yoink

[gfish]

I'm not usually much for memes, but this looks like fun.

1. Pick something on my interests list that you also like. Why do you like it?
2. Pick something on my interests list that you don't like. Why don't you like it?
3. Pick something that is on my interests list that surprises you. Why does this surprise you?
4. Pick something that is on my interests list that you know next to nothing about. What do you *think* it is?
5. Pick something that you think should be on my interests list. Why do you think it should be there?

Comments

[mrlogic.livejournal.com]

I like multilingual puns (http://www.livejournal.com/interests.bml?int=multilingual+puns) because they hook up parts of the brain that ordinarily don't hang at the same parties.

I don't like the axes of evil (http://www.livejournal.com/interests.bml?int=axes+of+evil) because they're always chopping things up at inopportune times.

confuscianism (http://www.livejournal.com/interests.bml?int=confuscianism) [sic] surprises me because it is misspelled. Why don't you list confucianism (http://www.livejournal.com/interests.bml?int=confucianism)?

I know next to nothing about unilateral pre-emptive metrification (http://www.livejournal.com/interests.bml?int=unilateral+pre-emptive+metrification). I'm not even sure what to guess, unless it has something to do with the establishment of the metric system.

I think you should have Mandelbrot set (http://www.livejournal.com/interests.bml?int=mandelbrot+set) on your list, because it seems like the sort of thing that would appeal to you.

[gfish.livejournal.com]

An excellent point and not a little embarrassing. Confucianism. Fixed.

[grinninfoole.livejournal.com]

1) Opposable thumbs. So much of what I value in the human experience is possible only because of them. Even small things, like reading a book, are much harder without thumbs.

2) Filk. Because I have never heard any filk that I found musically interesting, and that did not give me the uncomfortable impression that the creator was hiding from their own life by writing songs about Data, or Pern, or whatever. (NB, I have a long history of hiding from my own life in fiction, so part of this is just my own emotional reflection in the funhouse mirror.)

3) Herman Hesse. I wouldn't normally put him in the same list with Vernor Vinge and Larry Niven. Of course, I have not read widely in the work of any of those writers, so that may be simple ignorance.

4) Only ONE thing? Pity, there are a number of things that I'm pretty sure I don't understand, but to pick one: Grep. According to Dictionary.com, it's a Unix command for searching for patterns. If so, what does that mean, exactly, and what does it mean to you?

5) You should be interested in ancient technology. Check out Peter James's and Nick Thorpe's fun book: Ancient Inventions if you haven't already. Also, check out this website: http://www.smith.edu/hsc/museum/ancient_inventions/ Marjorie Senechal does a class at Smith every other year on this stuff, and these are recreations built by students as class projects. It's a really cool class, and I enjoyed it a lot.

[gfish.livejournal.com]

4. Yes, grep is a unix tool for finding instances of patterns in files. It is both simple and amazingly powerful, a combination I find very sexy. By itself, I think it makes an excellent case for the continuing utility of command line interfaces. It summarizes everything I like about the unix paradigm. Plus it's just a fun little word.

5. Ooooo, that looks like a wonderful class. I wish I could take it. I don't think I have a broad enough range to legitimately claim 'ancient technologies' as a whole, but I'll think hard about adding it if I get into a couple more. And I've already been thinking it would be interesting to try making a bow... and with the smithing I could do a crossbow. Hrm. Maybe I should just add it now. :)

[grinninfoole.livejournal.com]

What is a command line interface? You mean like those old DOS interfaces? And what, exactly, is the UNIX paradigm?

[gfish.livejournal.com]

Like those, but not sucky. :)

(The following contains simplifications. And I certainly don't claim unix is perfect, etc. The pedants out there can hold their tongues.)

Everything in unix is a file (or a stream of text). This makes combining tools and scripting actions amazingly simple. It has a graphical interface (several, in fact!) but the command line is still the real interface. It is also designed to be multi-user, and has a sane separation of applications and OS functions, making it more secure and stable.

[grinninfoole.livejournal.com]

So, once one learns the language, programming becomes a matter of grammar and editing? I can dig that.

[brithistorian.livejournal.com]

1. Collapse of civilization. Not that I think this is necessarily a good thing, but that I think it's an important thing to think about. Have you read Jacques Barzun's From Dawn to Decadence?

2. Emacs. The time I spent using Emacs is #3 on my list of the top 3 things I disliked about being a comp sci major (#1 was using VI, #2 was coding in Ada). In fact, in order to avoid having to use Emacs, I would carry a floppy with PC-Write around with me at all times so I could use that to edit my code.

3. I can't say that either one suprises me individually, but I find it kind of surprising to find anarcho-capitalism and United Nations on the same list.

4. Cryogeology. The study of cold rocks?

5. Calendar reform. With your pre-existing interests in metrification and 24-hour time, I would think you would also be thinking about time reform and rationalization on a larger scale.

[gfish.livejournal.com]

4. The study of permafrost and related ice-influence geology. I picked up a textbook on it in Alaska and found it quite interesting.

5. I'm interested in it, but I don't see much hope as long as we're a planet based civilization. The day/year cycle is just too strong to ignore.

[brithistorian.livejournal.com]

5. Sure, we're stuck with the 365 1/4 day year, but that doesn't mean we're stuck with the 7 day week or the current irrational system of months. Of course, I think we have about as much chance of concvincing the average person that any reform in this area is necessary as we'd have of convincing the average American to go metric.

[grinninfoole.livejournal.com]

I don't know if I'm an average person, but go ahead: why do we need a different week length or different months? I know something of the history behind them, but what problem do they create that we need to go to inconvenience of changing them?

[brithistorian.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't go so far as to say we need to change the system, but I think we need to at least consider changing the system because the present system is ugly and inconvenient.

1. If the number of days in a week wasn't a prime number, we could have even subdivisions of weeks.


2. If weeks and years came out even (possibly with the addition of intercalendary days that don't belong to any week), the same date would occur on the same day of the week every year.


3. Having months of differing lengths is inconvenient for financial transactions (case in point: I hate the second half of February because I get paid based on production, and in the second half of February I only have 13 days to do the same amount of work that I would normally do in 15 days.)

Personally, I would like to see a system of 12 months, each made of up three 10-day weeks plus five intercalendary days that don't belong to any week or month (spring, summer, fall, winter, and New Year's Day). Leap Day would be an intercalendary day added at the end of the fourth year.