Lee Graham's Digital Home

Take a look back at the beginnings of open source, and its growth through the 80s and 90s. Meet the people involved, and understand how Red Hat got started, went public, and changed the technology industry along the way.

Experience this story from some of the people that helped craft it, including DeLisa Alexander, Jeremy Allison, Paul Cormier, Alan Cox, John Halamka, Venky Hariharan, Lawrence Lessig, Alex Pinchev, Brian Stevens, Michael Tiemann, Mark Webbink, Jim Whitehurst, Jan Wildeboer, and Bob Young.

"When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion. When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing; when you see that money is flowing to those who deal not in goods, but in favors; when you see that men get rich more easily by graft than by work, and your laws no longer protect you against them, but protect them against you... you may know that your society is doomed."

Quote from Atlas Shrugged

"A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."

— Antoine de Saint Exupéry

Adobe has opened up their Adobe eLearning Professionals group on LinkedIn. Check it out, ask questions and help others!

http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Adobe-eLearning-Professionals-Group-2362292

#attfail

So this evening I received this "friendly" text reminder from AT&T

"Your data usage has reached 3GB this month. Using more than 3GB in future billing cycles will result in reduced speeds. You can use Wi-Fi to help avoid reduced speeds. Visit www.att.com/datainfo or call 866-344-7584 for more info."

So I called the 866 number and this lady said that there is nothing she can do and that my speed will pretty much be like dial up.

I've had unlimited wireless via AT&T Wireless since my first iPhone 3G. I've chosen to keep that for both my (now Android) phone as well as my wife's. AND I've choosen to be grandfathered into it, while paying the premium for it every month. 

I understand that there is a legitimate reason for capping some people, but I'm certainly not a part of their top 5% of abusers. Hell... I do NOT tether. I do NOT stream a ton of YouTube. I primarily use my phone for a ton of business/personal email and social apps like Foursquare. And I recognize that AT&T isn't completely cutting off my data, but they are pretty much crippling it. Why not just shoot the wounded dog?

My real beef and the purpose of this rant is HOW the AT&T lady went about this. Sure I wasn't very happy when I called her, but I still was professional. Her telling me there was nothing she can do, after I've been a very loyal customer for a number of year paying the premium for their "Unlimited Data" was BS! 

If this is how AT&T wants to treat their loyal customers, I'm sure I can find somewhere else where my business will be appreciated. To all my friends and colleagues that I've told I haven't had any problems with AT&T, I regretfully take that back.

I highly recommend NOT using AT&T Wireless because their policies and customer service SUCK!

Recently, I've relocated from Winston-Salem to Raleigh, so I'm assuming that may be a contributing factor. I never had this issue with similar data usage in Winston-Salem. W-S was a much smaller market and I'm sure they didn't have as much traffic, still that is NOT a good reason for a company to treat their customer like that.

End of rant... Can anyone suggest a solid wireless carrier with top notch support?

(download)

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times-are-a-changing-red-hat-here-i-come-DbcdndqIiAgjByxBHFpq.zip (1.96 MB)

Well, today is my last week at BB&T. Monday morning, I start the next chapter of my professional career at Red Hat! BB&T is a rock solid company, and I only foresee good things in their company's future. But the time has come for me to make a change of scene, and what better place that one of the leaders of the open source community! I'll be working for the Red Hat University Share Services as an eLearning Developer.

Can't wait!

‎5000x$10 - We are looking for 5000 of our closest friends and family to donate $10 each to help us raise funds for a billboard campaign in North Carolina to get people out to VOTE!

I typically find myself feeling pretty apathetic when it comes to politics. I'm tired of empty promises, lack of checks and balances, and people who say they know what they are doing, but really don't have a freaking clue.

We got "Change" in the last election, but it wasn't necessarily the change we want or needed. In January 2009 when Obama took office, unemployment was at 7.8%, now it is 9.1%. The stimulus didn't work. It didn't produce those millions of jobs that the politicians promised. It may have helped things maintain the sucky status quo, but it certainly didn't help America grow or prosper. 

What type of intelligent business person dumps trillions of dollars into a failing business model? Capital like that will sustain a business for a while, but if you don't innovate and change the business model, that capital will eventually dry up and you are stuck in the same situation you were before, BUT you are now just in huge debt. This is exactly where we are at as a Nation.

I believe it is time for a businessman with a plan to run our country, not some great civic leader, like an Obama, who makes promises and rallies the people. Cain knows how to turn a failing business (Godfather's Pizza) around by cutting the waste, and move it back into a successful business.

Out of all the GOP candidates, Cain has a plan that he calls his 999 Plan. Its practical, its common sense and its a solid business plan for getting America back on track. 

Another reason I like Cain, he isn't a "good ol' boy" that has been in an congressional office since 1982. Take a look at the man's successful business career. I personally thinks he is the best candidate for the job.

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punchfork-the-sexy-recipe-aggregator-GrDskmDapcGmyzmfpCGh.zip (2.11 MB)

I LOVE food! I also LOVE cooking! So you can imagine my excitement when I got a beta invitation to Punchfork: The Best New Recipes from Top Food Sites (or as I like to refer to it... Punchfork: The Sexy Recipe Aggregator) today!

The site definitely has a sleek design. It contains recipes from The Food Network, Martha Stewart, the ever so famous Epicurious, etc... I signed up via my Facebook account. It has a robust feature set, including: Favorites, easy to share link, Facebook Like, Twitter Tweet button, etc...

