This past week I had a bit of time in-between other work and projects to develop a quick prototype for Eileen Eagan’s Portland Women’s History Trail in Portland (Maine). To put things together quickly and ensure cross-platform compatibility, I used the old standby, jQUery Mobile and threw in a little jekyll to allow simple development-side templates.

It was a few weeks ago that I found I might need to travel around the state for work, visiting many towns of Maine from Wells to Fort Kent. At the time I was also reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and thought, how fun it would be to travel by bike or motorcycle across Maine in the summer. Out in the air, experiencing summer. Well, one thing led to another and here I am working on fixing up the 1982 London Roadster that has sat in my garage since 2005 when I took the engine out and apart.

Each time I teach Computer Networks (COS 460/540) the last two programming projects focus on development of a TCP/IP protocol. In setting the stage for the assignments, I pose as the customer who has an existing software package that I want to network enable. The developer (students) I’m looking to hire are being “contracted” to develop both a server program and the associated socket-level protocol that will network-enable my application. This semester the service was a distributed game matching service.

Such There Be, Who when They Have Done a Good Turn to Any, Are Ready to set them on the score for it, and to require retaliation. Others there be, who though they stand not upon retaliation, to require any, yet they think with themselves nevertheless, that such a one is their debtor, and they know as their word is what they have done. Others again there be, who when they have done any such thing, do not so much as know what they have done; but are like unto the vine, which beareth her grapes, and when once she hath borne her own proper fruit, is contented and seeks for no further recompense.

Drawing on paper tends to be the fastet way for me to work on ideas. It works well when working alone or with others. The speed of pencil on paper is simply unmatched with digital forms. The downside is that the paper is not as easily shared with others and it takes a little more time to become digital.