Forces that move our Spheres

When I compare our interaction with feelings, I compare us human beings like spheres in a endless space, and the forces that move those spheres are our feelings.

I choose the analogy with a sphere because a sphere is less resistant of being movement. Even a tiny force can make it move.

I am always trying to control those forces that moves my sphere. I have learned that Concentration is focusing all your power towards a common point, and also that Meditation is not using your power at all, and so achieving a resting state.

Both Concentration and Meditation are susceptible of feelings. If your sphere is moved by any feeling, your Concentration aim is going to change its direction.

It is hard to make a precise location of a target, and also it is upsetting to re-target it after some external force has made it lose its calibration. And then, it generate a Force (feeling) that moves our Sphere even further from what it was aiming in the first place.

Feelings are good, and bad at the same time. Sometimes feelings keep us adding "improvements", and then it reach a point when it can make no sense. So, in the short term, it can be a great marketing and advertising technique; but in the long term, it is too risky that it can become a total waste of time, and even more if it becomes into "the real path for opulence." Let's check this example:

- To eat
- Something venomous or prejudicial?
- To eat something healthy
- Excessive eating?
- To eat something heathy, the right amount
- What about your family and friends?
- To eat something healthy, the right amount, and shared with your friends
- So, only family and friends need food. What about the whole world?
- To eat something healthy, the right amount, shared with friends, and the whole world
- But probably, there's not enough food for the whole world
- ...

So, if you keep adding things, sooner or later, you are going to reach a limit, or fall into a vice cycle. And no matter what you do, Forces (feelings) keeps appearing and moving our Spheres, either forward or backward. In this case, my goal is to define a goal good enough for me, and try to avoid those moving forces... but then, it comes suggestions, alternatives, improvements, et cetera.

The challenge then, is to define which is that exceptional Force that can make our Spheres to break those cycles and limits, and how to maximize Its generation and intensity. Some great people in the past have tried to give a name to that Force; nevertheless, that name is falling too short to it, nowadays.

Ya no se brinda una servicio bueno, sino uno ligeramente aceptable

(Iniciado el 2/11/2011 17:46:22)

Ya no se brinda una servicio bueno, sino uno aceptable.

Solo quieren vender!!

Una persona me llamó "masoquista" hace unos meses por pagar por los servicios de Claro. Ya lo estoy creyendo.

Mis quejas iniciales comenzaron cuando noté lo mucho que se me desconecta el servicio de internet. Al principio no había fallas (el inicial tiempo de romance siempre es bueno...), pero ahora hay descargas que no puedo hacer por la constante desconexion. Estoy buscando alternativas para ese problema; sin embargo, hay algo extra que me molesta mucho más: la confabulación del servicio al cliente.

Información imprecisa en ventanilla:

• El primer mes me dicen que el traspaso del fondo para la activación del servicio era automático, (aunque en el primer mes no lo hice asi). Deposito el pago del 2do mes, confiado en que se pasará automaticamente. Al otro día, no hay nada, ni balance ni servicio. Llamo y pregunto, y ahí me dan la terrible noticia de que tengo que llamar cada vez que vaya a reactivar mensualmente el servicio, sino se toma como saldo de navegación normal
• Migré a un plan con factura (creo que ese era su objetivo desde el principio, pero me dijeron que de esta manera resolveré mi problema con la recarga mensual... Ojalá!). Además informaron que me cobrarán un porciento extra debido a los días de uso, el cual no saben calcular por ventanilla. Especulo que pagaré el doble (y así me esconden la mala noticia hasta el día en donde no hay marcha atrás)
  

Tres llamadas al servicio por equipo:

• "En el transcurso del día" es lo que me dicen que tengo que esperar, porque "el sistema esta presentando inconvenientes en este momento" ... (que bien!) Espero cinco horas antes de llamar al servicio al cliente, ¿y qué creen? Las tres llamadas ya fueron consumidas en lo del anterior problema del balance.
• Hace unos meses, en Megacentro, llamé desde un teléfono público, ya que había agotado mi límite de llamadas. La maniobra funcionó; no obstante, uno no siempre está en capacidad de pasear y moverse.
• No todo el mundo quiere esperar otro día para recibir respuesta de lo que hacen con el dinero que uno paga.

Quiza parezca que exagero con mi impaciencia de esperar hasta el próximo día para recibir respuesta... pero aún conociendo el problema del servicio al cliente, me incomoda cuando escucho estas tres perlas en ventanilla:

• "¿Límite de llamadas? Yo no sabía que había un límite para las llamadas al (809) 220-1111."
• "No es necesario pasar por ventanilla para conocer el status del servicio. Llame al (809) 220-1111 y enseguida le darán la información requerida."
• "Esa información no puedo darla por aquí. 'Comuníquese' con las oficinas principales." (Esta me recuerda a la recursión en programación... Una forma interesante de decirle al cliente que no $#!% tanto)

Mañana será otro día...

