Tuesday, May 28, 2019

Blog: Why Learning to Code is so damn hard

https://www.thinkful.com/blog/why-learning-to-code-is-so-damn-hard/

 a lot of this article sounds like language learning.  immersion, being overwhelmed, crossing different thresholds.

here are the small things that i want to take away from this:

This includes things like testing, data modeling, architecture and deployment which are really easy to breeze past but which are totally fundamental to good development.


I don't know what these are really, even though I have an idea.  I'd like to learn more.

Monday, May 27, 2019

Blog: You can learn anything

https://www.khanacademy.org/talks-and-interviews/conversations-with-sal/a/the-learning-myth-why-ill-never-tell-my-son-hes-smart

I've been reading a lot about the growth mindset lately.  Struggling is how we learn.  Thinking of the brain as a muscle helps people learn.  And yet I think back to when I was learning German, and how stressful it was to be constantly struggling and failing.  I did make a lot of progress, but it was very emotionally taxing.  What I'm saying is that the growth mindset isn't a cureall.  Some people will still struggle and fail even if they have the perfect growth mindset.

Thursday, May 23, 2019

Blog: Thinkink Kink

https://www.bitchmedia.org/post/thinking-kink-the-attraction-of-the-submissive-male-feminist-magazine-bdsm-sex

I don't know if this writing is on target enough to have me understand what it is saying.  I think there are a lot of assumptions that I don't see written down.  This is coming from a perspective that is different than mine. I think writing about it would probably not give something close to an accurate interpretation. 

Blog: Why I quit therapy

https://humanparts.medium.com/why-i-quit-therapy-153f98205137

the author moved around a lot and has had many therapists, so she's had to start from the beginning.  i read this a while ago and cant remember the details but i dont want to re-read it.

there's a school of thought that most therapy is based on, but then there are other schools.  the new one the author likes is where you notice things and then let them pass, this is some sort of buddhist method, i think

maybe you should read it if you care, i dont think i care

News: David Foster Wallace made shit up

https://theoutline.com/post/7424/david-foster-wallace-roger-federer-moment?zd=1&zi=cmwffxwm

what shit? read on to find out

dfw made up a story about a federer tennis shot ok cool

Blog: Microsoft sucked and aims to suck less

https://onezero.medium.com/microsoft-failed-developers-and-now-it-has-a-plan-to-win-them-back-ecdafde5b20

linux is finally coming to windows, so developers can test their work.  macs used to be better because linux was right there.  well, the tides may be turning.

i'm unconvinced.  i'm using fedora, which was also bought by the big MS.  we'll see what happens.

Longreads: Lengua Tacos

https://longreads.com/2019/05/03/lengua-tacos/

did I finish reading this? I can't remember.  The author's description of biculturality resonated with me, but they were overshadowed by the bits about language learning.

Clearly this person had never truly studied Spanish successfully.  Classes and courses, family moments.  Well, she just needed speaking practice instead of studying grammar rules.  Both are needed, but if speaking is what you're going to use as a measure for being fluent, or being Mexican, then you'd better practice speaking.

So, surprise, language learning lets people down, at least in the college and high school forms.  Some day it might get slightly better but for now education is more of a way to get childcare.  So yeehaw.

News: Losing a mother and ideas of mortality

https://www.topic.com/all-about-my-mother

I should probably re-read this. 

I remember something about a self-fulfilling prophecy.  An Indian doctor that worked until she was so sick that she was bedridden, and died rather suddenly, who had lost her own parents at a young age.

Ok, I'm going to reread this and then write more.

I learned that hummingbirds can't walk, as their legs are too far back on their bodies.  So they have to constantly fly.  This is a metaphor for people that work too hard and don't take care of themselves.

After her death, the recollections of others could make me uneasy. Her former patients seemed to know her better than I did, this hummingbird woman, in and out of sight, forever at work.
 Mania, the caption theorized, had been a solution, a way to deal with emotional pain by distracting oneself from it.
 Procreation, as a 2005 paper from the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology bluntly puts it, is “one of the most efficient” buffers against terror, a surefire way “to prolong a form of symbolic existence.” A year after the attacks on 9/11, the Guardian reported a 20 percent increase in the birth rate in New York hospitals. “We earn, we procreate, we pray,” explains a 2004 study on behaviors that reduce thoughts of death.
 Death, I thought, was a quick stripper of personhood. The deceased’s tastes are erased by the time of the service.

ok, so I reread it and pulled these quotes.  i think the writer had some ideas, some work, some research, she had found something like enlightenment.  but i dunno, her dream about having a daughter.  it doesnt vibe with me.  my mom died but i'm a male, and it still effects my feelings of mortality. i guess i feel like they are missing a little something here with this article.  anyway, it was worth a read.


