I do my best to keep up with the latest technology and I like to read a lot about what’s going on in the world of programming.  However, I also have a limited amount of time to read.  Lately, I’ve been taking a hard look at my reading habits.  This is usually made up of going to my favorite group-think sites like reddit, digg or stumbleupon and see what the latest programming blog posts are.  Over the last few years more and more of my reading has turned to blogs.  It feels more in touch with the community as a whole and keeps me on the edge of what’s going on.

The let down happened when I started thinking about the content of what I’m reading now versus what I was reading about 5-10 years ago.  Blog content is great, but it’s like reading a newspaper that’s nothing but a big editorial section.  Most posts are packed with unfiltered content that often falls into one of two categories; “You know what I think?” and “This is cool, check this out!”.   Both types of blog post are great and I’ve spent many, many hours reading these.  When I really thought about the content I’m reading though, I realized that I’m actually learning a lot less than I used to.  That wasn’t the only problem either.  Reading primarily in the browser has turned me into a skimmer, something I rarely used to do.  There’s so much pure bloggage out there that you have to skim and filter what’s worth reading and what’s not.  While that’s not awful in itself, I’ve noticed that I tend to retain a lot less when I read this way.  I also found that reading the blogs was only half of the reading I was doing.  The rest was reading people’s comments about what I had just read.  I can easily spend more time reading that than reading actual blog content.

At some point in your life, you say things or do things that make you think to yourself, “I’m really getting old.”  Everything is turning digital now.  Do I sound old yet?  In addition to programming, I’ve been a photographer for a long time, almost thirty years.  I started back in high school doing black and white film and eventually built a darkroom in my house.  About three years ago, I realized that buying film, paper and chemicals and spending countless hours in that darkroom could be replaced by spending a fraction of the time, at no cost, in front of my computer with Photoshop.  It was a sad realization, but I moved on to a digital SLR and turned the darkroom back into the original walk-in closet.  The only thing missing from Photoshop is actually feeling the film and the paper.  It may not sound like much, but after so many years I can say that those things are significant.  There’s something about handling the materials that puts you in touch with the process, and I haven’t found a replacement for that yet when I “develop” my photos the computer.

Reading is the same way.  There’s something about sitting down with a book that puts you in the mode of committing to read.  I can’t browse away from what I’m reading in a book with the click of a mouse.  Actually opening the book, holding it in my lap and turning the pages makes me feel like I’m ready to learning something new.  This is all about the experience of reading, and retaining what you read, without distraction.  It’s the same reason I wasn’t allowed to do my homework with the TV on when I was in school.  I can say for sure that I retain more when I read a book than when I read a blog at the computer.

Most computer books are also directed at actually teaching something.  Whether it’s a book about a programming language, a way of approaching design, or how to see a development project through to completion, most books teach.  However, it’s a rare occasion when a blog post really teaches you something.  Opinion pieces are great and have their place, but when the scale tips from spending time reading books to reading blog posts, you’re also tipping the the scale of how much you’re learning.

So now you’ve read a blog post about why you should try to read less blog posts.  You should probably eat more green vegetables and get eight hours of sleep each night, but I’ll save that for another post.  I’m going to try to make a change in my blogging, and do more writing that leaves readers with something more useful than a simple conversation piece.  Until then, try turning off the browser and go pick up a book… the trees will forgive you.

My first blog post of this year is going to be a tribute to one of my best friends that I recently had to say goodbye to… the computer I started with here at SlickEdit.   As a programmer, your computer is something that you spend 8-9 hours a day interacting with.  My work computer gets more face-to-face time than any other person I know, so it’s only natural to develop a friendship with it.

After three years of use it had developed its own unique personality.  It had the perfect background with cool sounds to match.  The fonts were just right.  All of the desktop icons were where I wanted them and I knew exactly where everything was off the Start menu.  I had scripts, shortcuts and bindings to do all the common stuff I need to quickly.  I’d gotten to know all of its quirks, traits, flaws and mannerisms over those few years.

However, like many computers, after installing several versions of many large apps, it wasn’t the playful, energetic puppy that it was back when I started using it.  It was in no rush when rebooting, and I could hear it let out a sigh whenever started Outlook or Visual Studio.  What were once speedy builds turned into mandatory coffee breaks.  Still, I loved that computer… we knew each other and wrote software together every day.

