pyrosarco

I was sitting around this morning, listening to the Gym Class Heroes when I got to thinking that blogging about something on a low traffic site like mine, is in many ways, very similar to playing the stock market with out investing too much time in learning about it.  In both cases the person hopes for a good out come.  The blogger hopes the new post will attract attention to his or her site, and the person playing the stock market hopes that whatever new stock they have just gambled on will turn out to be a winner.

However, greater than 90 percent of the time, the post and the stock, does not preform as anticipated.  Why?  Well here are some problems.

The first is that the average blogger/investor is not intelligent enough.  They do not invest enough time in researching the post/stock, they do not check out who has written it before or where the company has been financially.  In most cases, the post/stock has already been over used.  The topic of the post was found, written about, and then “dugg” in a more primitive stage than you have learned about it.  If the topic was a web application, somebody was writing about it in its alpha stage.  If it was music, someone had stolen it and released the bootlegs for everyone three weeks before it came out.  It is the same way with the new stock you want to invest in.  Think about what has really attracted you to the stock?  Has it been all over the news?  Has it been shooting up recently because the company is making huge improvements or has recently merged?  If this is the case, then you’re most likely throwing you’re money away.  Sure you might be able to make some money if you stay in for a brief period of time, and get out right at the peak.  But those who made a killing have been in it from the beginning.

That brings me to the second issue of blogging and playing the stock market.  It IS all who you know.  Big bloggers typically work for big companies or have years upon years of experience in the field they are writing about.  Or if not one of these two, the blogger probably jumped on the bandwagon really early and has a large fan base due to comedic or learned informative value.  But back to the idea of big companies and years of experience.  Because they have either or both of these, the blogger knows people who can provide them with information.  The blogger is networked.  Friends keep him informed about the latest applications, games, gadgets, or whatever, that are coming out, then he or she writes about them.  Or the company that the blogger works for commands enough clout to get the blogger interviews with movers and shakers of the blogger’s writing topic.

The same goes for the ivestor.  The people making the money, reaping the benefits, are those who are in the know.  They are the people who invest for a living or know those who do.  They know about companies before the public does.  They have the opportunity to buy into the company and may choose to do so based on how the company is set up (the system in place) and who is running the company.  The investor educates him/herself about those two ideas, and makes a decision.  They know that once the company is in the limelight, that most of the money to be made is gone.  It is peaking, their money should have been in earlier, and those who buy now will most likely lose money.

In conclusion, blogging and investing are all about your education and who you know.  The more information that can be gathered and turned around the better, and the more contacts you have, also the better.

Two new Twitter applications that need to be implemented immediately.

The first should allow you to search your time line by putting in your user name and then a search term or phrase.  It needs to be online based and return you results. I believe I saw a wget form of this written in Ruby that didn’t have a user interface.

The second could be eliminated if the first one is made properly.  A program that archives your tweet time line and allows you to download it.  I believe I saw a version of this in raw python today, but I don’t know how to make it work.

Both ideas could easily be expanded upon by the producers of Twitter or by a third party.  Have a go.

My mother came home the other day going on and on about how she was going to make everyone listen to this lecture given by some guy dying of pancreatic cancer.  Naturally, I am like why should I care?  What does it matter to me?

Well she made me watch it just the same.  I had to rig the computer up to the TV so we could watch 76 minutes of YouTube video comfortably.  And, I must admit, it was interesting and he did have some good points, so now I am going to tell you about it, and suggest that you watch it.

Randy Pausch is dying of pancreatic cancer.  He doesn’t have long to live, were talking days or weeks.  He is a professor in the computer science department at Carnegie Mellon.  He works with virtual reality and has changed the way the world looks at VR today, through research and student work.  Randy is upbeat and practical about his condition.  He knows his fate and is not trying to deny it.  He was asked to speak in the Last Lecture series; a series about what professors would say during their last lecture.  This, is a little more true for Randy.

