mysterious creature

Humintell Upcoming Product

2011-11-06T02:50:00.004-05:00

Humintell is expanding its product line with a new product based on state-of-the-art scientific research in Cross-Cultural Psychology. This product aims to improve your understanding of cultures and improve your ability to adapt to different cultures. Read more information about IntelliCulture.

IntelliCulture is planned to be released during December and will offer a 3 hours long course over four modules for an introductory price of $199 (reg. $249), containing the following modules:

What is Culture?
The Contents of Culture
Cultural Encounters
Leveraging Cultural Differences

Humintell products will be on sales during Black Friday on November, 25th. Read Humintell product reviews to decide which product(s) you should buy.

Humintell Evaluating Truthfulness

2011-07-16T22:00:00.009-04:00

Humintell is offering a complete set of workshops covering the most important topics in regard to understanding emotions, analyzing verbal and non-verbal, detecting deception, and so forth. This in-depth review covers the workshop entitled Evaluating Truthfulness Webinar, a two-hours online webinar and an introduction to detecting deception.

Evaluating Truthfulness Webinar | Blog | Facebook | LinkedIn

Workshop Outline

Who are We?
Our Trainer
Introduction and Overview

How Well can you Detect a Liar?
Truth or Lie?
How did you Do?
Discussion
Our Approach
Characteristics of Our Research on Credibility Assessments and Deception
What Cues Should you Focus On?
Training Goals

The Psychology of Truth Telling and Lying

Decisions about Truths and Lies
The Psychology of Truth Telling
The Psychology of Lie Telling
What's a Hot Spot?
How lies are betrayed through Hot Spots Lie

Hot Spotting

Revisit: Truth or Lie?
Leakage in facial Emotions
Leakage in Body Language

Practice

Practice
Remember the Alphabet
Truth exists...

Thank you for your kind attendance and participation!

Webinar Host
Joe Francis is the host for Evaluating Truthfulness Webinar. The first question coming out of my mind was “Who is Joe Francis?” The short description provided by Humintell is less than satisfactory and fails to establish Mr. Francis' credentials. Googling the name didn't help either.

Fortunately, listening to Joe Francis during the webinar makes it clear that he is knowledgeable in the field of detecting deception and his 34 years extensive background in law enforcement is entirely sound. He is also a remarkably articulate and likeable speaker.

It seems to me that Humintell is short-selling their webinar by not providing an extensive biography of Joe Francis with high profile cases he had worked on. It's important to capitalize on one's reputation but it's also reassuring to potential buyers by establishing the proper credentials. In short, Joe Francis is amazing and they should proudly shout it over anybody willing to listen.

Content
The content is up-to-date in many ways — it is based on latest research, techniques, tools and presented in a trendy manner with some current events. The videos are dated but it does not affect their learning value and most of them are issued from research where the ground truth is known. The techniques and tips are well established and based on research and experience.

The basics are very well covered in Evaluating Truthfulness Webinar. You will not find any single reference that covers as much in as little time than this webinar. It may feel somehow overwhelming at times but the recording is accessible after the webinar finished, which is a big plus.

One of the first skills to be developed in detecting deception is observation and active listening and it is appropriately reflected in the content. Eliciting the truth is proven to be challenging and asking the right questions at the right time is another skill to be developed. Mr. Francis acknowledge the importance of interviewing and mentioned few tips but without concrete examples, which could possibly be more suitable in a second and more advanced workshop.

The content is based on research, books, experience and so on and what's missing is a list of references for those who would like to continue expanding their knowledge from what they've learned in the webinar.

The webinar is two hours in length, which is long enough to cover the important and short enough to avoid being overwhelming to its attendees.

Interaction
Evaluating Truthfulness Webinar comes with a classic teaching approach where the teacher is lecturing and students are listening. The level of interaction is very low and neglected. It's only fair to mention that the content is extremely condensed and it makes interaction much more difficult, because interaction takes time.

There were some opportunities to give feedback and ask questions but only few things were mentioned. The rest were given a paternal auditory nod, a form of approbation that those feedback and questions were in the right direction. It could be a missed opportunity but it would be excellent to provide more room for interaction in an advanced webinar.

We were briefly shown a scoring sheet early in the webinar to score some upcoming videos but it was difficult copying the scoring sheet within the short time it was displayed. The attendees were invited to score five videos as whether the person on that video was truthful or lying. The right answers were given by Mr. Francis later on. The problem with this approach is that the test is relying on the person who takes it to correct his or her own test, favouring cognitive biases and rationalizations of all sorts such as: “Ah, you know, I first thought he was truthful but I've second guessed myself.”

Adobe Connect offers many classroom friendly features such as quizzes and surveys, which could greatly enhance the webinar. The quizzes are automatically corrected upon completion according to the scoring attributed when they were created. How to create a quiz in Adobe Connect is presented here and here.

Quizzes may become important to know whether or not attendees have retained information. This is also an invaluable feedback to know how effective the webinar is and what is to be improved. Moreover, a notification sent through email for a web quiz a month later would tell more about how much attendees have retained from the webinar and help them to bring back to memory what they've learn.

Pricing
Evaluating Truthfulness Webinar is offered at $125 USD (regular price) and $100 USD for the early birds. The recording of the webinar I have attended is available at $99 USD. These are by all means excellent prices where you get plenty for your money.

Summary: Pros & Cons

Pros

Excellent price
Quality and up-to-date content
Knowledgeable lecturer
Recording available
Two hours lecture

Cons

No interviewing techniques
Lack of references
Lack of interaction

Conclusion
Evaluating Truthfulness Webinar is a complete introductory workshop that successfully raises awareness about what is required to detect deception. It summarizes in a comprehensive and coherent manner what we—detecting deception experts—have learned through years of experience, research, reading books, and so forth in an amazing and nearly flawless workshop that is offered at an inexpensive price.

I highly recommend Humintell's Evaluating Truthfulness Webinar.

Intermezzo

2011-04-08T00:00:00.006-04:00

Lactantia's Traditional Spread Margarine is a deceptive product name for its misleading meaning. Traditions are passed from generation to generation according to its definition. This marketing strategy aims to increase people's compliance to purchase their so-called traditional products by necessity to perpetuate a tradition. The mere usage of the word may be enough to increase social compliance.

Margarine has been created as a substitute for butter in 1869 by Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès and was subsequently patented and unsuccessfully commercialized. The word traditional spread could be meaningful on this original product.

Lactantia has however been founded in 1947 [1][2] and its business activities hardly reach two generations where the first generation most likely had a preference for butter. While margarine aimed to be a substitute for butter, it is noteworthy to know that it was illegal to sell butter-coloured margarine in many countries until recently, e.g. the law was last abandoned in 1967 (Wisconsin, US) and 2008 (Québec, Canada).

Lactantia offers three (3) categories of margarines and four (4) different ones in its traditional spreads category: Traditional Spread, Traditional Semi-Salted Spread, Traditional Unsalted Spread and Traditional Garlic Spread. The production in those times were considerably simplified and variety is a relatively recent phenomenon, which decreases the likelihood that all four so-called traditional spreads margarine were available during the initial production. At best, one spread could be traditional in the case that the company would have used the original formula developed in 1869.

The marketing strategy might be attempting to distinguish the three (3) categories of margarines by creating a strong contrast — Traditional Spread, Olivina Margarine and Healthy Attitude Margarine, but at the expense of a misleading product name.

Product Review: Humintell MiX Elite

2011-03-28T20:00:00.021-04:00

Humintell is expanding its product family with MiX Elite that is offering advanced features to its customers. This in-depth review covers the high and low points of this new product, gives an insight as whether or not this product is for you and an appreciation of its price.

MiX Elite | Dr. David Matsumoto's Blog | Facebook

Instructional Videos
The instructional videos have been updated with new faces and new comments. The training includes frontal, profile and 3/4th videos on the seven universal emotions, possible confusions among similar-looking emotions, and Evolutionary Vestige videos.

MiX Elite comes with nearly 50 videos and it is considerably more than every other product. While the visual aspect significantly gains from the different views, the audio commentaries quickly become repetitive since they are all the same regardless of the view. Advises in order to properly recognize emotions in a given view would have greatly enhanced the training. The instructional videos are nonetheless very instructive, enjoyable and considerably more useful for real world application since it's possible to see each emotion covered by 3 different views.

The texts following instructional videos in regard to each emotion are also noteworthy. They contain triggers and functions of the given emotion, FACS scores along with an image, and associated non-verbal behaviour. The FACS scores require knowledge of the Facial Action Coding System (FACS) and it's suitable for a product that calls itself Elite.

The Evolutionary Vestige videos are available in frontal-view only but it comes at no surprise because the commentaries could have been satisfying in text form. The confusions among similar-looking emotions videos are also part of MiX Elite but in frontal, profile and 3/4th, which is important because they allow customers to see the actual differences between those emotions in different views.

I would have preferred videos with the three views displayed side-by-side for each emotion because it makes the comparison and the mental association easier. My preference aside, the videos available in MiX Elite are without a doubt leveraging the development of one's ability to recognize emotions by providing a full experience in the three most meaningful views. Humintell does have a strong competitive advantage with this feature.

Practice

There are fifty-six (56) micro-expressions to be recognized during the practice. Those are randomly displayed to increase the challenge and keep trainees on their toes. The practice is shorter comparing to MiX Professional because there are the same number of practice images in both trainings, even though there are two additional views in MiX Elite — see Comparative Study below. I have suggested in the past to mirror images from profile and 3/4th views as a cost effective solution to offer a more complete experience but this suggestion did not make it.

MiX Elite and MiX Professional clearly emphasizes on instructional videos. MiX Professional offers a worthwhile practice but it feels short. MiX Elite offers a multi-views practice but it feels neglected for its lack of images. The multi-views will nonetheless give its trainees an effective training considering that life is not happening in frontal view only.

The Hidden Risks of Certification
The practice and test results are following the same predicament than every other product offered by Humintell. An overall score in percentile is attributed according to one's answers and a score for each emotion is also displayed. This is by all mean an important feedback to the trainees because they need to know their strengths and weaknesses when it comes to recognizing emotions and micro-expressions.

A certificate is given upon the successful completion, ranging from Proficient to Master depending on how well a trainee performs, and obtaining 100% on each run may be the grand prize for many. There are however hidden risks behind the certification and the practice and test results. The certification and results may infer a false impression that no further improvement is necessary, which may turn in overconfidence. (Read my Essay on Self-Confidence)

Nearly all software available on the market provide sequences of images that may be willingly or unwillingly memorized, which will taint the results. The training has a limited effectiveness that is wearing out over time, according to research by Humintell (read here and here), though it's important to mention that it's a matter of assimilation — the more time spent learning, the more likely one's ability to recognize microexpressions effectively and accurately is to be permanent. It's nonetheless unlikely that anyone can be 100% accurate at all time in real life situations, or even with a new set of images, in spite of what the results may tell you.

Remember, however, a training in recognizing micro-expressions is better than no training and MiX Elite is a front runner.

Comparative Study: MiX Elite, MiX Pro and MiX 2

MiX Elite is offering everything MiX Professional has but with additional instructional videos and the images are available in three different views — namely frontal, profile and 3/4th. This product clearly offers more than other products but it has two noticeable shortcomings: less images per view and an uneven distribution of images among each emotion.

(Click to Enlarge Full Table)The uneven distribution is an important shortcoming because it is desirable to practice each emotion evenly in general and practice customer's difficult-to-recognize emotions in particular. MiX Professional offers an even distribution, which is a plus. The distribution in MiX Elite is however considerably better than in MiX 2, where there are no image to recognize for three (3) different emotions in two (2) different views in the latter.

MiX Elite is an excellent choice but it would considerably gain from providing an even distribution of images among each emotion and in providing more images. Four (4) images per emotion, per view, would turn this product into a solid value. Eight (8) images per emotion, per view, would turn this product into a dream come true.

MiX Elite is offered at a preset speed of 66 ms, which is between 1/15th and 1/16th of a second. MiX Professional is offered at a preset speed of 100ms, which is 1/10th of a second. Finally, MiX 2 is configurable with suggested values from 66 ms to 500 ms.

Pricing
MiX Elite is offered at $89.00 USD with the most complete set of features available on the market, where the instructions given along the training are unmatched and the practice are offered in three views. The price difference with MiX Professional is $20.00 USD and the price difference with MiX 2 is $10.00 USD. MiX Elite is a serious contender and does worth the price difference.

MiX 2 + MiX 2 Additional Practice is offered at a total of $91.00 USD and may be a better choice with its whopping 126 images to those who are looking for more practice than instructions. MiX Elite is otherwise a better choice.

Give Demos a Try...
Newcomers? Give a try to MiX 2 and SubX demos that are available for free.

Summary: Pros & Cons

Pros

Frontal, profile and 3/4th views
Quality content, images and videos
Best offer on the current market
Outstanding customer support

Cons

Neglected practice
No overall statistics
No stand-alone application
No warranty per se

Conclusion

Humintell went the extra mile by developing an amazing product, MiX Elite, and it is a true mark of a market leader. MiX Elite comes with improvements over its predecessors, desiring features and at a good price. Those who seek more instructions than practice will be very well served. The shortcomings are not hindering the fact that MiX Elite is now the best offer on the market.

I highly recommend Humintell's MiX Elite.

Humintell MiX Professional Product Review

2011-03-07T00:00:00.014-05:00

Humintell is expanding its product family with MiX Professional and comes with new and awaited features. This in-depth review covers the high and low points of this new product and gives an insight as whether or not this product is for you.

MiX Professional | Dr. David Matsumoto's Blog | Facebook

Where does MiX Professional stand?
MiX Professional is an improvement over the MiX product line as it offers more than MiX Lite and MiX Original. It comes with a plethora of new and exciting content such as new instructional videos and texts and new practice images.

This product has a different roadmap than MiX 2 since it focuses on additional instructions and evolutionary vestige videos rather than practice. The practice is worthwhile but it only comes with frontal view to the contrary to its counterpart, which offers three views (frontal, profile and 3/4th). MiX Professional takes into account the various applications and subtleties of reading micro and subtle expressions can have whereas MiX 2 is more generic in that respect.

Instructional Videos

The instructional videos have been updated with new faces and new comments. The training includes frontal only videos on the seven universal emotions, possible confusions among similar-looking emotions, and Evolutionary Vestige videos. They are by all means instructive and enjoyable.

The texts following instructional videos in regard to each emotion are also noteworthy. They contain triggers and functions of the given emotion, FACS scores along with an image, and associated non-verbal behaviour. The FACS scores require knowledge of the Facial Action Coding System (FACS) but it may very well create interest from customers to learn the coding system since it is part of the science behind reading faces.

The pillar of MiX Professional is the Evolutionary Vestige videos, which provides a great insight about where emotions come from and why they are displayed in the way they are. These videos are not adding to the commentaries because they are the same instructional videos with a different commentary. The commentaries are informative and will be enjoyed by customers who are interested in expanding their knowledge rather than their skills.

Additional videos aim to prepare you to understand and see the subtle differences between confusing emotions. Some emotions are indeed partially similar to each other and it makes their recognition considerably more difficult. MiX Professional videos display those emotions side by side, making it easy to see the actual differences between similar-looking emotions. These videos are informative and have an immediate practical value.

Practice & Post-Test
The practice and post-test are similar to most other products from Humintell. The practice comes with new images. The images suffer from the same problems as mentioned in MiX 2 product review, such as the ability to memorize the content and answers without actually recognizing the emotions. There is nonetheless a noticeable improvement in the image quality as the images appear to be visually more consistent.

The post-test displays 14 micro expressions from the practice images lot that have to be identified. A scoring board appears once completed giving you your average score and scores for each emotion, all in percentile.

The practice and post-test feel short in comparison to the instructional videos that have been added. There are roughly three (3) times more instructional videos in MiX Professional than in MiX Original. In short, this is an excellent training but it wouldn't hurt to have more images.

updated! Product Confusion

The rapid expansion of Humintell's product family gives a greater choice to the customers but it can be somewhat confusing to those who are not knowledgeable in the field. The confusion is greater at times because Humintell does not conform to what other software vendors are doing by using version numbers to denote different set of features rather than using editions as a family branding strategy.

Fortunately, Humintell has taken my suggestion last year to create comparative tables comparing its products (see MiX and SubX tables). Those tables dissipate all the previous confusions mentioned in my product review on Additional Training but may not dissipate future confusion.

Microsoft has suffered from a similar problem since Windows Vista and perpetuated it on Windows 7, where there are plenty of editions and sub-editions to choose from. Even the well rounded charts (see Windows Vista, Windows 7 and here) make it difficult to know what to buy and definitively gets in the way of a quick purchase — one-click style.

It would be a good idea to make sure that the distinctions among products are properly and clearly expressed, as each product will evolve over time, to avoid further confusion and complex charts. Renaming some products and give proper version and/or edition could be a great marketing strategy to circumvent any such problems.

Online Service updated!
Every product has been updated to preload images, to the exception of D3 and ICAPS, as I have previously suggested. Lagging is no longer an issue. The system still interacts with the server to verify your answers but it does not interfere with the actual training. A simple solution to make the user experience considerably better, thanks!

The Lost Features

The products offered by Humintell are now available as a one-year subscription. Many customers and potential customers might feel that companies attempt to milk them in so many ways these days and the value for money is considerably diminished by such tactics. Fortunately, one-year is more than enough to master what the products are training you for. Humintell confirmed that most of their customers no longer train after a month.

My advice is to practice with those products for few weeks followed by an occasional come back; and, finally, put your practice to work in real life once you have mastered reading micro and subtle expressions.

The ability to set speed at which micro and subtle expressions are displayed is no longer available and it is a great lost. Humintell has explained to me that some changes were necessary for research purpose and I consider this a good reason for such limitation. My understanding is that Humintell is collecting data from the training of its customers and collecting a greater sample of data will undoubtedly improve the content of Humintell's products in the future.

Pricing
MiX Professional is offered at $69.00 USD. This product offers more features than MiX Original, which is offered at $59.00 USD, and less but also different features than MiX 2, which is offered at $79.00 USD. All considerations taken into account makes this product a fair and well-balanced deal at the offered price.

updated! End-User License Agreement

Humintell is currently investigating its End-User License Agreement according to the concerns I have outlined in my previous product review. It is noteworthy to mention that Dr. Paul Ekman's micro and subtle expression online training, METT, METT Advanced and SETT, have a similar EULA. Humintell will gain a significant competitive advantage by improving its End-User License Agreement.

Public Relation and Customer Support updated!
Humintell is a company about recognizing and understanding human emotions and it's true to its core because it is reflected in its customer support. It offers one of the best customer support I have experienced in my career. One year later (see here), Humintell lives up to the test of time. The customer support is flawless and consistently so. The staff is patient, understanding and open minded, which are all rare qualities nowadays. It also takes a great amount of wisdom to handle criticism the manner it is handled by Humintell's staff.

Give Demos a Try...
Newcomers? Give a try to MiX 2 and SubX demos that are available for free.

Summary: Pros & Cons

Pros

Quality content, images and videos
Provides unique and comprehensible content
Online support improvements
Outstanding customer support
Fair price

Cons

Frontal view only
Less emphasis on practical aspect
See more in MiX 2 product review

Conclusion

MiX Professional delivers a good software that goes beyond the mere practice by bringing its content to the next level. Those who seek further information about emotions along with great tips will be served with this product. While it is timidly distant from its relatives, MiX and MiX 2, it comes at a fair price and it has a promising future where the differences will be greater and the content increasingly bigger.

I recommend Humintell's MiX Professional.

Squeak 4.2 Installer

2011-02-05T11:30:00.003-05:00

Squeak Installer is now open source and available under MIT License. The previous code has been entirely rewritten to be easier to maintain and usable by other Squeak distributions (Pharo, Cuis, etc). Download Squeak 4.2 installer.

Two'O Eleven

2011-01-01T00:00:00.009-05:00

A new year has begun and a new journey has come. This article unveils on-going and future plans for 2011 on my blog. Read a short word about the past years, a summary of my plans and upcoming topics, and my expectations for this year.

A Look On The Past
This blog has been increasingly active the last two years with more than one hundred (100) articles. My objective for 2010, as revealed in Peeling A New Skin, has been exceeded in number of articles (62), that is, 14 more than I have initially planned. Some topics have to be yet covered but Detecting Deception remains the most popular at the moment.

RPG Maker is a truly amazing technology for emerging indie game developers. Several commercial games have been produced and sold on the market by such indie game developers. Unfortunately, those indie game developers are hobbyists and amateurs. They apparently cannot afford softwares and services tailored to their needs and they are uninterested in building a strong business relationship with the outsider that I am. The investment in time and money that I have poured into L10nTool + DeploymentScript and other related projects are not going to fructify. Consequently, RPG Maker related products, services and articles are pending further notice.

The Future Is At Our Door

My objective for 2011 is different than last year because I am not looking to archive a particular number of articles but rather increasing the readership. The most popular topics will come back and those that were uncovered last year should be covered this year. Remember, your feedback is the most compelling tool to gauge your interests and I will take them into account when writing my articles.

Upcoming Articles (topics)

Detecting Deception
Software Design and Business
Psychology and Philosophy
Non-verbal Communication
Statement Analysis
~~More on RPG Maker~~
My experience around the world

Expecting The Unexpected
An excellent blogging year to make up for the past two horrifying ones. :)

Three Terabytes Baby!

2010-12-31T07:00:00.001-05:00

The Face Of Russia

2010-12-15T13:00:00.008-05:00

A recent article written on Humintell’s blog, “Russians: A Natural Poker Face?”, caught my attention. Living in Russia gave me an invaluable hindsight on Russians, their culture and life style, and I am taking this opportunity to comment on the article.

Emotions
Russians prefer to keep their emotions to themselves. They seek to be alike and unnoticed when they are in group and in public, which I believe communism has inflected by enforcing conformism. While Russians have great control over the display of their emotions, they are still experiencing emotions and they do display subtle and micro expressions. This greater control however does not result in a better understanding of emotions because Russians are repressing their emotions rather than dealing with them.

