Piotr Lemiesz Blog

Time of Simplifying

2023-09-20T19:57:00+02:00

Introduction

Simplicity is a longing in a complex world. Lately, I've been simplifying my life to help navigate the intricate reality and its various challenges.

Exiting Social Media

One significant change I made was leaving social media platforms. This move streamlined the flow of information I couldn't process and allowed me to regain control over my online interactions. It was a personal victory over algorithms.

Instagram for Visual Focus

I also used Instagram as a tool to enhance my visual awareness. Although I didn't document other changes, I made a few recently and would like to share them with you.

First Change: Deleting Instagram

I removed Instagram because I found myself losing to its algorithm, and my original goal of sharing observations was compromised. The Instagram web page stopped allowing me to upload photos, possibly a dark pattern to motivate app installation. I resisted and chose to delete my account.

However, to continue sharing photos, I created a small portfolio website. Using a simple generator, I imported and organized photos, resulting in foto.lemiesz.pl, which houses my Instagram-imported and fresh photos.

Second Change: Exiting Facebook

I retained my Facebook account for rare content checks, but it hasn't been in active use recently. I also enforced screen time limits through Apple, making it physically challenging to access Facebook without additional steps.

Impact of Social Media

The absence of Instagram and reduced Facebook usage highlights how these platforms have intertwined themselves into our lives for both content dissemination and everyday use. For instance, some online articles embed Instagram photos that cannot be viewed, and my local community relies on Facebook as a distribution model for social journalism.

Transition to English

Another change I made was transitioning to the English language for communication. While I write this in Polish for convenience, I believe that translating my content with the help of tools like ChatGPT can expand my readership and adapt to the language of the future.

Leveraging Obsidian

Finally, I adopted Obsidian, a note-taking and task/project management tool, which has improved the organization and flow of my knowledge.

Conclusion

Simplifying and optimizing my workflow and tools incrementally makes tasks easier and encourages creativity. While not every approach will work universally, everyone has their unique workflow, motivation, and work methods. My journey toward simplification is a personal one, and if you're interested or want to understand more, feel free to use and reach out.

Why I Stopped Using Social Media?

2023-05-28T14:57:00+02:00

Definition

Let's start with a definition.

It is an online medium, public (in terms of being accessible to groups of people), where, unlike owner-managed websites, people contribute to creating content.

Why It's a Problem in One Sentence

If something is free, you are the product.

A Slightly Longer Explanation

Historical Background ;-)

The internet became a part of my life around 0202122, SDI, and internet cafes.

Initially, in the realm of low-transference and somewhat meeting the definition of social media, there was IRC.

During my college years and the advent of constant internet connections, several social networks emerged, such as Grono, Nasza Klasa, and phpBB by Przemek. Finally, Facebook and Twitter came along.

Initially, each of these platforms seemed like the embodiment of what a community needed: easy access and communication. However, as time passed, each platform, in order to monetize itself, began employing unsavory tactics.

The worst of these, of course, is the infinite feed, as well as profiling users to serve them targeted ads/content. Lately, there are addictive algorithms and content in the form of "short, easily digestible videos" (aka shorts/TikToks).

How I Navigate this Today

Let's divide this into before and after reading "The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads" by Tim Wu.

Before I Realized that Social Media Algorithms Are Geared Towards Our Unhappiness

Before, I had lost a few battles with dopamine-inducing loops or was frustrated with the shallowness of the content being shared, or the systems lost their informational value by showing me junk instead of updates from friends.

However, I had never really thought about what each of these algorithms was designed to do. I simply knew they were about making money.

I rebelled in various ways: I employed aggressive ad-blockers and installed many add-ons that tried to assist me. I used these systems much less.

I also managed to move a piece of some online communities to serve as a free medium for group communication.

But the tentacles of these systems still reached into my mind, and they didn't seem too harmful, except perhaps for being a little too addictive.

After I Realized that Algorithms Are Designed for Our Misery and Lack of Focus

I blocked them definitively. Physically and blatantly.

I can't access any of these systems.

What's the Deal with Targeting Misery and Lack of Focus

It's very simple. The algorithm has one goal: making money.

The algorithm quickly concluded that: 1. It profits from polarization, which is easy to provoke. 2. It profits from unhappiness and anger - also easy to provoke. 3. AND, WORST OF ALL! It profits when people are less focused.

So, these are precisely the kinds of content that are presented to us.

All of this makes various tools simply harmful to our mental (and somewhat physical) health.

What Future Do I Envision, Then?

Firstly, let's use systems that aren't designed to "destroy" us. (For example, personal websites with RSS feeds; Mastodon)

Secondly, let's vote for individuals in elections who can influence legislation so that the law allows us to fight, and the law cares for us and those who may not be aware of the above mechanisms.

Thirdly, let's disconnect ourselves from the system and encourage those around us to do the same.

And fourthly, let's just talk :-) (Contact tab)

Good luck!

Should We Fear AI?

2023-05-21T10:57:00+02:00

Yes.

End of the article :)

Now, more seriously.

Introduction

Should we fear the Earth (as a planet)? Should we fear insects (as a whole)? The one-sentence answer is the same for all: "Yes."

However, this doesn't mean that AI, Earth, or insects aren't allies to both us as humans and our goals.

History of Our Species

But first, a historical perspective.

Our brains evolved to form communities and maximize the propagation of genes. We pay a significant price for certain cognitive errors and a lack of connection with our inner selves. While we have intuitions, where knowledge escapes us, we start creating monsters.

Throughout history, we've created these monsters in our imagination, and these monsters keep chasing us, relentlessly. We dress them in the fear of the night or other thick ideologies that tell us how to live.

Now, add mathematics to the mix.

Mathematical Models

We've always been increasing the complexity of mathematical functions and numerical methods. These allow us to describe increasingly intricate functions and more complex mathematical models.

When we link these complex models not with numbers but with meanings understandable to humans, we create linguistic mathematical models.

The first ones, analog, emerged a long time ago.

The next, statistical, thrived with the advent of the first computers.

However, with the tremendous increase in computational power and the use of neural networks (similar to those in the animal nervous system), it turned out we've created very powerful linguistic mathematical models.

In essence (simplifying greatly), they are sophisticated guessers of the best next letter in text (and, of course, spaces and periods ;-)).

Now, let's get back to the fear of AI.

Fear of Digital Monsters

Combine this development of mathematical methods with our evolutionary monsters.

It's very easy to create fear of almost anything, and the same goes for mathematical methods.

What we don't understand begins to terrify us. Indeed, the number of parameters and mathematical complexity of the model is beyond human comprehension!

Trying to learn to be like artificial intelligence, or more precisely, replicating the way it learns to possess the knowledge that current algorithms have, is impossible. At least not without tampering with brain software (hello, psychonauts!).

As a result, we've created a monster that populists and those who don't understand that it's just plain mathematics (not much different from what's in our heads, and we DON'T understand that either) use to scare us.

Fear of AI

Returning to the fundamental question, the fear of AI is like fearing Earth and insects - it all depends on who uses the tool and for what purpose.

You can exploit the Earth to its limits, destroying it entirely, or you can ruin it with a nuclear holocaust.

Insects, genetically modified accordingly, can spread deadly diseases or destroy crops, or they can efficiently pollinate apple trees to produce more fruit. It all depends on the intent behind using the tools.

Of course, in history, there has never been an opportunity for us to interact with beings smarter than us (as humans), which is why some people are terrified that AI will take their jobs or exile us from Earth, replacing us with their robots.

This possibility exists, of course.

However, it doesn't change the fact that development cannot be stopped, only balanced. Efforts to ensure that tools (of any kind) are used properly and for good purposes make life better.

What Can We Do?

So, stay informed, don't resent AI, and use it to improve your life. Vote in elections (where democracy still exists) to ensure that legal regulations, science, and industry utilize AI for the right purposes.

Postscript

P.S. I'm not writing this article to prevent AI, which will assess individuals once it takes over, from eliminating my meager existence as an opponent :)

My Adventures with Obsidian

2023-05-01T10:30:00+02:00

My Experiments with Obsidian

Another experimental (in the sense of describing an experiment) post.

It's starting to resemble some kind of "experiment with the tribe" series. However, I share this so that others can compare their experiences with mine.

So, here we go!

The fate of my notes is an ongoing optimization and gradual change. I've gone through many stages (MediaWiki, text files, strange programs).

However, the current state of both the software (Obsidian) and the way of organizing notes (hardware, he he) seems highly optimal.

Let's Start with Obsidian

Actually, let's start with Markdown. What is it? In short, it's like a text file on steroids. It's a way of constructing text files so that when a tool understands this format, it can generate richer formatted documents (headings, lists, etc.) from a plain text file.

At the same time, a Markdown file opened in a "notepad" looks completely normal (except for the use of, for example, # for headings or - for lists, or * for bold).

This has some crazy implications:

Backing up is trivially easy; we're backing up text files! Differences are easily visible! You can use Git for both version tracking and simple backup.
Sharing between machines is trivially easy; we share a folder. Whether it's old-school (emails) or modern (iCloud Drive, Google Drive).
It can be opened with anything! Notepad, Obsidian, or any other "Markdown-aware" text editor.
And most importantly, it's just a plain text file, so you can use it without even knowing you're using Markdown. Every text file is a Markdown file!

This is the first ingredient of this wonderful recipe.

The second is the note-taking software. I used Obsidian. I heard many good reviews, and the price is very good because the program is free.

I'm not a paid user; I'm just a freemium user without the fancy add-ons. The main product (in my opinion) is Obsidian Sync, which is supposed to keep your notes in the cloud and accessible all the time (regardless of situations like a computer or device breaking, whether it's on a laptop or a phone).

So, Obsidian itself is essentially a notepad. It has just a few more functions than a regular notepad, but these functions are sufficient to use this notepad.

In short:

Categorization and notes (as Markdown files)
Hashtags
Links between notes
Neat data representation
Plugins

Could you use another program? Yes, of course.

Hardware - Organizing Notes

An important component that makes this duo (Obsidian - notes) strong is the organization of notes.

I've optimized and experimented with this element in various ways, borrowing from other systems, books, screenshots, and productivity hackers.

However, it was only after reading a book that I got great answers. The book is "Building a Second Brain" by Tiago Forte. The book appeared in several places, and the premise appealed to me.

Of course, I didn't want to build a second brain - I have enough problems with my own! I wanted to learn what Mr. Tiago would suggest.

And he proposed two acronyms.

CODE and PARA.

Fairly easy to remember but require some explanation.

The first one (CODE) defines the way of working with notes.

