Tuesday, March 25, 2008

The Downside to Multitasking

With the advent of technology the push seems to be on to get more done... be more productive... It is supposed to be "time saving." Personally, I don't think it does save you any time in the long run. And studies have shown that you are less efficient when you multitask.

There was a study that came out in 2001 and presented by the APA.... I have to report on it simply because it is the APA. Before I mention the findings I want to point out that this was initially published back in 2001... and yet the push continues to multitask more... not less. In the study subjects switched between tasks. The researchers measured speed of performance as a function of whether successive tasks were familiar or unfamiliar, and whether the rules for performing them were simple or complex. What they found is that subjects lost time when they had to switch from one task to another, and the time costs increased with the complexity of the tasks. There was also a greater time cost when the task was unfamiliar. Their conclusion was that while multi-tasking may appear more efficient on the surface it may actually take more time in the end. As the author points out that 1/2 second of task switching may mean the difference between life and death for the driver that is also talking on a cell phone as you are not totally in control during that time.

As a side note... and only sort of related.... I was watching Mythbusters the other day and they were discussing the effect of talking on a cell phone and being intoxicated while driving. Basically they did a road course under three conditions: Control, Cell Phone and Alcohol. Under the control condition they passed all of the driving tests. Next up was the cell phone use. They failed over half the course. Then there was the alcohol. I should point out that they were not over the legal limit before driving. They also failed over half the course. So which one had a bigger impact? Cell phone usage. There was an interesting point brought up however. At least with a cell phone you can put it down or turn it off. You can't instantaniously sober up.

In another study they examined learning and discovered that distractions affect the way you learn and can make it more difficult to recall the information later on. It seems there are 2 ways to learn: declarative learning involving the medial temporal lobe and deals with learning facts in an active manner and habit learning involving the striatum. Take learning a phone number for instance. You can either memorize it (declarative learning) or punch it in 1000 times (habit learning). Obviously, if you memorize it then you can always recall it later. Habit learning, is situation specific. You have to be at the phone to recall it. When subjects were distracted while learning a new concept they were more likely to use habit learning instead of declarative learning. As a result it made it more difficult to recall it later on when not under the same conditions.

A New York Times article talked about leaving the multitasking to the computer. A Microsoft research scientist found that when interrupted by a phone call, email, or instant message it took an average of 15 minutes to return to the task at hand. What he was surprised by is how easily someone was distracted and how long it took to get back to the task.

I am currently at work. While I am not taking any calls at the moment I am getting distracted by conversations, questions, and random web sites. As a result it's probably taken me about 2 hours to write this when if I was focused just on it I probably would've been done in about 15 minutes. So back to my thoughts that the Saturn ad is right and maybe we should be getting back to single tasking.

The Powers of Advertising

I was about to comment on how I was reading my copy of "Good" really late and make some excuse about how I have other things to do.... and then I looked at it and realized it was for March/April. So really I am not that far behind. Just because it had been sitting on top of my bar fridge for over a month now is beside the point. Speaking of magazines though I also have a subscription to Scientific American: Mind and the most recent edition seems to MIA. I really am going to have to contact them about it one of these days.

I really did have a point here.... Oh yeah on advertising. I was reading through the magazine (What else am I going to do at work? Actually work? Pfffttt) and came across the new Saturn Ad for Astra. It has really got me thinking.... brain in overdrive here.... It says, "How about a little single-tasking. Phones that play music. Music players that play movies. When did we start doing everything at once? And when did we multitask the joy out of driving? ... Just something to rethink about."

Doesn't quite make me want to go out and buy a Saturn... but it does bring into focus more of the lifestyle. Right now I am at work.... It's all about multi-tasking. Having a conversation with the customer, troubleshooting the issue, locating customer information, and creating case notes. Then when I go home I am trying to do so many things at once... from catching up on TV shows that I missed, to email, to video editing, chatting on MSN, eating, to whatever else I can find. Then I wonder where the day has gone and why even though I always seem to be busy that I really didn't accomplish all that much.

But as a result I now have trouble just sitting down and watching a movie. I feel like I should be doing so much more. I now feel like I should be multi-tasking ALL the time. Kind of takes the joy of it. So maybe I should try to get back to focusing on just one thing at at time... Like the Saturn ad says.

