ralph phillips .com

i'm tired of being out-googled by that cartoon character from the 50s

Category Archives: computers / technology

Build a Writing Habit

screen shot from Focus WriterI’m a big fan of lifehacker.com and they had a top five list for some distraction-free writing applications. I opted to try out FocusWriter.

So far I’m digging it, but we’ll have to see if the habit sticks. FocusWriter automatically goes into full screen mode and allows you to customize the document theme. I’m writing with some light green text on a very dark gray “page” with a bamboo forest wallpaper showing around the edges. Unless you mouse to the very top of the screen or bottom there are no menus or status bars to distract you. You can Alt+Tab to another open application/desktop if necessary, but you won’t see those icons taunting you from the task bar.

The feature that impressed me the most was the goal setting. You set a daily writing goal in the preferences based on amount of time or words per day. I started off with 30 minutes per day but realized that having the document active and daydreaming counted. So, I’ve switched over to 750 words per day. So far I’m at about 900 words and 120% of my daily goal. Woo hoo!

I Like Computer Games

Spore
Spore by Sara Crubellier, on Flickr

Sara Crubellier (Flickr)

I regularly meet with students that want to major in Computer and Information Systems (CIS) at our community college. One of my first questions is something along the lines of “what area of computing and technology interests you?” “I like computer games” is a very common response.

I like Coen brothers movies, but damned if I’ve found a way to earn a living watching them.

At this point in the conversation I start to inquire if making computer games is their interest, or is it playing computer games. For the half that think they want to make computer games, I encourage them and point out that it’s going to take a serious dedication to computer programming. They may need to look into a computer science program at a 4-year school because our community college, like many others, doesn’t offer much in programming and certainly not much in upper-level programming.

For the ones that dream of a life as a game tester, I refer them to a very good article from Seattle Weekly that came out a few years ago. It documents the author’s foray into computer game testing as a job and will hopefully open their eyes. Game testers barely make much above minimum wage and often don’t have regular, guaranteed work. It’s something that most do on the side.

Check out Karla Starr’s article at Seattle Weekly for the full story.

Easy Peasy Installation

I’ve only had Easy Peasy for a day but it looks like it’s going to be a good OS for my netbook.

I’ve had my Acer netbook for a couple of years now and have been mildly disappointed with it’s speed and responsiveness. I purchased a model that has a 16GB solid-state drive (SSD) and Linpus Lite for the OS. Linpus Lite is a stripped-down Linux version.

I recently put a Windows 7 installation on and the system was bogged down even more. After a bit of research, I came across Easy Peasy, which used to be called Ubuntu EEE. The installation was really quite easy…

  1. Download the Easy Peasy iso file.
  2. Download the Windows installer to make the bootable USB drive.
  3. Format a USB drive with FAT to prep the bootable drive.
  4. Change the boot order on the netbook to boot from the USB.
  5. Follow the directions for installing Easy Peasy into the drive partition I wanted.

A netbook is great for getting some basic work done on a smaller device that fits easily in my bike bag, but I haven’t used it as much in the past year since I’ve acquired an iPod Touch. I’m hoping that with a more convenient OS I’ll rely on the netbook more often.