Tag: Wired / Tired / Expired

Where have all the good blogs gone ..?

Except for this one you’re reading, that will stay on for some time to come …
But where would I find some taxonomy of publication ..?

We have the good old ‘new content lines in index.html’, outright blogs (WordPress, Typepad, Blogger, … endless list), SocMed blogspace (LinkedIn Pulse, Tumblr, Facebook, others, having room for, typically, one-pager texts), podcasts, vlogging, Youtube channels, webinars (interactive/recorded), Messaging expanding (and with some original RSS feed and portal page stuff still being around), curated blog sites, paid blog sites crossing over into the classical news(paper) sites, pay-per-post-read sites (cooperative or not), paid-for-popularity sites, ebooks, classical newspapers and more thoughtful (?) periodicals, etc.
Etc.

But how do we classify them? How to determine what (length, content, tone) to publish where [by these characteristics …], and how to do that – as some may be perfect for your brainwave but you just can’t get them to see the genius of your writing. What to do when times are a’changing, and platforms switch through functionality augmentation ..? Do a full decade of backward posting on a new platform all in one go, or leave all content there, to disappear in the mist of time?

Yes I’d really like to hear your answers ..!

Well, you have read this. So you deserve:
20150215_144710
[Amsterdam; more than canal houses only. Oft overlooked …]

Disarming the citizens of the US

Ah, yes, prohibiting any discussion of or even link to possibly cracking-enabling information. Already worded in a veiled way, as in:

this would mean taking away the arms that a great many US citizens are equipped with (and prohibiting gun range training), once, against the English (Brits?) now against just any outsider and US citizens themselves? Quite a Second Amendment thing, these days…

As a European, I don’t want to meddle in US domestic affairs. But I tend to the interpretation of constitutions and amendments anywhere, all of them, as principles not absolutes. Absolutes never (sic) work in societal organisation. When quite a number of those concerned [again, I’m not] would gladly see all amendments interpreted to principle not literally except this very dangerous one.

‘nough of that. Now, onto the more recent EU moves towards banning hacker tools … (and the UK push for banning encryption tools, even). I just have questions:

  • What about free speech? Seems to be an issue for discussion as democracies need more absolute protection of that. Amazon wouldn’t be allowed to sell hacker books in selected countries. Banning books, anyone?
  • How many % of crackers would live in the applicable jurisdictions, to be under the prohibition provisions, and how many are outside those jurisdictions ..? What would happen if one would exclude the former from being armed and ready but giving the latter a, most probably, more vulnerable target?
  • The honest researchers in those countries would be jobless; never a good incentive to stay in the right side. The honest researchers elsewhere would have a bonanza as all bugfix trade must move to the outside. Either that XOR through a form of licensing one creates a humungous random hence erratic but totalitarian public/private cartel. In the Home of the Free, in the pursuit of happiness.
  • If through this, the balance is lost, will the US and/or EU start to isolate itself (its ‘Internet’ (quod non as per this)) from the rest of the world ..? If so, how any trillions of $/€ will be lost to others, whereas any related industry (that will be the future as the mature-industry-little-growth primary, secondary and tertiary industries will be what’s left for the EU/US but serious growth will be in the new industries?) will not come off the ground, hindering greatly any recovery from the intermediate term (slump) before booming, à la this.
  • Will stego boom? The Hiding in Plain Sight can bring an additional benefit of plausible deniability (with some tweaking).

Seems like the above POTUS quote might indicate that he’s not planning any censoring of the spread of direct or indirect vulnerability information but on the contrary would be stepping up efforts to bring the US back on top of the game. E.g., by not focusing solely on physical terrorists but also on outside-in and from-within (sic) cyber attacks. Or was the quote an apology for the NSA being in NK even before the (known to them!) Sony hack ..?

The picture is still murky. Too murky to take sides already, for my take. I’ll leave you with:

20140905_201502
[Bergen aan Zee, Autumn dominos]

To watch(ed)

Hmmm… We should all watch out for this here documentary (Yes. Really.), and then have a look back at the great many leads up to today that went before it, like here, here, since some five years ago by yours truly, and many other(s). But now, with this team on it, will it break through ..?

