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Uncategorized » These Are The People In My Neighborhood

My Laconic Roommate Jim

My laconic roommate Jim was the quickest wit in the west. I lived with the guy for about 10 years, and he never said much, but when he did, it always counted.

I got my first taste of this when I came to interview for the room and meet the roommates. We were all musicians, so the subject came up. I mentioned I was a Jethro Tull fan, talked about a few of the concerts. Jim, who hadn't said much during the interview so far, said, "I always pictured a Jethro Tull concert as being something like a cross between a Dead show and the Renaissance Faire." Which wasn't much, but it was astute, and I noticed it.

Jim just turned 39. The day before his birthday, a friend of his asked him what he planned to do for it.

"Well, my favorite bartender gets on at 4…

Uncategorized » In Brief: Topical Short Takes » Techno-Sociology

Kupietz’s Law Of Infoavailability

Where technology is concerned: "Information needs expand to fill available bandwidth."

Where we used to have to fill in a one-page form, when automation arrived to make it quicker for us to fill in that form, very soon a ten-page form was required.

Reference: AI’s False Time-Saving Promise. Or Why AI Is Like The Vacuum CleanerBy Martin Gutmann, forbes.com, Nov 11, 2024. An article about how new "time-saving" technologies, such as vacuum cleaners, then computers, email, and now AI, increased workloads rather than reducing them.

Also tangentially related is Jevons Paradox, in which technology that increases efficiency creates an overall increase in resource consumption, rather than a decrease.

Uncategorized

Mike Kupietz, A Man and His Latest Posts

This Mike Kupietz's profile page, author information, and list of most recent posts laid out in Wordpress's clunky, old 1990's style post list. You'd probably enjoy seeing the same links laid out in a more visually scintillating interactive grid on the home page.
ImportedFromAP » Free Scripts & Algos Even Though You Probably Don't Deserve It

AP VWWMA/Volume-Adjusted Price lines 5.4.2 shared alpha



var tradingview_embed_options = {}; tradingview_embed_options.width = '640'; tradingview_embed_options.height = '400'; tradingview_embed_options.chart = 'Hgjz7wXW'; new TradingView.chart(tradingview_embed_options);

AP VWWMA/Volume-Adjusted Price lines 5.4.2 shared alpha on TradingView.com

TradingView Script. Free TradingView account required to use. Direct link: https://www.tradingview.com/script/Hgjz7wXW-AP-VWWMA-Volume-Adjusted-Price-lines-5-4-2-shared-alpha/

Initial alpha release, just for you to play with. No warranty, guarantee, support.

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This is an alpha of one of my most frequently-used custom indicators, provided without support or guarantees, for anyone to experiment with: the Volume Double-Weighted Moving Average and Volume-Adjusted Price Lines.

WHAT TH' HECK ARE ALL THESE LINES?

Yellow/reddish line: VWWMA. Essentially a VWMA , but built on a WMA rather than an SMA . A very frequent target for brief mean reversions.

Blue line: WMA . If you look at movements of the VWWMA compared to movements of the WMA , it will tell you how much of an effect volume…

ImportedFromAP » Free Scripts & Algos Even Though You Probably Don't Deserve It

Range Strategy demo



var tradingview_embed_options = {}; tradingview_embed_options.width = '640'; tradingview_embed_options.height = '400'; tradingview_embed_options.chart = 'vQmYyTp5'; new TradingView.chart(tradingview_embed_options);

AP Range Strategy on TradingView.com

TradingView Script. Free TradingView account required to use. Direct link: https://www.tradingview.com/script/vQmYyTp5-ApopheniaPays-Range-Strategy

A very simple demo, made by request, to allow a user to set simple buy and sell levels and see how profit changes as you mover them.

ImportedFromAP » Free Scripts & Algos Even Though You Probably Don't Deserve It

Demonstration of how chart history length affects current EMA values



var tradingview_embed_options = {}; tradingview_embed_options.width = '640'; tradingview_embed_options.height = '400'; tradingview_embed_options.chart = 'NwvUwIQ3'; new TradingView.chart(tradingview_embed_options);

Demonstration of how history length affects all EMA values on TradingView.com

TradingView Script. Free TradingView account required to use. Direct link: https://www.tradingview.com/script/NwvUwIQ3-Demonstration-of-how-history-length-affects-all-EMA-values/

I saw some discussion of this so I whipped up an example to prove the that effect of history length on EMA values is pronounced, even for bars much further than the EMA length away from the first candle of the chart.

This chart has two 89-bar EMAs of the close: a green one and a red one. However, for the red one, the first 89 bars of the graph are considered to have a close of "0", which is exactly whatTradingView's EMA calculation uses for bars before the start of the graph.

