Titravelme

Posted on by

I watched the move Primer a couple nights ago.

As said, it was a movie custom-made for me. Time travel, stock trading, engineering… if one of the characters had done comedy improv on the side, I would have had to assume I wrote it and just forgot.

But I will admit, I was mostly lost by the end of the film. I had a vague sense of what had happened, but I was totally confused on the details. And it pains me to say it, because I consider myself fairly adept at following time travel stories. I ran the movie back and rewatched it from the point I got lost, and still couldn’t piece together exactly what was happening.

Thankfully, wikipedia came to the rescue where someone had worked out what had happened, and explained it fairly clearly.

They used my favorite time-travel convention, which is that the act of going back in time creates a new time branch splitting at the moment the time traveler from the future appears. This resolves a lot of paradox issues, and you can successfully kill yourself without dying. The writer also created a few other conventions that make for a plausible and dramatic story.

The engineering dialog was extremely good as well. It was all gobbledygook, but it was written such that they didn’t use a term in a way that didn’t make sense, or make up any words. They give you snippets of plausible technical dialog that in themselves are reasonable, but adding them all up gives you nothing but the impression that they’re really working on something real.

Back to the Future failed on both of the above accounts (fading pictures? “flux capacitor”?), and and I spent too much time really smashing those films apart several years ago, in the days before IM. Back to the Future created dramatic situations, but only by sacrificing good time travel conventions and creating plot holes large enough to drive several Deloreans through. Honestly, Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure did better on the conventions, and they weren’t really even trying.

Anyway, if you enjoyed Memento, I think you’d enjoy Primer.

RoQuirks

Posted on by

For some reason, Ro likes to eat his ice cream and ice cream cone separately. By which I mean, put the ice cream in a bowl, eat it, then get a cone and eat it.

Huh.

On an unrelated note, why are the people who created The Land Before Time animated dinosaur movies allowed to live? Just wondering.

The 8 Ball Knows

Posted on by

A friend suggested I consult the Magic 8-Ball to help decide on a name.

So, let it be known, my daughter will be named Very Doubtful Lucas.

Which is moderately better than Don’t Count On It Lucas, but not as good as Yes! Lucas.

Come to think of it, Yes! is not a bad name1. Talk about a positive outlook.

1 When I was growing up, the next town over changed it’s name to Hamilton!, Ohio (as can attest). In answer, we liked to call our town Fairfield?, Ohio.

The Speed of Read

Posted on by

inspired me to find out how fast I read.

I did a quick google search and tried this site for a trial:

http://mindbluff.com/askread2.htm

It checks how far you get into a passage during a minute of reading.

My first test was John F. Kennedy’s inaugaral address:

–You read between 350 – 400 words per minute. Well above average reading level. (The average rate is between 200 – 250 words per minute.) It is assumed that you did not skim the words nor fail to understand the meaning of what was read.

I did it again, with The Professor’s House, by Willa Cather:

You read between 350 – 400 words per minute. Well above average reading level. (The average rate is between 200 – 250 words per minute.) It is assumed that you did not skim the words nor fail to understand the meaning of what was read.

So, pretty consistent.

I also tried this site, which tests comprehension as well:

Home

That clocked me at 366 wpm, and 82% comprehension, which makes me (according to them) a “good reader.”

From that site:

Typical reading results

Measurements of speed and comprehension depend upon the text contents and upon a set of questions. Results in the table do not correspond to a specific test but give a general idea of reading efficiencies.
Screen Paper Comprehension Reader profile
100 wpm 110 wpm 50%   Insufficient
200 wpm 240 wpm 60%  Average reader
300 wpm 400 wpm 80%  Good reader
700 wpm 1000 wpm 85%  Excellent, accomplished reader

Research shows that reading is around 25% slower from a computer screen than from paper. This difference generally increases with increasing reading speed. Thus you may slightly increase your results to find your speed when readingfrom paper.

Reader profiles

Hieroglyphics
  • 110 wpm, slow reader, but you have many possibilities for improvement. FReader will provide rapid comprehension and speed increases. You will soon realize that reading can be a pleasure. FReader will give you hours of instructions and training so that you keep improving up to top level reading performances.

  • 240 wpm, oral reader. You may rapidly and significantly progress by suppressing subvocalization. FReader software is perfect for you.

  • 400 wpm, auditory reader. FReader provides several speed reading modes to pace your reading beyond this sound barrier of 400 wpm.

  • 1000 wpm, visual reader. Your reading speed is the gem of your CV. You don’t need FReader but it could certainly be useful to members of your family, who are not such accomplished readers.

Book Log – The Speed of Dark

Posted on by

The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon

It took me a while to realize this was a science fiction novel. Largely because it’s not one of those SciFi novels where the Sci drives the Fi, but rather the reverse.

Told mostly from the POV of an autistic person (as was The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time), I was once again struck with the feeling of being autistic after reading it. The pattern and the rhythm of the words sink into my brain, and I have to fight off talking or thinking similarly. I can’t help but think I’m a few bad neurons away. Of course, that’s part of the theme of the book, so perhaps mission accomplished on Elizabeth Moon’s part.

There are four classifications of (fictional) books for me.

1) Books I actively search out time to continue reading because I feel a certain amount of psychic pain at being separated from the storyline1.
2) Books I read when time is available and enjoy, but don’t go out of my way to make the time.
3) Books I want to have read, but don’t necessarily look forward to reading.
4) Sucky books. May they die, die, die!

This book fell comfortably into category 1, though I thought the antagonists were a bit cartoonish at times.

I wonder if it is easier to write a book with an autistic narrator, since you don’t have to avoid stilted language. Perhaps, though, it is more difficult to make stilted language readable.

Regardless, I’m definitely off to buy some underwear at KMart. Definitely.

Next on the Reading list: Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis

1 Note that this is not necessarily a sign of superior quality; I experienced psychic pain from having to leave in the middle of watching School of Rock.

Book Log – A Deepness in the Sky

Posted on by

A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge (Zones of Thought series)

My fourth Vernor Vinge novel (on loan from ), and a good read.

A mindrot disease, a strange star cluster, a race of intelligent spiders, interstellar traders, dustmote computers… good stuff.

Somewhat of a jillion-year prequel to A Fire Upon The Deep. One of the characters in Fire was a god/computer-reincarnatation of a character from Deepness.

Good page-turner.

Electronic Paper is Here

Posted on by

I had been waiting for it, and it happened when I wasn’t paying attention.

This product is built using high-resolution e-ink, which is a technology that is basically paper coated with a special ink that can be turned on and off.

This is actually an explosive technology to my way of thinking… I’m surprised I haven’t heard more about it in the news.

Aside from creating superior displays (low power, as readable as regular paper), consider that you can create sheets of paper that can be run through a printer, and then re-run through a printer, and re-run, and so on, each time showing no evidence of the previous print. No ink! No toner! Perfect recycling!

My head spins.