Today’s unknown known observation about unknown knowns
An email exchange about Bushisms and Rumsfeldisms got me thinking a bit. Yeah, really just a bit because yesterday was unbearably hot. Our friend Donald Rumsfeld once made the following observation:
Reports that say that something hasn’t happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns — the ones we don’t know we don’t know.
So I’ve been in love with this since I read about it late last year. And I’ve been talking to people about it. But Mr Rumsfeld forgot about the fourth category — unknown knowns, ie, there are things we know but we don’t know that we know them.
Remember that time in Standard 1 when your teacher wanted to know what bees eat? Your hand shot up and you told her that the bees eat royal jelly. That is an example of an unknown known, ie, you didn’t even know that you knew the answer until the teacher’s question got your mind working. You were surprised and chuffed with yourself. And remember that time in Standard 9 when one of your teachers wanted to know which country had had a border conflict with Ethiopia? You surprised yourself by answering that it was Eritrea.
So perhaps I should write Mr Rumsfeld a friendly email to let him know about this fourth dimension.
I’m starting to realise some stuff about friendships
So I had drinks with a friend last week and we had the conversation that I have so very often with some people: why is it that everyone else has so many friends and we don’t? Or rather, why is it that there are so many people around us — at restaurants, putt putt courses, and shopping malls — who are ‘accompanied’ by friends or family, and we often end up doing things alone? Because my friend and I do have friends. We probably have an average number of friends whom we can call to celebrate that promotion (I’m still working on getting mine) or on whom we can rely to go see a movie once a week or so.
But we feel it is not adequate. We feel that we should hang out with a different friend every night, and especially at the weekends.
I think part of the problem is the media. We watch Sex and the City and think we should all have 3 friends with whom to have breakfast — every single day of the week. And we want our posse to be as stylish, sexy, intelligent and independent as the SATC bunch. So we feel a bit abnormal when the posse doesn’t appear.
So I was thinking. Could it perhaps be that those accompanied people we see at restaurants, putt putt courses, and shopping malls also feel the same? Could it be that those accompanied people also only team up with a friend once or twice a week? And that you will find them lounging in front of the television for the rest of the week?
Rationalskeptimism is the new RDF
So the Richard Dawkins Forum kinda tanked last week and ‘our people’ are now like the Jews — scattered among several fora. Please, everyone, come join us at Rationalskeptimism where new topics won’t get moderated.
Let’s look at handbags
I don’t generally do nylon but this Prada handbag isn’t too shabby.
I’m not too sure whether I like or love this handbag. It’s very Samantha from Sex and the City. It’s a tiny bit gaudy, which isn’t something I’d expect from Valentino.
The only thing I dislike about this Miu Miu bag is the logo. I guess that’s why I like Woolworths bags so much: they don’t have any logos.
It’s funny how I can admire this Judith Leiber bag but not the fugly swan purse from that SATC episode. But no, I’d never buy something like this.
I like this Emilio Pucci clutch. It’s cute, it’s smallish, and it’s bean-shaped.
So I really am a digital immigrant
So I did the Pew Reseach Centre’s Millennial test a couple of minutes ago and I have a ‘millennial score’ of 79%. This means I really am a digital immigrant.
You get the option to revise your answers to see your hypothetical score if you had answered differently.
In the past 24 hours, did you watch more than an hour of television programming, or not?
I don’t watch television much, and no, I didn’t watch much last night. Changing this answer to a ‘yes’ lowered my score. But in a world of PVR, should they not rephrase the question a bit?
In the past 24 hours, did you read a daily newspaper, or not?
They could’ve phrased this question a bit better. I’m assuming they want to know whether you’ve read a physical newspaper as opposed to an online one. I only sometimes buy a physical newspaper; I prefer reading online. But I used to subscribe to a few newspapers until last year. Changing this answer to a ‘yes’ lowered my score.
In the past 24 hours, did you play video games, or not?
