Here's a nice article on World
Kindness Day, which is celebrated on November 13th, I just learned. It's
easy! Just be kind!
Someone took me by surprise today by tweeting the first part of the
first line:
"On November 13, Felix Unger was asked to
remove himself from his place of residence; that request came from his wife.
Deep down, he knew she was right, but he also knew that some day he would return
to her. With nowhere else to go, he appeared at the home of his friend, Oscar
Madison. Several years earlier, Madison's wife had thrown HIM out, requesting
that HE never return. Can two divorced men share an apartment without driving
each other crazy?"
Thus began the establishing scenes for the
opening of The
Odd Couple telly show, which ran from 1971-1975. It followed the adventures
of two best friends who were polar opposites in housekeeping: the slob vs. neatnik concept actually had
five seasons' scripts in it. Jack Klugman and Tony Randall became household names in our
household.
The play, by Neil Simon, opened in 1965
with Walter Matthau and Art Carney in the lead roles. In 1968, a film starring
Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon was released. A
cartoon version, "The Oddball Couple" ran from 1975-1976 on Saturday mornings,
featuring the voices of Paul Winchell and Frank Nelson.
Oh, and that catchy, jazzy theme music: Neal Hefti.
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Thursday, September 5, 2013
Notifiblog: Birthday Begins Today!
In case you don't already know, I celebrate every birthday, including my own, for
three months. But the first day, I reserve to celebrate my 22nd birthday, every
year. That was the one that inspired me to stop trying to cram all that
goodness and happiness into only one day.
There's actually a Birthday Problem (aka Birthday Paradox) in probability theory. "In probability theory, the birthday problem or birthday paradox[1] concerns the probability that, in a set of n randomly chosen people, some pair of them will have the same birthday." Of course, if you have 367 people in the group, the probability is 100%. However, 99% probability is reached with as few as 57 people. There's something about assumptions in there. It's worth reading at least the first bit of the article.
There are maybe limitless reasons to celebrate one's un-birthday.
In East Asia, there are various ways of dating one's age. In Japan, for example, babies are born at "1 year" by tradtional counting -- accounting for the year one is working on. I've also been told by a reliable Japanese friend that everyone's age advances on New Year's Day (solar--celebrated Jan. 1)
In any event, please just be happy about something for me, especially today!
There's actually a Birthday Problem (aka Birthday Paradox) in probability theory. "In probability theory, the birthday problem or birthday paradox[1] concerns the probability that, in a set of n randomly chosen people, some pair of them will have the same birthday." Of course, if you have 367 people in the group, the probability is 100%. However, 99% probability is reached with as few as 57 people. There's something about assumptions in there. It's worth reading at least the first bit of the article.
There are maybe limitless reasons to celebrate one's un-birthday.
In East Asia, there are various ways of dating one's age. In Japan, for example, babies are born at "1 year" by tradtional counting -- accounting for the year one is working on. I've also been told by a reliable Japanese friend that everyone's age advances on New Year's Day (solar--celebrated Jan. 1)
In any event, please just be happy about something for me, especially today!
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Notifiblog: I'm Gonna Look at This for the Next Eight Years?!?
Congratulations to me: I have finally made good on my theory that one's driver's
license photo should look absolutely as dreadful as possible so no matter what
one looks like when displaying said form of ID, one looks better in real life.
In Oregon, one must present:
I think I got my money's worth.
In Oregon, one must present:
- a completed (and signed) Form 735-175,
- proof of US citizenship (or authorization to exist in the US),
- one's current driver's license or a document of that ilk to prove one's full legal name,
- proof of one's identity and date of birth (can be the same as the document that proves US citizenship if one is a citizen),
- proof of current residence address (if it has changed),
- the fee (likely county-based) on the little renewal card. Mine was US$40.
I think I got my money's worth.
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Notifiblog: Back in the Saddle, Again!
It's been too long since I last
Notifiblogged on any but Fridays. And the Friday theme is just photos from www.icanhascheezburger and my lame-o
commentary. Doesn't translate to the worldwide version of this blog. I'll try
to do better.
I got to see my first University of Oregon (American) football game Saturday. We stayed in our seats only for the first half, though. The seats were in direct sunlight, so we experienced the symptoms of heat exhaustion--a precursor to heat stroke, but you haven't stopped sweating at the time.
We also got sunburned. We forgot to bring sunscreen. We weren't being terribly sun-smart.
We saw Planes in "Real 3D" yesterday. Far less dodgy than sitting in full-on sun! It was apparent that Planes was not a full-on Pixar film. It was like the second-string team in (American) football: still enjoyable, but not the top quality. I enjoyed it all the same.
I got to see my first University of Oregon (American) football game Saturday. We stayed in our seats only for the first half, though. The seats were in direct sunlight, so we experienced the symptoms of heat exhaustion--a precursor to heat stroke, but you haven't stopped sweating at the time.
We also got sunburned. We forgot to bring sunscreen. We weren't being terribly sun-smart.
We saw Planes in "Real 3D" yesterday. Far less dodgy than sitting in full-on sun! It was apparent that Planes was not a full-on Pixar film. It was like the second-string team in (American) football: still enjoyable, but not the top quality. I enjoyed it all the same.
Thursday, August 15, 2013
Notifiblog: How Stuff Works Thursday!
I've been so busy, I've been
neglectful of Notifiblog. I can't really apologize: I've been busy working at
the job someone's paying me to do.
Today's "caught my attention" article from www.howstuffworks.com is 10 Science Questions You Should Really Know How to Answer. Per tradition, Notifiblog looks at the three I like best. Due to limited time, I'm forced to quote direcly from the HSW answer people.
Why is the sky blue? "The reason the sky appears blue is because of an effect called scattering. Sunlight has to pass through the Earth's atmosphere, which is filled with gases and particles that act like the bumpers on a pinball machine, bouncing sunlight all over the place. But if you've ever held a prism in your hands, you know that sunlight actually is made up of a bunch of different colors, all of which have different wavelengths. Blue light has a relatively short wavelength, so it gets through the filter more easily than colors with longer wavelengths, and as a result are scattered more widely as they pass through the atmosphere. That's why the sky looks blue during the parts of the day when the Sun appears to be high in the sky (though it's actually the spot on the planet where you are standing that is moving, relative to the Sun).
"At sunrise and sunset, though, the sun's rays have to travel a longer distance to reach your position. That cancels out blue light's wavelength advantage and allows us to see the other colors better, which is why sunsets often appear red, orange or yellow."
Today's "caught my attention" article from www.howstuffworks.com is 10 Science Questions You Should Really Know How to Answer. Per tradition, Notifiblog looks at the three I like best. Due to limited time, I'm forced to quote direcly from the HSW answer people.
Why is the sky blue? "The reason the sky appears blue is because of an effect called scattering. Sunlight has to pass through the Earth's atmosphere, which is filled with gases and particles that act like the bumpers on a pinball machine, bouncing sunlight all over the place. But if you've ever held a prism in your hands, you know that sunlight actually is made up of a bunch of different colors, all of which have different wavelengths. Blue light has a relatively short wavelength, so it gets through the filter more easily than colors with longer wavelengths, and as a result are scattered more widely as they pass through the atmosphere. That's why the sky looks blue during the parts of the day when the Sun appears to be high in the sky (though it's actually the spot on the planet where you are standing that is moving, relative to the Sun).
"At sunrise and sunset, though, the sun's rays have to travel a longer distance to reach your position. That cancels out blue light's wavelength advantage and allows us to see the other colors better, which is why sunsets often appear red, orange or yellow."
Why are bubbles round? "Well, actually, bubbles are not
always perfectly round all the time, as you probably have noticed if you've ever
used one of those toy thingies to blow soap bubbles. But bubbles want to be
spherical, and if you blow one that's more cigar-shaped initially, it struggles
to reshape itself. That's because bubbles basically are thin layers of liquid
whose molecules stick together because they are attracted to one another, a
phenomenon called cohesion [source: USGS]. This creates what
we think of as surface tension -- that is, a barrier that resists objects trying
to move through it [source: USGS]. Inside the
layer, air molecules that are trapped can't get out, even though they're pushing
against the water. But that's not the only force acting on that layer. On the
outside, more air is pushing inward at them. The most efficient way for the
liquid layer to resist those forces is to assume the most compact shape, which
happens to be a sphere, in terms of ratio of volume to surface area [source: Popular
Science].
"Interestingly, scientists have figured out ways to make bubbles that aren't
round, so they can study the geometry of the surfaces. They're able to create
bubbles that are cubical and even rectangular, by suspending a thin layer of
liquid on a wire frame that that is molded into the desired shape [source: NEWTON]."
How do magnets work? "'[Bleeping] magnets: How do they
work?' That's the question that rappers Insane Clown Posse
posed in their single "Miracles" a few years back, which led those snarkmeisters at "Saturday Night Live"
to ridicule them unmercifully. And that was unfortunate, because it's a
perfectly reasonable thing to ponder. A magnet is any object or material that
has a magnetic field -- that is, a bunch of electrons flowing all around it in
the same direction. Now, electrons -- like rappers from Detroit who wear clown
masks, curse a lot, and
drink Faygo Cola -- like to
hook up in pairs, and iron has a lot of unpaired electrons that are all eager to
get in on the action. So, objects that are solid iron or have a lot of iron in
them -- nails, for example -- are going to be pulled towards a sufficiently
powerful magnet. The substances and objects attracted to magnets are called
ferromagnetic substances [source: University of
Illinois].
"Humans have known about the phenomenon of magnetism for a long, long time.
There are naturally occurring magnets, such as lodestone, but medieval travelers
figured out how to rub steel compass needles against those stones so that they
picked up electrons and became magnetized, which means that they developed their
own magnetic fields. Those magnets weren't particularly durable, but in the 20th
century, researchers developed new materials and charging devices that enabled
them to make more powerful permanent magnets [source: Stupak]. You can actually create a
type of magnet, called an electromagnet, from a piece of iron by wrapping an
electrical wire around it and then connecting the ends to the poles of one of
those big batteries with the clips on top [source: University of
Illinois]."
Who knew? Now we do!
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
Notifiblog: Notifiblog: Remember Music on Vinyl?
It's being a busy week! At the
weekend, I was doing a little Wikipedia hiking and landed on the article for "His Master's
Voice." That led to HMV,
which reminded me of this
inane YouTube item. (There's another one where he calls HMV.)
All this led to an exploration of limited edition Gramophone records. Finally, I landed on Unusual types of gramophone records. That's how a Hikipedia expedition goes, eh!
