Ramblings of a Luddite Geek

Tainted Chocolate For a Scary Halloween

2008-10-29T17:30:00.002-04:00

The melamine that was found in tainted milk could be in the chocolate that's passed out this Halloween.

Please watch this "Candy Product Review 2008 of Potentially MELAMINE Tainted Treats, A SERIOUS Warning By Mike Mozart of JeepersMedia on You Tube" and warn others.

And consider giving out stickers, yourself.

Thank you.

Bailout, Schmailout

2008-10-10T18:54:00.004-04:00

Congress thinks we need a bailout. Wall Street definitely needs a bailout. What do you think?

I'll tell you what I think. We don't need it.

Our economy is self-correcting. Higher interest rates caused trouble for people who were in too much debt. They could no longer pay back their loans. As well, the ever increasing cost for gasoline and heating oil put an extra strain on the entire working class.

But now, the rates on Treasury bills are ridiculously low. This means the rates on home equity lines of credit and the interest rates on ARMs (Adjustable Rate Mortgages) have fallen because they're both usually indexed to one of the Treasury bills.

We're also seeing much lower prices for gasoline. Drivers are practically swerving off the side of the road to stare at the prices. "Wait, did that actually read $3.19? No it must've been $4.19. Let me look again."

One big problem remains. Businesses may start to fire workers because they cannot finance growth projects or even payroll. In this case, the appropriate course of action for our government is to finance projects that lead to new jobs.

Imagine how many jobs $700 Billion could start. You could create a whole oil-free energy infrastructure with that amount of money. People would have jobs, and we'd finally be independent from unfriendly oil-producing nations.

But then, what kind of jobs will the greedy Wall Street CEO's get? My advice is to put them on disability -- essentially pay them to not work. We'll all be better off then.

More USA Election 2008 Resources

2008-10-03T22:57:00.017-04:00

Watch the Biden-Palin debate online.

Then skip over to FactCheck.org to find out how accurate each candidate was.

The first Obama-McCain debate also is on Hulu.

Find the FactCheck.org response to it.

I wrote about Science debate two weeks ago.

Check out the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation's "Comparing the Candidates' Technology and Innovation Policies."

Scientists and Engineers for America helps you determine how each candidate voted on energy and technology-related bills while in Congress. (Its database covers all members of Congress):

http://sharp.sefora.org/

Beware Bank Phish E-mail

2008-10-02T12:43:00.002-04:00

Experts predict Spike in Fraudulent Activity Due to Banking Turmoil

Woking, UK. 25th September 2008 An
increase in fraudulent activity is likely to follow the recent events
in the banking sector according to UK Company, First Cyber Security.
Customers with internet banking accounts are urged to take care if
asked to respond to emails from banks which have been named as being
involved in the recent takeovers and mergers.

- First Cyber Security (FCS)

Obama's and McCain's Answers to the Top 14 Science Questions Facing America

2008-09-18T17:05:00.004-04:00

"Science Debate 2008 worked with ... leading organizations ... to
craft the top 14 questions the [Presidential] candidates should answer. These
questions are broad enough to allow for wide variations in response,
but they are specific enough to help guide the discussion toward many
of the largest and most important unresolved challenges currently
facing the United States."

Read the candidates' answers here:

http://www.sciencedebate2008.com/www/index.php?id=42

What Should I Do With This Computer?

2008-09-12T21:25:00.029-04:00

I have an old computer that I'm wondering what to do with. It's a Pentium III, 500MHz, with 256MB RAM and a 10GB hard drive, with only less than 3GB left.

The case is a low profile style, so there's no bracket for an additional drive, which I do have. If I add the second drive, I'd have to attach it with double-sided tape.

The computer is configured to dual boot into either Windows 98 or Windows NT 4.0 SP. The NT partition has Office 97 installed on it. It still works. But I'd like to be able to install somewhat modern software on it and use the USB ports.

Three ideas I have:

Reformat the drive with a single partition and do a fresh install of Windows 2000. It would be comparable to the software configuration on my current desktop. This would get the USB ports working. But some programs, such as iTunes, no longer support Windows 2000.

