"Google Tipping Point"

Interesting post at Instapundit.com:

Taken in a vacuum, a fairly trivial thing happened a few days ago. The co-founder of Firefox, Blake Ross, wrote a post criticizing Google called “Tip: Trust is hard to gain, easy to lose“. He takes issue with a new Google search feature that promotes certain of their own products over organic search results. See Google searches for Calendar, Blogging, Photo Sharing and others and see Google pushing Google Calendar, Blogger and Picasa, respectively, above what is supposed to be the most relevant results - Google search. Even a search for Yahoo Calendar has these Google results above the obvious destination the user was searching for.

I say this is trivial incident taken in a vacuum because, quite frankly, Google has every right to promote their own products on their website. But I think Ross’ post may be a sign of a change in attitude towards Google that’s been percolating for the last year or so, and is beginning to manifest itself. The fact that a highly respected entrepreneur finally spoke out should be a wakeup call for Google.

I use Google all the time, though I'll admit there's a degree of suspicion in my heart about the folks at Google. They are hard-core leftists who hit the lottery of life and are now billionaires. They have pledged to use their new-found wealth to promote their "progressive" vision of life. That's their right. I just don't feel good about helping them along. That said, I'm spit in the ocean.

The bigger question is whether there'll ever really be a movement away from the now deeply entrenched habit of typing "google.com". There are lots of search engines out there, and most will yield perfectly acceptable results. But "Google" has long since been seen as just "one of many" and is now pretty firmly viewed as "the" search engine.

Can they lose that monopoly? I tend to doubt it. Unless they do something particularly egregious. But it would have to be pretty bad.

Bread Needs Yeast

Update: I had a rather long and windy post here, but upon reflection I decided that much of what I was writing was stuff we'd covered before. So I'm trimming it back. From the moment I published it to now I've had a nagging sense that I should not let it stand. So it is gone. :-)

All You Need Is Love

They invite others to behave the same way

Let me ask, once seeing the distress of others, do the bike forum insulters carry on insulting regardless? Secondly, do you think, would they, having shown some distress about a particular way in which they are being treated .. expect the person treating them in this fashion to carry on?

In this case the Golden Rule of "treat others ..." should boil down to "I do not like to be distressed by others so I will not distress them".

I really don't think the insulters like to be insulted if they are being honest. As I have said "treat others ..." does not work for masochists, but I think these people are many many standard deviations from "the norm" of the human population (and any population will have an average). You can go to most countries in the world, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, etc and in the middle of the bell curve, and a few SD's out, people are considerate of eachothers feelings, even in heathen tribes. Maybe the challenge of society is finding out why these masochistic people exist? Why are there people that actively desire to be in distress?

I guess we may always disagree that following The Golden Rule could be an ethical self-regulator for society :)

+++

What they want is no constraints put upon their sexual behavior. They are fierce advocates of constraints on other behavior they don't agree with.

Such as and such as?

+++

Is there anyone in history who has had such an impact when working with so little to begin with? Ultimately this begs the question: Why didn't Jesus just fade into obscurity?

Jesus Christ has had more impact on The World than anyone. This is very clear. Did he have little to begin with though? Let me ask, did Three Kings turn up at your birth bearing gifts? (Or don't you subscribe to that part of The Bible as being literal?) Jesus did not fade into obscurity because of The Miracles he performed. Now whether these were sourced from His power as Creator of The Universe (or perhaps "Matrix") or whether he is just a technologically advanced person living in The Universe (or perhaps "Matrix") created by someone else is unclear to me.

Note: It's even possible that the Universe is eternal and not a created thing.

What is clear to me is that Jesus was and is trying to help humanity get through its aggressive stage to some other state, and the emotion "Love" is the key. Perhaps the other state Jesus wants us to be in is necessary for the existence of Jesus Himself? All will be revealed.

Then Men took Jesus' message and decided to make money out of it. It's so very sad and such an indictment on where we are as a species, and I'm sure that He knew that men would do such a thing.

When Bad Manners Prevail

On the motorcycle forum which I frequent, there are several people who use very abusive language with others. They are often rude, and proudly so. They invite others to behave the same way, claiming the brusque language is simply "being honest" and that's exactly how they want to be treated.

You and I have had this debate before. I do believe an objective standard is required. The "treat others" dictum falls apart when there are people who seem to relish a kind of aggressive, combative stance.

In a purely relativistic world, their behavior is perfectly acceptable because "anything goes." In a world ruled by "treat others as you'd like to be treated," their behavior is acceptable because they're doing what they seem to enjoy. The recipients of their tirades are often the worse for the wear.

My comment about Hollywood and their embracing the "anything goes" standard was really insufficiently worded. What they want is no constraints put upon their sexual behavior. They are fierce advocates of constraints on other behavior they don't agree with. They fail to see the distinction, of course.

Onward Christian Soldiers

they seem to rely on angry and bitter confrontation as the basis for their humor

Yes this seems to be how the youth of today interact with eachother. I think it's due to being over-privileged. Mere survival, having enough food, is no longer the primary concern for us, so our human nature which is geared towards survival has to find another outlet. So we compete with eachother in sports and insults. I guess any people moving through the survival chain to "something else" will go through this difficult time we find ourselves in, I just hope we get through it.

any behavior is okay; there is no morality or objective standard by which to measure a person's conduct

There is really no need for an objective standard. All that is needed is for humans to treat others as they wish to be treated. Jesus knew this when he gave #2 of His New Covenant. Even though I suspect it was actually #1 of His New Covenant. I don't think Jesus was wrong, I think was reported wrong though.

Sorry the movies were rubbish anyway! Now I have to go as Katherine is not going to sleep, and she wanted to call this post "whack your head with a tube" ! I will reply to your other post soon!

Cults of Personality

Christmas morning I came across a preacher on TV trying to make the point that "Jesus Christ was the single most important person in all of history." He used as his first argument in support of this the fact that our calendar is separated BC and AD. I thought, "Oh, poor argument. That can easily be dismissed as an arbitrary imposition by a ruler with power to impose."

Even the argument that a great church with an historical impact on western civilization is, I think, a poor argument for the thesis that Jesus was the most important person in all of history. First, other major religions based on the cult of personality (Budhha, Islam) can make the claim that in their spheres of the world they had comparable impact. Second, it could easily be argued that the Catholic church that ruled over western civilization bore little resemblence to Jesus himself.

All this got me thinking. One thread of thought was whether it's possible to argue that "Jesus was the most important person in history" without ultimately relying on the premise that he was God incarnate. In other words, dismiss that premise and the claim of "most imporant" is reduced to "one of the most important." Proving the premise is impossible. We've had this discussion many times. That's the nature of "faith".

But the other thread that went through my mind was this: has there ever been a case in all of history where the life of one person has had such a broad impact when that one person never had claim to military or political power.

This is the aspect of Jesus that I find the most compelling ("interesting" or "intriguing"): there is no reason history should note his presence at all. None. An unknown nobody from a small dusty town in a remote output of the Roman Empirse. A short period of cult status among a handful of people. Then a shameful execution. I'm certain hundreds of people throughout history -- people we know nothing about -- fit that description.

When my mind scans history -- as I know history, which is admittedly not all that well -- I am left with nobody else who has had such an impact when they had no claim to military or political power. Other martyrs have had an impact, but nothing along the lines of Jesus.

Note: I would think that Buddha comes closest to matching the impact. Some might say Ghandi or Martin Luther King, Jr., but I'd argue that history was marching in the direction of both of their causes anyway. And besides, they had benefit of the birth of mass media and governmental institutions (Britian and the U.S.) who were generally disinclined towards snuffing out such people. Had Ghandi been resisting Josef Stalin, he would have disappeared from the scene early, and without a trace ... never to be heard from again. The same for any disciples who might wish to carry on the cause.

So I go back to my basic inquiry. Is there anyone in history who has had such an impact when working with so little to begin with? Ultimately this begs the question: Why didn't Jesus just fade into obscurity? He should have. A rag-tag bunch of post crucifixion followers somehow avoid the wrath of the Jewish authorities and crucifixion themselves to go out and start a movement based on a message that is fundamentally contrary to the selfish instincts of mankind. It's all so improbable.

To me, this is the central argument for the importance of Jesus. But it's not really much of an argument as it is a ponderable leading to a personal conclusion.

