Quick Note: Server Migration
As you have probably noticed, over the last few days this website has been experiencing intermittent outages. That is because I have been migrating the web server to a newly imaged Linux box. The migration has been fairly rocky but I am confident that it will be completed by the end of the week. In any case, those websites that have already been migrated should remain fairly stable from this point on.
The greatest issues that I’ve had so far are MySQL databases and backups. MySQL issues have been resolved but issues with the backups are still causing problems. For some reason they are running in a constant loop, causing the processor usage to spike and slow everything else to a halt. I have temporarily disabled the service until the problem can be sorted out.
The only client side issue that you might notice at this point is that mod_rewrite is not currently functioning meaning that some bookmarks, namely for Joomla! sites, will not work. I expect to resolve that issue as soon as possible.
Why I use Linux
People ask me often why I use Linux, really why I don’t use Windows because most don’t even know what Linux is. This post will outline a few of my reasons. Before I start, I would like to point out that I use Linux, Mac, and Windows (in that order) and have a good bit of experience with all of the above.
Reason #1: Efficiency
My biggest reason for using Linux is efficiency. Linux is, hands down, the most efficient OS when it comes to resource usage. That means that I can use every bit of my processing power for whatever I’m working on rather than for a resource hungry OS like Windows. It also means that I can install Linux on decade old hardware and use it like a normal computer. The best part is that Linux doesn’t slow down like Windows does. My Linux machines run just as fast today as they did years ago when I set them up.
Reason #2: Maintenance
Another huge motivation for me was the lack of a need to do constant maintenance on my machine. With Windows there is always the need to keep virus protection updated, install software updates, keep the file system and registry clean, etc… With Linux, viruses are nearly nonexistent, software and OS updates are all in one place and found automatically, the file system keeps itself clean, and the registry simply doesn’t exist. Yet another plus, most software installs and updates don’t require a restart. They just work. With all the time I save not doing maintenance, I can do other stuff like write this post.
Reason #3: Software
A great advantage of using Linux is the availability of millions of free software packages. On Linux, there is software for almost anything you could think of ; and the vast majority of it is in one place. All you have to do is open your package manager of choice and type something in the search box. Better yet, you can batch install from terminal. This too saves me countless hours previously wasted looking for software to accomplish obscure tasks.
Reason #4: Ease of Use
I love Linux because its just easy. It functions in a way that makes sense. Even the terminal shell is written in such a way to make it easy to learn and much more powerful than its Windows equivalent. For this reason, I feel fully comfortable recommending Linux to my clients, knowledgable or otherwise. Even for a beginner Linux (especially distros like Ubuntu) just works. Gone are the days of complicated config files that plagued earlier versions of Linux. Everything just works.
Reason #5: Reliability
Linux is extremely reliable. It is rock solid and easy to repair when something does go wrong. It is also much better than other systems at alerting you to potential hardware failure. Altogether, Linux is the hands down solution where stability is a must.
In Conclusion:
Linux is a very mature, stable, and easy to use platform that takes care of itself so that you can get straight to work without having to deal with taking care of the OS.
Windows 8 – Developer Preview: First Thoughts
Recently, I spent my first free time in months installing and experimenting with the Windows 8 Developer Preview. For those who are not quite up to date with the development of Windows 8 I will attempt to sum up the differences. With Windows 8, Microsoft is attempting to create an OS that will run on phones, tablets, netbooks, laptops, and desktops. Toward this end, they have replaced the desktop/start menu with their metro user interface. Applications are launched from this interface into a full screen window similar to Android or iOS. A desktop application is also available that allows certain programs to operate similarly to the way they did in older Windows versions and provides similar experience to the old Windows desktop with the exception of the start button which has been removed. Again any application that is not launched as a part of the desktop app will run in full screen mode.
Generally Speaking
Being that the metro interface is likely the most controversial change from previous versions of Windows; most of the following will relate to it. First, though, there are a few other interesting changes to Windows that deserve to be mentioned.