NOTE Repressing emotions can seriously hinder the emotional development of an individual, which could remain teenage-like in term of emotions during adulthood, or have an emotional breakdown at some point.

Research conducted by Dr. Paul Ekman has shown that Japanese tend to display less unpleasant reactions than Americans while watching an unpleasant film when they know they are being watched but the reactions of participants of both nationalities were similar when they were alone. It seems to me that Russians are similar, where they are expressionless in public but displaying their emotions when they are alone and with relatives.

I tend to agree with the statement that “Russians and Americans are bound to misread each other”. Russians are likely to be overwhelmed by the display of emotions of Americans whereas Americans are likely to be underwhelmed by the lack of display of emotions of Russians. The ability to read subtle and micro expressions can greatly help Americans to properly read the emotions experienced by Russians. Russians seem to have more difficulties to process emotions in general, possibly due to the fact that emotions are repressed in public. Understanding each other’s culture is still necessary to understand the reasons behind the displayed emotions.

Pessimism

Pessimism in Russia is real and for good reasons: the unfairness of a social and economical system, corruption, Russian literature and so forth. Americans tend to believe they are empowered by the ability to change their lives for the best whereas Russians tend to accept what life brings to them with feelings of lack of empowerment. I have encountered very few optimistic Russians and they seemed to be outcasts or out of the Russian character at the very least. Americans tend to focus their lives on happiness, which seems to be different in Russia.

Being optimistic does not guarantee happiness neither being pessimistic guarantees unhappiness. I believe both approach to life have advantages and disadvantages. Russians have an incredible ability to go through hard times because they are resilient. It is an admirable quality.

Unhappiness
According to the article, Lyubomirsky said “You go to a dinner at a Russian home and the Russians seem happier – they’re drinking, singing, telling stories.” I don’t believe it is a sign that Russians are happier but rather a difference for which Russians are happier than Americans.

Life in Russia can be extremely frustrating, from the long waiting lines to the complexity of the bureaucracy. Russians in the workplace is an example where they can be particularly unhappy: I have witness moments where dozens of people were skipping workdays because they were sick. This is not something we see in North America. Unhappy people tend to be sick more often. But, be aware, Russians are people of great extremes: while some can be unhappy at work, others can be extremely passionate about their work.

Conclusion

Russians are indeed skillful at concealing their emotions but they do display subtle and micro expressions, like the rest of the planet. But, perhaps, they do qualify as a national poker face. :)

FACS in Action

2010-12-13T21:00:00.003-05:00

There is an amazing group on LinkedIn named Facial Action Coding System (FACS) + Emotional Awareness. This group is devoted to FACS and has coding practices where it's possible to discuss coding among other experts. There are FACS certified experts actively participating to this group.

VisualEmotion LLC is a New Jersey based company specializing, among other things, in FACS coding and training. The company has a facebook page and an interesting blog, being one of the rare, if not the only one, providing FACS codes along with their articles!

2010-10-04T12:04:00.003-04:00

The blocking system has been removed. Enjoy.

Welcome to Deception Detection Professionals

2010-09-30T20:00:00.005-04:00

I have recently joined Deception Detection Professionals on LinkedIn, see my profile. This group is composed of professionals, experts, law enforcement officers, researchers and other individuals in the field of detection of deception. Members of Deception Detection Professionals, the following links are susceptible to catch your interest:

Detecting Deception in an Apology (DDinA)
Detecting Deception, Statement Analysis, Non-Verbal, Psychology and DDinA tags
Product Reviews
- Humintell MiX 2, Additional Training
- Mark McClish's Statement Analyzer
Intermezzo
Miscellaneous

Your comments and suggestions are welcomed.

A Truckload of Books

2010-09-24T00:00:00.004-04:00

Shortcuts most often mean to cut corners but I have always considered books to be a reliable shortcut: we rely on others' extensive experience to expand our knowledge. Books make it possible for a reader to gain instant knowledge without having to run into a lengthy trials and errors learning process. Reading is an essential activity to cultivate and expand our knowledge, to become a better person and a better professional.

I have read a truckload of books about technologies, business, graphic design, psychology, languages, and so forth. Reading these books became the foundation of my knowledge and a useful tool to develop a unique expertise. Google books provides the ability to create a bookshelf listing books. The data entry is time consuming but so far I have entered 350 books that I have read.

You can take a look at my bookshelf.

Department of Revenue

2010-09-19T00:00:00.011-04:00

JE is an investigative journalism TV series focusing on public affairs, disreputable businesses, frauds and consumer advocacy. This series has been running since 1993 with a great success in the province of Québec, Canada.

Gaétan Girouard and Jocelyne Cazin set an outstanding pace in truth-seeking until 1999 and 2001 respectively. Together, they fearlessly ran into the dark world of fraudsters around the province for the sake of justice and with great determination — foot in the doorstep when necessary.

The following reportage (page, video) by Michel Jean is covering the excessive expenses on seemingly ridiculous seminars by the Department of Revenue, Government of Québec. Those seminars are given by humorists, mountain climbers, etc. to executives in the department. Approximately a million dollars per year is dedicated to those seminars with a growing tendency. The Department's spokeswoman has indeed something to say about those seminars:

03:36-03:52 Les libellés, les titres, si on s'arrête uniquement à ces éléments là... à priori peuvent sembler inopportun en matière de développement de compétences. Par contre, ce qui est important c'est de référer au contenu.

TRANSLATION The labels, the titles, if we stop [thinking] only about those elements there... first and foremost may appear inappropriate in term of developing competency. On the other hand, what is important (it) is to refer to the content.

The spokeswoman is very articulated but she also makes tremendous efforts to control herself. She frequently swags her head up and down but a better baseline has to be established in order to know whether or not it is meaningful, e.g. whether she in fact agrees or disagrees with the accusation. The following pattern is peculiar because she needs to focus, think and control her emotions:

03:42 (pause)
03:43 (look down) à priori [trans.: first and foremost]
03:45-46 inopportun [trans.: inappropriate]
03:46 (hint of smile or contempt)

There is no reason to smile on a topic that involves millions of dollars misspent. This could be what Dr. Paul Ekman calls Duping Delight — the pleasure one has when deceiving others. She fails to mention that the content of those specific seminars were effectively appropriate in term of developing competency. The rhythmic in her statement is also peculiar because she marks her words in distinctive manner as in “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.” — Bill Clinton (spoken statement). She is deceptive.

The journalist missed an incredible opportunity to dig further for the truth. Exposing problems is an effective mean to increase consciousness and solve problems in an honest environment. It's however necessary to dig further and expose the truth entirely when there are dishonest people in order to hold those people responsible of their misdemeanours and/or crimes.

There are plenty of excellent journalists, including the ones in JE, but it's upsetting that they cannot go with the flow. It seems to me that they are overly prepared in such a way to prevent them to ask the right questions in order to obtain the truth. Detecting deception is about observation, expecting the unexpected and asking the right questions in the right circumstances.

2010-09-08T19:00:00.001-04:00

Humintell is to launch its new products on November, 2010.
Read more about Humintell Upcoming Products.

Intermezzo

2010-09-03T00:00:00.017-04:00

The insurance company GEICO is running a series of advertisements, which is dubbed as a Rhetorical Question Campaign. The playful campaign has its take on a supposedly rhetorical question — Could switching to GEICO really save you 15 percent or more on car insurance? The campaign gives the impression that it is obvious switching to GEICO will save 15 percent or more on car insurance, hence it uses a rhetorical question.

In statement analysis, anything implied is questionable. A question is different from a statement because a question does not state, declare nor assert. Saying “Could switching to GEICO really save you 15 percent or more on car insurance?” is different from saying “Switching to GEICO saves you 15 percent or more on car insurance!” The former may or may not imply the latter. A truthful statement is always explicit.

The rhetorical question is followed by an analogy to reinforce the impression of obviousness, such as seen in this advertisement:

“Could switching to GEICO really save you 15 percent or more on car insurance?”
“Is Ed Too Tall Jones too tall?”

The second question becomes more rhetorical when Ed Jones, who measures 206 cm (6 ft 9 in), is shown on the screen. The advertisement has cleverly shown that the measuring device was too short to measure Ed Jones and his nickname “Too Tall” becomes highly suggestive. The viewer wrongly concludes Ed Jones is indeed too tall. This faulty analogy let the viewer think that answering yes to the second question means the answer for the first question is also yes. A truthful statement is always straightforward.

The advertisement closes on the words GEICO — 15 minutes could save you 15 percent or more. This is more straightforward than the rest of the advertisement but saving 15 percent or more has a degree of probability that is uncertain considering the use of could rather than will (see gramdex).

An Emporium of Visual Delights

2010-08-27T00:00:00.005-04:00

Michael Please has created an appealing one-minute overview video of his entire work. His work is a bit reminiscent of, or at least reminds me of, Soviet step-motion animation such as Ёжик в тумане and Чебурушка. The attention to detail is absolutely amazing.

Paranoia can lead a person only so far...

...but I do know the difference between reality and fiction!

There is another animation created by Tiny Inventions that is particularly amusing. Something left, something taken is a story about a couple visiting a friend in San Fransisco. The man has a casual interest in forensic science and he finds himself in a situation where he believes his girlfriend and himself are in danger. Or not. The segment about microexpressions is absolutely hilarious!

Adding Slovak and Czech Characters

2010-08-13T00:00:00.004-04:00

Learning a new keyboard layout is relatively easy. Easier than what most people may feel about it. The important question is in why learning a new keyboard layout on a language that extends the Latin alphabet? Instead, I have added support for Slovak and Czech alphabets on my existing keyboard layout — which already supports several other languages.

Microsoft offers a small .NET utility named Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator (MKLC) allowing us to create new keyboard layouts on the fly using a visual editor. An installer is created from a successful keyboard layout of your own. The only shortcoming comes when one has to update an existing keyboard layout because it requires to uninstall, reboot and install the new version.

Read my previous article on Keyboard Layout Awareness.

Humintell Upcoming Products

2010-08-06T00:00:00.005-04:00

Humintell are working hard on what is to become new products: MiX Professional, MiX Elite, New Instructional Videos and Cross-Cultural Adaptation Course. Read more information on these upcoming products.

The most interesting point on these products is that they have listened to customer feedback. Many features I have suggested in my product reviews have been integrated. The following is a list of features that I have suggested and they have confirmed these are implemented in their upcoming products:

New and updated videos:

FACS scores
Associated nonverbal behaviours
Evolutionary vestige of the emotion.
All in frontal, profile and 3/4th views.

An entire new selection of images to train with.

Humintell are competitive in term of pricing in their market but they are becoming the leader by offering valuable additional features. They keep the pulse on what the market needs and the demands of their customers. This is exactly what we need, as consumers and customers. More information on availability will come soon.

Read Product Reviews: MiX 2, MiX 2 Additional Training
Read more on Statistics Features and its follow-up.

The Projects of Mysterious Creature

2010-07-30T00:00:00.002-04:00

The projects page is a convenient static page containing a non-exhaustive list of past and ongoing projects that I have publicly wrote about or are related to this blog. This static page is a great addition to the tags, where it lists projects and their related articles in a friendly manner. It has a permanent link located at top-right of this blog. The projects page will be updated regularly.

Mysterious Creature Projects

The Indians Are Back

2010-06-23T00:00:00.001-04:00

The culture, level of education and native language of a person are considered when using statement analysis. Everything is important but how important these factors are? For example, a non-native English person may have difficulties to speak or write effectively and accurately in English. Is this person can trigger numerous false-positives? Unlikely!

The techniques used in statement analysis point out what a person is saying (or writing) because people mean exactly what they are saying. Therefore, statement analysis is not an interpretation of what a person is saying (see misconception).

There is no single clue or word to deceit, whether it is in statement analysis or in non-verbal behaviour. Deception is detected through its patterns. Furthermore, a non-native English person who has learned English brings his or her deceptive patterns with himself or herself and they will be reflected upon what he or she says or writes. The deceptive patterns may sometimes emerge in different manner than the ones in the person's native language but statement analysis does not require a baseline contrary to the analysis of non-verbal behaviour.

Statement analysis is effective even when a person has a perfect knowledge of a language and its grammar. In a similar fashion, a psychopath can have a perfect demeanour but this person will eventually betray himself or herself: in the case of non-verbal behaviour, emotions happening with a perfect timing is suspicious — such a person is better than world's best actors but is still an actor.

Excellent speaking or writing skills do not turn a person into an excellent liar. Lying is a craft in itself and requires extensive practice. However, the general population has very poor detecting deception skills — they detect deception and lies at 53%, which is no better than chance. The best liars are not trained to effectively lie to detecting deception experts.

Plausible Stories

2010-06-16T00:00:00.006-04:00

Deceptive people tend to use plausible stories to convince others that they are truthful, explain situations, impress others, etc. A plausible story is a story of events that appears to be true but is partially or entirely false. Such a story is based on plausibility rather than facts. Most people conclude to their downfall that if it appears to be true, it is true.

For example, you have a pleasant conversation with a new acquaintance. You tell him or her more about you and he or she tells you more about himself or herself. A very pleasant conversation. You tell him or her that you fear heights. A little later or on a second rendez-vous, this new acquaintance tells you the he or she jumped in parachute 3 years ago. This is a great way to impress someone who fears heights or to tell that he or she is better than you (bragging).

Honest people tend to assume others are honest too. Most of us will never challenge allegations made by others. Showing great interest in a story and asking questions will help to determine whether a story is truthful or deceptive. Unfortunately, some among deceptive people are excellent at thinking-on-their-feet. Politicians are a great example. They are rarely caught off guards.

“Do you have pictures? I'd love to see pictures of you in parachute!”
“I'm so sorry! I was so excited that I forgot to ask for pictures.”

A plausible story is a powerful deceptive technique because most people will not verify the story and its facts. Moreover, many plausible stories are difficult to verify and this makes them more effective in deceiving others. Most honest people believe in “innocent until proven guilty” and expect to have hard evidence before calling someone a liar. Deceptive people know this and use it to their advantage.

On Schedule

2010-06-15T00:00:00.005-04:00

My articles are delivered on a schedule using Blogger Scheduler since May, 2010. Blogger Scheduler works absolutely fine! I have written and scheduled articles until September, 17^th 2010.

I will be busy working on other projects than my blog but I will be returning in few months. Enjoy my articles in the meantime!

Digg Me Baby

2010-06-09T00:00:00.000-04:00

I have added a button to digg articles from my blog.

Digg articles you like!

Digg happily!

Accepting Donations

2010-06-01T00:00:00.008-04:00

My family of products for RPG Maker XP and VX is an ambitious and challenging commercial venture. L10nTool + Deployment Utility were both available for sales but the price coming along was out of reach for most indie developers. Unfortunately, it was and is still not possible to offer lower prices considering the costs of development and subsequent maintenance.

This is why your donations will make a difference because it will allow continuous development of my family of products for RPG Maker XP and VX and eventually lowering its prices. Donations will also bring more RPG Maker related articles, programming tips and tutorials, and other goodies.

RPG Maker Compatible Products:

L10nTool, a Game Localization Utility (see brochure, video)
Deployment User-Modifiable Script
RGSS Player for MacOS X (see brochure)
Software Development Kit for RPG Maker
Script Manager

See tags below for more information on these products.

Will any of these software be open source?
The softwares with lower development and maintenance costs could eventually be available with an open source license provided there are sufficient donations. This includes Script Manager and Deployment User-Modifiable Script. They would be released under Apache 2.0 license.

How about Non-Commercial Indie Developers?
They will be able to benefit from some, if not all, softwares at absolutely no cost. An infrastructure will be put in place to support the community and give the love back. :)

How to Donate?
See the donation box on the right of this page. Enter a donation amount, click on Donate! and follow the instructions.

Keywords Management in Statement Analyzer

2010-05-28T00:00:00.002-04:00

Mark McClish's Statement Analyzer is missing an important feature to manage keywords and descriptions. There are many reasons to need more keywords, whether some are missing or simply because one's field of expertise is different from law enforcement or does not need to perform statement analysis on incident reports. This article will demonstrate how it is possible to manage keywords and descriptions.

Statement Analyzer and OpenOffice Calc are necessary to manage keywords and descriptions. OpenOffice Base could be useful but optional and not presented in this article.

Statement Analyzer Databases
There are seven (7) databases used by Statement Analyzer and they are located in C:\STMTANAL\Data\. These databases are xBase/dBase compatible since it is the native database format of Visual FoxPro. Further information can be read in xBase file format and its data types.

WARNING Modifying databases could prevent further usage of Statement Analyzer. Backup everything in the directory C:\STMTANAL\Data\ before opening or modifying any database.

ANALDESC.DBF (RECNO,N,5,0; DESC,M)

This database contains descriptions to be associated with their respective keywords. The data record is defined by a record index identifying the record and a description.

ANALKEYW.DBF (KEYW,C,50; RECNO,N,5,0; GROUP,N,3,0)

This database contains keywords associated with their descriptions and respective groups. The data record is defined by a keyword, a record reference to a description, and a group identification number.

ANALMAST.DBF (ANALNAME,C,25; ANALYSIS,M)

This database contains saved statements for later retrieval in the software and it is referred to Analysis Master File. The data record is defined by a saved statement name, a.k.a. filename, and its contents. The first valid record starts on the third row. This tutorial does not use any data in this database.

ANALWORK.DBF (KEYW,C,50; COUNT,N,4,0; RECNO,N,5,0; GROUP,N,3,0)

This database contains data used while a statement analysis is performed and it is temporary only data. This tutorial does not use any data in this database.

CCSLOG.DBF (DATE,D; TIME,C,8; NOTE,C,45)

This database contains logged user actions and other debugging information. This tutorial does not use any data in this database.

CCSPARAM.DBF (COMPANY,C,50; COMPADDR,C,50; COMPADDR2,C,30; COMPCTYST,C,30; COMPZIP,C,10; SUPERPASS,C,24; USEPASSW,L; EPOCH,N,2,0)

This database contains data used to define system parameters. This tutorial does not use any data in this database.

CONFIG.DBF (TODAY,D)

This database seems to be unused and this tutorial does not use any data in it.

English Transitional Words
Statement Analyzer provides an extensive list of keywords to be used during an automated statement analysis. Unfortunately, the list is incomplete and some important keywords are missing. English Transitional Words, often labelled as text bridges in the law enforcement community, are meaningful in statement analysis.

There are literally hundreds of transitional words and I've learned many of them. A good place to obtain an exhaustive list is the English Transitional Words Database 2.0 website. They list more than 1300 transitional words though some can be found in more than one category.

FBI articles referred in Detecting Deception in an Apology list as little as six (6) different categories in contrast to the 42 available on the website mentioned above. These six (6) categories contains around 50 unique transitional words and are good enough for a quick screening on incident reports but more transitional words are necessary to perform a thorough analysis. For example, transitional words that have a grammatical function of time will help a law enforcement officer to quickly and properly lay down a timeline in a particular incident and look out for gaps — which shall be further investigated.

Performing statement analysis on different statements than incident reports, such as an apology, a comment, an email, and so forth will also require to understand more transitional words.

Adding Keywords
Let's assume one desires to add keywords that are transitional words with a grammatical function of contrast because they are currently not available in Statement Analyzer. The following contains a partial list of words with a grammatical function of contrast, see English Transitional Words Database for more.

however, in contrast, indeed, instead, nevertheless, on the contrary, on the other hand, yet.

OpenOffice Calc offers an excellent support for dBase databases. Make sure Statement Analyzer is not running and open ANALKEYW.DBF using OpenOffice Calc. OpenOffice Calc will attempt to import the database and a window may prompt a choice of character set. Statement Analyzer uses ISO-8859-1, choose “Western Europe (ISO-8859-1)” and click “OK”.

The first sheet contains every keyword Statement Analyzer has. There are three (3) columns available as previously explained. Move to the first available row, which should be around cell A765. Enter the list above with a keyword, 102 and 0 per row.

The last known description record index is 101 and it is necessary to use 102 to create an next description for these transitional words. For an inexplicable reason, the word “ground” is duplicated (see row 760 and 762) one with a record reference of 100 and group 156 and the other with a record reference of 101 and group 154. The latter is a mistake and could be deleted, whereas we would use a record reference of 101 and upward for any additional keywords.

The group is 0 to denote “no group”. Grouping is used to denote change in language, e.g., when a person use the word “car” throughout a statement and later use the word “vehicle” when describing the actual crime, and is an indication of deception.

Both “car” and “vehicle” are part of the group number 147.

Save once the keywords are added. OpenOffice may prompt a choice as whether to keep the dBase file format or convert to ODF file format. Choose “Keep Current Format” to maintain compatibility with Statement Analyzer. The keywords will not be available as long as the record reference to a description is not available, see next section.

TIP Reindex the keyword database in Statement Analyzer upon any change by selecting Maintenance > Reindex > Keyword file. Reindexing databases is important to ensure Statement Analyzer will properly run. Reindex databases individually or all of them every time changes are made.

Adding a Description
Let's now add a description for transitional words with a grammatical function of contrast that is meaningful in a context of detecting deception.

Make sure Statement Analyzer is not running and open ANALDESC.DBF using OpenOffice Calc. The first sheet contains every description Statement Analyzer has. There are two (2) columns available as previously explained. Move to the first available row, which should be around cell A102. Enter 102 in cell A102 and the following description in cell B102.

There are numerous transitional words with a grammatical function of contrast. When a subject uses words or phrases such as “however”, “in contrast”, “indeed”, “instead”, “nevertheless”, “on the contrary”, “on the other hand”, “yet” he or she is making a comparison among two or more thoughts. A deceptive person uses this technique to either minimize his or her involvement in a crime or maximize his or her potential benefits on the outcome of his or her deception.

After he or she finishes telling his or her story, come back to the contrasting thoughts that he or she has mentioned and make sure to understand which thoughts are more important. A subject may focus on or avoid one or another thought while retelling his or her story and it may tip off which is the most important.

Save once the description is added and close the database. Open Statement Analyzer, rebuild index files, enter the list of new keywords in a new statement, analyze, and make sure that the new keywords are all discovered and their description is properly displayed.