Two Bad Movies

My lovely bride and I recently rented two movies, both of which were truly awful:

• "Little Miss Sunshine"
• "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby"
  

I ended up walking away from both; Lisa suffered through the entirety of "Sunshine" but gave up on "Talladega Nights." There's an audience for these movies, obviously. From boxofficemojo.com:

• Sunshine - worldwide gross = $86,340,062
• Talladega - worldwide gross = $162,928,632
  

Here's what I didn't like about both movies -- they seem to rely on angry and bitter confrontation as the basis for their humor. That part of my soul that is sensitive to enmity between people screamed out during both movies. In "Sunshine" it was nearly non-stop, and in "Talladega" they even had children screaming ugly sentiments at their grandfather, all in the name of "humor." If there's an appeal to this, it's a base appeal. There was no cleverness to be found; no ultimate redemptive quality to the movie.

Note: a sub-theme of the movie was the usual "don't judge others; any behavior is okay; there is no morality or objective standard by which to measure a person's conduct." In today's Hollywood that's a given. They don't practice what they preach, of course.

The other thing that's clear to me is the producers and writers in Hollywood have decided to take off the gloves when it comes to Christianity. In "Sunshine" the contempt for God and Christianity was seething. Two examples:

1. The disaffected teenage son, deep into Friedrich Nietzsche (of course), wears a t-shirt through several scenes that says "Jesus Was Wrong." There was no reference to the t-shirt at all. They could just as easily have had the kid where a t-shirt that said, "What's the point?" or "Why bother?" I'm sure the inclusion of the "Jesus Was Wrong" t-shirt was an intentional thing; a jab in the eye of Christianity by secularists in Hollywood.
   
2. At one point in the movie the family's VW van is pulled over and the police officer asks to have the trunk open. Out falls a couple of graphic porn magazines, and the officer says: "Oh, I love these things. God bless you." Again, they could have easily dropped the "God bless you" part of that dialogue, but I'm sure their intent was to link God and porn, or at least link porn and those would would invoke God's name.
   

The anti-Christian flavor of "Talladega Nights" was more along the lines of making any Christian a cartoon character. Now I'll admit that "Christians" have brought this on through their general cartoonish ways. The mocking tone of the movie towards all southerners -- the "Bible Belt" of this country and the electoral reason for the outcome of the past two presidential elections -- is obvious, including that region's Christianity.

I realize I'm sensitive to these things.

I need to stop renting movies. I can't recall the last good movie I've seen.

James Brown R.I.P

I'm glad that you both enjoyed Church pal. When do you go on your brief vacation?

Being her mother's "weekend" Katherine stayed at her mothers house on Christmas eve, I saw her for most of the morning for the ritual present opening session then off she went to her mothers sisters house, with mother, mothers boyfriend and sister in tow for lunch. I'll see her again tomorrow and then all the way through - hopefully she'll be with me for New Years eve, but that's up to her ! She didn't actually go to her mother's house until late Sunday, so I had her from Friday til Sunday evening, she refuses to accept that parents have "weekend" turns.

She now has a mobile (cell) phone, I have had 22 SMS text messages from her since 1pm, 4 of them picture messages (go to a URL) and one of them a video clip she recorded of herself. I have no idea how to do all this techy stuff, but clearly phones are intuitive to nine year olds. Perhaps browser-based does mean intuitive :)

Milestone: I missed my first customer phone meeting in 20 years, and a regular weekly meeting that I arranged! So my customers dialled in, hung around and then dialled out. I thought that the call was 30 minutes later than it was. Boy did I apologize. I am officially "losing it" now, too much going on.

My daughter very much likes blogging with us, but I guess this will last for about two weeks knowing her attention span! (No offence my darling daughter :) I added her as an author, she carries this piece of blanket around in the evenings, called "The Blanky", thus her handle, she is very fond of it, having had it since birth, although it's not much bigger than a postage stamp now.

I know what you mean about Christmas, it's all so jaded and capitalist. People say that they don't have the time to get the presents they wished they could - thus the onset of the gift voucher culture. We all have far too much when there is so much poverty and starvation in the world, yet still I see folks complaining because they got "the wrong" mp3 player. We get very jaded. It is encouraging to watch the excitement of a nine year old asking "what activity can I do to make tomorrow come quicker?" .. it's the big occasion they love, not just the presents. And there once were we.

7:06am US Mountain Time

Merry Christmas! I've been up for an hour and a half. Our phone range at 5:20am or so, and we thought maybe it was bad news of some sort. But nobody was on the other side of the connection, and I suspect it was just a case of someone mis-dialing a digit.

We went to the 9:00pm Christmas Eve service last night. My lovely bride playing flute in the orchestra, me sitting in the audience. It was a very nice performance. Our pastor is someone I tend to admire ... he refuses to hide Jesus behind comfortable trappings. Last night could have been about familiar music and little more, but he made sure the primary message of Christianity -- trust in Jesus as Lord and Savior and a commitment to Him first and foremost in one's life -- was clear. Christmas Eve services traditionally have the highest attendance, and no doubt the seats were full of people for whom that message was a bit uncomfortable. But the pastor carried it off with grace.

I hope you are enjoying a wonderful Christmas day with your lovely daughter.

The Future of Christmas

In years past -- many moons ago -- the giving and receiving of gifts was restricted to close family, and the purpose was a sincere reflection of interest and gratitude for the presence of someone in one's life.

In time, that yielded to a wider circle of gift-giving. Soon mere acquaintences were included, some barely that. The sincerity of the giving diminished. Obligation took its place.

I've noticed this year that the advertising for gift certificates -- mostly cash cards -- has skyrocketed. Cash cards are touted as a way to provide the receiver with maximum utility, but in reality the selling point is that it relieves the giver of having to put much thought into the gift. It lessens the burden of obligation.

We are rapidly trending towards a currency exchange model of gift giving for Christmas. Person A gives out $100 in cash cards and receives $80 in cash cards. Person A is down a net $20.

Next on the horizon is the dispensing of the physical gift cards. Rather, people will simply log into some website where gifts are simply transferred monetary units. During the gift-giving season no actual money is spent. Electronic funds are merely shifted about. Come January 1 the accounts are settled. Those who are net positive may cash out; those net negative receive a bill. The website collects a fee ... and hosts advertising, naturally.

I'm being somewhat facetious here, but not much.

I sense a real fatigue with Christmas the whole "holiday season" concept. I really do.

WSSR FAQ

Q: What's the level of effort needed to organize services in WSRR?

A: This is fairly minimal since the organization of services is browser based and intuitively aligns with how you want to view the services.

Ah ... "If browser-based, then intuitive." Got it. Good enough for me. Next question? :-)

Misunderstandings

... and then she kind of took it the wrong way and got sad.

That can happen. I find things like that to be one of the most difficult things about getting along with people. I find that quite often what I say is not often understood correctly by the other person. That happens for several different reasons:

1. I didn't really express myself well or clearly
   
2. The words I spoke didn't really match the real intent in my heart
3. The other person was listening to me with a predisposition to believe only one thing
   

Of those three, I tend to find myself falling into the trap of #2 too often. I may think I'm doing someone a favor by pointing something out to them, but in my heart what I'm really trying to do is criticize or mock them. I find I do this more often than I realize I do. It's a hard thing to keep an eye on because what goes on deep in our hearts is not always evident to us.

I'm also not very good when #3 happens. I usually tend to debate and get angry with people when they refuse to consider different views on things. The terrible irony is that I use #3 on other people all too often.

* * *
Next week my lovely bride and I are off to Prescott, Arizona for a few days. Our first vacation together in ... two years? It'll be nice.

* * *
Have you ever heard of the TV show called "Scrubs?" It's an NBC production and involves a team of young doctors at a hospital? It's a comedy/drama show that employs minor slapstick and poignent moments particularly well. I'm currently hooked on it.

i mean..............

Oh, that's tantalizing. Do tell. :-)
i mean that she can get the wrong idea about things so for eg...
today(LAST DAY OF SCHOOL FOR THE CHRISTMAS HOILDAYS:)i told her that her sister(12 in our school)that she swore quite a lot and then she kind of took it the wrong way and got sad.

The Dawn of Time

You'll enjoy this, Mr. Science-Geek!

* * *
I looked at the blog. You wrote:

... but sometimes can get the wrong idea about things.

Oh, that's tantalizing. Do tell. :-)

Clarifications

The desert is boring?

No I didn't mean the desert was boring just what you were writing was boring ! (Sorry)

The joke was ... stupid!

What does the closing "Mah" mean? Short for something?

No it's just me saying Mah (I think it's like a term of acknowledgement, like on the phone when the person listening says "yeah .. yeah ... yeah ... " etc)

+++

I want to say, please can you look at my blog "what friends are for and friends"? It's not finished I've only just started it.

Feet

I once hiked six miles and my feet broke off.

:-)

Boring?

