Theo Todman's Web Page

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Status Reports - Status: Priority Task List (2020: May)

Introduction


Sections
  1. Thesis
  2. Religion
  3. Website
  4. Music
  5. Bridge
  6. Chess
  7. Consciousness
  8. Languages
  9. Mathematics
  10. HiQ
  1. Thesis
    1. Continue with my Thesis; in particular
      1. Spend at least an hour a day writing something original.
      2. Fill out those sections that I can write something on without further research.
      3. Rework the structure so that Level-1 or -2 print produces the thesis with the correct reading-list.
    2. Continually review the Note describing my Current Beliefs on the topic of Personal Identity.
    3. Complete a full review and update of the Notes I’ve created on Personal Identity, focusing on:-
      1. Those directly referenced by my Current Beliefs,
      2. Those without a reading list: Olson, Person, Personality, Physical Continuity, Physicalism, Probability, Psychological Continuity – Forward, Psychological View, Psychology, Reductionism, Religion, Semantics, Siliconisation, Similarity, Soul Criterion, Souls, Statue and the Clay, Substance, Survival, Taking Persons Seriously, Unity of the Person.
      3. Those not yet in the latest standard format.
    4. Make progress on specific Chapters of my Thesis, using the materials below →
    5. Chapter 1 (Introduction). Focussing on:-
      1. Locke
        → "Duncan (Matt) - I Think, Therefore I Persist", Complete Write-up
        → "Maurer (Nicholas) - Too Many Persons, or None At All?", Write-up
        → "Strawson (Galen) - 'The Secrets of All Hearts': Locke on Personal Identity", Read
        → "Strawson (Galen) - 'Where our responsibility lies': Locke on personal identity", Read
      2. Logic of Identity
        → "Noonan (Harold) - Identity, Constitution and Microphysical Supervenience", Write-up31
      3. Introductory and General Works
        → "Unger (Peter) - Identity, Consciousness and Value", Re-read and write up comments
        → "Unger (Peter) - Precis of 'Identity, Consciousness and Value'", Re-read ... also other items from the symposium
    6. Chapter 2 (What Are We?). Focussing on:-
      1. Brains: "Mitchell (Kevin J.) - Innate: How the Wiring of Our Brains Shapes Who We Are", Read & review
      2. Human Beings: Review the Symposium between:-
        → "Robinson (Denis) - Human Beings, Human Animals, and Mentalistic Survival", Read and Write-up
        → "Johnston (Mark) - 'Human Beings' Revisited: My Body is Not an Animal", Complete Write-up
      3. Persons: "Cottingham (John) - Why we are not 'persons'", Complete Write-up
      4. Selves:-
        1. "Arikha (Noga) - The Interoceptive Turn", Read and Write-up
        2. "Dainton (Barry) - Self: Philosophy In Transit", Read and Write-up
        3. "O'Hear (Anthony), Ed. - Mind, Self and Person", Complete Reading and Write-ups
    7. Chapter 3 (What Is A Person?).
      1. "Nanay (Bence) - Catching Desires": Complete write-up
      2. "Noller (Jorg) - A Transformative Account of Personal Identity",
      3. "Noller (Jorg) - Person",
      4. Personites, develop Note, using:-
        → "Olson (Eric) - Ethics and the Generous Ontology", then …
        → "Eklund (Matti) - The Existence of Personites",
        → "Johnston (Mark) - The Personite Problem: Should Practical Reason Be Tabled?",
        → "Johnston (Mark) - Personites, Maximality and Ontological Trash",
        → "Kaiserman (Alexander) - Stage Theory and the Personite Problem",
        → "Pautz (Adam) - Johnston’s Puzzle about Personites".
    8. Chapter 4 (Basic Metaphysical Issues). Focus on:-
      1. General: "Hazlett (Allan) - New Waves in Metaphysics"
      2. Existence: "Williams (Christopher) - Death and Other Difficulties"
      3. Logic of Identity
        1. Partial Identity
          → "Baxter (Donald L.M.) - Temporary and Contingent Instantiation as Partial Identity",
          → "Hawley (Katherine) - Almost Identical, Almost Innocent"
        2. Artifacts
          → "Han (Byung-Chul) - The copy is the original", Write-up
          → "Han (Byung-Chul) - Shanzhai: Deconstruction in Chinese", Read
      4. Parfit
        → "Colen (J.A.) - In Memoriam Derek Parfit (1942-2017)",
        → "Funkhouser (Eric) - Notes on Parfit, 'Personal Identity'",
        → "Korsgaard (Christine) - Personal Identity and the Unity of Agency: A Kantian Response to Parfit",
        → "Perry (John) - Time, Fission, and Personal Identity",
        → "Parfit (Derek) - Personal Identity",
        → "Parfit (Derek) - Prudence, morality, and the prisoner's dilemma", Note46
        → "Parfit (Derek) - Who do you think you are?",
        → Complete run-through of the Parfit reading-list
      5. Simple View
        → "Duncan (Matt) - A Challenge to Anti-Criterialism"
        → "Duncan (Matt) - A Renewed Challenge to Anti-Criterialism"
        → "Duncan (Matt) - Dualists Needn’t Be Anti-Criterialists (Nor Should They Be)"
      6. Vague Identity
        → "Broome (John) - Indefiniteness in Identity",
        → "Noonan (Harold) - Vague Identity Yet Again"
    9. Chapter 5 (Persistence and Time). Focussing on:-
      1. General
