Autistic savant Jul 12, 2006
Interesting article about Daniel Tammet, an autistic savant well known for reciting Pi to 22,514 decimal places.  He recently wrote a book called Born on a Blue Day (not out yet) that describes his life in detail.  Writing and communicating are often difficult for people with his condition, but he seems to be highly functional. 
Tammet is doing well at answering my questions, even the indirect ones. As he explains in his book, he often appears rude because he doesn't respond if a question is not direct and explicit. "I am answering because I know from the context that you must be asking questions and that I must talk," he explains.

But the most distressing aspect of his condition has been his difficulty in understanding emotions. "I have to pretend to show emotions, such as triumph when I beat the house in Las Vegas. I don't enjoy films because the characters' expressions make no sense and I don't find verbal humour funny, though I do like slapstick."
(via Digg) #math
Markets Jul 11, 2006
Even though I don't understand money, I realized something somewhat money-related:  Some markets and products are industry-driven, while others are customer-driven. 

Bubble gum probably wasn't invented for the purpose of meeting a need.  No one said, "Ya know what I want?  Something to chew on for a while without dissolving in my mouth."  Same with TV (whoa, that's a jump).  Nobody said, "Ya know what I need?  Something to watch in order to waste my time.  I just have too much of it."  I would postulate that many things in our lives exist because some marketing person thought it would make them some money.  Diamond rings, car radios, personal computers, shampoo, "collectibles", cereal, and theme parks are a few more examples of industry-driven products/services.  In other words, the market for these products was created by the people who made/sold them; they provided no viable solution to a problem or need. 

But then there are other huge markets that developed over time out of a definite need for a solution to a problem or inconvenience.  Athletes in all sports need something to give them better footing.  Enter the world of athletic shoes:  Tennis shoes, running shoes, soccer cleats, football cleats (different from soccer cleats), basketball sneakers, etc.  These products were all developed to meet the needs of athletes.  Sure, these products may have been embellished a bit (who the heck needs to pump extra air into their shoes?), but their general purpose was brought about by a specific set of needs.  The personal automobile came about in order to transport people from place to place.  Eventually, people wanted a smoother ride.  Enter the modern suspension system.  Certain people wanted to be more comfortable in their cars in Florida.  Enter air conditioning.  Somebody wanted to watch the sky as they drove.  Enter the sunroof.  All these things came about because somebody needed or wanted it.  A company didn't come up with the idea and try to convince us that we all needed it (except maybe sunroofs). 

It's interesting to see where certain things come from and why we sometimes desire them. #business
Streaming video Jul 11, 2006
Jason Kottke wrote a post on this a little while ago, and I mentioned it briefly in my post about hosted services:  Streaming video has made leaps and bounds in the past several months/year.  In the past, people used to email 3MB videos to each other and forward them to all their family and friends (thanks for clogging my mailbox, idiots).  Then a bunch of sites popped up that hosted these videos and streamed them "for free", accompanied by droves of untargeted ads and popups. 

But recently, sites like Youtube, Google Video, and other "Flickrs of video" have popped up, streaming videos for free with a flash-based player.  This eliminates the need for plugins, codecs, compatibility (for the most part), and downloading.  Everything happens in the browser; there's no need for third-party components (except a flash plugin, which is almost standard these days). #technology
Want to want (1) Jul 10, 2006
I heard a phrase recently, and I can apply it to a few situations in my life.  The phrase is "Want to want".  Used in context:  "I want to want to go to the gym, but I just don't."  Another way of saying it is "I wish I had the desire to go to the gym."  It's different from "I want to go to the gym."  It implies a lack of desire, and a desire to change that lack of desire. 

I went to a financial advisor recently.  This guy explained the inner workings of money to such detail that my brain actually shut down.  I died for a few minutes and was only awoken when he said something about chocolate-covered dollar bills.  The thing about money is that as long as I have some, I really don't care about it.  It doesn't interest me in the least.  I find it very boring to hear about finances and stock options.  I don't understand annuities and life insurance, and I don't have the desire to.  I wish I had the desire to learn about money.  I'd love to have the desire to study economics and learn about the federal reserve.  I want to want to learn about the value of the dollar and how compound interest is calculated.  But when it comes down to it, I just don't.  I wish I wanted to, but I don't. #money
Matlab Jul 10, 2006
Matlab (actually it's MATLAB, but I don't like things that are needlessly capitalized) is a math/science/engineering computer application that college professors claim is "extremely powerful" and "a must-have skill".  To students, it's "a waste of time" and "unnecessarily complicated".  What I've realized just recently is that this reaction occurs because of how it's taught.  Matlab was introduced to me in a calculus class as a program that was able to graph functions in 2D and 3D.  This ability wasn't very advanced, seeing that my handheld calculator could graph in 2D in a fraction of the time and other computer programs could graph in 3D with a nice visual interface.  The fact that Matlab had a command line said to me that it was old and useless.  Everything's graphical these days, so obviously this program is outdated. 

But then I got out of school and entered a job that uses this program pretty extensively.  And I'm finally realizing its capabilities.  It's great for analyzing huge amounts of data.  It can easily plot things, and these things (arrays, vectors, etc.) can easily be manipulated.  The program's command line is what makes it so powerful.  Essentially, it's a programming language.  You can declare variables, perform mathematical operations, use if/then statements, etc.  This is what the professors never told me.  They said it was a tool to graph math functions.  It always seemed a little redundant to write several lines of code in order to plot a function when it could be easily done in other programs with fewer steps.  Matlab's website even says, "MATLAB is a high-level language and interactive environment that enables you to perform computationally intensive tasks faster than with traditional programming languages such as C, C++, and Fortran."  The thing that sets it apart from traditional programming languages is that there's no need for a compiler.  All data and information is entered directly into Matlab through the command line or a text file (M-file).  There's no need to create an executable, though this means that Matlab's functionality can't be ported to a non-Matlab-ready device. 

