parentonomics

Unlike what one might expect from the title, parentonomics is not Jo Frost disguised as an economist, nor an economist playing Jo Frost. Joshua Gans is a father of three, applying his scientific discipline into parenting and documenting the results. And he does so in an instructive and humorous way. I wish I could write my experiences with my three children in a similar way. Maybe someone else can document parenting while viewing it though an algorithmic or engineering prism.

In my opinion this is a book for fathers. Other books on parenting that I have checked have a more motherly approach, so this is a refreshing change. Because unlike the “no two kids are the same” principle, significant others’ reactions seem to follow a pattern* regardless of the number of children. Soon to become fathers prepare yourselves.

I really liked the fact that this book discusses parenting of three. Most of the literature that I have browsed seems to address the issue of the first (or single) child in the family. One would expect that after the first child one is prepared to deal with the second (and third), but hey you are not: Family management complicates exponentially. And in my case (child 0 first+, twins next) it complicates even faster than Gans’.

One interesting observation that occurred to me while reading the book is that all parents seem to be non systematically trained game theorists (game practitioners maybe?). Which is basically the reason why many strategies we employ as parents are flawed or simply not working. All in all this is a good book that has advice to offer and data to back up the opinions it carries. I really enjoyed reading it.


[*] – Either there is a pattern, or our wives would definitely be friends (or both).

[+] – Gans enumerates his children as Child 1, 2 and 3. I prefer the K&R approach :)

pseudoscience

Όχι ρε σεις! Εάν δεχτώ τις πίπες που σερβίρετε έχω κλειστό το μυαλό μου. Το μυαλό μου είναι ανοιχτό ακριβώς επειδή δεν τις δέχομαι.

Αθλητικό ΠΠΣΚ

  • Παρασκευή: Ο αγώνας κρίθηκε στο καλάθι. Χάσαμε, αλλά πήγε καλύτερα από ότι περίμενα. Διάφοροι ειδήμονες που γράφανε και λέγανε “έπρεπε να πάει για τρίποντο” με πιθανότητα P → 1 δεν έχουν βρεθεί ποτέ στη θέση να πάρουν και να εκτελέσουν μια σημαντική απόφαση σε 5 sec.
  • Σάββατο: Αφαιρώντας τους αγώνες της Εθνικής στο Euro 2004, πρέπει να είναι ο πιο ενδιαφέρον αγώνας που έχω δει · για το Ελληνικό Πρωτάθλημα και Κύπελλο σίγουρα. Παρολαυτά, όλοι όσοι αναφέρονται στον “τελικό των τελικών” βολικά ξεχνάνε τα επεισόδια. Το σχόλιο του Stazybo Horn επί αυτής της βολής είναι χαρακτηριστικό.
  • Κυριακή: Πάλι στο καλάθι κρίθηκε το ματς, αν και το πρώτο ημίχρονο με έκανε να σκέφτομαι την πιθανότητα τελικού “σούπας”. Όμως αυτό το σφύριγμα για τα 8 sec ήταν όντως από τα “strange things happened in the second half”.

Και γιατί ΠΠΣΚ και όχι ΠΣΚ; Γιατί την Πέμπτη στον παιδίατρο:

– Τι ομάδα είσαι Θ ;
– Ο-λυμπιακός! (δυνατά σε δυο ανάσες)
– Ποια είναι καλύτερη ομάδα, ο Ολυμπιακός ή ο Παναθηναϊκός;
– Παθακός
– @!#!&^%

Οι όροι εισόδου στο σπίτι πρέπει να αλλάξουν και το πρόγραμμα κόκκινης επιμόρφωσης να εντατικοποιηθεί.

12/13

Και τυπικά πλέον. Αλλά μια από τα ίδια. Ή μάλλον χειρότερα: Κύριε Σάββα Θεοδωρίδη κάνε την μέγιστη προσφορά που σου μένει στον Ολυμπιακό. Είναι καιρός να αποσυρθείς. Δεν προστατεύεις κανένα · εκθέτεις όχι μόνο εμάς, αλλά και τον εαυτό σου. Και δεν είναι η πρώτη φορά. Ο παραγοντισμός έχει αλλάξει από το 1950 και πρέπει να το καταλάβεις.

Με σεβασμό.

twitter for file sharing?

The thought occurred to me while reading Matt Welsh’s criticism on how Project Graffiti conducted their experiment. I think it is possible to share files over twitter and I will sketch the concept bellow:

  1. Create N accounts on twitter.
  2. uuencode the file in question so that we have to deal only with printable characters. Optionally encrypt it first.
  3. Pick randomly the account that will tweet first.
  4. tweet the first line of the file.
  5. Use a hash function (like SuperFastHash) and hash the line. That way you will get the next account to tweet the file contents.
  6. The next account replies to the previously tweeted line. The reply contains the next line.
  7. Repeat hashing and replies until the whole file is tweeted.

When the process is finished you end up with a string of replies that if put together contain the (uuencoded) contents of the original file.

Yes, this is neither practical nor distributed file sharing, but in a way it is hiding obscuring information in plain sight.

“Personal Renewal”

I found out about John Gardner’s “Personal Renewal” from a tweet by @karounos. Being employed in the public sector one gets struck by boredom fairly easily and even when not bored one wonders on the meaning of his work:

Someone said to me the other day “How can I be so bored when I’m so busy?” And I said “Let me count the ways.”

I found this essay highly inspirational:

There’s a myth that learning is for young people. But as the proverb says, “It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.” The middle years are great, great learning years. Even the years past the middle years. I took on a new job after my 77th birthday — and I’m still learning.

and even amusing at times:

Another example was Pope John XXIII, a serious man who found a lot to laugh about. […] When someone asked him how many people worked in the Vatican he said “Oh, about half.”

Do yourself a favor and read the speech, even when on the bus.

crypt(3) archaeology

There seems to be a bug biting crypt(3) on Lenny amd64. On such platforms when using crypt(3) with the traditional DES scheme you get a segmentation fault. You do not get this when using the Modular Crypt Format ($digit$ password hash style). Fortunately, for the problem I was facing, I located and used the crypt(3) implementation from the Seventh Edition Unix. It is available from The Unix Heritage Society thanks to Henry Spencer.

Deliverability versus delivery

I copy from Word to the Wise:

  • Delivery is what happens to a particular email. It is what ISPs are most concerned about.
  • Deliverability is the delivery potential of a particular email. It is what marketers, commercial senders and ESPs are concerned about. Deliverability is more than just “can this email be delivered”, it is the sum total of factors that play into email marketing: relevance, structure, content, and reputation.