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You Own Nothing, and You Will Be Happy (Digital Autonomy)

Wed, 12 Jul 2023 23:09:58 -0400

Modern Consumerism

When you buy new things, do you really own them? Well of course you do! Right? You’ve made an exchange of your money for goods and services. And those goods and services are for you to own and or experience. There shouldn’t be any strings attached when you buy something, but it seems that whenever you buy new things within the past 10 years, things don’t really feel like they’re ‘yours’ anymore.

Take the smart phone. Pre 2015, most if not all smart phones had removable batteries. The back of the phone could easily be peeled off with your fingertip and the battery removed. In fact, I had a friend who owned a Galaxy S3, and he carried around literal spare batteries! Whenever there was no more juice, simply pop it open, throw a new battery in and Bob’s your uncle.

After-market parts were always available as well; camera modules, displays, you name it. All of it seemingly vanished with the introduction of the iPhone 6/Galaxy S6. Now, it was much harder to service anything yourself. Sure, being able to submerse your phone under the water was a seemingly nice feature, but now to get access to the internals, you have to heat up the glue until its able to be separated from the screen. Not only that, if you ever put it back together, it may not be as good as factory if you don’t have the right jigs.

Then comes the 3.5mm headphone jack. It was removed to “make the phone thinner”. As if anyone needed the phone to be any thinner than it already was?! Soon after Apple introduced this change, all phone manufacturers followed suit. The old mantra goes “create the problem, sell the solution”. AirPods came in, which were arguably the most ubiquitous piece of technology in recent times. Just like “magic”, you were able to put in your earbuds and instantly listen to music. Only caveat, they cost 10x the same, wired pair. rTthe batteries are also not replaceable, which adds to the insurmountable amount of e-waste to the landfills. Another consequence of this is the built in planned obsolescence, meaning every 2 years you have to go buy a new pair.

Smartphones scratch the surface of the many changes to modern consumerism that has taken place. Everything must be made quick, fast, and cheap. The only one who loses is the planet, so also all of us. Whatever happened to looking for good quality, long lasting stuff? Fast fashion, planned obsolescence, and the like should be avoided as much as possible.

Edit 2023-07-18:

I suppose this rant about phones was perfect timing. The EU just passed a https://mobilesyrup.com/2023/07/17/handheld-devices-phones-consoles-europe-replaceable-batteries-2027/ requiring all smartphones to be equipped with removeable batteries…

End of edit

Take Back Control

If you’re not a luddite, there are two worlds that exist: the analog world, and the digital world. Only the former if you are one. Next time need to make a decision, ask yourself this: Is this going to make me more independent? If not, how much control am I giving up? And is the benefits of giving up this much control worth it in the long run? You’ll be surprised at how much corporations control your life. This do this in a 2 step process: Take away your analog life, and replace it with the digital. Then, exert control in the digital realm, which is much easier than the former.

An example is the implementation of smart homes. Firstly, these devices are wildly insecure. There have been numerous exploits that have been made to bypass products like cameras, safes, door locks, even cars. The problem is exacerbated when you combine many of these devices together, introducing dozens of modes of failure. Just go to the thermostat and press the button. Just use a key. Just use CCTV. Turn on your lights by getting up off and flipping the switch. “Oh but look I can do [insert gimmick]!!1!1!”. Yeah, it gets old, trust me.

Next, voice assistants. You’re basically WILLFULLY installing a wiretap into your home. Do you think that shit doesn’t listen to you? If you have a Google phone, and have used the “OK Google” prompt, go download your Google data. You’ll find that when you listen to your prompts that were saved, you can HEAR YOURSELF saying “OK Google”. In fact, when you “read” that EULA, you agreed that Google can SAVE the last few seconds, meaning that shit is ALWAYS listening. This is main driving factor as to why I have a custom operating system on my phone with software switches that disable camera, microphone, sensors, and radio at a moment’s notice. There’s no voice assistant even available. Better yet, just get rid of the damn smart phone. Whenever I’m out and I don’t need GPS, I take a Kei flip phone with me with a separate number. Don’t be a drone that looks down at a piece of glass all the time outside. It’s lame.

The Digital Space

I’ve experimented with many different technologies a lot over the years. I’d like to summarize a few that have been the most useful.

Password Managers

When in the digital world, not counting 2FA (which you should always use when you can), there’s only one thing keeping your data away from a bad actor. Your password (Never mind security breaches, that’s just an L). Almost everyone uses some variation of some password they came up with in high school. Add a @, !, 123, and so on. Then when you forgot the exact password, you end up wasting time, potentially even locking yourself out of your account. Enter password managers. They keep all of your passwords in one centralized location, has very high security, and can generate passwords with characters you can’t even type on the keyboard.

