I’m just bursting at the seems right now, so I had to make a quick blog post. I installed VMware Server, which allows one to basically have a computer in a computer. I installed Fedora Core 6 on it, and, after the long update process, I got it working, and got RB working. I noticed right off the bat that RB ran much faster on FC than it ever did for me on Ubuntu. I then compiled my webserver quickly to do some tests and found that, not only did RB compile slightly faster, but that the binary itself ran up to speed. People might know that I was complaining about the speed of my program when compiled on linux a while back. Well, I’m here to say that it either was Ubuntu, or my system, because it works great now. I did note that if you accidently have opened your project twice, you will get all kinds of compiler errors and internal errors and such. Don’t do that.
I do applogize for the lack of updates. I am still working, slowly, on the email server, the calculator, and the web server. I just got weighed down by school work. If you ever have the option of using matlab, don’t. That is all I’m going to say.

After doing rather repeditive math in several classes I’m taking, I decided that I wanted to do something about it. I started a new project that shouldn’t take me too long. It’s a programer’s calculator, designed to do calculations that programers often do. Currently planned features include base conversions, bitwise operators, color code picker (with RGB, HSV and CMY codes), and ASCII tables. I was planning on some boolean logic stuff, but can’t figure out how I would want it to work. I also might add in a keycodefinder and even, maybe a section for netcheck. This project is mostly a distraction to allow me to process all the database stuff I’m learning. It won’t cause any significant delays in JdiMail, so don’t worry about that. It is tentivly called JdiCalc, but that will probably change, as calc is rather broad and might be covered by something latter. If you have suggestions for features, a better name, or anything, let me know!

I was thinking this past week about different GUIs. Partly inspired by all the Vista vs. Mac OS X debates. While I’m not going to go into that now, I did come up with an interesting idea. What if Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and a representive of all of the Linux community approched you and said that they have all agreeded that the current GUI system has been in place way too long. It’s been 20+ years now. They have also agreeded that you, being independent of of Microsoft, Apple, and Linux, are the best person to help them design a completly new UI for all computers. They agree that whatever you decide, they will all use as the new standard and will develop and work on changing their products to meet this design in the next, say, 10 years.

The big question now is how would you do it. Are screens still the main method for output? How does sound, movement, ESP, or any other similar method factor into both input and output? If it had some form of graphics, what would they be used for? Basically, how would you design the next generation of operating systems?

For this, I’m going to define a computer as a device that accepts some form of input, manipulates it, then returns some form of output. This used to be in the form of punch cards and printouts. Then text on terminals. Now it is mice, and keyboards with monitors with windows. What do you think it should be next? Give me your thoughts on this.

It’s been a few weeks and, while it seems that nothing is happening, it is. I have some basic SMTP (sending mail) functioning. I probably will need to make it more robust, but it currently works. I also started working on POP3 (getting mail). This part hadn’t been touched before, so all this is being written from scratch as we speak. However, I found that my previous storage method, flat files and folders, seriously lacked the versilility I needed. Therefore, I have started moving my storage and retrieval code to a real database. I knew some about databases from a long time ago, but never really understood much of it. So I went to my public library and checked out a book on SQL and started posting away on the RB support forum. Through this I learned a great deal and am about to implement the switch, just as soon as I do a few more tests. Theoretically, the database should be able to store about 2GB of data (that’s a lot of email for a personal server), and the database should be crossplatform (meaning that it is portable, should you decide to start on one OS and move to another). However, neither of these two things have been tested.

On another note, I am working on icons for JdiMail. I will be posting some prelimiary designs soon, so check back. In the mean time, if you have any suggestions, let me know.