More on education and politics

[caption id="attachment_2836" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Tim Connolly and Rep. Jim McGovern"][/caption]

The other day, Rep. Jim McGovern spoke at our WISE politics and media class. Tim Connolly, communications director for Worcester County D.A. Joseph Early, Jr., is leading the class. McGovern took questions for the full 90 minutes. As you might expect, topics ranged widely from Worcester politics to the pile of rubble that is the Washington political process. "If you wanted to chose any time in history to be president," said McGovern, "this is not the time you would choose." (Ref The Onion's on-point headline in November 2008, Black Man Given Nation's Worst Job .)

We talked redistricting. More than half of his district is new to him, now anchored to the west by Amherst and Northampton. (I corrected him on the pronunciation of Amherst, with a silent h. The townspeople notice such things.) The discussion about education included the usual topics of improving STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) as we try to prepare young people for jobs in the emerging green economy and medical technology.

In a bit of topic drift, we noted that a 20% turnout, coupled with Joe Perry's 48% plurality, means than fewer than 10% of Worcester voters chose their new mayor. "We are ultimately responsible for whom we elect," noted McGovern. By comparison, 40% of Fitchburg electorate voted. They re-elected Lisa Wong as mayor.

In addition to the usual concerns about civic detachment, the class agreed that civics should also be included in any education reform.

I know that it's comparing apples and dump trucks to relate my personal educational experiences with the practices and people of these times. There are a few dynamics about growing up, however, that are somewhat enduring. So, here are a couple of points:

• I loved history, social studies, and political science. I even got an award as best social studies student in my graduating class. My first college course, taken when I was 16, was political science. I grew up in a household where both parents voted regularly, where my mother campaigned for Ed Brooke as senator.
  I didn't vote until I was 30.


• There were several classes - Shakespeare in freshman English, shop, and gym, notably - that caused me not only not to learn the subjects but also to hate them later in life. Part of it was bad teaching, more of it was due to an inept student forced to display his ineptitude for the world to see.

These are notes of caution about what we can expect from education of any type, be it our public schools or even a parent to a child. We can give skills and knowledge, knowing that some of that will land on fertile ground and some will land on the rocks. The skill of the teacher and the aptitude of the student are the major factors here.

Much, much harder, though, it teaching people how to care when they don't. Even if we can identify root causes and remove those impediments, our successes are less than hoped for. It's pretty easy for people who are passionate about a topic to share why they're excited. The stories that are most interesting and, I think, most instructive, are the ones where someone once didn't care and now does. What happened? Is there anything transferable from those life lessons?

I voted for the first time because I was friends with people who were active in politics and who voted. The friendship preceded the act of voting. (This, by the way, is why social networks can be so compelling.) It's not about trust in the political arena or in the classroom, perhaps, but in the coffee shops and living rooms and other social places, where change happens. I voted not because I trusted the politicians so much as I trusted my friends.

November is the February of autumn

We now have more leaves than snow in the yard. Not all of the leaves are down yet. This season is running about two weeks late, not influenced by that freakish storm on Halloween weekend.

On this foggy morning, the Moses bushes in front of the house are bright. I wouldn't have noticed had I put out the trash last night. We're not apt to look at the font of the house except when we're coming or going and then we're often in a hurry. This morning, though, I had a moment.

This looks to be a typical day, meaning that there's nothing routine about it. After a reviewing the overnight news, I will take a look at a problem that one customer is having with QuickBooks and online banking. Then, I'm off to MWCC to talk with the very nice webmaster about work on new web, Facebook, and LinkedIn services for the alumni. Next will be a meeting with one of the professors and perhaps an administrator or two to see how we can integrate Twitter with Blackboard for an online course. I'm trying to rouse someone in marketing at a company so I can finish a blog post about them. I have a couple of other news stories in various states of unreadiess. You get the idea.