Reformat the drive with a single partition and do a fresh install of Windows XP. Not sure how it will perform on this system, though.

Reformat the drive and install Ubuntu. Not sure what software is available -- maybe just a web browser, Open Office and a PDF viewer. And of course Emacs. Most likely no one else in the house would use the computer. And I wonder if I can get all the drivers I'll need.

The first step is to get the second drive installed, if I can.

What do you think?

Follow Up to "Career Doldrums"

2008-08-25T14:21:00.005-04:00

Just a quick follow up to my previous post.

I was a bit unfair in saying that the book advises you to deal with doldrums by changing careers. That's not all it does. It's also great confidence booster, especially for baby boomers who are worried that they're too old to find a new job.

It explains the differences among the Baby Boom, Gen X and the latest generation (Gen Y. See Wikipedia's List of Generations for generation definitions.) This comparison serves as a foundation to convince the baby boomer that his/her contribution at a new company will be valued. Gen Y wants immediate gratification and frequent rewards, but Baby Boomers don't need that. Gen Y doesn't want to waste time giving their boss progress reports -- they just want to dive in to the work and finish it as quickly as possible.

The generational comparisons also help older workers understand their younger bosses, who come in to the workplace and turn it up-side-down.

So I found it interesting. And it ultimately helped me understand that I might be better off staying where I am.

Resources from the "Career Doldrums" Book

2008-08-24T17:46:00.000-04:00

I finally got around to reading "Escape the Mid-Career Doldrums: What to do Next When You're Bored, Burned Out, Retired or Fired", which I mentioned in my January 17 post, "Book Recommendations From CareerBuilder.com".

Basically, the Escape involves switching careers. This involves making extreme financial sacrifices and tapping into a vast store of retirement savings. The assumption is that you've already raised your child(ren) and he/she/they've somehow managed to become self-sufficient. For some reason, the book didn't mention playing the lottery.

This is not a book written for my generation.

Anyway, I wanted to record some of the online resources that the book offers:

www.engineeringjobs.com

Occupational Outlook Handbook -- www.bls.gov

www.hotjobs.com

www.jobbankusa.com

www.computerwork.com

www.computerjobs.com

www.dice.com

www.justtechjobs.com

Philanthropy News Digest -- news regarding fundraising and establishing a foundation.
www.foundationcenter.org/pnd

www.idealist.org

www.nonprofitoyster.com

Self Employment

www.betheboss.com

www.money.cnn.com

www.wibo.org "Boot camp" for entrepreneurs.

www.franchise1.com

www.smartbiz.com

www.sbaonline.sba.gov

Enjoy!

How New Blinds and Windows Can Keep You Cool

2008-08-09T22:42:00.004-04:00

I've had the new window shades since November, but I didn't start to appreciate them until the warm weather arrived.

The neat thing about these shades is that they open at the top and the bottom. So do the windows. (The picture is of Bali's DiamondCell - Solitaire 3/8" Double Cell Shade, which is the style of shade I bought and installed.)

So that means I can keep the top of the windows and blinds open even at night without compromising privacy. And the hot air that collects near the ceilings can leak out more easily.

It also helps that the window panes are coated to reflect the heat of the sun.

It's simple things like this that prevents us from wasting energy.

Social Networks for Book Lovers

2008-07-15T21:23:00.006-04:00

I just learned about LibraryThing from reading Sacha Chua's blog post, "Taking book notes." LibraryThing is a social network for book lovers.

The general idea is that you enter books into your library by searching for a title or ISBN. There's also an import tool that will scan a webpage and pull in the ISBNs it can recognize. I used this to import the 106 books that were referenced on my "List of Books I've Read Recently," which I might decide to replace with some references to my library on LibraryThing.

Once you have books in your library, LibraryThing will provide links to profiles of users that have many of the same books in their libraries. You can navigate to their libraries and leave comments on their profiles.

Well, that's just a brief overview. Check out LibraryThing for yourself.

