Anti-Mammals. We see them everywhere these days. They look like us but they aren't us. They are there to deride the optimistic, to hold back the creative, to yawn at the comedic, to express disgust when acts of love are on public display or in private bedrooms, to kill off genuine compliments with accusations of harrassment, to in every petty way possible kill the mammalian drives.
They are power mad because they are insecure. Like vampires, they are only strong at the very darkest times, and just a bit of sunshine drives them to their cliquish coffin clubs of elitism and secret assuaging of their perverse thirsts. Ever since 1975, they've been replicating themselves by cloning their original members, and genetic fading is starting to make them as mad as inbred dogs.
One would think that they would have become the objects of much comedy but instead, we continue to elect them to high posts because we somehow have mistaken their stolen wealth and pale pasty faces for signs of economic wisdom and spiritual enlightenment.
Now they believe information is the ultimate power so they've set their beady red eyes on the Internet. Pretty soon they'll be in control of all the routers and selling us closed box desktops with "no serviceable parts inside", using their tactics of calling anything they can't do 'useless or geeky', and otherwise holding up any piece of information that suggests something different from their viewpoint and calling it, "liberal". They harvest joy to produce boredom.
Laugh at them and blog on. Mammals thrive because we are warm-blooded and sexy and love our children more than our jobs. You don't have to party with the anti-mammals, and they won't invite you anyway unless they need to feed.
Just Say No.
Thursday, August 19, 2004
Wednesday, August 18, 2004
The Value of Our Values
Following on this article and the discussion of effective means, it is important to discuss the value of our values. This can turn into a long philosophical discussion, but my focus is on what should be understood in terms of our values as effective means to achieve fundamental objectives. To do this, we must understand first the effect of our values on interpreting facts before we select means.
When analyzing a situation, we bring our values to the analysis, often without noticing it, and this can color our analysis in various ways. Let's look at some historical examples. Most reasonable people would agree that peace is preferred to warfare and that when examining the historical record of a society at peace, we tend to admire the accomplishments of that society. This exemplifies the confusion of our fundamental values and objectives with our relative values and means. For the AI literate, think goals and subgoals and inheritable properties.
There is the case of the Chaco Canyon pueblos and the builders of these large and impressive buildings, the Anasazi. While many archaeologists and sociologists study the collapse of this civilization in the San Juan Basin of New Mexico, others study the reason for its rise, particularly, how was it organized and what motivated the building of the large ceremonial centers. Interestingly, when these were abandoned, they were burned. Even if drought and famine were causes for abandoning these, why were they burned?
Christy Turner proposes a simple explanation: cannibalism. Even more interesting is that the signature of the bones and other artifacts found at the sites incline Turner to suggest that a group of Central Americans from the area of what is now Mexico invaded the area of the Chaco Canyon and used the brutality of their culture to subdue the diverse and warring natives to submit to their rule and their terrifying religion. While the perpetrators and causes are debated, the Bones Test is fairly conclusive. Cannibalism and brutality were practiced at a possibly large scale and in an organized and systematic fashion. If so, burning the ceremonial centers once the freedom to do so was achieved is an understandable reaction. They weren't defensible and this population had come to understand the need for defense from their neighbors.
The evidence for the invasion is considered scanty by other archaeologists but there is much evidence of unthinkable brutality followed by a mass exodus during which the Anasazi became cliff dwellers. This is not unlike the strategy of the inhabitants of the Aegean islands who also retreated to the inhospitable cliffs to build villages during a series of invasions by the so-called Sea Peoples during the Bronze Age.
Brutality can be a very effective means of social control. We have many modern examples of this. What looked to the original investigators of the Chaco Canyon excavation and the Mayan digs as examples of a noble period of peace turn out to be peace by terror. This isn't rare. Archaeologists project their own values on to the surface evidence and as a result, can come to exactly the wrong conclusions about means.
Objective evaluation means we deal with the facts and not the spin. The recent 9/11 Commission hearings following the publication of the report have shown abundant examples of authorities attempting to spin the interpretation of the reports in favor of their own political careers. Yet as one lady who is a member of the group of families of the victims of 9/11, and whose persistence forced the creation of the commission over the objections of political incumbents noted, "Anyone who reads even the first fifty pages is mad. The jig is up. You have to do something now."
I digress, but I want to note that at the root of value-focused thinking is the concept that hidden objectives and confusing means objectives for fundamental objectives are primary causes of value systems that drift over time. Given situations of global importance, we must acquire and deal with the facts before we do the Bones Test to determine means. History is only a good teacher when it is a true history.
Peace itself as an objective can be attained by different means and the most stunning observations come of asking oneself:
How many historical examples of peace emerging by consent of the governed are there, and if this is rare, why?
What are the effects of means once the objective is achieved?
I leave the reader to ponder the first questions, but the second question has relevance to the events of recent years. Peace created by brutal means typically results in the emergence of a criminal element following the removal of the agents of such means. We can look to the former Soviet Republics, to the current situations in Iraq and Afghanistan and compare these to our own American historical experiences for examples. If we are to do better in the future we have to pay attention to and draw insights from the results of improper means at odds with fundamental objectives.
In the practice of law enforcement, and really, any governance where the governed do not consent by self-motivated cause, the use of force applied without regard to consequence has very predictable results. Further, when force is applied, the perception of the values of the leadership of the dominating force plays a powerful role in shaping the behaviors of the dominated when that force is withdrawn.
Understanding this is crucial to how America uses its power in the world and within its own borders. Let's look at a recent examples in the USA.
During the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, Dr. Martin Luther King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference attempted to desegregate Albany, Georgia. Here, King found that the perception of non-violence could be played both ways. Dr. King had
".. a formidable opponent in Albany police chief Laurie Pritchett. Pritchett ostensibly practiced the nonviolence that King preached, ordering his officers to avoid brutality, at least when the TV cameras and news reporters were present. Prepared for the waves of marchers King encouraged, Pritchett had them arrested and sent off to jails in the surrounding counties, including Baker, Mitchell, and Lee.
In the end King ran out of willing marchers before Pritchett ran out of jail space. Once again King got himself arrested, and once again he was let go. By early August it was clear that King had proved ineffective in bringing about change in Albany, but he had learned the important lessons that he and the SCLC would carry to Birmingham."
Dr. King believed that he had failed, although "black voter registration efforts were so successful that, two months after King left Albany, African American businessman Thomas Chatmon secured enough votes in the election for a city commission seat to force a run-off election. The following spring the city commission removed all the segregation statutes from its books." It would be in Birmingham, Alabama that Dr. King would find the perfect foil for the strategy of using non-violent protest to incite unwarranted use of force in the person of "Birmingham's public safety commissioner Eugene T. "Bull" Connor" who "advocated violence against freedom riders and ordered fire hoses and police dogs turned on demonstrators." While Sheriff Pritchett was no shining example of a man of justice, he was not an idiot who did not understand the strategy being played out in Albany or the effects of such means when "the whole world is watching."
Cultures and attitudes can change but they don't change all at once and in all places. It has taken the continuous pressure of the U.S. Federal government over many years in many places to change the American attitudes toward race. As someone who was born and grew up in Alabama during the period of desegregation, I thank God for such changes as have come about. Yet racism and violence continue to this day and that brings us to the next example of the use of force as ineffective and effective means.
Some six and half months before the event that would dominate global news and preoccupy the American people and government to this day, an event of some importance occurred. In April 2001, the city of Cincinnati experienced race riots on a scale so shocking that participants labeled it a 'race war'. There are differing interpretations of the causes and effects but there are some clear patterns and facts.
The Kerner Commission in 1968 and the mayoral report of 1979 concluded that the police and city officials did not care about incidents of police misconduct, particularly, the use of force. The 1981 report of the United States Commission on Civil Rights accused the Cincinnati police of discriminatory hiring practices and again criticized the lack of standards for use of force. Although the city, under Federal pressure, did hire blacks to the police force, in a 1995 case of brutality against a black student, the police review panel concluded that racism persisted in the force because of 'a reluctance to institute necessary organizational and procedural reforms.' From 1995 to 2001, there were fifteen fatal police shootings of black men and none of whites. When the riots erupted, they were fierce and almost unstoppable. It was the weather turning cold and rainy that finally stopped the action, not the law enforcement agencies.
Some facts are worthy of notice:
1. Of the fifteen, 14 were justifiable.
2. Sustaining the action was in part due to outside agencies helping to organize the riots, of note, the Nation of Islam and the New Black Panthers.
3. While the press called this a race riot, the rioters called it a war.
Regardless of the actions leading up to the event, once in motion, the facts did not matter. Over time, the brutality of the local police agencies had built up an insurmountable tinder and once lit, it sustained an incredibly destructive use of force.
The Department of Justice under Ashcroft investigated the matter and came to the conclusion that the remedy was precisely to modify the behavior of the use of force. In an earlier effort to combat racial profiling in Montgomery County, Maryland, the Reno department monitored traffic citations to detect patterns of racial profiling. This was not as effective because while one can use police report management systems to detect such patterns, changing a belief system is a difficult thing to do.
Modifying a behavior is a well-understood science known as operant conditioning. A feedback loop based on an observable behavior resulting in a predictable reward over a predictable time is established and monitored. This will shape the behavior to the desired state. Then, it is a matter of sustaining that behavior once the controls are removed. If the clear policies for the use of force are reflected in the gathering and analysis of incident reports in the police records management system, the desired behavior will be sustained.
After the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit, the Department of Justice and the city of Cincinnati signed a Memorandum of Agreement that set out conditions for reporting on any incident that involved the use of force. Strict policies were put in place to analyze and report on these incidents. Under the MOA, once the City could demonstrate for a specified period of time that the behaviors of the officers conformed to the policies for use of force, the City would be released from the agreement. This is an effective use of minimum control to modify a behavior. As an example of the use of force, it is dramatically effective.
One can read the ongoing quarterly reports from the DOJ monitor online. Remarkably and to the City and the police department's credit, this is working. This is an effective means.
Before concluding, I want to draw the attention of the readers to one more lesson from history. When Cortez marched on the Aztec rulers, he defeated a force much larger than the meager group of Spanish Conquistadors he brought with him. Some have speculated that it was superior fire power and tactics by the Spaniards, and others the diseases to which the native Americans had no resistance that were responsible for his success. These are not the facts. The fact was that the Aztecs had brutalized the native population and used them in ceremonial rituals of sacrifice for some generations. As in Chaco Canyon, brutality had ruled a people. Cortez found it a simple matter to go to the neighboring peoples and recruit them to his cause. When he marched on Tenochititlan, it was an easy victory because he had found a force multiplier in the hatred these people felt for their rulers.
"The enemy of my enemy is my friend. A statement of intent is the surest indicator that an attempt will be made." These are words to the wise for those with ears to hear them about the war on global terrorism.
