Thursday, April 24, 2008

Mandriva 2008.1 Upgrade Nearly Flawless

 

mandrivablack

 

Did a nearly flawless upgrade from Mandriva 2008 to 2008.1 (spring) yesterday. Did it all on-lne, no cds needed. Simply pointed to the 2008.1 software repositories and told it to upgrade.

1770 software packages and a reboot later, and I have 2008.1 up and running. 3-D desktop works better than ever, and the whole system is snappier too. No issues with apache, mysql, amarok... in fact, nothing that I've found.


http://wiki.mandriva.com/en/2008.1_Tour

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Politics

Politics. Some say it's the essential nature of the human condition.

But I'm just tired of it. In my work life, in my extended family life, and definitely in aikido. It's funny but it seems that with people who are supposed to be without ego, ego becomes the most important thing.

I'm faced with a huge decision in my life. Give up something that used to bring me great joy and purpose, but now seems useless and only brings stress and pain as I see friends and mentors fight each other and myself for the perception of control.

What's the point? Aren't we supposed to be helping each other along our own paths? Isn't differing viewpoints the way ahead?


Juno

Good acting, great writing, but ultimately falls flat due to it's inner pretentiousness and consequence-free portrayal of teen pregnancy.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0467406/

Struck By Lightning: The Curious World Of Probabilities

Struck by lightning does for probability what Freakonomics did for economics. Packed full of real-world examples of how to properly think of and use probability.

One example is utility functions -- for example choosing between two options. Option A has a probability of 75% of giving you 500 (subjective) points of happiness or utility. Option B has a 25% chance of giving you 2000 points of happiness. Which one should you choose? Answer: .75 x 500 = a value of 375 for option A and .25 x 2000 = 500 for option B. So Option B is the best.

Another example -- should you undergo an intrusive and expensive lifestyle change to reduce your chance of a heart attack by 50%? On the face of it, yes. But if you look at the probabilities, if you have a 1 in 10000 chance of having a heart attack in the next year, the probability is .01 %. Undergoing the process would decrease your chance of having a heart attack to .005%. Is there a real difference in the two values when you look at them this way? Is it worth undergoing the change?

Recommended read. 


http://www.amazon.com/Struck-Lightning-Curious-World-Probabilities/dp/0309097347/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1208959063&sr=8-1

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

sick

Kids sick. Hiyat sick. Me sick. Everybody sick. No fun.

Seriously. Zack just gets over having baby measels and everybody in the house comes down with the worst ass-kicking cold ever. Just in time to put up the new shed, the new playground set, and help finish the new dojo in time to open.

Ugh.


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