Notes about Facebook

It may come into news that fb was originally made for looking at girls. It was only after it de-emphasized photos that it became a friendship site. By focusing on ‘action’ instead of looks, it allowed the 80 percent of us to be involved. What’s more puzzling is how come it took so long to do delayed IM? Ok, before high-bandwidth, AOL dominated so social somewhat quelched by that. And of course can’t waste precious dial-up time not searching for a library of info. Then there was that dot-com correction.
Still more to explode here.

The Internet Space

Accidently or on purpose, the bigs in the internet space have mastered the fundamentals to gain real market dominance:

Here’s how each did it:

*Google - [popularity search] white space/give-u what you want, then ajax maps/1 GB distributed filesystem *Orig [outside of 1st internet dream]

youtube - good name, right place, right time (alike Myspace but ppl tired of having to have something to say, just need friends)

groupon - willingness of stores to cannibalized short-term sales for bigger spotlight (sales team over tech team)

*yahoo - [content] content generation, original info publisher

*Ebay - [used goods] self-propagating used goods market (perpetual cycle since buyers/sellers go there for best price and would prob. get less users elsewhere (except if knowstargeted market))

paypal - piggyback off ebay

craigslist - txt version of ebay (ebay owns 25%)

*facebook - delayed IM (perpetual inertia machine of friends - like ebay but not goods/social) *Orig [outside of 1st internet dream]

twitter - piggyback off FB via SMS (sure follow, name tag, etc but not really)

*amazon - [new goods] books worked, then became retailer in weaken online store space - (successful integration of search and goods)

Some relationships:

ebay & facebook -> inertia machines - ppl don’t want to go to another network fearing less opportunities. Perpetually valued as more ppl use. Only problem w. Ebay is that like China can make things so cheap, goes to Amazon.

Google & Yahoo -> search engines/deals mostly with info

Amazon & Ebay -> physical goods; Amazon is mostly new, Ebay mostly used

Facebook & Twitter -> Fb real names, Tweets pseudo tag names. *Fb with real web client, twitter is SMS. Fb is post-permission, Tweet is notify after.

Goog/Fb & Yahoo - user generated content vs professional content

Google & Facebook -> perennial heavy-hitters. I saw this in 60 minutes so it’s not mine. But both compete on ‘search’. Goog is conceptual (wikipedia like - mental), FB is personal/social. Personally, i think the ‘tact’ ratio between Goog to Fb is 5 to 1. That is, Fb has to deal with infringing on friends (more sensitive) than more inert mental thoughts. In terms of valuation, I dunno, 2 to 1: so if Goog is 150 mil, Fb should be 75 mil.

why did mathematicans feel the need to use x and y as variables

Considering I never saw a mathematical equation involve words, what possessed those numerically privileged (no, not $) to use x and y as variables. Why not just 'a' or 'b'? Sure those are used but not as much as 'x' and 'y'. If I was doing operations on text comparison I can see why bc letter frequency factors into ease. So, the letters 'q' and 'z' would be good variable choices.


Does anyone really know how x and y came to convention?

Just Say No to Debit

I know it's part of human nature and a whole industry is built on debit. But if you have the choice and ability, say no to debit. Credit is all one needs. It's good that someone is actually saying, "I trust u to pay me back later". Am i looking at this wrong. Debt is good. America was founded on debt. It owed $ mucho to France (which supposedly their king lost his head to...) If u owe $ (as long as u make the payments), your debtors have an incentive to see u survive. Our forefathers knew this, and so should u!!

Opinion on demo accts?

I had this idea to give each new employee a demo acct as part of the on-boarding process. They can configure it to their liking and not interfere with other user's testing states. Would there be any misgivings to this idea? The only thing I can think of is that it may be miscontrued with a real account. Then I figure each new employee can be given a unique code identifier like lm101507 to denote a company test acct? Let me know your opinions?

Bluetooth results may vary

When does specs get inflated and when are they understated. Marketing guys overstate, engineers understate? So, the specs for bluetooth say 10 ft. Ok, depends on your devices but I got 30ft for my Blackberry Bold and Sony bluetooth headphones. So, I wonder if spying in coffee shop is viable via bluetooth??

People like fish or trees?

