| Further blog overhaul musings.
A potential name, since all good Real Blogs have names: Ideas Under Construction
And some terminology/categorization:
Article: A short statement of belief or manifesto or somesuch on a given topic that is intended to be a work in progress for a long time. Relies heavily on revisions. A given revision may be indicated as the offspring of a post.
Post: The more traditional "blog post." Revisions are used sparingly, relying instead on offspring to indicate new thoughts.
Edit: Oops-I-made-a-typo-grade changes. Treated as the same post, like in current blogs.
Revision: Oh-dear-I-overlooked-an-important-consideration-grade changes. Most recent revision will be shown by default, although all will be saved and accessible by a small box on the page. Comments will be tied to a certain revision.
Offspring: A way of saying that an article/post is inspired by a previous one. When viewing a given article/post/revision, a small box will list descendant/ancestor relationships and provide links.
Not so crazy about the offspring/ancestor nomenclature right now, but I definitely need some way of linking posts together that differs from a revision.
I'm also debating about whether each new revision should have the option to provide a brief explanation about why the changes, or about whether it would make more sense to use revisions themselves for that text.
Example A:
Revision 1
Boy, Republicans are stupid.
Revision 2
I can think of only two reasons someone might vote Republican: X, Y. Other than that, they're just stupid.
Okay, so maybe they're not all stupid. I guess under circumstances X and Y, it would make sense.
Revision 3
I can think of only three reasons someone might vote Republican: X, Y, Z. Other than that, they're just stupid.
I'm thinking about adding a third reason, Z.
Example B:
Revision 1
Boy, Republicans are stupid.
Revision 2
Okay, so maybe they're not all stupid. I guess under circumstances X and Y, it would make sense.
Revision 3
I'm thinking about adding a third reason, Z. | comments: 4 comments or Leave a comment   |
| For a long time, I've wanted to really get into blogging. I'm into lots of different things -- computers, politics, philosophy, science, religion, lolcats -- and in the course of those interests, I come across some very interesting things. Often, I feel compelled to share what I find with others.
The problem? It's not my personality:
http://www.personalitypage.com/INTP.html
http://typelogic.com/intp.html
I've long been someone who values truth above all else, as embodied in rationally- and empirically-based arguments; who "just gets" things at a certain point and goes with streams of intuition; whose beliefs are always subject to revision at a future date. Someone like that doesn't just write something down for the whole world to see... at least not without mulling over it for weeks, or months, or...
I thought about this as I watched one of Jon Stewart's excellent interviews:
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=212824&title=Arianna-Huffington
Arianna: Don't overthink it. Don't overwrite it. It's more the way you would e-mail a friend.
Jon: So, it's a first draft.
Arianna: It's a first draft of history. Exactly.
Jon: But isn't that a waste of people's time?!
Arianna: Blogging is not about perfectionism. It's about intimacy, immediacy, transparency, and sharing your thoughts.
Jon: But why should I give people the dreck? Shouldn't I try and focus it and make it as good as I can? Because, my other thoughts... there's a reason I haven't put them on the show!
Then, it hit me! I need an INTP blog: a blog program that supports revisions. Sure, most blog sites let you edit posts. But when people leave comments, it's frozen in time. How can a blog be adapted to accommodate someone who is constantly re-thinking and re-evaluating his thoughts? Who may reverse conclusions from one day to the next if new evidence becomes available? Whose beliefs are always tentative? There needs to be some way to adapt a blog to show the evolution of thought... to preserve the journey more than an edit and to track the progression more than a series of posts.
Is there one? I don't know of one. But I could write it! The tutorial for CakePHP -- a framework to which I became quite accustomed at my last job -- is a simple blog that can be customized easily enough to be slick and powerful. A few extra classifications for posts and it could accommodate easily enough for those times when I decide "no, I don't agree with this anymore," while still preserving what existed before.
Ultra-ambitious long-term goal: build a cheap new computer to use as a server, leave it hooked up and on 24/7, and host it myself. | | comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment |
| This happened the Friday after I got back to Boston from my Thanksgiving trip to visit family and friends.
