Myth of Multitasking – Brain 2.0 is vaporware

 Life  No Responses »
Nov 302005
 

multitasking Just listened to the 43Folders podcast on the Myth of Multitasking and I have to agree that we really do not multitask. We may switch between projects rapidly in a form of time slicing – but our mental processor does not have enough free cycles to split between two real tasks. This is not to say there are not things that you can do at the same time. It is of course easy to listen to a book on tape or to music while you drive but the obvious distraction caused by using your cell phone while driving proves your brain really does have problems doing two things at once.

Our brain cannot truly multitask – it does not have the ability to process interrupts effectively. G. Wade Johnson makes this point well:

When an interrupt comes in, there is a forced task switch just like with preemptive multitasking. Unlike a computer, humans cannot store their mental state on the stack and come back to it. An interrupt pretty much makes you lose all of the dynamic state you’ve built up. Anything you’ve written down or committed to more long-term storage is retained of course. But, the part that you are working on right now is lost unless you explicitly take time to save it.

Kathy Sierra writes about ‘being mindful’ as a solution to the distractions we call multitasking in her blog post about Your brain on multitasking:

Our brains can’t do even two independent things that require conscious thought, especially if those two things involve different goals. But that’s OK, you might think, since multi-threaded systems on a single-processor aren’t technically doing two things at the same time.. they’re simply switching back and forth so quickly that they just appear to be processing simultaneously. But that’s the problem… the brain isn’t a computer, and in many cases the brain works much more slowly than a modern processor.

--Photo: Multitasking--

She contends we will get more done if we ‘practice mindfulness’ instead.

Practicing mindfulness is like adding more hours to your day. If you’re mindful, time slows down. You get more done, enjoy things more, and feel less stress.

So if you’re stressed for time, do everything you can to resist the seemingly-intuitive notion that doing several things at once will save time. … Obviously there are exceptions, especially if you’re quite content to let the quality of the work go down, or to be rude to the person you’re talking to.

Of course the biggest reason I don’t get anything done is that I spend all my time reading all these blogs!

5000 channels and nothing worth watching…

 Life  1 Response »
Nov 302005
 

5000 Channel Universe We have one satellite dish hooked to the house now to be able to record the HomeSat classes that we use for homeschooling our kids. I have thought about switching from cable to the DishTV – but the thought of adding another satellite dish to the house just is not appealing. Now I know it can be done!

According to the Beckley, WV, Register-Herald if 20 movie channels are not enough,

then come to Al Jessup’s house — where his 5,000-plus radio and television stations from around the world beamed in by his 12 satellite dishes are bound to keep you entertained somehow.

“Up in the sky, there’s lots of free stuff,” he said.

The last time he counted, he received more than 5,000 channels. He has stopped counting since.

Because the programming is free, it changes regularly, he noted. Sometimes, a program he likes will disappear and something he dislikes will be put in its place, or vice versa. For example, he once had three ABC stations from Wyoming only to have it reduced to one.

“One day it may be here, the next day it may be gone, the next day it may be back,” he said. “You never know.”

HatTip to Boing Boing

Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie – Practical Mind Control Protection for Paranoid

 Humor  No Responses »
Nov 292005
 

Just because you are paranoid doesn’t mean they really are not after you!
Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie

What Is An AFDB?

An Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie (AFDB) is a type of headwear that can shield your brain from most electromagnetic psychotronic mind control carriers. AFDBs are inexpensive (even free if you don’t mind scrounging for thrown-out aluminium foil) and can be constructed by anyone with at least the dexterity of a chimp (maybe bonobo). This cheap and unobtrusive form of mind control protection offers real security to the masses. Not only do they protect against incoming signals, but they also block most forms of brain scanning and mind reading, keeping the secrets in your head truly secret. AFDBs are safe and operate automatically. All you do is make it and wear it and you’re good to go! Plus, AFDBs are stylish and comfortable.

BEWARE OF COMMERCIAL AFDBS: Since you should trust no one, always construct your AFDB yourself to avoid the risk of subversion and mental enslavement. Sometimes, AFDBs will be sold on places like eBay. Do not purchase these pre-made AFDBs, even if the seller seems trustworthy. They may contain backdoors, pinholes, integrated psychotronic circuitry or other methods that actually promote mind control.

