Jeber’s

Dog Time

Sometimes things make more sense to us if we look at the situation from another perspective. We spend so much of our day locked into our human brains looking at the world through the filter of our human experience; we can forget that to those who don’t share our perspective life can be substantially different.

I got to thinking about this when I was in my shower this moring. I have the good fortune to be able to have Cleo with me nearly 24 hours a day. She’s with me at work and at home. The longest we’re apart is when she waits for me to eat in a restaurant or shop in a store where dogs aren’t welcome. She waits faithfully by the bathroom door while I shower. After each of these  separations she wiggles with joy at my reappearance. This is a common experience for dogs owners. We can’t figure out why our companion acts so overjoyed to see us when we’ve only been apart for a short while.

It makes sense if we look at time from our pet’s perspective.

The average dog has a life expectancy of 14 years, the average human, 70 years. These are very general figures, though reasonably accurate in many cases, and make the math easy to understand. That means a period of time to me is on average 5 times longer than the nsame period of time to Cleo. While I may perceive the time it takes me to eat in a restaurant as an hour on my human scale, Cleo perceives it as 5 of my hours. Think of the dogs left home alone while their owner is at work. To us only 9 hours have passed since we left but the dog perceives that same period as nearly two full human days. If you have to leave your dog with a sitter while you attend a week-long conference in another city, the dog will perceive your absense as nearly a month of its subjective time.

No wonder they’re so happy to see us after we’ve been away for a while.

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Another Day After Groundhog Day

Fifty-six years ago I caused my mom a few hours of intense physical pain. I don’t know how that compared to the frequent pain I caused during the next 50 years or so, but at least I caused her that particular pain only once, and I was a totally innocent participant. I wasn’t responsible for her condition.

Birthdays are pointless between 50 and 60. And not just birthdays. I read this the other day,

There is no traditional symbol of the Fifty Sixth Wedding Anniversary

OK, that’s probably because so few people can actually stay together for 56 years. The two couples who have reached this milestone couldn’t agree on a traditional gift. Health insurance, maybe.

There were only a couple of times the fact that the 3rd was tomorrow and it is my birthday crossed my mind today. It’s just not an important milestone. The only thing significant about it at all is that it’s 29 years longer than the age I thought I’d be when I died. I felt, for some reason, assured that I would die at 27. I believed that for a number of years, from my early teens up to the day I turned 28.

Beneath my obvious relief I was completely disorientated. Shit, now what? It was a little late to be making life-altering goals. I’m not supposed to still be wondering what I want to be when I grow up at 28. And now here I am at 56, with no better idea what it is I’m supposed to be doing with my life, if indeed there is a purpose to life. Philosophically I don’t accept the idea that there is an over-riding, beyond-ourselves purpose to life at all. But practically I acknowledge the comfort in thinking there might be. Not that it makes much difference one way or the other. If there is a purpose I’m in total ignorance of it, so it might as well not exist.

Turning 28 had another profound impact on my future. It was an event that killed any chance I ever had to be a professional prognosticator. I would never be able to convince anyone I could see, let alone predict, the future. Anyone who has watched “Dead Like Me” will understand how I felt upon turning 28. All my theories about my own life were shown, rather obviously, to be wrong. Not “slightly off” but totally incorrect. My mantra from the age of 28 to this day is, “What the hell do I know?”

Thirty is a socially significant age, forty more so, But forty is also the age at which significant “milestone” birthdays begin to occur only every decade until 70 or so. Only children and seniors consider every year significant. In the “middle ages” it takes a decade to effect much change in a person’s life. There isn’t a hell of a lot of difference between the me of today and the 52 year old me. Four more years? Maybe something will be significant about that age. All I can say is that I’m pleased to still be able to entertain the notion that I might get to find out. Gives me something to look forward to.

