Some of my co-workers were chatting at lunch yesterday about the highest audible frequencies that can be heard by people of various ages. Apparently, teens these days are programming their cell phones to use high frequency ring tones while in class. The frequencies are so high that adults can’t hear them, only teens can. One of my co-workers located a web site that has links to sounds at various frequencies. What’s the highest frequency you can hear? I got up to 18k using my headphones, but only 17k on my speakers. Anything higher than that makes me physically uncomfortable even though I can’t hear anything.
Category: General Interest
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10 flagrant grammar mistakes that make you look stupid
ZDNet UK recently published a list of common grammar mistakes that occur in e-mail messages. This isn’t something I’ve seen very much of from my friends and business associates, but every now and then an item from this list will sneak into a blog entry or an e-mail.
I realize I’m just as serious an offender as everyone else, but I still thought I’d share this article with y’all. It was a helpful reminder to me of just how important correct grammar can be, especially in business communications.
Now don’t go using no bad grammer anymore, okay?
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Life on TV just isn’t fair
This is a hilarious example of communication gone horribly wrong. Poor guy!
There are two things I like about this. First, the cab driver does an outstanding job of improvising in a tight situation. He should get a medal. Second, the interview didn’t turn out that bad, at least when compared with lots of other interviews I’ve seen.
Sure, the guy talked a lot while saying very little, but how is that different from what most other interviewees do? If you know you’re going to be on TV, take a few hours and come up with some points you’d like to make, then take those points and figure out what kinds of words you’ll need to put together to make them coherent. It’s time consuming, maybe even difficult, but it will provide immesurably more value to your audience than showing up unprepared.
What about those of us who don’t get interviewed on the BBC? Why not strive for more effective dinnertime conversations, or delivery of a thought-provoking and entertaining presentation at work? For the geeks in our midst, consider making that comment in your code just a tad more concise, or ironing out that requirement a little more.
“Speak properly, and in as few words as you can, but always plainly; for the end of speech is not ostentation, but to be understood.” — William Penn
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Of satellite photos and real estate values
Zillow.com is amazing. Enter an address, street name, or neighborhood name and you’ll be presented with a scrolling satellite photo of the area (a la Google Maps). Hover over a house and its current market value will be displayed. Spooky.
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The Dreyfus Model
I’ve been reviewing an old PowerPoint slide deck I have from Andy Hunt’s “Refactoring Your Wetware” talk. One of the slides covers the Dreyfus Model of Skill Aquisition, something that Andy and Dave Thomas also discuss in their “Herding Racehorses, Racing Sheep” talk (which you can see when the No Fluff, Just Stuff conference comes to your town, by the way).
The whole concept is just fascinating to me. The model is made up of several “layers” or levels of proficiency in a given skill:
- Beginner
- Advanced Beginner
- Competent
- Proficient
- Expert
Each level represents a different pattern of behavior, a different way of thinking. A learner will perceive the world differently at each level. For example, at the “Beginner” level, the learner is preoccupied not necessarily with learning something, but with simply accomplishing a task. Compare that to an “Expect” learner, who relies on intuition, not reason, to accomplish his goals.
Forcing an expert to fit into a rules-based structure designed for a beginner ultimately makes the expert less productive and even downright miserable. On the flip side, placing a beginner in the intuitive environment that an expert thrives in can render the beginner incapable of doing anything. Yet both of these actions occur continually in the corporate world. Why is that?
I don’t have any good answers yet, but Dreyfus surfaces some fascinating ideas. For a more thorough explanation of the model, read this entry from Dave’s blog or Google for “dreyfus model.”
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Distance education posts moved to new blog
In preparation for my NCHE workshop next week, I decided to move my distance education posts to a separate blog. Distance education is such a compelling new option for high school graduates that I felt it deserved its own dedicated space for posts. I’ll be making all of my new entries there so I encourage you to bookmark the page or add the feed to your RSS reader if you’d like to keep up with my future thoughts on this subject. I’d also love to hear your own thoughts about this unique method of earning a college degree.
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Auto-completion of paths in Windows 2000
I’m still using Windows 2000 on my desktop system at home (yeah, call me a dinosaur, I don’t care). One thing I’ve found annoying when switching between my desktop and my laptop that runs Windows XP is auto-completion of paths and filenames on the command line. In short, Win2K just doesn’t do it by default! A simple registry edit can magically change this, though. Just follow the instructions in this article and start tabbing.
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Study: US mothers deserve $134,121 in salary
A full-time stay-at-home mother would earn $134,121 a year if paid for all her work, an amount similar to a top U.S. ad executive, a marketing director or a judge, according to a study released on Wednesday.
Mine sure deserves this much, and a lot more besides!
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Distance education workshop at this year’s NCHE convention
I’m excited to announce that I’ll be giving a workshop on distance education at this year’s NCHE conference. (NCHE stands for North Carolinians for Home Education; my brother and I were both home schooled K-12 and were members of the group at one point.)
The workshop is titled “Distance Education: An Alternative to Traditional College.” In it, I’ll be sharing the story of my own experience earning a four-year degree in Computer Science via distance education. I’ll also be sharing the many benefits distance education offers over traditional college, as well as providing some pragmatic steps that parents and high schoolers can take to find a good distance education program and succeed in it.
My reason for posting is two-fold. First, I want to let you, my readers, know about the conference in case some of you might want to attend. For a description of the workshop and more information about the conference, visit the conference web page.
Second, and most importantly, I plan on sharing the URL of my blog during the workshop so folks can visit, ask any follow-up questions that they might have, and possibly even use a discussion board (I’m considering adding one to this site). I’ll be continuing to post about distance education and its role in today’s economy over the next few months for those who are interested in the topic.
If anyone has any immediate questions or comments, feel free to post a comment here. I’d also enjoy hearing from you if you plan on attending any workshops at this year’s conference.
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No more Rover when searching
For months, I’ve been annoyed by that little dog, Rover, that appears when performing a file search in Windows XP. He’s slow, he’s cute, and I just want him to go away. Fortunately, I found out how to send him packing back to the doghouse today. Click on “Change Preferences” in the search sidebar, then click “Without An Animated Character.” Rover will obligingly leave.
Why Microsoft would choose to set up Rover as the default search character in an operating system they call Windows XP Professional is beyond me.