When "Bad" Guys Make the Best Good Guys

Ever seen V for Vendetta?If you haven't, I strongly recommend it. Amazing film! I would consider it a modern day film version of what dictatorship would be and how one person can manipulate the system to rise into a position of dictator! Perhaps it's a "How Hitler Would Dominate in Modern Day". If you watch it or have seen it, then my description might make some sense.

A quick synopsis of the story without giving it away (I hope). It takes place in London where a dystopian society under fascist rule of a political party (don't recall name) basically lives in fear because religion, political prisoners and/or anyone that do not conform to party's system social norms are to be sent to concentration camps, experimented upon, and eventually exterminated. The party leader would often use the terms "a threat to national security" to justify his extermination of political "dissidents", religion, and other nonconformists. It was also his way of implanting fear and guilt in those that bought into his nonsense.

The Guy in the Mask ... is Awesome
One of the protagonist in the film, in which throughout the entire film wears this Guy Fawkes mask and the film never reveals his name, only that he is known as "V" which also happens to be roman numeral 5... he was in the 5th cell of this imprisonment. I assume it is symbolic since in concentration camps (or at least in Hitler's concentration camps) that one loses his/her identity and becomes associated with only a number and not a name and so this protagonist remains anonymous to the audience.

Even though in this particular film the protagonist actually acts as the inciter, the catalyst that drives the film...we enjoy not only the movie, but also gain insight from it. I, for one, also admire the character. A movie where, the "bad" guy makes the best good guy.

A for Amazing, A for Awesome, A for Anonymous.

This brings me to today's group of hackers, known as Anonymous. No, I wouldn't want them to be tracking me, but I must admit ... they live up to their cover name and a "face" that society has provided for them, which is the Guy Fawkes mask, same one that the character in V for Vendetta wears. Recently the feds want to crack down on online piracy with their SOPA and PIPA and probably some other online privacy bill either now or in the future. As the Feds crack down on online piracy ...results? Megaupload forced to shut down and the founder arrested! In retaliation, Anonymous attacks DOJ or so they claimed. Either way, hah!
Authorities and politics are recipe of corruption...justice is not objective.

Credit Is Given When It's Deserved
Anonymous may be participating in activities that hurt businesses, but I wonder if they mean to cause actual harm. In regards to retaliation to the online privacy, they are making a statement. "Our lives begin to tend the day we become silent about things that matter." - MLK. I'm glad there are still people out there actively fighting for what matters to them. Their method of fighting back/protesting may be breaking the law (laws are meant to be broken), they do it not only for themselves but several million others that more or less are incapable of retaliating in such a way. Must give them credit, they do make a more-than-satisfying job of being the appealing "bad" guy and the "good" guys looking like morons. They managed to break into companies and the Feds...still not caught. Group of anarchist like these are only seen in the movies...I'm glad I'm alive to witness a great group of rag tag hackers! They are for sure a very audacious group; well aware that they are breaking the law, managed not to gloat about their achievements (most suckers would gloat by now), because they know that they could potentially get caught if they aren't discreet.




Only common people have interest for common activities, the moment they gain a little recognition...is also the moment the start to put their wants before the needs of others or...their single need before the needs of many. They represent truer justice...I haven't yet to read anything, anywhere that paints anonymous in positive light. Which makes me wonder a little if it's because they are anarchist of the internet, challenging defense cyber-security. Aside from the Megaupload retaliation, there's also the Bank of America Foreclosure, and wikileaks.

At the very least, these hackers can die knowing they made a difference, knowing they truly lived, doing what they love, and fighting for what matters. That's a lot more than many can say they have done in their lifetime.

Just to further my point a little...think of Hitler, Castro, and even Stalin. Yes, these three leaders killed millions of people. However, they somehow managed to climb to power, maintain power and had millions of people, their country to believe in them and their system. They had other people participating in the execution of others, now that is one powerful combination of fear and persuasion!

