Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
"Google doesn’t get people, it sells them"
Don Norman: Google doesn’t get people, it sells them, article.
“They say their goal is to gather all the knowledge in the world in one place, but really their goal is to gather all of the people in the world and sell them.”
[...] “Google doesn’t understand people,” he said. “Have you ever spoken to a Google support person on the phone? They don’t have them.
Here's another article, about the reason for Google's insistence on real names on G+. Is it to make people behave better, or for Google's future profits?
For example, there’s a San Francisco-based sex blogger named Violet Blue. She’s an institution in the Bay Area and very popular across the Web. Shortly after she signed up with Google+, her account was suspended because the service’s operators (or its algorithm) didn’t think that was her real name. However, Violet Blue really is her name, and her account was later reinstated (complete with a “verified” badge).
[...] He replied by saying that G+ was build primarily as an identity service, so fundamentally, it depends on people using their real names if they’re going to build future products that leverage that information.
The Psychology of Bitterness: 10 Essential Lessons
The Psychology of Bitterness: 10 Essential Lessons, article.
Contrary to countless pop culture depictions of cranky old men and bitter spinsters, depression is not a normal part of aging. [...]
New research offers a way for this at-risk group to ward off depression: "goal disengagement."
Contrary to countless pop culture depictions of cranky old men and bitter spinsters, depression is not a normal part of aging. [...]
New research offers a way for this at-risk group to ward off depression: "goal disengagement."
Monday, September 12, 2011
Popular spam
Just been checking my spam folder... isn't it astonishing that even after 15 years, the most popular spam promotions are still viagra and penis enlargement? Something tells me that lots of sex, and male inability to attain it, is a lively market.
Good weekend
My two sisters visited me over the weekend. Fun was had by all, and amongst other things we had a couple of excellent meals in my fave restaurants.
They also brought the foodstuffs Danish ex-patriots always miss, Danish yellow cheese, spegepølse (related to Salami), Danish pickled herring, etc. They brought so much that I got tired just helping to carry it home to my fridge from the hotel, I don't know how they managed to carry their own stuff besides.
To top it off, they've been cleaning out old family stuff, and they found that small Buddha statue I'd talked about. I don't regret buying the big one of course, it's really great.
I was asked if I've become buddhist, and no, not really, only a non-dualist, and some aspects of Buddhism and Hinduism are the closest that traditional philosophies come to real non-dualism. Non-dualism is the belief that when we perceive many things, or any divisions at all, it's an illusion, only one thing exists, and it has no divisions. This thing one may call "That" or "The Universe" or even "God". (I prefer "Source" sometimes.) This state is near impossible to grasp for the human mind, which is based in a highly dualistic universe, with splits and conflicts everywhere. But some teachings are based on the belief that Love and letting go of conflicts and grievances are parts of a Way which will eventually lead back to Oneness.
They also brought the foodstuffs Danish ex-patriots always miss, Danish yellow cheese, spegepølse (related to Salami), Danish pickled herring, etc. They brought so much that I got tired just helping to carry it home to my fridge from the hotel, I don't know how they managed to carry their own stuff besides.
To top it off, they've been cleaning out old family stuff, and they found that small Buddha statue I'd talked about. I don't regret buying the big one of course, it's really great.
I was asked if I've become buddhist, and no, not really, only a non-dualist, and some aspects of Buddhism and Hinduism are the closest that traditional philosophies come to real non-dualism. Non-dualism is the belief that when we perceive many things, or any divisions at all, it's an illusion, only one thing exists, and it has no divisions. This thing one may call "That" or "The Universe" or even "God". (I prefer "Source" sometimes.) This state is near impossible to grasp for the human mind, which is based in a highly dualistic universe, with splits and conflicts everywhere. But some teachings are based on the belief that Love and letting go of conflicts and grievances are parts of a Way which will eventually lead back to Oneness.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
What progress comes from
All progress is based upon a universal innate desire on the part of every organism to live beyond its income.
- Samuel Butler
- Samuel Butler
Friday, September 09, 2011
How to Tow a Building-Sized Iceberg
How to Tow a Building-Sized Iceberg, article.
They don't talk about whether they'll try to cover it to reduce the melting. I'd have thought that would be an important question.
How about pumping seawater into a desert and let the sand filter out the salt, then pump up drinking water from below? Wonder if that could work. Would probably be a long line, and maybe the sand wouldn't get out all the salt. Perhaps too there'd be too big a loss of water over the process. And probably the energy expense would be huge, as well as the environmental impact.
This article says that salt is very hard to separate from water, so maybe sand simply wouldn't do the trick. Well, I was just spitballing.
Trying googling for this, I found this small-scale, but smart method.
French engineer Georges Mougin has a big idea. He wants to go to Antarctica, tie a big rope around a six-million-ton iceberg, drag it back to Africa and melt it into fresh, drinkable water.
They don't talk about whether they'll try to cover it to reduce the melting. I'd have thought that would be an important question.
How about pumping seawater into a desert and let the sand filter out the salt, then pump up drinking water from below? Wonder if that could work. Would probably be a long line, and maybe the sand wouldn't get out all the salt. Perhaps too there'd be too big a loss of water over the process. And probably the energy expense would be huge, as well as the environmental impact.
This article says that salt is very hard to separate from water, so maybe sand simply wouldn't do the trick. Well, I was just spitballing.
Trying googling for this, I found this small-scale, but smart method.
Saturn seen from the dark side
[Thanks to TCGirl]
Hard to believe this is an actual photo, but that's what they say.
Here is a short fly-by movie composed from photos taken by the same space probe, Cassini.
Thursday, September 08, 2011
Alizee flaunting what she's got
[Thanks to Dave]
It's interesting to see the stiff-faced older women (judges?) in the audience at Alizee's concert. They probably suspect that she's playing off her sexuality a leeeetle bit.They may also suspect that all the men there would trample over their bodies like wildebeests to get at Alizee, and they don't like it a bit. It's a jungle out there.
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