Doug Goldstein

My blog/web hosting/e-mail is moving over to Dreamhost because it’s probably more reliable, definitely faster, and by far cheaper. So there might be some downtime for me and my e-mails while the DNS switches over. And of course you might look a bit expensive, but if you’re interested, use the discount code 80offnow which is what I used to sign up for 12 months. Cost me $3.28 a month, much cheaper then PHPWebhosting at $9.95 for a slow website.

Filed under: General, Linux
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So I always joke to friends and other people that I’m an idiot when it comes to graphics. And really, I am. I can use GIMP to scale, crop and rotate an image and I can also hand erase the background, copy the image and paste it onto a transparent background and that’s it. I can’t do anything else with GIMP. I know what everyone is going to say, “click things and experiment.” Yeah but I don’t know what click combinations do what. Much like someone doesn’t know how to write a graphics app by typing some stuff into an editor and running gcc on it.

So really this posting is for all of you graphics idiots out there like me. Here’s a list of links, if anyone’s got anymore good links, please feel free to post them.

• GIMP Tutorials
• Pixel2Life.com
• GIMPGurus.org Tutorials
• About Graphics Software

Now if anyone knows how to make a background like F-Spot has on their website… that would be cool.

Filed under: General, Linux
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Since I’m terrible at writing posts on time it really makes no sense to say that I’ve played a whole lot of the Xbox 360 by now. I actually played it all before the release. Now apparently the Xbox 360 likes to crash for a bunch of people but in the 2+ weeks I’ve been playing it, neither of the systems ever crashed for me. I guess I was just lucky. The new controller design works real well. The games are graphically stunning and pretty good as far as release games go. Now it’s the add-ons that really make this sytem cool. The new Xbox remote looks and feels a lot like the Windows Media Center Edition remotes. But the remote that blows you away is one designed by Logitech, the Advanced Universal Remote for Xbox 360. It’s truly an awesome remote with an LCD screen.

Filed under: General
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So I know everyone’s seen the pictures and the reviews and all the details and everything on the Xbox 360. But today I actually got to hold a 360 controller. They’re slightly smaller then the Xbox S controllers, but that’s more in the thickness. The wired controller will work with Windows XP in addition to the 360. Retail price on them was $44.99 but employee discount was oh so much sweeter.

Filed under: General
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So I took a part time job at Best Buy last week to help pay the bills. So now on top of 12 credits, I have 2 part time jobs. Now you’d think Best Buy would stick me in Geek Squad since that’s where I applied, or at the very least in the Computer Department… nope. They stuck me in Digital Imaging, basically digital cameras and camcorders. oh well. I guess I’ll review some of them on here as they come out and I get to play with them.

And on the real job front, Microsoft sent me an e-mail on Friday saying they’d like me to come to a job interview on Monday morning. It went pretty well I think but who really knows. I applied for a Program Manager position so we’ll see. They asked me to design an alarm clock for the blind during the interview. Just one of those standard “We want to see your thought process” questions.

Filed under: General
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IANAL… an acronym used on Slashdot entirely too much. In fact every tech site with an opinion uses IANAL and you know what, I think everyone needs a little review of what that acronym means. Let me put it here in big and bold, I am not a lawyer. That’s right kids, you are not a lawyer and just because you just graduated HS and are heading to college or are in college and remember your American History class does not mean you can interpret the law and actually understand and come to the right conclusion.

How many times on Slashdot have we seen an argument on the DMCA? I don’t even think you can count the number of times on both hands that it happens in an hour. Here’s the thing, how many of these people had any sort of legal training? How many of these people actually read the DMCA? How many people’s understanding of the DMCA comes from the media and other non-lawyer posts on Slashdot? I’m willing to bet 999 out of 1000. How many of you have actually read the Constitution?

The next person that says there is no basis for having copyright law and patent law needs to get smacked with a copy of the Constitution (hint: Article 1, Section 8, Clause 8 )

So in summary, all of you piss me off and need to stop pretending you know the law or you’re a lawyer. And if you care about this country, at the very least read the supreme law of the land.

Constitution
Constitutional Amendments

Filed under: General
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