On Buying iPods

Now that it's Sarah's birthday and she knows what present she's getting, I can blog about my iPod hunting experience in Rockhampton.

It's been something of a long-running joke (started and maintained mainly by Sarah, of course :p ) that I should buy her an iPod for her birthday/christmas/random day of the week. Well, after tossing the idea around I decided an iPod would actually make a jolly good birthday present. The moment that sold me on the idea was when I was in the Mac Choice store and Trisha passed this tiny pink brushed-metal iPod mini across the counter for me to look at. They're so slick!
That was also the moment that I decided it had to be an iPod mini in particular, even though I could get a fully fledged 20GB iPod for only $40 more.

The only problem was that Trisha only had 2 blue iPod minis in stock, and I didn't really want a blue one for Sarah. So I asked her to let me know when she found out what else she was getting in stock soon, and I went off on a quest for iPod minis elsewhere.
To cut a long story short, there practically aren't any iPod minis elsewhere.
The Byte Centre had a single blue iPod mini, and no plans to get any more in because apparently they get a $20 profit margin on each iPod and the hassel of getting them isn't worth their while. With that attitude I would be reluctant to buy from them even if they did plan on getting more stock, but the bloke I talked to was at least happy to suggest other places I could get one.
Target don't stock or order iPod minis at all.
eBay had a few on auction, but the auctions close to closing were going for more than I could buy one from Mac Choice for.
Dick Smith don't stock or order iPod minis at all. The obnoxious salesman treated me like I didn't know anything about computers or music players (after I repeatedly showed that I did), and tried to sell me a Creative Nomad Zen instead ("but look... this one holds, um, TEN thousand songs!").
Finally, I called the online Apple Store and asked about availability: Minimum waiting time of about 4 weeks.

So in the end, it looks like I'll wait to see what Trisha gets in her next shipment and pick the best colour out of that. Should be sometime this week! Woohoo :D

And, after all that, Sarah didn't realise that the paper cutout iPod with "Sorry it's not here yet, it's coming!" written on it meant that I was actually getting her a birthday present and not just a card with a paper iPod :p

Paper Accepted!

Well, the paper that I submitted to the AI / Complex 2004 conference - held in Cairns with an Asia-Pacific attendance - was accepted!
(for the record, it was "Multi-Dimensional Encoding to Reduce Bias in Fuzzy Knowledge-bases"... You can stop yawning now ;) )

I guess I should be happy. I honestly didn't expect the paper to be accepted, because the results it presented were somewhat inconclusive (BS... they were almost *entirely* inconclusive :p). Still, I'll do my best to polish it up and improve it where I can, and do a good job of presenting it at the end of the year.
In a way I almost wish it wasn't accepted, because now I have the pressure of making it acceptable in my own eyes! I was kind of hoping to just mostly forget about this research and write it off as a footnote in my thesis.

It raises another question, though, namely: what are the other reviewers thinking?! I reviewed a couple of papers for this conference myself (extra to what I mentioned in an earlier entry), and I spent a good 2-3 hours per paper making sure I understood it and giving a meaningful critique. Two of the three (anonymous) reviews I got were reasonable (if generous IMO), but the third review was just "Excellent" for every criteria and a somewhat trivial comment on presentation at the end. Now, I *know* it didn't deserve that review, and I have to doubt that the reviewer read much of my paper.
To be fair, I guess a lot of the reviewers are very busy and can't give the 2-3 hours per paper that I spent, but still...

But all's well in the end. After all, I get a free trip to Cairns for an interesting conference! :D

Puzzle

This sentence is just so tricky it deserves a post of its own. Can you solve it? There are apparently two valid solutions.

In this sentence, the number of occurrences of '0' is __; of '1' is __; of '2' is __; of '3' is __; of '4' is __; of '5' is __; of '6' is __; of '7' is __; of '8' is __; and of '9' is __.

Self Referential Sentences

Here are some sentences that make you chuckle, do a double-take, or just plain scratch your head in bemusement. These are a select few culled from Douglas Hofstadter's Metamagical Themas: Questing for the Essence of Mind and Pattern.

