Day 20 - A big day

A pretty big day today.  For me I mean - had a huge service on the ole Beetle, got invited into a new gaming clan, and something... else...  Something south of here... Hmm - give me a minute.  Oh yah - the new president in the US - or to quote Grandpa Simpson: "The Prez-ee-dent is a Demi-crat!"  I have to mention it here, or it'll come back to haunt me somehow, but more on that later.

I hit something in the parking garage leaving work on Monday - some snow from behind a wheel-well - but it that was it for the plastic protecting the underside of my engine.  The VW New Beetle TDI has a very low-hanging engine.  I swear it has the same road clearance as a Lotus Elsie, or maybe that's just some kind of Freudian slip, but it is so low that it requires a deflector to protect the oil pan from road debris.  The pieces of plastic just cost so durn much that I'm never in a big rush to fix them.  Anyway, something was dragging the whole way home, so I got a hold of my local dealer (Leavens VW) and manage to get a spot Tuesday.  I also need a few other trivial things done  - a "Clean Air" test (Ontario emissions test) and the timing belt replacement.  Since I don't do sarcasm well in blog form, let me elaborate (that's something I do very well in blog form!)  The diesel engine in the New Beetle is squeezed into the tiny front hood and part of the dash, so it is impossible to work on.  When the timing belt needs to be replaced, the water pump, tensioner and belt need to be done at the same time.  And the engine has to be taken out of the car - 5 hours of labour.  Just think about that for awhile.  So I get a call from the service guy asking me where the big 1 metre sq plastic shield is, 'cause they didn't find it inside the car.  At this point, I realize that I didn't explain that I knew the shields were broken and I wanted them replaced.  Oh well, they don't have that part in stock.  Not a big deal, but that was the main reason for taking the car in!  At least nothing was dragging when I headed home.  And the engine was running better with tensioner and belt replaced.  I think it will start better in the cold now too.

One of the attractions of playing online games has always been the community aspect.  Anyone that has participated in a LAN party knows how much more fun it is to play with a whole bunch of people in the same location.  Failing that, we have trusty headsets and microphones and such so that we can have a similar experience without the geo-locality.  To that end, I've been playing Counter-Strike Source on a particular server for a few years now.  One of the big pluses of this group is that the majority of people are at least as old as I am and they have some simple rules on their server: no swearing, no porn sprays, no using map hacks, no being an ass.  Well the last one is kind of a summary.  In other words, if someone is being a jerk, they're kicked.  And, well, they're a pretty good group.  And they invited me to be part of the group - which is pretty cool.  The other clan I was a part of had a similar makeup, but they were all in Seattle, so I never made it to the in-person events they had.  These guys are mostly in Ontario and engage in the occasional group outing, which would be nice.

Then there is that whole 44th president thing.  I watch the main part of the inauguration - by which I mean his acceptance speech - and that was quite good.  It looked like he did the speech from memory - I never saw him glance down or stare through invisible teleprompters or what-not.  The invocation of George Washington was excellent.  I have good feelings about what he stands for and where he may take the country.  The hype was a little much though.  Like my dad often quoth: "Time will tell."

Day 19: The bluest day

I mentioned in a previous (recent) posting that January 19th was the "bluest" day of the year.  This was determined by researchers and coincides with several events - it is the darkest time (shortest days in the Northern Hemisphere), the time when all the credit card bills from Christmas have arrived and are due, and that point where you've given up on your New Year's resolution in a big way.  Fortunately, my New Year's resolution was to blog more, so by simply noting this for the Internet, I'm still "sticking with it."  Terrible trap this self-referential spiral, but pop culture does it so effectively I figured I should give it a shot.

Actually made it to the gym this morning, but things didn't go as well as planned nor as badly as they could have.  Having learned my lesson last week about not going too far,  I was going to make sure not strain anything during my leg workout.  The first exercise is squats, so I made sure I did about half what I've been doing for a long time, just in case.  Well I ended up only doing 2 sets because my hamstrings started to cramp on before I started the third set.  I moved on to the next exercise and only did 2 sets there too and skipped the hamstring curls.  I guess I'll have to see what happens tomorrow and Wednesday, but I'm hopeful.  My legs generally recover well and it wasn't very heavy at all.  It really shows me how long I've gone without regular gym visits.  Never seems like has been very long.

I heard on the weekend that multiple entries are okay for the Canada Writes contest.  I think I'm going to have to start entering - vote early, vote often I've never said.  Gotta get in a movie pitch and a rant and stuff.  Maybe a song.  Maybe a song about a ranting movie pitch.  Something....

Day 18 - Impressive!

Here we all are, yet again.  Referring to myself as a group makes me feel like maybe, just maybe, there is more than one person reading.  But whatever - that doesn't really matter.  If it did there would be many fewer bloggers.  Am I right, or am I right?  Yah!

Pretty productive day around the house - I was able to get a bunch of chores done with an efficiency that surprised me.  What I still can't believe is that I'm still sore from working out last Thursday.  Starting back at the gym after a long layoff is tough.  I find that I'm still strong enough to pick up pretty much wherever I leave off, but the endurance has disappeared such that what would have a been a regular-to-light workout has repercussions for many days after.  Chest exercises seem to be most effected area.  Arms recover quickly, in general, but I always seem to hurt the tendons or the ends of the muscles after a layoff.  End up where I can't quite straighten my arm - but that only lasts for 1 or 2 days past the workout.  I have read (but I don't remember exactly where) that biceps will recover 80% of capability within 90 seconds after an exercise.  Your arms get used so much and so often that they are capable of extreme recovery.  Someone like Lance Armstrong would have legs that could recover like that.  I know he has some anatomic advantages plus years of training to make that true.  The chest muscles are behaving like they've just been worked on every day.  Guess I really over did them - oh well.  Still, I've got to make it to the gym tomorrow - gotta make something else hurt to balance things.

I've been reading the latest Spectrum and been enjoying it immensely.  I was surprised by the information related to the cover article on prosthetic arms/hands.  This is part of their annual winners/losers techonolgy which tries to make an educated guess on how technologies scheduled for release in the upcoming year will fare.  This is definitely a winner.  The war in Afganistan and in Iraq has resulted in large increase in amputations, so there are many military researchers who are eager to improve prosthetic upper limbs.  Legs and feet are relatively easy - they require limbs with 3 or 4 degrees of freedom.  Plus non-war related amputations are usually lower limbs.  Myoelectric arms provide 3 degrees of freedom, but natural arms provide 25 degrees of freedom, with opening a doorknob requiring 5 degrees of freedom.  A useful upper limb replacement needs 22 degrees of freedom to come close to replacing a natural limb, plus natural limbs have a sense of touch and heat.  The system being researched is first off an "open" system that describes how things are connected, so future work can target a specific area and improve that and work with all other implementations.  Second, really progress is being made in the control by neural or muscular systems to enable smoother and more practical movements.  Still research but looks like some true steps have been made here.  Pretty exciting.

Day 17 - fullstop.

Checking back, I posted 17 times in the first month I setup this thing, so that's pretty good.  There has only been one other month that I posted more... 2 years ago!  Jeez!  Can't even keep up with fashionable web trends anymore - I must really be showing my age.  This inane one-sided banter is helpful because it is writing.  I'm assuming that it's like publicity - any writing is good.  Er something.  More along the lines of what Malcom Gladwell describes in Outliers - that magic number of hours doing a task is what separates the average from the good from the great.  

Not that I think this will ever turn me into a great writer, but that this will make my writing better.  Haven't read that book yet, so I'm not sure if the argument is based solely on hours-on-task or if there is a combination of innate skills plus hours-on-task that leads to the heights of excellence.  I heard in an excerpt that top performers in given fields don't have the best IQs - there's no benefit after a score of about 120.  That suggests that intelligence (or the IQ measure of it) is not a key factor.  I believe that there is a balance between innate skills, intelligence and practise.  Someone that posses innate abilities but cannot be challenged at the right time will never explore the heights of their skills.  If an individual cannot remain engaged, they won't put in the time necessary.  This can be easily demonstrated with sports and the development of athletes - for example women's hockey.  Canada and the US have the two best teams and the two best programs.  The "program"is more than the identification and training of skilled athletes, it's the large number of teams for women to play in and the hierarchy of competitive tiers.  Countries without a wide infrastructure at the youngest ages don't cast the net very wide.  If there is lots of amateur play, but no tiers of increasing skill, the best players continue to play with the same set of teammates and opponents and are never challenged.    In Canada, women's hockey benefited from the existing hockey infrastructure - arenas, coaches, lots of people interested in the sport.  I believe (but do not know for sure) that in the US there are not as many amateur players, but good players are moved into more competitive leagues very effectively.  Other countries have excellent players, but their players may play at a skill level so far above their teammates that they aren't challenged during training.  That and other countries may not identify some of the truly skilled players because of this lack of infrastructure.