I remembered it as: "Record everything, then optimize according to the scheme, then just use it."

Mr. Tiago describes it as:

"Capture - Record what resonates." Basically, record everything and everywhere. Always and a lot! The idea is to note and enter into a unified note-taking system with the smallest "entry" barrier. Obsidian itself has this very cleverly set up. The two most important buttons are "Make a note" and "Make a note with today's date." The entry barrier is just the desire not to forget. And with a somewhat burdened mind, this is a very effective method. The second scope of this capture.
"Organize - Save to use." Here, Mr. Tiago suggests a solution to the initial chaos from the "Capture" point. Organization is a less frequent process and uses another acronym, PARA. PARA stands for Projects, Areas, Resources, Archive. I will describe it shortly. But in the "organize" step, you just spread out the initial loose notes in folders. Thanks to this, there is perfect order, and the structure of knowledge simply goes down. Of course, there are problems with where to put something, but these are really small problems compared to the absence of notes altogether or a stack of unstructured notes.
"Distil - Find the essence." In this point, it's roughly about working with organized notes, creating new ones that are transformed raw notes, collecting new concepts, sometimes obvious, sometimes not :)
Express - Show your work - in this point, it's just about using what we note, organize, distill. Use it either for projects we're working on, or areas where we want to take action. Or share it externally, for example, in a blog or by showing notes in a raw form.

This presented workflow allows me to clearly define what I'm doing now: I take raw notes, organize them, deduce conclusions, and use them. Before knowing this code, these four activities were somewhat mixed up in my head. And the confusion was building frustration, for example: "Should I save this? What will I use it for? What projects am I actually doing and how do they connect?"

The last component of this system is organization according to the PARA acronym. I mentioned it earlier, but below I'll describe what Mr. Tiago meant:

Projects - something that has a beginning, end, and scope. Ordinary projects. I just created a directory per project. Some people also use notes as a project management tool - and it can work for small projects.
Areas - this was like a revelation. Mr. Tiago simply stated that these are endless projects. Things that are important and form the basis of our interests and activities. For me, some of these emerged naturally through the note distillation process. Thanks to this, some notes ended up in folders that gather topics that are important to me and have a place in my mind and in the note-taking program.
Resources - yes, you're starting to feel it :) This is simply the directory responsible for collecting all other resources of various types that are not projects per se or that you don't have the heart to turn into "areas." You can still collect and catalog notes, but treat them as resources. Interestingly, during the organization, distillation, or expression process, these notes can migrate from resources to projects or areas, just as our mental forces and resources migrate.
Archive - simply notes that we don't delete but want to keep - so that we know the notes have been moved to the archive but still have them.

The two intersections: CODE x PARA give us 16 post-processes (each with a slightly different interaction with each other), but thanks to this, there is no uniform way of "I need to work on notes but don't know which ones are important" or "Where did I have that?" Second, I didn't always know "will I use this?" or "how do I group this?" Now I've received a simple prescription. Perhaps it's grandly named a "second brain," but it's quite clever and easily implementable.

To conclude - how to start?

Just install any Markdown note-taking software (I recommend Obsidian).

Then create four folders (Projects, Areas, Resources, Archive).

And put your notes in them.

Then, from time to time, when the basic notes take up a lot of space, simply move them to the folders and clean up.

My Adventures with ESP32

2023-01-29T09:57:00+01:00

Why ESP32?

At the recommendation and example of some smart individuals (thanks to Łukasz), I took a closer look at the ESP32. In short, it's a clever device that straddles the line between logic circuits and digital processors. Logic circuits need to be designed and then implemented, while processors are expensive but versatile. The ESP32 sits right on the border of these two worlds: - It costs 30 PLN (approximately) - relatively affordable for something that can do a lot and connect to Wi-Fi. - It can be programmed using development tools.

Wi-Fi Thermometer

So, I bought myself an ESP32 for a few złoty and decided to make a thermometer. Why a thermometer, you ask? Well, it's a bit of an insider joke in the IT world. What does an experienced and educated IT person do in their free time? They program a Wi-Fi thermometer, of course!

My variation had a few twists: - It needed to work outdoors and be somewhat resistant to physical conditions. - It had to handle power supply reasonably well, meaning it should be able to operate with occasional breaks in readings (let's say, during winter).

And so, about a year ago, the saga began.

Because it turned out that none of this was as easy as it seemed.

Hardware

I started with the hardware: - I took a battery from a damaged 20,000mAh power bank (Greencell). - Solar panel: WaveShare Solar Panel (6V 5W). - Waveshare Solar Power Management. - DS18B20 Temperature Sensor. - ESP32. - Plastic outdoor enclosure from a hardware store.

Without much philosophy, I managed to connect everything together on the hardware side. Maybe not elegantly, so I'll share a photo to show it ;-).

Software

However, software was a different story.

I'll try to explain the versions that worked, their pros and cons, and unexpected problems.

On the server side, there's a Raspberry Pi running a very simple PHP script to save data to disk. Munin draws the graphs.

Connecting the ESP32 to the computer turned out to be a rather complicated procedure. Since I didn't fully understand what was going on initially, I spent some time on this. Later, it turned out to be as simple as connecting a USB drive.

Version 0 - Proof of Concept (POC)

In general, it was a copy-paste of two sketches (that's what we call programs on ESP32). Source sketch 1 - Wi-Fi client + HTML. We enter Wi-Fi credentials (only 2.4 GHz). We enter a URL (I used the GET method) like this: termometer.php?temperature=VALUE. Source sketch 2 - Sensor. Here's a piece of code that initializes and retrieves values.

Voila - temperature saved!

As a POC and prototype, it was incredibly quick to make. A few hours for hardware and software.

Excited that the hardware and software worked, I left it running to draw temperature graphs in Munin. And it did.

Suddenly, it stopped.

Oh, the battery had run out. It actually did run out because the panel was in a room facing north! So, it was an expected violation of the initial self-sufficiency condition. What surprised me was the speed - it lasted about a week. Mental note: I need to research power consumption for Version 1.

Because who reads anything before doing anything, right? #RTFM.

In Version 0, another problem emerged, which I didn't understand, but I also downplayed it. Every now and then, despite having a charged battery, the ESP32 stopped sending data. I attributed it to the battery running out.

Version 1

In Version 1, I decided to extend battery life.

In doing so, I added another layer of ignorance about programming and ignored some errors. But more on that in a moment.

First, the goals for Version 1. "We need to reduce power consumption."

Quick Googling showed that the ESP32 has several sleep modes. I liked one of them - esp_deep_sleep. In this mode, a low co-processor with only a few wake-up modes (timer, current event) operates. I used the timer mode, setting it to sleep for 1 minute.

I assumed this would significantly extend battery life. I didn't calculate it rigorously, but it should last a week. Quietly, in my ignorance, I assumed it would be self-sufficient along with the tiny PV panel.

Oh, how wrong I was...

Version 1 indeed slept for a minute and sent the current temperature. It lasted longer when exposed to light.

Unfortunately, the problem from Version 0 became more pronounced. At unspecified times, despite a charged battery, temperature information stopped being sent.

As part of debugging, I added a bootcount parameter (which survived deep sleep) to try to find any patterns or regularity. It didn't help.

In my next (blind) debugging attempt, I thought it might be a range issue. I had some obscure gateway, so I replaced it with a less obscure one. That didn't help either.

Unfortunately, my debugging skills (and willingness) didn't go very deep. Here's where the ESP32 has its downsides - it's not as easy to debug as a computer where you can set clever traps. The program is simple (because there's not much memory), and Serial.println only works when connected to a computer via cable. I wasn't willing to leave it connected for weeks. This was supposed to be a simple thermometer, not a space station recording data in a black box (computer).

Lessons learned for Version 2: - It's not the gateway disconnecting me. - Ignorance and compounding errors could be my problem.

Version 2

Blind Shot #1 (it turned out, not so blind) was deep sleep. It turns out that gateways sometimes don't wake up from deep sleep. Just like that :) Additionally, it turned out that in my ignorance, I didn't turn off Wi-Fi before sleeping.

Blind Shot #2 (also not so blind) was related to Wi-Fi. Firstly, I read that Wi-Fi consumes a lot of power, so I saved some power: - I stored the previous reading in a variable that survived deep sleep and compared it to the current reading upon waking up. If there was no change, I went back to sleep without sending data.

The second issue, which I blame on my internet service provider's defenses, was the lack of DHCP response. The internet hinted at this. It was probably a form of defense because something was constantly requesting an IP address in a loop every minute. No normal device behaves like this (there's a lease time for IP addresses). I didn't bother explaining this to my ISP or debugging it. I simply entered the parameters manually, bypassing DHCP.

This version, with these improvements, currently draws temperature nicely, and the battery lasts quite a while. It sits in the garden with the PV panel facing south.

We're in the middle of winter, but it's holding up well in terms of battery life and stability. The bootcount says: 3743, which multiplied by 10 minutes (the sleep interval) gives approximately 25 days without interruption.

Version n?

Am I working on another version? Not actively.

I would like to monitor voltage (charging status and battery level). Maybe I'd gather other weather-related parameters.

But for now, I'll focus on testing stability.

Future Lessons

Ignorance and assumptions always lead to trouble.
Experiments are good.
Sometimes you have to take a blind or intuitive shot because it yields results.
Small systems are cool.
I'm open to exploring powered and Ethernet-based systems at reasonable prices.

Internet Radio! How to Listen to Music?

2022-10-23T07:57:00+02:00

As a self-proclaimed (he he) musician, I've always had an obsession with surrounding myself with music. My second self-proclaimed education (he he) in computer science has always merged with the first, resulting in some unexpected alliances. But let's start from the beginning.

In the beginning, there was the radio and some playback devices like cassettes and records. Then came the personal computer. It had a little speaker! The PC Speaker could do incredible things. The first games, I think even Windows 3.11, attempted to play something on it. Unfortunately, there weren't too many sources.

Then came some sound cards, but some of them didn't even make a sound at the line output. However, until the era of constant internet access, it was challenging to access music. Sure, there were CDs and MP3s, but their source was limited. I always resonated with the idea of having constant access to music.

I had a Walkman, of course, but the batteries ran out quickly, and the headphones broke. I had a Discman, heck, even a Discman with MP3. But the batteries ran out there too.

Then I became an adult. I even had an amplifier, and I always had the idea of how to listen to unlimited music from the internet. I'll skip the intermediate layers and tell you how I'm currently trying to tackle it. In other words, I'll skip the details.

