What are the four horsemen of the personal Apocalypse 2011 ?

While we were having a chat over an ale of two at the local pub, conversation wandered across fields of doom and gloom. Depression both personal and economic was very much on topic as we looked for an updated set of doomsday indicators signaling the end of days. This is the "Me and instant news" generation; we already see too much of the countrywide doom and devastation predicted in the Bible's book of Revelations.

We are not learned scholars or religious fanatics looking for post doomsday success just looking for a way to relate past wisdom to current modern life. We wanted a more personal and up close set of predictions that foretell the downfall of mankind, which comes one person at a time.

These concepts we propose as the new "Four horsemen of the personal Apocalypse." When there is more than one of these in your life, Doomsday is not far away.

War is now Broken Relationships. Those can be relationships that used to work or relationships that have never worked, except though the lens of obsession or force of violence. Don't confine relationships to just the personal interactions that support families consider the all relationships within the community. Robbery, fraud and even road rage demonstrate broken relationships between self and the community. Love who your with or at least make an effort to get along so everyone wins.

Famine is now Debt and poverty. Debt is one of the chains that binds changed circumstances to poverty. A good job and stable income can be wiped out by illness, relationship breakdown or other unforeseen civil crisis. Insurance and rainy day nest eggs will not always help but the old fashioned values of living within means available will certainly help. Circumstances change, sometimes too fast to understand so be prepared. Favors in the bank are worth as much as spendable cash.

Pestilence is now Addiction to what destroys. There is no shortage of addictions to choose from, gambling, drink, drugs, overeating, shopping and strange sex all make the list of possibilities. All will take wealth, crush joy, overwhelm the lonely and rot communities from the inside out. There is a line between tasting the weird, pushing the boundaries of experimentation and addiction; however the person who can tell if you have crossed that line is not usually you.

Death is the Loss of ambition and loss of drive to develop. Death now starts with the death of the soul, the loss of hope and ambition. Without something to live for, to strive for, life is just downhill till six ft under.

There is help for much of the above, support communities abound in real and virtual life. Getting support requires seeing the need to take the first step. Better still, build a kinder self with fewer vices and stronger relationships before the crisis strikes.

Cheers from a somewhat philosophical

Gannett

This was originally posted in 2011 - wind forward ten years and we have ..... 

Smoking - it really is addictive

I used to smoke, not a lot and not often, just enough to enjoy them. At most it was about a pack a week, often when taking the dog out late at night. When the habit started to grow in '06 after a long boring business trip I gave up. Giving up then was aligned with going on holiday. Was grumpy for a few days but the change of location helped detach from the habit.

Since then months would go by between ciggies. Occasionally smoking only when "I am too pissed to know better"; down the pub after a couple of pints of fine english ale.

About 22 days ago I got a pack of 20 and started having one at the end of each day. Not sure why just fancied some. You know in the garden looking at stars and listening to the night sounds of a peaceful neighborhood. mmmmm

Now that was a mistake.

I know what it says on the tin, Smoking Kills. I have seen the health information films full of brown lungs and coughing blood. I know that insurance companies don't give money away and smokers get preferential rates when it comes to annuities ( pay until you die). So there is no excuse but come on, only one a day, what harm could that do ? Well now I know, I have none left and I really really want one. I am not going to get any more; such an ugly habit has to be broken.

Not sure if it was the ceremony or the chemicals that gets you hooked, but hooked I feel. What is spooky about the whole thing is that for the last few days of the packet the certain need for a ciggi was stronger each day and came just a bit earlier each day. I guess that there is just enough chemicals to last 22 hours and kick off the cravings.

I have none left and the nearest shops are shut. If I go hunting for a packet at pub or garage I will know that this is not just a passing fad and the hook is in. Just keep got to keep typing, keep browsing, and burrow into some good TV. I own my destiny and won't be a slave to the chemical works.

Let's see how that goes.

Gannett

Fashions in personal transport

What the heck is driving the latest fashions in personal transport ? It's all out of scale and broken. Cars are 3 * the necessary size squandering the last 10 years worth of improved engine efficiency with added inertia and useless aerodynamic drag. Even the great modern Mini has gone all bloated and become the countryman.

At the other end of the scale kids don't fit their bikes anymore. Unless peddle axis to seat hight is approximately equal to ankle to bum length, unnatural flexation of the knees occurs. The current fashion seems to be an exaggeration of the BMX style that is useless for anything else than bum-in-the-air peddling and tricks; hopeless as a form of transport.

And what the heck is a Segway for ? In the UK you can't use them on the road and you can't use them on the pavement (sidewalk) - here is a hint don't waste your cash and get a proper bike. Get two bikes mountain and race but for heavens sake don't get a BMX style.

