I probably shouldn’t be spending deadline-chasing time writing this post, but I can’t not, you know? I do have some Sunday pomodoros behind me, so the FNSF (and other involved parties) will probably not mind too much. Also, to shave off a few more seconds, I’ll temporarily switch to the Swimgeek Quick Update-style bullet list.
Before the first bullet however, you really have to see the DTV Shredder in action, the vehicle I’ve decided to equip my evil footsoldiers with, right after I manage to purchase a suitable volcanic island and install my evil lair:
I’m truly sorry that you’ve had to endure three full weeks without any Head Voices. I’ve been in full-on Crisis Mode(tm) for the past weeks, doing my best to complete a number of projects, most prominent of which has been the brand-spanking new TU Delft first year CS course TI 1100-a. During Crisis Mode, all but the most critical of tasks have to spend some time on the back-burner. Almost like the adrenaline-fueled mammalian fight-or-flight response, when even one’s digestion is temporarily halted in order to divert all energy to for example bounding over trees whilst evading some sharp-toothed predator, even my GTD processing more or less came to a stand-till. TNR’s pomodoro suggestion, however, was a life-saver. There’s nothing like a succession of 25 minute periods of being completely in the zone for flattening mountains of work. If you’re not continuously zoning yet, I can’t more firmly recommend giving this a try.
(This post touches on one noteworthy good news tidbit from my last week, then secretly waxes nostalgic over Dolly Parton, showcases some cheeky parkour and then, after complaining about my overloaded schedule, raises backyard sociological questions as to the most suitable work approach: Time-driven 9 to 5 or output-driven? Oh yes, its WHV Nerd Index is a reassuring 0/5, so it’s safe for everyone!)
I couldn’t come up with a catchy title involving Dolly, so you’re going to have to make do with what I have. When I say Dolly, I’m not referring to the cloned sheep, but to her Country singer namesake Dolly Parton. Google seems to think that Dolly Parton (3 million hits) is more famous than Dolly the cloned sheep (1.25 million hits), so now you know. In any case, Dolly (Parton, for those of you with really short attention spans) once starred in a movie called Nine to Five and, being a famous Country singer, also performed the theme song, called, in a completely unexpected turn of events, 9 to 5. And yes, I do remember seeing the movie more or less when it came out, and I vividly remember Dolly Parton: She was on our television a whole lot, plus that her unique appearance would make it hard not to.
Dolly Parton with Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda at the left and right respectively: The leading Nine to Five cast. Those were the days!
(This post has a point. A very important point if I might say so myself and I’m even skipping the Weekly Head Voices because of it. Please read it, in sessions if you have to, from start to finish. It has a WHV Nerd Index of 0/5 and a Backyard Philosophy Index of 5/5. You can get back at me in the comments.)
It turns out that when any normal human being is faced with observations or evidence that oppose their already formed opinions, they tend to ignore or downplay the value of those observations. Conversely, any scrap of evidence that seems to confirm the opinion in question is considered to be good and trustworthy evidence. This is called confirmation bias: You and I both suffer from it, and it can be a dangerous phenomenon. Ideally, we would be able to judge the evidence and come to a reasonable decision, but this turns out to be exceptionally hard.
A photograph I recently took of a confirmation bias. Note that observations from below confirming preconceived ideas are favoured more than observations from above, resulting in the tell-tale yellow tinge and staircase edge at the bottom of the core.
(This post introduces the new Weekly Head Voices Nerd Index, or WHV-NI, a metric by which you can see if you should read a post or not. Seethis page for an explanation of the WHV-NI. The NI of the first part of this post is 0/5, whilst the NI of the part starting with the accepted paper is 3/5, also due to the extensive Head Voices Review at the end.)
The WHV-NI is used to classify posts, and help you to decide if you want to read or not. The NI is a figure out of 5, grading the nerdiness of the post and the minimum nerdiness of the reader. Below is a handy table:
0/5 – Completely un-nerdy. Never programmed your VCR or PVR before? Not sure what a PVR is? You’re at the right place.
1/5 – Ever so slightly nerdy. You’ve received and successfully opened “e-mail” before.
2/5 – You’re normal, with slight nerdy tendencies that you possibly try to suppress or just to hide. You surf the web often. You use a smartphone, such as a Blackberry or, common sense forbid, an iPhone, that you use regularly.
3/5 – When you see a pocket-protector, or spectacles that have been mended with a plaster, you feel a strange excited stirring that you’re not able to put a finger on. You get all enthusiastic when some new gadget is released, or when a colleague shows you their new Android telephone syncing their stuff with Google and showing all their NI >3 friends moving in real-time on a neat map of the city.
4/5 – You program stuff. When you’re in the neighbourhood, technical sh*t just starts to work. You read blogs. You know and possibly regularly operate an RSS aggregator. You’ve comfortable in at least two different operating systems. You have your own blog.
5/5 – You speak a few words of Klingon. Linux has no mysteries, you’ve even contributed little bits of the current kernel code. When someone mentions Seven-of-Nine, you get ALL WORKED UP.
(This post is a slightly longer than average report detailing our trip to the EG VCBM 2010 conference. It’s of course super-entertaining, but if you still do wish to skim through it, I’ve bolded the per-paragraph themes. If you’re not sure what these danged conferences are about, see my recent EuroVis 2010 postfor a general introduction.)
Kids! It’s now truly summer over here, which means as much as possible time outside, which means less time available for writing blog posts. However, weeks 24 and 25 of 2010 contained such newsworthy items, that I’m simply forced to trade some sun-light for a bit of TFT exposure. In this post, we talk flowers, PhD defences, scientific talks, funny Js and finally stick figures, so please stick around!
I took this photo of the Oude Kerk in Delft as we were taking a walk with one of our esteemed guests. So it's really relevant to this post, ok?
Welcome all to the latest edition of the Weekly Head Voices! In a bid to get more numbers into my titles (oh who am I kidding, I’m clearly trying to slightly injure or preferably frighten two birds with a single stone, splitting infinitives as I go along), this WHV is dedicated to the EuroVis 2010 conference, which on its part is the reason I spent most of last week in Bordeaux.
Château Faugères, youngest of the chateaux. Photo by Peter Krekel.
