S.H.I.E.L.D. spends quite a lot of money on altering and tailoring the uniforms of its female bridge crew. I don't think I've ever seen so many form-fitting military uniforms before.

I have not seen The Avengers. I have plans to see it next weekend (although there are apparently child-care issues to be resolved). I don't want to hear about it until then.

I hear it's wonderful, and it was only post-release that I heard that Joss Whedon was behind it. I don't even know who's in it. That's how out of touch I am.

Hopefully, it'll be good enough to wash that abomination with Sean Connery and Uma Thurman out of my mind. Did they get a good actress for Emma Peal?

I found these Bluetooth earbuds http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0052YFYFK?is=300&in=3 online and they look like they are perfect for me. The highest rated review on Amazon is an excellent review

Last weekend we went to NEFFA, the New England Folk Festival, as part of our Morris side, Heartwood Morris. I took the day off Friday to make the drive and everything.

Friday morning, before my shower, I slid my left foot across our hardwood floors and picked up a huge splinter. The part that was sticking out of the ball of my foot (near the little toe) was well over 3-4cm long. Skitten pulled it out for me, and managed to get out another piece that had broken off in my foot, perhaps 3mm long and very thin.

Needless to say, I didn't run that day.

The foot continued to hurt throughout the trip, although I did do two Morris dances on it. The whole time I was favoring the foot, and trying to keep the stabbed area off the ground. No running took place the weekend either.

Tuesday I did a lot of walking (I stopped writing a whiny post about not being able to get my new phone because I left my car keys at work when fact-checking showed that the phone store was a mile away. No way was I writing a whiny post about being unwilling to walk a mile), both to and from work, as well as to and from the phone store. I didn't favor the foot as much, but it was still tender and hurt to put pressure on.

Whenever I asked Skitten to look at it, she insisted on squeezing and otherwise manipulating it, which hurt a lot. She did this several times.

Yesterday morning, when she was probing it, she found a piece of splinter still in it which seemed amenable to removing, which she succeeded in doing.

It was big. About 5mm long and 1mm thick or so.

By the end of the day, it barely hurt at all to walk on it. It's not fully up to pre-splinter levels, but it's MUCH better without that motelog in my foot.

So I haven't been running much. Tomorrow I should run.

It's shiny and new. And big. And slippery. I'll need a skin just to give the surface some grip.

One issue I have, and this may be just be something which can be worked out, is that my earbud's mic doesn't seem to work with the Note. This is important to me because with the iPhone the earbud/mic combo was my main way of going hands-free. With the Note the size it is it's really bulky to hold it to my face, so I want this solved soon.

Here is the list of apps recommended by various people:

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I'm going to look at them all, but probably not install them all. Some just aren't suitable (USAA app is a banking app for a specific bank, for instance), some are duplicates in a category.

For the record, here's a list of the apps I have on my iPhone:

( Read more... )

There are some duplicates between this and the previous list, and there are a few things I'll have to either find equivalents to or just drop. Does anyone know of any English Concertina application for Android?

The plan for this evening is to go buy an new Galaxy Note cell phone.

I'm new to Android. What must-have apps do people recommend?

I'm taking an online college-level course, MITx 6.002x Circuits and Electronics. As may be evident from the name and number, it's related to the freshman MIT 6.002 Circuits and Electronics class. No MIT credit, all online, and free (there will be a certificate of completion at the end).

Last night the 6th problem set and lab were due (at midnight). Around 10:30pm I had answered all but one problem (which in turn had about 5 parts, so it was a big problem), and realized that the problem I was hitting me right where I was weakest, that I wasn't going to get it, and that I was tired, after having driven 7 hours from Rhode Island early. So I have up on the problem, knowing from looking at the instant feedback that I was resigning to breaking my perfect score with a 62% on this assignment. Perhaps I can make it one of the two homeworks I get to drop.

But I am determined to review the solution to the problem set to see where I should have gone with it. It hasn't been released yet, but should be tonight.

But now... Because of a bug on the part of the course, the homework deadline has been extended to tomorrow night. The solutions will still be released tonight, but we are expected to honor the Honor Code and not look at the solutions before turning in the homework.

So... Do I take the 62% and read the solution, or do I try to figure out the problem again until I get it?

(For those who are interested, the problem is centered around the small-signal analysis of a two MOSFET phase inverter. I have to compute the minimum supply voltage to keep the transistors in saturation, the transconductance of the amplifier, etc, based on the K and VT of the matched MOSFETs. I apparently failed to grasp how to do small-signal analysis of a non-linear circuit when following the lectures. I will have to read the book carefully.)

Does anyone know of a parliamentary authority for consent-based organizations?

I'm trying to put together some suggestions for how an organization can decide to make decisions. This would include a set of rules of order (a parliamentary authority) to follow.

If we decide to go with majority rule, I can suggest Robert's Rules of Order, Newly Revised as a parliamentary authority.

If we decide to go with consent, what can I suggest? What do OWS groups use?

I haven't needed it in years, but I just went upstairs and found my copy of Robert's Rules of Order, Newly Revised, 9th Edition. I know it's 22 years old and the 11th edition is out now, but it's still a good guide.

Last Wednesday I failed my first run. Which was odd, since although it was a longer run than previous runs, I failed before the differences showed up. I did the run on Saturday instead, successfully. Tuesday (yesterday) I ran the second run of wk4, and set a new Personal Record for distance.

Next week (wk 5) will be much harder than wk4. Week 4's runs are 3m-5m-3m-5m with walking rests of half the previous time in between. Week 5 doesn't have a single interval schedule, but rather goes 5m-5m-5m in the first run, 8m-8m in the second run, and 20m in the third run. Just thinking about it is intimidating.

We will see how it goes.