02.13.08
Posted in SEO at 4:35 am by Tristan
I’ve been doing a lot of reading of late on “Black Hat SEO”, which is basically search engine optimization that doesn’t play by search engines rules. This includes more grey area things, like scraping massive amounts of content from other sites, and re-optimizing with new keywords, to more nefarious things like blog spam. A lot of things these Black Hats are just plain creative. One such thing is the using a forged referrer back to your website on all websites you visit. ( See Fake Your Referer, Get More Traffic ) I’m testing this now, so if you got here by finding my site in your logs, let me know!
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12.01.07
Posted in economics at 8:02 pm by Tristan
An Economic Case for Labor Unions in a Political World
Ask most western economists today, and they’ll tell you that a free market is the most efficient and fair economic system that exists. They’ll show through the laws of supply and demand that price caps cause shortages, that subsidies cause undue surpluses, that monopolies and inter-company collusion cause higher prices and lower wages for workers, and that labor unions and minimum wage laws cause higher unemployment and less efficiency in the economy as a whole.
Economists will typically preface such analyses with a phrase such as, “All else held equal” that simplifies their argument and allows them to talk about one thing at a time and extrapolate useful patterns. However, the real world does not exist in an economic vacuum. The way our political system works today greatly influences the economic realities in our country. Today’s Mega-corporations control vast amount of capital that can be used to fund lobbies that can greatly influence policy regarding antitrust laws, hiring practices and other such political-econmic decisions. Thus, the political power of corporations can lead to artificially lower wages and higher prices than would be the case in a fully free market.
In an otherwise free market, labor unions typically cause artificially high wages, causing higher unemployment across each unionized industry. This means that those worker who would have had jobs in the industry at a lower pay rate move to other industries which they are not as well suited. Since they are not well suited to their second choice job, they are contributing to the economy as much as they otherwise would. Therefore, in a truly free market labor unions are unnecessary and counter productive.
However, with the power large employers can gain in our political world, the price of labor is already lower than it would otherwise be in a free market. Thus, there are two possible solutions to this problem: (1) raise the wages of laborers to their natural level by restructuring the political system through campaign finance laws and lobbying reform or (2) by allowing workers to organize and negotiate high wages as a unit. Clearly, given the existing political power already realized by corporate America, the former solution wold be difficult and timely. In the later solution, labor can be organized without the explicit help of the political system. Workers can use their collective power to raise wages without the intervention of the government, and have.
Labor unions (in most cases) are not raising their wages beyond what they would be in a free market, they are simply raising them to the level they would be under a truly free market. Labor unions create the same economic tension with large corporations that a large group of individual workers, acting in their own self interest create against a large market of potential employers. Unions are not the result of greed and laziness on the part of worker, but simply an economic response to balance the increased power of large politically interested companies.
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10.26.07
Posted in Rambling at 10:18 pm by Tristan
If you’ve known me personally for a while, you’ll notice that I tend to get very interested in certain topics for 4-6 month periods. During such a period, I’ll focus nearly all of my energy in learning everything I can about that particular topic. I don’t choose these periods, it just kind of happens that way.
This blog was started when my interest was focused on Spirituality. During the time this blog was broken, I became interested in, and later became bored with three to five months later:
- Board Games – I played classic games like Mille Bornes, Othello, Cribbage and Dominoes as well as newer “German style” board games like Lost Cities. Julia (my wife) shared this interest with me. In February we went to Genghis Con, a big Gaming Convention here in Colorado and had a lot of fun. Julia was disappointed when I lost interest in board games, but I suspect I’ll come back to this one soon.