For a more in-depth discussion of LibraryThing and other such sites, check out NPR's All Things Considered discussion of social networks for book lovers.

Help Our Airlines Save Fuel

2008-06-12T22:53:00.009-04:00

Airlines are struggling with the ever-increasing cost of fuel. They've started to charge passengers to check baggage. Let's think of other ways they can stay aloft in this turbulent economy:

Charge passengers a fee that's proportional to the total weight of the passenger plus all his/her baggage, both carry on and checked.

Offer passengers stationary bicycles and other exercise machines to prevent DVT, but secretly use the machines to drive electrical generators, which can power such non-essential systems as entertainment, lighting and navigation.

Offer passengers free refreshments in the terminal. Lace the refreshments with laxatives and diuretics. ^{1, 2}

What can you do personally? Why not leave the heavy luggage behind? Just choose baggy clothing to wear at your destination, and put it all on before you leave your home. Better yet, don't even bother bringing extra clothes. Just buy your change of clothes at your destination.

With lots of creative planning, we can yet again save our beloved airline industry.

¹ Empty passengers are lighter.
² Whatever they leave behind can be used as bio-fuel.

Driving to Optimize Fuel Economy

2008-05-25T01:00:00.000-04:00

In my area, gas prices have jumped beyond $4.00 per gallon over the last couple of weeks. I ranted before about how traffic lights contribute to decreased fuel economy. But I didn't mention that driving technique can dramatically influence fuel economy.

An extreme type of driving that maximizes fuel economy is called Hypermiling. Generally the idea is to minimize acceleration and braking. Unless you're going down a steep hill, acceleration requires more gasoline than just maintaining speed. And braking converts all your car's motion (which came from gasoline) into heat energy. So essentially, braking is like throwing away gasoline.

If this is the kind of topic that gives you goosebumps, you might be interested in the forums at CleanMPG, especially Wayne Gerdes' post "Beating the EPA - The Why’s and how to Hypermile".

And rather than boycotting gasoline for one day, folks should either not drive on that day, or at least drive more efficiently. With the subsequent drop in demand, gas prices would relax.

MySpace Notes

2008-05-16T00:10:00.000-04:00

My pre-teen daughter already has a website and just started a blog. So I figured I should start learning more about MySpace. She's not on MySpace right now, but she might be in a few years.

I've just finished reading "Me, MySpace, and I," by Larry D. Rosen. It suggests that parents open an account on MySpace because there are many areas on the website that you can't access unless you're logged in.

Many websites require users to provide a real name and real address when you open an account. This is particularly true of commerce sites like Amazon.com. So I was not alarmed when MySpace asked for my real name and town, "so other members can search for you." It assured me that it wouldn't display my name, but I cautiously provided a bogus name, anyway.

When I finished entering the required information, it showed me the profile page that it created for me. And there was the bogus name and town displayed in nice bold type. Thanks for preserving my anonymity, MySpace.

Well, anyway, I'm there now, and no harm was done to me.

Some things from the book I thought worth mentioning. This quote, for example:

"Some MySpace young people have told me that they like to pretend to be dumb just to see what other people do and say. One guy got a date with a girl by pretending to be a "C" student and when she met him and found out he was a "brain" she canceled the date."

- page 70

Check out http://www.ypulse.com for trends in the lives of tweens, teens and young adults.

Other resources:

http://www.isafe.org
http://www.parenthood.com
http://www.allianceforchildhood.net
http://www.kids.getnetwise.org
http://www.cybersmart.org
http://www.netsmartz.org
http://www.besafe.com
http://www.protectkids.com
http://www.webwisekids.com
http://www.internetbehavior.com
http://www.safeteens.com
http://www.blogsafely.com
http://www.commonsensemedia.com
http://www.safefamilies.org
http://www.wiredsafety.org
http://www.netfamilynews.com

Autism Awareness

2008-04-15T00:28:00.005-04:00

April is Autism Awareness Month here in USA. Would you be able to recognize the symptoms of autism if you saw them? Probably not.

