"I'll be on vacation so I won't be checking email.''
"I can't be at the meeting since I will be out of town''
Technology has made it so that:
a) You really CAN get email when you are on vacation.
b) You really CAN go to a meeting if you are out of town (if the meeting is on Zoom which is becoming more and more common). (My proofreader tells me that Zoom is spelled with a capital Z. I did not know that! The phrase I Googled is formally correct, though I googled is acceptable. I have never seen anyone say or write I Binged or I binged for searching, though I have seen I binged watched Babylon Five for example. I have never seen I Yahooed or I yahooed for search or for any other reason. Fun fact: the term Yahoo was coined by Jonathan Swift for use in the book Gulliver's Travels.)
Caveats:
1) You are on vacation! You DO NOT WANT to answer email!
2) You are out of town at a conference and the meeting is at the same time as a talk you want to go to.
3) There are too many meetings so it's good to have an excuse to not go to some.
Personal:
This is one issue where I may be LESS of a Luddite than Lance:
When Lance is on vacation, he DOES NOT get email.
When I am out of town, I DO get email, and respond to it. This first struck me when I was on a riverboat cruise in France and I got an email from my chairman asking if I would be on some committee (I said yes). I was more `in contact' than people on campus who don't respond to email.
How we talk about things: My advisor told me he would be giving a talk in Zurich. I azoomed he meant a talk on Zoom. He actually meant in person. Fortunately it was recorded so I didn't have to get up at 5:00 a.m. to see it. (My spellcheck thinks azoomed is not a word. It is correct. For now.)
I would not say that during vacations I do not want to answer emails. I would just say that I am in vacations. Because, vacations does not mean "no course to teach" and "not in the office", this is called remote work!
ReplyDeleteMakes me wonder if I am ever on vacation.
DeleteBill, can you clarify what you mean by Lance doesn't get mail when he is on vacation? Is his email turned off in some way? how? he unplugged it?
ReplyDeleteGood point- All I know is that he doesn't respond to MY emails or to blog-approval requests. Maybe he taking a vacation from Bill. Or from the Blog. Or Both.
DeleteWhen I'm on vacation I disconnect. I turn off notifications and don't check the work email. There are people who know how to reach me if there's an emergency but with strict orders not to. I delegated authority to the associate dean. The college can run just fine without you for a couple of weeks.
Delete@Lance, who got the answer to emulating the Turing machine with a stay put option, via one with only Left Right move under the condition that you do not increase the size of states nor alphabet?
DeleteI thought there's consensus that this cannot work without increasing at least alphabet or states ... but looking forward to the clever resolution you are proposing!
I will post the answer on the socials 24 hours after I asked it.
Deletenice and thank you for posting. Yes this is rather clever play on emulating the full scope behavior of a TM vs emulating the critical usage for which the TM was designed for, i.e., accept or reject the language. For the former, it is impossible to do w/out expansion of either state set or alphabet set, for the latter, you just designed a nice path.
DeleteHaha … ok … nice!
ReplyDeleteZurich is nice. Come visit us!
ReplyDeleteTruer statement: Zurich is nicer than Bern, that is for sure.
ReplyDelete