Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Say What you Mean!

It bothers me that any instance of being unclear in what you say, too wordy, overly technical, or demonstrating that the person you're talking to doesn't have a vocabulary appropriate to their grade level is considered to be the use of big words. Clearly, big means something other than what I was taught as a preschooler. Jam has some commenters referring to her use of big words.

Now, that is an example of tech speak. Not a severe one - I'd be willing to put that in a report, it's reasonably clear. However, it's hardly using big words! At least when I got told that "tact" was a big word (this was by a peer in grade 6 by the way) they could claim that it was a complex word. (They were wrong, but they can claim that and I understand what they're saying).

If someone complains that the words I'm using are too confusing, my response is to use simpler words, not to be less detailed in what I'm saying. If, instead, the problem lies in how the (quite mainstream) words are being used, communications will not have been improved at all. Ironic that the original complaint was about lack of communication, eh?

Friday, August 21, 2009

It's been a while

For i = nGapNum to Gaps.Length -2
Gaps(i+1) = Gaps(i)
Next

Thursday, August 20, 2009

About 80 cm

http://xkcd.com/625/


It depends, of course, on what versions you have.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Coding

Coding and motion-sensing light controls apparently don't go well together. Despite me bobbing along to GBS while I was working...

So many Dilbert cartoons make far too much sense right now.

(This may have something to do with me being in the corner, but that just means that someone screwed up royally).

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

What the Rabbit Heard in the Grad Student Mailroom

- Well there's no letter, but I'm sure they'll send me an e-mail telling me to pick it up
> Nope, only the letter
- You mean that they only inform me through a letter in a mailroom to which I don't have a key, nor a door code, and they never told me about?
>Well, in theory you were told about it

Monday, August 10, 2009

%$% Red Tape

So it turns out that I wasn't paying attention at some crucial point. I hadn't realised that I didn't have a marriage certificate. However, Service Ontario is wonderful, and I liked the form. It was bright enough to recognise that I was the bride, even though I didn't give the name it asked for as "Bride". I also like that I got to give feedback after using the application. Ok, so maybe trying to spread my version of user interface design isn't entirely necessary, but they specifically asked how it could be improved. (The design is good, which means they don't disagree with my philosophy of KISS. However, the default information should be easier to select).

Wednesday, August 05, 2009

Ribena

So I have finished the Ribena sweater. I haven't done the "armies" yet. Given the weight of this (it's quite heavy) I think that having the option to make it long sleeved would be nice. I wore it the other day, and it was probably around 14 or so when I biked in to work, and while I could feel the chill I wasn't freezing. I was, in fact, somewhat warm when I arrived. Since it keeps me warm, I think it would be nice to have a long sleeved option, as I find my bare skin chills fairly quickly.

I, unfortunately, lost Debbie's e-mail address, so I can't thank her again for the wonderful gift of yarn. Who would ever have imagined that switching both e-mail addresses and having computer problems would result in this sort of problem.

Overall I think I like it. It definitely has that "homemade" look because a) I'm not good at finishing up and b) Katrina is actually a real PITA to sew up. You'd think I'd remember that after making a sweater where the seams stand out like worms crawling up the sides, but apparently not. It's still probably fine for work, even once I get a real job. The pinkness might be a problem, but once I HAVE a job, standing out is perfectly acceptable.