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February 21, 2005
Only do what Only You can do.
Interesting Post from Robert Scoble about trying not to overextend yourself.
Posted by aland at 6:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Wile E. Coyote's blog
Found on Teal Sunglasses (http://www.plaidworks.com/chuqui/blog/001888.html)
Posted by aland at 6:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
What I Want (mostly 'plan to buy')
A list, much shorter than the last two, of stuff I plan on getting eventually.
* Mac Mini. Probably once MacOS X Tiger (1.4) comes out.
* Athlon 64. Just because. No rush, I might wait for the next great thing. Ideally in a shuttle case with a handle. :-)
* New laptop PC. Probably not until my Toshiba bites the dust... And I might skip it until I have an -actual- need for a laptop PC, since I have plenty of desktops I can use remotely.
* Hybrid Honda CR/V or equivalent. Probably not until 2006 or '07, since I'm not driving much while I'm working in Boston.
* New Cell phone. Hopefully getting one (soonish) from work. I want a cameraphone, ideally with bluetooth. But as long as I stick with Verizon, who cripples Bluetooth capabilities, it's not likely. I want it to be able to surf & check email, etc. from my laptop on the train... *grin*
* Transporter technology. *grin* I -really- want this, to be able to commute to work (anywhere) without leaving the house, to visit friends without a 3 hour drive, 3-6 hour plane flight (plus airport delays), etc. If only. :-)
Tons of other things, little or big, that I can't think of at this point. :-)
Posted by aland at 3:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Software I use
I think I made a post like this once before, but it's been a while. Here's a list of the Windows, Mac & Linux software that I use the most / regularly.
Software I use [the most]:
* Mozilla Thunderbird email client. I install this on all my machines, Mac Linux or Windows. I used to use Eudora but Thunderbird has much better IMAP support. I miss Eudora; it did some things much faster than Thunderbird. I think if TBird would automatically open multiple message windows, and they then worked the way I think they should, I'd like it a little better. :-)
* Mozilla Firdbird web browser. 'nuff said. On Windows, I toss in "Tabbrowser Extensions" so when I open a URL from email or my desktop, it opens in a new tab.
* Safari Web Browser. Mac-only. Works great, and syncs bookmarks with .Mac. I wish I could sync more (bookmarks, address books, spam score DB) across my machines.
* Adium. Mac AIM client. It also does stuff like Yahoo, but I've never bothered.
* AOL Instant Messenger. Windows AIM client. Does file transfers, etc. and I just like it / am more used to it than Trillian or Gaim. Though I keep meaning to try Trillian again.
* SecureCRT. Windows SSH client / Terminal emulator. Awesome software. I've bought it a few times. :-) Though I have not yet upgraded past 3.4.8 for no real reason. MacOS X has this built in.
* Various software to download TV shows I didn't PVR myself. mlDonkey, BitTorrent, etc. Usually I grab the shows myself and watch them on the train to/from work. But sometimes I forget or there are multiple things on at the same time. Now that I have TiVoToGo I might use this less...
* MPlayer & VLC. Great software for watching video files; both of them work on all 3 platforms.
* MovableType. Hosts this blog; I use it pretty frequently.
* Mutt. Unix text-based email client. I use it all the time, primarily on Linux, but I also have it on my mac.
* Eudora. I occasionally still use it for downloading email to read offline. I like that it syncs well to delete messages I want deleted from the server. I also like that I could set up a 'filter' that would run manually - I use that to move a message to the trash and mark it to be deleted from server when I next sync.
* Java, Tomcat, Apache, Perl, PHP, Postgresql. The fundamentals of my web apps.
* JBuilder 8 for Windows. The upgrade for 9 fell through and I never picked up X. I really want JBuilder for OSX, but can't justify the price.
* WebSphere Studio Application Developer 5.12. Windows, at work.
* MS Office (various versions at various places). I own older versions for Mac and PC, at work I use newer versions. Outlook, Word & Excel I use all the time, PowerPoint I don't use as much.
* MS Visio. I own a newer version at home, but I only use it at work; I think it's 2000.
* MacOS X 1.3 (currently .8).
* Windows XP Pro (SP 1 and SP 2). Haven't upgraded to SP2 at work because we're afraid it'll break home-grown apps that we need.
* QuickSilver - Mac app to handle keyboard-based "find & launch". Hitting command-space brings up a box where I can start typing the name of something, and it'll bring up the right thing or a list of things for me to select from. My fingers never leave the keyboard.
* Cygwin. Unix toolkit for Windows. Primarily ssh, scp, ls, find, bash, grep. But lots of other stuff.
* XEmacs, Emacs, Vi. I use each of them on all platforms.
