Catch on fire with enthusiasm and people will come for miles to watch you burn. — Poorly Translated Fortune Cookie

I do not feel obligated to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reasons, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use. — Galileo Galilei

If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them — Isaac Asimov

Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something. — Plato

Luck has a way of rewarding those who do not depend on it — Robert Guillaume

God grant me the serenity to remember who I am — Joe South, Song, “Games People Play”

Some say life is unfair. Hey, I don’t know, I don’t care. — Jimmy Buffett

Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick — Theodore Roosevelt

I speak LOUDLY, and I carry a BIGGER Stick… and I use it too — Yosemite Sam

Back off man, I’m a scientist — Dr. Peter Venkman

It’s a game [baseball] you’ll hate for 5 minutes and love for 2 hours — Mike Hargrove

Sheesh Vinny, what did my DVD collection ever do to you? Kick your cat or something? — Jason Dunn

It’s 3:30 in the afternoon and people are trying to sleep! — Master Shake, Aqua Teen Hunger Force

The post Quotes On Homepage appeared first on JonWestfall.Com.

By: Kevin Dooley

First let me answer a few common questions that I always get when I mention my lack of Star Wars viewership:

• No, I’m not one of those guys who thinks Trek is way better and thus shuns the entire Star Wars Universe. Nor do I think it’s “too commercial” or “too mainstream”.
  
• Yes, I know what happens in the movies despite not having watched them. Pop culture has not allowed me to be ignorant of that. I just said I hadn’t watched the movies, not that I wasn’t intimately familiar with the story lines, characters, and analysis. I’ve read the Wikipedia entries on all the movies.
• No I didn’t have horrible parents or friends who stopped me from watching it.

So why haven’t I watched the movie until now? Well it’s actually rather mundane – I just never felt like it, coupled with the fact that no one around me has ever insisted that I watch it (Of course many probably would have if they knew I hadn’t watched it!).

Growing up, my dad liked Star Trek, and I think he and my mom had watched Star Wars at some point when it came out, but they never felt like they needed me to view it. And my friends… well let’s just say that not many ever told me that I had to do anything – being a bigger kid, only child, and relative loaner meant that I didn’t really associate with any Sci Fi nerds, like some might expect, and I was certainly more of a leader than follower thanks to my relative inexperience hanging with kids. My best friend, Steve, preferred Spaceballz much more than the actual Lucas-written movies, so that’s what I did watch. The first of many, many, many retellings of Episode IV that I’ve watched.

And that’s probably why I never bothered to watch the full thing until now. I’ve seen Family Guy parody Star Wars, I’ve seen Robot Chicken, Mel Brooks, and dozens of other full-length and short clips of parody over the years. And honestly watching the real movie didn’t feel “new” to me at all – it felt completely familiar, thanks to Pop Culture. And that’s why I’m not sure if I’m going to watch the others – they’re in the Netflix queue, but I don’t honestly know if they’re worth my time (Friends of mine know that I don’t watch many movies in general because I consider committing 2 hours of my time to something a major commitment). And I honestly don’t know why now I decided to rent Episode IV. Maybe I was just bored when browsing Netflix a few months ago.

So there you have it – I’m a 30 year old tech geek professor with a PhD who owns a frickin’ laser that looks like (and is almost as damaging as) a light saber, and I’ve now watched Star Wars for the first time. Maybe I’ll watch the rest of the movies, if the force compels me to. Or maybe I’ll stop here while I’m ahead. What do you think? Should I continue on?

The post So I Just Watched ‘Star Wars’ For The First Time appeared first on JonWestfall.Com.

Stumble

My Likes as of This Morning

I tend to spend a bunch of time on StumbleUpon, mostly in the humor category, although occasionally I venture out and learn something. Here’s what I’ve liked lately.

• Pig Latin
• Office Guns
• Best Photo Captions

Mess Around with Different Services

Some of these are because I’m thinking of using them in class. Some are just for fun. Others are somewhat pointless. Here’s the stuff I’ve played with for some/no reason (All are free, because well, I’m cheap):

1. Credly – to give badges to my students.
2. Tiny Tiny RSS – to have my own hosted RSS feeds
3. Socrative – to conduct in-class polls
4. A couple of WordPress plugins: NextGen Gallery & Better WP Security
5. Tinker with the CMS’s I use, WordPress and Moodle.

