Steve Pavlina, is a personal development writer whose site covers all manner of topics from self employment, to modifying your sleep patterns. Recently he has been looking at human intelligence and how the mind works. What I found more interesting than the strengths on the human mind was his list of its weaknesses. The techies should appreciate this.

1. Faulty hard drive - We all have those times when we forget or confuse critical details or add information that wasn’t present to our memories of people, things, places, or events. 
2. Low RAM - There just so much information that we can work with at one time. What is it they say, seven items maximum in short term memory? 
3. Slow CPU - Other than those amazing human calculator people who can work with 15 digit numbers in seconds, most of us do think pretty slowly.
4. Infinite loops - Those of us who have tried to change bad habits (ours or anyone else’s), recognize this one. You just keep doing it over and over and over without being able to stop. 
5. Lack of error correction - That concept of learning from our mistakes sounds good in theory but so many people have a problem with this one.  
6. Limited sensory input - Of course, technology is making up the gap in this one - night vision goggles, X-rays, etc. Luckily we have this “wonderful” mind. 
7. Poor networking capabilities - Oh boy, remember sitting listening to a lecturer trying to explain something to you in the simplest way he knows how, and still you took forever to get it, you still had some of it wrong and inevitably you were bored out of your skull. 
8. High maintenance costs - Whoo boy! 8 hours to refresh and recharge at night, all those lost memories and information and not to mention the risk of it crashing from strain or some illness. 
9. Legacy code - There’s something about that whole “flight or fight” response that is so primitive. Sure it may have its occasional uses (if faced with a gun for example) but in today’s world, the “dangers” are typically a lot more complex. 
10. Unreliable hardware - Inevitably, something’s going to go wrong and the whole system is gonna fail. So you should be trying to get your important processing out of the way and make good use of your up-time.

In an instant…

…everything has changed

and yet

nothing is different…

…nothing…

except

your perception

I feel sick. Maybe something I ate… but probably not.

New Car Battery: $6000

Fitness Examination Fee: $1500

Vehicle Registration: $4000

Car Alarm Siren: $1000

Car Valuation: $1600

Car Insurance: $26,000

4 1/2 hours to think about my luck dodging the ticket bullet: PRICELESS!

Ok, I know some people been waiting for an update. Two weeks into the new job and I am surviving. I am tired but I think that’s partly to do with the chair I have.

What am I doing? Well, the list continues to grow. The main ones: 

• Managing a procurement process for a software system
• Developing technical requirements for another system
• Couple smaller database projects

So far, it’s been interesting. The people are friendly and the culture is comfortable (which is a big thing for me). Anyway, I’m going to go enjoy the rest of my weekend.

Ok, here’s the Father’s Day gift you’ve been looking for. The danger is if you get him this, you will probably never top it for the rest of your life. Head over to Kharma and check out their Enigma System, an extremely high-end speaker set-up. Though it was custom-built, I’m sure if you come up with the US$1,000,000 they will make you one. Yep, I said one million American dollars.

So what goes into a million dollar set of speakers? Well, from browsing around their site, it appears they use:

• Wiring and connectors made of a super quality alloy of pure silver/gold
• A cryogenic treatment where the wires are cooled to -313 Farenheit
• A diamond cone for a tweeter

Supposedly by time they are finished you will get the best sound you have ever heard. Hmm, for $1,000,000 they better promise that.

Gas for the car: $1000

Large bottle of water: $85

Beach entry fee:  $300

Some quiet mother-daughter time: PRICELESS