Long digression, but still see the balance between these items as being as important as any single factor.  Even the examples I've heard from Outliers (Bill Joy, Bill Gates, Wayne Gretzky) have that balance - all have innate skills, but access to certain resources (to allow the magic time to practise) and a place to apply the items were very fortuitous.  This is why we don't have people who simply spend thousands of hours making it.  If that were so, the pop charts would be clogged with the many skilled musicians that simply never made it "big" for whatever reason.  Looking at the issue from the other way - why did skilled, smart individuals not make it? - I guess that's why I'm arguing for the multiple factors.  Skill, focus and situational opportunity are the combo.  Skill is obvious - innate abilities sharpened through practise and refinement.  Situational opportunity are those things that can be called "right-place-right-time".  For Bill Gates, it was access to computer time when computers were rare and highly specialized.  For Bill Joy, it was arriving at Berkeley at the right time to be able to contribute to Unix and then found Sun.  Wayne Gretzky it was being part of the Canadian amateur hockey system that allowed him to compete against much older children so that he could challenge his own skills.

All this argument shows a bias forged in experience and undergraduate psychology courses - when there are several possible answers, the best (or right) answer is usually a combination of those possibilities.  When you are looking at phenomenon that is identified and studied in a scientific manner, the possible answers reflect the people creating hypotheses.  To explore a topic, an hypothesis is created and then tested.  Each individual may emphasize some items and overlook others so the initial hypothesis may not encompass the whole picture.  At around the same time, a different person explores the same phenomenon and starts with a different hypothesis.  Once research and testing show a hypothesis is valid, it is difficult to change people's minds about it, so sides develop that stick with one idea over the other.  Finally this is resolved when someone creates a hypothesis that incorporates both ideas and shows that it is true.  Similarly, experience shows conflicts are generally nuanced enough that it isn't as simple as one side over the other.  So that's my bias.

Day 16 - Excelsior!

Yah, I had to lookup the meaning of excelsior too - the Simpson's references not withstanding.  I knew it was a favorite saying of Mr Burns: "...so excelsior to you!" in "King Size Homer" for example.  Turns out, it's also the motto of the state of New York, probably using the "ever upward" definition.  My last post I refered to the time of the year when resolutions are forgot, but I didn't explain it very well.  Some college in the UK (I believe) has picked January 19th, 2009 as the most "blue" day of the year, though I think I'd call it the most depressing day.  They use the winter aspect (short days, little sunlight) along with the bills arriving from Christmas to pick that particular date.  Fun.

Got another game in the new skates today - this time with reasonable length skate laces.  One of the goalies who played today used to play competitively for many years and works as a manager in a sports store now.  He said that he always recommends longer laces, as the ones supplied with Junior skates are quite short.  He noted that kids generally have a narrower foot, so they need to tighten up the boot more.  With that in mind, I tried to do up the skates adequately, but without pinching the tendon on the top of my foot.  This worked great for the left, not so much for the right.  I guess the irritation from the last time I played didn't help anything, but I must be instinctively tightening that one way too much.  I re-did the right side on the bench before the game started, but it was killing me by the end.  At least the balls of my feet weren't crushed like last time.  Oh well - I'll figure it out some day.  The skates are pretty nice, but I'm still not very well balanced on them.  The shooting pain in my one foot kinda distracts from the search for perfect balance.  I think that it will be really nice once I break them in and figure out how to tie them without cutting off the circulation to my big toe.  The right-hand big toe.  Yah.

My mom came by and showed off her new camera - a Canon G10 (review here) and it looks pretty nice.  She got 2 SD cards for it - each 4GB, paying about $14 for both.  I pointed out that my iPhone has that much storage in it and, after blank stares, relateded that size to the last computer they bought.  They bought an IBM PS/2 Model 50 with a 10 MB hard drive many years back.  So that little tile can store 4000MB/10MB == 400 times the storage.  That 4GB of storage can only hold ~600 pictures in super-fine mode.  One picture pretty much would occupy most of that old hard drive (~6MB/image).  A RAW image would require two of those hard drives.

Day 15 Incredible!

Two weeks, plus a day.  It does sound like something a judge would say - maybe "neighbourhood court".  Provincial courts can do anything up to 2 years, less a day - municipal would be 2 months less a day and neighbourhood... Not really that droll when I have to spell it out, but I thought it was weak and needed some help...

I heard a comment on the radio about this being around the time that everyone has given up on their New Year's resolutions - or maybe it was the 19th of January.  Whatever.  It just reminded me about New Year's and parties and, most importantly, what I've been drinking over the holidays.  What have I been drinking you ask?  You don't care?  Well guess what - I do!  Harkening back to our company Christmas party, otherwise known as one of the few nights out in a year when I can imbibe liberally (imbibe like a Liberal?), I had an expensive cocktail (rye and coke) and switched to something I "mixed" myself - Crown and coke.  I must say that this is definitely the combination that my body acclimatizes to readily as I did not run into the issues of a few years previous.  That is the infamous "rye and coke" then "wine with dinner" followed by "rye and coke", then "I'm out of dough - no more rye and coke" and then someone sagely suggesting the unconsumed bottles of wine on the tables...  I think he knows who he is ;)  Anyway, there was none of that.  That weekend I made my annual LCBO trek, filling the cabinet with my personal stock and gifts for others.

Having seen that whiskey is good - I have known this for some time - I decided that I should branch out to Irish whiskey from my Rye and modest Scotch stocks.  I have heard excellent things about Jameson's.  This became my nog-enhancer of choice over the holidays, and it was good.  Next, I had read good things about "Red Breast", which turned out to be a 12-year-old blend of Irish whiskey's.  Another excellent beverage, best enjoyed straight up.  Reminds me of some of the better brandies or cognacs I've sampled.  I bought a nice looking blueberry Stoli - that's Stolichnaya infused with blueberries - as a gift.  I guess I'll find out how it is sometime in the future.  I also acquired a small bottle of Bailey's Irish Cream, mint chocolate flavoured, but I haven't opened it yet.  I'm thinking that it will be an excellent coffee additive, but I haven't been in the position to consume such a thing.  If the weather stays as it has been for the last few days however...

What else did I have over the holidays?  Some homemade red wine, Bailey's, scotch, Vecchio Romagna, and a selection of carbonated fermented grains.  You know, beer - but nothing fancy.  Sounds like a lot, but a small glass at time over the course of 3 or 4 weeks.  Always nice to enjoy the drink, rather than cramming down drink after drink...  I really do miss those super-sour Tom Collin's the Bomber used to have... 

Day 14 Chilly, but not bad

Not playing hockey was weird - stayed up too late because I didn't have to be up early.  Didn't sleep in too much, but then headed out in the weather.  Not too bad - it was about -12 when I got going.  Shoveled the driveway and relished the cold.  I like being outside in this temperature if I'm prepared for it.  I had a nice sweater on - something I can only do when it is cold out.  That and moving a little bit of fluff around and the whole thing is quite pleasant.  I can remember actually being cold when I was a kid.  That was usually after 1 or 2 hours of building snow forts and some-such, and my gloves (or mits) had doubled in weight.  When the sweat from underneath meets the snowmelt soaking inwards, that's when its really cold.  That or when I'm standing around while the my kids are doing that.  The standing around is always what gets you.

I'm going to have to find an excuse to hang around at night at my parent's house some clear night in this cold.  It is the most special time to be outside - bright moon, blue-black sky, gleaming snow blanket criss-crossed with the ever-thining branches.  The air precise and the silence sharp.  Moving around makes that bright squeak, but that seems like an insult to the night.  Got to remember to breath - but not too deep or else the air stabs at the lungs.

I think I could do better to describe a meditation, but that's something.  What I wonder is what would happen if I'm standing outside in the bright-dark and the deer start wandering by...  They keep looking for acorns and the remains of the garden produce, so it could happen.  Maybe I need to find myself a sturdy deer-whomping, er walking, stick.  I think my dad still has that one I cut a 15 or 20 years back - a nice young hardwood (beech? ash?)  about 5cm in diameter.  I think it must still be in a garage somewhere - hard as all get out, and never cut so it keeps all the strongest aspects of being a tree.  I thought I saw it a few months back, but it would be an excellent walking, er deer-whomping, stick.  That is something I have to go looking for - definitely.

Day 13 - No Hockey???

I really don't like cancelling hockey, but it's happened.  I really, really don't like missing a game, but it's hard enough to get people to come out, so when there are no goalies at all then it's really not worth it.  I still don't like it!  I was surprised there were no goalies though.  We usually have one, even if that one is not the guy I work with.   Oh well - I shouldn't be bitter.

What I didn't do today was make it to the gym.  I ended up taking a whole lot longer getting to work than I thought I would, but mainly because I took awhile to get started.  Shoveled half the driveway because I was worried everything might freeze up later today.  Someone finished it for me sometime during the day, but wife doesn't know who.  Snowblowers are such toys - can just clean one!  Driveway that is.  My delays were nothing to those who had to travel the actual highways, especially the 401.  The consensus was that people either over or under-compensate for the weather.  My contention is that people can generally make one adjustment per day, so if they get it through their heads to slow down and drive carefully in the snow squalls, they can't speed up in the bare-dry sections later on.

