Will Knott

There was a time and place when computing was the most fun. The place was with a quarrel of programmers all working together, the time was post Internet but pre-WiFi.

Programming isn’t always a lonely job. True, your brain is doing heavy lifting, hauling multi dimensional arrays around with db schema, but it can be done with others.

Frequently it is a lonely project, often in the quiet bedroom or cube. But for a while groups got together in a lab and discussed ideas and solutions. Masters showed skills to apprentices. Friendships blossomed. I’m still good friends with some of those lab-mates.

Most of those days are gone. But sometimes…
It’s why technology conferences are fun. It’s why CoderDojo is sometimes exciting.

I mentor at CoderDojo Cork, and thanks to (old) media over the Christmas and New Year (as well as the BT Young Scientist’s Exhibition) our numbers swelled. 38 new young minds showed up last week, and those from the previous week as well as the regulars. Numbers are a little silly.

But the atmosphere is just like those old days. The mentors like me do the front of class teaching, then during the practical exercises it turns in to an old style computer club with the more advanced students helping each other. The group working together is like old times. I wonder just how many of these kids will end up doing bigger projects together.

It turns out that you can rediscover the past and uncover the future at the same time. Or just rediscover some very important parts of the past when misfiled.

This is a Loose Bloggers Consortium post on the theme of “Rediscovery”. To find out that the others in the consortium think, check out, Anu, Ashok, Delirious, Gaelikaa, Grannymar, Magpie 11, Nema, Noor, Padmini, Paul, Plain Joe, Ramana, Rohit, The Silver Fox Whispers and The Student Diaries.

“I had found her. The power of the moving image hit me, the power to resurrect.
I rewound the tape and timed Joyce’s appearance. Four seconds. I slowed the footage down and watched. One hundred frames, hundreds of dancing pixels.” — Carol Morley

When I saw “Birds”, I’m slightly ashamed to admit that my first thought was not of the avian kind, but the English slang for women. It also means that I thought that “Angry Birds” and their attempt to destroy the presumable chauvinistic pigs was a very different game.

Then we have the dead bird, bringing to mind “The Hours“, Mrs. Dalloway and Virginia Wolfe. She, along with James Joyce came out of copyright so expect a lot of e-texts of hers to be legally transmitted over radio waves.

But another woman in the air came to mind first. Her flat was near London’s Shopping City centre, in a slightly isolated flat that happened to be near the bins…

Thousands if not millions of people walked past the flat containing Joyce Carol Vincent’s slowly decomposing body. The window was slightly open, and the television was on; for three years while her body lay on the sofa where she was wrapping Christmas presents. This is a story that fascinated the film maker Carol Morley who released the Irish part funded (yes, that surprised me) film “Dreams of a Life“.

How can a high flying beautiful woman just vanish without anyone noticing. It was only because of rent arrears (presumably her bank account eventually drained away) that bailiffs entered her flat to repossess it, and in the process found her.

It also got me thinking just how little I actually meet my friends. Or my neighbours. I “check-in” with them online, update Twitter every so often to show signs of life, and this blog too. Yes I have friends, real ones, but I don’t see them very often. It takes a bit of planning to arrange a meet, so things slide. But…

Internet technology was designed to be an asynchronous method of communicating over long distances, and I’ve seen it used as a way to send real-time messages to a person at the next desk. It bridges time and distance. It however doesn’t offer the ability to deliver a kiss or a cuddle (I am not afraid of the comments from robotics experts).

Blog posts can be scheduled, the same with Twitter. It could be possible to set up a system to offer signs of a life, long after it has flown. Or maybe never really existed.

I think I need to go meet someone…

And there will be catch up posts…

This is a Loose Bloggers Consortium post on the theme of “The birds of the air…”; chosen by Magpie. To find out that the others in the consortium think, check out, Anu, Ashok, Conrad, Delirious, Gaelikaa, Grannymar, Magpie 11, Nema, Noor, Padmini, Paul, Plain Joe, Ramana, Rohit, The Silver Fox Wispers and The Student Diaries.

’tis Midwinter, the night that the other Clause brother comes with his twice checked short list and empty sack. Horror for the night that is in it. Thanks to Pseudopod for the reminder.

I hope to get home and catch some time between Christmas and the New Year to recover lost LBC ground.

Merry Midwinter,
Will

The first time I died, it was when a rock crushed me.

The second time I think was being shot by an alien, but it could have been in a car crash.

I’ve died many times in video games. Take a look…

And this is a first. Its the first time I’ve put an iframe embedded video here. Since the recent announcement of Adobe not supporting mobile flash, I don’t know if I can use the old embed code any more.

You were expecting something personal?

