Friday, July 19, 2013

Recent Random Musings

1)  Last week a key came off my daughter's Apple Macbook keyboard.  One of my keys on my machine had also come loose -- the "E" would pop out several times a day (and just pop back in when pushed, but still, it was getting annoying).  I made an appointment at the local Apple store, came in, and they replaced the keys.  (I'm sure both machines are no longer under warranty.)   For my daughter's machine, she (in her increasingly independent pre-teen way) had actually tried to glue the key back on (which I did not know until the Apple employee pointed it out to me), which is precisely what they tell you not to do, and he spent a few minutes scraping and peeling the glue out to get the new key to fit.

No moral here, but just very nice above-and-beyond customer service from my local Apple store, so I wanted to commend them.  And remind people not to try to glue their keys back into the keyboard, although I expect most blog readers here don't need that reminder.

2)  In a fit of weakness, I said yes to something, and now I'm on the Science Board for the Santa Fe Institute.  I don't expect to advertise everything that comes up with them on this blog, but they do have a "short course" (link) on complex networks coming up in September in Austin.  I thought it worth mentioning because it seems to have a strong lineup of speakers.  Readers of this blog will most likely know of Aaron Clauset and Cris Moore, who are on the speaker list.  I also note Lauren Ancel Meyers as well -- I knew her from one of those summer programs when we were younger, and she's now the Director of the Division of Statistics and Scientific Computation and Professor of Integrative Biology as the University of Texas at Austin, known for (among other work) her work on modelling the spread of infectious diseases and implications for policies to prevent the spread of such diseases.  Anyhow, it seems like a good program.  (Note:  the course apparently costs money to attend.)

3)  The Microsoft faculty summit has a virtual version to see sessions or talks you want to see. 

1 comment:

Aaron Clauset said...

While perusing the most recent SFI Update newsletter, I admit that I noticed your name on the list of new Science Board members. It was a very pleasant surprise. Welcome to the family :)