Note to self (13)

Doesn't matter how high the IQ is, using mailing lists correctly is even too difficult for members of Mensa (not the first time happening actually).

Example:

Person 1 opens a topic (a bit off topic on that mailing list actually)

Person 2,3 and 4 respond (to all of course -.-): "Hey, I would be interested, too."

Persons 5+n discuss a bit (shame on me, at the beginning I just responded to Person 1, but when all were interested I responded to all, at least just one mail ...)

Person x asks to discuss in a different mailing list

Person x+1 keeps discussing

Person x+2 asks to discuss in a different mailing list

*popcorn*

Udacity (2)

Well, I have done the first unit and the homework and now I am working on the second unit. I have to admit that it is very fascinating how they lead you through the topics and explain them in a very entertaining way (although sometimes my head is buzzing :) ).

You always get some minutes of explanation via video and there are always some little quizzes just to make sure you understood the explanations. Although you got the answer right, I would recommend to watch the video with the answer nevertheless, because sometimes it has just one tiny little extra information that can be helpful later. If you still don’t get it: the forums are very good!

Let me give you a general idea how they approach the topic of building a web browser (because I didn’t get that at the beginning ^^):

A web browser gets as input a HTML or java Script file, has to read it and generate an image of what the code tells it to display:

HTML-File: “Write ‘Welcome’ in red!”

Web Browser: “Yes, Sir!” [writes ‘Welcome’ in red color = Welcome]

HTML-File: “Nice work!”

But in order for that to work the HTML-File and the Web-Browser have to speak the same language. So they teach you the tools on how you can analyse the symbols in a HTML-File in order to give them sone sense.

They also show you interesting logical concepts like “Finite State Machines” (resp. “Regular Expression”) that were new to me, but there are the perfect tool for analysing language. And the best thing is that I also get to know concepts that I can apply for Excel’s VBA (like dictionaries or the for-each-loop) my favourite programming language at the moment.

I hope that this kind of online teaching (especially in that quality) can be found more often in the future in the internet.

Keep up the good work! :)

Udacity

Well, I have now enrolled for the online course cs262 Programming Languages of Udacity and watched a first dozen videos and made the tests. I have to say that it is very understandable. Most of the videos also have English subtitles and they give you good examples to understand the programming language. At the beginning they start with showing you the basics of Python, although you should have some experience with programming language or maybe you will not be able to follow. However there is a Q&A section where you can ask for help.

It is very professional in my opinion and one can see that they have put a lot of energy into this project. I will definitively go on with this, although I have to go fast, as the course started mid-April...

Note to self (11)

Well, problem solved although now my neighbours will hate Proxtube, but I can ♪♫♪♫♪ along :)

There ain't no such thing as a free lunch

With our current technology there is no good analogy to refer to the problem. But imagine there exist the some sort of replication technology like in Star Trek that means if you have a prototype of a product and scan it you can replicate copies without limitation and little energy using an electronic saved pattern.

Imagine also every household has one of these replicators and there are linked to each other so that sending patterns would be no problem. It would also be used to sell patterns in order to generate money. So if a pastry cook invents a new chocolate there would be someone scanning and sending it for free to everyone else and almost nobody would buy the new creation. So there would be no incentive for everyone investing in new products, because everyone would just copy them.

That is somewhat similar to massively copying music, films and other art. The chart leaders would still be able to make a living, but for a lot of smaller artists survival would be more difficult in my opinion. If only 20% of the consumers buy the original for example, then if you would have made 1 million of profit per year you get 200.000 and could live with it. But if you are a small artist and only would have received 20.000 and now only get 4.000 then the line between enough or not enough is definitively crossed.

Copyright Issues in Germany

Currently there is a heated discussion about copyright and legalisation of peer-to-peer networks going on in Germany. At the moment the fronts are the Piratenpartei on one side and the artists, authors and their managers on the other. Mainly it relates to music, films and pictures.

The whole thing is very complex, but the main issues/problems/discussion points are:

• an industry of attorneys that write large quantities of cease-and-desist letters in order to generate lawyer fees
• a lot of users that illegally download the latest music, films, etc.
• a legal situation that not corresponds to the technical situation
• a lack of understanding that an act is unlawful
• lack of alternatives

Everything counts in large amounts  

At the beginning it sounds good to not criminalise a great part of the population, stop the greedy attorneys and simplify the legal situation. But you have to ask yourself  who is paying for that in the end.

