Samples and Tests:Blog

2026-10-06T00:39:23.680-04:00

Stream to YouTube with FFMPEG (x11grab)

2026-08-14T10:15:34.848-04:00

There is always something new to learn (or is there).

2025-06-24T08:00:00.010-04:00

There is always something new to learn (or is there).

I am currently reading "C Programming for Dummies" 2nd edition by Dan Gookin. I decided to take it out of my local library. Mainly because I had it on my wish list and I don't have anything else to read at the moment. I have books on C that I have had since the 90's. I read through them when I am trying to figure something out. Usually, it has to do with pointers. I have not had any formal training on C. I have taken a class on C++. and that did cause some confusion as I assumed certain things I learned about C++ were inherited from C. While, one thing I discovered is function overloading is not in C. So I am reading this book to find things I did not already know about the C programming language. It has been 2 days and so far I am up to chapter 7 (of 27) and have not discovered anything of note yet. I have come across a few things that are simplified for the sake of not having to go down the rabbit hole on what may be edge cases. Sort of like how teachers in grade school said "A sentence can't start with because" As I discover new knowledge I will write it here and post it when I am done with the book (and have edited the blog of course).

So, the first thing that catches my attention is in chapter 7. I don't often use the getchar() function, so it did catch me off guard that it returns an int and not a char. I assume there is a reason, such as that in some languages/character sets a single character is more than 1 byte. And I need to check the sizeof(char) but I think it varies, but an int is almost always more than 1 byte. Off the top of my head, I believe the standard is at least 4 bytes but can vary depending on architecture. I have not done any coding on this (yet). I am just free-writing as I read the book. I have had issues when I needed a data type to be exactly 1 byte and tried to use char with differing results depending on the system and compiler. The more reliable way is to use uint8_t. I will try later to see if that data type works with getchar(). This goes for putchar(int) instead of putchar(char).

Also chapter 7, it does what several other books I have read when it comes to pointers. It introduces functions like scanf() before explaining pointers. It just says to put a & in front of the variable without explaining why. When I first started teaching myself C, I just followed the syntax without questioning why. I think pointers are confusing to new programmers (and experienced programmers) partly because pointers are generally taught as an afterthought. The chapter on pointers is 18; I will see if they are mentioned before then. And as soon as I wrote that last sentence I turned the page and there was one line that said "Part 4 of this book covers pointers" Chapter 18 is in part 4 by the way.

In chapter 8 which deals with decision making the author discusses the ternary operator. I did know of the ternary operator from a video by Jacob Sorber (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfMV_wa0KY4), but I have not used it myself.

Something I had not used in C but thought existed was until loops. While reading chapter 9 on loops I thought it was something they omitted at first, but I checked the keyword list and man documentation (or lack thereof) and discovered that I was getting syntax mixed up between languages (probably MS Basic and VB). An until loop is just a negated while loop so including it would be redundant to some degree. I assume a macro could be made so that they until(expression) equals while(!(expression)). I wonder if this book goes into macros.

In chapter 11 (the math chapter) something sounded familiar but I am not fully sure if I knew it. And this involves trig functions. I have used trig but I don't know if I used it in C (or any programming language) in C trig functions use radians and not degrees. This is kind of important to know. 90% of the time when I do use trig I am doing it in degrees, so I would need to make a conscious effort to use radians.

Another of these mathematical equations is with order of precedence. When you are writing literals it is easier to keep track of the order of operations. When you have variables and constants I like to add parentheses () to make things clearer on what happens first.

I read through chapter 12 (arrays) wondering when they will address pointers. And it was like the final paragraph. and they just said that it would be addressed in a later chapter. I don't understand why arrays are always taught that way after the fact. just pull the bandaid off and get through it. It makes things clearer.

On another note, I don't think I have used multidimensional arrays beyond 2 dimensions.

Ok so in chapter 13 which deals with text manipulation, they say the "functions" in ctype.h are not functions but are macros. I mentioned before that they did not mention macros in the chapter on functions or when discussing #define. Now that is not going to confuse anyone. But, now I do want to read ctypes.h to see what the macros are doing.

The functions in string.h do give me issues and I tend to use the man pages often when dealing with string manipulation. and sometimes sprintf() is your friend, but snprintf() could be a safer path.

Ok halfway through, nine days until I need to return (or renew) the book from the library.

Chapter 15 was on command line arguments using argc and argv depending on the compiler and os there could be others but this book does not discuss them and I am not sure if they are standardized. But if you are designing a program to be executed by a script or other processes then command line arguments are important. And without dealing with pointers (yet) and coping with argv as just an array and not a pointer aspect can get confusing down the line.

I am about to start chapter 16 on variables, let's see if they discuss pointers... halfway through the chapter and I don't see pointers mentioned. But I do want to talk about typedef and structs. For a while, I thought if you used something like "struct qwerty..." in C you could use qwerty as a data type like you can in C++. In C++ structs and classes are usable by the class name right away without using typedef.

Again a perfect point to even just mention pointers... when discussing global variables and passing by value they could mention passing by reference and using pointers.

Chapter 17 is on binary/bitwise manipulation. This is a topic I know of but I need to look it up each time I use it. If you have seen my Raspberry Pi Pico video series on my YouTube channel you will see me using it in Python. But even then it was limited and I had to keep looking up the documentation. And That was a while ago so I need to recheck the code to see how I did it. I do know that when I went to reprogram it in C/C++ I didn't get that far. First, it is written in C++ because the SDK for the pico is set with C++ classes, but I code C++ like C with classes most times and stuff like that drives C++ programmers nuts. And I really need to get back to that project.

In the book, they say XOR is pronounced "zor" . I have always heard it as "ex or". from programming classes to logic (philosophy) classes to YouTube tutorials. I am pretty sure Ben Eater says "ex or" when dealing with digital logic chips. and for those that don't know XOR is exclusive OR in logic.

I wish the book went more in-depth with hex. I don't know if they will but Chapter 17 sort of glossed over it. It does come in handy when dealing with binary with something like register flags.

Chapter 18 and we finally get to pointers. It only took 269 pages (of 409 not counting appendixes). So I didn't start to understand pointers really until I started looking at assembly. I understand assembly at the concept level but I have coded basic stuff in 6502 and x86 assembly but I don't know any variant of assembly to program something from scratch in it. But when you understand what assembly is doing you understand that all variables are pointers. A variable name is just a reference to a place in memory where the value is stored. C adds a layer of abstraction to it and like all C instructions it is broken down into multiple assembly instructions. In assembly, the variable name is just a label. I would use the goto command as an example but I don't think this book even mentions goto besides listing it as a C keyword. Let's say we have a C variable X and X is an int. Let's say in this case an int is 4 bytes. So if we need the value of X what C does is it gets the value in memory of where X points to and the next 3 bytes (4 bytes total) this chapter did not really cover pass-by-value and pass-by-reference. I will guess the next chapter (also on pointers) will.

Chapter 19 starts out with pointer arithmetic and comparing it to arrays. and then goes into strings are char arrays (which was mentioned earlier in the book) but then goes into strings are char pointers. Again once you understand how assembly treats memory (because this is how the computer handles memory) you can understand this better.

Then it introduces the double-pointer. Not to be confused with a double-pointer. Are you confused a double-pointer (**name) is a pointer to a pointer basically a 2-dimensional array (name[][]) where a double pointer is (double *name). so what is (double **name) is this a double-double-pointer? and with 2 pages left in the chapter they cover passing a pointer to a function (pass by reference)

Chapter 20 and now we have malloc(). I am speed-reading this. Otherwise, I would be falling asleep on each page. And it is not because of the way it is written but because I know most of this already. Do I remember it verbatim? No. That is why I use man pages and other tools (stack overflow, google, etc) when I am programming. That being said it talks about casing when using malloc() but it does not mention that malloc() returns a void pointer. And in turn, does not discuss void pointers. I just checked the index and of the 3 pages listed for the void data type, only one has a sentence that mentions void pointers.

Now to linked lists. Something else that I am aware of but don't think I have used. Not much is new to me but if this was a book I owned and not a library book that I need to return in 3 days I would put a permanent bookmark on this chapter (like a piece of tape or dog-ear). I do think I will renew it so I am not rushed with this blog.

On a side note my library app has decided that it won't show me books I have checked out and in turn, I can't renew them via the app. so I will need to login to the website to do that. So that is new.

We are at chapter 21 so it is time for time. I would like to see how deep the book goes into time. Timing on a computer is very system and hardware-dependent. I wonder if it will dive into RTC (Real-Time-Clocks). This book does not mention embedded systems and that is a use case where how timing works is important because of the low-level nature of it.

They kind of gloss over how time works at the machine level. And to be fair C is a multi-platform programming language so everything may be different. That is the beauty of the C Standard Library: it does all that under the hood so you have a consistent performance and code can be used across platforms. They did mention the Unix epoch and that is important to know (and something I kind of forgot about). And they discuss how time can be used to seed a random number with srand(). In the future, I plan on using the Raspberry Pi Pico to use a hardware sensor to generate a random seed. Look for that on this blog or my YouTube channel. The time chapter was short but it did express what needed to be said...or written...or read....you know what I mean.

Chapter 22 introduces files and how to save, write, append, edit...etc them. The book uses the library function/file pointer method fopen() to open files as opposed to the system call/file descriptor method of open(). And the library function may be more consistent. I think I used open() with my ffmpeg project. Unfortunately, that laptop needs some love and care and I did not put the source on github. I was in the process of making a GitHub video and making a repository for the project, but I waited too long.

So along with file manipulation, we need to deal with file management which Chapter 23 covers. One of the things is directories. And this is definitely needed when a user needs to select a file or you need information on a file. If you saw my c/c++ work on my FFMPEG project I used a relative path when accessing files (../dir/dir/file, ./file, ./dir/file, etc) I could have used an absolute path, but that would make it less portable because everything would need to be in the exact same directory. Now here is a question: do you call them directories or folders?

Something I have difficulty with in C is using multiple source files. My brain wants to say that as long as I use #include it is all good. And that is fine for the header (.h) files but for some reason you need to use the linker for multiple "source"(.c) at least that is my experience with compilers I have used. That is why I have been trying to learn more about Makefiles. And I just checked the index to see if Make is covered and it is not. Probably because they expect you to use an IDE, another way is to use build scripts with bash (or your shell of choice). So using multiple files is what Chapter 24 covers. So the book puts the function prototype in the header file (ex2403.h) but puts the code for the function in main.c just under the main() function. If you are going to put the code for the main.c file why bother putting the prototype in a header file? That just seems worthless to me. I know the book is trying to teach how to put prototypes in the header and how to put code in a separate .c file, but why not culminate it with the prototype in the header file and the code for the functions in another .c file and show it working all as one.

There are bugs and bugs and bugs. As the book says, everyone writes bugs in their code. In Chapter 25 they start out by saying to use printf(). And yes I do that all the time, but many will tell you using printf() can obscure bugs, cause bugs, or negate what is causing the bug. A better way is to use tools like GDB. Let's see if the book mentions that (I am only on page 1 of the chapter)

ok, something I didn't know was the __LINE__ macro. This macro displays the line number of the code that it is in. It is useful in debugging. And they do mention the GNU debugger but the book goes into the IDE Code::Blocks debugger. I don't use Code:Blocks often so I am just skimming this part. It does talk about breakpoints, I need to see if they have GDB for Dummies.

On to part six, which is called the parts of tens and chapter 6 is 10 common boo-boos. Before reading this I assume I have made all 10 multiple times. The first one is messing up conditionals and yes I do that all the time. especially using = instead of ==. the second one I don't think I have done. that is adding a semicolon ; instead of curly braces { }. if you don't use the curly braces to encapsulate the code block the loop does not know what code to run. Missing the break keyword in a switch case, yup I have done that one. I do understand that you may want the switch case to roll over to the next case but that is an exception (to my knowledge). So missing braces is common for me. On this keyboard in particular because the close brace button is temperamental. Ok, they added ignoring warnings. If it lets me compile I am guilty of this one. I will run it and see if it works. Most of the time I will glance at it. Most of my warnings tend to be declaring a variable and not using it. This is because when I plan out something I try to add all the variables at the beginning. Sometimes I am doing code in stages and don't need the variable. Other times I will use a variable for debugging and comment out the debugging code and not the variable definition. I will even use this with GDB because sometimes I want to see if a calculation is being computed correctly. Generally to make sure the order of operations is going how I think it should. So they put endless loops, but I think they covered that already. I think they are forcing it to be a list of 10 things. And scanf() part of this is not knowing that you need to put pointers as arguments, and forgetting the ampersand (&). The funny thing is I know Ampersand from the show Wheel of Fortune. I think it was the category “same name” where they introduced the ampersand. So that was chapter 26

Now 10 reminders and suggestions, that is chapter 27 the last chapter. So the first thing it says is to maintain good posture. This is funny because as I am typing this I am reaching over the book and my tablet to type this. Not good posture at all. It says to use creative names for things like variables and functions, but I would argue creative is not the right word. Using descriptive names may be a better wording. I agree with the book you should write functions when doing repetitive tasks. The key is to not overdo it. I have seen code where almost everything is in its own function and main() is just the caller for them. In this case, you better know how to use pointers. The next reminder is to make little changes in your code, so if you are adding a feature or debugging you have a clear path of what to change or not to change. Making several changes in several parts of the code will make the map to how you got from part a to part b difficult. But sometimes you make a significant change to a function, like changing the arguments and you need to fix every place the function is called. A good example is say you have a code that takes a string (char array) and you discover you need to add an int for the string length for security purposes to avoid string overruns. You need to change the function, but now you need to find every place you called the function. One crude way is to compile it and go through the error messages one by one. And if you are doing it from the terminal and don't know where the function calls are this may be the quickest. If you are in an IDE that checks for syntax errors that may be another way. It tells you to know what a pointer is. After spending half the book avoiding pointers, now the author wants to make sure you know what they are. It talks about adding whitespace. If you are the only coder on a project use the white space to make it readable to you. If you are part of a bigger project there may be style guidelines for white space that you will need to follow; be flexible. It suggests to read your code out loud. I am not sure how well that would work for me, but it may work for you. For writing (like this blog) I run it through a text-to-speech website to make sure it sounds correct. I don't think that will help with code.

