Sesquiannual party

A long, long time ago, I had the idea to hold a sesquiannual party. I never set one up. It would just be too hard to remember when the next one is supposed to happen in 18 months.

Apparently Randall Munroe agrees. Today’s xkcd refers to an inconvenient sesquiannual meeting:

A Sesquiannual meeting

Since that time I’ve used sesqui* for all sorts of things. My deviantArt user name is sesquicentennial. I use derivatives of sesqui for user names all over the place. My stamp collection includes pictorial postmarks celebrating sesquicentennials.

So, I was not very happy when I got this message on wikipedia today: “Please do not add content or create pages that attack, threaten, or disparage their subject. Attack pages and files are not tolerated by Wikipedia and are speedily deleted. Users who create or add such material will be blocked from editing Wikipedia. Thank you.”

The offensive material was added by an IP: if it was you, please don’t do it again; if it was friends, please discourage them; if it was just random vandalism, never mind, but please keep an eye on your user page in case the vandal returns.” [edit: The bad content was old. Maybe someone was doing me a favor and reported it].

I know that xkcd is really popular. I like it too, but it may have its share of trolls, like anywhere. One of the consequences of Munroe’s popularity it is that when he mentions a page, it gets inundated with traffic. He can refer to a video and it receives a huge number of hits pretty quickly.

He has a secondary project “What If?” Often, when you try to visit a link that he’s referenced, it’s gone. I think the load from the interested traffic causes hosts to delete the pages. He is that popular…

I thought it was funny last night when I saw the sesquiannual xkcd post. I thought I hadn’t used it anywhere to demo that I came up with it first, but there it is on wikipedia.

Perpetual beta is not good for my parents

From my perspective as a user, perpetual beta’s frequent software updates are not good for me. Many times, I go to use a feature of a web page or app and it has changed.

For me, that’s annoying. I have to go on an adventure to find where menu X has gone. I go through a maze of twisty passages all alike. If the interface changes from week to week, it takes time and effort before I learn that the feature I liked is gone.

I can look at this from my parent’s perspective. They’re not experienced. Like many people over 60, they don’t understand common interface idioms. For them, the circular O/1 on-off logo takes effort to recognize. Changing the location of a menu pull-down can be bewildering.

In Wikipedia’s “Perpetual Beta” article (*) Tim O’Reilly is quoted “Users must be treated as co-developers…” (**) That’s totally bonkers. My parents don’t understand their cable TV remote, let alone how to be a “co-developer.” I’m not sure what a co-developer is, but from my experience in software development, it means that I’m expected to do a lot of work.

A couple of consequences of perpetual beta are glaring failures.

First, there is no documentation for anything. And, if there is documentation, it’s probably out of date. When I searched Google for information about Google Drive, everything I found referred to features that had changed. It’s very frustrating. I found answers for the old, older or oldest versions of the interface. I had no guidance to distinguish the documentation versions or assurance that any of them were current. Even the simple courtesy of clearly dating the creation date of information would help.

Second, perpetual beta, from a user’s (and especially a casual user’s) point of view means that the software is hard to use. The “quality” that is supposed to be provided by frequent updates is out-weighed by my constant re-learning of the tools.

In the past, you had to ask to be a beta tester. You had to “opt-in” to get beta features. Now you get beta features continuously. And, you can’t “opt-out” to keep using a consistent tool.

Managers may confuse perpetual alpha with perpetual beta. They’re willing to release features before testing them with users. A sprint to tackle the top things on the work-list doesn’t give the developers time to properly implement testing. Also, formal usability testing may not be in the teams vocabulary.

When I interviewed at Amazon a few years ago, they asked me to complete some simple programming tasks before the in-person interview. The last task asked me to test the routine I developed. I wrote some pretty basic tests in Perl in addition to the C++ code and got a quick positive response.

From that, I’ve learned that testing should be the first job, not the last. When I write software, I can be pretty confident that any non-tested feature is a broken feature. It takes time to make embedded or automatic tests, but they help improve my confidence in the developing system.

So, when my parents use a changing web page, they are confused and lost. It takes time and frustration to figure it out. By any measure, they’re not experts at the process. When it changes every month, my parents aren’t getting any benefits.

The Wikipedia article says that perpetual beta is “the foundation for the habitability or usability of a service.” I claim that it is the complete opposite. It’s a fad that makes a computer, phone or smart device more vulnerable and less usable. If the inexperienced users can’t find an answer easily, the tool is not accessible or usable.

