Hi! I'm testing Jott...

Hi! I'm testing Jott sent into my Polymathmatics Blog for fun. We'll see if it works, I have no idea. And I have no idea to even [...] as a published or just as a draft. Well, will be [...] to you. There's a bunch of speakers in the background and I'm using my bluetooth headphones. [Poor Audio Quality, Please Listen] listen

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Updated:
I am leaving the above as it came in from Jott just to show how it did. I was not trying to speak loudly anymore than I would to someone I was talking to on the phone. I don't know if I will use this for much, but it is nice to have. It certainly is a good fast way to make a quick draft of an idea, but it requires me to go in a clean up my common ticks of speech and any mis-transcribed sections.

I've got too many hacks

iPhone Hacks: Running out of Application space on your iPhone or touch? - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

I finally jailbroke, jailbreaked  (what is the past tense of jailbreak?) my iPhone a bit ago and after playing around with all the hacks out there, I seem to be running up against the ~300MB limit for files in the user directory.  I found this explanation on TUAW but have only done half of it.  It looks straight forward enough, I just need to ssh into my iPhone from my computer because typing in unix command lines on the virtual keyboard is WAY too annoying to do anything more than a few lines long.

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A moment away from work...or securing iPhone WIFI over EDGE

I have been plugging away at some rather dull CSS issues and my mind kept wandering to the hacks on my iPhone. I am in a coffee shop just down the street from my place, and they have open WIFI.

I kept thinking about the new installed apps on my iPhone and how it would be nice to just grab whatever open WIFI signal that was around without worry. Then I realized there are two radios on the phone. The EDGE data connection can act as a low bandwidth channel to send encryption data to any site, and the WIFI can send content data. The WIFI connection can connect to the main site with a suffix from the phone number. The encryption can be updated in real time say over an SMS message. So the only thing that gets sent over the clear would be the web address and that could be scrambled with a VPN like middle man server.

I did a quick search and it doesn't look like anyone is doing this yet. The programming is beyond my kung-fu but I would love to feel comfortable using open WIFI hotspots as well as the ones I have to pay for the encryption.

Evolution and Wisdom of Crowds

I found this article by way of Slashdot and I love the idea.

Evolution and Wisdom of Crowds: "Conventional wisdom says that the primary reason why so many people do not accept Darwin's theory of evolution is that they find it threatening to their religious beliefs. There is no question that religion is a big part of the reason behind the large number of people who reject evolution. But I am convinced that just as often, the cause and effect is reversed: people hold onto their fundamentalist religious beliefs because evolution by natural selection -- the strongest argument against an Old Testament-type creator -- is so counter-intuitive to so many."

This has the same flavor of the reason people find thinking out of the box to be unprofitable. The key ideas are both about starting at Knowledge point (A) and trying to get to Solution point (Z). Most people try to just barrel through the first step then the next BCD...until they find their solution. Instead taking a step back and asking what alphabet of solutions you could be dealing with lets you easily eliminate huge numbers of wrong steps. I will have to see if I can come up with an easy explanation that I can use this technique with in regards to Tomorrowish when I am explaining it to people.

Fwd: Iphone posting

So here is my first post from my new iPhone.  It is also my first meal at the new "Natick Collection" (aka natick
Mall) with quite a few new expensive stores.

The Met Bar here has a good burger, even if a bit small, it is tasty.  Unfortunatly for me they still are not stocked with any beer other than Bud.

The iPhone typing is working quite well and the mall has several different free wifi networks.  Once I logged onto the network here the speed has been good, and videos even downloaded quickly.

So far I am loving the iPhone and a big thank you goes to my family who chipped in together to get it for me since I really am enjoying it a lot


Sent from my iPhone

DVC Learning Styles Inventory Results

According to this test from Diablo Valley College my learning style is Visual / Nonverbal. The irony is that all the techniques that it says to use are ones I have tried on and off, and have never been comfortable with. They are techniques that include lots of stuff that requires more organizing skill to keep using. When I used these techniques I couldn't keep using them long enough to incorporate a second and then a third learning technique.

My only consistent and slowly improving technique is to use and organize as much on my computer as possible. GTD and online tools like gmail and gcal have helped me a lot recently and I am sticking with them long enough that I am multiple techniques can now add to each others effectiveness.

DVC Learning Styles Inventory Results: "The results of Mick Mouse's learning inventory are:

Visual/Nonverbal 34 Visual/Verbal 24 Auditory 20 Kinesthetic 30

Your primary learning style is:

The Visual/ Nonverbal Learning Style


You learn best when information is presented visually and in a picture or design format. In a classroom setting, you benefit from instructors who use visual aids such as film, video, maps and charts. You benefit from information obtained from the pictures and diagrams in textbooks. You tend to like to work in a quiet room and may not like to work in study groups. When trying to remember something, you can often visualize a picture of it in your mind. You may have an artistic side that enjoys activities having to do with visual art and design.

Learning Strategies for the Visual/ Nonverbal Learner:

Make flashcards of key information that needs to be memorized. Draw symbols and pictures on the cards to facilitate recall. Use highlighter pens to highlight key words and pictures on the flashcards. Limit the amount of information per card, so your mind can take a mental 'picture' of the information.

Mark up the margins of your textbook with key words, symbols, and diagrams that help you remember the text. Use highlighter pens of contrasting colors to 'color code' the information.

When learning mathematical or technical informatio"

McAfee SiteAdvisor - Phishing Quiz

McAfee SiteAdvisor - Phishing Quiz

Can you tell a fake Web site from a real one? Do you always know which e-mails are legitimate?
Take the McAfee SiteAdvisor phishing quiz and get your safety grade!

This is a pretty tough quiz to see if you can tell the difference between official and scam websites. I got 8 out of 10 but it wasn't easy, especially since they remove the biggest useful clue, the URL, from half of the sites.