        1. "Sider (Ted), Hawthorne (John) & Zimmerman (Dean), Eds. - Contemporary Debates in Metaphysics",
      2. Persistence
        1. "Haslanger (Sally) & Kurtz (Roxanne), Eds. - Persistence : Contemporary Readings",
        2. "Hawley (Katherine) - Persistence and Determination",
        3. "Wiggins (David) - Continuants: Their Activity, Their Being, and Their Identity", especially
          → "Noonan (Harold) - Review of Wiggins's 'Continuants'", and
          → "Wiggins (David) - Identity, Individuation, and Substance"
      3. Time
        1. "Boccardi (Emiliano), Ed. - Manuscrito vol. 39 no.4: Recent Trends in the Philosophy of Time: An Introduction to Time and Reality - I", and
        2. "Boccardi (Emiliano), Ed. - Manuscrito vol. 40 no.1: The Passage of Time and its Enemies: An Introduction to Time and Reality - II"
        3. "Botros (Sophie) - Truth, Time and History: A Philosophical Enquiry", and especially
          → "Botros (Sophie) - Truth, Time and History - A Philosophical Inquiry with Dr Sophie Botros"
        4. "Bourne (Craig) - A Future for Presentism",
        5. "Buonomano (Dean) - Your Brain Is a Time Machine: The Neuroscience and Physics of Time",
        6. "Correia (Fabrice) & Rosenkranz (Sven) - Unfreezing the Spotlight: Tense Realism and Temporal Passage",
        7. "Costa (Damiano), Gilmore (Cody) & Calosi (Claudio) - Relativity and Three Four-Dimensionalisms",
        8. Natalja Deng: Various papers, starting with
          → "Deng (Natalja) - One Thing After Another: Why the Passage of Time is Not an Illusion",
        9. Mauro Dorato: Various papers,
          → "Dorato (Mauro) - Presentism / Eternalism and Endurantism / Perdurantism: why the unsubstantiality of the first debate implies that of the second",
          → "Dorato (Mauro) - Presentism and the Experience of Time",
          → "Dorato (Mauro) - The Irrelevance of the Presentist / Eternalist Debate for the Ontology of Minkowski Spacetime".
        10. "Fischer (Florian) - Philosophy of time: A slightly opinionated introduction",
        11. "Friebe (Cord) - Eternalism and the Temporal Content of Persistence", and
        12. "Friebe (Cord) - Metametaphysics: the Ontology of Spacetime and the Presentist/Eternalist Debate".
        13. "Lebens (Samuel) & Goldschmidt (Tyron) - The Promise of a New Past": Complete and send to Sophie Botros & Michael J. Alter,
        14. "LePoidevin (Robin) - Travels in Four Dimensions: The Enigmas of Space and Time",
        15. "LePoidevin (Robin) & MacBeath (Murray), Eds. - The Philosophy of Time: Oxford Readings in Philosophy",
        16. "Mellor (D.H.) - Review of Michael Tooley: 'Time, Tense, and Causation'", Read & review
        17. "Miller (Kristie) - Issues in Theoretical Diversity: Persistence, Composition, and Time",
        18. "Roselli (Andrea) - How Long is Now? A New Perspective on the Specious Present",
        19. "Rovelli (Carlo) - The Order of Time",
        20. "Sattig (Thomas) - The Flow of Time in Experience",
        21. "Savitt (Steven) - Presentism and Eternalism in Perspective",
        22. "Skow (Bradford) - Objective Becoming",
        23. "Torrengo (Giuliano) - Time and Simple Existence",
        24. "Thomas (Emily) - Before, now, and next", Expand review
        25. "Thomas (Emily) - Does the Future Exist?", Expand review
        26. "Zimmerman (Dean) - Presentism and the Space-Time Manifold"
    10. Chapter 6 (Animalism). Focussing on:-
      1. Animals:
        1. "Chittka (Lars) & Wilson (Catherine) - Bee-brained",
        2. "Keim (Brandon) - I, cockroach",
        3. "Rachlin (Howard) - Teleological behaviourism or what it means to imagine a lion",
        4. "Ross (Don) - Consciousness, language, and the possibility of non-human personhood: Reflections on elephants".
      2. Animalism
        1. "Hershenov (David) - Review of David DeGrazia’s Human Identity and Bioethics",
        2. "Merricks (Trenton) - Objects and Persons",
        3. "Olson (Eric) - The Human Animal - Personal Identity Without Psychology", my core text,
        4. "Shoemaker (Sydney) - Persons, Animals, and Identity",
        5. "Snowdon (Paul) - Persons, Animals, Ourselves",
      3. Life
        1. "Al-Khalili (Jim) & McFadden (Johnjoe) - Life on the Edge: The Coming of Age of Quantum Biology",
        2. "Difrisco (James) & Mossio (Matteo) - Diachronic Identity in Complex Life Cycles: An Organizational Perspective",
        3. "Lachmann (Michael) & Walker (Sara) - Life ≠ alive",
        4. "Schrodinger (Erwin) - What is Life?"
    11. Chapter 7 (The Constitution View):-
      1. "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Persons and Bodies: A Constitution View": My other core text. Start a serious review.
      2. "Baker (Lynne Rudder), Etc. - E-Symposium on 'Persons & Bodies: A Constitution View'": Write up reviews of papers,
      3. "Corcoran (Kevin) - Rethinking Human Nature: A Christian Materialist Alternative to the Soul": Read and review,
      4. "Loose (Jonathan) - Constitution and the Falling Elevator": Write a Note.
      5. "Mellor (D.H.) - Micro-composition": Read
      6. "Zahavi (Dan) - Subjectivity and Selfhood: Investigating the First-Person Perspective": Write-up.
