Lynet

On Teaching

2009-03-09T22:37:00.000-07:00

echin and myself had a great conversation about many things this evening. Started off somewhere around why tips are silly, and quickly moved on to other archaic customs we continue today. This reminded me of a link I have been meaning to post for a while about the Gutenberg method of teaching. I'll provide a brief summary to give you the idea.... but it is a really well written narrative, and worth the read just for that.
So why do we sit in large lecture theatres and copy down what the professor says [notes on the SFU system later]. Well, turns out books used to be expensive, not just $100 expensive, like 4 months work for a monk type of expensive. So how do you get students copies of all the relevant texts? Well one ~~guy~~ teacher stands at the front of a large room and reads out the text while all the ~~scribes~~ students copy it down. Yep, thats what you pay for with your tuition money, the opportunity to copy down a book. Now things have changed a little since then, printing press and all. So now you copy down your teacher's dictated text book in an incomplete and somewhat hap-hazard manner under the guise of "learning the material." They even encourage you to ask questions now, although no one does.
The Gutenberg method of teaching is basically exactly what you'd come up with as a teaching method if your weren't terribly biased by current customs... Get the students to read the text ahead of time and then answer their question and give them your intuition in class. Simple isn't it, now that you think of it. There are some other points that the article touches on, like, we have to write text books that are actually readable from front to back (note: this means not written as a reference on a subject) and this makes teachers jobs much harder (you know, they have to actually teach rather than just repeat material they are very familiar with).
Now, I have had the privilege of actually attending a university that half got this. Most courses provided copies of the overhead lecture notes in some digital format. This meant that we didn't have to play the roll of scribes most of the time. I found this hugely beneficial since it meant that I could actually pay attention to what the teacher said, not just on writing it down. However, the read the text before and have a discussion in class was missing. Now I'm sure this was partly my lack of initiative, but the university atmosphere wasn't really helping. There were many classes I got by on not even opening the text (probably more a fault of the text rather than the class). So SFU was part way there, but still has a good ways to go before bringing scribing learning out of the dark ages.
Anyway, a good read for anyone. Seriously, if you have read this far and haven't read the article, go read it now, it is worth it.

wow, I set out just to write something for the sake of writing and look what I ended up with. Real wind bag I am. Anyway, I really need to improve my writing skills, specifically my technical writing, so hopefully there will be more posts in the future. I should make a series of posts about the javascript app I'm writing, maybe next week.

Cheers for now.
Andy.

On Good Design

2008-09-18T09:08:00.000-07:00

Good design is something that is desperately needed and extremely hard. We are abounded by examples of bad design so it is nice every now and then to see an example of an old problem being solved by an elegant design. The stairCase is just such an example. To get to the top of a tall book case, why not turn the bottom shelves into pull out stairs.

For more information on good design and its difficulties, I recommend reading The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman.

Liberals: please stop sucking

2008-09-11T09:00:00.002-07:00

I really want to vote for you. Please give me a reason, any reason. Just say something!

So far the only person out and actually campaigning like they care is Harper. If it race is between a no show and Harper... well I may not vote.

I think the link is typical of how the liberal campaign has gone so far, a day late and a dollar short.

Gradumuation

2008-06-06T11:18:00.003-07:00

So, Couple people we know went across the stage today:

I almost managed to text allen just as he walked across the stage, from the live feed, looks like I got him just before he handed his name to the guy reading names. I'll see if I can post a video of that sometime next week. Mike Schwartz was on the list for today but looks like he was a no show, that guy works too hard.
Anyway, congrats to all that graduated and I hope to join your ranks in about 4 months.

Cheers,
Andy.

Cognitive Surplus

2008-04-28T09:13:00.003-07:00

The idea of putting the spare time of the masses to better use has come up a couple times over the last couple days and I think it is worth mentioning here. Boing Boing has a good article on just how much of this free time is available.

Two hundred billion hours, in the U.S. alone, every year [spent watching tv]. Put another way, that's 2,000 Wikipedia projects a year spent watching television. Or put still another way, in the U.S., we spend 100 million hours every weekend, just watching the ads.

It is those hours not wasted on TV that produce projects like apache (which now out flanks Microsoft IIS 2:1) and wikipedia. It is harnessing the 5, 10 or 20 minutes of spare time thousands of people are willing to spare that allows these mammoth projects to be completed freely and openly and for the benefit of everyone. There was a great TED Talk on Open-Source economics that delves deeper into the social and economic ratifications of this model.

Pick your favorite project and donate your spare minutes... or for that matter pick a hobby... just turn the TV off and you'll be amazed at how much "cognitive surplus" you have.

