Decision time
November 29th, 2025
So its the first couple of weeks since and, behold, it is probably on of the most boring weeks of my life in recent times.
Other than the weirdest of job interviews, nothing of note to report.
However, I have made a decision about where to start on programming projects. The simplest of games, flipping of a coin. It
may sound a bit mundane but flipping an object in order to decide between two states is probably an activity as old as
humanity. Even today, many managers when faced with a decision between two directions will flip a coin if they have no
experience, knmowledge or time to make a proper informed decision. After all, when in doubt then just choose something. And
if that does not work, choose something else.
This simple activity has left its mark on history. The Chinese I Ching is based on this type of activity and has
been used for a long time and has probably changed the course of many lives. The subjects of probablilty and statistics are
still taught using coin flipping as an example. And computing in the digital age is nothing but the movement of many 1's
and 0's. Modern communication from Morse to fibre optics are based on pulses of on/off. Much of life and history are built
on this most basic of actions.
There is a lot to think about to start with, for a start the nature of randomness because computers can never be truely
random. It is often quoted on other parts of the web that the built-in features of programming languages for random
number generation are not truely random. That being said, I am not going to spend ages trying to find something close to
perfection. I just want something functional. After all, a decision between two states is used because it removes
unnecessary complication.
And one last thing, owing to the simple nature of the task the challenge will be to try and make the result as compact as
possible. A coin takes up little space so it should be fitting that my efforts should try and emulate that.
Now that the basic outline has been set, commençons!
First post, the beginning...
November 21st, 2025
I have tried making some web pages for a while now. The only thing that I have learned from the process is that I am not that good at art. This is a tad disappointing because if
there is one thing I wanted to be good at is art. I suppose a wise person must know their limitations, although there is nothing written or spoken about having to be happy about
it. At least when accepting my limits, I can remain characteristically grumpy, not too grumpy.
Three problems of creating these web pages is that:
- I am not sure that I entirely enjoy the process because it feels a bit like work. Work that I am not paid for.
- I never seem to have enough time to devote to the process.
- There always seems like something else to learn. OK in small, infrequent doses but not in large frequent chunks. And the chunks seem too frequent.
Additionally, there are many other things that I would rather be doing. One of those things I have found myself doing is brushing up on my foreign language skills on Duolingo. The
other is reacquainting myself with past skills that I have had to move on from. And finding out what I would rather be doing is important because I have had what is politely known
as a 'near miss', in fact more than one. And when the grim reaper taps one on the shoulder and gives a reminder that time is a limited commodity, there are thoughts about how
life should be lived and what really matters.
In my youth, I was always interested in the philosophies and religions of the far east. Taoism, Buddhism, Shintoism, still not too sure about Confucianism. And I remembered some
of the Japanese concepts to living. Vaguely remembered that is, it took a lot of looking up to remind myself of what they were. There is one concept that felt most appropriate to
my current predicament: Ikigai.
Basic concept of Ikigai
Ikigai is find out how to merge three factual areas to find an appropriate life path:
- Joy
-
The tasks that bring enjoyment
- Skills
- Everybody has skills but which ones are defining?
- Meaning
-
How does one apply what they can do and like to do in order to find fulfilment.
There is a book by Miralles and Garcia which is goes far further than my simple definitions but, right now, I am only interested in finding what I like to do. A bit late in life
perhaps but when I look back, it seems that I am forever working by someone else's views. I have been given descriptions of myself that I do not recognise. To quote the late Tony
Bennett, I've Gotta Be Me. Working out how to be employed by being me is a task for another time.
So, what's the result?
So, basically some self analysis is required. Here's the basic results:
- I like solving problems
- I enjoy mathematics
- I do enjoy technical things, such as working with computers
- I do like explaining things
- I like having a degree of indepenence
- I like fixing things and building things
- I like coming up with new ideas
- I have a fondness for foreign languages
I have to admit, new ideas have been few of late. The thing is, in order for this to work properly, I have to list things and situations that I find 'disagreeable':
- I don't like being given problems where the information is given in a 'piecemeal' fashon
- I dislike situations where communication is inadequate, I mean REALLY dislike it
- I do not like putting up with aggressive and/or closed-minded individuals
- I like teaching but I really dislike having to teach those that have no interest in learning
- I don't like those without my expertises trying to tell me how I should apply my expertises
- Anything that uses unnecessary jargon, buzzwords or leads to me playing 'bullcrap bingo'
So, now what?
When in doubt, start at the beginning. There are many things that I can do now, most of them are computer based. So my first step on the parth is to reacquaint myself with my long
forgotten computer programming skills. In the past, it seemed that I always had to learn a new programming language owing to a reason that somebody else came up with. While this
was necessary to take advantage of the opportunities that came my way, what I would have probably preferred is to have a solid basis in skills that stand the test of time. So my
initial forays in the return to programming will be in the holy trinity of C, C++ and Java and perhaps a pinch of assembly language programming.
With that out of the way, my first programming tasks will be written in.......bash script. Apologies for not being consistent. As I stated earlier, these HTML pages take time and
I would rather use that time productively. In essence, all HTML files are text files and scripting languages are ideal for managing text files. With knowledge of a few basic
commands in any computer programming language enables an incredible amount to be achieved. So with knowledge of a few basic commands and reference files, I have a system that can
can create HTML files from bits-and-pieces here and there. But once this is done, I will go back to do something C-based.
My failing with web-pages seems to be art and aesthetics. Rather than looking constantly for improvment, I am applying a Japenese concept known in engineering. Kaizen, the concept
of consisten small, incremental improvements. The bash script setup will allow me to test ideas quickly, those that work can be applied and those that don't can be forgotten. While
I make these steps and tests, I can appreciate and even feel proud of my current imperfect work right now, the Japanese concept of Wabi-Sabi.
Another Japanese concept is Seiryoku Zenyo, gaining the maximum result from the minimum of effort. And I am going to apply this by using Bootstrap rather than building everything
myself from scratch. After all, why make work for something that won't look as good?
Applying these principles is a good start. Progress can be made along this path. I can apply my programming skills to building these pages and then work on presentation bit-by-bit.
Things can grow from there.