Adventures Of A Sysadmin

Hey, y'all.  Yep, I'm still alive.

As much as this is a Linux Blog, we Penguin Lovers must contend with making a living dealing with - the Other Guys.  Yes, this blurb is about my adventures and misadventures in dealing with what Life has tossed into my lap.

A little while ago my case manager at this employment outfit called to see if I could come up with any ideas or fixes that were plaguing their organization.  Being a non-profit outfit, they were seeking the 'cheap, but great' solution.

Seeing as how I was/am still gainfully unemployed, I wandered over to see what the problem was.  It seems that they run a Resource Room consisting of ten computers for their clients to use in their Job Quests.  The access is free and there is really no time limit plus there are printing resources available at no charge.  A real deal in this time and age.

It seems that the 'clients' had taken it a step further in that in addition to Job Searching, they were also using the facilities to enhance their social lives, add to their music and video collections and chat with their buddies online.  Also, some 'clients' were taking the liberty of printing out complete online novels consisting of hundreds of pages - a clear abuse of the privileges granted to them, but what they Hey, it's all free, right?

So, when this was explained to me with the desire to not alienate these clients because the funding came from the number of people they represented, I offered the solution of configuring the Resource Room in the way other notable Public Institutions have done.  I cited our local Public Library which has computer access which they have submitted in a restricted fashion - no downloading and installing of programmes, apps or other gems of Internet Wisdom and Enlightenment; no gaming;  downloading and saving to the client's own media, eg. USB thumb drives, Floppy or USB portable drives only.  Nothing is saved onto the computer's hard drive.  This is what is called a 'Kiosk' mode where an image of the OS is renewed at every reboot and anything that may have been saved on the previous session has been erased with a fresh, vanilla OS.  Simple, yes?

Also, seeing as how the system was more than likely being run by WinServ2003, the Active Directory app - I must admit that this is a sweet utility because it makes administrating a system so much more manageable - is able to restrict printing rights thereby saving a few more trees.  I suggested that the organization contact their System Administration company and ask them if they could implement such a strategy.  This idea was met with a marked degree of enthusiasm and I left feeling that I had contributed something to society.  Still no job, though.

About a week and a half later, I receive another call from my case manager telling me that their System caretakers were not keen to the idea and quoted them an astronomical fee to implement this new strategy.  I was asked to come and meet with the organization's 'Hefe' to discuss some other solution.  Again, I must stress that this is a non-profit outfit which has a set budget. 

Seeing as how I was wasting away and if you don't use it, you lose it, I suggested that maybe I could come in and configure the Resource Room machines so that the abuse could disappear.  So, over a period of a month, I cleaned out these boxes, upgraded five of the older units which were woefully deficient in the memory department and reconfigured the systems so that no one could download, install or change the desktop configurations.  Sheesh, on two of the units I discovered a number of movies that were downloaded via Torrent utilities configured to run in the background and the results stored in hidden directories - actually, ingenious hacking, if I may say so - I was impressed. 

Also, this outfit specializes in obtaining employment for people with disabilities so the clients are not really in the upper, middle or even lower income brackets - these are poor, poor people.  An idea came about that maybe computers could be built from donated sources to provide these folks with machines to enhance their resources - at a nominal fee, of course, just to cover whatever supplies and parts are needed to achieve this end result.

So, I ended up with a nice room in the basement and a pile of really outdated, obsolete and cast aside computers and related equipment.  It is amazing what one can do when you ferret around and cannibalize stuff.  To date, I have built three very serviceable machines, all running Linux, of course, since we cannot obtain the no-charge, charitable institution or Microsoft Authorized Refurbisher licenses to install XP.

I downloaded and installed the various heavily GUI-orientated, easy-peasy Linux distros which were reputed to appeal to Windows brainwashed folks and for the time being have settled on Linux Mint 10 Debian.  I am using a box with a greatly modified Ubuntu 10.10 (Meerkat, I believe) as my personal machine and have tweaked it so that it almost equals my personal, at-home box.  Man, ya gotta luv Linux because you can make it do almost anything you want - try doing that with a 'Doze box!

Anyway, I had built two systems (excluding the personal one) - box, CRT monitor, keyboard and mouse - $100 including tax with a six month warranty.  I had sold one and have not heard from the client these past four months which tells me that things are going well - a seemingly successful convert to the Penguin Way.  This endevor  has also created a repair business for which I charge a $35 flat rate regardless if the job requires on hour, one day or one week.  So far, the jobs have lasted no longer than two days and that is because of the delightful experience of Microsoft's updates to the updates of the updates to the original updates, sigh!

These efforts have, in turn, called upon my abilities and talents to start servicing the Staff machines.  When the first call came that the 'Internet was down', I was ushered into the 'Holy of Holies' - the Server Room.  A quick view of the Events and a restart of the DHCP Server made me a hero!  Whoopie.

