nanoThought

Coxoplectoptera - Dragonfly, Praying Mantis, MayFly and Shrimp?

2011-07-20T00:09:00.002-04:00

Cool little article on a great fossil find shedding light on early insect evolution. Coxoplectoptera - Looks like a chimera with parts from dragonflies, praying mantis and mayflies but yet their larvae look like freshwater shrimp? Supposedly they were ambush predators. Just sounds cool.

Found this article on one of my favorite sites - Machines Like Us.

Read the details here -
http://machineslikeus.com/news/mysterious-fossils-provide-new-clues-insect-evolution

Catching Up - Cortical Networks & Generalized Artificial Intelligence

2011-07-09T17:35:00.002-04:00

Been away for awhile. Lots of work, uncertainty and stress during past 9 months on the personal and career fronts. Currently in the midst of a mad blast of catch up reading, re-ramping up on artificial intelligence, robotics and software fronts.

Here's what I'm currently reading...

BRAIN CORTICAL NETWORKS / MAPS

Catching up on some neuroscience news / articles and caught a dandy little blog from Ben Goertzel named The Multiverse According to Ben .

Ben has been a leading figure in the generalized AI community for quite some time now. He's become a seasoned leader in a variety of AI and futurism based conferences and gatherings and his popularity outide this community is starting to build due to all the Singularity buzz. He seems like a good dude, knows his shit and seems to have just enough pragmatism (probably from years of trying to build a real generalized AI system in his Novamente architecture) that whatever he's currently reading and looking into is probably a worthwhile subject to follow up on.

Ben's most recent blog titled Unraveling Modha and Singhs Map of Macaque is an interesting dive into the robust functional cortical maps created by IBM researchers Dharmendra Modha and Raghavendra Singh. These maps illustrate a distinct cortical network architecture between major functional areas and subnetworks of the brain. Check out their paper, datasets, an audio moderated powerpoint slide presentation and a short blog post directly from the researchers regarding their superlative work.

Ben provides an interesting restructuring of the results into a textual hierarchical format to further clarify inbound, outbound connectivity of the cortical networks.

Hierarchical Temporal Memory

Catching up on progress from Jeff Hawkins HTM venture Numenta. Looks like a couple of papers and videos I need to start with .. I better go and start this list (copy and pasted from Numenta)

Hierarchical Temporal Memory including HTM Cortical Learning Algorithms (PDF)
This document describes in detail HTM technology and the new algorithms for learning and prediction. This document will be updated periodically with additional material. Questions and comments regarding the new algorithms may be posted on the HTM Theory forum. Last Updated: December 10, 2010.

Brains, Minds and Machines (video)
MIT recently held a symposium on Brain, Minds and Machines as part of their 150th anniversary celebration. Jeff Hawkins was invited to participate on a panel that addressed the question: Is it time to try again to understand the brain and engineer the mind? Jeff presents his answer to this question in this 10-minute video. This talk was given on May 4, 2011.

Advances in modeling neocortex and its impact on machine intelligence (video)
Jeff Hawkins presents the new HTM algorithms at the Beckman Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This talk was given on November 12, 2010.

Advances in modeling neocortex and its impact on machine intelligence (video)
Jeff Hawkins presents the new HTM algorithms for a graduate class on neural computation at the University of California at Berkeley. This talk is very similar to the Beckman Institute talk above, but might be useful for those viewers who want to hear the talk given again with some shades of difference. In addition, this talk includes a question & answer section. Note that the video is not high quality. This talk was given on December 2, 2010.

Quantum Entanglement - Einstein's Spooky Friend

2010-10-03T17:25:00.013-04:00

Quantum Mechanics - the most successful description of all things tiny in the universe has some very weird results and implications. One central tenet is the fact that quantum events are not "actualized" until observed or interacted with in some way or the other... pretty much saying the universe exists in all possible states at one time until observed. Wacky shit.

Einstein despised this view of the nature of the universe therefore year after year during the 1920s and 1930s, he constructed elegant thought experiments that he felt could refute the quantum view of the world. Each thought experiment was eventually refuted - usually by Neils Bohr - until a famous paper from Einstein and 2 other collaborators - the EPR (Einstein-Rosen-Podolski) Paper - hit the presses. This "perfect" paper elaborated on a theoretical experiment and a set of arguments that posited the following (in simple terms)....

If quantum mechanics theory is correct about the nature of quantum events.... then 2 particles that are sourced from the same interaction (entangled) have a curious and "spooky" property... that any subsequent observations on the entangled properties of these particles are intimately linked and correlated. In other words, no matter how far these particles move from each other - a measurement of an entangled property will "force" the other particles entangled property to be disambiguated in a correlated sense - no matter how far they were from each other in space or time. Since Einstein's theory of special relativity disallows instantaneous communication across space - then this result is quite strange.

What transpired was probably Einstein's worst nightmare. He was right in the sense that Quantum Mechanics could not be complete without allowing this "spooky" non-locality based condition to exist. John Bell, a brilliant American scientist, produced a famous inequality and major clarifications of quantum mechanics theory that provided a gateway for experimentalists to create experiments sensitive enough to test entanglement.

Experiments subsequently showed that this "spooky" condition actually did exist - and this cemented Quantum Mechanics as the strangest, spookiest and most accurate description of reality ever constructed.

Einstein, a founder and the most fervent critic of quantum mechanics, never ceases to amaze me... even as he tries to disprove theories, he helped advance and discover new components - such as entanglement.

Interesting new technologies have been derived from quantum entanglement properties, such as quantum teleportation, quantum cryptography and quantum computation but besides these groundbreaking technologies - arguably quantum entanglement's greatest legacy is the insight it provides into the nature of our universe.

LINKS
Quantum Entanglement review - Stanford link
EPR Paper - PDF link

Wolfram Alpha - Knowledge Engine

2010-05-16T21:17:00.029-04:00

Stephen Wolfram is an interesting dude. He's the founder of Wolfram Research and the inventor of the highly regarded Mathematica software platform. His social / presentation skills leave alot to be desiered - he occasionally comes across with a bombastic condescending tone - but not intentionally in my opinion - more like the product of a nerdy adolescence where a majority of his energies went into intellectual explorations rather than the "hormonal explorations" normal adolescents are guilty of... damn selfish genes.

Overall, Mr. Wolfram has been an intellectual heavyweight in physics, computation, mathematics and the study of complexity. I've been playing around with his recently released WolframAlpha knowledge engine - pretty cool technology. Here are a couple of off the cuff searches I performed with their results.

China GDP / US GDP - This cool little query understands to perform a mathematical division between the GDPs of both countries. Notice the exponential nature of China's GDP growth curve relative to the US after 2000 !!

Apple Revenue / Microsoft Revenue - Notice the inflection point around the middle of 2003 - coincendentally (or not) iTunes launched during this time.

United States / Russia - This query was understood by the engine to provide me ratios "of interest" between the US and Russia.

Sounds simple, but any software engineer will tell you that you need a set of specifications to even begin to code a solution to the above queries - but the engine performed some of these effortlessly.

Now many queries I tried (some admittedly non-sensical) were not understood by WolframAlpha and were substituted with an assumption that many times closely resembled the base query.

For what its worth, in my opinion this is an impressive engine - having experience in AI and large scale software system design - Not sure if there's a better implementation of dynamic (query-based) knowledge delivery on a web platform outside of Google & Bing especially when you consider the computational nature of the engine.

Software Consulting, AI & Babies

2010-05-10T07:12:00.007-04:00

Been away for awhile having babies :) Needed to pick up some new software consulting gigs so I had to put the artificial intelligence (AI) projects down for a while -- but they're on the way back.

Been watching my baby slowly achieve greater coordination in his motor control... from seemingly random movements to more forceful, directed movements from head stabilization to utilizing his arms, hands and feet to cling or climb up my chest.

Interesting little guy, with seemingly no motives but to feed, process food and "export processed food" -- hence the 8-12 diapers each 24 hour period.

Even though I haven't spent time enhancing our AI algorithms, I still try to keep in the forefront of neuro and AI research by reading books and listening to podcasts. If you're interested in neuroscience and/or artificial intelligence, I recommend you listen to "The Brain Podcast" by Dr. Ginger Campbell - I've been listening to this Podcast for a year now - an excellent trove of information can be gathered from these insightful interviews of the latest in neuroscience research.

DNA & Genetics Primer - Video

2009-06-26T19:57:00.006-04:00

Ramblings - Deltas - Planck - Time

2009-06-24T01:14:00.013-04:00

Change, change, change. President Obama built a legendary campaign around this notion. I've always been intrigued by change on many levels. Newton's entire calculus is based around the analysis of change of a function with respect to some attribute. Same with Newtonian laws of motion... its all really just an analysis of changes (deltas) in some position (x, y or z) with respect to a delta in time.

Delta this and delta that.... seems like all information is really just composed of deltas. When you compress information or compress an image full of colors...if the same color runs across a large segment of the photo you can simply represent that entire range of the same color (i.e. information) by specifying the color and the number of pixels that same color runs for (also known as run-length encoding)... which is why its compressible - because no new information exists within that range and can therefore be ignored -no deltas - nothing new to report.

Emotionally, humans also categorize the greatest achievements to the events that were performed with the largest distances (deltas) traversed to achieve the goal. Man on the moon, poor child becomes millionaire, etc. The human brain seems to have evolved to only detect deltas - it doesn't just blindly capture all sensory information in a given time, it does most of its magic on the relationship between deltas that exist in its environment within a given time context - an ingenious optimization if you believe there's only "useful information" in deltas.

So what are the smallest deltas possible? ... physicists categorize these indivisibly tiny units as Planck units. There are units of space(length) and time that are the smallest measurable units possible in our universe.

Planck length = approx. 1.616 x 10⁻³⁵meters
Planck time = approx. 1.616 x 10^-43seconds

If the premise regarding deltas is correct - that useful information is available only when things change - then I guess no useful information exists below these units... supposedly the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle dooms us to never measure anything smaller than this quantum of measurement. hmmmmm.... what does that mean?

ok... i'm seriously rambling ... later.

GEEKS REJOICE - iPhone Tech Apps & Relativity

2009-06-06T22:34:00.021-04:00

Just wrapped up development on a cool tech-based information hub for your iPhone - iHubTech. Spend that dollar and buy it on iTunes TODAY !!!

I'm a total information slut. I need it constantly - its definitely some type of vice and/or neuro condition - its a constant craving. I can't wait til we build the next several iHub applications -- focused on Space and Science -- DELICIOUSO !!

I've owned an iPod Touch for about 3 months now and as much as I hate to admit this -- i'm hooked. I use this one little machine for so many things right now that I will freak out if I lost it.

DEVELOPMENT - It's a complete development testbed. I can test all my applications directly on the device.
MUSIC - It is an iPod you know
APPS - Great apps - same as the iPhone since they use the same operating system
SCHOOL / LEARNING - I download tons of video podcasts and actual college courses.

My current obsession is Leonard Susskind's Stanford classes on Modern Theoretical Physics and Relativity. He's a down to earth guy and explains some pretty sophisticated concepts in a clear manner. You gotta love this guy - he's from the South Bronx and he likes fighting Stephen Hawking over Black Hole theories.

Every night -- as I prepare to sleep -- I prop Leonard up on my futon (c'mon - keep it clean) -- and he gently guides me to sleep as he masterfully explains relativity from Galileo to Newton to Einstein and performs his effortless transformations between coordinate systems.....................ZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

LINKS
iHubLife Blog - iHubTech post
Stanford iTunes University - Internet Home
Stanford iTunes - Modern Physics (iTunes will open)
Leonard Susskind Wikipedia Page
Leonard Susskind - Anthropic Arguments
Leonard Susskind - Stephen Hawking Battle

Human Ancestors Bonanza - Ribonucleotides & Ida

2009-05-20T00:53:00.033-04:00

I've always been fascinated with human origins and generally - the origin of life. Exciting publications on both fronts have piqued my interest this week.

First of all - Researchers have synthesized ribonucleotides, the constituent components of RNA, for the first time in a laboratory. Here's a "ghetto" primer for the origin of life - goes something like this

BIG BANG ==> QUARKS
QUARKS ==> ATOMS
ATOMS ==> MOLECULES
COMETS WITH MOLECULES SMASH EARTH
GOOEY PONDS ==> RIBONUCLEOTIDES
RIBONUCLEOTIDES ==> RNA
RNA ===> DNA
DNA ===> SINGLE CELL WALL (w/DNA)
SINGLE CELL WALL w/DNA ==> MULTICELLULAR
MULTICELLULAR ===> ME
ME ===> ???

GOOEY PONDS - RIBONUCLEOTIDES
Comets and meteors full of organic precursor molecules smashed the Early Earth for the first billion or so years of its existence. In some areas, these molecules accumulated into ponds and heated up, got rained on, evaporated, heated up, got rained on, evaporated..... you get the picture. After a while this "stew" of chemicals became more complex and turned into ribonucleotides. Also, a bunch of other molecules - precursors to proteins, such as amino acids and their precursors were all in the "stew" too.

