Daily Proverb
People who don’t rmember your name are not thinking about you when you’re not around. You must decide for yourself if this is bad or good.
Add comment April 7th, 2008
Archive for April, 2008
Daily Proverb
Reading nutritional information may make you hesitate to eat a particular foodstuff.
Reading history may make one hesitate to eat the future, were it so wrapped.
Add comment April 4th, 2008
Daily Proverb
One hundred generations ago, your ancestors never dreamed you’d be sitting in a cubicle, wondering if they had ever done anything exciting, whilst trying to decide if your pen was too chewed on.
Add comment April 3rd, 2008
Daily Proverb
When they switched from sentences to bulleted lists, I said nothing. When they switched from bulleted lists to pictograms, I said nothing. When they got rid of pictograms in favour of grunts and gestures, I said nothing, as by this time all language had faded away.
Add comment April 2nd, 2008
Super Crunchers
There’s a 95% chance that Super Crunchers will increase my understanding of statistical analysis by 75%. I’m just saying I had to pick one class to sleep through in school, and math was a frequent victim. This book has some great examples of predictive uses for deep stat analysis and how it almost always seems to trump intuition. It’s a step up in knowledge for those of us not so statistically astute - or who thought we were, and need some schooling in that regard.
This book also has more uses of the term “Super Crunchers” than any other written work in human history. The writing led one to keep on reading, and it’s a rapid lesson on how to make use of big piles of data, but Ian Ayres sure loves that phrase. It might be explained by the plans by General Mills for Super Crunchers breakfast cereal. The shapes inside include percentage signs, marshmallow graphs, and strawberry standard deviations.
Add comment April 1st, 2008
Johnny three times
Deep within the abdominal cavity of Tower City is an train hub for commuters. Like the unknown liquids that drip down the columns from time to time, it’s a a mix of good ideas and something that might be a good idea. To tell travelers when the trains are coming, they have a few methods. You can grab a paper schedule, you can read some of the big LED boards, you can listen to the PA announcers. The only problem with all three methods is that none of them tell you when the trains are actually coming - just when they are scheduled to come. You can also get the schedule on the internet or via the automated voice system, but it’s still just the printed schedule, which may or may not match when the trains will arrive. I don’t know if they lack the GPS or other electronic means to post estimated arrival and departure times. After a while of taking the same train over and over, like you’d take a metallic pill, you learn the schedule. Then the PA announcements start to grate on you a bit. They just announce the scheduled time, over and over. This is something that should be handled by a FAQ, to steal a Net idea, and not foisted upon regular riders.
But one announcer there, manages to grate deeper into the subconscious than others. I know not his name as he calls out in the darkness - only his method.
“The next Waterfront Train will leave Tower City Station at 8:10.”
(long pause)
“8;10 is when the next Waterfront Train will leave Tower City Station”.
(much longer pause, giving you brief hope it might be over, like starlight seen through clouds in Mordor)
“Waterfront Train”
(pause, just for cruelty)
“Tower City Station”
(in case you’re traveling through time and space and are not sure where you are)
“8:10″
(slight pause)
“cracklesnapCRACK”
(as they loudly, and fumblingly, hang up the microphone before turning it off).
Add comment April 1st, 2008
Daily Proverb
Chess will make your kid smarter, and if not, at least quiet long enough to make yourself a drink.
Add comment April 1st, 2008
