The Long Cut

Author: Jaimie Murdock

  • Most Influential

    What is your biggest influence?

    It’s an open question – the {noun} that most influenced your calling/work/studies/career/purpose/etc to date: book, article, movie, paper, film, photo, story, person, relative, musician, artist, website, event, gadget, activity, anything! What’s the one thing that got you into what you’re into?

    For me it’s the Towards 2020 Science Report (2.3MB PDF). The buzz I had after reading this report was incredible. We are standing literally on the precipice of scientific revolution – just as the discovery of algebra and calculus prompted the scientific revolutions of ages past, the development of computation is completely changing how we can look at the universe. Everything can be modeled. We can create “artificial scientists”. This awesomeness is why I do artificial intelligence.

    Right now – what is that thing? What is your biggest influence? What sparks your fire?

    Edit: Had to republish and refocus on school/career/interests – in the grand scheme of things there are other influences of greater or equal stature. 🙂

  • New Feeds

    The regular feed update – this one is fairly substantial with new blogs from all over the place.

    Astronomy Picture of the Day – excellent images from NASA that truly inspire discovery

    Humor
    Apokalips – I like this comic. It is fairly new to the scene.
    Overcompensating – This is a great webcomic, fairly classic, not-so-classy. I was absolutely hooked with Awkward People Island.
    Thinkin Lincoln – not sure why this wasn’t on my list yet – the comic is enshrined on our Internet Wall (along with xkcd and dinosaur comics). Quality has gone down lately (since the Bermuda Triangle arc), but the author just switched to a weekly format, so that should help. After all, Space Trips are only A Question of Science in the Two-Party System 🙂 [bonus win]

    Politics
    Paul Krugman Blog – one of the most influential economists of our times. His daily political musings are interesting and often turn me to other cool resources.
    Paul Krugman – his New York Times opeds

    Tech
    Wired Top News – Fills the void in tech reporting that Ars Technica doesn’t cover. Great general geeky science stuff.

    Cognitive Science
    Neurophilosophy – good blog on the brain and philosophy from Science Blogs.

    Productivity
    Study Hacks – good blog on becoming a better student, following many of the principles established by the rest of my Productivity section: doing less is more (to an extent)

    Unsubscibed
    DailyTech – DailyTech sucks. There is little to no editorial process – every single article has at least 3 typos and just wrong information. I could write better stuff in 7th grade. They also lag behind the rest of the tech journalism world by 2 days or so. I’ve kept subscribed to them because they had general science news and great hardware review overviews, but now that I’m a redditor, I don’t need this.
    Reddits – see the reddit post

    The master subscription list has been updated.

    New to RSS or Google Reader? How I Do Google Reader

  • Reddit

    This week I signed up for reddit. My Google Reader had accumulated 5 or 6 subreddits, so I was pretty much using the site already. The same thing happened with Twitter – I was following 6 or 7 people through Reader and finally decided it was time to give back.

    The site is basically a much better, more filtered version of Digg. It’s not as good-looking, but it’s way more functional. You subscribe to different topics you are interested in and the main page aggregates all these “subreddits” on the main page, so the articles that show up should at least be relevant. You are able to vote articles up or down and comment. You can also submit new articles, or submit a general question for fellow redditors to use. There are 5 tabs on the top of each reddit: what’s hot, new, controversial (voted equally up and down), top (best of), saved (your bookmarks in that reddit). These can lead to really cool hive mind things, like a list of best TED talks.

    My reddit subscriptions are mostly for tech stuff: reddit.com, politics, technology, programming (proggit), science, linux, cogsci, Python, javascript, Ubuntu, hardware, compsci, cyberlaws, tedtalks, java, PHP. If you join up, I’m JaimieMurdock.

    Because reddit is not responsible for lost productivity, I’ve set a 20 minute limit for every 6 hours in LeechBlock, which is in effect all day every day. It takes some enforced self-control not to be consumed 😉

  • Netbook Overview

    Netbooks are a new computer form factor designed to provide extreme portability at a low price for wireless access anywhere. They achieve this through a small chassis and low-power hardware. Netbooks are secondary computers, aimed at people who already have a kickass desktop or a bulkier laptop and just want something to can bring to class, lounge with on the couch, or browse with at the coffee shop.

