Power laws and podcasting
A power law is a distribution law where the distribution of values for any ranked order of values n, is of the order 1/n, e.g. the second postion node has a value of 1/2 of the first, the number three has 1/3 the value of the first, and number ten has 1/10 the value. The important feature of this distribution, in comparison to the more familar standard deviation, is the vast bulk of values is concentrated in the few top-scorers. Blog site popularity, for example, is dominated by a tiny number of popular bloggers. Here's an article at social twister which applies this concept to the nascent world of podcasting.
I'm not very indie (exxxceeelllent)
i am open-minded
How indie are you? test by ridethefader
You're pretty knowledgeable about music in general. You like indie music, sure, but that's only part of it.
You'll listen to any old shit as long as it sounds good to you. You're not snobby about music at all, you
just like what you like. How boring. Curiously, this makes you popular with the opposite sex.
Taxi driver & Cabcharge collude to defraud passengers. Do not ride in TCS taxi 7649 or 2649.
On the morning of 28 Oct 2004 approximately at 9 to 9.30 am I journeyed by Taxi from Potts Point to North Sydney. I paid by credit card (VISA) using the form supplied by cabcharge that drivers carry. When I saw my statement the next month the amount was for $77. I disputed the transaction with my bank. The bank determined that my 'A receipt bearing an imprint from your credit card with your signature' was enough to refuse the disputation. However the attached receipt clearly shows the destination altered from 'N. Sydney' to 'W. Sydney Airp(obscured)' a desination that does not exist. The amount is clearly altered from 'Sixteen' to 'Sixteenine' dollars, the added numbers not being my handwirting, the numeral '1' changed to a dollar sign and a '9' added to the amount, to change the amount from $16.85 to $69.85.
Clearly this is fraud on the part of the driver, and colluded to by both Cabcharge, and my bank as they did not check the receipt for such obvious forgery. I have the car number and the driver's last name and ABN on the copy of the receipt given to me by the bank. the last name written is Chang or Chong or similar starting with Ch and the ABN is 12731485642, taxi number 7649 or 2649. The co-operative written is 'TCS' - Taxi Combined Services.
Re: This ABN 12731485642. A search on the ABR database shows this ABN to be invalid. Therefore Cabcharge is colluding in Taxation Fraud as this check is easily performed before making any payment, as well as general fraud against the taxi using public. This information highlights a major business colluding with fraudulent taxi drivers on many different levels in complete breach of their legal and moral obligations.
Cabcharge should be investigated by the ATO for collusion in serious tax fraud as they must process these receipts knowing the payee is not in possession of a valid ABN. Furthermore the minister should rule illegal the use of such paper receipts as they allow this type of fraud to occur more easily.
Dark Network mp3 playlist
Playlist of three Dark Network tracks. If you like you should buy their album, Late Set.
If you don't have javascript you can visit the Dark Network website or go to the playlist on Webjay.
Environ mp3s
My friend Brendan Palmer, who founded Clan Analogue, and now lives in Melbourne, runs a Sunday club night down there called Environ. It's moniker is 'unpredictable aesthetics'. In their words;
Environ is the monthly event in Melbourne where artists and musicians from the many walks of the scene get together to form unprecedented collaborations with wildly varied outcomes, in front of an audience. Electronics has met psychobilly, dub mixing has met optical art, and jazz brass has met Indian tabla ...
Anyway below is a series of excepts from their performances, playlisted with Webjay.
You need javascript turned on to see this playlist, otherwise visit the Environ website.
Enjoy.
Clover Moore's reign over Christmas in Sydney
Is Clover Moore the Christmas Grinch? Or maybe just the Sydney City Grinch, in general. Speaking as a resident of Sydney City, Clover Moore is getting what she deserves from the Telegraph over the "Christmas debacle". OK the Christmas thing is very trivial and spiteful on the part of the Tele, and typical of their petty and vindictive style.
However in substantial areas Clover's thus far short reign as Emperor, I mean Mayor of Sydney is failing in many ways.
Since gaining power in the council she has ruled as an autocrat, the 'non-caucusing' community independents continually caucus and use their numbers to shut down debate on the Council's affairs, especially the financial situation. Although I suppose this is fairly standard fair this sort of behaviour was the exact thing she was always criticising the major parties for doing.
Amost her first act as Mayor was to waste money on a court case to prevent the diseased figs in the domain from being chopped down; when clearly the city council didn't have the authority to do anything about it. It was a PR stunt (and she still won't tell us how much legal fees have been spent). But when figs where found to be diseased in Hyde Park, part of her authority, secrecy rules. Up went the fences, down came the trees. Almost overnight.
Clover used the phrase 'commercial in confidence' to kill off dissent about design of the Oxford St cycleway project, which is dangerous for cyclists. Any attempts to get the council to re-look at the design were stonewalled by Clover's 'independent' team, which by way if you ask them doesn't caucus, but still manages to hold party meetings off to the side of the council and then vote en bloc.
