Kindle madness

June 8, 2009 by phillip.

I’m just going to say it for the record. The Amazon Kindle goes on my list of one of the greatest tech toys I’ve ever gotten. I’ve had mine for about a month now and it’s been absolutely fantastic. The page looks so much like text printed on a page that I’ve been able to read books left and right. This comes at such a good time too because I’ve been running around too much to sit and read an actual book. I have tried to set a goal for myself of reading 40 books a year. Last year was my first year and I conquered my goal.  That may have had to do with the fact that I had a broken leg for a month and a half so all I did was read books during that time. This year however, has been a challenge due to the fact that I’ve been moving around a lot. All the driving has me a little out of the flow of reading.

The Kindle solved all of these problem. First, I carry it everywhere just like my mp3 player. I started to count audiobooks into this equation late last year therefore I really enjoyed putting audiobooks on my mp3 player. The Kindle solved that too with it’s very listenable text-to-speech (TTS). I had written a script in Linux to grab PDF’s off my server, convert them to text and feed them into the program Festival (a TTS program) for this purpose but now I don’t need to (or so I thought but read on). The Kindle proved very easy to listen to and not too robotic. I had a collection of PDF books on my server that I used Calibre to convert to .mobi format instead of the proprietary .azw format of the Kindle.

Then it all fell apart. Amazon was sued by the audiobook companies. They have overhead. They pay people to read the books for their audio versions. Who was I to get a book and think I could have my personal robot read it to me? How obsurd.  I jest because I was really pissed that Amazon just caved in instead of giving them a fight. So, somehow Amazon decided to turn off the feature for your Kindle to read most books to you unless it gets authorization from the publisher. I found the book I bought recently did not have that authorization and since it was originally published two years ago I doubt they’d try to find out if they could get it. So, I’m kind of screwed there.

Scrreeecch! Hit the brakes! You thought I gave up there? Please… There are tools to convert and rip .azw files. Calibre won’t do it and neither will Stanza but they tell you to find 3rd party programs. That’s a slick way of saying, “Hey if you can find it out there I won’t look. Once you’re finished bring it back to me and I’ll handle the rest.” So, off to find these 3rd parties. I will let you know what I find. Especially if I can come up with a command line program to do it. That way I’ll have the files converted and ready for my Kindle seconds after it notices it’s plugged in. The script will copy new .azw’s convert them and put them back as .mobi files.

The love of tech continues.

Posted in My humble opinion, Something to know | 1 Comment »

Upgrade Linux KDE or Windows 7? Hmmm.

February 16, 2009 by phillip.

I’m never a fanboy of any particular thing. I’ve always got to see the good and the bad in whatever I get or use. This might be enhanced even more after reading some great books in the past couple months like “Predictably Irrational” by Dan Areily and “The Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell (not getting anything just personally loved those two books). However, recently I was looking through the CNET site and found this video that I thought was fantastic.

Basically, the CNET columnists were thinking about the fact that Windows 7 looks a lot like KDE 4 on Linux. I’ve got to say, I’m much more impressed with Windows 7 than Vista since I have been playing with the beta lately but as stuck as I was on KDE 3.5 I’ve finally upgraded to it full time and love it now. Think is, I think the Linux desktop is pretty much all there now with KDE 4 which is evidenced by this video. In the video they showed random people KDE 4 and told them it was Windows 7 and asked if they’d upgrade.

My conclusion is: Whatever road you take in life. Please skip Vista.

Posted in Windows, Linux | 1 Comment »

Linux doesn’t need “Grunt theory”

October 30, 2008 by phillip.

 I was getting my Linux podcast listening in and listened to the Linux Outlaws and it brought me to my subject.

First a little background on my thinking. I am a consultant that works for various companies, in many industries using many operating systems and hardware. So, I try to come in and understand the business so I can serve them best. I have a cousin who is a low level filing clerk that totally subscribes to what I call “Grunt theory.” Grunt theory is a mindset that I’ve coined as people who think the company is always some massive evil thing that’s always treating them wrong. Don’t get me wrong. In most cases this is kind of true but you have to have a more discerning eye. Every company would go under if it would follow the grunt theory which would make them give everyone more money, more vacation days, very little employee discipline and not fire employees that hurt the bottom line. This is business people. Businesses are here to make money.

