rM/N : : Random Musings and Notes [psyfi]

2011-04-23T11:29:00.003-04:00

Another UV filterJust finished installing my second UV water filter, in addition to 3 filters (2 1-micron filters, 1 ceramic) and a UV filter. The older UV filter is rated to process 1 gallon per minute. I suppose the new one, though more compact, is also able to do the same. The water in this part of town isn't particularly bad. The water utility company, MWCI, has a reputation for quality and

2009-07-13T11:06:00.000-04:00

Michael Moore is right all along.

2008-12-08T10:24:00.000-05:00

Male, the weaker sexIt's true. :)

2008-11-29T10:44:00.002-05:00

Dance your PhD dissertation!Alright, you have successfully defended your PhD dissertation, but can you dance it? Here's the challenge... and the response.

2008-11-28T09:07:00.002-05:00

Is commitment written all over your face?It should be. Or not. :)

2008-06-12T23:28:00.002-04:00

Do academics tend to be more skeptical towards belief in God than the general Population?Here's one El Reg story on the affirmative. The actual provocative title: God makes you stupid, researchers claim

2008-05-25T10:40:00.002-04:00

Feminist PCs, check out Camille Paglia!Some people I know are feminists. But they're mostly the PC type, as they have become the orthodoxy in many places. This woman offers an alternative to the sorry state of feminism now.

2008-05-23T06:46:00.003-04:00

Fascist who?This ex-Dartmouth prof deserves it. < sarcasm >So have fun Northwestern! < /sarcasm >

2008-05-23T05:58:00.002-04:00

Terrorism as piracy?Still on the subject of pirates, this piece is a thoughtful reminder of parallels between terrorism and piracy.

2008-05-23T05:33:00.002-04:00

Athenian versus Pirate Democracy?Yes, you read it right. Read on... and check back on your choice.

2008-05-02T10:13:00.001-04:00

Exercise!"It's crazy not to do it," says NYT. :)

2008-05-01T19:31:00.002-04:00

Security-compromising radiation from communications equipmentHere's the tale...

2008-04-05T23:07:00.003-04:00

What an insult!Here are some crazy feminists and church leaders insulting people from their moral high horses! If they don't want Playboy, then they shouldn't read or buy it. Better yet, why don't they publish their own magazine? Feminism and the Church together? What an historically odd couple! In the meantime, to show my support for liberty and the market, I can't wait to buy my first

2008-03-25T09:19:00.000-04:00

Goodbye, Arthur C Clark!You will be missed. :(

2008-03-19T07:39:00.002-04:00

What do McDonald's and a drug gang have in common?Not cash but a solid corporate structure, say Columbia sociologist Venkatesh.

2008-03-19T02:23:00.000-04:00

"Wir lassen nie vom Suchen ab, und doch, am Ende allen unseren Suchens sind wir am Ausgangspunkt zurück und werden diesen Ort zum ersten Mal erfassen."

2008-03-18T06:25:00.002-04:00

The maestro on risk managementWith all its mathematical sophistication, current financial and economic risk management breaks down. In an FT article, the maestro explains, "The most credible explanation of why risk management based on state-of-the-art statistical models can perform so poorly is that the underlying data used to estimate a model’s structure are drawn generally from both periods of

2008-03-08T22:05:00.002-05:00

Adult neurogenesisThe orthodoxy is that we constantly loose our neurons as we age. Here's a heterodoxy. Plus, the idea that poverty could also be a matter of biology is something "free will" guys might not want to live with.

2008-03-08T21:39:00.002-05:00

"Art will become a crucial source of scientific ideas"So says Jonah Lehrer who himself has impeccable science credentials. See how Marcel Proust could be a neuroscientist!

2008-03-06T00:43:00.001-05:00

Subprime woesHere's the best comical presentation ever on the subprime crisis.

2007-11-05T05:13:00.000-05:00

UC Berkeley lectures now onlineFor friends who have just come out of their batcaves, pick your courses here. Ironically, one of the lectures seems to suggest that face-to-face lectures are much better. "You can't beat the live performance," the professor says.

