Mes Souhaites

Had practice at River's studio today, as usual. After practice, there was a band playing in the nearby Hongdae playground area. Lots of folks. Loan heard bongos, so she jumped in and started to dance! Then Aaron jumped in with his 뭘봐? aka "what are you staring at?" shirt. Haha. I had sandals on by that time, so didn't jump in. But yeah, it was fun! All the folks next to be started to whip out their cell phones and cameras!


...also, earlier this morning, I saw a guy on stilts toprocking outside a cosmetics store.
And he gave out free lotion, too.

Korea's fun!


More Warheads candy
Loan got some more Warheads candy. The Korean sour candy tour continues! Alright, so the plan is to give them to our other dance friends at Maximum, TIP, MB crew, Jinjo, etc. Bboy Random from TIP is the craziest cat out of the bunch I'd give him three.


Tomorrow is called, "Finish editing that BOTY Korea video you've been slacking off on Day".

Just got back from Rockin' Sensation, an event put on by Koreanroc.com. The jam took place in the Nowon district of Seoul, which was approximately a 70 minutes subway ride from my place. So in other words, far!

TIP, Last4One, Jinjo, Soul Kingz, they all entered; many of the big crews had multiple teams for the 2v2 event. Bboys Street (Maximum) and Frog (TIP) entered; their crew name was, "Frog Crossing 'da Street", haha. Soul Kingz (Ghostwalk & Miego) won the event, winning over TIP (King & Trance) in the finals. It was pretty dope. About time Soul Kingz won an event! One of the freshest upcoming crews in Korea.

My friend Mee Hee recently did an interview with Soul Kingz for Bboyworld.com.
check it out!


Uploading two battles from tonight to Strife.tv's youtube account.
Jinjo vs Last4One: L4O, they are my boys!






Breakbeat of the Day:

Fendaheads - Sunrise

The Meditations By Marcus Aurelius Translated by George Long.

Somehow, I missed this making the Lambda the Ultimate front page: Phosphorous, The Popular Lisp. Despite their best attempts to make a "joke" language by exploring the diabolical implications of truly understanding PLT, I think this would actually almost be a pleasant language to use. And of course, they also manage to throw down a gauntlet that will practically guarantee some intrepid Emacs elisp-hackers will have something to handle it quite soon.

Of course, in the best tradition of well-founded joke languages, they also discuss TEX in a footnote. I suppose it is fair to say that TEX is not a joke language, but it certainly makes a statement about programming languages, and hopefully everyone who designs languages will be forced to study it and, much like a puppy who has just pooped on the carpet, have their face rubbed in it, while being admonished, "Bad Programmer!! BAD! Don't you ever do this again! Bad Programmer!!!".

So, something lightweight to discuss. First off, I grew out of the "gadget freak" stage a long time ago(something about moving once a year and collecting piles of stuff I never, EVER did anything with...), but anyway, my wife has my old laptop(which is about to turn 5 years old, runs XP, and has 512MB RAM, and a 30GB HD), and uses it for web surfing and playing games(games that run just fine on the 4 year old Centrino processor...).

Anyway, our finances have not been what I would like this year, and really, there's no end in sight. So this has prompted a discussion about perhaps maybe trying a netbook. Of course, two major negatives are the screen size and keyboard size. But other than that, it seems like a reasonable solution, so I guess I'm curious if any of you have played with a netbook and what your impression is?

Why I (A/L)GPL. Zed, you're the man... his 4th reason nails it. Not that anyone is using my Java libs I've released... oh wait? Who knows, maybe they are... I would never know actually, since no one emails me...

Gray Code at a pediatrician's office(via @debasishg).

My Last4One/LastMass boys arrived at BOTY in their very own bus. WTF? Hahaha, I practice with them every week and they never told me about owning a bus! Is there a crew in the United States that owns their very own bboy ride? I'm not talking about some beat down rusty Ford van; I'm talking about a graffiti painted pimp ride like Last4One's.




It is the beginning of the rainy season here in S. Korea. The rain was pouring today; even with my umbrella I got soaked. The good part is that I can keep my window open now without worrying about mosquitoes and flies going into my apartment. The bad part is that the rain starts making me lazy, such as not wanting to go to practice today. I absolutely hate the sound of wet sneakers, dancing on a wooden floor. The squeaky noise is unbearable.




We interviewed the bgirls from Keep It Real Girlz crew at BOTY. People don't hear much from Korean bgirls too often, so we were really excited to get them talking and dancing in our video. Members included were from Gamblerz, Oshare, and Soul Kingz, to list a few.


Pool Party at the Hamilton Hotel, Itaewon on July 25
There's going to be a Pool Party event in Seoul next weekend. Floor Gangz will be cyphering there, bboy Phoenix (Rivers) will be DJ'ing, and Soul Sisterz will be dancing.

