killin' (trees) in the name of...
I pulled out one of my little blank Moleskine notebooks, and started a to-do file for myself this morning. Given that this is my last day in the city before classes start, I want to make sure I get all my nitpicky tasks straightened out before Monday. Anyway, I quickly filled the page with things-to-do, and nearly every entry begins with the word "print" or "copy". Clearly, although I've gone all-digital in terms of my personal documents and research, I haven't figured out how to conduct a class the same way.
I'll be ready for the first day, but just *barely*. The class I wanted to have a whole semester's worth of reading guides done for? Half done. The new course that requires me to basically "GM" a historical role-playing game? I have quickly skimmed the instructor's guide. The course that should be my most important foundational science course, but instead is a last-minute after-thought every year? I just tweaked the syllabus as a last-minute after-thought.
The thing is - I have a couple of courses that could be REALLY GOOD this semester. That is, if I wasn't also teaching two OTHER courses, mentoring 3 senior research projects, doing consulting work, and being distracted by the siren song of the sabbatical on the horizon. Oh, also, there is a chance I could be chairing one of the most important committees at the college.
If I can stay ahead of it all, it could be a decent semester. If not, it could be a fucking nightmare.
Place your bets, kids...
Thursday, August 13
what Dave has to say to science crackpots...
There is particular technique used by physics crackpots (of which there are LOTS) when they are defending their own theories. What they do is to assail Quantum Mechanics or General Relativity on some conceptual ground, and if you try to explain to them how the equations work or how their predictions are confirmed by experience, or god forbid you ask them to show you the equations in THEIR theory... they accuse physics of being a priestood/cult that uses mathematics as a weapon to deny ordinary people admittance. Almost every physics crackpot will use some version of that line somewhere.
The reason physics seems closed off and "cultish" is that there is a significant barrier to entry- which is- in order to be part of the conversation you need to understand the theory. You can not do this by watching the Discovery Channel, reading paperback pop-sci from Borders, and then thinking about it really hard. You learn the theories by working WITH the theories, and just to do THAT takes a minimum of 2-3 years of mathematics courses. Which is why the great majority of crackpots conveniently decree that REAL science doesn't NEED all that math.
But without a familiarity with the tools and techniques of the theories themselves, you have as much chance of making a sensible contribution to the scientific process as someone who has spent the past year in their room playing "Guitar Hero: Aerosmith" has of doing a good job filling in for Joe Perry on the next tour. Call it the CULT OF MUSIC PRIESTS if you want, but pushing the colored buttons on your PS3 controller is not even close to the real thing, no matter how much the fake crowd cheers.
(adapted from YouTube comment thread)
There is particular technique used by physics crackpots (of which there are LOTS) when they are defending their own theories. What they do is to assail Quantum Mechanics or General Relativity on some conceptual ground, and if you try to explain to them how the equations work or how their predictions are confirmed by experience, or god forbid you ask them to show you the equations in THEIR theory... they accuse physics of being a priestood/cult that uses mathematics as a weapon to deny ordinary people admittance. Almost every physics crackpot will use some version of that line somewhere.
The reason physics seems closed off and "cultish" is that there is a significant barrier to entry- which is- in order to be part of the conversation you need to understand the theory. You can not do this by watching the Discovery Channel, reading paperback pop-sci from Borders, and then thinking about it really hard. You learn the theories by working WITH the theories, and just to do THAT takes a minimum of 2-3 years of mathematics courses. Which is why the great majority of crackpots conveniently decree that REAL science doesn't NEED all that math.
But without a familiarity with the tools and techniques of the theories themselves, you have as much chance of making a sensible contribution to the scientific process as someone who has spent the past year in their room playing "Guitar Hero: Aerosmith" has of doing a good job filling in for Joe Perry on the next tour. Call it the CULT OF MUSIC PRIESTS if you want, but pushing the colored buttons on your PS3 controller is not even close to the real thing, no matter how much the fake crowd cheers.
(adapted from YouTube comment thread)
Wednesday, August 12
summer in brief...