2007-08-18T22:41:00.000-04:00

Economics professor as homo economicusWatch him live la vida loca!He is no other than Robert H. Frank of Cornell.

2007-08-17T14:26:00.000-04:00

Economics has never been this funny!If you can't get enough of the video, the text adds value.

2007-08-02T01:30:00.000-04:00

Smart teens don't have sex (or kiss much either)Here's the study, and a discussion. Now I know why I survived high school without losing it. :)

2007-07-30T08:50:00.000-04:00

Science vs Religion, one more timeReligion wins, hands down. The Scientific American concedes. :)

2007-07-25T03:04:00.000-04:00

Harry Potter and EconomicsI've been looking for excuses to procrastinate on reading the last installment of the HP series. Once I missed a class because I was so engrossed reading the 3rd book that I totally forgot my class schedule. Now here's for the bashing and possibly my excuse too. Continue until you finish reading the comments as well. Probably the odds are not exactly in favor of my not

2007-07-12T05:02:00.000-04:00

Engineer vs PhilanthropistWho contributes more for the society's well being? An engineer or a philanthropist? Bill Gates the software engineer or Bill Gates the Philanthropist? It depends how you calculate their contributions. This guy has it his way.

2007-07-10T16:58:00.000-04:00

Lead Exposure and CriminalityIf you're a fan of Freakonomics that attributes the drop in criminality in the US to the institution of abortion, here's even more freakish link to criminality: lead exposure. Surges in crime correlate with heights of lead exposure in population. The evidence appears to be more solid than what's used to support the Freakonomics thesis on the abortion-criminality link.

2007-07-09T11:11:00.000-04:00

Politically Incorrect TruthsPsychology Today (not exactly up there in academic reputation) published this nonetheless amusing article on "truths" about human "nature": why suicide bombers are Muslims, why men prefer sexy blonds, and so on.

2007-06-30T08:48:00.000-04:00

College BuddiesThe Harvard Crimson chronicles two college buddies who turned out to be stars in the same field.

2007-06-26T10:19:00.000-04:00

Facebook v MySpaceI started using Facebook back when it was only for one school. MySpace, for me then, was just "there". Now here's an ethnographic account (sorta) of the two social networking sites and the kind of people who tend to use them, basically reflecting class division.

2007-06-16T10:26:00.000-04:00

Diaspora callingMy intersecting interests in both Filipino diaspora and information technology recently got engaged with a report from the Economist [7 June 2007]. With the falling cost of IP telephony, everybody should be calling, right? Not so fast. It looks like in general there's really not much increase in the time we spend calling other people. But look who's dialing who over the Internet?

2007-06-15T23:43:00.000-04:00

"Scientific Consensus"Here's one for my friends teaching Science, Technology and Society. "Scientific consensus" is supposed to be a good thing. But what if it stifles dissent and fosters false finality in debates over issues? Is science about consensus, to begin with? The Czech president makes his point.

2007-06-08T11:25:00.000-04:00

Booked in NYWhen I'm in New York, I stay with my sister. So this is probably something I can't experience for myself. But for my literate friends who are looking for a place to stay in the Big Apple, the Library Hotel is an enticing proposition.

2007-06-07T23:55:00.000-04:00

Internet--the biggest generation gap since rock-n-rollNY Mag has done a wonderful piece on Internet being a dividing line between Before Netters and After Netters. After Netters, the generations that grow up with the Internet, may complain that Before Netters, the folks who might know or not know how the Internet works, are clueless what privacy entails today. Do you have a Facebook profile? A

2007-05-04T09:59:00.000-04:00

Blogging about blogEverybody seems to be into blogging these days that it practically lost its novelty already. Here's something to note for my American blogging friends. For the rest of us, we can basically sleepwalk into blogging.

2007-01-08T19:05:00.000-05:00

Watch this clip of an interview showing what has to be one of the most mind-blowing distinction from a blonde [www.videoplink.com]. Not that I have anything against blondes, but see for yourself if this woman has helped at all.

