Reversing Entropy

For the last few weeks I have been looking for a job as a programmer. One of the jobs that interests me involves writing VB.net. Many of my friends who are also programmers have howled with anguish at the mere mention of this technology.

In order to get a better idea of how the language works, I’ve written a small program for editing the PATH environment variable on Windows machines:

http://www.percidae.com/

I find myself editing this variable on various Windows machines pretty regularly. Every time, I also am annoyed by the small text box in the dialog in the Control Panel.

So far I’ve enjoyed the experience of writing with Visual Basic and can’t see what all the fuss is about. Having written PHP for years, I’m used to ignoring the comments of language purists. I’m much more interested in getting something working than any imagined superiority of different languages.

Today we went to a wonderful concert at the Birmingham Symphony Hall:

http://www.cbso.co.uk/?page=concerts/viewConcert.html&cid=1906&m=02&y=

We went with my aunt, uncle and cousin, who have been staying with us this week.

2010-02-25 Birmingham

It’s been years since I have been to see an orchestra play, and I was greatly impressed. To have that many highly trained musicians practice and perform for such an occasion must be quite an undertaking.

2010-02-19 Woodlands

As always, a big thank you to the fine folks at Autostitch:

http://cvlab.epfl.ch/~brown/autostitch/autostitch.html

2010-01-30 London

No matter how many times I visit London, I almost always end up visiting Westminster and getting a shot of the clock tower at some point.

I find that whenever I am in front of a very famous sight, I have trouble believing it is real. Somehow, the impression that I have built up in my mind from seeing a place on TV, in movies and so on of the place overlaps with what my senses are telling me. I have never been to New York city but I imagine that the sensation would be very strange after a lifetime spent watching Woody Allen movies and reruns of Friends.

A couple of the blogs that I follow have pointed to the following article in the last couple of days.

http://discovermagazine.com/…

The article describes “Boskop man”, who (the authors claim) had a much bigger brain than that of modern humans and was correspondingly more intelligent.

Much of the “science” of the article is debunked here:

http://johnhawks.net/weblog/…

Obviously, brain size can only tell us so much about intelligence. Otherwise, school examinations would be unnecessary. Instead, we could simply dunk a pupil’s head in a bathtub to measure the volume of water displaced by the skull and, from this, the child’s intelligence.

However, I think that much of the article was intended to be read a speculation rather than fact. It’s quite fun (and possibly not impossible) to think about how someone more intelligent thinks.

What hope for us modern humans, with our puny brains, is there? As a teacher, I am always searching for ways to improve the workings of my own brain and those of my students. A bit of searching on the internet for ways to improve your intelligence quickly brings you to addicting games like this:

http://www.soakyourhead.com/dual-n-back.aspx

Exciting, but cautious, claims are made about this game. There are probably lots of such games that can improve your brain. Unfortunately, I cannot see this game being a great deal of help in a foreign language classroom (my own area). Perhaps such toys will have an important role to play in education.

We’ve been in sunny Bangkok for a few days now. It’s as photogenic as ever:

2009-11-05 Grand Palace Bangkok

I’ve been very remiss with uploading my photographs to Picasa for the last few months. The fact that I am leaving South Korea on Tuesday has forced me to get up to date with everything.

Some photos from Chuncheon:

2009-07-25 to 2009-07-26 Chuncheon

A very rainy day at a traditional Korean village museum:

2009-06-20 Traditional Korean Village

A day at Everland:

2009-06-21 Everland

A panorama made using autostitch from the roof of Tekno Mart:

2009-07-25 Tekno Mart

A short trip to Hong Kong and Macau:

2009-07-29 to 2009-08-01 Hong Kong

A quick hike up Achasan, where one can see much of Seoul:

2009-10-02 Achasan

A day at Seoraksan National Park with my parents:

2009-10-28 Seoraksan National Park

At Bulguksa near Gyeongju:

2009-10-30 Bulguksa near Gyeongju

A day trip to Hwaseong Fortress in Suwon:

2009-11-01 Suwon

Here’s an interesting story about an academic playing at being a supervillain:

http://www.technologyreview.com/TR35/Profile.aspx?TRID=760&Cand=&pg=1

I wonder if anyone with a pacemaker accidentally walked into the lab during development.

An idea that has been working its way around my head for a few days is to do with paying people not to do bad things. We are generally confortable with the idea of punishing people who commit crimes. Rewarding people who do good deeds and are successful is also popular. However, rewarding people who are likely to commit a crime but choose not to is controversial. It is unfair to those who are not likely to commit the crime, as they receive no reward but are equally innocent.

One example of paying people not to commit a crime is a publicly subsidised taxi service intended to reduce drink driving. Somebody goes to a bar and drinks alcohol. They might decide to drive home or take a taxi. Their decision to drive, and commit a undoubtedly serious crime, might be based on the risk of having an accident (which many foolishly ignore), the risk of being stopped by the police and the price of a taxi fare.

The government can try to solve this issue by promoting awareness of the risks of drink driving, increasing the importance of the first consideration in the drinker’s mind. Many countries have gut-wrenching adverts showing the harrowing effects of accidents that have resulted from drink driving. This puts the dangers to the front of people’s minds and makes drink driving less socially acceptable. However, alcohol is a notorious judgement inhibitor. Putting aside the thought of danger and feeling contempt for do-gooders are all too easy when drunk.

With regard to the second consideration, the state can put more police on the roads and make the penalties more severe. Of these, more police might be more effective. In my opinion, a criminal commits a crime because he or she assumes that they will not be caught, rather than the assumption that the punishment will be bearable. I doubt that drinkers about to drive say to themselves “Oh well, it’ll only be a year without a driving license.” The ‘Bring back flogging and hanging’ brigade get a grim pleasure from seeing ne’er-do-wells being punished. Such braying for blood is mere sadism. However, a higher probability of being arrested might have an effect.

The third consideration could be to subsidise the taxi companies in an attempt to reduce the cost of fares. If the money comes from general taxation, teetotalers and stay-at-home drinkers might balk at paying for a service that they do not use. The money could also come from a tax levied on bars. Again, customers who stroll tipsily but harmlessly back home from a pub might begrudge having to pay for others. They should console themselves with the no doubt decreased likelihood of being run over.

Is the proverbial stick preferable to the carrot? Tax payers might broadly agree to their money being spent on schemes that reward others for not commiting crimes, which they themselves never intended to commit, because the benefits outweigh the costs. But what are the consequences? Does a subsidised taxi service not encourage people to drink more? Is it not more prudent to make drinkers fully take moral, legal and financial responsibility for getting themselves home?