Chicagoland
Leader • Software Creator • Visionary • Learner • [he/him] Engineer @ Twilio
Apr 23
I heard a commercial with the booming and illustrious voice of Rush Limbaugh. After I recovered from banging my head against my desk, I reflected on what was said in the commercial. Rush pointed to the popular free email providers (Yahoo, Google, and others) to remind you that they scan your email. To remind you …
Mar 01
Oracle’s VM VirtualBox is a virtualization program that allows you to run another operating system from within your native operating system. Though it is most commonly used to run fully functional operating systems such as Linux or OS X from within Windows 7 (or vice versa), it can also be used to host a Virtual …
Jul 17
What … Is This? If you’re like my brother and me, you love old-timey computer games almost more than the latest and greatest shoot-em-up. For as long as I can remember, my brother and I have loved playing classic puzzle games like King’s Quest, Commander Keen (yah, I realize that’s not really a puzzle game), …
Jul 08
STS-135: The Final (Shuttle) Launch This morning marked the beginning of the end of an era. I say the beginning of the end because the era does not conclusively close until next week, when the Space Shuttle Atlantis returns safely the Earth. The beginning of the end happened at 11:29 A.M. EST as Atlantis’ rocket …
Jun 11
The Fighter/Attack series is one most people are familiar with, and probably the most well-know set of aircraft the Unites States Navy and Air Force produce. Unfortunately, the understood distinctions between each aircraft are not that well known. Most commonly, all fighter aircraft are referred to as an F-16. If you don’t believe me, just …
Jun 05
Has there ever been a moment in your life in which you’ve seen something and your thought has been, “This is it … I’m about to die.” Perhaps you’ve been out hiking and you’ve seen some form of wildlife. Maybe it’s been when you stood on the edge of a massive cliff (I felt this …
Jun 03
My brother and I have always had an obsession with airplanes, spacecraft, and NASA that borders on the unhealthy. Our obsessive endeavors have taken us annually to the Quad City Air Show, where we have drooled at our magnificent dreams hovering just before our eyes. This year’s edition of the Quad City Air Show is …
May 04
Music, as defined by Webster, is “the science or art of ordering tones or sounds in succession, in combination, and in temporal relationships to produce a composition having unity and continuity.” This has come to be the generally accepted definition of music. However, Webster also defines music as, “An agreeable sound.” Sound, by its second …
Sep 04
After hours of frustration and failure, I finally set up a USB bootable Linux distribution that worked on both a BIOS-based PC or EFI-based Apple system. Ten minutes later, I repeated the process with a second distribution. I’ve been perusing this fine internet of hours all day, reviewing and attempting to complete step-by-step tutorials that …
Dec 03
Joe Kmetz and I were on our way to Krista’s house over Turkey Break and I had designated Joe as the DJ for the trip. At some point during the drive we ended up listening to “Hotel California,” probably the best song the Eagles ever wrote and performed. This spawned a discussion as to the …