Life is hard.
And People are complicated.
Which is certainly not a surprise for any of you.
One of the main reasons I like to blog is not just that I like talking about whatever interests me, and perhaps get other people interested in it as well (although that is one reason) it's that, I'm not a very open person, at least not right off the bat. In fact even after I've known a person for a while, perhaps even years I can't really bring myself to open up completely, to really exspose the essence if you will, of who I am. I hear this metahphor all the time, about being in a shell, or always wearing a mask in front of people, instead of letting them see your true self, and as cliched as they are, I feel that it is almost eerie how accurately it seems to parallel my life.
I'm sure there's some deep psychological reason behind all this, but from some time ago, around middle school, I changed. I went from being an overall outgoing person, to much more introverted, in fact I even started to fall into the stereotypes that would accompany it. I would get bullied,and instead of fight back (as I once did) I just withdrew further. As I grew older, things just became more muddled, I would almost be both, outgoing and closed-off, in a sort-of bipolar-esque routine of switching from one to the other.
It's kinda funny, that I seem to know a lot of people, both in high school and college. but I don't really feel like I have a lot of friends, I mean sure I consider pretty much everyone I know to be a friend to one degree or another, but I don't really feel that they feel the same about me, and beyond that even, all but a few of my friendships, actually feel real. As in, they're the type, where there's no question the other is your friend, the person, you talk to, you hang out with, you relate to. The kind of person that really understands you, who knows what kind of a person you are, and still considers you a friend, the person that forgives even your biggest mistakes, or stupidest moments, no matter how frequent.
In all my life, I don't think I've ever had more than a couple of friends like that, and it's kinda saddening.
I think this might contribute to my obsession with comics, they show a view of life, that I can relate to, but without the complexities of human-interaction, at least on my end.
I like comics like Calvin and Hobbes, xkcd, and Foxtrot, because I can relate very strongly to their characters and themes, because in some ways it helps to give me hope, that out there in that vast world, there can be understanding, even if it's only fictional.
I guess that's what I hoped for most out of college, besides the learning, the degree, I'd want most out of all of it, understanding.
In my time here at college, I've learned a great deal, but not just about physics and math and other scholarly subjects.
I've learned a little bit more about people, about life, about trying to fit in, and about failing to do so.
I've lived a fairly sheltered life up until college, up until now, the vast majority of my friends had been only at school, always in class, and always sort of separate from the rest of my life. it's here that I've found that the worlds not quite so segmented, people from school become people I see everyday, and I've found myself trying to adapt to this new situation of interacting with people, in this whole new mixed up jumbled environment.
College is unique in that while it seems to pass by so quickly, it also feels like it's lasted a lifetime.
After a year here, I've made some friends and lost some as well. It's sad to say that as I've tried to adapt, I've kinda fumbled here and there, leaving some potential friendships in ruin. Will they be salvaged? only time will tell, I suppose that's the hardest thing about people, you never know what will happen, there's no map to follow, no undo button, no way to make everything better, what's done is done, and sometimes past mistakes follow you into the future. As much as I'd like to go back in time, and change things for the better, explain myself, and hope that some understanding can be reached by all, them and I, but I can't so I've no choice but remain here, with my actions, and decisions, and hope it's not to late for things to change.
While my blog may not be all that interesting at times, or even all that good, it may never find an audience, or even be read by more than a handful, and even then perhaps never by those whom I'd hope would read it; at the very least it helps me, to sort through my mind, and communicate my thoughts, feelings and whatever else is there, in a more understandable manner, I'd like to think that doing so helps me become just a bit better at understanding others just as it helps me understand myself.
And who knows, maybe someone will read it, intended or otherwise, and maybe someday, at the end of all this I'll finally find what I've been looking for.
A little understanding.
Friday, September 18
Comics
I like comics, as many of you I'm sure have realized.
I went to borders today, and it was my luck to have stumbled upon a copy "the Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book" in the bargain bin. So naturally I bought it. Before the comics, there's a bit of a foreword by the author, Bill Watterson.
It was a few pages where he talked about various things, relating to comics, and Calvin and Hobbes, and other related views in general. He talked aobut how comics nowadays have changed in the hundred years or so of their existence, from being merely a way to help sell newspapers to being a form of art and expression in their own right. He talked about the almost ironic change that accompanied this, of newspapers cutting off parts of comics or greatly reducing the sizes so as to cram as many as they can into as small a space as they can, ironic since the comics are perhaps the only thing that had really set newspapers apart, and makes them unique, at least when compared to television at that time as a way of getting news.
He talked about his working to keep his comics from becoming comercialized, and in doing so cheapened. It was particularly powerful to read, how instead of cash in on his success as so many have or would have done he instead fought to keep his work his, and not allow his artistic vision to be sold or in any way cheapened by the greed of others.
It was really admirable, to read. And there is no possible way for me to do his words justice I can only say to read them yourselves.
But having read them it reminded me just a little bit of why I love his comics as much as I do, long after I've grown bored with Garfield which I had loved as a child, or any of the other nameless newspaper comics whose names I've long since forgotten. There's something about Calvin and Hobbes, that really speaks to me, whether it's the timeless laughs, or the deep themes that I face at times in my own life. There's something wonderfully magical about it, that feeling that in here, there's something for me, in this the wonderful crazy mixed up world we live in, there's something that I can relate to, and it makes my life a little bit nicer for having read it.
While some might say that reading comics are a waste of time, I can't help but disagree, there's a lot to be learned and experienced from them if only you look at them with an open mind.
So with that, I'd like to share with you few strips that I found to be especially meaningful:
the first 2 where part of a story arc about a racoon, Calvin found, I'll not clutter up the post with all of them, but if you go here you'll find the others (as well as a few more very good strips) the second is unrelated to the others, but meaningful nonetheless (found in the same place).
I hope you enjoyed these comics and their message just a little bit. I know I have.
Now if you'll excuse me, there's a whole books worth of these for me to finish, along with their ensuing commentary by the author, so until next time.
Also speaking of comic collections, there's an xkcd book out, you can order it here. The profits of course go to help support this amazing comic, as well as help to build a school in laos. I'm sure it goes without saying that I've already ordered my copy.
I went to borders today, and it was my luck to have stumbled upon a copy "the Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book" in the bargain bin. So naturally I bought it. Before the comics, there's a bit of a foreword by the author, Bill Watterson.
It was a few pages where he talked about various things, relating to comics, and Calvin and Hobbes, and other related views in general. He talked aobut how comics nowadays have changed in the hundred years or so of their existence, from being merely a way to help sell newspapers to being a form of art and expression in their own right. He talked about the almost ironic change that accompanied this, of newspapers cutting off parts of comics or greatly reducing the sizes so as to cram as many as they can into as small a space as they can, ironic since the comics are perhaps the only thing that had really set newspapers apart, and makes them unique, at least when compared to television at that time as a way of getting news.
