Today has been an object lesson in pulling out of a funk. I was in a funk for a variety of reasons.
I settled into a funk last night, after concluding that the t-shirt printing place I found doesn't seem to respond to customer queries. I like their quality and prices, but I sorta need them to fix it if they make a mistake, so it was back to the drawing board on the t-shirt front, all while Mr. Snarky pointed out that t-shirts are a crowded market and selling t-shirts is unlikely to ever make me much money.
I agree, but the market isn't crowded with things I want to wear, so I figure I can make t-shirts I'll wear and maybe a few other people will buy them, too, and it will be grand. Also, designing t-shirts turns out to be a lot of fun.
But the setback almost had me convinced to just ditch the idea, despite the fact that I've finally figured out the technical side of the design process and really like my latest design (it involves dragonflies).
Then there was the rain, which is done now, but was coming down pretty hard this morning, and part of me just wanted to curl up in a chair and sip tea and read a book.
But I'd just done a deep dive into my corporate finances on Wednesday, and that told me I shouldn't get too lazy.
So, I fell back on my productivity tricks and kicked myself in the pants and actually got quite a lot done today- including submitting my latest t-shirt design as a test order at a new print shop.
I still sipped a lot of tea.
Anyway, to the links! Looking at them, I think the theme is, yeah, sometimes things are suboptimal or downright sucky, but it won't do anyone any good if I let that get me down. So, another object lesson in pulling out of a funk, if you will. The links are a mix of things that depress me and things that give me hope- I'll let you sort out which are in each category.
First up, women in tech. Sue Gardner had an op-ed in the LA Times that is a pretty concise summary of how sucky that situation is right now.
But! Here is something nice, from our history- Margaret Hamilton was the lead software engineer
on the Apollo Project. Wikipedia has a short entry about her.
Ta-Nehisi Coates' piece about the New Republic is characteristically great.
Shonda Rhimes delivered a hell of a speech.
Decreasing implicit racism may be as simple- and as hard- as having more diverse children's literature.
Doing little things to make other people happier always makes me happier, too, so I liked Laura Vanderkam's 12 Days of Microphilanthropy.
And of course, I have a couple of random fun things at the end.
First, I've finally found a podcast that I love as much as the BBC's History of the World in 100 Objects. It is A History of the English Language, and as far as I can tell it is delivered by a hobbyist- but wow, I'm learning a lot. I just finished listening to an entire episode on the history of the letter C, and it was awesome.
I sort of want to hire someone to make some cool moss art on my house. I'm sure there are good reasons not to do that, though.
Friday, December 12, 2014
Wednesday, December 10, 2014
Looking for a Literature Crunching Tool
Yesterday one of the librarians I follow on Twitter asked whether a specific technical tool exists. Here are the tweets:
I replied that I'm not in lib tech, but I think that such a tool could be written. I said that I suspect it will be a 90-10 problem: i.e., a tool that handles 90% of the cases can be created with a reasonable amount of effort, but if you really need that last 10%, it will get expensive.
I'm basing my opinion on the fact that I know Mr. Snarky wrote a similar tool at an old job, because I remember answering questions about scientific literature for him. However, he does not have that code, it is not in the public domain, and it was focused on a subset of the biomedical literature, so is not as broad as what @mchris4duke is after.
I promised to ask my bioinformatics and computational bio/chem friends, though, because I suspect people have written similar tools. So... does anyone have public domain code that does something like this? Or lessons learned from writing such a tool they want to share?
My only additional advice is that if she hires an undergrad to do this (she's currently at Stanford and is moving soon to MIT, so suitable undergrads should be available), she should keep an eye on that 10% problem, and be sure to keep the amount of time/money spent on the tool in line with the value delivered. When I've written or managed the writing of tools with the 90-10 problem, I've usually ended up stopping development somewhere in the 90-95% of cases handled range, and just handled the remaining cases by hand. Deciding when to stop tool development is a project-specific thing, though. It is all about the cost vs. the return vs. how hard it is to do the analysis of the remaining cases by hand.