Finally the Appendixes. The first one (Appendix A) is the ASCII codes (0-127) there are -127 to -1 but this book does not cover that or utf-8 and utf-16 that may also apply so look this up. For nothing else so you know what they are if you come across it (utf-8 is common in HTML). Appx B is the C17 keywords. As I am writing this C23 is due to come out. And it does give some of the C++ keywords (I guess for context). Appx C is the Operators. This is a good thing to review from time to time. Appx D are the built-in data types but you may want to look into custom data types like uint8, uint16...etc. Appx E has the escape sequences (for use in functions like printf()). F is a conversion chart and G is order of precedence.

So that is the book. I had not planned on doing a chapter-by-chapter review. But that is what I did. Now I need to return this to the library. So I may not have it during editing (if I don't edit this soon).

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What could the Future of Organized Labor hold?

2024-09-13T12:12:00.001-04:00

What could the Future of Organized Labor hold?

The structure and organization of the labor movement has changed. The tried and true method of organizing labor into unions has not changed in the past several decades. Unions have changed with technology to get their message out, but the message has not changed. The economy of the US has changed. In 1970 about 25% of the US workforce was in manufacturing, which is roughly where it was in 1950. By 2009 it was halved to 11%. The number one industry in 1947 was manufacturing, by 2009 it was number four. Manufacturing and the Finance, Insurance, and Real estate (FIRE) industry have swapped spots with FIRE being the number one industry with 21.4% of the workforce. The FIRE industry is not an industry that is known for unions. Outside of the Government sector, white-collar jobs do not fall under a collective bargaining agreement. Maybe it is time for that to change. Another industry that is just starting to see union involvement in a more public way is the foodservice industry. There are more than 10 million workers in the foodservice industry. Foodservice is a sector with lower-paid workers. In 2019 the number of people working as waiters and waitresses was almost two million, but the average salary was under $18,000 a year. On the other hand, what benefit would organized labor have for these workers? One benefit could be better working conditions, but I am not sure if a substantial increase in pay would be possible. The goal would be to convince the workers that working conditions are worth the fight. Businesses tend to use the argument that union dues are too high and not worth it. In this case, they may have a point. If they need to pay for unions and not receive a raise, they will be paying to possibly get better working conditions. Smaller, more streamlined, collective bargaining units may be better suited to negotiate with these smaller businesses. The two main arguments that unions use are the need to pay dues and that they may oppose restrictions. Collective bargaining incurs a cost, so some level of dues are required.

All eyes are on the Starbucks location in Buffalo that was recently unionized. It will be interesting to see how many details of the contract become publicly available. The first contract that is agreed to with Starbucks may cast the die on what future contracts will be. If Starbucks is able to agree to few concessions, it may not bode well for future unionizing with Starbucks. One of the points that is brought up in Johnson’s article “No longer a tall order: Coffee shops unionize: Breakthrough at Starbucks is latest win for baristas” is, that some of what these workers may want is changes in social policy. If they get this in the contract at the Buffalo Starbucks, and the policy is company-wide, there is one less reason for other locations to unionize. Additionally, if any other concessions are made more wide-spread, it will have the same effect on future unionizing efforts with Starbucks.

Starbucks is not the only national company to face local unionizing efforts. Amazon workers recently voted against unionizing at its plant in Alabama. In Jay Greene's article “Labor board calls for revote on union at Amazon warehouse in Alabama”, he notes that amazon used several tactics that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) found illegal. The workers will have a second vote. For Amazon, there is much on the line. The company is using the fallacy that with a union, managers and employees can not communicate. They make it sound like day-to-day activities would need to go through a union rep., or that managers and employees could not have social conversations. If this is how union contracts worked, teachers would never speak to a principal. Some teachers I know may wish for a clause like that in their next contract, but that would be unreasonable. If the unions want to discredit this argument, they need to work harder to show how unrealistic it is. The main issue that the NLRB found was that Amazon had placed a mailbox in a location where they (the NRLB and the union) felt caused intimidation for the workers. The same article mentioned that the amazon facility has frequent employee turnover. So, not only does the union need to convince the workers that may have voted against unionizing in the first vote, but they need to convince the new employees. Without interviewing the employees that left since the last vote, it is difficult to say how they voted in the first election. I would say it is fair to say that if the employees enjoyed the status-quo at amazon, they are not likely to leave.

Unions are making headways into two major national companies. If the union is able to get a favorable result from the second Amazon vote in Alabama, there could be major changes throughout the company’s labor force. And the outcome of the first contact with the workers at the Buffalo Starbucks may set the tone for how unions deal with Starbucks.

References

Finance & Insurance, and Real Estate, Rental & leasing. (n.d.). Datausa.Io. Retrieved December 20, 2021, from https://datausa.io/profile/naics/finance-insurance-and-real-estate-rental-leasing

Greene, J. (2021). Labor board calls for revote on union at Amazon warehouse in Alabama. In The Washington Post (Vol. 18). https://www.proquest.com/docview/2604257316/A984FA3F8F604FE0PQ/41?accountid=8067

Johnson, K. (2021, December 17). No longer a tall order: Coffee shops unionize: Breakthrough at Starbucks is latest win for baristas. Boston Globe. https://www.proquest.com/usnews/docview/2610719129/fulltext/D0A33E46E074413CPQ/1?accountid=8067

Restaurants & Food services. (n.d.). Datausa.Io. Retrieved December 20, 2021, from https://datausa.io/profile/naics/restaurants-food-services

The Economist. (2005, September 29). Industrial metamorphosis. Economist (London, England: 1843). https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2005/09/29/industrial-metamorphosis

Thompson, D. (2012, January 26). Where did all the workers go? 60 years of economic change in 1 graph. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/01/where-did-all-the-workers-go-60-years-of-economic-change-in-1-graph/252018/

WeGotEd [WeGotEd]. (2011, June 15). Target Stores Anti-Union Propaganda. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2j3ZNUxqo9M

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C Programming for dummies

2024-08-24T16:33:00.004-04:00

There is always something new to learn (or is there).

I am currently reading "C Programming for Dummies" 2nd edition by Dan Gookin. I decided to take it out of my local library. mainly because I had it on my wish list and I don't have anything else to read at the moment. I have books on C that I have had since the 90's. I read through them when I am trying to figure something out. Usually, it has to do with pointers. I have not had any formal training on C. I have taken a class on C++. and that did cause some confusion as I assumed certain things I learned about C++ were inherited from C. While, one thing I discovered is function overloading is not in C. So I am reading this book to find things I did not already know about the C programming language. It has been 2 days and so far I am up to chapter 7 (of 27) and have not discovered anything of note yet. I have come across a few things that are simplified for the sake of not having to go down the rabbit hole on what may be edge cases. sort of like how teachers in grade school said "A sentence can't start with because" As I discover new knowledge I will write it here and post it when I am done with the book (and have edited the blog of course).

So, the first thing that catches my attention is in chapter 7. I don't often use the getchar() function, so it did catch me off guard that it returns an int and not a char. I assume there is a reason, such as that in some languages/character sets a single character is more than 1 byte. and I need to check the sizeof(char) but I think it varies, but an int is almost always more than 1 byte. off the top of my head, I believe the standard is at least 4 bytes but can vary depending on architecture. I have not done any coding on this (yet) . I am just free-writing as I read the book. I have had issues when I needed a data type to be exactly 1 byte and tried to use char with differing results depending on the system and compiler. The more reliable way is to use uint8_t. I will try later to see if that data type works with getchar(). This goes for putchar(int) instead of putchar(char).

Also in chapter 7, it does what several other books I have read when it comes to pointers. it introduces functions like scanf() before explaining pointers. it just says put a & in front of the variable without explaining why. When I first started teaching myself C, I just followed the syntax without questioning why. I think pointers are confusing to new programmers (and experienced programmers) partly because pointers are generally taught as an afterthought. The chapter on pointers is 18; I will see if they are mentioned before then. and as soon as I wrote that last sentence I turned the page and there is one line that said "Part 4 of this book covers pointers" Chapter 18 is in part 4 by the way.

in chapter 8 which deals with decision making the author discusses the ternary operator. I did know of the ternary operator from a video by Jacob Sorber (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfMV_wa0KY4), but I have not used it myself.

something I had not used in C but thought existed was until loops. While reading chapter 9 on loops I thought it was something they omitted at first, but I checked the keyword list and man documentation (or lack thereof) and discovered that I was getting syntax mixed up between languages (probably MS Basic and VB). An until loop is just a negated while loop so including it would be redundant to some degree. I assume a macro could be made so that they until(expression) equals while(!(expression)). I wonder if this book goes into macros.

In chapter 11 (the math chapter) something sounded familiar but I am not fully sure if I knew it. and this involves trig functions. I have used trig but I don't know if I used it in C (or any programming language) in C trig functions use radians and not degrees. This is kind of important to know. 90% of the time when I do use trig I am doing it in degrees, so I would need to make a conscious effort to use radians.

Another of these mathematical equations is with order of precedence. When you are writing literals it is easier to keep track of the order of operations. When you have variables and constants I like to add parentheses () to make things clearer on what happens first.

I read through chapter 12 (arrays) wondering when they will address pointers. and it was like the final paragraph. and they just said that it would be addressed in a later chapter. I don't understand why arrays are always taught that way after the fact. just pull the bandaid off and get through it. It makes things clearer.

On another note, I don't think I have used multidimensional arrays beyond 2 dimensions.

ok so in chapter 13 which deals with text manipulation, they say the "functions" in ctype.h are not functions but are macros. I mentioned before that they did not mention macros in the chapter on functions or when discussing #define. Now that is not going to confuse anyone. But, now I do want to read ctypes.h to see what the macros are doing.

The functions in string.h do give me issues and I tend to use the man pages often when dealing with string manipulation. and sometimes sprintf() is your friend, but snprintf() could be a safer path.

ok halfway through, nine days until I need to return (or renew) the book from the library.

Chapter 15 was on command line arguments using argc and argv depending on the compiler and os there could be others but this book does not discuss them and I am not sure if they are standardized. but if you are designing a program to be executed by a script or other processes then command line arguments are important. and without dealing with pointers (yet) and coping with argv as just an array and not a pointer aspect can get confusing down the line.

I am about to start chapter 16 on variables, let's see if they discuss pointers... halfway through the chapter and I don't see pointers mentioned. but I do want to talk about typedef and structs. For a while, I thought if you used something like "struct qwerty..." in C you could use qwerty as a data type like you can in C++. In C++ structs and classes are usable by the class name right away without using typedef.

again a perfect point to even just mention pointers... when discussing global variables and passing by value they could mention passing by reference and using pointers.

Chapter 17 is on binary/bitwise manipulation. This is a topic I know of but I need to look it up each time I use it. If you have seen my Raspberry Pi Pico video series on my YouTube channel you will see me using it in Python. but even then it was limited and I had to keep looking up the documentation. and That was a while ago so I need to recheck the code to see how I did it. I do know that when I went to reprogram it in C/C++ I didn't get that far. First, it is written in C++ because the SDK for the pico is set with C++ classes, but I code C++ like C with classes most times and stuff like that drives C++ programmers nuts. and I really need to get back to that project.

In the book they say XOR is pronounced "zor" . I have always heard it as "ex or". from programming classes to logic (philosophy) classes to YouTube tutorials. I am pretty sure Ben Eater says "ex or" when dealing with digital logic chips. and for those that don't know XOR is exclusive OR in logic.

I wish the book went more in-depth with hex. I don't know if they will but Chapter 17 sort of glossed over it. it does come in handy when dealing with binary with something like register flags.

chapter 18 and we finally get to pointers. it only took 269 pages (of 409 not counting appendixes). so I didn't start to understand pointers really until I started looking at assembly. I understand assembly at the concept level but I have coded basic stuff in 6502 and x86 assembly but I don't know any variant of assembly to program something from scratch in it. but when you understand what assembly is doing you understand that all variables are pointers. A variable name is just a reference to a place in memory where the value is stored. C adds a layer of abstraction to it and like all C instructions it is broken down into multiple assembly instructions. In assembly, the variable name is just a label. I would use the goto command as an example but I don't think this book even mentions goto besides listing it as a C keyword. Let's say we have a C variable X and X is an int. Let's say in this case an int is 4 bytes. So if we need the value of X what C does is it gets the value in memory of where X points to and the next 3 bytes (4 bytes total) this chapter did not really cover pass-by-value and pass-by-reference. I will guess the next chapter (also on pointers) will.

chapter 19 starts out with pointer arithmetic and comparing it to arrays. and then goes into strings are char arrays (which was mentioned earlier in the book) but then goes into strings are char pointers. Again once you understand how assembly treats memory (because this is how the computer handles memory) you can understand this better.

then it introduces the double-pointer. not to be confused with a double pointer. are you confused a double-pointer (**name) is a pointer to a pointer basically a 2-dimensional array (name[][]) where a double pointer is (double *name). so what is (double **name) is this a double-double-pointer? and with 2 pages left in the chapter they cover passing a pointer to a function (pass by reference)

Chapter 20 and now we have malloc(). I am speed-reading this. otherwise, I would be falling asleep on each page. and it is not because of the way it is written but because I know most of this already. Do I remember it verbatim? no. that is why I use man pages and other tools (stack overflow, google, etc) when I am programming. That being said it talks about casing when using malloc() but it does not mention that malloc() returns a void pointer. and in turn, does not discuss void pointers. I just checked the index and of the 3 pages listed for the void data type, only one has a sentence that mentions void pointers.

now to linked lists. something else that I am aware of but don't think I have used. Not much is new to me but if this was a book I owned and not a library book that I need to return in 3 days I would put a permanent bookmark on this chapter (like a piece of tape or dog-ear). I do think I will renew it so I am not rushed with this blog.

