I figure Cory will appreciate it’s color, and I’m secure enough in my manhood to use it as well. Plus, even though the message was originally from me, it still reminds me of the girl I had it inscribed for.

Natuba is a new photo sharing site that targets iPhone users with an emphasis on mobile uploading.

read more | digg story

When I demonstrate software for Linux Journal, I tend to use Ubuntu as my operating system. The reason is simply because Ubuntu is extremely popular, but it begs the question, should the Linux community standardize on a single distribution?

read more | digg story

I’m not one of those people.

You know those people that have a crackberry/palm pilot/iPhone strapped to their side, and if their batteries die, they do too?

I’m not one of those people either.

As it turns out, I’ve been trying to get organized for close to a decade now. For some reason, I can never quite get it when it comes to scheduling things. It’d be nice to claim I’m too creative for schedules, but not only would it be a lie — it would also just be a nice artsy fartsy excuse for my failure. I don’t want to be one of those people.

Now that I have 2 awesome jobs, scheduling is critical. You see, I also have an awesome family that deserves my time. (What did they do to deserve that you ask? Well, they fed me, now they’re stuck with me) My current attempt at organization is Google Calendar:

The advantage is that I can access it from any computer, and “syncing” is not required. I’ve tried the syncing game, and it always burns me. When I get a phone next month with a data plan, I should be able to access my calendar anywhere. This pleases me…

How do you stay organized?

Or maybe I could get an implant into my eyeball that digitizes everything I see in real time… I could call it Shawncam, and get shawncam.com or something. I could put a patch over my camera eye for those “private moments” that I don’t want y’all to see. (Like picking my nose in the mirror. What were you thinking?)

It’s too bad we’re spending our incentive money on a new fridge…

But they’re really tasty.

I’ve really never had a problem swallowing medicine. I can usually take a handful of chalky, pointy, enormous pills and get ‘em down sans water. When you make the pills tasty, however, I end up flirting with the amount of time I can enjoy the sweet goodness before the candy coating is gone. My inner monologue usually goes like this:

“Mmmm… that’s yummy… Is that cherry? No, maybe just sweet. I think the red makes me assume cherry. It’s so tasty. I can’t quite put my finger on the flav— GAAAHHHHH!!! Burnt rubber! OMG, I’m gonna puke!~!!!”

And then I try to wash down the horrid flavor with coffee, toothpaste, or even attempt to rub the foul taste off with a dirty sock. It’s downright rancid, and I’m sure that’s the reason the tasty coating is there in the first place.

See? This is what it’s like to be me. Aren’t you glad you just get to read about it?

There are two kinds of Linux people in the world, those that will help people fix their Windows spyware problems, and those that will not. I land squarely in the former camp, and I think that it’s important for us all to consider doing the same.

read more | digg story

I don’t require too many things from our pets, but proper bathroom habits ranks near the top of the list. In fact, there remains a distinct possibility that Tux, awesome namesake or not, won’t remain a member of the Powers’ household. He has until the end of summer.

Thankfully, last night, he made it through the night without desecrating our home. This pleased me greatly. It was actually 2 nights in a row, so I see some hope.

Go Tux Go! (but like, go outsite and stuff)

The good news is that I’m now managing the updates, etc, now. Hopefully I can manage to avoid most wonkiness in the future. We’ll see.

G’night.

I think this is my karmic punishment for meme tagging. Thanks Nathan.

SO, that means all memes shall be officially voluntary, and never to be pressured in any regard whatsoever. Any previous, “tagging” shall be redacted, and future taggers will be flogged. Well, actually the taggers I don’t really mind, but the right to flog me is bequeathed on anyone I might tag in the future.

But still, I retain my right to respond to any and all memes I desire, because I often find such silliness fun. So there.

Rules:

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules.
3. Write six things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
5. Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their sites.
6. Let your tagger know when your entry is up.

