dubious.biz(ness)

Mr. Asinocay is very wise, and in fact, I would probably approve his enlightened comments, but he has a serious gambling problem and seems to insist on ending every post with a link to his favorite casino. But nevertheless, his comments are quite erudite and thus I will post some of his thoughts for your perusal.

On Politics:
The freest form of government is only the least objectionable form. The rule of the many by the few we call tyranny: the rule of the few by the many is tyranny also; only of a less intense kind.

On Psychology:
The ideas of Freud were popularised by people who only imperfectly understood them, who were incapable of the great effort required to grasp them in their relationship to larger truths, and who therefore assigned to them a prominence out of all proportion to their true importance.

A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity.

On Philosophy:
I worry about the worth of philosophy done by philosophers who have been trained in nothing else.

Nietzsche was stupid and abnormal.

Absolute justice is achieved by the suppression of all contradiction: therefore it destroys freedom.

It is a great advantage for a system of philosophy to be substantially true.

On Science:
If you’re not shocked by quantum theory, then you don’t understand it.

To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I confess, absurd in the highest degree.

On Religion:
I say quite deliberately that the Christian religion, as organised in its Churches, has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world.

If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.

On Education:
At the age of eleven, I began Euclid, with my brother as my tutor. This was one of the great events of my life, as dazzling as first love. I had not imagined there was anything so delicious in the world. From that moment until I was thirty-eight, mathematics was my chief interest and my chief source of happiness.

If a little knowledge is dangerous, where is a man who has so much as to be out of danger?

Buying books would be a good thing if one could also buy the time to read them in: but as a rule the purchase of books is mistaken for the appropriation of their contents.

I am starting to suspect more strongly that my relative level of panic leads to an increase in the number of links I produce (and the subject of my panic is the subject of said links). I suppose this is probably quite logical, but it means benefits for anyone reading this.

My first concern is the disparity between what I know and what my fellow competitors know. I think that what will count for the most is my ability not my skills, but I am still working my ass off trying to cram about 100 different math topics into my head before I go. Computer Science seems to be mainly math questions, perhaps a few physics questions. I am also learning some off-topic questions like “what is a hilbert space” which I hope may come in handy.

At any rate, I have found a number of links in my panic dealing with a number of things:
S-Cool A Level Guides-A level revisions cirriculum and study guides. Very helpful for knowing what is typically covered in A levels if you’re in Britain.
Oxbridge Info-Has accounts of interviews from various Oxford and Cambridge students from previous years.
The Student Room-A good forum generally aimed at UK students. Has a fairly lively discussion of Oxbridge applicants. I have also been using it to bone up my math and physics skills.
Computer Laboratory in Cambridge-I probably should have pointed out the incredible new facility for CS at Cambridge, “generously funded by the Gates Foundation,” and named the William Gates Building (WGB).
UK Yankee-I stumbled on this site looking for cost information, but it’s very helpful because it explains differences in life that would have been taken for granted by most people.

I will post tomorrow about my trip.

Finally! I got my date from Wolfson! December 9th at noon! Now to arrange all the plans. I am so happy I can’t speak. I have to take the TSA also. They feel this is integral. Hopefully I will do well.

Ok, I was corrected by two very good sites regarding jobs during term. Apparently you can have a job, up to 10-20 hours depending on your college’s policy, but it must be at a college or at the University. For example, one can tend bar at the local college’s bar, or one can work in the library shelving and so on. Sounds reasonably low key.

The two sites are also wealths of information in their own right. The first is the general university’s student union, the Cambridge University Student Union. The second is the Wolfson College Student’s Association.

I also found out that there is quite a bit of new building going on at Wolfson. There is a Graduate Studies Building being built right now, which should be complete by the time I get there. There will also be more housing, a gym, a pool, an indoor pitch (for soccer, I suppose) and a new boat for the boat team, all of which may or may not be available during the time I’m there.

I also found that a typical meal at Wolfson can be £3 with dessert, and every meal has a vegetarian option. I’m not sure if this means brussel sprouts, beans, or tofu, but I suppose I may find out. They claim they have better than average food.

Finding words to describe what happened last night is difficult.

