Hackosis

Readers - do you have any tips and tricks like this one? We would love to hear them.

Ask the readers — Have you converted or attempted to convert any family or friends to Linux? There was a time when I wouldn’t dare to attempt such a task. But with the way the open source world has developed, it seems that my current Ubuntu installation has more functionality than Microsoft Windows Vista.

I have successfully converted my wife to Linux Mint. She loves it. The only complaint she has is some of the online games she plays require Internet Explorer.

We are now 98% Linux free — except for the VirtualBox W2k installation that I use for Adobe Photoshop and VPN.

Have you successfully converted any family or friends to Linux? If not, what is stopping you? Have you tried and something just didn’t work? What proprietary programs can your family members not live without?

Share in the comments, we are dying to hear some open source stories.

Run out of jewel cases? Or maybe you hid them so your friends don’t ask you to burn them a CD AND give them a jewel case. At about $0.01 one cent a sheet, a piece of paper can make the perfect case for a CD or DVD.

And in case the video didn’t serve you justice, papercdcase.com has instructions for a slightly different version of a paper CD case in PDF and GIF format.

image by johl

More Matrix type things — Neurohacking is a method of modify or interfering with the structure or function of neurons.

If you are interested in Neurohacking, you may also be interested in:

• Brain-computer interfaces
• Simulated Realities
• Transhumanism
• Wetware Hacking

A real, recent example of neurohacking is the Brain Machine.

Will Computers ever reach a state that they will be able to develop and improve themselves? Eliezer S. Yudkowsky thinks it will be as soon as 2021 by the terms of Moore’s Law.

image by surfstyle

The short version of the paper:

If computing speeds double every two years,
what happens when computer-based AIs are doing the research?

Computing speed doubles every two years.
Computing speed doubles every two years of work.
Computing speed doubles every two subjective years of work.

Two years after Artificial Intelligences reach human equivalence, their speed doubles. One year later, their speed doubles again.

Six months - three months - 1.5 months … Singularity.

Plug in the numbers for current computing speeds, the current doubling time, and an estimate for the raw processing power of the human brain, and the numbers match in: 2021.

But personally, I’d like to do it sooner.

I think the question is not if the computers can think in the same speeds as we do, but if we can program computers to ‘think’ anything like the dynamic power of the human mind. This will be much bigger task than producing yottahertz.
Read the rest of this entry …

From hackyourself.org:

You can be happy. You can live the life you want to live. You can become the person you want to be.

This is what I’ve figured out so far.

Stop assigning blame. This is the first step. Stop assigning blame and leave the past behind you.

You know whose fault it is that your life isn’t perfect. Your boss. Your teachers. Your ex-lovers. The ones who hurt you, the ones who abused you, the ones who left you bleeding. Or even yourself. You know whose fault it is — you’ve been telling yourself your whole life. Knowing whose fault it is that your life sucks is an excellent way to absolve yourself of any reponsibility for taking your life into your own hands.

I have always thought that when necessary, acually blaming myself for things (inside of my head) acually helps alot — that way I can find a way to prevent what ever it is from happening again.

I have prepared the document in Mp3 audio format via festival — download it here.

Read more a hackyourself.org { via lifehacker.com }

original image by Pulpolux !!!

ef·fec·tive — ɪˈfɛktɪv — adequate to accomplish a purpose; producing the intended or expected result.

definition from dictionary.com

All 7 seven habits extracted from Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People:

1. Be Proactive - think and adapt for the log-term. How do we effect what is going on around us? We can change the outcome.
2. Begin With The End in Mind - The ‘end’ represents the purpose, since there is no way to acually have the ‘end’ in mind. What is your purpose? It is all about satisfaction.
3. Put First Things First - Overall, what is most important? What is most urgent? Separate tasks into these categories and tend accordingly.
4. Think Win-Win - Have an attitude toward satisfying both sides of a dispute. It’s a cooperative mentality.
5. Seek First To Understand - Don’t first seek to be understood; First seek to understand.
6. Synergize - Collaborate with others to find that certain Win-Win solution.
7. Sharpen The Saw - You are the saw — you need to sharpen yourself. This involves regularly exercising the body, mind, and spirit.

Follow these 7 habits, and I assure you will be an effective person. It may be easier said than done, but life is about a balance between differences. Nine times out of 10 the most effective concept or play out is the harder one to complete.

Have you read this book? If not, I highly recommend it and if you have, please tell us your thoughts on the seven habits.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change By Stephen R. Covey at Google Books

A cognitive snap is that ‘thing’ in your head that hits you right in between a problem and the solution. As soon as it hits you it ’snaps’. This can be anything from suddenly realizing that you have a solution to a problem to ‘getting’ a joke that someone tells you.

A description from The Eureka Effect: The Art and Logic of Breakthrough Thinking:

image by jepoirrier

The breakthrough comes rapidly, a kind of falling into place, a cognitive snap. Not much time separates the precipitating of the event from a solution, even if the details remain to be checked. This Archimedes’ classic “Eureka!” The time might be a fraction of a second, several minutes, or sometimes more, but the time is characteristically short compared to the time leading up to the breakthrough. In contrast, working out the ramifications of the basic insight may take some time. The Wright brothers labored and argued for months on the technical problems of translating their propeller-as-wing insight into a well-engineered propeller.

I highly recommend any ‘hacker’ to read this book by David Perkins.

Be sure to also check out the six rompecabezas.

Have you had a ‘cognitive snap’ recently? If so, let us know in the comments.

image via link

Blifaloo.com discusses how to detect when someone is lying to you. These techniques are used by police and other security experts. These include, but are not limited to:

• Avoiding eye contact
• Touching face such as scratching the nose or ear
• Delayed facial expressions
• Opposing facial expression to what is being said
• Defensive reactions or changing the subject quickly
• Turning away when talking
• Places objects in between them and you unconsciously

If you have any more tips to detect when people are lying, please tell us in the comments.

image by Hamburger Jung

I believe that most of us have wrote something in an email that we regret and/or sent it to someone that wasn’t suppose to read what was written.

Deb Koen writes about how to recover from a blunder in an email with a sense of honesty and lightness. This could also relate to other situations.

Have you made a blunder in an email or conversation? If so, feel free to share it in the comments.