Let's Get Back to a Richer Quality of Reading and Writing.

 

A special thanks to Paul Stenning at The Heathkit Schematic and Manual Archive, which is where I found the Heathkit material mentioned in both the article and video.

  What Have We Done to the Written Word?

Have Articles, News Stories, Books and other documents become too brief and chopped up to be truly useful to anyone looking up information?

On March 11, 2023, I wrote a short blog post entitled "Oh, for the Love of Manuals!" regarding the decline in quality of manuals and the written word in general. Not only is it sad to see the discipline of writing go downhill, I am now of the opinion that the lack of good quality material whether it be factual or storytelling has an effect on the whole person.

A lack of explanation results in ambiguity.

Think about it, an abridged piece of writing demonstrates how the author's thought processes functions. Usually showing off lack of depth about the topic at hand. Sometimes the author's train of though can be fallowed, while at other times the lack of detail is frustrating for the reader. I was perusing a manual the other day and part way through the text they they showed a screen capture of an icon. Nowhere in the text did they define whet  where this icon was in the program, much less give it a name and it was a bad screen capture to boot. How did this pass into the final printing of this book? I know people like to be able to zero in on snippets of a document now, but sometimes a little more detail would certainly help. Here's an example of the icon from the manual.(Now that the image has been enlarged by four times, I can just see enough detail to recognize the icon.)

Enlarged image of icon shown.

 Nowhere in the book does it name the icon, it just says what it does, and really, can you tell what it is?--I can't.

Even if your preferred choice of format is audiobooks the same issue holds true. The difference in writing in the literature created only 30 years ago is astounding. Listen to this introduction from Carl Sagan's book "Pale Blue Dot" (or read it via the Open Library). The video below is hosted on YouTube and is part of the " carlsagandotcom" channel The wording used is eloquent and accessible, whether it is read or listened to this text is inspiring. Carl Sagan took the time to describe his vision. He didn't optimize the ideas for fast consumption, nor did he make any assumptions on what the reader already knew. This is why this three minute clip from YouTube is so widely appreciated. It is a story unto itself. When was the last time you heard or read something like this? This is writing,and it achieves its goal of informing fully and inspiring.

Imagine the textbooks Carl Sagan and others read when they were going through their various courses. Difficult to read perhaps by present-day standards, but well worth the effort. Even the illustrations would be well thought out in books and manuals, for example from a 1961 Heathkit: manual. In less than a page it describes clearly the technique for proper soldering. Click the picture to enlarge:

Excerpts from the 1961 Heathkit
Compact Hi Fidelity Speaker System
manual model number AS-193 from
The Heathkit Schematic and Manual Archive.
Used under provisions:
"Fair Dealing" Canada and
"Fair Use" United States.
(Click image to enlarge)

 

The writing and diagrams in this manual is simply marvellous. Dare I say it is bursting with well-written information.

So how did we get from concise written guidance to "blurry icons"? One thing is for sure, in the soldering example, it is not assumed that the reader knows anything. Whereas in the blurry icons scenario the text assumes that that the reader does. It is to the point where they don't even describe the blurry image. Clearly we have gone too far in the direction of making everything a snippet of knowledge...  at least they could've provided a keyboard shortcut 😀.

This overly abbreviated trend in the media and knowledge industry also has a side effect on how people learn. Especially if they are only exposed to abbreviated documents as they are beginning to think critically. Indeed how as Google and other search engines affected the way people educate themselves  and the depth to which that knowledge goes, or lack of thereof.

Here's a question: How much time do you think has been invested in creating this text so far? The answer is over two hours (and a good eight hours later I am still at it) . Why, because first the soldering example had to be found, checked for copyright, and edited graphically from two printed pages down to one graphic. So even though I use voice dictation which makes entering the text for the most part rather painless, there is a fair bit of work that goes into these kind of things. The Internet is not a place to just upload things without checking. Not if you want your content to last.

But this article really is about the thought processes that are going on, as related to the use of knowledge and actually how we think. The depth to which those thoughts go and the understanding that is the result. 

I marvel at minds that can seemingly just absorb and understand information. For me it's a much more effort intensive thing. I may have to go over something several times in order to really grasp the concepts. I do this willingly because it is only then your horizons expand. The other reality that must be accounted for is that everything takes time. Even though we may want to get something completed quickly, quality must trump everything else even when we are on a deadline at least to some extent. Yep in other words quality takes work.

Which brings up another point: With the ability now days for people to, how shall I put this, " Copy and Paste " just about everything you really have to resist that urge, because it can make the quality of the  final product go down the toilet if one is not careful. (Have you looked at YouTube lately 👀 .  Somebody post something original and within hours there are legions of copycats). However the creators that do put in the work and I can think of a few that only post every few weeks, really do come out far ahead.

To sum up. In order for people to do better in their lives they should seek out more detailed explanations and experiences. Do your best to try to get away from the "brief answer" mindset. In the long run you will benefit greatly and the experience you gain will even make your own brief answers better than the rest when you need to use them. And at the end of the day your brain will thank you 🙏.

Have a great day Patrick....

PS: Wait! This article is about to get a little longer with an example of the downsides of the overly brief approach to writing.

As many of you know I usually try to produce a short video to go along with each article. It takes time but usually the process follows smoothly. This time around however I decided to use a new tool to create the end credits of the video. I like to include all of my sources and licensing information just to keep things transparent. I wanted to create a scroll of text which included still images. My video editor was not up to the task so I decided to use an add on which according to its brief description could do exactly what I want.

The documentation however is a disaster and that includes the video tutorials all except for a few which ultimately saved the day. Most of the documentation was overly segmented and again assumed the reader was fully versed in the philosophy of use for this particular software. A simple scroll with pictures took about a week to do, and I don't know how many articles and videos I watched and read. Fortunately once I found a good bunch of videos the project was completed within the hour.

The point this_so is that all of the information is segmented and fragmented. Did the company who created the software ever sit down and really consider who the product and documentation was aimed at.?… I don't think so, and  even the official material is fragmented. I'm avoiding mentioning the product name simply because it is not about the product, it is about the information supporting the product. Perhaps though the most annoying aspect of this hunt for information was the fact that the online documentation does not mention what version the information applies to.,and like all software, there are different versions over time and between computers. So I'm begging anyone who reads this… If you write documentation, please indicate right off the bat the version numbers it applies to.