Text Processing Engine
The matching algorithm in Statement Analyzer is simple and reduced down to case insensitive matches. Matching phrases is the hardest and most complex task. For this reason, one may be willing to simplify keywords in order to maximize the hits returned by the software. “On one hand” and “on the other hand” could simply be the word “hand”. Or, every single entry can be entered provided that one has enough patience.

Tips
Be careful when editing databases and respect the file format, data types, character set and references to other records.

In OpenOffice, it is possible to activate and run a spell checker. It is useful on descriptions but remember that keywords are best as they currently are since misspelled words or manner of writing may be meaningful. Be careful when copying rich text into a cell in OpenOffice Calc because it may alter the format.

One may want to add every transitional word available. It is a good thing. However, it is not just about identifying the words, it is capital to understand when they are deceptive and when they are not.

An Emblem of Hostility

2010-05-21T00:00:00.021-04:00

An emblem is defined by any gesture that has a specific meaning in a given culture. For example, an A-OK or Thumb Up have a positive meaning in North America, whereas a middle finger is considered to be rude and hostile. Such emblems are most often made willingly and purposely. It becomes an emblematic slip when it is made unwillingly, and usually for a short period of time, in a similar fashion to a slip of the tongue.

watch video on youtube

[1] Terje: “Jo, jeg kan, eh, jeg kan ikke forklare. eh.”
[2] Hellstrøm: “Det der er ikke måten å gjøre det på, du kan ikke behandle fisk på den måten der.”

Terje cannot explain [1] why he cooks fish in advance and stores it in the walk-in refrigeration unit. Hellstrøm knows this is a culinary sin and fish is better cook to order. For this reason, he tells Terje “this is not the way to do it, you cannot handle fish the way [you do] there” [2]. At 0:09-0:10.5, Terje makes an emblematic slip by scratching himself on the chin with his middle finger up slightly after the first premise. I believe it has the same meaning in Norwegian and North American cultures.

Terje is the chef in the restaurant and does not want to be told what to do. He sees Hellstrøm as an intrusive adversary. This hostile attitude most often results in confrontation because one will ferociously defend his or her territory, even against a person who is there to help! I have witnessed such attitude.

There is a social versus ethical choice to make in such circumstance. The choice is to either save a person's feelings over telling this person the truth. Most people take the easy way out and will save the person's feelings. This is a social lie. Master manipulators always choose this route because everybody likes people who make them feel good about being themselves.

The consequence of such social lies are usually minimal and sometimes beneficial. Truth is sometimes abrasive in term of social relationship. Your girlfriend asks you whether or not she has gained weight, would you answer “yes”? Social lies will unfortunately destroy a failing business. Hellstrøm comes to a choice where Terje may hate him for telling the truth but he may help to save the business and Terje's job at the same time.

I have seen this over and over in high-risk high-reward projects. The cost of saving people's feelings is excessively high to the point of ruining a project (or many!). Bridges are not built on feelings but are instead engineered.

Product Review: Mark McClish's Statement Analyzer

2010-05-14T00:00:00.018-04:00

This in-depth product review covers Statement Analyzer software created by Mark McClish. Mark McClish is a former U.S. Marshal with more than 25 years of experience in law enforcement. He is one of the most influential name in statement analysis. I've had the pleasure to review his software and I have tested it on over 200 texts, including the articles and comments on my blog, apologies, emails, incident reports and various other open statements. The main components of this software are reviewed with an outline of their high and low points.

Product Website | Mark McClish's Bio | Mark McClish's Website

An Overview of Statement Analyzer
Statement Analyzer promises to analyze any statement and assist you in determining whether a subject is truthful or deceptive for a mere 35$US. I have received the CD within a reasonable time frame. The international shipping is relatively standard with approximately two (2) weeks.

Statement Analyzer comes in a shrink wrapped CD case with a nice black and white instructions booklet. The booklet and installer instructions are somehow unusual in the world of technologies but nothing that cannot be understood. The installation went flawlessly to the exception it is not possible to choose an installation directory and the software is installed in C:\STMTANAL\.

This small application takes approximately 17 mb on disk. It comes with an annoying and useless copy protection involving its user to have the CD in the drive while using the software. I believe it is possible to order a download-only version.

DETECTING DECEPTION The software is on version 10.01 but it feels like a 1.01. I have mentioned about deceptive version numbers in my article Rich Internet Application. This rule does not always apply to a software that has evolved through multiple operating systems. For example, the first version of Wordperfect for Windows was 5.1 but it was not deceptive because it was a continuation, or a port, of Wordperfect for DOS. It may however apply to softwares rewritten from the scratch.

User Interface and Usability

The user interface is solid and simple but it has usability issues and lacks of modern features. It has a look-and-feel given by a programming team that has never used the software. The user interface does need polishing.

The workflow is unusual in many ways because the user interface has several noticeable inconsistencies and annoyances. The software is provided with a Multiple Document Interface (MDI) but it is not possible to normally use multiple windows because they are modal, which means a window needs to be minimized or closed before opening another window.

The software does ask whether or not a user wishes to retrieve a saved statement every time a new statement button is clicked. Some standard shortcuts will not work in certain situations or if the focus is not on the right pane. The entire list of annoyances is easy to fix and I am sure that further updates and versions will take care of them.

There is no Unicode support which is a problem to insert statements with characters from foreign languages but also special characters such as “½”. Copy and paste may require some subsequent editing. The software uses ISO-8859-1 encoding.

The user interface is not particularly responsive. There is a noticeable delay between a user input and its outcome, and this comes off as a sluggish application. A more thoughtful and polished user interface would increase productivity. The workflow in particular has been neglected, if only to compare multiple statements side-by-side!

Printing Statement Analysis
The printing feature is good but not great. It has a custom printing preview window and it does feel outdated. The pagination is not properly rendered. The feature will not print on Adobe PDF printer but it will print on Microsoft XPS Document Writer. The resulting printed pages contain most of the information available in the software. I wish it would underline keywords in the statement and have some more statistics.

Statement Analysis Effectiveness

Statement Analyzer comes with a list of 763 keywords and 100 descriptions. This is a fairly good list but some important keywords are missing. For example, there are additional text bridges to these available in the software keyword database. The specificity of the dictionary is a shortcoming because it is mostly effective on incident reports. The software effectiveness is greatly reduced by its inability to manage (edit, add and delete) keywords and descriptions.

The descriptions are excellent and up to the reputation of Mark McClish. They are informative and most of them included examples. I wished it would have included at least two examples, one example that would trigger a red flag and another that would not, in order to better assist users in determining truthfulness in any given statement. In general, the descriptions available in the software are useful even to people who are experienced in detecting deception using statement analysis, including myself.

The software text processing engine is overly basic and provides only a case insensitive word matching algorithm. The sentence structures, semantics and all other goodies available in the field of Natural Language Processing (NLP) are unfortunately not available in Statement Analyzer. It simply lists any matching keywords regardless of any other factors, which sometimes becomes a distraction.

It does not match misspelled words and may lead a user to overlook misspelled keywords because 1) they would not be matched and thus not highlighted, and 2) they, along with other misspelled non-keywords, can be sign of emotional arousal or cognitive load and thus require further investigation.

The software comes with a much needed disclaimer in which it is stated Statement Analyzer is an investigative tool and the final judgement as whether or not a subject is truthful or deceptive should be left to its users. This is a good investigative tool in respect to the disclaimer.

Comparative Study: Jeffrey MacDonald
The question remains on how Statement Analyzer performs against a manual analysis performed by an expert. Is it a pocket version of Mark McClish? A comparative study will help to determine the effectiveness of the software.

The open statement given by Jeffrey MacDonald has been analyzed by Mark McClish on his website. I ran Statement Analyzer on the statement and collected data from its result. Furthermore, I have quantified the keywords in the result that were actually deceptive (a.k.a. red flags) according to me.

The statement contains 1815 words according to OO.o Writer. Statement Analyzer discovered a total of 72 keywords in the statement. The keywords appeared an overall total of 506 times. For example, the word “I” has appeared 191 — while not every “I” is deceptive, many of them in a statement denotes high stress. I have flagged 378 out of the 506 words as being deceptive, which is approximately 75% when including every “I” and 37% excluding them. Thus, the software reports that approximately 28% of the text is deceptive whereas the red flags account for 21%.

Mark McClish has determined that 70 expressions were deceptive in the statement and he has concluded the statement was highly deceptive. The software comes close to this assessment and it is effective considering the keywords flagged as deceptive. The software does indeed help to reach the same verdict as Mark McClish.

Comparative Study: Jessie Arbogast

The Jessie Arbogast's Shark Attack statement contains 408 words according to OO.o Writer. Statement Analyzer discovered a total of 19 keywords in the statement. The keywords appeared an overall total of 38 times. I have flagged 17 out of the 38 words as being deceptive, which is approximately 45%. Thus, the software reports that approximately 10% of the text is deceptive whereas the red flags account for 5%.

The analysis performed by the software leads to a dubious verdict. It is not possible to make a conclusive verdict with the result but the result is somewhat helpful in determining the truthfulness. The analysis performed by Mark McClish is better.

Comparative Study: Tiger Woods Apology
The Tiger Woods Apology contains 1544 words according to OO.o Writer. Statement Analyzer discovered a total of 57 keywords in the statement. The keywords appeared an overall total of 279 times. I have flagged 165 out of the 279 words as being deceptive, which is approximately 60% when including every “I” and 23% excluding them. Thus, the software reports that approximately 18% of the text is deceptive whereas the red flags account for 11%.

The analysis performed by the software does not lead to make a verdict. It does serve as an investigative tool but its function is overly limited by the structural complexity of an apology and its nature. Read more on statement analysis on apologies: Anatomy of an Apology, Detecting Deception in an Apology, and see tags [1] [2] [3].

Technology Behind The Curtain

Statement Analyzer is developed in Visual FoxPro, a data and database oriented programming language. For the younger readers, it is a technology that has been in decline since early 2000s. This is by all means an outdated but also unusual choice.

Database oriented programming languages are known to be particularly ineffective in natural language processing, let alone text processing. It will be extremely challenging to update the current software with appealing features, such as, dealing with sentence structures and semantics.

Furthermore, the last version of Visual FoxPro has been released in 2004. This means it will hardly be able to provide a full integration to newest operating systems, office suites, mail agents, web browsers, online chat applications and so on.

Public Relation and Customer Support
Mark McClish understands that having a good product is better delivered with a good customer support. He truly cares about his customers and potential customers. I gave him few suggestions during our conversations and he did take actions. For example, I have suggested that his coursework should have a table of contents. A syllabus is now available.

I do encourage customers to give feedback, suggestions, bug reports and so forth to companies they are dealing with. Sometimes those companies need the feedback to improve. It does not mean every company should do everything a customer ask for since some requests are simply impossible. This is always a healthy sign when a company takes suggestions into account.

Summary: Pros & Cons

Pros

Quality content
Good investigative tool
Excellent customer support
Affordable

Cons

Cannot manage keywords and descriptions
No natural language processing engine
User interface and usability issues
Too specific dictionary
Outdated technology

Conclusion
Statement Analyzer provides a great insight into statement analysis and becomes an interesting investigative tool. Being able to manage keywords and descriptions will make the software useful to many more people than in law enforcement community. Those who would like to learn statement analysis but cannot afford Mark McClish's Statement Analysis Online Training or other seminars, will certainly enjoy a low cost software.

It is still not a pocket version of Mark McClish and there is a lot of work to get there. Many shortcomings mentioned in this review can be corrected in the upcoming months, except perhaps some desired natural language processing features. The future of this software is bright and shiny since its foundations are solid and Mark McClish will certainly continue to provide quality content.

I recommend Mark McClish's Statement Analyzer software.

Intermezzo

2010-05-05T03:10:00.007-04:00

Two Scoops® of raisins is a deceptive sales argument since it is based on a measurement that is unclear. The system of measuring or measures is vague at best. There are many size of scoops and each with a different capacity.

In statement analysis, anything implied is questionable. Attributing five (5) stars is different from attributing five (5) stars out of five (5). The former implies a system that may or may not be out of five (5). Measurements in a truthful statement always come with its unit of measurement.

Using Squeak with Blogger Export Files

2010-05-02T05:35:00.017-04:00

My recent efforts in the Squeak community is different from what I always thought. I imagined that I would be contributing code rather than an installer, survey and so forth. There are conversations about integrating a documentation system, known as HelpSystem, within Squeak Smalltalk and I will write documentation whenever it is up and running.

Meanwhile, I have decided to write another article on how to retrieve data from Blogger export files using Squeak. My previous article has shown how it's done in Ruby (see here). It's a great opportunity to destigmatize Smalltalk programming for the lay programmer.

Blogger offers export and import features available in its Dashboard (Settings > Basic). It generates an enormous XML file that can be used to move your blog onto another one or save your data for later. There is a Developer's Guide: Protocol available online.

The approach I have taken is straightforward for the lay programmer. Don't be distracted by the elements you don't understand. There are many other elements that you already know, or at least vaguely know. I am using a Workspace window as a scripting area where I write, inspect and evaluate code in a similar fashion to Ruby IRB.

Smalltalk tip The beauty of Smalltalk resides in the possibility to evaluate, inspect, print and debug code anywhere. Squeak embraces this perfectly.

The following code snippet allows one to inspect data contained in an XML file. Open a Workspace window from the world menu using left-click on Squeak desktop. Select all the code (either using left-click menu or alt-a) and evaluate it (do it; either using left-click menu or alt-d) within the Workspace window.

| xml |
FileStream
  readOnlyFileNamed: 'blog-04-29-2010.xml' do: [ :stream |
    xml := XMLDOMParser parseDocumentFrom: stream.
    ].
xml inspect.

The resulting Inspect window is shown below. Unfortunately, it's hardly comprehensible as far as XML is concerned and contrary to its Ruby counterpart.

Change xml inspect. to xml explore. and evaluate again. The resulting Explore window is more satisfying in this particular instance.

We have previously learned in the Inspect window that xml is an XMLDocument and its structure is outlined in the Explore window. The gibberish coding is about to become clear. Open a Browser window from the world menu and right click in the first pane in a Browser window, select find class (or use alt-f) and type XMLDocument to search for its class. However, I suggest to read more about XMLParser and XMLParserTest first.

The following code snippet allows one to display every entry available. On Blogger, entries hold comments among other things.

| xml |
FileStream
  readOnlyFileNamed: 'blog-04-29-2010.xml' do: [ :stream |
    xml := XMLDOMParser parseDocumentFrom: stream.
    ].
(xml elements at: 2) tagsNamed: #entry do: [:e |
    Transcript show: (e asString); cr.
    ].

Smalltalk tip The code outputs data in a console window when using Ruby. Fortunately, there is such a concept in Smalltalk. Open a Transcript window using the world menu and evaluate the last code snippet in a Workspace window.

An entry produced by the last code snippet looks like this:

<entry>
<id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29346655.post-5518814233253242399</id>
<published>2009-03-18T12:50:06.694-04:00</published>
<updated>2009-09-28T17:25:26.425-04:00</updated>
<category scheme="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#kind" term="http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#comment"/>
<title type="text"/>
<content type="html"/>
<link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/29346655/2316597115724243670/comments/default/5518814233253242399" rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml"/>
<link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/29346655/2316597115724243670/comments/default/5518814233253242399" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml"/>
<link href="http://mecenia.blogspot.com/2009/03/blog-post.html?showComment=1237395006694#c5518814233253242399" rel="alternate" title="" type="text/html"/>
<author>
<name>Dogan</name>
<uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06563922196121231187</uri>
<email>noreply@blogger.com</email></author>
<thr:in-reply-to href="http://mecenia.blogspot.com/2009/03/blog-post.html" ref="tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29346655.post-2316597115724243670" source="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/29346655/posts/default/2316597115724243670" type="text/html"/> </entry>

The following code snippet uses information learned from inspecting, retrieves each comment and displays them in a Transcript window.

| xml term |
FileStream
  readOnlyFileNamed: 'blog-04-29-2010.xml' do: [ :stream |
    xml := XMLDOMParser parseDocumentFrom: stream.
    ].
(xml elements at: 2) tagsNamed: #entry do: [:e |
  term := (e firstTagNamed: #category) attributeAt: #term.
  ('*comment' match: term)
    ifTrue: [
      Transcript
        show: 'Date: ', ((e firstTagNamed: #published) contentString); cr;
        show: 'Author: ', ((e firstTagNamed: #author) contentStringAt: #name); cr;
        show: 'Content: ', ((e firstTagNamed: #content) contentString); cr; cr.
      ].
  ].

A partial output with processed entries is shown in a Transcript window:

Programming in Squeak is an exciting experience and one should not be afraid because it looks and feels different. It is certainly possible to program as one used to do with other programming languages, whether they have a write-compile-run cycle or are interpreted. One will however realize programming can be more productive when done the Smalltalk way.

Retrieving Data from Blogger Export Files

2010-05-01T02:29:00.035-04:00

Ruby is a powerful dynamic object-oriented programming language. I have been using it professionally and to accomplish automated tasks. Collecting comments to generate the pie charts in my previous article was trivial using Ruby, Nokogiri and FasterCSV.

Blogger offers export and import features available in its Dashboard (Settings > Basic). It generates an enormous XML file that can be used to move your blog onto another one or save your data for later. There is a Developer's Guide: Protocol available online.

The following code snippet allows one to inspect data contained in an XML file. The code is displayed on screen using pretty print since it does inspect + formatting.


require("nokogiri")
require("pp")

File.open("blog-04-29-2010.xml", "r") { |file|
 xml = Nokogiri::XML(file)
 pp xml
}

Inspecting results is one of the powerful techniques in the dynamic world, whether you use Ruby or Squeak Smalltalk or another dynamic programming language. In this case, it gives me an opportunity to know which objects are created upon each segment in an XML file. A single XML Element is shown in this partial output:


#(Element:0x230a6e0 {
 name = "id",
 namespace = #(Namespace:0x230adc0 {
    href = "http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
    }),
 children = [ #(Text "tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29346655.archive")]
 })

The following code snippet allows one to inspect every entry available. On Blogger, entries hold comments among other things. The data structure is becoming clear and one can then retrieve data.


require("nokogiri")
require("pp")

File.open("blog-04-29-2010.xml", "r") { |file|
 xml = Nokogiri::XML(file)
 xml.xpath("/xmlns:feed/xmlns:entry").each { |e|
    pp e
 }
}

Notice the XML Attributes shown in this partial output:


#(Element:0x23601d0 {
 name = "category",
 namespace = #(Namespace:0x23538c2 {
    href = "http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
    }),
 attributes = [
    #(Attr:0x235e970 {
       name = "scheme",
       value = "http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#kind"
       }),
    #(Attr:0x235e934 {
       name = "term",
       value = "http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#comment"
    })]
 })

The following code snippet uses information learned from inspecting, retrieves each comment and displays them on screen.


require("nokogiri")
require("pp")

File.open("blog-04-29-2010.xml", "r") { |file|
 xml = Nokogiri::XML(file)
 xml.xpath("/xmlns:feed/xmlns:entry").each { |e|
    term = e.xpath("xmlns:category")[0].attribute("term").value
    if (term =~ /comment$/)
       puts "Date: #{e.xpath("xmlns:published")[0].text}\n" +
          "Author: #{e.xpath("xmlns:author")[0].children[0].text}\n" +
          "Content: #{e.xpath("xmlns:content")[0].children[0].text}\n\n"
    end
 }
}

A processed entry is shown in this partial output:

Date: 2010-04-26T00:59:59.982-04:00
Author: BackOrder
Content: A side note for the requirements sheet. We could come up with some catchy phrase to go along these screenshots, something like: "Look For Yourself, We Need Your Help!"

Ian.

Finally, I have used FasterCSV to create a CSV file and imported it in OO.o to generate the charts.

Easy as pie. Pie chart.

The History of Squeak in Pictures

2010-04-25T15:25:00.011-04:00

Squeak 4.1 is the latest version available

Squeak 1.1: Early days of Squeak

Squeak 2.6: Some visual changes are visible

Squeak 3.0: Morphic took over MVC

Squeak 3.9: Squeak slowly drops its childish look

An Essay on Self-Confidence

2010-04-22T20:00:00.010-04:00

Living as a human being poses many challenges because we are self-conscious creatures. Confidence and self-confidence become an important part of everyone's lives as individuals but also as a society. However, many successful people who project confidence rather well surprisingly lack of self-confidence. This article is an incursion in my understanding of self-confidence and the reasons why I have an ironclad self-confidence.

	Table Of Contents
	The Three of Us
	Everybody Hates Us
	Self-Confidence is Indestructible
	Self-Confidence is Hard Earned
	Building Self-Confidence
	Conclusion

The Three of Us

There are three perspectives of our own self: internal, persona and attributed. The internal personality is the one reserved to ourselves and it is the self that we are actually experiencing. The persona is a projected personality that we desire others to see, which is an edited version of our internal personality. Finally, the attributed personality is the personality that others attribute to us based on what we say and do and it's ultimately our reputation.

The differences among the three perspectives may affect self-confidence because it is demanding to maintain three different selves (persons) in one. It is like being an actor in three different plays or films at the same time.

DETECTING DECEPTION The greater the differences are among the three perspectives of self in a given person, the more deceptive this person is.

Excessively conflicting perspectives of self is likely to erode self-confidence over time, except, perhaps, in the case where the person has very little sense of guilt or remorse (e.g. a psychopath). Those conflicting perspectives perpetuate a lie and may completely isolate the internal personality from the outside world, leading a person to feel bad about being oneself, or its persona or its reputation, or all of them.

Everybody Hates Us

The world is revolving around each of us, individually. We feel lonely and everybody hates us. We believe others have more self-confidence than us. Our self-confidence is deeply affected by this. Little you know, everybody feels like this.

There is no human conspiracy but our need for socializing combined with the fact that we are alone in our own “head” makes it prone to secretly develop a negative perspective of ourselves and increase our sense of being unique whereas we are in fact alike. It is also extremely difficult to assess the level of self-confidence others may or may not have due to its very nature; self-confidence is truly revealed under high pressure situations. The world does not hate you. Ironically, however, envy and jealousy from those who lack of confidence may be a contributing factor to hate self-confident people.

