After knowing about it for a long time, I finally joined Twitter. It was mostly due to my conversation with Jon Bischke this afternoon. He highly recommended Twitter as a learning tool. The idea is that you follow people you think are smart or are doing things that you would ...

Just about a month ago I purchased a laptop. Most of my time with computers has been with desktops, but I know how convenient the mobility of a laptop can be because I had one at my last job. I'd never owned one, though, until now. Mobility was important, but so ...

I just found out about Google's new browser, named Chrome. The browser looks like something I'll have to check out, eventually. I'm in no rush to try anything other than Firefox right now. What I was excited about was the comic that Google released to explain Chrome. It's in the style ...

After a couple weeks working on america.nmade.info, I decided that the domain name was too difficult to say and remember. I looked for other available names and, with the help of my wife, settled on whybuymadeinusa.com It was a fairly easy change and I've forwarded the old domain to resolve at ...

I'm working on a new project now that I have some free time. I'm experimenting with a Ruby on Rails blogging web application similar to Wordpress. It's called typo. So far I'm pleased. I'm using typo on a new project called American Made. The domain name is actually america.nmade.info because "americanmade.info" ...

The uptime command on my work laptop reveals this: 11:16 up 39 days, 10:43, 4 users, load averages: 0.45 0.31 0.34 I need a break! I'm shutting down the laptop for the drive to Chicago. We'll be spending some time with Chanel's family and then picking my parents up from O'Hare ...

Most of us have a beginner's programming book that we no longer use. We may also have a book on a programming language (or framework) that we were once interested in, but not any longer. What to do with these? Give them away! Bookmooch.com is a great social marketplace that operates on ...

I've discovered a productivity increasing benefit to doing all my work on a laptop. I can do my work in the library with the students during study hall. This motivates me to keep on task a little better than when I'm in my work room by myself. I make an ...

I'm moving all my work applications to a computer that has one fourth the memory, a fifth the hard drive space, and two slower processor cores instead of the four fast processor cores of my current G5 Quad tower. What am I thinking?! I'm thinking that the slower computer is a ...

I used to sell books on the internet through half.com and alibris.com, but my inventory hasn't been very profitable of late and I have a whole bookshelf of books that I don't really need. Enter Bookmooch.com. It works great. There's a way to earn points by listing books to give away ...