To conclude:
1. As George H.W. Bush noted about the first Gulf War, the use of force must be governed by clear policies before it is applied.
2. As noted in operant conditioning texts, use of negative reinforcement typically results in subsequent negative behavior even once the behavior to which the force was applied is extinguished. We must use positive means, sustain them, and pay the price of monitoring subsequent behaviors. Examples such as the monitoring of elections by groups led by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter have proven the power of this means.
3. If America is to be a respected leader in the free world, its acts and its values must be in accord. We must not confuse means as fundamental objectives and the actions of our leaders must clearly reflect our values.
The value of our values is that they shape our objectives. If we are not clear about these objectives, then it is clear that our values have become confused as well. Until we can clarify these and communicate them to each other, we will continue to confuse the means of achieving peace with the acts of a peaceful nation. Doing this, our enemies will grow because they will discover the means to use our greatest strength, our fundamental value of the individual rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to trap us into a generation of conflict by making us unreasonably fearful of losing them.
While the use of force can be justified and be a reasonable means, it can also be an unreasonable objective if it does not produce a just and lasting peace. Our policies and our acts must reflect this understanding because once the conflict is in motion, the facts may not matter, and there are no cliffs we can live on that are high enough to protect us.
When analyzing a situation, we bring our values to the analysis, often without noticing it, and this can color our analysis in various ways. Let's look at some historical examples. Most reasonable people would agree that peace is preferred to warfare and that when examining the historical record of a society at peace, we tend to admire the accomplishments of that society. This exemplifies the confusion of our fundamental values and objectives with our relative values and means. For the AI literate, think goals and subgoals and inheritable properties.
There is the case of the Chaco Canyon pueblos and the builders of these large and impressive buildings, the Anasazi. While many archaeologists and sociologists study the collapse of this civilization in the San Juan Basin of New Mexico, others study the reason for its rise, particularly, how was it organized and what motivated the building of the large ceremonial centers. Interestingly, when these were abandoned, they were burned. Even if drought and famine were causes for abandoning these, why were they burned?
Christy Turner proposes a simple explanation: cannibalism. Even more interesting is that the signature of the bones and other artifacts found at the sites incline Turner to suggest that a group of Central Americans from the area of what is now Mexico invaded the area of the Chaco Canyon and used the brutality of their culture to subdue the diverse and warring natives to submit to their rule and their terrifying religion. While the perpetrators and causes are debated, the Bones Test is fairly conclusive. Cannibalism and brutality were practiced at a possibly large scale and in an organized and systematic fashion. If so, burning the ceremonial centers once the freedom to do so was achieved is an understandable reaction. They weren't defensible and this population had come to understand the need for defense from their neighbors.
The evidence for the invasion is considered scanty by other archaeologists but there is much evidence of unthinkable brutality followed by a mass exodus during which the Anasazi became cliff dwellers. This is not unlike the strategy of the inhabitants of the Aegean islands who also retreated to the inhospitable cliffs to build villages during a series of invasions by the so-called Sea Peoples during the Bronze Age.
Brutality can be a very effective means of social control. We have many modern examples of this. What looked to the original investigators of the Chaco Canyon excavation and the Mayan digs as examples of a noble period of peace turn out to be peace by terror. This isn't rare. Archaeologists project their own values on to the surface evidence and as a result, can come to exactly the wrong conclusions about means.
Objective evaluation means we deal with the facts and not the spin. The recent 9/11 Commission hearings following the publication of the report have shown abundant examples of authorities attempting to spin the interpretation of the reports in favor of their own political careers. Yet as one lady who is a member of the group of families of the victims of 9/11, and whose persistence forced the creation of the commission over the objections of political incumbents noted, "Anyone who reads even the first fifty pages is mad. The jig is up. You have to do something now."
I digress, but I want to note that at the root of value-focused thinking is the concept that hidden objectives and confusing means objectives for fundamental objectives are primary causes of value systems that drift over time. Given situations of global importance, we must acquire and deal with the facts before we do the Bones Test to determine means. History is only a good teacher when it is a true history.
Peace itself as an objective can be attained by different means and the most stunning observations come of asking oneself:
I leave the reader to ponder the first questions, but the second question has relevance to the events of recent years. Peace created by brutal means typically results in the emergence of a criminal element following the removal of the agents of such means. We can look to the former Soviet Republics, to the current situations in Iraq and Afghanistan and compare these to our own American historical experiences for examples. If we are to do better in the future we have to pay attention to and draw insights from the results of improper means at odds with fundamental objectives.
In the practice of law enforcement, and really, any governance where the governed do not consent by self-motivated cause, the use of force applied without regard to consequence has very predictable results. Further, when force is applied, the perception of the values of the leadership of the dominating force plays a powerful role in shaping the behaviors of the dominated when that force is withdrawn.
Understanding this is crucial to how America uses its power in the world and within its own borders. Let's look at a recent examples in the USA.
During the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, Dr. Martin Luther King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference attempted to desegregate Albany, Georgia. Here, King found that the perception of non-violence could be played both ways. Dr. King had
".. a formidable opponent in Albany police chief Laurie Pritchett. Pritchett ostensibly practiced the nonviolence that King preached, ordering his officers to avoid brutality, at least when the TV cameras and news reporters were present. Prepared for the waves of marchers King encouraged, Pritchett had them arrested and sent off to jails in the surrounding counties, including Baker, Mitchell, and Lee.
In the end King ran out of willing marchers before Pritchett ran out of jail space. Once again King got himself arrested, and once again he was let go. By early August it was clear that King had proved ineffective in bringing about change in Albany, but he had learned the important lessons that he and the SCLC would carry to Birmingham."
Dr. King believed that he had failed, although "black voter registration efforts were so successful that, two months after King left Albany, African American businessman Thomas Chatmon secured enough votes in the election for a city commission seat to force a run-off election. The following spring the city commission removed all the segregation statutes from its books." It would be in Birmingham, Alabama that Dr. King would find the perfect foil for the strategy of using non-violent protest to incite unwarranted use of force in the person of "Birmingham's public safety commissioner Eugene T. "Bull" Connor" who "advocated violence against freedom riders and ordered fire hoses and police dogs turned on demonstrators." While Sheriff Pritchett was no shining example of a man of justice, he was not an idiot who did not understand the strategy being played out in Albany or the effects of such means when "the whole world is watching."
Cultures and attitudes can change but they don't change all at once and in all places. It has taken the continuous pressure of the U.S. Federal government over many years in many places to change the American attitudes toward race. As someone who was born and grew up in Alabama during the period of desegregation, I thank God for such changes as have come about. Yet racism and violence continue to this day and that brings us to the next example of the use of force as ineffective and effective means.
Some six and half months before the event that would dominate global news and preoccupy the American people and government to this day, an event of some importance occurred. In April 2001, the city of Cincinnati experienced race riots on a scale so shocking that participants labeled it a 'race war'. There are differing interpretations of the causes and effects but there are some clear patterns and facts.
The Kerner Commission in 1968 and the mayoral report of 1979 concluded that the police and city officials did not care about incidents of police misconduct, particularly, the use of force. The 1981 report of the United States Commission on Civil Rights accused the Cincinnati police of discriminatory hiring practices and again criticized the lack of standards for use of force. Although the city, under Federal pressure, did hire blacks to the police force, in a 1995 case of brutality against a black student, the police review panel concluded that racism persisted in the force because of 'a reluctance to institute necessary organizational and procedural reforms.' From 1995 to 2001, there were fifteen fatal police shootings of black men and none of whites. When the riots erupted, they were fierce and almost unstoppable. It was the weather turning cold and rainy that finally stopped the action, not the law enforcement agencies.
Some facts are worthy of notice:
1. Of the fifteen, 14 were justifiable.
2. Sustaining the action was in part due to outside agencies helping to organize the riots, of note, the Nation of Islam and the New Black Panthers.
3. While the press called this a race riot, the rioters called it a war.
Regardless of the actions leading up to the event, once in motion, the facts did not matter. Over time, the brutality of the local police agencies had built up an insurmountable tinder and once lit, it sustained an incredibly destructive use of force.
The Department of Justice under Ashcroft investigated the matter and came to the conclusion that the remedy was precisely to modify the behavior of the use of force. In an earlier effort to combat racial profiling in Montgomery County, Maryland, the Reno department monitored traffic citations to detect patterns of racial profiling. This was not as effective because while one can use police report management systems to detect such patterns, changing a belief system is a difficult thing to do.
Modifying a behavior is a well-understood science known as operant conditioning. A feedback loop based on an observable behavior resulting in a predictable reward over a predictable time is established and monitored. This will shape the behavior to the desired state. Then, it is a matter of sustaining that behavior once the controls are removed. If the clear policies for the use of force are reflected in the gathering and analysis of incident reports in the police records management system, the desired behavior will be sustained.
After the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit, the Department of Justice and the city of Cincinnati signed a Memorandum of Agreement that set out conditions for reporting on any incident that involved the use of force. Strict policies were put in place to analyze and report on these incidents. Under the MOA, once the City could demonstrate for a specified period of time that the behaviors of the officers conformed to the policies for use of force, the City would be released from the agreement. This is an effective use of minimum control to modify a behavior. As an example of the use of force, it is dramatically effective.
One can read the ongoing quarterly reports from the DOJ monitor online. Remarkably and to the City and the police department's credit, this is working. This is an effective means.
Before concluding, I want to draw the attention of the readers to one more lesson from history. When Cortez marched on the Aztec rulers, he defeated a force much larger than the meager group of Spanish Conquistadors he brought with him. Some have speculated that it was superior fire power and tactics by the Spaniards, and others the diseases to which the native Americans had no resistance that were responsible for his success. These are not the facts. The fact was that the Aztecs had brutalized the native population and used them in ceremonial rituals of sacrifice for some generations. As in Chaco Canyon, brutality had ruled a people. Cortez found it a simple matter to go to the neighboring peoples and recruit them to his cause. When he marched on Tenochititlan, it was an easy victory because he had found a force multiplier in the hatred these people felt for their rulers.
"The enemy of my enemy is my friend. A statement of intent is the surest indicator that an attempt will be made." These are words to the wise for those with ears to hear them about the war on global terrorism.
To conclude:
1. As George H.W. Bush noted about the first Gulf War, the use of force must be governed by clear policies before it is applied.
2. As noted in operant conditioning texts, use of negative reinforcement typically results in subsequent negative behavior even once the behavior to which the force was applied is extinguished. We must use positive means, sustain them, and pay the price of monitoring subsequent behaviors. Examples such as the monitoring of elections by groups led by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter have proven the power of this means.
3. If America is to be a respected leader in the free world, its acts and its values must be in accord. We must not confuse means as fundamental objectives and the actions of our leaders must clearly reflect our values.
