My task list before my cfObjective talk. That first one is crucial. The second one I had to do multiple times.

I'm staring at this handle on this zipbar on this playground in this park.

I'm staring at it, trying to figure out, IF I SHOULD TRY IT.

I'm staring at it, and I don't know if I should try it. Last time didn't start well. Last time, it ended with injuries. There was laughter in the middle.

I stare at it.

I ponder.

And then, I take a picture, put away my camera, reach up, grab tight with both hands, and push.

So, in interviewing for a job as a front end developer (awwwwwwwww yisssssssssss, automate all the things front end!), I ended up excited about a company that uses Rails (and Ruby) as their application framework. When I was asked, "How would you feel about never writing another line of code in PHP?" I responded, "I'd be okay with it." Languages are ways to communicate, with PHP being just one dialect. If I need to learn how to speak Ruby, *shrug* If the people are awesome, hand me the Ruby book.

Right, the Ruby book.

I'm heading through "Agile Web Development with Rails 4," as it was recommended by the director of engineering at the company. The contents indicate that it's a reasonable introduction to Ruby, which is great. Fortunately for me, I took Chookie's suggestion of problems from Project Euler to play around with languages. I'm currently solving my problems in PHP, JavaScript, Python and Ruby, so that Ruby isn't a blocker on the learning.

Great.

Except I have to say, the length of time it took me to get to this screen:

was stupidly too long.

Seriously, this file exists:

bash-3.2$ more /usr/bin/rails 
#!/bin/sh
echo 'Rails is not currently installed on this system. To get the latest version, simply type:'
echo
echo '    $ sudo gem install rails'
echo
echo 'You can then rerun your "rails" command.'

I really want to ask who thought having this was a good idea, when THIS is the correct response on every single flavor of *nix I can think of:

bash-3.2$ rails
bash: rails: command not found

I'm really glad I know what I'm doing on the command line, because the "oh, just run it with sudo before the command" really doesn't cut it. Really.

Hey, how about those PATH variables?

Right.

Okay, fine now. All set with the demo app. Hello, localhost:3000 (groan! that port will stay around maybe 2 chapters in, and then it's back to my numbering scheme).

So, apparently there's a mail service where you can have postcards printed in bulk and mailed out, with various APIs, all without getting your hands dirty at all.

Nominally, this is great: using technology to solve problems is a wonderful past time. I encourage this.

For Kickstarter projects, however, no.

No, no, no, no, no.

Part of the allure, charm, lure of Kickstarter is the connection the project owners make to the backers. Sure, there's an monetary contract between the backer and the project owner, but there's a social one, too. And that social one demands a personal touch. That personal touch means to me, "Write the postcard to me" not "Automate the process so that you have no connection to me whatsoever."

Sure, there are projects with tens of thousands of backers. For the most part, those projects are from companies, and for those projects, I suspect the rewards don't include anything close to "hand written postcard saying thanks!" in the rewards. I don't particularly connect with those projects. I don't receive emails from them asking them how I got into airplane restoration (I haven't, I just loved the sound of your project), or if I'd like tickets to a spring training game since the project people expect to be working on the barn I just backed (how cool is that?).

For the companies, backing their project is an economic motivation: I want the reward.

For the individuals and small groups, backing their projects is a social and selfish motivation: I want them to succeed. I want them to realize their dream. I want them to make their lives and others' lives better by completing their projects, making something that didn't exist before.

For those projects, I don't want some printed postcard from some online service. I want to connect with the project. I want to smile, knowing I helped you.

So, no.

No no no no no. Don't use this service if you have a Kickstarter project where you're thanking people with postcards. Send me a postcard.

Know what? You don't even need a Kickstarter project to do that.