This year a nice website made things easier…  https://www.belowtheline.org.au/qld/

So, armed with these links, I decided to mine some data and work out what I call reverse preferences…

“Reverse preferences?” you say – “What’s what?”

…well, I’m glad you asked…

Australia uses a single transferable vote preferential system for the senate, and we’re bombarded with tales of who preferences will go to. What I was interested was where the preferences will come from. Same data, just in reverse. So I want to see who puts The Greens as second group, third group… down to 24th group (wow, those people probably hate all vegetables, not just their greens

The value I expected to find in this was to see who valued The Greens highly (though the data can be worked for anyone equally well) – as an indicator of compatibility with Greens policies.

The basic results are here: QLD-Senate2010 (also my original Open Office file: QLD-Senate2010). Note that whilst there are 60 preferences to give, in almost all cases they’re sorted into groups – and it’s only the sorting of these groups I’ve analysed. The rank of preference for the group is for the first time someone from that group shows up on the ballot.

So, what did I discover?

* Alot of parties dislike the Greens enough to put them last (more than any other party I think) – but it gets some good high preferences too (Labor)

* Australia First gets alot of low preferences (none higher than 5th, but no lasts at all!)

* Australia First can’t decide who they hate most (see: https://www.belowtheline.org.au/qld/group_k.html) Greens, Libs or Labor!

* Parties can have multiple tickets (see PYKE (independant) and the Democrats) Their tickets didn’t vary by much though.

* Over the years I’ve heard a lot of people talk about their method of voting below the line: number the parties last they want to be last, and number parties first they want to be first. Then pretty much random in between. Going through these I saw evidence of similar in several parties! (Labor, for example, had some middle preferences in order of groups C-F-G-I (D, E and H were out of the order because they were dropped very low). There are other examples (usually just three groups in a row (sometimes in reverse order), and often involving the independents… still, shows the method is used even at the highest levels!

But I think my favourite observation – is that the common saying/taunt that “A vote for The Greens is a vote for Labor” is in fact untrue. The Greens’ preference for Labor is 12th down, whilst Labor give The Greens preference 2. So, it’s better to say “A vote for Labor is a vote for The Greens“!

* create an m4a file (I made mine exactly 40seconds according to audacity and saved as a .wav, then used faac to convert to m4a (faac in.wav –title “ringtone experiment” -o tone.m4a ; mv tone.m4a tone.m4r)

* copy tone into iPhone://iTunes_Control/Ringtones/tone.m4r

* edit iPhone://iTunes_Control/iTunes/Ringtones.plist to add in the details of the new ringtone. Fortunately I had an existing one already, so I just copied that – updating the GUID (I changed one character), the Name (“funky new ringtone”) and the Total Time (40000) fields.

…and bingo, the ringtone is visible in the settings (selectable, plays), but does not lock in as the ringtone to use! ok, clearly some work needed.

incidentally, this is a 32GB iPhone 3Gs with iOS4.0.2, never been jailbroken or anything underhanded done to it before. It was unlocked from the carrier a few days ago (thanks .au law) and that required a lengthy restore, but otherwise smooth.

…ok, so back to it: plugged it into iTunes (Mac) – it couldn’t read from the device (an error!)

…rebooted phone – and the new ring tone now works correctly. YAY! =) is this success?

…plugging it into iTunes again and… it’s all “Verifying iPhone” at me – something I don’t generally recall. …ok, it’s backing up as normal now…

and the ringtone tab in iTunes tells me it doesn’t know about the tone I added in, it’s syncing, so I suspect it’ll delete my added tone…

…and checking in my iPhone after it’s done, what do you know – my custom added ringtone is all gone. Checking back via linux – and the tone.m4r file has been deleted, Ringtones.plist has been completely rewritten.

So, I assume (not surprisingly at all) that iTunes needs to know about it, as the authorative master, and tell the iPhone how it’s gonna be. This fits with my observed philosophy of the iPhone – as an adjunct to the master information on the computer.

…

so, round 2… I add the m4r into the iTunes library – it automatically adds it in as a ringtone – that’s nice. I assume iTunes assumed it was a ringtone by the file extension. And in the iPhone tab it shows up as available to be sync’d… and bingo. it works.

ok, so not a pure linux solution – unless you never sync your phone to iTunes anyway – but it DOES let you make a custom ringtone without requiring garageband. That’s something isn’t it?

