Robin Etc

Today, May 23 2010, Anna Elizabeth Kirkman was born.

robin Uncategorized

Who we are depends not so much on our environment, or even our selves, but on the choices we make.  The difference between one person’s self and another person’s self is not that they have different bodies, lives, or histories.  The difference is the choices that they would or would not make when in the same environment.

As a thought experiment, consider the life of John the plumber.  John grew up in an average family.  John decided to learn a trade rather than go to college, and has been successful so far.  Second, consider Jill the research chemist.  Jill grew up in an average family.  Jill decided to go to college rather than learn a trade, and has been successful so far.  The difference between John and Jill is only superficially that one is a plumber and one is a chemist.  The true difference is the choice of whether to go to college or to learn a trade.  (Of course, this thought experiment is so simplistic that it might even be used as a straw man against choices defining selves, but an entire history for two people would be overly verbose.)

Of course, asserting the point that the defining characteristic of a self is the choices it would or would not make begs the question of why we should (or even can) disregard personal history and environment.  The reason we can do so is that the universe is governed by physical laws.  All matter and energy, and interactions between the two, follow rules.  In Newtonian physics, if you knew the initial state of the universe, you could compute all future states, merely by application of physical laws.  Quantum physics asserts that there is non-determinism on a micro-level, and so more than just the physical laws are required, but on a macro-level physical laws again are the rule.

If Jill’s “self” were to have John’s body, environment, and history from birth, what would be the difference between Jill and John?  Only the choices that Jill would or would not make that differ from John’s choices.  So why, then, do we consider Jill in John’s place, when such a thing is impossible?  The reason is that your environment, from your body to your family to your country to your planet, is initially entirely outside of your control.  Environmental factors act upon you, and you define yourself by your reaction to them.  Your “environment” is an extensive term;  it includes not just the ecosphere but also the people around you, your day-to-day life, and even your own body.

As another though experiment, consider replacing John’s self with Jill’s self, and vice-versa.  John’s body will still have John’s memories, and Jill’s self will be acting entirely in the context of John.  How then can we differentiate between John in John’s body and Jill in John’s body?  Only by the choices that whoever happens to be inhabiting the body of John makes.

robin Philosophy

A pretty good christmas this year. First one in the new house. Got a nice artificial tree, had a couple presents, all was nice. The big christmas present my wife and I got was a camcorder, which we bought about a month ago. She also got me a book about the father’s experience during pregnancy, which turned out to be really good.

I got some nice presents from my folks and from the Pikes. Of particular note are a game, Mind Flex, and a rotary saw. The game is fascinating and incredibly tiring. The saw I haven’t tried out yet, having gotten it only yesterday, but I am sure it will work nicely. More tools == good.

robin Robin

I just bought a Blackberry Storm from Verizon, and wanted to use it as a tethered modem for OS X. Verizon will provide no support for this configuration, but you can do it anyway. Here is how: (Note that you still have to pay for the tethering plan.)

You will use your Blackberry Storm as a bluetooth modem. This means that you have to have bluetooth on your mac. However, if you’re using a MacBook or MacBook Pro, chances are that you already have bluetooth. If not, you probably have some kind of wired internet and you don’t need to tether your phone in the first place.

The general plan goes like this:

1. Ensure your Blackberry Storm is configured for Dialup Networking.
2. Pair your Blackberry Storm with your Mac.
3. Create a bluetooth serial port which your Mac will use as a modem.
4. Set up the modem.
5. Connect!
6. Caveat (Unfortunately)

You may run into some problems when you try to use it later. On my MacBook Pro, the bluetooth serial port sometimes disappears for no apparent reason. I do not know why this happens, but it is not difficult to fix. If your Mac tells you that it cannot open the communications device, repeat step 3 and recreate the bluetooth serial port. As long as you give it the same name (“VZW”) as you used in step 3, you will be fine.

Note: These instructions may work with other models of Blackberry, and even other non-Blackberry bluetooth phones. I make no guarantees, and have not tested them on anything else because I do not have any other phones. I have previously written a guide to setting up a Samsung SCH-i760, which uses roughly the same instructions. If this helps you get your non-Blackberry Storm phone working, great! Otherwise, tough cookies, I can’t help you.

Enabling Dialup Networking on your Blackberry Storm

For this part, I am unable to provide screenshots, so you’ll just have to follow along. It’s not difficult.

