Joel's Scattered Thoughts

Notes on things that interest me

Archive for June, 2009

Keep it to Yourself!

Jun 30

Posted by Joel in General | No Comments

I found this post, CreditBloggers: Got a Plan to Reduce Your Credit Card Debt? Keep it to Yourself!, an interesting contrast to this one, The Only Two Secrets to Motivating Yourself You’ll Ever Need. The first post suggests that when you tell others about a goal, you get feeling that you’ve already achieved the goal and are less likely to work toward reaching it. The second suggests using pressure from others to motivate you in reaching your goals.

I suspect that these are both true. Some of it is a matter of personality. I generally find it easier to pursue goals that I don’t tell people about. It seems that as soon as I tell someone about my goal, I stop pursuing it. On the other hand, when pursuit of a goal is part of group’s reason for being others can really help motivate you. When I was practicing Aikido in Ottawa, knowing that the rest of the class would be there definitely helped me get out of bed for some of those early morning practices.

My rule of thumb If the goal is part of a group’s purpose, share your goal with the group. Don’t share your goal with people who are not involved in helping you reach it.

(First post found via BoingBoing)

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Bulk Rename Utility Blasts Through Your File Naming Tasks – Windows

Jun 29

Posted by Joel in Tech | No Comments

I’ve been using Bulk Rename for about a week now and I’m very pleased with it. There are a lot of options, but using them is pretty straightforward and you get a preview of the changes to your filenames before committing those changes. I’m definitely keeping this handy tool around.

The Technium: Why Technology Can’t Fulfill

Jun 28

Posted by Joel in General | 2 Comments

I found this post, The Technium: Why Technology Can’t Fulfill, fascinating. I wanted to highlight a couple of the points I found particularly interesting. The whole article is definitely worth reading.

First, the simple life is a life a of community. There are some people who go off and live entirely on their own, but these are an exception. It seems to me often that these loners are deceiving themselves regarding their independence from the rest of mankind. I remember reading a discussion of Walden that asked “Where did Thoreau get his axe?” The gist of the discussion was that even something as simple as an axe presupposes an entire community of others behind it. If you’re going to live the simple life, it is almost essential to have a whole community to live it with you.

The second big point is that a simple life really restricts the choices people have. If you find farming and handicrafts fulfilling, then maybe the simple life is for you. More options means more complexity. I am willing to deal with the complexity of modern society because I am not particularly good at farming or handicrafts. “What we are seeking is the minimum amount of technology that will generate the maximum number of options for all.”

I didn’t find that this post addressed the question brought up by its title “Why Technology Can’t Fulfill” but it is definitely worth reading for a solid perspective on the simple life.

Heart Attack from Your Grill? Not with this Recipe

Jun 27

Posted by Joel in Recipes | 1 Comment

We have a lot of hamburger still stocked up, but I may give this recipe a shot: Heart Attack from Your Grill? Not with this Recipe . I wonder how it would taste with ground beef instead of chicken or turkey?

GIMP – An Introduction

Jun 26

Posted by Joel in Tech | No Comments

I use Gimp for some photo editing at work. Sadly, I do not use any of its more advanced features. It’s like owning a Lamborghini and using it to drive to the grocery store. I’m hoping this series GIMP – An Introduction will teach me more about how to use GIMP.

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Priming the pump of efficiency

Jun 25

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This post of Seth Godin’s Priming the pump of efficiency talks about the hit your efficiency takes when you switch to a new way of doing doings. On a short-term scale or a medium-term scale, you would be much better off sticking to your current well-known, well-polished system. On a long term scale, if you don’t change you’ll be worse off than someone who does.

It’s this short-term loss that I find to be a big obstacle in changing myself. I’m losing my half-hour of sleep, or the taste of sweet food, or a comfortable mental pattern and in return I feel worse off than I was before.

I find that what works best for me in getting through that valley is small steps. Some people find that a radical change works best: “I will not eat another chocolate bar”. For me, a slow change seems to lead to longer lasting results: “I ate 5 chocolate bars last week, this week I’ll only eat 4″.

I’m hoping that as I get older and wiser I find better ways of getting through the times when change means short term loss in pursuit of long term gains.

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Almost sure-fire clothing stain removal: The Two-Step Presoak | Parent Hacks

Jun 23

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I tried this: Almost sure-fire clothing stain removal: The Two-Step Presoak | Parent Hacks on a pair of oil and grass-stained pants and I was delighted with the results. The problem is that I rarely know what I’ll be doing at work so it’s hard to dress appropriately.

Message to the Planet Teenager

Jun 22

Posted by Joel in World Of Warcraft | 6 Comments

Elnia at The Pink Pigtail Inn had a post a while back: Message to the Planet Teenager that argues that World of Warcraft is a social activity and that “For many people on-line gaming is actually a constructive improvement in their social life.” I definitely find that to be the case.

