Yahoo! News - Universe Measured: We're 156 Billion Light-years Wide!

I love this tidbit of information. Stated with so much assurance and so much room for error. And I love this quote.
Yahoo! News - Universe Measured: We're 156 Billion Light-years Wide!: "'If the universe was finite, and had a size of about 4 billion to 5 billion light-years, then light would be able to wrap around the universe, and with a big enough telescope we could view the Earth just after it solidified and when the first life formed,' Cornish said. 'Unfortunately, our results rule out this tantalizing possibility.'"

Don't even think about speeding in Italy

They will catch you! I'd like to see the Cops episode where they use this car to bump some people off the road or throw the perp over the hood for frisking. Do NOT scratch the paint

Cold Turkey

Kurt Vonnegut is a most excellent writer and a very interesting thinker. I cannot truly vouch for the fact that this (Cold Turkey) article is his, since the whole commencement speech event, but it is very interesting. I'd like to argue against what seems a very pessimistic POV on humans, but then I'm not 81 with that perspective. Anyhow, read and think.

LauraJ's Weblog

I have been desperately looking for some information about getting the alerts to work correctly in Sharepoint and ran across LauraJ's Weblog. It didn't have the information that I was looking for, but it is a good blog with what looks like some good information.

Saint Anxieti of Malta

I think a very good friend of mine just might be the Patron Saint Anxieti of Malta.

E-mail Post

Thought I'd try the new feature, just to see how it feels. Here is a link about people hoping for an earthquake.

Marc's Outlook on Productivity: April 2004 Archives

Marc's Outlook on Productivity: April 2004 Archives

There are just a lot of interesting things here that I don't have time to read. There is talk of Onfolio and the book, Getting Things Done. All of it seems interesting, but I just don't have time to read it all now. So, I use my blog as a reminder, a cognitive artifact that places a link here for whatever I want to say.

I sorta thing things like onenote or onfolio are really just lightweight and portable blogs.

Josh Nimoy @ ITP - BallDroppings

Josh Nimoy @ ITP - BallDroppings This is totally cool! I love this. I haven't blogged in a while, but I had to share this. Thanks to joho for having the best connections to the grooviest shit.

Mindjack - 12 Variables for Understanding Online Communites

This is what I meant. Sorta.Mindjack - 12 Variables for Understanding Online Communites

Responding from one medium to another

I think that part of what we are doing is trying to use something that seems best suited to an individual voice and using it to accomodate multiple voices. The dialog in most blogs is active, but second hand. Blogging is about trust and interest amongst individuals. Puck is active as can be within his own blog, but only a little active within the team (although more active than most . . .). I am active in neither, but can't let them die.

Except for eye yee em. Something about that one made me distinctly uncomfortable. Like we were on a reality show, but didn't know it, so didn't buy into the fact that the cameras would be in our faces all the time recording everything we do everything we say and then edited to twist what we meant lacking editorial control (not by outside agents, but by ourselves). Anyhow, I killed it.

Here is the new one.

It is gone. My blog remains as it was before. Infrequent. Scattered. Unfocused. Mine.

The Power of the Blog

Me. I think. The power of the blog is overestimated at this point. Howard Dean rules in cyberspace, but the majority of people (unsubstantiated opinion) don't care. Cyberfolk are a minorty,a very vocal and active minority, but you can't win an election there. I think Dean is finding that out.

The criticism that I heard is that he really didn't express a position (different than an opinion, but I'll let you figure the difference). His web presence certainly did.

blogging the market

Blogging the algorithm
So, I'm reading this section of this paper and thought of something. First, I think this is very interesting work, in and of itself. Some of the prose is a little overwrought, but there are many good ideas contained within it. I know many people in various management positions would see the blog and this paper as somehow, subversive. I think my boss would hate it, so I made sure to send a link. You never know. They might get it.

Here is my thought. This idea of blogging bubbles seems to be a reasonable analog basis for an optimization algorithm. Similar to a genetic algorithm, but instead of one fitness function there are multiple functions. As the bubble grows from thoughts, to results, to connections, to patterns, the fitness evaluation changes at different levels. Rough outlines, but I think that you could formalize this.

The outcome might be interesting. In much the same way that bubbles are often "false" (i.e., urban legends), the results of the algorithm may be less than optimal. You could calculate urban legends yourself. Is perception reality? Would a social blogging based algorithm result in a different perception? One that isn't true, but has some sort of social value? Do urban legends have social value? Are they cautionary tales for controlling the behavior of youths or the masses?

Rational versus Irrational

Rational versus Irrational
Computers vs. Humans. Up front, I'll say it. I'm an LSU fan. I think they are the most deserving champions. Probably more important is that I'm a computer scientist. I think the BCS functioned exactly as intended. The computer programs are supposed to evaluate each team over the course of the whole season and assign rankings based on that. They did that. When you look at the opponents, schedules and whatnot, you have to admit that OU and LSU had the tougher road to a one loss season. That is the rational way to look at it - judge the whole season, pick the two "best" teams, and let them play it out. The human polls are all about, "What have you done for me lately?" Humans like to consider the most recent events more strongly than those that take place further in the past. That is natural and, frequently, wrong. Although, frequently correct as well. Depends on the situation. (Here is great way to find stuff on a particular subject www.keepmedia.com - here's a bunch on the BCS.)

