I have finished my video lectures. They consist of ten weeks of videos with 2-4 hours of videos each week, probably 30 hours in total. It took me 2 months to accomplish that and I still have the encoding and uploading to do. But at least the recording is done. It is exhausting. An hour [...]
Okay this is a short summary of lessons learned in my ffmpeg journey to encoding and compressing my files. I use a 27in iMac (called ScarMac due to its beautiful left-side scar that came with it) and record videos using the built in camera and Screenflow. The default export to h264 gave a compression that [...]
This is written as a response to: Quick Impressions of Bohmian Mechanics —-Addressed to the author of that blog. I applaud you for taking the time to read about Bohmian Mechanics. Just as a word of warning, Shelly Goldstein was my PhD advisor and I consider myself to be very lucky to have worked with [...]
So last night, I ended the spring semester teaching. Two of my four students remarked as they were leaving, “This was a great semester” which is nice to hear. The last student to leave was the one on my side of the video camera. So we sat and talked for awhile. He loved the guesstimation [...]
Retirement was supposed to be easy. But it turns out that I am drawn to work. I think specifically I need to accomplish some math stuff. Right now, I am working on an online math course, one that covers algebra through calculus and statistics. Actually, at this very moment I am typing up this entry [...]
GeoGebra is an awesome program. I plan on doing something with stuff I am working on, but just to give a taste: Using GeoGebra, one can setup very easily a quadratic approximation to a function at a point. Then drag the point on the function showing how the quadratic approximation changes. In particular, through an [...]
I have been sitting here doing some work. I have a lecture to give in two days and fifty slides to write. So instead of that, I start working on a practice test and think about writing the actual test and maybe do the other lectures. There is something about creative minds and lacking discipline. [...]
As I read more (just through chapter 2), I am amazed how it speaks to me. He talks about going through days of just devoted to writing without any writing. The ideas are there and I can’t see any reason why he does not proceed, but he does not. In the same way, I find [...]
Reading A Writer’s Tale by Russell Davies. In it he talks about making choices and lots of ideas floating. And about how the structure that is purported by others such as keys to character development, is not his style. It got me wondering about teaching and programming. Ideas are swirling around in my head all [...]
I got my iPad yesterday. I am typing on it now. It is nice. I look forward to using it daily to consume media. But I think creating is not yet convenient. Though it can certainly be done. I think in the world of learning, this could be huge. And I mean more than just [...]