The latest estimate of the prevalence of autism is that 1 in 150 people in the USA have been diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), which is also known as Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD).

If you're in the fields of engineering, computer science, physics or math, the chances are even higher that you, your children, your coworkers or their children could be diagnosed with this disorder. And you should check out http://firstsigns.org/, which is dedicated to the early identification and intervention of children with developmental delays and disorders, including Autism Spectrum Disorders.

The diagnostic criteria for ASD in children concern development and ability in the areas of social interaction, communication and play. Please see "Diagnosis and Epidemiology of Autism Spectrum Disorders," by Lee Tidmarsh, MD, Fred R Volkmar, MD.

Early detection of an ASD is crucial because when interventions are tried at an early age (say at 3 to 5 years of age), they seem to be more effective than when tried later on.

Those who have an ASD and who can communicate say that they don't want to be cured; they just want to be accepted. Thus, it's not they who have the problem, it is society. Nevertheless, interventions can make things easier for children and the autistic adults they grow in to.

What kinds of interventions can reduce the symptoms of an ASD? A change in diet -- avoiding wheat and dairy productions, for example -- can help those with Leaky Gut Syndrome, which can manifest as symptoms of ASD. Another effective, diet-related approach is supplementation with mega doses of vitamin B6, or its active co-enzyme, P5P. Play therapy or Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) has been proven to help. In some cases, mercury detoxification may help. There are many more interventions for a parent to choose from. Then there are interventions aimed at easing the secondary symptoms that accompany ASD such as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Depression.

Scientists can spend entire careers looking for signs of intelligent life in the Universe. Meanwhile, medical researchers have overlooked signs of intelligence in people with autism. They assume that people who can't talk and who respond differently to stimuli must be lacking in intelligence.

If you don't believe me, consider the amazing website, Getting the Truth Out, which was originally written in response to an objectionable Autism Awareness fundraising campaign called "Getting the Word Out." Be sure to follow the presentation completely to the end.

If you suspect that you or a loved one is struggling with an ASD, visit the Online Asperger Syndrome Information & Support (OASIS). (Asperger Syndrome is an ASD, and is sometimes referred to as High-Functioning Autism.) As its name suggests, you can get a great deal of information from the site. You can find most of the support by clicking on the Message Boards menu choice and registering for the "OASIS: Asperger Syndrome Forum".

How to Avoid a Recession

2008-03-10T20:47:00.007-04:00

There's a lot of talk about what to do about the economy. One group of economists believes that Federal Reserve Board Chair Ben Bernanke made a mistake in cutting interest rates recently. They think that will lead to inflation.

Most politicians agree that we need some form of tax cut. Some say that the middle class should get a tax break. Others say no, the middle class will just use it to pay down debt, and that businesses need tax breaks in order to hire more workers.

Some suggest that saving sub-prime mortgage borrowers from bankruptcy is the key to bringing about economic recovery.

Many of these opinions have merit, but they fail to address the cause of the faltering economy. The real problem is the rising cost of energy.

The economy depends on energy for growth. You cannot manufacture items unless you use energy. You cannot transport these manufactured goods unless you use energy. And consumers cannot afford to buy these goods if they're spending most of their disposable income on energy.

You might think we'd've learned a lesson from the oil crisis of the 1970s. But our favorite energy source still seems to be based on oil. And as the oil supply tightens, our economy falters.

Imagine this scenario: It's the distant future, and our world is without oil. Where does our energy come from for manufacturing, transportation and consumer use? Solar and nuclear.

Equatorial countries are the world's energy movers and shakers. They get the most intense solar radiation. They produce the most electricity per photo-voltaic cell. Their biofuel is the richest and most abundant on the planet.

So perhaps it's time to cut taxes on oil, gasoline and electricity. Maybe it's even time to think about subsidizing energy costs? It depends on how serious our government is about maintaining economic growth.

Engineers Week

2008-02-24T21:18:00.008-05:00

Engineers Week was last week. One reason the organizers put effort into making and promoting Engineers Week is to get kids interested in engineering. So why does it take place during winter vacation week?

