A Curious Statistical Anomaly

For Christmas, I got a Kindle. Well, if you’ve been keeping an eye on the Kindle newsbits, I had a Kindle ordered for me for Christmas with a delivery date in March. Waiting has been difficult and still is.

Then, my hubby got the word from Amazon that the Kindle I’d be receiving would be the Kindle 2 rather than the original Kindle he ordered. I thought about it and looked again at the Kindle 2 features and now I’m all kinds of excited by this news. At first, I wanted to stay with the original because I liked the keyboard better and the sliding bar rather than the new keyboard and joy-stick key. But when I look at all the other upgrades and features, I find that they far outweigh the joy-stick and keyboard. So, I’m psyched again to get it.

I essentially read for a living. Well, I review books and that involves a lot of reading. With the downward spiral of the economy, many publishers are having to cut somewhere to save money and keep the books coming. That means fewer advanced reading copies (ARCs) and several publishers have already contacted me about PDFs. If they send PDFs as ARCs there’s no printing costs. However, many people don’t like reading on screen. I’d asked for the Kindle for Christmas because I could see the changes coming and I didn’t want to be chained to my laptop or desktop to read — not that my desk chair isn’t comfy but I like to curl up in my chair-and-a-half and read with a cuppa tea or sit on the deck or in the garden. Now I can — or I can when I get my Kindle.

The new Kindle 2 has a read aloud feature. I reported here about Text Aloud, a program that reads PDFs and text files to you in a sort of Stephen Hawking’s voice. Well, the new Kindle 2 has a similar feature. It seems that some people (the Author’s Guild) object. I found two articles on this today: BLORGE’s Kindle 2 prompts “reading Aloud” copyright claim and The Wall Street Journal’s New Kindle Audio Feature Causes a Stir. I can’t believe that anyone would take this claim seriously. It’s not like the book is being copied, and hearing it read by a computer synthesized voice is nowhere near the same as listening to an audio version of the book. It’s not like if I have a choice I’d pick the computer synth-voice over the acting and emoting human voice.

What’s next suing parents for reading to their children before bed. What about reading a bit of an article or a few paragraphs to your partner or friend or coworker in the next cubicle — violation of copyright. I’m also a struggling writer and I have a lot of interest in seeing that intellectual property and copyright are upheld but this argument is totally ridiculous and seems more for getting publicity and making themselves look foolish rather than being a real concern for their members. Obviously they haven’t learned from RIAA’s and MPAA’s mistakes — the more you cry wolf and demonize your users/readers/buyers the less respect you get (though in the case of those two their bottom lines prove them wrong in their basic assumptions — but that is another whole copyright rant…) Deep breath, relax…

I’m anxiously waiting for the message that says my Kindle has been shipped. Once I get it and use it a bit, I’ll probably have a bit more to say about it. Meanwhile, I’m counting the days…

There are some days that, no matter what you do — meditation, yoga, sitting quietly in the dark — it doesn’t help. The pounding just goes on and on. The least it could do is have a nice beat that is easy to dance to or sing counterpoint to. Guess that’s too much to ask of a migraine — at least it puts on a good light show at times.

Maybe tomorrow I’ll actually, do a post. Provided I can think.

I really couldn’t believe it when I read this article on PC Pro. The article said:

The three-app rule includes applications running in the background, meaning that a user running Windows Messenger and Skype, for example, could only use one further application on their machine. Antivirus software is excluded from the app count.

Microsoft says the restriction is designed to ensure that users get the best possible performance from limited netbook hardware. However, it admits it will encourage netbook manufacturers to install the unrestricted Home Premium in the UK.

Of course if you want to run more than 3 apps, and who wouldn’t, you’ll need to upgrade to the Home Premium edition of the software. I have a full-size laptop that’s over three years old that is my work horse of a machine — but it is getting old. I recently purchased a netbook for travel (Asus Eee PC). The Asus is Linux using Open Office. I saw this as a way to get myself used to another operating system — looks like I made a wise choice.

On my full-size (FS) laptop, I hardly if ever run just three applications running. I can’t imagine working with less than seven — if I had to really pare things down. Wonder how they got that magic number 3. An informal poll among a group of friends on ICQ and email (2 apps I always have open) showed that the fewest apps was 7. Hmmm, me thinks that MS did their research among non-standard computer users. My informal survey was among writers and non-computer professionals. My geek friends would have had a much higher number of apps open.

Since, Microsoft often does these little weirdnesses in marketing when they’re trying to figure if they could squeeze out more money from their users, this article makes me nervous. I hope the UK balks at this attempt to extort more money from netbook users.

Shortly after the New Year and before we took down our tree, this cardinal showed up on our deck. He’d arrive shortly after sun up each day. He’d spend some time looking in the sliding glass doors, hopping to the left and right and turning his head. Personally, I think the only thing he could probably see was his reflection but maybe he was seeing the tree. We weren’t sure because he repeatedly fluttered up and down the left hand door and then the right hand door.