Unusual grooving: Most vinyl LPs have but one groove! (Remember that if you play Trivial Pursuit!) However, there are a few that were released with parallel grooves. Ever heard of Monty Python's three-sided album? Can't guarantee its content on any of its three grooves (one on one side, two on the other) is SFW. There are others!
Unusual shapes: As long as the content groove is spiral, the outer edge of the disc can be in any shape an artist pleases. Tangerine Dream released "Warsaw in the Sun" in the shape of Poland. These unusually-shaped records are often also picture discs.
Unusual speeds: I remember Mum's old stereo console had four speeds for the record player: 78, 45, 33, and...wha?..16?! "This speed was used almost exclusively for spoken word content, in particular for the "talking books" used by the visually impaired, though it was also employed in the Seeburg 1000 Background Music System." Apparently in some countries (US must have been one of them), inclusion of the 16-2/3 RPM setting was compulsory. At least by the time I came along, there weren't a lot of proprietary formats that required playback at anywhere from 60-130 RPM!
It was so much fun to watch all the mechanics in the player speed up when 78 was selected. I've always been easily entertained.
Funny, we slowed down our "long-playing" records, but we speeded up our CDs. Now, with MP3 and its growing family, there may be nothing to revolve!
All this led to an exploration of limited edition Gramophone records. Finally, I landed on Unusual types of gramophone records. That's how a Hikipedia expedition goes, eh!
Unusual grooving: Most vinyl LPs have but one groove! (Remember that if you play Trivial Pursuit!) However, there are a few that were released with parallel grooves. Ever heard of Monty Python's three-sided album? Can't guarantee its content on any of its three grooves (one on one side, two on the other) is SFW. There are others!
Unusual shapes: As long as the content groove is spiral, the outer edge of the disc can be in any shape an artist pleases. Tangerine Dream released "Warsaw in the Sun" in the shape of Poland. These unusually-shaped records are often also picture discs.
Unusual speeds: I remember Mum's old stereo console had four speeds for the record player: 78, 45, 33, and...wha?..16?! "This speed was used almost exclusively for spoken word content, in particular for the "talking books" used by the visually impaired, though it was also employed in the Seeburg 1000 Background Music System." Apparently in some countries (US must have been one of them), inclusion of the 16-2/3 RPM setting was compulsory. At least by the time I came along, there weren't a lot of proprietary formats that required playback at anywhere from 60-130 RPM!
It was so much fun to watch all the mechanics in the player speed up when 78 was selected. I've always been easily entertained.
Funny, we slowed down our "long-playing" records, but we speeded up our CDs. Now, with MP3 and its growing family, there may be nothing to revolve!
Thursday, August 1, 2013
Notifiblog: How Stuff Works Thursday!
Vending machines have
always fascinated me. You put in some money, and out comes a prize. How
do they work?
The machine knows how much money you've inserted! Inside is a currency detector to read your paper money, and there's coin detector that trips certain electromagnets when particular coins are inserted.
"The keypad is not only the vending machine’s main input device but also the home for its central computer. When you press a key combination on the pad, it tells the central computer what it should do next." (HowStuffWorks.com)
"At the bottom of the vending machine, a line of laser beams determines if your product has been released by the metal spirals. Each laser beam is paired with an electronic light sensor. When your product falls it breaks this path, telling the computer that it was a successful transaction." (HowStuffWorks.com)
So that's why it thinks you have your prize when it's really stuck between that little door and you!
You can get some crazy stuff in Japan from vending machines. Maybe that's a good topic for another Notifiblog. Cheers!
The machine knows how much money you've inserted! Inside is a currency detector to read your paper money, and there's coin detector that trips certain electromagnets when particular coins are inserted.
"The keypad is not only the vending machine’s main input device but also the home for its central computer. When you press a key combination on the pad, it tells the central computer what it should do next." (HowStuffWorks.com)
"At the bottom of the vending machine, a line of laser beams determines if your product has been released by the metal spirals. Each laser beam is paired with an electronic light sensor. When your product falls it breaks this path, telling the computer that it was a successful transaction." (HowStuffWorks.com)
So that's why it thinks you have your prize when it's really stuck between that little door and you!
You can get some crazy stuff in Japan from vending machines. Maybe that's a good topic for another Notifiblog. Cheers!
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Notifiblog: How Stuff Works Thursday!
If I had gone into medicine as a
calling, I am certain I would have chosen to study the brain. Thus, I can't resist
exploring an article on HSW called,
"Top
10 Myths About the Brain."
Here are three to confound and maybe fascinate you, too!
Myth: Listening to Mozart makes you smarter. "In the 1950s, an ear, nose and throat doctor named Albert Tomatis (ed. Wikipedia gives his first name as "Alfred") began the trend, claiming success using Mozart's music to help people with speech and auditory disorders. In the 1990s, 36 students in a study at the University of California at Irvine listened to 10 minutes of a Mozart sonata before taking an IQ test. According to Dr. Gordon Shaw, the psychologist in charge of the study, the students' IQ scores went up by about 8 points. The "Mozart effect" was born." A researcher involved in that project later asserted there was never any claim it actually made anyone smarter; it just increased performance on certain spatial-temporal tasks. Even that is questioned today.
Myth: You Can Learn Through Subliminal Messages. "A subliminal message (meaning, below "limen," or our conscious perception threshold) is a message embedded into images or sound meant to penetrate into our subconscious and influence our behavior. The first person to coin the term was James Vicary, a market researcher. In 1957, Vicary stated that he inserted messages into a showing of a movie in New Jersey. The messages, which flashed for 1/3000th of a second, told moviegoers to drink Coca-Cola and eat popcorn." However, Vicary's assertion that sales of Coke and popcorn increased by 18% was a flat-out lie. Another experiment done in Canada over television failed completely. Sorry, you can no longer commit a crime and then tell the judge a suggestion in a song made you do it.
Myth: The Human Brain Is the Biggest Brain. It's not. "The relationship between brain size and intelligence isn't really about the actual weight of the brain; it's about the ratio of brain weight to the entire body weight. For humans, that ratio is about 1-to-50. For most other mammals, it's 1-to-180, and for birds, it's 1-to-220. The brain takes up more weight in a human than it does in other animals." Humans have the most cerebral cortex, and therein is the difference, apparently.
Cheers, eh!
Here are three to confound and maybe fascinate you, too!
Myth: Listening to Mozart makes you smarter. "In the 1950s, an ear, nose and throat doctor named Albert Tomatis (ed. Wikipedia gives his first name as "Alfred") began the trend, claiming success using Mozart's music to help people with speech and auditory disorders. In the 1990s, 36 students in a study at the University of California at Irvine listened to 10 minutes of a Mozart sonata before taking an IQ test. According to Dr. Gordon Shaw, the psychologist in charge of the study, the students' IQ scores went up by about 8 points. The "Mozart effect" was born." A researcher involved in that project later asserted there was never any claim it actually made anyone smarter; it just increased performance on certain spatial-temporal tasks. Even that is questioned today.
Myth: You Can Learn Through Subliminal Messages. "A subliminal message (meaning, below "limen," or our conscious perception threshold) is a message embedded into images or sound meant to penetrate into our subconscious and influence our behavior. The first person to coin the term was James Vicary, a market researcher. In 1957, Vicary stated that he inserted messages into a showing of a movie in New Jersey. The messages, which flashed for 1/3000th of a second, told moviegoers to drink Coca-Cola and eat popcorn." However, Vicary's assertion that sales of Coke and popcorn increased by 18% was a flat-out lie. Another experiment done in Canada over television failed completely. Sorry, you can no longer commit a crime and then tell the judge a suggestion in a song made you do it.
Myth: The Human Brain Is the Biggest Brain. It's not. "The relationship between brain size and intelligence isn't really about the actual weight of the brain; it's about the ratio of brain weight to the entire body weight. For humans, that ratio is about 1-to-50. For most other mammals, it's 1-to-180, and for birds, it's 1-to-220. The brain takes up more weight in a human than it does in other animals." Humans have the most cerebral cortex, and therein is the difference, apparently.
Cheers, eh!
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Notifiblog: Saw it on TV, but does it work?
Found a site I need to bookmark: http://www.consumersearch.com/as-seen-on-tv.
We get tired of those "As Seen on TV" mail order gadget adverts. But finding
out if they really work can be a bit of fun.
Let's look at three:
magicJack is a device that can be plugged into a USB port to provide VoIP type of service. It costs $40 for the harware, then a $20 annual fee keeps the service going. Vonage is a big competitor for magicJack.
Let's look at three:
magicJack is a device that can be plugged into a USB port to provide VoIP type of service. It costs $40 for the harware, then a $20 annual fee keeps the service going. Vonage is a big competitor for magicJack.
Verdict: Works but with limitations.
Pros
- Inexpensive
- Easy to install
Cons
- Poor customer service, technical support
- Call quality depends on Internet service
- Conflicts with other hardware, software
- Computer must be on to receive or place phone calls
"Vince" demonstrates ShamWow! as the
ultimate solution for cleaning up large spills and leaks. Sadly, there's no
Wikipedia article about ShamWow! that's not embedded in Vince's article. Vince, the
demo guy, creeps me out, but
what about the product?
Verdict: Works for SOME spills.Pros
- Works on some spills
- Makes a decent towel
- Washable and reusable
Cons
- Not as absorbent as advertised
- Tends to smear, not absorb spills
- Rough on the skin
I just love the name of this product: The Slanket. It's
the sleeved blanket
product that actually beat the Snuggie to market. Slanket rules! Or does
it?
Verdict: Better than Snuggie but expensive for what it isPros
- Comfortable
- Machine washable
- Available in various colors
Cons
- Expensive
- Some complain of backlogged orders
- Not must better than a blanket
See if you can work the word
"Slanket" into a sentence today during an ordinary conversation! Extra credit
if you use "Slanket" in a work-related meeting!
Monday, July 22, 2013
Notifiblog: Out with the Clutter!
My home is undergoing a huge cleanout. We have too much stuff. Now, I learn I
may be at risk for compulsive
hoarding. Let's not let that happen, eh!
I read some of the symptoms, and I see myself! I'm not quite there yet:
"They tend to hold onto a large number of items that most people would consider not useful or valuable. For example:
I read some of the symptoms, and I see myself! I'm not quite there yet:
"They tend to hold onto a large number of items that most people would consider not useful or valuable. For example:
Yikers! I like to think I'll make craft things out
of ...well just never mind: it's going into the recycling bin TODAY! I
can craft with what I have when I'm actually sitting down with my trusty glue
stick!
True compulsive hoarding is not a joke. It's
recognized as a type of OCD
(Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder), but there is no ICD-10 code that I know of for
it, yet.