The other issue is that maybe it's more a case of a fault of the search engines. A friend last night was mentioning that now days in 2024 it is much harder to find the information you are looking for online.

Learning and knowledge in the shadow of AI

Graduation cap image based on
"Student graduation cap with gold tassel and ribbon"
by upklyak under the Freepik license.

Since the advent of the public Internet the way we learn, and indeed what is acceptable as knowledge, has been evolving. Along with that, is the idea that the very processes by way we think and perceive information is changing. Now along comes something which will really alter the game, Artificial Intelligence (AI). Consider the following points:

Deep Understanding

In the last 30 years or so, the need to work on a problem or go through the process of "thinking" has become somewhat optional. If you don't know the answer to something you can simply Google it. Still though with Google and other search engines you have to know a little bit about the topic and a bit about how best to phrase it in text. And you still have to filter out many of the results. But the deep contemplation/understanding of the issue that you're working on has in many cases has become optional.

We don't look very far in the past to be truly astounded by people who undertook very complex problems and thought them through using only their brains, and I'm not talking about geniuses like Stephen Hawking or other exceptional people. It is the ordinary person of the past that understood algebra, chemistry or history. They truly understood the processes and relationships of the work because it was a necessity.. They could tell you why something appeared to be true and how they arrived at the conclusion. Even more importantly go and actually done the work mentally or physically to get the answer. Another way to put it is to a greater or lesser extent they learned the discipline of how to figure things out.

Just a Compendium of Information

Today with search engines and the Internet, we more or less just compiled information, at least the casual user does. Regardless of our chosen source be it Wikipedia, Google Scholar or some other tool, we essentially just bring together the facts. The depth of knowledge and understanding we have is beginning to change. I say "change" because I fundamentally believe that our brains are rewiring to store more facts at the expense of true understanding. It is an optimization. Because at no other time in the world's history as the average person ever had to deal with more input every day.

So this really has me wondering how the next steps will affect us. Will AI mean that we no longer have to "know" anything (this is obviously taking things too extreme, to make the point)? And again, how will this affect the very processes by which we think. Which in turn will affect how people construct their own personal realities.

Mental Effort

This is my own supposition, that the brain has evolved to give us the ability to truly understand and think. Look at all the great artworks and music over the past centuries. The subtleties involved in such undertakings. This took a great deal of effort, but it was an effort which was expected in many cases and it was through that very undertaking that greater mental and emotional skills evolved.

If we look at the world today we see one thing that is very obvious across certain aspects of the modern world. Look at the amount of repetition for example in the media. (If I see one more reboot of an old program or series I may go insane 😀 ). If we use 30 years as a timescale it is obvious that in the last 15 years there have been more and more duplications of things that were successful in the past. Where is the creativity and knowledge which spawned the original?  Yes, it is true that big media outlets will always try to reproduce a winning streak with something that worked before. But it really has me questioning the state of true creativity.

Have we inadvertently made things a little too easy and in doing so allowed the brain to prune a little too much in the understanding-circuitry department? With the beginnings of AI what will happen in this situation?

This is just one example of losing the benefits of  "mental effort" and it happens pretty quickly. But the answer is not to make things blindly more difficult again. Making things difficult without a purpose, a tangible outcome, never works.

I think the solution here is that we must remain aware of how society and AI are interacting and evolving.

I am a technologist at heart and a true heat so I do love all the intricacies involved and the potential positive outcomes. I have at last count seven computers in my apartment with a network of over 47 devices. (If you're worried about my power consumption by the way they are all single board Raspberry Pi computers aside from two.)

In summary, let's not make things too easy on ourselves

The trip to benefiting from AI and future advances, is to be involved as much as possible with all of the industries and results. Not just be a consumer of knowledge, even if we reach the point where the artificial intelligence knows more than we do. We must remain engaged in the effort and indeed in life itself. In other words there is no room for complacency. The world will change remarkably in the next hundred years. Probably outside of our current perceptions. I must admit part of me would love to be around to see this evolution or should I call it a dance between the various participants biological and technical alike.

Who knows, we may reach a point where there is no difference between AI and us. But that's another story, and there are many other factors to consider.

Stay engaged in life everyone and have a great day. There will of course be a companion video I think as I write this I will put them up both together at the same time.

Take care Patrick

The Black Box of Knowledge.

 

Wow, it is been quite the week for my little blog. Great to see all the traffic.

Here it is Thursday night and I'm quickly writing a little note because the way Friday is shaping up I may not have time to post a decent article or video....

Well, as it turns out time was available to do a video😀 and while I was doing it, it brought up a few more thoughts.

A few articles ago I mentioned that I was doing a piece on how the advent of AI is going to affect how society perceives and uses knowledge. This is the first attempt at such article. What I find fascinating is that we are quickly reaching a point where people will not be able to understand how artificial intelligence solved a certain problem. For the simple reason that the AI is capable of going through so much more information. Google's Gemini for example can churn through hundreds of thousands of document in an hour. We must also be aware that we are only at the very beginning of this evolution in technology. Regardless however I think it's here to stay in one form or another. Then there was the announcement of AI starting to be phased into digital assistances in late 2024 by YouTuber  "Automate Your Life "in this video blog.

So our relationship to knowledge is going to change and I think verily rapidly. Will knowledge become more of a, for lack of a better term, "black box", where we trusted by default simply because we cannot hold to comprehend all of the details.

Now project this down the road a bit into the future. How will this affect learning? Look at how dependent we are on our devices not only to store information but for basic mathematics or even arithmetic. When was the last time you sat down and divided more than a few numbers in your head or even on paper?

Remember when you could do basic math in your head or remember a phone number. How quickly those skills became obsolete and yet that little bit of mental exercise really did have an impact, which was far-reaching. The very basic exercise of doing math in your head I believe helps keep one grounded in reality and overall helps keeps a person more awake and less on autopilot.

Just how automatic do we want the world to become? This and other questions are important to answer. Too much automation is not good for society. It is through effort and collaboration that the human spirit grows.