8 years in 1.5 mintues

2008-04-25T09:12:00.002-07:00

-- Original: The Adaption to my Generation via: The Vancouver Manifesto
The basic idea is, take a photo of yourself every day in roughly the same position. Then compile them together and make a video of yourself aging. The result is really quite awe inspiring, seeing someone age 8 years in only a minute and a half. I think this would be an awesome idea to do for a toddler, and then when they are old enough, let them decide if they want to keep going or not. Watching the first 20 years of someones life like that would be incredible.

Fire and Motion

2008-04-09T13:27:00.003-07:00

As is the norm now, Joel Spolsky has published another good article. It is the same article he has written a 100 times, just on a new topic. The topics are always interesting and insightful, always something that gets you thinking; however, I don't think that is what has lead to his popularity... it is the formula he uses. First, he is a good writer, he does cool things with the English language. This is the first step in any good article, if it isn't well articulated no one will care what you are talking about. Second, he talks about something complex in a simple analogy. He usually picks a good analogy, one that is related to his life, and that people can relate to. This makes people understand and be able to think about what he is talking about. Finally, he ends on a good note. You come away from the article thinking, "wow, that was really cool!"... but try not reading the last 3 sentences and see how your opinion differs. If this method wasn't covered in the technical writing course, it should be.

Cheers.

Google, something for everything

2008-04-08T17:06:00.002-07:00

So, google can now host your web apps. This means that Google now hosts my: email, calendar, IM, documents, spreadsheets, photos and blog. I don't visit people's sites to read their blogs, I see it all through Google reader. Shortly most of my web sites / services will be hosted at google, using App Engine on the back end and Gears on the front. I use Maps for finding places and phone numbers, Transit to get around, and search to find anything...
Can anyone say Skynet?

Cheers,
Andy.
[Google Citizen 51348]

Sent to you by Andy L via Google Reader:

Developers, start your engines

via Official Google Blog by Karen on 4/7/08

Posted by Kevin Gibbs, Tech Lead, Google App Engine

We just launched a preview release of Google App Engine, a way for developers to run their web applications on Google's infrastructure. In the same way that Blogger made it easy to create a blog, Google App Engine is designed from the ground up to make it easy to create and run web applications.

With Google App Engine, developers can write web applications based on the same building blocks that Google uses, like GFS and Bigtable. Google App Engine packages those building blocks and provides access to scalable infrastructure that we hope will make it easier for developers to scale their applications automatically as they grow. This means they can spend less time dealing with system administration and maintenance, and more time building and improving their applications. (There's more detail on the new App Engine Blog.)

Google App Engine is free to use during the preview release, but the amount of computing resources any app can use is limited. In the future, developers will be able to purchase additional computing resources as needed, but Google App Engine will always be free to get started.

Today's launch is a preview release. We've got a lot left to do, and there are a lot of features we still want to add to the system. What we'd really like is to get your feedback on it, so we know which features are most important to you. We'll use your suggestions to keep improving the system.

This preview of Google App Engine is available for the first 10,000 developers who sign up; we will increase that number in near future. So, developers, please sign up, download the SDK, and start your engines.

Things you can do from here:

Subscribe to Official Google Blog using Google Reader
Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

Magic-eye - the text based version

2008-04-03T18:53:00.002-07:00

All hail the hypnotoad

Martian Headsets

2008-03-22T12:12:00.002-07:00

I think Joel really has the right answer here, there is no right answer. This battle of the theoretical vs the practical has raged through history in just about every field. Sure, we all know it is wrong to speed in theory, but in practice we really are in a hurry... The solution, as it always has been, is to strive for the theoretical solution but understand that we will never actually get there and that we live in the practical world.

Cheers!

Martian Headsets

via Joel on Software by Joel Spolsky on 3/17/08

Cross Browser Testing

2007-12-20T09:15:00.000-08:00

The minor inconsistencies between different browsers are the bane of every web developer's life. Thankfully there is a way to make life a little easier.

Browsershots makes screenshots of your web design in different browsers. It is a free open-source online service created by Johann C. Rocholl. When you submit your web address, it will be added to the job queue. A number of distributed computers will open your website in their browser. Then they will make screenshots and upload them to the central server .
-- http://browsershots.org/

Lack of UI Rules

2007-10-22T11:17:00.000-07:00

I have been looking into User Interface design a lot recently. Whether it is in relation to my own projects or in conversations with others, the general conclusion is that there are no set of rules for how one should proceed with designing a computer based interface. There are a few general guide lines but, even those are often not agreed upon or contradictory.
So I set about doing a proper search. I found sites like asktog.com and Alertbox but both seem to focus on websites that sell things. This is not the industry I'm in, either personally or professionally. If anyone knows of some good guidelines or people doing research in this field, leave a link in the comments.

