Anarchy Evolution by Greg Graffin

Greg Graffin is the lead singer of Punk band Bad Religion. He’s also is a PhD zoologist who teaches at UCLA. This book is part autobiography, part manifesto. He alternates between telling stories about his childhood, including some stories about being a teenager in a legendary band when hardcore began. (For much more about the hardcore scene, see the 2nd edition of American Hardcore by Steven Blush, one of my favorite books).

Like me, Graffin accepts the two big A ideas: anarchy and atheism. Keep this in context that I reject the modern hijacking of anarchist to mean thugs dealing random violence, which is similar to how the neighbor-lovers have tried to spoil selfish. (The meek call it rational self-interest). But Graffin does try to dance around the atheist moniker, preferring to consider himself a monist. That is, monism (one reality) as compared to dualism (natural and supernatural realms). He argues that the atheist label is unfitting because it’s a negative and impractical because most people consider it negative.

My sense of life matches well with Graffin’s, and devoured this book while on my trip to Hawaii in August. This is a great book.

God, No!: Signs You May Already Be an Atheist and Other Magical Tales by Penn Jillette

Let’s set aside the obvious winning elements of this book: Penn Jillette is highly entertaining. He’s often laugh-outloud funny. He’s appealingly confident, and he makes you want to be as cool as he is. This book rambles around in stories from Penn’s life while trying to stick loosely to the aim of making several philosophical arguments. It’s wonderful.

The book would be completely satisfying with this alone, but it also contains an compelling argument that keeps bouncing around in my skull. Not content with being an ordinary atheist, Penn considers himself a hardcore atheist. Ordinary atheists have no belief in god. Penn does not believe anyone else believes in god. He makes a compelling argument that I feel obliged to accept until shown otherwise. The argument is simple: anyone who truly considered the bible a literal word of god would just likely expire immediately in a desperate, self-destructive attempt to save the souls of the sinners among them. Read the book to get the detailed argument. It’s fun!

Tricks of the Mind by Derren Brown

This book continues my collection of memoir-manifestos written by atheists. Brown published this book in 2006, but only in the UK and it took me some time to get a copy. Actually, almost all of his stuff in nearly impossible to get legitimately if you’re in the U.S. All of the TV shows I’ve seen by him are superb. I just finished watching the four-part “Experiments” show that was on BBC recently. There are easy ways to find the content, but it’s out of scope for me to explain.

Derren Brown is a performer who uses techniques from hypnosis and stage magic. He doesn’t do tricks that rely on props. It’s all misdirection and reading. He know how to spot marks who hypnotize easily, which he exploits for some extremely-entertaining TV. For example, I’ve seen him shake someone’s hand and immediately cause that person to fall down asleep on the ground. This book is so compelling because he explains much of how he performs these tricks.

Like the previous two books, Brown covers some biographical territory while explaining general concepts. The book is not a how-to guide, although there are parts that do explain techniques in detail. In one part, he offers some methods for memorizing long lists of information, for example. The most startling part of the book is about hypnosis, particularly his assertion that there isn’t enough evidence that a true trance actually exists, that there is just as much evidence that people are merely playing along when they flap their wings like a chicken on stage.

The Elfish Gene by Mark Barrowcliffe

If you played Dungeons & Dragons when you were a kid, read this book. Despite Barrowcliffe spinning D&D as something that nearly ruined his life, all those nights of sitting around a table rolling dice will come back to you in a nostalgic glow. It got me to try playing with my kids, just like my dad and mom did with me when I was little. And they loved it just as much as I did.

Barrowcliffe is slightly older than me, and he discovered roleplaying games just about when they first appeared, whereas I didn’t play D&D until after the “basic set” was released. Some of his stories are interesting for historical reasons. I had wondered about the Empire of the Petal Throne, having some vague knowledge that it existed from articles in Dragon. I hadn’t realized that it was a popular contemporary to D&D in the 1970s.

The depiction of the group dynamics really brought me back, reminding me of both the frustrations and triumphs involved with pen-and-paper RPGs. There’s something magical about how these games draw you into their spell, making you treat the story as if it were real life. This book captures that experience better than anything else I’ve read or seen.

