I’m continuing my survey of what I blogged about in the fourth through sixth months of the year, or 2Q10 for you business people out there.
Last time: “Review of the blog for 2010 – January through March”
In April it was time to stop thinking about gardening as a way of getting through the winter and begin prepping by starting seeds. Although I ultimately got quite a few seedlings, the basement was too cold for them to get a fast start. This year I’ll have to add some heating in addition to the lights I rigged last year.
By mid-April the Apple iPad had been announced though I did not have one yet. I began thinking about how mathematical software should be designed for tablets with multitouch interfaces. The user interfaces will eventually be quite sophisticated though I worry that the amount of memory in the devices won’t be enough, especially in the iPad, for a generation or two.
I continued writing about Linux with a piece about why so many people choose that open source operating system for appliances, essentially turn-key software and (often) hardware devices that are configured for particular applications.
At the end of April I got my iPad with 3G and after spending the weekend fiddling with it, wrote a blog entry about using the device as an ebook reader. Eight months later, that philosophy still guides me as decide which books to buy in paper versus digital.
In May I joined thousands of other travelers by having my plans disrupted because of ash from the Icelandic volcano. All in all, it didn’t turn out to be a terrible experience, but I didn’t know that would be the case as the drama unfolded. By the way, I was stuck in Frankfurt on my way home from Munich. I did a photo blog entry with images from my last evening in that city.
A recurring series in the blog is “Life with Linux.” In May I installed the Ubuntu 10.4 LTS (long term support) release, several weeks after it became available. The process wasn’t glitch-free, but I was pleased with the results. The installation of the October release would not end up going so easily.
In June I expanded some of my “hard questions about open source” topics into full blown blog entries:
- “10 elements of open source governance in your organization”
- “10 considerations for maintaining open source in your organization”
- “10 ideas about integrating open source into your IT infrastructure”
I love May because it is really spring by then and flowers are blooming all around the property. I had also had my iPad for a month and wrote a short retrospective about what it had been like having the device. It was a good decision to get 3G as it has made Internet access nearly universal when I travel. So far I’ve only lost the iPad once when I left at the barber shop on Main Street.
The month and quarter ended with my recounting a family trip in “Driving a UHaul from upstate NY to Chicago.” It was an adventure and except for massive power outages in the city and parts of Indiana, went without incident.
Next up: more fun with Linux, the iPad, and gardening; IBM adopts Firefox; and Bob buys a sailboat.
