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  • Creating a Financial Foundation for Shared Infrastructure

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    Ed
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    Over a decade ago, I was one of the founding members of the Dallas Makerspace. My major contribution was designing the financial models that allowed the group to have a solid financial footing for renting it’s first dedicated space. The other founders were more involved in all the growing pains of starting an organization like…

  • Comparing Engineering and Design

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    Ed
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    In an earlier post I wrote about the similarities between engineering and design. After discussing the concepts with a few engineers and designers, I thought it would be helpful to explore the differences between the two disciplines. Known solution versus unknown solution In the introductory chapter of Designing Your Life, the authors point out the…

  • Building a small team

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    Ed
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    When starting a new venture, your team is often small due to timing, budget, or uncertainty. Growing a team from a small starting point takes careful thought about both the current needs and the future. When only a handful of people are on the team, each hire has a dramatic increase in the communication costs…

  • The Overlap of Engineering and UX Design

    The Overlap of Engineering and UX Design

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    Ed
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    While simultaneously working in software engineering and completing my masters degree in HCDE, I started to notice a few overlaps in both the practice and conceptualization of engineering and design. Both involve solving the problem of what to build. Both rely on a set of heuristics built by experience in the individual practitioners. Both are…

  • Book recommendation: Turing’s Cathedral by George Dyson

    Book recommendation: Turing’s Cathedral by George Dyson

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    Ed
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    If you’re interested in the early history of computing, check out Turing’s Cathedral by George Dyson. It covers an interesting middle phase between the original electronic digital computers and the wide commercialization of computers in the late 50s. Specifically it examines the people and development around “the IAS machine” at the Institute for Advanced Study…

  • Recommendation: “Citizen 13660” by Miné Okubo

    Recommendation: “Citizen 13660” by Miné Okubo

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    Ed
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    The American internment of Japanese Americans during WWII is one of the many shameful things in my country‘s past that I didn’t really learn about growing up. Only when I moved near a park in Seattle that was on land taken from interned people did I begin to grasp the horror of it. Miné Okubo…

  • Book recommendation: Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel by Frances & Joseph Gies

    Book recommendation: Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel by Frances & Joseph Gies

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    Ed
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    If you’re interested in know “How did we get here?” then I highly recommend Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel by Frances and Joseph Gies. It dispels the myth that Europe of 500 – 1500 CE was some mud-filled backwater just waiting for some brilliant Renaissance thinkers to come along. Don’t get me wrong – it wasn’t…

  • Showing Some Work

    Showing Some Work

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    Ed
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    I recently read Show Your Work by Austin Kleon. It is a short read and I recommend grabbing an electronic copy from your local library and reading it over your lunch hour. Ryan sent it my way and that has been helpful Kleon provides some practical advice, some of it perhaps a little conflicting, but…

  • Mission Statement

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    Ed
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    I have many reasons for starting this blog.  I need a place to document my projects for myself.  I want to have a way to share my projects with others.  A blog seems like a chance to learn to write better. But the most important reason is that I want a way to encourage the…