Java and Beyond

Fun Twitter game for bright people: perfect tweets

2009-07-05T14:37:00.000-07:00

Because Twitter has the rule of 140 characters or less for a tweet an obvious and fun game is to produce perfect tweets, defined to be 140 characters exactly, but that's not enough as here is a perfect Tweet that I tweeted earlier today to my Twitter:

In my opinion, crucial criteria for a perfect tweet is that it be EXACTLY 140 characters, have few if any abbreviations, and is grammatical.

That tweet is 140 characters exactly and is (um, I'm fairly certain), grammatical.

Ok, updating as I got in an argument over this subject, so have a variant to handle both cases in case it turns into some kind of major thing:

In my opinion crucial criteria for a perfect tweet are that it be EXACTLY 140 characters, have few if any abbreviations, and is grammatical.

And later I found another...

The perfect tweet must have the following conditions: it must be 140 characters, be grammatically correct and have few if any abbreviations.

I'm curious, how many tweets on Twitter on any given day are perfect by those rules?

Here's one more perfect tweet:

My wild guess unsupported by inside information is that YouTube is now profitable. If so congratulations Google, and what took you so long?

I will admit that I don't in general try to make my tweets perfect but will if I see one approaching perfection work at it if I can, briefly to see if I achieve that, but if not, it's not a big deal.

But how hard can it be? I have one more perfect tweet:

Ok, I've locked down both variants of the "perfect tweet" which defines itself as perfect within the tweet while also being a perfect tweet.

That tweet is perfect.

(Hmmm...editing yet again to wonder, how many times can you use the phrase "perfect tweet" in a tweet which is itself perfect? I've managed twice above, can anyone do better?)

But when it happens I do wonder, how hard is it to do really? And, how did I do it?

Doing a web search on "perfect tweet" I see other people are using the term and differently. Oh well. Also one site has the phrase "twoosh" for a tweet of 140 characters "on the first try", which I guess means no editing.

Hmmm...maybe I should call my definition a "twee-dunk"?

Oh, I know, how about a "twee-three"?

No, basketball references may not work with all viewers...so I will still call it a perfect tweet, and others can do what they want.

Want to check your tweets? Here's a convenient site I found while web searching on perfect tweets:

www.perfecttweet.info

It shows all of your tweets that are exactly 140 characters, or that of others as well, as you just enter a Twitter username.

For mine, use: jstevh

James Harris

Class Viewer now on Softpedia

2009-06-28T10:14:00.000-07:00

I am happy to announce that the editorial team at Softpedia has added Class Viewer as a program for Mac OS, which can be seen at the link above.

They have also given the 100% Free Award:

SOFTPEDIA "100% FREE" AWARD

So I guess there are Class Viewer users out there somewhere and I think that's a good thing.

I actually am quite appreciative that the program is associated with Mac OS as to me that is a compliment on its user friendly simplicity and style and I kind of regret that I don't have a Mac focused download on SourceForge which is about the computers I use. Though I'm sure it's easy enough for Mac users to configure it on their systems anyway. What I need is to use a universal installer.

James Harris

Science and traffic jams

2009-06-13T08:27:00.000-07:00

Link above goes to: MSNBC

Quote from the Source:

Math model may decrease phantom traffic jams
Method could help engineers design roads to keep traffic density low

LiveScience
updated 11:49 a.m. PT, Fri., June 12, 2009
Some traffic jams have no apparent cause — no accident, no stalled vehicle, no lanes closed for construction...

Great article and I'm glad scientists are studying these things as when I lived in the Atlanta metro area--thankfully in the Bay Area I rarely have to drive--it would be so frustrating when I figured out that a slow-down that could have you completely stopping at points was just about a lot of cars being on the road and nothing else.

Here's one more quote introducing a cool word:

Key to the new study is the realization that the mathematics of such jams, which the researchers call "jamitons," are strikingly similar to the equations that describe detonation waves produced by explosion...

That's what I'm calling them from now on as that is just a cool word: jamitons

Ear radio

2009-06-08T21:03:00.000-07:00

Link above goes to: MSNBC

Quote from the Source:

Human ear inspires universal radio antenna
It may lead to electronics that can pick up any radio frequency
By Eric Bland

updated 12:09 p.m. PT, Mon., June 8, 2009

Yeah! Smart technology. Why not use what Mother Nature has provided and to find even more value in the human ear! Brilliant!!!

