Free Code Camp Is Like The Codacademy I Used To Remember

I have no idea why I didn't use this sooner; I had been subscribed to the FreeCodeCamp Blog for a few months now, as it had lots of little bits of coding news and things like that. I honestly thought it was solely a blog with new ideas on, and maybe a little side community!

However, the main FreeCodeCamp itself is made up of it's free main web design "certification" course, alongside local communities and a scheme in which you can contribute coding to non-profits later on in said course. I nags you once for a donation, near the beginning of the course itself, and that's it.

And I have to say I am impressed. It reminds me of the old design of Codecademy, which would encourage you to start learning from the homepage itself. Although FCC isn't quite from the homepage (there are a couple of pages of logging in and introduction to the site itself), the barriers between the homepage and learning are very small, and you start earning challenge points from your first log in.

This challenge point thing is the one idea that keeps me coming back to FCC at the moment... Each goal is incredibly small, maybe change a piece of code here or there (based on a similar example in the learning materials)... So it's very quick to delve in and start learning, even if there has been some time between learning sessions. This has the effect of making it much more likely you will return to it, and means you're also likely to learn for much longer. This is the kind of concept I hadn't quite been able to find up to now... But FreeCodeCamp definitely ticks the boxes for accessibility and ease of use.

Stuck In A Rut (Again)

I appear to have got myself stuck in a rut, going from lots of little successes each day through learning, to spending most of my evenings pigging out on the sofa watching Vinesauce and Ricky Gervais. It is quite understandable; my Wednesday's and Thursdays away from home involve pretty strenuous work. Also, I've had some downers related to situations out of my control over the past few years (and how they impacted on some shitty decisions which were within my control, and my own responsibility).

Licensed under the CC0 License. From Pexels.

I think it's worth pointing out, to everyone, it's absolutely fine to feel like shit. Don't listen to these people who say "...for every negative there is a positive",  or to have a positive outlook rather than dwell on the negative. It implies that it is wrong to feel crap when nothing can be further from the truth. Feeling low is part of human emotions... And if you are depressed, feeling low is an inevitable outcome. Although there is research a positive frame of mind can make you feel more positive, there's also research that suggests a low mood and depression are likened to an inflammation of the brain... Feeling like shit because of depression is as natural as feeling in pain because someone punches you. This isn't about making light of depression and dismissing it as something casual, but rather about accepting there's no need to beat yourself up even further for feeling low and not doing anything to get out of that.

In a nutshell, you have every right to feel down. You have every right to do sod all when you get home from work (or, for those who sadly can't work, doing nothing while you're at home). Whether it's full-blown depression or even just feeling a little lazy, it's no-one else's business but your own. It seems linked with an obsession to always be doing or learning something new, to feel like you have something new to show off to others. But really, just focus on yourself. If you need another night chilling out watching TV, it could be just what you need in that moment.

Measure The Time You're Wasting In Your Worth Per Hour

Having a brief flick through my Lifehacker feed, I came across this brilliant article introducing "Sloth Worth". 

Image licensed under CC0 License

It is an extension, for both Chrome and Firefox, that measures the amount of time you are wasting based on how much you earn (or value yourself) per hour. It needs to be enabled for specific sites, but once enabled it shows your total for all measured sites in the top left corner of that site (right now, my total is at £27.41 since this afternoon at £8 per hour, although I also turned it on for Duolingo and Lingvist to experiment how much value I'm using on "positive" endeavors).

Even though the extension is pretty simplistic, it's an eye-opener to how much time you actually spend doing unimportant things or procrastinating. Not to say that relaxing in your preferred way is useless. On the contrary; it's vital for your mental health. However, it's certainly a brilliant way to spur you onto more productive work or learning, if that is something you keep putting off.

The extension has its limits; I'd prefer breakdown of how much value is spent on each site, along with maybe catagories such as "education" or "entertainment", and a breakdown of the time of the day usually spent doing either. It'd also be cool to have a separate "positive" value indicator for time spent on more positive sites, to encourage you to engage with those sites more.

However, as I said, it is an eye-opener.

You can install the extension from their site at  https://qotoqot.com/sloth-worth/

The Orville: More Star Trek Than Star Trek (these days)

Besides my hugely belated, final, review of Metal Gear Solid V  (which, trust me, is still going through re-writes to this day), it may seem rare to see some kind of entertainment review on here. However, I just binge watched the first 4 episodes of The Orville... And, being a person with an internet connection, I naturally couldn't resist the temptation to make my opinions known.

For the uninitiated, The Orville is the latest Seth MacFarlane comedy. Immediately this may be a cause for concern, as his animation has become increasingly stale (although I was a fan of A Million Ways To Die In The West).

And yet, within the space of its trailer, my feelings went from curious to optimistic.

