Stance and Balance

Kindle, iPad and Me

January 30, 2010

So far I’ve not yielded to the thought that I ought to have a Kindle. Despite usually being an early adopter, and liking to read, in practice I barely keep up with newspapers and periodicals, much less make it through a book. Though I did experiment. I downloaded Kindle for iPhone about a year ago and have since assembled an odd collection of four books: Dreams from My Father, Googled, Not Everyone Gets a Trophy, and The Chicago Guide to Your Career in Science. I enjoyed the first, have barely started the second, and the latter two were recommended to me as ones that could help me guide contemporary grad students and so are more reference works. The experience on the iPhone has been fine, but clearly not matching those reading on the real thing.

Then in the course of the past three weeks some unrelated triggers. Ron blogged about the Kindle experience with Fly by Wire; I thought I would enjoy the book. Our friend Dan Lowell received a Kindle as a Christmas gift and he isn’t quite ready to admit it, but I think he is enjoying it too. But the iPad announcement was coming this week. And so now the decision is more complicated. Nonetheless thinking about the decision resulted in an impulse to get my fifth Kindle book today, Fly by Wire. Reading it on the iPhone would be fine and if I later decided on either a Kindle or iPad, the book would be readable (for the Kindle for iPhone app will run on the iPad).

Not so fast, need to examine my assumptions. The publisher of Fly by Wire is Farrar, Straus and Giroux, a subsidiary of Macmillan, and Amazon and Macmillan are at odds. As of today I can’t buy the book–hard copy or digital–directly from Amazon. Time will tell, but can you say VHS-Betamax?

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Ski Helmets

January 2, 2010

Yesterday’s New York Times contained an article on “Helmets Becoming More Common on Ski Slopes”:

once used exclusively by professional and competitive amateur skiers or snowboarders, helmets have become far more common across the United States and are now widely considered to be a critical piece of equipment, even for novices

This seems like an article that could have appeared in Canada’s Globe and Mail many years ago. Whistler became our ski resort of choice in the mid-90s and we were awakened to helmet use upon enrolling Daniel and Mark in ski school. The first two years we were able to sign a waiver so that they could ski without a helmet, but by 1997 it was policy at Whistler Mountain and so the helmets went onto the boys. Not surprisingly, there was great resistance to wearing them except when in ski school. Tobae and I added helmets to our gear in 1999 so that we had some credibility to go with our authority.

The article overly focuses on whether a helmet will help prevent death. Skiers and riders prone to running into trees will likely not benefit. But in a sport where falls are common, a helmet certainly lessens the severity of injuries. I was glad I was wearing mine when I was run over by a snowboarder in 2006, with one point of landing being my head.

What is missed entirely from the article is the best reason to wear one is the comfort it brings. Hard shell, well insulated…so much warmer and drier than a knit hat. And subtle benefits for those of us that wear glasses under our goggles which creates many issues with condensation. And while Tobae’s first helmet is now retired, it was quite the fashion statement, worthy of the Beach Boys:

Tobae's Leedom Ski Helmet

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Posted by russmcduff

A Clean Install of Windows XP

December 28, 2009

My sabbatical is underway. The lone Windows program I still run is Quicken. The Windows version is so much better than the Mac version. So on my home desktop I run VMware Fusion with my very old imported Windows XP virtual machine just to run Quicken.

But the home desktop wasn’t coming with me and I need to pay the bills. And so today was the day I upgraded my Fusion licenses to version 3, installed one on my laptop, and then began a clean install of Windows XP (SP2) from fresh shrink-wrapped licensed media. Started about 1:00 p.m. I’m not going to say that I was totally attentive, indeed about a five hour gap while I turned the leftovers of the Christmas Day rib roast into a hearty soup and ate dinner. But now as 11:00 p.m. is passing what is up with this?

The Fusion “Easy Install” was. Nary a glitch. All questions up front. Took about a hour, mostly in the Windows install stage. The machine came up with and rightfully complained no anti-virus and so I installed from the UW site-licensed software in about 15 minutes. Ah, but then Windows Update. Phase 1: downloaded and installed three update tools, rebooted. Pretty easy. Phase 2: (and in the middle of this was when I moved into the kitchen)…Windows Update deduced that I need 62 Mb of SP3 and it was installed without my intervention and rebooted. Windows Update again. 62 updates (I know it is odd that 62 keeps coming up) totaling 97 Mb. The first one wanted me to agree to a license. And then things seemed to move ahead. Except I discovered it stalled at update #21, wanting another license confirmation. And it seemed to move ahead. Except I discovered it stalled at update #39. Except there was no obvious indication of what was going on, other than a progress bar seemingly indicating that progress was being made. Not! There was a hidden window wanting confirmation of something. And in the end #39 needed two more confirmations, but at least now the window was on top. Free flowing thereafter, up to #59 as I started this rant. Phase 4: And now at 11:18 p.m. system has restarted and I’ve just logged on and back to Windows Update. More questions about IE8 configuration. (Ah, I take it back not just Quicken; I will install Firefox). And three more updates! Finished at 11:20 p.m. and now restarting. Phase 5: And at 11:23 Windows Update launched yet again. We’re done:

No high-priority updates for your computer are available. To check for optional updates, return to our home page and click Custom.

