Looking for Suggestions

Well, while I try to import my other posts from my other blog, I am looking for more suggestions.  Just post up a comment below so I know what you guys want me to talk about. Anything is fair game.  Although if its too controversial, I might ignore.  Either way, really looking forward to starting on a new month.

The Legacy Effect

While i was listening to a podcast focusing on Microsoft and Windows in general, they started discussing the "legacy effect."  The way I understand it is that in places where infrastructure for certain technologies were created earlier have a harder time upgrading and maintaining the state of the art standard.  This is because people build applications that rely on other applications written before it that require older technologies.  By doing so, it forces the infrastructure to continue to support older ways of doing things.

For example, let's say that we've built an incredible infrastructure allowing people to use their phones to sign up for classes. This system has been in place for several years and nobody sees any reason why it needs to be changed.  Then an alternative way to sign up for classes comes around and its much faster, more reliable, and easier to use.  However, instead of rewriting the system to use this new technology, we decide that it would be easier and better to just simply overlay the new system on top of the old.  Rather than take advantage of everything that the new technology has to offer, we degrade the new to work with the old. (For those of you who recognize this analogy to telebears, good job).

For a more realistic example, we can look at Japan.  When we think of Japan, we think of their robotics and incredible technology that just seems to keep pushing out.  Look at the Wii, it came out, sold a bunch, was amazing, and now, almost 2 years later, XBox and the PS3 are just now starting to copy it.  In the meantime, Japan holds the fastest average for internet speeds and their cell phones receive television.  In fact, many Japanese don't own high-end personal computers.  Some look at the iphone and say, that's it? Why is it that a country whose "industrial revolution" was so late, or at least several decades later than others, is able to outpace even the U.S.?  Perhaps its the legacy effect. Japan was able to start off on a firmer footing.  Not needing to build an infrastructure on mere whim but on a tested and improved foundation.  In short, you can say that a late start may be more beneficial when it comes to infrastructure.

Why do I care about this, you may ask?  Why would I write such a lengthy post on such a subject?  It is because I feel that I have become slow.  A legacy artifact.  Why make myself build on top of a system that has yet to mature?  My previous blog, Collections, seems to have been a step backward in that respect.  Perhaps it is time to start fresh again so as to avert the legacy effect.

A Failed Experiment

Well, unfortunately, if you've been following at all, I haven't been able to post on Collections. To me, that is a failure that should never happen with any service. Thus, it seems that I will be moving back to blogger in order to provide a much more consistent platform to expand on my thoughts.

That said, I am thinking of starting anew. I feel that I've trapped myself to blogging into a much too specific niche and I would like to expand into a different light.

Any comments would be appreciated. I look forward to seeing you back here.

Edit: Whenever I can get my other site back, I will be moving the posts over to this blog so expect to see some repeats.

Moving!!!

Hey everyone! I'm moving this blog over to wordpress powered blog since I like the layout they offer there better.  Plus, for me, it is easier to post and read everyone's comments!  Thanks!


http://collections.exofire.net/

Love: Not a Gift?

"God loves us the way we are and nothing we do can possibly change that. But God loves us too much to let us stay the way we are now."

I think that my life has come down to experiencing amazingly truthful quotes throughout the day. No matter when, my mind is constantly being preoccupied by something extraordinarily easy to say but surprisingly difficult to comprehend. It has gotten to the point that when I sit down to talk to someone, I sometimes ask them about one amazing thing they've had happen that day.

Leading into this quote which I heard during my Friday night fellowship message, was the idea of moving forward. It was about how no matter how many times we make a mistake, God will, without question, love us unconditionally. Yet, God loves us so much that he refuses to leave us in the same sorry state that we came in.

I think that a lot of us are trying to move forward and maybe even try to make that initial dent into a seemingly imprenetrable "wall" that inhibits us to make a conscious push forward. In other words, there are things that many of us recognize as hinderances but aren't motivated enough to deal with it. I find this especially true with myself. If I asked myself what sort of things I want to get rid of, I would say something like bad grades, procrastination, and apathy. While I am extremely conscious of these things (especially bad grades), I tend to fall back into them, despite having tried to chip away at the blocks, feeling pathetic for having failed.

Knowing that Jesus is always there for me is definitely consoling. Looking back at the quote, it's easy to look at it as some sort of conslence. Yes, God will love you no matter how pathetic you are. Yes God won't disown you if you fail that next midterm. Yes, God won't turn away when you procrastinated. Yes, God will still embrace you even you are apathetic. But this is not what God will only do. God's love is active. He won't just let you stay stagnant.

