Tag Archives: Computing

Comments on Gmail

As most people reading this probably know, I’ve been using Google’s Gmail service for my primary e-mail address for the last couple months. I’ve found that this is, overall, a very useful switch, but I thought I would provide some semi-objective comments on the service.

  1. E-Mail access via e-mail clients. I’ve found it really useful to still run Mozilla Thunderbird alongside Gmail’s interface, but there’s a lot of redundancy inherent in this. The only real reason I’m still running Thunderbird is because there’s some data in there that I don’t want to lose. So, thus, I’m keeping track of both my Evergreen e-mail and my Gmail e-mail via Thunderbird.
  2. No IMAP access. POP access, which is currently what Gmail offers, only allows one-way communication between e-mail servers and an e-mail client. In a typical situation, if you retrieve mail via POP, there is no way to recover messages. Gmail’s POP service is quite nice in that it leaves copies of every message sent or received on its servers to be accessed via their web interface.

    The problem is the data that’s still in Thunderbird. The one thing stopping me from completely using web access to read my e-mail are those precious messages that I don’t want to misplace. IMAP would allow me to write that data over to Gmail’s servers and essentially get rid of mail clients entirely. To me, that’s not a goal to cough at — all my bookmarks are available online for my immediate reference should I need it, so why can’t all my e-mail be the same way?

  3. Usability. Gmail’s service is very, very usable. The only things that I really don’t are (1) that signatures aren’t always inserted where I want them and (2) there is no option to have multiple signatures. This is another reason why I’m still using Thunderbird. Gmail, when opening a compose window, puts the e-mail signature all the way down at the bottom of the message. Since I don’t always want to use that particular signature, I have to go down to the bottom of the window and delete it. If I do want to use it, I have to go down to the bottom and cut/paste it into the proper space (at least when replying to messages).

    Bottom line: Google needs to tweak the signature functionality to be more intuitive.

My experience with Gmail has been astoundingly positive, with very few (if any) disruptions in service. I’d recommend this to anyone willing to try it, and I’ve got 50 Gmail invites to get rid of anyway. Anyone want one?

Teaching Philosophies

I’ve had the chance during the last few weeks as the quarter winds down to think about my own philosophy behind teaching. This stems out of both my work as a writing tutor in the College’s Writing Center and as a lab aide for Logo programming with the Designing Languages and Algebra to Algorithms programs this quarter.

I’ve always had a deep appreciation for teaching, which has deepened since I started working in tutoring positions, and deepened even more as a lab aide. As a lab aide, the strategies are basically exactly the same as they are when tutoring — lead the student to the answer for whatever question they’re asking. However, the process requires more breaks from that strategy: if a student doesn’t understand something, lab aides are expected to clue them in a bit with a nudge in the right direction, which usually means giving them some portion of the answer.

I’ve found that, as a lab aide, it’s very easy to understand what the lab is asking for, and it’s also easy to know the answer to the lab (so long as you’ve done the appropriate preparation beforehand), but it’s very hard to convey what the lab is about, much less convey the answers, to students. Thus, I’ve really been struggling this quarter with coming up with good ways to explain and relate concepts back to work that they’ve already done.

I found this especially true while in the lab last Thursday. The lab itself had to do with fractals — specifically, the Koch Snowflake (also known as the Koch Curve). The process of creating the fractal is very easy — using a standard triangle, “kink out” each side in order to create a level two Snowflake. Then, to create a level three Snowflake, use all the sides in a level two snowflake and “kink” those out. The Wikipedia entry has a graphic that shows the progression quite nicely. This is basically just the same idea applied over and over. It can be applied recursively (though that’s not really a great solution), but it’s actually better to implement it recursively for levels three and up. For levels two and one, it’s better to have a separate procedure to draw them, since the logic is so different.

Relatively straightforward, but very hard to explain when you’re not supposed to give students the answers.

While the strategies are really quite similar, the result is quite different — as a writing tutor, the final result of any session with me isn’t necessarily an answer, unless the student brings in a very specific question. Most often, in addition to an answer, students get an idea of what needs to be done next in order to allow their writing to grow. Not so as a lab aide — the process stops once the student gets the answer. They can certainly move on to other projects, and we, as aides, will help them find the answer for that project, but there is no sense of programming as a process. Which is ironic — programming is a process, but that process isn’t as obvious as it is in writing.

