Dec 25
I’ve taken this opportunity to move my site from the Drupal CMS to Wordpress. Sure, it’s a bit of a make-work project, but it’s gone fairly smoothly thus far. Hopefully Wordpress will require less maintenance than Drupal and inspire me to spend more time actually blogging.
Oh yes, and Merry Christmas!
Feb 16
An article appeared recently in the Washinton Post. The article tells about how two Tunisian Muslims were arrested for plotting to kill a Danish cartoonist who drew several cartoons depiciting Mohammad. A year ago, when the cartoons were originally published, the story created an international uproar. There were numerous death threats sent to the cartoonist and Muslim lunatics from all around the world protested (sometimes violently). From what I’ve seen and read, some of the cartoons depict Mohammad and the religion of Islam as violent. Why is anyone surprised? Unfortunately I’m unable to provide a link, but at one point I saw an image that arose out of this entire issue. It was a photo of an Islamic protester. He held a sign that read (paraphrase), “All who believe Islam is a violent religion should be killed.” In light of all this, I recently came across a political cartoon that I couldn’t resist posting.
Enjoy, and let the death threats begin!
Dec 22
I believe it was an old friend of mine that once told me, “There are two kinds of computer users: those who back up their files and those who have never experienced catastrophic data loss.” It would seem that backing up one’s files is much like exercise: everyone knows that it should be done, but very few make it a habit. Allow me to fabricate some statistics. In 1943, only 3.2% of left-handed Americans backed up their data regularly. That number rose by 1% during the great virus strike of 1957. However, since then, the percentage of people who regularly back up has remained fairly constant. The results are clear: not enough people back up their files!
Considering the importance of file backups, it’s a little puzzling that so few people make it a habit. Granted, the above statistics are among the 19.4% of statistics that are made up on the spot. However, the fact that far too many people are in imminent danger of losing all their precious information remains all too true. Even I have been guilty of this sin. It begs the question, “Why don’t people back up their data?” Well, if you go back just a few precious years (back before I was born), you can understand why!
I first began using Macs back in November of 2005. By some miracle, I twisted my parents’ arms into buying a shiny new G5 iMac. This was overshadowed by the fact that two months later, Apple drop-kicked the PowerPC processor and opted instead for the speedier, more powerful dual core Intel processors (Thanks, Apple. Great timing!). During the first while that I used a Mac, I couldn’t help but be bedazzled by all the new features and the glitzy effects that the Mac had to offer. Also, I thought the Finder was God’s greatest gift to humanity. It was simple, it was clean, and it was relatively fast. Arguably, my favorite feature was the ability to add favorites into the left sidebar of Finder.
Over time, I became more critical of Finder. When working over a network, it was downright bipolar. One minute, it would behave swimmingly. It would quickly detect networked computers and allow me to effortlessly browse remote folders. The next minute, something would interrupt the connection briefly, and Finder would panic. It forgot who it was and essentially froze for 5 minutes until it finally redetermined its identity.
Finder’s speed was also inconsistent. Loading folders with a large number of files in them (i.e., Applications folder) was a sometimes a slow-ish process.
In reading online blogs and Mac forums, I realized that I was not alone. In fact, there were many in the blogosphere who utterly hated Finder. Some had hoped that Apple would upgrade Finder when Tiger was released, but to no avail. Finder remained essentially unchanged. It was still plagued by little nuisances and held back by old legacy code (Carbon) that it had inherited from the Macs of yesteryear. Read the rest of this entry »
At 6 p.m. on the 26th of October, the whole world stood still for a brief moment and collectively held its breath as Apple released its 5th iteration of its world-class operating system, Mac OS X: Leopard. Men looked on in awe, women anticipated its arrival with bated breath, and children stood wide-eyed, holding tight to the hands of their mothers. All were awaiting the dawn of a new operating system era; a giant leap forward in computing technology.
Alright! Alright! I admit it. It didn’t go quite like that. Come to think of it, it didn’t go at all like that. That is, except for the the part about Leopard being released on October 26. That actually happened. In fact, it’s also true that some people were eagerly awaiting the arrival of Mac OS X Leopard. Mind you, most of those people were geeky types like me. At the hundreds of Apple retail stores across North America, there were long lines as Mac addicts patiently waited to be among the first to get their hands on Leopard. Read the rest of this entry »
Dear Reader, you may be asking yourself, “Why would a student want to learn about email and browsing the Internet? Aren’t those two things distractions to the diligent scholar?” The answer to that question is both “yes” and “no.”
If by “browsing the Internet” you mean, “Perusing Facebook and other social network sites tracking your friends’ activities only to find that they’re doing nothing more with their lives than checking to see what their friends are doing,” then yes. If the previous statement summarizes your browsing activity, then the Internet is indeed a distraction to both academics and normal life. On the other hand, if you use the Internet as a portal to the wealth of the world’s knowledge, then it can act as a tremendous aid to your academic pursuits. Read the rest of this entry »
Before reading any further, please be advised that this is not an article on how to write a paper. If you don’t know how to properly format a paper, enroll in English 101 soon! If you don’t know how to write, university and life in general will be very difficult for you. Good! Now that we’re past that, we can get onto the real substance of this article.