For you Dan

2006-04-09T10:46:00.000-07:00

This is for you Dan:
Aimee came over for a visit from March 16th to April 1st. We both had a great time.
For photos see: www.lynet.ca/gallery/aimeeEngland

Terminal Blog

2005-10-05T08:18:00.000-07:00

Hmm... It would appear I have been un-able to keep up blogging. Now I owe the Janitor $20. I never really was good at writing this kind of thing anyway. I hope all is going well with all of you. I'm online often, if you feel like talking to me or have *any* questions or comments send me a message through MSN, ICQ or e-mail. Talk to you all later.

Cheers from the other side of the pond.
Andy.

A weekend without internet

2005-09-27T06:54:00.000-07:00

good afternoon all.... sorry I haven't been updating this a little more regularly... but it has been a hell of a week. I have spent the last week exploring around Leeds, shopping, and generally figuring out where things are. The beginning of the week was spent in lectures here about computing. Monday and Tuesday I was busy most of the day getting tours, going to talks and the like. Tuesday afternoon was spent registering.... all of it.
     The registration system here is kind of funny... before class starts you indicate online which modules you would like to take. This gives the school an idea about how many people want each course. However, this does not mean you are registered in the course. To actually become registered you have to pick up this red form from your department with all your personal details on it. Then again to your department to pick up a bubble sheet to fill out your course selections on. Now... not all departments do bubble sheets, some of them just write the courses on the back of the first form.... ugh. After you have been to talk to all the departments you are taking courses from, and gotten their sign-off... it is back to your "parent" department for a stamp. Once that is all squared away, it is off to the finances department for another stamp. Luckily since I am on exchange and still paying fees to SFU, they only had to write "fees waived" and stamp my form. This, however, did not stop me from waiting in line for 30 min for them to do so. ugh. Then... finally off to the last line... the registration line. This is where it really started to suck.... I was in that line for about an hour and 40 min.... inching forward. Now, you can't leave the line... no stretching ones legs... nothing.... just a *really* slow amble forward. You can't understand how boring it is to just stand around for that long. Anyway... finally finished registering after having stood there forever and went home and died! ugh.
     The rest of the week went alright... mostly shopping and attending seminars on how to not die here... and generally get around. Friday afternoon / evening was spent socializing with the local CompSoc (the equivalent of the CSSS) They seem like a good group of guys (and girl). They have a similar structure to us, except there are only 3 exec.. President, Secretary and Treasurer. For more information... their website is: http://www.comp.leeds.ac.uk/compsoc/index.html.
     The rest of the weekend was spent without Internet... The DHCP server went down some time on Saturday morning... and didn't come back up until the wee hours of Monday. So spent the weekend shopping down town, playing pool, and watching firefly. I managed to watch the whole series over the weekend. This included the last episode which I had mysteriously not seen before. I had forgotten how good a series that was, and can't wait for the movie to come out. I think that is all for now... I will blog the last 2 days soon....

Cheers,
Andy

A day at large

2005-09-14T16:37:00.000-07:00

Today I spent learning about Leeds and the surrounding city. I spent the morning on a tour wandering around the city of Leeds. The place is splendid! Leeds itself is about 400 years old and it shows in places. The town hall is the grand building with a great dome roof. The shopping district is full of little hole-in-the-wall shops filled with just about anything. Unfortunately I did not have a chance to go into the main market today as apparently they only work half days on Wednesdays (luck blighters). After the tour of downtown I got a tour of the University. Leeds University is an odd collection of old houses and shop fronts converted into offices and class rooms, and brand new large classroom complexes build withing the last 30 years. After the tour of the University I went and got my University log on information and headed off back downtown. This time I took some photos, visited a few shops, got a bus pass and generally wandered around some more. Then finally around 3pm I took the bus all the way from down town to the end of the #1 line at ASDA's. ASDAs is actually owned by WalMart, but sells quite a different selection of goods from what I am used to. After I picked up a few essentials and dinner, I headed off back to my dorms. When I got here I discovered one of my flat mates had moved in, the local sub-warden in fact. He is an interesting guy from Texas. Not quite the stereotypical Texan, but mildly loud all the same. Generally seems like a nice guy, and he had lots of great advice for staying in Bodingtons. After chatting with him for a while, cooking dinner, and answering a few e-mails, I got back on the bus and headed out for a movie with a group of people from the exchange program. We saw "The Fantastic 4" in this lovely old theatre. The theatre was build in 1914 when silent films had just started coming out. It was build like an old opera house with and upper balcony, front curtains and a piano up the front for the silent films. after the film I caught the bus home again. And now you are up to the present.

