{"id":26794,"date":"2015-09-28T14:25:20","date_gmt":"2015-09-28T21:25:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jerrypournelle.com\/chaosmanor\/?p=26794"},"modified":"2015-09-29T10:44:55","modified_gmt":"2015-09-29T17:44:55","slug":"a-busy-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jerrypournelle.com\/chaosmanor\/a-busy-weekend\/","title":{"rendered":"A busy weekend. New Education Technology?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chaos Manor View, Monday, September 28, 2015<\/p>\n

\"bubbles\"<\/p> <\/p>\n

1330: Just back from a walk with Paul Schindler, former BYTE editor and old friend who comes down from the Bay area once or twice a year. We usually take a hike up the trail to Mulholland, but with the walker that was right out, so we had to make do with two miles on the flats. I am now motivated to get up the paved fire road past the ranger station at Fryman so that I can get up the hill again. I am sure I can manage the fire roads. But first time I think I want Barnes along, just in case\u2026<\/p>\n

Saturday night I went to a gumbo party out in Woodland Hills. It was a meeting of the Mystery Writers of America local chapter. I have been off and on going to MWA meetings since the late 60\u2019s when it met in the Los Angeles Press Club building, and I used to hang out with Ed McBain aka Evan Hunter. Alas the Press Club sold the building (I have no idea where the money went) and met in various places thereafter, with increasingly smaller meetings. Some were in the nearby Sportsman\u2019s Lodge in Studio City and I went to those, but then they got increasingly harder to get to, and each time I went I knew fewer and fewer people. For some reason I decided to go to the gumbo party and said I would be there.<\/p>\n

Then Greg Bear and Astrid Anderson Bear came down for the weekend to see Karen Anderson, and I was committed for Saturday night, so we had lunch at a nearby Italian place that serves gluten free pizza that my wife can eat. That went well, but there was no way Karen could get into my house with the front stairs \u2013 I use the garage, as I can\u2019t get up the front stairs either. But my garage opens on another street, not the front of my house, and it has stairs too, only not so complex, so I couldn\u2019t invite them in. It worked out fine, and the restaurant was quiet enough that we could have a great conversation, sort of finishing the conversation we started Thursday night at the LASFS meeting.<\/p>\n

At the MWA party there was no one I knew, and I doubt anyone there ever heard of me, but it was interesting getting the mystery writer point of view on what is happening to the publishing industry. After a while I found myself sitting at a table with a younger guy, whom my son Alex introduced with a name I didn\u2019t catch \u2013 my hearing aids aren\u2019t so good at noisy parties \u2013 as having produced a recent documentary on Glenn Campbell. I mentioned that I had met Glenn Campbell a long time ago when I was one of the managers of Sam Yorty\u2019s campaign for Mayor. Of course I didn\u2019t know him, but that led to other conversation, and eventually I found out I was talking to Trevor Albert, who produced a lot of big movies including Groundhog Day. I was impressed.<\/p>\n

Then Sunday there was at LASFS a memorial to Ann Morell, an old friend, as is her widower Bill Ellern. I\u2019ve known Anne since before she met Bill, and they were married for thirty years. <\/p>\n

That pretty well used up the weekend, and I am off to Kaiser and physical therapy in few minutes. More another time. <\/p>\n

\"bubbles\"<\/p> \n

1605: Hah.  Kaiser Physical Therapy specialist Theresa Wong has just said I don\u2019t need her any more; I have graduated. I suppose that is good, but I will miss her.  I have to go out to the Podiatrist tomorrow, so I\u2019ll drop off a couple of books for her when we go.  The first day I came home from hospitals I was a mess.  Now they can\u2019t do a lot more.  And I can do several miles walk after vegetating for a week.  Good progress, and no reason to believe I can\u2019t keep improving.  <\/p>\n

\"bubbles\"<\/p> \n

\n

USAF tankers  <\/p>\n

Dear Dr. Pournelle,<\/p>\n

Here’s a pretty good writeup on the KC46 Pegasus, the USAF’s next generation air-to-air refueling tanker.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/hotair.com\/archives\/2015\/09\/26\/pegasus-its-no-unicorn-either\/<\/a><\/p>\n