So- does anyone have anything useful to add? Put it in the comments or tweet it in reply to the tweet I use to share this post.
(P.S., I am FINALLY about to notify the winner from this giveaway. So, if you don't hear from me by the end of the day, you didn't win. Sorry for the delay. Holiday season, blah blah blah.)
1. ppl smarter than me tell me that the beauty of coding is the ability to take repetitive tasks and automate them .. so ...
— Chris Bourg (@mchris4duke) December 10, 2014
2. v. common task for scholar is take citation and look it up in a catalog/database. then do same for another citation, and another ...
— Chris Bourg (@mchris4duke) December 10, 2014
3. the amount of win everyone gets from us figuring out how to write a script to do that is HUGE.
— Chris Bourg (@mchris4duke) December 10, 2014
4. got a reading list for a course and want to see which articles your library has online? run it through mass citation checker
— Chris Bourg (@mchris4duke) December 10, 2014
5. new faculty arriving? run list of their pubs AND citations thru mass citation checker ...
— Chris Bourg (@mchris4duke) December 10, 2014
6. I get that it aint easy. but lib tech is doing lots of hard things and one could argue tackling this hard thing wld be huge WIN
— Chris Bourg (@mchris4duke) December 10, 2014
I replied that I'm not in lib tech, but I think that such a tool could be written. I said that I suspect it will be a 90-10 problem: i.e., a tool that handles 90% of the cases can be created with a reasonable amount of effort, but if you really need that last 10%, it will get expensive.
I'm basing my opinion on the fact that I know Mr. Snarky wrote a similar tool at an old job, because I remember answering questions about scientific literature for him. However, he does not have that code, it is not in the public domain, and it was focused on a subset of the biomedical literature, so is not as broad as what @mchris4duke is after.
I promised to ask my bioinformatics and computational bio/chem friends, though, because I suspect people have written similar tools. So... does anyone have public domain code that does something like this? Or lessons learned from writing such a tool they want to share?
My only additional advice is that if she hires an undergrad to do this (she's currently at Stanford and is moving soon to MIT, so suitable undergrads should be available), she should keep an eye on that 10% problem, and be sure to keep the amount of time/money spent on the tool in line with the value delivered. When I've written or managed the writing of tools with the 90-10 problem, I've usually ended up stopping development somewhere in the 90-95% of cases handled range, and just handled the remaining cases by hand. Deciding when to stop tool development is a project-specific thing, though. It is all about the cost vs. the return vs. how hard it is to do the analysis of the remaining cases by hand.
So- does anyone have anything useful to add? Put it in the comments or tweet it in reply to the tweet I use to share this post.
(P.S., I am FINALLY about to notify the winner from this giveaway. So, if you don't hear from me by the end of the day, you didn't win. Sorry for the delay. Holiday season, blah blah blah.)
Tuesday, December 09, 2014
Something I Need to Say
The Senate's report on torture committed by the CIA during the aftermath of 9/11 is out, and we can read the executive summary. I haven't brought myself to read it yet, because even reading people's tweets about it makes me sick to my stomach. I will eventually read at least some of the more thorough summaries, though, because I think we need to face up to what was done in our name.
And it was done in our name. I didn't vote for George Bush, but he was still my president and that was still my government, torturing prisoners when it is against all we claim to stand for. When we already knew that torture does not work. When the CIA itself knew that torture was not working.
Already the apologists are out, asking us to remember 9/11, and blah blah blah. I do remember 9/11. I remember the horrible fear I felt that day, both in general and about specific loved ones in lower Manhattan. I remember the grief and anger in the aftermath.
But we let that horror lead us to inflict another horror. There is no excuse for that. There would be no excuse for that even if torture worked.
What we did was not protection, it was retribution, and it was retribution meted out without care.
I would like to see the architects of this terrible, misguided program brought to justice. Perhaps, eventually we will see that. Until then, I will just privately condemn them and wish I believed in a Hell in which they could rot.