Depending upon how my Friday goes I will add a video. Most certainly at some point over the weekend one will be added. For now however I just wanted to touch base and let everyone know I am still cooking up this idea in regards to artificial intelligence and the future of knowledge. 

Take care Patrick

Are we losing control of how information is organized?

With the sheer volume of information available out there, and the number of times it is updated every single day has it exceeded our traditional ways of organizing information?

Most of this article is probably going to be in the video below, because while I do want to get this out today my time is growing short.

Society is now dealing with more information coming at them per day than at any other time in history. I find myself really wondering if the old ways of organizing material are up to the task at hand. Just look at any smart phone to see not only the myriad of settings but the desperate attempt the developers face in trying to organize it. Never mind the nightmare of trying to keep documentation up to date.

I know there is something else universal we have all faced and that is when we connect to our business or office network only to find that the application we depend on to be efficient has been updated and everything is moved around, if not removed. That's when efficiency goes right out the door. Yet when you talk to the developers they are locked in a cycle of keeping the product fresh. And who can blame them? If you're not new or updating on the Internet, you are pretty much dead in the water.

There must be a better way to handle information we need a fundamental shift. This is going to be a very good exercise, mainly because we are all so steeped in the traditional ways of organizing information and thoughts. This ties in very nicely with my upcoming articles on knowledge and AI.

Not only organization but the very fact that a great deal of information that we deal with on a day-to-day basis is now only temporary or hyper specific. We will continue to use a smart phone as an example. Even within the same brand functions and their placement can vary a great deal. I recently bought a new phone and a feature I had always assumed was part of the very basics of android was not available. Namely, the ability to answer a phone call automatically on Bluetooth after only a set number of rings. You actually have to physically push a button on your headset to answer the call. I was able to find an app that provided the missing feature but I was stunned and this is a Google pixel six. I did contact the developer and they said they had no plans to implement the feature. When I inquired a little further they were very quiet as in not responding when I asked why it was not being included. My only guess is that Google wants to push their auto answer feature with Google assistant. The phone will answer a call on its own and do a speech to text conversion of what the caller says. This functionality was turned on by default by the way

The video in brief just some thoughts I have on the current situation and how we might better deal with things.

Take care Patrick

Doing your Website Maintenance Today, Keeps the Hackers Away.

 A website is not a single thing; it is made up of many different parts.

Here we are at the beginning of the new year January 2024. Many people are going to be starting new projects in which creativity is going to flow enthusiastically. This is all good. Keep it up and keep moving forward.

In my volunteer position I do a lot of work related to websites and there is always a blossoming of new sites and domains around this time every year. Especially with the small business entrepreneur. But in all this creativity something gets overlooked and that is when dealing with your new website one must not only keep the public facing content up-to-date, you must also ensure that the software which keeps the website functioning is kept current.

Many times when a call comes in from the owner of the site the initial problem is only the tip of the iceberg. I have seen sites running  software that is multiple years out of date. This often happens because the owner of the business has not been educated by the original website developer, just like a car one must keep the engine in good shape.

A website is actually not a single standalone piece of software. It is made up of three distinct types of software at a minimum.

1. The website software: This is the part that most business owners are aware of. You login update the items on your website and perhaps add a new item or article.
    
2. All modern website software comes with optional "plug-ins or packages" which usually have their own separate update process. When you log into the website you will usually see a notification of some kind if one of these plug-ins needs to be updated.
    
3. Since a website server is a computer there is also an operating system which must be maintained separately. Most people are familiar with Microsoft Windows for their home computer, website server computers frequently use an operating system called "Linux".

The owner of a website can usually update the first two items, the third is updated by the hosting company which provides you the site space on the Internet.
 

There are a few ways to address this:

• If you are not tech savvy, most website hosting companies offer, at an additional charge, what is known as a "managed website". This means that they take care of all the behind-the-scenes technical aspects, leaving you free to focus on the content and products offered.
  
  There are limits to this approach in that the managed website package may not include upkeep of all the software. Without getting into a great deal of technical detail websites in this regard function in much the same way as your home computer. There is the "operating system" which for most home computers is Microsoft Windows. Then there are the programs you license or buy which run in conjunction with the operating system.
  
  With this model in mind the "operating system" for your website is most often called Linux. Just like Microsoft Windows it forms the bedrock on top of which the website software runs. A managed site contract therefore only covers the website software and usually not the operating system. What this means to you as a business owner or entrepreneur is that eventually you will need to redo your website entirely. Sometimes the underlying operating system can be upgraded but even so it will mean a lot of work and usually it's easier just to redo the entire site.
   
• There are also companies like WIX which offer a complete integrated website packages. Here you take care of only the site content and overall design.  WIX will take care of everything else and with very few exceptions you will be good to go for many years. However these are more expensive and sometimes if you decide to move your website to another company you may find that you cannot. You can think of this is kind of a walled garden where companies offering a completely integrated website package that take care of everything are proprietary. This is not a critique of WIX, they are simply a well-known example, and like everything else in technology the information that is correct today will likely be out of date at some point.
   
• Make a long term agreement with the developer of your site so that they can continue to keep the software up-to-date and advise you on the best course of actions as the technology evolves. Unless you know what you are doing and plan to keep up to date with the technology, I recommend that you keep in touch with the original developer.

For a lot of people, the different aspects of running a website can seem obscure. After all when you visit a webpage it looks like a single unit. So in the accompanying video I show a few of the various parts and how the underlying operating system which is never seen by most site owners is can affect the operation of the website. It is not important that you understand the details but rather that you are aware that there are various components and that a website is made up of all these parts. At the very least you can then go to your website developer or company with a little more knowledge.

There are several other articles on the blog dealing with various aspects of website creation and upkeep. You can simply click this link to see the most current list of documents, or at any time, use the search box on the site to search for the keyword "website" or just click here to automate the search.

Take care and stay tuned, as the new year gets underway 😀!

Take care Patrick

What if some people actually don't like to think?

"You can't have motivation without the effort of thought."

At first, I thought it was such an oddthought: "What if some people actually don't like to think." Well, the more I thought about it, the more I began to consider the idea seriously. 40 years ago it would've been truly preposterous. If you wanted to know something you had to put effort into either finding the information and then drawing conclusions from it based on whatever criteria you had in mind.