And now my list:

1. My right foot is turned out slightly. This mutation give me no super powers, nor does it really hinder me in any way. It’s very unlikely said mutation would qualify me as one of the X-MEN.
2. My first car was a 1978 Volkswagen Rabbit Diesel. I paid $250 for it, and would gladly pay 10 times that much for the same vehicle now. I didn’t know what glow plugs were at the time, and I think it would have made the experience much nicer if I had.
3. I’m absolutely terrified of bees. It’s one of those fears that you’d think would be funny to tease about, but I’m so scared, it really wouldn’t be fun. It just isn’t fun watching a grown man cry.
4. I prefer driving a vehicle with a manual transmission. Maybe it’s a power-trip control issue. Maybe it’s just that I like to keep busy while driving. Whatever the reason, I like ‘em better.
5. I like hot tea and cold tea. I like hot coffee, but think cold coffee concoctions are horrible abominations
6. I wear mismatched socks on every occasion I can. I’ve mentioned this before, but it remains true. I find it very difficult to take life too seriously while wearing one purple sock and one green one.

Now I have to tag people. I’m sorry I have to do this, but I’ll try to tag people that will forgive me. I suspect they won’t all actually participate, but I don’t think they’ll disown me either:

REDACTED. See above post.

Sorry guys & gals.

UPDATE: If the youtube video above is blocked, try going here instead…

So far today, I had a “lobby room discussion” with John and Krissy Scalzi, and also with Randall Monroe (of XKCD). Benjamin Mako Hill agreed to do an interview with me later, AND I think I’m having sushi for dinner. What a day!

In all honesty though, I really do miss my family like crazy. Since the Internet connection is so poor, we weren’t able to Skype well last night either, so I didn’t get my fix. So this is for my family, but y’all can watch:

I can write some well thought out, interesting stuff — and get minimal diggs. I can write “off the cuff” nonsense, and get quite a few. Of course, never enough to get the highly sought after popular fanfare — but still, noticeably more.

For some reason, I’ve gotten my brain wrapped around an axle this week, and done my best to get “dugg” to the point of popularity. It never happened, and it was frustrating to boot. So, I figured I’d just go back to writing stuff for the sake of expressing my thoughts. I think I like it better that way.

So, how are you?

(And please Digg the article too, if you like it and know what Digg is…)

read more | digg story

I’m going to bring a video camera, and hopefully upload some footage and photos to the Linux Journal site (and maybe here too). If you’re going to be there, please be sure to look me up. We can be geeks together!

Oh, and thanks for all the pokes.

As the release of Ubuntu 8.04 LTS rapidly approaches, the all important question is beginning to form in everyone’s mind. Upgrade, or freshly install.

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Lizzie is home sick today, and Grandma is staying at the house with her while Donna and I are working. Donna gave Grandma her cellphone, because we no longer have a landline phone. (It went away when the DSL went away). Unfortunately, Grandma left the cellphone in the car, and I needed to get in touch with her, because the cable repair guy was coming over today.

Since she wouldn’t answer the phone, I figured I’d try to call her via Skype. Normally, I only Skype while I’m off at a conference or something, and Donna will connect us up so we can all talk. Today, however, Donna (Mommy) wasn’t there to initiate the connection, so I just hoped that Lizzie would hear the Skype ring, and figure out what to do. It took a few tries, but on the 3rd or 4th try, I saw her sluggish, yet smiley face looking back at me through the webcam.

“Hi Daddy,” she said.

“Hi sweety! Is Grandma there?”

“Yeah, she’s right there,” Lizzie pointed to the couch, out of the camera’s view.

I spoke to Grandma, and loved on Lizzie a bit, then disconnected. I was very impressed with her technical prowess, but what really struck me is that she was happy to figure out how to start the connection, but actually video chatting in real time wasn’t out of the norm for her. It’s still a big deal for me, and I’m a bit awed every time I use Skype — but for Lizzie, video chatting over the Internet is the “norm.”

