tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60893719931722628502024-03-08T20:18:10.794+02:00Yellow soap Opera blogMartin Vahihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12072649570880032285noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6089371993172262850.post-40924091342021483992013-04-28T04:55:00.001+03:002013-04-28T04:55:09.984+03:00Blog Migration Notice<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
</h3>
As of April 2013 this blog has moved to <a href="http://martin.softf1.com/g/yellow_soap_opera_blog/">http://martin.softf1.com/g/yellow_soap_opera_blog/</a> .
Martin Vahihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12072649570880032285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6089371993172262850.post-14204842961097219522013-01-05T16:08:00.003+02:002013-05-25T02:14:37.248+03:00A few Thoughts on life's work<b><br /></b>
<b><br /></b>
<b>The Problem</b><br />
<br />
People work hard to build something beautiful, delicate, helpful, even life-saving, without acting as a parasite towards anybody and then other people just destroy it for whatever reason, convenience, arrogance, ignorance.<br />
<br />
<b>Examples</b><br />
<br />
<b></b>Non-military buildings get destroyed during wars, schematics, research results, software, generally said as "intellectual property" is left to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bit_rot">bitrot</a> or totally destroyed due to corporate social processes.<br />
<br />
<b>A more technical, software related, example</b><br />
<br />
As of January 2013 Android phones do not use the standard Java byte-code and use their own Java interpreter, Dalvik, because the former Sun Microsystems kept its Java mobile phone edition proprietary and later, when Nokia dumped its Symbian mobile operating system to the history trash can, there were no modern phones left on the market that use the standard Java byte-code based interpreter. The Android worked fine with its non-standard interpreter, i.e. there was no financial incentive to switch back to the standard Java byte-code that runs on any device and the initial Java concept, write once run anywhere, is out of practical use. The Java Micro Edition is in the history trash can. Neither Google (the Android developer) nor the former Sun Microsystems financially benefited from the outcome. Google spent considerable amount of money on developing the Dalvik and both companies spent considerable money on lawyers.<br />
<br />
<b>A Solution Candidate</b><br />
<br />
Place/build one's creation, life's work, to an environment, where there are no such other people, circumstances, that destroy it. It would be pretty foolish to place a china sales stand to the path of running bisons.<br />
<br />
++++++++++++++++++++++<br />
<br />
Updates. A few additional related references:<br />
<br />
<br />
<iframe src="http://embed.ted.com/talks/dan_ariely_what_makes_us_feel_good_about_our_work.html" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe>
<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/rrkrvAUbU9Y" width="560"></iframe>
Martin Vahihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12072649570880032285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6089371993172262850.post-13894387924190564812012-02-19T06:30:00.000+02:002014-10-31T21:55:29.137+02:00An idea for a 3D Printer that Prints any "Sufficiently" Heat-conducting Metal<br />
<br />
OK, material scientists can laugh, but here's the idea that is actually not novel at all.<br />
<br />
First, consider the classical experiment, where the feather falls down in a vacuum:<br />
<br />
<br />
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/4z8g8OSOMzY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<br />
<br />
Now, consider the World War 2 era bombings, where planes are flying horizontally and bombs are released at the right moment so that they reach their target according to the simple, Newtonian, mechanics:<br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnkVPtyGaVA">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnkVPtyGaVA</a><br />
<br />
In vacuum, there are no aerodynamics to consider and the bomb-dropping calculations are usually a piece of cake to almost any modern computer, so the idea is that in stead of bombs, one may use groups of metal atoms that fall down in a vacuum and have been released from a tip of a metal wire by vaporizing the tip of the wire with lasers. The base of the 3D statue is kept very cool to make sure that the falling atoms stick to the statue in stead of forming a molten "lava-like" mass at the top of the statue. I guess that the metal has to be a really good heat conductor to allow the cooling of the top to take place.<br />
<br />
The idea is not novel at all and the reason, why I write this blog post is that the apparent simplicity of it really fascinates me, because unlike many of the other solutions, the metal printer that I described in this blog post, seems simple enough to be a small and very practical hobby project. As a matter of fact, one way to simplify the design is that in stead of a "flying bomber" there is a thick metal plate that forms a "rainy sky". The metal vapor rain droplets might be produced by a laser that acts like a "Hollywood spotlight" that draws separate layers on the "clouds". Or may be, for the sake of precision, to make sure that the laser light is fired perpendicularly onto the "clouds", there might be a bomber that flies under the rain-clouds (the thick metal plate) and it flies so fast that the bomber gets out of the way before the batch of atoms falls to the bomber's height.<br />
<br />