DISCLAIMER: Don’t use any password manager that’s “cloud based” or shilled by YouTubers. You’re keeping your passwords in the hands of another company. Use only offline and open-sourced ones. i

The main one that comes to mind is KeePassXC. It’s available for all operating systems, open-sourced, and offline. A common trope you may have now is: What if I forget or lose that password? Is it bad that everything is centralized? My answer to that is: Just don’t forget it. You only have to remember 1. Not 30 with minor variations. There are also options to include a “key-file” which is a long alpha numeric string that serves as a second key to unlock your database. You can also even use a physical hardware key to unlock it. YubiKey is the one to use.

Get Your Own Domain, Email, and Server

Too many people use social media, mainstream emails, and store their files on someone else’s computer. Rid yourself of these problems by getting your own server. You can convert any old computer into one, and with a bit of IT knowledge, you can access all of your files securely across the internet, with as much storage as you want. Getting your own domain name and having your own email is also very professional. You’ve been given a unique name, why not use it on the primary method of online communication? ProtonMail, Mailbox.org are the two that I would recommend. Become an internet landlord, not an internet tenant.

Self-Host as Much as Possible

The key take away from this post goes back to the question that I had phrased earlier. All of these things will increase personal autonomy online, which will decrease the chances of any external product or corporation trying to digitize your life. If you’ve already broken away from the system and created everything yourself, no one can really bother you. Less is more when it comes to technology. Follow the KISS principle: Keep It Simple, Stupid.

-ekd

Gender Considerations

Tue, 23 May 2023 23:54:33 -0400

Without opening the can of worms that is gender just yet, I’ll be referring to gender in this post as the traditional binary classification, man and woman.

A 40% Enrollment Rate!11!!

Having recently graduated from undergrad, I’ve received my fair share of promotional emails from the university, advocating for women to get more into STEM, increase support groups, clubs, and initiatives that encourage women to pursue careers in STEM. While I don’t necessarily have a problem with that idea alone, its generally the motive and narrative that’s being pushed that concerns me. “We fight for equality!”, “50% across the board!”, and a miriad of other ideas I often hear on media. It gets me thinking, why is it only STEM that people are so adament about? One point of discussion that I thought of is that it lays the foundation for our modern civilization. Without scientists and mathematicians, where do us engineers get our tables to reference?

“Tier” List

Anyone who’s been on the red side of YouTube has probably seen that interview with Peterson and his bricklayer comment. It goes something like “If we want women to be represented at 50%, men make up 99% of all brick layers, why don’t we advocate for that?” I’m paraphrasing of course, but the harsh truth that seems to exist our society is the idea of a social heirarchy. STEM, government, and corporate jobs seem to be the “what makes society go round jobs”. I suppose they are pretty inportant, being responsible for the 3 pillars of society: technological advancement, law/order, and economy. So if one does believe in the social heirarchy, then Peterson’s argument is as good as swiss cheese. But I’m sure he’s aware of that undertone aswell, picking an occupation deemed as “lower” on the heirarchy to challenge that point.

The Money Incentive

If I had a nickel everytime I’ve seen a post/article about some “Woman’s only” grant, scholarship, or other funding, I’d probably have enough to buy a drink. This notion screams the concept of perverse incentive to me. Basically, an undesirable result of an initiative that attempted to improve a circumstance. It often makes it worse than situation began with. Take Compstat. In the 90’s, crime in NYC was an alltime high. One potential solution was to log every single crime, small or large, area, time, perpetrator etc into a database. A data scientist’s haven if you would. Yes, because everything was logged, NYPD was able to capture many criminals and lower the crime rate. However, since the goal is to drastically reduce crime, this may lead officers to dish out arrests, tickets and summonses to feel like they’re contributing when it wasn’t necessary. It becomes more about the statistic then the actual idea.

Back to the woman’s only club, I suppose the idea of these monetary initiatives is to incentivise women to pursue these goals “because it pays well”. On paper, I would speculatively agree that yes, this would work. People like money, so naturally, this will likely sway the numbers over time, which organizations love to boast about. But are there any reports on the actual fulfillment a woman feels by pursuing a goal purely because “it pays well?” In addition, doesn’t overaccepting for any reason pose issues in the quality of work produced? Playing purely by numbers, if you simply open the floodgates, there’s going to be seaweed, regardless of gender.

Skill Should Be the Only Metric

Perhaps I’m misunderstanding the actual idea, and its actually men discriminating against women in the workplace that started it. But then again, wouldn’t that just create the Ouroboros situation? There’s probably more than meets the eye. I don’t think I’ve had a proper conversation about this matter with someone else, since anytime its brought up in conversation, its often dismissed as “bs”. That might tell me what I personally think, even though I don’t have a concrete opinion. They say you tend to gravitate to those who share the same ideas as you.

Despite this, I still believe that when deciding who’s more qualified, the skills of the individual is paramount. This includes technical and soft skills. If its a “tie”, it should be broken in other ways; previous experience, awards, side projects etc. I believe that it is honourable to only judge based on skill. Someone who is good at their craft, from circuit layup to bricklaying, shows drive, experience, dedication.

