The Curse Of Curiosity

It's my particular curse to be interested in just about everything I run across.  And I can never seem to just stop at a superficial level of knowledge - no, I've got to go whole hog. 

My library reflects this.  In it are books on programming, woodworking, auto mechanics, art and drawing, aircraft design, electronics, and a few others that escape memory right now.  Any one of those subjects can devour an entire lifetime.  Not to mention the various subsets of each that become a kingdom of their own.  You can spend your whole life on just one programming language, for instance.

It keeps life interesting, but it also makes it hard to make any real progress.  Which is why I sit at Square One with so much of this stuff.  Because to really excel at anything, you've got to commit.  And that means leaving other stuff behind.

There's the rub.  So much cool stuff, so little time.

In The Border-lands

Went to Border's Books today to soak up some of the discounts at their going-out-of-business sale.  I went earlier, when their bankruptcy was first announced, and even though the discounts weren't very steep (by my estimate - for a place that was selling out to the walls) it was hugely attended.

People at at that sale were lined up to the back of the store loading up on goodies.  I went today, just to see what was left.  I expected it to be pretty well cleaned out to the fixtures, but at the whole store 50-75% off I figured what the hell.

Well, the parking lot was full again, and quite a few folks were still vulturing over the remains.  A lot of the shelves were cleaned out, but got some good deals in the business and computing sections.

It occurred to me the reason they were good deals was because this was what these books SHOULD have been priced at originally!  I mean really, somebody's little breezy business tome in paperback is 25 bucks?  Not worth it.

Chop that down to 10 bucks or so, and I'll give it a look.  And judging from the parking lot, so will a lot of other people.

The printed book isn't dead......it's just overpriced.

Why does it have to be so hard?

Have been trying to use Kompozer, the open-source web-authoring tool.  Can't even figure out how to change a font!

I'm never sure why everything has to be so arcane.  I really support the whole open-source world, but the various communities really need to come up with some usability standards.  Too many times I've downloaded what looks like a useful tool only to find it is crapped up in either it's user interface or the fact that there is no documentation and absolutely no intuitive way of learning about things.

I find myself also torn between the Blogger platform and Wordpress.  Wordpress definitely gets more "play" it seems, but everything on that platform looks the same, and even to get the small number of features I'd like (blogroll, site stats, simple design with a relatively large readable typeface) I'd have to create my own theme.  Which means tweaking around with PHP, etc.  Ugh.

I live the fact I can put ads on Blogger while hosting on blogger.com.  Every little bit helps!

About the 8th re-design

Got rid of the "monk" theme, because I didn't like the legal-pad ruling background to the posts which made things hard to read.  This looks cleaner, until I tweak some HTML to get to where I want to be!

Not Quite There Yet....

Well, this is overall a better theme, but I don't like the way the text looks.....still have some tweaking to do!  But I do like the "monk" themed graphic!

Stay tuned for more tweaking....

A New Look

Finally got around to fooling with this a little bit - this theme seems to fit the Maker Monk style a little more!  Stay tuned for more tweaking!

I Have Seen The Future....And It's Really Expensive!

and I hope it works a lot better than the past did.

I enjoy technology - but when it comes to cell/smart phones...I am a total Luddite.  I use my cell phone so little that about a year and a half ago I switched to a pre-paid plan and saved a bundle by not having a monthly bill for minutes I didn't use.

I guess this lack of phone-worship stems from the fact that when I was part of the smart crowd and out doing interesting things worth talking about cell phones didn't exist.  So I never got in the habit of updating my status constantly while at the grocery store, or driving to work, or just having a drink.  And now that I'm old, I don't care what anybody else's status is.  I can wait to talk to them when they get back from the grocery store.

I had to go throw some new minutes on the old phone yesterday.  I think my total cell phone tab for 2011 so far is like 60 bucks.  While I was at the Verizon minute-store I looked around at the Wall of Wonder Phones they had there.  It wasn't that busy, so I actually got a chance to chat with the sales rep about what was there.
I looked at the Ipad, the Xoom, and wondered why people were so excited about something named the Droid Bionic.  The name alone gives you pause, like we can''t wait to turn into the Borg.

When I converted all this technology back into something I understand - dollars - I could see just what a bonanza these things were for the data carriers.  Because if you do the math:

1.  I am stuck with my expensive DSL service for my computers at home.  Face it, it's not like we can go back to dial up, and computers HAVE to be connected for updates and any other task other than printing a letter.  As the phone company has a monopoly - it's not like I can choose from several high-speed ISP's in the area - I"m screwed in excess of 100 bucks a month there.

2.  The wireless network and these devices are not an able substitute for a "real" computer with a high speed connection.  Data use is capped.  Stream a few Youtube videos and you've used up your bandwidth for the month.

3.  Ipso facto, you have to spring for them both if you really want to utilize the technology.  Which means in excess of 200 bucks a month just to connect up to the "world".  I remember when that was a car payment!
The only solution, for me, is to wait until the computers I have at home are so totally outdated that they are museum-worthy.  Then junk them, disconnect the DSL, and jump into whatever wireless platform exists at the time.  One that has a phone, camera, Internet access and barber shop.  And only pay ONE access fee - or if possible, pay as you go on that too!

