Thanksgiving 2005 in Nebraska

For those not in "the know," Nebraska is one of those fine "great plains" states centered around Iowa, South Dakota and other spectacles of fun.

My Mother, the Sweater Model

My mother is now a professional model at http://www.familyknitwear.com/! Buy all the clothes she is modeling for so she gets more modeling work!

Ah, Minnesota Pride

Yet it's safe to say the Jazz are looking for Humphries, who left the University of Minnesota for the NBA after his freshman season, to develop much more of an all-around game. "I told him, 'I don't want a confrontation every time. (But) how are you going to make a living in this league? Shooting it every time you touch it? Or, I say, you can make a living in this league if you defend, rebound, run the floor and do some of those things,' " Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said when discussing Humphries' play after Utah's Saturday-night loss to Memphis "I don't have a problem with a guy shooting," Sloan added. "But every time he touches it? He's got to learn to pass it. To me, that's one of the simple things to learn how to do. Once you do that, then your teammates accept you a lot more and it makes the game easier for you." Desert Morning News

And

"Another day, another lesson for Kris Humphries. The Jazz's second-year forward checked into the game at the start of the second quarter Saturday against Memphis. So he was obviously shocked when Robert Whaley subbed in for him just 2 1/2 minutes later. As Humphries approached the bench, Jazz coach Jerry Sloan stopped him with a blunt message. "I can't put you out there," Sloan said as Humphries passed by, "if you're not going to compete." Salt Lake Tribune

(from link)

College Graduation Rates

Unfortunately I did not see any references to the source of data for this article -- it's a pretty startling statistic.

Just 54 percent of students entering four-year colleges in 1997 had a degree six years later -- and even fewer Hispanics and blacks did, according to some of the latest government figures. After borrowing for school but failing to graduate, many of those students may be worse off than if they had never attended college at all.

(from link)

Informal Awareness in a Hallway

Just saw a very insightful "hidden" camera view of a workplace hallway taken by Saul Greenberg back in the early 90s (at least that's what the presenter said). Essentially, a hidden camera was placed at an end of a office hallway allowing the viewer to see how people casually peered into offices as they walked by to create an informal awareness of the people in their immediate surroundings.

What the Public Deserves

From the Washington Post:

"In my administration, we will ask not only what is legal but what is right, not just what the lawyers allow but what the public deserves," Bush said Oct. 26, 2000.

(link)

Sunday Lament

Since grade school, I have suffered from a perpetual dislike of Sundays. Like so many students before me, the thought of Sunday evokes a certain anxiety which can only be attributed to the dread of school. As a 20th grader (not counting kindgarten or preschool), I feel apt to assert that it is not Sunday's fault. I am certain, now more than ever, that I dislike Sundays only because of the impending Monday. Which leads me to conclude that a Sunday without a Monday is not so bad.

Fakes Words in Your Dictionary

Originally in the New Yorker (the following stolen from boingboing):

This piece from last August's New Yorker documents the fascinating hunt for the fake word inserted into the New Oxford American Dictionary. These fake words are inserted by dictionary editors as a kind of watermark to catch competitors who copy their dictionaries wholesale. The process of figuring out which of the words in the NOAD was the fake was quite involved, with six candidates sent around to a panel of distinguished language-scholars who had a vigorous debate about whether each word was a fake

I believe that phone companies used to do something like this with their phone indexes. They would insert fake names and business (complete with phone numbers and addresses) to catch unsuspecting plagirists who would just copy the book wholesale.

Mind Blowing

http://www.patmedia.net/marklevinson/cool/cool_illusion.html

Give it a try -- it really worked for me (both perceiving the green dot and the disappearance of all the pink dots).

Gloria Mark, Mary Czerwinski, Eric Horvitz, Linda Stone

Gloria Mark and other HCI researchers are written up in this New York Times article. I received my Master's degree from UCI where Gloria Mark is a professor (her office was adjacent to my advisor's).

The article, titled Meet the Life Hackers, begins with highlighting Mark's research with Victor Gonzalez on how human's "multitask" in the workplace.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/16/magazine/16guru.html

Pumpkin Carving Party

I made the Scooby one (not yet complete).