The value of our values is that they shape our objectives. If we are not clear about these objectives, then it is clear that our values have become confused as well. Until we can clarify these and communicate them to each other, we will continue to confuse the means of achieving peace with the acts of a peaceful nation. Doing this, our enemies will grow because they will discover the means to use our greatest strength, our fundamental value of the individual rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to trap us into a generation of conflict by making us unreasonably fearful of losing them.
While the use of force can be justified and be a reasonable means, it can also be an unreasonable objective if it does not produce a just and lasting peace. Our policies and our acts must reflect this understanding because once the conflict is in motion, the facts may not matter, and there are no cliffs we can live on that are high enough to protect us.
Saturday, August 14, 2004
A Million Monkeys Typing
C-Span just wrapped up its political blogging segment. Experts who's names I don't know commented liberally on the blogging experience. They talked well about the power of link aggregation, the conversation, the difference between this media and others, and so on. As they closed one said jokingly, "A million monkeys typing" .
I only heard the Ad Sense ads mentioned once.
From an information ecosystem point of view, the Ad Sense ads are fascinating. Google algorithms are introducing my opinions to other people's products. My topics interact with the Google algorithms selecting ads to put there. Topics are pulling an economic selector across the intersection of links and aggregators. This is not a blithe unawareness but automation becoming choosy about the things it presents based on the topical environment in which it presents it.
The topics are in symbiosis with a sustaining artificial intelligence that will modify them. As We May Think becomes just the beginning of the evolution of thought because by selection, the blogosphere is modifying itself.
A Turing test it isn't. A difference that makes a difference it is. It isn't just monkeys typing. Blogging is typewriters typing monkeys.
I only heard the Ad Sense ads mentioned once.
From an information ecosystem point of view, the Ad Sense ads are fascinating. Google algorithms are introducing my opinions to other people's products. My topics interact with the Google algorithms selecting ads to put there. Topics are pulling an economic selector across the intersection of links and aggregators. This is not a blithe unawareness but automation becoming choosy about the things it presents based on the topical environment in which it presents it.
The topics are in symbiosis with a sustaining artificial intelligence that will modify them. As We May Think becomes just the beginning of the evolution of thought because by selection, the blogosphere is modifying itself.
A Turing test it isn't. A difference that makes a difference it is. It isn't just monkeys typing. Blogging is typewriters typing monkeys.
Friday, August 13, 2004
Bound
She said, 'What is mind'? I am/have been in
this path of spirituality for a very long time,
and i do not seem to be able to let it go.
It says "The soul may be defined
as the clear reflection
of Infinite Consciousness
and it reflects on the mind."
He told her,
"All things pass.
Some with pain.
Some with joy.
All with growth.
If the soul is the reflection of the Infinite
Then the light is not the reflection.
It is the light.
Do not mourn the mind or the soul.
The light is infinite."
len
this path of spirituality for a very long time,
and i do not seem to be able to let it go.
It says "The soul may be defined
as the clear reflection
of Infinite Consciousness
and it reflects on the mind."
He told her,
"All things pass.
Some with pain.
Some with joy.
All with growth.
If the soul is the reflection of the Infinite
Then the light is not the reflection.
It is the light.
Do not mourn the mind or the soul.
The light is infinite."
len
You Got To Fight The Blue Meanies
If its the time
Or the place
Or the style
Or the terrible confusion
You Got To Fight the Blue Meanies
You Got To Fight the Blue Meanies
When its the rock
And the sound
And the words
And the heart that beats between 'em
You Got To Fight the Blue Meanies
You Got to Fight The Blue Meanies
'cause its the thought
That holds you up
That takes you round
That makes you wince
That smooths the word
When its right
When its sparse
In the groove
It takes you down
It makes you small
It fills your dreams with
The One
Who holds you up
Who holds you up
Who frees your soul of the world.
How it owns you?
You Got To Fight the Blue Meanies
You Got to Fight the Blue Meanies
len
Or the place
Or the style
Or the terrible confusion
You Got To Fight the Blue Meanies
You Got To Fight the Blue Meanies
When its the rock
And the sound
And the words
And the heart that beats between 'em
You Got To Fight the Blue Meanies
You Got to Fight The Blue Meanies
'cause its the thought
That holds you up
That takes you round
That makes you wince
That smooths the word
When its right
When its sparse
In the groove
It takes you down
It makes you small
It fills your dreams with
The One
Who holds you up
Who holds you up
Who frees your soul of the world.
How it owns you?
You Got To Fight the Blue Meanies
You Got to Fight the Blue Meanies
len
Thursday, August 12, 2004
The Fair Witness
The day started today at 4AM, then to work at 6AM and into a meeting with the new president of the division at 8. It's 2PM now and I'm a bit bleary eyed because old guys like me just don't bounce back as far as we once did. Recording that here is a way of remembering it later. Why? I dunno, days when a career shifts gears should be remembered if for no other reason than tax purposes. On the other hand, anyone who googles themself and finds out just how much they said that is recorded and cached and commented on starts quickly to wish the Web could learn to forget as well as it remembers.
How much should we remember and how much should we forget? The age old cacheing problem will be with us forever, but situationally, when should we remember for others and how will we be sure what we remember is what we experienced? The mammal brain is notorious for its distortions due to the effect of neurons linking up in incredibly complex and overlapping ways, enscribing over each other like an Arabesque in which the pattern though beautiful, is exceedingly difficult and expensive to trace. This makes law enforcement tasks difficult, really, justice tasks where one goes to court or is hauled in and two adversaries, a prosecutor and a defender attempt to prove to a judge and/or jury, the facts of the case.
Facts are hard to come by if the mammalian brain is the storage medium. Both sides know this and elaborate tactics are used to discredit witnesses. We've all seen that movie. This is exactly why police cruisers have video cameras that are turned on during a traffic stop, and the video is then attached to the traffic stop record. It saves time in court.
Many years ago, I read a sci-fi story that included the concept of The Fair Witness. These were trained observers used in future litigations to state the facts of some situation they observed. Their training enabled them to overcome the dendrite dance and recall with perfect accuracy, the facts of a case. Given that humans share signs but can't be relied upon to share interpretants, this takes a lot of training. Actually, police do train for this, but what if we could engineer a way to increase the reliability of this, that is, more effective means?
Some folks are working on it. While one wonders about the indexing and retrieval, a URI with a space-time stamp isn't a bad approach and would work with geolocator systems for integrated analysis. This could fit in nicely with data fusion systems. I'm not too sure how much of my daily life I want to be digitized, in fact, I'm sure I don't want that, but if the police have similar systems in cruisers, why not put one on the t-shirt before going to any mob event, or just to confront the neighbor about the poop their dog is leaving on the lawn? Or just a walk on the beach?
Thanks to Steve Conklin for pointing this out. Once again, the mammals are relentlessly innovative and that is why AI has such a hard time keeping up.
How much should we remember and how much should we forget? The age old cacheing problem will be with us forever, but situationally, when should we remember for others and how will we be sure what we remember is what we experienced? The mammal brain is notorious for its distortions due to the effect of neurons linking up in incredibly complex and overlapping ways, enscribing over each other like an Arabesque in which the pattern though beautiful, is exceedingly difficult and expensive to trace. This makes law enforcement tasks difficult, really, justice tasks where one goes to court or is hauled in and two adversaries, a prosecutor and a defender attempt to prove to a judge and/or jury, the facts of the case.
Facts are hard to come by if the mammalian brain is the storage medium. Both sides know this and elaborate tactics are used to discredit witnesses. We've all seen that movie. This is exactly why police cruisers have video cameras that are turned on during a traffic stop, and the video is then attached to the traffic stop record. It saves time in court.
Many years ago, I read a sci-fi story that included the concept of The Fair Witness. These were trained observers used in future litigations to state the facts of some situation they observed. Their training enabled them to overcome the dendrite dance and recall with perfect accuracy, the facts of a case. Given that humans share signs but can't be relied upon to share interpretants, this takes a lot of training. Actually, police do train for this, but what if we could engineer a way to increase the reliability of this, that is, more effective means?
Some folks are working on it. While one wonders about the indexing and retrieval, a URI with a space-time stamp isn't a bad approach and would work with geolocator systems for integrated analysis. This could fit in nicely with data fusion systems. I'm not too sure how much of my daily life I want to be digitized, in fact, I'm sure I don't want that, but if the police have similar systems in cruisers, why not put one on the t-shirt before going to any mob event, or just to confront the neighbor about the poop their dog is leaving on the lawn? Or just a walk on the beach?
Thanks to Steve Conklin for pointing this out. Once again, the mammals are relentlessly innovative and that is why AI has such a hard time keeping up.
It's Just Sex
Anyone who has been divorced, watched a divorce, or divorced someone knows it is one of the most painful experiences this side of losing someone to death. It is a kind of death. People will do and say the most incredibly hurtful and stupid things to anyone and everyone particularly if they can't say it to the now insignificant other. The social problem is that while most of us have sympathy, it is a local problem and it tends to distract all about them onto the spilt milk of a relationship gone bad when it is possible that there are other more important things to be done.
American politics have looked like a divorce in process since 1992 when the Republicans were shocked to discover that the love affair with the Reagan aministration didn't translate to George Herbert Walker Bush. It wasn't that Bush wasn't a good guy or a decent President. He was the perfect Washington wonk, a credible authority, and fine war time President. This man had punched all the tickets from Yale to the CIA, had made a personal fortune doing it, and served his country with distinction. No, it was simply the Americans are also mammals and mammals have a wandering eye. They don't like boredom and when it is time for a change, the facts don't matter.
For the ultra-religious right, which is not to say the spriritual right, but the real power-obsessed-we-are-the-rightful-reagan-inheritors, the defeat of George H.W. Bush was an obscenity of the first order. With the same crusader mentality that lead them to declare an unwinnable war on drugs with a slogan that made even the drug dealers laugh, they went to work on the American psyche like a graphics card salesman at Siggraph. It wasn't enough to make their viewpoints known; they had to show that all other viewpoints were despicable.
So began the evisceration of the Clintons.
I won't dwell on that carnival of abuse of power, conceit, and outright treachery, aka, the politics of personal destruction, because, well, Bill Clinton is out of office. He has served his two terms and he's not coming back, at least, as holder of the Oval office. He's making money now, his wife has a solid day job, and his only child is off to the races of life. Bill's enjoying himself. So much for personal destruction.
The problem is in the Beltway and the pundit pulpits. Some in the current administration act and speak as if they were still running against him, and in that, they resemble a divorced spouse who just can't get over it and get on with it. The problem is that this behavior is distinctly painful for their friends and their causes. So be it. No one can save an incompetent politician. Who says that? Former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich says that and he ought to know.
The problem we all have to face is there in the 9/11 Commission Report on page 105: "the oversight function of the Congress has diminished over time. In recent years, traditional review of the administration of programs and the implementation of laws has been replaced by a 'focus on personal investigations, possible scandals, and issues designed to generate media attention.' The unglamorous but essential work of oversight has been neglected..."