Here's a random bunch of references to various 3D printing or otherwise related sites that probably inspired, influenced, me:<br />
<a href="http://blog.ted.com/2012/01/23/a-primer-on-3d-printing-lisa-harouni-on-ted-com/">http://blog.ted.com/2012/01/23/a-primer-on-3d-printing-lisa-harouni-on-ted-com/</a><br />
<a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/klaus_stadlmann_the_world_s_smallest_3d_printer.html">http://www.ted.com/talks/klaus_stadlmann_the_world_s_smallest_3d_printer.html</a><br />
<a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/anthony_atala_printing_a_human_kidney.html">http://www.ted.com/talks/anthony_atala_printing_a_human_kidney.html</a><br />
<a href="http://thekneeslider.com/archives/2010/04/21/print-3d-engineering-models-on-your-desktop-hp-designjet-3d-printer/">http://thekneeslider.com/archives/2010/04/21/print-3d-engineering-models-on-your-desktop-hp-designjet-3d-printer/</a><br />
<a href="http://www.shapeways.com/blog/archives/1215-3D-Printing-Technologies-Explained.html">http://www.shapeways.com/blog/archives/1215-3D-Printing-Technologies-Explained.html</a><br />
<a href="http://www.exone.com/eng/technology/x1-prometal/process_prometal.html">http://www.exone.com/eng/technology/x1-prometal/process_prometal.html</a><br />
<div>
<br /></div>Martin Vahihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12072649570880032285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6089371993172262850.post-72525987034716154452011-09-22T17:13:00.000+03:002014-10-31T20:21:20.633+02:00An Explanation of Cowardliness<br />
A cow does not care, on which grassland it chews grass or who milks it.<br />
<br />
Yes, this whole blog post consists of a title, emoticon, 2 sentences and as of September 2011 I believe that I am open to new ideas and to changing my previous ideas, but I really do think that the previous sentence is pretty awesome and deserves this blog post.<br />
:-)<br />
<br />
++++++++++++++++++++<br />
Update from April 2013:<br />
<br />
<i>....or by whom or where or when the cows will be sent to a slaughterhouse. </i><br />
<i> </i> <br />
<i>(The Nazy concentration camps were understaffed and could not have been able to operate, if the prisoners had revolted. According to some estimates the concentration camps were so understaffed that even the mere refusal to work by the Jews that disposed the bodies could have stopped the mass murder.)</i><br />
<br />
In the light of this blog post, the classical Eurythmics song, "Sweet Dreams", obtains quite a new, thorough, meaning. If You think that You have seen that video so many times that there is nothing new for You to see there, then I claim that now that You have read this blog post, You might want to take another look at it. :-D<br />
<br />
They're smart, the Eurythmics people. Ingenious. In front of everyone's eyes and hardly anyone gets it. For decades !!! :-D<br />
<br />
<br />
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/qeMFqkcPYcg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<br />
<br />Martin Vahihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12072649570880032285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6089371993172262850.post-74573495398776008962011-05-31T06:48:00.001+03:002011-05-31T06:57:06.990+03:00I had a Dream, on 31th May 2011I had a dream, on 31'th May 2011<br />
<br />
Actually, in my day-dreams I have dreamed quite long that there would be some technology that would make it economical from fuel cost point of view to operate helicopter ambulances as freely as it can be done with car-ambulances. Specially in more remote areas like Saaremaa, where the local hospital may reside tens of kilometers from the potential patients.<br />
<br />
In my day-dreams I thought that it boils down to having some concentrated energy source, may be some new kind of atomic energy unit or something like that, which would reside on the vehicle and power the engines.<br />
<br />
In my night-dream, which ended about 10min before I reached writing this sentence here, I had a revelation: the technology actually already exists.<br />
<br />
You see, <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Saaremaa&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Saaremaa&gl=ee&hl=en&ll=58.516652,22.730713&spn=1.597948,3.532104&z=8">Saaremaa and Hiiumaa</a> are very windy places. In fact the Hiiumaa is so windy that they even plan huge sea wind parks there that are capable of powering the whole Estonia. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrolysis">Electrolysis</a> is an old technology for decomposing water to hydrogen and oxygen and people actually do it at home, for fun, using plain, small, batteries. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_vehicle">Hydrogen gas engines</a> already exist and using huge, pressurized, gas tanks on an helicopter is not a problem, because if one is going to fall with the hely, one is probably going to get pretty hurt, if not die, anyway and unlike commercial planes, the helicopters fly quite low, which means that one can probably design gas tanks that withstand the fall from the height that the helicopters typically fly to a sharp edge of a cliff. (<a href="http://youtu.be/CB7FjVo15x4">Here</a> is a video, where people shoot a gas tank with firearms.)<br />
<br />
And there it is: an helicopter ambulance system with low-enough maintenance cost that probably even a small hospital can afford running it. Buying the helicopters and windmills is a different story, but it does not matter so much, because it's a single-time investment, at least in the form of the wind mills and hydrogen production infrastructure.<br />