Geocaching Process

 Geocaching  No Responses »
Nov 292005
 

I have a Palm Tungsten T3. I supplement the T3 with a Garmin ETrex Legend for 2 reasons. 1) I don’t want to drop my T3 on rocks or water while I am searching and 2) The Garmin seems to have a better ‘real-time’ response.

All the software I use, and screenshots on my palm are listed here: Treo Software (CacheMate, Cetus, TomTom Navigator)

My overly complex processes for such basic tasks:

Standard stuff: * Get PQ emailed to me for top 5 locations I cache in, save them (since GSAK doesnt support IMAP4) * Update databases in GSAK * Filter out 4.5-5.0 Terrains usually * Export to CacheMate * Export to TomTom POI file * Sync Treo 650 to PC

For trips (Caches on a route): * Create PQ for every 75 miles along the trip. * Take said GPX from PQs, and make a giant GPX in GSAK. Export it * Use a script I made, enter in starting and end Zipcodes, X miles from highway to list, and the Big GPX file It outputs the following: - pruned GPX of all caches within X miles of the route, - HTMLpage which is a google maplet that shows me all the caches - TomTom POI file - CacheMate PDB

Like GSAK, this is really just a bloated gpsbabel/makeov/XML & XSLT parsing system. But its easy. Ill be releasing it as opensource soon, once I simplify it down from needed a large CygWin install).

In the field: * Kick off TomTom Navigator, * Look at overhead view of the area in a map, turn on GeoCaching POI (points of interest) which shows me a yellow icon for each cache and where it is. * Pick the Cache, click it, goto “Navigate to this location” * Drive there, park, and hunt * Then I kick off CacheMate, read the last 5-10 logs, sometimes the hint. * ClickNAV (CacheNav) or CetusGPS, and get within 10-20 ft of the cache. * Take a picture, Hunt for it, take more pictures * Write a log note. * Repeat!

If I need new caches in the field, * Goto Geocaching.com in Blazer web browser on Treo * run query, save GPX file * Email (VersaMail) or FTP (EzFTP) the script to my server * Run webbased or shell based (pssh) gpsbabel on the script * Download Cachemate file, and import. * If this fails, I PalmVNC to my desktop, massage the data there, and email it to my Treo.

I have mobipocket, but really never use it. Checking the logs and hints CacheMate or on the website is easier and saves me a lot of trouble and space.

The worst part about this is integrating my CacheMate notes back to GSAK or the website to write logs. There is no flow or real good process for it. Ill normally just leave shorthand in CacheMate, go home to the website, log it.

I blow away my CacheMate DBs daily and recreate them from a fresh GSAK export. If it had an “update” instead of duplicate feature this wouldnt be needed, but it was cheap and thats complex method to pull off on a Palm DB.

Technology has finally come of age. And I think devices like the Treo or insert your cool gadget here are amazing. But not everyone does, and many hate gadget talk, in the word’s of “ I Don’t Care”. Feel free to ignore or pass this post by if you prefer to keep it simple or paper-based.

Make sure you do not keep CacheMate on the card. If you do use FileZ ir zLauncher, move the DBs before Syncing, and then back to card.

Zero Tolerance Policies = Zero Intelligence & Zero Management

 Life  No Responses »
Nov 252005
 

Just read where a Home Depot accused a man of shoplifting after borrowing a pencil and forgetting to return it! Most businesses give away pens and pencils with their names on them, Home Depot has to decide whether or not to call the police.

This story just shows how management, in one of those Dilbert pointy-haired moments, decides on a zero-tolerance rule instead of allowing common sense and thinking. I do understand the thinking that leads to not giving minimum wage employees the power to decide where the rules can be bent, but forcing employees into 100% compliance of any policy is a sign that management that has given up on managing people and is telling its employees, “We do not trust you to make good decisions.”

This reminds me of the stories you hear about kids bringing GI Joe size pistols to school and being suspended because the school has a ‘zero-tolerance’ policy regarding bringing weapons to school. The problem is not the person enforcing the rule – the managers who wrote the policy should be fired.

I just made a small purchase at Home Depot. I plan on returning it and letting them know that I will be shopping at Lowe’s for the next year. For all I know I may have picked up a pencil there – or maybe even one of those little plastic parts bags to keep the parts in that I was buying replacements for.