Now, I am integrated within the daily workings of the organization.  Even though I am still a Volunteer, I am awarded a gratuity, a monthly bus pass, which is really, really handy and appreciated and I submitted a request for tools and equipment which I used to have but disappeared at my last job training Federal Parolees.  These tools and equipment have now been replaced which makes my job a lot easier and efficient.  Again, even though I am still a Volunteer, I show up every day, just like a regular job.  I feel that this is good training for that wonderful day when some enlightened employer will realize what a gem I am and hire me.  I will be rarin' and fit to go.

Well, that's about it for now, kiddies.  In the next installment, I shall regale you with tales of Microsoft's dotNET horror and how I used Linux to solve some of those problems.

Later  .  .  .

~A~

I'm Still Alive . . .

Whoa, talk about neglect.  I haven't done my thing here in a long time but then conditions haven't been exactly optimal.

First, I've finally moved from the establishment where I resided for almost seven years.  Seven Years!  Wow!  I can't believe that I managed to survive in that sub-standard environment for that long.  In my new apartment, I have my own kitchen and bathroom and after three months they are still a novelty for me.  I can actually brew a pot of coffee, make toast and microwave something all at the same time without tripping a circuit breaker.  And what can I say about the luxury of having one's own bathroom - strolling into that little room, coffee in hand and a book under one's arm without apprehension of someone rattling the door, urging you to "Hurry up, I gotta go, man."

It's so nice to live like a regular person once again instead of a visitor in some cheap hotel for an extended period.  I'm still not able to afford a hi-speed wired connection so I'm communicating via wireless.  At least where I'm living now, the population density isn't so high that the wireless nodes are overwhelmed most of the time.  I'm actually getting quite good speeds, most of the time, from the free Municipal Wireless.  At least it's allowing me to make contact and publish this little blurb.

Exploring some of the more interesting sites, I came across the linuxologist's site where I found this humourous - at least to us linux geeks - article regarding a play on some UNIX/Linux command line commands.  Here's the gist of the article summed up into a picture:

Just click on the image which will take you to the actual article.  There are some other interesting articles and features but it looks like the author is suffering from the same Writer's Block that has resided in my consciousness for a time since the most recent article is from May of this year.  Hopefully, he will return with some more interesting insights.

I guess that's it for now.  I just wanted to pop by with a little something to tell y'all that I'm still around and hopefully will fill these pages with all sorts of interesting, informative and innovative drek.

Later, kiddies . . .

   ~A~

Hey, Ahm Bak! Just Some Rambling . . .

Hello all!

Yes, I'm back.  It's been a rough time in regards to getting online.  The wireless thangy seems to have taken off - in Spades!  I can't get a connection for the Life of me!.  It's been like I have to skulk around in the wee hours of the morning in order to grab a bit of bandwidth to at least check my email.  Even then I get knocked off by pirates getting their torrents downloaded!

Yes, I can analyze these streams.  I have the tools and the know-how & have realized that there's a lot of people out there who are gaining more & more knowledge as to how to crack wireless security.  I've followed two characters who are normaloid during the day and then change into pirates at night.  They must have 'caps' on their accounts from their ISPs and go out at night to pirate bandwidth for their torrents.

These folks are actually ingenious in that they have latched onto four or five or even more APs and do a rotating thing while keeping up their download rate -  an astounding technique, actually.  While understanding as to how they do it & even being envious that I don't have the equipment to allow myself to achieve the same ability, I nevertheless, refrain from impinging onto others' privacy.

Yes, I've admitted that I've had to intrude at times to get off an email or to check something, but I've always restricted myself to no more than 5 minutes & then logged off, feeling guilty as hell - desperation will do funny things to a person, y'know.  I had to go out & get drunk to soften the blow, so to speak.

Anyway, these two characters are really interesting in that they have no compunctions as to whom they raid nor as to whatever bandwidth they've stolen.  I have logs that I can use if I ever track these folks down - thankfully, Linux makes logging really easy.

They think that they're smart by changing their MAC addresses when they do their thangy, but there are things called ARP & NAT  & other protocols that can pinpoint who, what & where & regardless of their efforts, I can follow these miscreants - all the while being logged.  These folks have stolen approximately 3 terabytes of bandwidth in the two month period that I have been monitoring them.  I merely set up up a shell script to do this and these persons have been extremely busy, according to the logs.

Thank gawd for Linux, shell scripts & logs!

It's way easier to do this stuff in Linux than in Windows, I think.  Of course, there are those of you WWs who will proclaim that 'doze can do this stuff, also.  Sure, it can.  But would you want to set up the necessary scripting in your XP, Vista or Win7 to do this and then there are the server restrictions inherent in all 'doze systems that will only allow one to do this monitoring at certain times?  Also, 'doze doesn't do monitoring well.  One has to 'tweak' certain settings & utilities in order to allow 'doze to do so & then this will affect the overall connectivity of the system . . . and on & on & on . . .  Sorry, but Linux wins this round.

