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THE VIEW FROM CHAOS MANOR

View 291 January 5 - 11, 2004

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This is a day book. It's not all that well edited. I try to keep this up daily, but sometimes I can't. I'll keep trying. See also the monthly COMPUTING AT CHAOS MANOR column, 4,000 - 7,000 words, depending.  (Older columns here.) For more on what this page is about, please go to the VIEW PAGE. If you have never read the explanatory material on that page, please do so. If  you got here through a link that didn't take you to the front page of this site, click here for a better explanation of what we're trying to do here.

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If you want to PAY FOR THIS there are problems, but I keep the latest HERE. I'm trying. MY THANKS to all of you who sent money.  Some of you went to a lot of trouble to send money from overseas. Thank you! There are also some new payment methods. I am preparing a special (electronic) mailing to all those who paid: there will be a couple of these. I am also toying with the notion of a subscriber section of the page. LET ME KNOW your thoughts.
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Monday, January 5, 2003

I am dancing as fast as I can. I have to finish Burning Tower (one scene to go, one, only one, well maybe two) and get the column out. Meanwhile I am reminded through other stuff that we discussed The Flynn Effect and IQ here,  (a while ago as well as recently) although Google doesn't seem to know that; but our discussions were in some cases more on target than ever were many on the first several pages Google turned up.

This isn't a whine, it's a warning, and a matter of some concern. Using Google as the first line of attack for a research project is sensible, but making use of it as the only means for a literature search is dangerous. It's not that this web site is so scholarly or so important as that it is easily demonstrated to be more important than some of the frivolous places turned up in the search. Not sure why that happens.

We have a pretty hefty readership of influential people here. That's easily seen from the quality of mail we get (more clear to me from what I don't have room or time for). We don't have long irrelevant threads and I try to avoid frivolous links, although sometimes we do have links for just plain fun.

The question I want to open is just how does one go about finding out what is going on in the world now? Simply using Google can work sometimes, but it can also ignore fairly important material (e.g. Charles Murray answering some of the criticisms of The Bell Curve based on the Flynn Effect: they're here, but hard to find using Google). Google is a great place to start: where do you go to dig deeper? And what algorithms ought to be in place to make sure that a variety of viewpoints, not just those most popular and thus linked to most often, are at least considered?

Now it's back to work...

But do go have a look at Mars

 

 

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Tuesday,  January 6, 2004  

  The column is done, more or less. I'll do some mail but I have to go get an oil change for the long drive to Las Vegas tomorrow. David Em and I will be driving up to CES...

MACPROBLEMS

It may be I just don't understand this machine, but it's trying to drive me nuts.

On a Windows system, if you have an external mouse and keyboard connected through a USB port hub, and you disconnect them and take the machine off to use as a laptop -- when you come back you simply plug the USB hub back in. Mouse and keyboard will be recognized.

With the Mac, I  have to shut down and start over. Plugging the USB port back in does nothing, and unplugging it and trying again does nothing, and if there is a way to force the Mac to scan its ports for new devices I don't know it.

 

 

 

 

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Thursday, January 8, 2003

I am in Las Vegas and it's late, and I am exhausted. I will post this from the Press Room tomorrow since the Travelodge has hard wired the telephone and I just don't feel up to disassembly and reconstruction to get on line.

 

CES is enormous, and exhausting. I have filed the column.

 

 

 

 

 

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Friday, January 9, 2004

Home at last.

 

 

 

 

 

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Saturday, January 10, 2004

Spent the day with The Grandchild.

Have solved the Macweirdness but don't know how that happens: If I plug the hub into the Mac after it has been disconnected for a couple of days (or hours) the Mac doesn't see the hub no matter how long I wait. If I plug the keyboard directly to that USB slot then after a while the Mac sees it (takes longer than you expect); but if I plug the keyboard into the hub and the hub into the Mac, nothing.

But if I now pull the power plug on the hub, the Mac will suddenly wake up and tell me that a USB device is unpowered and this is a problem. Plug the power back into the hub, turn off the various warning messages, and all is well. This seems an odd way to do things, but it does work. I find that Macs often want you to do odd things; once you get used to doing it that way all is well. Getting mail, for instance, after the wireless net is connected: it works "off line" until you go to the menu and tell if to go get mail. Then it works on line. Why it thinks I want to be off line when I have connected it to the wireless net I do not know. But again, it's weird, but it works, and if you remember to do it all is well.

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Peter Glaskowsky and me: press room, CES. (Photo by Ernet Lilley.)

 

 

 

 

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Sunday, January 12, 2003

Sunday, at Home.

 

 

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