Happy Chinese New Year!

Xin Nian Kuai Le!

It’s the year of the dragon, so I decided to post another dragon drawing (click for full size):

This dragon is fully modernized with brainwave readers and mirrorshades and ready for the cyberpunk future!

git between two local machines setup [self reminder];

Had to figure this out again today, so thought I’d write it down so that I could find it next time, and maybe someone else would find it useful.

Situation:

• git master rep on github.com
• local repo on desktop
• local repo on laptop

Made changes and several commits on my laptop, didn’t want to push them to origin (github) because not ready to impact rest of team  yet, but wanted to work on my desktop (bigger screen, faster, more ram).  So, needed to get my changes from laptop local repo to desktop local repo, but not via origin on github.

add new remote in git on desktop for laptop (I did this in Tower this time, but obviously can be done from command line via something like:  git remote add laptop ssh://laptopname.local/Users/me/full/path/to/laptop/local/repo/).

Requirements:

• Remote Login enabled in Sharing section of System Preferences
• desktop ssh public key be in authorized_keys on laptop
• both on local network (for .local host name use, can use ip address if not).

the remote address then is something like:

ssh://laptopname.local/Users/me/full/path/to/laptop/local/repo/

and then it works.  Obviously you’ll likely want the same thing in reverse so you can move code from desktop to the laptop.

Probably old-hat for git pros, but that I’m not (yet) .

Working at Home – some tips

@noel_llopis (who’s recently a new dad – congrats!) tweeted a link to this excellent and funny post on working from home:  ”How to work from home without going insane” and then queried for tips from others.

Having worked at home as a software developer for most of the last 22 years through two new babies and 11 years with a stay-at-home mom and growing children, I have a few tips I thought I’d offer.

In outline:

1. make sure spouse knows how costly interruptions are
2. schedule specific times to give spouse a break with new baby
3. must have an office with a door, possibly improved.
4. don’t let work consume all waking ours; have a schedule.
5. teach older kids that a closed door means you are working and that this work earns the money that buys us food and such and that interruptions are expensive.  Then communicate the schedule of breaks to them (motivates them to learn to tell time ) and give them some positive time at each break.
6. bring enough supplies into your work space so you don’t have to leave for “short breaks to refuel” which are too torturous for small kids to understand.

Number one is probably the most important place to start.  I explained to my wife that it can take as much as 30 minutes for me to load the program I’m working on into my head where I can then work on it.  And that an interruption feels like a painstakingly constructed house of cards coming crashing down; not only have I lost the 30 minutes of load time, it’s also very defeating to fall back so far and have to start all over and this can make it cost way more than the 30 minute load time.

Number two was key when Geek was born.  He was born with undiagnosed reflux which means that he almost never slept more than 20 minutes before he woke up screaming.  (a pair of foam ear plugs in my pocket for much of the first year, just to turn the volume down really helped).  It took a real team effort to stay sane through that first year.  But even in less stressful situations, there are just things that are so much easier to do when not holding a baby.  So my wife started coming to the office and asking if I could “hold him for just a minute” while she _______.   Each one of those things seemed very quick to her – just three minutes! – but they required the 30+ minute reload for me and so were terribly destructive of productivity.   We figured out that having a schedule of breaks worked well for both of us.  If she knew that she’d get a break of X minutes at 10:30am and 2:30pm, then she would put off those things that were easier without the baby until then.  It was also easier to hang on through the screaming knowing you had a break coming at a specific time.  I actually worked half time for the first 6 months because of the reflux, but that’s a different story.

Number three is about creating an environment where you can actually do the highly cerebral work that is programming – noise being the biggest issue for me.  An office space with a door was an absolute requirement.  In my case replacing the cheap hollow-core interior door with a solid core door and a threshold to close the gap under the door was very helpful in reducing the sound transfer.  I also learned to program with music playing, which helped provide covering noise.  For me the music has to be music that is very familiar so my mind doesn’t need to attend to it.  Some people need exclusively instrumental music.  Some people can do headphones (this wasn’t something I learned how to do until I had to work in a cube for a couple of years (shudder)).

