Jozef’s blog

no rpm.perl.it

2013-05-22T08:26:46Z

-------- Original Message --------
Hello

I am sorry to inform that your grant was not voted for rejection, but
when ranking grants, it was not in the first places. Given the lack of
funds we will only fund the first two grant proposals.

Therefore, your grant proposal will be kept to be analyzed and voted
again in the next round. If meanwhile you decide to change or remove
this proposal let me know.

Thank you
Alberto

How to analyze people on sight

2013-05-03T17:39:32Z

Here are my notes from book How to analyze people on sight:

It's not how much you know but what you can DO that counts.
The most essential thing in the world to any individual is to understand himself. The next is to understand the other fellow. For life is largely a problem of running your own car as it was built to be run, plus getting along with the other drivers on the highway.
The game is the same old game--you must adjust and adapt yourself to your environment or it will destroy you.
Adapt or Die - Who will win? Nature answers for you. She has said with awful and inexorable finality that, whether you are a blade of grass on the Nevada desert or a man in the streets of London, you can win only as you adapt yourself to your environment.
The moving picture industry--said to be the third largest in the world--is based largely on this interrelation. This industry would become extinct if something were to happen to sever the connection between external expressions and the internal nature of men and women.
The size, shape and structure of a man's body tell more important facts about his real self--what he thinks and what he does--than the average mother ever knows about her own child.
Five Biological Types - Human Analysis differs from every other system of character analysis in that it classifies man, for the first time, into five types according to his biological evolution. It deals with man in the light of the most recent scientific discoveries. It estimates each individual according to his "human" qualities rather than his "character" or so-called "moral" qualities. In other words, it takes his measure as a human being and determines from his externals his chances for success in the world of today.
...bring to mind any intimate friends, or even that husband or wife, and note how few changes they have made in their way of doing things in twenty years!
Every human being is born with preferences and predilections which manifest themselves from earliest childhood to death. These inborn tendencies are never obliterated and seldom controlled to any great extent, and then only by individuals who have learned the power of the mind over the body. Inasmuch as this knowledge is possessed by only a few, most of the people of the earth are blindly following the dictates of their inborn leanings.
Succeed at What We Like - No person achieves success or happiness when compelled to do what he naturally dislikes to do. Since these likes and dislikes stay with him to the grave, one of the biggest modern problems is that of helping men and women to discover and to capitalize their inborn traits.
Furthermore just as a Ford never changes into a Pierce nor a Pierce into a Ford, a human being never changes his type. He may modify it, train it, polish it or control it somewhat, but he will never change it.
The world classifies human beings according to their superficialities. To the world a human motorcycle can pass for a Rolls-Royce any day if sufficiently camouflaged with diamonds, curls, French heels and plucked eyebrows.
In the same manner many a bicycle in human form gets elected to Congress because he plays his machinery for all it is worth and gets a hundred per cent service out of it. Every such person learned early in life what kind of car he was and capitalized its natural tendencies.
The most man can do for his neighbor is to understand and inspire him. The most he can do for himself is to understand and organize his inborn capacities.
the nutritive, circulatory, muscular, bony or nervous
When he takes the trouble to think about it there are a few kinds of people the Alimentive does not care for. The man who is bent on discussing the problems of the universe, the highbrow who wants to practise his new relativity lecture on him, the theorist who is given to lengthy expatiations, and all advocates of new isms and ologies are avoided by the pure Alimentive. He calls them faddists, fanatics and fools.
But Nature must have intended fat people to manage the rest of us instead of taking a hand at the "heavy work." She made them averse to toil and then made them so likable that they can usually get the rest of us to do their hardest work for them.
They fail to recognize that the world always pays the big salaries not for hand work but for head work, and not so much for working yourself as for your ability to get others to work.
...and he knows that quarrels are expensive, not alone in the chances they lose him, but in nerve force and peace of mind.
This personal element will be found to dominate the activities, conversation and interests of the Alimentive. For him to like a thing or buy a thing it must come pretty near being something he can eat, wear, live in or otherwise personally enjoy. He confines himself to the concrete and tangible. But most of all he confines himself to things out of which he gets something for himself.
... the fat man is built around his stomach--and stomachs do not read!
Gaining his ends by flattery, cajolery, and various more or less innocent little deceptions are the only social handicaps of this type.
One average-minded fat man near the door of a business establishment will make more customers in a month by his geniality, joviality and sociableness than a dozen brilliant thinkers will in a year. Every business that deals directly with the public should have at least one fat person in it.
You can always tell what any individual WANTS MOST by what he DOES. The man who thinks he wants a thing or wishes he wanted it talks about getting it, envies those who have it and plans to start doing something about it. But the man who really WANTS a thing GOES AFTER it, sacrifices his leisure, his pleasures and sometimes love itself--and GETS it.
To be able to put one's self in the role of another, to feel as he feels; to be so keenly sensitive to his situation and psychology that one almost becomes that person for the time being, is the heart and soul of acting.
We are prone to judge every one by ourselves.