I’d like to know what they define as ‘video games’. Is Lexulous on Scrabble a ‘video game’? If so, then my answer is yes. Video games need not just be first person shooter games. Changing this answer to a ‘yes’ raised my score.
Thinking about your telephone use, do you have…
Only a landline phone in your home Only a cell phone Both a landline and cell phone
So I get a lower score because I have both: I have Telkom ADSL and it kinda makes sense to use the landline from time to time. Changing this answer to ‘only a cell phone’ raised my score.
In the past 24 hours, about how many text messages, if any, did you send or receive on your cell phone?
No text messages on your cell phone in the past 24 hours 1 to 9 text messages 10 to 49 text messages 50 or more text messages
I don’t have my Sony Ericsson with me today but I know I sent more than 10 messages yesterday. Changing this answer to ‘50 or more’ raised my score.
How important is being successful in a high-paying career or profession to you personally?
One of the most important things Very important but not the most Somewhat important Not important
It’s ‘very important but not the most’ important thing to me. So millennials value their career a lot because my score increased when I changed the answer to ‘one of the most important things.’
Do you think more people of different races marrying each other is a…
Good thing for society Bad thing for society Doesn’t make much difference for society
I would’ve chosen option D — ‘It’s neither good nor bad for society’. Not everyone gets married but we all have and want friends. I have few white friends and I sometimes wish this could change. But you become friends with people who are in close proximity to you — you work, live or play together. And right now that just aint happening.
But I chose option A — ‘Good thing for society’ in the end.
In the past 12 months, have you contacted a government official, or not? This contact could have been in person, by phone, by letter, by sending an email, or posting a message on their website or social networking page.
Yes, contacted a government official in past 12 months No, did not contact a government official in past 12 months
I responded to two of Helen Zille’s tweets last year and this year. And this means that I have a lower score. Why? Especially now that governments are invading the online space. Why would this hypothetical millennial not contact government officials?
Have you ever created your own profile on any social networking site such as MySpace, Facebook or LinkedIn, or haven’t you done this?
Yes, have created profile No, have not created profile
Yeah, and it’s funny that I deleted two of those profiles. But I’m back on Facebook for a bit or so.
How important is living a very religious life to you personally?
One of the most important things Very important but not the most Somewhat important Not important
I said it aint important. It’s also interesting that heathens score higher. Why do they assume that millennials do not value religion highly?
Were your parents married during most of the time you were growing up, or not?
Married Not married (includes divorced, separated, widowed or never married)
This is a difficult question because my biological dad never remarried. My mom remarried when I was 5 years old. So which answer should I choose? I chose number one. Oh, and changing the answer to ‘not married’ ups your score.
Do you have a tattoo, or not?
Yes No
Funny question, this one. What does tattoos have to do with being a millennial? I know 38-year-olds with tattoos. A shit load of them. But no, I don’t have any tattoos. Changing your answer to a ‘yes’ ups your score.
Do you have a piercing in a place other than your earlobe, or not?
Yes No
I would’ve chosen ‘not anymore’ or ‘not yet’. I used to have a nose piercing and I’m itching to get a new one. But once again, this isn’t just something that millennials do.
In general, would you describe your political views as…
Conservative Moderate Liberal
Funny, this. I’m kinda sure you can get conservative millennials, moderate millennials, and liberal millennials. I chose ‘liberal’, though I’m really a mix of conservative and liberal.
What is your age?
Under 18 18-29 30-45 46-64 65+
I chose ‘under 18′ because I don’t look a day older than 16 
Friends don’t allow comment spam on their friends’ blogs
I”ve been wondering why comment spam is such an everyday occurence. And I’ve been thinking about it even more after reading about the broken windows theory.
The theory goes that people feel lax when they know or suspect no-one is around to monitor their behaviour. I’ve experienced it myself, too. Some months ago I was trying to find parking for my scooter in de Waterkant. This shouldn’t be difficult but de Waterkant is a unique area — few streets are level. So I see a level enough spot and I see that someone else — a fellow scooter owner — had parked there already. So if they can park there, surely I can park there, right?
