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

These are some useful articles regarding startup businesses.

http://gigaom.com/2009/10/20/the-10-ways-startup-advice-is-flawed/
http://techcrunch.com/2009/10/24/startup-school-paul-buchheit-on-why-he-sold-to-facebook/
http://techcrunch.com/2009/10/11/finding-your-co-founders/
http://techcrunch.com/2009/10/08/startups-101-the-complete-mint-presentation/

These are some useful articles regarding creating social games.

Market Research
http://gigaom.com/2009/11/09/the-scorecard-who-wins-loses-with-ea%E2%80%99s-400m-playfish-buy/
http://techcrunch.com/2009/11/06/zynga-scamville-mark-pinkus-faceboo/
http://techcrunch.com/2009/11/05/scamville-new-offerpal-ceo-admits-mistakes-makes-bold-promises/
http://techcrunch.com/2009/11/05/facebook-to-increase-enforcement-of-anti-scam-rules/
http://techcrunch.com/2009/11/03/tragedy-of-the-social-gaming-commons-a-blueprint-for-change/
http://techcrunch.com/2009/11/03/myspace-says-zero-tolerance-for-app-scams-changes-terms-of-use/
http://techcrunch.com/2009/11/02/rockyou-joins-the-no-scams-parade-but-whats-facebook-up-to/
http://techcrunch.com/2009/11/02/zynga-takes-steps-to-remove-scams-from-games/
http://techcrunch.com/2009/11/01/how-to-spam-facebook-like-a-pro-an-insiders-confession/
http://techcrunch.com/2009/11/02/scamville-zynga-says-13-of-revenue-comes-from-lead-gen-and-other-offers/
http://techcrunch.com/2009/11/01/scamville-hotornot-plentyoffish-facebook-myspace/
http://techcrunch.com/2009/10/31/scamville-the-social-gaming-ecosystem-of-hell/
http://techcrunch.com/2009/10/29/how-to-measure-the-true-stickiness-and-success-of-a-facebook-app/
http://techcrunch.com/2009/10/28/d-day-for-facebook-app-developers/
http://techcrunch.com/2009/10/28/playspan-study-shows-growth-in-virtual-goods-marketplace/
http://techcrunch.com/2009/10/26/social-games-how-the-big-three-make-millions/
http://techcrunch.com/2009/10/20/mark-pincus-web-3-is-the-app-economy/
http://techcrunch.com/2007/06/20/virtual-goods-the-next-big-business-model/
http://businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_44/b4153044881892.htm
http://cdixon.org/?p=1220
http://appdata.com/
http://videogames.yahoo.com/events/plugged-in/why-you-can-t-stop-playing-bejeweled/1366266

Irrelevant Doom And Gloom Predictions
http://homethinking.com/brontemedia/2009/03/25/the-impending-doom-of-facebook-apps/

Game Concepts
http://mathsisfun.com/games/tanks.html
http://appdata.com/

Internet marketing is fascinating, especially when you've got a campaign with enough volume so that its performance reflects trends. My campaign wasn't doing too well today, but then I realized, everybody's partying it up since it's Halloween. But there are other trends, weekly, hourly, and it's fascinating because i's like looking into the minds of others. Surfing the net is a private activity for the most part. Nobody know how you behave online. But when you are advertising, you get the chance to collect information about people through your advertising campaigns. Its performance is a result of the behavior of others, and with volume it gives insight into behavior. Marketing psychology I suppose. Facebook makes this especially cool because once a campaign has sufficient clicks, it shows the common characteristics of those who have clicked based on the content they have listed under "interests".

Psychology is fascinating as well. With a good grasp of psychology, you can better understand yourself and others. By understanding yourself, I assume it must improve self control because it explains your own behavior. Better planning and other good stuff must come as a result of this. Plus there's also the benefit of better understanding of others. It's all a matter of understanding the big picture. By understanding yourself and understanding others you can achieve a great deal. Unfortunately, as a career it does not have the insane potential for income that I desire, a figure only business can reach. Once I get that house, and that stable income, I will have so much more time to read and learn.

Information. There's so much of it and I don't have enough time to learn it all. Psychology, electronics and of course all those random interesting articles from the internet. If only I could read it all. I finally had time to organize my stuff. 224 favorites, at least 10 receipts with scribbles of crap. Now it's all sitting in folders. Wonderful.

I also realized, my dreams are not nearly wildly crazy enough.

