Updated…

Monday, November 25, 2002

The upload is in place… Enjoy!

Anyway, I hate posting such a tiny entry, so I'll quickly write a mini-essay to fill the space (hey, writing is good exercise for my brain). Since we've been talking about companies, and a few people have been saying, “but Shannon, how can you argue for personal freedom but then want to limit the actions of companies?”, I present Emergent Behaviour In Corporate Systems:

Emergent behaviour is the name for the phenomena of "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts." It is the result of the interaction of small simple systems bringing forth complex behaviour (without any of the small systems even being aware of the larger picture). Examples include a collection of neurons forming a conscious brain, swarming and insect behaviour in general, as well as some self-organising networks designed by people.

A small company -- a company in its youth -- is owned by one or more people who have direct involvement either personally or by direct proxy via employees. The actions of the corporation at this size, while intended to ensure that corporation's survival, are directly governed by the ethics and human instincts of the directors.

If time goes by, and the company is successful, the ownership shifts to where the company is owned not by people or even people by direct proxy, but to a place where the company is owned by a combination of other companies and shareholders (many of who own the shares anonymously through large portfolios). After enough time, none of the original owners are involved on any level. In addition, the corporation is able to grow large enough that no single individual or even group of individuals has direct involvement in all aspects of the business including consumption of the end product.

At this point, each piece of the company keeps doing its job, but it's grown large enough that each piece does this job without real awareness of what it means on a human level or what the other pieces are doing -- emergent behaviour has brought the company to a point where it is a "headless monster" fighting for its success and survival, but without any human restraints (ie. ethics). These entities fight for survival with more power than most small nations, but with no more "care" for humans than a virus has (and the spread of disease is also a good example of emergent behaviour; highly complex strategies can be exhibited by ridiculously simple creatures).

By protecting the "rights" of these headless monsters, we are not protecting our human rights or freedoms as the government would have you believe. We are making a choice -- we are choosing these constructs, these masterless golems* over humans. They don't value freedom or human life. They don't even "know" what it is.

The point is, a large system can and will act amorally and in direct opposition to the best interests of the public (including the shareholders) even if every small part of that system acts in a moral and responsible manner. But you're probably bored now… Enjoy the update

* I mean that in the Jewish sense of the word, not the Tolkein sense!!!

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BANG

Monday, November 25, 2002

You think governments work for the people? You think they couldn't possibly care more about big business than you? I'm sure a lot of people have already seen this link because it was on Fark earlier, but here's the gist of it (full link):

World Heath Organization [WHO]: Our studies are clear that cola and soda pop is unhealthy and excess consumption can lead to obesity.

Coca-Cola and PepsiCo (to Bush administration): Here's a few million dollars to help all your good work.

US Department of Health and Human Services (to WHO): Why that's preposterous! There is no evidence linking high sugar intake and obesity! We support Pepsi and Coca-Cola in their push to make sure that school children have the right to not just drink pop with lunch, but also during class*.

The American People: Good to know, we'll keep drinking this liquid candy! That's why we're so thin and athletic!

300,000** people died in America in 2000 from obesity related causes. It's worth taking seriously that the government is not just willing to ignore these issues, but to actively fight to make them worse when paid to. Realize something: this is not a government for the People, by the People. This is a mercenary force that has taken over the White House that has made it clear over and over that they work for the highest bidder, no matter what the outcome is.

Rachel (paintball maniac) and Rob just headed in to Belleville to pick up a gun for Rob and for Jon (Rachel and I already have some)… So yes, if you come to the New Years BBQ the following events are planned for inclusion:

  • Paintball tournament of sorts (bring your paintball gun!)
  • ATV jousting
  • FIREWORKS GALORE (enough to shame July 1st BBQs I hope)
  • Giant bonfire
  • A couple kegs of beer***

I still want to try and see if I can find an outdoor hottub to rent… That would be a lot of fun.