    12. Chapter 8 (Arguments against Animalism):-
      1. "Bailey (Andrew M.) - The Elimination Argument",
      2. Dicephalus & Conjoined Twins
        1. "Buchanan (Rachael) - The battle to separate Safa and Marwa"
        2. "Campbell (Tim) & McMahan (Jeff) - Animalism and the Varieties of Conjoined Twinning"
        3. "Olson (Eric) - The Metaphysical Implications of Conjoined Twining"
        4. "Stone (James L.) & Goodrich (James T.) - The craniopagus malformation: classification and implications for surgical separation"
        5. "Wikipedia - Craniopagus twins"
      3. "Olson (Eric) - The Role of the Brainstem in Personal Identity",
      4. "Olson (Eric) - On Parfit's View That We Are Not Human Beings",
      5. Pregnancy
        1. "Damschen (Gregor), Gomez-Lobo (Alfonso) & Schonecker (Dieter) - Sixteen Days? A Reply to B. Smith and B. Brogaard on the Beginning of Human Individuals",
        2. Elselijn Kingma. Especially
          → "Finn (Suki) - Bun or bump?",
          → "Kingma (Elselijn) - Lady Parts: The Metaphysics of Pregnancy", and
          → "Kingma (Elselijn) - Were You Part of Your Mother?".
        3. "Gomez-Lobo (Alfonso) - Sortals and Human Beginnings",
        4. "Isaac (Sasha) - Is artificial-womb technology a tool for women’s liberation?",
        5. "Oderberg (David) - The Metaphysical Status of the Embryo: Some Arguments Revisited",
        6. "Smith (Barry) & Brogaard (Berit) - Sixteen Days".
    13. Chapter 10 (Thought Experiments):-
      1. "Nielsen (Lasse) - Reconstructing Thought Experiments in Personal Identity",
      2. "Searle (John), Etc. - Minds, Brains, and Programs",
      3. Investigate Transhumanism. In particular,
        1. "Alexander (Denis) - Healing, enhancement and the human future": Read,
        2. "Awad (Edmond), Etc. - The Moral Machine experiment": Read,
        3. "Ball (Philip) - Sim ethics": Write up,
        4. "Bostrom (Nick) - Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies": Read,
        5. "Bridle (James) - New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future": Read,
        6. "Clark (Andy) & Kuhn (Robert Lawrence) - Aeon: Video - Andy Clark - Virtual immortality": Review write-up68,
        7. "Contera (Sonia) - Nano Comes to Life": Read,
        8. "Davies (Sally) - Women’s minds matter" (and papers cited / resisted)
        9. "Fry (Hannah) - Hello World: How to be Human in the Age of the Machine": Read & review,
        10. "Graziano (Michael) - Endless fun": Detailed review,
        11. "Hanson (Robin) - The Age of Em: Work, Love, and Life when Robots Rule the Earth", Read
        12. "Harari (Yuval Noah) - Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow": Review, especially Chapter 8,
        13. "Kent (Adrian) - Replication Ethics": Read,
        14. "Kobie (Nicole) - Quantum Supremacy is here - So what?": Complete write-up,
        15. "Madary (Michael) & Metzinger (Thomas) - Real Virtuality: A Code of Ethical Conduct": Read,
        16. "Marshall (Richard) & Metzinger (Thomas) - Thomas Metzinger: All About the Ego Tunnel": Read,
        17. "Midgley (Mary) - Biotechnology and Monstrosity: Why We Should Pay Attention to the 'Yuk Factor'": Complete,
        18. "O'Connell (Mark) - To be a Machine": Briefly review,
        19. "Otsuka (Michael) - Personal Identity, Substantial Change, and the Significance of Becoming": Read,
        20. "Schneider (Susan) - Artificial You": Read,
        21. "Shipley (G.J.) - Review of Andy Clark's 'Natural-Born Cyborgs'": Complete review,
        22. "Smith (Wilfred Cantwell) - The Promise of Artificial Intelligence": Read,
        23. "Tegmark (Max) - Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence": Read,
        24. "Wyatt (John) - Artificial intelligence and simulated relationships": Write-up.
    14. Chapter 11 (Resurrection):-
      1. Death
        1. "Baillie (James) - We all know that we will die, so why do we struggle to believe it?": Complete review
        2. "Bradley (Ben), Feldman (Fred) & Johansson (Jens) - The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Death": Start a review, especially
          → "Zimmerman (Dean) - Personal Identity and the Survival of Death",
        3. "Kaufman (Sharon) - Neither person nor cadaver", Review
        4. "Luper (Steven), Ed. - The Cambridge Companion to Life and Death": Start a review, especially
          → "Olson (Eric) - The Nature of People",
        5. "Stone (Alison) - Thinking about one’s birth is as uncanny as thinking of death": review
        6. "Veatch (Robert M.) - Would a Reasonable Person Now Accept the 1968 Harvard Brain Death Report? A Short History of Brain Death": review
      2. Makropulos Case
        1. "Moore (Adrian W.) - Is the quest for immortality worse than death?": Detailed analysis
        2. "Moore (Adrian W.) - Williams, Nietzsche, and the Meaninglessness of Immortality": Read and review
      3. Reincarnation
        1. "Barua (Ankur) - Revisiting the Rationality of Reincarnation-Talk": Write a file-note.