Or mabye its all a ploy from the eViL government to separate people and pit them against eachother for ease of control…

-ekd

Evidence

Wed, 01 Feb 2023 10:17:22 -0500

I recently came across this video from the streamer Ludwig’s news channel Mogul Mail, speaking his thoughts on the whole leaked deepfake problem. Basically, deepfakes can generate videos of someone’s face over-layed onto another body, or just changing the face altogether. You can probably see where this is going. A ton of female streamers spoke out on the issue, with contempt. Although the streamer community is a rather small portion of the overall population, it poses a larger issue at hand that affects the general populace as a whole.

Photoshop has actually done this already with images. We hear the term “Instagram Reality” often, where people would intentionally alter images of themselves to paint them in a better light. It works the opposite way too, producing images that could defame another person. So much so, that we’ve coined a colloquial word for it, “shopped”, as in “Photoshopped”. This mentality of images did not exist 30 years ago. An image of something is a real image. Now, not so much. By the same token, I think this whole deepfake thing is the progression (or regression) is now going from photos, to videos. Most deepfakes can be recognized as such, but as technology improves, the margin between real and fake videos will be so thin that you won’t be able to tell. The solution is simple. People will start treating videos like they do images.

This presents a slightly larger problem for the society and law. Without the trust in video evidence anymore, what other ways can we use to incarcerate people for violent crimes? Since the beginning of human history, it was simply witness testimony, but as we know, every time we read into our HDD’s we call a brain, the data gets slightly corrupted each time. Human memory is not reliable unless there is a collection of witnesses who saw the same thing. [Aside: My SJ(W) teacher from high school once said the same thing about Jesus Christ. We have no proof that he existed, but enough people saw the same thing that the probability of it being false is rather low. Make of that as you will.]

We are living in an era with unprecedented changes to the way we produce and consume media. Yeah, it’s fucked that people are essentially auto-rotoscoping porn of people. Human courtesy/decency is out the window on the internet, so we have to rely on laws on cybercrime to deal with this kind of stuff. But on the other hand, it’s the internet. R34 is a thing, it’s been happening since images were even possible on the WWW. The medium is different, but the idea is still the same. Can we ban deepfakes? Probably not. Should we ban it if we could? Probably not. Every new tool has a double-edged sword. It’s up to the discretion of the user, the platform they have, and personal moral code to use it for a purpose they deem correct. This era of deepfakes, AI-generated art, ChatGPT writing articles, should further cement the idea in the general populaces’ heads that the internet is severely detached from the “analog” world. I hope it awakens more skepticism across the board, a reminder to never blindly trust what you read on the internet.

The internet and reality were once closely knit, so-called “golden age” of the internet, from around 00-12 I’d say, where almost everyone who had an online presence were a “landlord” of their own, having their own personal space on the internet. This website and blog pay homage to that time period, where things were simpler, less corporate controlled, less censored. The information age is gaining more XP, with a bunch of new unlocks to further confuse us, humanity. We should take responsibility of how we consume, not how others should produce.

Play your hand. Not someone else’s.

-ekd

Choices

Sun, 25 Dec 2022 23:15:13 -0500

The Multiverse

There is a famous thought experiment that simplifies the concept of quantum superposition called Schrödinger’s cat. A cat is placed inside an opaque and enclosed box. In addition to the cat, there is a contraption comprising of a mechanical trigger attached to a hammer. A radioactive isotope is placed inside, along with a Geiger counter (device used to measure radioactive particles). Within an hour, if the isotope decays, the Geiger counter will trip the trigger, and drop the hammer onto an ampule of hydrogen cyanide, poisoning the cat. (Yeah, morbid, I know.) This is used to illustrate after the hour, the cat is said to be neither alive nor dead. It is in a state called superposition, where it is BOTH alive and dead at the same time. Only after opening and checking do we then find out what the case is.

This thought experiment leads to the many worlds theorem, which suggest that choices which have multiple outcomes, will each branch off into its own universe or timeline. In the case of Schrödinger’s cat, there will be two separate timelines create, one where the cat lives, and one where the cat dies. Although the life status of a cat is quite insignificant in the grand scale of the universe, it really taps into the crux of human psyche; do we have free will to make choices in our lives? How different would our lives be had we made other decisions? Is it even possible to reasonable predict what WOULD have happened?

Causality

Obviously, we can’t predict the future. We do our best to make well informed decisions with our past knowledge and our present status. Take (Robert Wayne)[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Wayne]. Unbeknownst to most people, other than Steve, and the other Steve, Apple had another founder. This man was Robert Wayne. He had a 10% share of Apple (about $4000 USD adjusted for inflation) when it was founded on April 1, 1976. On April 12, 1976, less than 2 weeks later, he resigned from the company, and cashed out. Most people would have said that he made the biggest mistake of his life selling. Yeah, but how the fuck was he supposed to know that Apple would blow up like that? Robert Wayne had first hand experience in business failure, and with the rocky relationship with both Steves, he deemed that leaving was “the best decision with the information available to me at the time”. Well, considering he made that decision, he’s still alive today, stating he “probably would have ended up the richest man in the cemetary” had he stayed with the added stress. Steve Jobs passed in 2011 from pancreatic cancer.