I watched his lecture on Achieving Childhood Dreams.  At the beginning he lists his childhood dreams and the lecture is on how he achieved them.  One of the dreams he speaks about was playing in the NFL.  Albeit he didn’t make it–he is really skinny and does computer science–he said as a kid he used to play football.  The defining point was when he was talking about his coach.  One day, he said, the coach was just pushing him harder and harder, not giving him a break.  After practice was over, the assistant coach–or someone–came up to him and said, “Man the coach was really riding you today.”  Randy agreed, and got a response along the lines of, “When people really ride you about something, it shows that they care.  You really have to be concerned when you know your doing something poorly, and nobody is telling you about it.”

It was things like that, that I took away from Randy’s lecture; along with the need to have goals and chase them.  I also drew a comparison with the Chase credit card commercial and their tagline “Chase what matters.”  You have to do what you like in life.  So the question for you is, Do you care enough to watch this video and open your mind to some new ideas?  A new thought process?  Don’t do it because he’s dying, don’t do it because I told you to.  Do it because you’re interested and want to learn.

Here are links to the:

YouTube Video - Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

Randy Pausch’s Website

I am sitting out back on the patio, writing this.  I am listening to music by Hellogoodbye, wishing that it would be scrobbled to my last.fm account, but it wont be, because it is streaming.  Nevertheless, I am feeling quite hip, cool, moderner, and a bunch of other trendy adjectives that one could associate with a yuppie socialite person who is engaged in the latest technology.

My problem is with the false sense of enjoyment that I am having.  I mean, here I am outside.  It is a beautiful day, err, evening, and my dogs are roaming around the yard.  However, I am still looking at my weather widget to tell me what the temperature is, what weather to expect.  I am sitting outside!  I should be observant and notice that I am comfortable with my t-shirt and shorts.  I should be happy that it isn’t raining and that I could see the moon up until the cloud covered it moments ago.

Perhaps technology is mixing with our lives too much.  I mean, we integrate our selves with is and rely on it to the point where we wouldn’t know what to do with out it.  How many people turn on the TV in the morning to get the weather?  I mean just look outside already!  If it’s cold wear a jacket.  If its 80 degrees (F) don’t.   Alright, I understand that you want to know if it will rain later and that convience is provided to you by the girl on TV.  But take a step back into reality and use your senses once and awhile.

Maybe I am taking this too far.  I do like that I can sit out here and enjoy the evening with my laptop.  I even enjoy that yuppie feeling I get by doing it. I’m just saying, maybe your don’t have to from time to time.  Turn the technology off.  With that being said, I’m going to go take a Claratin because my eyes are getting itchy, then bundle up inside where the pollen can’t get me and I can be just as hypocrtical as I want.

On Twitter’s blog yesterday they have listed Twistori, calling it a “social experiment based on Twitter.”  I would like to think of it more as Twitter’s focused stream of conscious.  For those of you that don’t know what a stream of conscious is or don’t use your Twitter as one already (like me), it is the idea of writing whatever comes to your mind at that moment.  For example: hot dogs are pretty tasty, but I had pork for dinner.  Why is that girl talking to me on AIM?  I really wish that she was hotter, then I would go out with her.  Jellyfish are nice… et cetera, et cetera.

As you can see, it can go in any direction.  Twistori has focused this stream of concious in to several categories.  I noticed that this was also done at WeFeelFine; probably because the creator over laps.  However, WeFeelFine, explores more than just the six or so emotions that Twistori does; making it a much deeper, more satisfying stream of conscious.

So if you have a few minutes or are just nosey about what other people are feeling, then check both the sites out.  Here is a brief preview of Twistori - I stole the image off the Twitter blog.

I was stumbling through some music tonight and it reminded me that I wanted this one song by GG Allin.  I heard the song originally in a skate video that I downloaded for free.  Try as I might, I couldn’t the version of the song I wanted anywhere.  So I began thinking, how would I go about getting this song out of the video.  My first thought was that someone would have a tutorial online or something.  So I searched Google quickly, only to find multiple programs that will convert .mov to .mp3.  I really wasn’t in the mood to download a spyware infested program, so I began poking around in Quicktime.

