Author: Gerry

Categories
Football

Belated Super Bowl Links

Most of the post SB commentary feels like it has centered on who should be blamed for the Patriots losing. The guys at PFT had a link to one of the dumber commentaries I’ve ever read. I won’t link the actual article because it’s so poorly reasoned it isn’t worth giving it more attention than I’ve given it. (For an idea of it’s content, the author actually tries to argue that Tom Brady doesn’t care about winning. And no, that’s not an exaggeration or misrepresentation of what’s in it.)

After reading the source material, I felt it was a pretty lame thing to be linked to at all and PFT would have better served their readers by ignoring it. But they atoned for it in some measure with another post containing 3 links to some excellent commentaries about the game.

I’ll add that I found them to be excellent because I agree in large part with what’s said. Namely, that luck played a not-insignificant role in determining the winner. Twice the Giants put the ball on the ground: one time the ball bounced back towards Giant players trailing the play, the other time a Patriot player missed grabbing the ball and again the Giants recovered. How many times does that happen? Also, take that catch by Manningham at the end of the game. If the pass isn’t perfect, if the timing isn’t perfect, that’s an incompletion or an interception. You can argue that it took skill to throw that pass, and you’d be right. But Eli Manning isn’t a machine capable of throwing perfect passes on every play. He just happened to get enough right, as did Manningham, for it to be a catch.

Luck being a factor also brings up a second point that the articles touch on: that the Giants were just the better team on that day. Their defense was a little better when it needed to be, forcing a safety on the first play of the game and sacking and pressuring Brady a number of other times. Their offense made a few more plays than the Patriots did as well. They had a running attack that helped keep the Patriots off-balance and they were able to counter the Patriots well executed game plan of taking Victor Cruz out of the game.

There’s the old saying that “Sometimes, it’s better to be lucky than good.” The Giants were both last Sunday. That’s why they won, and that’s why pointing fingers at this or that which the Patriots did or didn’t do misses the point: it was a hard fought game that either team could have won, that’s the way great games go. Actually, it’s what defines great games.

And with that, the clock starts ticking towards next season.

Categories
Family

Another Moment for the Lass

Today is a day for which the lass has been waiting for 2 years now. She reminded me about it when the school year began. She reminded me about it a couple of weeks ago when the lessons had turned to the subject at hand. Today, it finally came to fruition.

What could it possibly be? Why today, I brought our parrots in for a show-and-tell type presentation. I did the same thing 2 years ago with the boy’s kindergarten class, thus beginning her long, slow march towards her own moment in the Sun.

From a rational standpoint, I have a hard time understanding it. Sure, it’s exciting to have a parent come in to school so a child can show them off. Suddenly, the parent is on the child’s turf so there’s a subtle power shift. Even so, 2 years she’s been looking forward to it.

For what it’s worth, the event went fine. The parrots were agreeable little guests in the room and all the kids were very interested in them. I talked about some of the boring stats like their size and how long they live. All of them got a chance to touch the birds. That’s the hardest part, because the parrots aren’t used to little hands reaching for them. They (the parrots) take a rather dim view of the little hands, actually. I counter act things by holding the kid’s hand and helping them to touch the birds beak and their feathers. They still get a kick out of it, even though they aren’t like a dog or cat when it comes to holding them.

One of the kids got a bonus when I set one of the parrots on his arm. The bird decided he’d finally had enough and flew off, leaving one of his flight feather behind. The kids who were there (most were putting on coats and hats and getting ready to leave) thought it was pretty cool how the bird had flown. I handed the flight feather to the boy the bird had flown away from. He held it like it was a priceless treasure.

So, in the end, no one was bitten, one boy got a feather, and the lass got to strut her stuff in front of her friends. The most memorable moment for me?

When I first came into the room, the kids were having snack and the lass was holding court. She said something to the effect “My Dad brought in my birds…” Funny, for them being “her” birds, I don’t recall her ever cleaning the cage.

Categories
Family

Stupid Things Kids Do

“What do the dog collars feel like?” the boy asked.