Now there’s something that sucks about getting older: the older you get, the less you have to look forward to and the more you have to look back at. You tend to spend more time in reflection and retrospection than anticipation. As someone curious about life that can be frustrating. I’m one of those rather dissatisfied with the period of human development I was chosen to be born into. I had no choice in the selection process, I was never consulted for my opinion or given options. My choice would have been further into the future. I’m fully anticipating a future that I’m also having to acknowledge I will most likely never get to see come about. Some days that really pisses me off. My generation had the energy to really effect a profound change on society in positive ways and we pissed that energy and determination away. We failed to realize our goals then spent the rest of our time making excuses for our failures. That’s not to say my generation didn’t have profound effects on society, it’s just that those effects were less important and less satisfying than our early goals.

At least I got to realize a lot of the goals I had early in life. I kind of rushed all the experiences I could into the first 27 years of my life. I got to do things I never thought I’d actually get to do, life had its very interesting moments. I’ve come to accept rather than regret those times I can recall that were not my proudest moments, I’ve come to see the positive benefits that some of the negative events produced. I’ve proven, if only to myself, that one can fail, more than once, and still find a reason to go on, keep making mistakes and enjoying the times you don’t. Some say that what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger. They forget to add that this only applies to the young. To those well past childhood that which doesn’t kill you only makes you numb, immune, no longer amused.

Celebrate “my day” by having some fun today. Take a few moments to do something silly, something random, something childish (unless you are a child, then just carry on). Best gift I could get.

Codex Seraphinianus

I think this is truely wonderful. I love the idea of writing a scholerly reference about an alternate reality. Having read several books by Italo Calvino I can appreciate the reference in the title.

CODEX SERAPHINIANUS is a beautiful beast of a book.  It is giant and heavy and has all of the majesty of some sort of grimoire or encyclopedia of an alternative universe.  But I’m getting ahead of myself, and should tell you what it contains.The book was written and illustrated by Luigi Serafini in the 1970s.  It is an imaginary record of a strange world written in an invented language, divvied up into 11 chapters, and organized thusly:

The first section appears to describe the natural world, dealing with flora, fauna, and physics. The second deals with the humanities, the various aspects of human life: clothing, history, cuisine, architecture and so on. Each chapter seems to treat a general encyclopedic topic. The topics of each separate chapter are as follows:

• The first chapter describes many alien types of flora: strange flowers, trees that uproot themselves and migrate, etc.
• The second chapter is devoted to the fauna of this alien world, depicting many animals that are surreal variations of the horse, hippopotamus, rhinoceros, birds, etc.
• The third chapter deals with what seems to be a separate kingdom of odd bipedal creatures, apparently engineered for various purposes.
• The fourth chapter deals with something that seems to be physics and chemistry, and is by far the most abstract and enigmatic.
• The fifth chapter deals with bizarre machines and vehicles.
• The sixth chapter explores the general humanities: biology, sexuality, various aboriginal peoples, and even shows examples of plant life and tools (such as pens and wrenches) grafted directly into the human body.
• The seventh chapter is historical. It shows many people (some only vaguely human) of unknown significance, giving their times of birth and death. It also depicts many scenes of historical (and possibly religious) significance. Also included are examples of burial and funereal customs.
• The eighth chapter depicts the history of the Codex’s alien writing system.
• The ninth chapter deals with food, dining practices, and clothing.
• The tenth chapter describes bizarre games (including playing cards and board games) and athletic sports.
• The eleventh chapter is devoted entirely to architecture.

(Source with more pictures: Phantasmaphile)

New Wi-Fi Standard Promises Blazing Fast Data Speeds | Gadget Lab

via wired.com

After nearly five years in draft, the next-generation Wi-Fi standard is set to be finalized in September. Officially known as 802.11n and often referred to as “Wireless N,” the new standard paves the way for blazing fast high definition video and data at home.

Posted via web from jeber’s found items

Life’s First Spark Re-Created in the Laboratory

A fundamental but elusive step in the early evolution of life on Earth has been replicated in a laboratory.

Researchers synthesized the basic ingredients of RNA, a molecule from which the simplest self-replicating structures are made. Until now, they couldn’t explain how these ingredients might have formed.

