I took this picture with my iPad. It crossed automatically to my iPhone. Can I post it from my iPhone too?

I took this picture with my iPhone. It automatically crossed to my iPad. Can I post it from my iPad too?

Wisconsin flashback!

Today is a sad day for those of us who like computers… meaning just about all of us.

Dennis Ritchie passed away yesterday.  You should be very sad, even if you aren’t sure why.

Dennis Ritchie developed a little programming language called C.  For years, C was it.  It was The Programming Language.  The language itself is being used less and less often in the real world these days, but other people have used it as the base for larger, more powerful languages, and if you have a computer I can guarantee that at almost any given time that you use that computer, you are either running something written in C, or running something written in a language that is either based on or derived from C.  The development of C is one of the biggest moments in the history of computing.  We wouldn’t have computers as we know them today without C.

I knew all of that already, but in reading up on Dennis Ritchie’s passing I learned something that I didn’t know… or maybe did know, but just forgot about.

He worked on the development of the UNIX operating system.  I knew UNIX was written in C, but I didn’t realize he was in on that project.  Why is that important to you?  Do you have a computer that is connected to a network?  You do?  Then you have to thank UNIX.  Do you have an Android phone, or a device running either Apple’s Mac OS or iOS?  Then you have a UNIX system*.

Do you use the internet?  I assume you do if you are reading this.  The internet is just a great big network, and what OS was the first to allow for networked machines?  You guessed it… UNIX.

The computing world has lost a pioneer and a hero today.  Rest in peace Dennis Ritchie.


Read more here.

*Technically.  Mac OS, iOS, and Android OS** are all written on top of the LINUX kernel.  LINUX is a version of UNIX.

**Now that I think of it, I am not 100% sure Android uses the LINUX kernel.  I am more like 95% sure, but I could be wrong.  I don’t think I am, but I could be.

Explain this to me:

I pull up to the gas pump, swipe my debit card, see a prompt asking, “Is this a debit card?” with yes/no options.  I press yes and receive a message along the lines of, this pump does not accept debit cards.

Then why oh why did you bother asking me if it was a debit card?

While I’m on the subject, isn’t it the 21st century?  Haven’t we as a species evolved enough so that payment devices can tell the difference between debit cards and credit cards?

I guess a society that at least in part feels that it’s okay for a bank to charge a fee for customers to use a debit card to access their own money may not be evolutionarily advanced enough to handle this.

I guess these things happen in a society where a bank CEO honestly believes his bank as a right to make a profit.  It’s like the Declaration of Independence says; life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and banking profits.  It’s in the Bill of Rights too, isn’t it?  Amendment 10.5 or something?

In the immortal words of Aimee Mann:

I should have known.

The iOS5 update is downloading.  I am currently at 29.7mb of 774.4mb with FIVE HOURS REMAINING!

Every iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch user in the universe is trying to update right now.

Wow!

As my lunch break comes to an end I sit here thinking about my to-do list for this evening.  Very high on the list is installing the iOS5 update that Apple released today onto my iPhone and iPad.  There are two things included in the new operating system that I think I’ll be making use of. 

First, is the new messaging app.  No more text messages for us!  Jen and I both have iPhones and my brother and sister and both kids have an iPod Touch.  We can now all send messages to each other’s phones without using a text messaging plan.  I see it as an instant message function that is always logged on.  I wonder if there will be a Mac app for this too?

The other thing I am looking forward to playing with is iCloud… sort of.  I have never had a problem with having to plug my Apple devices into a computer to sync things up.  I don’t think it’s a big deal, really.  If Google would just get the damn music beta working correctly we could go forever without needing to sync music or apps.  We’d only have to plug in for iOS updates.

The one thing I’m wanting to get my mits on is iTunes Match.  This is the service that lets you store your music collection online.  To me, that means a Google Music that can play Apple’s DRM files.  That would make me happy.  Also, if a song in your collection exists in the iTunes store, you don’t need to upload it.  You can access a copy of it that already exists in the service.  I’m not just talking about things you’ve purchased from iTunes, but things you’ve ripped off of CDs, or… well… possibly… obtained through other means.  Not that I have ever done that, no.  The downside, of course, is that the service isn’t free.  It’s $24.99 a year (I think).  I think that might be too much for me for a service that I come very close to already having with my 80 gig iPod Classic.  Should I decide to upgrade to a larger iPod Classic then I will in fact be able to carry my entire (very large) music collection in my pocket. 

Of course this all depends on how well these new applications work.  If iTunes Match is as clunky as the iOS web app for Google Music then it’s not even close to worth it.  But if it works as well as most of the streaming audio apps I’ve used… then it might be.  Might be.

Tonight we will begin to find out.

Happy iOS5 Release Day!

My neck/shoulder is still hurting, but maybe not as bad as yesterday.  There is a pretty constant dull ache right where the shoulder meets the neck, aka the target for the Vulcan Neck Pinch.  I can’t tilt my head terribly far either way without feeling pain, and I can’t turn it far in either direction as well.  I can’t lift my left arm very high either, but I can definitely do more of all of these things than I could yesterday.  If I move slowly I can get much further than if I move quickly.  I don’t know if that means anything or not.  Yesterday I was wincing in pain as I tried to wash my hair, but today I was able to do it all right.  There were also a few stop signs where I had to turn my head to see the on coming traffic that I could get further around today than yesterday.  Just before pulling into work though I spun the steering wheel with my left hand and had a nasty jolt of pain.  That seems to have set me back a tad.

Isn’t this exciting?

Baseball… The Tigers finally won a game last night.  Texas won the first two at home, but last night in Detroit I had the feeling while watching the first few innings that the Tigers were going to win no matter what.  Turns out I was right.  Texas leads the series 2-1.

Tonight in the NL is game three in St Louis.  The series is tied 1-1.  The Brewers took game one easily and in game two you got the impression that the Cardinals (ie Albert Pujols) were done fooling around.  Tonight is a big game though.  I think the Cardinals are going to win it.

Hockey?  The Bruins on Monday did what they always do in matinée games, Stanley Cup Hangover or not, they sucked and lost to a crappy team.  Okay, it’s too early to call Colorado a crappy team.  How about I call them a team that I expect to be crappy.  Or at least mediocre.  I like the Avs, I just don’t think they will go very far this year.  Tonight they play the Hurricanes.  Let’s hope we see a Bruins team that actually comes to play.

I don’t know what I did, exactly.

I was in the shower yesterday morning (I whole heartedly apologize for putting that image into your head) and I tweaked something in my shoulder.  I don’t know exactly what, but I’ve been in pain ever since.  It’s a muscle pull or a strain or something and now every time I move the wrong way (which is just about every way) I get pain in my neck and shoulder.  It feels a little like what I always assumed whiplash would feel like, except it’s only on my left side.  I can’t turn my head all the way without it hurting a lot.

Throughout the day yesterday it wasn’t stopping me from doing anything, it was just persistent and annoying.  This morning it’s pretty much the same, except that my range of motion seems to be less than it was, and it definitely hurts more.  Again, it’s not debilitating or anything, it’s just there.

It sucks, and it had best start getting better.  I don’t want to go to the doctor and say that I gave myself a nasty muscle injury while washing my hair in the shower. 

I’m pretty lame, but I never thought I was that lame.