    Six months ago I got a refurbished Dell Mini 9 netbook for $240 from Dell Outlet. The size still elicits a “wow” – at every lecture this semester neighbors have asked if they can play with it. (sometimes during the talk!) The overall netbook market has settled on a 10″ standard.

    General Notes
    Hardware
    There are dozens of netbooks and almost all of them have the exact same specs: 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor, 1GB RAM, no DVD drive, 9-10″ screen, integrated graphics, 1024×600 resolution, and a webcam of some sort. Things that will vary widely are battery life and keyboard size.

    The lack of a DVD drive will probably bother some people, as will the presence of integrated graphics. Both of these are non-essential to the netbook philosophy, which dictates that everything important is on the internet. If not, you need a more powerful computer anyways. nVidia’s Ion platform aims to change the graphics issues, but has seen slow adoption.

    Operating Systems
    Windows 7 has been touted as the best choice for a Windows netbook experience. Although not formally launching until October 2009, the release candidate can be easily acquired. The redesigned task bar helps promote minimalism and new optimizations make it run smoother than previous Windows incarnations. Vista is all but impossible to use functionally. XP is offered on almost all netbooks, and is the preferred choice over Vista.

    I prefer Linux, which has finally matured enough for mainstream use. Several vendors ship with Ubuntu Linux. I find that Ubuntu to be far more usable than Windows, especially the painless updates and streamlined software download and install process. I tried the Ubuntu Netbook Remix (UNR) which is optimized for small screens, but I wasn’t a fan of the particular application launcher. My final configuration was a self-remixed version of the Desktop Edition, adding the uses the Maximus, Window Picker, and Human Netbook Theme packages.

    I just got an invite for the Jolicloud alpha, which looks like a promising netbook OS with a much better app launcher. I’ll update with impressions later.

    Specific Models
    Dell Mini 9
    My netbook is the Dell Mini 9 – “little-guy”. It is about the same size and weight as a standard hardcover book (see above). The display is an amazing LED backlit display with great colors and contrast – it has been favorably compared to the MacBook Pro displays. The build quality is very solid. There are no moving parts in the entire chassis due to the low-power Atom processor enabling a fanless design and the use of a solid state drive. In addition, every component is extremely easy to access – requiring only the removal of 2 screws to get to the wifi card, hard drive and RAM (see below). On the standard 4-cell battery it gets about 4 hours of battery life on full brightness with wireless enabled.

    There are two caveats. First, the keyboard is wonky due to the 9″ form factor. Dell decided to sacrifice the standard layout to ensure that the letters were near normal size. My typing speed is about 20% slower than on a full-size keyboard when punctuation is required. Also the solid state drive in the base model is only 4GB. Since most of my data is on the cloud, this isn’t a big deal. If you need more space, there is an SD HC slot on the side and the hard drive is easily replaceable.

    The base Dell install of Ubuntu 8.04 is okay, but not excellent. The OS is bundled with the Yahoo web apps suite linked everywhere, which was frustrating since I live on the Google cloud. The application launcher was very well done. Software updates were a pain since Dell used an LPIA Linux kernel instead of the more ubiquitous i386 kernel. In usage, there is no difference, but it does mean that the package manager is severely limited. You can also order the computer with Windows XP.

    All in all, I think the form factor of the Mini 9 is well worth it, and doubt I would toss it around as much if it were slightly bigger. The keyboard can be overcome, especially when you recognize that it is meant to be a secondary computer. If I need to do serious work, I’ll get on my desktop.

    Dell Mini 9 next to an exemplar hardback Dell Mini 9 internals

    Other Reccomendations
    LifeHacker has an excellent Hive Five article on netbooks: Five Best Netbooks. It focuses on 10″ models, which seem to be the emerging standard. The Asus 1000HE has received much praise.

    If you are interested in a 9″, the Dell Vostro A90 is the same as the Mini 9. The Mini 9 has been removed from the main page, but it appears you can order it here.

