Stanford CS Youtube videos, an idea…

I had an idea concerning the online Stanford CS courses. Since I will never be able to attend Stanford for a CS degree I was thinking about assembling a group of cyber friends that have the similar goals concerning programming and Computer Science education. And like myself don’t have the means to physically attend.

Maybe we could start a message board and schedule class times or goals around assignments etc. We could converse regularly and help one another out and take advantage of the group setting even if it is over the internet.

Just a though. Drop me a comment or an email if you’d like to discuss further.

jryanitpro@gmail.com

Hope to hear from you!!!

Ubuntu final flash issues!

I finally was able to install Ubuntu 9.10 today final. I was interested to see if the Ubuntu One error was gone and it was.

It seems that I had trouble installing the flash non-free plug-in though.

I installed it from Adobes redirect in Firefox, restarted the browser and nothing. I then tried installing flash from within the new software center and again after installing adobe flash plug-in and restarting, it did not work.

My last option was to install the restricted extras package and woala it works!

Just a friendly suggestion maybe we can just install the restricted extras by default when installing flash. At the very least the install failures I received will be discouraging to new users and will also have the trolls attacking Ubuntu/Linux saying we can’t get even something so simple solved still.

Al the seeming successful install that did not work for me went off wothout a hitch and lead me to believe everything went fine. Too many options and especially when they do not work will only make the world question can Linux ever get it right on the desktop. Why does it seem that we get something solved only to have it reveal it self in another bug or use case.

Believe me I want Linux to succeed and I plan to help wherever I can I just have not been able to get assimilated in to a project to help yet.

I’ll keep you all updated

As I said in the previous blog Ubuntu has done some real special things in this release in spite of flash install issues I had.

Joe

Launchpad’s “Secret Sauce”!

I noticed on Launchpad’s site that the plans to open source the service is scheduled to be completed by the middle of 2009. The only thing that struck me as odd was the fact that there are components that Canonical see as their “secret sauce”. Those components will not be open sourced.

It makes you wonder how a company with a business plan of servicing freely acquired software, can justify writing their own software and choosing to keep some closed because that is their “secret sauce”. What if the Linux kernel decided that their was a subsystem that was their way of keeping the competition at bay and they would only release, let’s say, the scheduler as binary only. This just doesn’t seem to jive with the spirit of community and giving back and such.

As always just my 2 cents worth.

C++ as a first language!

Hello world! This will be my first blog post ever. I have been itching for a while to start a blog and share my two cents, so off we go.

    I have just began my first class toward earning my degree in computer science and thought that it would be a good conversation starter. I began my life as a geek late in life (at 30). Last year I started getting more interested in automating system administration tasks in my job as a Windows System Admin. That was the beginning of my interest in programming. I started googling for opinions as to the best way to get started. This lead me to ultimately get interested in Linux mostly due to the fact that everything was wide open to learn. I couldn’t seem to get my bearings as to what direction to take. I spent more time then I should have constantly going deeper at every level I would hope to settle in it. The interest I had now was at a much deeper level then scripting or for that matter programming applications. I want to be at the OS/Hardware level and fealt that the best way for me to move forward would be to pursue a degree in computer science. Not as much about the degree but my interests seem to map very closely to the path taken through computer science with a concentration on Operating System design and implementation. Learning by reading alone seems not to work the best for me. Although I am very motivated and focused I just know from getting my degree in Networking Information Systems that no book could compare to the interaction you get in an environment with people from all levels and backgrounds. Not to mention the relationships that can be gained with like minded people.

    For a while I visited Berkeley’s online lectures listening in to get a feel as to what the classes may be like. Needless to say I learned that the beginnings of a computer science education could be very different. The whole thing of functional programming (Scheme) being the best place to start then move closer to the hardware with C after a few terms. In other words some schools seem to be starting students out in C some in Java, C++, Scheme etc. The reasons seem to get religious and even make sense but where I started my education it was neither Scheme or C it was C++. Somewhat in the middle of the two extremes. I seem to be picking things up nicely but I thought I would ask you guys what your opinions are.

    1. Do you think C++ is a good starting point? If not, why?

    2. Where did you attend and what was their philosophy?

    3. How did it ultimately work out for you?

Thanks and I look forward to hearing from you all!

Joe