Nerd Speak » Thoughts http://www.crmacd.com/blog The mind of a LEGO infused Nerd! Fri, 30 Jul 2010 08:41:06 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Impressionable Brick… http://www.crmacd.com/blog/2010/03/19/impressionable-brick/ http://www.crmacd.com/blog/2010/03/19/impressionable-brick/#comments Fri, 19 Mar 2010 20:15:26 +0000 chris http://www.crmacd.com/blog/2010/03/19/impressionable-brick/ Continue reading →]]> I recently had a LEGO friend who was looking for a home for her LEGO. I sadly yesterday picked it up from her house and brought it home. As I was unloading the car I saw the pieces and parts to various models she had build over the years. I had to admit it was a weird sad feeling for me to ‘assimilate’ someone’s collection into mine. Today I sit here eager to get home and play with my new ‘toys’. Out of the blue today Jesus Diaz from Gizmodo post this great article about childhood memories (http://gizmodo.com/5497481/my-childhood-memories-live-in-legos-underground-secure-vault). After reading this “Underneath all that there’s a primal connection, something that makes everyone tune into the childhoods when they see the bricks, and get back into brighter, careless moments, even at the subconscious levels.” I got a little coughed up because I instantly was reminded of why I joined TexLUG and why I travel all over the state. It’s to watch parents and kids light up when they see what they can build with LEGO. I know in that instant ‘everyone is a kid at heart’ that ‘simple carefree’ times are remembered. The parents are exactly on the same level with their kids. The best is when a parent sits down and starts building with their kids and ends up spending hours in the event kit pool (http://www.flickr.com/photos/38583693@N04/4322408737/in/set-72157623204355209/). I also like it when a kid sees the pool and makes a dive into it. It’s that childhood innocents that is slowly changing.

Studies are showing the value of family game nights and dinners have a profound impact on family relationships. I’m glad to say at least the boys and I have that to share for years to come. A perfect example was this morning I brought a motorized dinosaur to the breakfast table and we played with it before breakfast was ready. Daniel was mesmerized and Sean wanted to control it. These memories are what I get share with my kids. The thrill of the LEGO room! I can’t wait until they get older it’s only going to get better from here.

Keep childhood alive play and spend time with your kids.

]]> http://www.crmacd.com/blog/2010/03/19/impressionable-brick/feed/ 0 Onlinewagon Trend Patterns http://www.crmacd.com/blog/2010/02/09/onlinewagon-trend-patterns/ http://www.crmacd.com/blog/2010/02/09/onlinewagon-trend-patterns/#comments Tue, 09 Feb 2010 22:59:00 +0000 chris http://www.crmacd.com/blog/?p=53 Continue reading →]]> Let’s see the trends here… BBS, AOL, Hotmail, Yahoo, Blogging, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Buzz… anyone else see the pattern? It’s just the same as before. Different companies always trying to solve some ‘problem’ the previous company apparently didn’t. But if you look closer you’ll find that they are all the same. Communication with more bandwidth usage each time.

]]> http://www.crmacd.com/blog/2010/02/09/onlinewagon-trend-patterns/feed/ 0 The structure of my classes… http://www.crmacd.com/blog/2009/12/10/the-structure-of-my-classes/ http://www.crmacd.com/blog/2009/12/10/the-structure-of-my-classes/#comments Thu, 10 Dec 2009 08:40:10 +0000 chris http://www.crmacd.org/classes/blog/?p=79 Continue reading →]]> I’ve had a lot of complaints about the volume of work given. I’ve even taken criticism from other instructors that I “attempt to do too much during the semester.” There is a reason for that. It is simple. It’s what I do in my day job. I write software, not every single day, but most of my time is spent writing software. So the class is structured to cover both the academics and the real life. From the book assignments every class – to get you programming more often and to give you, the student, a brace as you learn the language. The semester long group project that is by no means meant to be easy. The coding we do in class on the projector are essentially code reviews. The tests are geared for both the school needs and yours, some of you are book learners other are not thus the 50% multiple guess and 50% coding. The coding section of the tests, if you think about it are like bug patching. Very little time to start and finish a problem from the beginning. Finally, everything is due the last day of ‘class’ model is designed to get you thinking about your own time management practices. Those that turn in what they complete as they finish it (think SVN commits) get their results faster and know their grade in the class as they go along. Those that don’t and wait well the code, and for the most part the grade, reflects the rush they needed to turn everything in. Interestingly enough this article from Joel on Software titled Capstone projects and time management just confirmed why I’ve structured the classes the way I have.

]]> http://www.crmacd.com/blog/2009/12/10/the-structure-of-my-classes/feed/ 0 Full Circle Web Browsing #1 http://www.crmacd.com/blog/2009/06/26/full-circle-web-browsing-1/ http://www.crmacd.com/blog/2009/06/26/full-circle-web-browsing-1/#comments Fri, 26 Jun 2009 15:29:09 +0000 chris http://www.crmacd.com/blog/?p=44 Continue reading →]]> I was looking at the latest news about what is going on and was reading about Nada. I happened to glance and read something about maskups. It was related to this picture on Wired about artist called Girl Talk. While looking for the music on YouTube I kept getting the standard maintenance message. This lead me to twitter to see if there was any ‘buzz’ about it being down. I glanced and the friend feed and since I’ve met and I used to read Robert Scoble who now works at Rackspace where I used to work. This lead me to Traveling Geeks. Followed by not recognizing the geek behind Pop17.  Finally leads me to these great photos by Dina Goldstein called Fallen Princesses. I find the last image with Jasmine really striking considering what is currently going on. It’s interesting the mashups and cross linking can lead us to in this tangled thing we called the world wide web.

