4 posts tagged “history”

So after a really loong lull in posting (I really haven't posted seriously for about a year.) I've decided to rework the blog. Up until this point, I've been focusing on technology exclusively. Now, however, I've decided to include my second passion: History. I am, one of the biggest history geeks you'll find. I just love the stuff. Most people find it really boring, and while it may seem that way, I find it really intriguing the way that people have lived in the past. Ironic, since I also love to see what is comming in the future. So, you can expect more history related content in the near future as scavange around the web for history related news to suplement the tech tips and tricks. My first post in the next few days or so will be on Vista, as I've been running it for about 2 months now.
 I hope this change is for the better and look forward to once again becoming more involved in the Vox community.  

Today being the first day back to school after the long weekend it's what I would call I so-so day. I had my free this morning and I tried to get some work done, however I got kicked off the computer by the teacher who came into the library. And it was my Canadian History teacher no less. It just pisses me off. I mean, I respect him yes, but he thinks that everyone

needs to get out of his way so his students get priority. I mean come on, it's a free country. And I'm actully trying to do work. I bet you some of the bozo's on those computers. But whatever. I got the word today that I failed the math test I wrote before the weekend. I'm going to re-write it though so that's good. But on the bright side, I'm doing extremly well in both Sociology and Math, which is good. And I've been shopping around for a few things for my computer I might get after Christmas. A new LCD display, preferably either a 17" or a 19" and a new Keyboard and mouse. And I finally got that picture of the inside of the case. It's looks cool doesn't it? But I gloat. I also want to get that fax modem out of the case as well. Yes, you heard right, a Fax modem. I have no idea why the put that in there but I have no use for it so it's going bye-bye. Besides, it's taking up one of my PCI slots.
    Congrats to the lovely Boredsvunut who just got a new computer over the weekend. From what I hear it spanks the 400 Mhz PII she was using for going on 3 years. The clock speed on the processor spanks my Athlon 3200+ but I beat her in the RAM and Video cards departments. And I still havn't gotten Ubuntu to work right, but Kudo's to the guys on the Ubuntu boards who've been helping me so far. Without you guys I would be lost! Keep up the great work! I have to do a few things before I get to bed, but I'll see you guys tomorrow, since I get home early.

*headdesk* I.Hate.Math.Homework. Today was what you call the first "normal day" if there is such a thing in HIgh School. We had our regular schedule start today with me going to Canadian History first thing this morning. I got my locker and everything. We got a reading assigment today. It was incridibly boring. About how the native people's immagrated from Asia. WTF does that have to do with Canadian History? But whatever. It was an interesting first Class. Then I had Math. I hate Math with a passion. However I love technology. Ironic eh? It got Math homework which I just finished. Then I had Enturpurnurship. Which I didn't sign up for. At all. I signed up for Economics, which apperently they couldn't get anyone to teach this year. So I'm changing to Sociology. It means that I have to flip my Free Block. But that's something that I'll do for the sake of not suffering through a course that I don't want for the entire semester. I'll be having the same teacher for Soc that I had last year for Ancient History. She's a really cool teacher and know's her stuff. I really hope she stay's in the second semester and teach's me Law.
    So it's finally done. The LAN party that I'm having tomorrow is all set up. After breaking a few things (Sorry Kaleigh :-( ) and fraying a few nerves all the computers are set up and ready to roll. All we need to do now is install the games and get the Pizza, munchies and drinks going. It'll be an all nighter and I hope that none of my teachers give us homework *pray's to gods of LAN party's and homework* I'm going to have to skip my free tomorrow to go get my courses changed. But it'll be worth it.
Ha! Outsmarted you didn't I? I'm on my sisters computer (don't tell her :-P) and it just asked me to install Windows Genuine Advantage i.e. Windows Spyware. I didn't let it. It's going to install a bunch of security updates, but no spyware on my watch. But when I get my Mac, it won't be my problem. *counts days until Mac Mini*

     In case you already didn't know I'm a minor history buff. It all started back in Grade 7 with an awsome teacher named Mrs. (Mama) Lutz. She was an amazing teacher, the kind that cared about your personal life, who was concerned if you did you homework, how your family was doing, that kind of thing. Before she retired at the end of this year, she taught me many lessons about life, amoung other things. She also brought out my pasion for history. Around Remebrance Day (Our Memorial Day, for my American Readers) every year, Mrs. Lutz would bring out her patrotic side by  having us do a unit on Canadians in War Time. Canada has severed in the Crimean, Boer, First and Second World Wars, as well as Korea, East Timor, Lebabnon, Kosovo,Afganistan and various other smaller operations such it's conception in 1867. From that classroom grew my passion for history. I studied the Second War and all the facts (the Halocaust, Rise of Hitler, the Nemeburg Trials and beginging of the cold war.) surronding facts for almost three years. From that point I decided to focus soley on the Halocaust and the events surronding it. I studied it indepth from Grade 8 on. This year I had the oppertunity to go on trip to Washington DC to visit various memorials and meseums. I visted many of the Smithsonian's, the Halocaust memorial museum, the Canadian Embassy, Capitol Hill*, the White House*, the Lincoln, Jefferson, Washinton, Vietnam, World War II and Korea Memorials. During this time I have grown to love Washington DC, and if I had the chance I would return there to take it all in again. During this time I went through several experiences. First I walked through several exhibs on subjects ranging from the rise of the Nazi's to power in the 30's to the medical experiments that where used on Jews, Gypsies, Homosexuals, the Mentally ill and other "undesiribles" under the Nazi regime. Then in the afternoon I went through the permanent exhibit. This was a very powerful experience. Not only did you get to see pictueres and artifacts, but you also got to walk through one of the boxcars that was used to transport Jews to the concentration camps. It was a very powerful experience. You walk through a car that was designed to hold maybe 10-20 people. At times it would hold 100-200 people. For days. In the hottest summers and the coldest winters. To say the least, it was a very powerful experience.

Now I come to the point of this post. Yesterday as I was writing this I was going to talk about the 194th aniversery of the British attack and destruction of the Capitol, but since I didn't the post out in time I'm going to talk about everyone's favorite open source operating system: Linux. Today (or rather tomorrow if today is August 27, in which case this was yesterday.) in 1991 a Finnish University student named Linus Torvalds developed the first thousand lines in what is now a 6 million line operating system. It has dozens if not hundreds of distro's the most promenent of which are currently, Unbunut, OpenSUSE, Red Hat amoung others. And guess what? It's spawned some of the most popular and up-and-coming open source projects today including Firefox, Thunderbird, Paint.NET, the GIMP amoung others. Without the inspiration of Linux we wouldn't have any of these programs and we wouldn't have probably the most notable piece of software and the flagship for the open source movement. Thanks Linus (It's pronouced Le-nux) for creating Linux, thanks to organizations like the Mozilla Foundation for creating things like Firefox, Thunderbird, Bugzilla and  Sunbird. Keep up the good Work Guys! Can't wait for Firefox 2!

Just my Two (Random) Cents

Virtunate

* I saw these buildings, however I did not enter them or see the insides.