natowelch

Cross-posted from n8o.r30.net:

The Wiimote I ordered (sans Wii) works pretty well, no hacking required.

All I had to do was install the drivers and diagnostic software to test it out, and they all work dandy, with the exception of the ones that use the wiimote's infrared camera. Alas, I don't have an infrared light source, so that will have to wait. No big deal.

I'm able to use it to control the mouse cursor with pitch and roll (what? no yaw?), and to fire off arbitrary commands and scripts with all the buttons. Once I get an infrared LED near the screen (like the wii's "sensor bar"), I can presumably use the wiimote's embedded IR camera as a more mouse-like pointer device.

The diagnostic program was able to find the rumble vibe in it, and the writable data storage area in the EEPROM. I read somewhere that there was a speaker in it, as well; it would be neat to figure out how to play sounds through it.

That's a lot of utility for little $25 device. Not bad.

Onto reproducing Johnny Lee's perspective tracking hack.

natowelch

Cross-posted from n8o.r30.net:

I have received a Wii-Mote with which to do interface hacking via bluetooth.

It was cheap.

natowelch

Cross-posted from n8o.r30.net:

In my pokery-jiggery-tinkery-hackery activities with Google Wave, I've started creating a side blog, which I've entitled Wavers Progress, within Wave itself. It's coming along, even if there are a few things that are proving kludgy stopgaps for the time being.

Now, I have used the embedding APIs to embed the Wavers Progress wave into a web page on Makers Progress. This is not only convenient, as it makes my Wave blog accessible to the web, but it serves as a demonstration of Wave's capabilities. If you have a Wave account, you can log in, interact, and edit the wave RIGHT THERE on the web page. That's pretty neat.

I've made the page publicly readable, but at present, Google requires that you log into your wave account before seeing it, unfortunately. That's a big problem separating it from the web, not unlike the ubiquitous "you must be logged into Facebook to view this page" bullshit Facebook demands. Unlike Facehook, however, Wave is still in limited preview, and Google has a far better reputation for opening things up. We'll see what they do with this. Prediction: this is going to kick Facebook's ASS.

While there are no syndication feeds available OF waves (there are tools to embed syndication feeds IN waves), you can use the wave email bot I've embedded in the wave to be emailed about updates to it. Check the post "Wave Email Notifications" in the wave itself for details. (Hm, I can't seem to link directly to it. Lame.)

If you need a wave account, I still have lots of invites; just send me your email.

natowelch

Cross-posted from n8o.r30.net:

I can't seem to say what I originally set out to say in a long-form post, anymore.

I have become a very strong ego identity. My empathy still functions and speaks to me; I'm not psycho or sociopathic. It's just that that my interpretation and implementation of mutual respect is to leave people alone, and to ask to be left alone in turn; moreso than is average for people. That's not exactly what most people want.

There's the world, and then there's my world. I like mine better.

Make me an offer.

natowelch

Cross-posted from n8o.r30.net:

Six months ago, I was telling myself I was ready for and seeking out an ego dissolution. Today, I don't know why. As I approached, it wasn't fear that set in to resist - it was just not making any sense.

Identity isn't nothing - it's all I have. It's all I am. The unified, universal consciousness already exists, whether I am aware of it or identify with or as it or not. Indeed, the motives that are served and gratified by the success of any quest to find it find their origins in the fragile, vulnerable individual that undertakes the journey. New prospective motives can only be evaluated in terms of one's existing motives.

I imagine that the desire to pursue the cessation of suffering causes suffering itself. This sounds like it would be a fairly obvious problem in Buddhism, but I have yet to read anything that addresses it (comments welcome).

Except death, of course. Why Buddhism isn't considered a suicide cult, I'm not sure. Of course, the same thing can be said of heaven-bound Christianity. Of course, it's easy to see that suicidal cults don't endure for reasons of natural selection, but that doesn't solve the paradox.

My attachment to life may vary here and there, but I'm sure not done living yet. I tend to think that the focus on suffering in Buddhism tends to overwhelm the real point. Suffering is undesirable because it gets in the way of other terminal motives, not because mitigating it is one.

-

After a few years studying the ape, of becoming the subconscious, instinctive, ancestral man I am, I was surprised to discover, suddenly, that I was actually back in a more conscious mode. After all that embrace of the id, "I" am still somewhere ahead of the impulses, analyzing, filtering, recreating, taking them in, just like the things that come to me from outside the body, as well as from inside. The sudden surprise of the observation was the most notable thing; I had to deliberately - consciously! - submerge to quest for my instinctive, ancestral identity, but, while I was distracted, my "I" simply bobbed back to the conscious surface, un-dislodged, un-displaced.

I have learned much about the ape's care and feeding. I'd say he's more of a partner, than a subject. Some days you're the batter, some days you're the ball. He gives me satisfaction, and the basic impulses that my conscious filters can shape into something to do. Things to live for; things to live at. He understands nothing about the industrial environment; that's my job.

-

But this conscious strategy analyst has really not found many adaptive advantages in industrialization. Like a protist that never quite made it into the structure of a multi-cellular organism, cities, nations, companies and communities have never quite closed the deal with me, to reel me into the system. All I see are these great corporate beasts prowling the waters, devouring all they must. My only advantages are luck (for which I'm grateful), a tiny footprint (less is more), and safety in numbers (I don't have to outrun the bear).

-

I doubt that "Friendly AI" can be "invented". The problem of motive and power is not a problem of insights, or beliefs, or facts - it's a problem of will, choice, and politics. The problem isn't that we don't know HOW to reconcile our conflicts. We know how - we don't WANT to. The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our warez, but in ourselves. And the only way you're going to resolve that tension in humans is to deliberately violate our personal sovereignty, liberty, and autonomy. At that point, I don't see how it matters how slick your code is.

