Happy New Year 2014
Today is the first day of the rest of my life. Sometimes, life needs a reset button. There's quite a lot of happening in 2013, and unfortunately, it's more bad than good. Well, the thing is, bad things will happen in life. The real question is, what are you going to do about it?
The first order of the day is to organize everything. I have been learning time management, project organization, and house organization. I now realize that the system I had for 2013 was woefully inadequate. Little wonder when I was so busy last year!
Fortunately, I have had sometime to reflect. November Nanowrimo showed me how totally unprepared I really was. So, for my resolution, I vow to organize my life so that everything I do will be like clock work and effortless.
Hopefully, in time, it will be better.
I also resolve to start my Personal Productivity Hour (PPH). This is basically a way to keep moving forward, one step at a time. The idea is to write down in a journal, one new thing to do, every day, in one hour. This is separate from work. This is for personal development.
You can have just about any project you want in there. The only requirement is that you need to have a different item in it every day. If you need more than one hour to complete the project, you can do "part 1", "part 2", "part 3" etc, outlining what you did different for each project.
You can also have "Learning" as a way to develop yourself further. And that's about it. Learning and Applying what you learned, is what PPH is all about.
Showing posts with label 1. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 1, 2014
Sunday, August 4, 2013
TheMagPi #8 has bad PDF format?
So, I was printing out TheMagPi magazine pdf files because, silly me, I didn't get the Kickstarter printed magazine offer. I can tell you that those books printed out thick! I bound three of them with staples. Interestingly, the Raspberry Pi went 100% CPU mode for quite a long time. Apparently, the codec or whatever is a complicated version. There was a time where I forgot to connect the printer, and it printed the pages one after another with no waiting, so I know it's not the printer. The bottleneck lies with RasPi!
The interesting about it is that on PDF#8 wouldn't print. Not even one page! I checked out the printer status on 127.0.0.1:631 and it said: "SpliX Cannot open job"
Huh? What exactly is SpliX? I know lp uses GhostScript, but SpliX? And only on number 8. The rest of the PDF printed out just fine. In the end, I had to use my Windows machine to print out TheMagPi #8. So, the problem isn't solved.
By the way, I'm using the command line lp because xpdf went into Segmentation fault every time it tried to print. Very disappointing. It took me a while to note that the printer defaults to A4 size, instead of US Letter size like I wanted. In the end, I scaled the page to 96% of the original size to good result.
lp -o scaling=96 filename
Petit Computer Journal #1
Petit Computer Journal#1
What is Petit Computer?
If you have been following Nintendo DSi development, then you'd know that SmileBoom has developed a downloadable computer program called Petit Computer. This is a development environment to create your own games on Nintendo DSi using BASIC. The idea is that you will write your own programs, and instead of buying other people software, you just write your own program. It's that easy! No more useless junk!
Why would you want to do that? In the beginning of computer history, there was simply no computer program available. You can either hire expensive professionals, or write your own program. Most people who grew up with early Personal Computer would write their own program. There are old magazines that tells people how to program their computer.
Later in the development of personal computer, softwares have become very complicated. Programming a computer is no longer within the realm of hobbyist computer. I still remember the disbelief that a C development system is 4 Gigabytes. Just how complicated can writing a computer program be? Very, very complicated!
And yet, most people do not need complicated programs. It does not take a rocket scientist to write a simple Blackjack program. Or create a maze. Or word search program. I did Sudoku program in one afternoon.
You don't need ridiculous amount of education in other to write useful program. You don't even need to write one. You can simply read what other people have done, and run their program on your Nintendo DS.
In short, Petit Computer is what Nintendo DSi homebrew, had it officially be done by Nintendo. Notice I said Nintendo DSi. That's because even though it's billed to be compatible with Nintendo 3DS, it doesn't take advantage of that platform. You can of course use Nintendo 3DS to run the program, but it's not necessary. If you don't have the device yet, I suggest the XL version. You won't have to squint at the small screen, and you can actually tap the keys with your fingernails, instead of stylus.
What's the difference between this and other BASIC?
SmileBasic, the BASIC language of Petit Computer, is very different from other BASIC languages. Most people are probably familiar with MS QBasic. Well, the difference between the two is that if you put this command "A=10:A=A/10:PRINT A" into Petit Computer, you'd get a "1". With QBasic, you'd get a "10".
