Day 106, digital immigrants/natives, a rant

This rant was written on 27 February 2009, it is still relevant.  It also refers to the more wider example of how soundbites can misrepresent people, ignore people, and generally remove any form of sensible discussion about important topics, when picked up by the wider media.




The Digital Dispossessed

The Digital Immigrants, Digital Natives analogy by Marc Prensky is getting a bit of an airing at the moment.  It ties into the media scare stories about web 2.0 technologies altering how young adults brains might be wired up – I get an image of a cosmic determinist electrician using a crack team of programmers to long-windedly restructure human thought processes without recourse to the roll of synapse solder.

As a person that by fact of age would come under the umbrella of Digital Immigrant I am not convinced by the analogy, ok I haven't read the two part series in depth and I could easily fall into the category of old nay-sayer and stick in the mud when in actuality I would like to have an open mind and take a positive view.  Prensky.  Part1  Part2

The things I don't particularly like about the analogy are that the term Digital Immigrant seems intentionally to carry a pejorative feel of having old-fashioned ways rather than that of an immigrant enriching a culture by bringing new ideas.  This is probably more of an example of the clunky nature of this analogy and how it has been used in the media.  The other thing I find wrong is that it ignores the idea that all we are talking about fundamentally is technology, and that as each generation ages then it is not unusual that a proportion of that population has difficulty adapting to and using newer technologies.

Prensky refers to an example of a Digital Immigrant having an odd or thick accent demonstrated by, for example, printing out emails. Nice to know the Digital Natives don't have much need for something with a history dating back to the 15^th Century, I'll be turning off those heavy power consuming servers that deal with the print queues, spooling, jobs and release stations next week! Ok the machines are virtualised and not so power-hungry and some departments still insist on receiving double spaced printed work.  Yet there are other organisations, the Open University is one, that prefer to handle electronically submitted work.  But there are plenty of Digital Natives printing out websites, emails and PDF documents, what went wrong?

Also it is not always apparent when using new technologies that not all of our information is there.  A lot of people may not use the immediate and at hand research tools of the internet and search engines, but a lot of us do use them as a first line of investigation – yet it is still only one line of research.  How much use is the internet for providing the meta-data that is presented with print media, the annotations scrawled in the margins (not only by the likes of Fermat or Joe Orton), physical feel, size, binding, and other elements that make up an object like a book, a journal, a newspaper or other types of printed documents? How sad would it be to lose those extra quantifiers of context.  In some cases the physical object is the actual subject of study. But I have heard of Digital Natives turning up at libraries only willing to read a document if it is in electronic format, if the document only exists in paper format the student will shrug and say they can't be bothered.  In what other areas do we decide that resources are of no use if it presents a mild inconvenience to use them – after all after learning to drive I would still use the upstairs loo even if there isn't a well lit dual carriageway leading to it.  If physical documents aren't used they may be disposed of, depriving potential researchers of resources even if they have been digitised in a high quality format (which is not always the case, there are many examples of grainy reproductions of images and badly scanned pages).

I know that the analogy is really about young students and new ways of thinking, but I don't think that the new ways of thinking belong exclusively to the young.  My main grumble about the analogy is not Marc Prensky's use of it but the way it is used in the media.  The media informs us that we are one or the other, it provides a nice dualist argument to be lined up for a five minute filler piece which helps to get the Daily Mail readers large intestine clear before the morning commute.  A couple of talking heads are lined up with their diametrically opposed arguments and allowed to let rip until there is no more time available as we have to move on to the weather report.  The disappointment heard in the voice of the interviewer on the occasions that the supposed adversaries agree with each other is a joy I mark with a gold avatar in my online calendar.

I am biased, I feel peeved because I'm no snake hipped teenager, my winning smile is now a lop-sided smirk and I have to work harder to keep from standing still, but I like technology and I love learning about the new ideas and opportunities it can reveal. But what happens is I turn into a fundarantelist with a half-cocked, semi-baked argument and start wondering about the massive number of people out there that are the Digital Dispossessed.  The ill educated, disabled, elderly and poor are the people that are likely to have had little or no contact with the new media and technologies.  Whether they are on a council estate in this city, or in a low-tech nation washing gold from semiconductors with acid in the open air, they don't get much of a mention in this technology and education debate.