All this time to get a clean install done? I can only blame about 40 minutes for the size of the significant downloads. Everything else was balky behavior and an absurd approach to user acknowledgments.

As son Mark (my Mac boy) kibbutzes, no son, Windows 7 wasn’t an interesting alternative.

Update 12/29 at 12:56 a.m. Installed Quicken, works fine, but… Phase 6: Windows Update is taking another 69 Mb bite for .NET stuff. And at 1:19 a.m. another restart.

And so I think I now have a stable Windows XP installation that supports my lone application. Does Windows 7 solve any of this? I don’t know. But at the retail price for W7, and with XP working, what is the point?

So the final thought. There must be many Quicken users on Macs that would buy the current version as a virtual machine. Microsoft needs the revenue for whatever their license piece would be. I wouldn’t care if it was totally crippled, if it were stable and the application ran. Intuit takes many shots to the head over their Mac implementation. This would be an affordable path, even tossing in Fusion or Parallels.

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Posted by russmcduff

Skypedining

December 26, 2009

Leslie correctly pointed out that while I deserve precedent for Skypetailing (TM), I was far from the first to gather for a social cyber cocktail. And so it is with Skypedining (TM), which I have now coined and a Google search backs me up on this being a new word. Admittedly though fully evident that there have been many Skype-enabled dinners.

Its origins: last night we very much enjoyed sharing our traditional Christmas dinner between myself, Tobae and Mark in Whistler and Daniel in Portland (although truth be told he asynchronously ate spaghetti–missing my rib roast of beef prepared on the BBQ, classic McDuff family rice pilaf, and some quite good, though pricey, asparagus from Creekside Market.) Daniel sat at one head of the table, and while it would be good if the camera on the MacBook Pro was a bit wider angle, it worked well enough, enabling us to gather the family.

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Don’t Trust ‘Em

December 26, 2009

A recent Washington Post-ABC News poll on global climate illustrates the politicization of science in the United States:

Scientists themselves also come in for more negative assessments in the poll, with four in 10 Americans now saying that they place little or no trust in what scientists have to say about the environment [emphasis added]. That’s up significantly in recent years. About 58 percent of Republicans now put little or no faith in scientists on the subject, double the number saying so in April 2007. Over this time frame, distrust among independents bumped up from 24 to 40 percent, while Democrats changed only marginally. Among seniors, the number of skeptics more than doubled, to 51 percent. … [M]ore than six in 10 Americans see a lot of disagreement among scientists on the issue of global warming. That’s the view of nearly eight in 10 Republicans and about two-thirds of independents. A smaller majority of Democrats, 55 percent, see general agreement among the scientific community.

Indeed, as a scientist I have no traction with my Republican mother-in-law. She revels in how I am taken out of context in her favorite climate skeptic book. Makes no difference that I can explain how. Her own son, a nuclear physicist at Oak Ridge, gets no traction as well (and he had the enjoyment of climate bashing over the holidays). She is a very smart and accomplished woman, holding a Ph.D in economics. She must be doing something right…re-elected the mayor the sixth largest city in Georgia with 84% of the vote (three opponents splitting the rest). But wouldn’t it be simpler for her to explain why our economy cannot afford to stop carbon emissions, which may well be true, rather than accepting Republican mantra that the practice of science is flawed. (Or perhaps I’ve misjudged and her views are aligned not with Repuplicans but with other seniors?)

No wonder I fear for our new College of the Environment at UW, nearly all of its units rooted in the natural sciences. Are we now instantly less credibile? Perhaps the only saving grace is that we are located in a blue state.

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Skypetailing in Action

December 16, 2009

Following up on my original Skypetail post, I had Skypetails with Scott Veirs today. He is at his neighborhood pub in Seattle and I am in my hotel room in San Francisco. The picture says a thousand words:

Skypetailing with Scott Veirs

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Sam is My Man

December 12, 2009

In early November I talked about “Hot Rocks on the Ocean Floor” to my friend Tracy’s third grade class, fifth time I think. It is always tremendous fun. An age where they are just beginning to understand and understanding is still okay.

A pleasure is receiving the thank you letters. Each charming in its own way. But this one stood out:

Dear Dr. McDuff, I hope you liked Meridian Park [School] cause we liked you. That show was interesting, your awsome! You look like a pro thats what I want to be a pro I want to be a star just like a you. I want to be just like you when I’m a grown up I want to be just like you; Smart intilliegent and the smartest oceanographist in the world.

Thanks Sam!

