tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86267432012-01-25T05:15:38.651-08:00What happens when you let a smartass play with computers.Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.comBlogger3161100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-74851081848883050492009-11-17T12:15:00.002-08:002009-11-17T12:17:32.959-08:00

A short note. It's been while since I posted to this blog, and it's possible that I won't anymore. Just too busy to do so, and perhaps I no longer need the psychological therapy of writing this stuff. In any event, there is a surfeit of good academic blogs out there. So, I've cleaned all of the junk out of this blog, left stuff related to my profession in place, and there you have it.

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-12557798710275131992009-03-10T23:34:00.002-07:002009-03-10T23:38:42.890-07:00

It has been quite some time since I've blogged; I'll get into why in a later post. In these tough economic times, the last thing you might want to do is to make a major purchase. On the other hand, sometimes you have no choice, or at least are headed that way, and you may feel relatively secure in your employment (after all, the unemployment rate is under 50% -- how's that for looking on the

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-65520141522083916142009-01-30T19:12:00.000-08:002009-01-30T19:12:00.609-08:00

I've been crazy busy with a new position here at work, so I haven't been able to indulge myself in the luxury of ranting and raving on the internet (except for 140 characters at a time, on twitter). But the article linked from the title above caught my eye, and then the following quote from that article made me laugh out loud: Faculty members will take furloughs on days they don’t teach class..

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-44063175811223460212008-10-29T17:24:00.000-07:002008-10-29T17:24:00.593-07:00

iPhone users finally get free wifi from AT&T. Basically, you connect to the access point and enter your phone number. AT&T then sends you an SMS message with a 24-hour access key. I haven't tries it yet...

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-42691905883698627122008-09-29T18:13:00.001-07:002008-09-29T18:15:16.001-07:00

Every time a colleague asks the question, "What the hell happened to computer science enrollment?" I answer, "These things are cyclical. CS enrollment will come back, and some other field's enrollment will drop." And, indeed, as the dot-com bust has faded in new student memories, enrollment has increased again (new enrollment was up last fall in my department and is up again (over 30%, year over

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-47087806406849569942008-09-22T18:21:00.001-07:002008-09-22T18:25:16.425-07:00

I've taught calculus at the college level and, now that my daughter is taking algebra in middle school, I see why students have so much trouble with college math: they aren't taught math in middle school. Let me clarify this statement by first illustrating what I mean when I say that too many students have trouble with calculus and why you should care about that. Calculus is generally

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-5209282671303506062008-09-15T18:08:00.000-07:002008-09-15T18:08:00.381-07:00

I recently received an email for fundraising from a friend's child's school. It includes a link to a web site that's selling magazines. The usual deal is that the school gets some cut of the subscription price and the kids get crappy "prizes" from Oriental Trading. So, I clicked on the "Children" section link and was almost immediately struck by two magazines offered: Boys' Life, with a cover on

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-69301400290150321232008-08-25T20:31:00.001-07:002008-08-25T20:40:56.808-07:00

I finished the novel Empire, by Orson Scott Card, a couple months ago and had been meaning to write a review of it, or at least a commentary on it, since then. At this point, enough time has passed by that I'll not be including very much in the way of specific details from the book, though there will be some spoilers. I think the title above succinctly sums up the book in a variety of ways.

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-10829441208369772412008-08-21T21:59:00.001-07:002008-08-21T21:59:04.773-07:00

Sock and Keys Originally uploaded by stiber No need to fret when one of a pair of socks goes through the interdimensional portal in your clothes dryer. Use the orphan for an iPod case or, as I've done here, to keep your keys from scratching up other things in your bicycle panniers when you commute to work.

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-64533541645962271842008-08-20T21:01:00.001-07:002008-08-20T21:06:48.759-07:00

Two days after the iPhone 2.0 software and the iTunes app store were released, I went on a family trip to Europe. So of course, in the days prior to my trip, I frantically installed, then reinstalled, the 2.0 software. This would make my phone much more useful during my trip, I reasoned. Well, it turns out I was right, and the main reason for that was the truphone application. Truphone is a VOIP

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-76409688524781015512008-07-11T16:16:00.001-07:002008-07-11T16:21:17.850-07:00

For those of you (like me) who followed the information I reference in a previous blog post, note that that unofficial iPhone 2.0 software was for the new iPhone hardware. If you (like me) have the original iPhone hardware, you need to follow the directions at MacRumors linked from the title to get the correct software for your hardware.