The desert is boring?

Well ... maybe! But I think she'd be pretty suprised if she saw it up close ... bunny rabbits, coyotes, bushes and trees and cactus and such. An Javalinas. They look like pigs. They're not. They smell awful.

I have to:

My dog has no nose!

How does he smell?

Awful!

What does the closing "Mah" mean? Short for something?

Katherine's Reply

This is how she responded ..

Hi Katherine! I hope that you're all moved in and settled.

Yeah!

I'm happy you were able to move in with your father. I know he's happy you moved in with him.

Yes he very is happy very very.

I'm writing you from the city of Tucson, which is in the state of Arizona in the United States:

Cool !

Tucson is where the red dot is with the arrow pointing at it.

He he - he drawed a little arrow. (That's "drew" Katherine)

Noooooooooo

(She laughs :)

Here's a map of Arizona showing Tucson better:

Betttteeeerrrrrrrrr

You can see that Los Angeles, home to "Hollywood," is just a bit to the west of me.

Hollywood ! Simpsons !

Arizona is the state where the "Grand Canyon" is located. The southern part of the state, where Tucson is located, is mostly desert. More specifically, it is the "Sonoran Desert."

Booorrrrriiiinnnnngggggggg (she is scared of saying this!)

I used to think that "the desert" was just sand dunes and no life,

Me too! I still think that.

but in truth the desert is full of life.

Huh?

It is really quite green here, but not with grass and trees like you have there in England,

We don't have many trees in England but daddy says we have millions

but with cactus and a tree called a mesquite. The most famous kind of cactus is called a Saguaro," and it looks like this:

Hehehehe

Here's a closeup picture of the needles on a Saguaro cactus:

Kewlllll

But that's not the only kind of cactus here. There's also something called a "Barrel Cactus," and it looks like this:

It's really cool!

Here's a picture of me at the top of a local mountain that my wife and I hiked. The top of the mountain is about 700 feet above the city of Tucson, which you can see in the background:

I once hiked six miles and my feet broke off.

Maybe one day you and your father could come visit! Say "Hi!" to your father for me. What do you call your father? "Father?" "Dad?" "Daddy?"

DADDY !!

Take care, Katherine. May God continue to bless you.

Mah.

A Post for Katherine

Hi Katherine! I hope that you're all moved in and settled. I'm happy you were able to move in with your father. I know he's happy you moved in with him.

I'm writing you from the city of Tucson, which is in the state of Arizona in the United States:



Tucson is where the red dot is with the arrow pointing at it.

Here's a map of Arizona showing Tucson better:



You can see that Los Angeles, home to "Hollywood," is just a bit to the west of me.

Arizona is the state where the "Grand Canyon" is located. The southern part of the state, where Tucson is located, is mostly desert. More specifically, it is the "Sonoran Desert."

I used to think that "the desert" was just sand dunes and no life, but in truth the desert is full of life. It is really quite green here, but not with grass and trees like you have there in England, but with cactus and a tree called a mesquite. The most famous kind of cactus is called a "Saguaro," and it looks like this:



Here's a closeup picture of the needles on a Saguaro cactus:



But that's not the only kind of cactus here. There's also something called a "Barrel Cactus," and it looks like this:



Here's a picture of me at the top of a local mountain that my wife and I hiked. The top of the mountain is about 700 feet above the city of Tucson, which you can see in the background:



Maybe one day you and your father could come visit!

Say "Hi!" to your father for me.

What do you call your father? "Father?" "Dad?" "Daddy?"

Take care, Katherine. May God continue to bless you.

Hello !

Katherine just wanted to say it !

All boys school

I went to one of those so never had the opportunity to get all mushy over the opposite sex. There was a girls school about a mile down the road and by the time I was 16 or so I was entertaining - well meeting - young ladies at our cinema club.

Why don't we have yellow school buses in the UK? Oh, Katherine just told me that we do have red school buses in the UK - but they only pick up from child ages 13 and above (which is called "Upper School" in our county :).

Now it's time for her to go to sleep - it's a school day tomorrow.

PS. You write very well with good imagery

High School Sweethearts

As painful as it was at the time, I look back on some of those days with a certain fondness. There's something exquisitely painful about longing so much for something and not achieving it. The yearning in my heart in 10th grade for Deana Frederick is something that, some 30+ years later, I still relish.

She rode the same school bus as I did. Two stories to relate:

• One day I ended up in the seat directly behind her. Some of her long, beautiful luxurious dark hair fell between the small gap between her seatback and the window. Hoping that nobody was noticing, I reached up and gently stroked the hair. My heart ached.
  
• Another day she got on the bus just before it pulled away to take us all home. I was sitting in the front seat and nobody was next to me. There were no other open seats, so she had to sit next to me. Remember, I knew through informal channels that she had a crush on me as well. She momentarily froze, then sat down next to me. My heart raced. Was this my opportunity to break the ice? Were it so ... I found myself utterly incapable of saying anything. I sat motionless the five miles to where I got up to depart the bus. When the bus pulled away I stood motionless in the cold winter air and berated myself senseless. My golden opportunity missed. No other opportunities such as that came along.

Again, with the distance of time and the knowledge of other blessings bestowed, those are now equisitely delicious memories to me.

Go figure, huh?

SOA

I've abandoned my idea of writing an SOA white paper. It was pretty presumptuous of me. There are lots of good documents out there already. I may put together an "SOA Overview" presentation I might find useful in some future course. But for now, I'll focus on other things.

"Moving House"

I always liked the British phrase for moving ... "moving house." Here in the U.S. it's just "we're moving." I also like the way y'all refer to "University" rather than "the University," or "a University." :-)

That's terrific news about her moving in. I pray you enjoy 10 (or more) years of wonderful time with her in your home. Good for you. You are a very good father!

Here comes the sun

My daughter moved in today - what a birthday present !

Here comes the sun, here comes the sun,
and I say it's all right

Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter
Little darling, it feels like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
and I say it's all right

Little darling, the smile's returning to the faces
Little darling, it seems like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
and I say it's all right

Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...

Little darling, I feel that ice is slowly melting
Little darling, it seems like years since it's been clear
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun,
and I say it's all right
here comes the sun, here comes the sun,
and i say it's all right
It's all right

z stuff

1) Is it your experience that people who fall into this camp are open to being educated on the values?

Yes, in my experience these types are open to being educated on the value. The problem is that while the may be open, they may not be motivated to do anything after listening, change causes stress after all.

2) What do you do with this person? Is there any real hope of overcoming objections here?

These types are far less likely to be moved. Some bad experience from earlier in their lives, some feeling of being ripped off, exploited or generally unloved stops them. Or perhaps fear stops them, fear of not being fashionable.

3) Listener may well agree with value proposition of platform, but not believe that solution does any more than simply run on the platform, in some dumb, unexploitive way.

This is the crux of the problem. In my youth I used to think that there was some root cause technical magic bullet of why deploying on z was better than any other platform. But there is not, the root cause of any IT decision is the dollar bill. The real value of z is that it is cheaper than other platforms for a certain size of workload. By size I mean "size now and expected growth".

And it really doesn't matter what that workload is, SOA or other. If it's cheaper to run it on z, then z is the place to run it. And by cheaper I mean looking at the total cost of ownership (h/w, s/w, people, outages), not initial cost of acquisition, compared to other platforms.

z has always suffered from the human approach to measurement of true cost, and it's not the answer to all sizes of workload.

Manipulation

It is very scary to hear that there definitely are people that enjoy manipulating other people. This could be the biggest single problem that humanity faces, I can't see how such a desire can cause anything other than war. What to do?

Your highschool teasing: it's true that our characters are built but such happenstances. Isolation and an initial awkwardness in dealing with women sound like your crosses to bear from that period. Oh the desire to be middle of the road and not to stick out, to be different from the group, is very strong in young humans isn't it? Interestingly enough, some of those quirky differences you might have are valued by others as you age, when people get bored with "average" people (should there be such people).

The expectation of kissing

Second, if you get the girl up on her tiptoes, you should kiss her.

Sweet. Works on lots of levels. Still, I'm sure that some over-socialized politically correct types would take issue with it :-)

Z, oh glorious Z

I got to thinking about the "value propositions" of Z within the context of what you and I do for a living. It always struck me that those propositions are sometimes stated as if they're obvious and that everybody knows them but may need to be reminded of them.

I'm not so sure that's true. To that end, I got to thinking that perhaps there's really three "states" of this.

Value Propositions of Z Not Known or Not Understood

This is the case where someone either sincerely is not aware of the things we all might take for granted, or they've heard the words but do not really understand the meaning of them. In some ways I think I fall into the latter camp.