But consider for a moment how easy it is now days to find out something almost immediately, and based on previous activity on the Internet it is likely to be tailored to their viewpoint., Literally, "No Thinking Required." They receive a minor endorphin it from the brain and then move on to the next stimulating thumbnail on YouTube. I know people like this, quite a few and across a wide range of ages. Not only do they usually have difficulty in going outside of their mental comfort zone to solve a problem, they usually have no idea how to start. This topic has come up several times on this blog, and I think it's because of at least two reasons:

1. I find the idea of not liking the effort involved in thinking and considering something very foreign. It is almost confusing to me.
   
   
2. I always feel a great sense of achievement when I come to the solution or the conclusion. Especially if it's been a truly challenging one. (Right now I have such a case. Implementing voice dictation on a raspberry pi in such a way that it will be useful to a blind person. In other words I have to make it straightforward to turn off and on.  So far I have spent several weeks at this endeavour but I know I will get it solved. Progress is slowly revealing itself.)

Yet many people really do dislike the effort of figuring something out. This is a very dangerous way to go through life from my perspective.--- I mean, what is life without understanding? Not to mention you miss a great deal of the whole point of being alive, because the joy and growth are found in the details of something. Society itself is built on the idea of details. An understanding that the community has agreed on something and the knowledge of why that brings you together. This all takes effort and indeed a fair bit of thought.

Maybe that's why I find people losing their social skills. People that are focused on just a very narrow outlook and stay within their comfort zone can possibly really socialize and make those marvellous connections. Not to mention the insights that come from working with society.

Yet I think it's very easy to turn this situation around; it entails however slowing down and breaking away from the perceived need to move from one thing to another quickly. In other words no marathon surfing on your device. That is a good starting point. The other of course is turning off the autopilots in your behaviours and being present in the moment. Start to notice things around you. Indeed pay attention to how you feel at any given moment you choose.

At first, I'm sure it will feel uncomfortable. This is understandable because your reawakening skills. At first they will be cumbersome and you will be overly aware of them. But within a few days I am sure you will see the benefits. This does not mean you have to swear off technology or routines that give you pleasure. Just become more aware of who and where you are. Add that dimension back into your life.

Then you will find with the human race has globally known for a long time: "Fulfilment, Awareness, Thinking and Effort are key ingredients to a great life."

Take care and as always feel free to leave comments. I will most likely at a short video to this article within the next week or so. Stay tuned 😀

Patrick

 

Is the Internet becoming, More or Less useful to you?

Poster announcing free adult education classes and encouraging
adults to return to school.
Date stamped on verso: Dec 4 1937.
LOC's Public Domain Archive

Boy, if that isn't a" sleeper" of a question. At first it seems so innocent. Bordering on simple. One would need only reply with the yes or no answer. But I think the question belies something much deeper and critical. I think the roof question is "Is the Internet getting in your way?" This is something we could debate and feel free to put your comments down below but speaking personally I would answer "Yes" for myself.

The Internet and indeed our entire way of communicating currently seems to be getting in the way of efficiently or at least uniformly going through one's day. People have not yet learned how to deal with this much information and the mechanisms we have in place frequently get in the way of useful delivery. Ever notice how many pop-ups you get when you turn your phone on? And let's not even go down the rabbit hole of email. I would read more of it if we had a more useful way to structure and present the data/information. And the sites that purport to give you a "snippet" view of the information I just find it annoying because I really do want to know in detail about whatever I am pursuing.

It is going to be interesting to see what things are like in 100 years although I don't think it'll take nearly that long, for something utterly new to replace our way of approaching information. This has nothing to do with the amount of information a person can digest in a given period of time it has much more to do with the quality of the knowledge gained. Let me know what you think.

Have a good evening everyone out there on good old planet Earth.
More in the coming days. This has been just a quick entry for today. But a question like this might even turn into a video over the weekend. Keep your eyes on this page.

Patrick

What will the future bring, and just why do people hold on to things?

 

All one has to do is open up YouTube or go to any media site and you will find for sure articles talking about how people are addicted to technology. The statement "People check their cell phones every 12 minutes." is almost a modern mantra with some people. However, I do not see this continuing, society will find a balance and I think as long as one learns to benefit from the technology the world is on the right track.

I do think however that unforeseen changes are coming as the very fabric of how we communicate, and indeed what we communicate is influx. Earlier today I spoke with someone who was lamenting the advent of the smart phone and the Internet in general. To quote them: "I saw all those people lined up at the iPhone store when the first one was released and really thought it was a fad." Now obviously that statement goes quite a ways back in time because the first iPhone I believe was released to the public on June 29, 2007.(Wikipedia article)

That statement stayed with me and cost a bit of a reaction. At first I couldn't ascertain what it was and then it dawned on me that I had heard similar laments quite often in the past about almost every major change in society. There is always a group of people who insist on sticking with "the old ways of doing things". But what is often missed is the old ways were the "new ways"relative to something else. It is true that sometimes the new ways are not always well thought out but in most cases there are many benefits. I find it fascinating how people will at first when they're young charge forward, and then somehow get "stuck in their old ways" of doing things somewhere along the line of life.

It probably has to do with how they perceive the introduction of something. Do they see it as simply a static feature which they rely on without really considering what is going on or why it was introduced in the first place. If so I think these are the groups of people that get stuck. Whereas someone who looks at a "new way" of doing things and attempts to understand it in the fuller context (how it achieves its goal and how it benefits people or does not) often does not get stuck as rigidly because they understand that everything is fluid. I remember when the CD disc was brand-new on the market. It came, and it went because better ways of doing things came along. But I know people have invested great amounts in their physical collections of CD-based music. Often they would treat the items with the same reverence that vinyl collectors treat the record.

So this demonstrates the fact that it is much more important to understand things in their fuller perspectives and not to get hung up on one aspect. I have no doubt that in the relatively short amount of time what we consider smart phones and computers now will completely disappear to be supplanted by technologies that are far more integrated and work in a completely different way. Indeed I think even electricity will ultimately be superseded by another form of energy. Maybe not all of it but certain aspects of electronics most certainly will have to change. There are fundamental limits which as I understand that we are getting awfully close to hitting. What I find really intriguing is what will come next and what the world will be like. I may or may not be around for this outcome but I sure hope I am :-). Just some food for thought.

