shaggy logic

I've committed Facebook Suicide

2010-03-12T12:14:00.000-05:00

I have left Facebook forever. I requested the my account to be permanently deleted. Of course, Facebook gives you 14 days from the request and to restore my account all I need to do is log in. But I know that will not be happening anytime soon. I'm sure that people will NOT be looking for me.

The main reason I left Facebook was because I felt like I was in High School again, a feeling of being alone. I joined so that I can communicate with family and friends and the reality was I wasn't reconnecting with anyone. I did become friends with my niece and nephew and that was great but I was talking to them I was playing games. And they weren't even really good games at that!

Facebook had become boring. People that I had not spoken with in 10 to 20 years I thought I would re-establish some kind of friendship but that didn't happened. Nothing happened. Who wants to be a part of a community that no one talks to or listens to. I don't so I left. Besides, I have this blog that no one reads to feel alone in the world wide web that is the Internet. So boo-hoo me but I'm out of here.

I'd rather post here and continue to post to my Twitter account. Facebook goodbye forever!

I've also picked up my Programming in Objective-C book by Stephan Kochan and I will be blogging about the exercises in the next few weeks. Get ready to start seeing more stuff happening regarding programming my Mac and even my iPhone.

What's happened in 6 months - Happy New Year!

2010-01-09T08:50:00.056-05:00

Well, I didn't have school over the summer session but instead of writing I was reading and journaling, which is writing just not for the world. I didn't think that anyone would mind sense since I'm not read all that much and unlike some other great bloggers I have no coherent voice. It's the New Year and its time to change that. My posts are going to start being geared towards interesting science, some horrible short fiction that I write for no other reason that I have a teenage dream of being a writer, and my true experiences of school. And maybe some posts on the classes I'm taking.

Regarding the classes I'm taking or took, Calculus I - well, I have struggled with the class during an illness and dropped it. Then I thought I didn't have to pay so much attention to it and passed by it with a low grade (nothing that allows you to move on), and on my last outing I have this to report: CALCULUS IS FUN! Now, I'm sure that anyone passing that remark is doing a Scooby double take but this last semester I took the course with the objective to get an A. I didn't get an A but I'll live receiving a B. And I can only tell you it was because I choked on the final - I don't know why but I've a couple of tips for that too.

If you are taking Calculus this spring here our my steps for getting a good grade:

Read the entire chapter before the lecture.
In the lecture, take notes but leave space between concepts for text notes.
Ask the instructor questions (if you can).
Re-read the chapter and take notes alongside your lecture notes.
Solve the examples in the book. Don't just copy.
Do the proofs (which probably are the examples) writing them down helps you understand the questions.
Don't do the assigned questions - DO THEM ALL! It'll help your understanding.
Ask questions on the homework — but only on the ones you have attempted. If you haven't done a question and you let the instructor do it then you won't get much out of it.
Re-read the chapter and your lecture/study notes.
Ask questions!!!!!

Those ten things helped me almost get an A. My problem with the final had less to do with the work and more to do with these couple of tips.

When the test is given — give yourself 3 minutes to read the entire test.
Take note of any questions that you know how to answer and don't seem difficult.
Complete the easy question, first. If you spend more than a couple of minutes on the question move onto the next easy question.
Return to questions not answered.
Attempt to do all other questions.

What happened during my final was that I bogged myself down on what I thought was an easy question but I spent way - WAY - too much time on it. That left less time for the rest of the final and I didn't do too well on it.

Thats it for this New Year's post. I won't post anything about Calculus in the fall since I'm not taking Calculus II till then. I have a new role at my full-time job so and I have training in the morning and they don't offer evening Calculus Classes here.

I will post a stupid idea of a short story I can't get out of my head — so far it's titled: Earth Movers Universal, Inc. (which is odd because I usually don't title till a story until I've completed it).

Where have you been?

