Software Libraries are good. They allow abstraction and encapsulation; which encourages reuse. They also allow the library to be written by one person and used by another. This is reuse at the programmer level, not just the system level. A library can be written by a person who has domain expertise but used by someone else who has less or no expertise in that domain. For example: an XML parser. The implementer knows the XML spec inside and out, but the user of the lib needs only a basic understanding of XML in order to use the lib.
In my hunt for what's next I've been reading a lot of books lately. A
lot of books. As part of my search I decided to hunt down
some of the classics in the computer science field that I'd missed over the
years. First articles, then research papers, and some Alan Kay work. That
led me to a book I'd always meant to read but never found the time: Mindstorms,
by Seymour Papert.
The idea of computer vision has always fascinated me. The ability to get from a plain image to an understanding of it's contents seems magical. Though I understand a bit of the underlying math, to build my own computer vision system would take years of study. Fortunately, this book and an open source library come to the rescue.
Below are my three main session proposals for OSCON, plus a few random ideas near the bottom that aren't fleshed out. Please give me some feedback on what you like and don't like. My goal is to have four really solid submissions. Thanks!
The call for proposals for OSCON 2013 just went out. OSCON is the one conference I try to speak at every year because the topics are so diverse and interesting. And being just up the road in Portland doesn't hurt either. However, I'm having trouble deciding what to submit. Too many things interest me. So I thought I'd consult the wisdom of the crowd. What do you want to see?
Much like a painter or musician, sometimes I an idea
forms in my head and will not let me rest until it comes
out. Usually such an idea is an algorithm or graphics
demo, but this time it came in the form of a game;
a game which will not quiet until born.
Most book publishers don't really have a 'brand'. You buy a book because of the title or the author. No one cares who Stephen King's publisher is. However, every now and then a publisher comes along who simply makes cool books. A publisher who's books I will buy regardless of the title or author. No Starch Press is one such publisher.
I'm happy to say the Retro Game Crunch Kickstarter project succeeded! It was close for a while, but in the last 24 hours you pushed it over the line to 111%.
Today I am talking with Matt Grimm, the final member of the Retro Game Crunch trio. You can also read the previous interviews Shaun Inman and Rusty Moyher. There's still a few days left to help push the Retro Game Crunch to the finish line. Pledge now!
Today we are talking with Rusty Moyher, another member for the Retro Game Crunch team. You can read the previous interview with Shaun Inman here. There's still a few days left to help push the Retro Game Crunch to the finish line. Pledge now!
I know it's been quite a while since I've posted. I have no defense other than to say I have an 18 month old baby. Toddler on the move 24/7 makes for a very tired daddy.
Disclaimer: I did not pay for many of the books I review here. One of the perks of being an O'Reilly author is easy access to free copies of almost everything O'Reilly publishes. However, all of these reviews are freely done of my own initiative. I choose the books I review and I receive no compensation other than the free copy. These are my own opinions and do not reflect the opinions of O'Reilly or my employer Nokia.
This entry is my first Innovator Interview, Terence Tam, creator of the amazing Open Beam aluminum system launched on KickStarter. I first discovered Open Beam while doing research for my CNC machine. After being so happy with the product I contacted Terence for an interview. He graciously took time out of his busy schedule to speak with me about OpenBeam, how an engineer cooks a turkey, and lessons learned from running a KickStarter project. I think you will enjoy reading is as much as I enjoyed talking with him.
Building my own CNC machine has been quite an educational experience. I've got a better idea of what I'm up against now, and have plans for moving forward.
If you are like me, and the fact that you are reading this suggests a certain kinship, then you have many electronic devices scattered around your house; each with their own wires for communication and power. Wires are wondrous. They form the basis of our information economy. Unfortunately, in a shared space like a living room, they are also atrociously ugly. For your consideration: my living room.
As regular readers know I have recently jumped into Arduino and hardware hacking full-time. One of the things which fascinates me is the idea of monitoring our environment. I mean not only the global environment but also our own local spaces. Sensors and computation are incredibly cheap. Network access is almost ubiquitous. This means we can easily monitor our world and learn interesting things by analyzing simple data points over time.