And it was done in our name. I didn't vote for George Bush, but he was still my president and that was still my government, torturing prisoners when it is against all we claim to stand for. When we already knew that torture does not work. When the CIA itself knew that torture was not working.
Already the apologists are out, asking us to remember 9/11, and blah blah blah. I do remember 9/11. I remember the horrible fear I felt that day, both in general and about specific loved ones in lower Manhattan. I remember the grief and anger in the aftermath.
But we let that horror lead us to inflict another horror. There is no excuse for that. There would be no excuse for that even if torture worked.
What we did was not protection, it was retribution, and it was retribution meted out without care.
I would like to see the architects of this terrible, misguided program brought to justice. Perhaps, eventually we will see that. Until then, I will just privately condemn them and wish I believed in a Hell in which they could rot.
Sunday, December 07, 2014
Gearing Up for Christmas - a Gift Ideas List
In the midst of being horrified by most of the news, I'm also trying to get ready for Christmas, which means I'm doing a lot of gift shopping. I suspect at least some of you are in gift shopping mode, too, so I thought I'd share some gift ideas. None of these work for the people left on my list, but maybe they'll help someone else!
I'm a big believer in the principle of giving people higher-end versions of things they need. Nicole and Maggie wrote a post about this not that long ago, but I'm not remembering enough keywords to pull it up in a search (Update: here it is!)
Anyway, here are some ideas if you want to go that route:
For the tea lover, check out Lupicia Tea. They have "plain" tea and tea that is mixed with other ingredients for flavor. I usually prefer a good plain black tea to flavored, but their flavors are pretty awesome. My sister in law gave me a couple of tins from their Australian collection, and when we visited a Lupicia shop during our trip to Torrance I bought several tins from their Hawaiian collection. I also signed up for their newsletter, which comes with a single tea bag sample every month. Every single tea of theirs I've had, I've liked. It is definitely a step up from my usual stuff, and my usual stuff is pretty darn good. Plus, their tins are really pretty.
For the chocoholic, try giving a tasting set of single source chocolates. I first discovered the joys of single source chocolate during a visit to San Francisco, when I stopped by Dandelion Chocolate. It is really fun to try to the different bars and taste the subtle differences. You can order from them (and their chocolate is soooo good), but if you're looking for something more modest, Trader Joe's has a "tasting passport" box that is pretty good, too.
Nice lotions and bath gels are a good "upgrade" gift, too, but in this case you need to know two things: (1) what sort of product the person usually uses, and (2) what smells he or she likes. If someone usually uses a supermarket shower gel, Bath and Body Works or The Body Shop will be an upgrade. If they're usually using Crabtree and Evelyn, you'll have to go even more upmarket. L'Occitane would be an option in that case. Lush is another good option for this sort of gift. Their Dream Cream is a personal favorite of mine. I'm obviously no help on scents, but a light citrus-y sort of thing is usually safe. If you give a bath gel, include the matching lotion. That makes the gift more luxurious feeling.
Another good gift-finding approach is to find a gift that fits an interest, but that the person might not splurge on. This is how I got my first Kindle- Mr. Snarky knew I wanted one but also knew that I'm slow to spend that kind of money (back then, they were more than $150!) for an electronic gadget, so he bought me one for Christmas. This sort of thing only works once- when that Kindle broke, I replaced it almost immediately because I love having an ereader so much. (If you decide to give an ereader, you might want to check out my old post at Tungsten Hippo about it- I recommend giving a few short ebooks to go along with the new ereader, to get the recipient started. That post recommends some good "starter" books, but really, you could browse the entire site for more ideas. For instance, today's post has a taster flight about travel, which would be a good "preload" for an ereader being given to a frequent traveler.)
