Ubuntu 7.10

Ubuntu 7.10 "GustyGibbon" is coming out in a day. Do yourself a favor and download a copy and give it a try. I've been running Windows for I don't know how many years and have tried different flavors of Linux with no real success. I've made a living for several years selling and administering Windows based computers and networks and have always wondered why I'm being paid to essentially fight fires. There has to be a better way.

I downloaded the previous version of Ubuntu Linux (7.04 FeistyFawn) and haven't gone back. It is a pretty straight forward process and you can even run Ubuntu from the CD without installing it. You'll need download an ".iso" and burn it to a CD. If you aren't familiar with ISOs, check out this link.

On a side note:

You may be wondering why it's gone from 7.04 to 7.10. Ubuntu releases new versions every six months. So 7.04 is from April 2007 and appropriately 7.10 will be released in October of 2007 and so on.

If and when you decide to switch, you'll need to make a backup of all the data you want to keep and do an assessment of what you'll be missing. As nice as Ubuntu is, it's not Microsoft. I'm not saying that Microsoft is better. I'm just pointing out that you probably won't be able to bring your Microsoft dependencies with you. Quickbooks is one thing that stands out. There is a lot of comparable (free) software in Ubuntu, but honestly some of it comes with a learning curve. Hopefully, you can get past this in your pursuit of OS Nirvana.

Just out of curiosity, I'd like to know what your company uses at work in terms of technology. I ran my last company almost purely on open source software and think it could work for a lot of other businesses. Hmmm...

Up All Night

Honestly, working on this website is like opening Pandora's Box.

I think I finally have the blog to a point where it's not terribly plain. I opted against using an RSS reader to populate the posts as it's very linear, and instead decided to write my own navigational functions using the Zend/Google PHP API to give it the feel of blogging software that is currently available. I'm embarrassed to say how much time I spent on that page as it is not obvious what lies beneath the page, but I am proud of the work in progress.

Also, I have been learning about cookies and thought it would be fun to give my website an alternate theme. So it has been implemented. There might be a bug or two here or there, so if the site behaves funny for you, please let me know. If you go to my site (www.seanchon.com), you'll notice an option on the top left of your screen. There are two themes right now. I might try to incorporate some more, but it's kind of a pain in the ass honestly, as you need to compare multiple stylesheets to avoid conflicts.

Anyway, it's late. I should be sleeping, but I got carried away.

Oh, and please give me feedback about how the page looks too. I am using Firefox on Ubuntu...so I don't represent the average web surfer.

Thanks!

Blog page updated.

Not sure if there's anyone out there still reading this...

I am posting partially to test my blog integration at www.seanchon.com, so don't mind the post if it's a bit boring.

I've optimized it a bit to run faster. It is still a little slow, but I think that is because it is pulling live data from Blogger (Google). I am pretty excited with its progress as this is the first time I've worked with the Google API. Thus far it mainly retrieves and rearranges data, but I am now working on getting comments to display on my site as well as being able to post from my site in addition to the Blogger site.

Oh...and life outside of programming. There really isn't one...for now. :)

My Life in Progress

So...I haven't given much of an update since I returned from Alaska.

Things have been going really well so far. I'm enrolled in a few classes: two web programming courses (PHP and Ruby on Rails), an entrepreneurship course, and a couple real estate courses.

Web Programming:

The PHP course I have been taking for about a month now and I am really enjoying it. In contrast to what I learned in my programming course at UC Davis, these classes are a lot more fun, because I can see all the progress I am making in an internet browser.

I am really into the progression of the internet and how sites are becoming more interactive with the users and with other sites. A popular example of this is Housing Maps. Housing Maps is what they call a "mashup," because it is a combination of data pulled from Craigslist and the Google Maps application. I am currently adding some Google functionality into my personal website and will post again when I finish all the integrations.

I will also be starting a Ruby on Rails course at the end of the month. Ruby on Rails is a framework, which essentially is a structure that speeds the development of an application. It is very popular in the Web2.0 community and was written by 37Signals to serve as a framework for their popular project productivity suite. I would check it out if you are looking for ways to organize your projects.

Entrepreneurship:

I'm also enrolled in a course titled "Owning and Operating a Small Business." I think this is something I could have used before running my previous business, but it's better late than never. The course essentially leads us through the steps necessary to evaluate business opportunities. I am planning on writing a business plan (our course project) on a commuter vehicle concept developed by my friend David Parrott. It's a motor assisted recumbent bicycle that is fully environmentally enclosed (and environment friendly too). I will update with progress and would love to hear any feedback, as other opinions are really beneficial when evaluating business options.

Real Estate:

I decided to get my real estate license. I took the test about a week and a half ago (fingers crossed). I wouldn't say it's a complete passion of mine, but my mom is an established Realtor in San Francisco and we have some collaboration ideas in mind. There is a lot of speculation that the California market is cooling down, but we may have identified a niche within the cooling market. More on that later.

As I develop my personal websites, I will start to blog more actively. I plan to keep a separate blog of my personal life and another that will document my learning process of web technologies in hopes of helping others learn. When that fabricates (hopefully soon) I will post those locations. They are in progress though. ;)