It goes to show that any choices that we make in life will really snowball in every way possible. Every single choice will snowball in a different way, there’s no dead end, except for being dead. We can’t predict what will happen with moderate accuracy, so the majority of us like to play the game of statistics. Some of us gamble that if we make “good” choices in our life, we will be rewarded in the future.

The Supenatural

Some of us don’t really like the uncertainty of the future. That might be a major reason why a subsciption to religion is so widespread. The majority of all theistic religions share one common message which goes something like “Do to others what you would have them do to you”. The golden rule as you may know. Personally, I think it’s flawed. I’ve mentioned before that anyone who wants to “game” the “system” can just farm these good merit points to cash them out later. Its purely transactional. Do something good for someone else, and they’ll return the favour, or someone else good will come your way. And vice versa. The dicotomy between good and evil basically create a free economy, where instead of fiat money being transacted, its good/evil deeds.

Although, how can you even tell that you’re being genuine? In the absence of a god, is there any other metric that you can measure your “kindness” level? Maybe its that easy to spot someone being fake. Otherwise, if you participate in this merit economy, does that ironically make you a bad person?

I think that if you’re raised subscribed under a religion (and actually follow it for the most part), being genuine is easy. It comes naturally. Since it doesn’t take that much effort to resist temptation, I’d argue that a murderer preserving life, a rapist raising children, and a thief contributing to charity is more virtuous than someone who has no capability to commit such crimes. Everyone has their version of a malevolence in them. The idea of “good” cannot exist without the possibility of evil. I believe that it takes a tremendous amount of temperance to be able to allow the inner demon that resides in everyone a chance to be present, but never to manifest.

Say you start studying MMA. With enough time, effort, and dedication, the average person can quite literally become a human weapon. But the first thing that is taught when studying is the idea of control. If you become the knife, you have the capability to stab. It is then noble to show restraint, and not be violent if you KNOW it will benefit you. Someone who does not have that capability is therefore not virtuous, but simply weak. Not necessarily a negative trait, but it is not to be confused with being virtuous. You don’t even have to be trained in a fighting technique. If some fucko at a party is trying to shit talk you, not punching them square in the face is a good action in and of itself.

A|B

We’re always going to make decisions. Its upto us to make the most well informed one we can. One that adds to your merit XP, but dont count it. Some choices may seem neutral, but might favour one side over the other after the snowball. Its like (plinko)[https://i0.wp.com/bucketlistjourney.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Pachinko-inside.jpg]. We all start at the same place, but these little choices add up and give us a whole different universe at the end.

“We all make our choices. And those choices, they put us on a road. Sometimes, those choices seem small, but they put you on the road.” - Mike Ehrmantraut

-ekd

Paradox of Choice

Thu, 06 Oct 2022 16:43:13 -0400

We Have the Right

It’s well known that here in the west, a core value that is established throughout our culture and media is freedom/liberty. Hell, you don’t even have to go far into the politics to confirm that. The names of these documents for Canada and USA respectively are “Canadian Charter of Rights and FREEDOMS” and “Declaration of INDEPENDANCE”. It’s literally in the name. It gives us power to speak, practice religion, self-defense, employment, and a miriad of others. What other nations on Earth comes even close in that respect? In theory, it should empower people to rise up and indivudually fight for what they think is right. In practice, especially in recent times, the people have been polarized more than ever.

Mabye instead of fighting over why eating a chocolate bar is inappropriate, how about we focus on more pressing matters. Ironically, the more freedom you possess, the more paralyzed you will feel.

T vs I vs –

When it comes to skill proficiency, there’s a few categories used for classification. The – person is what you call “jack of all trades”. These people generally have an extreme breathe of knowledge, spanning and linking the most unheard of combinations. Your typical handyman would fall into this category. Able to fix your faucet, broken shingle, change your car brakes, etc. The problem is diagnoses. Most of the time, due to limited knowledge in the field, if their XP set doesn’t contain this problem, its usually over.

Then you have the I person. These people came out of the womb playing the violin. Been bricklaying ever since they could stand, or could completely disassemble, customize and reassemble a modern car blindfolded. They do one thing, and they do it damn well. Diagnoses is strong, since no amount of intelligence can solve a problem faster than something someone’s already experienced. The problem with these people is that they have no other proficiency elsewhere. Learning is all about reframing your understanding over and over, using different vantage points and drawing from other skill sets to increase creativity throughput.

Finally, the infamous T person. These people got the best of both worlds. Everyone should eventually strive to be this archetype. Everybody who has seen this I, –, T categorization have always been told to become T. But nobody wants to talk about how to get there. Do you draw your T down first, and then across? or Across then down?