<br />
What regards to the dream, then actually, I wasn't fully asleep. I fell asleep about 5.00AM, after a huge effort to get a software release candidate ready by the morning, which I did not, and woke about 6.30AM (feeling truly fresh and surprised that I have slept just abut one and a halve hours) and then thought about the scene that I saw in my dream, where I had that revelation. It turned out that in my dream I was trying to get to sleep while lying in bed in a flat that had a same structure, floor plan, than in reality the flat in Saaremaa had, where me and my parents lived when I was just a few years old. The location of the bed in my dream matched with that of the real location and the size of the rooms in my dream were about the same as I saw the real flat, when I was a little boy.<br />
<br />
So, yes, I sure had a dream, this time. A bit like the <a href="http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/klu/drem/2001/00000011/00000002/00297573">Mendeleev supposedly had</a>. :-D<br />
<br />
Actually, there was more in that dream, but it's a bit private, so I won't write it down here. Quite weird though.<br />
<div><br />
</div>Martin Vahihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12072649570880032285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6089371993172262850.post-24061262920390200322011-05-19T11:51:00.000+03:002011-05-19T11:51:46.508+03:00A Response to a vlog: Europe Versus AmericaA response to a vlog: Europe versus America<br />
<br />
This is actually a response to the following vlog post:<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="344" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/644lGWtPiwY?fs=1" width="425"></iframe><br />
<br />
I'm responding here, because this whole text has more characters than is allowed in the comments, but I placed a a link to my response to the comments.<br />
<br />
-------------The--start--of--my--response---<br />
<br />
I understand that I'm responding to a vblog entry 2 years after it has been posted (2009 versus 2011), but I recognized one of my own, pretty old, line of thought in the contemplation that You posted.<br />
<br />
To make a long story short: the saying, that every scientist stands on the shoulders of giants, means that one derives new solutions from prior knowledge and it really does not matter, where the knowledge comes from, as long as it helps. Be it other cultures, lessons learned locally, aliens or academia, Hollywood, lessons learned by playing computer games.<br />
<br />
My approach is that I just try to pick the most functional solutions and combine them.<br />
<br />
As of 2011 I think that in the case of cultures the best solution is a mixture of the following:<br />
<br />
<ul><li>Japanese dedication and aim for perfection, but without the hierarchy and lack of creativity.</li>
<li><br />
</li>
<li> American creativity, non-hierarchical approach and attitude of being active, but without the American style of doing first and thinking later.</li>
<li><br />
</li>
<li> German custom to prefer quality over quantity and a custom to take time for thinking before doing, but without drowning to a sea of rules ultimately having double standards.</li>
<li><br />
</li>
<li>The Finnish custom of keeping every promise, totally strictly, but without the lack of communication.</li>
<li><br />
</li>
<li>Russian way of approaching life, even very difficult situations, with humor and joy, but without the hierarchy and sloppiness and laziness, i.e. one should really work hard and one should never cut corners.</li>
<li><br />
</li>
<li>British directness and openness, but without the snobbishness, laziness and with sensitivity to other people's feelings.</li>
</ul><br />
<br />
By the way, I'm from Estonia, North-Eastern Europe.<br />
<br />
-------------The--end--of--my--response------Martin Vahihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12072649570880032285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6089371993172262850.post-37384261588700456862011-04-28T18:12:00.004+03:002011-04-28T18:27:16.711+03:00A few Weird Thoughts About AmericansTo make a long story short, all of the problems in America, be it the environmental mess with the oil rigs, wars that don't get them anything but trouble, the issue that the US has to take credit from one of its greatest enemies, the People's Republic of China, and so on and so forth, come from a cultural particularity that the American culture does not have a custom to TAKE TIME TO THINK BEFORE DOING.<br />
<br />
I think that just thinking, not to mention talking, and not doing anything or doing very little, is also pretty ineffective in terms of goal-oriented things getting done in a way that the goals are met, but the general pattern in the U.S. seems to be that they just do not take "too much" time to think, even though they are perfectly capable of thinking. (As the classical joke goes: In general one can be sure that the America does the right thing, after trying everything else.)<br />
<br />
One of the controversial illustrations of the dont-take-too-much-time-to-think approach is the banking fiasco.<br />
<br />
According to some sources, the U.S. is very polarized in terms of wealth distribution. If that's so, then most of the money in the banks belongs to the richer part of the U.S. community. Given that it's the richer citizens that determine national politics and determine, what life is like in a country, then it's really controversial that the richer part of the US population, the part that really determines the internal politics of that super-state, does not take the effort to hold the bankers accountable for MISHANDLING THEIR PERSONAL ASSETS. This looks even weirder, if one looks at it from a perspective of American extra-tough individualism. (I, of course, argue, that as all of us have its strengths and weaknesses, making sure that people around us also have a chance to live, is also perfectly and 100% individualistic, because on a trip of life one probably needs to have good divers, climbers, runners and swimmers, in ones team, but I won't go into it in this posting.)<br />
