Note: I originally posted this article on a personal blog I ran when I was in my late teens and early twenties. I discovered in May 2020 that the Internet Archive had preserved the contents of that blog in its entirety, including some of the media. That blog was an important part of my personal history, so I reposted all of that content on this website for archival purposes. While my politics, opinions, and outlook on the world have changed radically since I wrote those posts between 2009 and 2011, it’s good to know that I was as much of an idiot then as I am now.
This post is exactly what the title says it is. Just a small note to remind me what I should be focusing on. Spending a weekend playing with genetic algorithms in Scheme is a wonderful learning opportunity, but it detracts from some of the bigger projects I’m working on. Idle curiosity can do more harm than good if you’re trying to juggle college and code. Genetic algorithms can wait until Christmas.
Ongoing Projects
I never start projects. I bump into them. Sometimes they feel like a distant member of Grampa’s extended family. Other times, they feel like a close friend you’ve been dying to talk to for the past 6 months, but gosh darn it where’s his number? Unlike most seasoned hackers, I only have three large projects I wish to see to completion before I touch something new.
- index_server: the full text indexing tool for Haiku I wrote this summer.
- Goonj: a media player and music library manager for Mac OS X (I’m working on this with Pratul).
- Make the Dell Vostro 1520 100% Haiku compatible. For this, I need to write drivers for the following devices: (1) touchpad (2) wireless card (3) webcam and (4) sound card. I’ve already started digging through some driver code, but it will be a while before I have something usable.
Interests
I’m a sad case, really. I need to write a blog post to remind myself what I’m interested in. If you don’t want your kids to turn out this way, make sure they take enough baths. Yes, even in the winter.
High-level stuff bores me. I find I’m much more comfortable with C and C++ than Python. With that in mind, here’s a small overview of my fields of interest:
- Compilers
- Virtual machines (and emulators)
- Operating systems
- File systems
- Games (why not?)
- Information retrieval
Lately, I’ve been reading up on electronics. I’ve barely scratched the surface of what’s possible with just a few cheaply available components, and I’m already shaking with excitement. College does not permit me to learn as much as I’d like to, but I’m slowly getting there. I’ll have something to show for my efforts in a couple of months. Let’s see what comes of this new obsession 🙂
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