Tag: productivity

Staging Code Tasks on Notepad

I’ve tried dozens of organization apps and software, and Notepad is still my favorite.  Its biggest drawback used to be accessibility–having to keep the text files with you if you work on more than one computer.  DropBox fixed that.

I tend to keep a text file of tasks so I know where to pick up tomorrow.  It’s vital that one of those tasks is immediately accessible and not too abstract.

  • OK: “Fix overlapping blocks collision bug.”  
  • Better: “Reproduce overlapping blocks bug by building a test room.”

Today was one of those coding days where every fix reveals yet another fix that’s needed.  My initial task list was about 15 items but I probably checked in over 40 changes today.  It’s frustrating to have done so much more work than I thought was needed, and still not be where I thought I would be today.  But, I’m still generally on track, and things had moved forward a lot.  It could be worse, I could have attempted a major refactoring and broken things so badly that I had no choice but to revert to the last update in source control.  It’s happened, but not today.  Today was just a steady unraveling of long-dormant bugs and tiny features that insisted on their existence at the last minute.

Notepad kept me sane.  Minor bugs kept cropping up, and I would just jot them into the text file.  As I fixed them, I would cut them out and paste them into the source control check-in log.  I’m down to about 3 right now, nothing major, and if I weren’t superstitious about this sort of thing I would say I’ve totally got it handled tomorrow.

 

In Need of Restrictions

The word “paradise” is derived from the Avestan word for “enclosure.”

This fun fact enters my mind every so often on a project.  With modern technology, just about anything is possible, and I don’t usually notice at first the cost of all of this possibility.

Today’s case was writing music for Escape Goat.  I used Impulse Tracker to compose the score for Soulcaster I and II, and since then I’ve moved into Renoise.  It has higher sound quality, runs in Windows, and can load most VST instruments and effects–something I haven’t had access to until now.  And I’m blown away, you MIDI sequencing folks have had it made for years–dozens, hundreds of free virtual instruments and effects.  Many of them sound as good or better than hardware I paid dearly for ten years ago.   Can you believe this is a free instrument?  Listen to that quality.

I went on a spree grabbing as many free 80’s style synths and effects that I could find.  I came away with about 20 instruments, at least 10 of which were of excellent quality.  I could score the whole game with just one of these.  The GTG-FM, linked in the above video, is just as capable as a Yamaha DX7, an instrument that went for $2000 new back in the 80’s.  And this is just one instrument.  I have in my virtual arsenal a synth collection that would have cost a fortune back then.  Cause for celebration!

The only problem is, I can (and did) spend a whole night just auditioning the built-in sounds on these guys.  They can do such a variety of sounds.  Though I started working on a song, it ended up as a love-fest of synth presets.  Not much work got done on the actual composition itself.  The problem?  Too many great sounds.  The solution?  Force a limitation of them.

It took some time, but I whittled it down to a collection of about 20 instruments and samples I’m going to use as the signature sounds for Escape Goat.  I’m only using 3 of the virtual synths.  This way I’ll spend less time finding the ultimate bass sound and more time writing the song.

The open desert is scary.  Build an enclosure.

Focus on Really Small Things

Today was one of those days.  Less than great sleep last night, oppressive heat in the home office (though nothing compared to the rest of the country I guess), general lack of energy.  It’s easy to get really down on these days–especially for those of us who work alone.

I watched Harp Dreams tonight on Netflix, and it was worth watching for one quote, which I’ll paraphrase.  One of the finalists in the harp competition, Cheryl Losey, said about day-to-day practicing at this level:

“Some days are worse than other days. On those days, when everything just seems overwhelming, you just have to block that out and focus on really small things.  You can’t think about the big picture on those days, and you can’t make any huge judgments.”