tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-146013372024-03-05T04:16:12.180-08:00The ObserverCommentary by Alan Chattaway, Engineer and CommunicatorAlan Chattawayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16585448294140456816noreply@blogger.comBlogger35125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14601337.post-10873711816733343402017-01-17T00:30:00.000-08:002017-01-17T00:40:57.388-08:00Dear reader,
On Monday January 9, 2017 I was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, which has already metastasized to my liver. The primary tumour has encircled a major artery, so cannot be removed surgically, though something can probably be done to reduce its size.
The cancer was detected on a CT scan. A previous CT scan done last May showed nothing.
I may post something here from time to time, Alan Chattawayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16585448294140456816noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14601337.post-68089937979721348162016-06-23T11:30:00.000-07:002016-06-23T12:01:32.664-07:00How a piece of music evolvedDuring my youth the song Rocking Red Wing (1960) was a big hit. Much later I encountered the original, titled Happy Farmer (1830), when my children learned it in their Suzuki violin classes. Finally I encountered Red Wing (1911) in a collection of old sheet music.
I was pleased to see my family name among the credits: the 1911 lyrics are by Thurland Chattaway. This is the only Alan Chattawayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16585448294140456816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14601337.post-4717526664211891862016-02-25T16:30:00.000-08:002016-04-09T11:38:14.564-07:00How to recognize a satirical, hoax, or fake news websiteA friend asked me if I could provide a list of all the satirical, hoax, and fake news websites on the Internet. There are thousands of such sites on the Internet, with more added every day, and it can be embarrassing to realize that the link you posted on Facebook goes to one of them. Since there are so many, it was easier to write about how to recognize that what looks like a news Alan Chattawayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16585448294140456816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14601337.post-41213103391646723722015-10-23T02:00:00.000-07:002015-10-23T16:44:06.058-07:00Canadian election statisticsCanada has just (Oct 2015) held a federal election that saw Party A, which became the Government at the 2011 election, slip to Opposition status, while Party B has now become the Government.
It's a huge change, yet statistically it has tiny roots:
In 2011 the Government received 39.6% of votes.
In 2015 the Government received 39.5% of votes.
In 2011 the Opposition received 30.6% of votes.
In Alan Chattawayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16585448294140456816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14601337.post-8438917722444909512015-10-17T14:00:00.000-07:002015-10-17T14:11:56.146-07:00A flag is just a piece of clothThere are at least two sides to every story, but the “progressive” side now dominates our media, educational institutions and levers of power. They demonize other views, and where possible suppress them altogether.
The most recent issue is the niqab. Other than Rex Murphy, whose announced retirement protects him from being fired, no journalist at a major media outlet has dared to present a Alan Chattawayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16585448294140456816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14601337.post-53664650022402387602014-06-26T10:30:00.000-07:002015-10-23T02:25:18.863-07:00Life in socksSome count their lives in years,
Some in tears,
Some in conquests, some in fears.
I count in socks.
Eight pairs; one worn today,
Seven stay -
Drawer or hamper - hid away;
Eight pairs, no more.
Whate'er my days befall,
Great or small,
Life is rhythm'd by the call:
"Wash socks today!"
(c) Alan Chattaway 2014
Inspired by the cost of good,
medically required support socks.
Eight pairs cost Alan Chattawayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16585448294140456816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14601337.post-88644141070069344952014-01-31T21:00:00.000-08:002014-01-31T21:15:47.899-08:00"E. & O. E."More than a year ago, I noticed dirt or gravel being shaped into long piles at the low end of a sloping triangle of land cut off between Hwy 1, Hwy 15 and Barnston Drive. Until then the only building in that triangle was the local fire hall, so I wondered what they were doing. Being enclosed by two major highways and a major road, low down the hill, and with most of the local ground sloping, it Alan Chattawayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16585448294140456816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14601337.post-9339473909450100472013-02-03T17:00:00.000-08:002014-01-31T21:03:31.143-08:00Technology prices fall - some consequencesA family member just bought a new computer. It's 30 years since he and I bought new computers together. Compared to the computers we bought back then, his new computer has:
250 times the memory
4,000 times the speed
17 million times the storage
for half the price - which is actually one fifth of the price after taking inflation into account!
