John Colton's blog

Try this Middle East/North Africa map game: you just drag the name of the country onto the country. If it's right, it "locks" in place; if it's wrong, you get an X and have to try again.

http://www.rethinkingschools.org/just_fun/games/mapgame.html

I got all but 7 countries right on my first try; I got most (4 or 5) of the 7 I missed right on my second try. Can anyone beat that?

I love HP calculators! I have used a 48SX, 48GX, 49G, and I currently have a 50G at work. Pauline's still got her HP28 at home that she uses periodically.

I recently found out that HP makes many of their calculator ROMs available for free, for nonprofit use. That means you can download the ROM, run an emulator program, and presto! you have a free HP calculator that otherwise would cost lots of money.

Here's a step-by-step for Windows:

1. To get an HP49G: Here's the file: http://www.hpcalc.org/hp49/pc/emulators/calc.exe. Click on it, save the file, then run the exe. Unzip the files into a directory of your choosing (I used c:\program files\hp49), then look at the files that have been unzipped. The one called "YUserfast.exe" is the one you want--create a shortcut to it, and place the shortcut in your start menu, on your desktop, or both. It is the ROM and emulator combined.

I didn't like the 49G emulator too much myself because (a) it defaults to non RPN notation, and (b) it didn't register the numbers on my numeric keypad quite right. If you don't like RPN, though, and are OK with clicking virtual calculator buttons with your mouse, though, it's great.

On to the next one:

2. To get an HP49G: This is a little more complicated because the ROM and emulator have to be downloaded separately.
a. Download the emulator. Here's the file: http://www.hpcalc.org/hp48/pc/emulators/emu48v147setup.zip. Click on the link, save the file, and open the zip. Run the exe file, pick a place for the program (I used the default, C:\Program Files\HP-Emulators\Emu48), and install it.
b. Download the ROM. Here's the file: http://www.hpcalc.org/hp48/pc/emulators/gxrom-r.zip. Click on the link, save the file, and open the zip. Save the file "gxrom-r" into the emulator directory (C:\Program Files\HP-Emulators\Emu48).
c. Convert the ROM into the proper format. Open a DOS window in the emulator directory and type "convert gxrom-r ROM.48G". That creates a new file called "ROM.48G".
d. You should be good to go! Run the Emu48 program (you should automatically have a start menu entry), select "Casey's Gx with Toolbar and Touch Screen" as the script, and you've got a very nice HP48GX! (Running in RPN :-) )

You can also similarly get an HP calculator for free for your Palm pilot, by downloading & installing an emulator program, and downloading, converting, and installing the ROM file. See the "Power48 for PalmOS 5.0 1.5.1" about 2/3 down the page here: http://www.hpcalc.org/hp48/pc/emulators/. If you can't get that figured out, email me for more details.

Readers of this blog ought to know by now that I'm a huge fan of collegiate a cappella. When I found out that American Idol contestant Anoop Desai sang with his collegiate group, the UNC Clef Hangers, he made it to the top of my favorites so far. Here are some videos of him singing with the Clefs. All of these songs are a little too "boy band" for my liking, but they were the first ones I could find with Anoop doing the solo.

The Only One For Me


Crazy Love


Because of You


My Love


Angel of Mine

This floors me. JSC
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090114/od_nm/us_court
You can't fire me, I'm drunk!

Wed Jan 14, 3:21 pm ET

LIMA (Reuters) – Peru's top court has ruled that workers cannot be fired for being drunk on the job, a decision that was criticized by the government on Wednesday for setting a dangerous precedent.

The Constitutional Tribunal ordered that Pablo Cayo be given his job back as a janitor for the municipality of Chorrillos, which fired him for being intoxicated at work.

The firing was excessive because even though Cayo was drunk, he did not offend or hurt anybody, Fernando Calle, one of the justices, said on Wednesday.

Calle said the court would not revise its decision, despite complaints from the government.

"It's not a good idea to relax rules at workplaces," said Labor Minister Jorge Villasante.

Celso Becerra, the administrative chief of Chorrillos, a suburb of Lima, denounced the ruling.

"We've fired four workers for showing up drunk, and two of them were drivers," he said. "How can we allow a drunk to work who might run somebody over?"

