Tech

I got a laptop from work to use. A very pretty Sony Vaio VGN-FW45GJ, I decided to dual boot. I installed Windows7 and Ubuntu 11.10.

Installing Windows7 was a HUGE mistake, but it did allow me to discover what an absolute scam the Windows ecosystem is. And to make matters worse, I decided to write this post from my Windows7 boot while installing a load of Windows updates. In writing these short sentences, I have been interrupted by FOUR popups, one to reminde me to install IE9, one to inform me that some of the updates did not install and two from the two Driver Downloaders that I tried to get Windows working on this machine.

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Custom Bash Prompt

As a sysadmin I spend a lot of time logged into other servers via SSH session. Often I have to log into systems I am not familiar with, and it is very easy to forget which one of the seven terminals that you are working in is actually logged into a remote machine.

I am certain I am not the only one that have accidentally shutdown a server while logged into it. Newby mistake, and never repeated due to this trick I learned.

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I haven’t blogged in a while, mainly because work has been busy and I have been administering new servers for a project going live soon.

Those servers have led to this quick blog entry, if you enjoy a good rant, read on.

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And here we have yet another reason to stay the heck off the open WiFi at airports and other hotspots.

Being curious I decided to see what gets broadcast over the air when I send WhatsApp messages to my friends. I connected my phone to my WiFi and messaged a friend. What I found was very interesting…

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The mobile device revolution is in full swing. From Smartphones and Superphones that changed the mobile device game to Tablets that are threatening to effectively put Netbooks out of business save for a few niche applications, our mobile world is changing. This is having an impact on less than mobile computing – your large Laptops and also your venerable Desktop Computer.

Are we moving toward the death of the computer and laptop as we know it today?
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…without the hardware?

MacOS is awesome, kinda, and I find the hardware that it is generally installed upon to be very good. This article started as a full blown review, but somewhere along the line it morphed into this thought experiment. Let’s see where this goes, shall we?

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At my (paying) job, we largely sell Microsoft products. Windows 7, office – that kind of thing. We also sell and support other proprietary software.

We have very few enterprise level clients, most of our clients are smaller businesses or home users. Once in a while we do get a request of more expensive Microsoft products like – as was the case today – Microsoft Server 2008, or sometimes MS Exchange, MS CRM and so on. Accounting software or other niche software packages often make out part of the deal.

I think the Microsoft Licensing model, and other proprietary licenses, is a rip off, and here is why… continue reading…

I am in search of the perfect LDE4 distro, and this is going to be a looong series. I am going through various distros, and have not found a perfect one yet.

Recently, with my review of Linux Mint KDE two of the commenters pointed out that my scoring for Mint’s WiFi did not make sense.

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Lubuntu, the flavor of Ubuntu sporting the LXDE desktop environment. It is one of the newer kids on the block, and in some areas it shows. It does have the power of Ubuntu and its community behind it, and hence was our first selected distro for the Seven Day Lightweight Distro Challenge.

What do I think of it? continue reading…

Fourth Installment in this series, and today I bring you some thoughts on Linux Mint 9 KDE4.

I have spent more than a week with it, and I am very impressed. This weekend I will switch to my third candidate.

For more on that and other stuff, read on… continue reading…