So I'll be belatedly "celebrating" Engineers Week this week by visiting my daughter's elementary school class and talking about electricity. My presentation is titled, "Watt is Electricity?" Get it?

I made a little electromagnet kit for each student. All I did was wind about four feet of solid 22 gauge copper wire around a nail. I placed this in a bag with a D battery, some paper clips and a sheet of paper with this text:

Electromagnet Test Kit
Contains:
4’ 22 AWG Solid Insulated Copper Wire
Steel Nail
D Battery (1.5V)
Paperclips (to test electromagnet)
When electrical current flows through a wire, a magnetic field develops around the wire. By winding the wire into a tight coil around an iron core, the magnetic flux is concentrated, and the magnetic attraction is strong.

Touch the bare wire ends to the battery terminals.

Watch Out – it gets HOT.

How many paper clips can you pick up?

What do you think would happen if:
You unwrapped some of the wire?
You used a 9V or 12V battery?
You wrapped the wire around a pencil?

Science Links for Kids
http://www.energyquest.ca.gov/projects/
http://www.eia.doe.gov/kids/
http://www.ieee-virtual-museum.org/
http://www.discoverengineering.org/

Those links are pretty cool. Check them out when you get a chance!

More on Traffic Lights

2008-02-21T21:35:00.006-05:00

I was too tired to continue my previous post. So I'll add some comments here in a new post.

I wrote:

If the number of cars on the main road is so great that you need to interrupt the flow in order to let yet more cars on it, you're contributing to yet more traffic congestion.

Actually, about 16 years ago, traffic lights were introduced on entrance ramps to the Long Island Expressway. The idea was to prevent cars from entering the highway during rush hour. That demonstrates an appropriate use of traffic lights -- to improve the flow of traffic rather than to impede it.

I wrote:

It's inefficient to force several cars to stop for the sake of one or two cars that are already stopped. Forcing a car to stop and then accelerate back up to cruising speed is a significant waste of gas. In fact every time a driver applies the brake, he or she "throws away" the fuel that was used to accelerate the car. And acceleration is what uses the most fuel.

And...

Many of these intersections are so small that when cars turn onto them from the main road, the cars trigger the Hall effect sensor that causes the light to cycle. Thus, the light turns red for those who navigate the main road even when there's no car to yield to! More waste!

You can solve both problems simply by installing (or moving) the sensors farther back from the intersection and decreasing the sensitivity. That way the light won't cycle unless there are a few cars queued up. It might be a good idea to change the mode to blinking red-yellow during non-peak hours to allow cars to enter the main roadway whenever it's clear, but then have the light switch to give the right-of-way to the smaller roadway when enough cars are waiting.

I can imagine the day when every intersection will have a traffic light. Hopefully I'll be dead by then. Or perhaps traffic lights will be part of a Intelligent Vehicle System that's designed to route traffic for maximum efficiency. Lights will be used to tell motorists when it's safe to enter the intersection rather than stop other cars to allow them to enter.

The Problem With Traffic Lights

2008-02-16T23:09:00.012-05:00

"'See, I can time them perfectly,' the [traffic] light said with satisfaction. 'I get hundreds of them each day. No one gets through my intersection without paying his tax in gas and rubber.'"
"'Go blow a bulb!' the car growled at the light.
"'Go soak your horn!' the light flashed back."
- from pages 187 to 188 of "Centaur Aisle," by Piers Anthony

I've had this quote in my "Quote du Jour" for several weeks, ready for the day I finally rant about traffic lights.

In my town, traffic lights are installed indiscriminately as a feeble response to town growth. The rich folks flock to buy McMansions in new developments. Then they complain that they can't get onto the main road without waiting a minute or two for a break in the traffic. So up goes yet another traffic light.

There are intersections where traffic lights are needed, such where two main highways intersect.

