This is an interesting article that appeared at The Guardian (a very well-known British newspaper): Emails 'pose threat to IQ'. It talks about a study made that points that the constant lack of focus that you get currently because of the amount of assynchronous information you receive is very alarming. It is an interesting point! But I'm not completely sure how to deal with something like this, though... How to make emails, cell phones, etc. less intrusive in our concentration? Sure you can turn them off, but the problem is that our society is getting more and more towards creating devices that are always on, and always reachable. We want to be found, we want to be interrupted!
One good thing about this article: I can blame on something for feeling more and more stupid!
Saturday, April 23, 2005
A Passover post
It's Passover again... Actually the first Passover I have here in Seattle. But I can't say it's an exciting perspective. Tonight I have the first seder at the house of a former mayor of Medina (the town where Bill Gates live, where 2-bedroom houses cost about 1.5 million dollars - yes, this place). But the rest of the week will be just taking food to work, because eastern asian food is not very Passover-friendly (too much corn starch everywhere).
Lately I have been going through this very introspective time in my life (again), where I'm having lost of thought, most of them work-related. I wished I could just forget the world for a couple of months and try to get these thoughts out of my mind before they consume me to death. The good thing is that so far I haven't lost nights of sleep because of them. Only had dreams about it.
Anyway, I'll shoot one of the ideas here just to get away from being "abstract": Imagine simulating the behavior of elements in a database to extract relations. This behavior is very simple (and, thus, hopefully scalable): send a message to an element that has semething to do with you. Then you can just analyze the patterns in these messages and extract the overall relations. Instead of creating a hugely connected graph, you can just see the log traces of a graph that doesn't actually exist and this requires much less memory and can be very powerful by changing the definition of "having somthing to do with you".
I could throw some math here right now, but this would be very cumbersome and nobody would actually be interested in it.
Now my only problem is to find time to get it done.
Lately I have been going through this very introspective time in my life (again), where I'm having lost of thought, most of them work-related. I wished I could just forget the world for a couple of months and try to get these thoughts out of my mind before they consume me to death. The good thing is that so far I haven't lost nights of sleep because of them. Only had dreams about it.
Anyway, I'll shoot one of the ideas here just to get away from being "abstract": Imagine simulating the behavior of elements in a database to extract relations. This behavior is very simple (and, thus, hopefully scalable): send a message to an element that has semething to do with you. Then you can just analyze the patterns in these messages and extract the overall relations. Instead of creating a hugely connected graph, you can just see the log traces of a graph that doesn't actually exist and this requires much less memory and can be very powerful by changing the definition of "having somthing to do with you".
I could throw some math here right now, but this would be very cumbersome and nobody would actually be interested in it.
Now my only problem is to find time to get it done.
Monday, April 18, 2005
Earthquake in the world of online publishing
As most people already know, today Adobe bought Macromedia. What does that mean? Well, there are a number of things, but I think that most are good:
- Less competition in the field, less innovation
- More integration between important technologies, such as Freehand, Photoshop and Flash
- Cheaper packages for small companies that needed Photoshop for image editing and Dreamweaver for making webpages for example
- Better interfaces (there was a big lawsuit fight going on about Flash using some UI features that were patented by Adobe)
But when are we going to see any changes? Well, packaging is not too hard to change, so I would expect this to happen reasonably soon (in a year). Integration is always a headache. I wouldn't expect to see anything in this direction for the next 2 years. But I'm hopeful! I think that graphic publishing in general needs some sort of reality check.
- Less competition in the field, less innovation
- More integration between important technologies, such as Freehand, Photoshop and Flash
- Cheaper packages for small companies that needed Photoshop for image editing and Dreamweaver for making webpages for example
- Better interfaces (there was a big lawsuit fight going on about Flash using some UI features that were patented by Adobe)
But when are we going to see any changes? Well, packaging is not too hard to change, so I would expect this to happen reasonably soon (in a year). Integration is always a headache. I wouldn't expect to see anything in this direction for the next 2 years. But I'm hopeful! I think that graphic publishing in general needs some sort of reality check.