Zombie Spaceship Wasteland by Patton Oswalt

I guess you can tell that I don’t read a lot of fiction–unless I’m reading aloud to the kids. This is another personal memoir, this one from stand-up comedian Patton Oswalt. Like Barrowcliffe in the Elfish Gene, Oswalt is D&D-playing nerd, an awkward adolescent who somehow escapes the doom of his terrible obsessions and bad decisions. I guess that’s why liked these books so much. They almost seem like they are about me.

Patton Oswalt is hilarious. This book is hilarious. And you should read it.

The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson

Ronson is the guy who wrote The Men Who Stare At Goats. I haven’t read it or seen the movie. I picked up this book because I like psychology books. Ronson is a journalist who is great at landing unlikely interviews. The book hooks you with a mystery about books mailed anonymously to people around the world. That leads Ronson to Bob Hare’s psychopath test, a checklist that aims to recognize the truly insane. From there, he tries to answer the question of whether most powerful people in the world are in fact psychopaths. I won’t spoil the fun of the book by sharing the conclusion. It’s a fun trip and quick read.

Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids by Brian Douglas Caplan

This book is a careful analysis of the costs and benefits of having kids. Caplan takes an analytic approach and concludes that having more kids is ultimately beneficial. I appreciated how he addressed well-known data about how having children at all tends to make people miserable. It really boils down to the idea that having lots of kids is painful while they are children but wonderful after they are adults because they tend to take care of you. This is a fun book which plenty of math if you want to dig into the statistics.

Flawless Consulting by Peter Block

This book is in its third edition and up to date with regard to technology. I hadn’t read previous editions. As a consultant myself, I found it insightful and helpful to my business. Block actually argues that nearly everyone is a consultant, either external or internal. He defines a consultant as someone who helps find solutions for teams for which they don’t belong. And so, his techniques can be useful for just about anyone. To prove this, he relates a story of how a public school teacher applied his techniques in the classroom to great success.

Block’s approach is psychological. He guides you toward paying attention to the emotional factors. In the problem-solving role, we consultants jump to proscribed solutions. He explains how a more collaborative approach produces better results. I’ve already used some of this ideas in my business.

The Clean Coder by Robert C. Martin

This book is similar to ESR’s The Art of UNIX Programming, in that it’s a system of techniques for producing superior code, but not specific to any language. Martin relates several interesting stories from the early days of his programming career which help to demonstrate his ideas. The information about estimating was particularly interesting to me.

Incidentally, if you haven’t read TAOUP, you are really missing out.

Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson

I read this at the recommendation of friend and fellow consultancy CEO, Mark Celsor. The authors run a small consultancy which spawned popular project management plaform Basecamp as well as Ruby on Rails. Their attitude is often defiantly contrarian, which makes the book entertaining. Also, there a funny little illustrations throughout.

It’s refreshing to hear someone say that you don’t need to grow your company into a behemoth that you sell on the NASDAQ someday. It’s good to be reminded that your goals are for you to choose.

Atlas Losing Grip – State of Unrest

State of Unrest album cover

This is my favorite album of the year. The band’s name, an obvious homage to Rand’s classic novel, caught my eye. A description of their music as being melodic hardcore made me take a chance. The music is energetic, but clear enough to sing along with. The lyrics are smart and include unique phrasings that I hypothesize come from a Swede writing in English. At least, it reminds me of Hellacopter, another Swedish band. Aside from name-dropping Nietzsche, the lead track includes a nice little wish.

Let our logic dictate our morality.
It’s a privilege, our responsibility,
’cause in the end we are all held accountable.

They also released an EP recently that includes an acoustic version of Logic.

I really love this band, and I wish they’d come to the Bay Area some day.

The Fucking Cops – Fuck You Up with Some Truth

Another great melodic hardcore band, The Fucking Cops released their second CD this year, a followup to You Have The Right To Shut The Fuck Up.

Tony Sly – Sad Bear

Tony Sly is the lead singer of No Use For A Name, and he’s been putting out solo acoustic CDs, sometimes with Joey Cape from Lagwagon. I’ve been playing this newest album a lot, and it inspired me to go back and get the older stuff.