Newt is a sharp guy and despite his party or the left's loathing, his testimony before the government committees has value. He correctly assesses the job before them today as the most important work of their lifetimes, much less their careers, and the most difficult they will ever undertake. Right on, Newt.
It it time to turn off Fox Network, time to quit listening to Rush, to Hannity and Whosis, to the spin doctors of right wing politics. It is time to turn on C-Span and watch the hearings. Dull as they are, the most important decisions made since America became a Federation are being made. This isn't about the election although it plays a major role in it. This is about how we will govern ourselves, what our freedoms are or will be in the face of a stateless and determined foe, and at the bottom of it, whether we are a nation of mature and responsible adults or just kids squabbling over the end of our first marriage and who gets the Bruce Springsteen CDs.
We blew it. We watched a soap opera instead of the store and as a result, we took a brutal blow to the head from a street gang. Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky may have been sordid in some opinions, but at the end of the day, it was just sex and sex is what being a mammal is all about. Consensual sex isn't something to be made a topic of national debate, and certainly, it isn't the object of Congressional oversight. There is real work to be done.
American politics have looked like a divorce in process since 1992 when the Republicans were shocked to discover that the love affair with the Reagan aministration didn't translate to George Herbert Walker Bush. It wasn't that Bush wasn't a good guy or a decent President. He was the perfect Washington wonk, a credible authority, and fine war time President. This man had punched all the tickets from Yale to the CIA, had made a personal fortune doing it, and served his country with distinction. No, it was simply the Americans are also mammals and mammals have a wandering eye. They don't like boredom and when it is time for a change, the facts don't matter.
For the ultra-religious right, which is not to say the spriritual right, but the real power-obsessed-we-are-the-rightful-reagan-inheritors, the defeat of George H.W. Bush was an obscenity of the first order. With the same crusader mentality that lead them to declare an unwinnable war on drugs with a slogan that made even the drug dealers laugh, they went to work on the American psyche like a graphics card salesman at Siggraph. It wasn't enough to make their viewpoints known; they had to show that all other viewpoints were despicable.
So began the evisceration of the Clintons.
I won't dwell on that carnival of abuse of power, conceit, and outright treachery, aka, the politics of personal destruction, because, well, Bill Clinton is out of office. He has served his two terms and he's not coming back, at least, as holder of the Oval office. He's making money now, his wife has a solid day job, and his only child is off to the races of life. Bill's enjoying himself. So much for personal destruction.
The problem is in the Beltway and the pundit pulpits. Some in the current administration act and speak as if they were still running against him, and in that, they resemble a divorced spouse who just can't get over it and get on with it. The problem is that this behavior is distinctly painful for their friends and their causes. So be it. No one can save an incompetent politician. Who says that? Former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich says that and he ought to know.
The problem we all have to face is there in the 9/11 Commission Report on page 105: "the oversight function of the Congress has diminished over time. In recent years, traditional review of the administration of programs and the implementation of laws has been replaced by a 'focus on personal investigations, possible scandals, and issues designed to generate media attention.' The unglamorous but essential work of oversight has been neglected..."
Newt is a sharp guy and despite his party or the left's loathing, his testimony before the government committees has value. He correctly assesses the job before them today as the most important work of their lifetimes, much less their careers, and the most difficult they will ever undertake. Right on, Newt.
It it time to turn off Fox Network, time to quit listening to Rush, to Hannity and Whosis, to the spin doctors of right wing politics. It is time to turn on C-Span and watch the hearings. Dull as they are, the most important decisions made since America became a Federation are being made. This isn't about the election although it plays a major role in it. This is about how we will govern ourselves, what our freedoms are or will be in the face of a stateless and determined foe, and at the bottom of it, whether we are a nation of mature and responsible adults or just kids squabbling over the end of our first marriage and who gets the Bruce Springsteen CDs.
We blew it. We watched a soap opera instead of the store and as a result, we took a brutal blow to the head from a street gang. Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky may have been sordid in some opinions, but at the end of the day, it was just sex and sex is what being a mammal is all about. Consensual sex isn't something to be made a topic of national debate, and certainly, it isn't the object of Congressional oversight. There is real work to be done.
Tuesday, August 10, 2004
Simple Systems: Effective Means
A topic sometimes debated on XML-Dev is that "worse is better", but the real topic is "simple is often better". Not always, but often. There are lots of examples from HTML (not so simple anymore), blogging formats, and further back, T-34 Soviet tanks, and not so far back, pagers. As one reads about 9/11 it quickly becomes apparent that the more sophisticated systems failed most frequently. The simpler systems like pagers were more effective but unfortunately, least distributed.
For those of us in the public safety industry, this is a lesson to be taken to heart. Command and control are worthless without communications and intelligence. While the dispatch center does thrive on sophisticated mapping and analysis technology, a command is most effective when it is presented in its simplest imperative form, such as, EVACUATE NOW!
For those of us in the public safety industry, this is a lesson to be taken to heart. Command and control are worthless without communications and intelligence. While the dispatch center does thrive on sophisticated mapping and analysis technology, a command is most effective when it is presented in its simplest imperative form, such as, EVACUATE NOW!
Monday, August 09, 2004
If I Only Had A Brain
Reflecting on Teresa Heinz Kerry's speech at the Democratic National convention, it occurs to me that people without opinions make me nervous. Regardless of where they formed them, why or with whatever facts or fictions, forming an opinion is part of being a mammal. Even the gorillas in the zoo form and express opinions. People who say they have no opinion are only saying they won't express one.
I can understand the need for timing but that means there is intent and often if someone is saying they have no opinion they are saying a) they have not considered the question or b) they have and they want to hide their intentions with regards to something that the expression might reveal.
Such as having a brain.
The time of political correctness and obsessive careerism seems to be a time of learning to be the Scarecrow. We wish our heads were not made of straw, and we certainly can express our heartfelt emotions, but we are too cowardly or too witchy to use our brains. Today the Emerald City within the Beltway has become a land where all horses change their colors with the time of day, serious debate too often looks like a choreographed dance number, and no one knows what is going on behind the big doors where Oz, the Great and Powerful, is ensconced pulling the levers of power without clear purpose.
We live with too much fear of our thoughts and too much fear of being thought too opinionated. I suppose that living in a bubble is ok for Glinda the Good but houses fall from the sky and the victims aren't always wicked witches. Sometimes they are Munchkins and forests, the air we breathe, and the roads we drive on. Ms. Heinz Kerry seems destined to be Dorothy, brave and fearless and able to slap a cowardly lion or a crass reporter on the nose when threatened.
Rail on, Teresa. If we are ever to make Oz a safer world, we need to hear what you and women like you have to say.
I can understand the need for timing but that means there is intent and often if someone is saying they have no opinion they are saying a) they have not considered the question or b) they have and they want to hide their intentions with regards to something that the expression might reveal.
Such as having a brain.
The time of political correctness and obsessive careerism seems to be a time of learning to be the Scarecrow. We wish our heads were not made of straw, and we certainly can express our heartfelt emotions, but we are too cowardly or too witchy to use our brains. Today the Emerald City within the Beltway has become a land where all horses change their colors with the time of day, serious debate too often looks like a choreographed dance number, and no one knows what is going on behind the big doors where Oz, the Great and Powerful, is ensconced pulling the levers of power without clear purpose.
We live with too much fear of our thoughts and too much fear of being thought too opinionated. I suppose that living in a bubble is ok for Glinda the Good but houses fall from the sky and the victims aren't always wicked witches. Sometimes they are Munchkins and forests, the air we breathe, and the roads we drive on. Ms. Heinz Kerry seems destined to be Dorothy, brave and fearless and able to slap a cowardly lion or a crass reporter on the nose when threatened.
Rail on, Teresa. If we are ever to make Oz a safer world, we need to hear what you and women like you have to say.
Saturday, August 07, 2004
Intellectual Property: A Global Concern
Tim Bray writes
"But what I really worry about is the basic broken-ness of the US Patent system. It’s sucking money and time and resources out of the whole technology ecosystem; it’s a bleeding sore on our business and our culture and our people. It’s way past time to fix it."
I agree. The IP Wars are a cancer on our economies. I believe that unless we fix the global patent system, reforming the US patent system avoids the larger problems.
1. International recognition of kinds and types of property rights
2. International recognition of the states of property rights
3. International regulations for the collection and distribution of licensing fees.
We are both engineers who have worked for most of our careers to create, evoke, or otherwise recognize the power of international standards. Yet we both also recognize that technology is not governed wholly by standards. If we are to have international agreements to govern the kinds, types, states, and regulations, we need systems that implement these at least as well as we implement web browsers.
For while we both know that the development of the web technology must be followed by the standards and specifications that enable these to be developed by anyone with the skill and moxie, we recognize the need for simplicity, particularly in systems that must scale to be most effective. The challenge for nations, courts, and industries and the people that govern nations, rule in courts, and create product for all of these is to discover the simplest and most universally accepted laws for intellectual property in all forms.
It is time to recognize and administer intellectual property in a global system.
The goal of the means is to ensure fairness, accuracy, clarity, and transparency but above all, to lower costs. If this goal is met, the system will right itself.
"But what I really worry about is the basic broken-ness of the US Patent system. It’s sucking money and time and resources out of the whole technology ecosystem; it’s a bleeding sore on our business and our culture and our people. It’s way past time to fix it."
I agree. The IP Wars are a cancer on our economies. I believe that unless we fix the global patent system, reforming the US patent system avoids the larger problems.
1. International recognition of kinds and types of property rights
2. International recognition of the states of property rights
3. International regulations for the collection and distribution of licensing fees.
We are both engineers who have worked for most of our careers to create, evoke, or otherwise recognize the power of international standards. Yet we both also recognize that technology is not governed wholly by standards. If we are to have international agreements to govern the kinds, types, states, and regulations, we need systems that implement these at least as well as we implement web browsers.
For while we both know that the development of the web technology must be followed by the standards and specifications that enable these to be developed by anyone with the skill and moxie, we recognize the need for simplicity, particularly in systems that must scale to be most effective. The challenge for nations, courts, and industries and the people that govern nations, rule in courts, and create product for all of these is to discover the simplest and most universally accepted laws for intellectual property in all forms.
It is time to recognize and administer intellectual property in a global system.
- The URI is the key.
- Google and systems like it point the way.
- The Semantic Web is the means.
The goal of the means is to ensure fairness, accuracy, clarity, and transparency but above all, to lower costs. If this goal is met, the system will right itself.
Friday, August 06, 2004
Free Range Democrats
"One generation got old.
One generation got sold.
This generation's got no destination to hold.
Pick up your prize."
