JeffTougas.com » Technology

New Blog Theme and Separation of Concerns

Jeff — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:45:39 +0000

I’ve had this on my todo list for quite a while, but finally I have changed my blog’s theme (the cat just wasn’t doing it for me) and separated my locost build log into its very own wordpress instance. You can find it here. Personal and work-related posts will get their own separate blogs as well. Copies of previous posts will remain on this blog so as not to break permalinks, but for current posts on the matter check personal and work. My plan is for this blog to focus on exactly what the title says: topics pertaining to entrepreneurship, technology, and zen. That’s pretty broad of course, so let me explain a bit.

Entrepreneurship

I have been interested in creating a company and working for myself as long as I can remember. In fact, my dad related a story to me recently (which I vaguely remembered after he mentioned it) in which I was twelve years old or so, and informed him one day that I didn’t need to go to college since I was going to be the next Bill Gates. Apparently I was very matter of fact when I made this statement.. My dad of course had to try and explain why college was important without discouraging me from my lofty (to say the least!) aspirations. He did a pretty good job I’d say, as I’m nearing completion of my undergrad degree right now and yet I still aim for something similar to what I aimed for a decade ago.

As school draws nearer to completion, I have begun ramping up my entrepreneurial efforts and education. I now follow several blogs on the matter, attend local events pertaining to startups pretty frequently, and am even working on the early stages of a startup. I will use this blog to discuss my thoughts/frustrations/comments on my experience as a young entrepreneur.

Technology

I like technology. A lot. I built my first computer when I was thirteen and began creating websites, programming, and running unix on both my desktop and server around the same time. Before my fourteenth birthday I had my own domain, my own cgi-enabled website, hosted on my own server running FreeBSD, my own DNS server, my own IRC server, my own starcraft server even and several other things. Fast forward almost ten years; I’m completing my degree in computer science at Georgia Tech, I follow a number of tech news blogs and try to play around with as many different new platforms and technologies as possible. So yes, this blog will discuss “tech” stuff some.

Zen

Last but certainly not least is Zen. I use this word because the school of Buddhism by this name de-emphasizes theoretical knowledge in favor of direct, experiential realization. It also focuses on attaining enlightenment, which to me means a constant state of higher-than-usual happiness, awareness, and togetherness. I’m constantly on the look out for ways to improve my habits, methods, and attitudes.. I want to achieve great things while maintaining my calmness, my composure, and most importantly my sanity.

Where From Here?

In the past I’ve been fairly inconsistent with maintaining a blog. I’m pretty busy these days, but for starters I’m going to set a goal of blogging at least twice a week. That isn’t very much, admittedly, but its a reasonable goal to set for myself in the beginning. Hopefully I’ll manage to ramp that up a bit over time, but for now that’s what I’ll shoot for.

Craigslist Tutorial for everyone!

Jeff — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 01:28:38 +0000

So. You have a piano sitting in your dining room that never gets played. You have a bed that’s tucked away in storage. You have a car that you need to sell. You wish desperately that you could easily sell these items without paying someone to display your ad somewhere, but you don’t know what to do!

Paging Mr. Craig on isle 4, Mr. Craig on isle 4, please

Craig’s list, that is. Craig is a man from San Francisco who decided to make a very simple and free website, called craigslist.org, to allow people in his same town to easily buy and sell just about anything, back in 1995. Initially, the service was only available for San Francisco (the Bay Area, specifically); however, it has grown to almost every major city in the U.S. nowadays. The beauty of the service is that it is localized, i.e. the ads you see will be posted by people within a 50 mile radius (give or take) of you, so you can go look at the item before buying. No more sending money on the internet and then wondering whether your item will actually show up! Conversely, if you’re selling something, its much nicer to deal with local buyers, rather than to have to worry about shipping something.

