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Xah Lee, 2010-04-04
Artist seem to be Muuten. This piece is a fan art. The chick is the character Momohime from the vid game Muramasa: The Demon Blade. Source Source
There's a painting exhibition in San Francisco, hosted by Science Fiction in San Francisco (SF in SF), featuring the works of mathematician and science fiction writer Rudy Rucker.
Rudy is famous for his books such as “The Fourth Dimension” (1984), Infinity and the Mind (1995), and latest non-fiction on cellular automata: The Life Box, The Seshell, and The Soul (2005). amazon
The painting exhibition will be on from April 9 (Friday) to May 22 (Saturday), at Variety Preview Room in San Francisco. (582 Market Street, San Francisco, CA. (415) 781-3893) (View Map)
You're invited to an opening night party on Friday, April 9, from 6 to 9 pm.
In the closing event on Saturday May 22, from 6 to 10 pm, Rudy will read with author Michael Shea.
Paintings and prints will be for sale at the show during the opening and closing events, or online from Rudy's paintings page.
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Xah Lee, 2010-04-06
This page is a tutorial on emacs's Custom system for setting user preferences.
Emacs has a textual GUI system for setting user preferences . It lets you customize emacs without needing to know much emacs lisp. You can call it by “Alt+x customize”. Try it. You'll see that things are simple to understand. You can just use the mouse and click buttons to change emacs's many complex setting.
You can also call “customize-group” to customize a particular mode directly. For example, type “Alt+x customize-group”, then give “dired”. That page will let you change dired's settings. Another way is to customize a variable directly if you know a variable's name. For example, type “Alt+x customize-variable”, then “auto-save-default”.
Emacs textual GUI based Custom system for setting user preferences.
When you are done, press the “Save for future sessions”. After you are finished, emacs will insert elisp code like this into your init file:
(custom-set-variables ;; custom-set-variables was added by Custom. ;; If you edit it by hand, you could mess it up, so be careful. ;; Your init file should contain only one such instance. ;; If there is more than one, they won't work right. '(abbrev-mode t) '(auto-save-default nil) '(comment-column 2) '(current-language-environment "UTF-8") '(default-input-method "latin-1-prefix") '(ffap-newfile-prompt t) '(font-lock-maximum-decoration 2) '(indicate-empty-lines nil) '(initial-major-mode (quote text-mode)) '(initial-scratch-message "") ;; ... )
The emacs's Custom system is very convenient. It provides a easy way for people not familiar with lisp, and it works in terminal on remote machines too because it is a textual based GUI. For emacs beginner, this is a great way to explore. However, it has its flaws.
Some advanced emacs user have a habit of using this Custom system whenever possible. So, they avoid a bunch of manually created “(setq ‹variable name› ‹value›)” in their emacs init file. This can keep the variable settings neat.
However, other advanced emacs users totally avoid this Custom system, because the Custom system put all variable settings into one alphabetical list. These emacs users prefer to group similar customizations together so that they have better control.
It is easy to move variables in or out of this “custom-set-variables” system. For example, if you have:
(custom-set-variables '(abbrev-mode t) '(auto-save-default nil) ;; ... )
The equivalent would be:
(setq abbrev-mode t) (setq auto-save-default nil)
If you move things manually out of the code generated by Custom, note that the Custom system may get confused. For example, if you call “customize-group”, then “abbrev”, the values displayed there for Abbrev Mode may not reflect the actual value, because you've set abbrev-mode variable outside the custom system. If you went ahead and use the Custom anyway and save for future session, emacs will generate the code, so in effect you have 2 places in your init file both trying to set the same variable. It'll still work, because the generated code is at the bottom of your init file (presuming you just have one simple init file), but can be a potential problem.
For me, i don't take the effort to move things out of the auto generated code.
The Custom system isn't ideal neither. Because sometimes when you read online, often you can just grab some code such as “(setq abbrev-mode t)” and put in your init file. Very convenient. You don't need to know if that variable is part of the Custom system. (The Custom system does NOT include all possible variable settings)
For emacs blog writers, it is also much easier to just say “put this code snippet in your .emacs”. It is more difficult to give direction on how to do the same thing thru Custom system. And for many customizations that's more than just setting of variables, it cannot be done thru the Custom system.
So, there's no ideal choice here about whether you should be using the custom system. My advices is just don't fret about it either way. Though, you should avoid setting a variable in more than one place. You'll see why later.
