Divide And Conquer

School has started and I've been very busy with projects, but haven't had time to write. And in fact there's not a lot to write about. Sure, I've been working on a lot of cool stuff, but the big picture hasn't come into focus.

Along with getting a grip on the Adobe tools (Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash/AS), there's the programming.

One of the best insights that I've got so far is how powerful pencil and paper can be. Storyboarding, brainstorming and sketching use cases are a great way to think about a project from all angles. If you sit down and start coding without any clear direction, you are wasting a lot of thought on design and abstract principles, when you need to focus that brainpower on making sensible code. Working this way, a lot of coding design patterns start to emerge before you even begin coding.

And maybe that's the one bigger picture that is coming into view: learning to divide and conquer is vital to any project, even if it's just a one man show.

Progress

Technology is advancing, but is it really advancing as fast as it seems?

I might come across as a bit of a Luddite here, but I think that a lot of the emerging software and hardware is ephemeral. And maybe that's the way consumer electronics has to be. In the pre-dawn of the internet, software was developed for aerospace, medicine and government. It had to be robust, provable and enduring.

The landscape has changed completely. Today, developers have embraced the ephemeral nature of apps, iPads and cell phones. They're not worried about building enduring artifacts and code that will be solid and transparent for a generation.

Perhaps hindsight is always myopic. There are plenty of criticisms that judge the UNIX philosophy as being hackish; a virus that spread the "Worse is Better" philosophy of the the open source movement in general. But today, the tools have been honed, pruned and documented so well that it all works together as an organic whole. An organic whole that can be extended or repurposed in ever new ways.

It is this sense of growth that seems lacking in the software and hardware landscape of today. Code and hardware now go into the landfill in a few years by default. Without the organic usefulness of command-line programs, standalone apps have no value beyond a very short life-cycle.

In a way, I think it's what had to happen. For most consumers, the only interface that will get used is the one that is blatantly obvious. They feel smart when the computer doesn't make them feel stupid. And so user interface must appeal to the lowest common denominator. I just feel a tiny shiver of remorse when I see the amount of energy poured into technology that will be junked and forgotten in months or years.

Git Whyto

There are plenty of Git howto's on the internet, instead I think many people need a Git whyto. This guide is specifically focused on using Git and GitHub for personal projects like writing, publishing and creative work.

1. Complete Content Control

Git basically tracks any folder you tell it to. As you make changes to files, you can commit the changes, roll back the changes or create branches to try out alternate paths without messing with the main branch. You then push these changes to GitHub, which is simply a mirror of the files on-disk.

2. Responsibile Collaboration

It's easy to add others as collaborators on your project, and easy to see what, when and how much they changed. Any changes that you don't agree with are easily rolled back to previous versions.

3. Tracking Intentions

Each time you commit a change, you write a short description of the change. This helps you to get a sense of where the project is at, what you were thinking, and what still needs work.

4. Scalable Projects

Personal projects start out small, but there is a chance one of them may catch fire and become a big idea. Git works well with a single contributor or thousands of contributors. And if the project takes off, you will have the track record of the entire project right from the first commit.

5. Universal Appeal

Git was designed for software projects but it really has many compelling features for any project, from thesis to portfolio to presentation. System-wide backup plans like Time Machine are great on the large scale, Git allows the same kind of snapshots on a per-folder basis but adds the ability to merge, clone and modify these snapshots across many computers.

One slight problem with GitHub is that the free version only allows public projects (view and download).

If your project is private you can always just use git on your personal computer, zip the folder and back it up to Google Docs. You can then unzip the folder to any other computer and it will work with git exactly as it should. Or, alternatively, you could keep your master on an external hard drive and merge changes from your laptop, desktop and work computers without a problem.