Category: Nerdy Geeky

Posts about CSS, PHP, HTML, Blogs, RSS, etc

bookmark_borderIPod Touch and Writing

Posted on by PaulaO

(note: the subject line has changed since I first wrote this. I decided to not get into the podcasts just yet).

I’ve been having fun with my iPod Touch. For those of you who don’t know, the Touch is just like the iPhone with one major exception – it’s not a phone. It uses wi-fi for internet connectivity while the iPhone uses the cellular carrier (which is exclusively AT&T). So far, I’ve used the Touch more for music and games than I have for internet stuff like email and web surfing. When/if I get the wireless network working again here at the house, I may use it more.

Anyway, the Touch is not a PDA unless you use M$ software such as Outlook. Ironic that the Apple device uses predominantly M$ stuff, eh? I had to enter in all of my contacts (granted, there’s not that many). Any notes I make using the built in application (herein known as ‘app’ or ‘apps’) cannot be transferred to the desktop.

Before I talk about what apps I have found useful, I want to discuss iTunes. I. Hate. It. You cannot add any app, song, etc to the device without using this software. While there are some programs that allow you to use the device like a USB flash drive (DiskAid), it is limited. The iTunes program is lousy. For example, I wanted to see what dictionaries, thesauruses (thesaurusi?), etc were available. Open iTunes, click on App Store, click on Reference. And there it ends. 20 apps per page, 121 pages. No way to further divide them into sections. You can filter them into release date, name, and most popular. And you can’t go directly to page 120 of the 121 because you are looking for something that starts with the letter Y. There is a Power Search available. You can narrow it down to section (applications vs music), box to select searching only the free apps, enter in a keyword and/or developer name, category (reference), and device capability (touch vs iphone). You click search and you get the results. Here’s the next major error. It doesn’t say “page 1 of 12” for the results. You click “see all” and get a list of 30 apps. Then, in the corner of the screen, in tiny little letters, there’s this “more results”. It’s not in the scrollable part of the screen, but on the frame of the software itself. Still no “page x of y”. So I have no idea how many results there are nor can I then re-search the results to narrow it down further. On the first page there is a list of developers, a very short list. Dictionary.com is listed but it only has two apps in the search result. So finding what you want/need can be difficult unless you know the exact name or are lucky enough to hit the right keyword.

Okay, rant mostly off.

Here’s some applications I found that I have tried:

I was pleased to find the WordWeb I use so much on the computer to be available as an app. And it is free so that makes it even better! It works much the same way as the desktop version so adjusting to it was easy.

I am trying out QuickWord (by QuickOffice for $4.99), an app that reads and edits .doc format documents. I think it can view .pdf, too, but not edit them. Transferring the documents from the desktop to the device is only possible through wi-fi transfer using the IP address. It sounds unnecessarily complicated. Why not just sync, upload, or download the same as I can music and podcasts? Also, the help files are only accessible via internet connection. WTF?

Then there is DocsToGo (by DataViz for $4.99) is another .doc format app. Again, transfer is done via wi-fi or through Microsoft Exchange (a paid-for additional program). It’s got a “getting started” help guide but anything other than that is only available online. The plus for this app vs the other is that it’s available options are scrollable along the bottom so there’s more to use.

Next up is FileAid (by DigiDNA for free). While FileAid allows me to view even OpenOffice.org formats, I can’t edit anything. It is for viewing only.

I just downloaded another one called Notebooks (by Alfons Shmid for $5.99). I’ve not tried it yet, though. It is touted to be for thought processing and organizing.

The recent software upgrade allows for the iTouch to do cut/paste, something the users have been screaming for. Doing so is relatively easy as long as you don’t have big huge fingers.

Speaking of typing, the keyboard is not that bad. It is much much easier if you are a touch-typer vs hunt and peck. I type mostly with my thumbs. Letters are on the screen with numbers and most punctuation accessible via another key that changes the keyboard. Another key on that one takes you to another punctuation keyboard. Hitting the space bar automatically takes you back to the letter one. This would be a major PITA if you needed to enter a series of numbers. The comma is on that second screen and, again, hitting the spacebar automatically takes you back to the first one. QuickOffice has the spreadsheet capabilities and I wonder if it works the same way. You can turn the device sideways to make the keyboard wider and more accessible.

The word completion capabilities are a device thing, not an app thing. So far, I don’t like it. I’ve had several arguments with it on the spelling of a word I was trying to enter in a note. But I’ve never been a fan of word completion doohickeys anyway.

I was reading a review of an app and learned how to take screenshots within the device. Now if I can figure out how to transfer them to the desktop, I’ll have some images of my later reviews for these apps.

If anyone uses any of these or some other I haven’t found yet, please let me know! I’d love to hear from other writers about how or if they use the Touch or if they use a PDA instead. I opted for the Touch because the industry says PDAs are a dying breed and software is getting difficult to find and maintain.