Here's Bob with the weather...

Day 105, Famous Belgians and Bakelite

If you are ever in need of a famous Belgian - it can happen - then there are a few handy places for you to look.  Not just the usual Wikipedia search.

While you are there you'll discover that apart from the ones you might be familiar with:

Eddy Merckx - come on, you are familiar with the famous cyclist aren't you?
Plastic Bertrand
Herge
Audrey Hepburn
etc

You will also find this chap on the list:
Leo Hendrik Baekeland

He was the inventor of Bakelite, the first synthetic plastic.  Baekeland was spurred on to find a substitute for shellac as an electrical insulator.  Shellac, a resin secreted by the female Kerria lacca beetle, was time consuming to collect and it was in short supply given the increased demands of the early 1900s.

Bakelite control knob

Bakelite was used to make a wide variety of products throughout the first half of the 20th Century.  A decline in usage came about due to discoveries of other less brittle and more easily manageable polymers although there are still products made using Bakelite.

 Bakelite box containing an "Ever - Ready" razor, Made in England

Day 104, chrysalis progress

How is our nascent Hawksmoor Processionary Baguette getting along?

This picture was taken yesterday by a local in the area that likes to keep an eye on these things.  Now it is clear from the image that there is a problem with the larvae.  It appears as though there has been some kind of damage or alteration, and on further inspection it is clear that the larvae is suffering from the Manilla Incumbent virus.

Close observation will reveal the tell-tale striations of this pathogenic invader evident on the surface of the pupal casing.

This is an interesting development.

The Manilla Incumbent can, depending at which point the host is infected, change the gender of the invaded insect and even completely change the characteristics of the emerged adult so that it appears to be a different subspecies.

The subspecies transformation is much more than that as the adult can no longer interbreed with others of apparently the same original species.  The adult is not sterile, and appears to have all of the equipment required for reproduction.  The structure of the chromosomes are also altered.

Perhaps it is due to the rarity of this type of infection, and the low number of host pupa that subsequently reach maturity, that means the chance of two compatible mutants meeting and successfully reproducing is so low.  Or perhaps we are just assuming it hasn't happened and the outcome is not recognisable as either the originating moth or the moth produced as an outcome of the parasitic infection, and so therefore it has passed us by unnoticed.

Maybe as the Hawksmoor re-establishes itself we will find more evidence.



Previously discussed in A Country Diary: Baguette Larvae.

Day 103, Bramall Lane floodlights

It's all a bit fancy dan now.  You can't see through the gap there due to the corner stand and the hotel.  The floodlights are now along the roof-line of the South Stand and the Family Stand.

Mind you I no longer have to climb onto the roof to see into the ground as I have enough cash to buy tickets.  Half-time is also much less hazardous without the climb back in through the dormer window.

It's the second leg of the League Cup games against Tottenham London of the Premiership.

Day 102, the spiritualist church

Down at the bottom end of Northumberland Road used to be the location of the Spiritualist Church.  The listed building was recently converted into student flats.

The wooden sign indicating the nature of the building has long since gone.  And one of the people I knew that used to frequent the place has long since gone too.  She was the mother of a mate of mine, and she used to tell us tales of the goings on on some of her visits to the Spiritualist Church there.

One of her neighbours was a regular there too.  He used to do the routine of contacting the spirit world and being a channel for souls that have passed over to the other side to contact their still extant loved ones.  Apparently he had been very successful at this for many years.

However...

On one occasion he proceeded to regale the audience, while in trance-like state, with tales of the ancient world.  He then informed them that he was Christ reborn and that they should follow him.  This got him the boot from the Spiritualists.  He was later discovered to have moved in with a white witch.

If Spiritualism is your thing and you consider this to be the best way of proving your belief in life after death then you can go and tickle your chakras at the Spiritualist Church on Whitham Road in Broomhill.



I won't be doing that.

Day 101, the randomness of cats

The smallest cat I've ever had in my collection.  Odd as it's Fat Freddy's Cat.

When I grow up I want a tail like that.


Moving on.

