Thursday, 20. August 2009
First off, let me be clear that this was not my idea. I was told about this whole concept by Mike Rubel @ Cal Tech. He’s the rocket scientist behind this whole idea. Now that we have our “Credit Where Credit is Due” portion out of the way, let’s get into the whole rsync backup concept.
Wednesday, 19. August 2009
I have to admit, I’m a bit jaded regarding software and computer support. It drives me crazy when the person I’m dealing with is reading from a script. This is one of the reasons I rarely call or contact support when I have a problem. The web usually does a great job as an information resource. But, sometimes the web doesn’t have the answer, and sometimes you need to look deeper for help.
Most folks in the open source community are used to “leaning” on each other to solve problems. That’s what we do. But all those poor people out there that run commercial software can get close to the same level of help and support from their local user groups and clubs in their community!
Try self support and go to a user’s meeting. Learn how we do it in the Open Source Community, and never sit on hold with a help desk again!
— Stu
Saturday, 15. August 2009
Here are the notes regarding what I covered in my presentation to the Simi Conejo Linux User Group. The actual presentation covered these subjects in more detail then I was able to fit in here, but you should get the general idea of the concepts covered by reading this all the way through. If you would like me to present this presentation for your organization or group, please contact me via email.
Thursday, 13. August 2009
The Free Software foundation has launched a community for teens ages 13 to 18 that are interested in contributing to open source. It’s goal is to give kids interested in open source development, a place to exchange ideas and participate in open source projects. GNU Generation isn’t just for coders. It will encourage kids to contribute art and documentation, and promote advocacy as well.
In a time where Open Source is starting to get a real foot hold on the American computer frontier, it’s good to see organizations reaching out to our youth with constructive ideas.
GNU Generation is holding annual contests and award the participants with free memberships and prizes.
Good going GNU!
— Stu
Tuesday, 11. August 2009
Recently, I was chatting with some ‘Non Geek’ friends about the software they run on their home PCs. I was not surprised to hear that most of them ran a Microsoft OS and almost all Microsoft software. What was a surprise, was how many of them did not purchase the software for their PCs, or did not pay the license fees for every PC that was running the software on.
Monday, 10. August 2009
I will be speaking at the Simi Conejo Linux Users Group (SCLug) on August 15th 2009.
I will be demonstrating how to setup a Linux based PC with multiple network interfaces to act as a firewall. The presentation will cover the following topics:
I plan to start with a base Debian install, and take the group step by step through setting up NAT for both static and DHCP internet connections. I’ll then move to setting up a second internet connection, and demonstrate the use of policy routing to choose an outbound route for different types of connections. Once we’ve covered policy routing, I”ll finish up with session based load balancing across both connections.
If you are going to be in the East Ventura County area on the 15th, I encourage you to join us!
The presentation will be held at the Simi Valley YMCA at 2:00PM on August 15th, 2009.
I look forward to seeing you there!
— Stu
Wednesday, 5. August 2009
As my dad used to say, “Sometimes, the Dragon, he wins…”. For quite a while now, I have been on a mission to try to move my wife over to Open Office. She is a devoted Microsoft user, and runs the only jointly owned PC that has Windows as it’s primary operating system. Now, I’m not a totally anti-Microsoft, and I do believe that a person has the right to use whatever software they like, and are willing to properly license. But I really have a problem with paying for any software license when an equivalent Open Source option is available. I can’t seem to get through to my lovely wife, that Open Office will do all the things she uses MS Office for. The really sad thing, is she won’t even try Open Office. She gets mad if it’s on her PC! And when I ask her why she is against using it, she has the following reasons:
Monday, 3. August 2009
Wow, who would have thought that an open source project could do so well against the big “M”. Experts are saying that Firefox now has 32% of the browser market. This is probably the net result of all those crap plugins and the rest of the shoddy code that Micro$oft has been dumping on to the Internet these last 15 years. Looks like people are finally getting wise, at least when it comes to browsing…
Maybe this is a sign that the end user is starting to get it. Maybe Open Office, with it’s safer interface to the network, and it’s open standard file format will make a play for the end user desktop… Or maybe not…
Regardless, with this news, we can all say that open source has made a difference in a lot of peoples lives, and will continue to do so for a long time to come!
Congratulations Mozilla developers, you’ve done good!
— Stu
Friday, 31. July 2009
Looks like yet another change in KDE that messes with 3.5 users… Seems someone decided that the Autostart folder was a bad idea. This after having the Autostart folder in every KDE release I can remember.
Well, it seems that KDE 4 has adopted the same type of startup program control that Gnome has used for years.
Ok, let’s say that you want to start, oh I don’t know… Let’s say you want to start Krellm at login. here are the steps:
Tuesday, 28. July 2009
There are tons of hosted and installable software packages out there that do web content management. Some good, some not so good. Only one thing is certain, you’ll have your work cut out for you if you choose the wrong one.
I’m going to talk about a few of the most popular open source packages that are out in the wild. Each are different, and do things differently. The one that’s right for you, depends on what your endgame is.
