My Blog

Operating Systems

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 22:20:53 -0500

One of the problems with learning new skills is using them. If you really want to learn a foreign language, you have to be able to use it. If you want to learn to use a program, then you have to be able to to use a computer. Well I want to learn to program, and while I have a computer and software development tools installed and ready to use, I really don’t have a project or anything to work on in order to hone what I learn from the many books I have picked up over the past year. So I was trying to think of a good project that would let me learn a broad array of theories within programming, as well as some of the larger aspects of software development in large projects. My conclusion: an operating system.

While I have my laptop setup to triple-boot Mac OS X Leopard, Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron, and Microsoft Windows XP Professional, all of which being fairly well-rounded operating systems in their own regard, there’s still a lot left to be desired. Development on Windows and Linux aren’t quite up to par with OS X, Windows and OS X aren’t as scalable as Linux, and OS X and Linux don’t have the enterprise presence that Microsoft enjoys with Windows. While I can’t do anything about the user base directly, what I can do is to drive innovation on all platforms by introducing new implementations of existing standards using clean code and advanced programming models and workflows.

My project will spawn what is temporarily being called AlexOS simply for the lack of a more original name. My focus (beyond my own learning) is to create a high level of abstraction including hardware in order to make this as portable as possible. I will aim for POSIX compliance provided another standard doesn’t pop up out of nowhere between now and... well the point of no return. AlexOS will have the smallest footprint possible while being largely scalable due to the current market trend toward multi-core/multi-processor/multi-gpu/multi-thingamabob. So far I have studied C, C++, Objective-C and I recently started using Python, so barring further study of more useful languages AlexOS will be written within the bounds of this selection.

I have not decided on a license for AlexOS, however I am looking intently at releasing it as open source to allow for community support once I have reached an acceptable milestone.

After an Extended Absence...

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 15:31:17 -0500

... I return. It has been quite a while since I have updated this site, and I think that its about time I get back into the swing of things. A lot has happened since my last post, so I am going to give a short overview of some of the stuff going on, and later on I will write in more detail what’s new in the world of Alex.

I guess I’ll start off with work. Back in February I started working at my college as a part-time LAN Technician, and since then I’ve been chugging along tryin’ to keep everything working the way it should. To make a long story short, most of the department is no longer there, being replaced by some newbies, who really are cool people and have learned quickly.

Recently I made a wek-long trip to Los Angeles to see an old buddy of mine. We hit the roller coasters at Six Flags Magic Mountain, Manhatten Beach for some surfing, and Malibu for some hiking as well as some awesome music and movies strewn throughout.

Well I guess that’s it for now. Later!

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Essay

Sun, 27 Jan 2008 17:49:22 -0600

So this is the first essay I’ve had to write for college. We were given an excerpt from a story and told to finish the story in 1000 words. Well I wrote 1100+ words, but my story isn’t really finished. Its really more of a prologue than a story. I was thinking about continuing the story, which would easily turn into 50,000 words or more, and would be the first time I’ve written a book. Does anyone out there think it would be worth continuing?

The images above are links to my paper (on the left) and the excerpt (on the right) on which the paper was based.

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Resume

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 11:38:02 -0600

Here’s a bit of information as to just what I’ve been up to, in terms of work, for the past few years. Its not much, but I’m mostly looking to focus on my studies right now.

I’m looking for some part-time work, if for no other reason than to give me something else to do, and a way to remain familiar with the industry by first-hand experience. I am very familiar with the support side of things, having manned a service desk, and with the large turnover that we did shortly after I arrived, I quickly became the most experienced with the systems in place and therefore I was given opportunities to work on the network and server administration sides as well.

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EDIT: I actually just got a job working part-time at the college that I attend.