Irrelevance

Posted on December 17, 2008 by admin

I have been struggling the last few days over a paper. The problem is that the original (rejected) paper was 10 pages, describing 1 experiment. For this second submission attempt I had to both include a second experiment and squish the paper down to 8 pages. Not easy, it turns out, but possible. And the fact that it is possible disturbs me a little. Was half of that original paper really irrelevant? So many words, so much expended effort, which after further thought turned out to be totally unnecessary.

My life’s relevancy ratio in general isn’t all that good. If you add up all the time I spend watching TV, sleeping, and dreaming about becoming an astronaut, you are left with maybe 2% of my time being actually productive, in the sense that it will advance humanity in some form. But now, after discovering how much of that stuff is fluff, I feel I have to now downgrade that score to 1%. That is a full 50% drop in estimated total relevant output.

And if the paper gets rejected the score is zero.

My Biggest Browser Annoyance

Posted on December 15, 2008 by admin

There is one web browser issue that I consistently fall victim to. This is the problem that keyboard focus appears to jump, for no reason, from widget to widget, and sometimes from a widget to the address bar. I’m not sure, but I think it has something to do with starting to type before the page-load is complete. For example, I will be typing my user name into the user field, and halfway through typing the cursor jumps to the password field. Then, thinking I am still in the user name filed, I hit tab and type in my password, but it didn’t go into the password field, because I was already there. Instead the tab caused me to go to the address bar, and my password goes there.

Of course this wouldn’t happen except for the fact that I occasionally type while not paying attention to what is happening on screen. That shouldn’t be a problem, though. Once I have stuck the cursor into the user field things should happen predictably, and consistently. Keyboard focus should not jump randomly.

So, what are the possible negative outcomes of this? The most basic, and most harmless, is that I simply have to type in things again. There is a more dangerous security concern, however. When my password is entered in the address bar then anybody watching me as I type can see what it is, and possibly deduce that it is my password. Even worse, maybe, is that if I hit “enter” after typing the password then people peeking at traffic can spot this request. If they see a strange request for “mypassword” go by unencrypted they might be able to use that knowledge maliciously.

That’s it. This is a concern that is both a usability annoyance, and a security risk.

Crazy Lady, Living in a Bag

Posted on December 11, 2008 by admin

One of the things about Japan is that everything is so ordered. The trains leave within seconds of the scheduled time, there is no garbage to be seen anywhere, and everybody is courteous, even when the trains are totally jam-packed. This is why it is all the more surprising when somebody breaks the social norms.

Yesterday something like this happened. I was walking along a well-travelled sidewalk in Osaka city, and some lady comes up to me and starts yelling in my face. Not the semi-bored selling-yelling that the store employees do trying to lure people into their shops, but a full-on angry “I hate your guts and I’m going to let you know it” kind of yelling. My reaction was stupefication. I stopped dead in my tracks and just stared at her. It was one of those Star Trek “does not compute. does not compute. illogical. illogical.” moments that is usually followed by the evil robot self-destructing and Kirk getting the green girl. Afterwards I started thinking about this. I think my reaction in Vancouver would have been different. In Vancouver we are all, on occasion, approached by crazy folks. When it does happen my reaction is the instant onset of a fight/flight thought process. I put on my “I don’t take kindly to this crap” demeanour in an attempt not to look like a victim candidate, and do an unconscious evaluation of the likelihood of either escaping or winning a fight should the necessity arise to choose between the two (no, I have never actually fought anybody). But here, in Osaka, that doesn’t happen. My reaction is instead more along the lines of: “…… wha?”

While on the topic, I had another weird random street encounter about a week ago. I was again walking along the sidewalk and this guy walking the other way stops right in front of me and throws down a huge bow. Not the standard everyday bow, but one of the 90 degree big-time serious bows. I stop, confused, and think “a-ha, somebody behind me.” Turn around, nobody there. Turn back, dude is still bowing. WTF. Pause. Options: 1. talk to him and try to figure out what he is doing. 2. run away. Chance of success at option 1 is very small, so I take option 2.