My kids are going to be so much more comfortable with technology than I am. I’m certain someday my kids will look at me with the same nostalgic charm that I look at my parents’ generation and their blinking 12:00 VCRs…

Blink/Sophie sat in as fetal a position as possible in the corner of a phone booth outside of Negworth, Amsterdam. Their recent merging was, of course, successful. Both minds were now in perfect harmony, and mostly open to one another. Therein started the awful realization.

“Blink, it’s so hard because our memories don’t line up exactly right. Is that because we interpreted the situations differently?”, thought Sophie.

“Well, normally I’d say yes”, thought Blink, “But our memory divergence goes far beyond what differing points of view would explain. Apart from our thread-bonded love and compassion, everything seems different in our pasts. Even our recent past.”

“Blink, we’ve both changed. I’m a little girl living in the head of… of… well, we’re in the same head!”

“I know sweetie, and I’m so happy to be merged with you.” Blink emoted love to Sophie. “Travel back in our memories though. I’m not even sure what a coconut is, and yet, you remember — no, experienced — us both living on them. Sophie, I’ve never been to a desert island.”

Blink could feel fear well up inside Sophie. Horrible scenes of Not-Sophie, emotions of pain, and crippling terror were flooding their consciousness.

“Sophie! Wait!” Blink solidified their thread-bond, and opened his entire consciousness to her. “I don’t want you to think I’m anything other than Blink. Sophie, you can see everything that I am. I love you. I can’t lie to you. I will not hurt or deceive you.” He could feel her calm down, and relaxed himself too.

Blink/Sophie worked together, slowly piecing together the horrible truth regarding the sterilization fleet. It was Sophie that first realized the fleet wasn’t destroying planets, but rather, terraforming the galaxy piece by piece into parallel universes in order to create the perfect Tragethen empire. Why destroy a planet, when enough dimensional shifting would bring forth a slave planet?

“Sophie!” thought-shouted Blink, “That explains their need for a dual mind!”

Blink/Sophie began to realize the futility in the way the Space Force was trying to defeat the Trageth. Amassing armies was pointless, and the SF officers with their single minds had no way of knowing the Trageth were just trying to keep them all busy. Just as Blink/Sophie started to plan their next move, the phone booth seemed to change.

This post shall be the official, “Remind Shawn” post. If it’s after 8:30AM EST, and I haven’t updated that widget in the corner, please don’t hesitate to slap me around a bit in the comment section. I deserve it.

(I don’t, however, deserve the kindness of you guys reminding me — but I’m just going to be thankful, and accept it on behalf of my family. They kinda want me around for the long haul, and high blood pressure sorta negates that likelihood. Thanks again.)

The downside is that I started working at Linux Journal a couple years too late. April Fool’s website spoofs aren’t nearly as popular as they once were, so the word didn’t get out like it might have even as little as one year ago. Still, it was incredibly fun, and for the most part was taken well by the audience. I particularly enjoyed writing the absurd little “articles” that posted on the front page. They’re very short, and linked below if anyone wants to see them:

• Video explaining the editorial shift
• Go Purple for Pentium Pro
• BeOS - The King of Recycling
• Antiquated Hardware Revitalized, Not Happy
• Bloggers are Bonkers for BeOS!
• BeOS Cluster Goes Live
• Sony Rumored to Buy BeOS
• NYC Subways Embed BeOS
• Operating System Programmers Flock to BeOS

The funniest part of the day was that a comment on the youtube video appreciated my humor, and thought my geeky hairdo was “staged” for the spoof. Uh… That’s just how my hair looks.

Thanks to all that played along, and thanks to Linux Journal for allowing my idea to overtake the website.

For more information, check out Linux Journal!

I’m still undecided, and usually have 2 or 3 cups of it a day…

Link to Sophie from Shinola, Part 1 (The story starts halfway down the page)

Sophie from Shinola, Part 2:

Objectively, Sophie knew that the real SpaceForce wasn’t all adventure and excitement, but compared to Chenolla VI, anything had to be an improvement. “Jeez”, she thought, “What’s taking so long?”

