Internet Research Is Good for Your Brain

At last I've found something to validate my love of internet surfing!
The more you use the internet the more of your brain you use.

Tests on Areas of the Brain Used when Searching on the Internet
UCLA researchers used fMRI scans to see which area of the brain people use when researching on the internet compared with the areas of the brain they use when reading.
They tested two groups of people aged 55 to 76. One half of the group was internet-savvy and the other half was internet-naive. Experienced (internet-savvy) users showed more areas of the brain being used than inexperienced (internet-naive) users when doing the internet search test.

The Benefits of Doing Internet Research
The researchers found that you use much more of your brain if you are an experienced internet user. Not only that, but also the areas of the brain used are those used for higher levels of reasoning.
The areas of the brain used by both groups during the book reading test were those related to language, reading, memory and visual abilities.
The additional areas of the brain used during internet search were those of decision-making and complex reasoning.
The other bonus is that these extra areas of the brain continue to be used from then onwards. Usually when someone learns a new skill they use more areas of the brain while learning and then when the skill becomes more automatic, the areas used decrease.

The UCLA study found that "...searching the Internet increases brain function".

In the Beginning ... was the Command Line

In this essay, Neal Stephenson makes a comparison between Apple and Microsoft by using the analogy of certain types of vehicles and how they are marketed in a hypothetical town. An episode from his teenage years started with a wild ride in an old MG sports car driven by his friend's dad and so introduces the analogy of the vehicles. This analogy is amusing and highly effective and in the meantime gives some insights into the basics of what Apple and Microsoft are about, and do best. He also gives an amusing biographical note of how he came to be in infotech, and how it developed in its early years. He discusses various types of command line operating systems including UNIX, BeOS and Linux, and gives a potted history of Apple hardware.

I was amused to find that he spoke about computers as toasters. I have often said how people would like computers to be like toasters - how they want to be able to turn them on instantly, do what they want to do quickly and when they break down buy another easily at a reasonable price. Alas we haven't reached that state of being yet.

Later on in his essay he talks about how western culture has changed over the years. He talks about a written word based interface to culture through books, newspapers and magazines and how this moved to a graphical based interface with computers and games consoles and then on to a multi-senses based interface using Disney Land as an example of this. He didn't make any mention of the auditory based interface for cultural transmission which has been there from the beginning and is still going strong through all our cultural transitions.

Even though I read the whole essay online I couldn't stop reading it. That shows how well-written it is, as, like a lot of people, I find it hard to read large amounts of text on-screen. The essay was actually published in 1999 but is still well worth reading today. Neal said he has no current intention of revising it. You can download the full text of the essay by clicking on the link below.
In the Beginning ... was the Command Line

56 years old Woman becomes the First Woman to Swim the Atlantic

Jennifer Figge swam from Africa to Trinidad. To make it even more remarkable she started the swim in mid winter on 12 January. She battled strong winds and waves up to 10 metres high. Arriving in Trinidad on 5 February, she was off course by 1610 kilometres because of the bad weather. Jennifer had originally intended to swim to the Bahamas. Along the way her thoughts were on her dog, family and friends. This feat was only ten years after the first known trans Atlantic swim.
56 years old Woman becomes the First Woman to Swim the Atlantic

Are you too Old for Facebook? - Indeed!!!

So the number of people 50+ on Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn or Flickr is small. So what. Does that make one too old? One is never too old for anything. It's all about attitude. See the following blog for an inspiring example of a Golden Oldie.
Are you too Old for Facebook?

Interesting Discussion by Software Developers about Ageism

These are all currently employed developers talking about attitudes to continuing on as developers into their 40s and 50s because of their love of development itself. They talk about how possible it is/will be to do this and the prejudices they have to face from employers and younger developers. The hurdles aren't always attitudinal ones. There are also economic ones.
Should Developers worry about Ageism?

Someone's Thoughts about Senior Citizens (Seen on Reddit)

The statement made on Reddit is slightly ambiguous but seems to be negative. Follow the link above to see more.

