Technology
Category archives for Technology
Is Solar Energy Totally Bogus or Something that Gives Hope?
Posted by Greg Laden on February 25, 2013 
I recently posted a simple Internet meme suggesting that if we subsidized solar energy like we subsidized fossil fuels that this could be good. I posted that on Google Plus an it engendered way over 300 comments, many of which attempted to explain, often rather impolitely, that solar energy was inefficient or in some other…
Ubuntu Linux Made Easy
Posted by Greg Laden on February 17, 2013 
I checked out the book Ubuntu Made Easy: A Project-Based Introduction to Linux by Rickford Grant and Phil Bull (No Starch Press). With any book like this, the trick is matching it to the correct user. If you are the kind of person inclined to install the latest version of Ubuntu on your computer, you…
How do you turn off unneeded processes on an iMac?
Posted by Greg Laden on January 13, 2013 
Short answer: You don’t. More interesting answer: You only think you want to do that, what are you, some kind of a Microsoft Windows user or something? Actual answer: You probably don’t, but if you do, it is a rather fun and interesting thing to try. But really, mostly, don’t. I recently discovered a nifty…
Messing with your iMac
Posted by Greg Laden on December 25, 2012 These days it is hard to find an “aftermarket” computer book that does a better job than Google in providing information for messing with ever (and rapidly) evolving and changing software. Master Your Mac: Simple Ways to Tweak, Customize, and Secure OS X by Matt Cone, which is published in 2013, i.e., the future, actually…
Do you know where your .emacs file is? UPDATED
Posted by Greg Laden on December 12, 2012 I just reconfigured my laptop with a new system (a form of Linux) and, almost as important, a new power brick. That second item may be more interesting than it sounds for some of you; I’ll write that up later. This change also meant trashing my emacs configuration file. I didn’t have to trash it,…
Canadian Scientists Create Virtual Human Brain
Posted by Greg Laden on December 5, 2012 
A large scale model of a human brain has been created by a team of scientists at the Centre for Theoretical Neuroscience, University of Waterloo, Ontario. This is a virtual model, inside a computer, that involves 2,5 million virtual neurons structures in a pattern resembling the overall human brain’s anatomy, including cortical regions, motor control…
Scratch: A kids programming environment that is easy and works!
Posted by Greg Laden on November 25, 2012 Super Scratch Programming Adventure!: Learn to Program By Making Cool Games is a book designed for the youngest kids who can read comics and basic text who want to learn to program. The prgramming environment, Scratch, will be familiar to those who have experimented with Logo and Squeak. Especially Squeak. Scratch is a very easily…
Is Python The New Basic? (“Python For Kids”)
Posted by Greg Laden on November 24, 2012 My first computer language was PL/1, but soon after I learned, among other languages, Basic, and I really liked Basic and I still do. Basic is linear, and I think in linear constructs when I do any kind of computer program. This is probably, in part, because user interfaces are the last thing I want…
What is the Software Freedom Law Center?
Posted by Greg Laden on November 2, 2012 This:
Wildebeest Crashes Into Window…s Event
Posted by Greg Laden on October 28, 2012 A wild GNU was spotted at some sort of event organized by a computer company named “Microsoft” which was launching a new version of its operating system. The GNU, accompanied by some friends carrying literature related to the widely used Unix-like operating system, GNU/Linux, did not cause any damage or harm to the attendees, but…
What Open Source Software has Good Usability?
Posted by Greg Laden on October 23, 2012 Are you interested in software usability and open source? If so, my friend Jim would like your help. He is doing a study of usability in Open Source software. I’ll post his entire request below along with a link to his blog. Also, he’ll probably be doing some other interent based interolocution about this; I’ll…
Which Linux Do I Turn To In My Hour of Need?
Posted by Greg Laden on September 29, 2012 RIP Ubuntu. Ubuntu was great. For years, I kept trying to get my own Linux box up and running, initially so I could relive the halcyon days of UNIX and later so I could avoid Windows. But every time I tried to get Linux working some key thing would not be configurable or would not…
What Apple, Microsoft and the Rest of Them Don’t Get
Posted by Greg Laden on September 29, 2012 Apple, Microsoft, Dell, IBM, Google, all of them … the companies that make the hardware and software we use … are, it would seem, ignorant, probably willfully so, of an important thing. We use their hardware and software in our work. Many individuals are like miniature institutions or corporations. Our HR department, our payroll department,…
Anyone for a game of pong?
