Sassy, Bossy, Sluts & Bitches

shlomi on June 3, 2014

The culture “war” (to besmirch Rupert’s pet yellow rag) continues. This time it’s “Ban Bossy,” an alliterative sound bite. Proponents of putting “bossy” in the same isolation ward as “retarded” say it’s because the word is fundamentally pejorative and used in conjunction with girls.

Unlike the “R” word (thanks, Tali, for being early in the game in having that banned in our households), “bossy” isn’t an objectively difference in a person from the perceived physical or psychological norm, it’s the user’s subjective opinion of another’s behavior.

Bosses should be “bossy.” In a random grouping, there will be leaders and followers. Leader frequently “boss” others to achieve their — and hopefully the group’s — goals. Bossy is a power term: this person directs others.

In the warped world of misogynistic etymology, “bossy” is the new “assertive” (trans: “aggressive”). Should we ban “assertive?” How about “pushy?”

Let the words roam free, I say, and attach the meaning to the speaker and context, and not the sequence of letters. And if that makes me bossy, or a pushy bastard, so be it.

Deserters, Traitors and Captives

shlomi on June 2, 2014

The US wrangled the release of Bowe Bergdahl, a US Army soldier. Handily it also got rid of five Taliban folks who’ve been out of circulation for 13 years, and had nothing to do with the Afghan war. (I’m not saying they’re not bloody murderers, its just that we haven’t been able to convict them, deport them, or do anything else with them.)

Some military folks are saying he was a “traitor,” that he “went AWOL.” I’m not sure how that’s relevant to the joy the family has of his being returned. I’m sure the military court of justice will do what it does with all soldiers: try the facts of the case.

I don’t pretend to know what really happened the night he was captured. I _do_ know that PTSD has terrible effects on soldiers: getting drunk, suicidal actions, running away… these are all part of that kind of reaction. What was he like before this? A sane person would not go past the fence into enemy terrain just for giggles. Something drove him, if he indeed did this, out.

The politicians, safe and smug, are throwing stones at President Obama’s actions. Leaving no one on the field of battle is immensely important, no matter what the circumstances. The Israeli army went to great lengths, returning literally thousands of dangerous prisoners to their homes, to regain the remains of soldiers.

I say welcome home, Bowe. You’ll have your day in court, but also the rest of your life as a free man. And to your former comrades-in-arms: take a step back and think about all your partners who killed themselves, instead of “just” walking out into the night past the fence.

Google “Games” with Words: Spell Up

shlomi on May 29, 2014

An Evil Invitation

I really like a lot of what Google is doing. Really. Cars without pedals, glasses except for people who need them… Okay, fine: much of my online presence is Googlish.

One of their pastimes has been games. There was a great physics game where the object was to make intricate Rube Goldberg machines out of flippers, bouncers and other pinball-esque pieces.

I’m not sure what they learned about me from that game, but I’m pretty sure that Spell Up has a couple of bonuses for Google aside from the warm fuzzy feeling of helping to cure hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobics of their fear of achieving sesquipedalianhood.

  1. It gets chrome users to allow Chrome to use their microphones. This is big if they want to get people using their voice-command search service.
  2. It gives them a huge sample of people all over the world speaking single letters. A great way to improve their voice recognition algorithms, perhaps even tying them to the player’s account

This second has, for the tinfoil-hatted crowd, the obvious issue of “the microphone will go on and I’ll be spied upon by clean-cut, serious Mormons in Pochatello, Idaho who are determined to keep Amerka safe at all costs.” That’s sort of an issue, I guess, if someone is truly sloppy with where they go on the Internet and how they set up their systems. Which means, about 90% of users.

For me, I see the game as a lost cause, since it’s us polysyllabic aphorism users who will wage war with the game. And give Google a very good vocal profile of people who already know how to spell and have great diction.

 

Cats

shlomi on May 4, 2014

Cats head-butt for love

Pull the strokes right out of you

Then leave to hunt mice.

Basically BASIC

shlomi on May 4, 2014

A IT SR-52 calculator and it’s magnetic program storage card

The BASIC computer language turned fifty today. It was the second non-human language I learned, after Texas Instrument’s SR-52 programming “language” (read: keystrokes). The last paragraph in the SR-52’s manual said something like: “…If you want to learn more about programming, look for a book on BASIC.”

The visceral thrill I felt when I finished a 4-player Monopoly® game on the SR-52. 3½ hour games were now brisk 45 minute ones. No calculating 10% luxury tax, no shuffling around making change for paying rent. Bing, bang, done.

Boring.

The next thing I learned from programming was that just because something is made easier doesn’t make it better. The stodgy details of the board game turned into a boring set of whizzing shoes, dogs and flatirons. Sure, the game only lasted 45 minutes: but it was devoid of the social interactions.

Now it’s 38 years later and I’m still learning, still exploring. I’m not a perfect programmer, and I’m not a mathematician programmer. I see programming as a kind of poetry: governed by rules as stringent as the iambic pentameter and rhyming forms of a Shakespearean sonnet.

Languages change over time and yet remain the same: BASIC, COBOL, FORTRAN, PL/1, TECO gave way to C++, Java, Ruby, lua, and their ilk. More words, a more complex syntax. The nuanced idea that statements create functions which can endlessly aggregate into larger and still more powerful programs.

Haiku to verse to story to novella to epic. To volumes of functional poetry that powers our social, electronic world.