I have something to celebrate today; will leave you for now with:
??????????
[Heraclites: All is in transit or in DC]

Wired / Tired / Expired, December 2014 edition

DSCN0997
[What a Domènech i Muntaner masterpiece! Slept there, (private!) dined there. Both highly recommendable… Check out Mas Passamaner]

Yes here’s the December edition of my Wired / Tired / Expired jargon watch overviews, a mixed bag again. And, it will be the last in this form. Will switch to quarterly updates on what’s hot, and not. But then, still, for now:

WIRED TIRED EXPIRED
IoT security IoT Big Data
Even Stuxnet reappears. And there’s so much more… [To add: links to earlier posts, or use the search function it’s there not for nothing.] Yeah, we get the basics. Meh, we get the point (being: the center of a donut).
AI Self-driving cars Data analytics
It’s here and everywhere, suddenly. U-turned out to be not so self-aware as perceived earlier… More like semi-preprogrammed. Bandwagon stuff already, moving through the Trough of Disillusionment
Lightweight organisations Agile/robust organisations Certification
The kind of start-up that hires just about every service except for in-house employees (well, but a few, to coordinate – and do the pivoting and discovery inside the coordinating). Sourcing from just anywhere; they don’t care to even know where the sweatshop (mind-)labour is. Trying to turn around ULCCs by enforcing agility and robustness … top-down, hierarchically, using KPIs and other must-achieve performance numbers. Instead of … you know. Oh hey, we’ve got this sheet of paper up in the hall, now we’re safe and secure against all that the chaos of the universe may throw at us!
Sinterklaas Zwarte Piet Santa
The gift giver. Hence our #1. I’m sucking up by not a small bit here. Need to. The good (sic) guy(s) doing all the execution for the CEO. The CEO may not be around in tomorrow’s organization… As in this. The obese commercial patsy. Pure construct, no history, no veracity, no value.
Normally healthy Boring life healthy Tattoos
Taking a serious but Get Real approach to losing weight, detoxing, being fit, all in one great little step by little step, shave-off rather than lump-off program of not changing too much but at all sides at the same time. Crazily slimming down, etc., not sustainable and then bouncing back; in the long term, unhealthy and very unhappy bunny. Huh, now try to get rid of your big Error of judgement. No takedown like your Fubbuk pics, right?
Fighting the New Mediocre New Mediocre Conservatism
When Mme. Lagarde speaks out, it is worthwhile to take note… as here. Well yeah, Mehhh is always out of style. By which I mean, the not wanting to allow anyone to do their thing and be happy. Because it may make oneself look stupid and old, which is self-reinforcing in this way. Change will happen whether one fears and not wants it or still.

OK, any suggestions for next quarter’s (!) edition ..?

Repeat: The Top 2000 or 2214 of 2014

[After apparently, some at @Top2000nl / @NPORadio2 decided that #Top2000 entries and votes were valid until yesterday this repost was in order – but the below had been out there, of course, as the definitive results already a month ago…]

OK … There it is: The definitive this year’s Top 2000.
Without argument or doubt, herewith…
First, downloadable in plain Excel, for your own tinker and play, in this file; checked and clean (no subversive content).

Next, a few little notes:

  • “That’s odd! The usual numbers 1 to 50 aren’t where they’re ‘supposed’ to be by common standards!” Correct. Because I‘m ‘Rekt. The list is mine; why put the Mehhh songs high up there? They’re in there somewhere, but its my list, my preferences..! yes I do like some almost-forgotten songs better, sometimes much, much better, than the expired old hands.
  • Especially.. see the notes, when the clip (much) enhances the song(s). Wouldn’t that mean the song in itself isn’t fully complete ..? No, it means in (since) the age of video, songs with clips (‘integrated’) can much surpass mere songs by themselves, for a cubed sensory experience.
  • There’s more than 2000 yes. Because, already after the first 500 or so, determining the relative rankings becomes awkward. Hence, the cut-off would be random …! (why not 2048, that would make more sense in this digital (i.e., binary) age).
  • If you would still have some (preferably wacky) songs you miss, please do comment them to me. I’ll see whether I’d want to include them still, or not. Hey, it’s my list so I decide, geddid?
  • When dabbling with the Excel file yourself, feel free to play around with the ranking mechanism. What worked for me, was to first split the songs into bins of about 250 size (designate some song to be in the first bin that will end up being ranks 1-250, another song to bin 5, which is around the 1000-1250 mark, etc.), then sizing down bin 1 etc. to 8 smaller bins. Then, numbers 1-50 get a personal treatment one by one to their end rank, the rest gets (got) a random allocation within their bracket. After this, sort and re-apply number 1-whatever. Through this, actual intermediate bin sizes aren’t too important.
  • Huh waddayakno, before the below is published, I have a Challenge for you: To give Frizzle Sizzle, Luv and Erik Mesie some rightful places. If you’re Dutch otherwise you might just not get it. Others, may include the B52’s somewhere; Love Shack. And DÖF’s Codo. ☺ and oops forgot Thomas Dolby.
  • [Edited to add: I’m now working on an extended list, with the How Could I Have Missed These!? so the total keeps rising. For next year’s list.]

