Author: Bill Ruhsam

  • New Notebook

    I have a new notebook! Meet the Roaring Spring Laboratory Notebook 5×5 quad-ruled hardbound paper product. It is displayed to the right of my last two notebooks, the Whitelines A4 wirebound (middle) and the National Brand 5×5 Eye Ease spiral bound (left).

    Three recent notebooks

    I evaluated the Whitelines, both at the beginning, and in the middle. At the end of it’s life, I’ll say that I like the paper, I think the wirebound is less durable than I’d like, and the A4 size was occasionally a pain. Here’s a picture of the spine after 7 months of use.

    Spine of Whitelines Notebook

    It was getting very worn and I don’t think it would have survived another month. I’d use it again, though. I was going to try one of their other products, however I looked around the office and realized I had an old quad-ruled laboratory notebook that I bought in 2002 at Texas A&M when I was at a conference and needed something to write on. It had been barely used, so I pulled it off the shelf and voila, new notebook.

    New Notebook

    So far, I like it quite a bit. It has changed some of my note taking habits, due to it’s hard cover and stiff spine; I am only taking notes on the right-hand page, rather than both right and left as has been my practice. However, this is allowing me to have annotations on the left hand page, as you can see in the picture. This is already proving useful.

    This is not a notebook that can be folded back on itself like the Whitelines wirebound or the National Brand 5×5 can be. However, the footprint of this notebook is smaller (it’s 10 1/8″ x 7 7/8″) so that isn’t a big deal. You can compare the size of this notebook in the image below.

    Three recent notebooks

    I think I’ll be happy with this one. I like the hard cover, which should also make it more durable than the previous ones. A drawback I can see is that I’m going to go through it more than twice as fast as the previous ones, but that will give me more of a chance to evaluate other notebook types!

  • Paperless Office

    I’ve been moving along the path of the paperless office. I use PDFs as much as possible and I try to scan and store anything that I’m not going to be needing immediately. Many people advocate moving to an entirely electronic storage system for papers, books, bills, documents, and whatever else clutters up your home or office. I am in favor of that, to a degree. I have not moved to going with electronic billing for monthly bills such as electricity and gas because I’ve found that I am much more likely to lose an electronic bill than one that arrives via the postal service. With a paper bill, I can slap it in the “inbox” ((the area to the left of my computer)) and when I get to it, I file it. I have a physical piece of paper reminding me that something needs to get done; this is useful. ((I am toying with the idea of trying this again. I may create a new email address that is solely for the receipt of bills, with its own folder and action list)) I would be delighted if I could get rid of these things, if only to clean out my filing cabinet.

    However, I am not a proponent of the paperless office. There is still no technological substitute for printing out a document and reading it with a pen in hand, making notations or corrections; marking items checked or missing. I have also found it much faster and simpler to be able to go to a filing cabinet, look under “Wellls Fargo”, and pull out the last mortgage statement, if I need it. An equivalent electronic system would require more time ((occasionally you need to pull that document now)) and clicks.

    I was amused by this posting from the Unclutterer blog, advocating for no printer in an office. Frankly, as an engineer who deals with paper plans, I literally could not avoid printing things. My final product is usually paper plans or paper documents and while I do a great deal of checking and working on the screen, it’s been my hard-earned, painful experience that if I don’t print it out and look at it, mistakes will slip by. Also, just because something looks good on a screen doesn’t mean it’s going to look good on paper.

    Also, getting back to something I mentioned above, there’s no technological substitute for paper, pen, highlighter and ruler for doing plan checks. Here are two clips of something I did just yesterday:

    20110721171845735_0002

    20110721171845735_0001

    These two sheets along with another two documents had to be cross checked against each other, and a third list, to ensure that items and quantities were agreeing with each other. I know that I could not have done this on a screen ((I know this because, in 20-20 hindsight, I realized that the way we set up these sheets was the absolute worst way possible for doing the kind of cross check I am describing. The only way it could have been worse would be if we shredded the sheets after soaking them in octopus ink)).

    So, for the foreseeable future, until they invent a Kindle or iPad that I can write on with the same fidelity as paper, my printers won’t be going away.

    Update: Here is my paperless office.