What if people never stop growing if left alone. They would just grow and grow. We could have ppl like the 20ft white sturgeon or the 300 ft sequoia tree.

Can heart be measured?

So, we can almost measure all the inaminate processes in our world. But can the level of emotions be given an upper/lower limit. If a person was born into a wheelchair, they can do 2 things: 1) despair or 2) take as a challenge/uniqueness in life. While the fact of the imobility is known, how much will it take to break the soul of the person?

That may be the cradle of life.

So, if emotional life competes against pattern-matching AI machines, who will win? Perhaps, fear or love will move the emotional being to perceive an anamoly with a better perception than the rote/methodical pattern algorithms an AI will employ to place a value on a new artifact.

Perhaps, heart is infinity. And infinity cannot be measured.

Bad Design can kill

Bad design and weak communication can have profound consequences. Shows the situational awareness needed for a job designing more impactful products.

http://www.super70s.com/super70s/tech/aviation/disasters/77-03-27%28Tenerife%29.asp

(if only the exiting gate was not at that angle, i wonder if the designer of the runway had misgivings)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenerife_airport_disaster

So far it's true

So last winter was really cold (2009) and last summer was cool (2009). My theory about cold times during recession is still holding. It's nearly a 1 to 1 correspondence: reduced factory output = less pollution = less global warming. Very simple. Yet some doubt; dunno?

Summer 2010 : so far it's a scorcher (or a bit hotter than summer of 2009).

Why 7 days

So why is breaking up a month (lunar cycle) better 7/4 than 10/3 or 3/10 or 6/5. I would figure 5 weeks of 6 days is best for the proportional understanding/memory capacity of humans. So 7 proably happened by the flow of events thru history, not things like human cycles.

It's the friday before July 4 and twitter & fb are overloaded so I'm using this...

I got this offer in fandango for half-price tixx. My add made me buy senior citizen movie tickets. I hope they take it, it's all the same price. Or get fake ids.

Lala.com failure

It was a nice idea. Listen to songs off-line for 10 cents. Rather than 1 dollar. I can't figure out why a music publisher who choose to let someone pay them 1/10 of the avg price per song except that Lala is betting that it's customers will set them on their playlists and Not listen to Most of the songs Most of the time and fixate on a couple of songs. I guess that probability didn't work out and they ran out of business. maybe that was why their music quality was subpar to Pandora's.

What do you think?

Love is the most interesting

Of the five basic emotions: love, joy, anger, grief, and fear; it is not the most powerful. Fear is the most pronounced but love may be the most interesting because it encompasses a little of each of the others.

Why has no one suggest an Even Sink Idea for the Titanic?

Over the litany of uncontrollable or unforeseen circumstances surrounding the titanic sinking, I wonder why no one has tried to wonder if the crew could have engineered a better outcome to the disaster?

Uncontrollable
1) No moonlight
2) No waves
3) Captain rushed to increase speed
4) California operator sleeping
5) Steel brittle

Controllable
1) Even sink idea -> Since the bulkhead doors were closed, water was trapped at forward sections; causing ship to tilt over and snap, accelerating the sinking process. Perhaps if they engaged an even sink policy, it might have bought enough time (1 hour to the nearest Carpathia liner to come).
2) Impale the ship on the iceberg and ride on top of it?
3) ?? -> ??

Is the reason for the inequitable blind for .......

I think it’s to compensate the small blind for having a lesser spot. What do you think?

It has to be more than 1 person in order to maintain the purpose of the concept of the the blind: which is to force ppl to play the hand or lose some $. If there was only 1 blind, others could theoretically withdraw and that single blind would just take back their own $; a zero-sum game.

Is Apple the next Microsoft? No, not that way (market-cap)

It’s hard for any established routine to incorporate new things because it has to be integrated with existing processes or be destroyed. That’s why Microsoft loses out to Apple (for now). But Microsoft was once very innovative (tech or business sense). (Microsoft has done in 3 times already I think: Dos -> Windows -> Office -> IE). Now Apple (OS X, iPod/iTunes, iPhone, iPad). Will this mean Apple will fade away in the future?

Trickle-Down or rather Trickle-Up Taxation

The point of tax season (at least in the US circa-now) is social engineering, don't let anyone tell u otherwise.