RNA
Ribonucleotides have been shown to assemble into RNA. An "RNA world" is hypothesized to have existed in the early Earth. RNA are very crafty molecules that we currently use in each cell to take information from our DNA to our protein making factories in our cells. RNA probably catalyzed reactions and started error-prone replication at this point - a sort of primitive life - this is sometimes categorized as the RNA WORLD hypothesis

DNA
Chemically, DNA is very close to RNA with slight but significant structural differences. DNA coils around in a beautiful double helix structure (like a twisted rope ladder) whereas RNA is just a single strand - kinda like a spiral staircase. DNA is also a more stable chemical molecule compared to RNA. DNA mostly likely evolved from RNA - probably in a similar way that simple organic molecules turned into ribonucleic acids - via alternating cycles of heat, radiation, rain and evaporation.

The rest of the story is pretty straight forward (spotty in direct evidence but somewhat strong in circumstantial evidence & lab studies ) -- Somehow DNA found a way inside of a cell - or some type of primitive phosphate based lipid membrane -- which provided a protected and enclosed environment to create proteins from more primitive amino acids and to protect itself (DNA). These cells over time competed and only the strongest and most efficient replicaters and resource managers survived and dominated their local environment. Before you know it - a sexy mitochondria primitive cell decided to colocate within the same cell boundary - and VOILA - the perfect union - Energy, Replication, Information Storage -- Life.

GREAT, GREAT, GREAT GRANNY

Now, the second story is an impressive fossil find named Ida that shows a 47 million year old animal that seems to be the precursor to the current line of monkeys, apes and humans (if u believe in this Evolution stuff).

This fossil is way cool since it has very specific features known only to humans, monkeys or apes including opposable thumbs, 5-digits in hands & feet, small incisors along with canine teeth, etc.

Read more about this find in the original PLoS article publication.

Life is sexy, Natural Selection is sexy.

REFERENCES / LINKS

PLoS ARTICLE - Darwinius masillae
TIME MAG: Stanley Miller Experiment
WIRED SCIENCE: Life's First Spark Re-Created ...
ScienceDaily: IDA Discovery
REVEALING THE LINK: IDA Website

Random Thoughts - Facebook

2009-05-06T16:19:00.002-04:00

Facebook is crazy - I never anticipated that one particular social media platform can build such a self-sustaining fire across so many age groups but Facebook has managed to do just that. I remember watching a webcast from Berkeley around 3 years ago ... it was Marc Andreesen (of Mosaic & Netscape Browser fame) and he was speaking of "The Facebook" as he called it back then.

He talked about how dynamic the medium was and how much potential it had. Back then I thought he was probably over-selling it.... but now I understand why he's who he is. He knows his shit... nobody can predict the future but some people are just WAY better than others... and this guy is on point. I've currently been using Facebook and i'm amazed at the impact - beyond the normal 2-3 week excitement period of something new - that it has on most of the people that use it. It really does provide a platform of engagement for friends, family, workers, old school mates that has transformed how people interact. No I do not hold stock.... just amazed at how some technologies can impact people.

I've been away for awhile ... helping Big Daddy - TV Chef Aaron McCargo Jr build his mini-empire so I've been off this blog for awhile but i'm back working on new projects and new technologies and once in a while ... making some $$$.

Country seems to be gathering its footing and I've felt great this year. I'm going to shift the focus of this blog back on technology, science and medicine.

Hierarchical Temporal Memory - HTM

2009-01-05T03:35:00.003-05:00

REPOST - MAY 2007

I read Jeff Hawkins book "onIntelligence" last summer during a sabbatical and it has fundamentally changed how I look at all sensory experiences, people, mental phenomena and human intelligence. HTMs are an interesting topic in Artificial Intelligence and computational neuroscience circles.

Jeff Hawkins (of Palm Computing and Treo fame) outlined an algorithmic framework referred to as Hierarchial Temporal Memory which tries to simulate neocortical behavior. The framework is based on the idea that most of the human neocortex is driven by a huge number of computational units (small neural networks) that perform a common cortical algorithm using memory as its central feature (jeff gave credit to the neuroscientist Vernon Mountcastle for the common algorithm observation). I like to think of HTMs as powerful bayesian neural networks with massive memories of prior values (and results).

Since my background is in software, I started writing software code using .NET (C#) to construct my own HTM prototypes (during my sabbatical - i know - i'm a loser) based on the concepts in Hawkins book and I had varying degrees of success. During the summer months of 2006 on a hillside private hotel in Northern Cal i did nothing but read, think about or prototype HTM related stuff. It's not often when you read, hear or generally experience something that fundamentally changes your perception of EVERYTHING but I have not been the same since.

I had such an ignorant view of intelligence my entire life. I used to forcibly argue that intelligence was not a function of memory but primarily a function of the "processing engine" that you were blessed (or cursed) with by nature. I would always suggest that "learning something doesn't mean memorizing it" and I always minimized the role of memory in human intelligence..... DAMN ... WAS I IGNORANT. After reading Hawkins eloquent descriptions of how archived memories of sensory information (visual, auditory, tactile, etc.) and their associations with each other can provide nearly everything necessary for a powerful pattern matching and prediction machine called the brain.

Hawkins notes that invariant representations of real world objects (sense-driven) eventually get represented in the neocortex by hierarchies of memory which hold sensory spatial and temporal pattern memories. Once the neocortex is "trained" and populated with these memories, it consequentially gains a powerful prediction engine for future (sensory) events. A recent study corroborates the central role that memory seems to play in prediction. HTMs utilize Bayesian statistical methods (in an indirect way) as the basis of their strength.

As you experience life and process sensory information from your eyes, ears, nose, and touch -- you inevetibly build up sensory maps of your reality and this is stored in memory. Frequently experienced sensory input is "rewarded" by your brain by becoming more cemented in your memories -- its like the brain saying " ... the more I experience you , the more I believe that you exist ... ". When you and I experience sensory input, we experience it in space (its position, height, width, shape, etc.) and we also experience it in time (a sequence of sensory events). By memorizing the time (temporal) aspects of sensory input you can build mental maps of experience - for example - say you're an inquisitive 5 year old boy running into a dog in an alley who then starts barking loudly and then leaps and bites you. The input breaks down like this ...

Sensory Input - SPATIAL
Auditory - Bark
Visual - Dog (husky dog in aggressive posture)
Visual - Alley

Sensory Input - TEMPORAL
1) Entered Alley
2) Sensed Dog
3) Got bit

Now - this traumatic event will probably be burned into your memories for the rest of your life. Lets say sometime in the future you find yourself entering an alley and you either hear a bark or see a dog -- then your brain is going to recall (from its memories) prior experiences you had that match these similar sensory inputs - and your brain is going to recall what happened before and use that as a template of whats going to happen in the future (this is prediction) -- you'll wisely choose an alternative path this time. This is all possible by simply remembering prior experiences (spatial and temporal aspects of sensory input).

"Lower" animals do this too - so this is not representative of human intelligence but it IS representative of a simple model of neural-based prediction and behaviour -- simply by using memory. Here's another sample HTM narrative from the Emerging Properties Blog -a small team I recently formed with some friends whose charter is to design and develop HTM based AIs and robotic behavior networks.

Non Hodgkins Lymphoma Primer - Part 1

2009-01-01T09:56:00.000-05:00

My mother has been a cancer patient since the year 2000. Her cancer type is Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma (NHL) - Large B Cell type. I've accompanied my mother to nearly all her doctor appointments, imaging scans, therapy treatments and surgeries during the last 8 years and I would like to share our particular timeline, my observations and some recommendations. Cancer comes in many flavors and with many varying personalities and I can only speak to NHL.

NHL is a lymphatic system based cancer - meaning that it occurs within the lymph tissue of your body. The lymphatic system is an entire network of nodes, ducts, vessels and tissues that produce and transport lymph fluid across the body and is a major part of our immune system. It's like a secondary bloodstream network but instead of blood it transports lymph fluid.

Clusters of lymph nodes exist in and around your neck area, your underarms and your abdomen. Tonsils are the most "popular" form of lymph tissue where infections lead to their removal.

The Early days - Winter 2000
During the winter of 2000, mom started experiencing a set of maladies that seem disconnected at the time. She experienced frequent back pain, which she attributed to frequently standing in her job. At the same time, she started experiencing a diffuse pain and discomfort in her abdomen. Her primary care physician was suspicious but unsure on the cause so she sent her to get Pap smears and gynecological exams. These exams came back clear, the primary care physician was reluctant to send her to any specialists because of a lack of health insurance.

LESSON #1 - MAKE SURE YOU HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE - IN America today, if you have cancer and no health insurance - you will bankrupt your family and most probably die.

One day during the winter of 2000, mom's legs started shutting down. Both her legs from her knee down were showing signs of atrophy exhibited by a darkening of her skin. We took her to the hospital. Poor circulation (due to Diabetes) and a viral infection were the two prominent theories given by the ER doctors but I was immediately suspicious of the viral infection theory since both legs were showing the atrophy and it didn't seem "localized" as a leg-based viral infection should exhibit itself (in my mind anyway). There seemed to be some hesitation to get scans performed which I now realize was due to her health insurance situation.

LESSON #2 - MAKE SURE YOU HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE - It really is a matter of life or death if you come down with a life threatening illness.

After a CAT scan was finally performed, the diagnosis was then obviously clear... huge tumors were present in mom's lymphatic system throughout her neck, chest, back and abdomen.

LESSON #3 - Imaging technology such as CAT, PET and PET fusion scans are the most reliable methods to gather information on the current state of cancer activity in your body.

A CAT scan is a detailed imaging study which in mom's case is primarily (and frequently) used to determine lymph node sizes. Enlarged lymph nodes are usually indicative of a problem - either infection or in mom's case - lymphoma. The patient will be given a milk-like drink to consume prior to testing to help increase the scan's contrast and effectiveness. We use the spanish term for a cat -- "gato" - when playfully referring to this scan.

A PET scan is a much more interesting beast. This scan "sniffs out" cells that are using abnormal amounts of glucose from the body. Increased glucose uptake is a signature of energy-hungry cancer cells and a PET scan can detect this at very detailed levels. So detailed that a CAT scan can potentially show that all lymph nodes are normal and present no indications that cancer is active while a PET scan the same week can show active cancer cells in the same lymph nodes - a testament to the PET scan's sensitivity. We use the spanish term for dog - "perro" - when referring to this scan.

After some uncomfortable AIDS related questions, the cancer diagnosis was clear and we needed to extract a sample of a tumor to gather more specific information on the type of cancer we were dealing with. This tumor cell extraction surgery is known as a biopsy. The biopsy is a critical component in your fight with cancer and should not be avoided ... since doctors can now employ more targeted medicines to battle specific types of cancer.

Chemotherapy is usually the initial salvo in your war against cancer (and believe me folks .. its a war). The prevailing "gold standard" in chemotherapy treatments is known as CHOP, which is a chemical cocktail of drugs used to "punish" rapidly dividing cells. The good news is that its effective across many different cancer types since most involve uncontrolled cell division. The bad news is that its also "effective" against good cells in your body that also divide rapidly. Side effects are notorious and are every bit as bad as you have heard. Severe nausea, complete loss of hair, fatigue, low blood cell counts, etc. But if there is a silver lining ... this happened to be the worst part of the treatment regimen (and we've had many) ... probably due more to the emotional shock of not knowing or of never having experienced such a shock to the body and spirit.

LESSON #4 - Caretakers, usually family members, react in wildly different ways during these initial treatments and surgeries. I would advise that at least 1 family member (preferably the same one) be "very present" in most if not all of the initial scans, surgeries and treatment cycles, not just for emotional support but because there will be a whirlwind of doctors, specialists, technicians, health care professionals, etc that will now invade your life. The "continuity" of information gathering and information transfer is very important and that is best done by a non-sick caretaker because doctors are way too busy with their multitude of patients, healthcare regulations, liability concerns and parade of pharmaceutical reps to effectively manage all the various details of each patient's treatment.

To be continued ....

References

Charity - Support - Donate

Anthropic Arguments

2008-12-20T14:52:00.002-05:00

Recently, I've been reading a book titled "Many Worlds In One" by Alexander Vilenkin - excellent review on Cosmic Variance. He explores deep cosmological concepts like the big bang, multiple island universes we'll never see, inflationary universe expansion, repulsive gravitational matter and a bunch of other cool shit.

But the chapter I'm currently reading speaks to the growing trend of anthropic arguments being made by physicists, philosophers and the like regarding the seemingly "remarkable fine-tuning" of the important physical constants of the of the universe. Some of the constants in question are the speed of light, strength of gravity, charge of the electron and the expansion factor of the universe (Cosmological Constant).