And I assume the method would work under windows too… anyone want to give it a go and get back to me?

In fact, atq is literally out of order – I guess the idea is that you pipe it through sort. very very old-school thinking

At the other end of the scale, at -c provides an information overload of EVERYTHING about the job. (60+ lines of env? yikes. I don’t need to know that most of the time!)

So where is the simple and useful summary that I’d genuinely expect of atq?
ie, not only the queued command times, but WHAT those commands are – one per line.

As a result, here is my simple “batq” – a better atq

#!/bin/bash

# a better atq
#
# returns the original atq output in bold
# AND IN ADDITION, ALSO:
# * returns items sorted
# * the intended working directory
# * the command to be run
#
        # TODO:
        # $command is not robust - will fail on multiple lines

function do_extraqinfo() {
    while read job ; do
        jobid=$(echo $job | awk '{print $1}')
        detail=$(at -c $jobid)
        dir=$(echo "$detail" | egrep ^cd | sed -e 's/cd \(.*\) || {/\1/g')
        command=$(echo "$detail" | tail -1)
        # alter the following line if the bold offends you
        tput bold ; echo -n "$job" ; tput sgr0
        echo "  $dir    $command"
    done
} 

atq | sort | do_extraqinfo

The wikipedia article on Geek Pride day lists a “manifesto” of sorts, or a “geek code”(see below) for Geek Pride Day…

…here it is:

Rights:

1. The right to be even geekier.
2. The right to not leave your house.
3. The right to not like football or any other sport.
4. The right to associate with other nerds.
5. The right to have few friends (or none at all).
6. The right to have as many geeky friends as you want.
7. The right to be out of style.
8. The right to be overweight and near-sighted.
9. The right to show off your geekiness.
10. The right to take over the world.

Responsibilities:

1. Be a geek, no matter what.
2. Try to be nerdier than anyone else.
3. If there is a discussion about something geeky, you must give your opinion.
4. To save and protect all geeky material.
5. Do everything you can to show off geeky stuff as a “museum of geekiness.”
6. Don’t be a generalized geek. You must specialize in something.
7. Attend every nerdy movie on opening night and buy every geeky book before anyone else.
8. Wait in line on every opening night. If you can go in costume or at least with a related T-shirt, all the better.
9. Don’t waste your time on anything not related to geekdom.
10. Try to take over the world!

So, I have a problem with this. Not all of it, and mostly the ‘responsibilities’ section…

But I get ahead of myself. Here is where I disagree…

Right #5. The right to have few friends (or none at all).

So, in response to this, some images.

[Thanks to http://www.buzzfeed.com/scott/nerd-venn-diagram for what seems to be the original Geek Venn diagram, and http://www.surelyyourenotserious.com/blog/?p=920 for the spectrum diagram]

So back to it.

Whilst Right #5 states that a geek may have no friends – which is fine as a choice, it also implies that geeks may have no friends due to a lack of social grace. …and that, imho, doesn’t sync with the very definition of a geek. (don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against nerds by the definitions given here. I have nerdy friends and geeky friends, and I have nerdy moments and geeky moments. But it’s to be a geek that I aspire, and take pride in)

Nonetheless, it’s a relatively minor issue and harder to defend (but lets me include pretty pictures

Moving on to the responsibilities. Overall, they mix ‘geek’ and ‘nerd’ in annoying and inconsistent ways…

2. Try to be nerdier than anyone else.

Surely being a geek is largely about individuality. I don’t mind competitive behaviour, but I object to it being a responsibility. You cannot mandate competitiveness.

3. If there is a discussion about something geeky, you must give your opinion.

MUST?! No. Really not. To be allowed to care passionately and state your case, sure. But I object to “must” here.

4. To save and protect all geeky material.

Even though I myself am a hoarder and packrat, I think to call it a *responsibility* is too wide reaching. Also, “all”?? See point #6

5. Do everything you can to show off geeky stuff as a “museum of geekiness.”

Again, why is SHOWING OFF now a responsibility? Be passionate, sure. But sometimes collecting is a private endeavour. This links back to #3.