I was really wondering what hockey would be like tomorrow, as it's supposed to be pretty cold overnight.  Forecast calls for -18 C, but it might get colder.  It's -12 now, but -19 with the wind chill.  It's the first time it's been really cold this winter, although there were a few times I felt pretty cold because of the wind.  Anyway, the cold temperatures overnight help the rink we use to freeze better.  The cold would not help my new skates fit better, I think, and that is what I was curious about.  Plus I need to put more time into those skates so they will fit better!

The cold weather reminds me of the episode of Mythbusters where they were testing winter-related items.  That episode truly showed how very, very Californian they all are.  They doubted the tongue-sticking-to-flag-pole myth.  I guess the "tongue stuck on chain link fence" that I remember from being a kid just doesn't sound as cool.  Then they tested cars-on-ice  and avalanche myths.  The avalanche bit was pretty wrong.  It was obvious they wouldn't be able to trigger one.  Now if they were in BC this month, totally different story.  They've had so much trouble there because there was a cold snap with some snow first, followed by warmer and wetter snowfall in massive amounts.  In other words, big heavy snow on top of smooth, frozen ice pellets.  A snow conveyor if you will.  When you get a couple of metres on top of those ice-bearings, things flow in a hurry.  I guess you don't realize how much you know about something, like ice, snow and winter, until you see people who know so very little.  One thing I can't criticize in any way is the avalanche safety team, how Adam and Jamie got to use a proper tool to make the mountain safer - dynamite thrown from a helicopter.

Day 12 - The Pudge Factor

One thing about the holidays is that whole "gaining weight" thing.  I am not and have never been the person with the tiny waist.  However, the last few months have been sitting rather uneasily around my middle.  The main problem is simply not getting to the gym.  It's kinda nice to avoid it right around January 1 as there are people in attendance that won't be in attendance in short order.  I'm gonna have to get back on track with that tomorrow morning.  Playing hockey a couple of times a week keeps things reasonable in terms of energy level and total-body-squishiness, but when I can get to the gym for the other 3 days of the week, that does a body good.  Especially in my business - the sitting down staring straight ahead business.  Like the salesman at "The Vast Waistband" on the Simpson's episode King-Size Homer:

Work, huh?  Let me guess. Computer programmer, computer magazine columnist, something to do with computers?

His speculation of "...it must be all the constant sitting and snacking..." is one of the great banes of the information industry.  Ah well - a job is a good thing - it pays for my blogging habit.

Anyhoo, I'm involved with an issue at work that seems to be gaining some traction vis a vis a root cause of the problem instead of an eternal examination of the symptoms.  The current line of investigation suggests the issue was a small problem that leads to performance issues over time.  This is the type of problem encountered at this stage of the project.  The software development is long done, much testing is over and we are left to sort through the "long tail" of remaining issues.  These are the bugs that arrise from complex or long-term interactions, exactly the problem in this case.  We've been working on this project for quite a long time and I suspect that many developers at my work have either passed by or never knew about the "embedded" aspect of our work.

The devices we work on are embedded, but (fortunately) they aren't the embedded ones I first learned on.  These machines have more computing power, memory and long-term storage than I had access to for the first 15 years of using a computer.  My first PC had 1 MB RAM, a 80286 processor and a 10 MB hard-disk.  These devices have 50 MB RAM for Java (plus much more for the underlying OS), hundreds of MB of Non-volatile memory and 300 MIP processors.  So I can understand how embedded ideals can be overlooked during development.  This is the stage of the project when those embedded design patterns pay dividends, or come back to bite us.

One of the best things that these embedded designs lead to is software that is compact, fast and resource-sparse.  These ideals will be more necessary when this software is more widely deployed and possibly developed upon.  Hopefully I can call some attention to this move away from the "small" before we begin the next project in earnest.

Day 11 - Prime time!

Titles are hard, so I figure a weak numeric joke is better than nothing today.   My wife brought up an idea - that "carbon offsets" are equivalent to "papal indulgences".  I thought it was an excellent idea, and something that I should think about entering in a CBC contest "Canada Writes."  After talking around the topic a bit, we both recalled hearing this proposition before, but it is still an interesting thought.  I figured I'd expand the ideas a little farther, branching out to the more general topic of "global warming" and what people think about it and are doing about it.  Like most things, it's probably a good idea to practise composing such a piece, so I'm going to write up some of my ideas here and enter the contest later with something more coherent.  Or less - I'm not sure what they're looking for ;)

Anyway, the papal indulgences vs carbon offsets is a very strong parallel: you get to sin all you want and use money to erase the sin.  The money paid goes somewhere that's not exactly clear and whatever your theological grounding, what gets done with the money to fix the sin is rather murky.  Some examples are the planting of various trees in different parts of the world to offset that plane trip you took from New York to Lake Tahoe to go skiing.  Everything comes down to the "leave it the way you found it" idea I was given growing up.  You can mess things up all you want if you spend the time to clean it up.  Doing all the messing up followed by all the cleaning leaves you in a pickle - the mess becomes like compound interest.  Messing the mess results in more clean up effort than mess-cleanup-mess.  And when we're talking the environment, the "leaving it to the end" is equivalent to "leaving it until I'm almost dead", at which point you've done very little cleaning up and a lot of messing up.  These lessons lead one to try and create less mess and clean more frequently.  This works in the kitchen and in the tar sands - there is a minimum mess necessary to accomplish something, but after that, it should be dealt with.  Economically, once you've made the money, that's the time to do the cleanup, not years later when you've gone bankrupt.  Well, that's what companies do because the gov't (that's us) has to come in and clean up.

Every now and then there is a back-and-forth about "global warming" - it's important to act now, the data is flawed, the science wrong, someone is manipulating the media, etc etc.  The first step is to try and get every person to reduce their daily impact on the world around them.  Next, the impact of their general lifestyle.  A lot of progress can be made through technology and now is the time to pursue them.  Some propose huge projects to fix things, but those smack of desperation and is wrong-headed.  Humans are very adaptable and getting the humans to change is easier, cheaper and more predicitble than trying to bend the planet to our will.  The latter has always been thwarted, never working out as planned or even in a predictable fashion.  So let's get on to working small and building up from that.  Use less water, less electricity, less gasoline.  All these things will be cheaper for you as an individual and then you can look to the things you buy and decide how to select things that are better.  Eating food that is in season near where you live is cheaper and it has to travel less.  It keeps the farmers near you going and it generally tastes better too.  Generating power more locally would save creating huge towers everywhere with lots of cables susceptible to ice and wind and so forth.  

Anyway, that's enough ranting for tonight.  I'll have to look into some more potential topics for the Canada Writes topic.  Everyone that reads this post will know my main problem will be keeping any submission to 200 words.

Day 10 - {Title to be inserted later}

Got a small blog window at this point - gotta put the kids to bed soon and then off to see Quantum of Solace.  I enjoyed Casino Royale (on DVD) so I'm happy with Daniel Craig as Bond.  I'm disappointed that Pierce Brosnan couldn't become Bond when he was in the correct part of his career.  Not that his Bond films were bad, but I think they would have been better if he had a few more years in the role.  Anyway, we'll see what the movie is like and I can blather on about it later.

Got my new skates sharpened today by my "skate sharpening guy" and, more importantly, got new laces.  The skates had impossibly short 84" laces, so I got some 96" ones to replace them.  Hopefully that will mean I can stop bruising the top of my foot just to tie a knot in them...  The skates were sharpened last week, but this guy takes a lot more care than most.  I've had him do my skates since I started playing hockey again a few years back.  The first time he did them, he deepened the 'radius of groove'.  If you look along the blade and measure the depth between the edges and the middle, that's the radius of groove.  Not to be confused with the 'radius of grove' that I originally wrote down.  That's the distance from the middle of a clearing to the where the forrest starts up again.  Anyway, the deeper radius means the blade holds a nicer edge, as long as the blade is good.  My old skates have good steel and so do the new ones, so this only benefits turning speed and the angle where the blade will still bite.  That's why I wanted him to re-do the sharpening that the store did.  The store did an okay job, but not that good.  Herm's in London sharepens blades well, and I suppose Pete's would do better if I had bothered to tell them exactly what I wanted.  But I like this guy and that's who's getting my business.

The other interesting thing he mentioned is that after I put in another 6 or 7 hours of time into the skates I should get them re-heated and fit at the place where I bought them.  That will help break in the skates - they just need to get used a bit before they will really change their shape.  He aslo warned me that it will take about half a season for the skates to get properly broken in, but once they do they will fit great forever.  That's what I'm counting on!

