Category: Technology

School and the House of Horror

October 25th, 2007 · · Illinois, Jaycees, Mount Vernon, School, Technology 2 comments - Tags: ,

School is still going well. Comm 1101 is fine I think. OS and CSCI 1101 are A’s I’m pretty sure. I did manage to get my first C in Networking today though. Overall, it shouldn’t affect my grade for the class, but it is a bit unnerving. Once I’ve done some hands-on with the routers I think I’ll have the commands down. Right now it’s all theory. I can learn theory, but practical application is better.

The HoH 2007 is going great. We made our budget back by our fifth night (last Saturday), and it’s clear-sailing from here on out. Hopefully the rain and temperatures will keep cooperating like they have the first two weekends. Volunteers all seem to have something going on this weekend, but we should have enough people to carry on.

Win is not the only OS out there

October 22nd, 2007 · · School, Technology 2 comments - Tags: ,

For some reason, in my classes at college, it seems like Linux (or Mac for that matter) are completely neglected. I have yet to hear anything other than a slight mention of these “alternative” OSs.

I would think that college would encourage the exploration of alternatives and the expanding of one’s mind beyond a single, proprietary, and locked-down operating system.

Linux allows freedom to change, modify, and redistribute. Windows makes you learn the Redmond Way. Wouldn’t it be great to have students writing code and creating things out of the box? Who knows what they could create.

Loads of the Internet runs on Linux servers. Linux is free to use on anything, but specifically business servers. Shouldn’t tomorrow’s SysAdmins be familiar with a more cost-effective way to manage their companies’ information?

I know I’m using Linux 100% (Kubuntu, Linux Mint), but I feel left out since I haven’t used Win systems regularly in 2 years. Also, how relevant for modern users is a knowledge of DOS? The very basics, sure. The whole command structure? Not so much.

I hope this doesn’t come off as preach-y. Just looking for a more balanced approach for every OS instead of MS-sponsored indoctrination.

Spam, forwards, e-chain mail, etc.

October 21st, 2007 · · Technology 2 comments - Tags: , , , ,

Whatever you want to call it, we all have that friend or friends that keep sending us crap email.

It’s always something like “Bill Gates will send you $20” or look at these cute pictures. I’m sorry, but I don’t care, and/or it’s bullshit. If anyone has any doubt whether a chain-email is legit, go to Snopes.com. They are very good about keeping their pages up to date on the latest urban legends and such.

Yes, I admit that I like the dumb kitty pictures every once in awhile and sometimes there is a new joke/photo that is entertaining. Unfortunately, I generally see the same crap 5 times in a month from people who forward this junk. Once is cute, two is “I’ve already seen this…”, and any more than that is annoying as heck.

If you want to send me an email, actually write something. Even if it is just “Hi” or something. I love email more than talking on the phone. It is cleaner and I can reply when/if I have time.

When I get this junk it gets deleted immediately. You might have written the secret to immortality at the top of that email, but when I see “Fw:Re:Fw:Fw:” in the Subject line, it goes straight to the trash. I’m not an important, busy person, but I am busy enough that this stuff is a waste for me to check and see if I’ve heard this joke.

On a final note, these emails are very good at spreading viruses. Aunt Susie who sent you that “new” cute puppy photo could be infected and passing that infection to your PC. Photos can have viruses attached to them like any other file and you wouldn’t even notice.

The article that prompted me to write this little tirade is located here.

RLC Wi-Fi

September 9th, 2007 · · Illinois, School, Technology No comments - Tags:

Rend Lake College now has a wireless network on campus. I don’t know the details, but MVN.net is involved and providing the actual connection.

It’s nice to see the campus finally has wireless considering it is so easy to setup, and cheap. $60/each for routers, connection cost from the ISP, and minimal electricity.

From what I understand, there have been some discussions on the legal side of things as to what the school and/or MVN.net are responsible for in the event of illegal activities. I would think that by merely providing the connection that neither would be culpable. It’s not their fault if someone does something bad with the route. It would be like if the US government were sued because drug runners transport drugs using the interstate.

The network is in need of tuning and adjustment, however it is there and working in a limited capacity. Nice to have some forward progress.

Kubuntu is my only OS, and I’m sort of fine with that

August 28th, 2007 · · Technology No comments - Tags: , ,

Almost a year ago, I was still dual-booting WinXP and Kubuntu. I wrote a post about how I didn’t have to switch back to Win except on rare occasion. I am happy to say that for probably 8 months or so I have not had Win on my machine. Websites display properly, email is great, Flash works, codecs are easily available, and I can say that keeping a separate /home partition makes upgrading or re-installing extremely simple.

To break all that down, I have no reason to use Win. Well, I didn’t have a reason until I enrolled in school. 99.9% of my coursework is done on Win machines at college. Don’t get me wrong, it is a decent operating system with a wide array of options for its use. The main point that saddens me is how an institution of higher learning can so blindly promote the Win monopoly. Yes, they are the most widely used OS, but at least touch on *nix a little bit.

Back to my point, over at least the past 8 months I have lived a Win-free life. Even Em and the kids are using Linux. The kids mostly play on PBS.org or watch America’s Funniest Home Videos. Em mostly uses the net and reads email. Very little has come up that the OS could not accomplish. Heck, I can’t think of anything it hasn’t done that I’ve needed. The only issues I have had are from adding eye-candy (pretty desktop effects) that are still not ready for production use. Those problems were my own fault, not Linux’s issue.

With those issues, it was very nice to have a /home partition that kept all of my settings, files, etc. separate from the operating system. On Win you would have to track down where all of your files are stored and hope you got them backed up on CD, DVD, external HDD, etc. With Linux all of those things are saved to your own personal directory called /home. When you re-install for whatever reason (upgrade, meltdown, etc.) you just mark that partition as /home during setup, don’t format it, and your settings are sitting there waiting when you boot. This has been a real life-saver for me.

For the life of me, I don’t understand why users go pay $500 minimum to go get a new PC with Vista or XP when they could just load Linux for free and keep money in their pocket. I guess it could be fear of a new environment, lack of knowledge, or some other odd reason.

I hope it gets figured out and a solution provided. As for me, I’ll put Win on a portable HDD as required for class and keep using my 2 Kubuntu computers with free upgrades while everyone else keeps paying M$ so that they will keep putting out barely-improved operating systems.