Facebook's real problem -- people sharing photos and stories

Andrew Leonard writes about Facebook's awful ad targeting, and their efforts to retarget ads and posts. That made me wonder why Facebook is determined to drive away me, my friends and family, and my neighbors.

It's either incompetence or design. I suspect the latter. Facebook doesn't make any money off us now, and I suspect they gave up hope when their farm games died.

Facebook wants a passive audience consuming celebrity endorsements and product placements. The TV audience of old, or the Twitter audience of today.

People sharing stories and photos are a distracting waste of bandwidth.

Amerisclerosis? Why US underemployment (and probably inequality) persists.

Brad DeLong excerpts Olivier Coibion, Yuriy Gorodnichenko and Dmitri Koustas: Amerisclerosis? The Puzzle of Rising U.S. Unemployment Persistence: "The results suggest that only cultural factors can account for the rising persistence of unemployment in the U.S., but the evolution in mobility and demographics over time should have more than offset the effects of culture."

I can't tell from the excerpt what is meant by cultural factors. It could be "declining labor mobility, changing age structures, and ... decline in trust", in which case the term has a technical meaning rather than the usual way we think of culture.

The "decline in trust" is weird for a non-specialist, I assume it too has a technical meaning.

Declining labor mobility is a bit of a black box; for example if automation were concentrating employment opportunities in high EQ/IQ positions labor mobility would be more genetic than cultural.

I continue to follow these discussions from a non-specialist perspective. I don't know how this can be tested in economic frameworks, but I continue to think we live in a world where the rate of change, largely driven by globalization (India/China) and information technology, has outstripped our ability to adjust and adapt. Perhaps we'll catch up if/when change stabilizes.

Beyond that, I think the rise of massively powerful corporations that dedicate wealth to legal and financial manipulation rather than innovation, combined with an increasingly aged (and, in the true sense of the word, conservative) electorate, is worsening America's ability to adapt.

Mounting a bike light when you use a front bag

My NiteRider Lumina 700 seems solidly made, but since I use a front bag it's a nuisance to mount. I took apart the helmet mount and fit that into an old reflector mount that puts the light in a good position. I think this mount will work, but in case it doesn't I put together a list of alternatives. (Of course the ideal front bag would include a bike mount, but mine doesn't. I prefer not to use the helmet mount, but that can work too.)

Most of these mounting solutions are designed to work with a handlebar clamp mount like the one that comes with the Lumina:

• Gino Light Mount from Paul Component Engineering $24, uses Frame eyelet.
• Sheldonbrown.com has several mounting solutions that might be useful (Sheldon died in 2008, but Harris Cyclery lives on)
• Lamp Holders : • Milwaukee Bicycle Co. • Ben's Cycle: lots of options here, many designed for bicycle computers but will be fine with this light.
• Front Light Brackets products from SJS Cycles: UK, but lots of ideas here
• Cronometro Nob: I like this design for a fork mount.
• Origin8 Light Mount Frame/Fork Eyelet Stub B $10
• Problem Solvers Quick Release Light Mount: replaces nutted side of front QR Skewer to provide mount
• Problem Solvers brake stud mount
• Urban Velo - DIY rack or fender mount

I ended up ordering a Paul Gino Light Mount from Amazon for $17. I saw a similar "Origin8 Light Mount Frame/Fork Eyelet Stub B" on Amazon, but Origin8's web site doesn't have a light mount and the reviews were inconsistent. I suspect this might be a counterfeit based on the Gino.

Of course another option is to go all in and buy a front rack, then mount the lights there.

Update 9/30/13: I bought the Paul Gino. It seemed small at first, but of course handlebar diameter isn't big either. It's quite finally made. I expected the M5 mount screw would fit my touring bike's front fork carrier mounts, but first I tried it on an old reflector mount that came with the bike. That mount, with a jury-rigged platform, had held my older front light, but my Nite Rider Lumia 700 was too heavy for it.

As shown below, it worked quite well. The reflector mount, as it turned out, is M5 threaded and I put a solid torque into the steel bolt and steel mount. The Lumia 500, set a few cms to the right of center, just barely cleared my cantilever brake cables.

Perfect result! 

BTW, many people like to mount lights on the lower to mid fork to get a better view of the road surface. I like to see the road too, but my main goal is to be seen by cars. So I prefer this mount - visible to cars, but a good view of the road.

BBS Dial up information from 1980s

I came across a list of the BBS sites I used to get to via pre-internet call routing. I think I used something like Telnet. The NSA probably wasn't monitoring our traffic.

