Chaudywogbaaga

I might have to write this as a series of posts because it is a very big topic and I'm not entirely sure how to communicate the thought yet.

I have been, for the last few years been doing everything. Well, to qualify that, everything that does not require costly licenses or top secret clearance. I've written books, ran unix servers, trained people, built walls, dug pits, raised chickens, made Jefferson Stairs, started a business, blacksmithed, fixed and installed plumbing and electrical, cast items in copper and aluminum, made a super bright LED flashlight, learned to sling (as in David and Goliath), poured concrete, etc, etc, etc. Those are the things that easily pop into my head. Some of them I did to make a living, others were for fun. Each one of these things takes a good bit of skill to do and I can't say that I'm the most skilled person that has ever done any of them, there are few people that have done all of them.

Now maybe you don't want to do all of those things but there is something you'd like to do but are afraid to start. Maybe it's fixing that leaky toilet. Maybe it's electronics or building a deck, it doesn't matter. You feel unqualified to start the project. There are two ways of handling that fear. I've done both, I'd recommend one most of the time. The other is only when failure is not an option (like your house will fall down or you could kill somebody if you do it wrong).

Research Research Research

Traditionally this was my way of starting a new skill set. I would read and read and learn how a new skill is done from the experts. I would think "If I don't do this right I'll be wasting all the money and effort I put into this." Learning this way is slow. As it turns out, there is only so much you can learn from reading on a subject. Then there is the need to absorb the information and mentally prepare for eventualities that may happen. There is one advantage to this way of doing things. You are less likely to have a critical failure. However, I have found out over the years that there is less chance of failure than I had thought. Materials and systems tend to be more robust than I was preparing for. In short, I worried too much.

If you think there is a good chance of somebody dying or being critically injured then keep learning until you're reasonably sure you can handle the project. If you think that something catastrophic, like your house collapsing is possible then keep learning. If not. . .

Get Started and Fix What Goes Wrong

This sounds like the more time consuming way of doing things. This sounds like it will be more costly but it's not. How is that possible? I have wasted more time trying to make sure that I didn't make a mistake than it would have taken me if I had just gotten it wrong and fixed it later. I have spent more money, making sure I had the absolute right materials and tools.

The other thing that this teaches is how things really do fail. If you do have something that doesn't work, investigate why and make sure you don't do that again. Instead of a million "maybe it will break this way" thoughts, you get a real idea of how it actually can fail. There is a culture of "celebrate your failures" out there. I don't subscribe to that but there is value in them.

The other thing this way teaches is confidence. If you need months of prep work to start a new skill it makes you think that every new project will need that much time. If you learn to charge into new skills expecting an occasional failure, you'll learn that the failures are less likely than you think and your learning accelerates.

Well, the Great Experiment in self employment is winding down. Or at least I'm trying to get it to wind down. It's become apparent that my goals and the experiment do not lead to the same place. Although things have been progressing, more work coming in, I have an employee, etc. I've discovered that my personal goals don't match up with ramping up a business.

I will likely keep the business just to do side jobs for a little cash here and there. I have a number of customers that still want me do do work for them and even though I've told them they should find someone else, they come back.

I'm trying to shut this down and go back to working for someone. There's less stress that way. One of my personal rules is that if a job is making your life miserable, get another one. The experiment hasn't made my life miserable but it's been edging up there. So before I hate it, I'm going to back burner it.

Okay so this is mostly another Apple post.

I find it interesting that no matter what platform it is, if someone mentions that they like an Apple product or anything Apple does, they are instantly an "Apple Fanboy". The only time that someone is a "Windows Fanboy" or a "Google Fanboy" is when they have called someone an Apple Fanboy.

Now I know where this all started. It was when Macs were running Motorola processors long long ago. Then a Mac user felt that everything about his computer was better. The OS was better, the hardware was better. Then Macs went to Intel and suddenly the hardware argument was moot. The OS was now the thing to stick behind. In those days it was just an argument over Windows or the Mac OS. Then came the iPhone. Then came Android.

