Network Inefficiencies Encourage Hackers

I should add market inefficiencies! As it were to revisit the Napster mechanisms of circumventing unreasonable costs. Where the actual market is artificially restrained by monopoly or poor governmental choices and licensing, one can expect a proliferation of black market activity. This is like a school for scandal! In the case of telecom streams this means hacking will be rife as users perceive the market as being out of wack with what is available from a simple hack. Market leakages to black markets redress some of the inequities produced by excessive market advantages that are purely administrative and bear little relationship to non-political advantages. Such is Canada and it's relationship to European and US markets. The Canadian hacking community will flourish given these incentives of mis-managed market mechanisms.

High Cost of Canadian Cell Phone Use

It would appear that nothing has changed in Canada. It is still extraordinarily inefficient. This is especially the case in telecommunications where monopolies drain Canadians pocketbooks while offering poor service without competition one would like to see so close to the US. Essentially, Canada is moving away from being competitive and will be very vulnerable over the long term to outside shocks.

The Pace of Evolution

We do not see the obvious some times, but it is increasingly evident that technology defines our existence increasingly. We used to see nature as a solution provider, but increasingly it is man's domination of nature that motivates intelligent life. The problem with this is that it reflects an imbalance between constructive and destructive forces, and in evolving, man has all to often become the destructive force. For example, in Africa there is the capacity to grow enough food to end starvation world wide! But what does mankind do with this opportunity? It is destroyed. What are you evolving into? We have the tools to end AIDS worldwide and to end hunger. We gave not figgured out the organization of these tools to do good in the face of unkind opposition that is not well informed. Can we educate people to end the cycles of misery or are there always going to be areas of immense suffering that we cannot ever reach?

Blogging with a mobile phone

Small is better. I've concluded that Microsoft has lost already!

Medical Systems

It might be said that a society gets the medical system it deserves. However, what we are really talking about is how people prioritize the suffering of others. Many communities think of America as somewhat hyprocritical because of the unnecessary suffering that goes on within it's borders. Shame on you, America can't you lead the world in a medical system for everyone.

Left and Right Wing

Does history not tell you more often than not that being on the left means you are trying to reduce people's suffering or the suffering of others, while being on the right means that one wants the status quo even though it means people and creatures suffer! There us nothing shameful about being on the left, but there is something shameful about not being aware of suffering whether you are coming from the right or the left.

Will the madness not stop?

The Internet is very good at highlighting activities of madness where animals or people suffer at the mercy of people making a living or garnishing a 'bloody' profit. Lately the sale of asbestos from Canada to India comes up, as does the silent slaughter of dolphins in coves along Japanese coasts. Neither activity should be allowed by law yet Canadian politicians and Japanese have not passed legislation. What is it with these 'Bushy' governments?

What is it with these Alberta gunslingers that would rather slaughter more than a dozen bears than build fences!? The bears are dead but not the need for an annual cull because the solution is an ass of mental depravity. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Where did all the oil money go if it wasn't into the hands of people who do not care for anything let alone a few very ordinary animals that just might be telling Albertans that they are sleepwalking away from common sense! Who is in the wrong the bears, the dolphins, or the men and women who seem not to have complete grade school?

From the Back Room to the Woods

Computers are indeed evolving. There are now more computers in the wilderness than there used to be in the cities. From cool cellar to office, from office to desk, from desk to lap top, from lap top to hand. You get the idea of an evolution? From IBM to Hewlett Packard to Microsoft to Apple, and the trend continues. Or, do you not see the cycles?

The How and the Why of Ghosts

Do you need to take the idea of ghosts very seriously? Perhaps not, because they are not something that you can ever put you hands on, especially if you are a practical person. Are ghosts relevant in one's everyday life? Possibly not, but you really don't do not know.

Ghosts are very personal things and they are tagged to the past and places of the past. Since most people think that the past does not matter all that much, then ghosts won't matter that much, perhaps.

Our past realities define the how and the where of ghosts. The why of ghosts is more complex. Ghosts do exist, and they do come in many forms. They are a mental fact and reflect how our brain works and what our brain is capable off. If I say that time and space are the same thing a la general theory of Einstein then I might be forgiven if I say that in the future we will visit earth as ghosts. If you travel fast enough the earth will age while you remain young. As a young person you may arrive back on earth to find all your friends of a few moments earlier being presently just ghosts of the past. Yes ghosts really do exist, but we don't yet know the why of the ones we have experienced. We do know that they are possible and that our mind has many ghostlike qualities. We do know that everything we do or say continues on, otherwise Einstein would be wrong and the general theory of relativity would be false. We know that is not the case and ghosts are very real!