This is because unlike other moving averages, which reference the price…

ImportedFromAP » Free Scripts & Algos Even Though You Probably Don't Deserve It

Reminder Message (w/ color picker demo)



var tradingview_embed_options = {}; tradingview_embed_options.width = '640'; tradingview_embed_options.height = '400'; tradingview_embed_options.chart = 'KLNJvOaF'; new TradingView.chart(tradingview_embed_options);

Reminder Message (with color picker) - ApopheniaPays on TradingView.com

TradingView Script. Free TradingView account required to use. Direct link: https://www.tradingview.com/script/KLNJvOaF-Reminder-Message-with-color-picker-ApopheniaPays/

This is a very simple script. It displays a message above the latest price. I coded it because I need a constant reminder to keep me from overtrading.

You can customize several options:
- The message text
- How high above the latest price the message is displayed
- How often it is displayed. 1=display constantly, 2=only show it during every other period, 3=only show it every 3rd new period, etc. So, for example, if you are on the 15 minute chart, and set a frequency of 3, it will show it for the first 15 minutes out of every 45.
-…

Uncategorized » In Brief: Topical Short Takes » Persuasion, Manipulation & Propaganda

You’ll love this entry.

I've finally nailed what bothers me so much about those Upworthy headlines. It's that they they tell you what to think about about the video, instead of telling you what it's about.

Uncategorized » In Brief: Topical Short Takes » Language, Grammar, & Vocabulary

The most suggestive term in telecommunications

The 90 days after the creation of a new area code in which either the old or the new code may be used to dial that area is called the permissive dialing period.

Uncategorized » In Brief: Topical Short Takes » Futurism & Prognostication

In Heaven, Everything Is Fine

I have an idea about what happens after you die. I think when you go to heaven, St. Peter lets you in, they show you to a room. You take a sauna, somebody brings you a plate of cookies or a slice of cake. Then you take a nap.

Later on, when you're ready, they take you to a huge room, and everyone you've ever met is there. And everybody gets together and tells each other exactly what was going through their fucking heads. Then you all have a good laugh about it all. I see lots of back slapping and smiling eyes.

Wouldn't that be a great thing to look forward to?

Uncategorized » These Are The People In My Neighborhood

These are the people in my neighborhood: Allison

Fly Bar, Alamo Square
[My eccentric neighbor Allison walked into a bar where my friend Brent and I were sitting at a table near the door and I called out to her.]

Me: [to Brent and Allison] Do you guys know each other? You both live in the neighborhood.
Brendan: No.
Allison: I don't think so. You might have seen me around the neighborhood. I always walk around with a little dog. [pause.] ...I used to walk around with a little dog. He died three days ago.
Me: Oh, I'm sorry to hear that.
Allison: Yeah, he was sick for a while. A few days ago I could tell, it was the day, so I put him out in the backyard and he curled up in the grass... I went out for a while, and when I got back... ...
Me: I'm really sorry.

Uncategorized » These Are The People In My Neighborhood

These are the people in my neighborhood: Allison II

Front stoop of my apartment, day after Thanksgiving, 11/25/05
As I was arriving home, my eccentric neighbor Allison was just leaving her building.

Allison: [waves at me]
Me: Oh, hey, how ya doing?
Allison: Good. How 'bout you?
Me: Good!
Allison & me: [awkward pause while I hunt for something else to say.]
Allison: Thank you!
Me: [pause] uh... you're welcome!
Allison: Thanksgiving, and all.

Uncategorized » In Brief: Topical Short Takes » Language, Grammar, & Vocabulary

Vocabulary: That Vu That Yu Du So Well

Déjà vu: a false sense that something new has been seen before
Jamais vu: a feeling or impression that something familiar is unfamiliar or is being seen for the first time, like when you repeat a word so many times that it suddenly loses meaning and sounds alien
Presque vu: the illusory sense of having something on the tip of your tongue, or that a mental epiphany or breakthrough is about to occur

I wonder if the French have a word for the strange feeling that something wonderful has just happened, but you don't have any idea what?

Uncategorized » In Brief: Topical Short Takes » The Human Experience

Like Butter

You know, it's funny... the other day I just plugged in a backup hard drive that I haven't used in about 4 years. I looked at all the stuff was working on again, none of which I have thought about since and most of which I hadn't even remembered, and realized, "Wow, that was a really long time ago."

So I think the frequently-noted sensation of time seeming to pass more quickly as you get older has more to do with how often we think of something. The more often you think of something, the more recent it seems; but be reminded of something actually relatively recent but which you haven't thought back on even once since it happened, and the full weight comes to bear of just how long it's been, just how much time has passed since things that were even far more recent than long-ago things that…

Uncategorized » In Brief: Topical Short Takes » Futurism & Prognostication

Man’s Fate: Stone antennae waving

Link: A Geologist Investigates a Mass Extinction at the End of the Permian Period

A friend commented on the above as a warning.