- Entrepreneurship – If I could be paid to read about running a business, I’d be a happy man. (That isn’t to say I’m not happy as it is). Unfortunately, I tend to get really lazy when it comes to actually running a business. However, I went through a period this year where I read a ton of business books, fully intent on starting my own (non-Consulting) business. I read classics, as well as books and blogs on “Information Marketing”, running a software business etc. I had several ideas, but none of them really panned out. Looking back, its clear I was looking for a “get rich quick” plan, which I now realize can’t really work. The last book I read in this vein was “The Millionaire Next Door” which totally changed my perspective on the whole “get rich” issue and led to my next topic of interest …
- Personal Financial Management – After reading Thomas Stanley’s “The Millionaire Mind” I realized that I could get ‘rich’, without taking a bunch of risk, and without even doing a bunch of extra work. The key is this: Live on less than you make. Simply by going out to eat less, and visiting libraries instead of bookstores etc. I realized we could become wealthy, by Tom Stanley’s definition in about four years, much sooner than I’d ever thought possible before. Around the same time, I found Dave Ramsey, the host of a radio talk show on personal finance. In line with Stanley he advocates a detailed plan that involves paying off all consumer debt, building up a big emergency fund, then putting 15% of ones income to-wards retirement, then paying off one’s house ASAP. We are essentially on this plan. Using it, we’ve paid off our car, some credit card debt, and raised an emergency fund that will cover me being unemployed for up to 6 months should I lose my job. Although I’ve stopped reading on this topic, we still live on a budget. We still plan on having our house paid off in a little over 3 years from now!
- Programming – This is a recurring obsession that I’ve based my career on. This time I’m most interested in Artificial Intellegence related stuff.
- Mathematics and Movies – I’m now interested in these two topics. I’ll write more on these in future posts.
So, this blog will be a bit disjointed. Its probably not a good idea from a marketing standpoint, but I’m not trying to make money from this anyway 
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Posted in Rambling, Spirituality at 9:31 pm by Tristan
I finally got some time to fix my blog this afternoon… (It had been broken for a long while).
Since I last posted, I have lost interest in spirituality reading, and thus future posts will likely be about other things. Regarding Spirituality, I still sit in pretty much the same boat I started in: I see myself as an open-minded agnostic, respecting (nearly) all spiritual disciplines for their wisdom.
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10.27.06
Posted in Spirituality at 1:10 am by Tristan
Tonight, I found this spirituality survey . Unlike some survey sites, this one is pretty unbiased and seems to have a wide variety of questions and answer choices. Although I think there is a lot to be learned from all the world’s religions, even the ones we consider “Mythology” now, it seems to have pegged my current spiritual state pretty well. Here are my results. How did you (my 1-2 regular readers out there) do? How does it compare with what you think you believe?
1. Unitarian Universalism (100%)
2. Liberal Quakers (96%)
3. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (94%)
4. Mahayana Buddhism (85%)
5. Theravada Buddhism (83%)
6. Neo-Pagan (83%)
7. New Age (78%)
8. Bah�’� Faith (76%)
9. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (72%)
10. Taoism (66%)
11. New Thought (65%)
12. Reform Judaism (64%)
13. Secular Humanism (62%)
14. Sikhism (61%)
15. Hinduism (60%)
16. Scientology (60%)
17. Jainism (59%)
18. Orthodox Quaker (52%)
19. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (48%)
20. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (43%)
21. Jehovah’s Witness (38%)
22. Orthodox Judaism (37%)
23. Nontheist (35%)
24. Islam (31%)
25. Seventh Day Adventist (27%)
26. Eastern Orthodox (18%)
27. Roman Catholic (18%)
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10.24.06
Posted in Spirituality at 11:22 pm by Tristan
Surfing around today, I stumbled onto a blog on MySpace. Here is what he says
:
...
I’ve come to view [Christianity] this way. If i live right, do what the bible says, and die (which – face it, we all will someday) and there is no God … all i would of given up is a couple nights of partying… sex before marriage (cos you do get to have sex… all you have to do is wait…)
BUT…
If there is a God and he sent his son to die for us… and you havn’t lived right. do what the bible says you shouldn’t… Who has more to lose?
...
I hear this argument quite a bit, so I decided to take a minute to respond. Here is what I responded:
I find that sort of “Insurance” based belief to be a bit misleading. It works great if there are only two possibilities (Christianity or Nothing). But that isn’t the case. Wikipeida’s world religions category contains over 75 different entries, not including those in sub categories. Thus, in a purely statistical sense, by choosing Christianity, you have only a 1 in 76 chance in choosing correctly!