Research

So the life of a professor doesn’t stop when classes are over. I’m still actively working on various research projects with people around the world. They’re happy I have more time, and honestly I am too. Why? Because when you have a lot on your plate, you enjoy research less. For example, one of the most time consuming, yet most enjoyable aspects of research, is experiment creation. Not the high-level “What should we manipulate part” (Although that’s time consuming in a different way) – but the low-level “gotta build a PHP script that does 8 different versions” stuff. I find programming fun, but not when under the gun.

So that’s all I have done or planned so far on Summer 2013 – if you have any ideas or suggestions I’d love to hear them!

The post Summer Shock! appeared first on JonWestfall.Com.

By: Shreveport-Bossier Convention and Tourist Bureau

So aside from some trips here and there, Karey and I are starting on our second summer in Shreveport. Now if the pool would just warm up we’d be all set! Any suggestions for fun summer activities?

The post Summer in Shreveport appeared first on JonWestfall.Com.

See that last paragraph? I dictated it. Then I corrected it. Then I started tapping out this paragraph and stopped to re-read, re-word, and correct the first paragraph again. For someone with a solid 95 wpm, dictation isn’t the most satisfying way to work.

Tapping out via an on-screen keyboard isn’t much better. My thoughts take forever to get on the screen, and while I have read that sometimes it is better to slow yourself down on purpose, I don’t know if I buy it. When it takes time to write, as it does with this post, my mind wanders. It hears my wife putting Pepsi in the fridge and mentally thanks her (something I should probably do verbally more often.) It thinks about lunch tomorrow and debates floating the concept of a pizza buffet lunch past said awesome wife (something no one should do more often). It floats like a breeze and makes me wonder what it was I was doing in the first place, as I tap away at virtual keys.

Oh yea, I was writing about blogging. And was wondering aloud (or ‘aprint’ as it were) how one could blog on a tablet, with limited input speed. And I have no idea. I suppose I won’t be ditching a keyboard any time soon.

The post How do you blog from a tablet? appeared first on JonWestfall.Com.

My name is XXXX.  There was an article you posted on your website.

jonwestfall.com/XXXX/XXXX

Anyway, it is not very flattering.  I have been out of the job for a couple of years and have had job interviews, but when this article comes up, it is usually fatal to any job prospect.

If not too much trouble, could you please remove the article.  You don’t have to do it, and i understand if you don’t,  but it would help me and my family so much if you could.

Several years ago I used to post “Stupid People Alerts”, links to news articles that were examples of people acting in less-than-responsible less-than-intelligent ways. Apparently one of those articles has followed someone around, bombing their job prospects. I decided that after so many years I was fine removing the article, but as he points out, I didn’t have to (And there are still copies of the original article that I posted to out there, so his work is not done). I wish him the best of luck in finding a job, as soon as Google takes my articles out of its cache!

The post What Happens on The Internet Stays On The Internet appeared first on JonWestfall.Com.

Karotype by Can H.

First let’s get some definitions out of the way. Many people have heard the term “hermaphrodite” and believe that these people, who have both sets of reproductive organs, are the only “Intersexed” people out there. What you might be surprised to learn is that a wide variety of conditions that result in non-normal genital and/or hormonal development. Some are born with different chromosomes (1 in 1,666 have something other than XX or XY), developmental onset or regularity problems (i.e. 1 in 66 are born with late onset adrenal hyperplasia) or differences in development (1 in 770 have hypospadias, where the urethral opening is somewhere other than the tip of the penis). If you want to know more about ambiguous genitalia, check out this page which outlines some of the conditions and their possible causes.

In some sense we all know there are differences in primary and secondary sexual organs. We wonder if “size matters” because we know size differs. Boys in locker rooms eagerly share guesses on ‘cup size’ because cups come in different sizes as well. We accept that those parts of us differ. It’s just when we get to the insides that we start to assume all is the same.

Returning to hearts, it’s estimated that 1 in 125 babies has some form of congenital heart defect, ranging from mild to severe (like my friend). So comparing that with the 1 in 100 number, you have a better chance of not fitting ‘standard male’ or ‘standard female’ than a heart defect. Yet no one tells a person with a heart defect that the shortness of breath or irregular heart beat they’re experiencing is ‘in their head’.