In the end, these initial episodes far exceeded my expectations, actually feeling less like a "typical" sitcom than the trailer suggests... Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of one-liners. But the structure of each episode much more closely resembles that of The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine or even Voyager. This actually works incredibly well; as the world is built throughout each episode, the jokes feel funnier as you realise these are people making funny comments in a consistent world, rather than the changing rules of MacFarlane's previous animations. The plots feel like the kind you would fine on any past Trek episode, with the humour instead coming from the character's reactions. You could imagine these characters in the actual Star Trek universe, being given a ship because there's no-one else to pilot it. I mean, I'm sure even in the Federation there must be alcoholism, divorce and tension between senior staff...

Of particular note to me was the third episode "About A Girl". Without giving too many spoilers, it surprised me how well it emulated the way Star Trek would present cultural problems... With my only issues being it was so early in the series there wasn't the chance of more character development which was maybe needed for the situation and characters to feel more relatable. Equally, I can see why an episode such as this was broadcast so early... As a signal that this was aiming to be more than a silly comedy, but to derive humour instead from how it follows (and plays with) the situations from Star Trek itself, I feel it was successful. One thing that did shock me was some discussion this episode was so-called "SJW" and pushing some kind of political message... From people who clearly know nothing about Star Trek or the message Gene Roddenberry tried to convey from his very first season.

Overall, I'm pleased with the show. And I actually can't believe I've written about this first over any kind of review for Red Dwarf XII (whose first episode I also think was great).  Maybe I'll get writing about that in the next few days...

The Big Problem with Gamification, GTD, Task Lists, Motivation...

Task lists are great. There's an abundance of research that shows even ticking a box for the smallest of goals fires off all kinds of chemicals that make you feel good and encourage you to complete (and create!) more tasks than you can possibly imagine. Meanwhile, sites like DuoLingo and KhanAcademy keep a tally of how many days in a row you have engaged with the sites, reinforcing ongoing interaction with them and keeping the consistency of visits up (resulting in more effective learning).

The biggest problem is when that consistency is broken. From this week, I'm going to be involved in work away from home potentially two days a week. Having come back from my first week of this new routine, I have found my previously unblemmished record of learning now replaced with an empty hole for one of the days.

Now, DuoLingo offered a cheeky solution for keeping my streak intact by paying nearly £3 to restore it. I understand they are ultimately a business, and to be fair it isn't too different to those apps that lock away your internet so it isn't a distraction; unlocking it either at a fixed time or by paying a fee to the company. However these ultimately frustrate me, as I'd rather pay money to a charity for missing my goals than paying the priviledge for a company to reduce my services.

On top of that, it is only a solution for my use of that one site... It doesn't fix my record for sites like TypingClub or KhanAcademy (although these two visualise your learning in a better way, either as an average of a week like TypingClub or showing your stats for a month as well as daily, like Khan).

I therefore wanted to announce a new project tentatively called Goalst. It is an app that aims to do one thing: enable you to focus on a single preset task consistently every day... Or a one-task task-list. It specifically needs to be the easiest possible task you can think of.

This is for two reasons: firstly, and I can say this from experience, in the depths of depression sometimes even getting dressed, getting washed, or brushing your teeth can be forgotten. For the longest time my "Goalst" has been simply to brush my teeth. Which sounds ridiculous. But, by being the smallest possible goal I can think of, it's incredibly easy to convince myself to do and earn myself a success. It is one bonus to my health and wellbeing that, at times, would not otherwise be achieved if it wasn't for the sake of ticking a box.

The second thing is that single act of ticking a box, regardless of how easy, starts that chain reaction of chemicals I mentioned earlier. It motivates you to add more tasks, and can kickstart you to keep your consistency with more difficult tasks. For the average person it's a catalyst to keep to your other goals... To someone in a mental health crisis, I think the benefits are also obvious.

The aim of the app will be solely on that one task... It will specifically not offer any kind of integration with other app systems, or more than one task. The whole point is anyone can slot it into whatever organisation system (if any) a person has, so a person can open a clean interface with nothing but a tickbox and no horrifying stack of tasks. I might include features to keep a streak or show stats for the month, as well as a "start anew" button (for people who haven't used it in a while because they haven't needed it, and want to start afresh). I may even include some way to push the completed task to other task list sites, but the point isn't to replace these sites nor to rely on them as part of your system; it is meant for periods of "Crisis" in your life (whether it is extreme anxierty, or even procrastination... Whatever a crisis in not meeting your life goals is to you).

Anyway. I'll start coming up with designs... I understand the logic to code it, but still need to learn more on how to code an interface (in Python).

My response to "Where Pain Lives" on aeon.co

This was a reply I posted on the article Where Pain Lives at http://www.aeon.co on the subject of how much pain can be on the mind.  Just to add, I don't disagree with these facts at all. Also, I highly recommend you go and visit Aeon in general... It has lots of brilliant, intelligent long-form articles on a huge range of subjects.