What does one do with someone like this? Educate them? Is it your experience that people who fall into this camp are open to being educated on the values?

Value Propositions of Z Understood But Dismissed or Rejected

Here's the case where some smart fellow is well aware of the concept and theory behind the stated values, but dismisses or rejects them.

What do you do with this person? Is there any real hope of overcoming objections here?

Value Propositions of Z Not Believed to be Exploited By Solution

This is the one I'd not given much thought to before today. It seems to me there may well be a group of people out there that are laboring under the misimpression that modern-day solutions run on Z, but don't really exploit Z to its fullest.

A simple HelloWorld java program runs the same on P or Z ... there's no exploitation of Z to really speak of.

I wonder if there's a thinking out there that other stuff -- SOA in particular -- doesn't really exploit Z? If so, then stating the value proposition might not make its mark. Listener may well agree with value proposition of platform, but not believe that solution does any more than simply run on the platform, in some dumb, unexploitive way.

Am I way off base with this one?

At Port Columbus Airport

Columbus, Ohio is a city smack in the middle of the great, expansive American midwest. Yet its airport is called "Port Columbus Airport." The word "Port" to me implies ships. A landlocked city cannot be a "port." Not in my mind. And my mind is all that matters.

* * *
But because we are tiny cogs in massive machinery, we often feel powerless to satisfy these needs - so in reality we don't feel that secure or important.

That may be the best summarization of our current dilemma as I've ever seen. Here in the U.S. people wonder why the American public expresses such uneasiness when by global standards we have it as good as can be dreamed. You provide the answer.

* * *
And hmm, there clearly is a certain type of woman you are attracted to buddy!

Oh, absolutely. My preferences were shaped by several factors, not all of which I am proud to admit:

• In 10th grade I developed a horrible crush on a girl named Deana Frederick. She was one year back from me. I had a sense from informal sources that she was interested in me as well, but a painful shyness and fear of teasing prevented me from acting. She had the most luxurious mane of long dark hair I'd ever seen. She wore glasses, which had the photo-tint option. That provided an air of mystery. That's where my preference for the Chrissie Hynde and Carolyn Jones look came from. (Three years earlier -- 7th grade -- I made the "mistake" of admitting to a friend I thought I could trust that I liked this girl who I knew also liked me. That "friend" promptly blabbed that around school, and the teasing I received was merciless. Every day. Total strangers. Throughout 7th grade. All through 8th grade. All through 9th grade. It wasn't until 10th grade, when that girl -- Marilyn Arnold -- blossomed and became a cheerleader did the teasing cease. For her benefit, clearly; not mine. The impression was deep and lasting. No effort to connect with Deana Frederick, no dating in high school at all. In the end that resulted in my "settling" for fear I'd get no other chances, which meant I married the second girl I ever dated. That marriage lasted 8 years. How different my life might have been had I a chance to do normal adolescent relationship development.)
  
• About that same time I started getting Playboy magazine, and Miss September 1976 was one "Whitney Kaine." Her most striking attribute to me was a near perfect pair of small breasts. I am to this day much more a fan of small than large. My lovely bride tends to the small, which she feels is a liability. Not a day goes by I don't remind her that I love that aspect of her. Of course, the source of that preference isn't something she likes. (Yes, she is aware of it. She doesn't celebrate that, but she does bask in the benefit of it.)

There you go. :-)

* * *
With regard to the SOA initiative -- we just finished our two "one day roadshow" versions of this thing. Ten people in the first; six on the second.

I have several "problems" with this effort:

1. I do not agree with the format and content of much of the lecture material, which I did not create. I feel it's really just a tremendous list of functional capabilities. I doubt people can absorb much of that after a spell.
2. The hands-on labs, which everyone loves, do not, in my opinion, really provide much educational benefit. They are point-and-click exercises. People complete the requisite steps and when it's done they see some expected result (hopefully), but in the end they don't really have a clue what just happened.
3. This workshop is really a introductory lead generation tool. I don't feel hands-on workshops are the best tool to achieve that. It can achieve some success, but it's a low-odds thing. Much of our company's marketing is along these lines nowadays: throw a plate of spaghetti on the wall and see if any sticks. The problem is there's a tremendous expense to this -- and not just money. Enormous amounts of time and energy is spent waving arms and flying around on the hope of some sale. All the "sales training" that's been invested in over the last decade or so is ignored. Do "we" really have any clue what our customers are doing, what their concerns and needs are? Or are we just a rag-tag bunch of peddlers, each with our basket of things, hoping someone -- anyone -- will buy something?
4. Is introductory marketing lead generation the best use of my time as a member of ATS? I would think not. But who knows ... maybe that's what our company does want of me.
   
5. I have a problem with my co-instructor. I am ashamed of my problem. In my heart I hold him in contempt. That is, for me, the most corrosive of emotions. It's different from dislike -- I like the guy -- I just have contempt for the way he achieves what he wants. It is hard for me to "love" him. I have myself convinced that for me to do so will necessarily involve getting chewed up and spit out, all for the fulfillment of his selfish desires.
   

I am trying to work my way out of this workshop. Unfortunately, to do so will necessarily mean I have to say "No" and be branded the uncooperative element in this equation. That's one tactic of his -- paint people into corners. He said as much last night: he admitted that he truly enjoys manipulating people. Another source of contempt in my eyes.

I am a troubled soul, my friend.

Great Turn of a Phrase

In a column written by George Will about Barak Obama, junior senator from Illinois, who is considering a run for the U.S. presidency, Will enumerates the reasons why Obama should grasp the ring now while his chances are at their best.

Obama is enjoying tremendous popularity at the moment, fueled by a fawning press corp and encouraged by Obama himself. To his point, Will writes:

... if you get the girl up on her tiptoes, you should kiss her

What a great phrase! I love the imagery of that.

The full paragraph is this:

Second, if you get the girl up on her tiptoes, you should kiss her. The electorate is on its tiptoes because Obama has collaborated with the creation of a tsunami of excitement about him. He is nearing the point when a decision against running would brand him as a tease who ungallantly toyed with the electorate's affections.

I am a big fan of George Will's writing. I in general agree with his political sentiments, and I greatly admire the way he uses words and phrases. It's tight and concise. Some words appears that I do not know, but it never seems to me to be overdone.

For what it's worth, I do not believe Barak Obama will be president. But I could be wrong. This country is in a fickle mood. It desperately wants to turn its gaze away from troubling things and go back to the big screen television and the fantasy shows that appear there. I'm not sure history is kind to those who look away from the brewing storm.

Finding Nemo

You know, for the life of me I can't seem to get my rational brain to take control of the irrational side. In one sense it's kind of fascinating. I wonder why our brains are wired this way?

Interesting question. There are always various levels to the "why?" question, and possible answers as well, so I think your (I assume) rhetorical question could be answered in any number of ways:

1. The structure of our brains is a mish-mash of circuitry, containing some mutations that worked well, others not so well, giving rise to differing behaviours and this is what we are left with

2. Because we'd be far less entertaining to watch if we didn't have conflicting emotions

3. Each of us has a divine spark inside that competes with the devil inside

4. We are made in the image of God, so are triune in nature

5. Something else

You, like all of us in the west, live in difficult times. We are bombarded by marketing and advertising that says we should be wealthy, fit, sexually vigorous into old age and have all the latest toys. As humans we have some basic needs, two of those are for security and power (in however small a quantity, everyone has thoe needs). But because we are tiny cogs in massive machinery, we often feel powerless to satisfy these needs - so in reality we don't feel that secure or important. We're creatures designed to forage for food and basically look after ourselves, and yet we can't do that in modern society, we are reliant on many others (eg. our bosses, our doctors, the ATM working) and this all leads to fear, and of course - as George Lucas as Yoda rightly pointed out - that is the path to hate and suffering and war, and the dark side in general.

So don't feel too bad, I sometimes wonder if my undercurrent of fear is that I don't really trust myself to look after and provide for my daughter, but I will do my best. Of course, if I didn't have that fear I'd have some other fears of course.

It's like the starving human being in Africa, if they are worrying about where the next meal is coming from they are unlikely to worry about string theory. It's only when we have the basic needs covered that we start worrying about things of a "higher" nature. I realized in hopsital that in the end, there aren't many things worth worrying about, and "staying alive" is a powerful drive indeed and forces out most other worries from the brain.

+++

Yes I am familiar with The Addams Family TV show and watched it as a kid. In fact one of Katherine's friends came as Morticia to her Halloween Party this year. I have to 'fess up though and say I can't see the likeness to Chrissie.

