Why Don't Students Like School

Maybe with this book I can be better at helping my daughter with her homework.  The first chapter was compelling so I bought a copy from Amazon.

Why Don't Students Like School: A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions About How the Mind Works and What It Means for the Classroom

Droid Software Update!

My Droid Eris from Verizon Wireless just received the System update notice! The phone is downloading it now 77.7MB large over the air. Definitely seems like the Android OS update to 2.something. Probably 2.1. It appeared right after I plugged it into the charger. I wonder if that was a trigger for the update notice? or was it because it just rolled over to midnight. ;-) Only 2-3 bars but the download went pretty quick ~5 minutes or so.

The update is ready to install. Pressing the Restart & install button now!


I'll post more after the update is successful.

Ok, Expect about 1 - 1 1/2 hours to finish the update and recreate your screen layouts.  I had to place all the application shortcuts back on the various screens.  Google Voice wouldn't run after the update finished and the phone booted up.  However after I shutdown and re-started the phone all was back to working.

It did remember my Google account login and was able to re-sync all my email, contacts, favorites, etc with no problems.  Adding my office Google apps account as an additional email account was simple.  I updated about 4 apps to match the new OS version.  Navigation looks good and will easily replace my Garmin GPS I had for the car.  I finally get to try out Google Goggles, and Google Buzz as a native app!

Some things I've seen people having trouble with...
Before you install the update, it says some things will be reset to the defaults.  What I experienced is just my screen layouts or "scenes" were reset.  All my Google login information was retained so all I had to do was go to settings, Accounts & Sync and click Sync now.  Then all my contacts saved in my Google account re-synced to the phone.  My facebook, flickr, & twitter accounts also re-synced..  The toughest part was putting the icons back where I had them on the various screens.  This gave me the opportunity to re-think which icons I needed and I put some new ones from the 2.1 update on instead.

I guess there is a way to backup the "scenes". I think I saw an app for that.

I had to go to Settings and Personalize to reset my Home wallpaper and Lock screen wallpaper but the image I used was saved on the SD card with all my other photos, videos, and files, so it was easy to reset.

PS Remember to go to the market and under menu select downloads and check which of the apps you had installed now have updates.  There should be several to bring the apps up to compatibility with the 2.1 update.

Sunset at Dana Point, CA

Boogie Board

Recently I found a neat new writing tablet that is thin & light and easy to use.  It uses very little power (one watch battery will last it for years).  It only uses power when you erase what you have written.  It's was only about $30 with shipping.  Anna is having fun using it too.  Check it out Boogie Board LCD Writing Tablet.  I found out about it before it was available so I got a bit of a deal when I did a pre-order. It's made by iMPROV Electronics, and they have their own ideas for target markets.  They are pushing the "green" angle with the idea that you'll use less paper once you start using this device.

Your copier may know more about you than you know!

I should have posted this sooner.  It has hit the news recently but it has been discussed on security blogs & podcasts for a few weeks.

Copiers in offices get replaced as they age or new features are needed.  The old copiers are hauled away by the vendors and nobody is aware that all those documents that have been scanned, copied, printed are saved on an internal hard drive.  These copiers are then either refurbished and re-sold or if they are out dated sold over seas.  All those documents are shipped with the copier on the internal hard drive to whom ever buys the copiers.

See this discussion / report from the Security Now podcast at grc.com.  The part to look for starts only about 4 paragraphs down “Steve: It was a hopping week, Leo. CBS did a report…”

Facebook's Eroding Privacy Policy: A Timeline

This is a problem and making things worse, many people don’t even think about the security & privacy settings or they mistakenly ass-u-me Facebook’s settings default secure or private.  In fact Facebook’s defaults on a new account are to share as much as possible to make the service “more useful”.  Yeah right.  More useful to whom?  Facebook and their advertising partners!

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/04/facebook-timeline

Lots of Books up for grabs!

We are clearing out a spare room of furniture (already claimed), book shelf (still available), and some of the books (still available) on the shelf.  What’s the point of storing all these books unless they are going to get read?  So, if anyone is interested in any of these books let us know.  If not, we’ll just donate them or take them to a thrift store.  Just thought I’d see if anyone had any interest before I just gave them away.

(I’ll probably be adding to this list for a day or so…)

Computer Related Books:

• Practical C Programming By: Steve Oualline
• C the Pocket Reference Second Edition By: Herbert Schildt
• Artificial Intelligence Using C By: Herbert Schildt
• Learning C By: Peter Aitken
• Learn C Now By: Augie Hansen
• Supercharged C Graphics By: Lee Adams
• Systems Programming in Microsoft C – Second Edition By: Michael J. Young
• Object-Oriented Software Engineering – Examples in C++ By: Steve Hallday, Michael Wiebel
• Easy Object Programming for Windows Using Visual C++ By: Richard O. Parker
• Object-Oriented Programming in Microsoft C++ By: Robert Lafore
• The IBM PC & PS/2 By: Peter Norton & Richard Wilton
• Assembler Language Programming – For IBM and IMB Compatible Comptuers By: Stern, Sager, Stern
• Windows NT - The Next Generation By: Len Feldman
• Advanced Windows Programming – Covers Windows 3.1 By: Martin Heller
• Introduction to Networking By: Nance
• Virtual Reality Playhouse – Explore Artificial Worlds on Your PC By: Nicholas Lavroff
• Word for Windows

Books on Dogs

• Dogs for Dummies
• The Art of Raising A Puppy

Philosophy

• Great Dialogues of Plato
• Aristotle Ethics
• David Hume – An Enquiry Concerning the Principals of Morals
• Kant – Fundamental Principals of the Metaphysic of Morals

Physical

• Feet First – A Guide to Foot Reflexology

Fun day in Point Reyes

Walking on the beach at Drakes Bay, Point Reyes National Sea Shore.