Friday, April 15, 2005
Ideas.. Ideas... Ideas...
I don't know what happened to me yesterday evening, after watching Mendelssohn's "Elijah" and really missing being part of a choir, my brain entered this idea mode with thousands of things I want to try. Most of them are work-related, though. I can't stop. I wasn't able to sleep very well last night, I don't even feel hungry or tired (by the way, I haven't had dinner last night). It's been a LONG time I haven't felt this way. Last time it was the beginning of my research, when I had very similar ideas, actually. This time I won't be scared of the size of what I want to do, and that's what I'm doing today! My manager asked if I wanted to take the day off and I will... Off from normal work, but I just can't ignore all these new ideas in my mind. So, off to work I go!
Monday, April 11, 2005
The healthy Seattle
It is very interesting to see the psychological profile of Seattle. People here are a little strange in the sense of trying to prove something about their health. Not even getting into the big hype about "organic food" that is happening everywhere (btw: what is "inorganic food?"), but a good part of my co-workers are vegetarian, many people I meet around are vegetarian or vegan, I was asked last week by a co-worker if I ever thought of fasting for a week or so to "cleanse my body"... It is not crazy, it is just off the charts on the "normality" rate. And today I even heard of another person that used his mouse on his left hand, although he was right-handed, because he wanted to "train himself" to be left-handed too. All this "testing your body" type of thing just makes me amazed!
Of course this effect can also be bad. I think I never had so many friends around here that are big drug "enjoyers" or were a lot in the past. I won't say they are "users" and not even close to addicts, but it is just strange. There are still a lot of things I have to get use to while living here. But now I'll just go for a walk.
Of course this effect can also be bad. I think I never had so many friends around here that are big drug "enjoyers" or were a lot in the past. I won't say they are "users" and not even close to addicts, but it is just strange. There are still a lot of things I have to get use to while living here. But now I'll just go for a walk.
Saturday, April 09, 2005
Resuscitating this blog
I don't quite know why, but I've decided that I do like to blog. Maybe it's because I have grown to be a terrible email writer, maybe it's just because I don't like the synchronous nature of other types of communication (sure I can write emails any time I want, but if someone hasn't had time to answer yet, I feel bad about writing another one), or maybe it's just that I feel that all blogs I read are dying and I don't like the feeling of it.
Anyway, here I am back to the world of blogging. I have been thinking of what I would change that might make my blog more readable, but I still have no good idea (besides working on the layout, but this will still be postponed to a time I have more inspiration - and maybe better software for image editing).
Where to start? Too many things happened since my last post... I went back to Stillwater, defended my Ph.D., came back a Doctor of Philosophy (no, I can't write "official" presciptions - not even to book on philosophy) and now work has been keeping me busy. Maybe I can rant about the Oklahoma Tax system!
Well, in the US you have to pay (in some states, including Oklahoma, but not including Washington) state tax. When it comes to the tax period you have to file all the tax return forms hoping to get part of this tax back. Anyway, I lived in Oklahoma for 9 1/2 months, right? And the amount I've made in OK was about 1/3 of what I've made in the whole year (as expected). The problem is how the OK tax is calculated: it is a part of what you make regardless of where you make it! So, as I've gone up a couple of tax buckets since I moved, I suddenly had to pay $250 in taxes to OK out of the money I've made in Washington!!! What actually happened is that because I went up in the tax bucket, the amount they were deducting from my salary in OK was too little. Oh, and for you to have a feel of how much I went up in buckets, the amount deducted from my salary was about $500.
That's life! Next year I hope I don't have to go through it any more! Hopefully my money this year will help the economy in Oklahoma (although when I was there I talked to a plumber that claimed that OK has enough oil to supply all the US demand for oil for 50 years! One of two things: either he has no idea of how much oil the US uses, or he likes conspiracy theories about hidden treasures).