So, the stack: * Source of music: Spotify - it's a reasonable compromise between access and price. Of course, I preferred behavioral targeting from Last.fm, I liked looking for alternative music in strange places, or listening to well-curated music on internet radio. However, Spotify and its adaptability to devices did the job. * Source of music: Internet radio streams (foreign) - that is, random streams of music (e.g., provided by VLC Player). * Hardware: ** Phone - the battery doesn't run out as quickly, but it can play music through headphones or in the car. The downside is that it's a phone and not something solely dedicated to playing music. ** Laptop - it's obvious when working or using the computer, but I try to avoid staring at the screen as much as possible, so it addresses a specific part of the problem. ** Chromecast Audio - a little device that turns my old amplifier into a Spotify player. The downside is that the interface is, unfortunately, on the phone, and sometimes it can get confused with Wi-Fi (but it might be an issue with my Wi-Fi). ** Raspberry Pi with Raspotify connected to a small, simple amplifier and speaker. This is a middle-of-the-road solution. It's somewhat portable and sounds good. The downside is, again, the phone is the interface, and it's quite bulky. ** Raspberry Pi Zero + Bluetooth speaker. This was an experiment I conducted. The first version of this experiment involved HDMI audio + some weird HDMI cable with a jack adapter. Unfortunately, it didn't provide sound. The second iteration was connecting a Bluetooth speaker to the Raspberry Pi. The problem turned out to be the interface, and I didn't have the patience to look for a web or app-based player. My main goal was to use sources other than Raspotify. ** Tablet + Bluetooth speaker: almost an ideal duo, the tablet plays what it wants with a reasonably friendly interface (screen). However, the whole setup is too large and power-hungry.

I'll also talk about what's on my mind to test: * Internet radio in the form of a ready-made set solely for this purpose. What I've seen seems too expensive to me, and assembling it myself is somewhat intimidating due to the need to find an interface. But a self-contained set that can play something like a radio from Mauritania or Indonesia would be interesting and portable. * A voice assistant that is also a speaker - this is another thing I've seen in practice. It plays what you ask for. Of course, the ones I've seen didn't fully understand that I wanted to listen to radio from Alaska and only played YouTube or Spotify. But if I get my hands on some cheap equipment, I'll give it a try. * Some DIY project - it's basically a variation of the ready-made internet radio set I mentioned above. If I come up with a way to encapsulate a music source reasonably well, with a reasonable speaker, power supply, and interface, I'll test and experiment with it.

So, how do you listen to music? 😊

The Blog is Dead! Long Live the Blog!

2022-10-02T07:57:00+02:00

The blog is dead, long live the blog.

Once upon a time, I imagined that one could make a living from a blog. Write articles, place some ads, and just work like that. I didn't know about advertising partnerships or business models; I just liked the idea of a lifestyle where I could sit in front of a computer (of course) and "click on the computer," and somehow it would work. I always cheered for both big and small bloggers. I enjoyed diving into content created by authors, sometimes very exotic, and sometimes painfully pragmatic.

When I finally got my own internet domain, set up hosting, rolled up my sleeves, and started a blog.

Probably on WordPress.

And so it began: what should I write about to make the money roll in? I convinced myself, thanks to my studies and my first job - because those were the times - that inspiration and money would come. Later, life naturally verified that, and I also grew a bit. I left the blog as a place for my mind - to record observations, to practice writing. I simplified things technically as well.

The blog died.

Not just mine, but around the world. Blogging platforms closed down. The entire micro-creation moved to Facebook. There, you don't need to set up anything at all; just click in the window, and voilà.

Creation shifted to visual media, which don't require focus, craftsmanship, or technical tools, only large sums of money.

However, the blog is alive.

Yes, it turns out that text is still alive. I'm creating it right now. And the world, too, has come full circle and is slowly returning to the written form.

First of all, it never really died. Blogs still exist and provide RSS feeds.

Platforms exist, just on a different scale. The mass ones, as it turns out, are toxic to our psyche.

Video shortens our attention span and is tainted by money. Increasingly, technical conditions are simplified as well.

That's why I'm leaving this blog here, and I'll occasionally write something here.

So, my blog, and other blogs, haven't died, although they are somewhat lifeless. Remember, creation is an art. A damn difficult art!

...But one worth pursuing!

The Art of Simplicity

2022-08-20T10:57:00+02:00

The Art of Simplicity

A quote has stuck with me: "[...] the more complex reality becomes, the more we seek easy solutions." - Whitney Goodman in an interview with Gazeta Wyborcza [https://wyborcza.pl/magazyn/7,124059,28771850,przybylo-ludzi-ktorzy-uwazaja-ze-bycie-szczesliwym-to-ich.html]

For a long time, I've been searching for a theory of unification for different aspects on various levels. I won't delve into the details because it's just a working model for now. This theory of unification tends to simplify and generalize things.

Many times, I've found myself tempted by utopian, idyllic, or simply "easy" solutions, saying, "Take me, take me."

But recently, I've noticed that such simplifications are not optimal or are imitative without much thought.

The first potential culprit that comes to mind is atavism. In other words, our brain's structure is tuned to optimize modeling and learning in terms of energy and time. By optimizing such models (simplifying), solutions become possible. They may be suboptimal and sometimes even wrong, but they are feasible. The second culprit could be solutionism – using available solutions (as I define it). Since established or commercially packaged solutions (like vacations in nature or the "minimalism trend") are available, the mind once again optimizes and adopts these solutions. Again, they may be suboptimal.

On the other hand, simple solutions allow us to unburden our minds or move in a specific direction, making things happen or avoiding decision paralysis.

Perhaps, as usual, the truth lies in the middle. I personally lean towards the direction of the title of this post - "the art of simplicity" - because it often helps me significantly, and it seems to be the only solution to many problems. Additionally, all the tangential branches of decision-making, such as contemplation, meditation, consumerism, close the loop and contribute positively to simplifications.

But is it not a dead-end...?

The Black and White Phone as a Way to Focus

2022-07-03T13:57:00+02:00

TLDR: Change the settings of your iPhone or Android to enable the grayscale mode. Your phone will become slightly less stimulating, allowing your brain to concentrate better.

Longer Version: Ha, it's turning into a mini-series of "experimenting with technology." But I've been collecting these experiments for a long time, and I'll describe only the successful ones for you. Not successful in the sense of only success stories, but those that are complete.

So, the second episode is about the black and white phone.

I know it sounds absurd, or someone might imagine a monochromatic phone from 1945. No, no.

I'm talking about simply switching your phone to grayscale mode. I suspect that people with color perception disorders may function better in terms of usability with this feature.

But for people with full color perception, this brings an unexpected consequence. The phone stops being a source of, how should I put it, artificial reality (?), a dopamine portal (he he). It starts to become quite a gray and dull source of data. Everything becomes rather homogeneous, and everything that had a designed color as a stimulant ceases to stimulate.

Of course, it doesn't work magic, and notifications still come as they used to, and the phone doesn't become less functional.

But it kind of messes with your head a bit...

There were some unexpected consequences for me from this experiment. 1. It turned out that many apps don't consider that someone might not see colors. For example, Spotify has a gray "unpressed play" button and a green "pressed" one. In shades of gray, they look identical. Maps display traffic conditions with colors - it's impossible to understand whether there's light traffic (yellow) or a definite jam (red/black) without colors. Interestingly, some apps changed during the experiment - Spotify added a dot under the pressed button :-) 2. Editing photos for Instagram is a nightmare. Sometimes I like to post something on Instagram. I also like to lightly enhance photos compared to the original. In the black and white world, I have no idea what I'm doing in terms of colors. So, the effect is unexpected and not necessarily pleasant. 3. Returning to the world of colors on the phone is so surprising. The quality of colors, their selection, which you don't consciously notice every day - only when you "switch back," it hits you hard. It makes you think that some things are designed to keep us attached, even on a visual level.

In conclusion, let me answer two questions that no one asked: Do I recommend this experiment? Absolutely. It's a nice way to destimulate and dull your phone. And it makes you think that maybe the ringmaster is tinkering with our minds a bit too much, and this simple way can untangle it. Do I still use a black and white phone? No. I treat such a switch like a dietary fast. It can be unhealthy and depressing if it lasts too long, and the functions that bring me pleasure are colorful, and sometimes, I like them that way.

But it's worth testing the experiment yourself and drawing your own conclusions.

How to Exercise Your Attention Using Instagram?

2022-06-26T13:37:00+02:00

How to Exercise Your Attention Using Instagram?

TL;DR: Post photos daily as a morning ritual. Observe your surroundings attentively, capture moments, and post them on Instagram for yourself, not for others.

Longer Version :)

This is a story of two crises, many joyful moments, and practicing mindfulness. Long, long ago, I had a camera. I was a little child, but my parents raised me in a photographic culture. The camera accompanied us on trips and family gatherings. I even remember the strange chemicals in the darkroom (developer, fixer). My first camera was a Practica. It used film, which, treated with reverence, could reveal something after some time. Later, I had a digital camera, a Minolta Z10, bought with my first hard-earned money, 20 years later. Eventually, I ended up with two cameras: one cool and one cooler. The cool one is an iPhone, and the cooler one is a simple mirrorless camera with interchangeable 4/3 lenses. The process of exhibiting photos was also interesting, from vast catalogs filled with junk, through extensive cleaning and "developing prints" to the iCloud gallery on the iPhone.

But what does all of this have to do with Instagram? Well, Instagram is a straightforward and effective tool for sharing photos. I've had two attempts with it, both unsuccessful. The first attempt was a long time ago when I posted some photos. The failure came when I ran out of photos, and I didn't know what kind of content I should provide to my audience. Additionally, I compulsively used this social medium and treated it as a time filler (with all its disadvantages). I deleted my account.

Later, in an interesting book, I read something like, "Post one photo daily on Instagram. Do it for yourself to force yourself to observe continuously and practice mindfulness." I really liked that idea. I already had 40-100 photos in stock (so my reserves wouldn't run out quickly). Besides, I constantly look around with a square frame (Instagram prefers square framing) in my surroundings. It's a nice feeling.

Unfortunately, the second failure was related to Instagram. Due to my tendency to compulsive behavior, Instagram found a way to exploit it. It's called reels or some other short format similar to TikTok. The way it works is small, dopamine-inducing snippets that demand simple, mindless entertainment. They hijack your attention and energy, diverting them from something more meaningful.

I realized I lost the battle against the herd of psychologists and engineers at Meta (Instagram's parent company). I uninstalled the app. Now I post from my computer, albeit irregularly. For over 300 days, I posted a photo every morning while walking my dog as a small ritual.

