Over My Head

Before there were maps

2010-09-08T06:54:00.001-05:00

Back then, I would describe the place I traveled to with a linear narrative. I would describe what I saw as I walked along ... a grove of trees to my left, further along a cliff to my right ...

Frustration with communicating via linear narrative resulted in picking up a stick and making marks representing a visual model of the landscape in my head. These scratches evolved into the world of cartography and GIS we now enjoy.

We deal with a lot of complexity today, cognitive complexity, complexity rooted in relationships between concepts. We explain these complex relationships via linear narrative, describing a journey along a path, pointing out the landmarks. The audience must build this cognitive landscape, registering each component and they way each connects to each other. Given the difficulty of this exercise, many get lost along the way.

We need maps, visualizations which place the concepts in space such their relation to each other is understood at a glance.

This is a fairly well known concept, and currently implemented as marks with a stick. My conviction is that it will evolve into tools which spatialize knowledge such that more is more quickly understood by more of us.

On linking

2010-04-24T08:32:00.002-05:00

The Unix filesystem concept of ``links`` is quite wonderful. I remember a couple conversations with my father which touched on the question "is anything possible". For some reason my example to prove that, in fact, not all things are possible, was to state that I can't be both here, downstairs, and upstairs at the same time. It seemed irrefutable that a thing can only be in one place at one time.

That may or may not be true, but filesystem links offer cool magic.

However, the quality of explanans offered by Unix could be improved, and
the Python equivilent is flat out confusing.

$ man ln
...
SYNOPSIS
ln [OPTION]... [-T] TARGET LINK_NAME (1st form)
ln [OPTION]... TARGET (2nd form)
ln [OPTION]... TARGET... DIRECTORY (3rd form)
ln [OPTION]... -t DIRECTORY TARGET... (4th form)
...

Target and link_name are reasonable names, although a bit of a mixed metaphor, target implies an arrow or bullet, not link name. I also don't like the order, I approach the link and arrive at the target, why put the target first?

Python is much worse:

>>> help (os.symlink)

symlink(...) symlink(src, dst)

Create a symbolic link pointing to src named dst.

Huh? the destination points to the source? Just Plain Nuts, Don't Make Sense, Oh Puh Leaze.

***********************************************************

I've been for some time futzing with code to wrap link management, eventually want a buildout recipe which describes link wrangling, particularly the ``gather`` idiom, which moves a file to a managed location, replacing it with a link. Useful for versioning configuration.

I like the following spelling to describe links and files:

['ln1', 'thefile'] or ['ln3', 'ln2', 'ln1', 'thefile'] which could also look like: "ln3 -> ln2 -> ln1 -> thefile"

I think it would make me happy to specify links this way, both in arguments and and reports.

That is so wrong!

2010-01-01T09:12:00.000-06:00

Since I seem to be settling on 'Gumpa' as my primary brand* it seems only right to act my age and channel some codger energy. Hey you kids, GET OFF MY LAWN. This is my first post which will be tagged TISW.

The metaphors used to discuss hierarchal data organization are SO wrong.

Take the file system.

It's often described as a tree, a tree with the root at the top, you descend to the files, which I've seen analagized as leaves.

Im my world trees don't have roots at the top and leaves at the bottom, in my world 'to descend' is to go down.

No wonder I've always felt somewhat slow in understanding explanations of file hierarchies, a small matter of their up being my down and visa-versa. Not to mention that file systems are not tree-like, they are container-like. Files are 'in' directories, not 'attached to' as leaves are to a branch.

I don't currently have suggestions for improvements, but it seems like it should be possible to provide a mental image that doesn't require hanging upside down to resolve the cognitive dischord.

Maybe the original work on this was done by bat-geeks at night, when they are upside down. No, they tend to be in caves, no trees in caves. I Know! it was the sloths. Of course, sloths live in trees, upside down, trees with roots at the top would make perfect sense to them.

Darn you sloths, TISW

* TODO acronymize gumpa

Better if used before

2009-04-24T07:05:00.004-05:00

I've long been a fan of the `Better if Used Before` movement. A sustainable future clearly will require rethinking our relationship to reuse, repair, restore, repurpose, and, if all else fails, recycle. The Better if Used Before folks have been around for a long time. They do a great job of getting their message out, the tagline can be seen on lots of packaging. They understand the value of timestamping, along with the slogan will be a date.