One of the commenters in particular seems to have a real problem with this idea. Okrane wants gamers to “go outside, meet up with some other friends and have a laughter.” I’m not sure what we’re allowed to do under Okrane’s regime. Are card games okay? Dancing? Watching sports? Going to a movie? I’m guessing talking on the phone is right out.

If I wasn’t playing computer games, I would not be doing things with “real people” any more than I do now. I would probably spend more time cleaning my house and reading. If anything, I find WoW to be a little too intensely social for me at times. WoW has encouraged me to be more social and to interact with people in different ways.

Your reality, sir, is lies and balderdash and I’m delighted to say that I have no grasp of it whatsoever.
– Baron Munchausen, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen

10 Busted Myths About The Canadian Healthcare System

Jun 21

Posted by Joel in General | No Comments

I really enjoyed reading this post: TransGriot: 10 Busted Myths About The Canadian Healthcare System. I often find myself discouraged by the state of healthcare around here. It’s easy to forget that things could be much, much worse. We may not have the best healthcare system in the world but at least we take care of our citizens. (It’s scary to admit it but I really don’t mind paying the taxes needed for our health care system.)

For another post on this see RealDelia’s DIY Healthcare: Why Socialized Medicine Is For Grown Ups.

13 Things That Don’t Make Sense

Jun 20

Posted by Joel in Books | No Comments

13things The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not “Eureka!” (I found it!) but “That’s funny …”
– Isaac Asimov

I recently read 13 Things That Don’t Make Sense by Micheal Brooks.  It’s a popular science book that opens with the above quote and discusses thirteen things that are “funny” about modern science.  I really enjoyed this book.

Each of the chapters in this book describes something that’s a little (or a lot) off when described by the current best theory.  Why does sex exist when asexual reproduction is so much simpler, more efficient, and less error-prone?   Where is 96% of the universe?  The author explores the current thinking on these questions and shows where scientists are working on the gap between theory and reality. 

The book itself is well written and lays out the problems in relatively easy to understand terms. Some of the transitions between chapters are a little awkward – this is more a collection of essays than a continuous narrative.  This book reminded me a lot of Borderlands of Science without being quite as fringe. 

I hope that Micheal Brooks updates this book in five or ten years to show how things have or have not changed.  Unfortunately he doesn’t seem to have any other books out as I would love to read more of his essays.

New Scientist has an article that can give you a decent feel of Micheal Brooks’ writing on this topic: 13 things that do not make sense.

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As an adolescent I aspired to lasting fame, I craved factual certainty, and I thirsted for a meaningful vision of human life – so I became a scientist.  This is like becoming an archbishop so you can meet girls.
– Matt Cartmill

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Heather Dale in Winnipeg June 19, 2009

Jun 19

Posted by Joel in General | No Comments

We went and saw Heather Dale do a show in Winnipeg tonight. It was great!

It just happened that her first set included all the kids’ favorite songs. Alec pretty much drifted to sleep as she sang Mordred’s Lullaby which was amusing as the music was pretty loud.

I really enjoyed hearing Ben’s voice blend with hers in the Black Fox song – it added a spooky quality to the fox’s words. Having Jason there to play a variety of music instruments and John to play the drums helped fill out the music.

It was a great experience and I look forward to seeing them again next time they’re in the area. I bought the live CDs so we have a complete collection of Heather Dale’s music till the new album comes out next month.

Linnaeus invented the index card

Jun 18

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I didn’t realize that Linnaeus invented the index card – Boing Boing. I love index cards for taking notes. I keep trying to make the Hipster PDA work for me, but so far it’s just a little too awkward to carry with me all the time.

Announcing the Tor.com Store

Jun 17

Posted by Joel in General | 2 Comments

For some reason, Tor has created an online store: Announcing the Tor.com Store! Why?

I have to agree with the commenters who are wondering what the point of this store is. Worse prices, slower service, smaller selection. I suppose if you’re boycotting all the other online booksellers this might make sense?

This does not bode well for when/if Tor finally gets around to selling ebooks. We shouldn’t rush them though as it’s only been a decade since Baen started selling ebooks – Tor just needs a few more decades to think this whole “ebook” thingy over. Then there will be the year or two where they sell books for more than hardcover price (probably with DRM thrown in) and wonder why their ebooks aren’t selling.

What frustrates me is that I’ve been wanting to give Tor my money for a decade and they refuse to take it. Sell me ebooks I can read on any device at mass market paperback price and I’ll be delighted to buy them. Why is that so difficult to do?

