Underdogs
Posted on February 3, 2008
When it comes to politics and sports, I always find myself rooting for underdogs. I probably follow politics more than I do sports, but that’s not saying much. About the only time I pay attention in sports is when it comes to playoffs and one of my “teams” is in the mix.
For baseball it’s mostly the Red Sox, then the Rockies. I was born in Massachusetts but lived in Colorado for over 20 years. It’s more about the Sox though because the Rockies are a team that didn’t exist most of the time I lived in CO. During the last World Series, I was torn. I wanted the Sox to win to prove their Series win a few years ago wasn’t a fluke. OTOH, I would have been very pleased to see the Rockies win so Denver would have another type of champion sports team in addition to the Avalanche and the Broncos.
For football, the teams I usually root for are the Broncos, the Patriots, and the Colts. The past few years have been good ones for those teams. This year, however, I find myself eager for the Giants to win. It’s not like I’m a Giants fan, but since the Pats have been pretty dominant the past few years, it would be nice for them to get beat.
I remember a Super Bowl back in the 80′s where the Patriots and the Bears went. The Patriots were the underdogs. It seemed like everybody was rooting for the Bears, so I rooted for the Pats. At the end of the game, the Patriots got their asses handed to them. The game was incredibly lopsided. I have a feeling this year it will be another lopsided game, this time in the Patriots favor, but that still won’t stop me from rooting for the Giants. I’ll still be pleased if the Pats win, but I would probably be happier if they lose.
Edit: Well, it wasn’t lopsided and the Patriots did lose. Overall it was a great game. The defense on both teams were fantastic, so the final score was low. Good jorb.
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The Davos Question
Posted on January 27, 2008
What one thing do you think that countries, companies or individuals must do to make the world a better place in 2008?
Went to YouTube and found a bunch of videos for this on the main page. Wasn’t what I was looking for, but I was intrigued enough to do a little Googling on it.
I’m not going to embed the main video for it, but it’s worth a look to get an idea of the background.
I can’t think of any one thing that would make the world a better place. I can think of many things that would probably help out in some way. I think poverty and education are probably the biggest problems facing the world, because they are the root of many other problems such as wars, drug abuse, STD’s, etc. In the movie Gandhi, there was a quote, “Poverty is the worst form of violence.” I don’t know if Gandhi really said it, but it rings true. If a person has an education (or is at least literate) then he or she can probably acquire the knowledge to rise up out of poverty…hopefully.
Heresy
Posted on January 25, 2008
It’s almost a personal heresy, but I bought a Mac.
I’m enough of a geek to build my own PC and get it running well, but laptops are another story. Where PC hardware is pretty much standardized and it’s easy to swap out parts, laptops are mostly proprietary hardware. If the motherboard on my PC fails, I can replace it cheaply and easily. If a motherboard fails on a laptop out of warranty, it might be cheaper to buy a new laptop. At the very least it would involve sending the laptop back to the company to get fixed.
At work there are only a few Macs, and I don’t support them. The people who get them know they are on their own because I know very little about Macs. I actually encourage people not to buy them for work because many of the systems we deal with are tied to Windows or IE in one way or another. Still, I got a copy of Parallels and installed it, which allowed me to install XP (IU has some sort of bulk license with Microsoft for most of their products).
The laptop was delivered on Tuesday, but I haven’t had much time to play around with it. I installed anti-virus, Office 2004 for Mac, Blender (hooray), GIMP :-) and a few other programs. It was pretty easy to get the wired and wireless connections at work, but getting them to work at home was problematic. I thought it was funny because of the whole idea that “Macs just work”. Ubuntu was easier to setup at home than the Mac was. I hit some forums and found a peculiar issue with 2Wire routers/DSL modems used by AT&T/SBC and Leopard. I hit Google and found a forum where somebody suggested typing sudo dscacheutil -flushcache which worked. After I typed that, and entered the WEP password, I was able to get wired and wireless Internet connections.
First impressions:
When it was delivered, I wished I had a camera with me. The box and packaging are beautiful (I’m not a fanboy yet). The box looked like a black (cardboard) attache case with some spiffy graphics on the sides. Opening the box, there was some very decorative styrofoam padding with the words Mac Book Pro on it. Removing the top piece of foam, the laptop itself is wrapped by a large non-static envelope. In a pocket in the foam are the accessories like the AC adapter, iRemote, DVI-to-VGA adapter, and one or two other things. Pulling the laptop out of the box reveals a small black box underneath it that holds a small manual and Leopard CDs. Everything regarding the packaging was impressive and well thought out. I plugged it in and started it up.