The consoling stereotype that we have placed on God's love and the idea that we do nothing to receive that love is not just too ingrained, it is incomplete. God is constantly trying to lead us toward him. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you see it, we don't just receive God's love. God's love is not a present in the sense of some kind of gift for us to have our way with. God's love is more of a command and it's your choice whether you want to execute it or not. Accepting it will change you, you aren't going to be the same. There is no in between. When we look ourselves in the mirror, we won't look the same after receiving the gift. It isn't a gift that you can accept and just leave unwrapped on your bookshelf.

Have you executed God's love?

Relief at Four

All I can possibly say is that only God could have helped pull this one off for me. He is too good, all the time.

No I'm not going to say what because that's not important. What is important is how faithful He is.

On the Topic of Love

The many ways of saying it (flickr):

The different categories we place them in:

15 Different Types of love (San Francisco Examiner)

In its many forms, it all comes down to one singular idea.

edit: for a more complete list, http://www.omniglot.com/language/phrases/iloveyou.htm.

Psalm 103:12

"as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us."

Q: How far is east from west? If you had to travel west, how far would you have to travel to get to east?
A: Try this, get a globe, place your finger on the globe, and spin the globe so that your finger is traveling west. Then see how many times you spin the globe to get to east. You then multiply this number by the circumference of the earth which is 24,901.55 miles. That is how far away our transgression are from us. By the way, if you did this, I think you would conclude that the number is infinity.

To conclude: God is good, all the time :)

Don't forget to comment in the previous post!

Commenting (blah blah blah....)

Relax, enjoy, feel free. I love commenting and I love receiving comments. If you have something to say, whether it be about how lovely the post was or how awesome your day was, I'd love to hear it. Just drop a post!

This week's comment question!

What video game, anime series, reality show, drama series, etc. would you like to be part of?

Its Spring...

Sorega ai deshou on guitar　Full Metal Panic Fumoffu

As a change of pace, I thought I'd share a beautiful tab of the ending of an anime I watched called Fumoffu.  If only I could play like this...

Attention Deficit

How much time do you actually take to reflect?  Did you ever stop to think what exactly you are doing?  I think I can safely say that I actually don't stop, ever. I just push forward and continue to engage in life without every stepping back. I tend to keep running without looking back or lifting up my head to look farther forward.

On a Friday fellowship with my church, a striking observation was made.  We actually never stop.  When we go back to our dorms, homes, apartments, etc..., we start off by making dinner, turning on the television, or surfing the web.  The few studious ones actually start their homework or study for an upcoming midterm.  But the point is this: we don't slow down.  After a long day in school or at work, we just keep going without ceasing being busy.

Speculating on this, I feel as though this may be a direct consequence of being so wired with technology and trinkets that we never really find a time to be "bored."  The internet is a nonstop distraction, capable to draining hours and hours of time away from life.  Cell phones are a great way to constantly socialize about menial clothes and boy-girl dramas in life and television.

What makes this problem extreme is how we have integrated this into our lives.  We actually tend to have our cell phone on and texting while our computer is streaming a YouTube video while your favorite television show is in a commercial break all the while your homework is laid out in front of you in case you feel guilty enough to start it.  Some of us might be thinking that this scenario is impossible but I can assure you that you have at least tried to do at least two of these things simultaneously.

What consequence does this lead to?  A constant barrage of stimulus that becomes so familiar that, when it is absent, makes us feel unproductive and even insecure.  I'll admit that there are times when I sit down on my bed and do my weekly reflections that I feel guilty that I'm just not doing anything. I feel that the "weekly review" for myself is procrastination in practice.  Yet, deep down in a logical sense, it's almost like I have an attention deficit disorder.

Now for those who are Christian, when I talk about this "weekly review" I don't mean quiet times.  Quiet times are for God.  Weekly reviews are for me.  The reason why I make this distinction is that some people might think this "reflecting" thing is meant for some spiritual purpose.  I'm trying to make the argument that this is, in no way, spiritual.  I want to make this a mental check-up.

Here's a challenge.  Spend half an hour just sitting there.  Don't think about what you have to do next.  Turn OFF your cell phone (vibrate is not OFF).  Turn OFF your computer (sleep doesn't count).  Sit down on your bed, and just sit there.  Just sit.  Don't do anything.  Think retrospectively.  If you can pull this off on your first try, without cheating, good job, try an hour.  Oh, by the way, don't sleep, nap, rest your eyes, etc... that defeats the purpose, anyone can be still sleeping.

