Willkommen zu Kalifornien

I am safely into my new home, and getting ready to start my new job. the airplane ride to LA was quick and pleasant, and All my stuff made it here safely. The computer booted up fine, no data lost.

Celebrated with a nice bit of lamb kebab down at a lebanese place quite near my new home. Talked to Micheal and Peter tonight some, and tommoro the work begins(I assume).

Also, I get to back up my data and install windows on my computer. In the meantime I'll use the Dell workstation here. I'd forgotten to bring windows xp disks, so I'll probably ask Cory to include some when my monitor is shipped here(it was too big to fit in the luggage). Cory, or Tavish if you're reading this, see if you can't get me some disks of WinXP and Visual Studio .NET 2003(I think that's the latest version. Everything else I can find on my own.) And give them to my mom. She's got my monitor still, I didn't have time to go get it prepped to ship today.

I also need to look around for a martial arts shop, I mostly self-train without tools, but I couldn't bring my bokken with me(too long) and I find it helpful when working on aikido maneuvers.

I hope that everyone has a nice Super Bowl Weekend. I look forward to the commercials. Let me know if you have a favorite.

Pickled dragon mystery - www.smh.com.au

heh. Apparently someone else had the same Idea I did. Of course, they didn't have genetic engineering then.

The more I think about the above, the more it hurts me. This guy replaces a dual g5 system with much more memory and harddrive space, and a better video card with a system that's got a lower core clock speed, is two generations older chip architecture, single processor, lower FSB, and has to make do with onboard video because it has no AGP slot.

why would you do this? Why would you spend more money to make a crappier computer? If he doesn't like Apple so much why not just run Yellow dog linux and at least take advantage of good hardware? Oh wait, this guy probably doesn't even know what that is. He cites a major reason for this 'mod' as 'I don't have any programs for apple, and I don't feel like waiting'. So now he doesn't have to wait. He can just keep using Windows XP. After all, he uses the computer mostly for internet and burning music/DVDs, and we all know that Macintoshes don't have software to do that bundled with them or anything. So yeah, he probably would have really had to look to duplicate that functionality.

It's like the god of ignorance has manifested an avatar upon the internet, Lo! he is the very son of imbecility...

How I PC'd an Apple G5

So yeah, this guy got a brand new dual g5 powermac for christmas.

but he wanted a Dell.

I'll let you think about that one for a moment.

So, wanting a Dell, he tears out the insides, hacksawing away, (his comment: "I have never seen a more finely made case") then installs a microATX board with an athlon 2200+.

then he puts in a green neon light.

I have absolutely no idea what on earth this person was thinking. He's hiding what he did from his parents, because he thinks they might be mad. Yeah.

Yeah.

goats: strip from August / 01 / 2003

You know, I must say, I harbor great affection for many females, but this has to be one of the great drawbacks. My weapons of logic and reason are useless against them. Or wait, no, I can't think of any males for whom these weapons work either. So I guess it's really just all people.

Yeah.

Continuing on more logical things, I have been reading some submissions for the Imminst Book, and was struck by the sheer variety of grammatical structure. To really do well here, I think I'm going to have to read some kind of authoritative text on accepting diverse lingual traditions. Maybe I'm some kind of crypto-language-bigot, but I just have the urge to tear apart all these pieces, and rewrite them on the author's behalf. Because contrary to what you see here, I actually can construct fairly literate prose, if need be.

It does make my head hurt, on occasion.

In other news, reading several books on various and sundry theories of mind can make even as liberal a reader as I feel conflicted. I don't know exactly what to criticize first..

some of the books:

Churchland's Engine of Reason
Picard's Affective Computing
Margolis' Patterns, Thinking, and Cognition

Also managed to jam in a reread of some key articles in the ever-excellent MITECS, which all of you should have read by now. And a quick scan of some online articles, which I'll link to gratuitously now:

Concept Clustering and knowledge integration from a children's dictionary

Real-Time Pattern Isolation and Recognition over immersive sensor data streams

Citeseer | Financial Volatility Trading using Recurrent Neural Networks

that's enough for the moment. Interesting, yes, directly relevant, perhaps not.

you know what I could use? some noradrenaline.

outlawpoet daily

I've said a lot of things in the time I've had this blog. I was reading through some of the archives. Outlawpoet Daily has run since September 18, 2002. I certainly didn't manage to make it daily, though I've burst speed in excess of that on occasion.