If your goal is to choose the spiritual path that will most likely help you avoid pain and suffering, you may want to look a Buddhism. Buddhism centers around focus on the present moment, and accepting what is, be it happiness suffering or whatever. Thus, the external world means little to the Buddhist. There are even Monks in Tibet who have gotten so good at being in touch with their inner energy, that they can turn off their sense of physical pain. (This is not conjecture, myth or just a story. Actual western scientists have researched this and have verified using brain scans etc, that they in fact do not feel pain unless they choose to). Thus, if the Buddhist is wrong, and a literal Jewish/Christian view is correct, I doubt it would matter in the slightest to the Buddhist if he were tortured in the depths of firey hell. He is no longer connected with physical and emotional pain, and can endure Satan’s torture as easily as you or I could tolerate a food we do not enjoy.
Now of course, this is pretty ridiculous. I’m not telling you to convert or anything. I am just saying that this sort of argument you’ve presented doesn’t quite hold up. If you believe in Christianity, have faith from the depths of your heart – not as a fail-safe against suffering in the afterlife.
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10.23.06
Posted in Rambling, Spirituality at 3:05 am by Tristan
Last Friday, my family and I saw the stage adaptation of Disney’s The Lion King. It reminded me of an important lesson. Of late I had taken on the philosophy of staying focused on the present moment, and not dwelling in the past or fearing the future. Although a valuable outlook, The Lion King reminded me that one should not focus on the present at the expense of responsibility created in the past.
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Posted in Spirituality, Philosophy at 3:00 am by Tristan
Last week, when I walked into my local bookstore, they had a display paying homage to this being the Islamic Holy month of Ramadan. Seeing this, I thought it would be prudent to honor it by reading up on Islamic Mysticism, as seen by the Sufis. So I picked up The Way of the Sufi (Penguin Arkana).
Although the book was a valuable read, and at times very inthrawling, it was also quite difficult to proccess. Part of Sufism states that the right spiritual path is dependent on time and location. Thus, teachings that apply to one locality at one time, do not apply in another time or place. Therefore I was reading something that was telling me again and again that it was not applicable to me.
Although it was frustrating, I found the Sufis did (do) exhibit quite a bit of true wisdom. Their general philosophy of education as described above is actually quite intriguing in and of itself. It reminds me that applying ancient texts like the Bible, the Bhagavad Gita, Homer’s works, the Koran etc. Are never going to be as applicable as they were to the contemporaries of those works. I would argue, as I believe the Sufi’s certainly would that such ancient texts are not devoid of meaning outside their original contexts, just that they should be taken with a grain of salt.
The Sufis also make extensive use of parable and poetry, often meant to misdirect the reader/student to learn something he doesn’t necessarily expect or even desire, while at the same time something that student needs to learn. This principle is well illustrated in a story I’ll attempt to paraphrase:
The Happiest Man in the World
A young man went to a Sufi teacher and asked him, “What do I need to do to attain true happiness? ”. The master responded that the questioner should seek out the happiest man in the world and ask for his shirt. Thus he would attain true happiness.
Eager to find the answer, the young man packed his bags and went on a journey to find the happiest man in the world. As he arrived in a new town, he asked the townsfolk who was the happiest person they knew. Each time he would meet someone, they always said “I know of a man who is much happier than I. He lives in such and such a place; seek him out”. For 40 years the man searched the world from town to town, from country, seeking ever happier and happier men.
Finally, the man’s tiring travels led him to a very old man, living alone atop a high mountain. Exhausted he asked the old man: “Are you the happiest man in the world?” The old man, smiled and replied that he could not think of anyone who was happier than he. Relived that he had reached the end of Journey and was near attainment of what he had sought all these many years he asked the old one, “Please, I was instructed to ask for your shirt so that I may be as happy as you are”, the man requested, “May I please have your shirt?”
At the question, the old man laughed a large and hearty laugh saying, “I’m sorry son, but I do not have a shirt. Can you not see that my chest is bare?”
Puzzled, the younger man studied elder. Not only was he not wearing a shirt but looking under the old one’s long beard and wrinkled, leather-like skin was the face of the the Sufi teacher who first sent him on the quest. “Why!, Why”, the man cried, “why did you send me on this quest, when I had known you all those years ago?”
The old man smiled a wide grin and said, “Because that is what you needed at the time. Now you are ready to learn”.
