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Google Fiber

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Well, Google Fiber is here in Provo. I decided to sign up for the gigabit service, but I am a little concerned about the actual performance. If I navigate to http://provo.speedtest.googlefiber.net, I can test the speed. However, I get two sets of information from this google hosted site. (Note that they say it is powered by Ookla) In Google Chrome: In Safari and Firefox: While 527.17 Mbps is nothing to complain about, I'm disturbed by the fact that Google Chrome gets a 400mbps bump . . . or that it is at least reporting 400mbps more. So, I decided to get some info from a third party. I went to http://speedtest.net (also powered by Ookla). I was once again very disturbed. All three browsers seemed to be getting similar results. So, what's going on Google? Granted at these speeds and at this price, Google fiber is truly the way to go. I just wished I could explain this discrepancy.  Before I finish this post, I want to make it clear that these
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First Day with the New Commuter Bike

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In case you were unaware, I sold my trike to buy a commuter bike . . . . and so far I love it! Today was the first day of commuting by bike. I have always wanted to be bike commuter, but the trike just wasn't doing it for me. It's so hard to store and hard to take places. Plus, it's an expensive piece of art that I couldn't just leave anywhere. I added 15 minutes to my total commute time, but also added 40 minutes of moderate exercise. Many of you may thing that 20 minutes to go 4 miles is slow. There is a giant hill I have to overcome! Check out the elevation profile. Long story short. I like cycling and I like cycling to work!
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Standing Desk

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I've read all about standing desks. I like them. I'm never going to be a full-time stander though. I like to stand and work on days that I don't stand in front of a classroom all day. But, after 4 hours of teaching, I prefer to sit. I'd seen this great Ikea hack  a while back about a cheap standing desk . We went to ikea this weekend, so I decided to give it a try. I switched out some of the ingredients mentioned in the aforlinked article . I used $3 brackets and a $1.99 shelf. I also went with the black-brown look. Lack side table  - $9.99 Ekby Valter - 2 X $3.00 Ekby Laiva - $1.99 It was still under $20! Hopefully it will continue to work for me.
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If this then that

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I've heard great things about using ifttt.com. I finally got around to using it. It's a great way to automate repetitive tasks on the Internet. For example, you can make a recipe that automagically saves pictures from Pinterest to dropbox. I think I may have just made a recipe that will repost this blog on my professional blog to my family blog. If it works as well as it claims to, then I'll love it. Here is a picture. I wanted to see how this works.
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Using Siri in the Classroom

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This isn't really a post about how to use Siri in the classroom. Well, it could be. This semester I have a deaf student in my class. He's fluent in Russian, Uzbek, American Sign Language, and Russian Sign Language. He's here to learn English. Communication with him involves an interpreter or a series of notes on paper. Enter Siri. After class, his interpreter had to leave but he still needed to talk. Honestly, I got tired of writing/typing everything. It was slow and annoying. I opened up notes on my ipad mini and started using Siri. I could say whatever I wanted and it would be written in real time. He would then type his response. It sped up our communication and was fun for both of us. Siri, thanks for making my job easier and enjoyable!
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A change of pace

The last few days have been miserable, yet they have also been a pleasant change of pace. I've been busy . . . . super busy. Perhaps even the busiest I have ever been. From January 1st to April 1st, I was working 60 hour weeks. The hours were spread out (not evenly) between 3 jobs and working on a dissertation. On April 1st I quit my job. Quitters really are the happiest people.  I was subsequently brought on as a contractor/consultant for the company. I turned in my dissertation to my committee with a scheduled defense date of May 16th. So, what have I been doing? Three things really. I was the sickest I have ever been in my adult life. I've updated my landing page and portfolio . I finally went through and caught up on my RSS feeds and posted stuff to twitter and google plus. This doesn't mean I'm not busy working. I've got plenty to do; it just doesn't take me 60 hours a week anymore.
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Why do Interfaces always change?

It's been a long time since I have written anything. I logged into the new blogger today with it's new interface. I upgraded to Lion with it's newer interface. Why do people always change the interface? Why are there so many themes, skins, or whatever you call them? I think I might have an answer. Really I've boiled it down to two possibilities. First, perhaps the new interface is "better." I'm assuming that software giants like Google and Apple do market research and usability testing. Then again, they might not. Better said, they don't do it the way I think they should. Perhaps they get feedback via email or other communications. Maybe the designers who use the software just realize that somethings need to change. The reason I think that they do it though, is to prevent the appearance of stagnation. If gmail still looked the same as it did when they released it, people would think that it was old and out of date. However, I don't remember two
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