Structure

• This sentence no verb.
• because I didn't think of a good beginning for it.
• This sentence was in the past tense.
• A preposition this sentence ends in. (Yoda might have said this...)
• This sentence is a !!!! premature punctuator
• It goes without saying that
• When one this sentence into the German to translate wanted, would one the fact exploit, that the word order and the punctuation already with the German conventions agree.

Identity

• It feels sooo good to have your eyes run over my curves and serifs.
• Do you read me?
• If I said something else, would it still be me saying it?
• If I were you, who would be reading this sentence?

Prophecy

• The reader of this sentence exists only while reading me.
• In the time it takes you to read this sentence, eighty-six letters could have been processed by your brain.
• This sentence will end before you can say "Jack Rob
• Does this sentence remind you of Agatha Christie?
• You have, of course, just begun reading the sentence that you have just finished reading.

Truth

• (Here's an interactive sentence! Can you solve it? Fill in the blanks with any digits.)
  In this sentence, the number of occurrences of '0' is __; of '1' is __; of '2' is __; of '3' is __; of '4' is __; of '5' is __; of '6' is __; of '7' is __; of '8' is __; and of '9' is __.
• This sentence contains exactly threee erors. (Get it?)
• This sentence is false. (But it says it's false, so it's true! But if it's true...)

Er... I'm not quite sure what to make of these two quizzes... I haven't done anything Sarah, honest! :|
But online quizzes are fun :D

What book are you?

You're Love in the Time of Cholera!
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Like Odysseus in a work of Homer, you demonstrate undying loyalty by sleeping with as many people as you possibly can. But in your heart you never give consent! This creates a strange quandary of what love really means to you. On the one hand, you've loved the same person your whole life, but on the other, your actions barely speak to this fact. Whatever you do, stick to bottled water. The other stuff could get you killed.

Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.


What country are you?

You're Thailand!

Calmer and more staunchly independent than almost all those around you, you have a long history of rising above adversity. Recent adversity has led to questions about your sexual promiscuity and the threat of disease, but you still manage to attract a number of tourists and admirers. And despite any setbacks, you can really cook a good meal whenever it's called for. Good enough to make people cry.

Take the Country Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid

Birthday Presents

It's my birthday next Saturday! My family in Bundaberg and Sarah have been hounding me for the past few weeks for a list of birthday presents I'd like that they can choose from. Gosh life is tough. :|

I figure if I actually start a blog entry now then I might actually get it done.

<mumble>whateverhappenedtothoughtfulsurprises...</mumble>

Here's a list of ideas for Mum and Sarah then, but please don't feel limited if, just for example you know, you were going to get me an Apple Powerbook or plasma TV or something... :D

• DVDs: Kill Bill vol. 1, 2; Ran; The Seven Samurai (anything by Akira Kurosawa looks interesting); Master & Commander; old Star Wars; Transformers; Voltron


• Music: Anything - even/especially something different.


• Computer Games: Thief 3; Arcanum; Neverwinter Nights; (ask Carey)


• Computer: Domain/hosting (here); slick keyboard; small MP3 player


• Clothing: Sports socks; anything (size small)


• Toys: Plush; board/card games; puzzles; Shoto/tanto (here)


• Books: The Never Ending Story; The Princess Bride; science, philosophy, eg Douglas Hofstadter, Paul Davies, etc; recipe; anything


• Misc: Towel; small bright LED torch; New Scientist subscription; anything

Note the "anything" under miscellaneous :)

Reviewing Papers

I feel important, though perhaps undeservedly so. Recently I got an email beginning,
"Dear Dr. Young..." from the IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics Part B asking me to review a paper!
I declined, telling the fellow that I was still undertaking my PhD. I told Russel about it and he said to write back and say that we would do it - which I felt better about because I'd be interested in doing it, just so long as it's under Russel's name and supervision :D

I've just given my feedback to Russel on two of the many papers he's currently reviewing. The first one came to me in an email out of the blue, just stating "Note the method to find the membership functions. What is missing. Regards Russel.". I dutifully read the paper and picked it apart (it was pretty shocking) and when I ran into Russel next I asked him what the deal was. He said it was a test of sorts to see how I would go at reviewing a paper. The sneaky devil!
So I've just commented on a second paper he sent me as well, as a second opinion for Russel. It's nothing that Russel couldn't (and didn't) do in a fraction of the time it took me, but all the same I feel important :)

Picking apart some bad research is a nice break from struggling with my own ;)

To Blog or Not to Blog?