Saves the Day – Daybreak

Saves the Day is pop punk outfit who really should have a number in their name (like Blink 182 or Sum 41). I hadn’t heard of them until I noticed Daybreak. I found it very strange and couldn’t quit playing it. Vocalist Chris Conley sings so high, I thought the band was fronted by a woman…but all the lyrics is pretty obviously sung from the point of view of a man, which was a puzzle at for me at first. The first track on the album is nearly eleven minutes and has at least five different melodies. It reminds me of recent Green Day stuff, catchy and easy to sing along with.

Cake – Showroom of Compassion

Cake is probably the biggest act to come out of Sacramento. Everything they do is solid, including this album from January.

Nothington – Borrowed Time

Nothington is another Bay Area band. They sound a lot like Lucero.

The Devil Makes Three - Stomp And Smash

I saw The Devil Makes Three open for Social Distortion a while back. They are from Santa Cruz. I’ve been delving in to this realm of punk rockers doing folk styled music, and they are closer to bluegrass than Tony Sly’s straight folk. Stomp and Smash is a live album of older material. I can’t get enough of “Old Number 7″.

Scott H. Biram – Bad Ingredients

Along the same lines, Scott H. Birum plays foot-stomping blues like he’s John Lee Hooker, but with a punk sensibility.

Puscifer – Conditions of My Parole

Conditions of My Parole is another solid release from Maynard’s other other band, Puscifer.

Flogging Molly – Speed of Darkness

Flogging Molly never fails to satisfy. Their live shows are phenomenal.

Dropkick Murphys – Going Out In Style

Another solid release from the Dropkicks.

Paddy and the Rats - Hymns for Bastards

If you like Flogging Molly and Dropkick Murphys, check out Paddy and the Rats. They have

Dead Milkmen – King in Yellow

After a long, long time, Dead Milkmen finally released a new album.

Hard Times And Nursery Rhymes - Social Distortion

I love Social Distortion. I’ve seen them live many times. Compared to other bands, this is a fine album. Compared everything else they’ve done, it’s weak. I am looking forward to the next album that Mike Ness has said he’s been writing on the road this year.

Related articles

• Review: “Sad Bear” by Tony Sly (examiner.com)
• CD Review: Puscifer, “Conditions of My Parole” (popdose.com)

The generator uses pretty CSS3 styles in modern browsers.

My good friend, Rick Marazzani, put together the phrases and the template for combining them. I built the framework that allows anyone to embed the quotes in any Web site. Rick explained the philosophical ideas behind the RAND-o-matic. I want to discuss the technology.

To place the widget in an HTML document, you make a div element and you fetch a remote javascript file.

<div id="randomatic"></div>
<script type="text/javascript">//<![CDATA[
//Set width in pixels to 150-600
var randomaticWidth = 300;
(function() {
  var rom = document.createElement('script');
  rom.type = 'text/javascript';
  rom.async = true;
  rom.src = 'http://labs.18int.com/randomatic/randomatic.js';
  var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
  s.parentNode.insertBefore(rom, s);
})();
//]]></script>

Rather than include the javascript straight away, I used javascript to generate a script tag. This ensures that rendering of the page does not block while the remote file is fetched. The remote script in turn creates new DOM elements and pulls in styles. This makes it easy for anyone wanting to use the widget, while also saving all of the control of functionality and design for me.

Look at the bottom of the right navbar to see the widget in action. It will generate a new quote every 20 seconds, or you can click the box to make a new one. In addition to the CSS3 styles I used for rounded corners and shadows, I also added little icons for posting the current quote to Facebook or Twitter. There really isn’t much magic to that–only making the right URL and sending the browser there.

One interesting hurdle was getting Facebook to take the recommended title text for wall posts. When you post a link to your news stream, Facebook pulls the remote URL and looks for Open Graph tags. The quotes are made in javascript, so I pass the whole quote back to the home page of the widget so that the PHP script there can set tags to match. I can even tell Facebook which icon to use along with the news item.

With the new Atlas Shrugged film opening in a couple of weeks, this can be a whimsical way to celebrate Rand’s greatest work. I also hope it generates attention for MindPosts and 18INT.

It’s simple. Go to Account->Account Settings->Account Security->Secure Browsing and click a checkbox.

Option for using https "whenever possible"

After saving, your Facebook experience will all flow over SSL, every byte encrypted with a 128-bit key. But fire up your favorite game, and you will probably see a request to turn this setting off.

