Chapter 100: I Get Told Off for Not Having a Bigger One

Friday, April 22, 2005 (Continued)

Julia waited while I turned to my studies to finish them off at a good point. I was in the middle of learning something new in Calculus, and if I stopped now I'd have to start the next session with a review before I could complete the concept. It's much better to stop once the concept is comprehended. As a result of my working through two courses now I would rarely get two perfect stopping points at the same time, so I was just hoping not to be in something tricky for either subject. I finished the on-screen Calculus section at a time when Algebra was cruising along with lightweight stuff, so I just drew a line across the page beneath it then started tidying up: putting my notes away, shutting down the computer, etc. The printed lecture notes had to be handled carefully since there are several piles: notes of lectures I have finished (kept handy because I might need to refer back to them), notes from the current lecture that I've already read, notes from the current lecture that I haven't read yet, and the printed out lecture that I haven't gotten to yet.

When I finished putting everything away, according to my system, Julia - who'd been watching me quietly - asked, "Am I correct in thinking that you studied one course from the screen and the other from paper?"

Julia already knew I could read from two sources at the same time, so I had no problem answering, "Yes, that's right."

"Why do you do it that way? I understand you want to read them both at the same time, but why not print them both out if that's better, or have two windows open at once if that's better? It's not because one course is better from a printout and the other better from the screen, is it, because that seems unlikely to me?"

"No, not that. I don't care which is on paper. It's just that the lecture notes contain lots of equations and other graphical stuff, and if I create two windows, whether side by side or one above the other, then I can't read them as well. If I keep the fonts the same size there's so little information displayed in each window that my learning rate suffers because I can't see the context and have to scroll up and down all the time. But if I reduce the fonts so I can see as much text as now, the graphics become too squashed to read easily. What I'm doing now works best."

"If working from printouts is so good, why not print them both out?"

"No, I prefer the screen. Being able to search for things saves a lot of time, or sometimes I copy/paste different bits into a new document so I can play around with them. Sometimes there are linked documents too, like spreadsheets that I can change the values of. I can't do any of that on paper."

"So you are saying that you're using an inferior process - printouts - because your computer screen is not big enough?"

"Yeah, but it's not a big deal. This is fine. In fact it's great. It's miles better than our system at home. Having fast internet is fantastic. There's a huge amount of math stuff online that I can google and pull up to help when I hit a snag. I'm very happy."

"That's not what I'm talking about. If you had a better system, your studying would improve. The only question now is what works best for you. What's your PERFECT study system for you, Mark? You designed how you wanted the shelves over your desk, now design the computer."

"This system IS very good..."

"{Growl}. You know I'm right about this. Money is NO object, especially as it's OSU's money. We'll tell them what we want. The worst that can happen is they say 'No', and you stay with what you've got anyway. Asking for more risks nothing."

"Umm. Part of the trouble is that I'm not experienced with computers. Our home one barely does one thing at a time. I guess a larger screen would be good. In fact, it would be very good, as I'd be able to see more of the context at one time. That's often quite important. I DO spend a lot of time scrolling back and forward as the material often extends for several screens. A taller screen would be really good. VERY good even."

"But if you want to do two courses at the same time, then you'll need either a much wider screen, or two screens, won't you?"

"I've never used a computer with two screens so I don't know how that works. I've seen them briefly on TV or in movies, but never for long enough to understand what they'd be like to use. I can imagine how a bigger screen would work, and that'd be good. To get two courses displayed nicely it'd have to be a HUGE screen, because it'd pretty much need to be twice as wide, as the formula pictures are already a little difficult to read. I don't think a screen only 50% wider, for example, would allow two courses side by side. Twice as wide, and ideally MUCH taller, is a HUGE screen. I don't know whether they make them that big, but if they did, I'm sure they'd cost a fortune."

"It's not our money. From what you've said, height is very useful, so what about putting one screen above another, to make the result much taller?"

"I don't know. I've never used a computer with two screens. I don't know how it would work. Maybe you can't get one document on more than one screen at a time, which would kill that idea."

Julia said, "I don't know either. We'll ask everyone at dinner to see if anyone knows. If that doesn't work we can visit a computer store tomorrow so you can see for yourself. It'd be eating into our shopping time, but getting you studying properly is important."

Now I was REALLY flabbergasted! "Do you mean there's something MORE important than clothes shopping? I'm shocked!"

"I bet you love to hear me admit that. Yes, your studying IS more important than clothes shopping. Especially as I can already tell that the lack of a tall screen is slowing you down. You said you google other sites to help you, and that there were linked spreadsheets too. It'd be better to have them in windows that didn't obscure your lecture notes wouldn't it?"

