The Power of Podcasting 1: The Voice in My Head is Yours

I was reading Scripting news when it I noticed it. The words I was reading were spoken by Dave Winer.

I’ve never met Dave. Something I’d like to do, but all the same, I’ve never met him. I’ve only listened to his podcasts (which continue to explore the bounds of this new audio form). From his podcasts, I have a place in my brain for Dave’s cadence, his inflections, his pronunciation, his personality.

In my head, the words I read are always spoken by The Voice of the Author. Some archetypical voice without a name or face. Reading Scripting news this morning, it was Dave speaking. His voice reading the words back.

Behold, the power of podcasting.

What is Failure?

The other day, I was talking with a software engineer about a potential project. During the conversation, he asked if I was ever on a project that failed.

“Failed?”

I’ve worked on thousands of projects and given that more than 50% of project fail. I asked for a definition.

“The project didn’t launch,” he responded.

Given the complexity of even the simplest project, software or otherwise, it still seems like an odd question. The gestation of any project requires a commitment of time and effort – at any point, some external force could (and frequently does) warrant an end to the project. An engineer at Edward’s Air Force base even declared this a phenomenon a law.

All this assumes the project was a good idea to begin with. I’ve been on projects where it became very clear the project was doomed. Bad idea from the outset. It just took a little while to figure out exactly why.

Is this failure? I don’t think so. Especially if “failure” was found quickly. In the long run, stopping a project mid-stream saves time, effort, and probably a reputation or two. The trouble comes in when, despite all the red flags, the project continues onward. Unstoppable, yet acutely aware of the impending demise.

Measuring a success by whether or not a project saw the light of day is like judging how good your day was based on the thermostat reading. It’s just one of many factors.

I think a more interesting question would be, “Have you ever been on a project that succeeded.”

ELSEWHERE 28 Dec 2007:

Testing leads to failure, and failure leads to understanding.” – Burt Rutan

The Elmer’s Glue of Home Improvement

This weekend, Jen’s parents came by to help us finish some projects around the house. The projects we’ve procrastinated for a year now and just needed a dedicated time to complete.

The list included:

  • Install crown molding in the bedroom
  • Repair and paint walls in the hall closet
  • Repair and paint walls in the hallway to the upstairs
  • Make a plan for the landscaping the yard

The work went surprisingly quick. I attribute the speed to liberal use of the Loctite Power Grab construction adhesive Jen’s parents with them and her dad being an expert crown molder.

Power Grab is like Elmer’s glue for weekend warriors. We smeared it on the wall, massaged the molding into place, then started nailing. Sure beats holding a 13-foot board above your head while someone’s wailing on it with a hammer.

At some point I’m sure it’ll come in handy for landscaping – just not this weekend.

“Off Grid” – My 24 Hour Comic for 2005.

Since I attempted this year’s 24 Hour Comic Challenge, I thought it was only right to share with you the outcome.

Seven pages, seven characters, the start of a story. A story of a world where everything is available to everyone at the time and what happens when someone goes “OffGrid” [pdf].

Oh, and if you have any suggestions on where to take the story send them over. I’d like to continue it, there’s that novel-in-a-month coming in November.

Second Melitta Mill & Brew Broken

Back in episode 4 I proclaimed my love for the Melitta Mill & Brew. Even then I knew this day would come.

The little plastic hook holding the grinder lid down snapped and fell into the grinder basin. Without this hook, the grinder doesn’t grind and the water doesn’t get near the grinds. Basically, this fragile 1/4″ piece of plastic is the key to the coffee maker. Without it, no coffee.

After 3 years of daily use, this is my second Melitta and the second time this hook has snapped. Not an atypical problem, a handful of complaints about his issue in the Amazon reviews.

In the short term, I’m weighing it down with a bag of stale, ground coffee. In the long term, I’m looking for a new machine. Any recommendations?

Waiting for Tiger in Roseville

Waiting For Tiger in Roseville

Yesterday, Jen asked if I needed anything at the mall. I had already placed my order for Tiger at Amazon, so I was good.

I decided to join her anyway, and stop by the other electronics big boxes scouring for a USB- or Firewire- powered 3.5″ hard drive enclosure. No luck on that yet, but I still have to hit the Micro Center in St. Louis Park.

As we walked by the Roseville Apple Store, I shot the above photo of the queue waiting to for official Tiger release. It’s nothing like Julio’s movie of the queue at the Mall of America.

Learning Ruby – Day 13

Day 13 – Putting the Pieces together

Alright, we’re back to Ruby. My apologies for slowing down, and with only 8 days to go. Let’s jump right into day 13.

On the outset, Slagell explains the notion of Ruby being a ‘glue language’, like Perl. A language coordinating multiple programs or processes. Historically, AppleScript has been my glue of choice. AppleScript’s strength is also it’s greatest weakness – it’s not a real programming language. On the other side, I’m still looking for a comparable Windows-based scripting language.

I was first exposed to dot syntax back when Macromedia shoehorned it into Director’s Lingo language. It took me exactly 1 project to appreciate the simplicity and power. After that, it was REALbasic which has a great dot syntax. Especially useful for asking about files things – can I write to you? are you a folder? do you exist?

Rather than the FileName.exists syntax I’m accustomed to, Ruby prefers File.exists?(FileName). Though it feels a little backwards, I appreciate the question mark.

Ran into a little trouble today. Not sure what to make of it. Slagell, asks us to create two files, one with a puts string in it, and one with a string manipulation in it.

I was able to get them working just fine in the Terminal with: > ruby file.rb

He then uses the pipe character to route a string through the string manipulator: > system("echo foo | repeat.rb")

Terminal responded with: Badly placed ()'s

Hmmmm. Not what I expected. Removing the ()’s returned: No such file or directory

Perhaps one of you following along could illuminate me.

In the last exercise for today, my Ruby didn’t like the line:
Dir.entries(dir)
map {|f| File.join(dir,f)}.

to parse through a directory structure. It gave me a undefined method `map` for main:Object error. Odd I thought, so I read ahead and combined the two lines into:
Dir.entries(dir).map {|f| File.join(dir,f)}.
Looks like the map method needs an explicit list of things to go through. Good to know. Dot syntax to the rescue.

Tonight’s Soundtrack included:
‘Sing for the Moment‘ – Eminem
‘Alright‘ – Kinnie Star

Next, we officially start week 23. Exciting.

This post documents my journey through Sam’s Teach Yourself Ruby in 21 days. I’ll be joining Al Abut in his effort to learn Ruby and blog along the way.

Productivity Tip: Empty Your Dock

Back in the pre-OS X days, I used DragThing religiously to keep applications, websites, and documents at my finger tips. That mentality migrated with me to OS X – put everything in the Dock, keep it handy.

Today, I shed it.

Inspired partially by my preparation for the Tiger upgrade and partially by my proficiency with QuickSilver, I’ve emptied everything out of the doc. Only the Finder and Trash are persistent. Everything else, in when in use, out when not.

Even in the half-a-day I’ve made the change, I feel less distracted and more focused. Fewer temptations by Mail (finally a way to turn it off), IM, and NetNewsWire. Plus, I’m more aware of which applications I’m using and what I’m using them for.

Here’s a special half-tip for you (this one, I’ve been using as long as I can remember). Set your desktop to a solid, neutral color – I’m partial to OS X’s ‘Solid Grey’. This way, colors will shift less when you’re trying to find the right hex value and there’s generally less visual noise.