Shannon Larratt is Zentastic

I present to you two million-dollar-ideas which I will not pursue.

…So feel free:

1. aogoogle.com – “Afraid Of Google Dot Com”

As you may or may not know, google logs every single thing you have ever searched for, and keeps that in a database which is linked to you both by cookie ID and by IP. Especially now that they are required to share those records with the feds*, aogoogle.com would serve as a gateway to google and other services (to strip off potential monitoring devices). Yes, I know there are similar anonymizer services out there, but “aogoogle” is a a killer name, and it's not taken, plus it would get a lot of press and attention (and maybe a lawsuit or two).

2. (no site name yet) – Speculative News

Every day the site would post six to ten news stories. Half would be “speculative news” — that is, news stories that could be true but aren't. These stories would range from the silly to the serious. Anyway, people would guess which ones were real and which were, with the day's winners being put into a draw for a daily prize. The real key to the site though is the attached debate forums which I believe would be very vibrant.

Both of the above ideas could be kick-started on a budget of probably $2500 or less, with advertising revenues supporting the sites as they grow. Well, I thought they were decent ideas anyway…

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And does anyone else think it's odd that the slogan for Microsoft's search engine is “More Useful Everyday”? Doesn't that imply that it was pretty much useless in the recent past? Although the wording is interesting — what does it mean when you say “more useful everyday” rather than “more useful every day”? I assume it is a conscious decision.

* Thanks to the Homeland Security act, the government needs NEITHER A WARRANT OR PROBABLE CAUSE to demand your search records from Google (Google can confirm that they comply with these requests, but legally they are not even allowed to tell us how many such requests have been made). There's a good chance that a copy of the entire database has been obtained by the IAD. So ask yourself — what would YOUR search records say about you? Oh, and if anyone's wondering, I'd light my servers on fire and throw them servers off a roof before I'd give the government access to my records.

Two insane stories in the news:

• “Butcher of Cambodia” to Head Independent Sept. 11 Probe – If the US is going to hold an “independent” 9/11 probe, doesn't it seem rather odd that they chose Kissinger, someone considered “the world's number one state terrorist” and a “war criminal“?
• Future cell phones to see the light – DARPA just handed out a $5 million research contract for cell phones that use light to transmit the signal… Let me make something simple for DARPA: cell phones don't usually have line-of-sight to a transmitting tower. They claim it makes for a “more secure” cell phone. Here's a tip: run public key encryption on a cell phone. They have the processing power to do it already.

Every day I become more convinced that either I, or the world, have gone entirely insane. Most likely both… Oh, and the new Mozilla is out (I know there are some Mozilla users, let me know if IAM doesn't work using it if you want).

PS. In less cool but equally stupid news, the Pentagon wants another $50 billion over the next five years, and Bush wants to spend well over $500 billion more on defense during his first term as Clinton did during his last term (but even that won't be enough). Osama is winning and the American people are losing unfortunately…

I thought I'd mention a new US policy I support; that I think is actually a pretty cool idea if it's implemented honestly. Here's the story on NYtimes. Basically they're creating a small ($5 billion) foreign aid pool that's kind of a “scholarship”. To win it countries have to spend money on education and follow free market principals. Of course, it may well end up like the Clemens Foundation did…

I'll also mention that Derek's QOD desktop client has come along well. There's also a Blackberry version in the works!

I shouldn't watch TV any more. Saw some conservative speakers in the US saying that Saudi Arabia was a “better ally” than Canada, and that because Canada is not a democracy (I have no idea how the hell they came up with that, but they actually stated that the Canadian government is appointed by the Royal Family*) and is not to be trusted… This was as part of an argument for a “North American Defense Shield” (aka military occupation of Canada).

On that note, hate crimes against Muslims are up by 1600% since 9/11. However pre-9/11 Muslims were the least hassled group (only 28 incidents in 2000), so there were “only” 481 incidents in 2001… In Los Angeles alone there were 280 incidents of white-on-black hate crimes in 1996. So when you read that 1600% number, pay attention to how people are spinning it.

According to a NVAW (National Violence Against Women) poll, over 300,000 women are raped in the US every year, or about 200,000 according to the DOJ. And that number is going up too. Going by the numbers, at least 1,500 women on IAM have been raped. It's a very big problem. So yes, 481 incidents of anti-Muslim crimes is atrocious and unacceptable, but don't let it distract you from other atrocities.

I didn't sleep well last night.

I woke up every few hours, and eventually dragged myself out of bed covered in sweat. I've got so unbelievably much work to do right now… And for whatever reason, the Supermicro P4DCE+ motherboard I need is on serious backorder, so I'm getting stalled on all fronts.

I think I'm going to stop eating for a few days; just rice and green tea. Go monk. I'm worried that I'm slowing down. I want things to go faster, to keep getting faster. I have an idea for an automated software generation tool called the MonkeyMaster I'm fiddling with.

How the MonkeyMaster works:

It pumps source code first into a combination structural analysis and repeater tool coupled with a markov chain based pattern tool. Multiple streams are spit out and run through a proof checker and are run in a highspeed test environment. Nonfunctional code is thrown out, and functioning streams are demoed and selected.

Pieces grow on the code along the same lines as a random path crystalline fractals (that is, they “wander” the edges of the code until they find a random attachment point). This code is constantly splitting in multiple dimensions so paths can be chosen in a more dynamic fashion than a single flat file or even a linked series of flat files.

It's called the MonkeyMaster project because it's based on the notion that if you have a million monkeys at typewriters, eventually they type Hamlet. Anyway, if those million monkeys type incredibly fast, and then their output is proofread, and then treated as puzzle pieces where matches are determined not by shape but by context (is there really a difference though?) and then a subject engine categorizes the output, not only would the monkeys write Hamlet, but they'd write all books, and they'd even categorize them for you.

I want to be the MonkeyMaster!

Anyway, enough with the rambling, I have work to do.

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* This is true, but only symbolically/ceremonially.