I got into work in the morning as usual, when the owner came down and said there was a meeting upstairs that I needed to be in. I assumed it was related to the project I'd been working on. I was doing most of the development work for a venture capital client's new website and, because of endless delays and revisions in getting them to agree to a design, it was running up against the wire. As it was, we were planning to come in over the weekend to get it finished.
I grabbed my cup of coffee, went upstairs, and found only the owner and director of operations in the conference room. The owner said, owing to economic circumstances, they were making some layoffs and "had to let me go." We covered the details of when my last paycheck would be, continuing health coverage under COBRA, and I was escorted to collect my things and leave.
It was totally unexpected, but I suppose it makes sense to cut the newest employees first, which is what seemed to happen. And there seemed to be a significant number of people cut for a 23-person company. (Still, I wonder: why cut the guy working on the important project less than a week before it's due? They /still/ haven't finished it, almost a month later...)
At the urging of an old friend, I took a week off and did nothing to nurse the ol' ego. Being laid off is unpleasant on many levels, not just for the finances. And, as I recall well, since it was only a few months ago, job hunting shares many of those sources of unpleasantness.
I thought about putting in some grad school applications, since the news came just before the deadlines started coming. In the end, I decided against it. Better, I thought, to put in a really impressive application in a couple years and have an overwhelming chance at acceptance than to keep applying and get known as "that guy" who they stop paying attention to without hearing me out.
Plus this time around, I have a significantly bolstered resume to send to potential employers. Even though it was only three months, I do have experience now, so I can sell myself as someone who's /proven/ that he can do this professionally, not just someone who happens to have the skills. And although the "economic situation" means that new openings are tighter than before, at least I'm not looking for work in Michigan.
And, best of all, I may have a lead on a great new job already, even before my paychecks have stopped coming. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| It's been about a week and a half now since I picked up the T-Mobile G1: the first Android phone. I was very close to going OpenMoko, but that technology isn't mature enough yet (in a couple years, though...), and briefly flirted with the idea of a Blackberry from Verizon (that was a bad idea... I'm still trying to convince Verizon that I gave the phone back). I passed on the iPhone altogether because of the locked-down nature of the thing; having to jailbreak my phone just to use it really didn't sound like something I wanted to support.
So, the Google Phone. It is a Google phone. I've heard others say that if you use Google apps, this phone is leaps and bounds better than the iPhone. I do, and, in that respect, it is. The Gmail application is killer; it's quite literally changed my life. I realize that some of this is probably because I now have 3G internet on a modern piece of hardware, whereas I recently had slow internet on an old device. (And 3G internet is FAST... at my old house with flaky cable service, it was sometimes faster than the cable internet.) But e-mail has changed from something that I do at my computer to something I do on the bus. It's like getting 45 minutes more a day to get stuff done.
The keyboard is awesome. The keys on my old phone were raised up a lot and I was comfortable with that. But even though the G1 keys are barely raised, the keyboard is so large that I can type at a reasonable speed on it; I'd say about a quarter as fast as on a desktop keyboard, as a conservative estimate. For only two thumbs, that's not bad! It's allowed the phone to also cover the laptop niche in my life.
I've never used Google Calendar before now, much preferring the Palm-style organizer. But now that my company uses the Google app suite (mail, calendar, docs) extensively, I've shared my work calendar with my personal Gmail account and now have personal and work calendars on my phone. And I created another separate calendar to share with my new housemates where we list house events like guests, maintenance, trash days, etc.
The T-Mobile service is really great so far, too. I get a better plan for less money than I was paying AT&T, and the customer service is unbelievable compared with the big 3 companies. I called customer service to inquire about stopping spam text messages, and the guy asked if the on-hold elevator music was too unbearable and we talked about jazz while he was waiting for the computer system to process. It sounded like they were having some kind of party in the background.
The only thing that's really lacking is a broad selection of applications to do all the little things like shopping lists and note-taking that my Treo could do. But those app niches have started being filled on Android Marketplace (for free!) just a week after the phone's debut. I've run into a little unexpected stiffness unlocking the full potential of the device, but Android is so, SO much more open and accessable than any of the competition that there's not even any contest. It's like... well, Barack Obama versus the Republicans. The camera also sucks, but that's a small thing.
