jeffanderson.us|Blog

May 2010 Update…

May 27th, 2010 by Jeff

Readers,

I’ve been busy lately. My new position as a Developer at a large retail company has left me with little time to write. I hope to remedy this soon as I begin to have more “me” time. First things first, though, is that the site will have a redesign after WordPress 3.0 is released and the major plugins I use are them compatible with it.

I’ll still be leveraging the 960 Grid System (http://960.gs) and some of the more popular WordPress plugins along with adding jQuery into the mix somehow.

Of course, there will still be ads on the site, but I hope to make the integration more fluid so you barely notice them. Also for users who don’t find me via Google, the ads will of course be disabled. My goal is not to flood your screen with flash ads and make you not want to view my content, but I’d like to eventually have this site pay for itself and maybe even make enough to buy me a coffee everytime I sit down to write.

Which, by the way, I hope to do at least once a week.

I’ll keep you posted!

After Windows 7: Update

June 29th, 2009 by Jeff

Tags: 64-bit, Microsoft, Vista, Windows, Windows 7, Windows 8

Posted in Technology, No Comments »

Last year I wrote an article titled “After Windows 7: What Microsoft Should Do” and gave my opinions of what Microsoft might have up their sleeve for the version coming after Windows 7′s release later this year. Here’s a slight update to those predictions.

Star Trek Online: Canon or not canon?

June 28th, 2009 by Jeff

Tags: Cryptic Studios, J.J. Abrams, Paramount Pictures, Star Trek, Star Trek Online, Star Trek: Destiny, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Titan, TNG

Posted in Personal, 2 Comments »

Warning: This article contains spoilers for the recent Star Trek novels and the J.J. Abrams movie Star Trek. Read with caution.

Recently the folks at Cryptic Studios have released a timeline that takes into account the new Star Trek movie. In the new movie, events in the 24th century have led to the creation of an alternate timeline. While this timeline is J.J. Abrams’ new playground, Star Trek Online will be a continuation of the Star Trek “Prime” universe, where Klingons looked like darker humans with goatees then had forehead ridges and people never questioned it; a universe where Spock died on the Genesis planet and Bones acted all funny for a movie; a universe where Locutus of Borg told Riker that resistance was futile and Sisko both started and ended the Dominion War and Janeway got lost in Borgtown. This universe, where every TV episode we watched growing up and every movie we’ve seen up until now has taken place in, is where Star Trek Online will take place.

Karmic Koala Blueprints

May 28th, 2009 by Jeff

Tags: 64-bit, Adobe, Efficiency, Hardware, Karmic Koala, Linux, open source, PulseAudio, Skype, Ubuntu

Posted in Technology, No Comments »

This week marks the real start to the development cycle for Ubuntu’s 9.10 release called Karmic Koala. The Ubuntu Developer’s Summit is being held in Barcelona this year, and is now in full swing. A lot of interesting blueprints have been uploaded to Canonical’s Launchpad service. Let’s see what kind of topics the Ubuntu folks are discussing for this release.

Integrating Technology and Medicine

May 25th, 2009 by Jeff

Tags: Barack Obama, Closed Source, Efficiency, free software, Google, Health Care, Infrastructure, Integration, Investment, Linux, open source, Stimulus

Posted in Society, Technology, No Comments »

One of President Obama’s strong points during his campaign was the use of technology to reach millions of people and deliver a message. Part of that message was increasing the use of modern technology in government, and advocating modern technology in certain private sector industry that require government oversight. One such sector is energy, with the Obama Administration calling for the energy industry to green up the grid using 21st century technology. Another industry is the medical industry.

GTK+ 3.0 – Modernizing a Popular Toolkit

May 18th, 2009 by Jeff

Tags: GNOME, GTK, KDE, Linux, QT

Posted in Technology, 2 Comments »

GNOME 2.26 was released a few months ago, bringing some small changes and overage polish to the venerable GNU/Linux desktop environment. In six months time, GNOME 2.28 will be released which will bring yet some more polish a few more changes. One year from now comes GNOME 2.30. This release should be a bit different than the other releases before it. GNOME 2.30 will renumbered to GNOME 3.0. That’s right, what would be the 15th release (only even numbered releases count, here.) of the GNOME 2.x line will indeed be the start of the GNOME 3.x regime.

