Robert's Technology Journal

Welcome Igniters, I hope you enjoyed my talk tonight. This is my wonderful website. I know I haven’t updated in a while, but I have been working a new design. I hoep to have it ready in the near future. Please check back soon. Thanks for coming.

I recently discovered a new blogging platform written in Python called Zine. Although is in it’s early stages (Version 0.1.2), it looks like the developers have some interesting goals for the project. The most interesting feature is it support for valid HTML 4.

I recently applied for a part time teaching positon at a local community college in my area. Part of the job description which I assume was written by an HR person states the job requirements include “technical instruction on topics including object-oriented programming and web-based scripting languages, specifically Java, Dreamweaver and Flash.” While this description is a little confusing they are no doubt looking for someone to teach web development. While I feel that I’m qualified enough to teach HTML,CSS, and PHP, I do wonder if my lack of mastery of the Java programing langage will prevent me from landing this job?

Hey everyone, just a quick update on me. I found out yesterday that I have been selected as one of the speakers for Ignite Salt Lake 4. The title of my talk is called: Utah Culture Shock or: Why I gave up everything I know and love to move to this frozen waste land. It’s an in depth comparison between the South Carolina’s laid back Low Country and the busy lifestyle of Utah’s Wasatch Front I looking forward to speaking on March 4th. Hope to see you there.

One of my new year’s resolutions this year was to increase my productivity at work. In my efforts to find a way to become more productive I stubbled across the Pomodoro Technique. Simply put the Pomodoro Technique is a series of twenty five minute time blocks of focused activity with short breaks in between each time block. Wanting to know more I picked up a copy of Staffan Nöteberg’s book Pomodoro Technique Illustrated.

You’ve no doubt heard the rumors that Apple is to announce a new tablet product at the end of this month. Even the Wall Street Journal has an article about it’s pending release. I don’t know if I believe the speculation, but some pretty reliable sources have said this is the new product that Apple has up its sleeve. If the rumors are true then Apple isn’t just launching a larger version of the iPod Touch, but is intending on taking on Amazon for the eBook reader market.

If you’ve have been following my blog lately, then you know that I have begun learning python. For the basics of Python I’ve been working my way through Core Python Programming 2nd edition by Wesley J. Chun. It’s a great book and I really enjoy reading it; my favorite parts are the exercises at the end of each chapter. These exercises are meant to reinforce the concepts presented throughout the chapters, but a few of the exercises are to challenge the reader. One such exercises I recently completed was the Rock, Paper, Scissors game.

I’ve been watching the Ubuntu project for the last few years, and I’m surprised at how well it has succeeded in becoming a mainstream Linux distribution. It has certainly reached its goal of becoming a user friendly Linux distribution that works out of the box with most hardware. Ubuntu has also gained much publicity for its efforts. This fame has also brought a large number of new Linux users that might not have joined the community if it weren’t for the easy of use of Ubuntu. It seems that Ubuntu has certainly made a name for itself in the Linux community. With that being said its hard to find a magazine, blog, or news article that doesn’t mention Ubuntu when covering Linux. To some Linux is Ubuntu and Ubuntu is Linux, but this is not the case.

It’s that time of year when we light the Yule log and gather around the Tannenbaum, spin the dreidel and celebrate the Winter Solstice with eggnog and Christmas treats (I hope I covered every holiday, if not please forgive me). While your snaking on cookies and livivot, why not a little Sugar on a Stick?

The other day I came across this tweet on twitter that lead to a great blog post on the perceived importance of emergency commmunications in amateur radio.