He talked about his working to keep his comics from becoming comercialized, and in doing so cheapened. It was particularly powerful to read, how instead of cash in on his success as so many have or would have done he instead fought to keep his work his, and not allow his artistic vision to be sold or in any way cheapened by the greed of others.
It was really admirable, to read. And there is no possible way for me to do his words justice I can only say to read them yourselves.
But having read them it reminded me just a little bit of why I love his comics as much as I do, long after I've grown bored with Garfield which I had loved as a child, or any of the other nameless newspaper comics whose names I've long since forgotten. There's something about Calvin and Hobbes, that really speaks to me, whether it's the timeless laughs, or the deep themes that I face at times in my own life. There's something wonderfully magical about it, that feeling that in here, there's something for me, in this the wonderful crazy mixed up world we live in, there's something that I can relate to, and it makes my life a little bit nicer for having read it.
While some might say that reading comics are a waste of time, I can't help but disagree, there's a lot to be learned and experienced from them if only you look at them with an open mind.
So with that, I'd like to share with you few strips that I found to be especially meaningful:
the first 2 where part of a story arc about a racoon, Calvin found, I'll not clutter up the post with all of them, but if you go here you'll find the others (as well as a few more very good strips) the second is unrelated to the others, but meaningful nonetheless (found in the same place).
I hope you enjoyed these comics and their message just a little bit. I know I have.
Now if you'll excuse me, there's a whole books worth of these for me to finish, along with their ensuing commentary by the author, so until next time.
Also speaking of comic collections, there's an xkcd book out, you can order it here. The profits of course go to help support this amazing comic, as well as help to build a school in laos. I'm sure it goes without saying that I've already ordered my copy.
Monday, September 7
The Future is coming, and it's ...nifty
The Future of Shopping?
You gotta admit Paypal has some pretty nifty ideas for the future, and I for one am looking forward to them (I'm sure I'm not alone, I mean come on, who else doesn't like cool futuristic-like technology?)
This November their releasing a new 'flexible' API for developers to use and build on the platform set to be released on November 3rd.
sounds cool? get more details from my source here, and here both from TechCruch
Speaking of Cool Futuristic Techno-Thingies, check out this video by Microsoft (yeah you me right):
<a href="http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-GB&playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:a517b260-bb6b-48b9-87ac-8e2743a28ec5&showPlaylist=true&from=shared" target="_new" title="Future Vision Montage">Video: Future Vision Montage</a>
Now I'll admit, I feel little else save loathing when I think of microsoft, but the geek in me can't help but look on in wonder (and delight) at the prospect of such ideas.
Granted it's Microsoft, so I'm not going to get my hopes up that I'll be seeing such things in my lifetime (least not by Microsoft ....yep that's the loathing you're reading)
[found here at Digital Beat]
There's also a longer version of this video at istartedsomething.com [link here]
I'll admit that Microsoft has done some cool things in the past like the sphere computer so let's see what becomes of this.
Hope you enjoyed this short foray into the future (and all it's coolness) if you come across anything else cool and future-y please feel free to post 'em in the comments (I love reading about new or potential technology)
That's all Goodnight.
You gotta admit Paypal has some pretty nifty ideas for the future, and I for one am looking forward to them (I'm sure I'm not alone, I mean come on, who else doesn't like cool futuristic-like technology?)
This November their releasing a new 'flexible' API for developers to use and build on the platform set to be released on November 3rd.
sounds cool? get more details from my source here, and here both from TechCruch
Speaking of Cool Futuristic Techno-Thingies, check out this video by Microsoft (yeah you me right):
Now I'll admit, I feel little else save loathing when I think of microsoft, but the geek in me can't help but look on in wonder (and delight) at the prospect of such ideas.
Granted it's Microsoft, so I'm not going to get my hopes up that I'll be seeing such things in my lifetime (least not by Microsoft ....yep that's the loathing you're reading)
[found here at Digital Beat]
There's also a longer version of this video at istartedsomething.com [link here]
I'll admit that Microsoft has done some cool things in the past like the sphere computer so let's see what becomes of this.
Hope you enjoyed this short foray into the future (and all it's coolness) if you come across anything else cool and future-y please feel free to post 'em in the comments (I love reading about new or potential technology)
That's all Goodnight.
Thursday, September 3
How To: Dual Boot Windows and Fedora (or Ubuntu)
For those of you who have been reading my blog, you are no doubt aware of the fact that I use GNU/Linux (Fedora to be precise) as well as Windows (...damn windows only programs)
So for those of you that happen to be interested in GNU/Linux a try but aren't completely sure what to do, this guide is for you (think of it as a chance to learn from my mistakes, and all around stupidity) Also for those a little more on the fence than others just know that you don't need to actually install GNU/Linux to get an idea of what it's like, modern technology (and more specifically cheap hardware) have advanced to the point that you can simply install to and boot from a cd, dvd or even usb drive (though that one requires more work).
Please note, I'm just going to cover Fedora and Ubuntu here, mainly because they are very user friendly (and I haven't installed any other distros). Also note this guide is written with the assumption that you're currently using windows (sorry mac users, I can't really help you here).
Getting Started:
First download the iso of whatever version of either Ubuntu or Fedora you want to install.
To the newbies out there I'd recommend getting started with Ubuntu, as it's generally easier to set up and get running, it's probably the easiest to make the transition from windows to, but of course if you'd rather try fedora (as I do) if you're more on the technically inclined end of the spectrum go ahead.
*As a side note, if you happen to know someone that is GNU/linux-savvy and would be willing to help you, it would behove you to install the same distro they have, as they'd likely be of more aid than I in case you run into difficulty (I lucked out in this regard when I switched to fedora I also started a class where my professor not only uses fedora, but actually works at Redhat)
Now that you have your iso it's time to install it.
The easiest way would be to just use your preferred cd burning tool (when I first did this I used roxio creator) to create a live cd (make sure that you're burning the contents of the cd, and not the iso itself, generally if you double click on it it should load it into whatever software your computer defaults to for these kinds of things.
You can also install it to your usb drive using either Fedora's Live usb creator (which works great) or one of various tools for Ubuntu (e.g UNetBootin)
Linux Live:
Once you've got that all set up, you're ready to try out Linux, restart your computer and insert your media of choice, on the first screen you see (the BIOS page) you should see in the top right corner (usually when it's almost done loading) the key you need to press to bring up the boot menu (it's usually F10, F12, DEL, it's possible it may be different for some people, if all else fails google it) if you accidentally get into your BIOS setup page, make sure you don't screw around with anything (unless you want to break your computer) just exit without saving and try a different key until you find the one that's just right (if all else fails and you can't find the key that works for you, you can go into BIOS and change it boot order so it boots first from the usb or cd automatically (just remember to change back it later) after that you're pretty much in, select the Try without any change to your computer (or live cd) option to run the OS in live mode.
