Just read the blog

Yeah, about that move

2010-11-05T17:52:00.000-04:00

I'm back here now. Running my own 'blog' on my website is a waste of time.

I've moved!

2008-12-23T03:07:00.001-05:00

I've moved to my domain -> prxi.net

See yah there!

Courses Spring 2009

2008-12-23T01:25:00.002-05:00

Sooo it's that time again! Here's my course listing for spring 2009

Introduction To Statistics

I dropped it last semester due to a scheduling conflict

Computer Security
Global Economics
Systems Software
Object Oriented Design
Database Systems

Winter Break Goals

2008-12-21T15:44:00.007-05:00

Okay real quick run down of what I'm looking to do this winter break

Read & complete most of dive into python
Finish ANSI Common LISP
Move blog to prxi.net (via wordpress or some such)
Finish The Cathedral & The Bazaar
~~Finish Hackers & Painters~~

Good read. A lot of really great information and some new concepts I hadn't thought of before. There are some things which I may not agree on, but I need to think over them a bit more before I can decide

Finish organizing my documents
Order books for next term
Finish write up of G1 review
Learn more about VIM
Watch at least 8 more lectures from Stanford on data structures

Shouldn't be tough :D

Debian web servers

2008-10-22T09:57:00.003-04:00

So at the college's web group swidi (student web innovation and design initiative) we tore down our old ubuntu server and reinstalled with straight up debian. (We wanted to go a bit lighter than what ubuntu had to offer for the moment. Plus the set up of the original server had some issues that needed to be fixed)

That said, what amazed me is that we had a working server with apache2, php, ssh, sftp, and X/gnome in under 3 hours with little to no configuring. (secuirty measures nonwithstanding)

Linux has really come a long way from only 5-6 years ago.

Tomorrow sees mysql and subversion!

2008-09-26T16:04:00.003-04:00

A great post on IE specific CSS hacks.

http://www.webdevout.net/css-hacks

2008-09-16T00:09:00.003-04:00

Things are going great. I've began taking some great strides towards accomplishing my goals, and I think in a little while, I'll be more of a nerd than I ever was, but with a built body to boot.

Bess and I are doing quite well. She surprised me with a really nice shaving set, that promises to improve my shaving experience exponentially. I'm pretty excited, but I'm waiting to use it until I've finished reading the book she gave me to go with it. I'll have pictures of it later.

Theoretical foundations is proving to be more interesting than I originally thought. Our teacher's methods of presenting the course information threw me off for a little while, however with a little work and some reading of my course book, I've really began to understand the concepts concerning basic language construction and organization. It will be interesting to write my first language & interpreter by the end of this course.

Despite beginning quite slow, Logic circuits is beginning to pick up with more interesting material on how some of the more basic operations work. Though if I complete another truth table I am going to shoot myself.

Data structures too is going well, however we've become seriously bogged down on some of the concepts of creating a linked list. It would be nice to move on or at least move faster.

Georgia Southern classes aren't bad, however my biggest criticism is that my classes aren't very hard. They all present good information and the teachers aren't bad, but I feel like they are teaching these 3000 level courses at a level more like intro/sophomore levels.

2008-09-01T03:12:00.003-04:00

I've learned a lot this past year of school. And yet it wasn't so much from the institution itself, but rather a direct result of simply being here.

When I graduated from high school I had these dreams of becoming great like some of my idols in the computer and scientific world. I dreamed of living up to their standards and accomplishing the types of things they had.

I wanted to discover something new and wonderful. My relativity, my calculus so to speak. Yet what I've come to realize this past year, is that I was not just looking up to some of these greats of math and science, but I was trying to be them. And in doing so, I haven't been living as I would choose to. The story goes like this.

Often, in a half serious/joking manner, I would muse "Where would we be if Newton or Hawking had grown up with World of Warcraft?" My thinking was that they would be so consumed with these games that they wouldn't have gone on to make the great discoveries of their day.