The point of taxes originally was to ensure each portion of the population pays their fair share of nation maintenance. But with some estimates of it costing 2x as much to collect 1x tax comes in, that fair share is exhausted before it reaches gov't budgets. The only way to make it back is thru the manipulation of ppl making choices conducive to the gov't (encourage retirement savings thru tax credits/thrifty-ness to buy a home) via the portion of their income not taxed. Perpetual debit balance is resolved thru monetary policy of managing inflation/deflation?

You might think that filing taxes on an individual level provides a 2ndary perspective to ensure the rich (or employers) don't cheat. (since headcount is the primary expense). But if you go thru the mechanics, you come to realize it's not inefficient for the rich to profit from that method. No, the key of enforcing filing taxes on individuals is to educate the american ppl on the perks of following how the gov't wants us to live.

I forgot why I called in Trickle-Up or Down taxes.

*Note the subtlety of taxes and tax season. It's different but related.

An inconclusive bit about eating + stress

Some ppl must eat when stressed and some ppl can't. Does it say how we handle stress? If eating builds energy reserve in those that binge for future defense (meaning those ppl are reactive) vs ppl who can't eat because food is inhibitive of a future fight. Meaning ppl who eat when stressed processed food faster into reserves while those that can't eat, process it too slow or can't store it.

Somethings I think I can fly

You see those 20 story residential bldgs with a penthouse on top with a palm tree. Don't you sometimes feel like you can throw a blue racquetball up to the tree? from 2 short city block away.

Why No BlueTooth TV Remotes?

Why?

The Myth of an XML being bigger

I suspect the use of that line of thought comes from the fact that that's what properties and xmls are used in practice. Naturally properties are used for configuration entries and xmls used for structural/more hierarchical data.

But if one was to use a property file to emulate structural data:

first.second.third.word=I
first.second.third.prep=am
first.second.third.verb=beating
first.second.third.object=you
first.second.third.over=!

it would take up more space than (after the 4th line) :

[first][second][third][word]I[/word][prep]am[/prep][verb]beating[/verb][object]you[/object][over]![/over][/third][/second][/first]

And if the data grows, it's competitive for more space. Stick w. xmls for hierarchical-oriented data even if there's no duplicating namespaces. Given the complexity already, there's a good chance it may go that way.

Why Exist?

Is the meaning of life the choice of self-consciousness? Given that if God is omnipotent and everything happens for a reason, then "why do it?". Just to play out what is known? or is life only half-predetermined. And the ultimate push is Not the flow of emotions but to know or not to know. Given a choice, would a supreme being choose to go through all that is known (every single interactions of inate atoms, emotion desires, etc). This binary decision filters down to us all and in the end this randomness and unanswerable question is what sets cosmos into a every growing ball of infinity and just all/or nothingness at opposite ends.

Better than a light coffee?

At times a dark coffee is too much, too strong. Poisonous perhaps. Try a half-coffee/half-tea. It's in between. Or even try putting a tea bag into a full cup of coffee

Who should manage the cleanup (for the future)

Right now, it appears that the oil companies themselves run their own clean-up efforts. Sure, for every day they don't fix it, they risk bad reputation and loss of oil. But I don't think that's equal to the environmental disaster and well-being of communities off-shore. So I propose that insurance companies pay for the preparation/training/and hopefully use of operations relating to clean-up to companies managed by 2 entities: 1) The Shore Communities and 2) The Environmentalists. The shore folk will have jurisdiction to prevent oil have reaching shore while the environmentalists manage the waste miles off-shore. During times of preparation, the oil companies would be responsible for paying those 2 entities in training expenses.

Sure, the gov't can do it but they got enough to think about.

Conveyor Belt Museum

So this idea is not new. Have u ever felt really tired from going to the museum? You ask yourself, I barely walked 2 day or really slowing at that. How can I be so tired? The answer is that the human body is Not designed for museums. It is built for running at a jogging pace to forage for new food/prey. Walking slow and at sideways direction causes non-evolutionary stress. And the mental energy involved to move our bodies thru other slow sideways bodies as well as mental energy absorbing the artifacts exhaust many.

So, how can we solve this. If ppl can sit down and have the art come to you. Note, this is impractical and will never catch on. It's simply not feasible compared to putting art in a big room and letting voyeurs weave their way thru their imaginations, the art, and other art lovers.