2009-06-30T22:24:00.001-04:00

Well, it's not like I have a ton of subscribers reading this blog. It seems to be more for my vanity than anything else. Of course, if I would update this on a more regular basis maybe I'd generate more interest. Nonetheless, I was reading up on some news in my RSS reader when I came across this little tidbit over at techdirt. It seems that Obama is falling into the same trap as everyone else, mainly, that video games are making our children obese and that we should encourage them to put down the controllers and play outside. Well, someone over at techdirt found and interesting article stating that Chess was doing the same thing to our poor kids. Of course it was written in July 1859 issue of Scientific American. I found this to be entertaining to say the least. Also, in a similar vein. Go over and listen to PRI's the World Tech Podcast, they have a interesting report regarding today's kids being dubbed Generation Google. Unlike Generation-X'ers, of whom I'm a part of this group, kids aren't watching more TV but are using the Internet more, and it's not necessarily a bad thing. Why? Because they are learning to collaborate more, are doing their homework, and know how to find information better than the previous generation of kids. All very interesting tidbits.

Hypersonic Sound

2009-05-26T09:14:00.001-04:00

You don't get to hear anything but this is the guy that came up with Hypersonic sound. It was mentioned in an awesome book called, The Daemon, that I just finished. It sounded Sci-Fi but it the end it is a real technology.

41 years old and I want to play with Legos

2009-05-26T07:38:00.001-04:00

Okay, I never had the Legos Mindstorm Kit but man does this post over at boingboing.net really makes want to go out and build Lego robotic devices.

The Banned Book Library

2009-05-24T13:50:00.001-04:00

There is a great post over at BoingBoing.net, about a kid who started keeping banned books in his locker. I think that it's awesome that he has started to encourage others to read the classics. Whenever I hear of anyone banning a book all I can think about is a great book by Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, it is the reason why the moment a society bans one book or censors speech that society finds objectionable it starts the ride down the slippery slope towards a police state.

Books should be read, not burned.

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Data Overload

2009-05-23T09:43:00.001-04:00

I found this on the New York Times Technology page. It is an interesting article about the government and the data that it has collected. The Unites States has been publishing this data for years electronically, and on paper. The CTO for the government is now putting more data on the web and even asking citizens to rate how useful the data was that found. This small blurb I found interesting. By rating the data, the government can create data about what is useful and what isn't. The opens it up for a couple of questions that I have: If most people don't find a particular data set useful will the government stop collecting it? Or will it stop offering the data at all?

Either way just because some piece of data may not seem relevant right now doesn't mean that it won't be relevant at some future time. I don't mind that the government is rating their data but what will it do with the metadata (data about the data)? Will that be for our consumption? What purpose would there be to major waterfowl flyways? Doesn't seem all that interesting, until you decide that you want to build an airport. With the airplane accident in New York last year, that seems to be incredibly interesting data to look at if your building a new airport.

Data is interesting but it might not be interesting to everyone. Rating is a really good idea because it lets you know what people find useful. My biggest fear though is stopping to collect certain data sets that my appear to be not useful. And the reason to stop collecting the data is to save money on the budget. This is congress constant push regarding the budget. Members question throwing money at science research projects like the life cycle of the fruit fly. So they stop funding the research, and just increase the use of pesticides on orange trees to kill them. Twenty years later the incidence of cancer goes up and no one know why. That is an extreme thought experiment but that is really the entire concept of collecting data sets in the first place. We may not know what it means now but I can bet that given enough time something relates to that data set. And it can probably help us in the future.

Removing data sets or stop collecting data on particular data sets can be harmful. We just don't know. So again I ask a simple question, what is the government going to do with data that is considered not useful?

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Star Trek, Calculus, Finals Week, SCHOOL'S OUT FOR SUMMER!!! What next?

2009-05-10T21:08:00.001-04:00

I have not been blogging for a while. A lot has happened and I've been working on finishing up school this week. Everything will be done this Tuesday; I will then be working on this blog and making it more interesting. But first up...

