I always get a little bit nostalgic this time of year. It always seems to be the perfect time to reflect because this particular season of the year is so unique in different ways. Individuals from many different backgrounds and beliefs unite on the belief that this is a season defined by joy, charity, and love. It penetrates wherever you are, and whatever you’re doing. If it hasn’t done that for you yet, I certainly hope it does soon.
Merry Christmas, and Happy Holidays!
Brantley Coile
So Monday my Computer Architecture class got a guest lecture from a guy by the name of Brantley Coile, who was there to talk about the development and history of the hard disk drive. Now, I’m not making note of this because Mr. Coile was a particularly amazing speaker or anything of the sort, but rather because it was a lecture from someone who works in the industry. Mr. Coile is Founter and CTO of Coraid, an Athens, Georgia, based company specializing in network based large-scale storage.
I feel as those academia often suffers from something I’ve labeled the “PhD Delima.” To elaborate: there is a group of in every class of students that absolutely love school. I feel that these are the people who usually end up getting their Masters or PhD’s, and I feel as though there are a great many of them who have never worked in the industry and never want to work in the industry for one reason or anther. So they become teachers.
Now, I have all the respect in the world for teachers and professors because their job is more often than not a thankless task. However, it is validating, in a sense, to hear some of the same material we’ve been reading/hearing about in our architecture class reinforced by someone who makes his living working in the business world, which is where I’d like to end up myself.
Yes, you're seeing that correctly. That's an old school car with a jet engine mounted in the trunk, dubbed the "Hemi Jet" (WIRED)
Someone once asked me, “Why do we bother driving hybrids?” My answer today would be, “So we don’t have to feel so guilty about enjoying this guy offset all the gas savings over the last 10 years in 10 seconds.” See the full story at WIRED.
For anyone who is interested the hard-hitting variety of rock, I am personally recommending this band: The Dirty Guv’nahs. I first heard about them when a friend of mine recommended them to me on Facebook. Excellent band. Don’t believe me? Then take a listen for yourself:
So, I came across an excellent gem of a WordPress Plugin today. It’s called RPX. I discovered it in the course of trying to get my OpenID authentication to work (with no luck). The OpenID plugin seems to be jacked up, but NOW I have RPX that is pure awesomeness because people can now authenticate into my site using Facebook, Google, Yahoo, OR OpenID.
Now, I have required since the inception of this blog that individuals who wish to comment are required to have an account of some sort. The good news is that now you are not required to create on with a new password. Facebook, Google, Yahoo, or OpenID can verify your identity for me and allow you to comment on what I write.
Cool stuff, huh?
Matt Wertz's Album Cover for If It Ain't Broke.
So , I’ve really been enjoying Matt Wertz’s album “If It Ain’t Broke…” that he’s giving away over Twitter. As some of you might know I’m a member of a Christian Fraternity that has an open band come and play every year, and Matt actually came the year before I was there. Listening to this makes me wish that someone had told me and given me a heads up, because this stuff is pretty excellent.
The album is free on twitter, so I highly recommend that you check out the instructions for getting your hands on the album. It is truly superb.
So, I was clicking around CNN’s TECH Section this evening and I came across a WIRED article that was talking about Google’s ChromeOS. I will be honest by saying that this is the first time I’ve actually taken this seriously. I mean, I haven’t been following it that closely because… well… I have other things to do. However, I found the wired article very interesting.
The concept of a netbook as a “TV to the internet” of sorts is kind of a cool concept and it makes sense for a certain section of the market, for example: individuals who have a desktop computer as their main machine and just want a portable device to get online in coffee shops and such or individuals that have no need for actual computational power (like my mom).
Naturally there were a few things that caught my attention. Specifically, the following paragraph:
All the applications will be web-based, meaning users won’t have to install apps, manage updates or even backup their data. All data will be stored in the cloud, and users won’t even have to bother with anti-virus software: Google claims it will monitor code to prevent malicious activity in Chrome OS web apps. (WIRED)
I will be the first to admit that I’m a control freak, and on the other hand I’ll also admit that I really like the idea of everything being on the cloud. As sad as it is when I loose data, I would much rather loose data than not have control over that data. Am I alone in that?
I don’t know, I guess I could see myself getting one in the near future when I switch to a desktop platform as my primary computer and then purchase a computer like this. I’m not incredibly eager to be one of the early adopters for this, but I will be watching it closely.
I’ve included a video explaining the significance of WHAT Google ChromeOS actually is after the jump. I found that it was a very well stated explanation, so I recommend it for anyone who is curious about what the difference is between ChromeOS and a standard computer. Read the rest of this entry »
So, we’re here at the end of November again. You know what that means: final exams are just around the corner for all of us college students. I have found, through much experience, that the biggest inhibitor to studying for final exams is getting motivated. So, to help motivate everyone – I would like to furnish this video that I saw for the first time last year:
I don’t know about what the average female’s response to this would be, but as a dude it just makes me want to go do something manly… like kill a bear with my bare hands.
When he was 17, George Hotz poured hundreds of hours of his summer vacation into a special project: learning the iPhone’s secrets. His unpaid labor eventually paid off. With the help of a soldering iron, he was the first to unlock the iPhone, delivering the handset to international networks before Apple had a chance to. He got some perks, too. His unlock catapulted him to internet stardom, catching the eye of an entrepreneur who traded his Nissan 350Z car for Hotz’s restriction-free iPhone. (CNN)
For anyone wondering if the Computer World has rockstars, the answer is yes. The first man to hack an iPhone will live in infamy forever. Although, as usual, I am always torn… while it would be awesome to get a car for a hack like that, I would much rather be an actual student at a University then just be forced to pretend to be one to have a social life (see paragraph 4 of that article).
So, I’ve obviously had my head buried in books for too long, because I completely missed this until now:
Apple’s lips are sealed about its widely rumored tablet computer, but technology experts are giddy about the device, already exclaiming it will be the gadget to end all gadgets. [...] If the rumors are true, the tablet will be able to do basically everything a gadget could possibly do. It’s an e-reader, a gaming device, and a music player. You can watch TV and movies on it and surf the Internet (or so we’ve heard). And it will have thousands of third-party apps available for it … or maybe it will run Mac OS X. That’s all still unknown. (CNN Money)
The CNN article then continues to tout quotes from different individuals about the tablet, but it’s really nothing enlightening. It boils down to “It might exist and it might succeed,” which I already knew from the first paragraph.
But, yes, Apple is taking over the world. Wasn’t Steve Jobs retiring eventually? Not that it matters. He’ll just have all that free time to work with Al Gore on creating a system of government that runs on Mac OS X and the Internet… they might invite Google to come, too.
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