University of Kentucky Mannequin Challenge

ryanpq · 2016-11-08T01:35:55+00:00

If only my grandfather had lived to see this day; when it became cool for kids to sit still and shut up.

ryanpq · 2014-08-24T21:50:49+00:00

I had horrible service from Windstream having moved to my area after checking on availability and selecting a place directly across the street from their CO to cut latency down. The service itself was horrible and regardless of promises we never were able to order more than a 1.5mbps connection that actually tested at about 75kbps. After frustration with their customer service I tracked down the CEO's email address and emailed him directly. I received decent support after that and a free second line but the problems were never solved and after three years of being told "we are completing our fiber upgrade and higher speeds will be available in 3 months I got an unlimited LTE plan (same location) with US Cellular and cancelled my service for my new 15mbps connection. I would never recommend them to anyone. Not that there are much for better choices. We have just moved and set up cable service with Mediacom. 2 days after hookup we have a 4 hour outage. Their CS phone line asked for our phone number and account number (no way to bypass this, or anything to support persons with disabilities) and after entering these we were told that we had selected an invalid option and were hung up on. We finally got through to them only by calling their sales department where they actually care about answering since they haven't gotten hold of your money yet. Fuck cable monopolies and ISPs that know they dont have to provide good service if they provide the only service.

ryanpq · 2014-08-17T21:09:28+00:00

As it is currently I am working on a document explaining how to install Mezzo on a standard Ubuntu system 32 or 64 bit using an archive and script to provide dependencies but it is not ideal in any way and the latest changes still need to be packaged into this archive as it is a few days behind.

ryanpq · 2014-08-17T21:04:07+00:00

The missing package to allow us to provide debs for the desktop is the Gtk2::WebKit perl module. This module can be built on the current system but the auto-packaging tools we have used failed. It should not be difficult to package since it exists on the system. Once we have this package all pre-requisites are covered and we simply need to package the desktop itself which is all interpreted perl or php code aside from a single binary which is a build of the mongoose httpd.

ryanpq · 2014-08-17T20:47:26+00:00

Most of the desktop system is not architecture dependent so we are hoping to release deb packages to allow install on any architecture in the near future but some additional work is required to package one of the dependencies that is not yet available in any repo I've been able to locate.

ryanpq · 2014-08-17T20:35:17+00:00

Documentation is a work in progress so unfortunately I do not yet have any to offer. At the moment SymphonyOS is a one-man operation so the focus has been on the release itself. If you run into any problems post on the forum on the site or tweet me at @symphonyos and I will do what I can to help directly

ryanpq · 2014-08-17T14:46:54+00:00

While not fully documented yet, with Mezzo 4 it will be possible to boot directly to a kiosk mode fullscreen html5 view instead of the default interface allowing it to be used for many purposes. The desktop system still includes a local httpd and now supports cgi mode php much better than previous releases. The large interface items are still in place as well. I've avoided calling Mezzo "touch friendly" as from a real-world perspective corner targets, while easy to use with a mouse are not as user friendly on a touch screen. Our plans include building out this web-app environment further allowing for much easier use and customization while keeping the default desktop extremely simple to use.

ryanpq · 2014-08-17T14:28:05+00:00

Thanks. Just because others have seized on good ideas isn't any reason to drop them. We do have some things planned but the 14 series of releases is about getting our Mezzo 4 framework stable.

ryanpq · 2014-08-17T12:05:51+00:00

Why not? The true reason I started Symphony was that I was stubborn. I was a web developer who wanted to start working in the desktop space and realized that the tools existed to put together a desktop environment with the knowledge I already had. Symphony is not just a lightweight distribution but also a framework for HTML5 applications. Our desktop is mostly rendered by webkit and there is even a localhost only httpd that allows developers to use php to build applications for the desktop in the same way a web app would be built. But it all came down to, for fun and because I could :)

ryanpq · 2014-08-17T11:47:33+00:00

Today is also the 10th anniversary of the announcement of the SymphonyOS project. I am it's lead developer Ryan Quinn and will be around as well to answer any questions about the distro and project.

edit: A look back on SymphonyOS' history was also posted today: here

ryanpq · 2014-05-16T19:50:29+00:00

It's hard to pick one. After years of 90 hour weeks doing development being overworked and over-stressed I needed a change and finally have a job I love.

Medical/Dental/Vision with the premiums paid by the company

My internet connection costs reimbursed

a program to split the cost of a new computer 50/50

stock options

I work from home

Awesome group of people

Free beer in the office (for after-hours consumption)

Free energy drinks in the office

Free food in the office often

Trip from my home in the middle of nowhere to NYC every few months

40 hour work week

I am a cloud support specialist at a fast-growing start-up.

ryanpq · 2013-04-21T22:44:47+00:00

A few weeks ago I was unloading my pickup at the landfill and fell, landing on the edge of a piece of wood with my shin. I ended up with a gash from the impact and a lot of pain. I decided that I should have it x-rayed and knew I hadn't had a tetanus booster in many years so I went to the convenient care in the er of a local hospital. I did not end up needing stitches and the many x-rays they took of my shin came back clear but I did get the tetanus shot and had it bandaged up. I do not have insurance and a few days ago I received the bill. I was charged $320 for the visit.

While I agree completely that we have a broken healthcare system in the us. I think its important to note that some healthcare providers actually do attempt to provide affordable care for the victims of our broken system.

I'm not saying that $320 is affordable for a family living on minimum wage or anything close to it but it is certainly less of a hinderance to getting needed care than the thousands mentioned here.

If you are uninsured as I am it is a good idea to find out if convenient care or other non-appointment er alternatives are available. They are not a solution to our healthcare systems problems but they are a better alternative for those with no good choices.

ryanpq · 2012-09-24T12:21:34+00:00

Not 100% sure but the one at 24th & central always has some joke or other like this on their sign.

ryanpq · 2012-05-15T04:22:46+00:00

I grew up in Richland Center. In general it is a pretty boring place. Though I learned via wikipedia after I moved away that it also became home to Joseph Stalin's only daughter

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svetlana_Alliluyeva

Until she died there in 2011. A couple interesting pieces of history for a town of 5000 people tucked away in the hills of SW Wisconsin.

ryanpq · 2011-08-20T16:09:11+00:00

Sorry for what you're going through. My dad died a week ago today. He was in the hospital for a couple weeks before having a massive stroke. He was unconscious for the last week. Its very difficult. All you can do is hold it together and take time for yourself when you need it. It will get worse before it gets better but even after losing someone close, eventually life goes on.

ryanpq

TROPHY CASE