DETECTING DECEPTION For the same psychological reasons, liars believe everybody lies as much as they do and they rationalize their lies through this fallacious thinking: (1) “I am a human being,” (2) “I am a liar,” (3) “Therefore, every human being is a liar.” (generalization) or (1) “Everybody lies!” (ad populum).

Observing others for most of my life has taught me that very few people are truly self-confident. Some are better at projecting an image of confidence than others. The reason behind the underwhelming number of people who are truly self-confident is because most people are building their confidence on a volatile self-esteem at the expense of and instead of their self-confidence. Understanding the mechanism of self-confidence helps to reduce fears and embarrassment as a result of self-confidence, or more precisely, lack thereof. I came to understand that self-confidence is something to be built.

Self-Confidence is Indestructible

Everybody can crush a self-esteem but self-confidence is nearly indestructible. Self-confidence cannot be overthrown or destroyed by others but they can however reach out our inner self if we let them to and which may lead us to crush our own self-confidence in some situations.

Self-esteem is a favourable impression of oneself (see definition) but various studies indicate that we tend to be highly biased in our assessment of ourselves and it is mostly favourable. Self-esteem in our society is overvalued and greatly encourage our dissatisfaction as human beings because self-esteem is fragile and can be affected by many sources outside our purview. Consumerism is most likely one of the outcome from this; an incessant and uncontrollable need to define ourselves by consuming products.

Self-confidence on the other hand is a realistic confidence in one's own judgement, ability, power, etc. (see definition). A life-long process helps us to determine and measure these characteristics pertaining to ourselves. This process is mostly based on trials and errors and our ability to distinguish successes from failures. Concretely, to determine one's particular ability, it is necessary to know what are the highest achievements attained with this ability and the biggest failures which define its limitations.

Self-esteem may become a detractor to our own self-confidence when ego and pride take over to override factual data (success, failure) by perceptual data (“I am the best”, “I am worthless”). Therefore, it is not surprising that some people utterly fail in one area but remains oblivious in order to maintain and protect their persona and self-esteem.

DETECTING DECEPTION Self-deceit may occur for many reasons and one of them is when our perception distorts reality in such manner to ignore and even override this reality.

Failures are part of life and define us as much as our successes. Being oblivious to our failures is denying ourselves a part of what we are.

Self-Confidence is Hard Earned

There is no such thing as an unchallenged self-confidence. Self-confidence is built over the years and it is hard earned. It is impossible to destroy self-confidence that is based on an accurate assessment of our successes and failures, even when it is challenged. Internal and attributed personalities are influential in the process of building self-confidence but the persona is mostly based on one's own self-esteem.

Concretely, for example, anxiety may affect and undermine our self-confidence when it comes to our internal personality but reducing our emotional triggers and resolving unresolved feelings will contribute to strengthen our self-confidence. Likewise, for example, being challenged by peers about something we have accomplished may affect and undermine our self-confidence when it comes to our attributed personality but most often our self-esteem gets in our way and contributes to further self erode a fragile self-confidence. Finally, when it comes to our persona, self-confidence may be affected and undermined if there is an important difference between our internal personality and persona and we become aware of this difference.

Many highly skilled professionals or otherwise may be overthrown in an argument about their own field of expertise, that is, even when they are right, when challenged and/or in an unusual or uncomfortable situation. I have seen it over and over. This is indeed due to their focus on building their confidence on a volatile self-esteem rather than building self-confidence. They often define themselves by their attributed personality in social interactions rather than their actual knowledge, which is much closer to their internal personality.

Being challenged by oneself and by others is the most effective manner to develop true self-confidence because it involves either becoming certain about oneself or otherwise evolving. Doubts gradually disappear over time. Focusing on self-esteem may eventually lead to dissatisfaction and inability to maintain one's self-confidence whereas focusing on self-confidence may lead to a fulfilling satisfaction and may eventually improve one's self-esteem.

Building Self-Confidence

Building self-confidence takes time and is more difficult to build than self-esteem. The first step addresses the internal personality and is naturally summarized in know thyself. Challenging your internal personality is usually done through experiments during youth where it becomes possible to understand one's abilities and limitations (physically and intellectually). Most people experience this part of their lives in due manner. Additionally, introspection becomes a determining factor in developing self-confidence at the internal personality level but most people overlook this step in our modern society.

The second step addresses the persona and is summarized as be true to yourself, be responsible. Creating nonexistent and overclaiming personality traits will inevitably dissociate the persona from its internal personality; and it could become a liability for eventual internal conflicts that may undermine self-confidence. Furthermore, in an oblivious individual, the discovery of the actual differences between both personalities may cause a traumatic shock. We obviously all want to appear better than we actually are but don't forget that you are doing yourself a favour if you stay close enough to your true self.

The third step addresses the attributed personality and is summarized as be seen for what you really are, be reputable. This is the best manner to avoid eventual internal conflicts but also bad surprises for your peers. The influence from others may contribute in distorting your assessment in your abilities, depending on how susceptible to influence you are. It becomes paramount to not let others influence your thoroughly collected assessment but not to the point to be stubborn by letting your self-esteem prevent an opportunity to challenge and improve your self-confidence.

Self-confidence is built in layers where each layer serves as the foundation to the next one. Your self-confidence leans on your assessment of your abilities made during the development of your internal personality, reinforced during the development of your persona and finally sealed with your attributed personality.

Conclusion

An indestructible self-confidence is thus built by doing a proper assessment of ourselves and by reconciling of our three selves, that will survive through life experiences and to the (un)desired challenges brought by other people. The reward of focusing on self-confidence rather than self-esteem is a life where one can accept and live with doubts without being afraid or constantly doubt about oneself.

Rich Internet Application

2010-04-11T16:15:00.005-04:00

The current vogue is developing Rich Internet Applications to bring an enhanced web experience, that is, web applications comparable to desktop applications. These Rich Internet Applications can be ran in-browser or as a standalone application. It's an entire new generation of interactive applications focusing on an enriched user experience.

The increasing demand for such applications brought me to work with this compelling technology and its frameworks. I have used AJAX for years but it does not have the same abilities than the newest frameworks. Adobe Flex/AIR is absolutely amazing and the user experience can be spectacular at times. For now, however, JavaFX has caught my interest...

Sun Microsystems has decided to enter the competition against other big players, such as Microsoft and Adobe, in the Rich Internet Application market. It offers its own software platform to create Rich Internet Applications and build on top of its existing Java technology. JavaFX is a declarative language supporting object-oriented programming that is later compiled into Java bytecodes and runs on top of your favourite Java Virtual Machine.

DETECTING DECEPTION Java was created in mid-90s and the latest version currently available is Java 6. Java command line will however return a version number such as 1.6.0_18. Advertising the technology as Java 6 is certainly a creative marketing approach but marketing practices in technologies are overly deceptive. Deceptive version numbers are most frequently seen from small and medium businesses; an obvious attempt to convince customers that their software has reached a certain maturity before its time.

Developing applications is costly and can be challenging at times. Software development tools have greatly evolved but the programming languages haven't that much. Most softwares nowadays are developed with technologies created 15+ years ago. This is as hostile as it gets.

Rapid prototyping is extremely difficult with those programming languages in spite of every effort made to improve development tools and Integrated Development Environment (IDE).

JavaFX becomes interesting to me because it allows to create interactive user interfaces using a declarative and forgiving language, ideal for proof-of-concepts and prototypes. The business logic can still be implemented using Java and both languages benefits from Write Once, Run Anywhere. The user interfaces can be later rewritten in Java after a prototype is approved for a full scale development.

DETECTING DECEPTION Write Once, Run Anywhere is an engaging slogan created by Sun Microsystems. Java is a cross-platform programming language and can run on a plethora of devices, from mobile phones to high-end servers. Unfortunately, this slogan is also deceptive because there are many factors to take into account while developing on each platform; and, yes, it may very well involve rewriting code.

On one hand, JavaFX is not without its shortcomings. It's great for rapid prototyping but it comes with sluggish performances. It may also be a short lived technology and there are only few books available on it at the moment. Don't get me started with another framework, Java Media Framework, where I once developed a voice conferencing prototype and used this technology to fill in; JMF has not been updated in 7 years.

On the other hand, JavaFX is fully reflective and interpolable with Java. Provided JavaFX would die in a ditch some day, it's still possible to rewrite the portion of the code in Java and merge it with the business logic. Higher potential for reusability and cross-platform are another reason to use JavaFX over Adobe Flash, Flex and AIR.

I am currently working on a prototype that uses JavaFX. I am extremely limited in what I can present on this blog and it is always important to respect legal engagements. Confidentiality, licenses, etc. You get the picture. There may be some possibility for this one but it may take some time. Check frequently.

Statement Analysis on Books

2010-04-08T00:40:00.011-04:00

Books are absolutely fantastic and I read plenty of them. Books as if they were falling off the sky. Not every book has the same values in terms of knowledge, usefulness, etc. Truthfulness in books may also be questioned contrary to the popular belief — if it is written, it is true. I do not take anything in a book for granted. The type of books is often a good predictor of level of truthfulness to expect but it is not an absolute.

For example, scientific books heavily rely on scientific data and previously written papers; lying in scientific books or papers is a career breaker. Sales and marketing books have a higher level of deception, if only for trying to sell you the book in every chapter even though you've already bought it. Literature is yet a whole different beast.

Statement analysis becomes a tool of choice while reading books. It is also a stimulating challenge for anyone who study statement analysis because authors spend months and sometimes years to write their books. In short, clues of deception in books are at most extremely subtle.

Let's dig into a real life examples to get a better feel about this.

I have recently read “The Knack : How Street-Smart Entrepreneurs Learn To Handle Whatever Comes Up” written by Norm Brodsky and Bo Burlingham. The book has been subsequently renamed in its 2010 edition, see here.

The book is absolutely fantastic and it is really about hard earned experience through failures (more than successes), with great lessons to be learned. I can relate to the content of this book in many ways with my more-than-a-decade business experience. Entrepreneurs-to-be and first-time business owners might not fully understand the message in this book before a decade or two being in business. It's still a great book for both aspiring and long-time entrepreneurs.

You may very well wonder how could this book be so fantastic if it is deceptive.

The book is not deceptive in the sense that you are buying a business savvy book and get instead a fairy tale with bunnies. It is more in the range of an autobiography, where every author is tempted to prettify his or her past in order to attract more readers or lessen the gravity of his or her own acts.

Norm Brodsky writes about lessons he received from his late father:

Or when I talked about things I'd like to have, he'd say, "You don't ask, you don't get," whereupon I'd request a bigger allowance. He'd smile and say, "Nice try, but just because you ask doesn't mean you're going to get it." Much later I came to understand that he'd been giving me my first lesson in selling. Page 2

Notice the verb tenses throughout the paragraph. Would is used in an ambiguous manner where it becomes unclear whether the verb tenses are conditional or past continuous. “I'd like to have [if only I could]” is conditional. “He'd say [usually | whenever I tell what I would like]” is either past continuous or conditional. The rest of the paragraph implies that it is past continuous but past continuous is used in the context of repeated past actions. Would you believe Norm Brodsky having this exact same conversation over the years just like you'd have your eggs in the morning? Unlikely.

The bottom line is straightforward but not simple: it is a mixture of factors that have influenced the manner this paragraph has been written. I am inclined to believe this is partially based on (1) true events between Norm Brodsky and his father, (2) it is also how he remembers his father (memory tends to blur over time) and what he would normally say in such situation, (3) he tends to use would more often than another person would, and (4) this makes a great story to tell. A great story to tell is a great asset to a salesperson like Norm Brodsky.

Norm Brodsky writes about having the business mentality taught in his book:

You win more than you lose, and the longer you stay in the game, the more often you come out on top. Page 3

The author tries to tell us that the lessons from his book help you to win and come out on top. He did indeed write a disclaimer beforehand, to his credit, stipulating that it is not a magic recipe, which should be welcomed by the readers. However, this paragraph is clearly a sales pitch and yet it has many outrageous admissions.

He does seriously believe you can win with this business mentality. He also admits that you can lose. It just happens that you will win more often than losing. That's exactly what he wrote. Moreover, if you stay long enough, you will be on top more often ...but not always. Just more often.

Norm Brodsky continues on the value of team work in sales, instead of encouraging competition among sales team:

[...] Patti, had to go out of town and asked another salesperson, David, to attend a meeting with a big account she'd been trying to land for months. When David showed up, there were six people waiting who said they were making the final decision that day. He closed the account, and I give him full credit for that, but I also give three stars to Patti for being able to say, "Okay, I trust the people I work with to cover for me." Page 199

The paragraph makes it clear that David receives full credit for the sale, despite what Patti had previously done. Patti however receives three stars for her presence of mind. Three stars out of three? Three stars out of five? Ten? We might never know. This is a deceptive practice since it let us assume what is implied. Norm Brodsky does like team work but closing an account is more important to him.

The structure of the book also tells something really interesting about Norm Brodsky. He made it very clear early on that he had a huge business lesson in his life when he was forced to file for protection from his creditors under Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy code.

This is an highly emotional issue and it was introduced in chapter 2 of his book. Chapter 1 serves a specific purpose to establish the ground of the book and the credibility of its author but this emotional issue would probably otherwise have been in this chapter. Chapter 11 of his book is even more surprising with the title of “The Decision to Grow” and incidentally the reason he had to file for bankruptcy in the past. It is no coincidence to have the book's chapter 11 about the reason he went under chapter 11 of the bankruptcy code but it is likely to have happened in an unconscious manner. Fortunately, Norm Brodsky managed to get on top of his business and recover but it is still clearly an emotional issue and a business lesson he will never forget.

There are many reasons to doubt and challenge everything you read. Not every book has the same quality in content and some books are of little value even though they seem to be incredible. Other books are simply superb and you will appreciate them even more if you do due diligence. The most important is still to be able to decide for yourself what should be in your knowledge base and what should not; statement analysis is a good tool to sort this out.

Squeak Installer

2010-04-04T08:00:00.008-04:00

Around two weeks ago, Torsten Bergmann wrote on Squeak mailing list about a stand-alone executable installer for Windows he had prepared. He did a great job to write a basic installer using Nullsoft Scriptable Install System (NSIS homepage). Time constraints obliged and Torsten called for help.

I am a huge fan of Squeak Smalltalk and I have been reading its Squeak-dev mailing list (subscribe here) for more than a decade but my contributions are always so little. I have decided to take the opportunity to further contribute since I have frequently used NSIS in the past. Deployment User-Modifiable Utility (see brochure, watch video) is one of many examples where the build system my team and I developed generates custom installer scripts on-the-fly and builds installers to package end-user games, entirely unattended.

Nowadays, I increasingly rely on Unicode NSIS since localization plays a huge part in world-wide software distribution. One of the reasons I hardly can use Squeak professionally is for its inability to meet my distributors requirements — most specifically in terms of localization and deployment.

Feature requests were made and I have complied to most of them so far. Another installer is on its way and under testing. The official repository is located here: Squeak installer. I have also decided to spruce up Squeak related visual components and make sure they were at least coherent and consistent with a slight touch of branding. It comes with a new installer splash screen with a modernized professional X11/Motif retro style to top it off.

Slowly but Surely

2010-04-02T00:00:00.017-04:00

I am currently reading “Huset på Bjørnehjørnet” in Norwegian (bokmål), which is the famous “The House at Pooh Corner” by A. A. Milne. Do not be mislead by this children book because the level of language is higher than what most children are accustomed to. The challenge is in the verb tenses since I do not have a conjugation book. Any online reference?

Learning Norwegian is one step closer to Norway and a new passport certainly gives my wings back. Visit Norway has a nice website with amazing pictures. An orderly preparation before travelling is a necessity in pursuance of my plan to go to Norway. I'd be delighted to secure a business deal with a Norwegian company, whether it is a business or work contract.

Humintell Additional Training Product Review

2010-03-27T02:40:00.006-04:00

This second in-depth review covers two additional training available for MiX 2 and SubX. The main differences are discussed and the high and low points of the products. A must read for those who have bought either MiX 2 or SubX but are undecided whether or not they should buy the additional training.

MiX 2 AT | SubX AT | Dr. David Matsumoto's Blog | Facebook

Additional Training Packages

MiX 2 Additional Training (profile view) and SubX Additional Training use the same user interface provided in MiX 2 and SubX. Both packages are essentially similar in most aspects, if only diverging in one is focusing on microexpressions and the other on subtle expressions. For this reason, my previous review on Humintell's MiX 2 is still relevant to these additional training.

MiX 2 AT offers 84 profile pictures at 12$US to train with while SubX AT offers 70 for 10$US. I am inclined to believe that one needs to buy the primary product (MiX 2 or SubX) to buy its additional training, but it is not clearly stated on Humintell's website. MiX 2 AT offers two set of practices, Practice 1 and 2, and SubX AT offers only one, Practice A. Lil' bit of inconsistency in naming but it's easy to fix.

There is no test in either packages and no way to earn any proficiency level. Strangely enough, the main page displays proficiency archived to none. I'd get rid of that.

There is no instructional video along with either packages. It would have been an amazing addition considering that expressions displayed are still two-frame based. The visual quality of some pictures is not as good as one would hope but the expressions are naturally accurate. For example, some pictures have a variation in lightning between the neutral and its expression, and there is even one picture that is literally displaced to the left leaving a black border on the right. Bit hard to notice when it flashes fast but it's definitively a distraction.

The shortcomings exposed in my previous review are still present in additional training. It is still possible to memorize by association faces and emotions. Nevertheless, there are many pictures available in the packages and one could still benefit from the training the first few runs. It is also important to understand that the more you practice, the better you become, and it's much easier when you've got material prepared by experts in the field.

Product Line Confusion

Some products overlap in feature and/or content and it's never clearly expressed on Humintell's website. For example, I believe MiX 3 is MiX 2 + MiX 2 AT and has very little to do with a new version. A simple table listing features and products would certainly clarify and help potential and existing customers to know what they should buy.

Additional Training Pricing

The pricing scheme is relatively acceptable and somehow expected from a research company. A software company would most likely set the price to 9.99$ and it would be great that Humintell consider such price or at least standardize additional training packages prices. Regardless, for those who have already bought MiX 2 or SubX, its additional training packages come as inexpensive and best pricing in the Humintell's product line.

updated! Online Service

The services is as always without any major hurdles and no down time at all. Unfortunately, lag can be experienced by moments while performing actions that require interaction with the server. They could cache images at the very least. Their approach heavily relies on AJAX technology, that is, Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, but in a synchronous manner — it is depreciated and requires to be slightly reengineered to make it properly.

Public Relation and Customer Support updated!

The customer support is as sharp as ever and the staff is very energetic. I have been in continuous contact with Humintell and its customer support is responsive to my criticism, suggestions, questions and so on. Customer support that cares about its customers, it can't get any better.

My previous review lead me to bring few suggestions and one has developed more than others. Effectively, I wrote a statistics feature prototype for Humintell product line and subsequently proposed the concept to Humintell.

It does not mean a company should implement whatever customers ask. There are many ramifications to each demand and sometimes some have to be prioritized accordingly. Humintell however spends time to seriously study my material. By the way, give feedback to Humintell if you are already a customer and you want to see this statistics feature implemented.

The Future of Additional Training

I have few suggestions that could eventually improve additional training in the future. These suggestions strive to be as low cost as possible for Humintell but highly beneficial to our training.

It is important to keep trainees on their toes while they are training. Bring the unexpected and surprise them. This is how a trainee will develop observational skills and anticipate without anticipation. For example, it would be meaningful to horizontally flip images in MiX 2 AT. Profile and 3/4th views can use this technique and customers get twice as much to train with for the same price.

Neither additional training packages offer post test but it may not be so important. It could be interesting to add practice images to the post tests of their respective parent software, that is, MiX 2 or SubX. This would provide a greater pool of images to test the person against, making the post tests more difficult without increasing the number of images the post tests contains. It systematically increase the value of a previous purchase and a customer will come back to train again in order to maintain their proficiency level; this significantly augments the customer value and overall satisfaction.

I can easily see more additional training packages for frontal, profile and 3/4th views. Humintell can expand their product line with as many additional training as they care to develop. Boundaries could be pushed further by offering a special edition with a celebrity, something not unheard of from a Californian company, and ask top dollars for it. Tim Roth would have been a great pick to capitalize on “Lie To Me” success but I guess this one is busted from the gecko and tied with Dr. Paul Ekman and Fox Television.

Conclusion

Additional training packages are worthy additions to your existing MiX 2 and/or SubX. They come with an excellent pricing especially in comparison to other products from Humintell. The format provided by additional training is very promising on both Humintell and customer standpoints. There is no major shortcomings adding to what is already part of the product line and you will enjoy these additional training packages if you did enjoy MiX 2 and/or SubX.

I highly recommend Humintell's MiX 2 Additional Training (profile) and SubX Additional Training.

Follow-up on Statistics Feature

2010-03-26T01:00:00.003-04:00

Statistics for Humintell Products

Visitors from Outer Space

2010-03-24T12:48:00.002-04:00

This blog has a latent popularity, if one could write so. The topic related to RPG Maker and alike is the most attractive to my visitors. The largest part of visitors use MacOS X. My documents available online have been read over a thousand times! The number one blog post is undoubtedly and incontestably “To See Is To Believe.” It seems people do enjoy drama — how else would reality shows be so successful?

I have always been responsive to the RPG Maker community and it's difficult to understand the reasons why some people hang out on my blog on a regular basis without writing a single thing. Your feedback would be appreciated.

Other topics are growing in popularity at a fast pace. I will continue to work on blog posts according to my initial plan as written in Peeling a New Skin. This is no empty promises: it is on track so far.

I am not interested to increase my readership on the basis of shallow topics and sensationalism. Drama has no place on this blog. Unfortunately, I cannot retrieve the messages in “To See Is To Believe” at this time. Moderation will remain on as long as necessary.

Do We Have A Deal?

