Off-Topic : My life in a whole..

Posted on July 2, 2009 by SX

Well I guess I’ll add this part, even though it’s a bit off topic.

My name is SX here, but there’s many more names behind the true SX. I “Work” for a small website based on radio controlled hobbies. I know a bit about everything, a jack of all trades, but a master of only a few. I build systems for people I know, like the “NetBox” which I built for my brother a month or so ago. It’s a good machine.

However, there’s a much deeper side of me which I’m going to reveal in the next few paragraphs.

I’ve lived a hard life, rising from nothing in the middle of nowhere. I’ve never had true “broadband” internet. I’ve never had the “cool kids” stuff until I forced myself to have it. My biggest problem is the fact that I just don’t have the ability to get it through my head that there’s more to the world then a minimum pay rate and a dead end job. I’m currently a student in the CCNA Network Administration program with DeVry university, so I’m on the right track! Where will I go from there? Time will tell in the coming years, but for now I’m stuck in this decrepit hole where technology hasn’t even though of visiting. I’m stuck, nowhere to turn. Unemployed due to a layoff which has basically killed the place where I worked at. Jobs are… more than hard to find….

I guess the last month has daeded me into believe myself that I’m more or less a.. slacker? A drain on the economy? A waste? Is it my fault? Maybe, maybe not.. I don’t know what to believe anymore.. It’s horrifying to realize that I haven’t stopped working since I was 16 for more than two weeks… and now I’m at a month of dreadful laziness.. Help me… I’ve dug my own hole of personal misery and don’t know where to go anymore.

I guess this post is more or less a lax. A way to decide my own fate and release the tension on it. The subject is touchy. If you’ve read this, feel free to comment. I’m not depressed about it, just have a mindset that isn’t good for me unless I purge once in a while.. And I’ll tell you what, “sudo apt-get purge current-user-mindset” doesn’t work at all.. Keeps telling me it can’t find the package…

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Loved winamp or bmp? Can’t find anything like it? I have!

Posted on July 2, 2009 by SX

There’s one word that has become part of my daily Ubuntu life. That’s “Audacious”. While my main point is to waste my life away at the computer to find new things to play with and post about, I play music. My desktop literally plays it’s 2000+ music files all day, every day whenever it is running. If it’s in Vista, Media Player 64-bit is running through the list and playing files for my listening pleasure (however, that’s rare).. This only began after the AOL buyout of Winamp.com and the subsidiaries that made Winamp possible. After that buy, winamp began to be… intensive and heavy for system resources. Also, the lack of a 64 bit version made me gasp as the 64-bit players handle so much better against intense processor usage, like when taring (zipping) an iso file to MAX compression. 32-bit apps almost always skip and choke no matter how fast of a processor.

So, I was stuck with the standard Rythmebox of Ubuntu 9.04 and didn’t know what to do. I can’t say I hated it, but I couldn’t say I “liked” it at all. I searched and found a couple of different players, nothing that “induced” that love I had for messing with playlists and playing music all day. Nothing fulfilled my needs like bmp did back in the Gutsy Gibbon era(7.10). BMP was as close to winamp in an original sense as it got.

Enter Audacious. While it’s not “perfect” as a replica of Winamp from the version 2.5 era, it’s close. It’s almost identical to the original Winamp 2 series and even can use those OLD skins you had, plus new ones from today!

It handles really well and works with all of my codecs! I’m glad to have it at my side. It’s very lightweight and plays without problems on my desktop with two large ISO’s being extracted from tar.gz’s! Wonderful! Perfect, and it fits way to well. I will recommend this to anyone who remembers how well Winamp 2.51 performed on those old Windows 98 machines while playing games like Diablo 2 with not enough ram to even think about multi-tasking. It really brings back these memories and was easy to install with Ubuntu. If you have any issues with your music player like I did, search up for Audacious.

For the Ubuntu line of OS’s you can simply use an apt-get install audacious command in your terminal! Best part of all. You can run audacious at the command line too!

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KDE – My first thoughts with Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty…

Posted on July 1, 2009 by SX

Well I took the 6 hour express way to the download of the KDE desktop environment for Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope x64. Downloading from the repositories took almost 6.5 hours at 5-10kb/s. While waiting I did a little research and found that it would probably be pretty neat for my liking.

