Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Tinker

If you tinker (around) with something, you play with it, experiment with it, test it, adjust it, rearrange it, reorganize it, reorder it, fix it, adapt it, improve it, modify it, add to it, etc.

1. Most guys like tinkering with applications on their cell phones. It's nice to figure out how something works and how you can use it. What apps do you like tinkering with?

2. I like tinkering with task management applications to see what features they have and how I can adapt them to my organizational needs. I find it mentally stimulating to "play around" with productivity applications. Here is a blog post I wrote this year on the Gneo Blog: http://bit.ly/1nOfncD

3. Usually, tinkering with something is a process of trying to find the most efficient way to use something or familiarize yourself with it. You can change and adjust something until you feel it is almost perfect. When you get a new computer or device, do you like to tinker around with it until you feel comfortable, or do you just use it for the most basic things?

4. Some people like to tinker with old cars and restore them. They will spend hour upon hour working on the engine, the paintwork and absolutely every little detail imaginable.

5. A tinker was originally a tinsmith (someone who works with tin), who mended (fixed) household utensils. Often people find it satisfying to work with their hands and tinker around fixing things. Is there anything that you like fixing?

6. If someone enjoys computer programming, you can say that they love tinkering around with code. I like tinkering around with a blog template until I have it exactly the way I want it.


7. Android users will often say that they like tinkering around and adjusting their mobile devices so that they are set up exactly the way they want. There is more latitude to tinker around with android devices than with Apple devices (iOS) because the android platform is more open. 

8. I used to enjoy tinkering around with photographic equipment and black-and-white darkroom equipment and chemicals. I could spend the whole day in a black-and-white darkroom adjusting my prints until I got the results I wanted. I also enjoyed exploring the features of manual cameras.

9. Tinkering with something is just the same as saying to play around with it.  Children don't tinker with things… they just play with their toys. Tinkering is practically the way adults play. Most of the time tinkering manifests itself in the form of a hobby. Do you have any hobby where you tinker around with anything?


10. Today I tinkered a little with an online application which lets anyone without computer programming knowledge make their own form of a mobile app in a web browser, which they can then share with others: adsy.me 

10 comments :

  1. Mi comentario es que tengo el recuerdo de que la página proveía una parte sonora donde se podía escuchar la pronunciación de cada palabra y hace mucho tiempo que no lo encuentro

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    1. Hi Letaniabubu :-)
      Yes... I did that for a couple of posts... but I was just testing some "text to speech" software, "Text Aloud"... it was not as natural as I had hoped... maybe one day if I get a decent microphone I will add some audio to the posts. The thing is that the material I post here is material that I actually use in my private English classes... that's why many of the examples are in the form of a question. I am thinking about some other ideas for posting English material online... maybe a different blog... but if I post audio, I would like to do it in partnership with native English speakers from various English-speaking countries... so that may be in the pipeline :-)

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    2. I understand Spanish perfectly... so it's great that you commented here... just that I've been in Brazil for almost 6 years, so my Spanish is getting rusty...

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  2. @letaniabubu hay un otro sitio que permite escuchar la pronunciación de palabras en inglés, alemán, espanol...
    www.forvo.com

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    1. Here is a fantastic site: http://www.dialectsarchive.com/
      IDEA - International Dialects of English Archive.
      You can listen to People speaking English all over the world... and follow along with the scripts. It is phenomenal and super interesting.

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  3. I've been tinkering around with Linux scripting. I thought it would be hard, but it turned out to be easier than I expected and fun.

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    1. Linux scripting, to me, would be as difficult as learning Chinese... or the piano! Maybe it's not as difficult as I imagine... but I would have to start from scratch with coding language in general. The only thing I do know a little about is HTML language. Any recommendations for someone who is an absolute beginner in the world of programming? Where would I start?

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    2. Hi Frank! Well..Programming is not that hard. Linux scripting is easier than I thought. I started with Logic programming more than ten years ago. If you feel this is not for you, you can taste some programming languages such as C or Java. C is easy to understand. Though, you will find it hard to implement sometimes because you have to come up with a lot of cases for your program to run without errors. Java is object oriented and is widely used nowadays. However, you don't have to worry about things such as memory allocation as you do in C. For beginners: http://turtleacademy.com/learn.php
      http://www.transum.org/software/logo/


      Here is a useful website: http://www.cprogressivo.net/p/o-basico-da-linguagem-c.html

      Java: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/java/


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    3. Thanks for the info! I will take a look as soon as I have some time.

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  4. I like tinkering with English words and come up with sentences of my own making.

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