Developing Usable Experiences

Hidden Complexity

September 8th, 2008 10:56 pm —  34 views

Over the weekend and a bit tonight I spent some time studying how Perl does regular expressions. It’s a beautiful thing because of it’s simplicity and complexity.

It’s thundering outside right now and I’m deep in my basement thinking about programming in Perl, upcoming weekend travels, and homework assignments. Add to this the obligations I have in a scribbled list on my desk and things start to get complicated. I’m not terribly worried though. I know that things will flow just fine…with some furious paddling on my part.

Today wasn’t the best of days. Only one week into school and I’m fretting over whether I’m doing enough, not doing enough, or being too eager. Then at work I’m wondering the same thing. I talk too much at my status meeting which tends to make my life ever more complicated. “In silence can a man maintain his integrity.” I need to keep reminding myself of that.

W. just booked a trip to Chicago for our 8th1 anniversary coming up in a few weeks. Even though school is going on and there is this vicious schedule at work, my fall weekends are getting stacked up. It’ll be fine though. Things like projects, programming, reading and homework will get done. I just remind to stay focused on what is in front of me and to avoid thinking too much about the complexity of life, the universe and everything.

Image: A section of campus is tore all up while workers make repairs or something to the inner workings. This image made me think of the hidden complexity behind what goes on under the sidewalks and how it compares to the complexity programming hides from the user. Simple is just the complex hidden by efficiency.

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  1. Just a note…we’ve been together for about 17 years…but only married for 8. I’m just sayin’. [↩]

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The Internet as Scaffolding

September 4th, 2008 10:57 pm —  12 views

My day job is approaching a milestone that has my entire team working like daemons1. The schedule is filthy aggressive and we’re all furiously focused on hitting the green instead of the drop zone. Needless to say, my days are more than interesting2. They’re flat-out stupid for 10+ hours. Though I stayed later today and was able to focus on some sysadmin stuff before I got a call to giddyup home. Thankfully.

I’ve never been much of a list person. My lists are more like clouds. Prioritizing is challenging for me because whatever is actually happening at the moment tends to get my attention and is thus considered a priority. I’m learning the Aikido moves required to deal with managing some of what comes at me, but still I struggle. Things happen and you have to react. Put your hand on a hot stove and you have to pull away…NOW.

I circled some classwork tonight. Studying, reviewing, pondering what needs to be done and thinking about when I’ll have time to do it. You’d think I could have been doing something instead of pondering. That may be true. But the circling approach tends to afford a more calm and certain arrival. This I learned from The Farmer3.

While I was configuring a servlet container in a test environment as practice for doing the same in production environment, I found myself constantly running searches trying to find answers or clues to the problems I was encountering. Sometimes forums and discussion boards would provide sufficient “scent” for me to move forward. Other times I’d have to spend many minutes reading manual pages or tutorials. My reliance…nay, my dependence, on the immediate and accessible resource the Internet provides is a scaffolding allowing me to reach higher. Seriously though, I’d be screwed without it. And yes, scaffold is a funny word.

Image: Taken on the way to class this week, it’s the graduate library entrance with the U.S. flag reflected in its windows. Libraries have long provided the scaffolding to learning that the innernets are supplementing/replacing for many people.

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  1. As programmers tasked with solving problems and building applications handed down, we are sort of like background processes. Courtesy laugh please. [↩]
  2. They’re terribly nerdy so I’m skirting some of the details to spare y’all. [↩]
  3. It took me awhile to appreciate this approach…whether intentional or not…the fact of it happening always made me think. [↩]

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Perturbed Angular Correlations

September 2nd, 2008 10:13 pm —  29 views

Today was the first day of classes for my fifth semester, also known as my third year. In normal (non part-time) time that would be the end of my first year of a two year program. Four years is a long time. Hell, a lot of marriages don’t even last that long.

Classes started great and I’m looking forward to working through them. Now that I have a better idea of how things work, I’m more relaxed (thankfully).

This past weekend was an interesting one. Our visits north are often a mix of family fun and stress…which somehow seem to go together. We do value time with our families. Hopefully the feeling is mutual, though we aren’t always so sure. We got to spend some time with my Ma, who is doing well. Knowing this helps me sleep at night.

As I sit here with my fingers resting on the keyboard, I think about the power of words. How words separate people, positions, and perspectives because they’re spoken…or not spoken, written…or not written…whatever the case may be. What should be said that isn’t? What is said that shouldn’t be? I think about this often as I reflect on situations with loved ones, family members, classmates, and co-workers.

I’m getting old(er)…and this means I’m coming to know myself and what works for me and what doesn’t. School is something that seems to work for me. Reading has always worked for me. Solving complex problems dealing with information retrieval and manipulation works for me (so I’m realizing). I like learning, the challenge of it. But damn, family matters are something else entirely. I’m still trying to understand the balance between respect and self-respect and how this affects behavior.

The title of this post was inspired by a book title I saw whilst wandering the school library between classes today. I was browsing the section on physics. This title jumped out at me. I couldn’t understand a word of it but the title struck me. My hackney translation; “frustrating similarities along complex paths of interrelations.”

Welcome back to school.

Image: I took this as I was walking through the arcade toward central campus today. I wanted to record the angle of the sun at 8:09 AM Tuesday, September 2nd 2008.

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