Windows 7: OS X

So I was looking reading Friday's xkcd, I did a bit of exploring on Windows 7. I have to admit, from what I've seen, I think it'll be a big improvement over Vista. This doesn't mean I'll use it, of course; I just think it'll be a better experience for most users.

In fact, some of the stuff they were doing just looked suspiciously good to me.  And then it hit me - they're OS X-ifying Windows!  I don't have a problem with that, per se; as a matter of fact, it's kind of nice to see that Mac is enough of a threat that Windows is being forced to let go of some older, clunky models in order to compete in the market.  What kind of stuff are they doing, then?

The biggest thing that tipped me off was the new taskbar.  It is, virtually, OS X's dock.  You can now drag frequently used programs to the taskbar and use stack-like structures to manage files and applications... just like OS X.  Sadly, though, Windows seems not to have adopted OS X's method of managing processes.

Touch screen capacity is something else that's been added to Windows 7.  Of course, touch screens have always been available in the sense of hardware mouse emulation, but now the touch interface is recognized by Windows and special features, including some gestures, are available.  The Windows site made it unclear as to whether or not multi-touch is available.  This is, again, a technology Apple has been in the spotlight on; I commend Microsoft, however, for beating Apple to making touch displays a part of their OS.

Perhaps most exciting is the introduction of Internet Explorer 8, because it probably forcasts more failure for Microsoft.  It's the same ugly, clunky interface we saw in IE 7.  I really wish Microsoft would scrap this technology and rebuild their approach to web browsers from the ground up.

Windows Live has some new advancements that seem to be encroaching on Apple's MobileMe service; but as I use neither of these services, I can't really comment with any authority on what's going on there.

It's, strangely, one of the smaller new features in Windows 7 that made me consider OS X possibly taking away a good market share from Windows in the near future; their new device management system apparently does an amazing job recognizing and configuring devices.  This is great news, of course, and something that OS X has also done well in the past.  The Microsoft video demonstrated plugging in a device and showed the dialog popup that provided options for, among other things, syncing the device's calendars, music, etc.

I think the problem Windows is going to see soon is the barrier to entry they've created for good open source software.  Apple provides developers with clean and extensive tools and documentation on their operating system, while Microsoft's developers tools are hidden away inside their Visual Studio suite.  OS X is particularly nice to work with, of course, because of BSD under the hood; but even so, Apple's attitude toward developers seems so much more inviting than Windows that I think we'll see a lot of developers shift to working primarily in OS X (Paul Graham had already noted in 2005 that many of his hacker friends were converting to macs).

The calendar syncing is what made me think of this.  I'll admit that Apple is very stingy about iTunes/iPods, but, otherwise, they make it quite easy to interact not only with the system but with Apple's own software.  AppleScript and Objective C both offer extensive compatibility and command over the components of OS X, iLife, and other Apple software.  I doubt, however, that you can sync your mobile device with anything but Outlook in Windows 7. (Note; I'm not saying that Apple doesn't want you to use iCal.  I'm saying that it's much easier for a developer to write a quick script to sync with something other than iCal through an OS X interface than it is to do a similar task in Windows).

And... apparently, they're calling themselves Windows Gurus now.

Huh.

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to seeing MS market share go down.  Shareholders?  Now is the time to switch to Apple.

You can find more information on Windows 7 here.  Since Microsoft just doesn't understand the idea of standards and collaboration, though, I think you'll need to install Microsoft Silverlight to see the videos. I guess Flash or even embedded video just isn't Windowsy enough.

exposition on the paradox of philites

Jackson, I stole your phrase "convenient fiction" from Facebook.  I liked it, and I hope you don't mind.

***

EXPOSITION ON THE PARADOX OF PHILITES

Matthew Daniels

There is a curious force behind the Philites which one can only know once one associates long enough and close enough to that group. A race of would-be intellects, seeded with the forlorn philosophies of a more cynical age, the Philites are to be found in most corners of the developed world.  They are oftentimes sad, in pain, or in a state of distress, oftentimes of their own choosing.  This is the paradox of the Philites; they submit themselves to these states of what we foreigners can only surmise to be the manifestations of awkward philosophies of life, from which happiness will bloom at some time and location to be announced at a later date.

Why does the Philite do what he does?  Why does he shun reason?  Why does he profess stupidity at every turn, but continue to act in the manner with which he claims to clearly see the fault?  And why is that anger blinds him so much more quickly than his fellows?

This may be a task more suited for the psychologist than the philosopher, but we shall take a stab at it nonetheless.  What follows is what we hypothesize and investigate.

The Philites are a weak-minded group; not necessarily in the realm of intellect, but it is clear that the survival of their mental state depends on social confirmation.  This is odd, indeed, since each and every Philite will undeniably claim to be a unique individual, and that this individuality is indeed the highest trophy of their being.  Those of us on the outside looking in, of course, can clearly see how false this is.  I do not argue that each and every person is not unique - it is my belief that each soul is built with a bit of a craftsman's touch, and that the slightest details can make a person a special character unlike any other.  But I do argue that in a quest for individuality (which we may all face at some point or another), the Philites take the easy way out - they conform to a culture whose members claim not to conform.  It is a prebuilt package for freedom; a cookie-cutter philosophy for those rushing to establish with the world that they are, in fact, individuals.  The Philite culture is a convenient fiction of rebellion and contempt for society, fabricated and delivered to those not ready to pursue their own dreams.

The adoption of Philite culture is not unlike subscribing to some magazines.  The middle aged man who has always wanted a sailboat, but is too nervous to pay for one or to sail one, may just subscribe to a sailing magazine to satiate his own fictions. The widow who no longer tends her garden may nonetheless subscribe to Better Homes and Gardens, if only to remember what her garden was like and fantasize about the new flowers she might - but will probably not - plant in the spring.

