XO Laptop: It's the Software, Stupid! - A nice post about how the OLPC empowers kids creatively. A riposte to a number of rather scurrilously negative posts circulating on the web.

Timetriallists spend rather an undue amount of time worrying about the aerodynamics of their bikes and of their body position on said bikes. I guess at least it's easier than training! Wheel aerodynamics are a frequent topic on discussion fora, but often the data are either non-existent or are derived from wheel manufacturers and are therefore unlikely to be impartial. As part of an ongoing review of bicycle wheels, www.rouesartisanales.com have put a detailed study of the aerodynamics of a variety of bicycle wheels online. The study has previously been published by the magazines Tour and L'Acheteur Cycliste.

The test setup

As with most such tests, the basis here is that the wheels are placed in a wind tunnel (the web page has some detailed images of various elements of the setup). The wheel under test appears to be fixed to an inverted fork, on which there are electrical strain gauges - effectively, these are what assesses the aerodynamic drag. The wheels are said to spin in air air flowing along the wind tunnel: it's not clear whether the wheels are driven, whether they spin due to the air flow, or whether this refers to a pivot that allows the wheel to experience air flow at different angles of attack. Drag was measured at wind angles 0 to 35 degrees. Because the more extreme win angles are infrequently experienced on the road, it seems that an average drag value is computed by giving less weight to the more extreme angles, and greater weight to smaller angles. This is indicated by the Gaussian curve in the graph.

My Pocket PC (an HP iPaq) broke recently, and while I was scanning various online emporia for a replacement, came across the OQO O+ UMPC, which was a clearance item at Expansys. Since one of the main reasons for using the Pocket PC was as a means of tracking my cycle training, I thought a miniature PC running WinXP might be useful. The other significant use would be for delivering presentations. So, how does the device stack up? And given this is the old model, now replaced by a slightly more powerful device running Vista, are these comments valuable?

Hardware specs:

I don't read a lot of fiction, but this novel was quite appealing in its subject matter. Written by "Anonymous" (the author would appear to be auniversity academic), the novel is an accurately targeted satire on modern university politics and life. It was lent to me by a colleague, who'd bought it for holiday reading over Christmas.

The principal character is a well to do Professor of Christian Ethics. He's married to lower aristocracy and is successful in academic, if not in modern RAE terms. He is a few years short of retirement, and clearly doesn't fit the bill in terms of academic style. In response to an accusation of sexual harassment, he's hauled over the coals by university officials, many with unhelpful (to the main character) relationships with each other - accusations of bullying and libel fly.

It was a quick and quite entertaining read, though I found the writing style rather unexceptional. nd finally, how does it work as holiday reading? Unfortunately, it is so close to the truth of University politics and devious machinations that at times it really isn't pleasant to read! This hasn't stopped me from borrowing the sequel "Degrees'r'Us".

The GNU General Public Licence (GPL) is one of the most (if not the most) widely used licence under which open source software is released. There's a Wikipedia page on the GPL (but be cautious as with all Wikipedia pages on contentious topics). Recently the author of two software packages (atscap and pchdtvr) has announced that he has revoked their licensing under the GPL. This has predictably released a storm of comment on the internet. As usual, the best coverage is over at Groklaw, where PJ has provided a clear analysis of whether the software author can indeed take such an act, and many of the regular contributors add observations.

It's not clear whether the author of the software and the author of the announcement are indeed one and the same, and on the basis of PJ's article it doesn't look as though he can actually revoke the GPL. It is possible that some attempt to challenge the GPL is being made (but this has been tried before in several jurisdictions, without success).

It isn't clear why the software author is taking this step. A change of heart regarding FOSS? Patent infringement (in which case the problems lie only in those jurisdictions where software patents are permitted)? Perhaps over the next few days, these issues will be clarified.

Envisioning Information by Edward R. Tufte

I got a copy of this book over the Christmas period (I now have all four of Tufte's books). This follows the pattern of the other three - beautiful production values, and an authoritative view (some might say didactic!) of design as applied to the graphical display of information. The book was originally published in 1990; the copy I have is the 10th printing from 2005.

The book has six chapters: Escaping Flatland, Micro/Macro Readings, Layering and Separation, Small Multiples, Color and Information, Narratives of Space and Time, and finally a brief Epilogue.

A neat spoof of the (ab)use of physics terminology for explaining homeopathic effects.

Picked this one up from this week's Swift (18/1/08).

P.J., who runs the famous blog site Groklaw, has received her OLPC (those lucky enough to live in , or have an address in, North America can order one on a "buy one, give one" arrangement), under the most exciting circumstances, as she relates in Groklaw today. The pictures of the kids with their OLPCs are great!

Also worth reading is this item from linux.com. It gives a nice overview of how the device operates. Incidentally, I have an earlier version of the OLPC's OS, Sugar, running in the emulator qemu on a Linux laptop. From the two articles that form the basis of this item, I would judge that kids have no issues with using Sugar, and that posts such as this one are misguided. The standard conventions of the typical PC desktop environment are not actually intuitive, as anyone who has tried to get someone who genuinely has no computer experience up and running with a relatively modern computer will know.

David Colquhoun's blog "DC's Improbable Science" often takes issue with quack medicine. I noticed this article on the spread of quack medicine quangos - it's well worth a read, as is the article over at quackometer.', '

Two quango-style organisations are discussed: the Natural Healthcare Council and Skills for Health. The NHC (a nice authoritative sort of abbreviation, no?) has been set up by the Prince of Wales Foundation for Integrated Healthcare through funding from the Department of Health to regulate 12 alternative therapies, such as aromatherapy, reflexology and homeopathy. The problem here is that none of these mumbo-jumbo therapies work (other than via a placebo effect, I guess). Isn't this just money down the drain? And worse than that, should we encourage the public to genuinely believe these "therapies" offer any kind of real health benefit?

Skills For Health appears to be a real ticky-box mentality run riot. It offers competency descriptors for dubious alternative medicine practices, and is also informed in this endeavour by Prince Charles' Foundation for Integrative Health. How about this description of a homeopathy "skill competence":

Presentations, software and design

Over the last few months, I've read several books and articles that concern the graphical presentation of data and information using presentation software, such as PowerPoint and OpenOffice.org Impress (both of which I have used a lot) and Keynote (which I have never used. I am approaching the problem of presentation from the angle of making scientific presentations, often with considerable quantities of complex data.

Edward Tufte on the cognitive style of PowerPoint