Author: David

Over-educated Curmudgeon, Bit-Bucket Tuner and Budding Brewmeister.
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Schrödinger’s Cat And Public Policy

Schrödinger’s cat is a famous thought experiment summed up this way,

A cat is placed in a box, together with a radioactive atom. If the atom decays, and the geiger-counter detects an alpha particle, the hammer hits a flask of prussic acid (HCN), killing the cat. The paradox lies in the clever coupling of quantum and classical domains. Before the observer opens the box, the cat’s fate is tied to the wave function of the atom, which is itself in a superposition of decayed and undecayed states. Thus, said Schroedinger, the cat must itself be in a superposition of dead and alive states before the observer opens the box, “observes” the cat, and “collapses” it’s wave function.

Of course, the problem with thought experiments like this when used to analogize scientific issues is obvious. Let me pop the bubble around this one: how long is the cat in a “superposition of dead and alive states” while closed in this sealed box?

Just long enough for its air to run out so that it suffocates.

Geniuses just don’t seem to think these things out. Einstein discussed Schrödinger’s hypothetical cat with the guy for at least 15 years without ever noting this simple problem with the thought experiment, as far as I can tell. That’s just one of many reasons why I don’t trust the smart people in government to decide what’s best for me. They just don’t seem to look at (or care about) any of the options outside their own paradigm.

Besides, they might just be the kind of person who doesn’t like cats and will put ’em in boxes to suffocate to death.

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Der Führer Disses the iPad

As much as I hate to find myself in agreement with “Hitler” I simply cannot find room to disagree with this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQnT0zp8Ya4&feature=player_embedded

And the thing is, this video only scratches the surface of the stupid feature set. iPad: just the thing for thoughtless and dim-witted Apple junkies (there does exist a class of thoughful and intelligent Apple junkies *heh*) who like to waste money.

h.t. Planck’s Constant

Micro-mini-update, in an article at eWeek I found this lil gem,

Digital device expert Walt Mossberg called this “amazingly low-priced for an Apple product.”

*heh* And I’d bet dollars to donuts Apple addicts would think that’s praise, while the rest of the world would recognize the qualifier (“for an Apple product”) as acknowledgement that Apple products are generally over-priced.

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As Ought to Be?

My first wind instrument, not counting of course the recorder I played as an even younger child, was a trombone. In fact, it remained my primary musical instrument–apart from voice–for many years. Hence my chuckle when I read the following in a contemporary Holmesian short story, The Adventure of the Lost World by Dominic Green

“…I consider it normal to see a man’s life taken from him by another for the pursuit of criminal gain, Watson; but it is rare indeed for him to be eaten afterwards.”

Even I, who have been in Afghanistan, was appalled. “Surely not.”

“Just so, Watson. In the past seven days, on Hampstead Heath, there have been seven attacks upon street musicians, each the player of a trombone of some description, and each attacked, if those who heard the attacks are to be believed, whilst executing the closing bars of Gustav Holst’s Thaxted [see below the fold–ed.]. In each case, the victim appears to have been attacked from above, the flesh crushed and cut, the bones splintered, the capital extremity entirely missing in many cases. Each victim’s body was also notable for the stench of corruption which hung about it, like gas gangrene.”

“Accidental death has been ruled out, then? A recurrent trombone malfunction of some order—”

“—has already been checked for… [emphasis added-ed.]

*heh* “A recurrent trombone malfunction of some order… ” There were times… (Ah, the memories!)

“No, no, Watson! Blowing one’s head off from excessive back pressure developed while playing ones instrument is much more common among oboe players!”

*ROFLKASTMAFO*

Later, when I’d given up trombone for other instruments, other musical pursuits, when I taught budding musicians, I noted that the flute players were always the most cooperative, compliant and studious of instrumentalists, while the trombone players (and drummers–not to be confused with percussionists*) were generally the clowns and “martini lifters” (and the trumpet players the “weight lifters”–the “jocks” of the band). Again, there were times… *heh*

Continue reading “As Ought to Be?”

