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2002.11.01 >> WHAT THIS SOAP BOX IS ALL ABOUT
- This is a random collection of some of my
thoughts and opinions on a variety of topics.
- The ideas and opinions are mine alone and I make
absolutely no claim that others have not had these ideas or opinions
earlier than me.
- - - After all, as the saying goes, "There
Is Nothing New Under The Sun" :)
- The principal motivation for generating this is
to place any items or ideas contained here in the PUBLIC DOMAIN
whenever possible.
- Of course, the idea of placing things in the
PUBLIC DOMAIN did not originate with me at
all.
- As many people already know, one notable
example of this in the world of computer programming is called
"Open Source".
- Each of the sections below contains descriptions
that have been made public by posting the information on the World Wide
Web.
- As part of each section, I have noted the date
when I first posted the information.
- Therefore, anyone is welcome to use these ideas
in any (legal) way they wish.
- Who knows, maybe some good will come from it
:)
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2002.11.16 >> FORMAT FOR MY GENEALOGICAL DATA
- The ideas and opinions expressed in this section
were first published on the WEB on 16/Nov/2002.
-
- Here is a short explanation of the way the
family tree information is organized :-)
-
- GENERAL
- The basic form of the relationship data
consists of separate pages of information with space for Parents, Grand
Parents (both sets), and Children. So, on a single screen, you can view
the names of both parents, all the children born to these parents, and
the four grandparents.
- Whenever certain areas are blank, this means
that either there were NO people in that catagory [in the case of
children or of a mate for instance] OR the information is missing
[everyone has a mother and father :-)]
- The names of the parent(s) are linked to the
appropriate position in the central information file [when there IS
more information on the parent]. The central information file is where
I keep everything else known about the person.
- The names of the grandparents and of the
children are linked to other pages where these persons appear in the
parent positions.
- I have included enough information on these
pages that if you wish to work from a paper copy of the data, it is
possible to do so. - The links between the various items are shown as a
pair of numbers wherever needed.
- The links all have the following appearance:
- NNN/PPP,, Person's Name
- Where:
- NNN: is a unique number I have assigned to this
person and is the "note number" used for any additional
information I have about that individual..
- / is a separator and is "/" if I have
not specified the person's gender or is either a "y" if the
person is male, or is "x" if the person is female,
.
- PPP: is a page number where this person appears
in one of the "Parent" spaces.
- Each page has its own number although many
different people can sometimes be found on the same page (parents,
grandparents, children).
- EXAMPLE:
- If an entry 088/126,, Yvette MONTREUIL appears
as either a child or as a grand'parent on a page, selecting it will
cause page 126 to be displayed. (She occupies
the "wife" position on page 126).
- If, on the other hand, the same entry appears
as in the parent position (wife) on the page, selecting it will send
you to that part of the central information file dealing with person
number 088 [Note #88]. This is exactly where
I've stored all additional information I have about Yvette MONTREUIL.
- Each time a person's name appears, these
numbers are also displayed.
- Why I did it this way:
- This scheme allows you to use the information
from a printed form.
- The pages are numbered and can be filed in
order.
- The names in the other large files are listed
in one case alphabetically by family name and in the other case in
numerical sequence.
- My source reference information also has
sufficient numerical clues to allow the information to be found when
printed on paper.
- I have created this page/data format
independantly of anyone else.
[Although I'll admit I may not be the first to think of it]
- Therefore, if this
format is not reserved in any legal sense,
I hereby place it in the PUBLIC
DOMAIN.
- Please feel free to use it for your own
genealogical documentation.
- [If you DO use the format, it would be
nice if you gave credit to BINARIUS Inc. somewhere on your data pages
:-) ]
- It may be a bit tedious, but you CAN navigate
manually through the information. [ A LOT easier to use a browser
though :-) ]
-
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2007.11.01 >> LIGHTS
- The ideas and opinions expressed in this section
were first published on the WEB on 01/Nov/2007.
-
- There seems to be a growing concern about
conserving our natural resources, including reducing as much as
possible the use of electrical power.
- One of the recognized methods of reducing the
need for electricity is to switch the "normal" (incandescent)
light bulbs for "compact flourescents".
- But isn't there another method of turning
electrical power into light ?
- I am referring to a technology called
"Light Emitting Diodes" (LED's).
- I have a couple of flash lights using this
technology.
- Batteries in these last a VERY VERY long time
:)
- So, why can someone not develop LED's to replace
even the "compact flourescents" ?
- LED's use very little electricity and can
produce bright light, either white or coloured.
- Also, a "safety" light bulb form could
be developped that would contain a small rechargable battery in its
base.
- Then, should power be interrupted, the light
bulb could continue producing light until the power resumed :)
- Also, the outer shell of an "LED"
light bulb could be made of plastic instead of thin glass.
- Such plastic light bulbs would not shatter into
many pieces of sharp glass if dropped.
- This would reduce the danger of being cut while
picking up the broken light bulb pieces.
- Also, what about making ceiling tiles with
embedded LED's ?
