The Maker Monk

Knocking It Out

2014-03-18T13:02:00.003-07:00

And the journey into A+ Certification continues......

Like a lot of certifications, not everything that is tested is what you'll encounter in the real world. Having supported users in the wild, there are a lot of things you aren't ever going to do...chances are, you will walk into an existing network setup, the procedures for security, adding users, etc. will be predetermined.

But it is cool to learn how to scratch build again, just like the old days. Most of the motherboard, RAM, and other hardware areas are my favorite, because I remember what it was like to actually work on that stuff, before it just became a matter of swapping machines and getting new ones under warranty in a lease situation.

And networking is something that you can never know everything about, regardless of how long people seem to have been at it, there's always a gremlin in the works somewhere.

But some of the stuff is just plain rote memorization and kind of dull. I've found the best antidote is to skip to another chapter that is lighter reading, get that out of the way, and then dive back into the guts of Windows or whatever else was causing your eyes to glaze over. The Mike Meyers book lends itself pretty well to that...I think just reading the book straight through would be tough for a lot of people, there Windows chapters in the middle, then LAN's and networking are the meatier chapters and they occur in the middle of the book, where a lot of people are going to bog down...

But not me!

Tools and Limitations

2014-03-13T14:11:00.002-07:00

As I'm grinding through this A+ endeavor, I'm using the venerable CompTIA A+ Certification Exam Guide by Mike Meyers. As far as I can tell this is the updated version of the one that's been around for years.

I've also got the CompTIA A+ Training Kit from Microsoft Press. I looked at both before I ponied up for the hardcover Meyers book, since it seemed to start from a lower level and have a little more meat on it's bones, prose-wise, than the Microsoft book, which seemed to be written in a denser, just-the-facts type style.

I have the Microsoft book on EPUB, and it has uncovered one limitation of e-readers for technical materials that have a lot of diagrams, figures, etc. The way the formatting breaks out it can be 5 pages or so before a diagram that is referenced shows up, and there's not an easy way to flip through the pages like with a dead tree version.

Having some experience, I do tend to prefer the Microsoft version, since it doesn't spend as much time on history and defunct standards like the Meyers book does. Both are a pretty good complement to the other, but if I had to do it all over again, I might go with the printed version of the Microsoft manual.

What this world needs is a good, cheap, light, 8.5x11 e-reader screen that will display PDF files at normal page size. I've found tons of great technical stuff online in all areas that are only on PDF, and again, the small screen size works against things that were meant to be printed in magazines. And scaling up on the ereader is just kind of a hassle on most things, depending on layout.

An A+, but not in school!

2014-03-10T12:11:00.001-07:00

Having spent a consider amount of time in tech support, I've always enjoyed helping people and being the bridge between the tech stuff that is making them crazy and getting things back to the way they should be.

I've never gotten any computer credential in the past, because back in the day a little experience in the real world went a long way. That has changed now, I believe, so I'm currently pursuing getting an A+ CompTIA credential.

It'll be good to get up to date on a lot of things I haven't had a lot of experience with, such as printers, mobile, etc. and even in the learning materials I've run across so far it's been an interesting walk back through memory lane for a lot of things that tried to become standard but didn't work so well....anyone remember Windows Millenial version? I didn't think so......

As a study aid, and in the interests of maybe helping anyone else who might be doing the same thing, I'm thinking of posting my notes here.....it'll be a good way to keep my nose to the grindstone, and burn some of this arcane stuff into my brain.

Still Kickin'

2014-02-07T11:48:00.001-08:00

I'm still trying to resuscitate this thing. The patient is stable but still unconscious....but recovery is in site.

Since settling into my new digs, a new lifestyle, it has taken a bit to get re-oriented. Plus some of the links/interests have gone away or transformed. Such is life.

I'm diving back into programming, but now some other areas are claiming my interest. There's still the aviation angle, but I also am finding the whole "Tiny House" and sustainability movement interesting. And how to survive in our New Economy.

Life remains interesting, perhaps too interesting. Stay tuned for new links, new ideas, and hopefully the beginning of an audience.

Failing Upward, Or At Least A High-Paying Sideways

2013-10-29T10:40:00.000-07:00

I see David Pogue, whom I took to task in a previous post, has moved from the New York Times to Yahoo. I think this is perfectly in line with the new, dumbed-down Yahoo that now seems to contain more linkbait and spam than it did before.