Skechers predicament

How to prevent your body from getting used to those shape-up shoes and thus losing its effect: Always walk unbalanced! Then, your body never acclimates and it's always a workout.

Practically, you can do this by walking dangerously until at the last second, you force your body to catch itself.

xml vs properties

I once had a colleague that told me that a properties file can do 97% of what an xml file does. Sure xml files have attributes (like leaves of a branch) but an xml source by the name of w3schools recommends only use of attributes as meta-data to describe the xml tag itself: for instance, the "id" attr.

So, I suppose the extra 3% comes from a forced "integrity" constraint on the relationship of data with the same namespace, using a spatial relationship more openly apparent in xml. For example,

a.b=The Joker
a.b.c=Batgirl
a.b=Batman
a.b=Superman
a.b.c=Supergirl

Using properties, there is no constraint relationships like xml (for ex: alike superheroes or originals)


[a]
   [b]Joker[/b]
   [b]
      [c]Batgirl[/c]
   [/b]
[a]

--or--

[a]
   [b]Batman[/b]
   [b]
      [c]Batgirl[/c]
   [/b]
[/a]

The difference in xml is the encompassing syntax which excludes data outside the descendant structures while properties only has a time-line "before" or "after" relationship. so in the above property example, when does one decide to take it above for the Batman-Batgirl relationship and when does it decide bottom for the Superman-Supergirl example; and what if i place "a.b=The Joker" on top. Does Batgirl become a bad girl?

If an "after" relationship is maintained, then Batgirl would not be partnered with Batman (creating a possible & separate memory-intensive branch) as with Superman-Supergirl if constraints are Not enforced by XML encompassing.

I suppose one could do this to encompass:
a.b=Batman
a.b.c=Batgirl
a.b=Superman

but then what is the text value of a.b now? Batman or Superman? It's workable but messy syntax.

and what about:

a.b=Batman
a.b.c=Batgirl
a.b=Superman
a.b.c=Kypronite
a.b=Lux Luther

so is it Batman-Batgirl-Superman or Superman-Kypronite-Lux Luther?

One could do this but then this is becoming more like xml >

a.b=Batman
a.b.c=Batgirl
a.b=Superman
a.b=Superman2
a.b.c=Kypronite
a.b=Lux Luther

*This assumes your implementation allows for processing of values with the same property names. (ie. ini4j)

[So if you have hierarchical data with duplicate namespaces, xml is the one for you]

Would Math be different on another planet?

So, if u google why a circle has 360 degrees, the quick answer is that it takes about 360 days to do 1 revolution around the sun. So, on venus for example, would the circle degrees by different? or rather should we change the time or use Earth time?

My dream commute...

... is to walk across the hall to my mini-office in my apt (I even think if I had an office in the same residential bldg - like some building management office workers is too much), haha. Some ppl's dream commute is to walk to work. I think walking is overrated. Just get up and start working in your apt. I recommend it!

Volcanic Ash - why not go around it?

So it may be that Spain probaby refused a reroute of all air traffic to it's airports & then have ppl take trains up to northern europe (if a train stops, it doesn't fall to the ground). But what confuse me is why the world leaders didn't do that for the funeral of the late Polish President and the traffic air crash. 2 funerals unattended. A shame.

The divide between rich and middle class

So I agree with Hans that the divide between poor and rich are not as great. But I'm focus on the distinction between the rich and the middle. The difference is beyond just eating caviar everyday but who calls the shots.

Hans Rosling shows the best stats you've ever seen | Video on TED.com

Why musicans are bigger rock stars than graphic artists or culinary chefs

Music elevates humans to a whole new level. No where in nature is equable to human's sonic sophistication (a composition of a story/emotion thru a collection of sounds). Think about. There is visual beauty in mountains, a sunny day. For scents/food, sure we don't find a sauteed dishes (maybe via burn pig in forest fire). See, it is reproducible. Apples are more succulent right off the tree. Touch, we won't go there. Nature has audio; in the whisping of reeds of the grass but only human-made beauty can tell a story of human interaction/experience.

Movies are not included here but they utilized both visual and audio to tell a story. I guess now the interesting question now is how musicians fared vs movie actors in the age of silent film.