I would thing some of Home Depot’s competitors should start handing out pencils at their doors inscribed with some clever slogan like: “We appreciate our customers – Have a pencil on us”

Continue reading »

US Cellular – LG VX6100 & BitPim

 Life  15 Responses »
Nov 212005
 

Well my old Motorola cell phone finally took a header and broke. Went down to the local US Cellular office and looked at their offerings and decided I did not need to spend the extra money required to get a phone that would use a bluetooth headset. Instead I got an LG VX6100 which has the standard camera, speaker phone, etc, that my old phone did not have. So far what I miss is a real ‘ring’ instead of stupid ringtones and the ability to set the phone to vibrate for the first two rings before going audible.

I did buy the USB data cable while I was at the store so that I could download any photos I took directly to my computer without having to pay $0.25 each to use the cell service to do it. Also the cable allowed me to transfer any contacts I had in Outlook to the cell phone. BitPim is the open source program I used to transfer both the phone numbers and the photos. Each phone number that I wanted to transfer to the phone was added to an Outlook category called @Cell and then I transferred just those numbers to my phone.

iBelive in Jesus Junk – Worshiping false iDols

 Shimei  1 Response »
Nov 152005
 

iBelieve in Jesus Junk I saw an article about the iBelieve in the Tri-City Herald on Saturday and knew I had to post something about it. A quick search of the web shows that this crass cap (I love how the aliteration makes you want to carry the CR in crass over to cap) is for real and yet it is not. Read the copy from the site:

Inspired by the world’s obsession and devotion to the iPod, iBelieve is a replacement lanyard for your [iPod] Shuffle. It is a social commentary on the fastest growing religion in the world.
…
Just toss your old cap habit, pop on the divine iBelieve and rejoice!

And then there is the “biblical” quote in the upper right corner from “2 Jobs 3:15.” It reads:

“But now bring me a man who plays music. And when the man played music, the groove came upon them.”

I think he just forgot to mention that the Jobs he is quoting is Steve Jobs 3:15. Give the guy credit – it does sound a lot like 2 Kings 3:15 from the New Life Translation, which says:

15“But now bring me a man who plays music.” And when the man played music, the power of the Lord came upon Elisha.

What really bothers me about this peice of Jesus Junk, meant to parody the cult following of the iPod and its spawn, is what the news articles say:

Rather than take offense, however, Christians have embraced the new gizmo. “Religious organizations have contacted me; they want to put their logo on it,”

I guess nobody has told the shallow evangelical world that Christians are not supposed to worship false iDols.

Worship Matters – Defining Worship

 Faith  No Responses »
Nov 122005
 

Bob Kauflin has a 4 part series on Defining Worship in his new blog, Worship Matters. Kauflin’s biography shows he has thought through the theology of worship and has put it into practice.

Following up his series on defining worship he has an insightful article on Why Define Worship?. Here are some excerpts:

Why spend time defining worship? Is it really that big a deal? Isn’t it more important that we simply do it?

It’s hard for us to know whether or not we’re doing something if we’re not sure what that “something” is. If I define “eating” as simply looking at food, you wouldn’t enjoy coming over to my house to “eat.” If “breathing” is something I only do when I get with a group of people on Sunday mornings, then how do I describe what I do the rest of the time?

Once we assign meaning to a word, it both reflects and shapes our world view. That’s why conversations about evangelicalism, the emerging church, or even Christianity can be confusing. We have to agree on what those words actually MEAN.

“Worship” is anther one of those words. When someone refers to worship, they can be talking about any number of things: a time of singing, a meeting, a style of music, a certain type of religious liturgy, a mystical experience, something in contrast to “praise,” or a type of Christian band. Do any of these comments sound familiar?

  • “By the third song, I was really worshipping.“ [Who or what were you worshipping before the third song?]
  • “Worship gets me to the place where I don’t have to think about anything.” [Worshipping God actually requires thinking very clearly about the Word, works, and worthiness of God.]
  • “Will there be worship at the meeting?” [Definitely. The question is of who or what.]
  • “With only 20 minutes, we really didn’t have time to worship.” [As though we “warm up” to worship God, rather than seek to honor him with our every thought and action.]
  • “Fred is doing the worship this morning.” [Hopefully, everyone else will join in.]
  • “I really love your worship.” [This is a comment I sometimes get after leading God’s praise in song. I usually respond by saying, “I hope you worshipped too!”]
  • “Susie’s a real worshipper!” [This probably means that Susie is physically expressive when she sings songs of praise to God. Whether that means she’s a worshipper of God or not requires a little more information.]

