December 31, 2009
Goodbye, 2009, It’s Been Weird
OK, I was going to get some basic thing working to show my brother on Christmas, but after I wrote the code and was dreading debugging it, I realized that I was hacking something together just to show my brother. So I wrote him an email about why I decided not to do it. But then, since the Lord does provide, I came up with a crazy, totally tangential idea for something else. It follows the dream of the metapattern, the fulfillment of the greater theory I wrote so long ago, now, it seems: a pattern that is its own process of creation. Try and wrap your head around that, I know I still have trouble with doing that. I wrote on the 28th a second version of the Theoretica which I will post at some point, but right now I’m very much in the experimental phase of developing this idea. Wish me luck, and all that.
In other news, the movie Avatar has spoiled me for all other movies for some time to come, I am sure. I saw Sherlock Holmes after seeing Avatar, and that was a mistake. As I was watching, I was thinking, “This is a really entertaining movie; why am I not enjoying it more?” The revenues for Avatar dropped only 3% from the first and second weeks, which is unheard of; the average is 30-50%. I saw it in IMAX 3D and if you have any means to do so, do yourself a favor and see it that way. One friend of mine said of it that it will do for 3D what Gone with the Wind did for color. And I’m sorry if I’m building your expectations so high that you can only be disappointed in watching it — I just liked it that much. Zoe Saldana is still hot, even blue and 9 feet tall, I must say. And I guess that’s all I have to say about that.
The end of the year is coming up and I’m not as surprised about it as I was last year at about this time. Maybe it’s because 2009 will go down as the year that I got some working code written, that I got the computer to spit something back at me, after feeding it non-stop for 8 years. 2008 all I had to remember were going to Korea with the parents, my gall bladder removed, and just in my apartment working, hitting my head against the wall to see if it would move a centimeter. I actually have hope of getting a demo done right now. If not the crazy idea above, a conventional personal shopper chatbot that will help a customer buy a digital camera. I’m going to sell all my Apple shares and I’ll have enough so that I got, now, till the end of January to make it happen. If not, not a big deal: I just have to brush up on my Java and C# for a week, and get a real job again. Yeah, life is still good, here at the border of light and darkness.
In which I am like Janus, looking both forward and back.
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December 30, 2009
Neural Networks
How artificial intelligence mimics the human brain
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Avatar Was Awesome
And there’s already a wiki about it...
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December 29, 2009
Manhattan, Just Before Dawn
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December 28, 2009
Philosophy!
Immanuel Kant Explained Using Superhero Comics
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I Need to Check This Out
Chatbots add intelligence to Sherlock Holmes game
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December 27, 2009
Quote
Poor human reason, when it trusts in itself, substitutes the strangest absurdities for the highest divine concepts.
– St. John Chrysostom
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December 26, 2009
Nice
60 Stunning Satellite Photos of Earth
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Funny Spoof
Teachers in Korea - be careful your job. This is my blog, so respect it.
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December 25, 2009
Merry Christmas!
Bernardino Luini: “Nativity and Annunciation to the Shepherds”
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December 24, 2009
unique
we desire all the unique experiences again
not just to relive them, but to have the same surprise
all of what made them once in a lifetime
to happen just like it did, and not at all a repeat of it
perhaps to desire all of life one after another
moments each of singular exquisite ambrosia succulence
not realizing life is already so fashioned
merely that we take for granted every precious breath
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December 23, 2009
Da Simpsons
'Simpsons' 20th anniversary poster
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Facebook Funny
Lord of the Rings Status Updates
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December 22, 2009
Om
At 11pm on Sunday night, I wrote as my Facebook status, “John H. Doe knows that there is magic, indeed.” For though I had not spelled out what the secret to it all was, I understood in that moment that there was in sooth a secret to be written. I had found out before then half of the solution, the implementation (more or less), of the lesser idea, but the workings of the greater idea was still an enigma. One that would not rest easy. “Application is definition,” I wrote before, and I was beginning to see how this truly was. The specifics were finally emerging from the seas of vague musing. Only to peek out for the barest glimpses at times, now to see that this treasure hunt was not in vain. And that the treasure is never what you expect it to be.