At this point you can have some fun navigating around the GNU/linux interface, which is pretty intuitive (although still noticeably different than windows) taskbar on the bottom, menus on the top, applications can be installed from what's called the repository which is essentially a store of free open source software that you can install on your computer without having to worry if it's a scam or malware, it's one of the reasons that linux is more secure than windows and the like, all necessary software are downloaded from trusted sources and have millions of eyes looking over them for bugs so that your system is kept secure You'll find that pretty much every software you use has a linux equivalent sitting in the repo sitories,(to use the obvious examples OpenOffice -MS Word, Firefox - Internet Explorer, etc....) I could sit here and preach to you the benefits of using Linux and Open Source Software until I'm blue in the face (and I still wouldn't be able to come up with as convincing a speech as you can find online) but it all means nothing if you don't try it out for yourself, so if you've been sitting there just reading through the article trying to see what to do only to be thinking that you'll do it later, stop reading right now (can't believe I said that) go to the website of whichever distribution you're interested in ( Ubuntu/Fedora) download the iso and get installing, it'll run you 30 mins or so (might vary depending on your internet connection) and try booting up GNU/Linux, it'll be worth your time (really) try it out and see if you can get the hang of it, yeah it's different, and it's not the same ol' windows UI (user interface) you may have grown up on, so it'll take some getting used to but that's inherent in trying anything new, and you can even come back here and continue reading the article if you like (though you may want to plug in an ethernet cable if you aren't already doing so, for reasons I'll get into later).
So, go on now, go..., don't worry I'll wait ...really, go. now.
...
Back? good.
Some Side Info:
Well now that you had a chance to see GNU/Linux for yourself what did you think of it? not bad right?
Are you thinking about installing it to your hard drive maybe? (it'd be really awesome if you did, seriously ...if someone does, post in the comments I'd love to hear it)
Before you do, there are so me things you should be aware of:
firstly your wireless card and/or video card may not be completely compatible with Linux, this is because certain companies refuse to release their drivers source (despite promises by developers to sign NDAs) or even release drivers compatible with linux, so it falls on linux developers to write their own.
*note it's possible other parts of your hardware may not work, but you shouldn't worry about that if you were able to boot the live installation of GNU/Linux *
The reason linux developers want open source drivers for use with linux systems is because it's more secure and stable that way, a code that is closed source provides a security risk to the computer as it could be exploited without the knowledge of the user and not fixed until the company decides to release a new update. There is also the idealogical and practical ideas behind open source computing, which I won't get into (put you can read about online if you like).
So, let it be known that your graphics driver &/or wireless card may not immediately work in linux (check here, or here to see for sure)
It's at this point that I hope you followed my advice and picked Ubuntu (unless you have a nearby linux guru who'll help you)
Because Ubuntu is a bit more lax when it comes to drivers, as in they offer a readily accessible way to change your drivers to use proprietary versions (if you want)
Fedora so far as I can tell Fedora does not (there is a workaround for most things, but some are pretty complicated ....I haven't even figured out how to do it yet)
* Now if you've decided that you don't want to go on with the installation, that's fine just exit out and continue with windows, I will make one recommendation, hold on to that flash drive/CD just in case your computer has issues and won't boot, that live install might be your only way to rescue the data on your computer (plus if you ever change your mind about Linux.....)
Installing:
So... you've made it this far, either you've decided to go through with the installation or you're just that interested in what I have to say (either way: awesome)
Before you go on, back up your hard drive, anything and everything you feel is important, trust me, it's better safe than sorry.
Now if you're still running the Live install of there should be an option on your desktop to install it to your hard drive, click that.
You'll be prompted to decide on certain configurations for your system:
Time Zone,
keyboard layout,
login username and password,
and root password (important: make sure this is a strong password that you don't forget, and do not tell anyone this password, it's important)
Fedora will also prompt you to name your computer
the default being: localhost.localdomain,
It's just how your computer will be identified if it's on a network, you can keep it as the default if you like, it won't make too much of a difference
Now the most important step.
Partitioning your hard drive.
you will see:
Since you want to dual boot and not replace 
windows entirely, pick the shrink current system option (or for ubuntu pick manual), and it'll prompt you to resize your windows partition, depending on how big of a hard drive you have you may want to give it around 25 or so GB, though it really depends on if you like to install other applications and the like on your computer, if you have a lot, feel free to give it more (I personally made my XP partition ~50 GB on a 149 GB hard drive) the now on the next screen, if you want to have some free space shared by both Linux and XP you can create a new NTFS partition of however much size you want, and it can house whatever data you want both to access.
T he Steps listed above are pretty much the same (though a bit more intuitive) in Ubuntu, you can resize your XP partition and create a new partition to share between the two (still NTFS) *note your Ubuntu system will probably look different than that picture, as it's just a n example I found online). When you're done with this STOP. If you're still reading, finish up and then close firefox and anything else y ou have open (except the install prompt of course) this is because when the computer is resizing your partitions and installing yo 
ur new OS you don't want to touch it, at all just leave it be until it's done because messing with it then could end up screwing so mething up, while it 's resizing the partitions or installing the OS (I think that may be why I ran into so many issues with Ubuntu).
Also make sure your computer is plugged in (if it's a laptop).
Ready?
Good, now click next and let your computer do it's work, get a drink, grab a book see what's on tv. This might take a while, every 10-20 mins or so check back up on it to see if it's finished up. After it's done, it'll power down, eject the CD and after the BIOS page you'll see a boot page for picking what OS you want to boot up (Windows would be listed under other) So sit back, enjoy and congratulations on your new Linux Installation, now make sure you're computer is connected to the internet (via ethernet cable) and install some updates to ensure your computer is running smooth, (you should be able to connect to the internet wirelessly af 
terwards, assuming a driver has been written for your wireless card. If y ou're on Ubuntu go i nto System>Administration>Hardware Drivers and you can pick your driver for your wireless, video (and whatever else)cards after that just have some fun, you can enable some cool desktop effects for your computer in System>Preferences> Display Effects (you'll have to first restart if you've just activated your video driver)
There are tons more stuff to do (which would probably take several posts on their own) if you're at a loss for ideas go online there are plenty of resources and information for GNU/Linux that you can use to make your experience with linux better than ever.
Hope you enjoyed (or at least benefited from) this guide, 'twas a bit wordy, and possibly preachy at times (yes even I noticed) but hopefully it wasn't too onerous, and if you've been here thus far, you probably liked it somewhat (or are an extremely nice person)
At any rate, thanks for listening. and see ya later next time.
[images taken from: here for Ubuntu, and here for Fedora]
So for those of you that happen to be interested in GNU/Linux a try but aren't completely sure what to do, this guide is for you (think of it as a chance to learn from my mistakes, and all around stupidity) Also for those a little more on the fence than others just know that you don't need to actually install GNU/Linux to get an idea of what it's like, modern technology (and more specifically cheap hardware) have advanced to the point that you can simply install to and boot from a cd, dvd or even usb drive (though that one requires more work).