He was talking about the collars that go with the electric fence. The collars have two prongs that reach down to the dog’s skin. First, the collar beeps- the dog should be conditioned to back away when they hear the beep. If they don’t move within a second or so, then they get a shock.

I’ve subjected myself to the shock, and while it isn’t pleasant, it isn’t the most painful thing in the world. It’s enough to be attention getting. Which I think is the main point when it comes to a dog- get their attention, thereby breaking their attention on whatever it is that’s tempting them on the other side of the fence.

I explained it to the boy, the lass as well since she was listening intently.

“Will it work on us?” he wanted to know next.

“Yes- as long as you’re touching the two metal fingers on the collar it will shock you.”

He then declared “I’m going to try it.”

I smirked, nodded my head and said “OK.” I’m not sure why he all of a sudden decided that he wanted to try this, but I really didn’t see any reason not to let him do it. Like I said, it wasn’t going to hurt him, although I fully expected him to yelp and drop the collar when it zapped him. But his curiosity would be satisfied.

Then he asked, “Will I ever forget it?”

I think he meant this question in the vein of “a momentous moment I’ll never forget for the rest of my life.” Obviously, I don’t think it rises quite to that level. But, he had never experienced an electrical shock before. So yeah- he’ll likely remember it.

So the boy and the lass each grabbed a collar and ventured out onto the driveway. That’s where the clearest path to crossing the electric fence is. I went out onto the porch to witness what I assumed would be entertainment.

Both of them immediately got the goofy-giggles kids get when they’re about to try something they know is a little crazy. The boy started psyching himself up for the big moment until he abruptly switched tactics.

He told his sister to go first.

I almost face-palmed. His sister walked up to the fence, but then danced away giggling.

So I decided to stir the pot a bit. I called out to the boy “You know, do you really want your little sister to do this before you and risk having everyone find out that she was braver than you?”

That had the desired affect. The boy finally decided on his course of action: he backed up to the garage door and started running as hard as he could towards the invisible line. His sister tried to keep up. As he neared the fence, he started to scream a little, anticipating the big moment. His sister pulled up short. The boy ran right on through.

When he came to a stop on the other side of the fence, he turned around and looked at his sister, whom had stopped. I hadn’t heard any beeping and he hadn’t dropped the collar. I though he might have actually gone through the field before the collar could activate the shock. But then he said “It just felt like a little buzz in my hand.” He sounded disappointed.

The lass was now upset and actively working herself up. She’d blown her chance by stopping short and now her brother had one over on her. Not a tenable situation. Amazingly, the boy agreed to go back across with her. So they started the whole thing over again.

This time, the result was the opposite: the boy stopped short and the lass ran across the threshold. She even had the same non-response to getting zapped.

And that was it. Their curiosity satisfied, the kids started making their way to the door. For my part, I headed back in to the house to start dinner, surprised at the subdued outcome of the whole affair. I guess we all learned something.

Categories
Misc

Great Global Warming Primer

This essay about the global warming debate is about as good as it gets in terms of laying out the sides, the misdirections and the points and counterpoints in the argument about global warming. Well worth a read. (Via WUWT)

Categories
Family

The Lass in My Corner

The Wife came downstairs and explained how she had locked the bathroom upstairs because she’d been pouring Drano down the pipes up there. Exciting stuff.

Not more than a moment after she’d finished her explanation, the boy (who missed it all) called down from upstairs “SOMEONE LOCKED THE BATHROOM DOOR!” My guess is he was trying to implicate his sister. On that front, he was bound to be disappointed.

The Wife called up to him “We Know…” at which point I decided to interject with “Mom plugged the toilet upstairs and had to poor a special liquid down the toilet. It’ll take an hour or so to work, that’s why the bathroom is locked.”

The Wife was only mildly amused with that, simply giving me a “Ha ha.”

The lass liked it a lot better. She called out “Good one Dad!”

It’s always nice when they’re in your corner for a change.

Categories
Misc

An SAHD No More?

