Dingfelder.org

Day 13 of 30 (in 30 days of Geek)…

– How did you become such a geek? Career? Personal interest?

Definately personal interest, as I have been a geek since birth 🙂

I was an avid reader as a kid, read all the si-fi books in my jr-high library and started dabbling with computers at the same time (we had trs-80s at our school and also a commodore 64),  that would haave been in 1983.

my first real app though (basic) was a phonebook on apple II-e.  (1983 or 1984)

My passion in highschool though was music (saxophone), reading, and AD&D, rather than computers.  (I took a hiatus for about 4 yrs where I didnt do much with computers) but then started dabbling again in while working on my undergrad degree.

After my undergrad degree (started as a msic major but finished with a BS in Leisure Studies – Parks and Recreation specialising in Travel and Tourism Managament) I woke up and realised that I needed a career change if I wanted to pay the bills.  So, I went back to school and did 2 yrs of computer courses (c, c++, shell,  and cobol programming, linux administration, web stuff) and in parallel got accepted into a masters degree (MPA) from NC State (Masters in Public Administration concentrating in Information Systems). And while all that was going on, I got a job as a software tester for a couple years, then moved into software development in the mid 90s, and have never looked back.

Then I met my wife Linda, who is a part time geek (she plays online computer games and reads nerdy stuff) and that brought me eventually to New Zealand where I am now.

So that is the geek story 🙂

Day 12 of 30 (in 30 days of Geek)…

– What area do you want to expand your skills into?

One area I would like to focus on is plug-ins and OSGI.  Specifically, I would like to spend more time looking at the Eclipse RCP system, and implement some plug-ins.   I have worked though some hello world examples, but found those a bit limited, and would like more.

Luckily, I am moving to a new job next month, and the new system is designed around an OSGI architecture using JMS (which I used at Vodafone) and heavily uses plug-ins.   More about that in the future.

Additionally, I recent joined the apple developer network, and bought a macbook

and an ipod touch with plans do develop some iOS apps.

Day 10 of 30 (in 30 days of Geek)…

– Favourite hacking environment – music, light, seating, etc

First of all, I dislike overhead fluorescent lights.

• The high frequency flickering drives me crazy and they really cause bad reflection off monitors.
• My eyesight is bad enough without adding that nonsense.
• So, in corporate environments, I prefer to unscrew the bulbs to save energy and stop them annoying me.

Seating wise, I prefer a nice upright chair.

• My favourite?  The Herman Miller Aaron chair:

• Had one of those when I was working at Vodafone .

What else do you need to work productively?

• Freedom from distractions.  Unfortunately, most of us have to work in cubes, even though a lot of research shows that (the increased noise) hurts productivity.  Read this article to see what I mean:  http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000043.html

• Here is a really good layout to help productivity
• If I am really annoyed by multiple conversations around me, I put on earphones and listen to music.  More about that another day

Cheers

— Ding

not sure if anyone noticed a delay in my recent posts (is anyone out there?) but I was away for a bit due to:

• Went to LA for 2 weeks with the family for Thanksgiving
• Came back and had too much work before xmas
• Had a week off for Xmas break
• Have been living without a kitchen for a month… in the middle of renovating my old one.
• Just bought a ride on mower and am in the middle of preparing the 1/2 acre test plot for growing truffles
• Now I’m back and am trying to finish a bunch of work before I switch to a new job. (more about that soon)

Cheers,

Ding

Day 10 of 30 (in 30 days of Geek)…

– Picture, screenshot and specifications of your primary Computer.

My 1st work PC is an HP desktop (nothing special), running Ubuntu 10.10, dual screen with 19″ and 22″ LCDs.

the 2nd PC is also a HP desktop, running XP, with a 19″ LCD

The are connected via Synergy, so I can drive XP and Linux using the same mouse across all windows.

Sitting to the left, just peeking into the photo, is my 13″ macbook for music and testing our apps on mac.