Heading in to the city on the train this morning. I have to say - 6:45 comes awfully fucking early when you've spent the summer staying up until 2 and sleeping until 9 or 10:00. I have a meeting today for some new consulting work. I figured the train would give me a chance to post something on the blog. Where to start? Since last I blogged, I have...
* Finished Moby Dick on my Kindle
* Worked up from 1 mile to three miles of running at a stretch
* Lost 10-12 pounds
* Harassed crackpots on YouTube
* Gone to yoga class exactly twice
* Played at 2 open blues jams, neither impressively nor embarrassingly
* Reactivated Netflix
* Played multiple 10-year-old Zelda series games w/ the kids.
* Worked up a half dozen peculiar acoustic cover tunes
* Made $5000 in consulting income, yet remain broke and in debt
* Got a kitten that I did not want.
* All but ignored the impending semester of classes.
So. The usual.
Heading in to the city on the train this morning. I have to say - 6:45 comes awfully fucking early when you've spent the summer staying up until 2 and sleeping until 9 or 10:00. I have a meeting today for some new consulting work. I figured the train would give me a chance to post something on the blog. Where to start? Since last I blogged, I have...
* Finished Moby Dick on my Kindle
* Worked up from 1 mile to three miles of running at a stretch
* Lost 10-12 pounds
* Harassed crackpots on YouTube
* Gone to yoga class exactly twice
* Played at 2 open blues jams, neither impressively nor embarrassingly
* Reactivated Netflix
* Played multiple 10-year-old Zelda series games w/ the kids.
* Worked up a half dozen peculiar acoustic cover tunes
* Made $5000 in consulting income, yet remain broke and in debt
* Got a kitten that I did not want.
* All but ignored the impending semester of classes.
So. The usual.
Saturday, July 11
Yet another piece of...
...evidence that no matter how old I get I will never be an "adult"... my barely contained glee over finding a roll of Smarties in my bag.
Tuesday, July 7
second leg...
Hmm. Not sure how I feel about Amtrak Coach class. Not as crappy as a bad airplane seat, but not as nice as a good commuter train seat. Well... the SEAT is nice, it's just a pretty crowded train, that's all. People sitting next to you... inconvenient stuff like that. If only there was a form of transit where you could sit by yourself in a private compartment. Maybe if it could also stop whenever and wherever you want it to. Maybe you could also control its speed to some extent.
Someone really needs to get to work on that.
Anyway, there are plugs, which is nice.
Hmm. Not sure how I feel about Amtrak Coach class. Not as crappy as a bad airplane seat, but not as nice as a good commuter train seat. Well... the SEAT is nice, it's just a pretty crowded train, that's all. People sitting next to you... inconvenient stuff like that. If only there was a form of transit where you could sit by yourself in a private compartment. Maybe if it could also stop whenever and wherever you want it to. Maybe you could also control its speed to some extent.
Someone really needs to get to work on that.
Anyway, there are plugs, which is nice.
off again...
... on another business trip. This time to DC via train. Well... from home to NY via train, then NY to DC via a DIFFERENT train. Which makes almost 6 hours of train today. Good thing I like trains so damned much!
All this travel is for the consulting gig. The last trip was for a 3-day meeting with a small group of teachers. This trip is a big two day "Institute" followed by a bigger three-day "Forum". I'm only being paid for the first two days, but they are paying my hotel for the additional two nights. Not a bad deal. Still, I feel like this consulting thing has stolen my fucking summer right out from under me. When I get back from this trip, it will be "mid-July", and I start teaching again in "late-August". Fuck. I have done NO WORK AT ALL on my classes. None.
I was supposed to be co-leading the science curriculum sessions at the two day "Institute" meeting, but the other science consultant pulled out, so I am running the show. Which... ugh... is not my favorite thing in the world. I mean, I don't mind standing in front of a room where I know everything and they know nothing and talking for 3 or 4 hours, but... being responsible for "facilitating group discussions"? About big open-ended educational-buzzwordy subjects? Blah.
But... free trip to DC, which is cool. Unfortunately I'll be booked until 4:30 or 5:00 most days, it seems, and all the stuff I want to do in the city closes at 5:30. Except for those parts of the Smithsonian I saw 100 times as a kid , and will probably see 100 more times with my own kids. Extended hours at the Air and Space Museum? Blah.
