How do people who fabricate crap like this sleep at night?

This is the 8th email I've received like this in the last four weeks, and they all have the same fundamental flaws that just scream "SCAM" in big capital letters. First tip is the address, a place I haven't lived at for over ten years. Second is the "SEO" bullshit scam term, as I'd never sign up for that crap even if my site received 0 visitors per century for its obscurity. Third is the notice number, which matches the seven previous scam messages. The wording is also very much like a past-due invoice despite the fact I've never requested services from the lying-ass jerk wads who sent this phishing piece of shit. Some of the smaller lines are comical, too. This gem stands out:

Failure to complete this order by 10/09/2017 . may result in the cancellation of this offer (making it difficult for your customers to locate you, using search engines on the web). [...] We sell traffic generator software.

My customers know exactly where to find me. That's why they're customers, not shoppers. Second, "traffic generator software"? So ... you're asking me to pay you $86 a year to have bots hit my website more often, further driving up the cost of hosting thanks to all the unnecessary bandwidth that would be consumed?

Just because I've been active on the Interwebs since the 90s doesn't mean I've forgotten how to read.

Then in the easy-to-miss, light-grey footer:

You have received this message because you elected to receive special notification offers. If you no longer wish to receive our notifications, please unsubscribe here or mail written request to Domain SEO Service Registration Corp., Miami Beach, FL 33139. If you have multiple accounts with us, you must opt out for each one individually in order to stop receiving SEO notices. We are a search engine optimization company. We do not register or renew domain names. We sell traffic generator software. This message is CAN-SPAM compliant. THIS IS NOT A BILL OR AN INVOICE. THIS IS A SEO PURCHASE OFFER. YOU ARE UNDER NO OBLIGATION TO PAY THE AMOUNT STATED UNLESS YOU ACCEPT THIS PURCHASE OFFER. This message contains promotional material strictly along the guidelines of the CAN-SPAM act of 2003. We have distinctly mentioned the source mail-id of this email and also disclosed our subject lines. They are no way misleading. Please do not reply to this email, as we are not able to respond to messages sent to this address.

When did I elect to receive these offers? Evidence, please. I will not click a scummy link that only validates my email address nor will I pay international postage and write a letter to a company with no street address. If I have multiple accounts, it's because whatever list they bought or stole containing 8 of my domain names was imported into a crap data system by a n00b who has no concept of completeness. While the footer claims that this email is not a bill nor an invoice, the language in the more easily readable body appears otherwise. Distinctly mentioning a source mail-id and disclosing a subject line does not mean the contents of the message are not misleading. Not being able to respond to messages when people press "Reply" means that the fools who sent this おれおれ詐欺¹ clearly do not work for a good company because organizations that send invoice-looking emails only when there are invoices to send want people to contact them if there are questions. It's just good business.

If people want to lie, cheat, and steal their way through life, that's their right and I sincerely hope they drown in a pool of their own spit after being bitten by a rabid bat during a rainstorm. If a person wants to lie to try and cheat or steal from me, they'd better do their fucking homework.

1. this is a common money scam in Japan where thieves call elderly people pretending to be their children — or calling on behalf of their children — who are in dire straights and need money fast. A horrendous number of people over the age of 80 have lost entire life savings as a result of this scam over the last 20 years. ↩

Over the last few years I've been working on a number of projects that I've hoped could generate enough interest to warrant founding a new business venture, hiring some smart people, and earning a decent income for everyone involved. While some projects have been more successful than others, none have really caught on in any fashion. The two I'm most passionate about — 10Centuries and Green LMS¹ — seem to have very little traction anywhere. This could be due to the terrible names. This could be due to the terrible marketing. This could be due to something I'm simply not aware of. That said, what I do know is that I can't really expand on Green LMS anymore without potentially risking my position at the day job, as that project is literally an earlier version of the current project I'm working on for the employer.

All in all, I really feel that Green LMS can have a very positive future given the resources and energy. Schools around the country and all over the world could tap into the various functions that make the system nice — such as the integrated blogging, scheduling, homework submission, and lesson history views — and focus more on the people acquiring skills than the systems they currently use, which either look like something from the late 90s or are completely built on custom Excel files that have evolved over the years. What I'd really like is a block of time to really polish the product, make it available, generate awareness, earn customers, and begin the next phase of the project's development. But how can this be done without upsetting the people who pay my salary?

