Get around the Wikipedia Blackout
30 minutes ago I loaded up Wikipedia only to be blocked from accessing any content. Well after looking a little closer, I found it to be pretty straightforward to bypass it. My belief is that blacking out a global website for one nations policy choices seems pretty silly to me. I’m for Wikipedia; against SOPA.
Steps:
- Find the wiki page via google
- When the page loads and the black overlay appears, copy/paste this text into the URL bar:
- javascript:$(‘#content’).show();$(‘#mw-sopaOverlay’).hide();
Enjoy wikipedia during the blackout!
How I approach learning
I’ll describe the mindset and show you how it can be applied to just about anything in life, with examples.
It boils down to two things:
- How hard could it possibly be? Probably easier than it was for someone to teach it. Really. It’s obviously doable.
- One way or another, I will learn this.
That’s 90% of it. The other bits are small things like: do a scan through the content first to get a “Table of content” overview, read the intro/conclusion/summary, etc.
Example: Learning basic electronics.
Thought processes:
1. Electricity is only TWO things. Positive and negative. 1′s and 0′s. On or off.
2. Look, a battery has only two ends. That’s only two possibilities. How hard can it be to learn two things?
3. It’s just a bunch of wires moving energy around
4. I got this.
Example: Learning programming
Thought processes:
1. If I want something to do something, I just say what I want in it’s weird native language. Cool I’ll just look that up.
2. It must be pretty objective because computers are dumb, they need to be instructed explicitly. Language must be primitive.
3. If this happens, then I want to do that. Er wait, but if that happens, let’s do this instead. Easy peasy.
4. I got this.
Find a way or make one. There are arrays of good excuses to not succeed – just ask yourself at the end, “Did I succeed?” It’s pretty black and white.
Post inspiration from http://www.sebastianmarshall.com/if-you-want-to-get-rich-stop-being-a-fucking-joker
extra extra read all about it!
I read on the web constantly. What I didn’t do as of a couple days ago, is to save these links for future reference. I will be posting links daily to articles/blog posts/essays/tutorials/etc that I found on the internet that helped me in some way. I err towards content that is informative, useful, educational, interesting, mind-blowing, or perhaps something I simply had a good laugh at.
They’re over there on the left. right
Soon I’ll write a piece about why it is that I’m keeping a history stream of things I read. Spoiler: it’s mostly selfish!
Weekend in Whistler: Rafting and Ziplining with the CEO, video
Hey out there…
I went up to whis on Wednesday after work to meet up with my family. The sea to sky highway bloooows me away every time. I could drive that all day. I’ll skip to the meat…
I went rafting, which was, fun. “Fun bouncy waves” as the brochure said. Something a bit more extreme would have been nice, but I actually really enjoyed it as it gave me an opportunity to try my new video camera – the GoPro Hero HD. Excellent camera.
After ziplining I had the opportunity to go on the Eagle Ziptrek tour led by none other than the ziptrek CEO, Charles. Don’t ask me how I know the guy… you probably have a closer relation. But here goes: Sisters, boyfriends, friends, dad, uncles, cousin, who knows him through work. We’re talking a multiple state and country span here. Jesus is likely more closer related!
Enough of my rambling, I’ll let the video speak for itself:
Oh yeah, I also went spearfishing:
But, unfortunately,
No fish 
Next time!
Print is Timeless
As I’m sitting atop the Washington State Ferry – on my way back to school after a few days break at home – something hit me.
To my left I see a teenager furiously texting on his phone – basically oblivious to the seagull eating his lunch, and to my right a middle aged guy flipping through the newspaper, apparently reading random bytes — err bits — of the paper. Further to this mans right, there is a quiet, contemplative, older man reading a beaten novel.
These people caused me to stop for a second, and think about the various mediums of language used throughout the history of humans and the value to us of each (… weird, right?).
Then of course! I thought of a common saying: “It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it.” It hit me that this same principle applies to written words, as it does to verbal speech. The how is the medium.
This new era of technology is driving the written word away from print and ‘physical’ forms of communication towards digitized bytes of ‘virtual’ words. We now are able to enjoy our news and fiction as fragmented blocks of text that we process rather than interpret. The effect is similar to taking drugs to get high: “you gotta get your fix.” The important thing, however, is that we lose sight very easily of the benefits that the printed medium gives us.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m not saying we will stop reading books. But the gap IS growing. Is this bad? It’s hard to say. The ability to immerse yourself in writing is becoming harder as we distance ourselves from it – we simple have too many choices on what to read. You can flip through blogs for hours just finding an article you may decide to read.
Think about the weight of each word written on: a text, a blog, an ebook, a newspaper, a book, a scroll, a stone tablet. As you move between mediums, there is a certain level of richness that you exchange for convenience. I’m not saying one is better than another – it’s a tradeoff.
Let me give an example:
Many school textbooks are now offered as digital ebooks that you can pay to download. I tried this, thinking it would be an excellent idea to save money and have an added value of convenience: not having to lug the damn thing around. Well, I was wrong. It was hard to study from. I couldn’t immerse myself in the concepts. The value of the digital book was clearly lost to owning the real book.
So, even as our lives become more and more digitized, I really do believe there will always be a constant pull from the “primitive” form of written communication: print. The ‘technology’ is simply too revolutionary. It’s timeless.
The simplest way I can put it is this. Words are less important when the medium is common and the sense of ownership seems low. Us humans love to be materialistic. Our nature is we want something to touch. Something tangible. Do you appreciate your music on CDs more than the MP3 you downloaded off the net? I do.
You change the medium, you change the content.
Technology is allowing more of us to become writers, rather than readers. The ability for a ‘common man’ to tell millions of people what is on ones mind, instantly, is an empowerment unheard of only 20 years ago. And this is excellent. What does worry me, is the influx of the pseudo-verbal content popping up all over the net. I’m talking about YouTube, TV shows, etc. They are a huge ‘dumbing’ of content to the viewer. More importantly, they kill too much time, handicapping ones ability to seek personal-growth. I’ll talk more about this in another post, in the meantime share your thoughts in the comments.
Good reads:
http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2010/01/digital-clutter-why-how-we-read-matters/
http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2010/01/the-rapid-evolution-of-“text”-our-less-literate-future/
If Looks Could Kill…
Last night I participated in a school project for Christopher Klassen as the subject. This is the digital version of the shoot (but the true beauty is in the film!)
Beautiful shot Chris! This guy is the man.
Technology, Greed, and Power
I stumbled across a new(ish) video production technology called 2.5D, or pseudo 3-D. A particular animation stuck out to me, and this is the story of Monsieur Cok – a greedy factory owner who replaces his workers with machines to achieve obscene profits.
Check out the HD version here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcju4sFokxs&fmt=18
A few thoughts after the movie…
Technological progression is good. It improves our standard of living. It allows us to further specialize into our chosen fields of work. A prime example is the modern PC. Some millions of typewriter jobs were lost due to this huge milestone in technology. However, ‘lost’ is a misleading word, because its not as if those people sat around doing nothing. I’d say it’s a million jobs GAINED – as those people are free from unnecessary work.
But then again, technology also fosters laziness – we keep inventing things to make our lives easier and easier and easier. When will it be too much? Will it? Think of Wall-E – is that what we want? If its not.. then why are we heading towards it.
What do you think?
“Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness. – Carlyle”
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