Was looking at my Instagram account which just has a few photos (for now) when I thought about the picture I posted of my certificate from Duke University for going to their program called TIP. And the thing is I was trying to find something to put on Instagram, saw that hanging on the wall and figured it would be a way to preserve it.
And also now I'm seeing how to link to an Instagram photo in my blog so trying something out here. Would be nice if the photo would pull into the blog but I don't know if that can be done so just have the link for now above.
But along with that thought I'd explain why despite having very much enjoyed my times at Duke with TIP, and dreaming for years about going there as a student I didn't even apply later but thankfully at least applied to Vanderbilt University where I got accepted and from which I graduated.
I grew up in the South and did ok I think as a black kid trying to figure out how the world worked and working hard to better my life and get that education thing people were often saying is important. But I was from a lower middle class family and stuck making a lot of decisions myself primarily because my parents were overwhelmed. How were they supposed to know any of this stuff?
It was up to me to figure it out, and with my limited knowledge of things I was often intimidated. And oddly enough, knowing more about Duke University pushed me away from the school as the more I read about them the less confident I was that I would get accepted to that school! And even now since I never applied I don't know.
But I should add that when I was 17 looking at colleges I was lucky enough to have a high enough SAT that a blizzard of schools sent mail to me, including one of the Ivy Leagues and I was just this intimidated teenager saying to myself, no way.
I had no precedent for the experience. And found it hard to see myself as a choice of any of those big names at those important places.
I was just a kid from the rural South trying to figure out how to try and do ok in this life.
And along with the flurry of mail that took a rural Georgia kid by surprise as I tried to manage myself through these decisions completely out of my family's experience there was one from Vanderbilt University.
Thankfully, I had never heard of them. Which is kind of funny as Vanderbilt is one of the best known colleges in the South but I didn't know that at the time.
And oddly enough, as one of those Southern things, I never really thought of Tennessee as the South as I'm from Georgia which I know is the South, but those more Northern states I kind of think of as quasi-South, which I guess is sort of silly.
But somehow the thing that stood out for me was the name. And it's like, I'm wondering to myself, do the Vanderbilts have a school? I had heard of the Vanderbilt family. Turns out of course that the school has received varying attention from the Vanderbilt family, including an important grant from the original famous Cornelius Vanderbilt himself who was often called the Commodore.
And it's like one of those random things as I applied to Vanderbilt University which was the only school I tried.
I don't even remember if Duke sent me anything which may mean I blocked it out.
Thank God I did get accepted by Vanderbilt University and as an adult who has learned a lot more I am so very grateful that my lack of knowledge when a teenager of the best approach to getting into a decent college did not screw up my future.
I was very lucky. And turns out I picked a great school which thankfully did accept me, so it worked out regardless of how.
Ironically I also was recruited after I applied to Vanderbilt by University of Tennessee which felt really good and I do wonder why schools don't recognize that kids from low income families may just not know enough, so it does help to actually be recruited even if you're not a sports person. Why recruit sports folks directly and pay less attention to academic potential? Or do they? And I was just not interesting enough for direct contact for anyone but University of Tennessee?
I think especially for students like myself the personal touch makes a world of difference. Just to know that certain schools wanted me shifted how I looked at myself as before I felt like a reject.
In any event so now I'm a big fan of Tennessee as kind of a second state to my home state of Georgia. Where also I am a big fan of California, so I have 3 main states of which I'm a fan. My Big 3.
And Nashville is a very important city to me, and I find I cheer University of Tennessee as long as they're not playing Vanderbilt, of course.
Interesting how certain choices greatly shape your life and likes.
Saturday, March 08, 2014
Wednesday, March 05, 2014
Why money no longer rules
When I grew up here in the United States in a region commonly called the South, it was a world where money ruled. What we saw on television was decided by wealthy people for the most part, which was also true of what was in the newspapers. Movies were dominated by the wealthy who could fund making them which is still true today I should add. And, also like many think it still is today, for politicians to gain power they needed vast amounts of money to buy advertising on, yup, television.
Money ruled because lots of money was usually necessary to get your ideas out there.
Today the web has completely eradicated that reason.
Now it's actually the opposite. People with lots of money can go down in utter flames, especially in politics, listening to advisers who convince them that all they need is to spend enough money on consultants and political ads, when that is not the case.