Day 9 - Hockey and feet

Nine posts, nine days.  It's a freakin' miracle.  Well, no, more like someone who spends too much time in front of the computer, but whatever.

So, I've had my new skates for almost a whole week and my foot is killing me.  It's been so long since I broke in new skates I completely forgot about how bad it would be.  I can skate, but not that well because my feet ache with them on.  The main problem is not the skate, but rather the dinky laces supplied with them!  I asked for longer laces before I left the store, but they left the originals in there.  I have to pull them so tight my feet hurt just so I can make a bow!  When I put them on for the first game, I tied the right side too tight and hurt that tendon that goes from your big toe across the top of your foot.  That and I put the toungue on the outside of my knee pads.  For the game I played today, I tightened the other parts as much as possible and put the toungue under the pad.  The top of the foot was okay, but now my foot was in so very, very compressed.  Longer laces will help and few days not wearing them.  Maybe I'll be able to take them back to where I bought them and get the new laces for free.  Maybe I'll just take them to see the guy who sharpens them and never mind about the other place - which ever.

In other interesting hockey-related news, John Tavares is playing for the London Knights now - the local OHL team.  My dad likes to go see a game every once in a while, but it's been hard to get tickets for the last little while.  The Knights have had a few really good seasons and the season ticket sales make getting seats impossible.  Well, you can get standing room tickets, but kids can really go there.  And seats are available, but only one or two at a time.  Anyway, Tavares is with the Knights and the played Tavares old team tonight, the Oshawa Generals.  London came out on top 6-1.  Well, I guess I can watch the local cable channel to catch a game and see how Tavares fits with the team.  Hopefully the team didn't have to trade away too many draft picks for him.

I hope I can get more comfy in the new skates - I do like them.  They're lighter and they same to handle better, but until I can skate without thinking about it, my game will suffer.  It's amazing how much more you do playing hockey then simply skating around.  I'm glad my youngest son has agreed to skating lessons while being as young as he is - that way I can make sure he has a solid skating foundation before he starts playing hockey.  Skating has to be something that enables you as a player, so you can concetrate on where everybody is and playing your position better.  Anyway, he's almost 5 and I that's a little too young for hockey.  It's be a good age for screwing around on the backyard rink or pond, but no dice.   The backyard isn't level enough, I haven't prepared anything at all and the nearby drainage pond hasn't frozen thick enough yet to be safe.  I still like playing hockey a lot - hopefully he will too.

Day 8 Really?

It's day 8 in the habit-forming department.  I know I feel better knowing that.  Well, maybe not - but whatever.  I'm here now, I might as well write about something... Something topical, ... in the news... GM!  Just saw a little something about the Chevy Volt.  Some guys from the NBC got to take the test-mule out for a drive.  They seemed impressed in a muted way.  So far, that project has been proceeding how I hoped it would.  It's taking a bit longer than I thought it might, but I guess there are many things that have to be considered when creating a whole new infrastructure.  Saw something from gm-volt.com - they referenced the NBC site, plus have lots of other info on the Volt.

This was the vehicle I always thought the Prius was, until I found out more.  The Prius has a big battery, but it doesn't have enough juice to run very long on straight electron power.  Once I heard that, I wasn't interested in the Prius at all.  When GM hinted they would make a series hybrid - one where the electric motors move the car and any engine is used to generate electricity - I began watching with great interest.  I guess the biggest disappointment with the whole project so far is that if GM had kept the EV1 project alive, they would have had the incremental engineering improvements that only come from tinkering with production models.  I took an electronics shop class in high school, and the teacher was an electrical engineer who used to work for GM.  He told us that one of his first jobs in Detroit was helping to test an electric Cavalier in the early 80s, if I remember correctly.  I think I remember seeing something about Henry Ford tinkering with an electric Model T at one point.  The problem has always been with the battery storage systems.

Another interesting tech-bit I saw recently was on the development of hybrid lead-acid/ultra-capacitor batteries.  That's the kind of thing that could lead to interesting things for me.  Like nice buffering systems between a wind/solar generation system and my home.  The ultracapcitor part makes the battery suitable for the high-voltage operations that occur when generating wind power and are neccessary for handling electrical grid changes.  For stationary applications, this technology will bring the cost of such systems down, as they are about 1/4 the cost per Watt of NiMH batteries, which are cheaper than Lithium-Ion batteries.  Which the Volt uses.  On a hybrid, the rapid charge/release cycles used in acceleration and regenerative braking make normal lead-acide (ie. car batteries) unsuitable.  Lithium-Ion and NiMH can store/release energy quickly, with Lithium-Ion having the higher storage density.  Lead acid technology is cheap, and combining them with some ultracapictor techonology provides the rapid charge/release capability for a small additional cost.  I would love to have a solar system that charges are large battery pack that I can use to power my furnace and computer when the power goes out.  

Anyway, I'm still interested in the Chevy Volt, although there will be about 2.5 years until I could possibly own one.  And it sounds like those expensive batteries will make it pretty expensive, so that's less appealing.  On the other hand, I wouldn't mind being part of something that changes the way vehicles operate.

Day 7 - Is the number really necessary?

I think that numbering these posts helps me to stay on track.  Not very subtle, but after all, I'm not terribly subtle so it suits me.  I suppose I should stick to fewer topics in each post, but again, that's not really my style.

The company my wife spent a brief (part-time) stint at finally evaporated.  Looking back, she's sure she got out at the right time.  I think she was right - but she said she was skeptical of part of the ownership team from the beginning.  So today she was dealing with the people who were complaining about the demise of the company and pretty hostile to her comments of "you should have seen this coming."  Maybe the group of people that left at the same time was a hint - that or the police raid - but I can't be sure what would be the best indicator.

So we were talking at my parent's place about this, trying to work out how so many people could miss such glaring problems.  The talk turned to how different people react to problems, generalizing to the different styles.  My dad would not go quietly, where as my wife would go quietly - but more in the "This isn't good - I'm getting out" slip-out-the-back-before-anyone-notices style.  About a week before anyone else.  I suspect it's that insight that caused her to be passed over for better position at that company.  She's claiming "precognition" among her special skills now.

This leads to an interesting psychological point.  I don't know if there is a formal label for this pattern, but I'll do my best to explain it.  Let's start with basic premise - a person won't work for a company that they hate.  It's like having a free software disciple working for Microsoft - there is a phundamental philosophic pdivide pconflict (some times you have to work to get the alliteration).  That's not to say that it won't happen, as some reasons or needs overcome that difference.  Like if that free software disciple is really tired of coding for lattes on the corner and living in a discarded laptop box.  The interesting psychological part is when we invert this premise and apply the principle of inertia.  When someone is happy, they would like to remain happy, so if work for a company they are probably happy with the company (on the whole) and will suppress (or ignore) information that shows otherwise.  Humans adjust their perception of reality to accentuate certain things and ignore contradictions or items that damage a particular view.  This is enshrined in the saying "In his mother's eyes, he could do no wrong." Of when you search for that missing pen, searching all over and then someone else comes by and says "Is that it?" pointing at the middle of your desk just beyond your notebook.  

I'd like to remind you scientists out there reading this that I'm not writing book that attempts to illuminate the psychology of the working human, (although it could be a hoot), so I'm not even going to attempt to back these assertions up with years of carefully crafted studies.  I'm sure they exist, but I'm not going to go and cross reference them now.

So this is why there were so many people that were upset at my wife, though she was clearly right about this company she used to work for.  Be honest, you didn't think I was going anywhere with this, did you?  The people were the most upset were the ones that were happiest in their jobs.  They didn't want to see problems, so they simply didn't see any problems.  Obviously when 4 people quit at the same time, they're morons.  The police showing up is Allen conspiracy to make disgruntled employees feel justified in abandoning their attractive, hardworking and generous colleges...  Embellishment is fun, but even Allen would agree that this might be taking it a bit too far.

  Allen ~= Alien.  Like in extraterrestrial.  Not really working is it?

Yah, I think it's getting late again.  It's fun to lumber off in strange directions but eventually I have to circle back to my bed.  And sleep.  And something...

Day 6 - Is this a habit or a compulsion???

Working towards a habit with this here writing thang. I should really pursue better sleep habits, but whatever. Gotta hit the hay early tonight to be fresh for hockey tomorrow. It's really hard to concentrate when one hasn't had enough sleep. The worst part is that internal censor tends to go on extended leave when you're more tired.

Had an interesting team meeting today - my manager outlined what is going to be happening this year, as well as he knows it now. Like most things, the year has begun and the plan isn't finished, so we start with an outline and work our way towards having it done. Anyway, he gave some interesting insights to our "big boss", basically drilling into us that he likes to 'manage by data' instead of 'managing the data'. See that subtle difference there? Slick!

I really can't do sarcasm when I'm this tired, or when I'm writing - lacks the whole tone-of-voice and eye-rolling-boredom look that is necessary for sarcasm so obviously weak that it can do nothing but become an instant parody of itself.

