Ted Tschopp's Blog

Thoughts on Narrative

I am in the middle of reading a book written by Nassim Nicholas Taleb called the Black Swan. The book itself is basically about the problems with inductive reasoning. In the book he parses these ideas out into several more specific fallacies.

• The Narrative fallacy: creating a story post-hoc to create an identifiable cause for a given event.
• The Ludic fallacy: believing that the structured randomness found in games resembles the unstructured randomness found in life
• The Statistical regress fallacy: believing that the probability of future events is predictable by examining occurrences of past events.

The fallacy I want to concentrate on is the narrative fallacy. What fascinates me the most about this is that religions use Narrative to communicate their ideas. Christianity, the religion I feel is true, even goes to the point of stating that the only way that God communicates to people today is mediated via the Bible, a large collection of stories. When we are told to communicate the Gospel, we are told to tell a story. This story is summed up as follows: The creator of the universe entered reality as a human born of a woman in a small town at the center of the known world. He lived a short life, and then was put to death. Three days later he was alive again. When he was alive he claimed that those be swore fealty to Him as Lord would be able to give Him all the bad things they had done in life and have them killed as he was killed. They would also receive the life he received after being dead for three days.

I guess what fascinates me the most is that Taleb tells us that this narrative fallacy is one of the strongest and easiest fallacies for us to fall into. How is it that one of our weakest points in our intellectual armor is also one of the most critical. The book of Romans calls for us to renew our minds. We are called to be crafty as serpents. So we are called as Christians to be ready for this type of post-hoc fallacy.

I guess we can take this in several different directions. The first is that narrative is the mediated way God communicates, therefore it's not wholly evil. Another direction is that narrative is definitely screwed up I wonder what it looked like before the fall. I also wonder if this fallacy is becoming more and more common as time passes.

Quote: On Change

“If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less.” – General Eric Shinseki, Chieff of Staff, U.S. Army.

It's me the only Anime

One of my coworkers daughters,Valerie Bickel, is going to college to be an animator.  One day she needed to take her mother to work and she stayed.  To pass the time she started to draw each of us as anime characters.

Anyway, I thought it turned out rather nice and was worthy of sharing.  I wonder if that’s my black Geek t-shirt or my Steve-Jobs-Black turtle neck I’m wearing.

Enjoy!

Moving to the Mac

So, it's been over a month now that I have had my new MacBookPro. I have spent the last month or so getting everything up and running. I have had to purchase a couple products. But right now it seems that everything is where I need it to be.

Office
I had to purchase Microsoft Office. This is the first time I have ever had to purchase Office. I have a MSDN license, so on Windows, I always used that copy of the application. Office on the Mac is rather nice, and feels like a Microsoft product. Word and Powerpoint have crashed on me several times, and that made me feel like I was back on my PC. At first I hoped to be able to use iWork from Apple, but there really are features in Office that I need. I also had couldn't purchase the Home version of office, as I wanted to use Automator actions. I'm a bit upset that there are so many different versions of office for the Mac. It seems that Microsoft likes to diversify their product line to the point of loosing focus.

Blogging
I have had to do all my blogging in ecto. The application is a good replacement for the blogging tools I have on the PC, but it still isn't as good as Microsoft's blogging tool. On the bright side, the application is still being developed and the short coming of the application can be fixed. I have owned it now for about a month and there have been several updates in that month.

RSS/NewsReader
I have been using NetNewsWire as my RSS reader. I like the application, but I miss several of the features that I loved in FeedDemon. On FeedDemon I use to set up the folder view to display all folders that had unread items in them. The view would be set up to display only unread items, and I would scan feed by feed using the control-d to mark the displayed page as read and move to the next unread section. If I came across anything that looked interesting I would flag it and put it in a bucket to turn into another RSS feed, that I run through Feedburner and import into my personalized home page, and onto my Blog. I can't seem to reproduce this workflow exactly, but I'm getting there.

Graphics
I need to get my license of Creative Suite 3 Professional transfered off my PC and onto this Mac. I have not yet done this.