The man who makes but one mistake a year because he makes but two decisions is wrong fifty per cent of the time.
An aim, a definite goal is essential to the progress of any individual. It should be made with care and in keeping with one's personality, talents, training, education, environment and experience, and having been made should be adhered to with the determination which does not permit little things to interfere with it.
The big problem of individual success is the problem of eliminating non-essentials--of "hewing to the line, letting the chips fall where they may." Most of the things that steal your time, strength, money and energy are nothing but chips. If you pay too much attention to them you will never hew out anything worth while.
We do not like anything we do not understand and we seldom understand anything that differs decidedly from ourselves.
He wants his house to be elegant, the grounds "different," the view unusual.
Morality is mostly a matter of how much temptation you can withstand.
The most that training can do is to brace up the weak spots in us; to cultivate the strong ones; to teach us to avoid inimical environments; and to constantly remind us of the penalties we pay whenever we digress.
Work palls on the Alimentive and monotony on the Thoracic, but leisure is what palls on the Muscular.
We tell others to do certain things because "it will do you good" but the real reason usually is that we like to do it ourselves.
All emotions powerfully affect muscles. A sad thought flits through your mind and instantly the muscles of your face droop and the corners of your mouth go down. Hundreds of similar illustrations with which you are already familiar serve to prove how close is the connection between emotions and muscles. The heart itself is nothing more nor less than a large, tough, leather-like muscle.
Externals are not accidental; they always correspond to the internal nature in every form of life.
If you desire to know at once what kind of person the Osseous is, put the Alimentive and Thoracic types together and mix them thoroughly. The Osseous is the opposite of that mixture.
Everything in one of Nature's creatures matches the other parts. Agassiz, the great naturalist, when given the scale of a fish could reconstruct for you the complete organism of the type of fish from which it came. Give a tree-leaf to a botanist and he will reconstruct the size, shape, structure and color of the tree back of it. He will describe to you its native environment and its functions; what its bark, blossoms and branches look like and what to do to make it grow.
The typical New England housewife, who washes on Mondays, irons on Tuesdays and bakes on Saturdays for forty years, is a direct descendant of the Puritans, most of whom belong to this bony, pioneering type.
The Alimentive avoids those he does not like and forgets them because it is too much bother to hate; the Thoracic flames up one moment and forgives the next; the Muscular takes it out in a fight then and there, or argues with you about it. But the Osseous despises, hates and loathes--and keeps on for years after every one else has forgotten all about it.
The pure Alimentive seldom troubles his head about causes. The Thoracic is the type that lives chiefly for the pleasure of the moment and the adventures of life. The Muscular fights hard and works hard for various movements. But it is the Osseous who dies for his beliefs.
There is little to be done with the Osseous when you meet him socially except to let him do what he wants to do. Don't interfere with him if you want him to like you.
Mind and matter are so inseparably bound up together in man's organism that it is impossible to say just where mind ends and matter begins.
We are so constructed that brain and stomach--each of which demands an extra supply of blood when performing its work--can not function with maximum efficiency simultaneously.
The Alimentive lives to eat, the Thoracic to feel, the Muscular to act, the Osseous to stabilize, but the Cerebral lives to meditate.
But the man who can only dream lives in a very hostile world. His real world is his thoughts but whenever he steps out of them into human society he feels a stranger and he is one.
Ideas always have to go begging at first, and the greater the idea the rougher the sledding.
The ideal combination is a dreamer who can DO or a doer who knows the power of a DREAM. Thinking and acting--almost every individual is doing too much of one and too little of the other!
He is too abstract to add to the gaiety of social gatherings, for these are based on the enjoyment of the concrete.
Another reason why he has few friends is because these people, being in the great minority, are not easy to find.
Since we get only what we go after in this world, it follows that the Cerebral is often poor. To make money one must want money. Competition for it is so keen that only those who want it badly and work with efficiency ever get very much of it.
As we have seen, all the other types have decided preferences as to their clothes--the Alimentive demands comfort, the Thoracic style, the Muscular durability and the Osseous sameness--but the extreme Cerebral type says "anything will do."
We have always said people were "absent-minded" when their minds were absent from what they were doing. This often applies to the Cerebral for he is capable of greater concentration than other types; also he is so frequently compelled to do things in which he has no interest that his mind naturally wanders to the things he cares about.
The poor talker sometimes surprises us by being a good writer. Such a one is usually of the Cerebral type.
...and when society idlers will not be considered better than people who earn their livings.
The world is managed by fat men, entertained by florid men, built by muscular men, opposed by bony men, but is improved in the final analysis by its thinking men.
Fame is the food of the tomb.
In the room of the Alimentive you will find cushions, sofas and "eats;" in that of the Thoracic you will find colorful, unusual things; the Muscular will have durable, solid, plain things; the Osseous will have fewer of everything but what he does have will be in order. But the pure Cerebral's furnishings--if he is responsible for them--will be an indifferent array, with no two pieces matching. Furthermore, everything will be piled with newspapers, magazines, books and clippings.