There are a lot of surprising things in the world around us, but this doesn't seem to be one of them.

A Site Worth Checking Out

2013-09-23T10:45:00.001-07:00

Have had this site - Neocities - bookmarked for a bit, haven't set up an account and played with it yet, however. It's an attempt to get back to the old Geocities era, back before Web 2.0 ( or whatever version we are on now).

Sounds like a fun sandbox to play in - check it out if you have the chance.

Data and Reality

2013-09-12T12:32:00.000-07:00

If you've been following events at all, you probably know that 64 year old Diana Nyad swam from Cuba to Key West last week. And you've probably also heard the backlash now that some other people have said they looked at the GPS data from her swim and think she cheated.

I think this highlights one of the issues of our data-rich world. We have become so enamored of crunching the numbers and simulating reality that we have lost any real connection to what that data represents.

The Earth is not a set of data points that refreshes on a regular basis. It is a moving, swirling, growing and decaying non-stop show. I'm not sure who the people are who are questioning Nyad's swim, but I am pretty certain of one thing...they haven't spent much time in the Florida Straits, or else they'd be familiar with the Gulf Stream.

I can't fault anyone for looking at the raw data and seeing her speed up, but you have to wonder why someone wouldn't stop to think about all the possibilities before opening their yap for the media.

My understanding of this affair currently is that independent oceanographers have agreed with Nyad's version of events. So I'm guessing that this is now a non-story.

But one other thing convinces me that the attempt was free from cheating. On video of Nyad's swim, we see a flotilla of boats and kayaks around her.

That's a lot of people to keep quiet if you are going to pull a fast one.

It's Time Again

2013-09-10T13:25:00.002-07:00

Like many blogs, this one has had a dormant spell. But it's not dead yet!

I think I made a mistake in the past by trying to make the focus too narrow and constricted. I was only looking at ways to write and comment about what was going on in the "Maker" movement, which is both broad and narrow at the same time. Broad in that it encompasses people following literally thousands of interests and passions, and narrow in that it is too small a subset of humanity to get a lot of traction.

I've relocated across the country, so with new digs come new ideas.....hopefully interesting enough to initiate a discussion.

Ray Bradbury

2012-06-06T10:41:00.003-07:00

I see this morning that Ray Bradbury has left us. I always wanted to meet Ray, not so much as a fan of his stories – to be honest, I haven’t read much of his sci-fi beyond what was required in high school – but I wanted to meet him just to say I did.

Most of the people who are “required reading” in our school English classes are as dead to us as Millard Fillmore. Hemingway shot himself a year before I was born. Steinbeck, Fitzgerald, and others all wrote and lived in a dusty past that is long gone even to my generation, and I’m no spring chicken.

When I lived in the L.A. area a few years back, Ray Bradbury was still showing up at libraries and book get-togethers around the Southern California region. I just thought it would be cool to meet someone who is iconic enough to have made it into our English curriculum. Kind of like a kid learning about the Civil War in history class and then finding out Abraham Lincoln was holding a Q & A session at the local branch library.

Most of the people we get exposed to in school are of the distant past, or public figures who aren’t accessible to us. But there was Ray, who lived in the future but didn’t drive a car and didn’t fly in a plane until he was forced to in middle age, still out there talking about writing and imagination and creativity to anyone who was interested.

He was in love with what he did, and even if it’s not my particular “thing”, I still enjoyed reading some of his other essays and interviews, like Zen in the Art of Writing.

I came close a few times but unfortunately never had a chance to actually see Ray Bradbury. For some reason it was one of those things we think we’ll always be able to do later, but never seems to happen.

When Ray was about 12, he went to a fair and saw a performer called “Mr. Electrico” who shot sparks out his fingertips. He pointed at Ray and shot him with a bolt, saying “LIVE FOREVER!”.

I think Ray Bradbury will indeed live forever.

Part II, As Promised

2012-04-03T09:04:00.000-07:00

In my last post, I said I'd comment on "Why Americans Do Science Shows Badly" - so here goes......

As a society, we suffer from "nerd" syndrome. People who enjoy science and technology are "different", and not in a complimentary sense of the word. This isn't news to anyone, but I think the view from the other side is what most people don't think about.

Most people with a technical or scientific bent think that people who aren't like them are dumb. That's why we have "Dummies" books for "the rest of us". As an example, I give you Mr. David Pogue.

