My winter term TA work is done.

I marked a series of questions concerning cluster sampling as an appropriate choice for a sampling technique. This took two hours of marking. I am now done my TA duties for another term.

I have been doing mundane computer tasks today.

I have been backing up computers and testing my new used iBook today. I am also preparing a bibliography post for my meeting with a professor that may occur today. I am also surfing a little on the new used iBook. I am surfing a couple of conventions' web pages. One is the teaching assistant union's Ontario convention coming up in May and I am already registered as a delegate so this is just research that will help me participate in this event in Ottawa. This union represents more than just university workers and I attended a university worker's convention with this union a few weeks ago. The other convention is not until November and it is a convention of disAbled students and I am thinking of doing a presentation on working as a person/student with a disAbility. This convention is also in Ottawa. Speaking of conventions I was going to make a proposal to the Association of Internet Researchers to hold our 2007 convention in Ottawa and did get two Canada Research Chairs to say they would attend but the deadline for proposals approached too fast and I gave up.

Focus on experimental design for the next week of studies.

Whether the term focus comes from photography and optics or revolution and guerilla warfare I need to apply it to studies. Too many times the confused academic advisor is devalued by me in a form of elitism where I see their lack of understanding of me as evidence of their lesser intelligence. I need to learn from this because I am now becoming the academic and employment advisor for other students. As a teaching assistant my role of advisor is optional but it can make be a better teacher if I do it right. Also I need to focus on experimental design for the next week of studies.

Reading critiques of Wired magazine.

The first critique I read of Wired magazine was

Pauline Borsook's, Cyberselfish (New York: Public Affairs, 2000).

This book enlightened me to the dangers of Wired magazine and clarified some of my own thoughts as a Wired reader.

This past few months I have been reading

Stewart Millar, Melanie. Cracking the Gender Code: Who Rules The Wired World (Toronto, Ont.: Second Story, 1998).

This book builds on the sexist reality of Wired magazine. I have not read the whole book yet but am rereading parts of it with interest.

Preparing to meet Sheryl Hamilton.

I am following my dad's advice to meet with professors of the law department to help my application along. To do this I have a meeting being scheduled with Sheryl Hamilton a department of law professor. I have read some of her M.A. on cyber feminism. I have also gathered all the reading for her course in communications law. I read some of this material. She feels that a productive meeting will help my application. Here I am going to list the gender books I am reading at present. I will also list the gender books I am borrowing or own but am not actively reading. I will also list books I have read in the past about gender and computing.

These are two books that look specifically at Wired Magazine

Pauline Borsook's, Cyberselfish (New York: Public Affairs, 2000).

This book enlightened me to the dangers of Wired magazine and clarified some of my own thoughts as a Wired reader.

This past few months I have been reading

Stewart Millar, Melanie. Cracking the Gender Code: Who Rules The Wired World (Toronto, Ont.: Second Story, 1998).

This book builds on the sexist reality of Wired magazine. I have not read the whole book yet but am rereading parts of it with interest.

These are the other gender and technology books I am either reading now or have read in the past year or two:

Consalvo, Mia, & Passonen, Susanna. Women & Everyday Uses of the Internet: Agency & Identity (New York: Peter Lang, 2002).

Mostly the articles I read in this book concern web sites that are designed for women or marketted to women. I read about three articles. One article, concerned women as web masters, and pointed out that women tend to be graphic designers of web sites, rather than programers and are paid less in a rather involved case of discrimination in employment.

Cooper, Joel, & Weaver, Kimberlee D. Gender and Computers: Understanding the Digital Divide (London: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2003).

I am about half way through this empirical study of girl's and boy's uses of computers in schools. The big idea I learned from this is that educational software is designed or has been designed in the past to appeal to boys rather than girls. But the thesis around the digital divide, that high tech jobs are a good thing is questionable these days.

Haraway, Donna. A Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology, and Socialist Feminism in the 1980s in Haraway, Donna. The Haraway Reader (New York: Routledge, 2004)

This inspired me to create my www.cybercitizen.org web site

Wajcman, Judy. Techno Feminism (Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2004).

I have read this book which was basically a critical view of other feminist writers of technology including Haraway.

These are the general women's studies books I am reading at present:

Marking this morning.

I am up early this morning marking. I had meant to get this marking done today but it is taking longer. I am marking the largest Q right now and when this is done the rest will be a breeze. So this is the last major part of the work this term. Then I can focus on my own exam. I am also being employed to proctor exams again. This is fairly easy work proctoring but this time I have some days with two exams per day.

Reading more Donna Haraway and doing end of term marking.

I am reading more of the Haraway reader. I am also just doing my end of term marking. My radical union is preparing to attend the Montreal Anarchist book fair later this spring.

School work is becoming focused on statistics.

I also sorted books out this morning and I plan to study for my exam for two hours a day until the exam. That is for the next six days then two days break then five days then get my exam. I will spend three days writing my exam. I borrowed books on the so called advanced topics in the experimental design course. These are fractional factorials and response surfaces. I also borrowed a book on simulations. I am applying to attend a systems science graduate school next year. At the moment I do not know how I will afford all my professional dues that are late at this point. But I am realising that the professional statistican qualification might be put off for awhile. I can instead pay the late dues and pay for the application to systems science. In systems science I could study simulations. I would really like to do this. But perhaps I will not be admitted. Oh well it costs 75 dollars to try. I am almost at this point in the morning finished my alotted time for studying experimental design. I have another hour and a half but I am going to do some job searching and looking at my systems science application in this time. I am keen to look for work even full time work now because I could end my education here at this point. I am also basically working full time hours now so I am sure I can put up with the stress levels of full time job at this point. But I am keen at this moment because the job statistics that came out yesterday tell a story of full time job hiring. I am going to try to capitalise on this moment in the economy.

I completed reading Donna Haraway's famous Cyborg Manifesto.