Anyway, here I am back to the world of blogging. I have been thinking of what I would change that might make my blog more readable, but I still have no good idea (besides working on the layout, but this will still be postponed to a time I have more inspiration - and maybe better software for image editing).
Where to start? Too many things happened since my last post... I went back to Stillwater, defended my Ph.D., came back a Doctor of Philosophy (no, I can't write "official" presciptions - not even to book on philosophy) and now work has been keeping me busy. Maybe I can rant about the Oklahoma Tax system!
Well, in the US you have to pay (in some states, including Oklahoma, but not including Washington) state tax. When it comes to the tax period you have to file all the tax return forms hoping to get part of this tax back. Anyway, I lived in Oklahoma for 9 1/2 months, right? And the amount I've made in OK was about 1/3 of what I've made in the whole year (as expected). The problem is how the OK tax is calculated: it is a part of what you make regardless of where you make it! So, as I've gone up a couple of tax buckets since I moved, I suddenly had to pay $250 in taxes to OK out of the money I've made in Washington!!! What actually happened is that because I went up in the tax bucket, the amount they were deducting from my salary in OK was too little. Oh, and for you to have a feel of how much I went up in buckets, the amount deducted from my salary was about $500.
That's life! Next year I hope I don't have to go through it any more! Hopefully my money this year will help the economy in Oklahoma (although when I was there I talked to a plumber that claimed that OK has enough oil to supply all the US demand for oil for 50 years! One of two things: either he has no idea of how much oil the US uses, or he likes conspiracy theories about hidden treasures).
Sunday, February 27, 2005
This blog is dead
Today I have been thinking and discussing with myself, in between work and cleaning, what I should do about this blog. I found out that I just don't have motivation to write here any more. I don't have anything to say and this makes me feel bad! Thus, in order to keep people still excited about what the Internet can offer, I'm retiring this source of waste of time. I'll probably go back to writing for my own, who knows even composing... I'll go back to writing emails to my friends (something I just haven't been doing...). Until something proves me wrong, I'm retiring from being a blogger. It was fun while it lasted. I did write some posts that I feel happy to look back to, especially in my old blog. But this blog has never gone anywhere, so maybe I shoudln't have even tried to move it somewhere.
Goodbye
Goodbye
A weekend of different paces
This weekend wasn't a bad one, it was just very different. Yesterday I spent the whole day with my girlfriend. We went out for breakfast, went shopping for furniture for my apartment (but didn't find anything interesting) then in the evening, we went for a concert with Collective Soul. The opening band was called Low Millions and was interesting. Big U2 influence, nothing really new, but not too bad. But when we got to Collective Soul... It's not that they are a bad band, it is just that the person that was setting the balance simply disappeared with the vocals. It was hard to follow songs that I didn't know and couldn't hear the vocals. We ended up even leaving the concert early! Good that we didn't pay for it (she has a friend that works in the place where the concert was and was able to let us in for free). Then we ate at a vegan restaurant. Very interesting food!
Anyway, today was a complete change of pace. I spent the day cleaning and working. I'm still waiting for my advisor's comments to arrive, so I couldn't work on my dissertation. But I had lots of things to do for my "bills-paying" work and a ton of cleaning and laundry to do.
Alright, time to go!
Anyway, today was a complete change of pace. I spent the day cleaning and working. I'm still waiting for my advisor's comments to arrive, so I couldn't work on my dissertation. But I had lots of things to do for my "bills-paying" work and a ton of cleaning and laundry to do.
Alright, time to go!
Thursday, February 24, 2005
News from my advisor
I finally got a call from my advisor (actually 2, I missed his call yesterday and only realized it today when he called me again). It seems like my dissertation is going the right way. He has a couple of things for me to correct and add, but is hopeful that I can schedule my defense for next month. That means that thare shouldn't be that many things to do! It is exciting! This weekend should still be ok, because I probably won't received his comments until early next week, but I'll have busy evenings next week.
