Optimizing JavaScript for Google Chrome

Just wanted to make a note of two things I've discovered while writing highly optimized JavaScript for Google Chrome:

1. for(var i in myArray) is much slower than (for var i=0;i<myarray.length;i++)

2. Inserting objects into arrays is much slower than setting the properties of objects in arrays.

That's all :)

It's NOT A 3D MONITOR!!!

Welcome to another crazy rant about something that annoys me... Monitors being called "3D" monitors. There are only two makes of monitor that I know of which are actually 3D: IZ3D, which is no longer being made, and the 3D monitor made by Zalman.

Zalman's monitor has the drawback of being so reflective that you can use it as a mirror. I have no idea why they decided to take this approach, because it's obvious from reviews that it's a major problem. The monitor splits the resolution in half during 3D mode, so 3D won't be as sharp as 2D, but apparently it looks good.

Now onto the other makes... they are NOT 3D! It seems that any monitor which can handle 120hz (flickering 120 times per second) is called 3D. They can only be viewed in 3D if you buy the nVidia LCD shutter glasses for $200! This is an ancient technology that has been around since cave man days. I remember having 3D shutter glasses for my 120hz monitor back in about 2002. The problem with them is of course that they flicker! This means that after using them for about 15 minutes they start to strain your eyes.

All that for $200! There's a simpler solution... download the IZ3D anaglyph driver, and buy a few pairs of red and cyan glasses from eBay for a pound. Suddenly any monitor is 3D!

nVidia used to supply generic 3D drivers, so that any company could make LCD shutter glasses and virtual reality headsets. I used to have a Z800 3DVisor... one awesome piece of 3D technology that worked on the generic drivers. A few years ago nVidia decided to make cards which are no longer compatible with these drivers. Instead they now make drivers which only work with certain technology (THEIR OWN). This means that technology that used to be available for everyone now costs a fortune. Anyone who had a 3D device had to get rid of it if they wanted to upgrade their graphics card.

I suppose it's to be expected in a Capitalist world... I long for the days when a new system like The Venus Project will take over.

Steam Encourages Piracy!

All I wanted to do was download demos of the new games Mafia II and Civilization 5. I found myself having to waste an hour or so installing a program called "Steam". Steam is supposed to prevent people from pirating games. This silly program is required in order to download the free demos, or play the full versions of the games.

After having downloaded the program I found out that it doesn't work on my PC. On the site there's a long list of suggestions as to why the program might not be working. There is NO CHANCE that I am going to try all of those suggestions. It would take FOREVER!

I would buy legitimate versions of these games, but since Steam does not work, I will HAVE to get pirated copies if I want to play them.

It's 00:13 am now, and I'm going to bed. I just wish someone from a gaming company would read this... but what are the chances... about one in a billion?

The Flu Shot

Just a quick thought about the flu shot... I think many people confuse colds with flu, which is why they think they need the flu shot. I used to think I had the flu every year, but I've recently realized that they were always colds. I haven't had the flu in as long as I can remember!

Colds vs. Superstitions

I watched one of Derren Brown's shows today. One can watch it on Youtube here. He showed how superstitious people can be by making them try and earn 100 points. He didn't tell them how they were to earn them, and so they were left to figure it out for themselves. What Derren also didn't tell them is that the points were completely random, so it didn't actually matter what the people did. If they would have stood still for the entire 30 minutes, they would still have gotten the 100 points. And so they tried a whole bunch of crazy things, hula-hooping, putting bananas onto yellow dots, moving bean bags, and the points counter went up randomly.

At the end Derren asked them how they received points. They came up with some crazy, and completely untrue suggestions. It's just like when someone might have won a big game, and they were wearing special socks... those socks had nothing to do with the win, but that person might consider them to be lucky.

I have a cold. I searched the internet and it took a while to find out how to treat a cold. Well there's loads of information on how to treat your child if it has a cold, but little about how to treat yourself. Supposedly we all know that we must stay warm to avoid catching a cold, and treat it by taking vitamin C, Echinacea, zinc, antibiotics, rest and keep warm... right?

WRONG!

I found this article on netdoctor.co.uk.