The term "skunkworks" often refers to a department of a company or institution, typically smaller than and independent of the main divisions. The name was originally given to a team of smart people at Lockheed’s Advanced Development Projects Division during World War II. Since that time, companies around the world have borrowed this technique to give some of their best people the freedom and space needed to solve the next set of problems facing the organization. Could I pitch something like this to the powers that be and successfully acquire the talent and financial backing required to take the LMS to the next level?

This is something that I've been seriously considering for some time. I've been researching the competition, speaking to potential customers, considering layouts, and planing how it would go from being a cost centre at the day job to breaking even. As one would expect, a number of hurdles would stand in the way of the project's acceptance, but this doesn't seem to be an impossible request given the proven track record for the existing project. Senior managers are not so easily convinced, though. If they were to approve the creation of a small team that operates outside the existing structure of the organization — something that's almost unheard of in Japan — then there would need to be a huge payout at the end.

But what would that payout be?

1. a lesson management system for independent schools ↩

Five years ago today I made the switch from Windows to OS X and, while I've not stuck with Apple's preferred OS on my hardware for the entire duration, the move has been incredibly illuminating. It's been said on numerous occasions on this site, but the first computer I could call my own was an ancient off-brand 8088 back in 1994. It was on that machine that I learned how to program in Turbo Pascal and Watcom though a pair of books that were instrumental to my understanding of software development. From 1994 through to 2012 the core ideas in those books were used over and over and over again across thousands of projects, evolving as the field developed new processes and techniques. Core to the understanding, though, was that software should be written for the lowest-grade of hardware whenever possible. We can't assume everyone has the latest and greatest computer on their desk, nor should we make people suffer for our own impatience at finding the most efficient means to solve a problem. While I still very much stick to this core idea as much as possible, the platform switch in 2012 brought about a slightly different area of focus when designing digital solutions, and it's one I'm still actively learning about today.

For the first eighteen years, my primary goal was to create great software that would solve the problem at hand as efficiently as possible. The interface that people would see was often an afterthought, though I always tried to make the various elements line up and look good. After using iOS for a bit and seeing just how important interface design can be, I started to take it much more seriously.

Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it's really how it works.
— Steve Jobs

While watching parts of Apple's big hardware release a few weeks back, they played an audio snippet with the above quote from the late Steve Jobs. A lot of people have heard this quote, but I wonder how many people think about it.

At the day job I've been working on a project for almost two years¹ where I've tried very hard to think more about how the software is supposed to work rather than how "tight" the code is or slick the interface might be. When designing new functions and features, I try to collect as much information as I can from the people who will wind up using that part of the system because, at the end of the day, they are my customer. The software is used by people across the organization with very different sets of goals so, sometimes, the best solution is to write two or more interfaces that draw from the same source of data, but display the information differently. Sure, everything would work if I were to just make a single, unified view that people could then selectively ignore. But I want the software to actually work ... so I ask questions. Lots of them.

Despite working with software for almost a quarter century, I still feel there is a lot left to learn. Every platform has taught me something valuable that is just as relevant today as it was days, weeks, months, or years ago when I would heavily lean on them. DOS taught me the importance of efficiency. Windows taught me the importance of object oriented coding. PalmOS taught me the importance of resource management. Linux taught me the importance of community building. iOS/OS X taught me the importance of designing tools rather than solutions. The web taught me the importance of picking a standard² and sticking to it. The next area I expect to work in will involve a great deal of voice interaction, and I look forward to the evolution in thinking that move will bring.

1. it's really hard to believe this much time has passed already ↩
2. there's an XKCD joke in here ... ↩

One of the many questions I like to ask people over a caffeinated or alcoholic beverage is "What are you most proud of doing?" It's a uniquely personal question that generally results in people thinking for a moment, exhaling, and responding with something along the lines of "I don't know". Very few people have an immediate answer for this because — for reasons I'm not entirely clear on — we don't seem to enjoy our victories for very long. Yet when we look back at the things we've accomplished in our lives, how can a person not be genuinely proud of a few things they've accomplished?