Please note, I'm just going to cover Fedora and Ubuntu here, mainly because they are very user friendly (and I haven't installed any other distros). Also note this guide is written with the assumption that you're currently using windows (sorry mac users, I can't really help you here).
Getting Started:
First download the iso of whatever version of either Ubuntu or Fedora you want to install.
To the newbies out there I'd recommend getting started with Ubuntu, as it's generally easier to set up and get running, it's probably the easiest to make the transition from windows to, but of course if you'd rather try fedora (as I do) if you're more on the technically inclined end of the spectrum go ahead.
*As a side note, if you happen to know someone that is GNU/linux-savvy and would be willing to help you, it would behove you to install the same distro they have, as they'd likely be of more aid than I in case you run into difficulty (I lucked out in this regard when I switched to fedora I also started a class where my professor not only uses fedora, but actually works at Redhat)
Now that you have your iso it's time to install it.
The easiest way would be to just use your preferred cd burning tool (when I first did this I used roxio creator) to create a live cd (make sure that you're burning the contents of the cd, and not the iso itself, generally if you double click on it it should load it into whatever software your computer defaults to for these kinds of things.
You can also install it to your usb drive using either Fedora's Live usb creator (which works great) or one of various tools for Ubuntu (e.g UNetBootin)
Linux Live:
Once you've got that all set up, you're ready to try out Linux, restart your computer and insert your media of choice, on the first screen you see (the BIOS page) you should see in the top right corner (usually when it's almost done loading) the key you need to press to bring up the boot menu (it's usually F10, F12, DEL, it's possible it may be different for some people, if all else fails google it) if you accidentally get into your BIOS setup page, make sure you don't screw around with anything (unless you want to break your computer) just exit without saving and try a different key until you find the one that's just right (if all else fails and you can't find the key that works for you, you can go into BIOS and change it boot order so it boots first from the usb or cd automatically (just remember to change back it later) after that you're pretty much in, select the Try
At this point you can have some fun navigating around the GNU/linux interface, which is pretty intuitive (although still noticeably different than windows) taskbar on the bottom, menus on the top, applications can be installed from what's called the repository which is essentially a store of free open source software that you can install on your computer without having to worry if it's a scam or malware,
So, go on now, go..., don't worry I'll wait ...really, go. now.
...
Back? good.
Some Side Info:
Well now that you had a chance to see GNU/Linux for yourself what did you think of it? not bad right?
Are you thinking about installing it to your hard drive maybe? (it'd be really awesome if you did, seriously ...if someone does, post in the comments I'd love to hear it)
Before you do, there are so
firstly your wireless card and/or video card may not be completely compatible with Linux, this is because certain companies refuse to release their drivers source (despite promises by developers to sign NDAs) or even release drivers compatible with linux, so it falls on linux developers to write their own.
*note it's possible other parts of your hardware may not work, but you shouldn't worry about that if you were able to boot the live installation of GNU/Linux *
The reason linux developers want open source drivers for use with linux systems is because it's more secure and stable that way, a code that is closed source provides a security risk to the computer as it could be exploited without the knowledge of the user and not fixed until the company decides to release a new update. There is also the idealogical and practical ideas behind open source computing, which I won't get into (put you can read about online if you like).
So, let it be known that your graphics driver &/or wireless card may not immediately work in linux (check here, or here to see for sure)
It's at this point that I hope you followed my advice and picked Ubuntu (unless you have a nearby linux guru who'll help you)
Because Ubuntu is a bit more lax when it comes to drivers, as in they offer a readily accessible way to change your drivers to use proprietary versions (if you want)
Fedora so far as I can tell Fedora does not (there is a workaround for most things, but some are pretty complicated ....I haven't even figured out how to do it yet)
* Now if you've decided that you don't want to go on with the installation, that's fine just exit out and continue with windows, I will make one recommendation, hold on to that flash drive/CD just in case your computer has issues and won't boot, that live install might be your only way to rescue the data on your computer (plus if you ever change your mind about Linux.....)
Installing:
So... you've made it this far, either you've decided to go through with the installation or you're just that interested in what I have to say (either way: awesome)
Before you go on, back up your hard drive, anything and everything you feel is important, trust me, it's better safe than sorry.
Now if you're still running the Live install of
You'll be prompted to decide on certain configurations for your system:
Time Zone,
keyboard layout,
login username and password,
and root password (important: make sure this is a strong password that you don't forget, and do not tell anyone this password, it's important)
Fedora will also prompt you to name your computer
It's just how your computer will be identified if it's on a network, you can keep it as the default if you like, it won't make too much of a difference
Now the most important step.
Partitioning your hard drive.
you will see:
T
Also make sure your computer is plugged in (if it's a laptop).
Good, now click next and let your computer do it's work, get a drink, grab a book see what's on tv. This might take a while,
There are tons more stuff to do (which would probably take several posts on their own) if you're at a loss for ideas go online there are plenty of resources and information for GNU/Linux that you can use to make your experience with linux better than ever.
Hope you enjoyed (or at least benefited from) this guide, 'twas a bit wordy, and possibly preachy at times (yes even I noticed) but hopefully it wasn't too onerous, and if you've been here thus far, you probably liked it somewhat (or are an extremely nice person)
At any rate, thanks for listening. and see ya later next time.
[images taken from: here for Ubuntu, and here for Fedora]
Wednesday, September 2
OS
*stealthily easing back into the whole blogging thing, hoping no one will notice my absence (honestly I'd be pretty shocked if anyone did)*
I recently decided to give up on Ubuntu, for my main computer at least.
It just was causing me all kinds of problems that eventually I got fed up with it and decided to try my hand at something else.
Don't get me wrong Ubuntu is great, ...just not right for me (truth be told I think my computer is to blame, I suspect that maybe as a young calculator my computer was kicked by someone that looked like me and thus holds a grudge ... of course I can't prove any of that ...yet)
I figured I'd try my hand at Fedora, it's pretty user-friendly and is very similar to ubuntu in many ways, and after getting off to a kinda rocky start with the whole installing process (a story for another time) things are going ...fairly well (despite running into some problems) ...another reason why I despise dell and especially my school's laptop program ...I swear it's like they're trying to screw people over.
Fedora like any gnu/linux OS distribution is a learning experience, luckily there are tons of documentation, online resources (google!), books, etc out there (one of my professors works for red hat, so you can be sure I'll be asking him for help on a regular basis)
I'm thinking that in my spare time I'm going to re-purpose a few computers that happen to be lying around into better, faster linux boxes, the physics dept at my school gave me and a friend a few computers that they were going to throw out, to use for projects as we saw fit, the idea at first was to create a beowulf cluster, but we probably won't do that as it'd be a lot of work for something we really have no use for (we just wanted to do it, for the fun of building something, but it's hard to be motivated if there's no real underlying purpose or use for it)
So I might try this out on a few of those computers see if I can't get them working better, and learn something in the process. The way I see it if anything goes wrong, it doesn't matter (they were garbage anyway) and so I'll try a couple of other distros like: slackware, gentoo, opensuse, debian, maybe even tip my toes into the realm of BSD OS's ...we'll see what happens.