For the WWs, if you wish to pursue this, then buy the ever so extravangantly  priced WinServ2003  or even the more pricey, WinServ2008 - WoW!  In addition to whatever a normal OS can deliver, all the monitoring tools you could ever wish for are included.  Of course, you'll have to expend $20,000+ for the MCSE course to be able to understand and manipulate it!  But then you'll be a major Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer who has to renew the certification every two years & you will know everything & anything about networking & beating hackers, won'tcha?

Then, there are those of you readers who don't give a shit about any of this; you just want to get online and do so without anything bothering you, right?  Well, get educated in regards to wireless security if you wish to do your thangy without major problems.  Learn about WPA & WPA2, the newer security protocols regarding wireless connectivity - way better than the the standard setup offered by the manufacturers when you buy your new wireless router.

Later kiddies . . .
~A~

 

Bits 'n Pieces: 2010 #1

Judge Tosses NSA Spy Cases

Judge tosses NSA Spy Cases

This is why I have read George Orwell's "1984" about a dozen times and never cease to marvel at that author's observations and how they become more and more relevant as Time marches on and Globalization becomes the curse of Humanity.


YouTube Videos now available in HTML5:  Good Riddance Flash!

YouTube Videos in HTML 5

I am so glad to see some attempts at "good" coding.  Although this is still in the Beta form, it is an attempt to snap Adobe's long time monopoly on various formats.  To those in the 'know', Adobe is now the IE of the NET.  What with the incursions of hacking of PDF's, Adobe Reader and Flash, the constant "security" updates have become Windows-ish in their frequency and ineffectiveness.  And let's face it, Adobe apps usually have a HUGE footprint - as Mr. Rogers used to say, "Can you say 'Bloatware'?"

Whatever happened to programming in Assembly?  Yes Folks, it's still alive and well and only the real serious developers use it anymore only because it's a real pain-in-the-ass to use.  The High End Languages have taken over and removed all the slickness, speed and solidity that an app composed in Assembly can deliver.

It's Laziness, pure and simple.  I have to confess that I had fallen into that condition when I was doing my thing because it was way easier and faster to use a High End Language rather than slave and expend hours, nay, days, over the composition of an app in Assembly.  I even confess to jumping onto the scripting bandwagon of Perl because it was way faster to come up with something that would just work.  No compiling was needed, dubugging wasn't as intensive and annoying and the syntax was so C+-ish without the constant, nagging need for proper structure and protocols of C+ that one could almost call it "Draft Programming" - a tool Programmers use to flesh out a programme without really writing it, just to build ideas and structure.

It's been so long since I've even attempted to use Assembly that I've forgotten it and would have to relearn it again - ahh, gawd!  Even now I can feel those cerebral, cirrhotic cells in my head squirming in apprehensive discomfort at the  mere thought of dueling with the evasive and subliminally syntactical miasma that is Assembly code.

As far as HTML 5 is concerned, it's just another step in the development of HTML as was the step from HTML 1.1 to 2; from 2 to 3; from 3 to 3.5 and currently the running standard is HTML 4.  Time moves on.

2010: Starting The Second Decade

Hello Kiddies. Yeah, I know.  I've been bad in that I haven't made an appearance since last year but I've had some health issues plus the fact that my usual public wireless connection seems to have died.  Right now I'm connecting by piggy-backing on some one else's link up.  I don't like to do this since I really do respect other people's privacy and rights but desperation will make one do strange and sometimes unsavory things.

I try to restrict my access to the evening hours when everyone else has gone beddy-bye and then only to check my emails and to  quickly catch up on the News of the World 'n such.  I keep hoping to see some response to the numerous job adds to which I've submitted my worked-to-death resume but so far, no bites.

Y'know, there I was, comfortably surfing courtesy of my local Public WiFi service when one day, it seemed as if some one threw a dampening blanket over the complete range of Access Points.  I noticed that their broadcasting power diminished by 20 - 25% and it just seemed to affect my side of the building according to the other residents whom I know are using Wireless.  The folks on the other sides of the building are chugging along normally.  I have yet to find out if there is a commercial or industrial cause to this problem, but when I do I shall descend upon them with a Wrath and Vengeance of Biblical proportions.  Nobody screws with my Wireless!

Well, that's about it for now.  I just wanted to drop this notice to let y'all know that I haven't died [at least not yet] and I will attempt to publish my usual brand of outstanding wit, keen observation, tongue-in-cheek humour and technical prowess - what there is of it.

Later kiddies . . .

~A~

From ATI to nVidia

Well, it's been a while since I've dropped something into this Blog.

For one; my Wireless Internet has not been consistent at all. I couldn't commit to something when my connection kept dropping and I had no idea when it would resolve.

Lately though, it's been somewhat semi-reliant so I've taken the chance to make an entry.

If you've been following this Blog then y'all know that I wish to indulge in the Win7 madness that's running rampant.

Sure, although being a great Linux Fan, I also have appreciation for the other OS's.

