January 2000 Archives | ThoughtCrumbs

So I saw this guy with a GRE book

at Kiva Han tonight, and felt this sort of paternal urge to walk up to him and ask about his practice essays. I was so that guy last year, toting my fat GRE book and mechanical pencil to Java Vivace every night. And making flashcards on vacation in Mexico. At this time last year, I was struggling with the decision of where to apply.

I made the right choice.

October 29, 2005 : 2:44 AM

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Blogger's spellchecker doesn't know "blogs"

October 28, 2005 : 11:13 AM

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Bwahahaha!

posted by

Ping : October 29, 2005 6:56 AM : link to this comment

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Catching up on friends' blogs

Nothing original to see here. But plenty at others' blogs. That I know these people makes me very happy.

From Nadia:

Programming Languages is an odd mix of extreme formality and handwaviness, which I think is what happens when you take math and give it to computer scientists.

Lunch with Jan, soup, because it's soup weather and I like soup.

From Michelle:

I hitched a ride home in a Lexus that had a GPS system. My favorite GPS moment: At your earliest convenience, please make a U-Turn.

My #1 restaurant choice: The Marc Restaurant. Marc short for Marcus, not MARC (machine-readable cataloging). Imagine the menu at the latter:

610 _3 |a Bob's Red Mill blueberry pancakes |l German
340 __ |a Macaroni |b 6" round |d baked.

From Ping:

Hmm. I just noticed that the URL in the location bar in Firefox for the Mac (i'm using version 1.0.7) is momentarily drawn with whole-pixel antialiasing before being redrawn again with subpixel antialiasing. I wonder if anyone else has ever noticed this. (By the way, if you are one of the few people on this planet crazy enough to find this kind of attention to detail somehow endearing, i want to know. And if you also happen to be female, i want your number.)

10:49 AM

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Sleeping with the fishes

My friend with koi was describing how they hibernate during the winter, all lined up at the bottom of the pond. Maybe I shouldn't have made the sushi bar analogy.

October 27, 2005 : 11:09 AM

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An Open Letter to "friend with koi"

Be careful. Moira is not an FOF.

She is what we here in Portland refer to as a pesco-predator.

Ask her about the Siamese(s).

Ask her about the Zebes.

She's not as sweet as she seems.

posted by

Blue Hole : October 27, 2005 10:01 PM : link to this comment

Now, to set the story straight, certain fish met their demise while under the care of others. And hardly could I be characterized as a pesco-predator. More of a pesco-neglector. But, blue hole, need we mention the sea monkeys?

posted by

Moira : October 28, 2005 12:48 AM : link to this comment

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Pegboard puzzles

Apropos of brunch two weekends ago, in which my friends and I couldn't get past the "just plain dumb" skill-level on the triangle pegboard puzzle, Ping has posted a set of gorgeous illustrations of the logic behind a similar puzzle.

October 20, 2005 : 4:17 PM

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I just wanted to say hello. I'm a library assistant and I live in Portland. I discovered your blog through various library links that led here. Your writing is prosaic and thought provoking. Also your taste in music and literature is similar enough to mine that I've confidently marked down a few items that I don't know about for future reads/listens. Thank you.

posted by

Aprily@secac.com : October 26, 2005 12:16 AM : link to this comment

P.S. Yes, I realize that second-to-last last run-on sentence was terrible.

posted by

April : October 26, 2005 12:18 AM : link to this comment

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Vannevar Bush's "roomful of girls"

Vannevar Bush may have been a technological visionary, but, like most writers in the 1940s, his predictions are rife with myopic gender expectations that changed every bit as much as the technology. In "As we may think," the 1945 article worshipped by librarians and HCI folk around the world, he talks about scientists and assistants. The scientists (and mathematicians, and really, anyone doing any kind of higher thinking) are all men, and the assistants (stenographers, typists) are all women. For example:

"[A computer] will take instructions and data from a roomful of girls arms with simple keyboard punches, and will deliver sheets of computed results every few minutes."

It's insulting, humorous, and forgivable--in that order--to read Bush. Given the historical context, of course his experience was with roomsful of women piecing away at WWII cryptography. All of the big writers are guilty of it. Englebart (1963) talks of "augmenting man's intellect" and Licklider (1960) describes "man-computer symbiosis." But it's too bad their enlightenment wasn't reflected in gender-neutral pronouns.