2010-03-22T11:00:00.005-04:00

The best deals are not always the easiest to close, even when you have an incredible product to sell. I've put out amazing high quality softwares in my career and I can tell you that any product doesn't sell on its own. One cannot sit on a hot seller and wait things to happen because the nature of business is very clear that an unattended product will simply die. We've all got to work at it. But, you ask, how do you know when you can close a deal?

Some people like to test the waters before jumping in. It's not a bad idea in general but you've got to avoid coming out as a beggar. Nobody likes someone who constantly begs and waits for people to take his or her burden off. Those people are seen as irresponsible and aren't doing any good in business anyway.

Nevertheless, I have found a short clip that actually depicts a situation when it's all right to test the waters first and it won't come off as begging. Donald Trump meets with two executives, one from Walmart and another from the Xbox team at Microsoft.

watch video on youtube

Jay from Microsoft does some casual business talk and suggests the idea of having a “Donald Trump” limited edition of Microsoft Xbox, in gold colour. Successful businessmen have such light conversations as a token of appreciation and good business, even though they don't mean to follow through an idea. It's just talk.

Donald Trump is obviously a smart businessman and he takes this opportunity to test the waters. “Let's go,” Donald Trump said, “And I only want 10%.”

The complex reaction Jay has lasts for barely 2 seconds but would be missed by most people. It however tells everything Donald Trump needs to know. Jay crosses his arms first, with his hands in his armpits. Crossing arms is not always negative but this specific one means that he closed himself from his interlocutor. He suddenly lost his smile and goes on with a gestural retreat by stepping back. He finally puts his hand to cover his mouth, a gesture of fear saying “I don't like what you've just said.”

This less-than-2-seconds translates as “<expletive>! What have I just done?!”.

Jay gave away the fact that he does not have the authority to make such deals and may have put himself into serious troubles with his own boss. A deal is far from being closed.

Convincing Jay to bring this deal to his boss would mean hard work. Some could be tempted to move up higher in the chain but not every company enjoy outsiders to do that, and Jay may not as well. For a man like Donald Trump, no problem.

A business owner may have such reaction and it means you've got to work it out to convince this person that the deal is profitable. The best way to do that is to go back to your blackboard and get prepared. There is very little use, if any, to force things out at such moment because the potential client will most certainly win over your arguments and you may even hurt your cause. The conversation should remain casual.

Testing the waters works in this particular situation because the other party came up with the suggestion and it is legitimate to ask for royalties for one's brand name on a limited edition. By increasing the seriousness of the suggestion, from casual to let's do it, it is possible to get an instant feedback.

RGSS Player for MacOS X

2010-03-20T12:14:00.003-04:00

I've been working hard lately and there is progress at last. Now I have dusted off and updated some ol' brochure. Most likely another direct-to-shelf software. Oh well...

read the brochure here

Paul Ekman On The Run

2010-03-14T08:04:00.007-04:00

Dr. Paul Ekman is an impressive and renown psychologist in the field of emotions. He has a very long list of accomplishments but besides that it is enjoyable to watch him on video. He always seems to me as a peaceful, calm and warm person. He would certainly fit to the urban definition of being Zen and it's not surprising that he befriended the Dalai Lama.

watch video on youtube

This video is depicting the man in a slightly different manner since he seems a bit more agitated than his normal behaviour. I believe this is a combination of excitement and stress. He meets with a long time and important friend ...in front of an audience. No surprise here!

This can be seen in many ways but the most conspicuous is the manner in which he sits: he is not seated up to the back of the chair and he is leaning forward. It shows both interest and stress. The stress level would be even greater if his feet would be closer (or behind) to his coronal plane. Both behavioural positions at the same time is something rather typical to a first meeting.

A monologue given by Dr. Paul Ekman on the emotions characterizing happiness goes on and he finally asks the Dalai Lama whether or not he experiences any of them. The interpreter answers to the question on the behalf of his Holiness by stating all of them, to the obvious exception of naches.

“Even Schadenfreude?” uttered at 3:35 by a bewildered Dr. Ekman. Schadenfreude is the pleasure taken from others' misfortune. I don't have to go very far to identify a person who takes such pleasure. A serious question is raised as whether or not the highest rank member in Tibetan Buddhism, his Holiness, a master at controlling his inner self, can experience such a negative emotion. Dr. Paul Ekman has a certain admiration for his Holiness.

This is perhaps the reason why Dr. Paul Ekman momentarily feels uneasy where he literally attempts to replace his sock at 3:36. Blood flow increases down to the feet when we need to run away. It is especially true when a micromovement is made on the back of our leg(s).

The reality may be difficult to accept because one would expect his Holiness to be a saint, exempt of any negative personality traits, that is, an improbable possibility — an illusion. The Dalai Lama understands he is not perfect and dark thoughts may come and go, as in any human being. Notwithstanding his dark feelings, he most likely does not hold on them contrary to many of us...

Statistics for Humintell Products

2010-03-11T12:17:00.003-05:00

Humintell has an appealing product line to train in recognition of emotions, microexpressions, subtle expressions and so forth. Their products are great training tools in general but some features are missing in my opinion. Statistics is a phenomenal tool to improve oneself to become a true master and it would be an invaluable addition to the existing features in Humintell's product line.

I am a passionate person and always go the extra mile. I have thousands of pages written with ideas and concepts but being a software designer also means to bring them to life. I enjoy taking up challenges, roll up my sleeves and get down to the deed.

Most web browsers allow user scripts written in JavaScript to be executed once a page is rendered. The user script as seen on the screenshot has been written using Mozilla Firefox, Firebug, GreaseMonkey, and vim.

My prototype retrieves and/or collects data on the fly that is stored in Firefox preferences. The persistent data is loaded each time you log on Humintell's training site and is used to render statistics. The practices and post-tests are averaged to have a better idea of the trainee's actual performances.

More than half of the population are predominantly visual. For this reason, visualization takes an important place in our lives. It often translates as charts and graphs when representing statistics, whether it is in a research report or a PowerPoint presentation. Most people who are not familiar with advanced statistics are drawn to use histograms or pie charts. They are all right but not necessarily the most representative depending on what the data is. I have instead chosen to use a radar graph since it allows to display multivariate data in two-dimension, it gives a unique perspective of the overall data and the relational rapport of each data with each other.

I will eventually publish my user script provided that Humintell is all right with the idea. It's perfectly legal to write (and distribute!) such user scripts that are ran on the client-side but it's important to keep a good relationship with companies around. Moreover, they could themselves implement the feature on server-side, which would be much more reliable and could use pChart to render the radar graph.

The Hand Shake of Donald Trump

2010-03-07T04:44:00.008-05:00

There is a variety of handshakes with equally various meanings. Some express good feelings while others express ill feelings. From the firm business handshake to sweaty hands barely touching, you'd be surprised how your handshake can influence how others perceive you and how it can influence the manner you perceive others.

A friend of mine suggested me to watch The Apprentice in spite of my aversion for television. I was thrilled because Donald Trump is an interesting character to watch, that is, as far as non-verbal communication goes. His body movements are mostly purposeful or theatrical where the only clues of what and how he really feels are subtle. I would not be surprised to learn that he would have a non-verbal behaviour specialist of some kind to advice him.

This first video shows Donald Trump shaking hands in a particular manner that is ideal to create a bond with a newly met or known person. The bond is on the form of instant likability or trust. He first leans forward the person while presenting his hand; this shows interest in the person he is meeting with. He turns the person's hand on top of his while shaking hands to show immediate deference; this is a respectful and submissive gesture. Then he pulls the hand toward himself and his belly allowing the other person to enter his personal space to engender trust; it is because you trust a person that you let him or her to be in your personal space. One could summarize that in “Trust brings trust.”

watch first sample on youtube

The second video reveals who Donald Trump really is. Most people will have missed the subtle clues in the previous video but it's more obvious in this one. Donald Trump is aggressive and possibly a master manipulator. This video shows Donald Trump trying to forcefully pull the hand in his personal space, against the will of Bill Rancic, who is actually trying to pull Trump's hand toward himself. Let's just say that you don't want to mess with Donald Trump...

watch second sample on youtube

While Donald Trump is certainly no angel, there are things that cannot be done in business in order to be successful and he knows that. He said: "Once you make a deal with someone, it's really important to carry it through. You start developing the wrong reputation, it makes it impossible to make future deals. Once you shake hands, that should be it."

Product Review: Humintell's MiX 2

2010-02-28T17:10:00.012-05:00

This in-depth review is the first of a series that aims to evaluate Humintell products. The product covered is named MiX 2, an advanced microexpression recognition training software. The review covers the main components of the product with an outline of its high and low points. This review differs from most reviews because I wish to share my appreciation, opinions and suggestions that can be useful to potential buyers, actual customers and Humintell itself.

MiX 2 | Video | Dr. David Matsumoto's Blog | Facebook

User Interface

The user interface is solid, lean and clean. Simplicity is a strong asset when done right and Humintell understood that. There is no major hurdles or ambiguities that would prevent a smooth usage because the user interface is straightforward. There is no online help since it is straightforward but instructions are given at every appropriate moment. As a professional, I don't want to waste time around a complex GUI or CLI and the MiX 2 user interface matches my requirement.

There are many similarities with METT/SETT 1 user interfaces but the current combination of look-and-feel plus the actual content and usability makes MiX 2 feels like an entire new generation.

My impression is that Humintell products run on LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP) softwares and use AJAX technology. It cannot get more simple and reliable. The user interface responsiveness is better than the stand-alone applications METT/SETT 1, which are both developed in Adobe Director, but is still a bit sluggish. The user interface opens in a 1024x768 pop-up window and works great with Mozilla Firefox.

The only configurable parameter is the speed of expressions, available in Set Speed pane. It is possible to set the speed from a macroexpression to a microexpression, or otherwise faster or slower. Limit speed selection is checked by default and there is no way to uncheck it effectively; it is an oddity.

The simplicity is a great asset in MiX 2 user interface but it's not without few more oddities. The videos refer to “happiness” but the user interface displays “joy”, which is an atypical inconsistency from a leading expert in the field of emotions. The navigation is straightforward but the menu button ambiguously serves as both menu and back button, it's not a major issue except that there is no explicit reference on where the user is in the context (e.g. main > instruction videos > anger). Usage time is written in a counter-intuitive manner, where 0 h 35 min is expressed as 1 h – 25 min. It is also slightly inaccurate because it does not take into account periods of inactivity. Some buttons disappear while loading the next image. The image turn black when you repeat an expression, which is already neutral. The buttons repeat, flash and next are organized in a visually unappealing manner, where it feels that a button is missing. It's also my first time with red “done” button, it's very unconventional. Nothing overly significant here but I do notice every detail.

Instructional Videos

There are 16 fantastic instructional videos available in a discernible format (video: flash video, 780x348, 14 FPS; audio: mp3, 64 kbps, 22050 Hz), each has a total length of 00:00:32 and a size of approximately 3 Mb. The 32 seconds sequences are composed of an emotion or two shown in frontal and profile views and repeated 3 times in slow motion. The voice over is a classic deep tone and assertive voice, which is a great choice.

The videos are the highlight of the software and we cannot get enough of these. I have watched videos over and over but nothing comes close to these instructional videos, when it comes to learning. It's much harder to sharpen your teeth on real-life situation videos with lesser quality (lighting, setup, angles, image, blur in slow motion, moving subjects, camera moving around, etc).

It would have been great to have a set of videos from at least one actor expressing every emotion. Unfortunately, there is no video with the 3/4^th view and it is a big let down. Videos depicting real-time microexpressions would be a great addition to the existing video library. Full screen videos is an overly missing piece and downloadable media would be a huge plus.

Some videos are showing two emotions, that is, two frontal and two profile views. The order is frontal views first and then profile views second. I feel that it would have been better if a frontal view would have been associated with its profile, and even 3/4^th views, to let us associate the person and its views as a group and at once in our memory. This would allow us to create a really complete representation of the given emotion by the actor.

For the videos showing only one emotion, I wish the images would have been a bit closer to allow the very same mental association to take place. It would have been a great addition to provide the 3/4^th view on the single emotion videos.

Pre and Post Tests

The pre test has the trivial purpose to assess and keep on record the ability of a user before the training begins. It's a great way to see the real improvement before-and-after the training. There is no limit to take the post-test but your pre-test is one-time only. Taking the post test will allow the user to assess his or her proficiency and earn a level, from novice to expert I suppose.

The speed of flashing expressions is relatively unreliable because the software loads images in real-time and heavily rely on asynchronous responses from the server, both causing noticeable lag. I did feel variable speed during my post-test and it became distracting. This is probably a generalized issue but caching images could eventually solve this.

You will receive a “certificate of completion” once you have completed the post-test with a proficiency level of expert, which I earned on my first run.

The problem with the certificate of completion is that it has no trading value whatsoever. It's basically a gimmick. Humintell should instead consider developing a certification programme, in the same spirit of FACS Final Test or even Reid Institute's certification programme. The certificate of completion could be readily replaced by an incentive to buy more products, such as a coupon, or eligibility for a contest, etc.

Completing any test will unveil statistics about your performance. This is a great tool to understand your weaknesses and work on them. There is only two set of statistics available at all time: results from the pre-test and current results from the post-test, and accessible only once completed a test. I am inclined to believe that the software does not take advantage of these results in training or during the tests, where it could increase the probability a given emotion, that is typically problematic for the trainee, to be selected and displayed. Moreover, and unfortunately, there is no way to practice a user-selected set of emotions.

Further statistics are not necessary to me because I have long standing experience in non-verbal communication. But I can easily imagine that any professional or devoted individual would enjoy to have a simple performance chart to evaluate their own performances along their training. The factors of interests are percentile representing the identification of each emotion, at each given speed, over a certain number of trials and/or time. This is also a great opportunity for Humintell to collect data on real users, learning the real deal.

Practice

Practising with MiX 2 is wonderful in many ways because it brings considerable improvements over its predecessor, METT 1. The two additional views (profile and 3/4^th) are a home run in my book. There is more emphasis on diversity than before and it makes MiX 2 a rich training environment. The quality of the content is no less than irreproachable with high quality pictures and interesting variations in expressions (e.g. anger with open mouth), and a strong selection of actors.

The images are available in an acceptable format (jpeg, 360x360 px, 24 bit) and an approximate filesize of 130Kb. My favourite format would be something that is closer to reality, i.e. the actual size of a face, full screen or at least something along the line of SETT 1.

The practice and tests images should ideally contain a sequence of four (4) frames rather than two (2). The sequence should contain at least a neutral expression, transition to a microexpression, a microexpression, transition back to neutral expression, or more frames. The reason is because the current sequences are overly unnatural since microexpressions are not like on/off switches. Microexpressions are progressive and fluid even though they happen in a split second. It would be possible to determine earlier or more accurately microexpressions with a smoother sequence during training; this would be even more meaningful to those who also have a subtle expression training.

The sequences of images seem to auto-center and it is a distraction because it is not how we look at people in our daily lives. Auto-centering has however some advantages since it makes sure that we always see the face in the best possible conditions.

The greater diversity in race and gender is an interesting addition but the emphasis on it comes at a cost. There is an apparent oversight in that non-verbal communication and other behavioural sciences are based on the analysis of patterns and interacting elements. In a nutshell, it is more important in a training environment to have a single actor displaying the entire set of emotions than having an actor for each emotion. The diversification is second in priority because it leans on the ability to distinguish the same emotions from one actor to another; failing to provide a complete set of emotions for each actor significantly undermines the value of diversification.

I would like to provide a valuable customer feedback to Humintell and a clear message of what I expect in a microexpression training software. I want to train on a software that offers a series of actors expressing every universal emotion, in every available view. A set of 3-5 actors would be fine. This is a tremendous value for us because we can retrain over and over without the ability to memorize the content by associating a face with a specific emotion.

It would be incredible to display the FACS scores along each and every practice images. We've got to take our chance while we have Dr. David Matsumoto around. This would be a great value to those who are working to reach a master level, beyond emotions.

End-User License Agreement (EULA)

The End-User License Agreement is questionable in many ways and one of the most prominent downside of the services offered by Humintell. Few highlights are presented in the following paragraphs that are areas of concern.

The scope of use clause is particularly interesting for its obvious ambiguities. For example, a registered user is prohibited to download content (image, texts, data, etc.) from Humintell. The normal usage systematically violates this clause, for the simple reason that it is a service provided over a network. Content will be downloaded by your web browser. Why is it wrong in the first place anyway? As a law abiding citizen, I have decided against including any screenshots with this review – just in case.

The termination clause is equally shocking because it gives unilateral authority to Humintell to terminate your account at any time, with or without any reason, with or without prior notice. Clauses 6 through 11 will be still effective once the termination has been called upon. There would be no such issue with a stand-alone software.

The proprietary information clause exposes an idea that is not appropriate for customers but instead for employees. It is often seen in an employment contract, where any material is handed over before leaving the company in order to make sure that Intellectual Properties (IP) are protected.

Furthermore, it seems that it may infer an anti-competitive restriction as a by-product of the current wording. The software business is straightforward in this respect: every vendor buys softwares from their competitors, try them out, use similar ideas but no content, etc. The proper manner to proceed is to obtain a patent or otherwise applicable rights.

The most considerable element when it comes to both clauses, scope of use and proprietary information, is that I use everything I learn to any ends and any extends. I do not want a vendor tell me off on this one because it's entirely unreasonable. Prohibiting registered users to resell their services is however reasonable.

The no warranties clause weaves any right you have to get what you have paid for, if under delivered. Whether the service fails or they have mixed up happiness and sadness images with each other, you may ask but Humintell is not legally required to fix any of this. I do understand the necessity of limiting liability but the sole “AS IS” softwares that customers should tolerate are generally covered by an open source license and absolutely free-of-charge.

This End-User License Agreement is not professional and corporate friendly. The restrictions are simply too overwhelming and raise some questions that should be answered by an attorney. There are too many fine lines that may prevent normal usage in such environment, including training staff even without the software and content, and possibly without consideration whether the instructor has prior knowledge. Home users may consider the license annoying but tolerable.

My experience with Humintell leads me to believe that they mean well and will honour any reasonable request. They are simply willing to legally protect themselves because running a business is much harder and risky than one can think. Humintell has experience to earn as a software developer/vendor and a tip or two could help. How about reviewing your EULA, offering a limited warranty and get a proper liability insurance?

Public Relation and Customer Support

It is noteworthy to write about Humintell's attitude toward the general public, regardless of whether people are/will be customers or not. I believe they have a genuine interest to build a community beyond selling products. They are dynamic, warm and approachable. Dr. David Matsumoto runs his own blog and he is responsive to the public questions and comments; and, it's not every day we can get a hold on such leading expert. Humintell has also its own facebook page with samples, related articles and links, and contests.

The customer support is outstanding in every aspect; it is professional, respectful and steadfast. It has a spotless record with me so far and its future is bright. Humintell are interested in their customers and care about them.

Pricing

The software market has changed a lot the last ten years and it is greatly affected by the economy and the competing non-software markets from entertainment to whatever else is available to buy. For this reason, the most compelling question is always “Does this product worth the price?”

Pros

Quality content, images and videos
Improvements over its predecessor
Best offer on the current market
Simple highly functional user interface
Solid and reliable online service
Outstanding customer support

Cons

Highly dependent on Humintell
Restrictive and confusing EULA
Slightly high pricing
No warranty per se
No stand-alone application

Humintell has the best offer on the current market, including in comparison to Dr. Paul Ekman's products. The package value of MiX 2 wins by miles and METT 1 images are free on request. There is a huge preference for Dr. Paul Ekman for his innovations and publicity brought by the TV show “Lie To Me”. Let's not lose perspective here because Dr. David Matsumoto is also a leading expert in the field, and Humintell pours more money and time in the development of their softwares and is considerably more technology oriented. Provided that you want great work from Dr. Paul Ekman, I would instead recommend to read his books, FACS manual and investigator's guide, and his research papers.

There is an eminent dependency on Humintell considering that MiX 2 is offered as a web service and it comes with prohibitive EULA. It is derailing to pay for a product that comes with no guarantee whatsoever, while we expect a world leading expert to oversee and approve every bit of the content for its accuracy and be held responsible for it. Users are prevented to keep any content they have paid for. Paying top dollars for this may make some people reconsider. I would much prefer a stand-alone application with more freedom at that price range, like many others would expect.

There are regular coupons offered, METT 1 images for free, and various other offers to increase the value of your purchase. All of them worthy on their own.

Misreading emotions is one of the chief reasons causing conflicts among human beings, let alone in macroexpressions. The training given by Humintell allows its users to develop the ability to properly read universal emotions, whether they are macro-, micro- and subtle expressions. Their entire product line deals with a subject that may change your life by increasing your ability to properly decode emotions and thus act or react accordingly in any situation.

Furthermore, even though I already have skills in non-verbal communication and reading microexpressions, I felt that the software was useful to me as well. The high quality slow motion videos allowed me to pay attention to more subtle details than I could normally do on real situation videos. Reading microexpressions in profile view was also a plus to me because it is something that we don't have that much opportunities to do since we mostly face the people we are communicating with.

Conclusion

Humintell is serious about quality and offers appealing products. MiX 2 is an amazing product with a life changing content and a meaningful improvement over its predecessor, and the price tag is acceptable by all means. Even though it is oriented toward newcomers, it is a good complementary training for people who already have experience reading microexpressions. MiX 2 lived up to most of my expectations and surprised me in some other aspects. The few shortcomings should not overshadow what the software will bring to your personal and professional life.

I highly recommend Humintell's Advanced Microexpression Recognition Training 2 software.

Another good day...

2010-02-25T17:35:00.003-05:00

I have been overwhelmed by administrative tasks and paperwork, more than my initial expectations. This brings a considerable delay in publishing new articles but I should be back to a more normal schedule toward the end of March.

The great news is that I have purchased the entire set of products from Humintell. I will spend quality time with these products and then write some in-depth reviews on this blog. Let me tell you that I have already a lot to write about Humintell...

...stay tuned!

Humintell Facebook Group

2010-01-28T02:10:00.005-05:00

Humintell, a company specialized in understanding emotions and offering training to read microexpressions and subtle expressions, featuring Dr. David Matsumoto, has decided to give away few licenses of their products to facebook users registering to their facebook group.

