The World According to Gump

The death of the mixed tape?

2012-02-15T15:44:00.000-05:00

In my much younger days I would make mix tapes, often for a lady of my fancy. Was watching "How I met our mother" where they were listening to a mixed tape and realized with the digital media the concept of the mixed tape is dead. I sure I can make play lists but you can't technically put it on the persons device (legally). Which also leads to the death of the voice overs you could do.

Now given I am married and the music library is shared, well I can still live my teenage wet dream years and build one for the wife and put it on her iphone :)

Look ‘Em in the Eye: Part II – How to Make Eye Contact the Right Way in Life, Business, and Love | The Art of Manliness

2012-02-12T18:47:00.000-05:00

posting more for the last section talking about presenting to groups.

http://artofmanliness.com/2012/02/12/look-em-in-the-eye-part-ii-how-to-make-eye-contact-the-right-way-in-life-business-and-love/

A Strange Form of Social Collapse - NYTimes.com

2012-02-10T09:45:00.001-05:00

Wow interesting stats.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/09/a-strange-form-of-social-collapse/

The shrinking human factor in a machine-to-machine economy

2012-02-09T21:27:00.000-05:00

From the globe and worth keeping an eye on.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/commentary/chrystia-freeland/the-shrinking-human-factor-in-a-machine-to-machine-economy/article2332682/

CHRYSTIA FREELAND

The shrinking human factor in a machine-to-machine economy

CHRYSTIA FREELAND | Columnist profile

From Friday's Globe and Mail

Published Thursday, Feb. 09, 2012 6:23PM EST

Last updated Thursday, Feb. 09, 2012 6:25PM EST

If you want to get a feel for one of the most important transformations in our world today, read The Fear Index, Robert Harris's new thriller.

Mr. Harris has been widely praised for his adept portrayal of the hedge fund universe in which his novel is set. His hedgies are a welcome and realistic departure from the "masters of universe" of most popular fiction.

And he knows his super-rich. As they are being wooed to make a billion-dollar investment, an international group of investors discusses the ways that their national governments oppress them. Alex Hoffmann, the billionaire hedge fund manager protagonist who is making the pitch for their cash, reflects: "He was remembering now why he didn't like the rich: their self-pity. Persecution was the common ground of their conversation, like sport or the weather was for everyone else."

But the most valuable takeaway from this riveting novel is the element that has been widely dismissed by reviewers as familiar and unpersuasive: VIXAL, the intelligent machine at the heart of the story that torments its human creator and may be trying to rule the world.

VIXAL is worth getting to know because so much of what it does is already happening in real life. Futurists and fantasists have been dreaming about the rise of intelligent machines for centuries. Now it is actually starting to happen.

For a drier, but in many ways even more astonishing, account of what is going on, read "The Second Economy," an essay in McKinsey Quarterly by W. Brian Arthur, a visiting researcher at the Intelligent Systems Lab at the Palo Alto Research Center in California.

His contention is that a second, machine-to-machine economy is emerging and that it will bring deep economic, social and political change comparable to the transformation wrought by the Industrial Revolution.

"Business processes that once took place among human beings are now being executed electronically," Mr. Arthur writes. "They are taking place in an unseen domain that is strictly digital. On the surface, this shift doesn't seem particularly consequential – it's almost something we take for granted. But I believe it is causing a revolution no less important and dramatic than that of the railroads. It is quietly creating a second economy, a digital one."

Economists and novelists aren't the only people musing about the rise of the machine-to-machine economy and its transformative potential.

Yuri Milner is one of the savviest technology thinkers in the world; he was a pioneering investor in Facebook, a bet that was wildly vindicated last week.

Mr. Milner has a presentation in which he describes the nine most important changes in the world today. Three are about what Mr. Arthur has dubbed the second economy: the rise of what Mr. Milner calls "the Internet of things," or the machine-to-machine economy; the growing power of artificial intelligence; and the emergence of a "global brain," which is the network of all of the people and the machines in the world and their connections to one another.