"Yeah. That'd be good, but I don't do that very often, so it's not a big deal at all. Seriously. I spend less than 5% of my time with an extra window open over top of my lecture notes, and it's easy to swap back and forth, so the efficiency loss is quite small. Fixing that problem would have very little effect on me."

"Okay. Anything else then? A better printer: faster or bigger or anything?"

"No, the printer is fine. Especially because if I had a bigger screen I'd hardly ever use the printer. I don't write many notes, just very summary level stuff, which I like to do it by hand because I'm used to it and I think it helps me remember. Let me think about my perfect system for a few seconds."

I tried to visualize myself using a "perfect system", with an imaginary HUGE screen on it (REALLY huge, money is no object in my imagination). After a couple of seconds I told Julia, "What would be VERY good would be two mice. I do a great deal of scrolling up and down, so it'd be great to have a mouse for each course, one in each hand, so they can scroll up or down as their eye wants. Using one mouse for two documents would be a REAL pain, especially if I was scrolling both documents at the same time, which would be very common if my screen was large enough for both courses side by side."

"Sounds easy. What about two keyboards?"

"Nah. I don't use the keyboard much, so it's very unlikely I'd want to use both of them at the same time. It wouldn't be worth the extra clutter on my desk."

"Is your internet connection fast enough?"

"It's great! Everything is almost instant, so there's no point in trying to make it faster. I can't think of anything else. It's really just a matter of a screen which is double width and MUCH taller, and two mice. A system like that would be a big improvement."

"Can you guess how much faster you could study that way?"

"I think I'd be faster for two reasons. More efficient, which is what we've been talking about, but I'd also get faster because I'd be able to concentrate better. It sometimes takes me thirty seconds or a minute to find something in the printout because I have to look back several pages. The time isn't that much, but it disrupts my concentration. Being able to see much more of the document at one time would also help a lot. The online lecture note system doesn't suit working on a small screen, rather than a big blackboard in a classroom, where you can see everything at once. I'm guessing, but I'd probably say about 20% faster."

"TWENTY!"

"About that, I guess. Is that okay?" I could tell by the shocked look on Julia's face and her shrill screaming tone of voice, that it probably wasn't. I'm very good at spotting body language clues like that.

"I was expecting maybe FIVE percent, and was already mentally rehearsing your reprimand. TWENTY! Jesus Christ, Mark! You're about to start a degree that'll take you ten months. With a better computer system you'll save two months of effort. Two months OF YOUR LIFE wasted just because you didn't ask for a bigger screen and a second mouse. Even worse, if you end up doing four or five degrees, which is what I expect, especially in the time you can do them, a better computer system will have saved you an ENTIRE YEAR of your life. I know you won't do all the degrees here, using this system, but you'll take your attitude everywhere. What could you achieve in your life with that extra year? I want to kick you in the ass until it's black and blue. Wait till Dad and Mom hear this. Let's go tell them. Come on!"

I didn't want to. By the look on Julia's face, I wanted to stay up here hiding under the desk. Julia grabbed my arm and dragged it downstairs. I followed it, having no choice. For some reason an image came to mind of a naughty schoolboy (me), being dragged by the ear by a big, mean, nasty teacher (Julia). On the way downstairs I recalled Prof telling me, more than once, not to hesitate to speak up if anything would help. Earplugs would help. Maybe a book down the back of my pants to protect my ass from all the kicking it was about to get.

I was dragged into the kitchen first. Vanessa and two 20-something-year old girls (Sophia and Ashley presumably) were in there. I was NOT introduced. Julia immediately said, "Mom, can you spare five minutes right now, so I can tell you and Dad what this moron was doing?"

"Yes."

"Where's Dad?"

"In the living room."

"Right. Let's go!"

Julia dragged me to the living room. I heard Vanessa say, "Can you keep an eye on the pot, please Sophia?"

"Sure."

I was quickly dragged to the living room. Prof and The Boys were there, with Vanessa somewhere behind us. Julia immediately started, "YOU," (pointing to me), "SIT!" (pointing to a chair). I'd rather hide behind the chair than sit on it, but I did as Julia instructed.

^-- To her dad, Julia moaned, "You'll never guess what this moron was doing in the study." Julia's voice was plenty loud enough for Vanessa to hear, no matter where she was in transit. Even Sophia in the kitchen (whichever of the two girls she was) would be able to hear. Vanessa arrived after a couple more sentences. I'm sure she missed nothing. "He was printing out half the lecture notes and going through them on paper. I thought it was strange, and when I squeezed it out of him, he admitted it wasn't as efficient as having the right computer system would be. The current computer screen isn't big enough to display all the stuff he wants, so he prints half of it. But there are linked spreadsheets, search functions and other things that are lost when they're printed to dumb paper. He gave me a percentage figure for how much faster he could study, but I'm not going to tell you what he said. Instead I'm going to teach Mark a lesson by asking you what the MINIMUM improvement he could achieve that would justify him asking to have his computer system improved. Like, would you get angry if he didn't ask for an upgrade if he could work 1% faster? Or 10%? Or 100%? What's the MINIMUM number that would piss you off if he didn't tell you about it? Mom? Dad?"