In the same way that the woman hides in the colorful pages of Better Homes and Gardens instead of tending to her own garden, thirsty for attention, the Philite hides beneath the mask of a synthetic freedom as his life and its opportunities shrivel up.  He may adopt habits that accent this lifestyle, as well - he is oftentimes a smoker or drinker trying to relieve the "pain" of life which his culture seems to pursue so vigorously.

The practicing Philite will loyally argue that this is all false.  He will likely maintain that all the choices he made were unbiased and simply the manifestation of his own being. In particular, he is quite certain that no Philite representative knocked on his door one day with a membership form.

But of course, a representatives have been knocking on his door for years.  These representatives are the music, movies, and other cultural pressures which together are the identity of the Philite way.

***

To be proofread, edited with a hatchet, edited with a scalpel, and concluded...

martial philosophy fallout - my story of cuong nhu failure

Tonight, I'm considering quitting Cuong Nhu.  And, strangely, although it's been sitting in my mind for a while, everything has been put into place by one of the people I've come to respect most at Clemson - Darius Jones, my Cuong Nhu teacher.

I originally started Cuong Nhu because I was afraid to lose the aspect of my life which is so centered on martial arts.  Looking around at what clubs existed at Clemson, I found a disheartening lack of any Chinese martial arts (which seem to be going strong at all the other institutions I have friends at).  The closest thing I could find was Cuong Nhu, which blends several arts together including Wing Chun and T'ai Chi Chuan.

So I enrolled.

A particularly interesting thing about Cuong Nhu that attracted me was its similarity to Kempo.  With that in mind, I felt pretty good about how I was doing in class.  I tried to be very careful about over-performing, so to speak.  And I did pretty well at that too.

Soon, though, I came to realize that something was missing.  I'm not sure if it was because I knew too much already, or if it was because of a lack of something in the instructors' roles, but I was certainly not being mentally stimulated.  The physical conditioning was great, don't get me wrong.  But I hold the strong opinion that the martial arts are not just physical, but also both mental and spiritual, and I was not getting the latter two of those stimulations.

I had kind of known all along that this was going to happen to a degree, because I would initially be training alongside less experienced martial artists; and that's okay.  I actually enjoy watching them learn, and I'm glad that I can help them when I can.  So I knew this was coming, but I had a plan.  To compensate, my plan was to make an effort to more deeply understand the art.  My plan was to examine every part of it carefully, with scrutiny, and perhaps understand the both the mechanics and the philosophy of it with more depth.

In the first few weeks of my classes, this kinda worked out.  And to my surprise, some of my instructors even seemed to supplement my training.  I remember that during our first class about rolling, Sensai Nick coached me on new, harder things try since I initially knew how to do it all or picked it up with a good bit of ease.

I'm not saying that I got everything right, of course.  Many things were harder for me, since I was accustomed to other philosophies of fighting.  But that's okay.

Sadly, though, things like that faded.  I was back to my initial plan; criticize, examine, scrutinize, disassemble, and comprehend.  I didn't have malicious intent with these things; my plan was not to expose flaws in the system.  I figured that if a scholar learns by careful analysis of literature, why shouldn't an martial practitioner learn by careful analysis of his art?  So this is what I did, and I kept it in my head, in notebooks, and some of it in my muscle memory.

Today, though, I was corrected for the form I took on my "inner chop" strike (crosshand shuto strike).  I didn't really mind, and I corrected it, but I asked afterwards why we should fully chamber the hand instead of striking from the waist.  I knew the answer, of course, because I had been asked the question seemingly hundreds of times by white belts, especially the younger ones.  But I asked anyway, because I felt that having mastered the basic strike, it was more efficient and practical to not fully chamber to the ear.

This is the point at which our marital philosophies took separate paths.  My answer to this question would be "because we learn it this way to make your strike better as you perfect it", meaning that we learn it this way as white belts so that we understand the outline of motion, but that it is clearly ideal to generate equal force across a shorter (and therefore quicker) path of attack.  We will also, then, eliminate telegraphing the strike to the opponent.

Sensai Darius's answer, however was simply - and I paraphrase, of course, because I can't remember verbatim - that we do it this way because that's the way it is.  This answer was, on the whole, not what I expected.  I've given that answer to questions before too, but usually when it pertained to the order of moves in forms and katas or the names associated with techniques.  I almost never given such an answer when a student has questioned the mechanics or practicality of a strike, and neither have my instructors before me.  Even if the answer is "we'll talk about it later", I try to explain the reasoning behind the move.

I was so surprised by this answer that I was actually somewhat... distraught?  From a man I had come to respect and, to a degree, admire as a martial artist, I had expected a more elaborate comparison of my suggestion against his dictated form.  He acknowledged that my way might make sense sometimes, but that we did it this way for basics.

Clearly, this makes sense, right?  Well, sort of, but not really.  I understand that this would be the answer to someone who has just learned the strike, but he and I both know that I've been doing the strike for 14 years.  I can do the strike in my sleep.  If our roles were switched, I would have allowed it to be done differently in basics if it made more sense and wasn't too big of a change.  Why?  Because basics are where we engrain technique into our muscle memory.  In a fighting situation, simply knowing that it would be faster to throw a shuto from the hip means nothing if all you've ever done is thrown it from the ear, just like remembering what a technique looks like doesn't help you until you've practiced it over and over.

[On a separate note, I also asked why we have to start our wrist from a weird rotated position before executing a middle (#1 or #2) block.  He did give me an answer this time; but I can't make sense of it.  He claimed that by rotating the arm as it blocked, it would "torque" the arm to give it more power.  I can't make sense of this, though; the only effect outside of the arm would be a (very!) slight increase in angular momentum, but on the axis of the arm, not the axis of motion.]

