Month: August 2022

Technician Tuesday: Aiming for incremental improvement

“Form follows function” is a catchy phrase and a seductive idea. It implies a lot of things which most of us would like to believe of ourselves. We’d like to believe we understand the function of what we are creating so well we can visualize exactly the form it needs to be. That in turn implies we won’t have to go back and redo any of our work. It also implies we can expect approval from whomever evaluates what we created, whether that’s a supervisor or a customer.

Unfortunately, all of those flattering possibilities are probably not going to happen. It’s likely that whatever is created — by me, by you, by us, by whomever — will not be at its best form on the first iteration. Whatever gets created, it will probably have to be revisited and revised multiple times before it’s usable.

The book The Evolution of Useful Things by Henry Petroski covers this in detail if you are interested. I’ve read “form follows function” as an ideal at which to aim, for most of my life. The Evolution of Useful Things finally cured me of following that dead end. Continuous improvement is the goal.

(I linked to the Computer Gear catalog because that is where I purchased the book. I am not in any way compensated by them for that link.)

Mindset Monday: Who takes the risk when someone says “I’m sure it will be fine”?

Success breeds a lot of things. There’s the saying that “success breeds success” which is often true. Success also breeds envy.

I’ve found envy easiest to spot and deal with when it has anger combined with it. The peevish tones of voice are the flag that there is something personal going on here. “Why is this person so irritated that I did well? Why are they so angry about how I did this? . . . Ohhh, they’re envious. *sigh*”

What has been harder for me to learn how to spot is the envy which hides behind very insistent and assertive helpfulness. I’ve done well on a project and now someone else very helpfully is trying to suggest other ways I should be doing this project, the next project I should taking on, and who I should be talking to or asking for help.

Amidst all these helpful suggestions, what happens if the helpful suggestions sound like they are not a good idea? I’ll often get the response “Oh, I’m sure it will be fine.”

Regardless of the purity of motive of the person being helpful, who ultimately bears the risks? Is it me? Is it someone else? Asking this question helps clear out a lot of the verbal and mental clutter that can accompany too many helpful suggestions.

Technician Tuesday: Finding simpler tools. Word processors and photo editing as examples. (2022 Aug 23)

On Monday, I wrote about viewing my time and effort as limited resources. When a piece of technology, hardware or software, starts taking too long to use, I look for alternatives.

The time to learn and use a simple alternative for one task is often shorter than making a more complicated program do that task.

(AutoCAD was infamous for this in the 1990s and 2000s, it could do almost anything if you took the time to figure out how. I’ve never set up ERP systems, or even simpler inventory systems, but I’ve talked many people who spent far more time managing their ERP / inventory / POS systems than they ever spent managing paper records. And Microsoft Excel has its own eSports World Excel Championships, which was broadcast on ESPN2.)

First example: word processors and spreadsheets.

I didn’t use Microsoft Office for several months, a few years back. I logged in to Microsoft Windows with a different email than I’d used to purchase a Microsoft Office subscription. Microsoft was very concerned. I was constantly asked by Microsoft Office if I wanted to change my account. (No, I did not.) I got “Microsoft account problem” warnings from Microsoft Windows. Then I got stuck in the maelstrom of Windows wants Windows Hello, Windows Hello wants facial recognition or a fingerprint sensor, and said the heck with this.

There are a ton of things Microsoft Office can do. I wanted a simpler word processor. So, I downloaded LibreOffice. It installs fast. I don’t get any Microsoft account errors. The program does occasionally crash, so I save often. That’s the only drawback I’ve found. Now, I only buy a Microsoft Office subscription when I need to use a Microsoft Office document or spreadsheet with features only Microsoft Office supports.

Second example: photo resizing and watermarking.

I use a digital camera which creates large files. I’m not going to ask my friends to download huge photo files when they want to look at my pictures. I could use a photo editing program like Photoshop or GIMP to edit each photo, decreasing the file size and adding a watermark with my name and the year. I could learn how to create macros in a photo editing program.

I downloaded AVS4You instead. There are lots of other alternatives, I use AVS4You, use whatever you want. The photo resizing program (technically the image converter) from AVS4You is free to download. I load the photos, set file name modifications, file size modifications, watermark, and which directory for the new files.

No, I don’t get any compensation from any program or company I mention using. You can use whatever you want, I’m using examples of what works for me.

Mindset Monday: Time and effort. What might be gained, what might be lost. (2022 Aug 22)

I see it written in finance that an important part of wealth building is not spending more than you need to. Yes, find ways to earn more and bring more in, but also take a look at what is going out.

I apply a similar mindset to my time and effort. If I’m going to spend an hour today learning something new, that’s an hour which won’t go to anything else. Taking on new challenges is something I enjoy. I’ve had to learn how to say “no” or even “No!” because of the times I’ve burnt myself out. I can’t think of anything which burned me out where the reward was worth the depleted output during the time I was recovering.

When I work for someone else, I don’t have the option of making all decisions about what I’ll do. If the task today is sweeping floors, I sweep floors. I also know that I have options such asking why we’re doing it this way. Multiple places, multiple supervisors, I’ve pointed out that whatever they have me working on, everything else on my to-do list isn’t being worked on.

I don’t enjoy filing. The time I spend filing now is time saved later when I look something up. (I learned that lesson the hard way, multiple times.)

For everything else, there’s always alternatives. For everything I do on my own times, there’s at least two dozen other things I could be doing, and at least a half dozen other things I should be doing.

I view my time, energy, and attention as limited resources. I’m never at a loss for something to do. The question I ask is “What am I doing right now, and why?”

(Edited shortly after publication to change the title slightly and add an extra category.)

