Recently I was one of the guys that were debating on buying an iPad or a netbook in order to have a mini system that I can use on the road or for some small tasks. After going to the Apple store and playing around with the iPad, I decided that it is a pretty toy but not for me. While the idea is great and the integration is at a quality I come to expect from Apple, it also has a ton of the problems that Apple continues to force on people. Below is a list of the things that kept me from buying an iPad:
• No Ethernet
• No USB, so preventing an Ethernet dongle
• iTunes only
• Can’t just copy files to the device
Instead, I ended up buying an el cheepo Acer Aspire One (hdd version) for ~$300. While the netbook came with Windows 7 Starter, I never booted into it and spammed at the bios screen so that I can boot from a USB key. After a week or so of testing it out with Ubuntu 10.04 beta, I finally got a weekend to be able to install PC-BSD 8.0 on this host and it is going well.
Since I do not use KDE or Gnome on any of my systems if I can take the time to fix that issue, the first thing that I do when booting into the new installation is to install either Fluxbox or Awesome though usually I will install both and switch them out depending on what activities I am planning on doing when I log in. On my desktops, I pretty much stick to awesome, but on a laptop it is sometimes nice to use Fluxbox when traveling or presenting.
After getting frustrated with a lot of sites not displaying properly on a mobile browser, I decided that I have to become art of the solution or else I could not complain. One plugin activated and now this site is mobile browser complaint thanks to WordPress Mobile Edition. Now, if a guy that is a father of two young girls, packing to move, starting a new job, and searching for a new house can take the time to do this, all you web developers out there have no excuse on not doing this, especially when it comes to a lot of the more popular sites that have paid developers to design their websites.
Additionally, updates to this site will be broadcast via twitter.
Sometimes I find my self liking Cheyenne a bit more. Recently the motor in my car decided it wanted to suffer from a cracked block and the need of major repair. Considering the work needed for it would cost more then I paid for the car and other issues it was having I decided to start looking for a new vehicle. This is when I discovered that sometimes living in out in the country has it’s advantage.
I found an old (1986) Chevy pickup on a horse ranch for $300. It’s big, ugly and rather obscene. Needless to say, I wanted it when I first saw it. Deciding to play it safe we decided I would not buy it until I heard it run and that I would not spend much time to make that happen. Yesterday, we went back over with a can of carb cleaner and some starting fluid. After less then 5 mins, the old beast sprang to life. It needs a bit of work, but since it is as old as it is, I can do almost all the work myself. I have some plans for this truck and pics will be coming soon.
So I recently found out that I am going to have to write a large amount of HTML for an upcoming project. As this project requires HTML only I cannot even “cheat” and use PHP’s import functions to generate the header and footers for each page, I was planing on resurrecting my old HTML template to reduce the repetitive typing (for no good reason). As this is rather boring, I turned to the web thinking there was a better way. After a very short search Google provided the answer, html-healper-mode.el, (http://www.nongnu.org/baol-hth/). This nifty mode generates a template for every new HTML page that you create. All that is required after the mode is installed and added into your .emacs file is to open a new HTML file. Below is the template that it creates and I am sure that it is configurable some where but I have yet to dig deeper into it.
Enjoy the Emacs goodness.
After the birth of our daughter, Nina and I have been discussing
self-sufficiency and lower energy impact. We want to teach Toni that it
is a good thing to conserve energy and care for her
environment. Additionally, this is a way to show people that you do not
have to turn into a super hippie in order to care for your environment
and conserve a bit. Right now we are doing a lot of research into what
it will take to remodel our current house and what it would take to do
it in a different one. Right now we live in a town house so we cannot
control every aspect of the property. Additionally, we are looking at a
few plots of land that we would build a house on that could
potentially be the site for our off-grid house.
I must say there are some interesting building methods and ideas out
there regarding green building. People seem to be using everything
including pop cans (seriously) as the main building material for their
houses. The biggest issue will not be “can we use this?” but “Would I
really want to use this?”. I can see some of the ideas that we will come
up with have to go on the list and get stuck down just because I cannot
fathom living in a house made entirely of beer cans. I still have some
old fashioned style to me where I would rather live in a an old castle
that is falling down around me then some thing that I have been tossing
in the recycle bin for years. Plus, I doubt the structural integrity of
a can covered in mud. Honnestly, if I am going to build a house, I want
to be able to live there for years.
