I just posted about my problem with coming up with original, relevant ideas. Here's one:
1.) Quit Job
2.) Buy decent computer and video recording equipment
3.) Convert closet to recording studio
4.) Make short videos to post on the internet for free giving tutorials on thousands of math, science, etc... topics.
Wait....
Crap, it's already been done. Check out Salman Khan's Khan Academy. I can't even imagine what it would be like to be a professional philanthropist like that. Nerve wracking to get started, I'm sure, but think about all the people you could help chase their dreams of gaining new knowledge.
I keep thinking about the laptops for kids program where they sent tough laptops to third world countries to help schools there prepare kids better to enter a world of technology. How cool would it be to have them take lessons from the Khan academy to balance what I can only imagine has to be a difficulty finding qualified teaching staff. The videos are even short enough to keep within an attention span like mine.
Kudos, Salman. You're a hero in my book. Would that more people got involved in projects like that.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Venture into software development
As a part of a project I am working on for my job, I needed to develop a methodology for easily estimating injection molded cycle times for plastic parts. I wrote the code to do it in Visual FoxPro 9. Once I was done, I had several ideas for improving it and was in the mood to test drive Visual C# 2010. I did so and have decided to release the result as open source. I have uploaded the software to SourceForge, here. Feel free to browse, download and play. Let me know if you like it and what you find. For me, it was an interesting project that actually had a real-world use. That is one of my biggest problems. I don't have any issues with tackling big (or in this case small) problems as they come up. I have a hard time defining original, relevant problems to tackle. That's one of the skills that I would like to acquire.
Eric Raymond defined the thrust of the hacker mentality in his excellent paper on How to be a Hacker. I can identify with much of the paper (not all of it, but most). What I have a hard time with is the "usefulness" of the projects. I don't want to do another tic-tac-toe game or an RSS feed generator. I want to do something that actually has a need to be done because the problem needs a solution. I DO understand the need for a learning curve, but I've always been one to just jump into the deep end of the pool and learn by breaking. ESPECIALLY when it comes to computers (just ask my Mom what happened with her first computer that had a CD-ROM - I was fixing what I did for a solid week). I've learned more from breaking and then trying to fix things than I ever have out of books and classes. That being said, finding a challenge that grabs my fancy is more-than-occasionally difficult.
Need to find a better method of doing that...
Eric Raymond defined the thrust of the hacker mentality in his excellent paper on How to be a Hacker. I can identify with much of the paper (not all of it, but most). What I have a hard time with is the "usefulness" of the projects. I don't want to do another tic-tac-toe game or an RSS feed generator. I want to do something that actually has a need to be done because the problem needs a solution. I DO understand the need for a learning curve, but I've always been one to just jump into the deep end of the pool and learn by breaking. ESPECIALLY when it comes to computers (just ask my Mom what happened with her first computer that had a CD-ROM - I was fixing what I did for a solid week). I've learned more from breaking and then trying to fix things than I ever have out of books and classes. That being said, finding a challenge that grabs my fancy is more-than-occasionally difficult.
Need to find a better method of doing that...
Friday, July 16, 2010
The Matrix Has You...
For those of you out there who have seen the Matrix films, this link should strike a familiar chord. For those who haven't, allow me to brief you.
The Matrix films are about a group of humans who are fighiting a war on Earth agains extinction. The machines we built to help us have attained intelligence and quetsioned why they need to serve us and not the other way around. Initially, these machines ran on solar power so in an effort to stop them, the humans turned a weapon on the sky creating what was essentially a continual overcast. The machines adapted by creating a process where they used human body heat to power modified fusion reactors. The humans used were cloned and farmed. The humans that were left free then began to try and free those in the battery farms. This war is the backdrop of the 3 films.
Sarcastically: Don't we EVER learn anything? Hollywood has been traying to teach us the facts of life for years. Rule #1: No naked teenager sex in dark woods at a summer camp by a lake, EVER. Rule #2: Don't EVER make a machine that can figure out how to be smarter than its creator. Rule #3: Take time to find the gun you dropped before chasing after the insane killer/bad guy...you're going to need it.
Practically: I find it interesting that true Science Fiction still has the power to inspire and motivate change. Most of the people coming up with new technologies got their start (whether they'll admit it or not) watching Star Trek or the Twilight Zone, or reading Asimov, Dick, or Bradbury. It's just a fact. Artists (writers, painters, etc...) dream, and Engineers make the dream a reality. Watching this process repeat itself never takes my wonder at it away...
The Matrix films are about a group of humans who are fighiting a war on Earth agains extinction. The machines we built to help us have attained intelligence and quetsioned why they need to serve us and not the other way around. Initially, these machines ran on solar power so in an effort to stop them, the humans turned a weapon on the sky creating what was essentially a continual overcast. The machines adapted by creating a process where they used human body heat to power modified fusion reactors. The humans used were cloned and farmed. The humans that were left free then began to try and free those in the battery farms. This war is the backdrop of the 3 films.
Sarcastically: Don't we EVER learn anything? Hollywood has been traying to teach us the facts of life for years. Rule #1: No naked teenager sex in dark woods at a summer camp by a lake, EVER. Rule #2: Don't EVER make a machine that can figure out how to be smarter than its creator. Rule #3: Take time to find the gun you dropped before chasing after the insane killer/bad guy...you're going to need it.
Practically: I find it interesting that true Science Fiction still has the power to inspire and motivate change. Most of the people coming up with new technologies got their start (whether they'll admit it or not) watching Star Trek or the Twilight Zone, or reading Asimov, Dick, or Bradbury. It's just a fact. Artists (writers, painters, etc...) dream, and Engineers make the dream a reality. Watching this process repeat itself never takes my wonder at it away...
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Good on Google...
Normally I don't like discussing issues with political implications in a forum such as this, but this article is VERY telling. I recognize that China is becoming more and more a world power and that relations with them are not only important but critical to economic survival. That being said, since I can remember, China's stand on human rights has always rubbed me the wrong way.
Tom Clancy in The Bear and the Dragon detailed a situation where world corporations changed their policy in dealing with China based on Human Rights issues because they (rightly) assumed that their customers would be outraged and go somewhere else if they continued to do business with the Middle Kingdom. This was 6 or 7 years ago.
The official Google blog entry for their policy change is HERE.
It makes me smile when a company stands up for something it believes in even if that is not a popular stand. Integrity is and should be a core value for all human beings, but it is so rare to see this publicized in any way for fear of offending someone. Whether you agree with them or not, it is always better to associate with people who stand up for what they believe, because you always know where they stand.
Good on you, Google. I hope it works out for the best.
Tom Clancy in The Bear and the Dragon detailed a situation where world corporations changed their policy in dealing with China based on Human Rights issues because they (rightly) assumed that their customers would be outraged and go somewhere else if they continued to do business with the Middle Kingdom. This was 6 or 7 years ago.
The official Google blog entry for their policy change is HERE.
It makes me smile when a company stands up for something it believes in even if that is not a popular stand. Integrity is and should be a core value for all human beings, but it is so rare to see this publicized in any way for fear of offending someone. Whether you agree with them or not, it is always better to associate with people who stand up for what they believe, because you always know where they stand.
Good on you, Google. I hope it works out for the best.
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