* BBEdit. Mac-based text editor. If I'm not in a command window.
* Terminal. Mac terminal; provides an 'xterm'-class emulator.
* tcsh, bash. Command shells for Unix platforms.
* Konfabulator. Available for windows also, but I only bought / use it for Mac. Provides a framework for desktop-level 'widgets' (weather, news ticker, etc.) written in Javascript. Incredibly cool and marginally useful (for me). :-) Useful enough that I bought it just to have the forecast and a few other toys on my desktop.
* VNCViewer. Various flavors; on Windows I use RealVNC on Mac I use VNCThing. Allows me to remotely view and control computers. I'd prefer if it had encryption built into the network protocol but otherwise it's a lifesaver.
* iTunes. Mac and Windows music library & player, iPod Syncing, and of course music store. I have about 80 songs from the iTunes Music Store, most of which were free. :-)
* Quicken. I use 2003 on the Mac. Haven't been as good at keeping up with it as I should be...
* Nero. Windows-platform CD/DVD burning software. Good to archive videos to free up disk space.
* Toast. Mac-platform CD/DVD burning software. etc.
* Games - Bejeweled, Tetris, Collapse, & Freecell are the games I play the most. Other than Bejeweled, I don't play any of them that often... And Bejeweled (2) I play on the Palm; I haven't bought it for Windows and it isn't out yet for Mac.
* RSS2Email - Python-based app by Aaron Swartz; I run it on a linux box (or my mac) to search my RSS feeds for new articles and email them to me.
I think that's it for software I use regularly... Long list. Good thing I have today off. :-)
Posted by aland at 3:17 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Computer Inventory
Just for the heck of it, here's a list of the computers I have at home, how/whether I use them, etc.
Machines I use
1) Mac Laptop - Aluminum Powerbook 15" 1.25ghz with superdrive. 768mb ram. This is my primary machine most of the time; I usually bring it back and forth on the train to work, etc. I watch TV shows and movies on it, sync my iPod, etc.
2) PC Laptop - Toshiba Satellite 5105-S901. Picked up around Thanksgiving, 2002 from CompUSA. Also bought their 3-year warranty, which means I should start thinking about replacing it in the next 6-8 months. I use it mainly when I have my Mac laptop plugged in upstairs (I keep it in the living room).
3) Server - Dual celeron. I use this to back up my machines at home and on the internet, primarily. It also stores the CDs I've ripped and some applications I've written.
4) Mac Desktop - Dual G4 1.25. I don't use it nearly enough as I want to, but I use it to sync my palm and for Quicken. I also use it to test software updates before installing them on my laptop. *grin*
5) PC Shuttle - Athlon XP 2800+, 1gb ram. I use it for writing software and random Windows stuff. I have a PVR card in it, and a VCR hooked up. I occasionally use it to digitize stuff that I had tapes for (before the PVR cards).
6) PVR - I picked up a $300 Compaq celeron 2.5 and put 768mb into it. It doesn't run as fast as it should, probably because it uses system memory for video. I keep meaning to slap a video card into it and see if it gets faster. Maybe I'll do that today. I record TV shows on this machine using BeyondTV from www.snapstream.com and except for a few minor things, I like the software a lot. I may do another post on the software I use; if I do I'll cover that one.
Machines I don't usually use
7) Dell Dual P3-733 or something like that, with 512mb ram. I haven't turned that one on in at least 6-10 months. It is - theoretically - my SQL Server machine, for when I'm doing work-related programming. But since I don't have any work-related databases at home, I haven't bothered turning it on in months. I should probably get rid of it at some point; maybe give it to my dad the next time his company needs another server.
8) Bare-bones athlon that I use to test parts. Also haven't turned it on in months. The last time was to try and diagnose/repair a dead hard drive from my dad. I've used it to burn in RAM, as a file server temporarily while increasing the drive space in the backup server, and for other short-term needs.
9) Mac Titanium Powerbook 15". I stopped using this one because the battery latch broke, so it didn't do me much good... so I bought the Albook. It makes a perfectly reasonable 'desktop' machine, so I might hook it up in the bedroom and use it for email and web surfing, and leave the Albook downstairs. if anyone is looking for a portable Mac with built-in screen (*grin*), let me know. I'd part with it for about $800 :-) 768mb ram, dvd reader, 30 or 40gb drive. Perfect working order, except for the battery latch, and has a CompUSA extended warranty through (I think) June '06. Which doesn't cover plastics. Sigh.