This is a rather fancy cat that used to say hello on the walk to work.  Very friendly, and very elderly.  Now no longer with us.  Don't let the grumpy expression fool you, this cat would get up from lolling on the pavement at the first sign of a human approaching, and would start purring straight away, it very much enjoyed a tickle behind the ears.

There are some younger, and bright orange, versions of this cat now living at the same place.  Perhaps they are related. 


This cat said hello as I was cycling up through Aston, near Hope, to Win Hill.  

And this cat is invisible as it has its eyes shut, or am I invisible if the cat has its eyes shut?  Something is invisible anyway.

That is the randomness of cats.

Day 100, still no tower, but there is an egg box

Summer 1999.  The view from the roof of the New Town Hall.

The familiar egg-box construction visible to the left.



The view up Surrey Street by the side of the old Town Hall.

Views of the old Town Hall, Peace Gardens and surrounding buildings.

It feels a little odd referring to these buildings as the 'New' and the 'Old' Town Hall.  The new one was demolished in 2002, the old one is still with us.


If you look carefully you can see Mercury running along the roof edge of the New Town Hall.

Not visible to those at ground level, the roof of the building was grassed over and had benches.

Sheffield Central Library, a listed building.  A view of the relief sculpture at the top floor near the Graves Art Gallery. Apparently 'The third floor art gallery is only visible as a deep blind parapet'.

And a view of Central Library, The Lyceum, and part of The Crucible.

Photographs below taken using a PalmPilot and PalmPix camera.

17 November 2001

15 December 2001

27 February 2002

Day 99, overnight Rhône-like glaciation

When I left the house this morning I found that for a 50 metre radius the ground was treacherous with ice.  The slight wind overnight blown the melting surface of the compacted snow to a smooth finish worthy of a Rolls Royce paint finishing shop.  It's a little like living on a glacier.

Digging through the archive of blurry and poor quality, pre-digital, images I have produces a couple of pictures of a real life glacier. The Rhône Glacier.

Visible in the above picture at the right is the tunnel into the glacier.  At the end of the tunnel was someone dressed as Santa.  In August. The Swiss started Christmas early even back in 1978.

Another view of the glacier.  It was immense.

Wikipedia shows that the size of the glacier has diminished substantially since the early 1980s, a decline that has been measured since the late 1800s.

Graph taken from the Wiki article.

While looking for related information I found an article in the Daily Mail showing the glacier being covered in white sheets every summer to prevent melting.  I accidentally read the comments section.  Maybe the climate change deniers that inhabit Mail-space ought to be covered in sheets too to stop them overheating and adding to climate change.

Day 98, super fit stats splurge

First week of the super-let's-get-fit-and-flexible-achievement-badge-unlocked process is complete.

Some bits of me feel as though they have done more work than they normally would have.  There's a slight ache in various parts of leg. Only the mildest of aches though, possibly due to the nature of the stretching/warming down process, otherwise I expect there would have been more.

Having started at the lowest level of strenuousness and the lightest weights possible (where weights are used - effectively not much more than a couple of tins of beans in each hand) things appear to be progressing well.  This week has been workout A, B, and A again.  That's all the letters there are in this routine, and I reckon it’s enough.

The most difficult, or most painful (well, not really), hardest of the exercises have been the lunges.  And they do feel silly, not quite as silly as the split, incremental, transcontinental squats, or whatever they were called.  I’m pretty sure there's the possibility of knee, ankle, and/or hip injury with this manoeuvre as it is very difficult to remain stable during the action, even though it is almost just like walking…  Generally I have good balance but these things make me out to be some sort of klutz with a middle ear infection and a dose of Norovirus - specifically the elements of Norovirus that cause dizziness, not the bits that cause gross product to be emitted from various orifices.

And there is the necessity to be careful. The ignominy of having something twang and snap like an old guitar string would be immense.

Another factor is weight, I am pretty robust in that regard and have quite a bit of mass.  Since my hamstring popped when running during the summer I have put on an additional 4kg and am now 95kg, I'll let the metric martyrs convert that one themselves.

 Weight increase since hamstring twanged

It would be optimal to shed some of that weight.