Villavizar escribió también sobre un caso que tuvo con Orange. Las telecomunicaciones tienen sus mañas, y parece que esa es la constante en toda empresa frente a todo lo que parezca costo, gasto, o pérdida, y muy similar a los gobiernos: exprimir al cuidadano.

Mi consuelo sería el cambio de proveedor, pero ya no tengo para donde cojer. Lo único que cae del cielo son limones, y a cambio de la piel! (cough, pellejo)

Talk #7: Pessimism. Out there..

Started: 2011-02-08 06:23:58

- Motivation. E+motion. Fear. And I'm still the same $#!%.
- Remember which attitude made you into your first job in the area you wanted to work.
- And at which age too!
- You still have time
- I'll lose too much time learning, and I'll arrive to the same point.
- You'll arrive there only if you want to. Besides, what could be the opposite side of that point of view?
- I had the same contradictions while making choices. You made me the same question to my anger against the "Eternal Optimism:" Optimism while things go bad, Pessimism while things go bad too, or well-being ignored when things go good?
- No matter the age. If there's still life, then there's still chance. You make it look that you are pessimist on bad situations. People feel you that way, unconsciously.
- Pessimist on bad situations ... (06:41:07) ... People tend to see the glass half-full, to look for Hidden Opportunities inside adversities.
- Yeah. And Work is needed to find them.
- And still, we are revolving into my first problem: Am I losing my time?
- In which way would you like to lose you time: either doing something or doing nothing?
- Either Open Source or Proprietary Software?
- Either making money or not!
- But little money
- It's a lot better than nothing at all. Compare it to the probability of the Universe coming into existence all alone by itself, or to the quote "A little learning is a dangerous thing, but we must take that risk because a little is as much as our biggest heads can hold" (George Bernard Shaw)
- Are we talking about Possibility, Probability, Knowledge, or Money?
- It's a metaphor. Take it or leave it ... (07:06:48) ... Again: There's more possibility out there, than inside here. Do you remember that?
- Oh yes! Thanks!

Ended: 2011-02-08 07:25:23

Something Vs. Nothing

(Reading Creation, Optimism, Sacrifice can help to put yourself in the right perspective)

People only dream about being the best, about being the strongest. They are hypnotized with that false illusion of being the best. Human beings have many limitations. You can be really good in one aspect, but also you are so bad in some other aspects.

Also, no human lives forever, nobody is eternal. Do you want to live destroying others life? I wish that you don't get embarrassed when you get old.

Why do people like to destroy? Maybe because Universe is destined in such a way that all beings live at expense of the weakest ones. So, we have two extremes: have latently strong enemies, or be devoured. I hate being caught in between of two risky extremes. Although, when you compare Nothing vs. Something extremes, it seems clear which is the path to choose.

Is it possible that there's is a Something worse than Nothing?

Creation, Optimism, Sacrifice

In the beginning, you have nothing.
You try with all your might to have something.
You start creating whatever means you believe helps you have something.
Then you start to see that you are not sure about what you will achieve with your actions.
Then you put on yourself a high load of optimism to keep your motivation to create something.
You achieve some small things you can feel a little pride for them.
You start to imagine a next level for those things you achieved,
but optimism is not enough when you have to renounce from things you don't want to.
You try to do whatever is on your reach to bring them with you,
but they become a high load.
And this is when sacrifices appear,
and those sacrifices are what put optimism at risk.

Bugs

(Thanks to IMDb, and whatever made me recall these quotes)

Let's analyze these dialogs from A Bug's Life movie:

Flik: Here, pretend - pretend that that's a seed.
Dot: It's a rock.
Flik: Oh, I know it's a rock, I know. But let's just pretend for a minute that it's a seed, alright? We'll just use our imaginations. Now, now do you see our tree? Everything that made that giant tree is already contained inside this tiny little seed. All it needs is some time, a little bit of sunshine and rain, and voilá!
Dot: This rock will be a tree?
Flik: Seed to tree. You've gotta work with me, here. Alright? Okay. Now, y-you might not feel like you can do much now, but that's just because, well, you're not a tree yet. You just have to give yourself some time. You're still a seed.
Dot: But it's a rock.
Flik: [shouting] I know it's a rock! Don't you think I know a rock when I see a rock? I've spent a lot of time around rocks!
Dot: You're weird, but I like you.

I felt a connection when I saw the recursion of this 'childish' explanation near the end of the movie. With this dialog, in that time, I felt a similar level of connection like the one I felt with the first twelve minutes of Up movie.