Imagine that you were in the more common group though – the 1 in 100s. In your specific case, you were the 1 in 1,000 who was born with ambiguous genitals and having Klinefelter’s syndrom. Your sex chromosomes (XXY) aren’t typical and so the doctor decides to do surgery to give you female genitalia

So why are we, as humans, so willing to understand birth defects happen, but we rally around the idea that everyone has well-determined sexual status? As a psychologist, here are my guesses:

• We hate ambiguity, and since sex isn’t exactly something we’re comfortable talking about, it’s very disturbing to think that variability like this exists. So we just pretend it doesn’t.
• People in that “1 in 100″ group seldom want to broadcast such a thing to the world. And even the best of friends don’t often talk about what might be different in their pants from others. You could have an intersexed friend for a lifetime and never know it. And we know that one way people become more informed is by personal connection, so no personal connection = no acknowledgement that people with differences exist.
• We like to think we’re fully in control over who we find attractive. However as the saying goes “the heart wants what the heart wants”. In this case, the chromosomes / hormones want what they want, and it’s easier for us to say “Eh, it’s just your choice” than “Eh, I guess you’re the 1 in 100 who aren’t exactly male or female”.
• We’re often made to feel self-conscious about our appearance. So the adolescent boy who develops breasts but is also a bit on the heavy side might believe it’s just their weight, and never finds out that there is a  hormonal or adrenal imbalance. Same goes for the girl who never develops breasts – she might just feel that it was the roll of the dice she was given, for better or worse.

Those are just some thoughts, and I’m sure there are other reasons. The question then becomes how do we go about changing these firmly held beliefs about sexual development. In the end a bit of understanding can be all it takes to start to overcome the hurtful and misinformed beliefs people hold. So next time you hear about someone who says “I just don’t feel like a boy” or meet a transexual, realize that the landscape of development is vast, and unfortunately it doesn’t always follow norms. Just like you already realize for heart defects!

The post Heart Defects Happen, Intersexuality Does Not. appeared first on JonWestfall.Com.

So first, a bit of history. Geek Squad was founded by Robert Stephens in 1994 and adopted an LEO-esque branding theme (Which is a pretty cool idea in a way). Under “Chief Inspector” Stephens, employees were issued badges with their LEO-styled titles on them. You can find a few of these proudly displayed by former employees on Twitter and elsewhere. A custom Smith Warren badge runs about $60 – $80 on the low end, so these weren’t given to all, just those who had sufficient ‘rank’ (Think senior leadership, senior positions at even low levels, etc..). When Best Buy acquired the company they kept the badge tradition, issuing badges that read “Counter Intelligence Agent”, “Deputy Counter Intelligence”, and the most popular “Double Agent” (For geeks who worked in stores and in homes – i.e. double locations). Below you can see two Geek Squad badges from my collection.

(I promise soon to have high-res images up, my apologies for the lighting).

The badge on the right, from Double Agent Kai, is a standard Geek Squad style. It’s made by Smith Warren, and is pretty high quality. The badge on the left, however, is different. It doesn’t have an agent’s name, it has a generic badge number, and is made by Blackinton. Holding it you can tell it’s not as high quality as the “Kai” badge, with less recessed features. Since I hadn’t come across a “Secret Double” badge before, I reached out to some former Geeks, none of whom knew what to make of it. The internet wasn’t much help either (Surprisingly there isn’t a Geek Squad Badge wiki!)

The thought crossed my mind that it could be a fake. But faking a rather obscure non-LEO / non-Prop badge? Seemed a little off. So in a fit of desperation, I sent a tweet to the Chief Inspector himself, who verified my thought:

That’s right – it’s a fake.

Now on a practical level, I can sorta understand the faking. Geek Squad badges pop up on eBay from time to time, usually from former Best Buy employees looking to get a little money for them. They regularly sell for about $25 -$60. However in the last 6 months I’ve seen a few former Geeks who are trying to get much more for their badges. They list “Double Agent” badges (the most common) for upwards of $200. They don’t sell, but to the casual eye who doesn’t watch the listings, it might look like there is some money to be made by reproducing a badge for $40 and selling it for $200. Sadly (for the seller) I paid much closer to the $40 for the “Secret Double” badge than the $200 wish, and that probably explains why I haven’t seen one since. I also can’t find them for sale online anywhere.

