a better way to learn programming languages

Computer programming languages are usually taught like this:

Lesson 1) 'hello world'

Lesson 2) strings, arrays, classes, headers etc.

There's no interim step. There's no middle ground to get you thinking in progressive steps as you would when learning ANYTHING that is new to you. Most programming classes in college state that you must already have some programming knowledge under your belt. So how do you learn programming without already knowing it?

I propose that computer programming languages be taught the same way as spoken languages. There is no reason C++ can't be taught the same way as German.  Computer programming languages share all the same basic principles of spoken languages: vocabulary, grammar, slang, history & evolution, and even culture.  

When you learn a foreign language you usually start off with 'hello' 'goodbye' 'please' 'thank you' and numbers.  Lesson 2 is never jumping right into the classical literature! Even as an adult you learn with a little taste of children's books and concepts.  As you progress, you get into more grown-up ideas and vocabulary.

If you're learning a language based on non-Latin characters, you're learning a whole lot more, but at all steps, the equivalents to your native language are always drawn. The differences, the nuances are always pointed out. 

I remember in the C and Pascal classes I took at FSU the instructors would go over the lesson for that week and say something like "you could use a GOTO statement here, but don't" At that point, every hand went up to ask "why not?" The answer was "y-y-y-you.... you just don't"

In C, you have to start your code with something like:

int main(void)

{

}

WTF does that mean? What is the difference between { } and ( ) ? What does "void" mean in this context?  the answer: "don't worry about what it means, you just have to do it"

Why are programming languages taught with such a painful method? I think the problem is that computers are the realm of nerds (such as myself). Nerds aren't known for having great social graces - it probably relates to the common Asperger's defect in us.  SNL's "Nick Burns: your company's computer guy"  is a prime example of someone who would also design computer classes in their current state. Why should he spend time going over what are "basics" to him? That's beneath him. SOME people *DO* learn programming just fine, but the odds are they probably have a bit of Asperger's or Autism themselves and already think in those ways.  I guess I'm not as big of an Aspie as it takes to learn computer languages.

I would love to sit down and talk to professors in the College of Education and in Computer Science and get them to come up with a better method of teaching programming.  It would open up the world to many more people who do have talent and skills, they just don't know how to use the tools yet. 

Now if English teachers could give us a clear-cut explanation on the use of the semicolon...

xmas

It's been rainy. Kinda cold. I'm not motivated to do much. In fact I can't really do much because of $$. This is definitely the leanest of christmases since I was a kid. 

censored

There have been things going on lately that I can't go into detail publicly.  It doesn't help that the economy has gone down the tubes as well. I just hope we can come out of it OK. 

back on the bug

The weather here in Knoxville is turning cooler with the trees changing color. I've been trying to get motivated to work on my Bug more. There have been some things to hold me back like finding replacement bumper mounts or some way to rebuild them. I've been trying to rebuild the vent windows too. After some searching online for vital parts, I finally found them! I ordered them and they started arriving yesterday. I threw on my coveralls and got busy working on the Bug again. it felt good to be working on my car and to be making real progress.  A member of the local Bug club came over to my house with his '74 Bug so I could compare the wiring and see where I was going wrong. Seeing a live Bug was a huge help. I still have a long way to go but at least I'm moving forward.

what I miss

Since moving to Knoxville, I have found that I miss the strangest things about Florida.

In no particular order:

- rectilinear road navigation. Knoxville is laid out like a

 drunken octopus in a beanbag chair.

- hurricane season

- the ocean

- daily 4:00 rain showers

- the smell of hot asphalt immediately before the 4:00 rain shower

- living in a city that has more than 1 of a particular store/restaurant/bank brand

- swift mail/UPS/FedEx delivery. It takes a week for a letter to be delivered from Jax to Knox. 13 days from California.