If you aren't aware of who he is, he does some Popular Science-type series on PBS. At about the 6th grade level. While I salute his attempts at scientific education, I find the man unwatchable. The shows remind me of what might ensue if you gave some 11 year old boys a garage full of lab equipment on a rainy Saturday afternoon and then left for a few hours.

Everything has to blow up, and the simplest reactions/experiments have to be "WOW'ed" and ooh-ed and aah-ed over. It dumbs things down to the point you feel stupid for even wanting to watch.

By contrast, I give you Mr. James May, from across the pond in the UK. His series "Man Lab", while not hardcore science, takes a much sillier premise and makes it pretty entertaining. And all done in a mature, understated English manner. I have to say I've actually learned something from James May, while I can't even bear David Pogue long enough to see what he's trying to get at.

So there you have it, educators of the world. Everyone except you is NOT an idiot, so quit trying to take science news back to the 7th grade level where things have to be dumbed down so "you'll get it".

Somewhere between the boring science teachers of our youth and the childish antics of a nerd attempting to be cool is the way to reach your audience.

It's Not About Science, It's About Technology

2012-04-02T12:23:00.000-07:00

I'm always somewhat amazed when I watch PBS science shows, even the well done ones like NOVA, at how we see "science" with a capital "S" presented with a lot of shows on geology, paleontology, and even quantum physics (it lends itself to neat visuals), yet we never really see anything on the technology that we encounter in our daily lives.

Imagine how many people might benefit (and how many tech support calls would be avoided) if we had a show that told us how computers, software, and the Internet worked. What really happens when you click a link, or type in a URL? What does it really mean to delete a file, or create a new one?

90% of people who use a computer all day long at work don't really have an idea of how they work, or why we do things the way we do.

And it's not just computers.....the internal combustion engine is a completely different beast from the one I knew as a 16 year old. How do modern, fuel-injected engines work, and how do they operate? How does hybrid technology work? Most people have so distanced themselves from knowing how a car operates that I"m surprised cars still have hoods.

Shows like these would raise the general level of technical knowledge among the population, and probably be more interesting to young people than dinosaurs, volcanoes, or geological processes that happened millions of years ago. The universe formed....I don't really know how, but I'm OK with not knowing all the specifics. It would help most people a lot more to know what causes that "Check Engine" light to come on, and what it's trying to tell you.

But showing "the go of it", as Michael Faraday used to say, would spur curiosity and help a lot of people understand technology and be more comfortable with it.

There will be a Part II of this post....on "Why Americans Do Technology Shows Badly"

Stay tuned!

Book Review

2012-02-21T10:34:00.000-08:00

Just finished reading "Jerome Hunsaker and the Rise in American Aeronautics" by William Trimble. For somewhat of an academic work, it was pretty readable, and even though I've read pretty extensively in the aviation history genre, it did provide some new insight.

For one, the book is largely the story of the birth and adolescence of the Military-Industrial complex. While Trimble is very complimentary to his subject, after getting into the book a bit you can't help but notice the cozy relationships between Hunsaker, his work at NACA, industry and the military.

I picked up the book largely because I have seen Hunsaker referenced in so many of the other things I've read about the early years of aviation and aerospace. He was Donald Douglas' mentor at MIT, did a lot of work in the early days of naval aviation, and laid the footprint for the massive research efforts in WWII and beyond.

So always seeing him mentioned as a side note, it was interesting to see just who he was. A talented engineer, but more than that he was a talented technocrat who knew how to work the growing labyrinth of government and business relations. Things that today would land someone in jail for conflicts of interest and "double dipping" were just the way things were done.

We tend to lionize our technological heroes, taking them out of the context in which they worked. And as often as not, they were the beneficiaries of the same methods of skirting the edge of propriety that we see today. You don't have to get too far into Hunsaker's steering of contracts, consulting for industry when he was with NACA, maneuvering himself into promotions into created positions, etc. to see that he pretty much wrote the book of how to succeed in the burgeoning world of aerospace and government.

It's almost painful to read about the millions (billions in today's dollars) that was thrown around in the early days of the Cold War. Because now we're broke. But we - as a government and society - did create some monsters back then that we are still dealing with.

I make no political or personal judgement here about Jerome Hunsaker. Like any other historical figure who gets a biography written, he was a product of his time and deserves to be seen in that light, not the way we'd see these things now. He was obviously an intelligent and talented man. It's always interesting to me to see how things were done in years past, and the book provides not only a biography of a man but of an industry.

