You’re a Doer.
You are very quick at getting tasks done. You believe the outcome is the most important part of a task and the faster you can reach that outcome the better. After all, time is money.
–Will here. The alternative to a doer is the planner. I will plan but sometimes a prototype is needed to make sure that you are doing the right thing. Personally I’d do after I make sure the requirements are in place. And that’s just the prototype that’s willing to be changed. I suspect I’m right on the edge of the two states in this case.
You like coding at a Low level.
You’re from the old school of programming and believe that you should have an intimate relationship with the computer. You don’t mind juggling registers around and spending hours getting a 5% performance increase in an algorithm.
– I’m comfortable with high level coding and scripting but that last 5% is a bit on the mark. There is an old quote which goes “Art is never finished, its just abandoned”. The same is almost true of software. The almost is because software has a “next version”. Getting something working out there is one if the basics of rapid prototyping. Technology changes, requirements change. Having said that, there is a point when a new feature shouldn’t go in, but become a new tool. Keep an eye on that.
You work best in a Team.
A good group is better than the sum of it’s parts. The only thing better than a genius programmer is a cohesive group of genius programmers.
– I like working with people. Solo works for me when I’m deep in a function, doing that 5%. The rest of the time I like to be able to bounce ideas. Software needn’t be lonely.
Besides, I do believe in code reviews. You tend to be too close to the code to see something is missing or wrong based on the reqs. Other eyes make sense. That way you can ensure the comments match the code if nothing else, see below.
You are a liBeral programmer.
Programming is a complex task and you should use white space and comments as freely as possible to help simplify the task. We’re not writing on paper anymore so we can take up as much room as we need.
– This is a mix of a learned and an acquired taste. Write a piece of un-commented code. Leave it alone for six months (or six days). Then come back and look at it. Unless you’ve written very accurate function names and variable names, the code will take a while to sink in. Its better explaining in the code (as comments) what you want it to do, in case someone else thinks its meant to do different, and how it works. Its the team programming thing mixed with the big bus theory (which roughly goes as “Splat! Oh noes, that’s the only one who can fix the code”.) And remember to change the description if you change the functionality of the code.
Its also that if you are indispensable, you can’t be promoted.
Decisions for Heroes is a project that Robin Blandford has been working on for a while. And talking about it. In fact I assumed that the product has been launched a few months back. I was wrong; today is launch day.
And he’s built something amazing – technology that will help rescue teams save more lives. Its essentially a project management tool combined with an incident reporting mechanism that’s able to monitor team histories and readiness and raise alarms for expiration or under manning conditions.
What makes it different is that it is designed for a particular niche; rescue teams. Are the exercises and training reflecting the actual calls? Or the actually locations? Are there enough cliff climbers on-call this weekend? Are there certifications that are about to run out? This kind of thing actually saves lives. Its been studied, over 1,800 rescuers from Ireland, UK, USA, Greece, and Australia helped to trial and shape the development of the software. But one stands out. Robin is a volunteer member of the Irish Coast Guard (a cliff rescue climber to be precise) so he has seen first hand what is needed, and what is the most useful way to get that information across.
I’m sure that the basis of D4H can be used in more business-like settings, or indeed in logistic based industries.
And from saving lives, we move to a performance management technology that may cost the careers of a few politicians.
Created by John HandelaarKildare Street is, almost simply a database. A database of what is being said in both Houses of the Oireachtas, by whom, when, how often and the complete text of what they say so it can be parsed for content. Based off the UK project, theyworkforyou.com, you can keep an eye on your favourite politician, or all the politicians in a constituency, or even when a particular word or phrase is spoken in the Dáil or Seanad Éireann debates or in written answers or questions to the Dáil.
There are a few bugs still in the system (it is a beta and since Irish addresses are vague it can misidentify a constituency, particularly when one side of a road is in one constituency, and the other side is in another constituency. It happens), and there is up to a 24 hour delay between the speech in the chambers and the text of the speech hitting the system (not a fault with the system but with the source; debates.oireachtas.ie.
Its useful to find out which TD or Senator has stayed quite all along (the records go back to 2004), and finding out how they actually voted on subjects of concern to you. Then you can challenge them when they call around asking for your vote.
Do challenge them. Right now, I’m wondering if there is a version for the MEPs.
Two people who should be praised for being heroes and making a difference.
Oddly for me, women have had a lot to do with my personal computing history.
I grew up with the low level grown and high pitched squeal of arcade machines. Computer games. So when the chance came to learn how to program a game on the old Commodore 64 I leapt at the chance.
The teacher in the classroom teaching Commodore basic, was a woman (whose name I simply cannot remember. Kineally or Keneally. Back then every teacher was either “Miss” or “Sir”). At this point I’m not going to name names unless she blogs, or at least tweets.
Later on, I watched the “video” games review TV show (or rather several, but all) hosted by Aleks Krotoski who still has a hand in the games world and quite possibly will never leave technology in particular how it impacts on people.
Later on came college (if the class wasn’t an odd number 50% of the class would have been women) and work in general.
Indirectly I worked under Padmasree Warrior, and female programmers were no different to the male programmers in the eyes of the code in Motorola.
Later the world of social media introduced me to Ellybabes, the first person I met at the first Irish Barcamp in Cork. To the coding evangelist (which might actually be part of her job title) that is Martha Rotter. To first Irish podcaster of either sex I met, and business guru Krishna De. To the promotional expert that is Maryrose Lyons. And to the best, and probably most fun, web designer; Sabrina Dent. To women who actually get thing done, like Laura Czajkowski and Alexia Golez.
