NorthStarNerd.Org

This Inflation Topps The Cake!

On the way home I stopped at the grocery story. At the checkout counter I noticed a display for Topps Baseball Cards, 20 cards and a stick of gum on sale for $2.99. What a deal! Back in 1963, when I was seven years old, a pack of five baseball cards and that same stick of gum only cost 5 cents. Why do I remember this fact? My allowance was 10 cents per week, and I was allowed to buy one, and only one, pack of baseball cards per week.  The rest was supposed to go in my piggy bank! Thus, forty-five years of inflation has yielded ... a 1500% inflation by the baseball card index!

• Cost per card in 1963: 1 cent per card
• Cost per card in 2008: 15 cents per card

(click to expand image to full size)

Randy Pausch

I've seen many other postings about Professor Pausch, with all kinds of links.  I personally think the best place to read / watch / listen to this phenomenal gentleman is via Carnegie Mellon... both his alma matter and where he taught. After all, from an academic side ... this is where it all began for Randy. It's nice to see that Carnegie Mellon has him featured on the root page of their school's web site.

His 3D Educational Software Program for children (ALICE), has been linked via my Engineering Learning Wiki (Kid's Corner - Engineering for Children section) for a long time. As a parent who has been involved with helping educate children about technology ... thanks Randy. I also add my prayers for his wife and kids. Click to expand the image for a full sized view.

 

Technical Computing with MATLAB

Doug and Jiro over at Doug's Pick of the Week are starting up a Technical Computing with MATLAB video series (free). Looks good so far, but I'm wondering if they will provide a larger image. Their blog has been listed for some time on my Engineering Learning Wiki (blogs and pods section).

An update since yesterday ... there is now a permanent link for all nine parts of this series.

le Tour de Carl! (oops ... France)

Some of you know that I'm reliving my past via my middle son's backpacking trip through Europe. If you have any interest in bicycle racing you may enjoy Carl's Tour de France posting. He even has a very neat video which he personally took. My own travels through Paris via Eurail 32 years ago were not quite so exciting, but did include:

• Being all excited that I could serve as the "French speaking" guide for my fellow Dartmouth buddies, and upon having a long conversation in French with a "local" in order to get dinner recommendations ... discovering ultimately he was Harvard student! Arrgh! You can imagine what sort of grief I received from my friends. Perhaps this is why I retreated back to Minnesota!
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• Oh well ... here is Tour de Carl

 

Engineering eBook PDF Search Engine

Although I advocate open access to engineering knowledge, I respect copyright. Thus, via this blog I have been hesitant to add many postings about free eBooks and manuals ... It seems every post related to this topic attracts the worst elements to my blog (i.e. SPAM and worse discovered via my blog admin interface).

Having said that, I could not ignore this resource, PDF SearchEngine.Com. I conducted many queries and found much to my satisfaction:

1. The service promotes legitimate links
2. The results returned are valuable
3. Like all search engines, your need to learn how to optimize it's use

Here are some sample queries and examples:

• Examples:
  • Sample Query | Sample eBook
  • LabView | Quick Reference Card
  • Lego | The Art of Lego Design
  • MATLAB | Crash Course in MATLAB
  • ProEngineer | Getting Started with ProEngineer

In each case I discovered valuable manuals ... often directly from a university or manufacturer. I've also added this search engine to the manuals section of the Engineering Learning Wiki.