I pledge to organize the true supplies I have (such
as yarn and origami paper), and to
discard all the catalogues and junk-mail things I keep thinking would make a
cool collage someday. It can
make a fine collage in the recycling bin, thanks!
(Yes, TODAY!)
(Yes, TODAY!)
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Notifiblog POST #100: How Stuff Works Thursday!
I have to love this one: 10
Crazy Examples of Horrible Movie Science.
There is no sound in outer space, Star Wars and Star Trek fans. The only work of television or movie science fiction I've seen thus far that gets it right is the movie Serenity and its related short-lived TV series, Firefly.
Catching someone from a fall from a really big fall isn't really going to help. If you're falling off a New York City skyscraper, even Spider-Man's gentle web won't stop you from bursting like a dropped watermelon hitting the ground. Sorry, Spidey.
I saved HSW's first one for the last: the night sky in the ORIGINAL release of James Cameron's Titanic was noticeably (to an astrophysicist) wrong. Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson gleefully pointed out the Rorschach test-like sky to Cameron, who apparently is an insufferable stickler for detail.
Ah, well, as The Handsome One often tells me, "Suspend your disbelief." It IS more fun that way, I'll admit.
There is no sound in outer space, Star Wars and Star Trek fans. The only work of television or movie science fiction I've seen thus far that gets it right is the movie Serenity and its related short-lived TV series, Firefly.
Catching someone from a fall from a really big fall isn't really going to help. If you're falling off a New York City skyscraper, even Spider-Man's gentle web won't stop you from bursting like a dropped watermelon hitting the ground. Sorry, Spidey.
I saved HSW's first one for the last: the night sky in the ORIGINAL release of James Cameron's Titanic was noticeably (to an astrophysicist) wrong. Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson gleefully pointed out the Rorschach test-like sky to Cameron, who apparently is an insufferable stickler for detail.
Ah, well, as The Handsome One often tells me, "Suspend your disbelief." It IS more fun that way, I'll admit.
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Notifiblog: AC power plugs and sockets!
Yes, you read it right. I got curious about the differences amongst electric
outlets and plugs around the world. You can't just take your favorite electic
lamp anywhere and get it to work, y'know. I have limited blog time today, so
I'll let this
Wikipedia article do most of the talking.
(from Wikipedia) "When electricity was first introduced into houses, it was primarily used for lighting. At that time, many electricity companies operated a split-tariff system where the cost of electricity for lighting was lower than that for other purposes. This led to portable appliances (such as vacuum cleaners, electric fans, and hair driers) being connected to light bulb sockets using lampholder plugs."
(from Wikipedia) "There are two basic standards for voltage and frequency in the world. One is the North American standard of 120 volts at a frequency of 60 Hz, and the other is the European standard of 220–240 volts at 50 Hz. The differences arose for historical reasons as discussed in the article mains electricity. Usually NEMA type sockets and plugs are used on 60 Hz systems, and CEE and other types are used on 50 Hz systems, but exceptions exist."
Ever wonder why one blade is larger than the other on a polarized plug? "Where the building wiring system defines a "neutral" conductor that is connected to earth, it is an advantage for appliance designers to preserve that distinction. This requires a plug that can only be connected in one way to the socket, so that the energised and neutral conductors are not interchanged. Such "polarized" plugs are not interchangeable with non-polarized sockets. Wiring systems where both circuit conductors have a significant potential with respect to earth do not benefit from polarized plugs."
The rest of the article covers the various size, number and combination of blades and pins--even the distance between blades! There are photos of plugs and sockets from around the world--and some obsolete types, too!
BTW, today is my 99th Notifiblog post since I began posting "worldwide." :-)
(from Wikipedia) "When electricity was first introduced into houses, it was primarily used for lighting. At that time, many electricity companies operated a split-tariff system where the cost of electricity for lighting was lower than that for other purposes. This led to portable appliances (such as vacuum cleaners, electric fans, and hair driers) being connected to light bulb sockets using lampholder plugs."
(from Wikipedia) "There are two basic standards for voltage and frequency in the world. One is the North American standard of 120 volts at a frequency of 60 Hz, and the other is the European standard of 220–240 volts at 50 Hz. The differences arose for historical reasons as discussed in the article mains electricity. Usually NEMA type sockets and plugs are used on 60 Hz systems, and CEE and other types are used on 50 Hz systems, but exceptions exist."
Ever wonder why one blade is larger than the other on a polarized plug? "Where the building wiring system defines a "neutral" conductor that is connected to earth, it is an advantage for appliance designers to preserve that distinction. This requires a plug that can only be connected in one way to the socket, so that the energised and neutral conductors are not interchanged. Such "polarized" plugs are not interchangeable with non-polarized sockets. Wiring systems where both circuit conductors have a significant potential with respect to earth do not benefit from polarized plugs."
The rest of the article covers the various size, number and combination of blades and pins--even the distance between blades! There are photos of plugs and sockets from around the world--and some obsolete types, too!
BTW, today is my 99th Notifiblog post since I began posting "worldwide." :-)
Monday, July 15, 2013
Notifiblog: Return of the Twinkie? Hmm...
I grew up with Hostess snack
cakes. Well, sort of. They were a sometimes treat, which is probably what made
them so...treat-y. However, it wasn't 'til this weekend, when I was having a
tweety conversation with a lady in the UK that I realized we had some dodgy
names for our snacks! I had a laugh.
The conversation started quite innocently with a mutual friend's thoughts of having breakfast delivered while he was up very early with his toddler. I thought having a breakfast delivered from the UK to MY house (half the world away) would be a lovely idea. But I was willing to let the others have my black pudding. (Hint: ew!) The other early riser (it was 7AM their time, 11 PM ours) wanted to donate her black pudding to the toddler's dad, too. I told her we'd give him our black puddings and we could have Twinkies! She apparently had a huge laugh at the dodgy-sounding suggestion.
It just went downhill from there. I spent my childhood consuming Twinkies, (gulp) Ding Dongs, and (oh dear) Ho Hos. I'd never thought of it that way!
I loved her reply: "#FILTH" To which I had to respond, "If you think the names are bad, you should see what they do to people's arteries."
Indeed, #FILTH!
In the spirit of transparency, protecting my health is not the primary reason I will avoid partaking of the Twinkies, Ding Dongs, Ho-Hos and Donettes phenomena: Hostess Brands (now known as "Old HB") killed over 18 thousand jobs and blamed a bakers' strike. Not entirely true. J2 does not like that kind of business...what's the opposite of ethic?
The conversation started quite innocently with a mutual friend's thoughts of having breakfast delivered while he was up very early with his toddler. I thought having a breakfast delivered from the UK to MY house (half the world away) would be a lovely idea. But I was willing to let the others have my black pudding. (Hint: ew!) The other early riser (it was 7AM their time, 11 PM ours) wanted to donate her black pudding to the toddler's dad, too. I told her we'd give him our black puddings and we could have Twinkies! She apparently had a huge laugh at the dodgy-sounding suggestion.
It just went downhill from there. I spent my childhood consuming Twinkies, (gulp) Ding Dongs, and (oh dear) Ho Hos. I'd never thought of it that way!
I loved her reply: "#FILTH" To which I had to respond, "If you think the names are bad, you should see what they do to people's arteries."
Indeed, #FILTH!
In the spirit of transparency, protecting my health is not the primary reason I will avoid partaking of the Twinkies, Ding Dongs, Ho-Hos and Donettes phenomena: Hostess Brands (now known as "Old HB") killed over 18 thousand jobs and blamed a bakers' strike. Not entirely true. J2 does not like that kind of business...what's the opposite of ethic?
Monday, July 8, 2013
Notifiblog: Why Don't They Disguise the Brink's Truck?
If there were ever a reason NOT to display your corporate identity
all over your delivery trucks, wouldn't you think it would be because just from
your company's name everyone knows what's inside? And especially if what's
inside is usually CASH?
I saw a Brink's truck this morning. Duh...why do they splash the name all over the trucks if they really want to show how secure they are?
Brink's, which has been in business since 1859, famously transported the Hope Diamond from an auction house to its buyer's home--year not stated in the Wikipedia article.
I also often wonder why other high-demand-oft-stolen merchandise is hauled in trucks that blatantly advertise what's inside. Some commercial outlets do it right. Have you ever seen a Nordstrom delivery truck? They're out there, but they're identifiable only by a certain code in the truck ID. I think that's smart!
I saw a Brink's truck this morning. Duh...why do they splash the name all over the trucks if they really want to show how secure they are?
Brink's, which has been in business since 1859, famously transported the Hope Diamond from an auction house to its buyer's home--year not stated in the Wikipedia article.
I also often wonder why other high-demand-oft-stolen merchandise is hauled in trucks that blatantly advertise what's inside. Some commercial outlets do it right. Have you ever seen a Nordstrom delivery truck? They're out there, but they're identifiable only by a certain code in the truck ID. I think that's smart!
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
Notifiblog: How Stuff Works Thursday! (On Tuesday!) (Why Not, Eh!)
I'm taking this Friday off, so today is, in effect, my Thursday. So, I'm going
to treat it like a Thursday all the way! This week: How
Fireworks Work!
According to the www.howstuffworks.com article referenced for this posting, aerial fireworks represent two types of pyrotechnic activity:
"The pattern that an aerial shell paints in the sky depends on the arrangement of star pellets inside the shell. For example, if the pellets are equally spaced in a circle, with black powder inside the circle, you will see an aerial display of smaller star explosions equally spaced in a circle. To create a specific figure in the sky, you create an outline of the figure in star pellets, surround them as a group with a layer of break charge to separate them simultaneously from the rest of the contents of the shell, and place explosive charges inside those pellets to blow them outward into a large figure."
Couldn't have said it better myself. There is more to the article, of course. There is a lot to appreciate about the work that goes into creating an aerial fireworks show. Way to go Chinese people who invented gunpowder, eh!
Bonus: The Japanese word for fireworks is hanabi (hana: flower + hi [or bi for a pleasant sound]: fire). Hanabiko (花火子) is the full name of the world-famous signing gorilla we call Koko--whose birthday is right on July 4th.
According to the www.howstuffworks.com article referenced for this posting, aerial fireworks represent two types of pyrotechnic activity:
"Firecrackers have been around for hundreds of years. They consist of either black powder (also known as gunpowder) or flash powder in a tight paper tube with a fuse to light the powder. Black powder, discussed briefly in How Rocket Engines Work, contains charcoal, sulfur and potassium nitrate. A composition used in a firecracker might have aluminum instead of or in addition to charcoal in order to brighten the explosion.
