Hi everyone,
I'm gonna start posting on the blog on my website, http://rokugo.endoftheinternet.org/ instead of here
It gives me greater flexibility and more privacy, so maybe I'll post more. But probably not.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Would you vote for Bush in 2004?
Take this excel quiz and find out.
What I did:
1)Used the results from CNN's 2004 election exit polls
2)Removed questions that were too similar, too era dependent (Has your situation improved in the past 4 years?), too obviously political (Are you a republican or democrat?), or, most importantly, I didn't feel like typing up.
3)Stuck them into a spreadsheet in quiz format
4)Assuming that responses to questions were independent (Very, VERY bad obviously untrue assumption), added up responses with statistics-magic to give a % likelihood that you would vote for Bush in 2004. Assuming that the questions are independent seems to make it give much more extreme results, but I imagine that they'll be somewhat close to "correct", correct being defined as who you would choose if I just straight up asked you. Try it and let me know.
Bonus points to anyone that can help me turn this into an online quiz using html/javascript/wutevs magic.
It's at
http://rokugo.endoftheinternet.org/~VARIABLE/BushCalc.xls
instead of VARIABLE, put my first name. Or IM or email me for the link.
Oh, and I'm 0.21% likely to vote for GW in 2004.
What I did:
1)Used the results from CNN's 2004 election exit polls
2)Removed questions that were too similar, too era dependent (Has your situation improved in the past 4 years?), too obviously political (Are you a republican or democrat?), or, most importantly, I didn't feel like typing up.
3)Stuck them into a spreadsheet in quiz format
4)Assuming that responses to questions were independent (Very, VERY bad obviously untrue assumption), added up responses with statistics-magic to give a % likelihood that you would vote for Bush in 2004. Assuming that the questions are independent seems to make it give much more extreme results, but I imagine that they'll be somewhat close to "correct", correct being defined as who you would choose if I just straight up asked you. Try it and let me know.
Bonus points to anyone that can help me turn this into an online quiz using html/javascript/wutevs magic.
It's at
http://rokugo.endoftheinternet.org/~VARIABLE/BushCalc.xls
instead of VARIABLE, put my first name. Or IM or email me for the link.
Oh, and I'm 0.21% likely to vote for GW in 2004.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Adventures in Computering
So I was pretty bored over break, and doing work would just be crazy, so I did a lot of playing around on my computer.
The first thing I did was work on improving my desktop to being a more functional media center. At first, I took a look at Boxee, the media center software recently made famous by its conflict with Hulu. It's quite impressive and boasts great online capability. I found its ability to index local media to be somewhat lacking. The indexing was very difficult to follow and it seemed tricky to customize well enough to fit my naming convention.
While reading up on Boxee, I found that another name mentioned a lot was XBMC, so I decided to give it a try. It doesn't have the out-of-the-box online capabilities of Boxee, but I liked the interface for indexing my video collection a lot better. Since then I've downloaded several scripts and plugins to give me some online streaming options.
Sometime during the whole media center event, I realized that these programs are designed to be controlled with a remote (Like a TV remote). There are remotes made that can connect to computers that you can buy, but instead I chose to use a remote I already had purchased - my Wii remote. The technology is very well developed, so getting it to work with my computer was just a matter of configuring my bluetooth adapter, installing a piece of software called CWiid, and editing a few configuration files. I played around with getting it to be a mouse, too, but I found that it doesn't work nearly as well as I'd like. My ability to aim a remote isn't good enough to handle small scale tasks like working a PC. But it works great with XBMC, so I'm very happy with that.
After I finished setting up my media center, I decided to try to setup a remote desktop service. This was also fairly simple; just a matter of installing some software, editing some configuration files,crying when it didn't work for the first few hours, and eventually solving the problem. So now I'm capable of putting my desktop's desktop on any computer in the world (that has the proper software). I was pretty impressed with that, and it makes it easier to do some remote editing tasks.
Once I finished that, I thought that the whole idea of connecting my desktop to the internets was pretty cool, so I wanted to take that success a little further. I found a piece of software that allows you to host a webcam online and set it up. Now I can watch what Elly is doing when I leave the apartment. If you are curious - she naps and whenever anyone walks by in the hallway, her head perks up and she stares at the door. I feel bad about leaving her at the apartment so much now. :( I've been batting around the idea of playing around with it some more and perhaps investing in a webcam that is controllable so I could put controls in to move the screen.
With all of these victories in hand, I decided to embark on another task - turning my desktop into a simple web server. Again thanks to the modern age of computing, setting this up and getting it to work properly was a mere several hours of frustration, but once you figure it out, it's really simple. Ubuntu makes it really simple to set up a LAMP server . Also, thanks to the people at DynDNS.com, I now have a free url that automagically points to my IP address and which automagically updates my IP address if it should ever change (which it does on a nearly daily basis).