(*) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_beta (retrieved Nov. 10, 2015)
(**) http://www.oreilly.com/pub/a/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html?page=4 (retrieved Nov. 10, 2015)

Troubling Window Sticker

Yesterday I was walking into the local Wal-Mart. One truck had a sticker on the back “I belong to the Invisible Empire”. I looked up what that was–it’s the Klan.

I know the Ku Klux Klan has been active in my county in the not too distant past. One of their Grand Dragon’s used to live here. About 20 years ago or so, some kids found a bunch of Klan white hoods and cloaks in a barn.

I guess if you don’t look for the bad, you won’t know it’s around until it’s too late.

I haven’t seen one lately, but when the South Carolina took down their confederate flag, a few people up here made a point of having one flying from the back of their pick-ups–in northeast Indiana.

I even saw one on the motorcycle of someone who came to do some roadside assistance a few months ago. (Yes, roadside assistance on a motorcycle which was unique.) (I didn’t think to report it to the insurance company which would have been proper.)

Arduino fun

an X-ray of my Arduino board

an X-ray of my Arduino board


Last night I started playing with my Arduino that I bought a long time ago. I’m programming it on my second laptop. That system is running Windows XP and off the network so I’m using a good bit of sneaker-net with it.

I installed a few things – Perl, Eclipse, the Arduino suite, the current version of Java, Visual Studio re-distribution kits. Although Java gave a warning, the only thing that refused to install was the Atmel studio. I’m doing Cygwin now…. I don’t know what to do without grep and find…

I also installed “shycis” which is a program that draws a little ripple around the cursor when you click. I like the visual feedback

I don’t really like the laptop. It’s old and the fan is noisy. The benefit is that it was free and I’ve got another desk to set it up on so my hardware mess on the desk doesn’t clutter up the software mess on the other desks.

So, my first program was pretty simple. Flash the Arduino LED at a increasing and decreasing pace. It’s pretty cute. Blinky lights are always nice to see–getting immediate, physical feedback for the code is a little intoxicating. It’s a couple levels beyond regular software development on the “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” scale.

I’m comfortable using wire wrap for semi-permanent prototypes, but also am looking for PCB manufacturers. Four that I know about:

http://www.pcbway.com/ Cheap PCB Prototype Manufacturer in China
http://dirtypcbs.com/ Dirt Cheap Dirty Boards
http://dev.dangerousprototypes.com/store/pcbs Dangerous Prototypes
https://oshpark.com/ OSH Park

I don’t have experience with any of these yet so I don’t know which are best.

If you’re interested… here I am on Hackaday https://hackaday.io/projects/hacker/95124

I’ve got one project I’m actively pursuing… The Mars Distance Calculator. Don’t have a good name for it. It’s supposed to keep a dynamic display of how far Mars is from your current location, updated as rapidly as the system can calculate it.

Original image: arduino-placement. By westfw [Image license ]

Recovery Words: Self-Castigation

Self-castigation: attacking oneself with severe criticism, reproof and punishment.

Before recovery, this can be a way of life. The shame of letting your family down again. The regret of losing a job by acting out at work. Everything is your fault and you can’t get out of it.

It seems that the people around you are not as hard on you as you are to myself. You see all the lies and secrets and know how badly you’ve really been doing. The family is ready to forgive you and your friends just hope you’ll get better. You’re out on your own in your own head and that makes it all worse.

After a while, the self-castigation can become as bad as the effects of the substances or not having them when you need them. If you’re so bad that you can’t even control it when you want to, your shame and guilt don’t have an answer. One conclusion is that punishment and criticism are the responses that make sense.

Once this attitude has taken hold, it takes a long time for it to go away. When you make a small mistake, it reminds you of past big ones. You get support from your friends and you’re glad they’re in your corner. It’s almost as if you have a resentment against yourself and can’t let it go.

It was a big relief when this attitude isn’t your first way to respond to your own mistakes. You talk to people who understand you and believe them when they say you’re doing well and that they are glad to see you or hear from you.

When you’re alone, it’s hard to find a balance, but with friends and people who care giving you support, you can get closer to self-acceptance.

Self-acceptance: To be contented with, appreciate and respect oneself.

Finding a piece of history

I was looking at the shelves next to my stereo tonight. Unexpectedly, I found a Mini Disc with some music on it. Of course, I don’t have a mini disc player so I can’t listen it.

