Jason Eckert's Website and Blog

If you know me, or have read various sections of my website, you’ll know that I am a die hard member of the computing industry that also likes to collect vintage computers (this is actually quite common - you’d be surprised how many of my colleagues do the

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The Atari days When it came to video games growing up, my parents were fairly progressive – although they had no desire to play them, they didn’t see them as anything but fun and somewhat educational.

PowerShell is essentially a scripting language and shell (command prompt) that you can use on Windows systems.

2015 was an interesting year, and one that I really enjoyed!

This is the first year that I’ve been to the World of Commodore event in Mississauga, Ontario.

What is transcendental meditation?

So what do you do when you have an old PowerBook that still works but can’t run the latest operating system (OS) and software?

I think it’s always a good idea each year to reflect on the events that happened during the year - it’s a great way to remember some of the great things that have happened, as well as put some of the not-so-great things that have happened in perspective.

Like many other people who hold a degree in science, I look at people who are currently upset about GMO products with pity and disdain.

I know it’s been a while since I’ve blogged last….I’ve just been incredibly busy.

In the 1980s, email remained a luxury for a small number of larger organizations and universities.

Although I don’t watch television, I’ve been watching the episodes of The Goldbergs online because it’s absolutely hilarious and I relate to a lot of the stuff in it from my own childhood experiences.

The picture above is the only mall in the Hespeler area of Cambridge (where I grew up).

In the past, most IT admins have put their faith in systems and SANs (Storage Area Networks) that use RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) technology.

Today, we finished the fourth Great Canadian Appathon - a Canada-wide competition where students from 18 colleges and universities coast to coast compete to create a mobile video game in 48 hours for a chance to win over $35,000!

Long story short, I scored a free SGI Fuel computer along with the SGI Origin 300 computer I described two posts ago.

To be honest, I really didn’t want to do another BlackBerry-related post.

Just over a decade ago, the dotcom bubble burst, and for the next 3-4 years, the IT industry (and IT job market) was in a slump.

All good things must come to an end…..and unfortunately this also applies to the Game On 2.0 exhibition at the Ontario Science Centre, which ran for the past 6 months (starting March 9th).

As a Dean for the technology faculties of a private college in Canada, I’m always looking to make our programs more aligned to the industry - my motto is: always look forward and never look back!

Yup - I woke up Saturday to find the message above when I visited my website.

Everyone understands, to some degree, the impact that technology has on our lives.

The best technologies are those that spark our imagination.

In the past, education was assessment based - you sat a class, wrote down notes, memorized those notes, and wrote a test based on those notes.

Today I attended the annual DIG conference.

In the classic arcade game Galaga (1981), there is a well-known cheat for those who are patient.

I’ve always been a big fan of Ubisoft games - I remember when Splinter Cell was released for the Xbox - I spent every waking minute of my spare time playing it.

In August, I worked with our Microsoft Student Partner (MSP) at the Kitchener campus (Mickey) to organize a 3-day Hackathon for creating Windows 8 Metro apps and games using HTML5/Javascript (technically it’s not called Metro anymore).

I’ve been getting into arcade games pretty heavily this year, and my posts have reflected this for sure ;-) Today’s post is actually a request from John Spitz, who emailed me after reading some of my other video game posts - he wanted to know if there was…

Back in the 1990s, you could look smart my talking about the “Information Superhighway” (the Internet).

I’ve been getting some heat over the past short while when I talk about my Galaga arcade, because there are 2 different camps when it comes to pronouncing the word Galaga.

One of the coolest things to have in your home is a real video arcade game - not only for the nostalgia, but for the massive amount of fun that you, your friends, and your family will have when playing it.

I read an article on Ars Technica yesterday that didn’t sit too well with me: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2012/04/what-ever-happened-to-the-american-arcade/ Now don’t get me wrong…..I thought it was a great article, and they did a good job of portraying

Back in September 2011, a group of McMaster business and engineering students started a project aimed to build a moon rover that would be run by the QNX operating system on a BlackBerry PlayBook - a Canadian initiative with Canadian technologies (QNX is 1…

With the massive SOPA/PIPA website content blackout on January 18th (including major sites such as Wikipedia), the general public suddenly became far more educated on digital freedom issues.

Google is an extremely powerful set of tools (not just the search engine - Google apps as well!).

Personal/Work-Related Events: I started my new job of Dean of Technology in January.

I’ve always considered myself someone who has a super-natural ability to put things in perspective and explain them to others.

The worst possible news for RIM right now is a delay in bringing some sort of modern product to market.

That may seem like a bold statement.

I know this sounds extremely lame, but on Wednesday August 3rd, I threw my back out playing Angry Birds.

So what the heck is a transputer?

Firstly, the information that I’m presenting here is taken from various sources, including people I knew who worked for DEC, my own experiences, and the book DEC Is Dead, Long Live DEC by Edgar H.

Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) was born in the late 1950s when it was lucrative to make computers that cost a ton of money.

One thing that many people don’t realize is that the foundation of the video game industry, including terminology and techniques were solidified in the 1970s and early 1980s during the home video game movement!

Every generation has a mythology.

I Google everything.

I’m currently finishing the 3rd edition of my Guide To Linux Certification for Cengage.

Here is my class with their new Kindle DXs.