I brought all my running gear, so I plan to work out while I'm there. The running is going pretty well. I can do 1.5 miles without a walk break, or alternately - 2 miles with 2 minutes to rest between them. If I can manage to keep running through the hot weather (which hasn't come yet, amazingly, but I'm sure has to eventually) I should easily be able to run 5K by the end of summer. Meanwhile, the needle on the scale landed firmly on the 200 line the other day, which doesn't seem like a good thing unless you know that just a month or two ago, it was flirting with the 210 area. So, I'm fairly content with the direction things are going there.
Not much else to say really, which is why I don't blog much anymore. Nothing is going on in my life that can't easily be described in 140 characters. Hell, sometimes even that's a stretch.
... on another business trip. This time to DC via train. Well... from home to NY via train, then NY to DC via a DIFFERENT train. Which makes almost 6 hours of train today. Good thing I like trains so damned much!
All this travel is for the consulting gig. The last trip was for a 3-day meeting with a small group of teachers. This trip is a big two day "Institute" followed by a bigger three-day "Forum". I'm only being paid for the first two days, but they are paying my hotel for the additional two nights. Not a bad deal. Still, I feel like this consulting thing has stolen my fucking summer right out from under me. When I get back from this trip, it will be "mid-July", and I start teaching again in "late-August". Fuck. I have done NO WORK AT ALL on my classes. None.
I was supposed to be co-leading the science curriculum sessions at the two day "Institute" meeting, but the other science consultant pulled out, so I am running the show. Which... ugh... is not my favorite thing in the world. I mean, I don't mind standing in front of a room where I know everything and they know nothing and talking for 3 or 4 hours, but... being responsible for "facilitating group discussions"? About big open-ended educational-buzzwordy subjects? Blah.
But... free trip to DC, which is cool. Unfortunately I'll be booked until 4:30 or 5:00 most days, it seems, and all the stuff I want to do in the city closes at 5:30. Except for those parts of the Smithsonian I saw 100 times as a kid , and will probably see 100 more times with my own kids. Extended hours at the Air and Space Museum? Blah.
I brought all my running gear, so I plan to work out while I'm there. The running is going pretty well. I can do 1.5 miles without a walk break, or alternately - 2 miles with 2 minutes to rest between them. If I can manage to keep running through the hot weather (which hasn't come yet, amazingly, but I'm sure has to eventually) I should easily be able to run 5K by the end of summer. Meanwhile, the needle on the scale landed firmly on the 200 line the other day, which doesn't seem like a good thing unless you know that just a month or two ago, it was flirting with the 210 area. So, I'm fairly content with the direction things are going there.
Not much else to say really, which is why I don't blog much anymore. Nothing is going on in my life that can't easily be described in 140 characters. Hell, sometimes even that's a stretch.
Friday, June 26
must rant...
I can't take it anymore, I can't take the Microsoft "I'm a PC" commercial, which ends with the guy saying "I'm a PC because I'm really picky" one more time without comment.
You just spent the whole commercial finding the cheapest blandest laptop in Best Buy. That is not being "picky". Buying the cheapest piece of crap you can find is THE OPPOSITE OF BEING PICKY!!
"I drive a Kia because I'm REALLY PICKY!!"
No.
You may now return to your TV viewing and repeated airings of those Microsoft BING commercials. With as much money as they have, you'd think Microsoft could make a series of commercials that doesn't irritate the fuck out of me.
I can't take it anymore, I can't take the Microsoft "I'm a PC" commercial, which ends with the guy saying "I'm a PC because I'm really picky" one more time without comment.
You just spent the whole commercial finding the cheapest blandest laptop in Best Buy. That is not being "picky". Buying the cheapest piece of crap you can find is THE OPPOSITE OF BEING PICKY!!
"I drive a Kia because I'm REALLY PICKY!!"
No.
You may now return to your TV viewing and repeated airings of those Microsoft BING commercials. With as much money as they have, you'd think Microsoft could make a series of commercials that doesn't irritate the fuck out of me.