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-51339985988107991802008-07-10T12:33:00.004-07:002008-07-10T15:32:37.768-07:00

Here are some of my initial observations about the iPhone 2.0 software: Settings: Has a "Fetch New Data" item that lets you turn push updates on or off, set data fetch interval (includes the email check intervals for non-push email). Has a new "Mail, Contacts, Calendars" item, which consolidates various items (I think, I don't remember the details of this from the old OS) and includes under

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-91278962063007409552008-07-10T12:23:00.002-07:002008-07-10T12:31:47.188-07:00

Since I'm in the process of writing my part of a grant proposal before heading off on a trip, I figured, "Hey, why don't I update my iPhone to the 2.0 software?" The software is unofficially available; see this iLounge article for a good summary of how to get it. Here's how things went: 11:55AM: Option-clicked "Check for Update", selected .ipsw file, iTunes extracted update. 11:56AM: iTunes

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-55044947128167046162008-07-10T09:44:00.002-07:002008-07-10T09:52:04.486-07:00

Some more-or-less random observations about the available iPhone apps (based purely on their app store descriptions and icons): There's a lot of $0.99 apps; I'm not really sure what the rationale is (on the part of the software developer) for not just releasing such apps for free. There are many free apps that appear to do the same thing as pay apps. Why would anyone pay for an app that simply

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-8852105514675870252008-07-10T09:04:00.002-07:002008-07-10T09:18:19.951-07:00

Wooo! The iTunes App Store is up! Just use Software Update to download iTunes 7.7, enable "show apps" in iTunes preferences, click on the "Applications" icon, and select "Get More Applications..." (similar interface to podcasts). Can't load the apps yet on the iPhone, since the iPhone 2.0 software hasn't been released, but you can at least browse and make a list (which I will be doing shortly).

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-76411529804918912132008-07-05T00:04:00.002-07:002008-07-05T00:06:30.819-07:00

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-15578228662278411272008-07-04T14:47:00.001-07:002008-07-04T14:47:59.432-07:00

So, we're getting ready for a trip and really don't feel like lugging our Sony mini-DV camcorder along with our digital camera. Everyone's talking about the Flip Mino, so that would be a possibility. Then again, our still camera has a movie mode, with the same resolution as the Mino (640x480), except that it has a 12X optical zoom, better optics, and a better sensor. It doesn't have much in the

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-1251898546859174682008-06-27T15:08:00.002-07:002008-07-04T00:11:09.059-07:00

The title above links to one of the best illustrations I've seen of how to disagree with someone respectfully, even if that respect isn't reciprocated. This is something I should work on.

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-15181249322390632512008-06-18T08:17:00.000-07:002008-06-18T08:41:21.074-07:00

Is this for real? Is there really a "World Rock-Paper-Scissors Society"? Is it just an elaborate joke? Would someone really put that much time into such a joke?

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-27649958554770245192008-06-17T21:26:00.000-07:002008-06-17T21:52:03.015-07:00

Seems there's a company in Japan that says they've built a car that runs on water. Supposedly, they have a "membrane electrode assembly" that breaks water into hydrogen and oxygen; they then use the hydrogen to generate electricity, producing water as the result. Sounds too good to be true? Then it almost certainly is (actually, I would state it more strongly than that). By comparison, cold

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-79531017164661967262008-06-02T21:06:00.003-07:002008-06-02T21:31:57.072-07:00

Today, we filled up our car's gas tank; it cost $4/gallon for the first time. At Costco. No doubt, in the months and years to come, people may read those last two sentences and wonder briefly if I was bragging about how low the price was. So, Dodge has release the new Challenger, with an SRT-8 model for 2008 and two down-line models planned for 2009. The car gets 13 miles per gallon (city)! With

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-86365312792675544672008-05-29T20:09:00.001-07:002008-08-11T13:56:29.984-07:00

Apple has released the Mac OS X 10.5.3 update, as of yesterday. This looks like it will be a big win for us Mac users, with stability improvements seemingly throughout the OS and included applications. Notable from my point of view are: "Fixes reliability issues with iCal syncing." I use Spanning Sync (click this link to save $5) to sync iCal with Google and back, so I can keep my home and work

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-87767380402758320482008-03-12T19:52:00.000-07:002008-03-12T16:55:37.161-07:00

Bill Gates made his annual pilgrimage to DC today to ask the federal government to spare him from raising his employees' wages. He says pay isn't the problem. Bill, if you want us to believe that this isn't just about money, why don't you help out the nearest university campus to you? We desperately want to start science and engineering majors, but the State doesn't have the money to build us a

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-91312838298794001572008-03-06T07:57:00.000-08:002008-03-06T12:59:00.735-08:00

Here's a very interesting video of the CMU autonomous vehicle they've been developing for the Army. I have mixed feelings about this. The chasis is very impressive. This thing would be great at a monster truck rally. I don't want to be anywhere near this thing when its gun is loaded. Not based on my assessment of how formidable it will be, but rather how reliably it will function. Shades of ED-

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-63068151001935168292008-03-03T07:40:00.000-08:002008-03-03T13:40:54.861-08:00

An interesting article in that well-known socialist rag, The Wall Street Journal. Math and science do matter, not just for the individuals involved, but for the US economy as a whole. And, despite decades-ago calls to improve science and math education, the US still lags other industrialized nations.

