Black holes, LHC, Star Wars, quantum uncertainty… if it is of general geek interest, but doesn’t fit into one of the other categories, it lands here.
I read a blog entry today giving an opinion regarding a book on the topic of whether or not user-created content is killing our culture (Is the web killing our culture? – (37signals) ). My immediate reaction to the topic of the article was that the author of the book is probably a professional writer who resents the intrusion of all the bloody amateurs into his career plans.
It took me over two weeks, which is a long time for me, but I finished reading War and Peace (the Project Gutenberg edition) yesterday. I even wrote a one paragraph summary of my impressions of the book. I’m only a century or so late 🙂
My friend Chris and I make a regular habit of going together to airshows. I’m not terribly knowledgeable about aircraft, but I greatly enjoy the chance to walk up close and see the planes. And watching the performances put on by the incredibly skilled pilots that headline the major shows is something I look forward to.
I’ve been watching e-Ink technology, waiting for it to be mature enough to make it a practical choice for supplementing/replacing my paper technical books. Products using this technology started to become available a little over a year ago, and I wrote a bit about them at the time.
A couple of days ago I hooked up a USB headset. For fun, I also activated Windows Vista’s voice recognition system.
It works, after a fashion. Some of what I’m typing here I’m typing more or less directly using voice recognition. But I have to do a tremendous amount of correction. Let me give you an example. The following text I will type directly using voice recognition, without any corrections.
I’m a technical worker. I think that the more generic term for my kind of work is “knowledge worker”, but whatever you call it, my stock in trade is generated by my gray matter.
I am not a genius: far from it, in fact. Every complex thing I figure out takes a tremendous amount of effort on my part. I’m good at seeing correlations: logical interactions or the like. But that doesn’t mean that I just pick up a book and instantly understand something. I really wish I did.
Part of my work involves designing and writing computer software. I come from an era when it was actually possible to understand a programming language more or less completely. I develop in several language frameworks these days, but even the simplest of them seems to me to be beyond the capabilities of one person to truly understand.
I was reading one of my new favorite comics (thanks, Leaha!), and came across a mention of this:
April 19, 2007 (BELLEVUE, Wash.) – Paizo Publishing and Wizards of the Coast today announced the conclusion of Paizo’s license to produce DRAGON and DUNGEON magazines effective September 2007.
Source: NEWS: Paizo Publishing to Cease Publication of DRAGON and DUNGEON
It is odd how the death of a magazine that I haven’t read in years has caused me to pause
I found this quote on The Register from Intel’s VP and Director, Digital Enterprise Group, Steve Smith, really tickled my funny bone:
I am getting tired of the periodic pseudo-scientific “cellphones cause <catastrophe of your choice>” claptrap that gets picked up by the media. The latest one was brought to my attention earlier today via Slashdot:
I am fortunate to have an employer who was able to allow me to work from home while Irene recovered from her second hip replacement. It made things much less stressful for all involved.
Working from home for a month, though, leads to some odd behavior. My hours of work were scattered all over the 24 hour day, partly in order to accommodate things Irene needed me for, partly because I found it convenient to work when Irene was asleep. I could take naps whenever my eyes started to feel heavy. There were several days where I didn’t bother to dress.