The redesign is in progress, ignore any ugly color schemes, strange setups, and temporary layouts. I'll edit this when it's all over. I've had a bunch of coffee and 4 more hours of coffee news being open, so let's hope this gets done soon.
Thanks,
The Management.
*edit*
Can't tell if I can do a complete overhaul right now. I got the color scheme changed and the header pic, but it's hard to mod such a minimalistic template. I guess that's why it's called minima. But I like having it minimal, I am all about making it easy for yall's to read this, but I want it to look nice and stylish too. Eh, I'm still working on it.
*edit*
i'm done for now, did some stencil work, check it out.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
I make make myself laugh
So I was reading old posts on this blog because I forgot I have used it for so long. Like, my first post was in January, so my one year is almost here. Although I didn't really start blogging till august, w/e.
But I read this one phrase I wrote and it just cracked me up: "time to spew my brainstew." I don't know why I think that is so clever, but I do, and I love it. I also realized how strange my post titles are. They take the actual subject and add some reference to something else. It's like my own inside jokes with myself and some other people. But I guess I do it more because I don't like straightforward titles. If you're going to read my blog, it's not because the titles are to the point or completely random, it's the content.
I made a mix, it's not the best, but I like it. It's more of a sampler than a mix.
I'm really happy the semester is basically over. I have one more assignment and two tests and one very messy english class to work out. But in two days I'll be home visiting my brother. Man, I still can't believe that he is going to sea for 6-8 months. I had forgot that until yesterday. It makes me even more excited to see him again.
But I read this one phrase I wrote and it just cracked me up: "time to spew my brainstew." I don't know why I think that is so clever, but I do, and I love it. I also realized how strange my post titles are. They take the actual subject and add some reference to something else. It's like my own inside jokes with myself and some other people. But I guess I do it more because I don't like straightforward titles. If you're going to read my blog, it's not because the titles are to the point or completely random, it's the content.
I made a mix, it's not the best, but I like it. It's more of a sampler than a mix.
I'm really happy the semester is basically over. I have one more assignment and two tests and one very messy english class to work out. But in two days I'll be home visiting my brother. Man, I still can't believe that he is going to sea for 6-8 months. I had forgot that until yesterday. It makes me even more excited to see him again.
iShould bWorking
So I reformatted my iPod. Don't worry, it wasn't on accident as most of my reformats are, this one was controlled. I had it almost full, all 60 GBs, and I was really getting lost in it trying to find music. Having throughout the years, like 4 years of constant adding music and never deleting any, it was very full of unnecessary things. I do not need all of Iron Maiden or A Perfect Circle. In fact, I probably listened to one song of each, maybe four times. And recently the iPod has been showing doubles of songs making playing an album super difficult. I would have to add every other song to an on the go playlist and use that and it was a huuuge hassle. So, in the name of clean slates and fresh snow for this winter break, I wiped it clean. I even gave it the latest firmware update, which sadly removed my custom 'tux' loading screen and battery percent icons (it showed you what numerical percent was left, not some tiny bar that was hard to read). But maybe I'll put those back.
The next step was to put all the music I actually like and things I might want to listen to back on. So I went through my list of perfect albums and made sure I had the whole lot. Then I went through and added stuff I might want some of and what not, you know radiohead and pink floyd discographies. So now I have 2847 songs on it taking up about 15 GBs (is it GBs or Gbs, cause it's a big difference). But I can add new stuff on as I get it and have it all nice and neat.
The next step was to put all the music I actually like and things I might want to listen to back on. So I went through my list of perfect albums and made sure I had the whole lot. Then I went through and added stuff I might want some of and what not, you know radiohead and pink floyd discographies. So now I have 2847 songs on it taking up about 15 GBs (is it GBs or Gbs, cause it's a big difference). But I can add new stuff on as I get it and have it all nice and neat.
It's nice to know
So, I was doing a late comp sci assignment that I had forgotten about until now and had to research a topic in computer science. So, after my long cloud computing post, I figured I could just do that. And I have been reading computer science articles for the past hour and a half. It's wonderful liking a topic so much that I don't feel bored reading about it. I learned a lot about the cloud idea and it's a lot more vague than I thought. There are 3 clear definitions of what it is. So, it's pretty clear that this is what I want to do with the rest of my life, in addition to some other things, but career wise it's an easy choice. I took one of the offers from Thompson-Reuters and it is quite ridiculous how much they are paying me for the summer internship. But it bodes well for my future I guess. I still think it is kinda sick how I don't really have to worry to hard about finding a decent job in this field. With everything changing so fast, I'll be able to find something pretty permanent in the end and it will probably pay well.