Anyway, I asked him this while everyone was getting water, and class restarted afterwards.  It continued and ended.

After class, he pulled me aside into the equipment room, along with Sensai Bruce.

The first thing he told me about was that some of the time I was standing with my arms crossed or on my belt, and that it wasn't really following etiquette.  Mreh, I think, okay.  I know that I do that sometimes, especially when I'm tired, and I understand where he's coming from (even though it's not in the etiquette list that he claimed stated it).  So whatever.  I'll try to fix that.

But then... ugh.  Then it came.

Paraphrasing (hopefully not too unfairly), he said that my question was to some degree out of line, but that my follow up response of dissatisfaction with his answer came off as arrogant and cocky.  To his credit, he did allow that perhaps it just came off this way and that I didn't mean it, but it was quite clear from his manner of speech and his follow up remarks that he was quite convinced that I was was being cocky and arrogant.

Which is untrue!  If I write a critical analysis of Kant, am I claiming to be a superior philosopher?  If I question the mechanics of a proof in calculus, am I claiming to be a superior mathematician to my professor?  Can I not question - and requestion, if necessary - the mechanics of a martial art?

Apparently, the answer is no.  He made it quite clear (although Sensai Bruce seemed to keep contradicting him on a few points, a pattern for which I was quite thankful) that Cuong Nhu was static and, to put in short, set in stone until his superiors say otherwise.

In some ways, I find this to be arrogant.  Consider the various styles of Chinese wu shu.  They have been around for millenia, and are still being refined - not by some core board of directors, but by both masters and students across the world, bettering styles and letting them be adopted through a genetic natural selection of sorts.  But in accordance with Taoist philosophy, there is very little close-mindedness in the Chinese arts.

I thought this was true with Cuong Nhu, considering that one of their "Five O's" is "Open Mind."  But I suppose your mind can only be open to yourself.

What came next was a bigger surprise; after I talked a bit about practicality in self-defense, Darius made the (in my opinion, very broad and philosophical) claim that Cuong Nhu is not primarily about self defense, but about self betterment.  I could see where he was going until he said that "the moves are irrelevant... if we are told [to load a shuto from the forehead], then we should do it."  While many martial arts are deeply rooted in philosophy and many, especially Chinese arts, ultimately aspire to other than physical perfection, I have never heard of a respected martial art which disregards the "martial" aspect as nothing more than a medium for self improvement and "following orders" (as he said).

I don't just want a self-improvement program, and I don't just want a physical fitness regimen.  I want an art.

This is why I am considering quitting, but I'll probably let the semester run through and see how I feel then.  If I do quit, I will probably start a Clemson Wu Shu Association of sorts, since I know some people who have expressed interest.  It seems to be pretty popular at colleges these days anyway, and I know a few people from Charleston and North Carolina who I might be able to get to do some cool seminars on occasion.

Blegh.  If you got all the way to here without skipping, you gain 450 exp.  Congratulations.  I have more to say, but this is way too long as it is, so I'll discuss it later.

unlucky charms

Karen mentioned to me the other day that Lucky Charms would be better if we just had all marshmellows and none of the... other things.  I kinda agreed, but noted that since they were all the same, the marshmallows wouldn't be as fun to eat.
Well, this morning, I got some Lucky Charms.  A few were spilling as I put them into my bowl, but they were just the... other kind.  But then... I spilled a marshmallow! It was the oddest thing; I went from "oops, lol, spilled some cereal" to "OMG MY MARSHMELLOW!"
It was at this moment that I realized the truth; all these charms are part of a caste system.  We love the upper class marshmallows, the "Lucky" charms, if you will, but nobody gives a fuck about the... other cereal, whatever it's called. But see, without that lower class, the upper class wouldn't exist!  First of all, it's the lower class that does all the work (marshmallows are not part of your balanced breakfast), and secondly, they have to contrast the sweetness of the marshmallows so that it's not just disgusting sugar-milk.
But I think the marshmallows are okay, because the other cereal will never be smart enough to revolt.  They'll just keep living their lives, being spilled and eaten, and not cared for, selectively discriminated against by kids everywhere trying to maximize the marshmallow/cereal ratio.  We're all dirty racists, really.  Racist against non-marshmallows.
Or... do the marshmallows control us?

ChLa_4Fa_2: chem lab "4" the fail x 2

It's questions like these that make me worry about my Chemistry Lab class.  I've annotated beneath them in case you can't read it on the image.

You drop a ball from one height and it knocks the ball at the bottom to the other side of the cavity (it knocks it too high, by the way.  Even if all the kinetic energy was transferred to the black ball, the black ball is said to be heavier, so it can attain no more gravitational potential energy than the white ball started out with).  So the question says that this guy wants to find out if the height the ball is released from has an effect on where the other ball ends up.  So the MC question asks: what ball should he drop from the high spot?  The second one - and this is the worst part (this kind of question was on every page) asked: what is your reason?

OMG guess what, volume displaces water, not mass.  Morons.

Oh, guess what, mass and volume aren't related.  

*sigh*.

So yeah.  We answered about 30 minutes of questions like that today in Chem Lab.  There was this really good one I wanted to put up.  It has a bunch of rats of different sizes and tail colors, and asked if it showed a relation between size and tail color.  It was pretty obvious that they wanted you to say yes, but I found that the standard deviation was less than one and answered accordingly.  Sadly, "Because I calculate the standard deviation, fucktard" wasn't an option in the reasoning section.  In fact, I'm pretty sure that none of the choices were either complete sentences or even valid reasons for any argument at all.  

