That is my new domain, blogger has been great for getting started but now that I know I will continue blogging in a regular fashion I've decided to move to my own domain. This blog will remain up, but I will not be updating it, for updates come on over to ihumanable.com.
I've finally gotten around to registering a domain and setting up my own website, you are currently looking at it. There are some rough edges that need to be smoothed over, but WordPress made the process incredibly simple and painless.
I will be working on this new blog's theme and content over the coming week or two to get it pretty and personal. So if you enjoyed my daily rants and ramblings over at ihumanable.blogspot.com all you have to do now is drop the blogspot, ihumanable has gone legit.
My birthday is coming up Novemeber 14th, *wink* *wink*, and the one gift I've been angling for is a Das Keyboard because I like clicky keyboards. Growing up I had a classic IBM Model-M, the original clicky keyboard. I'm not sure why I like the clicky keyboard, it's mostly in my head I'm sure, I feel more productive if I'm making a tremendous amount of noise I guess... maybe that's why I talk so much.
What it comes down to though is feedback. Computers are these amazingly pliable machines, I can play a game of solitaire, balance my checkbook, and write a blog post all on the same machine. It's one of those amazing things that has sadly become commonplace, so much so that we barely think anything about it anymore. This is sad because it's kind of a big deal, take a modern computer back in time 100 years and watch people flip out.
We often think about the User Interface that we see on the screen, but rarely do we consider the Physical Interface that we have with the computer itself, mainly the keyboard and mouse. There is one company though that continues to push the envelope, Apple. Look at their new Magic Mouse, think that chiclet style keyboards are neat, Apple did it first, multitouch you're welcome. This is not an Apple lovefest (all evidence to the contrary), their products work really nicely but that's not the point, they spur others to innovate as well, that's the important part.
So suddenly there is a resurgence in thinking about how we physically interact with computers, look what Microsoft is doing. There is a cornucopia of rumors flying around about a speculative Apple Tablet. And this means really cool interesting gadgets and ideas are now getting the funding to take them from scribbles on a napkin to sketches on a whiteboard to mockup videos to prototypes and then maybe if they hold out to market.
Then I encountered a video a few weeks ago that was so brilliant, so full of potential, that I just wanted to learn as much as possible about it, 10/GUI. Don't take my word for it, check this thing out.
Pretty neat, huh? There are definitely things some people might not like or want to change, but it is an intriguing idea. With proper funding and research it could turn into something awesome. The problem is that you still have to transition between a 10/GUI touch surface and a keyboard, not a huge deal, but once I saw this my mind was set ablaze with visions of a seamless 10/GUI interface. If you don't want to read that whole page, here is the important part.
The described system in the patent application would individually detect all ten fingers and separate palms on a person's hand, giving the ability to type, write, draw and interact with a device large enough to support multiple hands.
...
Typing is a large part of the lengthy application. The document goes into great detail about how a multi-touch interface could distinguish what keys a set of hands intend to type on the surface. It discusses pressure on the sides or center of individual fingers and palms, and how to interpret those various signals.
The major problem to overcome is feedback, a system that automatically tracks your palms and places the keys under it could allow for touch typing, but as someone who types all day, I don't know if it could work without feedback. This is what they said about the iPhone onscreen soft keyboard, but reports are that people can type anywhere from 40-60 wpm after adjusting.
I'm not sure what the future of the Physical Interface between the user and computer will be, but its definitely an interesting thing to ponder about. Will we have a minority report like 3D interface or a neat 10/GUI pad or the tried and true keyboard and mouse or something that hasn't made it off the scribbled on a napkin phase yet. It sure will be exciting to find out though.
I plan on moving this blog to my own domain over the weekend, but never fear I will keep everyone informed on the move and where you can always get your daily dose of my crazynessMy birthday is coming up Novemeber 14th, *wink* *wink*, and the one gift I've been angling for is a Das Keyboard because I like clicky keyboards. Growing up I had a classic IBM Model-M, the original clicky keyboard. I'm not sure why I like the clicky keyboard, it's mostly in my head I'm sure, I feel more productive if I'm making a tremendous amount of noise I guess... maybe that's why I talk so much.
What it comes down to though is feedback. Computers are these amazingly pliable machines, I can play a game of solitaire, balance my checkbook, and write a blog post all on the same machine. It's one of those amazing things that has sadly become commonplace, so much so that we barely think anything about it anymore. This is sad because it's kind of a big deal, take a modern computer back in time 100 years and watch people flip out.