To wrap-up the fun week Anna and I had (see previous post), all three of us went to Point Reyes for the day.  The Friday started out with the plan to go to SunSplash water park in Roseville.  It turned out they were closed.  We were left with the desire to play in the water, but there aren’t any good beaches in Sacramento.  So, I said “Lets go to Point Reyes”! and that’s all it took.  Next thing we were packing for the day and heading out to our favorite spot.  I’ve posted many more photos on my flickr site, as well as my smugmug site.

View of Drakes Bay as we walk down the beach.

We walked down the beach enjoying the breeze and surf, looking for unique rocks and shells.  Then Anna and I kicked off our shoes and played in the surf and dug trenches and pools in the sand.

After getting covered in sand, we cleaned off at the visitor center and drove into town for a bite to eat at our favorite restaurant Cafe’ Reyes, then walked down the main street of town checking out the many art shops.

We found a new art shop called Viewpoints that had some great photos of the area and paintings.  We picked up a few little souvenirs in the form of fridge magnets.  The paintings represented on these can be found at the artists site: Christine Decamp.  Oddly the gallery doesn’t have a web site yet.

Turtle Turtleback & Storm.

Annual Father Daughter Week! Day Three

After spelunking through mines and caverns yesterday in the Gold Country, it’s back to San Francisco to visit the De Young and the Japanese Tea Gardens.  Today the King Tutankhamun exhibit is the main attraction.  Going mid-week turns out to be great. We didn’t have very many people at the exhibit to wade through just to see the pieces.  Anna wasn’t all that into the King Tut display, but when we passed through the gift shop she liked all the King Tut related stuff.  I ended up buying her a bracelet, writing pad, pencil, & bamboo book mark with a turtle carved out, and a gem stone turtle for mom.  Once we made it out of the souvenir shop, we ran into Adam, who’s working at the De Young.  Actually I was too focused on Anna and deciding what to see next when Adam ran up and caught our attention.  It was a short conversation, I’m sure he couldn’t break away from work too long just to shoot the breeze but I’m glad we ran into him.  After talking to Adam we caught lunch at the nice restaurant at the De Young.

After lunch we browsed the rest of the displays.  The African exhibit up stairs was more interesting to Anna than King Tut was.  Once we had seen all the art, we headed outside.  I’d planned on going straight to the Japanese Tea Garden, but instead we walked around for a few minutes and ended up at this neat pond next to the museum.

Turtles and lily pads next to the De Young

Anna met a little girl and they played around this pond and park area for awhile.  I talked with the girls parents while shooting some photos. Turned out they were from Korea and the dad is a visiting professor for a year.  Their daughter didn’t speak any English, and the mother only spoke some.  However, we still managed to carry a conversation, and enjoyed watching our daughters play together.  I think Anna enjoyed that play time more than the museum or the Tea Gardens.

After a while we headed over to the Tea Gardens and I shot a few photos of Anna and the gardens.

After checking out the Tea Gardens, we headed out of town.  We were going to stop buy Anna’s Aunt’s house in Vallejo on the way home and visit for a few minutes.  Her aunt Katherine loves art and museums and Anna, so I though she would like talking to Anna about what she saw at the De Young and the Academy of Sciences.  The only problem I had was getting out of town.  My GPS was having a difficult time locating the satellites, so I just drove by feel until it finally synced with the satellites.  I was close!  Only a couple blocks from the freeway on-ramp.

Day four we stayed in town while waiting half the day for a tire place to put two new tires on my car.  We did manage to walk to Starbucks to meet mom for lunch while my car sat waiting its’ turn.  We were so hot by mid after noon when my car was finally done, we went straight home and jumped in the pool.

Annual Father Daughter Week! Day Two

We had planned to visit the De Young and see the King Tutankhamen exhibit before it left California for another 30 years, but after spending a whole day in S.F. just to see the Academy of Sciences… we thought it better to reschedule that for later in the week and try something different.

Tag board to track who is below in the mine

So, we packed our cameras and flashlights and headed for the hills looking for the Mother Load.  First we went to the Sutter Gold Mine, a real working mine still producing lots of gold.  There we took an open mining car down into the mine.  Anna was a bit scared as the car drove down the tight road to the mine entrance but she seemed fine once we were in the mine zipping down the tunnel in the dark.  Kind of the opposite of what I would have expected.

Entrance to the Mine

Once we got about 1200 feet into the mine there is a safety room dug out of solid “green rock” which is very dense hard rock.  Then they reinforce the room with steel bars drilled deep into the rock and a mesh anchored to the walls.  This is the room they go to if there are problems in the mine.

Zipping down into the mine!

Further down we got out and walked into a narrow side tunnel where they were following a vain of quartz.  Here the miner showed us the difference in appearance between pyrite and gold.  He then showed us several pieces of powered equipment the miners used to drill into the rock.  We learned about problems with dynamite and what the modern safer explosives are that they use now.

600ft or more below the surface

Then a quick ride back to the surface!  Anna had a blast and since the tour didn’t take much time, we headed out for lunch and then drove on to California Caverns.
The caverns were so dark that I don’t have many photos that turned out for that trip.  When I tried using a flash the dust particles in the air (though unnoticeable otherwise) nearly obscured the subject of the photo.  Here are the few photos worth anything.  These turned out because of some marginal lighting the had installed.

It was a long drive home on the winding roads, I didn’t use a map I just relied on my GPS to get us home, hopefully in the quickest way possible.  Next, it's back to S.F. …