In another post later, I’ll share all the apps I have installed so far. I love the Touch, I just wish it didn’t have that obnoxious “iPod” in front of it. Cannot tolerate the “iThis” and “iThat”. In yet another post, I’ll discuss the value (or lack thereof) of podcasts.

bookmark_borderPain Management Option

Posted on by PaulaO

and one I actually like!

Swearing Makes Pain More Tolerable

That muttered curse word that reflexively comes out when you stub your toe could actually make it easier to bear the throbbing pain, a new study suggests.

Swearing is a common response to pain, but no previous research has connected the uttering of an expletive to the actual physical experience of pain.

(….)

Stephens and his fellow Keele researchers John Atkins and Andrew Kingston sought to test how swearing would affect an individual’s tolerance to pain. Because swearing often has an exaggerating effect that can overstate the severity of pain, the team thought that swearing would lessen a person’s tolerance.

As it turned out, the opposite seems to be true.

(….)

The researchers think that the increase in pain tolerance occurs because swearing triggers the body’s natural “fight-or-flight” response….

(source)

So I’m wondering if it can be any “swear” word or must it be an actual “dirty” word. Would repeating “dagnabbit” work as well as repeating “goddammit”? Would “fudge” work as good as “fuck”? I would assume it would be the emotion behind the word so yes, the prettified words would work as well IF that emotion was behind it.

There are several flaws I see in the research, and perhaps it is further discussed in the actual paper. The subjects stuck their hands in cold water and repeated a cuss word. Then they stuck their other hand in cold water and said the non-cuss word. So did they tolerate the cold less the second time because their tolerance was already down? Was there time between the two? When they said the non-cuss word, they used “a more common word that they would use to describe a table”. The same word with any emotion behind it? If I said “flat” with as much emphasis as I would “fuck”, which direction would it go?

bookmark_borderOpenOffice.org 3.1

Posted on by PaulaO

OpenOffice.org has come out with a new version. This one has an interesting new feature. They call it the “User Experience/OpenOffice.org User Feedback Program” and is the major component of their “UX Project” which, in turn, is part of “Renaissance“.

“Create a User Interface so that OpenOffice.org becomes the users’ choice not only out of need, but also out of desire”

The Feedback Program is a cool concept. In a nutshell, you give them permission to collect data on how you use OO.o and they use that data to make OO.o better. The data collected is not what you type, but the commands you use and how you use them (as in via macro, toolbar, keyboard shortcut, etc). I would assume that any time a command is activated, the data is collected. You can keep track of what they are collecting by going to Tools>Options>Improvement Program. You can click “show data” and get an actual report. I haven’t typed anything since I agreed to it but I did go check the Options thing. The report already has tracked that I did that. I can also save that data into a file for myself.

This effort is yet another reason why I love this program and the people behind it. It follows the old saying of “we can’t fix what we don’t know is broken”. They are making an effort to find out what works and what does not and, hopefully, will use that information to actually do something. For example, I hope they see how many people have to: Tools>Options>Language Settings>Writing Aids just to change the active personalized dictionary. A major PITA for writers with different manuscripts going at the same time. This would be much easier if it were part of Tools in a sub-menu.

I’ll get back to y’all later on how it works (the process on my side).

Linkages:
OpenOffice.org (free productivity suite)
User Feedback Program main page
UX Project (User Experience Project)
Project Renaissance

bookmark_borderOn Possums and Games

Posted on by PaulaO

Mike brought me another surprise yesterday. This time a possum. It was very dead and not just playing at it. I used a plastic grocery bag, picked it up, and dumped it out behind Fort Rooster. Lorna buried it when she came home later. I couldn’t find the shovel (that’s my excuse and I’m stickin’ with it). The day before, I was on a long phone call with my baby bro. I turned around at the end of it to find several sticks, both outside balls (nasty well-used half-sized basketballs), most of a dead tennis ball, the remnants of what used to be underwear, several walnuts, and some bits of plastic (not sure from what). Mike was busy whilst I chatted! How nice of him to bring the outdoors in. Still don’t know where he found the undies.

Our dog lot includes the back porch which has a doggy ramp going from the porch to the ground. We keep the back door open so the dogs have free access to the outside. Of course, we only do this when it is warm enough. We’re supposed to be putting in a doggy door in the wall but I got sidetracked and it’s not done. Not that the doggy door would keep Mike from bringing miscellaneous stuff in. He’d probably be like that dog in a cartoon that can’t figure out why the 2′ long stick won’t go through the 1′ wide door.