It's easy to lose track of details. Many of my contemporaries are complaining about age-related memory loss. I'm not ready to give in to that narrative yet. There are plenty of reasons to forget things. For example, this article, BPS Research Digest: How walking through a doorway increases forgetting, shows that going from one room to another resets our memory because our context shifts to the new place. There's no correlation with age or other condition; it just happens. If we're expecting events to be attributed to a cause, be it sugar-induced hyperactivity or the effect of the full moon, we'll regularly find events that fit our expectations. (We'll also discard, minimize, or explain away things that don't fit those patterns.)

I forget stuff, but I've always done so. Nothing new here, meaning that nothing's the same.

Note on Fitchburg politics - thinking beyond tomorrow

[caption id="attachment_2825" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Fitchburg Mayor Lisa Wong addresses a Massachusetts Broadband Institute program"][/caption]

As noted yesterday, I attended a presentation Monday by the Massachusetts Broadband Institute at Fitchburg State University. Mayor Lisa Wong introduced the program and noted the imp

ortant advancements brought about by having good broadband and wireless connectivity in the city. She presented a proclamation (full of details, she noted, gathered from the Internet) for MBI director Judy Dumont.

Most of the people in the audience were out-of-towners. This was the night before Election Day in the city. Mayor Wong was in close and tough race for re-election. She chose to be in a place that offered little immediate political advantage to talk about a program that would have a long-term benefit for the city.

This morning we learn Mayor Wong was re-elected to a third term by a record turnout of Fitchburg voters.

Mr. Hakkarainen goes to Helsinki

[This post is one of a series about Teuvo Hakkarainen, the newly elected True Finns Party MP from Viitasaari. For the record, my grandfather was born in Viitasaari.]
Banishing gays, lesbians, and Somalis to the Åland Islands isn't likely to be part of the immigration/emigration platform for the True Finns. The party leadership reprimanded MP Hakkarainen, who is on sick leave, for his recommendation that sending certain groups away to the islands in the Gulf of Bothnia would be good thing for them and for Finland. He later claimed that his comment was intended as a "joke."
A Swedish MP Elisabeth Nauclér, from the islands said, "Åland is home to 92 nationalities,” said Nauclér in Tuesday’s Iltalehti, adding that, “even Hakkarainen is welcome."
Hanna Kaarto said, in the Hesingin Sanomat, "The whole affair is so disgusting that it would be easier to plug one’s ears, shut one's eyes, and make loud noises just to keep from hearing it."

Is the enemy of my enemy my friend?

Staples has added a nice feature to its USB package, allowing you to test connection on your phone. It is, of course, made necessary by that cadre of evil-doers known as USB connector engineers who don't understand the meaning of the universal.

Unfortunately, packaging engineers are on the next layer of Hell. So, getting at the actual cable requires cutting devices and brute force.

 

The irrelevance of broadband

Many of us live in the breathless world of high tech where each advancement in tablets, phones, and social media services floods our reading queue. We click the Update button, waiting for the next release of IOS or Android. We scoff when a company's new phone has just a single-core processor. We talk to Siri like she's a sister from another mother.

Last night, I attended a presentation by the folks from the Massachusetts Broadband Institute. Their project is quite simply stunning: bring lots of fiber-optic connectivity to the unserved and underserved communities throughout the state. Even with two tornadoes, a hurricane, and an October snowstorm ("Mother Nature hates broadband," quipped MBI director, Judy Dumont.), they're still on target to ensure that, in a couple of years, all people of our fair Commonwealth can have access to fast pipes. (Take a look at the MBI's web site for details about the many facets of the program.)

Then, the hard work begins.

Americans who did not use the Internet at all – whether inside or outside the home – most commonly cited lack of interest or need as the primary reason.

via Exploring the Digital Divide | BroadbandUSA - NTIA

The Digital Divide is a series of fractures. There's the very real issue of money, of course. Even with Comcast's new $9.99 program, computers with the requisite software are out of reach for many. If it was just a matter of money, though, it'd be pretty simple.  More than a third of the people who do not have home broadband reported that, more than cost, didn't think that it was relevant to their lives.