    Purchasing Notes
    If you are an IU student looking to purchase a netbook, remember the IU Dell Partnership Program. You’ll be asked to authenticate via CAS and then taken to a custom Dell page with 7-12% discounts on all items.

    Everyone should look into the Dell Outlet. The prices are severely lowered and all computers come with a standard 1-year warranty. My Mini 9 came from the outlet, and I have been completely satisfied.

  • Recovery

    Just went to Bloomington Bone and Joint for another appointment with the doctor and therapist and they declared my elbow healed, with full motion and no restrictions! I’m extremely ecstatic as this was supposed to be a 6 week process, and I’ve done it in 3.

    deCycles 2009 seems to have gone really well – Patti/Signe, Stacey, and Andrew got back on Sunday. The prevailing sentiment is that the trip brings you to overwhelming highs and lows, but it’s a completely different mental state – one of those “you have to experience it” things. They all seem to have grown through the experience, especially in “get-up-and-go”-ness.

    Of course I’m bummed that I couldn’t finish the trip, and it sucks that I’m in every article as “one of the two who couldn’t make it”. I still made something out of the past two weeks though:

    • Put in over 30 hours, which turns into a lot of money.
    • Earnestly started on the InPhO paper.
    • Enjoyed some time reflecting and set two (reasonably) ambitious goals for the next year:
      1. Establish an emergency fund of $1,000 and leave debt behind by January.
      2. Publish/present at least 3 times by next May.

    Also, I have to get back on the bike and get really serious about training. Sure, I put in 650 miles before deCycles, but they were sporadic – 150 miles one week, 0 the next two. In order for it to become a lifestyle, I need to be consistent. There’s still 3 1/2 months before winter and next semester has a lot of free time for group rides. I’m thinking short 20-25 mile rides on MTWR (2 hours tops) and then longer 50+ mile rides over the weekend (mornings at 9). Let me know if you’re interested! Company for the weekend rides would be especially awesome 🙂

    This year’s deCycles is going to nag at me for a long time. There’s not much of a silver lining, but dwelling on “might-have-beens” isn’t gonna do anything. There’s still the Hilly Hundred, a return trip to Wisconsin (potential route – Bike 4 Trails, Great River Road, Wisconsin River Valley, Madison) and maybe deCycles 2010. Things happen, so I’ll take solace in only being down for 3 weeks.

  • New Feeds

    A few more sites to be aware of…

    Humor
    passive-agressive notes – Saw this site at NACAP two weeks ago during the Facebook Forum. If you like this kind of thing, you should subscribe.
    Zero Punctuation – Yahtzee, the British-born Australia-based video game reviewer, is an unending source of comedy gold: Sims 3 review

    Productivity
    The Art of Nonconformity – This guy is awesome, and wants everyone else to be awesome too. I agree. Chris has some unconventional ideas on how to be awesome, but that’s because awesomeness is unconventional. His life-manifesto “A Brief Guide for World Domination” is definitely worth reading. He also travels a bit. Start with the articles listed on his writings page, they’re pretty cool.

    The master subscription list has been updated.

    New to RSS or Google Reader? How I Do Google Reader

  • Some Thoughts

    So this blog is getting updated a little more frequently – hopefully, you are finding some useful tips. At this stage, I’m still a mere squidling (undergraduate), so you’re getting a lot of redirects to other awesome things instead of novel ideas, but that’s how life works. Hopefully I’m guiding you to the right places.

    My elbow is healing up gradually – I can rotate my wrist almost entirely and my arm can almost straighten. Twisting my arm remains difficult. The progress is promising, but I still can’t lift more than two pounds. Perhaps in two weeks I can meet up with deCycles in Lexington and finish the last 3 days of the ride.

    It’s not too bad being back in Bloomington. This weekend I started earnest work on the paper for InPhO. Right now I’m articulating how AI should be used to augment human feedback, without superseding it. I’ve also been working on some user interfaces and came across a really good Google Tech Talk, “Don’t Make Me Click“. Aza Raskin does a great job of emphasizing the importance of minimalist design and of doing as much as possible for your users. I found it worth the hour.