But far worse than any of this has been the asset stripping the city council has performed south of Cleveland St. South of Cleveland St., for people who don't know, is the undesirable part of the city, Waterloo and Alexandria having large tracts of public housing, industrial estate, and low income housing. This area the city inherited, as well as the more desirable areas of Potts Point, Elizabeth Bay, Darlinghurst, Surry Hills etc, from the forced merger with the old South Sydney City council. The City gots millions of dollars of assets and income from South Sydney, but unlike the previous council, hasn't spent a dime south of Cleveland St. Instead clover pork barrels her NIMBY constituency in the affluent areas and the poor people can just go rot (you see, they don't tend to vote for Clover down there).
Any noise you hear from Clover's part about the State Government taking control of the Redfern-Airport corridor is purely about her outrage over parts of her dominion being excised from her control. It is not borne from any concern for the residents of Redfern, Waterloo and Alexandria. Any concerns expressed about those residents by Clover or her team is perfectly new, and tactical, only designed to make Saint Clover look like she really does care for the teaming masses who until now, were perfectly ignored and left to rot.
Maybe I should try complaining to my local member of State Parliament - Clover Moore MLC, Member for Bligh.
Australia's favorite books
The ABC ran a survey on Australia's favorite books and ran the television program last night. The top ten books has some mixed blessings.
I say, "No!" to the DaVinci code. If you want rennaissance conspiracy theory I recommend "Foucalt's Pendulum" by Umberto Eco, or the "Name Of the Rose". Eco is a very good writer and knows his history.
Where are the Classics, "The Republic" by Plato, "The Peloponessian War" by Thucydides, Plutarch's "Nine Lives", Suetonius' "The Twelve Ceasars", Julius Caesar "The Conquest of Gaul"? Ovid's "Metamorphoses"?
But one of my favourite books of all is Robert Graves "The Greek Myths". Also Nicollo Machiavelli, "The Prince".
"Catch 22" is a pretty good book though. Of modern authors my favorites have to be J.G. Ballard and Bret Easton Ellis. Ballard's books are classics of human psychology, I think particularly "The Atrocity Exhibition" stands as a classic of post-war 20th century literature. Ballard's short stories are also well worth a read, they convey a certain anxiety that pervaded the post-War, space-race obsessed 1960s and 70s in a very original and interesting way.
Easton Ellis is a great American author, "Less Than Zero", "The Rules of Attraction", "American Psycho", vicious black comedies that strike at the heart of modern life. But my favorite Ellis book of all is "Glamorama".
Simulation Argument
Over at 'she sells sanctuary' Gianna muses about metaphysics and refers to the 'Simulation Argument'. (Gianna refers to a News Ltd story on the matter but I can refer you to the original paper by Nick Bostrom on the topic). Gianna refers to the fact that a simulation could be running somewhere in our 'multiverse' (referred to in the News Ltd article), which is a nice way for astrophysicists to push there pet theories, however theories of the multiverse are are completely unneccessary for the argument.
In a strange twist of fate I was thinking about this argument only last week.
The argument runs, basically;
IF
1. You accept that it is possible for a consciousness to be simulated on some sort of computing device independent of the brain (this is called substrate independence) and that the sort of computing power to perform this task many times over is possible to obtain in this Universe (or some other Universe).
AND
2. You accept that some species of post-human life will exist in the future, or alternatively within the bounds of the univers, and that it will be desirable for some species of post-human life to run consciousness simulations.
THEREFORE
3. The probability that you yourself are running in such a simulation is close enough to 1.0 (i.e. certainty) that it is almost impossible to admit otherwise.
There is an equation, and an argument, in the original paper which shows this point, which I will not reproduce here (go to the paper to read it).
Of course if 1 and 2 are correct in metaphysical reality, and you don't believe it, it doesn't make it untrue, nor if you believe such things as 1 and 2 that they are correct. It's just that if you hold that 1 and 2 are true, then you should logically believe that you are in fact simulated.
Actually the paper argues about the factors in point 2 more than point 1. That is the author's equation states that one of the following must be true:
- the number of civilisations reach a post-human stage of development ~= 0 (ie humans are to become extinct)
- the number of civilisations who do reach such a stage and are interested in ancestor-simulations ~= 0
- the probability of you being inside a simulation ~= 1 (ie an almost certainty)
My interpretation of teh argument, although not supported by the author's original conclusions whcih deal only with the points above, is that really the Simulation Argument is about the computability and substrate independence of human or animal consciousness. It has nothing to do with Multiverses, although I would hazard a guess that if the Multiverse theory was proven (how I don't know) it would increase the probability of Simulation even closer to 1.0.
The only way I see any person escaping the belief that they are in fact a simulated human is that either you believe;
- humans are doomed to extinction without a successor species, or at least incapable of developing an advanced technological civilisation (pretty pessimistic, but given current human behaviour, a possibility).
- human successor species will not be interested in their antecedents (I think a distinct improbability), or will be prevented from doing so by moral strictures (as it inflicts suffering on the simulated awarenesses)
- the simulations are imperfect by some necessity and a simulated consciousness can tell the difference (ie detect it is a simulation) (this is pretty interesting, but how do we gain this information?)
- available computing power is much more finite than we think (I don't think this is likely)
- consciousness is not substrate independent (goes against the grain of most mainstream thought in this field).
Anyway it's an interesting little conundrum and funnily enough, opens the possibility for a scientific humanist empiricist to reintroduce the concept of the Creator - Programmer as Creator. The programmer in me likes that even as the philosopher revolts!