Purchase satisfaction: 95%! | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| As soon as I moved here, I gave the local gym (Bally) a try but found it was too cost-ineffective for my tastes. For people who like stationary bike-riding classes and need personal trainers, I think it would be a better deal. But I just went there to lift weights. I canceled my membership recently, partially because I have a replacement work-out activity.
One day as I was walking to the gym, I and noticed a local taekwondo school with a sign in front that said "lesson in session! Come in and observe," so I did. I'd wanted to give taekwondo a try before I moved, but put off starting... well, mostly because I was about to move. Sure enough, I liked what I saw, so I signed up. I only chose that school because it was nearby, but I seem to have stumbled onto a really great place. I've heard absolutely *glowing* comments from members and from postings on internet message boards. And there seems to be something to that.
The head teacher at the Cambridge school is one of the reasons I've liked the classes so much. When he describes which moves to drill or what sequence of punches and kicks to perform, he often does them himself first to demonstrate. And it's truly awesome to behold this little middle-aged Korean man *snap* into a different position with such force and agility. He's probably not even 3/4 of my size, but could beat me up without breaking a sweat. And he has that Yoda-like demeanor that just *makes* you give it everything you have.. When he conducts classes, he likes putting us through strength and agility drills that remind me of hockey conditioning workouts... even down to the "49... 49... 49....... 50!" at the end.
But this one teacher isn't the only reason the place is good. When I tested for my yellow-stripe belt a few weeks ago, the gradmaster of the school came to preside over the testing session. After we'd all done our thing and right before he finished the ceremony, he just started talking. Almost lecturing, really. He said he'd just gotten an e-mail about a competition to be featured on a big martial arts website--one that our school had won in the past and would probably win again. "There are thousands of schools on this website... a great honor." A big part of the reason for the success was that our school taught mostly adults. "Most schools only teach children. And it's good to teach this martial art to children. But with children, you can't teach them *real* fighting; they'd hurt themselves. Our school is unique. Look around you," and, indeed, there were probably 30 of us adults at the testing session. "Also, since taekwondo became an olympic sport, sport taekwondo has been taking over--flitty, flighty, weak kicks, darting in and out. The publicity is good. We have had many people looking to join. But taekwondo is about *fighting*, not scoring points. And we teach you that here. [Obviously, if you have a job and a real life, it would not be good to make people fight with Fight Club-esque intensity]." (He didn't actually refer to Fight Club, although he described a situation that bore an uncanny resemblance.) "But when you meet someone in a dark alleyway or a crazy person comes at you, you want to be able to fight back with everything you have! You know those 'Ultimate Fighting' competitions? Those are not all-out fighting. And boxing! Do you remember that boxer who bit the other man's ear? They criiiied and cried about that. But in the real world, when that crazy comes at you, you do whatever will stop him! We do not bite people in class, but we do teach you how to *fight*."
And after that, I was hooked. | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| Boston actually kind of skipped fall this year. It went from being shorts weather to being coat weather over a couple of days. The leaves seem to be kind of just hanging around eyeing each other nervously to see when to make a break for it.
Life in the real world with a job takes up a lot of time. Having spent so long in academia--where my ability to learn things quickly and expound eloquently sheltered me from normal people's time constraints and the necessity for good time management--I... I never knew. An 8 hour work day with a 30-minute commute each way, plus an hour-long taekwondo class, and there's not much time anymore during the week. When I try to have a social life, or there are other things going on (like, say, apartment-hunting) over top of that, there's even less. I wonder how normal people do it.
My current place, although very nice, will no longer be available because the owners are having a baby soon and have a parent moving in to help. But I knew it would only be a short-term lease when I moved in. My work commute is about 30 minutes in the morning, which isn't bad, but I'd rather be somewhere a bit closer.
Pictures of my room in the old place:
I'm moving tomorrow to a house near Harvard Square; specifically, it's less than a 10 minute walk to the west. From there, I can catch the bus to work without having to get on the subway first. The house is reasonably remodeled but still charming and old. It has three roommates and a tiny, winding staircase. The kitchen and bathroom are on different floors. I live on the bathroom floor in a room with two slightly slanted walls. I'll be paying $600/month plus $40-100 in utilities-- about $175 less than I'm paying now. | | comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment |
| Job hunting, by its very nature, is discouraging. Unless you have an offer in hand, you have to go sift through possible employers and offer to prostitute yourself out to them. Oftentimes, the job isn't an optimal fit for you, but you have to go for it anyway, because, hey--sometimes, work is work. Boston may not be Detroit, but the economy isn't in the best shape ever.
