To be a byte or not a byte, that is the question.
I just finished the article, Our Lives, Controlled From Some Guy’s Couch, by John Tierney of the NY Times. He interviewed Nick Bostrom, an Oxford philosopher, who wrote Are You Living in a Computer Simulation. Bostrom contends that we are actually living in a simulation. Think the Matrix but there are no physical bodies for us. We are just programs in some giant computer. He is quoted as saying, “My gut feeling, and it’s nothing more than that is that there’s a 20 percent change we’re living in a computer simulation.”
Tierney thinks that percentage is higher. As Tierney went on to point out, this theory would help explain all the evil in the world. Some kid is mucking things up. I know when I played SimCity, I would become bored with building my city so I would send tornadoes and Godzilla attacks just to see what would happen.
The concept of morality was also discussed. If this life is just a simulation, is there a need for morality? David Chalmers, another philosopher proposes that even if this is a simulation we should still attempt to get into the good graces of the “Prime Designer.” Tierney used this name to refer to the person or thing running the simulation. Robin Hanson believes that the more interesting we are to the Prime Designer the more likely we’ll get to stick around for the next round of Space Invaders.
I come away from this article with two observations. People want to put their faith in something. They don’t want to put their faith in God so they dream up the idea of a computer running the show. The second observation is that God has set eternity in the hearts of man. Whether they want to admit it or not, each person knows that this world is not all there is. It’s sad, some people would prefer to believe they are a simulation and when the computer is turned off they simply disappear. Whereas, I believe that when I leave this life I’m headed for a place prepared for me where there is no evil, no pain and no tears.
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I Was Thirsty
Based on the events of this weekend, I have decided to have a guest writer. His name is Jeff and this is his story.
Today began like any other day. I woke up with the sun and hunger pangs. I licked my lips a few times and noticed an overwhelming thirst beginning to well within me. Each day is spent trying to subdue these two beasts. The last few days have been worse with the temperature soaring above 100 degrees.
My morning searches were hit or miss. I found some food scraps behind the IHOP and I found some bottles at the Shell station that were half-full. As the afternoon began, I found myself walking through a park. I remember when I used to sit in a park just like this one. I enjoyed listening to the leaves rustle in the wind and the laughter of children as they played. Today was not so carefree. I was focused and single minded. I was thirsty.
While walking through the park, I spotted my prize. A trash can overflowing with take out bags and cups. As I drew closer, I noticed a truck sitting close by. Well, I noticed the truck at first but what caught my attention was the man inside. He was wearing some kind of uniform. He must have been on his lunch break. He was reading some book when he looked up slightly startled. I guess the crunch of leaves alerted him to my presence. I did not make eye contact. I feel no shame in my position but I have grown tired of the looks of trepidation or disgust at my presence.
I found the trash can bulging from the refuse inside. I rummaged around for a few moments. I came across a half-full lemonade bottle . People just waste too much. I could feel eyes on my back attempting to stare through me. They were full of disgust that I would drink from the trash. I didn’t have to turn around to see the look in his eyes. Years of experience had taught me this disappointing truth.
Not once did this man speak up. No offers for pocket change or to buy me something to drink. He didn’t try to shove one of those bible booklets in my face and tell me that his Jesus could fix all my problems. Nothing. He simply sat there staring and then went back to reading. I couldn’t find anything else salvageable so it was time to move on. As I walked back across that open field, I felt those eyes follow me. A question came to mind, “I wonder what was going on in his head?”
I was the man in the truck. There was no discourse between us. I simply sat there out of disbelief, fear, and passivity. I do not know Jeff’s real name. I do not know his story. I do not know why this encounter haunts me. The one thing I do know. He was thirsty.
Gag Reflex
For those with weak stomachs, you may want to skip this story. On my marathon trip to Cambodia, I started to feel queasy about an hour outside Phnom Penh. I eventually had to make use of the air sickness bag. After some trepidation, I returned to my seat. However, once I strapped in I felt the waves of sickness begin to hit me again and again. My stomach was devoid of any substance yet my body still felt there was something left to purge. I held the air sickness bag to my face as a precaution.