To Teenagers and Young Adults

Even with my limited life XP thus far, I can confidently say that this society is purely meant to draw your T down first, then across. Unless you’re a straight up genius, it’s a bad idea to keep changing disciplines. The paradox of “how will I know what I like when I haven’t done it yet?” is often a rebuttal to this statement. Thing is, just having a taste, a trial run, will almost NEVER be enought to grasp the hidden gems of what there is more to learn (Dunning Kruger effect). Stick to one thing, and get really good at it. You’ll eventually see the fruits of your labour when you’re able to solve a problem when the answer isn’t on a search engine.

There’s a meme at my school how my program, mechatronics engineering, is a mistake. The main reason being when you’re 17 without any guidance, you obviously want to become Iron Man and excel at all aspects of a field. So you apply to mechatronics. “I’m gonna be an expert at all fields” says your naive self. Reality hits, and you realize if you want to make something that actually works, you need deep and fundemental knowledge. Brushing it off with a “I’ve seen it in a YouTube video” or “I’ve read about it in a book” is a cardinal sin. When your shit doesn’t work, you only have yourself to blame.

Point is, when you’ve developed an internal framework of how your field works at a fundemental level, the same fundemental basis can be applied elsewhere, making you a faster learner. By being an expert at one field first, it will catepult your knowledge with exponential speed, rather than spinning your wheels around not doing anything substantial.

Trying all the Ice Cream Flavours Only Gives You Diabetes

I’ve met a good handful of people, very intelligent, fast learners, but couldn’t stick to one thing for very long. The reasons might be different, but the path (or lack there of) is always the same. Shows interest in A -> watches 20 YouTube videos about A -> Purchases all the gear/equipment to get started -> Get bored -> Lose interest in A -> Shows interest in B. The cycle then repeats itself, with each cycle that can last anywhere from a few months to a few years.

Sure, I understand the whole notion of trying everything out when you’re young and impressionable. But if you try every single ice cream flavour in the store to decide which one you want, by the end of the saga, you’ve basically had a whole ice cream cone’s worth, wasted a bunch of time, and still haven’t had the satisfaction of enjoying an ice cream cone yet. I guess you ripped them off in the sense that you got 48 mini scoops for free, but ultimately, you ripped yourself off from enjoying a full ice cream cone yourself.

The Grass is Seldom Greener

Imagine you’re an individual that could theoretically obtain any partner you wanted. Ask and it will be given to you. So you partner hop. One hookup after another, leaving one when you get bored for someone else who’s on the surface more appealing. Then you realize it isn’t what you made it out to be, and jump again. The thing is, you’re left with all this XP, but you can never level up. It takes grit and courage to push through hardships, to make your grass greener. You could always swap it for another lawn, but without the putting enough work maintaining it, it’ll always end up the same as the last.

You will always find satisfaction in mastery, not novelty. Choose wisely.

-ekd

Optimism

Tue, 06 Sep 2022 20:25:38 -0400

Just moved back in for my final year of undergrad. It’s been a long four years thus far, with the whole pandemic and everything. With how my program is structured, this is technically only my second fall term that’s actually in person. The first fall term was right at the beginning of 1st year. The second was through the University of Microsoft Teams. In that sense, I find it quite odd to walk around campus and see 1st years go through their orientation week. The last time I was here at this time of year, I was actually participating, 4 years ago. I remember in first year that excitement and wonder of what was to come. Coming fresh out of highschool plunging straight into four years of torture (It wasn’t that bad I’m just perpetuating the stereotype).

I wonder if all the students that go through post-secondary schooling have this same experience. The euphoria of a new environment, away from home, fucking around and exploring the new campus late at night. Late night food outings, sleeping through 8:30 classes, the whole 9 yards. Though I can’t attest to the parties…so 8 yards. It’s honestly a real step to full on adulting for most who’ve been fortunate enough to have their parents take care of things like food and laundry your life thus far, myself included. But as the years go by, I just can’t help but reminisce that same feeling as the first 8 months of school. There’s the “new school” experience, and with the way intership system at the school works, also the “first job experience”. I was lucky enough to have the money situation mostly taken care of, so I didn’t need to work in highschool.

At my first job as an intern I remember I was so scared talking to the execs in fear I’d say something wrong and get fired. Or going 5 minutes over lunch and get fired. I suppose I’d always just be really anxious about getting fired. Looking back it was pretty funny, but what I felt like I’ve lost is that relentless optimism and enthusiasm for school and work. Don’t get me wrong, It’s still enjoyable seeing myself become more and more adept to my field, and working on interesting projects on the job, but that initial spark, the fire, the “rose-tinted glasses” of reality, it just doesn’t seem to be there anymore. Overtime, It’s just felt like the more I learn about the world, the more doomer I become. I suppose someone in their mid-thirties reading this are reacting with a “welcome to the club kid”.