Anthropic-based reasoning suggests that these physical constants are precisely tuned to allow carbon-based life forms to evolve -- and hence -- this suggests the workings of a Grand "fine-tuner" (i.e. God, Prime Mover, etc.) that has made the constants as such. The reasoning follows that if any one of these constants were a little lower or a little higher then there would have been no possibility for life to evolve for physical reasons (if gravity was just a little less then stars could never have formed ... if atomic charges were just a little different then no stable atoms could exist, etc.)

Here's a more formal definition of what is known as the Weak Anthropic Principle...

Weak Anthropic Principle (WAP): the observed values of all physical and cosmological quantities are not equally probable but they take on the values restricted by the requirement that there exist sites where carbon-based life can evolve and by the requirement that the Universe be old enough for it to have already done so. (The Anthropic Cosmological Principle by John Barrow and Frank Tipler, p. 16)

Believe me folks ... I love reading this shit and I'm no genius but every time I hear these arguments I always feel perplexed because it seems like some very smart people are missing (or dismissing) an important point -- an evolutionary point. The values of the physical constants of the universe are most definitely "tuned" for what we see around us today not because some entity fine-tuned them ... but because what we see today are the ONLY things that could have formed within the constraints of those values.

This is classic evolutionary theory .... Stars, galaxies, stable atoms, space-time, matter, energy and whatever else we find in this universe are the ONLY viable "solutions" that could have formed in our universal environment. This universal evolutionary "fitness landscape" only allowed matter/energy configurations that bounded by the physical constant values. As the universe expanded from the big bang and stars were given enough time to live and die in supernova; heavier, more exotic elements (matter configurations) were created because the environmental landscape allowed more complex configurations ... not because the environment was tuned to create them .... the environment ONLY allowed their "types" to be created.... no other exotic element "solutions" were allowed or "survived" -- given the constraints.

With these new exotic elements now flowing in our universe ... they provided new landscapes of possibility ... new potential for complex matter arrangements that never existed early in the universe. As more time progressed and new stellar bodies were formed from these heavier, exotic elements .... pools of co-located elements were formed and these pools provided the fertile grounds necessary for the orgy of permutations required to traverse these new matter configuration landscapes.

Life is a solution ... a very special solution .... a beautiful "local maxima" in this matter possibility landscape that somehow gained the ability to self-replicate and metabolize. But none of this needs a fine tuner explanation .. nor does it need the advent of a billion other universes to help us grasp it or feel better about it. Quarks, atoms, molecules, photons, were all viable solutions to the universal constraints because they were the only solutions the environment allowed.... the only solutions that "survived" the universal fitness function.

The more complex things we see such as stars, galaxies and life are just hierarchies of solutions upon older solutions to this universal matter/energy landscape. Given enough time ... who knows what can evolve ... arguably, the only physical attribute that we should revere .... is time.

Berty's Anti-Anthropic Principle (BAAP): the observed matter and energy solutions (including life) observed today are not exclusive solutions but are the most compelling and successful solutions to the universe's fitness function composed and bounded by the values of the physical constants. Dying stars and large temporal spans provided new pathways to the solution landscapes necessary for The "Carbon Life Solution" permutation to be traversed.

Life is a compound hierarchical solution based on older, simpler solutions (quarks, simple elements, stable atomic nuclei configurations, etc.) that survived the universe's fitness evaluations since the dawn of the universe.

Life and large temporal spans provided new pathways to the solution landscapes necessary for The "Intelligence Solution" permutation to be traversed. Intelligence is just another in a series of compound hierarchical solutions based on their older, simpler constituent substrates (i.e. life).

I guess its only natural to ask what new "solutions" will be produced when hierarchies of intelligence are compounded over large temporal spans ---- ooooooh ---- sounds like the Singularity to me --- Kurzweil rocks.

Sexy Science - Greatest Theories of Recent History

2007-11-13T23:46:00.003-05:00

Science is sooooo Sexy ... sexier than reality TV ... sexier than CSPAN ... and much sexier than most religions. Here's my all time top 10 list for greatest theories and breakthroughs in science (from the last couple centuries). It's difficult to make lists like these since theories are usually the result of previous research & theories .... but here's my attempt.

Criteria used: Elegance, Impact on Society and most importantly - Sexiness.

10. Maxwell - Theory of Electromagnetism

9. Neils Bohr - Theory of the Atom

8. Georges Lemaître - Big Bang Theory

7. Watson, Crick, Franklin and Wilkins - Structure of DNA

6. Planck - The Quantum (& Albert Einstein - Photoelectric Effect)

5. Albert Einstein - Theory of Special Relativity - Speed of Light is constant

4. Albert Einstein - Matter & Energy Equivalence - E=MC2

3. Einstein, Heisenberg, Planck - Quantum Mechanics

2. Charles Darwin - Evolution - Theory of Natural Selection

1. Albert Einstein - Theory of General Relativity (Gravity)

The only reason I chose Einstein's General Relativiy over Darwin's Evolution is because of it's superior aesthetic beauty. The sensuous embrace of space and time guiding matter along its contoured busom .... ahhhhhh ...... sexy.

Honorable Mention: Bell's Inequality Theorem, Turing Machines & Computational Theory, Mendel Genetics

WTF - Apple flying by Big Blue?

2007-10-09T04:14:00.000-04:00

I recently read that Apple is about to pass Big Blue (IBM) in market capilization early next year.

This is the same Apple that used to sell its first MACs by pokin fun at how colossal and lethargic IBM was as a company (see famous 1984 commercial). Apple is currently near $140 billion (USD) in market capitalization and IBM is currently around $158 billion.

Crazy ass tech industry.... it's amazing what can happen in a couple of decades. IBM is now almost exclusively in the software services business and almost completely out of the hardware business... and the "hardware" that Apple has flying off the shelves for the past 5 years is a souped up digital version of a Sony Walkman .....

Shit .. maybe IBM can now make a commerical of the "big bad Apple" that is monopolizing people's ears ..... hahahahahaha ..... crazy ass tech industry.

Robot Wife Algorithm - C#

2007-09-09T04:37:00.000-04:00

Robot Wifey Algorithm Pseudocode




public void WifeyMain()
{
   foreach (day in year)
   {
      // initialization
      wifey.cook(latinFoods);
      wifey.performKinkyActs(new random(datetime));

      // emotion state management
      switch (wifey.CurrentMood)
      {
         case PISSED: wifey.CurrentMood = HORNY;
         case SAD: wifey.CurrentMood = HORNY;
         case MAD: wifey.CurrentMood = HORNY;
         case HORNY: wifey.CurrentMood = wifey.CurrentMood * 10;
      }

      // behavior management
      try
      {
         if (wifey.CurrentMood == HORNY)
         {
           wifey.performKinkyActs(DateTime.Now());
         }
      }
      catch (Exception exc)
      {
          wifey.performKinkyActs(DateTime.Now());
      }
   }
}

RoboCup 2007 - Georgia Tech

2007-07-05T03:32:00.000-04:00

Girl Unit Testing Soccer Robot

2 on 2 Humanoid Robot Soccer Competition

RoboCup First Day Snippets

Hawking's Plea ?

2007-02-07T19:28:00.000-05:00

I've been getting a funny feeling (intuition?) about Stephen Hawking lately. I think Stephen is trying to reach out to somebody ... maybe everybody. In the past 12 months he has divorced, set plans to write a childrens' book, posted a question regarding human survivability on Yahoo Answers, Initiated a search for a new assistant, Made several interviews warning mankind to colonize the planets or face extinction, announced that he's preparing to be sent into space and last but not least; has moved the Doomsday Clock closer to midnight, symbolically moving mankind closer to oblivion .....

hmmmmmm....... I've seen this sort of "liberated" behavior before, a 2nd mid-life crisis maybe? instead of getting a Porsche sports car, he's getting shot into space?

hmmmmmm......... Maybe his other half was really a bitch and was really doing all those rumoured assaults on Stephen and now that she's gone he's spreading his wings again?

hmmmmmm ....... Maybe, his life threatening bout with Pneumonia 3 years ago and the subsequent discovery of potential physical abuse has reminded Hawking of how short and sweet life can be and has refocused him to live a mental and experiential renaissance in his life. CARPE DIEM BABY !!!!

Whatever the reason, I can usually tell when someone is reaching out and this man is reaching out ...... and don't worry Hawk Baby !!! I'm listening !!

So what is he really saying? I personally believe that Stephen is reaching out on two fronts. I think that his own mortality is on his mind and I feel that he's dealing with it by dealing with mankind's mortality in general. As a species, Hawking is trying to tell us to pretty much colonise the cosmos or risk extinction ... I summarize it below in what I'll name Hawkings Plea.

Hawkings Plea
Because of the factors listed below - human survivability is in serious jeopardy during the next several centuries. Global economic and intellectual resources should be applied to mankind's expansion beyond Earth. Self sustaining colonies on the Moon and Mars will allow the human race to recover from a global incident - natural or terroristic - on the planet.

Climate Change - Global Warming - a self sustaining climatic warming event will cause global chaos
Global Pandemic Virus - A pandemic such as bird flu can potentially wipe out a huge swath of human life.
Biological Terror Weapon
Nuclear Weapons Proliferation - A war between new nuclear powers provides a doomsday scenario of escalation and worldwide damage
Nanotechnological Weapons - Grey Goo is a real fear of several prominent scientists regarding advancements in self-assembling nanomachines
Asteroid Impact - we'll be joining our dinosauran brethren
Radical Religious Groups and States - this is probably the biggest threat since it can lead to several of the above global threats.

PERSONAL ADVICE
Stephen, whatever the reason for your recent energy... go live your life to its fullest dude. If the ladies have been giving you trouble then put them to the side for awhile ..... the ladies can drive us all crazy ... you know how many times I wanted to get shot into space to not hear the drama anymore? Dont worry, you're a natural pimp and you'll be back in the love game soon ... but take a break.

You should probably consider signing up for Cryonics too ... you're getting kinda old ... and that last bout of pneumonia almost got you. Maybe they can wake you up in a century and put you on a robotic body and The Onion article from 1997 would've been prescient.

Hope you get to live another 100 years Stephen ....

RESOURCES / LINKS
01/18/2007 - Doomsday Clock moved closer to "Midnight"
01/09/2007 - Hawking is Going To Space
11/30/2006 - Hawking's BBC Interview - Audio - Space Colonization
11/06/2006 - Hawking advertising assistant job
10/21/2006 - Hawking Divorce #2 - Physical and emotional abuse
06/08/2006 - Hawking posts human survival question on Yahoo Answers
06/13/2006 - Hawking Children's Book
03/29/2004 - Hawking allegedly assaulted - case later dismissed(?) -- wifey?
01/29/2004 - Pneumonia almost claims Hawking's Life but instead gives him insight into Information Paradox question
10/16/2001 - Hawkings Interview - Colonise Space or Die

2007 Focus - Brains & Bots

2007-01-07T20:29:00.000-05:00

2006 was about reflection, change and relief. Not just for me, but I believe the country "exhaled" too..... American voters decided to start anew and chose a new Congress ... the President got rid of Rumsfield and a bi-partisan panel issued the Iraq War Report recommending fundamental changes in Iraq War strategy. Another savage year in Iraq ended with the savage execution of a savage man ... Saddam Hussein was executed.

Personally, I decided to mentally "reboot" in 2006. Took on a mostly part-time schedule throughout the year, took the first sabbatical of my career, forced myself to read books I've been wanting to read and continued my favorite hobby - running. After my great west-coast sabbatical I came back to center city Philly, quietly settled into a nice little apartment and picked up my software consulting hours at a south jersey client (sabbaticals are great -- but you dont make much money) and started laying the groundwork for what I plan to focus on during 2007.

2007 Resolutions

Fitness - pick up the running another notch - Initial Goal: 5 miles - no stops - at an average below 7 minutes/per mile. Also will do more trail & hill running in beautiful Valley Green - Philly Fairmount Park.
Mental - continue the aggressive reading pace that I initiated in 2006. Goal: To get a comprehensive understanding of cognitive science and neuroscience by year end.
Career - picking up the consulting hours to fund my 2007 geek hobby (below). Goal: To increase consulting revenues by 40% over 2006.
Geek Hobby - using most of my personal free time ramping up on robotics, artifiical intelligence and advanced multicore/multithreaded programming. Goal: To build a small mobile robot driven by a generalized AI prototype - by year end with a small 3 man team.

Sounds like another year without a girlfriend :)

Lets Talk About A.I.

2006-12-20T22:01:00.000-05:00

A.I. has been the hot topic lately. Yes … I’m speaking about Allen Iverson and yes I’m speaking about Artificial Intelligence. Lets begin with the former. Allen Iverson was traded to the Denver Nuggets yesterday (Dec. 19) and another tumultuous, passionate and intriguing era is over for Philadelphia sports. People in Philly LOVED A.I. and people in Philly HATED A.I. … he was a lightning rod of polarized passions in a town known for polarizing passionate phanatics.