And I got it on remainder, so it was a cheap peek behind the curtain of how things got to be the way they are!

An Idea Is Spreading

2012-01-30T17:36:00.000-08:00

Ran across this site...TechShop - a kind of "franchised" maker space. I recently ran across a woodworking shop in my local area and took a class there. Really a unique opportunity to have access to tools and expertise that people like myself, who live in apartments, townhomes, or other places where a shop is impossible to get access to what we lack.

I hope this trend continues, and more and more hacker/maker spaces spread out, not just in major population cities but in empty and under-used commercial space.

The Damned Die Hard!

2012-01-27T10:40:00.000-08:00

After a considerable lapse, I've determined that there's still life in the old blog yet! I've scraped together a direction to proceed with this little piece of the web, so I've decided to resurrect it.

So watch this space!

The Curse Of Curiosity

2011-09-06T12:05:00.000-07:00

It's my particular curse to be interested in just about everything I run across. And I can never seem to just stop at a superficial level of knowledge - no, I've got to go whole hog.

My library reflects this. In it are books on programming, woodworking, auto mechanics, art and drawing, aircraft design, electronics, and a few others that escape memory right now. Any one of those subjects can devour an entire lifetime. Not to mention the various subsets of each that become a kingdom of their own. You can spend your whole life on just one programming language, for instance.

It keeps life interesting, but it also makes it hard to make any real progress. Which is why I sit at Square One with so much of this stuff. Because to really excel at anything, you've got to commit. And that means leaving other stuff behind.

There's the rub. So much cool stuff, so little time.

In The Border-lands

2011-08-30T16:21:00.000-07:00

Went to Border's Books today to soak up some of the discounts at their going-out-of-business sale. I went earlier, when their bankruptcy was first announced, and even though the discounts weren't very steep (by my estimate - for a place that was selling out to the walls) it was hugely attended.

People at at that sale were lined up to the back of the store loading up on goodies. I went today, just to see what was left. I expected it to be pretty well cleaned out to the fixtures, but at the whole store 50-75% off I figured what the hell.

Well, the parking lot was full again, and quite a few folks were still vulturing over the remains. A lot of the shelves were cleaned out, but got some good deals in the business and computing sections.

It occurred to me the reason they were good deals was because this was what these books SHOULD have been priced at originally! I mean really, somebody's little breezy business tome in paperback is 25 bucks? Not worth it.

Chop that down to 10 bucks or so, and I'll give it a look. And judging from the parking lot, so will a lot of other people.

The printed book isn't dead......it's just overpriced.

Why does it have to be so hard?

2011-08-29T11:27:00.000-07:00

Have been trying to use Kompozer, the open-source web-authoring tool. Can't even figure out how to change a font!

I'm never sure why everything has to be so arcane. I really support the whole open-source world, but the various communities really need to come up with some usability standards. Too many times I've downloaded what looks like a useful tool only to find it is crapped up in either it's user interface or the fact that there is no documentation and absolutely no intuitive way of learning about things.

I find myself also torn between the Blogger platform and Wordpress. Wordpress definitely gets more "play" it seems, but everything on that platform looks the same, and even to get the small number of features I'd like (blogroll, site stats, simple design with a relatively large readable typeface) I'd have to create my own theme. Which means tweaking around with PHP, etc. Ugh.

I live the fact I can put ads on Blogger while hosting on blogger.com. Every little bit helps!

About the 8th re-design

2011-08-26T11:54:00.001-07:00

Got rid of the "monk" theme, because I didn't like the legal-pad ruling background to the posts which made things hard to read. This looks cleaner, until I tweak some HTML to get to where I want to be!

Not Quite There Yet....

2011-08-02T10:46:00.001-07:00

Well, this is overall a better theme, but I don't like the way the text looks.....still have some tweaking to do! But I do like the "monk" themed graphic!

Stay tuned for more tweaking....

A New Look

2011-08-01T09:13:00.000-07:00

Finally got around to fooling with this a little bit - this theme seems to fit the Maker Monk style a little more! Stay tuned for more tweaking!

I Have Seen The Future....And It's Really Expensive!

2011-06-29T08:33:00.000-07:00

and I hope it works a lot better than the past did.

I enjoy technology - but when it comes to cell/smart phones...I am a total Luddite. I use my cell phone so little that about a year and a half ago I switched to a pre-paid plan and saved a bundle by not having a monthly bill for minutes I didn't use.