Ok, now that said, I get kind of upset when I find Linux enthusiasts falling into “Grunt theory” thinking. Microsoft and Apple are companies that are here to make money. That’s what they do. Now, I am all for opening people’s eyes to the vast amount of options that are available from open source alternatives. I seem to be able to bring a little Linux into every company I work with when they realize they can get great performance and features for free (or with little investment if I can get them to donate). The thing that keeps bothering me is people that rely on constant Microsoft bashing on non-technical areas. I’ve even got to give Apple credit for the Mac vs. PC commercials focusing on real issues and making very good attacks on them.

As a community, let’s stick to the issues. Don’t join the bandwagon and try to get community street cred by just aimlessly bashing because honestly, that’s the same thing Microsoft is doing. They can make aimless claims on Linux and because of their market share people listen. I have Linux running on everything all over my house but as I was typing, just now, I realized that I would be a serious hypocrite because I’m typing this on a Microsoft keyboard on one of my computers that runs Windows. I am seriously hoping for the day that Linux’s market share at least rivals Apple’s OSX because I wouldn’t even have this machine running so much if I could get Photoshop on Linux but I’m patient.

Posted in My humble opinion, Linux | 1 Comment »

Scale 7x on FLOSS weekly

October 30, 2008 by phillip.

I’m gearing up for the SCALE 7 conference so I was listening to some friends of mine Gareth Greenway and Shyam Kapadia on FLOSS Weekly episode 46.  Make sure to give that a listen.

Posted in Announcements | 2 Comments »

Nothing new here people. It’s just a tool.

October 29, 2008 by phillip.

I was at a PTA-like meeting last night at one of my sons schools with my wife (it’s actually like a class but that’s a whole other story). Next thing you know we were talking about “Things that get in the way of our children’s success.” Of course sooner or later subjects like Myspace, instant messaging and porn come up. It soon became quite a hot topic when some parents believed children should never have computers in their rooms.

I have a lot of thoughts on this subject being a young curious kid myself. However, no sooner had I thought about all the things I could say before my wife redirects the crowds attention to me explaining how our kids don’t have this problem. In short I explained to the class that a computer in the room is like having a whole bookshelf full of books because of all you can learn and that with some small tweeks you can provide some amount of safety. However, if I had wanted to spend more time on the subject I would have taken a different tact to address a more pessimistic mother.

After the class seemed appeased with the fact that they can provide a good amount of internet safety, one pessimistic mother had something to add. “Children will always find a way around whatever you do.” I didn’t respond however I was at first insulted by her defeatist attitude before I realized that the core of the problem was elsewhere. The child.

I tell companies this all the time as well as families: “The computer is a tool just like a hammer is.” That’s it! It may be slicker looking, made of plastic and metal and have lights but it’s just a tool. A hammer can be used to build a house or kill someone. It all depends on the operator of that tool. In the context of the class, I could have provided security on the level of the CIA on that computer however, just like with a hammer, if you want to do something malicious there are hammers laying around all over town.

“There is no new thing under the sun” is a verse from Ecclesiastes 1:9 (which I searched for on the internet). It holds true for all the things we talked about in class that people who watch the news all the time need to realize. Our world is no worse than 2000 years ago when Jesus was here and people felt it was the end of times. People afraid of homosexuals in office don’t realize that most of the Greek and Roman senates were openly gay back then. Murder and mutilation were paraded in the streets. Rape happened often. The world hasn’t changed it’s just newer and faster tools.

The cycle continues you just need to focus on the operators not the tools.

Posted in My humble opinion, Something to know | 1 Comment »

Is it really China attacking us?

September 16, 2008 by phillip.

I a thought just brought itself together to me yesterday that I had to throw out there. During the Olympics I was talking to my kids about China and how we find that they attack American servers so much. I personally have tried to track down IP addresses on servers I’ve run and even at my home in the past and traced them down to a Chinese IPs before I even knew about all the attacks.

