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February 21, 2005
[Misc.] Cheap personal attacks?
Salt Lake Tribune - Utah In response to the apparent anti-Rocky Anderson sentiment in the state legislature, the Rock says:I have never resorted to cheap personal attacks and yet it seems like a lot of legislators are spending a whole lot of time up there doing just that.Well, I suppose I agree other than the time he said that the city council had too many Mormons on it. I suppose I think that was a cheap personal attack. I love the Rocky, its refreshing to have a politician who actually says what he thinks regardless of the political cost. I suppose he's learning that there is a political cost and he has to pay it eventually.
Posted by jones at 08:20 AM | Comments (2)
February 17, 2005
[Misc.] One down, two to go.
MWC to use instant replay There are 3 sports related things I'd like to see before I die: a replay system in college football, a 16 team playoff in college football to determine the national champion and the United States win a world cup. Looks like I"ve only got the playoff and world cup win to go before I die.Posted by jones at 06:55 AM | Comments (0)
February 15, 2005
[Education] Using Blogs as course webpages
[CS 312, section 003] Ever since I quit writing HTML by hand, I've been interested in ways to use automatically generated pages to solve common problems. The question here is: are blogs good framework for class webpages?
So far, I'd say: somewhat. With a lot of tweaking, one can make an MT template that creates a page that gets close to what CNN does to present alot of headlines in a well-organized way. I think that's probably as good as its going to get for blogging class webpages.
The next question is: how good are wiki's for doing class webpages? Maybe we'll take a shot at that next year.
Posted by jones at 03:56 PM | Comments (0)
[Misc.] House price index for my MSA
[OFHEO -- HPI by MSA] We made a little financial model that helps us predict when it will be a good idea for us to buy a new house. Interestingly, we do better if home rates stay flat or go negative. So this is good news for us.
Posted by jones at 02:36 PM | Comments (0)
February 12, 2005
[patents] Toilet seat
[United States Patent: 6,339,851] This one is off of the Baby Bjorn potty training toilet seat. Yes, its time to potty train the twins. The patent describes the mechanism for attaching the seat to the existing toilet. Its pretty clever and easy to use, as claimed in the patent.
Posted by jones at 05:00 PM | Comments (0)
[Misc.] More flexibility for the tenure system?
[CNN.com - Report urges more flexibility for tenure system - Feb 11, 2005] As an untenured professor working to get tenure, I got to say I could relate to this article. However, I wouldn't want to extend the window for getting tenure. 6 years of pressure and uncertainty is plenty for me. 10 years would just be worse. If the senior faculty can't decide if you've demonstrated potential in 6 years, I am not sure another 4 years of being on trial is going to help.
Posted by jones at 11:38 AM | Comments (0)
February 05, 2005
[Misc.] Got to check those facts
Martha Nibley Beck article in SL Trib
The claim is that "BYU's library has eliminated all mention of ERA activist Sonia Johnson." Well, a quick search of BYU's library by me on the term "Johnson, Sonia" reveals 36 titles. Hmm. I guess that didn't work out. Maybe Beck's family is right and Beck is wrong on other things too?
Posted by jones at 07:37 PM | Comments (0)
February 03, 2005
[Misc.] Best Winter Sports Season Ever?
[ESPN.com - NHL - Owner: League will cancel this season by Friday] As I sit in my lazy boy watching a really strange game between Beloit and D-3 oddity Grinnell, I saw this headline on espn.com. Looks like the NHL might quietly slip into the night. Where's Vince McMann when you need him? How about an XHL? But how would that differ from the NHL? Hmm. Anyway, that run-n-gun sub-5 system might work a little better if they could actually make a 3.
Posted by jones at 07:29 PM | Comments (0)