February 26, 2008 by phillip.

This has to be one of the coolest tech toys (everything’s a toy for me). It’s a USB hub that’s actually wireless. Now I don’t know how this got past me because I remember hearing more than a year ago that these were coming. Just didn’t know they’d been out.

Now the new “coolest of the cool” award goes to Belkin’s Network USB. How it works is really cool, you put up to 5 devices on this hub and any user on the network can request use of a device from another computer using it. The only problem here is that it isn’t cross platform. It’s only for Windows right now but Mac software is coming. Hopefully, Linux is as well.

Posted in Windows | 1 Comment »

February 7, 2008 by phillip.

Come one come all!

If for any reason you should find yourself in the Los Angeles please feel free to come to the Southern California Linux Expo (SCALE). It will be going on from February 8th-10th, 2008 at the Westin Los Angeles Airport Hotel (just blocks from LAX).

I’ve been helping out there since it’s creation 6 years ago and I can’t that if you’re into Linux and open source you’ll enjoy yourself. I could tell you all about it but I’m sure I’d miss something. Instead, go to this link and the official website will tell you everything.

Posted in Linux, Announcements | 1 Comment »

February 1, 2008 by phillip.

As of late I guess I may seem quite opinionated but I have found that I never find bugs or have to many features I really want that don’t come soon or aren’t thought of and just not apparent. I never have to file bug reports. I finally put in some feature requests.

I was just online and looked a a program called GOM Player that looks good however, I love my VLC. Then I find out that it’s only on Windows. I went to their forums to request a feature and found that they are already in the process of a Linux version but no Mac version. Since I really love my VLC I went to them to request the only real feature I liked in GOM which is Flash playback. It’s already in one of the nightly builds just needs more tuning. Thanks VLC. Just for the sake of it I told GOM that all the way cross platform is a good idea since I like all my clients and family sticking to the same interface.

However, it had me thinking. How do other people search through the bug report lists for programs and find so many that they need to request. I think I’m not critcal enough.

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

January 28, 2008 by phillip.

My dad is an old school electrical engineer. He worked on so many big aerospace projects and spacecraft when I was a kid that it was crazy. One thing he taught me is from a story he once told me. He said there are some thing that you learn in class that people don’t take very seriously. For example, I always had to know how to do the same things on paper as with a calculator. One particular situation that made him a star was when he was working on a satellite and their equipment failed. The rest of the engineers in his group just left and/or scrambled for another place to do their work.

My dad said that he stayed right there and worked it all out by himself. He relied on knowing the guts of how this stuff worked and having pen and paper. I took this seriously. I have found that this pays off in a couple ways. When I was building my office and when I’ve done construction on my house or someone else’s (something I love to do now) I needed geometry. Most kids now days learn enough about it to pass the class in high school and never look back. The postulates and theorems of geometry helped me when I lacked a tool or equipment.

This being said, the way I figure it, don’t call yourself a real administrator until you know how to go to the command line and wreak havoc in no matter what operating system you use. I appreciate the Mac for it’s user friendliness. However, I used to stay away from OS 9 and before because it’s lack of depth. Yes it was easy to do menial tasks but I wouldn’t advise a network rely on it or especially an enterprise.

I welcomed OS X to the modern world of technology with open arms. Up until it’s release I was a rare user of the operating system because I tried but didn’t really get that deep into Appletalk. OS X’s Mach kernel brought serious Unix thinking to a pretty interface.

So, you own a Mac? Let’s get you some street cred. You want to hang with the Linux, Windows, and Unix network admins and not be the red headed step child? This is what you do. First start with network troubleshooting from the terminal. Create scenarios for yourself to solve. My usual problem to solve is why I don’t have access to the internet from a machine that I know should have a live connection plugged in… The networksetup and serversetup commands are key and new to even hardcore Unix/Linux admins. I still use “ifconfig” out of unix habit though.

Here’s a couple of useful links that can help you. The first is this pdf file that is a “Mac OS X Server from the command line” file.

Next: “Top 15 terminal commands for hidden Mac OS X settings.”

Then for the Unix/Linux guys. Here are some command line programs that are specific to the Mac. “Unique Darwin commands.” Also, check out this blog: http://patgmac.blogspot.com/

Mac guys/gals. show your true geekness. Flip up a terminal window in front of you networking friends and even impress the Cisco guys.

Posted in Mac | 1 Comment »

January 25, 2008 by phillip.

Yet another company has bought an open source company. Sun bought MySQL AB. Now if you’re up on your open source history you’ll also know that Sun started StarOffice that broke off into the open source OpenOffice. So, Sun’s no stranger to open source.