Although I understand the point of the article, I think we should be cautious in how such research might affect medical policy. Not because I think it’s false; but rather, that it would concern me if we automatically assume it is most likely psychosomatic. I’m not saying we should waste lots of money either- even if the personal, heartfelt story I’m about to tell would usually be tinged with “give everyone a scan and never say it’s in their head and waste money” type of response. I’m merely saying that, conversely, there will still be people where there is a legitimate cause, and where surgery might help.

Basically, growing up my mother had Trigeminal Neuralgia… An illness I couldn’t claim to visualise, but which was described to me as a nerve pressing on a blood vessel in (or near) the brain. I can vividly remember growing up how she could get incredibly emotional very quickly… Or how she could be extremely cross, then you knew it hit her when she would put her hand to her mouth and wouldn’t say anything, and would go away. It upsets me discussing it with her nowadays- more the description on her side, that she was a zombie because of the sheer amount of painkillers she was on, she wasn’t really living and yet was in constant agony. It became one of those things where she had looked it up on the internet- and one of those extremely rare cases in these days of self-diagnosis where it turned out she actually had the condition.
Her doctor had referred her for a scan, where the result came back they couldn’t see anything. She had forgotten her Dentist had also referred her for a scan- at a different hospital. Rather than cancel, she decided to go along for a second opinion… Where it turned out they had found exactly what my Mum had read about on the internet. It would have been a 6-month wait for the consultation with a surgeon- which she decided to pay for privately for a few hundred pounds, as she really couldn’t cope with the pain for that long- and within the next month had brain surgery. Which, as a teenager at the time, was frightening.

It took a long time to recover- which I won’t elaborate on anymore- but my point is that she had the surgery, even had a complication when there was a pop in her head and fluid started dripping out- and 16 years later continues to be a successful accountant. It upsets me and feels strange to talk about the past of that pain, as it genuinely feels so foreign and unreal that it was my mother’s life. You would never dream she had “brain surgery”, which conjures up certain images. Yet because she had “brain surgery”, every time she renews her driving licence she has a huge form to fill in about the procedure, her surgeon as well as her GP, she has to answer yes or no tick boxes about whether she has ever had a seizure driving a car, fallen unconscious or the like. Again, it seems so bizarre to think if you know her- let alone it feels almost like a different life that never happened. Even when I use the phrase “brain surgery” to other people, I still have largely forgotten in the moment how huge a thing that was and how much the pain was to her at that point in time. Even just a few years later, starting my GCSEs, it felt like none of that had ever happened.

Again, my point isn’t to preach everyone should have a spine or brain scan for any hint of pain anywhere. On the contrary; the idea that one would have such potentially devastating back surgery when there is the chance you could relieve the pain in a non-invasive way should be a no-brainer (pardon the pun) for any sane human being. I think there does need to be some wider education on pain- it’s too easy to go for the painkillers when potentially even something like a headache can be a reaction to intense stress or even not drinking enough fluids… taking pills only masks the symptoms, not the cause. But it shouldn’t be at the expense of a proper evaluation if they are consistent in showing signs of pain… Although I note with back pain what was said about it being notoriously difficult to even tell the difference between a healthy back with apparent issues and a person who can’t walk with the same issues.

On top of that (and which if anything adds to the argument that “pain” can equally be in the brain) is the idea of the “nocebo”… Being too flippant about it being in a person's head, even just if that person gets the impression that is what you’re saying, can also have negative consequences. This flies in the face of evidence-based medicine, yet makes more sense if “pain” has a mental health element. And again, saying there could be a mental health element could also have a negative effect. Which is where I think it all comes back to education, and acknowledging mental health as an equal or large part of the “health” system. I read how people with chronic back pain have differently shaped brains, and it reminds me of neuroplasticity and how it’s equally possible to restructure the brain with training. Which is far preferable to having surgery which might result in you permanently being in a wheelchair.

GameHut Channel on Youtube Offers Wealth of Info on SEGA Genesis Game Programming

This is just a very quick shout out to a Youtube channel I discovered today that has some excellent videos from a former Travellers Tales (now Tt Games) employee. Calling himself GameHut, I was drawn to his videos after watching how they cut Sonic 3-D Blast into two pieces so that it could be downloaded from SEGA's early internet service Seganet onto a Genesis. Then, straight after, I saw another video explaining how wiggling the full Sonic 3-D cartridge on a live console activated the level select, thanks to some ingenius debugging code.

The beauty of the videos is, even though it jumps into the deep end of code in some places, he explains everything in a way just about anyone who has turned a computer on can understand.

Even though it is at a much lower level than what I am learning at the moment, it was still interesting to see what is actually being done at a lower level. Also, thanks to this video explaining how 3-D was achieved on a beta Toy Story 3-D stage, I now have a much better understanding of how they created the illusion of 3-D on a Genesis (as well as how games like Wolfenstein achieve this).

EDIT: Posted wrong Toy Story video (although it's still very interesting, so I'll leave the wrong link up still underneath this)