I completed reading Donna Haraway's paper written in the 1980's. Here is the cite: Haraway, Donna. A Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology, and Socialist Feminism in the 1980s in Haraway, Donna. The Haraway Reader (New York: Routledge, 2004) at 7-45. This is the paper that inspired me to establish www.cyborgcitizen.org.

Homework at end of term completed.

I completed a factorial designs assignment for my last assignment in the term. It took about 20 hours to do the various analysis projects. I now only have a take home exam and I am done this course.

I have some marking to do too before the term is over. I will also most likely be working as an exam proctor and that should begin in a couple of weeks.

Adventures in library attendence

It is near end of term at our school. I canceled the last lab I was to give tonight because no students showed up. I had my bosses permission to do this. I then went to the library.

The library is something I fell in love with in my first year of living with the schizophrenia label. But perhaps I was in love with these places long before that. When my parents read me the story of Robin Hood or The Wizard of OZ, they read me not one book but tens of books borrowed from the university library. When I was first living with the label of schizophrenia I read a story called the Labyrinth by Borge. It had an illusion of an infinite library building based on the repeated hexagon pattern.

Tonight I took back most of the mental health books I was borrowing. I also took back books on MIDI, and one virtual war book, and one women and computing bibliography. I was trying to take books back for the end of term. I was also trying to focus my studies more on either law or statistics but in particular statistics. So I took back a lot of other subject books. I then searched out an author my statistics professor recommended, who she had learned from, when she studied experimental design. I borrowed that book and read it on the train platform. I was able to understand a little better this past weeks lecture material and will now be fine for the fifth assignment and the final exam should be easier too. I borrowed other books on experimental design. I also borrowed a book by Emma Goldman on anarchism. And the other famous scholar I borrowed a book by was Max Weber. I borrowed a book of his writings on universities.

I am now going to sleep after writing this entry and proof reading it.

I am doing some calculations for my statistical and experimental design course.

I did some calculations this morning following the teachers notes. These checked out with the software's analysis, so no mistakes were made with the software data entry or the calculations that I did with a word processor and a calculator. The data relate to a machine tool process involving speed of the tool, geometry, and cuting angle. I am supposed to figure out which has more effect on the life of the tool which is our response variable.

Read another chapter in a study into gender and computing.

I completed reading chapter 3 in Copper, Joel, & Weaver D, Kimberlee. Gender and Computers: Understanding the Digital Divide (Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erbaum, 2003).

I have now read up to the fourth chapter of the computer crime book. I might start the fifth, later today.

I borrowed this book on the 17th. Here is the citation: Taylor, Robert W. et al. Digital Crime and Digital Terrorism (Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson, Prentice Hall, 2006). I was able to read the first four chapters now. I would like to have this book read by the end of April before I pick summer term courses.

I wrote the first page to my spring talk on R.

I wrote my first page for my spring talk on R. I will give this hour long talk at the Ottawa Canada Linux Users Group(OCLUG). I was going to test my R code on my linux laptop but might wait until tomorrow evening. At least I now have the talk started.

I did not get accepted into the legal studies MA program at the first committee meeting.

I received a letter today saying the admissions committee will need to wait to see my winter term marks before deciding to admit me to the legal studies MA program. I am not sure why because my present course which will produce this mark is in experimental design which is not directly related to legal studies.

Reading another critique of Wired.

I was reading more of this book which I am about two thirds of the way through now.

Stewart Millar, Melanie. Cracking the Gender Code: Who Rules the Wired World ( Toronto: Second Story, 1998).

This book is partially about how Wired magazine is a sexist and racist magazine because they never cover African Americans or women in a neutral tone if they cover them at all. It is also interesting as an analysis of the graphics and demographics of Wired magazine.

I am waiting for an MA admission decision.

I am waiting to hear if I have been admitted to the M.A. program in legal studies. I read the MA program handbook a little yesterday. I would not be starting until the fall. This would mean I could stay in the union if I am also hired to be a legal studies Teaching assistant.

This mornings readings including AoIR researchers.

I am reading these two books this morning:

Consalvo, Mia, & Passonen Susanna. eds. Women & Everyday Uses of the Internet: Agency and Identity (New York:, Peter Lang 2002).

I have already read one chapter of this book but am reading the introduction this morning. These women editors are AoIR members I believe.

Taylor, Robert W. et al. Digital Crime and Digital Terrorism (Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson, Prentice Hall, 2006)

I just borrowed this yesterday while waiting to tutor a student. I read the first chapter last night and started the second chapter this morning. It is very biased towards US security and US centric defintions of warfare.

Human resource studies and practice.

I studied a little of the sub field of human resources known as managing volunteers. I studied this at one of our local community colleges in the middle 1990's. Today I am will be doing some human resouces work. I will interview three candidates for a part-time job at a self help group I am president at. I may try to read some books or on-line documents to prepare for this. I may even do a journal search in human resources journals.

I am continuing to grade statistics homework this morning.

I was grading some proportional allocations homework this morning. I am also getting ready to derive some quantities that describe or represent various ways of looking at treatment effects in balanced incomplete block designs (B.I.B.D.'s). I am using latex for this writing these derivations with texShop on my eMac. I also have some SAS homework I would like to do this morning. I think I will run the SAS work now.

My morning and stretching into sleep.

I am clear on what I need to do for the assignment now. I called the professor and clarified what she wanted us to do. So I don't need to go to school to see her. But there is a lecture today. I also have to do at least one shopping errand before I can sleep. I have been doing a little blogging this morning. I got a marking goal completed and rewarded my self with corn chips and coke. I am avoiding marking and need to get moving on this procrastination. I did my web work for the day and am waiting probably for another month to hear if I have been selected for an interview for another web master assignment. I read a little more this morning about gender and computers and also read some on-line society studies. Yes, I am studious. But I need sleep so may miss the lecture today. If I leave for school now I can do my errands and take the SAS disks back to school and be home about noon and sleep and thus limit my day awake to 24 hours.