Day after day for two weeks, he’d begin at sun rise and stay until shortly after sun set. Up and down the two doors. Time after time. He took a few short breaks of about 15 to 20 minutes several times a day. But basically he spent the days attacking our window. We took the tree down thinking that he was trying to get at it. That didn’t stop the fluttering. This photo isn’t very clear. I had a difficult time taking it through the glass because if I got too close he flew to the side of the house on the corner of the deck and waited until I left to start in again.

We were getting worried about this psychotic bird. When was he eating? Was he going to die trying to fight for territory with the cardinal he saw reflected in our doors? What was with this guy? Other cardinals in the area didn’t take to battering the door with their little bodies for hours on end. So, we worried.

In the end, we went out and bought a bird feeder. We set it up on one of the plant hangers on the deck across from the doors. We figured he wouldn’t have to go far to eat and could keep up his strength to attack our door — which was getting bird poop all along the bottom of it.

The bird feeder went up and non-migratory birds from all over came to eat. After two days the cardinal left. Haven’t seen him since. But these fellows have been photo’d at the feeder. The only ones we’ve identified — we bought a bird book — are the finches:

We’ve also had some black eyed Juncos and got a picture of one but I can’t find it now. We also have these birds that we don’t recognize. We can’t find them in our bird book — or at least can’t find a matching picture. If you know what they are let me know.

We’ve also had some woodpeckers at the feeder but they’re a bit big and just snatch and fly away to eat so I haven’t been able to get a photo. On the other hand, we have a number of ground feeders like doves getting the dropped food from the feeder on the ground level. Unfortunately, I keep forgetting to bring the camera down to try for them.

It has been really nice having the birds around. Not as noisy as I would have thought. But I can sit and read and look up and watch them lining up to take their turns with the feeder. They’ve begun to share. At first they would fight off the other birds, especially those in another species, but now they will share. It’s interesting to watch the interplay.

I came across this interesting article on EarthFirst and followed the link to a similar announcement on WorldChanging. Basically, the city of Oslo, Norway is going to start running their buses on biomethane. The WorldChanging article says:

In Oslo, air pollution from public and private transport has increased by approximately 10% since 2000, contributing to more than 50% of total CO2 emissions in the city. With Norway’s ambitious target of being carbon neutral by 2050 Oslo City Council began investigating alternatives to fossil fuel-powered public transport and decided on biomethane.

Biomethane is a by-product of treated sewage. Microbes break down the raw material and release the gas, which can then be used in slightly modified engines. Previously at one of the sewage plants in the city half of the gas was flared off, emitting 17,00 tonnes of CO2. From September 2009, this gas will be trapped and converted into biomethane to run 200 of the city’s public buses.

To me this sounds like a great project. I mean really, we (meaning humans) spend billions of dollars treating our sewage and trying to find ways to make it disappear and Oslo has come up with a way to use it. It’s essentially free energy — in that the basic beginning material (and you know what it is) is certainly not going to disappear anytime soon and you have to do something with it anyway. It’s a resource that is abundant, not owned by anyone, and every city, town, village, has to come up with some way to treat it and handle it anyway. This adds a different step and violá power to run buses and other automobile.

I think every level of government that has to deal with sewage treatment should be keeping an eye on this program to see just how well it works and to begin plans to implement a similar program in their own area.

Thank you Oslo for thinking outside the box.

I love words. I’ve been a talker since I first learned my first word — which was, as I’ve been told by others, “why”. Guess that explains how I got to be the curious person that I became.

I’ve always loved words. I’ve been known to, in the privacy of my office, to just say the same word or phrase over and over because I like the way it sounds, or the way the sound comes over the tongue and between the lips, or because of the image it causes in my mind’s eye. For example, I love some of the French words I learned because that rolled “r” makes my upper palate tingle — which usually means I don’t say the word because I start giggling but still I like it.

So, back on track, today when I came across the link for the 100 Most Beautiful Words in English, I had to check it out. The list contains some of my favorite words: adumbrate, blandiloquent, chiaroscuro, colporteur (the book seller not the wonderful singer), diaphanous (a long word for something so ethereal — a word also on the list), halcyon, inglenook, loquacious, mondegreen, peregrination, scintillate, and surreptitious among other words.

There’s also a list of ten bonus words which has one of my all time favorites — sussurous. I just love the sound of that word. Sigh. Other favorites among the bonus words: syzygy, terpsichorean, and tintinnabulation.

So, check out the list of beautiful words in English. The list has their short definition. There’s some words I’d add and some I think are nice but not worthy of the list but I enjoyed seeing them celebrated on this list.

What’s your favorite beautiful words?

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).