Okay...you got:
1) bboy cypher
2) alcohol
3) pool party
4) girls in bikinis
5) a dope hip hop DJ

What other motivation does one need?!?!

Bboyworld.com and Strife.tv was at Battle of the Year| KOREA yesterday! Since Loan was here for the month, we decided to do something really awesome and make a backstage coverage of the action going on at BOTY. Jacob also went, since neither Loan or I spoke good Korean. Interviews & Highlights were what we were going for, kinda like a Sportscenter coverage. Loan was the host, guiding the camera through the venue, what happens backstage, how the crews warmup, their prematch meals, etc. We got some really nice interviews, asking such questions as in, "Why are you representing Jinjo?" to bboy Hong 10.

The interviews we got included:
--Bruce Lee| Gamblerz
--Hong 10| Drifterz, but repping Jinjo for BOTY
--Katsu| MZK
--Taiyo| Last4One
--Virus| TIP
--Keep It Real Girlz bgirl crew


I am really interested to see what kind of feedback I would get from the general Bboyworld crowd for a video like this. Normally people post up entire battles and viewers watch & critique them. But one hardly sees videos actually covering an event, like a sports coverage. Many people have their favorite dancers, but they've never heard many of them talk or speak about their dancing during an event, especially the Korean dancers (because of the language barrier). Then you get crazy rumors up online, such as Physicx being dead. (lol, it was on bboy.org, go figure)

There was a general NO VIDEO policy at the event, but I obtained permission, on the basis I be careful with my footage. So in other words, you're not going to see me post entire battles up. But, I'm really excited to finish editing & translating our Interview/Highlight footage. It'll be dope! Look out for it by the end of this week.




Bboys & Bgirls in the hallway, waiting for their turn to perform. You can see Gamblerz & TG Breakers in the picture, as well as some TIP members. TIP wasn't competing, but were just hanging out. When each crew finished their showcases, they were greeted by these dancers warming up. "Good job! Good job! Glad you guys are done?" were some of the things I overheard in Korean. And since it was still Korea, there were many bows and nods, too; a sign of respect for one another.




I really, really wanted my Last Mass friends to win. However, their showcase did not get rated high enough, thus eliminating them from the Final Four battles. The final crews included: Maximum Crew, Gamblerz, Jinjo, and TG Breakers. In the finals, Gamblerz defeated Maximum Crew.

Gamblerz's showcase had a lot of mirrors. It was as if they were saying to the crowd, "We got money, let's just haul some big ass mirrors to the venue."

No to SQL? Anti-database movement gains steam.
SQL Databases Are An Overapplied Solution (And What To Use Instead)
Hacker News thread on the topic.

Honestly, I hope the anti-database, anti-SQL movement really takes hold. On some level, I guess I should ask myself why I respond to things like this. There are several things going on here, and none of them have to do with SQL's shortcomings(there are many, but I claim most of the haters wouldn't know what was wrong with SQL if it mugged them in an alley and stole their wallet).

So lets go ahead and lay it out. This is all about Scaling. I'm Going To Scale My Foot Up Your Ass pretty much sums up how most organizations should think about scaling. If you need to scale, and don't have VC money or a revenue stream to support it, turn the server off and walk away. Also, if you have "scaling trouble", perhaps you should first take a look at your code and stop doing whatever dozen or so stupid things you're doing. Also, try adding an index.

No why do I claim taking a look at optimization? Well, modern computers are very fast, and have lots of memory. One computer can do a whole lot. A lot more than you think.

But lets say you do need to scale. Have you considered that this "one size fits all" thing is driven by existing database management systems. Most DBMS's are either file based or server based systems that work on one computer, and require you to build replication and sharding in the application level. Yeah, that sucks pretty hard. But please explain to me where the language/relational model/SQL fit into that? It doesn't. A SQL RDBMS does not have to work like PostgreSQL, MySQL, or Oracle. It can work all kinds of ways. ACID, as an aside, is not exactly the relational model either. Now, consistency is related to the constraint checking in the relational model, but consistency in distributed(and non-distributed systems) is not the same kind of consistency as the constraint checking described in SQL. I suppose I could devote part of this article to explaining in more detail what I mean, but suffice to say that relaxing consistency(what most big scalable data stores usually sacrifice to gain scale) is perfectly in line with the relational model.

Now, specifically on to SQL. The two big things I see in the complaints are that no SQL database server easily scales to multiple computers, and SQL database servers tend to not support BLOB's very well(JSON objects are BLOB's, and if you're wanting one of those XML datastores, GTFO, because you don't have a clue...).

So, what everyone has failed to explain to me so far is why someone building one of these scalable stores can't support SQL as a query language, and add a BLOB/CLOB/JSON/crap primitive datatype?