STAR TREK PREMIERED THIS WEEK

Bear and I went to this Thursday night. All I can say is that it was pretty darn good. I was very happy. J.J Abrams did do something that I thought was completely unexpected. Without generating any spoilers I was very surprised that they did not resolve the issue. There is a time travel involved but the solution did not involve time travel to resolve it. In fact, it was never resolved - this was a completely welcome surprise. I will like to say that this Kirk was very fresh and more cocky then William Shatners Kirk, considering the age differences between both Kirks it makes perfect sense. The minute they showed Dr. McCoy I thought I was watching a younger DeForrest Kelly. Not that Karl Urban looked like DeForrest Kelly, because Karl Urban is very hot (not in this movie) but he was really channelling DeForrest Kellys' Bones. Uhuru was extremely hot and surprised the heck out me. Chekov was brilliantly funny, reminding us of Star Trek IV looking for Nuclear Wessels. John Cho didn't have a huge role as Sulu but overall he was great with the sword. Simon Pegg stole every scene that he was in period. He was beyond the original Scotty and it was great. Lastly, Leonard Nimoy reprising his role as Spock and confronting a young Spock was very good. Both actors picked up on each others take of Spock and incorporated both perfectly. Zachary Quinto can fill those big shoes.

All in all, I love Star Trek and this movie has taken Star Trek into a whole new universe which means that instead of rehashing old storylines we will see entirely new story lines. And what happens in this new Star Trek doesn't change the canonical universe of Star Trek:TOS - it is completely a different reality which makes me love it.

FINALS WEEK

I have been studying for finals week but I'm still nervous. It will always come down to this final.

SCHOOL'S PIT FOR SUMMER!!! What next?

Ok, it turns out that I couldn't have any of my classes for school this summer. So I'm taking the summer off. What I will be doing is refreshing myself with perl. I really liked last semester and taking a course in Python. What I liked about Python though was really IDLE. It's a GUI IDE for Python but it also has a console that allows you to load files and write one-liners as wells as entire subroutines. And I thought it would be great to have something similar for perl. I want something like a shell - it can access files within the filesystem. I also want to be able to write one-liners to check out ideas. I want to create modules that can be retained in memory and utilized. Also, I want to wrap everything into a GUI that runs within Cocoa. This means that I will have to refresh my memory on working with perl (5.10 to be exact), have Cocoa bindings so that I can write graphics to run in a separate window. (This will be much later.) And, possibly, incorporating some aspect of Parrot. This is extremely ambitious of me. I keep stating that I will do this but I never do. Now, I have an entire summer to work on one part of it. The shell. I know that there is a perl shell project and Zoidberg, which is the same thing to the perl shell project. But I want this to be a learning experience for me. I don't want to take those ideas and use them for mine I want to learn more about perl/cocoa/parrot. The only way I learn really well about and language is to have a project. So this will be mine. If I have something that I think will be worth others playing with I'll post it here.

Also, I want to blog about something that really has people coming to my site. I figure if I blog about perl and my project then people will be interested to see what I've accomplished. If it really works out maybe after summer I put it on either Google Code or Sourceforge. Anyways, that is the plan. So after finals, and school it's time to work on the blog.

Another Fox Reporter thinks the 'Daily Show' is a real news program

2009-04-20T06:07:00.001-04:00

Over at breitbart.tv there is this crazy guy. And here is my take on the whole thing from a comment I posted on Digg.com.

Definition of Fascism is not big business and government getting into bed with each other. The definition of fascism according to the New Oxford American dictionary is:

"an authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization.
• (in general use) extreme right-wing, authoritarian, or intolerant views or practice."

I didn't know giving out money to buy companies is fascism. I always thought that was more like Socialism then fascism. Why can't the Wingnuts get their -isms straight?

Still, throwing money at a problem doesn't solve the problem. As a Libertarian, I believe that a true capitalist economy would allow any company that is failing to fail. Why? Because there would be less intellectual property protections, ie patents, copyright, for big business. A business either succeeds or fails. But it seems not in America, here big business and government have always been in bed together. In fact, it's the government that has allowed big business to become big business and help create monopolies.

