Alex Jones: Web Technologist, Barbecue Acolyte, Information Junkie, Austinite

Ignorance & Confidence

Kruger and Dunning noted a number of previous studies which tend to suggest that in skills as diverse as reading comprehension, operating a motor vehicle, and playing chess or tennis, “ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge” (as Charles Darwin put it). They hypothesized that with a typical skill which humans may possess in greater or lesser degree,

1. Incompetent individuals tend to overestimate their own level of skill.
2. Incompetent individuals fail to recognize genuine skill in others.
3. Incompetent individuals fail to recognize the extremity of their inadequacy.
4. If they can be trained to substantially improve their own skill level, these individuals can recognize and acknowledge their own previous lack of skill.

Dunning-Kruger effect - Wikipedia

This explains a lot.

Hat tip to Tim Walker for mentioning the effect.

Posted in General & Tagged: culture, humanity, knowledge, science, social, sociology

I’m Not My Parents

Without dismissing the accomplishments of her folks (her father was dead before she was 2), [Frances Bean] Cobain advises, “People need to wait until I’ve done something valid with my life.”

Frances Bean Cobain: ‘I’m Not My Parents’ at People.com

That’s a refreshing change from the normal rock and roll / Hollywood scene. Is it possible that the daughter of Curt Cobain and Courtney Love somehow managed to develop into a normal person? That would reinforce my beliefs that humanity can and does improve, despite evidence to the contrary.

I really liked Curt Cobain, so this isn’t a knock on him, but he died when she was two, so his direct influence on her life pales in comparison to the influence of his legacy. The very act of struggling out from under that shadow, not to mention growing up under the influence of Courtney Love is impressive on many levels.

Posted in General & Tagged: courtney love, culture, curt cobain, hole, hollywood, humanity, media, nirvana

Bad English

A man may take to drink because he feels himself to be a failure, and then fail all the more completely because he drinks. It is rather the same thing that is happening to the English language. It becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts. The point is that the process is reversible. Modern English, especially written English, is full of bad habits which spread by imitation and which can be avoided if one is willing to take the necessary trouble. If one gets rid of these habits one can think more clearly, and to think clearly is a necessary first step toward political regeneration: so that the fight against bad English is not frivolous and is not the exclusive concern of professional writers.

George Orwell in ‘Politics and the English Language’

Posted in General & Tagged: english, language, politics, writing

A New Face for Refresh Austin

I plan to kick out the official announcement tomorrow morning, once I trust that the DNS has propagated to each little piece of the Net, so consider this a soft launch. We’ve launched a redesign for RefreshAustin.org after months of discussion, and a few stutter-steps. I won’t go into all of the details as the message I posted on the site covers a lot of it and I plan to write more about the foundation when time allows. The long and the short of it is, we have created a central location to make it easy for our members to communicate with each other, contribute to the group and access our useful resources.

Check it out when you have a chance.

Posted in General, Social Groups, Web Development & Tagged: refresh austin

Topology

Science News has a great description of Topology in their article Tied Up in Knots, which is the field of study my good friend Ken has decided to use as his focus for his academic research (he has a doctorate in the field). His explanations always make sense when he lays it all out, the knowledge tends to slip through my head within a week. So, this article is very helpful, and I’m adding it to my site for future reference. Here’s the heart of the definition:

Topology studies shapes. Specifically, it studies shapes’ properties that are not affected by stretching, moving, twisting, or pulling—anything that doesn’t break up the object or fuse some of its parts. The proverbial example is that, to a topologist, a coffee mug is the same as a doughnut. In your imagination, you can squash the mug into a doughnut shape, and it will retain the property of having a hole, namely its handle.

A sphere is different. You can stretch a sphere into a stick and bend the stick so its ends touch. But turning that open ring into a doughnut will involve fusing the ends, and that’s forbidden.

