Seminar

In the fall of 2009, I gave a seminar (probably the best presentation of my life – and I’ve given pretty epic ones!) on the same topic – Concurrent Software Development.

Check it out here.

Concurrent Open Source Software Development

I penned a report for one of my courses last year, based on a topic I find very interesting – collaborative software development. Grab a coffee and enjoy this, written by yours truly: Concurrent Open Source Software Development.

Sexy Web Design

I recommend this book to everyone out there with a penchant for creating beatiful, useable interfaces. I’ve finished reading it, and I can’t wait to jump on a new project where it can be applied. It’s also insightful beyond web design; you can apply these techniques to standalone software, print, games, or anything at all.

** I know I haven’t blogged in a while now. Twitter truly is the kryptonite of blogging. I mean, why bother with WordPress when you can Tweet in just 140 characters?

Will You Pay to Use FlickR, Facebook, or your Email?

Interesting Los Angeles Times article about how our favourite free web tools could start charging us service fees. The rationale is good, and I agree that this will happen sooner than we expect. Read the article here.

Cool Logos Made with Helvetica

I’m one of those very font-conscious people, and I hardly use Helvetica. I have to jump on the bandwagon before it’s too late. Check out some cool A-list logo’s made with Helvetica. Who woulda thought?

Seven Ways To Lower System Storage

A very good read from ITWorld. Check it out here.

The King of All Mashups

WOW. This is the best thing I’ve heard in ages. Okay, I do love mashups.

Jaydiohead (Jay-Z and Radiohead) was epic, Eminelton (Eminem and Elton John) was alright; The Grey Album (The Beatles and Jay-Z was okay.

But this new mashup from Super Mash Bros is on a whole different level. You HAVE to download the album here.

Twitter is here to stay

Twitter just secured $35 million in funding. The tech market is recession-proof!!! Props to Twitter.

Read ITWorld’s announcement here.

Transfer Blackberry contacts to your iPhone!!!

Although I do not approve of ditching the Blackberry, I know people who have tried (and failed) doing this. ITWorld has a great article on how to export your contact lists from your Blackberry to your iPhone.  Read here.

The Plug linked by Technorati!!!

Well, yours truly’s blog has an inbound link from… Technorati.

Yup, THAT Technorati: the holy book of all tech blogs.

This is amazing! My Ruby on Rails post is the 7th highest ranked post tagged for Ruby on Rails on Technorati!!! It’s always great to know that people out there read my blog. Especially, via Technorati.

Check it out here.

The Ruby on Rails Application Framework

Recently, I wrote a technical report on Ruby on Rails. Read and enjoy here.

Cool Apps for Blackberry Storm

Since I will be getting one soon, I’ve decided to start an early look at some of the Storm apps out there.

There are some pretty cool ones. Check them out here.

Weblog Awards 2008!

The blog Oscar’s are here again. I obviously voted for Andrew Sullivan.

Vote for your favourite blogs here.

How to: Recover Files After Hard Disk Boot Failure

I have been meaning to post this for a while.

Above is a screenshot of how I used Ubuntu to recover files from my dead laptop PC. A few months ago, I tried to start my computer and I got the infamous black screen of death; the error message saying something along the lines of “booting error, system disk failure.”

There is a pretty good chance your system files got corrupted, possibly by a virus, and you might possibly lose all the files on your hard disk drive — on your pretty much dead computer.

FEAR NOT, and do not waste your money doing a file recovery.

Get a working computer,  then download and burn a UBUNTU LIVE cd with a program like this. Then follow a series of instructions here. Cool, huh? Let me know if it works for you too. Please spread the love.

Scientific Explanations for Douchebag Disorders

This is a hilarious, frivolous read: Enjoy here

Best Thing of 2008

Not the Obama victory, not “Batman: The Dark Knight”, and not Tina Fey’s SNL skits. Sure, those were great, but not as great as the new iTunes feature — Genius.

This was a dream come true for every music geek out there. Pick a song on iTunes, or on your iPhone or Touch; click the Genius button, and in seconds a playlist with similar songs is generated.

If you select Coldplay’s “Talk,” expect songs like Oasis’ “Wonderwall” and Dave Matthews’ “American baby.” Selecting Jay-Z’s “Heart of the city” generates similar classics from Nas, Common, and Lupe Fiasco.

However, Jay’s T.I. collaboration “Swagga like us” would generate similarly self-aggrandizing tunes like Lil Wayne’s “A milli,” and Santogold’s “Shove it.”

Brilliant! The genius of Genius made my 2008.

iTech Sneaking Into Your Vocabulary

Who uses the word “search” anymore? The verb “search,” used in its internet context, has found a more powerful synonym — “Google.”

When you need to find information online, you google it. The word “search” is now kinda lame.