- The Jefferson Airplane
I live in Alabama. The only time I've voted for a Republican for President was in 1972 when I was eighteen and voting in my first presidential election. The candidate, of course, was old Tricky Dick himself. When asked by my friends why I would vote for someone thought even then to be a scurilous S.O.B., I said, "He is an S.O.B. but he's our S.O.B." The point was that at that time with VietNam still waiting for young Southern boys like me fresh out of high school ROTC, there was a six thousand mile long logistics train running thin into Southeast Asia. As a military student and having had two brothers go and return from in country, I knew exactly what this was about and while I would not sign up as a C.O. (conscientious objector), neither was I eager to get on that big silver bird and find myself snuffing through the Mekong or the Ho Chi Minh trail. Call it fear or common sense, but unbeknownst to me, my brothers were hatching a plot to grab my young behind and schlep it across the Canadian border. With a very very low draft number, it looked like my time was coming when my lucky vote cashed in and Nixon stopped the draft. We needed an S.O.B. to get us out of VietNam, and he was the Man.
All of that is a long winded way to say that I am a Free Range Democrat. Democrats are exceedingly rare in this state that distinguished itself in the last few years by passing laws against selling sex toys, attempting to ban the use of diminished fifths in music (there goes "Somewhere Over the Rainbow"), three times refusing to allow state lotteries to support education, banning the airing of the ABC special honoring the fallen soldiers in Iraq, and refusing 9 to 1 to watch the Democratic Convention. You just thought George Wallace was the worst we could do. No one out Bubba's the BamaBubbas.
If there is a place further to the right than Alabama, it could only be Texas and as they say, Texas is just Hell without the inconveniences.
You can spot Free Range Democrats easily at a distance. They resemble feral dogs that live in the desert with wisps of hair hanging loosely off their heads, and panting as if the next breath will be their last. Somehow they survive even though they are hunted for sport and pleasure. Twenty years ago, they were numberless and the most powerful domestic herd animals in the American South. Ronald Reagan was their downfall. After Jimmy Carter sinned in his heart, and then the Great Obsfuscator told them that their best behinds were before them and trickled down on their Ford pickups, the squarest dancers obediently aleman'd right and doe-si-doed all to the sound of their rowdy friends coming round with red ties, dark suits, and close-cropped haircuts. Now they are the New South, rich, successful, ultra-protestant and always willing to help a neighbor skin a deer or skim a profit. These dogs are now every bit the modern Republican.
Over time, the ranks of the Free Range Democrats dwindled to just the few bewildered dreamers you see before you. They seem to be the same people I saw in my youth at bong parties and working at the local waterbed store where I upholstered waterbeds. (No joke. Someone actually did have to figure how to wrap the vinyl around the pad and staple it to the frame without leaving a point that would puncture the mattress. It's a real craft.) They seldom gather in large numbers because the Republicans won't allow them to hold events that would attract large numbers, and because beer is too expensive to throw away. The mainstream Democratic Party has written them off and I don't expect the Calvacade of Rock Stars to come closer than 200 miles to the Great State of AlaBubba.
On the other hand, Free Range Democrats are the masters of dirty deeds done dirt cheap. Survival and dead dendrites do that to impounded animals. "Something's happenin' here.." the Buffalo Springfield sang to us long long ago, and you know what, something's happening again.
Last weekend I attended the second wedding of an old friend from my theatre freak days. The wedding was just an excuse to get a party beneath the Republican radar. Even the Blue Meanies had to sleep sometime. All the talk was of ways to take the Shrubs out of Washington. These lop-eared vermin were excited. Young kids listened as adults who have spent most of the last twelve years asleep on their couches plotted guerilla art tactics to get out the vote. They covered the windows in black plastic just as they did in their youth, but instead of pulling out bags, they put a DVD into their computer and used a full screen projector to view Frankenheimer's "Manchurian Candidate" in glorious black and white and surround sound on the living room wall. More sober and more studied than I've seen them, the Free Range Democrats have a cause.
And they live for a cause.
"America, where are you now?
Don't you care about your sons and daughters?
America, we need you now
We can't fight alone against the monster."
- Steppenwolf
The Volunteers for America are back on the streets.
In an election that could come down to the dregs of the vote, the Dixie Dregs are oiling up their axes, putting up signs, wearing buttons, and writing their blogs. If it all goes as planned, we'll be able to achieve something really wonderful... we'll bring back the Dixie Chicks.
One generation got sold.
This generation's got no destination to hold.
Pick up your prize."
- The Jefferson Airplane
I live in Alabama. The only time I've voted for a Republican for President was in 1972 when I was eighteen and voting in my first presidential election. The candidate, of course, was old Tricky Dick himself. When asked by my friends why I would vote for someone thought even then to be a scurilous S.O.B., I said, "He is an S.O.B. but he's our S.O.B." The point was that at that time with VietNam still waiting for young Southern boys like me fresh out of high school ROTC, there was a six thousand mile long logistics train running thin into Southeast Asia. As a military student and having had two brothers go and return from in country, I knew exactly what this was about and while I would not sign up as a C.O. (conscientious objector), neither was I eager to get on that big silver bird and find myself snuffing through the Mekong or the Ho Chi Minh trail. Call it fear or common sense, but unbeknownst to me, my brothers were hatching a plot to grab my young behind and schlep it across the Canadian border. With a very very low draft number, it looked like my time was coming when my lucky vote cashed in and Nixon stopped the draft. We needed an S.O.B. to get us out of VietNam, and he was the Man.
All of that is a long winded way to say that I am a Free Range Democrat. Democrats are exceedingly rare in this state that distinguished itself in the last few years by passing laws against selling sex toys, attempting to ban the use of diminished fifths in music (there goes "Somewhere Over the Rainbow"), three times refusing to allow state lotteries to support education, banning the airing of the ABC special honoring the fallen soldiers in Iraq, and refusing 9 to 1 to watch the Democratic Convention. You just thought George Wallace was the worst we could do. No one out Bubba's the BamaBubbas.
If there is a place further to the right than Alabama, it could only be Texas and as they say, Texas is just Hell without the inconveniences.
You can spot Free Range Democrats easily at a distance. They resemble feral dogs that live in the desert with wisps of hair hanging loosely off their heads, and panting as if the next breath will be their last. Somehow they survive even though they are hunted for sport and pleasure. Twenty years ago, they were numberless and the most powerful domestic herd animals in the American South. Ronald Reagan was their downfall. After Jimmy Carter sinned in his heart, and then the Great Obsfuscator told them that their best behinds were before them and trickled down on their Ford pickups, the squarest dancers obediently aleman'd right and doe-si-doed all to the sound of their rowdy friends coming round with red ties, dark suits, and close-cropped haircuts. Now they are the New South, rich, successful, ultra-protestant and always willing to help a neighbor skin a deer or skim a profit. These dogs are now every bit the modern Republican.
Over time, the ranks of the Free Range Democrats dwindled to just the few bewildered dreamers you see before you. They seem to be the same people I saw in my youth at bong parties and working at the local waterbed store where I upholstered waterbeds. (No joke. Someone actually did have to figure how to wrap the vinyl around the pad and staple it to the frame without leaving a point that would puncture the mattress. It's a real craft.) They seldom gather in large numbers because the Republicans won't allow them to hold events that would attract large numbers, and because beer is too expensive to throw away. The mainstream Democratic Party has written them off and I don't expect the Calvacade of Rock Stars to come closer than 200 miles to the Great State of AlaBubba.
On the other hand, Free Range Democrats are the masters of dirty deeds done dirt cheap. Survival and dead dendrites do that to impounded animals. "Something's happenin' here.." the Buffalo Springfield sang to us long long ago, and you know what, something's happening again.
Last weekend I attended the second wedding of an old friend from my theatre freak days. The wedding was just an excuse to get a party beneath the Republican radar. Even the Blue Meanies had to sleep sometime. All the talk was of ways to take the Shrubs out of Washington. These lop-eared vermin were excited. Young kids listened as adults who have spent most of the last twelve years asleep on their couches plotted guerilla art tactics to get out the vote. They covered the windows in black plastic just as they did in their youth, but instead of pulling out bags, they put a DVD into their computer and used a full screen projector to view Frankenheimer's "Manchurian Candidate" in glorious black and white and surround sound on the living room wall. More sober and more studied than I've seen them, the Free Range Democrats have a cause.
And they live for a cause.
"America, where are you now?
Don't you care about your sons and daughters?
America, we need you now
We can't fight alone against the monster."
- Steppenwolf
The Volunteers for America are back on the streets.
In an election that could come down to the dregs of the vote, the Dixie Dregs are oiling up their axes, putting up signs, wearing buttons, and writing their blogs. If it all goes as planned, we'll be able to achieve something really wonderful... we'll bring back the Dixie Chicks.
Thursday, August 05, 2004
The Gift of Tamas
"Religion followed by a witless will
To torture self, or come at power to hurt
Another - 'tis of Tamas, dark and ill."
The Book of Religion by the Threefold Kinds of Faith
I cannot accept a role or countenance an act that removes thought from the world. First, this is not legal in the American system of government. Note the court decision that allowed the American National Socialists to march in Skokie, Illinois in 1978. Even the speech of hate and the repulsive image of the Swastika are allowed. Second, it is not possible to erase thought. Even the best brainwashing techniques of the Cold War showed that given time and separation from the controlled environment in which this kind of programming is attempted, the individual returns eventually back to their normal habits of thought.
It isn't right and it won't work.
However, what can be changed is the unwarranted use of force. I hope that we are not fighting in the Middle East to change their culture or attempting to make them adopt ours. Yes, there are things about that culture that I find distasteful, particularly the treatment of women and children, just as there are aspects of the Western culture that some Islamists find revolting, but these are not going to change by the use of force. What we should look at critically is precisely the use of force to attempt to modify behavior, because this is precisely a behavior itself. This can be changed.
Should we kill to stop the killing? I am afraid we must. Will they kill us in return? They have.
And so it will go on, act after hateful act as it has gone on for as long as we have human memory to relate. Yet as Gandhi noted, Love always wins and the tyrants fall. So we must find and share reasons to love. This is not soft, but the hardest and the boldest action. We must find what we share. Golda Meir said, 'the violence will stop when we love our children more than we hate each other.' There are mothers today in Bagdhad, in New York and Lahore who love their children and wish only to see them do well in life. As said in the Middle East, God willing, another should live as well as I desire to live. As said in the Bible, do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Islam is a religion of truth and mercy and beauty. It cannot perish because these are values it shares with all true religions and these are eternal values. No belief with these as core shall perish. That some believe they can make one religion master of all truth and all believers is deeply hurtful to these beliefs. A Christian who takes this path takes the sword in their own hand and plunges it into the side of the Christ. The Muslim who takes this path tars his own children in pig's blood. The Hindu who takes this path accepts the gift of Tamas that does not bless.
