Tommy George Email Experiment - Episode 03: Okay, less gloom!
Greetings!
Hope your Christmas was good!
Rather than completely take a break from these emails over the holidays, I’m just trying to keep some momentum and send along a few links.
Laura and I usually take part in a fast of some kind at the beginning of the year, and I’m seriously considering stepping away from Twitter for all or most of January. Interesting, that’s where I get a lot of “input” that I planned to turn into content for these emails. How’s that gonna play out? I’m not sure.
Do you have any New Year rituals or practices like that? I’d love to hear about them!
Onto some things from this week…
Javascript
Apparently there was some buzz recently on using “let vs const in javascript”. I had completely missed the origin of this convo. Really, I only noticed people sub-tweeting the sub-tweeters, so I guess my twitter feed last week was one or two steps removed from the source.
Based on some searching, because I was curious, it seems like Dan Abramov started it, based on his followup post here.
The source, apparently, was a sentence from an earlier post “What is Javascript Made Of?”, which is actually a really good read! If you have any familiarity with Javascript or programming, I recommend it. It also serves to introduce a new project that Dan is working on, which looks really cool for beginner/intermediate learners of said language!
SmarterEveryDay shows the laser-based Voice exploit
Did you hear about a recent research paper regarding using voice-controlled devices (Amazon Echo, Google Home, etc) using only lasers? Even from outside a house, through a window, in complete silence!
Imagine if your door locks, garage doors, etc, were controlled with your voice – and someone could silently, and remotely, control those things…
The YouTube channel SmarterEveryDay actually had one of the researchers come on and do some demonstrations and basic explanations. Check it out! (18m video)
Breaking Into a Smart Home With A Laser - Smarter Every Day 229 - YouTube
If you feel like this has earned your support on Patreon please consider clicking here: https://www.patreon.com/smartereveryday**Note 12/28/19: The lock comp…
Learning ASL for 3.5 hours
Nope, that’s not a programming acronym. I really do mean American Sign Language! =)
As Elizabeth gets older, I’m curious about learning some “baby sign language”. It seems to be pretty popular to teach babies a few basic signs for communicating before they’re able to better form words.
I’ve been passively curious about learning means of “covert” or silent-even-at-distance communication for a long time. (See also: Magic+Illusions, but that’s another story). As well, I’ve had a tiny draw to learn a second language. More on that another time!
All that to say, I went full nerd as I sometimes do. I’m still in the midst of it, and I told Laura that “as usual, we’ll know in about 48 hours if I’m going to stick to this”. Haha!
Basically, I started looking into some proper ASL learning (not just any old rando on YouTube!), and read a few good things about a guy named Bill Vicars. Here’s his YouTube Channel.
His videos are fascinating! Mostly, the complete and utter lack of audio, and the way he presents the teaching – this is the first video I watched, for example.
So far, over some Christmas break, I’ve watched about 3.5 hours of his material. I feel like I’ve learned a ton – even about the basic alphabet/finger-spelling. Watching him show and correct mistakes feels very helpful.
Why? As with wanting to learn Spanish… I’d really like to expand the means and people I’m able to communicate with. Also, I love the idea of being able to be at least the tiniest “bridge” for someone who doesn’t speak “my language” well.
We’ll know in a few days if I’ve really stuck with it. On one hand, how cool would it be to raise my daughter to be “tri-lingual”? Isn’t this the best time for me to learn a new language – while I’m going over and reviewing basics myself, for her? I dunno. Also, I’m just a big nerd sometimes.
The next hurdle for me: Finding an appropriate means of practicing what I’m learning. I don’t immediately know of any friends that are partially-or-more fluent in ASL.
Are you?