1- The Crow's Nest 786-3161 38400 N81 F 0
2- Beowulf's Club 21 789-0233 38400 N81 F 0 BEO
3- Eagle's Nest BBS 789-1792 38400 N81 F 0 EAGLE
4- Mich Tech PC UG 1-487-2738 38400 N81 F 0
5- Lighthouse BBS A,428-3425 38400 N81 F 0 LITEHOUS
6- UPRNet BBS A,786-2179 38400 N81 F 0
7- ICU BBS D,428-3250 38400 N81 F 0 ICU
8- The Cardboard Box E,428-9135 38400 N81 F 0 CBB
9- PC exchange (lol) 13138490499 38400 N81 F 0
10- PIL Software Systems 13144499401 38400 N81 F 0
11- procomm user support 13144749543 38400 N81 F 0 PRCM
12- PC Resource BBS 16039249337 38400 N81 F 0
13- western union 18003254112 38400 E71 F 0
14- MIRNET ,,1,,786-2179 38400 E81 F 0
15- Sparta Board 1-201-729-7056 38400 N81 F 0
16- Shareware Dist Network 1-203-634-0370 38400 N81 F 0
17- NASA Space Link BBS 1-205-895-0028 38400 N81 F 0
18- Invention Factory 1-212-431-1194 38400 N81 F 0
19- NYPC BBS (Steinberg) 1-212-633-1870 38400 N81 F 0 NYPC
20- Magna Carta Software 1-214-226-8088 38400 N81 F 0
21- Free Net (Med BBS) 1-216-368-3888 38400 N81 F 0
22- Genie 1-301-340-5565 38400 N81 F 0 genie
23- Qualitas BBS 1-301-907-8030 38400 N81 F 0
24- NIST Comp Sec BBS 1-301-948-5717 38400 N81 F 0
25- Medical Sftwr XCH BBS 1-305-325-8709 38400 N81 F 0
26- ComputerDirect BBS 1-312-382-3270 38400 N81 F 0
27- IBM BBS (Atlanta) 1-404-835-6600 38400 N81 F 0
28- Pitt XPress Support Serv 1-412-864-2294 38400 N81 F 0
29- PKWare Support BBS 1-414-354-8670 38400 N81 F 0
30- The Home Computer BBS 1-414-543-8929 38400 N81 F 0
31- xerox bbs 1-414-797-5216 38400 N81 F 0
32- the Well (Whole Earth) 1-415-332-6106 38400 E71 F 0
33- ATI BBS (Video) 1-416-756-4591 38400 N81 F 0
34- The Softstone 1-502-241-4109 38400 N81 F 0
35- Micro Cornucopia BBS 1-503-382-7643 38400 N81 F 0 mcr-corn
36- Intel Tech Support BBS 1-503-645-6275 38400 N81 F 0
37- Central Pt. Software PCT 1-503-690-6650 38400 N81 F 0 cps
38- BMUG (Berkeley) 1-510-849-2684 38400 N81 F 0
39- The List: PD SW BBS 1-516-938-6722 38400 N81 F 0
40- InterNet (EMC2) 1-517-353-8500 38400 E71 F 0
41- SoftLogic BBS 1-603-644-5556 38400 N81 F 0
42- Dr. Dobb's BBS 1-603-882-1599 38400 N81 F 0
43- SSI 1-609-921-7079 38400 N81 F 0
44- Utilities Exchange 1-614-488-3991 38400 N81 F 0
45- NoGate BBS (Pak) 1-616-455-5179 38400 N81 F 0
46- Boston Computer Society 1-617-332-5584 38400 N81 F 0
47- ByteNet 1-617-861-9764 38400 N81 F 0 BYTENET
48- BYTE DemoLink 1-617-861-9767 38400 N81 F 0
49- Salemi Doghouse BBS 1-703-548-7849 38400 N81 F 0
50- Government (IRS) BXR BBS 1-703-756-6109 38400 N81 F 0
51- Online Soft. Srch. 1-704-255-8259 38400 N81 F 0
52- Western Digital Tech Sup 1-714-756-8176 38400 N81 F 0
53- Gibson Research BBS 1-714-830-3300 38400 N81 F 0
54- FDA BBS 1-800-222-0185 38400 E71 F 0
55- CSV Phone List 1-800-346-3247 38400 E71 F 0 csv_phn
56- MCI FAST 1-800-456-6245 38400 N81 F 0
57- Cristal 1-800-527-0531 38400 E71 F 0
58- PDQ (NCI) 1-800-546-1000 38400 E71 F 0
59- ETNet 1-800-546-1000 38400 E71 F 0
60- U of M Library 1-800-669-8779 38400 E71 F 0
61- Thous. Oaks Tech. Exch. 1-805-493-1495 38400 N81 F 0
62- The Shadowland --Chris M 1-814-238-4654 38400 N81 F 0
63- Internet - Caltech 1-818-405-0161 38400 N81 F 0
64- Quarterdeck BBS D1-213-396-3904 38400 N81 F 0
65- Trident bbs A,1-415-691-1016 38400 N81 F 0
66- Micro-Sellar D,1-201-239-1346 38400 N81 F 0 MSELL
67- OS/2: Fernwood D,1-203-483-0348 38400 N81 F 0
68- GMED BBS II D,1-301-402-7857 38400 N81 F 0
69- Symantec BBS D,1-408-973-9856 38400 N81 F 0 SYMANTEC
70- Exec-PC D,1-414-789-4210 38400 N81 F 0
71- OS/2: Shareware D,1-703-385-4325 38400 N81 F 0
72- compuserve D,1-800-848-4480 38400 E71 F 0 CSV
73- Sound-Advice BBS D,1-816-436-5635 38400 N81 F 0
74- Always BBS D,1-818-597-0275 38400 N81 F 0 ALWAYS
75- MCI Mail E,1-800-333-1818 38400 N81 F 0 MCI
76- Grateful Med BBS F,1-800-525-5756 2400 N81 F 0 GMED

CrossFit at 54

There was a competition underway when I first visited CrossFit St Paul; it had pounding beats, tattoos, (relatively) young people. Something new for an old guy. I felt dorky, but I'm good with that. I decided if I lasted a few months I'd have something worth sharing -- one old guy's experience with the relatively new fad of high intensity workouts.

Four months and one back injury later, I'm still at it. My initial exposure was misleading; I'm usually the oldest person in my regular classes -- but often not by much. There's one guy who might be about 60; he's a lot stronger than me. I'm getting used to the beats, and even wearing short socks and semi-fashionable gym shorts -- though my shoes aren't the right tech. Contrary to my initial impression my CrossFit classes are about half women.

So why did I start with CrossFit, how has it worked for me, and what's the downside?

I started because 50 is not the the new 40. It is same as its ever been -- early old. Among other things that means getting noticeably weaker from year to year. For me it also meant calorie restriction took as much muscle as fat. I need to keep up with my kids, so I needed a lot more exercise.