Yet I've realized that I've been trying to rationalize why I haven't made a great discovery or formed a great new way to accomplish a task. That I had been attempting to equivocate my my less than accomplished life, to theirs. Trying to write these distractions off as my undoing and the reason behind their great success.

This was incredibly arrogant of me.

Yet, knowing this, it begs the question, where does this leave me?
I'm not sure yet. I know a few areas I would like to address first, and I think I will play it by ear.

Weight. I have to face the fact that I'm overweight. I've began going to the gym, and I've started to cut back on eating habits.
Finances. I have issues with spending money that I shouldn't. Plan - create a real budget and stick to it
Knowledge. I have an understanding of many concepts, yet I always feel as if I just have either surface knowledge of subjects, or just below. This is going to require the most time. I want to begin relearning most of my math and English. While I can do both well, at times I don't understand certain concepts that others learned in ages past.
brush up on basic mental arithmetic. Simple to understand

And that's my current ideas and plans. Now to get to work on them... tomorrow, it's late now.

Andoriod handset

2008-08-30T14:59:00.002-04:00

Wow.
HTC's - Dream. Running Android

Can't wait to get my hands on one or another similar device! :)

Courses

2008-08-19T14:25:00.002-04:00

So this semester I'm taking

Data Structures
Logic Circuits and Microprocessors
Theoretical Foundations
Intro to psychology
Intro to statistics

I'm really looking forward to these classes. Here's hoping I make an A.
Not to forget however that the Android phone is due to come out October/November.

I'm pretty psyched!

IE png transparency fix

2008-07-14T10:16:00.003-04:00

Okay, so after spending a few hours trying to fix this bug, I ran across this blog post which had the cleanest & best working fix I've found.

If you've struggled with this, check this ~~guy~~ gal out!

Sorry for the gender mishap there

Political Validation & if it means anything

2008-07-08T02:39:00.003-04:00

So I was surfing whitehouse.gov and i figured I'd check out how well it does on validation. Here are some of my findings.

Whitehouse.gov - 160 Errors - XHTML 1.0 Transitional
johnmccain.com - 132 Errors - HTML 4.01 Transitional
barackobama.com - 197 Errors - XHTML 1.0 Transitional

Wow! I know many people can consider standards a joke but still, I wonder what else we can find...

nsa.gov - 26 Errors - XHTML 1.0 Transitional
cia.gov - 22 Errors - XHTML 1.0 Transitional
ed.gov - 10 Errors - HTML 4.01 Transitional
army.mil - 0 Errors - Valid XHTML Transitional
navy.mil - 20 Errors - HTML 4.01 Transitional
marines.mil - 110 Errors - No Doctype
af.mil - 87 Errors - No Doctype

//Since I'm from GA lets check out my state's page

georgia.gov - 148 Errors - XHTML 1.0 Transitional

//And my school
georgiasouthern.edu - 38 Errors - No Doctype

//Finally my own silly page
prxi.net - 0 Errors - Valid XHTML 1.0 Strict
//Not much to be proud of here. There's virtually nothing to the site! :D

Most of these sites at least looked nice, except for the NSA, whose site looked like it was designed in the 90's. (Note! I did not look at the flash version of their site)

What does this prove? It depends on what you get out of error validation checking and doctype declaration

Moblie Device Programming

2008-06-16T02:51:00.004-04:00

I haven't posted reacently or been on the IRC for a while, but I hope to be back soon! Between this mobile class and work I dont have much time for IRC lurking, because when I'm not coding homework problems, I'm either as far away from the computer as possible, or gaming :D. Anyway

So with the end of my Mobile App class coming this Friday, I thought I might post one of the programs I've been working on.

It's a kinda cheesy falling blocks game :) but I like it.
Just ask me and I can hook you up with the jar so you can play it on your phone! If your phone supports java programs that is!

I'll also post the source if anyone wants (though it's pretty craptastic so I don't know why anyone would.)

Anyway, I hope to see yall again soon!

