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fohlin's comments

fohlin | 12 years ago | on: Winter is coming

I have used that exact Wake-Up light model for about a year. It has had a marginal effect, in that I wake "naturally" (before the sound alarm goes off) about 1 night in 20. As a simple source of bright light, it performs as you would expect -- with the extra benefit that my tired morning self does not have to bother with turning it on.

I would rank its usefulness above 0, but below a consistent bed time, and so far, below vitamin D (3250 IU in the morning).

fohlin | 12 years ago | on: Teach, Don't Tell

"You teach them." Well, no. You set up a framework of information and activities which allows the individual to learn.

It could be beneficial to adopt this view, prominent in education, for software documentation as well. (The article seems to agree, but it is useful to have you language reflect the student as the active party.) We could actually look educational strategies such as constructive alignment [1] here: define the measurable learning outcomes, and provide activities aligned with those outcomes.

The tutorial comes to mind as a potentially successful component of documentation. Executed well, it gives at a glance information, while simultaneously providing natural entry points for hands on activity. Add more options for self-assessment and soon you will have a very pedagogically sound learning instrument.

[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructive_alignment

fohlin | 12 years ago | on: Hack your motivation

Everything in your comment really resonates with me—except I feel mostly powerless on getting to the second state. It either happens or it doesn't.

I can easily recognize the down periods, but like segmondy, I can't (or won't) do anything about them. In a free work environment, it's easy to rationalize not working right now with "I'm listless, it's better in the long run to rest." But too many of those occasions point to larges issues, such as not really caring about the work.

I self-identify with being intrinsically driven, as well as caring about my work. So now there's the meta-guilt of not being interested and motivated enough. Along with the normal guilt of "why won't you just harden the F up and do something."

Anyway, if you have written anything else along these lines, please post a link. I'd be very interested in reading it!

fohlin | 13 years ago | on: Paying for Great Software is like Paying for Fine Dining

You just described the core of the analogy: experience.

There are many cases where I and others choose much more expensive applications to which there are fine inexpensive (or free) alternatives. Just knowing the amount of “unnecessary” design or development work may be enough to increase pleasure of use.

Of course, the extra work may also have directly beneficial effects, functional, esthetic, or otherwise. Fine dining tends to be tasty.

fohlin | 13 years ago | on: Not all 4G is built equally

While 4G isn't available here, I was at least happy to see 15 mbps reliably on 3G. For my typical use case, e.g. checking tweets and casual browsing, I don't miss a better connection. (For tethering it sure would be nice, though.)

fohlin | 14 years ago | on: Anyone want some Spotify Invitations?

About 30 more invitation tokens:

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fohlin | 15 years ago | on: DHH: How do I learn to program?

That's very interesting! With that hindsight, can you identify any quick wins that could have lowered the drop-out rate, or helped your personal understanding of programming?

fohlin | 15 years ago | on: DHH: How do I learn to program?

I've just left a workshop at our CS department, where we discussed new and old issues with teaching programming. Tutorials and assignment, based on completely made up cases and requirements, are still very much at the core of introductory programming courses. This is in sharp contrast to what DHH says in the post, as well as comments here and elsewhere.

May I be slightly selfish, and ask a question to all of you who have a CS degree? Did you learn programming as part of your CS education? Regardless, what's you opinion about the way programming was taught?

fohlin | 16 years ago | on: Ski Resorts Exaggeration of Snowfall Reduced Sharply Because of iPhone App

I can't decide if I like it or not, but one commenter really takes the opportunity to promote his website:

> I believe "crowdsourcing" is the future of how we'll tap into and retrieve much of the information we desire, in real-time. We designed our entire web site/application (liveskiconditions.com) around the fact that people want to know the current snow conditions [...].

Spam or not?

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