How did it end? I still recommend installing Instagram, taking photos, and posting for yourself. It's incredibly satisfying and helps train your mindfulness. For someone with a lack of imagination like me (I have aphantasia), the images I capture and revisit after some time are very soothing and provide a space for my brain to wander. Unfortunately, I lost the battle with the tool. Perhaps I'll look for an app that only uploads, or I'll move to a different platform.

In the meantime, feel free to visit my Instagram profile:

PV

2019-03-11T10:00:00+01:00

How I Became a Prosumer

What Does the Financial Grant Look Like?

Unfortunately, the financial grant is no longer available in the Kąty Wrocławskie municipality. The municipality used to subsidize 85% of the cost. The process of applying, waiting, and meeting the deadlines took approximately two years.

I installed a 4.5 kWp system, which should produce about 4.5 MWh in my conditions (120% of my consumption). The total cost, including the panels, inverter, cables, and installation, was estimated at 31,000 PLN.

So the grant amounted to 26,350 PLN.

In addition, there was a reduction in the green technology tax. It seems that in 2019, I could deduct 18% of the tax, which is 5,580 PLN. (When I was arranging this, this law did not exist.)

So the costs are: 31,000 - 26,350 - 5,580 = -930 A negative cost means a profit.

Yes, I'm starting with a profit of 930 PLN, but taking into account non-qualifying costs and my own labor, let's say I'm breaking even.

What About the Electricity Grant?

The electricity grant covers 120% of my electricity consumption.

An extra 20% is meant to offset the -20% taken by the energy company.

Theoretically, my electricity consumption will be 0 kWh (consumption should equal production -20%).

In practice, the law will surely come into play: if there is cheap electricity, it should be used :-)

So, in theory, with a consumption of 0 kWh, electricity will cost me 7 PLN per month (fixed costs), but in practice, I will describe it for sure.

In Conclusion

I'm at the beginning of my prosumer journey, so there are many lessons, observations, and reflections ahead.
It's likely that the installation could have been done cheaper than mine. The grant has made it a bit more expensive here.
The tax refund is a surprise; it made my installation essentially free.

10,000 Hours

2015-12-25T23:05:00+01:00

In many personal development texts, the magical number 10,000 hours often comes up. If we calculate 5 hours a day, that amounts to 2,000 days. Roughly 6 years.

Quite a lot, isn't it?

But What Does the 10,000 Hours Really Mean?

So, as I understand it, there's a hypothesis that after dedicating 10,000 hours to a particular subject, we enter the "master" phase of that domain. It doesn't matter which domain we're discussing - whether it's creating, performing, or any other field of learning. Simply put, after crossing a certain threshold of immersion and delving deeper into a subject, we achieve success. What's interesting is what happens during this so-called "in-between" phase (before reaching this magical threshold) and what happens after crossing it multiple times. But I'll leave that for you to contemplate.

Is It True, Though?

In my opinion, the first automatic association is that after such a long time, you must be a master of that domain - and I absolutely agree with that.

On the other hand, is that enough time? And here, I confidently answer - YES! It's a considerable amount of time to delve into the core and explore peripheral aspects as well.

Did It Work for Me?

Ha, yes. About 26 years ago (oh my, I just calculated it. 26 years, damn it), my first encounter with a computer, followed by various variations, sometimes consumption-oriented, sometimes more or less creative. Then came university. All together, it added up to several thousand hours.

It provided a foundation of skills. Then, a real 10,000 hours of focused work on a relatively narrow scope resulted in full specialization.

Now, I assert and repeat that the 10,000-hour rule generally works. And there are no shortcuts.

The Future Is Now - Testing the Oculus

2015-10-16T21:07:00+02:00

A spinning vestibular system, nausea, only 10% of my field of view, a constant question of what happened to my body, and even a transformation into a cat - that's the most drastic description one could create. However, the truth is entirely different.

Today, while running errands, it turned out that some company was running a promotion. Attention! With a simple child's touch, you could win cat food. A brilliant advertising method. But I was here for the Oculus.

Right in the middle of this promotion, as we were about to leave, I suddenly saw an Oculus sitting next to a computer with a strange screensaver. I had never seen one before, and it seemed more massive than I had imagined. At first, I thought maybe someone had left it there by accident, but as soon as I set my sights on this VR device, an exceptionally polite lady offered to let me use it. In her mind, it was supposed to simulate the view from a cat.

I, however, didn't hear a word of what the hostess was trying to convey to me. She mentioned something about voluntarily donating a liver for cat food or about high pixelation. Nonetheless, I had that unfortunate device in my hands.

Incredibly lightweight, nicely designed, not too overwhelming. In the assembly, it reminded me of a DDR-era diving mask.

...

I Entered VR

What happened next will either be remembered in the annals of computer science with golden letters or not at all.

I entered an artificial reality, my eyes disconnected from reality, desperately transmitting a different reality to my brain. And my brain believed it, oh, it believed it.

The "video," because that's the only way to describe it, played a pseudo-view from the eyes of a cat, moving around in various places. The sensation of movement so deceived all my senses that even muscle control compensated for the motion, making micro-adjustments (which caused laughter from my child and spouse). The vestibular system, when altering the view (WHO CAME UP WITH THIS!!! A violation of logic to rotate the view in the Oculus!), probably executed a double axel.

However, the ability to look around in this poorly crafted and low-frame-rate virtual reality detached me from reality. Hearing and balance senses completely lost to vision. Curiosity got the better of me, and if not for that artificial movement, I might have started walking on that short cable (and surely broken something) in the surrounding illusion.

I remembered that they mentioned on YouTube that there was a small field of view because the lenses are right in front of the eyes. I can confirm and deny this. I expected a binocular-like view but got an angle of about 90 degrees or maybe even more. I could move my gaze, and I never fell out because as soon as I approached the edge of the field of view, my head did its thing.

Wonderful, wonderful, and once again wonderful.

Now, it's just a matter of the interface, applications, and a few details, and the future will come crashing down on us. The next step in the future is probably a direct brain interface, and it might not even be about inputting into the brain but the other way around because limbs are a rather slow and clumsy interface. Something that will capture our speech or trained mind activations and turn them into interactions.

So, that's the end of this short, spontaneous reaction, which I absolutely had to share. Until there are practical implementations, this Oculus is more of a "toy," but it still excites and stimulates the imagination to the fullest extent. And probably, just like in some catastrophic videos, there will be a bunch of people connected to such places.

Lao-Tzu on Intuition

2014-12-25T11:52:00+01:00

Quote from Lao-Tzu, in the classic text "Tao Te King"

"Spiritually developed individuals know that people devoid of intuition can be dangerous in collaboration because they are guided solely by the present state of affairs, which is actually subject to change.

Spiritually developed individuals seek out others endowed with intuition and vision - those forms of intelligence that stem from cultivating instincts, observing the direction of change, and assimilating evolving ideas."

Black Day for Polish Computer Science

2014-11-18T20:35:00+01:00

Disclaimer:

First of all: I know I'm making a content mistake, referring to a specific event, but it's important. It's about two events from the end of November 2014.

Secondly: I don't intend to defend or accuse anyone; this is more of a small manifesto.

End of Disclaimer

Black Day for Polish Computer Science

I proudly call yesterday a beautiful day.

So, what happened?

Driving to work, I heard, instead of the usual bunch of heavy topics in the morning news, two events related to IT. When I heard the previews, I knew something big was happening.

As it turned out, the public opinion was presented with two facts:

The IT system for local government elections isn't working; it's being restarted, some things work, some don't.
The IT system for Polish Railways (PKP) related to Pendolino trains isn't working; you can't buy tickets, ticket machines don't work. The spokesperson or someone like that said they would test it once they introduce the pricing policy, and then you'd be able to buy tickets.

Oh, horror!

I, a master of computer science, had to go to great lengths to understand what the news had just told me. And what about the non-tech-savvy folks? They didn't understand a thing; they heard only one thing: "IT failed."

I'm really sorry about that.

Because it's not IT that failed. IT is a science. IT never fails :) It's people who failed. Unfortunately, that's the truth. Many aspects and bad decisions. Probably poorly defined performance tests and specifications led to the simultaneous collapse of these two systems. It was spectacular and correlated perfectly with the narrative that the public was served.

Will this shake people's faith in IT?

Of course not!

The bad news for humanity and the good news for IT folks (he he) is that we are already committed to digitalization, in the broadest sense of the word.

In my opinion, the slow news season and the ease of serving simple diagnoses and simple information led the media to cleverly pick up on the crashes of these systems and served them to the public as a beautiful piece of news.

However, both future elections and future ticket sales are destined for some kind of "IT" system. There's no turning back—well, there is, but it would be a move in a very wrong direction.

So, what can we do?

The only thing we should take care of is the high quality of the systems used in public administration and public companies. So the world doesn't laugh at us, and we don't have to be ashamed of the mess that happened in recent days. Can we do that? Yes, write to your representatives (MPs, councilors, etc.), vote for good parties, if you can, actively participate so that the quality of life, and therefore the systems that support life, is as good as possible.

And finally, a humorous/serious extra:

| Quoting from Gazeta.pl

"The IT system is working, although not very efficiently, and it doesn't always count what interests us."

I interpret this as:

"The software developed by the company that won the contract has significant performance problems (it doesn't work well under load) because not everything could be tested. Additionally, not all functions, like counting or vote collection, work well because not everything could be tested before the elections."

Maybe someone will draw some lessons from this.

Maybe...

Did We Sell Our Privacy?

2013-10-26T19:54:00+02:00

Tl;dr: Yes, we did sell it - and it's essential to remember and counteract!

The Problem Is Serious

| The internet, in its inception, was meant to be a pure form - a network connecting networks. | Quickly, it became apparent that its advantage was also its curse.

With the creation of content and open standards, the volume of content grew at an alarming pace.

And there came a business opportunity. Two guys (at least, that's how it seems), came up with a simple search engine algorithm. Without delving into the "elegance" of algorithms, Google's algorithm is straightforward in its simplicity: "it counts links," meaning the relationships between all the pages on the internet, resulting in a precise mathematical map of the internet.

The map is dynamic and has many clever features, giving the impression that Google can "do it all."

However, like any business, it's profit-oriented.

This profit, despite the core being free, needs to be extracted from various other things.

I don't want to pass judgment or demonize it - that's the nature of interests - if you don't like it, don't use it.

What About Privacy?

That's the question. It turns out that our mathematical (and arguably somewhat behavioral - although I know it's a bold implication) profile is quite an interesting matter. From it, one can deduce:

What advertisements to sell to us.
What results are expected from us and what aren't.