        2. "MacIntosh (J.J.) - Reincarnation and Relativized Identity": Read and review
        3. "Noonan (Harold) - The Possibility of Reincarnation": Read and review
      4. Resurrection
        1. "Martin (L. Michael) & Augustine (Keith) - The Myth of an Afterlife: The Case against Life After Death": Start a thorough review,
        2. "Badham (Paul) - Christian Beliefs About Life After Death": Read and review
        3. "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Death and the Afterlife": Read and review
        4. "Corcoran (Kevin) - Dualism, Materialism and the Problem of Post Mortem Survival": Read and review
    15. As background tasks:-
      1. Ensure all items in:-
        → "Various - Papers on Desktop", and
        → "Various - Papers in Desk Drawer"
        are either addressed or re-filed.
      2. Maintain "Various - Papers Yet To Be Logged", and log papers therein if they become important.
      3. Convert old PDF-précis, Etc to Notes: As an interim task, correct the dates + email address on the longer pdfs.
      4. Complete cataloguing the books downloaded from Springer,
      5. Continue with "Marshall (Richard) - Philosophy at 3:AM: Questions and Answers with 25 Top Philosophers",
      6. Complete reading:-
        1. "Ball (Philip) - Beyond Weird: Why Everything You Thought You Knew About Quantum Mechanics is ... Different",
        2. "Barker (Jonathan) - Debunking Arguments and Metaphysical Laws",
        3. "Borges (Jorge Luis) - Labyrinths: Selected Stories and Other Writings",
        4. "Carey (John), Ed. - The Faber Book of Science",
        5. "Costa (Albert) - The Bilingual Brain: And What It Tells Us about the Science of Language",
          → "Hernandez (Arturo E.), Etc - In Memoriam - The Bilingual Brain: Emergent, Dynamic, and Variable. Albert Costa (1970–2018)"
        6. "Dennett (Daniel) - The Mind's I - Fantasies and Reflections on Self and Soul: Introduction",
        7. "Erber (Joan T.) & Szuchman (Lenore T.) - Great Myths of Aging",
        8. "Everett (Daniel) - Did Homo erectus speak?",
        9. "Feynman (Richard), Dyson (Freeman), Robbins (Jeffrey), Ed. - The Pleasure of Finding Things Out - The Best Short Works of Richard P. Feynman",
        10. "Gazzaniga (Michael S.) - Who's in Charge? Free Will and the Science of the Brain",
        11. "Greene (Brian) - The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos",
        12. "Hoffman (Donald D.) - The Case Against Reality: How Evolution Hid the Truth from Our Eyes",
          → "Gefter (Amanda) & Hoffman (Donald D.) - The Evolutionary Argument Against Reality"
          → "O'Grady (Jane) - Donald Hoffman’s 'The Case Against Reality' is hard to get your head around"
        13. "Hofstadter (Douglas) - Godel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid - A Metaphorical Fugue on Minds and Machines in the Spirit of Lewis Carroll",
        14. "Ord (Toby) - The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity",
        15. "Rosling (Hans) - Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think" (Note76)
        16. "Rovelli (Carlo) - Reality Is Not What It Seems: The Journey to Quantum Gravity",
        17. "Vedral (Vlatko) - Decoding Reality: The Universe as Quantum Information".
      7. Complete my Note on "Smith (Martin) - Why Throwing 92 Heads in a Row Is Not Surprising" and discuss with Pete & Mike.
      8. Continue reading and reviewing papers issued by Aeon,
      9. Keep up with the Journals via JSTOR & Cambridge Core.
      10. Update my Journals Note: Review the journals I have access to; more are available as a Cambridge Alumnus.
      11. Keep up with the philosophical world by regular reviews of "Interaction - Philos-List", but only seriously pursue items relevant to my research.
  2. Religion
    1. Philosophy of Religion:
      1. "Antony (Louise M.) - Philosophers without Gods: Meditations on Atheism and the Secular Life": Continue reading,
      2. "Ferguson (Matthew) - Κέλσος": Continue reading the Blog,
      3. "Insole (Christopher J.) - Realism and Anti-Realism": Read,
      4. "Plantinga (Alvin) & Dennett (Daniel) - Science and Religion: Are They Compatible?": Read.
    2. Resurrection: Continue reviewing80
      1. "Alter (Michael J.) - The Resurrection: A Critical Inquiry", and
      2. "Alter (Michael J.) - The Resurrection & Christian Apologetics: A Critical Inquiry Volume 2".
    3. Background:
      1. Aeon (https://aeon.co/): Read & annotate papers as they arise
      2. "Finkelstein (Israel) & Silberman (Neil Asher) - The Bible Unearthed": Continue reading
      3. "Finkel (Irving) - The Ark Before Noah: Decoding the Story of the Flood": Continue reading
      4. "Lennox (John C.) - Where Is God in a Coronavirus World?": Review in Blog
      5. "Levine (Amy-Jill) & Brettler (Marc Zvi), Eds. - The Jewish Annotated New Testament": Continue reading
      6. "Taylor (Joan E.) - Jesus and Brian: Exploring the Historical Jesus and His Times Via Monty Python's Life of Brian": Review KCL Conference videos
  3. Website
    1. Own Website: Priority 1 Items By Category:-
      • Architecture
        1. Compact and Repair Problems
          1. On compacting and repairing my main database I sometimes get the error "The query cannot be completed. Either the size of the query result is larger than the maximum size of a database (2 GB), or there is not enough temporary storage space on the disk to store the query result".
          2. It happens 3 times while the database is re-opening.
          3. There is lots of space, and the database is only 600Mb (and the error started when it was under 500Mb).
          4. This mostly happens after I've run long processes, so I usually close the database, re-open it and then try the compact and repair. Usually this works, but not always. But I then try again and the message disappears.
