devnulled: A stream for software developers and engineers

My current desktop, right around four years old now, has been overdue for replacement for quite a long time. I’ve been holding out until quad core processors became mainstream at a price point that I was okay with, but I finally caved in to ordering a new machine before that happened now that Dell offers Ubuntu systems. I used their feedback site when they first launched saying I’d buy from them again if they offered Ubuntu, and followed through with my order of a new system within a few days of them making it available.

I ordered it over the weekend and it’s already shipped! Delivery date looks to be this Saturday, but unfortunately I probably won’t be home due to prior commitments. I pretty much maxed most everything I could hardware wise and got it out the door for a bit over $1K (using a coupon I found online) including the higher end 20″ UltraSharp widescreen display. I wasn’t really looking to get the most hardcore machine ever, just something that was at a good performance to price ratio. I really thought hard about upgrading to the 24″ display but decided it seemed silly to spend that much on a monitor for an inexpensive machine.

As far as the ordering process goes, I couldn’t tell a bit of difference between the low end Dimension E520N and the XPS once I configured them similarly other than the XPS was more expensive, and there were only coupons available for the Dimension (as usual). I would guess that the XPS has a better case and maybe has more room for expansion, but lately I stick to external USB drives for data and don’t really add hardware to base machines.

I’m curious to see what about the Ubuntu install is different coming from Dell, as well as if it includes any installation media. I will need to transfer my Windows XP license over to a fresh install on the new machine in order to manage my chic nerd phone, the Samsung Blackjack and a few other odds and ends that I need from time to time. That said, it would be nice to be able to have the OEM install media in case something doesn’t go well with the additional XP install.

Anyhow, I’ll write more about it once it comes in.

Hey look, the public beta of ColdFusion 8 is now available for download at Adobe Labs. This is the beta you have been looking for.

I first noticed Ben Forta’s post about his site outage citing upgrading to the version of Scorpio being used for the public beta. Now with a couple of other vague posts by Raymond Camden and Damon Cooper, my best guess is that ColdFusion 8 will be available as a public beta as soon as tonight.

Me.dium, my employer which you can read more about here has been nominated as a Webware 100 Finalist in the Community category. The Webware 100 represents the top 10 sites in 10 different categories, and we’re up against some pretty stiff competition (such as MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn among others). We’re also currently the featured extension on Flock, and have had quite a lot of good press lately. Given that we’re still currently in private beta mode while we get our infrastructure and product ready for a public launch, chances are you haven’t heard of us. However, you can join in and check-out a preview of our product using this invite link which will also auto-friend me. Please keep in mind it’s a a true beta, but I think you’ll be impressed with what we’ve accomplished so far.

If you like what you see, don’t forget to vote for us! Voting starts on Wednesday May 23rd at 12:00 PM Pacific Time.

As for me, I’m a Java developer at Me.dium working on the server software which supports the service and am very proud and excited about what we’ve been up to. That and the occasional blog posting about work helps show why I’ve been so light on blogging since starting my new job.