Odds and ends...

Galina and I stopped by the EPO store yesterday morning. The place sure has changed a lot from when I first visited, many years ago, when it was a true "Electronic Parts Outlet." Today's EPO is more of a center for video surveillance equipment than anything else.

I did manage to find a cheap USB mouse, which I intended to use on the VAIO in response to a recent sharp increase in unexplainable cursor behavior and unacceptable consequences of such behavior (for example, while I'm typing, the cursor might jump from position A some number of lines to position B, highlighting the text in between and causing the text thus "selected" to disappear upon the next keystroke). What I have been able to uncover on the Web points to a tendency such touch pads have to react not only to actual contact, but also to the waggling of fingers, etc. in their general vicinity owing to excessive sensitivity.

I had gone into the control panel and reduced the sampling rate of the built-in mouse, hoping that the change would result in a concomitant reduction in sensitivity, but the problem has persisted over the past few days. The idea behind acquiring the USB mouse was to disable the built-in mouse and rely on the external unit, except that this afternoon, I noticed that the built-in mouse cannot be disabled (as, say, can the USB mouse).

So, right now, I've taped my room key (plastic, with a mag stripe) over the touch pad, hoping it will act enough like a shield to prevent spurious cursor behavior. We'll see.

* * *It seems like only yesterday that I was looking at the schedule of remaining work for this assignment and sighing about how much is left. In the interim, Galina signed up for an all-day seminar in Dallas on Saturday, which means that she'll be leaving... tomorrowthis afternoon. Yikes! Talk about shifted perspective!

* * *I spent some time cleaning up my one-and-only designated flash drive earlier, while waiting to receive the daily report which is my primary translation task during my shift. I've decided to put all my important files (including a bunch of self-contained executables) on the 1-GB Memorex unit and to hang on to the 256-MB Memorex unit, which will be used only for transferring files to/from others.

* * *I keep thinking about my options for my (re)organization, and I find it both a little intimidating and challenging to have such a menu before me (and refreshing that the path before me doesn't involve buying proprietary solutions). I'm trying to keep in mind this gem I found in GTD:

When considering whether to get and use an organizer, and if so, which one, keep in mind that all you really need to do is manage lists. You’ve got to be able to create a list on the run and review it easily and as regularly as you need to. [My emphasis.]

* * *I found a nice think piece titled Zen Pockets via Merlin Mann's 43 Folders. It addresses something that has crossed my mind from time to time, most recently when I worked on a check list of stuff to take on this assignment, and that is: what is the minimum amount of stuff that I must take with me to do what I have to do?

This issue will probably remain a work-in-progress for a while, but I'm fairly sure that anything that has not been taken out of the "take with me" box this trip is not getting taken next time.

Cheers...

Surprise and shock!

Absentmindedly, I put my finger on the stiff plastic room card I taped over the VAIO's touch pad at the start of my shift and started to maneuver the cursor. Looking at the screen, I was not happy with the cursor's performance, until I remembered, "Oh, well, I've got a card in the way," which led - about a second later - to the realization that the cursor was moving, erratically, even though my finger was not in contact with the touch pad!

I repeated the experiment, this time being very careful not to exert much pressure on the card (it's not the thickest card in the world, but not the thinnest, either). The cursor movement degraded, but did not disappear.

I hope this has something to do with local conditions and not with deterioration of the hardware.

Cheers...

A cognitive curiosity...

From the newly discovered (by me, at least) Open Loops blog:

i cdnuolt blveiee taht i cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht i was rdanieg. the phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mind is amazanig. aoccdrnig to a rscheearch taem at cmabrigde uinervtisy, it deosnt mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. the rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. amazanig huh? yaeh and yuo awlyas thohgut slpeling was ipmorantt.

The point of the blog post is to point out a very curious fact about human cognition, and how it can be turned to one's advantage for learning.

Cheers...