In a recent Time magazine “10 Questions” interview, the Dalai Lama gave this answer:
How do you stay so optimistic and faithful when there is so much hate in the world? —Joana Cotar, FRANKFURT
I always look at any event from a wider angle. There’s always some problem, some killing, some murder or terrorist act or scandal everywhere, every day. But if you think the whole world is like that, you’re wrong. Out of 6 billion humans, the troublemakers are just a handful.
Nothing exists as a block And cannot be parceled up. So if nothing’s ventured It’s not just talk; It’s the big wager – Kay Ryan
What you cannot enforce, do not command. -Sophocles
Given a choice between two theories, take the one which is funnier.
Blore’s Razor
If this is your first time here, welcome. You should know that the entries are in reverse chronological
order, with the newest postings first. But you might want to start with the oldest postings for some
context, so take a look at this set of entries from November, 2005.
When young, we trust ourselves too much, and we trust others too little when old. Rashness is the error of youth, timid caution of age. Manhood is the isthmus between the two extremes; the ripe and fertile season of action, when alone we can hope to find the head to contrive, united with the hand to execute.–COLTON.
A team at the University of Alberta has solved the game of checkers. The way they did it was ingenious; they solved all possible combinations of 10 pieces on the board, using 18 years of CPU time on up to 200 computers! The typical approach in Artificial Intelligence is to start at the beginning of a game and work forward, evaluating all possible moves as far into the future as possible, so people evaulate as much as they can in a certain amount of time and hope that that is enough to beat their opponent. The clever thing is to not waste time evaluating impossible moves, and there are all sorts of techniques known as pruning to do that wisely. For games like checkers or chess, there are simply too many possible configurations of the board to evaluate all of them using today’s computer technology. The team at Alberta took an opposite approach and worked backwards from possible end games, even if it meant evaluating possible combinations that could never be gotten to in a real checkers game. They then have a large database of “perfect” play from each 10 piece starting point, and from that the computer can be guaranteed to never lose a game of checkers. What is really cool about it is that the computer could play completely randomly up until the point when there are 10 pieces left. In fact, it could purposely try to lose as many pieces as possible until it got to the point where there were just 10 pieces left, and it would still win after that.
 This has all sorts of relevance for the Trust Manifesto. In situations where you have a way to guarantee success (or lack of failure) in the end game, then you don’t have to worry about the beginning and middle of the game. For instance, in libraries with RFID tags in the books and sensors at the doors, there is no need to hire guards to watch for people hiding library books in their backpacks. They will be caught at the end of the game (assuming they don’t rip the tags out of the books!). In typical purchasing transactions, I am not so worried about what the other party does, because I know that I can put stop payments on checks and create disputes with my credit card companies.
This notion of not worrying now because you have a fallback later is a very, very powerful idea, and I am convinced it is one of the most important principles for peace of mind in countless situations. The Chinook chess playing program is a very clever embodiment of that idea.
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“A ship in a harbour is safe, but that is not what ships are for.”
   – Attributed to various people
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Don’t be yourself. Be someone a little nicer.-Mignon McLaughlin, journalist and author (1913-1983)
The crucial disadvantage of aggression, competitiveness, and skepticism as national characteristics is that these qualities cannot be turned off at five o’clock. -Margaret Halsey, novelist (1910-1997)
CHARLESTON, South Carolina (AP) — The Citadel will break with tradition and install locks on all cadet rooms amid concerns about safety in the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings.
Male cadets at the state military college have no locks on their barracks doors. Female cadets can lock their doors from the inside. The tradition had evolved in keeping with the spareness of military life and with the school’s honor code, which mandates that cadets do not steal.
Now, all cadets will get keys to lock their doors from the outside by next semester. Installing the locks will cost about $125,000.
“This decision in no way compromises the honor system. The personal standards that a cadet does not lie, cheat or steal nor tolerate those who do remains the centerpiece of The Citadel experience,” said the school’s president, retired Air Force Lt. Gen. John Rosa.
The idea had been discussed before the Virginia Tech shootings. But a review after that incident shows “times have changed and society has changed” and locks are needed, Rosa said.
“My job is the safety of every student,” he added.
The Citadel’s Board of Visitors approved the change at a regularly scheduled weekend meeting.
The college’s commandant of cadets, Greg Stone, said locks will mean “a new way of operating” but won’t change the way cadets interact.
College attorney Mark Brandenburg said the locks will help safeguard the college from legal liability. But he said it is about more than lawsuits. “We weren’t at the standard of care we wanted to be,” he said.
If you don’t want it printed, don’t let it happen.
- Masthead of the Aspen Daily News
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There are two things to aim at in life; first to get what you want, and after that to enjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind achieve the second.
-Logan Pearsall Smith, essayist
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When I was growing up, Art Buchwald had a syndicated column in our local paper.
I kind of put him in the same category as William F. Buckley and Omar Shariff -
a bunch of old farts.
When I got older, I started seeing him here and there on Martha’s Vineyard, and
started reading his stuff, and realized he’s funny as hell. He was the auctioneer
at an annual charity auction and he was completely entertaining, and goaded people
into giving hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The last year of his life has been written about quite a bit, because he entered a hospice
in DC, and was expecting to live just a few weeks, but instead got well, and was able
to leave the hospice, return to Martha’s Vineyard, and even appear onstage for the
auction this year. His opening line was simply one of the funniest things that has ever
been said: “I was planning to go to heaven, but came to Martha’s Vineyard instead.”
Anyway, I just listened to an NPR tribute, where they played various clips of Art’s appearances,
and he is talking about visiting the WOR radio station in New York where they had the men’s
room locked, but the studio wide open.
I had a dead remote control for my DVD burner. This is not a DVD
burner on a computer, but a combination DVD burner/player which
connects to our Tivo and television. The user interface is preposterous,
which doesn’t suprise me, because I used to work for the manufacturer
of it. But aside from the complexity, it was just as dead as a doornail.
So I searched on eBay, and Googled, to see if I could find a replacement
remote. Not surprisingly, someone on eBay was selling the entire DVD
player with a remote for less money than the remote alone. (I once
bought an Apple Laserwriter and toner cartridge on eBay for less
than the toner cartridge alone!) But I don’t need more stuff laying
around the house right now.
Finally I found out about remotes.com from Google.
They had a factory new replacement for just $31, with a very reasonable
shipping cost. I could easily spend an hour looking for a replacement elsewhere,
so I was pretty psyched when it took me just a few minutes to complete the
whole deal.
But after my receipt displayed, I saw a link on their site that said “fix any remote”.
Intrigued, I clicked on that, and it said “1 in 3 remotes can be repaired just
by pulling out the batteries, and pressing every key and sliding every switch,
and replacing the batteries”. That seemed pretty crazy, but I had nothing to
lose. I tried it, and my remote came back to life!
I just wrote to remotes.com and asked them to cancel my order AND to
charge my Visa for $10 anyway, because that advice was well worth it to
me. $10 is probably their profit on the sale of a remote, so they make
their money off of me with no effort on their part, and in the meantime,
I am so happy that I tell all my friends about them.
That is pretty trusting of your potential customers to give them
advice of how that can avoid becoming your customer. I still
need to think about this one. It is certainly good karma, but there is
no equation that can show they are maximizing profit by doing this.
Anyway, if you have a dead remote, forget eBay. That’s the place
to go to.
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 – Larry Wall
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