Fall is in the Air

The first day of school is finally here. I'm hoping that all the things at work we were going to finish over the summer will be ready by the end of this week.

Helllooooo

Microsoft has reportedly hired Jerry Seinfeld for an ad campaign to counter Apple's well known Mac vs. PC ads and address some of the issues people have with Vista. Have Bill and Steve ever watched Seinfeld? You recall that Jerry's apartment on the show had a Mac sitting on the table in the back corner, although I don't remember him ever using it. Hopefully they will be good ads, although the campaign is put together by the same firm that gave us the freaky Burger King king, so we'll just have to wait to see.

I'm running Vista on my work machine and have issues with it, of course, but overall I don't think it's a huge deal. When I think back to the early days of XP, it's all the same complaints about driver and program compatibility problems, unnecessary GUI changes, need for better hardware to even run it, etc. Fast forward 7 or 8 years, and we see Save XP petitions to pressure Microsoft to allow users to continue purchasing XP licenses. I imagine Vista will be generally accepted at some point like XP was.

The question, however, is how much longer will the operating system even be relevant? I mean, there will always be such thing as an OS of course, but as we move more and more to accessing our applications and data via multiple combinations of devices and networks, the PC just seems less important as a standalone machine.

Perhaps Seinfeld can delay Microsoft's demise temporarily.

Coincidence?

It's been almost two years since Comcast hooked up our Internet and TV. The installer was new and didn't install the proper filters on the line to match the plan we signed up for.

Photo by Vik Nanda.
Last week a Comcast truck was parked on the street, and later in the day we noticed half our channels were gone - the half we weren't paying for.

Today we had a visitor during dinner. A Comcast salesman showed up at the door to see if we wanted to upgrade our TV package to prepare for being inside more during the upcoming winter.

That was convenient timing for him to show up just a few days after fixing the channel filter to lock down our access. It's just as well, since TV is such a waste of time anyway.

Professionals vs. Amateurs

I don't have a problem with professional athletes competing in the Olympics. I do, however, prefer watching collegiate sports over major league sports, because of the raw energy and greater likelihood of seeing mistakes or spectacular plays. Both ends of those spectrum are removed in the major leagues.

On a similar note, the professional broadcasters are apparently trying to keep the amateurs out of the olympic coverage business. With the collaborative tools available to us now, the global community can share video and other information faster than the professionals can block it or take it down, as Ephraim Schwarts points out, based on an article from the New York Times.

I'm already looking forward to the next Olympics to see how much further technology has progressed. The amateur broadcasters are providing more real-time access than the professionals, although the quality is not as high. In two or four more years, there will be both higher quality video and audio from the amateurs, as well as better distribution methods to broadcast to the masses. Just as mainstream newspapers are starting to feel the pinch from online news sources taking away their subscriber base, the television networks are soon to follow.

Camp is Open

Our Troop had planned on going to Camp Loll, right up by Yellowstone the last week of June into July, but while I was out of town the week before at a family reunion, I got a call to let me know that Loll was still under several feet of snow. We had to either switch to a different week or go to Camp New Fork instead. After my Assistant Scoutmaster called around to all the boys, we figured that no matter when we go, someone can't make it, so we might as well go the week we had originally planned.

I had wanted to go to Loll or New Fork, since I hadn't been to those camps before and had heard they were nice. Both camps are in Wyoming, a few hours apart. But I was scared of New Fork.

The problem was that New Fork runs an open program. That is, instead of signing up for classes that you attend at a certain time, you don't really sign up for most things. There were still a few classes that they taught at certain days and times, but most merit badges and activities are just whenever you want to do them. As a Scoutmaster that wanted to relax at camp while the boys head off to their classes, this scared me. As a constructivist and a firm believer that the boys need to run their own program and learn to be leaders through a combination of their own successes and failures, this should have been the ultimate camp. But I was scared nonetheless, which was why we picked Loll. I picked Loll.

Well, I have to say that it worked out rather well. I would even go so far as to say New Fork was one of my favorite camps. I imagine there would be some groups of Scouts for whom New Fork would not have ideal. We had it good, since we had all first year campers who worked on all the same merit badges, so my ASM and I went around with them to all their classes. If they'd all been at different classes they might have had a harder time staying on task without our gentle reminders. It also helped that the dad of one of the boys and the former Scoutmaster who was up the first couple days with us told the boys he'd take anyone to dinner if they earned 7 merit badges. So they were motivated by a reward and were lacking the influence of older boys who might have taught them some of bad habits that are sometimes learned at camp, like skipping classes.

We pretty much did all of the canoeing merit badge by ourselves the first day, with just a few things that I didn't know so we had to follow up with the waterfront staff later. We also worked on a couple other merit badges in camp ourselves. For the ones they worked on with the camp staff, they just pretty much showed up and worked on things and signed off each requirement for the merit badges as they completed them with what I'd call a junior counselor. When all the requirements were completed for a given award, they'd go to the adult over that area, who would then sign off the whole thing after doing a quick review of what they had already passed off.