Development Tools
Well, I purchased this computer to do iPhone development. I will have to say that the customer service I have gotten from Apple vs. the customer experience I got from Microsoft is like day vs. night. I was personally contacted by someone at Apple and they wanted to help me with the process of getting my keys. I had already gotten most of this done, but the personal phone call from someone who sounded like he was calling me from the Bay Area was nice.

As for web development tools, I have tried Coda and BBedit. I have yet to land on a product that I like. I want something that integrates with Subversion or CVS.

Other Cool Tools
iCalendar + SpanningSync +iPhone + iTunes = EPIC WIN! I finally have everything all synced up. On the PC this was almost impossible. I tried to get Vista's calendar, and Outlook, and some syncing tools and iTunes all to work together. It was frustrating. It was doable outside of firewalls and proxy servers, but once you get behind a proxy server the whole workflow fell apart. This one workflow alone was worth the price of admission. I'm also looking forward to getting OmniFocus and Remember the Milk setup.

BootCamp
I installed BootCamp to do Vista. I have yet to use Vista, but I can see that I I will after I get the wireless card I have up and running under Vista (btw, getting it up and running on OSX was as simple as downloading the driver and following the instructions on installing it. It just worked.) I will probably use Vista for gaming only. Sadly I'm now thinking that all Vista is good for is games. It's my new toy operating system.

Overall Impressions
The next computer my Mom and Dad get will be an iMac. I'm also going to make my sister get one as well. I'm tired of doing tech support on PC's. I spent several weeks getting rid of viruses on their machines over the last year. Also it seems that everything Just Works on the Mac. I guess you can say that I drank the Kool Aid and It's GREAT!

links for 2008-03-22

• FCC Finally Admits Its Broadband Penetration Numbers Are 'Stunningly Meaningless'
  For years, the FCC has been publishing numbers about broadband penetration in the US that were clearly bogus.
• Breaking: FCC Confirms that Big Winner in Spectrum Auction is Verizon. So Why Is Google Smiling?
  The big winner of the FCC’s $19.6 billion auction of wireless spectrum that ended yesterday is Verizon. That was pretty much everyone’s guess.
• FCC releases 700MHz auction details, Verizon, AT&T big winners
  After yesterday's wrap-up of the gargantuan Auction 73 to offload the newly-freed 700MHz spectrum, it looks like the two champions to emerge are Verizon and AT&T. Big Red has emerged with virtually all of the highly coveted C Block save for Alaska, Puerto
• OK, so Adobe ins’t making Flash for iPhone, at least not yet
  Remember yesterday we brought you news that Adobe was fast-tracking a version of Flash for the iPhone? Yah, not so much. Adobe’s CEO Narayen assumed it would be possible with the recently released iPhone SDK.
• The Conversation Has Left the Blogosphere
  We've seen a lot of new aggregation services and lifestreaming applications come into play recently, and we've questioned whether they're adding to the conversation or just adding to our information overload. (See our coverage on FriendFeed, for example).
• Google Releases Language Translation API
  As of today, the powerful Google Translate service that lets you translate between 13 different languages and 29 language pairs is now available as a handy JavaScript-based API. Given the breadth of the engine it’s built on, it already supports language
• LinkedIn Company Profiles. Gee, That Makes Sense.
  Not sure what took so long, but LinkedIn had added company profiles. Just like there are profiles for users, there are now profiles for the companies that LinkedIn users work for.
• The First Rule of Programming: It's Always Your Fault
  You know the feeling. It's happened to all of us at some point: you've pored over the code a dozen times and still can't find a problem with it. But there's some bug or error you can't seem to get rid of. There just has to be something wrong with the mach
• What’s the Persona of Your Company? Examining the LinkedIn Company Directory
  Combining both third party plus member data, LinkedIn can reveal a persona –and social capital– of our companies.
• 24% Can’t Find Google
  This week, usability guru Jakob Nielsen asks: “How difficult is it to perform a search on Google?” No, really. How hard is it? We know the search box in the upper right hand corner of your screen can get there. We know that Google.com in the address b
• OpenID and OAuth in the browser?
  When I was looking over Brad Neuberg’s Paper Airplane thought experiment I noticed the single sign on feature, where you login to the browser, and then you are done. I realized that this is what I actually want. Having one signon via OpenID is really n
• new google visualization API
  A new Google Visualization API, based on the powerful visualization techniques from GapMinder. the API is "designed to make it easier for a wide audience to make use of advanced visualization technology, & do so in a way that makes it quick and easy to in
• Trendalyzer view of the banking crisis
  The team at "And Still I Persist" has created their own version of Hans Rosling's "Trendalyzer" (see: Radar post) to visualize the current US banking crisis.
• Brian Dettmer's insanely creative Book Autopsies
• Starbucks’ Bright Idea: Launch a Social Network.
  McDonalds has better (flavored) coffee now, and that’s giving Starbucks a run for its money. The omnipresent coffee shop has even started running television commercials. A few other campaigns had hoped to get some more support from the consumers, such a