As pervasive as their PR effort is, they keep a very low profile otherwise. All that Google seems to know is the work of an artist, looks wonderful, but it seems unlikely she's to thank for all the boxes proudly declaring 'Better if Used Before'

They evidently are deeply old school, however I think their mission is of such importance that it needs to leverage the advantages of the Web.

I hope to act on that thought.

BIUB has spawned many Web-based initiatives; Make, Instructables, Hackaday, etc., it's time they dipped a toe in the waters of the cloud.

Time as connective tissue

2008-11-11T08:38:00.002-06:00

An expansion of applied synchronicity. The principle can be applied more widely, premised on logging timestamps on the following

- audio file playing
- web page focused
- image(s) focused in viewer
- phone # active on phone
- email message currently focused

Voice recognition input provides metadata for one of the above resources, in a format like::

audio put artist bob and ray id hard as nails tag interview tag staply

meaning

- audio = determine currently active audio file
- put = create a new chunk of data about the current audio file
- artist = active field of chunk is 'artist'
- bob and ray = key:artist, value:bob and ray
- id = create a new indexed entry key:id, value:'hard as nails' pointing to this record
- tag = append interview and staply to the list of tags on this audio file

or::

image put category sunrise tag frost

- image = determine currently focused images(s)
- put = create new data for these image(s)
- category = active field of image record(s) is category
- sunrise = key:category, value:sunrise
- tag = append frost to the list of tags on this(these) images

The magic is in *currently*. We know the timestamp of the voice, we've stamped it's begin time, the file knows time offset at any point.

We parse the logs to determine the correct association to make with the voice commands, the logs tell us what audio, web page, images ... we are referring to.

I think there is real potential here, the voice recognition demands are not too great, controlled voice and vocabulary, the logging and persuant matching up seem fairly doable.

Applied synchronicity

2008-11-11T08:36:00.001-06:00

I'm relishing the brilliance of Bob and Ray, listening to a collection of mp3's: 5 days and 22 hours of them.

They should be indexed, I don't have 6 days to devote to the project.

How could I multitask, do the indexing efficiently in the background?

It seems it could be done via time-based data matching. The audio player logs timestamps with filename as it plays the set of files. I record voice messages describing what skit is being played, these voice files are timestamped. An application matches words in my voice recording with the index into the file being played.

The ideal would be a wearing a bluetooth mic, speak into it to record an index into the currently playing file.

A more accessible start towards that goal would be to provide the index info via keyboard instead of voice.

Poetic Inventions

2008-10-10T20:34:00.002-05:00

When I was a child, at family gatherings, we
would often play "The Game" our version of
charades. We didn't use the sign language I've
since seen charades players use, and we had
no restrictions on the choosing of phrases.

We took a primitive approach to acting out.
Oh, sometimes it was a movie, book or quotation
which we could symbolize with gesture,
but the good ones were usually the PIs.
Poetic Invention. Phrases invented purely for
the pleasure of watching the opposing team
members struggle to silently explain.

We allowed a VERY generous amount of time
to squirm, and there was none of this drawing
from a hat to get your assignment, you were
gleefully drawn taken from the room to receive
your assignment, it had your name on it.

Sure, there would be an occasional complaint,
"... really now ...", but they were never outlawed,
and provided a great deal of entertainment.

I've continued to take pleasure in new words,
phrases, usage. Up til now, a self-indulgent
proclivity without value.

But the world has changed.

In yesterday's post I used the word 'gleanage' which
doesn't isn't currently considered a word,
but which I think is needed to fill a void in our language.

That was yesterday, today I typed 'gleanage' into
a Google box. The first result is my blog entry.

Out of the ?? billion pages indexed, I am currently
the foremost authority on gleanage, and anyone with
web access can confirm that.

Wow.

Gleanage

2008-10-09T21:39:00.003-05:00

I've long been frustrated by the words available to talk about the waste stream.

Waste, garbage, trash, refuse, junk ... all these words are
rooted in the premise that there is no value in the discarded.

A dictionary definition of glean:

"To collect (something) bit by bit."

