Red Leopard

freshnews.orgI get my tech news through the freshnews aggregator. While not a complete picture of the world, it is enough for me. Those looking for a more extensive time waster, try originalsignal.com. Certainly, using an aggregator implies that someone else is selecting the stories I read and therefore outside forces are impacting my worldview. But isn’t that always true? Are we not inherently enthralled by amusing stimulation? Those concerned about it might look here, here or here. <li> <a href="http://zenhabits.net/">zenhabits.net</a>Leo Babauta&#8217;s Zen Habits is exactly what&#8217;s needed when I notice the world seems a shade darker. Have you noticed that some people seem to always be angry? or negative? or depressed? or paranoid? I&#8217;m not talking here about something clinical, something requiring psychiatric intervention. No, what I&#8217;m talking about here is a person&#8217;s persistent mood. <p> My persistent mood some time ago was rather negative (and my use of the word &#8220;rather&#8221; is rather charitable.) My discovery–which was actually discovered thousands of years ago and since extensively written about, yet new to me–was that while moods are <em>deeply</em> ingrained, they are not <em>indelibly</em> engrained. You are not stuck with whatever persistent mood you have. In a nutshell, the way to replace (or displace) a persistent mood is through structures and practices that support the new desirable mood and breakup the old undesirable mood. </p> <p> One of <em>my</em> practices is the practice of awareness. Sometimes I succeed in maintaining awareness and other times I do not. The practice stands nonetheless. The Zen Habits articles are a part of that practice.</li> <li> <a href="http://itp.angellearning.com/">itp.angellearning.com</a>I will finish my <a href="http://itp.edu/academics/globalma/">master&#8217;s in psychology</a> in June 2012. It is an online program (although students spend two weeks in on-campus seminars) hosted by Angel Learning. I frequently login to my account to publish my work and comment on my cohort&#8217;s (classmates&#8217;) work. <p> I was skeptical of online education. No longer. I see the benefit of brick-and-mortar schools, especially at the undergraduate level. However, that precludes many adults from continuing or finishing their degrees, either undergraduate or graduate. The online format is a viable alternative. </p> <p> My interest in online education began long before I returned to school. <a href="http://moodle.org/">Moodle</a> captured my imagination and became my entry point into the practical issues of course management systems. For those interested only in (non-degree) continuing education, traditional universities participating in <a href="http://www.ocwconsortium.org/">Open Courseware</a> publish actual courses online. <a href="http://www.khanacademy.org/">Khan Academy</a> is nothing short of inspiring. </p> <p> Unsurprisingly, <a href="http://www.ecampusnews.com/technologies/rules-could-prompt-colleges-to-pull-online-programs-from-some-states/">not everyone</a> is excited about online education. Why? When in doubt, <em>follow the money</em>.</li> <li> <a href="http://safari.oreilly.com/">safari.oreilly.com</a>I am not an advocate of online subscription services; they too often underdeliver. Yet I am a subscriber to O&#8217;Reilly&#8217;s online Safari book service for quite a few years now. <p> I noticed one day that it made little sense to buy technical books–which I did on a monthly basis. I&#8217;d once a month wander the aisles of <a href="http://www.digitalguru.com/">Digital Guru</a>, reading chapter one of a dozen books before buying a <em>must-have</em>. At $40+ a book, I was spending five to six hundred dollars a year. The subscription service is cheaper and I don&#8217;t have shelves full of outdated books. </p> <p> O&#8217;Reilly has added a number of non-technical publishers–unexpected but very welcomed, especially Kogan Page, Jossey-Bass, Berrett-Koehler, and Butterworth-Heinemann. I now read several books a month; I&#8217;m now in the middle of four: (i) <a href="http://my.safaribooksonline.com/book/-/9781593273842">Art of R Programming</a>, the why of which is a long story. R scratches an itch. (ii) <a href="http://my.safaribooksonline.com/book/-/9780749456672">Excellence in Coaching</a>, is an edited work on coaching. (iii) <a href="http://my.safaribooksonline.com/book/-/9780470579619">The Mindful Coach</a>, outlines Doug Silsbee&#8217;s septet model. It&#8217;s an interesting approach to developing a wide range of personal communication styles. Finally, (iv) <a href="http://my.safaribooksonline.com/book/-/9781118033388">The Handbook of Knowledge-Based Coaching</a>, is another edited work on coaching.</li> <li> <a href="http://www.yellowbridge.com/">www.yellowbridge.com</a>I&#8217;m still on this masochistic path to learn Mandarin. The Yellow Bridge dictionary is amazing and goes a long way in easing the pain. How good is my Chinese? Well, I haven&#8217;t given up. 一步一个脚印。 </li> <li> [<b>update 2012-02-20</b>] <a href="http://pandodaily.com/">pandodaily.com</a>When I first heard that AOL bought TechCrunch, I felt my shoulders slump and the day darken. It was like that when Fox cancelled <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Good_Guys_(2010_TV_series)">The Good Guys</a>. And <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefly_(TV_series)">Firefly</a>. TechCrunch wasn&#8217;t just news. It was entertainment. And polarizing. <p> How many productive hours were lost in debate over Michael Arrington&#8217;s status as a reporter, the end of journalism, and the recklessness of TechCrunch. It was deliciously awful. The AOL buyout signalled the end. Assurances of editorial independence aside, TechCrunch lost their editorial independence. Who was surprised when Arrington got sacked? No one. AOLCrunch took a wild tiger and put it on a morphine drip. Sad. </p> <p> A new day. Sarah Lacy has (finally) left to create her own fresh online tabloid, PandoDaily. A few of the old <a href="http://pandodaily.com/authors/">TC bandits</a> have joined the party yet it doesn&#8217;t seem to me an attempt to recreate TechCrunch—thankfully. Let the dead lie in peace. </p> <p> I wish Sarah and her crew well.</li> </ul>