But with GNOME 3.0 is supposed to come GTK+ 3.0. GTK+ is the toolkit upon which GNOME and its applications are written. It standardizes the look and feel of the desktop using widgets for things like title bars, buttons, text fields, and pretty much everything making up the user interface. For the folks that develop GTK+, branding it as a 3.0 release will mean taking a huge step forward. Unfortunately, for both the folks that develop GTK+ and the folks that develop GNOME, baby steps are usually the norm. Its no wonder they picked little gnome feet for the logo.

Installing VMWare Server 6.5 on Jaunty Jackalope

May 3rd, 2009 by Jeff

Tags: Jaunty, Ubuntu, VMWare

Posted in Howtos, No Comments »

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve updated my two main systems from Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex to Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope. One of the pieces of software I install on both machines is VMWare Server 6.5. However, in Jaunty the installation is a little more than simply sudo-ing the installer script.

Quickly, here’s how to install VMWare Server 6.5 on a Jaunty machine. I’m not sure if its any different for 32-bit, but I run 64-bit.

```
Install VMWare Server 6.5.
```

Install the build-essential package from the apt repo.  "sudo aptitude install build-essential"

Backup the binary modules.  "sudo mv /usr/lib/vmware/modules/binary /usr/lib/vmware/modules/binary.old"

Recompile the binary modules with available kernel headers. "sudo vmware-modconfig --console --install-all"

That’s it. VMWare Server 6.5 should now start and you can load up your virtual machines and get computing. Enjoy.

Greening the Grid Smartly

April 21st, 2009 by Jeff

Tags: Alternative Energy, Broadband, Efficiency, Global Warming, Google, Green, Green Energy, Hardware, Integration, Investment, Online, Pickens Plan, Smart Grid, Smart Meters, Stimulus

Posted in Environment, Technology, 2 Comments »

Its 2009. However, the technology used to power all of our 21st century devices is borne out of 19th century ideas and 20th century implementations. The United States power grid is in need of an upgrade. The Obama Administration has set aside money in the latest round of stimulus to spearhead an upgrade of the ailing power grid. President Obama has even asked Congress to come up with legislation to spur development of new high capacity transmission lines and for the country to double its use of renewable sources of electricity. Energy moguls like T. Boone Pickens have developed plans on how to cut the country’s dependence on foreign oil and take advantage of sources of energy here in the United States. Even Google has stepped up and offered its own plan, called RE<C or Renewable Energy less than Coal. Over the last few years California has stepped up adoption of renewable power as a percentage of its total usage. In 2008 Governor Schwarzenegger even signed an executive order requiring California to obtain 33% of its energy from renewable sources.

Reforming Education: Preschool

April 4th, 2009 by Jeff

Tags: Children, Early Childhood Education, Education, Investment, Teaching

Posted in Politics, Society, No Comments »

This week I published an article about reforming education in America. Indeed, I could not write only one article about this; Education in America needs a bigger overhaul than most people think. I’m going to attempt to break down my opinions on what needs to be reformed in a series of posts roughly following the education track in the United States. In other words, I’m going to devote an article to Preschool, Elementary School, Middle/Jr. High School, High School, College, and beyond. Then, possibly, I’ll devote a few articles to wrapping up the series with broader views that didn’t fit anywhere inside the other articles. Hopefully this will allow me to clearly and concisely explain my opinions and allow the readers to follow it easily. Read more »

Reforming Education in America

April 2nd, 2009 by Jeff

Tags: Barack Obama, Education, Evolution, Intelligence, Investment, Religion, Theory

Posted in Politics, Society, 5 Comments »

On March 27, 2009, the Texas Board of Education enacted a new set of rules for science education in the state. According to this Associated Press article, Texas is adopting a new science curriculum whereby teachers are no longer required “to teach the weaknesses of all scientific theories.” Basically, this offers teachers the option to tell their students to look at “all sides” of a scientific theory. Obviously, many different media outlets and pundits argue this is just the latest “win” for the Creationist agenda. Now, Texas teachers will be able to teach Intelligent Design along side Evolution and “let the students decide” which one to believe in.

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