Also, even though the Custom is a GUI, but it is not quite intuitive. When i first tried the Custom, i already have 5 years of daily emacs experience, but i was still quite confused on what each customization item is supposed to do.
See also: Organize Your .emacs in 5 Minutes.
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Xah Lee, 2010-04-04
Starting about 2005, i regularly receive email asking me to participate a conference, called World Multiconference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics (WMSCI). Here's one of such email i got today:
Dear Xah Lee:
As you know the Nobel Laureate Herbert Simon affirmed that design is an essential ingredient of the Artificial Sciences Ranulph Glanville, president of the American Society for Cybernetics and expert in design theory, affirms that "Research is a variety of design. So do research as design. Design is key to research. Research has to be designed." An increasing number of authors are stressing the relationships between Design and Research. Design is a mean for Research, and Research is a mean for Design. Design and research are related via cybernetic loops in the context of means-ends logic. Consequently, we invite you to submit a paper/abstract and/ot to organize an invited session in the International Symposium on Design and Research in the Artificial and the Natural Sciences: DRANS 2010 (http://www.sysconfer.org/drans) which is being organized in the context of The 14th World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics: WMSCI 2010 (http://www.sysconfer.org/wmsci), 2010 in Orlando, Florida, USA.
...
I do not know this organization, nor do i remember ever having contacted them. I don't know how they got my email or know that i'm involved in the computer science community. Though, after getting a few of their email, one clearly gets a sense that it is a scam, soliciting innocent idiotic academics (those with PH Ds.).
Here's what Wikipedia has to say about them: World Multiconference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics. Here's a juice quote:
WMSCI attracted publicity of a less favorable sort in 2005 when three graduate students at MIT succeeded in getting a paper accepted as a "non-reviewed paper" to the conference that had been randomly generated by a computer program called SCIgen.[8] Documents generated by this software have been used to submit papers to other similar conferences. Compare to the Sokal affair.
WMSCI has been accused of using spam to advertise its conferences.[8]
Now and then, whenever i got their email, the curiosity in me do lookup the several terms cited in their email, partly to check the validity. For example, in this one, it mentiones Herbert Simon. Another one i recall i got recently mentioned Science 2.0. Both of the terms i haven't heard of before.
One'd think that it is easy to tell scam from real science, but with today's science proliferation, it's actually not that easy. Even if you are a academic, it's rather common that many new science terms you never heard of, because there are tremendous growth of new disciplines or cross disciplines, alone with their new terms. Cross-discipline is rather common and natural, unlike in the past where science is more or less clearly delineated hierarchy like Physics, Math, Chemistry, biology, etc and their sub-branches. However, many of today's new areas is a bit questionable, sometimes a deliberate money making scheme, which i suppose is the case for WMSCI. Many of these, use terms like “post-modern”, “new-age”, “science 2.0” to excuse themselves from the rather strict judgement of classic science. Many of these terms such as “systemics”, “cybernetics”, “infomatics” are vague. Depending on the context, it could be a valid emerging science discipline, but it could also be pure new-age garbage. And sometimes, nobody really knows today.
In the past 2 decade, there are quite a few cases where peer reviewed papers published in respected journals are exposed as highly questionable or deliberate hoax, arosing massive debate on the peer review system. The peer-review system itself can't hold all the burden, but part of it has to do with the incredible growth of sciences and limitation of the single human mind to make sense of them all. For examples, see:
When it comes to philosophy, it is worse. For example, there's this Hegel (1770-1831), i personally regard him as the worst mumble-jumbo scumbag.
In the computer science or programing area, which i'm personally a expert, there are quite a huge number of wishy-washy shit. Examples include: Extreme Programing (espousing that programing should be done by 2 males sitting in front of a computer together, one code while the other sucks his cock.), Universal Modeling Language (which supposes that this pseudo-language solves the world's problems), Design Patterns (which peddles best practices under the aegis of OOP and jargonism.), and, of course there's Larry Wall, whose crime is too numerous to list. (disclaimer: opinion only.)
Even in the area of math, i'm reminded of the guy Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983). Personally, i despise his name.
On the other hand, there's Stephen Wolfram, with his A New Kind of Science. It has received criticism from many scientists and mathematicians as garbage, exasperated by Wolfram's megalomania personality. Personally i respect his work highly. (See also: Notes on A New Kind of Science.)