The first feeling of disgust that will probably first hit your gut is that, “Hey it’s free software. Sun is going to take it and try to monetize it.” Well, I’m sure you’ve probably calmed down by now and realized that it really is a company and they’re not a non-profit (The story here is a link to a blog post on how much is an open source company worth).

So, aside from all that… Here’s my thought. In a constant effort to best Microsoft I see a real opportunity that the corporate world can use from open source. The one thing: Microsoft Access and SQL Server now can be done with OpenOffice Base and MySQL server.

Access was one of the killer apps that make it difficult to leave the windows world totally. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a Microsoft hater but I do want to go to a pure Linux desktop especially in the enterprise. Say what you like but Access is a great low end database platform. It also keeps people tied into .Net, ADO, and Visual Basic. It seems that nobody even notices this primary organ in the commercial platform body.

Here’s what I think Sun should go for. Tightly integrate Base and MySQL then roll in a report writing software or just acquire a company doing that. Don’t worry, I’ve done the work for them. They should also buy or ally themselves with Jaspersoft or Datavision. The reason being, Crystal Reports. The unknown key to the empire.

If you’ve never heard of Crystal Reports then you don’t really work in a corporate setting. The majority of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Contact management software for the enterprise are printed through a seperate licensed product called Crystal Reports. Some times you could be offered the ability to buy it yourself and integrate it into the product through pre-configured links that replace the products’ bare-bones reporting software. Business Objects owns Crystal Reports and has developed a Linux server version of the software that develops reports with a watered down web based interface. SAP is the leader in ERP software and they bought Business Objects in order to own Crystal Reports which is a similar chess move. This way they stave off Oracle. In turn Oracle bought Seibel and Sleepycat software to threaten SAP and MySQL respectively.

Sun’s challenge is as follows: Make Base and MySQL drop in replacements of Access and SQL Server. Throw in reporting software and you’ve given yourself the ability to sneak into corporate environments everywhere. Digging into Microsoft and Oracle’s pockets and padding their own.

This is where Sun makes it’s money. Nobody’s buying Sun servers or Solaris (Let’s be real with ourselves). So, they sell companies on the workstations with Java on them (seeing as how both report writers run on Java as well as Windows, Linux, and Mac). Bingo! You have hardware sold, you get your foot in the server room door, and you have a drop in replacement giving companies open source with a commercial aftertaste.

Sun I don’t mind getting a little server for this grand idea and you can say it was your idea.

Posted in Linux, Software | 1 Comment »

December 3, 2007 by phillip.

If anyone has been following the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) drama it really makes you think about perception.  Perception has always and will always be the key to marketing any company.  I’m finding that the newest drama is the competition from Intel and Microsoft over needy children.  The OLPC is supposed to bet the “$100 laptop.”  It is supposed to be a cheap way to get computers to deprived countries and children.  Their plan is to also offer it to the everyday person and when they buy it they a PC gets donated to a developing country.  A very altruistic goal to say the least.

Here’s where the sharks enter the pool because they realize there are a lot of guppies.  Microsoft starts talking about building a “Classmate PC.”

The real problem in Microsoft’s view is the fact that the OLPC runs Linux.  Microsoft couldn’t fear the growth of Linux more.  I’m sure that a million Microsoft zealots would love to debate that point but nothing helps Linux more than the idea of community behind it. It’s dripping wet with the altruistic mentality.  Linux taking over the server market slowly is almost acceptable but the desktop?  They already have enough competition from Mac on the desktop. Vista’s huge failure with anyone that knows better is fueling Mac and Linux.

Microsoft is no dummy though.  What do they do?  Jump on the bandwagon of “Let’s help the children.”  It gives Microsoft zealots a flag to wave.  It gives Microsoft the illusion of caring more about the people.  It also,  a good way to get the best marketing their is: Free marketing from the news.

History tends to repeat itself.  Right now we are heading for a 70’s movement developing hippies and flower children out of business men. Everybody wants to go “Green” now.  Automobile makers are thinking about how to save the planet through alternative fuels in the same way.  Big business wants to jump on board quick.

Don’t be fooled people.  For the same reason electric cars were always the ugliest cars Microsoft isn’t truly jumping into the classmate PC.  To care more about community would make them open the source code to some of their products.  It couldn’t hurt much.  They own most of the market.  Here’s an idea for them. Open the source code to something very off-beat like Visio.  It’s not a product that really effects the bottom line too much but it really makes it look like a serious effort. The average person doesn’t use it but after it’s free and open more people may want to outside of the networking community.

Trust me, I understand all sides.  I don’t mind Microsoft making it’s money.  That’s what America is all about.  However, altruism, community, and green living should be what humans are all about and that’s what open source and Linux are.  My mother was an art teacher so I grew up art and the joys of it so I understand how Apple thinks: Design and user experience are the joys of computing.  I get it.  However, if you’re going to pretend like you care… Please!  Really care.

