the Design Experience Weblog Archive

Don't Confuse Fans with Pirates - Roger Ebert

I was taking a break until I can update my weblog code to ETP 2.0, but I have to start linking to this stuff.

The CBDTPA Is Immune to (Conventional) Criticism

And click on that banner at the top of the page.

I had always thought the database as filesystem was a neat idea. Of course, I only ever thought about it at a very superficial level. My understanding of the difference between a traditional filesystem and a database is very vauge. I think what I really am interested in is a new idea in filesystems. I suspect they haven't changed all that much from their beginnings.

I learned alot reading filesystem vs. database by David McCusker. We seem to think alike. His explanations of things I thought I would never understand are very clear to me.

Finally I have tied into the new rss-support package in OpenACS 4.5.

One of these days I need to resync my site with the OpenACS 4.5 code base. It is probably better to just wait until the official release instead of doing to now with beta and having to do it all over again for the release.

All right. I haven't made an entry in a lot longer than I would like.

I am making a little progress on OpenACS work. Right now my main priority is to learn ACS Workflow so I can use it to build flexible applications. Right now I am getting ready to test OpenACS 4.5 beta.

I am waiting for financial aid information from ESC and then I will be ready to start my education.

Joel has a new list of essential books for programmers. He recommends that new programmers learn C so they can get close to the machine and understand what is going on under the hood. I usually believe this is a good idea. I am not sure in this case. I am sticking to learning the principles of programming from Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs before I get into learning specific languages. I still think this is a better way. I think once you understand how programs work, programming languages and details are easier.

Today I was too lazy to think of a good title. I might have to reconsider titling these posts. Hopefully they will become more focused once I get some practice in.

Today I am almost finished finally with my algebra review. That book says it is a self-teaching guide, but I think only the most dedicated students could actually learn algebra from it. It is a great review if you have learned it, but not used it since 9th grade. After algebra I want to breeze through geometry and trig and go right to calculus. I suspect I will be in no danger of getting too much sleep for awhile now.

I setup this weblog to get some practice writing. Random links to cool stuff are not enough. So I will try to write something here every day. I apologize in advance for boring you. I will setup another page for the condensed listing of useful links soon and put it in a nice box on the home page.

That said, where am I going? I am not too sure yet, but I still plan to learn the Art of Computer Programming through self-study and experience. To do this I have applied to Empire State College for a BS in Computer Science. ESC is great because it is based on a degree program designed by the student and a mentor. I haven't been assigned a mentor yet, so I am not sure what to expect. I know I need to get my math skills back. I have only reviewed algebra so far. I need calulus, linear algebra, and discrete math at least. After that, or while, I want to study from Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs. I have read some of it, but I think I need to really dedicate some time to working out the problems.

From there I am not sure what path I will take. Along with these structured courses I will be contributing to Open Source projects that I am interested in. So far this inludes OpenACS and NSSoap that I am contributing to. That keeps me pretty busy anyway. OpenACS is very challanging because there are so many modules and I have too many ideas I want to explore.

I think I will try to fill up this text box. One of these days I will get comments working on these pages. Other missing features are RSS generation of the weblog and pinging weblogs.com. Another big project I am planning is starting a Linux Users Group around the Albany, New York area. I haven't been able to find one. I was thinking of piggybacking on the local general computer users group. It is a way to introduce Linux to a wide group of users and take advantage of the membership infrastructure they already have in place.