It is the governments job to invest in infrastructure and to instigate competition. But all our government has done was been to allow the creation of monopolies and invested in nothing. Education sucks, manufacturing is practically dead in this country, and we have loss our edge as a first world nation. So what is the prescription that the Democrats and Republicans come up with? Lets give failing businesses more money to reward them for their ineptness. Hey, we do it all the time for the politicians by continuing to elect them time and time again when they make bad decisions.

So, the Daily Show edited another Wingnut. Big surprise, but I didn't realize that Fox News considered it a real news program, now that's scary!

National Broadband Policy

2009-04-11T08:25:00.001-04:00

There is a post over at techdirt.com about the possibility of US government to create a policy that is similar to the one that was created to build roads and highways. The proposal is very interesting because the government would form a department that would lay out all the fiberoptic cable thorough out the nation. The problem is think about how the DOT (Department of Transportation) works, right now. All interstate highways, I believe, were created by the Federal government but the state highways are maintained by the states via Federal dollars. And to continue, the states shove money to the local government to improve those roads. It sounds like a not a big problem but it is if you think about it the problem. Most of the money tends to be spent creating all these different departments, and maintaining the personnel for them, before a dime is spent on the roads. What would make you think that it wouldn't happen again?

AT&T was one huge company that created smaller, or actually swallowed up smaller, companies in regions of the United States. They controlled the entire phone system. Since they were a monopoly, and some of their practices were shady, the gave the appearance to stop other companies from forming. One of the reasons were that they created the network of phone lines and switches that made up the phone system. They were, eventually, tried and found guilty of barring other companiesfrom entering the market using that monopolistic power. Thus, they were broken up into smaller bits and the government ruled that they had to lease the lines out to long distance companies. And that smaller local companies could come about and take care of the "last mile" line to the actual home. This allowed for competition. Until 1996, when Clinton signed the Telecommunications Act of 1996. In which, not only did he sell of federal control of the Internet to private companies. But he allowed telephone companies the ability to offer cable television services and cable companies to offer phone services. This supposedly created more competition. Of course, AT&T wasn't forced to charge fair market price but a price they wanted. So small phone companies started offering services but quickly started to lose money because AT&T jacked up that price. Soon they would go out of business. Where is MCI these days? There is less of a fear that if AT&T becomes a behomonth again that they will be the monopoly they once were. Why? Because local monopolistic cable companies exist and offer the same services.

What does this AT&T have to do with a National Broadband Policy? Well, think about how current cable broadband companies operate. They are not a huge cable company that owns entire regions of the cabled United States. They've done a great job of laying most of the infrastructure but in a local setting. And rather then dominate and entire county. Two or three companies tend to carve up the market between city/county lines. Or in some areas right down the middle of a county. This gives them not a monopoly but a duopoly with each side owned by a different company. It becomes harder for the US government to break them up stating that there is no competition, even though there is no real competition. Company A claims that Company B is their direct competitor. Even better are Satellite companies because they offer a "third" alternative. But there is no real competition because A and B have already decided not to play in each others backyard.

The US government wants more home wired and I applaud that. But creating an another bueacracy to acheive that goal is not the way to do it. We have already seen that in other places in the world that broadband speeds are higher than what the cable companies want to roll out. And that the cost of doing so will not be as expensive as the cable companies might say it would be. I even applaud the fact that at least someone is recognizing the "last mile" issue needs to be either home owners issue rather than the cable companies. What I would like to see happen is that a National Broadband policy recognize this but state to the cable companies, thanks for wiring most of the homes but it's time to go in a different direction.

