Today I’m happy to announce that I’ve replaced the open-source VNC-protocol-based software I was using with something better:  TeamViewer.  TeamViewer is one of the most popular remote desktop connection programs/services out there (with over 200,000,000 users world wide) and they offer a very cool service.  The way remote assistance sessions will work now is simply a matter of visiting the Virtual Dave page, clicking on the logo for your OS (Windows, Ubuntu or Mac OS; other Linux versions are available from TeamViewers’ website) and then running the file that you’ve downloaded.  You’re then presented with a TeamViewer window which will generate a fresh/random User ID number and Password, like this:

To give remote access to someone, you just tell them what those two randomly generated numbers are.  That’s it!  A super simple, super secure solution for remote tech support.  One thing to note is that TeamViewer QuickSupport does not install anything when you run it, so if you intend to use it again you’ll want to Save the file you’ve downloaded for future use.

I love open source software and maybe someday I’ll go back to using Gitso if it ever hits version 0.8 but at the moment it would seem TeamViewer is by far the best choice for my needs and I look forward to making use of it.

For those who aren’t tech savvy, the word “source code” refers to the so-to-speak “recipe” for the development/creation of a program.  It is literally the instructions that are more or less written by computer programmers.  This kind of information is proprietary and is often a trade secret, much like the coveted ingredients list for Coca Cola or my moms apple pie.  If one were able to obtain such information, say a competator or the creators of compuer viruses, one might use this information to one-up the software or, more importantly, exploit design flaws to circumvent the software.  In short this means it is quite likely there will be a new breed of viruses on the horizon that will be capable of outsmarting Norton, rendering it useless and crippled.

Symantec has been trying to downplay the severity of this breach by stressing the age of the code, stating that the origin is a version of their software that dates back to 2006, or so we’ve been told thus far.  This is an attempt to defuse the concern by implying that their latest software is far different at its core and that there won’t be very much that is useful to virus writers because they still don’t have their hands on the latest blueprints.  But the reality of the situation is far less peachy than they would like to paint it.  In the world of computer programming software and even entire operating systems will retain a fair chunk of old code from previous versions simply because, well, it’s already been written and if it “works” then there’s little need to rewrite it from scratch.  I’m not saying source code is never rewritten, revised or updated from time to time, but when it comes to large programs such as Norton Antivirus that’s made up of tens of thousands of lines of code it could easily be argued that there is likely a good percentage of old code that has been retained for years without ever being modified.  It would be like having a castle or fortress that is under continuous construction and maintenance.  You can’t afford to tear the whole thing down every year and rebuild it from scratch, so instead what you do is build around and upon the existing structure and make repairs to the parts that need repairing the most.  This means that likely most of the fundamental structure is retained and knowledge of the construction of such a structure could be used by an enemy to find a previously unnoticed vulnerability.

In the interest of full disclosure I will have to admit that Norton hasn’t been on my list of recommended software since the late 90s when it was practically the only anti-virus software available.  It’s early bird status was followed by years of successful marketing and advertising, which lead to its continuous wide spread recognition of the software/brand name, giving the impression to novice computer users that Norton really is the best thing out there.  ”How could it not be good when its so popular?” they might ask themselves.

I am here to tell you that the number one problem I fix for people in this line of work is virus removal and far too often I see systems that are running Norton that have become utterly trashed by multiple viruses while Norton gives inaccurate scan results, claiming the system is clean and virus free.  This is particularly irksome to me because when you consider the wide spread saturation of their software along with the monetary cost to the users for the renewal every year you would have to expect the company to use their position and resources to everyones benefit.  Despite its wide spread usage and price tag it fails to survey new viruses and develop new definitions for capturing and stopping them in an effective manner and so many users never seem to get their moneys worth.  I am willing to give the benefit of the doubt and accept the fact that there is no such thing as a “perfect” antivirus software, but you should expect to be given better treatment and results if you’re paying upwards of $70 a year for protection, especially when there are free alternatives out there that have been statistically shown to do a comparatively better job.  And to think these kinds of problems existed before some of their source code leaked.  Now that some source code has leaked and the potential for new viruses to be developed to exploit Norton itself are likely right around the corner I feel obligated to suggest that people avoid using it all together.  No amount of marketing or PR can change the consensus of most IT professionals who can see past all the BS and to me this incident is more than just one more nail in the coffin.

So what do I recommend instead of Norton?  I mentioned that there is “no such thing as a perfect antivirus” but there are alternatives that hold a higher reputation than Norton that cost a fraction of what Norton costs or even nothing at all.  In past blog entries I’ve mentioned Microsoft Security Essentials, Malwarebytes and Combofix and still recommend them, so here’s a little information about them.

Microsoft Security Essentials is a free antivirus solution that Microsoft itself actually produces and it’s quite popular in the IT community right now for a couple of reasons.  I already mentioned that its free but it is also effective and not as resource intensive as other software.  There’s also a new stand-alone bootable version of it that’s going through public beta testing right now which is handy to have for particularly difficult viruses.  You can read more about it here.  Be aware that there has, in the past, been a rogue malware impostor simply called “Security Essentials 2010/2011/2012″ which people have confused with the real deal, falling victim to a trap.  You can download the real deal from here.

Along side MSE I also recommend users purchase the full copy of Malwarebytes for the one time payment of $25.  Some of the handy features it has is an active connection monitor which will automatically block your computer from attempting to connect to known malicious web servers.  It also features an active process monitor like a traditional antivirus and will help prevent a good number of rogue malware type software from infecting your system.  There is a free version of this available but its active monitoring features are disabled. I’ve been using it in the field for over 2 years now and it has worked incredibly well for helping clean systems that had already become infected.  You can read more about it here and download/purchase it from here.