Cheers all,
Andy

Jet Lag

2005-09-13T22:36:00.000-07:00

AK! stupid jet lag! I am wide awake at 5 in the morning, but falling asleep around noon. ugh. ah well... this will give me a chance to get some writing done about the last 16 hours or so. Yesterday afternoon my Uncle Malcom drove me out to Leeds along some nice country back roads. The hills here are amazing, they are soooo well groomed. There really is no place here that hasn't been touched by the human hand. The hills really do look like patch work quilts, it is quite amazing! I can't wait to go exploring the hills and get some hiking in. We finally arrived in Leeds around 2 in the afternoon and finaly found the residence office after wandering around campus for a half hour. The campus really is different here... it is a collection of new large buildings interlaces with old houses, all part of the university. For example the english department is housed in what looks like a 100 year old house... it is really interesting. After finding the residence office, they called up to Bodington house to see if my room was ready, which it was, so we then headed up there. Bodingtons is about 4 miles out of town, which amounts to about 15-20 min on a bus. The halls are quite nice, they are spread over a large old estate. There is a main office and set of first year halls around the center. Around the outside are what amount to small apartment blocks. There are about 4 conjoined towers in each block, with each tower containing 4 floors with 2 sections each. Each section consists of 5 or so rooms, a kitchen and a bathroom. Quite nice in all, they are roughly equivalent in size and facilities to the townhouses at SFU. Anyway, after finding Bodington house, and getting my room key we threw all my stuff in my room and headed back towards leeds. My Uncle dropped be in Headingly, which is about 10 min walk outside of leeds city center. I said my good byes to my Uncle and his wife, and headed off down the street. After getting into Leeds itself I spent an hour just randomly wandering around campus. Found out where the computing science department is and all that. At about 4:45pm I headed over to the international Student office, which for note is also housed in what looks like a 100 year old stone house. There I had tea with a few other international student, picked up the shedual for today, and headed off to the supermarket to find something to eat. The supermarket I visited, Morrisons, was nuts. It seemed much less organized than what I am used too, and there were *waaay* more people! it took me about 30 min just to find and locate the 6 or so items I needed. Once I got out of there around 6pm I caught a bus back to Bodingtons. The bus was the fun articulated type, but cost me 1.90 pounds or about $4 which seemed a little much for my 15 min trip, ah well... I will be getting a bus pass today hopefully, which will make it *much* cheaper. Anyway, I then got home, unpacked the groceries and set about finding internet. So I plug in my computer and get an IP address, Horray... I then try and access the internet... have to log on (like SFU wireless) well crap. I then run around the grounds trying to find someone to give me a hand, but it turns out that this place closes down around 6pm untill term starts next week. Ugh. So I am wandering around looking mildly helpless when I run into one of the "sub-wardens" (roughtly equivalent to a CA), Helen was here name I think. She informed me that I had to go into the university to get a log onto the system. Ugh. I then asked here if there were any other internet connections on campus, and she said she was just heading out to have a meal with a Mexican couple who also live in bodingtons, and I was welcome to come along. We then went to one of the flats around the back side of bodingtons, where the Mexican couple lived. Apparently there was food prepared there, spaghetti bolonase to be precise, and the invited me in to eat with them, which was great since I didn't really have much to eat back at my place. We sat down to dinner with the Mexican couple, helen, and this southern American girl named Lauren, who seemed quite nice. After dinner my hosts allowed my to use their laptop for a couple minutes, so I had a chance to connect and check for urgent mail / messages. After responding to the bear minimum I signed off and went back to my flat to unpack. After spending a couple hours getting my stuff in order I went to bed and slept for about 6 hours. Then my stupid jet lag kicked in and well here I am, wide awake at 6 in the morning. Anyway, I am going to try and lay in bed and get another hours rest, well see.

Good night, and Good morning,
Andy.

Nelson

2005-09-13T04:04:00.000-07:00

So, got into nelson yesterday afternoon at around 3pm and spent the night with my Uncle Malcom. Soon as I got here I was fed more than I could comprehend. Then took a nap for several hours trying to recover from my jet lag. Got up around 7:30pm and had a great chicken dinner! Sat around for the rest of the evening chatting with my Uncle and his wife and watching the Cricket match. The English won "the ashes" from the Australians.... Apparently this was a big thing here. I dropped off to bed around 11pm and slept for almost 11 hours. My uncle woke me up around 10am wondering if I was alright. Then got up and had a lovely breakfast. Anyway, Uncle is hovering, I should go.

