Updatey Goodness

This is what happens when I make grandiose plans… I get muddy and my tailbone hurts. I can’t believe it’s been that long, but 9 months ago I made a grand plan, made it public on my blog, and then virtually disappeared off the face of the earth.

To sum up, because it’s much too long, I had some health issues, money woes, a computer crash, another computer mishap, another health issue, and actually did quite a lot of work for clients … leaving my website and blog very much like the house of the professional carpenter. I should know, my father is one (a carpenter, I mean, not a house, blog, or website).

To the update: The Linux operating system plan is a no-go for my primary work computer, since quite a lot of the software I use is available for Windows only. I did a lot of research hoping to find replacements, but that was a bust on some pretty critical applications. At least for now. I am working on moving as many systems as possible over to open source solutions and sharing my software dollars with their developers when I can.

During my inadvertent hiatus, my website was hacked. It was a frustrating, though not terribly difficult, experience fixing the mess, and pretty embarrassing considering how careful I am with other people’s websites, but all security holes are now plugged and all malicious code removed. I’ve also changed the design to something I kind of love. I was unsatisfied with my old design, worked out something colorful but not very functional in between creating this design for a client, and then, you know, mishaps occurred. Upshot, the client went out of business and gave the design back to me (I don’t duplicate designs), and so I tweaked it for my own purposes and here we are! … if by here we mean pretty new design but all the links don’t match and I need to drastically update the content. Working on it.

In the future? Learn more about Linux for my own purposes, find more open source solutions to my work flow, acquire an inexpensive system I can install Linux on for my kids. I think it’s the future and they ought to know how to navigate it at least as well as they know how to search YouTube for train videos and bad gummi bear music (and then, maybe they can explain it to me). Even if it, specifically, isn’t the future, no knowledge is wasted. And if they have their own computer maybe they’ll stop kicking me off of mine to watch Sesame Street’s performance of the Mahna Mahna song…again.

Deep Breath

I think it’s time I moved to a Linux operating system. Despite the Linux server where this and the other websites I host live, and my smarter-than-me techy friends, I’m an absolute N00b when it comes to Linux. So I’ve long thought I should know more about it, but there are so many other things I need to learn!

So, what triggered the move now? One of the things I like best about the Open Source community is the high ratio of givers. There are a huge number of people I’m honored to have encountered through my forays into open source.  Today’s person is Ken Starks, the guy behind the Helios Project. See, there’s this guy who builds Linux computers and gives them to kids who can’t afford one. He posted about a recent computer donation, and I commented, and long story short(er) here we are.

He and Larry Cafiero sponsor Lindependence.  Lindependence is a program to turn other OS users into Linux users, one town at a time.  I’ve heard a lot of good things about Linux. I like the idea behind it, the quality, and the community of it in particular, including the high preponderance of users like Ken Stark and Larry Cafiero within that community. (to learn more about Lindepencence, check out the website here.)

I’m posting this so that anyone who wants to join me (Lindependence 2009?), or is curious about how this works (or just wants to see me implode from information overload), can follow along. Over the course of the next little while, I’m going to be posting about the move. First, I plan to learn what I can about it, how to use it, how to solve any problems I might have with software and so forth, in particular making sure that my clients (many of whom will never switch from Windows) will stay happy, and by December 31, I plan to be a reasonably savvy Linux user.

Maybe I’ll run dual OS for a while–there’s enough room on this machine if I clean up some of the draft files I have floating around, but by the end of December, I plan to have switched over to Linux for good.  Or I may discover that I’ll need to keep the Windows OS for some reason, or continue to use both. I guess we’ll see.

I’m giving myself this much time because I’m incredibly swamped right now. The kids just started school, and with Aidan, our youngest, being both autistic and albino (with the complementary poor vision) there are always teacher meetings, IEP tweaking sessions,  follow-ups with his various therapists, and the obligatory doctor visits at the start of every school year.  I’m juggling a million small press obligations, I’m building a couple of websites and a really complex CMS for a client that sometimes has me stumped, and I’m trying to keep learning.

But our oldest needs a new computer for college, our daughter will be needing one when she moves into middle school, and the youngest really responds to educational software. He’s 5 and beginning to read and write, understands rhyming, knows his colors and how to count to 100, and he draws some of the most amazing pictures I’ve ever seen from a 5 year old. I’m thinking all of this means that now is a good time for me to learn how to build a computer economically. Maybe I can even start a Helios Project Cleveland within the next 5 years. Ambitious plans, but I think I can make it work.

It’s time for that deep breath.