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Hmmm

Matt — Thu, 13 May 2010 01:14:17 +0000

The test post from ye old iPhone.

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Pardon the Appearance

Matt — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 02:56:21 +0000

Please excuse the mess around here. I’m using this blog to test some themes and other plugins. I expect a few things to get broken while I play around. Hopefully my new project, fuelforstudents.com, doesn’t distract me too much.

Large Hadron Collider Presentation

Matt — Sat, 30 May 2009 13:45:43 +0000

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ScratchDay @ MIT

Matt — Mon, 18 May 2009 21:35:24 +0000

I attended ScratchDay 2009 @ MIT on Saturday May 16th. I’ve been an advocate of Scratch for about a year and a half. I love the low barrier of entry, programming / science_single skills, and sandbox-type environment. We got play around around a little bit and connect with other educators. Some new sites are going to be cropping up to help educators implement Scratch. Look for ScratchEd (headed by Karen Brennan) to appearing soon. The new version of Scratch (1.4) will also be able to interact with Lego WeDo motors and modules.

However, Scratch aside I was really excited to get to poke around the MIT Media Lab and Lifelong Kindergarten area. If I were to redesign our computer lab. I would do it around something like the Lifelong Kindergarten room. Couches, work areas, modular furniture, organizing bins, and organized chaos as far as the eye could see. It was the kind of place the invited you to work. Now I just need to find the naugehide couches.

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Test Post from iPhone

Matt — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 15:10:44 +0000

Just testing the new WordPress app on the iPhone.

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Evil Empire

Matt — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 13:05:59 +0000

I understand that both Apple and Microsoft are evil. I find their maliciousness manifests itself in different ways. While Apple locks me with DRM’ed iTunes tracks, AppleTV, iPhone, and integrated iLife apps, I’m willing to forgive them. Its like having a lover who you know will eventually screw you over, but you keep going back to her, thinking this time it will be different or somehow it was your fault. Maybe its because the apps are pretty. Maybe its Steve’s reality distortion field.

Microsoft is like a coworker that you abhor, but have to work with anyways. Think Lumbergh from Office Space. I’ve tried to escape their icy grip, but Microsoft keeps pulling me back in. Since I’ve moved the MacBook Pro, I’ve tried like hell to use Bean and Google Docs more frequently. The rub lies in the fact so many documents I’ve created are in the MS Office black hole, never to escape. Now that I’m making a system image for our new MacBooks at school, do I dare not include MS Office in the image? Would there be wide scale revolt? Or would there be other brave revolutionaries that are willing to throw off the yoke of brutal MS oppression? (ed. Please note note the slight hyperbole was thrown in for effect)

Movin’ On Up

Matt — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 02:07:31 +0000

I just upgraded to Wordpress 2.5. The admin interface has all the web 2.0 goodness. The Cleaker Theme is chugging along pretty well, woo hoo. The PhotoDropper plugin is kaput, d’oh. I’ll be putting it through its paces, but so far so good.

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Technorati Post

Matt — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 23:17:34 +0000

Technorati Profile
Here it is

Application Battle

Matt — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 16:49:55 +0000

My battle against application creep wages on. There have been some heavy losses. In moment of weakness I installed Microsoft Office 2008. I haven’t used it yet, although some the chart templates in Word are tempting. Windows XP inflicted the greatest damage. I’m using that albatross with VMWare’s Fusion. It seems like an unholy alliance, Mac and Windows working together. With these major losses I have fought off some smaller incursions. I resisted installing Evernote. I’m not feeling a burning desire to index everything in my life. Similar attempts via programs like Yojimbo have fallen flat on their face. I can’t be a professional organizer like Merlin Mann. I haven’t installed Camino or Adobe CS3 yet, although I may not be able to resist their siren call for too long. With 28 GB of 230 GB claimed on hard drive. I think I’m winning the battle of hard drive bulge.

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New MacBook Pro

Matt — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 23:12:27 +0000

After a week of waiting, my MacBook Pro is finally here. It has been five years since I last plunked down some change to get a G4 Powerbook. The G4’s hard drive had less than a gigabyte in space, the lower RAM slot was fried, and the warped case would pop out the power adapter every five minutes. What’s funny is the MacBook Pro looks almost identical. The real differences are under the hood. Compare this to the old laptop:

2.6 GHz processor vs. 1.5 GHz
2 GB of RAM (I’ll be upgrading to 4 GB soon) vs. 512 GB
230 GB of Hard disk space (about 214 GB is usable) vs. 80 GB

With all these additional features, I am debating loading my laptop with some additional software. In particular, I’m wondering if I should upgrade the Microsoft Office and Adobe Design Suites. Both software suites cost a fair bit money. I also tend to find them a bit bloated for my needs. I’m debating whether I can dodge Adobe by using Pixelmator and VectorDesigner. I think I’ll be able to get by with Bean and iWork instead of Office. I know iWork is a bit bloated, but its integration with iLife and lower price give it some clear advantages. I’m beginning to question each application and document I put on my hard drive. Like any diet, the trouble isn’t losing the weight, it’s keeping it off.