Adobe’s popular graphic application, Photoshop, has also found its way into our everyday vocabulary as a synonym for any form of photo-editing or remodeling, regardless of whether what medium was used. Like Google, it has gone from noun to verb.

Other notable mentions:

YouTube: “I missed Family Guy tonight. I’ll YouTube* it later.”  *[watch it online]

Blog: “I am blogging* on my blog right now.” *[writing]

Facebook: “Hey let’s keep in touch. Call or Facebook* me later.”  *[holler at me online]

TIME Magazine Person of the Year

Of course.

Web 2.0 Discoveries

I’ve been learning a lot of AJAX and advanced web development techniques. Of course, it’s mostly Ruby on Rails, in case you were wondering.

Andrew Sullivan isn’t done with Sarah Palin, yet.

Andrew Sullivan is still ripping on Sarah Palin:

“This deluded and delusional woman still doesn’t understand what happened to her; still has no self-awareness; and has never been forced to accept her obvious limitations. She cannot keep even the most trivial story straight; she repeats untruths with a ferocity and calm that is reserved only to the clinically unhinged; she has the educational level of a high school drop-out; and regards ignorance as some kind of achievement. It is excruciating to watch her – but more excruciating to watch those who feel obliged to defend her.”

Read his full blog post here.

I think he’s absolutely spot on. I kinda like the woman, but she lost the election. So enough with her already. She should go back to Alaska and study some basic history and current affairs.

Anderson Cooper and CNN’s “Hologram”

The major highlight of election night was (sorry, not Obama’s victory) CNN’s Anderson Cooper talking with Black Eyed Peas’ singer Will.i.am via Hologram. It was hilarious and awesome. I laughed out loud, literally, until the thing was over. Anderson Cooper (along with Wolf Blitzer and CNN) has got to be one of the vainest TV personalities of this age!

Watch video here.

On a serious note though, Obama’s victory was truly a great moment in history. I am glad to have witnessed it, and it truly was a happy ending to this long, seemingly neverending, reality show of a presidential campaign season.

Watch Barack Obama’s victory speech here.

Shocker: Facebook isn’t “really” profitable

Like a few of the major tech companies out of Silicon Valley and elsewhere, Facebook boasts a  mega-large user base and hundreds of millions of dollars in ad revenue. However, according to Social Networking Watch, Facebook is running out of cash. Read the shocker here.

Web 2.0 and the Dictionary

Coming soon…

John Cleese on Countdown with Keith Olbermann

One of my heroes, original funny Englishman of Monty Python fame, John Cleese, was on Keith’s show on MSNBC tonight. It was a total laugh-fest. Keith’s sarcasm can be funny, but Cleese took it to a whole new level, and I laughed out loud, literally, for the entire segment he was on.

Synthetic Telepathy: Blog without typing!

The US Army is developing a new technology that will enable users to communicate directly from their thoughts to email or voicemail, without moving a muscle.

This is really neat. Read about it here.

Taking it back to the good ol’

Enjoy my new Ray Ban Wayfarer sunglasses: (Don’t hate, you would do the same if you just bought a pair *wink*)

Verdict: McCain vs Obama Debate

After watching Friday night’s debate and assimilating the verdicts of various analysts and pundits, I think it’s fair to say the debate was a draw, or a very slight Obama win. John McCain performed better than expected, and Obama proved, once again, that he is a very capable and knowledgeable person who can be trusted as President.

Obama landed some good punches, including a triple rendering of “You were wrong,” referring to John McCain’s Iraq war judgement. Obama also hit McCain, after McCain critisized Obama for openly endorsing an attack on Al-Queda forces in Pakistan, by dismissing McCain’s foreign policy credibility, especially after “singing songs about bombing Iran.”

McCain also scored some by trying to paint Obama as inexperienced, saying several times throughout the debate, that Obama “just does not understand.” However, he appeared dismissive and condescending toward Obama.

Next stop is the Vice-Presidential debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin. We will be there!

Mental Health Break

Okay, this is too funny!!! Obama sings to Kanye West, featuring John McCain, Sarah Palin, and George Bush.

My First Real ASP.NET App

Peep the ASP.NET web app I just made for work. I’ve blurred out the text, for privacy purposes. It was made with Visual Studio.NET, using Microsoft SQL Server Enterprise 2003. The code is ugly, trust me. ASP.NET, SQL, Javascript, and VBScript. Not bad, huh?

Sarah Palin, Lies, Cover-ups, and Deceit.

Andrew Sullivan, of The Atlantic, wrote a revealing piece today that summarized the falsehood-ridden candidacy of Republican Vice-Presidential nominee and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. These paragraphs sum it all up:

“So for the record, let it be known that the candidate for
vice-president for the GOP is a compulsive, repetitive, demonstrable
liar…
You cannot trust a word she says. On anything.“

Read the full article here.