[caption id="attachment_2809" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Main Reason for Non-Adoption of Home Broadband Internet, 2009 (National Telecommunications and Information Administration report)"][/caption]

Irrelevance was cited by 50% more people than those who were said that money was the issue.  The full report (PDF) is here.

In future pieces, I'm going to try to figure out what's going on here.

Some seems obvious.  The Internet, as portrayed in the public discussions, is a dangerous place where bad people want to steal your identity, money, and children. Those of us who've mucked around the 'tubes for a while know what a tremendous time sink all this can be, how it can isolate us even as it calls us to be more social.

There's a bit of research starting to surface about how adults learn how to use computers and networking, research that should embarrass user-interface engineers for hardware and software products, including and especially Apple.

The theory that is mine, however, is that there are a few other things going on. Mostly, they relate to how we view work and education, how our businesses adapt to change, how we, as individuals, learn or don't learn because of intrinsic and extrinsic reasons, and a lot about fear.  I'll come back to these ideas soon. In the meantime, take a look at what the MBI is doing and imagine how this can change things, if not for us, then for our grandkids.

Dept. of tunes - Hallelujah

Recently, Cassie stayed overnight with us. She brought her Shrek tape. We stayed up late and laughed a lot.

In the later part of the movie, there was a sad scene, the setup for the happiness to follow. The tune playing during this sad scene is Hallelujah.

I have to admit that I wasn't paying attention when this song was released in the 80s. Leonard Cohen was a regular on my playlist from his first two albums, but if you're going to stay sane, you have to limit the quantities. For a long time, then, I didn't play the old albums. He's not radio material, so I missed the newer stuff.

For the last decade, lots of people covered the song, bringing out modest voices and great voices, each telling a common and uniquely personal story. There isn't one best version. K.D. Lang kinda owns it, but Justin Timberlake's performance in the Haiti benefit, Jeff Buckley, and Rufus Wainwright can make us hold back a tear. Even folks  less well-known in the States can draw from the deep, deep well of the tune's simple majesty and grace.  The guy himself does himself proud, a testimony to the strength of a great song.

Happy 7th Birthday, Cassie

[caption id="attachment_2800" align="alignleft" width="612" caption="On her first day of school, saying good-bye to Rocco"][/caption]

Crime in suburbia

From The Landmark (subscription required):

[Editor's note: There were 10 suspicious items this week and five lock-outs.

Also, in the words of our local SkyWarn coordinator, we were hit with an "anomalous and historical Nor'easter" on Saturday night and Sunday (10/29 and 10/30), with heavy snow .  The resulting damage included many downed trees and widespread power outages.]

Holden

Monday -- October 24

2:35 a.m. Assist Worcester PD by contacting person whose car is in Worcester, Main St.
7:50 a.m. Suspicious white box truck parked next to caller’s driveway, Montana Dr.
8:35 a.m. Police assist with loose dog, Dorothy Ave.
11:01 a.m. Two cars in middle of Main St., possible argument between drivers, Main St.

Tuesday -- October 25

2:33 a.m. Caller wants to speak with officer regarding incident in grocery store parking lot in Worcester. Advised to call Worcester PD
10:00 a.m. Male sitting in vehicle for long time, Main St.
4:55 p.m. Report of vehicle driving by and a dog thrown out the passenger’s side door before speeding off, Main St.

Wednesday -- October 26

9:33 a.m. Request for escort while picking up equipment at business, Main St.
9:04 p.m. Caller reports someone rang doorbell and left a brown bag, Bull Run. Bag contains candy and chain letter

Friday -- October 28

9:26 a.m. Suspicious vehicle parked in lot, person inside covered with blanket, Jamieson Rd.
5:49 p.m. Four kids fighting in woods, Shrewsbury St. Three juveniles arrested
7:06 p.m. Report of 20 kids running into street all dressed in black, Manning St.
7:22 p.m. Five suspicious males hanging out, Reservoir St.
9:12 p.m. Loud kids in area, Nichols St.