Besides that, I can only say that I'm back to the "busy" stage. I've started dating again! Part of me was saying to let me wait until my defense, but it just happened. I shouldn't say much more about it right now, because it's just the beginning of everything, but we have been enjoying ourselves for now. She's been keeping me away from work as much as she can (she works too, and in the evenings sometimes) and we have been even cooking together, and watching some Food Network (that was yesterday - I think the first time we actually stayed in front of a TV with it on). Sure she made me watch "Wimbledon", but sometimes it is hard to run away from these things. It is actually difficult for me to rate chick flicks, because they all seem the same to me. Here is the basic plot:
They see each other, fall in love, there is something that happens that makes them have to stay away, usually related to family, they can't stand being away from each other and they break the rules, get together and everything works well!
How to rate it? Predictable? SURE. Bad? Well... Everything I say can be used against me, so I'll just stop here. Let's just say that I watched the whole movie, and she fell asleep in the middle of it.
Ok, back to work here. My day hasn't been too productive. After the call from my advisor, I just couldn't concentrate any more. But I'll get back to it. After my 11 am meeting.
Besides that, I can only say that I'm back to the "busy" stage. I've started dating again! Part of me was saying to let me wait until my defense, but it just happened. I shouldn't say much more about it right now, because it's just the beginning of everything, but we have been enjoying ourselves for now. She's been keeping me away from work as much as she can (she works too, and in the evenings sometimes) and we have been even cooking together, and watching some Food Network (that was yesterday - I think the first time we actually stayed in front of a TV with it on). Sure she made me watch "Wimbledon", but sometimes it is hard to run away from these things. It is actually difficult for me to rate chick flicks, because they all seem the same to me. Here is the basic plot:
They see each other, fall in love, there is something that happens that makes them have to stay away, usually related to family, they can't stand being away from each other and they break the rules, get together and everything works well!
How to rate it? Predictable? SURE. Bad? Well... Everything I say can be used against me, so I'll just stop here. Let's just say that I watched the whole movie, and she fell asleep in the middle of it.
Ok, back to work here. My day hasn't been too productive. After the call from my advisor, I just couldn't concentrate any more. But I'll get back to it. After my 11 am meeting.
Monday, February 21, 2005
Strange news about next shuttle flight
Can somebody actually explain this to me: NASA bumps return to flight. The strange thing is that this article claims that they changed the date because they had worries about "lighting conditions". Do they have some type of Egyptian Sun God device to which the light has to align perfectly or else they can't have a launch? It's only 3 days of difference, it's not that the sun will be on a very different position!
Oh, well... NASA people like to do strange calculations for everything! We just hope one team didn't use the English measurements while the other used metric.
Oh, well... NASA people like to do strange calculations for everything! We just hope one team didn't use the English measurements while the other used metric.
Saturday, February 19, 2005
After another very interesting Friday evening
Yesterday evening was another very interesting one. I was invited to have dinner at a Rabbi's place. Arriving there I found out that he organizes these dinners almost every Friday (when he is around) and invites as many people as he can fit in his house. The conclusion is that I met many different and interesting people. I've even met a medical doctor that has been to Brazil multiple times. He was even invited to work there at the Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein. He started mentioning all the family he has there and some names even rang the bell as people that I might have met. Small world!
Not only that, I met a Brazilian guy that works at Microsoft right now. He was a little tired (he is one of those people that work 12+ hours a day - and imagine that, he is from Rio de Janeiro!), but we still had a very good conversation.
All of the people there were older than I was (well, except the Rabbi's kids). It is interesting to see how many things in common I can find when I go to these events. Especially when there is a Brazilian Jew around! I guess now I have new possibilities for Friday events, and a whole new group of people to get to know.