Normal merit badge classes at other camps go the whole week or sometimes half the week, and if you attend every day (even if you're not paying attention), you earn it. The problem with that is if you already have done much of it or are quick at completing things, you still have to wait the whole week. With the open system, if you finish something in one day, you can start something else without missing out on what they did the first day in the other class.

Part of the benefit was kind of a psychological thing. At regular camps, usually kids will sign up for 3 or 4 classes and attend those classes in the morning each day. Then they will have free time for a few hours in the afternoon. There are merit badges that can be earned in free time, and some kids take advantage of those to earn several more on top of the classes they signed up for. However, most kids want to play during free time. It's free time. Come on, we should play, go swimming, take the boats out, carve spears, burn stuff, etc. The difference with the open system is that there is no separate class time and free time, just program time. So not having a designated free time (even though it was really all like a regular camp's free time), there was less feeling of entitlement to a break, since it was all program time.

There were a few things I didn't like, such as the junior staff not being empowered to do anything out of the ordinary - almost every question or request I had was answered with a referral to the area director. Also, there were several merit badges that they didn't have all the materials needed to complete it at camp, so the kids had to take a partial home to finish up. I should also mention the freezing cold water, but there's not much they can do about that one.

As we talked about where the boys want to go next year, they all wanted to come back, since none of them wants to have to sit through a boring class. So they worked harder than they would have sitting through boring classes and enjoyed doing it. I like trying new things, so I may pick Loll again next year, but it really is the boys' program, so if they can put together a cohesive argument, it may be New Fork again.

Our troop, the troop from Salt Lake we shared our campsite with, and our troop friend.

something which causes grief; a complaint or annoyance

My brother recently aired some grievances and asked others to share their own as well. I'm just glad he didn't use the two words that both start with p, which mean the same as grievance or annoyance. For some reason, those two words, which I refuse to type here are an annoyance in and of themselves.

Like Dave, I am replete with grievances and will share a few that come to my mind at the moment, in no particular order:

People who don't understand right of way.
I'm not sure if I'm more annoyed by people who cede the right of way when it is actually theirs or people who go when it's not their turn. Those who take someone else's turn are either impolite or oblivious of their surroundings, but at least they keep things moving. It just really bothers me when I come to a four way stop and the other car obviously stopped before I did but they just sit there with this big grin, waving me on. No, it's your turn to go, and you're not doing me some big favor by sitting there making me wait for you to realize it's your turn, not mine.

Strange behavior around bikes.
I observe people doing weird things when I'm biking, having people walking down the sidewalk totally jump out of the way as if I am about to run them over even though I'm at least 20 yards away and not even on a trajectory that would cause our paths to cross. Even if I am headed in your direction, it's my job to avoid you, so don't start jumping around and acting strangely or I'm not going to know which way to go around you. I should mention, as I say that I'm riding my bike on the sidewalk, that I'm talking about the sidewalks around campus, which don't follow along with a road. The road is actually the appropriate place to ride your bike, on the right side, with the flow of traffic.

Messages from students who need help but don't leave me their student ID number.
People either have so common of a name that there's no way I'll be able to figure out which John Smith is trying to get a fee refund or else their name is so strange that there's no way I'll be able to figure out how to spell it. On a similar note are the parents who call on behalf of their children, instead of helping them figure out how to take care of their own problems by making them call.

Cigarette butts littered all over the place.
Cigarette smoke doesn't bother me as much as it bothers some people with allergies or asthma. The post-smoking smell that lingers on some people bothers me more than the smoke itself. But the most annoying part of that unhealthy, money-wasting habit (besides it raising my health insurance premiums) is the smokers who flick their butts on the ground. Find an ashtray or carry an old snapple bottle in your car to seal up the leftovers. Smoking is legal; littering is illegal.

Obsessive text messagers.
Students, text at home, while driving, on a date, in class, at the dinner table, at the movies, or anywhere else to your heart's content, but when you come to meet with me one on one for personal help to pass one of your tests, leave your phone in your pocket until we're done. If you're not paying attention to what we're talking about, I will stop dishing out the pointers and send you up to take your test, however prepared you may or may not be. While we're at it, don't text or otherwise use your phone during your test.

Sweet Advertising

To follow up my last post complaining about the sad state of the advertising industry, a commercial that tells a clever story and keeps you guessing until the end:

Phat Advertising

While watching game 5 of the NBA finals last night, a commercial came on that made me wonder what the marketing department was thinking. Really, I wonder how the discussion went when this idea first came up. If I can find a copy of the video, I'll add the link, but it goes like this: A group of young kids were playing soccer. One team wins and taunts the other team while hoisting their trophy in the air. Okay so far...

original photo by savannahgrandfather

The losing team gets its turn to rub the winners' noses into their prize, however. Their traditional post game treat arrives - McDonald's Happy Meals for everyone! The champions drop their trophy on the ground as they stare with envy. Did anyone draw the connection that the kids who eat Happy Meals lost the game? It's like a miniature version of Super Size Me.