Previous Outrageous Dream
- Decent (No more than 4,000 square feet) sized two story house with a pool somewhere near San Francisco
- Basic economic car
- Lambo or Ferrari

Updated Outrageous Dream
- Decent (No more than 4,000 square feet) sized two story house with a pool somewhere near San Francisco, Texas, Africa,
- Lambo or Ferrari
- Basic economic car
- Helicopter
- Private Jet
- Private island
- Nuclear powered luxury yacht

Also of note, is that I recently posted about how Facebook would be an excellent platform for applications. I knew what I had in mind, but I failed to put into words the scope of what I was thinking. Luckily GigaOm had an article on this exact trend.

I had always jokingly considered creating my own internet, Internet 2.0, where there would be no anonymity and only websites with acceptable quality would be allowed. But the social web is partially like that because of its decreased anonymity. Many sites are integrating a Facebook login to allow for a social element. Where in the past someone might be hunched over a comp playing a Flash game all alone, now he can (Surrogates who?) play with others, socially, although with less anonymity.

It also mentions that the social web generates more information, and there is a need to index it. Much of the information is absolute garbage, useless status updates, mindless babbling and other junk. But it might be vaguely useful as aggregate data somehow.

Are Humans Still Evolving?

This was an article on Yahoo! and CNN a few days back. I was surprised that there was a "long-held view that natural selection has ceased to affect humans because almost everybody now lives long enough to have children".

I had always assumed that evolution always occurs. It simply would not make sense any other way. If evolution was not still occurring, it would seem to imply that every individual is reproducing at a similar rate. Evolution is survival of the fittest, but even though everyone reproduces, there are obviously some who reproduce more and some who do not reproduce at all for various reasons. Why isn't it obvious that evolution is still occurring because of this? Plus, there are those who choose not to have kids, some who choose to have lots of kids, and some who don't have kids.

But what's more likely is that there are major (understatement) gaps in my understanding that lead me to assume this from the start.

I just realized that the View Online text at the footer of phpBB forums is a link which leads to a viewonline.php page that shows the IP and WHOIS of every user online. This would not be an issue if only administrators could see it, but that's not the case. Anybody signed on to the forum can see it. This is a major privacy problem, and I can't imagine why this would be public by default. I definitely need to switch to vBulletin soon, since phpBB constantly requires tweaking, modding and is a hassle overall.

I can't figure out how to differentiate the two. How can I determine whether an individual is merely optimistic rather than naive. The two seem to overlap. A pessimist would see the optimist's actions as being naive, and lacking planning, too hopeful.

Naive: marked by unaffected simplicity : artless, ingenuous.

Optimism: an inclination to put the most favorable construction upon actions and events or to anticipate the best possible outcome.

It seems like there is a transition to a less anonymous internet with Facebook. Everyone's got a Facebook, and a growing number of websites are utilizing the Facebook login feature.

Too many different platforms are competing - Windows Live, Google and Yahoo!. On a recent group project, every group member used a different platform, when someone suggested online collaboration. Ultimately, some people had to setup Google accounts. However, everyone had a Facebook. If productivity tools were added to its list of apps, Facebook would have some serious clout. Unlike other platforms, Facebook focuses on communication rather than services, making it a perfect platform for collaboration. Facebook also creates a real digital identity because everybody is identified by their name, and it might be the best new platform for productivity apps rather than Google or Windows Live.

Also, Facebook apps are big monies. I don't understand why the top games are so popular though. The mafia game has zero interactivity. It's just a screen with stats and you click away. It's like crunching numbers in a cubicle. Lame. There is no real element of competition. The winners are the ones who spend (waste) the most time playing the game. The gardening game is lame too. Why would anybody waste time growing a digital garden when they could grow a real one? Lame lame lame.

All these games use the social element to become popular. However, there is a terrible lack of a competitive element. There's a vaccum, a need for interactive, competitive games on social networking sites like Facebook. There is huge potential here. Games like Everquest and World Of Warcraft are notorious for their addictive qualities. Now add that and social networking (also addictive), and there's an even bigger opportunity.

About time. Finally got crestind.com after it was parked for a year. Kind of a stupid luxury purchase, but at least it won't get snapped up by someone else. Got some exciting plans for the site. Lots of cool open source apps I can finally test out.

Some really cool commercials from Lincoln. The tech theme is awesome, but the cars could use some bolder exterior styling, which hardly looks space agey or technologically advanced in any way (Acura). The interior is really nice however.

The ads are quite effective. There's 360 views of the interior and exterior paired with dark lighting and fairly modern music. There's no distracting voiceover and all of them end with a simple two liner slogan reminiscent of the Apple commercials. Very effective, and I assume they must be trying to target a younger demographic.

       

Others.
       

And more.
       

So classy and modern. Better than the old Mr. Scruff commercials. Makes me want to buy one, even though the build quality is probably rubbish.
   

OMG POWER WINDOWS!