but he can never fail
Corso has been acting up, and this is less-than-good news. It doesn't look like anything will happen to fix the problems before Tuesday, and that's not entirely promising considering it's my primary computer (and my work computer as well). It means I've been relatively frustrated for the past few days, but I do get to relax and watch DVDs and play around with other things that interest me.
And talk on the phone.
And continue to not shave.
And read.
Edward Tenner has ideas about the interplay between technology (things) and technique (use). Of course, things can be designed for specific uses, but unexpected and -intended and maybe even -wanted ones pop up all the time. The creators can never know. And so it can be somewhat interesting to think about how things and their uses influence each other and the users. In Our Own Devices he concentrates on the way technologies and techniques influence each other, down to how different technologies have lasting effects on the body. It's good this is fairly interesting, because the book isn't really well-written. The flow is awkward, the language not gripping, and it's all somewhat repetitive. Of course, I'm only up to the fourth chapter, but there are a few gems.
The interaction of inventors (who may or may not be athletes) with participants (who may or may not have technical skills) allows technolgy and technique to produce striking results envisioned by neither designers nor athletes. Rowing, fencing, speed skating, bowling, and bicycling show five outcomes of the interaction of technology and technique. In rowing, an innovation forgotten since antiquity was independently revived in the nineteenth century, but it took outsiders nearly a hundred years to refine a style that exploited it fully. In fencing, hardware innovation at first upset traditional technique, then rapidly reached a new equilibrium with it as both equipment and behavior changed together. In speed skating, a design from the 1890s was ignored for a century, then swept the field when athletes finally adjusted their technique. In recreational cycling, an alternative design helped change the nature of the sport itself, appealing to new riders with a different attitude. And in bowling, new equipment has altered the definition of winning technique.
The above paragraph is jammed in with the rowing section, which is followed by sections on fencing, speed skating, and bowling. What happened to the bicycling? Oh yeah, that's right before this. What? Hello, editor. And the following is stuck in with the discussion of simplistic footwear.
Sandals have built not only wealth but nations. In the early 1980s, overseas Eritreans presented the Eritrean Popular Liberation Front (EPLF) with an Italian PVC injection molding machine that could produce a hundred pairs of black (for camouflage) plastic sandals per hour. The rebels imported base granules of PVC but supplemented it by recycling the worn-out footwear of their troops. Just as family companies later diversified from sandals into higher-margin activities, the EPLF later was able to open pharmaceutical factories using foreign feedstocks to make 40 precent of the basic drugs Eritrea needs. (EPLF sandals had straps across the forefoot rather than thongs.)
Yes, thanks for that bit of information. It's true that the discussion had centered around thong sandals and it could be a good idea to point out to the reader that these were of a different style, but is that the best way to present information? Do you just slap parentheses around something and place it at the end of the paragraph?
Sure, why not? (I am barefoot.)
And talk on the phone.
And continue to not shave.
And read.
Edward Tenner has ideas about the interplay between technology (things) and technique (use). Of course, things can be designed for specific uses, but unexpected and -intended and maybe even -wanted ones pop up all the time. The creators can never know. And so it can be somewhat interesting to think about how things and their uses influence each other and the users. In Our Own Devices he concentrates on the way technologies and techniques influence each other, down to how different technologies have lasting effects on the body. It's good this is fairly interesting, because the book isn't really well-written. The flow is awkward, the language not gripping, and it's all somewhat repetitive. Of course, I'm only up to the fourth chapter, but there are a few gems.
The interaction of inventors (who may or may not be athletes) with participants (who may or may not have technical skills) allows technolgy and technique to produce striking results envisioned by neither designers nor athletes. Rowing, fencing, speed skating, bowling, and bicycling show five outcomes of the interaction of technology and technique. In rowing, an innovation forgotten since antiquity was independently revived in the nineteenth century, but it took outsiders nearly a hundred years to refine a style that exploited it fully. In fencing, hardware innovation at first upset traditional technique, then rapidly reached a new equilibrium with it as both equipment and behavior changed together. In speed skating, a design from the 1890s was ignored for a century, then swept the field when athletes finally adjusted their technique. In recreational cycling, an alternative design helped change the nature of the sport itself, appealing to new riders with a different attitude. And in bowling, new equipment has altered the definition of winning technique.
The above paragraph is jammed in with the rowing section, which is followed by sections on fencing, speed skating, and bowling. What happened to the bicycling? Oh yeah, that's right before this. What? Hello, editor. And the following is stuck in with the discussion of simplistic footwear.
Sandals have built not only wealth but nations. In the early 1980s, overseas Eritreans presented the Eritrean Popular Liberation Front (EPLF) with an Italian PVC injection molding machine that could produce a hundred pairs of black (for camouflage) plastic sandals per hour. The rebels imported base granules of PVC but supplemented it by recycling the worn-out footwear of their troops. Just as family companies later diversified from sandals into higher-margin activities, the EPLF later was able to open pharmaceutical factories using foreign feedstocks to make 40 precent of the basic drugs Eritrea needs. (EPLF sandals had straps across the forefoot rather than thongs.)
Yes, thanks for that bit of information. It's true that the discussion had centered around thong sandals and it could be a good idea to point out to the reader that these were of a different style, but is that the best way to present information? Do you just slap parentheses around something and place it at the end of the paragraph?
Sure, why not? (I am barefoot.)