Ha! A few years left! Seriously, that number represents the number of people in the world a few seconds ago. I find it humbling to watch the world population (albeit it only a rough estimate) – it keeps going up. I was born over one billion births ago. I am a small man on a large planet, in an expansive unknown; for all practical purposes – I might as well not exist....
I’ve been everywhere man… and again headed somewhere else. On the 13th of July I’ll be making my way up to Minnesota to spend two weeks with my grandparents. I’m sure looking forward to it. I’m also looking forward to school starting, which is quite a ways off yet. I have finished all of the preliminary stuff – insurance forms, immunizations, clothing acquisition, etc. Speaking of clothing acquisition – cold weather gear is exceptionally expensive!...
I’ve been remiss in updating this, but such is the way of life. I’ve been bouncing around the country for a few weeks – I’ve even met some family I never knew I had. I’m going to post more here soon, but I have a lot of work to do right now – and very little time to do it in. As for anyone who is reading this… I hope you are having a very wonderful summer....
Well, I’ve been doing lots of thinking about a shiny new machine. Dual-core 64 bit processor, DDR2 RAM, 10k RPM hard drives… Oh yeah – it has been hard to resist splurging on a new computer. After a lot of consideration (my computer now being about three years old), I have decided to wait. Quad-Core processors should be rolling out in 2007… hard drives are getting faster… DDR3 is not too terribly far away… Innovation is abounding, prices are coming down, and besides – my computer does almost everything I need it to do....
I spoke to my grandfather today about how many boxes could fit into his motor home – about twenty he thinks. At 60 pounds a piece he’s shooting for a max weight of 1200 pounds. Of course, I like to be precise… For those of you who don’t know already – inside every book I own there is a barcode. This barcode is linked to a system I am currently developing for keeping track of my personal library....
This morning, at around 12:37 am, I set up my University of Chicago e-mail address: AndrewDAnderson at uchicago dot edu How exciting is that? Of course, it is written like any other e-mail address, but to avoid spam I’ve spelled it out. (An explanation for my less than technically savvy readers.) On to other news… I’ve been studying a bit of cryptography, listening to A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, doing plenty of computer work, packing, and polishing my SQL skills....
I have to admit, I was skeptical. “Free” usually carries some sort of catch. Not here. Really. Skype is voice chat client. Talking to other Skype members is free… and instead of having to remember phone numbers, you can simply remember their username instead. Call quality is crisp. No one I talked to could tell the difference between regular phone quality. Wait, it gets even better. Until the end of the year (at the very minimum) Skype allows you to make free calls to any landline phone in the U....
Not bad coming from a language deficient person… Well, the titles says it all. Today was my last day wandering the halls of Salmen High School. I will never again be working on those computers, printers, networks, televisions, …. you get the idea. I’m a bit sad about it, but more challenge awaits me somewhere else very soon. Today I start closing some of my open boxes and stacking them in preparation for my venture to Chicago....
I’ve been saying I wanted to do it… and finally it is done. I’ve expanded my domain to include photos. To check it out, head on over to http://photos.andrewdanderson.com. I’ll be integrating my weblog and my photo album over the summer. I’ll also be working on something to deploy my writings and something to manage and share what I learn over the next few years… as well as an online tool to track my finances very openly… and a branch to manage software I write and release under the GPL (and maybe other licenses....
I am a fan of Firefox… I have good reason. Of course, it now has commercials – so I have more reason… My favorites: In that order. Let me know what you think.