Iain B. Simpson

Welcome to my tumblog.ibsimpson.com

[koralatov]

Five Simple Steps for Getting Rid of Books

If it’s a treasured gift, keep it;

If it’s unread and bought less than three months ago, keep it;

If it’s a favourite you re-read often, keep it;

Everything else, send to the charity shop;

On March 1st every year, repeat the process.

[ibsimpson]

Wanted, for crimes against type.

[ibsimpson]

I’m a long-time advocate of the KISS principle: “Keep it simple, stupid,” or its more formal ancestor known as Ockham's razor. But as problems become more complex, so unfortunately do their simplest solutions. Scan ahead in this part and your initial reaction may be that what I’m proposing looks awfully complicated. But, if there’s a simpler way of getting to a truly effective answer, I’ve yet to find it; nor am I aware of anyone else who has.

[Arthur M. Schneiderman](http://www.schneiderman.com/) on balanced scorecards and setting improvement priorities.

[ibsimpson]

One peculiar aspect of Diskdoctor that we often get queries about is that it will occasionally rename a disk Lazarus if it thinks it has done a particularly good job of bringing a disk back from the dead. This is just a poor joke on the part of the programmers of Diskdoctor and isn’t anything to be worried about.

_Get the most out of your Amiga 1993. Booklet. (Free with Amiga Format January 1993.)

[maniacalrage]

Thank god Clear finally came out.

[justinrampage]

[laughingsquid]

Skyrim Intervention

[laughingsquid]

Dress Pant Sweatpants

[ibsimpson]

AKA Chinos?

[ibsimpson]

Love thy neighbour[’s cat].

[ibsimpson]

Calepin: A simple, elegant way to self publish online

How much would you like pain-free and pretty hosting of your words on the web? A tool that just works, and gets out of the way of your writing. I have hunted high and low for a long time to find such a tool.

And now I’ve found it1 in Calepin: “the easiest way to self publish online”

You write a piece in Markdown2; save in your Dropbox; visit calepin.co; click publish3; and you’re done.

One-click publishing: No updates. No danger. No tears. Having experimented with Wordpress, Tumblr, Squarespace, and HTML+CSS, I can happily say that Calepin has blown me away.

I’ll be switching my main site to Calepin once custom domains and themes are supported.

Calepin is stable, new and evolving. Made available to all during November 2011, the creator is taking good feedback and making Calepin even better.

Write. Publish. Done.

Thank you Jökull Sólberg for creating and sharing this.

Well actually, Koralatov told me about it. ↩︎

Markdown is a wonderful plain-text formatting system that is easily [human] readable and can also be processed to output structurally valid HTML. ↩︎

First-time setup takes less than sixty seconds. ↩︎

[ibsimpson]

The Wrong Train

Not for the first time in my life, I feel a complete idiot.

Standing at Platform 6N, I embark upon a train (the 7:37 to Dyce). The train disembarks the station. Only, it’s heading the wrong way! Stomach churning, I realise I’m on the train to Stonehaven. This is in the opposite direction to where I want to go. My fault.

What do you do when you’ve made such a mistake?

Well, after the mania of internal panic, I recomposed my face into a smile at my ignorance. Oops you fool.

Then I rang the company I’m training with (putting my hand up to apologise), and now I’m looking at a gorgeous sunrise. No déjà vu.

If something goes wrong, deal with it, else it will bury you. Then; move on.

(In an efficient and timely manner get back-on-track.)

[ibsimpson]

Think versus Learned

“What I think” versus “[W]hat I’ve learned”. Arguably, they are equally important. In my experience, I’ve derived more value from doing and learning (after planning of course), than thinking alone.

Two things:

If you spend all your time thinking, and none of it doing, you’re either thinking inappropriately, or fear has overcome you. This is stopping yourself from doing worthwhile things. You don’t have much time. Evaluate what feels right and get on with it.

While you’re doing, it’s worthwhile keeping a note of how you overcame any obstacles and sorted out issues. Then, when you’ve done your thing, you can share with others: “Here’s what I’ve learned….”

How much greater to share what you’ve learned, than simply what you think?

[ibsimpson]

Rest in peace.

[ibsimpson]

A thoroughly interesting website, in both content and design:

From their about page:

Apparently, some people think we are an art collective. We can see why, as the projects we are displaying on this website don't come from a commercial need. The whole 'what is really art anyway' discussion is boring, so we'll skip it, and if you think what we do is art, then thanks we guess. We don't think of ourselves as artists, as we come from a product/interaction design background. What we see ourselves as is a studio that does what it very well pleases, experimenting with products and electronics and the like, not necessarily being tied to a client. That said, it's not like we don't want clients, we would love to do explorative work for money. Who we are? Lars Marcus and Theo.

