Hello World

720 Repair's web site is now live. We're excited and happy to issue our first blog to go with our web launch.

Anyone who has ever learned a new software programming language is familiar with the concept of a "Hello World" program. It's the classic first program for any brand new programmer. The object of such a program is to simply print out "Hello World" on the screen (or whatever output device might make sense[1]). If the programmer can accomplish this simple task, then they have successfully learned the basics of programming in their new language. They know how to correctly write a program using the syntax of the language they've chosen; they know how to use the programming tools (editors, compilers, linkers, etc.) to create a program understandable by the computer and operating system; and they know how to execute the program so the computer actually does what they intended it to do.

Also, if the programmer is like me, they probably also had to do some debugging. A new program rarely runs correctly the first time. The programmer always has to figure out what they've done wrong, correct it, and run the program again.

And again.

And again.

This is my first blog, so writing a "Hello World" version seemed like the right thing to do. Here goes:

Hello world!

Let's find that missing R

Schwoooo! Now that that's out of the way, let's switch to a bit more important topic. I'd like to introduce myself and give you a hint at my vision for 720 Repair.

I love to fix things. I've been building and fixing things since I was a little kid. I built tables and chairs out of scrap wood in the back yard when I was six and seven. I have fixed, customized and built a long series of bikes through my years. I got into electronics when I was a sophomore in high school[2], and have been monkeying around with circuits ever since. More recently I've worked in my son's car shop fixing cars, I've fixed all of my family's computers and phones, and I've rebuilt a house. The list is long and varied. The point is, I like fixing things.

In addition to my love of repair, I've become more and more concerned (and a bit disgusted) with our society's increasing tendency to discard broken gadgets and buy new replacements. Not only does this approach fill up our landfills with hard to bio-degrade and often toxic substances, it also misses a key opportunity for us to learn a bit about the things we use every day. Taking a few minutes to understand a device, to troubleshoot why it's not working, and to make a repair increases our understanding of the world around us. It also feels great! There's nothing like bringing a broken gizmo back to life to build your confidence.

So join me in bringing back a bit more repair to our world. We'll clean up a bit of our messy environment and we'll feel better about ourselves. It's all good.

~Gordy

1. For my first "Hello World" program -- back in 1978 -- I wrote my program in Fortran on computer punch cards, fed them through a card reader, and the computer room attendant brought out the output several minutes later. ↩︎

2. Mr. Robertson at Orem High School led a beautiful, wonderful hands-on course in electronics. We built a tube radio from scratch. He established a relationship with National Semiconductor (who had a factory in the area) for us to fix any of their handheld calculators that weren't working when they came off the manufacturing line. Fun stuff. Hint: It was almost always a solder bridge that caused the malfunction. ↩︎