3D Tv: Will it follow the same trends with all technology?

It's been a year since 3D made it to the masses (maybe more since Beowulf came out in Nov 2007) so that's almost 3 years. But I've been so pre-occupied with seeing Avatar on a Samsung 3D home theater system that I totally can't believe I forgot about what made the VCR, Internet & other technologies. Wow! How did that slip my mind?

The current internet browser malaise

ie is a mess. Ie 6 is propriety, ie 7 is slow, and ie 8 has the stupid compatibility button (and not too useful accelerators). Ppl should only be using Firefox and Chrome. Safari is only in there for Apple. And Opera, opera! who uses Opera! If only Ie does what firefox/chrome does: have users that always gets the latest versions..

How to make Curling "Look" cooler

Perhaps if they give the contestants wicked brushes?

It's ok for Silver (relatively)

Please don't be one of those ppl who insist on being the best. I guess it's a good attribute in certain times. Everything's got their place. But I feel the only place this is true is a live or death situation or good-nature competition. Have humility, be humble (if excellence is coming from an arrogance line of thought and not of celebration). It's similar to seriousness of jobs (the only ppl who should really take their jobs seriously are air-traffic controllers and emergency surgeons): and a lot of exceptions of course (ie. police officers in life n death situations). No joking here.

So, it's ok to be competitive. Close to being the best. It's like the olympic athletes. Imagine crying for .030 seconds. I guess it's ok. But it's also ok to give a good fight and accept this random fate got u; "this time"....

Volumetric Testing Methodologies

Is it possible to test every single combination/permutation out there in a system. The world, no but an isolated system, yes, but is it worth it? I say the answer depends if it's a perfect system. 

How does Amazon ensure the wrong package doesn't go to the right addr? Let's break into 2 components. There's a possible incorrect bind of address to a product on the website end. Then there's a failure in putting the right product into the box. If the shopping site fails 10% to bind the address/prod on the website; amzn would go out of business. So, how's it prevent this: develop solid code and qa it after dev for every possible permutation. But they don't have to do this after the system is perfected. The same probably goes for the packaging side (prob. using RF tech). I can't imagine a crack team ripping up packages randomly to ensure if the right product got into the right box. They could do that for a little while but the monotomy would eventually make this process ineffective. That's why over 55% or more of the time, security experts can sneek past TSA officers a weapon. I will make a guess that Custom agents at ports differentiate by making a plot of what's coming in as that's not totally random (like we'll expecting a large shipment from Yemen at this time). The same probably can't be said of Amazon. So, what's common theme here: the need for a narrative. W.o this, complacency happens, as also security experts are also able to infritrate military bases and practically steal submarines.

How about the argument that ppl should at least test what we send out. Let's at amazon again: True Amazon doesn't test every single product in their inventory. Now, what about every single product they send out. They don't because they know their website binding system is "perfect" and the packaging side is probably "near-perfect". I would introduce tests that promote fundamental queries on the groundings of the system (like slight nuances that would cause the perfect system to stop working; like process-additions, etc). I would NOT test what the perfect system tests; I would test the perfect system itself. This would probably be done by pattern recognition. The other test is for the imperfect parts; like the creative part and that would be served best by peer review as it's mostly a publishing system.

EHarmony is superficial

So I took the test (a few years ago) and they refused my business because they didn't "understand" me.Well, I say, it's a stupid psych test anyway since if the guarantee is for only 3 months then the relationship is superficial since you have to surpass the 3month mark before it's considered a steady (maybe LT) relationship.

EGO

I think my blog is better than Alec Baldwin's.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alec-baldwin

Consider this:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alec-baldwin/put-a-major-oil-company-o_b_421021.html

with

http://ilupper.blogspot.com/2009/10/energy-4-pillars-of-good.html

Not enough levels.
I'm just kidding.

Baseball for Left-Handers

Maybe 1 out of 9 innings; we can have the runners run in the other direction. Then the left-handers can throw out runners instead of just catching. And the right-handed pitchers can have easier pick-off moves. 1 in 9 is close to 1 in 10 of the population of left-handers.

4 digit Ids

All ids should be segregated into 2 digit chunks so it's easy to recite/recall. With respect to IT systems, when the unique id surpasses the 4 digit mark, the current set should be migrated to a archive branch and the main active set/trunk should be truncated for a new id namespace. Of course, this can't be done for a customer id base (assuming your company has millions of names), so 2 digit chunks should be the format.

