I've decided that I want to get better at coding. I have a little experience in making pretty lights blink on the Arduino, and can make a nightmarishly early 00's looking webpage in HTML if I have to, but really can't do more than that.
I want to get better at coding because I want to expand my horizons, and solve a few small everyday problems of my own while I'm at it. I'm also acutely aware that as a loud and proud advocate of #WomenInSTEM and #GirlsWhoCode, it's high time I got more involved.
Against popular recommendation, I will be doing everything in my power to run before I can walk. Historically, I've found that diving in on a higher level project with a huge amount of support available works for me: I love the challenge, and if it doesn't work out, at least I had a go at doing something ridiculous. If it does work, once completed I can go back over it and make sense of what I've done. Plus it makes a hell of an origin story.
That's why I'm planning on diving in headfirst with a practical Pi project. I want to help a friend construct a low- cost security camera. That will be project #1. My blinky-lights equivalent (not that there's anything wrong with blinky lights - the massive LED in the Arduino experimenters kit is the best blinky light ever).
I'll be reviewing the process - how easy it is for a moderately practical but easily distracted human being to create a fairly tricky-sounding project with pre-existing code. I'll then try to understand the code and ideally adapt it to my friend's needs.
So that's why coding, but why dinosaurs? Just as I know a little about coding, I know a lot about dinosaurs, but I haven't worked in prehistoric public engagement for a while and have got out of touch with the latest discoveries. So I'll be sharing some of those, too. Who doesn't love dinosaurs?
So there you go. Coding and Dinosaurs, explained.
Wish me luck.
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