technology

The past was technically sophisticated

The belief in our own technological superiority is amazing. The past was primitive an we are great. Such thoughts are necessary to support the illusion of our belief in a relatively linear technological development. Thatâ??s why I like it when artifacts from the past blow huge holes in our theories of superiority. One such example is the device known as the Antikythera Mechanism (I blogged about this in October last year).

The interpretation and re-interpretation of the meaning and purpose of the Mechanism have been ongoing since its discovery. Recent developments show:

The Antikythera Mechanism is a unique Greek geared device, constructed around the end of the second century bc. It is known that it calculated and displayed celestial information, particularly cycles such as the phases of the moon and a luni-solar calendarâ?¦We find a mechanical realization of this theory in the gearing of the mechanism, revealing an unexpected degree of technical sophistication for the period. (Nature)

For a longer piece on the new interpretations of the Mechanism read this article, and this one, and finally this one all from the New York Times online.

Posted on by mklang

Bug catching day

Fiddling around with code always reveals new problems. Today I seem to have spent way too much time finding, developing and solving little problems. A full day of this and all I can see are the small irritations instead of the accomplishments.

For example after installing new wordpress blog software (version 2.0.5) I got this error every time I tried to do something

Found
The document has moved here.

Additionally, a 500 Internal Server Error error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

Very annoying. First searching then failing. Eventually I found a discussion on this bug which seems to be particularly prevalent among users who have One.com as their ISP (which I do in this case).

Not to worry the solution was here:

Find the file:
wp-includes/pluggable-functions.php

find the line:

> status_header($status);

and change it to

> // status_header($status);

Changed and everything is sortedâ?¦ My day has been full of little bugsâ?¦ Or as LP keeps saying: Maybe you should read the manual.

Read the manual? What? I ask you: What kind of amateur tecchie would stoop to reading manuals?

Posted on by mklang

Do you hand out your handouts?

Powerpoint is my crutch. As a teacher I have long been dependent upon powerpoint*. But I have also been concerned about the way in which it forms the way I teach and the way in which students learn. Increasingly students have an expectation of getting the lecturerâ??s powerpoint slides â?? Preferably in digital form and in advance of the lecture.

Powerpoint Students
What is a lecture? University is filled with them. They are praised by some and reviled by others (this will be the topic for a future post). To the student the lecture almost defines university life. Therefore it is maybe not all good when the lecture has become confined to the square space and bullet point list defined by presentation software.

Most often I do not hand out my handouts, nor do I provide my powerpoint slides in digital or any other form to my students. This is not an attempt to monopolize or capitalize on my knowledge. To understand the purpose of this we must look at the purpose of powerpoint slides.

Slides are used (in my teaching) for two purposes. First, and foremost, the slides are there to keep me on track to help me keep my thoughts in order. Second, the slides are intended to underscore certain more important thoughts or concepts. Thirdly, the slides may provide light entertainment they can help the listeners to keep listening.

As these points show, the slides are not a replacement for the lecture, lecturer, or literature. So in order to make sure that this message gets across: I do not hand out my handouts.

Powerpoint Lecturers
If the student has become used to being fed with powerpoint slides then what about the lecturer. We have (generalization warning!) become dependent upon powerpoint. Planning a lecture begins with the opening of presentation software. The knowledge we want to transfer is confined by our ability to condense it (knowledge) into squares and lists.

By adding features, such as effects, sounds and images we believe that we are somehow helping the students to understand what we have learned through reading, scientific method and experience.

Handicap Warning
Powerpoint can be, for both students and lecturers, an invaluable support. But letâ??s not forget that the same software can be used as a way in which to hide the fact that no transfer of knowledge is taking place. Each student should as him/herself what they hope to see in the handouts and why they are so eager to obtain the handouts â?? at the same time so disinterested in the original.

Lecturers should stop and think before resorting to powerpoint. If powerpoint is necessary then they should stop and think about the content and its presentation. Would the students be equally served by the applying the old adage â??less is moreâ?? to powerpoint?

Did Einstein hand out handouts?

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* the term powerpoint is intented to refer to a generic set of presentation software. The same results are obtained by Open Office presenter, Macâ??s Keynote, or any other such program.

Humor: The Gettysburg Powerpoint Presentation: Gettysburg Address as a powerpoint presentation http://norvig.com/Gettysburg/index.htm

Recommend Reading
Allan M. Jones. The use and abuse of PowerPoint in Teaching and Learning in the Life Sciences: A Personal Overview, BEE-j Volume 2: November 2003 http://bio.ltsn.ac.uk/journal/vol2/beej-2-3.pdf

David B. Daniel. Using Powerpoint to Ruin a Perfectly Good Lecture. Presented to the 1st Biennial SRCD Teaching of Developmental Science Institute 2005. http://www.srcd.org/biennial_archives/atlanta_2005/documents/daniel.pdf

Greg Jaffe. â??Pentagon cracks down on … PowerPointâ??, The Wall Street Journal Online. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-502314.html

Jens E. Kjeldsen. â??The Rhetoric of PowerPointâ??, Seminar.net – International journal of media, technology and lifelong learning Vol. 2 â?? Issue 1 â?? 2006. http://www.seminar.net/volume2-issue1-2006/the-rhetoric-of-powerpoint

Jeffrey R. Young. â??When Good Technology Means Bad Teaching: Giving professors gadgets without training can do more harm than good in the classroomâ??, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Vol. 51, Issue 12, November 12, 2004. http://chronicle.com/free/v51/i12/12a03101.htm

Posted on by mklang

Walking on the wild side

If I was in Singapore I would be facing a prison sentence for doing what I am doing now. (Explanation). The hotel has free wifi for its guests and the receptionist gave me the codes but I chose the wrong (?) wireless and the neighbors let me in.  Many swedes leave their wifi networks open and I must say that I have a hard time figuring why this should be wrong. Additionally I also have a hard time figuring out why people in cities who have open networks
should be annoyed that others surf on their infrastructure.