Well the install went flawlessly. It took a while and my terminal was pretty tired of outputing the information. I setup gnome as my default DE for now. I made a new account just for the use of KDE.

So far, my findings. I’ll list what I’ve found impressive, then the bad news on the backend.

Plasma… There’s just no explaining this. The desktop is absolutely unreal. Widget based, small windows with almost a limitless supply of information.. RSS feeds, Clocks, system monitors, and more! Pretty easy to use, and best of all you can lock them down.

However, using plasma, there’s a bit of a difference between the normal desktop environment like GDM(Gnome) or WDM(Windows Vista). There is no desktop folder that shows the icons directly to the “desktop” persay off the bat. It is changable though, either way by default there is a widget that allows you to browse the entire file system from a window! Pretty good idea if you like a clean shop as I do. I feel unclean with more than 3 icons on my desktop, so this is a good thing for me.

Control.. Absolutely beautiful set of controls. This is a BIG thing for KDE. The ability to control the environment and the “special” effects is unmatched in KDE. It’s an easy world there!

Ease… Oh how easy it is. The menu at first is confusing going from Gnome to KDE in a whole. The desktop is changed and the menu is streamlined for finishing touches for someone who has a LOT of menu options. I’ll stick to the simplistic gnome menu, but KDE would be much more user friendly in the long run I believe. Specially with the search bar added into the menu for direct searching for applications.

Now, there’s the good side. An absolutely eye tingling experience awaits the Kubuntu user with the KDE environment. However, there’s still downsides with KDE.

Stability.. On my first boot of KDE, “krunner” crashed with a fatal error. It quickly recovered and I was set. If you work to fast for it, like double clicking icons that a single click will open, it’ll crash. It recovers fine with no side effects, yet having to look at the red X of doom and a “Fatal Error” message every time you want to quick click. I’m a power user and my mouse is like lightning, so this is bad for me. However, slowing myself down and stopping the speed of my mousing has kept it from crashing at all.

Plasma can be irritating if you aren’t completely literate with a computer. Locking the widgets down isn’t the hardest thing to do, but it even took me a few minutes to figure out. Customization on the widgets isn’t as good as I’d like, but they work well.

The worst problem I see with a Gnome user switching to KDE is the panels. Gnome panels are awesome for the fact that they can be mutated to almost anything you want to use them for. KDE’s panels lack customization ability if you ask me. And the process is much more painful to mutate them and even to move them around! The effects are nice, but if I can’t manage them the way I want, what’s the point in having more then one? I don’t want one on top and it takes me more than 50 mouse clicks to move it? That’s a definite downside to me.

The final verdict?

KDE is more advanced in MANY ways compared to Gnome. It’s more visually perfect and looks great. Stability is questionable however, especially with krunner failures. There may be an easy fix, but compared to two years ago, it’s still not stable enough for what I’d call daily use.

KDE definitely has an advantage, but an extra 100mb or so of ram overhead. Plus it uses a bit more on the processor to run at an “idle”. However, with the visuals and more “windows like” appearance, KDE could definitely be the choice of many in the future. For now, I’ll stick to Gnome as my default desktop environment as its purpose is well fit into my daily Ubuntu and I don’t think I’d change that for anything. KDE will from now on remain installed in my desktop distro’s for “play time” though. It’s definitely showing of a better feel and better environment, it just needs to be stable like Gnome before it will take a home as my “everyday” environment.

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Intro to Conky…

Posted on July 1, 2009 by SX

So, I’m guessing here, but you’re probably a newer user of Linux? Well even some of the most die hard users of linux know little of this special program called Conky. Conky, in a whole is simply just an application that shows the status of certain things on your machine. However, Conky can be configured to almost a limitless potential. Over the past four weeks I’ve been tinkering with conky more then a small child plays with their rattle. Why? Simply put, it’s addicting.

Conky – “Conky is a system monitor for X originally based on torsmo. Since its inception, Conky has changed significantly from its predecessor, while maintaining simplicity and configurability. Conky can display just about anything, either on your root desktop or in its own window. Not only does Conky have many built-in objects, it can also display just about any piece of information by using scripts and other external programs. ” (Taken from: http://conky.sourceforge.net/docs.html, July 1, 2009)

Conky is a multipurpose tool. Just for an idea of how advanced you can make it, here’s what all system information I can VERY quickly see on my desktop.

