Random - Brian Chernicky Dot Com

Can You Use the Schema.org Q&A Markup to Affect Online Reality?

BC — Thu, 29 Nov 2018 21:13:40 +0000

Schema.org introduced structured data for Questions and Answers back in 2014.

This page suggests the emphasis in the question documentation means you can use it anywhere, not just on Q&A sites or FAQs.

But that got me wondering: Does that actually work?

If you just pop the Q&A structured data wherever you want, will the question and answer actually get picked up and used by Google (or Alexa, or Siri)?

Can one person use this to affect online reality in this willy-nilly way?

Let’s find out.

The paragraph below is created using (more or less) valid structured data for a question and answer that has likely never been asked or answered anywhere else:

What is the sound of a green lobster’s dream?

The sound of a green lobster's dream is a phrase created by Brian Chernicky in November of 2018 to refer a combination of words so unique such that the resulting phrase has likely never been used previously in the entire history of mankind. The question is an homage to Noam Chomsky's sentence Colorless green ideas sleep furiously, used in his 1955 thesis "Logical Structure of Linguistic Theory".

So that code’s not perfect, but it should do the trick.

Using Google Search Console, I’ve manually fetched this page as Google and requested indexing.

Now we can sit back and:

Verify the structured data on this page is correct. (It is, save for it wanting a mainEntity field and a bunch of recommended values I think I don’t really need to add at this point.)
Check with Google to see if it wants to display the the answer to the exact question at any point in the future.

T.H.I.N.K. Post Eval:
True
Helpful
Inspiring
Necessary
Kind

The post Can You Use the Schema.org Q&A Markup to Affect Online Reality? appeared first on Brian Chernicky Dot Com.

Where The Wild Things Are Movie Explained: A Child’s Psychology on Adults & Divorce

BC — Wed, 26 Apr 2017 20:09:34 +0000

My 7-year-old stepson recently chose the 2009 movie Where the Wild Things Are as his pick for movie night.

As a child, I loved the book Where the Wild Things Are. I’d have my mother read me it most every week.

The film is a great film in it’s own right. It’s different. It’s sad and heavy. But it’s also beautiful.

This time around while watching the film, I started wondering what it is actually supposed to be about. I have my ideas – but let me start with some basics here.

There’s an article by David Cox over at The Guardian that points out a couple critical things to understand about the movie:

1. The movie is for adults

First, the movie is not really made for children. It’s for adults.

That’s not to say that kids won’t necessarily like the film. My 7-year-old loves it. On the other hand, the 9-year-old is terrified by it.

2. The movie is about the crazy way adults behave

Second, the subject matter of the movie has less to do with children than with adults, and the crazy ways in which they behave.

The second point above is important, because Max’s make-believe world is painted and defined by his own childhood psychology. He’s trying to understand and deal with the messiness of the adults in his life – because those are the psychological archetypes of Max’s reality.

Max is coming to terms with his parents’ divorce

I think a large part of what Max is dealing with is coming to terms with his parents’ divorce. More specifically, he’s dealing with the world and his perception of it after the divorce.

This idea hasn’t really been talked about much online (and I could be totally off-base with all this), but here’s some of my thinking on it:

Carol

Carol largely assumes the role of Max’s father. While Max’s father is never seen on screen, we can pull from Carol’s behavior what he is like: lovable, creative and artistic – but also pointlessly destructive and violent.

We see some of those tendencies in Max as well. I imagine Max’s father is an alcoholic or drug addict, prone to not only self-destruction, but the harm of those around him.

KW

KW is largely the projection of Max’s mother.

While she loves Carol, she’s tired and weary of his behavior, and has moved out. She apparently has two new friends now (Bob and Terry).

Douglas

Douglas shows extreme loyalty and friendship to Carol. He’s clear-thinking and calm, trying at one point to reason with an outraged Carol that Max is “just a boy, pretending to be a wolf, pretending to be a king”.

Carol’s response to this is to rip his friend’s right arm off. My best guess here is that this is another off-screen adult – a friend of Max’s father, a brother, or maybe even a therapist or AA sponsor.

Alexander

Alexander is shy, small, and feels disregarded and ignored.

I understood this to be a projection of Max himself.

Judith

Judith is the aggressive, mean girlfriend of Ira (the friendly one with the big nose), who is himself a nice, gentle, loving boyfriend in love.

Analogs in Max’s real world for these characters are not 1:1 or even obvious. I can imagine them being Max’s sister (who earlier in the film ignores Max when he is crying because they dogpiled him while he was in his snow fort) and her boyfriend (who stops to ask Max if he is okay after this).