News: Free Speech at High School

https://jezebel.com/a-high-school-journalist-profiled-a-fellow-student-work-1834416170

A high school paper profiled a fellow student that works in porn, and the school board tried to get the paper shut down, or something like that.  Free speech was at issue. 

Is this the streisand effect? I think so.

Anyway, school is failing lots of people, emotionally as well as educationally.  We don't need social fabric anyways, so it's cool.

News: Simcity 3000 the unbeatable game

https://theoutline.com/post/7373/you-cant-beat-an-unwinnable-game-you-break-it?zd=1&zi=x5ubroah

the way to get the biggest city in sim city? nobody lives over the age of 55.  no schools, no hospitals.

i learned that sim city was developed by a guy who lost everything in 91 to a wildfire.

i want to learn more about the guy that beat the game though, apparently he is filipino and also an architect.


News: That Noise? the rich neighbors diggining a 100 million dollar pool out of bedrock

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/05/nyregion/gentrification-one-percent-manhattan.html


I read this one quite a while ago.  I remember some grumpy neighbors moving.

It was an anonymous tip that let people know who actually owned the building.

I read this expecting to see wealthy people impacted by gentrification.  I was hoping to laugh at them.  Instead, everyone is everyone.



News: Democratic Socialism is surging in Iowa

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/04/democratic-socialism-surging-iowa-ahead-2020/586441/

my biggest takeaway from this was that they are training people to redirect the conversation during "town hall" meetings.  they practice raising their hands quickly.

they drink beer together.

i feel like i dont really know what keeps these people together.  who are the likely informants, haha?

News: Amsterdam eliminates 11,000 urban parking spots

https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2019/03/amsterdam-cars-parking-spaces-bike-lanes-trees-green-left/586108/
they are doing some maintenance, which means the parking spaces would be unusable for some time, and just not replacing the spots.


News: Domino's tracker a lie

https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/i-staked-out-my-local-dominos-to-see-just-how-accurate-its-pizza-tracker-is

turns out the timing and checks aren't really what's going on.  its just a guess about what should be happening, probably based on averages.  ok, well, i do want pizza, but not like that

then when i googled the article name to get the link, i found what looks like a parody news site that says the same thing, only its from 2017: https://thenextweb.com/distract/2017/11/28/dominos-tracker-app-doesnt-actually-know-who-is-checking-your-pizza/

so, the pizza is mediocre and the app is mediocre, but both are entertaining.

Wednesday, May 22, 2019

News: San Francisco Sucks

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/how-san-francisco-broke-americas-heart/2019/05/21/ef9a0ac0-70ea-11e9-9eb4-0828f5389013_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.d24871e1057a
this is one of those stories that feels like it only gets at the bitchy overtone of the story and doesnt really dig deeply enough to give me a real understanding.  the outcome is frustration rather than inspiration or clarity.  san francisco is becoming less gay, cheap, fun, inclusive, thoughtful.  that's the game, well ok.  let's do our part and hate what has become and do the nostalgia thing.  because nothing at all has gotten better.

Monday, May 20, 2019

Cooking: Hoja Santa

https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/food/2012-08-24/hoja-santa/

i collected some of this from my friend's yard.  it smells a bit like rootbeer.  it is used as a wrap and imbues food with an anise/rootbeer edge. the leaves need to be wilted for it to work.  i am going to try it out in some scrambled eggs.

News: Nculear Plants Unprepared for Climate Crisis

https://www.commondreams.org/tag/nuclear-power

this guy says he has changed teams, he used to work for nuclear power but now he works for wind power.  he says the potential for nuclear plants to fail and make land uninhabitable for long periods of time makes them untenable.  he wants a plant that will not emit anything harmful if it fails, but no plants currently meet that stipulation, which essentially means he is against nuclear power.  he lists the four most recent permitted nuclear plants and describes how each one has stalled or been cancelled.  they are complex buildings that are difficult to build on schedule/budget. 

i was surprised that he didn't mention storing nuclear waste, but also that he said fukushima daichi was a big event in his carreer.