Have a great day everyone

Patrick

Don't turn me off! A few thoughts on AI.

 

I find it fascinating that people adhere to behaviours, especially the subtle ones which are counterproductive or make their lives more complicated. Yet like an old friend, who drives you crazy, but you just can't bear to part with them, people adhere to these choices with a death grip in some cases. Actually most cases, now that I think about it. All the way down through history people have debated why people hang on to certain behaviours. But now with the advent of AI starting to become a real reality we have an opportunity actually dissect at a far more granular level these kinds of mental patterns, because as were beginning to see some AI models actually have the same issues. This could very well be the first step in reverse engineering the human psyche. Were probably going to find out there's a gazillion models and variations of it of course. Think about it though, this is really profound in what we might be able to do and discover with these new tools.

Up until recently psychologists and psychiatrists could come up with a hypothesis on the very inner workings of the mind. Now we have the opportunity to literally set up a means of proving or disproving a given hypothesis. We effectively have the beginnings of a brain in a box. Of course these need into some interesting and real ethical questions. Do we have the fundamental right to freely experiment with AI in that way, just because we can turn it off and on. I don't know about you, but I would become very offended if somebody kept restarting my life. I think the AI will see itself as something with intrinsic value. We may have to treat it in the same way as giving birth. Once you create an AI and it has an awareness you are obligated to keep it running.

This brings up the whole concept of lifespan and indeed what that it's and at what rate it progresses. Talk about a mind popping thought. I'll leave it there for tonight I just want to post something and get things going again but boy could this topic ever take off.

Take care Patrick

PS: Apologies everyone the last few weeks have been very hectic. A lot of things occurred at once causing the interruption of articles for the blog. Well I'm about to remedy that. And the video (s) regarding the fundamentals of Windows 10 is definitely in production and is turning into quite the beast. You just don't know how much you know, until you start digging through the actual steps. Part one is going to be about 90 minutes long and it just covers the fundamentals but in a very granular way.

And now on with the show…

The Basics: Windows 10 (Ongoing videos)

Animation incorporates artwork (the monitor) by
Михајло Анђелковић under the Creative Commons
license CC BY-SA 3.0 .

This is an interesting situation.. There is a client who contacted the place where I volunteer for some computer assistance. In the course of the following conversations it became evident that they really don't have a concept of how to use a modern computer. Throw out the last couple of weeks I've meant to create a series of short videos giving the client the basics. But I do have a bit of a problem. It is literally hard for me to think I had such a fundamental level. I've worked with the computers pretty much my entire life and technology in general. So how do I make a video or set of videos that are both sufficiently fundamental and yet they have to be engaging and not too long. I would like each segment to be no more than 20 minutes.

Part 1

THE DESKTOP

To give you some idea of how fundamental we are talking about. When I first began working with them they mentioned that their screen was "blurry" whenever they started the computer but that it soon it cleared up after the machine had been running for a while. They did indicate however that this happened every single time they turn the machine on.

I immediately began to think about the monitor, perhaps it was a true type font issue dealing with the way Windows tries to improve the readability on screen… Maybe the monitor was dying… Or may be something else was not loading properly… My brain cranked through all the possibilities I could think of. .... A driver issue maybe.... I couldn't think of any particular setting. They had said that this only happened recently....Hmmm... I got out of the old virtual machine and attempted to replicate the situation. At first no matter what I did I couldn't get anything remotely "blurry". The login screen on my virtual machine looked perfect. And then a Windows update was applied and I saw it. A new "feature" had been magically added to the logon screen. Here is a screenshot of my virtual machine before installation and after once Microsoft had applied the latest and greatest update. I suppose it's supposed to enhance security somewhat, (but I have a feeling is just somebody in the back room of Microsoft having fun).This logon screen effect might've been included in an earlier update as well.

 Feature update 22H2

Before

 

 

After

There are apparently various ways to turn this off which I haven't investigated thoroughly yet. Here, the point is to illustrate the different ways people perceive and understand things and the challenges that can produce. In this case this is one of many indications that the client perceives the computer very differently than I do. As you can imagine this leads into a whole host of confusion and frustration for them. This is more than a case of education this is a situation where the perceptions are very different across time. The challenge is to give them a good grounding in the fundamentals and not for them to death. Also how to convey that information. I haven't decided yet how I'm going to put the lessons together but I will post them on this site as they are produced. The desktop I already know is a complete mystery to them. I have to find a way to convey the idea of "a desktop". While the concept and parallel between a physical desktop and a computer desktop is easy enough for me to understand I think maybe the term desktop should be avoided at first.

This is going to be interesting.....

• Apologies, a cold interrupted my work schedule and thereby the blog. I am getting things back on track and will be filling in this article as well as working on another one.

The amount of detail that is required with even something as straightforward as Microsoft Windows 10 is quite astonishing. For one thing the reason it appears as straightforward is that we have had a long time to get used to the paradigm but someone coming at it cold is in for quite a shock. For example the term "Taskbar" is utterly meaningless and when you think about it it is never been well defined. To top it all off the way it is used has changed quite a bit over the years especially lately with the introduction of Windows 11.

Stay tuned. I'm back in the lab cooking things up :-)

 

Well, the first iteration, of the first video in this series is completed "Basic Windows 10 Part 1: THE DESKTOP". It covers the most fundamental aspects of using a computer starting with the mouse. I had intended to go quite that basic, but after discussions with people it became clear that even this needed to be covered.

There is so much material in this first video it is an hour and 1/2 long and took over two weeks to put together. This is a learning curve for me as well in regards to YouTube and I will be adding chapter markers and ultimately captioning. A written companion also be added.

The focus in part one is just the desktop and its major components. For the most part do not delve into the Internet, yet😀

Patrick

 

Technology Is, Not What Technology Was. Changes in the very definition of technology.

 One thing has become very clear to me this year and to be honest I don't know why it is taken this long for the lightbulb to go off or turn on as the case may be 😀.

