Overwhelming Good

I should start with a caveat. I have nearly always been a PC person, with the sole exception of my very first computer, a little all-in-one Mac with a five-inch black and white screen that was given to my family by my grandparents (who were the first real personal computer users in the family, go figure). Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think Macs are bad–I think they’re great for the vast majority of people–I just sometimes feel like they’re too…

…simple. I like to challenge myself. I don’t want a computer that starts up for the first time and is perfectly intuitive. I don’t want a simple pre-approved .app file that does everything for me when I want to install a new program; I’d rather install something on my own, embrace the inevitable errors, and try to figure them out. I’d rather get a blue screen and spend two hours trying to figure out what a “fatal exception” is and why my hard drive is such a negative nancy in the first place than blissfully ignore everything that happens inside my little magical white box with the fruity logo. I like to think of it like a car. I’d always want to be able to know my way at least cursorily around under the hood, so when I see that green puddle under my car I’ll know it’s radiator coolant rather than windshield wiper stuff or transmission fluid. Sure, I’d probably use up more time than necessary when I could always go to a mechanic, but I just wouldn’t want to be that guy who’s completely ignorant of those doo-hickeys under the hood and simply trust in name-your-favorite-automaker’s good name and reputation.

This line of thinking, however, can sometimes be mean getting far more than I bargained for.

This week, for both my Probity work and as an adjunct duty for Northwestern, I started learning Ruby on Rails. Ruby is a relatively new programming language. Rails is a framework for Ruby to create web applications. Twitter, for example, was made with Ruby on Rails. Anyway, so I started trying to learn Ruby on Rails. Easy enough. I’ve pounded my way through HTML and CSS and the first few chapters of a couple Python tutorials; this should be no different. Neal provided me with an e-book to start reading, and on page 15 I hit this little gem:

Hm. This could be interesting. I understood that the majority of Rails programmers are Mac-users, but this was an interesting twist. Ten years ago. Windows 98? I guess that wasn’t too different from today’s Windows. He’ll be able to still accurately guide me through this learning process, I thought to myself. Then, three pages later, he’s going through the process of setting up Ruby on a computer. Mac, do this. Linux, do this. Windows… Well, see for yourself.

I don’t really know, so google it? Seriously?

So I googled it. And found no fewer than a dozen sites where Windows users were ridiculed for attempting Rails on their ill-fated machines. Somewhere in the muck I found a couple seemingly-reliable sources for installing Ruby on Windows. Now, I should point out that installing a programming language and associated framework isn’t quite so simple as clicking an “.exe” file and going through the Installation Wizard. You have to delve into the terminal/console/command prompt of the computer to get it to recognize a new language and set of commands. This, I quickly discovered, is tremendously more difficult on a Windows computer than on a Mac or Linux machine (which both are Unix-based, which allows you to make modifications to the set of commands they recognize with relative ease). I had this sudden and overwhelming feeling that I didn’t even know how to open the hood of this car, much less how to change the oil.

For all of my PC-using days, I’ve been in the majority. The privileged group, with broad software support AND lack of compatibility issues. I could play games AND right-click. But, within a matter of seconds, I was suddenly the beaten down minority.

If I were completely logical, at this point, I should navigate myself straight to http://www.apple.com, and buy myself a fancy new magical white box. I’m in the market for a new laptop anyway–I’m going to spend a lot of time on the El this coming year–why not make it a fruity year?

Of course, what I actually do, is tell myself, “You’re running a PC. You can do anything!” and set right off to work.

Four hours, ten desktop shortcuts, and a grossly enlarged Start menu later, I realize that perhaps I was a little hasty in my assumption. I’ve got Ruby, RubyGems, and an IDE working as needed. I’m 80% of the way through the introduction. And then Rails won’t install. Apparently I had been going about it all wrong, and had to start with a different technique (requiring all sorts of different workarounds and commands), in order to actually get Windows to recognize this new language. Back to the drawing board.

Three hours later, it’s 3:30am and I’ve finally got Rails working on Windows. Not perfectly, but it’s chugging along down the road happily. I don’t know how long it’ll last, or what else I’ll have to install that will discover the hidden wrench in the tailpipe, but it’s working for now.

We’re going to hit roadblocks in life. Challenge. Adversity. And how we deal with those times of difficulty… that’s what really displays the strength of our fiber. Or at least the strength of our stubbornness.

At this point, I should consider heading back over to that iPhone website and finding myself a simpler vehicle to operate. But why would I do that, when I can spend a few hours replacing the hard drive and battery to my six-year-old laptop, revive it from it’s two years of hibernation, and dual boot Windows with Linux (and write this blog post) on it? I’m in the process of setting up a dual boot of FreeBSD (a Unix-based operating system) on my desktop now, too.

Challenge. I don’t know if it’s ambition or stupidity, righteousness or stubbornness, but I like to figure things out. I’d rather know what’s going on than take the easy way out. Sometimes to a fault.

Some people think it’s a waste of time, but I think it’s going to pay off in the end. Because when it comes down to the real grit, I’ll be the one chugging away under the hood, never giving up till that darn motor starts.