Anyway, a pile of people have been sending me messages not so much to thank me for adding spellcheck to the forums, but to ask me to add it to the IM system as well. Here's the deal: adding it to the IM system is more complicated, since it has to parse out reply lines as well as UBB and all that. In addition, I work for tips. Not a single person has donated via PayPal regarding the spellchecker (the last donation was almost two weeks before I added that)… So… If you want to have a say in what order features get added, feel free to say “PS. I'd really love spellcheck on IMs” or “Please turn custom layout on” if and when you throw a quarter in the hat.

I should say that I don't mind if people don't donate — it's not at all a requirement of using IAM, and I absolutely do not expect everyone to do it or anything like that. So don't feel bad if you haven't donated financially. Anyway, the BME experience update is uploading now with about 150 new experiences. I'll make a quick post again when it's there.

* In all seriousness, the big beverage and fast food companies have done this. They force schools into exclusive contracts where the schools guarantee volume in order to get “good” prices. When the schools can't meet these quotas, the companies then force the schools to allow students access to their products during class. For an excellent overview of how these tactics work, read Fast Food Nation.

** Why do we find it easy to ignore 300,000 deaths in one place, but feel absolute outrage when 3,000 die dramatically? Fat folks don't make for good TV unless they're funny fat folks? Do we have some free-will delusion that “it's their fault, after all they were eating” even though many became physically and mentally addicted AS CHILDREN?

*** I found out the local microbrew sells custom beer for half the price of the Beer Store, so I've put “keg fridge” on my Christmas List (fingers-crossed). If Santa brings me one, I'll always have high quality fresh unpasturized beer on tap.

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Various Updates

Monday, November 25, 2002

First of all, THE SCRAPBOOK. After some yelling at and financial threatening of the printing house, we've got confirmation that the books are ready to be picked up. So they'll be grabbed today and shipped tomorrow in softcover. If your order is for a hardcover it will ship later in the week (I'll know more precisely later today I hope).

We should have an over-run of the softcovers. Odds are that the hardcovers will get to people in time still, but if your order is time-dependent (for example if it's a Christmas Present), if you'd like to swap your hardcover order for a softcover one (let me remind you though that the hardcovers are way nicer), contact BMEshop and they can do that (with a coupon being issued for the price difference)*.

I posted this in the Whatever forum, but I thought people might be interested to know that there are currently 64,497 active forums on IAM (as of 10 AM this morning — there should be more now). Seems like a lot of forums to me!

* With apologies for the run-on sentence.

PS. Thanks to Roberto for the sticker.

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Ramblings

Monday, November 25, 2002

My driver's license expires tomorrow, so I have to go to Belleville today and get it straightened out. When I moved out here I changed my address with them, and I was issued a temporary… The permanent never came. I suspect now I'm going to have to pay a “fee” to one government agency because another didn't do its job. It's snowing now but just a little — I don't really like this transitional period where it's cold enough to demand winter clothes, but without thick layers of snow… Just blah dirty grey.

Hide on the promenade
Etch a postcard :
"How I Dearly Wish I Was Not Here"
In the seaside town
...that they forgot to bomb
Come, Come, Come - nuclear bomb
Everyday is like Sunday
Everyday is silent and grey

Ha ha no, just kidding. It's not that bad. My plan for today is pretty light; head in to town to deal with my license in a few hours, do an experience update, do some programming, a little target practise, and so on. Rachel is checking in on a few government surplus land sales coming up… There's a property that's asking something like $7k US for 100 acres of rough land with a river flowing through the middle among other things. Might make for a good homestead.

I guess I should catch up on the news, see how Republican logic is going. Something I should mention — last year the Republicans introduced the “The Universal Military Training and Service Act of 2001” which is now set to be passed. Basically it forces everyone between 18 and 25 to serve at least six months of military service — a permanent draft. Don't believe it could pass? The insane Homeland Security bill just passed, and this permadraft bill is sitting at 90% general support.