    I’ve also been researching polyphasic sleep. Basically instead of sleeping 8 hours in a row, you have a shorter period of “core sleep” and then take 20 minute naps throughout the day. There are variations ranging from 6 hours of core sleep with a 30 minute nap in the day (Biphasic) to no core sleep and 6 20 minute naps throughout the day (Uberman) and a bunch of middle ground (Everyman). The less extreme versions are more pretentious ways of explaining what people do anyways, but the uberman concept is a fascinating extreme. Steve Pavlina has an interesting journal on adopting the uberman (day 30) (day 120) (going back). My roommate seems to have accidentally adopted the everyman system last year.

    This month, I’m going to adopt biphasic sleep as my “thing” (although it seems this is how I naturally react to the school year). My only concern with adopting a true polyphasic sleep schedule is physical activity. No reports seem to have a regular exercise routine, and with 150+ miles of biking per week, I think core sleep may play a larger role in muscle recovery. For more findings on sleep, monitor my sleep tag on Delicious.

    Some (public domain) visualizations of sleep patterns from Wikipedia:

  • Firefox Extension Mania!

    This month I discovered Firefox extensions! I really hate bogging down my browser, but these are incredibly useful. Know any others? Link it in the comments!

    LeechBlock (extension)
    This is the best productivity extension ever. It allows you to list a few domains to block (twitter.com, facebook.com, youtube.com, reader.google.com, …) and set up a time period to block them. BUT it also has an option to allow limited access. I have it set up to allow me on my sites for 10 minutes an hour. This keeps me on task, but allows reasonable distractions to clear the mind. It is important to check the “Actively block these sites” option, as that will redirect any already open tabs to these timesinks. I like redirecting to this undistraction page.

    GreaseMonkey (extension)
    GreaseMonkey is one plugin that I’ve actually stopped using, because it does tend to slow down browsing and can be used maliciously. However, some people may find FB Purity useful. It hides all the annoying quiz applications from showing up in your Facebook newsfeed!

    KeyConfig (extension)
    KeyConfig is a small extension that allows you to rebind and create new keyboard shortcuts. Things I have done:

    • full screen to F2 – much more convenient placement
    • Evernote Web Clipper to Ctrl+E – much quicker note-taking, see more on Evernote below
      Add new key with this code:
      evernote_addSelectionToEn3(null);

    • bit.ly sidebar to Ctrl+B – quick distribution of cool sites through Twitter
      Add new key with this code:
      content.location = “javascript:var%20e=document.createElement(‘script’);e.setAttribute(‘language’,’javascript’);e.setAttribute(‘src’,’http://bit.ly/bookmarklet/load.js’);document.body.appendChild(e);void(0);”

    • any bookmarklet can be added with:
      content.location = “(bookmarklet code)”

    Since I got my netbook, my cloud computing presence has grown exponentially. Syncing between the Sweetness and Little-guy just takes too long to set up and introduces an administrative task I don’t want to deal with. The following extensions increase the utility of the cloud exponentially.

    Delicious (extension) (official site)
    Delicious replaces my bookmarks menu with an easy to use tagging infrastructure and note taking system accessible through Ctrl+D. By putting my bookmarks on the cloud, I can access them from any computer (useful for continuing research projects in the library). The social networking aspect didn’t seem like a big deal to me, until I started actually using it. Typically our friends share our interests, so it’s not surprising that we would find their bookmarks interesting.

    Finally, the Delicious plugin allows you to sync quicksearches across computers (tag things with shortcut:). I have a quicksearch setup to search my delicious bookmarks and to bring up my bookmarks by tag, dramatically increasing the utility of my bookmarks by limiting my search domain to sites I have already flagged as useful. (my quicksearches – feel free to save the interesting ones to your Delicious 🙂 )

    Evernote (extension) (official site)
    OneNote is a program that Microsoft just got right. Unfortunately, it’s Microsoft and I’ve switched to the Linux world. OneNote was integrated into every part of my computng life – anytime I would put a note into a little text file, it would get tossed into my OneNote instead (phone numbers, quotes, observations, guitar tabs, letter drafting, etc.). Win+N (new note) became my most used shortcut. It is sorely missed – but Evernote has done a respectable job of replacing it.

