2020 has been a strange and different year and for many of us, Christmas will be different this year compared with normal. Keep safe and have a Merry Christmas!
My seven-year-old MacBook Pro finally decided enough was enough and has begun shutting down when it feels like it. Whilst I do intend to try and get it repaired, I'm also saving for my own house.
As a result of my penny-pinching, I have converted temporarily to using a Windows-based system. Yuck! Everything about the whole experience of Windows feels sluggish and very poorly put together but as it's my only alternative, I'm stuck with it. For everyday things like the command line, Windows is slowly getting better, but it's not there yet and the Windows Terminal app is great but not perfected. I miss my Dock from macOS and can't stand the alternatives that are available for Windows.
Generally, Atom and Eclipse are fine, but there are just things that make me unhappy about the feel of Windows. And in comparison to my MacBook Pro I'm so used to, this HP ProBook 640 G4 is like something from the past.
I am considering a new MacBook Pro at the moment, but I'm unsure which one would best suit me since I liked the size of my 15" MacBook Pro compared with my previous 13" model but then I have to add in dedicated graphics again which is something I never used and simply was there when I needed to warm myself up with a blast from the fans trying to cool it.
But Jamie, what about Linux, you might ask. Well, Linux is fine if you've got hardware that supports it, unfortunately, this machine I'm using is the most comfortable typing experience after my MacBook Pro that I own and I'm afraid this machine is used for stuff for Jambour Digital and is therefore not mine to run Linux on. My Razer Blade Stealth on the other hand has a very comfortable typing experience but cannot run Linux. Therefore I'm stuck with this pile of junk that is Windows for a short while until I decide what I'm going to do with my MacBook Pro (which was working beautifully a few weeks ago).
Good quality products like the MacBook Pro I owned tend to break just like that. They don't tend to show degradation over time and just go when the time is right. This was the case with my Corsair HX850 power supply unit in my desktop PC, it had a 10-year guarantee and it lasted 10 years and 3 days before just popping and giving up. It does however show that the build quality of my seven-year-old MacBook Pro (late 2013) is not as good as my older (late 2011) MacBook Pro that I sold to my brother which is running beautifully after replacing a SATA cable inside it.
It was my birthday today and I turn 29 at 10.30 today. I have some big news that I'm keeping quiet for a little longer and then I will unveil it all. Stay tuned if you want to find out more.
I'm finally about to enter the most important part of my career - I'm about to become an NQT!
Yes, I found out (officially) today that I'm going to become a teacher in one of the schools I've wanted to work in and I'm over the moon with happiness!
As many of my website followers will know, teaching has been the career path I've always wanted to go down for at least a part of my life. I'm looking forward to both the challenges it presents as well as the doors it's going to open for me!
As a vegetarian and someone who cares for animals, I'm always concerned about the alarming amount of animals that are consumed by humans every day. I'm not a crazy in-your-face vegetarian and I ask everyone in the world to stop now and become vegetarian, but I do have morals that relate to the treatment of animals.
A recent protest carried out in Australia, which although I do not condone, I believe agrees partially with what I think. The protest involved them barbecuing a dog on the street and asking "If you wouldn't eat a dog, why eat a lamb?" which in my personal opinion is the reason to switch to vegetarianism. I asked myself this question when I ate meat, why do some rabbits deserve to be eaten whilst others do not and get kept as pets? (I had at the time and still have pet rabbits).
Anyway, there was one thing that was said that stuck out from all the rest:
As humans, we instinctively feel compassion and empathy for animals, but we're taught that it's OK to enslave and eat some of them, without a second thought as to who they are as individuals.
I hope all my readers have a Merry Christmas for 2018! Best wishes to all!
Some of my followers will know that the last two weeks have been my first two weeks as a teacher and I've got to say, I've had the best two weeks of my life!
I've never been in a job where every day I come in excited about what I'm going to do in the day and feeling like I want to go back in each and every day. I've also never had a job where my lunch break doesn't feel too short because I like going back to work afterward.
Nothing has ever excited me as much as being a teacher in secondary level education!
Well, it's goodbye 2017 and hello 2018!
In this post, I thought I'd take a moment to go through a few of my plans for 2018.
First of all, I've got big plans for a new piece of web-based software that I intend to work on this year. This new piece of software will be something of a new content management system, server management system and educational tool. I feel that there is a need for something like this. The system will be built on the basics and fundamentals of Dash and will expand on its file management utilities.
Second of all, Jambour Digital will become a company - something I've planned for a while now. Two of the biggest websites I've ever worked on will begin in January of 2018.
Thirdly, I will launch Dash 1.1. Dash 1.1 will improve a lot of Dash 1.0s biggest features and will hopefully be out by the middle of the year.
Finally, I will get around to launching my new website in January of 2018. This will be the fourth iteration of my website, and although it's very similar to version 3, it's underlying design is much different. It's also considerably more performant than version 3.
My new year's resolutions are mainly to continue with the gym and lose weight as well as to get through my teacher training and find the career I've always wanted to do.
I thought I'd take a bit of time to look back at my 2017 a bit earlier than normal, but focusing only on the technology side of things and what's happened this year.
This year has been an incredible year for me technologically, as I've learned way more than any other year before. This year, perhaps the biggest gain for me was moving to a virtual private server (VPS) for my website. This gave me the technical knowledge that I never ever had and allowed me to learn server admin stuff. I now know a lot more about Linux servers and the Apache web server and, as a result of this, have started a business hosting websites for clients that I build websites for - something I wanted to do years ago. As well as this, I've learned to tinker the performance to get it right for my website and my clients' websites.
This year also saw me get my first job, working at Maglabs, which was a great place to work but I was just so anxious that I wanted to take the next step and ended up working at DH Systems after just six months at Maglabs. I only ended up at DH Systems for one month really before deciding that it would be better if I took time out for my health. As a result of the timeout, I actually ended up drawing up a business plan and formed Jambour Digital, which I'm very happy to have done. The company isn't quite active yet, but I've got plans to get it up and running in the new year.
I've also learned a bunch of new technologies such as C++, React.js, Angular JS, Node.js and Symfony 2 this year. I've also learned a lot more about Linux command line and now spend most of my day with a Bash Terminal open on my Mac - an incredible difference compared with last year.
Perhaps my biggest achievement this year is Dash. Dash was originally named BalfBlog at the start of this year, but it has since become so much more than what BalfBlog was and needed a name to reflect that. Even as late as May of this year, huge improvements were coming to BalfBlog and eventually Dash to make it the incredible piece of software it is!
Another thing that I'm working on now is ZPE 2.0, which is being written in C++. Whilst I wouldn't say I'm near finishing it, I would say it's progressing quite well.
I must not forget to mention setting up my own personal branch exchange for a SIP phone! Yes, this year has finally been the year that I have ditched my standard telephone and taken on a SIP phone instead and I now have my own business phone line. There was a steep learning curve with it but I got there eventually.
I also finally got my Razer Blade Stealth, the only ultrabook I've ever wanted to own! As well as this I got myself another similar device (well in the sense it docks into a more powerful system) with the Nintendo Switch, which to date may be the greatest console around.
I wanted to take this moment to wish you all a Merry Christmas for 2017!
I've put some stock images from Pixabay that I think are cute and Christmassy for you to enjoy below:
