I did a little more inquiry into religion, but mostly went on to social structure and change. Social structure, social types, and social changes all got some attention and better connections to nations, although it's fairly plain that I'm going to need culture and institutions to do these properly.
Another round of history has the extension of Ethiopia, Turkey and Iran back into prehistory. North Africa is now extended back to earliest prehistory. Within antiquity, I extended mostly Europe into this period. This is mostly part of European prehistory, and is still obscure and controversial, in spite of all the archaeology that's been done in Europe. Classical and medieval times prompted connection to Asian pagan and African pagan religions., and some extension of Ssutheast Asia, Latin peoples, and Central Africa.
Modern history now has at least a stub for every twenty-year division since 1500, which will allow quite a bit better precision in examining classical and medieval history. The 16th century isn't much advanced yet, but in the 17th century, I've reached another milestone and US history is now pushed all the way back to the first permanent settlement; Jamestown. There are the beginnings of connections to Western Civilization, Asiatic peoples, and in particular, Oriental peoples. For the 18th century, there has been some work in extending South Asia, Southeast Asia, Anglic, and Latin peoples. For the 19th century I have connections to Northeast Europe, South Asia, the Orient, and Southeast Asia, and the beginnings of connections to Africa.
This usually tends to throw off side branches. I've begun doing a little more work on adding particular states to the United States and provinces to China. India is another country that needs more attention to its states. The 18th century repeatedly suggested connections to economics and trade.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
After finishing a round of history, I started in on various other subjects. In most areas besides history, the links to specific nations and peoples of the world are far less advanced.
The connections of my personal studies group were fairly uselessly abstract, but I took the opportunity to add a few more pages for individuals in the biography list. The added connections of various parts of anthropology to various nations also weren't very useful. The highly abstract principal areas of culture also weren't much help.
Since I was skimming the surface and not getting much in useful connections, I decided to go to a deeper level. Although I mention that I want to get into economics, I didn't get much beyond reviewing what I have already done. Government did better. I wound up connecting some of the larger nations to different areas of government, which gives some advance in content. Religion still isn't as well developed as I would want, but I got several nations to have a little more about religion in general.
The connections of my personal studies group were fairly uselessly abstract, but I took the opportunity to add a few more pages for individuals in the biography list. The added connections of various parts of anthropology to various nations also weren't very useful. The highly abstract principal areas of culture also weren't much help.
Since I was skimming the surface and not getting much in useful connections, I decided to go to a deeper level. Although I mention that I want to get into economics, I didn't get much beyond reviewing what I have already done. Government did better. I wound up connecting some of the larger nations to different areas of government, which gives some advance in content. Religion still isn't as well developed as I would want, but I got several nations to have a little more about religion in general.
Late 20th century Asia
For subdivisions of the 19th century, I have mostly been making better connections with south and southeast Asia: not ll of it, but a few of the larger nations.
The 20th century is also being better connected. Nothing up through the mid 20th century is very useful yet. but from the 1960s onward, I have wider connections. For the late 20th century, starting in the 1980s, I have, for nations such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Brazil, something a little better than the dead boring "I don't know" and "I haven't looked at this" that I tend to plug in when I'm just mechanically making connections. I'd at least like to have a name of a country's leader in a given 5 year period.
However, there is at least potentially so much politics and economics, (not to mention everything else) packed into a 5 year period that such a note is the barest hint of all the other complicated doings that are going on. That will be coming, eventually.
The 20th century is also being better connected. Nothing up through the mid 20th century is very useful yet. but from the 1960s onward, I have wider connections. For the late 20th century, starting in the 1980s, I have, for nations such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Brazil, something a little better than the dead boring "I don't know" and "I haven't looked at this" that I tend to plug in when I'm just mechanically making connections. I'd at least like to have a name of a country's leader in a given 5 year period.
However, there is at least potentially so much politics and economics, (not to mention everything else) packed into a 5 year period that such a note is the barest hint of all the other complicated doings that are going on. That will be coming, eventually.
Saturday, July 05, 2008
Latest work
Some of the recent work I've been doing in Antiquity is starting to involve parts of Western civilization at earlier and earlier times. Most of the history of European peoples before the Romans is murky and depends on archaeological evidence, which is often rather ambiguous.
For the classical and medieval period, I've been looking more at a few countries in southeast Asia and Africa. although these early forays don't have a whole lot of context of neighboring nations to them. Modern history is getting more serious attention. I'm very near to having at least stub pages for the entire 16th century, and the 17th century is starting to include a few more particular nations, though still mostly the big ones worked back from the 20th century. The 18th century has a little more detail, although a lot of the attention is going to nations such as India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. I' don't have the British linked to this much yet.
One of the awkward parts of the knowledge base was that, with all the emphasis I've been putting on nations, I didn't have many external links to them. I've added a bunch so that when I need quick facts on history, or population, or land area, they will be more handy.
I have started to break down a barrier that's been bothering me: that is, including more pates for the States of the US. This is partly because consideration of the 17th century has very nearly reached the founding of Jamestown and Plymouth, and I will probably want to start working individual states forward in order to add detail to US history. I've also begun adding provinces for China. I'm a little concerned that I don't have much source material for Chinese history, but I'm sure there's plenty if I look for it.
When I was working earlier in antiquity, I decided that I needed to finish a chain of historical links to pagan religion, which is now done at the 5-century level for classical and medieval history and for modern history. I also picked up something I had left behind, which was a review of Judaism through the classical and medieval period. For some reason, Islam didn't come up, nor did many of the Asiatic religions, although with the the countries in Southeast Asia in classical and mdeieval times, I've been seeing more and more references to Buddhism.
For the classical and medieval period, I've been looking more at a few countries in southeast Asia and Africa. although these early forays don't have a whole lot of context of neighboring nations to them. Modern history is getting more serious attention. I'm very near to having at least stub pages for the entire 16th century, and the 17th century is starting to include a few more particular nations, though still mostly the big ones worked back from the 20th century. The 18th century has a little more detail, although a lot of the attention is going to nations such as India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. I' don't have the British linked to this much yet.
One of the awkward parts of the knowledge base was that, with all the emphasis I've been putting on nations, I didn't have many external links to them. I've added a bunch so that when I need quick facts on history, or population, or land area, they will be more handy.
I have started to break down a barrier that's been bothering me: that is, including more pates for the States of the US. This is partly because consideration of the 17th century has very nearly reached the founding of Jamestown and Plymouth, and I will probably want to start working individual states forward in order to add detail to US history. I've also begun adding provinces for China. I'm a little concerned that I don't have much source material for Chinese history, but I'm sure there's plenty if I look for it.
When I was working earlier in antiquity, I decided that I needed to finish a chain of historical links to pagan religion, which is now done at the 5-century level for classical and medieval history and for modern history. I also picked up something I had left behind, which was a review of Judaism through the classical and medieval period. For some reason, Islam didn't come up, nor did many of the Asiatic religions, although with the the countries in Southeast Asia in classical and mdeieval times, I've been seeing more and more references to Buddhism.
Thursday, July 03, 2008
I'm Back
The last I posted here was when I was involved in my computer programming project, Intensively, for about six weeks, and then I took about a month off playing a game.
I'm now back to working on the knowledge base.
I've been working fairly intensively on connecting content to my history pages, so that they aren't all just outline. I'm starting to make some progress there: when I go from one of the bottom level periods and look at the peoples and nations, there is now enough information that I'm starting to see a flow of events. There's still a lot more to do, since some of the most important nations don't even come in until fairly far down the list. The current version has about 16 nations worked back early prehistory. Antiquity has a reasonable sampling of the origins of ancient civilization and empires, classical and medieval has a part of European history, and in modern history I'm starting to look at most of the major Western empires, as well has having a breakdown of periods by 20 years almost all the way back to 1501. As I'm looking at European countries during this period, I'm noticing more than I had done before how all the royal families are related.
This isn't exactly news to those familiar with European history, but I've always been afflicted by the who-was-involved-in-the-war-of-the-something-or-other-succession-and-I-can't-remember-which-one-it-was-or-why-I-should-care-about-it disease. But, it's a little more interesting, now that I'm starting to be be able to put it into the bigger flow of European, and world-wide events. Likewise, I've never been particularly interested in just how and when Britain got control of India in the first place, let alone such foreign places as Burma and Malaysia. But I have enough pieces in place that I'm starting to see a pattern and find the same kind of satisfaction I get doing a jigsaw puzzle.
I've also picked up a little on the 20th century, going by five year periods since World War II, which forms a major landmark in world history.
I should have an update of the site, soon.
I'm now back to working on the knowledge base.
I've been working fairly intensively on connecting content to my history pages, so that they aren't all just outline. I'm starting to make some progress there: when I go from one of the bottom level periods and look at the peoples and nations, there is now enough information that I'm starting to see a flow of events. There's still a lot more to do, since some of the most important nations don't even come in until fairly far down the list. The current version has about 16 nations worked back early prehistory. Antiquity has a reasonable sampling of the origins of ancient civilization and empires, classical and medieval has a part of European history, and in modern history I'm starting to look at most of the major Western empires, as well has having a breakdown of periods by 20 years almost all the way back to 1501. As I'm looking at European countries during this period, I'm noticing more than I had done before how all the royal families are related.
This isn't exactly news to those familiar with European history, but I've always been afflicted by the who-was-involved-in-the-war-of-the-something-or-other-succession-and-I-can't-remember-which-one-it-was-or-why-I-should-care-about-it disease. But, it's a little more interesting, now that I'm starting to be be able to put it into the bigger flow of European, and world-wide events. Likewise, I've never been particularly interested in just how and when Britain got control of India in the first place, let alone such foreign places as Burma and Malaysia. But I have enough pieces in place that I'm starting to see a pattern and find the same kind of satisfaction I get doing a jigsaw puzzle.
I've also picked up a little on the 20th century, going by five year periods since World War II, which forms a major landmark in world history.
I should have an update of the site, soon.
Friday, May 02, 2008
New project
In many ways, computers and their programming are still tied to decisions that were being made when computer hardware was expensive. This is particularly true with mathematics. It has occurred to me to do some experimenting with different choices, so I started a project of emulating a sub-microprocessor, to see what I can do with different concepts.
There's not much you can do with a processor that operates on only bit of information, and not much more with one that does only has two. With three bits, however, it's possible to do a little more. I've coded the two bit version, but haven't yet tried running it. The three bit version is at the design stage, not yet written. A four bit version is in the works.
I've been pondering for some years about how to do programming with abstract mathematical objects, and how one might implement the abstract objects of set theory and other mathematical structures. I've also been thinking about how to do computer implementation of my ideas on three-valued logic. There are various ways of representing numbers: The fixed-size binary of most computers are useful for many purposes, but not all. few computers work with fractions and rational numbers, and hardly any with approximate numbers. Complex numbers are also a possibility.
There are various people who have developed packages for these things; and my C++ text offers several of these as exercises. I've also had some ideas on doing algebra with computers. However, these are all fairly special-purpose packages. What I'm interested in is common methods that are suitable for the relative novice, not for someone who has studied numerical analysis.
I also want to tie that to science, which involves more and different branches of mathematics, such as geometry, which is tied to graphics and animation.
It's one thing to have a grand vision of everything I'd like to do; it's something else again to make it a working reality. So, I've added C++ to the languages I've been studying. In C, I'm working a little on the analysis of sample programs, types of functions, statements, and data types. In BASIC, I'm also working with sample programs, output procedures, and the read-data statement pair. The if-then and goto statements together with relational expressions give me the elements for building control structures such as loops and branched statements, so that principles of structured programming can be used instead of so-called spaghetti code.
in Assembly language. I'm still digesting notes on the assembly and link phases of programming mechanics. I'm still doing analysis of specific programs, as well as exercises that can be run in DEBUG. More detailed analysis of program parts, including the header, where various types of symbolic constants can be declared, the data segment, where space is reserved for variables, and the code segment, which has the actual body of programs is being done.
I've temporarily set aside my investigations into other uses of DEBUG, the BIOS, and the operation of video hardware, but theyre ready to pick up when I feel up to it and they are important enough. I've also done a bit of condensing of my notes on data representation, and I've reached signed binary numbers.
There's not much you can do with a processor that operates on only bit of information, and not much more with one that does only has two. With three bits, however, it's possible to do a little more. I've coded the two bit version, but haven't yet tried running it. The three bit version is at the design stage, not yet written. A four bit version is in the works.
I've been pondering for some years about how to do programming with abstract mathematical objects, and how one might implement the abstract objects of set theory and other mathematical structures. I've also been thinking about how to do computer implementation of my ideas on three-valued logic. There are various ways of representing numbers: The fixed-size binary of most computers are useful for many purposes, but not all. few computers work with fractions and rational numbers, and hardly any with approximate numbers. Complex numbers are also a possibility.
There are various people who have developed packages for these things; and my C++ text offers several of these as exercises. I've also had some ideas on doing algebra with computers. However, these are all fairly special-purpose packages. What I'm interested in is common methods that are suitable for the relative novice, not for someone who has studied numerical analysis.
I also want to tie that to science, which involves more and different branches of mathematics, such as geometry, which is tied to graphics and animation.
It's one thing to have a grand vision of everything I'd like to do; it's something else again to make it a working reality. So, I've added C++ to the languages I've been studying. In C, I'm working a little on the analysis of sample programs, types of functions, statements, and data types. In BASIC, I'm also working with sample programs, output procedures, and the read-data statement pair. The if-then and goto statements together with relational expressions give me the elements for building control structures such as loops and branched statements, so that principles of structured programming can be used instead of so-called spaghetti code.
in Assembly language. I'm still digesting notes on the assembly and link phases of programming mechanics. I'm still doing analysis of specific programs, as well as exercises that can be run in DEBUG. More detailed analysis of program parts, including the header, where various types of symbolic constants can be declared, the data segment, where space is reserved for variables, and the code segment, which has the actual body of programs is being done.
I've temporarily set aside my investigations into other uses of DEBUG, the BIOS, and the operation of video hardware, but theyre ready to pick up when I feel up to it and they are important enough. I've also done a bit of condensing of my notes on data representation, and I've reached signed binary numbers.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
More small gains
There hasn't been much progress on my various topics in information representation, but I think I'm going to switch the order and consider characters ahead of numbers. One reason is that characters are more general, but the other is that usually, each of them takes up smaller space. I'm running across character strings more and more often in my reviews of Assembly language and C++.
I haven't made a whole lot of progress in the hardware, but I'm starting to inch into it, especially in considering video in more detail.
I'm also starting to get a little more detail on the BIOS services.
I'm getting a reasonable, workable picture of assembly. I have enough of the syntax organized to be useful, and I'm familiar with the basic data types. There are still some assembler directives to work on, but I'm making progress on program structure, and on the maechanics.
There's been less progress on BASIC or C, but still a little.
I got an Assembler version of the program I did working (though I had to look at the results in the debugger, since I still don't have output routines). I also got a BASIC Version and a C version working and running.
One of the differences between Assembly language and C is that the roles of the various operators and expressions is different. In Assembly, all the operators are applied and expressions evaluated at assembly time. In C, most of the operators are applied and expressions evaluated at run-time.
I haven't made a whole lot of progress in the hardware, but I'm starting to inch into it, especially in considering video in more detail.
I'm also starting to get a little more detail on the BIOS services.