Interestingly, the white thing on the desk in front of the PCs is a Wildlife Tracking GPS collar for a Moose 🙂

Day 8 of 30 (in 30 days of Geek)…

What OS/distribution do I run?

At work, I do about 60/40 between Linux (Ubuntu 10.10) and Windows (XP pro)

With windows I do:

• MS Word, Excel and Visio for company stuff
• Outlook for email
• Build windows installers and test software on windows

With linux, I do

• Writing software (mostly java, some C++)
• Testing software for linux
• Writing python code for automating tasks
• debugging / logging of tests and serial IO

At home I use Windows 7 (for games and email), Mac OSX (for media and iOS development) and Linux whenever I get bored 🙂

Day 8 of 30 (in 30 days of Geek)…

What is my preferred method of communication with humans?

I enjoy direct personal communication where possible.  Talking allows less confusion and direct response.  Skype is great for remote conversations.

But on the other hand, email allows you to think about what you are saying and lets you gather your thoughts so you dont forget things.

Having said that, I also use (yahoo) IM a lot.   But I do not twitter.  (I created a twitter account to reserve my name but dont use it)   And for social media, I must confess that I primarily now use facebook to keep in touch with old friends.

— Ding

This is Day 7 of 30 (in 30 days of Geek)…

– Preferred smartphone platform. And which do you use?

I used to own a palm pilot.  I really wanted to keep going with that OS but frankly, the interface just did not keep up with the times.

I have tried Windows CE and found it disappointing at best.

Recently, I have had the pleasure of using a iPhone, and very much enjoyed it.  Very intuitive to use, slick UI, lots of apps, nice hardware form factor.

But, I am disappointed by apple’s restrictive application model.  I would prefer the Android OS for apps.  and for that reason I suspect I will end up with an Android OS Tablet or Pad eventually.

But I broke down and bought an iPod last week:

But which phone do I actually use?   Recently, I have not carried a phone with me, and I have been very happy not to carry one.

If I HAD to buy one, I suspect I would buy an iPhone, but I might take an Android based on the cost.

This is Day 6 of 30 (in 30 days of Geek)…

Primary geek fuel (snacks/drinks)

I really like Coffee.  My personal favourite is using an Aeropress

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AeroPress)

The coffee they make is much better than a drip maker, and a lot less hassle than an espresso machine.  And no yucky coffee grinds floating in your cup like you get with a french press.

When I am not drinking coffee, I am firm believer in good water, or coke zero if I really feel the need for a cold carbonated beverage.   Unless it is after work, when I do enjoy a home brew beer or a single malt scotch.   But more about that another time.

Snacks?   I do like pizza, and I do have a sweet-tooth.  Speaking of pizza, I worked a long time ago as a pizza manager (for Pizza Hut and Little Caesers) and ate pizza every day for about 3 years.  (But yes, I still like it… I am just very picky in my pizza selection).

Cheers,

— Ding

This is Day 5 of 30 (in 30 days of Geek)…

Today’s post is about “Quick nifty hacks you’re proud of”.

I find I spend a lot of time whipping up quick little hacks, and then reuse them later in real applications if they worked well.

One great example of a quick hack I did is a Serial port sniffer, in python.

I have added code for your amusement 🙂

Step 1:

take 3 FTDI USB serial modules like this:

Step 2, wire up the 3 modules:

• chip 1 –> wire up to your serial device using wires like a normal rs232 app
• chip 2 –> (RX sniffer line) connect the input lines from this chip to the RX line from chip1
• chip 3 –> (TX sniffer line) connect the input lines from this chip to the TX line from chip1

Chip 1 is the main connection from your PC to the serial device.  Your application should work with just this connection.    Chips 2 and 3 are just “listening” to the data that is flowing through chip1

Now… plug all 3 lines into your computer, and fire up this python application.

As data passes from your serial device through chip1, the sniffer application then sees data that it hears on the RX line and TX lines, and prints it to screen (color coded)  and a logfile.

link to source code