Category: Science and research
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The doomsday argument
This has recently been the source of much frustration for some of my friends, as I’ve attempted to casually plow through a probabilistic argument that most people would instinctively recoil at. So, I thought, it might work better when written down. Of course, plenty of others have also written it down, including Brandon Carter –…
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The Zim desktop wiki
I’ve discovered that Zim is a great little brainstorming tool, for me at least. While I occasionally “think in images”, my brain usually works on words and symbols. A wiki – especially one that sports a LaTeX equation editor – seems to be a powerful way to assist a text-based brainstorming session. Being a desktop…
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Theoretical frameworks, part 3
The [intlink id=”225″ type=”post”]first[/intlink] and [intlink id=”324″ type=”post”]second[/intlink] instalments of this saga discussed the thinking and writing processes. However, I also need to fess up to reality and do some measuring. A theoretical framework is not a theory. The point of a theoretical framework is to frame theories – to provide all the concepts and…
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Theoretical frameworks, part 2
Carrying on from my [intlink id=”225″ type=”post”]last research-related rant[/intlink], my other problem of late lies in the writing process. The framework is supposed to assist the detection of defects in software, in a very round-about fashion. Why is this important? Well, hands up who hasn’t lost work as a result of software screwing up. Some…
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Theoretical frameworks
One of the chapters of my much-delayed thesis describes (or rather will describe) a theoretical framework, which is academic-speak for “a way of understanding stuff” in a given field. In my case, stuff = software inspections, and my way of understanding them is a mixture of abstractions of abstractions of abstractions and some slightly crazy…
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Daylight savings referendum
A somewhat agitated and embarrassed part of my brain is now telling me: “Voting! That means you, Dave, you prat.” On May 16 we will have the right obligation to vote for or against daylight savings in Western Australia. I see both side of the argument, but on balance I’m happy with it. It does…
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Corporate websites
Trawling through the sites of three hundred or so ICT companies gives you a new perspective of capitalism. It’s a perspective I could have done without. It’s not the graphics-heavy sites, or the menus that pop up in inconvenient places, or the occasional horrifying overuse of flash. It’s the way in which corporate PR people…
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When statistics attack
I swear stats is trying to kill me. I’ve redesigned my experiment so that it’s a nice elegant “two-factor repeated measures” flavour. I won’t trouble you with exactly what that means, or exactly what the nine separate hypotheses I’m testing are. What I will trouble you with, for it’s certainly been troubling me, is this:…
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How does this experiment work?
Statistics. It all seems to easy until you have to do it. No worries Dave, I confidently assured myself as I fitted the last details of my delicate experimental design into place, all set to be unleashed on as many undergraduates as I had chocolate to bribe. Now all I have to do is plug…