Trying Koding

I've been looking around, mostly frustrated for not knowing which browser based IDE I should be using. I do believe cloud IDE's are the way of the future, but since I'm using mostly a Chromebook these days, I'm kind of forced into this option, especially since I don't really feel like modifying my OS to do a dual boot with Linux or something.
Many of the Cloud based IDE's seem either overly complicated or overly simplified. Some cost money, some don't have the language I want, there's always some little thing that keeps me from taking the plunge into signing up to try this or that solution. I just feel that there should be some kind of option for newbies that don't want to get so simple as to use the silly coding environments designed for kids. There should be an option for educated adults to begin their foray into the computing world.
I've finally decided just to go for it and sign up for a Koding account.
The first thing I notice, I can sign in with Github account, so fairly sure this means fully automated integration with a file sharing system. I really don't know how to use Github, either, so I'll have to be learning that as I go, too.
I'm going to be using Koding University (their name for documentation and guides, etc.), specifically the 'getting started with python' section. It's not like I have much experience with python, but you've got to start somewhere.
There's a glitch in the tutorial. It doesn't tell me where in the directory to save the 'hello.py' file. I'm just trying to do a 'hello world' app here, so it shouldn't be too hard to figure this out. The point of this exercise is not to learn how to program, we're just learning how to use the environment in which we will be working. It's the prerequisite to learning. If we can't get past this stage, there's nothing else we can do. So we push on.
I do like it that the execution is in a Linux terminal. I'm glad I have at least some familiarity with that. To note this should be important in the tutorial, though, the fact that we are using a Linux terminal.
Holy crap, it works! Okay. Good enough for now.

Human Machine Interface

Thinking about the success of windows software, and hardware becoming more wearable, the trend is pretty clear, we are integrating technology into our experience, even into our bodies. We'll be able to be anywhere in the world we need to be. Watching this Nova ScienceNow video helps to show augmented reality, telepresence, cybernetics is where we're going. It's not just science fiction. But what we believe to be possible is limited to what we believe human nature is and what we think the nature of reality is. What happens as we play around with this technology is we learn new things about ourselves and the world we inhabit. The end of the video is quite fascinating, as it is about using ourselves as the computer in a network. It's about seeing humans as information processors and putting them to more efficient use as part of a larger network.

Cultural Evolution

We must keep in mind the evolving culture that is simultaneously the cause of and beneficiary of communications technologies. It's the reason why we're doing what we're doing.

https://soundcloud.com/onbeing/teilhard-de-chardins-planetary

Personal Learning Networks

What should edtech developers be trying to focus on? Connecting people with common interests. They will naturally specialize based on their own interests rather than forcing them first to conform to a set of standards dictated from a top down approach. So rather than first expecting everyone to think the same way and then later on ask them to pick a specialization, let them ask the questions they are naturally curious about and allow general knowledge filter in more organically. As globalization continues, it becomes ever more important that we have a population filled with individuals, capable of cultivating their own perspectives and approaches to the problems that stimulate their imaginations.

Extended Mind

What is computer science, anyway? What it means to create a program is to create a logical structure, a flow chart for decisions. In the end it is a way of replicating and automating our own thought processes. However it can be much more powerful in terms of the brute force and memory manipulations. It involves all manner of processing designed to extend the capacity of human reason. Instruments can be used to gather information, and then we can process it and disseminate it where it is needed. Fundamentally, though, whatever interest we as human beings have for information is judged by our own necessity. In the state of the world now, we already have too much information available to us. What we need at this point has more to do with making all of that information already available into something practically meaningful to us. But any technology is just a technology; it has to serve a purpose. So on the one hand, we need a single coherent worldview. On the other hand we need some kind of plan to cultivate a life worth living. Other than that, we need networks of people to share our past experiences and dreams for the future. I think the answer then, is in the network itself. 

Signal to Noise

Once upon a time, information was scarce. Now we need filters to eliminate extraneous garbage. It's still about communications, but its about recognizing what we're trying to take in versus what we're trying to put out. We need to sift through it all, and express our intentions clearly. Maybe we can use computers to a lot of this sorting on our behalf. Maybe we can even get the computer to do some thinking for us. What are we trying to learn? What are we trying to teach? 

Open Source Software

A 2001 documentary covering the history of open source software movement. 

"Revolution OS (GNU, Linux, FOSS)"

Distractions

It's easy to get distracted from the task at hand. And there are indeed some matters which are more important than programming computers, so it's not really appropriate to call all of them 'distractions', but given that I don't have a better word for it, I'll just stick with it. If we understand that our lives should be organized by priorities, and these priorities are roughly what Abraham Maslow covered as he developed a hierarchy of needs. I believe doing computer science has much to do with actualizing our potential as human beings, but it is fairly high on the pyramid. Those things which are more fundamental have to be addressed first, so I think we should do that, getting them out of the way, so that when we do sit down to do some coding, we won't have anything else weighing on our minds and interfering with the creative process.

Reservations

I was very interested in computers in my youth, but then life happened. I got distracted by other things. By the time I got back to it everything had changed. And I think that's a danger with the field, there's no way to know everything about it because everything is constantly changing, even within a small domain of it. The whole thing can be very intimidating. And that's me who had an early exposure to it. I can't imagine what the prospect would look like if I would never have had those early experiences. And I did take an intro class not so long ago to act as a refresher course for me. Even still, the more you learn, the more you learn that there is to learn. I think to come at computer science, one has to become comfortable with being a perpetual novice, relatively speaking.

Past Challenges

I have had a great number of problems worrying about which OS I want to use in the process of creating new programs, as this effects which IDE I would use and how or where I would store any files. The concern has much to do with flexibility across platforms, and recently the tech scene has given rise to online development options. I have hope that learning to use something like codeanywhere can free me up from many of these sorts of concerns, as it is a browser based coding environment and should therefore be OS agnostic.

Current Objective

I want to learn more about Linux. This includes playing around with different distros and learning to use the command line interface. I would also like to learn to use Python as a scripting language, as well as any other language that would help me make the most of the Linux environment.

Blog Purpose

This is a new blog for me. I imagine that it will be more of the character of what blogging was originally created to do. Part of that is content, since I intend to use it to track progress in a budding computer science hobby. The other side is the form of it, since I intend not to complicated it very much. I want to keep it as simple as I can in order not to detract from the fact that it is just a bunch of personal notes and not for popular consumption.

First Post

Hello World.