Day In, Nothing Out

So for anyone still expecting another reflective blog post, I must again apologize deeply. Not only has the day idled away, I have procrastinated it away being rather sedentary. In short, I have finally reached the extremity of indolence. So... sorry to my readers, I will try my best to retype my post by tomorrow.

In the meantime, I'd like to direct you to a site that I frequent quite often a post that I found interesting:
9 Ways to Handle Interruptions Like a Pro

Google Fear

So, to make up for my failure, I've decided to post something for you to enjoy, and think about. Really, think hard.

Ugh... post fail

I'm terribly sorry this week for my failure to post.  Unfortunately, my draft was dropped after trying to post it from my ipod touch. So all my hard work... gone.... sniff....

I'll try to retype it ASAP

Values

When I was in ap government, I learned that something's value is what others would pay for it. I think there is an important distinction between what others pay and what you would pay. Many times when you think about price, you think of the little yellow sticker underneath or in the object. How much do you think about your own price though?

How much are you worth? This isn't a rhetorical question either. Think about it. Do you think you underrate yourself or overprice your true value? I know that I will tend to think that I am priceless and that nobody could buy me. Then I think about the human traffickers around the world who do business by placing prices on actual people. While you may think that you are essentially priceless, others may not. Again, I ask what you are really worth.

Today in church, the pastor said that the value of your soul is what you love. If what I love is my job or perhaps even my money, I am worth nothing more than what my job actually means to people. Likewise, you
might think that loving money makes you valuable since money should be worth a lot. Yet how much would people pay for money? Definitely not their life or likewise, not their soul.

Perhaps what we love are our friends and family and even distant relatives who we rarely ever see. What is your worth then? Maybe it is the worth of all those people combined. Then in turn, they could love high value things which makes your worth higher. Yet that is still, in a sense, a finite number. What then should we love to maximize the value of our soul?

If we remember that our value is what someone else would pay for it, then we need to find something to love that is so precious that someone would trade all their worth for our soul. But what or exactly WHO do we love? When I think about this issue I can only think of the all-loving God. After all, he paid in full for us which makes us all the more valuable to Him.

To take this one step further, think about what paying for us meant for God.  God loved his son, Jesus with all his heart.  Doesn't that mean that his worth was placed in Jesus?  But then He willingly gave up Jesus for us, people who didn't love and wouldn't love in the way that Jesus could.  God willingly gave up what his whole worth in order to give us a chance to walk on a righteous path.

What do you love?

Define Tolerance?

Who is more tolerant?  An individual who believes that one view is correct but allows others to hold their own opinion or someone who does not hold any strong views but thinks everyone is right?

I first heard this question over this past weekend during my church’s fellowship.  Rather than taking my time to think about the question deeply, I immediately answered that it is one who has strong views but accepts the fact that other will have different views.  I was surprised that a survey of this question resulted in the majority answering the opposite. 

Instead of trying to reason why the majority would say being tolerant is thinking that everyone is right, I focused more on how I felt so strongly that I was right.  At first I was thinking how it was because the first option closely resembled my world view on life so I wanted it to be true.  I didn’t want my “life-philosophy” to be non-tolerant.  I didn’t want to put myself down as the non-tolerant.  But I wanted to move past this selfish conclusion.

Being that the speaker didn’t really put forth any real reason I thought that way, and this was in the beginning of the message, the opener so to speak, I quickly pushed the question back into my mind so as to keep up with the onslaught of history and philosophy that ensued.  Note: I don’t want to give the impression of a bad message that night since I thoroughly enjoyed the analysis of the progression of thought through the human eras.

After the night was over and I got back to my dorm room, I began to think again about the question of tolerance.  I’m sorry if you thought that I had a sure-fire conclusion to this conundrum but I’m afraid that even now I still lack a definitive answer.  For now, I am rather content on standing on the first option but conceding that someone can still make the argument for the second.  For those who read this far, you might notice that this answer is rather biased being that I want to tolerant and therefore allow others to hold their own views, but still believing that I am right.

Please comment on what you think might be tolerance.

Bite Size 5

"Patience is not tolerance, it is an application of forgiveness" - today's sermon

Hacker's Ethics

I was listening to a live stream of my favorite podcasting station, TWiT @ http://live.twit.tv, and they were recording the next episode of Security Now which is one of the greatest security podcasts ever made.  Something that the host said caught my attention.  Before, hacking use to be done for fun, now, hacking is being done for money!