Then, as a long, very long list. With a Moar tag otherwise it would be ridiculous… [i.e., for the complete list in the post, follow the link:]

Continue reading “Repeat: The Top 2000 or 2214 of 2014”

Wired / Tired / Expired, November 2014 edition

DSCN1324
[Weirdo’s – closing at 17:00h … doesn’t time melt for this artist, in this country (sic) …?]

Yes here’s the November edition of my Wired / Tired / Expired jargon watch overviews, a mixed bag again:

WIRED TIRED EXPIRED
Yik Yak, Ello, Tsu The other anons (?) Whatsapp et al
As in this, where as only the very old folks remember fubbuk started. And the other ones, here. Already not making it past the tipping point? I mean, where are Whisper / Kik / Telegram / WeChat / Line / Viber / Wicker / Threema / surespot ? And this, as elsewhere on this blog. Mehhh, as in the elsewhere mentioned on the left.
Poodle Beast Heartbleed
Because it’s “not much of an issue” as it affects end point consumers only … OUTRAGE! They are your customers, they are the huge numbers, they are the incapable to cure (also since a fraction of B2C’s doesn’t effing care). If only server-owning companies were the vulnerable, with their very few numbers, their resolution capacity, and their economic interests. Yeah, yeah, working on it. Really? Still?
Taking action Taking symbolic action Taking no action / denying any problems (tie)
E.g., by forking out another $250M, not just peanuts. Because pay the peanuts, get the monkeys. … Or is the previous still only window dressing ..? Maybe some, silent, action might’ve cost much less. Anyway, symbolic action will prove to be the infosec czar’s new clothes. Legally invalid. Demonstrating incapacity to function normally in today’s business world.
Docker Google Docs ‘Private cloud’
Just as in this, and this and this – since the latter two. Into the main stream. Dumb outsourced data center, virtual or not. With all the privacy ramifications, without scalability (!) or efficiencies.
IoT detailing ever further IoT! Mixed up with Wearables et al. Cloud, ROSI etc.etc.
This kind of details … And these. Pls learn to discriminate or you mess up the discussions. Which will be, at all levels of abstraction and everywhere, as under W. Totalitarian Bureaucrat talk.
Not caring
(to be seen)		 Faux 1% philantropy Posing
Hanging out at http://www.beriestain.com/ for example, just among like-minded self-sufficients (for peace of mind, not needing external recognition). Clearly, this. Uggg-gh!

OK, any suggestions for next month’s edition ..?

Top 2000 or 2214 of 2014

OK … There it is: The definitive this year’s Top 2000.
Without argument or doubt, herewith…
First, downloadable in plain Excel, for your own tinker and play, in this file; checked and clean (no subversive content).
Next, a few little notes:

  • “That’s odd! The usual numbers 1 to 50 aren’t where they’re ‘supposed’ to be by common standards!” Correct. Because I‘m ‘Rekt. The list is mine; why put the Mehhh songs high up there? They’re in there somewhere, but its my list, my preferences..! yes I do like some almost-forgotten songs better, sometimes much, much better, than the expired old hands.
  • Especially.. see the notes, when the clip (much) enhances the song(s). Wouldn’t that mean the song in itself isn’t fully complete ..? No, it means in (since) the age of video, songs with clips (‘integrated’) can much surpass mere songs by themselves, for a cubed sensory experience.
  • There’s more than 2000 yes. Because, already after the first 500 or so, determining the relative rankings becomes awkward. Hence, the cut-off would be random …! (why not 2048, that would make more sense in this digital (i.e., binary) age).
  • If you would still have some (preferably wacky) songs you miss, please do comment them to me. I’ll see whether I’d want to include them still, or not. Hey, it’s my list so I decide, geddid?
  • When dabbling with the Excel file yourself, feel free to play around with the ranking mechanism. What worked for me, was to first split the songs into bins of about 250 size (designate some song to be in the first bin that will end up being ranks 1-250, another song to bin 5, which is around the 1000-1250 mark, etc.), then sizing down bin 1 etc. to 8 smaller bins. Then, numbers 1-50 get a personal treatment one by one to their end rank, the rest gets (got) a random allocation within their bracket. After this, sort and re-apply number 1-whatever. Through this, actual intermediate bin sizes aren’t too important.
  • Huh waddayakno, before the below is published, I have a Challenge for you: To give Frizzle Sizzle, Luv and Erik Mesie some rightful places. If you’re Dutch otherwise you might just not get it. Others, may include the B52’s somewhere; Love Shack. And DÖF’s Codo. ☺ and oops forgot Thomas Dolby.
  • [Edited to add: I’m now working on an extended list, with the How Could I Have Missed These!? so the total keeps rising. For next year’s list.]