<br />
The banking crises hit the hardest the people that determine the whole game in the U.S., the richer part of the U.S. community, and they just let it go, don't take the effort to fix, how their own monetary assets are handled. If this isn't due to the lack thinking then what is? I mean, people, who are smart enough to build themselves a fortune, ARE NOT DUMB and it IS the money that they truly care about in life, isn't it?<br />
<div><br />
</div>Martin Vahihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12072649570880032285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6089371993172262850.post-25502385786487268132011-04-16T09:37:00.013+03:002015-11-30T10:33:10.246+02:00A few Funny Words About Rationality and RealityIn math two sets(think of them as baskets of apples and oranges) are considered to "contain equal amount of elements", if one can pair the elements so that each of the pairs has one side of it from one set and the other side from the other set and after assembling as many pairs as one can, there's no elements left unpaired in either of the sets.<br />
<br />
That is to say: one should take a third, empty, basket, and start taping apples and oranges together by placing the pairs to the third, initially empty, basket and one can conclude that there was equal amount of apples and oranges if after running out of apples there are no oranges left.<br />
<br />
(Please do take a look at the <a href="http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Equipollent.html">formal definition</a>, because the examples above were oversimplified. The formal idea is that one defines a function from one set to another and that the function is required to have certain properties.)<br />
<br />
What regards the "rationality" part in this post, then that's just for warm-up. The idea is that unlike in the aforementioned example, there's an infinite number of <a href="http://mathworld.wolfram.com/RationalNumber.html">rational numbers</a>, but one can still say that there's exactly as many rational numbers as there are <a href="http://mathworld.wolfram.com/NaturalNumber.html">natural numbers</a>. The proof is actually suitable to teenage school children and can be read from <a href="http://www.homeschoolmath.net/teaching/rational-numbers-countable.php">here</a>. Just please be sure to understand the proof before reading this posting onwards.<br />
<br />
.....reading...break....<br />
<br />
OK, so, now comes the "reality" part. Please notice the scene from the following video, where a whole motorcycle emerges from some small object that fits into a pocket?<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="305" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/kSJtUKAwJXU" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe><br />
<br />
Or, the following armory:<br />
<br />
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mI_n_l7sEeY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<br />
<br />
<br />
Well, actually, mathematically there's nothing wrong with it.<br />
<br />
As of April 2011 I don't remember the name of the theorem, nor have I known or even looked up, leave along understand, the proof of it, but I guess if one understands how to fit an infinite number of <a href="http://mathworld.wolfram.com/RealNumber.html">real numbers</a> between any 2 real numbers, for example, like<br />
<br />
numberInbetween=smaller+(greater-smaller)/2<br />
<br />
then it should be pretty intuitive that there are as "many" numbers between 0 and a million as there are between 0 and 1. After all, there is at least one <a href="http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Bijection.html">bijection</a> from set_A=[0,1] to set_B=[0,1000000] and it looks like:<br />
<br />
b=a*1000000<br />
The <a href="http://mathworld.wolfram.com/InverseFunction.html">inverse</a> of it:<br />
a=b/1000000<br />
<br />
The crazy thing restated: for every number between 0 and 1000000 there exists one number between 0 and 1 in a way that none of the numbers from the set [0,1000000] share a pair-mate from the set [0,1] and all of the numbers in the set [0,1] are "used up". Of course, one might use just [0,0.0042] in stead of the [0,1] and one could still pair all of the real numbers from the set [0,1000000], but, the idea is the same and no, I'm not high, may be just a bit mental, but that's for the others to decide. (I've seen worse: check out, what they do in quantum physics.)<br />
<br />
In a modern, TRON, way of saying it: pick a pebble from a pocket, let it rearrange itself a little bit and ride a huge bike. Batteries are included.<br />
<br />
There's no controversy whatsoever. :-D<br />
<br />
Things like "length" and "volume" are quite artificial "parameters". A bit like points in a computer game, or something along those lines. One might as well just define one's own versions of them, which I omit here, because this post is pretty verbal already and people that are much smarter in math than I am or probably ever will be have already defined plenty of smart alternatives and studied their implications already decades ago, if not centuries ago. (Please don't get me wrong: this post wasn't meant to be very serious or extra educational. That's why it's in the soap opera blog. :-)<br />
