Police violence gets a lot of attention lately but that’s not a solution (neither the violence nor the media heating it up). Here is one solution:
Remember: Helping people before they commit crime is much better (and cheaper and more rewarding and more successful) than arresting them.
Leave a Comment » | 
Philosophy | Tagged: Life, Meaning of Life, Real Life | 
Permalink
Posted by digulla
For your IT security, you want
Now choose at most two.
As always in life, everything has a cost. There is no cheap way to be secure which is also comfortable. Home Depot chose “cheap” and “comfort” – you’ve seen the result. Mordac would prefer “secure” and “cheap“.
Those example show why the answer probably is “secure” and “comfortable”. Which means we’re facing two problems: “cheap” is out of the question and the two contradict each other. Secure passwords are long, hard to remember, contain lots of unusual characters (uncomfortable the first time you travel to a different country – yes, people there use different keyboard layouts). Turns out there is a “cheap” part in “comfortable”.
Taking this on a social level, the price for security is freedom. To quote Benjamin Franklin: “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” I don’t know about you but I feel bad about terrorists dictating us how much of our freedom we have to give up.
In a similar fashion, you can either punish criminals or prevent future crimes but you have to choose one. We have learned through bad experience (witch hunts, flaws of the US penal system) or good (like the Norwegian system) that punishment doesn’t always help nor does it make victims happy. Which leaves us with the only conclusion: We, as a society, pay money to prevent future crimes because that’s the most reasonable thing to do.
Even if it leads to people mistakenly attribute modern penal system as “holiday camps.”
Leave a Comment » | Philosophy | Tagged: Justice, Philosophy, Security | Permalink
Posted by digulla
Disabled people aren’t handicapped, they are getting obstructed.
Leave a Comment » | Life, Philosophy | Tagged: Philosophy | Permalink
Posted by digulla
We don’t see things how they are, but how we are.
As Sheldon from Big Bang Theory said: “Text adventures run on the world’s most powerful graphics chip: Imagination!”
Everything you see or hear happens in your brain.
Think about it.
That insult that really hurt? Only in your brain.
Interesting, isn’t it?
Just beware of the “everything is my fault” concept. There is no point in trying to take responsibility for everything.
2 Comments | Philosophy | Tagged: Philosophy | Permalink
Posted by digulla
This might help:
The Holstee Manifesto
Copyright information
Leave a Comment » | Life, Philosophy | Tagged: Holstee Manifesto, Life | Permalink
Posted by digulla
During the Flask presentation yesterday, I learned about an Easter egg in Python: “import this” which will print:
The Zen of Python, by Tim Peters
Beautiful is better than ugly.
Explicit is better than implicit.
Simple is better than complex.
Complex is better than complicated.
Flat is better than nested.
Sparse is better than dense.
Readability counts.
Special cases aren’t special enough to break the rules.
Although practicality beats purity.
Errors should never pass silently.
Unless explicitly silenced.
In the face of ambiguity, refuse the temptation to guess.
There should be one– and preferably only one –obvious way to do it.
Although that way may not be obvious at first unless you’re Dutch.
Now is better than never.
Although never is often better than *right* now.
If the implementation is hard to explain, it’s a bad idea.
If the implementation is easy to explain, it may be a good idea.
Namespaces are one honking great idea — let’s do more of those!
Leave a Comment » | Philosophy, Software | Tagged: Easter egg, Python, Zen | Permalink
Posted by digulla
Simple fact: When you feel helpless, unable to change your circumstances, and when your input doesn’t spawn any reaction, you despair.
Leave a Comment » | Philosophy | Tagged: Despair | Permalink
Posted by digulla
This text/poem is attributed to Charlie Chaplin but there is some discussion whether this is true or not.
I’m not sure what is correct but I feel that the poem itself is too important to bother much about the details. There are two versions. Version 1 is from the Sahaja Yoga:
As I began to love myself
I found that anguish and emotional suffering
are only warning signs that I was living against my own truth.
Today, I know, this is “AUTHENTICITY“.As I began to love myself
I understood how much it can offend somebody
as I try to force my desires on this person,
even though I knew the time was not right and the person was not ready for it,
and even though this person was me.
Today I call it “RESPECT“.As I began to love myself
I stopped craving for a different life,
and I could see that everything that surrounded me was inviting me to grow.
Today I call it “MATURITY“.As I began to love myself
I understood that at any circumstance,
I am in the right place at the right time, and
everything happens at the exactly right moment,
so I could be calm.
Today I call it “SELF-CONFIDENCE“.As I began to love myself
I quit stealing my own time, and
I stopped designing huge projects for the future.
Today, I only do what brings me joy and happiness,
things I love to do and that make my heart cheer,
and I do them in my own way and in my own rhythm.
Today I call it “SIMPLICITY“.As I began to love myself
I freed myself of anything that is no good for my health –
food, people, things, situations, and
everything the drew me down and away from myself.
At first I called this attitude a healthy egoism.
Today I know it is “LOVE OF ONESELF“.As I began to love myself
I quit trying to always be right,
and ever since I was wrong less of the time.
Today I discovered that is “MODESTY“.As I began to love myself
I refused to go on living in the past and
worry about the future.
Now, I only live for the moment,
where EVERYTHING is happening.
Today I live each day, day by day, and I call it “FULFILLMENT“.As I began to love myself
I recognized that my mind can disturb me and
it can make me sick.
But As I connected it to my heart,
my mind became a valuable ally.
Today I call this connection “WISDOM OF THE HEART“.We no longer need to fear arguments,
confrontations or any kind of problems with ourselves or others.
Even stars collide, and out of their crashing new worlds are born.
Today I know THAT IS “LIFE“!
There is also a YouTube version by Adrea Bezerra.