Number four is about sanity.  It is really easy to slide into working all the time when you work at home.  This will feel really productive for a time, but in the long run it’s bad for your marriage and your productivity.  A mental break from time to time can really increase productivity when you are working.  If you are billing hourly there is another dangerous trap to avoid: it’s easy to start converting everything into ‘lost wages’ and so a 2 hour movie date “costs” you 3x your hourly rate for travel time and the movie and so you can start skipping family stuff because “I need to be working.”  Suggest you avoid this path to insanity and a broken marriage.  Lower your monthly expenses (cheaper house or car, cancel cable tv, whatever works!) instead. And, as I’ve suggested in a previous post, put a cash-flow savings account in place as soon as possible to provide a buffer that frees you from this financial stress.

Number five is for when your kids get old enough to come to your door and open it because they know you’re in there…  :)  This one will take a few repeated lessons for them to get it, but the important thing is to be cheerful when you have the discussion (i.e., opening the door and venting your frustration at being interrupted makes both of you feel badly in the end – try to avoid doing that).  So patience while this learning process happens is critical as is teamwork with your spouse who will have to reinforce and help enforce the “door is closed, don’t bother them unless it’s an emergency” rule.  It’s also important to help define what an emergency actually is, how to look at the clock and know what time it is and when the break is coming, and so on.  This is also an opportunity to start teaching lessons around “where does our food come from?”  ”How does one get to live in a house?” “Working earns money which can then be used for food, and other things?” and even some discussion about what it is you do for a job and why it’s interesting and what the challenges are.  All part of a well-rounded education for your children.

Number six is about reinforcing the clear dividing line between you being “at work” and “on break” so that kids (and spouses!) are clear about when they can talk and interact with you and when then can expect you’ll be up for some fun (or available to help).  Some people need this more than others, but I find that with a family it helps to have a clear “signal” for them.  To this end, I got a pitcher for water and a large quality thermos for hot drinks so that I wouldn’t need to go refill until my next scheduled break.  The bathroom is obviously trickier and that’s about getting a house with the right configuration, when possible.  Some kind of tupperware for snacks and you’re set for uninterrupted work sessions with no false “mini-breaks” which are too difficult for small kids to distinguish from real breaks.

On the house layout issue:  clearly choosing the right house for stay-at-home work with stay-at-home spouse and growing children can really help.  Not always possible, but some things to look for/consider:

1. Having the work area be on a floor separate from the family area is really helpful.  Above rather than below, if at all possible (running feat on your ceiling can be difficult to ignore!).
2. As noted, having a bathroom accessible to the office space that doesn’t involve becoming visible/available to the family space is very helpful for avoiding false “BREAK TIME!” excitement and subsequent disappointment or frustration.
3. type of construction is important.  The best I’ve had is old lathe and plaster – much better sound deadening than sheetrock covered interior walls (which generally also have no insulation).  If you’re making your own space, resilient channel may be used to fasten the sheetrock to the studs to give greater sound isolation.  I’ve heard that the shredded “old blue-jeans” eco-groovy insulation is actually better for sound deadening than the pink fiberglass stuff and so even interior walls may be insulated to help isolate them audibly from living areas.
4. test a potential new house:
1. go into the proposed office space after asking the kids to run around screaming in the play/family space (they’ll love being asked to do this!).
2. go into the proposed office after asking older kids (or spouse if you plans to be there long enough the your younger kids will grow up) to run up and down any stairs in the house.
3. Have spouse pretend to talk loudly on the telephone while walking around in the family space while you are in the office.

One mistake I made in one house was to put my office in the basement because it was quieter and on a different floor.  Bad idea for a guy from Hawaii;  Cold and dark.  Very gloomy.  Remodeled part of the attic with a dormer and windows and moved myself up there for dramatic mood/productivity improvement.

My current setup involves having some acreage and some space in a wooden barn which I remodeled into office space – this is really good in many ways.  The 150 foot “commute” is just long enough to get myself into a work head-space and the sound issues are 100% gone.