What I wonder is, what is this label and why does it exist? It's main suggestion is that the person on the receiving end is delusional because they are championing a product. This very act makes a certain other segment of the population react with revulsion mostly because they see it as an attack on the opposite choice they made. Just the act of liking something and talking about it causes some people to hate the person. Hands down this is an irrational reaction. Why would it matter what product someone else feels is superior? Why should anyone care enough about someone else's opinion on a consumer product that they hate them.

Calling someone "Fanboy" should be a hate crime! Okay, maybe not, but the ire that drips from the comments about Apple product owners is poisonous. I'm waiting for the day when someone is gunned down for saying how much they like their iPhone.

In the end, this is all about a hardening of the "us vs. them" in this society. People are more and more unreasonable as the years go on. They make value decisions and then hate anyone that doesn't agree with them, much less openly endorse the opposite view.

The iPhone vs. Android debate is getting even more heated as the race between platforms gets tighter. Even if the iPhone was somehow able to do something that no other phone could do (like teleport you or something) there would still be people calling it's enthusiasts "Fanboys" as if they were delusional. If the technology swung the other way and Google or Microsoft came out on top, there would still be a small group that hung onto their iPhones. Maybe then they would be Fanboys. Delusional. But in the meantime, because someone endorses a product and that product is not inherently inferior, it is delusional to hate them.

I've been thinking about getting an iPhone. I'm writing this on my iPod Touch right now. I like my Touch and I've been debating getting a iPad with 3G but I use my Touch for listening to music while working. My Touch is dying after a year of near constant use so it could stand to be replaced. An iPad would be less than ideal for that.

I figured an iPhone would be a better fit but just now I remembered the trouble I had getting pictures and music off my Touch when my hard drive died.

That's making me rethink this. Without an open file arcitecture on the iPhone I'll be looking into the Android phones. I like Apple for it's innovation but it's playing it's cards so close to the chest that it's missing important plays. I looked at the thousands of pictures on my Touch of my kids, of projects I've done, vacations we've gone on and tried to get them off but couldn't find a good way to do it. I did find a way to use two different programs to save all my music.

To this day I still have most of those pictures on my Touch. My question to Apple is why won't you let me share those between computers openly? I can understand locking down the music. That's a copyright issue, I'd like to be able to copy music but I can understand. Why are the pictures locked down in the same way? Why can't I go to my fathers house and share my Touch's photo library by copying it to his computer? The same things that limit me in doing that prevent me from getting my pictures back onto my hard drive.

In my last post about Apple I was sympathetic to their efforts to redefine how we look at computing on a mobile platform. After remembering the pain that I felt to know that my data was right there but there was no practical way to use it the way I wanted to, my mind has changed again.

A government can regulate it's people to the point where they are not free just by trying to protect them from themselves. Apple is doing the same thing. It's regulation of it's products make it's users slaves to the platform. It's a nice safe place. You'll be well taken care of but you can't do whatever you want. You can only do "approved" activities.

I don't need my devices telling me how to live. I want to tell them how to fit my life.

"Home Sweet Home." The cry of a person returning to their cherished shelter. What if they only rent that home? I remember liking some of my apartments when I was renting but there's something different going on in mind of the renter in urban areas. I've been doing handyman work and some of my business comes from repairing apartments after a tenant moves out or is evicted.

I see some horrible things done to beautiful one hundred year old homes and hear more from people I work with.

I often think "Why would someone do this?" when seeing the damage done by renters. I could understand if someone trashed an apartment after finding out they were being evicted out of retribution but that's usually not what happens. Sometimes damage is done out of ignorance and I can understand that. A lot of the time the damage is out of laziness. Again, I can somewhat understand that to an extent but the scale of the laziness is absurd. Piles on piles of garbage heaped on the carpet, thick layers of food and grease spattered on walls and floors to the point where we stop trying to clean it off and just encapsulate it in another layer of flooring and paint.