Haha, joking aside, there is quite a big difference with the other BASIC. For one thing, this version of BASIC is very primitive when it comes to program structures. There is only FOR-NEXT loop. There is no such thing as WHILE-WEND, REPEAT-UNTIL, SWITCH-CASE. Rumor has it, you can't even GOTO out of the FOR-NEXT loop because you will corrupt the stack. That is strange. I will need to check for that. I think what happens is that the stack will run out because you cannot nest loops too deep.
Another difference is that SmileBasic is heavily tied into the Nintendo DSi hardware. This means sprites, background pictures, music synthesizers. Very powerful capabilities that is available for your use. You can easily make a Mario level game. Really.
The flip side to it is that if you aspire to make "modern" program such as the ones made by Visual Basic, then you are out of luck. This style of BASIC is old-style. Looking at the keywords of the language, I can't help to think that maybe this version isn't too friendly for beginners. Too much closely resembling Assembly Language/Machine Language. And you know what they say about Machine Language. If you cannot think in terms of Hexadecimal, then you may as well give up.
How hard is it to program a computer?
Paraphrasing an old joke:
Typing the program: $10.
Knowing what to type: $9990.
Computer programming is one of the easiest, if not the easiest job around. The qualification of that is IF YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING. Do people know what they're doing? Surprisingly enough, no.
That's actually normal. Unless you're doing routine database programming, you probably will have to dissect the problem enough to come up with a solution. The problem you're solving is unique because if it's a common problem, then other people would have solved it already. Therefore, your problem solving skill must be top-notch.
The good news is, as a beginner, you don't have to be an expert solver. You're just starting out! By definition, other people have trodden the path before you, and you are going through familiar territory. If you get stuck anywhere, a simple question to the appropriate forum will suffice to get you going. There are plenty of tutorials on the Net. I plan to make some myself.
Do you need to be good at Math? No, you don't. I know I'm bucking the convention here, but we're talking about hobbyist computer programming. If you can balance your checkbook, then you can write computer program. If you know how to use spreadsheet program. You definitely have all the skills required. Higher level math is only necessary if you aspire to be a software ENGINEER. For hobbyist level, the most important skill needed is "Show and Tell". Really.
Should I really do this?
Why would you spend your time writing computer program on a very primitive system when you can have the world given to you by the latest and greatest in computer programming technology? How about Python? Ruby? Aren't they so great? Yes, they are, if you want to be productive.
If, however, you want to have fun and make games on Nintendo DSi, then this is the system to use! Not despite it being primitive, but because of it. Remember that old style 8 bit Apple, Atari, Commodore computer are rather primitive, and those computers were very useful. It doesn't take much to write useful programs.
I regularly write programs in Small Basic because it's fun. I will write programs in Smile Basic because it's fun. Remember: computer programming is easy, IF you know what you're doing. So the trick is, to first learn what you need to know in order to write the program, then write the program. By then, it'd be easy.
This is especially true with drag and drop programming. Let's take, for example, Macromedia Director. It's a very powerful platform, to be sure. But do you really learn how to program? Or do you learn to do use the package? Take away Director, and given Basic, can you replicate what you did with Director? Doubt it. Take away Basic, can you replicate what you did with Director? In my case, it took only 2 days, including learning the Director!
I hope I have convinced you to do this. If not, well, there's always Small Basic. :)
What is Petit Computer?
If you have been following Nintendo DSi development, then you'd know that SmileBoom has developed a downloadable computer program called Petit Computer. This is a development environment to create your own games on Nintendo DSi using BASIC. The idea is that you will write your own programs, and instead of buying other people software, you just write your own program. It's that easy! No more useless junk!
Why would you want to do that? In the beginning of computer history, there was simply no computer program available. You can either hire expensive professionals, or write your own program. Most people who grew up with early Personal Computer would write their own program. There are old magazines that tells people how to program their computer.
Later in the development of personal computer, softwares have become very complicated. Programming a computer is no longer within the realm of hobbyist computer. I still remember the disbelief that a C development system is 4 Gigabytes. Just how complicated can writing a computer program be? Very, very complicated!
And yet, most people do not need complicated programs. It does not take a rocket scientist to write a simple Blackjack program. Or create a maze. Or word search program. I did Sudoku program in one afternoon.