"Sparklers are very different from firecrackers. A sparkler burns over a long period of time (up to a minute) and produces extremely bright and showery light. Sparklers are often referred to as "snowball sparklers" because of the ball of sparks that surrounds the burning portion of the sparkler. If you look at Patent #3,862,865: Sparkler composition, you can see that a sparkler consists of several different compounds:
- A fuel
- An oxidizer
- Iron or steel powder
- A binder
"An aerial firework is normally formed as a shell that
consists of four parts:
- Container - Usually pasted paper and string formed into a cylinder
- Stars - Spheres, cubes or cylinders of a sparkler-like composition
- Bursting charge - Firecracker-like charge at the center of the shell
- Fuse - Provides a time delay so the shell explodes at the right altitude"
"The pattern that an aerial shell paints in the sky depends on the arrangement of star pellets inside the shell. For example, if the pellets are equally spaced in a circle, with black powder inside the circle, you will see an aerial display of smaller star explosions equally spaced in a circle. To create a specific figure in the sky, you create an outline of the figure in star pellets, surround them as a group with a layer of break charge to separate them simultaneously from the rest of the contents of the shell, and place explosive charges inside those pellets to blow them outward into a large figure."
Couldn't have said it better myself. There is more to the article, of course. There is a lot to appreciate about the work that goes into creating an aerial fireworks show. Way to go Chinese people who invented gunpowder, eh!
Bonus: The Japanese word for fireworks is hanabi (hana: flower + hi [or bi for a pleasant sound]: fire). Hanabiko (花火子) is the full name of the world-famous signing gorilla we call Koko--whose birthday is right on July 4th.
Monday, July 1, 2013
Notifiblog: Happy Canada Day!
Once again, 1 July has arrived:
it's Canada Day!
It's been a busy Monday, so I'm happy someone has posted an article on WikiHow called, "7 Tips on How to Celebrate Canada Day!"
The Google Doodle on www.google.ca has been updated to reflect Canadians' public national image. It's a Parliamentary building, I believe. Not a Canadian beer, sorry.
In 1927, the US had a plan to invade Canada! I think it had little to do with harrassing British subjects, and a LOT to do with when Prohibition in Canada was repealed. I'm glad the plan was dropped by 1928.
You may be Candian! Check out this video to see! It's 100% True! (Even with the exchange rate.)
So...Happy Canada D'Eh!
It's been a busy Monday, so I'm happy someone has posted an article on WikiHow called, "7 Tips on How to Celebrate Canada Day!"
The Google Doodle on www.google.ca has been updated to reflect Canadians' public national image. It's a Parliamentary building, I believe. Not a Canadian beer, sorry.
In 1927, the US had a plan to invade Canada! I think it had little to do with harrassing British subjects, and a LOT to do with when Prohibition in Canada was repealed. I'm glad the plan was dropped by 1928.
You may be Candian! Check out this video to see! It's 100% True! (Even with the exchange rate.)
So...Happy Canada D'Eh!
Friday, June 28, 2013
Notifiblog: How Stuff Works Thursday! (on Friday)
I had a topic already in mind
yesterday, but the worky people needed me more than the Notifiblog did. So,
today let's look at How
Corrective Lenses Work! Thanks to www.howstuffworks.com, we can do just
that...
(from HSW.com) "The strength of a lens is determined by the lens material and the angle of the curve that is ground into the lens. Lens strength is expressed as diopters (D), which indicates how much the light is bent. The higher the diopter, the stronger the lens. Also, a plus (+) or minus (-) sign before the diopter strength indicates the type of lens.
(from HSW.com) "When you look at something, three things must happen:
- The image must be reduced in size to fit onto the retina.
- The scattered light must come together -- that is, it must focus -- at the surface of the retina.
- The image must be curved to match the curve of the retina."
(from HSW.com) "The strength of a lens is determined by the lens material and the angle of the curve that is ground into the lens. Lens strength is expressed as diopters (D), which indicates how much the light is bent. The higher the diopter, the stronger the lens. Also, a plus (+) or minus (-) sign before the diopter strength indicates the type of lens.
"Plus and minus lenses can be combined, with the total lens type being the
algebraic sum of the two." There are 12 standard steps to grinding most lens
blanks into the correct shape to correct vision. There is so much good
information that won't fit here, so I strongly recommend reading
the article at least from page 6!
Benjamin Franklin
is credited with inventing the bifocal corrective lens, but who came up with
the idea of putting a curved piece of glass to the eye to improve vision?
Sadly, that name is lost to history. However, the first person to copy this
invention and share it with the world is believed to be Giordano's colleague
Friar Alessandro della Spina of Pisa (d. 1313). (Sorry, no Wikipedia page
exists for him, yet.) He began making eyeglasses in Italy around 1286
CE.
Everyone in my family--even the ones to whom I'm not biologically related--
wears glasses or contact
lenses. I'm next. At least I understand what I'm getting when I get
glasses. (I'm probably not a contact lenses person, but who knows, eh!)
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Notifiblog: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
I read public domain
literature on my Kindle. The current classic book is Twenty
Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne. I'm nearly 70%
through the book, so if there are any spoilers to be divulged, you won't get
them from me. I've never even seen a movie about it.
Vingt mille lieues sous les mers was published in 1870. (from Wikipedia) "It tells the story of Captain Nemo and his submarine Nautilus, as seen from the perspective of Professor Pierre Aronnax. The original edition had no illustrations; the first illustrated edition was published by Hetzel with illustrations by Alphonse de Neuville and Édouard Riou."
The descriptions Jules Verne wrote makes the story terribly slow--but also terribly believable in places! I admit to skimming over some of the more tedious details. But maybe the coordinates of longitudes and latitudes often cited in the text may be of interest to people who navigate the seas themselves.
The story has been depicted in at least six films -- Disney's 1954 film was the third one and the first with sound! (from Wikipedia) "One of the inaugural rides at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom was called 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Submarine Voyage and was based on the Disney movie."
One last thing: the journey is 20,000 leagues. That's a measure of distance, not a measure of depth. Didn't know that 'til I started reading and did a little (very little) research!
Vingt mille lieues sous les mers was published in 1870. (from Wikipedia) "It tells the story of Captain Nemo and his submarine Nautilus, as seen from the perspective of Professor Pierre Aronnax. The original edition had no illustrations; the first illustrated edition was published by Hetzel with illustrations by Alphonse de Neuville and Édouard Riou."
The descriptions Jules Verne wrote makes the story terribly slow--but also terribly believable in places! I admit to skimming over some of the more tedious details. But maybe the coordinates of longitudes and latitudes often cited in the text may be of interest to people who navigate the seas themselves.
The story has been depicted in at least six films -- Disney's 1954 film was the third one and the first with sound! (from Wikipedia) "One of the inaugural rides at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom was called 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Submarine Voyage and was based on the Disney movie."
One last thing: the journey is 20,000 leagues. That's a measure of distance, not a measure of depth. Didn't know that 'til I started reading and did a little (very little) research!
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Notifiblog: How Does Pixar Do That?!?
In the interest of transparency, I will tell you now that I am in love with
Pixar movies, and it's not just because I'm in love with a second (?) cousin of
the guy who runs the creativity piece of the joint. Sadly, those Lasseters are
not in contact with my Lasseters, so I have to do this research the same as
anyone else: Google and Wikipedia, mostly.
In just about every Pixar movie is a little rubber ball with a big, red star on it. It's an homage to the film that won John Lasseter his first Academy Award nomination, Luxo Jr.
I know it would be fab to be able to talk with the man who creates characters and animations that convey deep stories, even without words. But it would be enough for me to learn how they render that little rubber ball with a big, red star on it!
Pixar's latest short, which has been released with Monsters University, is another work of wordless brilliance, The Blue Umbrella. This short employs the latest technology in the realm of photorealism. And the detail!! Note the sign outside "The Parapluie Café." Parapluie is French for umbrella. ADORBZ!
It's just not enough for me to hear, "They use special CGI software." I want to know HOW THEY DO THAT! Please.
In just about every Pixar movie is a little rubber ball with a big, red star on it. It's an homage to the film that won John Lasseter his first Academy Award nomination, Luxo Jr.
I know it would be fab to be able to talk with the man who creates characters and animations that convey deep stories, even without words. But it would be enough for me to learn how they render that little rubber ball with a big, red star on it!
Pixar's latest short, which has been released with Monsters University, is another work of wordless brilliance, The Blue Umbrella. This short employs the latest technology in the realm of photorealism. And the detail!! Note the sign outside "The Parapluie Café." Parapluie is French for umbrella. ADORBZ!
It's just not enough for me to hear, "They use special CGI software." I want to know HOW THEY DO THAT! Please.
Monday, June 24, 2013
Notifiblog: How to Navigate a Grocery Store the Zombie Way
What is it about going out to
acquire food in an American urban setting that turns us against one another?
Just about every time we go to the local grocery store, I find
myself having to navigate carefully around the wheeled vehicles of doom. Aka,
shopping carts or shopping
trolleys.
I have found that the most aggravating part of shopping in our local supermarkets is not the waiting in line, nor the struggling for items placed on shelves so high only professional basketball players can reach them. It's those infernal shopping carts.
Actually, it's the people maneuvering them. It's like the cart is an instrument that automatically allows them to walk in a straight line without any thought of consequences to others' bodies or toes. Almost as bad as people are with baby strollers. You've seen it; you know what I mean.
So, I have learned to blend in with them. I walk slowly and steadily, rarely averting the cart or my eyes, muttering under my breath, "Braaaaaiiiins! Or Tuna. Tuna is fine." (quoting one of my all-time favorite LOLCats)
Try it! If nothing else, it's fun to see little kids react.
I have found that the most aggravating part of shopping in our local supermarkets is not the waiting in line, nor the struggling for items placed on shelves so high only professional basketball players can reach them. It's those infernal shopping carts.
Actually, it's the people maneuvering them. It's like the cart is an instrument that automatically allows them to walk in a straight line without any thought of consequences to others' bodies or toes. Almost as bad as people are with baby strollers. You've seen it; you know what I mean.
So, I have learned to blend in with them. I walk slowly and steadily, rarely averting the cart or my eyes, muttering under my breath, "Braaaaaiiiins! Or Tuna. Tuna is fine." (quoting one of my all-time favorite LOLCats)
Try it! If nothing else, it's fun to see little kids react.
Friday, June 21, 2013
Notifiblog: How Stuff Works Thursday! (on Friday!)
Yesterday, I was swamped and stumped. Couldn't settle on a topic for
HSWThursday. I think I found something to remedy this situation: tetrachromacy!
