Ills of the Nuclear Family

The nuclear family is a very recent development and a comparatively isolated model of child rearing. The rise in single parent households, lessened extended family involvement, and increased mobility have compounded this deficiency, leading to some unfortunate consequences. This post examines the shortcomings of the stereotypical nuclear family paradigm, as that is overwhelmingly what is held up as desirable in this country. Note I am not asserting that family structure alone is responsible for the following issues, merely that it is often a contributing factor. Of course in practice there are an almost unlimited number of variations on the nuclear family ideal, but delving into them all would be a massive undertaking. Similarly, I will not attempt to suggest possible remedies, nor explore how existing structures might, and often do, mitigate some of the limitations. Those will be possible subjects for the future.

• Crowded childbearing window: The best years for bearing children are also critical ones for obtaining an education and beginning a career. The demanding nuclear family system makes balancing these three difficult and has contributed to the drastic increase in maternal age and associated health problems, as well as declining birth rates amongst the better educated. The fact that having a child in your teens is such a huge barrier to success when biologically it is an entirely suitable time frame highlights the current disconnect.
   

• Identity loss:
  At the moment it can be hard, especially for women, to both have a family and achieve. Many adults are forced to abandon much of their own pursuits and ability to make new social contacts, which can result in feelings of isolation and frustration. Even when their children are grown, the effects are still felt, such as the popularized "empty nest syndrome" and lost opportunities generally. By sharing the burden of child rearing, these issues could be lessened.
   

• Little diversification of parental failings: Children are exposed a great deal to the flaws of their parents. Greater care redundancy softens the impact of personality disorders, income inequality, and more reliably brings neglect or abuse to light. This is the same principle behind the common practice of diversification when investing, so that a single bad stock won't ruin your portfolio.
   
• Personality conflicts:
  Our media drives us to expect an almost magical closeness with our progeny. If that fails to materialize, disappointment and parental attempts to foist unreasonable expectations on their children can occur. Significant exposure to a greater number of adults would allow them more opportunity to find those they have things in common with. It would also help diminish the practice of infantilizing young adults.
  
• Reduced stability:
  
  The narrow scope of the modern family unit exaggerates issues surrounding parental rights, divorce (or marriage for that matter), death of a parent, or adoption. A broader base would ensure greater continuity, softening the impacts of these disruptions.
• Inefficiency:
  The nuclear family often neglects gains that can be made through economies of scale, increasing use of resources and labor. Housing costs, electricity, transportation, child care, cleaning, maintenance, food (both purchasing cost and effort of preparation), and clothing are some areas affected, with young parents being the most impacted. Health care also bears mentioning, as our employer based models currently focus on the nuclear family as their basic unit of coverage. Some of this waste is also impacted by our cultural trend towards sole ownership of items even if they are infrequently used; a practice reinforced by the isolated model the nuclear family ideal espouses.
   
• Marginalization of the elderly: The mobile nature of individuals today can often result in parents being isolated later in life if their children relocate. A less punishing, more interconnected system would allow more personal development during parenthood as well as providing more opportunities for cross generational bonds (not necessarily just with relatives) to be made. The simultaneous problems of marginalized seniors and a lack of affordable day care are especially telling.

DIY Shingle Lift

The lift is carefully aligned at an angle of that-looks-about-right degrees.

Needed to get 4,200 lbs of shingles onto my friend's roof and the nearest rental place with a power ladder was very far, it was expensive, and we lacked any way to transport it (and an appropriate ladder). For $30 of lumber and hardware I turned my electric hoist and some scrap wood into a lift. It took one hour to design and two to build. This is less time than renting would've taken, given the two separate round trips required.

I used two sixteen foot 2x6s for the rails, and ordered an additional twelve foot piece (for the carriage and key pieces I didn't trust making out of the scrap available), all of which were delivered along with the shingles from the hardware store. When the project is done, they'll be cut in half and saved for future projects. We already had decking screws to assemble it, so all that was needed was a pulley (a 640 lb one is far more than the 75 lb bundles require but it was inexpensive and I can use it for future hoist projects), a u-bolt to affix the cable, and a cable stop.