(Reporting by Marco Aquino; Writing by Terry Wade; Editing by Dana Ford)

I made oatmeal raisin cookies for choir practice treats last Sunday. They were terrific, as usual, (I attribute it to the recipe not the chef) and a lot of people asked for the recipe. So, I typed it up... and I figured as long as I had an electronic version of the recipe, I should post it here for any interested people.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, from Pauline & John Colton
(originally from a Meridian, ID, Relief Society cookbook)

Ingredients:

1 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 ½ cup flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon

3 cups oats
1 cup raisins


Directions:

1. Cream together shortening, sugar, and brown sugar.
2. Mix in vanilla, eggs, flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon.
3. Sir in oats and raisins
4. Bake at 375 deg F for 9-10 mins.

Alternately: use 1 cup chocolate chips instead of the cinnamon and raisins to make terrific Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies!

I thought it was funny that two days after this blog post about student comments, a student came up to me in the parking lot and said, "Dr. Colton, you changed my life!" I accurately guessed that he was one of my 105 students from last semester, and asked him what he meant. Turns out that he liked the class well enough that he decided to switch majors. Not to physics, but at least to engineering. ;-) He said he had considered himself to be weak at math, but my class had turned him around.

Anyway, nice of him to stop me!

I've mentioned kiva.org on this blog before. If you still haven't checked out the website yet, at least check out this video one of the volunteer "Kiva fellows" made, describing the microloan process.


A Fistful Of Dollars: The Story of a Kiva.org Loan from Kieran Ball on Vimeo.

The Wee Free Men and A Hat Full of Sky, by Terry Pratchett - 10/10 and 10/10. As mentioned in my blog post on Apr 3, 2007, Pratchett’s whole Tiffany Aching series is truly outstanding. A few months after I finished Wintersmith, I decided I should re-read the first two books. They were terrific again. Very, very, highly recommended. Even though they are marketed as young adult fantasy, they are far more substantial than a typical young adult book. These books are some of the best fantasy ever written.

Wyrd Sisters, by Terry Pratchett - 7/10. In my previous lengthy Discworld mania blog post, there were a couple of Discworld books that I hadn’t re-read. In the meantime, I’ve re-read a few of them, Wyrd Sisters being the first. Most of the Discworld books are parodies (in addition to being darn good fantasy books in their own right). This particular book parodies Shakespeare’s Macbeth. The witches are the main characters. In general the Discworld books focusing on the witches tend to not be my favorites (the Tiffany Aching books excepted), but I enjoyed this one and the next one on this re-read more than I did the first time.

Witches Abroad, by Terry Pratchett - 7/10. Sadly I don’t recall the theme of this one right now.

Monstrous Regiment, by Terry Pratchett - 6.5/10. This is sort of a City Watch book, in that Sam Vimes (one of my all time favorites!) is in the book. But he plays a minor part; the book is really about Polly, a girl who joins the army. The army is supposed to be all-male, so a lot of the book is Polly trying to hide her identity throughout various skirmishes. The “socks” jokes are pretty good (you’ll have to read the book to find out), but all-in-all this is certainly one of the weaker Discworld books.

The Phoenix Guards, by Stephen Brust - 10/10. I reviewed this earlier, in this Sep 2006 blog post but I read it again in 2008. This time, I give the book a perfect 10/10. See the other post for an idea of what the book is like. By the way, the 2008 re-reading was what prompted me to read the Dumas books discussed here. (I likely re-read 500 Years After at the same time (see the Sept 2006 blog post), but didn’t write it down.

The Black Company series by Glen Cook – an overall series rating of 7/10, but as you can tell, it starts high and ends low. These are fantasy novels in the mercenary sub-genre, as told by Croaker, the official chronicler of the Black Company. He also doubles as the company surgeon. (Get the pun on his name? a doctor who makes people “croak”! I didn’t get the play on words myself probably until my third time through the books.)

The original 3 books
The Black Company - 10/10. Shadow's Linger - 8/10. The White Rose - 9/10. Looks like they are available all together in a collection as Chronicles of the Black Company.
These three are the ones that prompted me to buy all the rest (all at one time, I think, as a Christmas present to myself one year). The company gets hired on to help “The Lady” fight her battles. The twist from ordinary mercenary novels is that the Lady is an evil sorceress; the company is fighting against the rebellion striving for freedom from her tyrannical rule, rather than the other way around. But subsequent novels have you guessing whether the Lady is truly evil, and whether the rebellion is truly noble. I guess that was one of the major draws for me, that the series didn’t have the typical black/white perspective of most fantasy novels.