<br />
I really liked the movies, the Ultraviolet and the Aeon Flux, so here are some clips just for fun:<br />
<br />
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/swFOw0f9bvE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="304" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Ivqm96rXf7w" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe>Martin Vahihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12072649570880032285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6089371993172262850.post-75158281091732989592011-01-04T22:18:00.001+02:002011-01-05T03:01:28.774+02:00About Communication According to my Personal ExperiencesI want to leave the embarrassing details, how I came to the text that is written here, to myself, but it's all<br />
an interpretation of personal experience and situations that have happened to me. The observations are in<br />
chronological order, i.e. they conform to the chronological order of events as they happened to me.<br />
<br />
The first observation is that in the case of topics or opinions that the management does not like, it is possible to get<br />
caught if the topics are discussed at the premises of the company. It's possible that one of the co-workers secretly<br />
tells the boss or it is possible to get caught by the boss itself. The antimeasrues: never-ever talk anything negative<br />
about the company on that company's premises.<br />
<br />
The second observation is that in the case of communication that consists of only n% (n<100) of the message, the<br />
rest (100%-n%) is made up arbitrarily. Namely, if the words accumulate only 7% of the whole message, body language 55%,<br />
voice tone 38%, then in the case of e-mails the 55%+38% is made up arbitrarily and the less the e-mail recipient<br />
knows the e-mail writer, the more arbitrary the "filling" is. The antimeasures: when communicating with people, who<br />
are not long-time friends, avoid sending e-mails to them whenever possible. Try to communicate with them by seeing<br />
them face-to-face and talking. (One can avoid a hell of a mess that way.)<br />
<br />
The third observation is that anything that is written down, can be forwarded, specially in the case of e-mails,<br />
and if it is forwarded to total strangers, for example, at the client's organization, then the second observation<br />
applies in the case of the strangers. Again, result is a hell of a mess. The antimeasures: AVOID sending e-mails<br />
and keep them as "free of information" as possible. If You really need to send some letter, keep it some sort<br />
of information-free formal nonsense that does not distinguish from the rest of the nonsense e-mails that<br />
the people are used to having. If You need to transfer information to someone, do it by phone or better yet, see them face-to-face, because that leaves the other side less room for arbitrary imagining and allows You to quickly correct, complement, Your message right after the other side has received it and shows some signs that he/she has understood it differently than You wanted to communicate. (The avoidance of misunderstandings avoids a human relations mess.) Also, keep in mind that anything written can be forwarded<br />
and can end up being in places, where one really does not want them to be. (Think of WikiLeaks, the press,<br />
if You were a diplomat.) As the e-mails contain only 7% of the whole message (the missing parts are body<br />
language and voice tone), its harder for the recipient to distinguish a formal letter<br />
from a more personal one and, well, that's one way letters can go to circulation while being totally out of context.<br />
<br />
This post will probably be edited in the future. This version is edited on 4'th of January 2011.Martin Vahihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12072649570880032285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6089371993172262850.post-87954905039845643112010-08-09T03:45:00.000+03:002010-08-09T03:45:03.647+03:00A Collection of Thoughts About Market AssessmentThis article will probably never be complete and I'll modify it from time to time. I intentionally avoid the word "improve", because it's up to the reader to evaluate whether I improve or worsen the text. The last edit is from 08.2010. This article is just a collection of assertions and it's up to the reader to use his or her own understanding of this world to assess, whether the assertions hold or are contradictory. As assertions get added, edited, removed, their numbering is not meant to consist of intact sequences of whole numbers.<br />
<br />
<b>Assertion #1:</b><br />
In case of products, where profitability is positively correlated with investment size, parties that are able to make a "relatively small" investment, are beaten in competition by parties that are able to make "relatively big" investment, unless the market is so small that the maximum profitable investment size is within the reach of the parties that are not able to make the "relatively big" investments.Martin Vahihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12072649570880032285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6089371993172262850.post-16776352336867043502010-07-16T04:22:00.003+03:002014-10-31T20:24:15.096+02:00A few wild Statements About Emotions and MemoryThis text is a quick and sleazy way to fast-note down one's thoughts, leaving the blanks for the reader to figure out, but anyway, I think that for the one, who can't figure out the blanks, this text is useless anyway.<br />
<br />
