Arthur C. Clarke's Three Laws of Prediction

Arthur C. Clarke was a British writer and wrote three "laws" about predictions. They are as follows:

1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

My summary of the first point is, "the future is possible", "don't discount the future", or perhaps "".

My summary of the second point is, "Don't give up until you try. Then try harder."

My summary of the third point is, "technology is magic."

Source (Wikipedia)

Bonus Quote: "Perhaps it is better to be un-sane and happy, than sane and un-happy." - Arthur C. Clarke

Out of the ~100 more quotes I read by him, here are a few more that stood out:

• Interesting: "One of the biggest roles of science fiction is to prepare people to accept the future without pain and to encourage a flexibility of mind. Politicians should read science fiction, not westerns and detective stories."
• Enjoyable: Clarke's Law of Revolutionary Ideas: Every revolutionary idea — in science, politics, art, or whatever — seems to evoke three stages of reaction. They may be summed up by the phrases:
  • (1) "It's completely impossible — don't waste my time";
  • (2) "It's possible, but it's not worth doing";
  • (3) "I said it was a good idea all along."
• Sounds Good: "I have great faith in optimism as a guiding principle, if only because it offers us the opportunity of creating a self-fulfilling prophecy."

=]
~ Simply Advanced ~

ps - My own quote is "Don't be stuck in a paradigm. Facts change." =b

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Quora: Some Ideas For Living a Completely Different Lifestyle to Escape Monotony

Quora is possibly the best question and answer site.

I recently answered a question there with some ideas for living a completely different lifestyle to escape monotony. You should check it out. =]

http://qr.ae/TLWxt


~ Simply Advanced ~

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Obol - The Never-Soggy Cereal Bowl and Its Future

I saw the Obol in Brookstone over a month ago and really liked the idea of having the cereal and milk separate in order for the cereal to stay crispy the entire time you are eating.

Recently, I saw a post about it a food blog and started thinking about the idea of Obol again.

Imagine yourself eating out of a regular bowl of cereal with milk. The best bites are the first few because the cereal is the most crispy at that point. But, there is at least two more reasons why the first few bites are typically the best of the bunch. Point number three below I believe affects people on a more psychological level.

At the beginning of eating:

1. Cereal is still crispy
2. Milk is the coldest
3. It is easiest to get a huge scoop of cereal on the spoon!

After determining that these are the reasons why I truly like cereal (besides the overall great taste), it is easy to determine that the Obol is does not significantly help me eat and enjoy my daily cereal. Obol performs task one very well. Task two is iffy. It may take longer for me to eat the bowlful of cereal, thus the milk will be warmer by the end (I am a cereal milk drinker). Obol fails at number three. By only putting a little bit of cereal in the milk compartment, the cereal spreads throughout the entire surface area of the milk, causing me trouble when I try to get a large scoop of cereal on my spoon. If I put any more than a little bit of cereal in the milk compartment, then I might as well be using a regular cereal bowl instead.

An idea for a bowl is to throw it in the refrigerator or freezer overnight and in the morning you can enjoy colder milk for a longer period of time! I haven't actually tried this out yet, but I will! Number two improved.

Another idea for a bowl to add a little vertical strainer on the coming out from the side. Milk will be able to go through the strainer, but the cereal will not. This could be a clip-on that would fit most bowls. Maybe it just have a little lip on it that allow it to sit on an edge. The idea is that you can gather up all the cereal to one side of the strainer, then a big scoop of cereal will be easy again. You could potentially just swirl your milk with the spoon and like magic, the cereal will all be gathered in one place. Number three vastly improved!!

http://www.obol.co/images/

~ Simply Advanced ~

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Something New

Lifehacker is probably the best site to find productivity hacks, clever uses for items, and many other interesting topics that tend to make your life better. Today, I am going Lifehacker-diving again. A term that I just made up as I wrote the sentence down. It means that I am going to open up a whole bunch of different articles in different tabs, then just read through them all and possibly follow links to other websites.

Something I thought about doing before is just pasting every single article/link that I read. And, maybe, I'll precursor each of the titles/links with a plus or minus sign as my suggestion, and 0 for neutral (aka depends on reader preference). If the title isn't apparent in the URL, only then will I write it out.

