Dynamic Subspace

Category: Research

  • Solving a Problem with LEGO Technic: Display Stand for 8″ Samsung Galaxy Tab Active3 Enterprise Edition

    Samsung Galaxy Tab Active3 held at 14 degrees from the vertical with a DIY LEGO Technic stand.

    This past year, I’ve been using an 8″ Samsung Galaxy Tab Active3 tablet and its S-Pen for most of my reading and note taking. In particular, I use the Samsung Note app to annotate and highlight PDFs of research. When I’m copying quotes and citations into my writing, I have had trouble finding a good way to position the tablet on my desk so that I could read its screen while typing up quotes and my notes. Occasionally, I had been using Syncthing (I wrote about how to setup a Raspberry Pi Zero as a central hub for your documents synchronized with Syncthing here) to synchronize my annotated PDFs on the tablet with my PC, but its sometimes better to save my PC screen’s real estate for my writing and rely on the tablet screen for reading–essentially adding to my screen real estate.

    Today, I decided to pull out a tub of LEGOs to solve my problem about how to easily read and interface with the tablet while typing on my desktop computer’s keyboard, because LEGO is a versatile building medium that is great for play, art, and solving problems. Since I don’t often use all black bricks in my projects, I decided to build a tablet display stand using only black LEGO Technic bricks and elements.

    LEGO Technic display stand at 3/4 view without the tablet.

    I employed the 4-brick long L-shaped technic elements to create the place where the tablet is held by the display stand. It can rotate freely, but it is held in place against the vertical wall of 10-stud Technic bricks that support the back of the tablet when it is in the stand.

    Side view of the LEGO Technic tablet display stand without the tablet in place.

    The rear support of the stand, which maintains the ~14 degree from the vertical position of the tablet holding pincers on the left of the photo above and supports the back of the tablet has several layers of Technic bricks held together by frictional force as well as 3-stud and 2-stud-long connector pegs. I don’t think the stand needs as much support as I provided on the right side of the photo above, but I wanted to use up as many black Technic bricks while building a stand that took up a minimum of desk space.

    Rear 3/4 view of the LEGO Technic tablet display stand.

    The photo above shows how the layers of bricks are arranged in the rear of the stand to support the height and weight of the tablet when it is in the stand.

    Rear view of the LEGO Technic tablet display stand.

    The above photo shows the rear of the display stand. Note that the 6-stud Technic brick in the middle of the photo that connects to the perpendicular 4-stud Technic bricks beneath it is connected to the rear support layers with 2 x 2-stud connector pegs.

    Finally, the bottom view of the display stand is shown above. Connector pegs are used to connect all bricks on the bottom most layer of the display stand.

    I hope that the photos and descriptions above give you some ideas about how to use LEGO to solve a problem with holding something–in this case, a digital tablet. Not only can LEGO help you solve problems, but it can help you save money by allowing you to solve one problem and reconfigure the bricks to solve new problems as they arise and the old problems are no longer a concern (i.e., use LEGO over and over instead of buying solutions and trashing obsolete ones).

  • Updates to the Neuroscience and Science Fiction Literature Chronological Bibliography

    Brain illuminated from within and transparent face. My brain MRI scan used with ControlNet. Image created by Stable Diffusion.

    Following my recent updates of the Generative AI and Pedagogy Bibliography and Skateboarding Studies Bibliography, I’m happy to announce that I’ve made significant changes and additions to the Neuroscience and Science Fiction Literature Chronological Bibliography that I created on 2 April 2015 but hadn’t updated since 2019.

    Overall, the page now has a table of contents that helps with understanding and navigating the page’s wealth of information. In the primary source list, I added headings and dividers for decades and years with the titles in each year being alphabetized by author’s last name. Also, the biggest improvement was reformatting each entry in the latest MLA style with information gleaned from my research and the Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Those stories and chapters that I did not have on hand are therefore listed without inclusive page numbers (I will add these as I source each item). In the secondary sources list, I reordered these alphabetically by author’s last name as these are a reference source and chronology isn’t as important as it is for the primary source list.

    The number of sources listed in the primary source list increased 61% from 103 to 166. Each includes parenthetical notes about the specific brain-related narrative elements. Many thanks to James Davis Nicoll and the commenters on his “Get Out of My Head: SFF Stories About Sharing Brain-Space With Someone Else” (Tor.com, 8 Nov. 2018) article for contributing some of the new titles to the primary source list.

    The number of second sources increased 141% from 17 to 41, which includes a French title that I can’t wait to get my hands on: Laurent Vercueil’s Neuro-Science-Fiction (Le Bélial, 2022).

    I’ll continue adding to this bibliography as well as the others that I maintain as a part of my research interests. If you have a useful source that I should add, please send it my way. Also, I’m open to collaboration, so let me know if you’re likewise inclined and would like to discuss a project!

  • Updates to the Skateboarding Studies Bibliography

    Illustration of skateboarders skating a halfpipe, surrounded by night sky. Created with Stable Diffusion.

    While working on the Generative AI and Pedagogy Bibliography the other day, I realized that I had neglected the Skateboarding Studies Bibliography for the past few years. To bring it up to speed, I updated it with some new rigorous books and articles along with some lighter, reference works for the would-be skateboarder (or researcher who needs the name and steps for a particular trick). The book section more than doubled in size to 33 sources, and the articles and book chapter section grew by a handful to number 87 now. Going forward, I plan to break the bibliography into focused sections as I did on the Generative AI and Pedagogy Bibliography. I’ll post an update when that gets done. In the meantime, I hope that you find something useful to read on the list!

  • Updates to the Generative AI and Pedagogy Bibliography

    A cute humanoid robot writing at a desk with bookshelf in background. Image created with Stable Diffusion.

    Over the weekend, I made some significant updates to the Generative AI and Pedagogy Bibliography and Resource List page, which includes background, debates, teaching approaches, applications, disciplinary research, and a list of online resources. I started it as a place to organize my own research while sharing it back out to others.

    It now features a table of contents at the top of the page under the introduction.

    I added about 50 articles and books to the bibliography, which now contains 232 sources.

    And, I added three links to the resource list at the bottom of the page which brings it to 42 links.

    I will periodically add more entries to the list as my own research progresses. But, it’s important to note that this bibliography isn’t meant to be exhaustive.

  • My Chapter on “Blindness in Science Fiction” is Now Out in Sharon Packer’s Lenses on Blindness Collection

    Lenses on Blindness book cover featuring Denzel Washington from film The Book of Eli.

    I’m very happy to announce that Dr. Sharon Packer’s edited collection Lenses on Blindness: Essays on Vision Loss in Media, Culture, Religion and Experience is now out from McFarland! It includes a chapter that I wrote back in Summer 2020 titled, “Blindness in Science Fiction: From Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to Star Trek’s La Forge–And Much More.” It covers examples of blindness depicted in literary, television, and film SF. Many thanks to Sharon, a fantastic editor who saw the project through despite the pandemic’s slings and arrows!