No problem -- I like exercise. Not running mind you -- I've not done that since undergrad days. Lots of other stuff though - cycling, swimming, nordic skiing, hiking, hockey.

Problem is my version of 54 comes with a lot of family obligations, not to mention (still and for the moment) a job. My life is good, but rich. The only thing I can cut out now is sleep -- and I need more of that. So I needed lots more exercise, but I had only a couple of hours to spare.

So that's why I took a look at CrossFit five months ago. Group psychology to drive effort, coach driven but cheaper than a private trainer, no contract, extreme variety, enough danger to keep me awake (more on that later), lots of sessions I can fit into a packed and variable schedule, facility directly on my weekly commute, engaging franchise owners - it was a good fit.

Ok, Andrew, it was also because you kept bugging me about it.

There was one other motivation - a big one. I didn't believe the late 90s reports that significant exercise delayed dementia onset, but the evidence has continued to accumulate. I suspect it's not as beneficial in humans as it is in animal studies, and I suspect it works better for some genotypes than others -- but it's all we have. Nothing else makes much difference. I need to keep my brain until my youngest is in college - 8 years from now. So moe exercise.

I did a private "on boarding" -- extra cost but it let me work around my schedule and my health status. I learned I was even less fit than I'd expected. After I joined the regular program I experienced three phases over 4 months. In the first phase I had remarkable muscle soreness, which led me to wonder about bursts of apoptosis. In the second phase my muscles did better, but I was limited by my poor endurance. In the third phase I was able to run a few miles for the first time in 30 years, and I was no longer always the slowest or weakest participant.

Sometime around the last phase, I had my first CrossFit injury - a back strain. I'm familiar with that problem, and the rehab routine went well. I'll get back to the injury bit.

I now do CrossFit twice a week; that's about as much as I have been able to safely handle. I currently need 3 days to heal between each session. Between sessions I do my usual 2 hours of bike commuting one day a week, 1-2 hours of inline skating with my #2 son, and 40 minutes of conventional Cybex workouts with my #1 son, focusing on back, abdomen and some base arm strengthening. Time spent with #1 son is considered family duty, so the new regime added about 2 hours to my week. I made that up by spending less time writing on my blogs, I manage my writing compulsion by microblogging with Pinboard, PourOver and app.net.

After five months, despite my back strain injury, St Paul CrossFit has worked well for me. I haven't developed much visible muscle, but I'm significantly stronger and I can handle more exertion. My weight didn't decrease until about month 4, since then I dropped 8 lbs and am close to my optimal weight.

The net effect is that physically I perform and feel more like I did at 44 than at 54. That's a big difference; if I feel at 62 the way I was at 52 I'll be content.

I'm not as keen on CrossFit as some but I enjoy the people, the exercise, and the game of staying within my limits. My two sessions a week are well worth the $135/month I'm paying; I'll probably go to three times a week when ice and snow stop my bicycle commute.

Which brings me to injury risk, and Jason Kessler's CrossFit experience ...

 Why I Quit CrossFit (Jason Kessler)

On my very first day of CrossFit, I threw up. It happened my second day, too. And the third. And pretty much all of the first month...

For the next three years, I squatted, pulled, pushed ...

… CrossFit was unlike any workout I had ever done before. It throws out the traditional-health-club model of machines and isolated exercises and replaces them with a whole-body approach rooted in the real world. Calisthenics, Olympic lifting, and gymnastics combine to form a workout that emphasizes ten basic physical skills: cardiovascular and respiratory endurance, flexibility, stamina, strength, speed, coordination, power, accuracy, balance, and agility. Every day, a new workout (called the Workout of the Day, or WOD) is written on a whiteboard, and everyone in a class completes the same workout no matter what fitness level they’re at.

... Your typical CrossFitter wants to zap his fitness tank down to zero by the end of a workout. He’s not content to be just sweaty — he wants to collapse into a heap on the floor...

…. quickly amped up the frequency of my visits from three to four, then five days per week. Without even realizing it, I became that evangelizing asshole who makes people think that CrossFit is a cult...

… Not everyone gets injured to the point where he has to get knee surgery, but I did. I also developed a chronic shoulder injury that to this day, eight months after my last CrossFit workout, is still a constant reminder ... the penalty for not executing movements with perfect form, but I’ve come to believe that having perfect form 100 percent of the time is literally impossible...

Jason was lifting an awesome amount of weight but even for less ambitious athletes the injury risk is real - largely because of the focus on technique-critical Olympic style free weight lifting and on continuous improvement. At 54 I'm into managed-decline rather than improvement, but at 34 I'd have been tempted. CrossFit workouts are intense -- and I'm not sure five or even four workouts a week makes sense for most 35+ bodies.

My gray hair means I get gentle encouragement that I can use or ignore, but younger, keener people could get in trouble. I think CrossFit could do a better job of teaching early recognition of injury and ways to respond to it. Since we pay based on our use rate there is a bit of a perverse incentive at work here, but the St Paul franchise has added Yoga and other lower intensity programs that can round out 2-4 high intensity workouts.

For me the risk feels less than pickup hockey (head, knee, face, laceration) or serious downhill skiing (knees), but a bit higher than inline skating (head) or road biking (cars -> infrequent but serious injury). In other words, it's in the risk range I'm used to, even though it's higher risk than traditional gyms or high intensity Pilates. Honestly, for me, managing the risk is part of the appeal. I suspect as CrossFit evolves, however, there will be tracks that deemphasize the riskier weight maneuvers and more focus on early response to injury.

Will I still be doing CrossFit at 64? It seems unlikely, but it's not impossible. I'll let you know.

Update 9/23/2013

Still enjoying CrossFit and staying injury free, but I do wonder if our gym is a little atypical...

