Blog Why Not?!

Bussard on Polywell
Molecular nuclear fusion
Economics, 081126

Håkan told me that some guy at google invited an older guy to googletechtalks, to tell the world a little about Polywell. The video is pretty long, but I was litteraly transfixed by the endless flow of words. If you watch the video you will learn that: The principles of a fusion system is already researched enough and why the system has not been built yet.

If this device works, which it eventually will accordingly to Robert Bussard, then obviously the patent holders will make endless of money and the rest of us can begin to enjoy a lot cleaner world. At the moment it seems as though they accept donations, but would it not be better if they made it so that one could invest instead in the project instead of just donating? Check out the website at http://www.polywellnuclearfusion.com.

I read somewhere that Bussard turned down a financing offer from Benson. Well they certainly seemed to have some close ties, because in the video Bussard says that they moved a lot of their research equipment to Bensons place. To bad Benson died last year, but maybe there are some other guys there who are intressted in Polywell? And if they make some progress the stocks in spacedev could perhaps be worth a little more then today.

I did a few searches and found a discussion forum aboyt Polywell fusion. Maybe find out something new by checking out there news section here? You find it here: http://www.talk-polywell.org/bb/.

China and US
Ravings and ramblings about China
Economics, 081122

From what I gather it goes something like this: China has been thriving of the dept burdened US "surplus" and is now facing problems with overcapacity, since it is not sure that Chinese domestic demand will be great enough. And with products piling up, households needing to save money, defaults and so forth, there is the risk of what Roubini labels global stag-deflation. In US the situation could be worsened by a liquidity trap. If this is so, will people really be able to continue spending and buying the production surplus of China?

I read somewhere that Chinas situation is similar to that of US during the great depression. US solved part of their problem by production contraction. Since every one has problems, no one seems to be able to export ones problems. Now US has to save and buy American and China have to create domestic demand. From what I understand this implies a fiscal deficit in US and perhaps debt reduction for their insolvent households. China has to expand fiscally.

But what kind of domestic demand is there in US for what kind of products produced in US? On what should China spend their money?

The Swedish saying Skilja agnarna ifrån vetet springs to mind. During bad times the stronger grows stronger and the weak weakens. My thought are on the line of utilities being a candidate and in extension green utilities. Green, so that we we will not perish from pollution and green because it calls for new products.

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New World
Concert, Programming and Finance
Personal, 081121

Yesterday I attended a concert together with Anna. It was great listening to some classical music. When the musicians took a break we left.

What else? Well, I find myself caught up by work. When the day is over, I can not wait for the next day to begin. Today I was told that I will be a representative for Diggin in a press-release that is to be issued next week. Okidoki.

I am as interested in the global economy as ever. As predicted earlier everything is upside down. China have these ideas about buying GM and USA is facing severe risk for stag-deflation. I have kind of narrowed down a few companies that I will keep an eye on and when it hits the fan, I will buy.

Days are passing by quickly. It is winter, it is snowing. I find myself thinking that perhaps I am no longer looking for what I was searching almost desperately for before. It is as though I am returning to a slightly more modest way of life, similar to how I lived before. Devoid of alcohol, late nights and so forth. It is the natural step step towards the next step.

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Sensation White DK
House party in Denmark
Personal, 081117

So I attended Sensation White in Copenhagen this weekend. Though it was not my cup of tea really (everything was far to much vanilla, commercialized and disco), the atmosphere was good and everyone seemed to be in a good mood and friendly. A little bit bored I started to think about some work related issues and solved some trixy problems, so all in all it was a pretty good evening.

Memorable moments were the girl took who took a photo of me and herself and then threw her still burning cigarette into the crowd. Then there was this guy who obviously thought that I had to cheer up. He grabbed my arms, which I had crossed over my chest and made me wave them in the air. Only on these kind of parties you meet that kind of friendly happy people! Then of course the first impression of the place was memorable. 10 000 (or what do I know) people dressed in white. When I entered the dancing area I got the feeling that I was attending some work-related happening or something.

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Softcoding and Utilities
Ravings and ramblings about code design
Programming and Design, 081115

Though I consider the lack of multiple-inheritance in Java a boon, it offers some great challenges in terms of system design. In my experience it has taught me to work extensively with interfaces, thus I have trained my modular thinking. Obviously this have influenced my work, where I have now designed a highly abstracted open ended software architecture. Or to put is short: less framework and more utility library thinking.

Where as a framework lends you extension points, is also imprisons you in a predefined library environment and defines the system design of your application. But what if the requirements changes and the framework no longer fits the bill? Yes, what do you do? In best cases you re-design the framework, which of course is only possible if you have access to the source code and a lot of time on your hands. That is probably what you do, or you pick another framework and begin the tedious task of porting your project.

