The Evil Eyebrow

You figure out which is which.

I am going to buy a portable computing device. Yes, I know, I just bought an Evo 4G which definitely qualifies, but I have some additional specifications that are required.

1. Must sync with my M-Audio Fast Track Pro (for voice recording, i.e. Podcasting)
2. Must be able to run Idimager better than my current desktop (which I purchased in 2005)
3. Must not screw up my life with respect to my workflow

Item number one is fairly simple. Pretty much any computer nowadays will fit the bill, it just has to have enough oomph to be able to record without too much latency. I ran a test with my friend David Tyberg’s Asus EEE netbook and it seemed to work well. I also ran it on a Macbook Pro (belonging to yet another member of The Extraordinary Contraptions, The best Steampunk Rock Band in this or any other universe!) and that worked just fine as well.

Before all you insane audiophiles get up in a dander, yes I realize there will be a quality difference between running Qubase on a Macbook vs. Audacity on a netbook, but it generally won’t matter until I start putting in a sound-deadened room with excellent quality compression mics and better pre-amps than the M-audio has.

Item two is actually more of a general statement about Windows-based programs. I cannot survive without MS Office. I need it for my job and have developed an expertise level with it that I would be stupid to abandon. Likewise I have utilities such as Idimager that only run in a Windows environment and I’m not interested in finding their Mac-based replacements (although I just discovered that MS Money, which has all of my financial information since 1993, has been discontinued and I better get a copy of Quicken anyhow).

Item three is the big one. I am not a Mac user. I have limited knowledge of how Macs function. I’ve been a Dos-then-windows user since 1985 when we got our first PC. I know an awful lot about the windows environment and I have a lot of stuff around here that was purchased for windows-based computers. I’m frightened that if I jump to the Mac, I’ll have some serious growing pains with trying to get everything talking to each other (if it will at all).

So, what do you think? Should I pay the extra and go with the smaller form factor, nicer feeling track pad, more reliable environment and sexier-in-general computer, or should I stick with a Windows-based laptop of one sort or another.

This is pretty cool.

This was the top posting on FiveThirtyEight this morning. I stared at it for a good ten seconds before going to the text and realizing that the posting was talking about Byrd’s sickness, not the fact that he was a Third. Sans-Serifs can be such a pain.

This is something I go into with new recruits around work. We do a lot of numbers and letters in our reports; capital “I”s and the numeral “1″ and lowercase “L”s can get themselves discombobulated. I always insist that people use serif typefaces for body text of reports I’m working. Likewise, I also insist that when we’re labeling things alphabetically, we never use the letters “I” or “O”, just to avoid confusion. Yes, my appendices go from H to J without passing go.

I’m not a programmer yet I find this enormously amusing. It probably wouldn’t be as much fun if it were in English.

And don’t forget to click on the vuvuzela button!

In three…two…one…NOW!

Congratulations on surviving our free annual trip around the sun. I understand that next year’s journey is being cut 5% due to the economic downturn.

My brother in law, John Ryan, works for the Montery Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California (MBARI, pronounced Em-Bar-Eee). He’s helping out with some gulf oil spill stuff. See him at 1:11.

Update: I apologize if you got random crappy code. Here’s the link

Here is a great TED Talk about math education.

But forget about that; math’s not important. Go to 11:40 and watch the animated short.

Bruce Schneier linked to a declassified sabotage manual from WWII (pdf). It’s an easy quick read if you’re interested.

It contains a lot of general ideas of how to be a pain in the ass to an occupying power. It mainly advocates low-level irritation and minor sabotage that, if combined with the actions of other people, would make a drain on the enemie’s war-fighting effort.

However, I was struck by this passage (page 32 of the linked pdf). For context, the person being instructed would be an employee that wishes to resist an occupying invader. Here’s how to subtract value from an organization:

(11) General Interference with Organisations and Production
(a) Organizations and Conferences
(1) Insist on doing everything through “channels.” Never permit short-cuts to be taken in order to expedite decisions.
(2) Make “speeches.” Talk as frequently as possible and at great length. Illustrate your “points” by long anecdotes and accounts of personal experiences. Never hesitate to make a few appropriate “patriotic” comments.
(3) When possible, refer all matters to committees, for “further study and consideration.” Attempt to make the committees as large as possible — never less than five.
(4) Bring up irrelevant issues as frequently as possible.
(5) Haggle over precise wordings of communications, minutes, resolutions.
(6) Refer back to matters decided upon at the last meeting and attempt to re-open the question of the advisability of that decision.
(7) Advocate “caution.” Be “reasonable” and urge your fellow-conferees to be “reasonable” and avoid haste which might result in embarrassments or difficulties later on.
(8) Be worried about the propriety of any decision — raise the question of whether such action as is contemplated lies within the jurisdiction of the group or whether it might conflict with the policy of some higher echelon.

I don’t know about you, but that describes quite accurately some weeks I’ve had at work.

I think there is an opportunity here for a teachable moment. The next time we’re discussing how to make meetings and the job more efficient, I should whip this out.

Saw it on Bad Astronomy