Most university students have a rudimentary understanding of the programs that they use on a daily basis. Although it may seem obvious, one should learn to be proficient (not just sufficient) with the programs that one uses on a regular basis. I wish I had a dollar for every time that I witnessed a student grappling awkwardly with basic formatting issues in a program such as Microsoft Word. Honestly, if adding bullets to your document is difficult for you, you may want to add “Really Super Basic Computer Sciences” to your class schedule. Add it in right below “English 101: Cypherin’ ‘n learnin’: how to not write like a Redneck”. Part of me wishes I had the time to write articles teaching people how to use their basic computer tools, but I don’t. Besides, there are already resources out there. If you’re desperate to learn, trot on down to your local Chapters bookstore, and find a intro-level book with lots of colour pictures and simple, layman instructions. Read the rest of this entry »
Sep 26
Facebook is at risk! Your computer is at risk! You are at risk! Your face is at risk!
This is a super-legitimate threat! How do I know? Because I was personally contacted by FBC (Federal Bureau of Computers) this morning! Don’t ignore this note. Don’t delete it! It will save your computer, your marriage, and even your life!
If you get a friend request from someone called killthe_mofos@hotmail.com do not, I repeat DO NOT accept their request. Your computer will become immediately infected! This is a problem that has been sweeping across the Iraq and other Asian countries. The computer hacker behind this has been stealing computer ID addresses from computers and then using that information to manually hack into your home computer without any problems. What’s worse, the hacker then uses the Google satellite (which he has hacked because Google accepted his friend request too) to send a high-powered tractor beam to suck your computer right out of your office, den, or even your basement bedroom! Once he has your computer, he will find you at home, tie you up, and force you to watch Cher music videos until your eyes bleed!!
Facebook can’t stop him because they too accepted his friend request. CNN can’t run a story on the news for the same reason. However, they have both contacted me to spread the news! This is a legitimate facebook note! It is super important that you listen.
For the love of God and all little fluffy animals, please forward this super-important security message to all your friends and family. Facebook, Bill Gates, and certain African leaders are so concerned about this problem that they have offered $34.50 for anyone who forwards this to all their friends. Even if you hate someone (e.g., they killed your family), send this to them. If they are affected by this problem, they may reveal your identity, and then you too will no longer be safe.
As Thomas Jefferson once said, “I have a dream… that computers will be free from attack.”
—-
THIS IS A PARODY. The above “threat” is not real. If you want to, send this on to people as a gentle reminder that most security warnings that circulate via email, etc. are F-A-K-E, fake! Check out the legitimacy of an email’s claims before blindly spamming your innocent – yet often gullible – friends. This is not meant to be insulting…just amusing.
**I posted the above on facebook after receiving a couple of phony warnings of impending computer doom. I’m secretly hoping that this will circulate and possibly discourage people from forwarding “fear mail.” However, I’m learning that fear spreads more readily than humor!
During my time at university, many of my habits changed. As I look back, I can still remember my first classes. I arrived at school early in the morning and procured a seat near the front. I then waited as the rest of the class slowly filed in. Like a court clerk, I meticulously wrote down every utterance of the professor in my perfectly organized school binder. Between classes, I eagerly tore through the assigned reading. I was determined to be perfect in every aspect of my schooling. Needless to say, I was one of those idyllic optimists that I mentioned in the previous article. Sadly, by the end of my four year stay I was rarely early for class (too often late and sometimes too tired to truly appreciate the content); I infrequently completed my reading (Warning: Not reading is a stupid idea!); I was less convinced that I could glean the world’s collective knowledge within the walls of my institution; and I certainly did not make note of my professors’ every idea and word. As most people can probably identify, this pattern was, for the most part, a regression from an altogether positive start. If we all listened well to our mothers, we learned that punctuality, thoroughness, and a love of learning are all admirable virtues. Perhaps you’re now thinking that I was a horrible student by my senior year. Honestly, I wasn’t. In my defense, not all that changed was for the worse. You may have caught that I briefly described a change in the way that I took notes. In this area, I did improve. In fact, during my last year (and even my last semester) I remember wishing I could turn back time and teach myself some of the note-taking and organizational skills I had amassed through the years. Regrettably, time travel had not – and has not – yet fully matured. Consequently, some lucky reader (perhaps you) will benefit from my trial and error. Read the rest of this entry »
Below is a list of common mistakes made by new Mac users. Although the list is not my own material, I have taken the liberty to provide some comments. There seems to be no sense in pointing out common mistakes if there is no provision of solutions. Hopefully this article will alert some new Mac users to a few of their potential bad habits and also provide clarification.
1. Closing an application window, thinking it has quit.
When the red “x” is clicked in the top left hand corner of a window, the window closes. For the most part, that’s all that happens. Rarely does it actually close the whole program (iPhoto and Photo Booth are some of the exceptions). As a result, you can clear your dekstop while the program continues to work in the background. This is great when the program takes a while to load, or if it’s nice to keep it working in the background (e.g., iTunes playing music in the background).
2. Downloading an app and running it from the disk image.
My install guide gives a lot more information on this subject, but the rule of thumb with Mac programs is that they must always be installed inside the Applications folder.
3. Creating endless untitled folders.
I’m not sure why this is a problem. However, if you do make a lot of untitled folders by mistake, simply delete them.
4. Using Safari’s Google search to get to a website.
This is more or less frustrating to watch. It’s important to know that Google is a tool for searching for web addresses that you DO NOT know. If you know the address, type it into the address bar.