]]> http://www.crmacd.com/blog/2009/06/26/full-circle-web-browsing-1/feed/ 0 From Iridium to Chemical Oxygen Generators… http://www.crmacd.com/blog/2008/11/07/from-iridium-to-chemical-oxygen-generators/ http://www.crmacd.com/blog/2008/11/07/from-iridium-to-chemical-oxygen-generators/#comments Fri, 07 Nov 2008 21:40:52 +0000 chris http://www.crmacd.com/2008/11/07/from-iridium-to-chemical-oxygen-generators/ So I started reading about…

It’s amazing what you learn in 10 minutes.

]]> http://www.crmacd.com/blog/2008/11/07/from-iridium-to-chemical-oxygen-generators/feed/ 0 Card games in the classroom… http://www.crmacd.com/blog/2007/11/25/card-games-in-the-classroom/ http://www.crmacd.com/blog/2007/11/25/card-games-in-the-classroom/#comments Sun, 25 Nov 2007 17:38:58 +0000 chris http://www.crmacd.com/2007/11/25/card-games-in-the-classroom/ Continue reading →]]> So I’ve been criticized before for having my computer science students play poker in class. I usually have some type of card game in my beginning level programming classes I teach. Blackjack, poker, or some other card based problem/simulation/game is usually a semester long project. I think it is and excellent example of using some basic CS related skills regardless of the language it is programmed in. It’s great to see there is actually a group that supports this and more importantly has some very significant people backing it. I personally am not very good at poker however I always enjoy a good game.

]]> http://www.crmacd.com/blog/2007/11/25/card-games-in-the-classroom/feed/ 1 Projects… http://www.crmacd.com/blog/2007/08/29/projects/ http://www.crmacd.com/blog/2007/08/29/projects/#comments Wed, 29 Aug 2007 11:29:31 +0000 chris http://www.crmacd.com/2007/08/29/projects/ Continue reading →]]> So all the big projects at work have been keeping me a little busier than expected. In the last month we completely moved to a new house. So there has been even more delay in the projects I originally had planned. Baby steps are need in these times I guess. I started another semester teaching. Coming to the realization that I have been ‘teaching’ college classes for over 6-7 years now is kind of hard to believe. It’s even hard to believe I’ve been out of high school for 10 years. We recently had our reunion and while it was nice to see my classmates … something was very different. Hard to describe really. I personally was very disappointed. I have accomplished quite a bit in the last 10 years and am very grateful for everything I have. However, I can’t help but wonder if I could do even more in the next decade. Only time will tell…

]]> http://www.crmacd.com/blog/2007/08/29/projects/feed/ 0 New Year Larger Projects http://www.crmacd.com/blog/2007/04/20/new-year-larger-projects/ http://www.crmacd.com/blog/2007/04/20/new-year-larger-projects/#comments Fri, 20 Apr 2007 06:26:35 +0000 chris http://www.crmacd.com/2007/04/20/new-year-larger-projects/ Continue reading →]]> So last time I wrote an entree I was in the middle of a very large project at work. It was pretty big… big enough to end up in Wired magazine. It was weird seeing my work as a published article in a magazine I normally read. The success of this of course led to larger projects which have kept we working 12+ hour days at work. The whole life/work balance has really been off. Thankfully, I have a partner who understands — I love what I do. I’ve also been busy working on a museum exhibit. Hard to believe. I helped design and build a museum exhibit. I’m also exploring some serious media encoding thanks to my new Apple TV. Which spawned me starting up a small on the side software business. We’ll have to see where it goes from here. Lately I’ve been doing some traveling. A definite change of pace.

All in all life is good. Now if only I could get my ToDo list a little smaller.

]]> http://www.crmacd.com/blog/2007/04/20/new-year-larger-projects/feed/ 0 Side Effects… http://www.crmacd.com/blog/2006/10/13/side-effects/ http://www.crmacd.com/blog/2006/10/13/side-effects/#comments Fri, 13 Oct 2006 07:57:32 +0000 chris http://www.crmacd.com/2006/10/13/side-effects/ Continue reading →]]> Been a little busy with life in general. Work, work, work, LEGO user group, and such. I have started to notice I do not code as nearly as often as I used to. I miss it.

As a side effect I’ve begun to question decisions made in the past. We all do it. We wonder if we ever really learned from our mistakes. I can safely say I have learned from most.

As a result of the project we embarked on at work. I have noticed others around me get… well tired. The quality of product our team used to put out has changed.

I noticed that the more and more our LEGO user group does the more and more opportunities present themselves. We are going to do a very cool museum activity – display next year. Makes we wonder where the lines need to be drawn. There is such a thing as too much of a good thing.

I recently questioned a decision I made in college – not to take a job as a faculty member. I still kick myself. I know I would have my Ph.D. by now. Now I do not know when that will ever happen.

I just do not know where things are headed and right now… I am just not comfortable with the side effects.

]]> http://www.crmacd.com/blog/2006/10/13/side-effects/feed/ 3 Quote… http://www.crmacd.com/blog/2005/12/24/quote/ http://www.crmacd.com/blog/2005/12/24/quote/#comments Sat, 24 Dec 2005 08:44:13 +0000 chris http://crmacd.dyndns.org/~christopher/includes/blog/?p=17

What is the world? That which you make it. What you make it, is it beautiful?
Christopher MacDougald

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