Back to Java

So I’m back to Java again.  This time, I think I’ve got a plan and a purpose though.  A few weeks back, I grew very interested in Arduino.  I like the idea of making my own electronics and what not.  What I also like is the things have an Ethernet connection to them, so I can give each device an IP address and communicate with it.  In theory.  All that is based off something I listened to (iTunesU University of Southern Maine COS 460/540 Computer Networks Spring 2012 lecture 1) and formulated an idea about.  I’ve just got a bit of a ways to go before my Java programming skills are up to what the class is talking about in lecture 1. 

In the lecture, the teacher talks about writing a program that connects via telnet and sends information two ways.  At this point, I’m only interested in one way communication, as the idea right now is for impact sensors.  So I’ve started back on Java to try and get myself caught up to where I can make that happen.

I could probably do the same thing in other programming languages, but Java seems to be the dominant one right now and true platform independence is quite awesome.  Because really, the language you program in guarantees your end platform.  It doesn’t take long for the code to get very operating system specific.  Plus if you want to write on one platform for another platform you have all sorts of things to deal with, and I don’t want to.  So I’ll write the thing in Java. 

At this point, I’m kind of glad I structure my finances the way I do.  If I didn’t, I probably would have already purchased an Arduino starter kit without any idea as to what I wanted to do with it, and I simply would have played until the parts ran out.  And that would be that.  I might have produced something that was mildly interesting, but that’s about it.  It might even have produced something with the shiny factor.  And everyone said, “Oooh…  shiny.”   But in the end, there would be no form to what was created, and no real purpose to it. 

We’ve done gas pump conversions at two stores in the last three or four months.  One store got shiny new cash registers, the other didn’t.  It all narrowed down to purposeful use of the technology.  The first store runs a short order restaurant with 22 menus and more than 100 items.  The big shiny was put in there simply to handle the massive explosion in menus required to keep track of what is being sold.  The other store doesn’t even use the capabilities of the old system to its fullest extent, so there was no need to put the shiny registers in.   The only factor would have been “oooh… shiny”.   And that’s not a good reason to spend $10,000.   And that’s about the price differential between “ooh… shiny” and using what you already have. 

As a short note, the first conversion was Sapphire/Ruby with Gilbarco pumps to Sapphire Topaz with SFC, Wayne Connect, and Wayne pumps.  The second conversion was Sappire Ruby with Gilbarco pumps to Sapphire/Ruby with SFC, Wayne Connect, and Wayne pumps.  Both were one day startups.  

Getting back to the point I was making through that side story, doing something just because of the shiny factor isn't a good reason.  There needs to be a noticeable and good end in mind.  Holding back the purchasing gives your brain the space and separation to think about things and formulate things you couldn't think about before.  So be slow to purchase.  It'll save your bucks.