But I like it because I will be able to fuel other hobbies and things that I know I also want to do in the future. Like, playing music would be something that I could pump money into, but anyone can do that. One goal I really have is to open a music venue somewhere/sometime in the future. Right now I want to open a coffee house/music venue/record store in Morris because I think we could use it. But in reality, I totally could put an investment into a project like that in a larger city and really have fun with it. Someone had to start first ave and the triple rock at some point. Why not a guy like me?
But I like it because I will be able to fuel other hobbies and things that I know I also want to do in the future. Like, playing music would be something that I could pump money into, but anyone can do that. One goal I really have is to open a music venue somewhere/sometime in the future. Right now I want to open a coffee house/music venue/record store in Morris because I think we could use it. But in reality, I totally could put an investment into a project like that in a larger city and really have fun with it. Someone had to start first ave and the triple rock at some point. Why not a guy like me?
Sunday, December 14, 2008
This blizzard is not filled with cookie dough not delicious
So, it is cold. Very very cold in Morris, MN. Like, -40 windchill with -10 actual temperature. I left my phone charger in my friend's on campus apartment and my phone died last night. So, I had to get it back, cause I was expecting a worried call from my mom about the blizzard going on. So I bike to campus and i learn how actually windy and cold it is. Thank heavens that 7th street was plowed at least a little bit. So yeah, now I'm sitting in my house with my friends and we're all just chilling. Lame post, I'll go into detail laters.
Friday, December 12, 2008
Thoughts on 2009
So, I shared an interesting read in this post and said I'd give some of my thoughts on it. So I guess this is that post.
Intel's new processor, i7, has 8 cores, I just think the 7 is misleading. But 8 cores is a little overwhelming, like, I'm running two and two years ago that was top line stuff. Now it's tri (they use leftover quad cores that have one core turned off. So it's a clever way to recycle that I like. It's kinda cheating, but better than throwing them away since silicone price is apparently rising.) and quad cores, and next year it's oct? I like the number 8, so there's nothing wrong with it, but that's just so many. The computing power in the past few years has grown so much so fast. I know this follows Moore's law and predictions, but think a few years in the future. I feel like there is a limit to how much processing power the average user needs, and I feel that we are already past that. My Mom doesn't care how fast her computer is (except when she doesn't want to feel technologically left behind) and all she runs is Internet and word apps. Can there really be so much going on that she will need 3GHz of power? I don't think there will be. Even with web 3.0 apps and more data on the Internet. The business users will never really have applications that demand that much power.
But on the flip side, as the power gets larger, the interesting thing is that the chips are getting smaller because of advances in other areas like nanotechnology. This means that the chips use less materials and therefor (I use therefor a lot, sorry) cost less to manufacture, decreasing prices. So, even though a chip might be 10x as fast as a chip ten years ago, it costs less. So even though most user's will never need the power, it will be cheaper and so why not get it?
There are also a lot of other emerging markets that can use the technology and advances in processor power and size. With handheld devices becoming more advance, they will eventually match the power of today's laptops and eventually the high end desktops. Although there are physical limits to size which stop music players from having terabytes of memory, at least with current tech, there will always be ways to improve them.
There is also the idea of 'the cloud', which is an older concept that might be making it's way back, especially with help from powers like google and microsoft. The idea is that you don't have your data in your possession as a hard copy. My computer has my english paper, it is nowhere else in the world. The cloud changes this to the physical copy being in a server somewhere in a farm of information. A good example is google apps. I create a spreadsheet on google docs and they store it, for my access anywhere from any computer with Internet. All I need is my account to get it. If my computer is lost, my data isn't. My dad was explaining how airlines use this practice because flight information has to be centralized. The computers at check in don't store all the flight info on their hard drives, they are only a terminal for accessing the data from the central servers. If it didn't work this way, there would be so much conflicting data that it would ruin the system completely.
Taking this idea to the general populous hasn't been really feasible because of bandwidth and accessibility limits. Not everyone has the airlines direct connection with the data center through the largest bandwidth pipes. But with widespread wireless connectivity, it is becoming an option, and one that google is opening up, subtly. Now that wireless speeds are growing and some cities are almost completely connected, why not implement this concept? For a price you can be completely wireless at the top speeds. You don't have to worry about losing what you're working on, practically all the time. Even when I write this, blogger saves a current draft every time I stop typing for a couple seconds. It's really useful.
An implementation of this that I don't fully agree with is one that I can't say I know the most about, so sorry if I have it all wrong. My friend Danny has a sidekick with T-Mobile and he has to connect to t-mobile's server to get his address book. From what I gathered, his contacts are stored online where he can access them from any computer, and are downloaded to his phone when he starts it up. This is smart, because he can add numbers online and probably link it all to a address book application on his computer. But the idea that they aren't stored locally seems faulty. What if you have no signal and need a number? What I would expect is that it would only sync with the central information every time, adding or removing information that has been added or removed. Like syncing your iPod, it checks for differences and modifies your device. If this is how it works, than it makes a lot more sense and is a really clever idea.
