Tuesday, May 12, 2015
Those funny abbreviations weren't invented by kids for texting...
Those funny abbreviations weren't invented by kids for texting... They were actually invented in the early 1900s, for use by telegraph operators...
“Even by his standards, Krugman's argument was lame.”
“Even by his standards, Krugman's argument was lame.” Now there's a sentence that brought a smile to my face! Even better, it was in the midst of a nice piece (The Rise and Fall of Krugmania in the UK) by an author I admire: Niall Ferguson...
Amazon Dash teardown...
What he discovered is much as I'd expect: no magical innovations, just an exploitation of Amazon's scale to reduce the cost and size of a fairly complex gadget (really a small WiFi-equipped computer) to the point where giving it away is actually feasible...
Monday, May 11, 2015
The Beast of Turin runs...
The ascent of man...
Buttons that do nothing...
Buttons that do nothing... An interesting article from the BBC about buttons and other controls that do absolutely nothing, but make people feel better anyway.
This is not new understanding. Back in the early '80s, a customer for my design consulting practice introduced me to the same idea. The customer was a firm in San Diego that built specialty radios, mostly for the commercial maritime trade. These were sturdy devices that internally were quite advanced systems, but were being used by fisherman, cargo ship crews, and the like – not technically advanced folks, typically. They also didn't have the habit of being gentle with their gear :)
I was contracted to build the first radio receiver they'd ever produced with a digital front panel. The company's own engineers were analog folks, so they hired me to design all the digital parts as well as the interface to the analog side. Most of this was very straightforward. One seemingly simple element was the volume control. Back in those days, controlling volume digitally was a bit of a challenge. One couldn't simply go out and buy something like an 8-bit digital-to-analog controller (DAC) at a reasonable price. So we decided to settle for a 3-bit DAC made from discrete components. This provided 8 volume levels, which the company decided was more than sufficient – most users would simply turn it to the max, and leave it there. I designed in an 8 position rotary switch that provided a click-stop at each of the 8 possible volume levels. It worked great.
The company took our prototype and sent it out on a boat with a real customer to get feedback. Mostly the feedback was very positive, to the delight of the entire team. But ... the customer hated the volume control. He claimed that the volume he wanted was always directly in between two of the click stops. I was dismayed, and foresaw a difficult challenge – one that would likely bust the production cost budget. The founder of the company was unperturbed, though. He told me to put in a switch with no click stops, just smooth continuous motion. To do this, we had to switch to a gray-coded DAC (to avoid glitches at the switch points), but that was relatively easy and cheap. Then we sent the prototype back out to the same customer for testing, with a couple of other minor changes.
The result? The customer was totally pleased, and reported that the volume control now worked exactly as expected. Several follow-on testers reported the same thing. Note that there was no actual change in function – the only thing we did, functionally, was to remove the click-stops. The smooth motion of the switch now gave the customers the illusion of analog control, but the reality was they still had just eight discrete volume levels. Customers were happy, and so was the company that employed me, as the new design actually turned out to be slightly cheaper to build.
I've remembered that incident ever since, and I confess that I've employed the same technique several times since then. It worked every time. I'm sure I've been fooled (and satisfied) by non-functional controls myself, many times. We humans are funny beasties, aren't we?
This is not new understanding. Back in the early '80s, a customer for my design consulting practice introduced me to the same idea. The customer was a firm in San Diego that built specialty radios, mostly for the commercial maritime trade. These were sturdy devices that internally were quite advanced systems, but were being used by fisherman, cargo ship crews, and the like – not technically advanced folks, typically. They also didn't have the habit of being gentle with their gear :)
I was contracted to build the first radio receiver they'd ever produced with a digital front panel. The company's own engineers were analog folks, so they hired me to design all the digital parts as well as the interface to the analog side. Most of this was very straightforward. One seemingly simple element was the volume control. Back in those days, controlling volume digitally was a bit of a challenge. One couldn't simply go out and buy something like an 8-bit digital-to-analog controller (DAC) at a reasonable price. So we decided to settle for a 3-bit DAC made from discrete components. This provided 8 volume levels, which the company decided was more than sufficient – most users would simply turn it to the max, and leave it there. I designed in an 8 position rotary switch that provided a click-stop at each of the 8 possible volume levels. It worked great.