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-80396841477441279442008-02-27T20:08:00.002-08:002008-02-27T15:10:34.889-08:00

I was thinking about my previous posts about the UW College of Education's (CoE's) recent political polemic about so-called reform math. One of their major points is that engineers don't use what they call "school math": they just use computers. Please allow me to outline my own work, which is highly compute intensive and rarely involves what they would call school math, but which nevertheless I

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-12321625526278710722008-02-26T08:10:00.000-08:002008-02-26T09:05:54.334-08:00

Microsoft is making their software development tools free downloads for all students. "It's a brilliant strategic move on the part of Microsoft," said Chris Swenson, a software industry analyst with NPD Group. "This is one of the core audiences you have to hit if you really want to make a difference in the rich Internet application market going forward." Hmm. Aren't there many other software

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-68172743721066352552008-02-21T00:07:00.002-08:002008-02-20T20:45:35.746-08:00

I'm continuing my reading of the UW College of Education's little treatise on mathematics education. The author(s) are writing about multiple-choice testing on page 25, such as many standardized tests: Taylor’s research shows that, although males tend to perform well on multiple-choice questions, females do not. The test questions that are most effective for non-Asian minorities and females are

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-31295539910253250022008-02-20T08:09:00.000-08:002008-02-20T11:30:55.111-08:00

From the UW College of Education comes the very attractive publication linked from the title above. It addresses the "math wars" between "traditionalists" and advocates of "modern math education". Of course, like many political debates, they use titles such as those to pre-dispose their readers to see things their way. This is a sign right off the bat that this is not a scholarly work, but a

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-65812005333097787552008-02-19T08:00:00.000-08:002008-02-19T14:01:53.611-08:00

Seems that a lot of digital picture frames are shipping with a Windows virus pre-installed. This is very convenient; it eliminates all of the hassle of connecting to the net and waiting for infection. Seriously, and as John Gruber pointed out in Daring Fireball, here is one general approach to avoiding Windows viruses (quoted from the article linked above): Deborah Hale at SANS suggested that

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-27240937537097889192008-02-13T00:14:00.000-08:002008-02-12T21:24:54.042-08:00

Washington state is currently ranked 37 in college degree production, though it's in the top 10 in terms of employment of high tech workers. The Seattle area is ranked 3 in traffic congestion. Technology companies in this state complain loudly about the impact of congestion and lack of local college graduates on their companies. Bill Gates started a large foundation dedicated to solving other

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-44185074732123799092008-02-11T23:34:00.000-08:002008-02-11T23:40:02.251-08:00

Do people really rely on a device that can fail, nationwide, if someone screws up a software upgrade at a single location in the country (apparently the reason for the April 2007 Blackberry outage)? A quick perusal of Google indicates two outages last year and one in 2007. And this is supposed to be a device better suited to corporate use than an iPhone?

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-84249205081196355302008-01-15T18:57:00.000-08:002008-01-15T12:57:54.869-08:00

A first-person shooter for the iPhone, written in JavaScript. It doesn't require jailbreaking, as it runs in Safari. I especially like the pencil-and-paper drawings for the opening scenes; they make the game feel personal, like you're reading someone's diary.

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-72903040519841143972007-12-27T10:58:00.001-08:002007-12-27T11:09:43.275-08:00

Or at least get some exercise. Or maybe it's the growth hormones in the various food we eat these days. All I know is that I went out with my family to take advantage of some after-Christmas sales, and there were literally zero men's small ski jackets out there. Even mediums were almost impossible to find. But there were an enormous number of XXL and even XXXL about. Did stores over-buy on the

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-362322688782803252007-12-24T09:39:00.000-08:002007-12-24T09:48:07.545-08:00

Maybe a little dated, but by this point there's plenty of humorous comments to read. Hilton Locke, who works on Microsoft's tablet PCs, states, "I will say that if you are impressed by the "touch features" in the iPhone, you'll be blown away by what's coming in Windows 7." First of all, I think MS is very smart in going back to serial numbers for their OS releases: they are neutral names and

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-39678143518402849312007-12-11T18:37:00.001-08:002007-12-11T18:37:06.327-08:00

Little Editors Originally uploaded by stiber The Angry Professor complains about the state of copyediting in the publishing business today. I'm working on a textbook on "Signal Computing" -- digital signal processing fundamentals for computer science students. I believe that I have an advantage in the copyediting department.