I cannot vouch for their current products at the moment since I haven't tried any of them but it seems to circumvent the main points I criticized from the former microexpressions training application (METT 1). Memory can easily kick in rather than reading expressions when training with METT 1. Note that SETT 1 has no such problem since they use the same model (Eva Ekman, daughter of Dr. Paul Ekman).

Update Read Humintell MiX 2 Product Review, Humintell Additional Training Product Review and many other articles about Humintell are available on this blog.

See demo on youtube...

Grandpa Laid it Out

2010-01-21T22:50:00.012-05:00

State-of-the-art home theater, a fancy car, and trendy shoes: you’ve got it all. Your beef’d up computer has all the cutting edge technologies that you show all your friends, colleagues, and even strangers around. Little you know, your keyboard layout is a bit less than 150 years old. Not exactly cutting edge, if you ask me.

QWERTY keyboard layout has been designed to slow typists down on typewriters. Yes, exactly. We’re talking about the old good mechanical typewriters. The main problem occurred when two or more keys were struck too quickly and the hammers would normally jam. The keyboard layout managed to circumvent this problem by forcing the typist to type slowly with an awkward disposition of keys.

Thanks, but no thanks.

Keyboard Layout Awareness

There have been few attempts to bring forth new keyboard layouts. Their individual successes were however highly mitigated and undermined by the overwhelming presence of QWERTY keyboard layout. The cost of conversion of typewriters and typists was one of the main factors playing against converting, that is, back in the days. This is no longer an issue.

Distributed under the same license as its original version.

I am a Dvorak typist since early 2000s. Converting from QWERTY to Dvorak was easy to me, contrary to what most people write on the Internet. I could type all right within a week and comfortably after two weeks. The most surprising thing is that I still can type on a QWERTY keyboard as of today; not as fast as I used to but at an acceptable average speed. In fact, to my own experience, I have no confusion typing on multiple keyboard layouts. I can type on QWERTY, AZERTY, Dvorak and Russian keyboards.

Speed is one reason to convert to an optimized keyboard layout such as Dvorak. However, my primary interest laid on its ergonomics. I spend a tremendous number of hours on a computer, my work implies. Repetitive Strain Injuries (RSI) are frequent among people who use computers for a long period of time, long hours daily during many years. Dvorak has 70% of the most frequently used letters in English on the home row, where the fingers already lay on.

I do feel less exhausted after a long work day. This is one of the first things I have noticed within the first 3 months after converting to Dvorak.

Dvorak is far from perfect and it was created in the mid-30s. A 74 years keyboard layout is still not exactly cutting edge. There are more recent efforts such as Colemak keyboard layout. Not necessarily my take since their premise includes high compatibility with QWERTY, as in, “it’s gonna be easier to learn” for which I don’t care about. They however have an interesting approach that circumvents some problems with Dvorak. Both Dvorak and Colemak have an higher efficiency, shorter distances and better ergonomics than QWERTY.

I have added some letters and dead keys on my custom Dvorak keyboard layout to make it easier to write foreign languages. This custom keyboard layout is based on the standard Dvorak because it is available on most operating systems (from DOS to Windows, MacOS X, Linux, etc). Some specific letters are added in-place with their original foreign keyboard layouts to facilitate usage upon necessity to type on such keyboards. For examples, the Norwegian letters “Ø, Æ, Å” are located to the exact same place it is located on a Norwegian keyboard (Bokmål).

Distributed under the same license as its original version.

There are dead keys on every key on the left-hand home row, from letter “A” to “I”. They allow constructing accented letters used in various languages, such as French and German. The dead key on the letter “I” has a different purpose and some symbols are associated with it (e.g. «, », æ, œ, and ç). The dead keys are on the left hand because they require to be combined with AltGr. This may not be the optimal solution but it is convenient and never did let me down since I have added them some four years ago. I am nevertheless interested to see how Colemak manages foreign languages letters and it may bring improvements on my custom keyboard layout.

This blog post is an attempt to raise awareness on the matter of keyboard layouts. I would be really pleased to see more efforts, research and studies related to keyboard layouts. Let’s hope that our society decides to get rid of the old QWERTY in favour of something more appropriate and up-to-date…

On The Road All Day Long

2010-01-09T01:00:00.009-05:00

I have acquired a new laptop few days ago to fulfil my ever growing needs on the road. This comes at a nice moment since I plan to visit Norway during 2010, and possibly work over there. Most computers I have ever acquired were business minded or server alike. Not the coolest computers around but the stronger, powerful, lasting and quality computers. This time, it is slightly different.

My mind was set on a HP Pavilion dv7, an ergonomic and entertainment oriented laptop. The specifications is what brought me to acquire it. This comes with a quad core (supporting 8 threads), 2x500 GB (7200 RPM) harddrives, 6 GB RAM, 17.3" HD Widescreen, and it goes on and on.

This is a very unusual choice to me since I usually avoid entertainment oriented computer gears. I am however pleased by the performances. It makes me feel that I will be able to run all in-house intensive softwares without a hitch. Some of them do require intensive parallel processing. The gloomy, lights and ergonomics are just a bit weird to me, but I am sure that I'll get used to it.

Around the World with the Papuans

2010-01-07T11:20:00.022-05:00

An unspoken reality about television is that not every documentary film is worthy to be watched. Many reasons can bring a documentary to fail to its primary purpose, as in being truly informative, such as uncanny facts and foundations, inappropriate storytelling, or just plain old greed.

Once in a while, however, an out-of-ordinary documentary film catches my attention. This is the case of the French documentary “L'Exploration Inversée” (trans. “Reversed Exploration”), part of the project “Le Tour Du Monde Des Papous” (trans. “Around The World With The Papuans”), originally aired on Canal+ in 2008.

The fascinating story of two Papuans exploring a foreign civilization unravels genuine emotions on film. The very same fundamental universal emotions as studied by Dr. Paul Ekman, though with a different tribe in Papua New Guinea, are brought to you in this documentary.

Marc Dozier is a photo-reporter who has devoted much of his work to study Papua New Guinea. He has decided to invite his friends, Polobi Palia and Mudeya Kepanga, both from the Huli tribe, to visit France. Polobi and Mudeya are down-to-earth, amusing, witty and charming. They are surprisingly polite and respectful. This first trip in 2003 gave birth to a book entitled “Le Long-Long Voyage” (trans. “The Long-Long Journey”). The documentary is however produced on a second trip in 2006 but retains most of the genuineness in Papuans' expressions. While this documentary film is in French, it is still worthwhile to anyone who wants to study emotions.

View Online, Download (807.34 MB)

A Journey in France...

Transcripts
The transcripts below do not focus on accuracy because it is a translation of a translation, from Tok Pisin to French and now English. For this reason, I have sometimes separated the text from the expressions in the transcripts to avoid possible confusion, misinterpretation or misrepresentation of the reality.

Courbevoie, Paris, France

00:04:20-00:05:00 Polobi, Mudeya and Marc walk in La Défense located in Courbevoie, a suburb of Paris, France. La Grande Arche de la Défense is the huge rectangular shaped building. I was absolutely amazed the first time I was walking on Le Parvis de la Défense. The feeling of both Papuans must have been stronger than mine.

Subway, Paris, France

00:06:07-00:06:11 Mudeya curiosity brings him to look at the newspaper: a partial macroexpression of fear appears in his face, he looks down, he looks at the lady and he finally looks away. Now, why is that...
00:06:12-00:06:16 Polobi has glossy eyes and a serious tense face. His eyelids are more open until 00:06:14 supporting his astonishment, and perhaps a hint of fear. He never been in a subway before.

Distinguished Dinner, Château de Cardou, Dordogne, France

00:08:15 Polobi offers to dress the table. “We will try to help you. You will show us and we will do the same.”
00:09:15 Mudeya: “Whites really have strange traditions. It's not easy to eat with them, eh? To eat, they need as many tools as to repair a car.”
00:09:32 Polobi: “You're right.”

00:11:19 Polobi and Mudeya have a toast! Polobi: “You must properly look at me in the eyes, it's the tradition!”

Ghetto, Le Havre, Seine-Maritime, France

00:15:58 Young black male voice: “Go away, bunch of bastards!”
00:16:01 Mudeya: “What does he say, [over] there?” Some fear seems to appear on his face but it is very difficult to notice even with video enhancements.
00:16:05 Mudeya: “This kind of guy, you'll see, he will come to hit us with an axe... and [then] shoot us.”
00:16:11 Mudeya: “We did not know what to reply, so we got out because we were scared.”

00:17:06 Polobi: “At home, those who have money live with those who don't have any. So the rich help the poorest, they give them something to eat. Here is how we do, us, the Papuans.”
00:17:15 Polobi: “I have the impression that you [the whites], it's not the same. I don't know. Do you help each other?”

Polobi shows anger with a jaw thrust at 00:17:15, most likely toward our society for not helping and sharing with the poor. A microexpression of disgust can be seen at 00:17:16, which most likely means “I don't know [but it disgusts me].” The conversation ends up with Polobi having his chin up high, higher than level, supporting the idea that he is really angry.

Health Club

00:23:02 Mudeya: “So to make it faster [growing muscles], the whites take a medicine that looks like kerosene.”

Polobi goes on and drinks the protein-based beverage at 00:23:15. He blinks once at 00:23:16. He blinks once again at 00:23:17 but now the eyebrows are lowered. He then observes the bottle at a distance with his eyebrows lowered at 00:23:19 and 00:23:20. He finally swallows the beverage at 00:23:21.

00:23:21 Marc: “You like or not?!”
00:23:24 Marc: “So, you like?”
00:23:25 Polobi: “Yes, yes, I love it.” His reaction when he drank contradicts these words.
00:23:26 Mudeya: “Please, I can have some me too?”
00:23:34 Polobi: “In fact, it's disgusting. I pretended it was good. I deceived Mudeya to make him taste too. But, in fact, it's really infect [poisonous, repulsive, etc].”

Confrécourt, Aisne, France

00:30:36 Polobi: “What for did you fight? For the lands, for gold, for gas. Why?”
00:30:42 Jean-Luc shows embarrassment with a microexpression, where his chin goes up using chin raiser muscles.
00:30:47 Jean-Luc is embarrassed once more.

00:31:23 Jean-Luc: “You see that? It's a grenade. It's made to kill and it still kills anyway...”
00:31:29 Polobi shows a partial microexpression of fear.

Bétheny, Marne, France
Mudeya and Polobi take the ceremony to honour those who have fallen during the war seriously. It can be seen at 00:34:24 and 00:34:30. Mudeya makes a speech at 00:33:43.

Saint Malo, Ille-et-Vilaine, France

00:41:49 Mudeya and Polobi sing on a sea boat. =)

Seafood restaurant

00:43:11 They are presented with a “Plateau de Fruits de Mer” (trans. Seafood Platter).
00:43:31 Mudeya shows a microexpression of disgust.
00:43:33 Mudeya: “But this is alive!”
00:43:53 Mudeya shows a microexpression of disgust again and again on 00:43:55.
00:43:54 Mudeya: “If I was a man of sea, I would eat [the seafood]... but since I am a man of mountains, I don't eat it.”

This segment is interesting because it is clearly an attempt by Mudeya to avoid offending Marc. Rather than saying “It is disgusting!”, he chooses to deflect and focus on the fact that he is a man of mountains. This is a lie, perhaps, because he is concealing his true feelings about seafood but such a white lie is usually accepted as a form of politeness.

Funeral Business “Pompes Funèbres, L'Autre Rive”
00:48:37 Mudeya is not open to the conversation at hand (about funeral). Arm crossed with hands hidden under the pit arms is good sign expressing lack of openness. As a matter of fact, Papuans don't like to speak about death.

Catacombs of Paris, Paris, France

00:51:20 Mudeya: “There, I was really scared.”
00:51:21 Mudeya shows a partial microexpression of anger, his brow lowered and his face tensed up. He may be angry at himself to fear such a place.

00:51:30 Mudeya: “How many are they?!”
00:51:32 Polobi: “They said 6 millions people.”
00:51:35-00:51:45 Polobi shows repeatedly a partial macroexpression of fear.

Church, Saint Cyprien, Dordogne, France

00:53:16 Polobi: “Ah. It breaks my heart.” Polobi is very emotional at that moment.
00:53:20 Polobi: “Everybody who will hear this music will rush here. They don't want to come to church when they hear this melody? They won't be able to resist it. They will fill up the church and believe in your God.”

Hospital, Hôpital de l'Hôtel-Dieu, Paris

00:55:31 Polobi: “Don't say that I have 40 years old. Say that I have 36 or 37 years old because I will otherwise have no chance with the French women.”
00:56:11 Doctor: “Eh. Could you remove the pants that I can see up there [the knee].”
00:56:14 Polobi: “Hey! It's very hard what you are asking me there because we don't remove pants like this in front of a woman. Oh, no.” Polobi gets up in protestation at 00:56:16. Legs have a sexual connotation to Papuans.
00:56:23 A member of the tribe: “It's true?!”
00:56:24 Mudeya: “Yes, I assure you. Whites don't have any shame. It's not [proper] manners to do, these customs. It's the wife of another man. She should be ashamed.”
00:56:29 Mudeya shows a microexpression of disgust.

They go on with the medical evaluation. The personnel ask him to remove his pants few more times.

00:58:36 Marc: “It's all right, you can put back your pants now.”
00:58:40 Polobi: “You know, we are here with the whites now and it doesn't bother me anymore. I am not ashamed anymore. At home, I couldn't walk around like this but here I could walk around butt naked, eh, it wouldn't be a problem. What do you think? Anyway, they have already seen everything... even the inside of my knees, so... so I-I could walk around nude, no problem. Say, I could even stay to flirt with them a little bit.”

Matadors, Gabarret, Landes, France

01:02:39 Mudeya shows a partial macroexpression of surprise when a matador skillfully avoids a bull. Polobi may also be surprised since he has his mouth open.
01:02:44 Polobi heads shake no in disbelief while Mudeya is still very surprised.
01:02:55-01:02:56 Polobi shows a partial macroexpression of fear after a matador gets the bull's horns in a painful manner.
01:03:05 Mudeya shows a partial macroexpression of fear and hides himself behind the tree as a protection.
01:04:21 Mudeya: “The cows are big and you, you're as small as us...” Mudeya avoids to look at the matador and then he shows a partial microexpression of anger at 01:04:23. Mudeya continues and he says “so how you can fly over like this. You use magic?!” Perhaps, Mudeya really believes the matador uses magic?

Intermezzo

01:12:45-01:12:57 Papuans do enjoy clay animation. They almost look like kids. =)

Mountains, Vaujany, Isère, France

01:13:50 Mudeya: “We tried to climb all up in a mountain but we did not really see [understand] what the whites went to search up there. There's no food, no women, no houses.”
01:17:00 Polobi: “Mudeya turned up crazy about your ski. I think that he has caught this disease of white men. Me, I would be able to do it [skiing] as well as you [do], even better. [clearing throat] But, I have pain in [my] knee... [clearing throat again] so I cannot play with your snow.” Did we catch a Papuan in a lie?!

New Year Eve, Grenoble, Isère, France

01:18:50 Mudeya: “At exactly midnight, whites turn up completely crazy. Everybody yell "Happy New Year", "Happy New Year". They laugh around and do anything [as in crazy things].”
01:19:00 A member of the tribe: “And why they are doing this the whites?” He shows a microexpression of disgust, possibly twice (one time when the image switch to the tribe home and another time at 01:19:01).
01:19:03 Mudeya: “Well, it's a tradition that must come from their ancestors.”

Hunting Wild Boar, Dompnac, Ardèche, France

01:22:01 Polobi: “At you [the whites], government runs everything. If you don't have enough money to pay taxes, the government will put you in jail. On your roads, there are pay tolls. For your houses, there are taxes. And for your lands too. The government watches you all the time, all the time, all the time. Whatever you do, it watches you. Tell him.” Polobi shows a microexpression of contempt at 01:22:12.
01:22:24 Hunter: “My God, [neck tightens] it's the laws.” The hunter expresses fear toward the object of the observation (e.g. the government watches [and runs] you constantly).

Intermezzo

01:34:03 Zoom-in on a picture of Mudeya expressing disgust.

Moulin Rouge, Paris

01:34:27-01:35:32 Polobi and Mudeya are definitively emotionally aroused. They are in disbelief and surprised. Their expressions includes the famous jaw drop at 01:34:32 and few other times I believe.
01:36:07 Mudeya: “Could I try them [the feathers], please? And me, I will lend you mine.”
01:36:10-01:36:12 Julie (showgirl) let her jaw drop and then she open her eyes wide. The timing, lack of synchronicity, lack of eyebrows up, and the exaggeration tell me that it is a faked expression. Surprise is an expression that is usually very quick when genuine and every part that is present (eyebrows, eyelids, mouth open or jaw drop) happen at the same time. A showgirl would most likely portrait the emotion longer than necessary to make sure her audience sees it properly.

01:36:35 Mudeya: “The most surprising to us with the feathers, it's that at whites, it is the women who take care of them.” Mudeya shows a partial microexpression of fear at 01:36:40.
01:38:09 Mudeya: “But, at them, feathers, it has no particular meaning. It's just to dance.” Arm crossed with hands hidden under the pit arms is good sign expressing lack of openness. Mudeya may not like that the whites don't care for the feathers as they do.

This is an amazing documentary film to be watched (and even rewatched). It is pleasantly surprising to see the two Papuans through their journey with their good humour and good spirit. The most striking for me is the emotions and expressions they make as they discover France and its attractions, or just plain ol' life. It reminds me my own journey across the world. Finally, this documentary is a great source of study when it comes to emotions.

Peeling a New Skin

2010-01-01T00:00:00.003-05:00

A new year has begun and a new look has come. This article unveils on-going and future plans for 2010 on my blog. Read a short word about the new look, a summary of my plans and upcoming topics, and my view and rules for criticism on my blog.

New Look-And-Feel
Changing the template on my blog was long overdue. I've had however many concerns about changing it. My primary interest is to deliver quality articles and spending time developing a new template was not appealing to me. I have decided to search on btemplates.com and look at a hundred samples or so.

Clean and simple
Larger width for the text in articles
Modifications are not necessary, or very little
Formatting that would not disrupt previous articles
Acceptable in both windowed and full screen modes
Et cætera

There were some good samples and some not so good. The best good looking were unfortunately not the most suitable. Less than five were actually suitable to this blog. The current template is a modified version of “Básico 2” by Templates Novo Blogger. Thanks to Ariane Naranjo for her work.

The Future Is At Our Door

My objective for 2010 is to have an average of four (4) articles per month. This allows me to deal with time restrictions without compromising on quality. I value quality over quantity. This blog is a journey in my professional life as a software designer, every facet of it. The following list contains topics that are relevant in my professional life. The relationship may not be obvious for the very diversified nature of the topics but it will be clarified throughout the year. There is so much to say on each and every topic and 48 articles is definitively not enough. It should nevertheless be interesting to read and eventually spark constructive discussions.

Upcoming Articles (topics)

Software Design and Business
Psychology and Philosophy
Non-verbal Communication
Statement Analysis
Detecting Deception
More on RPG Maker
My experience in Russia

Criticism
I welcome constructive criticism on my blog, including critics that are contrary to my own expertise, experience and/or opinions. Constructive criticism is a form of criticism where a personal or professional opinion is elaborated and supported by facts, evidences, and/or references.

Contact me directly upon any personal, professional or business conflict. I am straightforward in conflict resolutions however how difficult it can be. Washing dirty linen in public is unequivocally unacceptable in our society, except, perhaps, for public figures such as politicians and movie stars. Any attempt to bring forth my personal life and/or confidential matter on Internet will not be tolerated. Coarse language will not be tolerated.

Indie Game Developers Market Report

2009-12-20T00:00:00.004-05:00

An exclusive report on RPG Maker based indie game developers will be soon available for sale. This report aims to empower companies who plan to develop supporting technologies for these indie game developers. Any company with a budget of several tenth thousands dollars for a given project will greatly benefit from this report. The report includes:

Indie Game Developer Profiles and Demographics
Potential Profit Margins and Return On Investment
Sales Arguments and Counter Arguments
Risk Assessment and Analysis
A Real-Life Case Study: L10nTool for RPG Maker

Take no chance and get your facts straight! No other software developer has dared to develop an RPG Maker compatible commercial product for indie game developers. My experience can serve you well. Contact me if you are interested to purchase this upcoming report.

Anonymous Lies

2009-12-15T02:50:00.017-05:00

Dubious messages written by anonymous authors are a common problem on many blogs including mine. Examining publicly the reply messages on my own blog has proven to be ineffective and the continuous harassment lead me to turn moderation on once again.

A curious message written by an anonymous author, Liar Liar, appeared on Eyes For Lies. The self-confessed pathological liar writes an arguably honest message on his or her perspective about himself or herself. I will examine that message in this blog post and share my appreciation along the way.

Read the message here!

Legend

Misspells, mistakes and typographic errors are marked in red.
Peculiarities and any other out of ordinary words are marked in blue.
Some text bridges are marked in green.

Observations
The first noticeable element is the huge block of text composing the message. Deceptive people can talk fast or write a huge message without any paragraph or breaking paragraphs in an unnatural form to confuse people. There are few noticeable misspells that can be sign of emotions (arousal) or deception/manipulation (intentional typo). The likelihood of deception reduces considerably when a word is consistently misspelled throughout a text.

”I will be comlpetely honest (for once).”

This is an anticipatory statement and it attempts to create anticipation in two manners: (1) the following story is the truth and (2) it is a secret. The anticipation brings the reader's attention to be focused on the story and only to that story, and possibly away from the facts. However, “(for once)” enclosed within the statement reminds its true purpose: to convince us that the author is honest. Honest people convey a message rather than convince.

The word completely is misspelled and brings an additional attention to itself. A person may fear, or may not have any intentions, to be completely honest. Subsequent questioning could unveil further information or otherwise prove there is nothing into this typographic error.

”I am a liar. A Pathological liar.”