As for the games, I’ve joined the ranks of those that play World of Warcraft. I know, I know. I tried to resist. I did. But I thought it would be cool to play online with my bro and his family. The problem is, they all work during the day and then at night, they have to go to bed early ’cause they gotta be at work the next day. Sigh. I don’t see how people do that. Anyway, I tried a demo, liked it, and bought the game. In case anyone knows what I’m talking about, I’m a gnome mage, level 14. My character’s name is Gadgetmoss. I have a human character, too: a mage named RockOn who is at level 8 or so. But I’m more in like with the gnome than the human one. Gnomes are funny little things with emphasis on the little. It was so funny the first time Kev joined me in the game. My character is really not much higher than his knees! I play some during the day, usually the human character, then get going with the gnome chick later in the day.

My neck is slowly getting better, although now the headaches have started. I was surprised it took them so long. Last night, I was playing the game with my sis-in-law (Col) and this guy they know. He (a level 80 somethinganother) took the two of us on an “Instance”. I think what we did was we little gnomes (Col restarted with a new character and chose a gnome so we could do things together) tagged along behind him while he blew everyone and thing up. Since we were a group, we shared the bonus points and stuff and our levels went up. That and we got a crapload of loot. Anyway, I don’t remember much of it. I had this roaring headache. And I was trying to not hurl. But it was impossible for me to leave the game. Not there! So I stayed quiet, did what I was told, and tried to not throw up on my laptop. Finally we got out of there and went somewhere safe. I used my somethinganother stone to zap back to my home tavern. And quit the game. I heavily medicated myself and went to bed. It was a rough night with weird dreams (gee, wonder why?).

So, Col, if you read this, that’s why I was so quiet. Between the headache and the nausea, it was all I could do to just focus on the game. I don’t remember much except whatshisname laughing because the two of us walked under that cannon near the end (he had to go way around it). That and I kept saying Stone Henge instead of Iron Forge. Sigh.

bookmark_borderMore on Space and Time

Posted on by PaulaO

Innocent me (stop laughing, Kev) decided to read an article on Hubble (“Is Hubble Worth the Upgrade Mission’s Risk and Cost?“) over on LiveScience. There’s a bunch of links down at the bottom of the article (below the poll) and one of them linked to a Science.com article “Why the Universe is All History” which deals with the light/time issue that I brought up earlier.

This article discusses the issue well, although it still hurt some to read it then try to grasp the concepts. The first bit of the article is what caused a big AHA! moment for me. I bolded the section that I like the most.

It took 300 years of experiment and calculation to pin down the speed at which light travels in a vacuum: an impressive 186,282 miles per second.

Light will travel slightly slower than this through air, and some wild experiments have actually slowed light to a crawl and seemingly made it go backward, but at the scales encountered in our everyday lives, light is so fast that we perceive our surroundings in real time.

Look up into the night sky and this illusion begins to falter.

Cool. So because the light here is slower (in galactic terms) what we see right now is in real time. The article continues by saying the moon’s (reflected) light is 1.2 seconds old when we see it. When we look at the closest star system (Proxima Centauri), the light from it that we perceive is 4 years old.

Where I went lost earlier is that in bringing Proxima Centauri closer via the telescope, we aren’t necessarily looking at its 3 yr old light vs the 4. The “age” of the light hasn’t changed because we’ve not moved. The telescope lens only brings that perceived light into better focus. No matter how big a telescope we make, we’ll only ever see 4 yr old light from that star system.

What is happening with bigger telescopes–and the telescopes in space–we are seeing further away and therefore, seeing further back into time. We can now see galaxies that are so far away, their light is billions of years old. We’ve not moved toward it, only been able to bring space into better focus. And that focus is getting better and better.

bookmark_borderPost Notification Subscriptions

Posted on by PaulaO

If you are already subscribed to be notified of new posts, you will need to re-subscribe using the new method.

In two weeks (or whenever I get around to doing it), I will delete the database section for all current subscriptions registered with the old form (the one that was in the sidebar). If you do not re-subscribe, you will no longer receive notifications. Basically I am switching from a non-WP plugin form to one that is a plugin and easier to manage spam (yes, the bastids get me that way, too).

New subscription page link

As always, if you have any difficulties with either process, just let me know.

bookmark_borderBrain Cells vs Space Time Continuum Thingy

Posted on by PaulaO

Guess which one won?

Okay, so I get that when we look at starlight, it is starlight that first left the star a long time ago. I get that. The star could be blown up into smithereens but we don’t know that yet because the light from it hasn’t gotten here yet. I get that, too. The following is from a LiveScience article about a “Giant ‘Blob’ Found in Outer Space“. It’s a cool article with puzzling questions with no answers. Yet.

A strange giant space “blob” spotted when the universe was relatively young has got astronomers puzzled. Using space and ground telescopes, astronomers looked back to when the universe was only 800 million years old and found something that was out of proportion and out of time.

(…)

Ouchi and Ellis said one possibility is that by chance, astronomers captured the moment a galaxy was forming in the early universe — something that never has been seen before.

