The Right Glue
September 2007
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The Right Glue
By Dean
(2007-09-29 12:31:48)
Let me tell you a little story about glue.
Last week I visited Waterloo, Ontario on vacation from work in order to visit my friends who still live there. In the middle of the week, I went to the Imprint production night, in which the University of Waterloo student newspaper, Imprint, is created.
During this night I met with Michael Davenport (hereafter referred to as "D-pr0n" or "Davenpr0n"), an ex-Imprinter I had known from my years as a student. Davenpr0n and I were in Tim Hortons at the time, discussing the things that we do and the things that had happened since I graduated and moved to New Brunswick.
Eventually the topic got changed to computer science. Though D-pr0n is a physicist in name, he is truly a mathematician at heart and therefore has a keen understanding of things computer science (like everyone should — but that's another topic).
I forget exactly what it is that he said, but he was talking about a student in software engineering with whom he had spoken. Davenpr0n, keen on programming, had asked the student her opinion about C#, Java and other similar languages (specifically, languages which "compile" to an intermediate language other than machine code) and their benefits against true compiled languages. (I may not have the exact topic right. Davenport needs to correct me if I'm wrong.)
The point is this third-year software engineering student did not understand what Davenpr0n had asked because she did not understand the differences between intermediate-language runtimes and machine code. This did not particularly surprise me, but it is a bit scary thinking that this student might go on to write real-time software for managing and monitoring a factory, power plant, space shuttle, aut cetera without a proper understanding of how the software is working at its lowest level.
At this point, Davenport asked me, "Did you know that most people don't know there are different kinds of glue?" At first glance, that seems like a rather major segue; however, the implications of this are rather profound.
When people need to attach two things together, they generally think of the problem as just that: attaching two things together. This would be fine if there were only one kind of glue that equally attached all things of all types together without needing any special considerations. The reality is the problem is fully defined by the properties of the objects that need to be attached together. Assuming glue is, in fact, the correct method of adhesion, then the type, surface area, mass and many other properties of the objects being attached dictate the type of glue needed.
Some glues attach more readily to porous materials such as wood and paper, some attach to smoother things like plastic, and some to smoother-still surfaces like glass. Some glues dry immediately, some take days to dry completely. Sometimes in order to firmly attach two objects, two different glues need to be used.
But this isn't a discussion about glues per se. The lesson here is in order to do something properly you need to understand what you're doing. Someone who thinks he can attach a glass marble to a smooth, metal surface using Elmer's paper glue will find that the marble will not remain attached for very long. This fictional person did not understand fully the problem of connecting the two objects and therefore failed before he even began.
This is true with any software Davenport's software-engineering friend creates. She cannot create effective and robust software without a firm understanding of the tools she uses to create them. One cannot attach two objects together without understanding the differences between glues. One cannot create anything, in fact, without a solid understanding of the tools needed to create.
Noticing the amount of time we had spent discussing glue, D-pr0n and I went our separate ways. I went back to Imprint to continue on my crusade against bad grammar, and he went home to get some well deserved rest.
And so, I have chosen the name for this web site: The Right Glue. Without knowing the right glue for the job, one is doomed to fail before one even begins.
Comment on this post (2 comments so far)
Latest comments:
Now with actual text by The Baron (2007-10-07 19:48:36)
Part of The Knack... by Tali (2009-04-14 17:09:03)
Need a name
By Dean
(2007-09-27 10:15:36)
This blag needs a name. It needs a name so bad. What am I going to name my blag? Well, a related and more important question would be about what is the blog?
Well, I was thinking about just that. I don't want to do the whole "one post every six days" thing anymore. With this blog I want to post more irregularly. Why post once every six days when sometimes neat stuff happens all the time and other times neat stuff never happens? I would rather have a larger number of small posts that dwell on one and only one topic than have a smaller number of large posts that jump between topics like a kid with ADHD with an unlimited supply of pixie sticks. The reality of the situation, though, is I'll end up having a smaller number of smaller posts. We all know how lazy I am with stuff like blogs.