Memristors .. Are we ready for another electronics revolution?

Well it seems that nature is telling us that natural electronics still has a few surprises. One of these is a future component of electronic circuits that could make everything that we have seen so far seem like kids play .. welcome the memristor!

Wars are Obsolete and Peace is State of the Art

So many young men and women have gone to war at the urging of governments and organizations that were misled or deranged that we can say that wars are our greatest threat. We can see clearly that those that started war failed miserably. They inevitably lost more than they could have gained through other means. We can easily say that war is generated by losers.

It is also false to say that human nature predisposes people towards war. More accurate would be the assertion that war is a trap of nature coming from outside human desire. People are led into war unwillingly like being channeled down a fast moving river. Those caught in the current drag others in with them in a firm of overwelming madness that goes totally against what is in everyones best interests. Technology is the generator of war and an ignorance of how to manage technology safely is at the source of misuse that ends in war. Religion is a form of social technology that can be misused and the mismanagement of religion is at the root of many wars. Addictions are at the heart of many wars and represent technologies where people are incompetent users. At the heart of peace is the capacity to use technology towards beneficial goals. It is this, the direction of the use of technology, that is at the heart of peace.

Education on the proper use of technologies will create peace. Teach people how to use drugs effectively and how to eliminate addiction and one will create peace where drug wars once were.

Show people how to remove guns from temptations and one can eliminate the urge to use guns as a method of resolving differences.

We need to invest in peace making technology as much as we do in the instruments of war. This applies to religions as much to governments as to war lords and organized crime.

Downsizing as a Way to Reduce Waste

It is a paradox, but the prescription of many economic experts during hard times is to create more waste. This all to often is what economic growth is all about, and it is particularly nasty in the case of small economies.

My favourite economics professor at Cambridge was the growth theorist Lord Kaldor, who was also my examiner on many occasion. Lord Kaldor held that the strongest law in economics was fertility and he associated this with economies of scale and size of productive unit.

Most economists realize that a single enormous plant is now the most efficient way to produce, distribute and sell almost everything. If one can make something smaller as the iPhone has done with computers then one has actally enlarged the something. Accordingly, as the transistor and integrated circuits became smaller they actally became larger on economic terms.

The size of everything is an economic decision and everything in economics is affected by technology. My technology determinism thinking did not go down well at Cambridge University because the more traditional social determinism views of markets and economies held sway. However, our reality is that is you live in a small economy the size of packages of items such as shampoo will be larger because the seller and producer want you to buy more than you need. Think everytime you eat that you are made fatter by oversizing of delivery systems and you will soon see how technologies of scale impact on who you are, who you are with, what you do and don't do. Yes you are a technological not and economic solution!

My finger is not small enough

Ever notice that when you use a touch based instrument you are too large. You are so inefficient!

Understanding Comes More Certainly if You Understand Statistics

It is no accident that science uses statistical method a great deal. Statistics represents a tool box of generating functions that create series that approximate series that are evident in the real world. Our everyday life is a result of sequence in which one thing follows another. When a statistical generator is found that matches the sequences of everyday life then one can use the statistical generator as an approximation of the expected sequence of events. This is where the real power of statistical generation lives.

Most often stastical series come as a consequence of cause and probable effect or as effect and probable cause. Looking back within a sequence of events helps us to understand. Then using that understanding and observing results help us to understand more. Eventually, we may understand without any hitches, but we need to be mindful that even a machine can break down if hit hard enough with a monkey wrench, or a system an break if it ets overloaded with monkeying around or just plain overloaded by too many monkeys.

Rising Water Levels

The water beside Lake Huron looks spectacular without the breeze, like glass. Those of us who notice will see that the Lake's water level is visibly higher than last year. Huron is an interior lake, but it's history will reflect what is happening elsewhere. The amount of water that will make a lake as large as Huron rise a meter is enormous, but that is what seems to have happened on less than three years. We are not worried about rising water here so much but are we mistaken to be so calm?

Maybe the muons are falling on our landscape and seeding low cloud formations. We see more rain these days here in Huron woods region. That is better than the lack of rain experienced where they normally see more rain, the maritime regions of British Columbia. What about the forest fires of Austrailia and BC!

Generally, water levels globally could be rising despite the building up of ice in Antarctica. The Artic ice is melting and we assume this to be a consequence of higher levels of co2. Might this also be due to sun spot activity peeking in the latest upward swing.

The earth is bombarded continuously by large energy particles and we don't have much insight as to the effects and cycles!

The Hard and the Easy: Why the West Needs to Think About the Direction of Economic Growth and Choose the More Difficult Path.