I've also gotten some good blank notebooks, which I suspect were chosen because people know I like to write. This can be tricky, though. Some people have really strong preferences on notebooks. Moleskines are generally considered good (bonus points if they have a special collection item that fits the recipient's interests). I use a Moleskine for the idea notebook that I started keeping after reading the books about being a scanner/renaissance soul. It is not my preferred size for carrying in my purse, though, so I also carry a smaller notebook for ideas about things to write and snippets and phrases I might use. These tend to come to me at random times and fly away if I don't write them down soon, so I like to carry a notebook in my purse. I have a 5.5 x 4 x 1 inch notebook that I bought on a trip to New Zealand that I'm using right now. I actually find that to be a bit too small for good writing flow, though, so as soon as I fill it up, I'll switch to a 5 x 7 x 0.5 inch notebook my in-laws gave me. I find that size works much better for writing.
Like I said, it is personal. I don't mind getting random notebooks as gifts, though, because I always end up finding a use for them. Other people may be less forgiving, so use this idea with caution.
Books- electronic or otherwise- are another set of "go to" gifts. If you have any scientists or engineers on your gift list this year, two good options are What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions
from xkcd's Randall Munroe and WTF, Evolution?!: A Theory of Unintelligible Design
from Mara Grunbaum (who runs the awesome WTF, Evolution tumblr).
That's all I have. If you're looking for toy gift ideas, you might want to check out the series of posts I did on this awhile back:
If you have any good gift ideas, please share them in the comments. I have a few gifts I'm still looking for inspiration on....
I'm a big believer in the principle of giving people higher-end versions of things they need. Nicole and Maggie wrote a post about this not that long ago, but I'm not remembering enough keywords to pull it up in a search (Update: here it is!)
Anyway, here are some ideas if you want to go that route:
For the tea lover, check out Lupicia Tea. They have "plain" tea and tea that is mixed with other ingredients for flavor. I usually prefer a good plain black tea to flavored, but their flavors are pretty awesome. My sister in law gave me a couple of tins from their Australian collection, and when we visited a Lupicia shop during our trip to Torrance I bought several tins from their Hawaiian collection. I also signed up for their newsletter, which comes with a single tea bag sample every month. Every single tea of theirs I've had, I've liked. It is definitely a step up from my usual stuff, and my usual stuff is pretty darn good. Plus, their tins are really pretty.
For the chocoholic, try giving a tasting set of single source chocolates. I first discovered the joys of single source chocolate during a visit to San Francisco, when I stopped by Dandelion Chocolate. It is really fun to try to the different bars and taste the subtle differences. You can order from them (and their chocolate is soooo good), but if you're looking for something more modest, Trader Joe's has a "tasting passport" box that is pretty good, too.
Nice lotions and bath gels are a good "upgrade" gift, too, but in this case you need to know two things: (1) what sort of product the person usually uses, and (2) what smells he or she likes. If someone usually uses a supermarket shower gel, Bath and Body Works or The Body Shop will be an upgrade. If they're usually using Crabtree and Evelyn, you'll have to go even more upmarket. L'Occitane would be an option in that case. Lush is another good option for this sort of gift. Their Dream Cream is a personal favorite of mine. I'm obviously no help on scents, but a light citrus-y sort of thing is usually safe. If you give a bath gel, include the matching lotion. That makes the gift more luxurious feeling.
Another good gift-finding approach is to find a gift that fits an interest, but that the person might not splurge on. This is how I got my first Kindle- Mr. Snarky knew I wanted one but also knew that I'm slow to spend that kind of money (back then, they were more than $150!) for an electronic gadget, so he bought me one for Christmas. This sort of thing only works once- when that Kindle broke, I replaced it almost immediately because I love having an ereader so much. (If you decide to give an ereader, you might want to check out my old post at Tungsten Hippo about it- I recommend giving a few short ebooks to go along with the new ereader, to get the recipient started. That post recommends some good "starter" books, but really, you could browse the entire site for more ideas. For instance, today's post has a taster flight about travel, which would be a good "preload" for an ereader being given to a frequent traveler.)
