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20100701
Pictures of Ember
So much for getting the new site running. Pregnancy and now a new baby have precluded work on my site.
I do have photos of our brand new baby girl!
Comments for 06 July 2010
20100315
Site Redesign Coming Soon
So I've not done anything with this site for a long time. Thats going to change very soon. The site is currently running using pmwiki as its foundation, which is an excellent wiki program. However, with professional customers, and my experience with Rails, its time to change it up. I'm going to write my website from the ground up. Should be pretty soon.
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20091016
Twitter, Netbook, and A little one
So my twitter experiment started out as something a bit useful and interesting, but I just don't think I have the blogger's gene. Its hard to maintain a schedule and it doesn't seem to hold my attention very much.
I recently bought a netbook, specifically the MSI Wind U210 for $480. Correction, its not actually a 'netbook' its an 'ultraportable'. This is an important distinction... to someone. Its got the new AMD Neo processor. The point of the Neo is small and fast. I wanted to get something I could do development on anywhere. Say the 40 minutes a day I spend on the bus.
Most netbooks powered by the Intel Atom struggle at certain tasks, like flash video. My Wind can play you-tube size videos no problem, but struggles at larger videos, like you get from fancast or the tv network websites. I was slightly concerned that it might struggle to support a mysql server instance, the mongrel web server, many editors open, and a couple browsers. I am very happy to report that it takes all these things in stride, and I don't notice anything sluggishness at all.
Another plus is the Wind has a ATI Radeon X1250 graphics chipset, that gives it some 3D functionality. I actually played the fps game Portal without any hiccups until the end when you defeat GladOS?. This makes me think that for any modern game, it'll still be inadequate.
Another plus about the Wind is its size. My whole purpose in buying it was to facilitate working on programming contracts while on the bus, or anywhere else. I need to be able to take it places without needing to do a cost benefit analysis of carrying something heavy and bulky, but I also needed adequate screen real-estate and most importantly, a comfortable typing experience. The wind is a 12.1 in netbook instead of a 10 in, which makes a difference. The screen resolution can reach 1366 x 768, while smaller ones are capped at 1024 x 600. And the typing experience is very pleasant. The keys feel firm, and have a statisfying click when typing. The website talks about how the keyboard has a lot of nifty design touches designed to make it comfortable, and its true. My wrists are prone to being sore if I use them un-ergonomically, and my work and home computers are carefully setup to be natural. I've spent a lot of time typing on the Wind, and its not caused any problems.
Of course, there is a gotcha. With the bigger screen, more powerful processor and graphics card, the battery life does suffer. By suffer I mean you get an average of 4 hours out of it if you turn off the wi-fi and be conservative. Still beats many laptops, but lags behind the 7 hours of its smaller weaker siblings. Reviews indicate that under load, ie watching full screen movie, it lasts about 2 hours.
I highly recommend the Wind.
The other bit of news: Jana & I are having a baby! We found out 3 weeks ago, and will be due in June. We are both very excited, and a little worried about it. Morning(aka most of the day) sickness is not fun, but we hope it passes soon.
See you in another 7 months.... maybe.
Comments for 16 October 2009
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Comments for 24 October 2009
20090302
Justin's Blog & Twitter
So I learned that Justin changed blogs, not abandoned. I've updated the link in my sidebar. Additionally, I've decided that one reason for the lack of updates here is the amount of work to add a post. I've signed up at Twitter to see if the reduced friction leads to more updates. I'll see if I can integrate it into this site some time soon.
Comments for 02 March 2009
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Comments for 04 March 2009
20090124
Happily Ever After
So this is by far the longest streak of not updating my blog ever. This is of course because I got married and have been building our new life together. This has taken time and helped me establish priorities. I must say that married life is far better than being single, dating, or especially being engaged. I love Jana very much and she takes real good care of me.
We've got our challenges and obstacles that we face, but I've never felt better prepared to meet them.
Sorry for the delay, but you can find our wedding pictures here
~Tilendor
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