Noooo!

For future reference: http://www.nooooooooooooooo.com/

Video of the day: “Closer” by Travis

Let’s set the world on fire

Tonight
we are young
so let’s set the world on fire
we can burn brighter
than the sun

Bevare.

Game of Thrones at the Game Developers Conference #gdc View high resolution

Game of Thrones at the Game Developers Conference #gdc

“

There is no opponent. Because the word “I” does not exist.

A good fight should be like a small play, but played seriously. A good martial artist does not become tense, but ready. Not thinking, yet not dreaming. Ready for whatever may come. When the opponent expands, I contract. When he contracts, I expand. And when there is an opportunity, I do not hit. It hits all by itself.

Bruce Lee, Enter the Dragon

A Separation

Fantastic. Now I understand why it got 99% on Rotten Tomatoes. Brilliant.

Epic rope swing

Respectful discourse

Copied from the blog of the amazing Sam Ruby.

The reason you have arived here is probably due to the fact that the owner of this web site has deemed some portion of a comment as flamebait.

While I am not sure of many things, here are a few things I do believe:

  • Overall, the comments feature of my weblog is something that I find the most enjoyable and rewarding aspects of my site.
  • I welcome thoughtful and respectful expressions of alternate points of view.
  • There are some topics that I am interested in that others seem to find as irresistable temptations to bash one another.
  • Nobody has an inalienable right to place information on my website. If you have something to say, I encourage you to get your own weblog. Feel free to use trackback to draw attention to your comments.

Given the above, I would like to find a solution less drastic than disabling comments, blocking of ip address, or wholesale removal of comments. That being said, I do reserve the right to selectively employ one or more of the above in situations I feel warrant it.

At the moment, the best solution I have come up with is to mark up the portions I find objectionable with links to this page. No words are addded, deleted, or rearranged in the process.

Suggestions are welcome.

xkcd and abstraction layers

This xkcd reminded me of a 3-year old blog post of mine, Abstraction layers: One, two, many

“
The little things… there’s nothing bigger, is there?
Vanilla Sky
Steak au poivre with smoked sweet potato chipotle puree, roasted tomato and portobello mushroom. Execution Lots of good recipes for “steak au poivre”. Many small details make all the difference. My sauce has shallots, beef stock, cognique, heavy cream and a little butter. There’s a sprinkle of crispy bacon at the top. For the puree, I boiled the sweet potatoes and then grilled them in the oven until a bit blackened to add a smoky flavor. I puréed them in a food processor with some hot chipotle sauce, milk, butter and heavy cream. The tomato and portobello mushroom slice were marinated with spicy balsamic vinaigrette and then grilled. View high resolution

Steak au poivre with smoked sweet potato chipotle puree, roasted tomato and portobello mushroom.

Execution

Lots of good recipes for “steak au poivre”. Many small details make all the difference. My sauce has shallots, beef stock, cognique, heavy cream and a little butter. There’s a sprinkle of crispy bacon at the top.

For the puree, I boiled the sweet potatoes and then grilled them in the oven until a bit blackened to add a smoky flavor. I puréed them in a food processor with some hot chipotle sauce, milk, butter and heavy cream.

The tomato and portobello mushroom slice were marinated with spicy balsamic vinaigrette and then grilled.

Innovation, Solutions, and Effectiveness

Business Partners, the influential magazine of the American-Hellenic Chamber of Commerce, has published an article discussing Greece, Startups and Transifex. I was invited to write a column.

Business Partners presents the voices of six young entrepreneurs who are rising above the status quo to take control of their professional careers, with all the difficulties this involves, and experience life from a different vantage point. And they offer insights into shifts—of beliefs, of values, of perspectives—that, at this time of upheaval and despair, will move Greece forward.

Here’s my take on the topic.

Innovation, Solutions, and Effectiveness

Being an entrepreneur and a pattern recognition geek, I am very often tempted to compare Greece’s challenges with those of a startup.

Startups are businesses at their extremes. One day you’re the king of the world at the top of the mountain, invincible against your competition. The next day you’re in the valley, wondering how on earth you’ll survive the imminent and inevitable end of your world. And while entrepreneurs often have optimism engraved in their DNA to be able to survive (and thrive), a startup’s roller-coaster life, and a negative ecosystem, can drain it out from you.

I’m often asked what were the biggest challenges I faced in founding Transifex. Expected answers, such as bureaucracy and taxation, are always areas a country can improve on. But the biggest challenge for me was a different one: To keep looking at things positively. To keep believing that change is possible and you’re a part of it. If I had a magic wand, I’d switch the negativity being pushed by the media before a good night’s sleep, or by the grocery store owner before a good morning, with constructive criticism with realistic propositions and a thumbs-up with a smile.

Empowerment will prove to be an important element of Greece’s fight for survival. From entrepreneurs to employees, from citizens to ministers and the prime minister himself, everybody needs to feel empowered to fight for a better tomorrow. Citizens need to feel empowered to be part of the change and fight to bring new value the next day. This cultural change requires many years to improve, but that’s no reason not to start working on it today.

Greece is challenged today to innovate itself out of its doom, whirlpool. In any system which brought itself to such a bad state, innovation, or improving its own parameters, is a necessary element for escape. And while lots of people are busy with inventing solutions, some few are busy in innovating new solutions, that is, ones which will be effective in improving the current state in a significant way. These people are smarter than the ones which brought the system to the current state. Let’s identify them, remove all their obstacles and provide them with all the necessary tools to do great things.

Effectiveness is key. Both optimized systems, as well as ones which have been broken for decades, which represents the case of Greece, require hard work to fix. When resources such as budget and time are limited, being effective is key for success. The right solutions should be brought to the table today and ways to get them implemented soon should be found.

Full article at: http://bponline.amcham.gr/?p=1397.

“
A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.
Greek Proverb
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Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.
Cyril Parkinson