1. Open the bluetooth preferences: From the home applications screen, open “Options”. It’s near the bottom, and has a picture of a wrench.
2. The 5th down is “Bluetooth”. Click it to get to a list of paired devices. If your Blackberry prompts you to add a device, cancel it.
3. Press the menu key and select “Options”. Scroll down to the bottom and make sure that “Dial-Up Networking” is selected.
4. Press the menu key and choose “Save”.

Pairing your Blackberry Storm with your Mac

Again I am unable to provide screenshots for the Blackberry portion, but it’s simple enough. If your Blackberry is already paired with your Mac, you may skip this step.

On the Blackberry:

1. Open the bluetooth preferences. Follow steps 1 and 2 from above.
2. Press the menu key and select “Add Device”. From the popup dialog, select “Listen”.

On your mac:

1. Open the System Preferences, and select the “Bluetooth” pane. Click on the “+” button in the list of bluetooth devices on the left:
   

   This will open the Bluetooth Setup Assistant:

   

2. Click “Continue”, and follow the directions to pair your Blackberry with your Mac.
3. Select “Any Device” as the device type, and continue.
   
4. Select your Blackberry from the list of devices and click Continue.
   
5. Continue with the pairing process following the instructions in the Bluetooth Setup Assistant, until you get to the service selection screen. Uncheck “Access the Internet with your phone’s data connection”. We will set this up manually. Click Continue.
   
6. Finish the pairing process. You should now see your device in the list of devices in the System Preferences’ Bluetooth pane.
   

Creating a Bluetooth Serial Port

1. Select your Blackberry, click the gear icon, and select “Edit Serial Ports…”.
   
2. Remove the Dialup Networking serial port, if it is there. Select the serial port from the list, and click the minus button:
   
3. Add a new Dialup Networking serial port. Click the plus icon.
   
4. Set the name, protocol, and service for the port. Select “Show in Network Preferences”. When finished, your screen should look like this:
   
5. Click Apply. The serial port for the modem is now set up.

Set up the modem

Now we will create the network interface for your Blackberry’s bluetooth modem. You will use this like any modem connection to use your Blackberry’s internet connection.

1. Select the “Network” pane from the System Preferences. You should be prompted with a “New Interface Detected” dialog:
   
2. Click OK.
3. Select “VZW” from the connections list.
4. Set the telephone number to “#777”. Set the account name to “your_phone_number@vzw3g.com”. Set the password to “vzw”. “vzw” must be lower case.
   
5. Click “Advanced…”.
6. From the “Modem” tab, set the vendor to “Generic” and the model to “Dialup Device”:
   
7. Click “OK”.
8. Back in the Network pane of System Preferences, click “Apply”:
   
9. Your modem is now set up! Click “Connect” to test it out. You may have to confirm the connection on your Blackberry; you can get rid of this prompting by setting your Mac as a trusted device from its “Device Properties” from your Blackberry’s bluetooth preferences.
   

Caveat

Verizon’s tethering support is pretty flakey. Now and then, for no apparent reason, your internet will suddenly stop working. You will not be informed that it has stopped, and your modem will not hang up. Everything will just stop working. If your connection seems to have stalled, just try going to www.google.com and see if it is working. If that doesn’t load, you will have to disconnect and reconnect your modem connection. Disconnecting seems to take a long time, but again I do not know why.

If you are an experienced unix user, you may speed up the disconnect process by typing “sudo killall pppd” at the command line. This will cause the disconnect to immediately finish, and then you may reconnect sooner. I will not provide any instructions on how to do this, though; if you don’t know what the command line is and how to use it, stay away from it.

robin Internet

We had a bit of trouble getting our home phone installed with Verizon last week. Something went screwy with their computer system, and after an hour and a half it was concluded that they would call me back two days later when they figured out WTF was going on. They called me back one day later, and asked me if between 8am and 12pm today would be an acceptable time for my phone service to be installed. I said that was fine.

I’ve been sitting around here for a few hours waiting for their installer. Well, I just found out that I now have a home phone.

A telemarketer called.

robin Humor, Robin

robin Robin

I got a nice award for my census work last year.  It’s not some wimpy trophy, either.  It’s solid marble.  Kickassery!

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robin Robin

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robin Internet