Finally a tool I use quite often to help clean systems that have already become infected is a program called Combofix, which is free.  This isn’t so much a traditional antivirus that runs in the background as it is a stand-alone utility for scanning a system after it has become infected.  It is regularly updated so it’s best to not bother downloading and using it until you actually have to.  You can read more about it here and download it from here.

In conclusion I strongly advise my clients to not use Norton Antivirus because it’s one of the most over-hyped, over-priced products out there right now and with the news of parts of its source code being leaked it only stands to become an even less effective product that will do less to protect you than other cheaper alternatives out there.

Speaking of alternatives, there is always the option of picking an alternative operating system such as Linux.

Linux is a free open-source OS that comes in many flavors.  We are already seeing Android being adopted by smartphone and tablet users like crazy and it is just one example of a Linux based OS that is taking the world by storm.  But for desktop and laptop users there remains a need for a full fledged desktop OS and there are many out there to choose from.  My personal favorite is Ubuntu Linux which you can check out at ubuntu.com.  It’s not for everyone but I can easily say that it is a very ideal choice for the average user.  Keep an eye out for future posts; I intend to record a new introductory video for Ubuntu 12.04 when it is released this coming April.

And just so everybody else out there reading this knows, I now charge a flat rate of $30 labor per device to replace LCD panels on all netbooks and laptops!

In the last month I’ve fixed three different computers just by blowing dust out of them.  These systems would turn on, reach the POST screen (which typically is the logo of the manufacturer or the BIOS) but would just hang there indefinitely.  Blowing the system out with a can of air (or in one case an air compressor) was all it took to bring the systems back to life.  Dust is just as much of a problem for laptops, but not so much for getting the motherboard dirty (because they’re fairly well sealed off from the outside air) but for clogging the heatsink fins so that the cooling fan can’t push air past the fins to keep your CPU cool.  The side effects of this are a noisy laptop that runs hot, or even powers itself off abruptly as a failsafe.

All CPUs these days have internal temperature sensors with a threshold for a certain amount of heat.  If that threshold is exceeded the processor will either throttle itself down in speed to the point where the system runs far slower than usual or the BIOS takes over and just shuts the system off completely.  So if you have a hot, noisy laptop that shuts off every now and then, you probably need to go buy a can of air.

You’ll find cans of air in the electronics section of just about any major retail store.  You need to be careful with these things because they contain a liquid that itself can conduct electricity and short your electronics out.  To prevent the can from shooting this stuff out it’s important to always hold it level and upright, not sideways or upside down.  This liquid also has an extremely low boiling point, which causes it to feel very cold when it’s not under pressure.  You can feel this by touching the can after using it for a little bit, and even hear the liquid boiling away inside to replenish the can with more compressed gas.  Something fun kids like to do with this stuff is spray it at glass while holding it upside down to produce a cold frost on any surface.  So you need to be careful not to do this to your own skin by accident or you might get a little frost bite.

These things can go pretty quick so I like to shoot the air in short bursts to try and save air while maintaining higher pressure.  Be sure to use that little straw that comes with these things to get a more focused shot of air into the areas that need it most.  I would also recommend you do this outdoors as the dust particles could make you sick if you inhale them.  Be sure to shoot everything, especially the inside of the power supply (that grey box your power cord plugs into) from all sides.

On laptops the only thing you can really dust out is the heatsink and your keyboard.  Some laptops have exhaust vents that only come out the back of the laptop, while others come out the side.  What I like to do is position the laptop in such a way so that I can shoot air directly into this exhaust vent against the normal flow of air produced by the fan while the laptop is running.  Having the laptop on while you do this is a good thing because the fan will help blow dust you’ve loosened back out and also help break it apart into smaller particulates that can fit through the fins.  Also shoot air into the intake of the fan.  Go back and forth between the exhaust and intake a few times until you can’t produce any more dust with your air.  Just beware that if you have never done this before you might have so much dust built up on the backside of the heatsink that loosening it up might cause a large chunk to get wedged in the fan, preventing it from spinning.  This isn’t much of a problem if you can remove the bottom panel from the laptop to access the intake of the fan but not all laptops let you do this and you might have to dismantle the entire machine to reach the fan and pull the fat dust bunny out with some tweezers.

I like to keep a can of air in the glove compartment of my car so I’ll always have something on hand to clean a system out when I make house calls.  But you should keep a can nearby and clean your system every 3 to 6 months to help improve air flow in your system so it can stay cool as well as reduce the possibility of something important being shorted out.

From here you’ll have access to my SoundCloud uploads which are finished projects, learn about my other works in progress and read a little about the making of some of my songs.  It’s not much to look at right now but I’m going to try and make things look a little more fancy in the coming months.

• Lightweight:  It’s written in Python and loads very fast.
• Simple:  Sometimes losing a couple “bells and whistles” is a good thing.
• Multiple platforms:  Gitso works on Windows, Ubuntu Linux and Mac OS X.
• Active Development Pipeline:  A feature request I submitted was approved for the next version less than a half hour after I submitted it.
• Open-Source:  Free as in freedom.

There are a lot of features in the coming versions of this software I have been looking for in a VNC tool for a long time.  And who knows, I might learn a thing or two about programming in Python with this little tool.

Now most of you out there (or at least anyone who isn’t really into NIN) are probably saying, “Why would anyone spend that much money just to get backstage and gum it up with people they may never see or speak to again?”  Well… let me put it this way.  Imagine you could meet any single person in the whole world who you’ve wanted to meet for over a decade but couldn’t. Just think of your favorite actor/actress, or author, celebrity, musician, mad scientist perhaps… I don’t care who, just think of someone who you’ve always wanted to say, “Thank you.” to in person because that’s just how much of an influence they’ve had on you and you want them to know.  Then one day, you’re offered that one chance.  That’s kinda what this is like.  An opportunity to do something you’ll never forget for the rest of your life.