2006-05-20T11:39:00.000-04:00

An honest wage for a day's honest workIn saying this adage, people may only be agreeing verbally. Reality can't possibly be that easy. Take any computation of *real* wage. You'd expect it to be as straighforward as your pay slip. Not so fast, if we look at this calculator of real wage. Indeed, real wage is function of many things, and your wage, brother, is not even real, much less honest.

2006-05-14T05:00:00.000-04:00

Writing your mom a paycheck?O, well, mother's day, and society is abuzz with mushy adverts on the *idea* of momhood. Momhood, however, may represent opportunity cost. Isn't it better if someone actually compensates your mom?

2006-05-13T22:55:00.000-04:00

Bike to workSometime ago we did a class report on campus biking. I bike to school and to work 99.99% of the time. Elsewhere the idea is getting more hip everyday, and the Americans are riding along. "Maki-bike ka! Wag matakot!"

2006-05-03T16:40:00.000-04:00

Americans are sicker than Britsso says this story. How do Americans and Brits differ with respect to health? Well, one: vacations! Government mandated time-off is much greater in UK than in America. There could be other more nuanced factors, of course. Skim through a /. discussion on this.

2006-04-29T08:44:00.000-04:00

Be able to kill your studentsOops, that's just a quote from the Ninja master Masaaki Hatsumi. How I wish I can truly appropriate that for certain students. :) But before you really get too serious about this killing stuff, go ask a Ninja yourself!

2005-12-26T00:02:00.000-05:00

Structured ProcrastinationNot all procrastination is bad. One can efficiently structure it to be productive. It may in fact be key to great work.

2005-09-14T20:22:00.000-04:00

Elements of Style Now OnlineI've always depended on Elements of Style as a grammar book. It's now online.

2005-06-09T22:26:00.000-04:00

'Nerds make better lovers'- so claims this article.

2005-01-20T13:38:00.000-05:00

Free Mac mini Desktop Recently I've been making this pitch to my friends and their friends: Hi friends and friends of friends! We're close to getting a free Mac mini Desktop, and we're sure we'll get it with a little help from you. Yep, we're kuripot, they say. Recently we got free DVD rentals. So my partner Helen and I have been watching a lot of movies these days. If you want to know how,

2005-01-04T20:15:00.000-05:00

Reductio ad absurdum in computing This Kerneltrap interview with Richard Stallman notes of a technique (called 'dependency-directed backtracking') in programming that basically deploys reductio ad adsurdum: 'You make some assumptions, and with those together with some given facts you draw a conclusion. You may reach a contradiction; if so, at least one of your assumptions that led to that

2004-12-16T10:25:00.000-05:00

Barnyard Economics Some people just toss this term around without much thouhght about its meaning. A friend of mine, who took an exam where this term appeared, tried to google it without much success. So I thought I'd do the googling myself and see what would come up. Barnyard economics Sense 1:'practical economics' as opposed to one influenced by inclinations and desired. Relevant article: "

2004-12-15T00:18:00.000-05:00

Math and Sex What a /. read! An interesting juxtaposition here. :)

2004-12-12T22:00:00.000-05:00

"People who boast about their I.Q. are losers." - Stephen Hawking (quoted in NYT, The Science of Second-Guessing, 12 Dec 2004)

2004-10-03T18:21:00.000-04:00

Amish experience Here's a NYT account of a family's experience with an Amish community. O, well, close. They were there as tourist. I wanted to experience Amish living myself, not for its religion but for the way they appropriate technology. Links to touristy Amish experience: Rocky Acre Farm: www.rockyacre.com Green Acres Farm Bed and Breakfast: www.thegreenacresfarm.com Country Gardens Farm

2004-10-03T17:46:00.000-04:00

Coffee addictive? A study in the journal Psychopharmacology shows that coffee is addictive. Hmm... addicts anyone?

