Tag Archives: internet

Glimpse Of A Vision

I believe I am spending too much time wandering through various addictions within the internet. To my limited frustration, I have discovered looking at some of the pages I check daily are sponsored (or actually made) by Lay’s (the potato chip people). Bets that I can only eat watch just one are all off. The worst two offenders are Facebook (which I really don’t understand) and YouTube.

I don’t do too much on FB as a participant, but will look down the home and news post lists, only to find an hour passes before I am aware of it. Kudos to Travis for posting some of the craziest and funniest links I have seen. (It would be nice, though, if you could limit them to less than 20-30 a day so I can get some actual work done.) Occationally I find something I can relate to too much and add it to my page / wall / whatever it’s called (told you I don’t understand this place).

The addiction to YouTube is somewhat more problematic. I use some of my subscriptions as a learning tool for my Blender education. So I can’t really afford to stop wandering around the site, but some of the links are more practical than others. Some provide useful information while others are simply eye candy, useful for a distraction or to unlax if needed.

One of the less productive sites is my Adult Swim subscription. Or so I thought until today. I don’t watch this channel much, but today it showed up on my “we think you’d like or should see this” list and I started watching an episode of Food|Off the Air and the part with the banana mask (about 15 seconds in) was really funny. I kinda lost interest shortly afterward and started fast forwarding through the rest of the episode until I got to the Western Spagetti segment (at about 4:18). I was totally fascinated by the segment and fast forwarded (after watching it 3 or 4 times) to the credits to find out who made it.

The  PESfilm channel in YouTube has 44 videos involving stop action animation. Since one of my year’s intentions is to become a CG artist, learning animation is a part of the task I am working on. Stop action uses a series of still pictures where items are moved slightly between frames. I ended up watching over a dozen back to back before I needed to leave (late as it was for my meeting, but I didn’t care). When I got back home I continued where I left off.

Spaghetti Western is one of my favorites. It is really well done (as are most of the films archived) and I would highly recommend it for a smile. I’ll link to it on my FB page to share the joy with others.

Later I will post more about my artistic progress so far this year, but I can’t just yet.

There’s still a couple of unread emails and several vid’s to watch….

Phred

post 59 of n

Scam Alert: Quantum Vision System

OK, I knew better. Nevertheless I wasted nearly 3/4 of an hour watching (or rather, listening while attempting not to hurl) an infomercial on the net about how you can improve your vision to 20/20 in just a week. Guaranteed.

I am far more skeptical than most of the people around me, but I followed a link with a title of how to improve your eyes by using this simple secret. A redirect to a page with minimal information and a video that played without any controls (no pause, volume control, or clue as to how much longer it lasted). It went on with teasers as to why you might want to improve your life (and who would NOT want to, eh?) and veiled hints that this program was going to go corporate shortly, with substantially less “public” access and increased costs.

Eventually you are told it is the “Quantum Vision System” and was going to be patented soon, so watch and act now. There was a claim of a 10 minute sample you could use to prove to yourself it was effective and worth obtaining.

Then 30 more minutes pass. There are “man on the street” interviews where the “doctor” brings people wandering past into his office and shows a 2-4 point improvement in their vision after only 10 minutes. The people are amazed at the results.

Finally you are asked how much would you expect to pay for such a program. He works the price down from thousands to the unbelievable price of $37 (USD). Just press the HUGE “Add To Cart” button that suddenly appears below the video and use one of the dozen or so methods of payment to gain these life changing benefits.

Of course I didn’t. But I was incensed to think I wasted nearly an hour of my time for such a lame presentation. Now, I could have just left anytime (and should of) but after a while, my ire grew and I was becoming more interested to see just how bad it would truly get. Finally the video ended and I found a faint menu at the bottom of the screen that included a “Contact Us” link. I started to send them an e-mail to get more information and the audio on my computer came back on (I had switched to another tab in Firefox to send the e-mail) with the comment “You are still here? What are you waiting for? Just press the button and fill out the form that comes up….” Unbelievable, that a company would be so bold as to press for a close after waiting for nearly 5 minutes of inaction. (I suspect the video was still “running” after appearing to end. There was no way of knowing.)

I finished my rant (including the point that if they really would refund all fees without any explaination and for any reason, why not present product as a try before you buy and bill 30 days after delivery) and sent the message. Then (and only then, to my sorrow) I did a quick Google search. As I pointed out in a prior post (Information Overload, Confidence Underload) any research on the net should involve a fair amount of action on your part. I was not interested in too much details, just to see if the company appeared to be legitimate.

The first result was the company website itself (link to site). Short version was they were offering the program for $27 (ten dollars less than on the video) and included 5 free bonus items (the video only had 3 of them). So if I HAD pushed the button I would have paid more and gotten less. VERY VERY BAD.

The second search result was a scam alert from San Diego. CA giving a scam alert (link to alert). Pretty much what I thought while I was watching the video. I thought the alert link hit the main points fully and was right on the point.

I actually have read the book on the Bates method mentioned in both locations. I did notice some benefits but it was not as easy as would have been expected by the presentation. (I bought the book for less than a dollar at a used book store about 25 years ago).

So, I waited till now to allow the “We received your mail and will respond in the next 48 hours” message to bear fruit. It didn’t. I am not surprised. It was not expected. Now this is a “unhappy” customer posting to warn others of less than expected results from a service provider.

Snake oil sales is still alive and well, apparently… beyond that peddled within politics.