2008-05-13T14:27:00.001-04:00

So. Bought a macbook and I've been playing around with it.
Haven't done much, but I took a screen cap of the current desktop.

Developing software ethically. To code using proprietary or free and open source liscenses

2008-05-02T23:34:00.036-04:00

Abstract – Software development has evolved over the past few centuries. Typically the development consisted of working for companies or institutions. Many times, it was impossible for a software developer to create software, and release it for public use, while maintaining an income. With alternative licenses, such as the General Public License, the standard mechanism of software distribution has changed, due to a disruptive GPL license. In an effort to preserve their business models, these companies have cited criticisms of open source licenses and how they stifle people from being able to use the code, in addition to FOSS licensing being incapable of being a sustainable business. Most of these views, when compared to the facts, do not hold as true and instead the reverse trend is observable. The evidence points towards a conclusion stating that software developers can develop software ethically, releasing it for public use, and maintain a reliable paycheck.

Software Copyrights

Software development has been for the past 20-30 years in the hands of large scale proprietary vendors, whose philosophy is to license their software as to maintain profits to produce more software and conduct research. However in the past 19 years a new methodology has gained momentum, known as Free and Open Source software (FOSS). This philosophy dictates that software, which is essential to our use of computers and carrying out the activities of our daily lives, should be free and available to all. Some critics of FOSS is incapable of maintaining a profit and thus staying in business in today's economy.

Proprietary Software

Many proprietary vendors share the belief that software is the property of development house in which it originated from, and that it must remain closed in order to “[protect] the intellectual property rights in software and [ensure] the continued vitality of an independent software sector that generates revenue and will sustain ongoing research and development.” [1] This philosophy argues that in order to maintain a profitable business, a software company must maintain their code under a copyright that allows them to keep their source internal, no matter it's use in the private or public sector.

Under such strict proprietary licenses, it is argued that software is licensed to the consumer, in such a way that “you don't buy proprietary software, you rent it, and that rental can be rescinded at any time.” [2] Through such a licensing scheme, companies are able to maintain control over their software and their profits. It is through these profits that new software is written and distributed to the consumer.

Most of these restrictions on use are upheld via laws regarding software patents, end user license agreements (EULAs), trade secrets, and copyright regulations. Each of these methods of protection are different in their own regard and have benefits that are used not only by proprietary software, but free/open source as well.

While the other mechanisms of protecting software development are critical, the main mechanism controlling how software is distributed is copyright law. It is important to note that copyright is the driving force behind more than just software, but it also governs many expressions of ideas, automatically. “This also applies to diary entries, letters, song lyrics, and drawings, even if they are only done 'off the cuff,' in the most casual of circumstances.” [3] It is through this powerful and robust scheme that proprietary and FOSS companies maintain their control over their software.

Free and Open Source Software

Among the traditional methods of copyright, several others exist that allow a developer to release his code in such a way that it can be used and distributed as the user pleases. One such copyright scheme came into existence in 1989. Known as the GNU General Public License, or GPL, this scheme of copyright allows a user to copy, modify and distribute source code at their leisure, so long as any released software, through commercial or non commercial outlets, also is licensed via the GPL. Richard M. Stallman, who states that the GPL exists as it does in an effort to disallow and prevent middlemen from stripping away the freedom that the original author intended, put this method of copyright into place. [4]

Criticism of FOSS Licenses

Criticisms of this form of copyright have emerged from prominent proprietary software vendors. Some, such as Steve Ballmer of Microsoft, have stated that software released in such a manner is “... not available to commercial companies. The way the license is written, if you use any open-source software, you have to make the rest of your software open source.”[5] This however is far from the truth, in that you must only release the product that uses GPLed code under the GPL, not all of your products. Several companies who maintain proprietary software in addition to FOSS have done similar.