I'm getting a reasonable, workable picture of assembly. I have enough of the syntax organized to be useful, and I'm familiar with the basic data types. There are still some assembler directives to work on, but I'm making progress on program structure, and on the maechanics.
There's been less progress on BASIC or C, but still a little.
I got an Assembler version of the program I did working (though I had to look at the results in the debugger, since I still don't have output routines). I also got a BASIC Version and a C version working and running.
One of the differences between Assembly language and C is that the roles of the various operators and expressions is different. In Assembly, all the operators are applied and expressions evaluated at assembly time. In C, most of the operators are applied and expressions evaluated at run-time.
Friday, April 25, 2008
Small gains
My explorations in the the explanation of video hardware and its operation today were uninspiring, especially since my principal source is seriously outdated. I use it because I want to learn the basics, the older way, in order to see how things have changed or improved.
I did a little more digging into the BIOS. I'd written down a number of the interrupt vectors, and in the process of checking them over, I found that several of them had changed: that is, there were different values in the segment part of the address. I'm not sure what the pattern is. I haven't actually tried disassembling any of them yet, although I may get around to doing that.
I did a little more organization of my notes on assembler syntax and the operations used by the assembler; Directives including symbol definition (the equates, giving names to constants ) and data definition are getting attention. Assembly language devotes more resources to the to the size of its variable than their contents, which are left up to the programmer. As far as assembly instructions I am considering mostly (unsigned, single byte or word) addition, and I'm trying to get a better handle on the various addressing modes used by the instructions. I'm also starting to work on the unconditional and conditional jumps and the call instructions.
I touched only lightly on Basic programming, with a look at the assignment (let) statement.
In C programming, I made little progress in any any one area, but more significant progress in others. The distinction between integer and floating point types is significant, again with most of the emphasis given to the integer types. Well. I'd like to have a better look at floating point arithmetic, but it's not really critical at the moment.
I also gathered some information on the phases of programming design. In the middle, implement (build) or coding stage, I sorted these out into comments; the use of descriptive names for variables and routines, and the formatting of programs, such as indentation and spacing.
I finally decided to group the execution of the program with the last phase: testing and maintenance. This is because in translated language, the assembler and compiler usually turn up a batch of syntax errors, which must be fixed. Then there are linker errors, and finally the logical errors; in which the computer finally does exactly what you told it to do, which is not necessarily the same as what you meant to tell it to do. Testing to uncover hidden bugs is a more advanced process.
I thought I'd try to implement the programming cycle for a problem I borrowed from one of my physics texts. If a man runs a four minute mile, what is his average speed in miles per hour and feet per second? The design wasn't hard for such a trivial problem, but exposed a number of difficulties.
First, in the assembler, I didn't have output methods. I know how to print a character or a string, but a number has to be translated to a character or string in order to display it. Second, several assumptions wound up being hard-coded into the program. I need to go back and document these before I do an updated version.
Methods for doing output are part of the language in BASIC: what was lacking was facilities for defining symbolic constants. Conversion factors "Feet per mile", "minutes per second", Seconds per minute" so I had to use constants.
The version I was best pleased with was the C version. I haven't tried running either the BASIC or the C version of the program yet: I was happy to get through the writing phase.
The answers are 15 mph and 22 ft per second: sure I can do it by hand, but the question is, can I get the computer to do it? Then, for any given distance? Any given time? Distances, time, and speed given in whatever units I like? Then, what if the speed and distance or given, or speed and time? And what if the speed varies? What about other physical quantities,
While the programs may be trivial, they are first steps toward a larger goal. One of the reasons I faltered in my progress in science was that I hated the drudge work of doing conversions between systems of units. If I can get the computer to do it for me, I can go on to more interesting concepts. At least, that's the idea.
I did a little more digging into the BIOS. I'd written down a number of the interrupt vectors, and in the process of checking them over, I found that several of them had changed: that is, there were different values in the segment part of the address. I'm not sure what the pattern is. I haven't actually tried disassembling any of them yet, although I may get around to doing that.
I did a little more organization of my notes on assembler syntax and the operations used by the assembler; Directives including symbol definition (the equates, giving names to constants ) and data definition are getting attention. Assembly language devotes more resources to the to the size of its variable than their contents, which are left up to the programmer. As far as assembly instructions I am considering mostly (unsigned, single byte or word) addition, and I'm trying to get a better handle on the various addressing modes used by the instructions. I'm also starting to work on the unconditional and conditional jumps and the call instructions.
I touched only lightly on Basic programming, with a look at the assignment (let) statement.
In C programming, I made little progress in any any one area, but more significant progress in others. The distinction between integer and floating point types is significant, again with most of the emphasis given to the integer types. Well. I'd like to have a better look at floating point arithmetic, but it's not really critical at the moment.
I also gathered some information on the phases of programming design. In the middle, implement (build) or coding stage, I sorted these out into comments; the use of descriptive names for variables and routines, and the formatting of programs, such as indentation and spacing.
I finally decided to group the execution of the program with the last phase: testing and maintenance. This is because in translated language, the assembler and compiler usually turn up a batch of syntax errors, which must be fixed. Then there are linker errors, and finally the logical errors; in which the computer finally does exactly what you told it to do, which is not necessarily the same as what you meant to tell it to do. Testing to uncover hidden bugs is a more advanced process.
I thought I'd try to implement the programming cycle for a problem I borrowed from one of my physics texts. If a man runs a four minute mile, what is his average speed in miles per hour and feet per second? The design wasn't hard for such a trivial problem, but exposed a number of difficulties.
First, in the assembler, I didn't have output methods. I know how to print a character or a string, but a number has to be translated to a character or string in order to display it. Second, several assumptions wound up being hard-coded into the program. I need to go back and document these before I do an updated version.
Methods for doing output are part of the language in BASIC: what was lacking was facilities for defining symbolic constants. Conversion factors "Feet per mile", "minutes per second", Seconds per minute" so I had to use constants.
The version I was best pleased with was the C version. I haven't tried running either the BASIC or the C version of the program yet: I was happy to get through the writing phase.
The answers are 15 mph and 22 ft per second: sure I can do it by hand, but the question is, can I get the computer to do it? Then, for any given distance? Any given time? Distances, time, and speed given in whatever units I like? Then, what if the speed and distance or given, or speed and time? And what if the speed varies? What about other physical quantities,
While the programs may be trivial, they are first steps toward a larger goal. One of the reasons I faltered in my progress in science was that I hated the drudge work of doing conversions between systems of units. If I can get the computer to do it for me, I can go on to more interesting concepts. At least, that's the idea.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
They still work
Late last night I picked one of my books on numerical methods in C, and found a reference to how floating point numbers are treated in the PC family. I was looking for information on how they are formatted for calculations on the old 8087 math coproccessor and its descendants which were incorporated into later Intel processors, but I didn't find it. I didn't fund as much as I wanted to on numerical methods in general, but I do have book back in Nebraska on the subject. However, information on floating point calculations at the machine level is pretty sparse in all my available materials.
Most of what I looked carefully at in C was rehashing things I've already studied, and likewise with C, Progress in assembly also fairly minimal. I'm inching toward being able to use the BIOS routines, which also brings in looking at the interrupt vector table in low memory.
The larger accomplishment came in testing out the mechanics of programming on the three languages I am working on right now.
The night before last I downloaded Turbo C from the internet, and in the process of trying to set it up, accidentally erased everything that wasn't in a separate directory from my C: drive. I tried to undelete it, and found that Win98 doesn't include the undelete command that Dos 5 used to, and since I hadn't gone through the recycle bin. Those files may be theoretically recoverable, but I'm not counting on it. But they included the autoexec.bat file, which set up my assembler TASM for use: I'm not big on mixing working files with those that the assembler itself uses, so I uses a separate work directory. I also recall a config.sys file, which I think tells DOS how to set up my CD, but I may be able to get that back another way. On the positive side, I did get Turbo C set up.
So, I tried everything out. I had several sample programs available for testing: Assembly language. I also had some experience with what can go wrong with assembly language: First, about four typos kept the program from a program from assembling at all, then it wouldn't terminate properly. I rebooted in DOS mode and tried it there, and after it did what it was supposed to, instead of quitting like a well behaved program should, it started giving me garbage on the screen. The, after a keypress, more garbage. What??? So after another reboot, I went back to the source (for the fourth time.. and found it. Instead of the DOS exit routine at interrupt 21 hex, I had sent it to 21 decimal, which was used on the original IBM-PC to set up for cassette tape services. I have no idea what that routine does now except Nothing Good if you call on it by accident.
The trial of BASIC (GW BASIC if you must know) worked well, except for my dyslexia of the fingers, until I was done and wanted to exit the interpreter. Quit didn't work. Exit didn't work. Bye didn't work. Stop didn't work. So another reboot and a hunt on the Internet for the documentation I'd noticed but glanced over last week. Oh. System is the magic word. Well, that wouldn't have occurred to me.
The trial of Turbo C worked better. I This was the compiler I used to learn C, so I was already roughly familiar with its quirks (once I remembered how to send the compiler output into my working directory instead of mixing it up with the compiler's own files). One of the sample programs used an escape code to create a "beep" sound. So, I wondered, will I get a beep?
No such luck. Down with the beepy DOS, up with the musical"Windows" sound. Could I get something else?...maybe, if wanted to do it bad enough to figure out how.
So, I've refreshed myself on the mechanics. Now, If I only had some creativity...
Moving on to physics, I did a little review of mechanics and the mathematical preliminaries. This is the kind of thing that tends to lead me off on tangents, so I'll mention it more later.
Sometime way back when, I picked up a copy of the chemistry textbook I used in high school. No, the fundamentals of chemistry haven't changed as much in 40 years as the state of the art in computer hardware, but a glance through the contents suggested that some concepts I've been a bit fuzzy about are more clearly explained there than in some more recent college-level textbooks.
I've noticed that I've included some computer jargon. Sorry, there's no help for it: I've reached a point where I baffle the beginners and bore the professionals by belaboring the obvious.
PS. One of the sample programs was one for calculating the worth of your weight in gold. So I had to know. I looked up the current price on the internet and modified the program accordingly, put myself on the scale, and came up at just under 5 million dollars.
Most of what I looked carefully at in C was rehashing things I've already studied, and likewise with C, Progress in assembly also fairly minimal. I'm inching toward being able to use the BIOS routines, which also brings in looking at the interrupt vector table in low memory.
The larger accomplishment came in testing out the mechanics of programming on the three languages I am working on right now.
The night before last I downloaded Turbo C from the internet, and in the process of trying to set it up, accidentally erased everything that wasn't in a separate directory from my C: drive. I tried to undelete it, and found that Win98 doesn't include the undelete command that Dos 5 used to, and since I hadn't gone through the recycle bin. Those files may be theoretically recoverable, but I'm not counting on it. But they included the autoexec.bat file, which set up my assembler TASM for use: I'm not big on mixing working files with those that the assembler itself uses, so I uses a separate work directory. I also recall a config.sys file, which I think tells DOS how to set up my CD, but I may be able to get that back another way. On the positive side, I did get Turbo C set up.
So, I tried everything out. I had several sample programs available for testing: Assembly language. I also had some experience with what can go wrong with assembly language: First, about four typos kept the program from a program from assembling at all, then it wouldn't terminate properly. I rebooted in DOS mode and tried it there, and after it did what it was supposed to, instead of quitting like a well behaved program should, it started giving me garbage on the screen. The, after a keypress, more garbage. What??? So after another reboot, I went back to the source (for the fourth time.. and found it. Instead of the DOS exit routine at interrupt 21 hex, I had sent it to 21 decimal, which was used on the original IBM-PC to set up for cassette tape services. I have no idea what that routine does now except Nothing Good if you call on it by accident.
The trial of BASIC (GW BASIC if you must know) worked well, except for my dyslexia of the fingers, until I was done and wanted to exit the interpreter. Quit didn't work. Exit didn't work. Bye didn't work. Stop didn't work. So another reboot and a hunt on the Internet for the documentation I'd noticed but glanced over last week. Oh. System is the magic word. Well, that wouldn't have occurred to me.
The trial of Turbo C worked better. I This was the compiler I used to learn C, so I was already roughly familiar with its quirks (once I remembered how to send the compiler output into my working directory instead of mixing it up with the compiler's own files). One of the sample programs used an escape code to create a "beep" sound. So, I wondered, will I get a beep?
No such luck. Down with the beepy DOS, up with the musical"Windows" sound. Could I get something else?...maybe, if wanted to do it bad enough to figure out how.
So, I've refreshed myself on the mechanics. Now, If I only had some creativity...
Moving on to physics, I did a little review of mechanics and the mathematical preliminaries. This is the kind of thing that tends to lead me off on tangents, so I'll mention it more later.
Sometime way back when, I picked up a copy of the chemistry textbook I used in high school. No, the fundamentals of chemistry haven't changed as much in 40 years as the state of the art in computer hardware, but a glance through the contents suggested that some concepts I've been a bit fuzzy about are more clearly explained there than in some more recent college-level textbooks.
I've noticed that I've included some computer jargon. Sorry, there's no help for it: I've reached a point where I baffle the beginners and bore the professionals by belaboring the obvious.
PS. One of the sample programs was one for calculating the worth of your weight in gold. So I had to know. I looked up the current price on the internet and modified the program accordingly, put myself on the scale, and came up at just under 5 million dollars.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Back from hiatus
For the past month I've added nothing to this blog, because I've been intensively involved in, well, a self-education (or rather re-education) project. My brother has sent me some of my personal library which has been sitting in his garage in Nebraska, and it included about half my computer programming reference library. Another box of books included most of my physics and chemistry references.
So, I've been absorbed in reviewing my computer programming. My skills are old and rusty and somewhat behind the times..actually, I've been 5-10 years behind the technology since the 1970s, and struggle to catch up. I've updated the "About" page on the SKB site to include more of my intellectual history, as well as links to my studies on logic and science fictional world building. I intend to create a "Poor Man's Computing" page to include information on older languages and systems that have been abandoned by the Micro$oft empire in its pursued of the latest and best technology.
Also, since I have my physics and chemistry references now available, I may be doing more work on those sections rather than the history which has been my primary interest for the past while.
So, I've been absorbed in reviewing my computer programming. My skills are old and rusty and somewhat behind the times..actually, I've been 5-10 years behind the technology since the 1970s, and struggle to catch up. I've updated the "About" page on the SKB site to include more of my intellectual history, as well as links to my studies on logic and science fictional world building. I intend to create a "Poor Man's Computing" page to include information on older languages and systems that have been abandoned by the Micro$oft empire in its pursued of the latest and best technology.
Also, since I have my physics and chemistry references now available, I may be doing more work on those sections rather than the history which has been my primary interest for the past while.
Monday, March 10, 2008
More nations
I;ve added several nations to the knowledge base, and in the process reached a milestone. I've been unhappy with my division of "latin peoples" for some time, but I wanted ten in the category before I split it. I finally reached that, so my studies of Western civilization will now go rather better.
Thursday, March 06, 2008
Countries
One of the frustrating things about trying to do history or intnernational studies of any kind is that I've been adding countries in pretty much strict order of population. That isn't working. Some of the historically most interesting countries, for instance those with a long written history or widespread international political or economical influence, are not the most populous. That means thas that the practical utility of the knowledge base is badly crippled: I can't even talk intelligently about the early 20th century of India without reference to the British empire, or Indonesia without the Netherlands, and although there are plenty of nations in Latin America, I haven't had enough of them listed to distinguish french-speaking from portuguse-speaking countries.
