23 January 2007

Failures for $200, Alex

I took the Jeopardy! Online Contestant Search Test tonight... and I'm pretty sure I failed it. I think I got 31 out of 50 and I think you need at least 35. That sounds about like what I got the last time I took the test about 5 years ago when then didn't have an online version.

That year, I drove to Chicago from Wausau, WI. The test was at The Drake, so I reserved a room there for the night before so I could be well rested. I should have gone earlier and done something in Chicago. But it was bad enough that I had to rent a car for my wife since we only had one and she needed to get to work the day I was going down to Chicago. I didn't really have more money to spend on do whatever else I'd do in Chicago by myself.

The morning of the test, I was nervous. You have to come prepared for an interview (screen test) and a mock game if you pass the 50 question test. So I'm dressed up slightly in a shirt a tie and sweating in the waiting area outside the ballroom that Jeopardy had reserved.

We had the test - 50 questions of hand written answers. I could feel that I was missing too many. Mostly because I couldn't think of the answer quick enough, or I was wavering between two answers and was most likely picking the wrong one. The only question I remember now was a picture of a body of water that we were supposed to name. I couldn't remember if it was the Black Sea or the Caspian Sea, though it was obvious to me that it was the Black Sea as soon as the test was done.

The qualified scorers were read off, and the rest of us were told that we had missed the qualification by one point (that's the default story... they never give you your score). Somewhat dejected, I retrieved my car from the valet and left, driving around downtown Chicago a bit, and then heading back home with a short stop at the new Apple Store in the Woodfield Mall.

Even though I lost, it was an interesting trip and I felt I could probably get it next time. Then, two years ago, I was registered for the tryout again. This time, it was going to be in Madison, closer to where I was living now. But circumstances prevented me from going that day. Last year was the first year for the online test, but the time didn't work for me.

So this year I get myself pretty psyched, but forget to do any pre-test prepping. And the result is what I should expect. I was close, but definitely not Jeopardy! quality. Maybe next year. Good luck to everyone else trying!

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16 January 2007

Working at home, the Aussie way

Here's a brief report on working at home from Australia's "The Age":

"Westpac's head of diversity, Niki Kesoglou, says workers are assessed for ability to work on their own, provided with the equipment they need and helped to ensure their work environment is safe. Guidelines are given for communication with managers and progress is monitored according to meeting objectives, rather than when workers clock on and off.

Westpac benefits through greater productivity, worker retention and morale."

...

"But Barbara Pocock, the director of the Centre for Work + Life, at the University of South Australia, says there is a downside to telecommuting.

While it gives parents, particularly working mothers, the flexibility to work from home and deal with emergencies, it can encroach on family life.

Professor Pocock says there is an increasingly "porous boundary" between work and home life that is being breached."


That does seem to be true, though I'm sure it depends on the demands of the job. For me, there have been times when I just kept working. Now, the situation is that I trade two evenings - working from after dinner to 10 or 11 - for a Friday off to take care of our son. So that's less about work encroaching on home life, than exchanging some home life time for other time. If I was working a normal 8 to 5, I wouldn't get to spend an entire day with our son, and instead only seen him for a few hours each night.

(Aside: I read the professor's name above as "Professor Peacock" my first time through. Reminded me of Clue, which I played once again recently around the holidays. Wonder if she gets that often?)

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It lives!

The Powerbook is up and running again. I think I just didn't have the processor card seated correctly. Some reading on the Apple discussion boards led me to figuring that solution.

Unortunately, the AC port is still not right. I've got the cord taped up to apply pressure in the appropriate direction. I'll have to get a new card soon to fix it.

One more shout out to ifixit.com for their great repair manuals.

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15 January 2007

Powerbook woes

My trusty Powerbook G3 Firewire (aka Pismo aka PBG3FW), that has served me well for 5 years may be on it's last legs.

Two years ago I had a scare with it when suddenly, I smelled something burning and heard an odd sizzle. Then I saw a little smoke coming from the computer. I ripped out the AC cord and pulled the battery out. Turning the laptop over, there was a small hole melted through the plastic case.

This was before the burning-battery scare of '05, and was nowhere near the battery anyway. I opened the laptop (which is very easy to do thanks to Apple's superior engineering, and found that the hard drive cable was the culprit. Somehow, it had shorted out.