Fast forward to the night before last. I was watching a James Bond movie called “Tomorrow Never Dies.” The movie’s plot in short was a plot by a media magnet billionaire (obviously Ted Turner) making the news so his magazines, TV, and newspapers could report it first. So, he used a stealth ship and park it near the Chinese ships and attack the British and vice versa.

So, in my preparation to write this post I was listening to a podcast called Linux Outlaws and found out that John C. Dvorak or the Twit network also came up with this conclusion. What if it’s someone else attacking us by attacking Chinese servers and routing through them? In my own history I have found that a server that I had control of but wasn’t supposed to really touch was compromised many years ago. The thing is, during the forensics process of this I found out that the attackers were from Germany and using my server to attack the company 3COM (who also notified me of the attack). Dvorak seems to think it is the Russians attacking US computers but I haven’t thought too much about the “who” just the “not who.”

Just a side thought. Tomorrow Never Dies was made in 1997. Somebody else was watching and coming up with this idea. Plus, we know that the Chinese servers aren’t totally without holes. The whole drama about the Chinese gymnists being too young really broke after an american IT security guy hacked (well not really hacked but run with me) into Chinese search engine servers cache files, got data, and used Google to translate the pages. From that he found that all the references to a gymnast meet just last year where the girls were 13 and now they’re 16 by the time of the Olympics. Right…

Posted in My humble opinion | 1 Comment »

An it’s your fault world

September 5, 2008 by phillip.

Today I had a very interesting moment. I have a vacuum cleaner at home that has stopped working. Relenting to pressure from my kids who didn’t want to sweep our living room and my wife I decided to go ahead and fix it. Upon openning it I found all kinds of particles stuck and other things that I cleaned but when I found that the belt inside was broke I knew that that was the real problem so I took off the broken belt and went to the vacuum repair shop. He asked me what kind of vacuum I had and when I stumbled and stammered my words he just figured let me go ahead and look at the old one (which I wanted him to do in the first place). He gave me a band for $2 and I was off to the house.

Moments after putting the piece back together I vacuumed the floor with great results but the smell of burned rubber. I openned the vacuum again and the roller with the brushes was broken and parts were melted.

Fast forward to today. I take the vacuum back and after a brief discussion I come to find out that the repair guy didn’t stock these kinds of parts for my vacuum and his suppliers didn’t stock my model. The causes could have been varied but when one of them was a belt being too small. The same belt that he sold me for $2 could end up costing me a lot more. It wasn’t even a scam because he didn’t even work on my vacuum type. I was torn in how I should respond.

In my line of work I fix people’s computers all day everyday. The one thing that I have a big problem with is people blaming me for a possible problem. I take my reputation very seriously. What almost 99% of the problem wasn’t from anything I did and I know before I come back. I do come back because I am one that takes responsibility. However, we live in an “it’s your fault” world. I definitely understand that there is the remote situation where you may have forgotten something but I would have liked the repair man to admit the possibility to his guilt in giving me the wrong size and look for solutions with his supplier. Alas, he didn’t and I was stuck with a broken part and no ideas where to go.

Are you this guy/girl? One of the main things I go over with my children is reliability and responsibility. Your life and your work are all due to decisions you’ve made somewhere down the line. Everything is because you made it that way so take responsibility. However, responsibility without action is just playing another blame game but with yourself.

My goal everyday is to make this world a little better to live in. If just a couple people read this and decide I’m going to fix some of the things I’ve caused then maybe it will spread and form this utopia that we all dream of.

Let the blame game end with you. No excuses. Just action.

Posted in My humble opinion, Life Lessons | 1 Comment »

Don’t use the sugar for Cherrios

August 30, 2008 by phillip.

I was talking with my wife tonight and I was talking about people that are just exceptional. On that immediately came to mind was a player on the TV show “The Apprentice” a couple years ago. His name was Randall. A tall dark skinned black man that was and still is the most magnificent competitor to play the game. He was a good speaker, kind, a gentleman, and amazingly brilliant in all of his choices, decisions, and leadership.

One thing about him though is that in all his education and business success he did not forget where he was from. Humble beginnings in a common middle to low income black home. He didn’t forget because in all the things that he did he still seemed to bring out this style of speech that would remind you of a country farmer reminiscing about a wild day on the farm.

