infojunkie's blog

"Your economic theory makes no sense".

Intelligent musicians have realized that the Internet gives them the opportunity to reach their consumers directly, bypassing the dinosauric and frankly greedy middleman, yielding a fairer deal for everyone who deserves it. Radiohead and NIN are definitely not your average teeny boppers :-)

Musicians, take a good look at this page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kentbye/1813174776/

Fascinating study (from 2003) on the amount of information stored and flowing through different media (Broadcasting, Telephony, Internet). Must-read for anyone serious about informatics. We're talking exabytes (one million terabytes) and zettabytes (1000 times more).

According to this study, 5 exabytes were stored digitally in 2002. 18 exabytes flowed through electronic channels. Information would be doubling every 2-3 years.

Humans are thinking machines, among other things. We think, we learn how to think, we are asked to think (or not). Some would go as far as saying we think therefore we are.

Why think?

What is thought?

The Microsoft bid to acquire Yahoo! is the latest desperate move from a dinosaur to avoid extinction. Actually, the only thing keeping that dinosaur alive right now is its cash, because it is plain to see that Microsoft just doesn't "get" the Web. It drove Hotmail to the ground years ago, it created a single sign-on system that everybody hates, and I don't think Live.com is much better than MSN.com - even the name is as bland.

I am lucky to find "Genesis", a French documentary about the natural history of the Earth, on TPS Star tonight. Google takes me instantly to the schedule page of the TPS Star channel, informing me: Genesis Film documentaire de Claude Nuridsany et Marie Pérennou. 2004. Thanks globalization for the poor.

The Earth starts with molten lava.

As the fire burns out, steam comes out.

The steam is redistributed on the lava as rain, covering the earth and cooling it.

As the volume of steam gets redistributed as oceans, seas, rivers and lakes, the weather cycle is initiated.

When you're coding a function, start with the return statement and work the logic backward to reach the inputs. Since we're more concerned with the function's output, this reversal does shift the focus on getting the result required instead of starting off far away, at the input level.

- I'll only believe it when I see it, said the skeptic.
- Me too, and that's why I imagine it, replied the believer.

The title gives it away really. It is the paradigm of dialectics (of which I have only a faint idea) to the study and theory of systems (of which I am trying to learn the rudiments).

Le magicien découvrit une formule très importante. Il la confia à son apprenti qui, plus ambitieux que lui, chercha immédiatement à en tirer profit. Il alla directement aux seigneurs des environs.

Le meilleur acheteur se révéla avoir des vélléités impériales et il lui demanda de construire une arme qui userait de cette formule. Ce que l'apprenti executa allègrement et avec beaucoup d'ingénuité, au grand détriment du voisinage.

Le magicien reçut les honneurs dûs au génie de sa formule.