          5. I strongly suspect that this is MS Access itself re-indexing tables, and blowing up a temporary database, but I can’t find any evidence for this on-line. Or help, other than suggestions to split databases and do other sensible things. Given that the error occurs when the database is re-opening, with no temporary file visible, is very strange.
          6. 17/04/20 - set MaxLocksPerFile to 1,000,000 (from the default 9,500). Sadly, it doesn't seem to have made a difference.
        2. Complete XRef-re-engineering project:-
          1. Ensure all links and link-pages use the new XRef table, and pension off the old tables.
          2. Look into writing out specific object-identifiers, and linking thereto for Citations, rather than paragraph references. An issue is multiple instances of the same object in a document.
          3. Check all link-types still work and fix any errors.
          4. Complete the auto-triggering of regeneration of “associated” link pages.
          5. Fix update bug in Convert_Webrefs.
          6. Fix Bug whereby PaperSummary pages seem to have “Works-” and “Books/Papers-” Citings that refer to the same link-pages.
          7. Document the process!
        3. Enhance the Functor processing to allow parameters. Currently I have to create a new Functor ID each time for a very similar requirement. The main problem with this is that these Functors (where they call another Functor, or subroutine from a row in Functor) don't feed through into the Documenter subroutines properly.
        4. Review effectiveness of hyperlinking method in the light of PhD and Philosophy of Religion experience.
        5. Where possible, use ID rather than NAME for in-page hyperlinks
      • Backups
        1. Investigate Record-count discrepancies:-
          1. How do website files work as far as counts are concerned?
          2. Why aren't they recorded in Backup_History, nor the fact that the website was backed up?
          3. Different counts depending on whether new or old laptop is backed up. Investigate 63k discrepancy - lower on new laptop.
        2. Review architecture to improve performance; Need to document first
      • Books
        1. Further improve the time to regenerate Book Summaries. Now takes about 30 minutes, but should be under 5 minutes!
      • Books/Papers
        1. Investigate whether multiple Subject/Topic/Subtopic usage leads anywhere (ie. are just the first (of 3) actually used). Fix anything amiss.
      • Bridge
        1. Develop auto-reconciliation routines vs EBU results download
      • Documenter
        1. Investigate the error reports from the Documenter, especially unused variables & queries.
        2. Provide Functional Documentation for Website Generator (using Notes)
      • Education
        1. "Sitepoint (Learnable) - Sitepoint Learnable Web Development Courses": Plan what to do (and with the eBooks in my possession).
        2. Read "PC Pro - Computing in the Real World".
        3. Read "White (Ron) & Downs (Timothy Edward) - How Computers Work: The Evolution of Technology".
      • Infrastructure
        1. iCloud for Windows: Re-install & solve 'The upload folder for iCloud Photos is missing' problem. Try on new Laptop.
      • Notes
        1. Add "Note Alternates" to Note pages.
        2. Allow the option to concatenate Notes in the Printed version (ie. linearly embed them essay-style), rather than treating the hyperlinks as footnotes – but still keep the hyperlink & cross-referencing in place.
          1. For use as "disclaimers" - eg. for "Plug Notes".
          2. For Thesis / essays: the difficulty here is the need for linking passages to make the text run smoothly.
        3. Determine why very long printable notes (eg. Level 3+ for Note 170) are being truncated. Probably suppress them in any case, as they take far too long to load.
        4. Fix bugs in multi-level footnoting in Printable Notes – the referencing is going wrong.
        5. Investigate Note_Links: Section references seem to be incorrect
        6. Printable Notes: fix the bug whereby the “private” flag is round the wrong way.
        7. Split Aeon Page into multiple sub-pages (either by topic or by priority)
        8. Suppress the publication of the Printable versions of Temp Notes
      • Papers
        1. The monthly regeneration process for Paper Abstracts still takes just over 5 hours. Problem is with Cross_Reference_Deletions and Cross_Reference_Additions. Cannot be fixed until the cross-referencing project is fully complete and documented.
      • Photos
        1. Develop software & procedure to make adding more content to the photos pages easier to undertake.
        2. Timeline software: Add photos for Holidays & Family History
      • Process
        1. Determine why Recalculation & Changed Book/Papers produce unneeded regeneration.
      • Spider
        1. Analyse the results of the data collection exercise and design a plan of campaign to fix broken Internal links and prevent recurrence.
          1. Correct the code so the problems discovered by the Spider don’t recur.
          2. Delete 'orphan pages' that are never linked to, ie. Use the Spider to prune redundant pages84 automatically where possible.
          3. Fix the historical data where errors are uncovered by the Spider. An easier task now the site has a full-regen function.
        2. The Spider was generating WebRefs. Procedurally, this ought not to have been possible.
          1. The major problem turned out to be because unprocessed85 URLs got added to the end of the last WebLinks_Tester_Brief page, which then got Spidered. I've stopped this happening, so hopefully the problem will not recur. The fix was made in 18Q2.
          2. However, 4 other creations appeared - dated 18/05/18 - from the run of 10/07/18. The creation date was from the previous spider run, but the IDs show that they were produced in the latest run.
          I've re-opened the case!
      • Technology
        1. Look into Sistrix Smart86. Errors and warnings itemised are:-
          1. Duplicate content: seems to be variants on theotodman.com
          2. Title Tags: Empty, too long, identical
          3. Page Not Found
          4. Filesize in excess of 1Mb
          5. Meta-Description: Empty
          6. Few words on Page
          7. H1: Not used, used multiple times per page, identical across pages
          8. Pictures: Alt attribute missing
      • WebRefs
        1. Webrefs_Update: Improve the processing of this sub which controls IE to check the URLs corresponding to WeRefs are still valid.
