A Curious Statistical Anomaly

I don’t know about you but I’m always interested in new gadgets that will be better for the environment and greener to use. I’d never heard of this contest before but it’s their second year.

The people at Core77:

We invited designers to explore the concept of “Greener Gadgets.” Designs sought to minimize the environmental impact of consumer electronic devices at any stage in the product lifecycle. Areas of sustainability to consider included energy, materials/lifecycle/recycling, social impact, and educational development. Designers could focus on a particular area of human enterprise (learning, playing, communicating, etc.) or a particular context (work, home, school, etc.), a particular material, or a specific device. Entries could also seek to create new paradigms for products and services.

You can check out the designs and vote on your favorite. I’m still working my way through the list of green devices. Some are outstandingly clever, some are ho-hum, some are WTF, but show some interesting solutions to the problem of how to do some activity in a new, novel way with less of an environmental impact.

I’d love to hear what your favorite gadget from this list was and why — as much as the Core 77 people. Each gadget has its own page and there are comments on the gadget below the description. Another reason it’s taking so long to go through this list.

Core77 deserves a round of cheers for sponsoring this effort.

The crunch of getting the ezines up and live on the 1st of the February is over. It’s now time to relax and try to figure out what went wrong with my schedule so that I ended up working until 3 a.m. to make that February 1st deadline. I finally realized it was because I lost a day.

Now, I don’t mean someone just waltzed in and took a day from me but they might as well have. After careful thinking between bouts of shiny thingying like crazy, I figured it out.

First, I have to remind you that there are two kinds of calendars. One type shows the month with weeks running from Sunday on the left to Saturdays ending the week on the right. The other one goes from Monday at the left to Sunday ending the week on the right. Well, in my office I have a Monday to Sunday calendar. But, and this is critical, in the kitchen I have a Sunday to Saturday calendar.

Well, when I was planning my time frame while making coffee (so I was in the kitchen) I glanced at the calendar and noticed that the 31st of January was the last day of the month. Great. Then I moved into my office, coffee in hand and started plotting my schedule thinking because the 31st was the last day of the month, it must be Sunday. Hence my surprise when I found out on Saturday that it was the 31st.

“Yikes,” says I. “But I still have too much to do. What happened to my extra day?”

Needless to say. I now know to beware the calendar differential setups and examine all plans carefully for the whole Mon-Sun and Sun-Sat issue. So, I lost a day but only on paper and in my mind. If you haven’t already checked them out check out SFRevu.com (interview with Lois McMaster Bujold and another with Anton Strout) and GumshoeReview.com (interview with Sarah Graves).

Every month, I think I’ll have enough time to get everything done without a huge crunch as we approach the deadline to get things up and live. But, somehow there’s my plan and the world’s plan or the universe’s plan — and I missed posting for several days due to extreme lack of time.

So, in order that I don’t feel like I’m up to 3 am on the last day of the month for nothing, please, check out the zines and let me know what you think.

SFRevu.com for science fiction, fantasy, and related coverage, book reviews, etc.

Gumshoe Review similar coverage but of the mystery genre.

Also, check out TechRevu which gives you news and reviews of technology, gadgets, and related material.