The past couple weeks have been pretty intense with getting back to school and everything, and as a result, I’ve slacked off a bit (to say the least) when it comes to recreational coding. Which sucks on multiple levels, but after my Math exam this afternoon, I decided to get back to it for a little bit, and started to fiddle again.

So I present the no-longer-bitrotten Opera History Backend for Beagle. Initial credit goes to Pierre Östlund, I just cleaned it up to get it working with the current changes/practices.

So yeah, in short, I’m super-frigging busy and it sucks, but I’m trying to wrap up some projects, like playlist support for the iPod in Banshee, and a real reign on the uncontrollable swell of bugs in launchpad.

I just recently stumbled across this article by a Dr. Thomas E. Brown on a new model for the definition of ADD, or Attention Deficit Disorder. Those of you that know me in person may be well aware that I have mild ADD, and many time have to fight with it to get even simple homework assignments done. Most of the literature that is mainstream on ADD seems to just write it off as an inability to focus, and unfortunately, most people accept that definition as more than enough. What struck me about Dr. Brown’s model was its breakdown of the different Executive Functions that ADD impairs. Below is a simple copy of that chart.

It was an incredible feeling to finally read something that seemed to describe what I actually felt, I have 2 choice quotes I wanted to share that basically embody what ADD is for me.

Patients with ADD describe chronic difficulty with excessive procrastination. Often they will put off getting started on a task, even a task they recognize as very important to them, until the very last minute. It is as though they cannot get themselves started until the point where they perceive the task as an acute emergency.

Which is an experience far too real for me, and :

Some describe their difficulty in sustaining focus as similar to trying to listen to the car radio when you drive too far away from the station and the signal begins fading in and out: you get some of it and lose some of it. They say they are distracted easily not only by things that are going on around them, but also by thoughts in their own minds.

Its the best description I have come across in a long time. I encourage anyone who wants to read more on Dr. Brown’s website.

Well, I’ve been cooped up sick all day today, and as I get more and more restless, I started to just wander about the abundant Case subdomains. It was on this little adventure that I discovered the awesome EECS site. Now, obviously I had to know that when you come to a school like Case, and you major in Computer Science, your going to have some of this awesomeness, but there were bounties! In short, all the dumb stuff that I do to avoid homework could get me paid! (assuming of course the bounty site isn’t horribly out of date, which I’m praying its not).

As my horribly boring and groggy day wore on, I continued to explore the vast reaches of the Internet until I stumbled across something nifty that I saw some cool POC code for about 6 months ago. Zimbra has definitely started to flesh out and hit its stride. So much so that I had to try and integrate it with the Case network, so that theres that slim chance that it will replace our current… errr…. *system*. (Its plenty functional I guess, but its just sooooo ugly and completely anti-user.) Anyways, I digress. What I did accomplish was a compiled copy of Zimbra, and one that works (as long as your ok bsing the MX recorded needed. ) You can play around with it here, but at the moment it locks most everyone out, since I don’t have the permissions needed to bind to the Case LDAP servers, I sent an e-mail as I was instructed to on the wiki, so hopefully we can get some real stress testing or something.

Speaking of the Wiki, I wrote my first real article in it. Granted, its about myself, but still I contributed, and have a bunch of other articles I wanna write. I’m just a little spoiled by MoinMoin, so the MediaWiki syntax was a bit of a shock to come back to.

Anyways, I’ll be boring myself even more, as the fever continues to rise.

Technorati Tags: linux, zimbra, ajax, ubuntu, Case, bounties , eecs, wiki

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