Tuesday, June 16
kindle dx review...
SCREEN: Everything they say about the screen is true. Reading the "e-Ink" screen is nothing like reading a computer screen. It's a very odd image to wrap your head around, but it's much more paper-like than LCD-like. I wish the contrast were just a tiny bit greater (one review referred to the screen background as "dishwater grey") but I expect it to be as easy on the eyes as a normal book. Plus you can crank up the font-size to Old-Guy-With-Bifocal levels as needed. (Sometimes, see below.) The "blink" of the page-turns that a lot of people complain about when they first see the device...? I'm already starting to get used to it and ignore it.
FORM: I quite like the size of the DX, and it feels pretty sturdily built. Not quite iPod/iPhone sturdy, but close. It feels sleek and thin, but it's just a teensy bit too heavy. I know that seems like a silly complaint for something that weighs less than 20 ounces, but when you have an arthritic left thumb like I do... holding it up with one hand for too long is difficult. It's definitely designed for 2-handed use, or to be propped up on a lap or a knee.
CONTROLS: This is where I have complaints. I'm so spoiled by Apple's interface designs that I get VERY frustrated by things that don't work the way you expect them to without thinking about it. (Including Apple, by the way... I could make a list if you like) So when the Kindle has a click-joystick AND a "menu" button, and I find myself all the time clicking the click stick to make something happen that was supposed to use the menu button, well... someone has not thought out the UI well enough. The keyboard is impossible to type more than a few words on, but I don't expect to be doing so, so... whatever. I wish there was a "next page" button on both sides like the original, since apparently I like to hold a book in my left hand and do other things w/ my right. (Hold a drink/pen/slice of pizza). I think I will most often be using the device upside down (the screen auto-rotates) so the button will be under my left thumb. Again - if there are users who prefer to use your device UPSIDE DOWN, then you have not thought out the controls well enough.
(The real problem here is that the device BEGS to have a touchscreen!)
FORMATS: A few frustrating things here. First of all, if it has a web browser, why can't it read html files? Second, everyone complains about the no-folders problem for organizing your files. I've enacted a three letter tagging system to group my titles (FIC, SCI, REF, etc) but folders would be better. The fact that it puts txt files under "Books" and pdfs under "Documents" makes no sense at all. Some of my pdfs are BOOKS and some of my txt files are personal documents.
As far as plain text files go... I had of helluva time getting text files from Project Gutenberg to display properly on the Kindle, because they come with hard linefeeds that (depending on your font size) will generally not match the width of the Kindle, so the lines wind up all crazy. So you have to find a text editing program (like BBedit) that can easily strip that stuff from the file before putting it on your Kindle. Not always of course... depends where you got the file. I got a bunch of Arthur C Clarke txt files off P2P that display perfectly. The website ManyBooks.net has a bunch of Gutenberg's content already converted to the native Kindle format, which is nice. (Stuff in this format displays perfectly.)
Now, on to PDFs... a really mixed bag. The lack of a zoom or any ability to resize pdfs means that some large format/small type stuff is virtually unreadable, even in landscape mode. Any pdf that has page margins the size of a paperback or a small novel will work fine. (A Harry Potter book in pdf format displays at a perfectly readable size.) But large textbooks that have bigger-than-8x11-pages... or magazines with a 3 column layout... forget it, with my eyes anyway. Given that one of the markets for the Kindle was supposed to be college students... I dunno... not unless some of the textbook manufacturers seriously reformat their content.
One last issue - if a pdf file is text-based, then it displays quickly, but if it is based on an IMAGE SCAN (such as many of the books from GoogleBooks) the display is unusably slow. As in... page turns take 5 or 6 seconds. Not cool.
WEB BROWSER: Amazon refers to the browser on the Kindle as "Experimental", which I suppose is code for - we know this doesn't work too well, so don't bitch about it. I can describe the experience of using the Kindle web browser quite vividly, for some of you. Has anyone out there ever surfed the web on a Mac Plus or Mac Classic using NSCA Mosaic 2.0? That's almost exactly what this is like. Same screensize, same greyscale, same speed, same clunkily displayed HTML. And yet - it's fucking FREE people!! So, while I won't be doing loads of surfing on it, the ability to Wikipedia something really quick or pull up some news sites or blogs that have a good text-only mobile feed... I'm pretty excited about it.