6. Don’t be a generalized geek. You must specialize in something.

This… I kind of agree with. Kind of. But still think it’s a bit strong for a RESPONSIBILITY…

Also, this contradicts several other responsibilities listed herein. According to this I have to specialise, but according to #4 and #7, #8, I have to care about ALL and EVERY geeky thing…

7. Attend every nerdy movie on opening night and buy every geeky book before anyone else.

Is this a competition again? sheesh. See point #6

For the record, it’s possible to be a geek without caring about movies or books!

8. Wait in line on every opening night. If you can go in costume or at least with a related T-shirt, all the better.

EVERY? See points #6 and #7. *sigh*

9. Don’t waste your time on anything not related to geekdom.

Limitations is not the geek way. Defining some things as being not geek and therefore a waste of time – is a limitation!

Damn the man. Do what you want.

And another thing…

In accordance with responsibility #6 (and yes, I recognise the irony of citing responsibility #6 which I myself object to), isn’t “Geek Pride” kind of, well, GENERIC?

So on May 25 I celebrate TOWEL DAY. A day for Hitchhiker and Douglas Adams fans to celebrate this specific fandom. A geek fandom. In fact, a specialised geek fandom…

So don’t celebrate Geek Pride Day. Celebrate your geek pride by celebrating your passion when, how, and who with you choose in a manner appropriate for your geekiness. Here are some ideas:

• March 14: Pi day (3.14) – for Math geeks
• May 4: Star Wars “May the forth be with you” day.
• May 25: Towel Day (2 weeks after the death of Bop Ad), and also Star Wars day (the day the original Star Wars was released. Apparently also it’s a Discworld (of Terry Pratchett) day: The Glorious 25 May
• July 22: Pi day (22/7 = a closer approximation to π  than 3.14)
• September 19: Talk Like a Pirate Day

And… Don’t Panic if you disagree. I’m open to discussion, clarification, and reinspecting my opinions

PS: “Geek Code”? I think that is more correctly this old gem <a href=”http://www.geekcode.com/”>http://www.geekcode.com</a> – for which I have a collection of old codes somewhere, and in fact I’d support it’s re-emergance as a part of the Geek Pride Day, since that would help expand awareness of different elements of geek nature

How did they get to this point?

Here is my trip down OK Go video discovery lane

I was, of course, assisted in this by the existance of all the OK Go videos on one neat site. Conveniently, it’s their own: http://www.okgo.net/media/videos/

Also note: I will mainly be focusing on their video/visual style and evolution, with only passing commentary on the music. Finally, I was assisted in this by my silent partner in review, and her comments will occasionally find note here too.

…And so, on to the chronological order… [edit: it's not really chronological order, it's just the order they appear on their site. This page is basically a snapshot of the conversations my friend and I had about these videos, as we watched them in the order presented to us by the OK Go site]

What To Do

There is not much to say about this early clip. It looks for all the world like label-dictated style for an upcoming group who has yet to define themselves. It features a pretty ‘mainstream indy’ style. Simple setting, shot in black and white. No effects

Notable lyric: “could have been a genius if you had an ax to grind’

You’re So Damn Hot

Another clip which looks for all the world like a label formula. Clips from live shows on the road interspersed with flash-inspired animation. Nothing to write home about.

Get Over It

Yet another label formula clip. This time they’re in the center of an empty hall, performing, with occasionally clip-art shots of popculture items to sync with the lyrics.

Notable video moment: the slow motion ping pong. This felt like the first moment of OK Go’s future video quirkery coming out.

Don’t Ask Me (Dance Booth version)

This is clearly when OK Go started to cut their own creative teeth, as it were. It has a low budget self-made feel to it, with the band and random extras singing/dancing or just showing off (or even looking bored sometimes even!) to the music.

It’s gorgeous and smile inducing.

Don’t Ask Me

This label version of the same song is totally formulaic, and could have been produced for any generic band. Black and white, with simple colour patterns in the background, and don’t forget the cookie cutter dancing girl! (you will though)

It’s boring and yawn inducing.

Notable anything? Sorry, nothing at all.

Do What You Want

This video is a little bit dizzy inducing with it’s rapid motion hyperactive  bullettime-esque motion pans. I’d guess that band had creative input, but still played within the label marketing system. We get a generic band-surround-by-girls setting -  but the wallpaper (more of this next clip) behind them is quirky, and the girls are real (not fake models). But yet we still get a girls-dancing-in-slow-motion scene…

Do What You Want (Wallpaper version)

Taking their own lyrical advice, we have here an amazing example of the band striking out and just making what they want. At least, that’s how it feels! The concept is simple – the band and some performers, all performing… stuff!