Iotop Tells You What Process is Grinding Your Hard Drive

Jun 16

Posted by Joel in Tech | No Comments

For a while Jaimie’s hard drive kept grinding away at random times. I was never able to track down what the problem was and wound up doing a full reinstall of her system. Something like this: Lifehacker – Iotop Tells You What Process is Grinding Your Hard Drive – Linux Tip would have helped a lot (see the comments for Windows equivalents).

A New Politics of the Common Good

Jun 15

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This looks interesting: A New Politics of the Common Good | Open Culture. I watched Sandel’s Justice: A Journey in Moral Reasoning and really enjoyed it. It reminded me a lot of the philosophy classes I took at university.

The thing I like about philosophy is that it provides direction for life in a way that’s open to argument. You can argue with a philosopher without being in peril of your immortal soul – the philosophers I’ve met even enjoyed having someone argue with them. If your philosophy proves inadequate, you can correct it and that’s not a failure.

Programming in Lisp

Jun 14

Posted by Joel in Tech | No Comments

I was browsing through XKCD’s archives this morning and I ran across this comic.
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Jaimie still has fond memories of hearing me count parentheses as I wrote Lisp programs. Life would have been much easier if I’d used Emacs back then.

If you’re of a geeky bent, you’ll likely find something fun at XKCD.

Some Quotes Of Note: Politicians Damning New Technologies/Cultural Artifacts

Jun 13

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This amused me: Some Quotes Of Note: Politicians Damning New Technologies/Cultural Artifacts | Techdirt.

It seems that for any new practice X the conversation follows this path:
“Those kids and their X will destroy society.”
20 years pass: “Why can’t kids today do X instead of Y. Those kids and their Y will destroy society.”

Parents always think kids are wasting their youth, and always have done [so] down through the millennia. ‘That Ug, always holding things. His front paws will develop in funny ways. Why can’t he walk on all fours like normal proto-hominids?’ And so, whatever the kids spend the most time doing, that’s always what parents think is a waste of time, and what is corrupting their lives. It doesn’t matter what that is. If all they did was homework, parents would be worrying that their kids aren’t becoming well-rounded people. And, in fact, parents do this – enrolling math nerds in karate classes and the like. There is no way to win – parental paranoia ensures that kids are always doing the wrong thing.
– Tom Forsyth of RAD Game Tools, http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_142/3052-The-Myth-of-the-Media-Myth.5

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Heather Dale Concert June 2009

Jun 12

Posted by Joel in General | No Comments

I’m going to be taking some portion of my family to a Heather Dale concert at the Bhigg House next Friday evening.

Alec has always been soothed by Mordred’s Lullabye, so he should enjoy this. (I find his choice of sleep-time music somewhat disturbing and plan to keep a close eye on him should I ever become king.) Pasqualle loves hearing her sing about Arthur and his knights. It should be a fun evening.

I missed seeing Heather Dale the last time she was in Winnipeg, so I’m really looking forward to this.

(Related post: Heather Dale and the Value of Free)

Class vs. Skill

Jun 11

Posted by Joel in General | 7 Comments

In Tobold’s post about Class vs. Skill systems he says:

In every jump-and-run game or other single-player game as simple as Tetris, your progress is strictly limited by how good you are at the game. Makes you wonder why that isn’t possible in a massively multiplayer virtual world. Both classes and skill point systems are just crutches that enable the game to give rewards to players for not much, creating a permanent illusion of progress. Obviously that is more popular than reaching the limits of your abilities.

This surprises me as he’s often complained about not having the twitch reflexes needed for PvP. I have often reached the limits of my abilities in computer games and that’s usually when I stop playing the game. I couldn’t spin blocks fast enough to get past a certain level in Tetris. I couldn’t handle more than 2-3 AI opponents in Starcraft. There was no longer the opportunity for incremental improvement – one level was trivial and the next level was beyond my abilities.

I think that WoW has done a good job of allowing for that incremental improvement of your abilities as a player. It’s far from perfect but at least there’s a path for progression. You can look at an encounter and see that you wasted your taunt, or didn’t spin the boss the right way, or missed an add and do better next time. If you’re an average player, you will reach an encounter that is beyond the limits of your abilities, be that Mr. Smite or Algalon in hard mode. Your progress is strictly limited by how good you are at the game

For the best players, they will reach a point where everything is within their abilities. I don’t see why this is a flaw. When Michael Jordan takes 3 point shots, it’s a challenge but well within his abilities. Is basketball broken because of this?

I have a feeling that I’m missing something in Tobold’s argument.

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Ian McKellen in King Lear

Jun 10

Posted by Joel in General | No Comments

This looks fascinating: Ian McKellen in King Lear | Open Culture. I’ve seen Shakespeare performed in theaters, parks, auditoriums, and in movies and I’ve enjoyed most of those performances. Hopefully watching online will give me a chance to enjoy more.

The remarkable thing about Shakespeare is that he really is very good, in spite of all the people who say he is very good.
– Robert Graves