Friday, March 21, 2008

Who Knew It Would Be This Hard


Here is a picture of the bracelet that I lost. Since it has been gone I have come to realize just how important it was to me. I am also realizing that recreating it is a real challenge. You would think that it would be easy.... It's just orange and white beads after all. Finding orange beads that are the right size has become a nightmare. I've discovered that the beads from the original bracelet were incredibly tiny. But the ones I seem to find now are either too big or too small.

I spent about 3 hours yesterday looking up bead sizes and by the end I think I was even more confused then ever and still had absolutely no idea what I should be looking for. There are plenty of auctions on eBay but it's a gamble. I have no idea if it would be the right size or the right colour. So I am a little reluctant to go that route.

There are 2 self-injury sites that carry bracelets and what not. Seems the supplier in the UK that was providing them with the orange beads has discontinued them so they are not an option. I really do have to make it myself.

Some suggested getting one of the silicone bracelets. I tried that once. it was too big and just slid off my wrist. Then Azrael turned it into a toy and I never saw it again.

What am I Paying for?

The other day I was out running errands. Like to get them done before my days off. The guy from Cogeco called... Not the tech support guy but from their CR department or corporate or whatever. He asked me how I was doing and my response was, "I'd be doing better if my cable was working." Alan was under the impression that they had resolved the issue when they were out back on the 9th. He was a little surprised to discover that they had come out twice and given me the same answer that they gave me almost two years ago... that it was a problem between my apartment and the 8th floor. Well it's one thing to tell me that... but they did nothing about it. No follow-up or anything. I just hadn't gotten around to calling and harassing them yet. So I was promised an answer within 48 hours.

Low and behold tech support calls me the next day. First she explains that it's a problem with damaged cable between my apartment and the 8th floor. I know that already. So then she launches into this long winded explanation of how they will likely have to re-wire it and how they're not sure how they will get that done... as if I'm inconveniencing them. I pay $120 month for cable and internet... Really I just want what I am paying for. It's not like I damaged the cables or caused this. So yes I am sorry that it means extra work for you but it's not my problem. So then she had to arrange a time for a repair guy and the supervisor to come out to "assess it." So that means I have to make sure that I am off my call and home as soon as possible. It means that I have to be home all morning... So they're not the only ones that are inconvenienced. And I already know that this won't be the end of it. They still have to identify exactly what needs to be done in order to rectify it. Then come back and do it.

I highly doubt that they are even going to offer any type of compensation over the whole thing. Likely I will have to fight them for it. At least that's what I am predicting. I don't like fighting all that much... especially in a case like this where the compensation should be automatic. First, and foremost though, I'd like it to be fixed... so I can watch all the channels that I am paying for and record all my shows.

One Year Later

I meant to write this yesterday and actually assumed I was going to have time to write it last night but since I didn't wake up until midnight guess not. So yesterday marked the 1 year anniversary of being fired. Fortunately, I had yesterday off so there was no chance that history was about to repeat itself. Not that I figured it would be... nor am I really superstitious... but I'd still rather not take that chance.

What a year. It has certainly had it's moments and been a trying year. Something about being unemployed.... taking on a corporation.... finding a new job.... and now here we are. The important part is that I made it through. I survived the year. I'm sure that I could give the breakdown of the entire year and relive the whole thing but I'm not sure that it would be all that beneficial. Suffice to say that I took what I could out of it and am moving on with my life.

Right now I am enjoying a 3 day weekend. When I planned for a long weekend I didn't even realize that it was the Easter weekend. So I am losing the extra hours... I still get paid for today. So that is just fine by me. It's all about the peace and quiet... and getting back to the place where the Fibro isn't flaring up and causing a great deal of pain.

The hard part about life these days... aside from the reduction in pay... is that I work midnights. Definitely not an easy shift to be on. It's often difficult to go to sleep in the middle of the day and then be up all night. For as many channels as I might have with the cable there really isn' a whole lot on at night.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Putting Freud to Use




You Are the Ego



You take a balanced approach to your life.

You definitely aren't afraid to act out on your desires - even crazy ones.

But you usually think first. Morals drive you as much as hedonism does.

You've been able to live a life of pleasure... without living a life of excess.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Better Late then Never

Seems I missed Self-Injury Awareness Day (SIAD). My bad. Better late then never, right? I do want to bring attention to this topic as I feel it is important. So March 1 was actually the day designed to bring awareness to what is still a virtually unknown, or taboo subject. I never said I was going to make people comfortable or shy away from difficult topics. Just look at the right hand side. I have links already to all my posts on the subject.