I’m currently interviewing for a local network admin job. The odd thing is, I’m still not totally sure I want to take it, even though I’m going through the process. Of course, that presumes they consider me qualified for the position to begin with, which is hardly a slam dunk. Still, I have some reason to believe the odds favor an offer.

As I said though, I’m still trying to figure out if I really would want to take the job. The simplest way to look at it is, being an SAHD offers a kind of freedom that having a job just can’t match. It isn’t all strawberries and cream, but once the routine is settled into, things, well, take on a life of their own.

My thoughts aren’t real well organized at the moment, so I won’t go into it further. But I’ll be back with more when the times comes. Suffice it to say that, the biggest surprise, is the realization that the decision (to give it up or not) will be harder than I thought it would be.

Categories
Football

Disappointed

You know, the first 3 times the Patriots won a Super Bowl, I didn’t root for them. Then, for the last 2, they play the Giants and that’s one of maybe 2 teams that could actually make me root for the Patriots.

So naturally, they lose. Both times. I just can’t win with those guys.

Categories
Family

Elbow Update- Latest Doctor’s Report

Met the orthopedic Doctor again yesterday. Long story short is he gave me the go ahead for the next phase of recovery. I can start using the arm actively. The weight regimen starts out real light and gradually increases the weight each month by about 5 pounds or so. The idea is to condition the tendon to the stress of active supination.

I told him about the elbow issues over the weekend and he immediately felt the ulnar nerve was the culprit. He said scar tissue wasn’t likely this far out from the surgery. He explained that the nerve passes through an opening in the bone as it traverses the elbow joint, call the Cubital Tunnel. When the elbow is bent, that tunnel closes up by almost 40%. If the nerve get inflamed or irritated, then that becomes significant as a further irritant on the nerve.

So he gave me 2 remedies to use in tandem. One is to sleep with a pillow on my elbow on the inside portion of the arm. The idea is to prevent it from bending while sleeping at night because this is a major source of irritation for the nerve since most people (myself included) sleep with their arm bent. By preventing that, I’d be giving the nerve extra time to heal.

The second remedy is a stretching regimen that he wants me to perform 5 times a day for minutes each. The stretch is to place my hand and forearm flat against a wall and then lean towards the wall. This stretch should help with the gliding of the ulnar nerve as well as help with my range of motion when bending my arm.

Next visit in 2 months time. By then, I hope to be as good as new.

Categories
Cub Scouts

A Fire Station Visit

These are the meeting minutes I wrote up following a meeting we had on Nov 2 of last year. I recovered it from my email archive. I’ve only modified it to remove names, per my custom here on the blog. I’m adding them to the blog for 2 reasons: first, because my being an SAHD is the major reason I’m a Den leader making the content entirely blog appropriate; and second, they might prove useful for other Den leaders looking for ideas.

We were at the Fire Station for our meeting, where we talked about emergencies and when it’s appropriate to call 911, as well as some simple First Aid stuff as well. Afterwards, the Scouts got a chance to go inside an ambulance and see what some of the procedures are and how some of the equipment is used. The Scouts even got a chance to see the crew respond to a call, though the crew was ultimately called back as the people had left the scene by the time the emergency crew arrived.

Prior to the meeting, we distributed binders to the kids to help track there progress through the remainder of the year. It will also be used for homework assignments as well as a scrapbook of sorts for their Scouting adventures. Again, thanks to Heather for putting those together for the kids.

Speaking of home assignments, 2 of those are the Emergency Phone Number List and the Healthy Habits chart. They don’t HAVE to have those completed for the next meeting, but those are assignments they can work towards completing. The home assignments go towards completing their requirements for the Wolf Badge.

Categories
Family

Testing Us Both

STOMP!

We had just start on our way to school this morning when the boy angrily stomped his foot down. Then he lamented how he forgot a picture for his “Share Day” and how he always forgets to bring in something for his “Share Day.”

STOMP!STOMP!

I sat quietly by for the moment, trying to judge the situation. The boy has a long, storied history of a temper that he either can’t, or simply refuses to, reign in. It can start out very benign, no more than a tad bit of frustration. Five minutes later he’s in the corner for smart-mouthing one of us. Or worse.