A person who wants to be upfront and honest, even in a one-time effort, would most likely confess first and then express how his or her upcoming statements will be moderated. The contrary may be caused by fear to be disbelieved, an early attempt to rationalize or to deceive us.

In statement analysis, we believe only what is written. Liar Liar tells us he or she is a liar. When Liar Liar will be honest is not specified exactly: it might be right now, in the text, later or never. The degree of probability given to the auxiliary verb will is in the range of certainty but not an absolute certainty (see gramdex). The former statement could be entirely truthful provided that the author would have used “will” to express his or her willingness and, that, even when the rest of the message is untruthful.

The author attempts to make us presume he or she is a pathological liar. The only admission he or she has made is “I am a liar.” Having two sentences rather than one to express a single idea may be a deceptive. The upper case in “pathological” may be an additional attempt to convince us by making this word more important with a capital letter. A more convincing statement would have been “I am a pathological liar.”

A person admitting that he or she is a pathological liar should make anyone reconsider the words “I will be honest.” There is no on/off switch on a pathological liar. Those three (3) sentences are an early indication of a “mise en scène” (staging).

”Some of you out there asume that we are scum and that we are evil, and that is a little too harsh to say.”

Misspells and typographic errors can be anything from a keyboard problem, arousal of emotions while writing the specific words or caused by thoughts running on, deception and so on. As any other red flags, it should be noted but investigated before concluding whether or not it is deceptive.

The words “out there” are extraneous information, that is, unnecessary to have a complete statement. The combination of “some of you”, “out there” and “assume” is out of ordinary. “Some of you” is a general statement to include a wide range of individuals described by the specified discriminatory factors. The discriminatory factor is not explicitly specified and should be restrained to “not me” (e.g. not the author). “Some of you assume” describes a probable possibility that some people, except the author, assume the following part of the statement. The probability is reduced to uncertainty or unknown by the second discriminatory factor “out there”. Out there, where? Another planet perhaps.

The rhythmic in this statement is particular in such manner that it forces a repetitive pattern similar or equivalent to its counterpart in spoken statements (see example). “That we are”, “that we are”, “that is” in one single statement jumps out of the lot. Deceptive people tend to use such emphasis to convince an untruthful message. “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.” — Bill Clinton (spoken statement)

A “little too harsh” but not too much. =)

“You must understand, when it says we have no morals...WE CANT.”

This is a suggestive statement and it attempts to push an idea: a pathological liar can't have moral. Why must we understand? The words can and can't are interesting because they refer to an ability while have and don't have/haven't instead refers to a trait (of character). The change in the verbs may be a sign of deception. My immediate reaction would be to ask “Why can't you have moral?”

This is an early indication that the author misunderstands what a pathological liar is. A psychopath with damages on the frontal lobe will have reduced or no ability for inhibitions and limited judgmental abilities, therefore, cannot have moral (it is a physical limitation).

“I really do wish that I could feel guilt, so that I might stop lying so much.”

The weak statements result in a distancing language. A stronger statement would have been “I want to feel guilt, that I stop lying.” The auxiliary verb “could” correlates with “can” as in “We can't have morals”. The auxiliary verb “might” however jumps out in the statement. Might express a degree of probability in the range of somewhat probable. The author tells us that he or she has doubts about the outcome of feeling guilt, it might or might not stop him or her to lie. The first “so” is a known text bridge and may be sign of deception. “So much” is another attempt to convince us that this person lies more than another and that he or she must be a pathological liar.

“I don't.”

Don't you what? “I don't wish”, “I don't feel guilt”, “I don't stop lying”

Deceptive people tend to let others presume the meaning what they are saying to avoid direct denials, deceptions and lies. Most often they will rationalize that the person who presumed what was meant are responsible for the lie and will shift blame onto others when confronted (e.g. “That's not what I meant!”, “You're the one who believed that!”).

“I never have felt guilty for anything that I have done, I dont think that I ever will.”

This statement casts further doubts over the possibility, or lack thereof, to feel guilty. The emphasis on the past and then the future is intriguing. A person who cannot feel guilt has no doubt about the future but the author tells us here “I don't think”. The negation in the statement is weak (never, not ever). A stronger statement would have been an unceremonious “I don't feel guilt”.

“Apperently, some people have it so bad that they don't feel other emotions as well.”

This statement is vague at best. Apparently? Some people? It is also unclear what “it” means. The reference to other emotions is another indication that the author misunderstands what a pathological liar is. The most particular segment in this statement is that the author does not write “some of us” but “some people”, which is a rather generic and detached manner to talk about a group of people he or she is supposedly part of.

“Which makes since, saying that me and my friend (yet another liar, there are a lot of us you know) did not cry at our friend's funeral.”

The mistake (since, sense) in this specific case is most likely to denote a change of thoughts. Some foreigners may confuse words that have a close enough pronunciation (to them) but there is no corroborating facts in the entire message supporting this idea.

The author mentions his or her friend without any introduction and this is often a sign of deception. The friend comes in second (e.g. “me and my friend”). What is the purpose to write about his or her friend in this message? The author now wants us to believe there are many of them and he or she is part of a group (e.g. “lot of us”), which he or she previously failed to accomplish (e.g. “some people” rather than “some of us”).

“You know” might be a suggestive statement and a sign of deception because there is no indication that the author use it as an habit. “No, we don't know. Where did you get your statistics?”

Some pathological liars have lack of empathy and it's one step closer to psychopathy.

“We lack the emotions for us to properly restrain ourselves from lying to ones we love. Emotionally though, we can feel pain.”

The author has switched from “I” to “we” and it systematically raises suspicions. The statement only tells that “We, as a group, have the ability to feel pain.” The author may or may not feel it and says nothing about him or her as an individual. The message is less convincing since the author distances himself or herself from the statements and increase doubts as this person is really part of this group.

“Don't think that there are some pathological liars out there that feel horrible when they hear the comments that you are writing about them.”

Another suggestive statement with the words “Don't think.” The author attempts to deny us the possibility to objectively think on what he or she writes about and the only valid reasoning is what is written. The most striking words in this statement are “they” and “them”. There is no more “I”, “we” and “us”!

“(I for one think that its funny, and i dont really care)”

It may be funny at first but not necessarily afterwards? The author thinks about more than “it's funny” but, unfortunately, he or she doesn't elaborate. The author attempts to make us believe that he or she doesn't care. “I don't care” is a stronger statement than one using really. “I don't really care” means that the author somehow cares and possibly more than he or she will admit. The lower case “I” makes me think that the author subconsciously wants to make himself or herself as small as possible in the written statement, further supporting the idea that he or she actually cares.

“And yes, I belive that I will probably burn in hell for this.”

The word “and” is another text bridge. This statement seems to answer the author's own question: “Will I go to hell? Yes, I will.” The author nevertheless casts doubt over the possibility to go to hell, “I believe [..] probably” makes hell no longer a certain destination. It shows lack of remorse. Perhaps, this person is really a pathological liar? Or, merely someone who pretends to be one and doesn't deserve to go to hell...

“But until then, I shall be smiling my evil little grin and crying my fake tears...lying my way easily through life.”

My biggest concern in this statement is the use of “shall”. The auxiliary verb relates to an obligation or an intention. There is no continuation from the past and/or present. It is strange for someone who has lied for his or her entire life.

“You think that it is a bad thing to be a liar. I find it wonderful.”

These two statements might be truthful. A person can perceive (e.g. “find”) lying to be wonderful (and useful). There can be perceived advantages as an outcome of lying. It does not mean the person is a liar or can effectively lie. An honest person, and especially unskillful liar, could envy a liar for everything he or she can accomplish with lies.

“Things are so easy for me.”

The exaggeration makes the statement questionable because lying is extremely demanding over time. The author attempts to make us presume that things are easy because he or she lies. Anything implied is questionable. Things can be easy for many reasons. Perhaps, his or her daddy is rich?

“I manipulate people to think certain things of me, others, and situations. It has been 10 years in this town, no one has ever guessed that I am lying.”

The author confides to us and writes at length about lying but deflates when it is time to give details about his or her own accomplishments. The lack of details and the distancing language around the central subject makes the entire message unbelievable, as in, not to be believed.

“(most pathological liars have good enough memories to remember what they told to whom)”

Another indication that the author misunderstands what a pathological liar is. Dr. Paul Ekman gave the name of natural performer to those who are highly skillful at lying and believe their lies for at least the moment they impersonate them. In a nutshell, and considering current studies showing a correlation between pathological liars and an average to slightly below average IQ, most pathological liars are unlikely to have a good memory to remember their lies.

“And Honestly, I hope that there are not too many people like me.”

The word “Honestly” jumps out of place for two reasons: (1) it is written with a upper case letter and (2) the author told us beforehand that he or she will be completely honest. Perhaps, he or she did not mean it when he or she first wrote it. Perhaps, he or she means it now. Or, yet, the entire text may be untrue. We might never know, really.

There is an emerging pattern composed of a statement enclosed in parenthesis followed by another statement beginning with “And”, this is a curiosity.

Some “people like me” are acceptable according to the author but as long as it is “not too many.” How many is too many?

“I am sinful, mean, cold hearted, maybe even souless, and I dont care at all.”

The author is limiting the meaning of sinful, by using the word “mean”, to “cold hearted”, “maybe even souless” and possibly because he or she doesn't care. Moreover, “I don't care” is a stronger statement than “I don't care at all”. Soulless is misspelled and regarded as an hardly believable possibility (e.g. “maybe even”).

Deceptive people tend to use religious references more often. They will “swear to God” and alike regardless whether or not they are religious. The reference to hell, sin[ful] and soulless are to be considered. There is still the rare possibility that the author might fear for his or her soul but it would require further investigation to prove.

“(I have tried therapy, but i ended up lying to the therapist...so yeah that didnt work out too well).”

This is an unlikely scenario. A person introducing himself or herself to a therapist by stating that he or she is a pathological liar would considerably decrease the likelihood to be able to foul the therapist. The therapist is immediately forewarned and knows what to expect. The lack of article in front of therapy makes me wonder, why not “I have tried a therapy”? Notice the lower case “I” present once again. “So yeah” may be an indication that the author answers to his or her own question: “How did it work?” It may be a sign of deception when a person has all the before-you-ask answers.

“Signed, Liar Liar”

That's funny! A signed anonymous message! A signature is important because it shows commitment to what has been written. However, there is no such thing as an anonymous signature. The likelihood it is a deceptive message is extremely high provided that it would be the one and only message written by Liar Liar. The word “signed” is most likely a tentative to convince the message is honest. The author tries to convince us of his or her commitment, to his or her message, and of his or her honesty by having the lookalike of an honest message rather than actually having one.

Conclusion

The question to be asked once a deceptive behaviour has been identified in a normal person is about the motive behind the lies. The nature of lies in a pathological liar is completely different and lies can be told for any or no reason(s). For this reason, I would instead question the motivation behind being honest. What incentive would motivate a pathological liar to overcome his or her compulsion to lie?

There are many signs of deception in Liar Liar's message but it is more supportive of a false confession rather than an admission of being a pathological liar. Liar Liar writes what many people expect to read about a pathological liar, which is an effective manner to foul these people. There is no apparent motive behind the confession. Is Liar Liar a liar? Yes, but not a very good one. My speculation is that Liar Liar is someone who wants to challenge EyesForLies skills at detecting deception. This is limited to text only (no video/audio) and a low stake lie.

Liar Liar, shoot and publish a video on youtube next time!

Contemptuous Apology

2009-12-11T20:00:00.008-05:00

There are seven (7) emotions discovered to be universal until now. The lesser known of these emotions is contempt. Contempt is a feeling or attitude of moral superiority or disdain. Every emotion can be experienced toward others or oneself, including contempt.

A contemptuous apology can be as obvious as it appears to be or notably difficult to identify. The latter is likely to be more frequent because an obvious contemptuous apology will generally immediately provoke anger from the person who receives it and deprive the deceptive person from the benefits of an apology.

Morality
Most contemptuous apologies are driven by a sense of moral superiority from the apologetic person rather than moral inferiority. The contempt is directed toward the person who is receiving the apology. The apologetic person is morally rationalizing his or her actions. The source of moralization is as various as it can be. The following few examples are the individuals (or entrepreneurs) most likely to morally rationalizing their actions.

Self-Righteous Individual
Excessively Religious Individual
High Regard for Oneself
Passionate Individual
Moral Entrepreneur

Moral Superiority

For example, a passionate morally-driven entrepreneur may feel that his or her situation is worst than his or her business partners, employees, subcontractors, customers and/or competitors. Such person will rationalize his or her actions (lying, stealing, etc.) because they work for a greater purpose (i.e. a passion) and/or they deserve more (i.e. they are less rich) than others.

This type of apology is unlikely to be truthful and is undoubtedly insincere. The apology will be incomplete (i.e. not taking responsibility, possibly shifting blame, etc.) with a considerable amount of extraneous information. The extraneous information will include rationalization for the apologetic person's behaviour. The apologetic person will cause harm all over again because "the end justifies the means".

Moral Inferiority

The less frequent contemptuous apologies driven by a sense of moral inferiority is most often seen in a person with low self-esteem and/or Dependent Personality Disorder (DPD). Such person may apologize quicker than any other persons and may take the blame for things they are not responsible for. This is insincere and may be untruthful (i.e. an incomplete apology, facts are wrong, etc.).

Whether or not the person will cause harm to others is unclear but he or she may cause harm to himself or herself. That person is likely to cause harm all over again when he or she is responsible for the harm because the apology serves another purpose, such as maintaining the dependency, than to apologize, ask forgiveness, etc. Furthermore, a person with an extreme form of Dependency Personality Disorder is often destructive and will cause great harm to others.

Sympathetic Apology
A sympathetic apology can be driven by any kind of concerns, such as pity, compassion, and so on. These concerns are aroused by the misfortune, affliction or suffering of another (see at the bottom of the page here). Consider the sympathetic apology from a friend to another when a beloved person died, "I am sorry for your loss". The apologetic person can go further and offer support to his or her friend, which is likely to comfort the person of concern.

However, the sympathetic apology becomes contemptuous whenever an apologetic person is responsible for the harm. Consider the previous example with a twist, the friend who is sympathetically apologizing is a multiple murderer on the run. Now, "I am sorry for your loss" sounds insincere. It is also untruthful because it is a half-truth where being responsible for this loss is completely omitted (lie by omission).

The sincerity would be further questioned if the apologetic person would say "I will never kill your beloved again!" (See Promise). We know for certain that it won't happen again. The apologetic person could pursue and say "Let's make a baby together!" (See Form of Restitution).

Little to say except that such person is extremely dangerous. That person may still feel pity for the other person, in a contemptuous manner, as in "I pity you because you mourn this piece of garbage." Disdain and possibly disgust are central in this statement.

Strategic Apology

The first-move strategy is among the many strategic apologies available to the deceptive person. A person may feel that he or she deserves apologies from another person and will attempt to obtain it in a deceitful manner. This deceptive person believes that if he or she makes the first move, the other person will offer a truthful and sincere apologies in return. The rationale behind the first move is that the one who apologizes first has great wisdom and is generous; for this reason, and because the first person to apologize is supposedly virtuous, the other person should be grateful and should ask forgiveness to the deceptive person for what is perceived to be at fault.

An apology is not about other's faults but one's own faults. There are situations where the responsibility can be shared among the persons involved but it cannot be upheld in an apology. Blaming onto others may be a sign of deception because it is a distraction from the initial objective in a truthful and sincere apology.

This strategic but contemptuous apology will be incomplete with a considerable amount of extraneous information. The apology is most likely to take a form of Non-Apology Apology. The extraneous information often includes rationalization on the behalf of the person who receives the apology, which is a sign of deception. Deception is systematic at the moment an apologetic person rationalizes for the behaviour of the person he or she apologizing to and the whole purpose of the apology should be questioned.

A first-move strategic apology can also be motived by an immediate gain from an apology. It is an attempt by a deceptive person to use the person they are apologizing to and ask favours in the future. This is a highly manipulative behaviour.

Conclusion
Be aware of the master deceptive persons! They are skillful and resourceful. They try to convince rather than to convey an apology. Any strategy can be used to reach their objectives. Because they often feel morally superior, they will disregard and disrespect those who fall under their moral level. They try to obtain the benefits from an apology without actually doing so. They feel no guilt or shame to entrap, deceive, lie, use, steal or so toward what they perceive a morally inferior person. Watch for any indicator of contempt in their apologies and the person's attitude before, during and/or after their apologies.

Detecting Deception in an Apology

2009-11-30T16:05:00.007-05:00

I have written an essay that was too long to publish here. This is a follow-up article on apologies. The excerpt can be read as follows:

This is an essay on Detecting Deception in an Apology (DDinA) using statement analysis. The approach presented in this essay aims to be accessible to the general public by focusing on the basic elements of statement analysis and provides the ability to be manually performed in a reasonably short time with an acceptable appreciation of the truthfulness and sincerity in an apology.

Detecting Deception in an Apology (view online, PDF)

Anatomy of an Apology

2009-11-25T02:50:00.006-05:00

An apology is used to express one's regret or remorse for the harm and pain he or she has caused. A apologetic person can seek forgiveness but may also try to heal his or her own pain. It can also be an effective action toward reconciliation, whether it is in a personal or business relationship. A complete, meaningful and proper apology requires certain elements to convince the person one apologizes to that it is sincere.

An Apology Should Contain...

Accountability
Acknowledgement
Taking Responsibility
Expressing Regrets
Asking for Forgiveness
Pledge, Promise
Form of Restitution

Accountability

An apologetic person should present a detailed account of the situation for which it requires an apology. The specificity will convince the person that you are sincere and will increase the likelihood to be believed when you will tell the person that you are genuinely willing to take full responsibility for your actions. Failing to provide an accurate account of the events may also entirely invalidate your apology, for the simple reason that you should apologize for the same situation the person expects an apology for.

Acknowledgement
An apologetic person should acknowledge the damage or pain done by his or her actions. The specificity will convince the person that you fully understand the consequences of your actions and will also increase the likelihood to be believed when you will tell the person that you are genuinely willing to take full responsibility for your actions. Failing to provide an accurate acknowledgement may also convince the person that you are careless about the consequences of your actions and becomes a failure to validate the person's feelings.

Taking Responsibility

An apologetic person should provide a statement in which he or she takes full responsibility for his or her actions in the situation. Recognizing your role in the situation and taking responsibility for the consequences of your actions is an important step before apologizing. Offering excuses, explanations or any form of rationalization for your actions will appear as an attempt to diminish your role in the situation and avoid taking responsibility for your actions.

Expressing Regrets, Asking for Forgiveness, and a Promise
An apologetic person should express his or her regrets or remorses at this point. The preamble has been laid out in a detailed manner and in such way that your regrets accompanied with an apology will be heard and, most likely, believed. Ask for forgiveness but don't force it and don't expect it. This is where you hand back the power to the person, in a great act of humility. A sincere promise that it won't happen again may also help to obtain forgiveness and eventually rebuild a relationship.

Form of Restitution

An apologetic person should offer a form of restitution, whenever possible, to repair the damages done. This is an opportunity to make it right and possibly remedy the situation. A detailed statement including the actions taken to correct the problem and expressing your commitment to avoid the same mistakes in the future will be highly regarded by the person you are apologizing to.

A Final Word...
The lack of sincerity at any point may defeat and completely invalidate your efforts to apologize. Be clear, accurate and do not bring unrelated matter in your apology. There is no point to apologize when an apologetic person only seeks to gain from the apology. An apology is being at the mercy of another and recognizing that you are a fallible person, which is one of the reasons why people take too long to apologize (or never do).

Take time to reflect upon what you did wrong but don't let a situation unresolved for months because it may well have degraded to a point that it is impossible to fix, especially in the situations where the harm is extreme. Never assume a problematic situation is minor. Give time for the person to think about your apology but don't expect a response and don't push for one.

all this for a better world...

Personality on Paper (follow up)

2009-11-09T09:12:00.007-05:00

You may remember the personality survey that I have prepared some time ago. I have written a small application to compile raw data in a meaningful manner and in such way to make it possible for me to interpret the data. The results are simply amazing.

The results are used to create a statistical model and the data itself is anonymous. Few of the participants have already been contacted among those who left their email address. It may take few more weeks to process all the data and type a summary. Those who have not participated yet, see the link below and leave your email address if you are interested to be contacted about the results.

I have deliberately left any explanations and instructions aside on the first round to study how people would approach the survey. The most recurring question is about the meaning of the numbers. The closest number to a trait means the highest value for this specific trait. There are two opposing traits per question to chose from, which means that it is either one or another, or simply none of them (e.g. 3).

Scoring three (3) is a bit problematic because it should not happen very often, but yet may happen; it means that you should reconsider your scoring each time that you score 3 on a question and make sure it is truthful. Those who scored the most 3s were either clueless about themselves or dishonest in their answers. There are also people who have scored only or mostly positive traits, which is too flattering to be true: it is a sign of dishonesty or self-deceit.

Thanks to everybody who have participated so far...

Take the survey here.

Crab Soup

2009-10-24T12:01:00.003-04:00

I have prepared a wonderful crab and corn soup yesterday. Forget about fake crab, we're talking about the real thing. 'Reminds me, sometimes I watch weird cooking shows on television. Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares would be one instance. Gordon Ramsay has also another popular television show named Hell's Kitchen and its sixth season has recently concluded.

Hell's Kitchen is not exactly what I would call quality programming and it's more entertainment than instructional; but it does not mean there's nothing of interest.

Ramsay's management is definitively noticeable. He yells, verbally abuses, throws food at people, kick garbage cans and whatnot! He is a straight-talker, makes no compromises and rarely compliments his staff. “He is a bad boss,” most people would utter without hesitation nor any further investigation. Ramsay nevertheless claims to have a 85% staff retention rate since 1993 (see here).

Your ideal boss is charming, calm, polite, and tells you that you are the best. He pays you lunch at times and it all makes you feel good. You feel respected. Popularity has a direct correlation with the ability to hide one's true feelings. Basically, it means the better the liar, the more popular.