Saturday, May 18, 2019

Blog: The psychology of pair programming

https://medium.freecodecamp.org/the-psychology-of-pair-programming-86cb31f9abca

take breaks, let people use the keyboard when they really know what's going on.  tag team.  this is an interesting article, but will i ever be coding side by side with people? I wonder.

this is part of my open source computer science degree.

Thursday, May 16, 2019

Blog: how to make peace with deadlines in software development

https://medium.freecodecamp.org/how-to-make-peace-with-deadlines-in-software-development-6cfe3e993f51


humans are bad at predicting how much time something will take.  break it down into smaller units.

hey, this blog has a lot of info that looks good but it is kind of all over the place. i did watch a video of steve jobs talking about focusing.  he said focusing is saying 'no.'

prioritize, and get something that works even if it isn't perfect.

ok, a lot of this is about teams and projects and that still seems like something very far away for me.


Saturday, May 11, 2019

Github Tutorial

https://guides.github.com/activities/hello-world/

I read this tutorial after creating my github account today.  I made a project, a branch, a pull request, confirmed the pull request and deleted the branch.  I guess that was an accomplishment.  Hopefully I will be putting some neato stuff on here soon. 

Tuesday, May 7, 2019

Blog: The Culture of Sameness


https://longreads.com/2019/03/29/on-flooding-drowning-the-culture-in-sameness/

everyone writing about the same thing at the same time? only a few rise to the top? how about making some real content? not just something that's been done before.  it might be stupid, terrible, meaningless, but at least you won't be a hack.  and maybe youll get some real readers, not just clicks.

but at least the author shows some honesty and some awareness of what's actually going on.  nice work on gathering some interesting examples.  the media is propaganda mostly, and what isnt propaganda is marketing.  if you want to write and really make words then don't try to follow pop culture.  that's a big powerful (man's) game.  really having a discussion where everyone is heard, all ideas are entertained, that takes so much time, but what is produced? in this paradigm a discussion is a waste of time.

thanks to the writer for thinking a bit

Monday, May 6, 2019

Blog: Parking Spots are a waste of space

https://www.fastcompany.com/90342223/the-newest-hot-coworking-space-costs-just-2-25-an-hour-because-it-is-a-parking-spot
this guy set up an office in a parking spot.  only 2.50 for hour.  it does say how many people, but even just two people splitting this bill would make it amazingly cheap.  cars waste too much space.

Friday, May 3, 2019

Blog: Intro to git

https://webtuu.com/blog/04/a-laymans-introduction-to-git

this guy lays out the basics of git.  it is like a supercharged save button.  it helps you go back to before you broke your code.  commits and pulls, use the command line.  i started skimming because i dont really need this info right now even though it does seem like it will be important sometime in the future, and hopefully soon.

Thursday, May 2, 2019

Blog: Preparing for AWS associate exam

https://blog.newrelic.com/engineering/aws-certified-solutions-architect-associate-exam-prep/

well, there's a book and some websites given as study guides.

the test is multiple choice, is 180 minutes.  and you can hit 'submit' for each question, so you can skip around to take care of the easy quesitons first, and then return to the more challenging ones later.

Looks like there are a lot of options for studying, I just can't figure out what this test actually contains.  Maybe I just don't know much about aws.

Blog: What is Jenkins?

https://dev.to/bugfenderapp/what-is-jenkins-and-why-should-you-be-using-it-2pe

this is a bit of reading I've done as part of the free Computer Science degree.  I heard about jenkins on reddit, cscareerquestions. someone was asking what were some useful skills for junior devs to learn.  i'd never heard of jenkins or docker, so i decided to read up on jenkins first.  I tried to watch a video about Jenkins but it was more of a guide.

Jenkins puts new bits of code into the big code base.  this way each change in the code can be tracked for bugs.  it keeps teams on track.  coders often work independently, so keeping the team together is important.  but also Jenkins needs someone to administer it.  the tests it uses to check for bugs need to be modified.  in short, it is an investment, but seems to be a