Getting Fit, Even if It Kills You - New York Times 12/2005

... For his first CrossFit session, he swung a 44-pound steel ball with a handle over his head and between his legs.. ... That night he went to the emergency room, where doctors told him he had rhabdomyolysis, which is caused when muscle fiber breaks down and is released into the bloodstream, poisoning the kidneys. He spent six days in intensive care.

... The short grueling sessions aren't for the weekend gym warrior. The three-days-on, one-day-rest schedule ... "Murph," a timed mile run, 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, 300 squats and then a second mile run. (A weighted vest is optional.)

Mr. Glassman, CrossFit's founder, does not discount his regimen's risks, even to those who are in shape and take the time to warm up their bodies before a session.

"It can kill you," he said. "I've always been completely honest about that."

... "If you find the notion of falling off the rings and breaking your neck so foreign to you, then we don't want you in our ranks," he said.

I rather doubt I'll be doing "Murph" in this life, and I like 1 day on, 2-3 days of something else. Good thing I've never run into "Coach" Glassman.

Americans traveling through Canada: Telecom 2013

It goes something like this:

• Remove my personal (iPhone) mobile number from my work Google Voice (GV) account and set that number to forward all calls or SMS as transcribed text to my email.
• Add my iPhone mobile number to my personal GV account and make GV the voicemail service for that number. Turn off call forward, set to forward GV calls or SMS as transcribed text.
• Change iPhone GV app to use my personal GV account
• Make Emily GV the voice mail for her cell, confirm her iPhone GV app is correct
• Set home phone to forward to Emily GV
• Pay AT&T $30 prorated for 80 min Canadian talk on my iPhone cell number (locked phone)
• In Canada buy Virgin Mobile SIM & 1GB data ($30 or so) for daughter's unlocked 4S and make that a hotspot.

On return, undo all.

See also: 

• Canada travel: Activating a Rogers paygo SIM for your iPhone or other unlocked GSM phone (voice only). (Virgin tethering sounds better, and this data didn't work last time I tried)
• Low income computing and emergency mobile in Canada: Rogers Paygo by the minute with 100 MB/month data. (Now Virgin's probably better for this as well.)

Will Facebook become a local event and activity service?

Today I learned of a 3-4 year old local bicycling group aimed at families with children ages 6-13. I'd have jumped a this a few years ago, and even now we might join a ride -- though our kids are getting old for this group.

What's interesting was how I learned of the "Mill City Maniacs". I heard about them through Pedal Minnesota's Facebook page (interesting funding btw). That's how I learn about most of the interesting activities in the Twin Cities metro area -- through Facebook Pages for government groups, nonprofits, advocacy organizations, and even commercial businesses. Even if Facebook did nothing else, these pages would keep me looking at it (until the video ads come online, then I may be done).

Which makes me wonder if that's where Facebook will end up.

I especially wonder that because so few of my friends and family post to Facebook. A few do (and I love reading your stuff!), but they are a tiny minority. I'm guessing that of the 400+ friends and family I'd like to follow on Facebook about 50 actively read FB and perhaps 10 post at least weekly. Over the past three years Facebook participation within my social network has been dwindling.

From what I read in geek circles, I don't think I'm unique.

On the other hand, the value of the Pages I follow has been increasing -- and many (but not all) of those organizations would pay Facebook modest sums.

It's not a huge business, but at scale it's a business.

I wonder if that's where Facebook will go.

Which will make the name anachronistic.

Apple and the 2013 tech world - in the doldrums

I was in an Apple Store yesterday with a burned-through seven year old power adapter cable.

Our much abused power adapter came with a MacBook purchased in November 2006 [1]. That MacBook runs Lion today; very slowly at first but with various tweaks and fixes it's become acceptable for undemanding tasks. [2] The MacBook is in turn newer than the July 2005 G5 iMac [3] my son used this morning for his MacKiev Mavis Beacon typing tutorial. That eight year old machine runs pretty well, we barely notice the slowly progressing 5 year old display discoloration.

Trust me, this is all relevant. I'm going somewhere.

At the app store I was told that Apple's policy is not to service anything more than six years old, regardless of recalls. The tech then gave me a brand new L-shaped power adapter which works well [4]. He may have been influenced by my very long purchase record [5].

I walked out of the store another happy customer, and I didn't look at anything. There was nothing there I was interested in.

Let me repeat that. There was nothing in the Apple Store I was interested in.

That has never happened before. I've also never had a seven year old laptop that's used every day.

It's not that I have everything Apple makes [7]. My new Kobo Glo is a definite compromise; I'd love a less costly iPad Mini, or perhaps an affordable iPad Mini retina, or even a thinner, lighter iPad retina at today's price. Alas, the things Apple makes that we don't already own aren't the things I want from them - or they're too expensive [8]. Gordon's Laws of Acquisition leave me nothing to look at [10].

This tech lethargy problem isn't unique to Apple. There's no tech hardware anyone makes that we really want or need [9]. And it's not just hardware, there's very little software on the market that interests me.

We are in a curiously quiet time for tech lust.

See also

• Gordon's Tech: A dead MacBook Air power adapter is magically restored. SMC problem? 10/2011 - different machine
• Gordon's Tech: MacBook: won't startup unless plugged in 2/2007 - battery problem with this gen machine.

- fn -

[1] It's interesting to scroll through posts around then, like my Feb 2007 tech.kateva.org posts. My blog posts then were more like my app.net shares today.

[2] Mostly tweaks or fixes to Spotlight and Time Capsule backup, some Lion features disabled, some states not saved. I switched as part of the very (very) painful MobileMe to iCloud transition.

[3] Wow, that was a problematic machine. The heat / fan issues in the G5 iMac line were appalling, not to mention the epidemic of bad capacitors.