But why install one at a "T" intersection on a busy main road for a tiny side street? Here's why it's not a good idea:

If the number of cars on the main road is so great that you need to interrupt the flow in order to let yet more cars on it, you're contributing to yet more traffic congestion.
It's inefficient to force several cars to stop for the sake of one or two cars that are already stopped. Forcing a car to stop and then accelerate back up to cruising speed is a significant waste of gas. In fact every time a driver applies the brake, he or she "throws away" the fuel that was used to accelerate the car. And acceleration is what uses the most fuel.
Many of these intersections are so small that when cars turn onto them from the main road, the cars trigger the Hall effect sensor that causes the light to cycle. Thus, the light turns red for those who navigate the main road even when there's no car to yield to! More waste!
Finally, traffic lights waste electrical power all day and night. In fact, they remain powered up even in the wee hours of the morning when no one needs them. At night they're so bright you could read a large-print book under them. Why not reduce the light intensity after dark and save money? True, some lights are set to blink red-yellow, and thus they require half the electricity to light the lamps. But the controllers that run them also waste electricity. So just shut them down completely and get that power consumption down to zero. Drivers know anyway to stop before they enter a main road in the absence of traffic control.

Book Recommendations From CareerBuilder.com

2008-01-17T21:59:00.000-05:00

The CareerBuilder section in our December 16, 2007 newspaper featured 16 career guidance books in its list of "this year's most interesting career books." A few of them look as though they'd be really helpful for me. Unfortunately I couldn't find the article online. I'll list the book titles with links....

"The IT Factor: Be the One People Like, Listen To, and Remember" Maybe?
"Winning Nice: How to Succeed in Business and Life Without Waging War" Maybe?
"Lessons on Leadership: The 7 Fundamental Management Skills for Leaders at All Levels"
"Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins: How to Use Your Own Stories to Communicate With Power and Impact"
"Get Your M.B.A. Part-Time, Fourth Edition: For the Part-Time Student with a Full-Time Life"
"Buzz: How to Create It and Win With It"
"Work Like You're Showing Off: The Joy, Jazz, and Kick of Being Better Tomorrow Than You Were Today" Maybe?
"Making a Living While Making a Difference: Conscious Careers for an Era of Interdependence"
This sounds like a good one!
"Get Ahead by Going Abroad: A Woman's Guide to Fast-track Career Success"
"Saving the Earth as a Career: Advice on Becoming a Conservation Professional" This sounds like another good one!
"Escape the Mid-Career Doldrums: What to do Next When You're Bored, Burned Out, Retired or Fired" Yes, this is what I need!
"Time Power: A Proven System for Getting More Done in Less Time Than You Ever Thought Possible" Bingo! (But I suspect the authors don't advocate Spending an hour blogging about career books.)
"Make Your Contacts Count: Networking Know-how for Business And Career Success"
"College Majors Scorecard" The self-assessment tool sounds interesting.
"The Girl's Guide to Building a Million-Dollar Business"
"Career and Corporate Cool" Maybe?

Anniversary Dates for Engineers

2007-10-27T15:52:00.000-04:00

When an engineer picks a wedding date, chances are it has some numeric meaning. It's a fun challenge to come up with a sequence of numbers that forms a date that falls on a weekend. And afterwards, it lessens the likelihood that the anniversary will be forgotten.

Here are some simple weekend dates in MM/DD/YY format that are based on simple multiplication facts: 02/16/08, 12/08/96.

Here are dates based on sequences: 06/07/08, 05/10/15, 09/16/xx. With that last one, the month and day are so good, we'll ignore the year.

Some other nice dates: 08/16/08, 03/14/15, which are the first five digits of Pi.

Are you an engineer that married? What date did you choose?

Emacs: Yet Another Cool High-Tech Thing

2007-10-07T16:19:00.000-04:00

Two years ago, I wrote about Servant Salamander. In that post, I described how Servant Salamander substituted nicely for Norton Commander when I made the switch from MS-DOS to Windows NT.

The other software substitute I made was to replace my favorite text editor, Brief. When I started using Brief, it was by a company called "Underware." When I stopped using it, it had been taken over by Borland. They had no plans to make it Windows-compatible.