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Xah Lee, 2010-04-03
This article shows you a quick way to organize your emacs init file.
Most emacs users, have tens or hundred lines in their emacs init file, accumulated over the years. Large emacs init files makes emacs starting slow, and is a problem when you upgrade emacs, or install a new package.
So, how do you organize it? When it comes to organization, many of us, probably think it'll take a lots times and discipline, or with some special principle, system, to keep the .emacs file clean. From what i've seen in the past decade, vast majority of emacs users simply have one huge messy pile of stuff in “.emacs”, and this situation often is cited as their reluctance to upgrade to the latest emacs release.
Personally, i find that elaborate rule or system or time spend on organizing emacs init file is actually not productive.
When you need something, you pile it in your “.emacs” and you can immediate go back to work on things you need done. That is the beauty of it. The best way i find in keeping “.emacs” organized, is just to break them into 2 or more files and spend no more than 5 minutes doing it. Here's how i do it.
Go to your “.emacs”. If the file has more than say 2 hundred of lines, then just go to the middle and split the file into 2 files. Say, name it “emacs_init_1.el” and “emacs_init_2.el”. The exact file name doesn't matter. Then, in your “.emacs”, change it to like this:
; my emacs customization (load "emacs_init_1") (load "emacs_init_2")
That's it. The key to keep in mind is that you should not spend more than 5 minutes on this. If you spend more, you are likely being less productive than you could've been.
When next time you have more code you want to add, just pick a file and add there. Each time, spend no more than 5 minutes doing it.
Within that 5 min, you can shuffle the file content a bit. For example, moving some important customizations into one file, less important ones into the other. Also, you are free to creat new files and name it properly, such as “emacs_init_critical”, “emacs_init_elisp_functions”, “emacs_init_keybindings”, “emacs_init_mswin”, “emacs_init_home”.
This way, you have your “.emacs” under manageable condition, without much effort. You may edit your “.emacs” once a month, or if you are a heavy emacs experimenter, perhaps once a week. Gradually over the years, you may have multiple emacs init files, all manageable and reasonably organized.
If you want, you can compile the elisp files to make it load AND run faster. (a compiled elisp will not only load faster, but the functions/commands will run about 6 times or more faster.)
To compile, just type “Alt+x byte-compile-file”.
Note that when you use “load” like this “(load "emacs_init_1")”, emacs will first try to load the byte compiled version “emacs_init_1.elc” first. If it doesn't exist, then emacs will try to load “emacs_init_1.el”.
On flaw with compile is that, if you ever edited or added new code, you need to remember to compile it again, else emacs will just load the compiled version that doesn't have your changes.
When you downloaded some elisp package, usually you want to byte compile it. Other than that, little things like font changes, variable changes, hooks, personal keybindings, or other minor settings, byte compile doesn't make any noticeable difference. Personally, i have all packages byte compiled, but otherwise my init files are not byte compiled, because it is a pain to remember to byte compile it again after edit. (some emacs fan has cooked up schemes to have emacs automatically byte compile a file after edit... but for me that's getting more complicated and not really needed.)
Again, my experience is that you should not fret about it. Some type of coders, like me, tend to think of some beautiful organization scheme. For example, you can organize the files by importance, or by OS (Linux, Windows, Mac) for those using multi OSes, or you can organize by work vs home, or organize by machines you have access, or organize by the type of of customization (e.g. keybindings, UI changes (font, frame, window position, background color), functions, type of packages...), or, you might start to rewrite the code so that they are all some consistent style. Each time you mod your init file, 5 min becomes 10 min, then you thought “O, but maybe now i should do this”, and the time spend on this often becomes 30 minutes, 1 hour.
What i find the most effective, is simply a need based one. If i started to spend more than 5 min on modding my init file, i ask my self “do i really NEED to do this?”. If no, i stop and let things be. Until someday, when i have some extra time to study emacs for the sake of studying, then i may choose to spend time with my emacs init files, looking into what are there, which's important, how the code works, etc. Most likely, there are many other areas in emacs one can study more fruitfully than fretting with getting init files into a pristine condition.
PS my init files are here: Xah Lee's Emacs Customization File.