I've also gotten some good blank notebooks, which I suspect were chosen because people know I like to write. This can be tricky, though. Some people have really strong preferences on notebooks. Moleskines are generally considered good (bonus points if they have a special collection item that fits the recipient's interests). I use a Moleskine for the idea notebook that I started keeping after reading the books about being a scanner/renaissance soul. It is not my preferred size for carrying in my purse, though, so I also carry a smaller notebook for ideas about things to write and snippets and phrases I might use. These tend to come to me at random times and fly away if I don't write them down soon, so I like to carry a notebook in my purse. I have a 5.5 x 4 x 1 inch notebook that I bought on a trip to New Zealand that I'm using right now. I actually find that to be a bit too small for good writing flow, though, so as soon as I fill it up, I'll switch to a 5 x 7 x 0.5 inch notebook my in-laws gave me. I find that size works much better for writing.
 |
| Current notebook in front, next notebook in back |
Books- electronic or otherwise- are another set of "go to" gifts. If you have any scientists or engineers on your gift list this year, two good options are What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions
from xkcd's Randall Munroe and WTF, Evolution?!: A Theory of Unintelligible Design from Mara Grunbaum (who runs the awesome WTF, Evolution tumblr).That's all I have. If you're looking for toy gift ideas, you might want to check out the series of posts I did on this awhile back:
If you have any good gift ideas, please share them in the comments. I have a few gifts I'm still looking for inspiration on....
Friday, December 05, 2014
Weekend Reading: The Health and Unhealthy Society Edition
I was going to make this post include links about medicine and human biology, but then the world was too horrible to ignore some of the other things I found.
First, the medical links, which are really quite good and deserve attention even while the rest of the internet erupts in flames.
Chavi Eve Karkowsky's discussion of how postpartum hemorrhages are treated is a sobering reminder of one of the many reasons those of us who can give blood should do so. On Monday, I will return the calls from the blood bank, which I've been ignoring for a couple of weeks, and make an appointment to give blood.
The Smithsonian had a good round up of what science tells us about picky eaters (like me). I would like to say this, though: my genetic predisposition towards picky eating almost certainly comes from my Dad's side of the family. My Mom loves vegetables, and if I did not get exposed to their taste in utero it is only because I apparently made her throw up most of what she ate. Also, I made a HUGE effort to eat more veggies while pregnant with Pumpkin, and she still will not touch them now. My money is on the genes that govern taste receptors being more important than the tastes in the amniotic fluid.
This NY Times story about antibiotic resistant infections in India is frankly terrifying. Our blase attitudes toward antibiotics scare me. There are not infinite ways to kill a bacterial cell without harming the human cells around it, and we should not be so cavalier about the drugs we have. There is no guarantee that more are forthcoming.
Now, to the unhealthy society links.
This storify is really eye-opening with respect to the mindset of GamerGaters. I guess this is the flip side of the community I find on the internet. Sure, it lets me find a community that I struggle to find in real life, but not all communities it allows people to build are healthy- for their participants or the rest of us. I don't think we as a society are even close to reckoning with that. And why would we be? The internet is still so young.
I suspect most people have heard about the horrible, horrible mess that the Rolling Stone UVa rape story has become. If not, Megan McArdle has a solid story about it and Amanda Taub has an important perspective on reasons why some aspects of Jackie's story may not holding up to scrutiny. I am not at all impressed with how Rolling Stone has handled this, nor am I impressed by how some prominent male journalists are behaving. The whole thing makes me feel sick, really.
Before I was feeling sick about that, I was feeling sick about the grand jury's decision not to indict the police officer who choked Eric Garner to death. I do not have anything profound to say about the case and what it reveals about racism in this country, beyond what I said in response to George Zimmerman's acquittal or Michael Brown's shooting and its aftermath. Go read the links in those old posts, if you haven't before. There are people saying what needs to be said far more eloquently than I can.
Then read this compilation of a string of tweets about things Black people should not do. Absorb the sheer number of cases, and the mundane situations.