On a psychological level, it’s really interesting to me to consider GS badges in general. They’re great branding, and they do subtly encourage a sense of authority. Badges have that significance to us, so seeing someone whom we might not know the exact qualifications of (i.e. What does it take to be a Best Buy Geek?) carrying a real badge may be more psychologically forceful than the uniform, the branded car, etc… The rest can be dismissed as standard branding, but a badge – a badge is official. In fact I’ve even seen LEOs get upset because Geek Squad badges exist. Talk about psychological power! And to “fake” an already ‘fake’ badge, that just ups the level!

So in the end there’s the story (with better pics to come soon). Geek Squad has a pretty novel and useful-on-multiple-levels idea, and imitation ensues (Perhaps to flatter, or because someone can’t do a finished item search on eBay).

I’d like to thank Robert Stephens for his reply tonight. it filled in the gaps in my information and allowed me to make some speculations. Anything I got wrong, feel free to correct me (That goes for any other current or former Geeks who find this article).

Thanks!

Regarding the first line of the article…

* Obviously if you have an LEO badge you’d like to donate, I’d love to hold onto it! Any donation is gladly accepted and cherished.

The post Geek Squad Badges: Symbols Worth Faking! appeared first on JonWestfall.Com.

1. Downloaded all of my feeds in XML / OPML format from Google Reader
2. Created a Yahoo! Pipe with the feeds that I read. This creates a “Super” RSS feed.
3. Used IFTTT to plug that feed into Readability, an offline reading service. (I could have also used Pocket, however I already use Pocket for other purposes, so Readability seemed a good choice)

Here’s how to do this, step-by-step

Download Your Data

Log into Google Reader and go into Reader settings (It’s in the menu in the upper right). Click on the “Import/Export” tab and use the “Download your data through Takeout” option.

This will create a ZIP file which you can then download from the Google Takeout service. Unzipping that file, you’ll find an XML file named “subscriptions.xml”

Opening this file in a Text editor will show the XML code. Reading it carefully you’ll find your RSS feed URLs that point to the RSS feeds you were formerly reading in Reader. Go through and find the ones you still want to read (this might also be a good time to clean feed house!) and make up a list.

Create a Super Feed

Go to Yahoo! Pipes and log in using that old Yahoo! account you have (or I guess any other way Yahoo allows). Click on the Create New Pipe button at the top and begin dragging “Fetch Feed” items onto the workplace. Then use the “Union” item to bind them together. I also throw a “Truncate” at the end to limit to 20 items for tidiness.

Once you have the feed ready, click “Save” and give it a name. Then grab the RSS link for the feed by clicking on the RSS button on the feed’s homepage

Updates:

A few people have made some great comments that should be considered (Both by Paul, perhaps different or the same Paul?).

The first:

You know that little + URL text on the Fetch Feed object. Click that and add multiple feeds in one object. Much less complicated than using multple Unions

- Great point, multiple Unions can get you in trouble, and using the built-in + button seems to be just as snappy as other modules.

Other (or same) Paul notes:

“Without a Sort module your pipe will take the first 20 items from your feeds beginning with all the items from the feed connected to the leftmost connector of the first Union module, then the next most leftmost module and so on. So if your first feed always contains 20 items then you might as well do away with all the other feeds.”

A Sort is also useful to make sure that you get the order you want, oldest to newest or newest to oldest! Just sort on item.PubDate.

Thanks for the comments!

Pipe that single RSS feed wherever you want (i.e. Readability, Pocket, etc…)

Now you can use IFTTT to pipe that RSS feed wherever you’d like, providing a fairly flexible way to get your feeds into either an offline reader, email account, or whatever. Like I said earlier, I piped mine into Readability, so that I can install the Readability apps on my devices and catch up on feeds wherever I go. This also has the benefit of downloading the full items, so no more “teaser” RSS items!

I realize my solution is a bit clunky, and other alternatives are out there. But for a power user who wants to slice and dice and have their feeds exactly where they want (and wants to use established tools to do so), this is one way to go.

The post Rolling a Google Reader Replacement with Yahoo! Pipes, Readability, & IFTTT appeared first on JonWestfall.Com.

Not pictured…

• A Windows Phone messenger bag
• A green european school bag
• A samsonite laptop sleeve
• Skooba Sleeves in 14” and 17” sizes.
• A BUNCH of smaller cases, portfolios, holsters, and pockets.

The post All Of The Bags! appeared first on JonWestfall.Com.