I did some connecting of biographies to the particular 20 year periods of the 19th century, and some additional connections of biographies to particular individuals. I know from having done this analysis before that with my current listing, this is going to be rather heavily biased toward 19th century Britain. Fine, I can fix that by looking more carefully at other nations and periods, but I'll have a starting point to work from, For now, however, the frustration with trying to do European history without Austria, Hungary, or even Greece is just too much. When it comes to literature or mathematics, or even techniques of building construction...I surrender. Strict order of population has to go. I've been creepy crawling with adding nations: Time to put on some speed.
I did some connecting of biographies to the particular 20 year periods of the 19th century, and some additional connections of biographies to particular individuals. I know from having done this analysis before that with my current listing, this is going to be rather heavily biased toward 19th century Britain. Fine, I can fix that by looking more carefully at other nations and periods, but I'll have a starting point to work from, For now, however, the frustration with trying to do European history without Austria, Hungary, or even Greece is just too much. When it comes to literature or mathematics, or even techniques of building construction...I surrender. Strict order of population has to go. I've been creepy crawling with adding nations: Time to put on some speed.
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Science and back to history
I decided to take a break from history and do some work on science, and completed a bunch of categories that had been unfinished and hanging. However, after a few days of this I decided that it wasn't being driven by the actual needs of the rest of the base and went back to history.
I also decided that adding just one nation at a time was much too painfully slow and inefficient, especially since their order of historical importance is only weakly connected to their size in population. Since I don't have a ranking in order of historical importance, and it would be a real challenge to come up with one, I've decided to go back to taking them in bigger chunks.
I started that with prehistory, and found that I hadn't worked all the various blocks of nations back that far. Same with classical and medieval history, although I added enough realize that m classical and medieval overview of western civilization was bad, and rewrote that. I got all the various blocks of nations connected to modern history, so that part's fixed.
So, going into detail of modern history. I started with the 17th century, and went ahead and finished adding pages for the 20 year subdivisions. I have this done for 4 of the 5 centuries of the modern era, and I'm anxious to get this finished up. I'm also inching backwards through the 18th century and added more nations. I started adding some biographical references to the 20 year pages of the 19th century and I'm looking forward to getting back to it.
I also decided that adding just one nation at a time was much too painfully slow and inefficient, especially since their order of historical importance is only weakly connected to their size in population. Since I don't have a ranking in order of historical importance, and it would be a real challenge to come up with one, I've decided to go back to taking them in bigger chunks.
I started that with prehistory, and found that I hadn't worked all the various blocks of nations back that far. Same with classical and medieval history, although I added enough realize that m classical and medieval overview of western civilization was bad, and rewrote that. I got all the various blocks of nations connected to modern history, so that part's fixed.
So, going into detail of modern history. I started with the 17th century, and went ahead and finished adding pages for the 20 year subdivisions. I have this done for 4 of the 5 centuries of the modern era, and I'm anxious to get this finished up. I'm also inching backwards through the 18th century and added more nations. I started adding some biographical references to the 20 year pages of the 19th century and I'm looking forward to getting back to it.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Still more history
I've gone through the classical and medieval periods of history, linking another nation to each period, and expanding a bit on histories of associated peoples in the process. I've also done the same for most of modern history up to the 1960s.
This time, I've also taken a look at the biography pages associated with each period. I noted that there were a few that I hadn't touched since I created them four years ago. That's an excessively long time to be waiting to get around to it, and I don't yet have a great deal to add to each person, but I'm getting closer.
A reader sent me a link to information to the Archimedes Palimpsest which was recovered and is being examined by scholars. If I were interested in the detailed parsing of Greek mathematical text (a fantasy which has occured to me at various times), I would love to follow it up more closely. For now, I'm just going to have to file it under "Interesting. Someday, maybe, if I live long enough, I might get around to that". But, seeing how long it's taken to get back around to Thomas Edison who has been in the Knowledge Base almost from the beginning, I'm not promising anything.
This time, I've also taken a look at the biography pages associated with each period. I noted that there were a few that I hadn't touched since I created them four years ago. That's an excessively long time to be waiting to get around to it, and I don't yet have a great deal to add to each person, but I'm getting closer.
A reader sent me a link to information to the Archimedes Palimpsest which was recovered and is being examined by scholars. If I were interested in the detailed parsing of Greek mathematical text (a fantasy which has occured to me at various times), I would love to follow it up more closely. For now, I'm just going to have to file it under "Interesting. Someday, maybe, if I live long enough, I might get around to that". But, seeing how long it's taken to get back around to Thomas Edison who has been in the Knowledge Base almost from the beginning, I'm not promising anything.
Friday, February 08, 2008
Another round of history
I'm really, really going to sit down and start going through other areas more carefully.
For now, I'm back to prehistory and antiquity. Although there is some slow but steady progress at broadening the connections to various nations, there haven't been any really enlightening developments: Just more detailing of what I don't know. I have been making more connections to social structure and to families. The next time through I should have a little more to say about religions, government, and culture.
For now, I'm back to prehistory and antiquity. Although there is some slow but steady progress at broadening the connections to various nations, there haven't been any really enlightening developments: Just more detailing of what I don't know. I have been making more connections to social structure and to families. The next time through I should have a little more to say about religions, government, and culture.
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Lstest
I've been meaning to make a progress report, but haven't managed it yet. I ran into a wall again when I moved beyond history, so I starded something a little different. When I got partway through history, I swiched to so a summary of what I was doing in particular other areas, which helped quite a bit.
Within Early prehistory, I added a link to Pakistan. Since Brazil wasn't inhabited yet, it pushes Indonesia into Asia and India to South Asia. I now have connections to all the areas of social structure and change, and, somewhat reluctantly, families. I'm considering customs, language and speech, and (since I've already linked foodstuffs) tools and technology. I could probably make more progress here if I considered human geography, human ecology, and physical anthropology, but there hasn't been quite the demand for those areas.
Within middle prehistory, I added a link to Bangladesh, which pushed Pakistan into Asia and Indonesia into Southeast Asia. Indonesia has to have been at least partly inhabited, since Austrialia was peopled during this period, but I haven't yet found any details.
Within Late prehistory, I added a link to Russia, which pushed Bangladesh into Asia and Pakistan into South Asia. I haven't specifically named Megarh as the neolithic site, but that's the earliest one that has come up. I know that there were earlier and larger settlements in the Middle East, but I haven't gone that far back in their history.
In antiquity, there are more nations listed than I have properly integrated into particular periods of history
To the 5th millennium BC, I added Nigeria, which pushes Russia into Western Civilization, which now has a minimal presence to the beginning of antiquity.
To the 4th millennium BC, I added Japan, which pushes Nigeria into African peoples, which now have at least a minimal presence here.
To the 3rd millennium BC, I added Mexico, which pushes Japan into Asiatic peoples, and Bangladesh into South Asian peoples. Unfortunately, I don't know anything about that country or region in the Bronze age.
To the 2nd millennium BC, I added the Philippines. This pushes Mexico into the American Indians, and Brazil gives me reason to add to South American Indians.
To the early first millennium, I added Vietnam, which pushes the Philippines into Asia, and Japan into Oriental peoples.
Classical and medieval history has peoples and communities connected more than they have been integrated into the subdivisions.
To early classical history, I added Germany, which pushes Vietnam into Asia and the Philippines to Southeast Asia.
To late classicl history, I added Egypt, which pushed Germany into Western civilization, and aallowed Russia to prompt the addition of Northeast European peoples to it for that period.
To early medieval history, I added Ethiopia, which pushes Egypt into Asia, and Vietnam to Southeast Asia. A little more useful was the addition of Dacca, which seems to have been founded about this time.
To late medieval history, I added Turkey, which pushes Ethiopia into Africa, and Nigeria into Western Africa, which was now linked.
At this point, I turned from adding more nations to history into more detailed consideration of particular peoples. I finally searched for, and found a site which gives information on American Indian cultures and languages, which will be useful as I do more development of this area. I also did a little bit of long-overdue linking of cities to particular peoples and a few nations.
I've begun making links from social change, social types, and social structure pages to particular nations, so that should have something to work with.
I didn't make much notworthy progress among the social isntitutions, but in the material culture area, I have at least subdivisions sketches out for all its areas except one, and that should be coming soon. I've also reordered the topics within that subject.
Within Early prehistory, I added a link to Pakistan. Since Brazil wasn't inhabited yet, it pushes Indonesia into Asia and India to South Asia. I now have connections to all the areas of social structure and change, and, somewhat reluctantly, families. I'm considering customs, language and speech, and (since I've already linked foodstuffs) tools and technology. I could probably make more progress here if I considered human geography, human ecology, and physical anthropology, but there hasn't been quite the demand for those areas.
Within middle prehistory, I added a link to Bangladesh, which pushed Pakistan into Asia and Indonesia into Southeast Asia. Indonesia has to have been at least partly inhabited, since Austrialia was peopled during this period, but I haven't yet found any details.
Within Late prehistory, I added a link to Russia, which pushed Bangladesh into Asia and Pakistan into South Asia. I haven't specifically named Megarh as the neolithic site, but that's the earliest one that has come up. I know that there were earlier and larger settlements in the Middle East, but I haven't gone that far back in their history.
In antiquity, there are more nations listed than I have properly integrated into particular periods of history
To the 5th millennium BC, I added Nigeria, which pushes Russia into Western Civilization, which now has a minimal presence to the beginning of antiquity.
To the 4th millennium BC, I added Japan, which pushes Nigeria into African peoples, which now have at least a minimal presence here.
To the 3rd millennium BC, I added Mexico, which pushes Japan into Asiatic peoples, and Bangladesh into South Asian peoples. Unfortunately, I don't know anything about that country or region in the Bronze age.
To the 2nd millennium BC, I added the Philippines. This pushes Mexico into the American Indians, and Brazil gives me reason to add to South American Indians.
To the early first millennium, I added Vietnam, which pushes the Philippines into Asia, and Japan into Oriental peoples.
Classical and medieval history has peoples and communities connected more than they have been integrated into the subdivisions.
To early classical history, I added Germany, which pushes Vietnam into Asia and the Philippines to Southeast Asia.
To late classicl history, I added Egypt, which pushed Germany into Western civilization, and aallowed Russia to prompt the addition of Northeast European peoples to it for that period.
To early medieval history, I added Ethiopia, which pushes Egypt into Asia, and Vietnam to Southeast Asia. A little more useful was the addition of Dacca, which seems to have been founded about this time.
To late medieval history, I added Turkey, which pushes Ethiopia into Africa, and Nigeria into Western Africa, which was now linked.
At this point, I turned from adding more nations to history into more detailed consideration of particular peoples. I finally searched for, and found a site which gives information on American Indian cultures and languages, which will be useful as I do more development of this area. I also did a little bit of long-overdue linking of cities to particular peoples and a few nations.
I've begun making links from social change, social types, and social structure pages to particular nations, so that should have something to work with.
I didn't make much notworthy progress among the social isntitutions, but in the material culture area, I have at least subdivisions sketches out for all its areas except one, and that should be coming soon. I've also reordered the topics within that subject.
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Modern history
Mostly what I accomplished this time around was to add cities to the various peoples in the various centuries of the period, as well as pretty much the same batch of standard links. Also started going into more detail into particular periods, and while several 20 year slices from the 18th century on got more development, there wasn't much new information added. Likewise when I went into 5 year periods from the late 1960s. The next round through history should go a bit faster, since I won't have to add so many city links.
For now, I've started again on Sociology, which doesn't need many new links, until particular periods are better developed. I want to do a little bit more generalizing on modern history. Peoples also require few links, but the history of peoples is a bit bare compared to what I have developed in other sections, so I will want to expand on this a little starting in antiquity. For Asia, I split out the Asian history section from the main Asia page. I'm almost ready to do the same for the Western Civilization history, except that hasn't been growing so fast, and it's going to by noticeably more incomplete.
I had taken links to history almost entirely out of the communities page, since it was far overdeveloped compared to the actual number of communities I had linked. I've started to put some of those links back in, since various periods of history now actually do have particular cities linked to them. I also inserted a number of links to peoples and nations, since some of these now have links to particular cities. I'm starting in on Social structure and change next.
For now, I've started again on Sociology, which doesn't need many new links, until particular periods are better developed. I want to do a little bit more generalizing on modern history. Peoples also require few links, but the history of peoples is a bit bare compared to what I have developed in other sections, so I will want to expand on this a little starting in antiquity. For Asia, I split out the Asian history section from the main Asia page. I'm almost ready to do the same for the Western Civilization history, except that hasn't been growing so fast, and it's going to by noticeably more incomplete.
I had taken links to history almost entirely out of the communities page, since it was far overdeveloped compared to the actual number of communities I had linked. I've started to put some of those links back in, since various periods of history now actually do have particular cities linked to them. I also inserted a number of links to peoples and nations, since some of these now have links to particular cities. I'm starting in on Social structure and change next.
Friday, January 25, 2008
Antiquity to Classical again
I've been going through the subdivisions and, withough mentioning them individually, adding links to human ecology, Asian geography, foodstuffs, language, customs, education, particular governments, Abrahamic religion and Asiatic religion, and social types. I've also been going through and picking up references to cities. There aren't many as old as the early first millennium BC, but there is another one or two in each successive period. I'll be mostly relying on these to guide whether to subdivide particular nations, eventually. In roughly the late medieval period, I've made a few more connections of specific cities to specific nations, which is helping give them detail. The connections to Abrahamic and Asiatic religion are starting to give a reasonable outline sketch of their history.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Prehistory plus
I came back around to to the top level and started in with history again. This time, I added a few links to the main history page: languages of the world, customs, and economic production.
Prehistory now has links to foodstuffs, language, customs, occupations, economic activity, and pagan religion.
Early prehistory has links to biohistory and the human body,
Middle prehistory has links to geohistory, biohistory, the human body, demography, Asian geography, foodstuffs, language, customs, and social types: a significant expansion of it. I also added a link to Pakistan, which pushes Brazil to the Americas and the United States to North American Indians.
Late prehistory has links to geohistory, biohistory, the human body, Demography, Asian geography, foodstuffs, language, customs, education, and social types. I added a link to Bangladesh, which pushes Pakistan into Asia and Indonesia into Southeast Asia.
This time, I decided to divert from the straight pursuit of history and look at the targets of these links, especially those that have more than one link to them.
Within Earth science, there is a link to the planets, within Astronomy. Geohistory got a link to atmospheric science, in preparation for study of climate change. The Cenozoic got a link to Sociology, so that eventually I can start looking at national resource, for instance.
I didn't see any obvious resources for biology or biohistory, but Cenozoic life got a link to institutions.
I didn't see any need to expand the main Personal studies page, but the Human body page got links to biological behavior, religion, and communities.
Likewise, I saw no need to expand the main Anthropology page, but demography got a critical link to the human life cycle, human geography got linked to ecology, which opens up the possibility of biogeography, and Asian geography was linked to science and human ecology
The culture page got a couple of long-overdue links to Middle prehistory and late prehistory. Material culture has been short on specific examples, so I started linking to cities, beginning with Tokyo. Foodstuffs also need specific examples, so I started linking that to communities and nations. Conceptual culture also got linked to Tokyo, and language to religion. Behavioral culture got links to New York City and Indonesia, while customs got a link to peoples of the world, and occupations a link to religion
Within Institutions,I skipped the main page. Education got links to New York City and Indonesia. Economics got an important link to social types, and economic activities got a link to culture that I have been wanting to make for what seems like ages.
