Archivos anual: 2004

Harías bien en leer este intercambio sobre el instalador para Windows.

Por lo demás, dicen que es muy bueno y que sale el día 9.

Interesante reflexión sobre la ignorancia y el conocimiento, especialmente, sobre cómo nos aproximamos a algo de lo que no sabemos nada. Algunas personas, se limitan simplemente a decir lo primero que se les viene a la cabeza y plantear sus dudas. Otras, intentan cubrir sus lagunas y pasan días reflexionando para asegurarse de decir lo correcto. Son dos aproximaciones extremas dentro de un continuo.

Porque en ocasiones es perfectamente racional mantenerse en la ignorancia, si el coste de adquirir conocimientos supera al beneficio que vas a obtener con dicho conocimientos. Las dos aproximaciones anteriores, por tanto, podrían describirse como minimización del coste y maximización del beneficio.

My frustration with most writing on the internet is based on the fact that I have a different calculation of rational ignorance than the people I read. My personal cost/benefit calculation for knowledge is usually heavily skewed in favor of benefit maximization, meaning that I firmly believe that an informed, rigorous, analytical treatment of a topic based on focused and thorough research yields knowledge that is valuable far beyond what it costs in terms of effort. Not everyone calculates this formula the same way. In fact, lots and lots of people calculate cost/benefit based on cost minimization, meaning that it is better to post something that doesn?t require much thought or rigor, as long as some small benefit can be achieved by doing so. In investment terms, benefit maximization is when you tie up a lot of money in a long-term investment that pays off big, while cost minimization is the repeated investment in short-term instruments that make you a little bit of money each time. Both can add up to big money in the end.

El problema del autor en cuestión es que su vida académica le empuja hacia un extremo del continuo:

The concept of rational ignorance in this way helps to clarify that there is a continuum of activity on the cost/benefit dimension with regard to knowledge, explaining the different ways in which people calculate the value of thought and information. It also helps to clarify why some people are willing to throw out some questions and preliminary notes on a daily basis, while others cringe at superficial treatment of ideas and only post after days of deliberation. I?d like to think that I?m somewhere in the middle, but it seems that academic life is pushing me strongly toward benefit maximization and I?m not sure I?m willing to resist. In the meantime, I?ll try not to yell at the television.

(vía Joi Ito)

—–

¿Por qué ese fallo de inteligencia en Irak? Pues todo fue culpa de una ardilla.

(vía Pensamientos radicalmente eclécticos)

Como ya hiciera con Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, Cory Doctorow ha puesto su segunda novela, Eastern Standard Tribe, a disposición libre de los navegantes y simultáneamente se publica en papel. El experimento ya le salió muy bien con la primera y espera repetir el éxito con esa segunda.

Pero también le sirve de experimento:

Here’s the deal: I don’t believe that there’s any market-demand for teasers or for «Digital Rights Management» technology: none of you woke up this morning and said, «Damn, I wish there was a way I could get less of the books I enjoy and a way I could do less with them once I have them.» My goal here is to figure out what people actually want out of electronically delivered text, and so I’m giving this novel to you in three open and flexible formats with an invitation:

(vía BoingBoing)

El tremendo volumen de Stephen Wolfram está ahora online (completito). Parecen ser exactamene las páginas del libro tal y como se publicó originalmente.

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p>(Gracias rvr)

Después de varios años dedicándose a otras cosas, James Gosling regresa al mundo de Java.

J2SE 1.5 in a Nutshell:

Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition (J2SE) version 1.5 («Tiger») is the next major revision to the Java platform and language; it is currently slated to contain 15 component JSRs with nearly 100 other significant updates developed through the Java Community Process (JCP).

With so many exciting changes in this release you may be wondering where you should start. As in previous releases, the comprehensive list of all changes is available in the Release notes guide. This article, from the J2SE team, will take you through the major changes so that you have a grasp of what J2SE 1.5 has to offer, before diving into the api docs.

Cuya versión beta ya se puede descargar.

Ten Technologies That Refuse to Die. A estas alturas uno podría creer que han desaparecido, sin embargo, los relojes analógicos, las impresoras matriciales, las máquinas de escribir, la radio, los buscas, las cintas de audio, las válvulas de vacío, el fax, los mainframe o el fortran siguen ocupando su nicho en el mundo tecnológico:

Paper and bytes are the classic example. In the early 1980s, at the dawn of the PC age, high-volume electronic storage and transmission?360-kilobyte floppy disks! 14-kilobit-per-second modems!?were supposed to make paper superfluous and forests safe. Hah. Electronic data just begat more paper copies. Writers who used to carefully mark corrections on pecked-out manuscripts began printing out one revised version after another. Web surfers started printing out whatever looked interesting. Having data on-screen didn?t stop people from wanting to read it, share it, and store it on paper.

Like paper, the 10 technologies that follow have seemingly been surpassed and superseded at one time or other, written off as road kill on the highway of progress. But reports of their demise have proved greatly exaggerated. All have survived, and some have thrived, in their supposed obsolescence?not as cult artifacts (everything from buggy whips to eight-tracks has its fans and collectors), but because they fill real needs that their more sophisticated successors don?t.

(vía del.icio.us)

[Estoy escuchando: «Static» de Beck en el disco Mutations]

Es un problema habitual. Uno dice que dios existe. Otro que no. ¿Cómo ponerse de acuerdo y tener datos fiables? Pues nada como un detector de dios. El funcionamiento es muy simple:

We’ve all heard people claim that a certain event is a sign from God. For example, a quick internet search turned up this story: «Romanian prisoners have promised to behave after finding a cross-shaped turnip. … The inmates are reported to believe God is telling them to be good [and] the priest at the jail in Satu Mare thinks the vegetable is proof that God exists.» The problem with using the turnip as evidence, of course, is that the misshapen turnip could just be a sign that the prison farm is too close to a nuclear plant.

Using the Yo-God God Detector, we don’t need to rely on odd turnips or other natural events as a way for God to communicate with us. It gives Him a straightforward way to let us know he exists – He simply has to move the dial. Once hundreds or thousands of us ask in unison with the Yo-God God Detector, maybe God will respond.

Pues eso. Nada de hacer suposiciones y confiar en la fe. Directamente sabrás si dios está dispuesto a comunicarse contigo o no. Y además, tienen algunos modelos monísimos.

Eso sí, aparentemente el dispositivo sólo funciona con el dios judeocristiano. Espero que pronto saquen versiones para otros dioses. Incluso un detector taoísta, para los que somos de esa inclinación.

[Estoy escuchando: «Broken Train» de Beck en el disco Midnite Vultures]