I hope some of this was helpful.  If you have other tips, feel free to add them in the comments!

peace,

- Dad

New teaching skills strategy

I grew up making things.  Helping my step-dad and his brother build our house; helping my dad build a big extension on his house.  Plumbing, electrical, ditch digging, carpentry, and design (both dads are architects).  We had a “shop” at both houses; mostly a wood shop with some mechanic type tools. Step-dad was also handy fixing cars, which was useful given the old used cars we mostly had back then.  I also had to learn to fix my first car (only cost $250!) which  towed to our place because it didn’t run when I bought it.

I’ve wanted to get Geek more hands-on with tools and into the shop but the truth is I haven’t done a good job of it, sadly.  I’ve been struggling to figure out why and how to get better.  I found it difficult when he was younger but now that he’s nearly 15 (!) I think I finally figured out the strategy:  I’m not allowed to hold any tool or workpiece for more than 60 seconds.  If I’ve held it longer than that then I’m failing.  Also I asked him to ask for the tool back after I’ve done enough showing if I forget and keep going.

This was very difficult for me at first.  Patience is something that doesn’t come easily for me and usually I have 20,000 other things to do so I want to get the current task DONE and move on.  But now I simply get Geek to help me fix anything that needs fixing or make anything he wants/needs, and the 60 second rule applies.  It’s working great so far (3 projects – he even fixed the kitchen sink drain a couple of nights ago!).

Now patience is still a challenge; when he’s making something in the shop I often have to have my own interruptible project that I work on while he’s doing some steps on his because I seem to be unable to just stand there doing nothing (ok, watching) for any length of time.  So we’ll talk about the next step in the project, I’ll show him the tools involved and how to use them, then I’ll watch as he starts to use the tool to see if I can offer any tips.  Once he seems to have it under control I’ll step aside and go clean up a corner of the shop, or fix something laying around in the shop awaiting my attention – doesn’t matter what as long as it’s easily interruptible if he needs a second pair of hands on something or has a question.  I glance over from time to time, and wander over to see how things are going and see if I can offer any pointers on tool use or whatever.  Nice companionable time in the shop and I’m feeling good about making progress on this!

Anyway, just thought I’d toss this out there for others similarly challenged.  peace.

10,000 hours

So true. So important.

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”
― Ira Glass

got there from this blog post which is pretty good also.

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting metafilter thread on parenting a geek (or any kid)

This is a really interesting thread on parenting and talking with adolescents.  Recommended.  (I’m including a couple of excerpts here because I don’t want to lose this content if the original source goes away):

http://ask.metafilter.com/40483/How-can-I-help-my-young-friend

I’m a little worried about a pre-teen boy in my extended family. He is somewhat troubled. He has low self-esteem, and never wants to apply himself to anything whatsoever. Video games and TV are all he cares about. He has no friends at school… except for the boys who make him humiliate himself and laugh at him.He’s a second child with an older sister who is always the center of attention. The boy’s father has told me that he really can’t understand his son. I identify fairly strongly with the boy myself. Since he seems to look up to me, I thought it might be helpful to try having an earnest talk with him. I just don’t know how to go about it without sounding all preachy. I know I hated preachy adults when I was his age.

Can anyone suggest approaches I could use? My current plan is to simply talk about life and school for a while, ask him about how he’s doing with things, and then slowly try to sneak in some preachiness. I’m thinking of saying something like, “I hope I don’t sound like I’m lecturing you. I hate being lectured, and I’m sure you do too. These are just some things I wish I had known when I was your age…”

Some things I’d like to impress upon him:
Video games are not everything
You really should try to learn stuff in school
Your parents aren’t perfect, but are trying their best
You’re approaching some very difficult years, but it gets way better after this
School is going to be a popularity contest pretty soon, and here are some ideas on how to handle that
God is dead and we are all alone

Ok, not that last one. Anyway… Please, let me know if you have any suggestions for relating to a young man in a non-preachy way.