Tetrachromacy is the ability to see colors using four types of cone cells in the eye. Most humans are trichromats.
We learn about three primary colors and their amazing combination qualities when we are very young. The fourth cone a tetrachromat human possesses is believed to lie between the red and green cones. (from Wikipedia) "One study suggested that 2–3% of the world's women might have the kind of fourth cone that lies between the standard red and green cones, giving, theoretically, a significant increase in color differentiation. Another study suggests that as many as 50% of women and 8% of men may have four photopigments and corresponding increased chromatic discrimination in comparison to trichromats."
(from Wikipedia) "In June 2012, after 20 years of study of women with four cones (non-functional tetrachromats), neuroscientist Dr. Gabriele Jordan identified a woman (subject cDa29) who was able to detect a greater variety of colors than trichromatic ones corresponding with a functional tetrachromats (or true tetrachromats)."
Can you imagine how she sees the world around her? Of course, it's normal to her. Makes one wonder if there are other functional tetrachromats amongst us who have no idea they have such an ability! What would we call those colors?
Tetrachromacy is the ability to see colors using four types of cone cells in the eye. Most humans are trichromats.
We learn about three primary colors and their amazing combination qualities when we are very young. The fourth cone a tetrachromat human possesses is believed to lie between the red and green cones. (from Wikipedia) "One study suggested that 2–3% of the world's women might have the kind of fourth cone that lies between the standard red and green cones, giving, theoretically, a significant increase in color differentiation. Another study suggests that as many as 50% of women and 8% of men may have four photopigments and corresponding increased chromatic discrimination in comparison to trichromats."
(from Wikipedia) "In June 2012, after 20 years of study of women with four cones (non-functional tetrachromats), neuroscientist Dr. Gabriele Jordan identified a woman (subject cDa29) who was able to detect a greater variety of colors than trichromatic ones corresponding with a functional tetrachromats (or true tetrachromats)."
Can you imagine how she sees the world around her? Of course, it's normal to her. Makes one wonder if there are other functional tetrachromats amongst us who have no idea they have such an ability! What would we call those colors?
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Notifiblog: Forecasting - It's not just for meterorologists!
One of the duties of project
management in my company is to provide a monthly forecast of expected
expenditures as each project matures. Forecast is so much nicer a term
than well-educated guess.
Simply put, (from Wikipedia): "Forecasting is the process of making statements about events whose actual outcomes (typically) have not yet been observed." Couldn't have said it better myself!
Here in the Pacific Northwest, meteorologists are celebrities. We enjoy an overall mild climate, but we still like to think we know what to expect from our often grey skies. It's not enough to look outside a window!
The Canadian band, The Guess Who, would never have reached such popularity if they had called themselves "The Forecast Who." I'm convinced.
So what kind of day will we have today? I forecast a good one!
Simply put, (from Wikipedia): "Forecasting is the process of making statements about events whose actual outcomes (typically) have not yet been observed." Couldn't have said it better myself!
Here in the Pacific Northwest, meteorologists are celebrities. We enjoy an overall mild climate, but we still like to think we know what to expect from our often grey skies. It's not enough to look outside a window!
The Canadian band, The Guess Who, would never have reached such popularity if they had called themselves "The Forecast Who." I'm convinced.
So what kind of day will we have today? I forecast a good one!
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Notifiblog: Small, Medium, and Large
Today I'm attending a (free!) webinar put on by Rally TeamStart about Agile Estimation.
Comparison sizing, a part of project estimating, inspired today's topic! But you know I don't usually stick to the predictable.
Small: There is a journal of nanoscience called "Small." (from Wikipedia) "Small publishes research in science and technology on the micro- and nanoscales in the form of Communications, Reviews, Concepts, Highlights, Essays, and Full Papers."
Medium: Medium isn't just a size! (from Wikipedia) "In astronomy, the interstellar medium (or ISM) is the matter that exists in the space between the star systems in a galaxy."
Large: "Large" is a word that combines nicely with the word "dieffeomorphism," which, of course, is why I selected this particular article from the Large (disambiguation) list. (from Wikipedia) "In mathematics and theoretical physics, a large diffeomorphism is a diffeomorphism that cannot be continuously connected to the identity diffeomorphism (because it is topologically non-trivial)."
I hope you had as much fun considering Small, Medium, and Large outside soft drink cups and t-shirts as I did!
Comparison sizing, a part of project estimating, inspired today's topic! But you know I don't usually stick to the predictable.
Small: There is a journal of nanoscience called "Small." (from Wikipedia) "Small publishes research in science and technology on the micro- and nanoscales in the form of Communications, Reviews, Concepts, Highlights, Essays, and Full Papers."
Medium: Medium isn't just a size! (from Wikipedia) "In astronomy, the interstellar medium (or ISM) is the matter that exists in the space between the star systems in a galaxy."
Large: "Large" is a word that combines nicely with the word "dieffeomorphism," which, of course, is why I selected this particular article from the Large (disambiguation) list. (from Wikipedia) "In mathematics and theoretical physics, a large diffeomorphism is a diffeomorphism that cannot be continuously connected to the identity diffeomorphism (because it is topologically non-trivial)."
I hope you had as much fun considering Small, Medium, and Large outside soft drink cups and t-shirts as I did!
Monday, June 17, 2013
Notifiblog: New Red Cross Certification!
I am proud to report that as of this past Saturday, I have received Red Cross training in performing CPR using the latest guidelines, using an AED, and bits and pieces of what to do for situations that may require first aid.
CPR has changed since I learned it in high school. It's much easier, and you do provide a couple of "rescue breaths" between each cycle of 30 chest compressions. Learn it for yourself! There's a reason I don't list all of the changes here! Learn more about the training mannequin here.
AEDs are SO COOL. Our instructor said they were designed by third graders, and if you see one in action (training mode is preferable, of course), you'll see why I almost believe him. The machine tells you exactly what to do in an authoritative, male voice. (The two I've heard had male voices.) (The ones my company owns have the voice of Peter Thomas on them.) (I'm such a nerd, I recognized his voice!)
First aid...it's mostly about common sense. One does need to get permission from a conscious person to perform any act of rescue, but even if the victim refuses, we learned it's a good idea at least to follow the person until some kind of help can arrive. And if you're unsure of ANYTHING, you call 9-1-1 (in North America). Oh, and there are some nice stories about little kids who save people using the Heimlich maneuver, which they learned from watching Sesame Street.
Our instructor was a soft-spoken (had to really listen!) retired fire fighter. He was able to tell us when the actors in the Red Cross training video were performing steps incorrectly. Hey...they're volunteers, too. I strongly recommend taking a few hours out of your busy life to take a course and be considered certified for two years. Just because you know what to do, you are not required to do it. Nor can you be sued for trying in good faith.
Okay, ONE MORE little tidbit. Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson tweeted a few days ago, pointing out that in all the sci-fi shows, it's always a female voice that counts down to total destruction.
CPR has changed since I learned it in high school. It's much easier, and you do provide a couple of "rescue breaths" between each cycle of 30 chest compressions. Learn it for yourself! There's a reason I don't list all of the changes here! Learn more about the training mannequin here.
AEDs are SO COOL. Our instructor said they were designed by third graders, and if you see one in action (training mode is preferable, of course), you'll see why I almost believe him. The machine tells you exactly what to do in an authoritative, male voice. (The two I've heard had male voices.) (The ones my company owns have the voice of Peter Thomas on them.) (I'm such a nerd, I recognized his voice!)
First aid...it's mostly about common sense. One does need to get permission from a conscious person to perform any act of rescue, but even if the victim refuses, we learned it's a good idea at least to follow the person until some kind of help can arrive. And if you're unsure of ANYTHING, you call 9-1-1 (in North America). Oh, and there are some nice stories about little kids who save people using the Heimlich maneuver, which they learned from watching Sesame Street.
Our instructor was a soft-spoken (had to really listen!) retired fire fighter. He was able to tell us when the actors in the Red Cross training video were performing steps incorrectly. Hey...they're volunteers, too. I strongly recommend taking a few hours out of your busy life to take a course and be considered certified for two years. Just because you know what to do, you are not required to do it. Nor can you be sued for trying in good faith.
Okay, ONE MORE little tidbit. Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson tweeted a few days ago, pointing out that in all the sci-fi shows, it's always a female voice that counts down to total destruction.
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Notifiblog: How Stuff Works Thursday!
I couldn't find an article on my true curiosity this week: how automatic faucets work. We have some in my office building, and I wonder why they hesitate to work when I put my hand under them, and then why they run automatically when no one is even near them.
Instead, let's look at How Ballpoint Pens Work!
(From the article) "A ballpoint pen is a pen that uses a small rotating ball made of brass, steel or tungsten carbide to disperse ink as you write. It is very different than its pen predecessors -- the reed pen, quill pen, metal nib pen, and fountain pen (see A Brief History of Writing Instruments for details)."
Hungarian journalist Laszlo Biro and his chemist brother, Georg, patented the first commercial "Biro pens" in June 1943. They were inspired by the problem of fountain pens' flooding whenever they were subjected to airplane rides--which happened often as WWII progressed.
"The ball is kept in place -- between the ink reservoir and the paper -- by a socket; and while it is in tight, it still has enough room to roll around as you write. As the pen moves across the paper, the ball turns and gravity forces the ink down the reservoir and onto the ball, where it is transferred onto the paper. It's this rolling mechanism that allows the ink to flow onto the top of the ball and roll onto the paper you're writing on, while at the same time sealing the ink from the air so it does not dry in the reservoir."
We take the humble ballpoint pen for granted! If you visit the BicWorld home page, you can opt to learn about the different pens that are sold in tropical climates from the ones sold in cooler climates. Keeping in mind that Bic is a French company, you can get the BIC Cristal(r) for Her in Europe only. Or on Amazon.com. (Check the reviews if you've never seen them before!)
Instead, let's look at How Ballpoint Pens Work!
(From the article) "A ballpoint pen is a pen that uses a small rotating ball made of brass, steel or tungsten carbide to disperse ink as you write. It is very different than its pen predecessors -- the reed pen, quill pen, metal nib pen, and fountain pen (see A Brief History of Writing Instruments for details)."
Hungarian journalist Laszlo Biro and his chemist brother, Georg, patented the first commercial "Biro pens" in June 1943. They were inspired by the problem of fountain pens' flooding whenever they were subjected to airplane rides--which happened often as WWII progressed.