So, I note down a set of statements, and leave the connections between them for the reader to figure out. :-)<br />
<br />
My own hypothesis, the statement that is a bit of news to me at the time of writing this post, is:"Emotions are DATA that gets written into memory and the occurrence of emotion Y in situation X is just an ordinary memory retrieval event, where situation X helps to recall data in the memory, in this case, emotion Y."<br />
<br />
Think of it this way: if one loses a thing, let's say, apartment keys, then by replaying the situation, where one might have lost the keys, can help to remember the place, the move, how/where one placed the keys.<br />
<br />
The way I understand, in 2010, even one of the axioms of the <a href="http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=HT6ddclz6EAC&oi=fnd&pg=PR13&dq=Cognitive+psychology+model+automatic+thoughts&ots=db8YITu3rh&sig=JCWy7c3YxzFviGt-qZ_JWDI4Rao#v=onepage&q=Cognitive%20psychology%20model%20automatic%20thoughts&f=false">Cognitive Psychology</a> is that a situation triggers an automatic thought, which then determines human behavior and physical feelings. Think of it like, if one were to find oneself suddenly in the same room with a cobra snake, let's say, just 2 meters from it and with nothing but air between one and the snake, then probably it often takes just a fraction of a second to really get frightened and may be scream, startle and may be a few seconds or 10 seconds to start sweating from fear.<br />
<br />
Another loose assertion, which is also present at <a href="http://brainrules.net/">http://brainrules.net</a>, is that a presentation that touches peoples emotions, is remembered better.<br />
<br />
Next loose assertion, from the book of <a href="http://brainrules.net/">http://brainrules.net</a> , the way I understand it as of July 2010, is that memories are stored and enhanced in a region of a brain, where they were placed at the very first instance and that they are most easily retrieved if they are heavily linked to some data that is already, "firmly", there.<br />
<br />
I'm not sure, I guess that if I consider a blog, specially this soap opera blog here, somewhat as my diary, then may be the reason, why I wrote all of this text here is to sort out my own thoughts a little bit. It seems to me that my conclusion, at the time of writing this section, is that fear is very often an unjustified, irrational, automatic thought that should be recognized and consciously ignored, because calm assessment, analyze, of the situation should always be sufficient. I acknowledge that fear helps rats and other animals to avoid their predators, but if there is nowhere to run or the situation is so fast that one knows for sure that one can not run, let's say, sufficiently far away from a bomb, then calm assessment does seem to me to be the most fruitful asset.<br />
<br />
I admit that I was listening the following video in the background then writing this post. It seems to me that music helps me to get to get to inner memories, thoughts, in my mind where I would not get otherwise. The idea is that a music associates to me with something and then I'm able to think, what is it about that piece of music that I really like, why is it that I like this particular feature within that music, what is it this thing really that I'm dreaming about, what my heart yearns for. I guess that's it's the same thing that I just described in this post: the music creates the situation and brings out emotions that I can then analyze to get to know myself a little bit more.<br />
<br />
<br />
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/g1VR3r3Gbi8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
<br />
<br />
For example, once I was walking home at night while listening to some of my favorite MP3 files and came to a conclusion that the reason, why I liked those particular pieces of music was that they associated to me with some of my earlier, childhood dreams of success. When I listed the features of success in my mind and thought it over a bit, I found that those dreams were naive and contradictory and started to think, whether I am at the "right path" in reality, how I should try to plan my career in reality, where to aim, what political stances I should have.Martin Vahihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12072649570880032285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6089371993172262850.post-63642610622280164402010-06-07T04:01:00.004+03:002010-06-07T04:12:45.079+03:00A Vague idea About a Tactical Voting SystemNow, this post does not provide anything to anybody, except that it just describes, what's on my mind at the start of June 2010.<br />
<br />
Namely, I really started to wonder, how to communicate, GET THINGS DONE together with others in a more effective way.<br />
<br />
The background is that I'm part of a subgroup of the Estonian green party, and in a funny way one of the, so to speak, representatives, of the group in a way that I got thrown out of the green party with other, much more prominent, members of the group, and then, our party membership was restored due to a high demand within the party.<br />
<br />
Well, anyway, what's on my mind is that smart and otherwise people that I want to cooperate with, tend to do two things that I really don't like.<br />
<br />
First, they do things that are led from emotions.<br />
<br />
Second, they don't consider different solutions, contemplate about them systematically, compare the pluses and minuses of different solutions.<br />
<br />