So, with that in mind, I chose to prepare my humble hardware platform for the eventual replacement of my beloved XP.

Seeing as how I only had a 128 Mb ATI Radeon card which could play videos at a minimal, acceptable level but not allow the magnificient GUI embellishments that Aero would grant, I committed to the acquisition of a 'better' video card. The rest of my hardware is more than enough to handle the Vista/Win7 platform but I definitely lacked in the video dept.

Since I'm on a severely restricted budget, I had to scratch around for a 512 Mb AGP video card that wouldn't break me for the rest of the month. Anything that I checked out regarding AGP was really expensive compared to PCIe – the ongoing tech these days.

I found one at a shop that I hadn't visited in over a year – it cost me $60 instead of the $73 I had resolved myself to. It was the old reliable nVidia GeForce 6200. Sheet man! I thought those suckers went the way of the DoDo Bird. With that saving I ended up getting a 12-pak instead of the fore-planned 6-pak!

Normally, one would think that the outdated hardware items would be released at a "bargoon" price, but such is not so. It seems that although AGP is sooo dinosaurish, there are us poor slobs who have no choice but to adhere to our antiquated hardware due to monetary restrictions.

The Vendors have to maintain a suitable profit margin otherwise we wouldn't have our "Friendly Neighbourhood Computer Stores". Yet, in the interest of promoting a long term clientele, one would think that these shops would hold a "loss" sale – an item sold for 10%- 20% above cost in order to attract customers to their more popular items.

Nope, no such luck. Computer stores don't have to market stuff like that unless they're a Chain Type like 'Future Shop' , ' BestBuy' or one of those other mass merchandiser outfits. Nope again because Computer Shops are just that – so if they buy an item for $30, they in order to maintain viability will have to sell it at least $43 which will keep their head above water, so to speak. Of course, they aim at an average margin of at least %175+ making said item at around $53 and more, if they can get away with it. Then there is the volume discount they receive from their suppliers, an incentive to sell more of said product. If they sell at or above the projected percentile, then they will receive another 2 - 3 or even 5 percent discount – whoopee!

Anyway, that's a subject for marketing and economics. What I'm on about is my transition from a lifelong affiliation to ATI video cards to my first experience with an nVidia unit.

It was amazingly painless! I encountered a brief blip in my XP-SP3 in that my sound didn't work when I rebooted. This was fixed by re-installing my SB Audigy SL software. Tunes sound great as they did before – movies sound even better now.

Now, in Linux. Well, of course there was no X window system since its configured agent no longer existed. Luckily, I had downloaded and copied the file over to my Linux system so I merely booted to 'Single User' mode and installed the latest nVidia binary, rebooted and logged in and things are great. Desktop is functioning OK,; sound is great, as usual; videos are playing even better and the "Gears" test looks fantastic!

Wow, I'm impressed! Here I was anticipating all these horrible configuration problems and instead there was shit to worry about.

I'm disappointed! I was ready for an all out battle within the CLI and had all my stuff ready 'n rarin' to go and instead there was bupkis. Everything works fine – unbelievable!

. . . and the video is way better than it was with ATI. I used to have little 'artifacts' scitter across the screen when viewing videos, but now there's nothing but clarity, crispness and a much better colour display.

I will report on how the compiz window manager behaves within the Gnome and KDE environments tomorrow or later or whenever I get around to installing and configuring it.

Later kiddies . . .

~A~

Bits 'n Pieces - 2

BREIN Disconnects The Pirate Bay, For Now

The anti-piracy  outfit, BREIN, in Europe has succeeded in halting traffic to TPB at its new hideout in the Ukraine.

It seems that traffic is routed through Dutch ISP nForce which uses the carrier outfit Leaseweb.  BREIN has asked Leaseweb to block that traffic to the Ukraine site for now aside from its arguments that neither nForce nor Leaseweb are hosting any torrent site but are merely doing their job in routing Internet traffic to the separate, autonomous system.

Repeated "requests" from BREIN finally caused Leaseweb to cave and cut off all contact to the new TPB site.  This sets a disturbing precedent in that if anti-piracy outfits can bully and threaten ISPs and their carriers to cut off access to the various other torrent sites, then the future of BitTorrent is indeed bleak.

Read the details in the article at:

BREIN Disconnects Pirate Bay

___________________________________________

Rolltop - A Rolled Out Laptop?

Here's an interesting concept that some design outfit from Germany dreamed up.  While it looks pretty snazzy in its 3D rendition, I wonder what the actual logistics would be concerning the implementation of this design?

Catch the YouTube Video at:

RolloTop Laptop

___________________________________________

Throw The Gaunlet . . .

Well, as good friends go, there are times when it's necessary to ruffle feathers. It is the time to replace complacency with resolve.

Complacency is not all that bad in a long term relationship, but it should experience a bit of conflict once in a while to churn the waters of emotion, enthusiasm and invention.

