on SEO and Ethics

http://mattgemmell.com/2011/09/20/seo-for-non-dicks/

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

My Faith in the God Particle

I was reading recently about the continued search for the Higgs Boson, a.k.a. "The God Particle". There is quite a tremendous amount of religious fervor about the topic, and I believe that Stephen Hawking himself has a large bet where he believes it will not be found. Apparently, according to him, they (the scientists at Cern and the Large Hadron Collider) are running out of places to find the GP and it is running out of places to hide.

This got me to thinking of religious behavior in all walks of life. By "religious behavior", I don't necessarily mean behavior by religious people, but rather, behavior among people with vastly different opinions to which they are too emotionally attached, that appears to be religious in nature. We see this "religious" behavior in all walks of life, from Trade Unions to Prison Gangs, from Comic Book fans (Marvel vs DC) to Programmers (Java vs .NET). It appears to me that religious fervor is an evolutionarily successful behavior and our brains have evolved to be religious. Let's look at the benefits of religious behavior.
  • Association with those who have similar opinions to you
  • Isolation from those who may harm you because of differences in opinion.
  • Strong pecking order in the form of hierarchy (i.e. moderators/popes/imams/comic book store owners)
  • Preferences by the females for males that are higher up on the chain.
  • The more people who agree with you, the more you believe you are right, despite evidence to the contrary.
Now let's look at the cons:
  • War
  • Isolation for those who cannot find others with their opinion
  • Discrimination against those whose opinion is in the minority
  • The mechanisms by which units establish pecking order are often unpleasant.
  • The more people who disagree with you, the more likely you are to believe you are wrong despite evidence to the contrary.
Let's face it, religion exists because religious behavior is successful and contributes to the success of those who have the genetic predisposition to have similar opinions of its members. Humans are a social animal, and genes that contribute to being able to associate will survive.

Friday, January 28, 2011

To Bee or not to Bee

This morning I was wondering where bees went in the winter time. So I went to google and typed in "Where do bees..." and the first thing that popped up was "Where do bees go in the winter". Apart from quenching my thirst for this little dribble of knowledge, it was somewhat soothing that enough people have wondered this for it to be at the top of the google instant feature.
Anyway, its pretty interesting...check this article out:
http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/1699/