Monday, February 28, 2011

Books and their owners

Whenever I get a chance, I will check out people's bookcases, because the books people have can tell you an awful lot about them. Of course, I am very conscious of the fact that merely possessing a book is no guarantee that the owner has read it, or even if he or she has, that he or she has assimilated any of their contents. There are quite a few people out there who collect books as status symbols. These people are a bit like name-droppers, who will take any opportunity, however inopportune, to insert the name of some famous person/book into the conversation, in the hope that this will somehow make them look more important or intelligent than they are.

Those of you who know me personally will realize that I know of which I speak, because I do this myself. I will tell someone, for example, that I have Plato's Republic, and in doing so, I will have established my credentials as a serious-minded person, who sets a high standard. But before anyone can ask any questions I would not be able to answer, I will hasten to add that (1) it is the English Translation, not the original Greek version, and that (2) I haven't read it yet. And it gets worse, because this last remark gives me the perfect opportunity to list some of the other books that I have but have not read, or have not finished, like The Golden Bough, The Embarrassment of Riches, Herfstij der Middeleeuwen, the Tao of Physics, or a political history of the popes.


But I digress. What I really wanted to write about was a strange, out-of-body-like experience I had the other day, when I found myself inspecting a collection of books that could have been my own, but wasn't. Some of the books in this other collection were identical to books I own, but for the most part, this other person had different books but by the same authors. Had this phenomenon been restricted to literature, I would not have given it a second thought, but it spanned art, history, the natural sciences, science fiction and even travel books. It was really scary. I worry that one day I will wake up and find I am actually him, and not myself.  And what is worse: if I am him, I will have a collection of several hundred books I should have read, but haven't!

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

The mystery of the missing ballpoints

Life is strange and wonderful, and even inanimate objects move in mysterious ways. Take ballpoints, for example. Everyone knows that they have a habit of disappearing, and nobody, not even Douglas Adams, knows for sure where they go. No matter how many you buy (or "borrow"), they always disappear after a few days, and you are forced to go back to your ever-growing collection of  rejects of all sizes and shapes, in the hope of finding one that works. In my case, the choice is simple: for the past year, I have relied on a pen of which the top is missing, so that it wobbles while I write. I hate it, but I am convinced that it is this very defect that prevents it from disappearing, so in a sense, I am also grateful.

Of course, the parallels with the animate world are not lost on me. Just like genes, which must disseminate to ensure the continued success of the species, ballpoints strive towards new frontiers, where they can lead long successful lives (or at very least find gainful employment). And equally obviously, I do realize that pens are not actively involved in a struggle for survival. But there definitely is selection going on, and the fittest are surviving, even though - unfortunately for me - it is elsewhere.

Which leads to the thought that maybe I should be a tougher taskmaster, and simply throw the wobbly pen away. But how can I? It has been my salvation for over a year now. A hate-love dilemma if I ever saw one.

Footnote (pun intended): you might be tempted to see parallels with socks as well, but that would be just plain silly, because socks never disappear in pairs. It is always only one, and I cannot for the life of me imagine any gainful employment for a single sock (other than possibly as a makeshift puppet for children).

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Laziness and the keyboard

In a bout of laziness, I just had a look at all the draft entries that I started writing but never published, in the hope of finding something I could simply shine up a bit to make it suitable. Unfortunately, none of them are good enough: each would need at lot more work to make them readable. Mostly because they are too ambitious - when optimistic, I attack big items like the search for knowledge or whether there is such a things as objective reality - and also because I believe you should only publish stuff that someone might like to read.

  
Of course, this entry is not all that interesting either. But I have noticed that some of my most popular entries (in terms of numbers of visits) are about blogging, so I am quite curious to see how this entry will fare, in comparison to others.

 
I will keep you posted!

....

As promised (to keep you posted): this has indeed become one of the more popular entries. I think it is safe to say, however, that it is one of my least interesting entries ever. I guess people arrive here while searching for more ergonomic ways to use the computer.

As I spend many hours a day using a keyboard, I can understand that this is real issue, so here is my advice in a nutshell:
  • make sure your posture is correct, which means a chair and table that you can adjust to your height
  • find the most comfortable position for the keyboard and/or find an ergonomic one
  • make a list of frequent actions that are uncomfortable or laborious (often involving the mouse)
  • check to see if no keyboard shortcuts exist for these actions already. (You would be surprised at the number of people who use the mouse to click on certain default options that appear in interactive menus (like "do you want to save this file Yes/No"), when all you need do is hit the Return or Enter key).
  • if no keyboard shortcuts exist, there are ways to create your own, but this is too much to explain in a simple overview. In any case, many programs (and certainly internet browsers) allow toolbar customisation that can help speed up things. Put links that you use everyday on your desktop, or in your links toolbar (but not at the bottom of a long long list of Favourites, or in a folder that is in another folder in another folder etc.)