The type PREDOMINATING in a person determines WHAT he does throughout his life--the NATURE of his main activities. The type which comes second in development will determine the WAY he does things--the METHODS he will follow in doing what his predominant type signifies.
Human happiness is attained only through doing what the organism was built to do, in an environment that is favorable.
Every individual owes it to himself to find the right work and the right mate, because these are fundamental needs of every human being. Lacking them, life is a failure; possessing but one of them, life is half a failure.
Accordingly, just as it is easier to change the frosting on a cake than to change the inside, it is easier to change a man's religion than to change his activities.
In other words, more than seventy per cent of American divorces are granted because husbands and wives can not adapt themselves to each other in the matter of how they shall spend their LEISURE hours.
The only time we are free to act is during our leisure hours. All other hours are mortgaged to earning a living--in the accomplishment of which we often have very little outlet for natural trends. So it is only "after hours" and "over Sundays" that the masses of mankind have an opportunity to express their real natures.
Law of Marital Happiness - Marriage should take place only between those whose first type-elements are sufficiently similar for them to enjoy the same general diversions, yet whose second type-elements are sufficiently dissimilar to make each strong where the other is weak.
The human ego is so constituted that we tend to like all interesting people who do not offer us opposition.
The business man has enough of "brilliant" people all day. When he gets home he is rather inclined to be merely the "tired business man," and in that state nothing is more agreeable than a wife with a smile.
Feminine prettiness (not beauty) consists of the rose-bud mouth, the baby eyes, the cute little nose, the round cheeks, the dimpled chin, etc.--all more or less monopolized by the Alimentive type.
Sales people everywhere say, "We like to see a fat woman coming, for she usually has money, spends it freely and is easy to please."
For this type of woman, unlike the home-keeping Alimentive, enjoys being a widow and remains one. She usually has many chances to remarry but her changeable, gaiety-loving nature revels in the freedom, sophistication and distinction of widowhood. The appearance of endless youth given by her alive, responsive personality deceives the most discerning as to her age. The woman of f ifty who enthralls the youths of twenty-five is usually of the Thoracic type.
The same thing happens every day between severe, bony wives and their florid, frolicking husbands. "She is a perfect housekeeper and a good wife" exclaim her friends--"why should her husband spend his evenings away from home?" These questions will continue to be asked until we realize that being "a good housekeeper and a good wife" does not fill the bill with a Thoracic man. A wife who will leave the dinner dishes in the kitchen sink occasionally and run away with him for a "lark" on a moment's notice is the kind that retains the love of her f lorid husband. A husband who is willing to leave his favorite magazine, pipe, and slippers to take her out in the evening is the kind a Thoracic woman likes. She even prefers a "gay devil" to a "stick"--as she calls the slow ones.
So, even when they love him best they usually marry the fat salesman, the Muscular worker who always has a good job, the Thoracic promoter who promises luxury, or the Osseous man who won't take "No" for an answer.
"When poverty comes in the door love flies out the window" is a saying as old as it is sad. And it is as true as it is both old and sad.
Poverty does more to bring out the worst in people and conceal the best than anything else in the world.
Because he lives in his mind and not in his external world the predominantly Cerebral must marry one who also is predominantly Cerebral. The reading of books, attendance at good plays, and the study of great movements constitute the chief enjoyments of this type and if he has a mate who cares nothing for these things his marriage is bound to be a failure.
But here's the rub. You will never do anything with that brilliant efficiency save what you LIKE TO DO. Efficiency does not come from duty, or necessity, or goading, or lashing, or anything under heaven save ENJOYMENT OF THE THING ITSELF. Nothing less will ever release those hidden powers, those miraculous forces which, for the lack of a better name, we call "genius."
Whenever you are considering your fitness for any vocation, ask yourself these questions:
Self-Question 1 - Am I considering this vocation chiefly because I would enjoy the things it would bring--such as salary, fame, social position or change of scene? If, in your heart, your answer is "Yes," this is not a vocation for you.
Self-Question 2 - Knowing the requirements of this vocation--its tasks, drudgeries, hours of work, concentration and kind of activity--would I choose to follow them in preference to any other kind of activity even if the income were the same? Would I do these things for the pleasure of doing them and not for the pay? If, in your heart, you can answer "Yes" to these questions, your problem is settled; you will succeed in that vocation. For you will so enjoy your work that it will be play. Being play, you will do it so happily that you will get from it new strength each day.
Self-Question 3 - Do I tend to follow, of my own accord, for the sheer joy of it, the kinds of activity demanded by this vocation which I am contemplating? If you do not you will never succeed in this line of work.
To be a success you must PRODUCE something out of the ordinary for the world.
But they found a line that fitted their particular talents, and they went ahead cultivating those talents without asking for everything in advance.
Life is full of opportunities for every person who will consult his own capacities and aim for the big chance.
Parents can be divided into three classes--those who over-estimate their children, those who under-estimate their children, and those who do not estimate them at all.
I don't want any of my boys to be lawyers. Lawyers are all liars. Ministers are worse; they're all a bunch of Sissies. Doctors are all fakes. Actors are all bad eggs; and business is one big game of cheat or be cheated. I'm going to see that every boy I've got becomes a farmer.
He must avoid working for, with, under or over others. The Osseous should never have a partner if he can help it.