2004-09-24T10:49:00.000-04:00

The Barbie stereotype and lust Here's a piece on how men's preference for shapely women may actually have a biological basis. Still in the area of sexuality, this article thematizes the notion of lust. Actually, it's a plug for Simon Blackburn's book Lust (Oxford).

2004-09-24T08:28:00.000-04:00

School ranking Another ranking that's causing a stir is Academic Ranking of World Universities 2004 where Harvard tops. The Economist picks it up, and all hell breaks loose.

2004-09-24T07:37:00.000-04:00

Death by overwork A word that came into general use in Japan in the late 1980s, "karoshi" means death brought on by overwork or job-related exhaustion. It's probably heart attack, stroke, asthma, suicide due to to psychological stress. As a possible counterpoint to this phenomenon, a French writer recently urged workers to be "radical" in the workplace by doing as little as possible. Changing

2004-06-23T23:30:00.000-04:00

'Bread & Breakfast' It's summer in Europe and many Europeans are backpacking. I kinda underestimated the volume of backpackers when I decided not to make any reservation way ahead of schedule. So there I was dragging my luggage in the streets of Stockholm, without a definite place to stay. To the rescue is this newly established inn: STF Vandrarhem Fridhemsplan Adress :Sankt Eriksgatan 20 112 39

2004-06-07T19:06:00.000-04:00

Following rules and breaking them "Rules" in photography are meant to be broken. Here's a compilation of rules and tips as well as an encouragement to break them.

2004-06-03T00:09:00.000-04:00

Canon EOS 300D (aka Digital Rebel) vs Nikon D70 I'm thinking of buying a digital SLR cam. It's been a while since I let go of my manual Nikon SLR. Prize-wise, Canon appears to be winning. On the geek side, Canon still wins, since it's got a hack already. Reviews: EOS 300D vs D70. Company blurbs: EOS 300D vs D70.

2004-06-02T23:45:00.000-04:00

Ridiculous E-Mail Disclaimers A friend of mine, who works for a media company, sends email with a footer. The footer is a disclaimer that's rather ridiculous. He can't help it because it's something that's attached automatically to his email everytime he fires one from his company computer. Here's a Slate piece analyzing the legalese of such ridiculous disclaimers. El Reg notes of the longest,

2004-04-10T02:46:00.000-04:00

Behold, Methuselah is coming!... at least according to de Grey of Cambridge.

2004-04-10T02:42:00.000-04:00

"Surviving on the mean streets of Washington on two dollars a day--that's a hack!"says Hacker Adrian Lamo in this interview. An ealier piece on this kid: 1

2004-04-09T08:56:00.000-04:00

Health illiteracy90 million American adults have "limited health literacy," says this report. They have trouble understanding medical terms and directions.

2004-04-08T09:55:00.000-04:00

Go, whack yourself!Frequent sex or whacking may cut cancer risk, says a study. Here's report from Forbes, and reference to original JAMA article.

2004-01-23T23:00:00.000-05:00

Drug dealer gives out drugsHere's a Yahoo News story about Micro$oft giving out $1 billion worth of software to developing countries. In a recent move, the drug dealer hands out "good will" licenses to charity cases. Good will, of course, means obsolete software.

2004-01-23T22:56:00.000-05:00

Threat to open sourceBruce Perens warns that the greatest threat to OS is software patent [ beebs report ]: "We're looking at a future where only the very largest companies will be able to implement software, and it will technically be illegal for other people to do so. "

2004-01-23T22:49:00.000-05:00

How to do things with sleepAside from conserving energy, sleep actually does things... or so, says a cbs reportage on a recent Nature article.

2004-01-03T22:07:00.000-05:00

IM for parents and kidsToday, NYT features a story on how IM could be used to promote parent-child relationship. The same feature, however, warns about the limits of such form of communication. Face-to-face communication still rules!

2004-01-03T20:41:00.000-05:00

Smaller is betterIndeed, if you're talking about champagne: the smaller its bubbles are, the better. Here's a bit more from a fellow blogger.

