Abstraction

So today in class my teacher was giving us the usual BS… people don’t know how to scroll a webpage… bla bla. So I’ve turned to thinking bigger and better things.

As I was surfing the web, toucharcade specifically, I saw a new social gaming service called GFace. Its being developed by Crytek, and about the only interesting thing about it is the possibility for same game, different gameplay based on device. That sparked my thoughts on how things are so often done poorly. I think the biggest reason is that people misuse the ideas of abstraction. People read abstract and thing guy who cut off his ear, or hey time to be lazy!, but abstraction is the key to humanity. It’s how humans developed language, built pyramids and most importantly how large teams of people develop video games! So often though mediocre work is done in the abstraction process and we’re stuck with GaGa instead of the Beatles.

It is so important that when we are thinking we think things through and don’t rest until the unseen part of the fence is painted, so to speak.

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I forgot the point of this post…

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I think I was trying to preach sound engineering or something to that effect…

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Ok I remember. The point is to never accept what your teacher says until you have done the leg work yourself. There is so much to learn in the world that every time you come across something useful stash it away and abstract it. What that means is don’t just let it float in one ear and out the other, but go over the idea, write it down, polish it. Once you’ve got the idea fully down you will be able to abstract properly and use sometimes the most basic of ideas will stretch to fit most circumstances you find yourself in, and in the end the little bit of extra effort in the beginning, will pay you back many times more.

Effort is worth it, half-assery is the leading cause of ass-duchery. (more on ass-duchery later)

Musicians and Computers

I was thinking about the adage that people that are good at math and playing musical instruments are well suited to learning computer science. I was wondering why this could be. After reading Code Complete I think I have an interesting point of view.
In Code Complete it made an emphasis that good code comes from abstracting smaller parts to make the sum of those parts greater than the whole. In my experience with piano I have come across the similar phenomena. In order to play an advanced piece you must take past learning experiences and build off them to be able to play. It’s impossible to try and contemplate every note, you instead focus on playing a passage. You practice until that passage becomes a part of you and has become an abstracted part of the “musical puzzle”.
I believe it is that task of abstracting that makes musicians so apt to learning computer science. So you don’t have to be a musician to be a great coder, but if you’re a great coder music can be a great hobby conducive to helping you expand your abstracting abilities. As a friend of mine observed that after a few years of playing piano, my chess skill magically improved. Music can help in sometimes unexpected ways.
It’s a shame it’s not a requirement of elementary schools…

Me and TeVee…

Well I broke my tv fast and spent Saturday and Sunday nights watching some tv. I don’t know why I don’t just sleep instead. It’s a horrible thing to realize that I’m wasting time doing nothing but learning more pop culture references to Chuck, Archer and Star trek DS9.

So as February rolls around I have start thinking of something better to do during down time. What can I do for downtime that’s as relaxing as tv, doesn’t wake the sleepers (I’m not in my own place or piano would be my preferred activity), and is easy enough to do when I’m tired but don’t want to sleep? Technological devices with screens that keep me up are out.

I started another course at CCAC today. It’s an online course so I have to find 3-10 hrs a week to spend on the subject of Macroeconomics. This only adds to my problem. I guess I could figure out a way to nap so I still get a decent nights rest, but that’s not as appealing as doing something productive.

So starting February I’ll try to figure out a system to better utilize my time and become just a little better than yesterday me. One thing is for sure though, tv is out of the equation.

Tax season…

It’s that time of year again… Can’t start until I receive all my forms. I expect to start mid February.

Any tips on doing taxes? Last year I did them online with H&R Block. It was pretty painless, but I can’t shake the feeling that I’m too ignorant on the subject and don’t know how to play the system yet.

An Interesting Seminar

So tonight, I got a call around 3pm from a friend inviting me to an investment seminar. I have to say Burn Notice has definitely influenced my perception of these type of events. A few people in nice suits and tans definitely made me think SCAM more than once.