The smell began to overwhelm me and make me gag even more. I couldn’t bring myself to pull the bag away for too long, afraid of what might happen. So I found myself caught in a vicious cycle, inhaling pungent, horrid odors and gagging and heaving more and more as the minutes passed.
After we landed, I was delirious. I had no fluids in my system and I looked like death warmed over. After about three hours of sleep however, I was right as rain.
I use this illustration to describe in a very graphic way the idea Paul put forth in one of his letters.
“For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life.”
Do people catch a faint whiff of Christ or does he so ooze from my pores that I produce a spiritual gag reflex in their life? Sadly many of us produce no reaction either way. There is no middle ground in Paul’s words. We are the aroma of Christ and the power of Christ will force a reaction in a person’s life. They will either draw closer to God or harden their heart to God.
Observations from Cracker Barrel – Part 2
When you go to a restaurant by yourself you can either take something with you or you can find something in the restaurant to occupy your time. Restaurants are full of people having conversations and it is hard not overhear some of the conversations. One young family entertained me the whole evening. It was a husband and wife with their young son. The couple were in their early 20s and the boy was probably three or four. He was being a typical boy and squirming in his chair and running around the table.
The first episode occurred after the waitress brought out the drinks. I was working on some notes when I heard a small commotion. I glanced over and noticed the son had spilled his drink. There were two different responses from the parents. The mother over-reacted and couldn’t believe her son would be careless enough to spill his drink. The father simply looked at him and then got him out of the chair. Since the boy was covered in soda, the father took his son to the restroom.
The next interesting episode occurred a few minutes later. The two returned to the table with the father laughing. He relates the story that as they entered the restroom his son noticed the light switch. “What does this do,” he asked his father as he switched it off. The father went on to tell that as the room went pitch black he heard a man from one of the stalls yell out. At this point, a horrified look appeared on the mother’s face. She asked her son if this is what he did. The boy just smiled devilishly and shook his head. His father laughed the entire time. The mother shot her husband a look as if to say, “Don’t encourage this type of behavior.”
I came away from the episode with a few observations. One, the father had not grown up yet. When the waitress came out with a rag after the soda was spilled, the father simply stepped out of the way instead of taking the rag to clean up the mess himself. Also, in regards to the light switch incident, he shouldn’t have shown so much enjoyment out of the story in front of his son. Granted, it was a funny story but he should have waited to laugh with his wife about it later. The father’s actions had a direct link to the mother’s reactions. Because the father was being passive in just these small ways, she over-reacted and came off as the mother that wouldn’t allow any fun.
It just shows that in a relationship, when one person is not fulfilling their role, things go wrong. Many times the other person will take over both sets of responsibilities, because they don’t want things to fail. So one person is doing all the work and the resentment shows up in their actions and words. Sadly, this will fester for years and will lead to dysfunctional and even broken marriages and families.
Observations from Cracker Barrel – Part 1
After working 10 straight hours at Pizza Hut, I was dead on my feet. It was over 100 degrees outside and the inside temperature in the kitchen was 89 degrees. Most of the fatigue came from simply standing. You stand up washing dishes, folding boxes, cutting pizzas and making sauce. I learned when I spent a summer in Spain that my body can’t handle standing for more than a hour. My back begins to stiffen and it just makes me miserable. It is not excruciating pain but just enough to be annoying and constant.
Since I was feeling in such a state, I decided I did not want to cook once I got home. Then the best idea in the world came to mind. Sadly, it was not a cure for cancer. It was two wonderful words, common in their singleness, but once married would make any normal man weep. Cracker Barrel. Country cooking as they call it. Some would say home-cooking. According to Wikipedia, it would also be classified as soul food. My mother is a good cook but she never made many of the foods you find at the Barrel. So I sat myself down to a glass of sweet tea, chicken fried chicken with sawmill gravy, mashed potatoes, fried okra, and some buttermilk biscuits.
I have heard people talk of comfort food. I cannot say that eating chicken fried chicken makes me think of home or lowers my stress. If I am stressed I am more likely to just eat a pint or two of Blue Bell or Häagen-Dazs. I would classify my meal as comfort food in that it makes me think of a simpler time and place. A slower pace of life. It also does remind me of family trips traveling back and forth between Alabama. We would usually stop at the Cracker Barrel in Meridian, Mississippi.
