Imported From Tumblr

This book is dedicated, in respect and admiration, to the spirit that lives in the computer. I think that it’s extraordinarily important that we in computer science keep fun in computing. When it started out, it was an awful lot of fun. Of course, the paying customers got shafted every now and then, and after a while we began to take their complaints seriously. We began to feel as if we really were responsible for the successful, error-free perfect use of these machines. I don’t think we are. I think we’re responsible for stretching them, setting them off in new directions, and keeping fun in the house. I hope the field of computer science never loses its sense of fun. Above all, I hope we don’t become missionaries. Don’t feel as if you’re Bible salesmen. The world has too many of those already. What you know about computing other people will learn. Don’t feel as if the key to successful computing is only in your hands. What’s in your hands, I think and hope, is intelligence: the ability to see the machine as more than when you were first led up to it, that you can make it more. ...

brucesterling: Adapted from a talk by Massimo Banzi, co-founder of Arduino, presented at World Maker Faire 2011 in New York. 1. Don’t make something you don’t use yourself. 2. Know who you are making it for. 3. Know what you want out of it. 4. Make projects, not platforms. 5. Respect the intelligence of the beginner. 6. Experts are not the best advisors when you want to make tools for beginners. ...

thecodinglove: /* by chrisbodhi */

npm view MODULE | grep version:

iamdanw: Confusion / Anxiety / Resistance / Frustration / False Starts / Change / Vision / Skills / Incentives / Resources / Action Plan (via A Framework for Thinking About Systems Change · Intense Minimalism)

Good software is approachable. It can be understood completely in independent, easy pieces. You don’t need to understand everything before you can understand anything. Good software is consistent. It lets you take what you’ve learned about one part and extrapolate it to the rest. It doesn’t self-contradict. It is parsimonious, avoiding superfluous elements. Good software explains itself. It has affordances for learning and discovery. It is role-expressive and minimizes hidden magic. ...

It wasn’t difficult, but like they say, blog about what would have helped your previous self. Presumbaly, you’re here because you have a rad bot you built using Botkit, and you’re looking for a bit of guidance on getting it out of your local environment and into the real world using Heroku. If you’re not already familiar with Heroku, or just need a refresher, check out their tutorial on deploying Node.js apps. ...