- consolidated city government and one-stop services (trash collection, water, power, phone). In Knox county there are 3 different water companies, 5 different power companies, 3 cable TV companies, and at least a dozen trash collection companies.  You may think it's great having options to choose from. The truth is that you can't choose. All those different providers only cover a very small part of the county. And it is a major pain in the ass trying to find out which specific ones cover your neighborhood. There is no county or city guide new residents can refer to before getting any of these services at their house. NONE.

- most importantly I miss my friends... even the ones who don't speak to me any more.

knock knock knock?

When we moved to Knoxville, we just happened to move next door to a nice guy and his Jehovah's Witness wife. I don't have anything against anyone's religion as long as they don't go pushing it on me. Jehovah's Witnesses are known to do that but she hasn't so that's cool. The irony is that over the past 13 months, I've gone next door to chit chat with the guy so I'll knock on the front door... and wait... and knock again... and again... No one ever answers the door! Even when I know for a fact that someone is home, they still don't answer! I've gone over on different days of the week, different times of day, still no answer. 

Jehovah's Witnesses don't answer the knock at the door.  Hmm, who'da thunk it? 

letter to the makers of Dial soap

From my wife, Sept 4, 2007:
------------------
Dear Dial Corporation, First let me say I have used your products for years and am very satisfied. The reason I am writing today is to ask your help in solving a debate between my husband and myself. You see, before we got married he was in the habit of using a bar of soap to such an extent all that was left was a translucent sliver that was very difficult to use. After about ten or so of these "soap chicklets" were collected on the shower soap dish he claims he would ball them all up and consolidate into a usable ball of mixed matched soap debris.
After we got married four months ago, and I became the bath product dictator of our house, he used a bar of dial soap for the first time and noticed the indentations in the shape of the soap. He CLAIMS they are to place the "soap chicklet" onto the new bar, nestled ever so ergonomically into the shallow cove of soap, where the chicklet and the new bar can meld seamlessly into one. I told him it was so the bar of soap would contour to body parts while washing. Can you please advise if the reason for the shape of your soap having the shallow curve indented into it is for
1-- a more efficient and comfortable fit of the bar of soap over arms, legs and torso during washing,
2-- specifically designed for the assimilation of the little translucent sliver of soap that my husband has such a hard time letting go, that he must meld into a nice, fresh, clean bar of soap, or
3-- it is just shaped that way because that is how you want it.

I understand you have very limited time, so would certainly appreciate you taking a moment to provide some enlightenment on this matter so my husband and I can stop debating it. Of course, I know you will confirm that I am right, and I will be able to chide him and tease him relentlessly for our many happy years to come. I will also pass the correct answer onto all my girlfriends who have the same "chicklet" issues with their husbands, hopefully proving, once again, that the wife is ALWAYS right.
Warm regards,
Deborah M.
-----------------------------
They never responded to her letter other than to send us some coupons for a couple free bars of soap.

chinese food mind control revisited

Some time ago I posted an entry titled   msg = mind control substance. Many of my friends still poke fun at me for that rant, but I am 100% serious about what I said in that post. It seems that I'm not the only one who thinks that too. 

Ever since I posted my thoughts on Chinese food and its mind control properties, I discovered that the number one way people find my blog is by doing a google search for "msg mind control". They come from all over the world too! I even found one reader came to my blog from Japan.  Even the Japanese think Chinese food is evil!!!

What is the real scoop out there? Those of you who find this blog by searching for "msg mind control" what exactly are you looking for in your google searches?  Maybe I'm interpreting your search incorrectly. Maybe "msg mind control" has entirely different meaning than the one that comes to mind.

Leave your comments and let me know. I REALLY wanna know. I'd like to know that I'm not the only one who knows the evil truth behind Chinese food. :)

my crackpot theory

I've had this thought running through my head for years. This is the first time I've committed it to print.

For those astronomy fans out there: Have you ever looked at the Valles Marineris on Mars and thought that it sticks out like a sore thumb in the Martian landscape? I think scientists have already proven that there was once free-flowing water on Mars, but I don't think the forces of water can explain this colossal valley near Mars' equator. I don't quite buy the current theory that it is a geological rift valley.