New York Times article on Jim Collins

2009-05-24T10:48:00.000-07:00

Link above goes to: The New York Times

Quote from the Source:

BUSINESS
For This Guru, No Question Is Too Big
By ADAM BRYANT
Published: May 24, 2009
Jim Collins is exploring big questions like why some companies succeed and, in his latest book, how successful companies implode.

A nice long article that goes over a lot of information about a very interesting business researcher. Here's one quote that I liked because it answered a question that had been on my mind:

...Mr. Collins takes issue with the criticism, even devoting a long passage in his new book to defending “Good to Great” in light of the subsequent failures of some companies it praised.

“Just because a company falls doesn’t invalidate what we can learn by studying that company when it was at its historical best,” he writes.

I agree and after reading the article I'm looking forward to buying his latest book.

New Pay Back Value article on my other blog

2009-05-24T07:46:00.000-07:00

Link above goes to: My Lost In Comment blog

Quote from the Source:

...However, there are two types of people in the world: those who would pay without threat of punishment, and those who would run out of restaurants without paying all the time if there were no such threat.

The ease of distribution on the Internet means that you can market to the first set, and not worry as much about the second as unlike with a restaurant where the food has a higher reproduction cost, on the Internet, there is little cost in reproduction (production costs remain high!!!) so limited loss from the theft!

I think paying after is the primary way for the Web to work as it's the primary way that people buy in the real world--we thoroughly check for value before we plunk down hard earned cash!

But, on the Web when you pay, people want you to commit money upfront before you can check for value which is unnatural. We do that for some things out of novelty, like we used to do that for print newspapers as news was novel. Now it's more of a commodity, and fewer people buy papers upfront. Simple.

The Web is behind human cultural evolution, not ahead.

I'd love to see this idea implemented and check out assumptions about the value of Web audiences as I read the New York Times a lot and think the quality of their articles is much higher than other sites, like, CNN, but CNN has these millions of readers, but would they actually pay as much as Times readers?

What if CNN has millions of cheap people reading? And what I call PBV is implemented and very few of them pay, but at the Times many more pay?

Are advertisers--who would remain with this idea--really getting as much value from those millions of readers who have shown they don't like parting with their money for value?

One might find out that some sites with millions and millions of people accessing them are actually worthless because they have the wrong people!

Wouldn't that be wild?

Seth Godin on standing out

2009-05-23T09:36:00.000-07:00

Very enlightening. A lot about marketing, and why ads don't work like they did before.

Power struggle in pay for media issues?

2009-05-09T09:59:00.000-07:00

I've spent a lot of time across my blogs putting forward an idea I call Pay Back Value, where people can pay for, say, a news article after they read it, but only if they saw it as valuable! So there'd be a little button that might say: "PBV". And next to it might be 25 cents, saying that if you liked the article, its pay back value is 25 cents.

If you didn't think it was a good article, you don't hit the button. You don't pay.

So it's like purchasing the article after you get to read it, which may seem unnatural unless you look at other things and realize we do that all the time, like at a nice restaurant. You get to eat first.

If people get to pay after then knowing what people truly valued in a newspaper edition is as simple as seeing how much they paid for each article!!!

Such a simple idea, and some people wouldn't ever pay--some people run from restaurants without paying--but I don't think it odd to think that most would, if they saw value. Do you get a massive impulse to run out of the barbershop, after you get a haircut, without paying the barber? Why not? You got the goods. Your hair is cut. Why pay if you can just run for the door?

Some people wouldn't do that because they don't want to get beat up by the barber! Or get arrested! But most pay because they value what they received and we pay back value, and the appropriate way to pay back value at the barbershop is with money.

What is money? A medium of exchange.

So why might people in the news and entertainment industry not like this idea if it offers the opportunity to get revenue where now they get much less?

Sadly, I'm speculating that power may be an issue, as consider, executives in these industries now pick what you can get.

Like on television the Big 3 networks dominated for years and then there was one more, but later cable spread things, but still, executives in each of those areas could pick shows or not based on what they thought best. Sure supposedly it was about profit, but there are some really bad shows that get on television: executives had to sign off on each one.

If people are more picky about quality then crappy products don't pay.

