Archive for category Musings
Astrolabe
Posted by bumscientist in Musings, Science on November 24, 2009
I love watching TED videos, because they are always so inspiring. This latest one about the astrolabe is conjuring all types of images of early explorers and old school science and astronomy. I’m tempted to design on and build it through ponoko, but unfortunately it seems it will be quite expensive and they can not etch brass, only cut. I might try to make it out of acrylic depending on costs.
Money isn’t that important
Posted by bumscientist in Fun, Health, Musings, Ramblings on October 26, 2009
As you get older, you begin to realize that all that effort you spent in your youth seeking money might have been time wasted. I’ve gotten use to the lifestyle of the “poor” student. I don’t eat ramen everyday, but I budget my allowances wisely. At a recent family gathering my friend’s father told me that health is the most important thing in this world. When you’re healthy, you can do anything. I take that to heart. That sentiment was reiterated by other family members. The thing is that they are all wealthier than I, but also wiser and older. I spend a lot of time training and exercising for my health and also to accomplish some goals in life. After staring up my training program, I’ve felt like I’ve been in the best shape of my life. I still have much more to gain, but this feeling is awesome. I make sure to make time to run everyday. That hour where I go running is my Zen moment to myself. Nothing really matters then. All my worries seem to go away. In fact, I think I really don’t have anything to worry about. The stress just seems to melt away.
If you’re in bad health, it puts a strain on your finances. No matter how rich you are, hospital bills can easily wipe you out. Some people would give all their wealth up if they could just get better from their ailment. I think that’s a reason why universal healthcare is important. Preventive medicine should save money in the long run.
You need money to buy things, a car, a house, nice dinners at the French Laundry, kid’s college education, etc. But how much of that do you really need. You could spend all your time working and never see your kid. You leave for work before your kid wakes up and you come back after your kid has gone to bed. You work to afford tutors for your kids while you could just have easily taught them. Or childcare for that matter. This goes back to that Ellen Degeneres joke about going to work to pay for your work clothes and the car you need to get to work, to pay the mortgage for that house, which you leave empty for half the day. The punchline is that is what is called “normal”. When I was a graduate student, I asked a professor about pursuing a Phd. He said I should do it straight out of school. I might get too used to the lifestyle of working and having money to be a “poor” student again. Happiness is relative. He said to get the same utility from watching a movie with his girlfriend in graduate school he has to buy a Porsche now.
I do admit I’m a bit envious when I see my friends post facebook pictures of their travels and their gastronomic adventures. But for me, it’s more having limited time rather than financial resources since flights and hotels are so cheap now in this economy.
Limit Resources to Spur Creativity
Posted by bumscientist in Musings on October 26, 2009
Sometimes having too many resources can make you lazy and having too many choices can be overwhelming. One example that I’m going to butcher in its retelling is a supercollider where they wanted to smash two electrons. Due to limited budgets, they built only one ring and got better results, because they can put an electron and a positron in the same ring yielding a bigger smash. Being limited also forces you to be more resourceful and seek creative solutions. Instead of picking the easy solution you’re forced to scrap by here and there. I started to remember this after reading about The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind. When you’re limited in resources you are also forced to prioritize after careful thought.
Teaching
Posted by bumscientist in Musings on October 10, 2009
It can be fun, but it can also be tedious.
Baths
Posted by bumscientist in Musings on September 12, 2009
When I’m at school, I only shower and never take a bath. The only time I take a bath is when I go back to visit my parents. I almost forgot how enjoyable a bath is.
Tire Pressure
Posted by bumscientist in Musings on August 9, 2009
After some first hand experience, the literature on tire pressure is spot-on. You do tend to lose 1 psi / month and the low tire pressure sensors on my car are fully functional. The tire pressure also goes up 2 psi when the tires are hot, maybe more. It’s always good to check the pressure when it’s cold. I think I’ll be checking tire pressure once a month from now on.
Powerpoint in Education
Posted by bumscientist in Musings, Science on July 26, 2009
I used to detest powerpoint slides and preferred copying things written on the whiteboard. This practice was drilled into me in high school. I would have notebooks and notebooks filled with notes. All information conveniently at my finger tips. As I went to undergrad, I continued this practice and occasionally computerized the notes, since my handwriting is less than legible. This was satisfactory for my own learning, but now I in addition to learning something myself, I also need to be able to explain it to other people. I find myself a very visual learner. I like looking at pictures and equations and don’t really pay attention to words. This makes powerpoint presentations nice since I can use minimal text and put images up. One thing powerpoint is great for is for highlighting things and showing changes between slides. I think powerpoint slides are perfect for displaying equations and how these equations change as you begin to solve it. You can also circle things and work them out. Now with tablets, you can draw on your powerpoint slides in real time and save what you drew. Some people even include blank slides to draw out things in class.
Powerpoint slides remind me of creating the figures for a research paper first and then writing the text. You want to show something, the text is there merely to highlight the journey, but the figures are the tourist destinations that you want to guide your reader through. When you make powerpoint slides, the goal is to distill complex information in its simplest form. I’m moving into the simple many slides school of thought, rather than few dense slides.
This all occurred to me as I was writing some LaTeX to go over an explanation. I found the writing tedious, I already had some slides that did a perfectly good job of explaining. For a course, I think it is best to have as many ways for the student to learn as possible: LaTeX lecture notes with lots of text, simple powerpoint slides, which go over derivations step by step and convey the main points, recorded video of someone going over the powerpoint slides, live demos to drive the point home, and visual breaks, because my hacker graphics professor likes putting in visual breaks. I think technology is going to make learning a lot easier. I think people are interested in learning, because they want to learn specific things. Rather than going over an entire course, people can pick what exactly they want to hear about if it is all documented and recorded.
Helium
Posted by bumscientist in Musings on July 11, 2009
Did you know that helium comes from the ground?
Taking Inventory
Posted by bumscientist in Musings on July 11, 2009
I like cataloging and taking inventory of things, but somehow I still manage to buy two copies of the same book.
Smells good enough to eat
Posted by bumscientist in Musings on July 7, 2009
I bought some nice smelling soap to replace the bad smelling soap we had before. Now my hands smell good enough to eat. The sense of smell and sense of taste are tightly bound.