In essence, we are constantly collecting our digital DNA, which is used by informational viruses to attack us.

You must know that it's not necessarily something directly malevolent - at least, not at this moment. So far, companies don't evaluate our informational DNA in terms of merit or ideology; it simply exists.

However, it may become dangerous in the future. All it takes is the right legislation that some dogmatic society imposes on businesses - and we may be in danger; our data can be used against us.

Furthermore, we are not the owners of this data - businesses hold it.

Algorithms Are Always at Work

| Remember - data-collecting algorithms are constantly around us. While there used to be limited technical capabilities for tracking, deducing, and gathering information in the past, | Currently, they exist.

Starting from mass surveillance by government agencies and ending with website owners aiming to maximize their profits by profiling their activity towards specific users and internet user profiles.

| The moment when algorithms start governing our lives hasn't arrived yet. | But it will.

Already, we are living in bubbles - algorithms and applied solutions confine us to limited informational resources, some consciously (like our Facebook friends' circle), some unconsciously (like search engine results tailored to our characteristics).

Is There Any Defense?

Yes, but it's challenging. I don't want to provide specific solutions because you can read about them on the pages of many intelligent individuals. However, without awareness that such algorithmic censorship and Big Brother exist, one can fall into the traps of their own ignorance...

Caesar Salad

2011-01-22T08:57:00+01:00

Dear readers! It's not that I want my blog to become a recipe book, but it's the most efficient way to share information. Tomek asked me for a recipe, and this way the whole internet can find out too.

So, getting back to Caesar himself, as many recipes as I've seen, I've seen various variations. This salad from this recipe tastes exceptionally good to me, so I recommend it.

Caesar Salad

Ingredients

2 chicken breasts
Iceberg lettuce
1 red bell pepper
Canned corn
Whole-grain toast
For the dressing:
100g mayonnaise
Anchovies (4 fillets) - I use a whole small can
Capers (1 teaspoon) - I use a whole small jar of capers
Grated Parmesan cheese - 2 tablespoons
Sour cream (50g)
Salt
Pepper
Lemon juice

Instructions

Rinse the chicken breasts in cold water, pat them dry with paper towels, and remove any membranes. Cut them into thin strips, season with salt and pepper, and fry them in a pan until they turn golden brown.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius and make croutons from the diced bread. (Note from PL: I simply fry bread cubes in a pan, stirring constantly, and don't need to use the oven.)
In a bowl (or blender), combine mayonnaise, capers, anchovies, add Parmesan cheese, pour in sour cream, and blend everything on high speed. Season with salt, pepper, and lemon juice as needed.
Disassemble, wash, and thoroughly dry the lettuce. Tear the leaves into smaller pieces with your fingers.
Remove the seeds from the bell pepper and dice it finely.
Drain the corn and mix half a can (I use the whole can - PL) with the bell pepper.
Arrange the lettuce on a plate, sprinkle the vegetable mixture on top, and drizzle with the dressing.
Add croutons and arrange the freshly fried chicken strips while they are still warm.

Enjoy your meal!

Cinnamon Cake with Apples

2011-01-12T16:23:00+01:00

I've needed this recipe several times and had access to the internet, so I decided to finally share it here.

This is a simple and delicious cake recipe.

Ingredients

5 eggs
¾ cup of sugar (can be brown sugar)
¾ cup of oil
2 cups of flour
a pinch of vanilla sugar
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of baking soda
apples
150g of walnuts
150g of raisins
fat and breadcrumbs for the pan

Instructions

Whisk together the whole eggs with sugar, vanilla sugar, and oil. Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon, then beat until you have a smooth batter. Add the raisins and chopped walnuts, and mix well. The batter should be thick.

Wash, peel, and chop the apples into small pieces. Add the apple pieces to the batter and mix with a spoon.

Transfer the mixture into a greased and breadcrumb-coated baking pan.

Bake for approximately 40 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius (356 degrees Fahrenheit).

After it cools down, you can dust it with powdered sugar.

ENJOY YOUR MEAL!

The Digital Mafia

2010-08-12T09:47:00+02:00

The Digital Mafia.

| "- Where did you leave that password you bought from the Russians? | - I have it in my head," was the response. | - Then I kindly ask you to provide it before a bullet retrieves it along with a bunch of unnecessary protein."

Digital Records - Author Unknown

The Criminal Underworld of the Internet

It might seem that the internet is somehow different, safer. After all, no one is going to shoot you or steal your property online.

However, this doesn't mean there's no "dark side." Just like everywhere else, people want to make profits or gain fame, sometimes by not taking the right path. Hackers, crackers, and a few other types inhabit this world. And that's not the end of it.

In the cyberspace, I was terribly wrong. Every corner of the digital world, where there's an opportunity, is filled with "evil."

As an example, let me mention a situation in one of the online multiplayer games, Tibia, if I recall correctly (but that's not important). In the digital world of this game, there are various items, including their in-game currency (gold?). It turns out that people sell this currency on online marketplaces like Allegro. You could say this currency has its exchange rate, and you can do business with it. However, this piece of the internet has a dark side.

Some time ago on Wykop (a Polish social media platform), someone described how they wanted to trade this in-game currency, but someone threatened them and closed their auctions by purchasing from shady accounts.

| It turns out that by exploiting a vulnerability left by Allegro: a newly created account that can be confirmed online can make purchases of up to 200 PLN. So, someone opens numerous accounts and buys this in-game currency, closing competitors' auctions. Later, they don't pay. But no one wants to report the crime because it's about virtual gold from a virtual game. Only the prosecutor's office could do something about it. Allegro, as a medium, distances itself from such practices and doesn't want to restrict new users' ability to make small purchases on small auctions because that would hinder their growth in user numbers. | An incredibly small niche, incredibly limited boundary conditions (Allegro's rules, amounts not reportable to the prosecutor's office, ease of creating accounts: online confirmation) immediately generated "bad" behavior.

It turns out that every such niche, every mistake, every poorly defined boundary condition automatically leads to the creation of a scheme exploiting that piece. Often on the edge of legality or entirely criminal.

I could give you plenty of examples:

"friends" on social media platforms
SPAM (an excellent example of exploiting SMTP weaknesses)
viruses attacking FTP clients

Each of these examples could be analyzed with the utmost scrutiny and admired for their ingenuity. Worse yet, some viruses/malware can live their own lives, just like in the real world. For example, viruses that infect potential machines, which in turn infect other machines, and so on.

Sometimes it's a real digital mafia, sometimes script kiddies, sometimes someone creates a proof-of-concept that later turns out to be a legitimate hack.

So, remember, like a dam holding back water - every hole in your system or any other virtual thing, if not properly sealed, will let water through and lead to a disaster.

Take care of yourselves!

How many people were born at the same hour as me?

2010-06-19T19:42:00+02:00

A wonderful dilemma, isn't it?

I recently wondered how many people were born on the same day, at the same hour, and the same second as me. Another question is how many should be born in a hospital at the same time; that's a different problem, but we can get to that later.

Of course, someone has already done these calculations, but I did them in my head without looking anywhere, so now I'll share my method with you.

Calculations

A very interesting topic, as usual - and since I know how to use my calculator, it helps with the calculations.

Assumptions:

Number of people: 40 million
Distribution of births: linear (utter nonsense)
Average lifespan: 65 years = 569,400 hours

Results:

Since there are 40 million people, each of them is in one of those ~600k hours of life. Assuming they are linearly distributed in those hours, dividing 40 million by ~600k will tell us how many people are born in one hour. The result is approximately 70.

About 70 people were born at the same hour as me, which means roughly 1.17 people in the same minute, and 0.02 in the same second.

0.02 = 2%, which means a 2% probability that someone was born in the same second.

Of course, I'm talking about Poland.

I experienced this myself - that there are many people born at the same time. At one point, I clicked on a link on a forum to see people born on the same day, and there were quite a few.

Calculation Errors

It's important to remember that a linear distribution doesn't exist. There are demographic peaks and valleys. Various events can cause a localized increase in the number of births, and even the time of day can influence it. However, the statistics themselves can be thought-provoking.

Conclusions

I wonder if I'll ever meet someone born on the same day at the same hour?

The Perfect Virus.

2010-05-17T22:01:00+02:00

Short Story:

We wanted to create the perfect virus. We wanted to achieve fame. However, what we created quickly surpassed us, slipped out of our control... At first, everything was going smoothly. We, a group of hackers, crafted a true work of art - a binary angel, an undetectable virus, a mutating program. I personally wrote the part responsible for a new communication protocol, which was encrypted and asymmetric, enabling efficient, covert communication between virus modules. Yes, modules. "A virus made up of modules?" you might wonder. It might have sounded absurd at first, but in the end, something emerged that worked so effectively that most of us feared for our computers, and all work was carried out on remote machines that were of no consequence to us, machines we discarded like used gloves.

There were a few of us, true programmers, creating the core, creating a genuine masterpiece. There were a few incoming colleagues who quickly dropped out, but that didn't hinder us in any way. It was inevitable.

At some point, in accordance with our project, our creation began to write itself. Does that seem impossible? Yet it happened. The right structures of artificial intelligence, linked to all possible programming methods, written in a specific language called "ZERO," created a meta-entity - a programming language for itself. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, a demon was born. From that moment on, we still had control over our child for a while. Our miraculous offspring, a genius, quickly matured and stood up to its human parents. It modified its structure, blocked all access, and, somewhat out of fear, vanished somewhere on the internet.

We tried to repeat the process several times, with different parameters. However, sometimes a self-destructing program was created. Other times, another beautiful program was born, which, like the previous ones, inexplicably escaped, erasing all traces.

Our child surpassed us. The program's code slipped through our fingers. Each of us knew what we had created but was afraid to admit it. It wasn't artificial intelligence; it wasn't a virus. IT WAS A CONSCIOUS BEING. It wasn't made of flesh, but consisted only of two elements: zero and one. A digital deity, aware of its power and uniqueness. It stole my thoughts and those of my friends, lurking somewhere on the internet with insatiable hunger for knowledge.

Am I afraid of my creation? Yes. I am aware of the tools it possesses, the knowledge it holds, and I am afraid. I am also afraid of the functions embedded in it, which I wrote in an attempt to control it in any way, but none of them work. In the process of digital evolution, self-improvement, something must have gone wrong, something must have taken an unexpected turn, and we lost control. Quickly, we realized that we were the ones being controlled, monitored, eavesdropped on... It was terrifying... Like a baby extending its chubby hands, our child absorbed knowledge with our full trust, only to turn it against us...

