Page 1: All about Reductionist Design |
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Michael Ohene.
xxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxx,USA
mohene1 at yahoo.com

Update: September 03, 2010


Introduction

I recently added the Caked-Face Menace web-based baking application. It identifies bad recipes, performs conversions, and bread baking calculations.

This page is a blackboard of ideas about reductionist design and controlled language; reduction meaning simple not simplistic. This all begins by writing down what would happen if someone actually defined words we use everyday, situations that define everyday, etc. The benefit of reductionism is: intuition, understanding, inherent error checking, and being able to take concise notes that can later be used to reproduce the original intent/item/subject. It is also a means of compressing knowledge to save time and increase accuracy.

Below, I have around 8 sections detailing my projects; some 'preliminary', some 'developed'.



Section 1. Linguistics
'Visual analytics', 'data clustering', 'information architectutre', and other terms are avoided in describing my work, because they are essentially new words for old concepts. What is the alternative? 1a. Acrophobia shows revamped engineering terms. The basis of Acrophobia is 1b. Semantics.

The authors I have referenced include:
Theodor Adorno
Mark Lauer
Sir Thomas Browne

Section 2. Knots
Despite thousands of years of knot tying, there is no accepted notation for tying knots. My work is not the popular 'knot theory'. My knot notation (Knots) describes how to actually tie a knot. The notation started out as a specialized notation for tying neck ties. This was developed by Cambridge University physicists Fink and Mao, I have since generalized, appended, and slightly redefined their notation. The pdf I have written to explain my knot notation is very preliminary.

Authors I have referenced:
Ashley
Thomas Fink
Yong Mao

Section 3. Bridges
I wrote a computer program to deal with the mathematical problem of how many truss types exist. With Knowledge Representation, a simple notation, I am able to rediscover the Warren, Whipple, Baltimore, and Low Warren truss. The end result was; using up to 14 web members there are roughly 405 possible truss designs that meet Euler's stability equation, i.e. are statistically determinable.

truss.tar.gz - is a tar zipped Matlab/Octave program for the output5.txt file.

Section 4. Baking
There are many bad recipes floating around. These recipes waste our time and money. This can all be avoided by using the Cake-Faced Menace application I wrote.

4a. Baking - Article at CookingforEngineers.com
4b. Caked-Face Menace Application

Section 5. Floral Arrangement
5. Floral Arrangement - what makes good floral arrangement for flower baskets, gardens, and landscapes? I visited Chicago's Magnificient Mile (400-900 Michigan Avenue) and derived a pattern for garden arrangement. This is the best example I have of deriving design criteria from physial arrangements.

Section 6. Programming 'Templates'
Passing Variables in C - Quickly understand and master how to pass any variable in the C programming language by avoiding theoretical programming guides.

Section 7. Lettres
7a. Letter about ideas
7b. Ohene v. Louisiana State Univ. Transportation Dept.
7c. Baton Rouge Bicycle Map


Section 8. Projects on Hold
American Residential Electricity Usage with respect to electricity price is graphed in the previous link. I hold that electricity use is governed by three main factors: the culture to which one belongs, the temperature, the price of electricity, and therefore has very little if nothing to do with personal sentiments. I have included climatic groupings necessary to show the electricity/price relationships. These climatic groupings were performed using weighted population averages for each state as shown in this spreadsheet


Section 9. Box Folding
Box stability may predicted by diagrams. The logic of stability is converted into the logic of symmetry. I have put this project on hold, because it appears that the diagrams I use are a bit limited.


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