Archive for November, 2003

2003.11.20

Rise of the Geeks

This arose from an IM with Skooz. The thought was to form a union for tech people. It quickly evolved into a secret society like the Masons. In fact, tech people are the masons of the modern age, constructing the future.

we can work out a secret handshake, a tattoo, and a costume for meetings that would include pocket protectors to honor our past

trickle down benefits to the masses as we have more money

a parlaiment might work. Elect from within the reps, have a no confidence vote and get rid of them… sounds like fun

call ourselves the federation to cement our geekness

in for the money and the power to control the future of this planet. obviously we would have to get heavily into the economy.

we could also hack politicians computers to find material to control them with.

Obviously some of this is illegal, but it would make for an interesting story set in the not-so-distant future where this was a reality.

2003.11.16

Personal Websites

With troubles recently regarding material on my site, I’ve decided to start migrating some sections and data to the diary, where they will be away from prying eyes, search engines, and other idiotic things. If you think you need access to the diary, drop me a line and we’ll see what we can do for you.

Though I’d been thinking about this for a while, this article on the relevancy of personal pages, and it’s follow up are really what swayed me. In essence:

- Personal pages are important if you are contributing something; opinions, tutorials, art, writing, etc.

- Personal pages are less relevant when they are too personal; people like their privacy or just feel odd being talked about on a potentially world wide venue. It can/will come back to bite you in the butt.

- Personal pages -if you discuss your personal life too much- can make you seem sad, pathetic, and something of a loser. When I think of the personal pages I goto regularly they rarely make statements about their personal lives except as an aside.

- Don’t let the “personal” aspect fool you; all it means is that the person who maintains the page maintains it on his or her own with little or no help from any corporation, business, or professional occupation. They do it on their own and that they can do it at all shows their skill and determination.

A long time ago I started this up for reasons that soon went south. Learning as I went along, I’ve moved much to the diary to protect it from prying eyes. I’ll just take one step further. It will just take a lot of work restructuring and moving things. Restructuring won’t be fun, but reading old entries to see if they should be moved will be; I don’t go back and read the old stuff very often!

One of the things I liked about the first article was the analogy that the web is shallow. There is so much content out there -most of which is completely useless- it is impossible to know what or where to find the information you want. There are a few “deep pools” in the shallow pond of the web, and these are sites that draw people back again and again.

2003.11.14

climate maps

currently there is only this one available.

click on map for hi-res image (180KB).

UPDATE 2006.09.29: I’m no longer working with this world, but it’s still interesting to look at the maps!

2003.11.14

elevation maps

currently there are two maps available, a flat world map and an icosahedral map that you may print, cut out, tape up and get a good idea of what the world would look like in three dimensions.

flat map. click on map for hi-res image (780KB).

UPDATE 2006.09.29: I’m no longer working with this world, but it’s still interesting to look at the maps!

2003.11.14

world maps

here are a few maps i’ve made. i’ve been using fractal terrains and campaign cartographer by profantasy. although they are windows, they seem to be some of the best map making tools available right now.

UPDATE 2006.09.29: I’m no longer working with this world, but it’s still interesting to look at the maps!

2003.11.14

rainfall maps

currently there is only this one available.

click on map for hi-res image (660KB).

UPDATE 2006.09.29: I’m no longer working with this world, but it’s still interesting to look at the maps!

2003.11.14

temperature maps

currently there is only this one available.

click on map for hi-res image (870KB).

UPDATE 2006.09.29: I’m no longer working with this world, but it’s still interesting to look at the maps!

2003.11.12

I Served the King of England. Bohumil Hrabal.

bohumil hrabal. what a writer. a czech writer. it’s funny that for all my years of living in prague i had never read anything czech. a friend introduced me to it, on my birthday in 98. the book itself is wonderful. like many of the czech writers i am familar with, the prose is almost dreamlike in quality, but the images and events, just like a dream, seem more real than this life we live. as the main character often say, "the unbelievable comes true." the story is about one man’s life, and how he grew up before and after WWII, and how he learned from the headwaiter who served the king of england, and how later he himself served the emperor of ethiopia. both had the knack of see the true nature and need of the people around them, and that is why the served the great people they did. read the book. you’ll love it.

