Working on a new website!

You know that means I'm happy.

I have a new obsession! I am putting together my new site tamisweitzer.com and I am having a blast!

It's going to be a little bit crazy. In the process of building the site I am breaking a big rule in web design that says you should only have one topic per site. On my webpage I am going to combine all of the different things that interest me. So there will be a very large section devoted to web design and computer programming. There will also be sections for photography, knitting, and autism. There may be more later. We'll see.

For now it's keeping me busy. Soon I will be doing a complete redesign of FoxValleyLive.com. The old beast is in need of some fresh paint. I need to rewrite the page so it's dynamic and easier to maintain. Long range plan is to have it set up so any one can update the calendar, making it even more useful.

Through all this I am in class all day training for a new job, and at night taking CS50 with David Malan through Harvard's OpenCourseware classes on iTunesU.

Definitely staying out of trouble ;)

Can You Believe What You See With Your Own Eyes?

Do you believe it because you saw it with your own eyes? Or do you believe it because everyone else says it's true?

We like to think that we trust what we see, but don't be so sure.

Which 2 lines are equal length?

Researchers tested whether a subject will stand alone against group consensus, even when the group consensus is clearly wrong, or buckle to peer pressure.

A group of students were chosen for the test. All but one student was "in on it." The students all agreed to choose the wrong line to see how the real test subject would respond.

What they found  was rather disturbing.

When asked to perform a simple test of choosing which line from Exhibit 2 is equal in length to the line in Exhibit 1, the real test subject got the answer right until it became apparent that all others in the group were choosing a different line. Then the test subject changed their answer to match the group.

Not only did they change their answer to match the majority, but MRI results also indicate they came to believe the new answer was the correct one!

In other words, ...when faced with a majority opinion that is clearly contrary to physical reality, almost half of the population will not only go along with the majority, but will come to actually believe that the majority is right.

It explains a lot, doesn't it? Why some things in history, and even real time, can possibly happen. Think about this knowledge in the wrong hands and how dangerous it can be. It becomes easier to control large groups of people if you can build up a majority to believe in some thing and be vocal about it.

Against the  Flow
http://www.aish.com/sp/ph/Against_the_Flow.html

Pole Dancing Drunk Crashes Wedding

You know your ass is drunk when your pole dancing takes out entire wedding party.

Not Very Tech Savvy

When I was working tech support I overheard the agent next to me talking to his customer while trying to help her with her computer.

"Yeah, I don't know...Hmm, I'm really not sure.  I actually don't know much about this stuff, I'm not very tech savvy."

When someone calls tech support they really don't want to tech support guy to admit he's not tech savvy.