Dialog displayed by apps that don't support SSL

If you click the continue button, you might expect that you’d be temporarily allowing an unencrypted connection. Instead, your setting is turned off. When you’re done with CityVille, you will have to switch it back on again. I’m sure Facebook will improve this user experience over time.

When Facebook rolled out this feature, they added a new setting for app developers that asks for the URL to the secure version of their app. It starts out blank, and when it is blank, the dialog above shows up. Naturally, I wanted to get things right, so I began experimenting. Unfortunately, once you have a valid value, you can’t return to having it be blank. Now I was forced to solve this somehow.

Time for a short diversion into how HTTPS works.

You know how you can have one server hosting multiple domains, each with their own site content? It’s called virtual hosting, and it’s a standard feature of Apache. The way it works in the HTTP protocol is that when your browser connects to the server, it uses the IP address (e.g.192.168.1.1) and in addition to asking for the document to view (e.g. GET /index.html) it also specifies the domain name (e.g. www.18int.com). Apache’s configuration knows where the files on the server are for that domain, and away we go.

In the case of a secure connection, your browser and Apache must exchange keys to be used for encrypting data. Your browser will also ask for proof of identity from the server. The proof is in a small file called a certificate. It’s only good for one IP address and one domain. You can make multiple certificates work if you have multiple IPs. A certificate signed by an authority is a few hundred dollars, but IPs are scarce. It’s a gigantic pain in the neck for a small developer.

If you have multiple apps running on Facebook, you could reorganize them on the server to use subdirectories instead of subdomains. For both canvas apps and iframe apps, the user is hardly exposed to your backend URLs anyway. In the short term, I’ve made a single page that says the following.

We’re sorry! This app does not function when requested via ssl. To access this app, please change your facebook settings under Account->Account Settings->Account Security->Secure Browsing.

Then I pointed all of my SSL URLs at it. Note that I this page is served up using a self-signed certificate. It’s interested that Facebook doesn’t care to enforce the identity check but they do care that the data is send via SSL end to end. That’s reasonable.

Instead of reorganizing all of my files on the backend, I plan to rebuild my apps so that they work outside of the Facebook canvas, using the Facebook Connect feature instead. Facebook seems to be doing what they can to push everyone off of the canvas, anyway.

It’s also interesting that most of the games I’ve tried still show the request to switch off SSL. The popular Zynga games do. I found that Golden Nugget Vegas Casino, run by one of my clients (AltEgo), does serve up with SSL. Smart.

Recently, Twitter added a similar feature to always use HTTPS, but I wouldn’t expect any issues like we have with Facebook because Twitter never got into the business of piping content from apps through their own servers.

Image via Wikipedia

Here’s a giant list of famous and accomplished people with philosophy degrees, just the thing to show the parental units when you choose your major. I want the comparable list of successful underwater basket-weaving majors. (via JoHo)

Check out the list and you’ll find one of your heroes and perhaps a villain or two. That suggests to me that studying philosophy helps you become powerful. You will learn fundamental truths, levers to move the world. While I too studied philosophy in college, intensely but outside of university classes, I passionately wish I’d focussed on it earlier. Philosophy should be a core subject of education from the beginning.

Are you interested in learning about philosophy right now? Try Stefan Molyneux’s An Introduction to Philosophy videos.

Screenshot of using the @mentions feature

Do you use the @mentions feature in your status updates? If you type @ and immediately start typing a name, Facebook will suggest friends. Click on one and the name is inserted as a link. The friend will be notified and more likely to notice. Until now, this only worked in your own status updates. It now works in comments on anything posted to a news stream.

Unfortunately, the @mentions feature does not work when updating status via the Graph API. Apparently it did at first, but app makers immediately used it to spam everyone with notices. Facebook yanked it. I would have preferred that they limited notifications similarly to how they limit how many news stream updates can go out in a certain time period.

In addition to mentioning people, you can also mention pages and apps.  Many of the things you “like” in your profile have underlying pages. If you’re mentioning a band or a movie you enjoy, try using the @mentions feature to make it easy for readers to find out more.