2003-11-02T19:23:00.000-05:00

Information OverloadIf gigabytes of data don't do you in, the paper they're printed on will.

2003-11-02T18:23:00.000-05:00

Software v BeerYou guessed it right! Beer won hands downs.

2003-10-09T10:14:00.000-04:00

Man vs MachineKasparov, there you go again! The last time K won over Fritz. Will he win the second time around? Maybe not as what happened to him when he went up against Deep Blue... but not so fast, according to this account that benchmarks the historical performance of computers against humans. Elsewhere, chess is regarded as a "game that generates examples and analogies relevant to a broad

2003-10-05T05:53:00.000-04:00

Blogging is dead. Long live blogging!El Reg notes the report that although blogosphere is growing in size, it's made up mostly of abandoned or dead sites. Blogging is typically an activity of teenage girls who want to keep their friends updated on their otherwise uneventful lives. However, teeny boopers don't have a monopology of blogging. Even Lawrence Lessig blogs. :-)

2003-09-18T17:54:00.000-04:00

The Business That's ChurchForbes reports how churches are acting like business corporations (with matching ads and all). This is not inherently bad, if one thinks of the Christian origins of capitalism. Max Weber would feel vindicated.

2003-08-31T22:18:00.000-04:00

Linux and BeerHere's an illustration on what people can do with "comparison and constrast." :)

2003-08-26T21:53:00.000-04:00

Solipsism delight!If solipsism were to be in this form, I don't mind wearing it. Harold Bloom also speaks of Shakespeare as "the true mulitcultural author." I wonder how this guy is related to Alan Bloom, another great defender of the classics.

2003-08-26T21:47:00.000-04:00

Multi-valued logicHere's a piece on the possibility of the introducing multivalued logic in computing. There's nothing new about the idea of course. The Russians might have started it.

2003-08-26T21:43:00.000-04:00

Nanotech Not?While some corporations are rushing to nanotechnology, here are a few words of concern: 1 | 2

2003-08-21T22:45:00.000-04:00

Movie flops due to txting?Yes, you heard the excuse right! Or it's a good time to reassess movie marketing basics.

2003-08-08T20:38:00.000-04:00

Market Failure 101A central argument for government intervention in public affairs and the economy ismarket failure.

2003-08-07T20:46:00.000-04:00

Lights Out Please!One segment of Korusawa's "Dreams" is "Watermill Village" where a city guy shows up asking questions about the lifestyle of the villagers (perhaps he's a sociologist :) ). One of his curiousities concerns the villagers' lack of electricity. The guy asked to the effect, "Why don't you have electricity? Wouldn't it be so dark at night?" To which an old villager replies, "The night

2003-08-05T20:13:00.000-04:00

Elvish LanguageNext item in my To Do List: learn Tengwar!

2003-08-02T03:36:00.000-04:00

Process LinuxLinux is a process, not a product, says Debian founder Ian Murdock.

2003-07-26T03:18:00.000-04:00

Designer Babies, Anyone?Two days ago was the birthday of Louise Brown, the first 'test tube' baby. Since Brown, reproductive technologies have have changed, and it's interesting how public opinion changed as well. Here's an account of such opinion.

2003-07-26T02:37:00.000-04:00

CantennaAn Antenna made out of a tin can, this geeky stuff is practical to build. I'm constructing one, with the help of some info:- orig diagram- a good guide- a "how to" guide

2003-07-25T23:18:00.000-04:00

Porn GoreJust when I thought I knew pornography, this Guardian reportage on the rough trade came. Pop Quiz: what's the diff between a feature and a gonzo? Read on...

2003-07-08T19:07:00.000-04:00

Technological Gobbledygookis a definite turn-off. Here's a BBC report on how new technology jargons have inhibited some people from reaping the benefits and wasted advertising money.

