Studying new languages / Brompton broken, extra energy, confusion / Morning reading /…

- elokuuta 04, 2006

In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule." Friedrich Nietzsche

Studying new languages

OK, I have now decided to study a few new programming languages. It seems that I am not taken seriously as a systems architect, unless I can claim knowledge of Java, C#, Ruby on Rails, Php, and maybe something else. Knowing C, Perl, Awk, Prolog, ML, Haskell, and SDL, is of no value in the current job market. It does not even prove ability to learn, say, Java.
So, I have a question for my readers. Could you, please, refer me to the best books on Java, C#, Ruby, and Php? I will then read the books and write some programs in each of them, maybe even for mobile phones and the holy environment of Symbian. As it took me 12 hours to learn Perl back in 1997, this project should be doable.

Brompton broken, extra energy, confusion

Yesterday, I took my Brompton-bicycle to its first (complimentary) service. It was about the right time, for the rear wheel was not true anymore. I hope they can fix it. Yes, I should be 10 kg lighter, but I like food too much, any food.
So, I have commuted by buses and trains. It is definitely boring, I lose my posture, and I am full of non-usable energy when I arrive in the office, not just simmering but boiling. Such an energy is not very good for working in non-academic environment. In an academic environment, such energy is essential. Too bad that we cannot freely choose our places of work in a way that would suit us and be best for the future of the world. Or can we? Am I just timid, lazy, convenience-oriented, money-driven engineer? Should I stop (complaining, striving) and just take a salary, be happy for getting it with about 25% of my intellectual strength and skills? Some do so. Would that be good life? What kind of life is good?
How to cope? If I cannot cycle in the morning, I mean.

Morning reading

In addition to reading a paper copy of Helsingin sanomat every morning, I also check the following sites before leaving for work or otherwise:

Are there any other news-sites worth reading every morning? Note that my language skills are limited.

Email statistics over 698 days

I have now kept statistics of all email I have received at helsinki.fi for almost two years. (the statistic is missing the email I got in 2005 at mit.edu). I seem to get quite a lot of email, most of which is spam, although spam messages seem to be rather small.

---- Summary since September 6th, 2004 (698 days)----

Total number of emails: 76677
  per day:               109
Total number of SPAM:   50611
  per day:               72
Spam percentage:        66.0000

Total non-spam emails:  26066
 Of which
  personal email:     15451
    per day:           22
  list email:         10615
    per day:           15

Total SPAM in MB:       639.354 
    per day:             0.915
Total EMAIL  in MB:       6232.57 
    per day:             8.929

Thrusday 06-08-03

Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realise that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events. Winston Churchill

Finnish soccer

More spectator sports for us today: we went to see local soccer team beat another team from Turku 5-0. The game was entertaining enough even tough it was played only on one half of the field. The most entertaining person was the associate referee, whose ample belly almost prevented him from noticing offsides. After the game, the best player got an electric toothbrush. It pays to play soccer in Finland.

Cyberchondriacs

A new disease has been found among the advance nations: cyberchondriacs. Take care and avoid the infection. It is a nasty one to suffer from.
Instead, start worrying about the unsafe RFID-passports. Soon the terrorists near your home will copy your passport, cheat their way into the local parliament and bomb it, while laying the blame at your door. Nasty, eh?

American Madrassas

David Byrne discusses Christian indoctrination in some summer camps for children in his blog. It turns out that the kids are taught, in the name of Jesus, that even global warming is a lie. Mr Byrne asks wisely

When one sees religion perverted — in the U.S. or in Israel, Pakistan, Afghanistan or India, one wonders if the spiritual seeds, planted by visionaries and enlightened prophets like Jesus, Mohammed, Marx and others, are just too volatile for large societies to deal with. One asks if religious visions are better off kept as a personal thing, or at least confined to a small group Â¿ otherwise the death and destruction sown by and in the name of religions more or less balances out their moral and personal virtues (which are many.)

Very, very, very worrying development is this.

Nation of wimps

An article in Psychology today claims that US is breeding a nation of wimps. It seems that paying too much attention to kids and trying to make their life fail-safe is really bad for them.

Parents are going to ludicrous lengths to take the bumps out of life for their children. However, parental hyperconcern has the net effect of making kids more fragile; that may be why they're breaking down in record numbers.

The article is worth reading even if one would not have won kids in the lottery of life.

IP package service

I sent two packages from US to Finland, both at the same time. First one arrived last week and I picked it up today. The other has not yet arrived. I hope that the has not been dropped along the way, that it has just taken another route. It takes about two months for a package to cross the Atlantic and arrive in Finland. Quite far from the normal speed of global commerce.

Wednessday 06-08-02

All of us who are concerned for peace and triumph of reason and justice must be keenly aware how small an influence reason and honest good will exert upon events in the political field. Albert Einstein

Birthday

Birthday should be a mandatory holiday. Celebrating requires some time. Work takes it away. So, this year, I had just modest celebrations: receiving congratulations via several media, meeting S for a dinner (in Wellamo, which was closed) in Ryan Thai and then drinking some cava at our balcony and watching trams drive by. Later, we watched "The Birds", which was just as good as I remembered.
It would be nice to remember all birthdays (or the last 20 at least). I do not quite remember - I remember most of them, but not all and I am afraid that the chronological order I remember is not the correct one. More blogging and after 20 years I will remember 20 previous birthday celebrations.
If I stay in some well-paid occupation, my 40th birthdate will be celebrated in Venice, on my expense, with my closest friends and relatives. Let's see.

The state of oceans

LA Times runs a great series of articles on the state of the oceans. Worth a look and deep thoughts. If not altogether dark ones. On a lighter side, 22 cities try to slow down the global warming by joining an initiative by Mr. Bill Clinton.

Technology sites

Because of my job as the head, brains, hands, and balls of competitive intelligence (of a certain organization), I follow quite many technology websites. Below is a selection. Thanks to Yoav and Sam for sharing their favourite sites with me.

I would appreciate link to other good websites. Please, leave a comment!

Fighting a war

Maybe the reason for fighting a war is quite simple. At least when the war has begun, it tends to get out of hand with more dead civilians, destroyed buildings, and making hundreds of thousands homeless.
Karma Nabulsi writes wisely on how the refugees' fury will be felt for generations to come and how implementing existing UN-resolutions would be a good start. Or the war will destroy the whole region and shatter the world order, or whatever is left of it.

Brave new world

we may be witnessing birth of new multipolar disorder in the world. World is becoming more dangerous by the day, and as Timothy Ash writes, Who would be prepared to risk a bet that we won't see a nuclear weapon fired in anger over the next 10 years? I wouldn't. Would you? — I would not. It is not only that Iran may succeed in developing its own bomb, but Pakistan is building a reactor for 50 bombs a year. Curiously, Pakistan's growing arsenal (or that of India's) is not worrying the "international community".
I wonder why the doomsday clock has not been updated since 2002. Back then, it was seven minutes to midnight. It must be much closer today, unfortunately.

Alun perin julkaistu kuukausikoosteessa "Blogs July to September 2006".

Hae tästä blogista

Mane