"Megaupload was taken down w/out SOPA being law. Now imagine what will happen if it passes. The internet as we know it will end. FIGHT BACK." - Anonymous

-The Social Nerd

Life Is 10% What Happens To Me

If life is 10% what happens to me, then what's the other 90%?

 The other 90% is *how I react to it*. The whole and original quote is "Life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it", discovered through lifehacker.com. Although, lifehacker has a short quotable article on it, I couldn't help but feel compelled to write about it here. It's a reminder to myself that attitude determines whether a situation can go down badly, a deal can be closed, a connection made, a friendship developed, an enemy discovered, or even the start of a business idea!

Often times when we fail or perform poorly we allow ourselves to be consumed by our critical self. We also allow undesirable outcomes to affect our decision-making, our spirit and motivation. Regardless of whether the outcome was in one's control or not, there's almost always something we can learn from it.


Traffic
 Most people hate sitting in traffic, especially for long periods of time. Actually, most people hate waiting for anything in general (like Zimbardo stated in his Time paradox). However, instead of being so cranky or snappy at other drivers or yourself, just enjoy the music on the radio, listen to the news, observe the number of cars and the drivers around you. If it really bothers you that much, perhaps you should take the next exit and take an inside road to get home. Inside roads tend to have more traffic lights and speed limits are much lower, but the wheels tend to roll at a steady rate than bumper-to-bumper traffic on the highway.

Shifting our Attitude
Recently, I have been trying to change my attitude towards common, micro-situations that would usually cause distress, anxiety, or irritation by viewing it as joke, but in most cases ... apathy. Trying to think that I don't really care helps me recognize that some things are out of my control or that it was my fault to start out with so I should figure where I went wrong. Our attitudes towards a situation or event is a reflection of how we feel at the moment of the situation, and thus further influencing our behavior in that particular direction. It's our attitude that either turns a bad situation right side up, or a big conflict into no conflict. Our attitude will ultimately determine how successful we become. By changing our attitude, we allow ourselves to view the world through a new set of lenses, enabling us to see the beauty and opportunities that we would otherwise miss.


Sources:
http://lifehacker.com/5873131/life-is-10-of-what-happens-to-me-and-90-of-how-i-react-to-it?tag=quotables


"We are always getting ready to live, but never living"

-The Social Nerd

The Zen Experience

Recently, I went off on a trip on my own without family for the first time. The weeks, and particularly days leading up to it were supposed to be really exciting. Usually the few days prior to the trip is when it's most exciting. For some reason, and for the first time I was actually only excited for brief moments. Excited when my friends who were going to be there with talked about it. However, as soon as the conversation went on to the next topic, I also found myself just as engaged and interested in the next topic of discussion. And when all conversation finally died down and I was back to doing my regular old activities, I took pleasure in that. My mind wasn't constantly on the impending trip that would be in 48 hrs, although it was looming, it was not distracting.

In the moment
It was such a great feeling, it allowed me to enjoy the moment, enjoy the here and now. I wasn't lost or carried away. Of course, the mind would wander to the thoughts of the trip, but it wasn't distracting.

When the Moment is Gone
I was already nervous, and excited, but the moment for it is over and now it is time to enjoy the present ...no reason to continue being excited about the future. Be excited and enjoy the future, when the future turns into the present.

I hope to experience more of these kinds of moments, where I was able to continue enjoying the present, a little of the future, while not let it distract me from the present.

"Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment"
-The Social Nerd

The Paradox of [My] Laziness

There happens to be somewhat of a direct relationship between laziness and efficiency. I discovered that my "laziness" actually pushes me to become efficient. It forces me to become creative, learn things, and discover newer, better, and faster methods of performing a task/set of tasks.

The Project
For example, I have a number image files in which the default name that was given to it when it was imported was IMG_0001, however, I would like to rename the files to ..."Beach Week 0001" etc. It would be quite painful to manually rename each files individually. Therefore, it got me thinking...there has to be a faster way of accomplishing this task. Of course, it's just my luck that at the time I learned the power of "scripting". I'm ashamed to say...I never knew that you can write a single page of code and have it automate tasks for you.