Being a long-time Linux convert and proponent has actually isolated me from my fellow computer/network associates who have decided to devote themselves to the M$ World. Being an 'Old Guy' who knows DOS and UNIX in the old style, my younger compatriots see me as a traitor toward the computing world – Microsoft is the only way to do computing, so they say.

Sorry, it ain't so. Hey, I'm all for the GUI; but GUI isn't all Microsoft. Actually, if you get down to it, GUI is Apple. Those guys were sortta the first that came up with a real ,viable Graphical User Interface system. Of course, at the time, in real early history, IBM and Xerox came up with a lot of those ideas but failed to implement them. Apple did , but Microsoft marketed and enabled it – under their brand names, of course – one guy stole from another and the other guy stole from another and on and on and on . . .

Anyway, I digress. What I'm trying to say is that no matter what system you wish to implement, keep your mind open to other ways to access your hardware. 

There are now so many ways that one can use a piece of hardware that's called a computer, to do and accomplish just about anything.  Basically, that  term, computer, is now so flexible as to define almost any type of interface associated within public life today.

A desktop; a laptop; a cellphone; a PDA; an automotive vehicle; an assembly robot on the line at a factory; a microwave oven; a refrigerator; a DVD player and the list can go on and on. They're all computers!

The point is that whatever the unit is, whatever the underlying OS is, computing is here to stay and it's gonna need people to service them.

Now, Geeks are a weird bunch. We can be as bitchy as a bunch of 'Flame Queens' on Friday the 13^th, but when it comes down to nitty-gritty, you will see that bunch of unrelated characters get together and perform as such a close knitted team as you will have never seen before, ever – perfection personified, personified perfection. I state this as a fact because I was a part of that incredible team which had done an enormous task at the time,  of which you are all experiencing, enjoying and taking for granted today - networking, at least here in Canada in Southeastern Ontario.

It was an invigorating and strange encounter that I wish to do again!  Truly, a most ultimately, satisfying experience in my Life and one I wish to repeat, or at least come close to before I die.

But again, I digress – I do that a lot lately, since I'm an old guy 'n all. My esteemed and learned colleague likes to make fun of me in that way, but that's OK because he's mere kid, of course. 

He's actually pretty good and I sometimes have to defer to him a bit because I really can't see so well anymore nor handle those real small objects .

Now, if you folks want your laptops and other small items fixed, then by all means go to the Kid. If you want the big stuff and networking and all the other important stuff done, then come to the ME . . .  AND da Kid.

We're sortta part of the Main Team from above – the core, if you will – we make things happen!

~A~

 --

Superman/Batman Animation to Contain Psychological Assessment

I just couldn't believe it when I read this article. Here it is, a review on this new release : 

http://www.wired.com/underwire/2009/09/review-superman-batman-public-enemies/

Review: Superman, Batman Shine in Action-Packed Public Enemies

• By Scott Thill
• September 29, 2009  | 
• 7:45 pm  | 
• Categories: Movies

DC Comics and Warner Bros.' sixth straight-to-DVD animated film is also their best. Superman/Batman: Public Enemies
 

. . . and at the end of the article it goes in to say that the release is on two discs, one of which contains a psychological evaluation of the orphan syndrome common to both Superman and Batman. 

Oh, c'mon! These are comic book characters fer chrissake! Is this an effort of unemployed psychiatrists to spin a fantasy world of supposed delusions? Is there really a Superman and Batman in a parallel universe somewhere and are they really suffering from these supposed mental malignancies? Man, there are too many people out there with waaaaay too much time on their hands! 

I just had to say something. This is too ridiculous to pass up.

~A~

--

I have found little that is good about human beings. In my experience, most of them are trash.

--- Sigmund Freud

=========================

Registered Linux User No.306834

Joy of Joy - At Last, an IE That Plays Nice With Me!

I cannot friggin' believe it!  I have finally managed to install IE8 and it plays nice!

After setting up all the little details, e.g., browser preference, add-ons, etc. I fired it up and beyond all apprehension, it behaved  . . . and it behaved well.

It actually displayed certain Web Pages rather admirably which would have otherwise looked a little quirky and have now come to realize that this Blogger dot Com has been developed by M$ only developers.  I say this because when viewing my blog in Firefox or Opera, certain elements look crimped and the secondary titles within the blog entries don't display their intended formatting, e.g., bigger font sizing along with a differnet font - Arial or Helvetica instead of Georgia or Times Roman.

With IE8, everything displayed the way it was intended and I must say that my page looks even better than I had originally viewed it in Firefox and Opera.

Here I was, wasting my time, dickering around with settings and fiddling with the HTML and XML coding to see if I could make the improvements that I had visualized when all I had to do was view it with IE.

Oh, boooo, hissss, boooo to the developers of Blogger.  For shame to lock in a site such as this to IE preferences only.  Get yer heads outta yer asses and open up the formatting, fer chrissake!