We often think about the User Interface that we see on the screen, but rarely do we consider the Physical Interface that we have with the computer itself, mainly the keyboard and mouse. There is one company though that continues to push the envelope, Apple. Look at their new Magic Mouse, think that chiclet style keyboards are neat, Apple did it first, multitouch you're welcome. This is not an Apple lovefest (all evidence to the contrary), their products work really nicely but that's not the point, they spur others to innovate as well, that's the important part.
So suddenly there is a resurgence in thinking about how we physically interact with computers, look what Microsoft is doing. There is a cornucopia of rumors flying around about a speculative Apple Tablet. And this means really cool interesting gadgets and ideas are now getting the funding to take them from scribbles on a napkin to sketches on a whiteboard to mockup videos to prototypes and then maybe if they hold out to market.
Then I encountered a video a few weeks ago that was so brilliant, so full of potential, that I just wanted to learn as much as possible about it, 10/GUI. Don't take my word for it, check this thing out.
Pretty neat, huh? There are definitely things some people might not like or want to change, but it is an intriguing idea. With proper funding and research it could turn into something awesome. The problem is that you still have to transition between a 10/GUI touch surface and a keyboard, not a huge deal, but once I saw this my mind was set ablaze with visions of a seamless 10/GUI interface. If you don't want to read that whole page, here is the important part.
The described system in the patent application would individually detect all ten fingers and separate palms on a person's hand, giving the ability to type, write, draw and interact with a device large enough to support multiple hands.
...
Typing is a large part of the lengthy application. The document goes into great detail about how a multi-touch interface could distinguish what keys a set of hands intend to type on the surface. It discusses pressure on the sides or center of individual fingers and palms, and how to interpret those various signals.
The major problem to overcome is feedback, a system that automatically tracks your palms and places the keys under it could allow for touch typing, but as someone who types all day, I don't know if it could work without feedback. This is what they said about the iPhone onscreen soft keyboard, but reports are that people can type anywhere from 40-60 wpm after adjusting.
I'm not sure what the future of the Physical Interface between the user and computer will be, but its definitely an interesting thing to ponder about. Will we have a minority report like 3D interface or a neat 10/GUI pad or the tried and true keyboard and mouse or something that hasn't made it off the scribbled on a napkin phase yet. It sure will be exciting to find out though.
I've been working on a side project in earnest lately. It's all kinds of PHP fun and I'm enjoying learning the ins and outs of PHP 5.3 as well as relearning some of the stuff I already knew about from my PHP glory days. I've been looking at various different ORM solutions to use with my project and I'd like to take some time to review them, explain why I chose none of them, and what I'm doing instead. For the non-technical in the audience, ORM stands for Object-Relational Mapper, its a piece of software that allows you to save parts of your program to and load them back from a database, supposedly quickly and easily.
Doctrine
Flourish Lib
php.activerecord
RedBeanThose are the most interesting ones I investigated, I investigated quite a few other ones, but these were definitely the cream of the crop. None of them fit my project, but my project is a little bit weird (if you keep reading this blog you will no doubt see it one day, unless something shiny grabs my attention and I wonder off). If you are looking for a really powerful ORM with all the bells and whistles, check out Doctrine. If you are familiar with ActiveRecord, php.activerecord is a fantastic implementation. If you are programming PHP at all, take the time to read through Will Bond's amazing Flourish Lib. If you need some lightweight persistence or want to dabble in some object-oriented databases, give RedBean a try. Really on that last one, if you are even at all interested by technology, check out RedBean, it is a little young but shows amazing potential and is a great example of thinking outside the box.
So what did I decide, well I decided I don't want to use an ORM layer. ORM didn't fit my use case, I was only experiencing developer pain trying to shoehorn it in there. I decided that what I needed was something a little different, and I'm currently developing exactly that. So what is this mystery project that I'm working on, its a couple different parts that work together, but I decided that all I really wanted was the following list of things.
So I'm writing them, and I will be releasing at least part of it soon, once I get it to a point where it does something, then expect a blog post with trumpets and whatnot. I conceived the project structure last night and began coding, I was able to put in 3 hours of work and got a very nice proof of concept running, but it is still all sharp edges and scuffed surfaces.
Stay tuned though, I hope to have something people can put their fingers on soon. I think there is a need for the lightweight components that I'm building, as a platform for future innovation and because after 3 months of looking around I couldn't find anything out there that did what I needed.