Scripting
When I learned of about automating tasks through scripting, I discussed my small 'project' to the script master. He uses groovy, utilizing the JVM. Anyways, I cranked out some pseudo-code for him in java. And within a few days, he wrote a groovy script that did exactly what I wanted it to do! The other awesome thing was that it was able to rename my files WITH SPACES!!! Even the script master had to ask me how that was possible...since apparently in batch scripting, it doesn't allow you to rename files with a space, you must provide an underscore instead. Groovy is very similar to Java...and I have programmed in Java...Stringing Strings for aesthetics was an "important" part when i first learned Java.

The script master, actually got me really into scripting because of his interest in scripting and how he views it as a hobby instead of a painful task. Although I have yet to write my own script....I hope to someday. I just need to figure out where and how to start writing simpler script.

WORK SMARTER NOT HARDER...!
Back to the original purpose of the post, the search for efficiency is a result of "laziness" or at least my desire to optimize productivity and increase my time's worth. This way, I can do more activities and learn new skills as I let my script automate the tedious, pointless, yet much needed tasks. Unfortunately, laziness has a bad rep. perceived as unintelligent, a ripoff, cheap, an undesirable trait, and while that's true for many; for me, it's not that. I don't want to do work (actually, I'd rather do things that interest me)...but since work is somewhat inevitable, let's try to do as little work as possibly while still completing your chores on time and with at least no less than satisfactory results!

The Tradeoff
Of course, the tradeoff here is that if you don't want to put in the manual abor, then you must compensate (or at least usually) with mental power.


In short,..... WORK SMARTER NOT HARDER!
I don't do it to line others' pocket or for business "others" ..I do it for myself, my family. Plus I enjoy finding better, faster methods of completing tasks #1 because then it allows me to do other activities and #2 I learned a new skill by finding that faster and newer way.


I should probably write a post on how I set up groovy, java, and setting the environment paths before I forget, heh!

"Efficiency is intelligent laziness"
-The Social Nerd

The Mathematic Discovery

This is just a quick post that documents another method for checking your multiplication. I learned this from my dad, and he learned from an old fashioned Asian teacher back in Vietnam. Anyway, I thought it was really useful and helpful, a much easier and "simpler" method than using division to check your work (or a calculator, like in today's world).

Ok, so I don't know if this method is an official one or that it has a name, but I call it the X method. And it works for me.

Sample
Problem   1 Both Single Digits
        9  
     x 3 
      27
So make an X, notice how the X has 4 spaces? (I can't draw or at least I don't know how to with this blog so I need to describe it). Well, we will write a number in each space, and I will show you how. So in the Top Space, we will call it Space A (the V part of the X), Space B is the bottom space, Space C is the right space, and space D will be the left space.

1. Take the factor, in this case 9 and write it in Space A and take the 2nd (which is 3) and write it at the bottom.
2. Now take top value (which is 9) and the bottom value which is 3 and multiple them together which would give you 27. (yes, I know at this point you are probably thinking that is stupid...that's not a "method" to checking your multiplication, but I assure you I am starting with a simple example, I will provide other more complex problems).

3. 27 is the numbers 2 and 7 right? so take the SUM of 2 and 7 = 9.....--> 27 ==> 2+7 = 9 and write that number in the right space of the X

4.Now take the product of the original problem which is 27, which is the number 2 and 7. Take the sum of 2+7 = 9.

5. You should now see that the right space(C) and the left space(D) are the same number. And having that they are the same number, it means you did your multiplication correctly.

Problem 2- 1 single digit, 1 double digit
      23
   x   3
      69

1. Take the first factor, in this case 23 and take the sum of its digits which is 2+3 = 5 and write it in Space A and take the 2nd factor, which is 3 and write it at the bottom Space B.
2. Now take top value (which is 5) and the bottom value which is 3 and multiple them together which would give you 15. (yeah, notice that it is different than the previous problem?).