I recently discovered a heretofore unadvertised utility that will enable bloggers to effortessly write and format their blogs using M$ Word®.  Not all the fancy formatting is transferred when uploading to the blog and included graphics still don't upload, but most of the basic formatting like font size, style and choice along with other standard embellishments transfer well.  The do display the way they are intended as long as the site is viewed in IE - a definite shortcoming!

The site to download this utility is:

Blogger For Word

Hmmph, as much as I hate to admit, IE8 does seem a lot better than its predecessors.  At least this version plays nice with me, so far.  As much as me being a Linux Fanboy, I do have to give credit where credit is due, though.

Hmmm, I wonder if I can make it work with WINE ?  I'll let you know . . .

~A~

--

Bits ‘n Pieces

My brain is kinda fried from a series of incidents that have taxed me almost to the limit. A few days ago I received a call from an employment counsellor whom I have kept in contact with. It seems that he had a client who had recently purchased a used laptop and even though this person is a self-admitted 'computer-illiterate', could tell that the unit didn't run right.

This counsellor, a Mac enthusiast, is pretty savvy about computers in general, also. He had a look at the notebook and told me that it was so full of junk, e.g., all sorts of stupid, kid-type programmes that seemed to go nowhere other than sucking system resources and he suspected that it could do with a thorough system scrubbing and maybe a hardware upgrade in the way of some more RAM. 

Well, seeing as how my schedule is wide open - a chronic situation of late, to my chagrin - I popped over to the office and met with the client. I had a quick look and the counsellor was right on with his assessment. 

I chatted with the potential client and explained my rates and what I would do; they seemed agreeable. We shook hands and he handed me his Acer TravelMate laptop. 

Since later model, proprietary manufactured computers are being marketed without the actual, physical Restore Disc(s), there is a section on the secondary drive that contains all the default, factory recovery information and operating system. They all seem to follow a general pattern: Two disc drives; the secondary usually being dynamic; and what I can't figure out is why they're formatted with the FAT32 file system - at least all the XP Home Editions are and some of the XP Professional in the older units.   It seems that OEM reasoning is that FAT32 is a lot more compatible with other applications - phew! Check out what's happening today, not 15 years ago, fer chrissake!  

Thank goodness for the "convert drive x: /fs:ntfs" command

___________________

Tried to update my Windoze, but since the M$ webstite will only talk to IE, it was a failure. Using my other browsers, Firefox and Opera, I was able to gain access and download stuff with no problem. My Avast! and Spybot managed to update with speed and accuracy.

___________________

USB 3 To Go FibreOptic?

The below is a link to an interesting article about how IBM, Sony and Mac are developing the integration of fibre optics into upcoming computer hardware design plans: 

Intel & USB into fibre optics to your desktop via USB 3: 

Intel & Fibre Optics

___________________

Texas Cops to Go HiTech 

Austin, TX Cops to take on bloggers: 

Austin, TX Fuzz Strike Back – Hi Tech-wise

___________________

Browser Wars, Again?

For a nauseous & erroneous evaluation of the browser wars see this: 

Not this proprietary, propagandist pap bullshit again!

___________________

Cellphones Fry Your Brains!

Everybody's got a cellphone, right? At the last estimate, there were over 4 billion cell phones in use on the Planet. Man, that's a lotta gabbing! Of late there has been more and more research and findings as to the long term effect they have on folks. It's been found that they emit certain degrees of radiation, some of them beyond what is considered a safe exposure. Have a gawk at the below sites and decide for yourselves: 

The Best & The Worst Cellphones
 

From a supposedly Green type of Foundation – their findings
 

And finally – the good ole Wikipedia's listing regarding this matter

___________________

IBM markets Linux to Africa

Y'know, it's stuff like this that is getting me to like IBM more and more. I used to have a dislike for them just on the general principle that large, monopolizing corporations have no interest in servicing the general masses. In my opinion on the good side, they still bear a massive grudge against M$, maybe for what Bill et al did to DOS and for stealing the various other ideas that Big Blue had planned for an OS. 

As a result, OS2 was never officially sanctioned by IBM. Instead, there was a small, dedicated group of IBM employees who undertook the development and support for OS2 on their own off-time. For those of you who have never had the pleasure of using that system, let me tell you that at the time, it put Win3.x and Win95 plus Apple's current OS at the time to shame. 

Now, this article has IBM along with Mark Shuttleworth, of Ubuntu fame, describing their current joint effort to bring computing to Africa. Conservative pundits complain that this is a profitless venture, but on the otherhand Shuttleworh claims that it's a vision for a burgeoning international market. Read on and decide for yourself: 

IBM markets Linux for Africa

___________________

Rome Wasn't Built In a Day . . .

As you all know, I'm a Linux enthusiast and have been termed a Linux Fanboy by a good friend of mine; it's all true! My preferred computing experience is within the Linux realm punctuated by brief forays into my Windoze environment for professional and whimsical reasons. So when I come across articles like this, I feel compelled to share it with you, the great uninitiated unwashed. 