- Seems to me such a ceiling could illuminate a
room without the glare typical of currently available light bulbs
:)
- Any of these ideas that are not reserved in any
legal sense
are hereby placed in the PUBLIC
DOMAIN.
- Please feel free to use these ideas to improve
our world.
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2007.12.10 >> WHY IS WINDOWS SO SLOW TO START
- The ideas and opinions expressed in this section
were first published on the WEB on 10/Dec/2007.
-
- I believe that one of the reasons WINDOWS takes
so long to start up is that the applications it supports assume that a
large number of functions (subroutines) are resident in memory at all
times for use by any application needing them.
- Therefore, the calls to execute these
application functions are but a single
"Branch-And-Save-The-Return-Address" type of
instruction.
- What if we replaced this
"Branch-And-Save-The-Return-Address" with a call to a utility
function whose sole purpose is to first ensure that the required
application function was available in current memory (loading it in
from disk if necessary) and then produce the location of the (maybe
newly loaded) function.
- If the application function was already in
memory and ready for immediate use, it would of course NOT be
re-loaded, but would simply be used.
- If all applications used this technique to call
all sub-functions, (or if the WINDOWS system INSISTED on it) then
surely, the time to load the very limited basic software needed to
start WINDOWS would be MUCH FASTER :)
- It would be nice if my PC started up almost as
quickly as my PALM PILOT :)
- Furthermore, THE ONLY SOFTWARE LOADED INTO
MEMORY FROM DISK WOULD BE THAT ACTUALLY NEEDED BY THE USER
:)
- Then, just maybe, the system would only need
enough memory to run the functions actually in use rather than reserve
enough memory to store every possible function JUST IN CASE they MIGHT
be needed.
- Personally, I NEVER use WORD for text processing
- I use WORDPERFECT.
- Also, I do not use SPREADSHEETS very
often.
- I DO use a browser (FIREFOX) but NEVER listen to
music, so do not really need the software to interpret music
files.
- And anyway, if my habits change, why then I
would need to wait for the appropriate software to load in THE FIRST
TIME I NEEDED IT, AND NOT BEFORE.
- Any of these ideas that are not reserved in any
legal sense
are hereby placed in the PUBLIC
DOMAIN.
- Please feel free to use these ideas to improve
our world.
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2011.05.19 >> ELECTED .VS. APPOINTED CANADIAN
SENATORS
- The ideas and opinions expressed in this section
were first published on the WEB on 19/May/2011.
-
- We seem to have a problem with senate reform
here in Canada
- Some wish to keep the Senate
unchanged and continue to have citizens appointed <for life> to
their seat in the Senate
- This would continue life long senate appointment
without the benefit of elections
- The reason for the Canadian Senate in the first
instance was to provide a "house of sober second thought" to
be performed by a group who had no reason to worry about being
re-elected <as do the representatives elected to the house of
commons> and therefore would be theoretically immune to much of the
political pressures innate to the worry about re-election
- In theory, Senetors would decide with the
"best interests of the Country" in mind
- Others want Canada to move to a
Senate whose members are elected
- This change would allow the citizens to express
either approval or dis-approval of the effectiveness of those forming
part of the Canadian Senate
- It would unfortunately also subject the senetors
to the same pressures regarding re-elections which influence members of
the house of Commons
- Possible solution to these
conflicting view points
- I am suggesting that a possible compromise
solution to this dilemma as follows:
- Continue to appoint citizens to become members
of the Senate so to keep Senators free of re-election
concerns
- Limit the term for Senate membership to ten
years without any option for renewal <you can only be a Senator for
one ten year term>
- This would encourage Senators to concentrate on
the "good of the country" and not on re-election
- It would also limit the damage and waste that
might occur if a Senetor did no work at all other than collect a salary
even if senate meetings were never attended
- Any of these ideas that are not reserved in any
legal sense
are hereby placed in the PUBLIC
DOMAIN.
- Please feel free to use these ideas to improve
our world.
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2013.10.20 >> RECOVERING KIDNAPPED CHILDREN
- The ideas and opinions expressed in this section
were first published on the WEB on 20/Oct/2013.
-
- Even when we do find a previously kidnapped
person, we seem to have some difficulty verifying the identity of the
victim.
- Reasons for this difficulty include difficulty
in recognizing a kidnapped infant who was taken many years
ago.
- Maybe we could avail ourselves of our ability to
analyze DNA evidence to help identifying the identity of the newly
found kidnapped victims.
- Suppose the DNA of the parents or siblings of
the person recently kidnapped were analyzed and these descriptions were
kept in a database which could be accessed anywhere in the
world.
- Each record in this database would contain the
DNA description of the parent and the name of the missing kidnapped
victim.
- Whenever a person was suspected of being a
previously kidnapped victim, a DNA sample of the person could then be
tested for filial/family matches with the DNA descriptions in the
database.
- If such a match is found, this would indicate
that, in spite of changes in the appearance, due to aging, accident, or
other causes, the person could indeed be the long-lost kidnap
victim.
- Any of these ideas that are not reserved in any
legal sense
are hereby placed in the PUBLIC
DOMAIN.
- Please feel free to use these ideas to improve
our world.
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