November 2, 2007 by phillip.

As a consultant I’ve been really diving deep into an industry hot topic: Clustering. It seems to be the big topic for so many companies. Hi availability need not be an issue for you ever again. Here’s the simple way you can scale like the big boys do it. The long and short of it are simple. You need “Heartbeat.”

No, I don’t mean a biological function I mean Heartbeat from the Linux-HA project. Heartbeat is a service for Linux systems that will make a process highly available. This way if the main machine that is servicing clients goes down then you’ll have another that will take it’s place without anyone noticing.

Oddly enough, there seem to not be enough resources on the internet to help people with this subject. However, to get started there are so few resources to learn with. I actually wanted to go a little deeper in my own knowledge of the subject but couldn’t find many books and even fewer websites. What is this world coming to when I can’t find websites to teach me all the information I needed. The thing is… I looked everywhere but the source. The Linux-HA website. There’s a screencast video link here. It’s about 10 minutes and the program designer shows how to make a basic cluster. You can even go deeper with more examples on the site that teach you how to cluster different programs.

Just as a note from me, if you are truly considering learning all it takes to make your own cluster please consider learning more about high availability. The core to high availability is redundancy. Make sure that you have all of your bases covered. Have no single points of failure. Redundant hard disks (RAID), power, internet, and network links.

By the way, I had started this article a little while ago and noticed a great link on Howtoforge that really pulls this together quickly and in one page.

Hope these are very useful to you.

Posted in Linux, Only for the techy people | 1 Comment »

October 23, 2007 by phillip.

There are so many people out there that hear about Ubuntu, Redhat, or Suse (more for my European friends) and really want get started in it. This blog post is NOT for you. I will have more for you though because I really want to start a video podcast for you.

If you know a little bit about Linux or are a Linux admin then this is a good step for you. I’ve been using Linux for about 13 years now and I still have a lot more to learn. This is the case for all operating systems and computer systems. There is always more to learn. I’ve been a little consumed lately with tinkering for some reason. I’ve been doing a lot of wiring and building things out of old computers I have laying around. I’m doing it for no other reason than “Why not?”

For the Linux tinkerer I have the perfect site for you. Linux from Scratch. It’s a project that I’ve been meaning to do for years. What it is is a online book that will walk you through building a Linux system completely from scratch. Oddly enough I love cookies and buy chocolate chip cookies all the time. Long time when I was in high school I downloaded a cookie recipe off a bulletin board (yes, I’m old in computer years) and made the best cookies ever. Well, I equate this to Linux from Scratch. I may end up doing it just like the cookies. I made a cookie and it was good but later on I decided to tweak the recipe and make a cookie I liked better.

This is not a project for the faint of heart I’ve read but it really connects the dots in the knowledge you have about a Unix system. I’ve actually got to make sure I do a little bit from time to time (all in a virtual machine) because my workload for my business is getting heavier.

I’m going to categorize this for Linux people but I would say it’s not just for Linux/Unix (and Mac since it’s a BSD Unix) people because when you know the history of how computer systems came to being a lot of this is the core of how other systems like Windows, Beos, etc.

Try it and tell me your results or your progress. Maybe we can do it at the same time like jogging partners. You may also get interested in some other projects like “Realtime Linux” and “Embedded Linux” which are other projects that are used for specific things.

I’d say good luck but luck will have nothing to do with it.  You can do anything you set your mind to.

Posted in Linux, Only for the techy people | 1 Comment »

October 9, 2007 by phillip.

I’ve been raising all the security in my house and my clients to the highest security on their wireless that I can.  So, in walking around lately with my laptop running linux I have gotten a little disappointed.

It’s just not easy enough.  It’s very sad to say but it just isn’t ready for the desktop user right now.  I’ve ended up going to the repositories and searching for wireless software but none seem to work well.  They are functional but I really have to do some work to get connected.  When I use Windows or a Mac the wireless security and login is a no brainer.  I’m connected before I even think twice about it.  The Mac isn’t as intuitive when it comes to WPA on your initial usage but it’s easy after that.