But is it really like this until you just retire? The two most impactful first experiences I’d say for someone growing up in modern society would be the full extent of their education until the end of undergrad (if they choose the university route), and their first job (if it wasn’t through a family owned business, because I think that would result in a different experience altogether). The reason I say the extent of education up until undergrad is because at least for me, is the time you’re finally looking ahead of you in the long run, for real, with concrete plans. When I was in highschool, those questionnaires they make you do that ask “where do you see youself in 10 years?” was never answered with explicit steps, at least in my experience. It was only since the beginning of this year that I really made plans, and backups to those plans. Plans where I would be content, or at least, able to live comfortably alone.

When I think of graduate schooling as an option, I just see it as “oh same thing as undergrad, just more in depth”. Or starting a business, it’s just “okay just have to deal with all the corporate bs and make a good product/creation”. Or the most monotonous, just working a standard but well paying job. “Wagie” life if you will. I digress, but my point is that does everyone have this attitude when they’re younger, and slowly just lose it overtime? If so, why? Could it be systemic from the public education system?

I find that school is really good at breeding white collar workers. At a young age, you must always do as you’re told, follow the rules, follow the group think, be the goody two shoes. But fuck that. This only produces a dystopian society where the true created potential of children are squandered or untapped just because society told them to put the square block in the square hole. But what if I want to put the square block in the circle hole? Did you know the statistic for people with perfect pitch is approximately 1 in 100 people? But of all the musicians that I have met, including myself (don’t gatekeep the word musician just because you do it for a living), very few of them actually have perfect pitch. This leads me to beleive that many people have this natural born talent, but is never fully exploited because they never tried. Is that their fault? Or because society never gave them a chance to truly give it a shot?

Just want to end this off on something I’ve noticed while walking through campus today. It’s frightening how accurate I can tell if someone is a 1st year. Minus the O-Week shirts and swag bags, some traits that are a dead give away include: Being in a group larger than 3, new coloured running shoes/white Air Force 1’s, lots of enthusiasm and laughter, and the biggest one: putting your keys in your pocket and leaving the school branded lanyard dangling in the air.

And what’s more amusing…

I DID ALL OF THOSE THINGS TOO.

-ekd

Electrification

Wed, 27 Jul 2022 13:38:27 -0400

Ever since steam power was invented, technology started to rapidly advance. We seriously went from the first plane in 1903, to landing on the damn moon, in 1969. Let me reiterate.

with the introduction of the semiconductor transistor, allowing us to create miniature computers, which only keep getting smaller and smaller to this day. Overall, I think the technological growth from 20 years ago to today has been more or less in the forward direction.

The internal combustion engine is quite a marvelous piece of engineering. As an electronically focused individual, I really appreciate the almost automata-like and irony behind the engine. Think about it. You’re EXPLODING a fuel source in a CONTROLLED manner hundreds of times in an almost perfectly synchronized manner to produce mechanical energy. Explore, and controlled, those two words usually never mix. Somehow, the engineers responsible turned chaos into order.

Now what results from this invention basically transformed society from being trapped in your own town, to being able to cross borders. You can now travel 100km the same distance it used to take only travelling 10km. Fast forward 100 years, and you have the modern car. Fully fledged with nice features, such as power windows, heated seats, backup cameras, a media centre, and more.

The ICE has over 100 years of engineering behind it, making it almost obsolete to continue to innovate. There’s only so much more you can do to it, but you can’t increase its efficiency due to the nature of its torque band. You’re forced to control it with a transmission, making you lose energy in the process. That’s probably why engineers started hyperfocusing on the features, since the basic ICE automobile was already flushed out. A case of “don’t fix it if it ain’t broken” if you ask me.

Now the elephant in the room. Mass burning of fossil fuels are probably not good for the atmosphere… If that was the headline in the 70’s. We’re reaching a tipping point, where even a person who’s been a hermit from the media can probably feel it. It’s hot. And I’m saying that as a Canadian. I can’t imagine how much hotter it is in the southern US states. Automobile manufacturers are doing what I think is the right thing. For the most part. Converting all of your car lineups to electric will probably make a good portion of city air quality better, but probably doesn’t make a big enough dent in what we’ve already done. There’s so much more contributing to greenhouse gas emissions coming from the agricultural, livestock, and supply chain industries. These industries work behind the scenes, and are absolutely ESSENTIAL to the current state of affairs, but because of that, no one wants to talk about it…

Even though creating electric cars is probably a good thing, what’s with it and this society of doing these “all-in-one” solutions? The main contender that I’d like to question is Tesla. A few paragraphs ago I mentioned all these fancy features that modern cars have. Tesla’s cars have all of these features, and more, that’s no doubt. But I can’t wrap my head around why EVERYTHING in the car has to be controlled by this fatass tablet in the middle? Navigation, climate control, multi-media, telecommunication, lights, and the ludicrous amount of apps you can get. You can even adjust all driving parameters of the car itself; handling, suspension mode, security system, all from this 17 inch tablet. What next, in the next software update, can I brake the car by clicking a button? (There’s a chip on my shoulder about this “app” fiasco but that’s a story for another day)

They didn’t make a car. They made a tablet on wheels. Now don’t get me wrong here, the engineering behind their motor drive is amazing, but that doesn’t make up for this 17 inch problem. What happens if the tablet dies suddenly? Or the app on your phone to unlock the damn car decides to crap out on you? Introducing this single mode of failure is a sure-fire way of raking in cash from the “contact our certified technicians” business-model when your stuff eventually breaks. (Looking at you McDonalds & Taylor, I still eat your junior chickens though.)

