Smart People

Posted on June 15th, 2006 in Work by Justin

I work with some pretty smart people. I had one of those fun “Oh yeah, duh!” moments today and it was pretty neat just how fast everybody ran the numbers in their heads and realized what a good idea the proposed solution was.

I hope none of this is patentable, but you never know in today’s society. If you knew my industry you’d know exactly the problem we were solving, but I can abstract it enough to make it a fun mental exercise.

LL, this might be a fun one for you! You might get it quicker than the other software geeks I have lurking around here.

Okay, let’s say that I demand that inform me various bits of information about your life on a regular schedule. I will then record that data, but I don’t want to be barraged by a bunch of stuff at once.

A: How many times you’ve taken a breath. Report every 20 minutes.
B: How many times you’re heart has beaten. Report every 30 minutes.
C: How many steps you have taken. Report every 120 minutes.

See the problem? Every hour I’ll have to record two check-ups from you. Every two hours I have to record 3 check-ups from you. Now, I don’t write to fast, and since there’s thousands of you out there (hah!) every two hours I’ve got to write down a lot of stuff!

The problem lies in my desire to have you report in on easily understood human intervals. The solution?

Could Have Been Me

Posted on June 15th, 2006 in Uncategorized by Justin

Hat tip to Bill St Clair for finding this one.

Unanswered questions at Dulles Airport

Go and read the whole thing, please. I found it rather chilling.

The summary is that a person that writes columns on traveling likes to keep a good eye on the differences between various airports in the post 9/11 era so other travelers know what to expect. When stopped by somebody not wearing a TSA uniform demanded ID he questioned who they were and inquired as to why he was supposed to show them ID.

Ouch

Posted on June 15th, 2006 in Uncategorized by Justin

Ammo plant workers killed when warhead exploded

The explosion of a missile warhead Monday morning at the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant (IAAP) has left two workers missing and presumed dead and two other workers with very minor injuries.

I don’t have anything insightful to say, here, but when I saw this article I was reminded that there’s people out there not in uniform that are doing their part to keep our military going that are risking their lives. In this case, actually losing them.