The stats from my previous activity show that the most effective way of dropping weight isn't going out for long runs. It appears that interval training, or something akin to it, is the key.

Interval runs from start, longer runs from August

My best weight loss was when doing short runs interspersed with walks and with a few light swimming sessions during the week.  During periods where I was running between 3-5km every day or alternate days, and where the walks were reduced in duration, weight loss wasn't as rapid and at times it plateaued or increased. My thumbnail scientific and medical diagnosis, given my years of experience of never seeing doctors or having any training in this area, suggests that this could be that the body gets used to the more intensive training and so metabolism changes in such a way that fat isn't burnt off so readily.


Here are a list of probably inaccurate and meaningless figures relating to my current state of fitness.

What age?  How many calories?

Two days of rest now, then it's workout B, day off, A, day off, and B again. Let's see what happens as the super-let's-get-fit-and-flexible-achievement-badge-unlocked process is continued.

Day 97, shell damage

Sheffield City Hall has some visible damage from the air raids and there are plenty of other signs of the blitz if you know where to look.  However there isn't anything still standing that shows quite the damage that is visible here in these photographs of the Palais De Justice in Rouen.

The building still bears the scars of some quite serious calibre weaponry used during the liberation of the town in August 1944.  

There is a commemorative plaque on the building.

A very rough translation of the text of the plaque reads:

In memory of the many of the resistance and patriots who were incarcerated in the courthouse between 1940 and 1944, from where they went to the Nazis execution squads, prisons and penal colonies.  "France is grateful"

It's not only France that's grateful.

Day 96, hearing things

There are the sounds in the loft.

And there are the sounds in the crawl space under the floor.

And there is the space in between with its own well known sounds.

I was providing a translation layer for the unknown sounds.

Not that I knew it.

Vibrations sent between disconnected transmitters and receivers passed through the known space.

Without the knowledge of the known space.

As if encrypted, like steganography, concealed within the apparent and unambiguous.

A portal for communication between distinct, detached, distant universes.

But now they’ve stopped.

I discovered their game.

And presented the unknown sounds with maximum entropy.

Switched off their life support.

And let them cool below atomic movement.

The loft is now silent.

And the crawl space is now quiet.

They won’t be coming back.

Unlike this tinnitus.

Day 95, Hyde Park demolition

A distant view of the colossal fortress that were Hyde Park Flats.  Here they are with a large bite taken out of the middle during demolition in 1990/1991.

The lower sections of the flats have been modernised and covered in cladding.  Google maps mistakenly show the lower area as Park Hill.  Park Hill is visible in the picture but is much further to the right but at around the same level, and is not modernised.

The top floor of Hyde Park was never accessible, at least not on any of my visits, and the people I knew that lived there didn't recall that floor being open.  The top floor was to be divided into three areas of sheltered gardens, 'Cricket Inn Garden', 'St. John's Garden' and 'Bernard Green'.  Some of these were to contain children's play areas, sand pits, paddling pools and other playground equipment.  It was possible to walk up to this top floor but not possible to gain access without doing some climbing and risking falling off to an inevitable death - each entrance was well secured with a robust gate and lock.  The garden/play areas looked pretty grim and gloomy.  It wouldn't be surprising if some did choose to risk life and limb and climb in, it wasn't unknown for people to have stuff pinched off their balconies, this would necessitate climbing across the outside of the building.

Just visible at middle left is the Royal Victoria Holiday Inn.  This was originally the Victoria Hotel adjacent to Victoria Station. The station closed to passengers on 5 January 1970 apart from briefly re-opening in 1972 when the Midland Station was closed for signalling work.  Up until the early 1980s trains between Manchester and Sheffield would be diverted by this route if there was line work taking place.  The diversion would usually be on a Sunday, I went through the station many times on that route.

Netherthorpe Road/Hoyle Street can just be seen at bottom right, pre-widening for the tram.  Quite a lot of the landscape on the left has changed because of alterations made for the tram and due to further development for the ring road.  I expect the view from up there is quite different now.

Day 94, Ponderosa

These photographs were taken just before the flats on Martin Street, Upperthorpe, were about to be modernised, some time in 1993 or thereabout.