[4]  Has a thicker cord with more reinforcement. See also Apple's article - Mac notebooks: Reducing cable strain on your MagSafe power adapter

[5] Now somewhat inexplicably associated with a single AppleID (discuss), though he couldn't see it there. He had to use my home phone to lookup records.

[6] There are a lot of things I'd like to see, not least vastly better Calendaring and a faster, more useable Aperture, or better replacements for Google's tainted offerings. Problem is, they don't exist. I could probably make good use of an industrial video editing tool, but I don't have time to use one.

[7] I also have two modern Macs that will probably run OS X Mavericks fairly well. Eventually we'll replace the G5 iMac, but it's not like we're in a rush. I'm not even in a rush to get Mavericks, and I rather like the sound of it.

[8] Between the war with Samsung and China's rapid wage growth I don't expect prices to fall.

[9] Things seem even worse for Windows families. The only purchases I hear of are 15yos building gaming machines the way my generation assembled stereos.

[10] Ok, an Apple TV would be useful, but then I'd have to replace my 25 yo SONY CRT with the rabbit ears and the A/D converter. That's a historic artifact.

Sympathy for Economists

A good feature of teenagers is that they sometimes sleep in. So Emily and I can chat on a quiet Saturday morning about wearable tech (remember 1988?), and how 2013 feels a bit like 1997 or 2007 or 1923. The times when technological change seems to rev up again. To be followed, if recent  history is any guide, by yet another crash.

Which brings us to Economics, and especially to economists like Brad DeLong and Paul Krugman. 

I suspect that DeLong, and even Krugman, believe that the fundamental drivers of our economic instability are the simultaneous and related rise of both digital technologies and China and India (RCIIIT). Both DeLong and Krugman, have, at various times, written about the disruptive impact of "smart" robots (including robot/human pairings) and the related rise of 'mass disability'. Both, I suspect, share my opinion of the economic consequences of artificial sentience.

These aren't however, topics they can discuss in the context of models and mechanisms. How do you measure technological disruption? Economists still struggle to describe the productivity impacts of typewriters. Corporations can't make an internal business case for products like Yammer. We can't measure technological disruptions, and what we can't measure we can't model. What Economists can't model they can't discuss, and so they look through a keyhole into a dimly lit room and see monsters, but can't speak of them.

But the situation for Economics is even worse than that. There is a reason Krugman rants about economists who cling to models when all their predictions fail and yet retain academic respect. A discipline without falsifiability can be scholarly, but it can't be a science. It can't progress.

Economics thus lies between the Scylla of the monsters than can't be mentioned, and the Charybdis of the non-falsifiable.

No wonder Economists are dismal.

My eBook misadventures. Not ready yet?

After much thought, I decided to build my digital library on DRM-free EPUBs. That means buying from DRM-free sources like TidBITS, O'Reilly, and some science fiction books from Tor/Forge or buying from Adobe Adept DRMd Google Books and using DeDRM.

It was a relief to get that all sorted out. Now I just needed a handheld eBook Reader other than my too small iPhone 5 [2]. I gave up on the Nexus 7 last year, and I don't love the current crop of iPads [1], so I took the advice of some appnetizens and tried "freedom-friendly" Kobo. I really like the idea of moving EPUBs on and off the device with a simple SD card.

Alas, Kobo seems to have abandoned the US market. I found some dusty old Kobos at a local independent bookstore, but one was broken and the other was too small. I tried ordering the HD Aura but Kobo's webstore checkout failed repeatedly. Then I tried to order a Kobo Glo on NewEgg and found they were selling a $120 device for $150.

I finally decided Kobo has effectively exited the US marketplace.

Then I thought the Nook might be the closest thing to an American Kobo - never mind that B&N is at the edge of extinction. I ran off to my local B&N (once we thought these were scary, now, like Microsoft, they seem sad and vulnerable) to give an eInk Nook a try.

The page turn flicker killed me. I felt like someone was tapping my head with each page turn. Maybe there was something wrong with those floor models, the wee Kobo I tried didn't seem so bad.

That leaves the Amazon Paperwhite. I've already sold my soul to Apple, I don't need another closed shot wannabe monopoly owning my stuff.

Which brings me back to those iPads I don't like, or the new "retina" Nexus 7.

Or I could wait anther six months.

Bummer.

[1] The Mini seems small and isn't Retina. The iPad Retina is too heavy. In both cases I really miss the convenience of a simple SD card.

[2] The iPhone 5 has the right screen, but for technical book reading I need something bigger. 

Nose and mouth breathing: a popular non-medical topic and a curious research deficit

For idiosyncratic personal reasons I've had to think about mouth versus nose breathing during wake and sleep. Despite my medical background this is a novel topic for me; but a quick Google search shows there's lots of lay interest in the topic. As I discovered, this interest is not matched by much research.

I remember learning in medical school that infants are obligate nasal breathers, but we assumed adults had options when both awake and asleep. That's not entirely clear, a tiny 9181 suggested  at least some adults are obligate nose breathers during sleep ...

The effect of nasal packing on sleep-disordered... [Laryngoscope. 1981] - PubMed - NCBI 

... Nasal obstruction is known to cause abnormal ventilation during sleep in infants, but its effects on breathing and oxygenation during sleep in adults are unknown. However, in adults, obstruction of the nose by nasal packing has been shown to cause hypoxia, and on occasion, hypercarbia and sudden death. We have investigated the pattern of ventilation and the level of oxygenation during sleep in seven patients who had nasal packs after nasal polypectomy or septoplasty. ...  Nasal packing either caused or worsened sleep-disordered breathing in all patients and significantly increased the number, duration, and frequency of episodes for the group as a whole. Several patients also had a greatly increased number and severity of episodes of nocturnal oxygen desaturation....