The last thing I wanted to talk about is that sometimes human nature is sad. Creating excuses in order to hide evident facts just doesn't get you anywhere. But it is not a person's fault, it is the way we operate. If it is because of culture or if it is genetic we will never know. I'm betting on a little of both, because of the wide-spread nature of this problem. It is that our brain needs negative reinforcement to learn or un-learn. Synapses have to be made stronger and weaker. And that's what our memory is all about. We can be made to believe whatever we want, as long as we know how to lie to ourselves.
Not only that, I met a Brazilian guy that works at Microsoft right now. He was a little tired (he is one of those people that work 12+ hours a day - and imagine that, he is from Rio de Janeiro!), but we still had a very good conversation.
All of the people there were older than I was (well, except the Rabbi's kids). It is interesting to see how many things in common I can find when I go to these events. Especially when there is a Brazilian Jew around! I guess now I have new possibilities for Friday events, and a whole new group of people to get to know.
The last thing I wanted to talk about is that sometimes human nature is sad. Creating excuses in order to hide evident facts just doesn't get you anywhere. But it is not a person's fault, it is the way we operate. If it is because of culture or if it is genetic we will never know. I'm betting on a little of both, because of the wide-spread nature of this problem. It is that our brain needs negative reinforcement to learn or un-learn. Synapses have to be made stronger and weaker. And that's what our memory is all about. We can be made to believe whatever we want, as long as we know how to lie to ourselves.
Friday, February 18, 2005
A busy week behind me
This week was interestingly busy. It started with me not feeling too good (I got a very quick cold that just made me feel not too great for a day or so) evolving into big changes at my area at Amazon (re-org) and culminating on me being invited for dinner tonight at a Rabbi's place. Of course he won't be very happy to know that I'll drive there and drive back home, but I think he will live.
Just a little bit more on the re-org, basically my direct manager changed (my current manager became my manager's manager - I guess I can say I was demoted) and lots of things moved around. My project didn't change at all, and I think it was a good change (with some small disagreements, though). Like all changes, for some time people get a little confused with what they have to do now, but it'll settle soon.
I don't know what else to talk about. My life is changing in some subtle (and some not-too-subtle) ways, but I'm still trying to understand the change before I can really discuss it. I think it is a good change!
As for a link, maybe people should have a quick look into Yub.com. The concept is interestin: combining product and local reviews with social networks for you to get to know people that buy like you and get some idea of who is behind reviews. However, the good things, in my opinion, end there. The main problem with it is who joins the network. Social networks are dead... Most of the people that join these things are young, teenagers. What can they review in depth? Sure there have to be some interesting reviews, but most of them are around "Oh, man, this is soooo coool!"
The user interface is a little too busy, but there are good things about it. Oh, well, take a look and get your own impressions of it.
Ah, I should also send another link: Israeli-Palestinian Cease-Fire. I surely have to put a disclaimer here that this is a link to The Onion, if you know what I mean...
Just a little bit more on the re-org, basically my direct manager changed (my current manager became my manager's manager - I guess I can say I was demoted) and lots of things moved around. My project didn't change at all, and I think it was a good change (with some small disagreements, though). Like all changes, for some time people get a little confused with what they have to do now, but it'll settle soon.
I don't know what else to talk about. My life is changing in some subtle (and some not-too-subtle) ways, but I'm still trying to understand the change before I can really discuss it. I think it is a good change!
As for a link, maybe people should have a quick look into Yub.com. The concept is interestin: combining product and local reviews with social networks for you to get to know people that buy like you and get some idea of who is behind reviews. However, the good things, in my opinion, end there. The main problem with it is who joins the network. Social networks are dead... Most of the people that join these things are young, teenagers. What can they review in depth? Sure there have to be some interesting reviews, but most of them are around "Oh, man, this is soooo coool!"
The user interface is a little too busy, but there are good things about it. Oh, well, take a look and get your own impressions of it.
Ah, I should also send another link: Israeli-Palestinian Cease-Fire. I surely have to put a disclaimer here that this is a link to The Onion, if you know what I mean...