But you are searching it wrong!

2013-04-18T10:49:44Z

Many smart people creating amazing smart things like web searches assume and think that we know what we are looking for. But we don't. Also when we go out to "so called real world", we don't have a specific and concrete task or interest. We just go out for a walk, which it self is a first choice, but then we let things happen and enjoy the ones that caught our attention.

When we go out, our brain is amazing at exploring and hiding the world around us at the same time. We no longer notice or concentrate on walking - we walk, we no longer concentrate so much on driving - we are steering + change gears + look into mirrors + talking to our mates at the same time, we no longer listen to what others say - we are networking, we are no longer paying attention to the TV - we are entertained.

It's not about handling enormous amount of information, it's about filtering them and handling only the ones that really matter. "Indeed," suggests the neuroscientist Monte Buchsbaum, "filtering or coping with the tremendous information overload that the human eye, ear, and other sense organs can dump upon the central nervous system may be one of the major functions of the cerebral cortex."

Designing search that key feature would be eliminating and filtering could be a nice experiment into unknown, inspired by nature.

Imagine visiting my blog, that has ~160 entries at this time, and being able to filter out the ones that are out of interest for you. You may end up with one or two that you would really like but had no idea about them, or their keywords, before.

... just a dreamer

/me prepared 巻き寿司 for todays dinner

2013-04-07T19:04:11Z

Jozef Kutej http://search.cpan.org/~jkutej/

Organized vs Free

2013-03-21T17:16:02Z

Over the weekend we discussed with my father in law why did Communism in the east performed so badly compared to the Capitalism in the west? Why, when everything was planned and organized by the system plus every single person had to work? How come that the capitalism could fill-up their supermarkets with goods while communistic supermarkets were nearly empty? Wasn't the starting point after 1945 kind of the same for all European countries?

Because at 2am we are doing what we want to and at 2pm what we have to.

Looking back at people and countries with totalitarian regimes shows the best what a system gone crazy can look like. It will enslave and suck life out of everyone and everything.

