I am a programmer who has spent the last three years prototyping, studying, and thinking about what software we need.
There is a lot of software that is just now becoming possible to build and I have been extremely excited to be exploring just some of those possibilities. One thing that has challenged me has been trying to determine which projects are the most important, so that I could focus my effort on them. Additionally, running at the scale required (~350 million people in the US and ~8 billion people worldwide [though only about half currently have Internet access]) presents many challenges that do not have many well-known solutions. Much of my last year-and-a-half has been spent searching, finding, researching, and creating tools that might allow the software I have been envisioning to be created and distributed.
At the top of my list of must have software is a publicly-owned, -built, -supported, and -maintained database of everything our leaders have ever said or done that has been recorded. The database will be web-accessible, so that anyone can quickly and easily access and search the entire known-history of a politician. Using technologies that have just become available to the web, anyone will be able to contribute live audio and/or video streams to the database as well.
There is a lot to think about with this project and I look forward to having many discussions about it. Ask me anything!
~~Edit: my comment votes and replies have been rate limited since starting this AMA. My apologies if I don't get a timely response to you, it is only because I can't :/~~
Edit2: I've been able to make some more responses ~~(though I cannot vote on comments for ~23 more hours apparently)~~. If I'm not responding to you, there is a good chance it is because I am rate limited and waiting to be able to submit my response.
~~Edit3: I'm going to try to get some sleep. I'll be back when I'm up!~~
Edit4: I'm back and responding~~, but rate-limited again~~. I will get to your question soon!
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[–] WhiteRonin 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
Thanks for not being too "offended" :-)
That is an interesting way to deploy a site. Save money and get a URL too at the same time. Smart!
Json file! That does solve the issue of not having a db store available. But in reality it is a flat file db store.
One thing I am jealous about is how you word things. You've got the industry speak down. Do you also do sales or was this because of your major? If you look back at the way I write it's much more call it like it is and isn't very good for pursauding coworkers or potential clients.
[–] jsprogrammer [S] 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
I read a lot and I write a lot of code. I took several classes on formal languages (automata, compilers, etc.) and logic. I think those topics helped me to get a visual "feel" for the structure of language (or, at least, a small portion of language). But, words are important. Very, important. When I'm reading or listening, I'm taking in the words used and trying to connect them up with other words and concepts I already know. I think that picking up others' language/words gives you lots of "power" (for lack of a better word), in the sense that others who know that language can now understand you (assuming you can successfully use the new language). I have somewhat of a theory that you can only communicate with someone else by referencing some past commonality. Words give us lots of commonality.
I don't do sales or marketing. I mean that as, I have never been employed in such a role. I've seen and listened to lots of salespeople and marketers however. :)
I think calling it like it is, is a good approach and I try to do it all the time. I think that there is often many ways to describe something as it is. If people don't know your words, it will take longer to explain your ideas to them. Recently I have been thinking in terms of algorithms/programs. For a given program (this is really just a sentence in a language), there is some minimum number of characters/words that it takes to express (and also to run) it. [I'm going to cut this off here, because I am not so confident in what I am expressing here, but if you have specific questions or comments I'd be happy to continue the conversation.]
[–] WhiteRonin 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
Ah! Speaking in the language of your listener or using language to express confidence and knowledge of your topic.
If I used the example of life insurance to explain this. Some people want to know that their loved ones will be taken care of so you target that feeling and change your sales pitch to accommodate them. The same for those who want to know that they'll have everything taken care of while hospitalized and finally a group like me who wants to know when I should have which policy in place meaning that I don't want cancer insurance at 20 when I really need broken bones and such covered more.
I also agree with learning from those who are better at word usage and such.
If you look at your response and how I just answered you'll see that I didn't pull up and CS major vocabulary. I could but I wanted to show how the difference exists :-)
I find programming to be an actual language like French or Spanish but I'm old school and studied by myself thus bringing different design patterns is a concept understood but the actual names I have never given thought to.
I'm enjoying or conversation. Thanks!