October 18, 2005 : 3:52 PM

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I just read this essay for the first time last month, and had similar thoughts. I think we can update his statements in this way: "[A computer] will take instructions and data from a roomful of undergrads armed with simple keyboard punches, and will deliver sheets of computer results every few minutes."

posted by

Kris : October 18, 2005 6:39 PM : link to this comment

I'm ashamed to admit that i didn't even notice this when i read As We May Think. Or perhaps i noticed it but it vanished in my memory, drowned out by all the other ideas in that article.

On the positive side, when my copy of Security and Usability arrived, i was glad to see that the O'Reilly editor had heeded my plea to revert the pronouns in my chapter back to gender-neutrality, as they were originally written.

posted by

Ping : October 18, 2005 8:37 PM : link to this comment

<rant>
Personally, I dislike gender-neutral pronouns. Should we start using gender-neutral pronouns for child-bearers, just in case in fifty years men will be able to bare children?
</rant>

posted by

P : October 19, 2005 4:09 AM : link to this comment

No. It's a difference between sex and gender, where sex=biological function and gender=everything else (social roles, expectations, self-image). Men won't bear children, but women could be (and are) great mathematicians, computer scientists, and moms. Pronouns in this kind of writing indicate gender (abilities and norms) not sex (biology).

But P, you'd love Egalia's Daughters.

posted by

Moira : October 19, 2005 8:33 AM : link to this comment

Howdy Moira

I guess Pittsburgh has its fair share of idiosyncracies to keep you interested.

I havent exactly read the authors you have mentioned and so have no idea whether each one of them intended the use of gender-specific words but then it could be that people were just having slips of the tongue. Rather than attempt to be politically correct all the time and devote a large part of their conscious existence towards this, they might have expected people to bear with them while they outline their broader ideas since after all importance is placed on the ideas rather than the words used to describe them.

On a less serious note, Alan Turing slogged his balls off along with a few other notable male mathematicians on crypto puzzles and so would have been sharing the same room as those women you mentioned. So, does that not mean those women were considered on par with the procreator of the field of theoretical computer science?

On an even less serious note, Turing was gay. ;-)

posted by

ranga : October 19, 2005 12:23 PM : link to this comment

Ah, but men might bear children after some surgery that does not change their sex (entirely). This has been seriously considered, and that's what I was referring to. And why not? So the distinction between sex and gender doesn't seem very clear-cut to me, when you take into account Stuff.

posted by

P : October 19, 2005 2:37 PM : link to this comment

"I havent exactly read the authors you have mentioned..."

yeah, we know. you've only read 1984. :P

posted by

mooq : October 19, 2005 10:06 PM : link to this comment

crud: there doesn't seem to be a way to edit comments, so i'll have to add another. anyway...

i'm with P on not being a fan of gender-neutral pronoun, but i can understand your objection to bush's writing.

but your objection to the others' (writing) i don't see. as far as i know, the use of "man" to refer to all humans was pretty much the norm at the time. is it really fair to judge these authors by today's norms? (gasp, i've reaveled by relativism!)

or am i missing the context that these quotes come from?

posted by

mooq : October 19, 2005 10:15 PM : link to this comment

"It's insulting, humorous, and forgivable--in that order"

That's beautiful. I Thank you for your grace.

posted by

Mark : February 06, 2006 1:47 PM : link to this comment

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Buy these pants

From an eBay ad for leather pants:

They are size 34x34. I am no longer size 34x34, so even were I to suddenly decide I was a famous gay biker I would not be able to wear these pants. These pants are destined for someone else. For reasons unknown - perhaps to keep my options open, in case I wanted to become a pirate - I have shuffled these unworn pants from house to house, closet to closet. Alas, it is now time to part ways so that I may use the extra room for any rhinestone-studded jeans I may purchase in the future.

October 17, 2005 : 2:46 PM

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The winning bid: $102.50. I had to give up after the 50 dollar mark. Maybe next time.

posted by

Michelle : October 25, 2005 9:01 PM : link to this comment

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Too technical

Wikipedia has a category for articles that are too technical for most readers to understand. Some surprisingly common concepts in this category:

Then again, we also have:

Iterative Viterbi Decoding
Grad-Shafranov equation
Boerhaave syndrome (ew . . . don't read that one)

12:37 PM

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The link for Viterbi Decoding has an errant '/' at the end of it.

posted by

Anonymous : October 18, 2005 10:01 PM : link to this comment

Thanks! Fixed.

posted by

Moira : October 18, 2005 10:45 PM : link to this comment

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Miscellany

Too much navel gazing here lately. Sorry. At some point I'll write more coherent and substantive posts about HCI research, but that's what I talk about all day. Not that I'm tired--far from it--but some of my local friends read this site and I don't want to be that guy at the party that always tells the same stories.

