Steven S. Holland » Uncategorized

Math textbooks…on the ipad?

admin — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 03:41:42 +0000

There is a program in California to replace 8th grade algebra textbooks with ipads. It will be interesting to see how this turns out. While I am all for trying new ways to teach a subject, singling out math as the test subject for this program seems like a bad choice. While I can understand that perhaps they feel math is a key to technology, and that math is a natural link to technology that will make this transition seamless, I also feel that, of all subjects taken in 8th grade, the one class you are not reading a textbook page by page, like a novel, is math. Math texts typically aren’t page-turners, at least when it comes to actual textbooks (OK, so that’s not true for all…and many non-textbooks, especially at advanced levels can be if written well…), and this is because studying a math book requires lots of flipping around to various pages, which might be in different sections, or even different chapters of the book. How do you do this efficiently on something like an ipod? Even if there are links that let you jump to other pages, who knows exactly what pages would be appropriate to provide links to? History, or English, for example, typically have lots of linear reading – page after page. Yes, of course even in these books you may need to flip to a different section or page to reference something, or compare…but that occurs rarely compared to a math book.

What makes math such an appealing hoice for this pilot program?

Although this ipad app puts graphing calculators to shame (source: http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/117625-california-testing-ipads-as-algebra-textbooks).

Change in Comments

admin — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 20:43:15 +0000

I need to take some time to find a good plugin and get this site setup so that spam comments are reduced — I am getting upwards of 10 spam comments a day at this point — but until then I am shutting them all off. Currently I don’t even look through the comments in the moderation queue so I don’t want someone to post a comment and then it get buried in the spam noise. So, if you have commented in the last few months, and it never showed up…this is likely why.

Smith Chart Matlab function

admin — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 06:04:15 +0000

Every now and then I write or modify a matlab function that I need for my research, and will post them to this blog here and there, with the hopes that they will be useful to someone doing antenna/microwave design. I know, there is the Matlab File Exchange (which is very useful!) , but hey, this is my blog, I want to post my content here.

Below is a function I used to plot smith chart results in matlab. I used basic plotting code to generate the chart itself, and added a simply plot function to add the impedance locus and constant VSWR circles. Hope this is helpeful! Please let me know if anyone finds a bug. I will note that there is no safeguard in the function for s-parameters that are greater than 1, which if you are plotting the active S-parameters of a multiport device, are possible. This isn’t a big deal when the S-parameter goes slightly above 1, but if it swings well above 1 you end up with a tiny smith chart and these erratic line segments…it’s a mess. For passive applications I haven’t come across a bug yet.

smithchart.m

The MisInventions of Milo Weatherby

admin — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 03:42:52 +0000

My friend Bill Whirity (see link to his website on the side) is making a movie (look for his other movie Broke on netflix!) called The MisInvetntions of Milo Weatherby. From what I have seen of it, it will be awesome. It is about these two kids and their, well, misinventions with science. They just finished shooting it, so no idea when it will be out. Here is a great video from it:

http://billwhirity.com/milo/videos/microwave_implosion.mov

UPDATE:

http://www.billwhirity.com/milo/index.html

Has a trailer and information about the movie. I have seen it, and it is excellent!

Nice view

admin — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 05:50:47 +0000

Sox won 5-4 tonight over the Rockies. Good rally in the 7th won the game for them.

I always like this view from the ramps at New Comiskey (Us Cellular Field):

Creative Settlement

admin — Fri, 02 May 2008 05:40:37 +0000

Turns out that Creative was sued for basing the listed size of its hard drives in base 10 instead of base 2, leading to lower actual capacity than the drive’s advertised size. Link!

Change in Comments

admin — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 00:32:19 +0000

I have been getting a lot of comments and trackbacks that are spam, so I reluctantly are changing it so that i have to approve all first comments for them to appear. After that, if you have had a comment approved, you should be able to post as normal.

Chicago Marathon

admin — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 03:40:59 +0000

Perhaps this is a bit of thesis writing induced lunacy, but after talking with a friend of mine, I am currently planning on running the Chicago marathon in Oct 2009. She seems to think I won’t do it. I am currently far too out of shape to run the marathon this year, and I figure a year and a half will allow me to gradually get back into running shape (which I have been looking for a reason to do for a while now). I also have another year of course work that would make running the marathon in October of this year a scheduling pain, whereas in fall 2009 I won’t have any courses. SO, this is a record — hold me to this. If I fail to uphold this goal…well, then you can point to this post, and rub my nose in my failure. But I am determined not to let that happen. I am also gonna keep tabs of progress on here, as I see fit. I even added a category for this.

It’s on!

Finished my measurements

admin — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 04:43:01 +0000

Finally today I went in and finished off my antenna measurements. I had a problem last week that I wasted a lot of time trying to figure out — the main beam pattern was shifted approximately 25 degrees off broadside, which is clearly not right for a patch antenna. Problem is, the range absorber isn’t meant to go down below about 2-3GHz…so it was possible some reflections were present and this was a range problem. After a lot of attempts to ensure both antennas were level, and plum, and aligned…I finally came in today and took a friend from lab’s suggestion that I restart the computer that runs the antenna positioner. I restarted it, and all was well. It’s a silly problem, and I really wish I didn’t spend all day Friday trying to find the problem, but at least now I have the patterns I need. Here is a picture of the transmit antenna – a simple rectangular patch antenna - I had to build, since the range doesn’t have horns that go down to 1GHz:

Snow Day!

admin — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 15:08:42 +0000

This is, I think, our third or fourth snow day of the 2007-2008 school year. It seems like it has been a long time since the weather has been this snowy. Back in 1995-1996 or so, I recall having days off of grammar school due to it simply being too cold (-5F, etc), and then maybe a few times throughout high school. So it has been a while. Then again, not having any classes this semester means nothing really changes for me — I still spend today writing more of my thesis….just as I would be anyway.