Here's my list:

The broadband pipes do belong to the companies that laid them but they have, not should, to charge a fair price for access to them.
The "last mile" belongs to the homeowner. If they need to be updated then a homeowner should receive some kind of tax credit to update them if needed since this will help the re-sell value of the home.
Smaller local companies should be able to lease access to the broadband pipes. They would then re-sell this to the homeowner, at rate that is above the fair price so they can make money off of them. This could also spark competition between companies.
Address the issue of all the dark fiber laying around unused that could be used to boost speed. This fiber was laid out but never used. Since the government gave tax credits to lay out the infrastructure then they should force the companies to use them at a fair price.

The policy itself needs to do something that protects the consumer. For far too long the government has created agencies that end up being used to protect the businesses. They have received all the tax credits and breaks to operate and build infrastructue but they have taken advantage of the consumer. That should be reversed. My ideas are not perfect anyone can read this and think that there are problems with it. I agree. But we are ~~losing~~ lost our technical edge in the wider community. The policy needs to be able a) spark true competition, b) create jobs (new companies), and c) make America the best in broadband penetration. But it needs to do this in such a way so that anti-competitive practices that have caused monopolies to be broken up don't exist at the cost expense of the taxpayer. Creating another beaucratic mess it not the way to do that.

Web Apps

2009-04-05T19:41:00.001-04:00

Over at InforWorlds channel there is an interesting post about web applications. Neil McAllister gave five reasons for businesses and developers to not use web applications. Cloud computing is a very hot topic. On the one hand you have Microsoft just now stepping their toe in the cloud filled waters; Google has been pushing the cloud to every their users for years now. I have vascilated between using web applications and full-fledged applications. But lately, I've moved all my Google Docs back to my system. Even though my poor G4 PowerMac is quickly losing space, I should be able to purchase a new harddrive at about 500GB for about $100.00. And in some stores, a 1TB harddrive for about $50.00 more. I even downgraded my Gmail account to exclude all but the most basic of features.

Why the change of heart, again? Well, this post by Richard Stallman, the father of the free software movement. And some other concerns that I have had. Mainly, if a company closes their doors then what happens to my data? I don't want to produce a ton of information never to have access to it again. I still use Gmail but I just like Apple Mail more. I use to love using Google Notebook but they let that go. Evernote is now my main note-taking application. Why? Because there is a stand-alone application that I can use to access and store my notes. Now, my notes are still stored in the cloud. But if I'm that concerned about the information then I store it on my system and encrypt it with gpg.

In the long run, the cloud is great for some things but not for everything. Also, I would rather create my own personal cloud on a home server and make it accessible to only my household. And that is something that I can do on my own and makes me feel a bit more secure.

Hackerspaces - Can anyone direct me to closest one?

2009-04-05T18:24:00.001-04:00

While I was reading boingboing I came across a wonderful post. It was about a new concept coming into its own called hackerspaces. The idea is very simple. A group of do-it-yourselfers (DIYers), also know as hackers, come together and rent a loft space. They then stock it full the items that they made need and tools that they have. They share everything with that space and help each other with projects. A perusal of their wiki and I also discovered that some of them hold classes and even charge membership dues.

The lofts are all over America, and the World. Even in my old <sniff> hometown of San Diego has a hackerspace. I think that the concept is great. I even have decided that I want to rid myself of cable tv and internet. So, in order to do that I need to build a media center with a DVR. It would be great if I could join a hackerspace so that I could get the benefit of someone elses knowledge. I've built machines before but a) it has been a long while and b) I would like to build mine own case, which I've never done before. I never took shop in high school so I never learned how to build basic things with my hands out of wood or metal. I would benefit from a hackerspace but, alas, there is nothing here in Charlotte, NC. There is one in Durham but that's a bit far to go just to build a couple of DVRs.

Still, if I had the time I would definitely try to open one myself.

Testing a new Blog Editor

2009-04-05T15:14:00.001-04:00

I've been using Google Docs but recently I've been wanting to try different ways of blogging. This is a test post for ScribeFire via Firefox.

Twouble with Twitters

2009-03-30T08:53:00.002-04:00

Okay, one of the reasons that I haven't been blogging has been this very reason. You can follow me at http://twitter.com/macshaggy.