Even more bizarre are tenants that are evicted but continue to act as if the police weren't coming to remove them from the property. They know they're being evicted but make no move to get their belongings out of the apartment. They get evicted and then they have to pick their things off the curb when the owner has them cleaned out of the apartment. Many times I imagine this is because they have no where to take their things to.

In the end, it's not malice that leads them to destroy the place they're living in. It's an acute inability to plan or imagine the future. They seem to lack the ability to set their current circumstances up to benefit themselves in the future. Everything they do is to benefit themselves NOW.

The people that are in this situation are almost invariably on the low end of the income scale. I makes me wonder why. Being economically disadvantaged does not mean you have to live in squalor. Soap, water and elbow grease would improve the living conditions of people greatly.

Maybe they think "Why bother cleaning, I'll be in a different place in a month or two." That shows blatant disregard for the future. One it makes their rent go up because of poor references. Two it makes security deposits go up because everyone is thinking the same way. Three it impacts their quality of life now while they're living that way. Four it reduces the quality of available apartments because the landlord is out a few months rent and now needs to repair the place. They won't be spending a lot to do so. They  say "Just get it livable."

It wasn't always like this. Look at the old tenements that the immigrants lived in at the turn of the century. The wives of the factory workers struggled to keep them clean. They kept them clean though. I remember being told over and over again by many different people that it was almost  a matter of life and death that I keep my apartment clean and in good shape. What changed? I don't think that is being told to renters today by their community. They get that message from the landlord but that's not the same. My grandmother would be disappointed in me if she found out I left a mess in an apartment.

Come to think of it, I hear less and less from grandparents these days. I hear less and less direction from parents these days. Youth culture has made it unpopular to tell young people what to do or how to do things. A disposable society has made it easy to throw away even big things, like apartments. So it would seem like a lack of basic education in how to live that has lead people to this state. This isn't college stuff, this is basic living skills that used to be handed down by parents and grandparents. Those messages have been co-opted by messages that say to only pay attention to the now.

I have gotten the jaded idea that Apple Computer just does what it wants and doesn't really listen to customer complaints. There have been a large number of bugs and quirks that I have experienced using my Macs that as it turns out, other users find annoying. They usually post these in the Apple forum. If there is a hack or a work around someone may reply but if it is a limitation of the software/hardware then the response is often "Apple doesn't monitor these forums so they won't hear your complaints".

There is a complaint/feature request page on apple.com but it's a little tricky to find. The problem is that you have no idea what Apple will do with the complaint once you submit it. It's a black hole form. I think I got a partial fix to iCal from one complaint I made once. The problem is the programmer didn't really understand what I was asking for and only partially did what I wanted.

The complaints for the iPhone have been loud and clear. The Gizmodo debacle has resulted in revealing that a lot of the features that people are requesting are at least being worked on. That shows that someone is paying attention.

Then there is the "Closed" nature of developing for iPhone. On the one hand I dislike this but on the other I see it's wisdom. Apple doesn't want iPhones to become a PR nightmare because people are writing malware and phishing apps. I can respect that. I can also see how the wild west of the computer industry is starting to be tamed. If the iPad became the computing platform of the 21st century a lot of the bad stuff we now know would become a thing of the past. Plus for the Apple model. There would also be a lot fewer options. Minus for the Apple model.

It seems that Apple is progressing under the "First do no harm" model. I can respect that. It is a far different atmosphere than computer users are used to and I wonder if it will survive.

I wanted to update the blog software several times but the scripts to update it couldn't handle the skin I was using so I let it go, and go, and go.

I finnally pulled off the old skin to see if I could update the blog and wow what a mess. The update scripts partally updated the database and then died. I had to rebuild some tables and then do a stare and compare on others to see what wasn't in the old database.

Oh well, seems to be working now. . . For now.

