Category Archives: Information

Creative graphing

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Most graphs use zero for the origin of the X and Y axes. In a some cases, it is better to use a different origin. Because this is unusual, the present should take care to note the atypical origin in order to not confuse or fool the audience. In some cases, those who fail to do this fool themselves. Case in point, consider the graph below, which appeared here.

fb-relationship-graph

This appears to show a big difference. Until you look at the y-axis and see that the difference between the high and low is 0.11 posts/day. This is about a 7% over all change, which may be significant. But the graph is highly misleading.

To prove the point a facsimile of the original graph is presented below.

a

And here it is with 0 as the origin of the Y-axis.20120918_184854.jpg

b

As noted above, this variation of 0.11 posts/day may be significant. But the unzoomed plot gives a better understanding of the magnitude of the change.

Improve your commute by hacking traffic lights

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This paper presents an opportunity for a killer app.

I am leery of the Internet of Things because (a) security is hard and (b) too little time is given to it. The latter is an over-generalization. But most solutions are delivered incomplete because too few resources are available or allocated. The result is essentially all software is vulnerable to attack.

This is the primary reason I am nervous about the Internet of Things.

Professors at U. of Michigan Question Administrators’ Extra Pay

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It is well known that university administrators take care of themselves. It is encouraging that some are questioning this. “Additional pay” is category for rewarding employees, think bonuses. At Michigan, additional pay has jumped from $13M to $46M in 9 year.
It is likely that this is being abused. Read about it here.

Professor of the Year

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From Critical Theory, we present the professor of the year. Samples:

  • ‘“I hate students,” he said, “they are (as all people) mostly stupid and boring.”‘
  • ‘”[I]f you don’t give me any of your shitty papers, you get an A. If you give me a paper I may read it and not like it and you can get a lower grade.” He received no papers that semester.’
  • ‘Zizek would fill up his sign-up sheet for office hours with fake names to avoid student contact.’

Why do departments and universities put up with this? Priorities are so out of whack at many schools. No one can be good enough in other areas to compensate for this. Furthermore, it is almost a given that he is not as good as he could be (nor as good as he thinks he is) because one necessary condition for learning is humility. You cannot learn anything if you already know it all.