Hideki, the houseless person¹ who has lived under a nearby bridge for the better part of five years, managed to get himself some stable employment at the start of the summer working for the city and cleaning parks. He was incredibly happy and soon moved into a cheap apartment on the south side of town. With autumn upon us, the city has let him go and Hideki has once again taken up residence under the bridge for the winter. I asked him why he's chosen to do this, and he explained in his meandering, rambling way that his neighbors are friendlier ... and he likes that there are generally more steel and aluminum cans to collect for recycling in the area than other parts of town.

He's happy where he is, and he says he was proud that he could keep a steady job for an entire season for the first time in years. What he's told me of his past was generally not pretty, but his present is exactly what he wants it to be. We should all be so lucky to be happy with our circumstances.

When I think about the things that I'm most proud of, I struggle to answer why I'm proud of these accomplishments. They're not particularly amazing, nor have they changed the world for the better (yet). Despite this I'm genuinely happy to say "I have done this thing to the best of my ability" and leave it at that. I wonder if this is the case for others as well.

1. Hideki has told me many times that "his bridge" is his home, so he's not homeless. ↩

While this may come as a surprise to some, I've not been one to have a particularly high self esteem. I rarely feel I am worthy of any sort of praise, nor do I feel particularly intelligent or skilled at anything. I can do enough to get by, and in the few areas that I excel at, I tend to do a little better than people who are starting out. Despite working in education for a decade, I never felt I was a particularly good teacher, and despite writing software for over 20 years, I do not feel I am particularly amazing at it. These are just things I have done and tried to do well, failing hard and often along the way. This is to be expected, though, as I am a human fraught with failings.

Over the last few weeks my son has continued on his quest to learn about himself and the world. He's been able to "say" things like "mama" and "ba-buuu-pfffhhhh". He's learned how to sit up. He's learned that bananas are sweeter than carrots. He's learning how to crawl. Did he learn any of these things from me? I don't think so. Has he learned anything specifically from me? I don't know. It's hard to tell, really, as he's unable to comprehend my questions or construct cromulent answers that consider what was before to what is now. Asking such a question would be unfair, too, as he's just a kid unaware of the underlying question that I am really seeking to find an answer.

Ultimately, I want to know if I'm being the best parent I can be. I want to be part of my child's life, but I don't want to be an ever-present entity that stifles his independence. I want to show him the incredible richness and depth to the plethora of questions people can ask without boring him senseless by delving way deeper into a topic than he wanted to go. Is my attempts to play with him before he understands the concept of play a good thing? Is my insistence that he not play when eating food a bad thing? The boy is almost 9 months old and I've yet to discipline him for anything. Is that a good thing?

When I think about my parents and how they raised me, I ask this question of them. Did I have good parents? I think so. They did the best they could with the resources at hand. They sacrificed their own goals to raise my sisters and I. They struggled in silence when trying to pay all the bills on time while also providing all the necessities that kids take for granted. There is always food in the cupboard, clean clothes in the dresser, and electricity for the TV ... right?

Even today when I think about my parents, I think they are considering what's best for me while I live on the other side of the planet from them. There are occasional calls and emails, but nothing too excessive. There is no forced expectation that I circumnavigate the globe to attend an event, nor is there even a strongly worded message saying that I should do more to keep in touch with my scores of cousins, dozens of nephews and nieces, or handful of siblings. The distance I feel from the family I grew up with is just right.

Will I be able to provide this same level of comfort to my son and any potential siblings? Will I be able to give him what he needs without becoming a nuisance or appearing disconnected?

A lot of these questions are born from the Demons of Self-Doubt who whisper endlessly in my ear about how useless and stupid I am when compared to the whole of humanity, as if one person could be "better" than 7-billion others and still appear well-rounded and normal. Yet they're hard to ignore. I would like to be a "good" parent. One who gives their kids freedom to make safe mistakes to learn from, while also being a source of encouragement and knowledge. I'd like to teach my kids the crucial skill of critical thinking in the hopes that they use it to navigate the minefield of bullshit that is adult life. I'd like to give my kids the confidence I have not had since I was 19 an innocent of the evils that drive men to do what they do.

