Personal

Do something with it

~ randyaa ~ Leave a comment

Information in itself is of no value. It is like a blueprint. The blueprint of a building is worthless; only the building has value and significance. The blueprint may be destroyed with impunity, for another can easily be made, but a building cannot be destroyed without careful deliberation. ~ Garrett Hardin

The Internet is filled with producers and consumers of Information. It is estimated that a person is bombarded today with more information in a single day than a person in the 19th century would have come across their entire lifetime.

Does The amount of information we’re being given benefit us?

Some of us maybe. Most of us? probably not. Information is only as useful as its implementation. You can read all day about Quantum Mechanics or Molecular Biology or even Modern Fashion. You can even become the worlds greatest expert on the Nile without ever stepping a foot in Egypt. How useful is all that information? Will you ever build a Quantum Computer? Will you ever make a startling discover for the Human GNOME project?

Produce Something (not just more information)

Take the information you absorb and do something with it. Telling others is not enough. Society only moves forward due to innovation and creativity of the masses. If people only share what they hear from others then all we have is a giant information chain letter.

  • You remember 10% of what you read
  • You remember 20% of what you hear
  • You remember 30% of what you see
  • You remember 50% of what you hear and see together
  • You remember 70% of what you say
  • You remember 90% of what you do

By doing something with the information you’ve gathered, you not only aide your memory but you also run the risk of creating something new and unique.

Produce Substance

If all you’re producing is information then what value is it adding? The information needs to yield some results otherwise you’re just creating information that was created from information which will create more information and we’re in an endless cycle.

With all the information out there its bound to give you some ideas. Do one of them. Don’t just say you’re going to, follow through. You’ll be amazed at the sense of accomplishment it gives you when you can look at something and say “yep, that was me.” While you’re at it document your efforts and share them. This doubles your efforts as you’re not only producing the end result, but also the information on the process for someone else to duplicate and add to. Before you know it you’ve collaborated and built the first home brew Quantum Computer.

Now, stop reading this and go out there and do something with it!

Strike a Balance

~ randyaa ~ Leave a comment

There’s lots of different definitions of Web 2.0 but the common consensus is that it’s about user generated content and social networking. Ask anyone about Web 1.0 and they’ll all tell you the same thing, it was strictly about consumption. It was the advent of the information age.

In this world it’s hard to strike a balance. When do you stop consuming and start producing? when do you stop producing and start consuming? You need to strike a balance. To often I find myself reading a ton but not making use of it. There are just too many wonderful new sites out there and not enough time to look at them all.

There is certainly a point at which the marginal rate of return for content consumption begins to shrink. The rate of return for production begins to reduce as well, but at a much faster rate. To truly add any value or knowledge you need to first know what is out there and secondly know what people are interested in. To do this you need to be reading (or consuming). The amount of appropriate production is directly related to your knowledge or experiences. Therefor unless you’ve experienced everything and know everything you have more to gain from consuming than you do from producing.

An interesting letter from SunRocket

~ randyaa ~ 2 Comments

As most of you probably know, SunRocket, the Voip service Rachel and I have been going with (we paid $199 up front for 2 year contract, roughly $9/month not bad) has recently gone under and is closing up shop. We took this in stride and determined it gave us the opportunity to get away from a land line completely and go all-mobile which we’ve wanted to do for a while.

SunRocket Satisfaction Survey E-mail

Today I received an Interesting E-mail from SunRocket. Apparently they haven’t shut off all their features yet because I received an E-mail that essentially says I was randomly selected to participate in a Customer Satisfaction Survey. They want to know how my experience thus far with SunRocket has been. Well, SunRocket, It was pretty darn good until you took away my ability to use the service!

Bug Fixes

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I have fixed several annoying bugs in ZippyPhotos one of which caused directories to be displayed in the wrong order. It amazes me how easy PHP is to work with every time I make a fix or add a feature.

I also added the ability to specify the number of items currently displayed in the RSS feed. Right now the default is set to 10 but like everything else in Zippy, it’s configurable via settings.php.

Zippy Photos version 1.0

~ randyaa ~ Leave a comment

well… It’s out. I’ve (probably prematurely) released Zippy Photos 1.0. The biggest problem is speed. I know I know… with a name like Zippy it should be quick. I haven’t spent a lot of time with speed improvements, I’ve mostly concentrated on features but I gurantee It’s top on the list now. I have some things to try and with some luck we’ll see a dramatic speed increase.

Zippy Photos

~ randyaa ~ 2 Comments

I’ve officially named my photo album software Zippy Phtos.  I’ve created a Google Code Page for it also.   I’ll be updating it with downloads, general usage information etc.  I’ll also be using its subversion code repository to keep the code archived as well.

Filesystem Photo Gallery

~ randyaa ~ Leave a comment

I’ve been looking for a good filesystem-based Gallery system for a while. I haven’t been able to come up with one that has the features and is as lightweight as I’d like it. Therefor I decided I’d write my own. I implemented the first version in .NET but have since ceased development and decided to move away from IIS/windows and begin using linux/apache and an external host (powweb). I also want the Gallery system to work seamlessly with WordPress and any other PHP based content management system (or blog engine). Therefor I decided to scratch the .NET version and start on a PHP based version.