"The ball is kept in place -- between the ink reservoir and the paper -- by a socket; and while it is in tight, it still has enough room to roll around as you write. As the pen moves across the paper, the ball turns and gravity forces the ink down the reservoir and onto the ball, where it is transferred onto the paper. It's this rolling mechanism that allows the ink to flow onto the top of the ball and roll onto the paper you're writing on, while at the same time sealing the ink from the air so it does not dry in the reservoir."
We take the humble ballpoint pen for granted! If you visit the BicWorld home page, you can opt to learn about the different pens that are sold in tropical climates from the ones sold in cooler climates. Keeping in mind that Bic is a French company, you can get the BIC Cristal(r) for Her in Europe only. Or on Amazon.com. (Check the reviews if you've never seen them before!)
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Notifiblog: Gaffes, Mistakes, and Blunders
Yesterday, I learned quite by accident that it is VICIOUSLY easy to delete files in an application we use at my place of work, Rally. I also learned that one can recover a parent-type file, but its connection to its children is severed. I singlehandedly broke the connection of one little, tiny parent object and its SIXTY-EIGHT children.
Happily, the data was there, but I needed to call in the pros in our help desk world to address the reconnection. It was a mistake, but it was also a good learning experience. And a marvelous topic for a Wednesday Notifiblog post.
According to this Wikipedia article, "The word error entails different meanings and usages relative to how it is conceptually applied. The concrete meaning of the Latin word "error" is "wandering" or "straying". Unlike an illusion, an error or a mistake can sometimes be dispelled through knowledge (knowing that one is looking at a mirage and not at real water does not make the mirage disappear)."
Let's face it: some linguistic errors are downright funny. Cases in point: Malapropisms, Mondegreens, and Eggcorns.
Other errors can be good. In philately or numismatics, errors can be quite lucrative for the collecting crowd.
Most importantly, when we make a mistake, the best course of action is to try to correct it, if possible, and then to learn from it...and maybe avoid doing it again.
Happily, the data was there, but I needed to call in the pros in our help desk world to address the reconnection. It was a mistake, but it was also a good learning experience. And a marvelous topic for a Wednesday Notifiblog post.
According to this Wikipedia article, "The word error entails different meanings and usages relative to how it is conceptually applied. The concrete meaning of the Latin word "error" is "wandering" or "straying". Unlike an illusion, an error or a mistake can sometimes be dispelled through knowledge (knowing that one is looking at a mirage and not at real water does not make the mirage disappear)."
Let's face it: some linguistic errors are downright funny. Cases in point: Malapropisms, Mondegreens, and Eggcorns.
Other errors can be good. In philately or numismatics, errors can be quite lucrative for the collecting crowd.
Most importantly, when we make a mistake, the best course of action is to try to correct it, if possible, and then to learn from it...and maybe avoid doing it again.
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Notifiblog: Maurice Sendak
Yesterday would have been Maurice Sendak's 85th birthday. I'm not so sure he would have cared, particularly. When I saw an interview with him a few months before he died, he seemed rather like my father: everything that works hurts, and he was (understandably) grumpy about it. But I did so enjoy his books and his illustrations.
It wouldn't be right not to start with "In The Night Kitchen" (1970). It's a book. It's a little boy's dream-world romp through a sometimes-scary kitchen. The book has been banned and "helpfully" re-illustrated (some copies show a diaper drawn on the kid!). Get over it: it's art, not lewdity.
I think the most famous of Maurice Sendak's works is "Where the Wild Things Are" (1963). Despite the book's huge popularity, especially with children, he refused to write a sequel. Good for him, I say! "(F)our months before his death, he told comedian Stephen Colbert that one would be "the most boring idea imaginable." (Quoted from Wikipedia.)
Every kid in my family gets--whenever and however we can find one--a Nutshell Library (1962). The four-book collection comes as a boxed set, and each volume is custom-sized for little hands to hold. The titles are:
Bonus: The little white dog in many of Maurice's illustrations was a tribute to his little best friend, Jennie, who was a Sealyham Terrier.
It wouldn't be right not to start with "In The Night Kitchen" (1970). It's a book. It's a little boy's dream-world romp through a sometimes-scary kitchen. The book has been banned and "helpfully" re-illustrated (some copies show a diaper drawn on the kid!). Get over it: it's art, not lewdity.
I think the most famous of Maurice Sendak's works is "Where the Wild Things Are" (1963). Despite the book's huge popularity, especially with children, he refused to write a sequel. Good for him, I say! "(F)our months before his death, he told comedian Stephen Colbert that one would be "the most boring idea imaginable." (Quoted from Wikipedia.)
Every kid in my family gets--whenever and however we can find one--a Nutshell Library (1962). The four-book collection comes as a boxed set, and each volume is custom-sized for little hands to hold. The titles are:
Alligators All Around: An AlphabetWe had a treasure. We loved him and then we had to give him back. We can enjoy that he was here.
One Was Johnny: A Counting Book
Chicken Soup with Rice: A Book of Months
Pierre: A Cautionary Tale in Five Chapters and a Prologue
Bonus: The little white dog in many of Maurice's illustrations was a tribute to his little best friend, Jennie, who was a Sealyham Terrier.
Monday, June 10, 2013
Notifiblog: Ouch. Ouch.
My favorite very-obscure-line from the film, "Benny & Joon" is, "Ouch. Ouch." It's so relevant to my souvenir of a very sunny weekend.
We were in our friends' beautiful backyard, enjoying good conversation, and I was crocheting. We lost track of the time. No excuses.
Except maybe that while my nationality is AmeriCanadian, my place of birth, upbringing, and current dwelling is unmistakeably the most glorious Portlandia. We are among the worst in the world at dressing for and preparing for the sudden arrival of warm, clear days.
For now, we must deal with the mild(?!?) fatigue and slather on aloe vera gel.
Will we EVER learn?
We were in our friends' beautiful backyard, enjoying good conversation, and I was crocheting. We lost track of the time. No excuses.
Except maybe that while my nationality is AmeriCanadian, my place of birth, upbringing, and current dwelling is unmistakeably the most glorious Portlandia. We are among the worst in the world at dressing for and preparing for the sudden arrival of warm, clear days.
For now, we must deal with the mild(?!?) fatigue and slather on aloe vera gel.
Will we EVER learn?
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Notifiblog: How Stuff Works Thursday!
The topic of hydraulic lifting devices has been hovering in my head for a couple of weeks. Yesterday, a terrible accident with a hydraulic lifting device took the life of a 19-year-old kid. Maybe we can learn SOMETHING from the tragedy.
For this week's topic, I'm using the www.howstuffworks.com article, How Hydraulic Machines Work.
In short, "The basic idea behind any hydraulic system is very simple: Force that is applied at one point is transmitted to another point using an incompressible fluid. The fluid is almost always an oil of some sort. The force is almost always multiplied in the process."
I have grown up and still live in logging country. Hydraulic log splitters are probably as common as chainsaws out here.
The tools used to rescue people from terrible accidents are also hydraulic machines. Until recently, I didn't realize that "Jaws of Life" is actually a brand of hydraulic tools. "The Jaws of Life is actually a brand of tools that is trademarked by the Hurst Jaws of Life company, but the name is often used when talking about other brands of rescue systems. The term "Jaws of Life" refers to several types of piston-rod hydraulic tools known as cutters, spreaders and rams, which are used to pry open vehicles involved in accidents when a victim may be trapped." http://auto.howstuffworks.com/car-driving-safety/accidents-hazardous-conditions/jaws-life.htm
Sadly, the kid who was killed by hydraulics couldn't be rescued by using hydraulics. My sincere condolences to his family and friends.
For this week's topic, I'm using the www.howstuffworks.com article, How Hydraulic Machines Work.
In short, "The basic idea behind any hydraulic system is very simple: Force that is applied at one point is transmitted to another point using an incompressible fluid. The fluid is almost always an oil of some sort. The force is almost always multiplied in the process."
I have grown up and still live in logging country. Hydraulic log splitters are probably as common as chainsaws out here.
The tools used to rescue people from terrible accidents are also hydraulic machines. Until recently, I didn't realize that "Jaws of Life" is actually a brand of hydraulic tools. "The Jaws of Life is actually a brand of tools that is trademarked by the Hurst Jaws of Life company, but the name is often used when talking about other brands of rescue systems. The term "Jaws of Life" refers to several types of piston-rod hydraulic tools known as cutters, spreaders and rams, which are used to pry open vehicles involved in accidents when a victim may be trapped." http://auto.howstuffworks.com/car-driving-safety/accidents-hazardous-conditions/jaws-life.htm
Sadly, the kid who was killed by hydraulics couldn't be rescued by using hydraulics. My sincere condolences to his family and friends.
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Notifiblog: Happy National Running Day (US)!
Wednesday, June 5, 2013 is National Running Day. Sadly, the official site, www.runningday.org appears to be down as of this writing.
How does one celebrate NRD? I wondered the very same! I thought if I'd only known, I would have sent cards, bought and wrapped presents, put a tree in my living room...oh, wait, that's a different holiday.
I'll visit the easier ones from this article about ten ways to celebrate NRD. I'm out of shape enough.
Get new shoes. Yes, that's actually a tip! If ever there were practically a mandate to go shoe shopping, this is it! Oh, RUNNING shoes?
Think about potato chips. Now this one I can do: ease tension in your arms while running by...pretending to hold a potato chip in each hand!?! Pretending?!?
Eat dessert. Ha! "The average women can burn 345 calories in just 30 minutes of running." Whew! That's harder than I thought. I was thinking more of spending that 30 minutes eating dessert.
Maybe running is your sport. For me, I'm more a walking-tai chi-jazz dancing type. ENJOY, all the same!
How does one celebrate NRD? I wondered the very same! I thought if I'd only known, I would have sent cards, bought and wrapped presents, put a tree in my living room...oh, wait, that's a different holiday.
I'll visit the easier ones from this article about ten ways to celebrate NRD. I'm out of shape enough.
Get new shoes. Yes, that's actually a tip! If ever there were practically a mandate to go shoe shopping, this is it! Oh, RUNNING shoes?
Think about potato chips. Now this one I can do: ease tension in your arms while running by...pretending to hold a potato chip in each hand!?! Pretending?!?
Eat dessert. Ha! "The average women can burn 345 calories in just 30 minutes of running." Whew! That's harder than I thought. I was thinking more of spending that 30 minutes eating dessert.
Maybe running is your sport. For me, I'm more a walking-tai chi-jazz dancing type. ENJOY, all the same!
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Notifiblog: Another One About Exercise-Inspiring Music
I don't fall back on this topic TOO often, I hope. But there's so much good music out there, I want to listen to (almost) all of it! If you know me, you know my tastes go global.