While it isn’t much of an improvement over the older KC-135 and is quite a bit more expensive, that doesn’t change the fact that the older aircraft is quite long in the tooth, and still needs replacing. <\/p>\n

Also, the procurement process is wasteful. I’m sure that comes as a shock to all readers . <\/p>\n

Respectfully, <\/p>\n

Brian P.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The elimination of Systems Command was a drastic mistake.  Now we pay for that \u201csaving\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"bubbles\"<\/p> \n

\n

Dave Hammond<\/p>\n

Begin forwarded message:<\/p>\n

Subject:<\/b> Popular in NYT Technology: Microsoft Releases Office 2016, With Features Focused on Teamwork<\/b><\/p>\n


Microsoft Releases Office 2016, With Features Focused on Teamwork<\/b>
By NICK WINGFIELD
Office 2016 has numerous changes, with the most prominent ones designed to improve how the software is used by groups of people to collaborate.
September 21, 2015 at 05:00PM
via NYT Technology http:\/\/ift.tt\/1V7CKtx<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Eric installed  Windows 16 on Swan, my Windows 10 system in the back room, and on Precious, the Surface Pro, over the weekend, but I haven\u2019t had a chance to try it yet; I\u2019m hoping it will improve our collaborative efforts.  More when I know more.<\/p>\n

\"bubbles\"<\/p> \n

http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/science\/sciencenow\/la-sci-sn-briny-liquid-water-on-mars-20150926-story.html<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Watch NASA scientists explain why they think water still flows on Mars (LA Times)<\/p>\n

By <\/b>KAREN KAPLAN<\/b><\/a> <\/b><\/p>\n

Some of NASA\u2019s top scientists are set to share new findings they say will solve a mystery about Mars.<\/p>\n

Jim Green, NASA\u2019s director of planetary science, and Michael Meyer, lead scientist for the Mars Exploration Program, will hold a news conference Monday morning at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C., to \u201cdetail a major science finding,\u201d according to the space agency.<\/p>\n

The news conference will also include three members of the research team behind a study<\/a> published Monday in the journal Nature Geoscience that offers evidence of \u201ccontemporary water activity on Mars.\u201d<\/p>\n

In that study, scientists from Georgia Tech, NASA Ames Research Center and elsewhere explain that an instrument aboard NASA\u2019s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter<\/a> has spotted telltale signs of hydrated salts in several locations on the surface of the Red Planet.<\/p>\n

Using data collected by the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars<\/a> instrument, the team members concluded that salts are deposited on the slopes of several craters and canyons. These salts \u2014 including magnesium perchlorate, magnesium chlorate and sodium perchlorate \u2013 appear to have been carried there recently by flowing water.<\/p>\n

Mars has frozen water at its poles<\/a> and traces of water in the dust<\/a> that covers its surface. Finding liquid water flowing on Mars would make the planet much more Earth-like, and potentially increase the likelihood of Martian life.<\/p>\n

In their study, the researchers write that their findings \u201cstrongly support the hypothesis that seasonal warm slopes are forming liquid water on contemporary Mars.\u201d But they aren\u2019t sure where that water comes from. One of the possibilities that comes to mind \u2013 that water ice melts in the relatively warm summer \u2013 is unlikely, since these salts weren\u2019t found near the icy poles. They list a few other theories but say none of them seems probable.<\/p>\n

More details may be forthcoming in the news conference, which begins at 8:30 a.m. You can watch it live in the window above.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

\"bubbles\"<\/p> \n

\n

http:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/how-humans-can-win-the-race-against-the-machines-1443392035<\/a><\/p>\n

How Humans Can Win the Race Against the Machines<\/b><\/p>\n

American education is ripe for a technology revolution to prepare students for the 21st century  <\/b>    (journal)<\/p>\n

<\/u><\/p>\n

By<\/p>\n

Christopher Mims <\/p>\n

Sept. 27, 2015 6:13 p.m. ET<\/p>\n

<\/u><\/p>\n

Whatever your measure\u2014the reading and math proficiency of high-school graduates<\/a>, the skills gap<\/a> in the nation\u2019s labor market, or the real value of college<\/a>\u2014there can be little argument that America\u2019s schools, as a whole, are failing to prepare students for the 21st century.<\/p>\n

