Disregard Ubuntu, Acquire Fedora

Posted on April 28, 2012 by

I’ve been a hardcore Ubuntu fan since I started my Undergrad career, and it’s been a fun ride, but I’ve finally reached the point where I’m just tired of dealing with it, and have switched to Fedora. The latest changes to Ubuntu have gotten me completely fed up with the way that the community is running things, and their insistence on introducing new features is making it harder and harder for me to get any work done. I generally prefer to keep the OS as close to the default as possible, so that upgrades and reinstallations don’t end up becoming a jarring experience for me. However, lately, it seems like it’s more work for me to keep my OS the way I like it, and while I was open-minded enough to give Unity a shot, Ubuntu and I are going in completely different directions now, and there’s no point in clinging to it any longer. Was getting over the break-up hard? →

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Teaching Philosophies for Computer Science

Posted on April 26, 2012 by

These past few days, I had the pleasure of attending three seminars held by various Computer Science instructors around the country (one of whom was a former instructor of mine while he was a Grad student!), and I got to hear some really awesome talks regarding their experiences and philosophies of Computer Science Education. Each speaker shared with us some of the techniques they like to use in class, discussed their guiding principles, and gave a short sample of a lecture that they would give in one of their classes. Of course, these talks managed to fill up three of the required eight seminars I have to go to during the course of my Ph.D. (only two to go, by the way). However, their value was really in how much insight they provided on how teaching Computer Science is a very different beast than some other subjects. Insert witty statement here. →

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NCTech4Good

Posted on April 23, 2012 by

Last week, I had the distinct pleasure of attending a discussion and networking event with the fine folks from NCTech4Good, a group of technically inclined people based here in my hometown of Raleigh who use their talents to assist non-profits in whatever technology-related issues they have. This includes things such as setting up websites, establishing a presence on social networking sites, and generally assisting them with building the infrastructure needed for outreach, education, and collaboration with the public and within their own membership. It was a very different perspective on technology that was very exciting to see. Don’t you have better things to do? →

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On Using Twitter

Posted on April 22, 2012 by
Twitter is Pretty Alright

Twitter is a pretty cool guy...

I’ll admit that during the Twitter craze, I mostly kept away from it. It was silly, it was inane, it was pointless… what use would I have for something as ridiculous as microblogging? Then, in a moment of weakness, I go and create an account. Turns out it was a pretty good decision. I see Twitter becoming one of the de facto ways to connect with people professionally – it’s not nearly as personal as a Facebook friend request, and it’s not nearly as imposing as an e-mail. So the question is, with all this Twittering about, how does one use it effectively? Twitter is just web-based IRC, you fool. →

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Four Times the Power

Posted on April 19, 2012 by
RAM

512M should be enough for anyone!

I’m a pretty terrible geek – I’ve already mentioned this. I don’t have a smart phone or a tablet. My current computer is a four-year old Dell Inspiron 1420 that I got as a starting college gift, and has lasted me my entire career, while my OLD computer (the one I used when this one failed) is nearly SEVEN years old. It was the first laptop I ever got, a Dell Inspiron 1300 and it’s survived for half of high school and all of college. Say what you want about Dell, but these computers are built to last. Just, their cords aren’t. →

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