 

This response from a teen, FiestyFerret, is powerful insight.  Some good tips on how to speak to your teen and how to have a positive impact on their lives and how to get them off the computer (if that’s a goal):

http://ask.metafilter.com/40483/How-can-I-help-my-young-friend#623656

Mmkay. I’m 13 (almost 14). If you started a sentence with most of those things, I’d prolly “think” I have you figured out right away cuz I’d tell myself “He understands TIME but not me and my friends and what we live.” (That might not be true, but it’s what I’d think.)

Mmkay. Here’s the deal. We like adults who DO stuff with us and open up the world to us. We don’t really like it when they criticize the world we live in. We live in it cuz people aren’t offering us anything better. We can’t drive to baseball games or hike alone in mountains or ride the bus alone to get to the beach. We can’t get jobs and “network”. If adults don’t help us, then we build our own life with what we have, which is video games, skateboarding, hanging out after school, getting on AIM and stuff like that. And the rules in those places are pretty real to us…including popularity. So (I mean this in a nice way) either come to us in our world or take us to places in yours where we are allowed and won’t get yelled at. Don’t just talk to us. Cuz after you’ve said all you’re going to say you’ll get in your car and drive back to your house and we’ll still be stuck at home with our video games and AIM.

Also, (no disrespect again, i promise) I personally would be offended if an adult told me that God is dead and we are alone. How are you planning on proving a negative? Even I know that it’s impossible to prove a negative, so saying something like that would only leave me feeling worse. I think you should leave those kinds of opinions to yourself and let him decide about things like that for himself. He might be dead in your life, but you can’t really tell the future for the kid’s life. I really think you should leave that alone.

Mmkay. About school: Learning stuff in school is important but when was the last time you were actually IN a middle school? My parents finally pulled me out of public school and let me go to a private school cuz our schools are so huge and institutionalized. At my other school you got good grades if you didn’t talk, didn’t think, could fill out worksheets well, didn’t make eye contact with anyone, had a #2 pencil so you could fill in bubbles, didn’t bother a teacher, didn’t mark in a book, didn’t draw attention to yourself, didn’t defend yourself against the kids who are always in trouble, didn’t mind waiting 25 minutes in line for lunch and could wolf it down in 3 so that you weren’t tardy, only walked on certain tiles in the hallway,didn’t use certain stairways to get to class, didn’t ask to use the restroom after lunch, didn’t try to go into the library before or after school. It was a joke. The 8th grade science teacher at our school called the smartest kid in every classs period “Wienie Boy” so that they wouldnt’ challenge him intellectually. Some of the PE coaches threw things, screamed and humiliated kids in the locker room. Yeah. Great. Give us schools where it’s cool to learn and we will. Give us a situation where all we do is try to stay alive and see what happens. My new school rox and it is none of the things I just mentioned. Classes are small and teachers will correct you if you DON’T challenge their ideas. So before you talk school with a kid, you should find out what’s REALLY going on there cuz it’s prolly not what you remembered it was.

Advice is good if it is coming from a reliable source (which you might be) but you have to see that we have to LIVE it. We usually know our parents are ok (unless they are the kind that aren’t…and I’ve seen some of those.) You don’t really have to prove it. But if you did, you could make them seem more human. When you adults tell us stories about when you were our age or if you tell us how you messed up or how you totally rocked a situation when you were our age, we get it. If you tell us how we should do it in our lives, we don’t. We honestly don’t believe that you understand what you are talking about. That’s not to be disrespectful, but it’s true.

Pre-teen as in 11 or 12? School is already a popularity contest. It has been since about 3rd or 4th grade. Some of us don’t care. Some of us do. Some of us just want to survive it. Nothing you can say or do will change our status. I think Popularity goes back to weather or not you have your own deal going on. I have a life and stuff I really care about and so even though really none of the kids I hang around with could care less and some prolly think it’s totally lame, I like my life and that makes me feel pretty good about stuff. I LIKE my life cuz adults opened up the world to me a long time ago and now I get to do cool stuff. I’m not stuck at home unless I want to be at home.

If you want to help him get over all that stuff about popularity, help him to do cool stuff that makes him feel good about himself. Enough of that kind of thing and usually popularity won’t matter too much cuz no one can take your life experience away even if you’re a dork.