I'll try and post some updates regarding this online (who knows, maybe it'll be kinda interesting?) and I'll try and go back to regular posting and whatnot, I've been sitting on a bunch of stuff that I wanted to post, but I just hadn't the time and/or motivation to do so, hopefully that'll change
I recently decided to give up on Ubuntu, for my main computer at least.
It just was causing me all kinds of problems that eventually I got fed up with it and decided to try my hand at something else.
Don't get me wrong Ubuntu is great, ...just not right for me (truth be told I think my computer is to blame, I suspect that maybe as a young calculator my computer was kicked by someone that looked like me and thus holds a grudge ... of course I can't prove any of that ...yet)
I figured I'd try my hand at Fedora, it's pretty user-friendly and is very similar to ubuntu in many ways, and after getting off to a kinda rocky start with the whole installing process (a story for another time) things are going ...fairly well (despite running into some problems) ...another reason why I despise dell and especially my school's laptop program ...I swear it's like they're trying to screw people over.
Fedora like any gnu/linux OS distribution is a learning experience, luckily there are tons of documentation, online resources (google!), books, etc out there (one of my professors works for red hat, so you can be sure I'll be asking him for help on a regular basis)
I'm thinking that in my spare time I'm going to re-purpose a few computers that happen to be lying around into better, faster linux boxes, the physics dept at my school gave me and a friend a few computers that they were going to throw out, to use for projects as we saw fit, the idea at first was to create a beowulf cluster, but we probably won't do that as it'd be a lot of work for something we really have no use for (we just wanted to do it, for the fun of building something, but it's hard to be motivated if there's no real underlying purpose or use for it)
So I might try this out on a few of those computers see if I can't get them working better, and learn something in the process. The way I see it if anything goes wrong, it doesn't matter (they were garbage anyway) and so I'll try a couple of other distros like: slackware, gentoo, opensuse, debian, maybe even tip my toes into the realm of BSD OS's ...we'll see what happens.
I'll try and post some updates regarding this online (who knows, maybe it'll be kinda interesting?) and I'll try and go back to regular posting and whatnot, I've been sitting on a bunch of stuff that I wanted to post, but I just hadn't the time and/or motivation to do so, hopefully that'll change
Wednesday, August 5
Updates! ....Forthcoming
Hey, sorry about the lack of updates recently I've been rather busy lately (ironic since I'm now done with class and should thus have more time ....funny how the world works)
I've been steadily working my way towards the improvements I've touted for the past couple of weeks, so never fear, new awesome stuff on the way. Also I've been sort of lost in a maze of articles and the like about all sorts of things, from the whole Apple/AT&T/Google Debacle, to AP's ridiculous ideas for "preventing the leeches of the internet from profiting off it's hard work" (and by leeches they mean bloggers who link back to them and give them traffic, to say nothing of this being fair use) So, In my desire to only bring you top quality (slightly above sub-par) news and facts (and lots of opinions and other whiney posts) I'm making my way through the collective stream of information to bring you the latest and most interesting news, so you don't have to.
So stay tuned, and get ready for more from my pocketful of thoughts (I really need to look into a better name than that) See ya next time...
Also if you're interested here are some links you may find interesting:
http://laboratorium.net/archive/2009/08/03/the_ap_will_sell_you_a_license_to_words_it_doesnt
http://daggle.com/ap-1750-quote-1261
http://daggle.com/do-newspapers-owe-google-fees-for-researching-stories-611
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/01/why-the-fcc-wants-to-smash-open-the-iphone/
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/03/another-startup-falls-prey-to-the-iphonegoogle-voice-crossfire/
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/08/new-petition-demands-an-end-to-kindle-drm.ars
Have fun (and once again, sorry about the cop-out, but I'm really quite swamped)
I've been steadily working my way towards the improvements I've touted for the past couple of weeks, so never fear, new awesome stuff on the way. Also I've been sort of lost in a maze of articles and the like about all sorts of things, from the whole Apple/AT&T/Google Debacle, to AP's ridiculous ideas for "preventing the leeches of the internet from profiting off it's hard work" (and by leeches they mean bloggers who link back to them and give them traffic, to say nothing of this being fair use) So, In my desire to only bring you top quality (slightly above sub-par) news and facts (and lots of opinions and other whiney posts) I'm making my way through the collective stream of information to bring you the latest and most interesting news, so you don't have to.
So stay tuned, and get ready for more from my pocketful of thoughts (I really need to look into a better name than that) See ya next time...
Also if you're interested here are some links you may find interesting:
http://laboratorium.net/archive/2009/08/03/the_ap_will_sell_you_a_license_to_words_it_doesnt
http://daggle.com/ap-1750-quote-1261
http://daggle.com/do-newspapers-owe-google-fees-for-researching-stories-611
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/01/why-the-fcc-wants-to-smash-open-the-iphone/
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/03/another-startup-falls-prey-to-the-iphonegoogle-voice-crossfire/
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/08/new-petition-demands-an-end-to-kindle-drm.ars
Have fun (and once again, sorry about the cop-out, but I'm really quite swamped)
Friday, July 31
Sayonara.....
.....Blogger
In all seriousness, I'm done with it.
I mean, it's nice and all, portable, convenient, and generally does what you need done, though that depends on what you want to get out of your blog.
I've been saying it for a few weeks now, that I'm gonna move out of blogger, and switch over to wordpress and even host the blog myself on an old comp that I'll reuse as a server. Which so far hasn't happened, mostly due to time constraints, but also since I don't currently have the comp nearby (long story). So I've been holding out on switching, so as to get it all done at once. but after today, when i was trying to get even simple things set up here on blogger, and kept running into annoying problems (text resizing out of hand, html/etc tags showing up randomly) to say nothing of the reasons i wanted to leave in the first place. So over the weekend I'll make the switch, temporarily host the blog on a free site or my laptop until I get my hands on my would-be server.
Never fear though this page will be here, so long as google doesn't delete it, and I'll look into putting in a redirect so you'll always find my page even if you come here.
Also don't get me wrong I do like blogger for the most part. and it works great for some people, just not me, it's not what I'm looking for, so it's time for me to say good bye.
Goodbye, blogger. It's been alright
Addendum:
I'm gonna be here for a little while longer it seems
This whole server thing is a bit more complicated than I'd originally anticipated.
So... while I'm working on that behind the scenes, you can continue enjoying your regular dosage of my thoughts (and whatever other crap I output)
-enjoy (...?)
In all seriousness, I'm done with it.
I mean, it's nice and all, portable, convenient, and generally does what you need done, though that depends on what you want to get out of your blog.