It's almost a straight line and it looks like something gouged out the land.  My crackpot theory is that Mars either had a 3rd moon that spiraled in from its unstable orbit (like Phobos is predicted to do in a few million years) and scraped along the ground for hundreds of miles, or a stray body from the nearby asteroid belt had its own close encounter with the planet.  Could a catastrophe of this magnitude be enough to strip away whatever atmosphere Mars had and turn it into a desolate wasteland? I'm not qualified to say. Maybe NASA will send some probes to this region of Mars for a closer look.

vegas vacation

I went to Las Vegas last week to meet up with my brother and his wife who are celebrating their 10 year anniversary. I didn't really have a good time. Why not?

- none of the roads have lines painted to tell you where the lanes of traffic are. There are only "buttons" that kinda hint at where a lane might be but most of them were chipped away. I spent my driving time staring at the road to figure out where the hell I was. ... OK that's not enough to dislike my trip but it is enough to not consider ever living there.

- I stayed in the Tropicana hotel right on the strip. UGH! what a hellhole!

1) I ate breakfast at one of the hotel's restaurants and it gave me explosive diarrhea.

2) all of the escalators on the property were broken. This includes the interior as well as the exterior ones leading to the cross walks. Who schedules maintenance on ALL the escalators at the same time and why did it take so long to fix them?? I took pictures of the barricades and dismantled escalators to show my friends and family because they would never believe me if they didn't see it for themselves.

3) in the elevator bay there are 6 elevator cars, but at any given time only a maximum of TWO were working. The crowds of people waiting for an elevator where horrible. Why should guests wait 15 minutes for  the elevator to get to their floors or even out of the building?

4) I was trapped in one of the few working elevators for about 20 minutes while suffering from the diarrhea I got at the restaurant. I pressed the alarm buttons but they only rang the bell one time out of 5 presses - this MUST be a safety violation of some sort! Maybe I should direct that to the Las Vegas fire department.

5) Whenever I asked any of the employees for directions to anywhere in the hotel, the canned response I got was "It's on the other side of the slots." The restrooms?  "other side of the slots" The promotions desk? "other side of the slots" At one point I deliberately stood next to the cashier cage and asked a passing security guard where the cashier was and he said "on the other side of the slots" !!!

I understand that casinos are deliberately designed to confuse patrons to keep them spending money on all the games, but broken elevators and escalators, bad food, and poor customer service don't accomplish anything other than drive people away.  If I ever go to Las Vegas again, I will definitely not stay at the Tropicana.

An observation I thought was odd was that 99% of the slot machines in Vegas casinos no longer accept coins or tokens nor do they pay out in coins or tokens. I thought the fun and excitement of the slot machines was to hear the plink plink plink of coins hitting the tray below when you won. Now they pay out via a printed slip with a bar code that you can either use in other machines or cash out at the cage.

And one last thing... the 2" diameter snow globe that I bought for my wife was confiscated at airport security because "it could be a bomb." The terrorists have won. They have made us so paranoid that innocuous objects could destroy the country and our "way of life". We lost our way of life in 2001. They won.

elvis sighting

Elvis sighting
Originally uploaded by mcclint

Let my wife's words speak about this encounter:
OMG,
The show was FAN-FREAKIN-TASTIC last night!!!!!!!!

Well, on the way from the parking garage we walked by the tour buses.
Being the retard I am I made Clint take a picture of me in front of the bus (to capture my homemade Elvis Costello t-shirt and rock star pony tails all spiky- which by the way are NOT adequately captured in this picture)

As soon as the picture was snapped
ELVIS COSTELLO GOT OFF THE BUS AND I WAS FACE TO FACE WITH HIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was stunned.
Shocked.
Awed.
I stood mouth agape, and all I could think of to say to this master of lyrics and music was “you already know how awesome you are”.
Luckily Clint’s quick thinking saved the moment FOREVER by capturing a Kodak (actually Fuji- but Kodak works better in this context) moment by telling me to get a picture.

