31–40 of 190 posts
What's the modern-day equivalent of DeBabelizer? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeBabelizer https://creativepro.com/debabelizer-pro-5-the-ultimate-image...
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What would you prefer? Manual is hardly an option.
Forest, trees... There are problems one should automate but there are many problems where automating is not worth the effort. https://xkcd.com/1319/ https://xkcd.com/1205/
That's where the opportunity may lie with no-code type platforms, to empower other departments to automate and maintain their own idiosyncratic workflows.
I totally agree that learning "just coding" per se should not be a goal. It should also help to solve some of your real problems and automation is one of the topic that is very likely you need to solve. When you do something that you like and at the same time need it pays off twice. In fact I got most of my programming skills by implementing simple automation task that I needed. I highly recommend AutoHotkey ( https:…
It's a great example of how "learn to automate" can beat "learn to code". When you know how to do something by hand, learning enough about a program's API to do the same thing is a separate learning curve and may not be possible. Telling AutoHotkey "Do it like I do by hand, just faster" always works.
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what's wrong with automator exactly? i've been wanting to get into it on my new mac but i'm not entirely sure what i will use it for yet.
Personally I find it very weird to work with. I don’t see the point of learning a different and less powerful coding paradigm. It would be fine if it had it a current UI but you also should be able to write plain text code.
Apple Events are quite powerful and let you add a lot of functionality.
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What would you prefer? Manual is hardly an option.
Forest, trees... There are problems one should automate but there are many problems where automating is not worth the effort. https://xkcd.com/1319/ https://xkcd.com/1205/
Certain tasks are in theory executable without specialised tools, if one is willing to pay for "the inefficient ways", but in practice they are just not feasible because the lengthy / convoluted workflow that results means that you are always having to focus on the minutae, which prevents treating all but the simplest issues.
For example, I could in theory write the space shuttle code in pure assembler, using a pen and paper, and huge teams. "It would just take very long". In practice you would never get it working.
I was surprised when my sister told me, "I don't think everyone has that instinct to make things better all the time". That's like my fundamental drive! But she doesn't, and I guess I see why. Things didn't get better for hundreds of generations at a time while we were evolving, so inventing is not an instinct.
> Throughout human history, there’s been a sort of “pain is gain” approach to the repetitive. There was value in putting your head down, getting into a rhythm, and working hard at menial tasks. I was surprised when my sister told me, "I don't think everyone has that instinct to make things better all the time". That's like my fundamental drive! But she doesn't, and I guess I see why. Things didn't get better for hund…
It’s important to understand the functional value of programming (ie. automation), but what really inspires learning is the underlying purpose. What are we achieving through automation? What have we unlocked? That process of discovery is what’s most exciting, to me at least, about coding. It’s what I seek to learn.
When I was younger I dreamed up an idea of a shock suit, basically it would have been a set of long underwear top and bottom with electrodes that would act like a TENS machine to gently(or not so gently) nudge the wearers into performing a repetitive task with machine accuracy. I figured this would be great for an assembly line and could provide a cheaper alternative to a very costly robot while still providing emplo…
I have to use both Keynote and PowerPoint for work and this is one of those small things I've come to appreciate.