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So, I’m three weeks into my computer class right now, and couldn’t be happier. I swallowed my ego and took an introductory course, and I’m glad I did. Ya see, most of what I know I learned from just goofing around and making (then correcting) many mistakes. Experience is a great teacher, but it can be time consuming.

Most of what I know, I don’t really understand. It was never taught or explained to me. I just did stuff. That’s all well and good, but it has left me with some gaps. The course I’m in starts right at the beginning, from the microprocessor right on up. How virtual memory works (other than ‘y’know it’s like, not real, man’), why the binary number system is important, and how and why all the pieces fit together inside the magical, mystical computer. I’m kind of surprised how much I’m digging the hardware aspect.

Most of the applications I run are for music, and they are HOGS! Latency is always an issue, and one I blamed on software. I now see how hardware and cache memory fits into the occasion. I’m starting to think about building application optimized machines as much as I’m thinking about code. In retrospect, I should have replied to all those ” what do you want to be when you grow up?” questions with one answer: Mad scientist. Not something they mention on career day, is it? Police officer? Fire man? Screw that- I want a bunsen burner and a mainframe. Career objective: Raise havoc.

Educated mayhem aside, I lean towards embedded applications. The elegance of doing one thing well appeals to me. The home computer tries to be everything to everyone and complicates itself as a result. I think I could be happy programming toasters or microwaves. Maybe contributing to a Linux build optimized for Grandparents - email, photos, maps & directions, and a simple, secure web browser. Most people simply don’t need a lot of power to do their day to day e-mail and surfing. 4 big icons on the desktop to keep it simple. I think here is plenty of room for growth in making the computing environment simple rather than powerful. At least I do today. ask me at the end of the 11 week course, and I’ll likely have a different answer. By the time I sign up for fall courses, I’ll have yet a different answer.

Technorati Tags: education, computers

Guy Kawasaki interviews the authors of Made to Stick on his blog today. The subject matter of the book is, as the authors explain “…sticky ideas are ideas that people understand, remember, and that change the way people think or behave.”
I’m no corporate marketing whiz kid, but these principals make sense to me ( they use JFK and the Moon landing as examples):

For example, JFK’s idea to “put a man on the moon in a decade had all six of them:

1. Simple A single, clear mission.
2. Unexpected A man on the moon? It seemed like science fiction at the time.
3. Concrete Success was defined so clearly no one could quibble about man, moon, or decade.
4. Credible This was the President of the U.S. talking.
5. Emotional It appealed to the aspirations and pioneering instincts of an entire nation.
6. Story An astronaut overcomes great obstacles to achieve an amazing goal.

Later in the article they discuss some pitfalls, and I identified all too easily.

Here’s the great cruelty of the Curse of Knowledge: The better we get at generating great ideas,new insights, and novel solutions in our field of expertise, the more unnatural it becomes for us to communicate those ideas clearly.

Hit that nail on the head, didn’t they?
I am forever in gratitude to the co-worker who told me ” Hold up! Just because you get it, doesn’t mean the idea works for the rest of us.” I sometimes forget that most of the world learns by rote instruction, and reading the instructions, whereas anything of consequence I’ve learned has been trial and error. The former is clean, precise, and easily transmittable. The latter is subjective, relative, and communicating that knowledge comes dangerously close to, as they say, dancing about architecture.

I want to be able to explain things better. Hope this book helps.

Technorati Tags: advertising, books, education, kawasaki

I had the good fortune to receive a couple of cooking classes for Christmas. The first was a demonstration Thai cooking class at The Cookshop. Like many people, I’ve always believed anything exotic and tasty must be time consuming and difficult to prepare. Well, chef Thuang Yan dispelled that myth quickly. Tom Yum soup, one of the wife’s favourites took all of 12 minutes.

We also got a run-down and where to buy the ingredients, and how to store them. I went on a scavenger hunt at T&T, the local Asian supermarket, and was able to stock the pantry with pretty much everything I need. I’ve done some prep work, and now have a fridge full of ready-to-go ingredients and can have tasty Thai food on the table in 30 minutes or less. Of course, it will take another 30 minutes to clean up the kitchen, but I don’t want to think about that part.

Technorati Tags: Thai food, cooking, education