There are countless explanations why, but here\u2019s a significant contributing factor: Until recently, we simply didn\u2019t know how to use technology<\/a> to make teachers and students happier, better engaged and more successful. <\/p>\n

Think about it: In every field of human endeavor, from manufacturing to knowledge work, we\u2019re figuring out how to use technology to make humans more successful\u2014to raise the quality of their work, if not their measured productivity.<\/p>\n

But the same can hardly be said of teaching. In education, the overwhelming majority of students are still learning as they always have, in classrooms dominated by a one-to-many lecturing model in which teachers inevitably leave some students behind while boring others. That model has barely changed in a century. <\/p>\n

<snip><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

We need a new education technology, but we won\u2019t get it.  There are too many who have built their lives on learning the old technology, and they now lead the unions to protect their comrades. We cannot fire incompetent teachers; we cannot fire incompetent education professors; we cannot require new teachers to learn the new technologies assuming we have some in development.  The public school system now exists to pay unionized teachers salaries and pensions; if that condition is not fulfilled, then the children don\u2019t matter.  Again that may not be true of individual teachers, but it will be true of their union leaders at both the public school and teachers college levels levels.  Pournelle\u2019s Iron Law will prevail; heck we can\u2019t fire obviously incompetent teachers now;  how can we ever replace those who don\u2019t know whatever new technologies we may develop?  We can\u2019t even keep order in the classrooms. <\/p>\n

It may be that parents will learn the new technologies; but will regulators ever allow schools using them to be credentialed?  Perhaps I am misinformed?<\/p>\n

\"bubbles\"<\/p> \n

\n

http:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/matt-damon-tinkers-to-survive-on-mars-in-new-movie-1443025432<\/a><\/p>\n

Matt Damon Tinkers to Survive on Mars in New Movie<\/b><\/p>\n

In \u2018The Martian,\u2019 opening Oct. 2, Matt Damon plays a stranded astronaut who has to figure out how to survive on Mars for almost two years      (journal)<\/b><\/p>\n

By<\/p>\n

Don Steinberg <\/p>\n

Updated Sept. 24, 2015 9:37 a.m. ET<\/p>\n

<\/u> \u201cThe Martian,\u201d a science-fiction movie<\/a> opening Oct. 2, isn\u2019t about mind-bending quantum cosmology or the intergalactic origins of human life. There are no bureaucrats or evil CEOs with hidden agendas who could sabotage a space mission. There\u2019s no back story about parental issues between a wistful astronaut and a child peering into the night sky.<\/p>\n

Instead, \u201cThe Martian\u201d is the story of an enterprising scientist <\/a>who is stranded on a planet and must use his wits and limited resources to survive and be rescued. The movie, directed by Ridley Scott<\/a>, is based on a book that Andy Weir<\/a>, then a computer programmer, published chapter-by-chapter on the Web.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one would ever accuse \u2018The Martian\u2019 of being literature,\u201d Mr. Weir says of his book<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019ll be the first to admit it. There is very little character depth at all. There\u2019s no character growth. It\u2019s a story about events, not people.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the movie, astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon<\/a>) is part of a crew sent to Mars. (Other members are Jessica Chastain, Michael Pena and Kate Mara). A storm hits and Watney is struck by debris that appears to kill him. The crew reluctantly aborts and blasts off. Then Watney wakes up amid the rusty red dust of Mars and wonders where everybody went. The NASA brass in Houston (boss Jeff Daniels and scientist Chiwetel Ejiofor<\/a>) arrange a funeral\u2014there\u2019s no grieving family\u2014before receiving word from Watney that he isn\u2019t dead after all. <\/p>\n

ENLARGE <\/p>\n

Andy Weir, author of \u2018The Martian,\u2019 at the Toronto International Film Festival in September. Photo: Jeff Vespa\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

The driving force of the film is Watney\u2019s Popular Mechanics-style approach to surviving on Mars for almost two years. He measures, calculates, builds, experiments and blows thing up. He adapts communications devices and mulches Mars dirt with his own waste to create soil for growing food. He\u2019s like the Discovery Channel\u2019s \u201cMythBusters\u201d guys in space, joking darkly, with little time for brooding about his plight. Six years ago, Mr. Weir was a programmer working on mobile apps who had gained a modest following for the comics and sci-fi stories he published as a hobby on his website. A space nerd, he plotted missions in his head and wrote software to calculate orbital trajectories. He figured a Mars mission gone awry would make a thrilling tale, which he started posting online in 2009. The science, he says, became the drama.<\/p>\n