But can I do these things? It took me decades to learn who I really am. How long will it take to learn about any new people who share parts of my DNA?

These are undoubtedly questions that many parents ask themselves.

Over the last few weeks I've been looking for some new podcasts that focus on the art of storytelling and stumbled upon Levar Burton's new show, Levar Burton Reads. Mr. Burton is famous for his role in Star Trek but he's also well known for his passion and advocacy of literacy. I remember when my siblings were much younger, we'd have the TV on PBS and every afternoon Reading Rainbow would come on and we'd see Levar showcasing a book and telling a story. While I didn't need any encouragement to pick up a book and read, there are many who fell in love with reading because of the children's show.

Levar Burton's podcast doesn't cater towards a younger audience, though it would likely be enjoyable for people of all ages who genuinely enjoy stories. In every episode, a short story is chosen and read to the audience. On each side of the reading, we hear what the story means to Levar and we're encouraged to really think about it as well. It's a wonderful listen.

There are 12 episodes as of this moment, and a new one comes out every week. If you enjoy stories, I highly recommend you give it a try.

Seven years ago Nozomi became part of the family, and we've been inseparable ever since. She's calmed down quite a bit and she doesn't eat human toes anymore, but she's still as lovable and innocent as ever. While I can't quite give her the freedom to explore the park as much as she'd like, I do hope that she enjoys the time we do spend together. She's one of the kindest souls I've had the privilege to meet.

Elon Musk is one of the world's most influential, wealthy, and intelligent people. He's the leader behind Tesla Motors and Space-X, two companies that I find incredibly ambitious and worth paying attention to. He's also a proponent of using technology to the betterment of our culture and society, which is something that I can usually stand behind and applaud. Over the last few years he's been banging the drum that Artificial Intelligence needs to be controlled and kept non-sentient in order to ensure our species has a future. Recently he and Google’s Mustafa Suleyman joined forces to lead a group of 116 specialists from across 26 countries to have the UN ban autonomous weapons in much the same way chemical and biological weapons are banned from use. While I agree with the idea in principle, this may not be the most logical solution to the problem of nations sending "armies" of robots to war. Until nations have a means to destroy or disable remote or autonomous vehicles en masse through EMP or similar weapons, it only makes sense that militaries not only possess "killer robots", but continue working on improving the software that operates them.

The wars fought in my lifetime have been mostly commercial endeavours, with parties battling for resources at the expense of human life and toothless UN condemnations. One of the biggest issues facing nations and megalomaniacs hellbent on annexation of territory is the undeniable cost that comes with supplying the people who are pillaging, occupying, and otherwise conquering space on a map. Armies, air forces, and navies cost money. Lots of it. But if one could instead employ machines to clear out territories, operational costs of skirmishes go way down. More than this, training is essentially reduced to zero as everything a machine would need to know before going to battle could be stored in memory within seconds. Gone are the days, weeks, or months of training to learn the art of war. "Loyal" machines could be built by the thousands with each passing day allowing a hostile force to overwhelm the defences of all but their most powerful adversaries. A lot of people think North Korea with ICBMs and miniaturized nuclear warheads is a problem. A legion of drones carrying several thousand rounds of ammunition, mini-missiles, and a kamikaze sensibility to use every last bullet before the batteries run down would be just as terrifying. These could be built in secret and deployed under the radar, catching nation states completely unaware until the death toll was in the thousands, leaving infrastructure in place for the encroaching power to occupy territory without having to rebuild roads, power, and telecommunications lines along the way.

Wars of the future will be absolutely terrifying, and humans are simply not enough to combat such a horrific sight as 50,000 drones flying like locusts into the heart of a city while firing indiscriminately at anything that moved.