“It’s like molecular choreography, where the molecules choreograph their own behavior,” said organic chemist John Sutherland of the University of Manchester, co-author of a study in Nature Wednesday.

RNA is now found in living cells, where it carries information between genes and protein-manufacturing cellular components. Scientists think RNA existed early in Earth’s history, providing a necessary intermediate platform between pre-biotic chemicals and DNA, its double-stranded, more-stable descendant.

Like other would-be nucleotide synthesizers, Sutherland’s team included phosphate in their mix, but rather than adding it to sugars and nucleobases, they started with an array of even simpler molecules that were probably also in Earth’s primordial ooze.

They mixed the molecules in water, heated the solution, then allowed it to evaporate, leaving behind a residue of hybrid, half-sugar, half-nucleobase molecules. To this residue they again added water, heated it, allowed it evaporate, and then irradiated it.

At each stage of the cycle, the resulting molecules were more complex. At the final stage, Sutherland’s team added phosphate. “Remarkably, it transformed into the ribonucleotide!” said Sutherland.

According to Sutherland, these laboratory conditions resembled those of the life-originating “warm little pond” hypothesized by Charles Darwin if the pond “evaporated, got heated, and then it rained and the sun shone.”

Such conditions are plausible, and Szostak imagined the ongoing cycle of evaporation, heating and condensation providing “a kind of organic snow which could accumulate as a reservoir of material ready for the next step in RNA synthesis.”

Intriguingly, the precursor molecules used by Sutherland’s team have been identified in interstellar dust clouds and on meteorites. (Source-Wired)

It’s a fascinating development. We may not find a practical application of this information that’s acceptable to everyone any time soon, but just knowing that there is a reasonable explanation for the beginning of life is worthwhile.

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Cleo sends a message

There’s hardly a day that goes by in which Cleo doesn’t amaze me with her personality and intelligence. There should be no way a 6 month old pup could be this creative.

This afternoon at work I was cleaning up one of the stations. At one point I took a container of water back to the bathroom to pour down the toilet. Cleo tagged along as usual and watched me. A short time later I saw her go into the bathroom and stare into the toilet. I figured she was just curious. Then she walked from the bathroom through the shop up to where her water bowl is. She walked back to the bathroom and stared into the toilet.

Curious, I checked her water bowl. It was empty. She was letting me know the water in the toilet should be in her bowl. I grabbed her bowl and filled it in the sink with Cleo watching me the whole time, tail wagging merrily.

Once she again had water in her bowl she never returned to the bathroom.

Any dog trainer will tell you that dog training is at least 50% a matter of training the owner to pay attention to what your dog is telling you. I have been given my lesson for the day and will remember it.

This Week’s IKEA Specials

This Week’s IKEA Specials

Originally uploaded by l0ckergn0me

Evidently times are so tough at the Pirillo household poor Chris has had to resort to selling off all his personal stuff via IKEA. I’m hankering for his worn t-shirt, since I doubt his worn pants would fit. And at only $10 each I can afford to buy his entire wardrobe and wash them myself.

I might even pick up his blinky lights. No geek can have too many blinky lights.

lightning at sunset

lightning at sunset

Originally uploaded by wvs

If you appreciate the beauty of nature like I do, get on over to Sam’s Flickr page and look at this photo in full size. It leaves me nearly speechless, but thankfully still able to blog.

“Shot at Toronto’s Centre Island. A great example of being in the right place at the right time. “

I’ll say.

Live long and prosper (?)

I recently picked a new primary care doctor. After two visits and exhaustive lab tests, he said I was doing ‘fairly well’ for my age. A little concerned about that comment, I couldn’t resist asking him, ‘Do you think I’ll live to be 85?’ He asked, ‘Do you smoke tobacco, or drink beer or wine?’ ‘Oh no,’ I replied. ‘I’m not doing drugs, either!’ Then he asked, ‘Do you eat rib-eye steaks, barbecued ribs or Sausage?’ I said, ‘No, my former doctor said that all red meat is very unhealthy!’  ‘Do you spend a lot of time in the sun, like playing golf, boating, hiking, or bicycling?’ ‘No, I don’t,’ I said. He asked, ‘Do you gamble, drive fast cars, ride a Harley or have a lot of sex?’  ‘No,’ I said. He looked at me and said,

‘Then, why do you even give a shit?’