Communion of the Saints in the Age of the Internet

I got the following email from the Pastor who leads our bible study.

During last week's Life Light I overheard some of you talking about those who feel they do not need the church -- the "assembly of believers". That attitude seems to be increasing in the United States. You can do everything on the "internet" --

http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/03/13/online.confessions/index.html

Here is my response. I'm posting it here as I would like to post all my rather lengthy and perhaps thoughtful stuff here.

I am sorry for the length of this email. I felt I should respond as I was the one who brought this up. Having the ability to write something without the limitations of paper tends to make me very verbose. I have edited several rather large tangents out of this diatribe against the idea of virtual churches. As with most new things in the Church, I think they only point to the novelty of mans ability to create new ways to sin and the churches (the building, not the bride) willingness to scratch the itch.

My first thoughts on reading the article is the first letter to the Corinthians. Paul says that when they have gathered together and that he Paul is with them in spirit they should hand the man over to Satan who has become proud in his sexual sins. Paul also states that he is with the community of believers in spirit. So we do have an example of the lack of the remission of sins due to some form of confession remotely from the apostolic fathers as recorded in the New Testament. In each case that I can think of, including where the Christ lays outs the Office of the Keys, distance doesn't seem to be a problem.

However, proximity also seems to be important. Paul asks for the community in Corinth to gather together. Jesus tells us that we can bind and absolve sins here on earth and that he will honor that in heaven.

I guess I will tend to lean away from the idea of a virtual church because online communities tends to get gnostic. I use to run the largest Tolkien community on the Internet. At our height we have 50,000 - 75,000 active participants. From that experience I know a virtual community online can be good. They have many strengths and are the source of much blessing. But there are weaknesses to an online community. They tend to emphasize their strengths. The ability to focus on the mind and being virtually present. This means the group will start to deny the physical in favor of the mind and the virtual. This is the exact same problem that the gnostics championed as one of the blessings of their philosophy.

Being a part of a community is touching, tasting, breathing, crying, and in the end living together. The creator of the universe has blessed us with many amazing blessings including a mind that can come up with things like computers and email and virtual communities online. But that same creator did not enter cyberspace to talk to us. He didn't send us an email. He didn't touch the heavens and have the clouds form the letters "I LOVE YOU." No, he entered reality as a messy, dirty, smelly, Human. The creator liked matter so much that creator and creation became bound up in reality in the person and work of Jesus of Nazareth.

In this cases we should follow the example of our God. How did he communicate our forgiveness to us. When Adam and Eve had sinned, e came to them in the cool of the evening. From that point forward, when God came, it was mediated through the medium of prophets, priests, and kings. Finally when the time was right our God entered reality, and when it was all done he yelled "It is finished" for all to hear. And before He left he charged his followers to tell others what they had witnessed.

No our God entered reality. No more mediation is needed. No more prophets, priests, or kings. No need to approach a mountain on fire, or a building or tent filled with the blood. And now that we are this free isn't it -so- human to say. "I don't like my freedom. It's scary. I need my church experience mediated with a computer screen. I need my experience with my fellow believers mediated by the television screen. I need my experience with God's forgiveness to be mediated through forms of entertainment like a movie. I believe in the communion of the saints like the creed says, but please, I need that experience mediated; the physical reality of the connection between other believers is too much." These are all the sayings of a sinful man returning to the same attitudes he had before he experienced God.

