TECH: 2 sites and a request

Another link update today. I’m requesting some comments from you readers too, but I have lurked alot myself and so I won’t be a hypocrite and say you have to comment. I would be very thankful if you did. Anyway, always feel free to e-mail me at techgodmisc at gmail dot com (remove the blanks and turn at and dot into the correct symbols). I hope to have an actual content post tomorrow, but I’m not sure.

Anyway, today I’m talking about Delicious, an online bookmarking website, which is also a good way to find websites. StumbleUpon’s whole point is to help you find sites. Enjoy!

StumbleUpon
www.stumbleupon.com
The ultimate internet boredom solution. Fill in your interests and you will be taken to a random page that fits one of them, as tagged by users. If you find a new site you are asked to tag it. Awesome time-waster. Also a good site to submit your pages to, if you’re too impatient for someone else to submit it.

del.ico.us
del.icio.us
A good bookmark management site, although I have yet to try the competition. A good supplement to stumbleupon, as finding bookmarks from there can be hard and you probably do not want to use your browser’s bookmark system for all those sites. I personally use the plug-in for my favorite sites.

RE: ‘Death’

Here’s a good article(or perhaps a mini-essay) about death. The author is an ER doctor and has seen death so many times, he has become desensitized to it. He hasn’t become desensitized to the grief,though.

Several comments say that that is what’s important: sensitivity to grief, not death. Perhaps that is the way to look at it. After all, it is those grieving that are helped/hurt by your response. Virtually everyone agrees that people after death are not affected by us down here.

A tangent of this is something that has been a topic of fierce debate at Slashdot pretty much whenever a death is the topic. Basically, every time there’s a death people get into a debate whether they, not having known the deceased or their families personally, should post their sympathies. An additional part of it is that slashdot’s intent is not to have a number of posts that are all the same, expressing their sorrow.

I personally feel that while Slashdot’s intent was never to be a repository of people’s informal eulogies, death announcements are so rare that the harm of deviating from Slashdot’s goal is offset by the chance to show the deceased and their families respect as well as let others know of their contribution. Those that do not have or feel any connection to the deceased should either be respectful or not post at all.

Anyway, I digress. As a Christian, I believe that those without faith will be condemned, and so I think the death of an unbeliever should cause Christians some sorrow. However, if a Christian dies who we do not know, I think we should realize that they’re in heaven and we should feel happy, but also sad, because even if we do not feel the person’s absence, someone else does, and is in deep pain.

Of course regardless of faith or belief, the feelings toward the death of a stranger I think depend on the person, and the level of exposure to death. Since both are partially out of one’s control, I don’t think you can condemn someone for not feeling strongly when a stranger dies. I think we have to ignore stranger’s suffering to an extent to even survive. We cannot cry continously because somewhere, someone is dying every second. Yet, I think it times of great tragedy, I think we can afford to open our hearts, to bear the burden, and maybe even to cry.

One thing we must remember is that feeling sad about a stranger and forgetting soon after does no good. So even if we have some sort of emotional response to it, it is not valuable if we do not offer our help or support. So as it turns out, I think ER doctors like this blogger do a lot more good, because they may be numb emotionally, they still act and try to save lives.

I wish that this post was insightful, but more importantly I hope it was sensitive and not insulting to those whose problems I touched upon. Finally, as a Christian, I would like nothing more for you to have faith and be saved so that your death is not just a time of mourning, but also of rejoicing as your fellow believers know you entered eternal happiness with God in heaven.

HA: My over-analysis of humor

Sorry for the lack of updates. I’ll try to have a full week next week, but I may be too busy.

Humor is really a gift. Whether you consider it from God (like me), an evolutionary advantage¹, or from some other place, it really is a nice thing to have. It can let us take a breath from our problems or add spice to an already nice evening.

Here I mean to talk about one facet of humor: how funny we find something. What is it that makes joke y funnier than joke x or vice versa? Of course, not even the best comedy writers know exactly what is is. And so, I, not being a comedy writer will not have anywhere close to the whole picture. Fortunately, even my humble section of the picture is fascinating enough for one column.
I think the funniest jokes are the truest and/or also the most unexpected. To be unexpected you have to be original. That makes humor similar to every other art or creative field. To be good you can’t copy someone else closely, you have to be fresh. As you want fresh food, you want fresh ideas to make into art.
Out of the two characteristics of funny jokes I think the element of surprise (and so originality) is more important. Monty Python is funny, but few of their jokes (from what I’ve seen) actually reflect some truth. On the other hand, non-fiction is brimming with truth and yet no one finds it funny unless the authors tried to do so. And how did they add humor? Usually by the element of surprise.
One phenomenon I notice in humorous is the building of laughter. To illustrate this, consider the question: if you have a so-so joke, in what part of the conversation will it be the funniest? The right answer is either: right after an extremely funny joke that’s related to yours or after a long string of jokes that are getting progressively more laughs. It seems to me that if someone tells a joke that prompts actual laughter, then a joke right after it that normally wouldn’t result in any laughter, will.
I suspect some comedians/comedy writers use this effect to their advantage, placing several particularly funny jokes at the beginning of a sketch(or skit) and then using some related ones that aren’t quite as funny, and then perhaps mixing better jokes in. I suppose you could do it in your own life: wait until you and your friends are on a roll, then add some of your own jokes. That way you should get some laughs even if by itself it’s not so funny.²
So this was an interesting look into humor. Hope you enjoyed the break from tech columns. Feel free to comment or e-mail me, as long as you are not stupid.