My philosophy as a tutor has always been that writing, as a process, needs to be nurtured and recognized. Academic writing may be perceived as boring, but it sets students up with an important life skill if taken advantage of properly: the art of written communication. My job as a writing tutor is to help inspire and install that art, and to help students realize that the process is ongoing. You can’t stop after a single draft (though there are exceptions to this); one has to keep going. With programming, the process very definitely stops — once the program’s written and it runs, at least in an academic environment, you’re done with it and probably won’t touch it again.

It’s true that that’s not true in the software world at large, but for the purposes of my lab aide work, it’s good enough.

Continuing Blog Updates

I’ve brought the layout of this blog into line with the rest of my personal site. Hopefully, it’s a little more visually appealing.

My work on this is still in progress, though, since the WordPress theme that defines this layout isn’t complete. I’ll finish it over the next little while, probably (though I might just let it sit for a bit before then).

Gmail as Primary E-Mail

I’ve decided to forward all my e-mail to my personal Gmail account on a trial basis. So far, this seems to be drastically reducing the amount of spam I have to stare at via my mail client. The drawback is, I still have to log in to Gmail to filter that spam to make sure it’s being caught correctly, and there still are some false positives (and some missed spam messages).

But that’s why my original filter system of rejecting anyone not in my address book on Thunderbird is still in place.

It seems to be working alright so far, though — thank goodness for Google’s ever-expanding storage. If you don’t believe me, look at the Gmail welcome page. That’s an up-to-the-second tally of disk space available to users. Ph33r.

autumn departs

R.I.P. autumn
August 29, 2001 – April 5, 2005
My trusty Dell Inspiron 8100, autumn (service tag GFVVT01), departed me today via DHL for equipment recycling. She served me for a trusty three years and seven months. When she arrived, she was a 900MHz machine with 128MB RAM. Over the years, she was returned twice for Dell rapid repair response, had her DVD-ROM drive replaced at least twice, and was upgraded to a humble 512MB RAM. I’ll miss that laptop — she served me well, and might have made it a little longer if her LCD hinge hadn’t broken…

Thank you, autumn. I’ll miss you, little tyke.

Laptop Named

I’ve decided to name my laptop calliope, which felt to me like it fit this little computer perfectly. This isn’t named after the music, but a Greek muse — from Wikipedia (original entry linked above):

In Greek mythology, Calliope (Greek: Καλλιoπε, beautiful-voiced) was the muse for epic poetry. She had two sons, Orpheus and Linus with Apollo. She was the oldest and wisest of the Muses. She was the judge in the argument over Adonis between Aphrodite and Persephone. She was represented by a stylus and wax tablets.

Well, I am a writer and writing tutor, after all, and much of my work involves writing, so this makes sense.

New Dell Laptop

I decided, due to the problems with autumn’s hinges and the fact that autumn is over three and a half years old (I’ve had her since August 29, 2001), that it was time to get a replacement laptop. I settled on a Dell Inspiron 700M, which is a nice little lightweight laptop unit. I’m going lightweight to save my back some strain when carrying the unit around; I’m also hoping to take my laptop on campus a bit more often than I currently do (whether I will or not has yet to be settled).

Specifications are:

  • Processor: Intel� Pentium� M Processor 725 (1.60GHz/400MHz FSB)
  • Display: 12.1-in WXGA (1280×800)
  • Memory: 512MB DDR SDRAM (1 DIMM)
  • Hard Drive: 60GB
  • Operating System: Windows XP Professional
  • Network Cards: Integrated LAN; Intel PRO/Wireless 2200 Internal Wireless (802.11 b/g, 54Mbps)
  • Modem: Internal 56K Modem
  • CD/DVD-ROM: 24X CD Burner/DVD Combo Drive
  • Primary Battery: 65 WHr 8-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery

The new laptop will be backed by a 4 year limited warranty with at-home service (plus nights and weekends), as well as CompleteCare Accidental Damage Service. Better to be safe than sorry, in my opinion, and the likelihood is that this new system will last about as long as autumn did.

More than likely, since it’s a 60GB drive, I’ll immediately be installing Fedora Core 3 on half of it and Windows XP Professional on the other half, giving both 30GB of space. I continue to use a dual boot for cases when I need to check displays of web pages in Windows, or when i want to use Windows applications and ensure that they run well without worrying too much about emulation.

So what happens to autumn? I will likely be recycling her through Dell, along with all the component parts that I can fit in the return box. I already have enough computer parts to get rid of, so if I can save myself the hassle, I will.