I’m using a program in Ubuntu’s repositories called “Wifi-radar” right now and that seems to be the best one for me.   “Wireless assistant” is also good but for some reason it just doesn’t like the fact that I’m changing the settings of a wireless access point that I’d already used before.

In the mean time.  Linux people should become very familiar with the iwlist, iwconfig, dhclient, ifconfig commands and anything about wpasupplicant.  Not fun unless you’re a hacker but even now I sometimes just want to pick up my wife’s laptop just to get a quick connection.  I’ll of course have a script written for this by the time you read this in case it ever happens again but I’m sure that the program I’m using should be the one I stick with.

Posted in Linux | 1 Comment »

September 24, 2007 by phillip.

I’ve never smoked cigarettes but for a couple years now I’ve totally understood that addiction. I’ll tell you what mine has been: Microsoft Office. I’d do anything to get a hold of it in my past. I worked a deal a while back to buy some licenses from a vendor that I bought a lot of products through so I still use it. However, that was quite a few years ago and right now I’m seeing no compelling reason to upgrade to Office 2007. FYI, my wife’s new Macbook came with Office 2007 so I may play with it more there.

I’ve blogged a long time ago about my dependence on Microsoft Outlook and Access. I’ve been trying to find a way around them to little avail. Well, that’s what it would seem like but I actually have found solutions but I still have that Office monkey on my back. At home and for my consulting I work in Linux, Windows, and Mac and one of the major themes of this blog is working well in all three or whatever you’re given. Well, with my laptop I primarily boot into Linux, my desktop I primarily use Windows and and my wife is on a Mac. The rest of my systems are a mixture of the three except I run all Linux servers. So, for consistency at home and for offices I really want to run the same software throughout.

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Posted in Mac, Windows, Linux, Software | 1 Comment »

September 18, 2007 by phillip.

I am at such a crossroads on this subject. If you haven’t been in the know on this, for a year or more now it’s really been a big thing to create an affordable laptop for use by children in Africa or impoverished Asian country. The laptop is supposed to be $100 (that’s why you may also hear of it as the $100 laptop). Here’s my dilemma. I’m of African decent so I’m treading very carefully there. Also, my wife is a special education teacher and I started out teaching children computers.

Here’s the beef. Who are these laptops for… Really? The reason being this world isn’t that generous. I can guarantee you that the second these pan out that you’ll see quite a few of them at Starbucks. That’s the only reason for everybody is so concerned with it. Of course there are going to be pictures of a couple of kids in Africa that have no power or lights at home but will be smiling and using the laptop.

What’s the point in that? Why are we trying to fool ourselves? A computer is a tool. Please, don’t see it more than this. If you gave me a tractor today it would be utterly useless to me. If they started the one tractor per man project I’d think, “Wow, that’s great, but I could have just used a lawn mower for my lawn.” It’s the same here. I don’t want to deprive their growth but why not just have learning centers where they have desktops? The reason is we are not as altruistic as we want to seem. I can guarantee that fifty times more of these laptops will end up in modern suburban homes of people that could afford to pay more but are saving money. We don’t like to pay for anything. I know I don’t.

So if for one second you believe that we’re trying to help out all those kids (especially BOYS that can’t get into the Oprah Winfrey Girls learning center that is totally sexist), you’ve been deceived. The laptops that aren’t funneled into the corrupt local governments of these countries will be in the cities.

The good thing is, the laptops run Linux. You don’t really need to hack them that much to make them totally usable with everything. Just a little bit of know how.

Sorry for the rant it’s just been in the news and bugging me. How could we possibly believe that a group of people that don’t have much food, water, or power could be thinking or want the chic factor of a laptop.

Posted in Linux, Life Lessons | 1 Comment »

September 14, 2007 by phillip.