Posted in General & Tagged: math, science

Giving Purpose to Old Flash Memory Cards

On the Refresh Austin mailing list, Paul asked a really good question - what to do with old Flash Memory cards that are small compared to today’s needs. Often these are just thrown in a drawer, box or backpack and forgotten about, but Paul wanted to find a use for them instead of letting them go to waste.

Mark recommended buying some cheap adapters and turning them into thumb drives, which you can then keep in various locations like the office and home for those “just in case” moments. That’s a damn useful idea in my book.

Something else to think about are digital picture frames. Most models come with the ability to extend their built-in memory via SD or CF, so they can be very useful for quite a long while.

Any other ideas out there?

Posted in General, Technology

The Purpose of Your Objective

When you’re thinking of your objective, I want to think of yourself sitting at bar. You’re two drinks in and you’re pitching a friend about what you want to do with your life. While this casual, egotistical, mildly trashed tone may best suit high tech gigs, seriously, what do you have to lose being yourself?

A great clip of the article A Brief Glimpse, in which Rands discusses the purpose of an Objective block within a resume and how it should be written. Read the article whether or not you are looking for a job at the moment. He brings up some great points, including the fact that he updates his resume every six months no matter what. I’ve been thinking about that myself as I am about to transition to a new role within my current company and I want to ensure that I capture what I’ve done over the last six months, lest I forget by the time I need a new resume.

Posted in General & Tagged: career, jobs, resume

Accessorizing Your Eyeballs

Matt Haughey provides a very interesting write up on ordering glasses online instead of at the local optometrist / giant chain store in his article Adventures in $40 eyeglasses. I love the idea of having more than one pair of glasses from which to choose each morning, while paying significantly less than I would for a single pair from my optometrist.

Now, I’m more than happy to pay for a good optometrist, but frames and lenses are commodities in all but the rarest instances, and those instances are out of my spending range. Plus, I really don’t like having a designer’s signature scrawled on my clothing, much less my glasses, so selling me on the brand doesn’t work. That said, I spent more on my current set of glasses than I ever had previously because they really feel right, but they aren’t practical to wear some days. Having a second set of glasses would be nice to have around when I know that I will be more active during the day. Hell, just the ability to get an inexpensive pair or two of prescription sunglasses would encourage me to leave my contacts in their solution in order to wear my glasses.

Matt also posted a link to Glassy Eyes, a blog about ordering glasses online - sounds dull, but it’s very useful. I’ll post back when I take the plunge.

Posted in General & Tagged: clothing, contacts, ecommerce, glasses, money

XMas07

Most folks can ignore this post, but as I promised to get a list together, I decided it was easier to post here than e-mail it out.

Here are the some things I’d like for Christmas:

X-ish

• OS X Leopard
• LaCie 500 GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive

Other Schtuff

• “Hungry” hat
• Victorinox Swiss Army Tinker Pocket Knife (Black) I just found my pocket knife after 6 months!
• Flickr Pro Account Subscription
• Henckels Twin Signature 7-Inch Santoku
• Xbox 360 Live 1600 Points
• The Sandman Vol. 1
• The Sandman Vol. 2
• The Sandman Vol. 3
• Acrobots
• Polarity (Newly Added)
• 1 Dot Grid Book (Newly Added)
• 1 Action Book (Newly Added)
• Neverlate Executive Alarm Clock - Out of stock at the moment, but I am more than happy to wait for it to ship, even if it doesn’t arrive until after Christmas.

Posted in General

Intelligent Curves

The study, to be published this week, shows that men who admire women with hourglass figures do so because they are more intelligent and therefore produce more intelligent children than waif-like women or those of “apple-shaped” proportions.

As noted in the Telegraph article, Another reason why men like curves, a test of 16,000 women and girls showed that those “with a greater difference between their waist and hip measurements scored significantly higher in [cognitive] tests, as did their children.” Oh, and apparently they live longer.

Curves are good.

Posted in General & Tagged: attraction, intelligence, relationships, reproduction, science, sex