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253 days ago
This week’s discussion topic ("try to understand what 'object-oriented' really means and summarize it in your own words") in my Object-Oriented Programming Concepts college course is super-relevant for me. For a long time, I’ve had trouble mentally making the jump from the procedural programming that I learned years ago, to the object-oriented programming that I’m trying to comprehend, practically implement, and ultimately master. I’ve read about and dabbled in so-called “object-oriented programming” environments, never really understanding and internalizing the theory and benefits boasted by its proponents and latent underneath. I kinda, sorta got some of the concepts but largely never got beyond copying somebody else’s code to quickly cobble together a makeshift solution for the latest, hot project. And then this morning, I read an article that makes me wonder if the authors might not have hit on the problem. In an October 2003 article entitled “On Pseudo ...
253 days ago
Last weekend, I had the painful displeasure of spending about two and a half days in the local hospital for reasons too ugly to talk about here. While there, however, and near the end of the stay, while working on my college course on programming, my doctor came into the room, saw what I was doing and recommended an appropriately staged photograph. If you would like to see a photograph depicting just how hard programming can be, be advised that it is rather--shall we say--graphic in nature. In the end, you just gotta program through the pain, man!
309 days ago
I was given a writing assignment in one of my college courses recently on the subject of so-called "wearable computers" for consumers. I was a little surprised at what I found during my research, and the conclusions at which I arrived at the end. I'm including a link here to the paper in case you're curious. VERY interesting stuff!! Click here to read the paper. If the above link doesn't work in your browser, try scrolling up to my Public Folder in the "SkyDrive" box near the top of this page and you should be able to get to it there.
317 days ago
In the words of my eighty-two year-old mother, "We live in a wonderful world, don't we?" Her near-breathless exclamation was made as she looked over my shoulder at what I could do on my iPod touch (I think we were looking at latest stats of the major stock markets from earlier in the morning). I have to admit that I still have a spark of that marvel when I consider what we have in the palms of our hands in the form of various computing technology. And when it comes down to it, I would have to say that the aspect of modern computing that impacts my life most is the way it facilitates instant communication and access to learning. No longer do we have to wait for the library doors to be unlocked. 24/7/365 we can get access to just about any conceivable form of news, weather, opinion, entertainment, commerce, self-expression, or education. And being an information/word junkie I have to say that my life has been, on the one hand, very positively impacted by this reality; this ...
320 days ago
If you still remember how you felt as a five or six-year-old looking toward your first day of kindergarten or first grade (yes, I'm old enough to predate 3K, pre-K or 5K -- no, wait, I think that one's a race), then you may remember whether or not you were one of the kids about to pee in your pants, or one about to throw up. I know that there might have been some kid out there about to wet his undies in absolute joyful excitement at the prospect of starting school, but I wasn't one of them. My birthday fell in such a way that I was one of the youngest kids in first grade, and I felt more nauseous than joyful on my first day. But that was then, and this is a new millennium and a new stage of life. After elementary school, I was pretty much excited each school year to get back at it mainly, granted, for social reasons. And I must admit, that motivation carried into the first couple of years of college too. But then I married young and caught a vision for...for lack of a ...