I suppose I could keep ranting about this, I agree there are good things about having the ability to remotely confess. Sins are hard to confront. It's easier to leave a note on a car and say "Sorry I ran into you. Here is my insurance information." than it is to stop and confront the person you ran into. But the absolution of sins needs to be very real and felt, and seeing the words "I absolve you" scroll across the screen isn't as real as the confessor/pastor saying it; and it's definitely not as real as the dying God saying "Today you will be with me in Paradise."

More on the Switch to my Mac.

Well, I crossed another huge mountain range on my journey to converting everything over to use my new MacBook Pro. I got my Wireless Modem working on the Mac. I also got Boot Camp up and running. The last large barrier to getting this all to work is getting Microsoft Office Installed and running. I am also installing Subversion in the background as I write this. This means I will have a source control system for my iPhone development activities as well as my web development activities. I have also installed BBedit, which integrates with Subversion. Honestly this is getting exciting. I guess I'm still a geek.

Celemony_ :: Direct Note Access

A friend of mine pointed the following product out to me:

Direct Note Access is a technology that makes the impossible possible: for the first time in audio recording history you can identify and edit individual notes within polyphonic audio material. The unique access that Melodyne affords to pitch, timing, note lengths and other parameters of melodic notes will now also be afforded to individual notes within chords

Click here to look at the companies website. Also make sure you watch the video.

Testing ecto

This is a test post using ecto. I am looking for a blogging tool I can use on both my new MacBook Pro and my Dell laptop. Ecto seems to be working pretty good on both the PC and Mac.

Internet Explorer 8 and posting to your Typepad Blog

I downloaded IE8 today and noticed it had a new way to post to Microsoft’s blog by highlighting some text and sending it off to their blogging service.

Here is the code that will make it work in Typepad:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<openServiceDescription xmlns="http://www.microsoft.com/schemas/openservicedescription/1.0">
 <homepageUrl>http://www.typepad.com/t/app</homepageUrl>
 <display>
  <name>Blog in Typepad</name>
  <icon>http://www.tschopp.net/favicon.ico</icon>
       <description>Post this in my Blog</description>
 </display>
 <activity category="Blog">
  <activityAction context="selection">
   <execute method="get" action="http://www.typepad.com/t/app/weblog/post">
    <parameter name="title" value="{documentTitle}" />
    <parameter name="SourceURL" value="{documentUrl}" />
    <parameter name="blog_id" value="16627" />
    <parameter name="text" value="{selection}" />
    <parameter name="keywords" value="{keywords}" />
   </execute>
  </activityAction>
  <activityAction context="document">
   <execute method="get" action="http://www.typepad.com/t/app/weblog/post">
    <parameter name="title" value="{documentTitle}" />
    <parameter name="blog_id" value="16627" />
    <parameter name="SourceURL" value="{documentUrl}" />
   </execute>
  </activityAction>
  <activityAction context="link">
   <execute method="get" action="http://www.typepad.com/t/app/weblog/post">
    <parameter name="title" value="{linkTitle}" />
    <parameter name="blog_id" value="16627" />
    <parameter name="SourceURL" value="{link}" />
   </execute>
  </activityAction>
 </activity>
</openServiceDescription>

1. Copy and paste this into a Text file.
2. Name it typepad.xml
3. Replace blog_Id with your blog ID

1. Browse to http://www.typepad.com/t/app 
2. Click on the blog you want to post to
3. Observe the URL http://www.typepad.com/t/app/weblog/manage?blog_id=16627

Replace the <icon> with your favicon

Save the document

Upload file to your Typepad account

Create a new HTML file

Name it typepad.html

Put the following code in the html file:<A href="javascript:window.external.addService('http://www.tschopp.net/typepad.xml');">Click Here</a>

Replace my URL with the URL to the XML file you created above

Save file

Upload File to Typepad

Browse to HTML file

Click on link

My files are located at http://www.tschopp.net/Typepad.html 

Let me know how it goes. I will post updates later this week to get more than just selections working. I also want to expand this to other services. Let me know how this is working for you.