The frenetic editing pace suits perfectly – but the masterpiece is the outfits. Everyone and everything (within reason) is covered in the same gorgeously hideous wallpaper pattern. It adorns clothes, instruments, the floor, the wall, furniture, segways…

Watching this, I feel that they have found themselves…

Notable video moment: the pogo stick…

[edit: as noted by Rachel (thankyou!), this clip came after the Treadmill listed below. I don't feel it changes my overall conclusion though. I think it just places it as a clip made with the groups new-found confidence in their own artistic abilities ]

Invincible

This is an odd one. I think it’s a group idea – to blow things up (cos that’s always fun, who cares about originality ALL the time anyway?), but it’s also full of generic ‘band performing’ clips too. My guess is that this is the band’s idea, but that they ceded some creative license to the label for the sake of finances and ability to make it…

Notable video moment: the chandelier

A Million Ways

To me, this is the precursor to the genius of Here It Goes Again, in the same way that Rubber Soul was the precursor to Revolver.

I think this may have been the first time the band ‘just went ahead and made it’ and totally circumvented the ’system’. And what do they do? They dance around in the back yard! And it’s great!

For the first time we have a feel not only for the groups quirky style, but for the band members involved. Without this, there never would have been the treadmills…

Notable video moment: letting the video run past the end of the performance

[edit: again, thanks Rachel. This was a practice video which was leaked and went viral. Ok, so it wasn't deliberate in it's low-key, but shows their style coming through loud and clear ]

Here It Goes Again

OK Go, On Treadmills.

The clip which may have guaranteed OK Go lasting posterity even if they never made anything else again. I can’t say much to this that hasn’t been said a million times. How do you know it’s genius? From the sound of a million viewers all saying “why did I never think of that?”

Notable video moment: when you rewind to watch it again.

WTF

I must admit, this video actually annoyed me, but my silent partner in review thought it amazing. To my eye, making a whole video where the visual effect is that of a crashed Windows 3.1 (or 95/98/2000/XP) program – was cringe worthy.

In fairness, it did have potential though. If the effect had been applied selectively, whilst other times ‘locking’ the background in place, then I may well have been equally impressed. Silent partner, otoh, thought it was great.

And it’s not like there weren’t scenes which made good use of the style either – I don’t deny that. But the basic premise upon which all this cleverness was built? Just didn’t do it for me. So overall: cringe, with a concession of clever.

Notable video moment: the chair (which instead reminded me of old-skool demo scene

This Too Shall Pass

I love this and think it’s genius (though my silent partner thought it ‘meh, with a side order of cute’). It just grows and amazes as one long clip unfolds and expands, with new people and camera angles when you least expect.  I don’t want to give it away, so I’ll only say that it’s the first reveal of the brass which does it for me.

Notable video moment: every time you wonder how you didn’t see that person before now

This Too Shall Pass (Rube Goldberg Version)

Their most recent piece is a stunning piece of fun invention. I think it shows that the band is willing to now use the medium of video clips to make cool stuff, even if it has only a passing meaning to the song (and why not, it’s not like the formulas the labels push do any better anyway!).

This time a huge Rube Goldberg machine accompanies them in time with the song. A song which soon gets stuck in your head too (though I did find the Marching Band version to be rather forgettable, so ymmv).

The treadmill video gets a cameo here, and I think that the band feels they have more to show the world than just that one idea, and don’t want to be overshadowed by their own history after all.

I only hope that they don’t burn out, forget about the music, or typecast themselves in trying to escape the treadmill meme…

Notable lyrics: “let it go / this too shall pass”

Conclusion

Some groups – and indeed, people, start out quirky and imaginative, but when they begin to achieve fame, they get scared. They close down and start repeating themselves for fear of losing what they have, and instead lose that very edge that got them started.

Others instead, seem to use the power of fame to push the envelope of what is possible/accepted or expected – and so expand their own edge, in relative fearlessness of the effect it may have on their fanbase or reputation.

And it is into this latter category that I put Gonzo the Great.

oh, and also: OK Go.

