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The Taxonomy of Fun

Submitted by Sean Carney on Fri, 05/10/2013 - 17:21

Recently I was reading about peoples experiences on camping trips and someone mentioned 'the Fun Scale', a simple scale from one to three which measured how fun a trip was. Under this system a trip could either be truly fun, fun in memory, or not fun at all. I liked the idea but also noticed it had a couple flaws which needed to be corrected. To improve on this idea and remedy its shortcomings, I have created the Taxonomy of Fun.

Professor Elemental Builds a Great Machine

Submitted by Sean Carney on Sat, 05/04/2013 - 17:36

Recently legislation was introduced in the United Kingdom which would provide the police and government with nearly unlimited powers to conduct Internet surveillance. Nicknamed the Snoopers Charter, the legislation would allow the government to intercept communications and analyze them looking for indications of suspicious activity without any prior suspicion or cause.

Growth in Time of Debt

Submitted by Sean Carney on Thu, 04/18/2013 - 18:46

In 2010 Reinhart & Rogoff released a study entitled Growth in Time of Debt, containing a set of 'stylized facts' which claim to establish a negative correlation between GDP growth and debt levels. These findings have been often referenced by politicians who have been advocating austerity budgets and similar measures. Recently a group from the University of Massachusetts have released a study which challenges the process that Reinhart & Rogoff used to arrive at their conclusions.

Keep Calm and Maintain Perspective

Submitted by Sean Carney on Tue, 04/16/2013 - 18:41

Yesterday a person or persons unknown bombed the finish line of the Boston Marathon. The bombing was a cowardly act which injured a large number of innocent people. It came unannounced, without precedent, and managed to provoke strong responses from organizers of similar events who have stated that they are reviewing their own security measures. Bruce Schneier's article The Boston Marathon Bombing: Keep Calm and Carry On is a timely reminder of how we should react to events such as this.

My First 10K Race

Submitted by Sean Carney on Sun, 04/07/2013 - 16:14

This morning I did something that I've never done before. I got up at an unreasonably early time (for a Sunday morning), ate breakfast, took a hot shower, drove to Assiniboine Park, and ran 10 kilometres around the park along with dozens of like-minded people. My very first timed race. Since I'm planning to ran a half marathon at some point this summer, I figured a shorter race would be a good warm up and would give me a better idea of where I am at in my training.

The Difference that One Character Makes

Submitted by Sean Carney on Wed, 04/03/2013 - 00:38

Despite the fact that I would rather have all my technology run smoothly, I get a great deal of satisfaction from diagnosing problems and fixing errors. I find it a fun challenge to work my way from symptoms to a cause and figure out a remedy for the underlying issue. Normally stories of troubleshooting are dull reading to anyone outside of a select group of nerds, but today I have an example with a visually impressive graph!

It all started when, a couple of weeks ago, I noticed that all of the websites I host had slowed to a crawl...

We Ate the Burger Family

Submitted by Sean Carney on Sun, 03/24/2013 - 22:04

Yesterday Dave, Matt and I met in an attempt to each eat the entire burger family. This spree of unwarranted gluttony is something that I had done before, and when I mentioned it to Dave he was very enthusiastic about doing it himself. Since my previous attempt A&W has introduced a new burger, the Uncle burger, so it seemed appropriate to do this again so I could reclaim my record.

The East / West Divide On Ice

Submitted by Sean Carney on Tue, 03/12/2013 - 22:29

Tonight I had the privilege of not only watching the Jets play the Leafs on home ice, but also seeing the Jets play up to their potential. Lately the Jets home games have been less than stellar and their power-play record isn't even worth mentioning in writing. The Jets managed to start this game right by scoring a power-play goal in the first period but they also stood their ground throughout the game. I have to say that watching the Jets rout the Leafs felt really good on numerous levels.

Steinbach Mayor Surprises Few, Offends Many

Submitted by Sean Carney on Wed, 03/06/2013 - 17:26

Looking back, there were a lot of things I really liked about former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien. He introduced the Shawinigan handshake, could defend himself from intruders while armed with only a traditional Inuit stone carving, and quite rightly admitted that he was one of the few politicians who didn't talk out of both sides of his mouth. Sadly it appears as though Steinbach Mayor Chris Goertzen has a lot to learn about talking out of both sides of his mouth.

My C25K Story

Submitted by Sean Carney on Sat, 02/09/2013 - 21:49

Last year I decided to take up running. I wanted to try something new and I was thinking about running a half-marathon at some point in the future. For lack of a better place to start I looked at the Couch to 5K program (C25K), which laid out an easy progression of distances over the course of nine weeks. I checked the C25K schedule, pulled out a pair of running shoes from the basement, went out running, and suffered a week of knee pain afterwards. Clearly something wasn't working.

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