It was not to be. The store assistant saw me parking there and asked me to move. She was pleasant about it so I obliged.
So here’s the thing: I would’ve found somewhere else to park if I hadn’t seen that scooter parked there. Genuine. But the scooter’s presence gave me the excuse to park in front of a shop window.
The same thing goes for blog spam, litter, crime, etc. It’s more difficult to litter when the area is neat. Or rather, I suspect the majority of people wouldn’t litter when the area is neat but a minority will always litter, no matter what the area looks like. And a minority of internet users will always post spammy blog comments, no matter how well the owner protects the blog.
So when I open my blog’s spam folder, I feel compelled to google those comments. And sometimes I’ll find many, many, many results.
This phrase yields 118 results: “I will bookmark your blog and have my children check up here frequency.” And this phrase yields 58 200 results: “I will directly grab your rss feed to stay informed of any updates.”
I can’t write to all 52 800 blog owners but I can try to let some of them know that they’ve allowed spam to infiltrate their blog. And if each of them contacts just a few of the others, we can try to keep our blogs free of SEO consters.
This blog post is a perfect example of what I mean: “I’ll be speechless” It has 80 spam comments. The scary thing is that I’ve seen worse than that.
I once wrote to a blog owner to alert them that their blog has been infested with spammy comments. They wrote back to say thanks and then added that they were just so grateful for any and all comments. So they don’t particularly mind hosting spam comments.
I’d rather have 0 comments than 80 spam comments that promote Viagra, cheap cars online, and arabic boys names.
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My granny likes my granny dresses
I don’t see my granny often enough but when I do, I’m nearly always wearing one of my granny dresses. And then she’ll compliment me on it. My aunts also like my dresses and always jokingly ask me to give it to them when it no longer fits me. This is funny cause they’re all bigger than I am. Even my 20-year-old sisters like what I wear…
I was chatting to a pal last week and he told me that I shouldn’t wear such dresses: they don’t suit someone of my age and interested guys will be put off by it. Cause you see, some of the dresses skim my ankles and most of them leave a lot to the old imagination.
So here’s the thing: if a guy is put off by someone (as pretty as I am) in a vintage aka granny dress, what does that say about him? And should I ditch my ’scooter uniform’ cause it makes me look as though I’m a car guard? Can we compare this to my dislike of Crocs? I don’t see how the two can be compared, though: we expect women to show cleavage and as much leg as possible; we don’t expect guys to do the same. So disliking Crocs can’t fall into the same category: we dislike Crocs because they’re ugly, not because they cover up skin that we’d like to see.
What do you think? Should I wear more revealing clothes or should I just wear whatever I feel comfortable in?
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Question du jour
So why does Helen Zille say that Lennit Max’s affair is a ‘private matter‘ but she says that Zuma’s conduct is “a matter of public concern, for example, if a politician does not practice what she or he preaches“. Could it be that she would be OK with Zuma’s 22 children if only he wouldn’t ask citizens to practise safe sex?
Or is Helen only protecting Lennit Max because he’s a member of the DA?
I make resolutions
Yeah, I know. It’s nearly March already and I’m only now giving a think to my new years resolutions. I don’t do silly resolutions such as ‘lose weight’: something like that is too vague. Besides, I don’t even know how much I weigh
So here goes:
- Learn to play the guitar. Everyone’s doing it these days — yeah, even my 2-year-old niece — so hopefully it’ll turn into a jam session at some time. But I don’t want to stop at learning how to jam; I want to do math. I was half decent at it in school and I’m sure that I can kick arse if I apply myself a lot more.
- Buy property. I’ve been saying this for the last 5 years but I think this is the year I’ll finally convince myself — I’m still not 100% convinced that it’s the cleverest thing to do — to buy.