This argument has had some strong evidence in its favor. Microsoft's Senior Vice President, Craig Mundie, stated that “open source software based on the GPL mirrors the .com business models that proved the least successful during the past year ... But as history has shown, while this type of model may have a place, it isn't successful in building a mass market and making powerful, easy-to-use software broadly accessible to consumers.” [1]

The ability to turn a profit is not the only thing in which Mundie has stated is a problem with FOSS development, but also “... it puts at risk the continued vitality of the independent software sector.” [1]

Misconceptions of FOSS Development

The ability to take free code, modify it, and then resell without providing the source code, is exactly what the GPL was designed to eliminate. A misinterpretation of this rule is that the program must be given away for free, which is contrary to what the GPL reads. “The intention was that nobody would have to pay for permission to use the GNU system... Free software is software that users have the freedom to distribute and charge.”[6]

FOSS Business

The idea of giving away the source code with your product has come under fire, when it comes to commercial methods of gaining capital. “They ask software developers to give away for free the very thing they create that is of greatest value in the hope that somehow they'll make money selling something else.”[1] Yet despite these criticisms, many start ups have formed, with the vision of creating FOSS and turn a profit doing so. [7]

Venture Capital Funding Invested in FOSS Development.

They are not alone in this endeavor, not only have more businesses been adopting FOSS business models but they have been raising venture capital finance money in doing so. The first quarter of 2008 saw the most investment in companies with open source models with investments reaching 203.75 million dollars. [8] These FOSS companies, as they've matured, are becoming ever more attractive towards large corporations increasingly.

Money Spent to Acquire FOSS Companies and Software

Not only are these companies being invested in, but they are also succeeding in maintaining a lucrative business. Wired magazine states that the month of January, 2008 saw the acquisition of FOSS companies reach upwards of over one billion dollars, mostly due to SUNs acquisition of MySQL and other sales. This figure topples last year's previous value, valued at just over one billion. [9]

Latest Trading Value for Microsoft and Red Hat Inc Respectively.

Despite increased acquisitions and investment in the market, many proprietary vendors claim that turning a profit from FOSS is virtually impossible. However, this is a misconception, Red Hat Inc., the largest Linux vendor, saw a 64% rise in profits during the 4th quarter of 2007 [10] and now currently trades at $21.21 [11] on the stock market. The number one contender in the operating system business, Microsoft trades for $29.21. [12]

Developing Ethically Today

For much of software developments history, programming has been kept under lock and key of proprietary licenses. While this may have been a necessity of early software development, this has changed with more companies investing in FOSS development and increased knowledge of how to maintain a profitable and free, as in speech, business.

As software developers we are in an atmosphere where it is no longer a question of whether or not a developer can maintain a salary developing free code, but whether that developer chooses to work for a company that supports FOSS development or to keep his code locked behind NDAs and proprietary licenses.

References

Mundie, C, “Shared Source” Microsoft, 05/03/01 - http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/craig/05-03sharedsource.mspx
DiBona, C, “Open Source and Proprietary Software Development”, Open Sources 2.0, 05/02/08, pp 21.
St. Laurent, A, M, “Basic Principles of Copyright Law”, Open Source & Free Software Liscensing, 05/02/08, pp. 01
Stallman, R, M, “What is Copyleft?”, Free Software Free Society, 05/02/08, pp 89.
Stallman, R, M, “The GNU Manifesto” Free Software Free Society 05/02/08, pp 31.
Greene, T, C, “Ballmer: Linux is a cancer”, The Register, 06/02/01 - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/06/02/ballmer_linux_is_a_cancer/
Special Report, “Open Source: Now It’s an Ecosystem”, Business Week, 10/03/05 - http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/oct2005/tc2005103_0519_tc_218.htm
Dean, S, “Record Numbers for Open Source Venture Capital Funding”, OSTATIC, 04/01/08 - http://ostatic.com/158788-blog/record-numbers-for-open-source-venture-capital-funding
Roth, D, “Open Source Software Made Developers Cool. Now It Can Make Them Rich”, WIRED, 03/24/08 - http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/16-04/bz_opensource
Bass, D, “Red Hat Profit Rises on Sales of New Linux Products (Update5)”, Bloomberg, 09/25/07 - http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601204&sid= aFXlE1A m3bC8&refer=technology
“Red Hat Inc Stock”, Google, 05/02/08 - http://finance.google.com/finance?client=ob&q=NYSE:RHT
“Microsoft Stock”, Google, 05/02/08 - http://finance.google.com/finance?client=ob&q=NASDAQ:MSFT

