http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2212850,00.asp

This article made me laugh 6 years ago, and just shows why nobody who knows anything takes John Dvorak seriously, with the possible exception of sticking an inverter gate in front of his output first. Granted, I'm keeping him in business by linking to him because he makes his living as a professional troll: say outrageously stupid things and get the money from ad impressions.

The Gphone is DOOMED!

"After serving his time federal prison, John Ehrlichman granted an interview to author Dan Baum, who reports that Ehrlichman explained the origin of the war on drugs this way: 'The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar Left, and black people. You understand what I'm saying? We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black. But by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.'"

I thought you were an intellect
But now that I reflect, you left me reeling.
You made me drink a toast
And when you finished I was looking at the ceiling.

Listen To It, Now! LOUD!

If you haven't seen much of me, it's cause I'm all over Europe and Asia. Big tour, this time.

At least I'm now well known for being able to knock "Purple Rain" and "Let's Dance" out of the house.

Gotta pack now and go, again. Next stop? Back to GMT.

A broke lad in Ladbroke Grove...

In response to a MakeUseOf post on apologies, i posted the following comment:

I use apologies, sorriness, and remorsefulness as three different things.

Apology is an explanation, as in Plato's The Apology. The sign in the image above that explains what happened is an apology. The usefulness of an apology is that the apologizer felt a need to give one, that is, he values the person he is apologizing to, and respects them enough to explain himself.

Sorriness is saying you feel bad that the other person was affected adversely, not that you would have done otherwise. The " This is much better" message is an example of it. The usefulness is to let the person know that you care.

Remorsefulness is (explaining that you are) feeling bad about what you did. The usefulness is to let the person know that you are humbling yourself by admitting guilt.

These three things are very important as not all situations call for all three. Indeed, sometimes using the wrong one can made a matter worse.

Apologizing is excellent when coming late (the first time), not doing things as expected, or any time the person on the receiving end feels belittled. When it is obvious that the apologizer does not care, does it quite often, or thinks apologies make everything better as if whatever-it-was never happened, the apology tends to infuriate the person.

Sorriness is to let people know you care. For example, when hearing something bad happened to someone else that you had nothing to do with "i'm sorry" means you care and means a lot to the receiver. Doing something you think is correct but adversely affects the other person, for example, a doctor taking blood or giving a shot that hurts might say "i'm sorry but this will hurt". In other words, i do not regret the action, but i feel bad that it will hurt you.

Remorsefulness is expected when people have their values slighted. A convict may be given a more lenient sentence if he shows remorse, a child may be forgiven if he really does feel bad that he broke the friend's toy, a relationship can be salvaged this way as well. Remorsefulness is the hardest of the bunch because the person must humble himself, a quality not often found in society.

The method of remorse is really based on the relationship the two parties have. The idea is not the words but the conveyance of actual humility. As this is based on many factors including the people involved, the amount of time taken between the offensive action and the expression of remorse, and the gravity of the offense, no real guidelines can be explained. Some can be via email, some cannot, though perhaps it can be a first step.

Moving slowly along in trying to read Galen's De temperamentis in English, i came across Distributed Proofreaders which aims to proofread texts for Project Gutenberg. They have groups of people, some willing to type in projects before the proofread, though those projects are slow and not always accepted.

I was pointed to a page on proofing old texts which addresses some of the issues i thought were typographical errors. There are still those, but knowing the conventions of the time helps quite a bit.

The Kickstarter ideas seems to be a no go, though it seems is doable on Amazon's Mechanical Turk (sandboxed job). There is difficulty in the conventions used, and that many are not too acquainted with Latin. Typing it in as is seems okay, except the accented letters which are not on everyone keyboard. The Mac makes it easier with Characters (cmd-ctrl-space) which allows to save favorites and is easy to work with, but still it would encumber a fast typist. Learning the rules seems complicated and hard to check if done correctly, but perhaps using the base letter (English alphabet) plus a semicolon would work, much like the "q;" as a "que mark".

I was about ready to go there when i was pointed to the Distributed Proofreads possibility, which is where i am stalled. If that doesn't work out it is possible i may yet turn back to Amazon Turk.

I love Amazon because of the product reviews. Even when Slashdot was promoting the Amazon boycott over the 1-click patent, i mentioned (can't find my comment, /. seems to stop comment history in 2007 :( ) that B&N was terrible in that they only have positive comments on their website. A negative comment i left on B&N was deleted shortly thereafter. Amazon, however, keeps even the bad reviews.

Here's a couple that caught my attention recently. While looking for a bath overflow cover, this comment has a better idea. This product does indeed grow mold, look at the customer images on the left side of the main picture.

I was looking at comments on using a Kindle in the tub, where it was mentioned (seems to be a common idea) to put it in a ziplock bag to protect it from the moisture (which gets into the debate whether the buttons or swipe is better to turn pages).

I learn a lot from Amazon comments, the 1-stars often tell you what people are complaining about, and the 5-stars many times counter the complaints and have useful comparisons. The 2s, 3s, and 4s, similarly are helpful. I think Amazon's comments are what make Amazon such a great retailer. Well, not the only thing, but, even if i purchase something elsewhere i will go to trusty Amazon to find out the real deal.

"...WHEREFORE, Captain Justice, Guardian of the Realm and Leader of the Resistance, primarily asks that the Court deny the State's motion, as lacking legal basis. Alternatively, the Citizen Accused moves for an order in limine modifying the speech code as aforementioned, and requiring any other euphemisms and feel-good terms as the Court finds appropriate."

AWSOME

Here's where y'all's are headed:
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/10/when-plunder-becomes-a-system-of-governance/280885/

"Anyone who averts his eyes from the hopeless lives many of our fellow citizens lead and tells himself and others that these men and women only have themselves to blame, is either a fool or a soulless bastard. "

http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2013/oct/16/bleak-house/

"Organized, by what The New York Times calls 'a loose-knit coalition of conservative activists led by former Attorney General Edwin Meese III,' the backers of the government shut-down are ensconced in organizations like Tea Party Patriots, Americans for Prosperity, Freedom Works, Club for Growth, Generation Opportunity, and Young Americans for Liberty, their names as fake as those of Communist front organizations in the 1930s and 1940s and as venal as their forerunners."

Lee Atwater and the Destruction of Black Music

The FUNK destroys "diversity" and gives up UNITY.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/health-science-technology/hunting-the-nightmare-bacteria/dr-arjun-srinivasan-weve-reached-the-end-of-antibiotics-period/

STASI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPzboLdqKy4

"There is even no independence movement, without slavery."

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/10/22/slavery-as-american-innovation-what-i-learned-from-henry-louis.html