But I'm constantly thinking about technology, how people use it, how it changes them, and how they change it. A random list of things I've been reading and talking about this week: natural language processing, affective trust, Ajax, the implicit association test, GOMS, hurricane katrina donation coordination, social networks, fMRIs and neuroscience, ambiguity in communication.

Some other random things:

Tommy Emmanuel played the Calliope Folk Music Society concert last night. It was breathtaking.

Carol Lee Espy opened for him. She had a capo. It was red. She called it her "mid-life crisis capo."

I found a place to get Nancy's yogurt in Pittsburgh. Yay, East End Food Co-op, even if you're somewhat disappointing in all other regards.

Speaking of disappointing, a friend unintentionally hurt me earlier this week. And I'm having trouble getting over it.

The morning guy at Coffee Tree Roasters makes foamier lattes than the evening woman. I've validated this empirically about ten times in the last two weeks.

Anastassia and I went for a pseudo-hike yesterday. Really, it was a flat gravel path around a chemical treatment plant and shooting range. But for a last-minute expedition on an unexpectedly sunny day, it was great. Especially the chance to talk with a friend for four hours.

Why didn't anyone tell me Jonathan Safran Foer was going to be in town?

My superhero fantasy is forthcoming. It will involve mind reading. No, mind changing.

Going to see the Talich Quartet tomorrow night.

My cell phone keeps taking pictures of my pocket. There's no way to lock the external camera button, or even to turn off the loud fake shutter sound.

October 16, 2005 : 6:00 PM

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"Speaking of disappointing, a friend unintentionally hurt me earlier this week. And I'm having trouble getting over it."

You realize everyone who reads this is going to think about all their interactions with you this week trying to figure out if it was them or not?

So far, I'm on Tuesday.

Don't let it keep you down..

posted by

Jonathan : October 16, 2005 7:01 PM : link to this comment

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Better than doodyhead

Karren asked me to look at the font for her wedding invitations. She said, "I don't know which one to choose, but you have strong opinions about these things. You're a . . . what's the word? . . . you're a typeface."

October 11, 2005 : 11:06 PM

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and a smug one at that (but only in miniature!)

posted by

P : October 12, 2005 6:06 AM : link to this comment

Suggest Comic Sans, or Brushscript for a fancier look.

P.S. It's a joke.

posted by

LeLo in NoPo : October 12, 2005 8:56 PM : link to this comment

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Chores

I defrosted my freezer today. The ice had grown an inch thick in places while I was out of town. At one point, while scraping mountains of shaved ice off the back wall, I remembered my Snoopy Sno-Cone machine, and wondered if I had any fruit syrup in the apartment.

I also learned you can burn yourself on the refrigerator light bulb.

October 09, 2005 : 7:55 PM

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Lest anyone else plans to send patronizing emails about refrigerator maintenance, I used a plastic scraper. I'm actually pretty good at the whole home-maintenance thing, wall-anchor idea involving superglue and cream of wheat notwithstanding (which I so didn't do). Plus, the freezer had directions for defrosting. So, mom, you needn't worry.

But if you visit, don't stand under the pot rack.

posted by

Moira : October 10, 2005 7:27 PM : link to this comment

When I defrost my kegerator the action of unplugging it means that most of the large ice flows are easy to separate from the walls. I can't imagine the need for a scraper unless the east coast has made you loose your calluses.

I did break a light-bulb during defrost once. Cold drops of water on hot glass...

posted by

Andy : October 11, 2005 1:24 AM : link to this comment

Hmm! I must hear this cream of wheat story.

posted by

Ping : October 11, 2005 2:32 AM : link to this comment

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Luminous

I just found out one of my favorite books, Everything is Illuminated, came out on film last week (official site). And Leiv Schreiber's directing it. Life couldn't be better. I'm a little concerned about their choice of lead actor, but Elijah Wood does have depth, hobbit toes notwithstanding.

October 01, 2005 : 10:26 AM

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thoughtcrumbs : january 2000

So I saw this guy with a GRE book

Blogger's spellchecker doesn't know "blogs"

Catching up on friends' blogs

Sleeping with the fishes

Pegboard puzzles

Vannevar Bush's "roomful of girls"

Buy these pants

Too technical

Miscellany

Better than doodyhead

Chores

Luminous