This idea is not difficult at all to carry out, but it is difficult to recognize the situation. Everyday we are faced with problems of various kinds. Road blocks or some sort, from small to large. Trouble at work, tired, anything random in life that creates  minor obstruction or difficulty. I have a bad habit of problem avoidance. I ignore the problem (only small problems) and stop thinking about it. It's still there, and the problem disappears. At this point I seem to do it unconsciously. But in reality were I to spend even a few minutes considering these problems, I could easily devise a smart solution that solves the problem and provides benefit, which is what everyone else seems to be able to do.

It should be noted that I originally found this website from a startup businesses blog.

OKCupid is some dating site, which are a dime a dozen so nobody really cares. But what really sets it apart is its OKTrends blog, where they publish the results of  all sorts of anonymized (mostly) aggregate data on their users regarding their interactions on the website. More or less, it's research, and there are so many great insights into how people behave. I suppose this would fall under sociology, but I'm not sure.

Bing + Wolfram|Alpha

More Random Internet Musings, November 7, 2009

Pretty funny coincidence. Even mentioned Wolfram|Alpha too, and what do you know, Bing with Wolfram|Alpha results coming soon. Yes, it can be said I didn't see anything, because Wolfram|Alpha already existed. For clarity, Smarter Mainstream Search Engines.

So I completely chose the wrong college. Somehow my parents subconsciously deluded me into attending a local college instead of that other college, which has far more students and a more diverse student body. Instead I'm stuck here at a nerd college. How do I know?

First we can establish the two types of people. There are nerds and "cool people". The following points will (grossly) contrast the two categories which demonstrate how unbelievably nerdy this college is. Yes, I'm in college, and I continue to pen childish articles like this one.

1. The Clothes
The cool kids are the people who actually spend more than zero seconds of their time attending to their appearance. They have the cool jeans (comes with holes, wear and tear!). The cool shoes ($300 Nikes, yo! or $100 Converse). The cool hair (typically styled or arranged into a rugged "bed head" manner which seems to be all the rage these days). The cool shirt (slightly too small polo or graphic tee). And depending on the individual, the cool watch (Userful Tip: The more expensive the watch, the uglier it is).

Then you got your "uncool" people, so to speak. Typically these are the people wearing the faded, generic, white tennis shoes, the standard, unhip jeans, and some random shirt they got for free from somewhere.

So guess which one my college has more of? Bingo! Uncool people! The student body is a mass of generic white sneakers, faded light blue utility jeans (hipster jeans tend to have a stronger aqua tint) and random shirts and unflattering sweaters. Now if I had gone to that other college, I'm certain the common outfit would lean towards the former.

2. The Ringtones
Now that we've established the two types of people, cool kids and nerds. Now I must point out how the ringtones are nerdier as well.

So a cell phone went off in class. Instead of some crazy hip song that gets played one too many times on the radio, it was... Eurodancer. Yes, Eurodancer. Wow. In fact, of the two ringtones I've heard that went off during class (hardly statistically significant, but who cares, I'm ranting), both of them were techno. Now if we were in a hip college, the ringtones would most definitely be some overplayed hip hop, rock, or pop song, because that's what "cool" kids use as their ringtones.

3. The Courtesy
Now what's the difference between nerds and cool people? Courtesy is indeed another factor. It's no secret why "cool" people are seen as "cool". They've got that "I don't give a damn!" attitude that makes them oh so hip, especially when coupled with their already hip attire. So in order to "not give a damn", this attitude includes lower courtesy levels (this only applies to middle school through college, and typically disappears after college). Here at my nerd college, filled with courteous people, I have had doors held for me from over 3 meters away. I'd be amazed if I had a door held for me at the other college.

4. The Major
I've asked countless people, aside from my friends. The only majors I've heard are electrical engineering and computer science.

Now which one am I? Unfortunately I am the latter. I'm wearing my year old tennis shoes, my generic, unhip jeans, and some random polo I got at Wal-Mart, topped off with a Casio watch. Ballin'. Not that I have a problem with wearing this. What I do have a problem with is the fact that I must dress differently if I want to attain more success.

I have mentioned this to two friends, who have graciously took the time to listen to my strange thoughts. The common response was that I was an elitist, arrogant prick who thought he was better than everybody else and that I had "changed". They get this impression because they believe I look down upon the "nerds".

However, this argument is dependent upon the assumption that I believe these "cool" people are in fact superior to everybody else, and that nerds are losers. "What's wrong with just wearing normal clothes?" "You're a greedy dick for thinking people who spend more money on clothes are better." "You must look down on these people because you use terms like nerd."

This is entirely not the case. I do not think there is anything wrong with dressing like a nerd, or at least there shouldn't be. But like it or not, if you dress like a nerd, society as a whole will not think as highly of you. I use the terms that society unconsciously applies to these people.

The cool kids get ahead in life (read: money). These people tend to be more successful, because cool correlates with social skills and hip appearance. Time and time again it has been proven that the gift of gab typically makes up for any other weaknesses. Combined with hip clothes, these attributes allow cool people to talk and charm their way to places a nerd would struggle to reach.

