Results matching “message” from Ye Olde Rad Blog III

The White House re-launched its website on Drupal. Can you believe that? Not sure why this blows my mind. In searching the web however, I see many others have also sat up and taken notice.

No doubt the White House has content to manage. Sure.

But I think the reason it's so unexpected is that Drupal is simply too cool & cutting edge for the White House .. which we normally associate with stodginess and somnolent formality.

Then there's the fact that Drupal is not an American product. It was born in Belgium, at the University of Ghent (.. as a message board for fellow-students enrolled there).

And you know how RADICAL college students can be. Downright revolutionary at times.

It could also be that we associate politicians with being less-than-honest about their true intentions .. while Drupal is open source, and therefore completely transparent. (Imagine how people might feel if Hitler were caught parading around town wearing a scarf knitted by Mother Teresa.)

Dare I mention how the government TAKES your money .. without even a thank-you note, and gives it to people who have much too much already. While Drupal, released under GPL, is better than free (as in 'free beer'), cuz it's also open source (free as in 'freedom').

The whole thing feels grossly incongruent .. as tho two vastly different worlds have collided. Matter and anti-matter. Good omen, tho .. for both the White House and Drupal.

An article posted in last week's NY Times has been gnawing at me all weekend. It cites a study performed by two Israelis & a "leading American expert on the psychology of motivation." The single-page piece is titled » "When a Parent's Love Comes with Conditions" .. or » "When 'I Love You' means 'Do as I Say'."

The article can be summed with the following quote:

"The primary message of all types of conditional parenting is that children must earn a parent's love. A steady diet of that, Rogers warned, and children might eventually need a therapist to provide the unconditional acceptance they didn't get when it counted."

Doesn't it seem odd that a study was required to determine that rationing of love & acceptance (like gasoline during a shortage) based on 'performance' .. is detrimental to children? Duh.

First, conditional love is not love. Let's call it by its real name » manipulation. And it's the worst kind of manipulation, cuz children, especially young ones, are at the mercy of their parents.

Moreover, they do not yet possess the skills necessary to recognize and defend against such insidious tactics  .. from people they're so dependent upon (for eveything).

Now, do you know anyone who enjoys being manipulated? Cuz I don't. Heck, even people who enjoy pain don't like being manipulated. Cuz it doesn't really hurt; it just feels slimy. [Speaking of slime & pain, refer to my comments about boiling a frog near the end.]

Not very difficult to tell the difference, either. Kids (who happen to be particularly sensitive) can spot a fake all-the-way across the coffee shop and will turn away .. while gravitating wholeheartedly to the genuine. You can actually observe this play out.

There are many things a parent can use as leverage to encourage (or discourage) a particular behavior. But love should never be included in the leverage toolkit. Same goes for affection & attention .. things too precious to be used as mere bargaining chips.

Withholding love & affection based on behavior is cruel. Sure, it might elicit the desired response .. in the short term. But the child will grow to resent it (.. as does anybody who's being manipulated). Used consistently and frequently enough, it will instill deep-seated feelings of inadequacy .. that may never go away. (You might even know someone like this .. with deformed self-esteem.)

Many times, when a child is acting out, I'd wager it's *because* he or she is not getting the emotional support they need (from a parent). That would be like telling a hungry child » "Stop fussing or I won't give you any food."

[ In the military, we had a saying » "The beatings will continue until morale improves." Same principle. ]

Whichever side of the great nature vs nurture debate you tend to favor, you always return to » the parents .. as the prime causal agent for how a child turns out .. whether it be on count of their genes or their parenting methods (.. or a combination of both).

We were all kids once. (Well, most of us.) So we all have many years of first-hand experience from which to derive our opinions .. of what works, and what doesn't (.. and what really suks). My point is, it's not rocket science.

Upgraded the Rad Community forums .. to » YaBB v2.4 (released a few weeks ago). The boys at YaBB have adopted a new, fast-n-furious (3-month) release cycle, which keeps me hopping.

The 'upgrade' process begins with a new/fresh/clean install of the new version .. to a new/unique directory.

I then configure the new version to make it look like the version currently in-use.

After everything looks hunky dory, and appears to be working correctly, I place both (old & new) forums in Maintenance mode and copy all the member-accounts and posts (» folders labeled /Members and /Messages) .. from old to new directories.