My final excursion into the exciting world of web hosting was attempting to host some forums. I downloaded the open source software package phpbb and proceeded to install it. Since then I've successfully installed and configured the board, which is pretty cool.
And this ends my tale of what I did over spring break. I have no practical plans for any of these things, but it was fun to do and learn a little bit about the kinds of things that go on behind the scenes of web servers. If you want to see any of these things in action, let me know and I'll point you to my website. They're all pretty cool.
The first thing I did was work on improving my desktop to being a more functional media center. At first, I took a look at Boxee, the media center software recently made famous by its conflict with Hulu. It's quite impressive and boasts great online capability. I found its ability to index local media to be somewhat lacking. The indexing was very difficult to follow and it seemed tricky to customize well enough to fit my naming convention.
While reading up on Boxee, I found that another name mentioned a lot was XBMC, so I decided to give it a try. It doesn't have the out-of-the-box online capabilities of Boxee, but I liked the interface for indexing my video collection a lot better. Since then I've downloaded several scripts and plugins to give me some online streaming options.
Sometime during the whole media center event, I realized that these programs are designed to be controlled with a remote (Like a TV remote). There are remotes made that can connect to computers that you can buy, but instead I chose to use a remote I already had purchased - my Wii remote. The technology is very well developed, so getting it to work with my computer was just a matter of configuring my bluetooth adapter, installing a piece of software called CWiid, and editing a few configuration files. I played around with getting it to be a mouse, too, but I found that it doesn't work nearly as well as I'd like. My ability to aim a remote isn't good enough to handle small scale tasks like working a PC. But it works great with XBMC, so I'm very happy with that.
After I finished setting up my media center, I decided to try to setup a remote desktop service. This was also fairly simple; just a matter of installing some software, editing some configuration files,crying when it didn't work for the first few hours, and eventually solving the problem. So now I'm capable of putting my desktop's desktop on any computer in the world (that has the proper software). I was pretty impressed with that, and it makes it easier to do some remote editing tasks.
Once I finished that, I thought that the whole idea of connecting my desktop to the internets was pretty cool, so I wanted to take that success a little further. I found a piece of software that allows you to host a webcam online and set it up. Now I can watch what Elly is doing when I leave the apartment. If you are curious - she naps and whenever anyone walks by in the hallway, her head perks up and she stares at the door. I feel bad about leaving her at the apartment so much now. :( I've been batting around the idea of playing around with it some more and perhaps investing in a webcam that is controllable so I could put controls in to move the screen.
With all of these victories in hand, I decided to embark on another task - turning my desktop into a simple web server. Again thanks to the modern age of computing, setting this up and getting it to work properly was a mere several hours of frustration, but once you figure it out, it's really simple. Ubuntu makes it really simple to set up a LAMP server . Also, thanks to the people at DynDNS.com, I now have a free url that automagically points to my IP address and which automagically updates my IP address if it should ever change (which it does on a nearly daily basis).
My final excursion into the exciting world of web hosting was attempting to host some forums. I downloaded the open source software package phpbb and proceeded to install it. Since then I've successfully installed and configured the board, which is pretty cool.
And this ends my tale of what I did over spring break. I have no practical plans for any of these things, but it was fun to do and learn a little bit about the kinds of things that go on behind the scenes of web servers. If you want to see any of these things in action, let me know and I'll point you to my website. They're all pretty cool.
Sunday, March 08, 2009
50 reasons to reject evolution
This appears to be a fairly thorough listing of every argument I've ever heard used. Highlights include:
2.) Because I’m too stupid and/or lazy to open a fucking book or turn on the Discovery Science Channel.
11.) Because I think the word “theory” actually means “random stabs in the dark” when it really means: a large body of facts describing certain phenomena i.e. atomic theory, gravitational theory, germ theory, cell theory, etc.
17.) Because I’m 100% correct about everything 100% of the time and there is 0% chance that some snooty Oxford educated scientist with numerous honorary doctorates could possibly know something that I don’t.
23.) Because the idea that life evolved naturally over billions of years is infinitely less believable than the idea that an 800 year old man crammed two of every species into a giant wooden boat when the entire planet flooded, an event for which there is absolutely no geological evidence whatsoever and also makes no fucking sense at all.
25.) Because I don’t realize that saying “microevolution is possible but macroevolution isn’t” is as stupid as saying “I can pick my nose for one second but I cannot pick it for 10 seconds.”
31.) Because I’m too stupid to realize that Social Darwinism has nothing to do with evolution and is actually a pseudo-scientific bastardization that real science largely rejects.
34.) Because plenty of respectable people like Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, and Mike Huckabee (who are not scientists) don’t accept evolution, and that somehow validates my opinion.
