For Christmas last year, I got a Kindle, which I've really enjoyed. So I figured I'd take the time to discuss the experience so far. So, on the plus side: The screen is really rather excellent. There's no difference between reading that screen and reading an actual printed page, as far as I'm concerned. Also, the number of books that are now part of the public domain, or distributed by the estates of their original authors for free or at least very cheap. I've gotten to read a lot of older books that I probably wouldn't have otherwise. For example, I bought a PG Wodehouse omnibus that included a lot of Jeeves and Wooster stories, which were an absolute delight. I think I paid a total of a dollar for it and got several thousand pages of quality reading. I also got a free Agatha Christie novel, a super cheap compendium of Conan the Barbarian stories, the novels that follow The Three Musketeers for free, they're all a lot of fun. One of the main things I enjoy about it is that I can just get a bug in my ear to read something, and then have it ready to go in a moment.
On the downside, there are a few issues with availability. I've been reading a lot of Iain M. Banks novels lately and really enjoying them. So I figured I'd grab one of his earlier books, so I looked it up, and discovered that it apparently was not sold in the US Kindle store, which is problematic. I understand that certain publishers have rights in certain markets, but if it was a physical book, I'd be able to find a copy at a used bookstore or on Ebay or something. With Kindle, I'm limited to their store and the books they're licensed to sell. So that's problematic. Also, the price of many books on the store is more than their paperback equivalents. I understand this is an attempt on the part of some publishers to protect the sales of their physical products, but as a consumer, I'm somewhat indifferent. Their cost of production for the digital book is effectively zero, so the price should be at least somewhat less. It also works against one of the primary reasons I like the Kindle, which is that I don't have to find storage for all my books. Seriously, there's a lot of them, and I don't have a huge amount of space to keep storing them all.
So it's pretty excellent overall, with again, the few drawbacks that will probably get better with time as e-books become less of a gimmick and more of a standard.
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Monday, December 26, 2011
From the vault . . . Camping!
So, to recap some fun stuff that happened several months ago, about one week into school, I went camping up in the Sierras for my friend David Brang's birthday! Six of us went, and had a grand old time jumping by a lake! Not pictured: Grace, who was busy taking the picture.
Shenanigans ensued, including fun with an axe, hikes, rainbows, several bears, a lake of icemelt, and another friend getting naked. Two of those six facts are connected! Thankfully, it's the last two. Well, thankfully for the rest of us, as his reaction to the lakewater was less than splendid.
For reference, my friend in question is the white blur on the shoreline. We also had some of David Brang's famous camping margaritas, which are rather generously mixed. Seriously, the man knows how to make a margarita. It helps to be mildly intoxicated, as you have to sleep with the full knowledge that a bear is probably right outside your tent.
So yeah, a great time! Can't wait to go again, for so many reasons, not the least of which is mocking my friend for getting older. What a sucker. Also, all photos were taken by Grace Bohn, who's pretty awesome with that SLR of hers!
Shenanigans ensued, including fun with an axe, hikes, rainbows, several bears, a lake of icemelt, and another friend getting naked. Two of those six facts are connected! Thankfully, it's the last two. Well, thankfully for the rest of us, as his reaction to the lakewater was less than splendid.
For reference, my friend in question is the white blur on the shoreline. We also had some of David Brang's famous camping margaritas, which are rather generously mixed. Seriously, the man knows how to make a margarita. It helps to be mildly intoxicated, as you have to sleep with the full knowledge that a bear is probably right outside your tent.
So yeah, a great time! Can't wait to go again, for so many reasons, not the least of which is mocking my friend for getting older. What a sucker. Also, all photos were taken by Grace Bohn, who's pretty awesome with that SLR of hers!
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
First Quarter Round Up
Dear blog,
I'm sorry I've neglected you for so long. Look, I brought you flowers! Okay, I lied about the flowers. In truth it's been a really busy quarter. I restarted school, with some small success, fenced, did the climbing thing I usually do, and rediscovered my incredible need for caffeine. Sweet, sweet caffeine. Actually, it's often bitter, but whatever.
I managed to pass my first quarter reasonably well, so that bodes well for the coming year. I'm enrolled in a thesis program, so I'll be in this for two years. I'm doing a lot of coding, mostly MATLAB, and a lot of linear algebra, which is pretty standard I think.
So, let's review what worked and what didn't. Because nothing makes for a great blog like endless self-examination, right?