Saturday -- October 28

7:59 a.m. Advising “On Target” at center intersection blocking traffic, Main/Reservoir Sts.
1:45 p.m. Report of female urinating outside her vehicle in library parking lot, appears to be intoxicated, Highland St. Arrest: --- public drunkenness
3:01 p.m. Female says she will not drive any further due to road conditions, requesting assistance, Paxton Rd.
5:57 p.m. Keys locked in car, Main St.
6:04 p.m. State police advise vehicle going wrong way, Main St.
6:47 p.m. Person upset about traffic being stopped due to power outages, Wachusett St.
7:00 p.m. Transformer sparking, Arizona Ave.
7:44 p.m. Small black dog running down Main St.
8:49 p.m. Arcing wires, Driftwood Dr.
9:27 p.m. Tree on fire near Bull Run
10:21 p.m. Person staggering in the road, Salisbury St.

Sunday -- October 30

7:35 a.m. Police assist person locked out of vehicle, Bull Run
9:15 a.m. Report of teens building ramps and snowboarding down stairs, Main St.
10:32 a.m. Kids building a snowman in middle of Rte. 68
1:30 p.m. Kids throwing snowballs at cars, Mason Rd.

Paxton

Monday -- October 24

8:59 a.m. Two pumpkins taken from property, Camp St.
4:46 p.m. Provide courtesy transport to restaurant in Spencer

Tuesday -- October 25

12:33 p.m. Person at station requesting fingerprints, Pleasant St.

Wednesday -- October 26

6:38 p.m. Vehicle hit deer, Pleasant/Franklin Sts.

Thursday -- October 27

6:10 p.m. Caller reports having power in only half the house, Black Hill Rd.
10:09 p.m. Vehicle doing donuts in cul-de-sac, Glen Ellen Rd.

Friday -- October 28

11:07 a.m. Suspicious vehicle in front of home, Crestwood Rd.
12:40 p.m. Male sitting in vehicle on side of Nanigian Rd.
5:23 p.m. Police assist person locked out of vehicle, Glen Ellen Rd.

Saturday -- October 29

1:15 p.m. Report of a horse being neglected, Rockland St.
2:57 p.m. Report of female afraid to drive, causing traffic hazard, Paxton Rd., Holden

Sunday -- October 30

1:44 a.m. Arrest: --- ---- , 21,--- Lake George, N.Y.; assault and battery (domestic)
3:05 a.m. Arrest: --- ---- , 21,--- Lake George, N.Y.; assault and battery (domestic)
8:30 a.m. Transport person to heated location, Richards Ave.
6:28 p.m. Request for welfare check on elderly female. Person brought into lobby after being found in middle of road at Holden/Grove Sts., looking for a neighbor with heat

Princeton

Tuesday -- October 25

10:11 a.m. Tent blowing around road, Worcester Rd.
11:53 p.m. Officers remove about 20 broken beer bottles thrown onto Fitchburg Rd.

Wednesday -- October 26

1:55 p.m. Dog escaped leash while being walked on Wachusett Mountain, Mountain Rd.
3:10 p.m. Suspicious vehicle in area of Westminster Rd.
4:20 p.m. Barking dog, Ball Hill Rd.

Thursday -- October 27

1:01 p.m. Transport person to station to renew her registration online, then take her back to vehicle on Worcester Rd.
2:32 p.m. Missing black cat, Wheeler Rd.
2:48 p.m. White pick-up truck keeps running off the road, Rte. 140 N

Friday -- October 28

1:22 a.m. Officer removed branch from Sterling Rd.
8:42 a.m. Police stand by at vehicle with flat tire, E. Princeton Rd.
10:34 a.m. Police investigate abandoned vehicle, Whitaker Ln.
5:25 p.m. As the result of an investigation, stolen vehicle is removed, Whitaker Ln.
8:33 p.m. Person walking outside with flashlight, Ball Hill Rd.