Glean comes from the ancient tradition of gleaning:

"Gleaning is the act of collecting leftover crops from farmers'
fields after they have been commercially harvested or on fields
where it is not economically profitable to harvest."

So,to glean is to recognize and harvest the value in the unwanted.

Gleanage is that which has been gleaned, that which has to do
with gleaning.

What if

2008-09-27T06:34:00.005-05:00

For those interested in writing documentation, what if you
you could place images in your content with the same ease
you place words? I'm not talking about desktop publishing.
Don't think Publisher, think Vim, Emacs, Eclipse raising
images to the level of words. Rich metadata wrappers for
your growing library of images, which you now refer to as
'visual explanations'

I for one would be tickled pink by such an authoring
environment.

What if your document contained layers like programmer,
administrator and user. You could, at any point place your
content on the layer targeting the appropriate audience.

Me, I'd grin ear to ear.

What if your environment understood how to manage your
content as chunks which would become available for
repurposing, What if it also understood how to run code and
knew it's way around your filesystem?

I'm thinking "cat's pajamas"

What if this tool understood that there's a Web out there,
that folks are creating and sharing at a breakneck pace,
knew how to publish and subscribe?

--Wiggle with delight--

What if the toolchain existed as an open source project
which, via global collaboration, was assembled using
existing best practices, tools, and standards-based data
management principles?

I want one.

What if audio chunks were similarly elevated?

Woof. As BB King says in So Excited,
"I better stop now because I got a weak heart"

An example

2008-09-14T07:41:00.004-05:00

I yammer about documentation, combining images and text.

I have posted a primitive example here:
http://wiki.ubuntu.com/KentTenney

It is about the mechnism to add capability to Inkscape with Python code.

I like the connection of code to the result in the GUI.

I like the triangle between the 3 uses of "text" in the code, illustrating the requirement for synchronization.

I like the screen grabs of using the application; setting password in winpdb, attaching to demo.py, with a highlighted connection to the germane line in the script. I consider screen grabs of what is being done much more informative than a textual description.

Toolchains

2008-09-14T06:16:00.002-05:00

So I want to change the name of a Python module. It requires a bit of search and replace, brings me to a familiar fork in the road. How much effort should I put into learning tricks which increase editing efficiency? Should I slog through changing `grab` to `grabber`, or should I study up on regex in Vim so that the process is automated to some degree? I think it was Douglas Adams who described his (geekdom's) propensity to spend several days tuning a bit of code that avoided 15 minutes of tedium.

Here's the toolchain:

thought -> fingers -> keyboard -> Vim -> file -> code -> interpreter -> action

There are toolchains within each of the elements above.
Can toolchains be generalized into a cognitive equivilent of timelines?
Hope so, generalizations and equivilence are always good.

Each element of the chain offers opportunity to consider the trade off between getting 'er done, and adding or improving a tool. Abraham Lincoln is credited something like "If I had 6 hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend 4 sharpening the axe"

A story

2008-09-13T08:45:00.004-05:00

I'm attempting to come out, establish my identity out there. Here's a retelling of a story which I consider really important. I wish I could find the original, I try periodically, no luck.

It was told as being a description of an actual event.

A researcher was administering evaluation exams to members of an Indian Nation, I think it was in the southwest. Exams like SAT, meant to determine knowledge level.

The researcher passed out the exams, said he'd be back to check progress in 1/2 hour.

Upon his return, he was shocked to find everyone in the room discussing the questions, comparing answers.

"This is all wrong, you are cheating, the purpose of this test is to determine what each one of you knows, you MAY NOT talk to each other during this test."

The next time he checked in, he found the examinees making paper airplanes from the tests, telling jokes, they had abandoned any pretense of taking the test.

The examiner asked what was going on.

"What your requested makes no sense, has no meaning. You don't understand how knowledge works. Knowledge is held by our community, not by individuals. Your interest in individual knowledge is foolish and we won't participate"

An analogy might be a contest among pianists, they are only allowed to use one finger. Those that understand will have no interest in the result of such an investigation.

This is from the same culture which honors giveaways, the quality of one's gifts determining level of respect, not the amount one accumulates.