Did You Know

2009-03-29T21:54:00.001-04:00

It is an amazing time to be alive! The future is now. Just watch this.

Scientists are not You and Me

2009-03-04T21:52:00.002-05:00

Scientists are not You and Me

Damn this is sad! I remember that I told someone that I was a scientist at work and they laughed at me thinking it was funny. (I work in a call center.) But I had to remind them that I had to make money while studying, going to school, and doing my own research. Besides, wasn't Einstein a patent clerk while he developed the Theory of Relativity?

People throw out that they are Christians, Muslims, Buddhists - why can't Science be my religion? I'm not saying I'm an atheist but I do believe in Science as much as people believe some deity snapped His/Her fingers and all this appeared.

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Kindle for the iPhone...NO...Really!

2009-03-04T21:17:00.002-05:00

I couldn't believe it today. Amazon has released an iPhone app that allows the iPhone to read Kindle books. I guess Amazon is truly trying to be the best bookstore in the world. I had to download and install it. Will displace eReader on my iPhone? Well, I like the fact that the books do not need me to re-enter my Credit card info to open them. I bought them and they sit on my bookshelf in Amazon's cloud. When I access the book on my phone it downloads what I need to start reading. And when I do buy a Kindle all my bookmarks will follow me. So if I read something on the phone it'll sync with the Kindle so I don't have to search to find the page I left off. That kind of kicks eReader in the bottom a bit. Now, I just have to load my pdf books, and pdb books, onto the Kindle. I'll do a search for that and see if it works. I won't be buying a Kindle anytime soon but I've enjoyed reading books on my iPhone already so this should be great. I'll play with it when I finish my current book that I'm reading, Cory Doctorow's Little Brother . I'm on Chapter Four and already I'm loving it. I should be working on my essay for my Science Fiction class but I'm haven't been. I guess I'll play catch up during Spring Break. And I've requested Amazon to request the book for the Kindle. I have Mr. Doctorow's free pdb file from the web but I want a copy for my iPhone App and I want to pay it. He cranked out a book he should be paid for it because so far it's a good read!

Funny, I could purchase the dead tree version and he would receive money from that but I really enjoy having my books electronic. I've been waiting for the future since my first computer, an Apple ][e. And I'm happy that it's finally getting here. Now, I just need my workspace at home to be a holodeck for playing VR games and I'll be stoked!!

Rainy Day Blues? Nope...

2009-03-01T13:54:00.001-05:00

I should be blue. It's raining - actually, it's been raining since yesterday but, today, it hasn't let up for even a moment. And I'm not blue at all. I'm enjoying the rain. My puppies, Harley and Junior, are not though. Well, Harley is - he hates to be outside when we're in. Junior is bummed because he can't run around. I should be studying Calculus but I realized I haven't written in my blog for a very long while.

Nothing to really report. School is becoming a drag. I think it's because I've gone nonstop for the last two years. Maybe it's time to take a summer off and work on something else. Something that I want to do. Problem is, if I take the summer off will I remember to start back up when the fall returns. It's a big deal so I should talk it over with the LTR but I know he is going to say no. Maybe he will surprise me. But I'm too old to 'F' around on this. I really need to finish but sometimes you need a break. My heart just doesn't seem like it is into learning right now.

I feel like a character, Ben. Except Ben is done with school and can't see what the Future holds for him. He is also twenty-five and doesn't know what it means to be human. Mainly, because he isn't human. He is a bot. Not just any bot; he has the ability to see Reality for what it truly is...Virtual. He just doesn't know it because his entire life has been spent dealing with Avatars (humans) and they don't know he isn't an Avatar. Well, they didn't know. How do I feel? Tired and wondering. How does Ben feel? Exhausted and wondering. I'm just wondering if I'm truly understanding my classes. Ben is wondering; what is the Universe for? Interesting story? I really should write it out instead of thinking about it.

Off to finish surfing the web for some info...