As with other post XP versions , Windows 8 has a much faster install process that previous Windows versions, finishing in about 15 minutes. The first major change I noticed is that user accounts are now cloud based by default. I think the integration with your Microsoft ID is rather useful and a major step in the right direction with great potential. I am excited to see to what level Microsoft takes it. Unfortunately, unlike the setup, Windows 8 boots much slower than 7 and really doesn’t seem to have any better performance than previous versions. This is not really a problem on traditional computers but could pose an issue to the much lower powered touch devices.
Metro – General
Much to my surprise, I actually like some of the tweaks to the user interface that are evident in Windows 8. I have noticed a greater attention to detail across the UI and I am really impressed. I like the idea of having a dashboard like the metro interface and, with a few tweaks, I could see it being very useful to those who may not know quite as much about computers being able to complete simple tasks like reading emails in a more controlled environment. My two major criticisms regarding metro is that app tiles can be different sizes but that, as far as I could tell, the size is dictated by the app rather than the user. Also that app pages that are not in focus are visible to the side of the app page in focus. These are more visual complaints than functionality.
Metro -Touch Devices
As a touch enabled OS; I believe Microsoft has nailed it. Windows 8 provides a nice medium between the rigidity found in iOS and the complete freedom found in Android. I am confident that, where I to pick up a Windows 8 phone or tablet tomorrow, I could use my existing experience to learn my way around rather quickly. Where I may not be thrilled with the interface, I believe the functionality is good and the UI is well optimized for touch.
Metro – Traditional Computers
On the traditional computer I begin to see problems with the metro style interface. It is workable but not really optimal. Compared with Windows 7, it is a nightmare for productivity. The exception here is that, for less skilled users who may not need to run multiple windows together, metro provides a much more controlled interface. Even still, it has a long way to go. If there were one change that I could make here, it would be to allow the option of a traditional start menu while running the desktop app. That would minimize the productivity constraints while leaving the rest intact.
Metro – Virtual Machines
Before I start, I would like to remind the reader that I have not spend an extended amount of time working with Windows 8 and therefore I am working from the default config. Some of these problems might be resolved by potential UI tweaks. I did not see any options to resolve any of the below issues but I didn’t look very hard either.
The metro UI as it relates to a virtual machine is horrendous. The aspects that make it slightly annoying as the host OS make it nearly unusable in a virtual machine. The radii set for things like the start button and the sidebar, things that someone who has need for a virtual machine in the first place is likely to interact with, are so minute that the user has to slow the mouse to a crawl to avoid losing focus on the virtual machine window altogether. The solution for this at the host machine level, would be to disable automatic releasing of the mouse by the virtual machine. Unfortunately, that makes for a rather clumsy solution and lost productivity at least initially.
I’m back…I think…
Life has been rather hectic since my early blogging days but hopefully I will be able to post a bit more in the near future. Also, I’ve noticed a lot of typos and grammatical errors in previous posts. I hope to be able to go back through and fix those problems at a later date.
As a general note, I’ve just run a few updates on the script that powers this website that appear to have broken the template. I will try to take a quick look at that soon as well. Now back the the madness…
Switched to Linux
This probably won’t come as a surprise to anyone who reads this blog on a regular basis. To those who don’t, it may…I don’t know. Anyhow I am switching cold turkey to Linux. I have been a Windows guy for years but I along with many others have become frustrated with Windows in general. I was also looking for a change because, as a tech, I work with Windows machines all day long and quite frankly, by the time I get home, I am fairly sick of them.
Right off the bat I realized that the switch was going to be painful. As someone who has spent years as a Windows power user, I have hundreds of programs that I have grown to rely on that I no longer have the ability to use in a new OS. This has actually become a really good thing though because I have been able to take stock and eliminate a lot of the Windows programs I needed.
The first groups of software that I realized I wouldn’t need were the anti-virus and maintenance software that Windows relies on. I have no need to clean out junk files or my registry, I don’t have to worry about viruses, and really don’t have to do much maintenance at all. This not only takes one more task off of my plate but it also offers a substantial performance increase because the software that was running all the time, scanning files in real time, and monitoring network traffic is no longer there.
The next thing I had to think about was finding replacements for software that I still needed. This was actually easier than I expected. By default, most distros of Linux come with software that covers all of the functionality that we have come to expect in Windows. I had already switched to Google Docs for word processing so I didn’t need software for that but for those who do, OpenOffice.org is a great alternative. I have managed to find software for pretty much everything except for video editing. There are several good editors for Linux but nothing that I have found in the Fedora repositories. My one complaint as far as the basic system goes is the fact that samba, as a server, does not generally come preinstalled. Networking with non-linux computers can be a bit of a pain for beginners.