So why isn’t the title of this post called “My problem with Tesla cars”? Well, because I think they’re going down the same route Apple has. They’ve garnered enough attention over the years as THE electric car company. The media and social media seem to isolate Tesla, even though many other car manufacturers have put our their rendition of the electric car. All the other competitors will for sure follow suit. Whatever Tesla does, other companies will copy, better or worse, time will tell. Remember the 3.5mm audio jack? Yeah I don’t either. How about the chargers? At least Samsung didn’t double down. Still gives me a good laugh though. Not saying Tesla will strip down features like that, and give bs excuses other than corporate greed, but they’ve gained enough public XP points to do whatever they want. The fanboys will always defend them to the grave.

Soon we’ll all be driving tablets on wheels. Just kidding. The tablets on wheels will be driving us.

-ekd

Linkedin Pretentiousness

Mon, 04 Jul 2022 13:38:27 -0400

Often I’d scroll through social media, particularly Linkedin, and my eyes would gaze on posts that have this same exact tone:

“I’m proud to announce that I will be joining the [redacted] team at [company]!! I’ve worked so hard to get here, without anyone helping me get my foot in the door, cold hard application! I’d like to thank my recruiter, [redacted]. Hoping to make a big difference in the field of [redacted]!”

Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s a commendable virtue to be able to humble yourself and accredit your success to those who helped you achieve it, but I can’t help but feel a pretentious tone attributed to these types of posts. Are you really thankful for the people who’ve helped you along the way? Or just wanted to sprinkle a bit of humble sauce to make it seem like you really appreciate the people who’ve helped you get to where you are.

Come on, this isn’t fooling anyone. Drop this bullshit corporate language and say what you really want to say. I’m going to direct this to people who do this to seem more employable to companies. First off, I don’t respect you. This kind of thinking is what gives rise to the whole “9-5 cubicle” stereotype. You’re acting how they WANT you to. You’re giving them control by conforming to their standards. Mindlessly droning away, giving into this hivemind.

Is the money really worth it in the long run? The status? Prestige? When you’re on your deathbed, will you be proud that you gave up your individuality to be rich? I’d rather be panhandling nobody than be a wealthy corporate wagie. Stick to your damn principles, or having a mind of your own will soon be illegal. And if you don’t have any, read. Read some more, and when you’re done, read again. Eventually, you’ll form your basis. And from there, that’s when you’ll begin to reap the true benefits, not $250 a year on optometry credit or some shit.

It was just pride month; notice that many companies changed their logos to include the pride flag? And what happens on July 1st? Oh, onto the next thing. Either you celebrate it all the time, or you don’t. It’s all a PR stunt; they don’t actually care. The goal of a business is to make money. No more, no less. If the public perception of the company goes up, so does the stock, and so do their pockets. If it didn’t benefit them, they wouldn’t waste their resources virtue signaling. Get it out of your head. Companies don’t care.

Use Linkedin as a free (as in economical) resume hosting service, not a place where you feed this cult. Better yet, host your resume on your own website, it’s free (as in freedom).

-ekd

Seven

Fri, 03 Jun 2022 13:38:27 -0400

I recently completed a design project course that involved a creation of an autonomous robotic vehicle to traverse varying types of terrain. It was a long term, so many teams were putting it off. Our team was rather diligent and started the planning and prototyping phase well in advance. During this phase, everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong, staggered, and all at once. It was Murphy’s law on the juice. Shipping delays. Wrong transistors ordered. Weak motors. Short circuited PCBs. Tolerance issues for 3D printed parts. The list can go on.

In the end, we thought that our hard work has paid off, since we were done the project early with 15 test runs successfully completed consecutively. We decided to jump the gun and present first. And the outcome was bittersweet to say the least. We were of course expecting a perfect run (like the last 15), but our sensor decides to fuck with us which lead to the robot begin to do donuts all over the track. Needless to say we were frustrated that the all the work we put in couldn’t net us the perfect score we desired. There were many robots who were successful on their first try, and I bet some of my skilled classmates whipped something up in 2 weeks and got it working just in the nick of time.