    Paperless Office

  • Photography as a Job

    I enjoyed the Big Picture today, which had a series of photos from the recently completed final shuttle mission. Go and look; I’ll be here when you get back.

    Several of those images amused the heck out of me. I even tweeted about it.
    Dangerous Spaceflight

    Go back. Have a look and compare image #30 and #40. It’s quite amusing.

    Now that you’re back I’ll relate the subject of this posting. This was one of the images (number 18).

    http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/07/space_shuttle_era_ends_with_at.html#photo18

    A very nice shot indeed, but I immediately noticed something.

    http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/07/space_shuttle_era_ends_with_at.html#photo18

    Turn around, dude!

  • Books/Movies: Some Notes

    Wheel of Time
    For those of you hiding under rocks, you might not be aware that the Epic Fantasy Monstrosity (EFM) Wheel of Time will be coming to a close soon with the publication of the 14th and final novel. The reason for the EFM moniker is because of the 14! novels it took to resolve the story, the fact that the first was published in 1990, and acknowledged-by-all-readers general epicness of the scope of the story.

    Because the final book is coming, I convinced Jenn to pick up the series and read it from start to (almost) finish. I decided to re-read it as well, keeping ahead of her so that we could talk about what’s going on in the novels. She’s currently working on book 6 and I’m on 10.

    The last time I re-read the entire series was back when there were only 9 or so novels and it took me three months. This time around, I’m skipping storylines that I’m familiar with or just don’t care about. There are some storylines that get resolved in the later books that don’t have much to do with the end novels and I’m flipping through those pretty fast.

    However, I will say that once again, I’m noticing things that I hadn’t noticed before, with respect to little details. Robert Jordan, you’re the man ((Except that he’s dead. He died before finishing the series to a lot of people’s dismay. Brandon Sanderson was brought on board to finish it up and he’s doing a good job)).

    Song of Ice and Fire
    For those of you who are still hiding under rocks, and don’t watch HBO, you might not be aware that George R.R. Martin just released the next novel in the Song of Ice and Fire series, another EFM. Those of you watching HBO might recognize this as A Storm of Swords. This novel, A Dance with Dragons, is actually the second half of the fifth book (started with A Feast for Crows) and was split due to size. It took Martin 5 years to go from book 4 to book 5 and another 6 to go from book 5 to book 6. I’m not criticizing him, however I’m not exactly running out to buy this one because it’s been soo loonnnng since I read the novels. This story is all about politics and intrigue and who’s backstabbing whom with what and where and when I read A Feast for Crows, I spent a great deal of time asking myself, “Who is this person again?” Despite what I’m doing with The Wheel of Time, I don’t think I can face rereading all of the Song of Ice and Fire novels. It’s a chore.

    I’m sure I’ll pick it up eventually, but not right now.

    Harry Potter
    We saw Harry Potter 7 Part Deux on opening night. I was happy with the effects and the settings, but was generally unhappy with how they wrangled the story line. I thought it started off spectacularly with the scene between Harry and Griphook, negotiating the illegal entry into Gringotts. It continued well with the actual entry into Gringotts but quickly went downhill from there, at least from a story-telling perspective. There is no way that someone who hasn’t read the books could understand what was going on in this movie. No way. They didn’t even pretend like they were explaining some of the obscure plot elements. But, I’m sure they built this script around the fact that they knew 99% of their audience either had read the books or was sitting next to someone who had. However, I don’t think this movie will stand the test of time.

    Like my complaining about the Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, I think there were scenes that could have been taken whole from the book, and spoken word for word on screen and they would have been leaps and bounds better than what the script writers produced. One that came to mind particularly was the scene where Professor McGonagall was dispatching the castle statues to defend the perimeter. The scene scanned much better in the book.

    I’ll stop complaining about Harry Potter, now. The movie was worth seeing, even in 3D. I’m happy that the HP movies are over because the actors are getting a bit long in the tooth to play teenagers. The most egregious of these is Neville.

  • Final Launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis

    Jennifer and I decided to roll the dice and drive down to see the final launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis. We figured we had a good shot because there were three chances to go, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. So we packed up the car and drove 8 hours to Florida!

    Or at least, we tried to drive. We were within spitting distance of our destination on Thursday night when we spent 45 minutes going verrryy slowly.