Of course patients selected for polpyectomy are not typical; particularly in 1981 many who received surgery would today be treated as having obstructive sleep apnea. The 1981 study was repeated in 1991 with essentially the same results. Once again these patients had a surprising amount of trouble switching to mouth breathing during sleep. It's almost as though obligate nasal respiration persists in some adults throughout their lifetime.

And that was most of what I could find in my quick look, other than some review articles [1]. They probably have more references, but in the abstracts they mostly call for "additional research". Not much new knowledge in 33 years. I wonder what medical textbooks teach today.

Medical research is strange. My own suspicion is that a significant number of adults are essentially obligate nose breathers during sleep. It would be good to have some data.

- fn -

[1] 30+ years of research ... 3 reviews with limited follow-up.

• Mechanisms of nasal obstruction in sleep. [Laryngoscope. 1984] - PubMed - NCBI. ... If airflow resistances are increased by nasal disease, complete inspiratory obstructive closure of the pharynx and apnea can result from nasal breathing in sleeping subjects. Recumbency increases resistive swelling of inflamed nasal mucosa. Furthermore in patients with normal mucosa and unilateral nasal obstruction, contralateral recumbency induces contralateral obstruction which increases resistance to nasal breathing; and in either dorsal or lateral recumbency the congestive phase of the spontaneous nasal cycle acts in a similar way. Examples of breathing disorders in sleep and impaired quality of sleep in patients with obstructive mucosal disease and both bilateral and unilateral structural abnormalities are cited.
• Nasal obstruction as a risk factor fo... [J Allergy Clin Immunol. 1997] - PubMed - NCBI. Similar to above.
• Sleep, breathing and the nose. [Sleep Med Rev. 2005] - PubMed - NCBI ... In normal subjects, the nasal part of the upper airway contributes only little to the elevation of the total resistance, which is mainly the consequence of pharyngeal narrowing. Yet, swelling of the nasal mucosa due to congestion of the submucosal capacitance vessels may significantly affect nasal airflow. In many healthy subjects an alternating pattern of congestion and decongestion of the nasal passages is observed. Some individuals demonstrate congestion of the ipsilateral half of the nasal cavity when lying down on the side. Nasal diseases, including structural anomalies and various forms of rhinitis, tend to increase nasal resistance, which typically impairs breathing via the nasal route in recumbency and during sleep. A role of nasal obstruction in the pathogenesis of sleep-disordered breathing has been implicated by many authors. While it proves difficult to show a relationship between the degree of nasal obstruction and the number of disturbed breathing events, the presence of nasal obstruction will most likely have an impact on the severity of sleep-disordered breathing. Identification of nasal obstruction is important in the diagnostic work-up of patients suffering from snoring and sleep apnea.
• a 2012 Outside magazine article is a surprisingly good evidence-based review of mouth/nose respiration during exercise, and whether one could deliberately modify that respiration ... "I have never seen a study—and I look for them—in which any adopted pattern of breathing did anything to performance, oxygen consumption, efficiency, or fatigue."

Update

Some post-publication discoveries, I'm going to see if I can get copies of these ...

• Impact of impaired nasal breathing on sleep-dis... [Sleep Breath. 2003] - PubMed - NCBI
• The role of the nose in sleep-di... [Am J Rhinol Allergy. 2013 May-Jun] - PubMed - NCBI

Update 7/23/13
\
I'm back from my rushed and unjust survey of the literature. My working conclusions are unsurprising:

• The experimental data is very limited, and there's not much evidence any treatment other than CPAP helps many people with "sleep apnea"
• It's not clear what "sleep apnea" really means, there are probably multiple causes that contribute to a similar clinical presentation. It's not clear that we have the best treatment for every cause.
• We know that some infants can switch from nose to mouth breathing and we know that some adults have a lot of trouble with nocturnal mouth breathing during acute nasal obstruction. We don't know if they do better over time.
• Over a 20 year period there's often confusion between sleep disturbance, nocturnal oxygen desaturation (not to mention altitude effects), and apnea. There's also confusion between acute and chronic responses.
• North American clinicians have mostly lost interest in nasal obstruction syndromes and assume they make no contribution to nocturnal oxygen desaturation or even sleep disturbance. International clinicians still suspect nasal obstruction plays a role in some oxygen desaturation. Nobody seems interested in mere sleep disturbance without desaturation or apnea.

It's pretty much the picture I get when I look at most surgical conditions (someday I should go over my review and management of the ganglion cyst).

Update 7/25/2013

I don't see this in the ENT literature, but given renewed interest in hypertonic saline irrigation for chronic sinusitis, I wonder about use for nasal obstruction and sleep disturbance ...

• Hypertonic saline is more effective than normal saline in seasonal allergic rhinitis in children. [Int J Immunopathol Pharmacol. 2012 Jul-Sep] - PubMed - NCBI
• Effects of buffered 2.3%, buffered... [Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol. 2009] - PubMed - NCBI ... "On the 20th day, there was a significant difference in SCT between the hypertonic buffered seawater group and non-buffered isotonic saline (P = 0.003). Buffered hypertonic seawater improved nasal airway patency more than the buffered isotonic saline..."
• The effect of saline solutions on... [Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2007] - PubMed - NCBI. In this case hypertonic saline worked, but had no special advantage.
• Effects of buffered saline soluti... [Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2004] - PubMed - NCBI This study found NO effect on nasal airway patency

Bicycling in a deluge

Many years ago I road through a mini-flood downpour. Not the nearly 5" that drowned Toronto, but a fun storm. That was it for a long time. In our old midwestern climate a genuine deluge was really not that common. They were easy to dodge, and with fenders and some gear routine rainfall is no problem.

Things are different now. In the post-400 ppm CO2 world my weather is warmer and wetter; we are told to expect really heavy downpours more often. Like the one I hit last week on my routine commute. Instead of waiting for it to pass I rode on, and so I  found out what gear worked and what gear didn't.