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-72928438214036909862007-12-10T18:43:00.000-08:002007-12-10T14:52:05.195-08:00

Daniel Lemire finds recommendation systems (I can't bring myself to call them "recommender systems", since they seem to me to be targeted more at recommendees) fascinating, though he is less than impressed by their implementation, such as Google's pagerank. Personally, I don't need sources of more information; I need lower volume and greater signal-to-noise ratio. A system that recommends that I

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-62542355779500138212007-12-10T18:19:00.000-08:002007-12-10T14:25:49.584-08:00

I'm still not convinced that this idea makes any sense. But there's at least two groups of people out there who've managed to raise enough money to have a go at it. That's more than I can say.

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-67875552033302912462007-12-06T21:11:00.000-08:002007-12-06T21:11:51.320-08:00

Background: once upon a time, when Amazon.com just went public, I said something like, "Why would anyone want to buy books on the internet? Half the fun of buying books is browsing a bookstore!" Another great moment in personal financial stupidity. Nevertheless, there's now a company that wants to emulate Netflix by renting books online, by subscription. Exactly what is the difference between

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-32847189555901179242007-12-03T15:39:00.001-08:002007-12-03T15:39:09.705-08:00

Closure Originally uploaded by stiber I kid you not: a college campus in the Seattle area closing due to rain. This is the first time there has been flooding in this area since I've lived here (over 10 years). Our buildings are safe from flooding (I believe), but it's conceivable we could end up 50% cut off, with only 1 access route open.

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-872979792606390642007-11-26T08:18:00.000-08:002007-11-26T11:26:55.024-08:00

Lessons learned from last night's Battlestar Galactica: While it might be better to be a hammer than a nail, apparently being a razor isn't all it's cracked up to be. No, I don't understand what that means, either. More highly developed robots are less talkative. Tricia Helfer ("Number Six") is so hot that neither man nor woman can stand before her.

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-20531096911671143572007-11-25T22:50:00.000-08:002007-11-26T11:18:00.704-08:00

I'm always impressed by people who can go to conferences and blog about their experiences during the conference. I typically find myself struggling to fit all of the conference-related activities into each day. And then there are the conferences with long travel times (20+ hours to Montevideo, Uruguay, for example) and jet lag to contend with, during which I consume mass quantities of coffee in a

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-21892750588442852452007-10-30T18:11:00.000-07:002007-10-30T18:18:26.020-07:00

I'm getting ready for a conference trip and have finally gotten around to getting a bluetooth presentation remote. The remote I purchased is the Sony VGP-BRMP10 Bluetooth Presentation Controller. The VGP-BRMP10 is a bluetooth remote that includes all of the functionality of a bluetooth 2-button mouse. It has a trackpad with a "scroll line" on its right hand side that emulates a scroll wheel. It

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-58009957752006098402007-10-24T07:45:00.000-07:002007-10-24T10:12:16.766-07:00

Follow the link above to my letter published in The Seattle Times. It's in response to the Washington State Superintendent of Public Instruction trying desperately to keep WA using a failed math curriculum.

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-80153238379281170132007-10-10T21:41:00.000-07:002007-10-10T21:46:26.214-07:00

This post was inspired by an excellent one by GrrlScientist, linked from the title above. She starts off discussing journal impact factors, which are a measure of the average number of times a paper in a journal is cited by others. Then there's what is essentially a personal impact factor, which is the number of times a particular researcher's papers are cited. These have problems, which the

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-67917187017114503332007-10-07T14:42:00.000-07:002007-10-07T14:43:52.764-07:00

I've been posting to this blog for three years today. No groupies or offers to appear on The Daily Show yet.

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-77472130402422158082007-09-15T11:41:00.000-07:002007-09-28T16:10:20.707-07:00

So, now that Sun Microsystems has changed their ticker symbol from "SUNW" to "JAVA", they've agreed to be a Windows OEM. I remember when Silicon Graphics started shipping Windows on their machines; I thought, "Why bother buying an SGI machine anymore?" By shipping a commodity OS on their hardware, they are instantly placing themselves in direct competition with the other PC server vendors. The

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-26040752062786021922007-09-08T17:30:00.000-07:002007-09-08T17:45:54.818-07:00

It's been a year since I started bicycle commuting. I had an informal goal of riding 2000 miles in this year, including all types of riding. I've gotten to 1560 miles, which isn't too bad, especially considering that I had one virus after another for about six weeks this past spring (one of the joys of parenthood). I guess I'm feeling pretty good about this, and now I have something to shoot for

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-83140682630362570612007-09-07T17:43:00.000-07:002007-09-28T16:10:05.969-07:00

I previously wrote about an iPhone copycat product. An unknown company can probably be excused (at least, by those of us who have no intellectual property involved) the desire to make a quick buck off of the latest Apple product. But a large, well-known company? I submit that this is the creativity equivalent of declaring email bankruptcy: Nokia's admitting that they'll never catch up with the

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-37732440366002742072007-09-06T20:24:00.000-07:002007-09-28T16:09:42.559-07:00

Has anyone every heard of something like this happening? I mean, other than for items purchased at Nordstrom? I had to triple-check the URL to be sure it wasn't a hoax, and even then I was thinking that someone might have hacked Apple's web site (the fact that it was linked from Fake Steve Jobs' blog didn't help). Mr. Jobs, you're a mensch.

