Jun 07
ErinTop of my head Garbage, Tech
I spent 5 minutes explaining a scripting issue with a junior member of my team when he asked what the CR and LF characters in the comments section was.
I briefly explained that it stands for Carriage Return and Line Feed but I saw the still puzzled look on his face, the type that was trying to digest something very unfamiliar. I decided to explain further, with matching actions, that those were based in the activities in the typewriter that you need to go to the starting of the line (carriage return) and pushing a lever to add a new line (line feed).
I looked at my young grasshopper and saw the puzzled look became a perplexed one. It was then that I realized the mistake that I made so I asked the next probable question which is “have you had the chance to use a manual typewriter before? ” The answer was a quick No.
I had to laugh since he is basically a fresh grad and in his early twenties. I am on my early thirties and am amazed at what a decade of difference would make in terms of technology.
I wonder how soon it would be before the future graduates are unable to grasp the concepts used as basis for ubiquitous things in technology such as using one or two characters to go to the next line on the document. 🙂
Nov 05
ErinRubbish Garbage
Chin Wong has a blog post about a site offering and campaigning for free text books. The idea is really a novel one (pun intended ;P ) wherein it spouts a utopian scenario that teachers and knowledgeable scribes contribute in evolving the textbook contents. I am however skeptical if it would be applicable here in the Philippines.
Face it, all schools offering academic teaching below the collegiate level makes a killing out of book and supplies sales. What else can explain the sudden surge for workbooks wherein it requires the students to rip out pages for submission?
A decade or so ago ripping books is considered a sacrilegious activity. Anybody doing it is labeled as an ignorant vandal who doesn’t understand the value of the knowledge printed in the pages they are destroying. Books are something that is cared for and passed on to a younger sibling or to the child of the neighbor who would be using them again in their quest of enlightenment (or that elusive diploma). As a self-professed voracious reader and book lover, I almost cried when I opened my niece’s workbook from a previously concluded school year. It looked like a middle-aged person raped violently by a ward of death-row convicts.
Then there is the sudden upsurge in the practice of selling school supplies with official schools seals. The problem is that these cost double than what it would normally sell in the free market. School officials argue that the latter promotes equality among its students because nobody uses luxurious items like high-end ballpoint pens and notebooks with high-substance paper. If that is the case then why the high price point? If printing the official seal doubles the price then why not just pick a standard supplier for the materials and enforce that, or subsidize the materials themselves. Why can’t those materials be considered as the norm but still allow students to use the cost-effective Panda ballpen?
I think it is the older man in me talking but the academe circles has degraded to the point that we now have schools being ran as businesses first and learning institutions second.
ciao!
Nov 08
ErinGarbage food, Garbage
During my high school and college days the instant noodle was the king of the kitchen, the ultimate go-fer for the hungry mind and stomach. Forget bread, back then I could live on instant noodles alone and with egg if I want a luxurious treat. Adding steamed rice makes it a full meal. Philippine noodles are notorious for packing large quantities of MSG but I was young and nothing can touch me.
When I started going out with Neth my tolerance for MSG-laden foods went down because Neth’s family doesn’t really use MSG because of the reported health risks associated with it. I still get to enjoy noodles every now and then, and MSG when we eat out but everything went south when a simple breakfast of noodles and pan de sal (local breakfast bun) turned into a 3-day toilet bowl marathon for us. Since then I gave up eating noodles.
About a year ago I started sampling local noodles again, especially during weekends. The temptation of a quick breakfast is hard to ignore. But I realize that when I do have noodles for breakfast then I will have an excruciating headache in the afternoon. I always blamed the afternoon naps but recently I put two and two together. One Saturday morning I tried eating noodles and not on the following weekend. Lo and behold the pattern recurred so I guess that means forever saying goodbye to those multiplying variants of instant noodles that are invading the market. 🙁
ciao!
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