I’ve moved my stuff to www.zonka.net.  Go there!

Brother-in-law showed me this interesting article on Slashdot.  Here is the link to the actual article, “The Autumn of Multitaskers“.

I wanted to include my thoughts on multitasking on life and games.

I am a gamer, always been and always will be.  That is a part of me that I grew up with and will advocate everything about it.  Some may have very mixed opinions on gaming, but I will always consider it an advanced visual form of puzzles.  The point in this post is to identify problems and causes in multitasking and how to manage it.  Gaming can require a lot of attention and concentration.  So being indulged in mind stimulating video game, could result into serious physical aggression at the smallest form of distraction.  We will avoid that part for now.

Stick with simple gaming like crossword puzzles or sodoku. Something that you can pick up and put down.  Less of a distraction, doesn’t take priority to given tasks.

Another example has risen, as I write this blog post, and believe me, I am the absoute worst at multitasking, but my wife decided to quote a post to me out loud from a forum.  Although it was supposed to be funny, I don’t think she got the reaction that she wanted from me because I was already preoccupied with this one.

Don’t be mistaken that multitasking has to deal with physical tasks.  Imagine that you are an accountant, before you were called by a client, you were in the middle of counting something.  You answer the phone to discuss accounting numbers while at the same time trying to keep memory of the last thing you counted.  You may have stopped physically counting, but now you have to work on not forgetting the last number.   Depending on the priority, your brain now tries to determine which is important, recollection of accounting numbers or not forgetting the last thing counted. 

Unless you have a photographic memory, performance in one task will draw resources from the other tasks.  That is why most of your professors or bosses recommend that you “jot” or “write” down key notes.

Here are some small thoughtful recommendations to keep your task functioning efficiently with little multitasking.  The point is to avoid too much multitasking.  Sometimes you can’t avoid it.

• Use effective time management, plan accordingly, keep a shared calendar
• Prioritize your tasks, set milestones and goals
• Write down everything you might have trouble remembering
• Politely ask those who are inadvertantly interrupting to schedule a time

The effects of multitasking without proper management could lead to:

• Less efficiency in performance
• Losing or forgetting important tasks
• Wasting time from lack of prepareness
• Distractions = Frustrations and aggravation

Bottomline – multitasking may seem effective but can be more of a distraction than a progression.  Don’t think multitasking is limited to just physical tasks.

I would like to think our brains are more like race car engines with restricter plates.  You can’t lead a race and then hit the breaks, throw the car in reverse for a couple hundred years and expect to get back into a good position. 

Disclaimer
Ugh.  Shows like Heroes and Lost pretty much set a high bar when it comes to a NBC TV series.  Before I get started, I have to say that I fell asleep before finishing the new Knight Rider movie.  Since I can’t really give a thorough review, falling asleep after 45 minutes should tell you something.  (I was wide awake.)

About the Car
The Ford Mustang Shelby GT-500 KR held well against its Trans Am predecessor.  Since there wasn’t a decent Firebird on the market and Transformers pretty much took all the Chevy thunder with the Bumblebee Camaro, Mustang seemed to be the only one left. 

The Recollection
This 80’s show regurgitation was merely a 2 hour Ford commercial.  KITT, for instance, got to play 4 different Mustang colors/types.  Although the action and special effects were decent, most of all the car chases and driving scenes were cliche, which might be something you have already seen in Gone in 60 Seconds or Fast and the Furious.  Acting wasn’t really impressive and most of the plot was predictible, the one thing that seemed to hit the 80’s genre right on the head. 

This was the best review that I could do with what I can recollect from the 45 minutes of conciousness.  The movie wasn’t interesting enough to keep me awake, but I was awake long enough to see what KITT can do, which he spent more time talking than anything.  I read that Val Kilmer did the voice acting for KITT, but for a big named actor, the acting wasn’t even all that good.  HAL and the original KITT sounded more human and less of a robot.  We are at the point where KITT shouldn’t sound like a Windows 95 Text-to-Speech voice. 

And BTW — who knew that KITT was capable of striking up a conversation?

Just as Bionic Woman, I don’t think NBC has what it takes to resurrect the old shows especially of today’s standards.  The movie was as good as it got, and I doubt the series won’t live up to the true fan’s expectations.  If, for some reason this show becomes a series, I have a feeling it won’t make it past the first season.  Really, how many short stories can you make of a man and a cool looking talkative ‘chameleon-ing’ car?  Excuse me while I try to stomach the rest of the show and see what is left of David “The Hassle” Hoff.