Then, early one morning, our sys admin came over to my office.  “It seems like your computer’s been trying to send out emails directly on port 25 during the middle of the night, any idea what that could be?”  I didn’t know.  We looked up the address where they were being sent, somewhere I’d never heard of before.  “Alright, I’ll bring over the Vista DVD,” he said.

And that’s when it sunk in.  An infection… a virus… the Vista DVD… I was going to have to reformat my machine.  I was going to have to shoot Old Yeller.

[From the movie... Old Yeller's gone rabid and Mama's holding a shotgun]
Travis: No mama!
Mama: There’s no hope for him now. He’s sufferin’. You know we gotta do it.
Travis: I know Mama… But he was my dog… I’ll do it.

I sat quietly for a while after he left, realizing that this was the end.  I spent the next few hours backing up all of my important files and exporting all of my preferences.  “There are automatic updates ready to install, reboot now?” it prompted innocently.  The poor thing had no clue.  I missed him already, and I wondered if a better place awaited him after fdisk.  A place without disk fragmentation, bloated installations, useless polling auto-update tray apps and frozen taskbars.  I said goodbye and shut down one last time before booting from the Vista DVD.

I’m still sitting at the same desk, but everything feels new and a little unknown now.  It’s like working again with that energetic puppy I began with.  He’s eager to start up and get to work, builds are a snap and the desktop is clutter-free.  I’m still getting to know it, and soon he’ll develop his own personality.  I still miss Old Yeller, though.

It’s become a custom with me and my kids to hit the yard sales during the summer and fall weekends.  They can get a lot more for their allowance money at those sales than they can at the toy stores, and sometimes I find stuff that’s such a bargain I can’t pass it up.  We recently went to one that turned up one of the most amazing finds I’ve ever run into at a garage sale yet.

Visual Basic 1.0

Sitting in between Turbo Tax ’99 and Mavis Beacon’s Typing Tutor was this gem….  Visual Basic 1.0.  I almost couldn’t believe my eyes.  To me, this was on par with finding the missing link.  As a programmer, this was archeological gold, and it was on sale for fifty cents.  My kids saw the excitement on my face and must have thought that I’d found an XBox 360.  For them, Visual Basic was a major let down.

A lot of people think that VB is soft and if you program in it, you’re automatically a drooling hack developer who couldn’t program their alarm clock.  I cut my teeth on VB 4.0 in my first job, and learned that when combined with COM in C++, VB was a fantastic language for the job of making a user interface. That being said, VB still has some special memories for me.

The contents of the box were practically undisturbed.  The disks were all still in their original plastic wrap and the manual didn’t seem to have ever been opened.  Immediately, there are certain clues that tell you just how old it is (even though the box is copyrighted 1991).  First, the box contains two forms of media; 3.5″ and 5.25″ floppies.  To actually take a 5.25″ floppy out of its sleeve and hold it brought me back to the days of floppy doors and the red LED that told you the disk was being read.  The system requirements for VB 1.0 were Windows 3.0, a 286 processor and 1MB of memory.  Somewhat of a far cry from the Visual Basic of today.

I also loved the included “Companion Products and Services Directory”.  The third party marketing rush had already begun back then.  Most of the components in the catalog, though, are for connecting to a VAX server or to a dBase or Btrieve database.  There are a handful of charting components and widgets such as tree controls (not yet standard in 1991) and grids.  The reminiscing continues.

This box goes right up on my bookshelf at home next to the most revered books in my collection. Say what you will about Visual Basic, but it may be one of the most important developments in programming over the last 20 years for the simple reason that it allowed any non-programmer to write a Windows program.  If you think that’s not a valid reason for such importance, let me repeat… it allowed any non-programmer to write a Windows program.  It was Prometheus, stealing fire from Zeus and giving it to mere mortals for their use.

You no longer had to know C, and wade through Petzold, to write “Hello World” in a window.  Employees from any company with core business knowledge, but no degree in programming, could now quickly write customized applications.  Of course, the debate of whether this was a good thing for programming or not still goes on today.  However, regardless of which side you’re on, you can’t deny that VB was a major victory for bringing the PC to the business market.  Without VB, we may not even have a Microsoft today.

So thank you very much, guy from two streets down, who decided that Visual Basic 1.0 wasn’t important enough to keep, but too important to just throw away.  One man’s junk is another man’s gold, and I really struck it rich that weekend.