+++

And hmm, there clearly is a certain type of woman you are attracted to buddy !

+++

I haven't heard of Apocalypto the movie, I doubt I will get to see it soon, I only go to see kids films, which isn't all that bad - I have an excuse to be there! Note that most kids films, these CGI cartoons, seem to be turning into the same movie, like there is only "one" story, a successful formula that we see again and again and again .... that is why kids films like Finding Nemo are so refreshing, it's because they break the mold, and are well done.

Apocalypto

Do you have any plans to see this new movie by Mel Gibson? The IMDB.com reviews give this a 7.7 out of 10, which is not too shabby. From what I can gather, it's ultra-violent, but by being so over the top it crosses over into the fascinating and artistic. It was supposedly shot with digital high-def cameras ... no film stock.

I'm intrigued. That's not to say I'm going to see it, but I am intrigued.

All Things Come Back To It

Pretty much my every thought and deed is ultimately driven by fear. I mean that very seriously. My problem is that every situation that could possibly suggest a loss of approval in me triggers this reaction.

You know, for the life of me I can't seem to get my rational brain to take control of the irrational side. In one sense it's kind of fascinating. I wonder why our brains are wired this way?

* * *
I was always fond of "Brass in Pocket" -- an early one, I think. It stood out as uniquely different from everything else at the time.

* * *
Years and years ago I had a terrific crush on Carolyn Jones, the actress who played "Morticia Addams" on "The Addams Family." Are you familiar with that show?



Is there not a slight resemblence to Chrissie Hyndes?

London Calling

and any pushback is met with not-too-thinly-veiled threats that he'll go elsewhere and make sure it's well known who wasn't "cooperative."

And so does this play on some sort of fear within your good self sir? Imagine for just one moment that you had no fear, I mean why should you? God is in control and looking after you, plus you've just been made Senior Cert. And then imagine that perhaps if anyone was to have fear, it is him rather than you. Then, if you can really place yourself in this state of mind, don't you have control of this person and the situation?

It's easy for me to say stuff like that from far away when I don't have to work with the fella. But in my experience of dealing with such folks, it's all about ones attitude.

You are impervious, you are one of the best teachers and explainers there are in the company, so act accordingly, and smile a lot :-)

Soundbites - yep that's the modern world I am afraid, all diminishing attention spans and Hollywood. It's ok though, we'll be augumented with computers before too long and time will change as our thoughts move at near lightspeed compared to the chemical speeds of today. I am reminded of the movie Star Trek 8: First Contact, at the end when Data says to Captain Picard about the offer The Borg Queen made to him, he muses that he was tempted by her offer for a time. "How long?" says Picard, "0.68 seconds, sir. For an android, that is nearly an eternity".

+++

The Pretenders, great band, nice track, I prefer their earlier stuff though. Chrissie certainly was original and has been copied many times since. She's a good example of one of the many americans who came to London because that was where the cultural scene was at. Is that still true? Not sure.

My City Was Gone

I always liked Chrissie Hynde's vocals from "The Pretenders." I'm not much a fan of female vocalists in general, but I always thought her delivery had a certain something -- not just a pretty voice but rather some edge.

I bring her up because I'm in Ohio, and that makes me think of the line from their song, "My City Was Gone" -- "... Going back to Ohio" [insert kick-butt bass line here] "but my city was gone."

* * *
Kick some SOA butts back East there old buddy :-)

Yeah, well ... I'm here. I have profound disagreement with my colleague in this endeavor. This morning I more or less lost my temper -- he continues to push for more and more of these workshops. His style is this: he pushes and pushes -- all with a contrived "Gosh ... I'm just a dummy" persona -- and any pushback is met with not-too-thinly-veiled threats that he'll go elsewhere and make sure it's well known who wasn't "cooperative."

I've had it. His style is to throw as much factoids up as possible. The more the better. Any suggestions that I know a few things about education, and that I don't think certain elements of the workshop are working, are responded to with utter dismissal of my opinion as having any merit whatever.

I am, as you can tell, frustrated. What I'm trying to assess is how much of this is my pride? Probably more than I want to admit.

Motivation

I would have thought she would have vetoed the idea

Pleasure (hope?) and fear being the big drivers? .... I hate to say what I am thinking but anyway .... Katherine does not get on well with Alice's boyfriend according to Ellen, so maybe he will be visiting Alice more often when Katherine is living with me?

Perhaps I am taking too dim a view but in my experience Alice only does things when there is something in it for her good self.

+++

I thought that I had heard of some Hammam's saying that Islam was at heart a peaceful religion, but I don't believe it, from what I have seen of the Qu'ran (Koran) anyway. "The Black Cloud of Islam" is a song by Roy Harper (of Led Zep "Hat's Off To Roy Harper" fame) and is spot on unfortunately. There are many peaceful Muslims out there though.

+++

Kick some SOA butts back East there old buddy :-)

Bomb Throwing

Note: There are different scientific theories for sure, but I don't see classical Newtonian believers throwing bombs at Einsteinians :-)

You're correct. Nor do you see Church of England members hurling bombs at Methodists, or for that matter Christians and Hindus crossing swords anywhere. Buddhists and Taoist get along just fine, despite deep disagreements in faith and doctrine.

Truth is, there's only one major religion that has an established doctrine of violence towards others, and that's Islam. Sure, Christianity had its period of institutional violence back during the Crusades and the Inquisition. But that was never supported by the faith's core doctrines, and beside, the Church has more or less officially denounced both. Where individuals carry the Christian banner towards violence they are roundly condemned by the rest of Christiandom.

The painful truth is when we speak of physical violence in the name of religion, only one major faith appears to have a core principle based on it. And that one major faith is Islam.

(The usual retort I hear is "What about Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland?" Two points: one, I challenge anyone to find an official and generally respected representative of either denomination that endorsed violence in the name of their faith. Two, there are a lot of "Protestants" and "Catholics" who carry the name but not really the faith. In other words, they are largely faithless individuals who think that going through meaningless rituals is what God wants from them. I wish someone of prominence in the Islamic faith would denounce violence. But alas there are none. Violence is at the core of that "religion.")

Moving In

I must say, I am very happy, though not just a little astonished, that K's mother would permit her to move in with you for the majority of the week. Given the scene at the get-together you described, I would have thought she would have vetoed the idea out of spite, if nothing else. In any event, I'm happy to hear of this new development.

Have you ever considered training to be a counselor, or family mediator? You seem to have a real gift for maintaining a detached and calm view of things.

I am in Columbus, Ohio this week. We are teaching two one-day SOA workshops. I am deeply skeptical of the value of doing this. But I am playing the good soldier.

I am, however, very sleepy -- I did not get much sleep last night and I am stuffed with Chinese food. :-)

I'm on the New Version!

Despite the fact I had no clue about my previously defined Gmail ID, it allowed me to migrate the blog over. I guess it created a new Gmail ID and assigned me access to this blog behind the scenes. Who know? This post will be my test.

Migrated blog !

Well I got the invite to migrate to the new beta blogger and did so!

Yes posting is much (like .. way way ..) faster and more robust. It still shows you as an "author" able to post but I'm not sure how that works now as this seems to be integrated with gmail. I have just re-added your gmail id as an author, I think I sent you a gmail invite a while ago .. do you still have the userid/pw?

We may need to work this out via the Notes email system !

The message is:

"You can now access your dashboard at http://beta.blogger.com using your Google Account and start using the new features right away"

So my guess is that if you login to http://beta.blogger.com or http://www.gmail.com with your gmail id then you will see an invite to become an author of this blog.

She's Leaving Home

I see this reference to some new "version" of Blogger. Any idea what that is?

There wasn't a URL referred to in your above comment, however it seems as if the new blogger beta is "invite only" - no mention of GA date.

http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2006/08/new-blogger.html

Faster posting is promised due to not having to republish indices or something.

I use docs.google.com to make blog post updates, this is the old www.writely.com company that Google acquired, it's a nice editor, although I haven't worked out how to make the titles of posts stick.

+++

Have been doing Christmas shopping this weekend and will be writing a few cards to the family today, it's such a circus!

+++

And that might very well be the downfall of human civilization.

The downfall of human civilization and humans is, in my opinion, inevitable. I think I once mentioned that I was sitting in a pub .. heck it was last New Year's eve and here is part of my post:

Things are always changing aren't they?

