Darwin Weyh's Blog

Another year another post

dcweyh — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 23:55:12 +0000

Well another year has passed and like I said before I’m gonna try to post more here. So we’ll see if another post follows soon.

I’m back

dcweyh — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 20:28:25 +0000

Wow last post was in May of 2009. I guess I got lazy and depressed.
What’s been happening:

We lost our house and moved into a nice rental.
I’m still searching for full time employment but have increased my hours to almost 2/3rd’s full time
My youngest daughter has decided she misses the pace of life here in Michigan and moved back from California.
and in a couple weeks I’ll be a grandpa

I’ll expound on all this as in future posts. I just want to get back to posting more here and get back in the flow.

Another Month Gone

dcweyh — Fri, 29 May 2009 23:33:57 +0000

Well this month seemed to pass too quickly. I’ve been busy with my job search. I got some “free” business cards from Vista Print. I’ve joined a couple networks and attended a “Pink Slip Party” by DetroitNET.org. At the networking event they had a professional resume writer who looked at my “grocery list” resume. So I’ve been reworking it to more reflect me accomplishments and skills and not just a list of my old jobs. All in all I think is was a worthwhile evening and plan on attending more.

I also plan to hit the pavement and distribute my cards to local businesses to see if they have any IT needs. Hopefully with the rumors that the economy may have bottomed out folks may start looking to the future and have computer things they have been putting off.

I need a better Media Server!!

dcweyh — Fri, 01 May 2009 17:46:06 +0000

I haven’t had any issues with going with the 64 bit version of Ubuntu and am very happy with that decision. The only thing I haven’t gotten working to my liking is my Media Server. I have an older D-Link DSM-320 media lounge that I have setup in the family room and like to watch my media there.

I had been using Tversity on my XP box and was waiting for a Linux version they said they were working on. When I went to the site, they had released a new ‘Pro’/Pay version with no word on Linux so I decided to move on since I put all my media on my Linux Box.

I tried Mediatomb but couldn’t get it to transcode properly when I was viewing some videos it was stuttering and pixelating.

I had always liked the Twonky Product but it’s not free so I had to search around for the 30 day trial 64 bit version for Linux. I installed it and it worked great. The transcoding worked great. The true test is watching scenes with water like fishing or swimming. It all seemed to work great but again they seem to be heavy on the Windows Development so I hope they keep up on the Linux side. I just now have to decide what I’m going to do after my 30-days especially with my current underemployment it’s hard to justify the $30.

My Development Environment is setup

dcweyh — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 21:52:35 +0000

I’ve been using Eclipse for my development environment on Linux. I got the 64bit version working with the help of The 64 Bit Jungle. This may be my ‘GOTO’ site for 64 bit problems. I also decided to go with the Xdebug debugger. I was using Zend before the upgrade but I thought I’d give Xdebug a try. I haven’t gotten into it much other then seeing that it runs.

Tomorrow is Media Server Day.

Got the new box setup and running

dcweyh — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 21:09:10 +0000

I got my new box setup almost to my my liking. I pullled all my “extra” drives from all my other machines so I have almost 800 Gig on it. I swapped my 4 gig RAM out of my XP Box and put the 2 gig RAM in the XP Box, mostly because when I updated to the 4 GIG, I really didn’t notice that much of a difference. (It’s an underpowered machine.) I’ve been consolidating most of my data. I had to dump the Vista partition because it refused to shrink down to less then 179 GIGS. To much space for something that wouldn’t be used very often.

I currently only use my XP box for some development I do for once in a while for a client. I also use it with to run my Tweetdeck Twitter client so it’s always visible in its screen. I use Synergy to share my keyboard and mouse across all my machines.

I’ve got my RSS reader Gregarius set up on the Apache Server. I set up my Amarok music player.

Tomorrow I need to get my development environment going.

I got a new Linux Box

dcweyh — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:37:35 +0000

Over the weekend I got a different PC. I got a big box with an Intel D975XBX2 mother board with an Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Processor, 250 Gig Drive. So I’m pretty excited. I usually just get Walmart Specials so this one it pretty fun and kinda high end for me. I’m just lucky to have a brother in law that had it to sell and gave me a great deal. It only took me 20 minutes to install Ubuntu 9.04 64 on it for dual boot with Vista and now I’m moving all my stuff from the old computer. Now all I have to do it try to talk my lady into letting me put the old Linux box next to the TV for a MythTV box.

Well I released my site

dcweyh — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 15:59:04 +0000

I finally released an alpha of my new site Skillzdesk.com. It’s a Web app that lets folks who have skills connect with folks who need skills. It’s based on Twitter and written in PHP. I got alot of insight into the Twitter API from Twitter Development Talk Google Group and used the Library from Jaisen Mathai. I announced it on my Twitter and Facebook but no results as of yet but most of those I follow on Twitter are high traffic folks and most of the Facebookers don’t use Twitter. The plan for the next week it to start spaming it and see what happens.

Wish me luck.

Talking to the kids on the way to school

dcweyh — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 15:58:23 +0000

While I was taking the kids to school this morning, we were listening to the radio ( I listen to news radio WWJ.) There was a report on the rising high school drop-out rate. Well one of the kids, who is a friend of my daughter who we took in, is going to adult education to complete her high school degree. We started talking about why she never completed school in the “city” where she was going. She said it was because of the poor environment and lack of personal attention with some of the subjects she was having problems with. She also said what was her diploma really worth if she wasn’t going to be a “banker”. Why bother. She said there aren’t going to be any middle class jobs that she could get because the manufacturing jobs were only at McDonald’s or KFC and they don’t require a diploma.

This reminds me of the 60′s and 70′s when kids here in SE Michigan didn’t bother with going on to get college diplomas. At the time, kids graduating from high school could either go to college and get a degree or go to work in the factories. If they went to college after 4 years they could get a job that paid just as much as the kids that went directly to the work force. Why bother. This is what started the culture of SE Michigan where educations wasn’t as important as it was in other regions. Where I grew up in Wisconsin, it was always assumed that if you could handle college you would go to college. That was just the way it was.

But now with the demise of the middle class and the high cost of higher education, I really don’t see an end to our problems. Even with a college degree, kids don’t have the opportunities because there are no jobs for them to manage or companies that need their skills.

There are smart kids out there but more and more are just saying “Why bother.”

Another good week!

dcweyh — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 00:21:43 +0000

I’m watching the Redwings win and taking a break from working on the site. My son gave me a big boost this week by designing a logo for the site.

I think I’ll be ready to release it tomorrow as an alpha. I plan on getting it out there and updating as it often. Once it’s released then I have to start marketing it which will be a new experience for me, since I have a hard time marketing myself.

Well there’s 12 Minutes left in the game and the Wing are up 4-0 so time to relax.