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-46308333709138074482007-09-06T17:33:00.000-07:002007-09-28T16:09:24.464-07:00

I just watched Merlin Mann's "Inbox Zero" video on the bus today, and am dedicating myself to incorporating this into my daily life over the next week or so (the part about ignoring my email and getting work done is easy; processing my inbox is harder). I'm especially intrigued by two enhancements to this: five sentences and email bankruptcy: five sentences Brought to us by Mike Davidson, this

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-77037475707864850472007-09-05T17:38:00.000-07:002007-09-28T16:09:00.313-07:00

In honor of Apple's newly announced iPod lineup, a very funny fake ad. The blinking "12:00" is a nice touch.

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-15636556815378016232007-09-04T20:25:00.000-07:002007-09-28T16:08:40.465-07:00

It's hard to describe how neat it is to see your computer's desktop on your cell phone. Or to browse your files there. I know, there are other ways to accomplish this, and it's not too different than VNC. But, still very cool.

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-286866514525474982007-08-27T16:58:00.000-07:002007-09-28T16:08:25.295-07:00

Sometimes, the simplest things are the most important. Like the "silent mode" switch on an iPhone. The easiest way to silence a RAZR? Turn the volume all the way down. Meanwhile, TVs have had mute buttons since they made infrared remotes.

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-70987132924581812102007-08-03T14:20:00.001-07:002007-09-28T16:07:20.093-07:00

Meizu multi angle Originally uploaded by stiber It doesn't seem that anyone's even trying anymore; they just rip off whatever they want. Even if some say that there are signifcant differences with the iPhone.Then again, just about every portable device that makes sounds has buttons arranged in a circle around a central button, so maybe this isn't really all that new.

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-44908638175954296182007-08-02T18:26:00.000-07:002007-09-28T16:06:48.186-07:00

Here's a guy who had his Toyota Prius converted to be a plug-in hybrid (PHEV), with a larger capacity battery pack and modified power management to increase its range on the electric motor. He got over 136 miles per gallon and went 2 months between fill-ups. Then again, I've gone 1500 miles on my bike with zero fuel consumption. (via davem5321).

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-89856743839176488282007-08-01T21:39:00.000-07:002007-09-28T16:06:24.387-07:00

The title above links to an interesting article that shows that, like many Apple products, the iPhone's reputation as an expensive device doesn't hold water when you compare total cost of ownership. And you get to experience the satisfaction of using an elegantly designed product for all that time.

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-90591098742835487562007-07-24T08:44:00.000-07:002007-09-28T16:06:11.602-07:00

As I wrote in my previous post, I see CS enrollment up sharply this fall. Here's the first news article I've seen on this subject. Note that it tries to make it seem that UMBC (Univ. Of MD, Baltimore County) is bucking the national trend, but the comparison made is between fall 2007 and fall 2006. We will see more stories like this as fall approaches.

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-16390633386974477792007-07-20T16:59:00.000-07:002007-09-28T16:05:54.465-07:00

As the linked article shows, new enrollment in CS continued its decline last fall, but just barely. Degrees granted, of course, lags the new enrollment trend by at least four years. Anecdotally, I see enrollments trending sharply up this comming fall, which is just what would be expected from previous patterns in engineering enrollment.

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-30143129453655101242007-07-15T10:48:00.000-07:002007-09-28T16:05:05.243-07:00

The title links to a Seattle Times article about the conflict between advocates of "reformed math" education and those of us who think our children need to develop solid computation competency (yes, I have a clear bias). Here's one teacher's summary of "reformed math": "It makes higher math more accessible to them," said Zandria Hopper, a fifth-grade teacher at Elizabeth Blackwell Elementary

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-74066977423960806062007-07-14T10:37:00.000-07:002007-09-28T16:04:42.654-07:00

We finally received a replacement phone for the old Sony Ericsson T637. Activation went smoothly, and supposedly everything will work out fine, billing-wise. We'll see. Meanwhile, I've learned that while our old plan didn't charge for receiving text messages, the new one does, and only the iPhone has messaging included. Oh well, that wasn't a big criterion. Topics: iPhone.