I started working on my new PHP filesystem based Gallery system last night. It’s intended to be extremely lightweight with no database interaction. It will assume the first image in a directory should be the ‘thumbnail’ for that directory. It will dynamically generate thumbnails for images which do not yet have a thumbnails. This is so that they are only created once.

I’m very surprised at how fast the The system is coming together. I suspect that in a few days I’ll have a working version with most if not all of the features I’m looking for.

The only problem is I have no Idea what to call it. If anyone has any suggestions I’d love to hear them.

As soon as I come up with the name I’ll publish a google code site with all the documentation and downloading goodness.

Cigarrette Facts

~ randyaa ~ Leave a comment

Please take these tidbits with a grain of salt. They have not been proven and I make no claim to their authenticity. If even 50% of these are true the cigarettes should be outlawed.

  • Of kids who smoke, 86% smoke the three most heavily advertised brands. The majority of adult smokers don’t smoke those brands
  • Of all people who have ever tried a cigarette, 88 percent tried their first cigarette by age 18.
  • Every day, the tobacco companies get about 3,000 new customers — kids.
  • Exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) is responsible for approximately 3,000 lung cancer deaths per year among nonsmokers.
  • 75% of all teenagers who smoke have parents who smoke.
  • After the first month of life, infants of parents who smoke have higher mortality rates through the first year of life, mostly because of an increased risk for sudden infant death syndrome and respiratory conditions such as bronchiolitis
  • If both a child’s parents smoke, it is the equivalent of the child actively smoking between 60 and 150 cigarettes per year.
  • Children under five who are exposed to secondhand smoke have a higher risk factor for the development of food allergy
  • Tobacco companies fought and won in the Supreme Court to advertise cigarettes near schools and playgrounds.
  • They add licorice and cocoa, which sound innocent, except when you burn them they act as bronchodilators — which makes you inhale more smoke so the nicotine gets further into your body.
  • The tobacco industry lets people believe that light cigarettes are better for you, when actually, they can be even worse
  • Tobacco companies put ammonia in cigarettes which makes your brain absorb more nicotine than it normally would
  • The product they sell kills more people than AIDS, murder, suicide, fires, alcohol and all illegal drugs COMBINED
  • Smokers are admitted to hospitals twice as often as nonsmokers
  • Tobacco companies know that 70% of smokers want to quit but can’t.
  • No one knows exactly what they’re putting in different cigarette brands, but we do know that there are 599 ingredients tobacco companies mix and match any way they want to
  • Tobacco companies know that nicotine changes your brain so, eventually, your brain can’t function normally without it.
  • They also know that of the ones who try to quit only about 3% succeed.
  • “Marlboro…and Kool…have their largest share among very young smokers (18 and younger).??
  • “Realistically, if our company is to survive and prosper, over the long term, we must get our share of the youth market. In my opinion this will require new brands tailored to the youth market.?? ~ Tobacco company
  • “We have been asked by our client to come up with a package design… a design that’s attractive to kids.?? ~ Tobacco Company
  • “The base of our business is the high school student…It is the ‘in’ brand to smoke if you want to be one of the group.?? ~Tobacco Company
  • “The desire to quit seems to come earlier now than before, even prior to the end of high school. In fact, it often seems to take hold as soon as the recent starter admits to himself that he is hooked on smoking.”
  • “Products yielding .4mg of nicotine or lower failed to satisfy the smoker.”
  • “It’s a well-known fact that teen-agers like sweet products. Honey might be considered.?? ~ Tobacco Company
  • “Would disclosure of urea as a tobacco additive have a negative effect on consumer perception given that it is a constituent of urine??? ~Tobacco Company
  • In 1953 they knew: “Studies of clinical data tend to confirm the relationship between heavy and prolonged tobacco smoking and incidence of cancer of the lung.??
  • Tobacco companies have called kids replacement smokers. That means we’re supposed to replace the 1200 smokers who die every day
  • They spent $9.57 billion on advertising and promoting their products in 2000.
  • Look at your watch. In the next hour, the tobacco industry will spend over $1 million on advertising
  • Amonia is Added to Cigarrettes
  • Cigarette smoke contains Arsenic
  • Smokers Inhale Cyanide
  • Tobacco Contains Radioactive Lead
  • Tobacco Companies put propylene glycol into Cigarrettes the same stuff found in Anti-Freeze.
  • Nicotine is addictive. Tobacco companies manipulate the nicotine delivery of cigarettes.
  • Cigarettes contain amonia. So does dog poop.
  • Ammonia is great for cleaning toilets, AND increasing the impact of nicotine in cigarettes.
  • Your Pee Contains urea, thanks to tobacco companies so do cigarettes, Enjoy.

50 years ago i could understand smokers. Today? Try again.