Monday, March 02, 2009
Sunday, March 01, 2009
A new skill
Today I finally realized that I've mastered a skill that has been years in the making - I can now type without looking. Although years ago I got into the habit of always looking at my fingers while typing, for some reason recently I've tried not looking at them and realized that I can do it with ease now. Here's to greatly increased productivity while typing, as soon as I can force myself to stop looking automatically.
It only took me a decade of continual practice to master basic typing skills. I wonder how many decades it will take me to master basic pianoing skills.
It only took me a decade of continual practice to master basic typing skills. I wonder how many decades it will take me to master basic pianoing skills.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
WRONG!
Today as I was in line waiting to be checked out at the grocery store, I decided that instead of my normal 10 minutes of spacing out, I would occupy my time by actually looking at the magazines in the aisle. I almost never pay any attention to any magazine. I could probably name off every non-men's magazine I've ever read from memory. I'm vaguely aware of them, as I see them at friends' houses and my parent's house, but I've never stopped to evaluate them seriously.
Looking at the display of dozens or so magazines, I was struck by how little truth there was to anything in them. The bits of truth haphazardly stuck here and were invariably completely worthless truths, like a celebrity break up. Every week I walk past this collection of falsehoods without a second thought, but today I reflected on the impact they have. These are very popular magazines that many people take seriously. Whether it is about rocky times in a celebrity's love life or 150 new sex positions to try out, people will eat it up. It's packaged as information, when it is anything but. These abuses from supermarket tabloids are worrisome, but much more concerning are when more credible magazines publish crap.
A recent times article discusses the "a growing body of scientific evidence [that] suggests that faith may indeed bring us health." Of course, they give a line or two later in the article mentioning the skeptical arguments that tear it another three or four assholes, then they ignore those arguments for the remainder of the article. How about how every finding discussed in the article is perfectly described by the placebo effect?
Hint:We -don't- have wiring specifically designed for spiritual thoughts. Certain things HAPPEN when people have "spiritual" experiences, but there's nothing that indicates that spirituality is any way hardwired into the brain. It is entirely possible (and in my opinion, likely) that spiritual thinking is simply a byproduct of some combination of actual positive survival traits.
Also, what parts of my body have spiritual wiring? Is it my knees because they allow me to kneel before God? Or perhaps it's my perfectly symmetric hands that permit the most wonderful union for directing my prayers to the heavens. Maybe it's the human ass that he gifted us with. With His infinite wisdom he undoubtedly knew that it would be useful for 21st century magazine journalists with no substantial news to write to pull an article from.
One last closing quote:
Hint: Helping other people isn't a pillar of religious belief, it's a pillar of not being a selfish prick. Pillars of religious beliefs are things like wearing funny clothes, participating in bizarre rituals, and getting really mad when people believe in other gods.
Looking at the display of dozens or so magazines, I was struck by how little truth there was to anything in them. The bits of truth haphazardly stuck here and were invariably completely worthless truths, like a celebrity break up. Every week I walk past this collection of falsehoods without a second thought, but today I reflected on the impact they have. These are very popular magazines that many people take seriously. Whether it is about rocky times in a celebrity's love life or 150 new sex positions to try out, people will eat it up. It's packaged as information, when it is anything but. These abuses from supermarket tabloids are worrisome, but much more concerning are when more credible magazines publish crap.
A recent times article discusses the "a growing body of scientific evidence [that] suggests that faith may indeed bring us health." Of course, they give a line or two later in the article mentioning the skeptical arguments that tear it another three or four assholes, then they ignore those arguments for the remainder of the article. How about how every finding discussed in the article is perfectly described by the placebo effect?
That's undeniably true — up to a point. But it's also true that our brains and bodies contain an awful lot of spiritual wiring. Even if there's a scientific explanation for every strand of it, that doesn't mean we can't put it to powerful use
Hint:We -don't- have wiring specifically designed for spiritual thoughts. Certain things HAPPEN when people have "spiritual" experiences, but there's nothing that indicates that spirituality is any way hardwired into the brain. It is entirely possible (and in my opinion, likely) that spiritual thinking is simply a byproduct of some combination of actual positive survival traits.
Also, what parts of my body have spiritual wiring? Is it my knees because they allow me to kneel before God? Or perhaps it's my perfectly symmetric hands that permit the most wonderful union for directing my prayers to the heavens. Maybe it's the human ass that he gifted us with. With His infinite wisdom he undoubtedly knew that it would be useful for 21st century magazine journalists with no substantial news to write to pull an article from.
One last closing quote:
But he has also found that those people who give help fare even better than those who receive it — a pillar of religious belief if ever there was one
Hint: Helping other people isn't a pillar of religious belief, it's a pillar of not being a selfish prick. Pillars of religious beliefs are things like wearing funny clothes, participating in bizarre rituals, and getting really mad when people believe in other gods.
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