Here's a link to the full text of the latest “bin Laden” letter — although it's far from authenticated — personally I think it's a fabrication. While the Q1 section reads fairly legitimately, I believe it leaves out a lot of key issues, and the Q2 section reads like an over simplified cartoon characterisation of bin Laden. Not that it's probably much worse that current intelligence.

The moon landing was a hoax? So I saw a link on I think /. this morning saying “Telescope to challenge moon doubters“. The new VLT that European scientist are operating can see a single human hair from 16 km away, and should be able to see the lunar landers… But you'll notice the article no where says they did see them! Not only have they not found them yet, but as Marcus Allen points out, Russia first got to the moon in 1959 (unmanned), and were later able to retrieve samples as well… So we'll definitely see stuff on the moon, and seeing it won't prove people were there.

I don't know if we got there or not. I sure hope so, but at the same time, doing it on 1960s technology is pretty mindblowing. I'm incredibly impressed that we even managed to get unmanned probes there… One thing I respect about the Soviet program is its willingness to admit its failures. We do know that either NASA fudges its results or are simply better than everyone else. I'm not saying that's not the case, but it's the long shot of the available options.

Anyway, if they did it, it was through the willpower of American cowboy engineers and test pilots standing on the shoulders of German scientists that supplied the ideas and the underlying information. One of the dirty secrets of the US space program is that it was made possible by experiments that Nazi scientists did on Jews during WWII — although that's not going to happen again apparently. Now, I'm not talking about German moon bases or kooky UFO stuff — I'm talking about both the dirty research from camps like pressurisation testing, and both academic and aviation engineering work from people like Werner von Braun (note: I'm not saying von Braun was an evil man — just a German scientist — when his V-2 rocket hit London he is said to have remarked, “The rocket worked perfectly except for landing on the wrong planet.”).

Anyway, the German V-series of rockets eventually progressed into the Staturn V series that put astronauts on the moon (did you know that's where the V came from? That the US moon rocket is actually named after the Nazi rockets that pummelled Britain?*). By the time the end of the war rolled around, Germany understood that victory would come not from the Luftwaffe, but from their space program (both manned vehicles and unmanned weaponry), but it came just a little too late… I have a couple decent books on the history of experimental planes that cover the subject but I haven't actually unpacked them yet (sorry) or I'd scan a few weird pictures.

Anyway, I've rambled off on that subject a bit farther than is interesting to most people. There's a little bit of debate on the Third Reich Forums (no, it's not a white power board, it's a historical fiction debate site) for those that want more…

* It is important to note that this is entirely conjecture on my part. Click here for a complete history of the V 1 rocket booster including name changes. Most people would disagree with the conclusion I've reached.

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Memory

Sunday, November 24, 2002

So I was trying to find some reference to the product in the diary below, and the best I could find was lots of references to the file format it used (just a group-3 fax file without headers basically; just b/w modified huffman encoding).

I've been releasing commercial software since the 1980s, but in the early 90s I moved over to producing larger custom software, so most of my bigger products are pre-Internet. It's weird how some of them have just dropped off the face of the planet; short of old magazine articles there's literally no references. Not only that, but the source code is gone, as are all the design notes (as far as I know).

It's actually pretty scary how much gets lost all the time… You know the old smarts-admiration expression “he's forgotten more than I know”? I wonder if it matters that we've forgotten these things. As far as the above, what good is a obsolete encryption technology, obsolete fax control engines, a pre-TTF vector font rendering engine, and some odd OCR tools? The hardware required to run it probably doesn't even exist much in functioning form any more…

Meh.

I'm going to go fiddle with the forum search tools now, and hope that I'm not repeating work I've already done a few times… But first I have to go figure out what's stalling the experience engine. I don't know if reviewers are having problems, but my moderation step isn't working like it should and I figured there'd be an experience update today or tomorrow depending on how many we have waiting for us.

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