Rather than prohibit killer robots, we should enlist the best people to build them while following Asimov's three laws of robotics:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

These "laws" are hardly perfect, but they give us a really good place to start. If a hostile nation were to send drones into battle, either to conquer or as a terror operation, domestic drones would stand the best chance to provide the best line of defence until the military proper, staffed with humans, arrived. Domestic devices could provide cover while populations escaped. Domestic devices could drastically reduce the number of hostile robots targeting the civilians and key target areas. Domestic devices could buy time. UN laws alone are simply insufficient to prevent someone who cares little about the rule of law from exercising might.

People who know me will understand I don't propose the creation of machines that kill lightly. I'm hardly a pacifist, but I have a strong distaste of mechanical armies fighting our battles, as it cheapens the entire act of war. There is zero substantial cost if a government sends a million machines to fight a battle versus a million people. For this reason, it only makes sense that nations defend themselves from phalanxes of artificial troops. When better countermeasures such as targetable EMPs¹ and other intelligent mechanisms are in place, then nations can look at fully outlawing the use of machines in war. A drone is not the same as a chemical weapon. A drone is not the same as a biological or nuclear weapon. A drone, autonomous or otherwise is a completely different type of threat, and one that should be met with whatever force is necessary until better defences are available.

At the end of the day it's not AI that we should be outlawing, strictly regulating, or blindly fearing; it's our fellow humans.

1. Electro-Magnet Pulse ↩

One of the many benefits of taking job interviews despite being employed is seeing what other companies are working on and how your existing skill set might be challenged in such an environment. This was certainly the case when I responded to a headhunter's email last week regarding a position at a company in town that is working on AR — Augmented Reality — technologies.

AR is something that I've looked at but not seen the allure in. Asking people to wear a heavy and uncomfortable headset or burn through full phone batteries within an hour, contend with visual distortion and perspective shifts, and generally unimpressive graphics resolutions while embarking on some kind of lame game or unrealistic experience is not something I'm interested in. Sure, we're still in early days of the technology and there are teams of brilliant people around the world working on making it all better, but I've just not seen something interesting enough to capture my attention. What interested me about the headhunter's email was that the position I'd be interviewing for would involve building the infrastructure and the API that would interface with the AR tools that were being built by another team within the company. There would be plenty of opportunity to work with cutting-edge hardware and build brand new software tools. Regardless of how one feels about AR, building new things and pushing one's boundaries is really, really cool.

So with this in mind, I decided that it would be silly to ignore the window of opportunity and agreed to meet with someone from the company in order to see if their goals aligned with some of my own.

The meeting took place at their office, and a cursory glance around the place revealed that most people are using Dell workstations with two or three monitors attached. Headphones were everywhere, so there's likely very little conversation taking place during much of the day. Most chairs looked slept in, and the air carried a whiff of sweat and parking lot odours, which is to be expected in the summertime. The person I met with was the CTO but, when I learned the company had fewer than 20 employees, the title seemed a little inflated. Small companies are great, as every person counts, but the titles are almost meaningless. Roles are more cooperative and dynamic.

Semantics aside, the meeting went rather well. The host arrived ten minutes late and, as we're both roughly the same age, we started by talking about tech in the 90s and what we'd like to accomplish. Later I talked about 10Centuries and its objective to be a non-profit service available for 1000 years, as well as some of what I'm doing at the day job. He talked about wanting to make holodecks, replicators, and transporters from Star Trek. An enjoyable discussion, though a bit rough at times as my Japanese is nowhere near native level.

Eventually we got to the subject that mattered most, what the company needed and whether I would be a good fit within the organization. The role was explained quite clearly, and I outlined some possible solutions to problems that were brought up, such as how to offload some of the AR work to a web server from a cell phone without introducing too much lag or requiring the web service to buy an entire data centre. Things were going well, up until one of the company's current projects was discussed¹.

The first project would be an AR "imaginary friend" system. A character with the appeal of Clippy and an anime body of your choosing would essentially be a semi-interactive avatar that simulates a house mate. The system would be targeted at seniors living alone — who I can't imagine looking through a phone all day long — and NEETs who never leave their apartments but need companionship. My job would be to work with a team to build an API that takes the visual data from the cameras of the area, generates a 3D map, stores it on local servers, and then gives the digital pet a floor map from which they're expected to walk and avoid obstructions. This doesn't sound too crazy, aside from the storage of detailed maps of inside people's homes complete with geolocation positioning and other highly sensitive information, and could be an interesting challenge. I had a question.