Well, I can explain part of it. Google: Most of the people building these datastores has surely at least glanced at the papers Google, Amazon, and others have published on building systems like this(and if they haven't, shame on them, if you're going to talk about scalability and don't have the cojones to understand Paxos, you fail, GTFO).

Of course, the other problem with all of this obsession with scale, and poking fun at normalization, joins, static typing, is that it ignores why people have sought these things. Now, I'm not quite a Waterfall/Big Design Up Front kinda guy, but you see, for all this discussion of agility and flexibility in the world, most of the time we fail to realize that that's exactly what a good design gives you. Of course, many of these people are poking at relational modeling, well, unfortunately, I have bad news for you. Modeling is exactly what programming is. A program encompasses a model of reality. When that model maps reasonably well to some subset of reality, the program is useful. When it doesn't, you fail. And you can't model all of reality(first off, why would you want to? Most "role playing games" don't role play trips to the outhouse... um, but if you make a best selling game that does feature this revolutionary idea, I'm open to kickbacks...).

tl;dr

I'm not trying to convince anyone of anything, mostly poking fun at people who don't want to use "SQL databases" as lightweights with a narrow vision of databases(ironically).

The only good news is that USA Today at least questions their assumptions: Scientist shortage? Maybe not:

John Holdren, Obama's science adviser, disagrees.
He says he's "optimistic that the jobs for them will materialize."
"Obviously we've suffered in the past from a boom-and-bust syndrome in funding for science and technology," he says, "and we're looking to try to avoid that going forward."
Holdren says he has considered "the size of the pipeline vs. the size of the market," but he and other administration advisers are convinced the USA needs more — not fewer — scientists and engineers. "More and more the challenges we face are going to require big infusions of science and technology to get solved."

And of course, this was via a hacker news thread, and the current first comment is something I myself have basically said in the past:

There is no such thing as "shortages". There may not be enough of something at a price YOU are willing to pay, but that doesn't make it a shortage.

So where did I get the idiot savant line? Well, its obvious, all these business leaders "need" people smart enough to be an "engineer or scientists" but simultaneously dumb enough to work for them for $5/day.

SQL Antipatterns Strike Back. Most of it was fairly well known to me, and its not excessively "MySQL" specific. The only real "gripe"(having skimmed most of it) is the section on trees. The closure table is a nice idea, but some(e.g. PostgreSQL) databases now support WITH RECURSIVE common table expressions, which allow you to do exactly the "unbounded/unknown" list of queries to join on in one of the other sections developing queries/structures for trees.

Anyway, some of those anti-patterns are kinda scary(in that, I've never seen a fail-whale like that in person, and hope I never have to). Most of the anti-patterns I see can be summed up as "treating the database as a dumb persistence engine"(i.e. You mean I can do more than just "SELECT * FROM table"?).

Reversed Psychology: Tax Cuts and Work is an interesting discussion of the idea that (most) people have an "equilibrium goal" with regard to consumption, and that taxes do not affect work how some people(uh, politicians?) tend to think it does. Of course, even if its correct, it does not suggest the proper course of action, or deal with the fact that sometimes societies have to do things that "suck"(like tax people more, or spend less, due to resource constraints, and the fact that the "miracle" of printing money doesn't tend to work as well as some imagine). Anyway, in a related vein, you might find this article: Ford's Paradox to be interesting as well, discussing how Henry Ford actually decided to pay his workers a real wage, rather than "the least he could get away with" and why that was only "enlightened" self-interest, because many business owners are too stupid to understand basic self-interest.

Of course, to go even one further, I've been observing a twitter debate with zedshaw and amrithkumar. amrithkumar links to his blog In defense of employee non-compete agreements that basically says someone might get tired of him failing to implement his idea, and quit and actually build it. Indeed, I can see his point. I wrote 95% of a Meter Data Management System for some idea people, and they have stuck it up their asshole while the market moves past them, and it would be horrible for me to rewrite an implementation of my first draft I coded for them(with little input on features either time around) and go sell it while they sit on it.

Zed's arguments, which I quote without permission here, sum it up nicely:

Because in a knowledge economy, the "factory" walks out the door in the worker's heads when you piss them off.
@amrithkumar Ultimately, this is to maintain the industrial revolution in the face of the means of production being owned by the workers.
@amrithkumar Additionally, if the knowledge is worth so much, why is the knowledge worker *never* paid for their knowledge?
@amrithkumar California proves that assumption wrong, repeatedly. All a non-compete does is turn knowledge workers into slaves.

So yeah, I totally agree with Zed. I also find it ironic that most of the Southern states brag that they are "right to work states"(i.e. unions can piss off), and yet, non-competes are legal here(which has most definitely impeded my right to work twice in the past 2 months).