I’m definitely not an iPod fanboy. As you have probably read in a previous blog I wasn’t a big fan of the iPhone just before it came out but this is different. It’s beautiful like Apple’s other products but at a size of 4.5″ x 2.4″ x .46″ and 4.6 ounces, this one actually fits my need… Almost.

I say almost because right now I’m using an HP Ipaq as my PDA. I’ve loved it for about 5 years now. Now it’s time to move onward and upward. I’d love one that Linux ran on so I could use the small size of Linux apps on it for everything I need. Also, I’d love GPS. Seems like I’m talking about the Nokia N800 but Apple I’m giving you a chance here.

The N800 is really nice too. The form factor is 5.7″ x 3.0″ x 0.5″ and weighs 7.3 ounces. However, at 5.7″ long it’s quite a bit longer than the standard 4″ wallet but justifiable in the standard inside coat pocket. Although the 4.1″ touch display that has a 800×480 resolution is really nice.

Let’s talk about GPS people? In this day and age where GPS is in so many things why isn’t it in either of these devices? You can get the GPS for the Nokia for about $250 more. Why? You could just get a Tomtom device or something for about that price?

Ok, my needs are simple hackers. Hack the iPod touch so I can install linux on it and have it function like an N800. That way I can use all that storage on it plus have the cooler look and smaller form factor. Plus, I want to run Thunderbird for email, VLC for video, rdesktop and VNC to manage other computers, and a couple other apps. Thunderbird does not run on the N800 I’ve heard. Email, contacts, syncing, and calendaring is the most important to me.

All right.  There’s your marching orders.  Help make me and everybody else happy.  Combine all these things into the iPod touch and I’ll be one extremely happy camper even though the iPod screen is 3.5″ and the N800 is 4.1″.  Some sacrifices can be made.

Posted in Mac, Linux, Announcements | 1 Comment »

September 13, 2007 by phillip.

Allow me to rant a bit and give my take on what is a big issue in the free and open source community. I’m not one that is big on licensing issues and the like. So the Gnu Public License (GPL) that is the foundation of Linux and many other open source software is the last good thing the Free Software Foundation (FSF) has really contributed. I could definitely be wrong on this and am open to be corrected however, at every convention I stop at their table and try to figure out what their significant purpose is to no avail.

What I have figured out is the core of the problem. At the beginning of this year I went to a lecture that Richard Stallman (the head of the FSF and core original contributor to Linux) gave. First let me declare that this guy is the modern day mad scientist. Extremely smart and extremely nuts. It was no secret to the audience of mostly college students, due to the venue being USC, that this man lacked etiquette and hygiene awareness. However, a brief exclamation of why he believed Linux should be called GNU Linux cleared so much up for me. I’ll explain.

In the beginning, Stallman had the idea of free software and started programming all the parts of a clone of Unix. It was sheer brilliance and a lot of time spent coming up with all the programs that surrounded the brain of the operating system. The kernel. Meanwhile, over in Stockholm Sweden Linus Torvalds was creating the kernel based off the Unix variant Minix. Just like a Reese’s pieces commercial Linus’ chocolate ended up in Stallman’s peanut butter.

Which is more important to a Reese’s? The chocolate or the Peanut butter? It’s a trick question because they both are equally important. However, now imagine if chocolate and peanut butter had to name the product of their union. This is where Stallman’s issue resides. Linux was named by Linus Torvalds’ friends and followers. It’s the engine of the car they felt. Also, I regrettably must say, with the exception of Emacs (which I don’t even use because of VI) all the software would have logically been created to mimic Unix’s version like they are now.

