Obscure Research Blog April Archive

Filers Versus Pilers

Building on Glen's blog posting brings to mind the phrase "Cluttered Desk, Cluttered Mind". Then what does an empty desk mean?

Steve Ciarcia of Circuit Cellar Magazine wrote an editorial on how there is a theory that there is a distinction between 'imaginative knowledge', as used by a design engineer, and 'clerical knowledge', as used by a billing clerk. Their filing methods and how they generate clutter are directly associated with how they think.

"Clerical people print information to execute a company function. Imaginative people print information to increase knowledge. The paper they generate helps them learn rather than simply being a means of data storage. An engineer will often print out and write comments on a datasheet simply because the process of note taking helps him learn. Like most notes, however, once they have served their purpose, they are rarely retrieved again from the pile.

Imaginative people spread stuff all over the place as a physical representation of how they think, not because they are too inept to file it. In essence, the piles are temporary holding places for hot ideas and inputs that we either haven?t categorized yet or haven?t figured out how we?ll use yet. Without categorization, there is no way to file them. And by the time we do categorize them, often the goal for which we collected the pile in the first place has been achieved, so we can throw that whole pile in the wastebasket anyway.

Of course, this clutter-then-toss-it behavior pattern is very disconcerting to the clerical knowledge thinker. It?s basically filers verses pilers. A filer gathers information and puts it away. A piler gathers information and puts it in various piles from the center of work focus outward. There are the in-process hot piles for immediate attention, the various warm piles for projects that are on the list or might be in short duration, and the cold piles for things that are done and should be archived or filed (wastebasket)."

Am I a Piler or a Filer? What are you?

Tags: paperless office • messy office • cluttered mind • imaginative knowledge •
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Messy Desk is Sign of a Creative Mind

A message on slashdot asks: ""Are you a slob? Do you pile papers on top of folders on top of game boxes?" The arguments then begin: "I think you are missing the point. Messy people aren't more productive because they save time on not clearing things up. The theory is that our brains are not organized in the same orderly manner as books on a library shelf. Our minds are actually quite messy and random, which allows us to be flexible and creative by linking seemingly unrelated things together in an instance." "I've noticed this before. A colleague of mine tidies twice every day, at least 15 minutes in total. Everything must be neat and tidy and filed when he leaves his desk, even at lunchtime. He belives this makes him more productive and has said so to me." You can organize your desk or create something useful and interesting! I think the choice is an easy one.

Vegetable Juice etc to be Illegal in U.S. due to FDA

Have a look at this:

Health freedom action alert: FDA attempting to regulate supplements, herbs and juices as "drugs".

Things like raw vegetable juice will be regulated as a drug.

Why do we Americans tolerate terrorism from our own government?

Keep in mind that the FDA is the same agency that:

Wants to label irradiated foods as "pasteurized."

Voted to put the deadly drug Vioxx back on the market after tens of thousands of deaths, even after its own manufacturer pulled it from pharmacies.

Raided a church at gunpoint, confiscating biofeedback machines and charging that they were "practicing medicine" by counseling church members on issues like depression.

Read the document yourself!

Direct link to the FDA's comment posting page for this docket.

Country's electrical grid is badly in of upgrade GridWeek

The country's electrical grid is badly in need of a overhaul and an upgrade.

Part of the problem with upgrading the infrastructure is the "Not in my backyard" problem. After all I don't want a big transmission tower in my own backyard.

Date: April 23-26, 2007
Venue: Ronald Reagan Building Washington DC
http://www.gridweek.com

A four-day gathering of grid modernization leaders in Washington, D.C. U.S. Energy Secretary the Honorable Samuel W Bodman to deliver a "State of the Grid" on Thursday April 26 at GridWeek.

I wonder if any real people like you and I will be there?

Elements of Motion: 3D Sensors in Intuitive Game Design

[404 Check: was link to http:/ / www. analog. com/ library/ analogDialogue/ archives/ 41 -04/ gaming. html, anchor: Elements of Motion: 3D Sensors in Intuitive Game Design] -- Standard video game controllers limit intuitive play, requiring a player to learn specific control skills. The latest platforms add motion, enabling games that are both more fun and more intuitive. This article presents a foundation for using accelerometers in game controllers, including operating mechanisms, measurement techniques, and specific parameters that affect gaming performance, price, reliability, verification, and test.

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REALl ID may be delayed, but it is not yet dead

http://www.dhs.gov/xprevprot/laws/gc_1172767635686.shtm

States may file for extension to the 2008 deadline, but State still must be compliant by May 10, 2013.

Trachtenberg Speed System of Basic Mathematics

Are you one of those people that has always been "Math Challenged"?

If so then you might want to check out this very old system of Mathematics.

http://mathforum.org/dr.math/faq/faq.trachten.html

http://hucellbiol.mdc-berlin.de/~mp01mg/oldweb/Tracht.htm

You should try to find a copy of the book The Trachtenberg Speed System of Basic Mathematics by Jakow Trachtenberg, A. Cutler (Translator), R. McShane (Translator), Rudolph Mcshane (Translator), on the used book market.

See also the Wikipedia entry.

Controlling the Human Mind by Dr. Nick Begich

Dr. Nick Begich sent me a copy of his new book Controlling the Human Mind : The Technologies of Political Control or Tools for Peak Performance; ISBN 1-890693-54-5, to review.

If you have any interest at all in the area of how the 'Mind' works, and what is going on in this research area, then you need a copy of this book, if for now other reason that to read the references, but there is much more to the book than just the references.

Dr. Begich has also posted several related articles on his site for free.

Dr. Begich can be heard two hours a day from 5PM to 7PM EST/EDT on network #4 of [404 Check: was link to http:/ / www. gcnlive. com/ listenlive. htm, anchor: GCNLive] , weekdays.

First Impressions: Computer Model Behaves Like Humans

The brain requires 'Noise' to process visual and auditory stimuli. Take a look at this Java Applet that shows how adding 'Noise' improves perception.

See also First Impressions: Computer Model Behaves Like Humans On Visual Categorization Task. Source Science Daily.

War on terror needs ID technology weaponry

As states across the country begin to comply with the 2005 Real ID Act's stringent standards for ID documentation, many citizens are going to be stuck in limbo. L-1 Identity Solutions doesn't have a problem with that, and neither should anyone else, its CEO told a Needham & Co. conference.

eetimes