My comment is that Senior citizens are people too. Maybe that person had no money. Maybe that person liked the interaction with customers and didn't need the money. Maybe that person is the owner of Starbucks and wanted to see the normal, every day running of the place (not likely). Maybe you are just scared of getting older. It happens whether you like it or not and there will always be younger people than you thinking the same ungracious thing about you - whatever your present age.
"It makes me sad when a Senior Citizen serves me in Starbucks" on Reddit

The Ordinary is Remarkable

We are always looking for something new and different - but look again at the ordinary. Ordinary people have remarkable stories, especially if they have lived for fifty years or more. They can't have escaped from having adventures even if they tried. The ordinary is remarkable. That's why TV shows such as "Big Brother" have done so well. They are about ordinary people in a fish bowl. We get sick of hearing what celebrities are supposed to have said or done. Most of what we see and hear about them appears to be distorted away from the truth or not true at all - completely made up to get the attention of viewers and readers. Biographies of ordinary people are much more interesting than those of celebrities, generally, as they are written in a more humble tone.

Art Gallery of New South Wales

I have walked past this sculpture dozens of times in all the decades I have been going to the art galley and not noticed it or taken a good look at it. When the photo turned out to be framed quite well I was pleased with it. Of course it isn't a technical masterpiece but I liked it nontheless.

Equestrian Statue outside the Art Gallery of New South Wales

Katoomba

I noticed these items in the display case in an antiques shop in Katoomba and was intrigued by the pottery head and the small items around it. They seem to be circa 1940s.

Intriguing items in a glass case in the antiques shop

On the way out of the shop on the landing were some concrete pots and a glass-topped, wrought iron table grouped in the corner. They made an interesting interplay of shapes and light and shade.

Pots and Table on the landing outside the shop

Along the road a bit further is the Carrington Hotel whose garden looked lovely so is included here. One photo shows the garden and the path leading from the street to the hotel and the other shows the abundant rose garden to the side of the path.

The garden of the Carrington Hotel with green lawns and roses

The abundant rose garden to the side of the path into the Carrington Hotel

On the walk back along the street there was a restored trolley bus with signs on its side advertising tours around the district.

A restored trolley car bus waiting to take tourists on tours of the Blue Mountains

Katoomba, I understand, is a word taken from Kedumba which is an aboriginal word meaning shining falling water. This wall painting is probably a depiction of early tourists to the area. They would have had to climb down the vertical cliff face before the railway and steps were built.

Wall painting showing early tourists beneath the waterfall

"Australia" the Magical Movie

Response
I went to the movie out of a sense of duty: to Australia, the country, and to Baz Luhrman for having made the movie "Strictly Ballroom". According to our press, it has had poor reviews here and negligible response in America. I wanted to see for myself. It didn't get a very good review from Pomerantz and Stratton and I tend to follow their advice as I find I usually agree with their taste in movies. So I was glad I went to see it despite the reviews.

Magic
Throughout the movie at critical moments we see the protective magic of King George, Nullah's grandfather. We also start the movie with Nullah saying that Mrs Boss will heal the place. Getting her to sing the theme from "The Wizard of Oz" introduces the "magic of fantasy" which soothes him after the loss of his mother and calls them together at the end of the movie.

Story
The movie seemed to change tone as it moved along. It took a long time to make so maybe that was the reason; or maybe it was a deliberate strategy of the film makers. It started off in a jocular vein. I was laughing so much. There were many subtle in-jokes amongst the more obvious ones. I think growing up in a not-too-small country town gave me a context for these bits of humour that wouldn't necesarily be immediately obvious to everyone. It was almost slapstick humour at times. The humour was interwoven with the drama of the movie. There was a continuous change of tension which was well orchestrated as in grand opera. There wasn't a moment when I was not involved with the movie. (This rarely happens with me. I regularly disengage from movies and think I am bored and can't wait for a movie to finish.)

Acting
There were a lot of Australian actors in the movie who are very familiar faces and I felt it was like greeting old friends but they played their parts so well that it didn't distract from the story at all. Apart from the main characters Jack Thompson played an accountant and David Wenham played the distinctlly unlikeable station manager. He often seems to get the roles of down-and-outs or baddies. He is a very fine actor and plays his roles thoroughly convincingly.