- Be more interesting. It can’t be too difficult, eh? But a great part of being interesting really means being interested [in the person you're talking to]. So it’s time to dust off How to win friends and influence people.
- Explore. I’ll start with a trip to Parys.
- Become a hell of a lot more self-aware. It’s difficult to do but this isn’t optional. I used to scoff at people who read The power of now. But that was back in the day and I now realise just how important it is to savour every moment.
- Become big and strong. I’ve been to two boxing classes and I regularly go to yoga classes. I want to have strong legs and a flat tummy. One of the women at the boxing class has the hardest punches I’ve ever experienced. I wanna be like that.
- Learn to construct flawless arguments. This means I need to argue more often. Not all the time, just more often.
- Consume less sugar. It makes me hyper. Go figure. Sure, I could just go to the gym after work but that means I’d have to walk around our office block 3 or 4 times a day just to get rid of all that extra energy until I can get to the gym. Not on.
- I’ll fill my days with more stuff to do. Cause the more you do, the more you can fit in every day.
- I’m gonna [lay]buy experiences, not stuff. So I went to one of my favourite vintage stores at the weekend and I saw this awesome ‘Made in Italy’ leather briefcase. I’m not a lawyer [yet] but it’s an awesome bag. I wanted to lay-buy it until the end of next month. Problem is that I already have an awesome bag; I don’t need yet another one. So I’ll lay-buy myself some experience instead.
- I want to make as many mistakes as possible so that I can learn from them while I’m still young. Then life will be so much easier when I hit my 30s and 40s.
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We need a proper mobile shortener service
OK. So Google has Goo.gl, Facebook has Fb.me, there’s TinyURL, Bit.ly, and there’s WordPress’ wp.me. And there are 5478 other URL shortener services available to choose from. So here’s my question: when are the big mobile browsers going to enter the battle? When’s Opera going to do something similar?
There are a few mobile URL shorteners out there: QuickTr.im for iPhone and Android devices; there’s Mobile Tiny URL for keypad phones; and there’s Delivr.com.
I do not have an iPhone nor do I have an Android phone so I tested out Delivr.com and Mobile Tiny URL. Delivr.com works well but it still doesn’t have the functionality that I’m looking for — shorten a URL with one tap of my stylus or one tap of a key. And it needs to be integrated into the phone’s software so that I can copy the URL onto the clipboard and send it to friends via sms messages or as part of an email. I can only use Delivr.com with Opera Mobile, not with Opera Mini.
It’s not enough that I can shorten and simplify a complex URL; I want a mobile URL shortener service that will allow me to press a key on my phone that shortens the URL while I’m viewing that particular page. It needs to mimic how one would use a URL shortener service on a computer, but it also needs to cater to the many phones that cannot use copy and paste (yet). The user would overcome this liability by writing down the — simpler! better! faster! — URL on a piece of paper and then sending it to a friend.
While Mobile Tiny URL is cute, it is much more beneficial to a user whose phone has a keypad. The service assumes the user has to tap a key several times to get to the specific letter they want to use: 3 times to get to the letter ‘c’, for example. But this isn’t always the case. Some phones allow you to select the exact letter you want without having to tap the ‘a’ key 3 times.
So the perfect mobile URL shortener service would need to do the following:
Be compatible with the phone’s software
Opera Mobile gets this right — I can copy and past a URL into an sms message and vice versa. But not all mobile browsers allow this — Opera Mini 5.2, which is one of my favourite mobile browsers, doesn’t – and not everyone has a Windows Mobile phone.
It should be easy to use
Users shouldn’t have to fiddle with the browser’s advanced features to enable the function. It could even be an app that the user downloads onto their phone.
Compatibility
Whether it is a website or an app, it needs to be compatible with a myriad of mobile browsers as well as a myriad of WAP-enabled cellphones. This might be a challenge but I’m confident that there are plenty of clever developers out there who can build superb applications.
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