Well, here it goes: (Starting with http://lifehacker.com)
[--] http://lifehacker.com/5941712/how-much-does-your-computer-stress-you-out
[++] http://lifehacker.com/5957553/stop-procrastinating-by-clearing-to-neutral [I do this already =]]
[+] http://www.asianefficiency.com/health/manipulating-bedroom-sleeping-temperature/ [I have performed many experiments with different sleeping arrangements. It is good to try out.]
[+] http://www.asianefficiency.com/habits/morning-rituals-revisited/ [Definitely]
[+] http://lifehacker.com/5971173/three-quick-and-easy-ways-to-quiet-your-mind
[0] http://lifehacker.com/5969720/how-can-i-deal-with-a-slow-internet-connection
[0] http://lifehacker.com/5971740/what-else-can-i-do-with-my-new-ereader-besides-read-and-buy-books
[0] http://lifehacker.com/5971340/how-can-i-get-my-unresponsive-friends-to-actually-return-my-messages
[+] http://blog.getresponse.com/best-time-to-send-email-infographic.html [Summary: Best times are 8-10am and 3-4pm]
[+] http://lifehacker.com/5964285/whats-all-the-fuss-about-evernote-why-do-people-use-it [I am on and off with Evernote. I'm leaning to go paperless receipts with this rather than others though]
[0] http://lifehacker.com/5666954/avoid-everything-buckets-aka-why-i-cant-get-into-apps-like-evernote
[0] http://lifehacker.com/5892905/the-secret-weapon-combines-gtd-and-evernote-into-one-synchronized-productivity-system
[+] http://www.thesecretweapon.org/ and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cE3amWDQ2io (related)
[+] http://lifehacker.com/5955229/why-does-everyone-hate-windows-8-should-i-upgrade [I like Windows 8 and think it's great]
[0] http://lifehacker.com/5967154/what-should-i-do-now-that-google-apps-accounts-are-no-longer-free
[+] http://lifehacker.com/5958893/why-its-worth-it-to-purchase-your-own-domain-name [I would like to purchase more domains. I have a list of excellent names to use.]
[+] http://lifehacker.com/5905702/dropbox-google-drive-skydrive-and-others-pricing-per-gb-and-more-compared-in-convenient-charts [I currently use Dropbox, Box, Drive, and SkyDrive. Eventually, I may dish out for just one of them. I just haven't needed to yet.]
[0] http://lifehacker.com/5959742/how-can-i-turn-my-mess-of-ideas-into-something-organized-and-useful [I've already been doing this, hoping to learn more, but this article can defintely benefit other idea guys]
[+] http://lifehacker.com/5957559/how-do-i-answer-when-im-stumped-by-an-important-question
[+] http://dinosaurs.about.com/od/herbivorousdinosaurs/p/parasaurolophus.htm [I don't typically care for about.com, but this was linked in the article and was a good read]
[+] http://lifehacker.com/5853250/how-to-sound-like-you-know-what-youre-talking-about-even-when-you-dont [Make sure you are confident when you do know what you are talking about.]
[+] http://tribalseduction.com/blog/5-ways-to-act-like-an-expert-in-online-communities/
[++] https://www.google.com/search?q=define+ad+nauseam
[0] http://lifehacker.com/5957605/does-it-matter-where-i-buy-my-music
[+] http://lifehacker.com/5971711/what-they-dont-tell-you-about-promotions
[++] http://lifehacker.com/5967464/treat-your-freelance-work-like-a-stock-portfolio-to-meet-your-income-goals
[+] http://99u.com/tips/7258/Why-You-Should-Treat-Your-Freelance-Portfolio-Like-a-Stock-Portfolio
[++] http://lifehacker.com/5968613/what-lying-actually-does-to-your-brain-and-body-every-day [The article is pretty macabre. Seems like there is a lot of stress involved. I double-plussed this just because I feel others should have the great opportunity of reading it]
[++] http://lifehacker.com/5971473/how-to-tackle-three-of-the-toughest-interview-questions [Bookmarked. I am definitely going to read this at least two more times]
[0] http://lifehacker.com/5971774/zombies-run-turns-your-exercise-routine-into-a-game-is-half-off-right-now [I do like zombies. ..in the way that as long as they don't bother me, then I won't bother them =b]
[+] http://lifehacker.com/5971452/how-i-learned-to-rely-on-my-own-memory-and-stop-depending-on-technology [I've worried about the use-it-or-lose-it regarding our brains. I like the poetry of the article. One thing I know I will forget if I don't write it down is thoughts right before going to sleep. I've told myself many times, "Oh, it's such a huge and awesome idea that I couldn't possibly forget it in the morning", but I do. =/ Then again, maybe I haven't worked hard enough to develop that memory skill yet.]
[-] http://lifehacker.com/5972105/should-i-wait-a-few-months-to-see-if-computer-component-prices-drop-or-buy-now
[+] http://lifehacker.com/5836879/what-stress-actually-does-to-you-and-what-you-can-do-about-it [I've also read a lot about Nirvana and Zen and have been able to reach it; I have experienced complete inner peace before and have been able to train myself to completely clear my mind. If somebody asks me about it, then I don't mind sharing. One of the side-effects for me was that after learning how to reach Nirvana, for a while it was too easy to get in the state of mind again. I could be in the middle of a conversation and suddenly, I'm just free from the world, just, there. I'm getting tingling feelings just thinking about it. I find just regular meditation to be more useful for me (someone with very low stress. (people with higher stress should be able to complete clear their mind)). It allows my brain to wander and wonder. I like having thoughts flowing through my head, and being able to think subconciously. Right now I'm thinking it's kinda like knowing your brain is doing an automatic defrag, it's a good thing. I should write another post on just this one topic..]
[+] http://lifehacker.com/5966433/how-to-get-an-energy-boost-without-caffeine
[+++] http://lifehacker.com/5965826/seven-productivity-myths-debunked-by-science-and-common-sense [This is the only three-plussed article. **hinthint** But, as always, remember to take everything with a grain of salt]
[+] http://lifehacker.com/282544/merlin-mann-presents-inbox-zero [Bookmarked to read later. Hopefully, I will learn something new. I already do my part to achieve Inbox Zero. I spread the word around when I can too.]
[+] http://lifehacker.com/5965334/how-to-motivate-people-to-do-things-they-dont-want-to-do [Good enough to want me to read two Wikipedia pages to read another day: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_disclosure and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-determination_theory only because I'm starting to get tired of all the reading now. Time for sleep soon.]
[Only eight more tabs to go, but it could easily turn into sixteen tabs]