British Minor Celebrities

Jeremy Clarkson is a very funny man. I don't agree with three-quarters of what he has to say but I'm glad he says it. I am also glad he says it in the way he says it. He is the original grumpy (not-so-old man). I enjoy his peregrinations through the country and psyche of the UK and also the rest of the world. My first introduction to him was through the TV show "Top Gear". Then I discovered his books which are really just a reprint of his writings for "The Times". I don't really believe that he really believes all he says. If he does he would be an extremely obnoxious person to know. I'm sure it's all just blunder and bluster. He holds some very negative opinions about worthwhile topics such as vegetarianism, ecology and women drivers. I bet his wife is a much better driver than he is and if she isn't she would be a very unusual woman. Maybe she only tolerates him because he's three times the size she is.

Beware of Richard Madeley. He doesn't really like his audience. He said so in his blog on 14 December 2007 and he doesn't like Tony Robinson, so he can't be any good then can he? He might be a friend of Bill Oddie but does that redeem him? No, that isn't enough. He should appreciate his audience, nay, love them. They are his sustenance. Especially since he thinks the audience are in the age group I would call the golden grannies (ie people, male and female who are fifty years old and older).

Digital SLR Cameras

OK, so I want to own a digital SLR camera. I used to own a film SLR camera. I bought it because I wanted to frame photos more accurately. It was in the days when film and processessing cost half a year's salary almost so I didn't get to use it very often. I used to choose very carefully which photos I would take and groan internally at the cost. It would sometimes take up to two years to use up a film because of the cost so of course the film had deteriated somewhat by the time I got to see the results. Also slide film was cheaper than prints so that was the film of choice.

This made it obviously more difficult to see the pictures as you either had to look at them through a little hand-held slide viewer or get out the slide projector and of couse you had to have a clear wall or purchase a screen and put it up. This screen would usually roll itself back into its holder several times before staying open. Every time you had a "slide show" at least one of the slides would get stuck and there would be a long, boring delay until you got the projector working again. You couldn't leave the slides on too long for fear of them melting. It was all such a lot of bother for little reward not to mention boring the socks off everyone who was commandeered into watching the show. It was all such a huge effort to put up the screen and slide viewer and go through the slides one by one to pick out the best one never seemed worth it to look at the slides by yourself.

Back to digital SLRs. Imagine my surprise when I found out that only the more expensive ones have "live view"which means that the camera has a system for displaying the view through the monitor. This has a slower response time that the instantaneous view through the viewfinder. Maybe not having "live view" isn't such a problem as I like taking photos through the viewfinder. Taking photos through the viewfinder allows you to take photos in quick succession but you have to move up and down to take photos at various heights. If you take photos through the monitor you have a greater vertical range. Of course one probably wouldn't have much use for this vertical range very often.

Grey Nomad

Mary Tyler inspires me. She has been driving around Australia in a tiny vehicle by herself for many years. One day she decided to keep driving because someone said she wasn't up to it so she just took off and went.

She has been featured in newspaper and magazine articles from time to time but she is mostly just one of many unsung heroes. She obviously thoroughly enjoys herself on the road and has plenty of company and lots of adventures.

She has been driving around Australia since she was seventy five. The last article I read about her said she was driving around Australia for the thirteenth time at the age of eighty-eight years. In between the full circuits of Australia she goes for "short" drives of a few hundred kilometres just to have dinner somewhere different.
She also gives talks at local Probus clubs.

She has self-published a book called Baked Beans in the Outback and Curry in Kashmir.

If you want to read more about her visit this site.

iPhone and Apple computers in general

Yes, I want an iPhone. Have I been sucked in by Steve Jobs' advertising? Probably, although I am generally pretty good at ignoring advertising. All the Apple range appeals to my tastes for simplicity and minimalism. The appeal isn't in actually using the computers. It is in appreciating the packaging and opening it. It is in the joy of discovering what's inside the box and opening every layer of it. When I bought my Dell XPS laptop I thought I was going to miss out on this experience but what a mild surprise when I found out that there was a similar, but more muted experience opening the XPS box.