Saturday -- October 29

10:24 p.m. Caller stranded since 4 p.m. Tow truck couldn’t reach them, Worcester Rd. Police drove person home

Sunday -- October 30

5:21 p.m. Dog found in center of town

Rutland

Monday -- October 24

1:20 p.m. Approximately 40 veterans’ grave markers stolen from cemetery overnight, Main St.
5:14 p.m. Black bear in yard, Pleasantdale Rd.
5:35 p.m. Missing calico cat, Pommogussett Rd.
8:12 p.m. Caller found arrow in her soccer net, Newman Dr.

Tuesday -- October 25

6:14 p.m. Shirtless male juvenile dancing in breakdown lane, Main St. Advised to move onto the grass
8:27 p.m. Company advised to stop working because no detail officer, Maple Ave.
11:48 p.m. Suspicious vehicle, driver sleeping, allowed to stay, Barre Paxton Rd.

Wednesday -- October 26

5:00 p.m. Male flagging down cars to get a ride, E. County Rd.
6:01 p.m. Gray car stopping in front of houses on Maple Ave.

Thursday -- October 27

8:37 a.m. Suspicious male in hooded sweatshirt walking around house, looking in sheds, Turkey Hill Trl. Advised is a family relative
11:41 a.m. Missing black and white Yak, Wachusett St. Later found lying down with bovines, should return home soon
10:32 p.m. Man at station looking for guidance with his daughter, Main St.

Friday -- October 28

11:20 a.m. Suspicious vehicle parked on side of Charnock Cir.

Saturday -- October 29

1:43 a.m. Suspicious vehicle, unattended and unsecured, Whitehall Rd.
11:07 p.m. Report of fireworks in Brintnal Dr. area

Sunday -- October 30

9:54 a.m. Person locked out of apartment, Main St.
10:05 a.m. Loose dog running in front of snow plows, Vista Cir.
10:48 a.m. Assist person locked out of home, Summerhill Ave.
4:10 p.m. Person at station to report a larceny. “Be on the look out” issued for male, Main St.

Sterling

Monday -- October 24

8:41 a.m. Follow-up on unlicensed dog, Chace Hill Rd.
8:56 a.m. Unlicensed dog follow-up, Central Ave.
10:50 a.m. Request for officer. Person washed car and can now see fingerprints on it, Bean Rd.

Tuesday -- October 25

6:30 p.m. Dog found, no one home where it lives, person concerned due to recent house breaks, Squareshire Rd.
8:08 p.m. Motorist hit deer, vehicle damaged, unable to find deer, N. Row Rd./Kathleen Ln.

Wednesday -- October 26

1:43 a.m. Police out with person walking on Rte. 140. Individual taken into protective custody, Redemption Rock Trl./I-190
2:53 a.m. Lancaster PD advises of person in vehicle, stole stop sign and headed into Sterling, Flanagan Hill area
11:17 a.m. Student took off from school, headed toward Muddy Pond Rd. Student transported back to school, Boutelle Rd.
2:53 p.m. Violation of harassment order, Worcester Rd. Subject has large sign in back of truck with caller’s name all over it

Friday -- October 28

9:23 a.m. Police provide escort services, Worcester Rd.
1:40 a.m. Dead deer beside Chace Hill Rd.
10:40 a.m. Barking dog complaint, School St.
11:00 a.m. Escort services, Bridge St.
11:36 a.m. Suspicious vehicle in school parking lot, Boutelle Rd.
8:39 p.m. Report of young male in store panhandling, Leominster Rd.

Saturday -- October 28

12:24 p.m. Chocolate Lab in driveway, Bean Rd.Sunday -- October 30
8:13 a.m. Caller trapped in her house due to downed wires, Princeton Rd.
10:00 a.m. Two roosters at ice cream stand Dumpster, Chace Hill Rd.

Remember when Staples was exciting?

During the last two trips for Staples, I've noticed more empty shelves and a reduced number of things you might actually want to buy. They have plenty of staff on hand, though. Nice people who wander around the store, waiting for you to ask for their help.

"Can I help you?"