When you have a subscription to a paper for a year, you've paid upfront, giving the slide to whatever crap may come by, whereas, with PBV, the organization would find instantly that crappy journalism does not pay.

And that's a loss of power. Hopefully that is not an issue as I don't see this ancient concept of looking for value first before paying to be one that has been defeated, so it will take over.

The only question then is, how rapidly.

Free guilt

2009-05-02T10:05:00.000-07:00

In the past I regularly used open source software and, of course, have my own open source software Class Viewer, but I stopped using any but my own. Problem was I didn't want to donate, and for a while I'd feel guilty about using software without paying anything for it, but try to tell myself that as an open source provider myself, that was enough. I was giving back I tried to tell myself by having my own open source software out there.

But it didn't feel like enough. Yet I uneasily tried to use other people's open source.

One day with one open source software that I'd used for a month, the damn thing popped up a message saying exactly what my usage was and asked me to donate money.

I deleted it off my system immediately.

To me, donations are for charity.

I went to another open source software for the same thing, but got paused when looking over the site the founder had a donation page with a picture of him holding his baby son. I thought to myself--this huge software product which millions of people use and this guy is begging for money with his kid? Yuck. I guiltily deleted the software off my system.

My Pay Back Value idea is not just about some new scheme or notion that probably can't work anyway, but about basic human values, and what has worked for human beings for thousands of years: value for value.

Free on the web is not really free. Someone is paying. And if you know you're not paying for something you value, then you know someone else is. That is as basic as human commerce itself.

Now some people got it into their heads that thousands of years of human history can't compare to this new-fangled thing called the Internet. And they tell you day after day that you have to just get with the times and feel guilty about not paying but that it's ok, and businesses are collapsing.

When people tell you something you know cannot be right then consider that they are wrong.

The problem on the web is not that people will not pay. They simply are smart enough not to pay upfront, as the reality is, there is a lot of crap on the web. It doesn't make sense to pay upfront.

But why can't we pay later?

Supposedly smart people have ignored the simplest option that we get with high end restaurants already! These supposedly intelligent people tried the fast food restaurant approach of pay upfront, as if you can just trust enough to do that when you cannot, and when that failed these nincompoops threw up their hands and said the only other option was free!!!

How stupid can they be?

Very stupid. Billions of dollars lost. And when value is not given for value, jobs are lost, important industries start heading towards extinction, and we all lose.

These people are not smart. We need the option to pay for value.

And we need it now before we lose more value waiting on people who tell themselves they are smart when they cannot think of the obvious which already exists around the world in other areas, like restaurants.

You eat the meal first and then pay, unless it's fast food. Our Internet is not all fast food. We need the option of pay later, like in high end restaurants.

You need to free yourself from guilt of taking advantage, and I want more software and the option of open source where I can pay something back, as I just refuse to knowingly use any open source but my own now, despite having my own open source project, where yes, I admit, I feel at times a sense of dislike for users when it's not their fault! They have no option to pay back because the system is too stupid to let them.

I will not ask for donations. I am not a charity.

I can make my own software so I don't feel guilty with my Class Viewer. If you don't have that option but need to use it, often today, you are taking advantage of someone without the choice to do otherwise.

Feel free to forward this page. One way is by email using the link beneath this post.

James Harris

Why we need PBV

2009-05-01T17:56:00.001-07:00

My research on equality in mathematics and consistency, and on logic may have paid dividends with the surprisingly obvious in retrospect latest non-math research into money itself.

The simple principle I'm emphasizing is value for value: we give value in exchange for value in return, which is how our world's money systems work.

A value gap has emerged on the web because the upfront pay model doesn't work for a lot of sources, including very important ones like news providers, but there is no pay after value system in place which is probably just an oversight, as the television model of advertising seemed viable at first, but doesn't work on the active system of the web in contrast to the passive system of television.

But the advertising model is also beginning to collapse on television as a result of people using DVR's to fast forward through commercials.

Television was never free. People paid with attention--to commercials. Now increasingly they're not paying attention, collapsing business models.

Without value for value, content must suffer, and as content on newspapers and television suffer then fewer people still will be there to provide value, causing a steeper drop in value, causing a steeper drop in revenue...a vicious cycle ending in the end of the businesses.