When I install Windows on PCs I usually have to fill in some basic information on time zone and such, and the Mac was no different. By default, Macs automatically login the user, so I had to do some configuration to get it to display a login screen. The main difference here is the Mac will not join Active Directory at work when I login. I think there is some sort of work around for that since AD and Mac both support LDAP, but it’s not a big enough issue for me to bother with it at the moment. The laptop is mine, as opposed to the Dell laptop I use for work, which is owned by IU, so getting it to join ADS isn’t an issue.
Aside from the overall look, when I looked at the keyboard a few differences became apparent. Where a PC keyboard has the backspace key, the Mac has a delete key. The kicker is that it acts like a backspace key instead of a delete key. On a PC, pressing backspace will remove stuff to the left of the cursor, which is what delete does on the Mac. On a PC, delete will remove stuff to the right of the cursor. I can’t find anything that does that on the Mac. I saw Apple has a web page called Switch 101 which I should go through.
Another thing I noticed was that the M key looks an awful lot like an upside-down W. I thought it was Apple being cheap, using the same key but turning it upside-down to represent another letter. Then I noticed the W key has a small 0 on it because it’s also part of the laptop number pad, so they’re different after all.
Probably the strangest thing of all on the keyboard is the extra enter key, wedged between the Apple/Command key and the left arrow key. Why they put an extra one there is beyond me, but it’s an Apple, so it’s just another curious item.
Apple is big on the idea of the one-button mouse/trackpad, so I knew that was coming. I bought a wireless two-button scroll mouse to use with it, but I’m trying to use the trackpad as much as possible to get used to it. Aside from the single button, the pad behaves much different than on the Dell and other Windows based laptops I’ve dealt with. On those, you can slide your finger along the right side of pad to scroll down the window. On the Mac, you have to use two fingers to scroll, and it doesn’t matter where on the pad you use them.
Annoyances
One of the things I would have liked to have ordered is a built-in fingerprint reader. I have one on the Dell laptop for work and it’s setup so I have to swipe my fingerprint before it will boot. Apple doesn’t have that as an option, though it is possible to buy a USB fingerprint reader that will work. However, Having one built in, I wouldn’t have to worry about carrying around another accessory or worry about losing it. I think that’s one of the various issues that will keep their laptops from being widely used in the enterprise.
The keyboard seems to require a heavy touch, or maybe it’s just me. This post is the longest time I’ve had to type with the Mac and I keep noticing that it misses a lot of my keystroke, especially those in the upper row. I suspect that is mainly a matter of getting used to the keyboard. I can’t touch type, but after I get used to using a keyboard, I can type with a little less looking. Since this is new, it will take me a while to get used to it.
One big annoyance I’ve already noticed is the keyboard shortcuts I’m used to don’t work. In Windows and Linux, pressing CTRL + A will select everything n a window, while CTRL + Shift + A will deselect everything. Neither of those works. Since I’ve been taking French classes, I found a bunch of keyboard shortcuts to type accented letters so I don’t have to insert special characters (as often). None of those ones I’m used to works, but I did find out that ALT + c will produce ç. I wasn’t able to do that in Windows or Linux. Playing around with it now, I find that using the ALT key with most any other key will produce some special character. Even more strangely, pressing CTRL with some keys seems to do interesting things with WordPress.
I’ll have to check out the Switch 101 tutorial and play around some more, so that’s it for now.
Blue Monday
Posted on January 13, 2008
Usually, here in Indy, “Blue Monday” is used when the Colts are playing a game on Monday Night Football. Tomorrow it will probably be blue for another reason – the Colts lost a post-season playoff game, thus ending their chances for a Super Bowl trip.
Primary season
Posted on January 9, 2008
I’m an independent, so the primaries don’t matter too much to me. However, they’re interesting because one of those people is likely to become the next President. So while the parties decide who they want to put forward as a candidate, it’s interesting to follow as an outside observer.
This year, a whole bunch of states moved their primaries up with the idea that it makes their state more important in the process. I think this is and isn’t true. On February 5th (a/k/a Super-Duper Tuesday), twenty-four states will hold their primaries. That many states holding their primaries on the same day is pretty unprecedented. In 2004, seven states held primaries on the same day in March (a/k/a Super Tuesday), but that was the largest primary date until this year. This has changed the traditional calculus of primary season. Rudy Guliani decided to more-or-less ignore Iowa and New Hampshire and concentrate on winning primaries in states with more delegates and are only a few weeks away. Since the primary candidates know they can’t win every state, they will focus on the states with more delegates (Alaska and North Dakota probably won’t see a lot of campaign stops), and states where they are likely to win (e.g. Utah is pretty much a gimme for Romney, Arizona will probably go for McCain, etc.) Candidates will pick and choose the states to campaign in. Instead of making their state primaries more important, they may have diluted their value to campaigns.