    It's 11:30 PM and We're Not Moving, Argh

    Nevertheless, we crashed in Orlando for the night and then popped over to the coast on Friday morning to see the launch.

    My plan was to avoid the common viewing areas right up close to Kennedy Space Station and show Jenn what I had seen as a child. I spent 9 years living in Satellite Beach, FL, and saw the first 24 shuttle launches from either the beach, my backyard, or my school. So we headed through Kissimmee and St. Cloud, on our way to Melbourne and the barrier islands. On the way, I stopped by the Old House to see if was still there. It was.

    My Old House

    Jenn and I drove north on A1A until we got to a point where we figured it was too crowded to continue. We ended up parking at Lori Wilson park and sat on the beach reading books until the launch.

    Atlantis Launch

    As you can see from the picture, it was a bit hazy and cloudy, but thankfully the weather was good enough for the shuttle to go! Jenn got to see her first shuttle launch, and I got to bookend my experience with the space program.

    We spent the rest of the weekend in Cocoa Beach about two blocks from the ocean and did…nothing. And it was glorious.

    Recommended:

    Not Recommended:

    • Sunset Cafe. Service was fair to poor, food was boring. The only reason I can think that I would eat here again would be to sit at one of the tables that’s out on the dock. Otherwise, no.
    • Finding good beer. Maybe it was just where we ended up, but no where seemed to have any kind of beer selection beyond standard domestics in bottles. Blah.

    We had a good time and we really should just uproot and go to the beach more often (unhappy look on my face is an artifact of squinting and trying to get the bloody camera to take the picture).

    Bill and Jenn

  • Better Titled: “Nationalistic Propaganda Works!”

    Jim Galloway of the AJC had a tidbit this morning:

    Beware: If you go to a Fourth of July celebration on Monday, your kids are statistically more likely to end up Republican.

    The study, out of Harvard, relates the likelihood of identifying as Republican to the amount of precipitation on the 4th of July. They used rainfall data on all the various July 4ths, between 1920 and 1990 to estimate your likelihood of having experienced a 4th of July parade as a child. The found a significant correlation between July 4th Parades and Identification as Republican.

    I love statistics.

  • Training Continues; Paranoia Sets In

    We’re training for the Mount Desert Island Marathon. You may recall that I’ve been having some calf issues which caused me to DNF out of the Georgia Marathon. Well, training has begun again for the next big race and it’s kind of a pain. Why?

    Every little tiny twinge or ache in my calf makes my brain immediately start whirling around thinking, “Oh gosh! Is it too much? Am I pushing too hard? ((Ha! Today’s run clocked in at a 12:00 pace which is way slower than I’m used to)) Am I injuring myself!? Am I going to have to give up running!?!? Dogs and Cats, living together!!!”

    And so on and so forth. I have to monitor the sensations coming from my leg very carefully because I don’t want to injure myself again and spend another two months going to physical therapy. Today, for instance, I went out for a 5 mile run at a slow pace and started feeling some “stuff” around mile 3. It went away but came back at 4 so I decided to walk the rest of the way. Discretion being the better part of finishing the race I’m signed up for.

    This is an exercise in discipline, but it also means I don’t enjoy running nearly as much as I’m used to. I can’t zone out and get into the flow very easily when I keep getting jerked back by calf sensations.

    The best I can do is the best I can do. I’ll continue to train at a very low intensity, once again keeping “finish the race” as my only goal. I probably should get back into the pool soon as I have a triathlon in August, but I can probably dog-paddle the swim if necessary.

  • Happy Summer Solstice!

    Today we once again celebrate our free annual trip around the sun. I arbitrarily recognize this point in the year as a good start/end point due to the astronomically interesting nature of the day.

    At 1:16 EDT the sun will be at its most northern point in the arc it describes across the sky. This point is the solstice, the farthest north from the celestial equator. Yay for the solstice!

    One of the vagaries of moving about the country as I have throughout my life is the differing times of sunrise and sunset. Right now, of course, the sun is rising earliest and setting latest compared to the rest of the year ((for the northern hemisphere. Sorry, Peru)). However, the precise times of that can be a bit wonky, depending on your location both longitudinally and latitudinally. For example, I’m in Atlanta, GA, in the Eastern time zone and I’m located about an hour’s drive from the Central time zone. So, without too much change in location, I get 54 minute’s difference in sunrise time (compare Atlanta, GA to Anniston, AL).