I look forward to reading more of this blog. From what I know of Covenant Life Church it will be a stretching experience – how much have I constricted my definition of worship in the years since we moved from a pentecostal to a reformed church.

Lord of the Beans – Silliness Invades Center Earth

 Books, Family  6 Responses »
Nov 122005
 

Lord of the Beans J.R.R Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy is a masterpiece. Peter Jackson’s adaptation of the books to the big screen won Oscars – proving the books really were good. (troll bait) Now, VeggieTales has released, Lord of the Beans, flattering the movies by parody.

It is not really a parody of the story though, instead it is more a parody of the characters. The story follows the fantastic journey of a wide-eyed Flobbit named Toto Baggypants, who inherits a bean with amazing powers from his Uncle Billboy. Young Toto knows that he has been given an extraordinary gift but refuses to use it until he finds out what it is to be used for. Twice in the movie we are reminded, “Every gift is given for a reason. You can’t choose what gift we get, only what we do with it.”

Lord of the Beans - Sporks Together with Randalf, fearless ranger Ear-A-Corn, sharpshooting elf Leg-O-Lamb, surly dwarf Grumpy, and an extra elf that looks more at home making cookies in trees, Toto forms the Fellowship of the Bean and embarks on a dangerous quest to find the answer to his question. The search will take them across the Mountains of Much Snowia, into the Razzberry (yes, Razzberry) Forest, and then to the desolate Land of Woe. They wll have to face the ominous specter of the Sporks and their master Lord Scaryman. Will Toto discover the purpose of his gift, or will the bean be taken by the scary guy?

Lord of the Beans dramatically and comically illustrates that we to use the gifts God has given us to help others. Happiness does not come from ‘things’, but a happiness that lasts, aka Joy, comes from helping others, from using our gifts to help others rather than ourselves.

Elvish Impersonator Also worth mentioning, midway through the video there is a station break, “Silly Songs with Elves”. Where an Elvish impersonator sings about his elf girlfriend. The video’s website has available coloring pages, computer wallpaper, and buddy icons you can download for your IM or other software.

All in all, I thought it was pretty well done. I am much more comfortable with their parody of classic books and movies than I am with their parody adaptations of bible stories – especially what they did with the story of Jonah. But that would be the subject of a different post.

St. Anne’s Pub – now has RSS on Tap

 Reformed  No Responses »
Nov 102005
 

Just noticed that St. Anne’s Pub has an podcast available.(RSS feed). It will give you the latest stuff from the ‘On Tap’ section from St. Anne’s Pub plus some.

St. Anne’s Pub (or Public House) is a quarterly audio magazine from Christ Church of Spokane. It was originally distributed on cassette by free subscription. Now you can download it off the internet or get it by CD.

For some fun listen this commercial about Sauron’s palantil and despair on NPR.orc

Here is a list of their back issues. I have heard a number of people comment that the “Hearts Made Glad” issue is one of the best.

Evil Micro Cache – The Ultimate Urban GeoCache Container?

 Geocaching  1 Response »
Nov 072005
 

EvilMicro I just ran across my first cache contained in one of these diabolical containers. It is so small that I think the paper log inside will need to be replaced after 25 or fewer finders. The container measures a mere 7/16″ tall by 5/16″ in diameter. It has a magnetic base that allows it to stick in many places.

EvilMicro Still it is so amazingly small that it makes any urban cache difficult to find. We searched the area 2 times without any luck. It was only after I saw a picture of this container that I realized what I was probably looking for then went back and found it.

I found an advertisement for these containers selling them for $1.89 each. Not too bad – but I will stick with a little larger container for my hides.

Features:

  • Strong magnetic base
  • Waterproof
  • Rustproof design
  • Paintable

American Heritage Girls & Veteran’s Day Parade

 Family  1 Response »
Nov 062005
 

American Heritage Girls Kirsten and the girls of her American Heritage Girls troop participated in the West Richland Veteran’s Day Parade. This year they rode a float instead of walking. I think the young girls enjoyed the ride much more than the walking.