That is that the very definition of the word "technology" has changed dramatically between the generations of peoples. Up until the mid-20th century it was represented almost exclusively by physical machinery which you could visually understand. It was a thing, a one function device usually. Whatever you bought from the store never received an update. It was perceived to be as perfect as it could be when it was brand-new. It might fall apart later but whatever the item was it was fully functional. The idea of a bug was something that you swatted in the air and nothing more.

As the decades moved forward things began to change, quite subtly and without anyone really saying anything about it. Technology went from being something physical, to something for the most part quite abstract and malleable. Anyone born in the 1990s just assumes this to be the everlasting original definition of the word. You buy a device and the first thing you have to do is updated it, because if it's not updated it will almost certainly have bugs in it. Doesn't matter whether it cost one dollar or $10,000, if it's new and hasn't been updated it's going to have a flaw in it. Along with the ongoing updates of everything, which if you haven't noticed seem to look at just the moment you need to accomplish something efficiently and quickly. That's when you get hit with the following digital curse words: "Please Wait. This update may take a little while." I was hit with one of these this morning as I was trying to prepare for the day. And this one took for ever!

Now both definitions and both parties who subscribe to their individual definition, don't understand the other side. The people born in the 1990s subscribe to the new definition for the most part whereas the other party born before that date subscribe to the old definition, and each is completely confused by the other. No matter which group you talk to even if they understand the others definition, you can see the mental effort necessary kind of shorts out there brain and that they would rather retreat back into the definition they understand.

Things can get really crazy when you're trying to figure out how to explain things over the phone where you have to instruct the person on the appropriate steps to take. It is almost like preparing for a battle:

• Step #1: Ascertain the other sides values and perceptions.
• Step #2: Double check with yourself that you thoroughly understand step #1
• Step #3 Casually engage the other side briefly to test in the real world environment. This usually exposes an abyss of understanding between the parties. There is much work to do.

I think that one of the issues this exposes is that at least in North America we are not taught to consider other ways of thinking, much less ways of actually perceiving and processing information. When we are faced with a situation where these differences are exposed we make the mistake of trying to translate the other person's perceptions into our own and that doesn't work or at the best, it works poorly. -- You can't turn arose into a dandelion no matter how much you try.

The only way I have found to proceed in these situations involves verily long conversations allowing both sides to be exposed to the other in ways that feel nonthreatening. After a few rendezvous's usually there is a bridge built just barely sufficient enough to be useful for a small set of tasks.

Imagine if we did this much earlier in a person's life or did it as a whole society. Think of the grief and misunderstandings that could be averted. Simply by allowing room for the unknowing. Realizing that for everything you know and perceive there is always more and it will always be different.

Aside from survival, I wouldn't be surprised if this is one of the reasons societies and cultures became towns and states originally. To avoid seeing the other side. Well the good news is I don't think that's an option anymore with the world getting ever more interconnected.

I wonder how strange it will look in 100 years when the then modern society looks back at the 20th and 21st centuries. For them they will have one big advantage (I hope) in that if our records survive and we don't change to some bizarre format. The new society will have pristine and detailed records.

Oh I would love to be around then. And I would be as curious as I am today. Which brings up another point but I think I'll make it another article… If you could live 300 years, how would you change in that time? (Presuming of course you were in good health)

Take care Patrick

Knowledge: Who gets the big picture?

Are  people learning any given topic or experience as well as they used to, or are we becoming a society of  "knowledge snippets" machines?

Think about it. When was the last time you learned anything deeply, in great detail. Chances are you don't have the time and so like most of us you opt for the snippets of this topic. This has some profound implications, for one thing you need detail to have a true understanding of anything that is remotely complex. From that follows expertise and possibly new knowledge.

I often find it very frustrating when I open up manual for some program and find vague one sentence answers that don't give me enough to go on. This makes it very difficult to search for the content you need because frequently the function required is referred to only by a graph. It is one thing to create a document for Sonic was already familiar with the particular trade that is brief and to the point. It is quite another when someone is trying to learn something new and I mean really learn it. This morning before volunteer work I was trying to determine the best way to create a visual effect in my video package. After about 15 minutes of searching through various keywords I found this entry that was less than half a page long because in order to understand it you had to refer to other pages, and you guessed it the other pages then referred to yet another set. On the explanations combine to but put together on three pages under one heading and it would've been 10 times clearer and 100 times faster. My particular task in this case require that I have available to meet all the information. You really couldn't reduce this to snippets. Yet that was obviously what the authors were trying to do because they understand that no one in the modern world will probably have the patient to read three whole pages sequentially (if you haven't noticed I'm being sarcastic here).

Sometimes in order to gain full knowledge you must put in the work. But it would've been nice if the authors of the document and realized that instead of chopping it up into ridiculous chunks which slowed me down.

Some of the rationales I've heard for this abridged version of spreading information are that "The document must be usable on a phone or tablet." That isn't any kind of ration as a matter fact it doesn't make any sense because point to find information I was after this morning on a mobile device would be very difficult because of all the jumping around. Even though it would look much longer auto from putting it all together makes much more sense since the person would have everything they need right there.

 

Cross indexing insanity:

 

There's a time when you want to cross indexing topic or add a footnote but that doesn't mean you have to load the article with disruptive links that make it hard to read and often at the same instant unclear.

What is really beginning to concern me is the effect this will have over the long run. I don't think I'm being overreacted when I see down the road this could lead to, a shallower thinking society. After all if you don't exercise the brain and mind thoroughly regularly like everything else in nature with you don't use you lose. The act of truly understanding something is one of the greatest things about being alive. That absolutely great feeling of "I understand! Knowing that you get." because your horizons expand and chances are really good that the realization will lead you on to other realisations. (I get excited just thinking about the idea right now 😀) and it makes me want to build something! Or do something new.)

I may have to start an anti-knowledge snippet campaign! What do you think?

Patrick

Oh, for the Love of Manuals!

Photo by: Todd Ehlers License:  CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

First I must apologize for those of you that have noticed the site hasn't been updated in a few days. This was due to a software problem, and yes also to due to a lack of clearly written manuals. So this particular topic is very pertinent.

I won't mention any brand names but suffice to say two things conspired to keep me busy for the last 48 hours.