Also sadly, my TA threatened to fail me if I didn't stop taking pictures of the test, so I didn't get to that page.

jjw v leaf

Or, more verbosely:

"Jump, Jive, and Wail, versus the Lake Eden Arts Festival"

They're both fun!  I'm going to JJW this weekend.  To be honest though, if it were possible, I would love to go to LEAF instead.

But since it isn't really possible, and since I do want to spend some time in Charleston and with Anastasia, I am happy to be going to JJW.  It's a pretty awesome event.  My first JJW was in my sophomore year of high school (2005).  Jackson took me, and I remember that Sytske was the first person I danced with.  I didn't get to go the next year, but I went with Anastasia in 2007 and we're going again this weekend.  This is seriously a high class event; much nicer than any other school event I've seen put on (except, of course, Harmony Fest).  If you haven't been, and you get a chance to go, you should definitely take advantage of it.  It's a great night, and you get to dress up but not uncomfortably so.  It's in bus depot by the visitor's center (I remember being scared of "The Bus Depot" the first time Jackson told me its name).

Oh, and if you don't know how to swing dance, it's okay.  All the cool people from contra are there, and - just like at contra - they'll help you out.  That's how I learned... although I'm actually not too good.

LEAF... god.  Leaf is like heaven.  It's the most amazing event of the year.  It's just full of art, music, nature, rhythm, life, harmony, beauty, humanity, poetry, euphoria, peace, and oneness.  If you ever - ever - get a chance to attend, please do it.  You won't be sorry.  As soon as you take up the courage to remove your shoes and turn off your blackberry, you'll love it.  It's definitely a release from technology, as Araba advocates in her recent draft article.  You can learn to heal, to dance, to love, and to listen, to play, to poet, and to eat all around the beauty of Lake Eden in the mountains of North Carolina.  

If there was any one place I could go, Leaf is pretty well tied with Charleston.  

Man, why did you put so many tags on this post, Matthew?  Well, probably because Leaf represents them all.

is there anybody...

going to listen to my story? Cause it's pretty long, unlike the Beatles song.

Part I: The short part.

My presentation went very well today!  Also, I had some tea!  Also, I feel pretty good!

Oh, so also, my STS professor (who's running my Creative Inquiry class on SR) comes up to me and is like "Hey, Matt, I realized last night that you're not going to learn anything from this Creative Inquiry class.  I think you know more about this than I do." Which is true, but I would never actually say that.  I think he just figured it out.  But here's the exciting part.  He told me that he really wants me to get something out of it, so he's going to start giving me my own side assignments specifically focusing on the philosophy of science (his specialty). It made me feel like I was at magnet, getting personal attention from a teacher who had my learning in his best interest.  It was nice.

Part II: The long part.

Last night, laying in bed, I reflected on who my closest friends were.  It was a good thought-session, honestly.  So with this post, I'd like to go through and talk about some (but not necessarily all!) of my closest friends.  If you're not here, no worries; I just happened to not be able to analyze you.

This non-all-inclusive list is alphabetical by first name.

Anastasia: Strangely, I can't think of too much to say; not because there's nothing to say, but because it's so hard to put in words.  You know I love you, Anastasia, and I doubt we could ever be any less than closest friends (not to say that we aren't more).  What appeals most to me about our friendship (on the non-sexual/romantic plane) is your hippie-insightfulness.  Your creativity fused with your free spirit, good nature, and - although you might not admit it - high intelligence, makes you a great person to lay with on damp grass, under the stars, with warm tea, and talk about everything... or nothing at all... *sigh*.  I miss you, love.  I miss everything about you.  I want you back.

Araba: Oh, Araba.  I love you a whole lot, as well (although in a different way, of course).  I love talking to you, especially because our talks seem to be so unique, you know?  I'm not really sure if I converse with anyone the way I converse with you.  Like you kinda said once, we're, in a way, spiritually similar. I think our world views - though unique - share lots of values.  And of course, I admire to a huge degree your intelligence, passion, and determination.  I still need to take you out for coffee... or maybe we can make it tea.  I think we should also take some good long strolls this winter and have some good long talks, in person.  I really miss your conversation.

Jackson: Hey, buddy.  Whatever is between us is amazing.  We really don't talk a whole lot over long distances, but whenever I'm with you I feel like you're my closest confident.  I can tell you anything.  I'd like to think that you can tell me anything.  Your eclectic knowledge of everything that seems important at the time is astounding, and I love being with you, even if it means buying your coffee.  I hope we can get together some time soon.  I miss you.  You know, the other day, I came across that poem I wrote a long time ago, before you went off to college.  The one that ended "the white machine/that carried away/half my heart that day./Luckily, today is not/that day."  I love you, man.

Karen: Hey, dear.  We aren't exactly best friends.  But since we hang out a lot, I have a feeling we might get closer, so this is a preemptive paragraph of admiration.  You're a lot different from most of my friends; your personality is less reserved, less controlled, and has a strong wild streak.  It's a nice contrast; I'm not used to that kind of thing.  I look forward to being your friend, and, hopefully, playing guitar with you.  I would say the same about Sarah and Guillherme, but they always "study" instead of hang out...

Mark: Hey!  If you come to Clemson, I really hope we can room together at some point.  I just enjoy talking with you, you know?  I love arguing for the sake of personal development, and I think you do to.  We can argue without sour feelings, because it's a good exercise.  You're also, of course, just a generally level-headed and intelligent guy.  I look forward to seeing you!