I personally loved how A.I. played the game and I always felt the ball-hog label was bullshit; especially since nobody was complaining when the “ball-hog” had an MVP season during a special year with a special coach. And when his assists shot up after the 2003 season and the rest of his game elevated once again during a time most experts predicted that his skills will suffer a significant decline due to his aging body and supposedly degrading speed … A.I. proved everybody wrong and has had MVP type years during his last two campaigns. For whatever reasons, the Sixers were never able to successfully build a high-caliber team around A.I. and even the most diehard of A.I. fans must wonder if A.I. was more of a problem then “the Answer”.

At the end of the day I judge an athlete by their game efforts and their talent level – and in those departments – A.I. has no peer. All the AI haters always spewing venom about his “practice habits” and “team skills” …. even though most of his prior teammates have vocalized nothing but praise on his work ethic and have cherished him as a teammate.

I suspect that a significant percentage of the people who despised A.I.; did so because of what they thought he represented to them … an angry young black, ghetto, hip hop loving sports millionaire that had no respect for authority, practice or rules … but I saw a young, black, ghetto, hip hop loving boy who grew into a man and always spoke from the heart, made some dumb young-boy mistakes but shaped his tremendous gifts into an athlete that rose to the top of a sport built for men one foot taller and one hundred pounds heavier… and that’s what I’m always going to respect and remember about A.I.

He's quintessentially the Ultimate Philly Athlete. He has that “Rocky” thing going for him --- the underdog reaching for levels he wasn’t built to reach and wasn’t meant to reach but had the heart to reach. Allen has legions of fans in Philadelphia (and across the league) and they span across all cultures, races and social economic groups because of his heart.

Denver took a risk on multiple levels but I sincerely believe in how AI plays the game … just keep doing your thing and I hope you get the ring.... keep driving the lane … keep getting knocked down … keep getting back up .... and keep hitting the impossible shots.

Artifical Intelligence is back in vogue and people are excited again. Moore's law has kicked in for enough years on both CPU processing power, volatile and non-volatile memory densities and software maturity that we've finally passed a threshold. Now there's a resurgence of people, papers and general excitement in the realms of artificial intelligence and robotics. More in depth brain analysis and mapping tools, decades of neuroscientists peeling away the mysterious workings of our brain and the convergence of the information theory, artificial intelligence and neuroscience communities into integrated disciplines is finally bearing some serious fruit.

As any good experienced software guy will tell you after taking a strong look at the A.I. & robotics landscape -- you are immediately struck by the GRAND software challenges that exist - including lack of standards, complexity of implementations, plurality of proprietary substrates, massive amounts of data, lack of mature multithreaded, distributed, parallel software talent and algorithms and a general lack of financial resources to support such complex projects over a fixed amount of years. Students are usually the worker bees but they tend to graduate, get a job or get pregnant.

Like always DARPA is in the game, trying to build the next "killer app" in robotics, A.I. and neuroscience. Trying to build the war machines and soldiers of the future. DARPA has been sponsoring the Grand Challenges (including the Autonomous automobile challenge won by an A.I. group from Stanford University). Fresh new energy in rocketry and space travel by the software gazillionaires and probably the most significant event in American robotics has occurred when a software heavyweight announced theire entry into the robotics software development arena.

FOLKS -- the magic is in the software - no disrespect to the great hardware engineering that allows the software to run faster, stronger and greater. But true A.I. is going to be more a function of software and algorithms until the day we can manufacture a hardware version of the brain (a trillion chips wired in a trillion ways)

Big shout out to Emerging Properties, AMD, Microsoft, Ray Kurzweil, DARPA , Stanford's AI team, Carnegie Mellon's CompSci dept, MIT, Rutgers and all the other great computer science departments that were brave enough to keep the flashlight on during the A.I. dark ages (and during the internet bubble bust) .... and a a GRAND SHOUT OUT to the other A.I and the Denver Nuggets.

Now the big question .... should I get a girlfriend in '07 ???

Time Now for the Future

2006-09-19T04:00:00.000-04:00

I've been on a mini-sabbatical for the past several months and I've done alot of emotional purging on this blog about the past and the present, some positive and some negative. But lately, I feel my sabbatical coming to an end and find myself thinking alot more about the future. So lets talk about the future.

Lets start with today's futurists. You can't really begin a conversation about modern futurists unless you start with Ray Kurzweil, author of The Singularity Is Near, who argues that we're experiencing accelerated growth across a range of technological disciplines spanning across medicine, industry, art, media and information technology. He seems to argue that this exponential growth is an intrinsic (and probably unstoppable) property of technological innovation that started with life's humble beginnings on this planet to our tool using cave dwelling ancestors to the information technology frenzy that we have today. Kurweil suggests that we're currently on the upward swing of this "acceleration" and that we should prepare ourselves for what he considers a technological singularity. A singularity is generally known as the point within a black hole where the math and physics breaks down, a point that cannot be computed and where the curvature warps so intensely that it probably results in a "hole" in the fabric of space-time.
The Singularity is described by Kurzweil as "technological change so rapid and profound it could create a rupture in the very fabric of human history". The main crux of this singularity revolves around the relentless march of progress and the merging of technologies including artificial intelligence, robotics, genetic manipulation/engineering and nanotechnology known collectively as GNR or the GRIN technologies.

Futurism has always had a reputation for harboring new age crackpots and is still dismissed as pseudo science by vocal groups of research scientists. But Kurzweil has added a sense of legitimacy to futurism since he is such a highly regarded and respected engineer and inventor. He's currently a very popular speaker at large conferences spanning across all of the GNR technologies.

Two major groups of technologies exist. Kurzweil and others feel that progress in genetics and nanotechnology will result in a proliferation of health advancements possibly reducing today's most feared diseases and health ailments to a quick trip to your local nano-doctor for the latest download of nanobots. Much speculation also exists suggesting that these health-related advancements may possibly delaying aging or age-related processes. The other major group of technologies revolve around artificial intelligence and robotics. Some feel that within the next 20-30 years with the current pace of I.T. growth, neuroscience research and brain imaging; we will be able to construct machine intelligences that rival or even surpass our own intelligence (via either improvements in AI algorithms due to neocortex modeling or blunt-force reverse engineering and modeling of an entire brain). Pick the blue pill Neo !!!

There's a common theme to most futurist thought regarding singularities (and disaster scenarios) and that's Self-Replication. If (or when) machine intelligence is realized, then it may be able to grow unimaginably fast since an advanced machine intelligence may be able to create another smarter machine intelligence which may create and even smarter machine intelligence .... well you get the point. Similar ideas revolve around nanotechnology. One of the central themes and constructs of nanotechnology is the concept of the molecular assembler. This assembler in theory should be able to construct complex molecules from single atomic units. And if 1 molecular assembler can make another molecular assembler just like it -- then you have the beginnings of a self-replication system much like bacteria that can create copies of itself and go from the single digits to millions or even billions of copies of themselves in relatively small amount of time. Even though some of the core concepts of the molecular assembler are still vehemently debated it still seems that one must reference the bacteria example. If bacteria can do it, then at the very least we know that it can be done on this planet ... then its just a matter of time, research and intelligence -- uh oh -- artificial intelligence..... I'm scared .... hold me.

I found Kurzweil's Singularity book compelling and it has elevated my general interest across all the futurist subject matter but a couple other books have had a significant impact on my thoughts regarding these technologies and specifically artificial intelligence.

Joel Garreau is author of a book named Radical Evolution. A reporter and editor for the Washington Post, Joel takes an in-depth look at the different groups of characters and organizations that surround these technologies including DARPA - the bleeding edge research arm of the D.O.D. He partitions the book (and the individuals involved) into 3 major groups named Heaven, Hell & Prevail. Each group describes the camp that key individuals involved in research, philosophy and speculation belong. With the obvious labels aligning with optimisitic, pessimistic or neutral feeling s towards the future and the impact technology will have on it. He provides compelling interviews and an excellent overview of the futurist landscape regarding GRIN technologies.

The other book that has piqued my interest recently is Jeff Hawkins onIntelligence book. Jeff is a founder of Palm Computing and Numenta. He has authored a book on his thoughts regarding AI and neocortex function. He provides an algorithmic framework for a new breed of AI that melds variants of Bayesian Inference, neocortex modeling and working memory to produce what he terms as HTM or Hierarchal Temporal Memory. This is an interesting read for anybody interested in AI and/or brain function. I will detail this more in a future post.

Robert Freitas is a key figure in nanomedicine where he prototypes future nanotechnology-based robot designs and strategies that will potentially help humans overcome inherent biological limitations that we currently experience. I have not read his books but its on my list. Here's a couple of websites with relevant info:
Foresight.org - NanoMedicine
Robert Freitas Homepage

Stressed? Sabbatical may be the answer

2006-09-10T00:09:00.000-04:00

I tell you .. I was very, very, very close to just retiring, going bankrupt and just giving it all up.

After working very hard for the last 10 years and taking way too few vacations --- I was growing stressed and tired of the same ol' bullshit - day in and day out - regarding the software consulting biz.

Tired of the late vendor payments, tired of the floating requirements, tired of Uncle Sam Federal (and his cousin Uncle Sam State) continously raping me (and all small business owners), tired of the unaffordable health insurance, tired of the unbearable work schedules, tired of the technical short-sightnedness of managers, tired of the hidden agendas, tired of the interviews, tired of bullshit QA, tired of new .NET libraries to learn, new XSL functions to learn, new XQUERY functions to learn, new AJAX, new design patterns, new tiers, new data access methods, new releases of databases & IDEs & QA tools & 3rd party components & software versioning systems, new languages, new application blocks, new software processes, agile this, extreme that, SCRUM here and Waterfall there .... UML the entire thing ... AHHHH !!!! .... JUST SHUT UP !!!

So I took a break ... after bombing several interviews (which has NEVER happened to me before) I wrapped up my lease, wrapped up my current contract, packed up my Pilot and I've been on a semi-sabbatical (still working a part-time telecommute) for the past 2 months on the west coast. Went hiking in the Flagstaff mountains, took a slow drive through Sedona and onwards to Scottsdale, AZ. Then went due west to LA, outrunning thunderstorms on the highway and then took a VERY slow drive up the Pacific Coast Highway towards San Fran... stopping at beaches, redwood forests, wine makers, mountain trails, restaurants .... some food ... some wine... lots of pictures (see the camoflauged animal ?).

Relaxed in Monterrey for a week then subletted an apartment in San Francisco for 3 weeks and did nothing but jogging, site seeing, tons of walking, eating, reading, watching movies and some blogging ----- ahhhhhhhhhhh.

Visited Stanford, Berkeley, Palo Alto, Fremont, Petaluma, Wine country, Muir Beach .... attended Renaissance Fairs, festivals, exhibits ----- and then finally just locked down a temporary hotel for the last month in a suburb of San Fran to reflect on my life, my career and my immediate and not so immediate future. I had to answer some serious questions ... look in the mirror type shit. And during the last month ... the answers just started bubbling up.

Did I still love coding and software? YES
Did I still have my childhood loves of science & technology? YES
Did I still love learning? YES
Do I still hae unresolved anger/conflicts due to childhood ghetto shit? YES
Do I regret the major decisions in my life during the last several years? NO
Does this president suck or am I just in a crappy mood? BOTH
Do I still give a flying shit about other people ... do I still care about my fellow wo/man? YES

And last but not least ...

Do I still have my best personality trait ... Am I still an optimist?

This was an important question. Optimism has been an important coping mechanism for me and a gift I've always had in my life. My natural optimism got me through some VERY DARK YEARS during my childhood and my early 30s.

I wasn't sure at first but this answer is slowly becoming clearer to me and I like the result. YES.

After reflecting on those issues I decided to wake up every morning and just do what I felt like for that day ... so If I wanted to work my telecommute or wanted to read a science book or wanted to watch YouTube videos all day or listen to Yoga podcasts or go out jogging or just code for myself ... or take some free lectures online from MIT or Berkeley ... then thats what I would do for that particular day.

WOW -- that worked like a charm.

It's like an old college friend that I saw several months back describing how he felt when he attended one of those Silent Buddhist Retreats where you give up all your phones, email, clothes and food and do nothing but meditate and stay absolutely silent (and half-naked) for 10 days. He told me he started feeling crazy on the 2nd day and by the 3rd day he was ready to just kill somebody -- but then he mentioned that something strange begins to happen after that 3rd day ... he described it as a fog that begins to lift from your mind -- he told me " ... there's nothing left after that ... but the truth... your truth just begins to bubble up and you get this amazing clarity of thought .... " -- that left an impression on me prior to my trip and I have experienced that to a certain degree during this mini-sabattical.