Today's three walk-inspiring tunes are:
Inspired from Red and Blue by Globe (my fave J-Pop band). It has a nice, easygoing pace. I like to do fast walking, so I go about two steps per beat on this one.
Last Friday Night (TGIF) by Katy Perry. Cute and not written for women my age. So what, eh? Reminds me of all the bad choices I didn't make when I was a teenage nerd.
Third one is a tie today: Minnie the Moocher by Cab Calloway and Sing, Sing, Sing (With a Swing) written by Louis Prima, performed by The Benny Goodman Orchestra. Did your parents give you the old line, "You think YOUR generation invented that?!"? Minnie the Moocher has some very direct drug references that remind me, no, in fact my generation didn't invent everything. We just made it so you can order it while you're wearing only your underwear.
Keep on walking!
PEDOMETER APP TEST UPDATE: The Accupedo (free version!) pedometer app did NOT drain my whole iPhone battery (though I did bring my charger today so I can also play with the cute little kitty app I downloaded). The clock automatically resets at midnight--and it kept yesterday's step count in the history, so I could record yesterday's steps accurately today.
Today's three walk-inspiring tunes are:
Inspired from Red and Blue by Globe (my fave J-Pop band). It has a nice, easygoing pace. I like to do fast walking, so I go about two steps per beat on this one.
Last Friday Night (TGIF) by Katy Perry. Cute and not written for women my age. So what, eh? Reminds me of all the bad choices I didn't make when I was a teenage nerd.
Third one is a tie today: Minnie the Moocher by Cab Calloway and Sing, Sing, Sing (With a Swing) written by Louis Prima, performed by The Benny Goodman Orchestra. Did your parents give you the old line, "You think YOUR generation invented that?!"? Minnie the Moocher has some very direct drug references that remind me, no, in fact my generation didn't invent everything. We just made it so you can order it while you're wearing only your underwear.
Keep on walking!
PEDOMETER APP TEST UPDATE: The Accupedo (free version!) pedometer app did NOT drain my whole iPhone battery (though I did bring my charger today so I can also play with the cute little kitty app I downloaded). The clock automatically resets at midnight--and it kept yesterday's step count in the history, so I could record yesterday's steps accurately today.
Monday, June 3, 2013
Notifiblog: Let's Walk!
Today begins the "Summer Games" challenge at work. It's a fun, slightly competitive way to raise one's awareness of the benefits of walking. For a few weeks each year, we form teams of 10-12 coworkers, give our teams fun names based on a theme (this year's theme is "Monopoly"), and do our best to wear pedometers and pile on the steps!
I've broken the little plastic belt clips on so many pedometers, this year I'm trying an iPhone App called "Accupedo." (I'm using the "free" version.) Thus far, I'm pretty pleased with it: I can put my phone in "standby" mode and it continues to work in the background. The only thing I haven't tested so far is battery use. Tomorrow I must remember to bring my charging cord.
A nice little summary on WiseGeek.org explains how a pedometer works.
Do you like music to encourage you? I do. 128 bpm apparently is best for running or dancing. I see "walking playlists" available at 120-135 bpm. Happily, you can buy whole playlists people have assembled--or listen to them on music apps like Spotify or Pandora. An app called Jog.fm seems to have playlists specialized for walking, running, and cycling.
So...LET'S WALK!
I've broken the little plastic belt clips on so many pedometers, this year I'm trying an iPhone App called "Accupedo." (I'm using the "free" version.) Thus far, I'm pretty pleased with it: I can put my phone in "standby" mode and it continues to work in the background. The only thing I haven't tested so far is battery use. Tomorrow I must remember to bring my charging cord.
A nice little summary on WiseGeek.org explains how a pedometer works.
Do you like music to encourage you? I do. 128 bpm apparently is best for running or dancing. I see "walking playlists" available at 120-135 bpm. Happily, you can buy whole playlists people have assembled--or listen to them on music apps like Spotify or Pandora. An app called Jog.fm seems to have playlists specialized for walking, running, and cycling.
So...LET'S WALK!
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Notifiblog: How Stuff Works Thursday!
Today's topic was a tossup between hydraulics and solar panels. Solar panels won in a small (very small) (so small, I asked one person's opinion) vote.
We have some good friends who have installed some solar panels on their house. One neighbor in particular balked and said it wasn't feasible. Well, three years and dramatically small electricity bills later, those solar panels are still doing their job. I think they're even selling power back to the company.
The closest How Stuff Works.com article I've found to explain how solar panels work is How Solar Panel Highways Work.
Solar cell technology has been in use at least since 1958, when photovoltaics powered satellites' electrical systems.
The basic process works thusly: (Straight from the HSW article) "Photovoltaic cells are made of special materials called semiconductors such as silicon, which is currently used most commonly. Basically, when light strikes the cell, a certain portion of it is absorbed within the semiconductor material. This means that the energy of the absorbed light is transferred to the semiconductor. The energy knocks electrons loose, allowing them to flow freely.
"PV cells also all have one or more electric field that acts to force electrons freed by light absorption to flow in a certain direction. This flow of electrons is a current, and by placing metal contacts on the top and bottom of the PV cell, we can draw that current off for external use, say, to power a calculator. This current, together with the cell's voltage (which is a result of its built-in electric field or fields), defines the power (or wattage) that the solar cell can produce."
The naysayers, which I am unashamedly NOT amongst, are often put off by the cost of panel installation. Also, our market is flooded with poor quality panels--often coated with plastic, which of course does not stand up well to exposure. My friends got their solar panels from a company in Hillsboro, Oregon. The tempered-glass panels have lasted for three years, so far.
Oh, and their Chevrolet Volt car hasn't added but maybe $20/month to the electricity bill. They are SO cool. Maybe we'll talk about their car next week.
We have some good friends who have installed some solar panels on their house. One neighbor in particular balked and said it wasn't feasible. Well, three years and dramatically small electricity bills later, those solar panels are still doing their job. I think they're even selling power back to the company.
The closest How Stuff Works.com article I've found to explain how solar panels work is How Solar Panel Highways Work.
Solar cell technology has been in use at least since 1958, when photovoltaics powered satellites' electrical systems.
The basic process works thusly: (Straight from the HSW article) "Photovoltaic cells are made of special materials called semiconductors such as silicon, which is currently used most commonly. Basically, when light strikes the cell, a certain portion of it is absorbed within the semiconductor material. This means that the energy of the absorbed light is transferred to the semiconductor. The energy knocks electrons loose, allowing them to flow freely.
"PV cells also all have one or more electric field that acts to force electrons freed by light absorption to flow in a certain direction. This flow of electrons is a current, and by placing metal contacts on the top and bottom of the PV cell, we can draw that current off for external use, say, to power a calculator. This current, together with the cell's voltage (which is a result of its built-in electric field or fields), defines the power (or wattage) that the solar cell can produce."
The naysayers, which I am unashamedly NOT amongst, are often put off by the cost of panel installation. Also, our market is flooded with poor quality panels--often coated with plastic, which of course does not stand up well to exposure. My friends got their solar panels from a company in Hillsboro, Oregon. The tempered-glass panels have lasted for three years, so far.
Oh, and their Chevrolet Volt car hasn't added but maybe $20/month to the electricity bill. They are SO cool. Maybe we'll talk about their car next week.
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Notifiblog: Bridges
Bridges are a big part of life when you have a river running through your hometown. In Portland, Oregon, we have the following bridges:
Willamette River
Bridges over the Willamette River, listed north to south:
- St. Johns Bridge (1931) - U.S. Route 30/N Philadelphia Avenue
- Burlington Northern Railroad Bridge 5.1 (1908)
- Fremont Bridge (1973) - Interstate 405
- Broadway Bridge (1913) - Broadway
- Steel Bridge (1912) - Pacific Highway West/former Oregon Route 99W
- Burnside Bridge (1926) - Burnside Street
- Morrison Bridge (1958) - Morrison Street
- Hawthorne Bridge (1910) - Hawthorne Boulevard
- Marquam Bridge (1966) - Interstate 5
- Ross Island Bridge (1922) - U.S. Route 26/Powell Boulevard
- Sellwood Bridge (1925) - SE Tacoma Street
Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail Bridge is the working name for a planned new bridge across the Willamette.[39]
Columbia River
Bridges over the Columbia River, listed west to east:
- Burlington Northern Railroad Bridge 9.6 (1908)
- Interstate Bridge (1917/1958) - Interstate 5
- Glenn L. Jackson Memorial Bridge (1982) - Interstate 205
The fear of bridges is called Gephyrophobia.
The oldest surviving bridge in the US is the Frankford Avenue Bridge (1697), in the Holmesburg section of Northeast Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Oregon also shares some of the US's collection of covered bridges. My Mum and one of her sisters went on a road trip around various parts of Oregon just so my "Adventure" Auntie could photograph them.
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Notifiblog: How To Do Stuff
During a day of total sloth yesterday, I wondered how to do something. Something I don't remember at the moment. But I'll think of it or something equally entertaining later, I'm sure.
So, for when I do think of whatever it is I wanted to learn how to do, let's find a few places where we can look for instruction!
Ehow used to be pretty good. It seems to have become a lot prettier than I remember.
wikiHow is another site. As with Wikipedia, anyone can edit the content, so I'd be careful following instructions that involve chemicals. We should probably compare that cake recipe against another site's instruction.
I've always liked Lifehacker, ever since I read instructions for removing the beeper from a toy microwave oven. (Used to sit near a kitchen in another job; saw no reason we couldn't apply the same principles. Never did get to try it, though: microwave finally broke.)
Next assignment: Think of something we want to learn how to do!
So, for when I do think of whatever it is I wanted to learn how to do, let's find a few places where we can look for instruction!
Ehow used to be pretty good. It seems to have become a lot prettier than I remember.
wikiHow is another site. As with Wikipedia, anyone can edit the content, so I'd be careful following instructions that involve chemicals. We should probably compare that cake recipe against another site's instruction.
I've always liked Lifehacker, ever since I read instructions for removing the beeper from a toy microwave oven. (Used to sit near a kitchen in another job; saw no reason we couldn't apply the same principles. Never did get to try it, though: microwave finally broke.)
Next assignment: Think of something we want to learn how to do!
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Notifiblog: How Stuff Works Thursday!
I'm on a mission today. I want to know How Internet Search Engines Work!
Skipping the bit about "web crawlers" and "spiders" (shudder), let's get on to some really good stuff.