Sally: WTF IS MY YEARBOOK SALLY I WOULDN'T HAVE TO BE WRITING THIS IF I HAD MY YEARBOOK TO REMINISCE ABOUT PEOPLE WITH GIVE ME MY YEARBOOK BACK!!11!one!11!  Really, Sally.  I do love you.

Sherwin: Let me tell you, sir, what's great about you.  You're like... the person I miss most when I look around my classes.  You're the real-life hacker, the person who tries to understand, create, solve, fix, and build everything.  I miss working on problems with you, you explaining stuff, and me arguing with you until we finally work it out.  I'm glad we got to do that SR last night on my whiteboard... it reminded me of the good old days.

I have the feeling, of course, that I left someone out.  If someone notices, please alert me quickly so I can fix it before they see!

when you give a moron a printer...

There's a serious issue facing us these days. There's too many people who are computer illiterate.

Now, let me be quite frank about this. I don't give a fuck if some kid knows how to use Microsoft Excel. It'd be great if he did, especially if he's in my chemistry lab group, but to be quite realistic you can probably get by without knowing if you had to. And if you needed to learn, well, you could learn.

In that case, ignorance is okay. It's not like people can go around using Excel haphazardly, and it's not like they can mess anything up too bad by trying to use it.

When I speak about computer literacy (right now, at least), I'm talking more understanding the basic nature of how a computer, and especially a network, operates (the latter may be more important, in actuality). I say this - and I'm writing this post - because I had to clean up for some poor girl. You see, I came to the library - which is relatively empty (relatively) on a Friday afternoon - to print out some notes for Chemistry last week, as well as a paper my dad wanted me to proofread.

So I hit print, and go over to the printer. The time is 5:25.

Well, lo and behold, the printer is out of paper. No big deal... I load in some more paper and printing resumes.

The printing resumed with documents printed at 4:45.

Can nobody else load a fucking paper tray?

You know what, though? I can deal with it. I don't really care if people lost their documents. Yeah, I'm sorta upset that I had to wait 5 or 6 minutes for my document to be printed, but whatever. I'm pretty disgusted that nobody else can load paper into a printer, but whatever.

As an act of good will, in case these kids ever want to come retrieve their printouts, I decided to sort them all and lay them out on a table.

All documents across a Novell network are printed with cover sheets showing the username, time of printing, and document source. It helps a lot when people are swarming over the printers at lunch hour on Monday. But sorting them, I notice this one girl who printed out the same document thrice. I glance at the document source... the first thing I notice is that it's a secure site. The second thing I noticed was that it was from carolinafirst.com.

The last thing I noticed, when I turned the page, was that it contained her full name, address, phone, email, social security number, mother's maiden name, account listings and account numbers.

So I decided to sell it all online!

Of course not, but I know kids who might. So here's a lesson to everyone:

(1) To load a printer, open the drawer and put the paper in the container that's conveniently shaped like paper.

(2) If you execute a print command multiple times, whether you're using lpr or just clicking an icon in MS Word, your document will be printed multiple times. Computer's aren't hard of hearing; they do exactly as you command. Just be patient while they do things one at a time.

(3) Don't print information like your social security number and bank number on a public printer over a public network; and if god forbid that you do, make sure the fucking paper is in your hands before you leave!

As a side note, I went to carolinafirst.com. I would like to make it well known that I could have gotten into her account. In fact, I suppose it stands to reason that I still can, now that I have her information. But being the good person I am, I'm going to rip the information up like I did to the other two copies and throw it away. She'll get away with it this time.

But if I find that banking information again, I may just give her a bit more of a scare.

fail: (time, care) → fail

So, it was not uncommon for us in high school to randomly graph things against other things, usually as a form of humor, and sometimes as a form of venting frustration.  Especially popular was graphing variables against the fail-axis.

Frequently, we would graph "fail" versus things like time of day, time of year, weather, teacher, amount of homework, amount of Halo involved, how much coffee was available, side of the room you sat on, amount of time sleeping the previous night, volume of music... et cetera.  At the end of senior year, as a way or reminiscing, many of us would plot our Care vs Time Since Freshman Day 1 plots on the same plane to compare.

But now I'm in multivariable calculus, so no more of these petty 2-D constructions!  Here's my latest graph: it's basic, but it's a start.  Keep in mind that fail is not necessarily the reciprocal of care.

The average student tends to follow the path represented by a plane cut through the graph at any point such that the plane is normal to the origin.

Note that the more you study, the more you stretch the graph along the care axis... but no matter how much you study, enough time spent on an assignment will inevitably lower your care values and fail will go up.

+ 20 points to whoever can figure out why the paper is upside down.  I did it on purpose, and there is a good reason.

Finally, on a side note, I'd like to let everyone know that I did some research and that John McCain was assigned as an Ensign to the USS Enterprise on Stardate 14161.8.  However cool this is, though, it still doesn't make up for his Palinitis.  Read Araba's blog for some views on the almost-Ms. Alaska.

what i learned in chem oneohone

We learned about pressure today.

If by "learned" you mean reviewed from Nettles' class. I wish I could have skipped to 102.

By the way, assuming a theoretical compound Rhettium which is free from the effects of gravity (or, in Physical Science class, occasionally experiences a negative effect), you could experience similar pressure effects as you do in that UFO if you're floating in a Rhettium cloud 20 km away from the center of a black hole with mass 6.734 x 10²⁴ kg (and thus event horizon radius of 10 km) with an escape velocity of exactly c.

books and books... but mostly books

(Title half-stolen from Araba's blog.)

Oh my god... I had a shopping spree, this morning.  A book shopping spree.
Cooper Library (Clemson's main library) had a gigantic book sale this morning with incredible prices.  All hardbacks were $2, all CD's were $2, all paperbacks were $0.50, all magazines were $0.10, and I can't remember the rest but I do know that they were all $2.00 or less.