So these industries have no choice but to find a way to get value for value or they end.

I think for most people the reality that the television industry itself may end seems impossible, and I think that the industry will start looking hard for solutions long before that occurs, but then again it might not. We have the American auto industry's travails as a model for how that can occur.

So I think it important to consider the value for value concept that I call Pay Back Value with that in mind. The passive world of television presented this idea that paying attention, as commercials got buyers for goods, and the makers of the goods were the people who then paid directly for the television shows, was enough, but that hasn't worked in the same way on the web.

It may be up to information consumers to ask for the ability to pay for valued content after they've seen its value, for instance, after reading a news article, if they are to prevent valued industries from imploding on themselves, and I have an example to show how natural the concept is, as think of restaurants.

Fast food restaurants in the U.S. ask you to pay upfront. That is like what was tried on the Internet, and it mostly failed. People don't want to pay first for information that might be crap!

But beyond fast food restaurants, at higher end restaurants people can get their food, eat it, chat with company for a while, and ask for their bill and then pay.

We take that for granted so consider a story I have from years ago when I was living in metro Atlanta, when I went to a restaurant, and while eating my meal noticed a couple just get up and leave when the only server around--it was a slow period--went to the back of the restaurant.

I was in shock. I couldn't believe those people just got up and left! The server was upset but also more sanguine than I telling me that unfortunately that did happen at times.

But most of us don't take value in the form of a meal and just leave, even if the server isn't around, and restaurants do just fine though some people do steal meals.

Our web should offer the ability to pay like a high end restaurant versus the upfront pay model of the fast food restaurant, or the no pay model which isn't supporting value because ads are not enough.

Free is not a business model that works for the web, because advertising cannot support it for most. Some may do fine, but when even large newspapers with international appeal are going down, it's time to re-think the value issue.

We need to pay back value as information consumers. It's the only way for major industries we rely on for that information, to survive.

James Harris

Advancing the academic world

2009-04-28T18:38:00.000-07:00

Link above goes to: The New York Times

Quote from the Source:

OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR
End the University as We Know It
By MARK C. TAYLOR
Published: April 27, 2009
If higher education is to thrive, colleges and universities, like Wall Street and Detroit, must be rigorously regulated and completely restructured.

A welcome article from a member of academia willing to explain in logical detail his argument for why universities must change.

I agree that they must change, as we see a world throwing ever more complex problems at us, and with less and less relief. Notice how crisis now is followed by crisis.

We live in interesting times.

Our knowledge of earth's history tells us one thing that we can be rather certain is probably true: we will adapt or die as a species.

The choice is ours to use every tool at our disposal to adapt, and live. And part of making that choice is adapting those institutions that teach.

After all, without education, where would we be?

Problem solving reality

2009-04-21T20:58:00.001-07:00

To me problem solving is not an academic exercise and it's not about a particular area: problems are everywhere. Since I imagine myself to be a problem solver I can delve into any number of areas as I see fit, and while in the past I've focused a lot on mathematics and computer science, I've also been thinking about pop culture and practical issues like the conundrum of how to make money on the Internet.

That one has become ever more fascinating to me as I realize that there are very weird things about the Internet. For instance, taking the time to pause as I write this post and check Google Analytics about this blog (pausing) I find I have hits from 89 cities in 29 countries in the last 30 days. But a pathetic number of visits! 162.

What gives? I mean, before the Internet, talking about getting attention of any kind from 29 countries I'd think would be a big deal! But now it means nothing in terms of remuneration. Nothing.

Focusing on the problem then of value on the Internet I've come up with a new concept as a problem solving effort:

Pay Back Value concept

There are a couple of things that occur to me while considering this latest idea, as I think back to past ideas for which I had high hopes, like DMESE. And kind of wonder why I bother, but then again, why not?

Puzzles are puzzles not because they are easy and obvious. If they are easy and obvious then I say, they aren't really puzzling!!!

And I'm not the only one puzzling through the Internet money conundrum as I like to call it, as even big players are facing inordinate difficulty despite bringing a lot of value to the table.

I am mega international by the city and country counts for this blog according to Google Analytics. Yet this blog pales in comparison to my math one which in the last 30 days had hits from 450 cities in 59 countries (my country count dropped as I was at 61 a few days ago).

But how many visits? Only 1517.