Early on, I posted theory and thought, and I still do that, though lately I've been more experiential and bloggish, showing my activities, thoughts and websites I visit. I think that communicating is an art you can't get better at without practice. And I would hope that this counts as a kind of writing practice. I am glad I started this blog. It counts time, shows changes, and helps me distill the many things I keep inside myself into words, a talent I still don't have in abundance.

But I look and smile. I'm a different person now. I capitalize words less, write more clearly. I have clear standards for what works and what doesn't on this format. I don't think I have many readers, and that's not the point. This isn't a cry for attention or a newsblog. It's me, Corwin, Outlawpoet, Justin. My life, my thoughts and my history. If you're interested, you can read. But if you don't, I'll keep writing.

I'm looking at my new watch, and I think I'll get some sleep. I hope that this blog lasts a long time and that I get to laugh at the idea that two years could be a long time.

CogNet

I've purchased subscriptions to this interesting resource before, and I'm considering doing it again. In addition to updated electronic versions of many MIT publications, they include lots of searchable journals, papers, and links embedded into them to internet resources. Very data rich, quite useful in certain circumstances.

If you ever feel like jumping into the deep end of the pool, regarding knowledge of self, or where your thoughts really come from, this would be the place. Buy a subscription, read the four major reference introductions, and then take some aspirin and try to decide what to read first. This place is very big, I didn't get very far in my six month membership, and I read very very fast.

MujMac - Tatra Mac G4 - fastest Mac on the four wheels?

Now this is a car. This guy needs to wake up and build a business out of this, using a general computer as an embedded system gives him enormous flexibility, far above current systems available in luxury models.

Honestly, as much as I admire OSX, I wasn't sure it would be expandable to other environments like linux is, or WinCE tries to. But this application is solid, seemingly reliable, expandable, and uses the advantages of the OSX environment(cocoa environmental signaling, system tools, quicktime, endless compatability, etc). Color me very impressed. Both with this guy, and the apparent flexiblity of the macintosh system.

In more personal news, I'll be moving to LA next weekend, and taking up my position with AdaptiveAI. I'm very excited. Wish me luck, and if you are in the LA area, say hello! I remain available at outlawpoet (at) hell.com for the forseeable future.

I'm spending this week getting ready, and saying goodbye to Utah.

The Onion | Study Reveals: Babies Are Stupid

Developmental Psychology strides forward once again.

I'm back, from my amazing tour of the city known as Los Angeles. The folk at a2i2 were very kind interesting people, whom I had lots of fun meeting and talking to. Micheal, Richard, Bela', and Peter were very accomodating and I look forward to my collaboration with them in the future. Also, the other applicants, Jeff, and Owen were fun to talk to, and I hope that I may be able to meet or work with them in the future.

In the course of the weekend, I was introduced to their methodology and some of the test environments they work with. It's very interesting and detailed work, and I had to work pretty hard to keep up and ask intelligent questions. I was very impressed with what I saw, in terms of integration, and development. I'm quite confident that they are taking very secure and well researched steps in the direction of their goal. The environment was very encouraging and as the weekend progressed I felt more confident that this was a project that I could really be enthusiastic about and work at full time.