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Xah Lee, 2010-04-03, 2011-02-19
Gah, am quite annoyed by the bunch of pretty girls staring at me on the side of Facebook. What the fuck. Am not interested in spending time and energy to go thru these spammy sites and deal with women with the possibility of reward of touching set years down. I noticed there's a little x that lets me close it. Tried it, then fuck Facebook asks my reason by multiple choice for not liking the ad, which kicked my mind into deliberation.
O, do i really want these pretty girls decorating my Facebook gone? what if i'm axing a big OPPORTUNITY? The op to get into their pants as well the op to observe humanity of ad distribution and demograph.
(after all, i'm getting into online ad biz. Need to be observant. (as a example, one thing i learned after some dithering, is that i wondered why these ads always just girls looking for men. I figured, if you are a women, your Facebook probably show all these powerful men waiting for you. So, the ad selection algorithm must've filched info from your profile))
And, what reason should i give? fucking Facebook takes every chance to squeeze info. Should i be generous in freely providing them the reason? But, on the other hand, i support capitalism to the hilt. By turning off ads, will i be said of deeds not matching words?
Gah. I admit i have psychological problems. Some loving female please press bosom onto my face and fix me. Have some Platonic heart!
✻ ✻ ✻
The wile of facebook dating ads:
Fascinating.
The photos vary from blossoms of tits n ass to beaming face of beauty queens to girl-next-door photo to disgusting juxtapositioned old men + young girl.
Reminds me, i need to update my collection.
One guy in Second Life, from UK, read my essay above, and apparently is totaly freaked out. (of me, not the girly ads)
Do you look like one of these disgusting men? If so, you have a chance!
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Xah Lee, 2005-11-03
A key to the success of the engine of Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/) , is that of accumulation.
Any little tip, any little tweak, any iota of insignificance, may it be starting a article with a single sentence of worthless fact, to grammarian's obsessive tweak of a wording in a sentence, stays.
This staying power, constitute a core element of Wikipedia's success. Let me explain why.
Wikipedia started in 2001. Now, the internet and collective collaboration, especially in software, existed more than a decade before that. One telling example is newsgroup's FAQs. In as early as 1995, there are tremendous number of very well written FAQs, in topics ranging from math & sciences to the how-to's of Sadomasochism. Let's see, there are FAQs on C-programing language, on Artificial Intelligence, on Computational Geometry, on computer keyboard typing injury, on Piano, on Piano playing, on movies and actresses, on porn videos and industry, on the fine points of English writing, on anal sex, on sadomasochism dos and don'ts...etc.
These are not trivial writings, in particular content-wise. They are usually condensed summary of the subjects in question, and subjects usually you can't find in academia, with respect to the content or the writing format.
These FAQs, being Questions & Answers, are extremely practical and to the point. For instance, in SM play, they tell you where to find local clubs, what's the procedure or process of writing a contract for a sexual slave, and enlist the scientific fact of the capacity of human intestine for holding liquid for enema play, or the effects of beer enema, and so on. And, depending on the subject matter, they often have a section of references and books in case you want to know more.
These FAQs arose from early online forums, i.e. newsgroups. Thru years of online discussions, often by experts in question, some commonly asked questions and their collective answers have naturally been formed and gathered, producing these FAQs. These FAQs, number in thousands, are unprecedented collection of human literature, in a class of their own. Their like may have existed in the form of some unknown pamphlets or reference here or there on this or that subjects, but never in such quantity, quality, and ubiquitousness. Many of these FAQs, have reached a quality and usefulness that they are in fact published as books. (for example, the FAQ on C programing language) The acronym FAQ itself have become a household term and appeared shamelessly in modern English dictionaries. If there is any precedence to Wikipedia as human literature made thru internet, it is these FAQs.
With the commercialization and bloom of the internet, technologies such as mailings lists, web-based forums, instant messaging, online-journals (blogs) have progressively came into existence, with the consequence that revolutionarily expanded the efficiency and magnitude of human communication, of all possible human subjects. Then, sometimes about the year 2000, came FAQ-o-Matic, and wiki, and was born Wikipedia.
As we know, Wikipedia today is of undeniable usability, in many cases and aspects matching or surpassing those of professionally published commercial encyclopedias as well as specialized dictionaries, compendiums, annals, or the entire collection of FAQs.
