Tag: me

free.

i aced my last exam. i am now a master of computer science and business administration (for what its worth) the exam was totally awesome. i got to talk 45 minutes (30 minutes is the allotted time) about open source business models, culture, motivational issues, you name it. it was very interesting. so interesting in fact that my professor forgot to ask any questions relating to the subjects i was supposed to have studied. she was very eager to read my thesis, use it in her research, stay in touch. even offered me a phd position. WOHOO. do i rule or what. more later.

Peer production for information assets

i’m going to defend this paper by yochai benkler in a couple hours as part of my masters. benkler argues that there is a third mode of production besides markets and hierarchies (firms): peer production. per benkler, (and my own experience makes me agree with him) peer production is the most efficient mode of production for information because it reduces the opportunity costs of production that the other 2 models entail. markets are imprecise at valuing human resources because they have limited information, and hierarchies are inefficient at assigning tasks (also due to limited information). in the peer production model, individuals voluntarily flock to the tasks that interest them most, and where they can apply their skills most gainfully. it is asserted that individuals have the best available information about their skill set, and are thus much more efficient at task selection.

the internet enables a unbounded pool of human resources to seek out problems. these economies of scale easily overcome the additional costs of integration and coordination in a highly distributed environment. with proper attribution and meritocratic structures, problems of burn-out and free riding can be overcome.

it should be an interesting discussion, especially considering that the relevant institute has been conducting research into the open source phenomenon recently.

Portents

I tried to install my machine at my new employer today. After 1 hour, the network card stopped working. I decided to call it a day and went home. This is just the most recent episode in a long string of computer incidents that happen to me. Maybe i’m in the wrong trade.

Becoming telegenic

my professional life requires me to give more and more presentations, talks at conferences, video conferences and so forth. there is only one way to become an excellent speaker: relentless practice. trouble is, there is not always a willing audience. or maybe there is, after all. ingredients:

  • a webcam (starting at $30)
  • serious magic
  • plenty of space and bandwidth

besides doing education or promotion videos, video blogging is an obvious application. if you want to eschew the strictness of a script, do the stream of consciousness thing and just ramble.

Grumpy

rothfuss@lasagne(rothfuss)> grep grumpy log.txt | wc
76  587559 2995104

it must be true.

<brihana25> hey! leave poor gregor’s grumpy ass alone…
<Apakuni> Gregor is the youngest grumpy old man I know 🙂
<aXe> see, even Gregor’s not grumpy any more
<gregor> always grumpy
<gregor> people, don’t take it personal if im grumpy today
<gregor> but someone probably robbed my appt
<gregor> im only grumpy when prodded
gregor is now known as grumpyFuck
<Apakuni> tell us how you feel Gregor
<brihana25> i nominate gregor for the “grumpy young fart” award too…
<nobody> brb, gregor is grumpy, and I need more coffee to deal:)

Making emails public

Imagine the field day that Google could have if 1) all email files had access controls removed, and 2) people started surfing each others’ email messages. Unrealistic, right? Well, think again. Why have we grown so accustomed to the social norm that email should be private?

this hits home for me. in 1999), i had similar ideas, and decided to give some of my friends access to my private email archives. i had an interesting discussion about the implications back then:

(me) my private section contains all my mails (or at least all i could save) from 1993 to present. its like a diary, only more frank and complete. so far, only one person besides me has access. i may give you access some day, but not yet.

(her) somehow this scares me. i fear that i may could do something that could destroy that fine construct of our friendship and would tear it down. this went on too fast. give me access to your personnel diary? you did even think about it a few minutes? i AM overwhelmed. in my diary are my deepest thoughts written down. not all off them, because some things are not to be held anywhere – some things will always stay in your mind. but there are things that nobody knows.

in retrospect, the time was not yet ripe for that experiment back then. neither were there tools to discover interesting content (no google), nor was the narrative form of the blog widely known. i believe that people have become more accepting of trading in some of their privacy in exchange for other benefits. it has become acceptable to share with the world, and this process will only continue from its modest roots (“i had cereals for breakfast today” no shit!) towards more meaningful exchanges. i have been archiving my email in IMAP for years (100 MB and growing), and it would be relatively easy to make some IMAP folders browsable and searchable from within my blog. this would be one more facet of the personal CMS, a concept that has been taking shape in my thoughts recently.

A personal CMS gives a unified interface to a users’ thoughts (weblog), his emails (IMAP web mail), his contacts, his schedules (Web PIM) and also his files. The personal CMS supports the discovery of information within the personal data of a user by offering pervasive rss feeds, deep searches and extensive hyperlinking.

Language skills

63% of blogs are written by women. this is consistent with findings that women use their whole brain for language (men only use one half). i get the distinct feeling that women are more articulate and eloquent on average. fun to be a minority, both in having a blog and in reading skills. i read at 600 words per minute, making me 3 times faster than average at a comprehension rate of 82%. i didn’t realize that the difference would be that large. apparently, the sound barrier (speech) is at 400 words per minute. with some training, it should be possible to break 1000 wpm or more. some bogus? company claims that their product allows you to achieve 25000 wpm.

as for writing, i never learned touch typing really well which sets me back. i need to test later. apparently its possible to reach 170 wpm if you are REALLY good.

Looking for achievers

The intellectual standards at university of zurich are so low that you can graduate there with little effort, at least in the computer science department. It’s thus not a matter of great pride to be the best student of a year (which I arguably am). Most inspiration for my education i got in other places. I found it especially disheartening that there were so few really interesting fellow students to exchange ideas with. Most were either unknowledgable or assumed they were someone because they secured a cozy job in the bowels of a major bank. I got involved with the computer science students association, hoping to find some individuals that took a sophisticated interest in the field. Instead, i found people stuck in the world of megahertz and compiling linux from scratch (how lame). Another time, i was motivated enough to organize a lecture series on web services (then an emergent topic) only to find that precious few cared to show up. Not content with university, i focused on the workplace, hoping to find excellence there. My 5 year stint at KPMG consulting was very educational in the political aspects, but again where i expected to find competent colleagues to learn from i found idiots. It struck me as odd that a couple students were pretty much the pinnacle of technological knowledge at that company. Instead of learning new tricks from more experienced technologists, we had to deliver solutions with the knowledge that we possessed at the time, and created value where other “consultants” basically sat on their fat asses. No wonder that the clowns totally tanked in the market, not even a silly rename operation (bearing point, WTF?) helped. Good riddance.

Meanwhile there are kids aged 22 (or 15, respectively) that are W3C working group members. That’s the spirit severely lacking in zurich. Added to my rss feeds.