Friday November 26, 2021; 2:58 PM EST
- (10 min read)#
- This weekend is for writing essays and Drumkit. Mostly what I need at the moment are some IDE-type tools. Documentation lookup, that sort of thing. Some of these are things that Drummer probably ought to have built-in, and may, someday. Since Drummer is scriptable, though, I can make someday happen today. #
- For example, yesterday's project, which is basically "go to line number". Here's part of the inline documentation: #
- #
- // To use this#
- Drummer displays a dialog box like this when it encounters an error in your script:#
- Error running script: Unexpected token (25:5).#
- The first number is the line number, which Drummer gets by counting all nodes that aren't commented-out from the top of the script.#
- The second number is the character position within the line.#
- You can copy the entire text of the dialog box, or just make a note of the line number.#
- Click the icon. You can paste the text, or just type the line number.#
- Drummer will either go to the indicated node, or beep if we can't find it.#
- #
- I'm on schedule with my Drumkit code this weekend. I knew I wouldn't get anything actually built yesterday, because I am still working through the implications of how I am putting together my code. I think I've concluded that part, and can now start actually building some things I need.#
- As I noted yesterday, I really like working in Drummer. There are some things I spend time working around, but overall, I like the experience. Working in an outliner is amazing. Being able to pin a function, or a group of functions, is ridiculously useful. #
- Yesterday's post didn't even list all the ways I've found to screw things up in Drummer. I've managed to make tabs that can't be closed. Documents that suddenly become literally entire other documents, as if a wormhole had opened. These are hard to file issues for. I spent several days last week trying to get repro steps to demonstrate the wormhole bug, and the one I suspect makes the bookmarks menu a vortex of destruction. I can't do it reliably, so I can't file, which is a shame. #
- I admit I have given up trying to get repro steps for those. I am reluctant to experiment any further, even though I now know how to restore things—I think—if everything goes sideways. (That tab is still there, taunting me. We have an agreement now, that tab and I.)#
- But why would I spend any time at all working in an environment where catastrophic failure could occur at any moment? This is so not like me, I do not like unsafe things. If I find a safe way to do something, I do it that way. #
- I once test drove a Honda S2000, which is a tiny car with an engine that is happiest at extremely high revs. If you take that car on the freeway, possibly already above the speed limit, and it is spinning at, say, 7,000 RPM, which is red line for most cars, and then punch it, that car jumps up to 10,000 RPM. This feels like it just grew another engine, and the car asks, "Did you feel that? Being slammed into your seat like that? That is what we call a G force." This can be extremely exciting, which is why we buy cars like that, and jump out of airplanes. But, to me, it did not feel safe (I would be too tempted), so I kept looking. The failure mode there is death and destruction. #
- My brother used to ride a motorcycle, and wrecked it, and had the usual doctor-type stuff to put himself back together. That feels pretty unsafe to me, so I have never actually operated a motorcycle myself. The failure mode there is pretty bad.#
- However, I now spend lots of time, like, every minute I can, operating a device which is basically the most dangerous thing I own. It may also be the best thing I own. It's an electric unicycle. I call it "the wheel". And its failure mode can be summarized as fuck you.#
- The wheel is a result of Segway-type self-balancing technology. You stand on it, it stays up, you lean, it goes.#
- You know the problem with a Segway? Too many wheels and handles. You know that thing the caveman rode around on in the B.C. comics? That's what the wheel looks like. It is literally a wheel with some pedals sticking out. #
- The wheel is like flying. Riding the wheel feels exactly like you are standing on a magic carpet, a few inches off the ground, and you are flying wherever you want to go. You don't operate any controls. I ride with my hands in my pockets, sometimes. You just think a direction, and you are moving there. I am not kidding. #
- When it is time to fetch the mail, I get to ride the wheel for maybe a total of 30 or 40 seconds. The wheel weighs sixty pounds, and I have to carry it up and down a flight of stairs. I look forward to getting the mail. I come back smiling, every single time.#
- The wheel stays up, by itself, self-balancing, but only front-to-back. That's how you make it go, you lean forward, it tries to stay upright, so it accelerates to get back under you. You have to maintain your side-to-side balance, though. If you have ever done any sort of balance sport like skiing, or skateboarding, you will take to it immediately. I did not. It took me weeks to learn to stay up on it. This was literally the hardest thing I have ever had to learn. #
- I could probably do a skateboard now. But I don't want to. The wheel is so much better. I can ride it off-road. I don't even need pavement.#
- (Do not confuse the wheel with a OneWheel. That thing is a powered snowboard, you ride it different, it is different.)#
- The wheel requires power to stay up. When you turn it off, it immediately slumps over, limp. It is like turning off a live thing.#