We must step back from the feast of rottenness, and we must accept our differences as the joyful expressions of God at play, and learn to hear the voice of Creation singing to us in our wakeful dream. I know it cannot be a perfect world, or a peaceful world, but it can be a world where our children play free of fear of one another based simply on the color of skin, dress, or how, when, and where we go to pray. This, I believe is the world the God of Abraham and Mohammed and Arjuna earnestly waits for us to create. God sees through our eyes but with infinite mercy, does not control every act of our hands or hearts. God watches and waits for the time when we ourselves undertake acts of mercy, compassion, and tolerance, and in these, knows joy.
There is much darkness in our hearts but there is infinite light in our souls. Pray in whatever tongue with whatever gifts you have, that this light overcomes that darkness soon, today, in this moment before another car bomb takes more lives, before more helicopters rain down death on the innocent, before we once again sully Creation in the eyes of God.
For the sake of our children, for the sake of our world, for the love of God, pray for this earnestly. God willing, let this be done; God providing, let us do this.
To torture self, or come at power to hurt
Another - 'tis of Tamas, dark and ill."
The Book of Religion by the Threefold Kinds of Faith
I cannot accept a role or countenance an act that removes thought from the world. First, this is not legal in the American system of government. Note the court decision that allowed the American National Socialists to march in Skokie, Illinois in 1978. Even the speech of hate and the repulsive image of the Swastika are allowed. Second, it is not possible to erase thought. Even the best brainwashing techniques of the Cold War showed that given time and separation from the controlled environment in which this kind of programming is attempted, the individual returns eventually back to their normal habits of thought.
It isn't right and it won't work.
However, what can be changed is the unwarranted use of force. I hope that we are not fighting in the Middle East to change their culture or attempting to make them adopt ours. Yes, there are things about that culture that I find distasteful, particularly the treatment of women and children, just as there are aspects of the Western culture that some Islamists find revolting, but these are not going to change by the use of force. What we should look at critically is precisely the use of force to attempt to modify behavior, because this is precisely a behavior itself. This can be changed.
Should we kill to stop the killing? I am afraid we must. Will they kill us in return? They have.
And so it will go on, act after hateful act as it has gone on for as long as we have human memory to relate. Yet as Gandhi noted, Love always wins and the tyrants fall. So we must find and share reasons to love. This is not soft, but the hardest and the boldest action. We must find what we share. Golda Meir said, 'the violence will stop when we love our children more than we hate each other.' There are mothers today in Bagdhad, in New York and Lahore who love their children and wish only to see them do well in life. As said in the Middle East, God willing, another should live as well as I desire to live. As said in the Bible, do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Islam is a religion of truth and mercy and beauty. It cannot perish because these are values it shares with all true religions and these are eternal values. No belief with these as core shall perish. That some believe they can make one religion master of all truth and all believers is deeply hurtful to these beliefs. A Christian who takes this path takes the sword in their own hand and plunges it into the side of the Christ. The Muslim who takes this path tars his own children in pig's blood. The Hindu who takes this path accepts the gift of Tamas that does not bless.
We must step back from the feast of rottenness, and we must accept our differences as the joyful expressions of God at play, and learn to hear the voice of Creation singing to us in our wakeful dream. I know it cannot be a perfect world, or a peaceful world, but it can be a world where our children play free of fear of one another based simply on the color of skin, dress, or how, when, and where we go to pray. This, I believe is the world the God of Abraham and Mohammed and Arjuna earnestly waits for us to create. God sees through our eyes but with infinite mercy, does not control every act of our hands or hearts. God watches and waits for the time when we ourselves undertake acts of mercy, compassion, and tolerance, and in these, knows joy.
There is much darkness in our hearts but there is infinite light in our souls. Pray in whatever tongue with whatever gifts you have, that this light overcomes that darkness soon, today, in this moment before another car bomb takes more lives, before more helicopters rain down death on the innocent, before we once again sully Creation in the eyes of God.
For the sake of our children, for the sake of our world, for the love of God, pray for this earnestly. God willing, let this be done; God providing, let us do this.
True Magic
On finding the sign...
Apply your mind.
Thus you will not sleep.
Sustain this application.
Thus you will not doubt.
On understanding, feel rapture.
Thus you will not harm.
Experience happiness.
Thus you will not be restless.
Experience one-pointedness.
Thus you will not be seduced.
This is the way of jhana.
Jhana is true magic.
Apply your mind.
Thus you will not sleep.
Sustain this application.
Thus you will not doubt.
On understanding, feel rapture.
Thus you will not harm.
Experience happiness.
Thus you will not be restless.
Experience one-pointedness.
Thus you will not be seduced.
This is the way of jhana.
Jhana is true magic.
Wednesday, August 04, 2004
Culture Versus Culture
Joshua Allen, a fellow I have much respect for, asks if the West will stop attempting to cram our concepts of liberty and culture down the throats of others. That is a tough question.
1. When two different cultures meet with an asymetric balance of power, the result is not usually improvement of both; the typical result in nature is the extinction of the weaker culture. If we think naturally, we should be quickly and efficiently committing genocide. Whatever our concepts of liberty and culture may be, they don't include genocide, so perhaps imitating nature is not in anyone's best interests.
2. A point in the 9/11 Commission report is that the history of the West and the Middle East has been one of economic entanglement with very large infusions of wealth into the Middle East for access and control of the oil resources. We've not been very overt about how that wealth was spent except where we could sell big ticket items; think water plants, refineries, and armaments. As the flow of this wealth decreased, the entitlement society it created became dissatisfied. The response by the controllers of that wealth, the monarchs and the military, has been to allow the religious culture that is native to these societies to take major responsibility for the education of the society. Thus the rise in wahabism and other forms of regressive thought. Otherwise, the emphasis on education of those who could afford to go to the West has been on technical and financial subjects.
What emerged from this laissez-faire interaction was a generation of technically sophisticated, tribally-affiliated, and historically impoverished terrorists who have been educated to believe that the Western culture is responsible for their current conditions and that a return to a medieval Caliphate based on the Koran is their salvation. If that is their goal, selah, but it is accompanied by the message that the will of God is only achieved when the West embraces their beliefs.
It ain't gonna happen. So we find ourselves in the position of creating a massive and possibly ineffective defense system that forces us to monitor every piece of information produced anywhere by anyone and to attempt possibly also ineffectively to fuse that into a coherent picture of 'what's happenin'. As a species, we share signs, but the difficulty is we don't share interpretations. Fast reaction is the essence of wacamole and we will exhaust a lot of resources trying to figure out which hole the mole will pop out of next. Further, by not distinguishing between civilians and military targets, but issuing fatwas that proclaim it is the religious duty of every Muslim to kill Americans, they've made us all players.
If we are being strictly empirical (observing results and backward chaining to causes), our own survival might depend on exporting more of our culture. The trouble here, and it is very evident in the current American election, is that we don't really share a common vision of just what that is. Until we have clear policies and quit beating each other down in a lust for power and domination, I don't think we have any chance of exporting anything but the image of our own indecencies, our own inhumanity to each other.
If I were to hope for anything, it would be that the holders of the pulpits of my country's heterogeneous religious institutions speak long and forcefully on the topic of examining our own motives for our own treatment of each other. The creepiest statement I heard this year came from a friend of a former Soviet emigre who told him, "I was amazed after the last election how quickly the Americans begin to look over their shoulders when discussing the topic to see who was listening." Having been told at my own company by one individual that who I voted for could be a "career decision", and constantly reminded by his friends that I should be more conservative in my opinions, and as Beldar Conehead said, "adopt low tones", I believe it is time to get louder, more up front, and not just a little aggressive in this election.
Is the refusal of a company to rent space to an anti-war group a violation of the first amendment?Likely not. It can be construed as a commercial business decision. The outcome here is in the details of the contract and lawyers settle that.
Is it a violation of the spirit of that amendment? Matters of spirit are for individuals to decide, but I say yes, it is. It is a disease where the symptoms are to seek power by any means and to lose sight of the necessity of balanced and fair leadership.
Our country is in a dangerous time in which thinkers and doers on both sides must look for reasons to unite instead of reasons to divide. The mean spirited acts of media and their customers alike that attempt to suppress dissenting opinions in these times have become not simply a political feint, but a global psychosis that is penetrating every communicative act. It leads a Republic to fascism and historically, this is a very hard disease to overcome. It takes generations and it leaves permanent scars. Look to the history of Italy for an example.
When the voice of dissent is heard, the warranty of freedom is realized. Let it be as loud as the bells and fireworks that announce our independence.
1. When two different cultures meet with an asymetric balance of power, the result is not usually improvement of both; the typical result in nature is the extinction of the weaker culture. If we think naturally, we should be quickly and efficiently committing genocide. Whatever our concepts of liberty and culture may be, they don't include genocide, so perhaps imitating nature is not in anyone's best interests.
2. A point in the 9/11 Commission report is that the history of the West and the Middle East has been one of economic entanglement with very large infusions of wealth into the Middle East for access and control of the oil resources. We've not been very overt about how that wealth was spent except where we could sell big ticket items; think water plants, refineries, and armaments. As the flow of this wealth decreased, the entitlement society it created became dissatisfied. The response by the controllers of that wealth, the monarchs and the military, has been to allow the religious culture that is native to these societies to take major responsibility for the education of the society. Thus the rise in wahabism and other forms of regressive thought. Otherwise, the emphasis on education of those who could afford to go to the West has been on technical and financial subjects.
What emerged from this laissez-faire interaction was a generation of technically sophisticated, tribally-affiliated, and historically impoverished terrorists who have been educated to believe that the Western culture is responsible for their current conditions and that a return to a medieval Caliphate based on the Koran is their salvation. If that is their goal, selah, but it is accompanied by the message that the will of God is only achieved when the West embraces their beliefs.
It ain't gonna happen. So we find ourselves in the position of creating a massive and possibly ineffective defense system that forces us to monitor every piece of information produced anywhere by anyone and to attempt possibly also ineffectively to fuse that into a coherent picture of 'what's happenin'. As a species, we share signs, but the difficulty is we don't share interpretations. Fast reaction is the essence of wacamole and we will exhaust a lot of resources trying to figure out which hole the mole will pop out of next. Further, by not distinguishing between civilians and military targets, but issuing fatwas that proclaim it is the religious duty of every Muslim to kill Americans, they've made us all players.
If we are being strictly empirical (observing results and backward chaining to causes), our own survival might depend on exporting more of our culture. The trouble here, and it is very evident in the current American election, is that we don't really share a common vision of just what that is. Until we have clear policies and quit beating each other down in a lust for power and domination, I don't think we have any chance of exporting anything but the image of our own indecencies, our own inhumanity to each other.