We naturally need a system, we need to believe, to have a reason why to get up from bed in the morning. Even the strongest atheists have their believe system, it's not called religion just because it's not organized.

Now Europe united in this so called "free democratic capitalistic" system. Is it better? Definitely we are free to express our opinions and the supermarkets are filled to bursting with goods, but ...

We humans create and use systems all the time, we are giving meaning to our everyday events, that is what makes us humans different from animals. When the systems serve people, people flourish, when the people serve systems, people become wasted.

Living in city of Vienna, city declared to have highest Quality of Living in the world by Mercer 2012 Quality of Living Survey, looking around in the subway or the city, I see few people smiling, most of them are simply gray. Not only their clothes are black or dark colors, but their faces does not shine. That makes me wonder what kind of system do we live in? What's our organizing principle? Is it flourishing or wasting us?

There is one simple system that unite us for thousands of years, no matter what religion or believe → and that is money. Awesome invention allowing humans to grow, invent and accomplish things that no other creature could do on this planet. We can not only adapt to our environment super fast, we can adapt or change our environment within hours by our selves.

But haven't our system gone crazy?

Modern times, modern diseases - "Burn out" syndrome appeared. What the hell is "burn out" anyway? Why are these rich and super successful people sick? Notion that time is money slipped under our skins. No matter if it's spent at work, walking in the city or watching TV. Even being fit and relaxed can be evaluated to later profit. We can count every click, catch every eye ball everywhere and then turn it into profit. We are organized, we are optimized and we are planned to be super productive! The fact is, we have a crisis...

What is our crisis really about?

140 spell

2013-03-19T07:49:27Z

Traditionally Twitter was 140 characters messaging tool. Some people love it because it makes everyone to be brief and clear in their tweets, some hate it because when they are about to finish the last word it say "-2" chars.

If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough. --Albert Einstein

The interesting thing is that both haters and lovers are right. That's an amazing revelation about conversations. We can be in conflict while both sides are right! The trouble and conflict is not with the reality or truth, but that those two people doesn't share the same reality, their truths are simply not in sync.

We don't see ourselves as the problem because, in fact, we aren't. What we are saying does make sense. What's often hard to see is that what other person is saying also makes sense.
--Douglas Stone + Bruce Patton + Sheila Heen

But back to the 140 spell. May people, including me until 43 minutes ago, believe that in Twitter it's possible to use only 140 letters. Which is true, but Twitter allows to attach a picture to every single tweet. This feature many already use to tell their story with their photos. Stretching that possibility a bit more further allows for attaching screen-shot from website or e-book or taking photo of hand written text and attaching it to the tweet. That way the "Keep it simple, stupid!" rule is satisfied and we are also allowed to express our selves beyond that limitation → win-win.

Don't seek the truth;

2013-03-18T17:03:13Z

We see what we have a mind to see. --Robert S Hartman

More then that, we see what makes us comfortable:

But once a negative bias begins, out lenses become clouded. We tend to seize on whatever seems to confirm the bias and ignore what does not. Prejudice, in this sense, is a hypothesis desperately trying to prove itself to us. And so when we encounter someone to whom the prejudice might apply, the bias skews our perception, making it impossible to test whether the stereotype actually fits. Openly hostile stereotypes about a group - to the extent they rest on untested assumptions - are mental categories gone awry. --Daniel Goleman Because what you judge you cannot understand. --Anthony De Mello

We see what we want to see:

Some students begin by forming an opinion ... and it is not till afterward that they begin to read the texts. They run a great risk of not understanding them at all, or of understanding them wrongly. What happens is that a kind of tacit contest goes on between the text and the preconceived opinions of the reader; the mind refuses to grasp what is contrary to its idea, and the issue of the evidence of the text but that the text yields, bends, and accommodates itself to the preconceived opinion. --Fustel de Coulanges Are you listening, as most people do, in order to confirm what you already think? --Anthony De Mello What the human being is best at doing is interpreting all new information so that their prior conclusions remain intact. --Warren Buffett

And the truth? Were is it? What is it?

Don't seek the truth; just drop your opinions. --Anthony De Mello

I've read book by Anthony "Awareness: The Perils and Opportunities of Reality" couple of times, found it amazing but stayed puzzled. HVP test showed me a new direction of thinking towards values and valuation and finally, when I've realized that valuation is in other words judgment, I thought, is this what Anthony wanted to say?