Now for this to work, I believe you need Quicktime Pro, so go get that.  Alright, do you have it now?  Good.  So open up your .mov video and go into the menu ‘Window.’  From here click ‘Show Movie Properties’ or for those of you who love short cuts, just type CTRL + J.

Alright, so now you have the window with all the audio and video listings open.  This is where it can be a pain in the ass.  If the video is big, and they didn’t lable each individual song, or the tracks are huge, you could have problems finding what you want.  But if your looking at skate videos like me, at four minutes a pop, then the audio is probably a single track.  So click the which audio you think it is (look at the duration, it can help give you a hint of which track is yours), and then click on the extract button in the upper left.  Another Quicktime window should pop up.  Do a File > Save As, and save it somewhere where you will find it, like your desktop.

If you don’t already have file extensions showing, go into Windows Explorer (Windows Key + E) and click on Tools > Folder Options.  Select the View tab and uncheck ‘Hide extensions for known file types.’  This should show you ‘whatever.mov’ instead of just ‘whatever’.  With that in mind, right click on your movie and select Rename.  Rename it to ‘whatever.aac’, this should keep it as a Quicktime file, but will change it from video to strickly sound, which you already did, sorta, by exptracting it.

Now that you have this double click it to open the file with Quicktime and go File > Export.  Change your Export type to a .wav and say save.  This may take some time depending on the file size.

Once you have your file, ‘whatever.wav’, drop it into  iTunes and right click and select convert to mp3.

That’s that.  Easy?  Sort of, but you didn’t have to download any programs.  This is good if you only want to do it for a few songs, otherwise, get a program.  Please don’t use this to do anything illegal because I will take no responsibility for it.  The song I am getting is a cover.

I stumbled across this today and really thought about doing it because I have some big rolls of paper that I have saved for something like this.  The artist is Christiaan Postma.

I do my best thinking while watching TV, or so I think.  I was watching Desperate Housewives last night–don’t laugh at me–when I was hit with the concept of the “parking space society” as I call it.  I was also receiving some mental stimulation from The Long Winters, which are a band.  I was struggling with the fact that I am supposed to get a job so I can earn money and pay for things.  However, I am not qualified for most jobs–having not completed much of college, I have very little in the line of marketable skills.  This means that any job I will get, will probably be boring, monotonous, and not too my liking.  Back to the parking space society thougth.

Eva Longoria on Desperate Housewives has been burdened with her newly blind husband.  With out getting into too much back story, she is used to being rich and getting her way all the time.  However, now she is poor and has to tend to her husbands most basic needs because he can no longer see.  One day she decides to take him on her errands.  She visits this place and that place leaving him in the car on the premise that she will be right back and can do things faster than he can because he is blind.  After this situation reoccurs about three times, he gets bored just sitting in the car and wanders off; asking some kid to take him to get some food.  When Eva Longoria comes out to find her husband gone, she freaks.  Then as soon as she finds him, someone starts harassing her about parking in a handicapped spot.  She clearly isn’t, but she says it is for her husband.  At this point her husband starts to reprimand her.  In return she says she is poor, incredably busy, and has a blind husband to take care of.  If she can get a handicapped parking spot because of that, she is going to take it.

My point is not to go get yourself a handicapped parking voucher, but to look into this situation.  Do you see the parking space society?  Everyone is supposed to fit into a standard square.  People who are different get the better spaces, whether it be that they are handicapped, rich, famous, or have just been at a company for a long time and now have a space near the door.  Whatever it may be, I don’t like it.  I don’t like the concept that we as a society should all fit into the same space.  We are channeled and driven towards a common goal–to make money for a company.  Why?  Why would I want to spend my time working for something that is not going to recognize me?  Why should I conform to a society where I park in a rectangle, buy my food at a grocery store, listen to the popular music and wear the fashionable clothes?

On a personal note, I don’t want a job that requires me to do the same things over and over again.  A job that is constraining is not beneficial to either myself or whatever company I will inevitably have to work for.  I will not do my best work in a forced, focused, path.  For me a job needs to do for things:

1. A job should teach you something new; constantly.
2. A job should let you earn money.
3. A job should constantly change environments; this promotes the first thought.
4. A job should be fun; if you don’t enjoy it, it’s not worth having.