If you think about the evolution, hacking was originally just how slow can you make a computer or make it do things to creep the user out.  Now, hacking is being done to destroy people's lives by taking over their bank accounts, stealing their personal data, and maybe even exposing companies (which may or not be a bad thing).  Another piece he said was that the amateur hacker targets computers but the professional targets people.

Ever since we have started relying on computers more and more to get through our daily, rather mundane lives, it has been making it easier for hacker to target larger demographics of people.  No matter how secure or how blocked off we make a computer, if the user doesn't know how to use it, it's practically useless.  So the weakest link is going to be your mom, dad, grandpa, grandma, sister, and maybe even you.  Try to be informed, there's lots of information floating out there to help you become more secure.

Now, be aware, not all hackers are bad.  There are hackers that work to make sure that YOU aren't hacked.  In fact, you can say most security researches are hackers.  Many antivirus companies probably hire hackers to help develop their software.  Every year, there are countless security conferences to make sure that all hackers are up to date.  So don't just go up to someone who claims they're a hacker and think badly of them, they may be the next person to save you from something bad.

Some advice, despite what anyone says, make sure you update your operating system, whether mac or windows.  Make sure that your browser is up to date as well.  Lastly, make sure you have an antivirus.  The biggest headache most people have is with their antivirus but trust me, its worth it.  If you're running windows, I'd suggest the Microsoft Antivirus.  Totally free and headache free.  Just install and it works.

Big thanks to Steve Gibson for bringing this kind of stuff up.  Catch him and the whole TWiT team at http://twit.tv

Cutting Down

I love being a minimalist.  It may not seem like it though.  If you've ever walked into my room, I got stuff all over the place, most of which seems super redundant.  The problem with me is that I'm a minimalist but I want to be efficient.  You might be thinking that simplifying stuff makes that stuff more efficient.  Sometimes, I don't think so.  There are times when I try to simplify my computer by just completely reformatting it but end up with more or the same amount of junk that I already had on it.

I guess here's what I want to say.  I may be a hypocrite and just say that I'm a minimalist but actually am not.  OR.  I may be a minimalist but still find that my minimalistic ways doesn't directly transfer to being efficient.  I may get rid of more stuff but the more stuff I get rid of, the harder it is to do other things.

Alternatives to kick Piracy

While I did give my take on how piracy may have been better for the industry overall, I don't support it at all.  However, sometimes our wills are weak and we are tempted to download that one last album to complete your collection. Well, there are a lot of alternatives that are legal!

Great places to pay legitimately for the album:
Itunes!!
Amazon!! <-- both are DRM free!

Great places to stream music:
Pandora Radio
LaLa.com

Great places to stream videos:
Hulu
Boxee
Youtube (iffy)

There are a lot more great places but there are many great places that aren't particularly legal or are standing on the gray zone.  The Pirate Bay may be a great place but is (for the most part) pirating!

The Case for Piracy

Don't make any assumptions based on this blog title! Piracy is still ILLEGAL.
However, I do want to state a couple of things that I've heard about piracy and how it is actually working out.  Of course piracy is extremely harmful to the music industry.  However, there are some instances where it isn't.  If you take nine-inch-nails as the primary example, they've created a business model for singers not based on any huge record label and fancy advertising but on piracy.  Google the topic to find out more about it, I'm not wasting my breath here.
Another way to look at piracy is whether or not it is a bad thing for the industry as a whole. It was inevitable. As soon as mp3s became a standard, piracy was sure to break out.  With the internet, its a free distribution platform (well almost, you still gotta pay for internet).  Yet, the internet has also helped the music industry to make even more money through promoting the songs and even selling them on itunes or amazon.  In a way, it also made music (and movies) a lot more convenient to get, legally or illegally.
Piracy forced the industry to adapt to the web 2.0 architecture.  Maybe we would have all still been buying CDs without the piracy issue.  It forced the media to come onto the web and battle it out online and was ultimately better for the consumer.  You can now buy tracks individually without all the wasted plastic and extra charges (like tax).  In a way, it keeps the industry honest.

The Youtube Tutorial

I think we all have been to youtube to watch little kittens and weird japanese prank shows. Sometimes I think that is all that is on youtube but the reality is that there are a lot more useful things on there as well. While we may think that youtube is just a bunch of people filming some concert or them doing some crazy karate, we may be missing a serious educational experience on youtube as well.