Experimental design assignment is not so much SAS after all.

After reading the 4th assignment it looks like the home work is more math work in latex actually than SAS coding. I will go in to school early this morning to see the professor during her office hours to ask some questions about this homework. I need some clarification about what we are being asked to do. I also have to take back the SAS disks to the school office this morning. I am up from yesterday and need to sleep after I get home from school at about 3:30 PM this afternoon. I also need to do some more marking this morning and a little web mastering at one of my paid web mastering jobs. I think I will do the web mastering next after a brief break from this computer. I have been reading a book about gender and computing which is a report from some psychological researchers who have studying this topic for almost 20 years in various studies. This is also a QA 76.9 book.

New academic blog opened.

I started a new blog that I am actually paying money for now. It is at http://www.cyborgcitizen.org/blog1. It is a web experiment and I hope it is used to feature radical academic work of mine. The domain name was inspired by my readings in sociology of science and technology and in particular my present reading of the socialist feminst cyborg manifesto of Donna Haraway, I also want to use it for creative writing as academic work. But that is just for the blog and a few web pages. The rest of the site will be an all out graphic/web design work. Also I will use some server side tools and programming as an experiment and testing ground for improving and broadening my set of web design and blogging technical skills.

I also have live journal blog for academic writing about community networks. It is here http://pierre-anoid.livejournal.com.

Working continues.

I quit the stock market day trading job I was investigating. I could not commit the time to it. I continued to mark statistics homework this morning. I gave a lab last night in regression and SAS.

The next experimental design assignment has been posted.

The next experimental design assignment for my winter term fourth year course has been posted. I am just printing the assignment and example code and also some extra lessons the professor has posted to her web site. One of her graduate students is giving a thesis defence this Friday. I am interested in this thesis because it is about GIS and crime analysis. I have written some legal studies papers on this topic and also read a few introductory books on this topic. BTW it is pie day today. 03/14/1:50. Of course the minutes are wrong but I don't know pie off hand better than four decimal places what a hopeless mathematician eh?

I did not do so much studies on Monday as I did other school related work.

Instead of going to the library on Monday and reading about survey methodology I did building inspections. I inspected the mechanical engineering department's labs for safety issues and hazards. I worked for about an hour and half. I then came home and studied and did install SAS 9.1.3 on my eMac on the Win2k side of my eMac. I was exploring SAS -> Analysis > Design of Experiments at school today.

I have turned comments on now on this blog.

If I understand the blogspot settings for comments right this should be the first post on this blog that one can comment on. I will test it now with my own comment.

Reading Donna Haraway's Cyborg Manifesto.

Here is the cite for the work I am reading tonight:

Haraway, Donna. A Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology and Socialist Feminism in the 1980s in Haraway, Donna. The Haraway Reader (New York: Routledge, 2004).

I am ready to be inspired by this writing because I have read so many references and even a critique of Haraway before coming to reading this work. I started reading sociology of science and technology in 2002 or 2001. I started to read QA 76.9 in the middle 1990's actually. I still read many books from this library call letter. These books are between computer security and computer databases. But this lead to sociology of science and technology and studying this with Philip Thurtle in winter 2003. It was a cold winter. This winter upon us now is the warmest on record. I learned early on my academic career as I ended my first academic job that talking about the weather is polite. [Note on the topic of computer word processors: this has lead me to reading with nostalgia, for my own existing in the early 1980's as a young intellectual and beginning anarchist/socialist, the work Donna Haraway is most known for. In fact, this was her first writing on a computer. I would liked to have been able to write English on a computer and print it on plain 8 1/2” X 11” paper back the in the early 1980's, but instead I could only program computers then not write with them.] I reflect on this politeness in Haraway's comment on anarchists not seeking truces. I could trash Haraway from an anti-psychiatric stance in that she refers to psycho analysis. But perhaps psycho analysis is trashed by pro med doctors. Perhaps I should point out that the bio neuro powered psychiatry that came out of the decade of the brain was also parallel to the cyborg of Haraway's eco bio animal machine hopes for a rebellion from the father war machine of nuclear annihilation.

I like the term blasphemy of law which I coined while reading the introduction to her piece. When one studies law and mentions one is a criminal or suggests that crime is a solution one commits a blasphemy, but blasphemy rhymes with femininity, which is just another word that rhymes with the science fiction title Trinity. There an obvious religious blasphemy referring to a basic religious Jungian word as a science fiction name. And Trinity is some nuclear bomb reference too. But these days Trinity is the first super powered Matrix character, pictured as a running criminal, who can fly and do very quick Kung Fu. Crime is Kung Fu that hasn't been paid for. I doubt people who pay for Kung Fu lessons do crimes. I am rabbling. almost read to sing in this piece.

I got in a little discussion about music with the famous sociolgist of networks Barry Wellman on the weekend, when I came home from work. I was manic and it seem my manic states are ways of producing academic emails. This should stop. I don't need to be a 24-7 academic I need to be a 24-7 front line wage slave. Speaking of conversations I think I will open this blog up for comments tonight and leave the comments open for one month and see what happens.

Lecture today in experimental design.

I am actually looking forward to the lecture today in experimental design. The professor follows the text quite closely and I have read the text this past weekend. I am also fairly excited about my growing knowledge of survey methodology. Maybe I will borrow some new books on survey's at school today from the business section of the library or the sociology section. I would like to do a crime knowledge survey in grad school. I also might attend a Field's Institute lecture in the evening today.

I read a lot of my statistics text book in the last 24 hours.

I reviewed the first six chapters in my experimental design text. I also read more closely the third, fourth, fifth and sixth chapters. I will need to read the 5th to 8th chapters in the next week. These chapters cover various views of factorial designs.

I helped hire a statistical analyst for our union and also did some human resources work for our self help group.

