My Mustache is Touching My Brain

Since I'm both going to school, and teaching, and writing a book, and working two different jobs, I don't have a lot of free time. I don't watch much TV. But a little over three years ago I caught the first episode of 24, the television show on Fox. I was hooked. Three episodes later, my wife came in to see what the fuss was about, and we haven't missed a show since.

But about a year ago a neighbor friend happened to mention that she only watched two shows on TV , 24 and a not-so-well-known show called Alias. My interest was piqued. About 6 months ago, my wife and I picked up season one. We have been plowing through them ever since, hoping that we can catch up with the episodes on TV.

Since I was making so many trips to the TV section of Hollywood video, I have since picked up a few other television shows. Monk is a fun little show, and I have also greatly enjoyed The Shield. And Firefly IS what the recent Star Trek shows are not. And then of course there are the wonderful Adult Swim shows on the cartoon network.

But I think all of my 'TV' watching has ruined my taste for movies. When I go to the rental store I don't want to pick up a movie that is going to take 2 hours to get through. I'd rather watch a 45-50 minute episode where everything is resolved in less time than it takes to cook my famous apple crisp.

I have been wanting to watch LOTR with my boys, but we just can't seem to find 9 hours of free time.

Maybe I'll rent Bill Nye instead.

The Perfect Teaching Device

I was at a presentation (which was very good, by the way) where we were discussing the possibility of making automated instruction. The goal was to create a system that would pretty much do what a teacher does, only better; because it's a computer. Once you have a program that can do what a human can do, you make a lot of these 'computers' put them in front of students, and we all sit back while people learn.

Dave Wiley was in the room and asked a very interesting question. If you have a computer that knows all of this information, why do you need to learn it in the first place? Why not just use that system as a reference?

The answer came in the form of another question (the best kind of answer), “Well, you may have a calculator, but don't you still need to learn how to add?”

This question wasn't answered right away. There was a bit of thought and discussion but eventually the question was, at least in my mind, answered quite satisfactorily. The answer has to do with recency and frequency. You know how to do things that you have either recently done, or those that you do all the time. We add often and frequently, and therefore find it easier to just learn it rather than rely on a calculator all of the time. But we don't memorize the square root of every number between 1 and 100. This information is rarely needed, and so you use a calculator.

So, if I had access to a computer that could teach me anything I wanted to know about anything, I wouldn't spend time trying to learn from it, I would simply want it in my back pocket. If I decide to visit Gettysburg, I don't need to know all of the facts about Gettysburg, I only need to know how to pull the device from my back pocket, and read. It becomes a reference.

I teach several classes at Weber State. I do not force students to take tests in which they have to memorize and regurgitate. What is the point? We live in a Google world where so much information is at the tips of your fingers. I care more that my students can find a right answer, and logically prove to me why it's a right answer, than they can just memorize the right answer I give them.

I don't think we need to come up with the perfect computer based instructor. I think students learn best by themselves. Sure, we can present information, or better yet, experiences, that will get students thinking, but if a person doesn't want to learn, they won't. In my mind, a system that can present information in a logical way, (or in multiple ways?), that stimulates curiosity or thought (which leads to learning), is a much better device than one that professes to teach.

It would be easier to build to boot. Google, Wikipedia, and Cellpedia are already steps in the right direction.

Analyze This!

Amazon.com has a few new features for some of their books.

The first feature is something called Statistically Improbably Phrases, or SIP. This consists of phrases that are unique, or very unique to this particular book. So if you look up Ender's Game you will discover that "bugger wars, beat the buggers, flash suits and null gravity" are all phrases unique to this book.

Interesting, but Amazon doesn't stop there.

It also gives you some basic stats like Flesch-Kincaid Index (Ender's game is a 5.3), percentage of complex words, and, my personal favorite, words per dollar (Ender's game gives you 16,134 per dollar, which is nothing compared to War and Peace. Good ol' Leo delivers 51,707 words per dollar, though I'm not sure what the conversion to the rubel would do to that.

And finally, you can look at the concordance, which actually uses visual weight to display the 100 most common words in the book. I'm not sure, but I think they leave out words like "the" and "and". Just by glancing at the concordance you can see that "Ender" is the most common, followed by "said".

Anyway, it's an interesting feature, though I'm not sure how directly useful it is. And this isn't on all of the book by any stretch of the imagination. It looks like they have done it only on the more popular books

Now this is a case to watch...

I was bored with OJ about 12 minutes after the white bronco ride. Michal Jackson? Who cares...

This is the case to watch.

Man loses finger in an ice cream machine.

Second man finds the finger.

First man wants it back.

Second man says he needs it to sue.

First man says he will sue if he doesn't get it back.

Classic.

Pop some popcorn, and save me a front row seat.

Infinity...

Have you ever noticed that a pringles chip, turned just the right way, makes an infinity sign?

Bring that up at the next HRUMC and see if you're not hailed as one of the great thinkers of our time.

Uncovered Cover

Chickens in the Headlights
Originally uploaded by firemeboy.

I was browsing the Internet and came across the cover for my new book, Chickens in the Headlights, on my publisher's web site.

It's a bit cartoony, but I think I like it. I guess a book that has a dog named Farding, isn't exactly going to be bound in leather.

Netflix and Wal-Mart and Blockbuster: Oh My!

The above three companies all offer online DVD rentals. Netflix pioneered it, Wal-Mart is so big it has to be involved with everything, and Blockbuster is the rental king, so it couldn't be left out either.

So who is going to win the online race? I'll tell you. I don't know. But I do know how any of the above companies could win it.

I got a movie on Wednesday and shipped it back Thursday morning. Monday morning, FIVE DAYS LATER, Netflix finally receives the movie. If I'm lucky they will ship today, and I will get a replacement on Wednesday again, if not, it will be Thursday before I get my next episode of Sea Lab 2021. I can pay $15 to my local Hollywood video and get three DVDs a day. The only downside there is the selection. They don’t have Sea Lab 2021, nor do they have The Brak Show. What are they thinking?

So, who is going to win the race? The solution is simple, and Blockbuster and Wal-Mart are in the best position to do this. Set up a little kiosk in their store that scans movies. I get a movie in the mail, I watch it, and then, if I choose, I go to the store, scan the movie, drop it in the box. The system automatically sends me my next movie, while my original movie is in transit. No more waiting 5 days for the DVD to travel. The companies would actually save money because they wouldn't have to pay the shipping on the envelope. And of course for those that don't really care for the increased speed, they could still send it back in the mail.

Of course the other alternative is to just send me the movie digitally while I sleep, but the nancy boys in the movie industry are far to chicken to try that approach.