It's unfortunate that kids are getting more and more out of shape these days. At least the kids in the commercial playing soccer and burning off some of the calories and fat they were ingesting. What is strange, however, is how at the same time that society feeds our kids garbage that makes them unhealthy, we turn right around and discriminate against people that aren't in shape. Consider the following screenshots I took recently of one of those shock-the-monkey-style banner ads:

You use a feather to tickle the fat kid with an "I love cake" shirt until he throws up. Are you kidding? These types of web advertisements are misleading anyway, so you don't necessarily expect much out of something like this, but it's just offensive. Stephen Dubner recently started a discussion on misleading ads on the Freakonomics blog. Almost all advertising seems misleading in one way or another, but there seems to be more and more offensive ads because it takes more to grab our attention.

EDIT: Here's the commercial in question.

Blueberries, Oklahoma, and Monty Python

When it comes to education, I generally pay more attention myself to higher education, not so much K-12 education. Greg Francom recently posted about problems in higher ed, and I agree with his assessment of the state of affairs at the post-secondary level, especially for research-intensive schools.

The question that comes to mind is whether K-12 teachers use the same poor teaching methods, and if so, what is their excuse if they're not doing research? (Again, this is a real question, not being as familiar with the state of elementary and secondary ed, except from what I remember through my experience a long time ago or from what I see my first grader doing.)

Now that I've asked the question, I'll take a step back and comment that it's not likely that elementary students have to sit through lectures as much as college students do. The kids wouldn't stand for it. They have to have a variety of activities or they (and their teacher) will literally go crazy. (Of course, they may go crazy anyway and, for example, when a substitute teacher shows up the day the class is supposed to make fruit salad from various fruits that everyone brings, there might be some blueberry stains on the ceiling after the activity is over, in spite of it being a good, different, interesting, constructivist activity.)

So then, as we move into secondary education and students have learned to provide socially desirable responses (aka sit there and be quiet), are they just being groomed for college where they are supposed to sit there and be quieter, while paying a lot more money for the privilege to do so? Is high school is as bad as college, or at least moving in that direction?

I wonder if the amount of lecture/multiple choice testing depends on the extent to which we need to give students a grade. Elementary ed doesn't care about grades as much - they seem to be trying to give all students the same base of knowledge to work from and then start filtering them into honors, regular, or remedial classes by the time they hit secondary ed. The elementary filtering system worked for me anyway. I was labeled as dumb by my first grade teacher in New Jersey simply because I had just moved from Oklahoma. By about fourth or fifth grade, with help from my mom and some teachers that recognized I wasn't the idiot they were told I was, I filtered my way up and was positioned well enough going into middle school that I ended up taking quite a few honors and AP classes in high school. And here I am now, a doctoral student (who would still rather fling a blueberry across the room than eat it).

But really, I don't remember as much how lecture-filled high school was. I do remember blowing things up in physics, dissecting sharks in biology, sleeping through boring chemistry lectures, writing poems and creative essays in English, sleeping through videos in health, learning to juggle in calculus, watching Monty Python in AP European history, writing songs in my guitar class, eating fried bananas in Spanish, singing in the Tabernacle for choir, and playing Doom during my business technology class. So I remember some boring-ness, but mostly I remember the interesting things. Maybe I've forgotten most of the boring stuff. Now, how many fun, exciting things do I remember from college classes? Let's see, my volleyball, racquetball, billiards, and golf classes were interesting. Um, what else...I programmed a tic-tac-toe game in my Java class. The only other thing I can think of is watching part of The Mask in psychology.

So maybe the real question to my throngs of loyal readers should be - what interesting things do you remember from high school, compared to the interesting things you remember from college (actual classes, not extracurricular or social activities)?

Imagine there's no fair use

"It is a pity that this decision weakens the rights of all copyright owners."

What was the decision? A judge denied a preliminary injunction against release of the movie "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" which features 15 seconds of the song Imagine by John Lennon. The judge ruled that Yoko Ono and family were unlikely to succeed in their claim that fair use did not protect their inclusion of a small portion of the song in the movie. Of course, the decision will be appealed, and the real winners in the end will be the lawyers on both sides, but at least temporarily the correct decision has been made, regardless of the claim that copyright has been weakened for everyone because the well-established doctrine of fair use has been upheld. The lawsuit actually goes into some trademark infringement as well, since the song is supposedly a de facto trademark of Lennon.

I looked up Yoko's lawyer, Peter Shukat. In the following video, he explains some of the intricasies and disputes between artists and recording companies:

Peter seems like a nice guy as lawyers go, although that doesn't mean the above quote by him has any merit. Of course, he gets paid a lot of money by artists and their estates to push copyright law in their favor, so I don't hold it against him. Although, reading about the cease and desist letter he sent to an artist who donated a couple of paintings to John Lennon's former elementary school, and then they sent Yoko one of the paintings of John to thank her for a donation to the school (How dare anyone paint a picture of him without my permission!? I broke up the Beatles-I did-John belongs to me!), you kind of have to wonder if he isn't selling out.

I may have to go see the movie if it comes to Logan or Redbox.