Monday, February 14, 2005
Valentine's day yearly rant
Valentine's day is a very strange day in the American calendar. I'm getting to the conclusion that Americans are just too jealous of each other, so there can't be any holidays that people give gifts to one person only. They have to extend the gift giving to everybody else, like co-workers, children, teachers. It is actually a big day at elementary schools (and even after that)!
The whole concept behind this date is wrong. The amount of pressure that it puts on a relationship (Will he get the right flowers? Good chocolate? Reservations on that expensive restaurant?) is just unreal and unhealthy. The psychological benefits from a common day of "love-giving" is also not that important. It can only go wrong!
I'm an advocate of the "every day is a good day to be romantic". I think romance has to be spontaneous and should have a set date for it. Restaurants and chocolate companies wouldn't know how to focus their work anymore, though. But that's a minor detail.
Alright, I'm falling asleep while writing this. I didn't realize it was already almost 2 a.m. Let me go to bed.
Just as an update, I actually went on a date technically yesterday. It was alright, but I'm not sure I'll get a second one. My boring inner self was not very impressive. But who knows?
The whole concept behind this date is wrong. The amount of pressure that it puts on a relationship (Will he get the right flowers? Good chocolate? Reservations on that expensive restaurant?) is just unreal and unhealthy. The psychological benefits from a common day of "love-giving" is also not that important. It can only go wrong!
I'm an advocate of the "every day is a good day to be romantic". I think romance has to be spontaneous and should have a set date for it. Restaurants and chocolate companies wouldn't know how to focus their work anymore, though. But that's a minor detail.
Alright, I'm falling asleep while writing this. I didn't realize it was already almost 2 a.m. Let me go to bed.
Just as an update, I actually went on a date technically yesterday. It was alright, but I'm not sure I'll get a second one. My boring inner self was not very impressive. But who knows?
Saturday, February 12, 2005
Old patterns die hard
I'm starting to see some old patterns creeping in my life. I thought I learned, but it seems like I didn't. The problem is that, in a way, although most people around me have similar patterns, it seems like I'm the only one bothered by them. I think I care too much about these kinds of things, so maybe I should just stop caring.
Yesterday I went to the happy hour with my office mates. We had a good time talking, eating and drinking at a brewery just west of where we work called Pyramid. The beer tasted like beer, in other words, terrible! :-) One of the things that I was taught yesterday about Seattle is that I have to treat it as a small town. You will find people you know almost everywhere you go when you start to know more people. Actually I'm starting to notice that little by little. It's not Stillwater-small, where after a couple of weeks you can't really go anywhere public and expect not to be recognized, but I recognized at least 3 people last time I went to watch a concert!
Oh, talking about concerts, now I'm an official supporter of the Seattle Symphony. Not a huge supporter that my name will appear in all programs, but I will be invited for the founder's lounge, to a special concert, and a type of dinner sometime. It is exciting! I just hope I didn't choose a date that will conflict with my defense.
Well, time to go back to work here. It is time for major cleaning in my apartment! My allergies are starting to bother me, so I have to do what I can to control them. I'm not sure it's my apartment, but it's the only thing I can really control.
Yesterday I went to the happy hour with my office mates. We had a good time talking, eating and drinking at a brewery just west of where we work called Pyramid. The beer tasted like beer, in other words, terrible! :-) One of the things that I was taught yesterday about Seattle is that I have to treat it as a small town. You will find people you know almost everywhere you go when you start to know more people. Actually I'm starting to notice that little by little. It's not Stillwater-small, where after a couple of weeks you can't really go anywhere public and expect not to be recognized, but I recognized at least 3 people last time I went to watch a concert!
Oh, talking about concerts, now I'm an official supporter of the Seattle Symphony. Not a huge supporter that my name will appear in all programs, but I will be invited for the founder's lounge, to a special concert, and a type of dinner sometime. It is exciting! I just hope I didn't choose a date that will conflict with my defense.
Well, time to go back to work here. It is time for major cleaning in my apartment! My allergies are starting to bother me, so I have to do what I can to control them. I'm not sure it's my apartment, but it's the only thing I can really control.
