fighting-man speaks

When the economy sucks and all you see on the news is politics and movie stars, just give me tech.

Let me live in the world of SQL code and database design or javascript and Web 2.0.

Nothing else matters when you bury your nose in a book about n-tier web architecture or algorithms that you’ll never understand.

Pondering the complexities of virtual world design or network programming is a great way to spend the day or evening.

The details of the latest mergers and aquisitions or what company is getting bailed out next is nothing compared to some hairy Linux device errors or rebuilding your kernel.

Just give me tech.

I’ve always enjoyed the electronic duo Daft Punk.  I especially enjoy the track titled Voyager from their Discovery.  It’s just a smooth jam that you can code or do other types of computer work to.  All of their music is pretty much awesome.  Check em out.

http://www.last.fm/music/Daft+Punk/_/Voyager

I have enjoyed classical music since I was very young.  I bought a tape series called 100 Greatest Melodies.  I listened to them every night when I went to sleep.  At the same time, I was learning to read music in band class playing the trombone.  I learned all about the greatest composers.  Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Handel, Strauss, Tchaikovsky, and many more.

Then I became interested in computers and discovered MIDI.  Downloading MIDI files was all I knew before I learned about WAV files and eventually MP3s.  I would download all the MIDI files I could find load them into a program that would show me the notes.  Then I would try to play the songs on the piano.  Classical music definitely makes you feel smarter even when you have no understanding of actually how complex it is.

Around this time I discovered cheesy electronic/synthesized versions of popular songs and classical pieces but I didn’t really understand it.  Late in high school and possibly college, I saw A Clockwork Orange which freaked me out but I loved the odd sounding versions of Beethoven’s 9th symphony.  I then saw TRON.  I noticed the music had that synthesized sound to it.  I then found out the composer was Wendy Carlos.  She is famous for composing Switched-On Bach back in the late 60s.  It is the most sold classical album of all time.  She used the original Moog synthesizer which was analog and not digital yet.  It was extremely difficult to work with.  If you love classical and a quirky electronic sound you have to check it out.  She actually did four different albums of the stuff.

The interesting thing about this “computer music” is that during the 70s and 80s when personal computers took off, Wendy’s music was used heavily in commercials for computers such as the Commodore 64 and also in promotional pieces for Disney’s EPCOT Center (possibly because of TRON which was a Disney film).  I think it’s funny how marketing people tie together classical music, because people who use computers are smart, and electronic classical, because it’s a computer.  It was just a 70s/80s thing I guess.  You don’t see this type of music being used at all anymore.

I have been a user/fan of Linux since 1997 when I first attempted to install Slackware on my PC.  I couldn’t get Slackware to run so I tried Debian which I also couldn’t get to run.  The problem was figuring out the boot disks, etc.  I eventually broke down and got the easy version - RedHat.  Although it was fun to run it on my own system and even more fun with dual boot, I enjoyed using a shell account on someone else’s box even more.

The main issue I had when I first tried Linux was getting the modem to even dial out.  I don’t think I ever got it working.  I believe it was because the modem I had was unsupported by the distro I was using.  I kept trying to get it to initiate via the command line using pppd and a bunch of other arcane tools.  Connectivity was always an issue with Linux unless you had an ethernet connection.  I really began to learn using a shell account through Windows.  It was the least I could do to protect myself from IRC attacks!  We used to nuke the hell out of everyone in chatrooms.  I was using BitchX through a shell account so I was safe.

I really enjoy using Linux.  A friend mentioned wanting to just “live” in that environment.  I agree with him.  It would be nice to totally work in the Linux/Unix world.  You have so much control and power over the system.  You also look and sound crazy smart to all your friends.  The Windows environment is like John McCain whereas Linux is like Barack Obama.  I know that sounds weird but it’s true.  The Open Source world is always fresh and exciting.  It is the core of all the latest start-ups like Twitter, etc.  Everything is built on some form of Open Source software.

When I have the time, I want to explore the innards of possibly the Ubuntu distribution specifically the server version and have the LAMP stack running to test things out.  We shall see!

I am amazed that my car which I purchased for around $22k used a year and a half ago is not valued at $11k for trade-in based on kbb.com!  What the?!  Are you kidding me?  It’s a Mercedes C320.  You would think they have a higher trade-in value or I bought it at too high of a price.  I will probably just end up keeping it until I have paid off another $11k of it and then trade it in for the best car ever - a Honda Civic.

There’s news out now that some guys found Bigfoot in Georgia. I am sure it is a hoax but it reminded me of when I was young and used to check out all the books about Bigfoot, UFOs, ghosts, and other unexplained phenomenom. I used to scare myself silly staying late and reading those books! I also loved watching Unsolved Mysteries especially the ones about ghosts. Scared the crap out of me! Well here’s to the Bigfoot hunters. May they never give up on their dream!

My newborn baby girl sleeps for only 2 hours at a time and needs to eat every 3 hours. This occurs around the clock 24 hours a day. Imagine not getting a full 6-8 hours of sleep a night. That is what my wife is going through. I usually try to get 8 hours but can’t because of waiting for my sister to get home at 11:30pm to take the baby. I usually go to bed at 10pm and get up at 6:30pm but now it’s like 12am-6:15 which sucks. Maybe it will be better next week. I think I am still trying to readjust back to a regular schedule since being up all hours while I was off work for two weeks. Never thought it would be like this. It is worth it though when I look at that sweet little baby face and know that she is my daughter and I love her so much.

Just installed the Wphone plugin for Wordpress. I am writing this post on my phone and it works great. It basically just reformats the Wordpress admin interface! Rock!

There seems to be no easy way to export content from Blogger so I can import it to Wordpress.  I know there is an Export Blog link under Basic>Settings when you use draft.blogger.com but I get an error when I click it saying that the archive can’t be found.  Blogger/Blogspot has been around for a long time.  You would think they would have any easy export feature.  I used to use Typepad and they had a great export feature.  I only had a few posts but I really want to move them from Blogger to Wordpress.  Makes me mad.  I will never use blogger.com again no matter how free it is.  I guess you get what you pay for.

Had a big garage sale on Saturday.  Did fairly well.  We have one every year at the same time our neighborhood has one.  It’s a good way to make some money.  It takes a while to prepare for it but you can walk away with a few hundred bucks if you sell large items.  It’s also an excellent way to clear out the garage!  I got rid of some large items that were taking up space.  I still can’t get rid of my old computer collection.  I guess if I was on the West Coast it would be easier or maybe closer to Chicago.  Here in the ‘burbs no one cares much about old computer collecting I guess.