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December 21, 2009
Iconic
17 Seminal Moments in Sci-Fi Films
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Ha. Really.
Kid’s got an active imagination. I like it
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December 20, 2009
One Ring to Rule Them All
My latest acquisition. It’s pretty neat to wear.
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December 19, 2009
Quote
Let no man deceive you with vain words, or with vain hopes, or with false notions of a slight and sudden repentance: as if heaven were a hospital founded on purpose to receive all sick and maimed persons, that when they can live no longer to the lusts of the flesh and the sinful pleasures of this world, can but put up a cold and formal petition to be admitted there.
No, no, as sure as God is true, they shall never see the Kingdom of God, who, instead of seeking it in the first place, make it their last refuge and retreat.
– John Tillotson
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December 18, 2009
Heh
He comes back every two weeks or so
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A Working Difference Engine
A 19th-Century Mathematician Finally Proves Himself
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December 17, 2009
Don’t Stop, Continue
OK, I’ve been going through the cycle of despair (almost) and exuberance (mild). I can’t believe I’m still subject to such mood swings. All in a single day to believe that it is too complex a thing I am trying to attempt, at least by my self-imposed deadline, and then to upswing into almost a giddy feeling that I have unlocked the secret, that makes of complexities a simple algorithm. I must say that I’m close(r) to an exquisite solution, for the code is more toward an elegant solution than my hacks previous. Though the code is not quite as beautiful as it could be, I suppose. Still, it’s proving to be not that many lines of it for a (more) general solution to the problem of comprehension. So it goes.
In other news, I’m all set for Christmas. Finished my Christmas shopping a week ago. For the brother, I’m giving him an old gold coin I’ve had for a while now, since I was not able to acquire any significant new gold coins this year, having been mostly monetarily restrained from such purchases. I saw the exact same coin sell on eBay for about 33% more than what I paid for this one I’m giving. Gold prices went crazy this year. Other than that, I got the uncle sushi chef a Wii, upon request (split the cost with the brother). Had to get a couple extra presents this year, since the uncle sushi chef got married, and his nephew will be spending Christmas with us. Should prove to be a merry time.
Every once in a while this feeling washes over me, an easy, all-encompassing wave of the sensation that all this is going to end well. But then that sort of high wears off, and I get that gnawing awareness of the sort, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” Probably the only non-work highlight in the past couple weeks was reading a graphic novel, called Final Crisis, which was sort of a meta-comic book (series). And man, did that whole book fly by fast. That’s what you get when most of the content are pictures. But anyway, I gotta get this prototype done! It’s the all-consuming focus of my entire life! But really, I shouldn’t complain. This is what it means to chase a dream.
In which I may not be confident, yet I keep the faith.
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December 16, 2009
Clever
Universal jigsaw set — make any picture
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Science!
New Model of the Universe Says Past Crystallizes out of the Future
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December 15, 2009
5th Ave. at Night
Flashing electric snowflakes. (Dark photos not as sharp. Sigh.)
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December 14, 2009
I’m Working on It
Rethinking artificial intelligence — “...whether the machine can read a simple children’s book, understand what the story is about, and explain it in its own words or ask reasonable questions about it.” Exactly the point of what I’ve been working on. These guys are way behind.
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Geeky
How to Slice a Bagel into Two Linked Halves
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December 13, 2009
return
as the tragedies will pass, so will joy fade away
nothing will stay except that change continues
remembering only moments as years pass on;
though one may find gold surprisingly resilient
all that life has to offer relents to gravity’s pull
have i been here all this time, from these eyes?
or did dreaming lull me away, now to return?