OTHER FEATURES The text-to-speech ("Story Time with Dr. Hawking"!) is useless. The background music/mp3 implementation suffers from the lack of controls or organization. You put some files on it, it plays them in order, you hit F to skip. No back? No shuffle? I haven't used any of the subscription services yet, but I'm sure I will. They all come with a 14 day trial period that you can cancel with no fee, so I'm sure I will subscribe to all of them for 10 days, one at a time. For my trip this week, I'll probably sign up for the NY Times and Salon.com or something.
(Oh, and... for what we paid for this thing, could you throw in a cheap cloth slip-case?? I know part of your business model is selling $50 leather folios for the thing but... fuck... give us SOMETHING.)
UPSHOT? Is this thing worth the almost-$500 price tag? No. Not by a long shot. Not unless you have way more money to toss around than I do, or maybe if you read 20 hardback best-sellers a year. If I did not have $1500 a year that was earmarked for travel and gadgets, I would be WAY outside the market for this thing. But is it cool? Yeah it's pretty cool, and genuinely futuristic, and I think... as someone who spends 4 hours a day on trains and subways... I'll use it a lot. But there are enough interface and feature quibbles, that I don't consider it a "home run". Honestly, it just makes me pine for the day Apple releases the iTouchMax/Newton3000/tablet-device that all the rumor mills claim they are working on.
SCREEN: Everything they say about the screen is true. Reading the "e-Ink" screen is nothing like reading a computer screen. It's a very odd image to wrap your head around, but it's much more paper-like than LCD-like. I wish the contrast were just a tiny bit greater (one review referred to the screen background as "dishwater grey") but I expect it to be as easy on the eyes as a normal book. Plus you can crank up the font-size to Old-Guy-With-Bifocal levels as needed. (Sometimes, see below.) The "blink" of the page-turns that a lot of people complain about when they first see the device...? I'm already starting to get used to it and ignore it.
FORM: I quite like the size of the DX, and it feels pretty sturdily built. Not quite iPod/iPhone sturdy, but close. It feels sleek and thin, but it's just a teensy bit too heavy. I know that seems like a silly complaint for something that weighs less than 20 ounces, but when you have an arthritic left thumb like I do... holding it up with one hand for too long is difficult. It's definitely designed for 2-handed use, or to be propped up on a lap or a knee.
CONTROLS: This is where I have complaints. I'm so spoiled by Apple's interface designs that I get VERY frustrated by things that don't work the way you expect them to without thinking about it. (Including Apple, by the way... I could make a list if you like) So when the Kindle has a click-joystick AND a "menu" button, and I find myself all the time clicking the click stick to make something happen that was supposed to use the menu button, well... someone has not thought out the UI well enough. The keyboard is impossible to type more than a few words on, but I don't expect to be doing so, so... whatever. I wish there was a "next page" button on both sides like the original, since apparently I like to hold a book in my left hand and do other things w/ my right. (Hold a drink/pen/slice of pizza). I think I will most often be using the device upside down (the screen auto-rotates) so the button will be under my left thumb. Again - if there are users who prefer to use your device UPSIDE DOWN, then you have not thought out the controls well enough.
(The real problem here is that the device BEGS to have a touchscreen!)
FORMATS: A few frustrating things here. First of all, if it has a web browser, why can't it read html files? Second, everyone complains about the no-folders problem for organizing your files. I've enacted a three letter tagging system to group my titles (FIC, SCI, REF, etc) but folders would be better. The fact that it puts txt files under "Books" and pdfs under "Documents" makes no sense at all. Some of my pdfs are BOOKS and some of my txt files are personal documents.
