Square Rutabaga
My 2 cents smashed by a train of associations.



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Saturday, November 16, 2002
 
Stumbling into instant outlining.

This morning I had Radio running, clicked on an OPML mug to subscribe to an Instant Outline, and was prompted for a URL.   Never used to tool before, I was confused and felt that I may have been trying for a completely different link.

This evening, when I tried again, everything reported as a success.  Thanks to those on the pycs-develop list for the help.

The Outliner stuff is interesting.  I don't have a use for it yet, but like it as a great replacement for the "sticky tab" notes features.

I really was expecting it was built into the web app.


7:46:48 PM    Your 2 cents... Currently.  

Trackballs, Mice, etc.

My 3 year old is doing much better at the toddler games that require precise mousing skills now that I've hooked up a trackball.  These aren't games where the object to click on is moving or your controlling a moving object. I try to avoid those games because they get frustrating very fast for all parties involved.  The first Bob the Builder game is bad for this in many of it's sub-games.  That game has some other fundamental UI problems I wish I could remember specifically. (Buttons are misleading to target audience which most likely can't read.)

I got out the trackball because I'm interested in purchasing a trackball where you lay your and across it, roll with your thumbs and click with your fingers.  I assigned middle click to Mozilla's/Phoenix browser's open link in a New Tab killer feature and really miss it on my laptops trackpad.  Plus I'm starting to feel strain from my first and middle finger down into my harm.

But for first person games and drawing, I don't think I could ever replace a mouse.


12:08:06 PM    Your 2 cents... Currently.  

quote of the moment

two machines plaing heartbeat-ping-pong and _no_ trace in the logs make one really
nervous ...  - Georg Bauer, PyCS-development list.


11:22:49 AM    Your 2 cents... Currently.  

Blogging introspection....figuring it out, determining goals.

I can understand how people get sick of bloggers babbling about blogging.  I'm somewhat sick of the rhetorical voices in my head babbling about blogging.

If you want some attempts at insight, riddled with lots of blogging introspection, read on...

Journaler's are prone to introspection, yes?  Throw a conversational style in the mix and if the tool at least works, you'll get feedback.  More than you want, probably.

Trained in the craft of software smithing (and life) I am compelled to doing things better each time by thinking about what I'm doing to remove ineffeciencies and apply improvements. More ingredients for introspection.  Also, don't be selfish.  Communicate this knowlege so others can grow also-- and re-inforce your internal memory by writing it down.

I resolved to blog in a conversational style.  Great...I regress to stream of conscienceness. I better move my expectations back up to "lightweight Journalism."

I'm not sure I like blog-speak.  I hate feeling like I need to add blogenunciation to my words by hyperlinking at least one word/phrase in every 2 sentences.  It seems to be some demented form of pop-up headlines (as in pop-up video's.  I'd considered putting a link to the pop-up video's site on the word pop-up, but no need to be cute to make my point AND elicit wonder whether I'm a hypocrite.) This will lead to a whole new slew of cliches and clique terms, of which I don't want to learn and further seperate me from society. (clue=cluetrain manifesto?, but only in which contexts?) Which brings me to...

The need to hyper-clarify. That's a sign of loneliness.  Another potential spice in the ingredients of a blogger's introspection-pie.  Related is hyper-ambigous: avoiding all attempts at imperfection. 

For some reason I want to wrap this up with: Blogging may be therapeutic, but if you treat your audience like a therapist you've fallen off the couch.

Blogging is a fun and rewarding experience. I'm glad it's a community endeavor. I don't want it to be a sub-culture.  I want it to reflect culture.

Hmm....we're the generation that consumes culture immensely more than we generate it.  Will blogging be the way we "give back", or just another stomach in the digestion process. No need to visit the Roman feast metaphor.

Better stop now or i'll digress into winning an e e cummings abomination award/penalty.

I want to learn how to write and journal better, not blog better.

Future introspective posts will most likely NOT be on the Home Page.  At first I thought I had a few things to say about Radio Userland.  Nope.  The medium, not the method.


2:31:42 AM    Your 2 cents... Currently.  

I'm learning about XML Schema and RELAX NG

Visual Studio has a nifty tool called "XSD" in which you can generate C# classes from an XML Schema.  The classes are all set to serialize/deserialize the the expected XML.  Nifty. 

In learning about this I came across RELAX NG.  I'm not sure if Visual Studio supports it in the context above. 

I came about RELAX NG by looking to Python for comparision. Which part? I don't know, or can care at this point..I'm exploring information to learn. Do I need to explain my fascination with this "disruptive language"? Python makes more sense to me on a problem solving level.  C and friends still seem represent ways to control a computer, which you then must apply your problem to. Nifty for optimization, distracting to problem solving.  Python seems to step a bit closer to the problem in pseudo-code & experimentation-ability.  Plus there's that whole fun with terminology (heh-heh...he said "Pickle"..heh-heh) stuff I enjoy in the Open Source world. When somebody scoffs at a name with a "Sounds like somebody was having fun" I say "Really? Where?"  I digress...

James Clark produced the peice "RELAX NG and W3C XML Schema" and there is a on-line version of a RELAX NG book here.


1:58:52 AM    Your 2 cents... Currently.  


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