Apple in New Yorker

"Tidal" was uneven. Apple was nineteen when she recorded it and had a teen-ager's sense of drama, which sees the world ending whenever a relationship does; she did not yet know that "invade your demeanor" is a phrase that God never intended anyone to say out loud.

-Sasha Frere-Jones in the 10/10/05 New Yorker on Fiona Apple's new album

The Sky Really is Falling

An article written about security in IT cites Ed Lazowska, a faculty member in my department at UW, and begins:

Ed Lazowska, cochairman of the President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee, says that there is a looming security crisis, and the government, vendors and CIOs aren’t doing enough to stop it.

http://www.cio.com/archive/100105/qa_lazowska.html

How Dare You Compare Me To Cheney

Like Vice President Dick Cheney, who led the search for a vice presidential nominee before choosing himself, Miers headed the team searching for O'Connor's replacement and ended up choosing herself.

Ack. There's something fundamentally suspicious about heading a search committee that ends up choosing you. Also note to self, attempt not to follow in Cheney's footsteps in anyway such that comparisons like these could be made.

CSE Rainbow

Taken on my camera phone (SMT 5600 SmartPhone) from the top floor of the UW CSE building.

Absolute, Relative, Mixed Formulas in Excel

Here is a quick review of absolute, relative, and mixed formulas. Normally if you enter a formula like =SUM(A2:A4403) in D1 and then copy the formula to E2, your formula in E2 will change to =SUM(B3:C4403). This is a cool feature of worksheets called "relative addressing", but sometimes we do not want that to happen. In this case, we want every formula to refer to the range A2:B4403. As we copy the formula from cell to cell, it should always point to A2:B4403. While entering the formula, hit F4 once after entering the range, and your formula will change to =SUM($A$2:$A$4403). The dollar sign indicates that that portion of the reference will not change as you copy the formula. This is called absolute addressing. It is possible to lock only the column with the $ and allow the row to be relative. This is called a mixed reference and would be entered as =$A4406. To lock the row but allow the column to be relative, use =B$4405. As you enter a formula, use F4 to toggle among the four flavors of relative, absolute and mixed references.

(from link)

Mayer forms John Mayer Trio

Signed into the iTunes Music Store tonight and saw that John Mayer has a new band called the John Mayer Trio. Since I'm essentially TVless, I did not see him perform at the Grammys where, I guess, the John Mayer Trio sort of debuted their stuff with a new take on Mayer's grammy award winning number, Daughters.

The John Mayer Trio represents a different, harder-edged sound for the singer, songwriter and guitarist. Those fortunate enough to have tickets to the sold-out Fillmore gigs will witness a different side to the pop tunesmith known for slick hits such as ``Your Body Is a Wonderland.''
``I wouldn't just change just for the sake of changing, but I've always had another agenda,'' Mayer explains. ``That other agenda is a whole different set of heroes and hues and colors and textures. I've just decided to go to my next place. . . .
``It's a very thought-out process of taking what excites me about Eric Clapton and B.B. King and Buddy Guy and Blind Faith and Derek & the Dominos and the Band and Cream . . . and placing it in my thing. I love pop music. I love guitar playing. I love blues. I love jazz. And I love the idea even more that I could put my own stamp on all those things and roll them into one sound.''

...

``He's really serious about his guitar playing,'' Palladino says from his home in London. ``Some guitarists have a special touch, and you know the guys I'm talking about, and John is one of those guys. It's the way he strikes a note. He just has something.''
The same could be said for both Jordan and Palladino, two stellar players who have performed with rock legends.


(from link)

Well, at least we have sports...

Headline story on espn.com this morning:

Moment of Relief
Two weeks of suffering. A city, and region, in mourning. The mayor's pregame plea. Did New Orleans really need the Saints' 23-20 win Sunday? Len Pasquarelli says yes.

I have to remind myself why I check this page everyday? It certainly can't be for the insightful and worldly perspective.

Vancouver, Canada

Incredible Idea

Such an incredible idea. Wishing I would have thought of it.

http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000430055701/