Right about now, you’re probably thinking that you don’t know anything about computers, and aren’t comfortable with selling things on the internet, even if it is craigslist. Wrong! A few weeks ago, I showed my slightly computer-challenged mother (no offense Mom!) how to post an ad on craigslist. She was selling a canoe. Within only 5 hours, the thing had sold! Oh man, was she hooked! Since that time, my mom has sold or helped friends sell nearly a dozen things through craigslist!

Good for her, but I’m not your mom, genius. How are you going to teach me?

I thought you’d never ask. For your viewing pleasure, I have created a video which goes through all of the steps required to post something on craigslist. This is just the first in a series of videos I plan on creating about craigslist.. Video #1 is all you really need to post something on craigslist, while the future videos will be tutorials on how to make your ads look nicer, and have more and bigger pictures on them.

Hope you enjoy! Please leave comments if you think this video rocks, or if you think it sucks, and you want me to do it differently somehow.

Flickr Fanaticism

Jeff — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 15:04:12 +0000

I’ve just recently become infatuated with Flickr, in combination with my iPhone. Specifically, there is a third party app called iFlickr that makes uploading pictures from your iPhone a snap (pun intended). For people with a non-jailbroken iPhone, sending a picture to Flickr involves taking a picture, and then emailing it to your Flickr email address. With iFlickr, however, you have a customized Camera application, where upon taking a photo you get the option to “Send to Flickr”. Once you tap this button, within a few moments your picture will be displayed on your Flickr site.

By your powers combined..

Now, combine this coolness with the awesomeness that is WordPress, and a neat little plugin for it made by tantannoodles, and you get something that makes posting pictures on ones blog so streamlined that you may need some aviators goggles. Observe:

And that’s it! All you have to do is click on one of your pictures, and it becomes one with your masterful writing. As you can see, this plugin makes the addition of photos to your blog posts a piece of cake. I’m enthralled by it.

The Face of Computing in 2038

Jeff — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 22:23:14 +0000

I had to write this for a computer science ethics class. I didn’t really put much time into it, and perhaps at some point I’ll revise it.. but upon rereading it I thought it was pretty good. Here it is for your enjoyment.

            Thirty years from now, computers will be even more ubiquitous than they are presently. Your clothes will contain computers that monitor and log your vitals; your contact lenses or glasses will contain computer monitors that allow you wireless access to the internet, which may be controlled via the chip implanted in your brain, or perhaps your baseball cap will contain non-invasive sensors to read your thoughts.

            You will no longer have to drive to work; your car will drive itself. As a result, traffic will become multiple times more efficient, and automobile accident related deaths will reduce dramatically. Cars will be able to safely travel over 100 miles per hour, thus longer voyages will become far easier to make.

            We will have neural-computer interfaces available to the rich, and virtual reality will take on a whole new meaning. Applications ranging from training simulations for the military, to virtual (yet very real) meetings with parties half way around the globe come to mind. This will be another enormous society-changing breakthrough in computing. Keyboards and mice will be nearly extinct by this time, as the 2d or 3d displays will be directly touchable at the very least, or will be controllable simply by thinking the commands.

            Huge ethical debates will have climaxed or be near it by this time; truly intelligent computers will be on the verge of birth. It will be possible to modify your baby before he or she is created to make them as intelligent, good looking, strong, and healthy as possible. Not to mention the power to choose whether they’re a girl or a boy, what color hair and eyes they have, and other such things.

            Human augmentation by digital means will be available. Prosthetic limbs and organs will be highly advanced and able to function nearly at the same level, if not at a higher level, compared to the originals. We may even have electronic devices that repair and replace certain parts of your brain as they age and die, extending your life by decades. Perhaps we will have the ability to “download” a humans consciousness on to a computer, thereby giving them eternal life.

            The possibilities are endlessly terrifying and exciting simultaneously. We humans are obviously thrill-seekers, as a group, and so our technological advancement will continue at an ever faster pace. It is difficult to predict exactly what the next five years will bring, let alone the next thirty years.. but one thing is for certain: Thirty years from now, the face of computing will be almost unrecognizable to consumers of the present.