Also, it's nice to see how, in the moment of the recursion, these talkers almost exchange their positions:

[Dot gets a rock]
Dot: Pretend it's a seed, okay?
Flik: Thanks, Dot.
Francis: Hey, what's with the rock?
Slim: Must be an ant thing

I'm sure some sheeps may do a nice work as shepherds. The problem seems to be how to state when their work is either solving a need, or satisfying a terrenal whim.

"C'est la vie": A lazy answer

"To keep open some doors you want to close, is as disgusting as to keep closed those doors you want to open."
Ignacio Cortorreal (If not, correct me)

"Why is hard to work?" Because "C'est la vie"? Because "it's the law"? If you love to answer this way, I will say you this: No! Wrong answer! When you respond in this way, you are trying to explain too much in less than three seconds. You are totally forgetting every possible possibility or exception, and when exceptions appear, the first answer it comes to mind is "That's another different thing.", which is partially good because, although exceptions could be complex, these exceptions also belong to the answer of the question "Why is hard to work?"

Sometimes we make mistakes. Some people think we should be punished, and others say that we deserve mercy, ourselves included. ;-D ... Although, I believe that the next three points should be analyzed before granting or denying mercy.

• If you make mistakes without being adviced before, your mentor has part of the guilt.
• If you make mistakes after being adviced, the guilt belongs to you
• As we are human, we can be forgiven up to certain point

To make an example of something I think could be a mistake, let's have a look at this conversation:

- Dad?
- Hmm?
- We're pals, right?
- Right.
- And we'll always be together, right?
- Simba, let me tell you something that my father told me: Look at the stars. The great kings of the past look down on us from those stars.
- Really?
- Yes.
- So whenever you feel alone, just remember that those kings will always be there to guide you. And so will I.

(Thanks to arkymedes for the subtitle)

Can you see how Mufasa answers that difficult question to Simba in The Lion King? That dialog could have happened this way, but in real life:

- Dad, will you always be with me?
- No
- Why
- Because everybody dies. I will, someday.
- You will die! Oh no! Why you have to die?
- Because "c'est la vie"

And then, Simba should start to blame God for the "erratic" way in which Life was created. But no! Instead, our little kid, now that he knows that "our life is temporary" and that "he will die someday", he starts to make other people suffer for his own profit, and then some subjects ask him "Why are you so mad?" Which could you think will be his answer? You are right: "c'est la vie!"

"Sometimes there are people who don't want to listen. But also, there are people who don't want to talk."
Ignacio Cortorreal (If not, correct me)

When I talk like this, I now see what Moses was trying to teach with those Ten Commandments. But, for some reason, people started to walk away from those Commandments, and now we see Zeal, Hatred, Envy, Anger everywhere. I can bet that it started when some disciples of Moses started to use "c'est la vie" or "that's the law" as an answer.

"The Ten Commandments are really good. The problem is that each one of Them have many exceptions. And every exception should be explained. If not, people could develop wrong explanations."
Ignacio Cortorreal (If not, correct me)

Do you remember those funny moments when kids start to ask these two lovely questions "What is that?" and "Why?" It gives me chills to think how the disposition to reach the bottom of any deep topic is hardwired inside the personality of each one of us. I believe that "You ask too much" is a devastating answer, but "I don't know" is a phrase that everyone says with shame... Life is really complex, but the funny part is that we can learn and enjoy many things.

"My destiny is my only enemy. Cuantas veces yo caí, pero proseguí.
A fuerza de golpes yo crecí, no debió de ser así,
pero le doy gracias al destino por todo lo que sufrí."
Yomo

Recursion

Twisting. A new way to think and analyze algorithms. Its structure seems that can be exploitable with multicore systems, excepting of course the size of stacks... In essence, Recursion is a function that calls itself until certain condition is met. And this simple essence is still twisting...

You can define a function as:

function hola() { 
    echo "hola!"; 
}

To make hola() recursive, we need to call hola() inside hola():

function hola() { 
    echo "hola!"; 
    hola(); 
}

But if we execute hola() right now, it will execute forever! We still need some condition that stops that infinite recursion:

function hola($n) {
    if($n<=0) return;
    echo "hola!";
    hola($n-1);
}

And then, a recursive function was born. This is a completely too big jump away from sequential programming! Just try to solve factorial, fibonacci, quicksort and backtracking by using loops only, and compare them with their recursive counterparts... Twisting!