If Wikipedia is such as success, we wonder, what's in it that made it so. In FAQs, we note that it is the culmination of piece-wise addition by a subject-loving collective, and that is the key: piece-wise. Great many a person in the world possess professional level knowledge of subjects. If you have written a book, you know that the process is daunting, not because you lack the subject's expertise, but the associated drudgeries and tasks around actually putting it into a organized presentation. But if you love a subject, and don't plan to write a book, in discussions your expertise flows freely, bypassing any research you might need to do, and thru collective efforts they easily form into a more well-organized presentation as FAQs, without ado about completeness, formality, or painstaking correctness but nevertheless invaluable. Still, these FAQs need someone to actually form their existence, and most of the time are the (editing) work of a single person. Even all the pieces of materials exist and are written as message posts, the task of collecting into a coherent whole with consistent style and maintain it is still dreary. This problem, of the drudgery of knowledge presentation came away with the arrival of the wiki technology. Wiki (aka Content Management Systems or web revision system), the software engine behind Wikipedia and other similar projects, is at heart a database with a interface, where anyone can use the web browser to add info or edit existing info. So, the one most pesky labor of knowledge presentation went away.
Any joe, can start or edit a piece of info. Regarded by themselves, are trite and insignificant to the point of entirely useless by all measures and judgments. However, the cumulative effect is so powerful, that it essentially breaks the wall of writing a book. And, since Wikipedia is not narrowly confined to a singe subject as in the bedrock of FAQ's forums, and Wikipedia abide a encyclopedia-style of writing instead of Questions & Answers, therefore Wikipedia becomes far wide in scope and encyclopedic in style, as we know it today.
Just read a insightful article on how Wikipedia grows. Is its content came from small percentage of Wikipedians who edit it everyday? or is it from the masses who don't even have a account? He used statistical means to find out.
Who Writes Wikipedia? (2006-09-04), by Aaron Swartz. Source
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Xah Lee, 2010-04-01
I play in Second Life several hours a day. I had a 10 years old microphone. So, recently am shopping for a headset.
There are lots of headsets out there, from $10 to over a hundred. If you use headset casually, such as 30 min a day for online voice chat, then any $10 will do fine. I would recommend Microsoft, Logitech, or Sennheiser brands.
If you use headset for more than 1 hour a day, then, you need something comfortable, high quality, and with good microphone.
For gaming, usually you want the headphone part to be high quality, because otherwise music would sound bad, or you don't get the thundering “boom” effect when bombs go off.
Microphone is also important, because it'd be a headache when you trying to voice with someone and the message is repeated “can you hear me? can you hear me ok? ... wait i hear lots of white noise”.
There are 2 connector types for the headset. The cheap ones use analog plug, the same type of headphones. One plug for the microphone hole and another for the headphone hole. Better ones, usually over $20, uses USB. USB is better because it is digital, and it's just a single plug.
Microsoft LifeChat LX-3000
After few hours of research, i end up buying “Microsoft LifeChat LX-3000 Headset”. amazon ($25)
If you typically use headset for just 1 hour a day, i recommend this. The only problem with this is that if you wear it for more than 1 hour, it hurts your ears a bit, because of the prolonged light pressure on your ear by the earpad. Actually, this is the case for vast majority of headphones under $50.
Sennheiser PC151
If you want to spend more, i highly recommend: “Sennheiser PC151 Over The Head Headset” (with Noise Cancelling Mic and In-line Volume Control) amazon. ($48)
Sennheiser is the best brand for high quality headphones. They are extremely light weight in comparison to similarly sized headset, and extremely comfortable for 5 or more hours of continuous wear.
I own a Sennheiser HD 570 headphone i bought for $120 in 2000. Now, it's been 10 years, and i still use it! The sound quality beats any headphone or hi-fi speakers that cost thousands of dollars.
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Xah Lee, 2010-03-31
This page reports the popularity of web technologies used today. For example, the popularity distribution of different content management system, javascript libraries, web dev language/frameworks, javascript libraries, visitor tracking packages, etc.
71% of sites are detected with a known language/framework/technology. Among them, here's a rough breakdown.
51% has javascript. Here's the distribution of known js packages.
72% sites has some sort of visitor tracking tech.
57% of sites have ads.
3% has blogs.
4% uses CMS.
2% sites has ecommerce.
22% has feeds.
4% sites has media.
16% uses CDN. It is used for example to auto find the nearest server to distribute video.
30% sites has widgets.
60% uses utf-8. 40% uses iso-8859.
70% declared a encoding.
Info of this page is from trends.builtwith.com. Another useful site is backendbattles.com
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