Entire governments can fall when wealthy rulers, even with billions at their disposal, and the power structures of state, lose anyway simply because people can talk about their corruption, and decide as a nation to make a change to pursue better.
Whether they get better or not is, of course, a different matter, but now it's not like before when the conversation could be drowned out by people with lots of money.
The difference in our day is that I can talk to a world, on a blog, without spending any money at all! And write up a post while drinking my morning cup of coffee because I thought of it a few minutes ago, just a bit after breakfast.
I really enjoy a cup of coffee in the morning.
But words can topple nations. Thoughts and ideas shared with others can unite in a common vision to at least try to have a better world.
Can we at least agree to try to have a better world?
And petty tyrants can tremble in their gaudy palaces. Can worry as they eat off their gilded plates. And sweat while they pretend that their money is all that matters in a world where the writer can take you apart by just believing enough in humanity to share.
The web now rules.
Soon that lesson will be the great one learned as it shakes this world, changes the future direction of humanity, and I think leads to a better reality for us all.
Ok, now back to my coffee.
Oh yeah, so how long does it take me from start to finish? Kind of in a rush this morning so about 15 minutes. After I do a rough draft which I may post, I'll keep coming back to edit. Generally I'm done editing in two days.
Why put up rough drafts then versus waiting till I've finished primary editing?
Because it helps me edit to have a rough draft up, as it puts the pressure of knowing that what I have up there is already being read by some in several countries where it's usually half a dozen.
And I like that pressure. Besides, even my rough drafts I confidently believe, are usually good enough.
Now I'm back in the early afternoon after lunch, and I'm in edit mode, where I check through what I wrote before and decided to continue down the path I started this morning of, for once, talking about how I tend to do posts.
First I do a read through of what was written earlier checking for obvious mistakes of any kind, and then I do another read through for how the writing flows. I will also be thinking to myself, does it make sense? What am I really trying to say here? Who do I think the audience is?
I make changes as I edit, and then repost with the changes at various points depending on my mood. Sometimes it's just kind of like an itch to just get it out there. And having finished this post below (I think) I'm doing more re-reads. I think I'm on read 4, and probably will read at least 8 times all the way through before I'm done. Along with that will be other mini-reads through sections of the post where it's not worth it to try and estimate a count. Writing about the process is interesting to me as well, so I'll be finding that fascinating in my own read throughs.
Reading through again should be fun, or I will probably decide the writing missed the target. The thing is I enjoy both the writing, the reading and the editing, as all are needed. And without that pleasure in the activity, what would be the point of doing it?
Which raises the question: how effective do I think my own writing is?
My answer is that it fulfills my needs and sense of purpose in the ideal. We actually DO have a wonderful situation in our modern times where anyone can get out here on the web and SAY something that can potentially be read all over the world.
And that's just makes for so much giddy fun.
For me writing is so much of the point. If it does help the conversation that is great as well and I write on topics I think should help--not harm. But how does anyone really know how much good they do?
I think the best thing with what we can now is to try.
And now I have more reading and editing to do with this post. But I have a feeling it is otherwise done.
James Harris
Money ruled because lots of money was usually necessary to get your ideas out there.
Today the web has completely eradicated that reason.
Now it's actually the opposite. People with lots of money can go down in utter flames, especially in politics, listening to advisers who convince them that all they need is to spend enough money on consultants and political ads, when that is not the case.
Entire governments can fall when wealthy rulers, even with billions at their disposal, and the power structures of state, lose anyway simply because people can talk about their corruption, and decide as a nation to make a change to pursue better.
Whether they get better or not is, of course, a different matter, but now it's not like before when the conversation could be drowned out by people with lots of money.
The difference in our day is that I can talk to a world, on a blog, without spending any money at all! And write up a post while drinking my morning cup of coffee because I thought of it a few minutes ago, just a bit after breakfast.
I really enjoy a cup of coffee in the morning.
But words can topple nations. Thoughts and ideas shared with others can unite in a common vision to at least try to have a better world.
Can we at least agree to try to have a better world?
And petty tyrants can tremble in their gaudy palaces. Can worry as they eat off their gilded plates. And sweat while they pretend that their money is all that matters in a world where the writer can take you apart by just believing enough in humanity to share.