Besides, all the money is going towards a worthy cause.  I’ll get to honestly say that I met my favorite musician of all time (one of just a small handful of life long goals/dreams I have) and contribute towards saving a human life in the process.  And I’ll be proud about it for the rest of my life.  I imagine myself decades from now thinking back on the life I lived and appreciate such an experience more so than, say, the experience I’d probably get from spending that kind of money towards something completely material, like an expensive HDTV.  I couldn’t imagine myself retired years from now telling my grandkids about the day I bought a new HDTV and expect them to marvel at my totally boring story.

For me, the things that matter in life aren’t things (stuff) at all.  The things that matter in life are experiences, events, people, emotions, passion, romance,  ideas, adventures, thrills, challenges and also remembering that one of these days you’re gonna die.  Because if you do like most young people and tell yourself it’s too far away to bother thinking about it right now, you might start to procrastinate and regret not doing the things that would otherwise hold their value to you forever.

So, here’s to being ALIVE and happy to finally get to do something I’ve always wanted to do but never believed would ever occur.

Oh, one last thing.  THANKS DAD!  You’ve always been there if I needed a favor or help with about anything and that means the world to me.

This is for something important. Eric De La Cruz is dying and needs a heart transplant. He keeps getting turned down for a transplant list because he’s on Nevada Medicaid, and there are no transplant centers in Nevada. We want to get involved and hopefully so do you, so we’re extending a hand. His sister Veronica (former Anchor and Internet Correspondent for CNN) has started a campaign to save his life.

Eric’s situation shines a bright light on a broken health care system, and his particular set of problems are being addressed on the political front, aiming for reform in addition to the need for immediate financial help to keep him alive TODAY. I think we can help with the latter.

Here’s what we’re offering – three options:

If you have a ticket to a NIN/JA show: if you donate $1,000 to this cause, we’ll invite you to come hang out with us before the NIN/JA show of your choice. You and a guest can watch soundcheck, eat dinner backstage with us, take pics / get autographs and watch the show from the side of the stage if you’d like.

If you donate $300, you and a friend can join us for soundcheck and a handshaking / hug session before doors open at the NIN/JA show of your choice.

If you do NOT have a ticket to a NIN/JA show: if you donate $1,200 to this cause, we’ll invite you to come hang out with us before the NIN/JA show of your choice and provide 2 tickets (best available). You and a guest can watch soundcheck, eat dinner backstage with us, take pics / get autographs and watch the show from the side of the stage if you’d like.

100% of the money collected from this will go directly to Eric’s fund.

I hope you’ll consider helping out with this.

Sincerely, Trent Reznor

Go here for more info. If I’m lucky and can find the money, I’ll get to meet my all time favorite musician AND help save a life.

Bob Church, the father of my girlfriend Kristin, passed away this afternoon at the age of 61.  For the last 10 months Bob has been in a long and trying fight with cancer.  I’ve written a decent bit here and there about the history of this here and you can find it by following my tag link for him to the left.  He went peacefully while surrounded by family and close friends.

Among his dying wishes was the request that he be cremated and instead of having a formal memorial service, those who knew him should join together for a sort of commemorative party/get-together.  That event will be this Saturday.  So if you knew Bob and have a way of getting to Topeka, you are invited to come and celebrate Bobs life and the memories he has left with us all.

All of these hot babes are great looking but it is up to you to select your six favorite as they compete for a chance to be in an official Prymal Rhythm calendar.  Putting together the actual contest involved a good amount of PHP work by my programmer/site developer.  We had to come up with a way to help prevent ballot stuffing and figured the best way to do that is to require registration with a username/password and an confirmed email account.  This is where the next upgrade came in:  a new Members Area and a Forum for fans to chat with each other through.

This is a surprise bonus feature the fans have not been made aware of yet.

The last thing we did was basicly give the entire website a face lift by wrapping every page in the theme that was selected for the forum so the entire site matches and looks really cool.  There’s still a little work left to do but I would have to say we’re about 80% done now.  It’s been quite an exercise.

Since the founding of Microsoft by Bill Gates, who stepped down as CEO  effectively handing the reigns to Mr. Ballmer, the software company has refused to  release its source-code; the programing used to create their popular operating system.  Keeping it closed-source has been a strategy used by Microsoft to ensure they could maximize profits on sales of their product, but Steve Ballmer said he felt the time was right to go open source for a multitude of reasons.  “Not only did we feel like rubbing it in Apple’s face by removing the price tag from our product entirely, but we feel it’s time to get some help from the public on refining Windows.  Because let’s face it; they use Windows more than we do, so we might as well let them fix it themselves for a change.”

Ballmer went on to explain that with Microsofts’ closed-source model, the repair of bugs and security holes in their software is much more challenging.  “Our studies have shown that software developers and programmers actually become less productive in direct correlation to the amount of money you pay them for their work.  It’s gotten so bad that the shutdown menu in Vista took several months to create and design, and that’s pretty damned embarrassing if you ask me.”

Reactions to the unexpected change have been mostly positive to sarcastic.  Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Canonical which develops and promotes their free Ubuntu Linux operating system, considered the change to be a little amusing.  “You know what they say:  Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”  Apple CEO Steve Jobs responded to the move by boldly stating  “So what?!”  When asked if Apple would consider making a similar change in their software development model, he replied in a typical sales pitch: “It takes a lot of money to build computers as cool as ours.  Buy one,” he added with a crazed, hypnotic look in his eyes.  “You’ll LOVE it.”

