How to Get Great Sleep

I have read a number of articles on sleep (and getting more), which perhaps is an indication of how much I love to sleep! This article provides good information on our sleep mechanisms, as well as common sleep disorders -- and the link between lack of sleep and depression. In terms of beating insomnia, the article suggests doing nothing, allowing the body's natural rhythms to right themselves.

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What makes a 'geek'?

In thinking about learning and technology, I’ve been wondering why it is that some people are more attracted to using and discovering technology than others. This leads me to think about that group of people often called ‘geeks’. There’s an extensive entry on geeks at Wikipedia, suggesting it has at least as much to do with obsession as technology.

Howard Becker opens his useful book, Tricks of the Trade : How to Think about Your Research While You're Doing It, with an anecdote from his student days about a discussion of what makes an ‘ethnic group’. The key point is that one cannot study an ethnic group in isolation: such a group only exists because another group has identified them as separate or different from them in some way.

So, in considering geeks we also need to examine those who aren’t geeks, and what it is the various groups think of each other.

Popular images of geeks often have them identifying as such, sometimes proudly, sometimes self-consciously. Certain stereotypical characteristics make them identifiable to others, and in this way they appear as a separate cultural group. Thus, it is an issue of culture as much as technology.

So, apart from recognising that there may be ‘cultural’ issues, how useful will this be in determining how individuals learn about technology?

Blogging again

I started this a couple of years back, mostly as a test. And since then, I’ve started other blogs and journals -- some with specific purposes, which continue. Most often, just to test features, ease of use etc.

However, what I haven’t really ever done properly is actually blog!

So, I’m starting over here, because it is just as easy as anything else, and will try to make something of it. Hopefully, this post will soon be buried deep in the archives and no one will ever have to be bored by reading it.