          1. Improve the recovery processing after IE fails or becomes detached.
          2. Improve processing for 404 (page not found) errors - detect them where URL returned differs from that requested (so the error is correctly categorised) and also where it is the same (so the error is detected) - by using the GetElementsByTagName method to look through Title and H1 elemnts (where they exist).
          3. Note that there is still an issue for pdfs where the above methods don't work; though the page returned is an HTML or XML page, the changed URL still claims to be a pdf, so I can't check in case it's a real pdf and the process fails.
        2. Documentation & Bug-fixes: Phase 2
          1. Re-document the procedures in the light of recent changes.
          2. Resolve issues generated / revealed by the spider.
          3. Investigate - and fix where possible - broken links.
        3. Improve WebRefs checker (Webrefs_Update) further to check for Error 403 "Forbidden". This will often involve finding way of checking pdfs where the returned page is in fact HTML or XML (see DevLog Ref 379).
        4. Investigate defunct items. Populate Defunct_Explanation in WebRefs_Table and include in relevant WebLinks_Tester reports. Consider use of FairUse (Link - Fair Use) for documents no longer available that I'd downloaded.
        5. Reformat WebLinks_Tester.htm, WebLinks_Tester_Map.htm, WebLinks_Tester_Full.htm & WebLinks_Tester_Full_Map.htm
          1. Clarify 'truncated': Display, not link
          2. Allow more space for 'link returned', 'issue' and 'display text'
          3. The 'As Above" lines waste space. Only for Notes Archive? Consolidate onto single second line.
        6. Reformat WebLinks_Tester_Brief: Allow more space for 'link returned', 'issue' and 'display text'
        7. WebLinks_Tester: If the URLs of WebRefs are changed between Spider runs, the URL mapping fails, and the WebRefs appear at the end of the last page, wrongly categorised. Fix to ensure they appear on their own page, add to the jump table as 'WebRef Missing' and add an explanation.
        8. WebLinks_Tester_Full & WebLinks_Tester_Full_Map: Reformat Jump Table to 30 columns and multiple rows.
    2. Other Websites: Priority 1 Items By Category:-
      • Bridge
        1. Regular updates to the Hutton Bridge Club (https://www.bridgewebs.com/hutton.html) Website.
        2. Regular updates to the Mountnessing Bridge Club (https://www.bridgewebs.com/mountnessingbc/) Website.
      • Enigma
        1. Termly updates to the Enigma Ensemble (http://www.enigmaensemble.co.uk/) Website.
  4. Music
    1. Oboe:-
      1. Practice the oboe for two 30-minute sessions each and every day88 – focussing on the items below and …
      2. Occasionally combine into an hour-long session to build up stamina further.
      3. Work through, and perfect, scales & arpeggios89 for Grades I-VIII, using
        → "Trinity Guildhall - Trinity Guildhall Scales & Arpeggios for Oboe (Grades 1–8)", and
        → "ABRSM - Scales and Arpeggios for Oboe, Grades 1-8 (ABRSM Scales & Arpeggios)".
      4. Improve sight-reading by playing through
        → "Trinity Guildhall - Sound at Sight Oboe Grades 1-8", and
        → "Davies (John) & Harris (Paul) - 80 Graded Studies for Oboe: Book 1".
      5. Occasionally review Grade VI pieces, in particular
        → "Boni (Giovanni) - Sonata in G" (Prelude, but also 2nd, 3rd & 4th movements for interest),
        → "Davies (John) & Harris (Paul) - 80 Graded Studies for Oboe: Book 2" (Blatt - Study No. 52),
        → "Morricone (Ennio) - Gabriel's Oboe (Piano Solo Or Oboe/Piano)"
        → "Miller (Vojislav) & Liebermann (Winfried), Eds. - Test Pieces for Orchestral Auditions (Orchester Probespiel) - Oboe" (Eroica, Aida, Der Freischutz),
        → "Nielsen (Carl) - Two Fantasy Pieces, Op. 2" (Romanze only)
      6. Prepare Grade VII pieces, in particular90
        → "Albinoni (Tomaso) - Concerto in D Minor Op. 9/2 for Oboe & Piano", 1st movement (but also 2nd & 3rd for interest)
        → "Bach (J.S.) - 105 Difficult Passages from the Works of J. S. Bach. For oboe", Items 49 & 70
        → "Cimarosa (Domenico) - Oboe Concerto in C minor", All, but particularly 1st & 4th movements
        → "Davies (John) & Harris (Paul) - 80 Graded Studies for Oboe: Book 2" (Ferling - Study No. 62)
        → "Fiocco (J.H.) - Arioso - Oboe + Piano",
        → "Head (Michael) - Presto for Oboe & Piano",
        → "Hinke (Gustav Adolf) - Elementary Method For Oboe", Items 14 & 18
        → "Miller (Vojislav) & Liebermann (Winfried), Eds. - Test Pieces for Orchestral Auditions (Orchester Probespiel) - Oboe" (Mozart Jupiter, Tchaikovsky Pathetique, Stravinsky Pucinella),
        → "Mower (Mike) - The Good Tempered Oboe" ('Jauntless Jig' & 'May The Fourth Be With You'; also 'Answer the Question'),
        → "Nielsen (Carl) - Two Fantasy Pieces, Op. 2" (Humoresque),
        → "Saint-Saens (Camille) - Sonata Op.166 in D Major for Oboe & Piano" (1st Movement),
        → "Schumann (Robert) - 3 Romances, Op. 94 for Oboe and Piano" (1st & 3rd Movements; 2nd for interest).
