Christmas news!

One month to Christmas, and various funny news keep popping up.

For example, someone in Austria suddenly found 14 tons of Christmas trees in their garden: http://www.9news.com/news/sidetracks/301411/337/Christmas-tree-shipment-dumped-in-Austrian-garden-

As in, "sorry I'm late, I got lost in the forest in my garden!"

And someone in Canada got arrested for telling kids Santa isn't real: http://gawker.com/5962591/police-in-canada-arrest-devil+horned-grinch-for-telling-kids-that-santas-not-real

Santa's press office has not yet commented on the incident.

HTTP Status Code Post Office

So I went to the post office the other day and picked number 402. It was already on, but the employee in charge wasn't there...

Then 403's turn came, and as there was nobody with it, i went there and explained my case - but they told me I should just wait for my real turn.

The post office was empty anyway, so I figured my best bet would be to just pick the next ticket (which was 405 in the meantime) and wait to see which would come first. 404's turn came, but whoever took the ticket apparently walked away instead...

It turns out that 405's turn came first - but if we interpret 402 as another HTTP status code, it turns out that what I should have done to use the ticket was a bit creepy...

PS:

On "illegal" online content

Whoever thought that SOPA/PIPA/ACTA were dead must think twice. New similar laws keep getting sneaked in through the backdoor. One such example is this: http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/2012/09/eu-wants-mini-acta-by-the-backdoor/index.htm

In short, that talks about a new EU law that (as of today) is trying to be sneaked in, about N&A (Notice and Action) methods to force hosting providers to take down "illegal" content.

Wait a second - What is "illegal" content? It covers a broad range, from child pornography to copyright infringement. Do you think these two are unrelated? Think twice!

In this article, a music industry spokesperson says that "child pornography is great", because it allows them to have a stricter control on the online content.

Of course, the problem with N&A is that it's often abused to take down legal content, which may range from parodies to playing a piece of classical music on your own piano. Yes - there have been videos of people playing well-known simple pieces of classical music on their own piano being taken down. Apparently, there was some CD with the same piece being played on another piano, and they happened to sound alike...

In theory, N&A notices should contain enough proof that the material in question is illegal, and, in most cases (excluding child pornography, for obvious reasons), wait to hear from the person who uploaded the material first, before taking any action. In practice, this never happens with DMCA takedown notices, why would it happen now?

On the other hand, when it comes to child pornography, the police is already doing its job, and we already often hear about people who owned child pornography being arrested - without needing to distribute it.

Someone tell me - what exactly is N&A supposed to solve? Legal content will be compromised while illegal content is already being taken care of.

555 luck!

So, my wireless keyboard broke earlier today... I unscrewed it in a rush, found nothing... and then had to go. I stopped by a computer store and asked for wireless keyboard+mouse combos - wanted one with music controls on the keyboard and also a small dongle (instead of a box with usb cables), but these were out of stock. Then I went to get my new passport, and I got ticket number 555. I thought "hmm, maybe this brings me good luck in electronics?" Indeed, I went back home, and fixed it! (Probably some loose contact)

Then I was browsing a strange Youtube video, and it had 555 views... What's next, should I get some lottery ticket??

PS: I know that's nothing interesting to talk about, but hey, I don't blog that often so you can't quite say I'm flooding you, in fact I blog so rarely that even this might be better than nothing!

Some piracy-related thoughts

Act 1:
One of those parties, where the laptop is connected to YouTube and guests are free to play whatever music they feel like listening to. So, at a certain point, we realized that the spontaneous playlist had become pretty nice and decided to save it with a succession of back-copy-paste. When we tried playing the same playlist again a few months later, several videos had been taken down due to copyright infringement.

(While I love Spotify, it doesn't have an agreement with Japan yet, and thus doesn't include the Jpop we were trying to listen to.)

Act 2:
Once I was talking with my dad and the beginning to one of his stories was: "When I was a kid, around 10-12 years old, a single with two songs inside had the price of a cheap bread snack, so we'd go out and buy whatever song we seemed to like". This phrase alone was much more interesting than what he was actually trying to say.

Act 3:
I'm not a gamer overall, but I recently decided to try Portal, just for the sake of it. I created a Steam account and bought it without thinking twice, even though it was already on my brother's computer anyway, because a) it was easily accessible to find and download, b) it would stay on my account even if I wanted to play it on another computer, c) it's online so there's no risk of destroying the physical medium, d) it was really cheap after having been out for several years.

