Active hammer
Frank Chimero has yet another interesting post on the value of making new things through collaboration with people from other fields. In the introduction, he makes this good observation:
[Dino and He-Man] were my two favorite toys. Looking back at them, I played more with that shabby dinosaur toy than I did with He-Man. Because He-Man, well, had to be He-Man. That’s all he could be, and he could only do the things I saw on the television show. He couldn’t shoot lasers out of his eyes, he couldn’t bend time, he couldn’t eat bombs. But dinosaur could. Dino could do anything […] because I wasn’t playing in someone else’s story, letting someone else do my pretending for me.
To maintain a healthy state of mind, I believe that the same applies to anyone doing some kind of creative work. If you’re in it, you must get at least some pleasure in making things. From nothing. Most likely, it is why you’ve always wanted to do that.
If you’re a programmer, I think it’s essential to have something going on aside. Either a part-time startup, or an open source pet project, or reading a CS book on a topic you’re not familiar with. Otherwise, depending on your job but still, you might start wondering whatever happened to programming.
✎ Aug 01, 2010
OpenID and OAuth
About three years have passed since OpenID initiative was widely launched and from what I see, only hardcore tech geeks, a tiny fraction of Internet users, have acquired or figured out what their OpenID URL is. (My OpenID URL is this site’s URL, which redirects to myid.net via some meta tags.)
The password problem does remain. However, it is a problem that only we have, the fraction that has dozens of active accounts. In a way, it was expected that because of this everyone else would eventually understand and type in an OpenID. Ambitious.
Meanwhile, a data-sharing idea that started much more modest, OAuth, is being applied on a large scale. Its implementations, two-click sign ins with Twitter, Facebook, Google Account etc, in the context where these accounts provide value and integration with the corresponding service makes sense, are awesome. It’s becoming a standard for secure third-party application development through API access, latest example being Tumblr. But to use it just to solve the “login problem” is not appropriate.
This has proved that the data and, perhaps even more, friend portability problem is more important. There can’t be one true universal solution on the web. Rather, we should continue to standardize how to connect the nodes.
✎ Jul 23, 2010
Surprise reminders
Consider setting email reminders (via Google Calendar, for instance) for something in distant future. Eg “have you done x with this person”, “chase this client unless he finally paid”, “go to _” etc. It’s an interesting way to, not just remember, but check whether months later you’re still feeling the same way, and the conditions you’ve predicted still hold true.
✎ Jul 18, 2010
Analog
Recently I acquired an old SLR and a brand new turntable. Zenit 12aa from my parents’ wardrobe and a cheap and simple Roadstar TTR-8633.
The turntable happenned more by accident. I was walking through a local home store with a friend and spotted it for just 50 euros. I only have three records at the moment, the pictured rare compilation Nothing Short Of Total War, and old Jugoton Ace Of Spades and a Мелодия issued Rachmaninov’s piano Concerto No. 2, which can be found on the street here for 1 euro.
I’ve always been finding new music, but I’m slowing down recently. I’m still checking out new stuff, but when something grabs me, I need to give it some time and my full attention, otherwise it feels like a waste.
One assignment in high school was to write freely about what we’d do alone in the house. Two of us, who were talking about music most of the time, complained that we can’t imagine silly things that teacher thought we would want when the best thing to do is just lay down and listen to the music.
These days it seems that digital music works best as a preview and my walking soundtrack. In room settings, I never had or saw a non-distracting bridge between a hard drive and speakers. I’m still for CDs there. And now big vinyl records feel better than them. There’s something about taking the vinyl out of the card box, putting the needle down, changing sides. Anticipation, sense of time, the pleasure of process. I want that instead of instant availability.
The Zenit camera is pure joy. I’ve uploaded my first roll of film on Flickr. Most of them are overexposed (noob), but still the tone and DoF are beautiful. It’s just silly to have to pay like 500 euros for a DSLR to get decent lens and manual focus capabilities. And I’m not sure about the tone. By now you’re probably assuming that I have metaphysical appreciation for film and mechanical controls. Yes, I’m having fun and megapixels bore the shit out of me.
✎ Apr 06, 2010