A short list:

• Bloody Maries
• Golden Gate Bridge
• Sam’s in Tiburon
• Sonoma and Napa
• Grant and Green
• Sordino’s
• North Beach Bars
• Keith Douglas

I spent most of today getting over yesterday. Keith is Bill Brasky. To Bill Brasky!

Pics from yesterday are going up in the Gallery to your left. Missing Coit and Bay Bridge photos, but the other yesterday’s Chinatown and Golden Gate park are going up right now.

We arrived in the hostel tonight, finally. Away from the valley the city seems exciting and vibrant. The Green Tortoise Hostel is in the middle of downtown SF, between the Italian area, Chinatown, the Financial District, and a bit of a red light area towards the bay.

It’s quite cool here, it makes the scene of SF live up to its name. Accommodation is not top notch, though I wouldn’t expect it to be. There is quite a large community here, many accents including British to be heard. Also lots of piercings, tatoos, alternate minds, and so on. Our window overlooks a triple X store, though it also has a great view of the Transamerica Pyramid, we’re down the street from tons of bars, Italian and Chinese food, and a great number of shops.

Thus far we’ve been down Market, which is like a continuous Times Square full of brand name shops and stores. We have ridden the mass transport system across the city to Ocean Beach, and visited Golden Gate Park, which is unfortunately mostly closed for renovation and construction. We did however get to go to the Japanese Tea Garden. We then took a bus back across the city and rode through Haight-Ashbury. We walked through Chinatown and under the Chinatown Gate. I’ve been to too many shops, too many stores, and too many streets to name them all (and it’s only Saturday).

I am currently relaxing in the Internet cafe at the Tortoise wishing for a hot cup of coffee. Tomorrow we’re going to Sonoma Valley and perhaps if I can convince Keith into it, we’ll go to some bars on sunday night. We also happened to cross paths with Jonathan and Jamie at a bus stop (what are the chances in a town this big?). They seemed to have my opposite impression. They had already been through Market, the Castro, and part of Haight, and they were completely disappointed in the place. They said it was dirty, full of homeless people, and run down. Funnily, I had the opposite impression. In fact, as cities go it is the most vibrant, diverse, and earnest city I’ve been in. I agree that the homeless are a problem, but I’d prefer a sprinkling of peaceful homeless across the city to militant homeless in dense pockets like DC or NY. I feel quite safe in our neighborhood, even at night.

Oh well. I’m quite glad I’m not staying with them and following their itnerary, anyway. It seems as if they are quite disappointed in SF. It’s a shame because they have dropped a lot more cash and will be staying here a lot longer than we will. I guess all cash will get you is a room at the W, and dissatisfaction. I’m going to try to post up some pictures now.

I’ve arrived in the Silicon Valley for a conference. I have to say I’m underwhelmed. Rather than buzzing with hope and innovation, it seems to be a dull, lifeless, empty place. I cannot believe that so much activity, the dot-com boom and bust were all here. It seems like a shell.

Beyond being a shell, it seems concrete, glass, and lifeless. We walked across the street to a strip mall full of nearly the same sorts of shops I would expect in Lexington. Perhaps my impressions were also colored by the two men behind me. Both said things like “I hope it folds tomorrow” and “I haven’t done more than was asked of me in months.” Both of which are sort of statements I do not want to hear from any employee working for me.

It seems that in making a world replete with information and bits, we have created a silicon ghetto that offers nothing but a ridiculously high salary. But to get that salary you have to work for long hours, understaffed, in an over priced, empty, megasuburb. One bright spot is the mass transport system, which while not incredible is certainly worthy of note as I can’t think of any other suburban community in the US with a good bus/rail system. Broader travel is difficult because the interlinks are run by Caltrain as well as MUNI, BART, and so on. It’s very difficult to figure out as a tourist whether the area you want to go to is served by bus or train and which particular services to take.

Probably the most impressive and hopeful point of the trip was seeing Cisco’s headquarters. I realized that I would probably take a job at Cisco even if it was in the dead and boring valley just because it meant working at Cisco. Also impressive sights around when I finally found them were the Tech, which I didn’t actually go to but saw the outside of, and the NASA facility near Mountain View. If I had a car perhaps I would have tried to visit the old Netscape HQ and Apple HQ. I should have (would have gotten a photo in front of the Cisco sign. Oh well. Perhaps on the way back.