Computers

When it comes to classic rock albums, very few things come close to Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. Created in two sessions in 1972 and 1973, DSotM was Pink Floyd's 6th album. It was one of the concept albums that basically defines Pink Floyd as a group and as a rock legend and icon. The other album filling that role would be The Wall.

Wikipedia says this: "The Dark Side of the Moon was an immediate success, topping the Billboard 200 for one week. It subsequently remained in the charts for 741 weeks from 1973 to 1988, longer than any other album in history. With an estimated 45 million copies sold, it is Pink Floyd's most commercially successful album and one of the best-selling albums worldwide. It has twice been remastered and re-released, and has been covered by several other acts. It spawned two singles, "Money" and "Us and Them". In addition to its commercial success, The Dark Side of the Moon is one of Pink Floyd's most popular albums among fans and critics, and is frequently ranked as one of the greatest rock albums of all time."

Canadian game programmer Brad Smith has now remastered the classic album in 8 bit Nintendo Style. Released as Moon8, Brad's album is the entire Dark Side of the Moon album, from Speak to Me all the way to Brain Damage/Eclipse, done in 8 bit computerized music.

Enjoy some of it here and visit Brad's website or YouTube channel to experience the whole album. (There's no video, music only, so I've flattened them here for space)

Part 1: Speak to Me / Breathe / On the Run

Part 2: Time/Breathe Reprise

Part 3: The Great Gig in the Sky

There's been a bit of a discussion on one of the many mailing lists I'm on about running Linux on netbooks. This started out as a request for some help (read technical support) and evolved into a brief discussion about the merits of various distributions on small systems. This got me thinking. When netbooks first hit the market a few years ago, you could buy them with your choice of Linux or Windows. Today, they pretty much all come shipped with Windows XP, which was supposed to have died years ago. Microsoft, seeing a new way to flog a dead horse, instead kept XP alive to draw in even more customers with this new revenue stream.  read more »

My friend, Ill say it clear, Ill state my case, of which Im certain...

And thus, my final full day at IBM is drawing to a close, and I'm ready to go. I've cleaned out my desk, my cubicle, my drawers, cabinets and so forth. I've cared home 6 years of my life, which, ironically fit in three shopping bags. I've sent off my final farewell e-mails, gathered a list of contacts for references, and said goodbye to the people I've worked with. Soon, I'll head out into the bright, sunny day, top down, wind in my hair, sun on my face.  read more »

Dear Teaching Assistants,

I'm so glad to see so many of you in the building this semester. Our semester is two weeks old now, and things have gotten off to a roaring start! Tonight was night two of my Introduction to Linux course, and things went like I expected them to, and I have you to thank for it!  read more »