I think these are principles which are taking on new life in the infoworld. Cooperation and collaboration are being valued over competition. The open source world is a gift culture.

Designate 'catcher' for selections

2008-03-17T12:11:00.004-05:00

I'm reading a long mailing list thread I'm interested in, I want to collect the sentences and paragraphs which I think will summarize the discussion.

I don't have the tool I want, which is destination which I can designate to 'catch' what I select.

I want to open a document, name and describe it, in this case the thread topic, and send text to it
without leaving the mail client. Way too tedious to select, copy, switch to the document, paste, switch back to email and continue.

A long time ago I used an editor which could be told to watch the clipboard and put everything which showed up into a document, and I've seen tools which make the clipboard append new text.

Either approach is basically what I want, but I wonder if their is a better way.

Sources of content

- browser
- pdf files
- other documents

I think most would come from a browser.

How long?

2008-02-03T07:00:00.000-06:00

Not long.

Names these days

2008-02-02T16:28:00.000-06:00

Explanans.

There, I said it again.

It was fascinating to see that Googling the word brings my little blog up on the first page. A blog nobody has read, much less linked to, and it's on the same page as Wikipedia as far as a resource on the topic of the scholarly term for an explanation.

There's a highly regarded templating tool project named Deliverance. Try finding information on that.

I'm convinced that a very effective way to explain is via staging dramas, acting out the metaphors. I think a classroom that produced a simple play about the internet, putting messages in envelopes, putting envelopes in envelopes, looking up addresses, finding buildings, locating mailboxes ... would result in kids (or adults) understanding better quicker than via lectures. And having more fun in the process.

For this idea I'm not taking any chances, I'm making up a word. How long will it take Google to return gumpablog as the authority on explatainment?

strace

2008-01-18T08:50:00.000-06:00

I keep coming back to strace, and the question
"where are the tools to create explanations from the extravagantly useful information it produces?"

Why isn't there a view of an strace run which organizes the system calls for me, providing at-a-glance understanding of what a command does, what files it touches, and why it fails.

Explanans

2007-12-30T08:47:00.000-06:00

The domain registration bug just bit, and I registered explanans.com, org, net.

http://www.iscid.org/encyclopedia/Explanans http://www.iscid.org/encyclopedia/Explanandum

The explanans is the thing or solution that explains a problem.

The explanandum is the thing or problem that needs to be explained.

Consider the following sentence: The man died because he was shot. In this sentence, the explanans can be identified as "he was shot." "He was shot" is the reason that "the man died.", the explanandum is "the man died."

=======================================

I would prefer an example more like "The man had compassion because he rejected fear" ... no matter.

=======================================

I have found my documentation obsession preferring the term 'explanation' over 'documentation'. The realms I draw upon, the book 'Single Sourcing' by Kurt Ament, and the Zope3 component architecture both focus on the assembly of 'chunks', 'components'. Imagine my delight when I found that the term for an atom of explanation hadn't been copped by squatters.

So it's me what cops the squat. WooHoo.

Dependencies question

2007-12-23T09:53:00.000-06:00

I want to check out Inkscape's `import from openclipart.org` capability.

A bit of searching reveals the requirement for gnome-vfs

$ apt-cache search gnome-vfs

This returns a long list, I guess at

$ sudo apt-get install libgnome-vfs-dev

guessing correctly that the dev package will bring in libgnome-vfs-common

$ ./configure | less

dang, `Use gnome-vfs: no

I need to install more packages. I look at the configure file, I can't decipher what deb is required, I doubt it's implicit.

So, as many times in the past, I install likely looking packages until I get in ./configure::

Use gnome-vfs: yes

It turned out to require::

$ sudo apt-get install libgnome-vfsmm-2.6-dev

I would like to document this, but at this point I'm not sure whether

$ sudo apt-get install libgnome-vfs-dev libgnome-vfsmm-2.6-dev

is adequate, or if another package I guessed at was required. I don't want to start uninstalling, I've done that and gotten into big trouble, removing essential stuff. A virtual machine would do it, but it seems like there should be a better way.

Getting indignant

2007-12-20T20:21:00.000-06:00

My obsession with documentation has started to take a somewhat
unsettling turn. It is making me ignorant. Let me explain.