On a related note I am very saddened at the moment. The other day I lost my orange and white bracelet. I ransacked the apartment but to no avail. Now we're talking like $2 in beads but that's not the point. I am so not the arts & crafts type and can see me getting really frustrated trying to tie the knot in it. Aside from when I broke the first one it has not left my wrist in 2 years. So I am pretty devestated over it.

It's not that I think I am going to go back to the self-injury because I don't have it. I just used it to remind myself each morning that it was one more day. It's like any addiction. You have to acknowledge each day the accomplishment that comes from making it through another day. And when things were tough I would look at the bracelet and remind myself that I was stronger then that and that recovery was a lifetime process. I already tried looking on eBay for a replacement and the place where I bought it from in the first place but they are sold out. It's a sad day... especially since it's supposed to be the month of awareness. What do I do... lose the bracelet. So much for that thought.

Saturday, March 08, 2008

Winter Wonderland

Back around groundhog's day I was ready for winter to end. It has been a long winter with a lot of snow. I was hoping for spring. Now here we are and it's like a blizzard outside. For most of the night at work I was sitting there looking out the window, just waiting for the snow to start. Fortunately, it really didn't start until after I got home from work. At 7:00 in the morning I was wishing I had my camera though. It was like the calm before the storm. The streets were deserted and it looked extremely peaceful. But everything was covered in snow. Reminded me of a winter wonderland.

I've heard estimates as high as 50 centimetres which is 4 feet of snow.... More likely there will be about 2 feet of snow. That's just craziness. It's March. And I don't want to see 4 feet (or even 2 feet) of snow in an entire winter... let alone in one day. I am currently watching the snowfall and hoping that I am able to make it to work tonight.

Hmmm... apparently I forgot to post this.... Still hoping to make it into work tonight. It all depends on my ride being able to make it here. Well the tricky part is actually clearing the snow off the car and being able to get out of the parking lot where he works. Something tells me that it's going to be a skeleton crew at work tonight and super busy.

The good news... an hour less at work tonight since the clocks go ahead partway through my shift. Well I suppose that's also bad news since it means an hour less in pay.

Bent Out of Shape


Azrael was making new friends today... sort of. I am beginning to think that I should sabotage my cable more often. He really likes to play with the cable guy. I am starting to think that I should try and find cable guy.... or someone that wears a tool belt. Wait that sounds kind of bad. But for as much as Azrael wanted to visit him and make a new friend he was a little bent out of shape. For one his morning routine got interrupted. If I ever thought that I was obsessive with routines I think he has me beat. Azrael was also territorial and likely could smell his cat as well. Makes me think twice about bringing in another cat. His payback was to turn the cable guys jacket into a bed while he was here. One of the tools that the cable guy was using was to check frequencies and it had a high pitched sound that just drove Azrael absolutely nuts. I thought he'd go hide in my room.... but instead he ran straight for the cable guy and started hissing. At least he didn't outright attack him. After he left I almost felt like I had to be the therapist and reassure him.

As far as the cable goes... Well they reset the cable box so hopefully they fixed my issues with recording. Kind of irritating to set it to record a show and then not have the show record. The fact my digital channels are inconsistent still hasn't been resolved. There is an issue with the cables somewhere between my apartment and the 8th floor. But they are supposed to be coming back tomorrow morning to test it out and get it fixed... or escalate it if necessary. This has been an issue pretty well since I moved in here. I'm thinking this is repair guy #4. So not holding any hopes on it actually being resolved. I just have to hope that I get off work on time tomorrow morning.

Sunday, March 02, 2008

Techno Geekiness and My Hate for Codecs

With the death of HD-DVD (Long live Blu-ray!!!!!!!!!!) I had been seriously considering getting an HD-DVD player. Am I insane? Probably... but can we say fire sale and cheap movies? I think we can. Besides up until the end of February you get 5 free movies for purchasing certain players. But spending $100 to get 2 movies that I really wanted and 5 that I didn't need (2 come in the box) just didn't seem worthwhile. So I had all but given up on the idea... unless the price dropped even further. The other day I was on Red Flag Deals and came across a deal for the XBox 360 HD-DVD player. Why I even decided to check out the thread is beyond me. I don't own an XBox and with the ability to stream multimedia files to the PS3 I am not about to get an XBox 360. Any ways.... while reading the thread I realized that you could connect it to the PC and play videos through it. Suddenly I had a reason to get it.... especially since it was $50. So then I was on the hunt for the drive. Managed to get one at Blockbuster which was nice since I still had some store credit left after the whole Resident Evil fiasco. It was the one time they weren't overcharging me.

