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This should explain everything.

At least, in theory.
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dragon from sinfest
 
papertygre
 		  

2011-01-06 16:09 | Couple of articles on improving Android battery life

http://www.phonedog.com/2010/04/28/nate-s-straight-talk-express-android-battery-life-tips/
http://androidforums.com/droid-pro-support-troubleshooting/248789-few-question-battery-problem-solution.html

from the second:

"When I first got the phone a few days ago, my battery was only lasting about 8 hours just on standby. I called Motorola, and asked them for a solution. Two different Techs told me that when you get the phone, the first time you charge the battery it should be for about 12-15 hours while the phone is off. I didn't think that you had to do this with a smart phone. They told me that since I have had the phone for a few days, and charged it to 100% about 4 times, to wait until it gets down to 15% or below, and turn it off and charge it for about 4 hours.

I did this, and now it lasts for almost 2 days! Maybe some of you already know this, however, I thought I would post it."

Will update when I have tried this

 
dragon from sinfest
 
papertygre
 		  

2010-12-22 12:31 | Demonizing of all carbs

Recently saw this on Tim Ferriss's twitter: "A Reversal on Carbs." I thought the "reversal" would be an admission that carbs aren't bad for you after all. I was wrong: it was about how maybe carbs may actually be bad for you (!). That is not news - people have been claiming that for years.

But at this point it is remarkable to me that news sources are still not acknowledging a difference between fructose and glucose. According to these sources, a donut and a bagel are equivalent (modulo fat content) because the carbs of both will break down into "sugar" in the blood.

It has long been obvious to me that an orange and a bagel have very different effects on satiety. Eating sugar makes me HUNGRY, fast. Eating an equivalent amount of calories in the form of a bagel tides me over for a while. Could these both be just "sugar"? Is it just about "glycemic index," i.e. how fast they break down into "sugar"?

A friend showed me this video at Thanksgiving: "Sugar: The Bitter Truth." (It has apparently gone viral.) Here, an M.D. explains that fructose must be converted into glucose by the liver before it can be used, and that conversion process is sloppy and generates toxic by-products. What I had previously read was that this liver bottleneck was good because it slowed down the absorption of fructose and thus lowered its glycemic index. It turns out that this is naive: fructose actually causes metabolic damage, which is similar to the damage from chronic alcohol use.

So the assumption that the evils of fructose implicate all carbs is unfortunate, because it leads people to try to follow low-carb and high-meat diets, which I personally find unpleasant, which are likely to be as high or higher in calories, and which may even be risky due to some research showing that animal-based proteins (particularly milk protein) may catalyze cancer and foster autoimmune problems.

The crowning touch to me is when articles like these justify the demonizing of all carbs by citing the fact that agriculture is a recent human invention, so humans must not have had access to significant amounts of carbohydrate before very recently, in evolutionary terms. This is an odd fantasy. What about indigenous cultures that forage for starchy tubers and wild legumes? But in fairness, it took me years to figure this out. When I was around 20 I tried a raw vegan diet, and I realized that after I'd eliminated fruit (the sugar made me too hungry, and the acid made my teeth hurt) and after I'd eliminated nuts (large quantities led to indigestion, and it would have been too hard to find enough to live on in the wild) I eventually realized that all I had left to eat were tubers. And those were good raw but I couldn't get enough calories without cooking them to release the starch. Yet the light bulb *still* didn't go in until about a month ago, when I wrote a Toastmasters speech about my dietary adventures. You know how they say that humans needed a boost of calories to evolve a larger brain, and that boost of calories probably came in the form of becoming a hunter and starting to eat meat? Well here's an alternate theory. Maybe those proto-humans discovered fire and learned to cook their tubers. Presto, lots more calories! It has been established already that fire was discovered before agriculture. That makes agriculture a natural progression in looking for more things to cook.

But people like meat - all primates like meat - and so we enjoy having a plausible justification for eating more of it. And so when it becomes obvious that drinking lots of soda causes health problems, it is easy to wield a broad brush and blame all carbohydrates. And so people following a "paleo" diet and trying to stick to their evolutionary blueprint decide it's better to eat a piece of fruit than a potato. Boy, do they wind up having it backwards.

 
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papertygre
 		  

2010-11-21 22:12 | 10,000 hours

I was recently reminded of Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 hour rule (that to be an expert in your field requires a devotion to one's craft for at least 10,000 hours). How many hours is that? Let's say I get 3 hours of undivided software development practice on a typical day at work. Multiply that times 5 days times 50 weeks: 750 hours per year. How many years like that to get to 10,000 hours? 13.

I started programming as a freshman in college (1993), and didn't start doing it for work until 1998. And there were a couple of years (grad student, PM) when I wasn't programming. So let's say my career "started" in 1999. Then quite possibly I will get to 10,000 hours next year. Yow, am I an expert yet?

 
dragon from sinfest
 
papertygre
 		  

2010-09-27 17:39 | To-do lists as diaries of goals

Once in a while I'll go look at my Google Tasks or Remember the Milk and realize I haven't touched it in 2 months, and I'll read through the list with amusement, thinking "Finished that, that became irrelevant, boy was I worried about that and it turned out to be nothing, oh and I forgot about that...." It's like finding a box of old letters to myself.