Fortunately, some of the jobs I've been looking at have been really awesome. Last Monday, I had an interview with a company that makes robots for underwater exploration for a position to help them make GUIs for their robots and occasionally go out on the water to help test them. While it's a hit to the ego to be rejected from a job you don't really want, at least you weren't invested in it. With the jobs you actually want, the rejections are really hard.
Last Friday, I went in for an interview with a company called Hunt & Gather.
It all started at a Boston Atheists meetup. We were at the bar, downing pints, and inevitably the conversation degraded from normal nerdiness (psychology, politics, philosophy) to computer nerdiness. (As someone commented, "I wonder sometimes whether we ought not call ourselves the Boston Atheist Computer Professionals.") Amid techno-geek gossip ("OMG, did you hear about what Google did this week?") I mentioned, as I have been mentioning a lot these days, that I was looking for a job in web development or software engineering. The guy sitting next to me turns to me and says, "really. What stuff do you do?" I mentioned that I'm hardcore XHTML/CSS, aspiring to build my rusty/shaky JS/PHP skills. "Really," he said again. "It just so happens that my company," for which, it turns out, he's head of development, "is looking for an XHTML/CSS developer. Let me give you my card... e-mail me your resume and I'll talk to some people at the office." The next week I got an e-mail asking to come in for an interview.
From the moment I got there, it was quite apparent that this was one of those awesome, hip web companies. Their office space is in an old mill building. The decoration is a mix of authentic run-down old-mill and slick modern. They have red vinyl paneling and stacks of old (IIGS-era) Apple hardware. A dog greeted me as I walked in. The interview took place in the kitchen. When they expanded to the point that they needed a second floor, they leased the space downstairs and had a spiral staircase put in. There were no cubicles in sight; in the development area, the curved desks are pushed together in groups ("the Flash guys are over there... that half of the floor is the design people"). Many of the employees were wearing t-shirts.
The company is like a hybrid web development firm/advertising agency. They work with clients (particularly new companies) to help them build their image, make some logos, get a website up and running, etc. They've got normal web development people, they've got normal graphic design people, and they work together for most clients. I liked the fact that they've got skilled people to do the making-it-pretty part of the job, and they liked the fact that I'm interested in front-end and back-end development.
The interview seemed to go well. They kept bringing new people over for me to talk to, sometimes just leaving us to sit and chat for a while. They all seemed intelligent and dynamic and cool. And they really seemed to appreciate my outlook and experiences. It seemed like not only would my way of doing things be tolerated, it would be welcome.
Today, I got an e-mail from the head of operations asking about my salary requirement. I e-mailed her back with a fair figure (reasonable for an entry-level web developer or software engineer in Boston) but saying that I was open to negotiation. (After all, this would be a pretty awesome place to work.) Ten minutes later I had an offer at that amount with respectable benefits. My job title is "developer." I start next Tuesday. | | comments: 9 comments or Leave a comment |
| Apparently, British photographer Steve Schofield recently did a series on geeks, people dressed up in costume, mostly Star Wars and Star Trek fans. Some of them are awesome and funny (like the stormtroopers in the mall/convention center or wookiee cooking lunch), some of them are slick and artsy (like the jedi looking out his window or the Starfleet officer in his living room), and only some of them are a little sad (like the 60-something Star Trek lady with no bra or the archetypal overweight Star Wars guy). In all of them, I like how the pictures consistently capture the mundane in what otherwise seems like an attempt to be as non-mundane as possible.
http://www.steveschofield.co.uk/gallery_lotf.html | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Near my house, there is a very funny sign that I walk by occasionally:
Poor Dr. Butt. I was speculating about whether kids laugh at him... and whether he uses that to his advantage to put them at ease, or whether he's an *ass* about it. Maybe he should have just been a proctologist to put all the butt jokes *behind* him.
The stuff writes itself. | | comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment |
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fisherman's journal