What worked: Studying with other people.
Okay, this is a no-brainer for most people, I understand. But I didn't really study with anyone in undergrad. Well, no engineers. It's hard to discuss structural engineering with political scientists and linguists, much as I probably wasn't a great sounding board for them. So studying with other engineers has been pretty helpful, especially near midterms and finals, as we could hole up in an office somewhere and review stuff for hours on end, clarifying small points for one another that we had missed somewhere. I felt like an actual grad-student!
What didn't work very well: Note-taking.
I had a couple professors this past quarter who did a lot of boardwork during lectures, illustrating everything and writing out all the equations, which made it pretty easy to take notes. I had another professor who basically projected the text on the screen and then pointed at the equations in question and discussed them at length. This didn't work very well for me, as I had a hard time figuring out what to write down and organizing what he was saying as he was saying it. So I identified this problem really early on, but failed to adapt and find another solution, and I think I took a hit as a result. I'm contemplating using a voice recorder next quarter in the eventuality that I can't take notes that work for me during the lecture alone.
My other note taking habit is to copy over my notes to a fresh notebook shortly after the original lecture so that I have a neater, more clear set of notes, and so I can correct any mistakes I made while transcribing them the first time. Overall, it really helped, so I'll be doing it again next quarter!
What also worked: The UCSD shuttle system!
I made extensive use of the UCSD shuttle program, hopping the bus from the graduate student housing most days of the week, and taking the Hillcrest shuttle the other days. At some point I'll probably figure out some manner of cost-benefit analysis of this whole thing, but that'll have to wait until I'm gathering actual data, and have time to do it. So expect it by, say, the time I graduate? Maybe?
Anyhoo, this is a pretty media free post, so here's a video of something my lab is working on!
More posts soon, I promise this time! Please do not go back and read the archives, where I have promised similar things and then not delivered on it.
I'm sorry I've neglected you for so long. Look, I brought you flowers! Okay, I lied about the flowers. In truth it's been a really busy quarter. I restarted school, with some small success, fenced, did the climbing thing I usually do, and rediscovered my incredible need for caffeine. Sweet, sweet caffeine. Actually, it's often bitter, but whatever.
I managed to pass my first quarter reasonably well, so that bodes well for the coming year. I'm enrolled in a thesis program, so I'll be in this for two years. I'm doing a lot of coding, mostly MATLAB, and a lot of linear algebra, which is pretty standard I think.
So, let's review what worked and what didn't. Because nothing makes for a great blog like endless self-examination, right?
What worked: Studying with other people.
Okay, this is a no-brainer for most people, I understand. But I didn't really study with anyone in undergrad. Well, no engineers. It's hard to discuss structural engineering with political scientists and linguists, much as I probably wasn't a great sounding board for them. So studying with other engineers has been pretty helpful, especially near midterms and finals, as we could hole up in an office somewhere and review stuff for hours on end, clarifying small points for one another that we had missed somewhere. I felt like an actual grad-student!
What didn't work very well: Note-taking.
I had a couple professors this past quarter who did a lot of boardwork during lectures, illustrating everything and writing out all the equations, which made it pretty easy to take notes. I had another professor who basically projected the text on the screen and then pointed at the equations in question and discussed them at length. This didn't work very well for me, as I had a hard time figuring out what to write down and organizing what he was saying as he was saying it. So I identified this problem really early on, but failed to adapt and find another solution, and I think I took a hit as a result. I'm contemplating using a voice recorder next quarter in the eventuality that I can't take notes that work for me during the lecture alone.
My other note taking habit is to copy over my notes to a fresh notebook shortly after the original lecture so that I have a neater, more clear set of notes, and so I can correct any mistakes I made while transcribing them the first time. Overall, it really helped, so I'll be doing it again next quarter!
What also worked: The UCSD shuttle system!
I made extensive use of the UCSD shuttle program, hopping the bus from the graduate student housing most days of the week, and taking the Hillcrest shuttle the other days. At some point I'll probably figure out some manner of cost-benefit analysis of this whole thing, but that'll have to wait until I'm gathering actual data, and have time to do it. So expect it by, say, the time I graduate? Maybe?
Anyhoo, this is a pretty media free post, so here's a video of something my lab is working on!
More posts soon, I promise this time! Please do not go back and read the archives, where I have promised similar things and then not delivered on it.
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