20 things to stop doing to people

Copy-pasting without any further comments.

There is one key factor that can either damage your relationships or deepen them. That factor is your attitude. If you’re hoping to grow and maintain positive relationships in your life, read on. Below you will find a 20 step attitude adjustment guaranteed to help you do just that.

1) Stop holding grudges. – Grudges are a waste of perfect happiness.
2) Stop complaining. – Instead, use your time and energy to do something about it.
3) Stop meaning what you don’t say. – People can’t read minds. Communicate regularly and effectively.
4) Stop making it all about you. – The world revolves around the sun, not you. Take a moment to acknowledge this truth on a regular basis.
5) Stop lying. – In the long-run the truth always reveals itself. Either you own up to your actions or your actions will ultimately own you.
6) Stop blaming. – Blaming others accomplishes nothing. Either you own your problems, or they will own you. Your choice. When you blame others for what you’re going through, you deny responsibility – you give-up your power over that part of your life, and you annoy everyone around you in the process.
7) Stop doubting. – If you think that you can’t achieve something, I have some news for you, you’re probably right. But don’t let your self-doubt interfere with other people’s dreams. Remember, the one who says it can’t be done should never interrupt the one doing it. (Read Unstoppable.)
8) Stop interrupting. – Correcting someone when they’re blatantly wrong is one thing, but always interjecting your opinions out of turn gets old fast.
9) Stop being selfish. – You get what you put into a relationship. Nothing less, nothing more.
10) Stop judging. – Everyone is fighting their own unique war. You have no clue what they are going through, just like they have no clue what you’re going through.
11) Stop gossiping. – Gossiping about others is a lose/lose situation. It hurts them, and then it hurts your reputation.
12) Stop making promises you can’t keep. – Don’t over-promise. Over-deliver on everything you do.
13) Stop being defensive. – Just because someone sees something differently than you doesn’t mean either one of you is wrong. Keep an open mind. Open minds discover great things.
14) Stop comparing people to others. – No two people are alike. Everyone has their own strengths. We are only competing against our own selves.
15) Stop expecting people to be perfect. – ‘Perfect’ is the enemy of ‘good.’ And genuine ‘goodness’ is hard to find in this world. Don’t overlook it.
16) Stop trying to be everything to everyone. – It’s impossible. But making one person smile can change the world. Maybe not the whole world, but their world. So narrow your focus.
17) Stop screwing people over just because you can get away with it. – Just because you can get away with something doesn’t mean you should do it. Think bigger. Do what you know in your heart is right. (Read Life’s Greatest Lessons.)
18) Stop making mountains out of molehills. – People make mistakes. Crap happens. There’s no reason to stress out yourself and everyone around you because of it. One way to check if something is worth mulling over is to ask yourself this question: “Will this matter in one year’s time?” If not, then it’s not worth worrying about.
19) Stop being dramatic. – Stay out of other people’s drama and don’t needlessly create your own.
20) Stop giving out advice, and just listen. – Less advice is often the best advice. People don’t need lots of advice, they need a listening ear and some positive reinforcement. What they want to know is already somewhere inside of them. They just need time to think, be and breathe, and continue to explore the undirected journeys that will eventually help them find their direction.

And remember, your relationship with yourself is the closest and most important relationship you will ever have. So pay attention to it, develop it, nurture it, and never, ever stop.

Source: http://www.marcandangel.com/2011/07/24/20-things-to-stop-doing-to-others/

Nash equilibrium in economy?

Imagine a world whose economy is at a Nash equilibrium.

Cheap factories in third-world countries (and not only) would have no reason to make too cheap products... because they'd simply earn less than they could.

Expensive factories in "developed" countries (and not only) would have no reason to inflate their product to 1000%... because nobody would actually buy these products.

This small percentage of the world's population that holds 90% of the worldwide wealth would have no reason to gather it... because they'd immediately notice the lack of liquidity in the market and it would turn against them.

This system would naturally lead to a situation where everyone can lead a decent life. No luxuries - housing, clothing, food and water, health care, education, and some leisure. If there's too much of the product you're providing, nobody will buy it, and you'll switch to another job where there's actually a need.

So far from our reality.... and yet so close! We can even imagine the laws that would make it work, and even observe them occasionally at our current system.

Whoever solves this will probably get a Nobel prize (or two?) and the eternal gratitude of a few billions of people.