On a side note my library app has decided that it won't show me books I have checked out and in turn, I can't renew them via the app. so I will need to login to the website to do that. so that is new.

We are at chapter 21 so it is time for time. I would like to see how deep the book goes into time. Timing on a computer is very system and hardware-dependent. I wonder if it will dive into RTC (Real-Time-Clocks). This book does not mention embedded systems and that is a use case where how timing works is important because of the low-level nature of it.

They kind of gloss over how time works at the machine level. and to be fair C is a multi-platform programming language so everything may be different. That is the beauty of the C Standard Library: it does all that under the hood so you have a consistent performance and code can be used across platforms. they did mention the Unix epoch and that is important to know (and something I kind of forgot about). and they discuss how time can be used to seed a random number with srand(). In the future, I plan on using the Raspberry Pi Pico to use a hardware sensor to generate a random seed. look for that on this blog or my YouTube channel. The time chapter was short but it did express what needed to be said...or written...or read....you know what I mean.

chapter 22 introduces files and how to save, write, append, edit...etc them. The book uses the library function/file pointer method fopen() to open files as opposed to the system call/file descriptor method of open(). and the library function may be more consistent. I think I used open() with my ffmpeg project. Unfortunately, that laptop needs some love and care and I did not put the source on github. I was in the process of making a GitHub video and making a repository for the project, but I waited too long.

So along with file manipulation, we need to deal with file management which Chapter 23 covers. One of the things is directories. and this is definitely needed when a user needs to select a file or you need information on a file. if you saw my c/c++ work on my FFMPEG project I used a relative path when accessing files (../dir/dir/file, ./file, ./dir/file, etc) I could have used an absolute path, but that would make it less portable because everything would need to be in the exact same directory. Now here is a question: do you call them directories or folders?

Something I have difficulty in C is using multiple source files. my brain wants to say that as long as I use #include it is all good. and that is fine for the header (.h) files but for some reason you need to use the linker for multiple "source"(.c) at least that is my experience with compilers I have used. That is why I have been trying to learn more about Makefiles. and I just checked the index to see if Make is covered and it is not. probably because they expect you to use an IDE, another way is to use build scripts with bash (or your shell of choice). so using multiple files is what Chapter 24 covers. so the book puts the function prototype in the header file (ex2403.h) but puts the code for the function in main.c just under the main() function. If you are going to put the code for the main.c file why bother putting the prototype in a header file? That just seems worthless to me. I know the book is trying to teach how to put prototypes in the header and how to put code in a separate .c file, but why not culminate it with the prototype in the header file and the code for the functions in another .c file and show it working all as one.

There are bugs and bugs and bugs. As the book says, everyone writes bugs in their code. In Chapter 25 they start out by saying to use printf(). and yes I do that all the time, but many will tell you using printf() can obscure bugs, cause bugs, or negate what is causing the bug. A better way is to use tools like GDB. let's see if the book mentions that (I am only on page 1 of the chapter)

ok, something I didn't know was the __LINE__ macro. This macro displays the line number of the code that it is in. It is useful in debugging. and they do mention the GNU debugger but the book goes into the IDE Code::Blocks debugger. I don't use Code:Blocks often so I am just skimming this part. it does talk about breakpoints, I need to see if they have GDB for Dummies.

on to part six, which is called the parts of tens and chapter 6 is 10 common boo-boos. Before reading this I assume I have made all 10 multiple times. The first one is messing up conditionals and yes I do that all the time. especially using = instead of ==. the second one I don't think I have done. that is adding a semicolon ; instead of curly braces { }. if you don't use the curly braces to encapsulate the code block the loop does not know what code to run. missing the break keyword in a switch case, yup I have done that one. I do understand that you may want the switch case to roll over to the next case but that is an exception (to my knowledge). so missing braces is common for me. on this keyboard in particular because the close brace button is temperamental. ok, they added ignoring warnings. if it lets me compile I am guilty of this one. I will run it and see if it works. most of the time I will glance at it. Most of my warnings tend to be declaring a variable and not using it. This is because when I plan out something I try to add all the variables at the beginning. sometimes I am doing code in stages and don't need the variable. Other times I will use a variable for debugging and comment out the debugging code and not the variable definition. I will even use this with GDB because sometimes I want to see if a calculation is being computed correctly. generally to make sure the order of operations is going how I think it should. so they put endless loops, but I think they covered that already. I think they are forcing it to be a list of 10 things. and scanf() part of this is not knowing that you need to put pointers as arguments, and forgetting the ampersand (&). The funny thing is I know Ampersand from the show Wheel of Fortune. I think it was the category “same name” where they introduced the ampersand. so that was chapter 26

now 10 reminders and suggestions, that is chapter 27 the last chapter. So the first thing it says is to maintain good posture. This is funny because as I am typing this I am reaching over the book and my tablet to type this. not good posture at all. it says to use creative names for things like variables and functions, but I would argue creative is not the right word. Use descriptive names may be a better wording. I agree with the book you should write functions when doing repetitive tasks. The key is to not overdo it. I have seen code where almost everything is in its own function and main() is just the caller for them. In this case, you better know how to use pointers. The next reminder is to make little changes in your code, so if you are adding a feature or debugging you have a clear path of what to change or not to change. Making several changes in several parts of the code will make the map to how you got from part a to part b difficult. but sometimes you make a significant change to a function, like changing the arguments and you need to fix every place the function is called. A good example is say you have a code that takes a string (char array) and you discover you need to add an int for the string length for security purposes to avoid string overruns. you need to change the function, but now you need to find every place you called the function. One crude way is to compile it and go through the error messages one by one. and if you are doing it from the terminal and don't know where the function calls are this may be the quickest. if you are in an IDE that checks for syntax errors that may be another way. it tells you to know what a pointer is. After spending half the book avoiding pointers, now the author wants to make sure you know what they are. It talks about adding whitespace. If you are the only coder on a project use the white space to make it readable to you. If you are part of a bigger project there may be style guidelines for white space that you will need to follow; be flexible. it suggests to read your code out loud. I am not sure how well that would work for me, but it may work for you. For writing (like this blog) I run it through a text-to-speech website to make sure it sounds correct. I don't think that will help with code.

Finally the Appendixes. The first one (Appendix A) is the ASCII codes (0-127) there are -255 to -1 but this book does not cover that or utf-8 and utf-16 that may also apply so look this up. for nothing else so you know what they are if you come across it (utf-8 is common in HTML). appx B is the C17 keywords. As I am writing this C23 is due to come out. and it does give some of the C++ keywords (I guess for context). appx C is the Operators. This is a good thing to review from time to time. Appx D are the built-in data types but you may want to look into custom data types like uint8, uint16...etc. Appx E has the escape sequences (for use in functions like printf()). F is a conversion chart and G is order of precedence.

so that is the book. I had not planned on doing a chapter-by-chapter review. But that is what I did. Now I need to return this to the library. so I may not have it during editing (if I don't edit this soon).

.

Check Out My YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@samplesandtests/

How to Blog

2024-05-20T16:04:00.002-04:00

How is it that every time I have an idea for a blog (or a YouTube video for that matter), I don't have a way to write it down or am near a computer? I am not one to type too much on my phone or tablets. I just hate the keyboards. I do have a Bluetooth keyboard I used to use for my iPad when I was out for work and needed to type an email or something that required more than a few words. Don't let me fool you I am not a great typist on a keyboard. So on a side note typer is not a word. The red squiggly line is how I just found that out. I figured someone who types is a typer and someone who types professionally was a typist. But I am neither. and my handwriting is not great either, but I can read it so that is what matters in this context. I can sit with a spiral notebook and hand write a few paragraphs; free writing what is on my head much faster than with a phone keyboard. Or type free form like I am doing right now on a computer. well not really free writing because I am correcting errors as I type. I could let the spelling errors go and fix them later, but capitalization is what is getting me. This is because Firefox's spellcheck is just that a spell checker, not a grammar checker so if I type i instead of I it does not catch it, or if I miss a comma or forget to capitalize the beginning of a sentence.

OK, I decided that I would just type it up in Blogger and then copy and paste it into Grammarly. It is said that we have come to rely on spell and grammar checkers. but when I watch YouTube ads for Grammarly I find it troubling that the whole writing process is going to AI. and if you are reading my blog you can see I do use AI but as an experiment. I want to know what they can do and how they compare. and just have fun with them.

They do have a use as a search engine. I have noticed with Meta's AI that by default it gives you links to where it got its information. I have not deep-dived into the links for accuracy (yet). with Chat GPT you generally need to ask it for references. and sometimes they are fictional. leave your thoughts on AI in the comments.

So back to what I was originally writing about. I tend to have ideas I would like to write about:

a) as I am driving

b) in bed

c) in the shower

d) sitting in the living room watching something

the shower and driving I can't do anything about, and for in bed even if I did keep a notebook on the bed stand I would need light, and that messes with trying to go to sleep. That leaves the living room. I should keep a notebook (and a decent pen) next to my chair in the living room.

and I can't stand talking to my phone to make notes. The only time I use the voice AI on my phone is to call someone while driving. and I do have a Wake word setup on my Amazon tablet, it does have the "Alexa" Wake word setup. and it is funny because I will react to videos I am watching when someone says "Alexa" or anything that sounds similar. It is literally talking to itself.

so that is where I will leave it for now. in the next blog maybe I will go over the tools I use when writing. for now, I will leave it and edit it a little later.

Check Out My YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@samplesandtests/

What does Meta AI think of this Blog

2024-05-03T11:15:00.002-04:00

I asked Meta AI (within WhatsApp to analyze this my blog by gust giving the base URL for it. this is what I Got:

😜

The website appears to be a personal blog hosted on Blogger, a free blogging platform. Here's a detailed description of the website:

*Content:*

The blog contains a collection of posts, most of which are short and concise. The content is quite varied, with no specific theme or focus. Some posts include:

1. Random thoughts and musings
2. Personal experiences and stories
3. Quotes and inspirational messages
4. Humorous anecdotes and jokes
5. Brief articles on various topics like technology, science, and current events

*Language and Writing Style:*

The blog is written in English, with a casual and informal tone. The writing style is conversational, with a touch of humor and wit. The author seems to be writing for a general audience, without any specialized knowledge or expertise.

*Design and Layout:*

The blog uses a simple, default Blogger template with a white background and a basic layout. There are no customizations or unique design elements. The focus is on the content rather than the presentation.

*Features and Functionality:*

The blog has the standard Blogger features, including:

1. A sidebar with a profile, archives, and labels
2. A comment section for reader engagement
3. Social media sharing buttons
4. A search bar for finding specific posts

*Author and Purpose:*

The author of the blog is not explicitly stated, but it appears to be a personal blog for self-expression and sharing thoughts with others. The purpose is likely to connect with like-minded individuals, share ideas, and document personal experiences.

*Overall:*

The blog (link unavailable) is a personal and casual online journal, where the author shares their thoughts, experiences, and interests. It's a simple and straightforward blog without any specific focus or expertise, but it can be an enjoyable read for those interested in personal stories and musings.

Check Out My YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@samplesandtests/

Unlocking the Power of ChatGPT: A Comprehensive Guide to YouTube Video Creation

2024-04-21T15:22:00.001-04:00

Introduction to ChatGPT for YouTube Video Creation:

Are you tired of staring at a blank screen, struggling to come up with content ideas for your YouTube videos? Do you find yourself spending hours writing and rewriting scripts, trying to make them engaging and interesting?

If so, you're not alone. Creating content can be a challenge, even for the most experienced YouTubers. But what if there was a tool that could help you generate ideas and scripts in a matter of minutes? That's where ChatGPT comes in.

ChatGPT is a powerful language model developed by OpenAI, based on the GPT-3.5 architecture. It uses artificial intelligence to generate human-like text based on a given prompt. This means that you can ask ChatGPT for content ideas, and it will come up with a list of suggestions based on your topic.

But ChatGPT isn't just for generating ideas. It can also help you write scripts for your YouTube videos. Simply give it a topic, and it will generate a script for you, complete with engaging language and interesting facts.

So how does ChatGPT work? Essentially, it's trained on a massive dataset of text from the internet, which allows it to understand language and generate human-like responses. When you give it a prompt, it uses its understanding of language to generate a response that's relevant and coherent.

Of course, like any tool, ChatGPT isn't perfect. Sometimes its responses can be a little off-topic, or it might generate text that's not quite what you were looking for. But with a little tweaking and editing, you can turn its suggestions into high-quality content for your YouTube channel.

In summary, ChatGPT is a powerful tool that can help you generate content ideas and write scripts for your YouTube videos. With its artificial intelligence capabilities, it can save you time and effort, allowing you to focus on creating engaging content for your viewers. Give it a try, and see how it can transform your content creation process.

How to Generate YouTube Video Ideas with ChatGPT:

YouTube has become one of the most popular platforms for content creators to showcase their talent, build their audience, and earn a living. However, coming up with fresh and exciting video ideas can be a daunting task. This is where ChatGPT comes in - a powerful tool that uses artificial intelligence to generate creative ideas and scripts for YouTube videos.

In this blog post, we will walk you through the process of using ChatGPT to generate YouTube video ideas and refine them to find the best ones for your channel.

Step 1: Sign up for ChatGPT

To get started, you'll need to sign up for ChatGPT. Once you've created your account, you'll be able to access the tool's features and start generating video ideas.

