Hello everyone! I just thought I would take a moment to re-introduce myself. Recently, my blog was added to the Student Life Blogs for the Georgia Tech College of Computing. As a result, I think I have a lot of new readers that have no idea who I am. My name is Jordan Patton, and I am the sole author of this blog. Continue Reading »
Did you know that the world of technology has permanently changed in the past week? If you haven’t been reading technology news sites (and let’s face it, most people don’t), then you might not have noticed that the HD DVD format is officially dead. With recent statements from Toshiba and Microsoft, it is now safe to say that Blu-ray has won the format war. This is big news, so let’s take a moment to break it down: Continue Reading »
For the past 8 months, I’ve been living in the Tenth and Home apartments. The complex is really great, and it allows me to walk to all of my classes on Georgia Tech campus. One problem: the apartment came unfurnished. Since I spend hours every day in front of the computer (I’m studying them, after all), I really need a comfortable chair. This weekend, I finally decided to go out and get one. Continue Reading »
I recently switched to the Macintosh operating system, and doing so helped me realize how badly I need to perform regular backups. Having someone recover a damaged hard drive can be very expensive (we’re talking thousands), and I generally don’t trust anyone else with my data. When a friend of mine told me about DriveImage XML, it got me thinking about backups again. Continue Reading »
Have you ever played a guitar game and wondered if you could do the real thing? Are you a Guitar Hero rockstar and want to take it to the next level? If you want to learn how to play the guitar, but don’t have the time or patience, then Guitar Rising by GameTank just might be for you! Continue Reading »
Running a blog takes a great deal of time and effort. On top of that, if you want to roll with your own domain (such as JordanPatton.com) you’re going to need several tools and applications. None of them are particularly complicated or difficult, but keeping track of them can be a chore. In order to benefit you (in case you want to run your own blog), I’ve put together a basic list of things that keep this blog running.
Most of these tools are freely available, and I’ve provided links so that you can use them as well. I won’t go into too much detail here, but if you would like for me to explain any of the information in further detail, I would be happy to do so. Without further adieu, here are the things that make JordanPatton.com work. Continue Reading »
Recently, a friend of mine told me about DriveImage XML, a backup solution for Windows users. I decided to check it out, because I’ve been planning to set up a backup system for quite some time. This particular application takes an image-based approach, which means that it generally “duplicates” your hard drive and copies it onto another drive. DriveImage takes advantage of Microsoft’s Volume Shadow Services, and the backups are organized using XML. What does all this mean for the you? In a nutshell, you can:
- Back up your drives while you’re using them.
- Access and modify the drive images with third party tools. (No more problems with proprietary archives.)
- Restore your drive images in real time. (Even while you’re using the drive!) Continue Reading »
Have you ever wondered what it’s like to work for Google? I have! That’s why I attended the career panel they hosted on my campus tonight. One of the benefits of attending school at Georgia Tech is that we’re able to attract some very high-profile employers. Companies such as Microsoft and Yahoo regularly visit our campus to talk with students at career fairs and job interviews. Some companies, like Google, even have special events where they give a presentation or answer students’ questions. This particular event was held at the Klaus Advanced Computing Building, and seven Google employees (mostly software engineers) showed up for a little Q & A. Continue Reading »
I think it’s very important to answer this simple question: Why blog?
I should probably start by mentioning that this is not the first time I’ve set up a blog. It is, however, the first time I’ve ever done it for the right reason. The other couple of times I began to write web-logs, I did so because I felt like I was missing out on something. In other words, I did it because I felt like I had to. Understandably, the material I wrote was uninspired garbage.
This time, however, will be completely different! Continue Reading »
Hello! My name is Jordan Patton, and I am the author of this blog (JordanPatton.com). If you’re a friend or family member, I hope you’ll follow along as I cover a wide range of topics that I think are important. If you’ve just wandered in, please feel free to browse, search, scan, or even read my posts. (Very few people actually “read” anything on the internet. Strange, huh?)
Besides being the author of this blog, I am also a student at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Currently, I’m studying Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) as a Master’s student. At this point, you’re probably wondering “What is HCI?”. Continue Reading »
