A (down-voted) comment on dealing with troublesome social situations
Jack Kirwan wrote in the National Review that the novel is «about two men and two women in a time machine safari through this and other universes. But describing The Number of the Beast thus is like...
View ArticleWhat makes a good outliner?
«The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste.» Steve Jobs A colleague of mine is currently developing an outliner. There is a surprising scarcity of good outliners, esp. for Windows....
View ArticleUser Centered Design — Don’t Ignore or Believe, but be the Midwife or the one...
«We’re the other kind,» said Granny. «We’re the kind that gives people what they know they really need, not what we think they ought to want.» «Witches Abroad» by Terry Pratchett I’m still advising...
View ArticleA short shout-out to R
The programmer’s national anthem is ‘AAAAAAAAHH’. Weinberg When it comes to statistics, at least for psychologists, SPSS is frequently used. It’s a statistical package originating from the mainframe...
View ArticleAssisting Students with Data Analysis
Gigo’s law of deduction: Garbage in, garbage out. Unknown One of my jobs is to assist students in analyzing their data. Given it’s media and computer science students with an truly excellent course in...
View Article«What is Viewpoint Diversity?» by Heterodox Academy
Heterodoxy (n) Where multiple views are not just permitted, but encouraged. Heterodox Academy I’m a fan of Heterodox Academy, an organization advocating for viewpoint diversity, esp. in Academia. Given...
View ArticleLearning R during your PhD
A year from now you may wish you had started today. Karen Lamb It’s been a few years since I have completed my PhD, but thinking back, I think it would have been the best and worst time to learn R (“a...
View ArticleJonathan Haidt on Institutionalized Disconfirmation in Universities
He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the...
View ArticleThings that work very well with R: short scale (or: Fishfood ;-))
«The purpose of visualization is insight, not pictures.» Ben Shneiderman One of the things I’m currently doing is looking how to crate a short version of a scale. And damn, R is cool. Just playing...
View ArticleMotivation in Gamification: You have to get the motor started first
A year from now you may wish you had started today. Karen Lamb I’m giving another course in Gamification (see, e.g., this posting). One of the students had an idea for a gamified system. To keep it...
View ArticleAcademic Writing: Seeing the whole text at once
Sit down, and put down everything that comes into your head and then you’re a writer. But an author is one who can judge his own stuff’s worth, without pity, and destroy most of it. «Casual Chance» by...
View ArticleLevers in Gamification
Give anyone a lever long enough and they can change the world. It’s unreliable levers that are the problem. Small Gods So, another gamification project went over my desk. This time the project went...
View ArticleIn Gamification, Points aren’t the Point
“Rest assured, Commander, we will be victorious. At whatever the cost.” “Worf, it’s just a game. A little friendly competition. You work up a sweat, you have a few laughs, and you make new friends.”...
View ArticleConfiguring Scrivener (Make Scrivener grey — and get that icon back)
Strive for perfection but be content with success. Unknown Almost nine years ago I wrote a posting titled: “Scrivener — A perfect program for dissertation writing” (it still covers accurately what...
View ArticleDesk Side Table
If a cluttered desk signs a cluttered mind, Of what, then, is an empty desk a sign? Albert Einstein Sometimes a desk just clutters. It’s not a problem if you’re focused on your work (seriously, if you...
View ArticleR Stats results with a bit more annotation
«Winwood Reade is good upon the subject,» said Holmes. «He remarks that, while the individual man is an insoluble puzzle, in the aggregate he becomes a mathematical certainty. You can, for example,...
View ArticlePapers in Night Mode
«Why don’t you ever look beneath the surface, young man! I laugh because I dare not cry. This is a crazy world and the only way to enjoy it is to treat it as a joke. That doesn’t mean I don’t read and...
View ArticleIntroduction to R presentation (German)
Do not put your faith in what statistics say until you have carefully considered what they do not say. William W. Watt So, there’s another student-organized event at my university. Last year I did a...
View ArticleGood academic advisors
«So you were an artist. Big deal! Elvis was an artist. But that didn’t stop him from volunteering for the military in time of service. And that’s why he’s The King, and you’re a schmuck.» Serendipity...
View ArticleMaladaptive Communication with Masks
You people always hold onto old identities, old faces and masks, long after they’ve served their purpose. But you’ve got to learn to throw things away eventually. Death, in «Sandman: Dream Country», by...
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