When I was a child I grew up next to the Arcade Library. I learned how to read at school and I’m blessed with enough intelligence and a sense of curiosity to wonder how things work. I spent hours each week at the library as a child learning how to read and gather more information and vicarious experiences from the authors I read. I even learned skills out of books, but most of the time I needed visual models. Before the World Wide Web was born I would curl up with encyclopedias at work and read them. I’m really fascinated with learning about the world we live in. Continue reading “More thoughts”
Thinking out loud
I got a nice email from a colleague who’s been writing me as part of an ongoing discussion about the use of Open Office in a K-12 school system. Long story short we’re going back to using Microsoft Office 2000 with students because using Open Office 2.0 made some teachers uncomfortable. Continue reading “Thinking out loud”
Open Office recommended
I want to buy my kid a laptop… by ZDNet‘s Christopher Dawson — I hear this more and more from high school parents. It wasn’t that long ago that college kids were lucky to get a laptop for a high school graduation gift. The number of freshman and sophomores in high school now toting around laptops, even in a very middle class rural mill town like […]
Rebuild
I outsmarted myself this morning in attempting to download and install the Debian client for SecondLife my package manager got “smoked”. Oh, well it was time for a rebuild and that’s what’s going on right now. That’s the beauty of Ubuntu. Continue reading “Rebuild”
Virtual machines
I’ve spent the last two days learning about VMWare ESX. I’m attending a 4 day training session where I’m learning how to virtualize servers of all flavors. I’m grateful for the opportunity to learn new skills. My Linux background has been a help. Continue reading “Virtual machines”
Thoughts on writing, publishing and word processing
I’ve been engaging in a really spirited and stimulating debate with a number of colleagues about word processing and whether Open Office or Microsoft Office or any other office suite is more or less suited to preparing today’s students for the world of work. Continue reading “Thoughts on writing, publishing and word processing”
Virtual vista
In early June I bought a Dell Inspiron 6400 from Dell’s Outlet store. It came with Microsoft’s Vista Home Basic which I promptly deleted and reinstalled Ubuntu 7.04. I have a Vista license and the Dell recovery disk for reinstalling the OS. I have installed Automatix and as part of that install I’ve got Innotek’s Virtual Box installed. Tonight I reinstalled Vista Home Basic as a virtual machine with Virtual Box.
I’ve been toying with the idea of running Ubuntu as a host with a Vista guest OS that would allow me to run some Windows application that I rely on. I want to experiment with VMWare as well. I recently attended a VMWare User Group at the University of Rochester and I came away impressed with the power of virtualization and VMWare in particular. I have had better success virtualizing the wireless Ethernet connection on my notebook with VMWare than I’ve had with Virtual Box. These experiences have provided me with a unique vista from which to explore virtual computing.
Word processors
I’ve been giving a lot of thought lately to the importance or relative unimportance of word processors. I learned how to process words with a pencil. Nowadays word processing has come to mean more than writing, but is it? Continue reading “Word processors”
Mythical
MythTV is one of those open source applications that up until now was only someone else’s experience. Last summer I tried to build a KnoppMyth box. That experience led me to follow someone else’s experience in better detail. Continue reading “Mythical”
Tonight
It’s a beautiful moonlit night. A few twinkling stars. Venus has risen in the western sky and its 72F at 10 pm. It doesn’t get much better in Western New York than that. I’m enjoying it. Continue reading “Tonight”