That's always the trickiest part, cuz there are so many files to copy (more than 15,000). Our old Shared hosting server choked on this file-transfer. The forums contain ~5K threads with 40K posts (which I'd hate to lose).

Our new VPS however, seems to be handling the load much better. And I can now work from the (powerful) Linux shell (command line).

Upgraded the Rad Community Forums to the latest version of YaBB (» v2.3.1), which was released in Jan.04. Had to wait until the mods I use were upgraded to Y.231-compatible.

No matter how many times I perform this upgrade, I always get antsy .. about the prospect of losing 40,000 posts (which would suk gigantic goose eggs).

A tech from our ISP come out today (to install wired connections, using the home's pre-existing electrical wiring). But I didn't know he was here (cuz he was working over in the main house).

Immediately after transferring some 15,000 files (to complete the upgrade), I launched the forums to test-n-see if everything was working hunky-dory.

At that very moment, the ISP dude here disconected our wireless gateway, which gave me a bizarre error I'd never seen before .. something like » "Dude, your gateway is completely trashed. Better contact your Internet Service Provider for help."

I panicked. The thought ran thru my head » "Oh my God. I screwed up the forums so bad that they trashed my router gateway .. (which is physically impossible, if you think about it) .. but you know how disorienting untimely error messages can be .. when you're already on edge.

I liked the Jay Leno Super Bowl ad best .. despite its absence of any cool computer gfx (.. perhaps because of).

It was short (20 secs), scoring points for brevity, while featuring a classic car with a classic song. Very retro.

The setting allowed me to reminisce about trips I've made up the California coast (usually to Big Sur .. where Deetjen's is the place to stay).

Most impressive was that Jay conveyed his message without using any dialogue whatsoever (his stock-in-trade). Effective communication with images-alone is more difficult than it looks.

Jay, come get me next time you decide to cruise up the coast.

As mentioned last week, here's a brief ('Radified') intro to the introductory course on Programming I've been researching » How to Design Programs (HtDP).

This entry is distilled from info contained in the Preface. If a real programmer could check my phrasing for accuracy (to ensure no glaring errors) I'd appreciate it .. cuz I'm not yet familiar with all the terminology. See here:

Everybody should learn to program! Programming teaches a variety of skills (e.g. » critical reading, analytical thinking, creative synthesis, & attention-to-detail) important to many professions.

Educators should therefore give Programming the same priority as Math or English. [ RADical statement, no? ]

The HtDP course de-emphasizes the details of programming languages in order to focus on » the design process.

Two things make this course different from other introductory courses on Programming:

1. Explicit design guidelines (comprising a 6-step process that begins with Analyzing-the-problem and concludes with Identifying-errors-thru-testing).
2. The DrScheme programming environment (which is able to grow with a student as they master more material).

Programming boils-down to two essential concepts:

1. Relating one quantity to another
2. Evaluating a relationship by substituting values for names

The Scheme programming language allows students to focus on these two basic aspects, making it the natural choice for beginners. Students are therefore able to develop complete programs during their very first session.

The boys at YaBB released a new version of their forum software » YaBB 2.3.1. I installed a copy of this new script to a temporary directory .. see here » Y.231 temp (« this link will go away when the upgrade is complete).

I used a slightly different cookie at the new forum, so it shouldn't ruin your login at the current Rad forums.

The safest way to 'upgrade' the forums .. is to install a NEW copy of the most recent version (to a new/temporary directory) .. and configure everything at/for the new forum (.. while the old forum is running unaffected).

After everything at the new forum is hunky-dory, I'll put both forums in Maintenance mode (which takes them out of service), and then copy (via the cp command from the Linux shell) the files located in /Members and /Messages .. from old to new.

I think we have about 1,500 members and nearly 40,000 posts (in some 5,000 threads). Takes a while to copy all those files.

The gang at YaBB released an updated version of their forum script » YaBB 2.3. Radified has been using this free (open source) Perl-based script since 2001.

Sounds like a significant upgrade. Lots of features added and bugs fixed. I stayed up late last night (1AM) and installed a new/clean copy.

It takes a while to dial in the new forum, but I've done it many times before, so I know the drill. All appears to have gone well, after a little glitch.