My hoist can handle 440 lbs in single line mode and goes reasonably fast. I mounted it on the bottom so that the controls would be accessible to the operator on the ground without having to lengthen the control cable, so its weight would be at ground level, and also so the extra cable length and flexibility of the pulley at the top would even out the slight position shifts as the cable is unwound from different spots on the drum. The width of the lift was determined by the need to put the spool in the center and also provide enough room for ventilation. One way to reduce it would've been to mount the hoist sideways. To protect it from rain, a contractor duty garbage bag was placed over it and was weighted down. A hurricane came through before we were done, so the bag was additionally stapled to the frame. It didn't suffer any water damage, despite the need to work the bag around the cable (this junction was taped).

I designed the carriage to go low enough that the shingles could be easily loaded and also so that the bundles go over the top of the lift, sliding off right into your arms. The lift is set at a height above the roof to make this convenient. The platform is a piece of scrap from a demolished deck, which is why it has that odd angle. I made the carriage 1/4" larger than the frame to account for small variations in width. By simply resting a board at the back, the lift can also raise tools or other materials. Large marks drawn in sharpie allow the operator on the ground to know when to stop. Ideally a limit switch would be used, but it wasn't worth it for a device with such a short lifespan. Similarly, furniture gliders were considered but then rejected as the hoist is sufficiently powerful to overcome friction.



Small legs ensure the carriage doesn't collide with the edge of the roof and also increase the contact area versus simply leaning it. It is surprisingly easy to lift and move, should I need to.



The lift worked very well, although we did run up against the hoist's 25% duty cycle rating, especially as the cooling fan is attached to its motor and does not run unless it does. I plan to add a continuously running fan from an old power supply, but not having one on hand, I rigged a vacuum cleaner blowing air to increase its cooling.

Programming Languages Should be Unnatural

I have always thought that the notion of making programming languages more like natural ones is absurd. Without a truly formidable amount of artificial intelligence, practical natural-like programming languages amount to eschewing symbols for words, which more adds inconvenience than clarity (I'm looking at you, Applescript). If anything, I feel natural languages should be made more like artificial ones than the other way around. In very technical disciplines, this is actually done after a fashion: they adopt a precise specialized jargon to help combat the inherent ambiguities and limited vocabularies of context dependent natural language.

New Show Rating Booster System

An ounce of viewership is worth a pound of petitioning

A campaign to revive a cancelled show is like waiting until cancer is at stage IV before treating it. Much better to avoid the situation altogether by identifying good shows and spreading the word to fans who would like such content, as well as notifying them about schedule changes (an often identified reason new shows fail to attract a viewership). The mechanics of such a system are fairly straightforward, being similar to standard recommendation systems (although critic rated techniques like those employed by Clerkdogs (now defunct) could identify matches sooner which matters a lot in this context), and it would be a much better use of their energies. Since shows do compete for time slots and production resources, it's a lot like a political campaign, and getting out your base can definitely yield a disproportionate influence. Such an approach would still only be a bandaid on an inherently flawed production system, but that's another issue.

Broadcast Based Personalized Video Distribution System

Netflix's recent push to encourage streaming only video plans has brought up concerns that ISPs may not be able to provide adequate bandwidth. This made me recall a post I did on my private blog some years ago about reusing our broadcast infrastructure to provide personalized video viewing (or at least the bulk of it). It is loosely modeled on pay per view techniques, but assumes every subscriber has a DVR (digital video recorder) and eliminates channels as we know them (except perhaps for real time things such as news) and just considers the stations as data streams. Users select which shows and movies they would like and then a central program would determine the best way to send the shows over the available stations so that the viewers' DVRs could record them, accounting for collisions. As an option, viewers could pay more to get a higher priority in the queue if their content is more unusual. Optionally, a recommendation system could be employed to gather content when free capacity is available (it would be cleared from the DVR's drive automatically if space was later needed). Commercials should be eliminated from program downloads, but could be spliced in afterwards, allowing them to be varied or omitted altogether if a higher price is paid. This requires very little new infrastructure and if direct data is delivered, the hardware could be cheaper than traditional DVRs, by eliminating the video capture elements as some satellite boxes already do. Adding a secondary tuner is also common, and would allow for more flexibility with regard to scheduling. Of course, once all the content is digital, many other optimizations are possible, such as interleaving of programs, or more frequent broadcasts of the beginning of a show (enabling the rest to be downloaded in the background as the first part is being viewed). Only a very low speed connection would be needed to upload show requests, so dial up would be adequate for areas without high speed internet. Another advantage of this approach is that all times are equally valued, as the content is inherently time shifted and a lot of uncertainty about show rating measurement would be removed. Real time programs such as sports or news could in theory work the same way, but would be biased for earlier delivery since such content loses value quickly. This system is close to a true individual content distribution method, but sacrifices instant viewing in order to exploit redundancies, reducing overall bandwidth requirements.