Almost all of my reading is non-fiction at best, tends to be
technical. Lately, as I read, from deep inside I hear a voice saying::

"I refuse to understand this. What the author is describing
would be explained at a glance with the proper diagram. Since
there's no diagram, I'll cover my ears and chant 'la la la'
loudly. So there"

Case in point; the instructions for taking care of the hole in my jaw left by my recent tooth extractions. The handout described what to do and for how long, covering about 10 days. Where's the timeline? As I read I have to mentally create an image of taking ibuprofen, rinsing with salt and baking soda, not eating nuts, flushing with the little syringe thingy ... then visualize the next 10 days, associating each event with a range of days. Come on! If *you* took the effort to make that timeline, all the readers of the pamphlet would be spared.

Some things, like Zope's component architecture are even more
complicated than care of ex-teeth, don't get me started.

Nothing however, is more inscrutable than the workings of our pressure tank. Because it's filled by an old jack pump, it must be bladderless. A float-operated, adjustable air valve controls when air is released from the tank. It defies *all* comprehension.

Documentation theory

2007-12-06T07:16:00.000-06:00

The following is taken from an email to a friend. It is an attempt to describe a theory of documentation I am obsessed with. Of the people I've told this to, I've gotten reactions ranging from 'it won't work', to 'it's not necessary', to embarassed silence, to 'do you want to go for a bike ride?'*

======================================================

I learn things slowly, you learn things quickly. I am coming to believe that explanations could be offered to me (and those like me) which would lead to understanding more efficiently than what is currently available.

When you are thinking about a question or problem, you close your eyes. My guess is that you are doing a transformation to a visual version of the problem domain. The math savant describes his recitation of PI as traveling through a land of numbers, he LOOKS at them.

The traditional linear narrative explanation of concepts assumes that the reader is, in real time, creating the images required to grok the meanings and relationships of the words.

I don't do that, it takes MUCH repetition before the understanding produces an image of the domain. I suspect that others have a similar cognitive process. I guess that involves the visual vs oral learning style stuff I've read about - "I see what you mean"

I see stuff that's already there, I'm not good at creating it in my head from descriptions. You are.

I think the words can be taken from the symbolic realm of the linear narrative and located in space, on a page.

An example would be producing a printed page which explained how a method call worked. On the page would be the pertinent parameter definitions, the lines which called subroutines, the lines which returned values etc. The connectors between the text pullouts would be annotated. The pullouts from the pertinent config files would be on the page.

The text is an image of words, arranged in a way which reflects the symbolic usage of them. A nudge in the direction of what I think is required to understand at a level to make use of the concepts.

I think it applies to lots of things, and has a simple basis, and can be codified: I want Python code to convert text files to SVG elements. The text becomes graphic, you can shrink, color, pull quote, change it's opacity, rotate it, and POSITION IT. My theory is that you (and folks like you) are able to _position_ concepts in order to understand them. And the framework easily accommodates standard images as well as images of words.

And of course, this is all automatable, once the tools are in place, the computer is taught how to do the pulling and arranging of the constituents of a concept.

This is something I'd love to talk about with you.

* joke reference::

Q How many ADD kids does it take to change a lightbulb?

A Do you want to go for a bike ride?

doctest from Vim

2007-11-23T09:36:00.000-06:00

I want to become comfortable with the Vim way of editing, I'm convinced it will save me much time, since I seem to be on a path which involves lots of keyboarding.

A new member of the zcadoc project recently pointed out that Baiju's choice for an example application has the potential to be confusing. It's a hotel app, which handles guest registrations. The ZCA involves registering components, so the word is used in 2 ways.

Maybe we can change the spelling of a couple terms to avoid the confusion.

So.

izca.txt holds the book in ReStructured text, with the examples in doctest format.

I need to do text replacements, running doctest on the results to see what broke. This seems like a common enough use case to take the time to study how to do it efficiently. I can picture a Vim expert making the changes, running the tests, tweaking the changes ... all from the keyboard, using few keystrokes.