A lot of these links were made in the reverse direction as well, so I'm not going to trouble to track them all.
Prehistory now has links to foodstuffs, language, customs, occupations, economic activity, and pagan religion.
Early prehistory has links to biohistory and the human body,
Middle prehistory has links to geohistory, biohistory, the human body, demography, Asian geography, foodstuffs, language, customs, and social types: a significant expansion of it. I also added a link to Pakistan, which pushes Brazil to the Americas and the United States to North American Indians.
Late prehistory has links to geohistory, biohistory, the human body, Demography, Asian geography, foodstuffs, language, customs, education, and social types. I added a link to Bangladesh, which pushes Pakistan into Asia and Indonesia into Southeast Asia.
This time, I decided to divert from the straight pursuit of history and look at the targets of these links, especially those that have more than one link to them.
Within Earth science, there is a link to the planets, within Astronomy. Geohistory got a link to atmospheric science, in preparation for study of climate change. The Cenozoic got a link to Sociology, so that eventually I can start looking at national resource, for instance.
I didn't see any obvious resources for biology or biohistory, but Cenozoic life got a link to institutions.
I didn't see any need to expand the main Personal studies page, but the Human body page got links to biological behavior, religion, and communities.
Likewise, I saw no need to expand the main Anthropology page, but demography got a critical link to the human life cycle, human geography got linked to ecology, which opens up the possibility of biogeography, and Asian geography was linked to science and human ecology
The culture page got a couple of long-overdue links to Middle prehistory and late prehistory. Material culture has been short on specific examples, so I started linking to cities, beginning with Tokyo. Foodstuffs also need specific examples, so I started linking that to communities and nations. Conceptual culture also got linked to Tokyo, and language to religion. Behavioral culture got links to New York City and Indonesia, while customs got a link to peoples of the world, and occupations a link to religion
Within Institutions,I skipped the main page. Education got links to New York City and Indonesia. Economics got an important link to social types, and economic activities got a link to culture that I have been wanting to make for what seems like ages.
A lot of these links were made in the reverse direction as well, so I'm not going to trouble to track them all.
Monday, January 21, 2008
I don't get it
I had intended to do quite a bit of work among peoples of the world, but when it got right dow to it, my energy and interest fizzled. I didn't find Asian peoples in general all that significant, nor Western civilization, or even social chage and types. I found myself skipping over government and economics, and only a token movement at occupations within the area of behavioral culture, nothing in anthropology or personal studies or science. Instead, my attention is turning back to history, and its finer divisions.
Friday, January 18, 2008
Modern history
I didn't see a while lot to add to mdern history's main page that eeither hasn't been, or doesn't need to be added to the main history level first. The particular centuries are a different matter.
In the 16th century, I added or reviewed links to human geography, occupations, education, and social types I also added a link to Ethiopia, which pushes Egypt into Asia and Vietnam into Southeast Asia.
For the 17th century, I added links to the same first four subjects. There would have been a link to Turkey, but that was already in place. But it pushes Ethiopia into Africa and Nigeria into Western Africa, which weren't in place yet.
For the 18th century, I added links to those same first four subjects. There would have been a link to Iran, which pushed Turkey into Asia and Egypt into the Middle East, if those weren't already in place. This is also the leading edge of progress backward into the past. Most of the page I liked to were already in place and developed to where I wanted them, there wasn't much real progress.
For the 19th century, I expanded the connection to human geography, and added one to occupations. The others were already sufficiently developed. This already had a link to Thailand, so there wasn't need to add one.
The mid 19th century got a link to religion, to Tokyo, and to the United States. (The Mexican War, for anyone keeping track). Adding cities at the same time I add nations will complicate things a bit, but hopefully not too much.
The late-mid 19th century got a link to behavioral culture and government. From this point, I'm adding links to cities that ought to be there if I had been adding cities from the start, so Tokyo and Seoul. Adding China pushes the United States into Western Civilization and American Indian peoples: the US Civil war and reconstruction go in this period.
The Late 19th century has links to Conceptual and behavioral culture and to government: Most of the others I wanted were already in place. Adding Mexico City pushed Tokyo and Seoul into Asia, and adding India to the list of nations pushed China into Asia. This was the period when China came close to being carved up by European powers.
In the 20th century, most of what I wanted to add had already been added, but France would have been the next nation.
The Early 20th century included new links to material culture, economics, and an update of links to it from social structure and change and social change pages. Since many nations had already been added, This would have included Indonesia, pushing India to Asiatic peoples and China into Oriental peoples. Adding New York City would push Mexico City into Western Civilization and American Indian peoples.
The early-mid 20th century included new links to all three major areas of culture, economics, and the updates from social structure and change, and social change pages. Adding Bombay would push New York City into Western Civilization. Adding Brazil would push Indonesia into Asiatic peoples and India into South Asian peoples.
The mid 20th century got the links to and from other ares I mentioned with the previous period. Adding Delhi would push Bombay into Asiatic peoples, which would push Seoul into Oriental peoples. Adding Pakistan would push Brazil into Western Civilization, which would push the USs into Anglic peoples, and it would also put Brazil with American Indian peoples, and the United States into the North American Indians.
The late-mid 20th century got the same batch of other areas linked. Adding Sao Paulo to the city list, pushed Delhi into Asia, and Bombay into South Asia. Adding Bangladesh would push Pakistan into Asiatic peoples, which would push Indonesia into Southeast Asia. This has the effect of calling to attention that I have mostly ignored the recent history of Pakistan, so there's a gap I want to make up when I next look at Pakistan.
The late 20th century was already linked to most of the areas I wanted to add. Adding Shanghai would have the effect of pushing Sao Paulo into Western civilization. Adding Russia would push Bangladesh into Asiatic peoples and Pakistan into South Asian peoples.
The early 21st century already has all the links I wanted to add. Adding Los Angeles would push Shanghai into Asiatic peoples, which would push Delhi into south Asia, and Bombay into India, where it rightly belongs, which creates a solid link between a nation and a city for this particular period. Adding Nigeria pushed Russia into Western civilization and Brazil into Latin peoples (Also bringing Mexico City with it).
With this pass through history done, I'm in a better position than before to turn to study of what I call Sociology.
In the 16th century, I added or reviewed links to human geography, occupations, education, and social types I also added a link to Ethiopia, which pushes Egypt into Asia and Vietnam into Southeast Asia.
For the 17th century, I added links to the same first four subjects. There would have been a link to Turkey, but that was already in place. But it pushes Ethiopia into Africa and Nigeria into Western Africa, which weren't in place yet.
For the 18th century, I added links to those same first four subjects. There would have been a link to Iran, which pushed Turkey into Asia and Egypt into the Middle East, if those weren't already in place. This is also the leading edge of progress backward into the past. Most of the page I liked to were already in place and developed to where I wanted them, there wasn't much real progress.
For the 19th century, I expanded the connection to human geography, and added one to occupations. The others were already sufficiently developed. This already had a link to Thailand, so there wasn't need to add one.
The mid 19th century got a link to religion, to Tokyo, and to the United States. (The Mexican War, for anyone keeping track). Adding cities at the same time I add nations will complicate things a bit, but hopefully not too much.
The late-mid 19th century got a link to behavioral culture and government. From this point, I'm adding links to cities that ought to be there if I had been adding cities from the start, so Tokyo and Seoul. Adding China pushes the United States into Western Civilization and American Indian peoples: the US Civil war and reconstruction go in this period.
The Late 19th century has links to Conceptual and behavioral culture and to government: Most of the others I wanted were already in place. Adding Mexico City pushed Tokyo and Seoul into Asia, and adding India to the list of nations pushed China into Asia. This was the period when China came close to being carved up by European powers.
In the 20th century, most of what I wanted to add had already been added, but France would have been the next nation.
The Early 20th century included new links to material culture, economics, and an update of links to it from social structure and change and social change pages. Since many nations had already been added, This would have included Indonesia, pushing India to Asiatic peoples and China into Oriental peoples. Adding New York City would push Mexico City into Western Civilization and American Indian peoples.
The early-mid 20th century included new links to all three major areas of culture, economics, and the updates from social structure and change, and social change pages. Adding Bombay would push New York City into Western Civilization. Adding Brazil would push Indonesia into Asiatic peoples and India into South Asian peoples.
The mid 20th century got the links to and from other ares I mentioned with the previous period. Adding Delhi would push Bombay into Asiatic peoples, which would push Seoul into Oriental peoples. Adding Pakistan would push Brazil into Western Civilization, which would push the USs into Anglic peoples, and it would also put Brazil with American Indian peoples, and the United States into the North American Indians.
The late-mid 20th century got the same batch of other areas linked. Adding Sao Paulo to the city list, pushed Delhi into Asia, and Bombay into South Asia. Adding Bangladesh would push Pakistan into Asiatic peoples, which would push Indonesia into Southeast Asia. This has the effect of calling to attention that I have mostly ignored the recent history of Pakistan, so there's a gap I want to make up when I next look at Pakistan.
The late 20th century was already linked to most of the areas I wanted to add. Adding Shanghai would have the effect of pushing Sao Paulo into Western civilization. Adding Russia would push Bangladesh into Asiatic peoples and Pakistan into South Asian peoples.
The early 21st century already has all the links I wanted to add. Adding Los Angeles would push Shanghai into Asiatic peoples, which would push Delhi into south Asia, and Bombay into India, where it rightly belongs, which creates a solid link between a nation and a city for this particular period. Adding Nigeria pushed Russia into Western civilization and Brazil into Latin peoples (Also bringing Mexico City with it).
With this pass through history done, I'm in a better position than before to turn to study of what I call Sociology.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Antiquity to medieval, revisited.
On another passs through the antiquity section of the knowledge base, I did some linking of the main antiquity page to physical geography.
For the 5th millennium BC, I have new links to human geography, to conceptual and material culture, to economics, particular religions, and social change. I added Bangladesh, which pushes Pakistan into Asia and Indonesia into Southeast Asia. I also revised the information on Pakistan just a little, but the decription of findings at one archaeological site reminds me that I need to add links to information on occupations to history and sociology.
For the 4th millennium BC, I added mostly the same links, added one to Russia, which pushes Bangladesh into Asia and Pakistan into South Asia.
For the 3rd millennium BC, I added mostly the same links, but went into specific detail on pagan religions, plus one to Nigeria, which pushes Russia into Western Civilization. I might have spent some time in the Harappan civilization, but decided to wait and do that at a later time
For the 2nd millennium BC, I had mostly the same links to add, plus one to Japan, which pushes Nigeria into African peoples.
For the early first millennium BC, I had mostly the same links to add, plus one to Mexico, which pushes Japan into Asia and Bangladesh into South Asia.
For Classical and medieval history, I added a link to Asian geography, one to occupations, and one to recreation and entertainment.
For links to early classical history, I added the same links as for the 3rd millennium BC, except for adding a link to the Philippines, which pushes Mexico into American Indians, and Brazil into South American peoples.
For links to late classical history, I added the same links as for early clasical, except for adding a link to Vietnam, which pushes the Philippines into Asia and Japan into Oriental peoples.
For links to early medieval history, I switched a little. Human geography still, and occupations, but education, since economics was already connected, and I didn't extend particular religions: I'll do that next time through. I added a link. I also added Germany, which pushed Vietnam into Asia and the Philippines into Southeast Asian peoples.
For links to to late medieval history, I did most of the same links as for Early medieval history, plus one to Egypt, which pushes Germany into Western Civilization and Russia into Northeast European peoples.
For the 5th millennium BC, I have new links to human geography, to conceptual and material culture, to economics, particular religions, and social change. I added Bangladesh, which pushes Pakistan into Asia and Indonesia into Southeast Asia. I also revised the information on Pakistan just a little, but the decription of findings at one archaeological site reminds me that I need to add links to information on occupations to history and sociology.
For the 4th millennium BC, I added mostly the same links, added one to Russia, which pushes Bangladesh into Asia and Pakistan into South Asia.
For the 3rd millennium BC, I added mostly the same links, but went into specific detail on pagan religions, plus one to Nigeria, which pushes Russia into Western Civilization. I might have spent some time in the Harappan civilization, but decided to wait and do that at a later time
For the 2nd millennium BC, I had mostly the same links to add, plus one to Japan, which pushes Nigeria into African peoples.
For the early first millennium BC, I had mostly the same links to add, plus one to Mexico, which pushes Japan into Asia and Bangladesh into South Asia.
For Classical and medieval history, I added a link to Asian geography, one to occupations, and one to recreation and entertainment.
For links to early classical history, I added the same links as for the 3rd millennium BC, except for adding a link to the Philippines, which pushes Mexico into American Indians, and Brazil into South American peoples.
For links to late classical history, I added the same links as for early clasical, except for adding a link to Vietnam, which pushes the Philippines into Asia and Japan into Oriental peoples.
For links to early medieval history, I switched a little. Human geography still, and occupations, but education, since economics was already connected, and I didn't extend particular religions: I'll do that next time through. I added a link. I also added Germany, which pushed Vietnam into Asia and the Philippines into Southeast Asian peoples.
For links to to late medieval history, I did most of the same links as for Early medieval history, plus one to Egypt, which pushes Germany into Western Civilization and Russia into Northeast European peoples.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Prehistory
I had intended to go through the Sociology and Institutions sections more thoroughly, but when It came down to it, none of them really caught my attention with things I had was really interested in looking at. So, I started over in history, with prehistory. This time, though, there are a few teeth in the subject.
In reviewing what I have in prehistory, I was reminded that I wanted to connect this better to human geography, and with the emphasis on Asiatic countries that's been been given to it, to Asian geography in particular. That subject's been hanging incomplete for a while, so I added an East Asia page, and linked prehistory to it. I also found reason to link to the hunting and gathering societies page.
In Early prehistory, I made connections to Geohistory, and to Asian geography. I also added Indonesia, which pushes India into Asiatic peoples, but that's as far as I was going to go with this, because at this point in history, I'm not sure there was the same kind of cultural division that is seen later.
In Middle prehistory I added links to Human geography, Behavioral and conceptual culture, and social change. I added a link to Brazil, which pushes Indonesia into Asia and India into South Asian peoples, This provided a little incentive to add links to Asian geography to Sociology and Peoples pages, as well as to Asiatic peoples.
In Late prhistory, I added the same batch of geographical and cultural links, and social change. Adding Pakistan pushed Brazil into American Indian peoples, and the United States into North American peoples. Some of the characteristics of the peoples added to Pakistan suggested that I do something I've been wanting to do for a while: create a new page for food-related occupations, History is now linked to this. In the use of sociology in history, I also created a link to horticultural societies, which in turn have a link to Culture that will prove useful.
In reviewing what I have in prehistory, I was reminded that I wanted to connect this better to human geography, and with the emphasis on Asiatic countries that's been been given to it, to Asian geography in particular. That subject's been hanging incomplete for a while, so I added an East Asia page, and linked prehistory to it. I also found reason to link to the hunting and gathering societies page.