10 Easy ways to Play with Linux without leaving Windows
 

It does my heart good to see shit like this - check it out, you windoze-weanies! Walk on the Wild Side!

___________________

Why I Dislike IEx 

I've never had a good experience with the Microsoft browser Internet Explorer in any of its forms. It is just a waste of the poor programmers' time to have to involve themselves just because they're contracted. Being a programmer of sorts myself, I've had to do distasteful projects, but I can imagine it being pure programming hell trying to attempt perfection within IE/M$ parameters - it just can't happen! 

I've tried to update my 'Doze, or rather to check and see if there are any "Security Updates" that it may need. IE keeps crashing in that it can't get a connection. It seems that trying to connect to M$ Updates is iffy, if not downright impossible to attain if you don't have at least a minimum of a 256K connection. As mentioned, my other two browsers had no problem connecting and downloading shit from the Net with alacrity. 

Well, that's OK. I really don't care. IE can bug up all to hell for all that it's worth. I'm going back to the sanity, the serene security, the solace for the solopsist, the only system that makes sense, that pacific ether - Linux!

___________________

Nice Try, Symantec!

This is an interesting article on Norton Anti Virus trying to stage a lame-assed comeback. This should be of interest to all you Techs out there who've had to struggle to get the vestiges of Norton AV removed from a client's system. It boils down to using whatever 3rd party uninstall tools plus systematic and time-consuming manual location and removal of files to augment the next-to-useless uninstall utility that seems to be included in versions 2006 and up. The earlier versions didn't have that. 

Needless to say, those AV suites, popularized by Norton and McCafee, suck up a lot of the system resources once they start up doing their thing. At least that's what I've come to observe, but that's only my opinion. 

Check out the article - it has a high amusment factor as well as being informative: 

Symantec Warns Against Free Antivirus
 

For those who are interested, the below is a link to the "My Tech Quest" site where there's a tool to download that I've used in a recent client case: 

Norton Removal Tool
 

It worked quite well and there were only a few harmless vestiges of Norton left which were easy to find and remove; registry references were easy to find and remove, also.

___________________

Well, that's it for now. I think that I've made up for my absence but I've had things to attend to for the last little while.

Yakatcha later . . .

~A~

 --

Gmail Craps Out - Again

It seems that the illustrious upstart, Gmail, has done it again - it has gone offline.  Well, not exactly, totally offline  - just its contacts-management portion.  For all intents and purposes one could say that there was no email possible since this is the portion of the programme that auto completes the addresses.  I mean, who memorizes email addresses nowadays, huh?


So, without the contacts reference list, millions of subscribers cried, moaned and gnashed their teeth, bewailing the fact that Micrsoft Exchange NEVER goes offline and why can't Gmail be set up more like that.  Now, Microsoft Exchange has been around for virtually eons.  There is redundancy up and out the wazoo in that system while Gmail is employing the cloud computing concept.


Gmail is still a fledgling attempt, comparatively and is almost frantic in its efforts to attain commercial clients in order to keep their infrastructure viable.  The detractors, and there's always a large group of them, claim that if Google has managed to keep their global octopus of a search engine going without breakdown, then why can't the Gmail section borrow from that technology?  This is where the debate regarding cloud computing versus the standard back-office type of server farm gets heated.  Proponents of the cloud computing school maintain that this system is far more reliable than a bunch of geeks sitting around, patrolling the grid once in a while.  While the cloud computing concept may work very well for the Bit Torrent, Skype or the SETI set ups, the almost mission-critical nature of Gmail should have a few contingency plans with a more dependable framework.


It looks like the geeks have won out so far, haven't they   ?

~A~

--

Gnome 3.0 Desktop in Upcoming Ubuntu 10.04

Fresh from Atlanta's Linux Fest comes news that Mark Shuttleworth is up to his old tricks again.  Right on the heels of the newly released Ubuntu 9.10 comes his news of 'Lucid Lynx', the upcoming Ubuntu 10.04 release.

Supposedly, the proposed Gnome 3 Desktop will be making its appearance in this release.  The above link will take you on a quickie tour of the upcoming features expected in this departure from the Gnome 2.x series.  While going through the various capture shots, I could already hear the moans, groans and hoots of derision along with the usual cacophony of the almost Luddite-like legion of stalwarts shouting,"If'n it ain't broke, don't fix it!"

Oh ye of little faith.  These are just capture shots of the development version, nowhere near anything considered for release to the general masses.  If Shuttleworth thinks he can bully the Gnome team into an overdrive release of a new and improved Gnome desktop before they are really ready, then he's got another think coming.  I imagine that he will stand over Canonical's development team and harangue them into doing a Ubuntu only release of Gnome 3 based on what code is available - maybe it could be considered the Gnome 3α release.

It may come out as a resounding success.  They've pulled off amazing feats of development legerdemain before.