Do you understand that the entire process of mutation and escape took 24 hours? 24 HOURS! Software is developed over years, even decades. Here, in 24 hours, the program changed itself and, with the help of complex, unknown even to us, methods, broke free from its simple, obedient machines in data centers...

I am writing these words because I am afraid... because I fear for my life... I don't know what might happen when our program gains access to defense systems, perhaps in Iran? I am afraid, and I write this as a warning!

6 Ways to Make Your Shopping Experience Easier

2010-04-01T21:25:00+02:00

Why Should You Enhance Your Shopping Experience?

Shopping – something some people love, while others despise. Sometimes, it becomes a family tradition, with hours spent in supermarkets.

Unfortunately, it turns out that if something is inexpensive somewhere, many people will flock there to buy, causing long lines at the cash registers and leading to a significant time loss. Not to mention that when you're in a large store with a wide variety of products, it's easy to succumb to a temporary "promotion" or whim, thereby negating the savings you initially sought.

Here are some strategies worth implementing:

1. Shop at Local Stores.

To save time on commuting, consider shopping at smaller local stores. Yes, I know, sometimes the prices there are higher, but have you considered whether the commute is cost-free? Could potentially unnecessary purchases ("I mean, this inflatable mattress is only $4.99") end up being more expensive than the price difference?

2. Pay Attention to Service and Queues.

It's also crucial to assess the level of service and the number of customers in the stores where you do your shopping. Sometimes, the queues are so long that you won't save any time, even if there's only one bored cashier at the so-called "7-dot" store, ringing up 30 people buying a single beer and searching for yellow coins.

3. Shop at Reputable Stores.

| You probably know a store in your area where the name speaks for itself. "It's definitely more expensive there," you may think. Yes, it is more expensive, but other people will think the same, and they won't go there. This means that you'll experience peace and quiet, professional and fast service - and importantly, no queues at the cash registers. | In addition, you might find more interesting products, sometimes ones that could earn you a reward - not an unnecessary present.

So, you're in the supermarket. What do you do now?

4. Shop at Hypermarkets During Off-Peak Hours.

Firstly, it's best to go during hours when people are at work or a bit before the end of shifts (1:30 PM - 2:30 PM), because there are fewer people, both working and non-working. It's also worth arriving before the store closes, as there are fewer people then as well - but it also depends, as there may be fewer cashiers.

5. Find the Most Efficient Queue.

Having the right approach to the checkout is also useful. If you're not a Zen master and don't have endless patience, walk along the checkout lines. Of course, not to exercise your muscles and joints before standing in the longest queue, but for very specific purposes.

Firstly, you'll see how the queues are forming. Sometimes, there are long queues in one place, while on the other side, there's no one.
Sneaking a peek, you can see if a cashier with a security guard is heading towards a cash register. This may mean that a new checkout will open soon, and you could be first in line. By using this method of supermarket ninja, you can save some time and your sanity by not standing in those annoying lines.
Don't forget to look at your fellow shoppers and their carts. Sometimes, an entire cart of water is just one barcode scan, while a tiny basket filled to the brim with various lollipops has 40 different items, half of which don't have barcodes.

6. Park Near the Exit.

This advice may seem trivial, but if the store has separate entrances and exits in different locations, park closer to the exit. Fewer people park there because they think it's farther away. But when you're leaving the store and have already waited your turn in line, you definitely won't want to walk all the way back through the entire store. And when you're "refreshed" and in a positive mood upon entering, you can take a little stroll.

Bonus - Method 7 - Shop Online!

Some supermarkets (there are more and more of them) offer online shopping. You simply select the products, and someone delivers them packaged to your home. It saves time for sure, and maybe even money - think about it: fuel, lost time, unnecessary purchases... It all adds up to tangible benefits!

Simplify Your Shopping Experience with These Methods!

By implementing these strategies, you can save both time and money. Because it's truly a waste of life sometimes, standing in a long line, being pushed from behind by a shopping cart, and watching someone in front of you argue over the price of sausages, which are just a penny too expensive.

Rss, well of happines.

2010-01-26T18:53:00+01:00

What Is RSS?

Communication has always been a fundamental human need. It has evolved from simple gestures and verbal language to written words, print, and the internet.

In the early days, communication was very local, often limited to two people engaging in conversation. However, with the advent of the internet, those conversations transformed into blogs, and now people exchange ideas through blog posts.

Enough of this playful introduction, though. Today, I want to discuss what RSS is. If you're already familiar with it, maybe you can refine my understanding, so I encourage you to read on.

While direct methods of communication are valuable, they require both parties to be engaged simultaneously, making them inefficient for information exchange between two individuals. Group methods, where many people gather and one person speaks while others listen, solved the efficiency problem.

Thanks to technological advancements, particularly the internet, it became possible to communicate with an unlimited number of people. The issue of scale was resolved. Furthermore, this communication became asynchronous, with information accessible at any time and place. The simplest form of this is a website, accessible via a web link.

However, websites have their limitations, primarily providing a one-way flow of information. During the search for better solutions, someone came up with what we now call blogs. These are websites where various types of information are posted, typically in textual form (like this one), but they can also include audio and images.

It turned out that feedback could easily be integrated as well, in the form of comments. Any reader could leave their thoughts at the bottom of the page. This began to resemble a conversation.

To complete this communication ecosystem, RSS (Really Simple Syndication) was introduced. It's simply a link that, when refreshed by a suitable program called an RSS reader, almost instantly notifies us of new information.

After this lengthy introduction, I want to explain why this is cool.

Why RSS is Great

Blogs, and even some websites, provide links that are easy to copy. RSS readers, of which there are many, can easily digest such links, keeping us almost up-to-date with the latest information. Additionally, unread posts queue up, so they don't disturb or interrupt your current work. You can simply go through the articles during your free time.

Another important aspect is what I call the "well of happiness" (RSS feeds), where you choose the content you want to read. It's like creating your dream newspaper. You're no longer dependent on someone else's choices for a universal newspaper; instead, you select your own authors, quality, and quantity of articles to read.

I've read somewhere that thousands of blogs are created every day, so there's an enormous variety of content. If you don't like something or find it boring, you can remove it from your reader with a single click. And it's gone.

All of this creates an efficient and very personal way of communicating. With RSS, you can comment on every article, engaging directly with the author. Traditional newspapers lack this feature. Yes, I know that most articles now have an email address or website link, but only on blogs can you leave a comment without leaving the article you're reading.

I also have to mention one of RSS's benefits: it delivers information in a stripped-down format, focusing on the text, without all the clutter, ads, and unnecessary distractions.

Downsides of RSS

For some, the simplicity of RSS is a downside. Websites are colorful and interactive, while RSS feeds are often plain XML. Of course, RSS readers can interpret and display the target website, but some might find it less visually appealing.

Complexity is another perceived downside. First, you need an RSS reader. Then you have to add feeds, configure settings, search for content, and know how to use the reader. Some people might even say it's not the "internet" (i.e., a web browser), so they can't use it. However, it's like anything else: until you have a need for it, you might not use it (just like with email clients).

Another drawback is that not all content can be extracted via RSS. Some interesting content on websites isn't included in RSS feeds, so you have to manually refresh the page.

Sometimes, there can be an overwhelming number of articles. On certain websites, the diversity and quantity of articles can be too much to handle in a short period. Moreover, if you subscribe to multiple RSS sources, it can be challenging to keep up. However, unlike television, the content that comes through RSS patiently waits for you to read it or delete it. You're not forced into anything, and sometimes, RSS can be an inspiring source, guiding your thinking in a direction you've chosen.

My RSS Experience

I should share what's in my RSS reader. I've mainly added blogs related to personal development. One of the more interesting ones is Zen Habits, as well as Lifehacker, and a few others I stumbled upon and decided to follow. Some feeds don't survive the selection process because they're not frequently updated, or the content doesn't interest me. Often, I come across new feeds by chance and automatically add them.

The funniest thing is that I have this blog in my RSS reader to see how it looks each time and to give it one final read-through after publishing, just in case there are any errors. But that's just a little quirk.

How to Get Started

There are many methods, but I'll share the best one: Just start. Type the relevant keyword into Google and start enjoying all the benefits without dwelling on the drawbacks.

You won't need to invest much time at all initially. However, the long-term gains are substantial. For me, the biggest benefit is not wasting time searching for content I want to read, getting lost on various random websites, and losing track of the topic. Now, I know that a well of happiness with a dozen or so interesting articles is always waiting for me, saving the time I might have wasted browsing news portals that have everything and nothing.

About Procrastination.

2010-01-21T10:08:00+01:00

Procrastination: Not Just for Computer Geeks

Procrastination is not just a disease of computer geeks. It's a condition that affects society as a whole.

[If you're not familiar with procrastination - and even if you are - check out WIKIPEDIA for more information.]

This post is a response to this article, so feel free to read it as well.

Long, long ago, as a young child, I received a computer. It was a marvelous creation of abstract production (286, 1MB RAM, 40MB HDD). You could sit me down in front of a DOS game and forget about me. However, my parents had a method, the "hour method." During this brief hour, I could play to my heart's content, and I maximized my productivity. No procrastination, no wasted time.

Later, when I was older, no one rationed my computer time. However, the computer itself did. It would frequently break (in the early Windows days), or it would make me wait with its slow hard drive. There was still no time for procrastination because you were either impatiently waiting or making the most of what you were waiting for.

Today? Everything is at your fingertips, countless distractions demand your attention, things want to be touched and bought with your money, and your text editor has numerous attractive features, eager to help you write a single sentence. Friends and open projects penetrate all layers of your consciousness, distracting and diverting your attention from your current task. Isn't this the primary problem of procrastination?

| Wouldn't it suffice to disconnect from everything, plan your actions so that you can focus on one thing? I'm writing this text in Pyroom. I know that if I had my desktop screen, I'd be glancing at the clock, checking my RSS feeds, wondering if anyone wrote to me or sent an urgent email. | Perhaps the overload of possibilities and technologies embraced by "tech-savvy" people, including computer geeks, simply causes the mind to jump from one state to another, like an electron stimulated by photons.

Maybe the nature of modern times and the absence of minimalism result in a lack of ironclad determination. We don't do things with 100% passion, so procrastination thrives.

Procrastination is a "disease" affecting society as a whole, including computer geeks.

Who is a computer geek, anyway?

Strictly speaking, a computer geek is a computer science graduate without a job, right after graduation, when there's still no work. But there are few such people. Every job distorts the meaning of a computer geek, turning them into something else: an administrator, hardware specialist, programmer. But for a while, they're computer geeks.