The 'Hello, World!' of recursion, Factorial:

function fact($n){
    if($n<=1) return $n;
    return $n * fact($n-1);
}

Right after factorial, the next example is Fibonacci:

function fibo($n){
    if($n<1) return 0;
    if($n==1) return 1;
    return fibo($n-1) + fibo($n-2);
}

Fibonacci recursion still twists me, just like any QuickSort algorithm:

function qs($list){
    if(count($list)<2) return $list;

    $less=array();
    $more=array()
    $pivot=$list[(int) (count($list)/2)];

    foreach($list as $e){
        if($e<$pivot) $less[]=$e;
        else $more[]=$e;
    }
    return array_merge( qs($less), qs($more) );
}

And, if that was not enough twist, there's also a Backtracking recursive algorithm! You can look an example of it at CodingBat, using Java. Backtracking is useful for solving problems similar to Knapsack and Eight Queens puzzles.

function backtracking($start, $charArray, $counter = ""){
    if($start >= count($charArray)) return;
    echo $counter, $charArray[$start], '<br />';
    backtracking($start + 1, $charArray, $counter);
    backtracking($start + 1, $charArray,
                 $counter . $charArray[$start]);
}
backtracking(0, array("A","B","C","D"));

I am starting to think that recursion (or at least my knowledge of recursion) is still in diapers.

-------

What follows now is a curiosity I found in Python.

I coded a solution for the previous backtrack recursion in CodingBat by using loops and binary numbers. That solution is good for an amount of elements less than 32 (int) or 64 (long) . Python has "unlimited" integers, so I tested if I can create an integer with a googol of bits and typed:

a = 1<<(10**100)
OverflowError: long int too large to convert to int

Experimenting with previous expression, I assume the limit is:

a = 1 << ((1 << 31) - 1)
print a
OverflowError: long is too large to format

This means 2,147,483,648 (more than two thousand millions) elements, an amount still lower than the amount of people in Earth; Although, in terms of integers, with 64 elements (bits), you can express a number like 9, 223,372, 036,854, 775,808 (more than nine trillions), a number good enough for some kind of accounting.

Python can't format and print (1 << ((1 << 31) - 1)), but at least we can know how many digits it has:

import math
math.log10(1 << ((1 << 31) - 1))
646456992.94488049

The number we can express in Python has 646,456,993 (more than six hundred millions) digits! But we can't print it. That number in ASCII string will weight 617MB. The same number in binary storage should weight 256MB, but it seems Python has something like Computational Notation to store binary strings (analogous to Scientific Notation), because it handles these calculations very well.

Bit: data? instruction? element? state? number? group?

The 'Undisputed' eager to fight

I learned and discovered this facet of myself with Nova, because he likes to joke with people too much:

1. You don't like to be repeatedly touched on your body.
2. Somebody knows you dislike to be touched.
3. That person touches you a lot of times.
4. Your anger rises to the point that you hit that person.
5. That person uses that attack of yours as an excuse to fight against you.
6. You show your strength, and that person sees you are strong enough.
7. Then, that person says that he was simply touching you.
8. That person also says that you are the crazy one.
9. As you feel that hypocrisy, you say that person won't be a good friend of yours.
10. That person sees how you ignore him, and then he wants to be your friend.

Now I understand, in Matrix Reloaded, what Seraph meant when he said: "You do not truly know someone until you fight them."

• Carlos and Ivans, after our encounters
• Sasuke and Naruto talk using fists
• Boyka and Turbo in Undisputed III
• And tons of stories about supposedly opposite extremes that get acquainted and sometimes they even identify a common enemy.
  

So, could that initial bothering of people we show be just a unconscious eagerness or impulse from ourselves to get acquainted with that person?

Wow, terrific! How many corners of our subconsciousness will we still keep unexplored?

My praise for Python language

Disclaimer: PHP is my main scripting tool. I still prefer PHP for things related to HTML. Python threads looks like a total copy from Java's, but some concepts of Python have me dreaming too much...

I like when languages focus on both, problems and users. There are still many other common problems that bothers developers everyday, but I like like when solutions go towards freedom, instead of going towards constraints (although the world itself is a constraint).

Don't you find it rude to use Eclipse, NetBeans, VisualStudio or Zend Studio on EVERY computer you will ever use, only to check the a method's syntax? Programming environments should be cheaper and lighter... nevertheless, these comments looks contradictory...

When you unify several complex concepts into simple principles, you feel a surge of freedom in your brain, head, body, self, ... well, whatever you choose. Well, that's what I felt when I discovered that I can slice arrays the same way I slice strings.

• If you have no text editor for coding, it brings Python GUI and a prompt to make tests.
  
• It forces you to tabulate your code, which makes code looks nicer
• Nested block delimiters reduced: neither {...} nor begin...end
  
• help() and dir() functions: pass any object as a parameter and look.
  
• The way you can access your own packages and modules
  
• Built-in: highest integer number you can express is limited only by your computer
• Built-in: complex number calculations (2+3i)
• Its slicing system for arrays and string, for example: "python"[1:5:2]
• dict.items() and enumerate(array)
• Integer division for floating point numbers, without casting
• You can use named parameters, for example: print my_page(head='Hello', foot='Bye');
  

Vaguely explored:

• Its flexible object definitions. It looks more flexible than JavaScript definitions.
  
• Lambda
• Jython and binaries