They do ask for comments and are willing to cooperate, in general try to do things together with other members of the group, but the discussion is seriously hindered due to the lack of systematization. To me it seems that what they do is that they ask for comments and then try to pick something up from the comments according to their own best judgment, and merge that somehow into the existing text. The result is that the text is a huge mixture, which is systematized, but full of issues that don't work, but something that people emotionally voted for or tonally agree with. One can say that the result is a systematic emotional, polite, expression, but not something that can be used to get things done or clear things up.<br />
<br />
I suspect that it has something to do with the structure of communication in general. Like, may be it has something to do with a fact that the structure of the communication is a graph, where if one person says something and something relates with it for some other person, then that other person says/writes his/her ideas about the related issue and so it goes. To me it seems that it is a very effective way to get the raw material, if done in a very small group, i.e. not more than 10 people, preferably with at most 5 people, but from there onward, I think that one should try to think of something.<br />
<br />
May be the solution is that one of the people notes down ideas subject to evaluation and then the group adds statements about the ideas to evaluate and each of the group members can evaluate each of the statements by giving it 4 values: statement doesn't hold, statement supports the claim, statement is neutral, statement is against the claim.<br />
<br />
It can be simulated in a spreadsheet by calculating the mark to a single statement given by a single person by HOLDS*MARK, where the HOLDS is in set {0,1} and the MARK is in set {-1,0,1}. The default value for HOLDS is 1 and the default value for the MARK is 0. The votes would be counted by finding a geometrical mean of the holds values and multiplying the sum of all MARK values with the geometrical mean. This would be done with every statement about the claim and the claim's sum of points would be the sum of the statements' points.<br />
<br />
OK, I understand that the last section was not clear enough, I don't write technical documentation that way, but I don't want to spend too much time on this article. At least I self know, what algorithm I had on my mind. I think that it would actually take a bunch of mathematical formula anyway to explain it clearly and that's quite unpleasant to do in HTML, but even if different people interpret my last section differently, I'm sure that they can fantasize somewhat to the "right direction". :-) After all, it is a non-serious, soap opera blog.Martin Vahihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12072649570880032285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6089371993172262850.post-54076238962699611022010-05-18T06:34:00.002+03:002014-10-31T21:44:40.327+02:00One Vague Thought About the Emergence and Spreading of Social KnowledgeWell, I was listening to Enya's track called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boudica">Boudica</a> and from there I wondered to the Wikipedia page, where it said that the Boudica was a queen that led an uprising against the Romans.<br />
<br />
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/poJXSZZ-bmE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
<br />
It kind of occurred to me that in the medieval ages the queens and kings were practically local warlords, analogues to modern day corporate players, because if they were not waging wars against other kings/queens, they were suppressing the rest of the population, literally robbing them by using violence (so called taxes---to the local mafia boss).<br />
<br />
On the other hand, some of them, after having enough tough times with equal matches,i.e. other warlords, seem to start doing "humane" things. Now, one of the questions that came to my mind is that given the state of medicine in middle ages, many of the people might just die before gaining the smartness, knowledge, how to live happily and in prosperity (in terms of health and wealth).<br />
<br />
For example, if we look at average modern time humans, then given "enough" power, they act like mini-dictators or just think that they can get away with abusing or bullying everyone else without suffering the consequences. I do not believe in God, but if he existed as an entity, then even he suffers the consequences, because he does have to cope with the result of his deeds. Screw things up and You have to use the screwed up things for attaining Your own goals..So, back to topic, some of the minidictator-humans are eager to actually implement their dictatorship ambitions by attending in corporate power-struggles and climbing the ladder, but the ones that do not, are no better.<br />
<br />
Also, when one looks at what happens in the United States army(Iraq, Afghanistan), then the youngest ones make the most ruthless killers and torturers, probably, because they just don't yet fully understand, how their deeds look in the background of the rest of their lives, family members, etc., and then, when they arrive home from Iraq or Afghanistan, and have the moment of comparison, many of them are deeply depressed, etc.. But in Iraq, they don't mind that much. They just do what's told and feel good about doing a "good job".<br />
<br />
It seems to be in line with a claim that it takes smartness to be "good". After all, one does have to know, what pleases and disturbs others in order to be good to them. Being delicate does take a mental effort.<br />
<br />