System:
Kernel
System Updates
Processor Speed
Processor Temp
Video Card Speeds (ram/gpu)
GPU Temp
Processor usage
Uptime
Average System load
CPU load in a moving graph!

Memory:
My used amounts of ram in MB of the available GB
Used Swap Space

Storage:
Both of the HDD’s that support hddtemp temperatures and those temperatures of them.
I have the ability to see up to 3 plugged in external drives with used and total size and a bar to show it along with my root, /home and my other internal drives sizes and usage.

Network:
I can see exactly how fast I’m sending/receiving data through the network, along with a pair of graphs to show it visually.
The total downloaded and uploaded for the current uptime. More can be done with vnstat!

I also have a full display of weather including todays current conditions and windspeeds along with a graphical 4 day conditions with precipitation perfects and high and low temps! Not to mention the current stats for the following..

Chance of rain
UV Index
Humidity
Dew Point
Barometer
Sunrise/Sunset times
And the current Moon Phase.

All of this from the VERY lightweight and simple “conky” application. If you’re using linux and haven’t tried this, it’s definitely worth looking into! You won’t be disappointed by it’s abilities!

Side Note: Some distro’s come with conky either installed or in their repositories. However, the current version is now available and it is 1.7.1.1 as of July 1, 2009. :)

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Witherstorm proves it’s blight….

Posted on July 1, 2009 by SX

So, for the last twenty four hours or so I’ve been fighting with Windows Vista x64 and getting next to nowhere.. Here’s what started the problem..

Vista loaded up with an error that stated Windows Defender couldn’t be started : 0x800106ba…

After quite a few seemingly endless hours with google and searching for a fix, nothing came up for the 0x800106ba error that I had. Some say to simply reset the services mode from Automatic start to Manual and then back. This simply refreshes the starting prompt on the service, nothing for me. Some places have said, “Uninstall and Reinstall!!” They need to get “brains” because you can’t remove Defender from Vista’s backend. You have to disable it and that’s all you can do. Some say to load up the mysterious “msconfig” and uncheck windows defender in the startup list. Some even get extravagant and say to hide all of the MS sources on the previous tab to make you think that you’re doing something important. All that you’re doing by unchecking Windows Defender is totally disabling it from the Vista startup process.

Well my problem obviously flows deeper. After some hard searching on my system, come to find out something much worse is at play. My entire environmental path variable is SHOT. Now there’s no ability to fix this within vista without some skill and a good google. Under my problem, even the system properties applet for control panel fails. So obviously it’s not registering with “c:\windows\system32″ at all.

Anyways, come to find there’s no easy way to fix the problem. So, here’s my options.

Format – Reinstall… Go figure
Let it ride.. Prolly going to…
Wait for Win7 (Most definitely)

So if this happens to any of you, remember, 4 hours of searching does help. I just don’t feel like messing with windows for that long.

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So, are you ready for Linux?

Posted on June 30, 2009 by SX

I think I’ve downloaded enough distro’s to give a complete opinion for you guys and gals who may or may not be ready for the switch to linux.

Picking a distro can be difficult… While some are easy, a lot of distro’s are different and have a very different learning curve. If you aren’t sure about a distro, let us know and we’ll toss some information your way about them.

Now for three distro’s I think are.. beyond the scope of reality now in ease of use compared to the rest. I’ll list them here so you can get a good idea of what I’m talking about.

From easiest to .. easier? LoL

MintOS.. While I may get shunted for this at some places.. I’ve got to admit this was the EASIEST Linux distro I’ve ever used. It’s one of the few that actually have kept a place longer then a week in my Virtual Box setup. Let me go into a little detail here.

MintOS is an “off chute” of Ubuntu if you will. It’s so much like Ubuntu that it actually uses the Ubuntu repositories (places that hold updates and thousands of applications and modifications for the OS). It also has a few of the MintOS repos on it as well that hold some applications that aren’t normally in Ubuntu. There is a LOT more customization options already installed and it’s pretty much a shinier version of Ubuntu in a whole. While personally, this isn’t my thing, it’s what a LOT of people want. It’s easy to use and works very well (see the Ubuntu portion). The install was even easier then Ubuntu and the process took 10 minutes on my Virtual Box. MintOS should have all the same hardware requirments and abilities as Ubuntu does.