Some people might think it will be all over on February 6th, that both parties will have a clear candidate, and the rest of the primaries will be superfluous. However, I think they’re probably wrong. Both the Democrats and Republicans have strong candidates who are capable of getting votes and money. On February 6th (or later that week) the field will probably narrow to 3 – 4 for each party, with no clear winners. Subsequent weeks in February will bring a bunch more primaries, but if the candidates keep winning or making strong showings, then they will keep bringing in money to keep the campaigns going. This makes the states with later primaries more important. Texas and Ohio both have lots of delegates, and their primaries are in March. Pennsylvania is another delegate rich state, but has a primary in April. If there are no clear winners early on, the importance of later states rises, which means they will see more campaign stops. Indiana holds its primaries in May, but I expect by then there will either be a clear candidate for each party or it will be down to 2 or 3 for each party. It’ll be very interesting if that happens.
Also, the best place to go if you want to follow the elections is www.electoral-vote.com. Since we are in primary season, it’s being updated daily. Check it out.
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Sad, sad, sad
Posted on May 28, 2007
I just read this article on Yahoo which says a former book dealer in Kansas City burned his remaining stock of books as a protest. When he closed his shop, he had around 20,000 books remaining. He tried to give them away to thrift stores and libraries, only to be refused – they already has too many. Since the books were sitting in storage, he decided to burn a bunch as a protest to the lack of respect for books nowadays. He plans on lighting bonfires monthly until they are all gone.
It’s sad he felt he needed to resort to this, but I also understand in a way. One of the quotes from the article was from someone who paid $10 to save some books from the flames. He said, “Not reading a book is as good as burning it.” Ouch. Apparently, less than half of Americans reported reading for pleasure in a recent survey. With competition from other media outlets, such as the internet and TV, books have become like the Rodney Dangerfield of media…getting no respect.
I know some people who are voracious readers, who will read book after book after book. Although I’m not one of them, I do enjoy reading for pleasure. I wish I could say it was inconcievable for me to imagine — people not reading books — but it’s not. I just tell myself that it’s their loss for not reading.
I tread aside the vast wasteland and enter the realm of magic.
Big news at work
Posted on April 15, 2007
I usually don’t blog about work for various reasons, but I think in the past I’ve mentioned I work for the IU School of Medicine Department of Ophthalmology. My job is split between being a secretary for the Cornea and External Ocular Disease Service and being the Local Support Provider (LSP a/k/a computer guy) for the department. It’s interesting and keeps me busy. Anyway, on Friday the department got some very big news.
Philanthropists Eugene and Marilyn Glick donated $30 million to the IU School of Medicine to establish the Glick Eye Institute, a center for eye research and patient care. The Indianapolis Star has the story here, though since they may require registration you can read the official press release here. I wasn’t at the press conference or the meeting where they announced it to faculty, so I’m a little short on the details and have to go by what I heard second hand. Here is the basic rundown on what I have:
- $20 million for a new ophthalmology facility to house research, clinics, and probably administration.
- $10 million to fund ophthalmology research at IU.
- The site for the facility has not been chosen yet, though it is planned to be either on campus or closeby.
- There are architectural drawings for a building, but I don’t know how finalized the plans are.
- The facility is planned to open in three years
IU School of Medicine occupies a large portion of the IUPUI campus. In addition to several office and research buildings there are four hospitals largely affiliated with IUSM all on campus and within walking distance of each other. These are IU Hospital, Riley Children’s Hospital, Wishard Hospital, and Roudebush VA Hospital. VA is owned by the Veteran’s Administration, Wishard is owned by Indianapolis/Marion County, and IU and Riley are owned by Clarian Hospitals. IU faculty work at each of the hospitals and medical students, interns, residents, and fellows all recieve training at those hospitals. Ophthalmology has clinics in each of the hospitals and also has a clinic on the north side of Indy near the suburbs. In addition, the department occupies most of the Rotary Building on campus, where it has offices and a few labs. There are also labs in other buildings – laboratories take a large amount of space and that kind of space is at a premium on campus, very little of it at the Rotary.
As a guess, and pure conjecture on my part, I would guess that all the labs and offices in the Rotary Bldg will move to the new facility. I heard the new building will also house a clinic (or clinics), so from that I think that the clinic at IU hospital will move to the new building as well. IU Hospital has been talking about moving or renovating the eye clinic for some time, to the point that architectural plans have been drawn up. I’m guessing this announcement changes that, though I don’t know to what extent. The pediatric eye clinic used to be at the Rotary and moved into the new Riley Outpatient Center in 2000, so I don’t know what this does for that either. Wishard and VA clinics are slightly different, in that the space for the clinics is provided and I think the respective hospitals pay the department for the faculty to staff them, so I don’t think those clinics will be going anywhere. The department has a lease on the north clinic, so I don’t think that will be going anywhere soon either.
