The future of this blog

Originally, I started this blog back in early 2008 to public journals entrees for my eighth grade English class at the time. I have continued updating this month at least every other month sense then. I have had conflicts tieing this blog down to specific topics (life experiences, technology..).
I do feel that I should update this blog more frequency. Though, I do not have as much time on my hands as I used to. Since, I am growing up and taking on more responsibilities.
I have considering discontinuing this blog or deleting it. I plan on keeping this blog active; I would like to use it to archive memories throughout my life. I believe that it is time for me to move on and start a new blog. Though, I will still be using this blog periodically to publish personal information.
I do not like looking back at childish posts. One time I referred this blog to an older gentlemen, he did not think it was academically gifted. He looked back at the entire blog surprisingly. I need to start a new blog that I feel comfortable sharing with friends, aquitaines and family.

School Consolidation

  For a few years now, it has been rumored that the middle school and high school will consolidate. The plan has since been taken into action. The final decision will be made on March 3rd by the school board.

  Seventh and eight grade students our planed to be moved to the high school campus by school year 2012. Staff will be shared between the middle school and high school. It is possible that the seventh and eight grade students will have their own section of the high school.

  The super attendant believes that this will save the school district money in the long run. Many staff members our against the school consolidation. Most of them believe it is not proper to have all those grade levels in one building. Along with the fact that the newer building at the middle school is still in decent condition.

Film Project

I am involved in a group that has begun work on an independent film. The purpose of the film is to show the differences between generations. In our group, we have three people from different generations. I am part of The Next Generation, Jeff is from the baby bomber generation and Ron is from the greatest generation. It will be interesting to see how we work together.
   Currently, we are gathering our troughs, opinions and ideas for the film. We will have to decide on a plot and title. Our current plan is to show the difference between generations and their opinions on life.
   Throughout the film, I will be talking to people from the greatest generation and baby bomber generation. Their will also be stories from World War II and the Great Depression of the 1930s. With this film, we aim to show differences between generations and archive knowledge.
   I hope we will be able to start filming by March. We are hoping to finalize the film by early summer of this year. I will continue to write about our ongoing progress.

Looking back at the last year

I have gone through many changes during the last year. My academic level has improved dramatically. I now have a better attitude about school and life in general. I have improved upon my mistakes.

   A year ago I was a nervous and shy guy. I also did not known how to defend myself when someone attacks me verily. Now, I am more social and trying to take life easy. When someone attacks me, I simply ignore it or attack them verily.
   I am more open minded to people. You cannot judge a person by their age or first impressions. Each individual has their own troughs and opinions.

    I do realize that attacking them back is not the right thing to do. If I had kept on not saying anything, they would have kept attacking me. All of this is part of growing up.
      My views on the government have also changed. I have realized that politicians will say anything to get elected. It does not matter which political party they are registered with.

   I have improved my academic level by putting more effort into my school work. Education is very important to succeed in life. Many people are ignorant and put hardly enough effort into there school work. I am surprised that they receive passing grades.
   I have now chosen a career path to fellow. I am working hard to archive my ultimate goal to become a software developer. I need to succeed in high school in order to go down that path. After high school, I am planning on attending I.T.T Tech.
   A year from now, I will be closer to my high school graduation. I will be getting prepared for my senior year of high school. It will be interesting to see how much I have grown a year from now.

   

Trustworthly Computing

Trustworthly computing is a term used to describe dependable secure computing.  The term was first popularized by Bill Gates in January 2002. In his e-mail sent to all Microsoft employees, when he explanied how people need dependable secure computing.
    Looking back, Bill Gates was dead on about how “trustworthly computing” would become a standard for a positive computing experience. In his e-mail, he focused on desktop software and how it needed to meet this standard. I will focus on how a coming generation of computing will need to meet this standard.
    As time goes on, we are using more online services and mobile devices opposed to tradional desktop PCs. As we make this transition, we have a few primary concerns, the most important of which is security.  One of the common questions is “How well will are online data be protected”? Since we are essentially moving to a new platform. We are opening up a new gateway for hackers.
    In order to transition people to the cloud, online services will need to satisfy consumers and businesses by embracing security standards. Security is the primary reason that is holding cloud computing back. Companies such as Microsoft and Google are working hard to reduce this concern.  Tho, as cloud computing becomes more popular. So does the threat to online security.
    It will be interesting to see how companies handle these threats going forward. The transition to the cloud will not happen overnight. Many web-based applications are no where near as full-featured as desktop software yet. Online security will also evolve and improve. It will be interesting to see what happens in the coming years.

Welcome to the new era

Today, we entered a new decade, year and the cloud computing era. During this decade, we will make the switch from traditional desktop computers to advanced mobile devices and online services. We will still be using desktop software but alongside online services

   We will also be using more web applications for better mobile computing. But the advance computing will still be handled by desktop software. We will not switch over to a basic operating system such as Google Chrome OS. We will instead continue using advanced desktop operating systems such as Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac OS.

   The problem with Google Chrome OS is that it does not offer the user friendly and functionally that people except from an operating system. Even Linux distributions like Ubuntu offer more functionally and are more user friendly than Chrome OS. Microsoft is currently in the process of transitioning it's core business to online services.

   2009 was a big year for Microsoft in terms of online services. Microsoft launched it's enterprise cloud operating system Windows Azure, that is basically an online version of Windows Server. You can use it to store content and run applications from within the Azure environment.

On the consumer side, Microsoft launched Windows Live Wave 3 and Bing search. Windows Live Wave 3 was a major update to Microsoft's online social network. It foucused on interoperability with thrid-party online services such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Another part of Windows Live Wave 3, was the launch of Windows Live Essentials. Windows Live Essentials is a set of free programs for your Windows PC to interact with online services. It also includes applications that were previously included in Windows but have been removed for anti-trust reasons.

   Bing is Microsoft's first real attempt to compete in the online search market. Bing has three main benefits over Google search. You can search by navigating photos, get cashback on purchases from select retailers and search Twitter. Bing is currently the only search engine that is licensed to search Twitter.

   Microsoft is not going away anytime soon and is transiting it's markets for the future. The current economic recession is accelerating the transition to cloud computing. By increasing the demand for inexpensive computing by mobile devices such as smart phones and PDAs. This being said, we are not going to abandon desktop software within the next decade at least.

Software development

Early last year, I was very interested in software development. The first piece of software, I ever wrote was a basic web browser called iSurf. iSurf did not last long until I scraped it and started from scratch with uSurf. I continued to built off of uSurf for awhile, each new version offer new functionally. Then, I lost interest in software development for about 8 months due to family and friend issues I now have overcome those issues and have time to get back into it.
   Yesterday, I started building off of the source code of my last stable build of uSurf. I made many changes to it. I fixed bugs, changed some of the functionally, cleaned up the user interface and removed unnecessary items such as the Google Maps anf Calculator applets. I also have removed the uSurf branding entirely. For now, I am just calling it web browser since it is in Aplha stage and I have not decided on a good product name. I am not sharing more source code due to the fact that someone can easily download it, put there name on it and call it their own.
   I have also realized that if I want to work in the software industry, I better start learning how to program now. I will have a head start on everyone else. I will also be attending the Sno-Isle tech center next school year and will be earning credits in computer science crosses. In this blog post I have attached a screenshot of the latest build of my web browser. Every jorey begins with a single step.