I will never find out what these people were doing. My best theory is that there is some guy wandering around Osaka who resembles me, and is in the habit of pissing off middle-aged women and earning the deep respect of middle-aged guys. I wouldn’t be surprised. After all, we do all look kind of the same.

Real Estate: Too Smart For My Own Good

Posted on December 2, 2008 by admin

It appears that the Vancouver housing market is in trouble. Finally. We’ve been in a boom for the greater part of a decade now, and people were getting very comfortable with the idea that house prices would increase in perpetuity.

I didn’t buy it, and figured that we were entering a bubble. That may sound like bragging after the fact (now that things are clearly on a downturn), but here I admit that I actually messed up royally, not in my judgment, but in my timing. You see, I called a top in the real estate market in 2003. At that point I had some real estate, and for whatever reason as spring time rolled around I decided “this is it, we’ve hit a peak. I’ve got to get out.” So the house went up for sale, got sold in 3 days, and I was sitting much more comfortable, not having to worry about the thing.

At that point I considered buying a condo, and actually looked at one near Metrotown, but the thing was going for 250k, which is a lot, and was only 1200 sq. ft. or so. Sounds like a rip-off to me. So I gave up on that idea as well.

As you can see, I messed up. I was way way early in my pronouncement on real estate doom. And now that it is finally coming to pass I don’t feel all that good that I have proven to be belatedly correct. Being right at the wrong time is the same as being wrong.

As an aside, I find it fascinating how the Vancouver media has made an about-face in its attitude towards real-estate. For several years the local newspapers were among the biggest promoters of real-estate. Now, within the last two months they have very suddenly taken the opposite view, publishing bubble-talk at every opportunity.

Oh, and for the folks who think real-estate will be fine, I want to take this opportunity to respond to the usual arguments:

Vancouver employment is strong – No it isn’t.
Vancouver has high wages – No it doesn’t.
B.C. industry is strong – No it isn’t.
The Olympics – Please shut up.
International Destination – Compared to New York? LA? London? Seriously?
It’s different here – <facepalm>

If you are interested in reading more about the bearish case for Vancouver real-estate, I suggest you visit vancouvercondo.info.

Web Comic Joy

Posted on November 26, 2008 by admin

There’s no joy quite like discovering a new quality web comic. First there was Perry Bible Fellowship, then Cyanide and Happiness, and today I discovered the magic of Married to the Sea. Like the other comics I listed it is (I think) pretty edgy, so tends to be hit and miss. But I think the good ones are really good.

In addition to the above, refer to comics dealing with geocaching, old photographs, cheating at Facebook games, furries, and why cigarettes are stupid.

Hope for Humanity

Posted on November 23, 2008 by admin

It’s easy to get down, to conclude that maybe we as a species are pretty worthless and doomed to failure. Any number of things can inspire such thoughts: some random examples being the existence of an oppressive North Korean regime, people in Africa hacking each other up with machetes, or bankers in the US ripping off hundreds of billions of dollars. Then there is the smaller stuff: isolated incidences of violence, hatred, or whatnot. It can make one pretty dejected.

But then you run across something like this video of a guy named Rodney Mullen skateboarding, and you have to conclude that no, we are not hopeless. No matter how much evil there is in the world there remain great people who focus on bettering themselves, on creation rather than destruction, and expression rather than oppression. These people accomplish fantastic and beautiful things. We are not animals, and that which separates us from animals is evident in this video. Rodney Mullen, I salute you.

CBC Fail

Posted on November 23, 2008 by admin

Today I wanted to listen to Glenn Gould’s “So You Want to Write a Fugue.” I fired up Google and the first result was a link to YouTube. Sweet. I click over and there is the dreaded message: “This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.” Dang.

But fear not. The second Google result goes directly to a page on the CBC website, where a video of a performance has been embedded. A video linked from YouTube. The same video that doesn’t exist because the CBC demanded it be taken down.