If I were to hope for anything, it would be that the holders of the pulpits of my country's heterogeneous religious institutions speak long and forcefully on the topic of examining our own motives for our own treatment of each other. The creepiest statement I heard this year came from a friend of a former Soviet emigre who told him, "I was amazed after the last election how quickly the Americans begin to look over their shoulders when discussing the topic to see who was listening." Having been told at my own company by one individual that who I voted for could be a "career decision", and constantly reminded by his friends that I should be more conservative in my opinions, and as Beldar Conehead said, "adopt low tones", I believe it is time to get louder, more up front, and not just a little aggressive in this election.
Is the refusal of a company to rent space to an anti-war group a violation of the first amendment?Likely not. It can be construed as a commercial business decision. The outcome here is in the details of the contract and lawyers settle that.
Is it a violation of the spirit of that amendment? Matters of spirit are for individuals to decide, but I say yes, it is. It is a disease where the symptoms are to seek power by any means and to lose sight of the necessity of balanced and fair leadership.
Our country is in a dangerous time in which thinkers and doers on both sides must look for reasons to unite instead of reasons to divide. The mean spirited acts of media and their customers alike that attempt to suppress dissenting opinions in these times have become not simply a political feint, but a global psychosis that is penetrating every communicative act. It leads a Republic to fascism and historically, this is a very hard disease to overcome. It takes generations and it leaves permanent scars. Look to the history of Italy for an example.
When the voice of dissent is heard, the warranty of freedom is realized. Let it be as loud as the bells and fireworks that announce our independence.
Think Like Engineers; Speak Like Lawyers
With the acceleration of not-selling-so-why-not releases of formerly proprietary products into the open source ecosystems, one begins to wonder where the manpower will come from to sustain the development of these entries at a rate that keeps them competitive? As John Cowan has told me in the past, unmaintained code is dead code.
Are the recipients of these gifts vetting them with respect to hidden IP encumbrances? I don't suggest that companies such as IBM with massive patent portfolios are signing away their new currency to the open source community, but given the concurrent stampede to acquire patents, I'm not so sure anyone knows what the IP status of these contributions are.
Meanwhile, the IP keiretsu I've been predicting are forming fast and furious in the forms of cross-licensing agreements and the revised IP policies of the standards, specifications and open source product consortia. As a current member of the board of one of these (the Web3D Consortium), I think they are the best refuge for the small and middle tier players in markets where the high costs of IP defense can't be sustained by individual players.
Clear participation agreements for members are the best way to proceed. This is important because anyone can create a consortium, proclaim its specifications to be standards, then use that wedge in combination with patents to hold weaker competitor's heads under water until they drown.
This topic should become a required course in universities that expect graduates to become innovators and entrepeneurs in their fields. The sad fact of the industry today is we have to think like engineers and speak like lawyers. The technical writers have understood this for years.
Are the recipients of these gifts vetting them with respect to hidden IP encumbrances? I don't suggest that companies such as IBM with massive patent portfolios are signing away their new currency to the open source community, but given the concurrent stampede to acquire patents, I'm not so sure anyone knows what the IP status of these contributions are.
Meanwhile, the IP keiretsu I've been predicting are forming fast and furious in the forms of cross-licensing agreements and the revised IP policies of the standards, specifications and open source product consortia. As a current member of the board of one of these (the Web3D Consortium), I think they are the best refuge for the small and middle tier players in markets where the high costs of IP defense can't be sustained by individual players.
Clear participation agreements for members are the best way to proceed. This is important because anyone can create a consortium, proclaim its specifications to be standards, then use that wedge in combination with patents to hold weaker competitor's heads under water until they drown.
This topic should become a required course in universities that expect graduates to become innovators and entrepeneurs in their fields. The sad fact of the industry today is we have to think like engineers and speak like lawyers. The technical writers have understood this for years.
Tuesday, August 03, 2004
The 9/11 Commission Report: Effective Means
I've been reading "The 9/11 Commission Report". For $10 US, this is 567 pages of the scariest reading I've seen since Bram Stoker's "Dracula". I highly suggest you buy a copy and read it. The elections before us have made it a topical centerpiece, but without reading it, it is all too easy to drown in the punditry of the election and fail to grasp the long term implications beyond the November elections.
Although it may take some time to read, some things will be clear to Homer Simpson and his bespectacled neighbor.
1. The Federals blew it. From as far back as the Reagan years, they operated in an a fog of arrogance and back-biting competition with each other. When the ever so focused Islamic radicals decided to take on America as its number one target, America's agencies acted like a single skier on a slope unswervingly failing to miss the only other person on the slope.
2. We are still on the slope. The Bush administration cannot take the 'mote out of its own eye' and still continues to pursue policies that will keep us in this war for another two decades. Yet a new administration that fails to understand the history that created the opportunities for the Islamic fundamentalists will fail just as spectacularly.
3. Islamic fundamentalism is an old phenomenon. So is Christian fundamentalism. In different times in history, both have emerged as destructive forces. Their emergence simultaneously as movements that have seized power on opposite sides of a conflict are reinforcing elements that escalate tensions and ensure an ever escalating conflict. Yet even these are not the source of the conflict. If we are to reduce tension and conflict, we must reduce behaviors on our side that create the perceptions of conflict. It will take time to change these perceptions, but the sooner we start using effective means instead of Spy Vs Spy rhetoric which only makes the situtaion more incindiary, the sooner we will create a safer world.
4. Because we have fewer opportunities to modify the behaviors of other cultures, it is time to listen to what the fundamentalists are saying and begin to engineer systems to modify our own behaviors. In short, good forestry reduces tinder that accelerates fire. We must consider effective means.
In blogs that follow, I want to discuss means that have proven effective at modifying behaviors of large social systems without draconian or punitive measures. At the center of such means is the concept that it is not race or religion or profiling based on these characteristics that should dominate our selections, but the use of force in a world where feedback and agency can combine to amplify the effects of small forces over large communities.
Your comments are welcome.
Although it may take some time to read, some things will be clear to Homer Simpson and his bespectacled neighbor.
1. The Federals blew it. From as far back as the Reagan years, they operated in an a fog of arrogance and back-biting competition with each other. When the ever so focused Islamic radicals decided to take on America as its number one target, America's agencies acted like a single skier on a slope unswervingly failing to miss the only other person on the slope.
2. We are still on the slope. The Bush administration cannot take the 'mote out of its own eye' and still continues to pursue policies that will keep us in this war for another two decades. Yet a new administration that fails to understand the history that created the opportunities for the Islamic fundamentalists will fail just as spectacularly.
3. Islamic fundamentalism is an old phenomenon. So is Christian fundamentalism. In different times in history, both have emerged as destructive forces. Their emergence simultaneously as movements that have seized power on opposite sides of a conflict are reinforcing elements that escalate tensions and ensure an ever escalating conflict. Yet even these are not the source of the conflict. If we are to reduce tension and conflict, we must reduce behaviors on our side that create the perceptions of conflict. It will take time to change these perceptions, but the sooner we start using effective means instead of Spy Vs Spy rhetoric which only makes the situtaion more incindiary, the sooner we will create a safer world.
4. Because we have fewer opportunities to modify the behaviors of other cultures, it is time to listen to what the fundamentalists are saying and begin to engineer systems to modify our own behaviors. In short, good forestry reduces tinder that accelerates fire. We must consider effective means.
In blogs that follow, I want to discuss means that have proven effective at modifying behaviors of large social systems without draconian or punitive measures. At the center of such means is the concept that it is not race or religion or profiling based on these characteristics that should dominate our selections, but the use of force in a world where feedback and agency can combine to amplify the effects of small forces over large communities.
Your comments are welcome.
Monday, August 02, 2004
Whyizzit? Oil Money and the Elections
The news reports that a new and imminent terrorist threat has been uncovered. A recovered computer (Code 07 for those in the know) contained the details. The security forces go into action and the Attorney General tells us we must be Americans and continue about our normal duties, meaning, the Wall Street types can't take a day off. CNN posts a poll asking if people believe as Howard Dean suggests that the news is being manipulated for 'political purposes'. The usual pundits decry the conspiracy theories and my wife asks me, "Would they lie to us twice?" So as it was after Watergate, the mistrust by Americans of their government soars, and one wonders what the agenda of Al Qaeda could possibly be if it leads to more Americans voting for The Shrubs?
Almost as an afterthought, the press quotes sources as saying gas prices will rise as a result of fears of the 'imminent threat'. I don't know who is manipulating whom here, but the observable is that the same group is benefitting. After forty years one wonders why at the bottom of so many of America's great screw ups in the world, we keep finding Texas oil money cashing the checks.
I'm sure G.W. wants to win this election, but for those who pay his bills, I'm not sure it matters.
Almost as an afterthought, the press quotes sources as saying gas prices will rise as a result of fears of the 'imminent threat'. I don't know who is manipulating whom here, but the observable is that the same group is benefitting. After forty years one wonders why at the bottom of so many of America's great screw ups in the world, we keep finding Texas oil money cashing the checks.
I'm sure G.W. wants to win this election, but for those who pay his bills, I'm not sure it matters.
Saturday, July 31, 2004
Surviving Outsourcing
Communication is the key to oursourcing. Here are ten strategies to use your communication skills to your advantage:
1. The Big Ball of Mud Architecture is your friend. Worse really is better. A BBMA document must be as clear as the architecture.
2. When writing the theory section, use metaphors based on concepts borrowed from unrelated fields. Biological ecosystem terms have worked in recent years, but like chaos theory, people are catching on, so you may have to move to something new. Quantum theory is always good. No one understands it and anyone who claims they do is likely an MBA. Promote him to be the site manager of the outsourced project.
3. Write very large documents. Fill the front matter with lots of architecture diagrams in .bmp format. Remember step one. Use the Capability Maturity Model. No one knows what it is capable of but every CMM document is four releases behind the running code. Completeness equals obscurity.
4. English is the language of international documentation. Master the art of the run on sentence that separates the subject with great green windy sunlit dry hot muggy purple modifiers from the verb and split infinitives through conjunctions that require GPS coordinates to find the period at the not quite end of the densely populated by obscure and not often used terminology that implements the verb. If you aren't good at this, use your MBA. They excel at creating obscurities.
5. If your company already outsources, be sure your unit has the task to design and document the architecture, not code it. If you share these tasks with your outsourced partners, use your MBAs as the translators.
6. Keep customer addresses and phone numbers close. Be sure they have yours. Every time they phone you directly to get around the call center in Eastaboga that reads your documents back to them using newly acquired Midwestern accents and lingo from the Bond movie, Octopussy, record their calls and send them to your MBAs.
7. Never ever ever ever train a new guy with a current foreign passport. Never. Don't. Promote him to Senior Technical Writer and have him join the STC. That way he will go to meetings and learn really valuable skills such as "Objects: Defeating The New Liberalism".
8. Don't answer technical questions in email from outsourced partners. Send them your documents in Word RTF with the .bmp architecture diagrams on 5.25 floppies.