Step 2: Enter Your Topic

The first step is to enter a general topic or keyword related to your YouTube channel. This could be anything from "cooking" to "video games" to "travel." ChatGPT will then use its machine learning algorithms to generate a list of related ideas.

Step 3: Filter and Refine Your Ideas

Once you have a list of generated ideas, it's time to filter and refine them to find the best ones for your channel. You can do this by selecting the ideas that are most relevant to your niche, have the most potential to go viral, or align with your brand's values and mission.

Step 4: Create a Script

Once you've chosen the best ideas for your channel, it's time to start creating your video script. ChatGPT can also help with this by generating a script for you based on the idea you've chosen. You can then modify and customize the script to fit your style and tone.

Step 5: Create Your Video

Now that you have your script, it's time to create your video. With ChatGPT, you'll be able to generate ideas and scripts quickly and easily, allowing you to focus on the creative aspect of video production.

In conclusion, ChatGPT is a powerful tool that can help YouTube creators generate new and exciting video ideas. By using this tool, creators can streamline their content creation process, allowing them to focus on the creative aspects of video production. If you're struggling to come up with new ideas for your YouTube channel, give ChatGPT a try and see what ideas it can generate for you!

How to Write YouTube Video Scripts with ChatGPT:

As a YouTube creator, coming up with ideas for your videos can be challenging, and writing a script that engages your audience can be even more difficult. But what if you could get help with generating ideas and writing scripts from an AI-powered tool that learns from vast amounts of data? Enter ChatGPT.
ChatGPT is a natural language processing AI model developed by OpenAI, capable of generating human-like text based on the input provided to it. With the help of ChatGPT, you can generate ideas and write scripts for your YouTube videos with ease. In this blog post, we'll explore how to use ChatGPT to write YouTube video scripts.

Step 1: Input the Topic or Idea

To generate a script with ChatGPT, start by inputting the topic or idea for your video. You can do this by typing the topic or idea into the text box provided on the ChatGPT website or interface. For example, if you want to create a video on "How to Make a Delicious Pizza at Home," you can input that as your topic.

Step 2: Choose the Prompt

After inputting your topic, you will be presented with a list of prompts generated by ChatGPT. These prompts can be used to help generate ideas for your video or serve as the foundation for your script. Choose the prompt that best aligns with your video topic or idea.

Step 3: Refine and Edit

Once you have chosen a prompt, you can start to refine and edit the generated text to fit your video's purpose and audience. ChatGPT is excellent at generating text, but it's up to you to ensure that the script is coherent and engaging. You can add or remove text, change the structure, and modify the tone of the script to fit your needs.

Step 4: Review and Finalize

After refining and editing the generated text, review the script to ensure that it's coherent, engaging, and fits the purpose of your video. Make any final adjustments or edits, then finalize the script.

In conclusion, ChatGPT is an excellent tool for YouTube creators looking to generate ideas and write scripts for their videos. It's essential to remember that ChatGPT is an AI model and not a replacement for your creativity and expertise as a content creator. Use ChatGPT to help you generate ideas and guide your scriptwriting process, but always remember to add your unique touch to make your content stand out.

ChatGPT vs. Traditional Research for YouTube Video Creation:

When it comes to creating content for YouTube, coming up with ideas and writing scripts can be a time-consuming and challenging process. In the past, creators relied on traditional research methods, such as reading books, watching videos, and conducting interviews, to gather information and generate ideas. However, with the advancements in technology, there is now a new tool available that can help simplify this process: ChatGPT.

ChatGPT is a language model developed by OpenAI that is capable of generating human-like responses to text prompts. It uses deep learning algorithms to analyze large amounts of data and generate responses based on patterns and trends in the data. This technology can be applied to a variety of tasks, including generating ideas and scripts for YouTube videos.
In this blog post, we will explore the advantages and disadvantages of using ChatGPT versus traditional research methods for YouTube video creation.

Advantages of Using ChatGPT

Speed: One of the most significant advantages of using ChatGPT is speed. Traditional research methods can be time-consuming, requiring hours of reading, watching, and interviewing. ChatGPT, on the other hand, can generate ideas and scripts in a matter of minutes, saving creators valuable time and resources.

Creativity: ChatGPT is not limited by human biases or preconceptions, which means it can generate unique and creative ideas that humans may not have considered. This can help creators stand out from their competitors and create content that is fresh and engaging.

Consistency: ChatGPT is also consistent in its output, which means it can generate ideas and scripts that are coherent and well-structured. This can help creators avoid writer's block and ensure that their content is of a high quality.

Disadvantages of Using ChatGPT

Lack of Context: While ChatGPT is capable of generating responses based on patterns and trends in the data, it may not always understand the context of a particular topic or idea. This can result in responses that are inaccurate or inappropriate.

Limited Input: ChatGPT can only generate responses based on the input it receives. If the input is not well-formulated or contains errors, the output may also be flawed. This means that creators must be careful when inputting prompts to ensure that the responses are relevant and accurate.

Over-reliance: Another potential disadvantage of using ChatGPT is over-reliance. While it can be a useful tool for generating ideas and scripts, creators should not rely on it exclusively. Traditional research methods, such as reading and interviewing, can still provide valuable insights and perspectives.

Tips for Using ChatGPT in Conjunction with Traditional Research Methods

Use a combination of methods: Creators should use a combination of traditional research methods and ChatGPT to generate ideas and scripts. This will ensure that they have a well-rounded perspective and can produce content that is accurate, informative, and engaging.

Refine the output: Creators should refine the output generated by ChatGPT to ensure that it is relevant and accurate. This can be done by filtering the results and removing any responses that are not relevant or appropriate.

Verify the information: Creators should verify the information generated by ChatGPT using traditional research methods. This will help ensure that the information is accurate and up-to-date.

Conclusion

In conclusion, ChatGPT is a powerful tool that can be used to generate ideas and scripts for YouTube videos. While it has its advantages, it is not without its disadvantages, and creators should be aware of these when using the tool. By using a combination of traditional research methods and ChatGPT, creators can ensure that their content is accurate, informative, and engaging.

Advanced Techniques for Using ChatGPT for YouTube Video Creation:

ChatGPT is a powerful language model that can be used to generate content ideas and scripts for YouTube videos. While the basics of using ChatGPT are relatively straightforward, there are several advanced techniques that can help users get even more out of this powerful tool. In this blog post, we will explore some of these advanced techniques and provide tips for using ChatGPT effectively for YouTube video creation.

Using multiple prompts

One of the most powerful features of ChatGPT is its ability to generate suggestions based on a single prompt. However, using multiple prompts can help users generate even more varied and interesting ideas. For example, if you are creating a video about technology, you could try using prompts such as "latest tech trends," "upcoming technology releases," and "future of technology." By combining these prompts, you can generate a wide range of ideas that may not have been possible with a single prompt.

Adjusting the temperature and top-p

ChatGPT generates suggestions based on a combination of its training data and the input provided by the user. By adjusting the temperature and top-p parameters, users can control the creativity and randomness of the suggestions generated by ChatGPT. For example, setting the temperature to a lower value will result in more conservative and predictable suggestions, while setting it to a higher value will result in more creative and surprising suggestions.

Similarly, adjusting the top-p parameter can help users control the diversity of the suggestions generated by ChatGPT. Setting the top-p value to a lower value will result in more common and predictable suggestions, while setting it to a higher value will result in more varied and surprising suggestions.

Combining ChatGPT with other tools

While ChatGPT is a powerful tool for generating ideas and scripts for YouTube videos, it is not the only tool available. By combining ChatGPT with other research tools such as Google Trends, Buzzsumo, and social media analytics, users can generate even more targeted and effective content ideas.

For example, by using Google Trends to identify trending topics and keywords, users can generate prompts that are more likely to generate interest and engagement from their target audience. Similarly, by using Buzzsumo to identify popular content in their niche, users can identify gaps in the market and generate content ideas that are more likely to stand out.

Conclusion:

ChatGPT is a powerful tool for generating ideas and scripts for YouTube videos, but it is only as effective as the techniques used to leverage its power. By using multiple prompts, adjusting the temperature and top-p parameters, and combining ChatGPT with other research tools, users can generate more varied, creative, and effective content ideas for their YouTube channels. With these advanced techniques, users can take their YouTube video creation to the next level and stand out in a crowded online marketplace.

Labor, Land, Tax, & Profit

2023-10-26T01:30:00.001-04:00

I was going to write a different blog post when I realized I was going on a tangent. I think I need to explain my thinking first.

I have been exploring the concept of inflation and I was trying to figure out if it was the products(materials) or labor that was causing the increases in prices. In this blog post, I hope to conceptual deep dive into what it takes to get the products we buy to market.

“If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe” - Carl Sagan. I am not going to go down to the atomic or subatomic level, but I am going to go with the premise that there are four elements that go into the cost of the items we purchase. These are labor, land, tax, and of course profit. I am going to show how each of these plays a role and how some overlap.

Labor may seem like an obvious element for the production of a product. In cost accounting, we look at both direct and indirect labor when calculating the cost of goods (sold) manufactured. But labor costs go beyond that. There is the labor for marketing/advertising, selling, and administrative expenses for running the business. What if I told you that labor goes deeper than that? Let's consider the labor that goes into the raw materials that are used to make the product. For this example, we are going to assume that the product uses lumber that is delivered as a main raw material. Labor (and all 4 elements) goes into the cost of the lumber. There is the cost to have the lumber loaded on the truck, the labor to deliver the lumber, and the labor for the vendor to offload the lumber from their supplier's trucks. Now let's take into account other labor for this supplier. What about their clerk who schedules the deliveries, the worker who cleans their warehouse, the worker who maintains their fleet of trucks, the salesperson's salary, and so on? And this goes all the way back through the supply chain to the lumberjack that fell the tree.

And this concept does not just go towards the labor for materials. All four of these elements go towards anything that adds cost to the product, either as a direct cost or as they call it in cost accounting “factory overhead”. So what about the factory? What labor costs does the buildings and facilities a business use have? There are somewhat obvious labor costs like the cost to maintain the building: like plumbers, painters, gardeners, etc. but what about the labor cost to build the building? These labor costs don’t just include the people swinging hammers, but all the labor for the builder's administrative expenses, the inherent labor costs of the materials used (as I demonstrated in the paragraph above), and the inherent labor in the machinery used to build the building.

So, what about machinery? Let's go back to that original product that we were discussing. That product used lumber as a main material. But tools are needed to transform the lumber into the end product. So we can assume some type of saw is needed. There are labor costs that the company pays because of that saw. They need someone to purchase the saw. If it is a big saw they need someone to unload it. For safety, the person or people that operate that saw need to be trained. Now let's dive deeper. The cost of the saw has labor built-in. and these are similar (if not the same) costs as the lumber. And labor is a factor all the way back into the supply chain to the miner that dug up the iron ore used in the saw blade.

Now that we covered labor and inherited labor, let's look and land. At first glance when thinking of land we think of the property that the business occupies. If the business owns the land then the purchase price of the property is the land. We already discussed how the labor is associated with any buildings on that land. So the purchase price is not just land. It is labor, taxes, and profit too. Even if the business rests, the property land is still a factor. Now what about that lumber? Obviously, those trees needed land to grow, but what about all the other steps in the supply chain? The company that the business purchased the lumber from needed land for their warehouses and facilities; and this goes for each of the businesses from the sprouted tree to the end product. And what about the machinery used by all of these companies, the manufacturing, sale, and resale of that saw we mentioned needed land? This started with that iron ore mine all the way to the saw blade used to cut the lumber. And each of these companies has tools and equipment that need land (and all 4 factors). It is a supply web rather than a supply chain.

‘Tis impossible to be sure of anything but death and taxes’ - Christopher Bullock 1716. For our discussion taxes are any government fee. This can include property, sales, or labor taxes, but it can include regulatory and licensing fees. So, that land we mentioned in the paragraph above most likely has property taxes imposed on it. And this goes to any land that is used in the supply chain (or supply web). And that labor probably has payroll and income taxes associated with them. Unless they are using off-the-books labor, but we will assume they are doing everything legally. Now what about any business licenses? Or the fees paid to the Department of Motor Vehicles for the trucks they use? And what about the profit that we have not discussed yet? So the other three elements have something in common; taxes! Now let's dig into those taxes. So every string on the supply web has taxes just like they have labor and land, but do taxes have labor and land? They do; governments are run by people who have salaries. And governments also have land for their facilities. And while someone holds the deed to the land that the businesses in the supply web are on, does the municipality, state, and/or country own the land within their borders? Even if they don’t own it they exert a level of control over that land.

And then there is profit. We won’t go into gross profit vs net profit. But we will touch on profit before and after taxes. Just like land and labor of taxes, so does profit. If you purchase this hypothetical product we are discussing the company that sold it to you is expecting a profit. And the companies that hired the lumberjack and miner expect a profit. And so does every middle man (or middle woman) in between. And each of these companies serves a purpose (hopefully) in the supply web. It would not be practical for the end company to chop down, mill, and transport their own trees. Or to mine, refine, and fabricate their own saw blades. Companies try to reduce or eliminate costs when possible. But they can’t do everything (unless they are a multi-billion dollar conglomerate ).

Do you agree with me on these four factors? Are there any other factors that I omitted? Which factor do you think is the most responsible for prices to continue to increase?

Cost Accounting

2023-09-26T23:19:00.002-04:00

# Understanding Cost Accounting: Unveiling the Financial Backbone of Businesses

In the complex world of finance, where every penny counts, cost accounting stands as a pivotal process. It is the unsung hero behind the curtains of many successful businesses, aiding in informed decision-making and ensuring optimal resource allocation. In this comprehensive guide, we'll delve deep into the world of cost accounting, exploring its essence, methods, and why it matters.