2003.11.12

Barenaked Ladies. Stunt.

another great one from the ladies. i had heard this many times but never realized how many great songs are on there. particularly i identify with who needs sleep…

2003.11.11

Ten Most Overpaid Jobs

I saw this article posted on Slashdot outlining the ten most overpaid jobs in America.

10: Wedding Photographers
9: Pilots for Major Airlines
8: West Coast Longshoremen
7: Airport Skycaps
6: Real Estate Agents selling High End Homes
5: Motivational Speakers and Ex-Politicians on the Lecture Circuit
4: Orthodontists
3: CEOs of Poorly Performing Companies
2: Washed-Up Pro Athletes in Long-Term Contracts
1: Mutual-Fund Managers

I noticed they didn’t include marketers, sales people and advertisers, but I’m sure they had their reasons.

Here are ways I would fix these problems.

The complaint with Wedding Photographers is that for what they get paid they do not turn out such a great product. With Wedding Photographers I would make it policy to hire two photographers. The one who has better pictures will get paid, the other one will not. Also, they get paid by the photograph purchased, not by a package.

Airline Pilots argue that their job is stressful and requires a high degree of skillfulness. After all, you are putting your lives in their hands. Not so true, the article says; the ground crew does far more than the pilot to keep flying safe as the plane is mostly automated. My solution would be to halve the pilots salary and start dispursing that money to the ground crews. Any pilot with a problem with this can talk to the ground crew. In a darkened alley.

With the West Coast Longshoremen I am not sure what the solution would be except perhaps to federalize the jobs or make their unions illegal. In this case I think perhaps I will abstain from a set solution as a lot of them live next to me and might catch me in a dark alley.

Airport Skycaps I’d leave alone. I don’t tip them and I don’t see why anyone else should; they are there on the airport’s payroll. If everyone stopped tipping them, they wouldn’t be overpaid (though technically they aren’t overpaid, they just make loads off of tips which is different).

Real Estate Agents should probably have to pay a certain amount of their commission equivelent to the property tax on any house they sell. That might shut them up a bit. Especially here in the Bay Area.

The only thing you can do with people on the lecture circuits is educate the people who are hiring them. No freaking lecture is worth what some of these people make. Comedians often have more insight into politics and are paid squat. Corporations who hire motivational speakers have to realize that these people aren’t motivating. Us grunts in the trenches are just going to go back to grumbling the next day. Use that money on raises and/or bonuses for us and we’d be one hell of a lot more motivated.

Orthodonty could be socialized; the one socialized medicine out there. Wouldn’t that be great? We’d still have to pay up the butt for stitches when we cut our finger getting dinner ready, but at least we’d have straight teeth! In reality, though, the best solution is to regulate them with caps (get it? caps?) on what they can charge. Or take them into a dark alley.

CEOs… I’ve written about them before and you can read about it there.

To solve the problems of washed up athletes the athletic unions need to be broken, or at least their contracts. It’s simple. Sports should be based on merit and, as the article points out, some are. In golf, you don’t get paid unless you win (or have a sponsor who doesn’t mind you losing sometimes). The same should be done with our other sports. If a pitcher wants a $10 million salary he should maintain a winning season of, say, 60% (or three out of every five games). The same with other sports and positions. Goals should be set and met.

Mutual-fund Managers… I don’t know what I’d do with them. Probably combine the solutions for my CEO issues and sports salaries based on merit and ability. Contracts with them should garuntee a zero net loss over a certain amount of years or they make up the difference. Seems simple to me.

Finally, the Marketers. Dark Alley. I’ll be there.