It was interesting to see all the different folks in the parade. There were a few politicians, some businesses, all kinds of scout and cadet types. The funniest of the bunch was when the various police departments brought up the end of the parade sounding their sirens various tones and pitches. What was funny was that the vehicle right in front of them was a pickup with 3 young Hispanic girls in it. It looked like a slow speed chase. I actually felt sorry for that vehicle – traveling for an hour with the police ‘chasing’ them.

Weekend in Seattle

 Family  1 Response »
Nov 052005
 

My oldest nephew, Jesse Paulson, got married this last weekend in Seattle. We decided to take a little extra time since we were going to be in Seattle and play around. My brother, his wife, and two of their three boys came up from Boise to travel with us and make this a great family outing.

We were able to get out of the house a little after 10am and with a couple of pit stops we checked into the LaQuinta Inn in Lynnwood at about 3pm. After unpacking and putzing around for a bit I took some of the kids on a Geocaching expedition and the rest went to Trader Joe’s , a specialty grocery store. All I know is Von came back with some chocolates and a case of cheap wine, Charles Shaw Shiraz, which they were calling Two Buck Chuck.

Playing Virtual Soccer Butterfly Room @ Pacific Science Center Saturday Morning we headed over to the Pacific Science Center to entertain and educate the kids. Of all the stuff there I think the thing that entertained them the most was a ‘blue-screen’ setup where they played the goalie in a game of virtual soccer. It is hard to see in the pictures but the television in the background shows the goal they were defending and soccer balls they were ‘blocking’. The Butterfly House in the Science Center was also quite interesting as was the giant Madagascar Roach that you could pet.

Fountain @ Seattle Center Fountain @ Seattle Center After finishing at the Science Center we had lunch and then went out to the International Fountain. The kids had a great time trying to keep from getting wet before we decided that we didn’t want to take the chance of them getting soaked and pulled them out of the big bowl. From here Jim, Paula, and Melanie went to Pike Street Market while Von and I took all the kids on a driving tour of the Queen Anne District hills. Wow! Am glad we were not driving the old 15 passenger van through these narrow streets! Our quest were a couple of geocaches – but alas we failed to get close enough to park on most of them but the views were terrific. One thing geocaching does is help you tour an area like a local. You find all the cool spots that usually only locals know about.

At Gasworks Park, Seattle From one of the stops we spotted the Gas Works Park and decided to navigate there and let the kids play for a while. At the top of the hill in the park some guys were flying some really cool remote control gliders. Not much larger than a frisbee, they give them a strong hurl into the wind and then remotely control the rudders and the things would sail in the sky forever. Just what I need – another hobby!

We realized what time it was getting to be and attempted to rush back to the hotel – only to find a severe accident had snarled traffic – oh well, guess we won’t be early.

Paulson Cards & Dixon Pencils We got dressed for the wedding and headed out the door about 30 minutes before the wedding was to start. The wedding was only 6 miles away but we were not sure how to get there. We had a map but figured we did not need to head north to catch the main road just to come back south again – wrong! Finally we got onto the road shown on the map and the road weaved and bobbed, changing names and directions 4 or 5 times but landing us right at the Community Center where the wedding was going to start in 10 minutes.

Jesse, my nephew, is a great kid (if you can say that about someone 30 years old). Stephanie, his fiance, now wife, seems just as nice. We have been able to get to know her at the last couple of Family Reunions in Ocean Park. The ceremony itself was over quite quickly and the reception following had some great food and chance to visit with family. My sister, Karen, even got me out on the dance floor (sorry, no photos).

Sunday morning I took off early to try to catch a couple of geocaches. I ended up down in Edmonds near where the wedding had taken place and decided to ride the ferry across the sound to do a couple of geocaches. As usual I was not very good at managing my time — the ferry does not operate as often on Sunday so the 1/2 hour ride each way and 1/2 mile walk to the cache took longer than I had ‘planned’ and I did not get back to the hotel quite as soon as I had hoped. Edmonds Ferry

After we got things packed up we headed to the Edmonds mall where 1/2 the group wanted to shop at Daiso, a Japanese version of the ubiquitous dollar store, with all kinds of imports. The boys did not really want to go in so I took them around the mall where we found a computer game store and then the cutlery shop where they could covet all types of swords.

We had lunch and then started our trek back to the Tri-Cities.