If this is not where Max drew the inspiration for these characters, they’re clearly archetypes of people most of us know in our own lives – and we can imagine Max knowing such individuals – somewhere.

Bernard

Bernard the Bull is the stoic and solipsistic wild thing that Max finds intimidating. Perhaps this is an analogue of Max’s mother’s new boyfriend, or maybe his teacher at the school (who tells Max that one day the sun will burn out).

The analogs certainly aren’t perfect here. But again, neither are the adults, neither is Max, and neither is Max’ understanding of those adults. The point is, you can see how Max’s understanding of the world and those around him have created the characters that inhabit Where the Wild Things Are.

At the end of the movie, my 7-year-old stepson said “I feel sad for Carol”. I explained to him what I thought was going on in the movie, and he thought maybe I was right.

T.H.I.N.K. Post Eval:
True
Helpful
Inspiring
Necessary
Kind

The post Where The Wild Things Are Movie Explained: A Child’s Psychology on Adults & Divorce appeared first on Brian Chernicky Dot Com.

Honeywell HRF-APP1 Aplus Pre Filter: What are Those White Spots?

BC — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 18:27:52 +0000

What the white spots are. How to install the pre-filter. Where to buy the cheapest.

Honeywell manufacturers the HRF-APP1 air filter for use many with many models of air purifiers.

When you open it up, you see that the pre filter is full of white spots or powder. No mention is made of these spots in the instructions or on the box.

What are the white spots on this pre-filter? Are they mold?

No, they’re not mold.

The white spots are clusters of Zeolite, a mineral with absorbent properties that is commonly used in many commercial products.

They are supposed to be on this filter.

When I install the prefilter, do the white spots go on the outside or inside?

Honeywell told me that it does not matter which direction the spots on the filter face.

What’s the cheapest place to buy these filters?

Amazon.com has them for $15 each.

Home Depot will charge you $16.95 each.

Amazon is certainly a better deal, especially if you are going to buy a whole bunch of them at once.

T.H.I.N.K. Post Eval:
True
Helpful
Inspiring
Necessary
Kind

The post Honeywell HRF-APP1 Aplus Pre Filter: What are Those White Spots? appeared first on Brian Chernicky Dot Com.

Bodum French Press Defect

BC — Sat, 10 Jan 2004 01:28:11 +0000

How to fix the bodum / starbucks french coffee press stripped plastic shoulder nut.

If you’re here, it’s probably because your Bodum french press is jacked up.

You see that little plastic “nut” (actually it’s called a shoulder nut) at the bottom of the plunger? When you pressed the coffee down in the press, you’ve stripped the nut’s threads and now it is impossible to make coffee.

Relax – it’s a design problem, not yours.

You’ve got two options.

First, if you bought the press at Starbucks, and if you still have the receipt, you can take the press back. S-bucks offers a lifetime warranty on this product. While this will get you by in the meantime, it’s not going to fix the problem – 6 months later you will most likely end up with another stripped plastic nut.

The best thing you can do is contact Bodum to let them know that your shoulder nut is stripped, and to request that they send you a metal one to replace it. They will ship you one out free of charge. There’s a form on the contact portion of the Bodum website that will help you out in this endeavor.

Of course you might be asking yourself why they used a plastic nut in the first place, instead of a stainless or bronze nut which would be harder to strip? I asked Bodum this same question:

Thank you for sending me a new metal shoulder nut. I look forward to receiving it. It seems like this is a common problem, which makes me wonder – why does Bodum still uses the plastic shoulder nut on the presses sold in Starbucks stores? Perhaps these are just old inventory items, and newer presses come standard with the metal shoulder nut?

To which Bodum replied:

That is exactly right.

Update: 2020-06-12

A gentleman named John Conley emailed with some specifics on how to perform a DIY fix:

Ttere is a much easier way to repair the Bodum press nut. You go to the nearest Ace Hardware (that has a good hardware section). You go to the stainless steel section, and grab a 5/16″ T-nut. Not the one with the spikes, but the one with the flat flange and 2 holes. Then, you go the Metric section, get a M5 nut and washer. Take these home. Soak the parts in alcohol for about an hour (just to be safe; you want to be sure to get all the machine oil used to cut the parts off), then soak them in dishsoap-and-water for about an hour. Clean them inside and out with a Q-tip. Screw the damaged plastic piece off of the shaft of the press, screw on the M5 nut, drop the washer on, and then the 5/16″ T-nut. Tighten back up and you’re ready to go. Total cost? $3.00. Better than being without your press for a few days, as one coffee from a shop will cost you more than that.

T.H.I.N.K. Post Eval:
True
Helpful
Inspiring
Necessary
Kind

The post Bodum French Press Defect appeared first on Brian Chernicky Dot Com.