After doing more research on the topic at hand, it's quite clear that I need to rethink my stock information analysis. That said : This was written for my Computer Ethics class. That said, there are a few things I wish I could have included, but wasn't able to. Most of the arguments need to be better reinforced by more empirical data. Also the some of the quotes are somewhat old, however I used them because afaik that is still the attitude of many of the mentioned vendors.

I would improve this by finding more information from other proprietary vendors, in addition to researching companies which have both FOSS and Proprietary licences.

While I tried to remain unbiased during my research, this paper illustrates quite clearly my bias towards open source. I believe there much room for more study, as this is a vast field. Much better phrasing of many of my points can be found in "The Cathedral and the Bazaar".

--Justin B.

Research Abstract - WIP

2008-04-02T15:46:00.005-04:00

I've began work on a research topic, for my ethics in computing class.

After examining a wide range of topics, I believe I've managed to narrow down my choice to one involving open source software. Here's the current abstract I have going. As I do more research I'll post any information I find relevant to this topic.

The Effect of Open Source Development on the Computing Industry

"Richard Stallman has described GNU and the GPL as tools to liberate developers and development of software. He described the troubles he faced, before the creation of GNU and GPL when he worked at the MIT AI lab. His description tells of the emergence of a new licensing agreement, and how it restricted him from sharing his code with fellow developers and reading the code that made the tools he used, run. Seeing this as fundamentally wrong he began development on GNU, along with other developers, to ensure such a thing would not happen again.

However, criticism emerged that by making the software free, as in speech, he was hurting the industry's ability to grow, due to decreased pay for developers and the concept of software released under the GPL as being unable to be used in a real world business environment. In addition to this criticism, open source software has also been said to lack innovation, in that it simply copies existing commercial software, instead of breaking new ground.

The aim of my research and paper is to discover whether or not these criticisms stand upon solid ground, and to determine how open source development has impacted the software industry, in either a more negative or positive way, and how the GPL has either freed software developers or further restricted them."

------------------------
This information is in a beta form and will be updated and edited. If you have any suggestions of ways to expand/improve, feel free to notify me.

2008-01-11T22:31:00.000-05:00

Okay, my new keyboard came in the mail today. It's the Saitek Eclipse II (50 USD from newegg)
Took some (crappy) artistic shots of it in "lit up mode."

Shown are the purple and red modes. There's a blue, but I havent gotten around to adding it.

Christmas Break(down)

2008-01-04T17:29:00.000-05:00

So, this Christmas was an interesting one, to say the least. I wasn't able to purchase anyone a gift this year, due to tight funds, nor was I able to visit a few folks who I was looking forward to seeing again.

That being said, all in all, it turned out quite well. My gifts included a swank bike from my father along with a nice gift card to Kohls. My mother purchased a nice Sony Cybershot ( A DSC-W80 for you technical fanatics.) In addition my step-grandmother made me an afgan, which has come in handy during this cold weather.

Outside of that, I've been very personally productive in getting most, if not all, of the things I wanted to do this Christmas, done.

I've finally organized all of my music and my ebook collection (Whew! What a task) The music was greatly helped by a program called picard, which uses the musicbrainz database for all of the tagging information.

After that, I returned to Statesboro and began to finish cleaning my room, and I established a filing system for bank statements, loan payments, etc.

I've done some further work on the Reflector website, noteably making the listing function (Something that is done often) all operate out of one file, so I'm even closer to the "Ruby way".
I've come quite far in the styles for the admin layout, and in the process I've learned quite a bit about the way CSS really works, when it comes to rendering pages.

