one more bit is enough

i have this perpetual confusion with restrooms in restaurants/hotels in figuring if they are single-access or can allow parallel-access. theres always some doubt involved in whether the protocol should be to knock or try to open the door. if only they gave one more bit of information -- on whether the design is single/multiple access, the confusion would go away.

(this seems like an obvious thing to patent :-) )

words/phrases i hate in papers ..

1. we present something "novel"
2. we are the "first" to introduce/solve the problem
3. we develop "sophisticated techniques/algorithm" to solve the problem
4. we make the following "contributions" (long list of trivialities..)

• ..
• ..
• ..

i guess what is irritating is that all of these are for the reader to assess and judge; not for the writer to claim/assume. sadly, with the realities of the the reviewing process and often the short-attention span of reviewers, the only work that sees that light of day are those that explicitly spoonfeed the reviewer with such keywords.

(im certain i have been/will be guilty of these at some point)

suboptimal routing

September 12, 2008 10:22 AM Sortation Center Departure GROVE CITY, OH
September 11, 2008 7:50 PM Sortation Center Arrival GROVE CITY, OH
September 11, 2008 1:12 AM Sortation Center Departure ORLANDO, FL
September 9, 2008 9:13 AM Sortation Center Arrival LEETSDALE, PA
September 6, 2008 3:25 AM Sortation Center Departure NEW BERLIN, WI
September 5, 2008 5:38 AM Sortation Center Arrival NEW BERLIN, WI
September 4, 2008 5:08 AM Sortation Center Departure DALLAS, TX
September 3, 2008 3:34 PM Sortation Center Arrival DALLAS, TX
September 3, 2008 2:40 PM Pickup CARROLLTON, TX

the bloody place is 32mins from the intended destination. i could have had this shipment three days back!

on the brighter side ..

my bad cantaloupe karma has finally decided to leave