Given a fact that it also takes time to get to know, and observe, social processes (think politics, masses of a given culture in a given time, etc.), then the knowledge about social processes diminishes quite easily. But isn't that the case with all knowledge? How many of You is able to understand Albert Einstein's theory of relativity?Martin Vahihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12072649570880032285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6089371993172262850.post-5993287253734367292010-05-15T14:20:00.008+03:002010-05-15T14:34:40.478+03:00A set of Weird Dreams Between 14.05.2010 and 15.05.2010I'm not sure, in which order they were, but I remember 4 distinct sets. May be 5. Well, it is a description of dreams, so, it's obviously a mess.<br />
<br />
<br />
One of those dream-sections was that I was on an island, something like the islands are in Estonia, Internetized, but naturally clean. It was winter and I was there with a mixture of people, whom I know from various places and who, in the real life, probably never even have met. It consisted of, kind of, multiple day scenarios and one of the scenarios was that it was pitch-black night, inside a forest (on the island) was a diesel generator powered AM-radio station, an old type of thing, with a huge mast, and everything, except that it was so old that one could only send Morse codes and some kind of Morse messages, which none of us could read, came in lousily to some ancient and noisy, mechanical, machine. The backdrop was that we were all STUCK on that island, INFECTED by a VIRUS that was a computer virus and a biological virus AT THE SAME TIME, 2 IN ONE. It's weird, that in a nice, well lit by the old fashioned light bulbs, and warm, office of the ratio-station we also had an ordinary phone and an internet connection.<br />
<br />
<br />
We wanted to warn outside world of the biologically infectious virus and wanted to call for help, but the Internet connection and the phone system was taken over by the virus, which spoke with a voice of a small girl like the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Queen_and_White_Queen">Red Queen</a> computer of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resident_Evil_%28film%29">Resident Evil</a> movie and, as I said earlier, unlike the Resident Evil, where the computer limited the deadly virus from exiting an underground lab complex, in my dream, the computer virus and the biological virus were all the same, the same entity, fighting for its own spread and existence. As none of us knew, how to read the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morse_code">Morse code</a>, we wanted to find it out from the Internet. After all, it was also vital for us for sending the message out through the old-fashioned radio station, which could not be taken over by the virus due to its simplicity, primitiveness, archaicness. So, we darn hoped, that the virus has not blocked the web sites that contained the info, how to use Morse code, and, with luck, we even got some of the info, but then, the virus figured it out, how vital that information is for us and blocked it.<br />
<br />
<br />
One thing, that's funny about that section of the dream, is that even though it was cold, wet, pitch-dark night in a small opening of a forest, with the radio stations windows glowing from the light of the old-fashioned light-bulbs, it was not cold outside, at least none of us felt the cold, when we moved from the radio station to a near-by dormitory and, picked some berries up from under the snow along the way.<br />
<br />
<br />
The other part of this dream is, that the virus has infected some people of a town so that they were obeying the virus. The rest of the population did not obey the virus, even though they were infected. So, in order to facilitate its own spreading, the virus used the ones, who obeyed, as a police force, military force, for keeping the rest of the population isolated from the rest of the world, just like at the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet">soviet times</a> the soviet elite kept the rest of the population behind the "iron curtain".<br />
<br />
<br />
Oh well, one other scenario of my dreams involved my grandfather's garden, which is a mess in real life and which I, in real life, want to try to use for growing some herbs. In the dream it was even more full of wild plants than it is in the real life, but then there was one nice old lady, in my dreams, who explained, which of the plants in there are poisonous and which are herbs. In the dream, (just imagine, how spoiled I am) I started to think about, how to make a mobile phone software recognize the plant in the garden, so that I could practically note down the things that the old lady told me. In the dream I was thinking, that the main problem would be, how to make the phone recognize the plant of interest at the background of all other plants, and the solution that I came up with, (in the dream!!!) was that one might snatch the plant of interest, hold it in the background of the SKY, which is available everywhere and is very often almost uniform, or at least is without plants, and hold the plant of interest in the background of the sky, above ones head, for the mobile phone to recognize it. The only problem is that one can not identify poisonous plants and plants that are under protection, that way, because the "testing" means touching the plant and picking it from the ground also destroys the plant of interest.<br />
<br />
<br />
Well, I guess that's it for this blog entry. :-DMartin Vahihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12072649570880032285noreply@blogger.com0