Other Photos:

waNoCaps – Disable the cAPS-lOCK kEY Forever!

 Windows Software Installed  No Responses »
Nov 052005
 

If this sounds familiar:

  • You’ve never used the CAPS LOCK key on purpose, you’ve never needed it.
  • You’ve accidentally pushed the key at least a thousand times.
  • yOU CONTINUE TYPING FOR ABOUT 10-30 SECONDS BEFORE YOU REALISE IT’S ON.
  • You have to retype the whole sentence (You don’t have a convert-to-lowercase macro).

waNOCAPS, the CAPSLOCK Terminator, is what you need. It’s not a program, it’s a registry adjustment (‘hack’).

To Disable CapsLock:

  1. Double-click disable_caps.reg
  2. Reboot (Your CAPSLOCK actually becomes a 3rd CTRL-key)

To Re-Enable CapsLock:

  1. Double-click enable_caps.reg
  2. Reboot

I have applied this ‘hack’ to all our office computers. It keeps anyone from typing notes in client files in all caps. Everyone thinks their message needs attention – so you get these messages that are ALL CAPS and therefore a pain to read.

Hand Air Dryers – Scourge of Restroom

 Humor, Life  2 Responses »
Nov 042005
 

Traveling this past weekend and purchasing 42 oz pops for 12 year old boys made public restrooms a common occurrence. One of the things I hate most about public restrooms are the stupid warm air blowers they have set up for drying your hands. It was comforting to read today that I am not alone! Scott Adams articulates it very well:

I know there’s some scientific principle involved whereby the movement of the warm air will, in theory, hasten the drying process. In practice, I’m fairly certain it’s nothing but evaporation plus the placebo affect combined with a process I call “giving up” and walking out with wet hands.

In the end, my fear of cooties trumped my distaste for inefficient Men’s Room technology and I went for it. As I stood there for what seemed an eternity, my thoughts drifted to my highly absorbent pants. Would it be so wrong to cut 60 seconds off of this process and just wipe my hands on the sides of my pants, carefully avoiding the crotch area?

So I picked two strategically unimportant pant areas, finished the job that the placebo started and went on my way. But I couldn’t feel good about it.

The thing that really bothers me though about the lack of towels in a restroom is that inevitably it is these same restrooms that require you to pull the door open by a handle used by every guy who has not washed his hands. What are you to do? Usually you sit at the air dryer until someone opens the door allowing you to escape, pull the sleeve of your shirt or coat down, or in desperation get some toilet paper (they have not come up with air dryers in the stalls yet).

Caching for Cash – A really dumb idea

 Geocaching  2 Responses »
Nov 022005
 

My Google Alert that pulls up all new web pages mentioning geocaching pulled up an article from the Albany, OR, Democrat-Herald about GPS Cache Quest, LLC hoping to cash in on geocaching by hiding $100 rewards in ‘proprietary’ geocaches for the first finder.

I really don’t see this business model working. I am not sure who would be willing to pay $19.95 a month for a chance at $100.

First off, there are people right now who have nothing better to do than drop everything and attempt to be the First to Find (FTF) on ‘free’ caches just for the joy of being the first to sign the log. Give them a $100 incentive and I would never stand a chance.

Second, what are the chances of these caches ever being hidden in Podunk, Washington?

Third, and most importantly, I like to hunt caches that are placed in interesting places in town or in the woods. The joy is in the hunt, in talking about the hunt later with friends, in discovering areas you did not have any idea existed.

I think the statement made by Tim Mattson, spokesman for GPS Cache Quest, is real telling:

“I tried geocaching a year ago and then didn’t do it again until three months ago,” Mattson said. “I love it because it gets me out of the house and into nature. I have gotten to see so many places I hadn’t seen before. I’ve been in places where it’s almost silent.”

So, what we have here is a noob who thinks he has discovered a way to cache in (pun intended) on this ‘new’ fangled thing called geocaching. May this idea die the quick death it deserves.

Excitement at Taco Bell

 Blogging, Life  No Responses »
Nov 022005
 

Police Surround Taco Bell

I was quietly eating my usual Spicy Chicken Burrito from Taco Bell out in my car when all of a sudden police cars started pulling in. Ok, 1,2,3 cars. Then more. And then some unmarked cars. Then the detectives. A few moments later the news reporters started showing up. All in all I counted 11 cop cars of all varieties. Probably more that I didn’t notice.