The company took our prototype and sent it out on a boat with a real customer to get feedback. Mostly the feedback was very positive, to the delight of the entire team. But ... the customer hated the volume control. He claimed that the volume he wanted was always directly in between two of the click stops. I was dismayed, and foresaw a difficult challenge – one that would likely bust the production cost budget. The founder of the company was unperturbed, though. He told me to put in a switch with no click stops, just smooth continuous motion. To do this, we had to switch to a gray-coded DAC (to avoid glitches at the switch points), but that was relatively easy and cheap. Then we sent the prototype back out to the same customer for testing, with a couple of other minor changes.
The result? The customer was totally pleased, and reported that the volume control now worked exactly as expected. Several follow-on testers reported the same thing. Note that there was no actual change in function – the only thing we did, functionally, was to remove the click-stops. The smooth motion of the switch now gave the customers the illusion of analog control, but the reality was they still had just eight discrete volume levels. Customers were happy, and so was the company that employed me, as the new design actually turned out to be slightly cheaper to build.
I've remembered that incident ever since, and I confess that I've employed the same technique several times since then. It worked every time. I'm sure I've been fooled (and satisfied) by non-functional controls myself, many times. We humans are funny beasties, aren't we?
Is it proper for women to be learned?
Is it proper for women to be learned? That's a question from an advice column of the 1690s.
Oh, the blue sunsets of Mars!
I remember reading a science fiction story from the '60s or '70s that postulated blue sunrises and sunsets on Mars, complete with the reasons why. At the time, I thought of that is the speculation of an author who probably wasn't all that well-informed about science. There was plenty of that (and still is) in science fiction, but there were (and are) also plenty of authors who actually do have a good science background, or who are scientists. Isaac Asimov is the canonical example of the latter, and he also wrote several hundred non-fiction books to popularize science...
The most successful scam evah!
The most successful scam evah! I speak of the beauty industry, of course...
Integer overflow on BBC...
Integer overflow on BBC... Interesting seeing a technical issue like this explained by non-technical people...
Paradise perambulations...
Paradise perambulations... Yesterday afternoon we had sunshine with a few clouds in the sky; temperature was a beautiful 63° and the roads and pastures had dried out a bit. All three dogs, Debbie and I took a walk of a mile or so up the dirt road that goes east from our home. The views back to the west from the top were so nice – the lush greens of spring in farmland dominating.
Earlier in the day we had taken a drive up to Porcupine Reservoir, about 7 miles south of our home. We wanted to see if the recent rains had raised its level, and they had. But we also were treated to some other sights. Flowers, especially lilacs and tulips, abounded in the yards of almost every home we passed. Nearly all deciduous trees are now in leaf, and the sticks of winter are largely shrouded.
But the real treat was birds – lots and lots of birds! Probably the most fun for me was sighting several common loons on the reservoir. I knew they were present here in northern Utah, but I had no idea they were here in such number, or on Porcupine Reservoir. That's very close to our home! Also spotted on the reservoir: a new bird for me, the double-crested cormorant (at right, not my photo). Away from the reservoir, we also spotted a single male lazuli bunting, a male American goldfinch, and several yellow warblers (most likely Wilson's, but we didn't get a good enough view for a positive ID). Very nice!
Earlier in the day we had taken a drive up to Porcupine Reservoir, about 7 miles south of our home. We wanted to see if the recent rains had raised its level, and they had. But we also were treated to some other sights. Flowers, especially lilacs and tulips, abounded in the yards of almost every home we passed. Nearly all deciduous trees are now in leaf, and the sticks of winter are largely shrouded.
Sunday, May 10, 2015
Miki has a friend...
My mom asked for a photo of the barn...
Folks around here, when they hear me call this building “the barn”, immediately assume we've got horses or the like. I'm going to have to start calling it “the shed” or some such thing. Maybe “kuur”, which is Estonian for shed (and pronounced like “coor” in English).
I know what a kuur is because I once spent the night in one :) In the late '90s I was on a business trip to Tallinn, Estonia. I stayed over the weekend, rented a car, and drove to Hiiumaa island. I had planned to stay at a small hotel in the city of Kaina, but when I got there it was completely full – and after a half hour of the staff helping me check with other hotels, they were all full as well. Furthermore, the last ferry had already left for the mainland. I thought I'd be sleeping in my (tiny!) rental car, but a woman on staff, who spoke some English, offered to let me stay in their kuur. They also let me use their bathroom to take a bath (no shower!), and fed me breakfast in the morning. I had to endure a death by 10,000 questions from their two children, about 8 and 10, both of whom spoke passable English and knew far more about Hollywood than I did :)
The A-10 “Warthog” is the finest close air support aircraft ever built...