I found a replacement online and attempted the repair, but it wouldn't start up. I gave it up for dead and split apart the contents, and sold the parts and the "dead" laptop online.

This would normally be the end of the story, except that the person who bought the laptop was a repair hobbyist. He put in the necessary components, let the PRAM battery charge up again, and, voila!, it worked. He emailed me, sold me back the components I needed (including a larger hard drive) for less than I sold my parts for, and I got my PBG3FW back!

Cut two nearly exactly two years later (now). I've tripped over the powercord too many times and the AC port has come loose. If I wrap the cord up around the LCD screen in just the right way (putting stress on the AC cord so that I'm sure I'll have to replace it in a few months), it still powers the laptop. I look online and find that the AC port is on a separate card that can be replaced, but it costs around $80 or more.

At one point, I thought I read somewhere about someone soldering the port back in place. So I thought, "What heck? Let's try it!" I found a great disassembly/repair guide at ifixit.com, and it seemed pretty easy. Well... the components are pretty tight on that card, and I may have fried one of the chips on the card while I was trying to add the solder. I got everything back together, but it won't start up.

My next steps are as follows: (1) Go through the repair guide again and disassemble and reassemble the computer again to make sure all the cables and cards I disconnected are reconnected correctly. (2) Charge the batteries again and try powering-up computer again. (3) If it's still not working, I've found some components on eBay, so I could maybe get the card for $40 instead of $80. (4) Open the computer again to replace the card with the "new" one, reassembling it carefully. (5) Charge and try to power-up the computer again.

I would really like to get this machine back to work. I can't really afford a new laptop right now, and I've grown accustomed to being able to do some work and recreational computing from anywhere in the house. Plus - I grow attached to these things. This one's named Shadow after the character from Neil Gaiman's American Gods.

If anyone has PBG3FW repair tips, please email me at mitch42(AT)ghostowl.net or leave a comment here.

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University of Wisconsin student and brother are heroes

I'm always on the look out for news about Wisconsin, and while this didn't happen here, one of the heroes is a student at UW.


"The Kottkes crossed the river to find Carolyn Dorn, 52, who had been alone in the Gila National Forest for five weeks after becoming trapped on the wrong side of the rain- and snow-swollen river. The search for her had been called off two weeks ago...

"...Dorn was about six miles from the nearest road in an area where the brothers, who have hiked in the region several times over the past two years, had never seen another human being, said Peter Kottke, whose 20th birthday was Sunday.

"When they left, she was "very alert, talkative," said Peter Kottke, a junior geological engineering major at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. "She seemed very relieved that somebody had finally found her."


Way to go Albert and Peter Kottke! And way to go Carolyn Dorn who survived on her own for 5 weeks in the wilderness!

Makes me wonder: Would I have what it takes to survive like that? (he asks as he sips more coffee, takes another bite of bagel, and settles in for 8 more hours of work in front of his computer.) I guess I don't really have to worry, huh?

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08 January 2007

Multiculturalism, or assimilation?

Althouse led me to a political test today (though her post is from Friday), that in itself wasn't that sepctacular, but it had at least one question that prompted extra thought:


"8. Do you see the ideal America as an ethnic "melting pot" in which religious, cultural and ethnic distinctions are blurred, or as a nation in which ethnically diverse groups ought to coexist while retaining their cultural identity?"


I find that I've bought into the "melting pot" ideal. But I see it this way: There is an American culture that is made up of the blending of our inherited transplanted cultures and is continually influenced by the influx of immigrants and our relations in the world at large. I was at a great example of this this weekend: Romine's High Pockets in Milwaukee - a pool hall, sports bar, and arcade with a restaurant attached. The name of the restaurant: Senor Loco's. And while the menu offered many delicious looking mexican specialities, we ordered Pizza. And it was really good.

Where else in the world can you get all that in one place?

Milwaukee itself boasts a great respect for the cultures of it's people, as long as they like to party. On the Summerfest grounds or nearby, the spring, summer and fall are all filled with cultural events from Irish Fest, to Italian fest, to Bastille Days, to Oktoberfest. There's Asian and Latino festivals, too. So we can all share in the great food, drink, and entertainment of the people that make up our communities.

Yet, I'd hope that all these people would celebrate our American heritage and culture, too. Our nation may be young in the grand scheme of things, but 200 plus years isn't too shabby. Nor is our standing in the world today. And it says something that every year hundreds of thousands or more try to come here to live and want to become citizens.

