Manifesto

Published June 30, 2013  ·  All posts on Jun 30

I blog, therefore I am?

No, the initial impetus was to find a place to permanently – or as permanently as the Internet offers – publish my father’s eulogy: In Memoriam. I started piling on things I thought were interesting, fun, or poignant. I wrote some wall-of-text email messages – actual writing with references and original ideas – in response to Aikido questions, and the blog split into the Scree and Aikido tags. Later, I was toying with the idea of organizing a network and system administration group in the Lehigh Valley, wrote a few things about that, and the blog grew… “Feed me Seymore!” …and grew…

What I didn’t expect was that the blog would become a “read more…” link for my brain. Someone says, “that’s interesting,” or “where did you read/hear/learn that?” …and I go,

Yeah, uh… it was on that web site, the one with the words… Wait, just go to my blog and hit the search box . . .

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Sally sells sea shells by the sea shore is simple compared to this

Published June 27, 2013  ·  All posts on Jun 27  ·  

The Chaos

Dearest creature in creation
Studying English pronunciation,
    I will teach you in my verse
    Sounds like corpse, corps, horse and worse.

I will keep you, Susy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy;
    Tear in eye, your dress you’ll tear;
    Queer, fair seer, hear my prayer.

Pray, console your loving poet,
Make my coat look new, dear, sew it!
    Just compare heart, hear and heard,
    Dies and diet, lord and word.

~ Gerard Nolst Trenité (1870-1946) from, The Chaos – Wikipedia

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Welcome to the surveillance state

Published June 25, 2013  ·  All posts on Jun 25

The Internet is a surveillance state. Whether we admit it to ourselves or not, and whether we like it or not, we’re being tracked all the time. Google tracks us, both on its pages and on other pages it has access to. Facebook does the same; it even tracks non-Facebook users. Apple tracks us on our iPhones and iPads. One reporter used a tool called Collusion to track who was tracking him; 105 companies tracked his Internet use during one 36-hour period.

~ Bruce Schneier from, Our Internet Surveillance State – Schneier on Security

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…and he wrote that essay before the Snowden/NSA revelation showed us we’ve gone far beyond it being only an Internet surveillance state. We have collectively delivered ourselves into the power of ideas we do not know we have accepted.

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SOLID object-oriented design

Published June 23, 2013  ·  All posts on Jun 23  ·  

Five basic principles of object-oriented design. Not the only five, but five which are, well, SOLID.

Single responsibility – A class should have only a single responsibility.

Open/closed – Open for extension; Closed to modification.

Liskov substitution – Objects can be replaced by instances of their sub-types without breakage or surprise.

Interface segregation – Many, specific interfaces – that is, APIs – are better than fewer, more general-purpose interfaces. (…or “interface” in the worst case.)

Dependency inversion – Depend upon the abstraction. (Not upon the specific concretion.)

 

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Star Wars machete order

Published June 17, 2013  ·  All posts on Jun 17

Should you watch the Star Wars movies in numerical order, or released order? Neither – Use machete order: IV, V, II, III, VI

The Star Wars Saga: Introducing Machete Order » Rod Hilton

There are two obvious options for watching the Star Wars saga.

  • Release Order – Watch the films in the order they came out, recreating your experience with the films for someone new to them.
  • Episode Order – Watch the films in the order George Lucas intends, starting with Episode I and going straight through to Episode VI

There are two critical flaws with both of these orders, unfortunately, that prevent either from being appropriate.

~ Rod Hilton from, The Star Wars Saga: Introducing Machete Order

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Turns out both of those options suck.

Numerical order, (as Lucas’ suggests,) wrecks the greatest movie reveal in history by spending 3 movies explaining it. And release order is also no good because… well… go. read. machete. order.

Seriously. I can’t do Rod’s article justice without quoting the whole thing.

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It is done fast enough when it is done well.

Published June 15, 2013  ·  All posts on Jun 15  ·  

This entry is part 3 of 72 in the series My Journey

Getting done right does not mean getting done slow. Getting done right means getting done fast. You will go faster if you do things right. You will go faster if you come down off the “high” generated by the illusion that effort is speed. You will go faster if you calm down, follow your disciplines, and refuse to rush.

~ Bob Martin from, «http://blog.8thlight.com/uncle-bob/2013/03/11/TheFrenziedPanicOfRushing.html»

While he’s talking about software development in general, and test-driven development specifically, this is true for – I think – everything. My experience is that this is true for software development, and other technical work. But it is also true of martial arts practice, parkour, games, building model airplanes… you name it.

The pervasive admonishment should be “do it well,” rather than, “slow down.” Do it well and you’ve – by definition – done it as fast as possible. What’s the point of doing it poorly? What’s the point of rushing to completion; If you didn’t do it well, then it’s not done.

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Flag Day 2013

Published June 14, 2013  ·  All posts on Jun 14

Today is Flag Day in the United States.