I read in one or two places that to-do lists are more effective if you re-write them from scratch every so often (such as each day), ideally without looking at the previous list. The benefits are: (1) things naturally drop off if the importance drops -- if it's not top of mind, you don't write it down; (2) writing out your goals on a regular basis is supposed to be helpful in focusing on them; (3) you are always looking forward instead of feeling a guilty sense of obligation attached to stale items on an old list. Another benefit might be the fact that if you are using this technique and keeping the lists in a notebook or archive, you can go look at a list from 2 months ago and realize how your perspective has changed since then.

 
dragon from sinfest
 
papertygre
 		  

2010-06-04 13:58 | KVM hell

I have a new MacBook Pro for work and it has DVI video output. So in order to work from home, I wanted to put it on my KVM with my windows laptop and linux box, which both have VGA out. This meant I needed a new KVM switch with more than 2 ports. I figured I'd get a DVI one and use adapters to attach the older 2 computers. I ordered an IOGear GCS1104 from NewEgg. It was expensive compared to a VGA KVM but I figured it would be worth it. Life was good.

Then it turned out I had the wrong DVI/VGA adapters, so I bought some from Fry's, and they were the wrong ones, so I brought them back and got the right ones, and then I was missing some cables I needed, so I bought those. Then I hooked it all up. I've had the switch since before Flipside and it's taken like a week to get all the materials together so I could try using it.

So I tried to hook it up and I realized that the DVI-I video cable that I bought wouldn't plug into my monitor. At that moment I finally understood DVI. There are two standards, analog and digital, and they can coexist on the same cable. If they coexist, it's DVI-I (for integrated). If it's digital only, it's DVI-D. Well, my monitor had 2 ports, VGA and DVI-D. The DVI-D port is missing some sockets for the pins which the analog signal is carried on, so you physically cannot plug a DVI-I cable into that port; it won't fit. OK. But if I were to use an adapter to convert the DVI-I cable into VGA and plug it into the VGA port, this would basically drop the digital signal and the MacBook Pro video would be lost (because it is on DVI-D).

I determined that to solve this, I needed a new monitor which supports DVI-I. There are such things as video converter boxes, but they cost $100+, and I figured it would be simpler to take this opportunity to upgrade. (Since then I have learned that there is at least one other solution, to use a video splitter and appropriate adapters to plug into *both* ports at the same time. But I didn't consider this.) At Fry's I found a lovely Samsung LED 23" with 1080p resolution (SyncMaster XL2370) - I had never heard of LED monitor technology before but I was impressed - the contrast and clarity were striking. So I bought it. There's $350 I hadn't planned to spend, but what a nice monitor.

Got it home and hooked it up. Hmm, unlike my old monitor, the new one no longer fits in its box now that I've attached the stand. Mild annoyance - I like to keep the box for moving and such. Hooked things up; cables and adapters everywhere. OK, MacBook Pro worked great. And... the VGA windows computer didn't work.

WTF?? The computer was detecting the resolution of the monitor, and let me move my mouse over to it, the screen was just blank. I hooked up the computer directly to the monitor, and it worked fine (yum, nice image quality) but I noticed that it had to switch modes from digital to analog. Was that significant? No idea. Hooked it back up to the KVM and same result: blank screen. Tried forcing the monitor to switch modes and still no dice.

I called IOGear tech support. They were slow on the uptake. The guy finally told me I couldn't use VGA cables plus a VGA-to-DVI adapter to hook up my VGA computers to the KVM, even though that's exactly what the instructions said to do. They said I needed to use DVI-I cables and the opposite adapter, or else it wouldn't work. I was extremely skeptical, but what could I do except spend another $60 on cables, try it, and call back when it didn't work? Grr.

After doing some more research I had a couple of other ideas. Either the port might be bad (one of the NewEgg reviews described ports going bad) so I could try using a different port, or I could try this mysterious video card imprinting thing using a sekrit key combination (numlock-minus + D).

If I try all of this and nothing works, I will return the KVM and go back to square one. In that case I will feel a little guilty for buying a new monitor for no useful purpose, but at least it's a really nice monitor.

---

Resolution: I went to Fry's and purchased 3 DVI-I dual link cables, figuring if those didn't work, nothing would. (I still have no idea why you would need dual link vs. single link, because I haven't found a single straight answer on the web, but I was using single link up to that point and that certainly wasn't working.) Shocker: that was all it took, everything suddenly worked. Hooray!