- There is a button that you have to hold, if you pick it up off the ground. If you do not hold that button, while lifting it, the wheel thinks it needs to accelerate to catch up. So within a couple seconds, that wheel will be spinning literally as fast as the motor will go. It is hard to hold on to, because it produces torque like a gyroscope, this is how fast it is spinning. This is part of the specifications for a wheel, what is the maximum power it can apply when it doesn't have to do any work. #
- If you forget to hold the button, and then set the wheel on the ground while it is doing this, your wheel will attempt to go somewhere else. It will leave skid marks, and if you do not have an absolutely firm grip, your wheel will achieve an extremely high speed, very quickly. This won't last long, because a tenth of a second later, something will be smashed. Since you're right there, it'll probably be some part of you. You want to hold on, because if you let go, the wheel will go berserk, and you need to find that stupid button. But you can't, because the wheel is going berserk in mid-air, and putting skid marks on you in the process. Usually it's best to just let go, and watch it crash into things until it decides to stop on its own in a few seconds.#
- When you lean forward, the wheel accelerates to keep under you. If it cannot keep up, that means you are going faster than the wheel. You will continue going faster than the wheel, for a short time. You will continue going forward, for a short time. You are leaning forward. You will keep leaning forward, for a short time, until you complete a maneuver which is technically referred to as a "face plant".#
- The wheel might not be able to keep up because you are asking it to go too fast. It might not be able to keep up because the battery is low.#
- If you demand too much current from the battery, it will go as fast as it can, but you can always lean past that point. There is no way to make this safe. Either the wheel literally has the power to keep up, or it cannot. #
- You can fake a safety mechanism by pretending to retain some reserve. The wheel will beep at you, loud as it can, if it detects things like going over a certain speed, or temporary current draws more than 90 amps, or the battery voltage is getting low. But it can't do anything else, it cannot slow you down: The wheel cannot slow you down. If it tries to slow you down, you face plant, because you are then going faster than the wheel.#
- If you are going fast—mine will go 20 miles per hour, newer ones are approaching freeway speeds—you may not hear the beep. So there's another thing called tilt back, which I call pushback, due to the way it feels. This basically means the wheel adjusts its acceleration curves such that it feels like you have to lean harder, and harder, and harder, to go any faster. This is uncomfortable, and you have to deliberately ride through pushback if you want to keep going. You can, though. Right up to the point where you draw too much current, and the wheel can no longer keep up. Which means, face plant, at high velocity.#
- The wheel will recharge its batteries if you go downhill, which is great. But if the battery can't take any more charge, well, I think you might guess where this is going. So you never start a ride at 100 percent battery, if your ride is going to start at the top of a hill.#
- Like I said, the failure mode on the wheel can be summarized as fuck you.#
- But it's not that bad. It's exciting. You have to be extremely aware, at all times, of what's going on. You are moving fast, among pedestrians, and cars, and they are absolutely not used to seeing someone riding a wheel. This cognitive dissonance can cause poor decision-making in situations where you do not want that—I do not want to confuse drivers who think I'm a pedestrian and don't realize how fast I can move, so I generally walk the wheel through intersections.#
- You have to maintain your balance, on a platform that is jumping and shuddering with cracks in the sidewalk, or bumpy ground. You get used to the idea that your feet might need to leave the pedals, briefly, but you'll be OK. Someday I will try one of the newer wheels that have a suspension, that sounds pretty nice. #
- To ride the wheel is to fly, and be alert. The failure mode is a face plant, but I have safety equipment, and don't ride at the limits of the wheel. So, it's thrilling, but mostly safe. Mostly. For example, after several weeks initial practice, I decided I was ready to go get some coffee, and of course, fell off the wheel on the way back. (Saved the coffee.) That knee hurt for weeks. #
- I can't remember the last time that happened, though. I learn, I practice, I get better. I use the wheel to get groceries. It has a handle, so I can just walk it around the aisles like a pet. When my car is in the shop, I ride the wheel a few miles to the rental place. I rode the wheel to get vaccinated a couple times, and I'll do it again to get my booster. If I have to go anywhere, and I can carry what I need in a backpack, and the weather isn't terrible, I take the wheel.#
- In short, the wheel is fucking awesome. #
- Working with Drummer feels like riding the wheel. It is exciting, and unlike anything else. It's also dangerous, you need to stay alert. #
- But the failure mode isn't all that bad, really. It doesn't even hurt! Not like a knee.#
- Like I said yesterday, I am getting used to writing things twice, occasionally. I am not kidding about that, it has been an invaluable lesson about the real uniqueness and worth of any individual, specific, thing I create.#
- I used to think, I need to make this perfect, I have to get it right. And I never, ever produced anything. #
- Knowing that I wrote it before, I can do it again, and maybe I'll find a better way to do it, has been good for me. No joke.#