The open-source version of Windows 7 was originally slated to be released late in 2009, but with the sudden change in development structure, Microsoft actually anticipates this date to be unusually ahead of schedule.  “Now that we’ve shaken our software development department down and replaced our laziest, most expensive programmers with dedicated Microsoft Windows fans who work for us out of sheer love for the brand, we anticipate faster development in the areas of security, stability and most importantly, system performance.”  Microsoft was also originally planning to release seven various editions of Windows 7 (Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise, Ultimate and Star Trek Collectors edition), but it has been deduced that by making the software 100% open-source, the user will be able to get any edition they want for free simply by selecting which edition they want during installation at no difference in cost.  “It’s a win win for everyone,” added Ballmer.

Also:  APRIL FOOLS.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conficker
http://mtc.sri.com/Conficker/addendumC/

As stated in the links above, the virus takes advantage of a buffer-overflow vulnerability of certain server services on Windows based machines.  Microsoft issued an update (MS08-067) for Windows 2000 SP4, XP SP2 & SP3, and Vista to patch this hole back in October of last year. So if you have installed all available Windows updates you should be fine and not need to worry.  It is highly recommended you install all available updates if you have not done so lately.  To force your PC to check for available updates, click Start>All Programs>Windows Update and follow the on-screen instructions.

If your computer is directly connected to the Internet it is advised that you have a quality software firewall installed and blocking unexpected inbound traffic.  A comparison of free firewall software can be found here:  http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-firewall.htm

In addition you should also have a quality anti-virus software solution in place.  Any of the following will suffice:

• CA Anti-Virus
• Symantec Anti-Virus
• F-Secure Anti-Virus
• Panda Anti-Virus
• Kaspersky Anti-Virus
• McAfee Anti-Virus
• BitDefender Anti-Virus

I personally recommend  AVG Free Edition

In summery:

• Be sure to apply all available updates for Microsoft Windows
• Ensure you have some form of firewall blocking unwanted network traffic
• Install a quality anti-virus solution

Now lets all have a happy April Fools day!

You’ll notice the watch I’m wearing in the picture.  That was a gift from my girlfriend for Valentines Day.  It’s made by Fossil and is called a “Skeleton Watch” because you can see all the gears ticking away on the inside from both sides.  She picked this specific one out because a long time ago I told her about being five years old and dismantling a wind-up alarm clock so I could see how it worked, and taking it to Kindergarten class for show-and-tell.  I don’t know what it is about stuff like that, but ever since I was a kid I’ve always been the kind of person who wanted to understand how all things worked.  It’s one of the coolest and most thoughtful gifts I’ve ever gotten from anyone.

Guess what.  I still have that exact teddy bear.  It was a gift from my dad… I believe for my first birthday (I’ll have to double-check that factoid).  Here it is sitting on top of my PC:

Now… there were of course a lot of other neat pictures of me as a child in that collection.  Like this striking photo that I didn’t know anything about until a few weeks ago:

It was taken by a local newspaper photographer… I can’t remember exactly why at the moment but it was just after I was born in the good old days of 1982.  My mother still has the original news paper clipping with caption that used this photo… I’ll have to get a copy of that sometime.

Then there are the cute action shots:

Reading Garfield

Fixing The TV

Jammin’

Breaking Child Labor Laws (And Makin’ Bank!)

There are too many pictures to show.  No, I don’t feel like posting the one of me sitting on Santa’s lap while wearing a boy scout uniform (I’m not making this up either).  As funny looking as it is, I can’t help but look at it and think to myself, “Wow, look at all that brainwashing in action!”  Bottom line is, this was an AWESOME Christmas gift!  Thanks mom!

So I shot a quick reply back from my phone: “What’s the pay range?”

Most everybody I’ve ever gotten a job offer from or who have posted job listings state in clear print what the job is going to pay, usually like this: “Pay rate is $11 ~ $14 an hour, based upon experience,” or, “Pay is exactly $17 an hour, 8 hours a day for 3 days only.”  So you can at least get a ball park idea of what you will get if you pursue the offer.

His reply back to me: “Can you give me a call or do you have a number I can reach you at.”

This set a red flag off. For one,  his original email to me said he found my website… apparently he overlooked the phone number that’s plastered all over it (if not the entire site). Two: He didn’t answer my question.  What’s wrong with putting a pay rate down in written reply? From where I’m siting there is a lot wrong with not making this clear from the beginning. An email (printed text in general) can be honored of as part of the contract agreement.  It could even be used against them in court of they didn’t hold to a promise made or high-balled their offer to entice me.  But an unrecorded phone call? Who knows what kind of BS they’d throw at me. I could just imagine it: “Yes the pay will probably be X dollars. But it’s not even up to me so we’ll have to wait and see.  We need you to submit your background check/W-9 paperwork first.”

After giving it some thought I decided to not call, but reply: “I appreciate your interest, but must respectfully decline. I am quite busy with other contracts as well as my own freelance work and feel that there would be a potential conflict of interest down the road. I am also suspicious about ********’s policy of not quoting pay ranges in writing.”

I’m pretty sure it was the right thing to do.  There is a good chance that the job they wanted to offer me came,  not with hourly based compensation, but salary based compensation.  Salary (in my observations) seems to end up being unfair to most people.  You often end up working more than you had expected to work and get little if any extra thanks for your efforts.  And if you complain about it management will likely tell you its your problem to deal with, not theirs (which wouldn’t be their reply if you were paid by the hour).

It would be different if this job involved fixing PCs in an office environment, where usage policies were enforced and virus frequency reduced.  But salary pay to fix an unlimited number of home PCs that are who knows how many miles away and infected with who knows what?  I doubt I’d end up getting a fair break.  I’m glad I turned this offer down.

I give you the product of about 45 minutes worth of work.  Very little time was needed to lay down the tracks, and a lot more time was spent playing around with knobs and browsing through the large bank of instruments I have at my disposal to find just the right sound.  I’m excited to write more.