3. 15 is the numbers 1 and 5 right? so take the SUM of 1 and 5 = 6.....--> 27 ==> 1+5 = 6 and write that number in the right space of the X

4.Now take the product of the original problem which is 69, which are the numbers 6 and 9. Take the sum of the two numbers....6+9 = 15. Since it is 15, you must first do a 1+5 =6 ..now write 6 in Space D (left space).

5. You should now see that the right space(C) 6 and the left space(D) 6 are the same number. And having that they are the same number, it means you did your multiplication correctly.

NOTE*- Notice that when I had a number greater than 9, I do the SUM of the two digits (e.g 15 --> 1+5 =6 instead of 15)? The reason is to keep the checking process simple and to prevent miscalculation with numbers. Of course you can keep the 2 digit number, but then you must do it for both calculations in space C and D. Keeping it 1 digit is easier.
Now let's do a bigger number and check for its correction

Problem 3 - 2 double digits           
            25
       x   17
          425


1. Take the first factor, in this case 25 and take the sum of its digits which is 2+5 = 7 and write 7 in Space A and take the 2nd factor, which is 17 so you take 1+7 = 8 and write 8 at the bottom Space B.

2. Now take top value (which you wrote down from the prev step 7) and the bottom value which is 8 and multiple them together which would give you 56.

3. 56 is the numbers 5 and 6 right? so take the SUM of 5 and 6 = 11, 11 is still >9 so you need to take the sum of 11 so....1+1 = 2 and write that number in the right space of the X

4.Now take the product of the original problem which is 425, which are the numbers 4,2,5. Take the sum of the three numbers....4+2+5 =11. Since it is 11 (which is greater than 9) you must take the sum of the two digits 1+1=2 ..now write 2 in Space D (left space).

5. You should now see that the right space(C) 2 and the left space(D) 2 are the same number. And having that they are the same number, it means you did your multiplication correctly.

__________________________________________________________________________________
This method should work for natural numbers, I don't know if they work any other realm of numbers e.g. integers, decimals etc. The method should also work for numbers in the hundreds, and thousandths place.

I know this seems to take a lot longer to do, however, the checking is much simpler, by keeping the numbers allowed when added to be no greater than 9, and thus easier to check compared to long division to check your math, but that's just me.

-The Social Nerd

Importing Tumblr Blogs to Blogger

I used to use Tumblr as my medium for blogging, but found out that Tumblr is not a good platform for my blogging needs. Of course, that is after I discovered this Google Blogger, and I like a lot more than Tumblr.

Importing over
However, I already have some blogs on tumblr that I would really like to import over to blogger, and I certainly didn't want to manually create one after another and having the dates out of place.

Googling
Therefore I googled up "How to import tumblr blogs to blogger" and one of the answer that popped up was "How do I move my blog and all its content from tumblr to blogger?", it described to me the steps I needed to take to import my tumblr blogs to blogger.

Steps to Import Blogs
Unfortunately, there is no direct way to import my tumblr blogs into blogger.
1. First, I had to export my tumblr blogs to a wordpress compatible xml, using this link
          tumblr2wordpress
then of course I downloaded the generated wordpress compatible xml file

2. Secondly, I had to import the XML file to the wordpress2blogger using this link
            wordpress2blogger
which then generated another XML file, but this one was Blogger compatible.

3. Thirdly, what I had to do was log into my blogger and then went to Settings->Other, and at the top there is a Blog Tools which has Import, Export, Delete Blog. Clicked on Import blog and chose the Blogger compatible XML file.
BOOM! My tumblr blogs are now imported to my blogger blog.

Sources:
Google Answers how to import tumblr blogs to blogger
tumblr2wordpress
wordpress2blogger

-The Social Nerd

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