Posted in Mac, Windows, Linux | 1 Comment »

November 28, 2007 by phillip.

Being a computer guy I’m often asked by people to look at their computer and tell them what’s wrong or can I help them figure something out. For that reason, I’m doing this post on some real tech tricks to make you look like a star. All that from a USB drive.

The first thing you have to realize is that being prepared for anything is always your goal. I’m never unarmed. There are a couple things that are always on my person like most men: wallet, keys, watch, cell phone, and most times my PDA (an HP IPAQ) . Turning any of these items into multipurpose tools makes you ready for anything. Women can of course get more mileage out of this because they carry a purse. Now, for the really techy, I will continue with a blog post on the ultimate home support system because there are a lot of times I connect to my systems at home from a client’s site. I put a USB stick on my keyring that has a ton of goodies as well as my IPAQ. Today we’ll focus on the USB stick.

For the quick and easy route I’d suggest a simple USB stick (doesn’t have to be U3) but you want it to 1 gig or bigger. This will work on a drive as small as 128mb but I always like to keep extra space on the drive in case I need to copy a lot of files over to it for backup purposes. The last thing you want to do with a machine that is on it’s last leg is turn it off and hope it comes back on.

For a long time now I’d been downloading applications individually and copying them to the drive. You’re still going to install some extra ones to the drive but first download this handy set of tools: PCRepairsystem.zip . It’s a fabulous set of tools from the site Daily Cup of Tech. It’s a zip file that you just download and extract to your USB drive. Pull out your drive and stick it back in and you’re done! Well, almost done. When you put it in it puts a little coffee bean next to your computer’s clock on the task bar. Right clicking on that clock brings up a list of programs that do everything from drive repair to rootkit revealers to CD burning. These will serve you well. Get to know what each program does and you have most everything you need.

Next make a visit to www.portableapps.com. This site is full of applications that you may already be using all the time except these are made to run straight from a USB drive. Believe me, having access to a computer and not having administrative rights can totally shut you down because you can’t just download and install the applications you wanted until this.

Take a look around and get what you like. These are some of the ones that I put on my stick and the reasons why.

Firefox: Always want a fully capable web browser.
Clamwin: To be able to walk up and scan a computer for virus’ is absolutely essential.
WinSCP: If you have access to another machine with a secure connection you can FTP or SSH to and from it. Openoffice: A full Microsoft Office competitor on a USB stick? You can’t beat that.
VLC: Will view any video or play any audio.
Gimp: A Photoshop like program. You may need to resize or edit photos or something for someone.

Now with all of these you have to save the file to your desktop then install them and give your USB drive letter in the install path. For example, where it says “Install path: \openoffice” put H: (or whatever your drive’s letter is) in front to make it H:\openoffice.

In closing, I’d suggest you open every program you put on your USB drive before leaving home. The last thing you want to do is be surprised while you’re on location. A good example of this is that the first time you run Clamwin it wants to download the virus database. Assuming you’re at a site with dialup or no internet on the machine you’ve just wasted a ton of time or won’t even be able to fix the problem.

Also, the program SIW on the PCRepairkit should be your first stop when looking at a system. It will tell you everything about the machine. Save this to your USB stick. Should anything happen to the computer you know what it had before.

That’s it! Go out there and make the world a better place with safe computing.

Oh, and just for your convenience, keep some music, podcasts, or things to read on your USB stick. You might get stuck somewhere for a long time. No need to be bored while a virus scan or drive repair runs.  I also put my resume on the drive.  As a consultant you have this time as a window of opportunity if someone really likes you and may have a big project coming up.

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

November 18, 2007 by phillip.

There have been more than enough articles and podcasts done over the new version of Ubuntu.  I upgraded to the new one right away.  I’m a bit of an early adopter in that sense.  I have rarely encountered broken packages and the such.  This time I did do a fresh install on my laptop and just backed up my home folder and dropped it back on the PC.  Everything worked out perfect for me and continues to do so.

Here’s a blog about cool things to do after you upgrade or install Gutsy.  http://www.ovelha.org/pasteler0/2007/11/10/10-things-to-do-just-after-installing-ubuntu-710/

My problems may come in the form of Fedora 8.  That also just came out and I’m trying to install it in a virtual machine right now.  I actually had a little problem with that but I’ll keep you posted.  I have Fedora servers so I don’t want to accidentally do something wrong there so I try the install in a VM first and for some reason it bombed out twice and that’s using a .iso file and not actual media.

I’ll keep you posted.

Posted in Linux | 1 Comment »

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 »