If you talk of not criminalising private copies then we are not talking about copying a CD for a good friend or e-mailing him the latest “funny-cat”-video. That was maybe the case some 10 to 15 years ago. It was not a great problem as it wasn’t done on a regular basis and the range of influence was normally limited to family and friends (of which you have to first find someone with the same taste). But we are talking about 1 person being able to share with millions of others (interested!) through peer-to-peer networks.

They call it “private” because the persons who offers to share doesn’t make any money with it. They say it is not stealing, because if you copy something nobody loses anything. Technically speaking that is correct as the artist still has the original file on their PC. But it is commercial nonetheless, because if the consumers have the picture/film/music on their PC, laptop or mobile devices very few of them will buy it later. The argument that it helps to get a first impression is just hypocritical, this is not the normal human nature and the statistics show otherwise as well.

 So the artists loses a lot of potential buyers of which some would have bought the product (as hardware or electronically). And if these some number in the thousands or millions it is a big loss and for some artists this may be the reason to not continue, because they can’t make a living.

Are there alternatives? In my opinion yes. You can buy mp3 via amazon, iTunes store or similar shops even song by song if you don’t like the whole album. There are picture databases online or video streaming platforms. So in general I don’t see a problem acting lawful and showing some respect to people who need to live from making art.

These things being expensive is not an argument. Just because you don’t have the money doesn’t give you the right to take it. Especially as there are not essential for survival.

Exaggerations

On the other hand there are some exaggerations relating to the protection of art.  Three same notes together in another piece of music are declared a copy. And copying your legally bought DVD onto your own PC isn’t possible due to copy protection.  Every personal vacation photo is treated like a Picasso painting. If it is very unique, difficult to produce or something else this would be ok, but the umpteenth photo of a beach or the White House?

And then the lawyers fill a cease-and-desist letter to generate money. In some cases even these accusations are not (knowingly) correct. Evidence is difficult to interpret and it depends a lot on the judge. So one rightfully feels angry and used by this industry.

Summary

After having the situation so far the only point that remains is to decide how to solve it. By legalisation of downloads or by trying to make this industry of attorneys less profitable. The first option would be to make the artists pay for something they have not invented. Just because some black sheeps use it, can’t allow us to stigmatize all artists.

So at the moment I can’t symphasize with the position of the Piratenpartei, because it would simply be to unfair. Doing something against the industry of attorneys would be the best solution in my opinion. As far as I know there is a discussion of limiting the lawyer fees for cases like that. Maybe that will do something. And it would help if people would think before downloading, posting or sharing pictures, music or films.

Note to self (5)

Need to emigrate to another country where GEMA isn't blocking every music video on YouTube! I only wanted to try the Karaoke Channel... Well, maybe my neighbours will thank GEMA for that ;)

Edit: Problem solved.

Everything you want to know!

It is astonishing how many free online courses one can take. This is one of the things I love about the internet. You can get so many information for free. 

The only problem with that is finding the good ones, because there is so many material out there. You have to be very critical and skeptical when reading something and you shouldn't take everything for granted and cross check things. 

The other problem is to motivate oneself to do it. If you pay for example for a language lecture than you will go to it, because you already paid 300 €. But if it is a free online course, what does it matter, if you work now or later or whenever? So you really need to be motivated to do it. If not, you may better be off with the paid version, as strange as it sounds.

At the moment I am taking a free online course to get the basics of French. It is offered by the local library (so you have to be a member) and online for 3 month. So this is my motivation, as I know the time is limited :). I tried some time ago to learn via book and a CD, but I was so often unsure of the pronunciation. In the online course they talk more and they also correct my pronunciation. After that I think it is easier to go on with the book-CD-version. So sometimes you can combine the online and offline ways to learn.

Regarding programming there are a lot of scripts, web pages even videos out there. An interesting link I recently discovered is "Udacity" that offers free online university classes mainly related to advanced programming like building a search engine, web application engineering or applied cryptography. I think I will subscribe to one of the courses after finishing the language course, because I also find these topics very fascinating. If I do, I will give a feedback here of course.