The Fear Index depicts the rise of the machine-to-machine economy as murderous and menacing. That time-worn worry that smart machines will turn on their creators isn't one I share. I am a fan of the machine-to-machine economy and of all the ways it makes my human life cheaper and easier.

But I am concerned about something Mr. Harris only hints at. At the end of the book, VIXAL changes its hedge fund's mission statement. The first lines of the new, machine-written version read: "The company of the future will have no workers."

I'm not afraid our smart machines will try to exterminate us, but I do worry that the second economy may be a jobless one.

Mr. Arthur doesn't offer much comfort on that score. In an exchange with a reader after his essay was published, the economist wrote: "Since the second economy began, in the early and mid-1990s, we've had wave after wave of downsizing and layoffs, and now we have ongoing structural joblessness. I hope jobs will be created, and maybe they will. More likely, the system, as so many times before in history, will have to readjust radically. It needs to find new ways to distribute the wealth."

@WhatTheFFacts, 2/4/12 3:30 PM

2012-02-04T18:42:00.001-05:00

What The F Facts (@WhatTheFFacts)
2/4/12 3:30 PM
Barbie doesn't have enough fat on her body to go through her first period.

I, Cringely

2012-01-31T20:50:00.001-05:00

Always a interesting read.

Class Dismissed: Even good students don't always want to learn

Posted: 31 Jan 2012 01:57 AM PST

Last week we heard from my new hero Steve, an electrical engineer turned high school math teacher, with his reservations about technology as a motivator for student success. Notice this week I can use Steve's first name, though not his last name or the name of the school where he teaches. This alone says volumes about the prickly state of teaching today where saying the truth out loud can hurt a career. And I understand why Steve might be concerned, because this time he's talking not about how technology doesn't often enable better learning, but how it actually gets in the way.

"Now, consider what happens if you inject into this scenario an iPad into the hands of every student in the classroom," Steve continued. "Certainly, for some students who are intrinsically motivated, this will unlock great learning options and it may, due to its more engaging nature, bring in some students who weren't very interested and help them become more interested in learning. But many students will not use the technology this way. Many will choose to use the iPad as just another distraction (and a very compelling one) instead of focusing on learning the class content.

"I witnessed this myself the last time I took a summer course at my local community college. I was in a classroom paying attention to the professor, taking notes (on paper no less) and learning, while around me all my peers had their laptops open. Were they taking notes electronically? No, every screen was either open to Facebook or to some online game. These students were convinced that they could effectively multitask and learn while being distracted by the technology, but in the end, of the people around me, I was the only one who got an A on the final exam in that class."

Steve's solution for these technical distractions is institutional control of Internet access in the classroom. Limit surfing and apps the way I try to keep my kids doing constructive things with their computers at home. But as we all know, that doesn't really work. The tools are too crude, the kids are too clever, and who are we to say, really, what's learning and what's messing around?

Still, I wish parental controls were better. Understand my control efforts go deeper than most since I have placed limitations on the individual workstations as well as global limitations on the network through my ClearOS (formerly Clark Connect) gateway, which has powerful content filtering capabilities. Kids can't go to a web page, for example, that my DNS server deliberately knows nothing about. Our gateway is of course named Sergeant Schultz.

Forget the software for a moment, though, and let's consider what's at work here with all this goofing off, which is the simple avoidance of academic effort. It takes place at all levels.

From my first job at Triway High School where I taught biology, chemistry, physics, and vocational agriculture to my six years at Stanford I was continually amazed at how grateful students were for any class disruption, with a class cancellation being the best news of all. It's like they wanted less for their parents' money. Some (like John McEnroe, who dropped my class after the second week) would have been happiest with nothing for their money at all.

Education is a peculiar labor market. As a teacher I managed my students and required output from them (their product) which was paid for with grades from me. But if they didn't do the work and their product sucked as a result, there was little effect on me as a teacher because their product never truly entered commerce. It was all just a game.