As I was thinking about these things, it occurred to me that there is more than comfort food. There are common everyday occurrences that make us think of that “perfect” day or just some time in our past when “things were right with the world.” I remember distinctly such a time. I was spending my summer in Culican, Mexico. I was staying with a family and the house was always full. However, one Saturday morning I awoke to find the house empty. That was not the only oddity of the day. It was also raining. It wasn’t a hard rain but it was not a drizzle. It was just a good rain. I sat in the silent house, listening to the rain and catching that faint scent of rain in the air. That instantly transported me back to my childhood. I would sit and watch the rain and then decide to go play in it.
The human mind is amazing. A simple sight, smell, taste, or sound can transport you instantly to another time and place. It is good to stop from the busyness of life and enjoy a simple meal and let it nourish your soul and not just your body.
Unusual Preoccupations or Rituals
We all have our own “unusual preoccupations or rituals.” I often joke that I have OCD but none of my quirks stem from the need to offset anxiety. I just do them because I am odd. I noticed one such quirk this morning as I was getting dressed.
It is how I pick my socks. I have a drawer full of socks and they are not stored in any order. I simply dump the entire load of socks into a drawer. I have probably 20 pair of ankle high socks. Several pair are pushing five years old. They do not have holes but over the years the fabric has become very thin. I have about 10 pair of socks that are less than a year old. The fabric is much softer and they are not as dingy. The one easily distinguishing mark is that the newer socks have an orange stitching on the inside of the elastic band.
So every morning, I will dig through the entire drawer attempting to find two socks with orange stitching. When I am done, I also have a stack of reject socks. This process takes much longer on the mornings when I should have done laundry the day before. I end up with one acceptable sock and a pile of rejects. Now it would be unacceptable to mix the good sock with an old sock, so I drop the good sock and try to find two passable second-class socks.
Now good sense would tell me to either give away the old socks or throw them away so I would only have socks with orange stitching. But I don’t. I’m usually in a hurry in the mornings. When I get home in the evenings, I don’t think about my obsession . So until I do something about this situation, I know that tomorrow morning I will be standing over the same drawer looking for socks with orange stitching.
Book Review: Joel on Software
Then my supervisor at my Fielder resigned. I became the entire web design department, and we were beginning redesign of the website. My new supervisor deferred to my judgment on how to proceed. I knew nothing about managing projects or relating to management.
That is when I came across Spolsky’s book. The book is composed of articles taken from his blog as well as some new material. Here are a few quotes from the introduction that express the feelings I had at the beginning of this project and now eight months later with the project still incomplete.
“You never asked to be a manager. Like most software developers I know, you would have been much, much happier if they would just let you sit and code quietly.”
“Managing software projects has nothing at all to do with programming. If all you’ve done so far is write code, you’re probably starting to discover that human beings are perhaps a smidgen less predictable than your garden-variety Intel CPU.”
“As a result, many software projects fail in some way or another, either overtly or covertly, because nobody on the team has any idea how a successful software project might be run. So too many teams never deliver their product, or take too long to deliver the product, or deliver a product that nobody wants.”
The Practice of Programming
One of the opening chapters discusses “The Joel Test.” It contains 12 simple questions, but it allows anyone involved in a software development project to determine the successfulness of the team. Our department got a 2 out 12.
Four chapters are devoted to writing functional specifications. “A functional specification describes how a product will work entirely from the user’s perspective. It doesn’t care how the thing is implemented. It talks about features. It specifies screens, menus, dialogs, and so on.”
I have to say that I geeked out after reading these chapters. I spent several days writing spec detailing how the new site would work. I even incorporated humor as Spolsky suggested to make the specs easier and more enjoyable to read. I showed them to our committee and they briefly flipped through them. They have sat on shelf for the last eight months.
To round out the first section, Spolsky covers how to create a simple project schedule in Excel, bug fixing, and Fire and Motion. This is borrowed from military tactics. Fire at the enemy [project issues] and move forward.
Managing Developers
One chapter is devoted to guerrilla interviewing. Any programmer interview should include an impossible question and a solvable programming question. These questions allow the interviewer to see the problem-solving process and the skills of the programmer. Do they use a naming convention for their variables? Do they plan before beginning to code?