Ubuntu.. The premium if you will. Solid and ready, Ubuntu is already being sold with Dell computers, which says a LOT for the computer world. Dell has one of the most stringent policies for thier computers and if they are installing Ubuntu onto thier machines, you can rest assured that it’s a good OS. Ubuntu is a free OS, like almost every Linux distro, but it’s updated constantly. Usually more then Windows Vista is now. There are rolling updates and new versions released every six months. Quite impressive for a free OS. Also, Ubuntu remains one of the easiest and user friendly Distro’s around. Ubuntu also has a rolling HCL (Hardware Compatibility List) that is updated constantly. Even a lot of the hardware not in this list works but the hardware in thier list has been tried and proven to work. Ubuntu is the #1 choice for new users, and this is where MintOS has copied the tried and true and reformed it for the “graphic loving” crowd.

Mandriva… This one is hard to explain, but once you dig in, it’s wonderful! Not quite as capable as Ubuntu with hardware and applications, however still one of the most impressive distro’s out there. The manuals are easy to the eyes and to the new users that haven’t been there before. Also, the install was QUICK and PAINLESS! I was suprised at how easy it was to get to a running operating system. Mandriva definitely has something to prove and they are definitely on the right track. I will be downloading the newest version for myself and having a good chunk of hard drive space dedicated to it. If I wasn’t so happy with Ubuntu, I’d probably switch to mandriva totally.

The thing one must remember with Linux is that it’s free (for the most part). People like me and you who don’t have a multi-billion dollar research staff code this stuff. The community is the champion here so thank the guys that help design these operating systems. If it wasn’t for the guys from Ubuntu doing such a great job I wouldn’t have an operating system on my laptop at all.

One last thing to remember, which is basically the same with windows unless you like hanging on hold for hours at a time. Google is the BEST tech support you can find for any operating system. If you’re running into a problem, chances are that someone else has already been there and posted about it. Ubuntu and Mandriva both have very nice support forums, and the MintOS can pretty much be troubleshooted with the Ubuntu forums since it’s basically the same OS.

If you have any questions about Linux, we’d be more then happy to try and help you out. Just leave a comment!

SX

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Where’s the cream?

Posted on June 30, 2009 by SX

The “hizzy”.. branded the best of the best and the cream of the crop to these words our desire is always unmatched. To hold what is coveted by all else, but owned by you. Where’s the cream?

In my life I’ve watched computers run from IBM Dos to Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit edition.. The ATI Rage Fury Pro Rage Fury Version 8.010203 Pro AGP X models and nVidia Geforce Titanium 48585839323r000 model. I know this doesn’t make much for sense to someone who hasn’t been down the long road I have, but there’s a point here.

Where’s the cream? What’s the cream then? The best of the best, the most elite of the elite? Is it that quad core system cooled by water and running at 4.5Ghz? Is it that 16GB of ram you just can’t stop drooling over? That 24x256GB Samsung SSD setup in raid that just makes you drool?

No, it’s not that.. it’s what you hold to you. I don’t have it all, nor do I want it. So what if some idiot can own a quad core extreme system that had costed over $5000 to build. I go with what I like, and that’s where the real “cream” is. My laptop, it’s the hizzy. It’s over a year old and I like it because it’s perfect for me. The $3000 Alienware may be nice, but it isn’t what I really want.. It’s not my “cream” persay.

It’s time we all stop looking at each other and having jealousy over that which is an item of personal ownership. We need to focus on what is important in life and how we can better ourselves and others for the benefit of everyone. This is just a post of free will, which others take for granted every day. Stop sobbing and start helping. Sharing the knowledge is better then knowing everything in the world.

SX

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Piracy in the workplace.

Posted on June 29, 2009 by Dustin

From the title you know this is going to be a sensitive issue. I’ll try go easy on it.

Recently i was put into a situation where the company I work for hired a new person. This said person needed special software in order to do to his/her job. The owner of the company politely sent the IT department to get “creative” in getting the software. Well being that i and my fellow IT co-workers both have some moral/ethic sense we sent him back a price for this said software. We had no intention’s of getting this software in any other means then the right way. Eventually we were able to talk the owner of the company out of the creative part, by outlining the consequences of the law, and former cases by the BSA. It seemed then that the couple of thousand for the license sounded better then the hundred thousand if ever caught by an audit. Looking out for the company’s interest is as much the owners responability as it is ours.

