serve it up in english svp

25.V.MCDXXX

Summary: In conclusion, I think search engines like google and other web services / portals should always be served in an international language by default until the language setting is later changed and saved using cookies or whatever.

i hate when software makers start to make guesses for the user that they should not be making.

Most annoying, eg, is how google and other WWW public(?)/free(?) services make guesses about the language I want to read their service in based on the geo location of my IP. (although this is withOUt saved cookies i should disclaim.)

So if i'm a business traveler in myanmar, and tap a query into the search engine from the hotel bar or biz ctr, or try to access other services without saved cookies , i get served in malayo , which i've never learnt or read in my life.

and so even though the entire malayo nation itself has gone thru the trouble of making all its public information available to foreigners in one or moreinternational languages like english or french or chinese. Not so with service providers like google - noooo, they gotta play "smaaart" and guess for you what language You speak ! ... Read more

افندى (efendi) αὐθέντης authentic

12.I.1430

notice: this post contains both fact and fan[ta]cy (<- Pan,pangyr)

Authentic, authenticus, αὐθέντης , (Effendi) أفندى,

The turkish title (used for civil servants and the like) connotes a measure
of authority. It derives from the greek αὐθέντης.

It was in the hierarchy of the ottoman social system, ouranked by the bek and the pasha.

Afandem also was used to answer present in regimental contexts, or when coming to attention b/f a superior.

The usage was widespread throughout the arab world and persists in colloquial speech, with different semantics. ... Read more

Classifying knowledge by energy level

22.v.1430

The various domains of knowledge could be expressed as the functional domain for some knowledge measure function.

by way of example, the study of molecular biological systems that involve low levels of energy would be ranked lower than the study of the fluid dynamics of a waterfall, where the energies measured are much higher. And so the molecular biology would be to the left of waterfall dynamics on an axis or scale of energy levels.

The study of cosmology would probably one of the highest on the knowledge domain axis; and ironically for science, and by definition, theology would occupy the position on the axis with the highest energy level of all - the existence that transcends and contains the natural world and beyond. ad hoc schemes/heuristics to determine the energy level of a given knowledge domain seem feasible.

The initial motivation was to play around with the idea of an integrable knowledge mesaure - eg, a knowledge area function. This presented a challenge which was to find both a measure of knowledge and a metric (to define the domain and distance on the domain of that knowledge measure function, or knowledge area function).

some discussion is at knowledge_area_function.


... Read more

time, loops and motion

22.V.1430

when dealing with the passing of time in computer programming , there is no recourse like the loop. For instance, how else do we handle the repititiveness of time when doing things like printing a clock update?

programming indefinite timeframe in which to wait and catch events as they occur - involves a loop- like the processing loop.

* But what other loops are there nature? Motions.

* So is time generated by motion? In other words, in the absence of motion, is there no more time?

If Nature is customarily subtle, its signals that this may be true, could not be more blunt. Most of the motions we see are periodic. Indeed are physical and social existence are organized around those loops of time.

Entertaining the blind conjecture that time is loop-like. Recalls familiar notes.

* As we said, motion itself is loop-like due to laws.
* The relation of time to motion and energy is clear from e=mc^2 and e=hυ.
* so (maybe) motion generates time (?)

* iow, time is a function of motion. eg, time is like the displacement over its derivative t(s) = s(t)/s'(t).

* That time, as a function is periodic suggests time is a complex function.

... Read more

Computing as the evolution of writing

22.V.1430

computing, or programming are to humankind more like writing2.0.

writing , in implication, was not merely the aquired ability to record data.

It was also very much a programming tool - which with an individual's will
was exercised and accomplished - think contracts, court orders, decrees, wills,
and so on.

The transformative effect writing had on society was thus much more than the
more widespread communication of information. It included creating new social
spaces, and tools for action. Crucially it is through writing that mathematics
and exact engineering and technology were able to arise.

The ability to distribute and store information through was one of the secondary
applications or byproducts (lesser effects) of writing despite being at the root
of the motivation to write.

If the appearance of programming (or equivalently computing) in society at large in the past 60 years is an analogue to the effect of the invention of writing, then despite all the applications
seen so far - at the risk of aping Sir Papa WWW - we are still at the beginning of the computer era in terms of its profound
effect on society.

One of the things that initially stands out about computing is how it insinuated itself into every human activity. Despite being a product of electrical engineering and formal logic*, ie despite being an invention "like any other" it was as indispensible to human activity as others like planning and administration.

writing also became a necessity in every serious activity - from religion to trade everything required record keeping, planning, communication writs.

computing provided - well - computation. But it also xtended the record keeping. it automated record keeping and reduced most human activities to computations made on vast records of data.

Indeed, technically the computer was never more than that. A tool for data processing. like writing.

Both are intimately connected to our cognition and thought processes. We often cannot think without them. (here writing can be expanded to its larger sense which includes graphing or drawing as well - as a representational tool & faculty - an extension of the imagination).

Thus computing - or specifically computer programming - is the evolutionary step following writing.

Where writing has led to the ability to program and maintain civic institutions - from theology to accounting , computing gives the ability to program and automate intellectual activity and systems of knowledge.

*for a picture of the fields that fathered computer science , see http://augmented5th.dyndns.org/doku/doku.php?id=computation.
... Read more

things life teaches dept: if the universe were an algorithm

22.V.1430

if the entire universe is an algorithm,
then its entire run and outcome set must be known in advance.

there are good reasons why it is an algorithm, and not only as a collection of cellular automata primitives.

it is an alg, as a process that is controlled by sets of constraints - which are the physical laws.

even for a chaotic process, the constraints of physics , or of nature, apply.

it is an algorithm also in the sense of a dynamic model, we know it is controlled or self-regulating/controlling because the persistence of form of some of its objects , like us, despite a continual flow of matter "through" us. That was pointed out by Wiener in Cybernetics

Since a state function is defined (even if it is unknown) by the domain/range, and because a process itself is a set of state or transitions functions, it mus be viewed as a design, ie no different from other state transition machines, or state machines, or automata - save in complexity of course.

The implication is clear. As an algorithm, a formal (vs. natural) automatic machine, it is designed and like any well-designed system, its behavior and outcomes must have been anticipated and fully understood before its "deployment" :)



... Read more

2 points of aesthetics

17.V.1430

construction work in the states looks smart going up and smart after it's done
here it looks dumb going up and even dumber after it's finished

work well done / well conceived is aesthetically pleasing at every stage. ... Read more