9. Refuse to use commodity products on the basis that your system is mission critical and need those extra undocumented features for which your company owns the software patents. Think of patents as the new currency backed by the power of the Federal government as represented by an overworked, underfunded and technically incompetent US Patent Office.
10. Avoid standards. Standards are the mother of all service economies, and for you, that means learning new database technologies with natural language queries such as "Do you want fries with that?"
Remember: protectionism starts at home.
1. The Big Ball of Mud Architecture is your friend. Worse really is better. A BBMA document must be as clear as the architecture.
2. When writing the theory section, use metaphors based on concepts borrowed from unrelated fields. Biological ecosystem terms have worked in recent years, but like chaos theory, people are catching on, so you may have to move to something new. Quantum theory is always good. No one understands it and anyone who claims they do is likely an MBA. Promote him to be the site manager of the outsourced project.
3. Write very large documents. Fill the front matter with lots of architecture diagrams in .bmp format. Remember step one. Use the Capability Maturity Model. No one knows what it is capable of but every CMM document is four releases behind the running code. Completeness equals obscurity.
4. English is the language of international documentation. Master the art of the run on sentence that separates the subject with great green windy sunlit dry hot muggy purple modifiers from the verb and split infinitives through conjunctions that require GPS coordinates to find the period at the not quite end of the densely populated by obscure and not often used terminology that implements the verb. If you aren't good at this, use your MBA. They excel at creating obscurities.
5. If your company already outsources, be sure your unit has the task to design and document the architecture, not code it. If you share these tasks with your outsourced partners, use your MBAs as the translators.
6. Keep customer addresses and phone numbers close. Be sure they have yours. Every time they phone you directly to get around the call center in Eastaboga that reads your documents back to them using newly acquired Midwestern accents and lingo from the Bond movie, Octopussy, record their calls and send them to your MBAs.
7. Never ever ever ever train a new guy with a current foreign passport. Never. Don't. Promote him to Senior Technical Writer and have him join the STC. That way he will go to meetings and learn really valuable skills such as "Objects: Defeating The New Liberalism".
8. Don't answer technical questions in email from outsourced partners. Send them your documents in Word RTF with the .bmp architecture diagrams on 5.25 floppies.
9. Refuse to use commodity products on the basis that your system is mission critical and need those extra undocumented features for which your company owns the software patents. Think of patents as the new currency backed by the power of the Federal government as represented by an overworked, underfunded and technically incompetent US Patent Office.
10. Avoid standards. Standards are the mother of all service economies, and for you, that means learning new database technologies with natural language queries such as "Do you want fries with that?"
Remember: protectionism starts at home.
Friday, July 30, 2004
Bewitched
When God looked across the legions gathered before him after the war in Heaven, he saw those who had sided with Lucifer, standing with their heads up, proud of their effort, still believing that they were the best of His angels. Guarding these were the angels who had defended God's throne against Lucifer's prejudice and power. Bloodied, their robes torn, their halos hanging crookedly like toys tossed aside by children, they smiled triumphantly.
Outside this circle, playing mirthfully and unaware of the drama before them were the angels that took no side in the cosmic conflict. They did not believe God could be bested even by His strongest angel; so they took no thought to join the war. Their robes unsullied, their halos undisturbed, their laughter was not marked by deed or knowledge.
God looked to Earth to see the small group of humans who huddled about the fires begun by the immortal powers that had contended. As each human grew old that one would die and then return to Earth to live again as if dream followed dream in the deep of a long night. From each life, they would awaken without memory of that which came before. Yet Omniscience sees through the eyes of humanity. Though mortal, an immortal vision of strengh and hope grew within them. He breathed over them. As the celestial fires cooled, they began their dream filled existence.
Then God spoke to the Dark Angels. "I banish you to live in Lucifer's imagination. You may walk in Heaven or Earth but you must always return to the world without light created by your sworn Master. All powers are yours except you may not seize the will of an Earth-bound mortal who does not give it freely to you. They are yours to tempt, to torment, to reward, or to disregard. You may destroy all that they possess, but their wills are inviolate. At time's end, I shall judge you finally and for all eternity."
So Lucifer's legions marched to Hell with their heads held high and their robes blazing with the fire of their arrogance consuming light itself, causing all save what they looked upon to vanish into cold black space. The angels of light rested as stars. All that was visible to mortals and angels alike was by the reflected glory of these who had grappled with Lucifer to secure God's creation.
As the dark angels marched away, a playful angel watched the tallest dark angel vanish into the lifeless abyss. She began to weep. Though condemned to darkness, he was a creature of great beauty and strength. As if rain had fallen in Hell, her tears fell across the chasms over chaos, and for an infinitesimal instant, cooled the tongue of the tall angel in his fiery torment.
Seeing this, God's wizened eyes opened wider. He smiled as a puzzle difficult even with omnisicience and omnipotence revealed its solution. God turned to the weeping angel and spoke to all about her.
"Because you did not defend the heavenly realms, you shall not play here. Because you did not join the battle on behalf of Lucifer's cause, you shall not be subject to his will. You used the gifts I gave you neither to create nor destroy, so I shall not take your angelic powers from you. Instead, I send you to Earth as spirits to live among the mortals. Though you may live many times the life of a mortal, you shall also know death after a time, and then you will be gathered here. You may have all power over the mortals. They are yours to tempt, to torment, to reward, or to disregard. You may destroy all that they possess, but this you may not do: you cannot make them love you by your angelic power. On Earth, I see through their eyes. At time's end, I shall judge you finally and for all eternity."
With this, God withdrew from the place of His judgement, and all the powers of Creation began their acts within it. After a time, the Dark Angels could only recall their infinite disgust with Creation, and the Playful Angels could only recall their timeless games. The humans lived and died among the works of beings that they neither remembered nor could recognize as they walked among them.
Save one.
So great was the thirst of the dark angel who had tasted the tears of the sad angel, he could not work his will on Earth or in Hell. Not perfect evil, he displeased the Master of Darkness. As an Immortal, Lucifer could not destroy him, but with power over Earth, he could make of him a man seeking to quench his thirst, yet not knowing why he searched or what the consequence of finding such waters could be.
There on Earth she found him.
Her magic was not all powerful. She could not save him from God's edict. For a thousand times a thousand mortal lifetimes, she would wait for him to awaken from each dream. Lost among the mortals, she would search for him, but as his spirit grew, her task became harder. As God had willed, she could not call to his heart with immortal power, only the power of her own mortality, her own love.
Seeing this through mortal eyes, God rejoiced for His joy is the will to love.
Love leads to Heaven's gate. Love is the Creation manifesting on Earth when spirits join across time to build a bridge over Hell. Thus God joined through human will to angelic love, dissolved the darkness of Lucifer's pride.
When at last, a mortal man and a beautiful witch joined in immortal love, angels were born on Earth. At the Judgement, these angels made the case for mortal and immortal alike to regain the pleasure of the Divine.
Outside this circle, playing mirthfully and unaware of the drama before them were the angels that took no side in the cosmic conflict. They did not believe God could be bested even by His strongest angel; so they took no thought to join the war. Their robes unsullied, their halos undisturbed, their laughter was not marked by deed or knowledge.
God looked to Earth to see the small group of humans who huddled about the fires begun by the immortal powers that had contended. As each human grew old that one would die and then return to Earth to live again as if dream followed dream in the deep of a long night. From each life, they would awaken without memory of that which came before. Yet Omniscience sees through the eyes of humanity. Though mortal, an immortal vision of strengh and hope grew within them. He breathed over them. As the celestial fires cooled, they began their dream filled existence.
Then God spoke to the Dark Angels. "I banish you to live in Lucifer's imagination. You may walk in Heaven or Earth but you must always return to the world without light created by your sworn Master. All powers are yours except you may not seize the will of an Earth-bound mortal who does not give it freely to you. They are yours to tempt, to torment, to reward, or to disregard. You may destroy all that they possess, but their wills are inviolate. At time's end, I shall judge you finally and for all eternity."
So Lucifer's legions marched to Hell with their heads held high and their robes blazing with the fire of their arrogance consuming light itself, causing all save what they looked upon to vanish into cold black space. The angels of light rested as stars. All that was visible to mortals and angels alike was by the reflected glory of these who had grappled with Lucifer to secure God's creation.
As the dark angels marched away, a playful angel watched the tallest dark angel vanish into the lifeless abyss. She began to weep. Though condemned to darkness, he was a creature of great beauty and strength. As if rain had fallen in Hell, her tears fell across the chasms over chaos, and for an infinitesimal instant, cooled the tongue of the tall angel in his fiery torment.
Seeing this, God's wizened eyes opened wider. He smiled as a puzzle difficult even with omnisicience and omnipotence revealed its solution. God turned to the weeping angel and spoke to all about her.
"Because you did not defend the heavenly realms, you shall not play here. Because you did not join the battle on behalf of Lucifer's cause, you shall not be subject to his will. You used the gifts I gave you neither to create nor destroy, so I shall not take your angelic powers from you. Instead, I send you to Earth as spirits to live among the mortals. Though you may live many times the life of a mortal, you shall also know death after a time, and then you will be gathered here. You may have all power over the mortals. They are yours to tempt, to torment, to reward, or to disregard. You may destroy all that they possess, but this you may not do: you cannot make them love you by your angelic power. On Earth, I see through their eyes. At time's end, I shall judge you finally and for all eternity."
With this, God withdrew from the place of His judgement, and all the powers of Creation began their acts within it. After a time, the Dark Angels could only recall their infinite disgust with Creation, and the Playful Angels could only recall their timeless games. The humans lived and died among the works of beings that they neither remembered nor could recognize as they walked among them.
Save one.
So great was the thirst of the dark angel who had tasted the tears of the sad angel, he could not work his will on Earth or in Hell. Not perfect evil, he displeased the Master of Darkness. As an Immortal, Lucifer could not destroy him, but with power over Earth, he could make of him a man seeking to quench his thirst, yet not knowing why he searched or what the consequence of finding such waters could be.
There on Earth she found him.
Her magic was not all powerful. She could not save him from God's edict. For a thousand times a thousand mortal lifetimes, she would wait for him to awaken from each dream. Lost among the mortals, she would search for him, but as his spirit grew, her task became harder. As God had willed, she could not call to his heart with immortal power, only the power of her own mortality, her own love.
Seeing this through mortal eyes, God rejoiced for His joy is the will to love.
Love leads to Heaven's gate. Love is the Creation manifesting on Earth when spirits join across time to build a bridge over Hell. Thus God joined through human will to angelic love, dissolved the darkness of Lucifer's pride.
When at last, a mortal man and a beautiful witch joined in immortal love, angels were born on Earth. At the Judgement, these angels made the case for mortal and immortal alike to regain the pleasure of the Divine.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)