We like to make predictions. This is what all of science is about. Based on things that have happened in the past, we form hypotheses. We test them, we create models, and if they work out well, we call it a theory (or even a law) and use it to build things for the future. As our understanding of science has grown, we've found that all of our theories are imperfect. Some are quite good, but we always end up with things which are not explainable by that theory or model. Much of this has now come to be lumped as "complexity." Things which can't really be explained except as being inherently inexplicable. We form boundaries and determine what we can about these boundaries, but the predictability of them is beyond us.

This is one of those which isn't predictable. I find it interesting that we look at it as Human's vs. Computers. Humans programmed the computers in a way that did not weight recent games more importantly than games at the beginning of the year. It worked perfectly. It just didn't agree with what the poll voters said. Perfect. It is a different model. If the computer rankings perfectly replicated the human polls, why would we want computer rankings? Neither one really determines a national champion. In sports, they have tournaments. There is no theory, no model, only experimental outcomes. And, in most, there are no repetitions to validate the result. Those are the best. Live in the moment and deal with the event. Baseball is fine and, in many ways, ensures that the "best" team will win (ask the Yankees if that worked in 2003). There is no perfect system for college bowl ranking. If I found one, I wouldn;t tell you about it - I'd go to Vegas and bet on the games. I'd have perfect knowledge of who the best team was in any particular match-up and I'd bet. I'd get rich.

And that is the point of the BCS. Getting rich. Money. That is the bottom line in college football polls, rankings and bowls. Its all about the Benjamins. And we don't really need a poll or a computer to know that.

Yahoo! News - Student Finds Largest Known Prime Number

Largest Prime Number
So, I'm all for computers and grid computing and stuff, but I find the fact that this story even shows up as sort of disappointing. It is nice, but it really isn't news. The guy didn't do anything. The story should be about what the guy says it should be about. The technique and how it can be used for other things that may have a more obvious use. Interresting, but somewhat pointless. I suppose the story could give some attention to the computing technique, but really, it is nothing.
Yahoo! News - Student Finds Largest Known Prime Number

Of course, we may find this prime to be useful after all . . .

RSS Tools

RSS Tools
So, like here is what I was reading today. What I like about this is that it somehow is possible that the little RSS feed could cause the downfall of Microsoft. I think it may be true. I also think that their downfall has already begun with the decadence of the abuse of their monopoly. A sign of rot from within. That the empire must be maintained at all costs.

Anyhow, I like the RSS feeds. Especially since no one can even agree on what the acronym means. That is excellent and a sign of vitality. And no one really cares. Everyone knows what it does and what it is called, but who really cares what it means. It isn't even an acronym - it is an abbreviation. At least, I've never heard the pronunciation of RSS, but I suppose you could say "riz" or something.

I'm Tired

I'm Tired
All of the time. Everything exhausts me because most things seem to have too much energy put into it. I think there is a relationship between how much energy is put into something and how much energy it takes to get out whatever was put in. May be related to the process of entropy. We are constantly losing energy and most of the crap that takes our energy simply isn't worth it. There are things that seem to be energizing. I think this is what the academics call elegance. You get more out of it than you put into it, at least, intellectually. Maybe.

Maybe this is just me being tired. I don't think so though. Music and athletics. Academics and dance. They take some energy to do, but when done well, return more than you put in. Politics is a great example for the general populace. I think most people feel they don't get a return on the energy that they have to put into it. So, nobody knows what anybody stands for, the parties simplify it for us to the extent that it is meaningless, and the end result is that nobody votes. It isn't too much trouble to go the polls. It is too much trouble to understand what everyone really stands for to make an thoughtful decision. Don't vote or vote the party line to feel like you have something. I don't know how you change that. Personality rules.

Sorry. No links. Just complaints.

Rush is an Idiot

Rush is an Idiot
This isn't racist either. Not only does he make a patently stupid and unsupportable accusation against the media (the sports media, that serious branch of the fourth estate that is critical to a functioning society), now he is allegedly involved in buying thousands of black market pain killers for his, it seems, personal use. Maybe this explains his behavior.

Its all a bunch of shit
What, you may ask, is the all that is a bunch of shit. Perfectly valid question. Today, it just seems like it is just about everything. Like, the end of the war in Iraq - that is a bunch of shit. It is not over. The easy part is over. The California Governors race - now that is a bunch of shit. No real need to expand. TV, reality and otherwise, is (almost by definition) a bunch of shit. The UN certainly seems a good candidate for a bunch of shit. Maybe the economy, but the really shitty part of the economy is all the pundits talking about it all the time. Right now, controlling the economy is equivalent to controlling the weather. Good luck with either.

OK. So "all" isn't everything. Today, it just seems like a large portion of stuff in our ears and eyes is a bunch of shit. Personally, I rock. I just need less oral and aural shit.

I feel better. Thanks for listening and looking. Bill me.

Slow Leaving
Always has been my problem. I never leave fast enough. I hang around too long. At parties. At school. Everywhere. Eventually, I leave and it is best for everybody. Especially me. Not that I'm leaving here. Because here follows me around. It is always with me. Maybe this is one similarity that the internet has to the soul.

Alabama

What the hell is wrong with the state of Alabama? Why are they always at the forefront of the behind? On the 40th anniversary of the March on Washington which was preceded by the imprisonment of civil rights groups in the state of Alabama. Now they need to be able to have a monument to judeo-chistianism with the Ten Commandments. Now, I'm as christian as the next guy to be thrown into the arena, but even I can see this is a blatant violation of the seperation of church and state. And they have some nut-case of a chief justice that can't see the issue. What is wrong with that state?