It’s been a crazy few weeks since the job hunt started, but I’m very happy to say that I’ve accepted a position at Bridge Worldwide. They also happen to be the company I was most excited about working for, during my few weeks of job hunting. I start May 5th, so nothing too much to report yet - but I thank them for having me, and I’m excited to get started!

Wubi is something I should’ve posted about a long time ago, but I just saw that a new version was out, so here we go. Problem: You’ve always wanted to try Linux out, but were afraid to mess around with partitioning a hard drive or otherwise hacking up your system. Solution: Wubi. Wubi is a Windows application that installs Ubuntu Linux 8.04 (Hardy Heron) to your Windows hard disk, and adds a boot record to the Windows Master Boot Record. It installs the OS on a file that Windows treats as a separate hard disk, thereby negating the need to partition your own hard disk. Awesome.

Ubuntu Linux is, in my opinion, the most accessible and usable version of Linux out there. I’ve been dual-booting with Ubuntu for about a year now, and I started out by trying the previous version of Wubi. I had so much fun with Ubuntu that I decided to go ahead and get another hard drive and install the OS the proper way. Not that Wubi is a lesser version of the OS - it isn’t - but since it installs to your Windows hard disk, it’s not a “real” install. There have been some minor bugs with Wubi (it is a beta product), but I’ve encountered none of them personally.

Moral of the story, if you’ve wanted to try Linux but were afraid to, there’s no longer a reason to be afraid. A nice bonus to using Linux: It’s uber-secure, and worrying about viruses and spyware is a thing of the past. I don’t even have any anti-virus or anti-spyware installed on my installation of Linux.

Enjoy.

Update: I should’ve mentioned that Wubi is a Windows only app. Not sure if there are any alternatives for OS X or not.

My stay at KnowledgeWorks Foundation is coming to an end shortly, due to staffing model changes, and I am officially back out in the wild. If you know of someone who needs a web designer/developer skilled in PHP, ASP.NET(C#), XHTML, CSS, Javascript, XML, and various SQL-based databases, design software (Photoshop, Illustrator, Fireworks, Flash, etc.), Subversion, and a bunch of other apps, please pass my name along. If you’re an employer yourself, you’ll find a copy of my resume, here.

On a side note, I’m also interested in learning Ruby on Rails a little more in-depth, so if you’re willing to let me do some on-the-job training, I’m willing to learn!

Cheers,
Ben