A reader from Sweden, reacting by e-mail to last week's column, cited Victor Vroom's Expectancy Theory as governing student behavior. Expectancy Theory (I hadn't heard of it, either) says behaviors arise from motivations and motivations are based on expected outcomes. This makes sense, I guess, if McEnroe's expected outcome was an NCAA tennis singles title, not passing my class. The experience wasn't real for any of us but only McEnroe acted on that knowledge.

I think this goes a long way toward explaining what some folks like Peter Thiel are calling a bubble market for education, where grades are inflated, tuition continually rises, and the real world relevance of any of it is as subjective as the value of 16th century tulip bulbs.

Like all bubbles, this one is aspirational — driven by those who aspire to acquire something in limited supply that they perceive to be of value whether it actually is valuable or not. Being glad that class was cancelled just defines the underlying values more clearly. The term will still end whether class is held today or not, a grade (and ultimately a degree) will still be earned, so let's all head to the O for a beer.

Where does technology come into this? It doesn't. I think Peter Thiel is wrong, by the way, as I'll explain in our third and final section to come tomorrow. Technology is essential, yet so far inconsequential in the calculus of education.

I guess that explains why all these computers haven't made us particularly smarter.

Great read on Greece/Germany and debt

2012-01-31T20:44:00.001-05:00

http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/germanys-role-europe-and-european-debt-crisis?utm_source=freelist-f&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20120131&utm_term=gweekly&utm_content=readmore&elq=978bdf2dcc864261a3da6bb456381a36

@WhatTheFFacts, 1/27/12 3:00 AM

2012-01-27T08:18:00.001-05:00

Don't let ur daughter be in the film industry.

What The F Facts (@WhatTheFFacts)
1/27/12 3:00 AM
For every actress that gets a Hollywood lead role, 1200 other actresses are forced into the pornography industry.

Boomers 'Punch Drunk' on household debt - The Globe and Mail

2012-01-26T13:54:00.000-05:00

scary that they are just discovering this I have been saying it for years.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/economy-lab/daily-mix/boomers-punch-drunk-on-household-debt/article2315580/

Connect the housing bubble dots: There could be trouble on CMHC’s horizon

2012-01-26T13:12:00.001-05:00

http://canadabubble.com/bubble-watch/2299-connect-the-housing-bubble-dots-there-could-be-trouble-on-cmhcs-horizon.html

A Resolution for Romance: The 52 Loves Notes Challenge | The Art of Manliness

2012-01-25T21:19:00.001-05:00

Who's up for the challenge?!?!

http://artofmanliness.com/2012/01/03/a-resolution-for-romance-the-52-loves-notes-challenge/

@WhatTheFFacts, 1/24/12 8:00 PM

2012-01-25T07:48:00.001-05:00

Ha so the way to a mans heart is really the blood stream :)

What The F Facts (@WhatTheFFacts)
1/24/12 8:00 PM
The smell of pumpkin pie, licorice, chocolate, and donuts increase the blood to a man's genitals.

@WhatTheFFacts, 1/23/12 10:00 PM

2012-01-24T10:42:00.001-05:00

Nice.

What The F Facts (@WhatTheFFacts)
1/23/12 10:00 PM
Humans are the only creatures on earth that will cut down trees, make paper, then write "SAVE TREES" on them.

Speaking of Oil : THE MYSTERY OF THE DISAPPEARING U.S. GAS DEMAND

2012-01-20T13:59:00.001-05:00

http://blogs.opisnet.com/archive/2012/01/16/the-mystery-of-the-disappearing-u-s-gas-demand.aspx

@WTFuckFacts, 1/18/12 7:00 AM

2012-01-18T09:13:00.001-05:00

This explains a lot :)

What The Fuck Facts (@WTFuckFacts)
1/18/12 7:00 AM
Some females have the same feeling of arousal when thinking about food as when having sex.

@WTFuckFacts, 1/17/12 8:00 PM

2012-01-18T06:25:00.000-05:00

Wow it's that boring for them?

