In 2005, congress mandated a change to daylight savings time, essentially, starting it three weeks earlier (March 11th, this year) and ending it three weeks later. Our local paper is requesting suggestions for what people will do with their 22 extra hours of daylight. Here’s my suggestion: spend the time fixing all of the computer problems caused by the DST change. Essentially, a change to DST is very similar to a self-inflicted Y2K problem. If you want to get a sense of how time/date issues can affect computer systems that aren’t prepared, take a look at this article regarding the new F-22 Raptor and it’s problems with the International Date Line. I wasn’t worried about Y2K because we knew about the issue for years and most modern operating systems and software had already addressed it. With the DST changes, we haven’t had nearly enough notice or preparation. Now, I’m not stocking up on canned goods, but I’m pretty certain that March 11th is going to bring about extra work.

A few years ago, I was an assistant research professor in a department whose college was undergoing its accreditation process. This happened, I believe, every five years or so and was a generally grueling process. Faculty were asked to maintain student work and submit it, anonymously, to the accreditation committee. We were asked to keep track of a representative set of students considered to be good, middle and poor performers. Labs spaces were evaluated. The process for determining curriculum was examined, etc., etc. ...

If the subject of the email is “electronics question, then it’s extremely ironic spam or yet another question from an undergraduate looking for someone to do their homework: Subject: electronics question with the aid of a clearly labelled diagram explain briefly the movement and type of charges involved in the formatiion of an unbaised pn junction. 2)draw the diagram of a self-bais circuit using the npn transistor. 3a) for what voltage will the reverse current in a pn junction silicon diode reach 95% of its saturation value at room temperature? b) what is the ratio of the current for a forward bais of 0.2v to the current for the same magnitude of reverse bais? c)if the reverse saturation current is 10pA, what are the forward currents for voltages of 0.5, 0.6 and 0.7v respectively. Looks like the later to me. Silly Swedish kids.

I know he’s a professor of economics, but does that mean Russell Roberts gets to lie in nearly every paragraph of his editorial, “ Workers are fine with fewer unions? I guess it does. Okay, in fairness, he may not be lying, but an editorial this bad means it’s either that or the author is incompetent. I’m not going to tackle every single incorrect statement here, but there are a few that really stand out: ...

I love email like this: sir/madam plz if u can send me aticles on image compression and neural networks for my thesis reserach work. thanks XXXXX I always want to respond back that I’ll jump right on it since I have nothing better to do. This is in direct contrast to a very nice email I received from an instructor at an Indian university asking to get a pdf copy of a lab manual that one of my old professors and I wrote 10 years ago. That one, I’ll go to the archives and retrieve to send on.

Can someone tell me when our political experts decided that everyday is Talk Like a Pirate Day? I’m sure it’s just me, but if I hear the formulation that Iraq has cost us in “blood and treasure, one more time, I may have to make the cur walk the plank.

Last summer, while visiting my grandfather for his 80th birthday, I got into a discussion with my father about the state of the economy and the structural changes that had taken place which served to increase the gap between rich and poor. I noted that statistical measures of income inequality, such as the gini coefficient, were higher in the U.S. than in other industrialized countries; and that the there is less inter-generational class mobility now than there used to be. My father countered that there were several counter examples to that at the table where we were sitting – that all of his children were doing better than he had at our ages. That is true, but a cluster of data points does not make for a valid statistic and the facts are that mine is the first generation that is not likely to be significantly better off than its parents. ...

A few weeks ago, K took over the outdoor rehab of a pair of possums from a friend who was heading out of town. One of the possums wasn’t doing so well and so they decided to split them up when her friend got back in town. The very next day, the animal K kept would barely wake up and was in terrible shape. K rushed her to the clinic where she died shortly of the “major ick. Don’t look at me, that’s apparently the technical term for it. ...

If you haven’t seen World Domination Battle yet, you really need to. I could try to write something profound about how nice it is to see the Internet as a platform for game delivery, but instead I’ll just say that it’s a lot of fun. No matter who your favorite (or least favorite) world leader is – they’re made fun of.

K’s mom just sent us a King Cake for Mardi Gras. Okay, technically, Mardi Gras isn’t for a couple more weeks, but it’s definitely the King Cake season. It’s been a while since I’ve had a King Cake. The last was a few years ago and I made it: a straight forward sweet bread with traditional almond cream frosting and colored sugar. For those who are interested, the colors mean different things: Purple for justice, Gold for power and Green for faith. The cake we just received from Gambino’s in Louisiana was much like the ones I’ve made. The only difference: praline filling. It’s not traditional, but it tastes great. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a sugar high to burn through. dsc_0453_m.JPG