I need a doctor for this one

So I'm assuming you read my post in Dec 2009 on why we have 2 kidneys? The real question is why certain organs are oriented on 1 side? Like why is the gall bladder on the left or right side and why is the heart mainly on the left side? And why do the left hemisphere of the brain handle certain functions?

Link: why-we-have-2-kidneys (or 1 windpipe & 2 lungs)

Please use the ALT attribute for the IMG tag for the visually-impaired

I care about other ppl's experience throughout life. So, even if it will affect ~3% of the population, please do this. I think the Alt attr in html is good only for 2 reasons: a) long-thoughtful (something to say in adjunct to the picture (like a museum curator) & b) ppl who have terrible contrast in their eyes (so, if there is txt or hard to discern img). Both requirements nearly call for the same thing: a good narrative. This creative also gets pass the reluctance of developers to do is as "unnecessary" redundancy (which creates a maintenance/creative hassle). If we are "more" creative than not, it puts the brain to be able to do it (since it's for higher intellectual goals or empathic causes).

I don't believe that it's good for having something there if the img is missing excuse. It depends on the browser, firefox won't show a missing img so it may be better just to leave it alone. For ie, it's a box of where the img will be, but having non-descript txt there doesn't help. It does the user no good to know that "Limited Time: Hurry" imagery is supposed to be there (I can see it from the plain html txt).

And if the excuse is some browsers are only txt, then a txt-only version should be made available. And if are a user who doesn't want to download imgs, I can't help u; please upgrade to broadband (or it's the developers fault for a weightly img if broadband not avail). If u are a writer and don't want to download imgs, imagine reading a novel with inter-spaced imgs with non-descriptive img boxes floating around everywhere. It's not possibly. They probably like websites with mostly decorative txt and an artistic picture of some idyllic scenary on the periphery so then it comes back to a creative narrative to the pic.

Do alt for the visually-impaired and to be creative! Don't do it for the bureaucracy.

The QA Mafia

Marina is the ring leader but Gavin Maisel is the enforcer. Bejoy is a young lieutenant. In their dirty back office deals, developers have to pay a fee aka "protection money" to get any thing done around here. So, we know who's really running the show at Nxj.

What Sleep is for? Theoretically

This is theoretical.. One common answer is that it's a time to rebuild body cells. That's practical but not fundamental enough to form a true basis. I can contrast with the question of why we can't just have bodies that rebuild instantly with the food we input to our bodies; much like an engine (perpetually running for thousands of hours given fuel).I think the answer lies in the mind. Sleep's fundamental cause is to allow a "resolution" of mental input to resolve against an adjacent plane of existence (quantum physics if u will). Much like the human body needs a break from eating to do other business.So theoretically, if you have nothing to resolve, you can work forever if given enough food.

Imagine talking to someone who has shut off part of their brain, while still accepting stimuli. It's like dual-personality. "Hey Jeff, wasn't that kayaking cool? Jeff: What kayaking???"

OT: Also to complement, maybe some ppl work better with insomnia?

Car Audio System Idea

Wouldn't it be cool to have an option to leave your stereo on for 1 minute after the engine is turned off (and a gradual lowering of volume) so that ppl can keep their good feelings and avoid the dreaded abrupt transition from muse to silence?

Jennifer's Body

This has got to be the worst movie I saw. Officially worst than 1) Killbots 2) Alligator 2

Chinese Chess vs Indian Chess

I tried once to play Chinese chess and I don't get it. It seems Indian chess is more complex. Perhaps I misinterpreted the rules?

OT: my sister is not a smart person, but she mentions how she's mentally exhausted after playing me. That's not saying much, since i routinely get crushed by better players.

Why does Peyton Manning always have a concern look on his face?

Is the nuclear bomb responsible for the American middle-class

A lot of ppl say the key to wealth is real property: the threat of nuclear annihilation force ppl to spread along a 2D plane over a 3D blast (remind us of something). For purposes of convenience, ownership was better in a house type. It wasn't the car (or was it)? Think about it. Ford made cars in the 20s and we didn't grow as much suburbs as we do now. The energies of preservation overcame other inertias.