What I like is what appears to be the use of the social media sharing buttons to give the recipe a rating.

Check out the app, blog or their Facebook page!

• Just connecting my Galaxy Tab via USB. No go.
• Android File Transfer utility. No go.
• I considered Phil Haigh's (of surfsoftconsulting.com) advice: Galaxy Tab 10.1 USB File Transfer Issues Explained. BUT I didn't want an app (even if it was free) if I could find the right thing to connect my tablet to me Mac.
• I searched all over Samsung's forums and eventually stumbled across: Samsung's Kies Beta

Use Kies Beta it works perfect for transferring image, video & audio. If you want to transfer other files (like PDFs) I've come to really like the File Expert app by Geek Software Technology Inc. I'm using their WEB Sharing option.

Let me know if you have any questions. Cheers!

(download)

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security-audiobook-by-certapps-toqgGsnJnnfzleBzhgqh.zip (915 KB)

Learn by Listening... Security+ Audiobook is to help supplement your studies with audio files you can listen to while on the go. Listen to topics from all the chapters of Darril Gibson's the top selling CompTIA Security+ Get Certified Get Ahead Study Guide, or focus on the topics you need.

• Learn while driving or commuting
• Learn while exercising
• Learn any time

Audio files read directly from the CompTIA Security+ Get Certified Get Ahead Study Guide by a professional voice actor, but this is NOT the complete book being read.

Listen on your Android device!

Audio files include:

• All of the Remember blocks from each chapter
• Listen to key exam information as many times as you like
• All of the questions, answers, and explanations from each of the chapters
• Reinforce why the correct answers are correct and why in the incorrect answers are incorrect.

Over 3 1/4 hours of Security+ material (21 streaming files).

• 10 separate Remember files
• One for each chapter
• 10 separate question and answer files
• One for each chapter

Get Ahead with CertApps!

If you have at least a little interest in Google's Android platform, you MUST watch these!

They announced Android 3.1 (Honeycomb). More importantly Android 3.1 is not only for tablets, it is for Google TV as well! Google TV is getting the the Android Market

Pintley 2 for Android & iPhone

(download)

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pintley-2-for-android-iphone-vouCqwnkzJrwrtlrowqv.zip (1.55 MB)

Pintley mobile app, this time for both Android and iPhone!

In addition to opening up Pintley to Android users, this version of the app brings dozens of updates, including:

• Drink Tracking and Checkins
• Points System and Monthly Prize Giveaways
• Integration with Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare
• News Feeds, Friends, and Messages

(download)

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certapps-security-free-certification-prep-quiz-app-by-darril-gibson-gvquenoCkouldsbFzlDJ.zip (1.05 MB)

Certification prep apps are an important learning tool. A friend of mine, Darril Gibson has released Security+ Free app that is now available in the Android Market.

He is working on a number of apps that will help those who are interested in the CompTIA Security+ (SY0-201) certification. For those of you who don't know Darril, he is a well-known IT trainer and author of several certification books including, CompTIA Security+ Get Certified Get Ahead (Printed Version & Kindle Version).

Security+ Free is coming soon to the Amazon App Store, as well as the Apple App Store. This is just a sample of certification prep apps he will be releasing in the future.

To keep up-to-date with the release of the apps, you can follow CertApps in a number of ways: Blog, Twitter or Facebook.

I was Googling and came across Todd Anderson's (blog) project on GitHub called, "as3couchdb". My only problem is that I prefer to do almost everything exclusively in Flash. I noticed Todd had an AS3 version in his example projects, but that it requires Flex because of the custom metadata at the time of compiling. So you would get an error like this,

"Error: The CouchModel instance [com.custardbelly.couchdb.example.model::ContactDatabase] must be annotated with [DocumentService] metadata tag."

I found a hack-around, so anyone else wanting to use CouchDB and within the Flash IDE can do so (assuming you have CouchDB running locally already - if not, download Couchbase Server here)...

1. Simply create a new Flash project
2. Download Todd's as3couchdb and getting the example BasicActionScriptExample Class under the Properties Panel -> Publish -> Class in the Flash IDE
3. Go to your Publish Settings, and check the SWC box under Publish (make sure you do this, otherwise you will get this metadata tag error: "Error: The CouchModel instance [com.custardbelly.couchdb.example.model::ContactDatabase] must be annotated with [DocumentService] metadata tag." 
4. The compile your project... the example should publish and work! How about that for getting started quickly?
   

If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment. I'm using Flash CS5 and Couchbase Server (CouchDB v 1.0.2) on a Mac.

For those interested in how I found this hack-around:

• Adobe: Flash Professional Ideas - Keep Custom Metadata
  • Robotlegs: Flash CS4 custom metadata now possible? So far yes!
    • Patrick Mowrer: Compiling custom AS3 metadata in Flash Professional

Images used above curteosy of seokchanyun & mondi

Today Amazon announced it has launched its own Android App Store! This is very interesting and exciting for all of those who have Android devices. I still think Googlezon is just right around the corner. For those unfamiliar with Googlezon, watch this 8 minutes video, EPIC 2015.

My friend Aaron Watson recently released his second album and here is the single, "Cuz of My Swag"

Check it out and let me know what you think...

01_-_The_Swag_-_EP_-_Cuz_of_My_Swag.mp3

(download)

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01_-_The_Swag_-_EP_-_Cuz_of_My_Swag.mp3 (4.75 MB)