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-68087655639926051592007-07-09T21:34:00.000-07:002007-09-28T16:04:29.338-07:00

Well, the new phone for my wife apparently was delayed in shipping long enough that the order was cancelled. Or something like that; the person I spoke to at AT&T didn't really understand why the order would be cancelled. Anyway, she re-placed the order. But, since that would put me well beyond the 14-day time limit for returning the iPhone, I got my iPhone activated on an individual plan, with

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-15474404396322750332007-07-06T08:24:00.000-07:002007-09-28T16:04:06.753-07:00

My saga continues. Yesterday, I was optimistic that the new phone would ship from AT&T in a day. Well, a phone conversation later, and I've now learned that the customer care part of AT&T and the folks at AT&T who actually have the phones are two separate parts of the company. Imagine that! And, despite the fact that they'll ship it next day air, shipping itself can take 3-5 business days. Am I

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-67213009557989400842007-07-05T07:33:00.000-07:002007-09-28T16:03:42.413-07:00

In my last post about my iPhone activation experience, I concluded with: So, after much fuss and bad feelings, I finally get pretty much what I expected to get in the first place... I was a bit hasty. It's now four days later, and still no service on my iPhone. I called AT&T on Tuesday, and found out that the new phone for my wife needed a supervisor's approval, which took two hours on either

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-39473620175239564662007-06-30T16:30:00.000-07:002007-09-28T16:03:20.022-07:00

The saga continues. When we last left off our hero was disconnected after a long hold. A second call yielded an AT&T customer service representative who clarified matters somewhat: we are "old" AT&T customers, and the iPhone plans only apply to customers of the "new" AT&T. Unfortunately, none of their literature, online or printed, says anything about this. Are there so few people who stay with

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-56095278041686870232007-06-30T09:32:00.000-07:002007-09-28T16:02:46.920-07:00

More than an hour and a half later, I spoke with one AT&T representative who assured me that my phone was activated but, when she couldn't call me on it, decided that it was an iPhone problem. She gave me a phone number for an iPhone help line, which also turns out to be an AT&T number. The folks at that number couldn't help me; they transferred me to someplace else within AT&T -- a place they

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-70530318560215236032007-06-30T08:51:00.000-07:002007-09-28T15:59:52.731-07:00

Yes, that's right, I bought an iPhone last night. I didn't need to wait all day, just showed up at around 6:30 and waited less than an hour. But even strong, though not insanely crazy, demand for the new device is apparently too much for AT&T. There was apparently something about my AT&T account (I'm a current AT&T customer) that requires attention by a human being there. But, when I call AT&T at

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-13819856659166788172007-06-27T05:48:00.000-07:002007-09-28T15:59:12.894-07:00

Here's a quote for you: I didn't see it coming, but I sure felt it roll over my head. It feels really strange to have a truck run over your head. This from a bicyclist who suffered only a concussion (his helmet was flattened). When I read that quote out loud, my daughter said, "That story you read made my head hurt." Amen.

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-77459133722423688942007-06-14T17:38:00.000-07:002007-09-28T15:57:11.681-07:00

Follow the link to a Kirkland Courier Reporter article on a math class in a suburban school district located near where I live. In a typical "reform math" class, fifth graders spend time inventing their own ways to solve the "problem of the day": 55 x 20. Their teacher waxes poetic about the superiority of this approach over "memorization of formulas". No mention of the fact that solving 55 x 20

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-65941099572183955202007-05-21T18:45:00.000-07:002007-09-28T16:25:51.248-07:00

Always interesting to read an article that contains such a quote.

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-53052313910616421412007-05-02T20:02:00.000-07:002007-09-28T16:27:10.015-07:00

Google has just released an experimental telephone information service (AKA "411" in the US). Not only can you ask for a business' phone number, you can request that the information be sent to your mobile phone by text message. Will phone companies respond by reducing their extortionate rates for information?

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-28037988144054429792007-04-26T06:52:00.000-07:002007-09-28T16:29:40.413-07:00

Some articles in the latest round of debate over the future of the computing profession: An InformationWeek article on how the Senate bill to almost double the number of H-1B visas has risen from the dead. News flash: women are leaving the profession and it will take special measures by universities to get them back. Which is cause and which is effect? Decreasing numbers of students interested

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-76966327480809278792007-04-22T11:18:00.000-07:002007-09-28T16:30:06.878-07:00

I must admit that I started commuting to work by bicycle for health and family logistics reasons, but there's a certain symbolic significance of the fact that, due to a ride I went on with the Cascade Bicycle Club yesterday, I have clocked over a thousand miles since September -- just in time for Earth Day. Besides all of the gasoline I haven't burned, there's also the second car we haven't

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-85232657512539479362007-04-18T18:13:00.000-07:002007-09-28T16:31:00.513-07:00

The title above links to yet another article, this time from The New York Times, on the decreasing number of women entering the profession. If you've been reading articles like this, you'll likely detect the slow evolution of the message to include more assertions that demand for graduates is much higher than is perceived. All of the hard data I've seen supports the assertion that demand for