An interlude
The Silver Spike - 7/10. This one was creepy. Some of the characters get into grave robbing for pay, taking corpses to a tower in exchange for gold. The mysterious unhuman beings in the tower use the corpses for some nefarious purpose. Before too long, the characters are creating the corpses themselves… Not too many books give me bad dreams, but I think this one did. One downside to this book is that there was a lot of “s-word” in comparison with the rest of the books; I guess in Cook’s mind this may have been because the story wasn’t told by Croaker. And it actually doesn’t involve the bulk of the company at all.

Black Company in the South
Shadow Games - 9/10. A pretty good story—the Black Company decides to go south to find out about its history. They run into problems along the way.

Dreams of Steel - 7/10. This one has a different narrator; seems like it was mainly a placeholder book, if I recall correctly, where not too much happened.

Bleak Seasons – 6/10. This one and the next three are called the “Glittering Stone” books, named after something the company finds in the south. I think of them all as one novel. Sadly, I thought they were too slow moving, with a sub-par plot. By the last of them, I was thinking, “Can’t I be done with this series already?”, instead of “Wow, can I have some more?”
She is the Darkness – 5/10
Water Sleeps – 5/10
Soldiers Live – 5/10

OK, another 16 books down. Still a bunch to go.

Last week I took some time and read through all the student comments from my Physics 105 end-of-semester ratings. In general it was pretty depressing. I'm sure 80-90% of the comments were positive, but with 600 students, that still leaves about a 100 negative comments.

My numerical rating score was quite high; I got right around the department average score. A class like Physics 105--where the students are taking it because the *have* to, and not because they *want* to--typically scores much lower than average. And one of my research students just told me that an acquaintance of his in the class told him I was the best teacher he had had at BYU so far (he's a junior). :-)

Anyway, it's always humorous when diametrically-opposed comments show up back-to-back. Makes you wonder, "Were these students taking the same class?" Here are some examples:


Comment: Dr. Colton was not very approachable. He seemed to care less than he let on.

Very next comment: Dr. Colton is awesome. He made the class interesting and the concepts easier to understand.

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Comment: He is amazing at taking charge in class, and respecting students. Tests are amazingly hard, and the homework absorbs all my time to do other things. Amazing teacher, though...He really wants students to learn, and goes to great lengths, I feel, to do so.

Very next comment: Dr. Colton was the worst teacher I have ever had in my 16 years of attending school.

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Comment: Extremely rude and inconsiderate professor! Has no heart for anyone and can be back-stabbing! The class was horrible.

Very next comment: Dr. Colton is an excellent teacher that has a real desire for his students to really understand the concepts that are discussed.

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Comment: Dr. Colton is probably the worst teacher I have had a BYU.

Very next comment: Dr. Colton is awesome. He is really a good guy. I wish he was my Uncle.

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You get the idea. And no, I did not make up the last two, although I probably couldn't have asked for better humor than those two provided. JSC

Wow, I am woefully behind in talking about which books I’ve been reading. Looks like the last “book review” post I made was on 3 Jul 2007, not counting the stuff I said about D'Artagnan a couple of months ago. It’s high time for an update. I think there are over 70 books to catch up on, so this is going to take several sittings to get the job done. Luckily I’ve been more-or-less keeping a list, so even if I miss a few books here or there, this should be fairly accurate.

This is very roughly in chronological order, starting with the books that I read the longest ago.

The Regiment, by John Dalmas - 6.5/10. The book was heading for a 8.5/10 as a pretty good example of military SF, but the ending was poor. Dalmas forgot one of the cardinal rules of writing: "Show, don't tell". The last 20 pages or so were straight telling. Looks like this might be the start of a series, but I have no desire to continue on.

Arrows of the Queen, by Mercedes Lackey - 6/10. Like the last book, this one was heading for a much higher score, 7 or 8/10, but failed along the way. In the case, the failure was that it was kind of boring in places. There was too much of the stereotypical “girl discovers latent magical powers and goes to school to learn how to control them” thing, and not much plot. At the end, when a plot finally develops, *bam* the book is over.

Arrow's Flight, by Mercedes Lackey - 5.5/10. The continuation of Arrows of the Queen, but not as enjoyable. There was way too much "stuck in a cabin in a snowstorm". About 100 pages too much, to be precise.

Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein - 6.5/10. It was entertaining and well written. This book won the Hugo award in 1960. So, why the relatively low score from yours truly? Well, the biggest annoyance is that there was no plot. It also got kind of preachy in places. Additional info: the wikipedia article on the book says it helped created the military science fiction sub-genre, so it must have been quite revolutionary in the day; probably why it won the Hugo despite obvious failings. It was clear Heinlein had actual military service in his background. (googles quickly) Wow, Heinlein actually went to the Naval Academy, and was in the Navy for 6 years from 1928 - 1934.