Here's the current (best) looking reflector main-site page:

Here's the current (best) looking reflector admin-site page:

2007-12-29T00:30:00.000-05:00

This site is pretty awesome. It's apparently designed to help people navigate the country and crash at people's places as they travel. I've signed up and even seen that there are others in the Statesboro area who are in on it, im pretty excited to be honest : )

check it out at www.couchsurfing.com

Video games, tv and self-worth

2007-12-18T02:51:00.000-05:00

This entry is still in "beta"

It all began during summer in my high school years, when I completely cut out TV from my life, under the conditions it'd just be for just one month. Time went on and that period eventually became 2 months, then before I knew it, a whole year had passed without me turning on the television.

I didn't realize at first, but as I looked back, I noticed something interesting. The first thing to replace TV was increased time spent playing video games, watching movies and reading books. However as these mediums each, in turn became increasingly non-interesting, I began to pursue other activities.

It began when I realized the situation I was in at school, my home life, and my personal education. Almost instantly I began to reflect on the decisions I made, the way I presented myself and how I approached others.

I was hopelessly socially awkward, the result of thinking I only needed myself for near 14-15 years, and at first it was rough to get along in social groups other than my own. However, in doing so and learning about others different than myself, I began to see the benefits of meeting people and learning about who they are, and what made them that.

At first, I was startled to learn that the ones I found most interesting didn't play video games, at least play them often. Instead of revolving their lives around games, they instead either seldom played or never played at all. There have been situations where This came as a huge shock at the time, after all to me being good at Star Craft, and having beaten Fallout 2, 40x different ways, was life.

The dynamic began to become more and more apparent. The less time I spent playing video games, the more productive I became, and therefore the more interesting of a life I would lead.

As I became aware of this, my life radically changed overnight, without me even realizing it. I experienced a sharp decline in my time spent on activities such as games and as result a I almost felt the dramatic increase in my feelings of self-worth. Where this came from, I'm still not sure, though I think it has to do with working daily to improve yourself, even if small. And springing from that self-worth, my motivation to accomplish great things in my life became not something I sought, but something I could not contain.

It was from this motivation that I set far reaching life goals and began to pursue them, even if when rationally thought upon, I realised it would be impossible to accomplish everything on my list in my lifetime.

Thinking upon it in that sense however is not the correct approach. For in even accomplishing one, be it great or small, I would be content with my efforts in life.

Back on track and chugging along

2007-12-10T02:10:00.000-05:00

So, I've managed to (downgrade) to a different version of rails for the moment, from 2.0.1 to 1.2.6 and this has allowed me to continue progress. I should be able to update once again soon, but for the moment I will wait.

(In addition, forgive the pun)

I went ahead and signed up for basecamp, which is sort of a project management site. They have extended settings designed so that you can host multiple projects, files etc, but I only really need one. For free I can't beat it to be honest.

This weekend has proved to be very fulfilling as far as development on the Reflector site goes. I've managed to rewrite the internal code and improve some of what I had before. In addition, I've learned a ton about some of the Rails methods and how they work for the most part. Especially the find() method.

In the previous version of the site, you would go to a URL such as mysite.com/podcasts and you'd see all of the podcasts. If you wished to comment, you'd be directed towards mysite.com/podcasts/display_podcasts/(id).

Honestly this was ugly and a waste of code, so I've changed a few things about the structure.

First when the site goes live, it will be a sub domain for its "parent" site gadaily.com. So right off the bat, our URL will be gadaily.com/reflector. I've updated the code to reflect this and so now when you browse to the "Podcasts" section, you'll see the URL as being gadaily.com/reflector/podcast. In addition, if you look to see comments, the URL is now gadaily.com/reflector/podcast/(id).

Works quite well all in all. In addition I am still really impressed with how rails handles the tiny bit of code I have to achieve all of this.