## **Chapter 1: The Foundation of Cost Accounting**

Cost accounting is a specialized branch of accounting that focuses on tracking, recording, and analyzing costs associated with business operations. Its primary objective is to provide detailed insights into the cost structure of a company, allowing for efficient cost management and strategic planning.

### **1.1 Cost Types**

In cost accounting, costs are classified into several categories:

#### **1.1.1 Direct Costs**

Direct costs are expenses that can be directly traced to a specific product, project, or activity. For example, the cost of raw materials used in manufacturing a product is a direct cost.

#### **1.1.2 Indirect Costs**

Indirect costs, also known as overhead costs, are expenses that cannot be traced directly to a particular product but are incurred to support overall business operations. Examples include rent, utilities, and administrative salaries.

#### **1.1.3 Variable Costs**

Variable costs fluctuate with changes in production or activity levels. These costs increase as production or activity increases and decrease as they decrease. Examples include the cost of materials used in production and hourly wages for temporary workers.

#### **1.1.4 Fixed Costs**

Fixed costs remain constant regardless of changes in production or activity levels. These costs must be paid even if the business is not producing anything. Examples include rent for office space and the salaries of permanent employees.

### **1.2 Cost Accounting Methods**

To achieve its objectives, cost accounting employs various methods, including:

#### **1.2.1 Job Order Costing**

Job order costing is used when products or services are produced in response to specific customer orders or contracts. Costs are tracked for each job or order separately. This method is common in industries like custom manufacturing and construction.

#### **1.2.2 Process Costing**

Process costing is used when products are produced in a continuous, mass production environment. Costs are averaged over all units produced during a specific time period. This method is common in industries like food processing and chemical manufacturing.

#### **1.2.3 Activity-Based Costing (ABC)**

ABC assigns costs to activities, and then these costs are traced to products, services, or customers based on their usage of these activities. ABC provides a more accurate way of allocating indirect costs and is beneficial in complex business environments.

## **Chapter 2: The Significance of Cost Accounting**

### **2.1 Informed Decision-Making**

Cost accounting equips businesses with the data needed to make informed decisions. Managers can analyze the cost structure of different products or services, helping them determine which offerings are profitable and which require adjustments or discontinuation.

### **2.2 Pricing Strategies**

Cost accounting plays a crucial role in pricing strategies. By understanding the costs associated with producing goods or delivering services, businesses can set competitive prices while ensuring profitability.

### **2.3 Budgeting and Planning**

Budgeting relies heavily on cost accounting data. It enables companies to allocate resources effectively, set achievable financial goals, and monitor performance against these objectives.

### **2.4 Performance Evaluation**

Cost accounting helps in evaluating the performance of various departments, products, or projects within an organization. It aids in identifying areas of improvement and optimizing resource utilization.

## **Chapter 3: Cost Accounting in Action**

### **3.1 Manufacturing Industry**

In the manufacturing sector, cost accounting is paramount. It helps in:

- Determining the cost of producing each unit of a product.
- Analyzing variances between actual and budgeted costs.
- Evaluating the efficiency of production processes.

### **3.2 Service Industry**

Even in service-oriented businesses, cost accounting is essential. It assists in:

- Allocating indirect costs, such as administrative expenses, across different services.
- Setting service prices based on the cost of delivering them.
- Identifying areas where cost reductions can be made without compromising service quality.

## **Chapter 4: Modern Trends in Cost Accounting**

Cost accounting has evolved significantly over the years, and modern trends continue to shape its landscape. Some of these trends include:

### **4.1 Technology Integration**

The advent of accounting software and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems has streamlined cost accounting processes. Automation reduces errors, enhances data accuracy, and provides real-time insights.

### **4.2 Sustainability Accounting**

As sustainability becomes a central concern for businesses, cost accounting now includes the measurement and analysis of environmental and social costs. This helps organizations make sustainable decisions and report on their environmental impact.

### **4.3 Predictive Analytics**

With the power of data analytics, cost accountants can now forecast future costs more accurately. Predictive analytics helps in proactive cost management and risk mitigation.

## **Chapter 5: Challenges in Cost Accounting**

Despite its many benefits, cost accounting is not without challenges:

### **5.1 Overhead Allocation**

Allocating indirect costs can be complex and may lead to misinterpretations if not done accurately.

### **5.2 Rapid Technological Changes**

The rapid pace of technological advancements requires constant updates and adjustments in cost accounting methods.

### **5.3 Data Security**

As cost accounting relies heavily on data, maintaining data security and privacy is of utmost importance.

## **Chapter 6: Conclusion**

In conclusion, cost accounting is the backbone of financial decision-making for businesses across various industries. It empowers organizations to understand their cost structures, make strategic choices, and thrive in competitive markets. As technology continues to evolve, cost accounting will adapt, providing even greater insights and value to businesses worldwide. Embracing cost accounting is not merely an option; it is a necessity for sustainable growth and success in today's business landscape.

So, whether you're a business owner, manager, or aspiring accountant, understanding cost accounting is key to unlocking the financial potential of any organization.

The Evolution of Learning: From College Classrooms to AI Education

2023-07-31T19:50:00.002-04:00

I was browsing through YouTube and came across a video from a young woman from Russia. In this video, she discussed how she had applied to university and was not accepted. Then she said she was not done learning. This is not a new idea of learning outside of formal education. I did start thinking about how learning has changed over time. Here in 2023 you can go online and find what you want to learn. This could be learning how to fix your car, a hobby, etc. But, you can learn many things that are traditionally taught in a college classroom. During the Covid-19 pandemic college professors and grade school teachers discovered that many of their lesson topics had online academic articles and YouTube videos. Because they were trying to transition their classroom lessons to a remote learning environment. Why create their own videos or printed material when the material already existed online? There is nothing wrong with that, the student still received the information (in many cases) and the educator did not need to recreate the wheel. A side effect of this is that in many cases this information is sharable. I actually learned several subjects from class material of classes my friends had shared with me. In some instances, I was able to use these resources for my own classes, and I can assume my friends could have used what I shared for their classes. And no these were not the same classes, None of us were enrolled in the same college. But a history class on labor in the United States and a psychology class on industrial psychology have overlapping material. Recently I was discussing organic chemistry with someone, and they asked when I took organic chemistry. I have not taken that subject (or any college-level chemistry class), but a friend of mine did and they shared the class material with me. I continue to learn even when not in school. and there are whole YouTube channels dedicated to educating. Some have been around for years like CrashCourse and others have emerged from the pandemic. These traditional educators who had to create online material for their classes have realized that they could share this material online, and in some cases even make some money off of it.

A college degree is a key to getting past a barrier of entry. In many professions, once you have your first job in your career path, they don't care where you went to college. Some employers don't care if you have a diploma if you have relevant job experience. now this is not to say jobs that require a degree would overlook it, such as lawyers and accountants. A computer programmer with a decent portfolio and a good job history may be more valuable than a computer science graduate looking for their first job. A college degree shows more than that you learned a subject. it shows that you have learned a broad range of subjects. it also shows you have the discipline needed to get a degree.

If I look back at the history of learning, I wonder how advancements in technology and teaching affected past barriers of entry. Big ones that come to mind are things like the printing press. Books and the written word becomes less scarce. More people have access to the written word and are able to read. As the written word becomes more accessible, formal grammar and spelling increase. this reduces ambiguity in written communication. with so many languages and regional dialects, this still occurs to this day, but it is reduced. another advancement is transportation. As people are able to move through the world, so does knowledge. The movement of knowledge is the backbone of education. The internet is a prime example of this. Many see the internet as the end-all of this movement of knowledge. But, the internet evolves. The way knowledge is spread on the internet changes. Now the new game changer is AI, or is it?

What AI can do is amazing, but what is new is how assessable it is. What we call AI is not set in stone. Is the spelling and grammar checking I am doing right now with Grammarly AI? Was the spell check I used with Word Perfect 25 years ago AI? What has changed is the data set that these new products have. Another new thing is the level of automation. If I wanted I could take this blog when I am done writing it and feed it into Bard or ChatGPT and have it rewritten to be more SEO-friendly. I do this with my YouTube titles and descriptions. I have written whole blogs with these websites while I tested them. The next question is can AI produce consumable knowledge? As I have tested these two sites I have discovered that when it does not have the information it could do two different things. it could tell you that it is beyond its capabilities. or it could make stuff up. If this is not a disturbing human trait that AI has learned, I don't know what is. Sometimes the incorrect information is clearly incorrect and it is clear that the AI misunderstood the request. the biggest thing it makes up is references. it can make formal citations look legit. But, if you don't check the primary source you may be in for a rude awaking. sometimes it is dead links, other times it points to something that is not relevant. Will we get to the point where AI is teaching us (reliably)? and will we lose the ability to teach? I am not even discussing the loss of employment of educators. AI can assist in distributing knowledge, but I don't feel it can generate new knowledge. Will AI search for a new insect and discover how it interacts with its environment? or explore the universe? I do not doubt that AI can be programmed to use a telescope and find new celestial bodies, but will it be able to analyze what it means?

So how do you learn?

How do you see learning evolving?

Google Bard - and Hamlet

2023-04-05T22:26:00.000-04:00

In a previous post I asked ChatGPT to rewrite Hamlet in the style of John Green.
So, now that i have access to Google's Bard, I asked it the same thing.
Here is the response:

Sure. Here is a rewrite of Hamlet in the style of John Green:

So here's the deal: Claudius killed my dad, and my mom married him, and I'm pretty sure he's going to kill me too. So I'm going to pretend to be crazy, and I'm going to see if I can catch him in the act. And then, I'm going to kill him.

But it's not going to be easy. Claudius is a smart dude, and he's not going to let me get away with it. Plus, my mom is in on it, and she's not going to let me hurt her husband.

But I'm not going to give up. I'm going to avenge my dad's death, and I'm going to do it right.

Here's the thing: I'm not really sure what I'm doing. I'm just a kid, and I'm way over my head. But I have to do something. I can't just sit back and let Claudius get away with this.

So I'm going to keep fighting. I'm going to keep trying to outsmart Claudius. And I'm going to keep trying to save my mom.

And maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to do it.

But even if I don't, I'm not going to go down without a fight. I'm going to make Claudius pay for what he did.

And that's the promise I make to my dad.

take a look at both responses and let me know what you think.

ChatGPT vs GPT-3: A Comprehensive Comparison of AI Language Models for Natural Language Processing"

2023-03-29T19:48:00.000-04:00

Welcome to this essay comparing ChatGPT and GPT-3! This essay was created with the help of ChatGPT, a powerful language model developed by OpenAI. In this essay, we'll explore the similarities and differences between ChatGPT and GPT-3, two of the most advanced natural language processing models available today. Whether you're a researcher, developer, or simply interested in the field of artificial intelligence, this essay will provide you with a detailed analysis of these two models and help you understand their strengths and weaknesses. So, let's dive in!

Introduction: In recent years, Natural Language Processing (NLP) has gained significant attention due to its ability to understand human language and generate coherent responses. Two major language models, ChatGPT and GPT-3, have made significant strides in this field. ChatGPT is an NLP model designed for conversational purposes, while GPT-3 is a more versatile model that can perform various NLP tasks. This essay will compare and contrast the two models in terms of their architecture, capabilities, and limitations.

Architecture: ChatGPT and GPT-3 share similar architectures, which are based on the Transformer model. The Transformer model is an NLP architecture that uses self-attention mechanisms to process input sequences. Both models have a pre-trained set of parameters that allow them to generate responses based on the input provided.

However, ChatGPT has a smaller architecture compared to GPT-3. ChatGPT has 1.5 billion parameters, while GPT-3 has 175 billion parameters, making it one of the largest NLP models in existence. This difference in architecture translates into different capabilities and limitations for the two models.

Capabilities: ChatGPT was primarily designed for conversational purposes, and it excels in generating natural language responses to specific prompts. It is particularly useful for chatbots, customer service applications, and other conversational interfaces. ChatGPT can generate responses that are coherent and relevant to the input prompt, making it an ideal model for these applications.

GPT-3, on the other hand, is a more versatile model that can perform various NLP tasks, including language translation, question-answering, and text summarization, among others. GPT-3's large architecture allows it to generate more complex and sophisticated responses compared to ChatGPT. GPT-3 can also generate text in multiple languages and styles, making it a more versatile model compared to ChatGPT.

Limitations: Despite their capabilities, both ChatGPT and GPT-3 have their limitations. ChatGPT's smaller architecture limits its ability to generate more complex and sophisticated responses compared to GPT-3. ChatGPT also has a limited understanding of context and may generate irrelevant responses to certain prompts. Additionally, ChatGPT may generate biased responses due to its training data, which may affect its effectiveness in certain applications.

GPT-3, on the other hand, has limitations related to its size and resource requirements. Due to its large architecture, GPT-3 requires significant computational resources, making it expensive to train and deploy. GPT-3 also has limitations related to its lack of explainability, which may limit its use in applications where transparency is critical.

Conclusion: In conclusion, ChatGPT and GPT-3 are both significant achievements in the field of NLP, with their unique capabilities and limitations. ChatGPT is an excellent model for conversational applications, while GPT-3 is a versatile model that can perform various NLP tasks. However, the choice between the two models will depend on the specific application and the resources available. Future developments in NLP are likely to improve the capabilities of both models, making them even more useful in various applications.