This was brought home to me one day when I and a friend nipped into a pub in London during a rainy summer lunchtime in 2001. As I was enjoying my pint of Guinness, I looked at the water droplets slowly evaporating from my umbrella. I was spellbound. It gave me great comfort to see it. I am not sure why. Just to know that the clock is ticking, that change is always among us, even if we don't notice it - that nothing stays the same no matter how much we wish it would. For me, a "perfect" moment. Thank you Guinness :-)

That really was a "lightbulb moment" for me in life, in seeing that we humans have some kind of inbuilt desire for things that we like to remain constant but that they just will not. This includes things like civilizations, which clearly rise and fall, and "humanity" which I believe will change into something else. Humanity has a few paths it could take

1. Die out completely (an extinction by a large stone - "The Wormwood", global war that wipes out all life, etc)

2. Evolve into something else (perhaps after a not-quite-extinction-level-event in 1, perhaps through the radiation of a nuclear war)

3. Become a hybrid augment of human + computer

4. Just end when Judgement Day comes

5. Something else

Now, the Bones-me will say that (4) above will definitely happen. The Spock-me says that, having found a way to avert (1), then (3) above will definitely happen, so I am in a quandry :-) Do we need techology? For sure, because of The Wormwood. Do we need religion? I don't know, it causes friction between different religious groups, but does provide hope to many. Besides, it may well be the Absolute Truth, but which religion to choose? It's not like you can measure it for Truth, it comes down to a personal choice, and one in which where you are born has 99% of the influence in the choice you make. Imagine if scientific theories and experimental results were dependent on where the scientist was born? That's funny, how would the scientists ever get other labs around the world to reproduce their results? So nothing would move forwards. Do we need "one religion" or "no religion" or something else I wonder?

Note: There are different scientific theories for sure, but I don't see classical Newtonian believers throwing bombs at Einsteinians :-)

+++

If the devil is "prince" of this earthly realm, and his goal is the cast humanity into chaos and destruction, what could possibly be his gain?

Well, putting aside the fact that humanity might well change into something else for one moment ...

Tough questions, you have to place yourself in the frame of mind that the Earth is this battleground between an omnipotent being (God) and one of his turncoat superbeings (The Fallen Angel Satan), and that anything that happens on this battleground happens with full knowledge and foresight on behalf of the omnipotent being and that the turncoat superbeing knows that whatever he does comes within the plan of the omnipotent being. Ok I think that covers the "If" at the start of your question :-)

What could be his gain? I really don't know. Because whatever his game is - it would fall into the plan of the omnipotent being, therefore he is stuck. Whatever the turncoat superbeing does, even if he "does nothing" falls within the plan, so the turncoat may as well get on with it and stop complaining. He is perhaps caught in a pointless rage against the omnipotent being.

This doesn't sound very likely I know. What are your thoughts to his possible gain?

+++

"She's Leaving Home" - this is a lovely McCartney song from Pepper. I did a version on acoustic guitar but my voice is nowehere near that of Macca's - still it kinda works and I would love to have heard McCartney do it on an acoustic. The reason I dug this song out is that I had a "meeting" with Alice and the girls to discuss why Katherine wanted to come and live with me, as now Alice has agreed to drive the girls to their old schools everyday.

Katherine still wants to move in with me and the reason she gave at the meeting is that she doesn't trust her mother. Things have been said and not delivered, important promises have been broken. I watched Alice intently as she got this feedback from her daughter and I saw the emotions of anger and rage! The red line in the song below just popped into my head! The current plan is for my daughter to move in with me on my birthday, next Saturday December 16th and then for her to spend one night a week at Alice's (Thursday) and every other weekend there, we'll see, it's happy times but also very sad. The song:

Wednesday morning at five o'clock as the day begins
Silently closing her bedroom door
Leaving the note that she hoped would say more
She goes downstairs to the kitchen clutching her hankerchief

Quietly turning the backdoor key
Stepping outside she is free.

She (We gave her most of our lives)
is leaving (Sacrificed most of our lives)
home (We gave her everything money could buy)

She's leaving home after living alone for so many years. (Bye, bye)
Father snores as his wife gets into her dressing gown
Picks up the letter that's lying there
Standing alone at the top of the stairs
She breaks down and cries to her husband "daddy, our baby's gone."
Why would she treat us so thoughtlessly?
How could she do this to me?

She (We never thought of ourselves)
is leaving (Never a thought for ourselves)
home (We struggled hard all our lives to get by)
She's leaving home after living alone for so many years. (Bye, bye)

Friday morning at nine o'clock she is far away
Waiting to keep the appointment she made
Meeting a man from the motor trade.

She (What did we do that was wrong)
is having (We didn't know it was wrong)
fun (Fun is the one thing that money can't buy)

Something inside that was always denied for so many years. (Bye, bye)
She's leaving home. (Bye, bye)

The E to Bm/D in this song is so equisite, the way the melody just dips it's shoulders, that happens on the words in blue above.

+++

Congratulations to you Mr. Senior Cert. Well deserved :-)

New Blogger?

I see this reference to some new "version" of Blogger. Any idea what that is?

Perspectives

Your last post brought up an interesting point -- the perspective from which one views the words used makes a difference:

• Perspective from point of view of speaker -- then this is indeed a variant of the "Golden Rule" -- treat others as you would like to be treated.
  
• Perspective from point of view of observer -- then we fall headlong into the question of standards; that is, reference by which we measure the relative merit of the words one uses

The question -- and we've wrestled with this for a long time -- is whether or not there is an objective outside standard that can serve as a measuring stick for judging the words and actions of others. There seems to be something out there -- there are certain things everyone seems to agree upon. For instance, it's not a good thing to club a helpless infant to death. But it seems even that might come under scrutiny and debate in some circles. For example, the question of an infant born helplessly deformed with little chance of living. Clubbing it might still be agreed to as inhumane, but there seems a growing consensus to, at the very least , allow it to die with no medical intervention.

Increasingly I'm coming to the conclusion that arguing the question of objective truth is nearly hopeless, since so many people have jettisoned the idea that there can be any objective truth. So the debate has fundamentally shifted:

1. From: "What is the nature of objective truth?"
2. To: "Is there objective truth?"

If one is arguing from the position of #2, then there is absolutely no anchor point. So further discussion is pointless.

And that might very well be the downfall of human civilization.

With that I shift gears. If the devil is "prince" of this earthly realm, and his goal is the cast humanity into chaos and destruction, what could possibly be his gain? Let's say all the humans kill themselves off. Would that please or dismay the devil? Would he have accomplished his goal, or eliminated the source of his "power" such as it was?

An application of the Golden Rule?

So let's rephrase it:

If what you're about to say is intentionally hurtful, and serves no useful or constructive purpose, you should not say it.

Would that be an inarguable statement?

Well, fiirst of all there are probably no inarguable statements, including the one I just made, but putting that aside for now .. :-)

Let me ask you .. does "intentionally hurtful" here imply intent on the part of the deliverer of the statement, or "observed intent" on the part of a third party hearing the deliverer give the statement to the person that the statement is intended for?

It's a subtle point -- which I think is the one you are making, if it's the former then the problem is covered by "treat others as you wish to be treated" (specifically for this case the part that says "I wouldn't like someone to hurt me therefore I will not hurt them") so I don't see the need for a special case statement, of which the above may or may not be an inarguable example of, to cover this scenario.

If it's the latter, and what one says -- unintentionally on the part of the deliverer -- hurts another (I do that all the time, foot-in-mouth syndrome or mouth-engaged before brain syndrome) then there might be a special case statement required for this scenario, but it will along the lines of "really put yourself in the position of the other before you speak".

What do you think?

And yes I agree with the parts of utility and constructiveness (is that a word?) in some scenarios.

Examples, if I shout at my daughter to stop her running into the path of a speeding car, this is constructive (and harsh) indeed. But we have to be careful here, the "constructive" part of the statement is linked to an implied moralistic value, in this case being that "her life should be prolonged for as long as possible" -- and the benefit of her living outweighs the harsh words.

Harder are the times when you might go on a course to learn how to sell something. You may receive constructive criticism that tells you that your behavior needs to change to achieve the goal of selling more. So in this case the implication is that changing the way you behave is a good thing, because you will sell more. After all that is why you came on the class is it not? So then it is up to the individual to decide how he or she interprets the constructive criticism and what he or she does with it.

"Constructive" is a highly variable term I think. One persons "constructive" might be another persons "destructive" might it not?

If you can't say something nice ...

... don't say anything at all.

That's how the old saying goes. There's some wisdom in that.

Now, I got thinking ... is the sentiment contained within that always true? Is it always the case that if you can't say something nice you shouldn't say anything at all?

That got me thinking about the word "nice" there. Appropriate? How about "constructive?" Or "necessary?" What I'm getting at is there are times when the best course of action is to say something not nice ... but perhaps something that needs to be said ("necessary") and in so saying will actually help the recipient ("constructive").

