Category: Blog

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Happy Birthday Commodore!

I loved the Apple II that we had at school and it was great, no doubt, however I have to say that this was my real true love starting out. I learned programming, wrote games on it (one based on the old TV show V) and even my own BBS. I also learned how to talk to the modem sending hayes commands back and forth. I made my own controllers for it after a friend showed me one he made with mercury switches. I also played all kinds of games from Infocom stuff to Miner 2049er.

However, I think that one of the under appreciated aspects of this computer was the friends I made as we were all trying to figure out how to do things, like make sprites!! :^)

This computer laid the foundation of my career.

Thanks Commodore!

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Need more input! – Reading List for the New Year

I realize I don’t read nearly enough. By nearly enough, I mean, almost zero. I read mind you…in the sense I read code and things on the internet. That said, I am wanting to expand.

I have read the Lord of the Rings. Hitchhikers Guide, some Star Wars books, and 7th Son (shout out to +J.C. Hutchins ), and Infected (shout out to +Scott Sigler ) however I am looking for more.

I asked my G+ followers for a list of reading recommendations for myself based on some of the things I read before (listed above). I will be reading these during 2011 and posting my thoughts here on my blog and on G+. Perhaps a virtual book club is in order with Google Hangouts.

Here is the list of what I got.

  • The Stand: Stephen King
  • The Shining: Stephen King
  • Salom’s Lot: Stephen King
  • Pilgrim at Tinker’s Creek: Annie Dillard
  • Double Dead : +Chuck Wendig
  • Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom: Cory Doctorow
  • Going Solo: Roald Dahl
  • Inheritance Cycle: Christopher Paolini
  • Wheel of Time: Robert Jordan
  • Vorkosigan Saga: Lois McMaster Bujold
  • Snow Crash: Neal Stephenson’s
  • Good Omens: Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaimen
  • Ender’s Game: Orson Scott Card
  • Jennifer Government: Max Barry
  • Last Chance To See: Douglas Adams
  • Dirk Gently, Holistic Detective Agency: Douglas Adams
  • Good plan: +Nikolai Tkachenko
  • Foundation Series: Issac Asimov
  • Dune: Frank Herbert
  • The Past Through Tomorrow: Robert A. Heinlein
  • A Canticle for Leibowitz: Walkter Miller (Avoid Sequel)

Also Recommendations for any works from the following:

  • Terry Goodkind’s works
  • Cory Doctorow’s works
  • +Paul Cooley’s works
  • Max Barry’s works
  • Neal Stephenson’s works
  • Philip K. Dick’s works

Want to follow along? Watch my blog and other places for posts. Got something to add to the list? leave a comment.

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Books are not objects but ideas

My mother will gift my son and other kids in the family with books when it comes to birthdays or Christmas, which is fine by my wife and I. My son reads a good bit already, so books are welcome. However, it is pretty evident that not everyone does read or appreciate books as much as they should.

Recently, my son had a friend over to had out one afternoon and my wife had told them that they couldn’t play on electronics the whole time, but had to do something else. A little while later my wife checked in on them and they had several books open and sprawled out on the floor, with notebooks and drawings, as they were planning on how to Survive a Zombie Attack!

My wife emailed my mother to tell her how much her books are appreciated here and how they were used that one particular day, and this is the reply my mother gave.

I can’t thank you enough for sharing this story.  The reason I like to give the boys books is that they meant so much to me as a child.  We didn’t have money to buy books but I used the school and later the children’s libraries as my sources.  I can’t recall my parents ever taking me to a library or a book store but I had wonderful teachers who inspired me.  I think I would be a very different person if I hadn’t had books back then.  I became extremely curious and envious of the world outside my experience.  I found beauty when there was precious little in the mill village where we lived and I was able to participate in someone else’s imagination, which still is an insatiable hunger in me.  So, to make a long story short, I would have loved owning books when I was a child and I think every child should own them whether they choose to read them or not.  (Books are not just objects but ideas!!)

By the way, the friend that was over admittedly doesn’t read much, however his mother called the next day to get the titles of the books they were using because he wanted to go to the store and get them too.

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Facebook the new Email?

Today I logged into my Facebook account and I see that when I went to the messages area I was  greeted with a pop-up that said that Facebook now offers email addresses. It prompted me to set up my email address and they took a guess that I wanted my email at Facebook to match my username.

I tested it out and it worked well, and was fast. I see options for reporting something as Spam, Deleting, etc…just as you would come to expect for an email account. Facebook also pointed out that under Messages there is an ‘other’ folder. This seems to be a container for other messages like notifications from Groups and announcements.

I’m not so sure I need another email address.I am pretty sold on my Gmail account and have had it for years now…but I guess it could come in handy at some point. Anyone else see this?

Update: Apparently this isn’t new. I just don’t check my Facebook Messages page often enough to know that this was new to me. 🙂 That is what I get for using my Phone more than the website.