STOMP!

He wasn’t showing any signs of getting out of control, but the stomping was getting on my nerves, frankly. The words formed in my head like they had so many times before “Stop doing that- it won’t accomplish anything” and the many variations thereof. But this time, I held them back. I was suddenly curious, would he continue? Would it get worse?

STOMP!KICK

Now he’d kicked his backpack. We were about halfway to school. He hadn’t whipped himself into a frenzy yet. Plus, another thought came to mind: what if he’s just doing it for attention? What if he’s just trying to provoke a reaction from me just for some kind of weird emotional satisfaction? That might explain the “slow burn” nature of what he was doing.

He reached forward and roughly opened the glove compartment, perused the contents for something, didn’t find it and slammed it closed. Hard, but not too hard. Could have been comment worthy, but he clearly had restrained himself.

STOMP!KICK!

If he’d been a linebacker, there would probably be a hole in the floor at his feet. I was tempted to tell him he’d smoosh whatever he had in his lunch box but I didn’t. We were at the light just before the school. All I had to do was a right, 200 feet and I’d be turning in to drop him off.

He didn’t stomp or kick anymore. We arrived at the drop off and I told them both to have a good day. The boy roughly picked up his backpack and rushed out the door. He muttered some barely intelligible, dark words about how he couldn’t have a good day. The lass was her usual chipper self, all enthusiasm to be going to school. The boy had a frown etched on his face that was almost comical because of how mad he looked.

SLAM!

So does that count as passing?

EPILOGUE:

I was at the doctor’s when the boy got home. I talked to the Wife and asked how the boy’s day went. She told me when she asked him he replied “Superb.”

“Really?” she asked.

“Do you know what that means?” he answered, “It’s a synonym for ‘good’. I prefer ‘superb’ because it sounds better.”

Superb.

Categories
Cub Scouts

Legos and Flags and Rank Badges

These are the meeting minutes I wrote up following a meeting we had on Nov 29 of last year. I recovered it from my email archive. I’ve only modified it to remove names, per my custom here on the blog. I’m adding them to the blog for 2 reasons: first, because my being an SAHD is the major reason I’m a Den leader making the content entirely blog appropriate; and second, they might prove useful for other Den leaders looking for ideas.

I selected 3 Scouts to be the Colorguard for our opening flag ceremony. After the Pledge and the Scout Promise, the boys helped setup chairs and I passed out Rank Tracking Badges. These are a plastic badge that goes over the button of the right pocket of the Scout’s uniform and is used to keep track of their progress on the way to earning their Wolf Badge. I also passed out a bead to mark their current progress.

After they put together their rank badges, I passed out some sheets with information about Connecticut’s State Flag. We looked over the picture of the flag and then discussed some of the elements as well as some simple facts like the official size of the flag and when it was adopted.

We then had the Scouts fashion a bead necklace. I will use these as a means to reward Scouts for certain things going forward. For future meetings, all Scouts who attend a meeting will get a bead, as well as any Scout who wears their uniform and brings in completed home assignments.

Finally, to end the meeting we had a Lego building competition. We had the Scouts form up into teams and then one of the other Dads passed out Lego kits which he assembled. His challenge to the boys was to see who could build a structure that would hold a roof the highest off of the table. They had about 10 minutes to work on their ideas. The boys enjoyed the little impromptu competition and the winner had Den bragging rights for a few minutes.

The Scouts then helped clean up the Lego’s and the facility and I assigned them their next home assignment: to help their parents by doing 2 chores (like laundry or cleaning dishes or whatever their parents need) from now until Christmas. Obviously, I’ll need help from the you guys to make sure they’ve all accomplished this assignment.

Categories
Computers

Nook Tablet Update- Part II

In the previous post on this topic, I went over the new rooting method for the Nook Tablet that involves simply booting an SD card with some special files on it. It was pretty simple stuff, really, and gives the user access to the Android Market for apps.

However, if you were like me and had loaded apps from the Amazon market prior to getting the v1.4.1 update from Barnes and Noble, then you were still hung up. The “unknown sources” hack was still unavailable at this point.