This is a Loose Bloggers Consortium post on the theme of “Firsts in my life”; chosen by Anu. To find out that the others in the consortium think, check out, Anu, Ashok, Conrad, Delirious, Gaelikaa, Grannymar, Magpie 11, Nema, Noor, Padmini, Paul, Plain Joe, Ramana, Rohit, The Silver Fox Whispers and The Student Diaries.

This weeks topic is “Focus” and its impossible for me to take on a topic like this without mentioning photography, but I’m also going to bring up a self-discovery that surprised me.

But first, a photo.

Tilt shift is a special way of intentionally pulling the focus in such a way that a real life shot resembles a model shot. This particular shot is actually done with a digital defocusing technique used to simulate a physical focusing technique.

Of course, new technology (as in recent weeks) may mean that focusing a camera will be a thing of a past. The new Lytro camera is a “light field” camera which used to require a super computer and a room full  of camera fifteen years ago to pull of what is now available in a smaller than usual hand-held camera. Essentially you take your shot, and then go home to focus your shot. Needless to say, their pictures are worth a few hundred normal pictures in raw disk space on its memory card.

Now leaving photography for a while, a touch of personal life being brought in to focus.

I followed a link from Twitter to The Journal (well we did have an election recently and the #Aras11 hashtag is still an interesting place) and got caught up in a reader’s survey. One if the questions was “What websites (excluding Google and social networking sites) do you visit?”

I was stumped. You see, I don’t visit websites regularly; websites come to me. I tend to use my RSS Reader, Twitter and Google Plus links and links from e-mails. I don’t visit websites. If I stumble across a site of interest, it gets added to my RSS reader feed and from then on, the updates come to me. If there isn’t a feed, there is a risk that I’ll never return. Yes this sounds like a follow up to the Felicia Day mini rant, but I was shocked when I realised that I’m no longer a web browser.

I used to maintain a wiki of sites to visit. At some point its became a OPLM list. And the sad thing is I can work out the exact day it happened. May 26 2007. Election day for the 30th Dáil, in the Mallow count centre. And it took another election for me to notice.

Worrying that.

This is a Loose Bloggers Consortium post on the theme of “Focus”; chosen by Grannymar.
To find out that the others in the consortium think, check out, Anu, Ashok, Conrad, Delirious, Gaelikaa, Grannymar, Magpie 11, Nema, Noor, Padmini, Paul, Plain Joe, Ramana, Rohit, The Silver Fox Wispers and The Student Diaries.

I awoke while her hooks were still in me.
Pulling my threads through, making my skin secure.
But I was awake, my button eyes, not yet in place may not have seen clearly yet, but I could hear.
My mission: Protect. Comfort. Love. I don’t know how I knew, but I knew.

“You’re going to get dizzy if you keep pacing like that.”, sighed my creator. Her voice indicated age, but kindness and concern rang through.
“Its taking too long.” A male voice. Slight panic rising.

“Babies always take their own time. Besides the doctors know what they are doing.”
“But its been twenty hours!?”
The rhythmic click of the hooks stopped. “I remember how long it took for me to give birth to you. You don’t want the story.” Stern.
“Would it help?”
“Its a little early, besides boys always seem to take longer.”
“Its a girl.”
“Shouldn’t you be waiting to tell me until afterwards?”
“You’re going to be the first to know anyway.”
“I’d have used pink wool.” I felt myself being lifted. Displayed.
“I’m glad you didn’t. Nearly done?” Was the subject being changed?
“Just a few more stitches”.

They paused, and the clicking of the hooks began again.
“I’m surprised you have a filling in place.”
“The form is in there in case your little one pulls at the stitches.
Crochet is a little forgiving, but the filling may still leak.”
“Oh.”
“And have you decided on a name yet?”
“Well its nearly Christmas and…”
“Not Noelle!”
“Oh no, we were joking about Holly.”
“That’s worse.”
“But we like Ivy.”
“The Holly and the Ivy?”
“Yes, but Ivy is a short version of Elizabeth. So she will be named Elizabeth, but we’re going to call her Ivy.”
“You compromised?”
“Er… Yes.”
I could hear the smile.

A door swooshed near-by.
“We’re ready for you now.”
I heard rushed footsteps and she sat in silence, finishing my skin.
Getting me finished for Ivy.
Ivy.

—

Beeping. Whooshes of air. Laboured breathing. Organic squeaks and coos. Muffled voices.
The sounds inside the clear panelled box they called the were varied to my new ears. My eyes, now in place could see a distorted reflection of myself, and something else my size beside me.
Something struggling beside me.
Struggling to breath.
Struggling to live.