Once my fog began to lift I realized that what I truly still love and like to do ..... and its the same shit that I loved when I was 17 in high school.

Computers, Gaming, Girls, Sports, Medicine, Software & Science.

Nothing has changed. It was still all there but it just gets all dusted up and obscured when Life Happens. This is the same stuff that still makes my pink parts blush and this is what I'm going to continue to do during my life -- Until the next mini-midlife crisis :)

Deep Links: God, Strings & how BIG is your h-index?

2006-08-22T04:33:00.000-04:00

I concluded my last post (regarding the internet) with a reference to the Deep linking sessions you can have when you get yourself going on a good link hopping session. It amazes (& amuses) me what dark alleys of the net you'll find yourself in ... spending hours reading some crazy shit totally tangential to why you hit the net in the first place. This happens to me all the time, go online to pay some bills and end up reading some True Hollywood story on the cast from Different Strokes. I decided to track occasional linking sessions and publish it under a Deep Link series of blog postings (remember where u heard it first). I'm going to write this in a stream of consciousness style -- summarizing what I read and providing my thoughts (or reasons) for jumping links and some thoughts that cross my mind as I read the passages.

God, Strings and my h-index is bigger than yours ....

I've been on this physics mania lately, consuming as much as I can read regarding topics such as relativity and quantum mechanics. Don't get too impressed ... I usually realize that I probably don't get beyond a layman's understanding of the more granular concepts of the theories, especially since my math is so weak these days ... but I do comfort myself with the little lie that I have a "strong grasp" of the higher level abstractions of the shit I read .... (sigh).

It started with my daily visit to ScienceDaily. Linking to the article about NASA announcement of Direct Proof of Dark Matter. Immediately I thought to myself that these Dark Matter knuckleheads are just running around like chickens with their heads cut off .... their theories are wrong and they keep blaming the shit on some mystical Dark Matter. Once I completed reading the article I wondered what was the issue tripping up all the scientists on this dark matter? maybe its time to read up on it and those strings that my astronomy professor from Rutgers used to get all excited about - Dr. Blood. Damn I love that name. Time for Wikipedia.

Looked up string theory and starting reading and quickly hopped to a link named the Holographic Principle. Which If I understood correctly; stated that the only information needed to know about the events of a given volume of space is the boundary of that region of space. In other words ... if you want to model the events in a given room, then all the information is available on the walls of that room. OK, that was good brain candy and it went on about information density and entropy.

In a given volume, there is an upper limit to the density of information about the whereabouts of all the particles which compose matter in that volume, suggesting that matter itself cannot be subdivided infinitely many times; rather there must be an ultimate level of fundamental particles, i.e. were a particle composed of sub-particles, then the degrees of freedom of the particle would be the product of all the degrees of freedom of its sub-particles; were these sub-particles themselves also divided into sub-sub-particles, and so on indefinitely, then the degrees of freedom of the original particle must be infinite, violating the maximal limit of entropy density. The holographic principle thus implies that the subdivisions must stop at some level, and that the fundamental particle is a bit (1 or 0) of information

more good brain candy, gotta spend some more time researching this holographic principle and entropy stuff but I'm heading back to string theory for now so I linked back to the string theory but I didn't get past the History section of the page when I saw a picture I recognized of Dr. Ed Witten. I havent really heard about him for awhile but I did remember that he was some math genius ... so I clicked on his link. Started reading about his life; born in 1951 in Baltimore, primarily works in Princeton at the Institute of Advanced Study, his brother works in hollywood. The passage went on to describe how mathematically "endowed" he is and how respected he is by his peers. It mentioned all the progress he's made in mathematics & physics including his proof of the postive energy theorem in general relativity -- ooooh -- dont know what the hell it is but it must be impressive. Then it mentioned M-Theory, this theory just sounds cool ... so it was time to hop links and learn about M-Theory.

In a horribly oversimplified nutshell ... there were 5 complementary theories regarding superstrings [ Type I string, Type IIA string theory, Type IIB string theory, heterotic SO(32) and the heterotic E8×E8]. Some smart guys realized that Type IIA & Type IIB were really just different aspects of the same underlying theory so they got merged. Also, the heterotic SO(32) and the E8xE8 were just different aspects of the same theory so they merged those two. And this left 3 but they also found that Type I theory and the merged SO(32) theories were related so they merged those but in 1995 Mr. Witten pretty much told everybody to sit down and let the master show them that they're ALL RELATED in a theory he dubbed M-Theory. He stated that M-Theory gives rise (at low energies) to eleven-dimensional supergravity and is related to ten-dimensional string theory by dimensional reduction.... dimensional reduction to a circle yields the Type IIA string theory, and dimensional reduction to a line segment yields the heterotic SO(32) string theory.... duh !! -- its so fucking obvious.

Goes on to describe a notion of membranes and how the big bang is just a couple of branes "doing the wild thing" -- these physicists are pervs -- after reading all this stuff on M-Theory I back-linked to Ed Witten's page and the following sentence caught my eye.

Witten has the highest h-index of any living physicist ...

So of course .. I hopped the link to h-index and found out that size really does matter ... (sigh again). Seems that h-index is a measurement used (invented in 2005) to assess how prolific a particluar expert or scientist is in his area of expertise. The definition given is

A scientist has index h if h of his/her Np papers have at least h citations each, and the other (Np – h) papers have fewer than h citations each.

In essence this means that the bigger your h-index is ... the more respect (or most influence) you have amongst your peers in your subject area. And it seems that Mr. Witten is enormously endowed with h-index ... he slaughters everybody on the list. But to my surprise Stephen Hawking wasn't on the top 5 of this list. The top 5 guys for Physics were:

Edward Witten: h = 110 (132 as of December 2005)
Steven Weinberg: h = 88
Dimitri Nanopoulos: h = 86
Cumrun Vafa: h = 85
Nati Seiberg: h = 84

I first hopped to Dimitri Nanopoulus because his last name started with the nano- prefix and one of my best friends in college was Greek .... hey, we all hop links for different reasons, nobody said that they had to be rational reasons...

Dimitri's page spoke about his work on the Grand Unified Theory and then it presented this interesting passage :

Flipped SU(5) is the only successful unification of superstring theory with the Standard Model of particle physics. He is the first to successfully merge quantum mechanics with gravity through his theory of spacetime foam

Spacetime foam? cool beans ... that was enough to pique my interest so I went to check out the Flipped SU(5) page.

WHOA!! -- WTF was that ?!!? This page looked like somebody was on a serious LSD trip -- this cannot possibly be english -- just follow this link and read the description of a superpotential.

So as I cursed my greek buddy's name under my breath as I hopped back a couple of steps to the h-index page and looked up the #2 guy on the list --- Steven Weinberg. Now this page was interesting; first of all this guy just looks pissed off but then it was confirmed when I read this passage - a quote from the honorable Mr. Weinberg.

Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.

OUCH !!! -- damn ... that hurts .... but the truth usually does :).

This guy may not be a happy camper but his physics credentials are DEEP. He won the Nobel Price for Physics in 1979 for combining the Electromagnetic force with the weak force - merging the two into the electroweak force. He authored "the First Three Minutes". I remember reading that book when I was around 18 years old -- around 1990. It always left an imprint on my psyche, whenever I thought about the big bang, I would always envision the first 3 minutes being this ocean of chaos, an orgy of energy - spreading in all directions -bouncing off the edges and like gas molecules exerting a pressure - it pushed the boundaries of the universe ever larger .... but I digress.

Anyway the Weinberg Wikipedia page had an interesting link to a lecture titled "A Designer Universe" - the name of a talk that Mr. Weinberg gave in 1999. Another link hop --- I read the summary where he speaks about the Anthropic principle and intelligent design of the universe. He sounds pissed off in this lecture too -- but its pretty good.

Well - after I finished the Weinberg lecture I asked myself what the hell was I doing initially before I went on this Deep Link rampage -- and thats when I laughed and realized that I did it again. Went online for a particular reason and ended up reading about a dozen different physics theories and some pissed off scientist (with a HUGE h-index). Till the next Deep Links Session.

8th Wonder of the World - the Internet

2006-08-20T06:03:00.000-04:00

Feeling a little appreciative (must be the 35th birthday) and wanted to blog about it. I've been blessed to be part of the generation that has actively participated in the early childhood and growth of what's easily the 8th wonder of the world - Today's Internet. I was an undergraduate during the years of the Internet's text-based obscurity (I miss u Lynx, Gopher, Usenet & NAILS MUD) andI remember when our network wiz and the IT dept. first put Mosaic on the Unix boxes. - the first popular web browser. For a satellite campus of a major univeristy, we had one of the top networks around... BIG shout out to Stan Kolasa and the computing crew from Rutgers - Camden.

The beauty (and terror) of the internet is that its so humanly chaotic. An infinite landscape of hate, spirituality, love, war, sex, knowledge, ideas, news, crap, text, video, audio, sex, images, crap, pervs, dating, photos, angels, scientists, devils, zealots and yes .... more sex.

The current downside is that the internet is still largely skewed English and western but that should be changing with the growing worldwide Asian clout in India, China and the most wired country in the world - South Korea.

There's going to be a huge influx of fresh material during the next decade.... especially once more disconnected segments of society start ramping up their presence online too including Africa and South America. (Good luck to MIT Media Lab's Negroponte $100 laptop effort and AMD's 50x15 efforts).

The internet has changed so many aspects of my life ... I work exclusively over the internet now (via telecommute), A majority of my communication is via email and instant messenger and I get ALL my news online now (rarely ever watch TV news) ... but suprisingly, my book consumption (and budget) has not decreased even though it would've seemed natural that the internet should've displaced that too .....

So many sites ... so little time ....

Wikipedia - this online encyclopedia can get you on some serious deep linking sessions.
MIT OpenCourseWare - get smart.
YouTube - the old guy rocks but Shakira rules
mySpace - teenagers, old men disguised as teenagers and more teenagers.
SmugMug - SteveM pix - shameless plug but great photos
NYtimes.com - best US online newspaper .
Berkeley Webcasts - get smart (again)
eBay - sell anything... and I mean anything.
Amazon.com & Shopzilla- charrrrrrrrrrrge it!!
idSoftware - I gleefully watched my cousin clutch his throat and give a death cry as I fragged him for years during multiplayer DOOM & QUAKE gaming !!!
slashdot & wired news - geeks, nerds and more geeks.
Limewire - Peer2Peer clients - poor P2P guys always getting sued, they go bankrupt, try to come back and then fade (RIP Napster, Kazaa) ... hopefully Limewire survives.
Yahoo Answers - Even Stephen Hawking was asking questions
healthCubes.com - shameless plug
ScienceDaily.com - just straight up science
Google & Maps - Maps started the Ajax hype
MSN Games - closet bejeweled lover
HubbleSite - Most beautiful pictures in the universe
BoxingTalk.com - boxing rocks
CNN.com, BBC & Al-Jazeera - hey .. one man's truth is another man's bullshit
Facebook.com - the new Frat
Flickr - more photos
PokerStars - so much poker hype these days
CDC.gov - not all government sucks - some of the gov websites are surpisingly resourceful
WHO.org - get the latest on the pandemics that'll doom us all one day
Space.com, SpaceRef.com, JPL - the final frontier ... until we're all cyborgs one day.
ESPN - their real-time GameCast Flash apps are simply amazing
Technorati, Blogger, PodCastBunker, blog.com - Blogs, podcasts and more blogs.
Yahoo Personals & sex.com- Don't act like you never looked - get your love on.
Craigslist - I've used craigslist to find sublet apartments in NYC & San Francisco.
Taoism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hindu - get your prayer on
CartoonNetwork - kept my niece busy for hours playing their games
Fantasy Art, NYPL Art, Art Museums, Digital Art, CG Art, SciFi Art, Graffiti Art

... but the more obscure sites on the internet is what continuosly boggles my mind ... it's amazing the shit you can find during deep linking sessions on the net but thats for another post ... i'm sleepy.

Geek: Software Architects - More than UML

2006-08-07T16:37:00.000-04:00

Just finished reading a nice little article in Dr. Dobbs Portal concerning the roles that many software architects play in today's software development teams and some of the "soft skills" needed when trying to be an effective architect and implementation lead. Serving in this capacity myself for a couple of different clients... I learned many lessons that were outside of the technology realm that were just as important to the success of the project:

Clear Business Vision: Just like any project for any type of effort ... you absolutely need a clear vision from the business side of the house. If the vision from the biz side of the house is unclear .... then you (the architect) along with the project manager need to clarify your own vision that approximates the business' goals and then run with that vision. If the business has no idea on their vision ... then you may want to shift to a more agile or short-cycle development process with frequent builds ... so that the business can get some traction after they see some functionality .... I know ... I know ... GUI is the devil ... I agree ... but sometimes business guys (especially the creative types) need to see GUI before they can articulate their vision. A persisently unclear business vision will doom any software project since mapping any type of metrics, setting goals or generating effective builds will be near impossible and then ur team will start getting frustrated and may start leaving.