As far as plain text files go... I had of helluva time getting text files from Project Gutenberg to display properly on the Kindle, because they come with hard linefeeds that (depending on your font size) will generally not match the width of the Kindle, so the lines wind up all crazy. So you have to find a text editing program (like BBedit) that can easily strip that stuff from the file before putting it on your Kindle. Not always of course... depends where you got the file. I got a bunch of Arthur C Clarke txt files off P2P that display perfectly. The website ManyBooks.net has a bunch of Gutenberg's content already converted to the native Kindle format, which is nice. (Stuff in this format displays perfectly.)
Now, on to PDFs... a really mixed bag. The lack of a zoom or any ability to resize pdfs means that some large format/small type stuff is virtually unreadable, even in landscape mode. Any pdf that has page margins the size of a paperback or a small novel will work fine. (A Harry Potter book in pdf format displays at a perfectly readable size.) But large textbooks that have bigger-than-8x11-pages... or magazines with a 3 column layout... forget it, with my eyes anyway. Given that one of the markets for the Kindle was supposed to be college students... I dunno... not unless some of the textbook manufacturers seriously reformat their content.
One last issue - if a pdf file is text-based, then it displays quickly, but if it is based on an IMAGE SCAN (such as many of the books from GoogleBooks) the display is unusably slow. As in... page turns take 5 or 6 seconds. Not cool.
WEB BROWSER: Amazon refers to the browser on the Kindle as "Experimental", which I suppose is code for - we know this doesn't work too well, so don't bitch about it. I can describe the experience of using the Kindle web browser quite vividly, for some of you. Has anyone out there ever surfed the web on a Mac Plus or Mac Classic using NSCA Mosaic 2.0? That's almost exactly what this is like. Same screensize, same greyscale, same speed, same clunkily displayed HTML. And yet - it's fucking FREE people!! So, while I won't be doing loads of surfing on it, the ability to Wikipedia something really quick or pull up some news sites or blogs that have a good text-only mobile feed... I'm pretty excited about it.
OTHER FEATURES The text-to-speech ("Story Time with Dr. Hawking"!) is useless. The background music/mp3 implementation suffers from the lack of controls or organization. You put some files on it, it plays them in order, you hit F to skip. No back? No shuffle? I haven't used any of the subscription services yet, but I'm sure I will. They all come with a 14 day trial period that you can cancel with no fee, so I'm sure I will subscribe to all of them for 10 days, one at a time. For my trip this week, I'll probably sign up for the NY Times and Salon.com or something.
(Oh, and... for what we paid for this thing, could you throw in a cheap cloth slip-case?? I know part of your business model is selling $50 leather folios for the thing but... fuck... give us SOMETHING.)
UPSHOT? Is this thing worth the almost-$500 price tag? No. Not by a long shot. Not unless you have way more money to toss around than I do, or maybe if you read 20 hardback best-sellers a year. If I did not have $1500 a year that was earmarked for travel and gadgets, I would be WAY outside the market for this thing. But is it cool? Yeah it's pretty cool, and genuinely futuristic, and I think... as someone who spends 4 hours a day on trains and subways... I'll use it a lot. But there are enough interface and feature quibbles, that I don't consider it a "home run". Honestly, it just makes me pine for the day Apple releases the iTouchMax/Newton3000/tablet-device that all the rumor mills claim they are working on.
Monday, June 15
dear postal service...
This...
... is not "TRACKING". Telling me that, just before noon yesterday, my package arrived at some undisclosed location between here and Indiana... this information does me NO FUCKING GOOD AT ALL.
A stamp costs what, a buck seventy-nine nowadays? Invest a little of that in a computer and a laser-scanner-thingy for fuck's sake.
This...
... is not "TRACKING". Telling me that, just before noon yesterday, my package arrived at some undisclosed location between here and Indiana... this information does me NO FUCKING GOOD AT ALL.
A stamp costs what, a buck seventy-nine nowadays? Invest a little of that in a computer and a laser-scanner-thingy for fuck's sake.
Tuesday, June 9
dr. dave - "peekster"...
Take a minute to watch your humble host publicly dis Apple and reveal himself to be a cheap bastard... ALL CAPTURED ON VIDEO!
Take a minute to watch your humble host publicly dis Apple and reveal himself to be a cheap bastard... ALL CAPTURED ON VIDEO!
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