K-type Quizzing

Everybody recognizes this kind of testing. K-type quizzing stands for questioning with multiple-choice answers. I like K-type tests and in general I like to be tested, but especially I enjoy when a test is created in a smart manner. The reason is that you learn a lot from interaction with a test. This notion is similar to the saying that in order to learn something you have to teach that something.

In my higher education experience I was disappointed that a K-type tests were barely administered. Some professors stated that these tests hurt minorities and students, who speak English as a second language. Others argued that such testing is a discrete one i.e. not for a broad spectrum of knowledge. However I never bought such argumentation.

Therefore I thought about a solution for overcoming the mistrust in such testing. The goal is the one being tested to learn. In other words testing has to be seen as a educational tool and not a day of reckoning. Also that testing has to comply with the notion for a second chance.

First the tests have to be crafted by experienced professors with outlined pedagogic goals. The questions have to be enough to fill up an academic hour by allowing 2-5 min per question. Also the students have to be tested twice on the same subject by allowing them to specify which test to count for the final grading. The last condition eliminates the excuses that someone was tired or misunderstand something i.e. giving them a second chance.

I really believe that such testing will be able to leverage the knowledge and stir a waves of pride and competiveness among the students.

Postbox – the new kid on the block

Last week The Wall Street Journal in its Gadgets section published an interesting article about the email program Postbox. Lured by the write-up I tested the program and I was pleased, but not surprised.

The testing brought memories about Eudora email program, I was using back in the end of the 90’s. In other words I felt Postbox to be a new incarnation of Eudora. But I was looking for features like independent medium archiving and I could not find them. By independent mediums I meant archiving all emails at once by saving them as PDF package, HTML files, or TXT files.

Nevertheless Postbox is a great new addition in the field of email programs. It will be a great assets for someone, who doesn’t care about archiving their emails. But for me I will still use Outlook, which allows me with one button click to archive all my emails in a single PDF package along with all attachments.

Chavez’s Book Club – A New Selection

Apparently señor Chavez understands his book selections are becoming very popular. From the President below to the rank amateurs, who have taken the pledge to the President everybody reads with devotion.

The selection for this month is The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man by James Weldon Johnson. I have to agree with this selection as being very effective. One can observe that between democracies there is no jealousy or military conflicts, but between authoritarian regimes there is plenty of mischief. This observation is correct and if one can also recall that Chavez and Fidel were extremely jealous of their comrade from Estados Unidos.

The book chosen by Chavez counterweight the notion that by electing his comrade the racial problem is over and that he is a post-racial candidate. In contrary the problem was reinvigorated and the political correctness (PC) caught a new life.

This book outlines a real tangible solution, which makes its author - James Weldon Johnson a true visionary and a legend from the Harlem Renaissance. Read it for yourself and think about it. My summarization of the solution can be put like this - the rugged individualism and pure capitalism.

Multi-Tier Desktop Searching

The term Multi-Tier (usually 3-Tier) is in the context of the client-server architectures. But here I wish to use it in the context of Desktop Searching. When one hears Desktop Searching the first association is with Copernic Desktop Search (CDS) or Google Desktop Search (GDS). Of course there are other desktop searching programs but the point is that they employ in certain aspects techniques from the database management systems (DBMSs). In other words these programs constantly run and index all the files on the hard drive.

Nowadays people are becoming more sophisticated in filing on their hard drives. For example they name or rename (ReNamer by Kozlov, D. is an excellent freeware) their files with dates or key-words in the file name and most importantly they file them in established directory structures. Files related to invoices go into the Invoices folder, photos go to photo folder, radiology report for certain patient go into the patient’s folder and so forth.

While I don’t see benefits of using programs like CDS and GDS I do see necessity of good searching program. And if one adds desirable features like regular expressions, speed and reliability, then one can see that the desktop searching programs don’t fit prerequisites.

If you have seen proprietary websites for library searches like OvidSP, then you will understand the idea behind the term multi-tier searching. For example in OvidSP you search for author’s name and you came with a set of findings lets call it S. Next you search for some key terms and you came with set T. The final step is to allow OvidSP to do the intersection of the set S and T.

Using the idea described above I came up with the technique for multi-tier desktop searching. I use one program developed by somebody else – PowerGREP (Goyvaerts, Jan et.al.) and program developed by myself – DCM Filing Handler. I am writing a detailed article about the technique and when ready it will be posted on my site. For now at least you know that in the realm of desktop searching nothing is settled yet.