Spolsky advises in the chapter entitled “Things You Should Never Do” that a developer should never scrap existing code and start from scratch. I faced this situation after coming on at Fielder. The decision was made to use a content management system (CMS) called DotNetNuke to develop the new website.
I spent several months beating my head against the wall trying to make it work. I finally convinced my new supervisor to permit me to write my own CMS for Fielder. In this instance, it worked out because I was able to tailor the CMS to the needs of Fielder and I wrote it in a language I am very familiar with. This ties in with the iceberg secret.
With software, the user interface, with all the graphics and fonts, composes 10 percent of the work while the programming is 90 percent of the work and goes unnoticed. So when a nonprogrammer sees a program where only 10 percent of the user interface is complete they assume that only 10 percent of the project is complete.
This happens every time I try to show off new functionality on the website. I might show them how I can switch translations of the site with a mouse click. Instead of oohs and aahs I get, “I don’t like the font color” or “Is that the picture we decided on?”
At the same time, most every page on the new site is devoid of copy. So every meeting, I get the question, “Where are we?” I have to remind them that my 90 percent of the programming is done. I just need copy from them. But since the site is empty the natural thought is that it’s a programming issue.
Being Joel: Random Thoughts on Not-So-Random Topics
In the final chapters, Spolsky discusses how to be successful when developing a software business. One chapter is simply titled, “Getting Things Done When You’re Only a Grunt.” Another chapter discusses how each company must either choose the organic growth model of Ben & Jerry’s or the “get big fast” model of Amazon.
Conclusion
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It wasn’t too heavy on the Computer Science (I’m a sociology major turned programmer). He provided a great deal of useful business advice in an entertaining way. I wish this book had been available when I tried my hand at self-employment. I would recommend this book to anyone in software, management or just wanting basic tech business principles.
Enabling bad behavior through pizza delivery
After delivering pizzas for well over a year, you learn to recognize houses and customers. You remember the houses that tip well and the ones that are problems. Then there are the houses that make your skin crawl. Not because of poverty or weird occurrences. No, I’m talking about the houses of those who are border-line morbidly obese. I have nothing against the obese. I am not a specimen of physical fitness myself. I have struggled with my weight since the 3rd grade. I do not like delivering to these houses because I feel like I am enabling their behavior in some way.
One customer comes to mind. Every time I pull up to his house, I feel this uneasy feeling come over me. As I look at the receipt to verify I have the correct address and all the items, I see the number. The number on every delivery receipt stating how many times someone has ordered from Pizza Hut. I do not know by how much it has grown since I was last here but it has increased. He answers the door wearing clothes that have been modified to fit him. He is nice and tips well. But as I leave, I just cannot shake that feeling.
As I think about this, we are all in the same boat. We may not be obese but we each have behaviors that we continue to indulge despite their negative impact upon our lives. And why do we continue in these behaviors? It may be out of fear. We turn to these behaviors to comfort us in times of stress. Other times it is loneliness or depression. So we turn to these behaviors to numb ourselves or to help us forget. But the fear and loneliness will return. The answer is obvious but so often we ignore it, the Spirit of the Living God.
For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life; indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead; who delivered us from so great a peril of death, and will deliver us, He on whom we have set our hope. And He will yet deliver us … Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us, is God, who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge.
2 Corinthians 1:8-10, 21-22
Net Neutrality, Tubes, Dark Fiber and the 700Mhz Spectrum
Let me first begin by briefly describing the debate over Net Neutrality.
Side A: The Major Telecommunication Companies and anyone else that has spent billions of dollars laying fiber and copper lines over which billions of bits of information flow every second. This group thinks that companies like Google, Netflix, Amazon and Apple should pay an Internet Toll for using their cables. From my understanding the toll would be based on the amount of data sent over the wires. For someone like Google, which owns YouTube and makes billions on Internet search, this toll would severely cut into their profits.
Side B: Companies like Google, Netflix, Amazon, and Apple think the wires should be open and free just like the highway infrastructure in the United States. Consumers and businesses alike are able to use the highways for personal use and commercial gain.