Friday, February 11, 2005
Here are two apparently unrelated articles that I found interesting during my morning sweep through the news:
Free Expression Can Be Costly When Bloggers Bad-Mouth Jobs. It talks about people being fired because they mentioned something that was against the company's image. It is sad how important this concept of image is for a company. Sure they try to prevent people from lying saying bad things about the company that could make investors run away for no reason. But, at the same time, isn't firing a person going to do more harm than not? It is as if you admit that this person was leaking information about the dark side of the company. At least they didn't kill her!
My point of view is that people have to be careful with what they post about work. Especially when it could be secret information of a product that will come out soon and knowing it early could warn the competitors; or the investors. But just discussing problems you have with some internal company policy should actually trigger discussion inside the company. Saying: "I read you don't like our way of doing things, so you are fired!" does not solve any problems. Oh, well...
Now for the next piece of news: Crime-Friendly Neighborhoods. This article talks about some modifications in some neighborhoods that remove the isolation that it had through the need of cars and ended up bringing criminals in. A friend of mine mentioned that this is one of the reasons why public transportation is terrible in many parts of California. People are afraid that if they put buses going to the rich areas, this would attract criminals to these rich areas.
It is the same idea of adding levels of security to your house or car, or even to a web site. They are not unbreakable, but they make the criminals decide that it is easier to go elsewhere. As human beings are naturally lazy, it works. But does this solve anything? It just creates a larger rift between the two groups that acts as a capacitor, letting charges accumulate. Think of a small capacitor exploding: just a small popping sound and the smell of something burning, not too bad. Now think of those huge mC capacitors, 40 cm of diameter or more... You don't want to be around when they do explode.
Free Expression Can Be Costly When Bloggers Bad-Mouth Jobs. It talks about people being fired because they mentioned something that was against the company's image. It is sad how important this concept of image is for a company. Sure they try to prevent people from lying saying bad things about the company that could make investors run away for no reason. But, at the same time, isn't firing a person going to do more harm than not? It is as if you admit that this person was leaking information about the dark side of the company. At least they didn't kill her!
My point of view is that people have to be careful with what they post about work. Especially when it could be secret information of a product that will come out soon and knowing it early could warn the competitors; or the investors. But just discussing problems you have with some internal company policy should actually trigger discussion inside the company. Saying: "I read you don't like our way of doing things, so you are fired!" does not solve any problems. Oh, well...
Now for the next piece of news: Crime-Friendly Neighborhoods. This article talks about some modifications in some neighborhoods that remove the isolation that it had through the need of cars and ended up bringing criminals in. A friend of mine mentioned that this is one of the reasons why public transportation is terrible in many parts of California. People are afraid that if they put buses going to the rich areas, this would attract criminals to these rich areas.
It is the same idea of adding levels of security to your house or car, or even to a web site. They are not unbreakable, but they make the criminals decide that it is easier to go elsewhere. As human beings are naturally lazy, it works. But does this solve anything? It just creates a larger rift between the two groups that acts as a capacitor, letting charges accumulate. Think of a small capacitor exploding: just a small popping sound and the smell of something burning, not too bad. Now think of those huge mC capacitors, 40 cm of diameter or more... You don't want to be around when they do explode.
Thursday, February 10, 2005
No... Not working 12+ hours a day any more... yea, right
After I finished my dissertation I saw that easily I was going to lock myself in the office for longer periods of time, because I don't have a reason to go back home any more. So I made a promise to myself: I'm not going to stay in the office for more than 10 hours!
Well, I guess that today I broke my promise. I had to work on some stuff and when I finished I looked at the watch and saw: oh, it's 8:45 pm... I arrived in the office today at what? 7:45... 13 hours? And thinking that my bus just left, so I'll have to wait until 9:20 to get the next one. Grrr... Hateful Michel!
But at least I got some work done. And I did it faster than I though I was going to. I thought that what I had to do was going to take 4 hours and it took me 3. Neat! The only thing is that now I have to go back to the hard work.