My aim is to ponder our collective predicament: if we so easily full ourselves into subtle sleep, how can we awaken? The first step in that, it seems to me, is to notice how it is that we are asleep.

Contemporary researchers have adopted a rather radical premise: that much or most consequential activity in the mind goes on outside awareness.

--Daniel Goleman

Valuation or (pre)judgment gives objects, situation and people different values. In extreme case it allows for totally reverted valuation and choices. Painting remains to be a painting no matter if it's by Leonardo da Vinci or my little kid. It's our thinking that gives one or the other much greater value.

What Antony say is that we are programmed to value or judge in a certain way which changes the reality. We are not aware, we don't see things as they are but as we are because we look through our lenses of judgment. And our judgment is a coping strategy that prevent us from the pain of what causes or caused anxiety to us:

The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice. And because we fail to notice that we fail to notice there is little we can do to change until we notice how failing to notice shapes our thoughts and deeds.

Technically speaking, "coping" is the term for a range of cognitive maneuvers that relieve stress arousal by changing one's own reaction rather than altering the stressful situation itself.

That framework and data show, in modern terms, how the self-system protects us against anxiety by skewing attention.

For many serious sources of stress in life, there's little or nothing that can be done to change things. If so, you're better off if you do nothing except take care of your feelings ... healthy people use palliatives all the time, with no ill effect. Having a drink or taking tranquilizers are palliatives. So is denial, intellectualizing, and avoiding negative thoughts. When they don't prevent adaptive action, they help greatly.

--Daniel Goleman

So how much awareness is possible? There's just too much input information around us. How can we train our unconsciousness to filter "properly"? Isn't that "properly" just another appealing system?

I sometimes failed to persuade the court that I was right, but I never failed to persuade myself! --Roger Fisher

Journey for it

2013-03-16T22:39:58Z

Jozef Kutej http://search.cpan.org/~jkutej/ ]]>

Faith in love?

2013-03-14T07:43:18Z

Here is what Goleman writes about well adjusted marriage or working couple:

"This is well-adjusted marriages," he notes "we expect that each partner may keep from the other secrets having to do with financial matters, past experiences, current flirtations, indulgences in 'bad' or expensive habits, personal aspirations and worries, actions of children, true opinions held about relatives or mutual friends, etc."
Each partner in a working couple ignores areas of shared experience that would threaten the partners' shared sense of a secure, comfortable relationship. She doesn't comment on the looks he gives younger women at the beach; he never mentions his suspicion that she fakes orgasms. Over time, these discretions can become converted into lacunas: they do not notice, and do not notice that they do not notice.

I've read fairy tales about love, but I don't think I've ever seen a couple that loves in intrinsic way. All I see is systemic and utilitarian relationships. Is my seeing blinded by my lack of believe/faith or is it simply so?

Actually Goleman gives a hint how to recognize happy couples.

On the other hand, something rather remarkable tends to happen with couples who live together for decades, finding happiness with each other. Their continual rapport even seems to leave its mark on their faces, which comes to resemble each other, apparently a result of the sculpting of facial muscles, as partners smile or frown in unison they strengthen the parallel set of muscles.

So such couples must exists! But where? What really is love?

Valuation more important then value?

2013-03-11T14:46:44Z

While Dr Hartman declared I > E > S, in the HVP test the "standard" order of phrases is actually I+I, E+I, S+I, I+E, I+S, etc. Which actually means that love for formal axiology (S+I) is of more value then a waiter in the restaurant (I+E). Or more generic intrinsic valuation of a system is more important then person valued in utilitarian or systemic way.

In another words the overall value comes not from what the objects really are but how do we value them, what we think or believe they are.

So what is the goal of HVP? Order the phrases based on what is best to worst, instructions say. Best for what? Worst for whom? Let's take some extreme:

Nonsense ←→ A madman

If I had to choose if to cope with a nonsense or a madman, then I'll choose the nonsense. But if the question is whether to make nonsense or a madman "survive", it will be the madman. Isn't even a bad person more worth then a thought?

So is HVP more likely about our valuation and less about values? More about the way we perceive things, then about how they really are? Is really our believe stronger then reality?

Interesting.

Notes from The Matrix

2013-03-08T19:15:30Z

Here are some notes from movie The Matrix. That film is just full of anti-system thoughts...