Young & Old: If the project is a multi-year effort, then ensure that your team has a diversity of personnel regarding age groups and family situations ... in other words ... make sure you have BOTH young, single team-members along with older married members. At the risk of generalizing .... your young guys/gals are probably going to leave you within 2 years since ur company's salary structure probably can't keep pace with the market conditions. This is when your older, married team-mates (whom are less-likely to leave) can absolutely save a project ... since they maintain the domain expertise in-house and can be effective leaders when ramping up new team members.

Design Teams: The greatest aspect of software/system design (and sometimes it's worst) are the infinite ways a solution/design can be crafted. Software design can be a very creative and artistic process but Time To Market (TTM) should put a reasonable upper bound to any design session(s). If you design in a team (versus individually) ... then you need to keep the design team SMALL but diverse... if not the design sessions can become endless and will ususally result in the "booting" of a member or two in order to close out the design and this can breed contempt. Also, design teams tend to just include the most experienced members of the group ... but frequently include some of the talented young blood in on the design sessions ... you'll be surprised sometimes how effective and important their input can be.

Some Golden Rules:

Pizza & Pespsi: No matter how much status, money or titles a software guy/gal attains ... their "geek nature" will ALWAYS appreciate free Pizza and Pepsi ... and don't be cheap ... you wouldn't believe how much $$$ you save in the long term by just committing to a treat every week (or every other week). Honestly ... this can reinforce the bonds between teammates ... and silently encourage teammates to work harder and longer.

Jumping Ship: Any member of the development team that either doesn't communicate or reduces their communication to you (or other team leaders) will be on his/her way out the door soon ... so either plan for it ... or pre-empt it by shifting duties off the team member or by proactively trying to address the teammate in an informal setting (lunch/dinner) . This observation comes from 10 years of watching and leading teams... believe me folks ... this is not theory ... it's practically a law. If they stop talking ...they're leaving. Also, start looking for visual changes in their cubicles, if they reduce the number of books in the cubicle/office or less clutter then usual is another strong indicator of imminent departure.

Leadership: As an architect and/or implementation lead, you must have effective leadership skills. I truly believe that a software team assumes the personality of their project manager and/or tech lead. The cliche "the speed of the leader is the speed of the crew" is probably most relevant in describing the impact of leadership on software teams. Team leads should exude passion ... passion is contagious but so is a lack thereof. Seriously ... if ur leadership skills suck then you also comprimise your architecture ... because it's the development team that has to implement your designs and if they don't respect you as a leader... then the quality of implementation will reflect that.

Travel: Northern Cal & Wine Country

2006-07-29T13:48:00.000-04:00

Travelling north of San Francisco - follow Route #101 to Route #1 exit (near Sausilito). Route #1 North provides a road that hugs the coast and occasionally dips inland, providing a beautifully scenic ride alongside the mountain, ocean and woods - reminicent of the Pacific Coast Highway portion of Rt#1 between LA and San Francisco.

You will soon hit Muir Beach off of Rt#1. Muir Beach is a small town with a small postcard-like beach surrounded by craggy cliffs and deep blue water.
The water is too cold to swim so nearly everyone was just relaxing and playing on the beach (we went in July).

There are trails that lead you to the top of the cliffs providing great overlook views of the beach and surrounding coast. The trails can be a little steep - so having ur beach sandals or being barefoot may be a mistake ... my cousin Jess came with me on this trip and she tired after a 1/5 mile trek up the cliff trail and on the way down she started muscle cramping.

Muir Woods is also a popular tourist destination with one of the greatest redwood forests in the world. We stayed at a Best Western in Petaluma. Big shout out to Bert Melendez who resides here - an artist, comic book author and aspiring script writer - runs great summer camps for kids in Northern California and rocks all the Renaissance Fairs in the region. Petaluma is a nice town right off of Rt. 101 which provides an excellent launching point into the roads of wine country.

We decided to hit Sonoma and Napa valley - Jess kept mentioning how much she enjoyed Mondavi wines so we decided to visit their winery. So we travelled on 29 North toward the town of Oakville. This choice was a home run.

We paid a somewhat pricey $25 per head for the Mondavi tour but by the end of the tour we were blessing this bargain. The tour guide was a straight up pimp - with a smooth voice and flow schooled us extensively on the geography, science and business of wine and wine-making.
The tour started with a history and geography lesson inside a small room followed by a walk outside, alongside the vineyards while he explained the nuances of temperature, grape hang time, grape skin width and how they all influence the "flavor tones" of a wine.

The tour went back inside as our guide explained what happens once the grapes are picked and sent inside where they're crushed by baby midgets in a bucket... seriously !! I was shocked too !! ..... ok ..... ok ..... the grapes are de-stemmed and then squeezed by specialized machinery and placed into special barrels. Wineries use primarily wooden barrels to "age" the wine and are important since they adjust the "flavor tones" significantly and add that "nutty wood" flavor that some wines enjoy. The wines are kept in these barrels until they're ready to be bottled up and sent to alcoholics in NJ (like my cousins Jess and Val).

Last but not least, the tour ended with a great wine tasting. We were given a couple glasses of white and a couple of reds while being schooled on aerating wines and how California wines compare to French wines. We were also provided California rolls (salmon) to help reset our palate between tastings.

Wine country was great.... some more pix.

(click on pix for larger shot)

Travel: San Fran - City of Extremes

2006-07-23T11:25:00.000-04:00

San Francisco is a gorgeous city. A series of hills help demarcate little niche neighborhoods - great views can be had from numerous locations in the city and of course the Bay.

This city is surrounded by water, mountains, bridges and great sister towns like Sausilito & Napa/Sonoma to the North and all the towns that dot the path to Silicon Valley to the South.

If you're into bars and music - neighborhoods such as Nob Hill and Russian hill serve up an assortment of establishments.
But the biggest suprise so far has been the number of homeless people that permeate the entire downtown area. In the midst of the high-end retail district, the tourist centers, the commercial sector and the 4 & 5-star hotels are legions of homeless people and drug addicts.

Now don't get me wrong - I from argubly the poorest and most crime-ridden town in America and I dont see the brazen crime and overall craziness that plagues all of America's ghettos.... but I have never known a major city to allow such a density of misery and panhandling to permeate it's commercial center. I will have to guess-timate that San Fran has double to triple the density of homeless and panhandling in it's main district - compared to Philly's Center City or Manhattan's mid-town areas.

Back to the positive - the entire Golden Gate Bridge area is excellent - wind surfers whizz around directly under the bridge like mosquitos. The beach is active with joggers, kids, pets and families. Closer to the base of the bridge, many groups were having beer and BBQ - and everybody is having a good time.

The runners and bikers around here are serious. They're in great shape and they dominate the walkways. As in the touristy areas of NYC, you can hear a slew of different languages being spoken.

On the other side of the bridge you can start up some hiking trails (Bay Area Ridge trails) that lead to other beaches such as Rodeo Beach. The sign stated that Rodeo Beach was a 6.1 mile trek.

I wasn't properly prepared so I only hiked about an hour - but be forewarned - it was mostly uphill and hot for that one hour - so you better have your sun-tan lotion, water and food.

Other places I've visited were Fisherman's Wharf which was a treat - overflowing with seafood restaurants and shops. Presidio is anchored by beautiful displays of nature and architecture.

That's all for now -- Wine Country next week -- if I can get my hands on some cash .... hmmmmm ....... will code for food?

(click on pix for larger view)

Hip Hop All Time List

2006-07-18T04:56:00.000-04:00

I've been listening to alot of Hip Hop lately and it has me thinking about my all-time list. My list is slanted old-school and east coast but I've tried to be somewhat objective. NAS has been climbing steadily on my list the last several years but my #1 has never changed. I start with a 2-way tie for 10th place.

10. Biggie - My boys are gonna get on my shit about the Biggie pick since I wasn't a Biggie fan at first - but I've been listening to ALL of Biggie's tracks for the past 4-5 years and I realized how talented Biggie was and could've been -- if he rapped less about materialistic life and more about hood life I think he could've been one of the top 3. Juicy and Warning are my 2 favorite tracks from Biggie.

10. DMX - I had to include DMX on my list because in my opinion - NOBODY had a 2-album drop that was as SICK as DMX's first 2 albums. DMX's tracks on those albums were epic. Grimy, gritty yet inspirational but always thoroughly hood..... if you don't agree --take some time out and listen to his first 2 albums and then drop a comment. His autobiography E.A.R.L.: The Autobiography of DMX is a good read - captures the essence of the internal fires that drives his art (and demons).

9. LL Cool J - The "young-ens" out here today don't understand the impact that LL had on the rap game and hip-hop culture. This guy was a teenager dropping the craziest shit anybody has ever heard during that time with his "My Radio" track. He was one of the first mega-super stars and was rich before the age of 20 -- and everybody knows that LL had the best love rap track ever with "I Need Love" - (even though this cost him a bunch of hardcore rap fans)

8. Run DMC - They rocked and they ruled for a better part of a decade. Run DMC didn't just spawn albums - they propelled an entire industry and the team around these guys was just as amazing (big shout out to Russell). The guys above Run DMC on this list have built their legacies on the shoulders of these pioneers.

7. Snoop Dogg - I feel that Snoop probably has the smoothest delivery that any rapper has ever had - his delivery is always near perfect. I wasn't a big fan of his lyrics but his flow is tremendous and I still think that Deep Cover track was his best work (but his work the last couple of years with Pharrell from the Neptunes has been soooooooooo good).

6. NWA -I'm using this spot to also include the solo careers of Dr. Dre, Ice Cube & Eazy E. - I would probably have these guys higher if I was a west coast guy...

BUT, while rappers always misuse and abuse the phrase "we're changing the game" -- NWA really did CHANGE THE GAME. They simply wrestled control of the hip-hop game from NYC and ran with it and launched the careers of some of the top guys in "the game" today.

5. Public Enemy - Big shout out to Orlando Segarra from Camden, NJ for putting that damn Public Enemy tape in my car talking about some new rap group that was gonna take over - we all thought he was bugging - until Chuck D's voice demanded and dominated your attention - and you wanted to do nothing but listen. Definitely 1 of 2 guys on this list that Blew My Mind Up.

4. Eric B & Rakim - Need I say anything about Rakim - he has Snoop's effortless delivery but lyrics that impacted your mind and left deep impressions on many people. Rakim arguably had the best combination of delivery and lyrical wizadry of anybody on this list. These guys probably had the best hip-hop album of all time with Paid In Full and probably the hottest one minute verse in hip-hop history with the title track off this album - Paid In Full.... "thinking of a master plan .. aint nothing but sweat inside my hand .. so I dig into my pockets ... all my money is spent ... I dig deeper .. but still coming up with lint... " -- oh shit - gotta stop - getting goosebumps.

3. Tupac - Tupac never really had a great album - but he's probably had the most great single tracks then anybody on the list - such as Me and My Girlfriend, Hail Mary, Dear Mama, Changes, Aint Mad at Cha, Uppercut, Staring Through My Rear View, etc. - but the reason he's so high on my list is that he simply blows my spirit up -- Pac's tracks have the most impact on me emotionally. He's the only rapper on the list that can significantly alter my mood for an entire day. I CANNOT listen to Tupac before going to work.

2. NAS -I used to have NAS at #4 (behind Rakim & Tupac) but NAS keeps dropping such serious poetry throughout the years that he just keeps climbing the list. This man is simply amazing. He went from a young phenom dropping a legendary Hip Hop classic album to a chiseled veteran taking down rap heavyweights. He can drop a diss track as well as anyone - sorry Jigga - but right after that he can drop a street masterpiece and then come back blowing your mind up with some extreme consciousness rap. NAS is a legend and he's been on my regular rotation for the past 6-7 years - I can't get enough of this guy.

1. KRS1 - Boogie Down Productions - Well folks... nobody and I mean nobody could blow your mind up like KRS; he was the king of "consciousness rap" and is the reason why he's #1 on my list. In addition to blowing your mind up he arguably has the heaviest hitting diss track ever in "The Bridge is Over" -- while rappers were trying to diss each other individually -- KRS1 took down entire NY Boroughs and forever put the South Bronx into the mythical Pound-for-Pound ghetto category. I seriously believe that other NYC boroughs suffered serious inferiority complexes after that (for many years) even though they were pumping out star after star. KRS was also notorious for his incredible freestyling skills where he probably has the most knockouts then any other battle MC. KRS forced your mind to expand with his cultural and socially themed lyrics and I've personally witnessed the signficant positive impact his work has had on young ghetto minds during those times (mid-late 80s) -- especially mine.