Therefore, I urge you not to give into this parking space society.  Challenge the norm and do not conform completely to the ways of the system or you will be lost in it.  If you find yourself already lost in the system, make a plan to get out, or at least partially remove yourself.  Back out, pull out, push the cars, out of the way, do whatever you have to, so you don’t become trapped in the parking space society.  Park where you want.

I have suddenly become obsessed with statistics, and I don’t mean baseball.  I want to know more about the statistics of my life.  For instance that number of cheeseburgers I eat in a year, the number of soda I drink this month, the miles I put on my car today or last Tuesday, whatever.  I just want to be able to track it and then see it later.  Why?  Because it is cool.  Who doesn’t want to know how many miles they flew this year, how many grams of caffeine they ingested today, etc?

These thoughts were spurned by two things that I found today:  gtFtr fitness stat tracking via Twitter that may or may not be sub par right now.  I haven’t actually tried it, but it is in beta and the graffic on the main page makes me question how good of a program it is if the graffic doesn’t look good.   And the other site I found is Feltron Eight, he publishes anual reports about himself.

What I think the program should look like:

I think the program for computers should look like the launcher program you can get for Mac and the ripped off launcher program you can get for Windows. It should collect information and make pretty looking bar graphs, line graphs, pie charts, etc.

How it should act:

To access it via computer one could simply start it by typing ’stats’ on their desktop.  The program will then launch like the launcher program. At this point the user should be able to start typing a tag or category name.  For instance ‘crunches’ or ’sodas.’  The program will recognize this category or provide several selections until the user either types the full word or clicks on the selection.  Say the user chose ‘crunches.’  The user should then have the ability to put a number such as 50 directly after crunches.  It would look like ‘crunches 50.’  This will then be added to the daily total of crunches.  This way the user will be able to do 30 crunches now, 50 this afternoon, and 20 this evening, but the collective total will be 100 crunches.

Hundreds of different categories could exists such as ‘push-ups’, ‘miles driven’, ‘miles flown’, ’sodas (drinken)’, ‘pizza(slices eaten)’, etc.  Once collections are made, graphs of daily, weekly, monthly and yearly statistics can be generated.  But why stop there?  Not only should it tell you how many slices of pizza you ate, but it should know that there are eight slices per pizza, and tell you how many pies you actually ate.  It could take in infromation about the type of soda you drank and out put how much caffine you ingested over the course of the day, week, etc.

There should also be an online component that functions much like Twitter, that one can set up their own stat trackers and then text/instant message/web their stats in via phone, PDA, whatever.  Generic statistic categories should be provided.

How to make it:

I really don’t have enough experience with coding to get this thing off the ground.  Please contact me if you do have enough experience and would like to work with me to make this program.

I have a Moto Q running Windows Mobile 5, and it is a batter hog.  I mean seriously, my phone died once already today.  Granted the 100+ text messages I receive each day isn’t helping, but what am I supposed to since I need to contact people and they need to contact me?

Well, with some researc I found this app that will help anyone one who uses a smart phone (I think) or at least those of us that have one with Windows Mobile 5.  The program is called Candelight and it comes as a .CAB file.  You download it, install it on your phone, and then click on the icon to activate it.  Presto!  It dims your screen, instantly saving you battery life.

But on the other hand, I still have the problem of receiving a gross amount of text messages.  Everyday I receive well over 100 texts and my phone battery just cant keep up with it.  Part of the problem is the fact that I have a Moto Q, and that it is running a lot of other tasks at the same time.  My problem is really the vibrations.  One it is annoying, and two making parts move kills the battery.  To my knowledge, there is no way to turn off the vibration notification on the Moto Q.  I have tried going through the menus and researching it online to no avail.  Does anyone know of such a way to turn of vibration?  A hack, anything will do.

If not, is there someone out there willing and adept at writing .CAB files that would be willing to take a few minutes *ahem* and write a program that will install and give you options to control the vibrations of your smart phone?  Espcially in the case of a Moto Q running WM5.