References:

AI21 Labs. (2021). GPT-3: Language Models are Few-Shot Learners. https://ai21.com/blog/ginger/gpt-3-language-models-are-few-shot-learners/

Alammar, J. (2018). The Illustrated GPT-2 (Visualizing Transformer Language Models). The AI Blog. https://jalammar.github.io/illustrated-gpt2/

Alammar, J. (2020). A Visual Guide to Using BERT for the First Time. The AI Blog. https://jalammar.github.io/a-visual-guide-to-using-bert-for-the-first-time/

Davies, L. (2021). DALL·E 2: Creating Images from Text. OpenAI Blog. https://openai.com/blog/dall-e-2/

GPT-3 API. (n.d.). OpenAI. https://beta.openai.com/docs/api-reference/gpt-3

Hao, K. (2018). What is AI? We drew you a flowchart to work it out. MIT Technology Review. https://www.technologyreview.com/s/612404/what-is-ai-we-drew-you-a-flowchart-to-work-it-out/

Radford, A., Wu, J., Child, R., Luan, D., Amodei, D., & Sutskever, I. (2019). Language models are unsupervised multitask learners. OpenAI Blog. https://d4mucfpksywv.cloudfront.net/better-language-models/language_models_are_unsupervised_multitask_learners.pdf

Sukhbaatar, S., Szlam, A., & Fergus, R. (2019). Training Language GANs from Scratch. arXiv preprint arXiv:1904.08328. https://arxiv.org/abs/1904.08328

Vaswani, A., Shazeer, N., Parmar, N., Uszkoreit, J., Jones, L., Gomez, A. N., Kaiser, Ł., & Polosukhin, I. (2017). Attention is all you need. In Advances in neural information processing systems (pp. 5998-6008). http://papers.nips.cc/paper/7181-attention-is-all-you-need.pdf

nano or pico what ChatGPT thinks Shakespeare would say on the mater

2023-02-22T15:48:00.002-05:00

again played with ChatGPT

this time i asked:

describe the differences in detail between the text editors pico and nano

response :

Pico and Nano are both text editors used in Unix-based systems, but Nano is considered to be a more advanced and updated version of Pico. Here are some of the key differences between the two:

Licensing: Pico is a proprietary software that is included with the Pine email client, while Nano is an open-source software released under the GNU General Public License.
User interface: Nano has a more user-friendly interface compared to Pico, with more user-friendly and customizable keybindings. Nano also supports mouse control, syntax highlighting, and undo/redo.
Command line options: Nano has more command-line options than Pico, allowing for more control over the editor's behavior. For example, Nano can be used to open files in read-only mode or to wrap long lines.
Availability: While Pico is no longer being actively developed and is not included in some Linux distributions, Nano is widely available and is included in most Unix-based systems.
Compatibility: Both editors are compatible with the same types of files and can be used for basic text editing tasks. However, Nano has additional features that make it more suitable for advanced users and programmers.

In summary, Nano is a more advanced and customizable version of Pico, with a more user-friendly interface, more command-line options, and better compatibility with modern systems.

i than asked:

rewrite the above answer in the style of William shakespeare

response:

Hark! Attend, good sir, and I shall discourse
On the differences betwixt Pico and Nano henceforth.
Two editors, both alike in dignity,
In fair computing, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.

Pico, the elder of the two, first did arrive
With Pine mail client in nineteen-ninety-two;
Its simple interface, though many do deride,
Can yet suffice for most text tasks to do.

Nano, a younger but more spritely blade,
Came later in the year two thousand;
Its interface, more modern and well-made,
Has won it many users, firm and unbounded.

Yet differences, though subtle, do exist:
Pico's commands, more arcane and terse,
While Nano's are more user-friendly, I wist,
And its interface is easier to traverse.

In summary, though both editors have their might,
The choice betwixt them doth depend on your delight.

NOTE:

the funny think is that the rest of the responses in that AI conversation were in the style of shakespeare

asked an AI to rewite Hamlet

2023-02-16T15:53:00.002-05:00

I asked an AI (ChatGPT) the following question:

rewrite hamlet in the style of john green

the answer:

Okay, so like, this is the story of Hamlet. It's a play, actually, written by this guy named Shakespeare. You might have heard of him.

So, Hamlet is this prince of Denmark, and he's not doing so great. See, his dad died, and his mom remarried this guy named Claudius, who's now the king. And Hamlet is feeling pretty depressed about it all.

But then, one night, Hamlet sees his dad's ghost! And the ghost tells him that Claudius actually killed him, and that Hamlet needs to get revenge.

So Hamlet decides to pretend to be crazy to try and figure out what to do. He does all sorts of weird things, like giving this big speech about how he's holding a mirror up to nature, and he even starts acting really mean to this girl named Ophelia, who he used to like.

In the end, Hamlet puts on this play that reenacts his dad's murder, and Claudius totally freaks out. So Hamlet knows for sure that the ghost was right, and he finally gets his revenge by killing Claudius.

But, like, everyone else dies too. Ophelia drowns, and Hamlet's friend Laertes gets in a sword fight with Hamlet and ends up dying. And, of course, Hamlet himself gets stabbed with a poisoned sword and dies too.

So, yeah. It's a pretty tragic story. But it's also, like, really deep and emotional and stuff. Shakespeare was pretty good at that kind of thing.

and then i asked:

write the correct license for the above answer

the response:

As an AI language model, I am incapable of claiming copyright or authorship over my responses, as they are generated based on my programming and the input provided by users. Therefore, there is no license needed for the above answer. However, the content of the answer is based on Shakespeare's play "Hamlet," which is in the public domain and free to use by anyone.

https://chat.openai.com/chat

Early Organized Labor

2022-09-25T12:31:00.005-04:00

At the turn of the century (19th to 20th) the labor question was a quest to suppress workers rights. Those that wanted labor to run smoothly and do what they are told wanted to keep labor from impeding production. The idea of having to negotiate with workers was a foreign concept to them. Organized labor was not codified in Federal law until 1932 with the “Norris-La Guardia Act”(The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, 2016) and in 1935 with the “National Labor Relations Act'' (National Labor Relations Act, n.d.). Prior to these court cases could not agree if unions were legal or illegal conspiracies (Primm, 1910). With shaky legal grounds, unions were more of a temporary entity. They generally arose from the specific need at a specific time and at the conclusion many would go dormant or dissolve all together. So times it was when labor and unions were successful in achieving desired change. When this happened there was little need for the resources to continue to be used. But more often it was when a labor dispute ended unfavorably for labor. In these cases the union was seen as ineffective at best or detrimental at worst.

The rise of mechanization and automation had an effect on labor. In some cases the automation made the need for skilled (higher paid) lessen. Other times the increase in production caused the skilled labor to work harder, and not at the previous leisurely pace. It is not to say that skilled labor had not previously worked hard, but compared to the new level they needed to work, the previous pace was leisurely. This could be that an intermediate task the worker needed to do on a product without automation may have taken several more minutes to complete, and after actomation they need to keep up with automation.

Another obstacle to unions was the lack of coordination. At times different unions had different competing goals. Or different businesses would interact differently with organized labor. This disorganization among organized labor gave business a tool to use against the unions. As still happens businesses use propaganda to discourage organized labor. A failed strike of one company in one industry could reverberate through the workforce better than a successful strike. Part of this was the inevitable passing of blame. Every failure is exposed, even if that failure was not a root cause of the overall failure; every failure tends to need a scapegoat. With these failures becoming somewhat public businesses and other elements that wanted to discourage organized labor could promote the failures. In many ways this was successful because the businesses and their allies generally had greater resources and at times were more organized.

Strikes that occurred during the time of early organized labor happened with no (almost no) government help and many resulted with direct conflict with the government. The Homestead strike of 1892 was one such strike (Labor Wars in the US, n.d.). The National Guard of Pennsylvania became involved when the conflict between the stickers and the Pinkerton’s that were hired to suppress the strikers became violent. This is a running theme in early American strikes. Without the legal protections or a legal framework to address their grievances violence became the answer. As with most of history (or current events for that matter) one needs to look at several different perspectives to try to get to the details. In sudden violent clashes different eye witnesses will have different perspectives. They will both have a physical perspective based on where they were during the event, and they may have a biased perspective based on what side of the conflict they relate to. And it is not to say that some are lying. They very well believe that the record of their account is accurate.

Even with the current protections that organized labor has today many companies can still excerpt much strength. Looking at news reports today you see big companies resisting union formation within their companies. They use legal consulting firms to straddle the line of illegal intimidation. Even if they are fined for illegal acts it is a slap on the wrist to larger companies (Union busting: Last week tonight with John Oliver (HBO),2021). And even workers voting in a union does not mean that the company has to be in a hurry to agree on an initial contract. It is rare that contract negotiations escalate to the level of binding arbitration. Many that do escalate because previous contracts had the requirements stated in it.

References:

Infiltrated Labor Unions. (2015, May 26). Justice.Gov. https://www.justice.gov/criminal-ocgs/infiltrated-labor-unions

Job Automation: What the 1920s can tell us about the 2020s. (2018, June 29). K2university.Com. https://k2university.com/job-automation-what-the-1920s-can-tell-us-about-the-2020s/

Murolo, P., & Chitty, A. B. (2018). From the folks who brought you the weekend: A short, illustrated history of labor in the United States. New Press.

https://ehistory.osu.edu/exhibitions/1912/labor_problem/default

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1886/07/the-labor-question/522606/

https://muse.jhu.edu/article/50929/summary

https://www.stetson.edu/law/lawreview/media/Liebman-Regilding-the-Gilded-Age.pdf

https://billmoyers.com/story/america-seeks-answer-labor-question/

https://www.britannica.com/event/Commonwealth-v-Hunt

https://web.archive.org/web/20150123211142/http://www.lovkoandking.com/commonwealth-v-hunt.html

Labor wars in the U.s. (n.d.). Pbs.Org. Retrieved December 14, 2021, from https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/theminewars-labor-wars-us/

National Labor Relations Act. (n.d.). Nlrb.Gov. Retrieved December 14, 2021, from https://www.nlrb.gov/guidance/key-reference-materials/national-labor-relations-act

Primm, C. J. (1910). Labor Unions and the Anti-Trust Law: A Review of Decisions. The University of Chicago Press Journals, 18(2), 129–138. https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/1829777.pdf

The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. (2016). Norris–La Guardia Act. In Encyclopedia Britannica.

Union busting: Last week tonight with John Oliver (HBO). (2021, November 14). Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gk8dUXRpoy8

Post-Covid World

2022-05-03T10:15:00.002-04:00

In the Covid / Post-Covid world, there are many changes. Some of these changes are temporary (hopefully). Others may become permanent. In the workforce / business world some of these changes may be for the better; at least in the long run. I say in the long run because in the short term there are growing pains. Some of these changes may be good for businesses but not for workers. Others will be good for workers and not for businesses. Yet some will benefit both workers and businesses. Only time will tell.

The idea / concept of remote work / telework / work from home is not new. The scale of workers working remotely is new. As of 2022 the amount of workers that work from home has contracted from the peak in 2020. Information Technology plays a large part in how effective telework is. Almost every industry can utilize remote work, but many need to be creative. A plumber can’t work from home, but their support staff can work remotely. All a receptionist needs is a computer and a phone to get service requests from customers and potential customers.

This notional plumber could just say: “use your own computer and we will forward calls to your cell”. This may work as a temporary fix until a functional system can be put in place. The upfront expenses to get a remote worker setup don’t need to be very high. Each company needs to balance what their employees need to complete their work against the cost to get them the tools they need. Proper planning is key.

Let's take two office based businesses in the same field and see how their choices in tools made a difference. Let's start in the spring of 2019. Both companies decide to upgrade their computers and network. Company A decides to get all their employees new Windows 10 desktop computers. They decided that laptops are too expensive, harder to maintain, and need docking systems to work well in an office environment. They decide to replace their aging standalone server with a similar but newer model. They decided that the server will have limited access to the internet; mainly for system updates. They feel that adding VPN access to the server and routing ports to the server leaves it open to security threats. And they decide to just add a few more extensions to the company's hardwired PBX phone system.

Now Company B took a different approach. They noticed that they tended to have several call-outs any time the weather acted up. So, they decided to give their workforce more flexibility and mobility. In the spring of 2019, they also upgraded their systems. They decided to replace the existing desktop computers with laptops and docking stations. To defer costs they decided to do this in stages over the next 18-24 months. The oldest computers were switched out first. They also decided that their server should have VPN access and the ability to remote print. They decided their existing server just needed a memory upgrade and one of the hard drives needed to be replaced, but their server could not easily be upgraded to allow for VPN access. It was decided that a dedicated VPN server would be added to the network. A dedicated device also allowed for greater security. In December of 2019, a large ice storm came through. Even Though they could work remotely, they had a hard time forwarding calls. Right after the new year of 2020, they decided to switch to a VOIP phone system. They carefully chose a system that was not too pricey and had the features they needed. Initially, the expense was mainly the cost of all new VOIP phones. Luckily they were able to find some price-sensitive phones for under $60 each for most employees. The receptionist and some of the owners need more expensive phones. On average the new phones were cheaper than their old PBX phones. And they did not need to maintain their PBX hardware. Because of their careful consideration, their new monthly bill was slightly less than their old phone bill. By late February 2020 they had all the phones replaced, the server was upgraded, the VPN was set up, and 60% of the desktop computers had been replaced with laptops. Then came March.

They say March comes in like a lion and leaves like a lamb. March of 2020 came in like a wrecking ball, and as of 2022 still has not left. In the flurry of march madness, both these companies faced obstacles they never imagined. As the world stood on its head, companies around the world had to figure out a way, or close shop. No company was positioned to ride out the storm right out of the gate. Some companies did find a way to thrive while others faltered. Many of the technology companies found they had more customers almost overnight. App delivery companies found that more and more people choose to have their food (and other essentials) delivered and not leave the house. And these app companies found drivers as the gig economy received an influx of new workers as other parts of the economy collapsed. Restaurants that could no longer serve customers on-premises offered takeout and eventually delivery either with their own staff or with one of these apps. These delivery apps did not offer much help to company A and company B.