I thought about that when someone sent me a Alan Chattawayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16585448294140456816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14601337.post-90823802271875122732012-12-31T02:30:00.000-08:002012-12-31T02:54:43.519-08:00Riding the range at the PonderosaWe've recently been watching reruns of the old Bonanza TV series from the 1960s. The story concerns the Cartwright family, who supposedly lived in the 1860s on a huge ranch called the Ponderosa near Virginia City, Nevada. Many episodes refer to the awesome size of the Ponderosa, and finally I couldn't resist working out exactly how big the ranch really "was". It helps that this map appears Alan Chattawayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16585448294140456816noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14601337.post-62602499373200648732012-11-30T23:30:00.000-08:002015-11-03T13:35:25.792-08:00A simple, effective approach to electoral reformAfter recent federal byelections in Canada there is fresh talk about electoral reform to prevent vote-splitting and strategic voting.
Vote-splitting happens when the majority of voters are forced to choose one of several similar candidates, resulting in none of those candidates getting enough votes to be elected even though their policies are the most popular.
Strategic voting happens whenAlan Chattawayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16585448294140456816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14601337.post-25545205684562696382012-08-26T11:00:00.000-07:002012-09-11T15:31:58.261-07:00How many squares?I keep seeing this puzzle on Facebook, so I'm posting my systematic solution here.
There's a pattern of 16 basic squares in a regular 4
x 4 grid, plus two more superimposed on that grid to create 8 small squares.
First consider the basic squares. There are 4 x 4 = 16 of them.
Now group them into 2 x 2 squares. There are 3 of those across:
and Alan Chattawayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16585448294140456816noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14601337.post-71525728550020212422012-08-23T22:00:00.000-07:002012-08-24T19:13:45.298-07:00Your life in 5-year snapshotsHere's something new: describe your life on a single page by writing single-sentence snapshots of your life at 5-year intervals. Here's my one-page history:
5 years ago: Teaching math, science and information technology at an independent school in British Columbia.
10 years ago: Independent consultant doing functional specification documents for industrial software development projects in Alan Chattawayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16585448294140456816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14601337.post-37850968784161933912012-04-08T16:00:00.002-07:002013-06-23T15:21:25.931-07:00Servant Leadership
I just found in my archive the talk I gave on Wednesday 26 October 2005 at Heritage Christian School's Grade 12 Leadership Retreat. I thought others might like to read it. The quotations from the Bible are from the New Living Translation.
_ _ _ _ _
There are 13 people here tonight - the same number as Jesus and his disciples. This must be how it felt for them to be together.
Alan Chattawayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16585448294140456816noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14601337.post-23072506676970375482012-02-03T14:00:00.004-08:002015-01-26T22:52:49.545-08:00Moore's Law and the ever-shrinking computer
A friend sent me this 1956 photo with the heading "Guess What This Is?" I recognized it immediately as some kind of data storage for an early computer.
It's the hard drive for IBM's model 305 RAMAC computer. It weighed around 1 tonne and stored 5 megabytes of data (equivalent to one JPEG photo from a modern camera).
About 25 years after that photo was taken, I was Alan Chattawayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16585448294140456816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14601337.post-40550957564152667112010-05-06T09:00:00.000-07:002014-08-15T03:01:46.578-07:00The Aeroplane (1962)For all those who think engineers can't write poetry!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The Aeroplane
(c) 1962 Alan T. Chattaway
O Aeroplane! Thou gleaming silver bird,
Shimmering in thy glory, hear my word,
For I too long have tarried in this land,
And now my eye grows feeble, and my hand
Trembles to write these words, my weary plea:
O Aeroplane! Please take me to the sea!
Alan Chattawayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16585448294140456816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14601337.post-21622386855067518312010-03-12T16:00:00.000-08:002010-05-30T20:02:03.482-07:00What's a PDA?Each month after reading the latest issue of Consumer Reports, I shelve it and discard the oldest copy on the shelf. Today, before recycling the June 2002 issue I glanced at its review of PDAs.
PDAs? Does anyone still remember that acronym?