Also, I want to be more in-your-face again like I used to be with UC. Back when I was with UC I used to talk about politics and other stuff like that. When I moved to Oh Two I toned myself down a lot. I stopped giving my opinions on things that really matter and started only blogging about cool forms of entertainment and occationally new technologies. Basically with Oh Two I just talk about cool things instead of everything.
Obviously I want to avoid above all else is turning this site into a Live Journal wannabe "I'm so emo :(" blog online diary. While it is acceptable to mention things that happen to me in real life in passing, I do not want to make that even a semblance of the primary purpose of my site.
I was also thinking of making this into some kind of tech blog, in which I dedicate some time to finding out and using some new tech and then reporting on my findings. The problem with this is I'm nowhere near the edge of technology and I also don't have very much desire to be on that edge. I can still do things like blag about interesting programming languages and indeed programming paradigms as I see them. I do enjoy haxing a great deal and I find that, barring the whole OMGWTF programming contest discussion on Oh Two, I tend to not talk about it because so few people have any idea about what I'm talking.
And another thing I'd like to get from this new blog is readers. I'm aware that Tex and qedi and Ken will read my blog no matter how boring or stupid it gets, but having a readership in the ten-to-dozen range is a bit low. Obviously I can't have a very large readership since this is hosted on my home PC with my one-megabit-up connection. But getting a reader outside of the people I have met in real life isn't such a grand goal, is it?
So, with that in mind, the blog needs a name. "This is the title of this web page" would be pretty good if this were a meta blog (i.e. a blog about making web sites), but since I'm not really in that business it's just tacky at best.
I really don't know what to call it. I need help. I've had a lot of blogs in the past and historically I haven't had any trouble naming them. HLSE, HLias, The Next Evolution, Unconventional Conformity and Oh Two all seemed obvious when I named them. I've considered calling this one some variant of Unconventional Conformity, like More Unconventional Conformity or something, but that doesn't really sit with me well. I left UC behind two years ago and I don't really have any desire to come back to it (regardless of how awesome its name is).
The blog software that I've written itself has a theme all its own. If you look at the footnote and the result of a search that returns no posts, you'll see that I've already envisioned a rather abrasive style. I have no desire to change that kind of tone at any level in either the backend or the posts themselves. In that regard, "Some kind of blog" or similar title would fit it rather nicely.
Also notice this post itself. Let's be meta for a second and think about it. It's a huge (by my standards) post about one thing: a name. Everything in this post relates either directly or indirectly to one central concept. Those of you who know me know that this is nearly absurd coming from me. This is the style I want to use in the future. One post, one topic. I have yet to come up with even an example blog name that would convey this kind of style.
Well, the point is I'll be thinking about it and hopefully soon I will have it worked out. The sooner the better, too, since I don't want to continue dealing with Oh Two any longer.
Comment on this post (3 comments so far)
Latest comments:
General commenting kind of.. yeah.. you get it. by The Baron (2007-10-07 20:13:30)
What? by Dean (2007-10-07 21:34:46)
Response by The Baron (2007-10-08 19:09:21)
October 2007 (Next)
This is some kind of footnote. This webpage is awesome and can be viewed in any browser. Even ones that suck ass like Safari and Firefox. Isn't that awesome? This site is best viewed with browsers that aren't maximized on large-resolution displays (> 1024 pixels in width). But then again, if you are running a large resolution and browsing maximized, then you're a terrible person so you don't really deserve to see this site at its finest. Jerk. I mean, seriously. I spend all this time making a nice site and your silly browsing habits ruin its look. That's really cold, man. If you're using IE6, then in order to see the cool avatar effects you need to enable JavaScript. No rights reserved by Dean Whelton (who is awesome) of any of the content, images, design, backend or electrons used in this site. Steal at your convenience. None of it is worth stealing anyway, so there. I have even made an RSS feed for more efficient theft of my intellectual property: CLICK IT NOW!!! Now, don't say I'm not generous. I guess if you want to know more about me, you can visit the about page. It's not really an about page, though. It's just one of the first posts. I don't feel like making a real about page. You can contact me, too. If you feel like it. Are you really wasting time reading this? Go outside or something.