So why isn’t there equality among the sexes for a job that normally requires communication, concentration and heavy thinking? It could be fictional role models and expectations as Naomi Alderton suggests.
Maybe.
But if you have a daughter, let her know that computers aren’t just for the boys. And if you are involved in technology yourself, take a look at the Geek Girl Dinners.
Sometimes a song will enter your head and refuse to leave. This time it was the first four lines of the song that got in there, and refused to go. No real choice but to hunt it down and listen to it to at least finish off the song.
The song is “Love, thy will be done” by Martika. Now as much as I would like to say that the title crept in there purely because of the onset of Saint Valentine’s Day, part of it is because I’m investigating (OK, playing with) the game engineLÖVE.
Some RSS readers will have to click through to watch.
The odd thing about this is, apart from being a touch more “chill out” than I remember it being, that the video (recorded in 1991 at the latest) doesn’t really look dated. I guess looking stylish rather than in fashion does pay off.
Before you go to a Twestival, how should you keep an eye out for your friends off Twitter? Well, why not wear your Twitter friends? (yes that does sound like a very bad superhero team).
Wear their faces on your chest. (eewww) OK, pictures of their faces. Better? Or have their mug on your mug.
Walter Higgins at Sxoop (pronounced Skoop, or Scoop) is a image manipulation software developer for a a while now. The headlined Pixenate, an online photo editor, is integrated on many sites worldwide. He also has a history of making image manipulation tools for Twitter. He’s responsible for all the Santa hats this Christmas, and he’s brought out something new, the Twitter Mosaic.
You tell it your Twitter user name (no need for a password) and it generates a mosaic of all your twitter friends or followers. A big image. This can be turned into Mugs, T-Shirts and Bags.
All of this is made possible because of Web2.0 and the philosophy of open APIs (both Twitter’s and Zazzle’s). What has been done recently at http://sxoop.com/twitter/ simply wouldn’t have been possible a few short years ago. Needless to say, these APIs are being battered at the moment. Walter has more details on how to get things running quickly too and the end products seem to be reviewed very well.
So you can create a physical social (media) object and drink to the health of your fellow Tweeters from a Twitter Mosaic mug (hopefully full of clean water thanks to Charity:Water) and wear your friends in public.
The Twitter Mosaic is indeed the beneficiary of a Tuesday Push, so soon after demoing it at the Cork Open Coffee Club. And yes I got to know Walter through the Open Coffee movement. However its a cool idea, a great set of products and it since to see someone in Ireland making money in there times. And making money while Twitter is still trying out how.
Source: WikipediaChain Factor is an apparently simple flash based game. You are dropping numbered (and blank) discs on to a grid. If the number on the disc corresponds to the number of touching discs in that row or column, then all the discs of that number in the row and column vanish and the remaining discs drop down. The blank discs reveal their number when a 2 discs touching it has been removed from play. Levels progress with a new line of blank discs sprouting up on the bottom row. Seems simple, plays hard and is a touch too addictive. So be warned.
We all know that technology isn’t magic, but as Robin Blandford points out, few customers care about how it works. They just want to see things working. And if its a mash-up, then the data sources don’t matter as long as it works.
but I’m a tinkerer, and I care. I just don’t always have the time to tinker. So has anyone gotten the “Tweet-to-speech” Yahoo Pipe mash-up working. I know I’m missing something, but I can’t see what I should do with it. Do I need a grazr account to hear my tweets?
And given I mentioned mash-ups, GHP has been busy with Spliced Krispies, so here is a little memory of old Saturday mornings, with added Supremes.
I like listening to thing I shouldn’t. Sometimes I get things for “overheard” posts (which I really ought to do more of) and sometimes I hear interesting things. Like Bernie Goldbach talking to his students about the work of Flight 404, who is also known as Robert Hodgin.
As well as the ubiquitous day-job, he also spends time playing/working with Processing. Processing is an open source, multi-platform programming language and environment for people who want to program images, animation, and interactions. It is used by students, artists, designers, researchers, and hobbyists for learning, prototyping, and production. It is also a visualization programming language. One for creating images. However it uses Java as its base, so it might be correctly described as a programming extension library (Processing code can be exported as Java) and IDE for Java.
I know, another programming language library. Ho-hum. However this one is, well, bloody beautiful. Take a look at what you can do with it (I’d advise using full screen).
The language is designed for work like this. I’d love to see it mixed with a physics engine. Robert goes through the details of how he created the above demo and it seems a little intensive, but fun. Given that unless things change I might be back at programming school soon, now is probably not the time to start a new language (or is it exactly the right time?). I would love to play with this visualization method on a couple of mashups. I’m thinking about music, but I can see it working on time related information such as relative population sizes or economic data.
What can I say, my mind moves in odd places sometimes.
or as it’s more accurately called, the Chewbacca defence but what about the geek defence.
The Geek Defence is the nickname given used in the trial of Hans Reiser accused of the disappearance and murder of his wife Nina. The basis of the defence is that a geek doesn’t seem to think that certain weird things are, well, normal. For example, removing the battery from his mobile phone (and also his wife’s mobile) in order to prevent tracking.
So it might be possible for geeks and nerds to use the (not uncommon in the computer programming industry) Asperger’s Disorder as a defence? Oh goodie, let me get my axe.
This is an oddity, but I’m looking at the Rabbit the Programmer site (which is just the one cartoon at the moment). It’s rather charming, but is it C#?
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