I've been saying it for a few weeks now, that I'm gonna move out of blogger, and switch over to wordpress and even host the blog myself on an old comp that I'll reuse as a server. Which so far hasn't happened, mostly due to time constraints, but also since I don't currently have the comp nearby (long story). So I've been holding out on switching, so as to get it all done at once. but after today, when i was trying to get even simple things set up here on blogger, and kept running into annoying problems (text resizing out of hand, html/etc tags showing up randomly) to say nothing of the reasons i wanted to leave in the first place. So over the weekend I'll make the switch, temporarily host the blog on a free site or my laptop until I get my hands on my would-be server.
Never fear though this page will be here, so long as google doesn't delete it, and I'll look into putting in a redirect so you'll always find my page even if you come here.
Also don't get me wrong I do like blogger for the most part. and it works great for some people, just not me, it's not what I'm looking for, so it's time for me to say good bye.
Goodbye, blogger. It's been alright
Addendum:
I'm gonna be here for a little while longer it seems
This whole server thing is a bit more complicated than I'd originally anticipated.
So... while I'm working on that behind the scenes, you can continue enjoying your regular dosage of my thoughts (and whatever other crap I output)
-enjoy (...?)
A little HTML here, a little CSS there, and what do you have?
A blog that's held together with what is essentially duct tape.
Which is rapidly becoming an increasingly accurate description of my blog.
I don't know html, or css or xhtml or any of the web related languages. I know a bit of Java and some C++, everything else I just sorta grope my way through. It helps a lot though that the source code for websites are freely available (at least for every web site I've ever seen), and that I know how to program so figuring out what others are doing is a bit more straightforward to me (to say nothing of having the internet available to look up everything I don't understand) So most edits I try to make to my site require a look through the code of sites that have elements I'm looking to add. Not long ago, I decided to add a few little things to my blog to make it look a bit more ....interesting.
I figured a nice RSS feed and twitter button would be a good place to start.
After an exhaustive search through many lines of code I finally got something done, though I like to think I learned something through this whole process, which I intend to share with you all:
The internet is an awesome tool for learning (though you don't need me to tell you that)
While reading random articles (today's topic was the whole Google Voice debacle) I came across this blog, which had this very cool icon for twitter on the right side of the page that followed the page as it scrolled down. I wanted to put that in my blog so I looked through the source code and found this:
<style type="text/css">
div#fixme { position: absolute; top: 200px; right:0px; }
body #fixme { position: fixed; top: 200px; right:0px; }
</style>
<div id="fixme">
<a href="http://twitter.com/riverturninc"><img src="http://www.riverturn.com/images/twitter3.png" alt="Twitter" /></a>
</div>
Now I didn't know what it meant at first. But I recognized the obvious little things like the image source or the page where it linked to. So I changed that accordingly, but i still wanted to have one for my RSS feed, so I duplicated it accordingly (changing fixme to another name for the duplicate ...took me a while to realize that) But after seeing it on the my page I realized that it was too annoying to leave as it was, so I made some modifications to change it to the way it is now, I didn't know how to. So I did what any internet addicted blogger with a goal to accomplish would do .... I turned to Google. and I found what I was looking for:
This in particular was quite handy in allowing me to change different things in the code and see what happens.
This was also quite useful by giving a quick rundown of CSS positioning.
Besides those few sites, I just messed with stuff til I got an idea of what they did
Which I suppose is in many ways the core of programming in general, getting a feel of what code does by trying it yourself, see what happens when you change certain parameters. Eventually you come to understand what each thing does on a level that can never truly be reached just by reading (note: If you do this with something important, or at least something that you don't want screwed up, back up the code first before you mess with it)
Also, credit where credit is due:
The RSS image was found here, which got it from here.
And the twitter image was from this site.
Hope you enjoyed the show. See ya and happy coding (or whatever it is you do with your free time)
Which is rapidly becoming an increasingly accurate description of my blog.
I don't know html, or css or xhtml or any of the web related languages. I know a bit of Java and some C++, everything else I just sorta grope my way through. It helps a lot though that the source code for websites are freely available (at least for every web site I've ever seen), and that I know how to program so figuring out what others are doing is a bit more straightforward to me (to say nothing of having the internet available to look up everything I don't understand) So most edits I try to make to my site require a look through the code of sites that have elements I'm looking to add. Not long ago, I decided to add a few little things to my blog to make it look a bit more ....interesting.
I figured a nice RSS feed and twitter button would be a good place to start.
After an exhaustive search through many lines of code I finally got something done, though I like to think I learned something through this whole process, which I intend to share with you all:
The internet is an awesome tool for learning (though you don't need me to tell you that)
While reading random articles (today's topic was the whole Google Voice debacle) I came across this blog, which had this very cool icon for twitter on the right side of the page that followed the page as it scrolled down. I wanted to put that in my blog so I looked through the source code and found this:
<style type="text/css">
div#fixme { position: absolute; top: 200px; right:0px; }
body #fixme { position: fixed; top: 200px; right:0px; }
</style>
<div id="fixme">
<a href="http://twitter.com/riverturninc"><img src="http://www.riverturn.com/images/twitter3.png" alt="Twitter" /></a>
</div>
Now I didn't know what it meant at first. But I recognized the obvious little things like the image source or the page where it linked to. So I changed that accordingly, but i still wanted to have one for my RSS feed, so I duplicated it accordingly (changing fixme to another name for the duplicate ...took me a while to realize that) But after seeing it on the my page I realized that it was too annoying to leave as it was, so I made some modifications to change it to the way it is now, I didn't know how to. So I did what any internet addicted blogger with a goal to accomplish would do .... I turned to Google. and I found what I was looking for:
This in particular was quite handy in allowing me to change different things in the code and see what happens.
This was also quite useful by giving a quick rundown of CSS positioning.
Besides those few sites, I just messed with stuff til I got an idea of what they did
Which I suppose is in many ways the core of programming in general, getting a feel of what code does by trying it yourself, see what happens when you change certain parameters. Eventually you come to understand what each thing does on a level that can never truly be reached just by reading (note: If you do this with something important, or at least something that you don't want screwed up, back up the code first before you mess with it)
Also, credit where credit is due:
The RSS image was found here, which got it from here.
And the twitter image was from this site.
Hope you enjoyed the show. See ya and happy coding (or whatever it is you do with your free time)
Thursday, July 30
The economical woes of a college student
Now as you are no doubt aware, I am a college student.
And not just any college student, I am a student at one of the most expensive colleges in the free world.
And even with the help that I'm receiving from the school, there's plenty of debt left to go around, from the remaining tuition costs to room and board, to books (how a few measly little textbook can cost up to several hundreds of dollars is beyond me). So I'm taking it upon myself to try and cut some of these costs (not that I haven't done so before, I just never kept track, and wasted a bunch of money in other ways).