Let's find a quote: "There's no effective way of treating an ordinary cold to make it go away quicker. If the sufferer has no other diseases than the common cold, and it goes away in one to two weeks, there's no reason to see a doctor. Since a cold is caused by a virus, antibiotics are not appropriate."

It says nothing about colds being caused by running around without your socks on. Nothing about taking vitamins, or not exercising. We simply do what we can to try and fix a problem even if there is no way to fix it.

And, as far as I know, homeopathic "medicine" is nothing more than a money making scandal... unless distilled water can really cure diseases.

The two most important projects in the world

Hello, my fearless and fantastic readers that do not exist. I want to talk about the most important projects in the world.

As an idealist, I prefer to make the best use of my time that I possibly can. This is why I don't really believe that it matters if I eat a bit of meat, drive a large petrol guzzling van from time to time, or even throw away the occasional piece of plastic instead of recycling it. There are more important things in the world... and I'd go as far as to say that some things may be a billion times more important than most people's contribution to making the world a better place ( because there are billions of people ).

PROJECT #1 (What I consider to be the most important project in the world)

It's called "Artificial General Intelligence". The prediction is that once AGI is invented, an event called "the singularity" will occur. This means that machines will be able to create machines better than themselves. It's an infinite loop of technological advancement. A smart machine will create a smarter machine, which will create an even smarter machine ... and so on.

And so, "Why is this so important?"... Super intelligent machines will be able to solve nearly every problem on the planet. I'm not going to go into too much detail, but you can read my fiction novel, "The Mischievous Nerd's Guide to World Domination" (available on Lulu.com), which can give you an idea.

There is, however, a problem with AGI... which is not AGI itself, but the system that currently runs the world: CAPITALISM (in capitals for effect)

You could also call the problem "money". What will happen in our current system is that a corporation will have a copyright, or patent on AGI and they will use it to benefit themselves and to make money off other people. This means that everyone will have to work hard to try and survive in a world where they could have been quite happy if AGI was available to everyone.

For more on the problem of money, have a look at the "Where are we going" video on my youtube channel (youtube.com/soberauer).

This brings us to the second most important project in my opinion, which deals with the problem of money and has solutions to the world's major problems:

PROJECT #2 (What I consider to be the second most important project in the world)

It's called "The Venus Project".

The Venus Project is an idea for rebuilding the world from scratch. It's aim is to use technology to make the world a better place. It also believes in uniting the world (no more countries, corporations, money, etc.) It's not that easy to explain, and has to be understood in context, so check out http://www.thevenusproject.com.

The Venus Project would solve the problem that I mentioned before. It would also eliminate poverty, stress, most crime, pollution, and many other of the world's problems.

So, what are you waiting for? Why would anyone waste their time trying to "do their bit" for the world, when they can be involved in the most important projects in the world?

How to get involved in AGI: ... help the AGI open source project: http://opencog.org

Join the Zeitgeist Movement (This is not the Zeitgeist Movie, but is the activist arm for The Venus Project): http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com

Country borders

I think the whole concept of country borders is stupid. It's something that was never designed, but simply came about through history. People with guns and flags went around claiming land, just because they had scarier weapons than other people, and now the world suffers for it. Instead of being a united world, we are divided by these arbitrary lines cutting our planet into little puzzle pieces.

My wife and I want to do a tour of Europe, but we have to make sure that we pass the silly rules for every country. I can travel as much as I want, but she can't.

If we were to actually design the world from scratch... like if we were aliens and discovered Earth, and we were an advanced, intelligent, civilization ... I really don't think we'd be drawing lines everywhere and making life difficult. The world would belong to everyone... none of this stupid discrimination / racism based on where you were born.

The blog that no-one will ever read

I like to write.

I'm the kind of person who prefers to generate his own opinions rather than find out what other people have to say. It's for this reason that I write more than I read, and of course the problem with that is that I write more than what other people read too, which means that not enough people read what I have to write.

I'm guessing that no-one will ever read this entry, but I like to think of Edison, the inventor, in times like these. Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, but before inventing one that did work, he invented hundreds that didn't.

This blog post is a light bulb, that probably will never be read, but hey, Edison didn't consider himself a failure. Everything he did was an experiment. Experiments that failed didn't really fail. Each time he learned how not to make a light bulb.

Working on a secret project...

I'm working on a secret project which involved creating a blog.