The web now rules.
Soon that lesson will be the great one learned as it shakes this world, changes the future direction of humanity, and I think leads to a better reality for us all.
Ok, now back to my coffee.
Oh yeah, so how long does it take me from start to finish? Kind of in a rush this morning so about 15 minutes. After I do a rough draft which I may post, I'll keep coming back to edit. Generally I'm done editing in two days.
Why put up rough drafts then versus waiting till I've finished primary editing?
Because it helps me edit to have a rough draft up, as it puts the pressure of knowing that what I have up there is already being read by some in several countries where it's usually half a dozen.
And I like that pressure. Besides, even my rough drafts I confidently believe, are usually good enough.
Now I'm back in the early afternoon after lunch, and I'm in edit mode, where I check through what I wrote before and decided to continue down the path I started this morning of, for once, talking about how I tend to do posts.
First I do a read through of what was written earlier checking for obvious mistakes of any kind, and then I do another read through for how the writing flows. I will also be thinking to myself, does it make sense? What am I really trying to say here? Who do I think the audience is?
I make changes as I edit, and then repost with the changes at various points depending on my mood. Sometimes it's just kind of like an itch to just get it out there. And having finished this post below (I think) I'm doing more re-reads. I think I'm on read 4, and probably will read at least 8 times all the way through before I'm done. Along with that will be other mini-reads through sections of the post where it's not worth it to try and estimate a count. Writing about the process is interesting to me as well, so I'll be finding that fascinating in my own read throughs.
Reading through again should be fun, or I will probably decide the writing missed the target. The thing is I enjoy both the writing, the reading and the editing, as all are needed. And without that pleasure in the activity, what would be the point of doing it?
Which raises the question: how effective do I think my own writing is?
My answer is that it fulfills my needs and sense of purpose in the ideal. We actually DO have a wonderful situation in our modern times where anyone can get out here on the web and SAY something that can potentially be read all over the world.
And that's just makes for so much giddy fun.
For me writing is so much of the point. If it does help the conversation that is great as well and I write on topics I think should help--not harm. But how does anyone really know how much good they do?
I think the best thing with what we can now is to try.
And now I have more reading and editing to do with this post. But I have a feeling it is otherwise done.
James Harris
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
As of today 10 years
Today marks the 10 year milestone from when I registered my open source application Class Viewer for Java on SourceForge, and I guess I should commemorate that with a post. So here it is.
Downloads over the last 10 years are 35367 from over 150 countries.
That last one is what keeps me thinking and open source software is definitely a way to put something out there that people all over the world can use.
I highly recommend putting something out there.
For must of us not celebrities, rich or whatever, how many ways do you have to in any way speak to your planet? Give something useful for it?
But as magnificent as that sounds typing it, perspective is that popular apps have billions of downloads and have downloads from just about every country.
Enough said on that subject!
And my application is not done. I think I may have learned a few things over the last ten years and I still use it.
It has been such a cool adventure so far. Pleasantly quiet in most ways but there have definitely been some interesting things over the last ten years.
Thanks for the interest over the last decade! There is a profound pleasure in putting something out there that people choose to use.
I'll end with screenshots showing the country counts:
Downloads over the last 10 years are 35367 from over 150 countries.
That last one is what keeps me thinking and open source software is definitely a way to put something out there that people all over the world can use.
I highly recommend putting something out there.
For must of us not celebrities, rich or whatever, how many ways do you have to in any way speak to your planet? Give something useful for it?
But as magnificent as that sounds typing it, perspective is that popular apps have billions of downloads and have downloads from just about every country.
Enough said on that subject!
And my application is not done. I think I may have learned a few things over the last ten years and I still use it.
It has been such a cool adventure so far. Pleasantly quiet in most ways but there have definitely been some interesting things over the last ten years.
Thanks for the interest over the last decade! There is a profound pleasure in putting something out there that people choose to use.
I'll end with screenshots showing the country counts:
Thursday, February 06, 2014
Word choice and climate instability
Turns out that our Sun heats the Earth which I think is an uncontroversial position.
Without the light from the Sun, the Earth would be an iceball. Or a bare rock after the water eventually left over billions of years (I think) but getting a bit esoteric there, which gets to the problem of the relevance of certain scientific knowledge.