I've already had some minor success with curbing my future debt. This past year I worked a student job (or 2). Mainly I tutored math at my school's Math Learning Resource Center (MLRC) ...I few days ago I told my mom about what I did for my job during the school year (not sure how it came up), and she laughed at me (I felt somewhat insulted)
The working helped put a little extra money in my pocket (which since I had no method of keeping track of my expenses, shortly disappeared on stupid and ephemeral things)
So I've decided that my first order of business in this whole thing is to devise a budget (and stick to it). And then, I need to find ways to reduce my costs, the first being books. Which I'd like to think I'm already doing a fairly adequate job of doing. I almost exclusively by my books online, from sites like ebay, half.com, amazon, and others. I begin the search at Direct Textbook.com
Another good way of lowering costs for books, is borrowing/buying books from friends, which while less likely/expedient is definitely a lot cheaper. The biggest problem with that is finding people who have the exact book you need (and haven't sold it already) also, you may not want to borrow when it comes to your main classes, as you may want to have a copy for a reference.
My next problem is room and board. Room's a bit tricky for me to save on, short of moving in with my older brother (who lives not far) though I'd prefer to avoid that, as he's married with a kid, and my other brother, not to mention I get the feeling it wouldn't be much better than living at home (...). So my only other options would be becoming an RA or getting an apartment. The RA route is nice, as you get free room and board, but there's the added time drain, not to mention having to continue to live in a dorm watching over freshman/sophomores. There's always renting an apartment, though that's usually only cheaper if you have people to room with (which I don't) and it's also a hassle in and of itself trying to find one. Overall this isn't something I have the luxury of worrying over now, as I'm slated to live in the dorms this year, and it's far too late to become an RA.
Lastly but certainly not least. There is food expenses. I'm sure i don't need to tell you, but college meal plans are expensive (or more accurately a rip-off) costing on average (at my school) over 2k a semester (!!!) not to mention limited to what the school has to offer. Now earlier today I came across a very interesting story (brought to my attention by HackerNews) And it is an amazing article, the author (Andrew Hyde) basically recounts how during college he was able to live reasonably well on $36 per month on food (I know I was also astonished)
Here are a few tips he mentioned in his article:
Everything you buy, should be at least half off retail. ; cook at home ; load up on foods that are deep discounted. figure out the coupon/sales/clearance cycles of your nearby stores. pass on things that aren't sale, and keep things in your house from spoiling (freeze perishable foods, store things properly, etc) ; He mentioned several other very good tips, but I'll just direct you to the article again, rather than list more.
I know a friend of mine, Aaron who goes to my school (and has a blog himself) could really do to read this article, as he's very financially conscious himself.
Unfortunately as I'm living in a dorm this year, I've no choice but to get a meal plan, but next year! I shall put my plan into action, and save some money. In the mean time, I hope this has been at least a little helpful to you oh nameless reader. Good luck, and take care (now is where you turn the other way so I can slip away into silent anonymity) which is one of the best websites I've ever seen for finding cheap books, it's essentially a search engine (and a store) it finds prices from many different sites (including the ones I already named) it also adds in the cost of shipping making it all very nice and convenient.
And not just any college student, I am a student at one of the most expensive colleges in the free world.
And even with the help that I'm receiving from the school, there's plenty of debt left to go around, from the remaining tuition costs to room and board, to books (how a few measly little textbook can cost up to several hundreds of dollars is beyond me). So I'm taking it upon myself to try and cut some of these costs (not that I haven't done so before, I just never kept track, and wasted a bunch of money in other ways).
I've already had some minor success with curbing my future debt. This past year I worked a student job (or 2). Mainly I tutored math at my school's Math Learning Resource Center (MLRC) ...I few days ago I told my mom about what I did for my job during the school year (not sure how it came up), and she laughed at me (I felt somewhat insulted)
The working helped put a little extra money in my pocket (which since I had no method of keeping track of my expenses, shortly disappeared on stupid and ephemeral things)
So I've decided that my first order of business in this whole thing is to devise a budget (and stick to it). And then, I need to find ways to reduce my costs, the first being books. Which I'd like to think I'm already doing a fairly adequate job of doing. I almost exclusively by my books online, from sites like ebay, half.com, amazon, and others. I begin the search at Direct Textbook.com
Another good way of lowering costs for books, is borrowing/buying books from friends, which while less likely/expedient is definitely a lot cheaper. The biggest problem with that is finding people who have the exact book you need (and haven't sold it already) also, you may not want to borrow when it comes to your main classes, as you may want to have a copy for a reference.
My next problem is room and board. Room's a bit tricky for me to save on, short of moving in with my older brother (who lives not far) though I'd prefer to avoid that, as he's married with a kid, and my other brother, not to mention I get the feeling it wouldn't be much better than living at home (...). So my only other options would be becoming an RA or getting an apartment. The RA route is nice, as you get free room and board, but there's the added time drain, not to mention having to continue to live in a dorm watching over freshman/sophomores. There's always renting an apartment, though that's usually only cheaper if you have people to room with (which I don't) and it's also a hassle in and of itself trying to find one. Overall this isn't something I have the luxury of worrying over now, as I'm slated to live in the dorms this year, and it's far too late to become an RA.
Lastly but certainly not least. There is food expenses. I'm sure i don't need to tell you, but college meal plans are expensive (or more accurately a rip-off) costing on average (at my school) over 2k a semester (!!!) not to mention limited to what the school has to offer. Now earlier today I came across a very interesting story (brought to my attention by HackerNews) And it is an amazing article, the author (Andrew Hyde) basically recounts how during college he was able to live reasonably well on $36 per month on food (I know I was also astonished)
Here are a few tips he mentioned in his article:
Everything you buy, should be at least half off retail. ; cook at home ; load up on foods that are deep discounted. figure out the coupon/sales/clearance cycles of your nearby stores. pass on things that aren't sale, and keep things in your house from spoiling (freeze perishable foods, store things properly, etc) ; He mentioned several other very good tips, but I'll just direct you to the article again, rather than list more.
I know a friend of mine, Aaron who goes to my school (and has a blog himself) could really do to read this article, as he's very financially conscious himself.
Unfortunately as I'm living in a dorm this year, I've no choice but to get a meal plan, but next year! I shall put my plan into action, and save some money. In the mean time, I hope this has been at least a little helpful to you oh nameless reader. Good luck, and take care (now is where you turn the other way so I can slip away into silent anonymity) which is one of the best websites I've ever seen for finding cheap books, it's essentially a search engine (and a store) it finds prices from many different sites (including the ones I already named) it also adds in the cost of shipping making it all very nice and convenient.
Wednesday, July 29
Holy Crap I'm getting old
At the ripe old age of 19 I look back on my life and realize just how much as changed.
While rummaging through the inter-webs I came across a interesting article:
100 things your kids may never know and as the name suggests it's a list of 100 things that will probably be (or are already) forgotten by the time you have kids (or at least older kids) reading through the article I realized just how many things I knew myself, and with it the realization that my future offspring will never know about (unless I take the old-timer route and force the info on them through tales involving cheap gum, and impossible slopes)
The list which included many things that may be common knowledge to you, but I bet won't be (for obvious reasons) in the future. After you're done reading this, go and talk to your younger relatives or friends, maybe they're your children, or nephews/nieces, cousins, even neighbors and ask them if they recognize any of the things on this list, and watch as the younger you ask, the less they'll know (if they even know any of it) obviously your results will vary depending on their exposure to technology and if they have older siblings (as I had, which is why I knew about most of those things) but odds are most of whom you ask, won't recognize more than a handful items if even that.