It’s a regrettable situation because I must say that I’ve personally me Linus Torvalds and Richard Stallman briefly. I liken the too to Dr. Frankenstein and Alexander Graham Bell. They were both brilliant minds (even though one’s mainly fictitious) but Torvalds was hard working reluctantly social Bell while Stallman was the massively confident mad scientist with little social empathy. In the end Stallman does have an understandable right to believe that GNU should be said before Linux but after a certain point does it really matter? To build a company of followers that faithfully extol your greatness but lack a good reason behind their efforts is now pure vanity that impedes progress.  Now to make himself relevant again he’s forcing GPL 3 on the masses.

Poor Stallman.  Doesn’t he realize that Dr. Frankenstien’s ego is what was his ultimate demise?  Go all ye Linux fans and shout Richard Stallman’s accomplishments from the rooftops.  You made this all possible in it’s current state. Now, let’s just get our heads back into the code and not the semantics of licenses or exercises in vanity.

Posted in Linux, Only for the techy people, Something to know | 1 Comment »

August 31, 2007 by phillip.

There have been many doubts about Linux on the desktop for some time now. I have proved that it is viable in my own household. Everybody in my house (including the 5 year old little girl) is totally cross platform. Everyone uses Windows, Linux, and to a smaller degree Mac. The difference for the average user is so minimal with just a little bit of training.

Now on the the newest adventure in Linux adoption. My mother and grandmother. I’ve had a computer in my mother’s house for years but can barely get her to use it. Now that she just retired she wants to know what all her friends know. So, she wants a couple of training lessons on it. My grandmother (at 90 years old) has been wanting her own since my mom wouln’t let her touch the computer they have for fear it might break doing anything.

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Posted in Linux, Only for the techy people | 4 Comments »

August 28, 2007 by phillip.

I was curious a while back after looking at my computer boot up to see it trying to get information on how to boot from the network using PXE. This wasn’t a good time of course because what was happening to the computer was an absence of a hard disk made it go through the order of places to find an operating system and when it came up empty it went to a network boot.

The problem was minor because in building the computer I hadn’t yet plugged up the hard disk but this gave me an idea. What neat tricks could I make a computer do if I could just get it to boot up and get its operating system. Needless to say I did a lot of internet searching and found bits and pieces of how to netboot the computer from my server(a good one was https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/WindowsServerNetboot). Needless to say that the floodgates are open.

I got it to work and now I’m thinking of all the things I can do. Entering a machine’s MAC address into my dhcp.conf file can make it boot off of my server and possibly do all kinds of things. I heard of one guy who had lots of Windows computers to install or repair. He had a computer boot up and just start installing Windows on the hard drive. That’s a cool feature for those who have to setup clusters, classrooms, or repair pc’s.

My current obsession is a classroom made purely out of little diskless PC’s. The company Zonbu has a cool one though that they’re selling as a service that they remotely support and put applications on. I’ll definitely keep you posted on any cool ideas I come up with for it.

Posted in Linux, Only for the techy people | 108 Comments »

August 17, 2007 by phillip.

I don’t know what to think of myself. I don’t like pack rats but I must admit to my one weakness. Trying to breath life into old machines. Believe me, I’m good at it. I’m the guy that has all these extra PC’s in my garage that I put together to see what I can do. I have a drawer full of old memory chips and I’m not afraid to use them.

The funny part is when people see my house or office sometimes. I have guests over and they naturally assume that I have spent tens of thousands on all my equipment but I haven’t. I’ve spent a tenth of that cost because most of these are computers that people either didn’t want or companies told me I could take home. Throwing Linux on these machines is like a fresh coat of paint that looks good. Windows and Mac people come and feel right at home based on what screen I give them. Of course I do have some pretty fast machines around too for the database and multimedia stuff but that’s not the norm.

Before you think about throwing out that machine you’re using figure out what you really need a computer for. What you’re running might just need a little cleaning up and it’s as good as new again. Windows and Mac computers just get a little slow because of all the bloated software that is or was installed. Backup all your info and then wipe your drive. Re-installing it with a restore CD you got with the computer and building it back up can most times make you fall in love with it again.

Posted in Mac, Windows, Linux, Tips | 1 Comment »