Unemployed technology and technologists not the banks are at the route of our economic ills. Overemployment in easy tecnologies of construction have been the wrong direction of growth by many economies. Short term profits and capital gains are not the way to run an economic system. There needs to be leadership towards the development of new industries within hard technologies rather than the easy peasy products that is driving western economies into penury. Growth by inflation in housing sectors and rralestate speculation is no way to manage an economy. Low interst rates indicate failure to choose the right direction of economic growth. Governments appear to be addicted to corruption of the politicians who have become specators of inflation rather than working to increase employment in new more difficult industry. Where is the leadership in spending taxes raised fr gambling, drugs, housing inflation, co2 pollution of or environment? Where is the incentive to keep people employed in the more difficult agricultural practices that are environmentally friendly? Who is directing the directions of economic change into the more difficult industrial or agricultural paths that we need to explore?

Is the New Gun Registry System a Pipedream?

This new UN gun registry covers all weapons and comprises a massive database system that can be used by law enforcement officers worldwide. Every weapon has a finger print. The new database stores that finger print before the weapon is sold to a member of the public or delivered to the military. All weapons manufacturers in all member countries of the UN must provide the information to the worldwide database before the weapon is sold.

This new system to be announced in time by the UN's new crime prevention unit has the capability of tracking down every new and existing registered weapon to its victim if the projectile or bullet is retrieved. Even in a wartime scenario the innocent victim of killing by a soldier can be traced to the soldier's weapon. The system will save lives if only because the criminal will know that use of a weapon will be traceable by an international police or UN agency.

The new database to be implemented requires that every existing owner of a weapon be registered. All weapons of soldier will be registered under the new system. This information is to be kept in a central database for access worldwide by police forces and military law investigators worldwide over the Internet. Any weapon that does not match its registered finger print will be confiscated and destroyed.

All weapons worldwide will be registered whether for military or civilian ownership. The new system will require of member countries of the UN to provide timely real time information. An country that does not provide such information is to be boycotted.

Don't believe everything that you read.

The Mathematics of Panic and the Mexican Swine Flu Pandemic

No one yet knows for sure, but the evidence is building that the Mexican flu pandemic is real and that it has had a three week gestation period beginning in earnest possibly during for the first week of April 2009. It may have spread out through people travelling away from the breeding wastes of several large swine farms at La Gloria near Mexico City. That is only an hypothesis. The big question is that, given present deaths in Mexico now stand at over 150, how long will it take before similar numbers appear in other communities across the globe. In other words, how long before you or I no matter where we live can expect to see the virus in our community. And, then how fast will the numbers of serious cases climb in Mexico as a potential pandemic gathers speed.

I have to say that the pandemic seems more than potential and that is why the potential for panic is as great as the potential for pandemic.

A rough calculation based on a three weeks gestation period for an area that has been saturated with the flu virus mutating and evolving suggests that not all those that have the swine flu virus will have the virulent strain. In fact, many case of the virus already reported around the world will have strains that have not yet evolved into a killer strain. They may never evolve into a killer strain and indeed may provide a means of protecting people from the killer strain or strains when these eventually arrive.

My very rough calculations of percentages for what they are worth would preliminarily suggest a 5 percent mortality rate out of those that have actually caught the killer strain and get seriously sick. This means that the figure for the total number catching the swine flu virus with all the other less dangerous strains could be a much smaller proportion, say less than 1 percent. This is just a wild speculation for setting out the arguments that a panic response may be more serious than the spread of the killer varus itself, at least initially, and if we are very lucky we may get immune to the killer strain by catching the non killer strain. Being or getting sick from the swine flu does not mean you will die. We do not know what the proportions are or will be. Some people may be already partially protected from less dangerous forms. We do not know what will protect from the killer forms.

As regards alarm, one should realize that those that will catch swine flu may be very large indeed, again I must emphasize may be, since mathematically we have no way yet of telling people more than that. This will lead to panic, and panic is morel Ikey than pandemic of the killer strain. As I read it, a pandemic of the swine flu virus is not the same as a pandemic of the killer strain the swine flu virus. Thus, you will probably survive the pandemic if you are reading this article, however you should be aware than you may still panic, and the panic may be more dangerous than the part of the pandemic of the swine flu virus that is not the killer strain. If you can understand that then you have the gist of my comments.

It is possibly the case that once people in your community have contracted the swine flu virus, you, yourself, will catch the virus in about three weeks even if you try very hard to avoid it. Be aware that many people may have to have the non-killer strain before it has evolved into a killer strain. Averaging everything out, the average person is safe, but there is a good chance lots of people will get very seriously ill around you.