    If we throw some north/south motion into the mix, things get really fun. I spent my formative years in Manchester, NH, which is having a sunrise/sunset of 5:06 AM / 8:28 PM as opposed to my own of 6:27 AM / 8:51 PM. Over a full hour of additional sunlight! Aren’t you guys happy you live in a more northern latitude? ((of course, you also have a full hour less sunlight at the winter solstice, so I guess it’s even)). About even with me in a longitudinal sense, and with Manchester in a latitudinal direction is Ovid, Michigan, which will be having a 5:58 AM / 9:20 PM spread. Hell, I’m going to bed right now around 10:00. It wouldn’t be even close to dark by that time if I lived in Ovid. I don’t know how the people in Alaska can stand it.

    Anyway. Happy Solstice! Go out and do that thing you do.

  • Automated Checkout

    Danger

    Kroger annoyed the crap out of me this morning. They’ve been doing it for years (and Home Depot and Publix have followed suit, too) by installing the convenient, time saving, handy-dandy self checkout machines.

    This particular phenomenon is something billed as “for customer convenience” but I am personally convinced that if a survey were taken, the vast majority of persons would admit to hating them, or at least that the machines are never as convenient as they should be.

    I avoid them if possible, but this morning it was not because there weren’t any lanes open that had people. However (thought I), it’s ok because I’ve just got a bag of coffee to purchase. I plunked it down on the scanner and prepared to purchase some bulk coffee beans.

    “Remove item from scanner,” said the pleasant American female voice.

    “Whuh?” Why do I want to do that? I just got here. If I am an edge case customer, I’ve got one item and I’m going to put it on the scanner, not the staging area, or whatever they call it. I poked a few buttons on the touchscreen to try and select coffee beans.

    “Remove item from scanner,” said the annoying American female voice.

    Fine. I removed it, touched the “select by image” button to find where the bulk coffee was hiding, and then put the coffee back on the scanner. I navigated through several menus looking for something that looked like coffee. Nothing.

    Fuck it. I’ll search by name. I pushed the BACK button a couple times. One too many it turns out.

    “Remove item from scanner,” said the voice which I was starting to hate.

    Up goes the coffee; thud goes my finger on the touch screen, pushing “search by name”. Down goes the coffee as I type C-O-F-F-E-E into the touchscreen QWERTY layout. It serves me up with an image of “Deli Coffee”, which is a medium-sized disposable travel cup of coffee with a lid.

    No, I’m not buying a cup of coffee, I’m buying beans. Where are the goddamn beans?

    I go back and type in B-E-A-N-S. I get several images of beans, some of which are Green Beans or other type of bean that is obviously not made of coffee. There is however, a selection that looks just like roasted coffee beans. Plonk, goes the finger on the “BEANS, BLACK, BULK”.

    At this point I almost decided to go ahead and purchase the BEANS, BLACK, BULK instead of coffee beans because their unit cost per pound is way less than coffee. However, I’m a good corporate American drone and instead I used my annoyed American male voice to demand of the automated checkout monitor dude that he “Please let me purchase this fucking coffee so I can get on with my life” (my exact words).

    He did some magic mojo thing with his wireless keypad and poof, I was paying for coffee.

    • Question 1: Why was that so hard?
    • Question 2: Why doesn’t bulk coffee come up under a search for “Coffee”
    • Question 3: I hate the automated checkout devices

    This system of providing a convenience to the customer has got to be counter productive. You want your customer to leave your store happy about their experience. If the last thing they do is have to struggle with your stupid touchscreen menus, or struggle with trying to get something to scan which is not a task they perform daily, unlike your checkout clerks who [gasp] do it all the time and are good at it, then they’re going to go home and write blog posts about how pissed off they are with Kroger.

    And they might not go back to your store for more coffee.

    The next time I’m in a situation like this, I’m going to pick the easy route and just pay for the BEANS, BLACK, BULK.

  • Online Ads to Make You Go, “Hmmm…”

    Google served this up to me in my feedreader today:

    Google Ad

    I’m pretty sure I haven’t been doing anything recently to make Google think I’m interested in dating sites. Or Iran. Or especially Iranian dating sites.