One Simple Fact

"When you grow up you tend to get told the world is the way it is and you're life is just to live your life inside the world. Try not to bash into the walls too much. Try to have a nice family, have fun, save a little money. That's a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact: Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use. Once you learn that, you'll never be the same again." - Steve Jobs

My generation's Pearl Harbor.

A decade has passed since September 11, 2001.

I was 21, unemployed, and living with my mother and step father in Tallahassee, Florida. I have never been to New York City, nor did I have any clue what the World Trade Center was, and before that day... I didn't care.

I slept late that Tuesday morning. Probably because I was 21, unemployed, and living with my mother. I'm sure a hangover played a part as well.

My mother had left no less than 4 messages on her answering machine for me talking about things that, at that time, made no sense to me whatsoever. I remember one of the messages clearly, her voice starting to sound very worried as she left the message that "...they have evacuated the Sears Tower" (my step father's daughter and her family live in Chicago). That caught my attention. So at that point, I did what every other person in the country had already done, and turned on the television.

Time for an update, I guess.

Well, it's been over 2 months since my last post, so I should probably write something. The police have never found any of the things that were taken in the burglary, and at this point, I don't expect them to. Not even with providing a YouTube username and serial numbers for everything that was taken. But on a positive note, a few weeks ago, the police department did catch a would-be burglar over the course of a weekend (of course, when the would-be burglar attempts to break in to the Police Chief's house.... the incentive to catch him his greater). So yeah, a big pat on the back to our local police department.  /sarcasm

That is all I will say about that topic because it's still a sore subject to me, so let's move on. Let me tell you about our vacation!

"We were robbed!"

Those are three words nobody wants to say. As a recent victim of a burglary, I can honestly say that few things in life will make you angrier than discovering someone has broken into your home and just taken your belongings. Since hindsight is 20/20, let’s go over a few things that you can do to help prevent situations like that.... or at least get on a fast track to catching the thief.

One step closer to becoming a cyborg.

I now have an Android phone. A Motorola Droid X2 to be exact. And I love it. I'm actually typing this post on the phone using the Swype keyboard. Sorry this post is short but Campus PD is on. And it's funny.

My effort to learn new things.

I installed a version of Linux called Ubuntu. I have known OF Linux for many years, but I never really took the time to learn anything about it. Now, if you are confused... Linux is an operating system like Windows and Mac. The difference is there are dozens of different versions of Linux (Mint, Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, Red Hat, etc,) and Linux..... is FREE. So this is a great idea if you want to give another OS a try and don't want to spend the money for Windows or Apple.

Google screwed up?

Yes yes, Google had something go horribly wrong. Sometime this past Sunday, about 150,000 Gmail users had their entire email history erased. Luckily, I wasn’t one of them. Google had said on Monday morning that it would be corrected within 12 hours. Now, on Tuesday afternoon, it still isn’t fixed. So yes, Google does make mistakes. But when Google makes mistakes, it pisses off a butt-load of people. I don’t think I could take the stress of 150,000 irate customers. The good side is that the emails weren’t lost forever. They are slowly being restored to all the users. Unlike the story about a Flickr account a few months ago where Yahoo accidentally deleted a users photos. While this would be that big deal to me, but this guy had over 5 years of photography in that account, with no backup. And Yahoo didn’t have a copy either. All his photos were just... gone.
If Google wants everyone to start migrating towards cloud computing, then they really don’t need to screw up like this. For cloud computing to be a viable alternative, all of your data needs to be at your fingertips at any machine, at any time. Right now, this isn’t the case. But I’m still anxious for that day.

I guess I should write a new post.

OK.... I'll get working on that.

Soon.

Google's Cr-48 - Part Three

I have now had Google’s Cr-48 netbook for a month, and I feel like I have a broader knowledge to share. So this will be my final installment of my review of the Cr-48. My apologies if I touch back on subjects I’ve already covered.