As these ideas and technologies improve, they will eventually reach a limit. In the beginning, people only used personal computers for work and were basically a terminal for accessing centralized data. Then they got powerful enough to be portable and hold a user's data and process everything without the help of a server. But as that reaches a limit, portability will make a comeback and we will move back into the cloud.
That was a lot of writing, so I am going to end it here (at least for now) and go back to reading my book for school. But the overall idea is that as these technologies improve they will reach a limit of practical use and then there will be another area to improve on. And, watch out for the cloud.
Intel's new processor, i7, has 8 cores, I just think the 7 is misleading. But 8 cores is a little overwhelming, like, I'm running two and two years ago that was top line stuff. Now it's tri (they use leftover quad cores that have one core turned off. So it's a clever way to recycle that I like. It's kinda cheating, but better than throwing them away since silicone price is apparently rising.) and quad cores, and next year it's oct? I like the number 8, so there's nothing wrong with it, but that's just so many. The computing power in the past few years has grown so much so fast. I know this follows Moore's law and predictions, but think a few years in the future. I feel like there is a limit to how much processing power the average user needs, and I feel that we are already past that. My Mom doesn't care how fast her computer is (except when she doesn't want to feel technologically left behind) and all she runs is Internet and word apps. Can there really be so much going on that she will need 3GHz of power? I don't think there will be. Even with web 3.0 apps and more data on the Internet. The business users will never really have applications that demand that much power.
But on the flip side, as the power gets larger, the interesting thing is that the chips are getting smaller because of advances in other areas like nanotechnology. This means that the chips use less materials and therefor (I use therefor a lot, sorry) cost less to manufacture, decreasing prices. So, even though a chip might be 10x as fast as a chip ten years ago, it costs less. So even though most user's will never need the power, it will be cheaper and so why not get it?
There are also a lot of other emerging markets that can use the technology and advances in processor power and size. With handheld devices becoming more advance, they will eventually match the power of today's laptops and eventually the high end desktops. Although there are physical limits to size which stop music players from having terabytes of memory, at least with current tech, there will always be ways to improve them.
There is also the idea of 'the cloud', which is an older concept that might be making it's way back, especially with help from powers like google and microsoft. The idea is that you don't have your data in your possession as a hard copy. My computer has my english paper, it is nowhere else in the world. The cloud changes this to the physical copy being in a server somewhere in a farm of information. A good example is google apps. I create a spreadsheet on google docs and they store it, for my access anywhere from any computer with Internet. All I need is my account to get it. If my computer is lost, my data isn't. My dad was explaining how airlines use this practice because flight information has to be centralized. The computers at check in don't store all the flight info on their hard drives, they are only a terminal for accessing the data from the central servers. If it didn't work this way, there would be so much conflicting data that it would ruin the system completely.
Taking this idea to the general populous hasn't been really feasible because of bandwidth and accessibility limits. Not everyone has the airlines direct connection with the data center through the largest bandwidth pipes. But with widespread wireless connectivity, it is becoming an option, and one that google is opening up, subtly. Now that wireless speeds are growing and some cities are almost completely connected, why not implement this concept? For a price you can be completely wireless at the top speeds. You don't have to worry about losing what you're working on, practically all the time. Even when I write this, blogger saves a current draft every time I stop typing for a couple seconds. It's really useful.
An implementation of this that I don't fully agree with is one that I can't say I know the most about, so sorry if I have it all wrong. My friend Danny has a sidekick with T-Mobile and he has to connect to t-mobile's server to get his address book. From what I gathered, his contacts are stored online where he can access them from any computer, and are downloaded to his phone when he starts it up. This is smart, because he can add numbers online and probably link it all to a address book application on his computer. But the idea that they aren't stored locally seems faulty. What if you have no signal and need a number? What I would expect is that it would only sync with the central information every time, adding or removing information that has been added or removed. Like syncing your iPod, it checks for differences and modifies your device. If this is how it works, than it makes a lot more sense and is a really clever idea.
As these ideas and technologies improve, they will eventually reach a limit. In the beginning, people only used personal computers for work and were basically a terminal for accessing centralized data. Then they got powerful enough to be portable and hold a user's data and process everything without the help of a server. But as that reaches a limit, portability will make a comeback and we will move back into the cloud.
That was a lot of writing, so I am going to end it here (at least for now) and go back to reading my book for school. But the overall idea is that as these technologies improve they will reach a limit of practical use and then there will be another area to improve on. And, watch out for the cloud.
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