Productivity was a main concern with both company A and company B. Company A had a hard time moving forward. They decided to have their employees use their own computers to remote desktop into their work computers. This lead to various problems. The biggest one is security. The company and its IT team had little control over the employees’ personal computers. They also did not have time to make sure all the personal computers had all the security credentials they needed. And each computer was different. That was the second problem. There was no standard. Some employees had personal computers that were similar to the companies. But most had older computers or none at all. It is difficult to do work from a tablet. Some employees chose to purchase computers with their own money. While other employees refused (or were unable to) pay out of pocket for something the company needed. With the decline in business, the company chose to furlough these employees. Not every employee needed to have access to their office phone. But those that did had a major problem. There was almost no way to transfer an individual extension to a cell phone with their existing phone system. They ended up purchasing prepaid cell phones for the receptionists to receive calls and forward them to the other employees’ personal cell phones. This was a disaster; they started losing the few customers they had left.

Company B lost business too, but their productivity was higher. They were able to get most of their employee’s setup from home with some headaches. They scrambled to get laptops to replace the remaining desktops. Unfortunately, supply was down and demand went up because pretty much the whole world was in the same boat. There was not so much price gouging as there was a lack of deals for computer equipment. They did not need the full 40% of the remaining computers right away. Due to related issues with the pandemic some employees took a leave from the company. With the help of government assistance they did not need to lay off or furlough employees. Their new VOIP phone system allowed employees to take calls through an app or website on their computer using a headset or they could forward calls to their cells. They next looked for productivity and workflow tools. Over the next few months, they went through several. With the exception of the loud family member in the background, most of their clients did not even notice a difference. Internally they were issues, but nothing catastrophic. They did need to hire some part-time workers to help with the transition. Mainly digitizing paper documents that were needed. The building management set up strict rules for entering the building. So they decided to have 5 key people go in when needed. It was almost always 1 person in the office at a time. And if the office was visited 3 times a week, that was standard. Sometimes they did not need to go into the office. They just went to the bay door by the mailroom. Called and picked up the mail contactless. And once a week someone would pick up documents from the office and deliver them contactless to one of the new part-time employees who would scan them and upload them to the document management system.

Company A had the same building management company in a different building with the same restrictions. Unfortunately, they had an added issue. Since their employees used remote desktop, if the computer (in the office) locked up, someone would need to go in person to reboot it. This happened about twice a week. The company was too busy dealing with other IT issues that they did not realize (or could not bother with) they did not have a document management system. Each employee kept their files on their own network drive. They did have a great deal of paper documents. Initially what they would do is each day an employee would go into the office, retrieve any documents that were needed, reboot any computers, and deliver the documents to the employee. They would also pick up any documents that the employee was done with to be returned to the office the next day. This was made worse by the fact that several employees lived over an hour away. Sometimes they would meet at a rest stop halfway. This was not productive.

Once restrictions were lifted company A immediately started having employees come back to the office. With required distancing still in place, this meant they needed to redesign the office to meet health regulations and guidelines. Company B had to redesign their workspace too but they decided to only have a reduced staff report back to work. Even though it was not perfect, Company B had a decent work from home workflow. Some employees preferred to be back in the office so for the most part, they were the ones that came back.

Companies around the world need to decide how they are going to handle their workforce. Some companies have discovered that they can have workers operate remotely with a decent amount of productivity. A key part is the tools they decide to invest in. being able to know if an employee is being paid to surf the internet may be of concern. But office employees have found ways to mask their lack of productivity for decades. Additionally, having too many restrictions and policies may restrict the way the employees work. Many companies did not have a reliable way to gauge employee productivity prior to the pandemic, while others had convoluted metrics that employees learn to manipulate.

Online Communities

2022-04-22T15:56:00.002-04:00

Online Communities

Online communities have existed for decades. They have evolved over time and are still evolving. Some of these online communities exist for social interaction, others for business. Colleges have online e-learning communities. And more than ever before K-12 have online e-learning communities. Additionally, there are online business communities. Also, there are communities for the military and veterans & their families. What is considered an online community may vary based on interpretation. Some online communities may be on one specific platform. Others may occupy multiple platforms. Yet others can transcend from online to the physical world and vice versa. The key to online communities is that there is an interaction (beyond the trivial) and that it utilizes a computer network.

While online communities are social due to their interactivity, some are personal while others are more professional. The Professional platform LinkedIn is a service that has online communities, each with its own goals. The platform as a whole could be considered an online community, with online communities with it. Facebook on the other hand is designed to be a personal online community, with other personal and professional online communities within it.

The beginning of online communities began shortly after the development of computers. A predecessor to the modern internet was ARPANET developed in 1971. Email and listservers were developed shortly after (Abras, n.d.). These early interactions were the beginning of online communities. In the late 1970s, Bulletin Board Systems (BBSs) were developed (BBS History, n.d.). While ARPANET was a somewhat exclusive system, BSSs were available to anyone with a computer, a modem, and a phone line. Phone lines were fairly common by the late 1970s, but computers and modems were not. So, the online communities were fairly personal. In the 1980s with personal computers becoming more popular, so did BBSs. in the late 1980s ARPANET migrated to NSFNET (“NSF and the birth of the internet - special report,” 2009). This was the beginning of the internet. By the early 1990s, the internet as we know it today took shape. Online services like America Online (AOL), CompuServe, and Prodigy began offering internet services to their subscribers. One of these subscribers was author John Green. In his book “The Anthropocene Reviewed” he wrote about being a moderator for an online community on CompuServe (Green, 2021).

At the turn of the millennium, the internet became mainstream. With services like AOL offering full internet access and new cable modems (Fellows & Jones, 2001) offering access to the internet 24/7, there were few barriers for people in the United States to get on the internet. It was not just the US but many countries were connected to the internet. Many early popular websites were search engines or e-commerce sites. But soon services like LiveJournal (How did LiveJournal get started? Who runs it now?, n.d.) and MySpace (Cashmore, 2006) emerged and the beginning of social media had begun. Then came micro-blogging services like Twitter (Carlson, 2011).

There is no one format for online communities. While certain platforms may foster a certain type of online community, no one platform is truly dominant. Some may have more users or more communities, but overall today there is a fairly broad group of platforms. An online community could develop from a group on Facebook. These groups revolve around a certain interest. The scope and topic of the group is up to the group's creator. Some of these creators keep a strict standard of what could be discussed and who could join. They could use administrators and moderators to assist them. Other groups have a laissez-faire attitude. But a Facebook group does not necessarily make an online community. Some online communities span several different platforms and may have their own website(s). One such online community calls itself Nerdfighteria. This community was started on YouTube by author John Green and his brother Hank (William) Green. What started as a project of them making daily YouTube videos has spread far beyond YouTube. An online community could be as simple as six thousand members in a local chicken keeping group (Facebook, n.d.). Some of these online communities are rooted in the physical world. They could be an extension of an existing physical community, or the online community could spill over to the physical world.

Another online community group is the health care online communities. Many of these are rooted in healthcare providers' networks. These health care providers can offer forums for patients to interact. Because of patient privacy laws, these medical provider communities could be highly restrictive and moderated. There are online healthcare communities that have been set up by a group of people independent of a specific medical provider.

For the financial online communities there is cryptocurrency which is innovation in regards to currency. The cryptocurrency bitcoin started as a niche community and was barely known outside of it. In recent years cryptocurrency is integrating into traditional financial institutions and the trading market. Many people believe that cryptocurrency is the future of currency and are starting to invest in this area. With cryptocurrency, the community members process the transactions. Many times these are the crypto miners. Cryptocurrency online communities are more than just those that process the transactions (Kim et al., 2017). There are cryptocurrency communities created for users to interact, learn and follow the trading market of cryptocurrencies and its coins. This community is composed of big investors known as big whales and small investors and includes people from all over the world who transfer and exchange their currencies for cryptocurrency. Proponents of cryptocurrency argue that it frees the financial market from the interference of nations. While detractors of cryptocurrency argue that without the regulation and monitoring of nations cryptocurrency will continue to be too volatile to be used as a standard of exchange and that it will be relegated to criminal enterprises.

Online communities have been created as a virtual or second life for people. It mimics many aspects of one’s real life. The main purpose of an online community is to communicate with others by decreasing distance between people all across the globe, where everyone could communicate with each other no matter how far or what the time zone is. People started using online communities so much that it expanded to provide a community shopping experience, credit card transactions, money transfers, and even item exchanges within an online community. It is now not only for communication but for business.

Inside some online communities, there are creators and influencers. A creator is someone who makes content on the internet, generally for public consumption. The term creator is most often used on video platforms like Youtube but can exist on other platforms. Online communities can grow around a creator or a group of creators. Again, like other online communities, these can span across multiple platforms. A more exclusive platform that creators sometimes use is Patreon (Patreon, n.d.). This is a fundraising platform that allows creators (or anyone) to raise money to support their content. Platforms like Patreon have allowed creators to dedicate more time to their content and for some, it is allowed them to do it full time.

The term influencer (Guest Blogger, 2021) is harder to define than creators. Once a user on a social media platform has a large number of subscribers, followers, or friends they may describe themselves as an influencer. The idea is that the user can influence their audience. Many times they use this “influence” to market products. Others may use this new found “power” to try to demand products to review. An influencer could be a creator, but that is not a necessity.

No matter the platform(s) or format(s) of an online community there are benefits and detriments to online communities. Online communities by their nature are social, but social media is a part of online communities. The social aspect of online communities many find enjoyable. They enjoy interacting with other people around the world. For some, this could fill a void that they can not find with interactions in the physical world. During the restrictions of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, the draw to online communities increased. People could not have physical interactions so they were left with online interactions. Some individuals have unmet needs that online communities help fulfill (Sharma & De Choudhury, 2018). A positive online community could assist someone with mental health needs and concerns. The sense of belonging can be a powerful feeling to many. There are some that find psychological and social enjoyment in participating in online brand communities (Hsieh et al., 2022). One of these brands is Legos (Community, n.d.). While there is an ‘official’ community on the Lego website. There are online Lego communities that are not controlled by Lego (Best online community for Lego Builders?, n.d.).

Online communities are useful for business networking. These online business communities can help find professionals in similar and related fields. Like any online community, they could be broad or geographically narrow. There could be an online community for a building trade in a specific state. This community could be a valuable resource on navigating licensing and permit requirements as well as the stated building code. Some of these online business communities could be based on a trade association or they could be completely independent.

Some online communities come about not so much by choice but by necessity. The rapid increase in the number of e-learning communities that have popped up in the last couple of years, for example (p). Many of these are fairly rigid e-learning platforms, but some have expanded beyond that. Students and parents have formed their own groups within these communities. They may use Zoom, Facebook, Twitter, or email to participate in these online communities. While these online communities do have their disgruntled members and could devolve into anarchy, most benefit the students in their studies and offer a needed outlet and break from learning.

Online communities can be comforting to some people with disabilities (both physical and mental). They may feel uncomfortable interacting or unable to interact in physical communities. These communities could be developed as a support system for them or they could be other types of communities. The key is that they are able to find a positive and safe environment. And this is not always the case.

There are several online veteran communities. These communities can be helpful for disabled veterans trying to navigate the bureaucracy of the Veterans Administration, or just looking for people with similar experiences. There are online communities for veterans and military family members.

Just as a positive online community could have positive effects on a person's social and psychological well being, a negative or toxic online community could have devastating effects on a person's social and psychological well being. These online communities could foster activities like cyberbullying. These communities could be racist, sexist, or both. The interactions within these communities could be aggressive and argumentative. A person with low self esteem could have a hard time in an online community like this. The sense of belonging could prevent them from leaving the online community. The more desperately they want to belong to these toxic online communities the worse their psychological well being will become. The psychological harm they face in online communities could lead them to harming themselves (van Geel et al., 2014). Younger people tend to have a harder time emotionally and psychologically to negative online communities, but people of all ages can have detrimental effects from these online communities. The harm that can be inflicted does not need to be self inflicted. Something else that could happen in an online community is cyberstalking (Alexy et al., 2005). This could be someone tracking a person's online footprint to locate them in the physical world. Once they are found in the physical world they could be beaten, robbed, raped, or murdered.

People need to be aware of their privacy (or lack of privacy) when interacting in an online community. Some communities allow for a person to use an alias, while some insist that you use your real name. Care needs to be taken with what information is shared in an online community. People could use details in pictures, comments made, or frequented locations to find out where someone lives, goes to school, or works. Sometimes it is as easy as putting in the person's name and area where they think they live into a search engine to get this information. Additionally, an employer could be monitoring activity in online communities. They could find out that the day you called in sick, you were really at a concert. Or that you are job hunting. If a person is working multiple jobs the employers may be able to find that out if they add either or both jobs to their LinkedIn profile (Feintzeig, 2021).

In an e-learning environment students are forced to transition from a traditional learning environment. When students are forced from a traditional learning environment into an e-learning environment, students and parents could face great obstacles (Lynch, 2020). Those with learning disabilities can have trouble adapting to the new online e-learning community. While some students can thrive in an e-learning community, many of those that were thrust into them in 2020 had a difficult time with it. Younger students seem to have a more difficult time than teenagers and adults. Additionally, teachers were also thrown into these communities with no planning or warning. They needed to know how to adapt their lesson plans to a virtual environment. Being forced into online communities can have psychological effects. We still don’t know what social and psychological effects there will be on teachers, students, and parents from it. And it may be hard to fully explore that in the haze of the pandemic.

Online communities continue to evolve. Soon, as announced by Facebook, the metaverse is coming to “life” (Meta, 2021) and bringing online communities to a whole other level which is full 3-dimensional interaction. Besides people just clicking to chat which evolved into calls and video calling, now everyone will be able to move and transpose their body movements onto others in real time. A hug for example will be able to be given to someone across the globe through machines used by both people. Will the future of online communities involve wearing a VR headset? Will it be like so many sci-fi shows and involve holograms? Will geographic specific online communities offer services like grocery or fast food pickup, circumventing services like Grubhub and Instacart? The future of online communities will evolve based on several factors. The first factor is what the technology could provide. The next factor will be the sense and needs of the communities themselves. The third factor is if someone could figure out how to make money and turn it into a business model.