¹ I’m curious as to how that is explained.

² I question the priorities of a person who cares this much about the reception of his jokes, but its kind of an interesting thing to think about. After all it’s not talked about so much and so books on the subject are not as plentiful(but they do exist!) as most self-help categories, like dieting, becoming richer, being happier, better orgainzed, etc.

Cleaning out Akismet

I was just cleaning out my spam archive when I found one of the links was to a post that actually had my post’s name. I thought that that might indicate a non-spam link, but I was wrong. The website provides no commentary, and has tons of advertisements. Apparently it is the blog version of domain squatters.

The real clincher that this was a spam site was that this post was awarded the same praise as mine:

Dg33tl Lga775 Qc Max 8gb Ddr2 Matx Pcie16 2x Pcie Pci 1333mhz Amazon.com: DG33TL LGA775 Qc Max 8GB DDR2 Matx PCIE16 2X Pcie Pci … Amazon.com: DG33TL LGA775 Qc Max 8GB DDR2 Matx PCIE16 2X Pcie Pci 1333MHZ: Electronics … DG33TL LGA775 Qc Max 8GB DDR2 Matx PCIE16 2X Pcie Pci 1333MHZ. Other … Intel BOXDG33TLM – DG33TL LGA775 QC MAX 8GB DDR2 … Intel BOXDG33TLM. DG33TL LGA775 QC MAX 8GB DDR2 MATX PCIE16 2X PCIE PCI 1333MHZ … DG33TL LGA775 QC MAX 8GB DDR2 MATX PCIE16 2X PCIE PCI 1333M

The link to the full post appears to be an online retailer.

I really am glad of Akismet, since it saved me 44 spam posts. You may not consider that too many, but considering I have only had one legitimate post, it is quite a few.

Don’t expect double posts(per day) like these too often, though.

TECH: Star Wars ‘A New Hope’ Special Effects

I realized that I left some addresses in the last blog post without making them into actual links. For that I’m sorry, and I’m planning on fixing them today. Anyway, for today there’s a video I found that demonstrates how the computer scene was made by the person who actually made it.

It’s a little boring, but it seems not too much time was spent on it. I find the titles and credits kind of cool in a retro way. The middle is probably the most interesting, minus the rather long scene where viewers watch him slowly enter points. I suppose it does give a feel of the time-consuming nature of the project.

I’ve noticed I’m already starting to miss dates of posting which is a little depressing, but we will see, I guess. I also plan to diverge from all these tech articles that I’ve been posting.

Oh one last link. An early example of computer graphics and music( found it by checking related links under the video).

TECH: Posting on the Internet

The internet attracts more than its fair share of stupidity. I think its because every other medium has its own filters: it is difficult to either set up your own newspaper, radio station, or television station, or to convince someone to let you produce content for it. Part of the problem is the stupidity is very often mean. So I’m writing a list of things to avoid so that you do not contribute to the stupidity problem on the Internet¹. I don’t know how useful this is, because I doubt that trolls listen to articles such as this. I suppose if this maintains my readership base, and converts a few trolls and/or careless posters, then this is worth it.
Problem 1: Poor Spelling and Grammar
or por speeling and gramar

A somewhat annoying thing, it also is bad for the troll, as it destroys all credibility. I’m mostly talking about blatant repeat errors, because while a lack of capitalization is annoying, it’s fairly legible in short bursts. This is what I’m talking about,courtesy of elbini289:
“HHAAHAHAHAH
WUT KAN ii SAY..
DiS WUS ACTUALLY FUNNi”

While saying that a video is funny does not require credibility (people are going to accept that you find it funny regardless), it still makes the person look like he is drunk.

Problem 2: Finding racism/sexism where there is none

It seems as though everyone on the internet tries to find racism in user-submitted posts. While racism and sexism are very real, and shouldn’t be ignored, finding it in places where it is not is stupid.

Problem 3: Unnecessary derogatory remarks

or Ad Homeim Attacks

Ad homeium is where a person attacks the person s/he’s arguing with instead of the arguments. While you may wish to remark on someone’s character, you should also attack what they are saying, and/or make interesting comments about the thing as a whole.
Example: “Username, you’re really being rude. Now on Name of topic.”
If people avoided this problem, we would see YouTube comments with useful remarks, or at least generic positive ones².

It would be really nice to see more people having the “I disagree, but I respect” you mentality, rather than the “You’re stupid, and by the way you’re wrong.” mentality, perhaps better worded as “Ur stoopid, and ur wrong and a <insert bleep>³”

Problem 4: Being repetitive

This is occurs where you ask the same question, make the same joke, or post the same idiotic picture of a cat.† To avoid this, consider lurking to see what kind of things people usually ask, and definitely use the search function.