Neo, a younger man who knows more about living inside a computer than living outside one.

Rhineheart: You have a problem, Mr. Anderson. You think that you're special. You believe that somehow the rules do not apply to you. Obviously, you are mistaken.

Morpheus: I had hoped for this conversation to take place under less adverse conditions, but you can never count on hope, can you, Neo?

Morpheus: We are trained in this world to accept only what is rational and logical.  Have you ever wondered why?

Morpheus: I'm trying to free your mind, Neo. But I can only show you the door. You're the one that has to walk through it. 

Morpheus: The Matrix is everywhere, it's all around us, here even in this room. You can see it out your window, or on your television.  You feel it when you go to work, or go to church or pay your taxes.  It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.
Neo: What truth?
Morpheus: That you are a slave, Neo.  That you, like everyone else, was borninto into bondage... ... kept inside a prison that you cannot smell, taste, or touch.  A prison for your mind.

Morpheus: Welcome to the real world, Neo.

Morpheus: What is real?  How do you define real?  If you're talking about your senses, what you feel, taste, smell, or see, then all you're talking about are electrical signals interpreted by your brain.

Morpheus: 'The desert of the real.'

Morpheus: All they needed to control this new battery was something to occupy our mind. And so they built a prison out of our past, wired it to our brains and turned us into slaves.

Morpheus: I didn't say that it would be easy, Neo.  I just said that it would be the truth.

Morpheus: Neo, sooner or later you're going to realize just as I did that there's a difference between knowing the path and walking the path. 

Morpheus: The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you're inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it. 

Morpheus: If you can free your mind, the body will follow.

Morpheus: You are angry with me.
Neo: I, uh... maybe.
Morpheus: It's all right.  It's natural.
Neo: I feel better.
Morpheus: Good, good.  Anger is a gift, Neo, but it's a heavy one.

Morpheus: What are you waiting for? You're faster than this. Don't think you are, know you are. Come on. Stop trying to hit me and hit me. 

Neo: I thought it wasn't real. (Neo stares at the blood.) If you are killed in the Matrix, you die here? 
Morpheus: The body cannot live without the mind.

Morpheus: Everyone falls the first time. If you never know failure, how can you know success? 

Morpheus: I've seen an agent punch through a concrete wall; men have emptied entire clips at them and hit nothing but air; yet, their strength, and their speed, are still based in a world that is built on rules. Because of that, they will never be as strong, or as fast, as *you* can be. 

Cypher: Real is just another four-letter word.

Cypher: You know, I know that this steak doesn't exist.  I know when I put it in my mouth, the Matrix is telling my brain that it is juicy and delicious.  After nine years, do you know what I've realized?
(Pausing, he examines the meat skewered on his fork. He pops it in, eyes rolling up, savoring the tender beef melting in his mouth.)
Cypher: Ignorance is bliss.

Spoon boy: Your spoon does not bend because it is just that, a spoon.  Mine bends because there is no spoon, just my mind.
(Neo watches as it curls into a knot.)
Spoon boy: Link yourself to the spoon. Become the spoon and bend yourself.
(Neo nods, again holding up his spoon.)
Neo: There is no spoon.  Right.

Spoon boy: Do not try and bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead... only try to realize the truth. 
Neo: What truth? 
Spoon boy: There is no spoon. 
Neo: There is no spoon? 
Spoon boy: Then you'll see, that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself. 

Agent Smith: Never send a human to do a machine's job.

Agent Smith: Did you know that the first Matrix was designed to be a perfect human world?  Where none suffered, where everyone would be happy.  It was a disaster.  No one would accept the program.  Entire crops were lost. Some believed we lacked the programming language to describe your perfect world.  But I believe that, as a species, human beings define their reality through suffering and misery.The perfect world was a dream that your primitive cerebrum kept trying to wake up from.  Which is why the Matrix was re-designed to this:  the peak of your civilization. I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species.  I've realized that you are not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment.  But you humans do not.  You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern.  Do you know what it is? A virus. He smiles. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet.  You are a plague.  And we are... the cure.

Neo: I may not be what Morpheus thinks I am, but if I don't try to help him, then I'm not even what I think I am.
Trinity: What are you?
Neo: His friend.

Trinity: No one has ever done anything like this.
Neo: Yeah? That's why it's going to work.