That’s just my opinion. My opinion might not apply very well to EVERY kid, but it would work for most of the kids I hang around with. I hope this didn’t sound disrespectful or arrogant. I just don’t want you to make a big mistake. I can tell you care. He prolly can too. You just have to live it instead of talk it.

Oh and I just thought of this, my bro is a freshman at a communication arts magnet high school. His principal said that something like 39% of the new jobs that will be opening up when he graduates college will be linked in one way or another to the video game industry. I don’t game too much, but I can see that happening just cuz of how much my friends play. Also, my dad’s a doctor and he said that video games help some surgeons with their arthroscope (I dont’ know how to spell it..srry) skills. Like on knees and shoulders. So you can’t really just disregard them as part of our culture. sometimes they do become life.

I hope things work out good for you and especially for him. You sound kewl.

-Feisty Ferret

and his follow-on comment:

http://ask.metafilter.com/40483/How-can-I-help-my-young-friend#623719

Oh, I meant to mention this: Lady Bonita says she’s a mom of boys. There must be some underground Mom book out there about ways to be tricky with your kids. I think my mom read it too cuz Lady Bonita said something that my mom did:

One time me and Josh (my bro) got my mom to cave in and tell us her “parent tricks” that she uses (she has a lot.) Like, she said that when we were little she used to put me in the high chair at McDonalds and tie my shoes together so I couldn’t try to climb out and go to the playroom thingy before I was done eating. *annoying* Stuff like that.

Well anywayz, she had two tricks she used to get us to talk and it’s how she got a really good sense about our lives and how we were handling teachers and kids and junk at school. She doesn’t usually have to use them anymore cuz as you can see, you can’t really shut me up now, but One trick she did ALL that time starting from when we were REALLY young is she would pick us up after school and say “Tell me a funny story from today.” I JUST found out like a week ago that this is how she was putting together which kids were which and the type of people i was dealing with all day. Of course I told her everything cuz I thought it was “funny.” She used that daily info from the car ride to hone in on “Problem” situations she could detect from my stories. THEN (trick #2) (GAH I remember her doing this and I had no idea she was tricking me) she’d hand me a slinky or some toy that you could manipulate in your hands, and start doing the dishes or something. Then out of the blue while I was sitting there minding my own business playing with the cool toy at the counter, she’d ask me questions about particular stuff at school. She says that when you put moveable stuff in the hands of boys, the toy works like truth serum (sorry spelling) cuz it somehow short circuits our mental defenses and lets us talk. Mmkay that’s just scary how grownups know stuff like that. haha. So yeah, Lady Bonita is right about that. Guys talk under the right circumstances.

- FeistyFerret

From his comment and the one by another teen on the site, our schools are clearly broken and we need to figure out how to fix them.  After reading the comments by these two kids, I’m feeling really lucky about the public school Geek is in, despite some challenges there.

Also, a book recommended by one poster sounds potentially worth checking out (Amazon link):

How to Talk So Teens Will Listen and Listen So Teens Will Talk by Adele Faber

Geek Song #2: Taking Care of Business, geek style

You get up every morning
From your alarm clock’s warning
Take the 8:15 into the city
There’s a whistle up above
And people pushin’, people shovin’
And the girls who try to look pretty

And if your train’s on time
You can get to work by nine
And start your slaving job to get your pay
If you ever get annoyed
Look at me I’m self-employed
I love to work at nothing all day

And I’ll be…
[Refrain]
Taking care of business every day
Taking care of business every way
I’ve been taking care of business, it’s all mine
Taking care of business and working overtime
Work out!

If it was simple as a hammer
You could be a programmer
If you can juggle ones and zeroes
Get a second-hand laptop
You could make it to the top
If you get in with the right bunch of fellows

People see you having fun
Just a-lying in the sun
Tell them that you like it this way
It’s the work that we avoid
And we’re all self-employed
We love to work at nothing all day

And we be…
[Refrain]

[Spoken] Take good care of my business
When I’m away, every day whoo!