So, please enjoy this free download of a very short piece of music I wrote.

For being a puppy of 9 weeks of age, she is pretty well behaved.  It takes patience, but it’s not too hard.  We spent a little time with the rest of the litter and picked her because she was the most healthy looking and because her temper was very mellow by comparison to every other dog around.  It’s events like adopting a dog with such potential that makes you do things a little different through your day.  It’s probably not too dissimilar to raising a kid… except it’s quite a bit cheaper.  It’s still just as fun an exercice of sorts. It’s like a form mediation by working your patience to the point where you build greater and greater tolerance for silly behavior. Speaking of silly behavior, the Vice-Presidential debates will be next Thursday, October the 2nd, so be sure to set your Tivo’s and home-made DVR’s to record that highly anticipated SNL spoof.

A little anecdote about this church

While I was there, I found their bulletin board where they have notices posted for upcoming events in the parish.  And of course there was one there for the garage sale:

You’ll notice above it is a seperate invitation to join Topeka Habitat for Humanity and donate time or money to their cause.  I then glanced over to the left of the bulletin board and saw this:

I was rather flattered to see this graphic because it happens to be the one I made for their website a while ago.

The sad thing is that I don’t maintain that website anymore, but it’s good to know that it’s being used and appreciated.  It doesn’t look like any modifications have been made to it since handing the reigns over to another local web developer, but I doubt that’s his fault (it wouldn’t be polite to elaborate).  Anyway, the graphic was made in Gimp using the Supernova effect… it was really quite easy.  I think I’ll redo it just for fun (because I have a half hour to kill).

Click above for a 1024×768 wallpaper I just made.

The concert went well, but it seemed like they went out of their way to give you the impression that the vocal audio was always bad, but in truth, Bob Dylan is not a great singer these days.  Sure, he’s got the energy and the notes, but it’s like his mouth is full of cotton balls.  I’m sorry if that offends you, but my girlfriend is the most die hard Bob Dylan fan on the damned planet and even she told me in advanced that I wouldn’t understand a thing he’s saying up there on stage.  It was like Eddie Murphy’s impersonation of James Brown.  Still, he had a damn sweet hat on.  And these 35 dollar T-shirts are pretty fucking cool.

Anyway, I just wanted to check in with you all and let you know that I’m going to be OUT for the rest of the weekend.  I’m heading up to the ABATE biker rally at Lake Perry.  Maybe I’ll see you out there.  I’ll be campin’ somewhere.  Hope nobody’s computer crashes or I’ll have to cut into all the fun I’m having. 

Coming Soon…

The fun begins at about 11 a.m., but you should try to arrive a little early.  Advanced registration is preferred.  The entry fee is $65 per person and covers for your green fees, golf cart, food (Chili’s restaurant will be providing fajitas!) and beverages (alcoholic and non-alcoholic).  Teams of four will compete for prizes!  Some of the prizes up for grabs include golf bags, coolers, camping chairs, and much more.  I will personally be giving away one hour of free on-site tech support to each member of the team who ranks first place at the end of the tournament.  So don’t miss out!!!

So my life in general and business has never been better.  My girlfriend and I are going to begin living alone together FINALLY and our relationship is fantastic.  Don’t tell her this, but I’m gonna ask her to marry me one of these days (gotta save up some money for a bad ass engagement ring first.  I want to make it a big surprise).  Though, her father began chemotherapy last week and it comes with its rough days.  My hope is those rough days don’t increase… The possibility of an early death in the family echoes in the back of everyones mind, but it is important not to dwell on such thoughts.  Doing so is a drain on energy better spent thinking about the positive here and now.  Besides, miracles DO happen.  I’m a firm believer of that.

So… just a moment ago, I came across a link to a site that I feel deep empathy for…

The website is a photographic essay by Philip Toledano of he and his father as they spend time together.  I don’t know much more background detail, but from the looks of it, a new photo is added day by day.  It will make you stop and think about life and likely bring at least one tear to your eye.  Click on the picture above to visit the site.  If it’s down, try again later.  It’s being hammered right now by Digg.com users who are flocking to see the pictures and read their captions.  I was simply lucky enough to catch it before the servers were slammed.

As far as trends in technology lately… well, there’s probably plenty of stuff I could rave about but nothing much has really caught my eye enough to make me want to write something about it.  And I’ve been rather lazy the last couple of weeks.  To be honest, I’ve been a little apathetic.  And then, as so predicted by Joseph Campbell in that first Mythos video I saw, I’ve begun to sort of disengage myself from the rest of the current events in the world.  As much as I would love to possibly alienate you with my own political satire, I’ll spare you.  I really have a lot of other more important things to focus on for the time being…

As mentioned in my previous blog a couple weeks ago or so, my girlfriends’ father had been diagnosed with colon cancer.  Soon after I got to Missouri a discussion with an oncologist had took place, and the prognosis he gave was much more dreadful than what we were hoping for.  His cancer has spread to his lungs, and chemotherapy has been scheduled to begin next week.  His spirit and mood have remained high, odd as it may seem to some who otherwise might feel great despair and depression, if not anger.  But I perceive him to be living, in some aspects, the best days of his life as he proceeds to carefully squeeze the last few drops of it, savoring it with a grand smile.  It is actually hard to tell just how much there is left for him to enjoy, which is just the way things should be in life.  Disturbing prognoses be damned.

And of course there is plenty of room for optimism and hope.  I’m looking foward to future visits to help support him and the family that I am also a part of.  I’m also looking forward to reading more of his blogs.  By the way, if you consider yourself to be a literary buff who appreciates extensive vocabulary and vividness in the stories you read, do yourself a favor and subscribe to his blog.