I knew I was in trouble when they quickly agreed that 5% would be annoying, and worked down from there. "Three or four. Probably four," was the mutually agreed upon answer.

"TWENTY!" shrilled Julia. She launched into a rant. I'll skip reproducing it here, because some of it was unintelligible and all of it was unpleasant. Even the unintelligible parts were unpleasant, if only from her tone of voice. She was surprisingly worked up about it.

After a minute she had to draw another breath, so I jumped in with, "I'm VERY sorry, Julia. I KNOW I was at fault. I see that now."

Julia tried to restart, but Vanessa cut her off. "Julia, you've made your point now. Stop. We all know he made a mistake, including Mark. Now we fix it and learn from it."

Julia cried, "Good grief! Doesn't he realize how valuable his time is going to be!?"

Vanessa answered, "No, he doesn't. Which means you're being somewhat unfair for criticizing his not considering it. Plus Mark's time is not valuable YET! You're getting ahead of yourself, which is not fair either."

From Prof, "He's only had three study sessions so far, so it hasn't mattered. You caught it early, Julia, which is great. Well done on getting suspicious about it and investigating, but you're overreacting."

Vanessa's and Prof's defense cheered me up, until Prof added, "It's ironic that you're referring to Mark as a 'moron' given that we're discussing his computer system's inability to keep up with him. But I agree that his using such an inefficient process was foolish, but it was Mark's FIRST such mistake, Julia. The first mistake is a freebie. If he does it again you can yell at him all you want, and I'll help. Now let's discuss what needs to be done to correct the situation."

Julia answered, "He needs a MUCH bigger screen. At least twice as wide so he can fit two courses side by side, and as tall as possible. Tall is especially important. He has to keep scrolling up and down because the material he needs to read covers several screens. In a classroom you can see the whole board, but on a computer screen you get just a small section, which makes it hard to see the meaning. The more he can see at one time the less time he'll spend scrolling, and the quicker he'll understand what he's reading. He needs the biggest screen possible."

"That makes sense," said Prof.

"I thought that if we can't get one screen which is big enough, then two screens side by side might be a good idea, so there'd be one for each course. Possibly even more screens on top of the others too, to get as much height as possible. Mark's never used a computer with two screens on it and none of ours have two screens, so I'm taking him to a computer store tomorrow so he can try it out, even if I have to pay them to set up a system for him to trial. Mark needs to decide for himself what works, because his studying process is so strange. He also needs two mouses, or two mice, or however you say that."

Robert and Andrew were, unsurprisingly, the most computer knowledgeable people in the room. "Two mouses" caught their attention. Robert asked, "Why does he need two mouses?"

I answered, "I have the lecture notes of two courses open at the same time, and I want a mouse for each, one in each of my hands. That way I can scroll up and down with either hand. That'd work very well for me." That wasn't the best description I could have given, because I was trying to keep quiet about my being able to read both screens at the same time. Andrew and Robert didn't need to know that.

Andrew said, "I've never heard of a computer with more than one mouse. All the computers I've ever set up have only got one socket on the back to plug one mouse into."

Robert added, "I've also never heard of it, but I know you can get USB mice, so plugging more in would be easy. I think the trouble might be Windows not handling it. I'll google it now, if you like? It'll only take a few minutes."

Julia liked, "Yes please, Robert. Please look up BIG screens too. Anything up to the size of the boards lecturers write on."

Prof laughed, "Haha. You're getting WAY too carried away there, Julia."

"Why? If the lecturers write on them then it makes sense to reproduce that for Mark."

"Except that we'd have to knock out the walls of your study to fit even one of those boards. The lecturers write BIG on those boards so people sitting way at the back can read them. Mark sits a few inches in front of his screen and all the font sizes are scaled down. The correct way to think about it is to ask how much bigger the new screen has to be compared to what he has now. Would twice as wide and twice as high be good enough, for example?"

Julia didn't hesitate to answer that, "It'd be the BARE minimum. Twice as wide allows two courses side by side, but Mark's already told me that the graphics are a little hard to read at the current size, so even wider would be better. Something like three times wider would be good. Plus height is even more important - three or four times taller would be good."