For the year my math blog has had 5682 visits from 1220 cities in 93 countries.

Puzzling.

It's hard for me to understand how there isn't more monetary value in there somewhere, so the problem solving exercise is to puzzle out the conundrum--and deliver what ideas I may have to the world.

After all, solving my problems can solve those of others, and then it's the desired win-win.

For me proving my problem solving ability is not about a particular area--but about solving problems, and the Internet money conundrum is a big one.

About Quants

2009-03-09T20:44:00.000-07:00

Link above goes to: The New York Times

Quote from the source:

SCIENCE
They Tried to Outsmart Wall Street
By DENNIS OVERBYE
Published: March 10, 2009
“Quants” try to use physics to untangle the messiest of human activities — making money.

Hard to categorize: Is it really economics? Really science? Not sure.

Siftables

2009-02-15T11:44:00.000-08:00

Intriguing. David Merrill talks about and shows, siftables--smart blocks.

Getting serious about Sirius XM

2009-02-10T22:13:00.000-08:00

Link above goes to: BusinessWeek

Quote from the source:

Sirius XM: What Price Bankruptcy?
Under Chapter 11, the satellite radio outfit could possibly revamp costly contracts. But it could also lose its top star and lots of listeners

By Olga Kharif

A bankruptcy filing by Sirius XM would have widespread implications not just for holders of the satellite radio company's debt and shares, but also for millions of listeners and for the celebrities like Howard Stern whose fat paychecks have made it harder for the company to pay its other bills....

It bugs me that I predicted an end to this company, when it was two, some while ago because it seems to me so preventable. (Oh yeah, I know they do have some ads.)

Maybe if they had followed a business plan more to my liking it would not have worked, but I like to think that what I said makes sense, so it makes me happy to believe that there is still time.

They need commercials.

Bad commercials are bad. But good commercials are good. People need a break from all that intensity and it gives them revenue.

I think we need satellite radio so I hope the best whatever answers they find.

History of the Internet

2009-01-28T20:52:00.000-08:00

Cool video. I really like the narration. So weird to think how far we have come.

Makes you wonder about, how far we have to go.

Wanting to meet Kara Thrace

2009-01-17T17:09:00.000-08:00

Link above goes to: Hulu.com, Battlestar Galactica season 4, episode 13 with commentary by Ronald Moore

For the first time after watching an episode I found myself watching the commentary on that episode as it was such a dark and powerful one, but the post isn't really about the episode as while listening to the commentary by Moore, I found my self drifting at times and I pondered about something I've often wondered about, which is wanting to meet Kara Thrace.

That might sound like I want to meet Katee Sackhoff, who is the actor who plays Kara Thrace, but there you have it of course, the actors are not their characters, so in a sense it's a philosophical issue about the impossibility (or is it impossible?) of meeting a fictional character--and why the desire anyway?

I've wondered how bothered actors get by people meeting them thinking they are their fictional persona, but then again, why would anyone think they are? Or, why would anyone think they are not? I like the dueling questions.

The tone of this post is different than a lot of others as I myself rarely do commentary but have done it, in a sense, and it has occurred to me that part of the role of commentary is to give people some idea of the person behind some particular product that is out there, where otherwise you're just looking at the polished (or hopefully polished) output, but there is someone or some group of people, who have put that out there, and how do you get a feel for them?

So for my own cryptic reasons I think it might help to point out that I often think about meeting Kara Thrace, and ponder that I can't, so why do I frustrate myself, and then of course wonder, how bad though really would it be to just meet Katee Sackhoff, and while acknowledging (even maybe saying it out loud to try and sell it) that I know she's not Kara, secretly pretend that she is anyway?

Class Viewer Project 2008 statistics

2009-01-12T17:20:00.000-08:00

Here are key statistics for all of 2008 for my Class Viewer project from SourceForge.net:

Total downloads for 2008: 3132

Pages served from Class Viewer project page: 13442
Pages served from Class Viewer homepage: 6380

Statistics for this blog page from Google Analytics:

2534 visits, 3102 page views, 1440 unique visitors, from 930 cities in 87 countries/territories, with the top city being San Francisco, with 240 visits.