In Early prehistory, I made connections to Geohistory, and to Asian geography. I also added Indonesia, which pushes India into Asiatic peoples, but that's as far as I was going to go with this, because at this point in history, I'm not sure there was the same kind of cultural division that is seen later.
In Middle prehistory I added links to Human geography, Behavioral and conceptual culture, and social change. I added a link to Brazil, which pushes Indonesia into Asia and India into South Asian peoples, This provided a little incentive to add links to Asian geography to Sociology and Peoples pages, as well as to Asiatic peoples.
In Late prhistory, I added the same batch of geographical and cultural links, and social change. Adding Pakistan pushed Brazil into American Indian peoples, and the United States into North American peoples. Some of the characteristics of the peoples added to Pakistan suggested that I do something I've been wanting to do for a while: create a new page for food-related occupations, History is now linked to this. In the use of sociology in history, I also created a link to horticultural societies, which in turn have a link to Culture that will prove useful.
Classical to present
After filling in more links to sites dealing with the classical and medieval period, I did a little more development of particular sections.
In Early classical history, I added links to areas of culture, to government, and particular religions. I addeded a new link to Mexico, which pushed Japan into Asia, and Bangladesh into South Asia. The link to mexico will eventually lead to Meso-American history, but that still needs some development.
In Late classical history, I added the same kinds of links to other areas, a new link to the Philippines, which pushed Mexico into American Indian peoples.
In Early medieval history, I added the same kinds of links to other areas, and a new link to Vietnam, which pushed the Philippines into Asia, and Japan into Oriental peoples.
In Late medieval history, I added the same kinds of links to to other areas, and a new link to Germany, which pushed Vietnam into Asia, and the Philippines into Southeast Asia.
In Modern history, I found that I already have a number of links to other sites, so I skipped the general page and went straight to particular centuries.
For the 16th century, I added links to areas of culture, government, and particular religions, and added Egypt to the list of nations. During this period, this was under the rule of the Ottoman empire which I haven't discussed, yet, but that's coming. This addition pushed Germany into Western civilization, which pushed Mexico into Latin peoples (Since the Spanish Conquest began in this century)
For the 17th century, I added the same kind of links. I also added Ethiopia to this century's list of nations, which pushed Egypt into Asia, and Vetnam into Southeast Asia.
For the 18th century, I added the same kinds of links to other areas, and added Turkey to this century's list of nations, which pushed Ethiopia into Africa, and Nigeria into Western Africa.
Since modern history is getting another level of detail, I reviewed the status of pages I added some time ago, the late-mid 18th century and the late 18th century. There isn't much to add yet.
For the 19th century, most of the links to culture and institutions had already been added.
Iran would be added to the list of nations, which pushed Turkey into Asia, and Egypt into the Middle East. This division will be worked backinto earlier and earlier periods as I progress.
Most of the divisions of the 19th century were being expanded a little. For the Late-mid 19th century, I have a connection to the US which includes the Civil War era.
For the late i9th century, I added a connection to China, which includes its near partition among nations of western civilization, and moved the United States as an example of Western civilization, and American Indian peoples.
The 20th century is already well developed in other ways: This would include discussion of Thailand, which would push Iran into Asia and Turkey into the Middle East if this were not already done.
For the early 20th century, I added a connection to India with its agitation for home rule or independence from Britain, which pushed China into Asiatic peoples. Western nations were no longer trying to carve up China amongst themselves, and I'm not sure why. This is a question for further study.
For the early-mid 20th century, I added a connection to Indonesia (Still called the Dutch East Indies, at this point), which pushed India into Asiatic peoples, and China into the Oriental peoples group.
For the mid 20th century, I haved a connection to Brazil, which pushes Indonesia into Asia, and India into South Asian peoples.
For the late-mid 20th century, this would have a connection to Pakistan if it were not already developed, pushing Brazil into Western civilization and the US into Anglic peoples, and also Brazil into American Indian peoples and the US into North American Indians.
For the late 20th century, if this were not already done, adding Bangladesh would push Pakistan into Asia and Indonesia into Southeast Asia.
For the early 21st century, if it were not already done, adding Russia would push Bangladesh into Asia and Pakistan into Southeast Asia. This concludes the latest foray into history, but I will be back to it before too long.
In Early classical history, I added links to areas of culture, to government, and particular religions. I addeded a new link to Mexico, which pushed Japan into Asia, and Bangladesh into South Asia. The link to mexico will eventually lead to Meso-American history, but that still needs some development.
In Late classical history, I added the same kinds of links to other areas, a new link to the Philippines, which pushed Mexico into American Indian peoples.
In Early medieval history, I added the same kinds of links to other areas, and a new link to Vietnam, which pushed the Philippines into Asia, and Japan into Oriental peoples.
In Late medieval history, I added the same kinds of links to to other areas, and a new link to Germany, which pushed Vietnam into Asia, and the Philippines into Southeast Asia.
In Modern history, I found that I already have a number of links to other sites, so I skipped the general page and went straight to particular centuries.
For the 16th century, I added links to areas of culture, government, and particular religions, and added Egypt to the list of nations. During this period, this was under the rule of the Ottoman empire which I haven't discussed, yet, but that's coming. This addition pushed Germany into Western civilization, which pushed Mexico into Latin peoples (Since the Spanish Conquest began in this century)
For the 17th century, I added the same kind of links. I also added Ethiopia to this century's list of nations, which pushed Egypt into Asia, and Vetnam into Southeast Asia.
For the 18th century, I added the same kinds of links to other areas, and added Turkey to this century's list of nations, which pushed Ethiopia into Africa, and Nigeria into Western Africa.
Since modern history is getting another level of detail, I reviewed the status of pages I added some time ago, the late-mid 18th century and the late 18th century. There isn't much to add yet.
For the 19th century, most of the links to culture and institutions had already been added.
Iran would be added to the list of nations, which pushed Turkey into Asia, and Egypt into the Middle East. This division will be worked backinto earlier and earlier periods as I progress.
Most of the divisions of the 19th century were being expanded a little. For the Late-mid 19th century, I have a connection to the US which includes the Civil War era.
For the late i9th century, I added a connection to China, which includes its near partition among nations of western civilization, and moved the United States as an example of Western civilization, and American Indian peoples.
The 20th century is already well developed in other ways: This would include discussion of Thailand, which would push Iran into Asia and Turkey into the Middle East if this were not already done.
For the early 20th century, I added a connection to India with its agitation for home rule or independence from Britain, which pushed China into Asiatic peoples. Western nations were no longer trying to carve up China amongst themselves, and I'm not sure why. This is a question for further study.
For the early-mid 20th century, I added a connection to Indonesia (Still called the Dutch East Indies, at this point), which pushed India into Asiatic peoples, and China into the Oriental peoples group.
For the mid 20th century, I haved a connection to Brazil, which pushes Indonesia into Asia, and India into South Asian peoples.
For the late-mid 20th century, this would have a connection to Pakistan if it were not already developed, pushing Brazil into Western civilization and the US into Anglic peoples, and also Brazil into American Indian peoples and the US into North American Indians.
For the late 20th century, if this were not already done, adding Bangladesh would push Pakistan into Asia and Indonesia into Southeast Asia.
For the early 21st century, if it were not already done, adding Russia would push Bangladesh into Asia and Pakistan into Southeast Asia. This concludes the latest foray into history, but I will be back to it before too long.
Monday, January 14, 2008
More Antiquity
Since I'd started work on prehistory, I skipped over early prehistory and went to middle prehistory. Addition of Indonesia pushed India into Asia and China into Oriental peoples. These are most likely not where human societies originated, so I will need more work here.
In late prehistory, addition of Brazil pushed Indonesia into Asia and India into South Asian peoples. This still isn't a very broad perspective, but it is a start.
When I got to antiquity, I took a look through the sites world history links to and made a bunch of links that antiquity can link to. There is a fair amount of information on those sites that's going to take a while to digest, but it does provide some raw material to look at.
In the 5th millennium BC, I added connections to material culture and to government and to social structure and change. Addition of Pakistan pushed Brazil Into American Indian peoples, which pushed the United States into North American Indians, which is not yet much developed.
In the 4th millennium BC, I continued the additions to material culture, government, and social structure and change. Addition of Bangladesh pushed Pakistan into Asiatic peoples, which pushed Indonesia into Southeast Asian peoples. That gives Asia three major divisions, and I'm still woefully ignorant on southeast Asia.
In the 3rd millennium BC, the rise of bronze age civilization and literacy along with it gives so much weight to material culture that I had to link to conceptual and behavioral culture as well, in addition to the government and social structure and change links. Addition of Russia pushed Bangladesh into Asiatic peoples, and Pakistan, along with India, into South Asia. This starts to focus a little more on the Harappan civilization of the Indus Valley.
In the 2nd millennium BC, all three areas of culture had to be connected, and I added government, and linked specific religions. Addition of Nigeria pushed Russia into Western Civilization, and I would like to take a better look at the Indo-european expansion.
In the early first millennium, again all three major areas of culture needed to be connected, and I added links to government and to specific religions. Addition of Japan pushed Nigeria into African peoples, which now have a better link to antiquity.
In late prehistory, addition of Brazil pushed Indonesia into Asia and India into South Asian peoples. This still isn't a very broad perspective, but it is a start.
When I got to antiquity, I took a look through the sites world history links to and made a bunch of links that antiquity can link to. There is a fair amount of information on those sites that's going to take a while to digest, but it does provide some raw material to look at.
In the 5th millennium BC, I added connections to material culture and to government and to social structure and change. Addition of Pakistan pushed Brazil Into American Indian peoples, which pushed the United States into North American Indians, which is not yet much developed.
In the 4th millennium BC, I continued the additions to material culture, government, and social structure and change. Addition of Bangladesh pushed Pakistan into Asiatic peoples, which pushed Indonesia into Southeast Asian peoples. That gives Asia three major divisions, and I'm still woefully ignorant on southeast Asia.
In the 3rd millennium BC, the rise of bronze age civilization and literacy along with it gives so much weight to material culture that I had to link to conceptual and behavioral culture as well, in addition to the government and social structure and change links. Addition of Russia pushed Bangladesh into Asiatic peoples, and Pakistan, along with India, into South Asia. This starts to focus a little more on the Harappan civilization of the Indus Valley.
In the 2nd millennium BC, all three areas of culture had to be connected, and I added government, and linked specific religions. Addition of Nigeria pushed Russia into Western Civilization, and I would like to take a better look at the Indo-european expansion.
In the early first millennium, again all three major areas of culture needed to be connected, and I added links to government and to specific religions. Addition of Japan pushed Nigeria into African peoples, which now have a better link to antiquity.
Saturday, January 12, 2008
I mentioned that I'd continued with my review of history.
For the second millennium BC, I added a reference to Russia, which pushed Banbladesh into Asia and Pakistan into South Asia. This also brings up connections to the Indo-European peoples that I'd love to pursue, but will have to set aside for a while
For the early first imllennium, I added a reference to Nigeria, which pushes Russia into Western peoples, which pushes Brazil into American Indian peoples for this period.
For the early classical period, I added a reference to Japan, which pushes Nigeria into African peoples.
For the late classical period, I aded Mexico, which pushes Japan into Asia, which pushes Bangladesh into South Asia, and highlights how very thin my knowledge is in this area.
For the early medieval period, I added the Philippines, which puses Mexico into American Indian peoples.
For the late medieval period, I added a connection to Vietnam, which pushes the Philippines into Asia, which pushes Japan into Oriental peoples and allwes something of a contrast with China.
For the 16th century, I added Germany, which pushes Vietnam into Asia, which pushes the Philippines into Ssoutheast Asia.
For the 17th century, I added Egypt, which pushes Germany into Western civilization, which pushes Russia into Northeastern peoples.
For the 18th century, I Added Ethiopia, which pushes Egypt into Asia, which pushes Vietnam into southeast Asia, before the French conquest.
For the 19th century, I added Turkey, which pushes Ethiopia into Africa and should have put Niteria into Western Africa, but I'm not sure remembered to do that.
For the 20th century, the addition would have been Iran, which would have pushed turken into Asia, which would have resulted in expanding the middle east, except that I have already done this.
This suggested that I start doing for the next lower divisions of peoples the same kinds of things. This has been developed to 20 year periods starting in the late 19th century. By the time I get to the early 21st century in the present day, Im at the level of adding Bangladesh, (already done), which suggests that most of the progress is going to come in earlier decade, which actually sits rather well with me.
Having gone through history, I thought to go through the peoples, add another community and another nation, and see what pushing those connections led to. As it turns out, not a great deal of change to what I already had. Among Asiatic peoples, the history is turning out to be far more satisfying, but that isn't really leading into any deepeer analysis of society, which is where I would like to go. I don't know if I've mentioned that I'm itching to subdivide nations, but since I'm going back through and adding detail, I need to get caught up to that point, again.
I also didn't see much push for improvement in religions, although I had connected most of the sudivisions of history to religion if the connection wasn't already there. I'm going to have to, in the next pass through history, form links and particular governments, as well as links to more specific areas of culture, because those are areas I need to work on.
Since I went through all this fairly quickly, I started over again with history, and this time took the trouble to add links to prehistory. A couple of those have solid information. It's also about time to publish all thes updates to the website, but I'm going to wait until Monday to do this.
In a separate matter, I did some research on the net in Astronomy, mostly related to trying to trach down how the color index of stars is related to their temperature. I'd like there to be an equation that relates them, but I couldn't find it, and access to the University library's axtronomical references is a bit difficult.
For the second millennium BC, I added a reference to Russia, which pushed Banbladesh into Asia and Pakistan into South Asia. This also brings up connections to the Indo-European peoples that I'd love to pursue, but will have to set aside for a while
For the early first imllennium, I added a reference to Nigeria, which pushes Russia into Western peoples, which pushes Brazil into American Indian peoples for this period.
For the early classical period, I added a reference to Japan, which pushes Nigeria into African peoples.
For the late classical period, I aded Mexico, which pushes Japan into Asia, which pushes Bangladesh into South Asia, and highlights how very thin my knowledge is in this area.
For the early medieval period, I added the Philippines, which puses Mexico into American Indian peoples.
For the late medieval period, I added a connection to Vietnam, which pushes the Philippines into Asia, which pushes Japan into Oriental peoples and allwes something of a contrast with China.
For the 16th century, I added Germany, which pushes Vietnam into Asia, which pushes the Philippines into Ssoutheast Asia.
For the 17th century, I added Egypt, which pushes Germany into Western civilization, which pushes Russia into Northeastern peoples.
For the 18th century, I Added Ethiopia, which pushes Egypt into Asia, which pushes Vietnam into southeast Asia, before the French conquest.
For the 19th century, I added Turkey, which pushes Ethiopia into Africa and should have put Niteria into Western Africa, but I'm not sure remembered to do that.
For the 20th century, the addition would have been Iran, which would have pushed turken into Asia, which would have resulted in expanding the middle east, except that I have already done this.
This suggested that I start doing for the next lower divisions of peoples the same kinds of things. This has been developed to 20 year periods starting in the late 19th century. By the time I get to the early 21st century in the present day, Im at the level of adding Bangladesh, (already done), which suggests that most of the progress is going to come in earlier decade, which actually sits rather well with me.