I am also that guy. The problem with that is that sometimes you need to give a little background.

In common black homes you had two things Cherrios and Koolaid. They both required one thing: Sugar. Let me give you a little of this street knowledge. When thinking about storage. I was recently working on a problem with the Postfix mail server that reminded me of a problem I used to have with a server. The other stuff was on the same partition with the email server so if it filled up then the email couldn’t come through. When been start getting messages saying your email address doesn’t work then they will start deleting your name from their email list.

Don’t use the sugar for the Cherrios… Use it for the Koolaid. This relates to my delema because if I used the hard drive for other stuff then when dinner comes I wouldn’t have “Koolaid” as a refreshing cold drink.

When doing network or other resource planning always decide what needs the resources the most and give it a whole lot more than you think it needs. Always better to be too safe than too sorry.

Posted in Life Lessons | 1 Comment »

Politics, business, and computers

August 29, 2008 by phillip.

I’ll start this post off with the disclaimer I’m not a person that is a big fan of or a believer in politics or politicians. Also, I’m going to say that I understand that two things you never talk about with people you don’t know are religion and politics.

With that said, I’m going to talk about the Obama speech today at the Democratic convention. Let me say in short… WOW! This is where the business and tech stuff comes in. I didn’t originally watch the speech. I did however watch it on CNN online (www.cnnpolitics.com). The reason I did is because of a client calling me right afterward and saying he wanted to get started right now on a project that we planned for possibly a month from now. He was fired up and ready to make some change in our country.

Soon after that were posts on Facebook from my friends and colleages about it. Still not convinced I chose to actually watch the video before my meeting tomorrow and I was not disappointed.

Now, I must say, I have not counted out Sen. Mccain nor do I even know much about what he really stands for. However, whatever happens, our country will definitely need their IT departments to step up the pace and be a little more cutting edge and progressive. People are getting fired up and I will make it my duty to keep you looking toward that edge. Still with the cost effective, budget minded and people centric nature that I have always provided.

Ooops, maybe I’ve been turned into a bit of politician there myself. Naaahhhh… You know I’m not changing. I’m still me.

Posted in Something to know | 1 Comment »

What is a simpler time?

July 30, 2008 by phillip.

What is your definition of a simpler time? In our efforts to make everything easier are we neglecting what is… simple?

In the new millinium the 1950’s are considered a simpler time. In the 1950’s the 1920’s were considered a simpler time. What are these people that search for this simplicity really looking for? Usability experts look to make the computer or your electronic devices think like you do. With this logic your DVR will know you so well that when you get home from work it will probably listen to the tone of your voice and decide if you want to watch an episode of “Lost” or the local college basketball game. That sounds pretty simple (by the way Sony, you can have that idea for free) but I don’t think that’s what we’re really looking for.

Maybe we’re looking for freedom. Freedom sounds simple, right? You wake up in the morning and the government wants nothing more than for you to be happily content. Nobody want’s anything from you or gives you anything so you have no expectation either way. Cave men had it that way but that simple kind of scares us. Knowing what needs to be done like hunting down your food. Let’s fast forward to at least the age of bartering.

Let me propose this concept for your approval. You are living in the simpler time if you chose to only accept it. Not because you can talk to your phone and tell it who to call or even the fact that everyone has a phone on them all the time. Not because your TV has a thousand channels and you can even have the TV in your car. Not because the internet allows you to find someone somewhere that had the same problem as you and has solved it or allows you to find a product you could find for cheap in your local store. These are not the answers but in all actuality the causes of more of the problems. Psychology studies have shown that more choice actually causes people to get more unhappy. Thus as our lives seemingly become more simple they do get more complex.

These are the good old simple days. Just narrow your choices intentionally. Take the first parking spot you see and walk to the door to the mall. Realize that once you’ve made a decision on a product you’ve got the best thing possible at there and there could be no better. Realize that almost any computer you get (at least for the average user) is so much more than enough. If you could take a time machine back to any time in history they would tell about some of the complexities in life that you would absolutely laugh at while hopping back into your time machine back to the present. Keep reading my blog. I definitely try to keep it simple.

Posted in Windows, Something to know | 1 Comment »