Anyhoo, I've met this particular 'big boss' and really liked what he's had to say at various meetings. It didn't hurt that he was the one that delivered the "despite this whole market kablamo, every one's job is safe" talk. It's nice to be using the internet in your own house that one can continue making payments on. Nice. (Wow this sarcastic parody of this blog post keeps cropping up - my subconscious must be trying to tell me something...)  That wasn't behind my good opinion of him because I decided on that a long time ago.  He has an excellent track record working for highly technical companies and he started from an actual engineering position.  Plus he's sat on IEEE standard's committees, which is something I can respect.  Especially since he sat on the 802.11 series of committees.  Lasting through one of those would be quite an accomplishment simply because of the competing money, er companies that are trying to come up with something that is standard, but more like their standard than anyone else.  Everyone should be amazed that something emerges that everyone pretty much agrees to.  Anyone that can help move that kind of crazy mess forward seems like the kind of person that can sort out the mess that is the relationship between our customer & owner (they are the same entity).

I'm hoping that this 'big boss' can help our owner provide us with the information we need to create the products they want in a timely fashion.  There is lots of communication happening, but something is missing to make the whole thing really click.  Our company needs to change too and the fact that the 'big boss' is addressing both sides of the problem at the same time is really encouraging.

Did I mention that when I'm tired, I ramble on with crazy segues around the topic I was on?  I saw that Qnx has an embeddable Java VM that runs with its microkernel OS.  What I wouldn't give to slap that into some of the hardware we have at work...

As I was saying before, looks like the 'big boss' will be looking towards hard data to determine what is going on.  I think this is a good thing because it will bring us closer to repeatable and coherent processes.  This is the kind of thing that could be done in a scary way, but as I mentioned above, I like what the 'big boss' has done before and I'm optimistic.

I think some at my work may be worried about this 'big boss' because he isn't a big proponent of Agile - in fact, many of the ideas he's expressed are decidedly non-Agile.  I'm thinking of the 6-month product cycles as an example.  First, I'd like to point out that just because the entire company isn't 100% Agile doesn't mean our corner of it can't operate in an Agile fashion.  Secondly, I've made mention of processes a few times already and the Agile manifesto does say "value people over processes".  Some read that as "process == BAD", but I think that's limiting.  Processes can enable people - just like learning certain martial disciplines.  A student begins by copying the precise set of forms and movements.  Once those become instinctual, then the student is encouraged to explore the reasoning behind the precise steps.  Finally, the student moves beyond simple instruction and adapts the movements to themselves, expanding and refining.  Processes in an agile environment should serve the same purpose - to provide enough structure for people to operate in with the understanding that one day they may outgrow it.

Okay, guess it's going to be time for that whole sleep thing.  Soon.  Because if I keep this up much long and I'm just gonna pass out here and what little semblance of sense that these words have will evaporate.

Day 5 - What a game!

Well, the Canadian Men's Junior team won their 5th straight gold medal tonight.  The game was much better than I expected, after watching the Canada vs USA and hearing about the Canada vs Russia game.  Canada tied Russia with 5 seconds left and won in the shoot out to make it to tonight, so I was wondering what the play would be like.

When Canada played the USA, they won, but both teams play a similar style - fast and loose, lots of checking and dump-and-chase play.  Plus there was no love lost between the two teams, so it was exciting hockey.  An excellent game.  However, I watched the Sweden vs Russia game earlier that day and the Swedes played a very skillful puck-control game.  The Russians were not able to take the puck off them in the Swedish zone, making their attacking play pretty abrupt.  Given those two examples, I expected Sweden to dominate play.

Thankfully, I was wrong!  A quick goal early on put the Swedes back on their heels.  As the game wore on, it was clear that team Canada was trying hard to force bad passes, stay in the passing lanes and prevent the stretch passes and quick play that marked the Swedish play earlier in the tournament.  It looked like things were going to fall apart for Canada after they started getting a lot of penalties in the 2nd, but the Canadian netminder Tokarski played a great game, keeping Sweden off the score board through 2 periods.   I think it was a critical step that Team Canada start the third with no goals against, and a power play to boot.

In spite of the many penalties, Canada played a disciplined game, especially a few times when emotions looked to boil over, but the players stayed away from team Sweden after the whistle to make sure no calls would be made.  I thought the Canadian players did a good job staying away from the Swedish goaltender, who spent most of the game trying to draw penalties.  

An excellent game and I'm glad I watched it.  Hopefully that same discipline can be applied next year to try and bring home gold again!

Day 4 - Prepare for...

Wow - four posts, four days! It must be some kind of... pathetic attempt at something. Anyway, today is the day I'm preparing to get back to work and preparing to try out some new hockey equipment.

It's a new year at work. We've shipped product into an actual market, we have loose ends to tie up and I have to endeavor to make things better for all. Complacency is an enticing and dangerous state - we're an "agile" workplace, but I don't think I did enough retrospecting. Now is a good time to look back and think about I could have done better. Team-wise, I think things went quite well, except for a lack of retrospectives. The team is cohesive, adaptive and gets things done. We've tried, in our own silo fashion, to develop practices and methods that result in better output. Towards the end of the year, I gave a presentation on one of these practices. Another team member gave a presentation on the technical details of the features our team maintains. This kind of outreach is the type of company-wide connection that I'd like to promote. I haven't done enough to make that happen, other than complain - something I know I'm pretty darn good at already. It's time to branch out from complaint to action.

Optimistic words for an optimistic time of the year. Now on to my other preparations - hockey related. I got myself a new helmet and a new pair of skates. My current helmet, although quite nice, was beginning to react poorly during the course of a game. I suspect, (but can't prove), that certain pads were absorbing sweat and slowly crushing my head. Not good. I have the dents to justify these suspicions and the cage was getting rusty, so it was time to move on. I bought a cheaper version of the same helmet, with nice smooth pads. Hopefully this will provide the protection and lack of soft padding that was SQUEEZING MY BRAAAIN!!!

I also got new skates, which I've been promising myself for a long time. I wanted to get a pair of high-quality, modern skates. I asked around and Graf was touted as the best, so I've been investigating for a while now. I went to Pete's Sports to see if I could find someone that could fit skates properly. Graf is not a volume brand, so I was confident that any store that actually carried them would have suitably trained staff, and I was not mistaken. Graf is known for their comfortable skate and their range of shapes - capable of accomodating a very wide range feet. I have small feet, so they are hard to fit. Because they are so small. Anyway, this turned out to be an advantage as I fit best in a Juniour size, which cost less than the Senior sizes. Also, I ended up choosing a pair that I probably couldn't break in if they were a Senior pair. Turns out, it's not a great idea to go into the nearest sports store and buy the top-of-the-line skate. Usually they are so stiff that you'd have to play in a competitive league to break them in properly. So remember that when buying your next pair - save yourself some money and some pain!

Anyway, buying was good, but today I prepare to actually use them. It's going to be different because they are a size-and-a-half smaller than my old ones, so the blade area is much decreased. On the other hand, they are lighter, so maybe I'll be able to pump those legs a little faster. Now I just have to look into that extra padding 'round the middle...

Day 3 - Edu-ma-cation

Fun topic, that whole education thing. I spent a lot of time in the education system and I have many ideas and opinions about it, so it's a good topic to write about. I just read this article on the CBC website and thought I'd throw out some points on the topic.

I agree with one of the major points that there is an obsession among parents to send their children to university. Like many things in life, higher education is something that a person needs to commit to and have some facility with to see real benefit. That's a fancy way of saying that some people aren't cut out for university. The author (Robert Smol) indicates the cost of higher education as something that should be considered. That is sensible advice - does it make sense to struggle for 4 years at something that you don't get much out of and pay all that money? That time and money could have been put to better use.

I guess the first problem is one of perception - namely the best/wealthiest careers come out of university and the smartest people are university educated. Both these ideas are flawed in many ways. The example of Bill Gates comes to mind - he started, but never finished, an undergraduate degree. However he has been very successful and seems to be a pretty smart guy all round. Many people involved in the early days of personal computing followed a similar path - self taught and now very wealthy. The opposite condition is also true - some university educated people are not terribly smart. They may be hard working, or they may be smart but chose a discipline that doesn't capture their imagination, so they don't come across as the best in their field.

I present a two-pronged conclusion: tine one is that it is more important to find something that captures your imagination. Your child may not have anything like that, so helping them discover that will have the most benefit. The second conclusion tine is that the obsession with university degrees is diluting the meaning of them. So many people have degrees now that many companies will not consider applicants that do not have post-secondary education, even for positions that don't need them. I don't have an examples off-hand, but it's like requiring a degree in computer engineer to sell electronics at Best Buy. Sure, that person could understand everything they sell from the circuit level up, but why would it matter? Does that make them a better salesperson?