I came across an interesting bit of research presented at a recent conference of the British Psychological Society in Edinburgh. (New Scientist link)
Dr Elaine Duncan of Glasgow Caledonian University and Dr David Sheffield of Staffordshire University questioned 94 diary writers and compared them with 41 people who did not keep diaries. Some health workers and researchers encourage their patients to keep diaries, but Duncan and Sheffield found that the diary writers in their sample had statistically significantly greater levels of anxiety and symptoms such as headaches, sleeplessness, and digestive problems.
Unfortunately the study couldn't show causality - whether diary writing was the cause of the symptoms or merely another symptom of an underlying malaise.
Fortunately for fellow bloggers, this seems to apply primarily to people writing about traumatic events or ordeals, so keep your blog happy and all is well :)

In other news, I was somewhat taken aback by the reactions of two friends to whom I proudly showed my new blog. They both made unqualified statements to the effect that bloggers suffer from the delusion that the world finds them interesting and takes them seriously.
To be fair this may well be true for many bloggers (do a search for blogs by misunderstood artists ;) ), but it's also true for many more people who (perhaps thankfully) haven't discovered blogging yet. Point: People = amusing; blog = tool.
And anyway, if my blog provides someone with some small amusement - either at my content or at my expense - then I'll count it a success :)

September Kendo Seminar

The next time I pick a martial art to learn, I'm choosing one where you get to leave your shoes on. That is one of the take-home messages from the September Kendo seminar and grading held in Rockhampton, after having my footwork (suri ashi) alternately and endlessly admonished and corrected. The embarrassment and disappointment wouldn't matter so much - red faces fade quickly, but blisters remain. Ow!

Blisters aside, it was a good weekend. On both days I felt better at the end than at the beginning - that means either I got a lot out of it, or I wasn't working hard enough :p
We did work hard though. Kevin Humphrey described the seminar attendees as small in number but great in spirit. Now, if one were being overly cynical one might interpret that to be "er, well... you had a good try" and, to be objective and euphemistic, one must admit that the Rockhampton club is small and thus skillfully-challenged. However, I honestly believe Kevin and the other sensei weren't being condescending; that we all do give a jolly good try; and if there's anything good about being bad, it's that you can only get better!
I'm not saying we're bad... but we are surely getting better :)

One of the more interesting things we learnt was kihon waza kata. That's basic cutting techniques (kihon waza) taught in the form of precisely choreographed patterns (kata). This is apparently a new approach, and one that I find agreeable.
Kihon waza kata differs from your standard kihon waza in that it uses bokken (wooden sword) rather than shinai (bamboo sparring sword), and you therefore don't actually make contact with your partner because making contact with a wooden sword hurts. In that regard it is similar to your standard kendo kata.
But kihon waza kata differs from standard kendo kata in that it emphasises technique moreso than context. Standard kata is gracefully intricate, using particular techniques in particular situations; it's very much contextual. Kihon waza kata, in contrast, is quite bland and boring because it's all about the basic techniques.
Despite its bland face however, I expect kihon waza kata to prove itself to be a useful complement to kihon waza (using shinai and armour). It is necessarily more controlled and precise, because you really don't want to actually hit your friend. Which, er, I did. A bit. Accidentally!
Anyway, in conclusion I see all three training techniques working together harmoniously. Kihon waza kata teaches the basic techniques precisely; kihon waza teaches your muscles what it actually feels like to make and receive the cuts; and kata brings all the techiques you've learnt together with situational awareness.
And then, natually, in jigeiko (full armour, free sparring) you forget all that and flail, smash, and stomp your way to victory! Raaar!

Personally, I feel that I got a lot out of the seminar and grading. To be exact, I got:

• A video CD of kihon-waza (basic techniques),


• A 2004 Australian Kendo Championships t-shirt, long-sleeved,


• Lots of yummy little sandwich triangles, and strawberry-and-cream lollies, and


• My 5th kyu grade :D

Yay for loot!

First Blog Post

I've finally fallen to the allure of an always-accessible, oecumenically open platform for publishing whatever whimsical words I wish - behold, blogging begins!

So, without further ado (and because I'm all alliterated out), onto the first real post!