“She’ll have to stay in there for a few weeks at least.”
“How long?”
“Its hard to tell. She’s premature, and her lungs haven’t fully formed yet.”
“But she’ll be OK?”
“Babies her age pull through.”
“Why do I think…”
“Don’t think that. We are going to do our best. Everyone is going to do her best to make sure she survives to be a healthy young lady. That includes you.”
“Ivy looks so…”

Ivy.

“I think she’s a fighter. And her grandmother put that teddy bear in there to make sure she’s got company.”
“Did you..”
“It’s been sterilised.”

Teddy bear? That’s me.
And with that thought I felt a hand stretch out and grab my paw.
Then I knew.
The Teddy Bear Code.
I will protect her from her fears.
I will comfort her through her worries.
I will love her with my might.

—

The alarm sounded.
Light burst around me.
The box opened and practised hands took her from me.
I could hear orders half barked as they moved away.
Away with Ivy.

—

Its cold now. (I will comfort her from the cold).
Its dark now.
Before, when I was returned to her side, I heard music.
And sobs.
I heard again kind voices, cracked with tears, belonging to those I heard while being made, and while in the clear box.
But I am where I belong.
By Ivy’s side.

I heard earth being dropped on this box as Ivy lies still beside me.
As a teddy bear I will abide by the code.
I will protect her in this darkness.
I will comfort her through the days.
I will give her love.

….

A version of this short story was going around my head for a while for a group Christmas post a few years back. Going around is wrong. More of a “that’s an idea” and then the idea was filed away until later. K8 was its inspiration, but I decided that it wasn’t right for the following Christmas, but with the approach of Hallowe’en, it felt right. (K8, this is the sad Teddy Bear story I mentioned). Also the theme for this week’s LBC was “Crochety”, so its been changed slightly from a knitted bear to a crocheted one.

I just hope it doesn’t come across like a bad greetings card. The technical themed posts will resume shortly.

This is a Loose Bloggers Consortium post on the theme of “Crotchety”; chosen by Padmini.
To find out that the others in the consortium think, check out, Anu, Ashok, Conrad, Delirious, Gaelikaa, Grannymar, Magpie 11, Nema, Noor, Padmini, Paul, Plain Joe, Ramana, Rohit, The Silver Fox Wispers and The Student Diaries.

Jure Leskovec is an assistant professor at Stanford University (where I’m trying to find the time to study machine learning techniques) and he lectures and researches in the area of Social and Information Network Analysis.

Which is a very fancy way of saying that he studies you.
Or at least the online version of you.

He studies the content (what is said) and interaction data (who is interacting with the other person, e.g mobile phone calls are two people interacting) of people on Social Networks. If you want to hear him defining it himself, you can listen to his uncut interview with Nora Young of CBC’s Spark. She has done a number of interviews in the area of analysis and predicting people.

Having said that, he doesn’t study you, singular, but you plural (ye would be Irish and accurate here). To get general information, they take a look at the aggreation of a groups actions. This means they can predict your (plural) action, so far I’ve just described election polling. But thanks to social networks you can also perform analysis on the structure of the network, how the interactions (its more than friendships) are build, and how information is spread.

This means you can see the regularity and patterns, a higher level grouping that forms in any group (think high school cliques), and predict who will join (new edges to the social network) and based on your interactions predict how they will act to new incidents. Or take “them” and figure our if you (singular) will join them.

Unlike stock performance, past performance of people seems to be an indication of future performance.

Thanks to the amount of information people put on social networks, its possible to aggregate a view of you, or at least ye. This information is already quantifiable inside a machine. Ripe for analysis.

However, and its a big however, what if you know this?
It’s a stock plot element of any time travel story (and a plot spoiler to Minority Report), but does knowing that an action is predicted, will you still choose to perform that action?

Clearly it depends on the action, but if you are expected to do something, would you?
Does knowing the prediction chance your choice?
Well?

This is a Loose Bloggers Consortium post on the theme of “Choose”; chosen by Grannymar. To find out that the others in the consortium think, check out, Anu, Ashok, Conrad, Delirious, Gaelikaa, Grannymar, Magpie 11, Nema, Noor, Padmini, Paul, Plain Joe, Ramana, Rohit, The Silver Fox Whispers and The Student Diaries.

Some things just go together. Tomatoes and Salt (causes a chemical reaction which creates a natural version of MSG), fear and economics (think about it, fear makes people want to sell, lack of fear makes people want to buy) and good friends.

But you do get odd couplings. The most unusual couple I can think of is (without naming names and hiding some of the personal details) well… One is a hacker with yearly visits to Chaos Computer Club con and Black-hat, and if the bits I’ve heard are true, really deserves a TV series for the biography. The other, also if the bits I’ve heard are true is also a computer man, however he was based in an interesting technological area, one which includes interesting governmental computer security type folks. I have no idea how they met (I’ll have to wait for the TV series) but I got wind of their wedding plans.