      7. Prepare Grade VIII pieces, in particular91
        → "Bach (J.S.) - 105 Difficult Passages from the Works of J. S. Bach. For oboe", Items 62, 66 and 28
        → "Davies (John) & Harris (Paul) - 80 Graded Studies for Oboe: Book 2" (Harris - Study No. 74; Luft - Study No. 77)
        → "Miller (Vojislav) & Liebermann (Winfried), Eds. - Test Pieces for Orchestral Auditions (Orchester Probespiel) - Oboe" (try various),
        → "Mower (Mike) - The Good Tempered Oboe" (No. 44 - 'Dop Dop Doobah'),
        → "Saint-Saens (Camille) - Sonata Op.166 in D Major for Oboe & Piano" (2nd & 3rd Movements),
      8. Read and apply oboe practice techniques recommended by:-
        → Martin Schuring, and
        → "Benedetti (Nicola) - My five tips for learning an instrument".
      9. Read "Caplan (Stephen) - Oboe: The Breathing Book".
    2. Piano: Try to develop some competence as an aid to theory, so:-
      1. Continue working through "Rhodes (James) - How to Play the Piano",
      2. Work through "ABRSM - Selected Piano Exam Pieces 2009-2010: Grade 1", and
      3. Try to play by ear, using for inspiration:-
        → "Cannel (Ward) & Marx (Fred) - How to Play the Piano Despite Years of Lessons: What Music Is and How to Make It at Home".
    3. Theory: Prepare for Grade 5 Theory, so:-
      1. Study
        → "Taylor (Eric) - The AB Guide to Music Theory - Part 1", and
        → "Taylor (Eric) - The AB Guide to Music Theory - Part 2",
      2. Do the exercises in
        → "Taylor (Eric) - Music Theory in Practice: Grade 1",
        → "Taylor (Eric) - Music Theory in Practice: Grade 2",
        → "Taylor (Eric) - Music Theory in Practice: Grade 3",
        → "Taylor (Eric) - Music Theory in Practice: Grade 4", and
        → "Taylor (Eric) - Music Theory in Practice: Grade 5",
    4. Aural:
      1. Run through:-
        → "Trinity Guildhall - Trinity College London Aural Tests Book 1 (Initial to Grade 5) 2017", and
        → "Trinity Guildhall - Trinity College London Aural Tests Book 2 (Grades 6 to 8) 2017".
      2. Get a grip on the process of ear-training by reading "Deutsch (Diana) - Absolute Pitch", and related material92.
      3. Try out "Boytim (Joan Frey) - The First Book Of Baritone/Bass Solos".
      4. Also follow up items in:-
        → "Various - Music - Aural - Various On-line Training".
  5. Bridge
    1. Bridge "at the table" is on hold. Only play on-line if pressurised by partners.
    2. Review hands from National Masters Pairs in March 2020.
    3. Review Mountnessing "hands of the week".
    4. Bridge Admin: Committee and Website involvement for Mountnessing and Hutton.
    5. Re-read Hand-counting papers, focussing on
      → Papers in Counting the Hands,
      → "Bourke (Tim) & Smith (Marc), Bird (David) - Countdown to Winning Bridge", and
      → "Lawrence (Mike) - How to read your opponents' cards: The bridge expert's way to locate missing high cards"
      → "Lawrence (Mike) - How to Play Card Combinations"
    6. Read "Klinger (Ron) - Five-card Majors".
    7. Read "Reading - Bridge - Magazines".
  6. Chess
    1. Why Play Chess: Seriously consider the issues raised by "Ramon y Cajal (Santiago) - On Chess".
    2. Chess Study:-
      → "Hansen (Carsten) - The Full English Opening: Mastering the Fundamentals",
      → "Ris (Robert) - Crucial Chess Skills for the Club Player: Volume 1",
      → "Ris (Robert) - Crucial Chess Skills for the Club Player: Volume 2",
      → "Sadler (Matthew) & Regan (Natasha) - Game Changer: AlphaZero's Groundbreaking Chess Strategies and the Promise of AI",
      → "Speelman (Jon), Tisdall (Jon) & Wade (Bob) - Batsford Chess Endings",
      → "van der Sterren (Paul) - FCO - Fundamental Chess Openings", and
      → "Willemze (Thomas) - The Chess Toolbox: Practical Techniques Everyone Should Know".
    3. Chess Training:-
      → Chess.com (https://www.chess.com/) (game analysis & daily 10-minute game),
      → "Chess - Chess - YouTube Videos"
      → Complete review of 2018/19 season's games, and keep up to date with those of the current season.
    4. Chess Play: Participation96 if and when play resumes in Billericay Chess Club:-
      → Club Nights
      → NECL matches
      → Southend League matches
      → Consider on-line club play
  7. Consciousness
    1. Aeon: Read & annotate papers as they arise, especially ...
      → "Chittka (Lars) & Wilson (Catherine) - Bee-brained": Write-up
      → "Frankish (Keith) - The Consciousness Illusion": Write-up
      → "Frohlich (Joel) - Frames of consciousness": Read & write-up
      → "Parks (Tim) & Manzotti (Riccardo) - You are the world": Read & write-up
      → "Pigliucci (Massimo) - Consciousness is real": Read & write-up
    2. "Bonhomme (Vincent), Etc. - General Anesthesia: A Probe to Explore Consciousness": Read & write-up
    3. "Crane (Tim) - Elements of Mind - An Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind": Re-read and review notes.