Online communities have evolved over the decades, and continue to evolve. As technology grows, so do the possibilities for online communities. While new platforms will inevitably create new online communities, as stated earlier online communities do not need to be bound to a platform. The existing online communities will expand into or move to these new platforms. I do not believe the essence of these communities will change with the new platforms and technology they will just evolve.

The benefits will continue and may even improve. Technologies and platforms may provide better services for those with disabilities for example. While still providing the social benefit of belonging that they do today; the psychological joy that community members experience may increase as new ways of interacting emerge.

The detriments will not disappear. Technology does not change human nature. There will be those that will try to demean and bully others. Criminals will continue to use technology for any gain they can. And, privacy will be just as important as it is today, if not more so. Online communities can be wonderful places to interact with others. But, just like any community one needs to be aware of their surroundings, and know not to trust everyone.

References

Abras, J. P. D. M.-K. (n.d.). History of online communities. Psu.Edu. Retrieved December 23, 2021, from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.91.3155&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Al Hashlamoun, N., & Daouk, L. (2020). Information technology teachers’ perceptions of the benefits and efficacy of using online communities of practice when teaching computer skills classes. Education and Information Technologies, 25(6), 5753–5770.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-020-10242-z

Alexy, E. M., Burgess, A. W., Baker, T., & Smoyak, S. A. (2005). Perceptions of cyberstalking among college students. Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention, 5(3), 279–289.
https://doi.org/10.1093/brief-treatment/mhi020

BBS history. (n.d.). Tripod.Com. Retrieved December 23, 2021, from
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Best online community for Lego Builders? (n.d.). Bricks. Retrieved December 23, 2021, from https://bricks.stackexchange.com/questions/3119/best-online-community-for-lego-builders

Can employers request social media account information? (2019, May 28). Lexology; Raymond Law Group LLC.
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Carlson, N. (2011, April 13). The real history of twitter. Insider.
https://www.businessinsider.com/how-twitter-was-founded-2011-4?op=1

Cartarescu, I. (2010). Utility of online communities - ways one can benefit from one’s online life. In Journal of Comparative Research in Anthropology and Sociology; Bucharest volume (Vol. 1, Issue 2, pp. 79–91). University of Bucharest, Department of Sociology, Doctoral School of Sociology. https://www.proquest.com/docview/1040724156/6F58C0B51F864352PQ/1?accountid=8067

Cashmore, P. (2006, July 11). MySpace, America’s Number One. Mashable.
https://mashable.com/archive/myspace-americas-number-one

Chen, R. (2019, January 16). The history of internet communities - Richard Chen. Medium. https://rchen8.medium.com/the-history-of-internet-communities-f0234db848b1

Community. (n.d.). Lego.Com. Retrieved December 23, 2021, from
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Data Is Beautiful [UCkWbqlDAyJh2n8DN5X6NZyg]. (2019, October 14). Most Popular Websites 1996 - 2019. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Uj1A9AguFs

Facebook. (n.d.). Facebook.Com. Retrieved December 23, 2021, from
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Feintzeig, R. (2021, August 13). These people who work from home have a secret: They have two jobs. Wall Street Journal (Eastern Ed.).
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Fellows, D., & Jones, D. (2001). DOCSIS/sup TM/ cable modem technology. IEEE Communications Magazine, 39(3), 202–209. https://doi.org/10.1109/35.910608

Green, J. (2021). The Anthropocene reviewed (signed edition) the Anthropocene reviewed (signed edition): Essays on a human-centered planet. Dutton.

Guest Blogger. (2021, July 26). A history of social media influencers. Find Your Influence. https://findyourinfluence.com/a-history-of-social-media-influencers/

How did LiveJournal get started? Who runs it now? (n.d.). Livejournal.Com. Retrieved December 23, 2021, from https://www.livejournal.com/support/faq/4.html

Hsieh, S. H., Lee, C. T., & Tseng, T. H. (2022). Psychological empowerment and user satisfaction: Investigating the influences of online brand community participation. Information & Management, 59(1), 103570. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2021.103570

Kim, Y. B., Lee, J., Park, N., Choo, J., Kim, J.-H., & Kim, C. H. (2017). When Bitcoin encounters information in an online forum: Using text mining to analyse user opinions and predict value fluctuation. PloS One, 12(5), e0177630. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0177630

Lake, M. (2009, July 15). Timeline: The evolution of online communities. Computerworld. https://www.computerworld.com/article/2526581/timeline--the-evolution-of-online- communities.html

Lynch, M. (2020). E-learning during a global pandemic. Asian Journal of Distance Education, 15(1), 189–195. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1290016

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Proulx, C., & Kanieski, M. A. (2011). Made of awesome: The online culture of Nerdfighteria. Saintmarys.Edu. https://www.saintmarys.edu/files/Made%20of%20Awesome-- Caroline%20Proulx.pdf

Sharma, E., & De Choudhury, M. (2018). Mental health support and its relationship to linguistic accommodation in online communities. Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.

Suh, C. S., Vasi, I. B., & Chang, P. Y. (2017). How social media matter: Repression and the diffusion of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Social Science Research, 65, 282–293. https://doi.org/10.1016 /j.ssresearch.2017.01.004

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van Geel, M., Vedder, P., & Tanilon, J. (2014). Relationship between peer victimization, cyberbullying, and suicide in children and adolescents: a meta-analysis: A meta-analysis. JAMA Pediatrics, 168(5), 435–442. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2013.4143

Creativity and New Media

2012-03-29T23:46:00.002-04:00

ok take two. the first time i tried this it deleted after four sentences. I guess that is the downside of laptops.

Now where was I?... oh yeah... to be creative with new media. this is hard because i am boring. my youtube videos are boring. I could be cliche and do a video of me explaining this assignment. or i could video myself typing this blog. but i am shy and don't like videoing myself. I don't even like using my real name on social media. or i can add boring images that i have created. to use is different new media applications.
I can't even find any of my animated gif images.and i know i have some flash media somewhere.

Creativity

2012-03-29T23:08:00.000-04:00

New media can instill creativity , and it can also stunt it. How many people do we see doing the same thing that everyone else does! We all can’t be a Mark Zuckerberg, as cliche as that sounds. While, people like Zuckerberg create the canvas, it is the individual user that fills it in. it could be a user posting a Youtube video, an app designer or or someone posting that they just ate a taco. Other ‘canvas’ developer are Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson who created Myspace. this medium became over designed but none the less a way for users to be creative.

There are are sure to me new canvases to be developed. Some will be widely popular, as others will be fairly unknown. and others will find a way to use the existing canvases in new ways like Mashups. As Sasha Frere-Jones explains in “1+1+1=1 The new math of mashups”, these are “ in which, generally, the vocal from one song is laid over the music from another.”

Creativity is creativity, someone who is creative will express themselves regardless of the media used. This was a problem (and still is) with the traditional media of signage. Before computers were used to make signs you needed a sign painter who knew such things as air spacing and kerning. then came computers and anyone who could use a mouse and type (or hunt and peck) could create a sign. while sign painting is a dying art form, a good sign can be created by a creative and well trained graphic designer. Taking images from his/her mind onto the canvas of a computer screen to a storefront.

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

2012-03-22T22:59:00.001-04:00

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

blog about twitter

2012-03-15T23:50:00.004-04:00

a forum is a forum is a forum.....

Message boards go back to the days of dial up Bulletin Board Systems (BBS's).
Most are the same. you post a topic or a subtopic in a topic and people post replies.
it is basically the same for the Blackboard Discussion, a twitter discussion or sites like yuku.com.
Some may have different formats, character length or requirements. Sometimes I wonder if developers just try to reinvent the wheel and call it a new product.
Now an in class discussion is different, you need to be quick on your feet (or seat) you don't have the luxury to wait and think about it and respond at your leisure. If you did that, the class most likely be on a whole new topic, or sub topic.

Social Networking Sites

2012-03-15T16:26:00.003-04:00

One of the origins of social networking sites come from user blog sites. I don’t remember the early ones, I think one was called Xanga or something. Then one of the earlier sites was Myspace. at First it was a personal page where you can link to friends; it had a generic format. Then users started formatting their pages with CSS and HTML and there lies its downfall. You go to most users Myspace pages now and you have layers of iframes, tables, backgrounds with uncontrasting text colors that makes it unreadable. After that, you will most likely hear music, and if you are very lucky only one song at a time. The user may only post a single song or jukebox (but some add muiliples) that auto plays, but then other users will add songs to comments. I have no idea how that seams like a good idea. So not only can you not read the page, but you can’t hear it clearly either.

As Myspace started it decline, Facebook started it rise. Facebook has a ridged format, on pages. Users have little control over how the content is displayed. Facebook will even make changes to the format against a users will. For example their new “timeline” format that many are saying will be mandatory soon. A feature that attracted (and still attracts) users to Facebook is the apps. Myspace has since added apps but I feel this was too little too late. The apps on Facebook can be user generated in there Application Development area. While most know the apps from big companies like Zyanga’s Facebook, Words with Friends, and Cityville, others are made by regular users like a now defunct app Human Pets. Another feature of Facebook is Status Updates.

It is these status updates that i feel twitter got it’s idea from. Tweets are like a cross between a status update and a sms(text) message.They have a character limit of 140 and users can ‘follow’ and ‘retweet’ a users ‘tweet’. Businesses use (or try to use) twitter to promote their business like Samsung’s “Samsung Nation”. It was also widely reported that twitter instrumental in the “Arab Spring” revolutions. I feel this may be why nations are putting pressure on Twitter to ‘censor’ content in their counties that is ‘unlawful’.

Another type of social networking site is the ‘professional’ social networking site, like LinkedIn. This site is the site job seekers hope future employees look at, but that is not the case. LinkedIn is basically a extended resume site, with a social media spin on it. It shows who is ‘connected’ to the user. it shows the “professional networking” that the user has. this site has little incentive for users to come back. for an HR manager this may be a wonderful site, but most users won’t have a large use for it on a daily basis.

And like I stated at the end of my last blog, there are other sites like like Google+ that are emerging. so I think that is a good place to end this blog.

social networking

2012-03-08T19:24:00.001-05:00

Most social networking emerged and is emerging due to entertainment. After that the business world takes over, or at least attempts to. that could have been one of the falls of myspace out of favor or as Virginia Heffernan says in the article "Being There: The subtle art of the Facebook update" that people wanted a more intelligent or witty social network so they are drawn to Facebook. When he quotes a college student “The Facebook interface is minimalist and not stupid or smeared with fingerpaint like MySpace,” where as myspace was a visual / musical art, then facebook is an literature based art. so myspace would be the song or painting and Myspace would be the poem or novel. Another feature Facebook implemented prior to Myspace is third party applications. This allows any user to create applications to be used by the rest of the Community.

But users of Social networking sites are fickle and tend to move to "the new thing" just six months after Virginia Heffernan wrote about people leaving Myspace for Facebook she writes in "Facebook Exodus" about the move away from Facebook for many reasons like "Another friend, who didn’t want his name used, found that Facebook undermined his whole notion of online friendship."

so who knows where the users will move to next, is it Google + or is "the new thing" an idea in a student's head. only time will tell, or maybe we can hire a psychic detective.

Blog v. Wiki (2012)

2012-03-01T12:59:00.002-05:00

Wiki’s and Blogs are not really comparable. they serve separate purposes. Even though the wiki video on the dynamic course outline show it being used to plan a camping trip, this is not a common use (to my knowledge). When most people think of “wiki”’s they think of Wikipedia, but there are many wiki’s that are not as proud but, based just on a single Subject, Item, Event, Etc. that have a wide base of interested people; like a television show. Besides being for a large group of people, they are meant to be long term. going back to the camping trip wiki, what happens to that wiki once the trip is over? some might say it can be expanded to document the trip. but does this need to be collaborative, and if it doesn’t “need” to be, does it make sense to make it collaborative? And if it is not used for this purpose will it just lie there unused? seems like a waste.

A better way to handle the second part of this mythical camping trip wiki may be to have each person write a blog write about it. If person A does not recall an event from the trip the same way as person B, they can just write there own blog account of what transpired, instead of rewriting the original. This is because blogs are individual expressions. The author expresses there own thoughts, observations, experiences, etc., and is no (or little) need for others to edit it. If there is a spelling error or a factual error, a user can leave a comment (if comments are allowed) or contact the author directly. like in The New York Times article “Pentagon Keeps Wary Watch as Troops Blog” by James Dao (8SEPT2009) when talking about censorship: “the reservist does not want his superiors censoring it.” This blog is his personal writings and stories and he does not want others to change them.

For the most part i feel blogs are static and wiki’s are dynamic. what do i mean by this? With few exceptions once a blog is written, it is not changed so, it is static. a wiki on the other hand is designed to be changed, either to correct errors, add additional information, remove false information, etc., so it is dynamic. In another The New York Times article “An Internal Wiki That’s Not Classified” by Noam Cohen (4AUG2008) says “...Diplopedia has had impressive growth. There are 1,000 registered users, he said, 650,000 total page views...” This an example of a wiki that is widely used (for an internal wiki) and serves a purpose in being collaborative.

It all boils down to the purpose and scope of the project. If it is a one person (or small group) project then maybe a blog(s) (or an independent website) would be best. If it is a large group of people that want to convey the information with “one voice” then maybe a wiki(or again an independent website) would be best.

so in conclusion: Learn HTML, PHP, Python, C++, Perl, Java, etc and make your own website and don’t care what people call it, it will be yours...

"Wikis in Plain English" Youtube Video