10) Mac Powerbook G3 "Wall Street" I think. It's the one before the clear key-caps. It's mostly defective. I retired it when I got the TiBook, and shortly thereafter it just stopped working. Funny how that happens... If someone wants it for parts or for amusement purposes, let me know... I'd sell it cheap. I also have a 100mb Iomega Zip drive (internal module), two batteries (I think), floppy & cd (reader), all fit into the side bays. I doubt it has much memory but I don't remember.
11) Gateway laptop, P120 or something with 24mb ram, passive matrix screen. Anyone? Anyone? Might have disk drive problems, I honestly don't remember. I have absolutely no use for it. It's in a drawer waiting for me to either install linux on it or just throw it away. :-)
12) Athlon bare-bones with a neat aluminum case. I rebuilt it and tested it (XP 2400+ I think) but haven't put in drives or an OS. Just don't need it right now... It's my excuse for not buying a new computer.
13) Dual Athlon MP 2400+ processors, 1.25GB of registered, ECC parity RAM from Crucial, and a nice server/tower case for it all. But the motherboard I was using (Tyan Tiger 2460) blew itself up and I haven't replaced it yet. Such a waste of expensive RAM and processors, but the dual MP motherboards are still too expensive. And at this point in the adoption cycle I doubt they're going to get cheaper... But I just don't need it.
14) SGI Indy. I think it has 128mb but it could be less, may or may not have a hard drive. Requires SCSI. I planned on installing Linux onto it at some point. Rescued from a dumpster.
15) HP 9000 705 or something - not sure of the exact specs but it's vintage 1992 or so. I'm sure it has like 32mb ram or something, it does have a hard drive but the drive has a partial install of HP-UX 9.02 or something old like that. Again, the theory was to install linux "at some point". Rescued from a dumpster.
16) Various much older machines - a Mac Quadra 840av, a 486 DX4/100, and some other random stuff.
Amy also has a few computers, but it's a much shorter list. :-) She has a 386 in the parts closet that can be used as a boat anchor if we ever get a boat, a Gateway P2-400 or something with 128mb and a 19" monitor at 1024x768 running NT4, an old laptop (AMD K6) that's somewhere, and a Sony Vaio P4-2.something GHz with dvd-burner that she picked up about a year or so ago at MicroCenter.
Posted by aland at 2:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Idea for Fedora / Red Hat end-user Boxed Product
I was just reading a Slashdot article about Fedora http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/02/21/021218&from=rss, and had a (fairly obvious?) idea about how Red Hat could "solve" the problem that 'shrinkwrapped boxes contain very old versions'...
A comment said "When you compound this with the versions in stores often being very old (and creating bad impressions of where Linux stands today...)..." -- I think I have an obvious (To me) solution for this problem:
In the box should be the "latest possible" distribution. But also in the box should be a WINDOWS application that would allow the user to -easily- download a Torrent for the latest release, or for a "patch" CD that would update "diffs" from the in-box version (whatever that might be) to "current".
Add to that the Red Hat Network taskbar flasher when updates were available, and a seamless update process, and (as others in the Slashdot article pointed out) a better way of "live update" from (for example) Fedora Core 3 to whatever's next, and you have yourself a product.
I mantain 3 servers remotely, and one that I have physical access to but can't easily hook up to KVM. Two are running Mandrake (9.2 and 10.0) (because I've been lead to believe that Mandrake will allow me to pull updates more easily than Red Hat) and one is running Red Hat 6.1 (embarassingly enough) because until about a month ago it was hidden away from the Internet behind a modem. It's still hidden away from the internet, but I would LIKE to make it visible, once I update it to -something- more modern; Mandrake 10.0, 10.1 or perhaps Fedora FC3. I don't know what yet (any ideas, let me know). I could do Debian except I never have and it's not a great environment for me to experiment with...
Anyway. Basic gist of it is that I think a GREAT boxed linux release could be created:
1) CDs with a reasonably current distribution,
2) a (windows?) app that will download an ISO of updates (and ideally burn it to disk),
3) an installer that will ask for the updates cd, and
4) a "fully incremental" update process.
Who could ask for anything more?
Posted by aland at 1:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 13, 2005
Caller ID Programs
http://www.sunflowerhead.com/software/yac/ seems to be a neat PC app to do a caller ID broadcast.
I found it on Macintouch today; http://www.afterten.com/products/cidtracker/ has a Mac client that will listen for the broadcast on your local network.
I hope to play with it some time; some combination of the modem, cable, and serial port on my server broke back in December, keeping my old project from working anymore...
Posted by aland at 3:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Remote Scripting - Update web page w/out server round trip
I've been trying to get this working smoothly since 1996 or so for a "replace the mainframe interface" web app I wrote way back then, as a prototype to learn more about Web-enabling Databases.
Posted by aland at 2:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack