I was looking back through old posts and many of them did not make sense. Apparently, RapidWeaver cut off the summary. I will go back and fix as many of these as I can. Curse you RapidWeaver.

Tags: rant

I have been using RapidWeaver to create all my posts on dotphys.net. RapidWeaver is a software package for Mac OS X that really does a good job. However, I think I have outgrown this and it is time to move to something else. New posts will be at http://blog.dotphys.net - this is a WordPress installation. Maybe you don’t care about these details, but maybe you do. Here are some reasons that RapidWeaver doesn’t fit anymore:

• It takes FOREVER to upload. Since RapidWeaver recreates all the menus on each page when a new post is created, the whole site gets re-uploaded for a new post. This was fine at first, but now that I have tons of posts, it is way too slow. I am too impatient to wait.
• I was never fully pleased with the site search that I implemented. WordPress has a built in site search. I think this is important with such a large collection of stuff (I sure like the word ‘stuff’), people (meaning my Mom) should be able to find it.
• WordPress is a pretty standard content management system for blogging, so there are many plugins available and lots of support (although rapidweaver also has good support).
• The comment system I use on RapidWeaver has never felt like it was good. Well, I guess maybe that is because no one ever commented on anything.
• RapidWeaver doesn’t come with a figure and you can’t take it in the tub. I don’t know why they changed it.

In order to keep my ties to the past, I am leaving this site as it is. I will continue to put some stuff on here, if it is of a longer nature (like my astronomy video lectures).

Yes, this blog is mostly about science and physics stuff. However, I just wanted to give a couple of comments about diving the Oriskany (I am sure there is some physics in here somewhere). Read More...

I could make a way to pretend this is physics, but really it’s just funny.

Here is a picture a friend of mine took of the Chicago Tribune with his phone while he was walking to work.

I must have previously mentioned my online lectures (mini-lectures) in astronomy. Well, I got quite behind in my postings. In an effort to complete the semester, I have added some more videos - namely

• Doppler effect
• Blackbody radiation
• Telescopes
• Introduction to the terrestrial planets

I posted all these videos on Vimeo - but you can find links and descriptions here

Tags: astronomy

So, I always try to get on Digg (a social content system) - specifically to promote my stuff. Anyway, Digg introduced a new recommendation engine. The basic idea is to find submitted stories similar to stories that a user has “dugg”.
Read More...

So, you probably didn’t notice (unless you are one of the two people that consistently read my blog - Hi Mom!), but I moved around and cleaned up my categories. I also added tags. The idea is that you can find topics related to a particular concept in physics - like momentum or what not.

There are some other changes. Read More...

I was at my parents house and I found this:

My Dad said I could keep it. This is so awesome. Reverse Polish and everything. Read More...

Tags: HP

The following is an article written by David Norwood. He submitted this to some online journal, but it was never published (as far as we can tell). Here is the article.

The effect upon global temperature of talking like a pirate
David Norwood, Ph.D. scientist, FotLCoP
Fellow of the Louisiana College of Pastafarianism
My House

Abstract
It is well established with a graph that global warming is caused by a pirate deficiency
[Henderson, 2005]. We prove scientifically, with a graph (including error bars) and
references, that the precepts of Flying Spaghetti Monsterism are true and that anyone who
doubts them is wrong.

Read More...

Tags: fsm

I mentioned this previously, but this came up again. Here is a diagram from a resource letter on computational physics:

The idea represented is that somehow simulations are different than theory and experiment. Read on for my response to the editor. I am posting it here because I doubt it will be published.
Read More...

Tags: numerical , computer

It looks like my bike learning method is working well (by my, I mean the one I use not the one I created). This weekend my 4.5 year old daughter successfully rode her bike without training wheels. The problem is that riding a bike is not easy, nor is it intuitive. When riding a bike, and you are falling to the left, what do you do? You TURN TO THE LEFT. What? That doesn't make any sense. That is why bikes are difficult, especially for kids.
Here is are my easy to follow steps. (I discuss some of the physics of bike riding that I looked up on the internet here) Read More...

Tags: bike

It appears my training has been successful. My son spent a year using training wheels and could never make the transition to no-training wheels. With the no-pedals method, he spent a week pushing and gliding on the bike. Yesterday I put pedals back on and BOOM - he had no problem riding.

I am not saying training wheels are bad, no wait.. I am.

Tags: bike

One of my kids is behind in his learning to ride a bike. There are a couple of problems. First, the bike is just the right size (it should be way too small to learn on). The second problem is that training wheels don't really do much to help you learn to ride a bike. To assist in his learning process, I modified his bike in the following way:
Read More...

Tags: bike

Google calculator - it rocks so much that I don't have a calculator. It also does a fairly good job at unit conversions, but there are some problems. Read More...

Tags: units

I received a new timex watch for Jesusmas this year. Here is a part of the instructions:
Read More...

As stated before, I am moving from an old server. Instead of just moving everything, I am going to rebuild. I will put older useful posts in the "Older projects" area. I will then create new blog posts summarizing these.

I don't know if you can tell, but I have moved my site. Here it is. I decided to rebuild all my material, so it will be posted here. Don't worry, it will be just as trivial as before. So, both of the people that regularly read this (me and my mom) need not worry.