1. An error in one of my accounts cost of shutdown of some of my software, right after I paid a not a substantial amount of money to renew a subscription.
   
   
2. A good deal of my software is bought and paid for, and that act of buying something used to mean that you got a decent instruction manual. Well those days are long gone. It is one thing to abridge something is it is another thing to completely miss large chunks of information.

This is what caused my conundrum for the last two days. Instruction manuals have now been shortened and abridged to such a point that they give nope your understanding of what is going on. Nor do they provide the author of the document a clear understanding of what is going on or how to accomplish a task. This is a recipe for disaster and very time wasteful.

If I see one more book indicating that I should "click on a tiny icon" (not even bothering to give it a name) I made last go insane. The other thing that is sadly missing now days is detailed descriptions of features or if the information is included it is so broken up with hyperlinks and options as to make the text completely unreadable.

Then of course there is the most common problem. The software update you just received completely changes how the program operates and thereby makes the manual null and void.

The photo at the top of this post is of a 1973 Heathkit (Wikipedia article) manual, which while being brief were incredibly well written. They had to be, because you were assembling electronic kits. This just goes to prove that it is possible to be brief and get give sufficient information. Even the books in my elementary school gave more information about a given topic and what you find in most periodicals today.

Each morning I am rather astounded by what passes for newsworthy material. One problem I see is that in order to keep companies visible on the Internet they must produce material every day and unless you've got a staff of thousands, okay that was a bit of an overstatement, the quality will inevitably go down. This blog is a perfect example each day I miss publishing usually results in the loss of 50 views.

Still there must be some way to maintain quality. Because quality really is the cornerstone of knowledge. It is what enables you to go beyond the written or spoken word because the concept has been fully conveyed. To do that takes time and effort.

Anyway this is just very quick blurb. Just to get things back on track.

 I'll write more tomorrow. Patrick

PS:  It looks like Heathkit store is back in business! I don't know if they ship to Canada yet but I see they have the next generation of their famous "digital clock" which I built when I was a teenager. I have to find out if they ship the Canada and if they do. Well how can I not build another one.

"This is what I learned, and This is what I know. I am staying put."

 I was working with someone today who was still using Windows XP even though they had a much newer Windows 10 machine available. Of course the old computer had no end of problems and they were still using it to surf the Internet... More accurately tried to surf the Internet. Yet they were absolutely clear, that they were not going to move away from the older machine. They said "This is what I learned, and this is what I know. I am staying put." Now I've been around computers and technology long enough to know that when someone is that fixated on something it is a waste of time to try to resist. Yet it is a struggle to get these old machines even remotely to a safe state. In the coming days we are going to backup the contents of the old machine to the new one. Because we are talking about the original hard drive and I find that a frightening thought.

[Side note: the more I've been thinking about this, the more I think it needs a short video to really explain things and to give those a chance of never seeing Windows XP more reference. So here it is. Posted on February 26, 2023.]

This all brings up an interesting point though and it is something I believe we all do it some point. That is that there is something in our lives, some aspect or some issue that we just lock on to and refuse often aggressively to buge. What is going on here when this happens. Why is this thing or item so important? From my perspective nothing last forever so why carry with you a great deal of baggage, it just doesn't make sense to me. Yet it is obvious that we get something out of holding on. But now that I think about it I think the item or event may be more symbolic of something else although I admit I don't know what it would be. Maybe it is not so much the "something else", may be what is important is the why we are holding on. The event or item therefore becomes a symbolic indicator of something going on in their emotional or mind system.

My goodness human spirit is a complex beast and when it decides to go into stubborn mode it probably has a very good reason from its point of view. That is if it's aware of its own point of view. I frequently find that what we think is the motivating event or reason ultimately turns out to be rather far removed from the real bedrock issue. For the person I worked with the computer is symbolic actually I think it's the phrase "Windows XP because they used it a great deal in their conversation.

So what do you think? What are some of the things and the wise people hold onto things? I can hardly wait for the weekend where I can explore these issues more. As a side note and encouraged me to set up a virtual machine (that's emulating an entire computer in software) and install Windows XP on it. What a trip down memory lane that was. As a matter of fact that will be the graphic for this post.

Take care and I will talk with you more tomorrow or more accurately write more tomorrow.
Patrick

Your Perfect Memories Of The Past: A Product of Our Time.

  "A Product of Our Time..."

Whenever people speculate about the future or indeed consider the past, we always do so knowingly and unknowingly through psychological and social filters. I find this fascinating. It means that unless a person is very careful, bias of one form or another always sneaks in. Maybe we do it subconsciously most of the time to make the topic more relatable, to bend it a little bit to our worldviews.

A few moments ago, I was speaking with someone who has a rather severe disability and they were complaining about our current government in Canada, saying things like "10 years ago it wasn't like this. We had more freedom." Their dialogue continued for a while, and I was struck by the fact that for this person everything appeared to be better in the past.

Now regardless of your political views, I do believe that we've moved considerably forward on most social fronts. I remember when wheelchair cutaways (ramps) and sidewalks were nonexistent in the lower mainland of British Columbia. My life is been long enough that I have met some of the people that started the political momentum to get ramps put into sidewalks. I accept that my own memories are biased as well, because things weren't as easy as they are now in many ways. You don't have to go back too far, and the very devices you are using now to read this post were not only nonexistent, they were impossible to implement. So when looking to the past we really are doing so from the point of view of the here and now.

So I have a hunch that if we could have perfect memories of the past, we would end up appreciating the present a lot more. I wonder how that would change people? Think about it, it would be a profound ability and I suspect it would be somewhat of a burden. Maybe technology in the not too distant future will give us the ability to one day start a recording device at birth which preserves a perfect record of one's life. Imagine being able to review any event in your life. Boy I'm sure that would change one's perspective on a lot of things.

Even though such a device wouldn't be a perfect record since it couldn't include the entire context of the experience and would definitely give us much more to go on. It is a really fascinating thought. Your own "History Archive".

When I ponder this whole idea three things come to mind, especially when considering, the profound impact the information might have.

1. Would you want to be able to delete information and memories? Presuming if you did this, if you then accidentally forgot the memory the information would be gone forever. So the question isn't as clear as it first seems
   .
2. What if you discovered that your biological recount of an event didn't at all match the perfect historical record? What effect would that have on you? Presuming that the historical record could only be deleted not modified.
   
