Thank You Tech Show

I want to thank the Tech Show for another awesome year.  5 years.  Wow.  To think….I JUST got my old Powerbook back then and I do not have it anymore.  My son was only 4.  I was a budding sysadmin.  Linc and Dann moved.  It’s incredible to me the amount of content they have created and ha ave provided over the years.  Thank you to Linc, Dann, Allan and Pat.  We’ll see you at OLF!….

Oh…..DANNN FAAAARTING!  

Happy Birthday!

Technorati Tags: Linux, Tech Show, Podcast

LUGRadio Ending After 5 Seasons

Say it isn’t so!  After LUGRadio LIVE in the UK, the blokes at LUGRadio are hanging up thier microphones for good.  For details, listen to the latest LUGRadio.

Testing!

I discovered Drivel today. It makes it super easy to make blog posts when the bandwidth is at a premium.

How did I find it?? I just was browsing through synaptic and found it. Pretty sweet.

iPod Hash Defeated

For those who don’t know, the new iPods all would not work initially with Linux.  The reason is the iPod checks for a hash that is written by iTunes to the iPod.  If the hash isn’t there, even id the files and the iTunes DB on the iPod are in the correct format, the iPod will show no music on it.  Well, the inventive hackers have found a way:

“iPod Classic Will Be Supported – Amarok Blog
correct” solution is for folks to stop using Apple products. The iPod might have its own version of DAAP’s iTunes 7 which has a checksum more difficult (apparently) to crack. But for the time being, things are fine.”

Some say that the solution to avoid this is to not buy iPods, however I have yet to find a mp3 player that does not have a horrible interface.  The interfaces sometime let you do too much where the iPod only let’s you do what you need when your using the player.  The only thing I wish iPod’s would do is let me delete a file from the iPod.  Other then that, I am happy with it.  The other thing is integration.  As I listen to music and podcasts on it, it keeps track and when I plug in to iTunes, it will  update the play counts.  Also, iTunes has smart play lists.  I can create a playlist that changes on a daily basis and it will automatically change things.  I have a play list that has only unheard podcasts in it. I also have one I use each holiday season that looks to see if the song has been played in the last year and once I play everything once, it goes away and I don’t hear the song again until I change the date on the playlist.  There’s so many ways why I like the iPod.  Sure it doesn’t play oggs, but I frankly don’t care.  Until someone makes a MP3 Player that is as good with the interface and integration as the iPod, Apple will continue to rule the market.

If the Linux zealots figure that out, then they too can do what Apple has done.  To be a success, here’s what’s needed:

1.  Same or better interface as a iPod.
2. Total integration.  When something is played on the iPod, it should also update the counts when it is synced back up to the desktop.
3. iTMS support isn’t possible.  How about doing what Amarok has done and integrate Magnatune?
4. Support MP3, WAV, Unprotected AAC and possibly Unprotected WMA(but that may not be possible).  OGG support is ok too as well as FLAC.  For video, support non protected iPod video and Xvid.  Also, H.264 should be supported as well.  Sure, add Theora in there too.

If open source can’t do this, then Apple will continue to rule the space.  Don’t bitch about Apple, start trying to be BETTER then them!  Think different for once!  (wait, isn’t that what Apple has done??)

Slashdot | Richard Stallman Proclaims Don’t follow Linus Torvalds

Slashdot | Richard Stallman Proclaims Don’t follow Linus Torvalds

This confirms it….Richard Stallman is a LOON!   I guess I hate freedom because I think Linus is/was a genius!

X11 Forwarding, Exceed, Putty and SSH Tunneling

Wow. Why haven’t I done this sooner??

For at least a year, I have had a license for Exceed at work. I have never thought about using it too much except for the lone Oracle install since Oracle wants/needs java to install (which pisses me off, but that’s for another post). Anyway, our new DBS who’s kind of new to the AIX environment asked how to run the oracle installer and thankfully he had a consultant with him that knew how, but then I got to thinking, why haven’t I done this with my laptop?

Started messing around and ran a couple apps and now I find it REALLY useful. For example, I run Banshee as a podcast catcher on my laptop. I now run it on my Windows machine via Exceed and I can use the BIG monitor and be able to navigate things so much easier.

The best part is it looks like Banshee is running directly on my desktop even though only the display is running on my desktop with the client running on my laptop.