This article from MIT Technology Review talks about using bioinformatics technology to analyze video. Specifically using genetic sequencing techniques to analyze video. The article goes on to say that the amount and types of data in video is similar to that of genetic data. This brings me to question, would algorithms for computer vision be useful in decoding genomic information?

Normally processing computer vision is daunting all by itself but recent advancements might change that. For example this article in Wired Magazine discusses how David O’Carroll, a computational neuroscientist at Australia’s University of Adelaide has uncovered the underlying neural algorithms in fly vision. He goes on to say that using these algorithms would make computer vision processing far more efficient.

Now take the idea of comparing genomic data to video and send a genome through this fly vision algorithm. What would come out the other side? Would genetic abnormalities become evident far easier?

Now that would be quite a research paper!

I would love a To Do program that I can manage to use. The problem is that most programs don’t organize the To Do lists enough. Sure some have categories, but that’s just a start. What I would like is a program that has conditional To Dos. For example “Install window trim in kitchen” would only show up after “Buy 2 1x4s for kitch window” was completed. I have a huge number of things that are dependent on others so listing them like this reduces the clutter in my long lists of To Do.

Sliders would be great for many of my big projects. Instead of a checkbox, I could indicate progress on a big To Do by moving a slider from 0% to 100% done. I have a bunch of things to do that I get a little bit done at a time but can never check off the item because it’s not quite done. I think this would motivate me to finish of projects that I’ve already started. I’d say “Hey, look, I already have done a bunch on this one. I should finish it off.”

Another wish list item would be to have my To Do program integrate or even handle Budgeting. Having To Do items that involve money would get done much quicker if I had a view that showed what To Dos I could get done with what I have in my bank account. I had this half way done on a web app that was started as a budget app and was moving towards to do items but I lost a lot of it when my hard drive crashed.

The main idea here is to keep the list down to what can be done immediately. There are plenty of things that have to be done and I’d like to record them so I don’t forget but I just can’t get to them until I have money or do other things first.

I know several people that have Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS). Most of them have to hide from crowds of people that use fabric softener and deodorant. One wears a facemask that is rated for chemical vapors and it makes life easier but even among people that are used to it, the facemask is still embarrassing. When around new people you have to endlessly explain what it means to have something invisible and unnoticed cause you pain. Most people simply think you’re nuts.

There may be a psychological aspect to MCS but after living chemical free for many years now, even though I don’t have the condition, I can smell the chemicals. They smell pretty awful and if I were just a little bit more sensitive, I would rate some “common” smells as painful. There may be a misfiring of the brain involved but it would be something like Fibromyalgia or Autism, you can’t just tell someone “It’s all in your head, get over it.” Until someone figures out how to fix the misfire, the pain of MCS is real.

That is the motivation for this symbol. It’s purpose is to notify that someone has MCS, also to warn people to consider what chemicals they are wearing before approaching and finally to raise awareness that there are people with the condition. I think if you saw someone wearing a facemask and a pin or a badge with a symbol on it dodging a crowd several times some people would try to find out what it means. Those people would explain it to others and eventually there would be an understanding. It wouldn’t fix everything, but even a rudimentary understanding would help.

I think many people with the condition will initially object to the symbol not saying “Multiple Chemical Sensitivity". I chose simply “Chemical Sensitivity” for two reasons.

One, Multiple is superfluous in this context, if you saw this symbol you would read it that this person is sensitive to all chemicals which is close enough to the truth. When I was first told that someone had Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, I asked “Which chemicals are you sensitive to?” to which the answer was “Almost all of them.” (which isn’t really true but it might seem that way). This way people aren’t trying to figure that out. They just assume “all of them".

Two not everyone who is chemical sensitive and would benefit from wearing this symbol has MCS or is diagnosed with MCS. This way there is no dispute over medical terms and diagnoses you are simply stating that you are sensitive.

My hope is that this symbol comes into use and that it helps to lessen the stress of those that suffer from the invisible fumes that most people have the luxury to ignore.