As astronomers gaze deeper into space, they are looking farther back in time. What Ouchi found was from 12.9 billion years ago. Only three other objects have been seen that are from deeper in time and space.

Now, didn’t that just fry a few more brain cells? So, like, the further we are able to look into space–other universes and stuff–the further back into time we are seeing. But, wouldn’t we really be seeing the future? No, that’s not right. If my imaginary star blew up yesterday, I’d not know it until 300 yrs from now because it is 300 light years away. But by aiming a really strong light at it…Oh, Wait….I think I got it….We are looking back in time because what we are seeing happened 300 yrs ago. And the further into space we can look, the further away the light source, so the further back into time we go.

Ouch, there went another one.

I think I will write Fantasy novels and leave the SciFi to those who can grasp these concepts long enough to make them real in their manuscript.

bookmark_borderThe Science of Night Owls

Posted on by PaulaO

Ha! Ha freakin’ ha!

I got you now, all you weirdo “early birds”. Ha!

Night Owls Stay Alert Longer than Early Birds

The early bird may get the worm, but the night owl has more stamina, a new study suggests.

The differences come from the interactions between two regions of the brain, including one that is home to the master circadian clock.

(…)

The participants went to a sleep clinic, where they followed their normal sleep schedule. At 1.5 hours after waking up and again at 10.5 hours, they had to perform a task that required sustained attention.

The researchers found no difference in the attention levels of the two groups at 1.5 hours after waking, but the night owls were more focused than the early birds after 10.5 hours spent awake.

The difference was a result of the shift in the balance between the two mechanisms that control alertness: the light-triggered circadian signal and the buildup of the pressure to sleep through the day (called the homeostatic process), the researchers said. As the day wears on and the time since sleep becomes greater, the pressure to sleep mounts; at the same time, the continued daylight triggers the circadian signal that promotes wakefulness.

While researchers had thought that the two systems operated independently, the study found that “the two are always interacting together,” said study co-author Phillipe Peigneux.

(link to full article)

I am confused, though, about the differences. Does this mean that the early birds are functioning less than they did at 1.5 hrs? Or does it mean they are functioning the same, but the night owls are functioning more than they did at 1.5hrs? If anyone gets the journal Science, I’d love a copy of that article.

Aha. Found this excerpt on the Science website of the article titled Homeostatic Sleep Pressure and Responses to Sustained Attention in the Suprachiasmatic Area (bolding of text is mine):

Throughout the day, cognitive performance is under the combined influence of circadian processes and homeostatic sleep pressure. Some people perform best in the morning, whereas others are more alert in the evening. These chronotypes provide a unique way to study the effects of sleep-wake regulation on the cerebral mechanisms supporting cognition. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging in extreme chronotypes, we found that maintaining attention in the evening was associated with higher activity in evening than morning chronotypes in a region of the locus coeruleus and in a suprachiasmatic area (SCA) including the circadian master clock. Activity in the SCA decreased with increasing homeostatic sleep pressure. This result shows the direct influence of the homeostatic and circadian interaction on the neural activity underpinning human behavior.

bookmark_borderConficker Worm

Posted on by PaulaO

No, you can’t go fishing with it. You might be able to go phishing with it, though.

At any rate, make sure your virus software is up to date and run a scan. The Conficker worm is spreading slowly but surely.

I was pointed to a cool quick way to find out if your ‘puter is infected. The Conficker Eye Chart works thusly:

Conficker (aka Downadup, Kido) is known to block access to over 100 anti-virus and security websites.

If you are blocked from loading the remote images in the first row of the top table above (AV/security sites) but not blocked from loading the remote images in the second row (websites of alternative operating systems) then your Windows PC may be infected by Conficker (or some other malicious software).

So, like, go there. But still do an update and scan. I use and recommend AVG anti-virus.

Linkages:
Conficker Working Group (makers of the “eye” chart)
AVG anti-virus
Protecting Against the Rampant Conficker Worm – PC World article

bookmark_borderSpam River Dammed Again

Posted on by PaulaO

I tried using a new comment form that included a “human verification” bit in it. But, for some reason, it wasn’t working. The form works well as a Contact form, but I couldn’t talk it into being a comment form. I tried to fix it but decided, for various reasons, that it wasn’t worth it.

So I dumped that and now have am trying a new plugin “Math Comment Spam Protection“. It doesn’t seem to be supported very well by the designer but it does work. The idea is to stop spammers from even submitting a comment and clogging the database and site resources.

As an example of this, I took down the cforms version and put up the one I had been using for years. I uploaded and turned on the new plugin. In that span of time, maybe two minutes tops, I got THREE spams. THREE. What a mess. Luckily, SpamKarma caught them and dumped them with glee but still, geez people, get as freakin’ life!

Please let me know if the form works for you or not. If it does not, use the contact form to, well, contact me about it. Or email me if you know the address.