Need to Start Proofreading

2009-01-28T15:00:00.001-05:00

I just read over my last post. I need to start proofreading my posts
more closely. First, I apologize for the sloppy language. Second, I
will correct my post tonight.

I'm at work and they won't give access. This post is via my gmail on my phone.

The Great Pisces Strikes Again

2009-01-28T07:41:00.001-05:00

As all great Pisces, I'm a big flip flopper. (Actually, I don't think that the greats were flip floppers - just me.) I switch from the cloud and back to my system and then back to the cloud again in a heartbeat. Now, I still find that my data stored in the cloud is not the safest thing. At the same time, I love having access to my data when I'm not at my computer system. Some things I keep entirely in the cloud; my documents for school or these blog posts. But pdf files of my bank statements are not in the cloud. Other things I limit how much information is in the cloud. My address book in the cloud, but is limited to those that have an email address. No email, your not in my Address book in the cloud.

Google has just released, via labs, offline support for Gmail. This will make my use of Apple Mail almost nonexistent since I like Gmail's way of doing things. The only time I am not using Gmail is on my iPhone. But even then I still use it, albeit for very specific reasons.

I've even switched from Safari, with Google Gears, to Firefox, with Google Gears. Why? Even though that through Safari I have access to my computer system's Spelling and Grammar Check and with Firefox I just have spelling? Because I like how Firefox tab support works - unlike Safari, which I have it set to open new tabs for new web pages, but if the web page spawns a new window it follows that command first then what I want it to do. Fix that Apple and I'll come back with open arms because I miss those two features (well, I really miss Grammar Check). It does not seem like a big deal but it really is for me. Plus I like the extensions that you can build into Firefox; with Safari I think Apple missed the boat.

The biggest reason for being back into the cloud is space. Recently, Bear and I both needed the Mac Book Pro to do some work. I've moved my stuff to his because he has more space and because my monitor was blurry and failing. Well, we bought a new 19" widescreen LCD monitor and life on the old PPC desktop has been great. I moved back into it but soon realized I didn't have enough disk space for my music library and my documents, the amount of space was quickly disappearing. I moved my library to my old 20 gig iPod, which is set up in disk mode only, and I connected it via Firewire. It's pretty quick but even that is losing space. Fortunately, I'm not making any music purchases for a while since my library is 15 gigs and I still have stuff to load on it first. Buying a new hard drive, though desirable, again limited amount of funds. What can I do?

Then the light bulb went off. Off load a lot of my data to the cloud and use the cloud as my desktop. This does not take away my fears of the cloud, i.e. data not being secure, possibly losing ownership of my data, not being able to access my data offline, and Cloud companies going out of business. These are all very real possibilities. No one has come up with who is responsible. The companies offering support in the cloud disavow any responsibility in their Terms of Service. The government hasn't even addressed the issue - they are still too busy worrying about children accessing pornography on the Internet, and predators on the Internet. (Why are our politicians always so fearful of technology? Why don't they study it without a partisan view? Why do they always see the bad before the good?) The government hasn't even addressed the idea of privacy because it could disrupt big business.

So, because of my need I've gone back to the cloud. And I'm learning to like to it. Not love it. Just like it. I really need to start researching this in more detail and write about it. I guess I'm finding my niche. Maybe I should change the title of this blog to something like: "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Cloud". I'll keep you posted.

Our Anniversary

2009-01-22T12:14:00.001-05:00

I just wanted to let the entire world know that today is Bear's and my nine year anniversary. We met in 2000 and after dating for two years moved in together. We have been inseparable from each other since. We have had a lot of ups and downs in our relationship and individually but through all of it we have been together dealing with everything.

I just want to say that I love that man of mine.

Snow Day!!

2009-01-20T08:43:00.001-05:00

Today is a snow day. No school. I still have to go to work but I don't care I don't have to be in until 11:00 am so I have enough time to enjoy the weather. I took some pictures this morning. I'm going back out there with my dogs and enjoying this day some more.