But after attending and going half in to take an investment course I have to say, I was presently surprised at what went on. For the most part the speaker was funny and repetitive. There were gimmick like tactics used to entice people to pay for the three day course, BUT as I see it there are people that followed a strict set of guidelines, learned tax code, and were paid to give this seminar. They presented just enough information on what would be taught, things like how to set up a rough IRA and make sure that your profits aren’t taxed. And most importantly that there is a difference between investments and a career. They are not mutually exclusive. The whole point of making money is so that you can make time for yourself and do the things you love. Money CAN make money, but you don’t need a whole lot to get started.

The seminar will be focused on how to get started and how to keep going. Ignoring the boring details, there are ways to be more committed and ways to keep things on the less time consuming side.

I’ve decided to become business partners with my friend and I hope things go well. We went halfsies on the course but can’t take it right away because they’re mostly on the weekends (we both keep Shabbat). A minor detail is that we’re both in college and so waiting to schedule the course for a more opportune time works out. That goes without saying though that best way to get started is to take the first step, so we’ll be meeting to talk more things over.

I wish both of us luck and hope it turns out for the best.

Code Complete

So today in Java class I finally got to put some lessons I learned in the book Code Complete to good use. It talked about use of boolean variables and how to name them as yes/no questions. Also how to remove for loops used over and over again into a method to better control the logic and make it easier to read for others and my future self.

(link to code in paseBin)

Welcome my son… to 2012

I can’t believe that it’s 2012 and my CIT course about HTML is still focused on proprietary HTML dev tools…. really? The teacher is focused on using HTML Kit for class development of our web pages. It only runs on windows. I’m a mac fanboi. So textEdit here I come… Just kidding, I’m using textWrangler for now. I may invest in BBEdit depending on how things go.

Funny enough I enjoy Xcode so much I find myself opening up the webpages in Xcode to edit…

EDIT: Just figured that NetBeans allows easy HTML editing as well… Nice.

AGH!! Couldn’t resist…

So I’m closing my tabs for the night when I come across Star Wars Uncut. I was so close to not watching TV/Movies. But it’s Star Wars! Either way it’s awesome, I watched the first couple minutes of it and I have to say in the wake of SOPA/PIPA this couldn’t have been released at a better time. This video is living proof that creativity begets creativity, and should need royalties.

Artistry has been locked down by the Media Corporations. Every day that we don’t protest copyright law as it is, we give in… I’ll be ranting about my position on the whole copyright thing. I even wrote a paper for ENG 101 about it. (Essay3_BetsalelWilliamson- ENG101-AC10)

Well, this is my last tab open… Good night Internet.

To bed again…

I made it though today without watching TV! Instead I focused on the blog. I mostly ranted in an EDIT on my truth game, though I did learn about <dl> definition lists.

Word press has some HTML automation that can be annoying sometimes. It makes it harder to try and write code when every time you save, the code gets changed without telling you… 😦

I’m all ready for classes tomorrow. I read the first chapter in American Stories. It covered early american history from a context point of view. So mostly it was about how Spain, England and American natives were compelled to do things. Why Spain was there first, why England stayed out, and why the Americans were subdued.

• Spain was an economic power held together by Religion.
• England was in religious turmoil and creating it’s own religion
• The South American natives were too in awe of horses to understand what was happening to them before it was too late.

In CIT 130, I finished the LabAssign1 which was a simple input two INTs and calculate a percentage using JOptionPane.

In CIT 125, I uploaded a simple webpage to the server and added minor information. Skimming through the whole text book on Saturday didn’t hurt either. I now know that class will be very boring for the next few weeks.

My last class about Macroeconomics doesn’t start until the 30th, so I have some time to start reading the book.

And with that, I’m off to bed. I hope that all this writing doesn’t rattle around in my head keeping me up…

Edit’s

A fleeting thought… should I edit my posts or just write new ones? Ohh now I remember, I meant to figure out how to make links to posts or part of posts. I guess I’ll look that up after I eat.

I’m in the mood for pasta, with cheese…