Just keep your cool and do what you think will maximize your chances of surviving the worst. Get food and drink together for the long haul, get anti-viral cleansers, get loads of tissues and bags to dispose these,. Read as much as you can about how to protect your family and your community. Above all, do not panic. Survive by using your wits, and do unto your neighbour as you would they do unto you.

The New Stereotypes and Why They are Damaging

I see the creation of new stereotypes as a social process to give human beings comfort that they are addressing the ills of their world. The real problem is that the new stereos, many of them associated with bankers and banking, do nothing to help our situation other than appease our inclinations towards negative attitudes.

In essence, the main players in the unfolding of the financial crisis were innocent of a knowledge of wrong doing. Most were people being pragmatic within their perceptions of what the rules of the economic games being played out. They did not realize that the senior supervisory managers of the game were ignorant of the ultimate effects of the market game processes or had their heads in the sand. Our stereotype is, however, different in that we have cast them, all banking industry people, as willing participants in games of deception. That these stereotypes do not really apply to the vast majority of people in the financial world is too often forgotten in the rhetoric of politicians and housewives alike.

We have been through many histories of destructive stereotyping that has led to massive amounts of injustice to innocent parties. What we all have to presently endure is that the approaches of economic analysis that are presently in place worldwide are not sufficient to the task of understanding economic processes. The whole science of economics has to improve beyond its own stereotypes.

It is no longer sufficient to use the mathematics of economics to solve economic problems. There needs to be much more empirical and information gathering in economic analysis of forms that take into account the real complexities of economic and social structures. We are far down the ladder of solutions and need to climb into realism. Our shortcuts of analysis are damaging our people and communities.

The Continuing World Economic Crisis as Mistaken Identity

The problem with understanding economic problems is that there are many ways to analyse an economic situation. The leaders of the G20 have resolved that a multi-pronged approach aiming to end the liquidity crunch while amending the rules under which banks operate should do the trick. Do their efforts represent a real solution or are we seeing the playing out of another drama of ignorance about economic processes?

A feature of the G20 proposal is that it partly addresses the demands of Gordon Brown for stimulus while partly addressing the demands of European leaders for reformation of the banking system. It is wonderful rhetoric, but does the rhetoric contain the solution, or might one ask in all sincerity whether there is at this point a solution. In my view, this rather depends on your point of view and how you see the economic processes playing out over time relative to what you consider your ideal.

Its obvious that the main target of community leaders should be to minimize inflation while maximizing real growth in new directions such as to resolve other crises that humanity faces. The measures proposed in the G20 statement of intent will go some of the way towards resolving the different crises, but what will play out will be huge differences in emphasis in different countries because of their respective competitive situations and whether they are the initiators of the crisis or the unfortunate recipients.

One has to ask the question why the credit crunch. If one gets the right answers then it is possible that solutions may be found. However, if one asks the wrong questions or looks at the economic processes incorrectly, one can easily foresee a continuation of 'issues' rather than their resolution. In my view the wrong people are reviewing the financial processes and probably getting it wrong. This is not because they are not brilliant in the field of economics or finance as presently defined, but because the whole science of most economic analysis is built on mistaken identity based on stereotypes that no longer apply. Partly, we are all to blame because we believe or have faith in mathematical analysis as the end of the story rather than thorough examination of the details through time.

Mathematically, we can examine the economic problem from a macro or micro economic perspective. In conventional macro economics, it is not obvious that there was rampant and destructive inflation. What was overlooked was the disjoint between short term financing and long term need. The gap between the two was bridged by a false and failing macro economic approach. What was needed was a measure of processes of inflation that are socially divisive.

This was definitely overlooked by the IMF whose role it was to have such an indicator. Do you think they will advise on the correct measure of inflation the second time round. I don't, and that is a real problem for the world! Their macro economics approach is presently insufficient to the task. They need to get a better measure of inflation and act accordingly.

Another aspect of the G20 communication is that there needs to be changes in the rules of banking. This we would all agree. The problems we have identified are associated with leveraging, hedging, borrowing short and lending long (in all environments of immediate, short and long term financial markets), debt burden creation by not limiting loans to weaker segments of borrowing, arm chair banking at it very worse, disregard for prudent loan management. All these are, however, to misidentify the real problems, which I believe will be allowed to continue unless they are understood for what they are.

Economists are prone to forget the very close connections between stock market activity and money market activity. When both markets are structured in such ways as to produce instability from their very nature, this does not augur well for the economic system as a whole. I believe that the structural problems of the financial system have not been identified or are being ignored while the focus is on the effects of bad structure not the elements of bad structure that need to be address.

Yes, my dears, mis-identification is the order of the day, and habit persistence of bad habits will govern the greater mess me will be forced to endure.