You don't need ridiculous amount of education in other to write useful program. You don't even need to write one. You can simply read what other people have done, and run their program on your Nintendo DS.
In short, Petit Computer is what Nintendo DSi homebrew, had it officially be done by Nintendo. Notice I said Nintendo DSi. That's because even though it's billed to be compatible with Nintendo 3DS, it doesn't take advantage of that platform. You can of course use Nintendo 3DS to run the program, but it's not necessary. If you don't have the device yet, I suggest the XL version. You won't have to squint at the small screen, and you can actually tap the keys with your fingernails, instead of stylus.
What's the difference between this and other BASIC?
SmileBasic, the BASIC language of Petit Computer, is very different from other BASIC languages. Most people are probably familiar with MS QBasic. Well, the difference between the two is that if you put this command "A=10:A=A/10:PRINT A" into Petit Computer, you'd get a "1". With QBasic, you'd get a "10".
Haha, joking aside, there is quite a big difference with the other BASIC. For one thing, this version of BASIC is very primitive when it comes to program structures. There is only FOR-NEXT loop. There is no such thing as WHILE-WEND, REPEAT-UNTIL, SWITCH-CASE. Rumor has it, you can't even GOTO out of the FOR-NEXT loop because you will corrupt the stack. That is strange. I will need to check for that. I think what happens is that the stack will run out because you cannot nest loops too deep.
Another difference is that SmileBasic is heavily tied into the Nintendo DSi hardware. This means sprites, background pictures, music synthesizers. Very powerful capabilities that is available for your use. You can easily make a Mario level game. Really.
The flip side to it is that if you aspire to make "modern" program such as the ones made by Visual Basic, then you are out of luck. This style of BASIC is old-style. Looking at the keywords of the language, I can't help to think that maybe this version isn't too friendly for beginners. Too much closely resembling Assembly Language/Machine Language. And you know what they say about Machine Language. If you cannot think in terms of Hexadecimal, then you may as well give up.
How hard is it to program a computer?
Paraphrasing an old joke:
Typing the program: $10.
Knowing what to type: $9990.
Computer programming is one of the easiest, if not the easiest job around. The qualification of that is IF YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING. Do people know what they're doing? Surprisingly enough, no.
That's actually normal. Unless you're doing routine database programming, you probably will have to dissect the problem enough to come up with a solution. The problem you're solving is unique because if it's a common problem, then other people would have solved it already. Therefore, your problem solving skill must be top-notch.
The good news is, as a beginner, you don't have to be an expert solver. You're just starting out! By definition, other people have trodden the path before you, and you are going through familiar territory. If you get stuck anywhere, a simple question to the appropriate forum will suffice to get you going. There are plenty of tutorials on the Net. I plan to make some myself.
Do you need to be good at Math? No, you don't. I know I'm bucking the convention here, but we're talking about hobbyist computer programming. If you can balance your checkbook, then you can write computer program. If you know how to use spreadsheet program. You definitely have all the skills required. Higher level math is only necessary if you aspire to be a software ENGINEER. For hobbyist level, the most important skill needed is "Show and Tell". Really.
Should I really do this?
Why would you spend your time writing computer program on a very primitive system when you can have the world given to you by the latest and greatest in computer programming technology? How about Python? Ruby? Aren't they so great? Yes, they are, if you want to be productive.
If, however, you want to have fun and make games on Nintendo DSi, then this is the system to use! Not despite it being primitive, but because of it. Remember that old style 8 bit Apple, Atari, Commodore computer are rather primitive, and those computers were very useful. It doesn't take much to write useful programs.
I regularly write programs in Small Basic because it's fun. I will write programs in Smile Basic because it's fun. Remember: computer programming is easy, IF you know what you're doing. So the trick is, to first learn what you need to know in order to write the program, then write the program. By then, it'd be easy.
This is especially true with drag and drop programming. Let's take, for example, Macromedia Director. It's a very powerful platform, to be sure. But do you really learn how to program? Or do you learn to do use the package? Take away Director, and given Basic, can you replicate what you did with Director? Doubt it. Take away Basic, can you replicate what you did with Director? In my case, it took only 2 days, including learning the Director!
I hope I have convinced you to do this. If not, well, there's always Small Basic. :)
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