And this got me thinking. Why were we so unlucky? Surely something had to have gone our way out of all the dice rolls. At a young age, I was always taught that luck is a byproduct of your good deeds. I suppose it was just a long winded way of saying “Karma’s a bitch”. To me, karma doesn’t make sense. Maybe I only have a shallow depth of understanding, but I remember I took world religion in senior year of high school. We were learning about Hinduism, and how their socio-economical framework is based around the idea of a caste system. You’re basically born into the life you will lead. The lowest level, dubbed “Untouchables” (which is rather dehumanizing…), have a goal in life, to bring good merit to themselves in order to be reincarnated into a higher level in the caste system. If I can recall, this was called “The circle of Samsara”, and the ultimate goal is to break it, and reach the state of highest being, becoming one with their god “Brahman”.

I tend to turn many things in life into an RPG, so in this scenario, wouldn’t you be able to just do good deeds with the intention that you will gain something from it? Is there a leveling system where you can just stack up good deeds and trade them in? With that logic, did we get unlucky in the design project because someone didn’t tip their Uber Eats courier?

In Christianity, I’ve always understood that doing good has to come from within. It’s a feeling that compels you to do good, not for the getting something in return, or stacking your invisible merit point collection, or to even come back in the next life richer.

Personally, I’ve always argued that in most uncontrolled cases, luck is completely random. At the armageddon level, who’s to say a 1km wide asteroid won’t eject itself from the Kuiper belt and come barreling at Earth? We can’t even predict three bodies interacting with certainty, never mind as asteroid belt. How about something more down to Earth (hehe). My commute to work is via bike, cause “i’M sAvInG tHe EnViRoNmEnt!11!!” (nah I’m just broke). I’m always keeping an eye out for the weather. I’ve counted three times in the last week where it said it would rain in the next hour, and then it doesn’t. There’s nothing we can do to influence things that we can’t control, is that God’s work? Or have we not figured out how to order chaos?

Look, I know it seems super doomer and nihilistic, but I cherry picked things that we (with our current understanding of mathematics) can’t predict. Luck and success go hand in hand, but I suppose people just don’t realize how lucky they are, me included. You can work your ass off and still walk home empty handed. But even though you can’t win 100% of the time even if you do everything right, you can still do your best and let the dice roll. Somedays, it’ll be in your favour, other days not.

Taylor Atwood is a very skilled powerlifter that I follow. But what amazes me more than deadlifting 340kg at 74kg bodyweight, is his mindset. I recall a post he made, captioned, and I’m paraphrasing: “Remember the 5P’s: Perfect Practice Prevents Poor Performance”. I think this quote perfectly sums up the model outlook and mindset to have on achieving goals in life. Not the typical “fOlLoW yOuR dReAmS, s0n”, or “pRaCtIcE mAkeS pErFeCt”, but rather “do all that you can do, and leave it up to the universe to decide”. Notice “Prevents”, not “Eliminates”.

And just do good for the sake of good. Or do bad for the sake of bad. I don’t know where we draw the line, you can decide

-ekd

Splurging on Tools

Mon, 09 May 2022 13:38:27 -0400

I’ve always grown up with a mindset that you should always improvise with what you have on hand to get a job done. It was supposedly more efficient, cost effective, and doesn’t disrupt your workflow, or so I thought.

Throughout history, most if not all animals have some trait that makes them unique. Cheetahs run fast, bats have echolocation, and sharks have electroreception. What do us humans got going for us? Sure we’re pretty good at long distance running, but we’re outclassed by horses and ostriches, among others. The main thing that probably sets us apart from any other animal is our ability to make and use tools. It’s what we’ve been doing for pretty much all of human existence.

I’ve come to realize that in modern society, we’re really not making our tools and using them anymore. They’re either already on the shelf in Walmart, or just a click away on Amazon. Consequently, there has to be a spectrum that should be considered when it comes to buying things.

On one end, there’s the DIY, the guy who takes pride in creating their own things from scratch, just for the bragging rights it comes with. Yeah it’s impressive that you made your V8 engine from scratch, but anyone’s who’s not a gearhead will probably just go “Oh that’s cool, does it go fast?”, and move on.

On the other end, you have the consoomer. You know, the shelf with a few dozen funko pops, posters plastered all over the wall, religious brand following, etc. They solely live life off of the dopamine hit they get when the their next Star Wars lego set comes at the door. It’s basically Christmas everyday for them.

Obviously being on either extreme is probably not a healthy mindset to have, like most things. A stupidly simple heuristic that I recently came across from George Hotz on this topic followed something along the lines of “if you use it everyday, buy it, otherwise, don’t???”.

This really resonated with me, as I’ve been spending a lot over the past year on many different tools, such as 3D printers, the mods for them, almost every single electronic gadget you can think of, and probably half a dozen different types of calipers for various types of measurement. But the outcome seems to be a mix of the two spectrums, I consoom with the intend of building something myself. And it really comes in handy when someone else needs a quick fix, I could always lend a hand (tool). I wonder where that would fall on the line? Right in the middle I suppose? I get the giddy feeling of buying new tools, AND the pride that comes along with creating something with it. Maybe this is all just cope, but I’ll stick with it for now and see where it leads me.

“buy to diy”

-ekd