Didn't work

• Old baggies: They degrade with age. The ones I had in my front bag were worthless
• My brakes and my vision: Of course both brakes and vision degrade in rain, but in a deluge they really do nothing. This was a bit of a problem because in 3" of a groundwater collection my tires didn't have much traction, and I couldn't see a big pothole under the floodwater. So I went down.
• My GoreTex shoe covers: They didn't work because I didn't put them on. That was dumb -- my shoes didn't dry off for a couple of days. Even though the rain was mostly fun, it would have been nice to have dry shoes for my return trip.
• My panniers: They do well in routine rainfall, but I knew they weren't waterproof. I poured a half-inch of water out of my front bag. My wallet, keys (no electronic fob!) and several maps were soaked; I tossed the maps.

Worked

• My waterproof iPhone 5 case: Best $15 I've ever spent. If not for that case my phone would have been ruined. I leave it in my bike bag.
• A rubber lined "conference bag" that I was carrying my work laptop in the rear panniers. This was dumb luck, I had no idea that bag was so water resistant. If I'd been thinking I'd have waited out the heavy rain rather than chance losing the laptop.
• Fenders: No wheel tracks, though in that amount of rain I suppose they'd have washed off.
• My yellow rain jacket and lights; Not sure the lights were visible, but I think the jacket was. In any case I opted for the sidewalk when the road narrowed, figured drivers couldn't see at all. I wasn't that worried about staying dry, but the ancient Nashbar jacked did that too.
• Helmet and helmet cover: I bonked the helmet when I went down, which made me feel better about having it. Helmet cover worked better than I'd expected.
• Synthetic clothes: Wow, that stuff dries well.

Falling was a drag, but I wasn't hurt and now I know what to look for - road floods are trouble. I should have moved to the nearby sidewalk. I had to relube my bike, but that's not a big deal (yay sealed bearings) - so, overall, it was kind of fun. Next time I'll have a canoe bag in my rear pannier -- something to hold wallet, keys, garage door opener, maps and similar items during a real downpour.

National Library of Medicine adds PubReader - Instapaper for medical literature fans

I became a fan of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) when "Grateful Med" [2] augmented the old telnet interface to what was then MEDLARS/MEDLINE, and once was Index Medicus. Rose Marie Woodsmall recruited me to teach rural docs how to use Grateful Med --  which was kind of excruciating in the days before error correcting modems [1].

I loved it when the NLM added RSS feeds to PubMed results, so I could track research topics in my feed reader (still works in Feedbin/Reeder). That's where most of my app.net | pinboard | kateva.org/sh [3] medical posts come from.

Most recently, in the post-2007 age of full text access, NLM has added an HTML5/CSS3 Instapaper-like view for reading articles on mobile or desktop. It's known as PubReader™ (emphases mine):

... view is available for any article that is available in full-text HTML form in PMC. It is not available for older content that is available only in PDF form or as scanned images of the original print pages. You can get to the PubReader view directly from an article citation in a search result list or an issue table of contents:

Or from the Formats links in the top right corner of an article page in PMC...

...  PMC now automatically directs certain users to the PubReader view:

- everyone using PMC on a tablet or mobile device, and
- a small, randomly selected sample of people using PMC on a desktop or laptop....

.. We start with the XML version of an article and use XSLT to convert it into an HTML document. We then add CSS and Javascript (JS) to implement the formatting, paging, navigation, text reflowing and other dynamic features. This, essentially, is the way we have created the traditional article display in PMC for years. The difference now is that we are able to take advantage of features and functions that are available only in the latest versions of the underlying technologies (HTML5 and CSS3).

The CSS and JS code used to create a PubReader presentation is available at the GitHub repository NCBITools/PubReader. Anyone can use or adapt it to display journal articles or other content that is structured as an HTML5 document.

Great service, neat technology.

Go NLM!

- fn -

[1] In response I reinvented software error correction in the early 80s. That seems stupid now as the work had been done decades before, but it's hard to remember what life was like before we could discover knowledge in seconds -- assuming we know the magic words.  We really don't understand, yet, how much that has changed our world.

[2] Rose Marie was a deadhead (probably still is), which was how the DOS, later MacOS, app got its name. In 1996 Internet Grateful Med, an early web app, displaced it. In the 00s we got today's PubMed.

[3] All of which have, I'm happy to say, RSS feeds -- even app.net which started out without. Kateva.org/sh is probably the best to follow with a feed reader.

See also:

• Happy Solstice: A quiet revolution in human knowledge 2007. When Bush II signed the "Public Access Mandate" sponsored by the diabolically named "Alliance for Taxpayer Access". Sometimes the best stories are never told.
• Managing medical references. [Ann Intern Med. 1990] - PubMed - NCBI: The article link out is no longer correct. I'd written a C program to convert MEDLINE formatted output into tab delimited for import into a FileMaker Pro database. FM Pro is still around.
• Combining PubMed RSS feeds with Bloglines to conveniently survey new developments 11/2005: Still works today! Since 2005 I've gone from Bloglines to Google Reader to Feedbin/Reeder and my research topic RSS feeds have kept working. RSS is awesome and it's far more than a way to consumer blog posts (though nothing wrong with that).
• Web Management for Physicians 1996. This was a very, very long time ago. "By the year 2020, I'll wager that any person in any free country on earth will have access to the accumulated public knowledge of the human race. These are heady sentiments, but what do they mean for physicians today? How can one begin to "manage" the web? What is the web, anyway?"
• Nothing beside remains: Software long gone 4/2006: When I dumped my 80s/90s floppy disks I recorded the app names.

Acute back strain management - one anecdote

After the 2008 vacation ambulance ride and the supine drive home I decided I needed to see a doctor other than myself. Twenty-five years of increasingly severe and transiently disabling back pain was enough. So I did, and I got better.