Luckily, there’s an alternative. It’s possible to used the Android Debugging Bridge (adb) to load apps. And as it happens, there’s an app that overrides the unknown sources block, thus allowing for installing apps from Amazon.

First, the Android SDK has to be installed. I’m not going to go over that as it’s documented elsewhere. It’s easy enough to find and do. Once the SDK is installed, make sure any path settings are updated appropriately. Then, it will be time to setup the adb to recognize the nook.

Just to be clear, these instructions are for linux. In particular, I’m using debian linux.

The next step is to update the rules for udev so that certain links are created when the device is plugged in. This is the resource I used to help get it all running. Create a file in /etc/udev/rules.d/ like 20-android.rules and enter the following 3 lines:

SUBSYSTEM=="usb",ATTR{idVendor}=="2080", MODE="0666", OWNER="<user>"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb",ATTR{idVendor}=="2080",ATTR{idProduct}=="0004",SYMLINK+="android_adb"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb",ATTR{idVendor}=="2080",ATTR{idProduct}=="0004",SYMLINK+="android_fastboot"

The first line assigns permissions and the owner to the device. The <user> is a place holder and should be replaced by the user name of whomever is running adb. Without this line, permission errors occur when connecting to the nook. The other 2 lines create symbolic links in the /dev directory that adb uses to connect to an android device.

When done, load the new rules into udev using udevadm or by just restarting the daemon.

Next up, modify, or create, the file ~/.android/adb_usb.ini and add a line that reads simply 0x2080. Alternatively, plug the nook in and type the following command:

$ android update adb

Next, debugging needs to be enabled on the nook. Simply try to install something from Amazon. When asked, choose the “Package Installer” and then proceed to Settings where you’ll get the familiar Unknown Sources checkbox. This time, however, don’t bother. At the bottom of the box is another option labeled Development. Go there and then check off USB Debugging and uncheck Automount.

Now, everything should be ready to connect adb to the nook. Plug the nook in and a little beetle icon should appear in the status bar area of the nook. To make sure the debugger is loaded with all the changes done, execute the following command:

$ adb kill-server && adb start-server && adb devices

There should be output like the following:

* daemon not running. starting it now on port 5037 *
* daemon started successfully *
List of devices attached 
<device id>        device

The <device id> field will be a long number. Congratulations! It’s almost done.

Now to get the app to fix the unknown sources setting. [Here’s][3] the original forum link where the app was originally posted. It’s been updated a few times and the link is towards the end of the first post in the thread. Download that app to your home directory.

Once the file is downloaded, simply type the following command:

$ adb install NTHiddenSettings.apk

It’s done. Now the Amazon Appstore will be available again.

That wasn’t so bad, was it?

Categories
Misc

That Would Be Nice Actually

Looks like the furball saw his shadow. 6 more weeks of Winter, supposedly.

It would be welcome if Winter actually arrived for a bit. Perhaps he meant “6 more weeks until Winter”? Even the kids have noticed because there hasn’t been much snow. The boy is hoping for the extended time because he wants more snow. The lass is in agreement.

I guess I am too. Does that mean I’m still a kid at heart?

Categories
Misc

The 10 Year MTBF

You know how you can tell when you’ve been living somewhere awhile? Things start to break. All at once; one after the other. Doesn’t matter.

Last month, I was able to fix our dishwasher. In addition to having a rather virulent form of “creeping crud” infesting it, the heating element had succumbed to rot. I’m guessing the two were related. Anyway, after replacing the heating element (and the controller board) we were able to get rid of the crud using a dishwasher cleaner.

This month, it turns out the microwave was next in line. The Wife realized it on Sunday when she attempted to cook frozen veggies (those steam bags are great!) and the bag came out colder than it had gone in.

Alright, that’s an exaggeration. But the veggies still weren’t cooked.

Yesterday, I half-heartedly decided to try opening up the microwave and see if there was anything obvious. Microwaves are actually pretty simple devices, really. There’s a controller board that drives the magnetron. The magnetron is what vibrates the water. In addition, there’s a diode and a capacitor that are related to magnetron operation. If any one of them go, no heating.

