The Search for Elegance
I first started playing with computers when I was in junior high school more then 20 years ago - around 1981 or 1982. The school had a collection of PET computers and the computer "class" consisted primarily of figuring out how to program in BASIC so that you could successfully manage to have your name or, if the teacher wasn't watching, something like "school sucks" scroll over and over again across the computer screen. Cool! (at least we thought so in 1981). My first computer was either the original IBM PC (the one in which they used the Charlie Chaplin impersonator to sell the brand) or it was the CP/M based Kaypro "transportable" computer (it weighed more then a fully loaded golf bag). I worked an entire summer in my dad's office to afford the IBM (and he still had to put money toward it).
Of course what we should have been learning in class was not how to program in BASIC, but how to use the software which already existed so that we could spend more time being efficient in tasks we needed to accomplish. What was really needed was the "driver's ed" method for teaching students about computers. The first thing that you learn in driver's ed is not how to build an engine from scratch, you learn how to drive a car that has already been built and assembled. Yet for many years computer classes in schools across the country consisted of teaching all of us how to make our names scroll across the screen.
Which brings me to this blog. I love gadgets. I love reading about them, playing with them, that feeling you get of opening that brand new box of something that promises to make my life better, cooler, simpler - well, I'm sure many of you know what I am talking about or you wouldn't bother reading. Anyway, the one thing I had never previously tried to do was to write about gadgets. I had been toying with the idea of starting a gadget blog for a long time. But, how? Which software? Do I need a host? A domain name? What kind of template? I'm not a computer programmer - although despite those initial missteps of more then 20 years ago (I mean how often do you need to have your name scroll across a screen) - I have learned to use computer software that people much smarter then me have programmed, developed and (hopefully) tested.
So I decided to throw caution into the wind and sign up to start this blog with Blogger. After a lot of reading, it "looked" easy enough. And I guess in some sense Blogger does its very best to make the experience akin to "blogging for dummies". Blogger provides the templates, the hosting and tries to make the experience as easy as possible so that in a matter of minutes you can have a blog up and running. Ah, but looks can be deceiving. If you want a text blog which strictly conforms to the templates - no problem. But what if you want to insert pictures? Links? Feeds? Not so easy anymore. I have never worked with HTML. I can compose an entire legal brief with footnotes and case sites, trigger a Table of Authorities and Table of Contents to be prepared and have it all formatted with proper margins for the courts without much ado. But to insert a picture or a link of or to a gadget in this blog? Whew.....I'd rather argue a losing case to a hung over judge.
Does that mean I am going to give up? No way. My search has already begun for the software and tools to turn this blog into the kind of gadget site that people will want to visit. I'm already experimenting with MacJournal and signed up for flickr for picture posting purposes (try that one three times fast). But since only 25% or so of my computing time is spent on a mac platform, that means that I am going to need to find software and tools for keeping this site up to date from a Windows platform. I haven't even begun that search yet.
Why the long post? Well it appears to me that blogging is currently in that transitional state between learning to make your name scroll infinitely across the screen and learning to drive. Sort of like learning how to use the word processor on the Kaypro - some typing, lots of programming. My goal over the next several months is for me to attempt to bridge this gap and turn this site into a place that I will be proud to call "home" (and where others might like to have a look now and again). I'll be working hard changing, tinkering (and more then likely screwing up) this site until I am happy with it. Any suggestions that anyone may have for software, tools or design suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
I hope you stick around for a while.
Of course what we should have been learning in class was not how to program in BASIC, but how to use the software which already existed so that we could spend more time being efficient in tasks we needed to accomplish. What was really needed was the "driver's ed" method for teaching students about computers. The first thing that you learn in driver's ed is not how to build an engine from scratch, you learn how to drive a car that has already been built and assembled. Yet for many years computer classes in schools across the country consisted of teaching all of us how to make our names scroll across the screen.
Which brings me to this blog. I love gadgets. I love reading about them, playing with them, that feeling you get of opening that brand new box of something that promises to make my life better, cooler, simpler - well, I'm sure many of you know what I am talking about or you wouldn't bother reading. Anyway, the one thing I had never previously tried to do was to write about gadgets. I had been toying with the idea of starting a gadget blog for a long time. But, how? Which software? Do I need a host? A domain name? What kind of template? I'm not a computer programmer - although despite those initial missteps of more then 20 years ago (I mean how often do you need to have your name scroll across a screen) - I have learned to use computer software that people much smarter then me have programmed, developed and (hopefully) tested.
So I decided to throw caution into the wind and sign up to start this blog with Blogger. After a lot of reading, it "looked" easy enough. And I guess in some sense Blogger does its very best to make the experience akin to "blogging for dummies". Blogger provides the templates, the hosting and tries to make the experience as easy as possible so that in a matter of minutes you can have a blog up and running. Ah, but looks can be deceiving. If you want a text blog which strictly conforms to the templates - no problem. But what if you want to insert pictures? Links? Feeds? Not so easy anymore. I have never worked with HTML. I can compose an entire legal brief with footnotes and case sites, trigger a Table of Authorities and Table of Contents to be prepared and have it all formatted with proper margins for the courts without much ado. But to insert a picture or a link of or to a gadget in this blog? Whew.....I'd rather argue a losing case to a hung over judge.
Does that mean I am going to give up? No way. My search has already begun for the software and tools to turn this blog into the kind of gadget site that people will want to visit. I'm already experimenting with MacJournal and signed up for flickr for picture posting purposes (try that one three times fast). But since only 25% or so of my computing time is spent on a mac platform, that means that I am going to need to find software and tools for keeping this site up to date from a Windows platform. I haven't even begun that search yet.
Why the long post? Well it appears to me that blogging is currently in that transitional state between learning to make your name scroll infinitely across the screen and learning to drive. Sort of like learning how to use the word processor on the Kaypro - some typing, lots of programming. My goal over the next several months is for me to attempt to bridge this gap and turn this site into a place that I will be proud to call "home" (and where others might like to have a look now and again). I'll be working hard changing, tinkering (and more then likely screwing up) this site until I am happy with it. Any suggestions that anyone may have for software, tools or design suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
I hope you stick around for a while.
posted by The Gadget Guy at 1:50 PM
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