Geek Stuff category archive

I installed a different plugin for mobile devices. Unlike the one I was using, this one comes with its own theme and does not strip links and pictures out of the content.

There’s no special URL. As long as your mobile device identifies itself as a mobile device, the blog will be reformatted to fit on a mobile browser screen.

Now my two or three regular readers can be annoyed my me anywhere they go.

Any WordPress users out there who would like to take a look at the plugin here.

I’ve also added a few other plugins to make this site easier to use and to administer. There will be more coming.

LQ announces the winners of the 2007 Members Choice awards.

If you are thinking of throwing off the Micro$oft yoke, these are some apps you might consider.

And LQ is a great place for help and support. When I have Linux questions, it’s the first place I go after I RTFM.

’cause Best Buy doesn’t have a clue.

I’ve already told my washing machine story.

This beats it:

I walked into a Best Buy the other day. We are seeking some price discounts on thumb drives…our K4K kids will need them soon and we need to purchase them in bulk. Just price shopping, but as always, my Linux Hat is on and I usually do not pass an opportunity to spread the word. Even to folks who have obviously heard of Linux or maybe have even tried it on occasion.

Like a member of the Geek Squad (obligatory *tm inserted to please our attorney.)

It did not raise a flicker within the eye of awareness. Not a word I said.

This “Computer professional”…this “Knower-Of-All-Things-Computer”.

He did not have a clue. Not a clue.

I had no choice. I spent the next ten minutes educating him…telling him about the technology and the advantages of the GNU/Linux Operating System. His first response almost took my breath.

“That is not possible. Microsoft would not allow it.”

Follow the link. Read the whole post.

(Especially you, Opie. He uses a Ubuntu live CD with Beryl to make his point.)

Back to Dalco and Radio Slum.

There’s a reason I always preferred CompUSA:

Big box retailer Best Buy has admitted that it sold digital picture frames over the festive period containing malicious software that targets Windows-based PCs.

The US electrical retail giant said that a “limited number” of the LCD panels were “contaminated with a computer virus during the manufacturing process”. It sold the 10.4 inch flat-panel frames, which display digital images, under its in-house Insignia brand.

Jeffrey Powers from Geekazine explains how:

They say it’s for your own good . . .

But, then, they always say that.

Every aspect of computer users’ lives — from their heartbeat to a guilty smile — could be monitored and immediately analysed under the futuristic system detailed in Microsoft’s patent application.

Details of the planned “Big Brother” system are revealed in an application to the US Patent and Trademark Office, seen by The Times, over seventeen pages of text with ten diagrams.

Get your Linux Questions answered here.

Via Susie.

Todd Cochrane’s Geek News Central has been named one of the ten best podcasts of 2007 by Podcasts dot com.

Read Todd’s announcement here.

Check out the podcast, too. It ranges over lots of different topics, not just computer stuff.

The five most annoying PC programs, according to the Download Squad. Follow the link for their rationales:

1. Adobe Acrobat Reader
2. iTunes
3. Real Player
4. Internet Explorer
5. Microsoft Outlook

(Aside) Since I don’t use Windows, none of these annoy me (full disclosure: except for work, when I sometimes use the Acrobat Reader).

The Acrobat Reader does come in a *nix flavor, but I use KPDF, which is much faster and lighter.

Via Geekazine.

I mentioned earlier that my server room hub died.

In looking to replace it, I’ve found that small hubs are apparently nowhere to be found.

They’ve been replaced by little switches. These are not the same as the industrial-strength switches you will find at a corporation. They are rather hubs with enough sense to know what came from where.

So I ended up with a switch and now the webserver and fileserver are both back on line.

Apparently the hub in the server room has given up the ghost. The lights still flash, but I couldn’t get to the big wide world from either of the computers in that room.

When I went directly from the webserver to the wall outlet, the big wide world was back.

Second Son doesn’t know it yet (he’s in Cali), but he’s getting me a new hub for Christmas.

(Actually, he’s not–that’s just in case he’s reading this tonight.)

Via Geekazine:

Geekazine Rocks.

So, too, for that matter, does Geek News Central, which is where I first met heard of Geekazine, when Jeffrey Powers did a podcast for Todd, from Geek News Central, while Todd was moving.

I found a couple of fascinating little videos over at Geekazine. Here’s the first: What’s Inside Your Computer.

I just got a Java update on the Windows box.

It came with a link to “Free Open Office.”

I declined the link, because I’ve been using Open Office for years. In fact, a link to it is over there

——————————>

on the sidebar.

