Start with something simple...   (Read 1812 times)

I have noticed that there has been a small hurdle in trying to get Open Source of Thoughts off the ground. That hurdle is that a lot of people aren't confident with their ability to express an idea.

In a less public arena, such problems probably wouldn't be encountered but I have decided to write this post to get people started on their way to brainstorming and even starting a discussion.

In your replies I ask you to think of one thing you own/deal with/have seen that you have had an idea of how it could be improved (even if it was just to add an emergency chocolate dispenser.

** Rakuli recalls numerous attempts to add a chocolate dispenser to things like his pushbike and the computer monitor at work... Rakuli recalls the failure of said attempts. **

I look forward to your replies.

yeah fear is not the thing with me its more of a lack of idea's haha well yeah i needa get thinking on a few things

No hurry, use this topic to think of something small -- how would you improve your drum kit or sticks? Any things that might help out in studio, I know it's not the easiest thing to record a drum track..

yeah ive been through that hell a couple times haha but we have a good engineer i do my recording at my college though the engineer does get real irate real often but yeah stick technique is a bitch to learn getting there by little bits

Yeah, recording can be a pain.

I play keyboard and even if I can play something faultlessly while casual, I lock up when I record -- about 100 takes later I get the track down.

With drums you'd have to get the sounds and mic's just right as well.

so i was thinking about computers I don't think anyone can help me with this but recently my computer died and trying to fix it is basically impossible because they don't explain what anything means.. they use all computer language haha which to me is complete nonsense.. I think they should make it so that you don't have to have some degree to understand what the hell is wrong with it..
this annoys me muchly.. yes i wish they would talk english so that i at least had a chance to fix it but oh wells..

I would also like to say.. completely off the subject but oh well..
Lukes (rakulis) new song is the most amaazing song 

I would say that this is a common point raised by the computer using public. I have often wondered whether the creators of computers make their error messages so cryptic so as to keep computer repair shops in business.

Sometimes it's just not possible for a computer to spit up a comprehensible error due to complete failure but it really isn't that hard to write an error that makes sense to the end user. When I build websites that user server side programming I make sure that any errors are easy to interpret and have a log file of potential error numbers for my referral if I need to track something down.

I guess at the base hardware level of computer systems storage of potential errors would be a problem..... Unfortunately I don't know the internals of computers quite enough yet to know how hard this would be -- I might make this a project in my Uni study.

[note: when i did 'reply' on this one, I noticed that the original text (what I'm replying to) is at the bottom of the page where I almost didn't find it. Perhaps, it could be more visual associated with the actual input form for easier reference?]

That said, I take from the instructions that this board is, and encourages, thoughts in process - the raw, the tentative and the half-baked. And it was that incarnation of purpose that most intrigued me and decided me to sign up. So, I worry not about style, completeness, expression or even typos and spelling (though it would be nice, but I haven't found the spell-checker yet!) Anyway, I'm quite comfortable with just letting things fly in any form they want to be. Fragments, snippets, drifts and tangles - as I read it, all are welcome here (and we can laugh at some of the stuff that flies forth from our muddle - but nobody will laugh at the muddle itself, that's what we are here to explore. I don't even do a second read - just splat it on the page, pat it on the butt and send forth (or fifth, or nth..).

I recall (that reminds me of a story...) Bateson saying much the same when he observed that the language (any language) should have a 'flag' punctuation in its grammar that indicates that the word or phrase used infers "unexplored territory beyond this point" ('Beyond', meaning, within the bridging word(s) itself). Something to tell us that what we are reading is just a bridge between what came before it and what follows. I would observe that this board and the postings on it are much the same idea - a type of meta-flag of the Bateson vintage. Here, whole presentations are similarly flagged and no one should feel vulnerable for not having "thought something through" or having expressed themselves poorly.

as a writer (poet vintage), the process of edits, rewrites and final-draftings is as much a process of violent amputation and reformulation for the benefit of others (&that reminds me of a story...). Most times, the baby gets thrown out with the bathwater just for the sake of pleasing, conforming or otherwise pandering/coddling the tastes of others. If I'm correct about this place, it wants the baby and the bathwater and asks of the poster, "trust us, we don't want you to try to write what you think we might want to hear (or in a form you presume might be pleasing) - just do it, and we'll eventually find the 'baby'.

On the subject of "Getting off the ground", I think this place is will off the ground. At least, it certainly has cut the moorings which most other boards cling to like their lives depend on it. They are designed to keep everyone's thoughts in lock-step (usually to the drum-beat of the moderator or owner). Here, I read the moderator as saying, "Forget me. Just get it out, anyway you can."  That's way off the ground, in my book. And I would ask, beyond that, what is "getting it off the ground" for you? I gather you had something in mind, something that is not yet realized?

2-cents and change,

red

ps: 1. maybe its a good idea that the original text is a little removed. I find, once i have read it, not having it in front of me let's my thoughts drift a bit and not attempt to force myself to keep to some border defined by the original text.

ps 2. Maybe even removing the "Preview" button would be a good idea. We can always re-read the input form, but previewing adds/encourages that layer of self-editing that, perhaps, we don't need here?