Jk, just made a new folder for the rest of the tabs. I think I will try to do another post like this one. At least until I finish up all the ones I opened today.

=====================

Wow, I haven't done this much lifehackering in a very long time. Feels Good.

And now it's time for sleep. I lost two hours of sleep reading through all of these articles. Hopefully, a lot of REM so that these readings stay stored in my head.

~ Simply Advanced ~

ps - One conclusion that you can draw from this elongated list of links is that, if they all have one thing in common, then it would be that I'm interested in that topic. I'd like to hear other people's thoughts about the list.

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Random Ideas and Thoughts - 20121230

[0] First thing, a little blurt about the number in the title. It is the date format that I'm using and liking very much to organize all of my folder and files. They are all automatically sorted in chronological order because of the name. One example, I used to label my school folders as "USF 2012 Spring" and "USF 2012 Fall" and "USF 2012 Summer." But, first of all it is not in an efficient order. And secondly, it doesn't look very neat. Within the past six months I've transitioned everything to the style of "USF201201", "", and "". It is more efficient, neater, and doesn't lose much readability if you can recognize the 2012 year in there.

..Remember, all of the following are fragmented thoughts, random, and does not have a reason... completely unlike what I try to accomplish above with the year-month-day format. =b

[1] A rollercoaster ride that feels like it is broken (and may fall at any moment). When there is a real problem with the ride (how would they know?), the ride tells the potential riders that workers must break the ride more before riders can ride again.

[2] Full theme park that is purposely seemingly empty. Some park goers are actors/hires (theme park goers would never know about this part). Couples may want to team up randomly in the park with others so that they are not totally alone, but that might just be their mistake.

[3] What birds are poisonous? [I was playing a quiz game and was the first to know that platypus was poisonous. The question was something like, "Which of the following is poisonous?" Egret was one of the answers, then this thought occurred]

[4] Are there fish ball/cages like there are hamster balls/cages? Maybe the fish can learn to travel by shifting their weight?

