Author: mike

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Blog Uncategorized

Boot.dev is a fun way to learn Python

For forever, I had been wanting to learn Python. I haven’t been doing much with scripting languages in recent years, just the occasional shell script fix here and there. Last substantial thing I did was in Perl, back in the late ’90s. I built a Perl script for autogenerating static web pages about Los Angeles radio stations from a simple text file.

A few months ago, I learned of Boot.dev, which is a gamified platform for learning back end development technologies. It’s not particularly expensive to subscribe, and you can try it out for free before you commit. You are awarded XP for lessons you complete, are rewarded for keeping up streaks of daily learning, etc.

So far I’ve managed to maintain a 183 day streak of daily coding, which has been encouraging. The curriculum currently has tracks for backend development with python/go and python/typescript. I just finished a unit on memory management in C, which was a nice refresher course. The curriculum also covers things like basic Linux commands, use of git, and provides some guided projects and opportunities to build personal projects. The platform also has an active discord community, and is somewhat oriented towards people getting skills for their first programming jobs.

I’m basically using it to get some daily mental exercise coding, and to expand my reach on the backend of the stack, as mostly I work on mobile client apps. It is definitely a professional advantage , if not a necessity, when working with devops and backend engineers to be able to read and understand Python, Go, and Javascript.

Enjoying the journey so far, and about to start a personal project, which I’ll talk about in later posts.

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Esoterica

Should you use the ‘Popcorn’ button?

Recently my local grocery store made a change to their store brand microwave popcorn. The new packages have different packaging design on the outside, and the popcorn bags inside are clearly being provided by a different vendor.

The new ones include the ominous ‘Do not use the Popcorn Button!’ warning, which wasn’t on the old packages. I’ve seen this on the instructions for other brands of microwave popcorn, and have often wondered why. I’ve also consistently ignored them ever since I’ve gotten a microwave with a popcorn button, with no ill effects.

This YouTube video provides a pretty good answer to the whole issue — the manufacturers have no idea which microwave you have, so they take no chances and tell you to babysit things and turn off the microwave when you hit 2 seconds between pops.

Of course, this is overly cautious. Some dumb microwaves just have a fixed time on their popcorn setting, so you do risk burning if you aren’t listening. Others, however, use moisture sensors to detect the steam that is released when the bag bursts its seams, then time out the rest of the way. Top-of-the-line models use accoustic sensors to actually detect when the popping slows down.

But the best advice from this video doesn’t require a 15-minute explanation, and comes at the very beginning: Orville Reddenbacher may not know anything about your microwave, but you do, so just push the button and try it out. If it’s trying to run too long, shut it down. Problem solved.

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Blog

(Meta) Talking to oneself online

There’s a certain liberation to having a blog nobody really reads. I’m mostly documenting things I’m setting up just to understand it better as I go and maybe help others, but I’m not really thinking about an audience per se.

I’m in that age range where I’m old enough to remember Jerry Pournelle’s columns in BYTE magazine, though too young to have read his books, which seem to me to be more a thing of their time. I ended up reading more Robert Silverberg, who was a mainstay for short stories in magazines like Omni and Playboy. The one thing I remember about him was he co-wrote the infamous “Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex” essay. His work, as I say, was of a certain time.

Pournelle’s columns were basically him documenting how he was using computers and software as writing tools. He’d go on about updating graphics cards, new versions of WordPerfect, or whatever he was using at the time, building out new machines, etc. He’d talk about handing down hardware to his son, setting up a work machine for his wife, and other mundane tasks involved with keeping home computers running. He’d give all of the computers names. I think they were mostly custom-built from off-the-shelf hardware running CP/M, much of this was before the IBM PC came out, let alone luggables and compatibles.

It was interesting to read, you wouldn’t know that he wasn’t a software professional, but this was a fair amount of activity just to support his day job of writing. Overall there was this philosophy of not letting the tools get in the way of the work, to keep your eye on the end product.

So, that’s kind of what I’m going for. It’s a side-quest, though Jerry Pournelle probably got paid pretty well for his columns, which no doubt helped pay the bills between books.

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Uncategorized

Meta: doing a little bit of maintenance

So, have been behind on maintaining the blog again, which is no surprise given that I hardly update it. Did an update to the current version of WP, which was long overdue.

Also made a few tweaks to the CSS on the theme, which I’m now not seeing in the editor — think what I did next might have wiped it out.

WordPress was giving me warnings about the security risk of having unused themes laying around, so I took a little time to look at what themes I had. Some were pretty old. The main thing about older themes is that they aren’t responsive for mobile, so those had to go. Other themes that had to go were ones that don’t look good with the current content I have. Most of those are set up to have an image with each post, and so they have huge blank spaces.

I’ve kept a couple themes that I might use yet, but that’s another session.

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Blog Random Ideas

Brain sprinkle: LED Lava Lamps.

Was just thinking about how one would retrofit an old Lava Lamp to use LEDs. The classic Lava Lamp uses incandescent bulbs as both the light source and a heat source to melt and animate the wax inside. So, an LED replacement would require not only the light source, but also a heat source.

CREE makes high power LEDS which certainly put off some heat, but you’d really need a separate heating element to melt the wax. If this element or elements were digitally controlled, they could be pulsed to perhaps create variations in the thermal currents inside the bulb to give some sort of control over the wax motion.

The other thing you would be able to do is put in RGB LEDs, or even black light LEDs, which would give you the ability change colors, and maybe run different colors at once illuminating different areas of the glass enclosure.

This unit could perhaps be retrofitted into any classic Lava Lamp base, if you just made it in a bulb format. Newer lamps could be made with a redesigned base.

Of course, as with all ideas of this type, the next step is to search to see what has been done in this area already. And sure enough, the Lava company has an LED Lava Lamp, It’s really disappointing, though. Runs on Batteries, it’s all plastic, and has molded plastic in the shape of the wax bloop. Boring. https://lavalamp.com/product/ledll/

They also have this, an LED mini-volcano, which is probably closer to what I’ve described, but not something that could be retrofitted on a classic Lava Lamp.

And, they have https://lavalamp.com/product/llmyol/, a do-it-yourself Lava Lamp kit with a color LED base, stuff to decorate the lamp base and top, and different kinds of glitter to put inside. This is actually pretty close to what I’m proposing, but it appears to use different material for the motion, basically two types of oil that don’t mix rather than the classic wax. I should get one, it looks kind of fun. It’s battery operated, and pretty low-temperature, so very well-suited for kids.

Yup, this is where my brain goes when there’s laundry to be folded, and stuff that should be going to Goodwill.

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Blog Uncategorized

Sometimes healing from DV requires a trip to the dentist. You can help.

One aspect of domestic violence that is generally overlooked is that financial and physical abuse can lead to severe dental issues for survivors.

There are charitable foundations which match survivors with dentists who can help survivors with free or low-cost dental work.

https://www.givebackasmile.com is one such foundation.

This kind of assistance can be crucial in helping DV survivors recover a normal life. It’s hard to successfully interview for jobs or perform in a public facing job if you have damaged or missing teeth, and often poor dental health results in other health issues.

Note: will add more resources as I find them.