National Flag Day commemorates Congress’s adoption on June 14, 1777 of the Stars and Stripes as the flag of the United States. Although not officially a federal holiday, Pennsylvania has declared it an official state holiday. (Huzzah Pennsylvania!)

HISTORY

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June 14th, 1885 – Bernard J. Cigrand, a then 19 year old grade school teacher at Stony Hill School, placed a 10 inch, 38 star flag in a bottle on his desk and assigned essays on the flag and its significance. He went on to work for decades spreading recognition of June 14th as a nation day of remembrance and observation of the Stars and Stripes. (See also, House Resolution 622.)

May 30, 1916 – President Wilson issued Presidential proclamation 1335, calling for a nation wide observance of Flag Day on June 14th:


Proclamation 1335 – Flag Day
May 30, 1916

By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation

My Fellow Countrymen:

Many circumstances have recently conspired to turn our thoughts to a critical examination of the conditions of our national life, of the influences which have seemed to threaten to divide us in interest and sympathy, of forces within and forces without that seemed likely to draw us away from the happy traditions of united purpose and action of which we have been so proud, It has therefore seemed to me fitting that I should call your attention to the approach of the anniversary of the day upon which the flag of the United States was adopted by the Congress as the emblem of the Union, and to suggest to you that it should this year and in the years to come be given special significance as a day of renewal and reminder, a day upon which we should direct our minds with a special desire of renewal to thoughts of the ideals and principles of which we have sought to make our great Government the embodiment.

I therefore suggest and request that throughout the nation and if possible in every community the fourteenth day of June be observed as FLAG DAY with special patriotic exercises, at which means shall be taken to give significant expression to our thoughtful love of America, our comprehension of the great mission of liberty and justice to which we have devoted ourselves as a people, our pride in the history and our enthusiasm for the political programme of the nation, our determination to make it greater and purer with each generation, and our resolution to demonstrate to all the world its, vital union in sentiment and purpose, accepting only those as true compatriots who feel as we do the compulsion of this supreme allegiance. Let us on that day rededicate ourselves to the nation, “one and inseparable” from which every thought that is not worthy of our fathers’ first vows in independence, liberty, and right shall be excluded and in which we shall stand with united hearts, for an America which no man can corrupt, no influence draw away from its ideals, no force divide against itself,-a nation signally distinguished among all the nations of mankind for its clear, individual conception alike of its duties and its privileges, its obligations and its rights.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington this thirtieth day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and sixteen, and of the independence of the United States of America the one hundred and fortieth.

1949 – In the summer session of the 1949 Congress, the House and the Senate agreed to H.J. Res. 170, a joint resolution officially recognizing June 14 of each year as Flag Day, and authorizing and requesting the president to issue an annual proclamation informing the American people of the occasion.

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Start now

Published June 13, 2013  ·  All posts on Jun 13  ·  

Every pro was once an amateur.
Every expert was once a beginner.
So dream big, and start now.

~ unknown

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Eric Idle’s Rules for Reading

Published June 9, 2013  ·  All posts on Jun 9  ·  

Rule 1: Never be without a book.

Rule 2: Skip all Prefaces, Forewords and Introductions.

Rule 3: If you’re bored with a book, chuck it. There are millions of books you will never get to read, so if one doesn’t grab you, put it down.

Rule 4: You don’t have to finish a book. You can always come back to it.

Rule 6: You may read several books at once.

Rule 7: You may skip and skim. This is not a class, this is life.

Rule 8: Try and buy from your local bookshop while you still have one.

Rule 9: There is no rule 9.

Rule 10: Enjoy!

~ Eric Idle from, Eric Idle Blog » Editorial

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Eric Idle’s – yes, that Eric Idle – ten rules for reading, from Editorial.

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Onward!

Published June 7, 2013  ·  All posts on Jun 7  ·  

We are at the very beginning of time for the human race. It is not unreasonable that we grapple with problems. There are tens of thousands of years in the future. Our responsibility is to do what we can, learn what we can, improve the solutions and pass them on. It is our responsibility to leave the men of the future a free hand. In the impetuous youth of humanity, we can make grave errors that can stunt our growth for a long time. This we will do if we say we have the answers now, so young and ignorant; if we suppress all discussion, all criticism, saying, ‘This is it, boys, man is saved!’ and thus doom man for a long time to the chains of authority, confined to the limits of our present imagination. It has been done so many times before.

~ Richard Feynman from, Richard Feynman on the Universal Responsibility of Scientists

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Feynman wrote several great, short books that are not hard science. This, and “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!”, are great places to start.

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Hero training

Published June 1, 2013  ·  All posts on Jun 1  ·  

If you are in a crappy situation, struggling with weight loss, or struggling to change your diet, believe that the Hero version of you is waiting to develop. You’re in the ‘challenge’ part of the story right now. Without that, the Hero part will have no meaning.

Who wants to read the story about the awesome guy that got more awesome? Nobody!

~ Steve Kamb from, Hero Training 101: 4 Steps To Save The Galaxy

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