    Evernote is like Onenote in a lot of ways, but it uses a tagging system in lieu of tabbed notebooks and is more ubiquitous, with native clients on almost every platform (Win, Mac, iPhone, Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Web). Unfortunately, there is no native Linux client (the Wine version works, but it’s got some ugly buttons). How is it useful to have evernote on your phone? Notes on the go, recording song ideas for later use, taking pictures of receipts or things you want to reference later – the uses are legion.

    Back to Firefox though – the web clipper is an awesome extension, as you can highlight any section of a site, click the elephant, and voila! it’s been added to your notebook with a link to the original source. Great for compiling research.

  • New Feeds

    Here’s some new RSS feeds:

    Cognitive Science
    Neuroantrhopology – Fascinating articles on brain and body. The Wednesday Round-Ups are an overload of awesome articles.
    TED Blog – Blog from TED Talks with more information on talks and generally cool stuff

    General News
    Boston Globe: The Big Picture – The best photojournalism, about 3-4 slideshows a week.

    Productivity
     LifeHacker – High volume blog filled with cool programs and ideas to help boost productivity
    The Simple Dollar – Great blog on personal finances. Make sure to check out his free eBook – “Everything You Ever Really Needed to Know About Personal Finance on Just One Page”

    For pruning, I’ve unsubscribed from Glenn Greenwald‘s excellent blog. Sometimes you have to recognize when you aren’t actually reading articles. Despite the moral importance of declassifying torture memos, the articles weren’t directly giving me relevant information for this point in my life. Adam should keep sharing the good ones though.

    For future reference, I created a master subscription list.

    New to RSS or Google Reader? Check out the newly updated How I Do Google Reader

  • Bike Trip Blues

    On June 20th I left for deCycles – 3 weeks, 1600+ miles. no modern comforts. It was going to be my summer… that changed on Monday 🙁

    The group was riding in a tight paceline of about 20mph to get to the last break of the day. The girl in front of me kissed wheels with the person in front of her, lost her balance and went down. I ran over her and flipped onto the pavement. The colonel fishtailed into both of us. Everyone got out of the road as quickly as possible and started washing their wounds.

    With my bike out of commission, I hopped in the wussie wagon 🙁 When I got into the van I realized my right arm had no strength and was in serious pain. Norm looked at it during the break, and diagnosed it as the radius. We tried to get me back on the bike but I couldn’t stretch into a riding position.

    The last 30 miles in the wagon were torture! Monday was the first day I had the right amounts of nutrition, water, and sleep. I also pulled for 10 miles. We were only 3 miles from the last break, and 30 miles from the churh. I had just gotten my second wind and was ready to go.

    When I got to Portsmouth, another of the ride leaders dropped me off at the ER. After 3 1/2 hours the diagnosis was a radial head fracture. The hospital was packed, but they noticed I was bonking and got me supper – two sandwiches, a salad and a slice of cherry pie. After 80 miles of riding and no food in 7 hours, I was extremely grateful!

    Mom freaked out when she heard about the accident and drove to help me. The next morning we saw a specialist in Portsmouth who said it wasn’t fractured, which contradicted the earlier diagnoses. Bloomington Bone & Joint looked at it today and confirmed the radial head fracture and got me set up with physical therapy. No cast, because setting the elbow would freeze the joint and the fracture is stable.

    My elbow is going to need six weeks to heal, so I would’ve spent the rest of the trip in the van. That wasn’t going to happen – it’s torture when you’re well. I’m back in Bloomington for now and would love to see people. If I recover quickly, I will rejoin the ride from Lexington to Bloomington.

    As for the others: The girl was bleeding a lot, and now has a really bad case of road rash down her left side. The colonel just toppled and may have done something to his wrist. Both are on their bikes and still riding.

    There were 2 other wrecks on Monday. The other people look more roughed up. Cricket got run over and one of the bikes from that wreck now has a pancake wheel. Fortunately, there are two doctors traveling with us and the others seemed to be fine, aside from road rash. Not the best day for cycling…