So that I don’t spend too much time writing this particular announcement, here’s a list of topics I intend to write about in the very near future:

• Terminal for Beginners
  • We’re going to take a look at the Terminal in Linux.  This is very similar to the Command Prompt found in DOS/Windows.  We’ll take a look at some of the most common commands used here, as well as some neat tricks and shortcuts you might fall in love with.
• Customizing Ubuntu’s Appearance
  • This is actually a topic that I said I wanted to do quite a while ago, but kind of let things slip.  In this topic, we’re going to take a look at gnome-look.org’s collection of desktop themes, as well as look at ways to change your login screens’ appearance.
• Ubuntu Application Reviews
  • For the first time ever, I’m going to begin writing reviews about different applications found in Ubuntu.  My hope is to bring attention to applications that are good, but not very well known yet.
• Gimp Tutorials
  • Gimp is an open-source alternative to Adobe Photoshop which is actually quite a powerful tool for being free.  I use it to create or modify all of the graphics on my website as well as promo images that you probably haven’t seen before.  We’ll take a look at simple things like cropping, scaling, rotation, a LOT of the tools in the tool box, a few filters, and whatever else pops up along the way.  It’ll be a lot of fun!
• Web Design Tips
  • I often get compliments about my website’s clean looking design.  I have to admit that a majority of the site was the result of a template that I stole out of Dreamweaver, but all of the work I’ve put into it since then has turned it into something very uniquely mine.  In at least one blog, I will write some tips for web design based upon the things I think my website does right (as well as a few things I think my site does wrong).

If you’re new, you might want to subscribe to my RSS feed. The easiest way to do this (in Firefox) is to click Bookmarks>Subscribe to this page.  A new special kind of bookmark will be added to your bookmarks collection.  When you click on it, all my posts will fan open and you can select the one you want to read.  What a time saver!

Stay tuned.

Before you go and call me obsessive compulsive, I’ll have you know it took me at least an hour and a half to clean all the junk and dust off of my desk for this picture.  You’ll notice in the lower right corner that I’m using my mouse that my girlfriend also bought me for our one year anniversary!  I love that woman

Another idea I had of writing up storyboards and scripts for short promotional videos I’d like to make came into mind as well.  One idea that has been on the back burner for a little while now is a new Ubuntu Linux video for the FAQ, which would showcase Ubuntu 8.04.  It is a low priority to me for the time being, mostly because new users can’t see much of a difference between 8.04 and 7.10 in a short video.  What I’d like to focus on first is a video that demonstrates Virtual Dave.  And hopefully after that another video that will focus on my made-to-order Ubuntu Linux PCs.  And then finally something more along the lines of a very clever, funny commercial (it’s already been written, but won’t be shot for a while).

Ok, time to relax.

The Business…

I recently got my apology/bribe money from the government and I’ve been looking forward to investing that money into some business related expenses (such as advertising, because it would probably just offend someone to death if I spent it all on silly things made in China).  I’ve also been waiting on a friend of mine to declare whether or not he would be able to participate in a business venture with me, and it turns out he won’t be available.  The ideal role for him would have been project management and accounting (a boring desk job).  If I were him, I would have said no too (but in truth, he really will not have extra time to spare for it).  He’s going to be working a lot of overtime with a new employer this coming year so I’ll have to wait and see if he’ll ever be able to participate with me some time later.

On the bright side I have two other associates ready for work — one a web developer/programmer and the other a graphics artist.  My hope is to combine all of our skills to offer a new slew of online and offline services.  One project we hope to take on very soon is designing a new website for a rural K-8 school; it being the first site that shall utilize content management software.  The goal is to have a powerful interactive website that will allow teachers to administer their own mini-sites for each class, with students also able to put content on the site (provided their stuff is given approval by each respective teacher in advanced).  It is an ambitious project and we’ll have plenty of time over the summer to kick it around the sandbox.  We also intend to create websites in advanced and approach small and medium sized businesses with a site that’s more or less been designed for them.  We’ll also combine this with ready-made advertising packages which can even include original logos we custom design.  Toss in Ubuntu Linux-based office PCs custom built and serviced by me and we’ll have an attractive, versatile selection of tools many businesses will probably be interested in using.

No more CCNA?

A while back, I got into this habit of writing about wanting to get my CCNA networking certification.  I’ve lost the motivation to continue writing about this for the time being, mostly because I think it’s really boring (no, really!).  There are many aspects about computer networking that I love, but there’s also a good chunk that I don’t have a practical use for right now.  I’m not desperately attempting to secure a desk job somewhere so I can map subnets in Microsoft Visio, configure VLANs on serial interfaces, setup ACLs to filter network traffic and perhaps occasionally arm-wrestle with some absurdly obtuse/self-righteous HR department.  Computer networking is not an intimidating field of study and understanding the basics is about as complicated as understanding how the Post Office works.  But Cisco seems a little full of themselves at times.  You’ll know what I mean by this after you’re waist deep in the plethora of rediculous acronyms Cisco is continually pulling out of its ass.  Cheap excuses to procrastinate aside, I’m now more interested in web design and Linux.  The diploma I’ve already got and passing the tests necessary to get it is certification enough for now.

What’s new with Ubuntu?

I’ve been meaning to create a new video to show off Ubuntu 8.04, but very little about it stands out when compared to 7.10 (with exception to performance improvements, which are very noticeable).  One of the most hyped features, Pulse Audio, has turned out to be something of a disappointment (though this is just my opinion).  The decision to include it with 8.04 by default was likely made so as to help get the kinks ironed out before the next major release of Ubuntu in October, which is rumored to be sporting a sexy new theme that will compliment the impressive collection of special effects rendered by Compiz Fusion.  By then, the soon to be developed “glitch-free” version of Pulse Audio should already be in place.