I got out and noticed they had a guy in cuffs and were questioning another guy. I asked a news photographer there what was going on and he told me that they had caught a guy suspected of robbing a bank. Hmm. Not heard of any bank robberies lately – guess will have to pay attention to the news later today.

Coordinate Grabber – Scrape GPS Coordinates from Web Pages

 Geocaching  No Responses »
Nov 022005
 

Jeff Boulton’s Coordinate Grabber is a nice little web based utility that allows you to scrape coordinates from any web page. You can then download them as a .LOC file to use in your mapping software and/or your GPS receiver.

--Photo: Lewis and Clark Expedition Geocache-- There are a number of uses for this utility but what I have used it for is to create a map of the waypoints people have submitted for my ‘locationless’ geocache, Lewis and Clark Expedition. In order to ‘claim’ this cache one of the things required is to submit the coordinates of a Lewis & Clark Hysterical Site. By using Boulton’s Coordinate Grabber I can scrape all the submitted coordinates from the geocaching.com web page easily then use Microsoft Streets & Trips to plot them on a map which I post on the site. Grabbing coordinates in this way is much faster and more accurate than entering them by hand. Before using this utility I would rarely update the map.

You can enter the URL (but be careful since the default URL for geocaches only lists the first 5 logs) or better yet just enter the GCxxxx number, i.e. GC64AC, or just paste in the actual text you want to scrape.

Now hit the Grab button and the coordinates will appear in the left frame. It is the possible to rename or modify coordinates, uncheck any that you don’t want, then hit “Download Checked” to download them.

An option I have not used is the “Visualize” option which displays the coordinates on a map provided by GPS Visualizer.

Jeff has some other online utilities available that I have not ‘played’ with yet but look very helpful:

  • Coordinate Converter, Maps and Info – Enter coordinates in just about any format and it will output them in 4 formats: decimal degrees, degrees-minutes-seconds, ‘GPS’ , and UTM. It will also display the coordinate on your choice of maps
  • Geocaching Quick Search – A very ‘smart’ search that allows you to enter just about anything and find Geocaches nearby. Some of the things you can enter: zip code, area code, GC waypoint, coordinates, and keyword. It also understands a number of meta-words taking you to the appropriate pages on geocaching.com Meta Words

About My Grammar and Spelling – Dilbert’s Blog

 Humor  1 Response »
Nov 022005
 

Just started reading Scott Adam’s blog and will definitely make it a regular read. His sense of humor is definitely not limited to cartoons. Here is his first post about what to do if you find a grammar or spelling error:

My blog is the only writing you’ll see from me that doesn’t first go through a professional editor. That means plenty of grammar and punctuation wrecks for you to enjoy. I blame the public education system.

The only reason I dare writing this blog is because I have absolutely no sense of embarrassment. Most people would be horrified at the prospect of proving their ignorance to thousands of readers. My attitude is more along the lines of I have thousands of readers? Cool.

If you notice a grammar, punctuation, or spelling error in my blog, and you absolutely can’t control your urge to tell me, please follow this process:

  1. Research the Native American method for sending smoke signals.
  2. Set your couch on fire.
  3. Stand on the roof and use your ‘good shirt’ to control the signal as it comes out of the chimney.

Or if you prefer, just enjoy the blog as if it were an e-mail from your friend who thinks he’s clever but isn’t as clever as he thinks.

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

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Nov 012005
 

The title of the book, “A Short History of Nearly Everything“, is semi-deceptive – it does not cover recorded history but rather the history of ‘life, the universe, and everything’. Bryson writes in such a way as to make what is normally very incomprehensible not only understandable but entertaining as well. He provides answers to fundamental scientific questions but more importantly how those answers came into being.

What really amazed me was that even from this pro-evolution book you find how much must be taken by faith. The author clearly shows how much of our current understanding of ‘everything’ is based on conjecture. As more and more is ‘learned’ this conjecture is tweaked – but it is all conjecture none the less. Evolution is truly the science of how to explain things if there were no God. It is a false premise but allows one to look for plausible explanations to things without resorting to blaming/crediting God for everything we cannot (yet) explain.

This book definitely makes my ‘recommend’ list and my ‘worth a 2nd reading’ list.