"Thanks. I'm looking for small windowed envelopes." I'd seen a box of 500 at Sam's Club. I won't use 500 of these in my lifetime. A box of 25 would be fine.

Both of us looked high and low on the shelves. No small windowed envelopes.

We concluded that both of us could not find the envelops. "You can order them on the web," the sales assistant said. "I can go look it up for you." He motioned to the computer at the end of the aisle.

Indeed, we could order the product online from the store.

Those of you of a certain age, remember the old Sears catalog stores? You could walk in to a storefront where they had Sears catalogs on the counter. You'd look up the item you wanted, pay for the purchase in cash, and have the product delivered to the store or to your home.

Staples is doing something weird here. They have made an effort to put good sales support staff on the floor and then give them nothing to sell.

They used to have a slogan, "Yeah, we've got that." It was a good slogan. It inspired confidence without arrogance.

Time was, we'd go there and buy what we wanted and another armload of stuff that caught our attention -  boxes of pens, a deal on manila folders, a power strip, and a wastebasket to carry home all the stuff that we just bought.

On my last few trips, I've bought less than what I sought and very little on impulse. OK, so we bought yet another 4GB flash drive.

P.S., Staples has the envelopes online, but only in quantities of 500.

Plan ahead for Halloween

[caption id="attachment_2786" align="alignright" width="700" caption="Holden Rite-Aid"][/caption]

Wait, isn't science supposed to explain stuff?

ON 31 October, a newborn baby somewhere in the world will become the 7 billionth member of the human race. Dunno where, although, statistically, most likely birthplaces for Baby Billion would be India or China. (अरब बच्चे or 婴儿亿元 , respectively).

There's another reason why this baby would be born in Asia. American women avoid giving birth on Halloween.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="612" caption="Women defy biology to avoid giving birth on Halloween | Try Nerdy"][/caption]

The researchers could only speculate why women would time their births and aim for Valentine's Day, but clench their teeth and everything else to bring forth their babies in early November.

My mother and the mothers of the three other kids, including a set of twins, must have missed that memo. There were four of us in a high school class of 100 with Halloween birthdays.

The pattern of avoiding birthdays around holidays holds into the new year.

Rank	Date		Rank	Day
364	1-Jan		14	7-Jul
362	2-Jan		12	8-Jul
356	3-Jan		18	22-Jul
350	4-Jan		17	12-Aug
347	8-Jan		2	9-Sep
351	9-Jan		9	10-Sep
349	10-Jan		16	14-Sep
348	1-Apr		8	15-Sep
346	13-Apr		1	16-Sep
361	4-Jul		4	17-Sep
355	31-Oct		10	18-Sep
352	24-Nov		13	19-Sep
353	25-Nov		15	20-Sep
357	26-Nov		7	21-Sep
358	27-Nov		5	22-Sep
359	28-Nov		3	23-Sep
354	23-Dec		6	24-Sep
363	24-Dec		11	25-Sep
365	25-Dec		19	30-Sep
360	26-Dec		20	1-Oct

In spite of their avoidance for birthdays near Christmas into the early part of the new year, many will aim for that tax deduction. The middling days between Christmas and New Year's score pretty well compared to other dates in that week.

26	30-Dec
42	29-Dec
62	28-Dec

Data source: How Common Is Your Birthday?

The CMO Site blog - Sun Rising on Solar Energy Marketing

Solar energy businesses are marketing themselves successfully when they avoid the controversy around government investment and global warming and concentrate instead on value to the customer.
Read the rest at The CMO Site - Karl Hakkarainen - Sun Rising on Solar Energy Marketing

Happy 20th Birthday, Matt

[caption id="attachment_2753" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Matt in 2004, with Cassie, age 1 day"][/caption]

And, of course, we remember what happens when we turn 20: Neil Young - Sugar Mountain

Book review: The Secret Life of Word

The Secret Life of Word  by Robert Delwood « XML Press

I've waited for a long time for a book such as this. It's very good. It delivers clear information about Word 2010 with writing that's fresh and human, as though you were being coached by a knowledgeable and helpful co-worker.