Then, as a long, very long list. With a Moar tag otherwise it would be ridiculous… [i.e., for the complete list in the post, follow the link:]

Continue reading “Top 2000 or 2214 of 2014”

Rank Title Artist Notes
1 Hustle Vann McCoy Yes, the original
2 Easy Livin’ Uriah Heep To power it up
3 Heart Of Gold Neil Young Hits the heart
4 Hide and Seek Howard Jones Same, if you listen well
5 Peter Gunn Emerson Lake & Palmer Just for the intro alone
6 She Elvis Costello Personal nostaliga
7 White Room Cream Nicely powerful, doesn’t wear out too easily
8 74-’75 (+Video) Connells The video sublimates the message
9 Windowlicker (+Video) Aphex Twins Incomplete, as a work of art, without the video
10 Nice ‘n Slow Jesse Green Calm down again
11 One Of These Days Pink Floyd Hidden pearl
12 Smoke On The Water Deep Purple Of course
13 The Man With One Red Shoe (+Video) Laurent Garnier Incomplete, as a work of art, without the video
14 You’re So Vain Carly Simon I think this song is about me!
15 Dancing Barefoot Patti Smith Hidden treasure
16 Right Here Right Now Fatboy Slim Oft forgotten, defined an era
17 The Great Gig In The Sky Pink Floyd Appealing complexity
18 All I Need Air Mindfulness in musical form
19 Dream On Aerosmith Heartburn
20 You Got To Fight For Your Right to Party Beastie Boys Appealing. Simply that.
21 California Dreamin’ Mamas & The Papas

Balloons, for joy and instruction

Anyone having an inkling of what the Second-Biggest G is about, knows about their conferences, about their ‘magic’ quadrants (despite the debunking of late; apparently one could pay oneself to the top right…), and about their infamous Hype cycle.

DSCN6170[What one needed to fight Siegfried King of the Netherlands of Xanten]
Bam, there’s your daily pic again, not unexpectedly I hope.

Well then. About hype cycles. You know them. And maybe have a laugh. Or not, and study them for the buzzwords you didn’t know yet.
But would you believe them; would you trust the predictions inherent in them? Probably not. And would you check on the predictions of years past ..? Probably not, also.

Turns out… Yours Truly was busy doing that, collecting data all the way back to 2008, and figuring out a way to graph the data. Which didn’t work too smoothly so I wanted to revert to first analyzing the data I had.
Turns out… Someone else already did the collection part, and the analysis part, too. As in this post; recommended reading.

After which I dropped it; no need to analyse. But to synthesize, there’s still a bit on the table:

  • Why do so and how many ;-| still ‘believe’ the hype cycles, look into them, and cheer when their favourite hypes are listed, somewhat ‘faithfully’..? Probably because the visualization is so strong, capturing so much essence in one pic. And because apparently people need such guidance ..?
  • How come so many of the hypes mentioned, fall flat ..? Or is it a matter of a lot of buck shot in the air, hoping a duck may fly through it ..? Which may also not be a bad thing if this would be clearer, as a caveat. Oh; I already found part of the answer in this Tim Harford post. This one on maps, too.
  • Why can’t people pick up the hypes much faster, as there’s obvious business profit in many of them ..? In particular, when so many fall off the radar, one would expect vigilant companies to profit from such new developments falling off their competitors’ radars. Just find a way to make it all work, for which you could even take a couple of years in skunk works, and then reap the benefits. Oh … – of a first mover; which may be too little too short to recoup the ploughing-through-development investments. As first movers are so often outdone by second-and-(much-)improved movers.

And yet, stil I feel there’s much more left on the table than one would need or certainly want to leave there. Once progress is identified, it better be brought on as quickly as possible.
At the scale as things are on the hcycle. Because the ethical ramifications play at a bigger scale. Wouldn’t 2nd-biggest G be interested to make a cycle of those issues ..? Think self-driving cars, ubiquitous/ambient data collection & storage & analysis, Bitcoin-et-al’s subversion of geography-based governments. You name it. A lot to cover &nndash; maybe requiring much more research into what’s at play and how the discussions progress, but still, very much worthwhile I guess. Beyond the tech hype’lets that fall off the bandwagon so easily. Towards prediction proper of where society’/ie’s heading…

Maverisk / Étoiles du Nord