It does everything Micro$oft Office does at an infinitely lower price.—It’s a free port of Sun’s Star Office 6 to the Open Source Community, where it has been upgraded through open source collaboration.

Given how may Windows users have Java on their computer for surfing the web, I find this a very clever way to raise their consciousness of the Wonderful World of Open Source.

We had a momentary power failure today.

How do I know that? The clock on the microwave forgot what time it was.

The cable modem also seems to have forgotten where the ISP was.

Pushed the button on the top of the cable modem twice and the Big Wide World was back inside this little box.

Is there any other kind?

Yesterday, when we came home from the hospital, the prescription counter at the local drug store was experiencing Christmas Eve type rush.

So I just fired up Opera Mobile and started surfing the web.

Opera rocks.

Last week, Todd asked his listeners to tell him how many computers they have.

I sent him this email:

Subject: How many machines do I have in my home?

I have seven.

Actually, I’m quite proud of my little home network:

Webserver (White Box P3 1000 running Slackware 10.1)–it used to be the family computer (surplussed from my previous employer).

File server (IBM PC 300 running Slackware 12.0)–it used to be the webserver. (Gift from someone shutting down a business rebuilding and reselling computers surplussed by a nearby university–he would buy them for $5 and resell them for $50).

My laptop (Dell Inspiron 6000 running Slackware 12.0)–this is my primary machine (bought new from Dell almost four years ago).

Family computer (Dell P4 desktop running WinXP) (this one I actually bought, second hand, from a local shop).

Son’s laptop (Dell Dimension Centrino running XP) (second hand from the
same shop).

SOSO’s computer (Dell Inspiron running XP) (wireless).

My work computer (belongs to my employer) (Acer laptop running XP)
(wireless).

Oh, yeah, and there’s also an XBox on the network.

There is a diagram of my network here:

http://www.pineviewfarm.net/weblog/?p=1557

I haven’t listened to today’s show yet, but I made it into the show notes.

And it runs Opera.

Addendum, 10/28/2007:

er, not any more.

It’s all boxed up and going back to T-Mobile. Seems the Wing touchscreens have issues, and the Tech Support girl was real up front that the issues are not, what do you say? necessarily “isolated.” They are related to memory capacity.

I’ve dragged out my old Samsung (which is, frankly, a damned fine phone–it does everything it promises to do) for the time being, and picked out the replacement phone for the Wing (Why did I pick the Dash? It is capable of running Opera Mobile).

I have to say that one of the things that has always impressed me about T-Mobile is the calibre of their tech support and customer service operations. I spent 60 minutes on the phone with them today (not on the brick Wing–on the land line), and less than five minutes was hold time, as I got forwarded from regular tech support to PDA tech support. The support techs knew what they were doing, ask the right questions in the right order, and, most important, listen to answers.

And that’s fairly typical of my dealings with them since back in the old Voicestream days–quick phone pick-ups, knowledgeable reps, and competent answers.

Hey, I know good support. I worked support for eight years.

Addendum-de-dum-dum, All Hallow’s Eve, 2007:

So I shipped the Wing back to T-Mobile on Monday.

I called Customer Service on Tuesday with the tracking number for the shipment.

I received the new phone today. The Samsung’s back in the drawer.

The Dash is already running Opera Mobile as the default browser.

I really have only praise for that level of customer service.

Open Source beats pirated. Of course, as far as I am concerned, Linux beats Windows three ways to Sunday, but that’s another story.

By 2009, all computers in Russian schools are to be run on Linux – which means they will not have to pay for a licence for software, such as Microsoft’s Windows.

Alexey Smirnov, Director General of the Company ALTLinux, said that schools formerly tended to run illegal copies of Microsoft operating systems, but after Russia entered the WTO, the laws became much stricter and schools began to be prosecuted for doing so.

“The situation became rather serious, and something had to be done,” he told BBC World Service’s Digital Planet programme.

“One possible decision was to buy licences for all the software being used – but so much software was being used, it proved too expensive… so the decision was taken to use free software, although not immediately, but over three years.”

Via Adrian Bacon.

The cron job (for “cron,” read “chronometer, as in ‘timepiece'”) is working like a charm.

So much so that I’ve edited the line in crontab to read

0 4 * * * podracer > /dev/null

The “/dev/null” means that the emails that cron sends me about the cron job will be sent right to the bit bucket.

(That’s right, under Linux, programs can actually send you emails to tell you how they are doing and what, if anything, is going wrong, so you can, like, actually shoot the trouble. Unlike Certain Other Operating Systems.)

Geez oh man, Slackware just rocks.