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-91843552284182275752007-04-09T13:47:00.000-07:002007-09-28T16:31:33.666-07:00

I can remember moving to the Seattle area in 1997 and being advised that Sun, Apple, IBM, and the various Linux concerns were all dead; they just didn't know it. Microsoft had won, and that's all there was to it. Is Paul Graham's essay about Microsoft similarly accurate? I would say that you ignore Mr. Graham at your own risk. He has also written a follow-up, Cliff's Notes version in which he

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-76740361360230658332007-04-02T21:59:00.000-07:002007-09-28T16:32:03.015-07:00

This looks like an interesting experience for students interested in between experiment and theory in neuroscience.

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-59680080549563081012007-03-28T19:09:00.000-07:002007-09-28T16:32:24.096-07:00

Over at A Gentleman's C, the Angry Professor seems to be channeling me.

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-46898503127512459832007-03-07T17:40:00.000-08:002007-09-28T16:33:01.979-07:00

Bill Gates was in Washington today to testify in front of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. In his testimony (PDF), he said: A top priority must be to reverse our dismal high school graduation rates – with a target of doubling the number of young people who graduate from high school ready for college, career, and life – and to place a major emphasis on encouraging

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-3231120633972688972007-03-05T17:50:00.000-08:002007-09-28T16:33:31.475-07:00

Computer Science is misunderstood. See the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette article linked from the title. Is it really the case that all we need to do is win the hearts and minds of parents? Whatever happened to teen rebelliousness?

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-72361366164113561742007-02-23T17:09:00.000-08:002007-09-28T16:34:38.577-07:00

The title links to a Stanford press release in which Prof. Eric Roberts indicates that the problem underlying the current decline in CS enrollment lies with CS education. I agree with this: introductory CS classes, for instance, are probably the most in-your-face, student-unfriendly courses at a university. The article goes on, however, to say: Universities also struggle with attracting enough

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-63161476465473609202007-02-10T21:02:00.000-08:002007-09-28T16:35:37.987-07:00

Well, I guess I wouldn't call it good news; just perhaps the cessation of worsening news. Interest in majoring in computer science among freshmen is down 70% from its peak in 1999 and 2000. That's the bad news. The lack of worse news is that it was the same in 2006 as in 2005, so perhaps it is bottoming out. If you follow the link from the title, you'll see that this is the second such recorded

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-10868849794595442752007-02-09T08:43:00.000-08:002007-09-28T16:36:04.465-07:00

Following up on a previous post, there's a new video about "reformed math" by Clifford Mass, a UW Seattle professor of Atmospheric Science. He doesn't say anything that most other university faculty would say: our K-12 math education system is failing our students, as they discover when they reach college. Unfortunately, that's a bit late. Topics: mathematics,education.

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-30571663057758829992007-02-08T08:53:00.000-08:002007-09-28T16:36:24.322-07:00

Follow the link above; unfortunately, my advisors and myself are not close enough to being mathematicians to produce a very full genealogy.

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-6331399703658162672007-02-06T13:52:00.000-08:002007-09-28T16:36:50.225-07:00

As a UCLA alumnus, I was not happy to hear that a database containing personal information of alumni, students, and employees was penetrated by a cracker recently. I didn't hear about this from UCLA (presumably, they are still sending out letters to the 800,000 affected people) but rather from Oscar Boykin, a fellow alumnus at the University of Florida. If you're a UCLA alum, ex-employee, etc.,

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-25237474556125651382007-01-22T17:16:00.000-08:002007-09-28T16:38:21.450-07:00

Cross Training This is the (academic) year I made the commitment to become a bicycle commuter. I've been riding daily since the start of the academic year, and what do I have to show for it? Well, in the past, when I went skiing, I felt it in all my muscles -- especially in my quads. This year? I can ski all day and not even feel it. I'm almost as fresh at the end of

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-22942881861957830972007-01-19T15:04:00.000-08:002007-09-28T16:38:43.287-07:00

A little over two years ago, in a posting comparing schools here in the Seattle suburbs with those in the Gainesville, Florida area, I wrote, "... Northshore uses the Everyday Math textbooks, while Alachua uses Harcourt Math. Both series are, in our opinion, excellent." That was from my wife's and my points of view as parents of a second-grader, with whom we work outside of school on

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-1167786564022583542007-01-03T18:13:00.000-08:002007-10-23T10:46:50.675-07:00

Over at Halfway There, Zeno has a post about a one-size-fits-all syllabus. It certainly is the case that course syllabi have evolved from a means of clear communication with students to written contracts on the nature of courses. Perhaps we should take a page from software End User License writers, who typically tell us we have no rights and that they can change the contract anytime they want and