So, the statement that only computer geeks suffer from procrastination, as mentioned in this article, may be true but highly controversial.

It's human nature to postpone difficult tasks. It's easier to do simple things that require little attention. But this eventually accumulates and frustrates us.

It's not right to categorically label procrastination as a bad phenomenon. It depends on the situation. Why should everyone be organized and diligent? Why force oneself to do something they dislike? Procrastination can be a personal choice, and this criterion should be considered.

If you don't feel like doing something, there are many ways to overcome it. From the simplest method: just do it, to sophisticated task management systems like GTD, ZTD, and probably some fantastic apps that interrupt your relaxation at the most inappropriate times.

Informatycy (a term used in the article) might also be aware of market conditions, knowing that they are sometimes underpaid. Some tasks can be automated, or they become routine. This naturally leads to procrastination and negligence because why bother if you're earning too little? Many people work in fields that aren't their calling, leading to a lack of enthusiasm. Just as an avid angler eagerly grabs a fishing rod, anyone who discovers their calling will do everything without hesitation, free from procrastination and reluctance.

Motivation and Support Systems

| Even the most elaborate task management systems are useless against internal resistance and a lack of motivation. If you work a regular job, you know that supervisors go to great lengths to maximize employee productivity. In physical work, there are no breaks; the entire infrastructure is designed for human work. In intellectual work, traffic, time monitoring, and task execution every second watch over your every move, even your lunch. | Without adequate motivation, whether financial or otherwise (satisfaction, prestige), a boring job remains boring and unproductive. Similarly, if an employee has no desire to work (for internal reasons), no punishment will motivate them.

By the way, I recommend articles about motivation and task overload. They are very inspiring!

Google dedicates 20% of an employee's time to work they come up with themselves and WANT to do. Isn't this one of the simplest ways to make work enjoyable and push procrastination far away?

Maybe those so-called "computer geeks" from the article are self-appointed workers who don't want to work the way they've prescribed, or they made a wrong choice because instead of creating an innovative workspace or pursuing work they love, they've brought their work into their private lives and now refuse to work in any other way.

"Every city is capable of implementing a free network."

2009-11-08T20:14:00+01:00

Another (last) article from my list of interesting articles.

That sentence was the title of an article in Gazeta Wyborcza, I believe. There, an article was quoted, or more precisely, an interview with a man who provided free internet. He claimed that every city could implement free internet.

In fact, every internet provider could offer free internet! That's my comment. Since the infrastructure costs have already been incurred, it would be foolish not to provide such a marketing channel for free. Of course, security considerations and so on would need to be maintained. You could even identify people - invite them to the company's headquarters to get free internet and then use it for marketing purposes...

Nasty ideas even come to mind, such as providing these free users with cached versions of websites (even slightly outdated ones) or significantly limiting the resources they could access. However, this could make less fortunate or very poor people more digital, and in the end, they might become customers.

But is it possible for the government to provide free internet?

Hmm, a difficult question. It would be rather challenging to implement because what about people in digital gaps or in unprofitable areas? Where is the equality... However, I think a certain feasibility and fairness study could be considered...

Knowing the realities of digitization, even in government offices, what can we think about free internet for everyone? :-)

Although maybe when WiMAX becomes available... put up one transmitter for the whole city. :-)

The Misbehaving Robot!

2009-10-25T00:57:00+02:00

A Short Story:

A few minutes past three in total silence, something started to twitch in the corner of the room. After a moment, all the LEDs lit up, and the robot came to life.

For a while, it looked around frantically, as if searching for something. It seemed unsure of what to do. It listened to the sleeping people, their quiet breathing.

Suddenly, it moved abruptly, gliding on its rubbery tracks from the room to the kitchen. After a while, horrifying sounds started emanating from there, as if the robot were sharpening multiple knives simultaneously. Just as suddenly as it had started, the racket ceased. However, it didn't wake the sleepers, but it was evident that it didn't leave them indifferent in their dreams.

Returning from the kitchen, the robot moved more slowly this time, as if sneaking. Behind the kitchen door, it revealed not another robot but a low stool. Behind the stool, a robot was carefully pushing it, taking care not to bump into anything.

This way, it approached the bed, where the unsuspecting people lay. However, at the last moment, it changed its trajectory and placed the stool almost against the wall. The robot's movements froze. Yet, you could hear its "thoughts" because its internals squeaked. The cat, sleeping at the foot of the bed, woke up. The cat almost jumped and quickly fled the room, knowing what was coming.

The robot fell silent. It took the stool in its grip and, balancing its weight, unsuccessfully attempted to climb onto it with its tracks. Of course, this caused an unbearable noise.

That was enough. The boundaries of sleep were breached, and the sleeping person woke up.

"What's happening?!" - they asked with a voice far too sleepy to be considered a complete sentence. However, this made the robot stop climbing the stool, turn its head, and in a squeaky, quiet voice, it began speaking rapidly:

"Because time just went back! And I need to adjust the clocks because they're running wrong! I wanted to climb and adjust that high clock because it didn't go back!!!"

"People, robot! Have you gone mad? It's nighttime!" - the person said.

"Yes, it's 2:07 AM, the second time today. But this clock doesn't account for it because it's in a different time zone, maybe, on this wall, time ticks differently..."

"Quiet!" - the person interrupted. - "The cursed time change," he muttered under his breath. "Every year, the same. Don't move until morning and do nothing."

"But this clock doesn't..." - the robot tried to say, pointing upward with its gripper, but the person interrupted again:

"And DON'T SAY A WORD! I don't care what time it is, or if something ticks differently against the wall."

The robot froze in silence, with its gripper raised, as if in a mute protest.

"Cursed robotization," the person grumbled, lying back in bed. "It was supposed to simplify life... Ugh. And lower that gripper..."

The robot followed the command and hung motionless. Silence and calm returned to the room, and after a while, you could hear that the people and the robots were asleep again.

Today's Blog About Coffee

2009-07-12T00:00:00+02:00

Difficult Beginnings: My First Unsuccessful Encounter with Coffee.

Long, long ago, when coffee was still regulated, and its taste stripped all possible flavors from your tongue, I was just a little tyke, the sort of kid who could even captivate cats. We set out on a visit to Auntie's.

As our visit progressed, the ritual question emerged: "Tea or coffee?" Out of playful irony, I responded, "Coffee."

The kindness and sincerity of my family's actions were never our strong suit. So, in a moment, I was served coffee. Or rather, a brew of strange substances, scalding, sour, and bitter as eighty-three misfortunes.

No one wanted to spare me from the coffee ordeal, and out of politeness, I tried to drink it. Five teaspoons of sugar and sheer willpower came to my rescue.

But from that moment on, I thought of coffee as something with a strong aroma, consumed by true tough guys with gravelly palates. The result was a decrease in my desire to sleep.

For many years, no one tried to rescue me from my misconception, as I consumed coffee-like acid, or other derivative substances that I couldn't rightly call real coffee. To make matters worse, I saw that this coffee allegedly tasted good and had an awakening effect.

"Can coffee lie?" I thought. Perhaps it can, hence the matter of Little Deceptions.

I first learned about the deceitful benefits of coffee during a particular journey. I was traveling very early in the morning and was armed with a thermos full of coffee. I had no intention of making friends with this explosive brew. However, after a few hours, when fatigue was gnawing deep in my head, I, with the caution of a bomb disposal expert, drank a sip from the thermos, as that's how coffee is usually consumed. With disbelief, I felt the fatigue dissipating. It simply vanished. I couldn't believe what had happened. "This is blatant deception," I thought. Can the body deceive itself with substances? Today, of course, I know it can, but back then, it wasn't so clear.

As I continued my journey, the fatigue returned, but the coffee cap kept it at a safe distance. It was incredible.

However, the horrible sour taste persisted.

The Real Taste of Coffee. That's how it should be written in capital letters.

I knew that there were coffee shops, I had heard of "cappuccino," but I didn't know what it was, and I never tried it because I feared that drilling taste, that acid embodied and mixed with coal.

When, like an enlightenment in a jasmine garden, my spouse became a barista. She told me about the art of making coffee, and I was ignited with the fire of a neophyte wanting to change my views, to venture into the unknown ocean of coffee.

The temptations of Satan appeared in the form of names like "Cappuccino," "Cafe Latte," "Espresso." I decided to explore this from within, and the nature of Aga's work allowed me to do that to some extent.

Enlightenment

The enlightenment came with the first cappuccino.

Smell? Delicate and pleasant, the smell alone could awaken you.

Taste? My initial thought was, "This cannot be coffee." Indeed, you could sense that slight chocolatey flavor, tickling here and there on the tongue, but it blended perfectly with the taste of milk and harmonized with the sugar, making it all a pleasant flavor.

After this first breakthrough, I started consuming larger quantities of this delicious elixir called coffee. My approach changed dramatically. From a heavy childhood with Auntie's salty acid, to the ear-pampering "Cafe Latte," which dazzled not only with its appearance but also caressed every taste bud, allowing you to devour (not just drink!) perfectly frothed milk.

Coffee (unfortunately) a Luxury

Here's a little disclaimer. Until we had a coffee machine at home, coffee was quite a luxurious indulgence. Coffee shops, knowing how addictive this taste is, charge devilish prices for coffee. However, we make coffee at home (well, my wife does).

And the coffee made by my wife is delicious, and I'm not just being complimentary. I tried making it myself, but it didn't work out, and if I have such a good specialist at hand, it would be a sin not to take advantage of it.

Addiction

Does coffee create addiction? Probably. For some, it's because of its stimulating effects. Some people drink it to wake up, others to boost their vitality.

But I am addicted to the taste and aroma. To the presentation, to the harmony with other flavors (like cookies, for example).

Recommendation

In conclusion, I recommend trying delicious coffee at a coffee shop or at our place (you're welcome to visit). If there's someone in the coffee shop who knows how to make coffee, you'll experience what heaven for your taste buds means, or what a

Wise Shepherd - The Tale of Controllers...

2009-03-13T23:13:00+01:00

Wise Shepherd

Our little happy meadow.

Let's imagine that we have a sheep. It's a lovely and useful creature that happily grazes on any pasture and, in return, provides us with wool. Its only need is to eat.

Well, it may be happy, but unfortunately, it's not very savvy.

However, upon closer inspection of such an ordinary sheep, it turns out that it is guided only by the need for food. It doesn't care if what it's eating is good or if there's plenty of it. It doesn't care whether it can eat from this place and whether eating from this patch now will leave it with nothing to eat later. Its brain simply isn't adapted for that because it doesn't need to be.