Quad Apartment Arrangement

This is not an attempt at subliminal antisemitism; I swear.

I have a fondness for a very efficient T-shaped 3/4 bathroom arrangement, but it's tricky to use without creating dead space. Previously, I came up with a dual apartment utilizing it and now I have this quadruple one as well. Since this was about the bathrooms, I didn't bother to lay out any of the rest of the units, and their size could obviously be varied (the ones shown are 12' by 24'). The practicality of having so many different entrances would be highly dependent on the location. All the bathrooms being together would make plumbing them quite a bit easier, although some sound proofing would be called for.

On a related note, this layout has all its components digitized into 2.25" squares (so each pixel is 2.25"). I believe this is accurate enough for practical layouts, while keeping the resolution as coarse as possible to reduce the total number of possible placements. Wall thickness is the limiting factor, or else a 6" grid might be employed. A 4.5" grid (the thickness of most interior walls) wouldn't match up well with some appliances. Once an arrangement is arrived at, the small differences from the true measurements can be easily accounted for. This will be the same approach for the automatic floor plan generator I'm developing.

Smart Phone Inspired OS Reform

For a long time the standard for computer applications and operating systems has been "good enough", but mobile device users demand more. More responsiveness, more reliability, more integration, and more ease of use. I am hoping that the emergence of smart phones will result in this demand for increased quality being transferred back to computers in general. Reliability concerns are obvious, so let me give an example of an ease of use issue: change of focus. Frequently when I'm typing in a text field, a program or requester will pop up, changing the focus and resulting in my having to not only hunt for the window I was working in, but also to retype all the text I entered. While arguably a small thing, it occurs frequently and has become a considerable annoyance. This is the sort of easily fixed, idiotic interface glitch that would be unacceptable to mobile device users. Or programs that sit frozen until they have completely loaded. It would be trivial to load enough of the program to allow the user to start working, while the rest of the application loads in the background.

However, I am hoping for more than small improvements. The entire paradigm employed by operating systems is flawed and a legacy of its early days. Right now a file system view model is used, which closely mirrors what's actually going on inside the computer, but is confusing and inefficient for most users. Instead, a greater degree of abstraction needs to be employed. Why is it useful to most users to be able to store their Word documents in strange places anywhere on the drive? The user should neither need to know nor care about such details. Instead of an interface model based on "Here's everything on your entire hard drive, have fun" with some crude tools such as the dock and folders to help organize things, it should be more along the lines of what a smart phone uses: "Here are the top things you do all the time, which would you like?" with a slightly more extended process to access the less common tasks. The user could organize these with an automatic system that tracks their usage habits (although it should never change the interface without user consent). This should be more than a smarter dock, but the primary way one interfaces with their computer, with everything geared towards supporting it. When it comes to using complex systems, less is more. Of course power users will need more advanced features, but they are an extremely small subset and even most of their needs will be met by a simpler, more directed interface. As long as they can step outside of it when required, it should impose no penalty. In general what it comes down to is that comparatively wimpy smart phones have to do more with less, and I am hopeful that the end products of that need will transfer back to general computing.

Compact Three Room Apartment

Here is a design for a compact three room apartment. Actually, to use space effectively, it's two apartments sharing a wall. All the appliances and furnishings are full sized except the kitchen sink (a moderately sized single bowl one is shown, although a more expensive corner sink could be employed to make it larger) and there is room for a large wall mounted flat screen television (shown in grey centered on the sofa). A dishwasher can fit under the counter next to the sofa and a stackable washer and dryer is next to the television. The space in the bedroom across from the bed could accommodate an additional closet or a work area (a corner desk would work especially well). Along the wall next to the sofa there is ample space for shelving. If desired, a lift top coffee table could allow for a standard height dining table. All doors are 36" wide, although an along the wall or pocket door may be desirable in the bathroom. The square footage for the entire arrangement is 630 square feet (so 315 square feet per unit) and measures 21' by 31.5'.