Here is a picture. The disc was a promo sent out by Rolling Stone magazine. The copyright on the disc says 1994 so that’s been hiding on the shelf for 21 years without me realizing it! Online resources say that it was released on June 30, 1994. [For example Soul Asylum]

The outside looks like a 1/2 size floppy disc. The disc inside looks like a CD–silver and reflective.

I see people selling it on ebay in the $5 – $10 range.

Pictures of Rolling Stone Mini Disc

The Icosahedron

I’ve been planning to build a tensegrity icosahedron all summer. I’ve got all of the parts prepared and started putting it together today. Here are a couple of work-in-progress photos.

I build one small one several years ago out of thin wire and wooden sticks. This time I’m making something more permanent and bigger with steel pipes and wire ropes.

partially assembled sculpture

Icosahedron I

partially assembled icosahedron

Icosahedron II

Partially assembled Icosahedron

Icosahedron III

The third image is after I discovered that I have the cables tangled up. I’m having to disconnect them three at a time and then make each triangle not cross each other. This last one has 2 of 8 triangles corrected. I’ll make more progress tomorrow.

You can find more pictures: http://sesquicentennial.deviantart.com/gallery/10350831/Math-art

Autumn is drawing near

I was in the neighborhood today. The trees were tall and proud. Some were revealing a hint of their autumn splendor. Their leaves were blazing from their original green into oranges and reds.

The trees’ discarded leaves will cover my home soon. The yard will need to be raked—I enjoy the exercise. A gas-powered blower only pulls me away from my beloved nature. I relish the fresh breeze and cold sky.

The shining moon has changed each day this week. I saw it once more tonight. Soon the sky will be full of its glowing orb. I love the moon’s light and the silver sheen that comes from its celestial desert.

The trees are harbingers of a new season. Soon the sky will turn gray and cold. I will explore the world less. Eventually the moon will rise over a new season again. I will be waiting for the crocuses to return.

Climbing the Stairs

In the morning, I saw the sun rise over the neighbor’s house. It was a beautiful golden sun. I welcomed its warm glance into my window.

As I left the house for another day of my journey, the sky laughed into my ears. I heard a cricket symphony and I watched the breeze. Every time I turned, I saw another glorious vista. Each word I thought could not be set free. I was running across the sky and it was time to land in the waves.

A small light filled my room. I remembered that the darkness is gone forever. A word in the book was enough to open my eyes. I was in love and I could never forget where I have been. The walls breathed my voice and the dust fled into my shadow.

I am in today. I am in this hour. I am in this now.

Why Bad Things Happen to Good People

The perspective of faith says that if God is all good, how could He allow something bad to happen to people? This can lead to the spiritual challenge that how could God have let X happen, he must not be there or may not love me or I can’t have faith in Him anymore. "God is good, All the time" David Woo

However, a different understanding on the classic question “Why Bad Things Happen to Good People?” is that bad things don’t happen to good people. It’s that undesirable things happen to good people–just like undesirable things happen to anyone. It’s not easy (not promising I can always do it), but the events aren’t bad unless the participant calls them bad.

I may not want to have cancer, wreck my car or lose a family member, but that doesn’t mean that having those things happen is bad from the perspective of faith. When I had my heart attack, that certainly wasn’t something I wanted, but it’s led to many other good things. The perspective on the first day after the heart attack has evolved into a more accepting attitude. Since then I’ve been filled with gratitude. Also I’ve developed deeper relationships with my family and friends.

From a post-modern perspective, things are what we call them. If I say I’m depressed, I may be magnifying the problem when I’m just having a sad mood. I can get clinical depression, but if I don’t have any ambition on a given day, it may be just part of the ebb and flow of my life. The words I choose can give me the empowerment to overcome the difficulty with my own resources.

I’ve heard people call themselves lazy when, to my perspective, they are just procrastinating and labeling themselves unnecessarily. If they call themselves lazy, then they don’t have to challenge themselves because “that’s just the way I am” instead of working to break out of a pattern.

If I would call my child “shy,” that’s going to cement in my mind and in the child’s mind, that he or she is going to react to new situations a certain way. Then, these become self-fulfilling prophecies. The child folds up like a fan and stops exploring social possibilities and new experiences.

So along those lines, I’m not harmed unless I believe I’m harmed. Bad things don’t happen to me, undesirable things happen to me. Bad things don’t happen to good people. Life doesn’t always give me what I want, but I can move beyond anything that I face.

Original image: God is good, all the time. By David Woo [Image license]