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-1167785836499772972007-01-02T16:57:00.000-08:002007-10-23T10:47:40.935-07:00

I've been along time user of the NewsFire RSS reader. Unfortunately, newer versions require OS X 10.4, and I have delayed upgrading my machines long enough that I'm just waiting for 10.5. Additionally, NewsFire is just incredibly slow (at least, the older version I can use) and crashes frequently. It might have something to do with the 360 or so feeds I track. Anyway, I've left all my troubles

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-1167702220080088142007-01-01T17:41:00.000-08:002007-10-23T10:48:00.325-07:00

I generally try to make my course web pages act as web portals for the course, with all the information students need (except, of course, for the pearls of wisdom contained in their textbooks and my lectures) there. I've also been increasing my use of blogs (and now, podcasts). Therein lies my desire to syndicate RSS feeds onto my web pages. Previously, I had been using RSS-to-JavaScript.com (

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-1167415182870231432006-12-29T09:59:00.000-08:002007-10-23T10:48:26.183-07:00

Click on the title above for a humorous video in which New York Times columnist David Pogue explains that Windows Vista isn't a copy of Mac OS X.

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-1166559856403348892006-12-19T12:23:00.000-08:002007-10-23T10:48:57.272-07:00

Storm Aftermath 2 Originally uploaded by stiber. Was it disconcerting or enlightening to hear the CEO of Puget Sound Energy say (on local news) that his biggest concern was the outage on Mercer Island, because the people there are very affluent?

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-1166469455319143322006-12-18T11:17:00.000-08:002007-10-23T10:49:09.264-07:00

Storm Aftermath 1 Originally uploaded by stiber. You don't realize how nice warmth is until you spend some time in your own home with your breath fogging in front of you. And we were lucky: we have a gas stove and gas water heater. One of the benefits of living someplace with relatively mild weather and an electricity infrastructure designed to handle winds up to 30 miles/hour. But our

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-1165863942707752742006-12-14T08:05:00.000-08:002007-10-23T10:49:47.033-07:00

The title links to a New Scientist article about spam. Yes, the volume of spam just about doubled again this past year, and makes up 91% of all email. Is this merely a realization of Sturgeon's Law? What bothers me is the "again" part of the headline. This implies that there was at least some short interval during which people thought that spam was in some small way "solved," or at least not so

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-1165705497375986132006-12-12T08:04:00.000-08:002007-10-23T10:51:40.662-07:00

I Google so you don't have to.

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-1165853600503812562006-12-11T08:13:00.000-08:002007-10-23T10:52:17.000-07:00

After a week of my musings on interdisciplinarity producing no Google hits for the term "exodisciplinarity", this post on my blog produced immediate results. "Exodisciplinarity" now produces a single hit on Google. (Of course, I understand that their algorithm is more sophisticated than that.) I wonder what that implies for monetizing this blog?

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-1165697132835264972006-12-10T12:45:00.000-08:002007-10-23T10:52:40.935-07:00

I got curious about how little "significance" a web page can have and still get indexed by Google. In this case, I merely defining significance as being number of links to that page. So, I wrote a few thoughts about interdisciplinarity in my academic web a week ago, noting that the term "exodisciplinarity" returns no Google hits. The only link to that page is from my home page. A week later,

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-1165695951111827322006-12-09T12:25:00.000-08:002007-10-23T10:53:43.422-07:00

Adrian comments (link from title) on my musing about incorporating podcasting into my classes. He has a very good point: I have a ’sustainable teaching’ rule. Which is that if the use of a technology, or methodology, leads to more assessment or teaching load, then it probably isn’t a good idea... Rather than have students interview me, I’d get a group, let’s say four, to do research around idea

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-1165694174942390362006-12-09T11:54:00.000-08:002007-10-23T10:54:02.952-07:00

1. You don't want to take a turn at 20 miles/hour when there's still sand on the road from a recent snow. 2. Plain gauze bandages get embedded in newly-formed scabs.

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-1164742249423659722006-11-28T11:30:00.000-08:002007-10-23T10:54:38.157-07:00

(Yes, it's a snow day here, and I'm working on the tail end of what might be URI #4 of the season.) The title above links to a Chicago Sun-Times review by Andy Ihnatko of Microsoft's new Zune device. Summary: Zune isn't just not user-friendly; it's user-hostile. Here are some choice quotes: The Zune is a square wheel, a product that's so absurd and so obviously immune to success that it evokes

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8626743.post-1164739787154577172006-11-28T10:49:00.000-08:002007-10-26T16:50:23.406-07:00

Acephalous is doing an experiment to see how fast a "meme" can travel through the blogosphere. If you're reading this (and have a blog), link to the post I've linked from the title above and ping Technorati.

Michael Stiberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02164917508588925430noreply@blogger.com0