Castles made of sand…

Mozilla has released the official Firefox 1.5 version of their fabulous browser. Get it NOW!

Then get the Adblock extension any block the pesky advertisements.

Then download the Google toolbar so you can spellcheck your blog posts.

It doesn’t live up to its name… unless you count rubber burnt on the road. According to Snopes, the day after Thanksgiving, sometimes called “Black Friday“, is not the biggest shopping day in terms of money spent. It is really just the biggest day of the year in terms of number of shoppers running a muck. The biggest days in terms of money spent are the two weekends before Christmas.

History’s Worst Software Bugs
This one was published earlier this month, but I still think its worth a read. It lists the top 10 worst software bugs. One of NASA’s probes made the list. There is also European rocket on the list too.

Ignoring useless information aids memory: study
Not much information given in this article, but it suggests that you should ignore your teachers. Okay, it doesn’t _really_ say that, but that’s what I got out of it. The next two years of schooling will be mostly useless information.

Microsoft Seeks to Standardize Office Format
Now this is BIG news. Microsoft going open source? It is a few years off but a standardize office format may allow other applications to surface that could compete with Office directly, or at least applications that get rid of all the clutter with office but still allow you to use the office formats. I suspect OpenOffice would quickly adopt the specification, and its free. But OpenOffice hasn’t proven its worth in industry yet, but Google is on it.

Thanksgiving in Space Could Look Different
The article tells about what will be done for food on trips to Mars, which would be a long trip. Not really new news, but a quote of it was funny. Its out of context, so you can read the article:

“Some crew members are leery of turning urine into drinking water. But Kloeris noted that water-treatment systems on Earth do that already.

“So in real life you are drinking somebody else’s urine instead of your own,” she said. “So I’m not sure psychologically which is worse. I think I’d rather drink my own.”

Browser Makers Band Together Against Phishers
This meeting actually took place last week or weekend. But this is good news for consumers really. All of the major browsers are working together together to establish better ways to identify secure sites. This will require some cooperation from Certificate Authorities (the companies that issue sign certificates that sites use to identify them as secure), but should make a dent in phishers. I wonder how long it will take to see the full effects of this meeting… some of the points were not finalize there so maybe this will spring up in the news again soon. Oh, and this article just gives the overview of what happened, the detailed stuff has posted in blogs by those that were at the meeting.

Harry Potter casts his spell in space
The two guys in the International Space Station got to see the new Harry Potter movie. Interesting.

So I had to work today. And on the way into work I saw what I would never expect to see: Staples with a full parking lot at 6:15 AM. So that’s what this shopping thing is all about… get up early AND there’s still lines.

Work was quiet. There were a few people there. And I kept busy for most of the day. I listened to some CDs and Christmas Music drown out the silence. And on the way back to my apartment I saw the Dolphins in the river. I don’t think I’ve talked about the dolphins before… There are dolphins in the Indian River. I don’t need to go to Sea World… just 5 minutes away to the river. Would be cool to have a boat and just sit out there and watch them.

I recently pondered what’s wrong with the world. Initially, I thought that there is no one to blame. It seems as though the entire world (society) is running against the wind, against decades of traditions and values. If you may, its gravitating towards chaos (in a sense of disorder), but that could be its own discussion.

After some thought, I came to the conclusion that driving force behind society’s downward plummet, is communication. There are two sides to communication: communication, and miscommunication (or lack of). All forms of communication contribute to the whole, inclusive of verbal, body language, written, visual.

Why can’t we get along? Well, lack of communication or miscommunication. The saying “A picture is worth a thousand words” may be too frequently heard, but is applicable to our demise. An even more applicable cliché would be the phase “Think before you speak.” Often we jump to conclusion and bungee jump to a response. In a given situation, we are not likely to know all the details that would be affecting the subject of attention. Ergo, we do not understand. Asking more questions and giving more thought results in more knowledge and more understanding. With a proper understanding, one may more accurately respond in a proper manner. The lesson here is best quoted from Stephen R. Covey, “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.”

Why is society degrading? The simple answer is communication. While we are failing to communicate, we are communicating the wrong message. For instance, who decided that the general public wants to see advertisements on buildings, buses, TV, the internet, etc.? I will never say I want to see advertisements, ad banners, or spam. In reality, the advertisement world is driven (mostly) by people being greedy. While we are giving up some of the better values, being greedy is still considered bad.

Now introduce the internet, or more specifically the World Wide Web (WWW). The inventor of the World Wide Web was Tim Berners-Lee (I might as well go ahead and acknowledge that Al Gore was not the inventor of the internet). Berners-Lee envisioned the web as a medium through which to share ideas and information freely through collaboration. At this point in time, the web is ever quickly approaching that dream.

The internet is by most means, the fastest way to communicate with someone. Various forms of communications exist through the internet: E-mail, IRC, Instant Messaging, Forums, Blogs. Anyone can say whatever they want (with exceptions) and have an unimaginable number of people see that message, with little effort. This has the same effect as giving the wrong response, as mentioned above. To instantly communicate is to instantly miscommunicate [sic] (Instant communication is instant miscommunication).

I’ve given the internet as an example. Other mediums through which communications take place are also a means of miscommunication. This includes, but is not limited to television, phone, newspaper, and books. It is also good to acknowledge that all of these mediums can convey factual information, while the person on the other end may misinterpret it. You can try to make everything crystal clear and it can still appear clear as mud on the other end. Nothing is foolproof (except mud?).

In perspective, our communications are evolving society into something it never was. The ideas expressed today were not expressed a decade ago. While some may consider these previously mentioned advances in communications as an improvement to society, I consider them as a main contributing factor to what’s wrong with the world.

This is my opinion. If you don’t like it, leave a comment and flame me.

Comfort Foods: Women Like Sugar, Men Meat
Well, duh! Didn’t really prove much with that study, now did ya?

“Comfort food for women often means snuggling up with tub of mint chocolate ice cream to wallow in their blues.”

Hmm, that sounds familiar… except I think they like chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream.

In other news, Clemson vs USC this weekend. Kick some tail Clemson! For those of you that attend USC, I feel sorry for you.

This came from “Occasional Thoughts“. I’m going to quote it all since their is not a permanent link to it and its buried in the middle of the page.

Some thoughts on the role of teaching and the teacher.

In good teaching, the teacher puts the student in distress. That is, the teacher deliberately, consciously, and (hopefully) skillfully asks the student to do things that are outside the student’’s comfort zone and may be outside their present abilities. Students do not like this; none of us like being placed in a situation where our embarassment [sic] and inability may be shown so clearly.

There are two ways to relieve the student of their distress. The first (all-too-common) way is to structure the training so that situations like this seldom if ever arise. We see this in the highly scripted training materials (and instructors!) where the student is led from one exercise to another to another. This can work, because if you just follow the printed/oral instructions, you won’t risk failure. Two and a half days of this mind-numbing stuff and you can get a certificate to hang on your wall.

The other way to relieve the student of their distress is to expand their present abilities/mindset, so that what looked hard or impossible now seems natural and pleasant. In fact, it’s more than pleasant: students who get this kind of relief feel tremendously empowered and they get excited. Clearly, this is the better path, so why don”t we see more of it?

First, it requires the teacher to put him/herself in distress. If my job as teacher is to read slides, hand out materials, and answer occasional questions, my task is pretty easy[1]. That is, there’s little occasion for distress. But the other route — that’s far more dangerous. I’m going to be intentionally placing myself in a situation where, if you don’t “come through” the experience, you won’t think much of me. You may get mad. You may call my boss and complain. It’s no wonder that this is the path less travelled.

So, if one method of teaching involves distress for both student and teacher and the other way minimizes or eliminates stress, why should we choose the riskier path? In my experience of teaching, students would dearly love for me to provide answers to all the questions I ask them — before they even try to answer themselves! Then, they will dutifully write it down. So what’s wrong with this?

The good teacher knows that they have a very small amount of time with the student and that when the student returns to the “real world”, he must be able to arrive at the answers for himself. The role of the teacher is to help facilitate a transformation so that the student acquires deep knowledge. Shallow knowledge is easy and we see far too much of it. In shallow knowledge, the student learns magic incantations. They write these words, push this button, and the desired result happens. The rote behavior masks a lack of deep knowledge.

But shallow knowledge will not ultimately be helpful. The good teacher knows this and she resists both her and her student’s inclination to avoid feelings of distress. She wants her students to gain insights so that they can solve their own problems and so she pulls, prods, encourages, remands–in short, she does whatever she can to help her students arrive at that “Aha!” moment where the knowledge — the deep knowledge — that seemed so utterly impossible to attain belongs to the student forever.

[1] There’s a joke associated with this remark. It seems that a university Physics professor made a great breakthrough and had agreed to do a series of talks at universities throughout the country detailing his discoveries. Because the professor disliked airplanes, he hired a chaffeur to drive him from one spot to the next. Spending so much time together, the professor and the chaffeur became friendly and in the course of time, the chaffeur confided that he thought the professor had about the easiest job in the world.

“How’s that?” asked the professor.

“Well,” said the driver. “You give the same talk night after night. You get asked the same questions night after night. There’s just nothing to it. Really, I’ve heard it so many times now, even I could do it.”

At this, the professor challenged the chaffeur and at their next stop, the chaffeur and the professor changed roles (and clothes). Good as his word, the chaffeur gave a very successful talk and, just as he had predicted, the same questions were asked. That is, until one person asked a new question, one the chaffeur-cum-professor didn’t know. He thought about it for a while and finally said, “Young man, that is the single most stupid question I have EVER been asked. Why, I’m surprised that you don’t know the answer to it. I would think anyone would. In fact, the question is so simple, I’m going to have my chaffeur answer it!”

“All people are different, I get that. I understand that life is about dealing with a never ending variety of humans. And to ”get along”, we have to interact with humans in a mostly decent way most of the time. But for the life of me, I just can’t understand or relate to, even after all these years, otherwise decent, smart thinking humans who won’t do the right thing, many many times, simply because they don’t have the stomach for ”confrontation”. Baffles me, frustrates me to no end. I mean, to me it’s just like learning that taking the bandage off fast is the way to go and we learn that young. Sometimes, you just gotta do stuff that sucks — dirty work that yes, just might make somebody upset. But you’re still supposed to do it and not leave the damn bandage on because removing it will hurt.”

– Mark

Man Spends $100,000 On Virtual Space Station In Online Game

Geez, and he’s even going to make money off of it. That is what you call Virtual Real Estate.

Study Says There Is More Sex on TV

Ever wonder whats wrong with the world? Lets just blame it on TV. No, really. TV is the source/influence of three things that are polluting our young minds: violence, sex, and politics.

Okay, maybe it can’t be limited to just TV. But blaming it on the entertainment industry just about covers all the bases.