Now my actual PC doesn't meet the system requirements to play HD-DVD. The display is not HDCP compliant and the video card doesn't support it. No surpise there.... My Mac really is the most versatile computer ever. Just one small problem though. There is no software for the Mac that will play HD-DVD. Well no HDCP compliant display there either... but that was only a minor issue. Fortunately I have Vista on that computer as well. Reboot into Vista and this is when the fun began. Norton wanted to update. Okay fine... So then I had to connect to the internet. And as soon as I did that Windows wanted to update. Both of those took a long time and then somehow Norton found 2 spyware and a virus. With no internet connection how did I manage that? So 2 hours into my ordeal I am having system issues and decide to wipe the system and start over. Boot to the disk and format... so far so good. Too bad I hadn't changed the start-up disk so it booted back into Mac OS X when it restarted. So back to the disk I go and time to try that one more time. Get Vista installed (again) and time to install Norton and do the Windows updates. After all I want to make sure that it's up to date... and has no viruses. Installed a couple of applications and then it was time to play. Disconnect the external drive since it was Mac formatted any ways and got the blue screen of death. It restarted on it's own and then I connected the HD-DVD player. Took a few minutes to install the drivers for it. That was by far the easiest part of my night. Insert the Kingdom on HD-DVD and it opens Power DVD. So far so good, right? You would think... all I get is black.... no menus.... no nothing.... so I was running through the scenarios... like compatibility (this is an XBox drive after all... and I am using a Mac). Try a different disk with no luck. Then I remembered that I had AnyDVD HD installed and running. Turn that off... and hey look I have video. So the hard part was getting my system set up in the first place.... My next question was whether or not I could use a remote with it. Now there is an IR receiver already but it wouldn't recognize the XBox remote that came with the drive. I do, however, have a remote for Windows Media Center edition. That one did work. Took pretty well my entire first day off just to get to the point where I could play HD-DVDs.

Most people would stop there.... After all I could now pick up some cheap HD-DVDs (like at Deep Discount) and play them on the computer. But why stop there? For one, I don't like being stuck in Windows. I want to be able to play videos on my Mac. I also want to be able to play it back on my TV which is not currently an option. Now I can buy the adapter and possibly play it on the TV (I did hear that it may not work in Windows) but that means more cables.... This is a portable computer.... that is looking more and more like a desktop these days.... but with a smaller screen. So.... at the end of day #1 my quest began. I wanted to find a way to convert the HD-DVD files into a compressed video file that I could play on the Mac... or the PS3.

3 days later I am not sure that I am any closer to the goal. As an interesting note I can use Visual Hub on the Mac and convert the video no problem. I find it interesting that the Mac will read an .evo file at all... but any ways. The problem is that there is no audio to go with it. HD-DVD uses DD+ audio (or even TrueHD) and there is no codec to read it.... at least not on the Mac platform. And, as far as Windows goes it's sketchy at best. WinDVD, Nero, and Power DVD all have the decoder so the audio plays fine.... But that doesn't really help me in my quest. Nero is the closest but it doesn't play nice with files ripped to the hard drive.... I don't think. Or should I say that while I might be able to strip the audio with it I don't think I can do it all in one... using that to convert the files. Not sure I want to spend the money on Nero 8 if it won't do what I want it to. I did look on Dolby's web site for the decoder.... For the entire Dolby Media Producer it's $11,000. And I thought Final Cut Studio was expensive. For just the decoder it's $1800. So how can DVD players afford to include it?

About the only option I have seen so far is to install like 6 different things and use them all for various portions of this process. I am the stereotypical Mac user. I want it to be simple... and just work. I want one application.... That would be nice. And for the video part of it that works.... It's all about encoding the audio. That's where the problem lies. All of the codecs involved... makes my head spin just trying to think about it. Right along with using command lines to convert the files and then put them back together. Why did I have to start this process?

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