Lamenting weather service options

I once had this project; if I had to do it again, I would have used the farmer's almanac to give projections in conjunction w. NOAA data. You see, the issue was that Yahoo Weather or noaa only gave 7 days of forecast and the events took longer than 7 days to set up. I had suggested guerilla events but that didn't take. So, my plan is to given accurate 7 day weather and after 7 days, well, who "really" knows. No one has maps for beyond 7 days.

Rash of Emails around 6pm

Could it be the fluorescent light taking effect. I personally don't like a light bulb in my face; I rather work in a subdued lighting environment like a bar or the office in Ally McBeal.

Frustrating eTrac Commuter Card

When I use in the nyc subways, I have to enter the transaction type as "credit" but I swear that thing is a "debit" card because it doesn't let me purchase metrocards pass my balance.

Yet another Doomsday scenario (not really)

So this is like Octopussy. What if a terrorist explodes a nuclear bomb near a central oil refinery in Saudi Arabia. The shock would reverberate thru the pipelines, starting fires and destroying a good piece of the world's energy infrastructure. Of course, the stock market will crash, the economy would be crippled for a lack of energy. Meanwhile, a simultaneous threat to do the same on a G8 nation (probably a city) is made. So, ppl would panic and attempt to flee the cities. The threat creates the vicious downward cycle as the same instrument of distribution needed to spread out is at a shortage; in effect disabling the G8 nations current state of existence.

This is a safer alternative to bombing a city for the terrorists and brings us back to the Octopussy theme. The oil fields are nuked, who is the US going to bomb; Saudi Arabia??? The terrorists win because forces would have to be mobilized for the state of emergency in the homelands. This may take months. And the world is not the same again.

Traditional cultures & marriage

I was wondering what happens to couples that don't immediately get hitched in traditional cultures. Is it ok for them to later get married? Please let me know.

Full/Double vs Twin

This is 1 case of the worse names. Does "twin" mean meant for 2? Or is "double"? Or do I need 2 doubles to make up 1 full? No, I need 2 twins to make 1 full. It's just different perspectives.

The Disconnect

So, the premise by the Dems was that health = economy because it could contain ballooning medicare costs in the future. But WHERE was the focus on Preventative care that will reduce medicare as ppl get old. It appears to be more of a PR issue/campaign that was solved the issue. Don't we all know a vice-president somewhere with a health plan and smokes/not exercise because of the stress of the job? How's that going to help this person who may need lung cancer treatment at retirment and medicare pays for it??

Again with Balance: sometimes u need to listen to what the public says but sometimes you need to NOT listen to them. Because somethings leaders are wrong and somethings ppl are wrong. So choose you leaders well, and for leaders choose you immediate team well. Here the leaders are doing the wrong thing in listening to ppl and NOT listening. Some immediate examples may be Obama's quick move to appease the public with maybe over-regulation of the finance industry. Imo, that is not necessary.

So, here is the disconnect: that it's good for ppl to have health insurance even after losing their job. Well, if it was easy to get a 2nd job, then you can just get the 2nd health insurance. Duh. And for some reason, hc is staggered over 10 years when immediate demands are for something to do NOW.

Which brings the question: why do ppl care more for something short-term vs a long-term overhaul that will affect to many things to come?
- I believe the answer is that health is more of a stagnate thing; that most ppl are healthy for the most part. Sure they should be eating healthier, etc. But economy is what they are doing Now and time is a wasting (on their Life - lost of a year or two : and a lot of ppl need structure and can't create it for themselves - it's hard). Empirically, it's the society (economy) vs the body (self). Ppl like to interact with ppl and work for a cause (even if not own, but adopted). They are submitting to be part of society (group survival over self -unselfishness). Plus, it keeps for Mental health as the ability to find new opportunites creates happiness which by some experiments is related (via placebo maybe) to the bodily health of a person. I guess most Presidents would not want to deal w. the day to day operations of getting a steady rate. But it doesn't have to be that way. You can focus on the same conceptual designs on the economy that is done for things like healthcare. Long prosperous times have been based on technological progress: ie. the internet, Star wars, bronze, etc. I doesn't just have to be boring like interest rates, etc.

