Posts

Showing posts from 2015

Evolution Of A Roach

Growing up in New York City gave me plenty of opportunities to observe roaches.  I remember the first ones I saw run away from me in a straight line.  Despite their speed, they were easy to chase down and step on. A later generation of roaches learned to zig-zag as they tried to escape.  Those were much harder to catch. Then there were the roaches I spotted on the wall.  They were fairly easy pickings, but a later generation startled me.  As I closed in for the kill, they let themselves fall to the floor and then scurried away.  Their ability to learn and evolve was little bit frightening. I was a child then, and now, as an adult living in the suburbs, haven’t seen a roach in quite a while… until recently at Grand Central Station.  That day, like all the days before, morning commuters slowly, quietly, somberly, shuffled off the train toward their places of work.  But the woman in front of me suddenly broke stride and jumped and twitched.  Then zigged.  Then zagged.

Ohio LinuxFest 2015

Image
This is a shout out to Ohio LinuxFest 2015 .  On October 2-3, they will have their thirteenth annual gathering to talk all things Linux.  It takes place in Columbus Ohio at the downtown convention center. The first time I attended was back in 2008.  It was free, so I made the 10 hour drive from NY to Ohio. It was worthwhile and I attended again in 2011, but as a “supporter” contributing $25 to the cause.  I learned much. Last year, 2014, I had the nerve to attend as a speaker and gave a talk: “Stupid Shell Tricks” I had the after lunch sleepy crowd, and the organizers gave me the “big” room to fill.  At first, not many showed up and that made me nervous. But as the start time neared, more people showed up, and well… that made me nervous too  (sorry for the blurry photo, but my hands were shaking). My presentation and demos were driven off a raspberry pi with a Lego enclosure: And once I started, I grew confident.  My secret weapon was my raspberry pi had so