Category Archives: Uncategorized

July 2, 2007, 1:17 pm

Monday lunchtime linkage

Here are some bits from around the blogosphere this morning:

Leo at Zen Habits says that David Allen, the inventor of the alternate lifestyle personal organization method Getting Things Done, has a GTD system that is way too complicated. And he (Leo) goes on to explain how to simplify it.
Presentation Zen (no relation) explains why the Japanese saying that one should “eat until 80% full” is not only good dieting advice, it also makes your presentations, speeches, and meetings better. Nothing ruins a good presentation than going five minutes too long.
Wes Fryer is wondering how schools should teach children how to do complex web searches and other nontrivial computer tasks. I made the point in the comments that Vernor Vinge, as usual, saw this issue coming a decade earlier in his short story “Fast Times at Fairmont High“. And I agree with Wes that executing a precisely targeted search…

May 26, 2007, 4:47 am

Montessori-blogging

I’ve got some thoughts and a link to an article about Montessori schools over at Prone to Wander. This might be the first of many Montessori-blogging posts, as Doodlebug will be starting a Montessori school here on June 4.

Technorati Tags: Montessori

May 9, 2007, 10:26 am

Does all math look like this to some people?

By Robert Talbert

WordPress.com has a random blog feature — a little button you can click on to see a randomly-selected WordPress.com blog. This is the one I just got:

Er, OK. I didn’t realize the entire Sanskrit alphabet consisted only of the question mark. No wonder it’s hard to learn!

April 17, 2007, 9:57 pm

House guests

By Robert Talbert

This is slightly off-topic, but cool nonetheless: We found a surprise at our house on Sunday afternoon.

It’s a bird’s nest — tucked away between the front door and the wreath hanging on the door. What’s more, we’ll be getting four new residents at our place soon:

Now the trick is to avoid letting birds in the house when we open the front door.

April 13, 2007, 6:42 am

Friday motivation

By Robert Talbert

Good one this morning from Indexed:
200704130639

I’m passing this one out to my students.

April 11, 2007, 11:50 am

I just got in from New York and…

By Robert Talbert

…boy, are my arms tired. Click to enlarge:

Good catch off of Google Maps from Zone Defense.

March 21, 2007, 6:26 am

Comments are back

By Robert Talbert

The genius of Justin Baeder, proprietor of WebbleYou which hosts this blog, managed to fix the comment table without destroying it. So comments work again AND none of them got lost.

March 18, 2007, 7:36 am

Ugh

By Robert Talbert

Pardon the lack of blogging. On top of being backlogged with grading, at home we caught some kind of food-borne illness that put my wife in bed for 20 hours yesterday and left me tending Doodlebug and Peanut while barely conscious. Fortunately the kids are OK, and we all feel somewhat better this morning.
They say you have to watch out for foodborne illness when you eat out, but we got this from a meal that I made using fresh produce and fresh meat and spent no more than an hour between grocery store and dinner table. Next time I’ll just order a pizza!

March 6, 2007, 9:23 am

More on girls in CS, or the lack thereof

By Robert Talbert

Although this article is titled “Math Needs Girls”, it’s really about getting more girls interested in computer science and engineering at an earlier age (= middle school). Snippet:

“By the fourth grade, girls are stereotyped into traditional female roles and begin to lose interest [in math],” Huizinga said.

But according to Huizinga, this is only part of the problem. She said some additional reasons for the under representation of women in engineering and computer science include negative images of professional women in math-related careers and connotations that careers in this field aren’t geared for women.

“The last time I checked, girls aren’t sent to summer camps for computer science,” Huizinga said.

That may be changing. There’s definitely something that’s making science, math, engineering, and technology (SMET) more enticing to boys than to girls, just going by the differences…

March 1, 2007, 1:37 pm

Details on Julie Amero’s trial

By Robert Talbert

As I mentioned in the previous post, Nancy Willard of the Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use had a long post on a listserv this morning with lots of details about Julie Amero’s trial. She’s given me permission to reprint that post in its entirety. Click on “More” to see the whole thing.

There’s no way, after reading Nancy’s post, that you can come away from this situation with the slightest inclination that Ms. Amero is guilty of anything — and no way you can not point fingers at her outrageously bad legal defense and criminally lax IT support at her school.
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