The requiring of university degrees for positions that don't require post-secondary skills is a disease that is probably impossible to stem at this point. I know that my degree is worth less than my father-in-law's undergraduate degree. I think he had to work harder than I did, but I think that people going through my program now have an easier time that I did. I'm sure there are people out there that may disagree with me and I welcome their observations.

Not a bad start. This is a topic that I can mine for some time, so keep watching this space.

Day 2, Ought Nine

It's a start - I remembered to log in again! Whoo! Okay, I'm not really that excited, but starting is important. I think it's three weeks to start a habit - three days will be good for me. First hockey game of 2000 + 9 and I've already scored the best goal of the year. Point shot, high on the short side, off the post, off the far post and in. Very pretty. Not sure what I'm going to do to follow that. Not that it matters - I don't get paid 10 million a season like some Swede who's two years older than me and waltzes in to Vancouver half way through the year. Then my goals would matter. Goals in hockey - that thing I do for fun.

Now's as good a time as any to throw some gasoline on the John Tavares pyre-of-worship. I really enjoyed the World Junior game on New Years Eve between Canada and the US. Looked like trouble in the first 10 mins of the game, with Canada down 3-0. Then Mr. Tavares shows everyone where the net was and away went team Canada. Really open two-way game and very nice to watch. I'm still mooning over Tavares' goal in the pre-tournament game against Solvakia. Enjoy! I think the kind of play that goal epitomises will be the future of hockey. There are generations of players that have increasing hand-eye coordination skills and there will come a time when enough people show that level of skill that a significant portion of the game will be played in the air. Maybe it'll look like lacrosse around the net - little flip to the crease then bat-bat-bat and in. Just a thought I had after watching that Canada-US game. Nothing will beat the certainty and control of smooth on-ice, tape-to-tape play when moving the puck around.

A new year - a time for...

I guess it is time to write up something here. I find it hard to believe that it was August when I last posted. Then again, maybe that isn't so hard to believe. We've started a new year - 2009, last of the 'oughts'. Probably it will be a year of reflection (I aught to have done this, I aught not to have invaded Iraq, I aught not to have create a fiscal device which crashed markets around the world). Hopefully that kind of thinking won't weigh on consciences too heavily. What I aught to have done was write more. Gonna try and change that here - 'tis a simple habit, but a tough one to keep up. Well, some seem to have an easier time than others. Kimota94 even had to branch out to 2 and even 3 blogs. I have trouble keeping up and I'm jealous that I can' t even compare to that output. Then again, I always wished I could write like Isaac Asimov at 90 wpm on a manual typewritter. There was a mind that could make things work the first time through, on the fly.

Well, the new year brings renewal - hope, possibility and some third thing which I'm not going to tell you. Maybe later. When I get into writing as a habit. Always seems so easy during the dark cold months of the year when I'm on vacation. When I stop talking to so many different people, I guess I have more to write about. The experiment comences!

Happy New Year! Remember, the media likes to say a lot of things, but that doesn't always reflect what is going on. The stock market crashed, but it hasn't erased a large portion of the jobs. Statistics Canada's latest unemployment numbers (check out this chart) show Canada's unemployment rate at ~6.5%, lower than the 7% in 2005. This means the economic crises is no Great Depression, at least not yet. On the other hand, all the frank discussion that claims that my spending (as a consumer) is responsible for keeping everything going, seems like a pretty asinine thing to base wealth and species success off of.

Ahhhh...

First post! From the beach anyway. These new "mobile" devices
certainly make it easier to beach-blog. It's a nice day, if a bit
windy. My eldest son is hoping that I'm watching Roblox Gone Wild
videoes, but he is wrong. It's not as licentious as it sounds. Too
bad I can't spell. Anyway, time for frisbee!

Two days in a row

Sitting on the couch, tap-tap-tapping along. Well, at least I got something working. Got my first bill for this mobile-dealie. It was shockingly correct. I know I was surprised. And now the big deal on the homefront - the fence is coming!

Got home and saw the poles, sticking out of the ground and everything. We're getting cast iron fence. I talked to a friend of my parent's and he told me that his iron fence cost about 30% more than what I'm paying. And that was 30 years ago! I hope this fence lasts as long as that one, uh, does.

My dad got himself a nice new bike. Got a sweet comfy seat and seven internal gears. No deraileur for him! I guess I'll get a report on how well it's working in a few days.

So I the idea is slow and steady. Guess we'll see where this goes too.

Posting from the mobile device

Got around to upgrading my mobile phone. Now I have a mobile device. There finally is a device that does all the things that I wanted - specifically music, organizing stuff and phone. The iPhone was the one I'd been looking for. I find it hilarious when people suggest that I'm being trendy, given that I've had 3 phones in 9 years.

So far, I've been pretty happy with device. I'm glad that I didn't wait in line or anything. The screen is awesome, and the multi-touch is well done. I've done some neat things, but not what I'd consider outstanding. I suppose that jailbreaking would make it outstanding,
but not yet anyway.

Tonight marks what I hope will be the start of a couch-blogging trend. Maybe even a porch-blogging or two. I feel like I have to fill the breach left by a recently departed co-worker. And by co-worker I mean Kimota94. And by departed I mean retired - you know "departed" from work, not to return. I know my jokes are weak, but somehow you're still reading... Anyhoo, Kimota94's prodigious output might be stifled by lack of portable device to publish with. Seems like he may
be spending more time away from the ole kybard during retirement. I suppose there is some kind of joke involving retirerees and editorials...

So let's see how things start off with this here post and see if the couch will inspire greater, uh, something.

A post

Every time I get around to producing another post, I realize how long it has been since the last one. And every time I think to myself (and write in the post) that I should try writing more frequently. History has shown that it hasn't happened. As an optimist, I guess I should say that it won't come easily, but consistency will arrive.

Catching up on some of the backlog in other blogs, (there's only one that I visit that could possibly post faster than I can keep up with), prompted me to imply post to "The Studio", which in turn, started this post. As I was writing that post, I realized that I should make notes some how, organize my thoughts a bit better, so I would have something to write about. That must be part of getting more consistent - making sure that there is a supply of material.

My problem is never with the act of writing (talking, dominating conversation) as I can always come up with something. The ideas, kernels of subject, notions, setups, and angry rants are the hard part. That's not to claim that such off-the-cuff rambling is always cogent or coherent, but it can fill a page. Twas an excellent skill to have in high school. Probably would have pulled me through several liberal arts degrees, but alas I had to study that which is best expressed in concise precision - math. Such flourishing embellishment was not required for my CS degree (BMath, Hons CS, minor in C&O - really there was alot of math involved), but I still enjoy rattling the keyboard with a few unnecessarily lengthy words every now and then.

See? I prattled on about how I the ideas are most difficult part for a nice solid paragraph. I should use this handy outlet more frequently.

This is a blog?

This just seems to be an online protestation that I'm not writing online with every new entry. Still... I keep coming back. I guess it's all okay because no one really reads any of this stuff anyways.

Got around to posting on The Studio again, mainly because of my recent DVD haul. I got "Shake Hands With the Devil" (my review), "Eastern Promises", a four-in-one Steven Segal special ("Glimmer Man", "Fire Down Below", "Under Siege" and "Above the Law"), the wrong version of "Blade Runner" The Final Cut" and, my special weakness, a Criterion 2-pack version of "Yojimbo" and "Sanjuro".

The "Blade Runner" I wanted, and didn't realize I didn't have until I got home, was the special edition that has all four cuts of the film (European theatrical, US theatrical, director's cut and the director's "final cut"). I hadn't seen Blade Runner at all until 1999 when a good friend from university hauled out the director's cut (the one without the voice-over). He helped me along, which was great in the limited time I had to digest it the first time. I've wanted to watch it again, but I haven't searched out the film. I saw the special edition and thought the time was nearly right. As is standard with such discoveries, not acting on them can lead to hassle later on. I postponed the purchase, but the internet informs me that the correct version is in stock somewhere near by.

The Kurosawa films "Yojimbo" and "Sanjuro" recalled the "Blade Runner" find - once I found them I had to get them. I ignored the price and just carried it to the checkout. I am looking forward to watching "Sanjuro" as I haven't seen it, but "Yojimbo" I know well. I have seen it a couple of times but also in its other incarnations "A Fist Full of Dollars" and "Last Man Standing". Oliver Stone gives a writing credit to Kurosawa and does an excellent job transposing the ronin with mob gunman-for-hire in the '20s.

Gotta get my act together and send off my tax return. I'm hoping for a decent refund, but then again who isn't? Guess it is very Canadian - pay your taxes and wait for the government to grudgingly return a few bucks. Don't get me wrong - I don't begrudge paying my taxes. I get many things, large and small, tangible and intangible, for that money. But it would be nice if I could keep more of that money to pay my own debts, rather than the debts run up by people now long gone.

Now that the spring-tax-rant is done, I have to get my act together a little more and get myself to bed and (later) off to hockey.

