Lost Arts of Programming

I can't believe this, nobody at my school, not even the hard-core gamers and hackers at my school, knows what the hell the "C" language is. They call themselves hackers? I wish that we didn't lose our roots when we start programming. I program almost exclusively in C, not C++; firstly because running unoptimized C++ code on my machine is a memory hog and processor cycle sucker, secondly because even unoptimized C code is amazingly fast and small. I can see why Linux's C based Kernel is a hellova lot faster than Windows' C++ OS. Unless C++ gets more heavily reformed and becomes more powerful than C at less of a price, I'm sticking with C.
A great C reference book is, you're going to hate me for this, C All-in-One-Desk-Reference for Dummies by Dan Gookin.

Got a Steam Account

Everybody at school was talking about this game called Team Fortress 2. It looked good on YouTube and I saw that you could get it for free on Steam. I installed Steam and created my profile as Deum de Inferno, which is Latin for "God from the Hells". I was about to download TF2 and try it out when I saw the system requirements. My old Dell Inspiron 1720 was not able to meet those requirements and am currently waiting for my newer Sony VAIO to come back from its depot repair to get TF2. Hopefully it will be back soon so I can get started playing the game.

Education, Creativity, Jobs, and Cybersecurity

I fired off an email to Mitt Romney a few days ago and hopefully he will respond. The race for the White House is not so much a race as it is a magic show. Everything that is big to nerds and geeks alike is being left out of the spotlight as if it doesn't exist! Cybersecurity, education, bringing jobs back over here, etc, they are all being left out of the big picture.
The economy isn't going to get better until somebody educates the masses with less cookie-cutter and more custom-designation. Our education hasn't had a breakthrough since the last century. This video is Sir Ken Robinson telling about the need for more creativity in schools and the lack thereof. I think the education system needs to change from the bottom up. We need to change the way we teach children in preschool. We need to have more creative minds be fulfilled to their greatest potential. Parents need to step in too, schools have children for eight hours a day, the parents have them for the rest. It probably is too late for me, I've been stripped of my creativity and been told there is only one right answer and can't know it. It may be late for me, but not for my children or their children; if we make a stand today we might influence the stance of education in the future. We can't just sit on our arses and say "the government knows best." WE NEED TO ACT NOW to save not only our world, but our children's world. Can't say we just didn't try.
Everybody's yapping on about the economy and how we need to save it to preserve our way of life. These govt. big shots are saying complex things that mean little to the average American. The answer to this conundrum is actually quite simple. BRING JOBS BACK OVER HERE!!! If China and India are where we do manufacturing and tech support of electronics, what's left for America? Electronics are a major source of our income. Currently, China and India are where the wages are going. Corporate greed strikes again as more and more people try to make a quick buck more by shipping jobs overseas. I hope the new president will see this problem through and change it, otherwise we might see the end of this republic in 2012.
Finally, the DoD's whipping boy, cybersecurity. Why is it that more than 4/5 of American households have a computer connected to the internet, but cybersecurity hasn't had a major breakthrough since the PATRIOT Act? And Cybersecurity hasn't got a single proactive way to stop hackers since forever. All of the internet has stayed the same since 1990, since the internet has been born, there hasn't been a single change to it than higher speeds. We need to change that. I hope that Mr. Romney can help with this, otherwise it's going to be a long and painful cybersecurity term.

Computer's fixed

My computer's been at the Dell depot being fixed since the end of December; I couldn't post or write anything during that time. Hopefully all the kinks have been ironed out. I plan to have a chapter up for Memories in a week if all goes to plan.

Things are progressing

Well, I've started to lay the groundwork for my OS, its slow-going but its going. I've planned on making a *nix OS since my main reason for this is stability and UNIX is one of the most arguably stable OSes around. I'll dedicate a post to the OS in detail later.
Well, my Naruto FanFic (Memories) is going faster than I thought, I should have a chapter to post later this week. My main problem is choosing to make Naruto's reminiscing in fist person or third person. If I overcome that I'll have a chapter to post, otherwise I'll have a crisis of conscience an drop the whole story.
My novel is sliding along, but I've hit a brick wall. Hopefully the demolition crews will clear it up in a few days.
My family is, as usual, dysfunctional. School break started yesterday and my brother's got a cold. Can't go outside much because of the freezing temperatures in GA. My dogs are all riled up about wanting to go out for a walk, but until the sun bats away the cold (which is around noon), I can't go out. I've managed to get myself into another quandary, my brother wants me to program a game for his Android phone. Another challenge added to the "To do for my little brother" bin. I've downloaded the Android SDK and haven't gotten around to studying the Android src code. Everybody seems more lethargic since break started. I feel like the only one who gets up at eight anymore. Plan on going to the library to check out some books to help me on my endeavors, hopefully the books will be there before Christmas Eve.
Well, that's it for now, if I have anything I'll post it here.

The-Unsung-Writer

Introduction

I am a computer programmer and writer in Georgia. Some of you may be coming from my account on FanFiction.net of the same name. Yes, I am The-Unsung-Writer, now let's move on. I plan on using this blog to give status updates on just about everything from my software I'm developing to my novel to my day to day life.
Let me talk about myself, I am an eighth grader (as of now) and love computers. I spend my days thinking rather than running due to my hemophilia, though that might be changing in the next few months. I am a straight "A" student and spend my free time tackling what most might call the impossible (for my age), such as building my own OS and software to go with it or writing a novel (this is probably more possible than the other one). My love of writing comes from all the great books I read, thinking that I want to write one for myself (hey, life's short, the time to get things done is shorter. So I'm starting now.) I live with my parents and brother, my life's a bit dysfunctional if I do say so myself. Between school and home I rarely have any free time (yeah, advanced classes will do that to you) and most of that is spent trying to rid myself of writers block. I'll post everyday for those of you starved for updates on my OS, FanFiction, novel, or life.

The-Unsung-Writer