Because for all the expense and my Luddite attitude, I have to admit - those Ipads are pretty slick!!!!

More With Less

In any physical system, efficiency is certainly one of the guiding principles of design.  I just pulled a book down from the ol' tech library and re-read it, pulling out new information like you always do when you go over something a second time.

That book is called, oddly enough "More With Less - Paul MacCready and The Dream Of Efficient Flight".  I picked it up out of the discount rack somewhere, which is too bad...it's a well written story.

As a little back story, Paul MacCready was the first to win the Kremer Prize for man-powered flight.  He also went on to found Aerovironment, which does work in a whole range of cutting-edge fields from battery technology to drone aircraft.

One thing that struck me the second time was MacCready's approach to problem-solving.  Just about everyone who had failed to win the Kremer Prize tried to make a man-powered aircraft look like, well, an aircraft.  MacCready didn't start there.  If you look at his Gossamer Condor design that won the prize, it truly is the "minimum viable product", to use a current buzzword.  Just enough Mylar shrink wrap and plastic tubing in the right arrangement to get the job done.

If you have a position to defend, you aren't open to alternative solutions.  Unfortunately we see that happen all the time, and it's crippling.  It's not enough to think outside the box - you have to ask why the box is square in the first place!

Back from visiting some REAL Makers

Just got back from visiting some friends who are airplane builders.  That is a REAL project!  Was very cool to see their projects - it is definitely not for the faint of heart.  Forgot my camera so I couldn't post pics, but the EAA links from this page will give you the idea.

Too Much Neat Stuff

I'm beginning to think that "real" books are a waste of time when it comes to teaching yourself programming.  The few I've picked up second-hand aren't that good, and seem to be more about documenting modules than showing you how to string it all together.
Found this little gem online, and got a recommendation from someone else who is in the process of learning programming.  It seems to get you to something tangible right away - with the other books I've got you seem to go from "Hello World" to a mish-mash of gibberish in about two paragraphs.

On a more tangible note...

Went to the American Crafts Council show today - saw a lot of talented people who make a lot of beautiful things.  Even saw some Steampunk gear show up, which is the first I've seen it at any of these shows, and I've gone for the last 5 years.
Fooled around with vPython a little bit - the tutorial on 3D was a lot more fun than some of the other stuff I've been working on, but I continue to grind away.  I think I need to come up with a project so that things aren't so "academic" in nature when it comes to learning Python

Inspiration!

Found this post on Hacker News this morning....was just what I needed to get out of the funk I've been in with trying to learn Python! Looks like this guy went the same route.
Note:  Due to it's being featured on Hacker News, I'm thinking the site is a little overwhelmed.  It seemed slow to load when I tried it this morning...

IDLEness

Got going on some Python Code today, and am having problems with the IDLE for Python, copied some stuff out of the Deitel book verbatim and it won't run!  Getting a syntax error I can't figure out, since it is right out of the book.

Either there's a typo in the book or my aged eyes are missing something.  Haven't really learned the IDLE interface too well, so will have to geek around in that until I figure it out.  Have another book on Python that is much "cleaner" in presentation.  The Deitel book is very verbose, but thorough....almost like it was written to make a weight/page requirement!

Widening the scope!

Have added a few links to the right sidebar.  There's MAKE magazine, which really doesn't need much explanation.  Also added the Experimental Aircraft Association, which I've been a member of forever!  The ultimate maker project has to be building your own airplane!
Going to make this a little more of a "what's cool" essay blog as opposed to the boring, all-about-me-learning programming blog that it was turning out to be.  Still plugging away on the Python, as well as HTML/CSS.

A Lesson From The Past

Found this interesting post about the German apprentice system.   I'm supportive of anything that builds craftsmanship and excellence, and these guys appear to be having a good time doing it!
We've lost so much of our trade and craft training here in the U.S. - it's a pity that community colleges and trade schools tore out all their "real" tools and built computer labs, for the most part.

The Two Brains

That's right - the two complete brains, not just right and left!  I seem to have to do a complete exchange since I have a hard time shifting between modes.  Assuming these modes exist for all of us.
I've been spending too much time in the touchy-feely writers world lately, and need to get something more concrete pounded into my head.  I realized this while reading the Deitel book last night.  When I read a narrative story, the flow of the story allows you to really "skim" through the words.  You don't have to digest each one to get the gist of what is going on.
Technical stuff isn't like that, which has been my downfall in the past.  You really need to chew on each word to get the meaning.  The first chapters of the Deitel book are mainly syntax, and very confusing to me at first glance.  But once you get past that, the rest of the book is a little more fluid in control structures and descriptions of objects, etc.
Because there really isn't any way to string syntax descriptions into a storyline, or flow smoothly from one to the other.  They are naturally disjointed - you just need to internalize them and use that knowledge to build on later.