 

Which nobody wants to hear about. There's nothing more boring than back pain stories. Heck, when I first saw my back doc he cut me off at the start of my epic. He'd heard it all before. 

 

So nobody wants to hear my stories, but, honestly, if you have back pain you should read 'em [1]. I got anecdote, I got training, I got experience, and my current approach is consistent with PNBC's evidence-based back strength boot camp. By contrast much physician management of acute back strain is pretty weak.

 

This particular story is a bit different. In the past I'd sneeze or tie my shoes funny and be laid out for days. [2]. This time I was at the end of four sets of CrossFit front squats, lifting about 125 lbs. when I shifted forward a bit, tried to correct and felt my back tear (or whatever it's doing - we don't know). I dropped the bar and lay (grammar?) down on an ice pack. 

 

This is what I did for immediate post-injury recovery. This time I didn't need my old canes, and two doses of Motrin was plenty. I don't know if that's because I'm stronger than I once was or because this was a relatively minor injury.

• Sunday (injury day): neoprene waist band and doubled cold pack. Walking and modified version of my usual morning stretch [4]. Inline skating in pm - that's often helpful for me [5]. Sleeping was difficult, though I've had much worse. Motrin 800mg midnight.
• Monday: I am able to stand. Fear level diminishes.  Able to do most of stretch [4]. Continued ice. Evening skate with my son and the Minnesota Inline Skate Club. Start using Roman Chair for extension exercises, with arm assist. Motrin 600mg before bed.
• Tuesday: I am able to do 85% of my usual stretch. Minimal ice. Two hour high speed bike ride from home to Minnehaha trail to Lake Harriet around and back. Roman Chair with minimal arm assist. No meds, sleep a bit sore.
• Wednesday:  AM full stretch routine. 16yo and I go to weight room at JCC. There I can do arm workout, resisted back extension, abdominals with controlled equipment (not free weight). Full Roman Chair. In evening I'd scheduled a swim, but couldn't fit it in. PM stretch. Sleep good.
• Thursday: AM stretch, otherwise day spent on chores and family duties. Full set of situps and Roman Chair. PM stretch.
• Friday: AM stretch, AM CrossFit Yoga - extreme stretches. No pain. Two hour bike ride in evening with 16yo. Roman Chair and Situps. PM stretch. Back isn't normal, but it's pretty good.
• Saturday (plan): Try running to barber shop in AM. PM family bike ride -- lots of lifting bikes, moving car seats. Good functional back test. 
• Sunday (plan): Regular CrossFit -- will keep weights under 50 pounds (women's 18 or 33 lb bar).

As a rule a soft tissue injury at my age will take at least six weeks to heal. In addition it's clear that my back is going to need to get stronger before I go back over 100 lbs [6]. So my go forward recovery plan is:

• Maximal weight 90lbs until my extension and abdominals are much stronger.
• Ensure I have at least 3 days between my full CrossFit workouts. They are intense and I need that much time to recover; when I was hurt I had a 1 day gap. In between I do my bike rides, inline skating, and, now, gym weights.
• More aggressive Roman Chair and situp training.
• Add 1 day/week of workout in conventional gym with controlled equipment. I will establish my current baseline max for 6 rep extension and abdominal. I need to increase that by 30% before I go up again on free weight.
• Consider adding a routine CrossFit Yoga session -- if I can find the time I think that would be a good complement in a couple of ways.

- fn -

 

[1] For example ...

• The summer of 2008: ED treatment of acute back pain — what's missing and why (6/2008), How to construct an emergency custom back support car seat for under $20 (7/2008), and Bad back better (8/2008-onwards).
• Innovations in back pain management: cold and colder packs 5/2007 - how to make a safe cold pack that lasts
• The neoprene back wrap and other parts of John's acute back pain recipe 11/2005 - an older approach, my current management is even more aggressive, and Motrin/tylenol only

[2] One of the little ironies of mortal life is that nature routinely does stuff to us that, when we do it to one another, could be considered a war crime.

[3] Why is CrossFit, and why am I doing this when I'm older than the moon? I've got a post pending on that.

[4] Every morning, 5 reps each for past five years: Knee to chest r/l, knee lateral hip rotation r/l, straight leg, two leg to chest, elbow press back extension, full arm back extension, cat stretch, sit rotate, hamstring stretch, quad stretch.

[5] Sounds bizarre, but when I've hurt my back it's a lot easier for me to skate than to walk. I'm a good skater. It also forces me past the fear that accompanies this kind of injury, especially for those of us with memories.

[6] My classes are about half female, and, prior to my injury, I lifted an average or above average amount for the female group. Bottom of the male group of course.

Update 3/19/2016

Despite developing an inflammatory osteoarthritis (yay) my back has done quite well over the past 3 years of CrossFit. I had another strain with deadlift in Jan of 2016 but it healed well. I think I took 1-2 weeks off CrossFit to do cyber-type weights at a different gym before returning to CrossFit. Year 8 post my great PNBC experience and 3 years of CrossFit St Paul my back is healthier than most people my age. 

 

American psychology and civil war in Egypt

An acquaintance from my Quebec High School is active in Egypt's secular resistance to Morsi's rule. She's frustrated by Obama's tolerance of the Muslim brotherhood; I think she would prefer the freedom rhetoric of Bush II. Personally, I prefer Obama.

That's not what's interesting though. The interesting bit is she seems genuinely confident that Egypt won't break down, like Syria and Iraq, into civil war. That confidence seems strange to an American, even an immigrant American like me. We believe in Civil War; we had a big one not long ago. There are still flare ups in old battlefields.

For an American it's easy to imagine Civil War in Egypt. There are many things that are strange to us, but not civil war.