So let's rephrase it:

If what you're about to say is intentionally hurtful, and serves no useful or constructive purpose, you should not say it.

Would that be an inarguable statement?

Microcosm

What has science fundamentally shown us about the Universe?

1. It seems to run on laws, ie. what happens over here, happens over there
2. When you examine it real close under a super-microscope it gets fuzzy and doesn't let you look at it

A whole bunch of other stuff too. But what do those two things tell us? Well, to me it's increasingly clear, from 1) the place has an architect and from 2) we're a simul running in some "ram" somewhere, the Matrix film makers got that bit "right" at least.

So maybe we'll all have our own Universe one day? Who knows - it's possible but unlikely. Why unlikely? Because the architect of the one we are in probably doesn't want the hassle :-)

+++

I hope that you are healing gum wise, have you decided what to do yet? Sometimes the "do nothing" option is the best.

+++

My daughter has another sleep over (slumber party?) this evening with three friends so I am relegated to the small room. Ah, the power of laptops.

Pretty Soon Everyone Will Have One ...

... universes, that is.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6545246

Um ... okay.

Back in the 80's there was a show called "Cheers" about a Boston bar and the regulars who inhabited it. One of my favorite lines was uttered by Dr. Frasier Crane, played by Kelsey Grammer:

"They can put a man on the moon, but we can't put foil in a microwave!"

My point? I see this talk about "creating universes" from "mini black holes" to be a lot of fanciful talk; the stuff of dreams. It'll never happen.

Now hitch up the horses ... I've got to go into town. Where's my buggy whip?

Motorcycles

"Men writing letters to men" .. at first this sounded slightly gay, but you're not talking about "love letters" doh :-)

That was kinda-sorta my point. Writing a letter to another man carries with it a connotation of gayness. Hence men don't do it. But they'll e-mail. Explain the difference. I can't ... except to say there's something intimate about handwritten letters.

* * *
The long forks on Graham's bike caught him quite a bit of flak on the motorcycle forum. The people split into three camps -- those in favor, those opposed, and those who stayed silent. I'm not a fan of long forks; they reduce the agility of a bike. But I stayed silent.

* * *
There are some motorcycles (and cars) coming out with Continuously Varitable Transmissions (CVT). It's essentially an automatic transmission, but without discrete gear ratios. It operates with a belt rather than gears. The technology has advanced to such a degree that Nissan has it in their Altima. That would solve the shifting problem for you -- just squeeze on the throttle and go. No shifting necessary. Your left leg can sit idle, watching the scenery go by.

* * *
I am so rusty at chess I can't see even one move out. Still, something smells fishy. The world's champion getting "schoolboy mated" in game 1? What's that all about? I have to believe there's only a limited number of possible rapid mate combinations, and surely any champion would know them all.

* * *
Yesterday was the day the Senior Certification board met to come to consensus on the candidates. So I'm in or not in, and there's nothing I can do about it now. I understand it's better not to hear -- they give bad news right away, but good news is delayed. I've heard nothing after 24 hours.

* * *
I took my Honda 1100 Shadow out for a 100 mile spin on Sunday ... up to the top of Kitt Peak and other places. It's not a bad bike. It's not a Wing, but then again it's paid for. The problem that bike has is it's not really all that good above 75mph or so. It'll do a ton, but the wind is so fiercely loud and the buffeting so bad it's uncomfortable. But out in the desert, where roads go on for miles and miles, the temptation to go 80 to 90 is great.

* * *
My mouth continues to heal up. The sutures are pretty much dissolved at this point. My big problem is I've developed the mother of all canker sores along the lower gumline, where (I think) the painkiller syringe went. It's more painful than the tooth.

Now I face an option -- implant, bridge, or nothing.

Checkmate !

Thanks for all the help and references re: digital cameras. The jury is still out and I need to fully explore as many possibilities as I can, although a purchase of a Canon is looking more probably than say the purchase of a Sony model.

Thanks also for the pointer to the device that enables changing gear by pressing down with either the heal or toe rather than up. This I may be able to handle in which case you'd be a brave man to let me drive your bike when (one day!) I visit you guys in Arizona :-)

"Men writing letters to men" .. at first this sounded slightly gay, but you're not talking about "love letters" doh :-)

Mods vs Rockers. Oh yes. I saw the tail end of this when I was a very young lad. In fact, my dad was a "rocker" apparently. Had the BSA an all.

It was marvellous to read the story you posted by Graham, and I've never liked taxmen (people who work for the Inland Revenue, you know the ones George Harrison was singing about on "Revolver") - for a number of reasons, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. He's a good writer, not dissimilar from your own good style sir. Looking at the picture of him on the bike though I smiled. Something is wrong here, linked to "machoness" or breeding rights, the bird with the brightest feathers - that sort of thing. I'm much more interested in functional - rather than good-looking - bikes. I do appreciate art, don't get me wrong, but the bike is just too fancy. Those long forks never helped anyone. I always wanted a Honda Transalp, probably because of my height, it's a tall bike, I never owned one.

I never owned a bike, but had long terms loans of two bikes in my time, a Suzuki 500 and a Kawasaki 550, and I can't even remember what models they were. Had lots of fun on them. I did a 3000 mile tour on the Suzuki (which I borrowed from a client!) in 1992 and went from London to see the Olympics in Barcelona and then onto Seville for the Exposition. Fond memories, I have lots of photos in the garage somewhere which I will have to dig out and scan in.

In the meantime here is a Transalp:
















There is a chess tournament going on, the current World Chess Champion Vladimir Kramnik vs a computer called Deep Fritz 10. The World Champ was schoolboy mated in 1 and lost game 2, the match is now scored at 1.5 - 0.5 in favour of the silicon. Four games to go. Here is the position in which the human, playing with black pieces, decided to play his black queen to the e3 square. Can you see the move that the white comp played to mate the human? The pundits are calling Qe3 the biggest blunder ever made by a World Champion. Ever. People are saying that the match must be fixed, as before Qe3 was played, the game was effectively drawn, with perhaps even a slight advantage to the human.



















The correct move was Kg8. In the press conference afterwards the human said "I have no explanation for the move I played".

Back In The Day

I am a member of an online motorcycle forum, as you may recall, and one of the members is from the U.K. He works for the revenue service -- Inland Revenue? -- and was a teenager back in the mid-60's when the music was exploding and the whole "Mod" and "Rocker" thing was going on. His nickname on the forum is "Collector". His real name is Graham.

He's a fan of "cafe racers" -- stripped down racing bikes:



(He doesn't own that bike -- it's just one he saw on eBay and admired. His bike, and him, can be seen here.)

After posting the picture of the cafe racer shown above, he wrote this:

"Just the thing for tooling down to Brighton at Easter to face off a few Mods."

Now that instantly put me in mind of the Who's album Quadrophenia, which was all about Mods and Rockers and the kind of disillusionment suffered by the main character, Jimmy, an aspiring Mod. So I asked him to recall the days. Here's his response:

There would have been around 5 or 6 of us that hung around together. We were the scruffiest bunch of individuals you ever did see. I recall my wife saying, before we got married, that if she saw me walking down the road and didn't actaully know me then she would have crossed over. Laughing

We all wore black leather jackets with denim cutoffs, and they were covered in studs, chains and pins. I think I must have had the original pair of 'originals' which used to stand up on thier own when I took them off and would attack anyone they didn't know! Laughing

We belonged to the University of East Anglia motorcycle club because the bar was cheap and we spent an inordinate amount of time in a cafe called the 'Three C's' (Its emblem was a clover leaf) where we played the pin tables, drank awful coffee and tried (unsuccessfully) to sleep with the waitress. Not all at once, obviously.

We rode a variety of bikes. I had my Matchless, Alistair had a BSA 441 Shooting Star, Colin had BSA's of varying descriptions, as did Phil. Andy bought a cafe'd up 250 BSA that most of the bits fell off at one point or another, it shook so much. Pete didn't have a bike but rode bitch with anyone.

Bear in mind we were all young and had little money between us so we rode what we could afford. On Saturdays we would go to Tinklers motorcycle shop and look at all the nice shiny aftermarket stuff. That was the place to see bikes, also. There would be guys turning up on immaculate cafe'd up Nortons (the Dominator was a favourite), BSA's (Lightning, Gold Star, Road Rocket and *faint* Super Rocket). Then there would be Triumph Bonnies, Tritons, Tribsa's, Royal Enfields et al. If we were lucky we might get to see something a bit more exotic, like an Ariel Square Four, A Velocette Thruxton or *swoon* a Vincent.