A Personal Digital Assistant is like a smartphone, without the phone. I still use the Palm IIIxe I bought in 2000 as my calendar, diary, notepad, Alan Chattawayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16585448294140456816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14601337.post-8676600043064762582010-02-28T21:00:00.000-08:002010-02-28T21:13:19.078-08:00Keep TV stations' hands out of our pocketsThe Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is campaigning to force Canadian cable TV companies to pay TV stations for the privilege of carrying their signals. This seems entirely backward to me!Cable TV started around 1950 and was then called Community Antenna TV (CATV). At that time all TV reception was through antennas. People who lived far from the transmitter needed a big antenna to get an Alan Chattawayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16585448294140456816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14601337.post-30478085937495141082010-02-01T16:00:00.000-08:002010-02-09T20:29:42.844-08:00Carbon tax weeds out everyone who isn't richFrom the National Post, February 01, 2010 (summarized)(http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2010/02/01/adrian-macnair-vancouver-can-t-afford-to-live-there-can-t-afford-to-commute.aspx)The Pembina Institute, a left-wing think tank, says the current 3.33¢ per litre carbon tax in British Columbia needs to increase to 50¢ per litre - and that's in addition to federal and Alan Chattawayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16585448294140456816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14601337.post-185218790394301652009-10-15T20:30:00.000-07:002012-10-31T09:28:37.535-07:00Design vs EngineeringA lot of products these days seem to be impractical and have features designed strictly for "showroom appeal". A case in point is the high trunk decks, low roof lines and thick rear pillars on many current cars. These combine to hamper visibility to the rear, contributing to many road and parking accidents. Ironically, many of these vehicles now offer optional "rear visibility packages" Alan Chattawayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16585448294140456816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14601337.post-63776862933993073362009-03-11T21:30:00.000-07:002010-01-12T22:49:46.435-08:00You shall not commit adultery<!--// //-->We usually associate the commandment "you shall not commit adultery" with unfaithfulness to one's marriage partner. However, the word "adulterate" has a much broader meaning: "To make impure by adding improper or inferior ingredients."In recent years no country has been more in the news for adulterating its products than China. Here are some instances that I remember:Pet food made Alan Chattawayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16585448294140456816noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14601337.post-37167146884612518102008-08-22T09:30:00.000-07:002012-08-24T19:39:47.426-07:00RIP Plymouth AcclaimYesterday I drove my 1993 Plymouth Acclaim (odometer reading 392,540 km, equal to 244,000 miles) to the scrapyard, which gave me a certificate entitling me to a reward from our provincial government's Scrap-It program. The reward is worth more than the car, so I'm ahead. (If you live in British Columbia and are interested in this program, see http://www.scrapit.ca/. Your car or light truck mustAlan Chattawayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16585448294140456816noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14601337.post-75054518172261272202008-04-22T18:30:00.000-07:002008-04-22T20:24:45.466-07:00Idioms and metaphorsThe first rule for communicating in English with someone whose native language is not English is: avoid idioms. Idioms are those sayings that mean something different from the plain meaning of their words. They are closely related to metaphors, which are similar but shorter - I see metaphors as idioms that have been whittled down through long usage to just one or two words. ("Whittled down" Alan Chattawayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16585448294140456816noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14601337.post-83478942004592351302007-03-11T12:30:00.000-07:002011-01-15T08:47:04.842-08:00The origin of the Unity Candle ceremony?When Kathy and I were married in May 1969, the minister who performed our ceremony challenged us to re-think the function of the various traditions about weddings and if necessary, create our own.
We wrote our own vows (now commonplace), and instead of a traditional wedding cake we distributed scripture portions we had signed and dated as souvenirs of our wedding. But the innovation that seems Alan Chattawayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16585448294140456816noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14601337.post-1164593005732306522006-11-26T17:30:00.000-08:002009-03-15T20:48:34.271-07:00A vote of no confidenceThe 6 November 2006 issue of eWeek magazine has an article titled "A vote of no confidence" about the mess created by the rush to computerize voting systems in the US. One of the people they interviewed, Avi Rubin, a computer science professor at Johns Hopkins University, says "Election officials...didn't even consider huge issues such as the lack of audit capabilities [or] the security Alan Chattawayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16585448294140456816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14601337.post-1161949107222272082006-10-27T04:30:00.000-07:002009-03-15T20:50:40.189-07:00Canada Post allows workers to discriminateYesterday, Canada Post gave its delivery workers in Vancouver permission to refuse to deliver a paid advertising flyer that some of them found offensive.This is a dangerous precedent, and one that should be reversed immediately. As long as the material is legal, Post Office workers should have no right to refuse to deliver it.If individual posties can decide which mail is fit to deliver, we Alan Chattawayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16585448294140456816noreply@blogger.com0