So I spent $23 or so.

Here's what I got.

Book #1: Encounters: an Introduction to Philosophy

Book #2: Elementary Differential Equations and Boundary Value Problems

Books #3, #4: Theory of Functions of a Complex Variable, Volumes I & II

Book #5: Analytic Geometry

Book #6: Modern Abstract Algebra

Book #7: Operating System Design: The XINU Approach

Book #8: Operating Systems: Concepts, Policies, and Mechanisms

Book #9: Vector Analysis

CD #1: Kiri Te Kanawa - Exsultate Jubilate (London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus) 

and CD #2: Birgit Nilsson - Wagner, Strauss, Verdi, Beethoven (Opera Gala)

Magazines: Mostly Scientific American, one National Geographic.

Now, let me tell a story about how hard it is to pull yourself away from such a book sale:

"One day, Matthew tried to pull himself away from a great book sale.  It was absurdly hard.  The end."

My suggestion?  Try to avoid news of book sales, because once you know about one you will undoubtedly spend lots of money there.

But hey, I actually kinda like what I bought, so there.

finding the gcd using the euclidean algorithm

Remember the GCD (or GCF) from our younger math days?  The greatest common denominator (or factor) seemed pretty retarded.  We never really used it... especially once we had calculators to guess and check for us (or until we all got our TI-83/84/89's and had a function to do it).

But as I hack and slash my way through the dense, unforgiving jungle of Deskin's Abstract Algebra (you'll remember that Mark gave it to me at my birthday, if you were there), I'm finding more and more reasons to think that basic math is cool.  The book is very hard to get through, extremely exact and unforgivingly precise and verbose... but the subjects are things like counting, finding GCD's and LCM's, and expressing integers.

So anyway, I came across the "Euclidean Algorithm" the other day, which basically helps you calculate the GCD of two numbers.  I'll summarize it here.

So suppose two numbers X and Y, and say that we want to find their greatest common factor.  In order for me to show do a simultaneous example with real numbers, let's call say that they happen to equal the integer values 320 and 144, respectively.

Before we calculate the greatest common factor, I need to make a quick segue and discuss the Divisor Theorem.  Another formalization of 3rd grade math, the Divisor Theorem says that the following expression holds for all integers a, b, q, and r, such that b > a > r:

b = aq + r

In 3rd grade terms, b divided by a equals q remainder r.

So with that in mind, let's return to our original problem.  Suppose X > Y (and it is, as 320 > 144).  Then we can create the expression:

X = Y*q1 + r1   |   320 = 144*q1 + r1

Right?  Of course we can, because those are all integers.  So a little third grade division tells us that our numerical example resolves to:

320 = 144*2 + 32

Now, watch this:  we're going to forget X, make Y the largest number, and make the old remainder the new quotient.  Then we'll add a new remainder:

Y = r1*q2 + r2   |   144 = 32*q2 + r2

Now we just solve this in the same fashion:

144 = 32*4 + 16

We follow the same variable shifting pattern (try writing these equations in order on your paper and using arrows to show how the variables move right to left as you go down.  The arrows should end up being diagonal lines from the top-right to the bottom left.):

r1 = r2*q3 + r3   |   32 = 16*q3 + r3

If you understand the pattern we're following, then good!  You know how to use this algorithm.  If not, you're screwed, because we're basically done.  Note that in the above example q3 = 2 and r3 is exactly 0 (because 16 is a factor of 32).  This means we're done!  The number that q3 is multiplying (here, r2=16) is the greatest common factor of the original numbers.  That's it!

Basically, you would keep following this pattern until you got to evenly dividing numbers such that the new remainder is zero.  The greatest common factor of the original X and Y is exactly the number in the position where Y started out.  When I say exactly, what I'm trying to say is that... that's it!  It's not possibly some multiple of that; that is the answer.

More later on how every integer can be expressed in the form ax + by = c, where all those numbers are integers.  It has a lot to do with greatest common factors.

Final note:  the greatest common factor of two numbers A and B is often expressed as (A, B).  This should be easily distinguishable from an ordered pair by the context it's used in.

the truth about not-charleston

I had two significant online conversations last night (significant meaning I cared and they were longer than 10 lines): one with Araba, and one with Jackson.  Both were on the same subject.

I told Araba that "Mrs. Dobson is haunting me".  If you weren't in AP French or AP Fizz, you wouldn't understand. She would come in the room with a visitor and point to everyone around the room: "Arielle is going to Brown, Miguel is going to Stanford, Sally's going to Princeton, Araba's off to Harvard, Matthew's..., Sherwin's going to Yale..."

It was like that every fucking time.  She could not deal with the fact that I was going to Clemson.  I don't know why; I wasn't in the top ten or anything.  Perhaps it was because of the people I was always contrasted with by taking advanced classes.  Whatever it was, she could not deal with the fact that I was just going to Clemson.

Anyway.  I dunno.  I figured that for an undergraduate program, it didn't really matter where I went, right?  Multivariable calculus is pretty universal, and so is physics.  For undergrad courses, I would get the same education at any reasonably accredited institution.

And I'm probably still right.  But what I didn't think about was the people who I would be surrounded with, shaping my education in ways outside the classroom.  As I note in the excerpt below from my and Jackson's chat (which is released under the Creative Commons 2.0 License), I miss being surrounded by people who have this insatiable urge for progress.  I miss people who write poetry for the sake of writing poetry, who prove odd theorems for the hell of it, people who are researching a topic on wikipedia before you can finish the prompting sentence, and people who can't put down their cameras until they've stuffed their memory cards to the brink with photos to sift through.  I miss people who strive for self-betterment, and who are passionate about their passions.  Perhaps I simply miss people who have passion, in general.  As Jackson notes, it is "the undeniable truth that mediocrity vastly outnumbers drive and unique ability."