Technician Tuesday: Learning about SSL and TLS (2022 August 16)

There’s theory and there’s practice. Many things are easier to know if theory and more difficult to put into practice.

Using HTTPS, SSL and TLS (HyperText Transport Protocol Secure, Secure Sockets Layer, and Transport Layer Security if you like your acronyms spelled out) seems fine in theory. Getting this website to use HTTPS by default is proving more difficult in practice than I expected in theory.

Humility is good for the soul. This is building character. This is really annoying me.

While I figure it out, here’s some external website links I found useful:

When I look up information on how something works or why I should use it, I try to look up information from people who’ve designed it, who sell it, and who use it.

Someone non-technical explaining something to non-technical audience who “just wants it to work” will often have information and perspectives which a more technical writer won’t think to mention.

Monday Mindset: Decide where and when I will deal with the pain of deciding. (2022 Aug 15)

Being honest about projects:

In every project or endeavor, there is a certain amount of pain that will occur. Maybe it will be physical exertion from rearranging my working space to be more efficient. It might be intellectual pain from having to research a topic I’m with which I am not familiar.

The pain I dislike the most is the lost time and effort from delaying a decision that needed to be made sooner rather than later. I delayed making a conscious decision, not admitting that by my actions I was making a decision anyway. Then later things turned out in ways I didn’t want. After undoing hours or days of work, I had to admit that all could have been avoided if I’d made difficult decisions at the start, rather than putting them off.

This has happened in sewing projects, homework for math and engineering classes, rearranging a space, deciding on which software program to use, deciding which camera to buy, or writing a long paper.

These are the rules I’ve set for myself to avoid excess time lost due to avoiding necessary decisions:

Be honest with myself about what decisions I need to make now. If I’m still getting stuck, asking myself what my goal is and why that is my goal will usually help me realize what decisions are needed.

Find some way to document those decisions, whether it’s notes to myself, the file names I choose, or a physical note taped to something.

Realize my time is more valuable to me than my pride over having made the “correct” decision. If later I find out I still made a bad decision, I own up to it and try to make a better decision.

Honestly, that last point about realizing my time is more valuable to me than my pride was one of the hardest decisions of all. I made it years ago. It’s worked well for me.

Technician Tuesday: Checking out email lists and opt-in forms (2022 Aug 09)

My previous post was titled Mindset Monday. Tuesdays I am reserving for actual technical information, usually something I’ve learned during the week. Maybe it will help you, the reader. Maybe it won’t.

I write what I’ve learned because it helps me organize my own thoughts. Additionally, it’s a a record of what I’ve learned for future reference. Which is better than trying to keep everything packed in my head. I don’t need to write down every button push or feature. That’s what the manual is for. I write down what works for me.

Today I’m writing about email lists and opt-in forms on a blog (like this one). I’ve gon through a few plug-ins and looked at various options. There are a lot of ways to create forms on a blog. Each of those ways seems to require setting up a separate account on a marketing site or email list site. Furthermore, I will say that user information is something which carries a responsibilities with it. The more information I gather, the more responsibility I’ll have. The more I spread that information around to other sites, the more responsibility I have to keep track of what information I’m gathering and who I’m sharing it with.

Every bit of stuff on the internet requires money at some point. Money pays for the server it’s hosted on. And money pays for the bandwidth to access the information on the server. Also, money pays for the people who maintain the servers, software, databases, and physical communications lines.

Every site and service I add on to whatever I’m using is paid for in some way. That’s true of this blog, my computer, my digital camera, and anything else. I either pay for it with money, or I pay for it with access to my information. (I do know about free open source software, FOSS, and I support people who do that. Even there, services are only free because someone else decided to pay with their own time and effort and money to create something free for the rest of us.) Until I better understand what various sites will be doing with the information I give them, I’ll leave out opt-in lists.

Regarding opt-ins and email lists: gathering user information means the gatherer has to be aware of how they’re keeping and sharing that user information.

I know, if you’re looking for information about how to use technology you probably wanted a quick set-up guide. This blog isn’t for that. The quicker the set-up, the easier the sign-up, the more that’s offered for free, the higher the likelihood there will be a price in time or money or unexpected risk to be paid later. That’s how you wind up with your technology using you, instead of you using your technology.

Mindset Monday: Know what you want to accomplish and why (2022 August 08)

I started this site to help people — including myself — who want to make their technology work for them, instead of the user tying themselves in knots working for their technology.

Because I don’t know what you, the reader, are trying to accomplish or what particular piece of technology you’re using, I’ll mostly be writing in first person. I’ll tell you what I did and how I look at things, and if it’s helpful to you that’s great. I’m not an expert and I’m not claiming to be an expert. I’m someone who might be a couple of steps ahead of you, and maybe something I write will be of use to you.

Today’s post is about mindset. I have met very few people — only one or two — who can read through an instruction manual for a piece of technology and immediately start thinking of all the things it would be possible to do with most of the options.

For myself, who does not have that gushing internal fountain of creativity, I’ve started to discipline myself to have a goal and a motive for any piece of technology I want to use. If I don’t have a goal, then my efforts are all over the place and lack focus, I flip through a manual restlessly and poke buttons without really taking the time to see what a button actually does. If I don’t have a motive, I get bored and move on to something else.

So, for mindset I start out with two things about which I must be honest (if only with myself):

What is my goal? What do I want to accomplish when I use this piece of technology?

What is my motive? Why do I want to do this?

Hello World!

Sometimes when learning to program in a new computer language, one of the first tasks would be to create a program that printed “Hello world,” usually on a screen.

This required the new student to learn how that programming language dealt with text and how to print something on a screen.

Many of you reading this probably already knew that, and many of you probably didn’t. My hope is this site will be useful and have valuable information for both groups.