Now for my big problem and the reason that I left my Windows partition alone. None of my games will run correctly in Linux. The problem is most likely due to a driver issue but nonetheless I have been so far unsuccessful in my attempts at running Windows only software. The good news is that between virtual machines and dual booting, I have a temporary fix for the problem while I work to get it actually resolved.
My Kindle
Recently I have recieved several recommendations that I purchase a Kindle. For those who don`t know, the Kindle is Amazon’s ereader. Honestly, I was rather skeptical as to the usefulness of a greyscale, non-touch device in a world populated with devices like the iPad and ots Android and Windows phone equivalents. I have been pleasantly surprised, however with the performance of this device in my rather demanding workload.
That said,there are a few things that I find frustrating. The most annoying thing about the device to me is its lack of number keys and common punctuation keys on the physical keyboard. For these keys,you must navigate through a symbols menu. It is understandable though when you consider the fact that its intended use is as an ereader and not a web browser. I am also having to get used to moving a mouse with arrow keys rather than a moue or touch pad. My only real beef with the device is the fact that the screen takes a split second to render an image in greyscale. This is only a mild annoyance.
My very favorite feature and my reason for purchasing the device in the first place is the fact that every Kindle 3G comes with free 3G for life. This is a very useful feature for someone like me wo is consantly in need of an internet connection werever I am. I do have to note though that the bilt in browser is very simple and has no flash support. that really isn’t a problem though considering the device uses 3G.
That’s about it for this post. If you didn’t already guess, this post was entirely on my Kindle on my free 3G.
Windows and Linux…A Conglomeration of Thoughts.
What follows are a few of the Linux related thoughts that have been buzzing around in my brain. They should probably be broken up but oh well. We’ll figure that out lated. WordPress has been updated btw…
Topic 1: Sluggishness
Over the past months I’ve been using Fedora 14 Linux on both my laptop and my work laptop and thus the majority of my computing. Honestly I haven’t missed windows at all. With the exception of a few games and possibly some of my video software I have all of my applications or their equivalents and am really missing nothing. What I am missing (if you could call it that) is the sluggishness. Right now I am typing on a netbook with 2GB of ram and an atom processor that is moving much more quickly than my tri-core desktop with 4.5GB of ram running windows 7.
The interesting thing is that graphically, the way I have gnome configured, it’s actually looking just as good if not better than Windows. In fact, the only GUI element I miss is the snap feature in Windows 7. Fortunately for me, gnome 3 includes window snapping by default and thus eliminates this problem.
Topic 2: Linux in the Home
Now I know that over the years linux has been the OS for nerds and those who know their way around a computer at a level above the average user so I decided to do a little testing. Over the last months I have reccommended Linux Mint to any client that is still using Windows XP. This is really a win win considering Microsoft wants XP dead as much as I do. To this date, I have not had a single client refuse this trial. First let me say that Linux Mint is one of the most polished Linux distro as far as having most important settings in a GUI. It also has a menu that is similar to the Windows Start Menu. What I have found is that these clients, most of whom are elderly and could barely function with XP are really enjoying Mint. There have been a few minor problems with finding things in the GUI but these were easily resolved. On the other hand there have been quite a few MAJOR problems that have been eliminated by the switch. These clients are no longer plagued by malware, update notifications, sluggishness, and general rot that they had to deal with before.
The bottom line is that Linux is ready for the home. It will take some getting used to but I would highly reccommend that Windows XP users seriously consider the switch. So far, everyone to whom I have gived Linux Mint has loved it. I hope you will find the same to be true for you and your friends. If you would like to download Mint go to http://www.linuxmint.com/ I would reccommend Mint debian because it is a tier two rolling distro meaning that it is very close to it’s parent, Debian, and will never have to be upgraded manually.