Minimal Nesting Bathrooms

I have been considering the best ways to layout bathrooms and have what I believe are the minimal possible footprints using standard components. The full bath is fairly straightforward, but the 3/4 one (for those who prefer a shower stall style) creates some dead space when nested. Of course that area could be used for a closet or other items, such as a stackable washer and dryer. A shower curtain would need to be used or a shower with doors that open in place (there are a few). It should also be possible to adapt a sliding door meant for tubs using the space next to the toilet. These plans are minimal by intention, but the basic layouts can be expanded to create more elbow room. An along the wall or pocket door could also be employed, again using the space next to the toilet. A vanity for the sink, medicine cabinet, and shelves above the toilet tank (with removable bottom shelf to allow access) could provide storage. Towel hooks could be placed on the door.

Farewell Odd Dryer Arrangement

In the interests of making my house more typical (and therefore more marketable), I just dismantled my dryer arrangement. It eliminated the need to bend over with armfuls of damp clothing, although I would've had to relocate the dryer's controls if I'd kept it that way. It will be missed.

Irrigation Improvement Through Geometry

I ran across this aerial photograph of irrigated fields and noticed that the circular patterns produced by the central pivot irrigation systems are all aligned on a grid. This means that only 78.5% of the land is watered. If the farmers placed the irrigation spigots to form a hexagonal packing, like a honeycomb, it'd increase land use to 90.7%, yielding a 15% improvement. In theory a specially designed rotary valve could be used to vary the pressure at the appropriate angles to reach the spaces between.

Heating System Manifold

I am designing a five zone heating system, and bought the parts necessary to hook up all five pumps. Not only was it rather expensive, but assembling that many joints would be time consuming. Instead, I decided to weld up two manifolds (one for supply and one for return). Each manifold is simply a 12" long 1.5" nipple with four 3/4" nipples coming off of it (actually two nipples cut in half as threads are only needed on one end). The fifth connection is provided by a 1.5" to 3/4" adapter screwed onto the end. Together, the two saved me 14 fittings and 24 joints as well as being a fair bit lighter and more compact. To get the nipples attached solidly, I printed out a paper template of the shape they needed to be ground to and taped them on. This made getting a good fit simple and was rather easy to produce, as the 1.9" outside curve of the 1.5" pipe projected onto the 3/4" nipples is just an ellipse.

Getting the welds airtight was a little bit of work, and you can see the pressure testing setup I used. Some old washer hoses were the easiest way to seal the 3/4" nipples, and while they looked comical it worked fine.

Was Going to the Moon Worth It? No.

A robotic probe could hit a golf ball on the moon much more cost effectively.

The fact that forty years on there's still serious debate as the whether manned missions to the moon were worth the resources compared to other alternatives suggests an answer: no. There's no sign that by the sixtieth or even hundredth anniversary there won't still be significant doubts about the Apollo program's overall utility and that illustrates how dubious its importance was. Historically, the space race came down to the development of ICBMs and a glorified international pissing contest.

Arguments about technologies developed because of the space program ignore the fact that the capital would've been put to use in other areas and constitute a broken window fallacy. Even if we do eventually wind up having a serious presence in space, it would be fallacious to argue that such early trips to the moon were especially necessary. In the case of exploration, robots are more effective and it's at least many decades premature to consider colonization. There is far too much basic research and development to be done at this stage and is analogous to going directly from inventing a kite to planning the Concorde. We should definitely do such research, but there are many other advances that have to happen before such extreme long range goals make any sort of immediate sense.

Proponents of manned space travel are reduced to arguing for it in public relations terms. This strikes me as an extremely weak position and a better way to obtain public support is to attain real results with modest budgets. The amazing discoveries from the Hubble space telescope and Mars rovers captivated the imaginations of millions and did so for a lot less investment and risk of human life. Space exploration should be treated the same as other scientific endeavors and be about substance, not style. Technologically, the moon landings were a triumph; a needless, wasteful, and wrongheaded triumph.