Anyway, it turns out Kenmore assembled their microwave with a non-standard screw head. It’s a “star” head screw, but there’s a pin in the middle of the star so that none of my star-head screwdrivers worked.

SNAP! Aww, shucks.

So I replaced the microwave yesterday afternoon with something that looks pretty similar to what was there. This one’s a GE model. SAHD or not, I can’t fix everything.

I’ll note that the range top on our stove has been acting a bit flaky of late. Don’t know if that’ll be next, but I think we’re at that point where it’s a matter of “when”, not “if.”

Categories
Cub Scouts

Astronomy Belt Loop and Faith and Cooperation

These are the meeting minutes I wrote up following a meeting we had on Jan 11 of this year. I recovered it from my email archive. I’ve only modified it to remove names, per my custom here on the blog. I’m adding them to the blog for 2 reasons: first, because my being an SAHD is the major reason I’m a Den leader making the content entirely blog appropriate; and second, they might prove useful for other Den leaders looking for ideas.

Attendance at yesterday’s meeting was huge. It was great to see everyone come out like that. I’m not even sure I need to send this out since almost everyone was there. That said, I know some couldn’t make it, so here’s what we did.

The main goal of yesterday’s meeting was to help the Wolf Scouts earn an Astronomy Belt Loop. Towards that end, one of the Scouts brought in his telescope and I also brought in my own for the Scouts to use. Another parent contributed a pair of binoculars for the boys to try. During the meeting we went over astronomy terms like planet, star, solar system, galaxy, meteor, comet and so forth. We also named all of the planets in our own solar system.

After finishing those requirements, we let the Scouts check out the telescopes. As luck it would have it, for the last 15 minutes of the meeting the skies cleared up and they were actually able to use the telescope to view the moon.

In addition to earning an Astronomy Belt Loop, I also assigned Achievements 10 and 11: Family Fun and Duty to God. We quickly discussed what it means to “cooperate,” as it pertained to Family Fun and then we discussed what “faith” meant. I handed out some worksheets that duplicate the questions in the handbook for those achievements.

Thus far, home assignments that I’ve given have been 3a (healthy habits chart), 4a and 4e (emergency contact list and doing chores), and now Achievements 10 and 11. If any of the Scouts have completed any of these assignments, let me know so I can recognize them at the Den meetings.

Obviously, the big upcoming event is the Pinewood Derby on the 21st at 3:30. If there is anyone who does not have the resources to cut out their car shape and intends on racing, email me so I can help out. I don’t want a Scout to not enter because they couldn’t make the car they wanted.

That’s it. Thanks again to everyone for coming last night. Our next meeting will be in 2 weeks on the 24th. Site TBD.

Categories
Family

Elbow Update- A Minor Setback

So, the elbow had been feeling great the past several weeks. Generally, it would be almost impossible to know that I’d had surgery at this point. That said, I’m still not supposed to be doing any active lifting with the arm- for extension or bending motions. I have been doing isometrics as part of my PT though.

But on Saturday, I started noticing some discomfort in the elbow area. In particular, the elbow got stiff very quickly if I left it in a bent position for any length of time. Reading a book, or my Nook, was difficult actually by the end of the day. I hadn’t done anything to hurt it though. Or at least, not to the best of my knowledge.

On Sunday, it was worse. I’d lost 75% of my range of motion. Basically, I had a small arc of about 45 degrees I could move it through. I couldn’t straighten it out, nor could I bend it fully. When I allowed my arm to rest at my side, it almost looked like I had some kind of brace on it because it couldn’t extend. I had swelling just above the joint on the backside of the arm and there was a fair amount of pain in that area if I tried to move it out of the range it was limited to. Icing and compression were of little help.

Yesterday saw some improvement, though I was still a long way from normal range of motion. Today brought further improvement. I was at PT today and they ceased the normal routine and used some electrical stim and ice treatment and told me to call if it didn’t improve.

