Jason's Notes About Stuff

Windows 1. Download sketchy .exe file from Internet. 2. Double click it. 3. Press [next] about 5 times. 4. Done! Linux 1. Download sketchy .tgz or tar.gz file from Internet. 2. Google the right command line options to extract it. 3. Change to the new directory. 4. Look through all the files and try to guess which is the install script. 5. Run the install script. 6. When the script crashes, Google the library incompatibility errors. 7. Search for different versions of libraries and attempt to install them. 8. Break other stuff while attempting to install new libraries. 9. Bang head against desk. 10. Google more error messages. 11. Spend a few hours trying various suggestions from the Internet. 12. 50/50 chance of a) finding magical solution, or b) deciding it's not worth it and giving up.

For the longest time, I've been searching for a quick, easy way to take quick meeting notes. I used to use a text editor called SciTE, the same editor I use for quick code editing, but I find managing files in a file system to be a real pain. When I had an iPad for a while, I liked the default Notes application, but hated that there was no cloud storage or synchronization. (No, the crappy Gmail sync doesn't count) Then I heard about EverNote . I thought that was the answer to my prayers, but unfortunately those guys decided  to add every conceivable feature in the universe and have ended up with a bloated mess that takes an hour and a half to load. There's a bunch of others I've tried too, like UberNote , Springpad , and the Diigo mishmash of apps. But nothing was small enough, or simple enough for my taste. So I did what any good developer does. I created a "learning" project to scratch my own itch. I used technology I've discussed at the...

On Thursday, Mel and I took our first ZipCar for a spin. For those of you who don't know, ZipCar is a company that rents cars by the hour or day, all inclusive of insurance and fuel. The Good - Cheap! Our 1.5hr trip to Ikea in a new Honda Civic cost a grand total of $18.23, including gas, insurance and all taxes. - Easy! Reserve online, walk to the car, swipe your card, drive away. The Not-So-Good - The previous renter had left the has tank only 1/8th full -- contrary to ZipCar's policy of leaving it at least 1/4 full. - The rear seat wasn't super-clean, and there was junk in the glove box. Summary Overall, it was a good experience and we'd certainly use ZipCar again for any short trip around town requiring a vehicle.

It may sound strange, but whenever I receive a business lead from my website, one of the first "qualifiers" I look at is the email address . Over 7 years and hundreds of leads (most of them useless), I've discovered that an email address can say a lot about someone. Even before reading the project description or budget , I look very carefully at the email address.  From there, my qualifying process is a bit like this: 1. Is it a company address or free email service? If it is a company address , that's positive.  I use the domain name to go to their website and try to determine: a) How long they've been in business b) Their relative size c) Any affiliations with larger companies/organizations 2. If it is a free email address , it is usually one of the following: Great: Gmail: This is what most technical people use, and it is by far the best. Ok: Yahoo Mail: This was a great service back in the 90s, but has since declined.  This might indica...

Has technology improved your relationship? Some people think that technology has hindered personal relationships, but I'd argue that its helped in some cases. My girlfriend and I use technology constantly to help us stay connected . In the spirit of Valentine's Day, I've put together a few examples that might be of use to other couples. 1. Google Calendar One of the great things about Google Calendar is that it lets you combine several different calendars into one handy view. Along with our own personal calendars, which we can make visible to each other, we have a shared calendar that we can both add to and edit. Have you ever been asked, "So are you ready for that dinner we have in half an hour?"  And have you ever responded, "Dinner? What dinner? You never told me about any dinner!" We've all been in this situation.  With a shared calendar, moments like this are a thing of the past. 2. Google Docs This is basically like hav...

I was recently watching a series called " Ancient Inventions ". It is hosted by one of the guys from Monty Python and is reasonably entertaining and informative. It was amazing to see how many things were invented thousands of years ago, completely lost and forgotten, then re-invented recently. It got me thinking about all of the technological progress we've made in the past couple hundred years. There have been a number of amazing inventions that have changed the world, like trains, planes, cars, radio, telegraph, telephone, and many others. But what world-changing inventions and technologies have surfaced since the 60's? Computers? Ha. That's 1930's technology. The microwave oven? Mobile phones? 1940's . Solar cells? Fibre optics? That was way back in the 50's . But what about the Internet ? Nope. We were online in 1969 -- 40 years ago. What life changing technology has been invented since then? It starts getting really thin. Liposuc...

I've had the displeasure of using Rogers cable Internet at two different places I've been staying recently -- one in Guelph, and one in Breslau. I remember back in the day (2003-ish, the last time I had Rogers myself) I had occasional, but persistent problems with one major thing -- any time I had a large outgoing transfer happening, all of my incoming transfers went slow and flaky. For instance, my telnet connections will stay connected for hours -- until I send a big (10-15MB) upload through via FTP. Then it drops the connection. Or if I do a big Subversion commit, all of the sudden all my DNS lookups start failing. This is something I remember from years and years ago, that they still apparently haven't fixed. For the longest time, I thought this was just a problem with cable modem technology, so I bought Bell DSL and was reasonably satisfied (until they started capping and throttling, that is). However, when I was in Texas, I had Time Warner cable Internet and I have ...