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December 12, 2009
Fascinating
The Year’s Most Amazing Scientific Images
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The State of AI
Download Your Own Robot Scientist
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December 11, 2009
Me, from a Week Ago
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December 10, 2009
Quote
Something terrible happens, and you might say, "God help us!" or "Jesus Christ!" — the poor, crippled prayers that are hidden in the minor blasphemies of people for whom in every sense God is dead, except that they still have to speak to him, if only through clenched teeth.
– Frederick Buechner
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December 9, 2009
Verily
Actors in their most iconic roles, wearing casual style
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Best of the Web
Letters of Note — correspondence deserving of a wider audience
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December 8, 2009
Working
I think I’m going to make it. I have the most basic form of what you could call a rough draft prepared. Really bare-bones stuff, right now, but I think I’m looking good. What I have decided for the practical application is a customer service bot that helps the user select a digital camera to purchase. I think this would probably be the easiest thing to do, as far as cost/benefit goes. I gave my brother some homework, too, asking him to give me some ideas he might have about how the script should go. I’m shooting for the end of next week to get things up and running, giving me a few days leeway, as I would really still have until 2 days before Christmas to be a go. Let’s see if this is meant to be. In this timeframe, at least.
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December 7, 2009
Funny
Revisiting Old-School Text Adventures as a Jaded Modern Gamer
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Mysterious
The Voynich Manuscript Decoded?
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December 6, 2009
It’s That Time of the Year
Taken at the corner of 50th St. & 6th Ave.
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December 5, 2009
mine
i have dreamed no one’s dreams but mine
bent on work, pathological in hope
what will come when i have reached the peak?
perhaps i wonder too soon, to stare
to time’s mystery as yet, the future still unformed
dizzy in the thought, and also queazy
believing i could be so right, having gambled so much
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December 4, 2009
As Advertised
The SmartAss - The Best Way To Waste Your Time!
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Heh (NSFW Language)
THE F**KING WEATHER — so wrong, so right
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December 3, 2009
Wrestles with God
So no, I didn’t get anything done, really, by Thanksgiving last week. Worked some Friday and Saturday, too, in fact, through the holiday period. But I am hopeful that I will get this thing up and working by Christmastime. Wish me luck. It will be more or less a generalized solution, but it will be geared towards the “customer service” application that in general business people expect as functionality for the product. The goal is to be able to feed it a couple pages of instructions and then have it interact with a “customer” who needs assistance, probably for choosing what to buy from a small catalog of items. Whereupon I should be good as far as the business end goes.
I made up a shield, which would be part of a coat of arms, for myself, here, which I saw in kind of a vision. A sky blue cross on a sea blue background, blue the color of fidelity, and the cross symbolizing faith. Appropriate for a paladin. Also in the news (my news), I bought the domain WrestlesWithGod.com, which is the literal interpretation of the name, Israel, the name God gave Jacob after, as Genesis 32 relates, he wrestles with God all night. I was pretty surprised that it was not taken; someone had the .org registered, but the .com was free. Generally, I still buy a domain name every few months, still, even though I’m pretty much out of the game. Just can’t resist, sometimes.
What else? I love my iPhone. I got my brother hooked on two games, so far, the second being Monopoly, which (like me) he couldn’t put down until he had beaten the computer players. Though I’m paying through the nose for the AT&T phone plan, since I don’t have that many contacts at this moment to talk to. But at the very least it’s nice to have a camera everywhere I go. In still other news, I sold that gold coin now that gold prices are up for a profit of almost 100%, having bought it back in 2007. That was pretty good. I’m calculating that I’ll have enough money through the end of January to be comfortable, so if the demo isn’t ready by end of year or very soon after, time to look for a job. So that’s where we are, here in the cloud.
In which I am strangely comfortable in my relationship with time.
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December 2, 2009
Dungeons & Dragons
The Books That Founded D&D
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New From Google Labs
Google Image Swirl — find like images
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December 1, 2009
Inside St. Patrick’s
One of the displays on the side of the pews.
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