I have been reading One, Two, Three: Absolutely Elementary Mathematics  by David Berlinski. While the topic is basic mathematics, the book's content is not elementary my dear Watson.

In a side discussion of negative numbers he presents a proof of a rule that has baffled students since the discussion of positive and negative integers began--namely if when you multiply two positive numbers the product is positive and when you multiply a positive number to a negative number you get a negative outcome, how is it that when two negative numbers are multiplied together the result is a positive number? Berlinski eloquently details the proof on over two pages with this conclusion:

In his Wired article entitled In Praise of Vagueness, Jonah Lehrer writes, "According to an experiment led by Catherine Clement at Eastern Kentucky University, one way to consistently increase our problem-solving ability is to rely on vague verbs when describing the problem. That’s because domain-specific verbs–actions which we only perform in particular contexts – inhibit analogical reasoning, making us less likely to discover useful comparisons. However, when the same problem is recast with more generic verbs – when we describe someone as 'moving' instead of 'sprinting,' for instance – people are suddenly more likely to uncover unexpected parallels. In some instances, Clement found that the simple act of rewriting the problem led to impressive improvements in the performance of her subjects."

Apparently, vagueness allows one to move to the adjacent possible more easily. Therefore, when stuck back away from specificity and get general.

On my run today, 1-9-12, I was listening to the This Developer's Life podcast that spoke of the value of looking at older programming languages and technologies and what can be gained from looking back at the refined algorithms of older programming languages and the efficiencies of other older technologies. 

In Seth Godin's recent blog post Confusing obedience with self-control he spoke of the value of obedience. He also stated that, “obedience transforms into self-control. That at some point, people start obeying themselves and become leaders.”

Recently, when I upgraded from my first generation Motorola Droid to the new Droid 3, I called by the local Verizon store and asked if the chargers, cradle, and car mount that I have with my current Droid would work with the Droid 3. I was told that all the hardware that I have with my droid would work with the droid 3. Well...not so. Both the cradle and the car mount will not work. As the buyer we always need to do our homework and understand the stipulations, etc. with the purchase. However, if as the vendor or service provider, you do not know for certain an answer to a question, please do not respond as though you do.

I understand that the phone store personnel are good people. Nor do I think anyone is trying to deceive or bait and switch. With that said I do think that being clear and complete with the customer goes a long way. In other words, if you do not know then state that as far as you understand this or that is true but you really need to meet face-to-face to discuss all the details or research the question further and then you can make a determination. It is OK to not know it all.

Since I updated to the new Droid 3, I am finding that the phone randomly reboots every now and then. While I love the response time of the phone and the crisp view screen, the phone deciding to restart on its own is not OK. After a quick search I found a series of messages that show the issue may be tied to how WIFI networks are restored from Google during the syncing of your previous WIFI settings.

Here is a blurb from Google:
Further testing & confirmation from other testers on forums correlates this crash strongly to the restoration of wifi settings during provision of the phone & sync to google.  Users who have factory-reset the phone and disabled google syncing have solved the problem, and users who have deleted all restored wifi networks have seen similar benefits.  The twitter account in the 'my accounts' manager was indeed a red herring and does not seem to be related to the bug, as removing it has not re-introduced the problem. Workaround:  Delete ALL wifi networks after provisioning phone, and recreate them using the Droid3 UI.

This was found at: http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=18460. I really do not want to go back to factory settings so I am hoping a simple removal of the WIFI network settings and manually rebooting the phone will cure the random reboots. Thus far, since doing the above steps no more reboots.

For over the past three months I have been using a few sites that help me to reach my personal goals within a "gamified" process.
 
The first site, healthmonth, is according to its creator Buster Benson, "an online adaptation of a game some friends used to play every year right after New Years."
 
The second, 750words also created by Benson, is a site that encourages the daily writing of...you guessed it, 750 words. The site provides an online, private space to compose an essay, journal, or just write what is on your mind. As you type, the site saves your work, tracks and displays your word count, and lets you know when you've passed the coveted 750 word mark. The fun aspect is in the fact that 750words keeps a score card of points for the days you enteract with the site. 750words also keeps track of the consecutive number of days (or streaks that) you submit completed posts. You can also see how others are doing point and streak-wise to fuel your competitive nature.
 
My wife and I were away from home for a few days and I was not certain if we would have reliable wifi access to play my daily healthmonth turns and to post to 750words to keep my 100 day plus streak alive. So, I wanted to find away to use my Droid to utilize the sites. 

First you have to import your 750word posting into the AK Notepad. To import text (.txt) files into the Andriod AK Notepad app you will need to do the following:

1) Have a folder that is created during an export. You will need to use this folder as AK Notepad will not see folders created manually. If it is not there, create a directory to use by selecting and holding down a note from the list of notes, then select the "Export to text file" menu option.

2) With the droid connected to a computer via a USB cable place the files that you desire to import into AK Notepad in the directory in step 1 above.

3) Disconnect the USB cable and opened the app on the phone.

4) Select "Menu" and then "Settings"

5) Under Import/Export section select "Import notes" and then browse to the folder in step 1 above. NOTE: each file in the selected folder will be imported.

6) Select and hold the folder and then from the popup menu select "Use this folder." This should import all the files in the folder.

Next, open the note that you want to post on the 750words site and select and hold down the text until the popup menu is displayed and select the "Copy all" option. Now that the text is copied to memory, open the web browser, browse to the 750words site, and paste the text into the site page. The site will auto-save the entry.