Personally, I think that this almost fanatical adherence to the six month release schedule will come up with a real stinker or two of a release.  Then the mad scramble to administer patches and other bug fixes will end up making Ubuntu the Windows of the Linux World.  But then, that's just my humble opinion.

~A~
--

Microsoft Badmouths Linux In Sales Campaign

As previously mentioned, I subscribe to a number of newsletters and RSS feeds. The latter is a far more flexible medium in that it doesn't take up any mailbox space or resources and is usually the latest scoop on just about anything out there.

Since the inception of Microsoft's campaign to introduce Windows 7 to the masses, the Seattle Software giant has upped its efforts since the deadline for the official release draws ever nearer. Apparently, the latest effort consists of M$ developing its 'ExpertZone' "training courses".

It provides the candidates with "facts", consisting of a series of claims about how Windows 7 compares to Linux or Apple, followed by a "quiz" that tells retail employees that their answers are "incorrect" if they don't parrot back the rote points. How medieval.

The latest blurb is about how this 'training' campaign is affecting Best Buy employees and how they are offered an incentive in the form of a voucher that allows them to buy Windows 7 for $10 after they finish the course. Of course, not all Best Buy employees are mindless Windows Weenies and one of them exposed this FUD campaign on an anonymous blog. I guess the poor guy was stuck with a mound of bills and needed the job.

Anyway, the point is that nowadays folks are just a little more educated than the Redmond Ratpack has anticipated and will exercise a choice if offered. One of the claims of the "ExpertZone" course is that Linux is woefully behind in hardware compatibility. Well, at one time this was true but lately gains have been made in leaps and bounds as manufacturers are coming around to composing Linux drivers or allowing the Linux developers access to their resources to develop them for Open Source.

The latest Linux kernel has support for the USB 3.0 technology, something that neither Windows or Mac has even considered so far. Of course, these "ExpertZone" courses fail to mention the hardware compatibility issues that Vista had, and still in some cases, has with certain peripherals. Windows 7 is experiencing some difficulties in handling certain hardware demands but I imagine that this is just a situation of catch up for the manufacturers as they examine and develop the appropriate drivers for this new OS.

 
Personally, I can't wait to upgrade my hardware a bit and replace my trusty XP to Win7. I've seen it and had limited experience with it but from what I've seen, it's a winner. Since Windows is a component of modern day computing, one may as well have a Windows system around for reference and I'm ready to give up my trusty XP OS for this new venture. At least Win7 shows a lot more effort in its development than the Vista effort. I can imagine that Vista will be referred to as the "ME" of the 21st century.

What? Has he gone bonkers, you ask? No, I still prefer to spend the greater majority of my computing time and effort in my beloved Linux but will visit the 'other side' once in a while to see what's new and to provide more ammunition for me to bitch about, plus in my work I need the Windows platform as many, no, all of my clients are Windows users. I never get any calls from Linux people. Hmmm, does that tell you something?

~A~
--

Disturbing Software

I've just read an article from one of my news feeds that kind of disturbs me.  It was in regards to a piece of software called LogMeIn, a package designed for the Enterprise market that allows their IT managers to keep tabs on hundreds or thousands of machines.  It's sort of based on the "Wake On LAN" technology that allows dummy terminals to be remotely controlled but it's far more sophisticated.

It's based mainly on Intel's VPro, Q45 technology that allows remote computers to be administered to regardless if they are turned off or even if they have crashed as long as they're plugged in and have an ethernet connection.  In the article, the interviewer and LogMeIn's owner joke about a version of the software that has been installed in certain vehicles to allow the owners to start up their PC's remotely.  There is a version of this software available to the general public which isn't as intense as the industrial version and is available for download when one tunes in to the website at the link above.

It says that for home users this won't be a problem as the software stems on the fact that permissions must be given to allow the connection.  Yeah, right.  I can imagine that in the hands of unscrupulous vendors a batch of these business computers that have been rotated and disposed of due to the leasing agreements most businesses have, this software can be modified for purposes other than honourable.  Thankfully, most of the major manufacturers have a buy-back programme that will dispose of their older computers, but what of those smaller, independent firms who manufacture the thousands upon thousands of no-name units sought after by small to mid-sized businesses?

Admittedly, refurbishing computers is slowly falling to the wayside as hardware prices continue to drop.  Why bother with a refurbished unit when for as little as $100 - $175 more one can purchase a brand new, up to date unit with a manufacturer's warranty?

The article goes on to say that the VPro technology won't be available for the home consumer market.  So what?  It's the motherboards that can be purchased in bulk by independent manufacturers, usually as end-of-line production runs when the commercial contracts get upgraded.

Any decent programmer should be able to reverse-engineer this LogMeIn programme to do other than what it is originally designed for.  The author of the article ends with saying that folks could stick to AMD processors (the AMD folks will love this) and to pull the plug on your box when you're not using it.  A temporary stop gap at best, if you ask me.

~A~

--