But for all our appearances we were not out looking for trouble, and never looked for or got into fights. We were kind of in our own little bubble, if you get my drift. There were some hard core guys went into the Three C's cafe, though. One in particular with the nickname 'Brontus', 'coz he was f'n enormous. He rode a beautiful metalflake blue chopped Triumph and was associated with the HA's.

I remember one Saturday afternoon his bike was parked outside in the street when a bunch of football supporters on a post-match high came a-wandering down the road. They seen his bike and went for a touchy feely inspection. One of the guys warned them it was not a good idea. They should have listened. Brontus came lumbering out of the cafe, on his own, and told them all to f*ck off and leave his chop alone. There is always a stupid brave one, isn't there? Brontus picked him up and threw him over a car, punched out another couple and the rest ran away. We sat in the window and laughed.

We mainly ignored Mods. We felt that they were style over substance and in any case their scooters were two stroke heaps of kak that were slow and even more unreliable than our bikes. As I have said elsewhere, although it was an annual treat for Mods and Rockers to meet up at various seaside reorts to kick seven bells out of each other, I was never into gratuitous violence and so did not participate.

There was a local chapter of the Satan's Slaves. They were to be avoided at all costs; they were completely unpredictable and were responsible for a knifing in a pub in '73 or '74 (I think) when a couple of them got sent down and the rest kind of disappeared.

You are right when you say that Mods liked The Who. I was kinda pissed about that, coz I really liked all of their early stuff although I lost interest when they went into 'Rock Opera' phase. I think the Stones were more rocker oriented - remember Altamont?

My all time favourite Who track has got to be 'My Generation'.

And as for Harleys - what the hell were Harleys? Laughing We never saw any of them around because there just weren't many. We used to laugh and say that if you wanted something that didn't handle, stop, or go fast, then get a Harley. When AMC took them on there was huge reliability problems and the British MC press slated the hell out of them.

I found that an interesting read ... a transportation to a different place and a different time. You and I are a bit too young to have recalled much from that era. But does any of what he writes here ring up memories for you?

More On Digital Cameras

There's a website here in the U.S. called "InstaPundit." The guy who runs it -- Glenn Reynolds -- is a law professor at the University of Tennessee. His site is really little more than a collector of links to other stories and such all around the web.

All that's just background. On occasion he'll run a "Carnival of the _____," where the blank is whatever topic he invites people to join in on. "Carnival" is an odd word, I think, but that's what he uses to describe a collection of reader input on a subject.

Recently he ran one for digital cameras. Three separate posts:

Carnival One

Carnival Two

Carnival Three

Lots of photo galleries with sample shots from the various cameras.

Bum Leg Shifting

You could actually operate a motorcycle with a leg that doesn't really work from the knee down. And it wouldn't take a Goldwing, though that bike could also be fitted with it. The device you need is called a "heel-toe" shifter. The stock shift lever of a motorcycle is intended to be tapped down or pulled up. The heel-toe shifter simply extends the lever to the rear of the fulcrum point rather than only towards the front. So you tap down on the front to downshift; tap with your heel on the back to upshift. A lot of Harley-Davidson riders have those. Not because they have bum legs, but because it allows them to wear hip boots and not have to worry about getting the toe under the little lever.

* * *
As for cameras, I think Canon has the market sewn up in the $250 - $600 range. Every discussion I see about digital cameras seems to mention Canon. That's what I have -- I have a Canon A80 Powershot, which is by now ancient history. I got it at Golden Circle three years ago.

I do have to take exception to the "You mean you have a camera that still takes batteries?" jab by your friends. I think that's a positive benefit rather than a hinderance. If you're planning on being out for an extended period and are at all concerned about running low on power, all you need to do is have an extra pack of AA batteries handy. But if a rechargeable battery runs down while you're out hiking in some mountain, you're out of luck.

My MP3 player takes a single AAA battery. I wouldn't have it any other way. On airplanes I have many times had to swap in a new battery. I takes 15 seconds and I have another 10 hours of playing time. Rechargeables can't say that.

* * *
Yes sir, we have transitioned into the "older generation," haven't we? I can't recall exactly what I was doing recently where I experienced something akin to what you describe. I do recall thinking that my time to participate in such things has passed. I wasn't all that sad. I am where I am.

* * *
My daughter by the way is still adamant that she is moving in with me when Alice departs northwards, on my birthday Dec 16th. I'm intrigued to see what actually happens over the next few weeks

Keep me up to date on the goings-on of that saga. :-(

* * *
PS. I forgot to ask, why do you think this blog has survived?

For many of the reasons you cited, and one more ... and it's the reason why e-mail is so popular. What we're doing -- you and me -- is writing letters back and forth to one another. The exchanges of letters between men used to be quite common, but no more. It died in the 1960's and 70's. The advent of e-mail opened the world back up because for some odd reason, electronic mail is not as "personal" as a hand-written note. So two men can send e-mail to one another without any sense of exposure or vulnerability, whereas a handwritten note opens a man up to those feelings. This blog is like that -- an exchange of letters. The difference is it's like a series of letters that have been tacked to a bulletin board. And the world can read them, if they choose to.

Many blogs are one person affairs -- a soapbox where one stands and shouts their views to a world that's not listening. Our audience is really each other. I wonder how common that is -- a two person, back-and-forth blog like this?

Do you know anyone else who does this? Do you have another blog you maintain with someone else?

Growing up

The Goldwing: Simply marvellous. Question, if you did not have use of your left leg from below the knee (so that you could not tilt your foot upwards) could you still ride one? Are the gears still on the left foot? (Including reverse :-)

Nice picture of your sunset also, I wonder if there is a name for such a beautiful cloud formation? The cloud type is stratocumulous perhaps? But is there a name for the formation I wonder ...

Talking of pictures I need a new digital camera. For some reason my current digital camera has started to take fuzzy pictures, and the red-eye results when using it have always been annoying. I went on a batchelor party (we call it a "Stag Do") for a friend of mine (the young chap who is recovering from MS - Multiple Sclerosis not Microsoft!) last night. Someone had a Canon IXUS 850IS and I was very impressed with the fact that it can automatically focus on the face of the subject, it has "face recognition" software - in a limited sense. Plus it started and was ready to snap immediately I turned the thing on, whereas I have to wait 10 seconds for my antiquated cheapo to be ready - often having missed the spontaneity of the moment. Plus the lads laughed at me .... "you mean you have a camera that still takes batteries??" :-) So now when I make it the wedding on Dec 27th I better have upgraded myself. Do you have any advice in the digital camera area - being the photographer that you are?

Going out with a group of seven twenty-something men was like going back in time. Hooters, a Curry House, a Night Club, a Kebab Shop, Hotel. Now I'm an observer rather than a participant and I was struck by the contrived nature of the whole dance that the puppet-master puts us humans through. In this case I am referring to the puppet-master known as natural selection. Generally I felt like the old man on the scene, and it was a role - although new to me - that I greatly enjoyed.

I was reminded that my daughter has yet to partake of the dance, she will have much joy and much heartache I am sure, as a parent one hopes for more of the former than the latter and that is my prayer, but of course life will bring both.

My daughter by the way is still adamant that she is moving in with me when Alice departs northwards, on my birthday Dec 16th. I'm intrigued to see what actually happens over the next few weeks.

+++

Given what you said about your childhood abode I can understand your paranoia over water leaking in. Plus, I would say that of all the people I know, you're one of the most conscious of the idea that "a stitch in time saves nine".

Still, in the UK, as you know, the stock and staple building material for houses is brick. So the Welsh stay dry - and the sheep remain worried :-)

PS. I forgot to ask, why do you think this blog has survived?

Honda Goldwing Rental

On Saturday I rented a 2005 Honda GL1800 Goldwing and took it for a 320 mile tour. Here's me on the bike at the rental place:



That bike is a beast -- 800 pounds, 1800cc with six cylinders. You'd think that bike would be good only for open ride riding, but terrible for close quarter, slow speed maneuvering.

You'd be wrong.

The Goldwing is the most remarkably nimble bike I've ever been on. Slow speed, medium speed, high speed -- doesn't matter.

Back in 2002 Honda completely re-engineered the Goldwing. They sent the frame design responsibilities over to their sport bike group, who came up with an aluminum sport bike frame. They shortened the wheelbase and modified the rake of the front. After they did that, they sent the design to the fitment folks who tarted it up with fairings and bags.

The Goldwing is a sport bike at heart. It tours exceptionally well.

I'd love one ... one day I may have one. But at $20K new it's a bit pricey for my tastes.