Exploitation

Every year at Christmas my wife and I donate to Samaritan's Purse, a Christ-centered emergency relief and development organization.  The group puts out a gift catalog, highlighting specific projects that donors can participate in: water development projects, emergency surgery for those without access to medical care, bicycles for traveling pastors, et cetera.  The donations are most easily done through the organization's website and this year I noticed something funny when I popped over to start browsing the online catalog.

The web address for this pages ends in "gift_catalog_exploitation".

This is not reassuring, to say the least.

Workout Schedules

A Plant Fitness gym opened up near our house recently and, tempted by the five minute walk from our house and the $10/month membership fee, my wife and I decided to join.  So far, we have both made regular use of the facility and are easily getting our money's worth.

The last time I was in there was a flyer at the main desk showing the average number of members in the gym for every hour of every day (the gym is open 24/7) for what I assume is the entire length of time this particular facility was open (about a month).  This big table of numbers had the most popular times shaded with the tacit advice to all members that working out during less busy times would be a good idea.

Being the data nerd that I am, I was pretty excited to see the facility publish this. Admittedly, with only a few weeks in operation, each entry in the table was probably only averaged over four or five data points but its better than nothing.  To help make the data more easily interpreted, I made a graph.

The data clearly shows the after-work time slots are the most popular with the before-work time periods also being commonly used.  Weekends tend to not be busy and of course, the dead of night is a good time to have the gym to yourself.

I'm hoping they update the data and republish in a few months.  I'd be interested to see if a larger data set produces any significant change in the data and/or trends.

I'm Famous (Again)

The commentator in one of the podcasts I listen to, John Siracusa of Hypercritical, has a regular section at the beginning of each show where he further addresses issues brought up in previous shows.  This follow-up is usually prompted by listeners writing in and offering further insight, often based on previous experience.

During last week's episode, John was speaking about a rumored deal between Apple and the semiconductor manufacturer TSMC and expressed a little bit of confusion about why the particular deal would be arranged in a particular way.  Based on my time at Micron, the deal made perfect sense to me and so I took ten minutes to email in my thoughts.

As I'm listening to this week's episode, I hear John begin the follow-up section and my brain snaps to attention: if my comments are going to get on the air, it will probably be on this show.  I listen carefully and the follow-up begins to wander toward the Apple/TSMC deal.  John begins to provide context for the story, reminding the audience what was a little confusing about this rumor.  My breathing is quickening and I can feel the nervous energy beginning to course through my body.  This is the same anxiety I've felt when presenting my work in front of other like when playing a musical solo or presenting my master's thesis.  My fingers seem unable to stay completely under my control, I have an incessant urge to wiggle my toes.  Externally these are the only signs but my mind is singular in attention and body seems to know this and wants to run wild.

By the cadence and tone of John's voice it is clear that the moment of truth is quickly approaching. In just a few words he will reveal to the world the comments sent in by a listener and judge them as worthy or not.  The set-up seems so focused, so inevitable, like his words are leading the audience down the path, to the stage where my contribution will be shown.  But will they be mine?  Perhaps another wrote in with the same experience but expressed it in more concise and insightful way?  I'm all but certain that the past sixty seconds of John's voice are for me and I simultaneously fear I have deluded myself, that I have heard this all with rose-colored ears and reality will disappoint.

Here is what actually transpired.  (Starting around 6:45).

Unlike my last claim to fame, this one actually involves me being named.

Replacing Windows

Apparently the University reads my blog. I posted my dire warning showing the flexing of the Engineering Building upper hallway windows in a storm and now the windows are being replaced.

Two years later.

I'm taking credit.