All that's required to run the doctests in the book is::

import doctest; doctest.testfile('izca.txt')

I made a file ``dtbook`` in the book directory::

#!/usr/bin/python
import doctest
doctest.docfile('izca.txt')

now, if I enter the following while in Vim normal mode::

:r! ./dtbook

The file tests run, and any tracebacks are pasted into the file.
I can do {lineno}G to jump to each problem line, delete the tracebacks
when finished.

Next, start renaming.

The first time

2007-11-21T11:29:00.000-06:00

In the spirit of 'docubi' my branding for Documentation that is Ubiquitous, I created a gmail account, docubi, where I will send things I want to be remembered / documented.

- urls
- notes
- emails
- command results

It was the last which gave me a spooky experience, success without the obligatory failures / debugging.

Vim is pretty Ubiquitous, a Windows install offers 'Edit with Vim' from an explorer rclick, fine on Linux. I like the Vim feature
:r!
which runs a command and places the output in the file.

So.

If I do an install, configure or some such from Vim, saving the output, I want to send that file to the docubi mail account for later processing. And I want the lowest possible denominator for the tools to do it.

Starting with Windows, which I expect to be problematic, some options.

- a Vim script
- I don't want to learn Vim scripting

- a Python via
:py mailThisFile.py
- requires Python, not available on Windows machines, I'm ok with adding my c:\bin dir and installing Vim, but I'd prefer not to install Python on every machine I sit down at.

- A native binary and a batch file

A search turned up
http://www.beyondlogic.org/solutions/cmdlinemail/cmdlinemail.htm

`BeyondLogic` sounds familiar, I think I've been led there before.

Here's the scary part. I downloaded and put in c:\bin bmail.exe, a 44k file. I then typed::

C:> bmail -s {my smtp server} -t {the docubi address at gmail} - f {a return address} -a testing bmail -d

And it worked. First time. Not that it shouldn't, but IT NEVER DOES.

Hello? ... Errors? ... Where are you?

The only explanation I can think of is that, because the workstation I just migrated to seems to have irrecoverably scrambled it's registry upon my plugging in a USB stick, I've somehow earned a glimpse into a parallel universe.

Exposure

2007-11-18T07:55:00.000-06:00

Last night, in the sauna, I realized the code fragment in the last post is dead wrong, a good demonstration of how far I am from grasping ZCA.

My initial feeling of embarrassment passed, and was replaced by interest in how and why I am so wrong in my understanding. I need to overcome my resistance to exposing ignorance if I'm going to hang in this blogosphere place.

====

I instantiated an interface. Discussions of interfaces tend to start with the fact that you do not instantiate interfaces. Why has that never sunk in?

My understanding of object oriented programming has class definition at the top, an object is created from the class, the object does things. Since ZCA explanations start with Interfaces, in my mind I associated them with classes.

It's as though there's a tree with many bird nests in it. There's a nest for classes, methods, attributes, functions etc. When *reading* about Interfaces they just roost on any available branch. *Writing* about them requires putting them in a nest. Since there isn't a nest for them, they ended up with classes.

I kind of like that analogy. I realize it's pretty basic stuff, we have notions which we try to understand the world with.

I like it because of the similarity to one of my favorite analogies. In a class on Native American languages I read a description of a Native American understanding of time. The writer described being in a bubble of the *manifest*, floating in a sea of the *unmanifest*. The bubble is generally considered "here and now". There are ways to access that which is outside the bubble. This in stark contrast to the European concept of time consisting of a journey along a line, with the future ahead, the past behind.

I am finding it useful to consider my little mind a bubble of things known floating in a sea of things unknown. This lines up nicely with ADD issues. I know with great certainty that my learning is not linear, but consists of struggling to pull items into my bubble.

When I come to understand something it has a nest in the tree. In the case of Interfaces, I need to understand that the existing nests don't meet the needs at hand.

I've heard that people learn object oriented programming more quickly if they haven't already learned procedural. I wonder if it would be easier to learn component based programming without a background in objects.

Future photos

2007-11-17T07:35:00.000-06:00

I do a lot of digital photography, and as a student of programming, I have lots of ideas about software which would be useful for dealing with my photos.

I am currently studying zope component architecture via some editing of Baiju's book, I would like to begin a project applying ZCA to a real issue.