For this reason I prefer to work with frameworks that can be encapsulated, to those that is supposed to do it all for you. Light weight frameworks that targets and solve a well defined problem is the shit, because you can put it in your tool belt and pull it out whenever you feel the need. This approach does not provide you with a solution that does it all for you, what it does is to provide you the means for a swift, rapid and easy development of new applications. Thus would the context change drastically and force you to rewrite the application, you would have the support of your tools that does not lock you in but which enables you to develop the new application quickly.

Another issue that I feel I must have to address when considering which approach one should have, is that of softcode vs hardcode. In my experience frameworks kind enables softcoded solutions, whereas the utility thinking lends itself for hardcoded ones. So while a framework can lock you in, it will probably do so by the lure of softcode. Since solutions that draws on softcode system design, offers more dynamics then utilities one can in my experience rationalize the programming process. Unavoidable couplings and possible entanglements can be encapsulated and managed from inside the selected framework and so forth.

So what I do is to make extensive use of framework architecture, but developing and working with those as modules and utilities in my toolkit. Right now I got applications sharing the same codebase, which is running on both JavaME, JavaSE and Android. Obviously they have platform specific classes and a framework for handling common but platform implementation specific objects. But that framework is merely a module among others in the actual application. In an environment where one has to develop new kinds of applications with ferocious speed, this I believe is the way to go.

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Green Battery
Short summary of what I have learned
Economics, 081110

So I have noticed that my new interest (economics) turns me on to other stuff as well. Whenever I get the chance I try out wacky ideas and discuss stuff with Micke D. He calls himself a brainstorm victim. So to cut him some slack the following writing is a mental exercise performed in solitude. It is a short summary of what I have learned and what I have been thinking about today.

To begin with... things are bad! From what I gather USA will have to borrow themselves out of the dept they have put themselves in. They will have to socialize financial institutions, cut government spending and raise their taxes. They will also have to loans from strategic opponents, such as oil producing countries. Thus the power balance of power will shift.

USA will have to start producing stuff of real value. Preferably something that they can export to foreign countries. For economical and political reasons they will also have to become less dependent of oil. One thing that could has been suggested and that could fit the bill is green technology. Now the question is, how do one make green technology feasible? I do not think that laws and taxation will be enough. The technology itself has to be competitive.

Green technology is among other things (1) about reducing the need for use of energy, (2) producing clean energy, (3) clean transportation of energy and (4) recycling products.

1) Make products more efficient and consolidating functions, i.e. producing multi-functional products. An extreme example just to prove a point would be to replace the TV, phone and computer with cloud computing connected to a cell phone with virtual retinal display (VRD).

2) Nuclear fuel is cheap but not clean. On the up side the infrastructure (in western countries) are already there. For developing countries and for making transportation of energy cost effective, I believe in solar energy and improved batteries.

3) To make products more efficient they will have to become more intelligent so to speak. Intelligent material will only take us so far, information technology will take us even further (GPS saves fuel, the washing machine washes better if it is equipped with a chip and so forth). How do we power these things? Oil is not clean to produce, it is not clean to transport, process or even clean to use and we do not have enough of it to last to the end of days AND it is political. Now let us say that we replace nuclear power with fusion, will then we will have a lot of infrastructure to build in certain countries. And even if we would replace this energy source with a perhaps more mobile solution such as solar power, what we still end up with is a something that can store this energy for later use. Something that can both transport and can store energy is a battery. So until the day that we can generate energy from thin air so that it do not have to be either transported or stored, rechargeable batteries will be the shit.

4) It is not enough to produce new green products, we will have to somehow take care of the waste we already have. If one could make it more feasible to recycle minerals form junk, compared to mining it from the ground one could make loads of money (and at the same time do the world a favor) since the demand for minerals used in electronics will increase.

So much for the short summary, now for some questions: What will oil producing countries invest their money in? What kind of battery technology is the cheapest to produce compared to efficiency and longevity? Who is the best at solar energy technology?

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Ditt and Datt
Stuff that have happened
Personal, 081109

I was contacted by McKinsey and Company, a consulting firm, the other week, they wanted my expert advice on some cell phone related stuff. According to them, I am one of the best developers for mobile platforms. I do not know who told them that, but it was nice to hear.

I and Adrian interviewed Pål Hollender (a Swedish artist) yesterday. Mr Hollender was nice and talkative. We got the chance to talk to him concerning some stuff we have been thinking of. We got a sms from him today where he said that he liked our blog (kok.aramisw.com) and we should work on the spelling.

Today I was contacted and talked to someone in New York who wanted help with an Android app. Diggin sure make stuff happens. These days we receive loads of emails about Diggin. We have run into some licensing problems, but hopefully we will be able to release a crippled version where you can stream SHOUTcast.