Maybe it isn't better in other places, and to be honest, it isn't that bad here.  Seriously, don't get me wrong; I really do love Clemson.  It's just that key cultural aspect that I sorely, sorely miss.

Maybe it isn't, but maybe it is.

Hmm.  Please comment.

=== Conversation Excerpt ===

me: We actually have a pretty low smoking rate, actually.

marijuana, that is.

about 15% I think.

although our drinking rates are absurd.

15% regular smokers, that is.

jackson.holder: I mean, I know. The WW kids might run around in a fog, but all you high achievers are gonna experience fatal liver failure at 28.

me: High Achievers?

Man, Jackson. Let me tell you.

I love it here.

But I am, occasionally,

Slapping myself pretty hard for not reaching higher.

I dunno. I dunno what to think about it anymore.

jackson.holder: hate to say you should have applied to MIT. Fortunately I don't have to, because I already did like 40 times.

me: Hate to say I wouldn't have made it into MIT. But it does stand to reason that I could have made it into Duke, or Davidson, or Yale, or something.

Maybe Emory, I dunno.

Maybe even Brown.

I guess I'll never know.

jackson.holder: not necessarily true.  

If you feel strongly about it you can always apply.

me: I don't feel strongly about it.  

It just lingers in the back of my mind, and pokes me occasionally.

jackson.holder: well then yes I suppose it is pretty late.

yeah it'll do that.

I know what you mean exactly.

me: I think the reason it's bothering me isn't the school so much as the people.

I mean.... I guess I was incredibly lucky with my friends.

People from all sides of my life in Charleston were esoteric poets and adventurous intellects.

Almost everyone had some sort of fervor in a particular field or subject, and loved what they did.

My magnet friends and my SOA friends.

jackson.holder: mmmyes.

me: And it seems like most people here are just sorta mreh.

jackson.holder: and now you are faced with the undeniable truth that mediocrity vastly outnumbers drive and unique ability.  

that very few people get the education you did, or got to experience the culture you experienced

me: Yeah.

jackson.holder: and that without the drive that a place like charleston and a community like ours provides, many people understand life to be a simple trial and reward system. A little work, a little alcohol.

  

pretty depressing.

me: Depressing indeed. I guess I just need to make sure it doesn't happen to me.

And the people I care about, if possible.

You know, you worded that all very well.

Do you mind if I reproduce it?

jackson.holder: go for it.

me: Under Creative Commons or something?

jackson.holder: just fucking jack it, call it yours, I don't care.

me: lol.

jackson.holder: I've had plenty of time to think about it.

me: Thanks, Jackson.

jackson.holder: it's realizations like this that changed me, matthew.

reviewing: "π - Faith in Chaos"

So two weekends ago when I visited Charleston, by 4th grade teacher and long friend Mrs. Fisher sent me an off-to-college card with a Best Buy gift card inside.  So Saturday night, Anastasia and I went on a shopping spree, and I bought - among other things - a Darren Aronofsky Collection with two movies: Requiem for a Dream (the movie which prompted me to buy this collection) and π.  I had seen Requiem for a Dream before; it's a little disturbing, but it's a great movie.  I'm sure that if we showed it in middle school, teenage drug use would decline.

But I had never seen π before, and the low price of the collection prompted me to buy the set.  Last night, I watched it with Karen and Sammy.  It was... okay.  I loved the concept; a mathematician obsessed with finding order in chaos, and convinced that the entire universe and everything in it can be perfectly described with mathematics.  Thus, he tackles one of the most chaotic systems in history: the stock market.

Already slight off his knocker, his attempts at ordering the stock market - and, later on, using similar patterns to find the true name of God - are unsuccessful, although he does come very close (there are hints that he actually does understand the patterns, but, even if this were so, he is unable to apply them to any real problems).  Between his existing mental problems, the pressure of sorting through the disorder, and the consistent attacks by organizations - both religious and corporate - leeching off of his talents for their own good eventually do him in.

So it was a pretty good movie... until I heard something wrong.  As soon as I heard it, the rest of the movie lost its reality and truth that normally makes movies really hit hard with me.  The issue was when he referred to the golden ratio (which, for the curious, is exactly equal to (1+sqrt(5))/2) as theta.  I've actually done lots of reading on the golden ratio and on sacred geometry in general, and I have never, ever seen it expressed as theta.  Traditionally, it is represented by the greek letter phi.

Instantly, I knew something was up.

He also used the Fibonacci sequence in the movie, and claimed that 233/144 approaches phi (which he again expressed as theta).  While it's true that the limit as t→∞ of F(t)/F(t+1) does approach the golden ratio, 233/144 doesn't approach anything.  It's just 1.6180555555..., which is a static number very close to, but certainly not equal to, phi.  And it doesn't approach anything; it just is.

Anyway, I'm sure there were plenty more math errors.  One thing that particularly bothered me was that this brilliant number theorist who nearly predicts the future of the stock market was, at one point, pondering A=πr^2 and C=πd on the train, as if they held mythical truth.  As a matter of fact, wtf is this movie even called π?  It had nothing to do with circles!  He did find some golden spirals, but then the movie should be called Φ, not π.  I dunno.  The title confused me by the end.  Those basic area and circumference equations were the only real reference to π, except of its basic nature as an irrational number.

Anyway, if you watch it, let me know what you think!  Despite my mathematical distress, it was, overall, a pretty okay movie worth watching once or twice just so you can say you did.  And, in a brilliant stroke of coolness, it's in black and white!