Rails 2.0 woes

2007-12-08T19:35:00.001-05:00

Well, seems like I've learned a lesson when it comes to new versions of languages and frameworks that you use.

The newer version of rails apparently has removed dynamic scaffolding and it seems that the regular scaffold code has changed as well. Time to downgrade (for the sake of learning this material at least)

2007-12-06T20:16:00.000-05:00

So, some major changes/additions to "Reflector" site.

Major overhaul on the styles and dominating colors for the site.

Amore compact podcast view and getting ready to implement more of the RoR goodness!

A new day

2007-11-13T00:57:00.001-05:00

Well, plunging into some more Ruby on Rails and I've managed to whip up this latest iteration of TSR (not really a pun, but still I like that I can say TSR :] )

I've cleaned up how the podcasts display. Put in a color that's less abrasive and eye gouging. Added some boxes and borders to make it more snazzy!

Changed how some of the internal design on the podcast section worked. Now you see all of the latest podcasts and can click on the "Comment" button to see all of the comments.

Made it possible for users to now download the correct podcast for the date they desire.

Added the comment section view, so that users can see what comments are already there and add their own. I still haven't implemented the commenting ability yet, but it's on the list.

All and all, not too terrible, but still a long way to go.

Ruby on Rails, CSS, and Javascript

2007-11-11T23:11:00.000-05:00

It's got a long way to go, but here's the current build on the website that I'm creating for my school's magazine. (They're picking these colors -- I'm gonna see about getting a designer to look into making them not so ugly)

(Click for full size)

Planet Georgia & Ubuntu Desktop

2007-08-29T01:05:00.001-04:00

Woot! Thanks for the add to Planet Georgia guys! I know I haven't been around as often as I'd like, but it's been quite busy here. :D Hopefully you will find my posts to be entertaining, thought provoking or maybe more ;)

I enjoy my current Ubuntu desktop, but I feel like there are areas of improvement I can make, though I'm not sure on what they could be. Any ideas? [And yes I do enjoy posting desktop screen shots :) ]

Growing Pains

2007-08-23T21:58:00.000-04:00

It can be troublesome to give something such as this a title. When I sit down and really think about it, I never really know what I'm going to post when I do write in a journal entry. I have some general ideas of the topics I want to cover, but never the complete thought of what will form this entry in particular.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Once a week student media at Georgia Southern puts out a weekly magazine called "The Southern Reflector." It's headed by Robert Greene and it's purpose is to basically deliver feature centric material for the students on Georgia Southern's campus. I'm working hand and hand with him on this publication till he can get his feet on the ground. The staff of the George-Anne also helps out with layout and whatever else is needed.

Things were crazy last night at the paper. We didn't have all of the content in and some of the people who we needed to talk with about their sections weren't available. It happens, but when I'm working at the office at 2 am, it doesn't do much for my patience, outside of make me a bitter old man at the age of 21.

We finished it though and it should be available on the website pretty soon. We need to develop a better system however for getting that information to the web sooner, rather than the later that's the current cliche right now. Despite the moan and groan, there was a lot done right this edition. It seemed like each story was at least edited for content twice and we even had some discussion about the relevance of one of the stories. While not everyone may have agreed with the call, it's good to know that people are looking out for things such as that.

All in all, things are looking better, we still have a lot of room to grow out and expand our ability to cover student life. We're experiencing the pains of a virtually whole new staff, but we'll pull through.

The Inevitable

2007-08-23T03:44:00.000-04:00

Well, here it is.

What you've been waiting for.

My first post in this new ripe blog, located smack dab in the middle of a server farm way far away from where I'm sitting right now. Kinda crazy when you really think about it.

That aside, hello!

My friend Dan told me, a long long time ago in 2004, that too many inane blogs existed and it just wasn't worth looking for good ones.

I hope to prove him wrong : )

So strap in as you hear about my experiences as the executive editor of The George-Anne Daily, my exploits as a 21 year old computer science student at Georgia Southern, and my descents into delusional dreams of dastardly deeds.