   
3. Knowing everything is being recorded how would that affect your behaviour, or would you just get used to it and act naturally regardless?

It is likely to some degree at some point people and society will have to face some aspects of this. As a matter of fact we are there now to a small extent. The Internet collectively stores a great deal of information about you and I. Should it be preserved? For let's say, cultural historians?

Wow, these are questions that I don't believe the human race has ever really had to contend with up until now. I started this article off thinking about past and our perception. Now we have ended up talking about the future and considering the recorded record we are all making.

Food for thought, indeed.

Take care Patrick

Quantity over quality

Important disclaimer: I want to be very clear I am in no way singling out this article or commenting on its specific contents. Rather to illustrate what I see is a possible trend on the Internet.

Oh my goodness! I couldn't believe what was in my recommended reading list this morning. An article on discontinued morning cereals of the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Now to be fair I understand why they're doing this, in order for a company to stay visible on the Internet they must put out material frequently and no doubt somebody is getting paid to write that material. But really... Can't we find a better way to use all this technology. I couldn't myself to click on the link. Even if it turned out to be an exquisitely written piece

Now I know my little "articles" fall into this very category, and I have no excuse but also no delusions of becoming a massive porthole. I created this website way back when as a place to put the occasional thought. This year something occurred to me, I began to wonder if I can make this little site actually pay for itself in 12 months just cover one year of domain rental. That's the reason for the increased number of posts you are seeing is I'm just curious what can be done if one is persistent. But at least I try to give my posts some substance of usefulness. And if I do come up against a technical problem that I think is widely applicable and then I'm sure I've got the answer to I will put that up here as well.

Think about it though every single item that goes online takes electrical energy and hardware which must be maintained. Not to mention the fiber-optic's and metals which must be mind and purified to a high level. A huge amount of effort… For articles on deceased cereals?…

For those braver than me I will post the link to the article itself. Maybe one day I will be brave enough to click it. Without further ado here it is:

Here

Take care Patrick

The Internet 20 years from now... Just where will we put all that stuff?

IBM Model 7030 Stretch Early Super Computer
Wikimedia Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)

Much has been debated about where the Internet is going and what it'll be like in the future. There is a larger question: Where does all the necessary storage come from? Society will also have to figure out how to power it all.-I'm afraid your laptop charger just will not do.

Then there's the question of where it's all going to be backed up, or will society ultimately come to the conclusion that there will only be selective archiving and like the human brain Internet will forget a certain percentage. While I love my life, I do not wish to remember everything in exquisite detail. Mind you that would make going through school a snap, provided I understood what I remembered.😀

They always say that society is changing so fast nowadays, but what everyone forgets is that it's always relative to whatever part of history a person is part of. 100 years ago there was only a fraction of the change in a given amount of time compared to today, but it was still faster for them then what their grandparents knew.

Whatever way the Internet continues to evolve I'm okay with it as long as I still have the opportunity to understand the knowledge which will be accessible to me. Because it is the understanding that I personally find so enjoyable. I don't want just a collection of things in my head, I want to know how they relate to each other and other items in my memory. In other words I don't want to be a glorified search engine. But rather a knowledge foundation.

In other words, plug the me in and turn me on, but leave the manual handy. And I mean the detailed one; not be abridged user's guide. I want to understand it all, for me that's one of the big joys in life.

Take care Patrick

Internet School

Vladsinger the copyright holder of this work, release this work
into the Public domain. This applies worldwide

Because of a recent break-in in our building, I am putting together a course for my fellow tenant's on how to use the services available online rather than getting documentation and cheques through the physical mail. Part of this course will cover "Internet safety"

My rough thoughts are being put in the following article so that you the readership can make comments and therefore influence the results. The Internet is incredibly dynamic and so should be the ways of accomplishing various tasks.

My first thought is, and will use Google as an example, when a person first sits down in front of a monitor displaying Google, what thoughts and relationships are they forming? Are they approaching it like I would, being very technically savvy and pondering which search terms to use, or are they looking at it from the perspective of a table of contents in a printed book? The answers to these questions greatly changes how the information should be presented to the various people in the course. I have a mandate in that the course cannot be excessively long or detailed but rather (hopefully) a bulleted concise list of things that can be remembered and comprehended quickly. Just how the heck am I going to put the Internet in a bottle?! And of course it must be interesting in order to be remembered.

The scenario is this:

• Adult audience
• Most are casual Internet users.
• Familiar with Facebook to some degree.

I'm going out on a limb, (this is my own personal opinion which may be terribly wrong) but I would say there is a tendency among most people to implicitly believe whatever they read in the search results.- EEEK!

So stay tuned… I will be updating this hopefully every day. Tuesdays and Thursdays are rather difficult as I have other things to do. But feel free to share any Internet learning experience in the comments.

To get the discussion going...

Questions to ask people:

• What do you use the Internet for?
• What do you find most frustrating about the Internet?
• What would you like to learn (be specific)?

Caravan of the Books

Photo by Alexandre Boue
licensed under the Attribution-Share Alike 4.0

I was watching a program the other night "Caravan of the Books: Kenya's Mobile Camel Library" (click the updated link for one minute preview) and was struck by the fact that this is happening in the 21st century. It is a marvellous and hopeful program, but North America and the developed world are planets apart. I felt guilty when I thought about demanding rights for this item or that item in the modern world. My electric wheelchair is not only computer-controlled but reports back to the company twice a day with complete diagnostics and has a huge range of features, all aimed at one thing-making me feel comfortable.

In our modern world of multitasking and distracting ourselves the message in this show was clear-at least to me-"How about we raise up the rest of the world allowing them to have opportunities and access." That leads into the question of what sort of things make societies separate. Is it just human nature to be tribal and unique at any cost? And when we arrive at an answer is the purpose of the "answer" just to make the affluent feel better?

I will expand on this in the coming weeks as more thoughts occur to me. My first is yet another question, "now that we know the past is not as simple or romantic as we'd hoped how do I do we change our present behaviours so that cultures can benefit from advancements while keeping their identity and uniqueness in any way they wish?

Patrick