$ man punching

How do you throw a proper punch?  What's all this internal energy stuff they talk about in martial arts?  Here's the first half or so of an article I'm writing to explain.

  Directing Energy in Your Martial Arts

  ----       Matthew Daniels       ---- 

|=======================================|

If there is one thing that seems to frighten and temporarily alienate newcomers to the martial arts, it seems to be noise.  The kiai we often see in the Japanese arts is a prime example.  Often, a new student will feel out of place when asked to kiai, and may sometimes refuse to kiai for weeks into their training.  Even among those who do not refuse, it is not uncommon for the more arrogant students to snicker behind their instructor's back at the idea of a kiai.

But for the advanced student, the kiai is no longer only a noise; in fact, one might eventually feel that the kiai is not a noise at all, but happens to produce some involuntary sound as a consequence of an energetic explosion which drives the power behind their motions.

When a student begins to realize that a kiai is, indeed, not a noise at all, he has probably started to understand the importance of energy management in his chosen art.

I - and my instructors, before me - will sometimes ask students where their punch begins and ends.  To a white belt, this may seem a nonsensical question; the fist, of course, travels from the ribs to the desired target (the opponent's solar plexus, for instance).

Obviously, this is not the answer that an instructor is looking for.  The punch should start not from the ribs, but from the ground.  For some students, this will initially seem confusing, but it is certainly true.  The energy that drives your fist should start from the heel.

As a punch is executed, the heel should push against the ground.  Imagine that the path of your body between the heel and the knuckles is a large canoe resting against a riverbank (the ground).  From a standstill, can you simply begin to paddle and expect the canoe to move?

Well... actually, you can.  And sometimes, there's nothing wrong with this.  This is called punching from the shoulder.  But would it not be faster and more powerful to push off of from a sturdy riverbank, getting your momentum going before you begin to paddle?  This is called punching from the heel.

A convenient way to practice energy concepts like this one is to visualize the energy transferring through your body in real time, as you're punching.  The Chinese traditionally believe in the concept of chi, an energy-like substance which permeates the body and the world, providing a sort of life-force.  Fully appreciating the concepts of chi and the Chinese philosophies behind the different energies at work in the cosmos and inside the human body is far, far beyond the scope of this article.  For now, to illustrate my ideas about energy in your martial art, we will make the gross assumption that chi is a homogeneous, energetic fluid that can be directed and harnessed by the body.

So, in the previous example, can we draw energy like this from the ground?  Yes, we can; and you should, if you wish to generate a respectable amount of power in your attack.  If you visualize the energy transfers at work in your body, it can help you attain this energy channeling and put your whole body in sync with your attack.

Let's run a basic trace of this energy as it travels from the Earth and out of your fist.  For our purposes, the Earth is not moving; it provides an eternal riverbank to shove off of, and is a limitless source of energy.  Therefore, when appropriate, we should always try to use it to our advantage.  To do this effectively, we must root ourselves into the ground; this is one application of your stance training.  Try to imagine your feet reaching down into the ground, locking themselves in place by becoming part of the Earth.  These roots will help ou soak up the energy that will drive your fist.

As you shove off from the heel (without losing your root), the energy will being to travel up the legs.  As it reaches the waist, two things should happen simultaneously.  The energy should being to torque the waist and hips.  It turn, the waist and hips will accelerate the energy up the body and into the spine.

As the energy travels up the spine, a similar reaction will take place.  The energy will excite the spine, causing a wave through it and up the back.  Your chi should ride this wave up your body (along the fire path), and it will be thrown out of the spine and into the arm.  

conversions... not just for chemistry anymore.

So, I think we're all pretty savvy on comprehending the word, but just in case, you should go to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversion.  It has a lot of different meanings.

One of the most inconvenient conversion types, in my opinion, is religious conversion.  Frankly, I'm not a big religious person anyway, but it still angers me when I see people trying to convert me or others.  I feel like it conveys several negative things: firstly, the converter can't respect the other person's beliefs, secondly, the converter is trying to bring someone into their sect through persuasion instead of divine calling, and, finally, if the person does convert, it shows a lack of faith in the first place which will probably be carried over to the new religion.

Is it possible that frequent conversion dilutes religion?  I think it's quite possible.  I'm not saying that all people who convert are weak-faithed, and I'm not saying that all converters have malicious intent, but I think that it's a poor practice in theory and in actuality.

I have a friend who recently got really upset about a man who tried to convert him.  I'm okay with that, but I was not okay with his generalization that Christians are either avid converters or are supporters of fanatics who practice converting others.  This was my response:

If you don't want to insult all christians, you probably shouldn't start your note off with:

"Dear Christians, This is going to piss you off as much as you anger me."

Not really a friendly note. And as for your comparison of other religions trying to convert you... it's hardly an argument. According to Wikipedia, the largest religious but non-Christian sect in the US is Judaism at... 1.7% of US residents. Compare this to 78.5% of people who are Christian... so there are a little more than 46 times as many Christians as Jews. The numbers for other religions are ridiculously small. So does it surprise you that of this isolate incident where you met a religious radical, he was Christian? This doesn't mean that Christianity is more radical or more conversion-hungry than other religions (although I don't want to imply that the others are), but it does mean that if you were to meet a radical conversionist, or any person for that matter, chances are that they're Christian.

Perhaps your anger stems from your own religious indecisiveness, eh?

So yeah.  That's about how I feel.  From a neutral standpoint, I think it is pretty easy to understand that for even the most fervent and convinced believer in any given faith, another faith will have a supporter so equally confident in his god(s) that believing any one person is a worthless exercise in naivety; faith should be an solo exploration of your own mind and soul. 

Anyway, comments and discussion are appreciated.