At the end of this week I helped with a team of other union members to hire a statistical analyst for our union. I also did staff evaluations and short listed candidates for a new position at our self help group. We are hiring a peer/drop in coordinator for our self help group. We are scheduling interviews for next week. I also evaluated staff for the past year. These are good activities to add to my CV.

I am studying experimental design this morning.

I did some SAS coding and must write this up now. I need to study the SAS printout some more, but I did notice that I have unequal variances with two blocking variables in my latin square design. I am wondering if I can look at the trends in these blocks and perhaps chose a transformation that might correct the unequal variances. I also know there is a technique for finding an appropriate transform but I may just try guessing.

Just posting an update now. I tried the standard transformations of the response variable, squaring, taking the square root, taking the log, taking the log to base 10 and none of these worked to reduce the unequal variances of the residuals. I also tried coding the data by subtracting 10 and this did not work. I will try subtracting 16 now and then write this whole transforming attempt up.

I then need to check the reduced and full model F test. I also need to show how to solve this for a missing value using the Q prime analysis. But then I am done with this and I should be able to do it today.

Calculating the sums of squares for the latin square was the same by hand as in SAS.

I did this homework using SAS already and doing it by hand it was the same once I corrected mistakes in arithmetic. I have this all typed up now too. I have some tests of hypothesies to do and some validity checks but then I am done and maybe I can hand this in Monday.

I should do some marking now. I have almost completed 6 Q's out of 9 now. The next two Q's will be fast and the last one maybe not too difficult. I should have had this done last week but I have now promised it for Monday.

I am working on a latin square analysis for my experimental design course.

I have some straight forward home work this weekend. I must analyse a simple latin square experiment.

Starting new books from the library.

I borrowed more books recently. Here are the music books I am borrowing at present:

Jungleib, Stanley. Generl Midi (Madison, WI: A-R Editions, 1995).

This seems to be a book about MIDI written about the time sound cards became popular. I remember trying to buy a sound card for my IBM XT in the middle 1990's.

Rothstein, Joseph. MIDI: A Comprehensive Introduction (Madison, WI: A-R Editions, 1992).

This book I have read the first chapter and will continue reading it even if it seems MIDI is more for keyboard players.

Brice, Richard. Music Engineering: The Electronics of Playing and Recording (Oxford: Newness, 1998).

I have read a few chapters of this book now. It is highly educational and I have learned a lot from it and discussed music waves with my dad who is an experimental physicist.

Win2K on the eMac

I was able to install Win2K on my eMac. If I can install Debian also on the eMac I will be a happy. I tried twice now but my X windows does not work on the eMac. I need to do some research into this configuration of X windows in virtual PC. I was supposed to be getting this Virutal PC for the Mac so I could run SAS on the Mac. But I have another computer now to run WinXP and thus SAS and I also have Debian installed as a statistical workstation on this other PC. This other PC is a Pentim IV IBM Intellistation.

Working very hard this past two weeks but studies continue.

Studies get in the way of working and working gets in the way of study time but I want to do both so these continue. I worked last week inspecting buildings for safety issues for my union and the school. I inspected the electrical engineering department last week and have more engineering buildings to inspect still. I also have a theatre building to inspect. These were scheduled for February but I was only assigned them two weeks ago. I won't get them done in February.

I also worked in a non academic job this past weekend for 24 hours out of 48. If it is quiet at this workplace and if I am not busy with work tasks, I am allowed to read school books. This is a good job. I have held it for five years now. It is unionised so pays well, but I only work there part-time so do not make a lot of money at this work. I am becoming a Steel Worker of America union member at this job although the work is not about steel work.

Today I was in training for my new job as a day trader on NASDAQ. I have worked for about 8 hours of training now for this job. I am learning more about trading and the major players on NASDAQ.

I am working tonight at my TA job where I will give a mid-term review session. I have been marking some assignments for this course now for the past week and a half.

I did not get accepted into graduate school in statistics.

I should have known that my D grades in probability and mathematical statistics would stop my application to graduate school. In the past when considering graduate school I had planned to repeat the two courses I scored D in. But I did not and these courses, with D's were the reason the graduate school director had to stop my application. I am not hurt. I took this rather well in fact going by the directors office and telling him I would have found graduate school too difficult.

Meanwhile I am scoring 100% in my experimental design course after two assignments. I am sketching out some experiments in music with my new PA/Recording equipment and the methodology in my course textbook. I also borrowed some books on midi today and a book on ethics in mental illness treatment concerning involuntary hospitalisation which may be a topic in my legal studies MA.

Speaking of my legal studies MA I thought up a survey into citizen's knowledge of crime as a good project for my thesis. I would study different types of citizens including victims, etc., as different strata in a survey.

I read a short book about Children's use of the Internet.

I just finished reading this book,

Seiter, Ellen. The Internet Playground: Children's Access, Entertainment, and Mis-Education (New York: Peter Lang, 2005).

This book covered a professor's teaching of an elementary classroom course on media and journalism to two school's one a lower class school with an ethnic population. She looked at the children's love of wrestling and neopets. She found that the gender gap in computing disappears when one considers working class non-white males and that the privledged males in computing are white middle class men.

Article about email between students and professors from NY Times

I started to write down all that I knew about academic email after reading the article. I discussed with professors and emailed some researchers of the internet about it.

The original article can be found on this link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/21/education/21professors.html?_r=1&oref=slogin.

I got my second statistics homework assignment completed on Thursday with a 20 hour extension

I was really mad on Wednesday looking for a computer to do the SAS coding for my second assigment in my experimental design course. I had done it at home but had no time to write it up, then I found out in the lecture that I had done the coding wrong and so I need a computer on campus to re-write the code. I don't like getting angry like this it is very bad about academia this type of anger. I got the coding done in time but then asked for an extension on the deadline so I could write up the results. The professor gave me an extra 20 hours so I went home and slept after a 30 hour day. I woke up early the next day and did the write up and submitted the assignment. I have no assignments over this week coming up, which is reading week at our school so we have no classes. So far in this course I have 100%. I can read the textbook this week and also catch up on other statistics reading. I do have some statistics marking to get done this week too and I started that marking yesterday morning. I think I will sleep now as I continue to take the weekend off of studies.

