When Gary walked off his job, he brought home ten boxes of computer books. He had assembled that library over his entire career: whenever he heard of a new language or software, he’d buy a book on it in case he might need to use it later. After he quit and/or retired (quitired?), he moved all the books into our basement, because you can’t just toss out a collection it took years to amass.
A few months later, I was working at home and on a conference call with my team, who needed someone to learn a programming language called PL/SQL. “Not me,” I said. “That is way over my head.” Others insisted. I continued to protest.
I heard Gary get out of bed, scuttle around in the basement, and then a few minutes later he was in the doorway with three PL/SQL books.
“Oh all right,” I told my team, “My husband seems to think I can learn PL/SQL.” Which I did, eventually, using his books and the Internet. That was five years ago.
I used the PL/SQL on a project that was supplanted by SharePoint. People at work seemed to think it would be good for me to bone up on SharePoint. I came home and complained about that to Gary. This time I didn’t even notice when he went into the basement, but he materialized again with SharePoint for Dummies and the SharePoint Administrator’s Manual.
I kept the Dummies book, then said, “Get that Administrator’s manual away from me. I’m not doing that. They don’t even want me to do that. One of them wants me to learn C++ so I can program it.”
I didn’t learn to program in C++. That was a mistake, because this past week I’ve been researching Augmented Reality software, and I really should have learned C++.
I complained about that to Gary, who said, “I have a C++ book in the basement.”
His confidence in me knows no bounds.
As someone who has learned C++, I bet you can learn C++. :-)
Whether you *want* to or not is another story, however. And it is okay to not want to. The "basics" of it as needed for project modification: rather more sprawly, extensive, and can-shoot-yourself-in-the-foot-ish than the "basics" of SQL. But still, definitely possible.
Do you have anything specific you want to do with augmented reality, or is it just a "oh, that is a neat thing they're doing over there!" sort of curiosity? (part of why I ask is that I learn languages by doing projects in them; it sounds like you can learn languages without that carrot, however, which is impressive!)
Posted by: KC | February 21, 2019 at 11:19 AM
(also, I am impressed that some of Gary's books are actually *useful* books on languages/software still used outside of dusty basements!!! Congratulations to him on that.)
Posted by: KC | February 21, 2019 at 11:20 AM
KC - We do some simulations in our training, and using AR to add another level of hands-on immersion into our instructional design can only be good.
Posted by: TheQueen | February 21, 2019 at 08:17 PM
Ah! Do you already have digital models for the "things" in question? Because if so, depending on what the digital models are in, there may exist off the shelf augmented reality packages that could do quite a lot of it (depending on how you want the "things" to respond, etc.). (but I am also biased in favor of learning C/C++ because Knowledge Is Power and also it is just plain fun to make things do things.)
Alternately, do you guys ever contract projects out? If so, I may know someone who already knows a fair chunk about the ins and outs of one major AR system who may be available for freelance (not me; I don't know beans about AR; but I can check with her if you'd like).
Posted by: KC | February 21, 2019 at 10:42 PM
KC - Our contracting projects are only as backup - they always need someone on staff with the basic knowledge. My current issue is getting software, not just demos - and of course that's a long-term project. I don't think I even have a C++ compiler on my new work laptop. I got so frustrated having to deal with demos that I spent a day learning the basics of ever program on my work computer instead of focusing on what I don't have.
Posted by: theQueen | February 23, 2019 at 09:12 AM
Are you allowed to install additional software on your computer? There are free C++ compilers, as I'm sure you know, but sometimes work restrictions are... restrictive. I do have a fondness for coding in text editors (Notepad++ is my free favorite right now), but full dev environments that provide "suggested autocomplete" sorts of things can be very very helpful, especially when you're learning - the whole "here are the arguments and their types for the function you just typed in!" thing saves quite a lot of flipping back and forth. That said, they are resource-intensive and sometimes just have way too much "stuff" going on.
And yes, augh, demos. Hope it goes well!
Posted by: KC | February 23, 2019 at 11:20 AM
KC - ha! Not a chance of installing anything on our computers. I could request software but I'd have to get signatures.
Posted by: TheQueen | February 23, 2019 at 01:55 PM
I hate that. Sorry. :-( Peeling off layer after layer of red tape to get at software: not actually an optimal method of work.
(I mean, yes, malware and massive security problems, so if I had a mix of employees, some tech-savvy and some not, and also had Corporate Secrets, I guess I would probably put a similar kibosh on things. But I'd have a specific IT desk whose job it was to do a clean install of any remotely-plausible-for-work open-source software above a certain security rating with no signatures or fancy dancing needed.)
Posted by: KC | February 23, 2019 at 04:37 PM
KC - I suspect there is more leniency for certain IT people - we just aren’t those people.
Posted by: TheQueen | February 24, 2019 at 03:50 PM