I was not going to watch the Super Bowl last night because I am still upset about the Cowboy loss three weeks ago. I did watch about 1/3 of the game. I wanted both teams to lose. Needless to say, I did not get my way.
I have been using vi in some form or fashion since I was in college. I remember making lots of mistakes as I began to use the editor, but the time it has taken to master the editor was well worth it. I am one of the weird people that this that vi makes sense. In recent years, the text editors in general have gained many features. Vi is not excluded from that list. Vim, is a project that took the basic vi, and has extened it’s functionality. Over the years, I have realized that I have not really taken the time to learn Vim. so now, as I dig into the high level features, I would like to provide some simple tutorials for others to learn about this great text editor. Be on the lookout for these. If there are any features that you would like me to do some tutorials, then please let me know. Some of my thoughts would be:
I am currently employed by Symantec Corporation, and I have very few complaints about the company. I think it can be said of all large companies that the good things in the company are great and the bad things in the company are terrible. Symantec does a lot to make sure that their employees are taken care of. They have been very generous to me.
With that said, I have a general complaint about the “Enterprise” (I use that work in quotes to mean very, very large company). My complaint is with Microsoft Exchange. Microsoft has done a great job of keeping out the competitors because there are no server and no client alternatives.
I would like to run linux as my desktop, but I cannot because Evolution is just quirky enough to be counter-productive. Since I must have my email and calendar up and running at all times, I have been reduced to being on the windows platform. I could move to the Mac, but that will be another hardware purchase, which I am not quite ready to do.
I like standards base email. I can use whatever client I want on whatever platform I want. I like web based email that help me be productive. The Microsoft “webmail” is not productive at all, so it is not an option unless you get 3 emails a day and don’t have an meetings.
We need a standards based email and notification system that we can use on our desktops and mobile phones. It must be secure and easy to use. What is the problem with enterprises moving their email systems to google or yahoo? They would save a lot of money, I’m sure.
It is funny that I have been struggling with the problem for 10 years. In 1998, I could have written the exact same blog post. That is what makes this depressing. Are there any better options today?
I can now store phone conference phone numbers and passcode with a contact. I just discovered the “pause” button. If you click the bottom left button when storing a number, the # and * keys are available. Their is also an active button called “pause”, so when storing a conference number, you can do the following:
800 123 1234 "pause" 34567#
I have to admit that I was lured to the TextMate on Mac OS X for my rails development. I got into it. In fact, I required that Andy use it (and buy it) as well on a project that we were working on together. Since that time I have discovered rails.vim, which was developed by Tim Pope. I do not know Tim, but I have to give him Kudos for a job well done. There is still a lot to learn. If you are a vim user, then you need to check out his other plugins. I am about to do that. The reason that I am writing this post now is because Tim has created a website that is dedicated to rails.vim. I just thought everyone should know.
Let me know if you want to try this plugin or anything else with vim, and I would be glad to give you a hand.
Update: I just remembered that I wanted to make a point about rails.vim. It works on every platform that you can run vim on. If you switch platforms like the weather changes (as I do), then this would be something worth adding to your virtual toolbox.
Art is something that I enjoy, but unfortunately, I rarely look for new painters, sculptors, or designers the way that I look for new musicians. Mary McCleary is an artist in Nacogdoches, Texas, whose work I really enjoy. Check out her website and let me know what you think.
I did not watch any football yesterday, and I am glad that I did not. It was another heart-breaker. I would have liked to see the New York Giants lose.
This weekend I was disappointed about the Dallas Cowboy loss to the New York Giants. Between the Mavericks and Cowboys, I cannot take this sports thing anymore. The reasons that I do not play golf is because it is too time consuming and too frustrating. The reasons that I should stop watching and following sports is for the same reasons. There are many other thing that I could do instead, like writing. I will attempt to touch on topics that interest me, which include:
I will try and tag my posts consistently, so my vast audience (joke!) can get to the content they would like to see. Stay tuned for some pictures of my new daughter.
I knew it! It is finally here. Apple has given the AppleTV some love. I bought the 160G version several months ago because I knew Apple would do some cool stuff with the platform. They are starting to come around. I can’t wait to rent movies from by couch.