according to jeff

This curse isn’t limited to computer programmers. You may have experienced it, too.

I’m experiencing it right now.

It goes something like this. You have a particular problem — such as a work assignment, a relationship issue, or just an intriguing puzzle — and find yourself thinking about it even when you don’t want to.

I’ve been working with the Apple iPhone’s UITableView to solve a particular problem. Unfortunately, while the UITableView is an elegant solution for many problems, my particular problem has one desired feature that the UITableView is not designed to handle. The UITableView supports cells with variable height, but the design assumes that the table will have a small number of items, not a potentially large number of items. Meshing my desires with this design constraint is a challenge.

Every now and then, a challenge comes along that attracts the mind’s full attention. This challenge is such a challenge to me. I thought about it during dinner. I thought about it while watching American Idol. I thought about it while trying to go to sleep. I woke up early, found myself thinking about it, and couldn’t fall asleep again. Ah, if only the mind had an “off” button!

Both today and yesterday, the CBS World News Roundup referred to our president’s approval rating in two ways.

• An approval rating of 68%
• A 3 to 1 approval rating

Apparently no CBS World News Roundup reporters, editors or producers caught the error, since it was repeated today. I wonder how many listeners did.

A few weeks ago, I suggested that my new Amazon Kindle was one of just a few things that I’d want to take with me to my imagined small cabin in the woods. Now, after using the Kindle for a few more weeks, I am liking it even more.

My Kindle made a good impression right off the bat, beginning with the packaging. When the box was opened and the Kindle was revealed, I was surprised to see a picture on the screen. However, I learned that the screen has very low power consumption and that the Kindle screen is always on. So, even when the Kindle is off, the screen is on, and shows one of several black and white pictures.

Once the Kindle was taken from the box and examined, it felt right. My friend Jim has an original Kindle. I wasn’t too impressed with it. It had an odd pyramidal shape and didn’t feel solid. The new Kindle corrects both of these perceptions. The shape is now a nice rounded square with a uniform depth, and the Kindle has a very solid feel to it.

The screen uses an interesting ink technology that I find to be very readable. The display process applies ink to the screen. When a new page is shown, the screen flashes to black (all ink) and then ink is removed to leave the resulting text. At first I thought that the flashing would be annoying, but it quickly became unnoticeable. I’ve found the screen to be easy to read in both bright and normal lighting. However, since the screen is not backlit, you cannot read it in the dark. So, in any conditions where you can read a book, you can read the Kindle. Plus, the size makes it super-convenient to read while at home, while traveling, or even while walking on the treadmill.

The Kindle is often called an electronic book, but it is really electronic books. Many books can be installed to the Kindle, and you can easily switch between any of the installed books. Books can be purchased from amazon.com, and are then automatically installed to the Kindle via wireless service. Purchased books can be removed from the Kindle, and then reinstalled at any later time. My Kindle currently has:

• The English Standard Version of the Bible
• The New American Standard Version of the Bible
• Flint, by Louis L’Amour
• O’Fallon, by Louis L’Amour
• Radigan, by Louis L’Amour
• The Last of the Breed, by Louis L’Amour
• The Haunted Mesa, by Louis L’Amour (not a very good book)
• Black / Red / White: Circle Trilogy, by Ted Dekker
• Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto, by Mark R. Levin

What I’ve learned is that I really like the Kindle for reading fiction, biographies, and other “story-like” books. However, I don’t enjoy it so much when reading something that might not be read sequentially (such as the Bible or a technical book) or that you may want to refer back to while reading. For instance, navigating the Bible via a table-of-contents is just too cumbersome to make the Bible useful in a church or study situation. However, for devotional reading (where you start at some location and read sequentially over several days), the Bible on a Kindle is just fine.

Additionally, there are some other disadvantages.

• You can’t loan a book to some one else after you’ve finished reading it.
• You can’t sell the book in a used book store or a garage sale.
• Even if you own the book in print format, you have to buy the Kindle version of the book at full price.
• Once a book is removed from the Kindle, you’re dependent upon amazon.com to be able to restore it back onto the device if you ever want it again.
• Not all books are available in Kindle format.

However, there are some advantages, too.