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Christian Worship Music: An Aside

While I was reading, Thoughts on Worship Music, from the resources at Christ Church, Moscow Idaho, I thought about the time a pastor objected to a particular song on the basis that it was “melancholy”. Now, this was either an idiosyncratic reaction to the song itself, which was an upbeat, joyous expression of personal religious experience or a highly unusual use of the word, “melancholy”. Since he went on to elaborate that it was a “downer” I believe it was the former, since the common usage of “melancholy” indicates

“–a gloomy state of mind, esp. when habitual or prolonged; depression.”

or when used as an adjective, as he used it,

“-causing melancholy or sadness; saddening: a melancholy occasion.”

NO ONE (and I mean a BIG zero with the rim kicked off) else I have asked about this song has EVER agreed that it, is “saddening”, gloomy or depressing.

That leaves a much, much less common usage of the word to mean,

“-soberly thoughtful; pensive.”

Ah, perhaps he did mean it in this manner and objected because it led people to be thoughtful, contemplative. Knowing both his sermonizing and his temperament, it’d not surprise me that he’d not want people actually THINKING about what was going on…

*heh*

Back to more of the thoughtful (and thought-povoking) articles at Christ Church.

Continue reading “Christian Worship Music: An Aside”

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FWIW–not suchabigdeal

Folks over at the Win7 Forums are making a big deal out of the Windows Experience Index. My Win7 Pro box that’s cobbled together from a base of a 3-year-old HP Media Center PC is a kinda low-middle-of-the-road PC. Not so much a powerhouse (although by changing out the memory and primary hard drive, it could be a lot hotter), but Good Enough for most purposes, including running several VMs on top of the host Win7 OS.

FWIW,

I don’t know what the deal is with the Aero score. 1GB of discrete video RAM on the nVidia vidcard; Aero never bobbles or hesitates; smooth as silk. Something arcane I don’t care about. Son&Heir’s monster Asus gaming notebook scores higher on gaming, memory and hard drive marks but about the same on Aero scoring, so I’m not at all sure that the Aero score matters at all to my own experience.

Especially since I do much of my computing in Linux Mint in a VM. *heh*

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A Lil Book Searching for Its Raison D’être

I guess you’d have to be me (or someone who’s tired of grading “grad” papers from subliterates) for this to bother you,

“But the Dock is so much more than just eye candy. It’s an ever-accessible venue where [sic] your frequently-used applications can call ‘home’.”

Sadly, this is typical of the writing in the otherwise excellent and useful (to newbies and those who need even more hand-holding than the Mac straight jacket already provides), “The Mac Manual” from makeuseof.com.

While there’s nothing really ground-breaking, and really nothing that someone of average intelligence cannot figure oput on their own, for those who find Windows just toooo hard and those who just want to know how to use the oh-so “intuitive” Mac interface more quickly, this is a very nice cheat sheet.

69 pages with loads of nice white space makes “The Mac Manual” from (makeuseof.com) and really quick read and even a handy enchiridion for incurious or lazy newbie Mac users.

But yeh, I have a copy of it and may even carry it with me for the next Mac user I meet who needs some help. 🙂

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Ahh! The Blessings of “Junk Builds”

My home office desk is a build consisting of

  • -a 3’X6′ top I slapped together from (mostly) scrap about 17 years ago.
  • -four legs made of (average) better than 10″ diameter sycamore logs from deadfalls off our trees from The Great Ice Storm of 2007, with
  • -oak 2X4 (from old pallets) and sycamore limb bracing
  • -and a 2’X3′ “keyboard drawer” made from a piece of castoff formica counter and the only purchased item, a heavy-duty drawer glide.

Why is this such a blessing, apart from the fact that it was built for about $12? Oh, well, when I stumbled and fell on the extended “keyboard drawer” a few minutes ago, I broke one of the free oak pieces I used to attach the drawer glides to the desktop, along with the drawer glides.