For instance, to whom does the average global temperature matter?
Climate scientists study it, but for every day concerns it doesn't tell you much.
Without searching on it, I can't tell you what the average global temperature is. And the phrase "global warming" confuses lots of people with scientific perspective hard to process in everyday life.
The phrase "climate change" is more accurate I think, but is still vague, as change can be good or bad: if you live in an arid climate is a little more rain--no doubt change--good or bad? If you're in a desert and get floods, change is bad. If you're in a farming region under a drought? Well then, a return of rain is a good change!
So our Sun heats our planet, and certain gases in the air help keep our planet warm like a nice warm blanket. Pumping more of these gases into the atmosphere is like adding layers of blanket which anyone can tell you can get uncomfortable.
The more energy from the Sun that our planet keeps the more energy there is to change things, which could lead to climate instability.
Politicians understand the importance of word choice. Infamously Republicans in my country which is the United States exploited variations on words, say to make claims about "death panels" or to shift perspective on estate taxes by calling them "death taxes".
I think it's past time that scientists focused less on their perspective when talking about important matters to the public and more on being understood.
Understanding that putting more gas into the air that keeps more energy from the Sun can lead to climate instability and screw up our weather is a lot different than hearing about "climate change" or even more esoteric and distant, studying debates about "global warming".
If you know the global average temperature, feel free to reply what it is in the comments.
And ask yourself, what does it really mean to your daily weather? It is important, but in terms of understanding for billions of people on planet Earth, the average global temperature is esoterica.
But climate instability hits close to home.
Scientists need to understand a responsibility to be understood as they are on the planet with the rest of us, and will suffer the consequences with the rest of us.
We all are invested in planet Earth and should behave accordingly.
James Harris
Without the light from the Sun, the Earth would be an iceball. Or a bare rock after the water eventually left over billions of years (I think) but getting a bit esoteric there, which gets to the problem of the relevance of certain scientific knowledge.
For instance, to whom does the average global temperature matter?
Climate scientists study it, but for every day concerns it doesn't tell you much.
Without searching on it, I can't tell you what the average global temperature is. And the phrase "global warming" confuses lots of people with scientific perspective hard to process in everyday life.
The phrase "climate change" is more accurate I think, but is still vague, as change can be good or bad: if you live in an arid climate is a little more rain--no doubt change--good or bad? If you're in a desert and get floods, change is bad. If you're in a farming region under a drought? Well then, a return of rain is a good change!
So our Sun heats our planet, and certain gases in the air help keep our planet warm like a nice warm blanket. Pumping more of these gases into the atmosphere is like adding layers of blanket which anyone can tell you can get uncomfortable.
The more energy from the Sun that our planet keeps the more energy there is to change things, which could lead to climate instability.
Politicians understand the importance of word choice. Infamously Republicans in my country which is the United States exploited variations on words, say to make claims about "death panels" or to shift perspective on estate taxes by calling them "death taxes".
I think it's past time that scientists focused less on their perspective when talking about important matters to the public and more on being understood.
Understanding that putting more gas into the air that keeps more energy from the Sun can lead to climate instability and screw up our weather is a lot different than hearing about "climate change" or even more esoteric and distant, studying debates about "global warming".
If you know the global average temperature, feel free to reply what it is in the comments.
And ask yourself, what does it really mean to your daily weather? It is important, but in terms of understanding for billions of people on planet Earth, the average global temperature is esoterica.
But climate instability hits close to home.
Scientists need to understand a responsibility to be understood as they are on the planet with the rest of us, and will suffer the consequences with the rest of us.
We all are invested in planet Earth and should behave accordingly.
James Harris
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
In praise of the little app
Coming up on 10 years with my lightweight application Class Viewer on SourceForge, I've put out a request for feedback with no response at the time of the writing of this post. But that's NOT a surprise. I have almost ten years of experience with this project and over that entire time period I have almost no feedback beyond downloads. Which isn't terrible. It's GREAT to be downloaded.
But it occurs to me that I should try things to see if it might not entice people to talk about their use of the project--assuming it's being used after being downloaded--by talking more about the design philosopy around it.
So, for instance, it's deliberately small and lightweight. I like little apps.