• Don’t know what a word means? Move the cursor over the word to see the definition.
• The text of the book can be searched.
• The text of the book can be highlighted.
• Books take up less room on the Kindle than on a bookshelf.
• Kindle books are often less expensive than print editions. For example, the Black/Red/White: Circle Trilogy costs less than $10. (Though you’d have to read a lot of books to overtake the cost of the Kindle.)

It is cool to be able to turn on the wireless feature, shop in the amazon.com store, and have a book automatically downloaded to the Kindle. There’s a certain “wow” factor to it.

I turn off the wireless feature when I’m not using it to connect to the amazon.com store. This greatly extends the battery life from a couple of days to a couple of weeks.

In summary, I’ve been very impressed with the Kindle. The initial cost makes it unlikely that it will be a money-saving purchase, but I do find that I’m reading more with the Kindle than I had been reading without it. It’s just so convenient to pick up and read for a few minutes.

For several years, the sidebar of my blog has had a link to my friend Brian’s blog. The floating description of the blog described the link this way: “The blog of my friend, Brian Hagerman, who will be a pastor soon, I think.”

Today, my prediction was realized.

This morning, I was happy to attend Brian’s appointment service as a pastor of New Life Community Church. (In my church, we call this an ordination, but the function is the same.) Pastor Kurt provided a biblical and uplifting message on the role of pastor/elders and other pastors from the church affiliation were present to provide challenges and words of encouragement. It was a particular blessing to hear both Brian’s father and father-in-law provide testimonies regarding Brian. It’s great to witness the legacy of faith from generation to generation.

Brian, I’m proud of you, and excited to see God work in and through you.

As if you didn’t already need a reason to get out of bed today, here are some options for you to consider.

Today is:

1. National Jelly Bean Day: Mmmmm. Read more.
2. Denim Day: wear denim to protest sexual violence. Read more.
3. Administrative Professionals’ Day (formerly known as Secretary’s Day): read more.
4. Earth Day: turn off lights that aren’t being used, pick up some trash, etc. Read more.

There’s something for everyone!

It surprises me how often the dreaded misplaced modifier appears in public. For example, I read the following today.

Ironically, industrial expansion resulting from World War II eventually ended the Great Depression, not the New Deal. ¹

The author intended to state that it was industrial expansion, and not the New Deal, that led to the end of the Great Depression. However, the actual sentence indicates that industrial expansion did end the Great Depression, but did not end the New Deal. (There’s no irony in that.)

The misplaced modifier surprised me, as commercial books often pass through a rigorous editing process. This misplaced modifier, however, escaped both the author and editorial team. My high school grammar teacher, Mrs. Tuck, would be appalled.

1. Liberty and Tyranny, Mark Levin. I’m reading the Kindle Edition and thus cannot provide a page number.

Cedar Rapids pastor Eric Schumacher wrote an article, that some think controversial, regarding that status of marriage in Iowa. Click here to read it.

As you may recall, I recently purchased an Amazon Kindle 2 — an electronic “book”. (It’s really cool; I promise to write about it sometime.) Anyway… for my first reading experience, I chose the Bible. While I like the Bible, reading it on the Kindle wasn’t the best experience — it’s too hard to jump around. So, I switched to a novel: Flint, by Louis L’Amour. What better choice than a classic Western?

There’s a few things you can always count on in a Louis L’Amour book:

1. The good guy is either:
   • a fast draw
   • an excellent rifle shot
   • a champion cage fighter (to borrow from today’s terminology)
   • a horse whisperer, bronco rider, expert trail tracker, etc.

   Sometimes he’s all four.

2. The bad guy is bad, and undeniably deserves to be shot, beat up, or otherwise opposed by the good guy.
3. There’s a beautiful young woman in need of help.
4. The good guy is available and attracts the affections of the beautiful girl.

So, every Louis L’Amour Western novel has all the makings for a good book.

Flint is no exception.

That’s really all you need to know.

However, I noticed as I recently re-read Flint that there are some unexplained jumps in the narrative. I’m not sure if this is due to editing errors, or if Flint just isn’t as cohesive as most L’Amour novels. For example, a paragraph sequence might be like this (this is made-up):

“Hand drank his coffee and looked out over the ranch.” followed by “Stepping into the saloon, Hank…”

The two paragraphs just don’t flow into each other. I noticed several of these “leaps” in Flint. It made me wonder if Flint was one of L’Amour’s first or last novels.