Related articles

• Facebook Expands @ Mention Tagging to Comments (insidefacebook.com)
• Facebook Adds Ability to Easily Tag Others In Comments (mashable.com)

“The truth hits everyone like a million atom bombs, and I can’t understand how everybody can be so calm. Time is running out and we all just sit around. So leave your message at the beep, ’cause I am leaving town.” –Leave a Message, Get Dead

Yesterday was Tax Freedom Day, although here in California it’s April 14th if you consider our higher-than-average income taxes. Divide up the days you work: the first hundred days are for the government. The balance are for you to spend on yourself, if you ignore all the other extortion you pay as sales tax or other fees.

It’s impossible to “get by” in the US now. The average family is left with $100/month after mortgage, food and health insurance, a scenario assuming no vacations and one car! So many people are out of work and leaning on government to take care of them, that 33 states are out of money to fund jobless benefits. California is at the top of the list. When income can be variable, a rational approach is to save during times of plenty to cover the lean times. Government does not work this way. Government moves by political pull and the expedient solution of the moment.

As all odds mount against any rational, moral person being able to make his way through life here, the Galt Meter tilts into the red zone. Can you imagine a meter that shows how close we are to the nightmare world described at the end of Atlas Shrugged, a doomsday clock that shows how close we are to destruction by weapons of immorality? It seems we’re now at a 53/47 split. Nearly half of us work so the other half can loaf and tell us what to do. Furthermore, the top 10% of producers pay 73% of taxes.

Mark Steyn calls tax-payers suckers, the rubes filling PT Barnum’s pockets. In fact, we are livestock. Within the system, we have little choice but to pay. You can choose self-destruction in the form of unbending resistance, or you can choose self-destruction by exchanging your soul for a whip in your hand. Disobey or obey. This dichotomy is false. The alternative is to stop participating.

The way forward is out. An incredible opportunity approaches. Statism is dead!  What was a theoretical conclusion will soon be demonstrated empirically. Because of its imminent failure, statism’s captains will lose sanction, and no longer be recognized as authority. That inspires fear and excitement, similar to jumping off a high cliff into deep water. Are you ready to swim?

References

• http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxfreedomday/
• http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=529854
• http://money.cnn.com/2010/04/08/news/economy/state_funds_jobless_benefits/index.htm
• http://www.gainspainscapital.com/index.php?view=article&id=80
• http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2010/04/galt-meter-hits-red-zone-as-half-of-all.html
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGIgOIFdnMQ&fmt=18
• http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0452011876?tag=leonatkinson-20
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4b6YbkG5-W4

I would like to respectfully take issue with one word in that conclusion: only. Certainly, a rollback of entitlements would slow the inevitable decline of the state, but it’s not the only way, nor the most likely. Imagine the federal government coming to a consensus such as, “we just can’t afford it right now, so we’re halting subsidies for agriculture.” That’s an unlikely fantasy. What seems more plausible is a sudden disappearance of multiple programs, and the ones who’s beneficiaries have the least pull. Realistically, you can already see this. Big corporations get giant bailouts but schools want for funding.

It seems more likely that we will find decisions to cutback left unmade but made for us thanks to the hard facts of reality. These government programs will meet their just ends, and there will certainly be strong emotional reactions, tantrums even. I’m speaking euphemistically–I won’t be surprised when there are riots.

Some of these basic services our parents and grandparents handed over to the government are necessary and desired. (Being able to drive around on pavement is nice!) When the government fails to provide them, an opportunity might be seized. Without the a gun-powered monopoly chasing entrepreneurs away, what kind of wonderful solutions can we expect? I’m not sure, but I have been considering how I might help. Is anyone else thinking about how a collapse will provide an unprecedented chance to be productive?

Anyway, I installed Karmic from scratch and found that I couldn’t install the Canon drivers because they want libcupsys2. Ubuntu renamed this package. I tried a few tricks to work around this, but the one works is to install the libcupsys2 dummy package from Jaunty. You can get it here: http://packages.ubuntu.com/jaunty/all/libcupsys2/download.

So, the new procedure is get the libcupsys2 .deb file and install it first. Then follow the instructions for Januty, such as Luca Gibelli’s Canon PIXMA MP620 Linux printing and scanning via wireless network on Ubuntu post from last April.

Update: check out Kevin Carter’s script for automating the process of adding support for the MP620.

John Villarreal captured me on his YouTube show. The topic is the “Porkulus” bill going through the senate right now.