Having gone through history, I thought to go through the peoples, add another community and another nation, and see what pushing those connections led to. As it turns out, not a great deal of change to what I already had. Among Asiatic peoples, the history is turning out to be far more satisfying, but that isn't really leading into any deepeer analysis of society, which is where I would like to go. I don't know if I've mentioned that I'm itching to subdivide nations, but since I'm going back through and adding detail, I need to get caught up to that point, again.
I also didn't see much push for improvement in religions, although I had connected most of the sudivisions of history to religion if the connection wasn't already there. I'm going to have to, in the next pass through history, form links and particular governments, as well as links to more specific areas of culture, because those are areas I need to work on.
Since I went through all this fairly quickly, I started over again with history, and this time took the trouble to add links to prehistory. A couple of those have solid information. It's also about time to publish all thes updates to the website, but I'm going to wait until Monday to do this.
In a separate matter, I did some research on the net in Astronomy, mostly related to trying to trach down how the color index of stars is related to their temperature. I'd like there to be an equation that relates them, but I couldn't find it, and access to the University library's axtronomical references is a bit difficult.
Friday, January 11, 2008
In the latest round of my studies, I've been trying an older approach that I set aside for a while
The lastes version has me working in prehistory. I'm trying to start with countries and expand out. Early prehistory to about 40, ooo BC is hard to access from sources that start in history: This topic goes more with archaeology, but I don't quite want to go into that subject right now.
For middle prehistory, I expanded the countries connection to India and added a link to Asiatic peoples. Archeological research has not progressed as far as it has in Europe, so the story of how the earth was peopled by modern humans is seriously incomplete.
In later prehistory, I added a connection to Indonesia, and within Asiatic peoples, created a link to Oriental peoples. This does not mean that the Chinese people have the oldest civilization; I just haven't got to adding older but less numerous cultures. I've also started creating links to religion: not that I know much about religion in any part of prehistory, but so that I can add more links when I do know somethings.
Antiquity is a little bit easier to handle, and I start with the 5th millennium BC. Following my program of adding countries in decreasing order of population, this meant adding Brazil, this pushed Indonesia into Asia and India into a link with South Asia. Neither the Orient nor South Asia is well documented for this period, so this involves a bit of armwaving.
The fourth millennium BC adds Pakistan, which pushes Brazil into American Indian peoples, and I'm anxious to split these into regions based on countries, but still haven't done it yet.
The third millennium BC adds Bangladesh, which pushes Pakistan into Asia. So far, the Harappan (or Indus Valley) civilization appears most prominently, but I haven't yet begun to consider the middle east. Indonesia guides a link with Southeast Asian peoples, about which I know nothing in antiquity. This might be a good subject for reading, if I could get to it.
The lastes version has me working in prehistory. I'm trying to start with countries and expand out. Early prehistory to about 40, ooo BC is hard to access from sources that start in history: This topic goes more with archaeology, but I don't quite want to go into that subject right now.
For middle prehistory, I expanded the countries connection to India and added a link to Asiatic peoples. Archeological research has not progressed as far as it has in Europe, so the story of how the earth was peopled by modern humans is seriously incomplete.
In later prehistory, I added a connection to Indonesia, and within Asiatic peoples, created a link to Oriental peoples. This does not mean that the Chinese people have the oldest civilization; I just haven't got to adding older but less numerous cultures. I've also started creating links to religion: not that I know much about religion in any part of prehistory, but so that I can add more links when I do know somethings.
Antiquity is a little bit easier to handle, and I start with the 5th millennium BC. Following my program of adding countries in decreasing order of population, this meant adding Brazil, this pushed Indonesia into Asia and India into a link with South Asia. Neither the Orient nor South Asia is well documented for this period, so this involves a bit of armwaving.
The fourth millennium BC adds Pakistan, which pushes Brazil into American Indian peoples, and I'm anxious to split these into regions based on countries, but still haven't done it yet.
The third millennium BC adds Bangladesh, which pushes Pakistan into Asia. So far, the Harappan (or Indus Valley) civilization appears most prominently, but I haven't yet begun to consider the middle east. Indonesia guides a link with Southeast Asian peoples, about which I know nothing in antiquity. This might be a good subject for reading, if I could get to it.
Thursday, December 06, 2007
I've advanced a little in examination of social structure and change. Particular chnges, such as the industrial revolution and modernization, social procesees, social types, and social structure are all being examined.
In religion, several connections were advanced my last time through, and this time I focused on catching up a little on Asiatic religions, especially those in China and Japan, and those that originated in Persia.
As I read the news and news summaries, I'm often slightly confused by the alphabet soup of international Governmental Organizations and why they are important. I've added pages for the European Union, NATO, and the CIS (I was surprised that was still around: the individual nations get more attention now), and the World Trade Organization. I may do some rearranging or alternate connections, but this will be useful when get these developed as far as current events.
In religion, several connections were advanced my last time through, and this time I focused on catching up a little on Asiatic religions, especially those in China and Japan, and those that originated in Persia.
As I read the news and news summaries, I'm often slightly confused by the alphabet soup of international Governmental Organizations and why they are important. I've added pages for the European Union, NATO, and the CIS (I was surprised that was still around: the individual nations get more attention now), and the World Trade Organization. I may do some rearranging or alternate connections, but this will be useful when get these developed as far as current events.
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
More peoples
After doing a review of Asiatic peoples, next up was a review of Western civilization. Since many of these nations are smaller than Asiatic peoples, they are a bit harder to get to. For Anglic peoples, the most accessible is the United States, and although I didn't really want to consider its history separately from the rest of it just yet, the accumulation of events just about forces it. The Latin nations form a big block. I'm close to forming groups of these and anxious to get there. Northeast European peoples are developing rather slowly, except for Russia, and so are Germanic peoples. Balkan peoples aren't yet to the point where I can do much with them, and it;s going to take a while to get to Scandinavian peoples.
I've had a little more success with the division of African peoples. I recently reached a critical point where I should break these into Western, Eastern, Central, and Southern African peoples, and connections to them were made in modern history and some of its subdivisions. American Indian peoples still don't have enough connected nations for me to subdivide, but this will be coming soon, about the same time as Latin peoples.
I've had a little more success with the division of African peoples. I recently reached a critical point where I should break these into Western, Eastern, Central, and Southern African peoples, and connections to them were made in modern history and some of its subdivisions. American Indian peoples still don't have enough connected nations for me to subdivide, but this will be coming soon, about the same time as Latin peoples.
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
Taking shape
I think I'm getting somewhere. For about the past month, I've been trying to track events on a day-by-day basis, or at least a week-by-week basis. In the process, it's been pushing me to connect more and more recent periods of history to more and more nations. I have this extended as far as the 20th century, the last seven years, and and up to the current year. I'm close to getting the current quarter and current month extended to most of the nations I have in the knowledge base. Getting caught up that far is a satisfying accomplishment, and will be a big help in analyzing daily news and current events.
In going through peoples, the addition of nations has reached a point where I can start taking a closer look at particular peoples of the Middle East. I had this broken down into some categories, but then decided to approach this from the point of view of particular nations, and hadn't got caught up. I reached a point where I could re-think and rearrange those subjects, so some long-dormant categories are coming active again. There are quite a few events associated with Israel and neighboring countries, but since most of these are fairly small, it's going to be a while before I can get to them. I'm not quite to the point yet where I can follow reports on the war in Iraq. By my rules of development, which I have to follow more or less in order to keep from getting compleely lost, I still need to add a few nations in order to get Iraq into its own little category in the current month. I note that Egypt has been rather quiet in international news lately. I've also noticed an ongoing conflict between militant Kurds in Northern Iraq and Turkey, which is something I would like to follow as well. I'm also getting closer to being able to follow events in Iran. There isn't as much progress on other peoples of Asia, although a lot of current attention has been focused on Pakistan. India is rather bigger, but a lot of events escape attention.
In going through peoples, the addition of nations has reached a point where I can start taking a closer look at particular peoples of the Middle East. I had this broken down into some categories, but then decided to approach this from the point of view of particular nations, and hadn't got caught up. I reached a point where I could re-think and rearrange those subjects, so some long-dormant categories are coming active again. There are quite a few events associated with Israel and neighboring countries, but since most of these are fairly small, it's going to be a while before I can get to them. I'm not quite to the point yet where I can follow reports on the war in Iraq. By my rules of development, which I have to follow more or less in order to keep from getting compleely lost, I still need to add a few nations in order to get Iraq into its own little category in the current month. I note that Egypt has been rather quiet in international news lately. I've also noticed an ongoing conflict between militant Kurds in Northern Iraq and Turkey, which is something I would like to follow as well. I'm also getting closer to being able to follow events in Iran. There isn't as much progress on other peoples of Asia, although a lot of current attention has been focused on Pakistan. India is rather bigger, but a lot of events escape attention.
Saturday, November 17, 2007
I've been examining events of the last two years a little bit more. by gradually broadening the range of countries I know something about in each month. That's a rather slow approach, but it's been working for me.
Although this might suggest attention to particular countries, I can't do much with them until these perios have a more complete list of events. Instead, they are prompting a closer investigation of religion and government. I have been putting off a more detailed examination of these subjects for quite some time, but it seems appropriate to begin turning my attention to them.
Although this might suggest attention to particular countries, I can't do much with them until these perios have a more complete list of events. Instead, they are prompting a closer investigation of religion and government. I have been putting off a more detailed examination of these subjects for quite some time, but it seems appropriate to begin turning my attention to them.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Catch up
After a long weekend with other commitments and a day of catching up, I have more events of the last two years grouped by nations, Events for November are now more up to date.
Friday, November 09, 2007
Current events
At various times I have wanted to discuss current events. However, I have been rather handicapped by my lack of knowledge about various affairs, and from the commentary I've seen on the various political blogs, a great deal of the discussion is ignorant and prejudiced. My knowledge base has reached a point where I think I can begin to discuss current events, though not necessarily on a day-to-day basis This will probably branch out to other areas of knowledge.
Events that have been in the news include protests against the government of Myanmar (Burma) and the state of emergency in Pakistan. The last is of some interest in the US because Pakistan has been an ally in the war in Afghanistan and Iraq. Other than that, I don't have a great deal to add.
During the last month or so, I have been adding to my various lists of events to give me some matieral to work with. A great many of them are associated with government, and I lack a solid background in political science. I am attempting to expand this with examples from history and various different countries, a rather slow process.
Events that have been in the news include protests against the government of Myanmar (Burma) and the state of emergency in Pakistan. The last is of some interest in the US because Pakistan has been an ally in the war in Afghanistan and Iraq. Other than that, I don't have a great deal to add.
During the last month or so, I have been adding to my various lists of events to give me some matieral to work with. A great many of them are associated with government, and I lack a solid background in political science. I am attempting to expand this with examples from history and various different countries, a rather slow process.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
SDK
I got the CD with the SKD I ordered earlier this week and spent a while browsing it. This is a valuable reference and has the kind of documentation I need: I could figure out what I need to know about Windows Programming from here. Actually writing programs to do something is going to take a little bit longer, because I need to study and try out some of the basic functions.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Figuring it out
I took another look at the couple of Windows tutoral web sites I've found, looking specifically for graphics information, and I found some stuff I half-recognize, but not the specific things I was looking for. I also looked at the header file in my compiler, and found among the definitions technical information on what parameters go in various definitions, but (obviously) no summary of what those parameters do or what they are for, or which functions do which.
I did another search for an older version of the Microsoft Platform SDK that has documentation on those functions. Microsoft has a link to a company that still has CDs containing earlier versions that I might be able for only the cost of shipping, (The current oldest one they offer themselves requires at least Windows 2000) . We'll see whether its useful.
In the meantime, I'm using the same compiler I used in school, but it had a number of visual components I could drag and drop onto a form. (I've never liked the drag-and-drop style of programming), and I couldn't find those components. So I went digging through the help files, and after a bunch of trial and error, found how to tell my compiler to use them, so I'm a bit happier about that.
I did another search for an older version of the Microsoft Platform SDK that has documentation on those functions. Microsoft has a link to a company that still has CDs containing earlier versions that I might be able for only the cost of shipping, (The current oldest one they offer themselves requires at least Windows 2000) . We'll see whether its useful.
In the meantime, I'm using the same compiler I used in school, but it had a number of visual components I could drag and drop onto a form. (I've never liked the drag-and-drop style of programming), and I couldn't find those components. So I went digging through the help files, and after a bunch of trial and error, found how to tell my compiler to use them, so I'm a bit happier about that.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Programming Study
With my recently revived interest in Computer programming, I'm about ready to pick up where I left off about 5 years ago. I had taken a Windows Programming course in 1999 and didn't make it all the way through. I kept my textbook (Petzold's Windows Programming, 5th edition)began a review a couple of years later when I was living in Nebraska, (The date on my last program is September 2002). I got somewhat sidetracked and didn't get as far as I would like.
Now that my interest in the project has revived, I'm stuck without my Windows bible, which is still in Nebraska. I tried to find a copy of the Windows Platform SDK that has documentation for all the functions, but since Microsoft has gone to Windows 2000 and Vista, they're no longer making the old SDK available, so no help there. I tried locating copies of Petzold in the local libraries: No, on the public library, no on the closest University libraries. I tried locating people locally who do programming. One has left the programming field and is in Law School, and he may or may not still have a copy, and may or may not let me know if he finds it next Sunday. No on the next closest library: The nearest place that seems to is Pittsburgh, 50 miles away from me, which is rather inconvenient if I want to keep it as a reference. I tried looking on eBay to see if I could pick up second hand copy for minimun price, no luck there. Next try, Amazon.com Success! I can get a used copy for a reasonable price. I just have to wait a week and a half.
In the meantime, just as in writing, if you want to lern how to program, you have to sit down and practice, on a daily basis. So, I sat down and looked up pieces of all the code I have in dusty computer prograns, and came up with three versions of a basic Windows Program. I've now figured out (again) how to do one of the most basic things a program should do: Print a message on the screen. There is still a lot more I want to learn how to do, but until I can get some documentation, it's going to be very slow going. I've never quite figured out the mechanics of doing graphics in any version of programming languages I've studied: I hope to break that barrier.
In the meantime, I've been refining some of my ideas on how to do some basic physics programming: moving particles around in a space, so I've made a little progress toward one of the applications I've had in mind for a while.
Now that my interest in the project has revived, I'm stuck without my Windows bible, which is still in Nebraska. I tried to find a copy of the Windows Platform SDK that has documentation for all the functions, but since Microsoft has gone to Windows 2000 and Vista, they're no longer making the old SDK available, so no help there. I tried locating copies of Petzold in the local libraries: No, on the public library, no on the closest University libraries. I tried locating people locally who do programming. One has left the programming field and is in Law School, and he may or may not still have a copy, and may or may not let me know if he finds it next Sunday. No on the next closest library: The nearest place that seems to is Pittsburgh, 50 miles away from me, which is rather inconvenient if I want to keep it as a reference. I tried looking on eBay to see if I could pick up second hand copy for minimun price, no luck there. Next try, Amazon.com Success! I can get a used copy for a reasonable price. I just have to wait a week and a half.
In the meantime, just as in writing, if you want to lern how to program, you have to sit down and practice, on a daily basis. So, I sat down and looked up pieces of all the code I have in dusty computer prograns, and came up with three versions of a basic Windows Program. I've now figured out (again) how to do one of the most basic things a program should do: Print a message on the screen. There is still a lot more I want to learn how to do, but until I can get some documentation, it's going to be very slow going. I've never quite figured out the mechanics of doing graphics in any version of programming languages I've studied: I hope to break that barrier.