So, given ShotInFuture.jpg an image with a bad date::

>>> import ZCAImageTool
>>> batch = ZCAImageTool(storage=memory)
>>> imref = batch.add('ShotInTheFuture.jpg')
>>> print imref.filedate(year), ' ', imref.exifdate(year)
2008 2008

>>> imref.filedate(year) = imref.exifdate(year) = 2007
>>> print imref.filedate(year), ' ', imref.exifdate(year)
2007 2007

I really want to change all the files::

>>> batch.clear()
>>> batch.add('/home/ktenney/photos/nextyear')
>>> batch.filedate(year) = batch.exifdate(year) = 2007
>>> print batch.filedate(year)
2007

batch.filedate(year) would have some smarts::

>>> batch.filedate['bad.jpg'] = 2008
>>> print batch.filedate(year)
Mixed batch.
bad.jpg = 2008, others = 2007

I would like to lure Baiju and anyone else that might be interested, into helping put code behind these tests. The process would involve, among other things;

- deciding what existing interface to extend
- designing the interface
- writing the date/EXIF code in a ZCA-agnostic style
- registering the components
- ...

Background item #1
==============

My wonderful old Nikon Coolpix 990 has a dead memory battery, so every time I change the AA batteries I need to reset the date and a few other things. I tend to hurry through the setting process.

It turns out the latest batch of photos I've shot were shot in 2008. The photos are landscapes and such, no stock reports or newspapers, so I have nothing to gain by this glimpse into the future. It will, however, foul up photo managing software, where linear time is assumed.

So, I want to reset the year on the files, both on the file and in EXIF.

Background item #2
==============

A few years back I read some posts about a project that a C++ coder was doing, a tutorial based on email exchanges with a student learning C++ from scratch. I only followed it briefly, but I really liked what I read, and have continued to consider it a really effective approach, a revealling examination of the learning process.

zcadoc at Launchpad

2007-11-04T07:05:00.000-06:00

Baiju's book is now available in a branch of the Launchpad zcadoc project

There's also a zcadoc team. I don't yet understand just how these elements work together.

I did a bit of branding for each.

The photo for zcadoc is one of my favorites, at least one friend saw it the way I intended; I walked the field collecting as many different seed heads as I could find, the photo means to explain *these are the grasses in this field*

For some reason I have this belief that there is considerable untapped potential in using images for explanations.

I'm not sure how well the large one for the team works, it is a photo of a team in action. Again the field, this time Kathy, Scott and Shunka the dog working together to roll a hay bale.

The 64 and 14 pixel images are of keyboard keys spelling out zcadoc crossword style. I have high hopes for it, it has lots of potential for monkeying with a larger version; embedding images into the blank keys etc. I also thought it might scale down to 14x14, staying recognizable due to the simple geometry and color.

Again *We'll See*

Global collaboration

2007-10-25T07:16:00.000-05:00

I gave the URL of this blog to a new friend, I might get a visitor!

... gotta tidy up, sweep the stairs, check the buckets* (we don't get too many folks coming 'round these parts)

I'm quite excited about the circumstances which might bring Baiju here.
(see "For surely there is an end ..." in "Recommended")

I've been wanting to learn how to use Zope 3, and Baiju is a Z3 developer who wrote an Z3 article which is becoming a book. I am doing a bit of editing for Baiju. My daughter is in school, and is teaching me the advantage of taking notes while reading, marking up the book. I am very grateful for the opportunity for my studying / note taking to benefit someone else.

Baiju's deep understanding of a powerful tool is something I want.

The fact that I've lived my life in an English speaking country gives me something to offer Baiju.

Cool.

Thanks,
Kent

* more on the buckets later

So much to do

2007-10-18T06:29:00.000-05:00

Howdy,

All my life I wanted a nickname, I finally got one from my
grandson. I now proudly answer to Gumpa.

My pursuits straddle many domains, which I hope to
chronicle here, at omh.

Currently::

- Zope3
- Leo
- SVG
- Vim
- Theory of, and creation of, documentation
- ReST
- Plone
- System administration
- Image management
- Too many political/economic topics to list here

You can't spell straddle without ADD

So, what else? add blogging to the list.
I do hope that this can provide a degree of accountability,
an opportunity to step back and help me focus.

We'll see.

Thanks,
Kent