Cheers Gannett

A perfect logo

Sometimes a logo captures the very essence of a corporation. A fine example is the logo for Betfair; a uk gambling and sporting bookmaker. The logo represents both the communication and cashflow between the company and it's customers. The company may bet fair, but you can be sure that as with all institutional gambling, the odds are stacked and the direction of money flow is predictable. You will lose. How much you lose is up to you.

Cheers and here is to "00", a predictor of your bank balance.

Gannett

Do Telecom companies keep a shadow phone bill ?

Here is an idea that deepens the feeling of all pervading surveillance. Each quarter the telecoms companies sends or just charges you for the outbound calls made to other numbers. You will also get a bill of the calls made to your mobile phone if the phone has roamed to another area. If you have itemized billing enabled or a web account you can even see the list of calls made, time, date and the cost associated.

That's all very well and those web accounts are useful for those doing surveillance, just one master password is needed for all the phone accounts at a single company. To complete the picture for the watchers that password will enable the shadow phone bill that you never see. On that shadow bill are all the times, date and phone numbers of the inbound calls made to the target number.

The next step is to pull the complete phone bills of those inbound and outbound numbers and so on three or fours steps out. Once consolidated a complete picture of who is talking to who around the target number is generated.

Lets not get too uneasy but remember ... "The telecoms companies keep shadow phone bills and know who is calling you."

Gannett

PS: Like all the best rumors this has yet to be proved.

Website form selector madness at IBM

This classic example of clumsy web form design brought to you on the IBM customer enrollment profile form. Screen shot on 15 Nov 2010.

What does this form say about the company ? Lack of attention to detail, does not customer test web interfaces, cannot tell the difference between a number value and alphabetic sort ?

Its says all of that along with making me grin as I struggle to find the correct selector for 8 employes. Oh and what the heck are "unsized employees"

Gannett

It's not you in control. That's a Placebo button.

Just when you thought that you were controlling your environment, turns out your not. All those buttons that you push, they don't really have the control you imagine. Let's look at some examples

• Close the door button in lifts,
• Request to walk buttons on crossings,
• Office thermostats.

Many of the above have no effect what so ever except maybe to show a "The button is pressed" light. And it makes sense to have it that way, lets see why..

Pushing a floor button tells the lift you want to go and most lift doors have person sensors. Would you want to get sued if you had your finger on the close button and someone was caught in the door ?

Traffic flow in cities is computer controlled often through many sequential junctions. Road censors provide the input for fine tuning and coordinating the cross flow of traffic. Having pedestrians generating random flow interrupts really does not help. Pedestrian crossing time is factored into the normal sequence.

For office thermostats, one persons hot is another ones cold. The overall environment is controlled by balancing between sensor points and flow control areas. Giving finer control by adding control points would not achieve anything unless there was a corresponding increase in flow control points. For many offices that is just not possible within the ducting infrastructure.

So why give the pretense of control ? It keeps people happy. "I am master of what I ( think I ) control." Make no mistake placebos work but only some of the time, you just have to believe, or not know about the fakery.

On the downside superstitions are born when folks think they are in control of a random event. poor predictions are made when control is assumed but not actual. Stepping out into the road 10 seconds after pushing the crossing button is really not a good strategy even if that's how it is supposed to work.

Gannett

Nod to \. discussion

The complete stories of Theodore Sturgeon are collected

September 28th 2012 : Finally the complete (short) stories of Theodore Sturgeon are collected. For the last 16 years arriving slowly have been the volumes comprising this opus of this genius of fantastic fiction.

Volume One: The Ultimate Egoist (1994), Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, Gene Wolfe

Volume Two: Microcosmic God (1995), Samuel R. Delany

Volume Three: Killdozer! (1996), Robert Silverberg, Robert A. Heinlein

Volume Four: Thunder and Roses (1997), James Gunn

Volume Five: The Perfect Host (1998), Larry McCaffery

Volume Six: Baby is Three (1999), David Crosby

Volume Seven: A Saucer of Loneliness (2000), Kurt Vonnegut

Volume Eight: Bright Segment (2002), William Tenn (Phil Klass)

Volume Nine: And Now the News ... (2003), David G. Hartwell

Volume Ten: The Man Who Lost the Sea (2005), Jonathan Lethem

Volume Eleven: The Nail and the Oracle (2007), Harlan Ellison

Volume Twelve: Slow Sculpture (2009), Connie Willis, Spider Robinson

Volume Thirteen: Case and the Dreamer (2010), Peter S. Beagle, Debbie Notkin, Paul Williams

Love them.

And here is a useful reference document showing the covers, story listings and index all published by North Atlantic books and in eBook format by Gateway Essentials.