The Thursday Next books, by Jasper Fforde - overall series 7/10 so far. These are fun & interesting books where the main character (and others) are able to go inside books, in a Gumby sort of way. They are also able to travel through time. In the early books Thursday is a member of “Jurisfiction”, a governmental organization which makes sure plots to well-known books don’t change beyond reason. In the later books, she deals more with (and is a member of?) the “Chronoguard”, a more sophisticated governmental organization that deals with time-traveling-induced paradoxes. All in all, very clever concepts combined with pretty good execution.
The Eyre Affair - 6.5/10. One of my least favorite of the books, mainly because of the profanity-- “s-word” and “f-word” both. Luckily Ford really toned the language down in subsequent books. Here, Tuesday goes inside Jane Eyre.
Lost in a Good Book - 8.5/10. Sorry, I don’t recall too many plot details, other than Tuesday’s a celebrity due to the events in the previous book. And I think this is where she joins Jurisfiction. At any rate, I liked it!
The Well of Lost Plots - 6.5/10. Fforde got a little too happy about the world he created in this one--after 100 pages in, I still didn't know what the plot was.
Something Rotten - 9/10. This one was outstanding. General I prefer the Chronoguard action to Jurisfiction.
There’s been one more book published after that, but I haven’t read it yet.

A Two-Edged Sword, by Thomas K. Martin - 5/10. This book was moderately entertaining, cruising for a 6.5/10 but (as Pauline pointed out to me) the plot really bogged down in the latter half. It’s “military fantasy” where (stereotypically) a college kid gets transported into a fantasy world and has to join the fight against evil queen. There were a lot of battles and a serious military campaign, but not much of a sense of "why should I care to read this". Then the ending was rather abrupt; apparently it's the first book of a trilogy, which I didn't know at the time (but you would have thought they would have said that on the cover). I don’t plan to continue.

Sympathy for the Devil, by Holly Lisle - 6.5/10. It was entertaining. The premise was quite interesting--a lady prays for God to give the people "burning in Hell" one more chance, so God sends a fair number of the damned souls to her very county. The computer elements of the book were obviously dated (book copyright 1995). Unfortunately too much bad language and too much sex. Also a little much "anything is OK with God as long as you love each other" attitude; while there is a lot of truth in that statement, it's not in promiscuity.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J.K. Rowling - 9/10. Not my favorite Harry Potter, but it was very good. Another book with about 100 pages too much camping in the wilderness in it. But, it was a good read, and I liked the ending.

Phule's Errand by Robert Asprin - 6/10. One of the poorer Phule books, mostly writing in the (often unpleasant but) time-honored “travelogue” style. Phule was pretty incompetent in this one, with no explanation for the change in his character. I don’t know if I’ll be reading many more of the Phule books (assuming Asprin writes more).

Myth-Told Tales by Robert Asprin and Jody Lynn Nye - 5/10. A book of Myth Adventure short stories. Most stories were co-written. They were rather poor. The best story was one that was written by Ms. Nye alone, M.Y.T.H., Inc. Proceeds. That one was 7/10. Looks like there have been another 5 Myth books written after this one; I don’t think I’ll be reading them unless someone whose opinion I respect tells me the quality has gone substantially up again.


13 down, lots more to go!

Pet peeve: websites that automatically start playing music when you browse to them.

I often have music playing on my computer *already*, so when I hit such websites, it just makes a jumble of things. Instead, all websites that do that should have a "play music" toggle switch or the like.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7813637.stm

Playing the computer puzzle game Tetris can help reduce the effects of traumatic stress, UK researchers say.

Volunteers were exposed to distressing images, with some given the game to play 30 minutes later, the PLoS One journal reported.

Players had fewer "flashbacks", perhaps because it helped disrupt the laying down of memories, said the scientists.

[snip to end]

I'm not sure what that means about my grades my freshman year of college... ;-)

Well, we had a happy Christmas. Among other things, Santa brought us a Tivo. OK, we actually got it the week before Christmas, but it still counts, I think. Just after Christmas, Pauline decided that she needed to go back to Boise to help with her dad for a week . The kids and I survived, thanks in large part to a $260 Costco trip for food. (Ouch!) We got to go sledding with Pauline's brother Justin (and his daughter Nancy) one of the days. That was fun.

School has started again. It seems weird to not be teaching any classes. (I had a double load last semester, so our Dept Chair gave me this semester off.) My plan is to get a lot of research done.