    4. "Dehaene (Stanislas) - Consciousness and the Brain: Deciphering How the Brain Codes Our Thoughts": Read.
    5. "Dennett (Daniel) - Illusionism as the Obvious Default Theory of Consciousness": Read.
    6. "Eliot (Lise) - What's Going On in There?: How the Brain And Mind Develop in the First Five Years of Life": Read.
    7. "Kammerer (Francois) - The Hardest Aspect of the Illusion Problem - and How to Solve it": Read.
    8. "Papineau (David) - Introducing Consciousness": Re-read and write notes.
    9. "Shapiro (Lawrence) - The Mind Incarnate": Read.
    10. "Strawson (Galen) - The Consciousness Deniers": Read & write-up
    11. "Tegmark (Max) - Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence": Write up Chapter 8: Consciousness
  8. Languages
    1. Thai: Following Nat's emigration to Thailand & marriage to Fon:-
      → "Lang Workbooks - Master the Thai Alphabet: a Handwriting Practice Workbook",
      → "Ling - Learn Thai",
      → "Lonely Planet - Lonely Planet Thai Phrasebook & Dictionary",
      → "Becker (Benjawan Poomsan) - Thai for Beginners",
      → "ThaiNotes - Thai Notes",
      → "Various - On-Line Thai Learning",
      → "Wikipedia - Thai Alphabet", and
      → "Wikipedia - Thai Language".
    2. Egyptian (Ancient):
  9. Mathematics
    1. Aeon (https://aeon.co/): Read papers as they arise.
    2. Prove Jack's Puzzle: that 2^10 + 5^12 is non-prime
    3. "Feynman (Richard), Leighton (Robert B.) & Sands (Matthew) - The Feynman Lectures on Physics - Vol I": Read.
    4. "Gowers (Timothy), Barrow-Green (June) & Leader (Imre), Eds. - The Princeton Companion to Mathematics": Browse.
    5. "Polya (George), Stewart (Ian) - How to Solve IT: A New Aspect of Mathematical Method": Read.
    6. Try the puzzles in
      → "Polya (George) & Kilpatrick (Jeremy) - The Stanford Mathematics Problem Book: With Hints and Solutions", and
      → "UKMT, du Sautoy (Marcus) - The Ultimate Mathematical Challenge".
    7. "Shapiro (Stewart) - Thinking about Mathematics - The Philosophy of Mathematics": Complete reading.
    8. "Smith (Martin) - Why Throwing 92 Heads in a Row Is Not Surprising": Analyze.
    9. "Tammet (Daniel) - Thinking in Numbers: How Maths Illuminates Our Lives": Read.
    10. "Wilmott (Paul) - Machine Learning: An Applied Mathematics Introduction": Read.
  10. HiQ
    1. ISPE
    2. Mensa
      • Nothing planned.


In-Page Footnotes

Footnote 31:
  • This paper covers the "loose and popular" sense of identity, amongst much else.
Footnote 46: Footnote 68:
  • Also look through other works by Andy Clark to get a handle on what he means by 'patterns in information space'.
Footnote 76:
  • Read the Appendices, and extract the Chapter Summaries as learning-points.
Footnote 80:
  • While I couldn't submit to Michael Alter's deadlines and the amount of work required, I ought to at least read these books.
Footnote 84:
  • Note that Backup_Prune_Ctrl deletes (relevant) pages that weren't regenerated in the last full site-regen, but this isn't the same thing.
Footnote 85:
  • These are URLs that were used in web pages but hadn't yet been converted to the +WnnnW+ format, so appeared at the end with no WebRef ID.
Footnote 86:
  • See Sistrix (https://www.sistrix.com/smart/)
  • This used to be called Optimizr, see Optimizr (http://www.optimizr.com/) (which now auto-forwards to Sistrix).
  • A quick look doesn’t show it to be an obvious scam, but I need to double-check.
  • An unsolicited analysis of my site turned up monthly from Optimizr from January 2015 to October 2017, listing a large number of “problems” that I think I know about, but which are in the queue to address.
  • It restarted in February 2018, under the Sistrix name (this seems to have been associated with Optimizr since November 2015).
  • The free version of this software is restricted to 1,000 pages, which is a very small proportion of my Site, though I may be able to point it to difference base-URLs.
  • But I do need to address the problems validly itemised, and a sub-set is still useful.
Footnote 88:
  • Well, maybe with the occasional holiday, and excluding days on which I have a lesson or the Enigma Ensemble (currently in hibernation).
Footnote 89:
  • I don't intend to present these for the Trinity exams, as I can present Orchestral Audition pieces instead; but they are essential for technique.
Footnote 90:
  • I've yet to decide which to present for the Exam, so this long list will get whittled down in due course.
Footnote 91:
  • These are just the ones from the Trinity schedule that I happen to have. Some look rather fearsome.
  • The only one I've had assigned is the Second Movement of the Saint-Saens.
Footnote 92: Ie. The following:- Footnote 96:
  • This used to say "full participation", but I've let the team captain know that my focus is now on Bridge, and that - while I'm willing to "fill a board" - I don't want to take the place of anyone more enthusiastic.
  • In any case, there's now no over the board chess to be had.
Footnote 102:
  • Though I will probably book the time against my Thesis, as it involves what it is to be a person, transhumanism and the like.


Note last updated: 30/05/2020 09:43:12


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  1. Black: Printable Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2020
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Timestamp: 30/05/2020 09:45:20. Comments to theo@theotodman.com.