Monday, February 23, 2009
Friday, January 16, 2009
Death of YTMND?
Just like Expage and then Ringo before it, YTMND, a site that relies on user-created content seems to be suffering greatly in popularity. It reached a peak in 2006 and has been declining ever since, the novelty having worn off. You can see a comparison at google trends of YTMND and 4chan, another site with apparently a similar fanbase. YTMND seems to be just another fad now although it once surpassed 4chan, 4chan has surpassed YTMND several times over. YTMND was the source of a lot of internet jokes that are continually repeated today. I was pretty into YTMND for a while, I was well known on the forums and had a prolific portfolio of nearly 200 sites on my main account and dozens more on other accounts. I was even a mod. But the question remains, will YTMND suffer the same fate as Expage and Ringo? Doubtful, I say. For one thing, YTMND is far less commercial. The owner, Max Goldberg, has emphasized that he prefers to run smaller sites, rather than larger ones. So he will probably enjoy having YTMND become a smaller community of friends and die-hard fans. He has also complained about server costs and such too.. So maybe he will shut it down. Who knows? Another example site by Max is http://www.dustindiamond.com which stood against the test of a lawsuit from Dustin himself. Good luck YTMND. I still check back every now and then. I wonder if this is a microcosm of what will happen to the likes of youtube and myspace given enough time. Web 2.0 has not been documented long enough to know what fate these sites will ultimately realize. Sites that are driven by user created content can easily go under when people get bored of the same old content being repeated. Then a new site comes along that offers new ways to post content and they all leave. Which means the original site loses what little new content it was receiving. Perhaps this is a new phenomenon that could be called "content saturation."
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Blue Brain: A thinking computer?
Blueprinting the human brain
Research has already started on a computer simulation of a human brain. What will happen when this is completed? A computer running through the motions... just so happens to create what we would call a thought? If the computer is truly running an accurate simulation of every cell in the human brain, then another way of looking at this is that the computer is thinking like a human. Would emotions manifest in the data? Happiness? Love? More possibly threateningly, greed? Ambition? Would it have a soul? (Or is a soul something more than what can be contained by a number of brain cells?)
Hmmm perhaps I should bite my tongue. It's only a matter of time until they would hook it up to the internet and it could find my blog...
Research has already started on a computer simulation of a human brain. What will happen when this is completed? A computer running through the motions... just so happens to create what we would call a thought? If the computer is truly running an accurate simulation of every cell in the human brain, then another way of looking at this is that the computer is thinking like a human. Would emotions manifest in the data? Happiness? Love? More possibly threateningly, greed? Ambition? Would it have a soul? (Or is a soul something more than what can be contained by a number of brain cells?)
Hmmm perhaps I should bite my tongue. It's only a matter of time until they would hook it up to the internet and it could find my blog...
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Infinity 800 scam
Infinity 800 is a naked pyramid scheme. It barely does anything to hide the fact that it is a pyramid. Take a look:
A 2X2 Matrix here refers to a pyramid which must be 2 levels deep, each level doubling in size. The problem of course is that for any new member to achieve payout, they must recruit more members. When you join, you pay $260 for 2 figurative hot potatoes that you have to pass on.
As this continues, an increasing fraction of members will receive payout, however it will never exceed 1/4. When the system stops, more than 3/4 members will never see a single payout.
Now you might be thinking about this as being the same as a $260 lottery ticket. But that doesn't quite sum it up. In a lottery, you buy your ticket and wait to see if you're one of the lucky ones. With Infinity800, you have to actively find other people to pass the risk on to-- most likely people who trust you. You're taking advantage of someone else's trust AKA scamming. No matter how you look at it, the joining members are on the short end of the transaction.
Don't get sucked into this scam. They will tell you that once you complete a pyramid, the people below you will cycle and you will keep getting payouts for the rest of your life. Don't be fooled, each cycle requires more and more people to join, increasing exponentially. You cycle when you complete a pyramid, but for you to cycle again, the 2 below you then have to complete their pyramid, then the people 2 levels below you have to complete theirs! That's 6 times the number of pyramids that must be completed for you to receive payout #2 as compared to payout #1 which requires one pyramid (which is hard enough, and will already make you feel enough like a scumbag). The next cycle is going to require 24 pyramids. Then 96, 384, 1516 and you can see where this is going (multiply by 4 for each successive payout).
Most of the people you talk to won't want to join, those who do probably won't build their own pyramid, and even when they do, it only takes a few lazy people (or people who just decided they don't want to scam anymore) to be a weak link in the chain-- essentially shutting down the cycles.
A 2X2 Matrix here refers to a pyramid which must be 2 levels deep, each level doubling in size. The problem of course is that for any new member to achieve payout, they must recruit more members. When you join, you pay $260 for 2 figurative hot potatoes that you have to pass on.
As this continues, an increasing fraction of members will receive payout, however it will never exceed 1/4. When the system stops, more than 3/4 members will never see a single payout.
Now you might be thinking about this as being the same as a $260 lottery ticket. But that doesn't quite sum it up. In a lottery, you buy your ticket and wait to see if you're one of the lucky ones. With Infinity800, you have to actively find other people to pass the risk on to-- most likely people who trust you. You're taking advantage of someone else's trust AKA scamming. No matter how you look at it, the joining members are on the short end of the transaction.
Don't get sucked into this scam. They will tell you that once you complete a pyramid, the people below you will cycle and you will keep getting payouts for the rest of your life. Don't be fooled, each cycle requires more and more people to join, increasing exponentially. You cycle when you complete a pyramid, but for you to cycle again, the 2 below you then have to complete their pyramid, then the people 2 levels below you have to complete theirs! That's 6 times the number of pyramids that must be completed for you to receive payout #2 as compared to payout #1 which requires one pyramid (which is hard enough, and will already make you feel enough like a scumbag). The next cycle is going to require 24 pyramids. Then 96, 384, 1516 and you can see where this is going (multiply by 4 for each successive payout).
Most of the people you talk to won't want to join, those who do probably won't build their own pyramid, and even when they do, it only takes a few lazy people (or people who just decided they don't want to scam anymore) to be a weak link in the chain-- essentially shutting down the cycles.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Moral Poverty
I'm always stricken by the poverty both physical and moral in the world. In what situation is it ever OK to kill someone? Let alone someone who has nothing to do with you? So why do we allow bombings of civilian homes to go on? It makes no sense. I read a statistic today that 50% of women cheated on their husband and 70% of men did, while 80% of women thought of cheating and 98% of men did. I don't know how true this is but I find this disturbing as hell. What's wrong with us human beings? It would be different if we weren't jealous. But as it stands I can't believe how few people are really decent people. I still feel like the answer isn't going to come from negativity like feeling bad or guilty about this stuff. I think we should always be looking toward the future to create new connections and improving the world one step at a time. If everyone could take one step it would be 6 billion steps in the right direction. A ridiculous notion? Maybe, but it is one I hope I can live by. Just realize that no action is too small to be worth doing. The smallest thing as a well placed smile could improve someone's day.
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