<snip><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Robinson Crusoe in space.<\/p>\n

\"bubbles\"<\/p> \n

\n

http:\/\/www.ft.com\/cms\/s\/0\/fd1c2266-62e6-11e5-9846-de406ccb37f2.html#axzz3n5GT1Iwr<\/a><\/p>\n

Astronomical costs of intellectual property rights patently wrong    ft<\/b><\/p>\n

Kate Burgess <\/p>\n

Innovations are still being stifled by dense thickets of overlapping patents <\/p>\n

<\/u><\/p>\n

The International Space Station cost \u20ac100bn over a decade, smartphone patents wars have cost $20bn over two years<\/p>\n

It seems cruel that it costs comparatively little to launch groundbreaking ideas into space yet so many are held back by the billions spent protecting intellectual property rights on earth. <\/p>\n

The price of funding the International Space Station, the collaborative project that has taken the technology of many corporate tots to the stars, is about \u20ac100bn over a decade, according to Europe\u2019s Space Agency. That means every European paying about \u20ac1 a year. <\/p>\n

Put that against the $20bn that the patent wars cost the smartphone industry alone over two years when the likes of Apple<\/a>, Motorola and others filed thousands of patents and battled to protect them<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As far back as 2011, the Hargreaves Report<\/a>, sponsored by the UK government, warned that innovations were being stifled by the dense thickets of overlapping intellectual property rights. Since then, growing numbers of patents have been filed across the digital spectrum with holders laying claim to algorithms and formulas and through them sweeping ownership of broad technologies and products. <\/p>\n

Multinationals may have the resources to file and then defend their claims in court when necessary, but few small businesses do.<\/p>\n

For most start-ups, the costs of litigation are astronomical and the outcome too uncertain. Academics from the London School of Economics put the total cost in the UK for claimants and defendants in patent litigation at between \u00a31m and \u00a36m in 2012. The costs are rising. It emerged last week that the UK government is planning to double the fee for issuing civil lawsuits<\/a> \u2014 the second increase in 12 months. The Law Society says it is a further deterrent to small businesses defending their rights to intellectual property.<\/p>\n

It does not deter big companies.<\/p>\n

<snip><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

\"bubbles\"<\/p> \n

\n

Dear Jerry:<\/p>\n

Washington’s  Growing resemblance to the City of Dis  has washed over into another Dantean analogy:  the Best Practices of both sides in the Climate Wars increasingly  draw on the Seven Deadly Sins<\/p>\n

http:\/\/vvattsupwiththat.blogspot.com\/2015\/09\/metamodeling-seven-deadly-sins-at.html<\/a><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Finding seven deadly sins Emoji in short supply, I had to make my own.<\/p>\n

Best regards<\/p>\n

— <\/p>\n

Russell  Seitz<\/b><\/p>\n

Fellow of the Department of Physics Harvard University     <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

An example<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Model Envy-<\/u><\/i><\/b>   The need to command larger research budgets than competing models or theories, if need be by having competitors defunded or charged with crimes.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"bubbles\"<\/p> \n

<\/p>\n

\"bubbles\"<\/p> <\/p>\n

\"bubbles\"<\/p> <\/p>\n

Freedom is not free. Free men are not equal. Equal men are not free. <\/p>\n

\"bubbles\"<\/p> <\/p>\n

\"clip_image002\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"bubbles\"<\/p> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chaos Manor View, Monday, September 28, 2015 1330: Just back from a walk with Paul Schindler, former BYTE editor and old friend who comes down from the Bay area once or twice a year. We usually take a hike up the trail to Mulholland, but with the walker that was \u2026 Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-view"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jerrypournelle.com\/chaosmanor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jerrypournelle.com\/chaosmanor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jerrypournelle.com\/chaosmanor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jerrypournelle.com\/chaosmanor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jerrypournelle.com\/chaosmanor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jerrypournelle.com\/chaosmanor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26794\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jerrypournelle.com\/chaosmanor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jerrypournelle.com\/chaosmanor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jerrypournelle.com\/chaosmanor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}