Post Script:

Being a newly confirmed fan of both their video and their music – and I am kicking myself that I found out they were here in Brisbane a few weeks ago… and only found out this week when I discovered this clip history. No matter, next time…

[edit postscript: I wrote this review after an evenings entertaining video watching. I have since been corrected on some chronology and facts, and no doubt will find new errors in my assumptions down the track. In the interest of satisfying both my desire to not revise history, but also to not spread misinformation; I will update this post with edits like this as I find or am informed of errors. The original post will remain otherwise untouched.

...that'll sure teach me to write and post at midnight! [1]]

To summarise the previous posts…

Winter:

The room: 14 – 30.5C

The rack: 23.3 – 43.4C

Spring:

The room: 14.4 – 33.8C

The rack: 22.6 – 45C

And newly…

Summer:

The room: 19.6 – 34.9C
The rack: 27.9 – 45.7C

The seasonal trend is there. Not unexpected for it to be there, just nice to know what it is, quantitatively.

http://www.ted.com/talks/blaise_aguera.html

If you haven’t seen it, then do so now.

If you have, proceed…

So if I can be allowed to blow my own horn for a moment, I’d like to boast that I occasionally seem to have quite marvelous ideas independently or others. Admittedly, others who were lucky enough to think of it earlier enough and/or had resources enough to make something of it. But my claim is that I sometimes think of these things _independently_.

And it has has been said of inventing – the best inventions are obvious, which is why it’s so humbling to remember that one didn’t think of these ‘obvious’ things themselves.

But in my case, can I finally “prove” that I did…?

Back to the video – I’d like to draw your attention to a point approximately 3:45 in: “…time travel. I’m not going to show you some of the wonderful historic imagery in here – there’s some in here with horses and carriages as well [...] it also is the foundation for augmented reality“.

Now compare with an email of mine to a friend, where I wrote this:

What would be kind of cool: augmented reality goggles (this is one of those ideas I had years before I knew there was a word for it) that show recreated historical versions of the world… but, instead of just showing a certain era, you see the ‘prettiest’ building at any given location. Making a best-of-all-possible-eras virtual world

So as far as I can tell (can anyone confirm?), this talk was made on Feb 11 or 12 (based on dated video comments afterwards). My email has a date stamp of: 10 Feb 2010 15:17:07 +1000). And, frankly, even if the video was recorded first, I sure didn’t see it till today

As an aside, my email was prompted by a rather ugly house I see regularly in town, and my own wonderings if it used to be pretty…

• • Contemporary Google maps street view
  • Sometime pre 1994, it was ugly then too
  • Circa 1930s – it was gorgeous.

I especially love how you get basically the same angle on all three – which was, of course, the key to my own inspiration

So clearly, the next thing for me to work out is real time travel – at which point I can begin to start sending these ideas of mine back to people in the past with the resources to make them a reality asap! =)

Regardless..

New years resolutions? Out.
New years goals? In.

So, in three brief categories, here are my goals for 2010

• Location: This year – to live by myself.
• Body: Cut milk from my diet (as a drink, I’m not cutting all diary as food just now), and ensure I exercise enough to maintain current fitness levels or improve.
• Mind: Stay on target with pet projects and complete them

Note: these resolutions earlier appeared as a StatusNet dent here: http://identi.ca/notice/18121538 and were mirrored via twitter here: http://twitter.com/nemothorx/status/7346796530 (they were furthermore mirrored on facebook!)

So. Why can’t we have a voting machine to do this?You choose your preferred policy on a range of issues (healthcare, tax, immigration, environment, education, defence, etc), and at the end it says “you have chosen the . Is this correct?”

And it can even fill in preferences for you (Dear USA. Get preferential voting and the bare minimum. Till then, I cannot respect your so-called ‘democracy’).

Yes, this is far from perfect and full of flaws[12], but really, if Subway can have lunch voting machines (I’d love to see the stats on bread choices in fact), then why is there so much drama about getting one for government?

[12] by far, the biggest issue I can see is showing a lack of bias in determining the party that best matches the selected choices and relative priorities between them. Is this a solved problem? I don’t know.

Here are the spring results

So in 3 months of spring, the ‘indoor’ (outside the rack) temperatures: 14.4 – 33.8C

And the “outdoor” (inside the rack) for the same winter season: 22.6 – 45C

So in short – not too different from winter… a couple of degrees warmer all around… though I bet a bellcurve plot of common temperatures would show a slightly different bias to the story too.

Thermometer reset, and into summer… hello summer!