If you don’t want to let others surf the close the network. But unless you experience serious lag due to all you neighbors surfing via your net then why bother?

Actually allowing neighbors to surf your wifi may be in violation of the service agreement between you and your broadband provider. But lets not go there. Just let me mangle Blanche’s line in Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire”: I must say I am grateful for the kindness of strangers.*

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* Real line should be: “Whoever you are, I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.” but somehow this does not really apply to wifi…

Posted on by mklang

10 Arguments Against DRM

Learn Out Loud presents ten arguments against DRM. This is a good way to quickly get up to speed with the issue of digital restrictions management (DRM). The most important is that DRM changes the who controls our media and infrastructure. In the long run this control may also begin to control the way in which we think.

Posted on by mklang

Customisation

Have you ever held a knife which fits perfectly in your hand? Or any other tool which once you picked it up seemed to become almost a natural part of your body? If you have experienced this then you have experienced â??goodâ?? design. Often the only way to recognize â??badâ?? design is when things do not work or work badly.

During the past days the problem of good/bad design has been an issue since I managed to crash my laptop and needed to format and re-install everything. On one level this is not a complex operation but what is difficult is getting the computer back to the feeling it had before.

Since it is the tool I use the most it has been adapted from a standard factory machine into a highly personalized artifact and therefore once it was restored to factory standard working with it for longer periods was a painful experience in much the same way as working with a bad knife is a painful experience.

The process of customization is slow and getting the machine to adapt itself to my wants and needs an exhausting experience since it requires remembering hundreds (thousands?) of small pieces of software that made my machine mine.

Posted on by mklang

Happy Toilet, Healthy Life

Right now in Bangkok itâ??s the 6th annual World Toilet Forum. The Forum has as its slogan: â??Happy Toilet, Healthy Lifeâ?? â?? which I must say if you are going to pick words to live by then these are as good as many others! Much better than the ridiculous â??Dulce et Decorum Est Pro Patria Moriâ?? translated: It is sweet and noble to die for your country (If you donâ??t think its ridiculous then you should read Wilfred Owen or read more current affairs).

Anyway back to the original subject of Happy Toilets. Not only is there a World Toilet Forum but there is also a World Toilet Organisation, which I thought must have been a satire on the WTO, and there is also a World Toilet College in Singapore, whose nr 2 objective (sorry I couldnâ??t resist it) is â??To establish Singapore as the premier training hub for the restroom industry.â??

The WTO site (Toilet not Trade) also has a selection of photographs entitled Beautiful Restroom Images – but I thought that I would provide something more low-tech so this is from the public latrines in Ostia

Why the sudden interest? Well I just wanted you all to know that tomorrow is the International Toilet Day – a fitting tribute to the technologicalization of the natural processes. What can I say? Except â??Happy Toilet, Healthy Lifeâ??

Oh and of course you can also buy t-shirtsâ?¦

Posted on by mklang

Back from the dead

Wow! What a roller coaster! My computer died causing much pain, agony, wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Today, after using Data Rescue II and spending the whole day (more or less) watching software scan, find, rescue, copy, delete, format and finally install – I’m back! That’s right the computer has been rescued by the prompt, patient and heroic ministrations of the superwizard of support LP (I will not use his real name so that he can maintain his secret identity).

All my mail is back. All my friends have been grinning and making evil comments about backups and other safety measures. When not watching the screen I have been walking around as an example to others: “Look there he is… he didn’t back up and now he is toast…” A tale to scare the grandchildren with.

So now I will solemnly promise to make even more frequent backups and to never pop mail again (yes I shall embrace imap with the fervor of a convert).

Lessons learned you think? and yet… I don’t know. Maybe it was too easy, maybe I didn’t suffer enough…

Posted on by mklang

Angry, upset & annoyed

My computer crashed. MY computer CRASHED. I cannot access my stored mail! Actually all my mail is gone. All of it. Gone. I have not backed up my work for at least two weeks. I cannot even see my appointments.

When technology dies – it really dies. The problem was that I was lulled into a false sense of security with the shiny mac. It’s user-friendliness made me forget the vunerable situation.

If it cannot be repaired and rescued then I will be cursing out loud for several months to come.

DAMN!!!!!

Posted on by mklang

Robot Machine Gun Sentry

Samsung together with Korea university has developed the machine-gun equipped robotic sentry.

It is equipped with two cameras with zooming capabilities one for day time and one for infrared night vision. It has a sophisticated pattern recognition which can detect the difference between humans and trees, and a 5.5mm machine-gun. The robot also has a speaker to warn the intruder to surrender or get a perfect headshot. The robots will go on sale by 2007 for $ 200,000 and will be deployed on the border between North and South Korea. (Gizmondo).

The promotional video reflects a great deal of the lack of reflection among designers and developers – loud music and effects.

A machine is created to kill. No moral dimension – the machine executes commands (sorry bad pun). But what will happen when the software fails? Or even worse when the software works but a situation requiring tact and judgment occurs?

Obviously such a machine will do as it is told. It will be unable to interpret new situations and it will open fire.

Posted on by mklang