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Posted by russmcduff

My Take on Climategate: Nixonian Science

November 28, 2009

Among the many volatile issues at the intersection of science and public policy is what is now popularly called global warming. A common tactic among those that oppose adopting public policies to mitigate anthropogenic influence is to question the science, not by following the methods of science, but by imagining a method of science is that a single study can disprove one hundred others that pre-date or worse to dismiss findings by asserting that science is entirely about money, not honest inquiry. The flip side among some climate scientists is to characterize those same one hundred studies as a proof, which it is not. So defining “geek” for the moment as including US Senators, learned advocates, and a public always with strong views, some backed by information, some backed by swagger: too many public policy geeks are pretending to be scientists and too many science geeks are pretending to be public policy analysts. Good science can inform public policy, but it certainly will not dictate public policy.

And so it has played out in Climategate, the strange story of a, likely illegal, exposure of years of documents and e-mails from a server at the Climate Research Unit at University of East Anglia. Google “Climategate” and of this afternoon you’ll get just over 10 million hits. Plenty of information and disinformation to make for a long read. (My own suggestion: these NYT and WSJ articles are reasonably balanced overview of the extreme range of views.)

So why do I even bother to add my take? I’m hoping it will be cathartic. We’ll see.

I read a subset of the CRU material. Most is benign and supports the idea that the methods of science are probably safe. Yet there is a small portion of the content which to me is incredibly offensive. Summarizing some key pieces: A Phil Jones (head of CRU) e-mail offering to stifle contrary views by abusing peer-review. The “trick” e-mail, most offensive through another of his colleagues dismissing the issue in the press by asserting that scientists use the word trick all the time, not! And one e-mail that hasn’t gotten much attention describes the pedigree of a figure in an IPCC report; difficult to read this one and not think that way too many people were not being very constructively critical.

And so in the tenth day of this storm, one would hope for something akin to a day of atonement in the climate science community. But one of my UW colleagues in a press conference just two days ago didn’t confront the reality of the behavior of his scientific community, but instead offered that the release of documents was an act of desperation of the climate skeptics in advance of the Copenhagen meetings in order to politicize the science. Perhaps non-scientists are only able to politicize the science? And nicely ignoring, by his own approach, he did as well.

Very much Nixonian science. Nothing like an enemies list to promote counterproductive discourse and behavior.

Update 11/30

Harry is with me.

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Posted by russmcduff

Pizza in the Back Country

November 22, 2009

I enjoyed Leslie’s post on her first adventure making pizza. Looked great! With many tips on improving my own.

My pizza is never made at home, but only in the back country. Not the typical fare. Here’s how I do it.

Not quite from scratch: Jiffy pizza crust mix. Contains flour and yeast and more (lots more, Tobae clearly hasn’t been paying attention as the nutrition cop). The toppings are healthier. Parmesan cheese grated at home, tomatoes that Tobae has dried, and Contadina/Buitoni pesto with basil sauce.

To make the crust, I boil up a little water, carefully measure the required 1/2 cup, and mix in the “oven pan”. I bring along a little extra flour so I can knead the dough, and then I set it in the sun. This doesn’t especially help keep it very warm, but it rises some. I press it out to make a deep dish style crust.

Ready for baking

Time for baking. I fire up the camp stove and get the shield and heat deflector in place. Then the pan and lid. Then the aluminized cover. I throttle the heat, mostly by experience, so that things heat up reasonably quickly. I have no idea what the temperature is…the thermometer has three divisions “Warming Up”, “Bake”, “Burn!”. Probably not 525 F exactly. Experience tells me that I’ll need about fifteen minutes to crisp it up enough that the toppings can be added without making it a soggy mess.

Baking is underway...

Keeping an eye on the "temperature" in the oven

Off comes the alumnized cover, off comes the lid, and I spread pesto sauce and top with sun dried tomatoes, then the grated cheese. Lid on, alumnized cover on. Just 10 minutes to go. And voila.

Pizza is ready

The crust is always passable, though on the dense side. I’ve learned how not to burn it. Mighty tasty addition to cocktail hour.

Camp in the Enchantments

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Posted by russmcduff

Traffic Again

November 3, 2009

I’ve been very busy and not very inventive. Standing by watching my heroes blog steadily. What is the matter with me?

So back to my roots: “Traffic” “I will blog you.”

Into UW very early on Monday for a 0700 telecon. Crusing along, steady speed at about the limit, 20 minutes of bliss since joining I-5 from US2, the constellation moving in sync though pretty tightly packed, say four car lengths of separation. A Suburban cuts in front of me and brakes. Repeatedly. What had been a pleasant drive was now attentiveness plus. And as the Suburban brakes, so must I. Ah, the car behind me was clearly annoyed, less than a car length following distance, it turned out to be a Jetta. And the “Drivers Wanted” driver slipped to the right, accelerated, and managed to fill a second piece of my precious four car lengths. The arithmetic is simple; four car lengths had become one. And so the traffic jam at the Snohomish County line began…

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