They felt it was a result of breaking down more scar tissue from muscles that hadn’t been in use. Essentially, they called it a form of tendonitis. I’m somewhat skeptical, since I’d been deliberately using the arm- though not to it’s pre-injury potential- for the express purpose of preventing something like that. Perhaps my efforts were in vain. Or perhaps something else is going on.

Fortunately, it’s documented with PT and I’m going for my next check-up with the Doc on Friday. Hopefully, he’ll have a better idea. Until this, I’d been expecting him to green-light the next stage in my recovery. Now, I’ll have to wait and see.

Categories
Family

Toys and KISS

The lass received a gift the other day that she and the boy have not stopped playing with since she opened it. It’s a construction type toy that consists of approximately a bazillion straws along with various connectors to link the straws together. That’s it.

So far, they’ve built a house, a car- with and without a passenger seat, a rocket and several other things that I’m not really sure what they were. One of the projects was big enough that we let them leave it out overnight so they could finish it the next day.

If I was asked by a prospective parent what kind of toys they should purchase their kids, I’d advocate strongly for wooden blocks, a box big enough for them to climb in, various bouncing balls and paper and pencils. That’s about it.

We’ve purchased many toys for them and we have friends who’ve done similarly for their kids. Most of those toys go unplayed with for long periods of time. Some never get played with. Thinking back on it, most of these toys were too 1-dimensional for play purposes or they were too complicated- taking too much time to setup or too much effort to understand how to play with.

Even something like Lego’s is almost too much anymore because the kits are so intricate. Those are best left until they get a bit older.

Contrast those with a cardboard box. Both the boy and the lass still ask for us to hang on to the larger boxes they can fit into. They can hardly wait to get their little mitts on it and make it into something.

Perhaps that’s the key- that they can make something with whatever they choose to play with. The easier it is to do so, the more they will tend to use the toy. They just take advantage of the opportunity to stretch their imaginations a bit.

Whatever the reason might be, “the simpler the better” seems to perfectly describe the dynamic.

Categories
Computers

Nook Tablet Update- Part I

I finally took the time to root my Nook Tablet today. I’d been keeping an eye on it and the guys at XDA came up with a fairly straightforward process for rooting it that simply involved using a custom SD card and a special APK. From there, I also took the time to get the Android SDK working on my netbook so I could ultimately re-enable sideloading of apps again, as the root process doesn’t re-enable that functionality yet.

Here’s the link to the process for rooting the NT using an SD card. I used a 4GB card. The initial post contains 90% of the instructions assuming you know hot to reformat memory cards and the like. The final piece to the puzzle for me was what to do after creating and booting the SD card.

Theoretically, it should be possible to perform all of the formatting steps with the card in the NT, especially if done from an attached Linux computer. That said, I used a microSD card adapter and performed all the operations right on my netbook. Essentially, the card becomes a custom boot loader and can run any program a developer wants. In this case it starts a program called ClockWorkMod. CWM presents a bunch of actions to take, from simply rebooting the device to installing things from zip files. For navigational purposes, the ‘n’ button on the NT selects the action while the volume keys are used to move up and down through the list of options. Clever.

Assuming the Gapps_and_root.zip file is located on the internal SD card of the NT, select the install zip from internal sd option, then navigate to wherever the file is. In my case, I stashed it in media/mnt as the instructions advised. If the file is on the external SD card, then use the install zip from
SD card option to select the file. The program will then request confirmation along with a warning that you could potentially be zooting the NT. All I can say is it didn’t zoot mine.

After rebooting, well, there won’t be much obvious difference. Mainly, the Android Market app will be installed and it will now be possible to install applications from there. But stuff from the Amazon market will still not work. To get that working, it’s necessary to install another application using the adb.

And to do that, adb has to be able to find and recognize the NT and in order to to that, the NT has to be put in debugging mode. Oh, did I mention udev? But it’s late, meaning that will be a topic for one of tomorrow’s posts.

Categories
Computers

Design and Aesthetics

From Ann Althouse, we learn this about Steve Jobs:

From his father Jobs had learned that a hallmark of passionate craftsmanship is making sure that even the aspects that remain hidden are done beautifully.