The Rad forums contain nearly 40,000 posts, in roughly 5,000 threads, some of which have accumulated more than 100,000 page views. We specialize in backing up your hard drive with a cloning program, such as Norton Ghost.

Frontline Launches New Season

In other news » tonight on PBS, Frontline airs its first program of the new season, titled » The Choice 2008, featuring an in-depth look at our presidential candidates.

I try to avoid letting much time pass without updating the home page. (Makes the site look neglected.) But I can't seem to post an entry without first 'feeling' it.

Lagging on Updates

In other words, I can't write something just for the sake of writing. (Feels phony.)

Unfortunately I haven't felt much of anything recently. Probably due to (I suspect) defense mechanisms, which protect us from "thoughts or feelings too terrible to tolerate."

Confronting the Uncomfortable

Rather than avoiding uncomfortable thoughts or feelings, I endeavor (as best possible) to orientate myself toward them (confronting them) .. uncomfortable as that might be. I feel this is the best (and fastest) way to move on.

My experience recently has been » periods of crushing pain, interspersed with periods of feeling .. nothing. While pain always suks, I know that feeling nothing is worse. (Numbness is a bad sign.)

As time passes, the painful periods become less frequent and less severe .. until (like now, for example) I'm finally back up to zero. (My head is finally back above water.)

The Dog said, "I was worried about you for a while, but you sound sound better." I'm cracking jokes again, and even making people laugh. (Good sign.)

In dealing with adversity, I've noticed two extremes. (A ditch on both sides of the road.) On one side, some hold on to pains from their past, choosing to relive them over and over (for years it seems). While others deny any past hurts at all, despite their apparent influence in their present life. Both approaches seem dysfunctional.

If someone ignores the stench emanating from their closet door, they're unlikely to clean out the manure piled inside. Same could be said for the person who periodically enjoys playing with it. Speaking of dysfunction ..

Big day tomorrow. Another journey into the vast unknown, where I have nothing to gain and everything to lose.

Distracted myself today by updating the VPS guide (while listening to Dylan), and going for a walk at the Back bay (at sunset). Hope I can sleep tonight. Think positive thoughts, of a boy with his dad.

Woke from a dream early this morning that seemed to speak a message to me. In this dream I had recently set out on a long bike-trip, joining three more-experienced riders, who were planning to rendezvous with other small groups at predetermined places/times along the way.

The ultimate destination would find a gathering of many such bikers, from many different places around the country. (This represented my first foray on such an extended trip.)

Our first stop en route was scheduled somewhere near Yosemite. Midway thru the first leg of our trip, we stopped at the home of an elderly couple (parents or friends of one of the other riders), where we ate lunch and rested on big, comfy couches.

It surprised me to hear the trip-leader say (an hour before sunset) it was time to saddle up and get back on the road .. after taking such a long break during daylight hours.

First I needed to make a call. That's when I noticed the battery on my cell was low, so I wanted to charge it for 10 minutes before heading out.

The trip-leader said something like, "If you're not smart enough to charge your phone while we're here, then that's too bad for you." (This guy seemed to be on an ego-trip. Because of his experience, I felt dependent on him, which made me very uncomfortable.)

Yes, I'm alive. (Been getting lots of mail.) This was the longest I ever went without posting an update .. short of backpacking in Yosemite for a month. Life. It gets gnarly sometimes. (You know the drill.)

I'm getting an education in the ways of the world .. the way things work .. the way things really work. Do you recall that song by Earth, Wind & Fire » Way of the World? It contains a verse:

Child is born
With a heart of gold
Way of the world
Makes his heart grow cold

I know a little 'bout where that song is coming from.

Don't want to leave the wrong impression, cuz we are good. Tho some are calling for their pound of flesh. Looking behind, I have no butt left. (Just a ragged stump.)

Friends say I'm being naive. And I can see they're right. (I appreciate straight-talking friends, who have the courage to say things I might not wanna hear.)

I'm also learning that *everybody* has their problems .. even people who seem like their lives are perfect .. especially people who seem like their lives are perfect. I'm talking about BIG problems. Problems that take years to overcome .. or are never fully surmounted.

I've noticed more people approaching me now .. to share extremely sensitive things .. and yes, I can relate. Maybe they sense this, which is why they feel comfortable approaching me with such heart-wrenching stories.