Posted by Greg Laden on September 13, 2012 When I look at the Atari Arcade, I get a bunch of gobbledygook but if I click on individual links to individual games, I get an interesting experiment in HTML 5.0 demonstrating old fashioned character-based-graphic style games. Here are the links, but I suggest right-clicking and opening in a new window or tab so you…
To Do List Software for Mac
Posted by Greg Laden on September 13, 2012 I tried out a few “to do list” applications for the iMac and thought I’d pass on what I learned. I wanted to see if anything was more useful or more interesting than Reminders, supplied with the iMac. Conclusion: No, but one app has promise once they get it to work for syncing to a…
Learn To Code
Posted by Greg Laden on September 13, 2012 My friend Adria Richards on why you should learn to code: More details, especially if you are a girl, here. Books mentioned in the video: Learn to Program, Second Edition (The Facets of Ruby Series) The Book of Ruby: A Hands-On Guide for the Adventurous Eloquent Ruby (Addison-Wesley Professional Ruby Series) Design for Hackers: Reverse…
Cheat Sheet Mac App Is Good (Keyboard Shortcuts)
Posted by Greg Laden on September 12, 2012 As a person who only recently started sing an iMac, I find myself wanting to know the keyboard shortcuts for apps I’m using almost every work session. CheatSheet by Stefan Fürst is a great way to do that. Pressing and holding the command key while Cheat Sheet is running brings up what looks to me…
Should the kid have an iPad or one of the alternatives?
Posted by Greg Laden on September 12, 2012 I love the iPad, but it is not really suitable for young kids, because it requires an adult perspective on life to operate it correctly. For example, for a two year old, there is nothing more fun than figuring out how to make all the little icons dance, and once you do that, there is…
Apple Bites
Posted by Greg Laden on September 6, 2012 I love my iMac and my iPad. I also love my Linux box and my Linux laptop. I strongly dislike Windows and most Microsoft products. I prefer emacs over vi but I am falling in love with BBEdit. Just so you know. Having said all that, this is funny: And then, there is the Three…
iMac Weather Menu Bar App Thingie
Posted by Greg Laden on August 13, 2012 I am now using an iMac for a lot more than I ever used a Mac of any kind before, and in so doing I’m discovering some interesting software. I will therefore be telling you about it, because it is much more interesting than telling you about what I had for lunch or dinner. (Having…
Publishing with Apple’s iBook Author
Posted by Greg Laden on August 7, 2012 I am making a couple of iBooks. I’ve already produced three of them, but you can’t see them because they were experimental and they have been mercifully deleted. I found three or four problems (mainly with my own design and understanding) that I’ll tell you a little about below. There are things to consider when…
Curse the appearing ghost menus
Posted by Greg Laden on July 31, 2012 Do you know what I’m talking about? They are everywhere. Here are a few places you can find them: In recent WordPress installs, in the comment management section, the menu that gives you “save, edit, spam” etc choices is invisible until you move your cursor near it. In Unity, all the menus are invisible until…
The Linux Command Line
Posted by Greg Laden on July 18, 2012 
I just got a copy of The Linux Command Line: A Complete Introduction. I read one review of it a while back which was quite positive, suggesting that the book was both really useful and really not boring. Here’s the description from the publisher: You’ve experienced the shiny, point-and-click surface of your Linux computer—now dive…
Dear Internet Don’t Do This
Posted by Greg Laden on July 4, 2012 
And you too, computer, now that I think of it. I have a list here of things that are annoying that are similar to each other in that they interfere with my most basic use of the computer. Most of the time I demand very little of a computer. Writing text in a text editor…
Nvidia support for Linux UPDATED!
Posted by Greg Laden on June 19, 2012 Linux inventer Linus Torvalds gave a talk recently at Aalto University in Finland. It is a very interesting talk that anyone involved in Open Source technology or computer software development would enjoy. During the talk, the issue of support for Linux from hardware manufacturers came up, and Linus had a comment for Nvidia, which it…
Technology Film Fest
Posted by Greg Laden on June 7, 2012 Here we have a handful of great technological marvels depicted in small videos.
Firefox menu, FreeDOS, bash, Mint, question
Posted by Greg Laden on June 3, 2012 
The big new of the day in the OpenSource world is that FreeDOS’s web site, revised and updated, is out of Beta and fully up and running, here. If you click through you’ll find an update on a number of recent changes and updates to the operating system. Just in case you need to know…
Is Road Train a reality?
Posted by Greg Laden on May 30, 2012 
Perhaps. The project is a collective effort funded by the European Commission, and led by British company Ricardo which develops engines, transmissions, and vehicles systems among other things. Chief among the consortium’s participants is Swedish auto manufacturer Volvo. Utilizing Volvo’s own automobiles, the project works by stringing together a group of cars in order to…
iPads in the Science Classroom: The Bad, The Ugly, and The Good
Posted by Greg Laden on May 25, 2012 I know of a couple of cases where high schools are switching to the use of iPads or other tablets, replacing existing computer infrastructure with the handy and very cool computing device. When it comes to technology, I’ve never been particularly impressed with school administrations, and K-12 technology departments tend to be a little under-resourced…
How to us the ‘rm’ command in Linux
Posted by Greg Laden on May 20, 2012 
, which is now available for the 
