I love technology, both new and old. When my friend Ken was visiting last week, we went to an awesome exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry: Game On. The exhibit featured a lot of my favorite childhood games (mostly console) and made me think about all the cool “tech” toys I had as a child and was a lot of fun. (If you live in the Chicago area, you should check it out) Regardless, the 0ne game I completely forgot about was the Speak & Spell and I recently found an awesome link that allows you to play Speak & Spell via a web browser. Enjoy.
Archive for May, 2005
All posts written in May, 2005.
May
25
2005
installing Solaris 10, part 1.
I had decided last month to get a Sun machine so I could check out Solaris 10 (and Solaris in general). Why Solaris? Why not! Sun has been a leader in creating rock solid, high performance hardware and software, and now they have released Solaris for free. Time to check it out. I downloaded the four CD images from Sun’s web site (nice job with the redesign Sun!) and thought the process would be realitively fast and painless. Then reality sunk in. New hardware (Sun Ultra 10) and a new OS (Solaris 10) caused me some stress. Everything seemed to take longer than expected. Some of my roadblocks:
- I wanted to start from scratch with a clean drive, but I did not know how to reformat. Research was done.
- During my reformatting research, I realized that Sun requires a different partition scheme, so I followed what Sun recommended.
- While trying to figure out the partition scheme, I realized I needed to get a bigger drive in my Ultra 10. (8 gig drive in there now) When I finally got around to installing the system, I had to cut a lot out.
- I have never purchased/formatted a drive for a Sun machine, I had to do research to make sure I could use the 20 gig IDE drive I have laying around
- I was not familiar with the Sun support section, so I had to learn how to get around that on top of everything else.
- The CD install was amazing slow.
What I have learned so far: I am a terminator. Five hours into this process I was still determined to get everything running. I also realized that A is extremely patient with all my computer equipment all over the house. Thanks! I also realized that this whole process, frustration and all has been and will be a great experience for me to go through, and I look forward to actually using Solaris this weekend once I get the other drive in place. I will have more to report this weekend when I re-install the system with the bigger drive.
[tags]Solaris 10, Sun[/tags]
May
24
2005
personalized google homepage.
If you have not checked out Google’s latest addition (that I have found) to the Google Lab, you should check out their new offering: the Google personalized homepage. At this point in time, it is still pretty basic but is definitely cool. On my Google personalized homepage I watch Apple’s stock prices, read google news, check out my local weather, have a quick place to get driving directions, all while also getting a “word of the day” so my literati skills will improve.
Check it out!
May
23
2005
safari rss.
For a number of years (even before Mac OS 9) I have been accustomed to every morning going to my browser of choice, and loading up several web sites that I commonly go to: my webmail, versiontracker.com, macdevcenter, macnn, macosxhints, php architect, taoofthemac, and cnn. In Mac OS 9, I used a nice AppleScript to load up my favorite web pages every morning right before I got to work. With the introduction of tabbed browsing, I was able to load all pages with one click.
Now with Safari RSS, I am in heaven. I was able to organize all my favorite sites’ RSS feeds into a few bookmark folders (organized) and now as I use Safari to browse web sites. Now, I do not have to browse web sites and try and figure out if anything is new, Safari RSS will automatically let me know (you can specify how many minutes Safari RSS checks the feeds) when there is something new on my favorite web sites.
I cannot tell you the last time I actually browsed Version Tracker. I simply look at the RSS feed as it is updated. Same with CNN, and most of my other favorite sites. My question…where is this heading. I spend tons of time and effort on making my web site different and interesting, interface-wise. If people are going to just view web sites like I am, using an RSS reader, what does this mean for design? This is why I love doing what I do (working with technology)…you are constantly on your toes to make sense of new trends in technology, finding solutions for these trends, and then getting ready for brand new trends/solutions! The ability to change and adapt is pretty exciting for me and I think is the reason I find myself doing what I do now.
May
19
2005
the day is finally here.
Almost six years to the day, Ken bid me and Amy farewell as we left PA for IL. Now I finally can show Ken some cool places in Chicago (as well as show him how to play caps). 
That is all I have to say now.
May
18
2005
see you tomorrow Ken!
After years of not seeing each other, a cold war, and then a few more years of not seeing each other it is once again time to reunite. To most people that I have met since I moved away from PSU, Ken is some sort of legend and finally, everyone will be able to meet him. There are some days when Ken has frustrated me to no end, and after sharing my frustration with people they ask “why talk to him if he frustrates you so much?” and regardless of how frustrated I am, I can always say “because he challenges me”. So Ken, thanks for always challeneging me to be a better person, a better debater, and more patient. I know I am equally as frustrating to him on some days too, so it all works out.
So Ken…be ready for a kick ass weekend, Chicago style.
May
16
2005
jappler.com: database driven (finally)!
For years I have been searching for a web site solution that would fit my needs:
- easy to change and edit content (via any web browser)
- integrated blog
- integrated search
- easy to maintain
- database driven
- templates
- able to adapt to mobile technologies
I have played with many CMSes over the years, and I finally realized the power of Plone, but your average hosting company does not offer plone hosting. None of the other CMSes really appealed to me because I had to do so many customizations, and I really don’t have any membership needs, so I decided to look elsewhere for a solution. In my mind I had two options: home made CMS or to do something with my beloved WordPress install. I decided to follow Alex King and to use WordPress to drive my entire web site. I have used a number of plugins, mod_rewrite rules, and some customizations to make it all possible, but so far I am very happy with how everything turned out. I have made several changes so far to multiple pages via my web browser, I looked at my blog via my phone on the train this morning, and am still able to write my blog like I have been for the last year (almost). I had to make a few changes to some plugins to make everything work together, but I learned a lot. I also am very thankful for the documentation available which allowed me to add a lot more flexibility and features in my templates. Perhaps if there is interest, I will break down everything I did so others can do the same.
[tags]jappler.com, WordPress, CMS, Alex King[/tags]
May
13
2005
u2 concert last night.
Last night three friends and I went to see U2 in concert. What a show! We had fantastic seats in the 17th row and U2 was as amazing as ever! I have seen U2 in concert a handful of times, but there was something this time that absolutely blew me away…the number of open cell phones used to take pictures and video. During the ballads, people did not whip out lighters, they whipped out their cell phones to use them to produce light.
On another note, happy Friday the 13th!
May
12
2005
blogging now for one year!
How time flies. I have now officially kept a blog for one year. It all started with: adult happy meal? and Moveable Type. A year later, I have my entire web site managed with blog software. Unbelievable.
May
10
2005
mac mini surgery: success!
Well, I ended up purchasing a mac mini (custom build) and a 23″ Cinema Display. (Why the mac mini? I am not happy with the G5 line as of yet) Anyways, there was no way I was going to let Apple put a gig of RAM in for me for over $300 when I could buy it for $125. So, when I oreded the mac mini, I ordered it with 256mb of RAM and ordered the extra RAM from macsales.com. I found some good take apart guides and just as I was going to head out to Home Depot to get a putty knife, a friend of mine messaged me and asked me if I had seen the “wire trick”. I was not too excited about scratching my new computer so I gave the article a quick read. I was instantly intrigued and decided I better give it a try. Within fifteen minutes, my mac mini was taken apart, and ready for the new RAM. A few snaps back in place, and I was restarting! Thanks J for the tip!
Check out the pictures!
P.S. Before you put the mac mini back together, make sure you remove the wires…or you will have to take it apart again to remove them.
