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Will Cather on Sarah Orne Jewett:
<blockquote>
She once laughingly told me that her head was full of dear old houses and dear old women, and that when an old house and an old woman came together in her brain with a click, she knew that a story was under way."
</blockquote>
Archive for July, 2010
links for 2010-07-25
July 26, 2010links for 2010-07-23
July 24, 2010-
<p>Diagrams representing four or more types of data are defined as complex
</p><p>
5 fundamental principles are introduced to guide the choices made by the diagram designer.
</p><p>
The 2 contextual fundamental principles are
<ul>
<li>â<b>different goals require different methods</b>,âaddressing the needs of the diagram designer, and</li>
<li>â<b>audience brings context with them</b>,â addressing the needs and context of the diagram reader.</li>
</ul>
The 3 perceptual fundamental principles are
<ul>
<li>the âprinciple of <b>information availability</b>,â which guides the selection and density of the diagram elements,</li>
<li>the âprinciple of <b>semantic distance</b>,â which guides the spatial placement and grouping of the diagram elements, and </li>
<li>the âprinciple of <b>informative changes</b>,âwhich guides the visual encoding of the diagram elements. </li>
</ul>
links for 2010-07-19
July 20, 2010links for 2010-07-18
July 19, 2010-
<blockquote>
<p>
What's the main difference between successful Google applications (search, maps, news, email) and a successful social applications? <b>With Google applications we return to the app to do something specific and then go on to something else, whereas great social applications are designed to lure us back and make us never want to leave.</b>
</p><p>
Consider this example: Google Answers focused on answers and failed; <a hreg="http://yanswersblog.com/index.php/archives/2010/05/03/1-billion-answers-served/">Yahoo! Answers</a> focused on social and succeeded. The primary purpose of a social application is connecting with others, seeing what they're up to, and maybe even having some small, fun interactions that though not utilitarian are entertaining and help us connect with our own humanity. <b>Google apps are for working and getting things done; social apps are for interacting and having fun.</b>
</p>
</blockquote>
via
http://twitter.com/timoreilly/status/18792573914
links for 2010-07-13
July 14, 2010-
<blockquote>
<p>The blocks editor uses the Open Blocks Java library for creating visual blocks programming languages. Open Blocks is distributed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Scheller Teacher Education Program and derives from thesis research by Ricarose Roque. We thank Eric Klopfer and Daniel Wendel of the Scheller Program for making Open Blocks available and for their help in working with it. Open Blocks visual programming is closely related to the Scratch programming language, a project of the MIT Media Laboratory's Lifelong Kindergarten Group.
</p><p>
The compiler that translates the visual blocks language for implementation on Android uses the Kawa Language Framework and Kawa's dialect of the Scheme programming language, developed by Per Bothner and distributed as part of the Gnu Operating System by the Free Software Foundation.
</p>
</blockquote>
links for 2010-07-09
July 10, 2010-
<blockquote>
<p>
Today, grid operators get nervous when as much as a few percent of peak load is met by renewable energy (RE) within a distribution area served by a substation. As a result, we see rules across the country that directly limit the size of solar power systems and the amount of peak load that can be met by RE. Hawaiiâs most populous island, Oahu, is a good example. The following rule is taken from the North Carolina Solar Centerâs DSIRE Database:
</p><p>
For customers of Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO), the maximum individual system capacity is 100 kW. The aggregate capacity of net-metered systems is limited to 1% of HECO's peak demand. Of this 1% limit, 40% is reserved for systems 10 kW or smaller.
</p><p>
Rules like this hinder the growth of the solar power industry….
</p>
</blockquote> -
Original:
<blockquote>
I believe there is a 50/50 probability that the smart grid initiative will fail not because it will not work but because we will not change enough to let it work as needed to get to the promise.
</blockquote>
links for 2010-07-06
July 7, 2010-
<pre>
http://theinvisiblegorilla.com/blog/2010/02/26/behind-the-scenes-of-the-%E2%80%9Cgorilla-experiment%E2%80%9D/</pre>
<p>
The authors belong to a psychological school of thought that celebrates methodical, rational analysis over rapid, intuitive decision making. They say little about research that has revealed intuitionâs strengths, such as its ability to aid firefighters, pilots and other professionals in making critical decisions under time pressure. Nor do the authors address the possibility that experimentally induced mental illusions stem from thinking strategies that are generally useful, just as optical illusions stem from a largely effective visual system.</p>
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/60366/title/Book_Review_The_Invisible_Gorilla_And_Other_Ways_Our_Intuitions_Deceive_Us_by_Christopher_Chabris_and_Daniel_Simons
links for 2010-07-02
July 3, 2010-
<iframe src="http://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=11mbKA1IWVfESr7ngHyxxS54egfFjEa9UbV3iwWg8wTI&embedded=true"></iframe>
<pre>
Control device on LAN: device polls server w/ GETs for commands: I'm doing it It must exist | http://tinyurl.com/2g5duph | #lazyweb #python
â Can't hack the router.
â Control the device from the web
â Server implemented with Google App Engine
â Device polls the server with GETs including ID
â When the server has a command for the device to execute it indicates
this in the response to the device's GET, including a sequence number
â If the device has already executed the command (based on the
sequence number) it ignores it
â The device POSTs back to the server that it has received the
command (with sequence number) and any result.
â The server removes the command from it's response to
further GETs from that deviceSuggestions to mshook via gmail or twitter. And thanks!
</pre>
Talkabout 