I loved Brief's ability to record and playback keyboard macros. It had undo. Its regular expression search and replace capability was powerful. It could cut and paste columns of text. It could be scripted. It supported multiple windows.

I continued to use Brief on Windows NT, even though its cut and paste didn't work with the Windows clipboard. And I recall having display problems at certain video resolutions.

So I set off in search of a new Windows text editor. The minimum requirements were:

Column marking, cutting, pasting.
Undo.
Regular expression search / replace.
Keystroke macros.
Windows compatible.

I wanted an editor that could be scripted. And even better, one with the same keystrokes as Brief, or with a reconfigurable keyboard.

I came across Crisp, Zeus and then Vedit a bit later.

I rejected Crisp almost immediately, even though it seemed to be the ideal replacement. The problem was that it was unstable. Or, more accurately, it made my computer unstable. So I dropped it quickly.

I was mostly happy with Zeus. But sometimes I needed to edit binary files, and one thing I did not like was that Zeus could not handle null characters. (And it wasn't 100% Brief-compatible.) That's why I got Vedit. Vedit did a great job with all kinds of files of all sizes. I was even able to edit EBCDIC files, which helped when I was writing an EBCDIC to ASCII translator. But I never got comfortable with Vedit, so I continued to use Zeus primarily.

One day I decided to try another search for the Ultimate Text Editor. Someone recommended Gnu Emacs.

Emacs was "sort of" Brief compatible. In fact, it was Crisp-compatible with its Crisp-mode Lisp add-on. But in reviewing Emacs, I came across the advice that it's best to learn the native key-mapping. So that's what I did, back in 2001.

It was a bit hard to get used Emacs, and I did have to remap the keyboard a tiny bit. For example, back then, Emacs would interpret the Del key as Backspace, which deletes the previous character instead of the next character. (This is not true of more recent versions.) Also, I stumbled over Emacs terminology. For example, it's not "Cut" and "Paste" but rather "Kill" and "Yank."

But all the effort I put in to it was well worth it. Now, I don't bother to write text-manipulation programs because it's easier (and more fun) to script Emacs to perform that kind of work. I enjoy using Emacs Planner to keep track of tasks and notes that pertain to numerous work projects. And at one time, I enjoyed using the newsreader Gnus with it's wonderful ability to score message threads based on any number of regular expression filters I could come up with.

Emacs is licensed under the GNU General Public License, which means that it's free, not only in the sense that you can obtain it without cost, but also that you are free to modify and distribute the software, provided you pass along this same freedom.

Emacs is amazing. It is constantly being improved by intelligent people who demand great things from their programs. It can run on many different platforms. Try it out!

The Personable Computer

2007-09-05T21:11:00.000-04:00

We call them Personal Computers. But why can't they be Personable?

The other day I was typing an e-mail. I thought I had on-the-fly spell checking enabled. Then I typed the word "triennial" and didn't see the red squiggly underline. I wondered, "Did I really spell that right?" and "Is spell check really turned on?" I decided to run the spell check manually. And it ran, finishing with a disappointing absence of fanfare over my correctly spelled word.

Why couldn't it respond, "Hey, great job at spelling triennial, big guy"? I am an engineer, after all, so I'm supposedly disposed toward bad spelling.

How should that response have worked, exactly, without actually being annoying? Certainly a focus-stealing pop-up would've been downright annoying. And a little checkmark after the word might not have been effusive¹ enough. Perhaps a message in the status bar would've afforded the best trade-off between noticeability² and interference.

The reason computers don't provide this kind of feedback is because of how intensely users loathed Clippy, the default Microsoft Office 97 help mascot. Clippy was best known for saying, "It looks like you're typing a letter. Would you like some help with that?"³ Of course users loathed that. We know how to type a freaking letter. We don't appreciate being patronized by something with half the intelligence of an earthworm. Whoever designed that hadn't ever held a door open for a feminist.

But if Clippy had offered praise instead of assistance (or perhaps in addition to assistance), he/it might've been accepted or at least tolerated. And it would've been better if it weren't so dorky looking.