[Repeat first 2 verses]

[Refrain]

Takin’ care of business [4x]

[Refrain]

Takin’ care of business [repeat, fade]

(with apologies to BTO)

Grandpa exclaims at pace of technology…

When I showed Geek’s grandpa this link and exclaimed how wild the pace of technology was he replied:

Yea, quite wild…but, just imagine MY view of “future tech”…old as I am now, I well recall when our phone at the ranch had a crank that called an operator up in Jenner.  You would tell her whom you wanted to call and she would insert a plug into her board that made the connection!

I well remember when, in 1948 (I was 7), my Dad brought home one of the first TV sets in Mill Valley, if not THE first. He had gone to work for Chronicle Broadcasting in SF…Channel 4, and they had given him one so he could familiarize himself with the new media. It had a screen the shape of an ocilliscope and the image was greenish.  I recall watching the movie serial of Last of the Mohicans (released for movie theaters).  On Saturday about 20 neighborhood kids would gather to watch the new fangled TV…

When at Stanford the only computer on campus was in a dedicated BUILDING, which it occupied entirely.  Punch cards gave it the instructions and the engineering students who were allowed to use it proudly carried bundles of punch cards prominently in their shirt pockets.

The first Texas Instruments calculators came out in my Junior year and cost $400…they could add, subtract and multiply only. The other big development that year, at least in the Arch department, was the Rapidograph pen.

Your grandmother began life in horse drawn vehicles, rode behind steam engines, saw the beginning of passenger air travel, saw the arrival of radio and TV, watched a man walk on the moon, and watched over
my shoulder as I learned how to run my first little Mac….talk about a transition in one lifetime!!!

Crazy stuff,…..totally crazy.

Learn iOS Programming – Resources

I was asked by a client recently for a list of resources for learning iOS programming.  This was for an employee to learn iOS app programming, not game programming, so I’m leaving game programming resources off the list.  I know there are other books but I haven’t read them all (yet), so couldn’t really recommend them (yet).

Starting out in Objective C – this is an area I haven’t researched much.

Possibility:
‘Programming in Objective-C (3rd Edition)’ by Stephen G. Kochan
http://amzn.to/kwCvz6

‘Beginning iPhone 4 Development: Exploring the iOS SDK’ by David Mark, Jack Nutting, Jeff LaMarche
http://amzn.to/kQB6LF

‘iPhone Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide (Big Nerd Ranch Guides)’ by Joe Conway, Aaron Hillegass…2nd ed.
http://amzn.to/liR3P9

More advanced iOS programming book for after working through one of the above:

‘iOS Recipes: Tips and Tricks for Awesome iPhone and iPad Apps’ by Matt Drance & Paul Warren http://t.co/3mO7eBe

 

Apple has quite a bit of useful documentation on their site at http://developer.apple.com

Some good places to start (in approximate order I’d suggest reading them):

* iOS Overview – very high level overview of the OS, technology stacks etc.

** iOS Application Programming Guide:

* iOS Development Guide

* iOS Human Interface Guidelines – important to know how they are thinking about the UI design.

* Creating an iPhone Application – conceptual on what creating an app involves

* Learning Objective C - a Primer

*** The Objective C Programming Language – Strongly recommended

**** Memory Management Programming Guide ***  REQUIRED READING ****  MEMORIZE this one.

** Cocoa Fundamentals Guide – recommended.

* Your first iOS Application tutorial

* Tools for iOS Development

Finally, there is a TON of sample code available from Apple:

If one read all the apple provided docs and then went through the Big Nerd Ranch book, I’d guess they’d have a pretty solid starting point on which to build.  Probably take 2-8 weeks or something to read and digest it all, depending on the person.

---

Recommended by long-time mac programmer as essential reading:

Cocoa Design Patterns by Erik M. Buck & Donald A. Yacktman.

Litany against fear from Dune…

I’ve always liked the litany against fear from the Dune books:

Litany against fear

The litany against fear is an incantation used by the Bene
Gesserit throughout the series to focus their minds and calm
themselves in times of peril. The litany is as follows:

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total
obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye
to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.

 

source