If you want to push yourself even farther away from internet troll/ idiotic commenter side of the spectrum, you can peruse this site[link]. It’s on logical fallacies, so if you’re read them, theoretically you should make fewer mistakes of this kind.

I’m sure you’ve read a reply that says “no, because if that was true statement everyone knows is false, would be true.” A real-life example would be if you equated something with the Nazis and to say that it’s bad to do so. That would be a logical error, because if you think about it, the Nazis breathed, held rallies, and spoke German. Clearly, none of those things is wrong. A further example of a fallacy would be to say that because those things the Nazis did were acceptable, everything they did is acceptable, which is also blatantly wrong.

Anyway, I digress. I hope this perhaps encouraged you to put more effort into posting your own comments. Remember, only you can prevent forest fires, pictures of kittens, and Internet stupidity.

¹ Doctors have AIDS, cancer, obesity, and many others. Ecologists have global warming, extinction, and overpopulation. Internet users, on the other hand, have stupidity, scams, and broken computers.

² Note that I consider positive comments better than negative ones, even if they are not though out much better. I.e.

“this is stupid” is worse than “this is good.” Of course, I would prefer to see intelligent, postive remarks as well as intelligent, negative remarks.

³ Currently bleeps on this blog are available in 3 flavors: ‘Classic’,'Dog-whistle’(“Annoy your neighbors!”), and

‘Klaxon’

† It’s not the cats/kittens I have a problem with, it’s is the idiotic captions. They are stupid and repetive for me. Please, please, please do not post, create, or download these images. I suppose I could make an exception for the clever ones, but I doubt many exist, so to be safe do not post them.

Alleged Paedophile arrested; an alternate perspective

So today Wayne Corliss was arrested for child pornography. While I suspect most people will focus on terribleness of the crime, fewer will think about ‘what if they’re wrong?’

If they’re wrong, then his reputation is at risk, especially if people think he really was guilty(ala Michael Jackson)¹. Of course they still need to arrest him, but does the media need to pick it up? Then again, if he’s guilty shouldn’t people know? His boss, co-workers, and friends are probably going to know anyway.

I’m really not trying to get you to think that he’s guilty or not guilty, that the media is wrong or right, but that there’s more to this than ‘he’s a sick old man.’ If he is guilty then you are right, but do not assume immediately that he is guilty. If he ends up being convicted without any reason to suspect the jury was wrong, then by all means condemn his actions. Pornography in general is wrong, but when it involves children, it is utterly wrong, especially as it is totally devastating to them.

¹ I’m not meaning to say he was guilty or not guilty, but that even those declared innocent can still have maimed reputations.

POL: Links for Polls and Some words on the Primaries

First some news. This will hopefully be a 5 update week,including a long column for Friday. I hope to post a response column on Wednesday or Thursday, with links on Tuesday for sure.

It’s said that the fighting between Obama and Clinton is weakening their chances over McCain, and I would have to agree. I think there’s some disillusionment going on as voters realize that both candidates have their wrinkles, as they come to light in this close democratic campaign.

Here are some polling links.

Electoral Vote Predictor
http://www.electoral-vote.com/
Good site, mostly non-partisian. Answers the question, if we had the election now, who would win? Currently the home page shows which democratic candidate leads over McCain more, but the race for primaries and McCain-Clinton or McCain-Obama electoral vote maps can also be viewed. The single maintainer of the site seems to lean left, but since it’s rather mild and leaves the maps useful, it’s still good for people on both sides.

Poling Report.com
http://www.pollingreport.com/
Good site, contains results of polls, pretty much unformatted. While hard to make sense of huge load of issues, still can be useful, especially as they are arranged chronologicly. For bloggers/writers/researchers: remeber there are many polls, reading all recent ones(or ones in your target date) would be advised.

TECH: Handy anti-nuisance links

Here are two links, both by the same people, that are helpful when signing up for some things. I really wasn’t expecting to have that post yesterday, I was planning on doing this post then. Oh and thanks for the hits, if you’re reading this.
Bugmenot
www.bugmenot.com
Has free accounts(username and password) to be used when you don’t want to register. Includes success rates for accounts based on user votes. A Firefox plugin is also available.

Bugmenot E-mail
email.bugmenot.com
Allows one to read e-mail sent to a disposable address hosted by bugmenot. No sign-up(naturally). Primarily useful for catching registration e-mails. Also useful if you want to add your own account to bugmenot’s primary service, the free sign-up information.

Re: ‘A Christian Persecuted’

While I see where mackthek is coming from in his reaction to the story of Connie Heitz and Christian Horizons, in that I see that he has a moral motivation to his complaints. While some of his points are valid, he forgets one important point: the woman in question was under a contract. She agreed to this code of ethics, and so she really has no reason to complain.

While the tactics that were used in this case by Christian Horizons are indeed wrong, you cannot argue their right to end her job. I do admit there is a conflict of interest as I believe homosexuality is a sin, and the author doesn’t, but I think my point stands regardless.