Honorable Mention : Tribe Called Quest, Sugar Hill Gang, Afrika Bambaata, WuTang, Doug E Fresh and anybody else I forgot -- and no -- I did not forget JayZ :). Finally, I would like to dedicate this list to a lady named Ms. CrumbPacker (I think her first name is Karen) from Spokane, Washington. In 1991, she asked me about my music interests and commented that "Rap is just a phase, it's the new Disco... it'll be gone in a year or two".... so I dedicate my All-Time list of this 30 year "phase" to Ms. CrumbPacker from Spokane, Washington.

Hitting the Road -- West Coast Dreams?

2006-06-21T21:35:00.000-04:00

Hey everybody -- drove from Philly to Alburquque in 2 days. Now I stopped over in Northern Arizona to relax and do some touristy trips to Meteor Crater and Grand Canyon.

Google Maps rocks -- used their directions to plot a course from Philly to L.A. and this turned out to be a much more scenic route then my prior cross-country excursions. A couple of notes from my trip

Worst State to Drive Through - Missouri. NOT EVEN CLOSE. At least Oklahoma had a hip-hop station (shout out to Tulsa!!) but Missouri sucked so bad.
Best State to Drive Through - a 2-way tie between New Mexico & Arizona.
Weirdest - an italian restaurant in Holbrooke, Arizona. This town is tiny with a handful of motels, gas stations and chain restaurants but I was referred to their "Italian restaurant" ... no way is there a decent italian restaurant or for that matter ... any real italians out here -- but one plate of clams in spicy red sauce served over a heaping portion of linguine, real italian garlic bread and one glass of merlot later -- I was thanking the Witness Protection Program over and over again. Big Shout out to the Mesa Italian restaurant in Holbrooke - the sauce was perfectly spicy and tasty.
Coolest - the impressive array of windmills on the Texas/Oklahoma border (and some in Western Pennsylvania). These things were HUGE and there were at least 20-30 of these windmills in a row on the Texas border -- they were so damn impressive looking - they seemed to be standing guard over the wind-swept hills out there - who would of thought that alternate energy sources can look so cool.

Sorry I've been gone for a bit -- but I was working a contract at CSC (XML, Oracle, PHP thin client) and it sucked pretty bad, most of the guys/gals that interviewed me resigned or were ready to resign and morale was horrid. I decided to leave after 6 weeks even though it could've been a lucrative "gravy train" assignment but I can't stomach another boring coding contract.... and I hate "gravy train" assigments -- I'll let the other consultants steal money from the taxpayers of this country ... not me.

Decided to interview for Microsoft (2 different departments). Got through to the LiveMeeting portion of the interviews and bombed one entirely and received a prompt uhhhh .... don't call us ... we'll call you; the other interview went well but the recruiter pressured the hiring manager for a decision (obviously before he was ready to provide one) and replied to my email with "... Lakshmi decided to pass on bringing you on board, mainly due to the pressure of needing to make a decision due to your outstanding offers…" --- WHAT !! -- what type of bullshit is that?? I didn't tell anybody I had oustanding offers ... just some interviewes lined up.... I don't mind a hiring manager telling me they're not interested but if that really was the reason then this recruiter dropped the ball BIG TIME.

After that debacle - I decided to pick up some part-time telecommute work from an old client and hit the road and take an "extended vacation / pre-retirement" trip. So I'm packing up my Honda Pilot and wrapping up my apartment lease and heading WEST. Probably hang out Northern Cal for a month or two ... maybe pick up a coding gig or two. Hang around Berkeley ... go hang with Billy boy in Redmond or Paul Allen in Portland.... who the hell knows ... but I'll be blogging more again.

Wouldn't mind volunteering or working cheap for a science, space or gaming company/organization -- just something interesting. Maybe it's time to hang with some TransHumanist Extroprian Cryonics dudes & dudettes in Cali/Arizona or pickup a graduate degreee in compsci - maybe some AI work. Damn pre-midlife crisis ... this sucks.

Free College Courses

2006-04-17T02:06:00.000-04:00

Free Online College Courses
There are great resources available for teachers and students from some of the top universities in the world. Entire college courses and their materials are available online and a subset of courses have every lecture available in audio or video format.

Each course has a combination of 1 or more of the following course materials:

Lecture Notes – usually in PDF form (requires Adobe PDF Reader)

Lecture Audio – usually in .mp3 format (Windows Media Player, RealPlayer or anything you use to listen to .mp3 music is required)

Lecture Video – usually available in RealMedia (RealPlayer required)
Homework Assignments and Lecture Handouts (PDF)
Exams & Quizzes – with answers !! (PDF)

I will focus on the initiatives of two of the top universities in the United States, M.I.T. and University of California – Berkeley.

MIT OpenCourseWare
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (better known as M.I.T.) is one of the premier universities in the United States with a strong emphasis on engineering and technology. They started a huge initiative with their OpenCourseWare (OCW) project. The MIT OCW charter is best expressed by MIT’s president Susan Hockfield -- “… OpenCourseWare expresses in an immediate and far-reaching way MIT's goal of advancing education around the world. Through MIT OCW, educators and students everywhere can benefit from the academic activities of our faculty and join a global learning community in which knowledge and ideas are shared openly and freely for the benefit of all. “.

MIT OCW is seeking to publish course materials from a majority of the courses they currently offer at MIT (approx 1250 courses). A quick peek at the OCW course list shows the fruits of their labor during the past several years. They also publish lectures for a subset of their courses in audio and/or video format.

MIT also offers a set of special topics lectures from famous guest lectures at their MIT World website.

UC Berkeley
University of California – Berkeley has a great selection of courses and special topic events at their webcast website. Their course list has an impressive selection. The videos I examined for the Intro Biology course are of great quality and the lecture notes (slides) are shown in some of the videos (as opposed to the Intro Biology course of MIT which didn’t focus the camera on the slides the professor was showing the class – a very minor nuisance).

UC Berkeley Events also provides an excellent selection of videos from famous guests and professors that visited the university to speak on a special topics.

Wrapping up
MIT OpenCourseWare project has an extensive and ambitious charter and is a more comprehensive program - especially for teachers; but students may really appreciate the quality of the UC Berkeley videos. Both universities have professors that are giants in their respective fields and anyone with internet access can experience great lectures or can take an entire high-quality college course for FREE !!

It may be time to give up an episode of CSI or a Mexican Novella once in a while and get your “learning on … “

Resources

UC Berkeley Course Podcasts

UC Berkeley Events Podcasts

Donate to MIT’s OpenCourseWare Initiative

UC Berkeley – Events Archived Videos
MIT Technology Review – 2002 TR100 Video Series
MIT SoapBox Series – Robotics in Space / Human Genetics

UC Berkeley - Marc Andreessen - 2005: A Web Odyssey (RealPlayer required)

Biological Simulations - the Next Great Era in Science & Health (and Software)

2006-03-16T21:57:00.000-05:00

Researchers Simulate Complete Structure Of Virus
A massive Congratulations to the geek studs and stud-ettes from the computational biology department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the crystallographers at the University of California at Irvine for creating the first computer simulation of an entire life form - a virus.

I sincerely believe that biological simulations can thrust us into the most prolific period of medical advancement in history. My suggestion for the next big Biology project (i.e. Human Genome Project) should be a government, academic and/or industrial effort to completely model and simulate the human cell. A concerted effort recruiting some of the greatest computer scientists, computational and biological modelers and the foremost biologists available in industry and academia, following a schedule such as this:

1 year analysis and standards phase where the "vernacular" for all the computational and biological elements are defined (W3C type standards)
Continue with three to five (3-5) year parallel efforts to cover all the major organelles of human cells
Followed by an extensive integration effort that lasts another 3-5 years to complete the cell model with membranes, nuclear and cyto plasms, intra-cellular matrices, etc...

This can be the next great era of medical science and health, especially if government and the general public (especially in the US) start getting more interested in public health. The Human Genome Project should be just the first of a series of Great Biology Projects that the government can help initiate and co-sponsor. I think most of us can agree that it sounds like a relatively good use of tax dollars ... especially relevant these days where trillion dollar debt and $400 billion dollar annual military budgets are the norm. Much too frequently, do we, the public and leaders of the U.S., disregard good medical science because of inflexible religious attitudes, extremist agendas and apathy in regards to good health and longevity. Only when loved ones are struck by sickness or death do we, as individuals, tend to take an interest... please support the efforts of our great institutions that spend day and night fighting disease and disability, such as:

NIH, CDC, WHO and other great governmental health agencies
Academia - we are blessed in the U.S. with amazing universities, professors and students
Patient advocacy groups

I'll jump off my soap box now and finish by saying that you, the public, should take an hour or two each week or month (steal it from your TV time) and stay aware of the great happenings and research efforts around the world to help combat disease, disability and death.

Nature Web Special (PDF) - 2020 Computing

Cryonics - Freeze my head please

2006-03-11T12:46:00.000-05:00

Generally, religion and politics are the two topics that provoke energetic, diverse and enraging commentary and conversation … but in my personal experience there have been two other topics that can provoke similar reactions from individuals and those are 1) ghetto stories and 2) Cryonics.

Cryonics is the practice of preserving individuals with current technology in the expectation (or faith) that future medical technology will be able to revive them by

reversing the effects of the preservation process
reversing the original cause of death

Upon hearing this definition, most people either start giggling and laughing or they start shaking their heads rigorously or their faces contort in strange configurations trying to absorb the shock of such a strange, ridiculous and selfish proposition…… at first….. then a small number of people jump off the subject entirely but a majority of others enter the “are you fucking serious” stage where they start peppering you with questions, accusations or a litany of jokes referring to popular references to movies & cartoons.

During my “younger times”… late teens and early twenties, I never quite understood why people reacted so strongly (and strangely) when I spoke about the validity of the Cryonics concept especially since I felt then (and now) that it is a valid alternative to either cremation, organ (or full body) donation or ground burial …. but as I got older I started understanding how Cryonics touches on an entire sleuth of taboo subjects that people are not comfortable in addressing such as

issues regarding death & dying

religious thought and afterlife

using technology to reverse conditions such as disease and death

I learned about Cryonics around 1989-1990 after picking up a Cryonics Magazine at a Tower Records bookstore on South Street in Philadelphia (I was around 17-18). I couldn’t believe that people were actually signing themselves up to be frozen upon death and the magazine described in somewhat gory detail the process that was used to preserve someone’s head!! The Cryonics Magazine is a quarterly published by the Alcor Foundation, a cryonics organization currently based in Scottsdale, Arizona. Alcor has been popularized during recent years with numerous documentaries and articles from business journals, magazines and newspapers. Historically, cryonics has always dealt (pretty successfully) with legal obstacles and none larger then a very public spat between the heirs of baseball hall-of-famer Ted Williams – which resulted in huge publicity, both negative and positive, for Alcor.

At this stage of my life (end of high school) – I was pretty much thinking about 3 things all day …. 1) violent death, 2) science & technology and 3) girls. Since I was literally ducking bullets during my teenage years in Camden, NJ and witness to an endless stream of friends and neighborhood acquaintances getting shot, stabbed or assaulted on a daily basis -- the notions of violent death (and how to avoid it) weighed heavy on my mind on a minute-to-minute basis every day and all day …. so when I noticed there was a community of individuals involved in the “death avoidance” business, I was naturally attracted to what these guys were about.

I decided to read about and research cryonics (and Alcor) for the following several years before taking the leap of signing up for a membership. I started talking to my friends about it and they initially thought I was nuts (and my cousin still jokes about it all the time … even though deep down I know he’s interested too) but they all expressed interest of some for or another. The major PRO-cryonics question that I find most useful is the “What are the alternatives?” question … the only tangible alternatives after being “declared dead” are burial, cremation or anatomical donation (organs or full body) and all of the intangible alternatives revolved around faith in some form of an afterlife. During that stage of my life; I could never logically reconcile that a moral, personal form of God can exist while so many people were stealing, murdering, dying in my neighborhoods – so faith was pretty much thrown out the window -- which left me with the tangible alternatives named above (burial, etc.) – this lead me to the conclusion that if cryonics only had a one percent (1%) chance of success; then I was willing to invest (and gamble) resources on that 1% since all the other tangible alternatives had a 0% chance of “death avoidance”.

Cryonics procedure in a nutshell

Setup financial arrangements for payment – approx. $150K (USD) for full body and $80K for neuro-suspension. Most people fund payment through a life insurance vehicle to minimize cost.

A standby team is deployed by Alcor to the hospital if you’re very sick and near death. Ideally, you should be transferred to a hospice location near Alcor headquarters

Once you’ve been declared dead (your heart stops) then the Alcor teams initiates their protocols and procedures, summarized as follows

You’re placed in an ice-water bath

Blood circulation and breathing are artificially restored by a heart-lung resuscitator (HLR).