Taught a Lesson by the Funbrella

Posted on November 11, 2008 by admin

This Saturday a bunch of us from the lab went to Gifu prefecture. The occasion was the finals of IVRC 2008, a contest where different students come up with crazy ideas mixing the virtual and the real. A team from my lab had advanced to the finals, facing four other teams from various universities. The emphasis in this contest seems to be on creativity over practicality, which is fine by me.

Going back a few months, when I arrived in Japan, the team members described their idea to me. The idea is called “Funbrella” or asobrella in Japanese (I think. Maybe ansobrella). It is an umbrella that can record and play back the umbrella experience. There is a magnet and coil (basically a microphone/speaker) built into the structure of the umbrella, and if you go outside when it is raining it will record the vibrations of the rain hitting the umbrella. Then later on you can replay the tactile experience of holding an umbrella in the rain. Or, you can hook two umbrellas together over a network and “feel” the other person’s umbrella experience. Pretty crazy I think, and cool.

What I thought at the time, however, in addition to the idea being crazy and cool, was that there was no way it could work. The vibrations caused by the raindrops are far too small to be picked up by the microphone. You simply won’t be able to record anything meaningful. So, I wished the team members the best of luck, and hoped that if things didn’t work they would at least be able to learn from the experience.

Well, it turns out that I was totally wrong. I went to Gifu, tried out the funbrella, and the thing is freaking amazing. It works shockingly well. You hold onto the thing, they press a button on an iPod, and you feel the rain hitting the funbrella. Or they press another button and you feel marbles. They press a different one and you feel natto hitting it (natto doesn’t feel like much). The other demo is the networked funbrellas. You can hold one funbrella, hit the other one on the top, and it feels like you are hitting your own funbrella. Spooky, and excellent.

So, I was wrong. The team members were right, and I applaud them for having the vision and perserverence to carry the project through. Unfortunately they didn’t win the grand prize. That went to another excellent project, Yotaro, a virtual baby made out of rubber that has a genuine runny nose and wriggles around.

Shunned by the Catholics

Posted on November 3, 2008 by admin

Had a bit of a strange dream the other night. The theme is a common one, namely dreaming that I am living again in a place I used to live. Most often this is my childhood home, but this time instead I decided to move back to Newman House on Queen’s campus. I had the usual confusion, trying to figure out how exactly I’m going to commute between Ontario and BC, and did I stop renting the place in Vancouver? And am I still a UBC student, or did I switch to Queen’s?

Anyway the dream itself wasn’t really that fascinating, but it got me thinking about good old Newman House. I ended up in this place during my 4th year, because I got kicked out of my awesome pad from 2nd and 3rd year, and had to find some place on short notice. A Catholic friend of mine pointed out that Newman House rented a few rooms out, and one was empty. The thing about Newman House is it’s very, very Catholic. Everybody else who lived there was Catholic, the people who would come and hang out and do bible readings were, well, Catholic as well. The priest, too. Me, not so much. So that was an interesting year of living as an outsider with a group of people who were really doing their very best to be friendly to me.

I think the best example of my outsider status involves the Christmas party, where we played a thrilling game of “Guess the Saint.” Each person had a name of a Saint pinned to their back, where they couldn’t see. Then they would ask questions to other people, who could see their Saint name. The goal was to guess your Saint in as few questions as possible. I was not good at this game. It progressed something like this:

Catholic guy: Did my Saint know Jesus?
<I look at his back, it says “Saint Appollonius the Apologist”>
Me: I don’t know.

Or, me trying to guess my Saint:

Me: Is my Saint, um, Jesus?
Catholic guy: Jesus isn’t really a Saint. He’s Jesus.
Me: Ok, umm. How about Paul? He’s a Saint, right? Am I Paul?
Catholic guy: No.
Me: I’m all out.

So I sucked at that game. Thanks, Mom and Dad, for raising me as an uneducated yokel.