So I asked (and this is the best part because it reflects even more of my overwhelmed lack of words) “may I take a photograph with you” and he smiled cordially and said yes.
At that point all I could do is fan my hands in front of my face like a feklempt jewess and said “oh my God, oh my God, I got a picture, I am so excited! I think I peed a little!!!!!” He chuckled and made his way into the Theatre.

Then Clint reminded me that I just told Elvis Costello that “I think I peed a little”. It was obviously just an expression of excitement, but Dude…Could I have not come up with anything more clever that a 12 year old boy’s vocabulary when in the presence of someone with such lyrical and musical talent? No. I had to say “awesome” and “I peed” and “ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod”.

OK Clint, are you happy? I made sure to tell people I told Elvis Costello I peed a little.

That shame will haunt me forever. Sigh.

bug site update

I redesigned my bug progress website using iWeb.  I've reached the point where I can start moving forward on the car and the website again.

obligatory oil prices rant

People on the news and government spokesmen talk about how the price of oil is out of control. BULLSHIT. The price of oil is NOT out of control. They act as if the price comes and goes like the tides or hurricanes or blizzards and there's nothing anyone can do about it. There are people sitting in offices somewhere making conscious decisions about the price will be on any given day. The oil companies have Congress under their control and have "convinced" them that they are powerless to control their record profits.

  I am a believer in capitalism. I believe it is everyone's right to make money to survive and live comfortably. I also believe that a segment that the entire economy is built on has the responsibility to do what they can to make sure the economy doesn't crumble. I'm not saying they should drop gas prices to 50 cents per gallon, but I think they have made enough profit in a single quarter to last them the rest of the year. They should sell gas at-cost for a while until things can recover.  OR they should get off their asses and start building more refineries. I realize there is always a NIMBY factor but damn! I'll let them build a refinery in my back yard if it will mean I can afford to drive to work every day.

  The government also needs to crack the whip on the Saudis. Didn't we do them a couple favors over the past few years by getting rid of Saddam? They owe us big.

Wedding mosaic

Wedding mosaic
Originally uploaded by mcclint

Our 1 year wedding anniversary came and went. We ate dinner at Ruth's Chris steakhouse. Not bad. Since the traditional gift for the first year is paper, I made a photomosaic of one of our wedding photos out of thousands of pictures taken over the past year. I also got her an arrangement of flowers that were pretty close (but not exact) to her bridal flowers.

catching up

OK it's been a while. I know. It's just been a weird winter. Been busy with lots of work and doing things around the house. But I think there was also a bit of the Winter BLAHs. I haven't been motivated to do much of anything lately, but with Spring finally here and the weather getting better, so I'm sure that will help things.

 

new year

It's a new year.... um ... ok. We're still getting used to being married and to all the other change that happened during the course of 2007. Getting accustomed to Knoxville is still very hard for both of us. I don't get to interact with anyone when I'm working from home. She doesn't like the people here.  On New Years Eve, we didn't make resolutions. We stated what we HOPE for the coming year: We hope to find a way to fit in up here in some kind of way.

It's been cold the past couple weeks but still no snow to speak of in town. I had to drive up to Johnson City, TN for work and I didn't see snow until I was well out of the Knoxville area. We watch the weather forecasts religiously in hopes of seeing some definite sign of snow coming our way. I used to think the weather forecasters in Florida were idiots... I am 100% convinced that they make it up as they go in Tennessee. They have predicted lots of snow every other day but not a single flake has been spotted. If you go to noaa.gov or intellicast.com or weather.com and just keep hitting reload every 15 minutes, the forecasts will change repeatedly. "it's going to only get up to 20° with lots of snow. [reload] It's going to be warm and sunny. [reload] Mild temperatures with lots of rain..." 

 I'm almost missing the predictability of hurricanes.