January 2010
15 posts
“The average young American now spends practically every waking minute — except...”
– Tamar Levin, “If Your Kids Are Awake, They’re Probably Online” for the NY Times. See also anomie which, I would argue, is the natural social/personal outcome from a life lived immersed in ephemera.
“The Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which “people reach...”
– Wikipedia on the Dunning–Kruger effect. The introduction goes on to quote Bertrand Russell (always a grand adventure): The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.
Tech Support Slang
Some terms used by tech support folks.
Luser: a portmanteau of “user” and “loser”
PEBKAC: Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair (alternately, PEBCAK)
PICNIC: Problem In Chair, Not In Computer
OHE: Operator Headspace Error
ID-10T Error: Spoken as “eye-dee-ten-tee error,” but written as ID10T (idiot) Error
“Life is a gift. If you do not value your gift, nobody else will.”
– A yogi, to me. Sorta. Definitely.
“In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there...”
– Jan L.A. van de Snepscheut and/or Yogi Berra, via the original wiki wiki
“Rob’s First Rule of the Singularity: The odds of the singularity occurring...”
– dotrob (me). You could also see this as a corollary of Zeno’s Dichotomy Paradox. The generalized version would go something like, “The odds that a fantastic future technological development will significantly improve your life depend on how early in your life it develops and how much you...
“The vapid mannerisms of pale people, using up their lives.”
– Jack Vance, in The Tales of the Dying Earth. But he could well be describing the INTERNETS. Sigh.
“Doctors have known of opiates’ effects going back at least to Homer, who...”
– Benedict Carey, “Morphine May Help Traumatic Stress” in the NY Times.
Related: Listen to Jolie Holland sing “Old Fashioned Morphine”:
Give me that old fashioned morphine, it’s good enough for me…
It was good enough for my Grandpa, it’s good...
“People two, three or four years apart are having completely different...”
– The Children of Cyberspace: Old Fogies by Their 20s
“Why do we fail to detect or defeat the guilty, and why do we do so well at...”
– Christopher Hitchens, “The truth about airplane security measures.”
2 tags
“Yeah, I remember coding away on my Elektronika BK0010-01 at the age of 3 weeks....”
– wikro comments on “The greatest program ever written”.
Oh, the things I do instead of reading the Phaedrus.
“Israelis, unlike Canadians and Americans, don’t take s—- from...”
– transportation consultant Rafi Sela, quoted in The ‘Israelification’ of airports: High security, little bother.
The article continues: “That, in a nutshell is “Israelification” - a system that protects life and limb without annoying you to death… The goal at...