The premise is simple. Using the Office scripting interfaces, macros and Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), you can get a lot of good work done quickly and more accurately.  Delwood guides the reader through a series of common tasks often encountered by writers. At each point, you get just enough information to know what you're doing and how to do it.

Most technical writers avoid Word because, well, it can be messy (particularly if you've inherited someone else's Word files) and because it's not great for longer documents (more than 50 or so pages). Development teams and managers like Word because it's always around and they can edit the files when they want to (leading to the first problem). Given that more and more tech writers are working on short-term contracts where they have make sense of files that have been picked at by a half dozen authors, this book can be valuable resource in cleaning up cruft and bringing order to the sources.

Delwood is a fine writer with a reassuring voice. He introduces topics such as building blocks, Smart Tags, and macros with just the right balance of background and practical tips. There are plenty of good code examples throughout the book. Rather than having to retype everything, however, you can pick up the examples at the publisher's web site.
There were plenty of pleasing touches throughout the book, such as the use of "Hello, Word" in examples. made more poignant as we mourn the recent passing of C's, Dennis Ritchie.

The section on Find and Replace begins with "It may seem odd to consider Find and Replace as an automation technique." The examples then go on to show how you can bring back some order to a document with carefully targeted automation. Word is notorious for generating bloated HTML output. This small procedure is part of a larger effort to clean up that bloat and give you a more usable file.

Sub RemoveHTMLTags()
ReplacementText "<p*>", "<p>"
ReplacementText "<span*>", vbNullString
ReplacementText "</span>", vbNullString
ReplacementText "<o:p>", vbNullString
ReplacementText "</o:p>", vbNullString
ReplacementText "Times New Roman", "Comic Sans MS"^[1]
End Sub
^[1]

Delwood brings out the quirks and inexplicable behaviors in Word. He explains how the changes from Word  95 to the 2007/2010 era really messed people up. The user interface changed, hiding familiar menu options in out-of-the-way ribbons. New elements such as building blocks confounded people who were used to dealing with simple templates. He noted that Smart Tags, which most of us missed when introduced in Office 2003, are an under-appreciated feature. He then goes on to explain why they are useful (treating selected words as more than just characters, but words with a special meaning) and how to use them.

Debugging scripts is hard. The book keeps it simple, providing basic guidance instead of trying to turn a tech writer into a software engineer.

There were a few nits that I noticed, but nothing that diminishes the utility of this fine book.

• The email address for comments is incorrect, likely the result of a duplicated paste that was overlooked by the editor.


• Most of the time, the examples are clear and easy to scan. In the section on Smart Tags, however, it gets confusing because the headings for each section and the example captions appear to run together after a while.

This is a very useful book. I've already applied some of the material to documents that I maintain.

---

Full disclosure: I received a free copy of this book for the purposes of this review. I am not compensated for my reviews nor was my review influenced by the manner in which I received the book.

How do you like them apples?

We're nearing the end of the apple season here in central New England.

It used to last longer, until early November. Orchard owners would spray the apples with Alar (daminozide) to ensure consistent ripening; a related effect was that ripening was delayed. About 20 years ago, however, the EPA banned Alar as a suspected carcinogen. As a result, many varieties of Macintosh lineage began to ripen as much as a month earlier. The Macs, Macoun, Empire, and Cortland apples not only come in earlier but don't stay crisp as long, becoming something like Styrofoam soaked in apple juice.

According to the New England Apple Growers Association, about 40 varieties of apples are grown locally. The Red Apple Farm in Phillipston MA has a 101 varieties grafted onto the original Cortland tree.

You wouldn't know there were so many locally-grown types by going to a local market or even a farm stand. In a manner similar to bookstores and record shops, there are bins and bags of the standard apples and few, if any, of the others. Last week, while I was in Harvard Square, I bought a bag of Roxbury Russets at the farmer's market in front of the Charles Hotel. I've found no russet apples of any kind at any of the nearby markets.