And definitely read Kiese Laymon's piece about how his Vassar college faculty ID makes everything OK. If you read no other link this week, read that one.
Finally, Alyssa Rosenberg's piece about how not everyone is cut out to be a cop is really thoughtful and thought-provoking.
And this TED talk from Verna Myers is quite good.
I hate to end on such a down note. So I give you the delightfully funny Pamela Ribon celebrating Roxane Gay's Bad Feminist.
And the saddest thing about integers just proves why stringed instruments RULE.
I hope your weekend is a good one. We'll be decorating our tree. It is an artificial one this year, because my asthmatic lungs need a break after the long, allergen-laden "fall" and the discovery in Joshua Tree that the smoke from avocado wood (what was available as firewood up there) triggers my asthma. Bonus- the lights are already on the tree!
First, the medical links, which are really quite good and deserve attention even while the rest of the internet erupts in flames.
Chavi Eve Karkowsky's discussion of how postpartum hemorrhages are treated is a sobering reminder of one of the many reasons those of us who can give blood should do so. On Monday, I will return the calls from the blood bank, which I've been ignoring for a couple of weeks, and make an appointment to give blood.
The Smithsonian had a good round up of what science tells us about picky eaters (like me). I would like to say this, though: my genetic predisposition towards picky eating almost certainly comes from my Dad's side of the family. My Mom loves vegetables, and if I did not get exposed to their taste in utero it is only because I apparently made her throw up most of what she ate. Also, I made a HUGE effort to eat more veggies while pregnant with Pumpkin, and she still will not touch them now. My money is on the genes that govern taste receptors being more important than the tastes in the amniotic fluid.
This NY Times story about antibiotic resistant infections in India is frankly terrifying. Our blase attitudes toward antibiotics scare me. There are not infinite ways to kill a bacterial cell without harming the human cells around it, and we should not be so cavalier about the drugs we have. There is no guarantee that more are forthcoming.
Now, to the unhealthy society links.
This storify is really eye-opening with respect to the mindset of GamerGaters. I guess this is the flip side of the community I find on the internet. Sure, it lets me find a community that I struggle to find in real life, but not all communities it allows people to build are healthy- for their participants or the rest of us. I don't think we as a society are even close to reckoning with that. And why would we be? The internet is still so young.
I suspect most people have heard about the horrible, horrible mess that the Rolling Stone UVa rape story has become. If not, Megan McArdle has a solid story about it and Amanda Taub has an important perspective on reasons why some aspects of Jackie's story may not holding up to scrutiny. I am not at all impressed with how Rolling Stone has handled this, nor am I impressed by how some prominent male journalists are behaving. The whole thing makes me feel sick, really.
Before I was feeling sick about that, I was feeling sick about the grand jury's decision not to indict the police officer who choked Eric Garner to death. I do not have anything profound to say about the case and what it reveals about racism in this country, beyond what I said in response to George Zimmerman's acquittal or Michael Brown's shooting and its aftermath. Go read the links in those old posts, if you haven't before. There are people saying what needs to be said far more eloquently than I can.
Then read this compilation of a string of tweets about things Black people should not do. Absorb the sheer number of cases, and the mundane situations.
And definitely read Kiese Laymon's piece about how his Vassar college faculty ID makes everything OK. If you read no other link this week, read that one.
Finally, Alyssa Rosenberg's piece about how not everyone is cut out to be a cop is really thoughtful and thought-provoking.
And this TED talk from Verna Myers is quite good.
I hate to end on such a down note. So I give you the delightfully funny Pamela Ribon celebrating Roxane Gay's Bad Feminist.
And the saddest thing about integers just proves why stringed instruments RULE.
I hope your weekend is a good one. We'll be decorating our tree. It is an artificial one this year, because my asthmatic lungs need a break after the long, allergen-laden "fall" and the discovery in Joshua Tree that the smoke from avocado wood (what was available as firewood up there) triggers my asthma. Bonus- the lights are already on the tree!
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