The year passed fairly well, anyway. After I left Queen’s Newman House sent me newsletters for a year or so afterwards. I was browsing one of these which had the minutes of the executive board meeting. One resolution they passed shortly after I left was something along the lines of “In the future it will be a goal that residents of Newman House will have views and attitudes consistent with the rest of the Newman House community.” So yeah, I think I was singlehandedly responsible for Newman House officially adopting the policy of rejecting heathens.

Mikoshi Festival

Posted on October 17, 2008 by admin

Sunday was the Mikoshi festival. I woke up at 5:30, trudged over to the train, and went to Yamada to meet Kitamura-sensei. We headed over to the parking lot of his apartment building where we met the other residents who I would be Mikoshiing with. Up to the shrine we went, to pick up our own personal God-carrying vehicle. As I was heading up the stairs a yell erupted behind me and, turning around, I saw a huge crowd of Japanese guys running directly at me, shrieking wildly. I ran up the last few stairs and managed to dodge out of the way, allowing them to pass, seconds before presumably being murdered. Looking at the picture here you may notice something a bit odd, namely that the guys (this is them post running) aren’t wearing any pants. Nobody seemed to think this was at all odd except me, and I kept it to myself. It turns out that these guys are the “pro” level Mikoshi dudes, whereas my group was one of the amateur clubs. The main differences appears to be that we get to saunter casually over to shrine, and we get to wear pants.

So we collected our Mikoshi and pulled it back to the apartment for a bit of practice. The pulling is pretty easy, but carrying is tricky as you have to maneuver it up on your shoulders without tipping it and crushing anybody. It is especially important as there are a number of small boys mounted on top of the thing, and they are quite fragile (although a second set is brought along just in case). The practice went well, and we proceeded out into the neighbourhood, bringing Mikoshi cheer to various areas.

There were a number of stops where we would ritually carry the Mikoshi in a circle, ritually put it down, the boys would be ritually carried out, we would ritually spin it wildly in a circle, then the boys would ritually be put back in. All a very strictly defined process in that fantastic Japanese manner. It is probably worth mentioning that I think the carrying of the Mikoshi in general may be the ideal Japanese task. In the carrying process no individual can make anything happen independently. The thing is simply too heavy and the momentum too great. The group must come to a consensus and act in a coordinated manner in order for something to happen, and a poorly coordinated group will simply fail.

Now, you may notice something odd about the folks carrying the Mikoshi: they’re all dudes. It seems that carrying this thing is considered very manly, and it has never crossed anybody’s mind that a woman might want to carry it. Now, women can participate in the event, but they are relegated, along with the children and more effeminate men, to the less-cool Mikoshi-like things which trail behind the main Mikoshi.

We were finally done our rounds, and we retired to a meeting room (no girls allowed) to eat too little food and drink too much drink. People were at first a little reserved, but as always it only takes half a beer to crack the facade, and everybody is best friends, even if they don’t have a clue what the other person is saying. In the photo here you can see me right about at the point where I was trying to explain that no, actually Celine Dion is terrible, I’ve never read “Anne of Green Gables” so I really can’t comment, and Bryan Adams is acceptable in small doses (why can’t they have seen Trailer Park Boys or something Canadian and interesting?).

At this point things went downhill a little bit. Friendly samurai dude brought out some “Scotch,” which is in quotes because I have never seen a colourless, odorless (except alcohol) Scotch, let alone a single malt which is labelled simply as “Islay” without any distillery mentioned. So, it was terrible but it was a kind gift and I drank it so as not to offend him. Then Kitamura-sensei and I crashed in his apartment for a bit, and I stumbled to his bathroom and may have made a bit of a mess, I’m really not sure. At one point I remember waking up and seeing his 13 year old daughter looking at me lying on the floor. I wonder what she was thinking (stupid Canadian guy doesn’t know how to drink). It was 5 in the afternoon when I was roused to consciousness. I made it home and slept forever. The next day I made it through “East of Eden” in about 15 hours. It was good, and sad.

Oh, and to the weird guy with poofy hair: apparently you have a wife and a kid, but based on the frequency and intensity with which you were hugging me you may want to take a few moments to self-analyze and see if you may be better suited to a different lifestyle.