Today, my last day there, I spent some time preparing a bit of a presentation of my strengths, how I saw their project benefiting from my work, and how I thought I could contribute initially to the development of their research, in an attempt to present myself in favorable light and convince them to let me join. The effort seemed to be a little unneccesary, Peter described himself as very enthusiastic to have me join prior to my discussion. Well, I guess having both parties so interested in each other can only bode well. I've been offered a position there, and I'll probably relocate within the next few weeks. Peter was very generous given their shoestring budget and I am proud to say that I will have some equity in the company. I'm quite excited by the prospect of doing such intelligent work for a living. I see many of the problems I will be able to work on at a2i2 as not only fundamental for progress within the artificial intelligence field, but also in terms of self-understanding. It's important to realize how little we really understand about how intelligence operates in a fundamental sense, and how it can be improved.

More to come. Within the limits of Intellectual Property and the interests of the company, I hope to be able to detail some of my experiences and ideas in starting work at a2i2.

One interesting bit is going to be relocating. This has caught me quite unplanned, and moving quickly is going to be a challenge. In addition to the friends and projects and activities I'm leaving behind, I've got to get my belonging organized in some fashion.

I have to say I am quite surprised to be moving to LA. In general, I haven't been able to predict my life with much success, but I would have said with some confidence that such a move could not have served my wider goals. LA is pretty expensive to live in, it's far from most of the people I know, and it contains few of the organizations and non-profits I contribute to and try to participate in. But the prospect of working for Peter Voss changes almost all of that, as working on AI directly is quite central to my longterm aims.

Such work promises to give insights into self and society quite handily, two more arenas I'm quite interested in. Big days ahead, friends mine.

The Misanthropic Bitch

I can't believe I just found this site. I don't know if there is anything more attractive than a logically consistent negative grrl.

Yeah, funny that intellectual stimulation increases with the confrontational style. I just wanna get this girl, and scream dirty dirty things to her about generalist strawmen, and how she tends to focus on details that don't provide specific evidence towards her conclusions. oh yeah.

On a more... normal life note, off to LA today. wish me luck. Much thanks to Carrie, who helped me get this trip organized. Maybe I'll be able to visit you while down there. We can play a fun game, I'll pretend my whole life revolves around you, and you can bash me in the face with a hammer. ;-)

Crazykimchi Archive - 12_5_2003

This guy has an excellent blog/sketch journal setup here, I should check to see what kind of hosting setup he has. This is my favorite archive page. The New Years Resolutions are particularly good. I have no idea how he finds so many things to link to. Bookmark this guy for boring days, or internet spidering.

Harley Giveaway for Java Job

uh, whoa. This guy is motivated. If you know of a Java Position in the area, or have some insider dig, forward him the info and get a Harley!

sweet.

I think everyone should be so motivated to do what they want to do. I'm very excited about this chance to work for Peter Voss down in LA. If I had a Harley, I'd give it to him. (Course, what would I be doing with a Harley?)

I'll be in LA from tommorro until tuesday. I'll be probably reachable within 12 hours or so by email. Busy times my friends.

Oh, also, the deadline for submissions to the Imminst Book Project is today! run over to the site right now. I decided not to submit my article, as I am an editor for the book. I'll publish the article in another forum, or perhaps a later edition. Wish me luck down in LA. I'll give more information as it comes in.

AskTog: It's Time We Got Respect

Apple Employee #66, and the original Human Interface Director, Bruce Tognazzini, AKA askTog on his profession, why such people don't respect, and what they can do about it. Interesting reading. Very strategic and intelligent.

There are a plethora of other columns on his site, on such varied topics as prototypes to production runs, and what he thinks of the direction Apple is going now. (predictably, he's a System 9 fan, who has had a hard time accepting OSX.)

As a commentator, Tog is too focused to be really general, but he has a kind of useful concentration on usability, information density, and human/machine interface. He's an Interaction Architect, and not much else. But he does it well, so bookmark him for when you're thinking of GUI design, or your poor customers.

discreet

The free trial of 3dsmax 6 is here. Stream your copy today?