One of the most extreme- and telling- implementations of that philosophy came when he scrutinized the printed circuit board that would hold the chips and other components deep inside the Macintosh. No consumer would ever see it, but Jobs began critiquing it on aesthetic grounds. ‘That part’s really pretty,’ he said. ‘But look at the memory chips. That’s ugly. The lines are too close together.

I’ll be up front- I find it hard to believe Jobs would do this. It’s just plain stupid. Design means different things in different disciplines. When designing a product like a piece of furniture, aesthetics obviously matter- no one is going to buy something ugly. There are other arenas where aesthetics can actively work against good design because the design objective is robustness and functionality. Printed circuit boards are one of those.

If Jobs did, in fact, do this then I can only imagine the engineer rolling his eyes at the buffoonery of the suggestion. The board is going to be hidden in an enclosure, unseen by anyone except a technician. It’s sole purpose would be to provide for the user experience. Mucking with a printed circuit design because it isn’t “pretty” is nonsense on stilts. Making it pretty could very easily render the board useless. There’s nothing to be gained whatsoever from making a PCB pretty.

That’s why I suspect the story is bogus- made up as some kind of silly anecdote in the book to “prove” Jobs’ extreme fastidiousness or some such. I’m not a Jobs fanboy, but even I would give him the benefit of the doubt here.

Categories
Family

Kids Abhor a Vacuum

UPDATE:
I’ve modified the title to this post because it wasn’t obvious I was alluding to the saying “Nature abhors a vacumm,” which means that Nature tends to fill a need for something, somehow. So to with kids.

One of my more unusual talents is card magic. I learned a handful of pretty high quality illusions when I was in high school and I’ve retained the mechanics, if not the polish, ever since. These aren’t the mathematical variety of tricks where a selected card gets moved around enough to the point where it’s possible to locate the card. These are actual close-up illusions.

Most any kid is fascinated by magic, mostly because they’re still naive enough to believe it’s real. The boy and the lass belong in that category. I’ve done a number of my simpler illusions for them and they immediately want to know if I can make cards vanish and reappear and teleport and all that other stuff. Afterwards, they spend about 15 minutes repeating the what they’d seen me do, but obviously without the same results.

At which point they always ask me to teach them magic.

I’ve always declined them for a simple reason: once they learn the art of illusion, then the magic is gone. It sounds tedious, but even as an adult watching “magic” is entertained by the illusion, precisely because it seems like magic.

But once an understanding of the basic techniques are attained, the effect is gone. Instead, what is seen is the logical result of the techniques used that a layperson has no idea to look for. I’ll never forget shortly after learning some of the initial techniques watching a local magician perform a trick. I noticed something that no one in his audience did. Afterward, I went home and based on that one thing was able to completely reverse engineer the illusion.

Anyway, my point is I didn’t want to ruin magic for the boy and the lass at so young an age. Unfortunately, events have transpired that forced my hand a bit.

One of the boy’s classmates has been “teaching” him magic. I don’t know where this friend learned these tricks. The boy was then trying to duplicate whatever his friend had shown him. In the process, he was missing all of the little details that make a piece of magic believable. The Wife took me aside and pointed said “I know why you don’t want to teach him, but he wants to learn so badly that he’s getting stuff from another kid. You might want to teach him something so you can show him the right way to do this stuff.”

I realized, much to my chagrin, she was right. The boy had decided to fill his desire for knowledge from a different source. My denial of any knowledge was actually working to his detriment because he was learning all the wrong things about magic.

So I’ve now begun teaching him one trick. But I won’t allow him to use it on anyone until he can perform it well enough in front of me. That was the deal struck. If nothing else, at least I’ll get to see just how badly he wants to learn. So far, he’s practiced it a little everyday. He’s a little frustrated with my attention to detail, but I just keep telling him that he only gets one shot with a magic trick. If his audience detects the secret to the illusion, there is no second chance.

But even at his young age, it appears children will fulfill a need. With or without you. Best if it’s with you, says I.