What The Fuck Facts (@WTFuckFacts)
1/17/12 8:00 PM
Coitus interruptus. 10% of under 25s would interrupt sex with their partner to check a text message.

@WTFuckFacts, 1/14/12 7:30 PM

2012-01-14T19:43:00.001-05:00

Wow

What The Fuck Facts (@WTFuckFacts)
1/14/12 7:30 PM
Black women are 50 percent more likely to reach orgasm during sex than white women.

@WTFuckFacts, 1/8/12 12:00 PM

2012-01-08T12:15:00.001-05:00

Ain't that the truth.

What The Fuck Facts (@WTFuckFacts)
1/8/12 12:00 PM
The average PC owner spends 50 hours a year troubleshooting. The average Mac owner spends 5 hours a year.

Can Mountain Dew Really Dissolve a Mouse Carcass?

2012-01-07T15:29:00.001-05:00

Who knew. Okay now we do :)

Can Mountain Dew Really Dissolve a Mouse Carcass?
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=can-mountain-dew-really-dissolve

---
Sent from Zite personalized magazine iPhone app.
Available for free in the App Store.
www.zite.com

Ladies, let’s all calm down.

2012-01-07T15:17:00.001-05:00

US is turning into your typical middle east wacko country ever so slowly. When will the people stand up and stop it!

Ladies, let's all calm down.
http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2012/01/07/ladies-lets-all-calm-down/

---
Sent from Zite personalized magazine iPhone app.
Available for free in the App Store.
www.zite.com

Bitter or really a coke issue

2011-12-23T03:39:00.001-05:00

This one will be interesting to watch.

Thought you might be interested: Guergis sues Harper, Tory party - http://www.torontosun.com/2011/12/22/guergis-sues-harper-tory-party

The state of junior hockey

2011-12-17T05:04:00.001-05:00

I went to a junior A hockey game last night. I have to say after seeing the display I can see why hockey is declining in Canada.

There were several things lacking in the game. Most notable was one players ability to skate. In summary here is what I observed:

1. Most players could not handle the puck and keep their head up. Seriously it was insane how bad their puck control was.
2. Players who clearly needed power skating lessons. Which begs the question how did they make the team.
3. Zone control didn't exist in my opinion.
4. The one timer. I think I saw it 3 times the whole game. In fact the score could have been triple if the players didn't handle the puck before their shots on net. Ohhh and no one seemed to know what a slap shot is.
5. Hitting - don't get me started. No one finished a check, it was like watching marshmallows hit each other. The one proper hit layed out a guy and the players then fought. Amazing a clean hit means fight?!?
6. Conditioning is lacking. The last 5 minutes of play the visiting team was all over the home team. You could see the home team had no legs.

All these issues come back to coaching and parents. Coaches must not be teaching fundamentals and parents are probably coddling
their kids to much.

How much does Facebook know about your life? This video might scare you

2011-12-14T06:34:00.001-05:00

Holy f***!

How much does Facebook know about your life? This video might scare you
http://thenextweb.com/facebook/2011/12/13/how-much-does-facebook-know-about-your-life-this-video-might-scare-you/?awesm=tnw.to_1CEev

---
Sent from Zite personalized magazine iPhone app.
Available for free in the App Store.
www.zite.com

The price of babies, by color

2011-12-14T06:30:00.001-05:00

Holy shit!

The price of babies, by color
http://chrisblattman.com/2011/12/13/the-price-of-babies-by-color/

---
Sent from Zite personalized magazine iPhone app.
Available for free in the App Store.
www.zite.com

No, Entrepreneurs Like Steve Jobs Do Not "Create Jobs" By Inventing Products Like The iPhone

2011-12-11T15:39:00.001-05:00

Interesting point of view.

No, Entrepreneurs Like Steve Jobs Do Not "Create Jobs" By Inventing Products Like The iPhone
http://www.businessinsider.com/no-steve-jobs-did-not-create-jobs-by-inventing-the-iphone-2011-12

---
Sent from Zite personalized magazine iPhone app.
Available for free in the App Store.
www.zite.com