I'm uncertain what stream means in this context. But the modelers among us may be interested in the trial anyway. someone email me at outlawpoet at hell.com if you know how the first option works.

mmm, 3d models. now if only it had CAD/CAM tools, a physical simulator, and a hookup to a six-axis CNC and fabber, we'd be in business.

goats: strip from January / 12 / 2004

It's important to keep your priorities straight.


I was up in the mountains tonight, not thinking. As some of you may or may not know, I'm going down to LA to interview for a position with Peter Voss' AI research team. I've really been working myself up into a sweat, worrying if I'll get the position, whether I should be getting the position, If I should be pursuing such opportunities, the risks of suspending everything I'm doing now, relocating, and trying to make it in a new city, etc etc.

Given some time to sit and be, on the way down the mountains, I allowed myself to think about it again, and I was struck by how reactive and volatile my reaction to these issues has been. I am, and I will continue. The world is, my friends are, and time marches on. I am excited about the opportunity to join Peter's team, and I think I would do well there. And the problems that may incur are simply new problems, not particularly different in scope from the problems I have now. Going down and not being accepted is similarly benign, to wit, nothing changes, I miss a little school, meet some interesting people. In retrospect, I'm surprised I got so worked up about it. It's interesting that when you feel stable, any change can seem big. We become so attached to our views of the future, that new information is immediately adversarial. Another bug, or maybe a feature. I suppose had I lacked his reaction, I would not have examined this situation so minutely.

We'll see what happens.

Relocating to LA will be interesting, if it happens. I know almost no one there, save my biological father's family, most of whom live in the area. My sister Andrea goes to a college near LA, and Carrie goes to USC. That's the extent of my social network. On the other hand, I'll be working full time with a pre-existing team of programmers and AI theorists. Most of whom seem like intelligent cool people. And most of my friends here were formed through carrie, school, and work. And of course, there is the internet. blessed blessed internet. Interesting that it's LA, I always figured I'd move back to cincinnati, or to Atlanta. Ah well. Course.. It would have been nice had all this happened about 9 months ago, but, I'm not complaining.

Adaptive Artificial Intelligence Inc. - Home

I spoke to Peter Voss about his project, and his recent call for more members. In fact, I might even have a shot at joining. Wouldn't that be neat?

The project is in LA, expensive, smoggy, and funky. On the other hand, the prospect of doing some of what I do on my own full time, and as part of a team is too delicious a prospect to pass up. Regardless of what happens, it's very interesting to see what they're up to, and maybe getting down there to meet everyone is a great opportunity. Maybe i'll see about seeing a few other people I know in LA too.

I think you know who you are. I know people all over this great land, for such an antisocial person, you'd think I had friends or something.

Yeah, interesting. It would of course, invalidate my enroling in some courses this semester. I'll have to look into withdrawing gracefully, on the off chance everything works out well. Verry exciting, even if ultimately uneventful.

bonus, all the time I spent working through the Novamente documentation may have paid off, even though I never ended up working with Ben. apparently Peter Voss read the same manuscript, it gave us something to kind of break the ice, some common ground. Very intelligent fellow. Looking forward to meeting him in person.(would like to meet Ben in person too, but trip to DC seems less likely).

Anders Sandberg has a blog!

This is Mr. Transhumanist. His websites are golden, his posts are entertaining, and he's sometimes rarely seen on the internet for months. Lets hope he keeps up the blog.

sideshowjamie: So the interview with LEGO was Saturday.

I have to say I have a great deal of respect for the truly creative and masterful LEGO builders out there. It's a constrained medium, and finding a shape with the pieces you have is sometimes even harder than sculpting.

LEGO also is one of the few unconstrained gifts you can give a child, where the playing field is truly only limited by their patience, imagination, and number of pieces. Whoever becomes LEGO's new MasterBuilder becomes an educator, his decisions affecting the chlidhoods of many. Lets hope the new Master Builder realizes this, and acts accordingly. And lets hope more kids get legos than get GI joes this year!

ImmInst.org -> Loneliness

um, yeah. I'm not going to comment on this much.