Looking out over the Ponderosa.  


It's original name was Port Mahon but it appears to have picked up the new name in the 1960s.

Most of the Ponderosa had houses on until after the war.  There was always a recreation ground at the top.  The steep slope on the left hand side at the top had large tenement houses on it.

At the top right of the Ponderosa, near the recreation ground, there was a fountain at one time.  That may have been less glamorous than the word 'fountain' implies.  There was a meeting for women's suffrage held there in 1910 where Adela Pankhurst was one of the speakers.  Adela Pankhurst lived not far away in Broomhill at 45 Marlborough Road.  Apparently there were 5000 people in attendance.

This is a view from another flat, looking up the Ponderosa towards Crookes Valley Road.  The recreation ground is at the top right just above the white blob (a caravan).


Once walking home late at night over the Ponderosa I noticed there were long stretches of dead grass.  From my window the next day I could see a giant cock and balls had been drawn on the Ponderosa using weedkiller (or something else that killed the grass).  It was a very reasonable 'back of pub door' depiction, not bad for an effort presumably done late at night in the dark.  A shame about the grass but it did make me laugh at the cheek of it for a while.  Not having any film at the time means this scene was not recorded.

Day 93, monumental decrepitude

How do you go about getting fit and maintaining fitness without getting crocked?

As a former athlete - having once competed in the 100m sprinting event in Manchester school athletics trials that counts doesn't it? - my thoroughbred physique, and natural tendency to agility and speed, suggest that it's no use asking me. Ahem...

However, there are bits of me that twang, snap, crunch, ache, and generally create a disagreeable experience when taking part in any form of exercise beyond walking at a brisk pace.  It's not as if a small amount of warming up isn't done before setting out on a slow walk/run/walk etc.  Maybe there's not enough warming up being done, or it's the wrong sort.

So as I can't ask me how not to get crocked, and I don't have access to a personal trainer, I decided to ask the internet.

The internet replied with a massively complicated list of responses.  And what a lot of conflicting and contradictory responses they were too.  What happens next is that there is some self selection that takes place, basically I choose what I think looks right.  This is based on very little evidence other than there is a little bit of support for it from other unrelated or linked websites.  It's what everyone does, although not always with that level of self awareness.

These biased choices are then used to for the underlying aim being of building up general strength and elasticity.

So what's the outcome?

There are two workouts - A and B.  Alternating between the two, a maximum of three times a week with a two day rest.

Workout A consists of: lunges; floor press; straight legged deadlift; and plank.  I ditched the Bulgarian split squat and decided on lunges instead, I laughed a great deal when naming the first item and was unable to stand up when attempting it even after stopping laughing.

Workout B consists of: lunges; seated shoulder press; standing two-dumbbell bent over row; and plank.

All of these done at the lowest level of intensity and after warming up for ten minutes - gentle stretching of hamstrings, quads, hips, achilles, calf, knee (illotibial band).

There's panic involved here too, having pulled my hamstring when sprinting on a run last year I'm a little tentative in wanting to put too much pressure on.  The torn hamstring hurt quite a bit and had a knock on effect where for a while I had knee and hip pain.  This was probably due to not stretching correctly during the recovery period from the tear.  Swimming would perhaps help with this, although swimming was something that triggered adhesive capsulitis (frozen shoulder) a couple of years back.  Frozen shoulder, that really hurt - my physio said it was one of the most painful experiences anyone can have, so there we are, I'm assuming he wasn't including torture or watching Mrs Brown's Boys in that assessment.  It's on the NHS list of most painful ailments, so perhaps it is the case.  It wasn't possible to move without jarring the shoulder leading to intense pain and sometimes waves of nausea, this hampered my ability to get more than 30 minutes sleep at a time. This lasted for over four months before it started to ease up.  It was great.  Fortunately this doesn't usually happen more than once to anyone.  

With that extended whinge in mind - When the snow has gone there'll be some walk/run/walk etc being done, albeit slowly, hoping not to trigger anything to twang, snap, etc.


Has the introductory question been answered?  No idea, I expect I'll find out.  

Picture of a soggy Eric Morecambe lookalike after a run.