japherwocky's posterous

Architects should take over the software industry!

I mean, really - "HTML" is about as complicated as "plumbing". It has a finite set of parts that fit together according to a set of rules.  If you were smart enough to learn how to draw plumbing, you are more than smart enough to write <b>bold</b> to make a word bold.  Seriously, this is not rocket science.  This is not even Structures 101 difficult.  

pipes:tags::physics:syntax::plumbing:HTML

Have you written an essay about a promenade?  A promenade is an abstract part of a building which serves a particular role.  Parts of a software project can be abstracted, as an easier way to think about that project.  Holy crap, you understand the basics of object oriented programming.  That idea is "advanced", in the software industry.  

The building bubble has popped. Do we really need so many new houses? We are already a very competitive field. Free interns; that is the sign of a booming industry. 

There is incredible analogy between something like a small business website and a building.  Almost 1:1. All the difficult things to learn, architects already know, and architects have been trained better than the engineers.

The software industry is supporting a lot of people who are just not particularly good at what they do.  At highly funded companies, I've worked with professionals who were shockingly, hillariously, incompetent.  http://thedailywtf.com is a popular website devoted to these sort of people.  There's no real minimum bar of quality, there's no sort of building code.  You don't have to deal with building inspectors, or permits.  It just has to somehow, function.

Instead of fighting more and more for the rare draftsman positions, and the rare new jobs, go compete with these silly, awful coders.  Help raise the standard.

Harness that insane architecture energy, and direct it to how people interact with computers.

Architecture's business model has been OK, but a new one is possible.  Look at http://37signals.com - make your money by designing and building websites, and channel that money into building your own buildings. Create the spaces you know we could create, if we didn't have to deal with the people who can afford to build them.

Capitalism is supposed to be a meritocracy, right? You are better at this then the self-proclaimed experts, because you have been trained in it. The abstract arts of design and criticism and architecture are the most difficult parts of the software industry. The parts that we architects have been doing for centuries!

So I'd like to teach you how to do that. Personally- one hour a week, online. I'd like to take a half dozen of my peers and change the world for the better.

Interested?

http://simplemailer.pearachute.com/classes/

June 19, away, South Haven, vs. Bark Peelers, 5 p.m. (Ron Klug and Rick Olsen)
June 27, home, vs Bark Peelers, 1 p.m.

July 4, away, Eau Claire Cherry Festival, noon parade, game at 1 p.m.
July 11, home, vs. Bonneyville Millers, 1 p.m.
July 18, home, vs. Livery Brewers and Fallasburg Cubs
July 25, away, Gilmore Car Museum,, Kalamazoo, vs. Grand Rapids Pioneers, 3 p.m.
July 31, away, Douglas Dutchers, 2 p.m.

Aug. 5, away, Lincoln Township Park, Berrien County Bench Beamers, tba
Aug. 7, away, Galien, Pioneer Days, 5 p.m.
Aug. 8, away, Paw Paw Corkers, 5 p.m.
Aug. 15, home, Deep River Grinders, 1 p.m.
Aug. 18, away, Berrien County Youth Fair, Blossomtime Royals, 6 p.m.
Aug. 22, home, Livery Brewers, 1 p.m.
Aug. 29, away, Bonneyville Millers, tba

Sept. 3, away, Vandalia, Penn Township Fire Department, 6 p.m.
Sept. 5, home, Grace Lutheran, 1 p.m.
Sept. 11, away, Baroda Summer Festival, Bulldogs, 5 p.m.
Sept. 12, away, Door Village Prairie Dogs, tba
Sept. 19, home, Chicago Salmon, 1 p.m.

And every few months I wish I had a spare weekend to play with that,
because you could take the resulting vectors/shapes and build a fuzzy
indexing/comparison engine for images. Which seems like a thing
nobody has really done. (Does tineye have any competition?)

First draft of a poster for our upcoming show/festival at Jean Klock Park.

After being humbled by the gracefully aging ladies who seem to have
infinite strength and flexibility, I jumped in the Lake. It was
brisk.

I sat by my bike, waiting for my shorts to dry off a bit, and who
should pull up to the pavilion but Ms. Minnie Simms!
(http://www.linkedin.com/pub/minnie-sims/b/375/b32) Minnie works for
the city and is one of the few people who actually seem to be useful
to the public. I knew her from filling out the paperwork for Rock at
the Klock. She was there to hang "reserved" signs because a wedding
party had rented the pavilion later that day.

By, there to hang reserved signs, I mean, hoping for someone to help
her hang reserved signs. The columns are way too big for one person
to reach their arms around; all she had was a roll of wire.

She told me her plan was to just wait around until someone showed up
who could help. The rest of the yoga class had left for the coffee
shop a while ago, so it was just funny luck that I had jumped into the
Lake. That's what Benton Harbor is like. Minnie handles all the
paperwork for the Parks. And basically runs the radio station. (
96.5 WBHCLP, "The Station It Just Feels Good Listening To" ) And has
to try to figure out how to hang signs, at this profitable thing which
the City owns.

The local government isn't that small either, there's probably a
hundred ish people employed. We definitely have maintenance crews.

Why the hell is Minnie doing this herself?

How do you fix that mysterious, obvious, bafflingly inefficiency of government?

Denouemout:

I got a bagel at the coffe shop and talked with some cool people.
Maria had to find a 90's punk costume for some sort of filming party
she'd been invited to.

Life remains beautifully weird here,

from Benton Harbor,

J