I completed reading another article on women's studies.

I will have to know the basics of women's studies and feminism for grad school in legal studies. I completed reading this article on Friday:

Hamilton, Roberta. The Women's Movement(s) in Gendering the Vertical Mosaic: Feminist Perspectives on Canadian Society (Toronto: Copp Clark, 1996) at 43-81.

This covered a herstory of the feminist movement in Canada questioning the idea that the feminist movement is dead or fragmented. Along the way of this history ideas of race, class, and ability were covered as keys also in different feminisms and different actions. Interestingly a manifesto of late sixties radical feminists within the counter culture was quoted piece by piece and rather well tied into the text of the article.

I bought a copy of a first year women's studies course pack from the womyns centre fundraising sale.

I have read the first article and now started a second from this first year women's study reader. The second article traces the history or herstory of the feminist movement in Canada basically starting at the 1950's. I am trying to get the basics of women's studies learned by this reading to support my reading of many books by women on feminist science studies. I first heard of the womyns centre at our school in the early 1990's. I have been studying women and computing now for about a year. I have a women professor for my own course now and a women supervisor for my TA work. In my legal studies only 2 credits out of 9 were taught by women.

One thesis I like from feminist legal studies as it relates to the statistical concept of bias is the idea of expressing our biases openly at the beginning and I often talk this way in meetings. I did try to admit my background in my honours paper, but this was considered too personal by my writing tutors, so I cut out this too personal part in the final draft of my paper on computer crime. In my paper on computer crime I don't remember citing women or considering gender at all. There was no breaking of the male computer criminal stereo type, yet there was some evidence that this is in fact a stereo type. Thus there are women computer criminals, as well as. male teenagers. That is what the cases showed.

I received a copy of Virtual PC for the Mac.

I received a copy of Virtual PC for the Mac but so far have not been able to install an operating system inside the Virtual PC. I will make another try this morning after trying three different WinXP disks and Debian 3.1 r1.

TA work continues.

At school tonight I gave a group work problem solving and proof writing statistics lab. The instructor came in and helped me too. I was going to tutor a student tonight from the disAbled students centre but he was sick today. So I stayed in the library an extra half hour and read about on-line communites. I also read an article last night about commerical on-line communities for women.

I then came home and started Linux tinkering again. I also read my course textbook for the STAT4504 lecture later today.

I relaxed after all the school work earlier today.

I did submit my homework this afternoon. I also returned the SAS CD's to the school computing services. I also chatted a bit about my graduate school application in statistics with the graduate administrator at the school of mathematics and statistics.

Speaking of graduate school I also took my referee form to a referee's workplace after school. We chatted a bit of politics and the criminal law. It was a very secure workplace.

I came home and read books about gender and computing. I borrowed these books today.

The home work is done.

I did not really prove the proof completely meaning I skipped some steps but it is done now and everything for my first assignment is printed in two copies and ready to go to school now. I am also returning the SAS disks I borrowed from the school. I don't really have anything else scheduled today at school. But I do need to go downtown today and drop off the legal studies MA referee form at a government building.

Light at the end of the proof tunnel maybe.

I spent a few hours this morning working on the proof. I reached a lot of dead ends. I know how the proof should go, so I am suprised that I went off on blind alleys. I am type setting it in Latex and am doing ok now. One more session of pen and ink and I should be able to finish it and then write it up. This is the difference of being able to do math and not do math at the graduate level. I also completed my intentions letter for the M.Sc. and sent it in this morning to the mathematics and statistics graduate school's administrator.

Completing MA in legal studies application paperwork today, this week and next.

I am just now completing the application paperwork for the MA in legal studies application for next year. Today I will take a referee form to professor Chris McNaught at the department of Justice downtown so he can fill it out. Some time this week or next I will pay the 75$ for the application fee.

Tukey's test done. Only the proof remains.

I have done the Tukey's test now thus completing the analysis for the problem we were given some data for. I actually quite quickly type set the Tukey's problem in Latex using using Texshop and the simple calculator widget in dashboard and the data from the Open Office spreadsheet. I have proof read this part of the assignment a couple of times now and I consider it basically completed with perhaps a final proof and print still to do today. I now only need to do the proof of the expected value of the mean squares for treatments. I have actually slightly less than 13 hours to complete this assignment and hand it in. I am going to take a break now.

I have proof read five parts of the second question on my home work.

I have one part of the second question to still complete this morning. I proof read what I have done just now and I am almost sure I have done the question right. I just need to do a tukey test and I am done with the second question. Then I have only to complete the proof question and I am done.

I did work for about 4 hours on my statistics homework.

I worked for about four hours now on my statistics homework. I have five out of six sub parts of an analysis completed and am just printing the write up for proof reading. This is good because I have caught up with it now. I decided it was easier to type set the formulas in open office than to teach myself latex anymore. I did part of one sub part in latex and I am still going to complete the other question, the proof in latex of a biased statistics implying a non central F distribution.

I need to read my STAT4504 textbook and work out the basic statistics and typeset all this work today.

The typesetting takes a fair amount of time. But right now I am going to sit down and read about the modified Levene test and also the Tukey test. I believe these are diagnostic tests. I will report back at 4:45 AM with my progress.

Slowly plodding through my statistics homework.

I did some more work on the orthogonal contrasts just now. Earlier Saturday morning before I slept and on Friday night I did some more latex coding of the assignment. I have basically two long days left to do this homework now. I will be up today to about the afternoon and then sleep and wake up early Monday morning. The homework is due on Monday afternoon at 16:00 PM.

Reading books not newspapers.