So, what are you waiting for, everything you want to know is out there!

Anonymity

There sometimes is a debate whether it is good or evil that one can surf the internet anonymously. I currently became aware of it due to an online article by SPIEGEL Online.

In my opinion it is a good thing staying anonym as it allows oneself to develop an opinion, debate and maybe change the own position without being reproached with the "old" opinion forever. We all know that the internet doesn't forget. So when one day you made statement X, discussed, considered and later you change your mind and make statement Y, one who wants to harm you may circulate that you think X and not Y. The internet is not a little village that allows you to talk to everybody and clear the matter. If repeated often enough all the search engines will find X and not Y and you will be stigmatized without being able to do much about it (just repeat forever Y, but this could be tiring...). This would just keep people from discussing and developing new ideas.

So I am a great fan of anonymity, it allows experiments, playing and the exchange of ideas without taking into account whether a beggar is telling something or a professor. Just the contents matter!

UserDavid, "Anonymous Idea cropped"; Some rights reserved. Source: Wikimedia Commons

From Fascination of the new to Fast-food for the brain

Mh, I wonder... Why are we so attracted by catastrophes?

Today a car burnt down while I was at work and I could see from the window and on one side it was sad for the owner of that car (nobody was hurt), but on the other hand it looked quite cool. Is that, because we see it so seldom that one isn't used to it? Would we watch with the same fascination if a car would burn every day? Is it bad to gawk? Or would it be bad to look away and not be interested in the catastrophe?

 luu, "Feuer"; Some rights reserved. Quelle: www.piqs.de 

I suppose we are attracted to watch, because in the time the human race was still living in caves or the savanna, one couldn't look away. It could have meant death to not check how the fire would spread or if the sabretooth not only would eat your fellow, but also oneself. So it's a good thing if you check out what is happening and if you have to save yourself or another person.

On the other hand, if you just watch and forget saving and helping meanwhile it's bad (although in that case there was nothing to help, just wait for the fireman). There were so many people making photos and that stuff. Ok, it doesn't happen anyday, but we see a lot of cars on fire on TV already. And I find it quite surreal to see a bunch a people surrounding a burning car and making photos. It has something voyeuristic. What does it help to send that photo? That's the other extreme I think, that we like just to watch extraordinary things happen (but please in a land far far away if they're bad). And it's difficult to evolve beyond that.

 Eckhard Krause, "guten Appetit"; Some rights reserved. Quelle: www.piqs.de  

I've stopped reading and watching news about such topics (accidents, stars, rumours, ...) a while ago and I've missed nothing so far.

It gives you neither wisdom nor knowledge, it's just fast-food for your brain and you are what you eat.

CSI - Character analysis

I was just watching some episodes of CSI and again I find it very interesting how different the types of personalities are.

In CSI Miami all is about party, money and career. The women are party girls (stupid or mean), victims (always crying and so happy to be safed by the good guys) or Calleigh Duquesne (the one that isn't able to act emotionally thanks to Botox). The men are all about party, career or sex (not talking about the CSI team, the good ones). The personalities are very simply and only skin-deep and all seems very artifical. In my opinion it is less about the scientific methods to find criminals, but more about effects and action.

In CSI Las Vegas the caracters have more depth and their problems seem more normal (who takes care of the kids, gambling, not admitting failure, ...). In Las Vegas though a lot of episodes are about strange sexual practices (plush suits, dominance, ...) and I am not always sure whether these things actually exist or are just creative writing. To my knowledge therefore it has been criticised for supporting cliches in that direction. Nevertheless it is my favourite, because they have a good focus on the scientific side and the conclusions drawn from it.

In CSI New York the characters also seem very good drawn and realistic to me. Compared to Las Vegas the problems are more "normal", but that makes sense as Las Vegas is an exotic city and New York is not. Also their way of solving cases is based more on an interpersonal level than on the scientific evidence (also it has a lot of room, too). I like that in addition to Las Vegas, because you have a different approach, but it is still more or less realistic regarding the characters and so I can see both without getting bored that it's always the same way.

If you are located in Germany you can watch the latest episodes for free on RTLNow and VOXNow (in German, of course).