Such an idealized boss as described above might as well be a psychopath. “Psychopaths are typically very likable”, according to an article entitled “Is Your Boss a Psychopath?” (quiz here). Psychologist Robert Hare thoroughly studied criminal psychopaths and developed a checklist, Psychopathy Checklist Revised (PCL-R), that has also been applied to corporate world. Be aware of what you wish, because it might become true (and not exactly what you expect).

I expect from people working for me discipline, honesty and take responsibility for their actions. It's a tough ride on anyone because it is demanding and exhausting. One could say that my personality is mostly being serious. Ramsay would say that I am too soft when it comes to management, even though others would instead say that I am overly demanding. Isn't it a strange world?

Advanced Software Testing using Simulation

2009-09-28T14:30:00.006-04:00

The famous quote from Donald E. Knuth could be an interesting opening for this blog post. Unfortunately, the practice is overly cliché and would most likely dilute further the initial meaning of its author. Software testing remains a practical approach to proof softwares, whether it is manual or automated testing, whereas mathematical proofs are the theoretical approach.

Simulation can be useful to bring software testing a step further by simulating a user, or multiple users, performing a series of tasks through the software to be tested, with or without meaningful actions, but always within a certain set of parameters.

We are currently working on such simulation system. Each scenario is a compound based on a sequence of user inputs, which are collected and stored into a database. Most scenarios developed in software testing are usually based on a normal usage in order to prove the software works as intended. The existing scenarios will be subsequently mutated multiple times using probabilities, that is, the likelihood such or such user input can occur, similarly as in a Monte Carlo Simulation. Scenarios are also constructed from scratch using statistical sampling, where the value of a certain user input in a given context might or might not have a greater weight in its probability to be triggered.

The simulation system runs multiple scenarios simultaneously against multiple instances of the software during its entire development cycle on a dedicated server, on a 24/7 basis, and reports failed scenarios accordingly. The failed scenarios are then ran step-by-step by the software engineers so as to catch and correct defects.

Technologies are sometimes surprising and exciting...

2009-09-15T16:45:00.005-04:00

Life has been much more peaceful lately, which is a good thing. My attention is fully focused on my other on-going projects but also learning Norwegian. I spend an average of one hour a day when I learn a new language. It can be more depending on the necessity of learning the language.

I have been spending an increasing number of hours learning Norwegian. Learning sessions are organized among learning the written and spoken language.

I have acquired "Norvégien Sans Peine" (Norwegian With Ease) from Assimil. Assimil publishes many language learning books and I have bought about 10 of them throughout the years. Their method is certainly not the best if only for being overly passive but when you are used to the formulae, it comes as easy as it gets and one can learn quickly.

Internet is also a great source of learning in that respect. I have managed to watch TV series on the web, offered at no cost, such as "330 Skvadronen" and "Hellstrøm rydder opp".

There are people who believe that learning a language should be undertaken with courses, books, audio, and so many other so-called tools. Some of them pour a fortune in this! My approach? A small book + a plane ticket.

The secret is really in the effort you are willing to put in to learn...

Bokmål

2009-09-04T20:45:00.002-04:00

Jeg lærer norsk. Ingen nordmenn her? Skriv meg en epost eller en kommentar.

To See Is To Believe

2009-07-31T18:30:00.004-04:00

Shall you find a small video presentation of L10nTool and Deployment User-Modifiable Script utilities in action at the following URL. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkvF8bVNWik

A New Member Has Joined Forces

2009-07-26T18:30:00.003-04:00

My software design team has the pleasure to welcome its new member and join forces to deliver high-quality products. Ksenia is from Tolyatti, Russia and will fulfill a graphic designer position within my team. She is experienced, skilled, passionate and with great enthusiasm and attitude.

Let's have a warm welcome for Ksenia...

Personality on Paper

2009-07-24T08:51:00.003-04:00

While my career focuses on technologies, I am constantly intrigued and interested in human kind. It should not be overseen by technologists because technologies should be for people. I'd like to collect data about your personality and I have created a survey. It should take only few minutes of your time. Anonymously or not, as you wish.

Take the survey here.

A Survivor Made It Through

2009-07-15T13:18:00.004-04:00

Pavel has officially joined our forces as of today. He was awarded a long-term contract with us. His collaboration is noticeable on L10nTool and Deployment User-Modifiable Script. Furthermore, he also managed to make a small contribution to Squeak community under my mentorship. A series of exciting new projects is awaiting Pavel...

L10nTool and Deployment User-Modifiable Script are few weeks away to be released.

Deployment Utility in Numbers

2009-06-16T19:01:00.005-04:00

Deployment User-Modifiable Script facilitates, simplifies and automates the deployment process of RPG Maker XP/VX games, in the perspective of their distribution. This is a preparation system that aims to gather miscellaneous resources related to a game, perform its assembly and deliver a final end-user installer. The process is entirely automated through a set of predefined tasks and the outcome of this automation is one or more Stand-Alone Installer(s) for Windows™. The system also allows users to define their own tasks to be inserted in the process.

Deployment User-Modifiable Script has now reached the maturity of a beta version. This is undoubtedly the most tested tool in the RPG Maker community. The best way to express the work behind the utility is to unveil some statistics about it. The statistics are generated automatically by various tools such as CLOC (Count Lines Of Code), RCov (Code Coverage), Test::Unit, and RSpec (Behaviour Driven Development). These numbers have been calculated today and on the current source code.

The Core Application

Core Application	863	LinesOfCode
Default Internal Messages	224	LinesOfCode
Default Deployment Configuration	37	LinesOfCode

Total 1124 LinesOfCode

Unit Tests

Core Application	112	Tests	655	Assertions	1841	LinesOfCode
Custom Tasks	16	Tests	67	Assertions	149	LinesOfCode
Internal Resource	10	Tests	19	Assertions	74	LinesOfCode
Hash Extension	20	Tests	34	Assertions	143	LinesOfCode
Kernel Extension	5	Tests	6	Assertions	27	LinesOfCode
Helpers					54	LinesOfCode

Total 2288 LinesOfCode
163 Tests, 781 Assertions

Behaviour Driven Development

StandardUserScenario

Examples

Contexts

159

LinesOfCode

Grand Total 3571 LinesOfCode

Total Coverage 83.1%, Code Coverage 82.4%

Deployment User-Modifiable Script is bundled with other utilities such as L10nTool but can also be bought separately. The official release should be around August. Write us to get more information or to participate in our beta testing programme.

Internship Report: First Month

2009-05-15T11:34:00.006-04:00

This is the true story of a journey taken by a young country boy from Saint-Petersburg. His quest to become a great warrior has just started a month ago and it's not without pain nor without difficulties. Countless hours of daily training are to become the foundations of a veritable warrior.

The daily training routine includes warming up and exercises. Each new day begins and ends with reading and updating notes and reviewing comments related to previously or ongoing assignments. Taking notes is encouraged on a periodical basis and at any moment as deemed necessary. Pavel has written more than 90 pages of notes during his first month.

Pavel is self-taught and has no prior formal education in computer science. No big deal when talent and hard work kick in. He has probably written few thousands lines of code during the course of his internship but eventually barely few hundreds made it to the core application. A young warrior never gives up upon repeated failures.

The apprentice has to learn the fundamentals of software engineering in every aspect. He has been restlessly working under my mentorship but never hesitated to read more about various subjects given to him.

„Old Habits Die Hard“

The first phases of a learning process can be afflictive and every day turns out to be a struggle with one's own mind. The old adage “Old Habits Die Hard” cannot be more true. The real downside of the first month of Pavel's internship is all about old habits coming back over and over. The internal struggle makes it painful to move forward and it's necessary to go repeatedly over the newly acquired knowledge until it's fully mastered.

How hard is it to work within a Software Design team?

You would have to ask Pavel. It's extremely demanding in term of creativity, knowledge, adaptivity, discipline, being able to work under extreme pressure and overly exacting quality standards.

Consequently, Pavel has managed to complete less than few assignments. Sporadically. Pavel is currently working on L10nTool and, its related projects, Onion and Deployment User-Modifiable Script.

coming up next month
Let's see how much this young mind has soaked in...

ScriptManager for RPG Maker

2009-05-06T03:53:00.004-04:00

ScriptManager is a tool part of an SDK for RPG Maker, which empowers indie developers with the ability to manipulate RPG Maker scripts databases using command line interface. The utility is in design (planning phase) and should provide the following commands:

copy

Duplicate a script within an RGSS{1, 2} scripts database. A script can be copied using either its script name or identification number. It accepts an optional parameter to define a new copy name.

delete

Delete a script within an RGSS{1, 2} scripts database. A script can be deleted using either its script name or identification number.

export

Export one or more scripts from an RGSS{1, 2} scripts database into Ruby source code file(s). A script can be exported using either its script name or identification number.

gem

RubyGem interface to RGSS{1, 2} scripts database. It can install, uninstall, list and update RubyGems and its dependencies into an RGSS{1, 2} scripts database.

help

Provide help for individual commands.

import

Import one or more Ruby source code files into an RGSS{1, 2} scripts database. A script name can be defined using an optional parameter.

rename

Rename a script within an RGSS{1, 2} scripts database. A script can be renamed using either its script name or identification number.

list

List scripts from an RGSS{1, 2} script database. List displays identification number, script name, sanitized filename, script size. The output can optionally be sorted or unsorted.

What's Cooking?

2009-05-04T13:06:00.010-04:00

Cooking is a hobby of mine. Not that I have much time for hobbies. Nevertheless, my interest in cooking came up by an unanticipated coincidence. And, let's be honest, I like tasty food.

The challenge is to cook an exciting, vibrant and delicious meal for 7 or 8 guests for an upcoming birthday party. I am currently bouncing ideas for a menu and it reads so far as follow:

starters
gazpacho soup
citrus grilled lobster salad

main course
duck breast with green olives and/or black cherries sauce
accompanied with rocket and Parmesan salad

dessert
dough softly poached in maple syrup
and served on warm hazelnuts,
covered with warm maple syrup,
and topped with a leaf of mint

▼

L10n Tool for RPG Maker is Coming Soon

2009-04-25T21:52:00.004-04:00

Have a look at the latest brochure on L10nTool.

L10nTool for RPG Maker XP and VX

RGSS Player : A View on Its Product Perspective

2009-04-18T10:04:00.009-04:00

[The] world of Indie Developers would greatly benefit from the implementation of a RGSS Player for MacOS X. Expanding their market to an entire new popular platform is without a doubt an enchanting idea. Following up on a series of articles written here, we shall pass the immediate and obvious questions to focus on what an Indie Developer would get from licensing a RGSS Player for MacOS X.

RGSS Player for MacOS X
Deployment User-Modifiable Script
Porting Games Developer Manual
One-Year Free Updates and Bug Fixes
One-Year Limited Developer Support
Flexible Licensing Scheme

Also, Indie Developers can benefit from additional services:

Porting and Further Technical Assistance
Porting RPG Maker VX/XP games from Windows to MacOS X is a simple and straightforward process. Nevertheless, let's face it, some games might be harder than others to port. A game extensively relying on Win32, Win32OLE, and any other OS-centric API will require to port those parts of the code to Cocoa. Some Indie Developers might have a very ecletic and unusual deployment scenario. Take your pick. The extended assistance is all about going the extra mile for a subscribed Indie Developer.

Porting Games For Developers

Some Indie Developers have no experience porting to MacOS X nor own Apple computers and might be interested to have their games ported by us. We can painlessly port any games from/to Windows and MacOS X.

Non-Profit, Non-Commercial Games License
We are currently evaluating the possibility to allow passionate developers to get their free games on MacOS X. There are plenty of existing RPG Maker VX/XP games that would also benefit from being available on another platform. Games made by developers who do not aim commercial activities. We are interested to hear about you as well.

Something is missing? Different expectations?
Write a comment and tell us more about what you think.

Onion 0.0.2 has been released

2009-04-17T22:26:00.002-04:00

Onion, or Array Onion, allows peeling an array like an onion. It shreds one layer after another, from the outer inwards the inner nested array, according to the given depth. Infinite depth (or greater than current nested array depth) is equivalent to Array#flatten.

gem install Onion

Version 0.0.2 introduces few changes:

Improved Performances
100% Code Coverage
You Can Now peel!
Small Bug Fix

http://rubyforge.org/projects/onion/

The Shop Around The Corner

2009-04-16T11:09:00.009-04:00

I was blessed with an Apple Authorized Reseller on my door step during my childhood. The feeling of walking around in the store was no less than ecstatic. I was dreaming of something different than a PC, different from the DOS world, different from the overly ridiculous Windows 3.11. Something hardly affordable to the young lad that I was...

The store owner always been nice to us despite we would probably never buy a PowerPC on our own. Oh, boy! We must have been annoying. He was also doing programming on MacOS and would show me the cool things he did. He often had stories about the Mac Universe that was making us dreaming even more.

This is how I have been introduced to Mac. And I have fond memories.

"Hello, Mac Community!", especially Inside Mac Games fellows.

Thanks to Cobra Blade for writing a little bit about my project: RGSS Player for MacOS X.

A New Member Has Joined Forces

2009-04-08T13:16:00.010-04:00

My software design team has the pleasure to welcome its new member and join forces to deliver high-quality products. Pavel is from Saint-Petersburg, Russia and will fulfill an intership and then a junior position within my team. He is a young, vibrant, passionate and skilled programmer.

Pavel will be working on L10nTool as his first assignment. He shall work on the completion of the existing code, tests and documentation. He will then be entitled to add new features such as RPG Maker XP support.

Let's have a warm welcome for Pavel...

Pea in a Box

2009-04-06T13:53:00.028-04:00

There is a pea in a box and it is dry.
Pour some water, my little friend.

And then the box is filled with water.
There is a pea in a box and it is floating.

The box, however, suddenly begins to leak.
And soon it soaks water and shatters to pieces.

Crate is an incredible tool used to deploy Ruby applications to end-users. It magically creates self-contained statically compiled binaries. Crate is flexible and package applications the right way. The tool can target multiple platforms. In Theory, That Is.

http://copiousfreetime.rubyforge.org/crate/

Packaging an Application With Crate

Crate is developed on MacOS X, AFAIK. There is no instructions given on how-to use Crate on Windows. It clearly doesn't work as advertised. What are the current elements of concerns?

Poor documentation
Too many requirements
Fully Microsoft® Windows Awkward
Lack of integration with IDEs
Doesn't work as advertised
Overly forgiving policies on building rules
Very little control over dependencies
Painfully slow

Requirements

Crate uses MinGW, MSYS, MinDTK and many other UNIX tools. These are mandatory in order to compile packages used in your applications. Even if you only need Ruby, don't forget that it has its own requirements to be compiled as well.

Unfortunately, your pain is not over once the software requirements are met. The system is absolutely Windows unfriendly and despises your long path names with spaces. This will force you to hack your way in and run Crate from a valid UNIX path. It seems also impossible to either set and use CC environment variable or pass a reference down to MAKE in order to use a different compiler than cc (MinGW has gcc). A symbolic link is necessary. Moreover, as a complementary annoyance, I had to create a Bourne shell script to use Ruby from my Windows installation.

That's nothing you would say. Right. I just mean that it currently doesn't work right off the box.

The tutorial provided by the author of Crate is relatively straightforward. I am sure that it is absolutely great for those who can actually make it work. However, on the Windows platform, this tutorial won't work at all. The requirements met will only give you the keys to ...nothing. Nothing else than a working script that won't be able to compile properly. Some to many modifications are likely to be necessary. Likewise, I have unsuccessfully tried to produce a simple test by reducing its requirements from both the tutorial and Ruby.

Integration

Using Crate through MSYS rather than just using MinGW tools makes it challenging to integrate the process within your favourite IDE. I would like to have a deployment process that can go through all steps automatically and from one source (e.g. my own packaging script).

This is undoubtedly possible to manage files in the generated directory structure and then compile within MSYS by sharing a common UNIX valid directory. Then, you would have to figure out how to run Crate in MSYS from your IDE. Oh, wait. Shall we catch the output in your console pane? Unlikely! Besides, MSYS is also painfully slow.

forgivemefor_¡havesinned

Crate is a series of recipes for Rake. Heavily relying on Rake to performs its tasks, Crate completely hides the low-level operations such as unpacking, patching, and compiling dependencies. This would be wonderful if only it wouldn't be so forgiving and continue executing its recipes until the very end, without stopping on critical errors. Furthermore, there is apparently very little control over the low-level operations such as compiling (Ruby, zlib, and friends).

And So...
The fact remains that Crate is perfect for my needs by its definition. It's just not mature enough for now. I have been in contact with its author, Jeremy Hinegardner, in the hope to bring progress to Crate For Windows. His track record includes the famous RubyGem amalgalite providing SQLlite support for Ruby. Therefore, the future of Crate is most likely a sure thing...

...there is a pea in a box

2009-04-01T10:39:00.004-04:00

Oh, dear. Let's not forget about the famous RGSS script named SDK (Standard Development Kit). Either some tasteless humour or pure ignorance from the authors of the script. RPG Maker designers, please, just keep in mind that SDK is not SDK. Or, well, Software Development Kit related here is fundamentally different from the so-called Standard Development Kit. That must be April's Fool for them but on a yearly basis.

SDK for RPG Maker

2009-03-30T23:30:00.026-04:00

[The] future is upon us. Game designers can serve themselves up with some RPG Maker Kool-Aid as a handy tool to implement their vision. RPG wet dreams brought to you by a convivial and convenient tool, allowing its designers to deal with databases, maps, events and so forth without the hassles of programming the game from the ground up.

Designers can extend the existing engine according to their needs because the inner strength of RPG Maker comes from its powerful Ruby based engine. Yet, as a curious phenomenon, you cannot do everything that comes into your Ruby mind. The future is upon us... but not exactly.

Integrated Development Environment
Scintilla might be fine as an enhanced text editor but it's no replacement for a well-rounded Integrated Development Environment (IDE). Remember, RPG Maker only partially uses Scintilla. Things get from worse to worst when you just cannot do anything (or mostly) of the following...

RPG Maker succeeds with designers because it's easy-to-use and easier to create RPG games. Developers are however left dying on the road. RPG Maker does not support a complete software development life cycle (see here too). And that's probably why there are not so many commercial games based on RPG Maker VX/XP in spite of their userfriendly software and working right out-of-the-box engine.

Testing, Testing, ...
...is someone listening? Debugging RPG Maker games is a mysterious process in which you have to deal with unexpected error pop-up windows or print outs of your own. You've got this state-of-the-art programming language but you're sent back in the 70s. Japanese might just be fan of John Travolta for what I know.

A serious indy developer would think twice before investing money in developing on such engine. It is extremely costly to develop and maintain an engine that is mostly human-tested. And human does make mistakes. Ruby provides many testing frameworks, for unit testing (xUnit style) or Behavior Driven Development (RSpec provides BDD support). None can be used directly within RPG Maker, and painfully outside.

Furthermore, and beyond regression testing, error messages should not be volatile as a pop-up window but rather available in a log. It's matter of being traceable. Most IDEs usually lists errors in a window pane. Ruby from command line would simply print out errors on stderr.

Profiling Code
Computers must have reached some new heights to allow game developers to live without a code profiler. How is it possible to find and fix bottlenecks and optimize code otherwise? A profiler is a software performance analysis tool and is fundamentally different from a Benchmark tool. Ruby has various tools for these respective tools, namely ruby-prof and Benchmark module. None of which are included in RPG Maker.

The One-Man Team
There is no such thing as a one-man team. Period. If you got a team, it is because you have more than one person working on a project, otherwise it's one-man effort and that's it. The point is that even being an indy developer means to have staff at one time or another. RPG Maker is unfortunately inadequate in many ways for team work.

RPG Maker is not designed with collaborative work in mind. There is no way to provide revision control of neither the source code nor its resources. It might be more trivial to manage external resources but it is limited to accessible files. Binary files can hardly be diff'd. Collaborative work also means a team working at the same time on a given project. By not integrating revision control within RPG Maker, it's hardly possible to always work on up-to-date resources, code and data. Integration and collision management are always manually managed, leaving the burden to preferrably only one person. Release process (see Build Automation below) also partially rely on revision control to track, manage, and fix defects in a software according to its version(s).

RPG Maker is not natively supporting revision system of choice, such as Subversion, CVS or so. Shame on Enterbrain.

Build Automation
Let's have a special word about Build Automation. This is something a software or game maker cannot live without. An automated build in the context of RPG Maker might mean to package a game, insert localized resources (documentation, texts, graphics and/or music, etc.), DRMizing your game or simply code sign it with your certificate. You would naturally consider using L10nTool to localize texts.

Fortunately, this can be mostly done outside RPG Maker using standard tools. Rake is mostly used by Rubyist, Ant is my current personal favourite, and Make could be used for the nostalgics. Rake is probably the best choice for indy developers leaning on RPG Maker.

It's however always interesting to know that build automation is fully integrated with IDEs nowadays. There are also few things that are not trivial to do without full integration, such as dynamically inserting scripts (or partially change databases) in RPG Maker according to build automation rules.

RubyGems
Ruby programmers are well familiar with RubyGems, the package manager for Ruby libraries. There are several thousands packages available online. They are called Gems for a very good reason: this is truly a treasure. Now, you've got a powerful Ruby-based product to make RPG games and you are prohibited to use RubyGems. Wankers! Why on earth Enterbrain wouldn't make it easy to use RubyGems, I'll never know...

Brave New World
Imagine a world where you would have everything listed here at the tip of your fingers. The real possibility to deliver high quality, well rounded, fully featured RPG games RPG Maker-based. Your games would finally get the treatment they deserve with SDK for RPG Maker. Real tools for real developers.

Your fantasies would also become true. You could spruce up your games with real-time image effects using RMagick. Or, yet, add physics with Chipmunk: Game Dynamics. Writing softwares like L10nTool would be a joyful ride in a park.

But, wait, that's not all!

You could easily create an online game with Ruby's networking feature. Perhaps, your MMORPG dream comes true. An RGSS Player as a server with a handful of databases and multiples RGSS Players as clients connecting to your virtual world. A world that can evolve.

Software Development Kit

An SDK would basically let you develop, test, debug, package and deploy your games within an IDE and a collaborative environment. Something along this line...