I tend to learn more from books and chapters and articles in books, than newspapers these days but newspapers and TV get to me in a more direct way and get me excited. I just read half of a study into computer war gaming. The cite is Bayer, Martin. Playing War in Computer Games: Myths and Reality in Irwin, Jones. War and Virtual War: The Challenges to Communities (New York: Rodopi, 2004) at 149-169. I also have been reading about child poverty and statistics and about modern warfare in terms of body hardening and body injury. I finished a book on the rule of law that I started to read this summer after studying public law with Christian Jackel.

I did my first homework in latex.

I have done a fairly neat file now as a pdf in latex using Texshop on the Mac. I have the ability now to type set math in latex and used this web site to learn some latex codes. http://www-h.eng.cam.ac.uk/help/tpl/textprocessing/teTeX/latex/latex2e-html/ltx-115.html#math.

I started to write up my first assignment as a word document using Neo Office.

I am still using subscripts but have started to use excel spreadsheets at a slightly higher level of formatting again all this in the free software Neo Office. I will try to do the proof for this assignment in latex and then copy and paste the pdf into the word document.

I just did some statistics homework.

I have an assignment due next Monday the 6th. I will try to get this done by Wednesday this week. I did one part tonight in pen and ink and need to write it up. This is the Kruskal-Wallis test. This uses Chi squared for its crtical statistic.

I gave away an internet book to my non-profit landlord's free lending library

I was submitting our lease for another year and realised I had taken a couple of books from the lending library and owed them a book. Since I had finished reading Alberts, David S. & Papp, Daniel S. Information Age Anthology Vol 1 : The Information and Communication Revolution (Washington, DC: The Centre for Advanced Concepts and Technologies, 1997) yesterday I left it at the lending library for someone else to read..

I am continuing to study the Internet.

I read another paper in Alberts, David S. & Papp, Daniel S. Information Age Anthology Vol 1 : The Information and Communication Revolution (Washington, DC: The Centre for Advanced Concepts and Technologies, 1997). This paper looked at the changes being brought about by the Internet. I think the idea that our routines and schedules are changing was the most important part of the paper I read. The world has become a 24-7-365 world. Always people working.

I completed reading Techno Feminism

I completed reading this book Wajcman, Judy. Techno Feminism (Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2004). I read it mostly on buses as I traveled around town in the past month. It was an interesting critical study of other techno feminist scholars.

Continuing to read course textbook and finishing up Techno Feminism.

I continued to read my course textbook by Douglas C. Montgomery and am on section 2.3 now. Here is the bibliographic cite for this book. Montgomery, Douglas C. Design and Analysis of Experiments, 6e. (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, 2005).

I also am almost finished reading Techno Feminism and am presently on the concluding chapter.

I got hired to be a teaching assistant for STAT3507 survey sampling.

I was one of the TAs for this course last winter and have been hired again to help teach this course this winter. I read the beginning definitions of things like sample, sample element, sample unit and sample frame in the courses textbook this morning. The first lab I have to give is next week. I will have labs to give every Tuesday and Thursday evenings this term.

The textbook for STAT4504 arrived this past Tuesday.

The textbook for my winter term course arrived this past Tuesday. I have read sections 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3 so far. Also I have attended three classes now. So in class time has been 4.5 hours and home study or out of class study has been at most 1 hour now. Given that I need to study about 6 hours per class at home, making 18 hours at home study up to now, I am short 17 hours at present.

My statistics consulting contract is completed now.

I have completed the statistics consulting work I had gotten last Friday.

Internet studies on the back burner this past week.

I have stopped reading Alberts, David S. & Papp, Daniel S. Information Age Anthology Vol 1 : The Information and Communication Revolution (Washington, DC: The Centre for Advanced Concepts and Technologies, 1997).

Developmental victimology

I read a little bit about child and youth victims and donwloaded a journal article(pdf) in psychology about developmental victimology.

Back to reading as term is underway now

I got back to reading books this morning. I read about the formal rule of law model and will read more about this formalistic model of the rule of law. I am also starting to read a William Stallings book on cryptography.

Working as a statistical consultant this weekend.

I was referred some work from another TA who is active in our union. So this networking for work has done the job again. Proof that staying active as a volunteer can be productive and help one look after one's self interests.

The work involves justifing a sample size choice after the survey is completed. I did one section of a justification last night. I will need to do some more of this. I am using the researcher's reasons for why he chose his sample size n and writing these up as statistical reasoning. This relates to designing experiments and employing a statistician to help design the data gathering.

I have started my design of experiments course and have ordered the textbook from Amazon.co.uk. I will also order some suplementary books when I can afford them.

I did not study this morning but am happy to have graduated.

I did not study this morning but did read the newspaper which is a form of study. I also began to think about the best way to study experimental design which is my winter course. I asked my dad an experimental physicist to send me some of his techniques for experimental design. I will also be learning more about the design of business and marketing experiments, I am sure in this winter's course.

Internet studies continue tonight.

I am still reading Alberts, David S. & Papp, Daniel S. Information Age Anthology Vol 1 : The Information and Communication Revolution (Washington, DC: The Centre for Advanced Concepts and Technologies, 1997).

I read the last days' paper of our daily city newspapers for 2005.

I often read the Ottawa Citizen newspaper although most of the regular columnists I don't read. I am just completing reading Saturday's paper and there was no paper on Sunday.

Still reading about the intricacies of the rule of law in the middle 1900's in the USA.

I continue to catch up on reading. This book on the Rule of Law I am reading is really deepening my understanding of the basic legal concepts taught to me in LAWS2003 private law intro, LAWS2004 criminal law intro, and LAWS2005 public law intro. I also made a comment on an email list from the UK for radical statisticians concerning crime statistics. But I might have to wait for the world to return to work to get a reply. I also tried a more scan and lightly read approach to a math book on number theory. I also reviewed and scanned the introduction of a book on spatial econometrics. I also surfed Memorial universities' web site and checked out their graduate programs in statistics.

I had friends over for new year's eve. I have been up all night and will sleep in a few hours.

Spent two hours job searching on-line for government jobs.