And to go one better, I'll even mention Neal Stephenson(uh, spoiler warning),( Read more... )

Found this online.
Haha, it's so true.
Lil' Wayne was the artist Michael Phelps bumped to during the Olympics.


Cyber Attacks in South Korea
So like there have been these cyber attacks against South Korean computers for the past week. Viruses have been unleashed on important government computers. Finger pointing leads north to North Korea. A lot of my Korean friends have been timid to have their own personal computers being plugged in during this time. It's probably a smart move on their choice. My Korean friends have been warning me, too, "yo! Virus attack! Unplug yo computer now!" So, if I lose internet access, y'all know what happened to me.


PSP
I bought a hacked, pirated Sony PSP few weeks ago. With it, I can get pirated games, movies, and internet access. After living with the PSP for these few weeks, I have now discovered how massively boring and long the Seoul metro is. I forgot to bring the PSP one day, and I swore the one hour train ride to Hongdae seemed like an eternity. There was only so much staring at Soju advertisements I could do. And the wait at transfer stations, wow...was unbearable.

Currently playing on my PSP:
True Blood (season 1) & Final Fantasy: Crisis Core

http://ping.fm/HA6ba

tinkering with a few things this afternoon. Trying to relax a tiny bit in between crises.

4th of July in Seoul! I hung out with some new friends, many of them journalists, at their pad overlooking Seoul Tower. We had a rooftop balcony barbeque. The United States military set off fireworks that night as well in nearby Yongsan. So all in all, not too shabby for celebrating the holiday abroad! When the fireworks were being set off (they lasted for nearly 20 minutes), many curious Koreans came out of their houses to spectate, too.





We grilled mini burger sliders and hot dogs. Some of the people at the party worked for the US military, thus they brought crazy things I couldn't find in a normal Korean supermarket. I was busy munching on Doritos and fancy cheese.

I met Andrew, who's good friends with Elise Kahl. (Yep, Alaska Elise!) We promised to take a picture together, to say "hi" to Elise, so here it is. As you can see, I still couldn't keep my hand out of the Doritos bag. Normally I don't eat this crap junk food, but since I practice dance hours to hours every other day, I burn calories like crazy. So....who cares.


After the 4th of July rooftop party, I jetted to Hongdae to meet up with Loan. We went to club Velvet Banana. Maximum Crew had a performance over there. Met Wake Up and some of the other guys. Will be seeing more of them after Battle of the Year - Korea this coming weekend! Loan and I plan to get some interviews with these guys for Strife.tv. As far as I know, Last Mass and Maximum are the only big crews signed up for BOTY - Korea. Possibly TG Breakers.


I'm getting my haircut tomorrow. It's been about two months. I was toying with the suggestion of my hair stylist, which is to leave it growing for 3 months and then get a Korean-ish perm. But then I'm starting to wonder, "What the hell am I thinking?"


Breakbeat of the Day:
performed by Last4One during their shows
also in the movie Planet B-boy

Lee Changyui - Canon in D (remix)

Say Hello to Underachieving. Excellent comments. Unpaid internships are a form ass-biting exploitation.

On computer "science". I link to this because I agree with most of it, and frankly, this is coming from someone who has a great deal of use and respect for the high ideas in computer science. For instance, his criticism of robots: Every robot I have ever seen discussed in college was a damn remote controlled car. Pathetic AND retarded. I have seen someone argue for using "Model Driven Architecture" to define a million line of code system to control a line-following robot. Most Electrical Engineers would use a $0.05 PID controller(google the wiki if you don't know...). Anyway, I also have a heretical belief that the best computing scientists are inherently cross disciplinary(now, before this comes off as too bad, I have several friends with pure CSC degrees, guys, I'm not talking about (most) of you, and trust me, plenty of outsiders are complete retards as well...).

Of course, criticizing the field will get me nowhere, because at the end of the day, I'm an outsider to it, but anyway, its got some points, and AI is of course, but then again, all this is why I argue for formality, proofs, and formal systems. Why? Its to easy to get away with detail eliding handwaving in which everything sounds plausible. Sure, "math"(and my favorite area, Mathematical Logic) is hard, but, uh, that's why we're supposed to get paid the big bucks.

America's Place In The World. Frankly, I can't find a money quote, because nearly the whole essay is a money quote, but he definitely nails it. Ironically, despite my frustrations and vitriol, I find that he would likely agree, I'm clearly an America. America is an idea, of course, has been true for a long time, and we're clearly insane, for some definition of it, and I assure you, tomorrow, I will be cursing the idiots I'm surrounded by just as much as I was today. Even that contentious constant fighting is typically American. Of course, I would argue that a bit of a insanity is essential to a long term winning strategy...