Now my only issue is that when I switch from the Mac to the PC, there is a delay while the monitor searches for the signal (for some reason it has to check HDMI before it checks analog, and each source it checks takes like 5 seconds). Don't think there is any solution for that.

 
dragon from sinfest
 
papertygre
 		  

2010-05-07 13:39 | Relaxation vs. acceptance

People sometimes talk about "relaxing" like it's a general skill. Either they say, "I'm bad at relaxing," or something like "I need to learn how to take things less seriously," etc. But I think we can't help but be more at ease with familiar things and more anxious about new things. So learning how to be calmer about some things (by making them familiar) doesn't lead to an ability to automatically feel calmer about new things. For example, I noticed I have been feeling way less stress about starting at Google than I did about starting at Microsoft 5 years ago, and moving to a new state and taking care of all the associated tasks has been a piece of cake this time. But none of this means that I have learned how to take arbitrary things in stride. I still notice myself worrying about plenty of issues that I know will probably not turn out to be a big deal.

So I'm not sure there is such a thing as a "meta-skill" to be relaxed as a default state or to be able to relax at will. (Some people, like monastics, may seem to have achieved this, but they also radically simplify their lives so they have very little responsibility and rarely deal with anything new, so that there isn't much to be anxious about. On the other hand, maybe one reason they do this is to realize that even with all that simplification, they still feel the same human responses such as anxiety just as strongly, so they are more easily able to isolate those feelings in order to come to terms with them, and thereby be in a position to help others deal with them.)

So I think the next best thing to having a relaxation meta-skill might be the practice of acceptance, i.e. you make it a habit to consciously acknowledge when you feel anxious about certain things and to internalize the belief that it's OK to feel that way, if that's how you feel.

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dragon from sinfest
 
papertygre
 		  

2010-03-05 00:19 | Pyramid of relationship types

A psychologist explained to me this system for categorizing relationships. It's a pyramid, because there are supposed to be fewer and fewer people in your life at each relationship level as you move up.

He said that most issues arise when people move too fast and skip levels, which can happen, for example, if they get drunk.

First level: Strangers.
Appropriate information to exchange with this type of person: Directions, time of day.

Second level: Acquaintances.
Acquaintances are people you have a minimal amount of trust for because they have been vetted by either an institution (via a meeting or an event) or a person you both know (via an introduction). This is the level at which networking occurs.
Appropriate information to exchange with this type of person: Name, occupation.

After making someone's acquaintance, you may begin probing what their interests are and sharing what some of your interests are. If common interests are found, you may progress to...

Third level: Friends
Friends are people who share interests, and who get together to pursue those interests. At this level, the activity is more important than the particular person you are doing it with.

After making friends with someone, you may begin discussing current events with them and seeing if you have similar feelings about right and wrong. If so, you may choose to progress to...

Fourth level: Close friends
Close friends share values. At this level, spending time with the person is more important than the particular activities you choose to do with them.

After becoming close friends, you may begin expressing romantic interest/attraction. If both people feel this, you may progress to...

Fifth level: Romantic partners
Romantic partners share intimacy. However, at this level, the individuals' feelings are more important than the relationship, meaning that either partner can end the relationship if he or she becomes inclined to do so.

After becoming romantic partners, you may begin discussing life goals. If both people agree on their life goals and decide to collaborate on them, you may progress to...

Sixth level: Committed intimate
Committed intimates share life goals. At this level, the relationship is more important than the individuals in it, in the sense that according to the agreement, the only valid reason to terminate the relationship is if one or the other partner makes the stated life goals impossible to achieve. Otherwise, the partners are supposed to hang in there and work issues out.

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dragon from sinfest
 
papertygre
 		  

2010-02-16 00:35 | (no subject)

I'd like to identify the best ___ for every ___. For example: the best menu items at each restaurant that I like, the best songs by each artist I like, maybe the best things to do with each person I like. It seems like this approach would be a good way to balance exploration vs. reliable goodness.

 
dragon from sinfest
 
papertygre
 		  

2010-01-26 23:14 | Supplements

* Vitamin D

I started taking this in the fall when I was introduced to some of the below research on Vitamin D's status as a "hormone" (not just a vitamin) and how it is extremely protective against flu. Not much has been proved in studies (since when do they fund studies on the efficacy of a cheap vitamin instead of expensive new pharmaceuticals?), but it is interesting to reflect that "flu season" occurs when the days start getting shorter. I certainly don't get outside much, even when I want to, and I buy the idea that humans are optimized for blood levels that result from many hours outside in the sun each day. I am taking 10,000 IU a day, in the form of 5 tiny softgels of 2,000 IU each (Costco brand). This is higher than most mainstream sources recommend, but apparently traditional thinking about what constitutes a toxic dose of vitamin D has been substantially revised in recent years, and it is way higher than once thought. BTW, make sure you take D3, but that is almost all anyone sells these days.

http://www.jsonline.com/features/health/44680902.html
http://nephropal.blogspot.com/2009/10/i-received-this-email-from-john-cannell.html
http://smartlifeforum.org/wiki/2007/02#Vitamin_D
http://www.landesbioscience.com/journals/dermatoendocrinology/article/9063/
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=cell-defenses-and-the-sunshine-vitamin

( +3 moreCollapse )

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dragon from sinfest
 
papertygre
 		  

2010-01-23 13:28 | A General Theory of Love

A fascinating book by several professors of psychiatry about the science of human love and relationships. It was recommended by someone at the Zen center. I received it last night and tore through it in an evening.

( What I got from the bookCollapse )

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