This couple has been together for quite some time, and it turns out that chalk and cheese isn’t an apt description. Rock and Roll would be closer. Some people just click.

The only thing I left out is why they have been together for so long without marrying. The two men had to wait for the laws to change to allow Civil Unions in Ireland.

It’s not quite marriage, but its close. And due to the overall lack of objections, it may become full marriage and adoption rights soon.

The lack of adoption rights has lead to a legal quagmire; adoption as a couple is not possible, and adoption where one parent is the birth mother/father isn’t possible without the birth parent loosing their rights. Should something happen to the legal guardian, the only other parent the children have ever known is, legally, a stranger and can be taken away from them. The fact that there are children reaching voting age who grew up with such a threat hanging over means that the change should be considered sooner than later.

This is a Loose Bloggers Consortium post on the theme of “Marriage”; chosen by Conrad. To find out that the others in the consortium think, check out, Anu, Ashok, Conrad, Delirious, Gaelikaa, Grannymar, Magpie 11, Nema, Noor, Padmini, Paul, Plain Joe, Ramana, Rohit, The Silver Fox Whispers and The Student Diaries.

What can I say, I like mash-ups. And with a subject like “Breath” the Eamezey track “Lose my spitfire” came to mind.Its a mix of “Loose my Breath” by Destiny’s Child and “Spitfire” by The Prodigy.

The video itself isn’t that good, but Beyonce sounds better with a rocking electronic track.

This is a Loose Bloggers Consortium post on the theme of “Breath”; chosen by Padmini. To find out that the others in the consortium think, check out, Anu, Ashok, Conrad, Delirious, Gaelikaa, Grannymar, Magpie 11, Nema, Noor, Padmini, Paul, Plain Joe, Ramana, Rohit, The Silver Fox Whispers and The Student Diaries.

Hacking used to have a different meaning.

Once it meant to chop something inexpertly (obviously after seeing me carve), then it became to make something designed to do one function go and do another function. Related to this is making a computer or a piece of software work to your bidding and not the bidding of another, such as the manufacturer. Or the actual owner.

So I hacked so hardware.

As in I went to the hardware shop to get some screws.

Did you expect me to talking about me doing something illegal (and not just illegal in certain US states)? And so to the subject of this Loose Blogging Consortium post “Things I Don’t Tell About Myself”. I’m going to show you an Ikea Hack, and show you something few have seen; my bedroom.

This is what my bedroom, and bed looked like before I changed things. A little dull? Oh yeah. The “headboard” is actually a piece of carpet offcut from when I moved in.

Anyway, time to change things, and Ikea opening in Ireland gave me the chance to check out the classic “as is” section for stuff to use for a hack. It won’t be the best headboard Ikea hack, but its mine.

The ingredients for this are…

One set of Antonius adjustable desk legs:

One plain white Pax Ballstad door (slightly chipped):

Six wood screws (as the ones which came with the legs were too meant for a different purpose), Six washers and a few felt pads to protect the wall.
A screwdriver and a drill to make guide holes for the screws.

Simply attach the legs to the back of the door using the pre-drilled holes in the legs with the screws to make a support, add the felt pads to protect the wall, and its done.

Remove the carpet “headboard” and move the new one in to place. But I went a bit further…

I added a touch of colour to the room with,
A Flyn Beata printed curtain (now discontinued but you could use any fabric):

A set of Dignitet curtain clips:

A picture hook (already in position), a piece of string and a long bamboo pole left over from a garden project.

Attach the string to the pole, clip the curtain clips on to the pole (it worked better to clip rather than to slide as, well, bamboo is not a smooth metal pole) and attach the fabric.

Then the bed looks very different.

Since the photo was taken I’ve tightened the hanging string and added additional hooks so the pole is now level and against the ceiling, which means the panels hang better now.

It was a fairly easy job,but it changed the room completely.

The picture which was above the bed turned out to be the perfect fit for a Saxas frame and now hangs elsewhere in the room.

Well it is not something I share with many people, so I think it counts as “things I don’t tell”, but since you asked…

If you are interested, the full set of photographs are available on my Pix.ie account.

This is a Loose Bloggers Consortium post on the theme of “Things I Don’t Tell About Myself”; chosen by Gaelikaa and Anu. To find out that the others in the consortium think, check out, Anu, Ashok, Conrad, Delirious, gaelikaa, Grannymar, Magpie 11, Nema, Noor, Padmini, Paul, Plain Joe, Ramana, Rohit, The Silver Fox Whispers and The Student Diaries.

p.s.
Just to keep this slightly technical… here is Misha Glenny advocating the hiring of hackers.