If a tree falls in the woods.....

Often times the tech crew on Sundays will get involved in various discussions about sound theories and applications. I like to use these discussions to help teach the guys and help them improve as often my friends are misinformed.

This past Sunday we got on the very philosphical subject regarding if a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it does it make a sound? I postulated that it does indeed make a sound but one of my former friends, whom I won't poke fun of here argued that it does not make a sound but rather creates a pressure wave that is not sound unless someone is there with an ear to perceive it. He said the wave does not become sound until it is heard by an ear which converts the pressure wave into sound therefore without an ear the tree only creates a pressure wave but does not create sound.

By now you are probably agreeing with me that my former friend was indeed wrong. It stands to reason that if the tree creates a pressure wave then it does indeed create sound with or without an ear. It's not as if the pressure wave is going to be perceived as light instead of sound when an ear intercepts the wave.

Needless to say my former friend and I had good time going back and forth basically arguing about the definition of the word "sound". Confident that I was right I continued with my morning. Being less sure of himself my former friend looked up the word "sound" in the Merriam-Webster dictionary. Turns out "sound" is both the pressure wave by itself regardless of whether or not an ear is present to perceive it and it is also the perception of said wave by an ear. I'm so glad his confidence in his own argument was so shaken that he had to do the necessary research to prove us both right.

Of course, I could care less who was right and who was wrong. I'm merely interested in the truth prevailing and in this case we were both in the right. The question this begs is why my former friend felt the need to argue the definition of a word? Perhaps he learned from a famous politician who was accused of infidelity and based part of his defense on disputing the definition of another obvious, simple word: "is".

Windows Mobile 6.5 Twitter App Update

In an earlier post, I talked about Twitter clients for Windows Mobile 6.5. Even though I have jumped ship and now have an iPhone, I don’t want to leave my Windows Mobile 6.5 friends hanging.

It would appear that the Twitter apps I reviewed before are no longer working. Neither one has been updated to comply with Twitter’s new oAuth authentication requirements. As a result neither one will allow you to login to your Twitter account.

The fact that these apps haven’t been updated can mean many things. Perhaps the developers are too busy or perhaps Windows Mobile 6.5 is dying a slow death. Another theory could be that they are putting their time into updating the apps for the upcoming Windows Phone 7 platform. No matter how you slice things, it would appear that there is much uncertainty ahead in terms of Windows Mobile based phones but that is another post for another time.

For now, when searching for a Windows Mobile Twitter client make sure it supports the new oAuth method that Twitter started requiring August 31, 2010. It is generally a good rule of thumb to check the update history to see how often the developer updates the program.

One I have come across and have friends using with success is moTweets. It has been recently updated, updates are free, and it appears the developer keeps the app up-to-date. It isn’t free though, it costs $3.99.

Since I don’t use the app I can’t recommend it for anything beyond the fact that is support oAuth but it does appear that the number of Windows Mobile 6.5 apps for Twitter that support oAuth are fewer and fewer.

The Story of the Beets

My dad has been teaching a parenting class for the community at our church and apparently he has been telling the class the story of the beets. In fairness to him I haven’t heard him tell it but I’m pretty sure his version is wrong.

For those who know me you know I eat adventurously and I eat just about anything. There are 3 small caveats to that mantra. First, I despise beets – no matter how they are prepared. They are a terrible food that I believe you are forced to eat if you die and go to that eternal hot place. Second, I’m not a big fan of olives, either black or green but I have been known to tolerate them on occasion. Third, mushrooms are ok but if I have a preference I would prefer to pass. Other than that, I like to try new things and enjoy the variety of foods available to us on planet earth.

Growing up I was the easy child. My sister was the difficult child. I would eat whatever mom and dad put in front of me. My sister on the other hand liked and disliked certain foods based on the weather. Some days she would like broccoli, other days she only liked broccoli with cheese, and on yet other days she would swear she never liked broccoli at all. Multiply that by the number of meals a family eats together and you can see how she was the difficult child.

Despite the fact that I ate everything I was served my father was determined to make me eat beets. I had tried them and didn’t like but for some reason I will never understand he wanted me to eat a full serving a beets. There must have been 2 or 3 pounds on my plate and with great wailing and gnashing of teeth I choked down all the beets. I remember that as being the longest night ever. I would take a bite, chew, choke a bit, gag them down and then regurgitate them a little.

I thought I was a pretty good 8 or 9 year old as I would eat everything else while my sister’s tastes changed based on the day of the week. Apparently my good track record was not enough. Meanwhile my sister was allowed to continue being a persnickety eater – and she is to this day.

As for me, I love broccoli – no matter how you prepare it but my favorite is with cheese and crumbled Ritz crackers.

Hopefully this sets the record straight, not only for you today, but for my therapist tomorrow.

Labor Day and Network TV

Labor Day 2010 has come and gone, but not before a pleasant surprise. Tonight was a rerun of the Big Bang Theory called “The Pants Alternative”, one of our favorite episodes. We were pleasantly surprised to find ourselves on TV again at the end of the episode as part of the vanity card.

If you missed it, the details are available here.

I know, I know. I’ve got to let it go but it is always fun for someone with as little excitement in his life as me to find himself on network TV not once, but twice. Oh, and my wife and Donnie too.