Yes, the comment script was not working this morning. No, it was not due to spammers (directly) or FastCGI or MT or even a grue. I noticed a number of…
Yes, the comment script was not working this morning.
No, it was not due to spammers (directly) or FastCGI or MT or even a grue.
I noticed a number of spam hits in trackbacks last night, so I did a rename on both the comments and trackback scripts. Which would have been great if I’d renamed the correct comment script.
All is well now. Thanks for the note, BD.
No, not that baby … About a year ago, my boss asked me to create a little spreadsheet to track customer surveys we did for our various internal clients. Over…
No, not that baby …
About a year ago, my boss asked me to create a little spreadsheet to track customer surveys we did for our various internal clients. Over time, that simple requirement metastisized (as such things usually do — and exercising good “change management” protocol isn’t always easy when it’s your boss asking) to something that had various and sundry bells and whistles and drop-downs and statistics and calculations and sorting and reporting and covered both surveys and implementations and ended up being routed
through the CIO and used by him in reports to the board.
While it’s been an occasional PitA, it’s also been very satisfying. A discrete task, a useful and attractive deliverable, a way to keep my pulse on the department, and something that I knew my boss was looking at.
And … today I pass it on. Rather than my doing data gathering for it on a weekly and monthly basis, we’re going to be rotating that around my peer managers on a monthly basis. Which means that all the inelegant guts behind the spreadsheet needed to be cleaned up or papered over and instructions written and stuff like that. And, of course, I’ll watch folks mismanaging it and who knows what shape it will be in when I get it back. But, still … time to move on.
But it’s difficult to let go, sometimes. 🙂
Why can’t you tickle yourself? The answer lies at the back of the brain in an area called the cerebellum, which is involved in monitoring movements. Our studies at University…
Why can’t you tickle yourself?
The answer lies at the back of the brain in an area called the cerebellum, which is involved in monitoring movements. Our studies at University College London have shown that the cerebellum can predict sensations when your own movement causes them but not when someone else does. When you try to tickle yourself, the cerebellum predicts the sensation and this prediction is used to cancel the response of other brain areas to the tickle.
Two brain regions are involved in processing how tickling feels. The somatosensory cortex processes touch and the anterior cingulate cortex processes pleasant information. We found that both these regions are less active during self-tickling than they are during tickling performed by someone else, which helps to explains why it doesn’t feel tickly and pleasant when you tickle yourself. Further studies using robots showed that the presence of a small delay between your own movement and the resulting tickle can
make the sensation feel tickly. Indeed, the longer the delay, the more tickly it feels. So it might be possible to tickle yourself, if you are willing to invest in a couple of robots!
That raises some interesting considerations about some other activities that might be considered similar to “self-ticking” (vs. being “tickled’ by someone else) and how those same neurological mechanisms might come into play.
(via GeekPress)
The last Harry Potter book will be published on 21 July (a week after the next flick, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix). Let the bookstore-line-standing begin! She…
The last Harry Potter book will be published on 21 July (a week after the next flick, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix). Let the bookstore-line-standing begin!
She confirmed the date fans will be able to get their hands on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows on her website.
Rowling has said two characters die in the final book and fans are wondering whether Harry is one of them.
The Potter books have sold 325 million copies worldwide, have been translated into 64 languages and spawned five blockbuster movies.
This is the 10th anniversary of the first book of the hugely successful series being published.
Coincidentally, Kitten and I were just talking about the word “hallow” last night (as in “Hallowed be thy name” and “Halloween.” Hmmmm … I wonder if she’s ready for Harry Potter for night time story yet (she’s been loving Lemony Snickett).
Casting about this morning for something to keep my bod warm, I grabbed a sweater I got back in college or so. Yikes. It actually, um, fits. Nice. Bobbing just…
Casting about this morning for something to keep my bod warm, I grabbed a sweater I got back in college or so.
Yikes. It actually, um, fits. Nice.
Bobbing just under 200 at the moment, back on the Geek Diet wagon, after various trips and visits (alas, business trip next week likely not to help much), and trying to get back into the Walking Thing reliably (despite the weather and ice floes). And today I start something new that’s fitness-related, which … I’ll blog more about later.