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Posted in Philosophy, Sunday Quote of Wisdom at 2:19 am by Tristan
In order to maintain a true balance in my quest for spiritual wisdom, I’ve decided to take a while to investigate the counter-argument. Thus, today I started reading: Why I Am Not a Christian: And Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects. So far I am finding that Russell presents very good arguments against the formalized dogma and religious hierarchy, such as that in the Catholic church, or Tibetan Buddhism.
That said, his arguments don’t seem to hold up against less dogmatic spirituality as presented in Buddhism by Tich Naht Hanh (in my brief exposure to him) Eckhart Tolle and Quakerism, that focus on an individual connection with “the infinite” be it God, the Tao or whatever you’d like to call it.
Still, I think there is a lot Russell and his spiritual adversaries can agree on. This quote struck me as such a case:
The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.
Although many spiritual teachers I have read seem to reject knowledge as part of “enlightenment”, reading deeper, they do see knowledge as a valued asset for one’s day to day life.
Russell brings up the point that religions tend to open up and become more mild in free, open societies. What he may not realize is that perhaps that openness is part of the human race’s spiritual argument. Yes, Dogmatic, closed, judgemental religion probably isn’t good for society. It perpetuates situations like Europe saw in the Middle Ages, and what parts of the middle east are experiencing today. On the other hand, it doesn’t necessarily follow that all spiritual beliefs are useless.
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10.12.06
Posted in Programming, Spirituality, Philosophy at 3:39 pm by Tristan
Reading the Tao, several of it’s short chapters seemed to speak to me as a programmer. I’ll quote some of them here and give my thoughts.
Chapter 4
The Tao is like a well:
used but never used up.
It is like the eternal void:
filled with infinite possibilities.
It is hidden but always present.
I don’t know who gave birth to it.
It is older than God.
In this chapter, the Tao reminds me of the ideal code behind a software application. Its code can be used again and again, as many times as needed. It’s objects and classes can be used in infinite combinations, making for very flexible software. The users can’t see the code, and may not even know its there, but it is.
The last two lines are a little harder to fit into this perspective. Perhaps this is referring to some of the old BASIC and FORTRAN programs my grandfather wrote in the 70’s and 80’s - Powerful and flexible for their time, yet impossible to maintain :)
Chapter 63
Act without doing;
work without effort.
Think of the small as large
and the few as many.
Confront the difficult
while it is still easy;
accomplish the great task
by a series of small acts.
The Master never reaches for the great;
thus she achieves greatness.
When she runs into a difficulty,
she stops and gives herself to it.
She doesn’t cling to her own comfort;
thus problems are no problem for her.
This chapter describes the ideal attitude for a programmer. In my mind, this passage speaks for itself. I’ll leave the commentary to you.
Chapter 64
What is rooted is easy to nourish.
What is recent is easy to correct.
What is brittle is easy to break.
What is small is easy to scatter.
Prevent trouble before it arises.
Put things in order before they exist.
The giant pine tree
grows from a tiny sprout.
The journey of a thousand miles
starts from beneath your feet.
Rushing into action, you fail.
Trying to grasp things, you lose them.
Forcing a project to completion,
you ruin what was almost ripe.
Therefore the Master takes action
by letting things take their course.
He remains as calm
at the end as at the beginning.
He has nothing,
thus has nothing to lose.
What he desires is non-desire;
what he learns is to unlearn.
He simply reminds people
of who they have always been.
He cares about nothing but the Tao.
Thus he can care for all things.
This passage brings me back to the Pragmatic Programmers who detailed such practices as
- Care About Your Craft
- Think! About Your Work
- Don’t Panic When Debugging
- Remember the Big Picture
- Abstractions Live Longer than Details
and just about every other chapter in their book, seems to speak this chapter of the Tao.
Overall Thoughts
A word of advice for all my programmer readers out there (I think there might be 2 of you): As a first step, put away that book on Ajax, Ruby, Haskell, the upcoming .Net Framework or whatever the latest language is and pick up some books that will help you become a better programmer in general. Second, at the same time, do not forget that programming does not exist in isolation. Be sure to expand your mind and spirit to other ideas outside of the day to day grind. I’ll end with a fitting stanza from Chapter 12 of the Tao Te Ching:
The Master observes the world
but trusts his inner vision.
He allows things to come and go.
His heart is open as the sky.
Quotes taken from Stephen Mitchell’s version of Lao Tzu’s Tao te Ching. (c) 1988.
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