(no subject)

Wow, this is cool...

All our N-gram are belong to you

Basically, Google has released (this was in Aug 2006, btw) a massive store of data designed as a "training corpus". That is, it contextualizes text by gathering chunks of 5 words. The reason this is useful is many and varied, but one quick example (and the reason I found it) is spell checking (via mefi, as usual):

Imagine you have a word, and you run a spell checker. How do you know that you don't have a homograph? That is, say you were going to say "you were going to say" but you typed "you where going to say" (like the recursion????)

Well, where is a correctly spelled word, so it may just pass a spell check. But you can use this data as a way to check context and figure out that where isn't used in such a situation... And then, suggest an alternative based upon other similarly spelled options (and statistical analysis)...

Apparently, it's a 6 DVD collection of word chunks that can be readily analyzed.

Sadly, it requires a fee of $150 bucks to obtain. I don't know how I feel about that. I'm not opposed to charging for data, especially when it comes to time and material costs. But that seems a bit exorbitant to me. And I know it's not just for joe blow... And most joe blows... if they really cared, would fork out the cash. It's just a slight harsh on my buzz, though....

Still, it's pretty cool it's being released. Can you imagine MS doing such a thing? I don't.

jwz, the high school graduate, great hire of norvig... synchronicity

And to top off the synchronicities for the evening...

Norvig's "Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years" makes reference to an LJ user jwz who I recently friended while looking for coders and having seen his name pop up on evan's LJ a bit, I added him. According to the article:

If you want, put in four years at a college (or more at a graduate school). This will give you access to some jobs that require credentials, and it will give you a deeper understanding of the field, but if you don't enjoy school, you can (with some dedication) get similar experience on the job. In any case, book learning alone won't be enough. "Computer science education cannot make anybody an expert programmer any more than studying brushes and pigment can make somebody an expert painter" says Eric Raymond, author of The New Hacker's Dictionary. One of the best programmers I ever hired had only a High School degree; he's produced a lot of great software, has his own news group, and made enough in stock options to buy his own nightclub.

(the programmer he's referring to, if you follow the links he gave, refers to jwz. The "great software" is xemacs and mozilla and his night club is DNA Lounge... apparently, jwz says he's no longer a hacker or something like that. anyways, just a nice little touch)

I apologize to all the non-techy people for my lack of non-techy posts lately.

(no subject)

vesicular, CCP games is hiring (EvE Online and developers of the future White Wolf MMORPG)... They have Reykjavik as a location!

http://www.ccpgames.com/jobs/is.asp

There's a place for ya to move, and it's a change of job as well! I'd only be qualified for the Receptionist position, and alas... sophy isn't particularly keen on moving to Iceland (*sigh*)

But hey, you want an excuse? There ya go!

Excellent quote from mefi (re: anthropogenic cause of global warming)

"And frankly the reason it might appear to gut-thinkers and/or those who perceive groupthink where it isn't that they're being dismissed without a hearing is because this is so absurdly far from a strong argument it barely warrants the routine dismissal its proponents so consisently demand. If you have the slightest clue what the science behind the anthropogenic part of the climate change equation looks like, then debunking this specious shit, as a matter of course, every time the goddamn subject comes up, is in fact the equivalent of having to reiterate the proof of the earth's roundness before being able to talk about the nuances of quantum mechanics or something."

---
Same thing happens with any uninformed, ignorant, anti-scientific view, whether it be, "roundness of the earth" or evolution or climate change.

I'm really saddened by the increased right-wing shift I'm seeing in comments on mefi at least regarding this topic... *sigh*

But there are quite a few well informed people discussing the topic, thankfully.

But seriously, go read the comments and witness some of the most absurd, stupid, lazy thinking regarding this issue.

That said, I threw my own "Straw(hite)man" argument in. So I'm guilty of "lazy thinking" as well :P

(no subject)

Holy shit, it's like a Timecube RPG (via mefi)... Warning, may choke your browser. It slows mine down on a 1900+ processor and 1.5 gigs of ram.

But seriously. wow. I don't mean it's really based on Timecube, but it's got that whole word-spaghetti thing going on.

Bullshit logging companies

I heard about this on the Beeb today. It really pisses me off.

Lamoko, 150 miles down the Maringa river, sits on the edge of a massive stretch of virgin rainforest in central Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). On February 8 2005, representatives of a major timber firm arrived to negotiate a contract with the traditional landowners.

Few in the village realised that the talks would transform all their lives, but in just a few hours, the chief, who had received no legal advice and did not realise that just one tree might be worth more than £4,000 in Europe, had signed away his community's rights in the forest for 25 years.

In return for his signed permission to log thousands of hectares for exotic woods such as Afromosia (African teak) and sapele, the company promised to build Lamoko and other communities in the area three simple village schools and pharmacies. In addition, the firm said it would give the chief 20 sacks of sugar, 200 bags of salt, some machetes and a few hoes. In all, it was estimated that the gifts would cost the company £10,000.

It was the kind of "social responsibility" agreement that is encouraged by the World Bank, but when the villagers found out that their forest had been "sold" so cheaply, they were furious.

They complained to the local and central government that there had been no proper consultation, that the negotiations had been conducted in an "arrogant" manner, and that people had been forced to sign the document. They demanded that the company pull out.

Since February 2005, logging roads have been driven deep into the forests near Lamoko and the company has started extracting and exporting trees, but the villages have yet to see their schools and pharmacies.

But according to a Greenpeace report released today, Lamoko did better than many communities. Some contracts seen by the Guardian show only promises of sugar, salt and tools worth about $100 (£55) in return for permission to log. Others have reported that pledges made three years ago have still not been fulfilled. The report, which took two years to compile, claims that industrial logging backed by the World Bank is now out of control. "Younger people feel that elders have failed to look after the long-term interests of the community," it says.

( Read more... )

related to previous post...

Jensen's premises:

PREMISE TWO: Traditional communities do not often voluntarily give up or sell the resources on which their communities are based until their communities have been destroyed. They also do not willingly allow their landbases to be damaged so that other resources - gold, oil, and so on - can be extracted. It follows that those who want the resources will do what they can to destroy traditional communities.

PREMISE FIVE: The property of those higher on the hierarchy is more valuable than the lives of those below. It is acceptable for those above to increase the amount of property they control - in everyday language, to make money - by destroying or taking the lives of those below. This is called "justice".

PREMISE EIGHT: The needs of the natural world are more important than the needs of the economic system. Any economic or social system that does not benefit the natural communities on which it is based is unsustainable, immoral, and stupid. Sustainability, morality,and intelligence (as well as justice) require the dismantling of any such economic or social system, or at the very least disallowing it from damaging your landbase.

PREMISE TEN: The culture as a whole and most of its members are insane. The culture is driven by a death urge, an urge to destroy life.

PREMISE ELEVEN: From the beginning, this culture - civilization - has been a culture of occupation.

( Read more... )