No need for thiotimoline with an LG monitor?

After I got my Raspberry Pi and initially had problems getting it to use my Iyonix’s old monitor, which had no HDMI interface, I splashed out and bought a 23" LG Flatron IPS235 monitor. It cost me about 90 quid, and I am very pleased with the quality of its display. Its only weakness is the flimsiness of its stand and what I suspect is less than perfect internal soldering in its manufacture.

Recently I discovered that it had a remarkable property. Sometimes, when I am shutting my Raspberry Pi down, the screen goes blank as I stretch out my hand to switch the monitor off, a fraction of a second before my hand makes contact.
If I had a cascade of these monitors, each controlling the next in series, I might be able to foretell the future. It is an old idea, first mooted when I was nine years old in The Endochronic Properties of Resublimated Thiotimoline. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiotimoline .

The Endochronic Properties of Resublimated Thiotimoline

Ah, yes, the late I.A. Mensa member and claimant to an IQ double their measurement, due to him completing the tests in half the time. Challenged on this astounding claim he told the poeple concerned that they were not clever enough to judge.¹ He seemed to be publishing works of non-fiction as often as fiction and across a wide spectrum.

¹This actually has a basis in fact in that once the test subject is as smart as the tester the results become rather inaccurate². As this progresses the data is lost in the noise.

There is also a tendency to analyse the questions and manipulate the results, for fun.

I remember on my (1990) Chemistry GCSE (advanced level), one of the questions asked me “Which ONE of these is used as a propellant in rocket engines?”

Options: Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Helium.

Duh.

How about an English question that begins “What, in your own opinion, is the author trying to convey in this passage? …”

OK, folks how do you fail to get anything other than full marks for stating your opinion using correct spelling, punctuation and grammar? :)

Since it wasn’t the real exam I answered the question correctly, rather than answering the question the examiner thought they had set.

Memorable question from teacher “Do you think I’m stupid?” ==> visit to head¹ for ‘dumb insolence’²

¹ In which I was given a long lecture on correct behaviour and finally that it wasn’t nice to pick on people who were not as clever as me. I registered the import of this as I was opening the door to leave, looked back and got a “yes, Steven.” What’s the modern phrase? ‘say, what??’

² According to the rules, you can’t win

How about an English question that begins “What, in your own opinion, is the author trying to convey in this passage? …”

Oooh, I had one of those in English Lit. Don’t remember the book (probably too traumatised after dealing with the desolate bleakness of “Of Mice and Men”) but my reply was more or less “The author is trying to convey that they are sick of these characters and doesn’t have any more ideas for this series, but has a mortgage, wives, and other habits that need paid.”
Our English teacher thought he was a “thespian” (say it in the gayest and hammiest way possible and you’re only half way there) and wouldn’t know sarcasm if it hit him in the face. :-/

Memorable question from teacher “Do you think I’m stupid?” ==> visit to head for ‘dumb insolence.

Same English teacher – DO I LOOK LIKE AN IDIOT TO YOU??
Reply – well, pretty much, yeah

There’s probably a reason why one of the better spellers in a school full of dyxlexics¹, who had a habit of turning in pages and pages ³ when “500 words” was asked for… only got a ‘D’ in English.
I lie and tell people I got a ‘C’ (and I can spell “refrigerator” and “somnambulist” to prove it. ;-) ).

¹ One of whom colour coded his words with a four-colour pen so “doing words”² were green, “names of things”² were blue… you get the idea.

² We weren’t taught confusing terms like noun and verb. We got “doing words”, “describing words” and so on.

³ If a good idea comes into your head, run with it. These days I could probably word process it down to 500(ish) words, but back then it was written with a BIC on actual pieces of squashed tree, with printed guidelines so far apart I could fit two lines of text into the spaces.