I spent about two hours exploring various government departments and agencies looking at job openings. I got very frustrated with it all. I need a private employer job search strategy. I have been passing my CV around to young people for comment. No reason to discount youth and their opinions.

I am deciding with my dad's help that grad school in statistics is not for me.

I am not sure of my chances of gaining entry to grad school in statistics. I stand a bettter chance in a legal studies MA program. I also might find the M.Sc. difficult going. Whereas I am doing quite well with legal studies consistently scoring B+ to A on courses. As such I may only study a legal studies course this winter and perhaps only one course. That course might be a feminist legal studies course or a course on sentencing.

I applied to some jobs on the place pro system at our school's career services.

I applied for some full time work through our school's career services place pro account/web system. I applied to be an ethical hacker amongst other jobs.

I read my old criminal law reform course personal journal on my iPod.

I tried out some software called Pod2Go. It did not work for weather. Pod2Go did work fine for lyrics, US stock prices and text notes. I also downloaded a manual for using notes on the iPod and formating them to work with iPod notes' html links to other notes on the iPod. I may teach myself more about how to use notes on the iPod. For now I tested a 56 Kb text file copy of my LAWS4305 course journal from Fall 2003. I read the whole journal on the iPod which was about 3 X 13 pages long.

I also studied one of our law professor's legal journal articles which is assigned reading in the feminist law course I might take this winter term on Thursday evenings. The professor and article are Majury, Diane. "The Charter, Equality Rights, and Women: Equivocation and Celebration" (2002) 40 Osgoode Hall L.J. 297-336.

I also listened to about the 4 most recent Wall Street journal podcasts. I should say most podcasts concern hi tech topics especially being Apple computer centric.

Job searching beginning.

I have begun to make a more serious job search for the end of my second undergraduate degree. In fact I will study less this coming year until possible grad school in the fall, so that I can search more and put more time into searching for a full time job.

I am reading US defence publications about the information age.

I got some books on eBay and am reading one book today. The book is

Alberts, David S. & Papp, Daniel S. Information Age Anthology Vol 1 : The Information and Communication Revolution (Washington, DC: The Centre for Advanced Concepts and Technologies, 1997).

Today I read the beginning and these two chapters:

Stewart, Thomas A. "Welcome to the Revolution" in Alberts, David S. & Papp, Daniel S. Information Age Anthology Vol 1 : The Information and Communication Revolution (Washington, DC: The Centre for Advanced Concepts and Technologies, 1997) at 7-26.

This article eplored the Toffler's three phaases of modern history, the agircultural revolution, the industrial revolution and the information revolution.

Alberts, David S. & Papp, Daniel S. & Tuyahov, Alissa. "Historical Impacts of Information Technologies: An Overview in Alberts, David S. & Papp, Daniel S. Information Age Anthology Vol 1 : The Information and Communication Revolution (Washington, DC: The Centre for Advanced Concepts and Technologies, 1997) at 27-82.

This article looked at three phases of history too, but all these three are termed information revolutions and then the first two of these three revolution's impacts are traced mostly on the USA and its society but also internationally. First the telegraph, the telephone, and radio are explored, described from a US centric point of view then impacts are described where there are impacts around the world on societies and governments but not so much on international actors. Then the second information revolution is described as the the facts of three technolgies, the television, the early computers and the global satellite communnication system.

I will be graduating this winter.

I have completed my legal studies BA requirments and will be graduating with high honours this winter. I have no more courses to study for my BA but will study some statistics this winter to upgrade my B.Math for possible graduate school. Also studying these statistics courses should be fun and a good lot of programming and number crunching.

Political economy studies

I read a little of the basics of globalization. This author then takes this into the local city politics sphere and finds we need to re think the globalization thesis. I learned about something called the new localism. Also the same sort of cities in competition for big business locations of workplaces was covered.

Now this blog is marked as spam blog.

My computer log book blog is no longer marked as a spam blog but now this study blog is so marked. I admit it must be boring and seem dreary to read my academic notes and certainly this blog can be dry but I am not selling anything here in fact this address
http://notebook.webpagex.org is a dot org meaning a non profit site. Oh well at least Blogger has improved the image verification system now for suspect spam blogs and I can still edit this blog after the initial post. This is like some kind of internet nightmare.

I am improving on my internet search documentation processes at the same time as reading articles.

I decided to study some literature references for a grant proposal that our self help group submitted to a foundation. We won the grant along with our hospital partner. I believe it was really the hospital that submitted the grant proposal. Our executive officer sent board members the project proposal files and I opened and read the lietrature reference pages. I then searched out a few articles at the school library. I started to read one article this morning.

The first open member/public meeting for our project is an info meeting tomorrow and today I have started to read one of the references/articles about a psychological scale that measures hope.

I did this search on google for the phrase “dispositional approach to measures” after reading Snyder, C.R., Sympson, S.C., Ybasco, F.C., Borders, T.F., Babyak, M.A., & Higgins, R., L. (1996). “Development and validation of the State Hope Scale.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2, 321-335. They use this phrase at 321 para 3 to describe part of their method. I needed to learn what is meant by dispositional.

I learned dispositional means inner person. In fact dispositional is like the word “traits” and is the view that includes internal personality characteristics, and further, is about internal reality or thought processes thus part of the “self”. Clique for understanding from my own language would be: “One's position on the matter”; One's disposition"; or legallly speaking "One's disposition submitted to the court. Differs from supposition and opposition.

The top three search results point to the same journal as the search term was taken from. Other search results show that making scales for stress, and satisfaction( in employment) and ability to think about symbols are all approached from dispositional approaches. Also the search got confused by the word "approach" being used as a trait, in the measure, rather than a methodological term which was the original context. But even approach/avoidance can be looked at from a dispositional perspective. The original context used approach to describe the method of constructing the Hope scale.