Linkedin’s latest site redesign reduced the font-size to eye-straining smallness. When I tried to enlarge the text (OmniWeb, Safari, MacBook Pro), I found text enlargement didn’t work. What? How did they disable text enlargement? And why would someone purposely make their website difficult to read? I don’t have a desire to hunt down how linkedin disabled text enlargement. Even if I did find the cause, I’m sure people who could fix the problem already know yet choose to not fix the problem. ...

A few quotes and idioms I’ve collected. 顿悟之前砍柴挑水，顿悟之后砍柴挑水——吴力。 Dùnwù zhī qián kǎnchái tiāo shuǐ, Dùnwù zhī hòu kǎnchái tiāo shuǐ. –Wú Lì Before enlightenment, chop wood and carry water; After enlightenment, chop wood and carry water. –Wu Li Note: Enlightenment does not relieve one of the details of daily life. 摸着石头过河——邓小平。 Mōzhe shítou guòhé. –Dèng Xiǎopíng Cross the river by feeling the stones. –Deng Xiaoping Note: We may not see exactly how to get there but we will pragmatically find our way; we will learn as we go. ...

[update 2011-05-06 I believe my tone in this posting is unjustly harsh and debated (with myself) whether to remove it or not. I’ve decided to let it remain and write a new, more appropriately toned post. Why the change in heart? I’m reading Sieler’s Coaching to the Human Soul (2005). My questions arising in Flaherty’s (2010) book are being answered in Sieler’s. I’ve also just finished reading Brock’s dissertation (2008) which addresses the history and lineage of coaching. Brock is said to publish Sourcebook of Coaching History later this year, now on my future reading list.] Coaching: Evoking Excellence in Others by James Flagherty ...

I read a paper some time ago–but for the life of me cannot remember where–presenting study findings on student recall and comprehension. The irony of not recalling the details of a paper on the subject of recall spurred me to examine my own recall in other areas. I may have forgotten the source but the gist of the paper… that I remember: The best way to improve comprehension and recall is to write an essay. I’ve long believed that writing develops a concept more fully (Galbraith, Torrance & Hallam, 2006) but the lost paper suggests that essay writing on a new subject internalizes the content. ...

January, 2011. A month of reflection and choices. My world will never be the same. Speak a new language so that the world will be a new world. —Rumi

2010 sucked. Don’t get me wrong. There was a lot good happened in 2010. But as a vintage, it sucked. Big donkey balls. At 2010’s wake, we make New Year’s resolutions in hopes that doing so will wash the taste out of our mouths. It’s what we do. Like paying taxes in April. Creatures of habit, that’s what we are. One of those habits is making resolutions at year’s end. ...

I couldn’t get the idea out of my head that the Avatar rendering cluster required 1 petabyte of storage. However, this slide show of the facilities used for filming the actors opened my eyes. [eye opening slide show] The petabyte is required not just for the finished product. It’s needed to store all the sensor and camera data as well. Okay. I accept that Weta needed 1PB. How does one go about creating a petabyte storage facility? What are the tradeoffs? How much does it cost to build and then to maintain? ...

I’ve been working on and off on the next Seeds of Discontent article. This is a tidbit of an upcoming post but I wanted to push it out now since I need it published for a divergent sidebar article. It stands here bald and raw. That’s life. This system uses most of the Rampage III resources. The two Radeon cards will completely consume the PCI Express lanes (2 x16). The 24GB DDR3 will fill the six DRAM slots. ...

These are my notes made while looking for an Aikido dojo in the San Francisco Bay’s mid-peninsula region. Specifically the communities in and around Palo Alto, CA. (image: wikimedia.org) [Update 2011-12-20: I have chosen to train at Aikido Center and started attending Zazen and Aikido classes in October 2011.] I won’t get into the ‘why’ I’m looking for an Aikido dojo in this posting. Most of what I would say can be gleaned from Stan Wrobel’s excellent book, Aikido for Self Discovery: Blueprint for an Enlightened Life. I’ve included a short book review. ...