2003-07-08T19:02:00.000-04:00

The Tragedy of the Anti-CommonThe New Yorker writes about how America has "always had a vibrant patent system," and "managed to strike a balance between the need to encourage innovation and the need to foster competition." "In the past decade, the balance has been upset," says the writer James Surowiecki in an article. "The scope of patents has been expanded, copyrights have been extended,

2003-07-07T20:55:00.000-04:00

Computing Power On DemandI have yet to get my hands dirty on Beowulf. Notably, distibuted computing (Beowulf's an example) is the next wave of cheap supercomputing. Case in point: SETI@Home. It's the world's fastest distributed computing, and--best of all--it's freely provided for by millions of people with extra CPU power and time. "Put the computation near the data," thus urges this

2003-07-07T00:35:00.000-04:00

File Swapping Rules (or Not)!Even threats of lawsuits couldn't stop filesharing. Stats shows that after RIAA announced its strategy to sue people sharing copyrighted music files, online file swappers increased in number. This is contradicted by a news article from CNN saying it actually decreased. On its flip side, P2P is seen in the future as an instrument of freedom, passing news and

2003-07-05T06:41:00.000-04:00

Future of Open SourceDivining the future isn't exactly my cup of tea. But this interview Tim O'Reilly got me thinking about what I've been doing along IT lines. Tim predicts EBay will buy up Oracle, as Open Source lincenses don't work. On the other hand, while OS licensing doesn't work, OS software development model just might. Linus compares it to biological diversity. Micro$oft is likened to a

2003-07-04T20:24:00.000-04:00

Free Encyclopedias GaloreOne readily stands out: Wikipedia.

2003-07-04T20:10:00.000-04:00

Vitamins, Anyone?There's little evidence to support the use of vitamin supplements (like the anti-oxidants A, C, & E) to prevent cancer or heart disease, says this report from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.

2003-07-01T20:56:00.000-04:00

Rage Against Word AttachmentsSome people might think attaching Word and Powerpoint files to emails is pretty cool. Well, NO! Avoid Word attachments like hell. Here's why.

2003-07-01T20:51:00.000-04:00

Home NetworkingThis Guide details how to build network from scratch. Caveats: it's just a guide. Follow it closely only if you have money to burn. Some products mentioned are not locally available. But as far as guides go, this is a good one.

2003-06-17T22:22:00.000-04:00

Technology Without A CauseThis essay in the Guardian reminds us of technology's downside (if not downright meaninglessness): [IF...,] "one of technology's ends is to reduce our lives to such blob-like stasis that we hardly ever have to interact with other human beings. Another is to distract us from the shame we feel about our decadent lifestyles. Our response to being bored and rich is not to

2003-06-17T22:05:00.000-04:00

Technology EvangelismA sort of a zealous follow-through of Information Rules, Tech Evangelism examines how Micro$oft could churn out technology that becomes an industry standard. As the book puts it, "Evangelism is war," and Micro$oft appears to be the victor--for now.

2003-06-10T02:28:00.000-04:00

Edison and "Music Piracy"Here's a series of articles (1 | 2) that might predict the outcome of the battle against "music pirates" by RIAA, the mafia-like body that has assumed "a retrogressive stance to [innovation in the industry]."

2003-06-07T04:04:00.000-04:00

Good Ol' AdamNotes on the range of intellectual sensibilities of Adam Smith, as exemplified by his two books:The Theory of the Moral Sentiments (1759). Part II: Of Merit and Demerit; or, of the Objects of Reward and Punishment Consisting of Three Parts, Section II: Of Justice and Beneficence: -Chap. I: Comparison of those two virtues: "the violation of justice is injury"- Chapter III: Of the

2003-06-04T23:54:00.000-04:00

Globalization bluesI thought I never have to blog anything on this topic, apart from my school assignment. But the temptation of a good site, like Yale's, is hard to resist. YaleGlobal is Online Magazine is a goldmine of info relating to globalization.

2003-05-30T22:31:00.000-04:00

Indian Take"Take on Gates!," an Indian president tells techies at the Indian Institute of Information Technology. Here's the text of his speech where he also outlines his vision of technological convergencies as well their uses to power rural life.