What it is
My name is Geoffrey Jost and this is my blog, in which I mostly write about things of interest to me. Your mileage may vary. : ]
My name is Geoffrey Jost and this is my blog, in which I mostly write about things of interest to me. Your mileage may vary. : ]
posted 31 Dec 2007 (Mon) at 8:24p.m. from the kitchen table
So 2007 is just about over. It's been quite a year. Getting settled in Pasadena, riding the Gold Line to work, and sharing that commute with Una for much of the year were really nice. Attending OSCON 2007 in Portland and travelling with Una to San Francisco and Big Sur were also neat.
posted 31 Dec 2007 (Mon) at 7:41p.m. from my folks' place
<img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2167/2153573942_4f6b32dcee_m.jpg" style="float:right;"/>I always enjoy going home to see my family, especially on holidays. My Mom hasn't been feeling too great lately, so things were a little different this year. On the bright side, she was home and we got to hang out. Hang in there, Mom, you're gonna get better!
I also got to geek out with my Dad a bit - he recently got an <a href="http://laptop.org/">OLPC</a> and was showing it off to us. It's a sweet little machine. Here's a photo of it next to my EeePC:
posted 24 Dec 2007 (Mon) at 3:02p.m. from the homestead
Just a quick posting to remind all my many readers (and the friendly search engine robots) to have a very merry Christmas. Cheers!
posted 16 Dec 2007 (Sun) at 7:17p.m. from the office
There's already <a href="http://www.eeeuser.com/">a whole online community</a> of EeePC users, describing various aspects of the little machine in a wiki, chatting about the various variants that are being released, and describing various hackish things that they've already done to their machines.
The hack that intrigues me the most, of course, is installing Ubuntu, which would let me run all the software I run on my work computer. Well, not all of it, since it IS a subnotebook, but enough to do development and read docs on the train. The other hack is installing more RAM. But there's that "Warranty void if removed" sticker...
posted 16 Dec 2007 (Sun) at 7:57p.m. from the office
While I'm waiting for Ubuntu to download so I can install it on <a href="http://cafejosti.net/blog/2007/12/17/got-my-eeepc/">my new EeePC</a>, why not post some recent events news? Una and I have both liked Björk for awhile - I like her electronic experimentation and her raw punk energy, and Una appreciates how her song structures and instrumentations seem more classical than pop. We both wish we could incorporate something of her music into our own. Anyway, Björk was in town Wednesday night, and we got to go see her.
posted 16 Dec 2007 (Sun) at 7:04p.m. from the office
Went ahead, took the plunge, and got a black <a href="http://eeepc.asus.com/">Asus EeePC 701</a> yesterday as an early Christmas present from Una (THANKS!!!).
I bought it online at <a href="http://pcclub.com/">PC Club</a> and picked it up at the nearest store. My experience went something like this...
posted 12 Dec 2007 (Wed) at 5:34p.m. from the office
Adrian Holovaty and his crew have been working on the Django Book for awhile now. It's been available for free at <a href="http://www.djangobook.com/">djangobook.com</a> since (I think) the beginning, but he just blogged that it <a href="http://www.holovaty.com/blog/archive/2007/12/12/1311">has finally shipped</a> and is available at <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1590597257/">amazon.com</a>. I pre-ordered mine awhile ago, and I can't wait to get my copy. Maybe the coolest news is that as of right now the book is #13 in Amazon's "Computers & Internet" category, and #3 in the "Computers & Internet > Web Development" category. Looks like a lot of people are interested in Django. :)
posted 12 Dec 2007 (Wed) at 12:47p.m. from the office, mostly
Yeah, I know. I used "DIY Blogging" in the title of the last posting. Get over it - it's a continuation of a theme. Yes, as I described in my last post, I put together my own blog program, but it's not as big a deal as it sounds (or maybe, dear reader, it doesn't sound like much at all). It's actually pretty easy to do these days, and with tools like Django to build on, it's like playing with Legos, or Crafting or something.
posted 11 Dec 2007 (Tue) at 10:14p.m. from the Gold Line
When I was in college I found out about zines. It's not like I was an avid zinester, or even an avid reader of them, but I stumbled on an article about them in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_Earth_Review">Whole Earth Review</a> (or maybe the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_Earth_Catalog">Whole Earth Catalog</a>) and was intrigued. This was all before the internet, when BBSs were still The Thing - if you wanted to read zines and weren't connected to some underground scene, the only way to get them was to mail off for them. I picked up a few, read them cover to cover multiple times, and thought they were pretty cool. A few years later I was in Japan teaching English in the <a href="http://www.us.emb-japan.go.jp/JETProgram/homepage.html">JET Program</a>, and started doing a little publishing of my own.
posted 11 Dec 2007 (Tue) at 12:32p.m. from the office
Yep, I've decided to start offering up my own two cents to the blogosphere. Like pretty much every other blog out there you'll find my observations on the media I consume, some local issues, etc.
This blog is also a vehicle for me to tinker around with Django, a web application framework. So it may function slightly differently from other blog apps you've used.
Thanks for stopping by!