I am still reading a great deal about economics. What is happening in the emerging economies is very worrisome. On the upside it seems as though the crisis might work in favor for green technologies.

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Throwaway Apps
A new breed of applications
Programming and Design, 081027

While the throw-away society is often associated with over-consumption and excessive production of short-lived or disposable items, zero and ones are totally recyclable. Therefor it makes total sense to create throw-away applications.

The application I suggest are applications which fulfill a temporary need. The opposite to a throw-away app would be something like Mac OS X, Android, Linux or a spreadsheet program.

An example of a temporary application is perhaps described through a use-case: You buy an airplane ticket and provide them with your phone number. A program is pushed to your phone, installed and then when you start traveling, the application helps you with directions and information about your flight. When you arrive at your destination, the application deletes itself.

Such applications could perhaps be developed using Google Gears, Android or something similar. Or why not a scripts running on a web browser?

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In- and De-flation
What to do when it hits the fan
Economics, 081026

So far I have not personally been affected by the crisis. It has just been something that I have read about in the news, so to speak. This will certainly change. But for some reason, it seems as though people around me are unaware of the financial crisis and its implications. Since I am aware of my situation I have spent a lot of time learning about economics and stuff.

From what I gather, there is a now an unavoidable recession in progress and nobody really knows what will happen next. Accordingly to some, there is risk for inflation and then there is as for an example Roubini who argues that there is a severe risk for deflation. So what am one to do in these times? Well, study, read and learn about the potential risks. Now is certainly a good time for making plans on how to act, depending on what happens next.

Deflation: From what I have learned one should prepare for a deflation by getting out of dept. Pay of your loans! Cache will be king. Keeping your job is the most important thing you can do! Risky assets and stocks should be avoided. Then there is the strategy that Warren Buffet follow, which is to buy stocks in solid companies that have a real long-term values when its stock is undervalued, since eventually (if the company does not go bankrupt) you will get your money back and then some. I have read that utilities and monopolists then might be a good choice during deflation. Then again, there are never any certainties.

Inflation: Even though gold does not seem to be a full proof hedge against inflation, several experts argues that during a hyperinflation gold perform well. Holding onto cache is not a good idea, so what you should do is to get involved and learn about equities. I have also read that one should avoid bonds.

Now I will keep myself updated on how things develop. Keep reading Roubinis blog or something: http://www.rgemonitor.com/blog/roubini

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Economics
Might become a passion
Economics, 081024

So, I have been reading up on economics. A few weeks ago I did not know anything about theses things, but I am slowly getting that hang of the lingo. Subprime, hedging, shorting, bear n bull market and so forth, it is really not that difficult to understand. Now when I can relate to these notions, I find Nouriel Roubinis blog most frightening. He is damn sharp, to the point and the picture he is painting is ugly.

As I understand it, the current recession could be protracted. Accordingly to Roubini there is even a risk for global deflation. Now that is scary. So if that would happen, one would rather like to have cash then have the money invested in equities. However, as I read somewhere a deflation is such a severe state that it can not be tolerated and therefor inflation will have to be stimulated. If that happens, one would as I understand ones capital could loose value if not invested. I guess that what one had to do is to keep following up on the market. Both advanced and emerging markets are being affected and there is also talk about USA loosing its position in the global economy. Well, I know like nothing about this stuff but I have seen some curves on how much USA has been borrowing these last years and as Roubini points out, Asia has been the producer. God damn, now things are like happening all over the world and wow feels as though anything can happen.

Besides economy I have been reading up on framework architecture. I think I now understand the difference between toolkits and frameworks. I have also done some pretty cool code wrapping and now I know how to create cross platform java programs, i.e. applications that can run both as Applets, Midlets, standard Applications and that fact that they are using different APIs simply does not have to be a problem.

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IDG and Diggin
Diggin listed as a cool app
Personal, 081020

So, Diggin was listed as number 8 among the top 15 coolest applications running on Android by IDG.se. Check it out here!

Anther fun and unexpected thing is that I might be interviewing Pål Hollender in a not so distant future. I am hosting a blog called Konst och Kritik and one of the editors have arranged a meeting with Mr Hollender. Since I am an article contributor, I will be joining.

Oh and now when I am not working 24/7 I have had time to recuperate enough, to get some energy to pour into my book project Hallucinations in Hiraschandu. I have something like 80% left of the first read through. When I am done with that I will contact a bunch of publishers and see if anyone is interested. If no one is interested in publishing the book, I might perhaps publish it myself on internet. I find that I enjoy writing really, really much.

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Blog Why Not?!
Personal Blog of Aramis
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