Cost to repair? Maybe $10. (I can get better, heavier-duty glides now for less at one of my fav “fell-off-the-truck-pricing” stores. *heh*) I have plenty of pieces of oak 2X4, so since I’ll recycle the 3″ brass screws, I’ll need only the drawer glides. Sweet. Heck, I’ve been meaning to replace these now worn (over 10 years old) drawer glides, anyway, what with all the wear I’ve given them using my keyboard drawer as a footrest… 🙂

But… broke the oak support. Man, I have to lose a few pounds… 🙂

Oh, and when the “drawer” fell, I also broke my plastic trash can. S’all right. Pulled it out of a dumpster almost 10 years ago, along with its companion paper shredder (which I repaired and used for five years until it died again… and was replaced by another dumpster paper shredder). I have more such freebies with which to replace the trash can.

I tell ya. Folks toss out the most useful stuff. (I’m about to use a discarded horizontal file cabinet as a “build-in” to a full room height bookcase. What was wrong with it that it was discarded? Oh, the back–cheap, thin mahogany plywood–had been broken. I replaced it with better: a peg board on which things can be hung behind the horizontal file drawers! It was brand new but “broken” in transport. Thrown out. Asked the business owner, and he appreciated the removal.)

OK, this is more than just an “I broke my desk, but I don’t really care” post. Catching wise? Don’t need to be a hoarder, but why just throw out stuff? Put it on Craigslist or something if it doesn’t sell in a garage sale! Here are some Craigslist listings just today for a locale near me:

  • Free firewood pic
  • A Bunch Of Stuff – Couch, Lamps, Gardening Stuff And More
  • puppy
  • Golden Retriever pic
  • FREE Wooden Treehouse/swing playset
  • Car/Truck Hood
  • 36 In. Screen Door pic
  • WOODEN SHOP TABLE
  • Free 20+ inch TV

Think what a blessing some of your junk might be either to someone in need or just some tightwad like me. *heh*

Still, didn’t even shake the desk. Just tore off the keybd drawer. My lap and a lil side table are working fine as keyboard rest and mousing surface for my wireless input devices. I frequently use ’em that way anyway when I have my feet up and am leaned back, comfortably “computing” from about a 5′-6′ distance from my monitor. Now, it’s reduced a tad, cos my feet are on the desk proper. I’m amazed i can find room for ’em there, though. The thing holds an awful lot of junk…

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More Kind Than Deserved

Dennis Prager, in excessively kind and gentle fashion, takes Charles Johnson, of Little Green Nutballs (which I will not link) to the woodshed (kindly, gently) with, An Open Letter to Charles Johnson.

For those of y’all who may have missed the blogospheric kerfuffle, Charles Johnson once ran Little Green Footballs (still not linking it), which, once upon a time, long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away, used to be a place where he fought against the evils he today defends. No, not just defends; virulently, slanderously–in many folks’ opinions–attacks those with whom he once allied himself.

Prager reiterates Johnson’s list of “justifications” for his switch and rebuts them all. Here’s #9, a typical example,

9. Anti-Islamic bigotry that goes far beyond simply criticizing radical Islam, into support for fascism, violence, and genocide (see: Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, etc.). [Johnson]

I saw Pamela Geller’s site (The New York Times Magazine article about you cited it — Atlas Shrugs — and mentioned nothing remotely approaching your charges against her or her site) and I’ve interviewed Robert Spencer. Your charges against them only cheapen the words “fascism,” violence” and “genocide.” [Prager]

As I said, Prager takes Johnson to the woodshed most convincingly (read it for yourself) and, IMO, all too gently, especially given the fact that I have read the positions and assertions of all the parties Johnson condemns and have a good idea of their place in “the right”. Johnson’s place? IMO, Little Green Nutballs is juuuust the place for him… until someone can get commitment papers in order, for his own good. Then, of course, if a physical etiology for his psychological issues can be diagnosed, perhaps medical treatment could return him to sanity.

Of course, if there’s no one in his family who cares enough about him to begin commitment proceedings, he’ll likely spend the rest of his life frothing at the mouth and baying at the moon.

Continue reading “More Kind Than Deserved”