What’s new with Dave?

Believe it or not, I’m reading Joseph Campbell’s “The Hero with a Thousand Faces“.  The book takes a deep look at the multitude of mythologies that have existed world wide throughout human history and highlights the similarities between them instead of the superficial differences.  I probably shouldn’t comment on it further until I’ve finished reading (which will probably take quite some time).  Ancient human history is something I’ve been interested in for a few years and the topic of mythology adds an informative and sometimes entertaining layer.  After finishing it, I hope to plow through Julian Jaynes’ “The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind”.

One of my best friends and I are busy with starting a new LLC, and one of the things we’re going to do is build and sell PC’s with Ubuntu Linux preinstalled and customized in advanced for each customer.  So when you get your PC, Compiz will be configured the way you want it to be, and a bunch of other stuff I can’t go into detail about right now.  As such, my priorities are starting to shift and I’ve not really felt like writing a whole lot in here recently, but I will do so more often very shortly.  Sorry if you’ve been waiting for a CCNA post to pop up, but I’ll eventually get around to writing about the Cisco IOS sometime (though it’s dreadfully boring, I have to tell ya).

I believe I now have bragging rights in the computer world (especially the Linux world).  It’s a shame she had to work tonight, but we’ll be going out for drinks shortly to relax, you can be sure of that

And if having such a super cool girlfriend doesn’t give me bragging rights of some kind in the computer world…well…. turns out I also had time to rip the guts out of my dirty old computer today (which I haven’t cleaned in years) and put all of it back together inside of a very cool looking shell (which happened to be sitting on my floor for over a year doing nothing):

There we go.  I had that sticker laying around here too.  Sweet…

For the 2 or 3 of you out there who are actually reading this and are keeping up with the horribly short CCNA series, it’ll be back (enjoy the break). I’d rather write about Ubuntu stuff during the weekdays anyways.

If you’re looking for a way to kill time, and have a spare computer in the house, you might consider downloading the Beta release of Ubuntu 8.04…

Let me explain a little more. I used to work for a factory that manufactures garage doors. I worked their for nearly 4 years, starting as a temp and working my way up to staff trainer in under 2 years. Then, one day the training department I was in was downsized. They tried to cover up what they were doing by slotting all trainers who were in soon-to-be-eliminated positions into available department lead positions and told them it was only going to be temporary. I was told that I would be in charge of the warehouse. The WAREHOUSE! Telling 10 other forklift operators what to do and cutting off my personal time even more (preventing me from going to school) didn’t sound like something I was just going to casually let them do to me; I didn’t feel like working 50 or 60 hours a week. So I told them I would rather demote myself than work in a position I didn’t feel interested in fulfilling. They obliged, and my pay was cut by about 3 dollars an hour. I had decided at that point I wasn’t going to work in a garage door factory for the rest of my life, and immediately began investigating their tuition reimbursement program…

I graduated from Kaw Area Technical School about 2 months after leaving that place, continuing to work on the weekends for the data center. And for me, that was enough to survive and pay the bills. I have had ambitions about starting my own tech support business, and as such I kinda slacked off when it came to having a desire to pay the 150 some dollars to take the final CCNA exam. I had already gotten a tech job in a good place with a good boss, and was happy basically taking it easy for a while. I partially felt that if I had kept in step with some other classmates after graduation that I might end up charging my way into being employed for more of the same types of people I despised when working at that garage door factory, which would also conflict with my desire to be completely self employed someday. I would tell myself, “If I’m my own boss, who cares what’s on my resume.” Kinda naive of me, but hey, live and let live. I’m only 25; I’ve got some time on my hands….

Recently, I’ve been churning up my desire to nail that CCNA certification to my wall, as well as go beyond it. CCNP is a must and I’ve also become interested in seeing what there is to get out of a CISSP certification. But that’s way down the road.

I am going to crash through the entire CCNA curriculum tonight, tomorrow evening and through the weekend, and report my progress here. I also intend to write a very skeleton sort of description of many concepts learned. I’ll then take the test, pass and post about my success here for you to read. This shouldn’t be very difficult for me, since most of the networking concepts taught are second nature to me these days.

So stay tuned. You’re going to get schooled in computer networking, and learn a few useful things you could use in the future. I’ll try to make it fun for ya too.

• A Look at Windows Vista Service Pack 1
• A Look at Windows XP Service Pack 3
• A Preview of Ubuntu Linux 8.04
  • Pulse Audio – What is it, how it’s gonna make your life easier and how you could go wild with it’s capabilities if you have a wireless network in your home.
• Ubuntu HOWTO: Install Windows after installing Ubuntu using Gparted and Ubuntu Live CDs
• Ubuntu HOWTO: Install Nautilus Scripts
• A review of Firefox 3.
• An update about the 700 Mhz bandwidth FCC auction.
• An ambitious barebones review of the CCNA curriculum (what?!)

That’s all for now!

All the details you need are at the above link!

Alright, meow. I’ve recently added a new category called “HOWTO: Ubuntu” to the list of keywords I can file my blog entries into. I will be sorting previous blogs relating to Ubuntu that are not tutorial-oriented into the “Ubuntu” category, and separate them entirely from blog entires that are more fitting for the “HOWTO: Ubuntu category.”

The new website, to be located at www.topekabahitat.org, may not be online just yet, but here’s a screen shot for you to look at and salivate over until the real thing is put online sometime later today.

The template design comes courtesy of NTT designs, a site referenced to me at ubuntuforums.org.

The photo gallery is still a work in progress and is not online yet but will be soon. We plan to have an interactive map (hopefully I’ll be able to get the Google Maps API under my belt to achieve this) and use it as an index of previous and current builds, linking to a home page of sorts for individual houses. Again, a work in progress, we’re kickin ideas around.