Well, I do believe we need not to treat the world like an infinite resource, or to assume we can't push things past the tippng point, but the good news is, the Permian extinction event was both unusually catastrophic and very fast as these things goes... it took only about 60,000 years, or, roughly 12x as long as recorded human history. And whatever happened, it was very bad — the trilobites had ruled the world for nearly twice as long as the dinosaurs would when, in a geologic blink of an eye, they, along with 96% of the other plant and animal species living at the time, vanished forever. But despite it, 250 million years later, here we are, in full flower, and…

Uncategorized » In Brief: Topical Short Takes » Philosophy & Wisdom

The Advice For All Seasons

An Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be always true; in all times, and in all situations; in sadness, and in happiness; in adversity, and in prosperity.

After a lengthy period of debate amongs themselves, at last they presented him with the words:

"If you lived here, you'd be home by now."

Uncategorized » In Brief: Topical Short Takes » Futurism & Prognostication

Man’s Fate: The Beaked Shall Inherit The Earth

I believe after humans wipe themselves out a generation or two from now, the eventual next dominant species on earth will be descended from corvids. Most people think it'll be cockroaches, but corvids are already as intelligent in some ways as human children and comparably good at problem solving, they have the biggest brain volume per body mass on earth except for humans, and, they can fly away from danger. Sounds to me like a recipe for success once the hairless apes with the guns are out of the way.

Uncategorized » In Brief: Topical Short Takes » Language, Grammar, & Vocabulary

Linguistic Reminder: A Kudos For Your Many Agenda

Remember: 'Kudos' is singular. 'Agenda' and 'data' are plural.

'Nachos' is also singular. There is no such thing as one 'nacho'.

Uncategorized » In Brief: Topical Short Takes » The Human Experience

The Common Sense Conundrum

It seems to me that a frequent problem with most people's talk about "common sense" is not that it isn't really so common. It's that it isn't really sense.

Uncategorized » In Brief: Topical Short Takes » The Human Experience

Truth is Unknowable, Truth is Apparent

Truth is unknowable, because we can only know with our minds. I mean, no, of course truth is knowable.

I'm sure, to an ant, truth is apparent: follow formic acid trails, dig in soil.

To us, probably the same—the truth of whatever is our own equivalent of formic acid and digging. Broader by comparison, of course, but equivalent in terms of being constrained by limits we know nothing about, out there on the impenetrable edge of our own capacities.

I wonder what an ant makes of the beach, the shore, the ocean. The sky.

An ant works in the daytime, but I don't think it questions where the light comes from.

What don't we do?

Uncategorized » In Brief: Topical Short Takes » Humor

Humor: etruscanmingle.com

Time to renew again, and I just can't decide. I really thought this was going to be the domain I sold for a million bucks.

What can I say? Everything was different before the pandemic. I thought they might be coming back.

Uncategorized » In Brief: Topical Short Takes » Better Mousetraps

Business Idea: The Behavioral Marketing Dance Club

This originally was posted in my blog Sloth And Dignity.

I just had a great entrepreneurial idea. With things opening up again, this might just be the jackpot.

Open a dance club. But, the twist is, there's bouncers inside. Only good dancers will be allowed to stay on the dance floor. If you're out there, and you're not a visibly good dancer, you're just bopping your head or lazily doing the white boy shuffle... you'll get a firm tap on your shoulder, and be asked to return to the bar area. Eventually, you have a dance floor full of really great dancers, and a crowd of looky-loos buying drink after drink because alcohol happens to be an efficient solution to a number of the mildly uncomfortable aspects of that situation.

Once this gets some buzz, I'm telling you, it would be hot as hell. It checks every…

Uncategorized » In Brief: Topical Short Takes » Faith vs. Reason

Conversation: Music And A Higher Power

via text message, 2/28/21.

Me: "Sometimes listening to Bill Evans I get a flash that those 12-step people are right, like there’s something out there much, much bigger than me."

MMcC: "Oh yeah. For sure. I have more to say about that than I can text."

MMcC: "Some things are really only knowable because of him."

Me: "It’s amazing. I’ve been listening to him on Pandora all morning, and, you know, they won’t stick to a single artist, so it’s a lot of piano jazz trios, and every time they flip from him to someone else or back it’s like a night and day difference. I was having a daydream, what if I could go back to being about 12 years old, and I thought, I’d probably ask my parents to get me a bunch of Bill Evans records. And then I thought, could 12-year-old me even begin to really…