Later all.
Andy.

Finally landed

2005-09-12T05:26:00.000-07:00

well... our flight finally got going after sitting on the tarmac for almost 2 hours... then it was a quick up and down from Glasgow to Manchester, didn't even turn off the seat belt sign. We finally arrived here around 11:30am. Then as it always does... it took an hour for my baggage to come out! ugh. I am always the last one to get their baggage. Atleast it all came through in one piece. I have everything I borough (as far as I know). Unfortunately, Manchester airport had reported our flight delayed till 2:30pm, so I get here and my uncle wasn't here... Understandably. Have you ever tried to use a pay phone with money you have never seen before? not easy! take my word for it! first I had to find an exchange counter... which for some reason gave me 4 pounds and change for $15. I think I was ripped off... ah well... then I had to figure out which coins to use.. "the silver ones," which was what I was told didn't help much. Then it turns out that pay phones are ridiculously expensive... and cost per second here... something I should have guessed... had I not just spent 11 hours in a large cigar tube! So first time I call my uncle I got cut off half way through since I had only put in 50 pence (~$1)... so put in more money and call him back. Thankfuly we got something arranged that time, and now I am finally sitting in a coffee shop drinking a mocha and typing away... Thank god for coffee. Anyway, more updates when interesting things happen!

Cheers from the other side of the pond!
Andy.

Plane is diverted

2005-09-12T01:21:00.000-07:00

Well... That didn't take long for things to take a mild turn for the worse... Apparently the weather in Manchester is not appropriate for us to land right now... There is too much fog and too many planes ahead of us. Ah, well... we get to land in Glasgow for the time being and wait till the fog and the planes clear from Manchester. Hope my uncle doesn't mind waiting a while...

The plane flight

2005-09-12T00:45:00.000-07:00

So... I guess I am official in the UK... Even if I am still 30000 feet above it! The plane flight went well. I managed to get a center section all to my self! So I lay down for a while, got some sleep... I am general pleased with Zoom's service! I would defiantly recommend them. The meals have been good for airplane food... hell... they are good for pre packaged meals anywhere. There were also a good number of them, and free wine! I had to pay for the rum and coke (only $5) but hey, I can now say I have had a drink over 10000 feet! The inflight movies have been half decent. We started with "The sister hood of the traveling pants." It was almost entertaining... and for a chick flick... fairly good. Then we got "Madagascar," one of the Disney annimated movies that one can actual tolerate watching, especial if one is trapped on a flying cigar tube with little else to do. The last movie was "Million Dollar Baby" which was, as always, a really good movie! The ending still moves me... even though I have seen it 3-4 times now. Other than that, the flight over here has been mostly uneventful. The view taking off was nice... but we have been above the clouds for the rest of the trip... so all you see out the window is white one way and blue the other. When I land the intention is to meet up with my uncle Malcom and get a lift to his place were I think I am spending the evening. Hopefully I will be able to post this from there... otherwise it is going to be delayed till I move into res tomorrow (13th). I think that is all for now...

Cheers from the other side of the pond!
Andy.

The Awful Forums - Post your favorite quote

2005-07-20T01:18:00.000-07:00

The Awful Forums - Post your favorite quote

"Always behave like a duck--keep calm and unruffled on the surface but paddle like the devil underneath."
- Jacob Braude

"Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes."
Oscar Wilde

"Remember how "THX" meant good sound quality? Now it just means 'shitty typing skills'" - Joey aka Lord Horsecock

Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. THAT'S relativity.
- Albert Einstien

Realize that falling in love with someone is just the results of a series of generic events that can occur between you and basically anyone who meets your standards of attractiveness. It's just an emotional manifestation of a handfull of chemicals bouncing back and forth. It's not the holy grail of living, it's not your reason to exist and it's definitely not something reserved for "that one person". Accept that you are just an animal with a big brain that allows him to fret over what only amounts to a game of hormone pool. What you're feeling is not your soul dying a gurgling, ugly death, but withdrawal. All the happy chemicals that saturated your body when you were with her are kicking out cold turkey, and your body is screaming bloody murder, where are my fucking endorphins?

"There is no point tiptoeing through life only to arrive safely to death"

"Alcohol may be man's worst enemy, but the bible says love your enemy."
Frank Sinatra

"Computer Science is no more about computers than Astronomy is about telescopes."
-Dijkstra

"Progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things"

First post

2005-07-14T00:59:00.000-07:00

this is a test