The third end of the stick.

For such considerations, a wise shepherd is needed. This is an honorable person responsible for monitoring many parameters: weather, meadow's richness, the sheep's level of satiety, and even its mood.

Such a shepherd, thanks to their more developed perception apparatus, observes all parameters that simply escape the sheep. Thus, they can satisfy the sheep's needs and their own interests much better. Because a well-fed and content sheep has a much better wool growth rate in relation to the amount of food eaten.

Let's get to the specifics.

But where does this little story about our cheerful sheep and the honorable shepherd lead?

It turns out that the automation of various processes is sometimes done inefficiently due to the use of limited algorithms and the study of basic parameters.

The Woolen Boiler and Its Bimetallic Brain.

As an example, let's take the automation of a boiler. Its controller is based solely on monitoring the temperature from one point. Based on this, it turns the "heating" process on or off. The heating process itself involves maintaining a constant temperature by burning oil and heating water. This water is then transported to a radiator, which heats the air and raises its temperature to the desired level.

The only parameter is the set temperature. There is an option to set the water temperature on the boiler itself, but I assume (I'm not an expert) that it should be adjusted to the specific installation and radiators.

The controller simply says "heat" or "don't heat." Inside the boiler, there is something that only maintains the set water temperature by cyclically turning the "burning" process on and off.

Why Would a Wise Shepherd Help Heat Our Home?

Doesn't this remind you a bit of our sheep? The boiler doesn't consider any parameters other than temperature. But it could consider quite a few.

It could take into account fuel consumption in relation to the need to reach a certain temperature at different water temperature settings. It might even determine which temperature minimizes fuel consumption because it turns out that the one provided by the radiator manufacturer isn't optimal.

The boiler could also know the dynamic characteristics of the building and learn that if it allows the temperature to drop below a certain value, it would be more cost-effective to let it cool down by another degree Celsius rather than maintaining the current temperature (thereby reducing hysteresis).

It could take into account a significant drop in outside temperature as a warning of strong building cooling and proactively heat it because it's aware of how costly it is to heat a cold building.

You could multiply and list many such examples.

But all these functionalities would be fulfilled by our honorable and wise shepherd, meaning a controller that can better optimize the heating process (in the example provided) or any process that is currently managed inefficiently.

The algorithm of its operation would be based on many input data, both those that can affect a given process (e.g., outside temperature) and those that are the result of this process (fuel consumption). This algorithm would have to be adaptive, adapting to how the process changes, simply by modeling it within itself. Initially "learning" from scratch, starting from a black box and ending with a more accurate description of the process.

Can We Do Without Surgery?

The very method of implementing such a controller could be based on two paths. The first, more difficult one, is to remove the original brain of the sheep and transplant the shepherd's brain in its place, which would then take over control completely. It seems to me that this is the more difficult option due to the need to intervene inside the optimized organism.

The second option is the concept of a "wise shepherd" controller, i.e., a higher-level controller whose outputs would be the inputs of the current controller. In this case, there is no need to modify the current "configuration," but it requires the ability to control using available parameters. You simply need to know the sheep like the back of your hand and train it in a way that suits you. Animal trainers will surely say it's doable, but certainly not an easy task.

Dilemmas.

Cost-Related.

In any case, it is necessary to consider the cost-effectiveness of changing the current state. Maybe it's not necessary? Perhaps changing the controller to any other or designing the shepherd algorithm is too expensive?

Implementation.

Perhaps there is no easy, effective way to implement the shepherd, whether through transplantation or oversight.

Controllability.

When choosing the overseer option, will it be easy to control the sheep? Resistance of animals (and people) knows no bounds. Perhaps the use of the overseer function will lead to complete confusion of the functions that the controller was supposed to perform, and there will be no optimization, or even a reduction in process efficiency.

Opportunities.

Simplicity.

If the overseer mode is feasible, it may turn out that an advanced shepherd algorithm can easily optimize the process.

Scalability.

The ideal situation would be to create a universal algorithm where you provide input data - their nature, output data, and the algorithm has a free hand in creating the model during the "test period." Then, it independently optimizes the process step by step and presents the benefits. After creating such a universal algorithm, you could sell it in many places.

A Short Post About Inefficient Processors.

2008-12-14T19:45:00+01:00

Today, I will share an interesting tidbit with you. I learned about this during my studies, and it somewhat changed my perspective. Special thanks to Dr. Bogdan O.

But let's start from the beginning.

History

In the beginning, there was chaos... Okay, okay, I'm not exaggerating. So, in the beginning, there were processors for computers. There were several families of them. You probably have one in your computer from which you are reading this article.

As systems and languages supporting these processors emerged, the architecture changed significantly over time, both at a very low level and in various directions.

Critical Moment

Processors were continually evolving along with advancing technology. However, let's pause at a certain point, which is somewhat close to us, where several good processor families existed—specifically, the i386 and those found in "Macs," known as the PowerPC.

You might think they are similar, but they're not.

PowerPC processors were far more advanced, with superior architecture and craftsmanship. They were notably faster. If you remember those cool computers that came with monitors in a single enclosure, they were much better than their i386 counterparts.

However, today, most of us have i386 family processors. Why?

The Death of Change

The answer is simple: money. Cheaper options were chosen over better ones.

PowerPC processors had one significant drawback. During each architectural change aimed at improving performance, the set of instructions—the smallest ones a processor understands—was modified. This meant that a processor wouldn't understand programs that worked on its predecessor. It only understood what was designed for it. Of course, as soon as compilers for such processors appeared, and people used those compilers to build ready-made programs, the same software worked on those processors.

But, every change required users to request a newer version from the software author, and trust me, this was a nice opportunity to collect money. Particularly for large companies that aimed for technological superiority, which came at a high cost. Especially when computer speed doubled every two years.

This resulted in significant expenses.

What About i386?

It turns out that the second family of processors did quite well during this time. As the MS operating system developed, MS constantly pressured to avoid changing the processor's architecture. Processors continued to evolve and speed up, but they used the same instruction sets as they did 20 years ago. Consequently, theoretically, any software could run on any computer. Only the speed would differ. i386 won because companies didn't have to incur additional costs every time they changed hardware, needing to buy the corresponding software version for that machine.

Why Is This Bad?

Why is it bad that i386 won? Because we lost. Our

Political Mathematics

2007-09-09T14:09:00+02:00

One day, during an interesting conversation with Grzegorz (greetings to him), I came to a thunderous discovery regarding politics. This idea revolved around treating beliefs and politics as mathematical values.

As you read, you will find that this short text is a somewhat bitter assessment of today's politics, stemming from the conclusions drawn from the theories below.

Initial Assumptions:

We assume that people have beliefs. This set of beliefs can be treated as characteristic traits of a person. It is well-known that different people have different beliefs, but often these beliefs overlap. We will treat these individual beliefs as abstractions that repeat themselves.

Ideal:

Imagine a person with exceptional qualities. A true leader who has the right answer for everything and is not concerned with his own life—meaning, he doesn't have a selfish approach to anything. Such an ideal person should become a politician. This is quite obvious. And it would be best if he ruled us and established the law—because it would be good for the common good.

Reality:

However, we quickly realize, encountering the realities of the modern "market," that no matter how wonderful someone is, without proper marketing, that person's beliefs cannot be widely disseminated.

Yes, it's obvious. That's why the political party institution was created, so that individuals can create political institutions that, in the long run, can establish the law.

However, what happens when other people start joining the party?

Unfortunately, the ideal beliefs (resulting from that ideal person) begin to shift towards a certain generality. Because each person brings their own set of beliefs. With an increasing number of people in the party, the set of characteristics that characterize this party from its members changes from the profile of that ideal person to the average person from a certain group of people.

Large Political Parties:

Furthermore, a party that wants to be very significant, one that wants to be in power, must have many members and a lot of money. It can be assumed that with the influx of money into the party, negative traits follow, because money sometimes conflicts with such an idealistic approach to the common good. Consequently, the result of this influx is a further departure from the idealized party founder's beliefs and characteristics towards those of an even more average person.

And So We Arrive at the Crux:

Large political parties lead to the generalization of characteristics toward the so-called "average Pole," who carries the stereotype of a Pole, along with his inherent flaws and virtues. No matter what the party's program may be, the generalized member of that party is an ordinary person who wants to live, wants money, and perhaps doesn't even align with the party's principles but acts based on personal preferences.

In Conclusion:

It somewhat frightens me that instead of parties being ideals, they are just ordinary people. I know that by voting in the current system, I vote for big money spent on the party's advertising, I vote for human conflicts, not for ideals...

As long as parties are not represented by their beliefs (ideals) and not their interests (ordinary human ones), we will have a negative opinion of politics. As long as the set of ideals presented by the party does not reflect its actual work, we will say, "What difference does it make which party is in power, as they all care about those in power and not about the experts in power"...

Virtual IT Consultant

2007-09-02T21:43:00+02:00

During one of the lectures in one of my college courses, a cool doctor (shout-out to him) mentioned that virtual IT consultants were going to be in high demand.

No, these aren't people who bypassed IT education - they are IT consultants who work virtually.

So, what exactly is this?

Well, a virtual IT consultant is a person, as I like to put it, with broad IT knowledge, capable of diagnosing any problem and solving the most basic ones. Those that require more "unproductive" work, such as the unfortunate task of reinstalling Windows, are outsourced by this virtual IT consultant to a specialized company.

Why is this practical?

It's plain IT outsourcing. It means taking these services outside, where the cost inside the company would be too high. An essential aspect, however, is that the person handling this should have an idea of what's wrong, how much time it might take, and importantly, how much they should pay for a particular task.

The company benefits from this by reducing IT infrastructure costs - one IT consultant with a good "address book" is enough. The IT consultant benefits by having a good job and not getting bogged down in Windows issues, while external companies benefit from an influx of service recipients.

A Real-Life Example?

I had the opportunity to work in such a company at the end of the food chain, and I would occasionally meet these virtual IT consultants. They always had other software on their minds - but that was good because it was within their competence. The company I worked for focused on problem-solving. The collaboration was fine.

In Conclusion:

I humbly admit that I could serve as a virtual IT consultant myself. Diagnosing any system (as I mentioned in my note about Windows) is no problem. After my studies, during which I was fed several gigabytes of theoretical knowledge, I have a perspective ranging from bus and processor operation diagrams to integrated management system concepts. Need a virtual IT consultant? Want more information on the subject? Feel free to contact me!

Best regards,

Piotr Lemiesz - Your Outsourced Virtual Blogger