Even better….when you start something playing on the desktop, it comes out on my laptop’s speakers! Now all I have to do is figure out how to get bluetooth headphones working on Linux and I can use it to listen to podcasts instead of a iPod.

Apple Silently Starting to DROP PowerPC Platforms

This week Steve Job’s announced the new iMacs, iLife ‘08 and iWork ‘08.  Well, the one thing that I don’t seem to remember seeing until people who still have a dual G5 1.8GHz iMac or a G4 Powerbook ran out, bought it and then discovered it’s hard coded to only run on the G5 1.9 Ghz and of course the Intel based Macs.

This, I feel, is a bit too early to do it.  Also, even though there is a big push to go “HD” there are MANY of us who have yet to take the jump.  With that said, I feel there’s still a large need to edit standard definition video.  High Definition is nice looking and all, but some things like family events don’t necessarily need to be filmed in HD.  Also, a 1.0 GHz or higher CPU CAN edit video and play video very well.  I should know…I do it.  Granted, I don’t do HD, but I still do some standard def every once in a while.

What this all boils down to is a artificial limitation.   Apple has put a artificial limitation on the software because they seem to be ready to leave the G4 and G5 owners in the dust.  Even those who bought their G4 Powerbook a month before the Intel MacBook’s came out.  The G4 itself is still a very capable processor and my Powerbook is still pretty speedy.

Yes, rendering is a bitch on my G4, but it works.  It’s slow, but it works fine.  I just start the render before bed and it’s usually done by the morning.

I am sure glad Linux does not put these limitations in…AT ALL.  Don’t believe me?  Try it.  Get a Ubuntu CD and install it on a 800 MHz machine.  Yep….it works.  Might be a bit slow, but it works.  The FOSS community DOES NOT put artificial limitations in their software.  They let US make the decision if we want a unresponsive machine.

Gee, thanks Steve.  Thanks for thinking I am a moron.

ISG and Ardour GTK

I have started a new podcast called The Incredible Shrinking Geek  on podshow.  This show will kind of chronicle my weight loss program of sorts as well as provide people with hints on how I got around things like eating out and more.  It’s located at:

http://incredibleshrinkinggeek.podshow.com

Anyway, as I want to always have the ability to record this show, I decided to use Ardour as the editor.  Ardour runs on Linux and is a full Digital Audio Workstation.  It can also record multi tracks as well.  It’s a bit complicated but it does work.  It uses another program called JackD which is a audio server on steroids.  It can handle working in realtime if your kernel supports it.  Anyway, take a listen to the show and try Ardour if you want something better then Audacity.

Feisty Fawn is released into the woods and the Lord said, it was GOOD!

Ok, the Lord did not say that but I sure did.  Network Manager installed by default.  Getting ATI drivers working on it was PAINLESS!  Just a couple tweaks to a few things related to suspend and it works pretty well too!  My only complaint, is every once in a while, the ethernet adapter flys the coop.  I just need to edit the same script I did for the wireless card to have it remove the ethernet module prior to suspend and load it on resume and I think that will fix that too.

Couple minor things…Desktop effects won’t work without XGL on this machine.  I’ll get around to it (once someone ELSE does).  The main issue with this is the ATI driver yet again.  Why in the world in this day and age ATI doesn’t release a driver capable of compositing is beyond me.  This same care would likely work perfectly on Windows Vista in the super cool idiot mode.  Anyway, I can live without this for a while and I have to say that Ubuntu is a premier distro now and is now THE distro I use and recommend.  I even would recommend it to total geeks as it’s EASY to setup.  Geeks don’t ALWAYS like the hard road….I have a life too and if it takes me a long time to get things like LAMP working, well screw that distro.  I also don’t have the time to go through many different ACPI scripts to figure our why my laptop won’t suspend/resume properly (even Microsoft screws this up).  So I use a distro that is easy to install and to get working.  Anyway, have fun and give it a try!

Fiesty Fawn Install Awaits This Weekend

Fiesty Fawn is released finally and I am looking forward to using it.  I will likely install it sometime tomorrow after I have some time to backup some info.  One thing that I will do is try the upgrader first.  After that, I will reinstall automatix if it goes ok.  I do have the iso, so if all goes bad, I will have a backup so I can do a fresh install, if I must.

Next comes Gutsy Gibbon(Oct)!