Ultimately, in 1-1.5 years we should revisit the health debate: perhaps we will be ready for it by then. :)

Balance is the key (most of the time)

Sometimes, it's good to be extreme and the occassion calls for it. Like if a bear attacks you. For Obama, it's great to see he's getting the balance treatment. Ppl say we should celebrate not just tolerant our cultural differences. Of course, on the other end is that we should be blind to them: that a person's ability to fulfill their job should be outside of their ethnicity. It works for his eloquence too. He got elected partly for his enchanting speeches but a good # of ppl made mention of the lack of substance of "implementation". One of my friends made that remark before he got elected. For me, it was that historical pivotness that I thought was the key; making a statement. Now, after a year; it's good to see that's not the focus but his ability to find the current And Future desires/needs of Americans. Now, that's progress.

Ps. I was never swept up by Obama's eloquence as a counterbalance to Bush's obtuseness (as evidenced by the query of most citizens on Obama's Nobel award - maybe jsut Europeans love for him). For me, that would be going from 1 extreme to another. We went too to the right, now it's too to the left. Anyone heard of Balance! Why isn't there 3 parties (1 for liberals, moderates, and conservatives)? It was choice between voting for something historic & blue-collar practical vs wretched old practical/somewhat righted man & inexperience soccer mom. So, and it's complicated......

Motorola S805 Bluetooth headphones shoddy

The above item is shoddily made. It's weak pt. is the headband grips to the earmuffs. It's held together by 4 weak screws on both ends. I would not recommend this product unless your replacement timeframe is 7 months.

Rebuilding Haiti

Not really sure why there aren't resorts in Haiti that one sees in Jamaica. Sure, won't help everything but will bring in some money. Supposedly, the Clintons spend there honeymoon there in the 1970s so something happened there to throw out the resorts. Location-wise, it's like a trip to DR, which is increasing as a resort location.

The resorts can help improve bldg standards.

Yahoo supports Opera in its pages

No wonder they are where they are at. Opera! Europeans don't use Opera. (at least not the english) I think.

Jerry Garcia

I'm listening to him for the 1st time and I think I know why there are "DeadHeads".

Secondary Key to Prosperity in US

Could the dual function of internationalization of surgery (unnecessary ones) and the augmentation of substandard (lowering Fed mins) preventative care (for the uninsured & all citizens actually) be the secondary bottleneck to future years of prosperity. For now, it's the operation on terror but that "potentially" will be done in 1 1/2 years. Will see.

Always query a leaders understanding of mechanisms

Before accepting their promises of "efficiency". Like if the mayor of a city says that they can lower taxes because of inefficiences in gov't. Of course they won't give details because their competitors will steal it. BUT you can get a sense from their previous actions/and how they view/perceive the world.

1 possibly-related/prominent example: 1st bush - "Read My Lips; No New Taxes".

The fault here is that they don't know the situation before they make those comments. Rather, we should analyze their fundamental understanding of the workings of the state.

Saving energy thru Google - Cuil + 2

One problem with Cuil is that it looks terrible. Supposedly, we can save a lot of energy if Google goes black. But white screens look better. I remember there was the Netscape portal (which used to be a white backgrd, and visually it was contrastful. Now, it's evergreen green: more homely.

Perhaps Google can go to a night sky (much like the original Netscape browser w. the desert vista). The stars would go a long way to making Cuil actually "cool"; at least in visual appearance.

Terminators in the sky, blah

I'm more afraid of the digitized medical record system we will have in the next few years than the gps/camera surveillance/predator drones. Strange, sure they can follow me to the ends of the earth but they don't know what's going on in my brain.

African animals in the northern US

What do they do with those elephants in the safari in nj when it gets cold? If the trend of farmland going back to forests continue, perhaps we can import African creatures to the US and start national parks here. They would be supported by tourism. Guess they have that already with Busch Gardens, etc: but like real national parks.

Waiting for Google Netbook

I got this ASUS XP home netbook and it feels like windows. Looking forward to the Apple Tablet or google netbook.

I have no resolutions

For some reason, i can't wait for the year to be over? good 2011 before the madness of 2012? Palin, oh lord. Bring on the Olympics; i like Vancouver.

is it just me or am I missing something

How come the method descriptions for org.w3c.Node for setTextContent() and getTextContent() are the same?