Intravenous lines are also established, and protective solutions are administered

Blood is also replaced with an organ preservation solution that is specially designed to support life at low temperature

You’re then packed in ice and transported to Alcor facilities - at this point you’re officially chilling… (sorry .. bad joke)

Once at Alcor facilities, your organ preservation fluid is then replaced by a mixture of cryoprotecant fluids near 0 degrees C in a process that last several hours

After this then your body begins a more pronounced cooling phase until you’re ready to be placed in long term storage

Obvious concerns that I have

The shit ends up never working because the freezing damage cannot be reversed.
The financial and legal viability of Alcor as an organization/entity (and Cryonics as a practice) doesn’t last 50, 100, 200 years from now

I dislike the notion of giving any person (or entity) a financial incentive for my “death”; so I don’t like life insurance in general but its an affordable option for most members.

Someone forgets to do their job because they’re playing some XBOX Holographic sex game in the year 2075 and I de-frost.

Alcor employees die off and a bunch of swindlers take over the company and sell my precious body to pirates

Seriously, I hope I never need Cryonics, ideally life can be safely extended in the near future by just popping a pill or something … but one thing I know for sure … life is way to damn short for my tastes …. 40,50, 60, 70 years? some see this as selfish, others see it as unnatural, some see it as logical and obvious --- I’m not sure how I see it ... but I feel that it’s within my rights to try to maximize my life span and help others do the same.

Resources & Articles
Ralph Merkle Cryonics Page
Wall Street Journal - Personal Revival Trusts
ABCNews Article - Jan 25, 2006
Alcor Cryonics FAQ

Geeks Only - AJAX - Can it clean my code ??

2006-02-19T14:36:00.000-05:00

There has been alot of buzz during the past year regarding a web development technology named AJAX, which is short for Asynchronous Javascript and XML. Google has popularized this technology with their breakthrough mapping web site Google Maps - which allows users to "grab" their maps and scroll them interactively on the web browser without forcing the browser to refresh or to visibly submit requests back to the server as in traditional browser scenarios (i.e. Yahoo Maps).

This is achieved by using client-side JavaScript to send asynchronous remote procedure calls and then parsing the results (usually XML-based results) which are used to perform logic or to render in some fashion on the browser. This type of functionality was usually the domain of “server-side” web code where developers were required to utilize XML libraries consisting of XML Parsers, XML DOM objects, XSLT/XPATH objects and also some form of data access or web services integration. All these facilities are now available from client-side JavaScript when using AJAX.

3 Major Technology Elements of AJAX

Javascript – the scripting language used to implement AJAX functionality
XMLHttpRequest – XML RPC object used to send asynchronous remote procedure calls
XML DOM - XML Document Object Model objects used to encapsulate and parse XML.

Now lets not get things twisted, AJAX is not some hot new technology that some geekoid deep in Google's basement just invented; rather it's a nexus of maturing technologies that come together very well when trying to overcome the traditional deficiencies with implementing rich, interactive web user interfaces. I've previously implemented AJAX-like functionality using Microsoft's Remote Scripting roughly 5 years ago (around 2000-2001) and not too many programmers had a clue on what it was and how it worked; actually - at the risk of getting you Java and LAMP coders pissed off - Microsoft was also central to the birth of the XMLHttpRequest object ... but I digress...

Let's look at a Google Maps coding sample below to get an idea of a real-world AJAX implementation. Pay special attention to the AJAX relevant code in dark red. This example provided by the Google Maps API Documentation is used to (A) download a series of longitude and latitude coordinates from an XML file. These coordinates are (B) loaded into an XML DOM object then (C) parsed out to (D) dynamically create the Google Markers which are then rendered on the map.

============ BEGIN CODE SAMPLE ============

// Center the map on Palo Alto.
var map = new GMap(document.getElementById("map"));
map.addControl(new GSmallMapControl());
map.addControl(new GMapTypeControl());
map.centerAndZoom(new GPoint(-122.1419, 37.4419), 4);

// Download the data in data.xml and load it on the map.
// The format we expect is:
// <markers>
//   <marker lat="37.441" lng="-122.141"/>
//   <marker lat="37.322" lng="-121.213"/>
// </markers>

// CREATES XMLHttpRequest object
var request = GXmlHttp.create();

// A) INVOKES HTTP GET REQUEST TO RETRIEVE XML
request.open('GET', 'data.xml', true);  
request.onreadystatechange = function() 
 {
  if (request.readyState == 4) 
    {
    // B) LOAD UP XML RESULTS IN XML DOM OBJECT
     var xmlDoc = request.responseXML;
     
    // C)PARSE XML AND RETRIEVE MARKER VALUES
  //    INTO ARRAY OF XML NODES
     var markers = xmlDoc.documentElement.
    getElementsByTagName("marker"); 
 
     for (var i = 0; i < markers.length; i++) 
      {
     // D)CREATE NEW GOOGLE MARKERS FROM LONGITUDE
   //   and LATITUDE VALUES
       var point = new GPoint(
           parseFloat(markers[i].getAttribute("lng")),
            parseFloat(markers[i].getAttribute("lat")));
       var marker = new GMarker(point);
       map.addOverlay(marker);
      }
    }
  }

  request.send(null);

============ END CODE SAMPLE ============

To summarize, AJAX is a set of maturing software technologies primarily based on JavaScript and XML, when used together, provides the web developer with a powerful toolset to create rich and interactive web browser applications and user interfaces.

Resources:

A nice overview on AJAX is available from Adaptive Path
Excellent AJAX Blog
XMLHttpRequest overview
Ajax.NET Professional Blog
AJAX and PHP site
Another AJAX Blog

Medicine - Stem Cells - A Primer

2006-02-15T02:02:00.000-05:00

image : © 2005 Advanced Cell Technology

Stem cells have been at the heart of serious debates between all types of politicians, bio-ethicists, church groups, patient advocacy groups, liberals, conservatives and everyone in between. Unfortunately, many people don't understand what the hoopla is all about, so here's a quick introduction on the subject.

A stem cell is a generic type of cell that has the ability to renew itself for long periods of time (or indefinitely in some cases) and has the amazing ability to become one of a host of different cell types including heart cells, skin cells, liver cells, muscle cells, nerve cells and others. This "specialization" process that occurs when a "generic" stem cell becomes a specific type of cell - is called differentiation.

A large population of scientists, doctors and patients are very excited because they envision stem cells providing a nearly infinite supply of new cells that can help fight a variety of medical conditions and diseases that tend to destroy cells in their path - some examples include Parkinson's disease, diabetes, chronic heart disease, end-stage kidney disease, liver failure, and cancer.

So you're probably asking, "what the h@ll are we waiting for ... let's go cure some diseases" - well its not that simple. It seems that all stem cells are not created equal. Stem cells come in different flavors, we'll focus on the following 2 flavors:

pluripotent - this stem cell can become any type of cell in the human body.
unipotent - this stem cell can only become one type of cell or a small set of cell types of a particular tissue in the body (for example - only cells that are found in the liver)

Now, unipotent stem cells have been found in several areas of the adult body including the bone marrow, blood, the cornea and the retina of the eye, brain, skeletal muscle, dental pulp, liver, skin, the lining of the gastrointestinal tract, and pancreas. Even though several sources and types of unipotent stem cells have been found they are rare and difficult to isolate from the adult body.

It should be obvious that the pluripotent stem cell is much more valuable since it can become ANY type of cell in the human body versus only one type of cell but here's the catch !! -- this type of stem cell has only been found in embryonic tissue of early stage embryos.

To clarify, pluripotent stem cells are found in embryonic tissue and are usually referred to as embryonic stem cells while unipotent stem cells are found in adult tissues and are usually referred to as adult stem cells.

This is why the stem cells issue has been so contentious in America - because it ran smack into the middle of the entire pro-life / pro-choice debate and as we all know - no matter what side you're on -America is split right down the middle on this topic.

When does life begin? At conception (a fertilized egg)? or when the heart starts beating?
When does a fetus gain recognition as a citizen and afforded protections by the law?

Embryonic stem cells provide an interesting twist to this debate since they may hold the potential for significant medical breakthroughs that affect millions of diseased Americans today. We will delve deeper into the science, the politics and the major players involved in a future blog post.

Some additional resources:

National Institutes of Health - Stem Cells
University of Wisconsin
President Bush Stem Cell Speech - 2001
Advanced Cell Techonogy

Geek - The Commodore 64 - Coding in the hood

2006-02-11T19:25:00.000-05:00

As geeky as this may sound, there was probably no larger influence in my life during my adolescent years in the ghetto then my introduction to the Commodore 64 (C64) computer. I was first given the Commodore VIC-20 as a present and then one of my friends got the C64 and then all hell broke loose. We all start getting the C64 - probably a group of 5 of us including my older cousin - we'll call Junior.

One day Junior and I went to the Gaming store in the Gallery located in Philadelphia (across the bridge from Camden, NJ). We were checking out all the games on the wall for the C64 and we knew that we'll only be able to get one - if that (I think they were $10 at the time) until the friendly store clerk - a black man probably in his late 20's - named Will Hines, looked at us and said "You can either get 1 game for $10 ... " as he motioned to the wall of games - "... or you can get them ALL for $10 ... " --- I had no clue what this guy was talking about but I knew I wanted to know more but my cousin, a street-wise opportunist, engaged in a conversation with Mr. Hines and 250 games and 12 months later, the entire ghetto crew were copying and bartering games amongst themselves and others at a furious pace - we called ourselves the Camden Commodore Crew or CCC.

My cousin's tagline was "Cosmic Kid" and I was "The Master" along with "Karate Kid", "Vidd Kid", the "Boy Wonder" and a couple of others. Cosmic Kid was always a couple of steps ahead of us, he learned how to crack games and read & write in Assembly language and before we knew it - we were loading up games to play and a big splash screen with awesome graphics and calligraphy text stating

CRACKED BY

COSMIC KID

will splash across our screen. We were in absolute awe and couldn't believe he actually altered the code of the game itself to show his name and tagline. My cousin was soon writing his own games while another crew member Raymond Searles (his tagline escapes me at the moment) was providing the code for the sound effects and music. Ray was an expert on the C64 sound chipset and astonished us all when he authored "Who's that Girl" using Music Shop for the C64 and his keyboard. One of the absolute funniest guys you can ever meet.

One of my best friends "Boy Wonder" was poorer then the rest of us (raised by his grandmother)-- so he couldn't afford the 1541 floppy drive that u needed to play the games on the C64 - so he did what any other poor, motivated computer geek wanna-be in the hood would do - he stole the 1541 Floppy drive from our high school - Camden High. Once the C64 got popular amongst the general public - Drug addicts were coming up to me at my parent's grocery store - where I worked at night throughout most of my teenage years - trying to sell me 1541 Commodore drives for $10 (retail was around $250 dollars).

I was amazed to see how many hood-rats were involved in computer gaming and hacking. One of the most vivid memories I have is being in this guy's house somewhere in some West Philly neighborhood while he was hacking apart a C64 Fast Load cartridge and wiring a special reset button. This reset button allows anyone who was loading a game using the 1541 floppy drive while using the Fast Load cartridge to enter straight into a "disassembler" program allowing the hacker to alter the actual machine code of the game.

By the time I hit high school (1985), I was constantly playing dozens of games on the C64 when one game by a young company named Electronic Arts changed the way I thought about computers, gaming and life. The Bards Tale. I never experienced such an overwhelming addiction to anything (sex was still a couple of years away for me) then the game play, the music, the story, the maps and the overall sensory experiences of playing this game. I could not stop playing and I used to put a large metallic cup of ICE on top of my power supply so that it wouldn't overheat - especially during the 24 or 36 hour gaming sessions I would sometimes have playing The Bards Tale.

The Bards Tale">

This game came at a critical time for me personally (and for my friends), I was 14 years old and already losing my interest in being a "good student" - I was hanging on the streets ALOT - don't get me wrong - I was generally a good kid but most of my street friends were already making money selling cocaine to the line of cars driven by subarban professionals that were always camped out near the hot drug corners, or they were smoking weed or were involved in sticking up (robbing) people or playing with weapons and I didn't want to be part of that bullshit - I just wanted to play with the C64, play sports and "play" with the great group of girl friends I had at Camden High. I sincerely believe if the C64 wasn't such a big influence in my life at this critical time I would have gone down a more perilous path growing up in Camden, NJ during the mid 80s.

Where are they now ??

The Master (me) - Successful software consultant and .NET architect
Cosmic Kid - Successful software engineer and Computer Science graduate of Rutgers University
Vidd Kidd - Successful financial analyst with a Bachelors degree and a law degree from the University of Nebraska (also played for the Nebraska Cornhuskers)
Karate Kid - Successful software engineer for Comcast Corporation and Computer Science graduate.
Boy Wonder - Successful tugboat captain and aspiring Docking Pilot
Ray Searles - Deceased.