This story has been brewing for over a year and the remarks I will mention are from June 2006. A particular set of remarks by Senator Ted Stevens came to mind when I was attempting to explain to my mother how email worked over the network. The Internet being “a series of tubes.” I thought I’d share some of my comments about his statements and let you read and hear for yourself.
I first heard Senator Ted Steven’s remarks on Net Neutrality on This Week in Tech – Episode 60. They only played about 5 minutes of the original 11 minute recording of Senator Steven’s comments. Upon listening to his comments I agreed, and still agree with the hosts that he does not have a clear view of how technology works. As I have listened to the entire clip I have come away with a few more observations.
One, it is usually best to stop and think before speaking. From the sound of it, someone on the committee got him riled up and he proceeded to rant for 11 minutes without making any sense. Two, it’s an old proverb, “Better to be silent and to be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.” Three, he seems to oscillate between the two viewpoints. He just does not make a strong argument either way. Four, this is pure speculation but listening to his comments, it feels like he is fighting for lobbyists and not the greater good of the people. In an unrelated case to Net Neutrality, Senator Stevens is under investigation by the FBI and the IRS.
In Senator Stevens’ defense, Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. wrote an article titled, Senator Stevens is Not As Dumb as He Sounds, which discusses how Senator Stevens’ concepts are not too far off.
Oddly enough, while searching through my brother’s Flickr photos, I found this great illustration of Senator Stevens’ view of the Internet. Be sure to read the captions for a complete understanding of network connectivity.
Here are some of Senator Stevens’ comments, which originally appeared on Wired.com. I will interject some of my own comments. My comments will be in bold and Senator Stevens’ will be in italics.
I just the other day got, an Internet was sent by my staff at 10 o’clock in the morning on Friday and I just got it yesterday. Why?
Because it got tangled up with all these things going on the Internet commercially.
Ok, we have all sent an email to friends, family, or coworkers and it never arrived. It is not however because the Internet was clogged and needed a bottle of Drano Max. Bad cables, finicky servers, spam filters and a whole list of other reasons are to blame. Not clogged tubes.
So you want to talk about the consumer? Let’s talk about you and me. We use this Internet to communicate and we aren’t using it for commercial purposes.
We aren’t earning anything by going on that Internet. Now I’m not saying you have to or you want to discriminate against those people …
Apparently Senator Steven’s has not perused Ebay recently. There are tens of thousands of consumers using the Internet for commercial purposes. Granted, they are not using the amount of bandwidth of YouTube but Stevens’ argument is that there are just a few people using the Internet for commercial purposes. As someone that makes his living by developing web sites, I am earning money by “going on that Internet.”
They [companies like Google, Netflix, Amazon, & Apple] want to deliver vast amounts of information over the Internet. And again, the Internet is not something you just dump something on. It’s not a truck.
It’s a series of tubes.
And if you don’t understand those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and its going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material.
Here lies the infamous quote. There is a Wikipedia article devoted to this quote. This is where Net Neutrality comes into play. The Telcos and some members of Congress want these Internet companies to pay a toll to use “the tubes.” What they don’t understand is this will destroy the model the Internet was founded on and it completely messes with a free market system. If Google has to start paying millions of dollars in tolls, YouTube and Gmail will no longer be free. Netflix will have to do away with their on-demand video downloads. Apple’s cash cow, Itunes, will shrivel and die. They will have to charge more for song downloads and people will just go back to piracy.
Now we have a separate Department of Defense Internet now, did you know that?
Do you know why?
Because they have to have theirs delivered immediately. They can’t afford getting delayed by other people.
I am not really sure why he threw the DOD into the mix but I’ll comment. The DOD has their separate network not because of a fear of hairy bits clogging the pipes. They have a separate network because they have classified documents they don’t want the public or foreign nations seeing.
So that is Net Neutrality in a nutshell and why we should not let the government muck with the Internet. In the end, Google may rule the world anyway. They have spent the last few years buying dark fiber around the country. Dark Fiber is fiber optic cabling that has been laid but is not in use. Many have speculated about Google’s intentions. To fuel the paranoia, in just the last few weeks, Google offered 4.6 billion dollars for the 700Mhz spectrum. This is where the old UHF
If I could get on the Internet in most any place in the country and not have to pay Starbucks or some municipal airport for access, then Viva Google.