The learning I got out of this was less about psychiatry and more about how to document a google search. I copied and pasted the top ten search results into a word doc using Neo Office. I then followed 9 of the links that were dot edu links or I also followed one dot net link that was a researcher's web site; the only dot com I looked at was the Wiley.com web link because Wiley are an academic publisher so should be good quality.

After visiting each link I copied and pasted descriptions and tables of contents, or I copied and pasted bibliographic cites, or downloaded pdf's and also book marked each link's web page. I did not actually copy any articles off the web in whole and the pdf's seemed to offered freely. Only one article now needs a further search at the school library but in the end I now understand what the original article was talking about in the 3rd paragraph and this was a methodological aspect to this paper, so was important from my prespective. I then made notes on what I did for the nine web pages or documents.

I am still reading the book Techno Feminism.

I am still reading the book Techno Feminism. I am now on this writer's critique of Haraway. I have been reading this book on the bus and the train on the way to proctoring exams mostly but also while Christmas holiday shopping.

The past few days I have only been really reading one book.

Over the past few days I have only been reading one book. I have been reading Wajcman, Judy. Techno Feminism (Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2004). I have been rereading sections of this book. It is a short book only about 130 smallish pages. It is also really just a critique of other writers who write about the Internet or feminism and technology. I have been in touch by email this past term with a legal studies professor Sheryl Hamilton and have started to read her Ph.D.. She writes about cyberspace and feminism. I have even now asked her by email if she would like to supervise my MA in legal studies and have asked another legal studies professor for his opinion on her as a potential supervisor and it was that she is a good person to work with.

I wouldn't write anything other than the simple truth about others on the net and certainly not just anyone. I would not want to risk a law suit for something I wrote on the internet.

I need to read some more combinatorics to prepare for winter studies and also start using statistics software again.

I need to put some more time into reading over the holidays. I had planned on reading some more combinatorics when my law exam was over but have been caught up in working as an exam proctor. The combinatorics book is to help me study experimental design this winter. I am also studying statistical computing this winter. These courses are both on Monday and Wednesday afternoons. I will have Thursday evenings and Tuesdays to work as a TA. This may be my last term working as a TA as I understand I will not be eligible to work as a TA in the statistics graduate school because my GPA is too low.

I read about the Canadian Uniform Crime(UCR) Reports in a book.

I read about the UCR in Canada and the newer UCRII in a book by Kevin Hagerty a criminologist. I also bought a book of Patti Smith lyrics. It is Patti Smith Complete: Lyrics, Notes, and Reflections.This book inspired a little bass playing and creating some original music on my bass.

I have a new home computer

I was able to buy one of the last Apple eMacs. It will take a while to set it all up but it is working tonight and I burnt some DVD's of my mail for back up. I have burnt two copies of these email backups and before burning the third and final copy, I am using the new eMac to do some blog entries and school work and will also reinstall texshop. I am now using Neo Office 1.2 alpha.

I am still working as a proctor

I have worked at four exams now. I will work at one today and then one tomorrow and have Sunday off. I will then work for four days next week. It is good work nice and quiet. It is also related to being a professor so is in line with my career plans. It does not pay well though.

I am working on exams.

I have worked at three exams now and this work is not bad. It does not pay well just minimum wage. I guess the university does not value the effort we put into the education process.

Completed my BA now.

I wrote my last exam in my last course required for my BA in legal studies. Legal studies are the study of law in its social context. I have wanted to study this subject since 1981 and have been formally taking the courses since 1998. I should graduate with high honours and will attend the spring 2006 graduation ceremony.

My crystalcomputing blog is still marked as a spam blog.

It is a bit of a pain to have my crystal computing blog marked as a spam blog. The word verfication system only works once then offers the same image with the same letters on an edit but will not allow an edit. Second time strikes out.

TA duties completed for another term.

It was Wednesday this week that I took the student's assignments in to the professor and also returned my textbook and other TA materials to the school of mathematics and statistics. I also took in my grad school application for the M.Sc. signed and completed. I also gave Neil Sargent my referee forms for the M.A. and the M.Sc.. I have only one more set of referee forms to deliver and that is for Dawn Moore. I also have to get working to complete the M.A.application.

Lectures #3 and #5

I got lecture #2 all watched and then lecture #3 and am almost done lecture #5. I am skipping lecture #4 for now. I have all the digital documents from the course open on my computer. Speaking of computers I am getting a new eMac computer in about a week.

Hostage situation and a fellow grad student's plea

This is about the Canadian's being held hostage in Iraq.

Public pressure seems to be working, and the deadline has been extended two extra days, from the original date of today, until this Saturday.  If a petition is going to work, it seems to have a good chance right now.  If you would like to sign, please go here and add your name:
 
http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/freethecpt 
 
Below is an article on the situation, and here is a link to Now Magazine, which has two articles by friends of Loney's,  Andrew Cash and Len Desroches:
 
http://www.nowtoronto.com/issues/current/news_story.php

I got lecture 2 started early this morning.

I got started with the review of lecture #2 this morning. I also got my grading done so my TA duties are completed for another term.

I briefly reviewed the second half of lecture 1.

I watched parts of the second half of lecture 1. I have now cued up lecture 2 and will start watching it momentarily. I will take copious notes on lecture 2. I will then watch lecture 3 Tuesday morning and then sleep.

Reviewing law course materials this week to prepare for Saturday's exam.

I started early this morning to work through all 12 lecture tapes for a third and final time. I watch lecture 1 up to the break this morning and made comprehensive notes. I will review the rest of lecture 1, tonight and start reviewing lecture 2 and see if I can get to lecture 3 before sleeping Tuesday morning. I also have to do marking for three Q's in my TA work for 70 students.

Getting my studies organised for next Saturday's exam.

I am getting my studies organised for next Saturday's exam. I reviewed the last lecture in the term tape a bit this morning. I will also do some readings this morning. I have a fair amount of other stuff to do too like household cleaning, groceries, and some carpentry. I also have to mark some papers today or tomorrow.