Phred

post 45 of n

I’ve Created A (Sandstone) Monster

Apparently I am still a little kid at the core. I have succumb to peer pressure and done something that I vowed I would never do. It was a direct result of oppressive, unrelenting torment by several of my closest “friends” that compelled me to change my position and leap into a potentially damaging and addictive activity (against my considered, and better judgement).

I have become a player of MineCraft™.

Oh, the horror of it all. To think, just today rather than spending time working on my writing projects (including this blog) or taking time to attend to the basic housekeeping activities that are needed, I spent the afternoon building components to outfit my laboratory. Instead of reading recipes for cooking the pork loin I purchased for dinner tomorrow, I poured over recipes to create sheers from iron ingots and beds from wooden slats and wool (which was what the sheers were needed for in the first place). I haven’t removed the debris from around my apartment but cleared the vegetation from around my hovel (and quickly ran inside as the skeletons approached).

Now, in my defense, I was persuaded to take up this activity as a socializing event with others from my circle of influence. Last evening there were five of us working at the same time and chatting to one another while playing. We were separated by over a dozen miles between each of us, so we would not have been able to meet for socializing were we required to travel to a common location. Being in a mine was a socially stimulating activity that brought utility to each of us.

But the darker side of addiction surfaced today. After awaking from my nap (triggered in part by the onset of Daylight Saving Time this morning), my intent was to check my e-mail inbox and blog stats and then post a segment. Bad idea, since the first e-mail message I read described how the owner of the MC server had just installed a Mumble server to allow easier chatting while we were playing, and requested someone to try it out. And I did…losing about 4 hours of productive daylight. While I setup my client to talk, I linked into the world to check if anyone else was there (nope, but that didn’t stop me from working a while). One thing led to another and next thing I knew, I looked like I could do a body double for Castaway (except  that I would need to lose about 170 pounds and grow many more muscles to match Mr. Hank’s physique).

Step 1. Admit I have a problem… no, I can quit anytime.. Tell you what, I will look and see if there is anyone on and get back to you…

Phred

post 29 of n

Information Overload, Confidence Underload

I was thinking about the amount of information anyone has access to today compared to when I was a kid. Doing a quick Google search for “information increase rate” led to this link http://www.emc.com/leadership/programs/digital-universe.htm which states information doubles every two (2) years. While I have absolutely NO way to prove or disprove this claim, experience since the last millennium suggests it could be valid. In any case, it meets or exceeds CEFGW standards (Close Enough For Government Work). In fact, even if it’s ten years for the double point, there is clearly more information today than there was yesterday.

Back when I was in school, THE go-to for information was the massive, 24 volume Encyclopedia Britannica (henceforth referred to as EB). Taking nearly 4 feet of linear space on the library shelf, it was the gold standard for writing papers or doing science projects. Listed as a resource in your bibliography, you were never questioned about the validity of the information in your documents. [Sadly, my family never owned the EB, rather the lesser valued Funk and Wagnalls version. The scars while not visible on the outside never the less reside deep within my psyche to this day.] Along with the Oxford English Dictionary (OED, equipped with it’s own table to support the sheer weight of the tomb and the required magnifying glass to read its micro-font print), the library was the hub and home of all the information you could ever need or imagine.

Today, it appears most libraries are storehouses for DVDs and sources for off-line music. It is much more likely (and “convenient”) to grab your device and “smurf the web” for whatever information you need. And more than you need…or want. Since you are (as far as I know) reading this by means of the internet, you already know what I am talking about.  Easy, right?

But… there is a proverb that says “the man with one watch knows what time it is; the man with two is never sure.” The issue is not information, but rather confidence. There is so much information available (and, inevitably, not all in agreement), the problem is that of determining which information to believe. As a kid, when I got an answer, I KNEW it was right. Today, not so much. That Google search above resulted in “About 1,010,000,000 results (0.41 seconds)” and I only looked at the first page of results. I don’t mind using the info listed above regarding doubling rates but I would certainly hesitate if I had to risk my job on its accuracy.

And many people (my hand is up on this one, too) use the web as a source for making  medical or financial decisions, perhaps without fully understanding the potential dangers of accessing too much information. In essence, you are “trusting” the search engine to be wise enough to provide you with the relevant information you need to make rational, reasonable choices. I suspect real lives and money lies in the cross-hairs of this technology. And I, for one, am at least a little frightened at this thought.

Now, I am NOT a Luddite, nor would I suggest going back to the EB as the only fount of wisdom, knowledge, and minor hernias for little kids. I still use (and intend to do so) the WWW as a source for data prior to making critical (and not so important) decisions. I would suggest, then, using another ancient source that is available and nearly as effective for obtaining information: the librarian!

Well, maybe that is too specific an answer, but seeking input from other people (average ones as well as experts) to help make decisions is both wise and farsighted. Other people have access to experience and knowledge that you don’t. They also know people that have additional experience and knowledge (remember that “six degrees of Kevin Bacon” thing that went around years ago?) and in a short time you can have a vast source of additional input to help you make decisions. (In fairness, most of these other resources will also go on the web to get their knowledge…so maybe it’s not quite as effective as it was a decade ago, but you get the drift.)

In any case, my point is the more you look, the more you find, the more choices you can make, the more uncertainty develops about making the optimal choice. My suggestion is to pause a moment before you take action based on bulk information from the world. A sanity check is always a good idea and often a sanity saver before leaping off a tall building. Maybe gravity won’t apply to you this time after all, but…

Good hunting. One thing I am certain of… I now have a headache thinking about all this. Perhaps a nap is in order?

Phred

Post 2 of n