In the meantime, I've been refining some of my ideas on how to do some basic physics programming: moving particles around in a space, so I've made a little progress toward one of the applications I've had in mind for a while.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Prehistoric anthropology
For a while I have been working mostly on the science end of the knowledge base, but it's all been routine and not terribly interesting. I decided to to back and take another at the topd-down approach I had been using.
This time, i've started with prehistory and made some connections with geological and biological history, which most noticeably overlap with prehistory. Since I don't have any specific people from prehistory, I'm working on connecting the basics of anthropology to it. This appars to be a reasonably promising approach.
In the process of applying anthropology to prehistory, I have been doing a little work on connecting areas of anthropology to the physical and natural sciences. Since the more detailed levelds of anthropology so far consist mostly of vague, general, armwaving, there isn't much more progress or real content to report just now.
I was feeling a bit bored and too tired to work on the KB the other day, so I looked up an old computer game I used to play way back when: Dungeon Master. It's been placed on a web site and I can run it in the DOS window (of Win 98).
That, in turn, has somewhat rekindled my interest in computer programming, so I've also dusted off the urls for a couple of web sites that offer tutorials on Windows API programming in C and C++, and with my trusty old Borland C++ 5.0, I've begun trying once again to understand how a basic Windows program works. I have the basic idea, but the details are something else again.
I want to give another try at doing (or emulating) elementary science with my programs, so there is some vague connection between these ideas.
This time, i've started with prehistory and made some connections with geological and biological history, which most noticeably overlap with prehistory. Since I don't have any specific people from prehistory, I'm working on connecting the basics of anthropology to it. This appars to be a reasonably promising approach.
In the process of applying anthropology to prehistory, I have been doing a little work on connecting areas of anthropology to the physical and natural sciences. Since the more detailed levelds of anthropology so far consist mostly of vague, general, armwaving, there isn't much more progress or real content to report just now.
I was feeling a bit bored and too tired to work on the KB the other day, so I looked up an old computer game I used to play way back when: Dungeon Master. It's been placed on a web site and I can run it in the DOS window (of Win 98).
That, in turn, has somewhat rekindled my interest in computer programming, so I've also dusted off the urls for a couple of web sites that offer tutorials on Windows API programming in C and C++, and with my trusty old Borland C++ 5.0, I've begun trying once again to understand how a basic Windows program works. I have the basic idea, but the details are something else again.
I want to give another try at doing (or emulating) elementary science with my programs, so there is some vague connection between these ideas.
Monday, August 06, 2007
History again
I've been rather quiet here the past couple of weeks. For one thing, I've been working steadily on the knowledge base.
There are a quite a few areas of history I would like to look at more closely. One of them is prehistory. There is a lot of detail that is skipped over in various accounts of how mankind originated and peopled the earth, but I need better tools to investigate this. This leads into a more specific area, the ancient middle east, especially the development of religion, and various tantalizing hints that keep coming from scholarship. This leads further into the classical world, where I am interested in both Greek philosophy and Roman government, and origins of Christianity. I am nearly as interested in the development of Islam as of Medieval Christianity. I had a hard time tracking who was who in the Medieval era in the course I took in Western civilization. In modern history, I have something of an interest in Latin America as well as the United States and Europe, and the progress of civilization during all these time periods. This eventually has the potential to lead into current events, but in this area, my reach has exceeded my grasp.
But therein order to discuss any of these periods, I need more detail on the specific peoples involved. which is where I have been spending a fair amount of effort lately. More on that, later.
There are a quite a few areas of history I would like to look at more closely. One of them is prehistory. There is a lot of detail that is skipped over in various accounts of how mankind originated and peopled the earth, but I need better tools to investigate this. This leads into a more specific area, the ancient middle east, especially the development of religion, and various tantalizing hints that keep coming from scholarship. This leads further into the classical world, where I am interested in both Greek philosophy and Roman government, and origins of Christianity. I am nearly as interested in the development of Islam as of Medieval Christianity. I had a hard time tracking who was who in the Medieval era in the course I took in Western civilization. In modern history, I have something of an interest in Latin America as well as the United States and Europe, and the progress of civilization during all these time periods. This eventually has the potential to lead into current events, but in this area, my reach has exceeded my grasp.
But therein order to discuss any of these periods, I need more detail on the specific peoples involved. which is where I have been spending a fair amount of effort lately. More on that, later.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Curiosity and desire
I was describing the Knowledge Base and the new Independent Learning forum to an acquaintance over the weekend, who commented that it must take a lot of discipline to study a subject on your own.
In some respect, I think it does, but I would tend to describe the required qualities differently. They would be curiosity and desire. Children tend to be curious, they are avid to explore the world around them, although I've known some who seldom asked questions, but were inclined if anything to act out their curiosity. As they get older, and especially as they are confined to the limited environment of a school, they tend to lose that curiosity. An independent student, a life-long learner has to keep or regain something of that quality.
In some respect, I think it does, but I would tend to describe the required qualities differently. They would be curiosity and desire. Children tend to be curious, they are avid to explore the world around them, although I've known some who seldom asked questions, but were inclined if anything to act out their curiosity. As they get older, and especially as they are confined to the limited environment of a school, they tend to lose that curiosity. An independent student, a life-long learner has to keep or regain something of that quality.
Monday, July 16, 2007
What's up
I've been trying to develop contacts with someone in the unschooling community, without a lot of success.
Mostly in the last few days, I've been working on the knowledge base. About two years years back, I spent some time poring over chemistry books in the University library trying to figure out how to classify chemical reactions. After letting that information compost in the back of my mind since then, I was following a thread of curiosity and creating links sometime in the past three days, when I came across chemical reactions. A classification that fits what I remember about them sprang up and introduced itself. Next time I lay hands on a chemistry text, I'll have to see whether it really works. I've also been wandering back and forth across language and linguistics, and thought I'd resurrect some old notes on the subject, rather than leaving the page as a stub waiting for future developments. I've been wanting to get around to that subject for the longest time, and finally got there.
I've also been anxiously hovering over the Independent Learning Forum, so far, I'm pleased. I'm getting plenty of visits or visitors, and have picked up a few members and comments. The weblog analysis program my site host uses reports that quite a few of them are coming through here. Thanks to all my readers, whoever you are.
On top of that, I've been following current events and a couple of debates...I have some commentary on the past week's worth of that over on my other blog, From the Ground.
I took a break from all this to go over to the local Barnes & Noble and do some leisure reading I liked "The Ninth Talisman" by Lawrence Watt-Evans. I like his protagonists attitude of of "trying to do the right thing without being too sure what the right thing really is". I also took a look at "1635: The Baltic War", but really, the cast of that series is getting so big I can't keep track of who's who, especially when I don't have the last five books at hand to go remind myself. It's getting as bad as Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time, and won't everyone be relieved when that finally reaches the end.
Mostly in the last few days, I've been working on the knowledge base. About two years years back, I spent some time poring over chemistry books in the University library trying to figure out how to classify chemical reactions. After letting that information compost in the back of my mind since then, I was following a thread of curiosity and creating links sometime in the past three days, when I came across chemical reactions. A classification that fits what I remember about them sprang up and introduced itself. Next time I lay hands on a chemistry text, I'll have to see whether it really works. I've also been wandering back and forth across language and linguistics, and thought I'd resurrect some old notes on the subject, rather than leaving the page as a stub waiting for future developments. I've been wanting to get around to that subject for the longest time, and finally got there.
I've also been anxiously hovering over the Independent Learning Forum, so far, I'm pleased. I'm getting plenty of visits or visitors, and have picked up a few members and comments. The weblog analysis program my site host uses reports that quite a few of them are coming through here. Thanks to all my readers, whoever you are.
On top of that, I've been following current events and a couple of debates...I have some commentary on the past week's worth of that over on my other blog, From the Ground.
I took a break from all this to go over to the local Barnes & Noble and do some leisure reading I liked "The Ninth Talisman" by Lawrence Watt-Evans. I like his protagonists attitude of of "trying to do the right thing without being too sure what the right thing really is". I also took a look at "1635: The Baltic War", but really, the cast of that series is getting so big I can't keep track of who's who, especially when I don't have the last five books at hand to go remind myself. It's getting as bad as Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time, and won't everyone be relieved when that finally reaches the end.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
School emptiness
I was looking over one of the political blogs that I've been following lately, and ran across a link to this analysis of Why Nerds are Unpopular.
Rather than repeat his points and his powerful critique of the whole educational system, about all I can say is, Hear! Hear!
Rather than repeat his points and his powerful critique of the whole educational system, about all I can say is, Hear! Hear!
Monday, July 09, 2007
College level unschooling
One of the things I've found as I've looked into the various home schooling and unschooling movements is that most of the available sites concentrate on parents teaching their children. A great many are geared toward creating and selling curriculum. Sites intended for self-education for adults tend to focus on various degree-granting programs. There certainly don't seem to be many sites to support college-level unschooling, except in a few special areas.
That bothers me. As I browse the Intenet and see the various discussion boards, I'm apalled by the amount of name-calling, free substitution of personal opinion for verifiable fact, and horrendously sloppy reasoning on the part of supposedly educated men and women. It almost seems that if you want a true education, you just about have to go out and get it yourself.
That bothers me. As I browse the Intenet and see the various discussion boards, I'm apalled by the amount of name-calling, free substitution of personal opinion for verifiable fact, and horrendously sloppy reasoning on the part of supposedly educated men and women. It almost seems that if you want a true education, you just about have to go out and get it yourself.
Friday, July 06, 2007
Unschooling
Not long ago, a conversation with an acquaintance drifted to what I was doing with my life. I described my work on the Knowledge Base, and we talked a little about my disappointment that no one seemed to be interested. The conversation drifted to publicity and marketing, and he suggested that I needed to more clearly identify my target market, and since I had suggested home schoolers, he thought I might start there.
I set that idea aside, since I was wrestling with other things, but since then I've set up the Independent Learning Forum, which gives me a little more freedom to explore home-schooling and independent education. A Google search led to the Wikipeda article on home schooling, and it seems that my beliefs about education have a lot in common with those who advocate unschooling. So, as a believer in self-eduction, I'm about to go practice it and look into this more closely.
I set that idea aside, since I was wrestling with other things, but since then I've set up the Independent Learning Forum, which gives me a little more freedom to explore home-schooling and independent education. A Google search led to the Wikipeda article on home schooling, and it seems that my beliefs about education have a lot in common with those who advocate unschooling. So, as a believer in self-eduction, I'm about to go practice it and look into this more closely.
Thursday, July 05, 2007
Independent Learning Forum
Since I set up this blog, I've had a lot less commentary from e-mail than I expected. Since I upgraded my web server account so that I now have access to statistics, I see that the Sapience Knowledge Base is indeed getting traffic, but no one is taking the trouble to give me any feedback on the site. For some time, I've been interested in trying to build a community of independent learners, and a web-based forum has been on my wish list. That wish has become a reality, and the Independent Learning Forum can be found now at
http://www.sapiencekb.com/forum This suggests another shift in emphasis for this particular blog, so I plan to be putting announcements about the Knowledge Base on that forum, while I talk here more about techniques of self-directed education.
http://www.sapiencekb.com/forum This suggests another shift in emphasis for this particular blog, so I plan to be putting announcements about the Knowledge Base on that forum, while I talk here more about techniques of self-directed education.
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Update and rambling
I mentioned a while ago that I was thinking of just taking notes on a day's work on the knowledge base and wandering through it. This represents the kind of work I do on it in a day, and illustrates how this organization connects a hierarchical organization, but also gives the user of this knowledge base freedom to ramble. Where I've gone, others may follow. Suggestions from anyone who uses the knowledge base may well influence the decisions I make in developing it.
I started in science, and connected to the Royal Society, one of the oldest learned societies, and a major influence in the development of modern science, which led to a reconsideration of history. For this subject, I decided to go into particular groups and connect to the World History association, which led back to history. I decided to look at material culture, and connect a particular page that I had developed, Communications technology. This, I decided, has roots in science so I went back there. There, I decided that studies of material culture have progressed enough since I wrote that section that I needed to revise the application of it to science entirely. This led to revisiting material culture, and I reached an important development point by adding a page for clothing and dress. I decided material culture had a connection to physical anthropology. This has some connection to geohistory, which I connected to solar system, history, which is so undeveloped that it led back up to science. Continuing the development of science lad to language, which I have hardly looked at for a while. This needed some development of personal studies. I decided to look at its history and push that back to late classical times. I wasn't quite sure how to go about developing that, so I skipped to early medieval times. This led me to considering Pakistan, which let to human geography. Human geography had an almost complete set of subdivision, so to finish it, I added Oceanic Geography. To more fully incorporate this, I went to the next higher level to consider Anthropology. Review of the fundamentals of that subject led to Geohistory. Here, saw that I had another almost complete set of subdivisions and I could add Precambrian geology. This led back up to Geology, which needed a connection to the structure of matter, which needed a connection to quantum physics, which needed a connection to nonrigid mechanics, which I connected to Sociology. I decided to approach this by examining some of its early roots in middle preahistory. This led back into physical anthropology, which this time I pursued into its roots in study of the human body. The human body has a partial set of subdivisions, so I stopped to add human disease, and back up to personal studies again. This time, I decided to push the connections to history back further into early classical, which led into biographies. I had decided earlier that I needed to start adding more biographies, so I added a page for Napoleon. Biographies connect somewhat to social foundations, and here I added a new page for social control. This led back up to Anthropology, which this time I connected to ecology, and I added a new page for system ecology. Taking this back up to biology, I decided that I could start pushing its history a little but further back, and connected to the 18th century, which I referred back to biography. The next entry to be added to that list was Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, Here I decided to start checking Late medieval history to be sure that everyone who should have been added by now has been. This led to Martin Luther. Luther I connected to the social institutions, and here I decided to go back to the beginnings and connect this to middle prehistory. Middle prehistory could be connected to human ecology as the next logical step, and here things begin to get a bit tricky, because I really don't like the way I had divided human ecology anymore. This page was old enough and my general approach has changed since I last worked on it, so I rewrote the biology section again. This let back to biology, and I took this back to the 17th century, which led back to biography and the addition of a page for William Morton. I decided that since I'm using the application of history to biography as a method of searching the biographical list, I don't need to link biography directly to either history or classical and medieval history, since these now no longer have direct connections to individuals. Historical individuals have long been distributed to the particular periods, and now, so have classical and medieval individuals. Early classical, late classical, early medieval, and late medieval history now each have a set of prominent individuals. That wound up the day's work.