PS3 super computing

2008-12-22T21:29:00.001-08:00

Link above goes to: The Washington Post

Quote from the source:

Nothing Escapes the Pull of a PlayStation 3, Not Even a Black Hole
Scientists scrimp on supercomputer costs but still manage to solve a cosmic quandary with a little help from Sony's PS3.
Matt Peckham
PC World
Monday, December 22, 2008; 8:19 PM

How did Sony's PlayStation 3 solve an astrophysics puzzler? Easy: With a pallet full of sleek sable doppelgangers crunching the interstellar math in tandem....

The stories about people doing super computing work with PS3 clusters to me are remarkable.

It is an amazing machine, built originally for games?

Begging and open source

2008-12-15T10:37:00.000-08:00

Thinking about the success developers have with the iPhone I think it would be nice if that basic model of letting people charge for something but having all the money handling headaches handled by a big company would be nice with open source as well.

Sure, if they want it for free, that's fine, but why not give people the option to pay for open source if they want?

I know I'd use it. More than once I've deleted off open source software when it surprised me with begging after I'd used it for a while or visiting the site for the app I'd see begging all the time.

It seems sad to me that open source developers can end up doing so much begging even when they have a popular app. I have no intentions of begging which is why I don't even give the "Donation" option at my project. I don't want donations. I don't feel like I'm a charity.

If someone--big company that can handle all the legal issues--provided a framework where I could just offer the option for people to pay when they download Class Viewer I'd move it from SourceForge immediately.

Sure, maybe few people would pay, but at least they'd have the option, and I could pay upfront for open source software and not be bothered later by begging from the developers (or guilt for using it, loving it but never donating).

Oh, the site would have to have a requirement that if you purchase open source software it couldn't beg for money from you later!

iPhone apps making developers lots of money

2008-12-14T09:51:00.000-08:00

Link above goes to: Newsweek

Quote from the source:

TECHTONIC SHIFTS
There’s Gold In Them iPhones
Some kid in his bedroom can make a million bucks just by writing a little application for the Apple phone.
By Daniel Lyons | NEWSWEEK
Published Dec 13, 2008
From the magazine issue dated Dec 22, 2008

Looks to me like Apple figured out some things that no one else did (and maybe even surprised themselves) as one reason I liked open source was the easy entry, so I could put out software without hiring a law firm and worrying about returns or getting sued. Or the other reasons for high start-up costs.

Apple figured out how to give developers low start-up, low hassle, with money.

How are they so smart?

Flat panels more affordable

2008-12-07T07:20:00.001-08:00

Link above goes to: The New York Times

Quote from the source:

Technology / Technology
Flat-Panel TV Prices Plummet
By ERIC A. TAUB
Published: December 2, 2008
Thanks to increasing worldwide sales and economies of scale, a wide range of large-screen HDTVs are now available for three-figure prices.

The article starts out about price but then goes into more detail about picking the best value.

Mini HD Camcorder

2008-11-23T07:27:00.000-08:00

Link above goes to: The New York Times

Quote from source:

State of the Art
HD Video Made Sleek and Simple
By DAVID POGUE
Published: November 20, 2008
Pure Digital has added high definition to its Flip Mino, which is already called the least-expensive, smallest and fastest camcorder on the market.

Sounds like super tech: super usability at the cutting edge of technology.

Big bonus, bad thinking?

2008-11-22T09:59:00.000-08:00

Link above goes to: The New York Times

Quote from the page:

Op-Ed Contributor
What’s the Value of a Big Bonus?
By DAN ARIELY
Published: November 20, 2008
If our tests mimic the real world, then higher bonuses may not only cost employers more but also discourage executives from working to the best of their ability.

Interesting research indicating that big bonuses actually impair cognitive function despite the motivation they provide. People want to do well for the big bonus but just having it out there, if I'm interpreting this article correctly, can impair mental function which is a counter-intuitive result which if true could explain a lot.

So remarkably, companies handing out big bonuses may be paying their people to do worse.

Fewer women developers

2008-11-16T12:07:00.000-08:00

Link above goes to: The New York Times

Digital Domain
What Has Driven Women Out of Computer Science?
By RANDALL STROSS
Published: November 16, 2008
Many computer science departments report that women now make up less than 10 percent of the newest undergraduates.

I think it's an excellent subject to ponder as it seems clear that something is driving down the rate of participation in the field by women.

The question is then, what is that something?