Marines I know who have seen combat in Afghanistan have a reverence for this airplane and its pilots that has to be experienced to understand its profundity. The reason is simple enough: the A-10's magnificent close air support capability has, quite literally, saved hundreds and hundreds of American lives at the tip of the spear...
Paraprosdokians...
Paraprosdokians... According to Wikipedia:
searching for more. Reading through a few dozen of these was a very pleasant
way to burn a few minutes! A few I particularly enjoyed:
A paraprosdokian is a figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence, phrase, or larger discourse is surprising or unexpected in a way that causes the reader or listener to reframe or reinterpret the first part.I ran across some examples at Maggie's Farm this morning, and that got me
searching for more. Reading through a few dozen of these was a very pleasant
way to burn a few minutes! A few I particularly enjoyed:
If I agreed with you, we'd both be wrong.
You're never too old to learn something stupid.
Some cause happiness wherever they go. Others whenever they go.
I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn’t it.
Nostalgia isn’t what it used to be.
ScanSnap IX500 trick...
ScanSnap IX500 trick... We've been paperless here for a few months now, thanks to our ScanSnap IX500 scanner and DEVONThink software. In general, I've been very pleased with the arrangement – and with a few month's practice, all the steps now seem very easy and straightforward.
There's one little thing, though, that's been driving me slightly crazy: long receipts, such as those giant ones from the grocery store, or the Home Depot receipts with a book's worth of text printed at the end. The scanner would stop after about 18" of receipt, reporting an error. That happened to me for a half dozen attempts until I realized it was simply the length. After that, I started cutting the longer receipts into short sections (never needed more than two), and scanning them separately. But it was a pain in the neck!
A few days ago, after suffering through another of those, I decided to Google the problem. Wouldn't you know it? In seconds I found a ridiculously simple solution. Here it is: instead of just clicking the blue button on the scanner to start the scan, hold it down for a few seconds until it blinks, then release it. That's it! This morning I scanned a 31" long receipt, with no issue at all.
I have no idea why Fujitsu decided to make that a special mode on the scanner. You'd think that decision could be automated. But there it is. The solution is simple enough, and works great...
There's one little thing, though, that's been driving me slightly crazy: long receipts, such as those giant ones from the grocery store, or the Home Depot receipts with a book's worth of text printed at the end. The scanner would stop after about 18" of receipt, reporting an error. That happened to me for a half dozen attempts until I realized it was simply the length. After that, I started cutting the longer receipts into short sections (never needed more than two), and scanning them separately. But it was a pain in the neck!
A few days ago, after suffering through another of those, I decided to Google the problem. Wouldn't you know it? In seconds I found a ridiculously simple solution. Here it is: instead of just clicking the blue button on the scanner to start the scan, hold it down for a few seconds until it blinks, then release it. That's it! This morning I scanned a 31" long receipt, with no issue at all.
I have no idea why Fujitsu decided to make that a special mode on the scanner. You'd think that decision could be automated. But there it is. The solution is simple enough, and works great...
Morning walk...
The dogs really like these after-rain walks. You can tell that the smells are intensified for them – they eagerly dash hither and yon, chasing the wisps their noses catch. Me, I just smell the wet earth from the alfalfa fields we're walking past.
For some reason the dogs were completely disinterested in the earthworms this morning. Even Race, who ate about a hundred of them a few mornings ago, just completely ignored them. Weird. Maybe they weren't too digestible :)
Mo'i (with the green leash) is speed-regulated by the slope of our path. On the steeper uphill parts, we're walking at a lazy human pace. On the level bits, we're making a kind of normal human pace. On the downhill stretches, we're zipping along at a brisk pace. It feels like I could model his pace in software very easily, by assuming a certain amount of friction, mass, and a little locomotive force. The other two, were they controlling the pace, would have us at a flat-out run no matter what the slope was. The model for them would be even easier: a fixed speed!
How they made...
I remember this movie for an odd reason. I saw it in a theater on the Mare Island Navy base, while I was attending computer technician school there in the early '70s. There's a scene in the movie where a broad landscape is visible under a gorgeous blue sky. For one brief cut, there's a jet contrail visible at one side – and about a dozen of us caught it at the same moment and laughed out loud in the theater. A fun moment...
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