All in all, it's a great program, and I wish those stupid Ph.D.'s taught it the right way.  Buncha jerks. #education
Website keyboard shortcuts Jul 7, 2006
I'm a huge fan of websites that use keyboard shortcuts/hotkeys, like Gmail and Bloglines.  These shortcuts are made possible with some relatively simple javascript.  I've been thinking about adding shortcuts to my site for a while, but I'm really not a fan of javascript:  It slows things down, it doesn't always work, and I'd have to learn it. 

But then I learned about accesskeys (actually I saw it on Mark Pilgrim's site first).  It's pretty simple:  Just add accesskey="[key]" onto any A, AREA, BUTTON, INPUT, LABEL, LEGEND, or TEXTAREA.  Then the user can press ALT+accesskey (CTRL+accesskey on Mac) to use the shortcut.  So far, I've setup ALT+1 to go to the homepage.  Perhaps there will be more to follow. 

Update (2006-07-08 8:20am):  This works fine in Firefox.  But in Internet Explorer, the user needs to press enter after the accesskey combo. #technology
Comment aggregators Jul 7, 2006
Comment aggregation is the little-known second cousin in the world of RSS feeds.  The basic idea is simple:  Provide a way to keep track of comments that have been left on other people's blogs.  For example, if I leave a comment on somebody's website, I might want to know if anyone commented after me or in response to me.  Sure, I could add each of those posts' feeds to my feed reader, but that sounds ugly and complicated.  There are a few websites that claim to do this for me: 

coComment seems to be the best because it was the first (that I know of) and it offers a ton of features.  It comes with a nice interface and a fancy bookmarklet.  But there's one caveat:  You only see responses to your comments if other users are registered with coComment.  In my opinion, the best way to ensure your product's failure is to require everyone to use it. 
My rating:  1/5 stars

Co.mments is pretty simple:  It has a text box where you paste the link you want to track.  It figures things out and displays how many comments the post has and how many of those are new.  It has a bookmarklet for your browser and has a feed for your conversations.  No tweaking necessary.  No mass-cooperation to use. 
My rating:  5/5 stars

Commentful is pretty bad.  Despite a nice layout and a fancy yet simple design, the user interface is clumsy and non-intuitive.  It requires you to add a title and a time period to track comments.  The time period could be useful if you don't care what people are saying after a few days, but besides that I'm very unimpressed. 
My rating:  1/5 stars #technology
Gourmet MREs Jul 6, 2006
Amazon seems to think MREs can be classified as "Gourmet Food".  I'd like to hear what some military people think about this.  I've had a few MREs here and there, and they're pretty good.  I'm sure they're great if you have nothing else to eat and you're in the middle of the desert.  But things like "Grilled Beefsteak with Mushroom Gravy" and "Pot Roast with Vegetables" shouldn't be called "gourmet". 
#food
Theme trim Jul 6, 2006
I trimmed down my most recent theme because it felt too "big".  The content started about 1/3 of the way down the page, which obviously isn't a good thing.  I changed the style a little bit because I figured out how to use the "hover" property in CSS (fieldset:hover {border-color:#38c;}).  I also made things a bit "cleaner" by omitting several PHP calls.  This probably won't affect how fast the pages load, but it makes me feel better. #technology
Thoughts on hiking (2) Jul 6, 2006
I went hiking on the Appalachian Trail this past weekend.  The weather was great and I had a good time, but there are a few things I'd like to remember: 

1.  Sandals are good to wear at the camp site, especially if there's water around.  It makes it easy to walk around and get your feet wet without having to take off your shoes and put them back on repeatedly. 

2.  Clif Shot Bloks, fruit leather, and other fruity/sweet yet healthy food is better to eat during physical activity than Clifbars, Powerbars, or Snickers Marathon bars.  Hiking food all seems to follow the same path:  chocolate and nuts.  While I'm a fan of both, I don't really prefer either of them when I'm doing physical activity on a hot day.  On a sidenote, beef jerky covers over a multitude of sins. 

3.  It's nice to have a warm, relatively large meal at night.  In the middle of the woods, there are two viable options:  MREs and freeze-dried meals.  MREs come with chemical heaters so you don't need any extra tools or equipment.  But they weigh about 13-18 oz each.  This isn't much, but it's mostly water weight, which seems like it excess weight should be avoided if necessary.  The alternative is a freeze-dried meal like Mountain House.  These packages of food weigh next to nothing, and all that's needed is some boiling water.  But that presents another problem:  Where/how do you get boiling water?  One method is a thing called Jetboil, which is a lightweight thermos-like container that can easily attach a burner and propane tank to boil water.  It weighs 2.6 lb, but it's a great tool. 

4.  A sleeping pad is most likely worth the extra cost, weight, and ego hit. 

5.  Gatorade is the nectar of the gods.  Maybe I'm brainwashed from all the advertising, but Gatorade seems to do some amount of good during physical activity.  It might be a good idea to bring two bladders:  one for water and one for Gatorade. 

6.  Maps are hard to find online.  They're available at outdoorsy stores.  An abbreviated copy of the Appalachian Trail Thru-Hikers' Companion is available online. 

7.  Motives are good to settle before starting the hike.  Should you cover as much ground as possible in as short a time as possible?  Or should you take it slow and enjoy nature?  Or should you do something in between those two options?  Nothing is wrong with any of these choices, but it's good to get the whole group to agree to a goal before the hike starts. #sports