Ok… now back to my book about Python…

1. Buy Windows Vista for a couple hundred dollars — more after hardware upgrades to support Vista’s heaving girth and blubber — so you can continue to sit down to do exactly what you used to do with Windows XP: Browse the web, play games, write novels, download videos and other common tasks like scanning for viruses and spyware.
2. Buy a Mac, participating in an even more frequent (costlier) upgrade pow-wow… but you’ll look trendy while doing it. You’ll get to browse the web, play (a few) games, write haiku’s for your legacy-sounding text-to-speech software, listen to iTunes and other common tasks like reminiscing over I’m a Mac commercials and standing in line for 24 hours to buy a freggin’ cell phone.
3. Decide not to upgrade to Vista at all, eventually exposing your XP system to new security exploits that will never, ever, ever see a repair patch written for them. The lease is up… Perhaps you need something new but you don’t wanna pay anything for it?
4. Switch to Linux, forget about viruses, spyware, bloat-ware or software costing you time and money.

And so comes the question: What the f— is Linux? Linux is open-source software. It is a product that is the sum total of decades of volunteer collaboration made by millions of computer programmers world wide, and is one of the most refined, stable operating systems in existence today. Because it’s open-source, it’s considered public domain. You practically already own your own copy. It can be downloaded, burned, shared, installed on as many PCs as you wish for free.

Is Linux Right For You?

Well, it was right for me. I switched over just a year ago, and it was a lot easier than I thought it would be. Here are the applications I use regularly on my installation of Ubuntu Linux:

Firefox – Web Browsing
Evolution – E-mail
Audacity – Sound editing
Avidemux – Video editing
DeVeDe – Convert AVI to DVD
Gimp – Edit photos; similar to Photoshop
Open Office – Microsoft Office Replacement (can open and save in Microsoft format too)
VMware – Run a Windows XP virtual machine inside a window
Google Earth – View maps of the world and of outer space!
Pidgin – Allows me to chat on Yahoo IM, and about 15 others like AOL or MSN
Skype - Make phone calls around the world
Photoshop – Just kidding, I haven’t installed it, but I could and so could you.
Games – I don’t play games too much, but I recently installed Quake 4 and it runs like a charm. Though I could throw in some Warcraft 3 or WoW if I wanted to. More classic Windows games are on the way.
Much more…

The bottom line is that Linux is an available option to you that is free of charge and of obligation. And switching over to it will afford you the advantage of never having to feel chained to Microsoft’s vendor lock-in (or Mac’s vendor lock-in). You’ll also find yourself not upgrading your PC’s hardware for a few more years, as the use of system resources is much more efficient than Vista’s. And when support for your version of Linux is expired, you can just upgrade to the next version free of charge. So now if you actually need a hardware upgrade, you’ll have the extra dough to do so.

One of my own goals with the redesign of this website is to maximize donation money to the organization. There are a lot of neat things that could be done to make that happen. I’ll be sitting down with a pencil and paper to come up with some design ideas soon, and probably look through some templates. And fortunately a lot of the material/content for the website is already there. Improvements could include separating the grouping of menu links into two separate sets, one set residing in a ever constant footer at the bottom of all pages. Every page needs some sort of “DONATE” button that stands out but isn’t offensive looking. If there are ever fund drives that take place, I’d like some kind of meter or chart that monitors total funds donated. It gives visitors something to watch as they help to make the total donation amounts grow.

I also would like to assist the build crews who actually put their time in to make these houses. There’s a lot of stuff around my house I need to have fixed, so I’ll see how much of this stuff I can learn…and whatever I can’t learn, I’ll know who to bribe for a good deal on carpeting. They call that “Networking.” Being as business is slow and I’ve got a lot of free time on my hands, I’ll probably be able to put in a lot of hours helping put a house up. And thanks to my lovely girlfriend, I have a nice camera to take pictures and video of the construction work, to be later added to the website and even Youtube.

Now…short of hosting a workshop, something I might propose is to see if we can offer people the ability to make donations, not just for sheet rock, carpet, tools, and all that goes into building an entire house, but why not also set aside a small category to donate towards a computer. A computer which I could build for…say…$300 or less new. Something close to that, probably. Heh, you can actually buy new Linux PC’s from Wal-Mart for that price right now, so it’s easily achievable. Or perhaps simply accept old computers as donations and refurbish them by installing a new OS and maybe spending a couple bucks on a RAM upgrade or something cheap like that. Then give the PCs to the new family/occupants of these community built houses. You might even be able to get Cox to donate a year of free high-speed Internet access, if they’re afforded sponsorship credit for it. Though this is just my idea; they might not go for it. We’ll see…

Anyway, I’ll be having some fun with this project and write updates about it as things progress.

I like to dream about the future…a lot. I am, what Alan Watts might call, a bit of a gooey type of person….as opposed to prickly and dry type (I’ll let you figure that out on your own, my friend). Anyway, in order to predict the future, you must triangulate trends of the here and now. Everything has a future trajectory of some kind, and when you have a open mind, it’s easier to let go of the past and look ahead. I shall throw caution to the wind and boldly predict where I see technology going in the future. I am not an economist. I am not a scientist. And I don’t believe the end of the world is on December 21, 2012. But all of these things have something to say that’s worth taking into consideration. (Even the 2012 bit…you’ll see).

Now I must apologize in advanced to you. I sometimes have a tendency to write way too much. I’ll do my best to keep my post lengths to a minimum. Something you might want to do is add my RSS feed to your web browser or feed aggregator so you can keep tabs on my latests postings and never fall behind.

That is all I will write for now. Welcome! Enjoy your stay. Care for a Newcastle?