As I thought about all those things long forgotten in an ever changing era, what about the things we know about now? what's changing? all those things that we've taken for granted as staples of the technology industry, how long are they going to be there? and what else will come that we'll start to accept as normal? take google for example, from simple search engine to gigantic company invloved in numerous enterprises from browsers, to email to now operating systems not to mention the bevy of assorted apps that are far too numerous to name. In fact they do so much now that I have no idea what industry they may already been entrenching themselves in. On the other hand look at Microsoft, slowly but surely losing it's market share, now with the open source movement gaining more strength the tides are turning, are we going to see the day when the software giant finally topples (note that if it does I shall start every class that day with a rousing rendition of "Ding Dong the Witch is dead") It's really hard to take in all at once, but the worlds changing. And I'm coming to accept that I'm changing with it.
The headlong rush into adulthood (the real kind, not just legally speaking) that I find myself in is really starting to affect me in ways I haven't noticed til now. This fall I'll be entering my second year at college, and I can't help but marvel at the speed at which I've arrived there, why it only feels like just yesterday I was starting, or perhaps a week ago, that I was sitting in high school waiting for that day that I would finally step up and take my place in that world.
I have 2 older brothers ages 33 and 29 and when I was younger I watched them go off to college and grad school and now work (one even is married with a kid!) and after all those years I find myself actually finally here, and quite frankly it's a bit daunting. The knowledge that I have but 3 more years til I'm thrust out into the "real" world, where I have to have a job and my own place to live, now I could always go the grad school route, put off on making a decision for a few years more, but as I mentioned earlier, I'm no longer sure if that's really what I want to do anymore. So here I am, with less than one month left til school no longer certain of what I want to study, let alone what I want to do after that. and given the nature of my life so far I can expect the time to go just as fast (if not faster as I get closer to the end of college). I've never been one for an office job, while I spend vast amounts of my time at a desk at a computer, it's usually been for reasons of my own, and the idea of spending the rest of my working days in a cubicle or even an office slaving away at a desk, is just not appealing to me. On the other hand I could try research, or teaching (preferably at a college level) or even something else entirely that I haven't considered yet. But in order to do such things, I need to make sure that I'm interested enough in a certain field to actually want to put in the time and dedication to get there, and as I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm no longer sure if I am.
I have in many ways come to terms with the growing expectations of maturity, which are in their own way becoming a bit more visible in my posts (compare my recent posts to my early posts and you'll see what I mean) I don't know what that means, am I actually growing up? or do I just think that I am? I like to think that it's a result of experiences (particularly last semester) but I can't say definitely. In a rather hilarious coincidence my post happens to falls on the same day that this xkcd comic gets posted:
As always I hope you enjoyed (or at least didn't hate) this foray into the recesses of my mind. This is my cue to leave, but if you feel like sharing your thoughts feel free to make your mark in the comments. See ya.
While rummaging through the inter-webs I came across a interesting article:
100 things your kids may never know and as the name suggests it's a list of 100 things that will probably be (or are already) forgotten by the time you have kids (or at least older kids) reading through the article I realized just how many things I knew myself, and with it the realization that my future offspring will never know about (unless I take the old-timer route and force the info on them through tales involving cheap gum, and impossible slopes)
The list which included many things that may be common knowledge to you, but I bet won't be (for obvious reasons) in the future. After you're done reading this, go and talk to your younger relatives or friends, maybe they're your children, or nephews/nieces, cousins, even neighbors and ask them if they recognize any of the things on this list, and watch as the younger you ask, the less they'll know (if they even know any of it) obviously your results will vary depending on their exposure to technology and if they have older siblings (as I had, which is why I knew about most of those things) but odds are most of whom you ask, won't recognize more than a handful items if even that.
As I thought about all those things long forgotten in an ever changing era, what about the things we know about now? what's changing? all those things that we've taken for granted as staples of the technology industry, how long are they going to be there? and what else will come that we'll start to accept as normal? take google for example, from simple search engine to gigantic company invloved in numerous enterprises from browsers, to email to now operating systems not to mention the bevy of assorted apps that are far too numerous to name. In fact they do so much now that I have no idea what industry they may already been entrenching themselves in. On the other hand look at Microsoft, slowly but surely losing it's market share, now with the open source movement gaining more strength the tides are turning, are we going to see the day when the software giant finally topples (note that if it does I shall start every class that day with a rousing rendition of "Ding Dong the Witch is dead") It's really hard to take in all at once, but the worlds changing. And I'm coming to accept that I'm changing with it.
The headlong rush into adulthood (the real kind, not just legally speaking) that I find myself in is really starting to affect me in ways I haven't noticed til now. This fall I'll be entering my second year at college, and I can't help but marvel at the speed at which I've arrived there, why it only feels like just yesterday I was starting, or perhaps a week ago, that I was sitting in high school waiting for that day that I would finally step up and take my place in that world.
I have 2 older brothers ages 33 and 29 and when I was younger I watched them go off to college and grad school and now work (one even is married with a kid!) and after all those years I find myself actually finally here, and quite frankly it's a bit daunting. The knowledge that I have but 3 more years til I'm thrust out into the "real" world, where I have to have a job and my own place to live, now I could always go the grad school route, put off on making a decision for a few years more, but as I mentioned earlier, I'm no longer sure if that's really what I want to do anymore. So here I am, with less than one month left til school no longer certain of what I want to study, let alone what I want to do after that. and given the nature of my life so far I can expect the time to go just as fast (if not faster as I get closer to the end of college). I've never been one for an office job, while I spend vast amounts of my time at a desk at a computer, it's usually been for reasons of my own, and the idea of spending the rest of my working days in a cubicle or even an office slaving away at a desk, is just not appealing to me. On the other hand I could try research, or teaching (preferably at a college level) or even something else entirely that I haven't considered yet. But in order to do such things, I need to make sure that I'm interested enough in a certain field to actually want to put in the time and dedication to get there, and as I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm no longer sure if I am.
I have in many ways come to terms with the growing expectations of maturity, which are in their own way becoming a bit more visible in my posts (compare my recent posts to my early posts and you'll see what I mean) I don't know what that means, am I actually growing up? or do I just think that I am? I like to think that it's a result of experiences (particularly last semester) but I can't say definitely. In a rather hilarious coincidence my post happens to falls on the same day that this xkcd comic gets posted:
As always I hope you enjoyed (or at least didn't hate) this foray into the recesses of my mind. This is my cue to leave, but if you feel like sharing your thoughts feel free to make your mark in the comments. See ya.
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