ever since the shutdown of google reader by google, i’ve been trying and searching for a suitable replacement. list most, i’ve tried feedly, digg, and old reader with hopefulness, but all these seemed to have one thing lacking. i liked feedly the best, but their recent requirement for payment for text searching feed content i decided i needed to either find another solution or come up with my own.
i considered writing my own using python and django, but i thought i might give tiny tiny rss a shot first. this appears to have all that i need for an rss reader with a decent interface (included customizable themes for the css-skilled) along with a very nice android app. i can run this on a personal server and use the web interface or the android app to read all my stuff. it’s open source too, so that’s a huge plus.
as of today, my days of being a scumbag contractor have concluded. i am a full-time employee of scripps networks interactive (sni). and i should be sitting in orientation at the time this post goes live.
i’ve been working at sni for almost a year through premier staffing partners as a systems engineer. it has been a good year with plenty of challenges to keep me on my toes. i have enjoyed the work and the team i am on. i am excited to continue being a systems engineer. having a developer background definitely helps in this role.
so far, it’s great! boot time is about two seconds on average! two freakin’ seconds for a full boot! i expect an improvement in power consumption as well as the speedy read/writes.
the only drawback is that it’s 250gb less than my original hard drive. i am going to have to be diligent about my photographs (imported from my camera) and virtual machines. those two eat away at my space quickly. (but the VMs i do have should run much quicker now.)
last week, i decided to take a run for the first time in over two months. it was a little rougher than i imagined. although i was mindful of my knee, my body hadn’t had been through some aerobic exercise for too long.
since my doctor and (physical) therapists all recommended either swimming or bike riding for a safer, non-impact activity. and since i don’t have a pool, biking is my option.
because i think driving in knoxville is hazardous enough and refuse to be “that guy” who slows down traffic because i am biking in a lane, i decided on a recumbent bike for home.
the search on amazon took some time, but i decided on this one: xterra recumbent bike.
i like it. it did take a while to put together, not difficult, just time consuming. the convenience being able to roll out of bed and be riding quickly is extremely nice. plus i can ride in any weather.
this will get me back in shape for basketball. just how long it will take is yet to be discovered.
i bought this thermos on amazon close to a month ago and am quite happy with it. it keeps the hot stuff hot and the cool stuff…well, i’ve not put anything cool in it yet.
i have been accumulating coffee in whole bean form from starbucks for a long time. i decided it was time to start brewing at home and bringing it in. this gives me quality coffee which stays hot all day. besides, the stainless steel construction makes the flux dispersal….
i signed up for the digg reader, another replacement to google reader. first impression: i like it.
the preset feeds per category are a little limited, but then again it is customizable. i need to find my backed up google reader links to import. there is an option for that when you first sign on, but my archive file wasn’t readily available. oh, and i am using my google account to connect. convenient.
right now, it’s a bit basic with only two modes of viewing. the look and feel reminds me of google reader. i think it’s in the early of stages of what it will eventually become. as long as they don’t start charging a fee for a pro version or interspersing ads, i’ll be good with it. i still have desire to write my own to avoid the trappings of bigger companies looking for revenue generating tactics.
i never thought i’d come back to digg. now i can sport those digg/diggnation t-shirts again with relevance rather than nostalgia.
i needed to automate some process on a windows server today for work. it’s been a long time since i’ve done any real work in a microsoft environment. i have been working with linux on both desktop and server platforms. my endeavor was labor intensive for what would have been super simple on a linux server.
my task: unzip a file into a specified directory automatically. that is, i needed to script it. since this is so unbelievably simple in linux, i had hoped it would be just a matter of finding the right executable in windows and making the command line calls. i was wrong.
native tools for unzipping on a windows server seem to exist within the window manager executables. these are not even callable based on a quick search around the internet. most solutions involved installing third party tools just to unzip files, and not all of these could be used from a command line. in fact, i was appalled to find this comment in this thread:
“…the normal way…”?! really?
i don’t know how people live in a click and drool world and not feel their geek being stripped away from them. nothing feels better than having so many options at my disposal. and if one doesn’t exist, i could simply write it using the plethora of tools existing on the majority of linux systems. perhaps i’m just too spoiled living in a world were i can script up so much using so many different and simple tools. and for that, i am very thankful because i could be working in a world where today’s sort of situation was my everyday job.