[5] "I cried because I had no shoes, until I saw a man with no feet." [A quote I saw in a book. A good thought provoker]

[6] Hobby: Making lists with only one item. ["Hobby:" - kind of like xkcd style]

[7] App for how long you have been away from Facebook and/or Gmail. [There should be a high scores list also (and the ability to share with friends?)]

[8] Dubstep without echo is kinda like classical music. And vise-versa.

[9] Write a book called, "Dan Writes a Book"

[10] Redit for Research Papers. Thumb up and thumb down. [I believe there are social medias revolving around research..]

[11] Proxy for Twitter API calls. Twitter limits the number of calls a day from an IP, but if you keep switching the IPs when they fail, then you have have a whole lot more available API calls. This service can be made into an API.

[12] Web App: Display the bibliography for every page of the internet. Choose type from a dropdown menu. (20121201)

[13] Cloth that you can put on when you are wet, and stay dry and warm without worrying about the inside of cloth getting/staying wet.

[14] Moving shade. Ex: when sunbathing and you want to keep the sun out of your eyes only. [But, not touching you, I guess?]

[15] Clothes that don't turn inside out in the wash. A temporary solution would be to either stitch the main (large) opening clothes, or by just using a pin to keep it closed, that way the smaller parts of the clothes won't be able to go through and turn the entire cloth inside out.

[16] App using Windows live tiles: Simply Advanced Countdown Tile. Days until whenever.. Or weeks until whenever.. Or years until whenever.. Ability to add picture relating to event like birthday, holiday, anniversary..

[17] App for Windows 8: A piano lock screen. Play a song to unlock the screen. Future version (or paid version) would include different instruments.

[18] App: Top-down, zoomed out game. In order for your avatar to get from one town to another, the user must actually go on a physical run or walk for a certain distance to get there. Start off with small distances, gradually get longer for more advanced areas of the game.

[19] App: What if you could see/visualize smells, smell colors/sounds app. Hearing colors is possible to do now... Synesthesia. [Slogan: "Synesthesia, now available on your smartphone!" Introduce it during Synesthesia Awareness Month?]

[20] Going to do dishes in the sink? Then get energy back from the water you use! Same for shower heads, or any other place that you run water. Perhaps the base of a hose line?

Feel free to comment, email me, make use of these ideas (let me know how it goes), or brainstorm other things from these. Please try not to draw conclusions from this post, it is purely a thinking exercise, half of it unconsciously thought of. Words in square brackets, [], are what I added at the time of writing.

~ Simply Advanced ~

ps - Doing this also allows me to clear out much of my ideas folder, thus, forcing me to come up with new awesome random things. The several ideas I didn't share are ideas are ones that I have for a thesis/paper that I'm currently working on. They will be shared in a year or few.

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Top Five Predictions For 2012

Here's a link to an old blog post of mine, for the top five predictions of 2012.
http://blog.simplyadvanced.net/top-5-predictions-for-2012/

I'm going to have to start coming up with some for 2013. =]

~ Simply Advanced ~

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Random App Ideas

I randomly come up with app ideas and usually write them down in my notebook. Sometimes I feel like sharing my many different ideas with the world so that I am forced to come up with even better ideas.

• Screen share mobile-to-mobile 
• Permanent Clipboard
• StumbleUpon Mobile App version
• Facebook without Facebook app -  basically pull Fb data to a Contacts app and include messages
• Range [distance] Finder using camera, or sound, or shadows
• App that creates real-world-value. Perhaps, something like a mobile version of Mechanical Turk or Bitcoin Generator et cetera.
• How-to guides for specific topics
• Connect game controllers to phones (wire, Bluetooth, built-in stand..)
• Fire-starter, possibly need hardware like capacitor to help generate a spark
• Taser app, extended from above. Or just use vibrate and fake sounds.
• Log everything app
• 3D Where's Waldo or 3D iSpy or 3D Highlights. Instead of just finding everything on screen you must orientate the phone different ways to pan around (or just allow touch scrolling)
• Find Ghosts game app, extended from above. To be played in an open field. Can only see ghosts when looking through phone

I know of many types of app, but I haven't heard of these types yet. And I deleted just one idea that I decided to start working on right now. To be shown later. =b

Anybody may use these ideas for their personal apps. I would just like to hear if others are interested in these types of apps in the comments.

~ Simply Advanced ~

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