Darwinism is not being transcended.

natowelch

Cross-posted from n8o.r30.net:

Garage revolutions,
rocket science,
walking to the beat of your own drum,
freedom of the press,
and the tide that lifts all boats
all have one thing in common:

They're only available to those who own one.

natowelch

Cross-posted from n8o.r30.net:

Sometimes, I still get concerned that I'm taking too much time than is healthy away from the pursuit of intimate relationships.

And then, now more often, I'm realizing just how tough it's going to be for anyone to make me happier than I make myself.

I may not always be looking out for number one, but I'll be damned if number one ain't always looking out for me. That makes me feel safe and secure. Take care of yourself - nobody else can do it better.

I do wonder, though, how to take the enormous comfort I generate in my own house, and share it with others.

natowelch

Cross-posted from n8o.r30.net:

President Obama uses his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech to justify war.

Don't say you didn't see this coming.

natowelch

Cross-posted from n8o.r30.net:

Money is bad for me. Employment is bad for me.

I took up a small freelance job, almost by mistake, recently. At first, I replied to it as a joke, having misread the post. After that, I felt obliged to take it partly because my reply sounded like I was interested, and partly because I was well-qualified, because it didn't sound that bad, mildly fun, and because I wanted to help out the friend that posted it. Plus, money's money.

To most people, money's money, of course. But I'm weird. Money is bad for me. Its a temptation to spend it on junk food, and gadgets that turn out to be useless (like last year's Freerunner, whose battery life can't be fixed by software, I don't think). I have redeemed myself with a little discipline this year; most of my extra cash has been socked away into my rent buffer, which I haven't really experienced the relief of just yet, given how new it is. I'm sure I'll be feeling the gratitude for that in the next six months.

Underemployment is America's problem. Those who are fortunate enough to even have a job don't have enough of one. I just realized that I've already adapted to this. I want to "work" less on other people's prerogatives.

The scourge of America really doesn't bother me at all. America has been spoiled by prosperity I never had. The "crisis" it is now facing is not mine, because I have learned to live, joyfully and invisibly, in the shadows of falling giants. The national crisis, has met personal apotheosis.

This is not to demean or ignore the real suffering these crises and cruelties and greeds cause. It's just an expression that I, at least, have pulled the rug out from under industrialism, as it applies to me, and outsmarted it by tempering my impulses.

Fuck you, plutarchy; your carrots are rotten. I am the soil from which your crops spring. And this season, I will not be coming to market with my bounty.

All you ever want is everything I need.

UPDATE: Crap. I just realized I've Gone Galt.

natowelch

Cross-posted from n8o.r30.net:

"Alright, sergeant. You're fond of gold - here's a bar. You lead the charge."

The sergeant balked, speechless, somewhere between incredulous and offended. He'd had enough of being insulted over the bribery incident. "What, so you can pluck it all back after I'm dead?"

"Oh, really, sergeant?", retorted the Aniu. "You're the one who wanted to see combat at the front so badly, instead of rotting on the walls of some backwater garrison force. Now that you're here, do you mean to question your duty to our Emperor - or are we just haggling over the price?"

Stunned for a moment, and furious, Jebbers threw Ronia's offer back to her, and stalked off to prepare his avatar for the assault. The impact was enough to make her drop her cigar, but not the grin that crept onto her face as Jebbers reacted.

After Jebbers left, sergeant Taul permitted himself a satisfied chuckle at the sheer coldness of the Aniu's taunt. The titter rippled throughout the avatar corps assembled around the camp's bonfire. It was the lightest the mood had been since they had fully grasped the long odds they were about to confront. "What's so funny, Sergeant?" she asked with a grin. "Aren't mercenaries supposed to be cannon fodder?"

"I don't know what he was angrier about," chortled Taul, "the fact that he actually took a suicide mission, or the fact that you shamed him into doing it for free."

natowelch

Cross-posted from n8o.r30.net:

If anyone ever gives you their virginity, be nice, and always keep track of where you put it.

natowelch

Cross-posted from n8o.r30.net:

My window manager will not update my applications' windows half the time, until I minimize and restore them. THIS IS IRRITATING.

natowelch

Cross-posted from n8o.r30.net:

Every other post this morning is for people flooded with Google Wave invites. They must really want users.

Yep, I have a busload, too.

I hope they add a few more basic features (like finalizing the access control model) before too long.

natowelch

Cross-posted from n8o.r30.net:

I'm frustrated because I have too much to do. I can't wait to get this crap out of the way.

Let go of my schedule, projects!

natowelch

Cross-posted from n8o.r30.net:

Sometimes, the wanting is better than the not having.

natowelch

Cross-posted from n8o.r30.net:

A few weeks ago, it struck me that you can't trust "news" to be informative about the real world, because if it's normal, it isn't news. There's news, in the sense of recency, and then there's news, in the sense of novelty. But novelty is made of unusual things. As such, novelty is not an accurate picture of what one should expect from the world.

Today, I came across a story about a poor single mother in Seattle being audited by the IRS.

A funny thing happened to me: I felt a sense of relief, because - well, if this is so novel as to be NEWS, then it must be the exception, and not the rule. That being the case, then someone as poor as I am has little to fear from the IRS.

I'm not sure I actually accept the reasoning on it's face just like that. But I do find the argument amusing.

natowelch

Cross-posted from n8o.r30.net:

The "reason for the season" happens to be the tilt in the Earth's rotational axis.