Distraction in the 21st Century

2009-01-19T07:25:00.001-05:00

I just read a brilliant little article over on Locus Magazine. It was written by Cory Doctorow from Boing Boing, it was all about how to avoid distraction in the twenty-first century. It's really good and I think that it can apply to a lot of different areas. My biggest problem has been a lot of these specific issues when it comes down to writing a simple blog post. And this is the reason why I don't end up writing as much. I can complain that I need to learn more, or that I need to pick a subject but the reality is I need to just write more. It doesn't have to be the greatest thing on the planet, I just have to write about something, anything, that interests me. I worry about not having a lot of readers, that no one has joined my site via Google Connect, but that is just gravy. They all come when they have something to read.

What do I know? It's hard to work 40 hours a week and go to school for 6 hours, let alone my usual schedule of 9 hours. I'm easily distracted my computer, a problem that I have suffered since I've had a computer — even before the Internet existed in its present form. My partner, my wonderful loving partner, keeps forgetting that in order for me to receive 'A's in my college career I have to stop running around town doing errands or watching — shudder — television; I have to study and not just for an hour, here or there, but every day for a minimum of 3 hours. And that's just for calculus which I have to retake due to becoming sick last semester.

Whose fault is all these distractions? Mine. No one else can take that blame but myself. I can't blame technology, anymore — my monitor had slowly been failing. It reached a point where you couldn't really read anything on it because it was blurry. My temporary solution was to move my user account over to Bear's Mac Book Pro. It was a great solution but two people and one laptop is not really fun. Considering that I had to use it for school when he needed for work, or even for play, it created a distraction. Our solution to the problem was an awesome one. We have been paying off his computer with Best Buy for the last year and there is credit that was available. If we were, and we were, able to find a flat screen monitor to put on the account then we could just continue to pay on that account. I still want my own Mac Book, but I can wait on my perfectly good PowerPC desktop for that year, now that I can see the monitor.

So I have solved one my problems. The next step is go into my office, every day, and study a minimum of 3 hours on Calculus. It is really my only job worth anything. I have to receive an 'A' in this course this semester. Anything less than that can't be an option. I also need to stop watching so much damn television. It truly does make my mind go to mush.

Hello, it's me again!

2009-01-17T11:20:00.001-05:00

Well, scratch the New Year's Resolution as a bust. Instead of blogging a minimum of once a week I have not done anything. But I did discover Twitter and blogging via that. And I've made a new friend from Twitter. His username is AcidRefluxWeb! He is hilarious and fun.

School has started, I'm taking two classes this semester so that I can concentrate on completing Calculus with an 'A'. My second class is a Science Fiction Literature class. Should be fun - the English course is online.

I was over at UserFriendly.org and there was a interesting comment about blogging. Seems that in order to be a good blogger you have to at least know something. I'm a Computer Science major and I don't feel like I know anything. Of course, I'm still taking my General Ed courses but I was a Cost Analyst (Data Analyst) for eight years. I've worked with Databases and Queries - I should know how to write about Databases and Data Manipulation and theories...but I let it all slip when I left that job and San Diego. I have to get back into it. I have to become some kind of authority.

I have to get off my ass this year and really start to learn something that I love and blog about it. I've attempted when I was trying to learn Cocoa Programming with Objective-C. But I let the TV and school take over my life. Recurring theme that I think the net is tired of reading about.

Whine session is over. Time to get my day started.

Xmas Vacation

2008-12-29T14:26:00.001-05:00

I'm currently on vacation in San Diego and I haven't had my computer until today. Bear showed up and brought the Mac Book Pro with him. Thank God because I wasn't sure if I was going to make it on my parents computer. I wish they would have purchased a Mac but they didn't. Oh, yeah, we're staying with my parents, fun! I was reading on Google Reader via the iPhone over at Study Hacks - How to Avoid Fighting with Your Parents While Home for Christmas Break. Unfortunately, that doesn't apply because the last thing that my parents and I are arguing about is school.

But at least were talking. I have to cut this short because Bear just called and I have to run him downtown.