By the way, I realize that I can't form good phrases any more. I think I'm a little tired (and hungry). Just 20 more minutes and I can leave to get the bus... 20 more minutes.
Well, I guess that today I broke my promise. I had to work on some stuff and when I finished I looked at the watch and saw: oh, it's 8:45 pm... I arrived in the office today at what? 7:45... 13 hours? And thinking that my bus just left, so I'll have to wait until 9:20 to get the next one. Grrr... Hateful Michel!
But at least I got some work done. And I did it faster than I though I was going to. I thought that what I had to do was going to take 4 hours and it took me 3. Neat! The only thing is that now I have to go back to the hard work.
By the way, I realize that I can't form good phrases any more. I think I'm a little tired (and hungry). Just 20 more minutes and I can leave to get the bus... 20 more minutes.
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
Still learning things from other sources
Today I was going through my usual sweep through online news when I find this: Amazon invests in blogging site. Strange move... I'll try to investigate more about it. But of course I won't be able to post or tell anybody outside work what it is about, but this post is just to let people think.
Besides that, it was a pretty hard day at work today. In the afternoon I was interrupted to talk about an idea that I just thought it was reasonably stupid. But the person that had this idea insisted so much in it, even took me out to eat (dessert) to discuss it! I don't know why, one of my weaknesses is that things that I find are stupid bother me. It makes my mind go crazy trying to understand why that person gave this idea, and what this person isn't seeing that I'm seeing that is making me think it is stupid. The result of it: I just couldn't do any work any more. So I came home. At 7:15 pm I was home, imagine that!!! And what am I doing? Reading the news and... working. At least it is quiet here.
Besides that, it was a pretty hard day at work today. In the afternoon I was interrupted to talk about an idea that I just thought it was reasonably stupid. But the person that had this idea insisted so much in it, even took me out to eat (dessert) to discuss it! I don't know why, one of my weaknesses is that things that I find are stupid bother me. It makes my mind go crazy trying to understand why that person gave this idea, and what this person isn't seeing that I'm seeing that is making me think it is stupid. The result of it: I just couldn't do any work any more. So I came home. At 7:15 pm I was home, imagine that!!! And what am I doing? Reading the news and... working. At least it is quiet here.
A depressing morning
I think I shouldn't ever chat with my parents in the morning. Lately they have been sending me through endless guilt trips because I'm not home. For instance, this morning my mother said that my sister asked her to say hi to me, because she can't chat with me any more or else she starts crying. She can't listen to classical music or R.E.M. (my favorite band) without crying. It is just hard sometimes...
Sometimes news arrive the wrong way
I was reading the news before going to sleep (I have to wake up early in the morning, because I have a chat with my parents very early) when I suddenly saw this article: Amazon searches for big office digs. I don't work at the PacMed building, but it's a very nice building! Wonderful view of Seattle! Pretty slow and strange elevators... But it is fun to always arrive in Seattle and see it looking back at me.
Anyway, time to go to sleep here. Not much else to talk about. I finally cooked today, actually! I'm impressed! But, of course, my evening was gone with all the cooking and cleaning up afterwards. At the same time, it's not that I have a lot to do in the evenings now!
Anyway, time to go to sleep here. Not much else to talk about. I finally cooked today, actually! I'm impressed! But, of course, my evening was gone with all the cooking and cleaning up afterwards. At the same time, it's not that I have a lot to do in the evenings now!
Tuesday, February 08, 2005
Google maps
I have to blog this, although I'm sure the web is being infested by this news in all blogs: check out the new Google Maps. Google again showing that they know how to use JavaScript! If I was MapQuest or Yahoo Maps, I would be worried, really worried!
And now the next thing is to wait for them to combine this information with satellite pictures (they bought a company that does this not too long ago).
And now the next thing is to wait for them to combine this information with satellite pictures (they bought a company that does this not too long ago).
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