Ubuntu Box

My first ever Linux box goes into initialization and development stages tomorrow. I have acquired a Dell L550R and a Dell Dimension 2350, both which will be used for this project. The Dell L550R is a Pentium 3 machine which utilizes an extraordinarily small case. The motherboard is a microATX form factor which makes it easily to replace with the Pentium 4 board from the dimension 2350. After I make sure the system runs and fits in the new box, I will install Ubuntu 9.10, which was released earlier today. I'm hoping to customize the plain vanilla-ness of the L550R case with a more up-to-date look as well. Wish me luck!

Linux, who art thou?

Lately I have swamped myself with thoughts on which Linux distributions I want to try. I want to try Ubuntu and Kubuntu on my home-built machine, as it is the most powerful and graphically capable. I have used previous versions of the two, liking Kubuntu more for the K development environment. I also have tinkered with Knoppix and openSuse, which seemed to be somewhat bloated with useless features. But what about the spare computers... the old junked ones sitting in the corner with out-of-date hardware? Well now I have to find a lightweight distribution that has everything I need and runs well, even on an old machine. The list that I've come up with includes distributions such as Puppy Linux, DSL (Damn Small Linux), Xubuntu, Mint, and gOS (Good OS). But which one do I choose? I don't have a whole lot of experience with Linux, and installing and playing with all of them might be more of a hastle than I really want to go through, especially when dealing with old haggard hardware.

iPhone Development

Since it's inception, the iPhone and iPod touch have sold more than 50 million units combined. This is where I come in. I've decided to work on some iPod apps. Never done it, so this could be exciting. Got some ideas, can't post them though because they are too ingenious.

HDC09

HDC09 is blast, keeping up with the twitter chatter can be somewhat overwhelming, however. Following all of the @s and #HDC09s around. Keynote Speaker was Scott Gu... er something, the Corporate VP for Mircrosoft, very cool. Lots of free goodies given away as many raffles for laptops, zunes, iPods, and netbooks. Day 2 today... should be even more fun :)

MIT lectures on Python

I recently stumbled upon some lectures on Python programming from MIT's Eric Grimson. WOW! These are quite amazing.... Not to mention the entire 24 lectures (1 hour each) of the semester are all online Here.

Flex/Flash Development

As I build a portfolio to show what I can do, I have added one more item to the list. I have offered to build a website promoting my apartment complex, for my landlord of course. I will hopefully be using some of the cool new Flex/Flash tools I acquired (Flash Develop and the plug-in Design View) to create a full on interactive page with floor plans and photos to accompany. I havent really developed much with flex or flash in the past, but done much of my internet-development coding in simple HTML and CSS. I will also be designing a website for a friend, trying to make it in the environmental planning world. Woot!!!

Real-World IT

On Wednesday I will be attend a IT career fair in downtown Omaha. My good friend just graduated with his BS in Computer Engineering and I just transferred into an MIS program. If everything goes well, perhaps we can get him a better paying job than the grocery store. Come October, I will also be attending a developers conference for programmers and such. I'm excited to see some of the stuff there such as the Silverlight session and some of the database sessions. I'm trying to gain as much experience outside of the classroom as I can, and the events I think will better my overall chances of landing something good in the near future.