All this isn't because of the fashion for minimalism that has been around for a decade or two. It goes back to my Buddhist-Zen phase of a few decades ago. I find it difficult adjusting to the Apple keyboard and mouse so that is a put-off. I would miss the right-click context menus. Also having to go to the opposite side of the screen to close programs is a nuisance. I know it is only habit so after a short period of time it would become automatic. I have experimented with various flavours of Linux, including Ubuntu so it's not that I haven't used a similar layout. I would also miss all the keyboard shortcuts that I use so often. As I usually open programs by typing in a few initial letters in Start > Run on XP or Start button + Start Search field in Vista, I would also miss using the keyboard more than the mouse.

The main reason I am not going to buy an iPhone at the moment is not becuse there is anything intrinsically wrong with the iPhone. It's because the data costs are way too high in Australia so it would be too costly to run it. I could probably rationalise the cost of the phone itself but I couldn't rationalise the cost of using it.

Muston Park's Version of Monet's Garden

This is the closest thing we have in Sydney to Monet's garden at Giverny. The only resemblance is the curving bridge. The local council has planted an urban bush around the local creek and this is the result. They cut down a magnificent camphor laurel which had been growing majestically just near where the photo was taken. They also cut down an oak tree which had been growing to the left of it. The camphor laurel, in some eyes, is deemed to be a noxious weed. I don't know why. I suppose the oak tree, not being an Australian native tree, was destined to be cut down also.

The bridge curves over the creek like Monet's bridge over the water lily pond.

Sculpture by the Sea

Went down to Sculpture by the Sea yesterday afternoon and took some photos. The light wasn't very good for taking photos as the sky was hazy but here they are anyway. There were some surprisingly good sculptures. The photos I have put on this blog are just a few of them. Even on a weekday afternoon there were a lot of people looking at the sculptures. An event like this brings art to the general populace although I suspect that the majority of the people there were already interested in art. Culture is generally ignored or discouraged in Australia except for a minority of the population, unfortunately.

This sculpture would make a good screen in a semi-formal or tropical garden, or a private space if the two frames were placed together.

I liked the way there are many diagonals in this photo from the foreground brown ground to two apparent diagonals of the sculpture to the distant cliffs.

There is a pleasant contrast between the horizontal lines of the soft-hard rocks and the radiating lines of the hard-soft balls.

The distant joy of movement of the group of dogs running up the hill contrasts, on closer inspection, with the shock or distress of seeing them look like a bandaged, injured framework of bones.

The traditional colours and the whimsy of this group of characters is what caught my eye.

Bowls

Not that bowls isn't enjoyable! All types of bowls are great: lawn bowls, bocce, petanque and boules. I have waited, longing for retirement, to be able to play bowls. The thing about bocce and boules is that it can be played almost anywhere with the minimal of equipment, whereas lawn bowls is highly organised. You need to be a male who belongs to a club and has the correct uniform ie special hat, shirt, trousers and shoes as well as a set of bowls. Anyway that was the way it used to be when I was young. Women at bowling clubs were actively discouraged if not totally banned. They were occasionally allowed to play "associate games". Nowadays, young people are encouraged to join clubs and they even have something called "barefoot bowling" as ordinary shoes are not allowed on bowling greens.

Computers (etc) for Seniors

Grumpy Old Woman

I get grumpy when I see books with this title or similar. Yes, some people of a certain age ie the wise women/men of this world have had decades of experience with computers, just as they have had with all the other areas of life.

Even if they haven't, a good percentage of them are quick uptakers of new technology. They have their mobile phones computers and internet connections except where the telcos haven't yet provided access. As you know, this is a good part of rural Australia, just where it is most needed because of the geographical isolation from the cultural and intellectual benefits of the city.

The internet is a wonderful tools for all of us. It beats bingo and bowls as a time-filler.