(posted by emmas on Tumblr)

I heartily agree.  I’d rather burn out at 65 from living life to its fullest than slowly decompose for 85 years avoiding all risk and adventure.

Not all prices are going up

At least one popular item seems to be dropping in price at a remarkable rate.  I just saw this advertised by ComputerGeeks.

PNY Attaché 8GB High-Speed USB 2.0 Flash Drive w/ReadyBoost   $28.99

That’s insane.  It wasn’t 6 months ago that you could hardly find an off-brand, no-name 1GB flash drive for that price.

If only computer prices fell that fast.  They’re coming down quickly, but if they followed the same pricing curve that flash drives have followed we’d be offered free laptops for subscribing to PC Magazine.  (Well, I can dream, can’t I?)

Social Productivity

I sense an increasing merge between social networking and productivity.

Tools like Zoho Office and Google Docs facilitate creation as well as collaboration. Zigtag and Shyftr add a social element to our bookmarks and RSS feeds.

What was once a solitary endeavor; write a blog post, bookmark a favorite website, eventually became a shared experience (think StumbleUpon) and now has evolved into a fully interactive social activity. Even boring old Micrsoft allows me to write a document in Office Live then collaborate with others on it.

Now it appears the potential downside to social productivity is being discussed on Friendfeed and Twitter, sites that are far more social than productive. Once we share our content does it remain ours or become the property of the web? How can we know when and where comments and feedback are posted? The conversation is at risk of becoming fragmented, spread around to too many places, sites we may not frequent. Do we have any control over what we send out to others? Do the concepts of licensing and intellectual property need to be re-evaluated?

Back in the “old days”, the social web and productivity were isolated. I could type a document in Word or chat on IRC, but the two never crossed paths. These days that boundary has been breached, well before we’ve clearly thought out how we want to engage in the cross-talk.

What are your concerns? Is social productivity a big step forward or a pointless step sideways?

SantaGaryV

SantaGaryV

Originally uploaded by jeber

I got mine. Get yours at http://garyveynerchuk.com

Then catch up with all the enthusiasm and inspiration that Gary churns out daily on Twitter.

Running the numbers

Baseball players face 162 games a season, (American) football players, 16.

Who is closer to earning their exorbitant salary? Who are the real athletes?

A slice of (real) life

Question of the day

The compliment of suburban is urban.

Why isn’t the compliment of a suburb an urb?

Code Monkey Dance

I ran across this video on The Uncredible Hallq’s blog and enjoyed it so much I had to share. I cannot fathom why I like it, I just do. I think I’ll do the Code Monkey dance at random moments at work tomorrow.

S’truth

Four faces of Samuel Barber

One of my favorite classical pieces is Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings. It is in turn melancholic, inspirational, profound and restful. I’ve put together four videos featuring different musician’s interpretation of this beautiful melody.


I can’t honestly say I prefer one to the other. In their own way each version illustrates another facet of the work.


The first is the traditional, classical version. Second, a vocal version performed by The Choir of Trinity College,Cambridge,UK.Directed by Richard Marlow. Third, an electronic interpretation by William Orbit and finally, Dj Tiesto presents the Adagio in a techno style.


I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

My visit to Nirvana

 
I just got back from three days at the Google campus attending the release event for the Linux KDE version 4.0 desktop. The event itself was great. I got to meet quite a few very smart people from all over the world, united by our interest in Linux and the KDE desktop manager. But I don’t think any of us could get over the fact that we were at Google, geek heaven, the holy of holies for the internet crowd.

We were “asked” not to say much about the Google campus, so I’m afraid I can’t go into much detail about the place. We were not allowed to take pictures inside, only outside and only when accompanied by Google security or staff. Let’s just say that having spent a few years working at the NSA I didn’t feel that out-of-place at the Googlplex.

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