Some increase

I thought that I'd be on the computer posting more thoughts - you know "a headache with pictures" (Phillip J Fry, "A Taste of Freedom", Season 3, Futurama) - but it's more like stress relief. I find myself playing lots of games online now that the reliability is back, rather than typing up blog posts. Not so good.

Been a tough slog at work recently though - deadlines approaching and all that. I mean it's always there but it's looming more impressively with each passing day. Like that Far Side where two cave men are standing outside of a cave with a glacier an arm-length away and says "Thag, wall of ice closer today?" The last iteration was one where the feature our team worked on was probably larger than originally sized, so there was much scrambling to finish. These kinds of iterations will probably become more frequent as the ice-wall encroaches, but hopefully we can alter our plans so we proceed more evenly.

Well, there goes another yawn - I suppose that means I should be in bed rather than forcing onwards. Mayhap soon there shall be posts with a more hasty cadence.

Fallen flat

Nice daily streak, eh? It's been almost a full month since my last posting - pretty pathetic really. Oh well, there is room for improvement and boy do I need it. I really hope to write a little more often because I obtained a new computer! My old computer was nice and all, but the reliability was not good - it would occasionally lock up hard to a black screen. This does not make it conducive to blog writing, posting, reading or what have you. I spent a lot of time trying to diagnose and then fix this problem, but to no avail.

Looks like there are two things left to test - re-installing XP or a new CPU. I don't think the first will work as I have had locks when running liveCD versions of linux, but I can't remember when the last time that happened was. I don't know if I'll get around to that. The more I put it off the less likely it will be because I won't be able to find the proper CPU (Socket-939) .

Well, Friday is fast approaching, so I need to sleep. There is hockey to be had tomorrow - at least I'm assuming there is. I haven't seen an email about it though, but I guess there will be something. I'm going there anyway, or at least checking my email when I get up. That's no longer the chore it was with the new computer! Ahh, sweet juicy reliability. I'll talk about my purchase in the near future.

Repetition

Well, back to work it was today. Took the first week of the year off and it was quite relaxing actually. The real frustration was trying to get the ole desktop PC fixed, but that's another story. The spouse went to work for half the week, so it was just me and the boys hanging out and playing games, reading magazines - whatever. Very pleasant and relaxing, as I mentioned already.

I really do want to make a habit of posting more regularly, but that hasn't been terribly easy recently. In the last few months the various time-suck devices that popped up have stood in my way. That should be a reason though, so here I am wondering about what to write about. I still lack focus in that area - topic. I always enjoyed writing stories when I was in school, but I was always at a loss for ideas. Once I had the kernel of an idea, I could twist that into something enjoyable, but alas I don't get paid to do that now. What I should be doing is coming up with ideas and writing them here.

Something I did listen to on the way home from work was part of a continuing series on the World At Six (CBC radio 1) about modern spirituality. Today they talked about a couple of people who moved and tried different things until they arrived at meditation-based practices. One was a form of Japanese Buddhism and the other was a rabbi who also uses transcendental meditation as part of what he does. The appeal of Buddhist meditation was that it is in stark contrast to typical "daily life" - quiet, still, peaceful. However the article brought in another view which suggested that the greatest spiritual benefits, changes, advancements - seemed to happen people practice in groups.

I always find it odd that the views are always laid out as distinct and (possibly) opposing. I'm sure that aspects of individual and group practices would be combined to achieve the greatest whatever. Balance doesn't arrive through concentration on one thing. The appeal of meditation and stillness is obvious. People feel encroached upon and need to create that mental space around them. They need to realize that mindset is what the meditation is helping to bring. If you believe you can create an oasis of calm (not clam) then you can. Meditation provides a framework to feedback that sense to you, so you can believe. Being alone is something I have always enjoyed. I think that I've been lucky that there have been times in my life when I can wander away and be alone - that I live where there are calm, peaceful spaces all around.

I have two distinct memories of calm that help me. I felt like the places were occupying me - I was the observed. The first at the lake near my parents cottage. This is no puddle - it was Lake Huron. It was heading towards sunset and I came out at a beach with large rocks right at the waters edge. I sat down on a large rock and stared into the lake. I don't even remember how long I was there; eternity perhaps. It didn't matter. The sun, the wispy clouds, gently lapping water. Everything just was. I realize this is a poor description, but description doesn't work well. It seems like it may sully the experience-that-was, for it was physical, immersive, singular.

The next time was at my parents house during a perfect winter's night. The moon was full and the house was dark. Looking into the front ward, the blue-black of the trees and their shadows criss-crossed the perfect white stillness. I had to go out there and just stand. The moon was so bright and that blue-white hue of the trees and the snow was compelling. The air was still and cold - each breath weighty with the chill - denser than normal. Have to be quiet - movement would shatter the moment. Just be. Cast a blue and purple shadow and exist. It was hard to go back inside, but it was perfect. I can't say what made it different than other times - I'd gazed upon the same scene for so many years - but this time it was quiet and I was alone with it.

That is what I wish I could give to someone who feels overwhelmed. Replace it with those feelings. I guess it's the opposite of agoraphobia.

Ought-8

New year, new blog entry, new... something. Re-new-all? Something like that. I haven't really been effective at using this space much in the past few months. There are a couple of reasons really - mainly I haven't really been enthusiastic about trying to use my computer. That and other toys have shown up at home (a DS Lite, the Wii from Santa) and the computer has been getting short shrift.

Soon should change. The biggest issue with my computer has been an electrical instability problem that really came to the fore after my original video card gave up on me. That card, a BFG6800GT-OC was an excellent card when I bought it. Plus it came with a lifetime warranty. So mid-2007, it's RAM died and it was replaced. The replacement wouldn't boot into WinXP properly, so I got a 7600GS to replace it. It worked well but the computer would suddenly shutdown in the middle of games. That is the electrical problem - when the CPU/GPU/Fans/HD draw a certain level of power, the motherboard can't take it and dies. I suspect that this was a manufacturing defect, given the quality of the parts and power supplies I used. I had problems from the first day setting up the machine, but the problems are really noticeable now. So I've ordered a new replacement AMD Socket 939 motherboard. Turns out there are very few choices of new 939 motherboards, with an AGP slot, left. This is an MSI with a VIA chipset. I'm hoping that the performance is similar but more stable.

The other thing I did to improve computer usage was to buy a nice LCD monitor during the "boxing week" period. Got a nice (21") but not cutting Samsung SyncMaster216BW. Spent less than half of the old 17" CRT it replaces, but certainly looks better. This thing looks much better than what I had. Gaming - I didn't notice the difference. Except it is brighter and sometimes the colours don't appear to converge properly in CS:S, but that's okay.

So hopefully the posts will be more frequent. It is a good thing to write a little every day. It would be good if that writing had a specific purpose or some other redeeming (monetary) quality to it, but one can't have everything.

Raised Patio: The Result

Well, it's done. Really it was done October 6, 2007 but it's still finished now, so no big deal. The first picture is of the whole deck. Gives you a nice overview of what it looks like all together. I had one neighbour comment that it reminds him of a castle wall - fortress-like. I prefer to think of it as "solid", but I understand what he meant. If it had been deeper or much wider, it would have cut a very imposing chunk out of the backyard. It would have started to dwarf the house. Not that it would have been bigger, but the look of the finished product.

Next there is a closeup of the stairs. The stairs are narrow enough that, by code, we only need one hand railing. What you see in profile is actually a solid wall, which forms a little nook on the ground. That's the last picture - the items on the ground are extra precast deck pieces. That's where the BBQ is now, in front of the access area. There's no door because it isn't someplace I want to go in and out of often. Or at all. So it's easier to remove the idea that there is anything under there by not putting a door.

Anyway these extra slabs are used as a landing for the stairs and to cover that area between the railing and the deck. That area is nice and sheltered - keeps the BBQ out of the wind. A few shrubbery and we're done (surplus that my parents were getting rid of).

So ends the saga of the raised patio and my big construction project. Next summer will be when the fun begins - the enjoyment of the deck. But there is also the obtaining furniture for the deck and so on. Currently, it is what it is and that is quite good. We have a few patio chairs, but really we need a table and maybe a lounge, but that'll arrive when it arrives. For now, the important part is done.

Simulation - not likely!

The stalwart Kimota94 posted this little gem about that philosophy paper making the rounds on the ole inter-weeb. You know - this one - that claims that this may all just be a simulation. Kimota94 does a good job refuting that idea with an excellent argument. He also asks "if this is a simulation, what would you do different?"

What would I do different? One argument would say "nothing - it's not possible to do things differently than the simulation would predict." Another would say "nothing - the simulation theory is nice but doesn't really impact me." A third would be "nothing - the amount of computing power necessary would require more operations per second than atoms in the universe so it would be unlikely to reach that level of computational power."

I'll start with the second one: it doesn't impact me. Even if I were to exist within a simulation, what I perceive as a "mind" is what I perceive. As a corollary to self-awareness, that would me the simulation created life (me) and I'm operating within it. Ipso-fatso, I am the simulation, but it is no different than what I was before.

