What’s happening?

Hey again everybody!

First, I thought it would be nice to get a few details out of the way before I actually get to anything. I have finished my masters thesis and finally submitted it yesterday! This document took a lot of work and I’m really proud of the way it turned out. I don’t actually hear anything for about a month but I’ve got my fingers crossed. I’m hoping that with finishing that work I’ll be able to blog move avidly, at least until I find something to do with my life. That being said, if anybody is hiring I’d be glad to hear from you or have your information passed on to me. Secondly, my backspace key broke off my laptop last week, which is really annoying, and since I only have return to depot service from dell, I’ll be testing out blogging exclusively on the iPad with no external keyboard, so we’ll see how that goes. Doesn’t seem to be slowing me down so far, but I’ve had a few months to practice. Another important thing I’d like to mention is that there are a few people/groups of people I know who have become seriously neglected in the last couple of months, since I really started working at a frantic pace trying to finish my thesis. I’m really hoping that I can take the time in the coming weeks to right this terrible injustice to these people, starting today. Alright, now that that’s out of the way, let’s get down to business.

The last 3 weeks or so were quite a haze of writing, editing, and formatting (and I have developed strong feelings for the Oxford comma) but this does not mean I stopped living in the future. Try as I might to focus on my thesis (and seminar presentation) for that time, lots of awesome developments have happened in my world since I last wrote a regular blog post. For example, since the windows 8 developer preview came out (yes, it’s good and it’s available for free) I installed it on my desktop computer to test it out and see if it’s worth the hype (it is). Even though this operating system is probably at least a year away from public release and sale, it’s incredibly fast and responsive, and the ‘Metro’ apps which showcase it’s potential (these come preinstalled on the preview) are really beautiful and leave me very hopeful about the success of the app platform. Also, I have been quietly in disbelief of how much Google Chrome gets weighed down by the 50 or so extensions I’ve installed on it, this problem somehow doesn’t seem to translate into the windows 8 process. Chrome with extensions runs unbelievably fast on 8, and has led me to use it almost exclusively (though the thought of reinstalling apps like word keeps me from using it alone). Perhaps with this new time in my hands I’ll be able to get everything running.

Secondly, iOS 5, the next generation of apples mobile operating system, is nearing completion. Since it is in beta, I decided I would test it out (living in the future after all). I have been running iOS5 (scheduled for public release on October 4) on my phone and tablet for the last several weeks, and it is just awesome, and a huge step forward. Im planning on detailing what you can expect in a post soon, so keep your eyes open for that! Be excited for October 4 as well, since a new iPhone is looking very likely for that date.

In addition to this, something minor in the world of people with more than one computer in the house. Microsofts home grown developer community (called Microsoft garage) is a group which builds applications which focus on smaller improvements to the Microsoft environment. Last week they released a project in the world called mouse without borders. This project aims to connect all computers on a network by allowing any peripherals (mice and keyboards) on any other computer simply by moving the mouse off the computers screen itself and onto the desired computer (as is done on computers with multiple monitors). This allows for control of any computer in your immediate area (once the program is installed and password set up) using any mouse or keyboard. Finally, the best feature of this is that the clipboard is shared between computers, and file transfer from computer to computer is as simple as dragging and dropping. It is worth trying out, I guarantee you’ll use it more than you think!

I may write more today (I have a lot of topics saved up) so I’ll stop here for now, but I hope I can convince you that I’m going to breathe some life into this blog starting today!

Thanks for reading!


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