Tough-Guy Tech Terminology

Sorry I haven’t posted in a while. It’s vacation time and I was just in Vegas, which is now one of my favorite places. So, to honor the spirit of Vegas, I have compiled a random list of off-the-cuff, sort-of cool terms used by the toughest of techs… Read more

Death to eBay, Long Live StubHub

Did you know that eBay users can retract their bids? Yeah, it blew me away too except I found out the hard way. Recently I purchased season tickets to the Washington Capitals, and as a bonus, I was given the option to purchase additional reserved tickets to the 2008 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Hoping to make some money back from my $3000+ purchase, I put a set of such tickets on eBay. The auction received a handful of bids as the Capitals battled the Fliers in what would be a seven game series. The tickets listed were to a game late in the series, and at the time, things were looking bleak after the Caps returned home on a sad note after dropping a game in Phillthy. The auction ended the day before the game, but when I checked to see who had won, I noticed the number of bids had actually gone down. Read more

Day 5 of Trip - Last Day in San Francisco

It’s fitting that my time exploring the hills of San Francisco had its ups and downs. I had some bad days and I had some good days,but they balanced out and resulted in a richer and more impacting experience. I think when given a choice, most people would prefer a life of good and bad over a life of routine indifference. It reminds me of something a professor and friend of mine once asked, “Who wants an easy life?” Read more

Day 4 of Trip - Wake-Up San Francisco!

Like their organic food, vintage clothing, and analog instruments, leave it to hippies and liberal scenesters to project value onto things that produce the same old shit. Being from Baltimore, it’s pretty difficult for me to be anything less than amazed when I visit another city but somehow San Francisco managed to pull this off during the first of two days I have entirely devoted to experiencing it. On second thought, I must applaud you… Read more

Day 3 of Trip to Google IO - In The Court of The Crimson King

What a difference a day can make! All the tech snobbery in the world couldn’t hold a candle to the handful of legends I came across today. Before I go any further and risk losing your attention, shout-outs go out to the following heroes of life…

Abdul-Karriem Khan spells one passionate and energetic developer. At the end of Steve Souder’s presentation (mentioned below) Abdul stepped up to the microphone to voice his disagreement as to the source of IE’s (Microsoft Internet Explorer) dilemma, accusing IE developers of being irresponsible and apathetic, failing to resolve a crippling memory leak that has plagued the browser ever since the word “Firefox” Read more

Day 2 of Trip to Google IO - First Day of Conference

Waking up at 6:30AM is not something I do very frequently working a late shift. However, doing this on the west coast made it seem like 9:30AM, which is a lot more agreeable. Arrival to Google IO was just about what I expected it to be. So many nerds and people with laptops, all my kind of people. My kind of people except for those rude international types, you know who I’m talking about, haha. On my way to the bathroom, I got big props for my t-shirt from this one dude, a sure sign that I’m rep’n the east coast proper. Read more

Day 1 of Trip to Google IO - San Francisco or Bust

Leave it to me to have airport security remark, ‘this guy’s got a lot of electronics.’ As my carry-on passed through the x-ray, this dude’s remark was understandable and probably the right reaction upon seeing a bag containing a digital camera, Nintendo DS and games, a PDA, a cell phone, MacBook, and all the chargers and cables to fuel them. Anyone that has traveled with me knows that’s just how I roll, but to my surprise, I passed through without being searched. If I was working airport security and saw someone with so many wires, I would probably pull them aside to at least visually inspect the bag. Maybe it was my charm at the metal detector that let them know I was a friendly, or maybe it was the dude’s keen eye for quality electronics. Read more

I’ve Been Messing With Plesk!

I admit that I haven’t been too good lately at writing and updating this blog. Apologies go out to anyone that has been greeted with disappointment and that gnome graphic from my last post eagerly awaiting an update. I can’t be too hard on myself though because it’s not a product of laziness, I have been working on some websites and other things behind the scenes or as the developer community calls ìthe back-end. I use a virtual server to host this website and other various projects. It basically means that I exert an amount of control over the computer that is hosting my websites to the internet. Like other computers, servers and virtual servers run some form of an operating system. Most servers run a linux/unix based OS, but my insatiable desire for an intuitive and idiot-proof back-end resulted in choosing a Windows Virtual Server with a Plesk control panel. Read more

Your Network, and Torrent Ports Explained

It seems the vast majority of broadband internet subscribers are content when their internet is working, enraged when it’s not, and oblivious to its fundamental mechanics. One of the most fascinating and visible phenomenons of technology is an ongoing disassociation between the consumer’s perception and their understanding of value. In short, new technologies are introduced faster than consumers can learn about them. Read more