This sounds very involved. The technologies required to make this a reality will not be cheap. How much will this software cost?

One of the biggest problems facing software companies is the lack of income from the people who use the services. Customers do not want to spend money on applications anymore regardless of how much time and money development of that system cost. Everything is expected to be "free".

This project was no different. I was told the app would be available for some Android and most iOS devices for about $3 after a promotional period where it's free. After that, people would be encouraged to buy their avatar things from the in-app "store", such as clothes, treats, voices, and other add-ons. Interestingly enough, the avatar itself would ask you to get these things if it didn't feel wanted.

Emotional blackmail as a service, anyone?

The goal would be to take the maps and character interactions from this system to use later when the company tries to build a complete VR game with very realistic avatars to interact with. We didn't talk too much about that project, though, and stuck to just this initial idea. The more questions I asked, though, the more it rubbed me the wrong way. The avatars were primarily gold diggers and secondarily spies, returning inventories of people's homes in incredible detail to servers. What's to stop anyone from "adding value" by delivering ads as verbal suggestions? Agreeing could then trigger a purchase, which could then result in the delivery of that product. Convenient? Sure. A little too convenient, though … no?

I'm all for providing some kind of companionship to people in need. Heck, done right, something like this could act as a confidante to people all over the globe. However, this company seemed to have their heart set on making this AR system into an ad delivery mechanism. When I asked whether the service might have a subscription option for people who didn't want to buy digital goods, the answer was a pretty quick "no" as "subscription services don't enable growth".

As the meeting wrapped up, I was asked if I'd like to come in next week to meet some of the team and ask some questions. Not being one to reject right away, I asked for a day to check my work schedule. Soon after leaving, I shook my head and decided this wasn't a place I'd feel comfortable working at. Just because the technology is possible and the tools are sophisticated enough to accomplish this sort of goal does not mean I want to be part of its creation or propagation. It all seems so … inhuman.

One saving grace is that I don't need this job. I still have full time employment and am earning a good amount for what I do. Not everyone is fortunate enough to have this sort of luxury. This does raise a question, though: if I were unemployed or still working in the classroom rather than behind a keyboard, would I accept this job? I've turned down others that do not align with my set of moral beliefs, but I wasn't responsible for a little human back then. I could certainly work at a place that I objected to if needs be, but for how long?

Of course, given how many organizations are using technology to strip away the last remnants of personal privacy and dignity in the name of "convenience" or "share holder value", I wonder how long a career in technology I might have …

1. I was not asked to sign an NDA, so I'm free to talk about the project in detail. That said, I'll keep it vague in the event there are problems going forward. ↩

Earlier today the family and I paid a visit to Reiko's grandmother, who currently lives in a retirement home. Her mental state has deteriorated as a result of Alzheimer's over the last decade, and it was decided a few years ago that she should be in a place with round-the-clock medical support. Most of the time she believes it's some time around 1930 or 1940. She's forgotten that her father passed away some fifty years ago. And she can no longer recall the names or faces of her children. Her grandchildren are another story. This post isn't really about her, though. Instead it's about a word that I often hear associated with my kid that I have grown to detest: "half".

In Japan, and perhaps other countries where a population is mostly homogenous, children who have one foreign parent are called ハーフ (ha-fu), meaning "half Japanese". Growing up in Canada, people were also classified as "half", such as half-latino or half-black. This wasn't seen as a derogatory term as far as I know, but something about hearing people say this about my kid grates on my nerves. I want to say "He isn't half anything. He's 100% just like you." ... but maybe this is an over-reaction.

Despite being an immigrant, I'm fortunate enough to rarely face a situation where I do not feel welcome as a result of my genetic background. I don't want my kid to ever feel he's unwelcome because he's "half". Growing up is hard enough. He shouldn't have to deal with prejudice (or preference) as a result of his whiter-than-normal skin or lighter-than-normal hair.

Perhaps I'm just over-sensitive ....