I started in science, and connected to the Royal Society, one of the oldest learned societies, and a major influence in the development of modern science, which led to a reconsideration of history. For this subject, I decided to go into particular groups and connect to the World History association, which led back to history. I decided to look at material culture, and connect a particular page that I had developed, Communications technology. This, I decided, has roots in science so I went back there. There, I decided that studies of material culture have progressed enough since I wrote that section that I needed to revise the application of it to science entirely. This led to revisiting material culture, and I reached an important development point by adding a page for clothing and dress. I decided material culture had a connection to physical anthropology. This has some connection to geohistory, which I connected to solar system, history, which is so undeveloped that it led back up to science. Continuing the development of science lad to language, which I have hardly looked at for a while. This needed some development of personal studies. I decided to look at its history and push that back to late classical times. I wasn't quite sure how to go about developing that, so I skipped to early medieval times. This led me to considering Pakistan, which let to human geography. Human geography had an almost complete set of subdivision, so to finish it, I added Oceanic Geography. To more fully incorporate this, I went to the next higher level to consider Anthropology. Review of the fundamentals of that subject led to Geohistory. Here, saw that I had another almost complete set of subdivisions and I could add Precambrian geology. This led back up to Geology, which needed a connection to the structure of matter, which needed a connection to quantum physics, which needed a connection to nonrigid mechanics, which I connected to Sociology. I decided to approach this by examining some of its early roots in middle preahistory. This led back into physical anthropology, which this time I pursued into its roots in study of the human body. The human body has a partial set of subdivisions, so I stopped to add human disease, and back up to personal studies again. This time, I decided to push the connections to history back further into early classical, which led into biographies. I had decided earlier that I needed to start adding more biographies, so I added a page for Napoleon. Biographies connect somewhat to social foundations, and here I added a new page for social control. This led back up to Anthropology, which this time I connected to ecology, and I added a new page for system ecology. Taking this back up to biology, I decided that I could start pushing its history a little but further back, and connected to the 18th century, which I referred back to biography. The next entry to be added to that list was Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, Here I decided to start checking Late medieval history to be sure that everyone who should have been added by now has been. This led to Martin Luther. Luther I connected to the social institutions, and here I decided to go back to the beginnings and connect this to middle prehistory. Middle prehistory could be connected to human ecology as the next logical step, and here things begin to get a bit tricky, because I really don't like the way I had divided human ecology anymore. This page was old enough and my general approach has changed since I last worked on it, so I rewrote the biology section again. This let back to biology, and I took this back to the 17th century, which led back to biography and the addition of a page for William Morton. I decided that since I'm using the application of history to biography as a method of searching the biographical list, I don't need to link biography directly to either history or classical and medieval history, since these now no longer have direct connections to individuals. Historical individuals have long been distributed to the particular periods, and now, so have classical and medieval individuals. Early classical, late classical, early medieval, and late medieval history now each have a set of prominent individuals. That wound up the day's work.
Friday, June 29, 2007
Site upgrade
Doteasy.com, which hosts the Sapience Knowledge Base, just offered a deal for full service that was too good to pass up, which is going to let me add some features that should make it more interesting. Before I publish the current version, I want to get the site map current.
I've started to revive my other active blog, From the Ground as a political/current events blog, so I've been doing a little work on that, somewhat at the expense of this one, but I haven't dropped work on it.
I decided that no version of the planned approach was working well, so for now, I'm just going to let the SKB just grow naturally and see what happens. So far, that's resulting in more developments in science, in areas that I have neglected, and it's occurred to me that, rather than providing dry summaries, it may be more interesting to any potential readers to describe some of my meandering progress.
I've started to revive my other active blog, From the Ground as a political/current events blog, so I've been doing a little work on that, somewhat at the expense of this one, but I haven't dropped work on it.
I decided that no version of the planned approach was working well, so for now, I'm just going to let the SKB just grow naturally and see what happens. So far, that's resulting in more developments in science, in areas that I have neglected, and it's occurred to me that, rather than providing dry summaries, it may be more interesting to any potential readers to describe some of my meandering progress.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Science
I keep experimenting with different approaches to building and expanding the knowledge base, because no one of them works all the time. I had about given up on a bottom-up approach, but I thought I'd give it another try.
There is a lot to be said for simple appreciation of nature. Going for a walk outdoors, seeking the sky clouds, sun, moon (if it's up), trees, grass, birds, bugs, and small animals, the breeze... All these are ways of experiencing and appreciating nature. Every day, even every hour, brings its own new experiences. All the various parts and facets of nature seem to be woven together, almost in one seamless web., and this overall, or holistic view, is an important part of understanding and appreciating nature.
But, for the purposes of science, it's necessary to focus on one thing at a time, and by convention it's useful to group things that are similar in some way together. The trees, grass, birds, bugs, and small animals, we recognize as living things. Even the sticks of wood that have fallen from the trees, we recognize as once having been living, and for a time we focus on them and call the subject biology.
The ground we walk on, the clouds, the breeze, and any streams that may happen to be flowing nearby, we recognize as nonliving, and are part of earth science.
The sun and moon belong to astronomy.
There are two more branches of science, which are less obvious: The substances things are made of is considered as part of chemistry, and heat and warmth, and light and darkness, and sound are considered to belong to physics.
What's often missing in education is the ability, once we have isolated and analyzed all these things and taken them apart, is bringing them back together and appreciating the whole.
Also, there is the fact that the study of nature is a human activity, performed by people, acting in society. The tools, ideas, and occupations that scientists use and follow, the social institutions, the communities and peoples that produce them, and the history of the whole scientific enterprise are also connected, so that the whole can be overwhelming to contemplate. So, I go back to looking at one small piece at a time.
There is a lot to be said for simple appreciation of nature. Going for a walk outdoors, seeking the sky clouds, sun, moon (if it's up), trees, grass, birds, bugs, and small animals, the breeze... All these are ways of experiencing and appreciating nature. Every day, even every hour, brings its own new experiences. All the various parts and facets of nature seem to be woven together, almost in one seamless web., and this overall, or holistic view, is an important part of understanding and appreciating nature.
But, for the purposes of science, it's necessary to focus on one thing at a time, and by convention it's useful to group things that are similar in some way together. The trees, grass, birds, bugs, and small animals, we recognize as living things. Even the sticks of wood that have fallen from the trees, we recognize as once having been living, and for a time we focus on them and call the subject biology.
The ground we walk on, the clouds, the breeze, and any streams that may happen to be flowing nearby, we recognize as nonliving, and are part of earth science.
The sun and moon belong to astronomy.
There are two more branches of science, which are less obvious: The substances things are made of is considered as part of chemistry, and heat and warmth, and light and darkness, and sound are considered to belong to physics.
What's often missing in education is the ability, once we have isolated and analyzed all these things and taken them apart, is bringing them back together and appreciating the whole.
Also, there is the fact that the study of nature is a human activity, performed by people, acting in society. The tools, ideas, and occupations that scientists use and follow, the social institutions, the communities and peoples that produce them, and the history of the whole scientific enterprise are also connected, so that the whole can be overwhelming to contemplate. So, I go back to looking at one small piece at a time.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Slow grind
For some times I've been frustrated with the emphasis on the form of history and sociology, but limited content, and I've been looking for a way to balance out the developments. For instance, history depends rather heavily on biographies, but I've been doing fine divisions of history and now working on biographies at all. So, I've mades some adjustments, and the situation seens to be improving.
Apparently *someone* is reading this blog...I got a comment from a reader. I'm just going to raise an eyebrow at the apparent claim of superiority of Hard Knocks U. to any other. (Speaking as an alumnus of HKU myself). And wonder which "we" he is speaking of that no longer sees any value in sociology. And wonder what the use or non-use of guns has to do with anything I've been writing about.
Apparently *someone* is reading this blog...I got a comment from a reader. I'm just going to raise an eyebrow at the apparent claim of superiority of Hard Knocks U. to any other. (Speaking as an alumnus of HKU myself). And wonder which "we" he is speaking of that no longer sees any value in sociology. And wonder what the use or non-use of guns has to do with anything I've been writing about.
Friday, June 15, 2007
Global society
It's been something of a frustrating week, as my various possible schemes for developing the knowledge base keep conflicting with each other. But I am making progress, of a sort: the top-down approach is penetrating into the middle levels.
There still isn't much new in history at any level. The problem is principally that at this stage, I'm still connecting to fairly high-level abstract topics instead of getting down to the details that make a subject more interesting and colorful.
Likewise, there isn't a great deal new in the subject of sociology. In order to make real progress in considering peoples of the world, I need to bring particular nations back into the development guide. In the area of social structure and change, I have managed to get started on the general theme of the industrial revolution and its various subdivisions and associated movements.
Most of the progress has come in institutions, enough that I'm starting to see the outlines of global society. At this point, there is limited progress on the major religions of the world, since these have already been developed to a certain extent. There has been a little bit more progress in government, particularly international government. Economics has been progressing more slowly, but I'm starting to bring in some major corporations. I've also begun to identify major universities. I haven't identified any families of worldwide scope or influence.
There still hasn't been as much noteworthy development in other areas, but there has been some progress.
There still isn't much new in history at any level. The problem is principally that at this stage, I'm still connecting to fairly high-level abstract topics instead of getting down to the details that make a subject more interesting and colorful.
Likewise, there isn't a great deal new in the subject of sociology. In order to make real progress in considering peoples of the world, I need to bring particular nations back into the development guide. In the area of social structure and change, I have managed to get started on the general theme of the industrial revolution and its various subdivisions and associated movements.
Most of the progress has come in institutions, enough that I'm starting to see the outlines of global society. At this point, there is limited progress on the major religions of the world, since these have already been developed to a certain extent. There has been a little bit more progress in government, particularly international government. Economics has been progressing more slowly, but I'm starting to bring in some major corporations. I've also begun to identify major universities. I haven't identified any families of worldwide scope or influence.
There still hasn't been as much noteworthy development in other areas, but there has been some progress.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Details
As well as trying to be comprehensive, I also mean my knowledge base to be useful. A couple of times lately, I've tried taking a particular news story and analyzed it a bit. Take, for instance, the story of the bombing a mosque in Baghdad, Iraq, by suspected al-Qaeda members. This item might have been filed under History-Modern History-20th century-Early 21st century-Late 2000s-2007-2nd quarter-June. It might have also been filed under Sociology-Peoples-Asiatic Peoples-Middle East, or Sociology-Peoples-Nations-Iraq, or Sociology-Communities-Baghdad. Or, Institutions-Religion-Particular Religion-Abrahamic Religion-Islam. Or Culture-Behavioral culture-Cultural events=Disasters. Or, Culture-Material culture-Buildings. Or, Anthropology-Particular groups-al Qaeda. But most of these subjects are not quite developed this far, and if they are, they aren't yet well enough connected to each other.
A great deal of the development of the knowledge base has been driven more or less internally and more or less mechanically. However, in the interest of making it more useful, I'm going to be using more external cues.
I don't have a specific report on what new pages have been added or developed recently, but there have been some. For instance, I now have a page on the United Nations, which is something I've been aiming for for a while.
A great deal of the development of the knowledge base has been driven more or less internally and more or less mechanically. However, in the interest of making it more useful, I'm going to be using more external cues.
I don't have a specific report on what new pages have been added or developed recently, but there have been some. For instance, I now have a page on the United Nations, which is something I've been aiming for for a while.
Monday, June 11, 2007
Back again
No, there haven't been any disasters. I've just been sidetracked for the past couple of weeks.
For one, I got in a debate with some feminists on a mailing list, which ate practically a whole weekend. and then I decided that my development guide wasn't working the way I wanted it to, and started it over. It's still not entirely caught up to where I had it, but it's close enough that I'm generating new links, as well as getting around to some topics that have been waiting forever for me to even touch.
History is not greatly changed. There is still a distinct emphasis on modern history with a secondary emphasis on classical and medieval history. Within modern history, there is a significant emphasis on the last two centuries, and in the last century, mostly on the last 30 years. I am giving a bit more attention to the future.
The emphasis on what I call sociology is being shifted. I've put a lot of emphasis on development of particular nations in the past few months, until I found that the nations I was most interested were too recently added and too far down the list for me to get to, and plan for developing them was too rigid and inflexible. So, now, I have fewer nations scheduled for development, but more emphasis on the major groups of people. Western civilization and Asiatic peoples, are the predominant groups. I also decided that my list of cities wasn't adding much, so this has been rather toned down. On the other hand, the investigation of social structure and change has developed well in the last few months, so It's getting a more prominent role.
I'm also giving more attention to the institutional areas; more religion and government that I had. I'd like to flatten this out a bit more, with attention to economics, education, and families, but that should begin to happen as more areas are better developed.
One of the developments I'm most pleased with is that some long-dormant areas are starting to be reactivated. Sports is a subject I've been avoiding, since I have no great personal interest in them. Quite some time ago a friend who is an engineer asked where I was going to put a section on that: Now I have a more specific answer. Math is another area I've been avoiding, for a different reason, in spite of the fact that I am very much interested in it, and that's showed up on my development list. Literature promises to show up soon, and various forms of physical objects should also start appearing.
Another area I've neglected for a while, simply because I didn't know much about it, is various parts of what I call anthropology, but that's about to be fully included.
Personal studies are also being brought in. I consider this to be one of the more interesting developments, because a lot of history, society, institutions, culture, and so forth is linked to biography. When I started working on this version of the Knowledge base, I build a lot of it on biographies, and then I shifted away from that approach, so I will be glad to get these worked back in.
Science is another area I am anxious to get included, because I have a lot of personal interest in it. However, I've found that there is a whole lot more to the world (at least, the human world) than science accounts for, and I've been scrambling to catch up in everything else. But that, too, is getting worked in.
For one, I got in a debate with some feminists on a mailing list, which ate practically a whole weekend. and then I decided that my development guide wasn't working the way I wanted it to, and started it over. It's still not entirely caught up to where I had it, but it's close enough that I'm generating new links, as well as getting around to some topics that have been waiting forever for me to even touch.
History is not greatly changed. There is still a distinct emphasis on modern history with a secondary emphasis on classical and medieval history. Within modern history, there is a significant emphasis on the last two centuries, and in the last century, mostly on the last 30 years. I am giving a bit more attention to the future.
The emphasis on what I call sociology is being shifted. I've put a lot of emphasis on development of particular nations in the past few months, until I found that the nations I was most interested were too recently added and too far down the list for me to get to, and plan for developing them was too rigid and inflexible. So, now, I have fewer nations scheduled for development, but more emphasis on the major groups of people. Western civilization and Asiatic peoples, are the predominant groups. I also decided that my list of cities wasn't adding much, so this has been rather toned down. On the other hand, the investigation of social structure and change has developed well in the last few months, so It's getting a more prominent role.
I'm also giving more attention to the institutional areas; more religion and government that I had. I'd like to flatten this out a bit more, with attention to economics, education, and families, but that should begin to happen as more areas are better developed.
One of the developments I'm most pleased with is that some long-dormant areas are starting to be reactivated. Sports is a subject I've been avoiding, since I have no great personal interest in them. Quite some time ago a friend who is an engineer asked where I was going to put a section on that: Now I have a more specific answer. Math is another area I've been avoiding, for a different reason, in spite of the fact that I am very much interested in it, and that's showed up on my development list. Literature promises to show up soon, and various forms of physical objects should also start appearing.
Another area I've neglected for a while, simply because I didn't know much about it, is various parts of what I call anthropology, but that's about to be fully included.
Personal studies are also being brought in. I consider this to be one of the more interesting developments, because a lot of history, society, institutions, culture, and so forth is linked to biography. When I started working on this version of the Knowledge base, I build a lot of it on biographies, and then I shifted away from that approach, so I will be glad to get these worked back in.
Science is another area I am anxious to get included, because I have a lot of personal interest in it. However, I've found that there is a whole lot more to the world (at least, the human world) than science accounts for, and I've been scrambling to catch up in everything else. But that, too, is getting worked in.
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