Small Science

This article confirms a hobby horse I've had for some time, that big science is too much loved, and small science is neglected as a result:'

I am a big fan of Small Science. In spite of the riches unearthed by Big Science in the fields of biology and physics during the last fifty years, historically speaking much of scientific progress has come from small groups or individuals working with relatively cheap equipment and resources. For instance consider discoveries like the structure of DNA, the structure of proteins, nuclear fission, the cosmic microwave background radiation and the transistor. All of these have been the beneficiaries of Small Science. Even in those cases where large organizations have supported these developments, the key findings themselves have come from small groups left alone to pursue their own interests. The work done by these groups benefited from a maximum of flexibility and a minimum of bureaucratic interference.

More at SciAm: In praise of Small (and Cheap) Science

Cognitive Surplus is Real, Waterfall Swing Edition

"Shown at the World Maker Faire in 2011, the device is a swing set capable of accommodating one or two people using it at a time. What makes it interesting, is that water comes out of the top support bar, forming a wall of water for the riders to pass through. This wall is then broken when the swing user flies through it making for a dry experience." Via Hack-A-Day.

Objective-C Overtakes C++

I was pretty harsh on C++ in my entry on that language. I even called it "crap," before saying "beginners should avoid the horror."

At one time that would have been heresy, but it seems to be trending toward conventional wisdom. As this I Programmer page shows, C++ has been overtaken by Objective-C.

Cheap Notebook Computers

I designed my study plan (in the sidebar) around cheap computers. At the time I wrote it, I thought good Linux-ready desktops were going for around $50. That wasn't much to spend if you couldn't find one in your closet.

I'm browsing Craigslist right now, and I'm kind of amazed. There are some good notebooks for less than $100. As an example:

IBM Thinkpad T43, Wi-Fi, 1.86Ghz, 1GB, Fantastic Condition - $80

I think we might be about to ubiquitous computing. From this point on computing power is approximately free. Of course, you can still drop a thousand on a new Mac notebook ... for however long that lasts.

The PHP Singularity

Coding Horror does a long piece on the awfulness of PHP. It surprised me, frankly. I saw PHP as a good low level tool. I don't see it as a high-powered or high-level computer language. And maybe that's the key. There are a lot of computer languages in the world. You can either learn one really well, and use it as your tool to attack every problem, or you can learn a few and select one for the job.

I see PHP as a simple tool for creating the simple websites that make up 80 or 90 percent of our web universe. You certainly can create a restaurant's website, complete with menu, map, and daily specials, without taxing the language. You can do an auto dealer's site, list current inventory, and take service reservations.

At some point though, PHP will top out. It will be when the things you are trying to do become a bit too data intensive and computationally demanding. If you want your auto site to have a "build your car" page, first showing a wirefrime, and then showing it in your color, etc., that could be a bit much. You probably could do it in PHP, but then you'd run into the kind of frustrations Coding Horror shares with us.

That's my perspective as a former Java programmer, coming from a world where we were carrying around a lot MORE language and complexity than we needed for simple jobs.

Alternate Paths: Ken and the MS stack

My friend Ken is learning and blogging the Microsoft software stack, check it out.

Torvalds on “throw-away cheap”

Adafruit notices an interesting bit in a BBC interview with Linus Torvalds:

"The recent launch of the Raspberry Pi, running on Linux, has attracted a lot of attention. Are you hopeful it will inspire another generation of programmers who can contribute to the Linux kernel?"

"So I personally come from a “tinkering with computers” background, and yes, as a result I find things like Raspberry Pi to be an important thing: trying to make it possible for a wider group of people to tinker with computers and just playing around.

And making the computers cheap enough that you really can not only afford the hardware at a big scale, but perhaps more important, also “afford failure”.

By that I mean that I suspect a lot of them will go to kids who play with them a bit, but then decide that they just can’t care.

But that’s OK. If it’s cheap enough, you can afford to have a lot of “don’t cares” if then every once in a while you end up triggering even a fairly rare “do care” case.

So I actually think that if you make these kinds of platforms cheap enough – really “throw-away cheap” in a sense – the fact that you can be wasteful can be a good thing, if it means that you will reach a few kids you wouldn’t otherwise have reached."

I thought I'd repeat this here, because it is what this blog's method is about. I recommend "throw-away cheap" computers that are already in your closet or garage, but as I've mentioned, the Raspberry Pi works too.

That said ... a stick-to-it-ness helps. Don't give up too soon.