I guess this lack of phone-worship stems from the fact that when I was part of the smart crowd and out doing interesting things worth talking about cell phones didn't exist. So I never got in the habit of updating my status constantly while at the grocery store, or driving to work, or just having a drink. And now that I'm old, I don't care what anybody else's status is. I can wait to talk to them when they get back from the grocery store.

I had to go throw some new minutes on the old phone yesterday. I think my total cell phone tab for 2011 so far is like 60 bucks. While I was at the Verizon minute-store I looked around at the Wall of Wonder Phones they had there. It wasn't that busy, so I actually got a chance to chat with the sales rep about what was there.
I looked at the Ipad, the Xoom, and wondered why people were so excited about something named the Droid Bionic. The name alone gives you pause, like we can''t wait to turn into the Borg.

When I converted all this technology back into something I understand - dollars - I could see just what a bonanza these things were for the data carriers. Because if you do the math:

1. I am stuck with my expensive DSL service for my computers at home. Face it, it's not like we can go back to dial up, and computers HAVE to be connected for updates and any other task other than printing a letter. As the phone company has a monopoly - it's not like I can choose from several high-speed ISP's in the area - I"m screwed in excess of 100 bucks a month there.

2. The wireless network and these devices are not an able substitute for a "real" computer with a high speed connection. Data use is capped. Stream a few Youtube videos and you've used up your bandwidth for the month.

3. Ipso facto, you have to spring for them both if you really want to utilize the technology. Which means in excess of 200 bucks a month just to connect up to the "world". I remember when that was a car payment!
The only solution, for me, is to wait until the computers I have at home are so totally outdated that they are museum-worthy. Then junk them, disconnect the DSL, and jump into whatever wireless platform exists at the time. One that has a phone, camera, Internet access and barber shop. And only pay ONE access fee - or if possible, pay as you go on that too!

Because for all the expense and my Luddite attitude, I have to admit - those Ipads are pretty slick!!!!

More With Less

2011-06-28T09:35:00.000-07:00

In any physical system, efficiency is certainly one of the guiding principles of design. I just pulled a book down from the ol' tech library and re-read it, pulling out new information like you always do when you go over something a second time.

That book is called, oddly enough "More With Less - Paul MacCready and The Dream Of Efficient Flight". I picked it up out of the discount rack somewhere, which is too bad...it's a well written story.

As a little back story, Paul MacCready was the first to win the Kremer Prize for man-powered flight. He also went on to found Aerovironment, which does work in a whole range of cutting-edge fields from battery technology to drone aircraft.

One thing that struck me the second time was MacCready's approach to problem-solving. Just about everyone who had failed to win the Kremer Prize tried to make a man-powered aircraft look like, well, an aircraft. MacCready didn't start there. If you look at his Gossamer Condor design that won the prize, it truly is the "minimum viable product", to use a current buzzword. Just enough Mylar shrink wrap and plastic tubing in the right arrangement to get the job done.

If you have a position to defend, you aren't open to alternative solutions. Unfortunately we see that happen all the time, and it's crippling. It's not enough to think outside the box - you have to ask why the box is square in the first place!

Back from visiting some REAL Makers

2011-04-29T08:21:00.001-07:00

Just got back from visiting some friends who are airplane builders. That is a REAL project! Was very cool to see their projects - it is definitely not for the faint of heart. Forgot my camera so I couldn't post pics, but the EAA links from this page will give you the idea.

Too Much Neat Stuff

2011-04-22T10:31:00.000-07:00

I'm beginning to think that "real" books are a waste of time when it comes to teaching yourself programming. The few I've picked up second-hand aren't that good, and seem to be more about documenting modules than showing you how to string it all together.
Found this little gem online, and got a recommendation from someone else who is in the process of learning programming. It seems to get you to something tangible right away - with the other books I've got you seem to go from "Hello World" to a mish-mash of gibberish in about two paragraphs.

On a more tangible note...

2011-04-16T18:03:00.000-07:00

Went to the American Crafts Council show today - saw a lot of talented people who make a lot of beautiful things. Even saw some Steampunk gear show up, which is the first I've seen it at any of these shows, and I've gone for the last 5 years.
Fooled around with vPython a little bit - the tutorial on 3D was a lot more fun than some of the other stuff I've been working on, but I continue to grind away. I think I need to come up with a project so that things aren't so "academic" in nature when it comes to learning Python