I'm interested in my own heritage (Scandinavian, Lithuanian, German, and others), but it doesn't define me as much as my nationality and regional identity. It means more to me to be a Wisconsinite than of Lithuanian or Swedish descent. And, in dealing with those of other nationalities, I'm still happy to be known as an American (hey - we all have skeleton's in our national closets...). So the assimilation process has worked for me - 3 generations is all it took, though I doubt my parents felt much different than I about their identity.

This article about the diversyfication of Australia's surfing life-saving clubs is interesting, too. From what I understand, Australia has a history of anti-immigration tendancies in the white majority. And last year, there were instances of racial clashes between ethnically Middle Easterners and whites on the beaches. Now, the traditionally conservative surfing clubs are reaching out to recruit other ethnicities to foster "breaking down social barriers".

To deal with the Muslim women's attire requirements, they've developed what has been termed a "burquini". I understand the argument that religions that enforce strict cultural attire (especially the fundamentalist Islamic kind) is actually just a patriarchal oppression of women. But if these suits allow oppressed women to venture out into the world and do things like surf and save lives and become aculturated, then I think they are a good thing.

Good luck to the new Austrailian life guards! And kudos to the surfing clubs reaching out to mend cultural schisms. Long live the melting pots, and long live our heritage - separate and united.

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04 January 2007

A writer's life

And this is my, um, ideal life.

John Scalzi (author of Old Man's War and other books and things, writes above about his life of a writer. He says some great things about the struggles of a "successful" freelance writer and author, and other comments about working at home. This part resonates with me:

"I see two objections here. The first [is] the practical one: at least you work from home. Well, this is true. On the other hand, people who don't work at home idealize the working from home scenario. "


This is true for me to. Everyone says: "It must be great to work from home." There are many benefits, but there are drawbacks, too. I'm constantly distracted by everything else to do around the house. Even though I'm essentially an introvert, I do miss people - you can only get so much from emails and IMs. And my employer sees working at home as a benefit in itself, so I don't get many others.

People even say, "Oh you work from home, you can take care of your son, then." Have we already lost the perspective of a generation or less ago when the majority of mom's stayed at home with the kids? That was it's own job. Do they really expect that I can get actual productive work done AND give my two year old a decent about of attention?

But John's post also alludes to the hard work of writing - the constant work, the struggle to create, and to manage your own business. I'd like to be a full time writer. I just have to buck up and accept that it's not easy. I can do that.

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03 January 2007

Provocation and Confrontation

I've had difficulties dealing with confrontation in my life. In a way, the 'net has helped, though it's perhaps allowed me to trun it into a bit of passive agressiveness. It's pretty easy to confront people behind the mask of internet anonyminity. That's much easier than actually dealing with it face to face.

That's why posts/sagas like this one at Althouse, wherein Ann Althouse continues to defend her criticism of a libertarian conference, are amusing and shocking to me. One the one hand, the debate is entertaining. Personalities clash, some ideas are brought to light and examined, and I get a bit of thrill out of reading the players' attempts at one-up-manship.

On the other hand, it's slightly disturbing. In the end, it seems like a lot of missed shots - they're all debating different things and not really engaged in a discussion. That's the way I often feel when I'm debating with someone - like I can't breach that disconnection in our thinking. I usually feel that I can see where they are coming from, but I can't figure out how to term my argument in a way they can understand me. Not that they have to agree with me... just understand me.

After a lengthy period of engaging in debates and discussions on a message board, I came to the conclusion that I was as much of a windbag as the rest of them. I wasn't really engaged. Just throwing out my shots out there without much chance of changing opinions or building consensus.

In a sense, blogging does that as well. It's easy to find the opinions out there that you want to agree with or counter with your own data and philosophies. The blog can give you a sense of ownership and a leeway to write how you would. Even if you are citing others in order to "engage" them, you really only have yourself to engage. Comments can bring in some outside players, much like the message board. But you don't really have to prove anything.

But Althouse has mentioned recently that this is the way the "game" is played. Provoking another blogger or bloggers should lead to their retaliation and the coveted links. Draw them in to draw their readers to you.

Can I play that game? Do I need to? I suppose it gets down to the reasons for this blog. Already those reasons are in flux, but underneath it all is a desire to write and be read. But I think I'll need to pick my fights well.

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