Storage Shelf Added

I spent yesterday afternoon adding a shelf to our utility closet. It was a wire Closetmaid shelf, the kind I used to sell as a hardware salesman after high school.

You’d think it would be a snap to install a wire shelf, but you’d be wrong. Because these shelves are designed to be mounted without using wall studs, they require multiple screws in the drywall. I had to carefully remove 10 or so drywall fasteners to get the old shelf out, then add another twenty to put the new shelf and the old shelf in their new locations. I did this all the while Travis was sleeping in his room ten feet away.

By the time he awoke from his nap I was done hanging shelves. Now to paste over the old holes and everything will be finished. The new shelf doubles our storage space in the utility closet.

Dry Air

During winter its a challenge to keep indoor air from getting too dry, yet when heaters defrost their coils they regularly expend a large amount of water vapor in a cloud of steam. I wonder if that steam could be safely captured and somehow used to add moisture to the indoor air? Probably not, I suppose, since it might not be clean enough, but it does make me wonder.

Cheap Thoughts: Polar Air

When a “blast of polar air” descends from the Arctic Circle, what takes its place? Balmy, humid Carribean air? Is Santa Claus so lazy that the warm weather has to go to him and not the other way around?

Where does our warm weather go for winter vacation?

On Wikipedia

Wikipedia, the Internet’s free encyclopedia, is a wonderful resource. Its strength is its ability to be updated.

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Going Green With More Green Lights

I read that the city of Raleigh is testing LED lighting in its parking decks. Then I suffered through a long stop-and-go morning commute down Capital Boulevard. I was about to suggest that if the city really wanted to go green, it would spend that money instead on synchronizing traffic lights. That would cut down on greenhouse gas emissions from idling traffic and make everyone’s life easier.

Then I drove home from work and sailed up Capital Boulevard, having only one red light out of dozens!

That almost never happens. I had to laugh when my commute undercut my argument.

The Inverse Power Of Praise

Read this fascinating article on the inverse power of praise:

Since Thomas could walk, he has heard constantly that he’s smart. Not just from his parents but from any adult who has come in contact with this precocious child.

But as Thomas has progressed through school, this self-awareness that he’s smart hasn’t always translated into fearless confidence when attacking his schoolwork. In fact, Thomas’s father noticed just the opposite. “Thomas didn’t want to try things he wouldn’t be successful at,” his father says. “Some things came very quickly to him, but when they didn’t, he gave up almost immediately, concluding, ‘I’m not good at this.’?” With no more than a glance, Thomas was dividing the world into two—things he was naturally good at and things he wasn’t.

Why does this child, who is measurably at the very top of the charts, lack confidence about his ability to tackle routine school challenges?

(read more)

(h/t, O’Donnellweb) Continue reading →

Free Software != Bad

The N&O’s Stump the Geeks columnnist recently took a question regarding free software. Her answer left the impression (though perhaps unintended) that free software was dangeous since it may be filled with viruses and back doors. The answer implied “who ever heard of people writing software for free? And how could any of it be good?”

Never mind that people do write software for free, often because whatever is commercially available doesn’t address their needs. Or it could be that commercial software is too expensive (see Adobe Audition vs. Audacity). Or they do it just because they can. The cooperation of programmers worldwide built much of the infrastructure which runs the Internet, in addition to many other world-class software projects. Free software, and open source software in particular, has been a wonderful blessing, keeping many users from reinventing the wheel, so to speak.

Open source software can also be more secure than proprietary software, in that the source code is available for anyone to inspect. It is difficult if not impossible to hide viruses and worms within open source software (though that does not guarantee it to be bug-free, of course).

I was disappointed the columnist did not make a stronger case for free software. I suppose it shows that the public still equates free software with theft, when in fact the generous, sharing nature of open source software should be embraced.

(Note, the N&O is playing games again with making Internets readers register. The above link may not work. Sigh)

[Update 19 Feb]: Found a link to the Stump The Geeks column in question. Thinking about it now, her “only pay software is safe” answer doesn’t just ignore open source, it’s wrong. Remember last year’s Sony’s rootkit fiasco? Open source software isn’t without its flaws but at least you know exactly what you’re getting.

Division Of Labor = Division Of Solutions

I was marveling about our modern society the other day. We live a life of leisure compared to our ancestors of a hundred years ago. Our roles are largely of this strange category called “consumers,” which can be defined as “those who consume.” We have built a society where we have insulated ourselves from the source of many of the things we enjoy in our lives.

If I’m hungry for chicken, I don’t have to hunt for one. Someone else raises it, slaughters it, processes it, trucks it to my city, cooks it, and serves it to me, all in exchange for my money. My hands stay clean.

I don’t have to get involved in North Carolina’s death penalty debate. Someone else catches criminals, tries them, convicts them, incarcerates them, and executes them, all in exchange for my money. My hands stay clean.

The same goes for the quest for energy. Someone else digs out the coal from the earth, transports it to the power station, transforms it into electrons through burning, filters the toxins in the air it produces, and delivers it to my house, all in exchange for my money. My hands stay clean.

With such a division of labor, my direct involvement becomes limited to the final product. How does the power company know I prefer clean power? How does the state know I prefer they not kill people to teach others not to kill? How do I accept the hundreds of chickens that died to satisfy my hunger? Instead a wonderful fantasy exists where someone else is responsible.