So if you haven’t heard of Jolicloud http://www.jolicloud.com/, then you need to download and install it now. It’s an Ubuntu based OS (a self-proclaimed “Cloud OS”) specifically designed for Netbooks, and it rocks. I have Jolicloud installed on my Samsung N110 Netbook, and I use it for everything from e-mail to games (snes9x) to work (Perl/Vim/Screen). Now what makes Jolicloud super-awesome is that it treats web applications no differently from desktop applications. Each application gets it’s own icon on the “Home screen”. It’s also socially aware - it can connect to facebook and allow you to search for applications and/or people who’ve used those applications, so that you can ask them questions and get guidance on the tools you’re trying to use.

The interface is very slick - big icons and a clean method of navigation to the lesser used functions of a standard Gnome/Ubuntu desktop. The most-awesomest part is that once you load up a terminal, you have full access to the command-line and all Ubuntu apt repositories.

Jolicloud isn’t just for netbooks! I’ve also installed it on my Acer Veriton (similar to the Acer Revo), and am using it as a media center OS. Jolicloud also comes in an “express” edition, which allows you to install it under windows, where it will come up as a secondary OS option under the windows boot-loader.

If you have a netbook, nettop, or any light-weight PC, then install Jolicloud. Highly recommended.

The way things are these days, you’d think that I, like I would imagine many other people in the world, would be thinking about money, the recession, the potential for war between countries who have been flirting with the bomb, my mother and the sale of her house, poverty in Africa, and the general suckage (is that a word?) in the world.

But no, I’m not thinking about those things.  What’s on my most most of the time is software development and programming.  I’m constantly thinking about what I’m good at, what I suck at, and what I need to do to get better.  Is that selfish?  Let me answer that - yes it is very selfish, but I don’t necessarily believe that selfishness is always a bad thing (part of me can relate to Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Rational Self-interest).

The question though is not “is this selfish?” Rather, the question I’m putting out there is “is this normal?” There are enough things going on right now in my life, dealing with situations and people that I find simply unreasonable, that I’m finding it hard to identify what is “reasonable” any more, because what I see as unreasonable seems to be the norm for the majority.

So is it wrong to think about my career and personal development during times of stress? I feel it to be instinctive to focus on your strengths during times of uncertainty, but what do others out there think? Do you feel that in times of stress, you should cut away from what you’re used to and try something new, or go on vacation? Or do you believe that it’s the perfect time to share with others, give back to your community or family and try to increase your karma (if you believe in such things)? These courses of action are not mutually exclusive, but it helps to identify what needs focus if they’re not jumbled together.

If this post seems a little incoherent, it’s 1am, and my eye-lids have been drooping constantly since I started typing.
Have a good night all :)

At work these days, because I’m the only developer on my “team”, I’ve been in the situation where I’m extending (which includes extensive, and often times ridiculous rounds of debugging) other peoples code.  Many of the projects I’ve inherited weren’t written to be maintained by anyone other than the original developers.  I’ve long ago come to accept that most programmers are not passionate about simplicity and elegance, and therefore write endless reams of code that over-complicate simple problems.

Now at VMware, I do work around some severely intelligent people, but unfortunately they are not developers, so I don’t work with them.  Because of this I often times rant to them about the ridiculousness of a given situation; and they’re smart, so they understand the problem technically, but because they aren’t working with me it would be hard for them to empathize with my frustrations.

I love reading Paul Graham’s essays every once in a while, because he seems to be able to understand and articulate my frustrations so well.  One in particular that I’ve been re-reading is Great Hackers which always makes me breathe a sigh of relief because he reminds me that I’m not crazy.

If you are a manager and have to manage a group of experienced programmers, I urge you to read that essay.  You just may prevent one of your developers from committing heinous acts of insanity.

I watched the second debate last night, and I was very disappointed.

Obama kept repeating his same old attacks against McCain, and McCain likewise.

The problem I have with these debates is that they are not moderated correctly, in my opinion.

Why wasn’t Tom Brokaw controlling the debate, insisting that they answer his questions directly?  Tom should have said something to the effect of “I want you both to answer these questions without resorting to criticism of one another.  I want a debate that focuses on solutions, and on your ability to answer the questions posed by the American people, not a debate based on what you think about each other.”

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Every once in a while my wife and I donate to various causes, including Breast Cancer Research, Diabetes Research, and Sick Kids Hospital, among others.  However, we’ve been talking about committing to one or more causes on a monthly basis for a long time.  Finally, one of the causes that I’ve personally decided to make a monthly commitment to, is Amnesty International.

Unless you are living with your head in the ground, you know that people are all over the world are living in chaos - fearing for their lives while being mistreated by terrorist groups and governments which operate as military dictatorships.

The media, including major “trusted” news outlets, do not cover most of the mass killings and crimes against humanity which are happening every day around the world.  It is disturbing to observe and acknowledge how many people I know who are not aware of the Genocide which took place in Rwanda in 1994, where over one million people were slaughtered, with nothing more than machetes, over a 3 month period.

I believe that everyone has the right to an Education, and the right to explore opportunities for health, wealth, and happiness the same way that I, or anyone else in North America does.

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Everyone has heard about Google’s first dive into the web browser market with their shiny new Chrome web browser. I’ve given the browser a try, and did some simple usability comparisons with it, and Mozilla’s Firefox 3. I must say that the browser does “feel” lighter, kind of like back in the day when Netscape decided to break Netscape Communicator into smaller components, separating out the e-mail client and composer application from the browser itself.. this just felt more responsive, and less bulky; this is what it feels like to use Chrome. However, this is just an illusion.

Firefox 3 is just as fast as Google Chrome in many respects (and in some cases much faster). However it still feels like good old Firefox. Why? Because the interface is almost identical to Firefox 2! Why change something that works, something that people like?

Google Chrome does have some nice features which the Mozilla guys have been working toward already, such as process independence for tabs, allowing you run each tab in it’s own isolated memory space - thus preventing one tab from crashing and taking down the rest of your web browser with it. Mozilla has had a version of Firefox available in Mozilla Labs called Prism, which does exactly the same thing. Although it’s still in development stages, it works great, and I use it every day for browsing GMail, Google Reader, etc.

The main problem I have with Google Chrome (seriously) is that.. it just isn’t Firefox. I know that may sound biased or prejudiced, but here’s my resoning.

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