Monday, December 31, 2012

The tech debate blasts off (a linkfest) - Towards a leisure society

The tech debate blasts off (a linkfest) - Towards a leisure society

see the debate blast off in serious economic circles during the last quarter of 2012.
I thought it might be useful, as a result, to provide some links to the most recent developments — since the debate really is moving quickly now.

Sunday, December 16, 2012

What is svchost.exe And Why Is It Running? - How-To Geek

What is svchost.exe And Why Is It Running? - How-To Geek

Very useful information for understanding all of the crapware service bloat in Windows.
I've got about 75% of all RAM committed when I turn on my ThinkPad, and performance sucks at just about anything.  Didn't used to be this bad, so I decided to do some maintenance, but it's not obvious what's what.  I mean, come on, "svchost.exe" ??  that's the process name for anything launched by DLLs or from services.  Which services can I get rid of?  iTunesHelper for one, I don't use iTunes very often on this computer.  but I try to stop the automatic launch of the process at startup, and a few days later, there it is again...

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Some philosophy

http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2012/09/dead-philosophers-society.html?utm_source=pulsenews&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+andrewsullivan%2FrApM+%28The+Daily+Dish%29


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Sunday, September 09, 2012

Four kinds of philosophical people | Talking Philosophy

Four kinds of philosophical people | Talking Philosophy

The ideal philosopher lives up to her name by striving for wisdom. In practice, the pursuit of wisdom involves developing a sense of good judgment when tackling very hard questions. I think there are four skills involved in the achievement of good judgment: self-insight, humility, rigor, and cooperativeness.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Why passwords have never been weaker—and crackers have never been stronger | Ars Technica

Why passwords have never been weaker—and crackers have never been stronger | Ars Technica

The ancient art of password cracking has advanced further in the past five years than it did in the previous several decades combined. At the same time, the dangerous practice of password reuse has surged. The result: security provided by the average password in 2012 has never been weaker.

http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2012/08/your-fragile-digital-life.html

 Last weekend, tech journalist Mat Honan faced the digital equivelent of a random act of violence when hackers, attracted to his three-letter Twitter username, picked him for an attack


Sunday, June 24, 2012

Stoicism�/� Getting Stronger

Stoicism�/� Getting Stronger


Hormetism is a practical set of tools that can help you lose weight, get fit, or even improve your eyesight. But thinking of it as just “as set of tools” actually undervalues the benefits of Hormetism, because it leaves out the greatest benefit: a path to freedom from stress and a means of increasing your physical, mental and spiritual strength.  Hormetism is at once a broad perspective on living and a specific set of techniques that can free you from distractions and foster your ability to focus on the important things in life–even the most challenging ones–with greater engagement and joy, and with less distraction from negative emotions such as anger, fear, worry, and the other negative manifestations of stress. Hormetism is not just a set of tools, it is an overarching philosophy of life.
But did Hormetism come out of nowhere, or are there historical precedents?  Within the history of both Western and Eastern philosophies, there is one that comes closet:  Stoicism, one of the earliest and noblest of the philosophies to arise from the legacy of Socrates, over two millenia ago.

Sunday, May 06, 2012

Language Style Matching Results

Language Style Matching Results

power dynamics — he thinks it's possible to tell who has a higher social status or holds the power in any situation based on who uses the word "I" more often. You'd think it would be the person who thinks he's more important, but it turns out it's actually the person who feels more insecure. When we're fixated on how we're coming across, our language reflects our self-consciousness.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

More on intelligence

Cognitive training

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/magazine/can-you-make-yourself-smarter.html

Dan Hurley

Or just good exercise

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/magazine/how-exercise-could-lead-to-a-better-brain.html


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Saturday, March 10, 2012

Capitalism Without Failure

Capitalism Without Failure

 Recent history of US Economics: 1. Rampant fraud and reckless mismanagement in the financial sector, 2. Bailouts of the worst actors in the financial sector, 3. Overwhelming debt and liability imposed on taxpayers, 4. Hair-of-the-dog monetary policy aimed at recapitalizing insolvent banks, 5. Promotion of business leaders and policy-makers who are chronically compromised, 6. Conglomeration of Systemically Dangerous Institutions into a more empowered menace.

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Are Your Passwords Putting You In Danger? | Time Management Ninja

Are Your Passwords Putting You In Danger? | Time Management Ninja

You may need better passwords if you…

- Use the Same Password for Multiple Accounts – Do you have 1 password that you use across all your accounts? If someone gets your password, can they get into all of your accounts?

- Use Simple Words or Your Kids’ Names - Is your password, “PlayGolf2011?” Or, “SamMaryKatie?” These passwords make your account much easier to crack.

- Never Change Them – How long has your online banking password been the same? Change it at least once a year. Every six months is better.

- Store Them in Unsafe Places – Do you “hide” your passwords in easy to find places? In a Word doc called, “passwords?” Under your keyboard at work? Or taped to your laptop?

Thursday, January 19, 2012

So You Think You Have a Power Law — Well Isn't That Special?

So You Think You Have a Power Law — Well Isn't That Special?

Regular readers who care about such things — I think there are about three of you — will recall that I have long had a thing about just how unsound many of the claims for the presence of power law distributions in real data are, especially those made by theoretical physicists, who, with some honorable exceptions, learn nothing about data analysis. (I certainly didn't.) I have even whined about how I should really be working on a paper about how to do all this right, rather than merely snarking in a weblog. As evidence that the age of wonders is not passed — and, more relevantly, that I have productive collaborators — this paper is now loosed upon the world
...
The paper is deliberately aimed at physicists, so we assume some things that they know (like some of the mechanisms, e.g. critical fluctuations, which can lead to power laws), and devote extra detail to things they don't but which e.g. statisticians do know (such as how to find the cumulative distribution function of a standard Gaussian).

Tuesday, January 03, 2012

Infinite Rooms � Modeled Behavior

Infinite Rooms � Modeled Behavior
one of the principle tricks your brain exploits is monocular parallax. That is, not two different images in two eyes, but different images as the head moves. This makes head tracking a must for true 3D.

the holodeck...