P.S.  I’m glad they didn’t use a Corvette or any GM vehicle after all.   And I heard rumors that the Knight Industries Four Thousand (KIFT) and Six Thousand (KIST) will join the cast as the Ford Freestar and Ford Pinto.

As an extra bonus, I found this TV commercial based out of South Korea.  “KITT-AH CA!”

She started taking 10-15 steps this past Wednesday.  She started really getting mobile this weekend, going from ottoman to couch to tv stand.  Sometimes she would just stand up and take off.  When she gets too excited is when she loses balance and falls.  Most of her walking was unassisted by us.  She pretty much started walking when she felt like it.  We never did end up getting her that walking toy.

• All-new LS9 supercharged 6.2L V-8 targeted at producing at least 100 horsepower per liter, or 620 horsepower (462 kW), and approximately 595 lb.-ft. of torque (823 Nm)
• Six-speed, close-ratio, race-hardened manual transmission
• New, high-capacity dual-disc clutch
• Higher-capacity and specific-diameter axle half-shafts; enhanced torque tube
• Specific suspension tuning provides more than 1g cornering grip
• Twenty-spoke 19-inch front and 20-inch rear wheels
• Michelin Pilot Sport 2 tires–P285/30ZR19 in front and P335/25ZR20 in the rear–developed specifically for the ZR1
• Standard carbon-ceramic, drilled disc brake rotors–15.5-inch-diameter (394-mm) in the front and 15-inch-diameter (380-mm) in the rear
• Larger brake calipers with substantially increased pad area
• Standard Magnetic Selective Ride Control with track-level suspension
• Wider, carbon-fiber front fenders with ZR1-specific dual vents
• Carbon-fiber hood with a raised, polycarbonate window–offering a view of the intercooler below it
• Carbon-fiber roof panel, roof bow, front fascia splitter and rocker moldings with clear-coated, exposed carbon-fiber weave
• ZR1-specific full-width rear spoiler with raised outboard sections
• Specific gauge cluster with boost gauge (also displayed on the head-up display) and 220-mph (370 km/h) speedometer readout
• Only two options: chrome wheels and a “luxury” package
• Curb weight of approximately 3,350 pounds (1,519 kg)

We took the kids next to this gate back a couple months ago.  It was really cold that day and so we decided to get a better look at this South Gate when it got warmer later this year.  As I just found out, that won’t happen at all.  Some guy who was so upset at the Korean Government that he figured he would burn down a major landmark. 

Gee.

Thanks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namdaemun

The way the news guys reads the ransom note just cracks me up…

The note reads. “We are holding Jesus ransom until you clean up the poopie from your wieners and trust us we see you take your wieners for long walks without picking up their poopie in our yards.  This has upset us dearly so please clean up all the wiener poopie if you want to see Jesus unharmed.”

This is Microsoft’s TechNet advertisement parody of the early 90’s Sierra adventure genre.  Remember King’s Quest, Police Quest, Space Quest and Leisure Suit Larry?  Good, forget this one…. Typical Microsoft Windows Server 2008 / TechNet propaganda, wrapped in flash developed makeshift game.  MCSE’s should get a kick out of it.  Anti-Microsoft fans, probably not.

Enjoy, only if you have a few minutes to waste.  Try not to fall into the Microsoft subliminal messages, “Buy TechNet and get free service! ooOOOooooooOo!”  

http://www.server-quest.com/

Before you go research this, I want you to post your answer first.

First, tell me what you call this: \

Now tell me what you call this: /

I spent most of the week in a computer training class and the only thing that caught my attention was the definition of these two specific characters.

Some personal history…. I played around with Basic programming on a Texas Instruments Solid State “computer” back in 1985. Then five years later, I finally talked my parents into getting an IBM clone PC 386DX4, 1MB RAM and 40MB hard drive running MS-DOS 5. This was when I really got experience in using the Slash and Backslash while learning to maneuver through DOS commands.

Today was the first time that I actually questioned whether I’ve been calling these characters the wrong thing for the past 20 years. I spent some time researching and found out that I wasn’t wrong after all. There were many others complaining about the misuse of these characters. The sad part is that the instructors were saying it wrong and the students didn’t know any better but to accept it.

So, what’s your answer?