Robert said, "Okay, I'll go research that. I know Mark's current screen is 1280 by 1024, so I'll scale that as you've said Julia. Back in a few."

"Thanks, Robert," called out Julia, happy to see progress being made.

#3: <Our current screen is 1280 by 1024. I didn't know that.>

#1: <Ahh, so that's where I was going wrong; I thought it was 1270 by 1024! Imagine how silly I feel now.>

#4: <I just thought it was a black one. So none of us know what he's talking about?>

#1: <It must be something to do with size, because that's what they've been talking about. I think those must be hundredths of inches, so it means our current screen is 12.80 inches by 10.24 inches. If the first number is width, that sounds about how big I remember our screen being. That'd be similar to what they do with the decimal point in baseball, "Batting 1000" really means batting 100%. I don't know why, but most people don't like numbers, so they make them seem easier by leaving out decimal points, which is a VERY sloppy practice.>

#4: <I think you're right.>

#1: <Thanks. It's nice to get something right. Julia sure doesn't think we're smart. We screwed the pooch on that one.>

#3: <"Screwed the pooch"! You sure didn't get that one from Mom.>

#1: <That's for sure. I can imagine Dad saying it in the garage though, if I did something particularly stupid. Back in the days when I was clumsy.>

As Robert was leaving the room, Prof started chuckling. Julia asked him, "What?"

Prof answered, "I can't believe Mark was printing lectures out so he could read them. That's such a crude solution."

The ever-helpful Vanessa said, "It certainly was, but by the look on his face he won't make that mistake again. Do you understand what mistake you made, Mark?"

Now I was on safe ground. I'd long since figured this out, back when Julia was dragging me downstairs by my metaphorical ear. "Yes. It was incorrect of me not to bring an inefficiency to your attention. Prof, especially, had several times told me to let him know if there was anything more he could do to help with my study set up."

"Not really, no. You SHOULD have done that, but that's not the root cause of your mistake. Try again."

Goodbye safe ground! It'd felt good for the one second I thought I was standing on it. "Umm, I was wasting my time? Not valuing it highly enough, I mean?"

"True, but not the core mistake. Try again."

#1: <All I can think of is "Wasting paper," but I'm pretty sure that'll just get us another frown. I'm stumped.>

No one else had a clue, so I was forced to say, "Sorry, I'm stumped."

Vanessa said, "Consider OSU. They value you as a potential marketing tool. If you turn out to be as extraordinary as it seems you will, especially if you can graduate with a BS next year, then OSU will advertise that they helped you. They will benefit from that for as long as you're famous, which could span decades. I don't know the value they put on you, but it certainly isn't a small number. We can all see that they value you, because the Dean has gotten involved in looking after you - and believe me, he's FAR too busy to care about individual students. Plus OSU provided your computer in the first place, are letting you take courses for free, etc. There's plenty of proof that they value you. If you'd bothered to think about it economically, you would have known that a 20% efficiency improvement easily justified upgrading the computer. I don't know what that'll cost, but there's no doubt OSU will pay for it happily.

^-- "But you never thought about the economics of it, or any other facet of it. You simply assumed you were valueless and made do as best you could with the current system, rather than bother ANYBODY. You didn't bother Julia, even though she lives to help you. You didn't bother Prof, even though he'd several times told you to let him know if your study could be improved, and he's shown great interest and enthusiasm with your studying progress. Nor did you bother OSU. I know you don't know who to contact there, but even if you did, you wouldn't have asked them about it. In a nutshell, Mark, you were weak and passive, as we've seen several times with you. Luckily Julia caught it early, and good for her for that, but let's consider what might have happened if she hadn't caught it. Your value to OSU is dependent on your doing very well academically. By studying 20% faster you'll achieve some combination of being less likely to fail any courses, getting higher grades, and/or finishing faster; ALL of which increase your value to OSU. By being too weak to mention the problems with your computer system you were diminishing your value to OSU, and therefore letting them down. You were letting Prof down because he's your advocate at OSU, and because he's emotionally invested in your academic achievements. You were letting Julia down because she lives for your success. You were letting yourself and your family down too, of course, by wasting your time and limiting your achievements. Your refusal to think you have any value is stopping you from achieving as much as you could, and is causing you to let down and disappoint EVERYBODY."

I was GUTTED. Tears were not far away (seriously).

Andrew said, "I'd better go keep Sophia and Ashley company. Is there anything you need done in the kitchen, Mom?"

"No thanks. Sorry Andrew. Tell them I won't be much longer." Vanessa continued to me, "We don't know what would've happened in the future. Maybe after a couple more study sessions you would have gotten annoyed with the inefficiency and complained about it to someone." I didn't think so, because I'd been patting myself on the back for the double-rate system working so well.