I'm sure we'll see a return of something like Clippy, albeit well-disguised. It's just too tempting a feature to ignore for long.

¹I spelled this correctly the first time, too!

²But alas, I did not spell this correctly the first time.

³And there are wonderful parodies⁴ of this too, such as, "It looks like you're typing a suicide note. Would you like some help with that? Okay, first tell me, how do you plan to kill yourself? Choose one: Gunshot to the Head; Slash Wrists; Overdose; Jump Off Tall Building or Bridge; Step In front of a Moving Train, Truck or Automobile. Great! Thanks! Next, tell me the reason why you're killing yourself: No One Understands Me; My Lover Left Me; I'm Broke; I Can't Stand This Asinine Clippy... And so on.

⁴See, for example, One Egg Shy's Clippy's Guide to Suicide Notes, or his Clippy’s Guide to Ransom Notes.

Hey buddy, can you spare a few CPU cycles?

2007-03-23T23:40:00.000-04:00

Do you leave your computer running and connected to the Internet? If so, why not donate its idle CPU cycles to scientific research? You could help figure out the cause of Alzheimer's disease, predict climate, or search for evidence of gravitational waves or extraterrestrial intelligence.

The Folding@Home distributed computing project is committed to exploring protein folding. Its goal is to gain an understanding of:

Alzheimer's Disease
Cancer
Huntington's Disease
Osteogenesis Imperfecta
Parkinson's Disease
Ribosome & antibiotics

All it takes to get started is to download and run a small program. Click here for more details. Other protein research projects include Rosetta@home and Predictor@home.

Other things your computer could work on:

CPDN: climate prediction.
SETI@home: the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.
Einstein@Home: find spinning neutron stars.

Download an installer and join the research!

The True Meaning of Christmas

2006-12-25T21:41:00.000-05:00

It finally clicked in me -- the True Meaning of Christmas.

It was when I heard the Christmas story retold for the fourteenth consecutive time, at last night's Family Christmas Eve service, at our local church. The Pastor had read Luke's Gospel, and then he expounded on it.

He started by describing Luke 2:1-7 in more detail. The reason that Jesus, Mary and Joseph were staying in a stable is that there was no room at the inn. That I've known since I was a child, but nothing more.

The rest of it needs to be appreciated against a backdrop of adult experiences. The child I was did not bother to wonder why they needed to find an inn.

The Pastor explained that Joseph needed to haul himself (and the pregnant woman he was engaged to) 80 miles, by foot, from his home in Nazareth back to Bethlehem in order to be counted in the census. So he could be taxed.

That's my wife and me, Joseph and Mary. Not only do we have to undertake some pain-in-the-ass journey for some poorly-planned government bullshit, we have to do it when we're about to give birth. All for the ultimate pleasure of paying taxes. This is jury duty on a Grand Scale.

To make the story more interesting, Joseph is caring for a woman whose child she carries is not even his.

And this is the way the Universe works. Even God's Children cannot escape suffering the idiocy that this world has to offer.

Time Magazine Person of the Year (What Else?)

2006-12-18T21:34:00.000-05:00

As soon as I heard that Time Magazine's Person of the Year (POTY) was "Me," I knew I had another sarcastic blog entry to write. By now, this entry is but one of many that pokes fun at Time. And if you want to listen to great commentary on the topic, redirect your browser to today's commentary by Bill Langworthy on NPR's All Things Considered.

I'd rather not waste much content on Time. POTY noise actually rewards Time in the end, even if it's criticism. I just want to point out that choosing me as POTY (along with hundreds of thousands MySpace teenagers who are either horny or lonely or both) was plain laziness. If Time had done a little research, they'd've discovered the term blogosphere, which might've led them to this special issue of Communications of the ACM. And somewhere in this two-year-old, well-researched set of papers would be the person or team responsible for creating the technology that enables us POTY winners to blog.

If it sounds like I'm angry at Time, it's because I am. Aren't I supposed to receive some monetary award? Because I didn't. Hello?