joshclarkson.net

I just installed the new wordpress app for Android phones. Now I can blog from anywhere! Of course writing things on a tiny phone screen is kind of funny. But I guess it’s nice for starting a draft when an idea strikes you, wherever you may be.

I think I’ll try this out for while. Hey, if it gets me to write a little more, that’s a good thing.

Thanks to those of you following my blog these last few years, I’ve enjoyed explaining the intricacies of web programming. I sometimes use these posts to work out problems by attempting to explain them in writing. Its helpful to have a void to dump your ideas into where you can examine them and still have the pressures of public scrutiny.

From the wikipedia article, Luddite:

The Luddites were a social movement of British textile artisans in the early nineteenth century who protested—often by destroying mechanised looms—against the changes produced by the Industrial Revolution, which they felt were leaving them without work and changing their entire way of life.

As a proponent of software efficiency measures at home and in the workplace, I occasionally detect a subtle, yet tangible, animosity toward new ideas in the technological realm. Fortunately, few today would turn to “machine breaking”. Yet there does seem to be the more passive aggressive form of industrial sabotage, the refusal to grow or learn. I don’t think people generally hold an overall dystopian view of technology in a broad sense for our society. Just that on a personal level the resistance to even small changes is a great barrier. Like a wire, cut and wrapped in plastic insulation, the power cannot reach the place it is needed.

So where do you stand in your relationship with technology? Are you a tech lover,a technophobe, or somewhere in between?

If this is you:

“I’m afraid of techology, get me out of here.”

Admit it. Your aggression towards technological advancement is really based in fear. Fear you might be left behind. Fear of the unknown. Fear of failure. The only way to conquer your fears is to face them. For me, changing the oil in my truck is a similar challenge. It takes me way longer than it should. My knuckles get all bruised up and I hate all the grunting and messing with wrenches and nasty fluids.

However the truth is we all are comfortable doing what we are good at. And the more you do the better you become at it. It’s called “practice”. The piano virtuoso MUST practice diligently to become a master.

Dealing with technology comes with it’s own kind of grease that rubs off and gets in your hair and clothes, but you’ll come to tolerate it for the satisfaction of a job well done.

If this is you:

“I still love technology… Always and Forever“

I’m in this category and I struggle to keep my technophilia from becoming transhumanism. But the reality is we can become too obsessed with technology. If we ignore our families, our ideals, or our life altogether.

Twitter is awesome, but who has time to fire up a browser, log in, type what you’re doing, just to be a part of the Twitter sensation?   If you spend more of your time on the command line, I’ll show you how to send your twitter messages using a simple bash script.

#!/bin/bash

user=twitteruser
pass=twitterpass
tweet=$1
curl -u ${user}:${pass} -d status=${tweet} http://twitter.com/statuses/update.xml

Save this bash script in your ~/bin directory and chmod 700.  Now you can tweet right from the command line.

tweet "Twitter is better from the command line"

If you’d rather not put your password in a text file (think multi-user systems) then, take out the “:${pass}” and curl will ask for it each time you run the “tweet” script.

So you want to give Linux a try but you’re not sure if you want to commit?  That would normally mean that you have to either take the plunge and hope you can figure it out or find an old computer to install it on and give it a try.  I have many family and friends who are very familiar with Windows and are just plain afraid to try anything else.   There’s a very exciting program called Wubi that I want to tell you about.  Its been around for just a while now and what it is is a Windows program executable (exe) that installs Ubuntu Linux into a file location on Windows.  Here’s a quote from Wubi:

Wubi is an officially supported Ubuntu installer for Windows users that can bring you to the Linux world with a single click. Wubi allows you to install and uninstall Ubuntu as any other Windows application, in a simple and safe way. Are you curious about Linux and Ubuntu? Trying them out has never been easier!

If you have a high speed internet connection I would recommend trying this free software.  Just run the install program,  Linux will be installed on your system and will be easy to remove if you want later.   I often recommend Open Source software to people around me, and this one is a no brainer.

For a more detailed overview visit http://wubi-installer.org/index.php