On a personal level, I’m left wondering what all of this means to me. It’s big news that was kept secret to only a few people in the department. As such, most of us had no clues (apart from rumors) until the announcement. I understand the need to keep it a secret, but apart from a new building and money for research, I’m not sure what it means. Since I work for the department, I guess I’m kind of curious what they will actually spend it on. As secretary, I’m not too worried about the Cornea service, though I think/hope the department will hire more CRA’s (Clinical Research Assistants, IIRC) to help with clinical trials. As LSP, I can probably come up with dozens of questions relating to computers and applications.
As an example, in each of the hospital eye clinics, about 90% of the computers are owned by the respective hospitals’, with 2 – 3 computers in each clinic belonging to the department. I take care of the department’s computers, but not the hospital computers. However, if the new facility has clinics, the department will almost certainly have to buy new computers for the whole clinic. If that happens, it might fall to me to figure out what to recommend, how many, what software, etc.
A little food for my own thought.
Winterness
Posted on January 21, 2007
According to this article over at the Star, we should be having snow by now (up late again), but I don’t see any yet, and I haven’t heard any plows. Actually it sounds pretty quiet out, but it is the wee hours of a Sunday morning. All I hear is the click of the keyboard, the fan on the PC, and a distant train horn.
We are supposed to get four inches of snow before the game. Somehow, I don’t think it will bother any New England fans.
*** UPDATE ***
When I looked outside originally, it wasn’t snowing at all and didn’t like would anytime soon. That was 2 – 3 hours ago. I looked oustide a few minutes ago and we already have two inches on the ground. This is the most snow we’ve had all winter.
Neutrality
Posted on January 19, 2007
I’m not a big sports fan. I usually only begin to pay attention when local teams are in the playoffs, and even then I usually don’t pay that close attention. This weekend the Indianapolis Colts will host the New England Patriots, both of which are teams I’m interested in. I was born in Massachusetts, lived in Colorado for over 20 years, and now I live in Indianapolis, so the Pats, Broncos, and Colts are my teams. As it happens, they are all in the AFC, so what usually happens is two or three of them will get into the playoffs and the teams will end up playing against each other and usually one will get as far as conference championships. This year, the Colts and the Pats will be playing against each other for the right to go to the Super Bowl.
A few years ago, I came across a website called longbets.org. It’s a place where people make bets that certain things will happen in a certain timeframe, or that A will happen before B with no idea how long it might take for it to happen. The bet that caught my interest was one between Mike Elliot and Ted Danson (of Cheers fame). The bet was this: Mike Elliot wagered “The US men’s soccer team will win the World Cup before the Red Sox win the World Series.” Ted Danson countered that in order to win the World Series “…the Red Sox only really have to beat the Yankees.” The bet was established in 2002 and in 2004 the Red Sox finally won the World Series, and beat the Yankees to do it. (Okay they beat the Cardinals in the World Series, but they had to beat the Yankees to get there, and in a way that was a sweeter victory, especially when you consider how they beat the Yankees.)
The Colts seem to have a similar issue to the Red Sox when it comes to getting to the Super Bowl. They are a very good team, but when it comes to playing the Patriots in the post-season the Colts tend to lose. It doesn’t guarantee the Pats will go to the Super Bowl, let alone win it (though they’ve had a good record over the past decade), but the Colts haven’t gone to the Super Bowl since they moved to Indianapolis from Baltimore (They last won a Super Bowl in 1970). When I heard someone describe the Colts move to Indianapolis as similar to the Red Sox “Curse of the Bambino”, I smiled and thought maybe it’s true.
Of course, I also realize I’m committing sacrilege by comparing the Patriots to the Yankees, but it’s funny and in a way it’s true. The Colts have to beat the Patriots if they want to get to the Super Bowl.
OTOH, I think it would be interesting if to see a Pats-Bears Super Bowl. In 1986, Da Bears beat the Pats in one of the most lopsided Super Bowl victories ever. I think it would be sweet revenge to see the Pats beat the Bears in Super Bowl. BTW, the Bears haven’t gone to the Super Bowl since then, while the Patriots have gone four times since, and won three.
As for this weekend, I’m officially neutral, because no matter who wins, I know one of my teams is going to the Super Bowl.
Just another day
Posted on January 9, 2007
Today’s my birthday. I turn (breaks out the calculator)… 39 years old! At work they used to get a cake or something, but I think I’ve been able to break them of that since I don’t let them know, and the person who kept track of that doesn’t work there anymore. I figure it’s worth a note here, but I don’t make too much of it. Borders sent me an email for a free pastry, so I’ll probably take them up on that today.