All proclaimed they were selling locally-grown products and all had the same types of apples - the Mac-based breeds plus Granny Smiths and the sweet ones (everyone's new favorite Honey Crisp, Fuji, Braeburn, and red and green Delicious). It may seem like a lot, but the Mac clan taste about the same after a couple of days away from the tree and the sweet ones, while staying crisp, are too sweet.

I even tried a few out-of-the-way stores, such as the new Wegmans, Atkins Farm in Amherst, and Whole Foods in Hadley. Same selections.  But, each store offered sushi. No Northern Spy, but you can get sashimi.

For your safe listening pleasure

Remember back in the 90s when Second Lady Tipper Gore campaigned to have CDs labeled with warnings about explicit lyrics? The fear was that music would make people do what they wouldn't otherwise do. Frank Zappa testified against such, saying, "I wrote a song about dental floss but did anyone's teeth get cleaner?"

Well, here we go again with the need for warnings. This time, though, it's for music that might put you to sleep. A UK group, Marconi Union, has produced what's been described as most relaxing song ever'.

Studies found Weightless was 11 per cent more relaxing than any other song and even made many of the women 'drowsy' in the lab.
via Most relaxing song made by UK band Boffins | Mail Online

We've been cautioned not to listen the tune while driving or walking or anyplace where gravity or machinery could harm us.

No word on what had been the previously most relaxing song.

If you're in a safe place, you can listen to the music here.

If you're really in a mood to live dangerously, you could also try to listen to the Funniest Joke in The World.

Stop and Shop becomes more about stop

While the excitement around  Wegmans in Northborogh is reaching orgasmic levels, (one early visitor remarked “I lived in Ithaca for five years and fell in love with Wegmans."), our local mainstay, Stop & Shop is trying to be one of the cool kids. They've got an app.

The app is along the lines of the Scan It reader that you see when you enter the store, except slower and less convenient.

Download the app to your phone. Note that there's no QR code that would let you load the app directly from the display board. Also, you can't use the WiFi in the store until you have the app installed. So, if you can get a phone signal when standing near the deli, you can download the app.

Scan your Stop & Shop card which registers your app and lets you connect to the WiFi so it can load all the crazy deals, like $.25 off of dozen eggs.

Finally, go buy stuff, meaning that, after you've made your choice, you stand in the aisle and scan your purchases using your phone. Click. Put the thing in your bag. Click. Put the thing in your bag. And so on.

When you get to the checkout, hold the phone up to the card by the register, scan it with the app, and your order is loaded into the register. Tell the big screen that you are ready to finish and pay with your credit card. Click the small screen to tell it again that you want to use your credit card, sign illegibly in the little window, wait until they print coupons for deodorant and mouthwash (because somehow they know that you need those hygiene items, even if you've didn't buy those products this time), and leave with your food and with your, and I'm not making this up, plastic case so you can carry your Pop-Tarts^® in safety.

It's great to be an American, isn't it?

Notes on attention

It's generally assumed that we have shorter attention spans these days. The Internet and/or cellphones are often blamed. A generation ago, we blamed television and it's quick cuts and sensationalist themes. (I haven't timed things recently, but the old guidelines used to call for some video change every 10 seconds or less.)
Researchers have produced some interesting, but inconclusive data. This past Sunday's New York Times book review included reviews of recent titles that give us new literature on brain science. We know that something new is going on, but the specifics of each situation often overwhelm any general theories.
For the record, I started writing this at 11 this morning. I looked up the NYT link, read a couple of articles while doing so, met with three people from my WISE course for an hour and change, wrote a half sentence, went about the rest of the day, tried writing while watching tv, and, finally, after reading the first page of a Ken Auletta piece in The New Yorker, turned off the tv sound during some ads, and finished this post.
I could blame the Internet or any of the gadgets that control the pipes, but I read and wrote like this 50 years ago. Some of us showed up pre-wired, waiting for this stuff and these times.

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