While I was being rather bored, I heard an incredible piano piece which struck me so hard that I wanted to learn piano just so I could feel "impressive" that I could play that piece. Don't ask me what that piece was, it was on the radio. I googled in "piano tutorial" and noticed that there were youtube results!

You might not think much of finding people trying to teach you piano on youtube to be impressive but its like getting free tutorials online where you would have, without it, gone to the library to pick up a book or look through the yellow pages to look for a tutor. Not only that, you might not even be able to find a tutor or book to help you out where you're located. With youtube, it's everywhere (except maybe china...). It isn't just limited to piano either. You can learn guitar, flute, computing, php, sql, java, basic, photography, and etc. The list is practically endless. You might even be able to find tutorials on bagpipes or some other exotic instrument!

Holding Back is Painful...

I always wonder what exactly I wanna write about on this blog and I keep thinking about all my interests and can't seem to stick to one. You've seen me write about photography, Christianity, technology, applications, and all sorts of non-sequitor stuff about life. I really dunno where to go with this blog. I was thinking of just keeping it random but I dunno how random I could possible be. Not to mention it makes it hard for adsense to figure out what ads to put.

Anyway, it's the new year so I figure I should make a new year's resolution. Unfortunately, its really hard and really painful. You see, this year, I'm actually thinking of holding back on the buying of gadgetry and niceties that make my life so "techy." As much as I love them and want to use them and find them useful, they really are expensive little trinkets. But even realizing this, it is really hard just to think "no, i don't need it." I don't mean this as in a life or death or even a social status way, I think of this "i don't need" thing on a self satisfying level. Yes, my hobby is merely self-gratuitous and tops the list as one of the most ego-centric things I do. Even so, although I know how iniquitous and horrible and maybe even corrupting thing it is, it is a really hard new year's resolution not to even think of getting things. Just to name off a few things I was actually thinking of getting this year:

more RAM for my computer
upgrading my dSLR to an Olympus E30 (which is like 1000 bucks)
a nice pair of noise-cancelling headphones
building a new computer
and so on....

Yeah, I'm screwed, but I'll still try. (This post probably didn't sound convincing).

Back Up!

Just yesterday, one of my friends' laptop hard drive broke and completely lost it. He wasn't exactly the most tech-savy dude and had a lot of important files on there including pictures, reports, and bank account numbers (which I NEVER recommend you place on your compy alone). Being the not-so-tech-smart man that he is, which I don't blame him for, he didn't even think of buying an external drive or even backing up his stuff on a disk. In fact, he thought that laptops were rock solid and were like desktops, never failing unless you kicked it really, really, really hard.

I just hope that you're never in this situation. To make sure that you don't get yourself in this situation, I reccommend you backup your stuff on disks AND on an external hard drive. why? Becuase I'd hate to say this but laptops have a half life of somewhere between 2-3 years unless you bought some crazy thinkpad (i'm guilty of this, btw) or just never take your laptop off your desk.

Now if you're thinking, hard drives and discs cost money, isn't there an alternative? Well, you're in luck cuz there are a few solutions out there. There is one drawback though, it'll take more time to use it and it doesn't give you much space to work with. For the past few days, I've been ranting on about dropbox which gives you 2 gigs of free online storage. Its a great way to back up your files. On top of that, theres sky drive which also gives out storage. If you're willing to pay just a little cash, carbonite is a really good backup place to put all your stuff. Other things your could try is e-mailing yourself in gmail but thats a real hassle. Another way to do it is if you already have another computer. Then all you gotta do is just transfer the files between the computers (again, you can use dropbox).

Important!!! you don't delete the file off your computer after you've backed it up. The purpose is to have TWO copies of the file in TWO different places so if one goes bad, you have another.

Back from Retreat! More Dropbox lovin'

So I just got back from my church's winter retreat where we all go up to a secluded place, devoid of all distractions and do church stuff (I'm assuming most of my readers don't care much about what I personally did there). Anyway, being the photographing lover that I am, I obviously brought all my camera gear and took probably over 1,000 photos. Unfortunately, facebook doesn't let me upload more than 200 pics at a time, which I think is super duper lame.

I know most of you are probably thinking, why anyone might need to upload more than 200 photos at once, well, I do, so there. Anyway, I came back, found out about the lame limit, and then looked to my dropbox! apparently, if you sync your photos folder, dropbox will actually create a photo album for you so that you can share with all your friends. I find that to be such a neat feature. Not only that, unlike facebook, people can actually get the whole picture and not some lame compressed image. That way, they don't need to keep asking me for the 'actual' photo.

If you really wanna know what I mean, try it out for yourself!