The first answer justifies my view that "what would you do differently?" is the wrong question. I think I would rather ask "what would you simulate if you were in charge?" That would be interesting. The simulation described would have the power to simulate any possibility so changing your behaviour would be accommodated. Setting up different startup conditions or end conditions and running the simulation would be more interesting.

Another interesting aspect of the paper that I didn't see addressed was the time scale of the simulation. Would the simulation be in real-time or at some accelerated rate? I would hope that it would be accelerated as real-time would be a bit of a drag. I suppose if it is accelerated than we, as the simulacrums are thinking faster than the items being simulated. If indeed we are simulated, then is every single possible activity being simulated, or are short-cuts being taken? Computer modeling (as I know it) is discrete and therefore leaves out some information in the interest of producing a useful model. If the proposed machine is not modeling, then it really is new life in a novel media - AI if you will.

Finally I would say ('cause I really ought to be getting some sleep now) that I do not think such a model is possible. Let's take one of the better known systems used to model the world around us - mathematics. It has been demonstrated that any mathematical system is incomplete. As a corollary, the simulation system described would be incomplete, no matter its power. It would not be able to simulate life exactly, by the same argument. Therefore the simulation would be something different than the previous existence it is attempting to simulate, which implies that such a simulation would not be stable. It would crash soon after starting. Maybe it is a new religion - we are all just waiting the Great Blue Screen of Existence. The Reboot is Near - REPENT! Yes, sleep is needed. By me - maybe you, but definitely me.

Raised Patio: Closer to Done

I haven't posted any updates to the raised patio for awhile, so here are some more pictures. First we have some details as to how the deck slabs were setup. The slabs rest on the masonry wall on the outside edge and the cast-in-place beams. Each slab rests on some caulking - specifically NP-1. This compound hardens, but never looses its elasticity. This allows the slabs to float a little - to have some room to play. Most of the deck slabs were put in place Sept 8, but there are still 3 left to place as of this weekend. The pictures above show how most of the slabs were laid. Then there was the column "customizing" work that was done to make one fit near the stairs.

Between the 8th and today, more balusters were added. The longest runs (out from the wall) were finished, with a few missing at the front near the stairs. One pictures shows the railing waiting to be installed. This piece of pre cast is the largest (and heaviest) piece in the project. It is nearly 10 feet long and about 6"-8" wide. This will tie the balusters together and provide excellent stability. Similar, but smaller, pieces will complete the railing near the stairs, as well as become the railing beside the stairs themselves.

Finally, there is the start of the last holes to dig. This will be where the footing for the stairs will go. Still have a few more feet down to dig, but that will have to wait. I have some stitches and the doctor told me not do things like digging until they come out next week. Oh well - more time to post on the old blog page.

Movie-licious

It's been a while since I've seen a movie in the theater (which, as some of you may know, means I haven't seen the Simpson's movie yet). However I was able to complete the Bourne series with a theatrical viewing. I have really enjoyed this series - for the same reasons that Matt Damon has indicated in interviews. The main character is not a typical action hero - he does incredible things, but things that are grounded in possibility. No catch phrases or snappy comebacks, although I almost uttered one in theater: "He tried to blow me up." I am such an influenceable, weak-minded fool. And closer to the end, there was a lolcats moment, but I don't think Bourne had the time to find a suitable cat picture "I'm in joor ofiz stealinz ur secrets".

Okay, enough pandering to computer culture. It was a good film. I found myself caught up in it several times - always a good sign. I'm starting to think that another good sign is the sparse dialog. Several movies I consider excellent feature characters that say little. Everything they do say is important.

Detractions from the movie are the use of "shaky-cam" to convey tense emotions (at the very beginning). I was going to say the flash-backs, but I understand why they are needed. I just wish they didn't have to be so repetitious.

Favorite line:
"He just drove off the roof, sir."
"He WHAT?"

Delivery was perfectly timed.

The action sequences were excellent - they are fast-paced and will stand up to repeated viewings. The story was good, but it wasn't exactly clear what Bourne was trying to do, although he did get to it in the end. This didn't take away from the enjoyment of the movie - one of those things you think about later when you are writing up what you thought.

Summary: Good movie. Liked the structure, the action and the characters. Recommend you go see it.

Raised Patio: Inspection 2

One thing that happened Wednesday (Aug 29) was the arrival of the building inspector. He arrived because I asked him to, so that wasn't really a shock. What we did find out, however, was some information that changed our plans.

The inspector took a look at our walls and the beam that was to be cast. We told him about the reinforcing in the walls (the durowall, the rebar drilled into the bricks) and he was satisfied with that. We showed him the two balusters we had and how far apart we wanted to place them. He indicated that the regulations required that there be "no gap greater than 4 inches". That was slightly different from what we understood before, but not hard to fix. The only problem was that we will need 10 more balusters.

Next came the stairs. First, he wasn't impressed with the idea of having stairs that were built up with dry-laid blocks filled with dirt. "That's going to move," he said. Well, we can fix that when it happens was our response, but he really wasn't happy with that. So now we'll have to make a footing under the stairs and tie it to the deck so they will move together. Next was the railing - it was going to need a railing because of the height. I asked if we could make wider steps and do away with the railing - make each step closer to the ground wider. No good - if the steps are wider than 42", you need two. As it is, the opening is 40", so he'd be happy with one railing.

And then he left. I don't have to call him back until all that's done (I suppose - he really didn't say at the time). But we were left with a problem - a railing. The balusters don't really work out on the stairs, so some other idea was needed. Eventually, we came up with the idea of using the same precast pieces as the deck, but texture them so they aren't slippery. Next build a wall down one side and put some paving stones in the area between the railing and the deck. Maybe put the barbecue there. The wall would carry a small length of the same railing as the deck, but on top of blocks instead of balusters. The only thing left is to see if we can get some double-sided splitface, or 4" splitface blocks (back to back) and whether to leave some vertical spaces on the way down. More updates as information becomes available.

Meanwhile, I'll have to do some more digging for this new footing. Ah well - I'm getting practiced now.

Raised Patio: Post holidays

Today is Labour Day, so I thought I should catch up with my labour report. Friday we finished up a bit early and I've left out a report from Thursday as well, so the information is lacking. As of Friday evening, there are four beams poured in place, two (of four) columns up to railing height and the main pile of dirt in front has been moved.

The dirt that was left was my main task over the last few days, as it needed to be moved and my dad was making the forms for the pour-in-place beams. Wednesday saw the completion of the interior support pillars and the pour of the first cast-in-place beam. Thursday was the second and third beams while Friday saw the last of the beams poured, plus the columns. Plus there was the removal of the precast sill under the back door and the chopping of holes in the bricks to rest the outer two beams.

The first hole was done with a Quickcut - a Stihl product that is essentially a saw blade attached to a gas motor. Used by firefighters to cut people out of wrecks, it can cut through lots of things easily, with the appropriate blade. The cuts were not all the way through as the blade was two large a diameter to prevent unwanted scoring around the hole, so a hammer and chisel were used to finish the job. The next day, the precast sill was removed by chopping out the mortar on the sides, cutting the caulking on the top and then easing it out. Of course "easing" part was "maybe" and since my dad put it in, it wasn't meant to be removed. So I had to chop all the mortar out from under it before it let go. Then a few courses of bricks were removed as they were going to be replaced anyway. The last hole was done with a drill and went much smoother. A really nice cordless Hilti hammer drill that moves through masonry like, like... okay butter, but really easily whatever the metaphor. Melted margarine might be a more modern version. A good idea that, typically, was arrived at on the last one. Oh well.

The pouring of the beams involved the making of the form and the addition of concrete. We used a bucket to fill each of the forms, with about 2 wheelbarrows of concrete for each beam. Each beam has 3 rebars, two at the bottom and one at the top, with a piece of durowall sideways to tie the top and bottom together. Except the second beam where the durowall was forgotten until too late. To help tie a few of the beams to the outer wall, some wires were added to the beams during the pour. This was added because the rebar was too short, despite the custom ordering. Some people may not think 1" is much, but if there is a 1/2" overlap at each end, 1" short is a lot.

Anyway, I leveled dirt inside the walls and started hauling away the excess soil. Friday I got a screen and I put the topsoil through it. My wife came to see what I was doing and said "Oh, you're sifting the dirt" (as in "sifting" flour). I said "Sifting is not manly-sounding enough for outdoor work - this is screening." I was going to conduct a lecture series on the manliness of the heavy machines that "screen" gravel, but the eye-rolling kinda held me back. I originally kept the topsoil separate because I figured I could use it somewhere and the first place will likely be on the lawn to help repair it. The lack of watering and heavy traffic at the back of the house has left some rather barren patches. Judging by the sod I pulled up, I think there is a viable root system there, but it is a matter of coaxing it to grow.