I've been working on a side project in earnest lately. It's all kinds of PHP fun and I'm enjoying learning the ins and outs of PHP 5.3 as well as relearning some of the stuff I already knew about from my PHP glory days. I've been looking at various different ORM solutions to use with my project and I'd like to take some time to review them, explain why I chose none of them, and what I'm doing instead. For the non-technical in the audience, ORM stands for Object-Relational Mapper, its a piece of software that allows you to save parts of your program to and load them back from a database, supposedly quickly and easily.
DoctrineFlourish Libphp.activerecordRedBeanThose are the most interesting ones I investigated, I investigated quite a few other ones, but these were definitely the cream of the crop. None of them fit my project, but my project is a little bit weird (if you keep reading this blog you will no doubt see it one day, unless something shiny grabs my attention and I wonder off). If you are looking for a really powerful ORM with all the bells and whistles, check out Doctrine. If you are familiar with ActiveRecord, php.activerecord is a fantastic implementation. If you are programming PHP at all, take the time to read through Will Bond's amazing Flourish Lib. If you need some lightweight persistence or want to dabble in some object-oriented databases, give RedBean a try. Really on that last one, if you are even at all interested by technology, check out RedBean, it is a little young but shows amazing potential and is a great example of thinking outside the box.
So what did I decide, well I decided I don't want to use an ORM layer. ORM didn't fit my use case, I was only experiencing developer pain trying to shoehorn it in there. I decided that what I needed was something a little different, and I'm currently developing exactly that. So what is this mystery project that I'm working on, its a couple different parts that work together, but I decided that all I really wanted was the following list of things.
So I'm writing them, and I will be releasing at least part of it soon, once I get it to a point where it does something, then expect a blog post with trumpets and whatnot. I conceived the project structure last night and began coding, I was able to put in 3 hours of work and got a very nice proof of concept running, but it is still all sharp edges and scuffed surfaces.
Stay tuned though, I hope to have something people can put their fingers on soon. I think there is a need for the lightweight components that I'm building, as a platform for future innovation and because after 3 months of looking around I couldn't find anything out there that did what I needed.
I remember watching Mitch Hedburg one time talk about how comedy is an odd kind of profession because if you are really good at it you have to stop doing it. The point he was making is that if you are successful enough at stand-up then one day people are going to ask you if you can act and write and star in movies. Here is the pertinent quote.
When you’re in Hollywood and you’re a comedian, everybody wants you to do other things that are related to comedy, but are not stand-up comedy. ‘All right, you’re a stand-up comedian, can you write us a script?’ That’s not fair. That’s like if I worked hard all my life to become a really good chef, they’d say, ‘OK, you’re a chef. Can you farm?’
This is a less severe version of the Peter Principle.
But it's not just comedians, Software Development has a whole host of secondary tasks that are related, sometimes closely, sometimes not so closely, that need to be taken care of. I've found myself in a secondary task day the last few days.
These secondary tasks are all necessary, some are enjoyable (blogging), some I'm surprisingly skilled at (research, talking), some make me feel completely out of my element (time estimates, server configuration). In the landmark The Law of Leaky Abstractions and the follow up The Development Abstraction, Joel writes
Any successful software company is going to consist of a thin layer of developers, creating software, spread across the top of a big abstract administrative organization. The abstraction exists solely to create the illusion that the daily activities of a programmer (design and writing code, checking in code, debugging, etc.) are all that it takes to create software products and bring them to market.
Its not that I don't want to perform these secondary tasks, or that I'm not good at them, it's just that I'm much more productive at coding. My brain is set up for it, ask anyone that knows me, I think about life as one big program, I examine my emotions based off of function arguments, I turn situations into class hierarchies, it's just how my brain works. Programming makes sense to me, I feel at home there, I feel warm and cuddly wrapped in curly braces, and I work really well there.
These secondary tasks, related tasks, need to get done, and because of my availability I'm the one to do them. It's good to learn new things, but also scary and uncomfortable and frustrating.
I don't know if there is a point to writing this, it started off as a rant against feeling forced to waste my time and skills on tasks that I don't feel comfortable doing, but it hasn't ended there. It hasn't really ended anywhere, it's a reality, so I'll deal.
All I know is that right now the abstraction is leaking and getting my clothes wet, I long to wrap myself in comfy curly braces by a warm fire and feel like I know what I'm doing again.