But do I look down upon the nerds? Of course not, because they have positive attributes that the cool people do not have. Unfortunately, these are simply not the attributes that most strongly correlate with success. Thus what appears to be me being an elitist prick is actually me lamenting the fact that if I want to get places in life, I simply cannot dress like a "nerd". Unfortunately, can't wear the more comfortable tennis shoes, or basic jeans that get the job done. I have to wear shoes that not only work well, but look good as well (and cost twice as much). Instead of just my awesome Casio (waterproof up to 100 meters, yo!), I have to shell out many multiples of its cost to get a crap, gaudy, metallic watch encrusted with shiny rocks.

And yet I aspire to be the cool person.

Earlier this week one of my best friends passed away. I hadn't spoken with him in ages since he attended a different college. I checked his Facebook to see what he was up to, and I learned he had passed away. It's unbelievable, surreal. Same age as me, still young, had a whole life to live, and then he was gone. I had only met him two years back. He was a great guy. Someone you'd rarely get the opportunity to know. It's not often I can meet someone with his character. There are so many people with pretenses, fake people. He was the most real, the most down to earth. I remember meeting him for the first time, going to his dorm room, shaking hands and everything. I can remember what he looked like, his mannerisms, his voice. He was generous, talented, intelligent and had the greatest sense of humor. He was always smiling and upbeat, and he would always lift your spirits. We'd always be in his room, joking around, talking about random things. I went to a baseball game with him, I was hoping that I'd get a chance to play golf with him. It's saddening and frightening to realize that somebody I had known so well is gone. I'm left with vague feelings of dread and unhappiness I can't seem to shake.

With each new transition, the new overshadows, but does not entirely eliminate, the old.

(Yahoo!)
First it was the portal. The internet was small, there wasn't a ton of information, people wanted to see everything that was the internet, thus portals were created. They pretty much contained all there was to see.

(Google)
But the internet grew and portals became unwieldy. Search engines became necessary to sort through all the content portals could no longer contain. This marked a decline in portals.

(Facebook)
People are tired of searching the internet all alone, and want to know that other people are also surfing and whatnot. Social networking sites are "overlaid" on existing websites to create a social, interactive component.

As for search engines, there is still so much that can be done to improve them. While the above are trends that encompass the entire internet, there are also trends within each of these individual categories.

Search engines are ever so slowly undergoing a transition of sorts. They are becoming "smarter" in the sense that they understand what you are searching for. Now you can type "weather", for example, and Google won't just give you results, but it will display the actual weather in your area based on your IP. Wolfram|Alpha is an example of an attempt to create search engines that provide accurate answers to what you are looking for. But the weather example is just the most basic example of what could be carried out on an even grander scale.

Why will this happen? While there's lots of great content online, there's also far too much garbage and with SEO, the system can be gamed. This means users are not getting what they want. More and more for common basic queries, search engines will generate their own results that will dominate more of the page, rather than having third party results as is currently the case.

Create a web application to determine the degrees of separation between two websites using data from Quantcast.com. Type in two website URLs. The program will then input those into Quantcast, and using the Audience Also Likes output, input those for both websites until there is a common website.

Super chill unrelated song. Amazingly smooth voice.
    


Motorola DROID Commercial
   

Create a radio that receives all frequencies of interest, convert it to digital, filter out the music and junk, and convert the remaining speech to text.

This seems to happen over and over again. I fill out the Windows Live Feedback form, typically for spam or something.

There are dropdowns and boxes that ask you to fill out the link to the offending profile as well as the type of violation. Then the feedback team responds and typically asks, "What's the problem?".

It's great that they're actually responding. It really is. Without a doubt the most responsive feedback team of any website probably. But can't they read the form?

So prices are significantly lower than I had anticipated. What I thought would cost $10,000 to get designed costs at most only $5,000. That's definitely a good thing for me. I'm going to throw all of the money I've earned into a game of pitch and toss into the web application concept. If all else fails I'm fairly confident I can still sell that for break even or profit.

That said, if the first one is successful, then I'll probably get the next concept coded. I don't care much for this one, so I don't care if the concept is taken.

Basically it will be like Hot Or Not, except it will be slightly more "scientific". There will only be head shot photos, and even those must be arranged onto a grid by the user. Because it eliminates all the other variables like clothing, posture, etc. it won't skew the attractiveness results, and places the focus squarely on the face. I'm not sure what type of ranking system to use yet either, but that will come. But the experiment has to pay for itself at least, so it'll also have dating website functionality.

So tired. So incredibly tired. Head's hurting and I'm feeling short of breath. I hope I'm not coming down with the flu. This would be an awful time. Organic chemistry test, web application to design and get coded, money that doesn't make its way into my pocket by itself. With the hope that one day, I'll have a day where (I can be fairly young 22?) and sit in my backyard without a care in the world. That would be great.

Sculpture instances.

- Vision
- Joy
- Despair
- Hope
- Faith
- Struggle