Years ago when I was developing I got frustrated with development tools that took forever, in my opinion, just to load for me to do something simple, like get some info. Also I got hostile towards IDE's that suggested methods to me! I considered it cheeky.
I pick my methods. I don't like some tool pushing a method at me.
The project is also stateless, deliberately, so that every time you open it, you have a clean slate. I even made that emphatic by giving you a lot of blank screen when it loads versus some "splash". I don't like splash with apps.
So there is a LOT of my possibly peculiar philosophy in my application. And it will be 10 years in February where I've stuck to it.
Also along with the above is the principle, only just enough!
I don't like feature creep.
In addition I think that needing a lot of documentation for simple application probably means you have a design problem. That's just my opinion.
However, I think it kind of ironic as mobile devices begin to really take over that my approach is probably better.
Who wants to have to read a book before they can really use their smartphone? Do you really wish to need to take a course before you can get your tablet really working really well?
Oh yeah, and back in February 2004 when I put Class Viewer up on SourceForge, I was giving the world a web enabled app that didn't care if it was working on the desktop, or as an applet.
To me THAT more than anything else IS the future, when applications will be web enabled, web active, web-centric, or useful completely off the web.
(Should add that applet functionality is mostly gone now until and unless I address things like security certificates and security settings. So yes, I am aware of this issue. I really don't like how Java does security. I think it needs to be entirely re-done from the bottom up. But what does my opinion matter?)
So why so little user feedback with so much in the process?
Maybe because I never really explained.
Next month marks ten years of my Class Viewer for Java.
If you've used the application during that time, hey, do me a favor! Tell me something.
I'm curious to know if any of the above resonates.
Did the app appeal to people with similar notions about software development?
What do you think? Will the web take over with applications blurring the line between the desktop and, um, what else is there? I guess browser?
If you ponder the dominance of an idea, consider the dominance of a name.
With so little feedback I will admit I've tried to keep my spirits up, with things like, web searches.
But what does it really mean?
Search on any web search engine: Class Viewer
How'd I do? An inquiring mind wants to know.
James Harris
But it occurs to me that I should try things to see if it might not entice people to talk about their use of the project--assuming it's being used after being downloaded--by talking more about the design philosopy around it.
So, for instance, it's deliberately small and lightweight. I like little apps.
Years ago when I was developing I got frustrated with development tools that took forever, in my opinion, just to load for me to do something simple, like get some info. Also I got hostile towards IDE's that suggested methods to me! I considered it cheeky.
I pick my methods. I don't like some tool pushing a method at me.
The project is also stateless, deliberately, so that every time you open it, you have a clean slate. I even made that emphatic by giving you a lot of blank screen when it loads versus some "splash". I don't like splash with apps.
So there is a LOT of my possibly peculiar philosophy in my application. And it will be 10 years in February where I've stuck to it.
Also along with the above is the principle, only just enough!
I don't like feature creep.
In addition I think that needing a lot of documentation for simple application probably means you have a design problem. That's just my opinion.
However, I think it kind of ironic as mobile devices begin to really take over that my approach is probably better.
Who wants to have to read a book before they can really use their smartphone? Do you really wish to need to take a course before you can get your tablet really working really well?
Oh yeah, and back in February 2004 when I put Class Viewer up on SourceForge, I was giving the world a web enabled app that didn't care if it was working on the desktop, or as an applet.
To me THAT more than anything else IS the future, when applications will be web enabled, web active, web-centric, or useful completely off the web.
(Should add that applet functionality is mostly gone now until and unless I address things like security certificates and security settings. So yes, I am aware of this issue. I really don't like how Java does security. I think it needs to be entirely re-done from the bottom up. But what does my opinion matter?)
So why so little user feedback with so much in the process?
Maybe because I never really explained.
Next month marks ten years of my Class Viewer for Java.
If you've used the application during that time, hey, do me a favor! Tell me something.
I'm curious to know if any of the above resonates.
Did the app appeal to people with similar notions about software development?
What do you think? Will the web take over with applications blurring the line between the desktop and, um, what else is there? I guess browser?
If you ponder the dominance of an idea, consider the dominance of a name.
With so little feedback I will admit I've tried to keep my spirits up, with things like, web searches.
But what does it really mean?
Search on any web search engine: Class Viewer
How'd I do? An inquiring mind wants to know.
James Harris
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