Morpheus: It doesn't matter if I don't believe you. What matters is that you don't believe her.

Trinity: Morpheus is right, you know.  It doesn't matter what he believes or even what the Oracle believes. What matters is what you believe.

Neo: I know you're real proud of this world you've built, the way it works, all the nice little rules and such, but I've got some bad news. I've decided to make a few changes .

Neo: I know you're out there. I can feel you now. I know that you're afraid... you're afraid of us. You're afraid of change. I don't know the future. I didn't come here to tell you how this is going to end. I came here to tell you how it's going to begin. I'm going to hang up this phone, and then I'm going to show these people what you don't want them to see. I'm going to show them a world without you. A world without rules and controls, without borders or boundaries. A world where anything is possible. Where we go from there is a choice I leave to you. 

Boy: Mommy!  Mommy!
Mommy: What?
Boy: That man!  That man flies!
Mommy: Don't be silly, honey.  Men don't fly.

deb.perl.it - bridging CPAN and Ubuntu → step3

2013-02-11T21:45:20Z

Now also Ubuntu Perl packages indexed. For example Moose::Meta::Class

Package: libmoose-perl
Package version: 0.31-1
Module version: 0.16
Arch: all
Dist: hardy
Component: universe

Package: libmoose-perl
Package version: 0.94-1
Module version: 0.94
Arch: amd64
Dist: lucid
Component: universe

Package: libmoose-perl
Package version: 1.23-1
Module version: 1.23
Arch: amd64
Dist: natty
Component: universe

Package: libmoose-perl
Package version: 2.0200-1
Module version: 2.0200
Arch: amd64
Dist: oneiric
Component: universe

Package: libmoose-perl
Package version: 2.0401-1
Module version: 2.0401
Arch: amd64
Dist: precise
Component: universe

Package: libmoose-perl
Package version: 2.0603-1
Module version: 2.0603
Arch: amd64
Dist: quantal
Component: universe

Package: libmoose-perl
Package version: 2.0604-1
Module version: 2.0604
Arch: amd64
Dist: raring
Component: universe

Invalid argument crap

2013-01-31T20:04:20Z

Today struggling with Debian server upgrade and come across this:

Starting web server: apache2
[Thu Jan 31 18:25:41 2013] [crit] (22)Invalid argument: alloc_listener: failed to get a socket for (null)
Syntax error on line 9 of /etc/apache2/ports.conf:
Listen setup failed
Action 'start' failed.
The Apache error log may have more information.

Long story short - had to upgrade Linux kernel. Thanks to Major Hayden for his post where he is mentioning this.

deb.perl.it - bridging CPAN and Debian → step2

2013-01-24T09:33:51Z

To make the Debian-Perl module look-up more useful, there are now install instructions included. That means that all non-packaged CPAN dependencies and also all packaged ones are listed and it's clear what can be installed from packages and what needs to be installed from CPAN. Here's an example for App::TimeTracker:

sudo apt-get install libexception-class-perl libclass-accessor-perl libmoosex-role-parameterized-perl libjson-perl libnamespace-autoclean-perl libtry-tiny-perl libtest-trap-perl libtest-most-perl libtest-file-perl librt-client-rest-perl libpath-class-perl libmoosex-types-path-class-perl libmoosex-storage-perl libmoosex-getopt-perl libmoose-perl libmodule-build-perl libtest-mock-lwp-perl libjson-xs-perl libio-capture-perl libhash-merge-perl libgit-repository-perl libfile-homedir-perl libfile-find-rule-perl r-base-core-ra perl-modules libdigest-sha1-perl libdatetime-format-iso8601-perl libdatetime-format-duration-perl libdatetime-perl perl perl-base

sudo cpan -i Iterator Path::Class::Iterator MooseX::Storage::Format::JSONpm App::TimeTracker

Just a note that this works fine for Debian stable+testing+unstable. Which is not so common. Most installations will be stable or testing+unstable. Once Debian Wheeze (7.0) will become stable (hopefully soon) I'll split that search to two - one for Debian stable and one for Debian testing+unstable.

Started off with handbrake on

2013-01-22T10:10:29Z

31st of December I've got fever and cough - spend one week, including new years eve, in bed. Then coughing turned into pain and on the start of the third week of January I've ended up in hospital. Now I'm back home and much better, hopping for much more fortune in the rest of this 2013 year.