[ibsimpson]

iPhone Photography Lag

Mulling over Hans Petter Eikemo’s thoughts on iPhone photo lag. Echoing his sentiments; the problem occurs as I experience some fleeting event. I want to capture it. From my trouser pocket to taking the photo takes me about six seconds, three if camera.app was open and active before I locked my iPhone. I have missed the moment. No Henri Cartier-Bresson chance; the man has met the puddle.

Hans Petter Eikemo of Ideon proposes [for a future iPhone]:

When the camera app is inactive, a press on the new [camera] button will launch it.

Every press captures a photo, even outside the camera app. As a remedy for the most fleeting of photo ops; you shoot instantly from the hip, and when the app is ready, you may review the results or continue to shoot assisted by the viewfinder.

Press and hold the button momentarily to record video. The subsequent press stops recording.

I am against a new button, because we don’t need one. The shutter release (sic - pixel sensor ready and capture) could be initiated in different ways depending on the situation. Let’s go through some [iPhone] scenarios.

The phone is asleep in your pocket. You want to take a photo. Quick! Take if out of your pocket and either:

double-click volume-up button (hold for video)

double-click volume-down button (hold for video)

depress volume-up and volume-down button simultaneously (hold for video)

depress-volume-up and home button simultaneously (hold for video)

depress volume-down and home button simultaneously (hold for video)

Notes:

A setting would allow you to enable the feature to capture photos and/or video from sleep mode. Thus, Private Percy's Privacy is Protected from Prankster Peter.

A setting would allow you to launch into camera.app (or not) after taking photos from sleep mode.

Initiating video capture from sleep mode would launch camera.app while you are shooting that video.

Any thoughts?

[ibsimpson]

We Can Build You

Currently reading Dick, Philip K,. “We Can Build You”, bought from a very interesting book store in Skye this weekend passed: Mòr Books.

My sister bought a small book of Montaigne, and was chatting to the proprietor –a fascinating and helpful gent– when P.K. Dick caught my eye. At the time I was scanning for original cover Herbert, Frank, Dune books.

Shops with such character are rare. If you find yourself not far over the Skye bridge, this is worth the stop. Also adjacent is a hand-spun knitwear shop, and a studio gallery.

[stevekinney]

[ibsimpson]

From Steve Kinney’s valid debunking of Michael Bromley, a teacher in Washington, DC.

Michael Bromley writes:

My colleagues groan when I say it, and then tell me to shut up: teachers are over-paid. Truly, we are.

Steve Kinney’s disagreement with the above statement is well articulated. I’m with Steve. Whoever says being a good teacher is easy is an idiot. My mother is a teacher in Scotland, and I know that the profession is not an easy one, but it has the potential to be immensely rewarding to the spirit (if you put the effort in and are really passionate about your student’s learning).

I really liked Steve’s piece. He clearly explains that being a good teacher does involve hard work, long hours, and passion for what you do.

Any person claiming they have an easy job and are overpaid obviously isn’t adding much value, and isn’t applying much effort to improve. That is a great shame. Stagnation, entropy and death lie on that path.

I’d really like to read more from Steve on how we can improve teaching and learning, especially information and methods anyone [,selfishly I] can apply.

In conclusion, I think it unfair to claim that any good teacher is over-paid.

A bad teacher on the other hand, that will not be reformed into a good teacher, should be earning zero.

[ibsimpson]

Gary Larson’s Far Side

From Susan McCarthy's brilliant biographic article of Gary Larson (creator of The Far Side):

(I have no problem with the thagomizer, though I am a little worried by the unscrupulous cow in the life raft who is detected by the other passenger in the act of sipping from a glass. "Hey! That's milk! And you said you were all empty, you stinkin' liar!" shouts the indignant man. My problem is not the man and cow in the lifeboat, the talking cow, nor the question of where the cow got the glass, but -- why does the cow have stubble?)

This 1999 article is a great read, including McCarthy's quirky fascination with white-out.

Lane Hartill of The Christian Science Monitor takes a stab at journalising this in 2001.

I prefer McCarthy's description of Larson's world, "[p]opulated by the lumpy, the big-nosed, the bespectacled, the bug-eyed and the foofy-haired" to Hartill's: "The doughy humans and brainy wildlife of Gary Larson's 'The Far Side' cartoons made people bend over with laughter for more than a decade."

The Far Side is timeless humour, and I hope it will be archived for posterity, as a gift to future generations. By then, some of Larson's imagination might become reality.

But gene-splicing is another topic, for another day.