M.Peer Mohamed Sardhar posted a much longer and more complex version:
When I started loving myself” – A poem by Charlie Chaplin written on his 70th birthday on April 16, 1959:
When I started loving myself
I understood that I’m always and at any given opportunity
in the right place at the right time.
And I understood that all that happens is right –
from then on I could be calm.
Today I know: It’s called TRUST.When I started to love myself I understood how much it can offend somebody
When I tried to force my desires on this person,
even though I knew the time is not right and the person was not ready for it,
and even though this person was me.
Today I know: It’s called LETTING GOWhen I started loving myself
I could recognize that emotional pain and grief
are just warnings for me to not live against my own truth.
Today I know: It’s called AUTHENTICALLY BEING.When I started loving myself
I stopped longing for another life
and could see that everything around me was a request to grow.
Today I know: It’s called MATURITY.When I started loving myself
I stopped depriving myself of my free time
and stopped sketching further magnificent projects for the future.
Today I only do what’s fun and joy for me,
what I love and what makes my heart laugh,
in my own way and in my tempo.
Today I know: it’s called HONESTY.When I started loving myself
I escaped from all what wasn’t healthy for me,
from dishes, people, things, situations
and from everything pulling me down and away from myself.
In the beginning I called it the “healthy egoism”,
but today I know: it’s called SELF-LOVE.When I started loving myself
I stopped wanting to be always right
thus I’ve been less wrong.
Today I’ve recognized: it’s called HUMBLENESS.When I started loving myself
I refused to live further in the past
and worry about my future.
Now I live only at this moment where EVERYTHING takes place,
like this I live every day and I call it CONSCIOUSNESS.When I started loving myself
I recognized, that my thinking
can make me miserable and sick.
When I requested for my heart forces,
my mind got an important partner.
Today I call this connection HEART WISDOM.We do not need to fear further discussions,
conflicts and problems with ourselves and others
since even stars sometimes bang on each other
and create new worlds.
Today I know: THIS IS LIFE!
Leave a Comment » | Philosophy | Tagged: Poem | Permalink
Posted by digulla
It’s a fact that the majority or the “obvious” is often wrong. During World War II, groups of engineers tried to figure out how to best reinforce airplanes to reduce losses of life and material. For this, a study was conducted about the kind of damage planes showed as they returned to base. The general consensus was that the spots with the holes were the places which needed reinforcement.
The mathematician Abraham Wald objected and argued to reinforce all the other places. If you wonder what’s wrong with this guy, consider this: These were the airplanes that had returned. So the holes must be in places where the plane could sustain some damage. Which means the other, the lost planes must have been hit elsewhere.
When Bill Bartmann founded CFS2, ” a debt-collection company based in Tulsa, OK,” he faced a similar issue. Most debt-collectors threaten their … err … victims? Bill found that a pretty stupid strategy. Why not help the indebted to make money? Like as in enabling them to pay the debt?
As the Wikipedia article states:
Counter-intuitively CFS2 offers a unique array of free services to those they are collecting from, including: employment assistance,[16] credit specialists who negotiate reductions of other personal debt, resume writing, medical discounts and help accessing government assistance.
One of the results: This enables “CFS2 to collect at rates twice the industry average.”
See? Being nice does pay off!
Leave a Comment » | Fun, Philosophy | Tagged: CFS2, Debt Collecting | Permalink
Posted by digulla
I’m not sure how to process this.
Because of the ubiquitous surveillance by the US government, Groklaw closed shop. Pamela “pj” Jones just didn’t feel like she could continue her work in such a situation.
If you didn’t know Groklaw: It was the site which cared about law and how it was (and should) be applied in the context of technology. They showed the absurdities of the recent patent lawsuits and other economic war games like the famous lawsuit between IBM and SCO.
And now it’s gone.
I feel guilty because I didn’t notice.
And after reading pj’s last article, I wonder whether her reaction is too emotional or actually more appropriate than my own “it won’t be that bad” attitude.
Now some people will say it’s not a problem. The NSA isn’t allowed to monitor US citizens.
Wrong. It’s way too complicated to filter your mails out of the traffic. So the NSA stores them anyway. And as soon as you write an email to a non-US person, they can watch you without breaking any laws. How much? All the mails? Just the ones which you exchange with someone else on the planet? Who knows. You think you can find out? They know all about you but they won’t tell you anything.
Or maybe you think that you have nothing to hide.
Really? Send me copies of your bank accounts, please. Oh, and photos of your home, your timetable (especially when no one is at home) and where you keep your spare key. How about a password list? Of course, I’m not going to abuse this information. What do you think of me?
And, as pj correctly wrote in her last article, the problem with surveillance has never been what anyone might have to hide.
Instead, the state is suddenly treating its citizens like enemies, creating an atmosphere of distrust. Also, in a few years or maybe even months, “smart” computer programs will look for patterns in the huge amounts of data that the NSA collects. They will stop looking for “Who is a terrorist” and start looking for “Who might become a terrorist?” It makes sense, doesn’t it?
If you have ever used a computer, then you know how dumb and uncaring they are. And suddenly, they decide who is a terrorist? Without anyone being able to second guess this? When the police comes kicking in your door, they won’t even be allowed to tell you why – national security.
i said before: I’m all for surveillance but for everyone. You want to watch me? Well, good. I want to watch all the people in the government. I want to know who they met, how long, what they talked about, how they voted, every penny they goes though their bank accounts. While we’re at it, I want the same for the management layer of big corporations. They are often as big as small states. We observe those, why not corporations?
What, no? Why not? How can it be OK to watch me, a nobody, but not the people who make the big decisions?
1 Comment | Philosophy | Tagged: Groklaw, Surveillance, USA | Permalink
Posted by digulla
Dark Views 