Ramblings of a Coder

Brainfarts of an idle mind.

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Busy Month Ahead

Monday 06 April 2009 at 5:59 pm

clipart0196 Yup, as the title states April is going to be a very busy month for me. Got 2 assessments to start and finish this month alone, and both are due around the 25th too. So I've got to get onto those. Throw in the fact that Garion's at home most of the month too due to school holidays, means its definitely going to be an exciting time. Plus we're actually working towards getting G into school for a whole day too. All of which just means more distractions.

 

On top of the two things mentioned above, I've also recently "Finished" a little program that displays the latest Eve-Online Wallet entries on my G15's LCD. So i also want to fire on through and clean it up, remove unneeded/wanted processor usage and just overall make it more presentable and fire it out there into the ether and see if anyone uses it. Knowing me this will take most of the month also. Been working on another little "for fun" project too, Takes your twitter feed, and you can link your friends to Xbox-Live Profiles and it takes there avatar and displays this right into your desktop with whatever they've said, or said to you. Kind of a nice little visual Avatar group/conversation. I know, it's a kind of pointless program and serves absolutely no useful purpose. But i don't really care. Its something fun to-do. I'll get around to posting screenshots of both of them at some point this month also.

IMGP0078And now the real project that I'm going to focus on through the summer/autumn. Radio and Computer interfacing. As I've mentioned before Amateur Radio is a sort of hobby of mines. Its always drawn my attention and imagination. And finally I'm in a position where i can actually do something with this interest. It's going to be fun, for me at least. So expect more on this through the summer months especially when my first course wraps up in the next month or so, which will give me some more time to devote to it before i start the third in august. Lets just say that i wont be buying any prebuilt equipment beyond the power supply which i already own and there will be a lot of computer interaction with it. I dare say this one is going to be a long haul project, but I'm eager and excited and willing to learn whatever it takes to get to where i want to be with it in the end.

 

I'm also going to be hopefully doing some more work within my current house, my small computer room has been great. BUT! I'm quickly running out of room in it and that's just with my course materials, which I'd hedge a bet and say are only going to be getting more plentiful as the course ramps up in difficulty through the years to go on it.  So i need to start thinking of shelving and some more actual work space. as you can see from the recent picture its getting pretty cramped. Maybe move the wall, or remove the wall and replace it with a half height partition. Either way, something has to be done about it. But i still feel the need to keep the equipment separate from the rest of the room.  What i really need is a larger house, but that'll come! Also need to plan out and build a decent computer area for Garion. He seems to prefer a full sized desk and chair these days over the smaller ones that are more aimed at his age.

 

So that's my very rough plans for this summer and what i want to get done. Isn't as much on that to-do list now that I've written it all down. But course I'm not taking into account all the good weather were sure to get and the endless afternoons of sitting in the garden with a book basking in the sunshine. *wonders if its still sleeting outside*

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Badly researched Articles

Wednesday 01 April 2009 at 03:02 am

As well all you know, my son is on the Autistic Spectrum.

 

And well a pet hate of mines is to be looking through information Autism, new research etc. and Occasionally you come across posts like this one
http://treatments4autism.blogspot.com/2009/03/tips-for-managing-autistic-children.html

Which are just so badly researched, and so outdated in there views it completely shocks me. Especially as to me that article is aimed at new parents probably just starting to cope with the fact that there child is autistic. Then they're going to come across just things like that. From the very onset the article starts by saying there's no cure, and you can only manage the symptoms. Cure for what exactly? Autism isn't a disease!

Anyway i posted a comment back on this article but i kind of doubt it'll see the light of day. So i decided to post also post it here :) That way i can vent and know at least someone beyond myself has read it.

 

I'm really surprised by the arcane stereotypical view of autistic children being "Generally Aggressive" in this article.

Quite shocked that someone supposedly writing tips on managing autistic children can pigeon hole such a wide and diverse spectrum as aggressive. This inaccurate and outdated view is something that should be fought against at all costs. It hinders ASD children and can cause negative feedback against ASD children in the community in which they live.

Also the dietary tip.. its yet to be proven that any specialist diets actually work in controlling or altering the "Symptoms".

My honest view, is that its unfounded and badly researched articles like this that hinder public understanding and awareness of the diversity of Autistic Spectrum Disorders. And cause undue stress to the parents of children recently discovered to being on the Spectrum.

 

And well yes, that's my view.. I'm still unbelievable annoyed and shocked that someone can so casually include the biased view of aggression and pin it to the entire autistic population. That really pisses me off. Its something that we as parents have to deal with a lot when telling people that G's is autistic. And it'd be so much easier for strangers to understand if piebald idiots like this would really just shut the fuck up about their mercury rising experience of autism. The need to go away and watch a few of the Documentaries on the subject. Then they might get that they're unfairly labelling all autistic people as aggressive.

 

*end rant*

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