It was easy enough to take this little girl’s body over, but over the past few months, the Trageth officer had begun to sympathize with her “family” on Chenolla VI. Why aren’t these idiots preparing for the battle? Yes, the Space Force is powerful, but they can’t defend all the human planets at once. When the sterilization fleet comes to this planet, the best defense the humans will have is fishing poles!

All the preparations were made in the beryllium mine, and the accelerated decay was already spewing beryllium ions into subspace, signaling the start of the first wave. If Sophie didn’t get accepted into the Space Force, and off this planet, she would die with all the stupid fishermen.

“Why are they making us wait, Mom?” Sophie muttered, nervously.

“They’re warming up the brain remover, dear.” Said her mother, as she casually flipped a page in her magazine.

Sophie panicked, and almost suicidally released the real Sophie to avoid the torture herself. After a moment, however, she realized the mother was playing the human lying game. Some humans lied like this more than others, but Sophie’s mother was particularly evil. The past few months had taught her how to deal with situations like this, but with her current stress regarding the interview, she momentarily slipped. Thankfully, the mother hadn’t noticed.

“Shut up, Mom, they already removed my brain in school.”

“Nice, Soph. Nice.” her mother chuckled.

It was reasons like that which required the humans to be destroyed. They lied to their own nestlings! How could they ever be trusted as allies? Sophie was even more determined to get accepted into the Space Force and help destroy these evil creatures. They’re so seductive! So many times I’ve wanted to suggest a peace negotiation, and then they lie for nothing more than evil pleasure!

“Mom, what are you and Dad going to do when I go off to the Space Force?” Sophie asked.

“Oh, I think we’ll be fine, dear. The one I’m really worried about is Blink. Are you sure you don’t want him to stay here? No one is really sure if they can survive off planet, and you might not see him for months.”

Then, I saw a pair at the shoe store when I was replacing my 7 year old sneakers. I instantly fell in love, and bought them, not caring what anybody else in the world thought. Can a 32 year old man wear shoes like this and not look foolish? Uh, well, since it’s me we’re talking about, foolishness isn’t really on my no-no list, so it didn’t matter. As it turns out, however, everybody seems to love them.

Oh, and I always assumed they’d be terribly uncomfortable, since they have no arch support, or fancy new-age design. I was sooooo wrong. These shoes are amazingly comfortable. More comfortable than any shoes I’ve ever owned. Ever. They really are amazing, and I can’t picture a time in my future I won’t own a pair.

I’d like to take this time to share my views on speaking to your kids about drugs. Do it. Often.

Yes, yes, that’s a pretty common mantra, “Talk to your kids about drugs.” What I want to stress though, is that you really need to talk with them about drugs. Openly. Freely. With it being OK to joke about it, and ask questions, and be comfortable about the topic. We should discourage drug use, but encourage drug awareness.

If your child associates “drug talks” as some dark, threatening, awkward thing that must be endured from parents — your talks will do very little once your child grows “wings” of their own. Don’t let that happen. Make it so that your kids know more about drugs than the peers trying to force them into it. Let your kid be the one that confidently and correctly calls them idiots for doing drugs.

Ok, that’s my public service message. I’m proud of Amanda. She’s awesome.

• (1) Bottle of sparkling grape juice. (The kids like to pretend its wine)
• (2) Bags of Doritos (they’re on sale buy one get one)
• (3) Kid Cuisine TV dinners.

And this is the coupon that printed out for me:

Don’t get me wrong, $2.00 off seems like a good deal and all, but I find the demographics a bit off…

1) Janiece sent me this jam, because she’s really awesome, and I am pathetically awesomely fast with comments.

2) It arrived when I was in Houston, and my family waited until I got home to open it. Which means that:

3) The missing jam has all been consumed in the past few days.

I know what you’re thinking. I’m a big pig, and I eat the stuff out of the jar with a spoon. Well, you’re only partially right. I did take a big spoonful out to try it. BUT, the majority of jam consumption was accomplished by my family. That’s significant because they normally don’t like strawberry jam. This is assuredly due to the yumminess of her creation.

Thanks Janiece!!!