Browsing the ‘General Cortex’ Category
Back to the roots of Firefox | 21st Jun 2009
I started using Firefox for pretty much one reason: it correctly interpreted HTML and CSS (the code that web pages are written in). When I was learning to design web sites in high school and college, Internet Explorer was annoying because it doesn’t conform to web standards set forth by the W3C. It was a [...]
My Last Spring Break | 18th Mar 2009
Well, it looks like this is my last year with a “Spring Break.” I say this with quotes because with the USMLE Step 1 looming in the distance (June 15th), it’s not going to be much of a break. With only 3 months to go until my big exam, unfortunately I think I’m going to [...]
Updated Blogroll | 27th Feb 2009
It’s been a while since I updated my blogroll. A “blogroll” is a list of links to blogs that I read regularly. I took a few old ones out and added these: Aaron TenHarmsel’s photoblog: Aaron is a friend from Rush that takes amazing photos. I recently convinced him to start a WordPress-powered photoblog. He’s [...]
Dumbass, M.D. | 11th Feb 2009
You have Some Terminal Condition, which necessitates taking two pills a day: one Pill A and one Pill B. If you neglect to take either pill, you die; if you take more than one A or more than one B, you die. If you don’t take them at exactly the same time, you die. This [...]
WordPress Stickers | 17th Nov 2008
I’ve been a big fan of WordPress since I started using it in about 2004. It has grown into such a great blogging platform since those early days, and they’re continuing to push the limits of how blogging software should run. Whether you have your own private blog like I do or you have a [...]
Of Freedom and Trademarks | 9th Nov 2008
I read an article this past weekend that brought up some interesting issues that I tend to forget about concerning free software. Most people these days are familiar with Firefox. While Firefox is open-source and “essentially” free software, the key area that makes it non-free is in its trademark and copyright. The brand name “Firefox” [...]
Happy Halloween, Free Software Style | 31st Oct 2008
In two completely unrelated posts, I saw today that two of my favorite pieces of software (Linux and WordPress) had beautiful pumpkins carved in their honor: WordPress Pumpkin and Linux Pumpkin. Happy Halloween!
Summer Reading 2008 | 23rd Jun 2008
I kind of fell back in love with reading during my year off from school. I started around Christmas of 2006 and actually got quite a few books read before school started this past Fall. Unfortunately, as you might expect I don’t have a lot of time for leisure reading. Actually, I say that, but [...]
Where has all the traffic gone? | 15th Jun 2008
Apparently my blog has taken a turn for the worse . I guess my content hasn’t been very interesting over the past few months or something. I should have time to work on better stuff this summer hopefully. If you’re reading this and have any suggestions on new stuff I could write about or stuff [...]
Change Congress | 10th Jun 2008
Lawrence Lessig gave a great speech at the National Conference for Media Reform a few days ago. It was a very insightful look at the way our government runs and how we can address its problems. He uses a bunch of great examples. It’s kind of long (~30 minutes), but take the time to watch [...]
I'm Jonathan Blackhall, a 4th year medical student at RMC. This is my blog, where I ramble about technology, medicine, free software, and other random stuff. 