What are your thoughts on piracy in the work place? As an IT person I understand the urge to test new software, and sometimes to test that software you might have to download it from a shady site, especially if it is something with a short trial. I know myself that 15 or 30 days is not always long enough to test the software out when you got a live environment to worry about along with other projects on your shoulder. Me personally any software i have tested and liked, I have bought, or recommended a company to buy. Anything i did not like i removed from my computer, and forgot about it. Copyright laws, even though i may not like them are laws like any other, and too break them, puts you and your company as a liable defendant if something goes wrong or gets out. All it takes is one disgruntled employee to turn something like the above into a nightmare for a company and an IT department.

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Introducing, The NetBox

Posted on June 25, 2009 by SX

Alright, so you’ve wanted a computer forever, but can’t afford the luxury systems that big companies sell for thousands of dollars? Want a machine that’s stable, works and does what you need it to? Well check out the system we are dubbing, “The NetBox” here at my house. This will be mainly used for my brothers online schooling and web browsing across an HDtv. It works GREAT!

Here’s the parts list first, keep reading to get a price!

Intel Motherboard DG41TY
Intel Pentium Dual Core E5200 2.5Ghz
2GB Kingston Valu-ram
160GB 3.5″ Western Digital Sata drive
Sata 52X DVD-Rom
Rosewill Micro ATX Case with 300w power supply

We have installed Windows XP with a dual boot of Ubuntu 9.04 on the system. It works flawlessly, stable and most importantly, it works. DVI-D to HDMI on the HDTV is wonderful!

The biggest thing about this system was the price. Combined with a half way decent wireless mouse/keyboard combination came to less than $350. Quite a step in cheap computing, and the system has the power to do much more then just web browsing! I’m sure it’ll be a great student computer for years to come!

If you’d like more information about this computer, please leave a comment. I, SX, will build one of these systems for anyone who wishes to have one for around $400 with shipping costs included. Windows operating systems will be extra however, as they cost an arm and a leg in any sort.

Posted in General, Linux/Unix, Tools/Utilities, Ubuntu, Windows, Windows 2003, Windows Vista, Windows XP | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

The battle rages on…

Posted on June 24, 2009 by SX

Of course, we have Windows… Our prison to the Linux user… For me, a prison of must, not of lust. For I must keep Windows throughout my schooling as the software is incompatible with anything Linux. But, this is more the fault of necessity then anything. While the school system bases their classes from Windows, not linux. So using an incompatible format that isn’t copyrighted in every respect… Document files must be of this presence, as well as the software they provide.

Where does this lead? Well, as long as there is NEED, there will be the resolve, in this case Windows. This should be an imprint on your mind before thinking of Firestorm. As the necessity isn’t filled by requirements and copyrighting. This can’t be done for legal issues we find, but there are ways around it. Either way, the problem will always be, the need.

So we’re at a pass yet again, where does need stand against want? Necessity is always, absolute, true. Want is only an imagination of sort, something not which is required but sought. This is the reason why I’m not running five EXT style partitions and no windows operating systems. I’ve lived with Witherstorm for ages, and would love to rid myself of it completely. However, NEED, necessity… requirements do not allow me to do so.

So where does this fit I’m sure you’re asking yourselves. It fits behind the molded glass which we call reality. The needs partake before the wants, just as true is life. Witherstorm, though it isn’t my want, is my necessity. Until we rid ourselves of these necessities, we can’t rid ourselves of Witherstorm. This is where it gets it’s name.

Think back to my last post, “Firestorm, Right hand of the OS” and listen to it’s words. The valiant shall stand before the wicked. In this thought, will Firestorm beat Witherstorm? I can’t say it will any time soon, but eventually it could. Holding such a powerful sword at your hands doesn’t mean you’re better anymore. It’s a statement of who we are, and what we do. I carry two blades, weaker attack then a single blade, but still quite potent. In this you should learn one thing. You don’t always just have to carry one sword.

Witherstorm will never be completely forgotten by anyone, it’s just become too big. A curse, a plague, a bad dream, a nightmare… This is why we can’t let go of our Witherstorm. The base is there, the easy holding and swinging of the not so righteous blade… Yet, you still think to yourself about Firestorm and where it sits in your life, or drawer.

SX

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