(Straight from the HSW article) "Meta tags allow the owner of a page to specify key words and concepts under which the page will be indexed." Good news: meta tags can help find indexed words that can have multiple meanings, focusing on the meaning you want. Bad news: meta tags can have nothing to do with page content. Ever gone looking for something nice and found something NSFW instead? However, "(t)o protect against this, spiders will correlate meta tags with page content, rejecting the meta tags that don't match the words on the page."
(Straight from...) "To make for more useful results, most search engines store more than just the word and URL. An engine might store the number of times that the word appears on a page. The engine might assign a weight to each entry, with increasing values assigned to words as they appear near the top of the document, in sub-headings, in links, in the meta tags or in the title of the page. Each commercial search engine has a different formula for assigning weight to the words in its index. This is one of the reasons that a search for the same word on different search engines will produce different lists, with the pages presented in different orders." RANKING ROCKS!
Skipping the bit about "web crawlers" and "spiders" (shudder), let's get on to some really good stuff.
(Straight from the HSW article) "Meta tags allow the owner of a page to specify key words and concepts under which the page will be indexed." Good news: meta tags can help find indexed words that can have multiple meanings, focusing on the meaning you want. Bad news: meta tags can have nothing to do with page content. Ever gone looking for something nice and found something NSFW instead? However, "(t)o protect against this, spiders will correlate meta tags with page content, rejecting the meta tags that don't match the words on the page."
(Straight from...) "To make for more useful results, most search engines store more than just the word and URL. An engine might store the number of times that the word appears on a page. The engine might assign a weight to each entry, with increasing values assigned to words as they appear near the top of the document, in sub-headings, in links, in the meta tags or in the title of the page. Each commercial search engine has a different formula for assigning weight to the words in its index. This is one of the reasons that a search for the same word on different search engines will produce different lists, with the pages presented in different orders." RANKING ROCKS!
(Straight...) "The searches defined by Boolean operators are literal searches -- the engine looks for the words or phrases exactly as they are entered. This can be a problem when the entered words have multiple meanings. "Bed," for example, can be a place to sleep, a place where flowers are planted, the storage space of a truck or a place where fish lay their eggs. If you're interested in only one of these meanings, you might not want to see pages featuring all of the others. You can build a literal search that tries to eliminate unwanted meanings, but it's nice if the search engine itself can help out." Welcome, concept-based searching and natural-language queries!
The actual article, linked above, is chock-a-block with more information. This HUMBLE posting is intended to inspire you to read more. Later, as I will, when I'm on another break from work. Cheers!
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Notifiblog: Traffic!
I like riding the bus to work. I get to read, play that addictive word game on my Kindle, knit, crochet, or even doze. But I don't like to keep my coworkers waiting whilst my bus is stuck in traffic. But traffic is a reality of my urban existence. Instead of cursing the darkness, I choose to light a small candle to learn about...you guessed it: TRAFFIC! There are many applications for this word, but I'll try to focus on the urban type my bus was stuck in this morning.
We use the word "traffic" pejoratively when speaking of urban road congestion, but it's really quite an innocent word we adopted from the Arabic word, taraffaqa, which means to walk along slowly together.
Traffic is controlled in my area largely by automated traffic lights. There is a flashing red control at the intersection where I catch my morning bus to work. Amazing how many people roll on through. Even more amazing there aren't daily collisions there.
Traffic laws are designed to help the flow of traffic and to establish a code of driving etiquette. We're still travelling in and around vehicles whose weight is mesasured in tons. The rules are designed to protect us from injury as much as possible. When we comply with them.
We use the word "traffic" pejoratively when speaking of urban road congestion, but it's really quite an innocent word we adopted from the Arabic word, taraffaqa, which means to walk along slowly together.
Traffic is controlled in my area largely by automated traffic lights. There is a flashing red control at the intersection where I catch my morning bus to work. Amazing how many people roll on through. Even more amazing there aren't daily collisions there.
Traffic laws are designed to help the flow of traffic and to establish a code of driving etiquette. We're still travelling in and around vehicles whose weight is mesasured in tons. The rules are designed to protect us from injury as much as possible. When we comply with them.
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Notifiblog: Round Robins
There's a big "round-robin" tournament going on, which you may have read in some of my more obsessive blog posts. I speak, of course, of the MasterCard Memorial Cup competition for the Memorial Cup. This is the Canadian Hockey League's version of the Stanley Cup.
The first piece of the tournament is always a "round-robin" competition. I finally bothered to look up what that means. And it has nothing to do with a bird in this case!
(Straight from Wikipedia) "The term round-robin is derived from the term ruban, meaning "ribbon". Over a long period of time, the term was corrupted and idiomized to robin."
(Straight from Wikipedia) "In a single round-robin schedule, each participant plays every other participant once. If each participant plays all others twice, this is frequently called a double round-robin."
For the second time ever in Memorial Cup tournament history--and for the second year in a row--all four teams in the competition are, as of TODAY, 1-1.
Go Winterhawks!
The first piece of the tournament is always a "round-robin" competition. I finally bothered to look up what that means. And it has nothing to do with a bird in this case!
(Straight from Wikipedia) "The term round-robin is derived from the term ruban, meaning "ribbon". Over a long period of time, the term was corrupted and idiomized to robin."
(Straight from Wikipedia) "In a single round-robin schedule, each participant plays every other participant once. If each participant plays all others twice, this is frequently called a double round-robin."
For the second time ever in Memorial Cup tournament history--and for the second year in a row--all four teams in the competition are, as of TODAY, 1-1.
Go Winterhawks!
Monday, May 20, 2013
Notifiblog: Do You Know Your National Anthem?
By now, a lot of people have seen the video of the poor Canadian girl who didn't know the words to The Star-Spangled Banner. I saw the spectacle as live as possible, on several large-screen tellies at a Winterhawks hockey viewing party in a restaurant. I felt her pain. I felt a little ashamed that we Americans run around assuming everyone should know the words to our national anthem. The girl did a great job: SHE DIDN'T EMBELLISH THE TUNE! She showed as much grace and respect as she could, while the spectators raised their voices to give her an assist. In tweeted replies to her apology, several of us reassured her most Americans don't know it, either.
There are, officially, four verses, and a fifth was added during the Civil War.
A hand-written version by Francis Scott Key, himself, reads, "Whose bright stars and broad stripes, through the clouds of the fight".
(Straight from Wikipedia): "The song is notoriously difficult for nonprofessionals to sing because of its wide range – a 12th."
Performers have tried over the years to place their own personal signatures on the song (José Feliciano, Jimi Hendrix, Whitney Houston, and more), but I truly believe the song should be free of embellishment. And that's how a brave young lady named Alexis Normand intended to do it.
BTW: The tune has often been accused of being a drinking song, but it's really too difficult to manage when in one's cups, apparently. At least to do it right.
There are, officially, four verses, and a fifth was added during the Civil War.
A hand-written version by Francis Scott Key, himself, reads, "Whose bright stars and broad stripes, through the clouds of the fight".
(Straight from Wikipedia): "The song is notoriously difficult for nonprofessionals to sing because of its wide range – a 12th."
Performers have tried over the years to place their own personal signatures on the song (José Feliciano, Jimi Hendrix, Whitney Houston, and more), but I truly believe the song should be free of embellishment. And that's how a brave young lady named Alexis Normand intended to do it.
BTW: The tune has often been accused of being a drinking song, but it's really too difficult to manage when in one's cups, apparently. At least to do it right.
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Notifiblog: How Stuff Works Thursday!
What is the greatest book ever NOT to exist? Of course, it's the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" -- the "real" one, not those horridly entertaining radio series, novels, and movies about it. Let's go a bit beyond the guide to give you a bit of HG2G trivia that will out-nerd anyone who covets Ford Prefect's job.
Author Douglas Adams' original concept for his pitch for a sci-fi comedy radio series was called The Ends of the Earth. The idea was that at the end of each show, the Earth would be destroyed in a new and interesting way. Remember Milliways, the restaurant at the literal end of the universe?
Marshall the Paranoid Android? Another comedy writer, Andrew Marshall, was the inspiration; however, Douglas Adams changed the name to Marvin, likely to avoid being sued. Two Harry Potter film series co-stars played Marvin in the 2005 film: Warwick Davis (physical) and Alan Rickman (voice).
Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray were both considered for the role of Ford Prefect for the first HG2G film (the 2005 one can't be the only one ever!). However, it was a script Dan Aykroyd presented that put HG2G production on "indefinite" hold. Ultimately, both movies were made.
Don't Panic! This planet is Mostly Harmless.
Author Douglas Adams' original concept for his pitch for a sci-fi comedy radio series was called The Ends of the Earth. The idea was that at the end of each show, the Earth would be destroyed in a new and interesting way. Remember Milliways, the restaurant at the literal end of the universe?
Marshall the Paranoid Android? Another comedy writer, Andrew Marshall, was the inspiration; however, Douglas Adams changed the name to Marvin, likely to avoid being sued. Two Harry Potter film series co-stars played Marvin in the 2005 film: Warwick Davis (physical) and Alan Rickman (voice).
Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray were both considered for the role of Ford Prefect for the first HG2G film (the 2005 one can't be the only one ever!). However, it was a script Dan Aykroyd presented that put HG2G production on "indefinite" hold. Ultimately, both movies were made.
Don't Panic! This planet is Mostly Harmless.
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Notifiblog: No Rest for the Wicked (or, in my case, Evil)
I spent another Monday NOT blogging. There was so much to do, I had to dive in and get it done! It's paraphrased right there in the Bible, Book of Isaiah verses 48:22 and 57:20-21. Makes me wonder...are there living creatures that never sleep?
As it turns out, it depends on how we define sleep. There are some creatures that can "turn off" one hemisphere of the brain for a period of rest. But some creatures need very little of what we call sleep.
Giraffes require very little sleep; they enjoy only about 30 minutes a day of deep sleep split into several separate sessions. Source See, Zac? This proves there ARE Evil Giraffes!
Whales and dolphins practice unihemispheric sleep: one side of the brain sleeps while the other side stays alert to potential predators.
On the other end of the scale are koalas, which sleep about 22 hours per day! Source Are you surprised it isn't human teenagers?
As it turns out, it depends on how we define sleep. There are some creatures that can "turn off" one hemisphere of the brain for a period of rest. But some creatures need very little of what we call sleep.
Giraffes require very little sleep; they enjoy only about 30 minutes a day of deep sleep split into several separate sessions. Source See, Zac? This proves there ARE Evil Giraffes!
Whales and dolphins practice unihemispheric sleep: one side of the brain sleeps while the other side stays alert to potential predators.
On the other end of the scale are koalas, which sleep about 22 hours per day! Source Are you surprised it isn't human teenagers?
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