Please be advised that Mint is not the only distro that is very user friendly. openSUSE Linux is also very user friendly with a start-menu like interface. For those coming from the mac world, Ubuntu with it’s Unity Interface might be a beter choice. Also if you prefer the KDE environment Pardus is also a viable choice. I would caution, however, against the Linux distros that claim to/attempt to emulate the Windows GUI. Most of these are completely useless and very difficult to use.
Topic 3: KDE vs GNOME: Which GUI can I taaaake?
There are two main desktop environments for the average Linux user. These are Gnome and KDE. There are several differences between the two which I will attempt to outline.
Gnome: Gnome is by far my favorite desktop environment for Linux. The recent release of Gnome 3 has made some major changes most of which will be appealing to new users. As far as implimentation goes, I could see both Windows and Mac users happiy using Gnome. It’s pretty simple. The only problem I have with Gnome 3 is the fact that it is very graphically intense meaning that there are alot of visual effects, which translates to efficiency lag if you are someone who is used to moving extremely quickly through the old Gnome 2 style drop-down menu interface. Luckily there are still plenty of ditros using Gnome 2.
KDE: KDE takes a much different approach to the desktop environment than any of it’s competitors. It is entirely module based meaning that instead of one desktop folder, you may have many folders in modules on what could be considered the desktop. You can also have gadgets similar to Windows. This might be a bit of a shock at first but after getting used to it, this method of approaching the desktop can actually be quite useful. To give a general idea, folders on the desktop are treated similarly to the way the Windows program, Fences, handles desktop organization.
Whichever way you go there will be things to get used to but overall both desktop environments have alot to offer and are very easy to master for beginners and experts alike.
If you have any questions feel free to contact me. I am always glad to be of service.
Been a long time…Going too far
No I didn’t forget you. Actually quite the contrary. This blog has been nagging at the back of my mind for some time now but alas the time has been absent. School is wrapping up and with that comes the hoard of end of the year projects. Interestingly enough I have been swamped in my tech life as well with three new computers to fix, all of which have very complex problems. So I take my few minutes between work and home to ponder a few things.
My recent thoughts have focused around the year end awards show in theatre. Essentially it is a night of comedy and parodies of the shows that we have produced throughout the year as well as the mannerisms of some of the people in the class. Honestly the show has quite a bit of potential but sadly all that seems to have been wasted.
What started out as a good show, in my opinion, has morphed into a perverted monster. What once was funny has now been turned to absolute chaos and foolishness. Notice that there is a difference between fun and foolishness.
At this point I would hate to hear what my principal will think the night he comes to watch. He certainly won’t see any of the professionalism that we claim to possess or even a shred of composure.
What really bothers me is the mean spirit in a lot of the jokes being told. Honestly, I don’t find it funny to openly bash a person in such a public fashion. Now I’m not saying that a little picking is bad as long as it is fun for everyone but what I’m talking about is straight up bashing. That should never be allowed. The sad thing is that the teacher, the authority figure that should be reigning in the wildness of less mature high school students, is right at the forefront.
So with all that said what’s the moral of the story. It is simply this. Joking is one thing. Bashing is another. Be very careful not to cross the line and if you notice someone who is crossing the line, take them aside and make them aware of it. A good amount of people do not even know that they are being offensive.
So Bin Laden is dead…
I have been thinking recently about the death of Al-Qaeda leader, Osama Bin Laden. Most of my thoughts have revolved around the reaction that we Americans have had to his death. Honestly I’m glad he’s dead in that He was the heartless killer of many and likely many more in the future and yet deep inside myself I feel a kind of sadness. This sadness stems from the fact that no matter what he did in life, he was a human being who I as a Christian am called to love. Christ died for his sins just as much as he died for mine and never did He make me judge of the sins of others.
All that said, I am by no means saying that his death was unwarranted or that our soldiers were wrong in killing him. He had to be killed because he would not cease in his mission to harm those who didn’t agree with him. He had to be removed to protect those around him. What I do believe is wrong is the attitude of vengeance that I and those around me seem to possess. Even as I write this post I have had to change wording multiple times in order to avoid communicating a sense of superiority and vengeance. Yes he deserved to die but that is not my place to say as a fellow sinner who deserves to die just as much as he did.
I leave with this thought. What degree of sin is to be accepted as good enough to get by. Who is to say who does and does not deserve a given consequence. The bible says hate is the equivalent of murder. That is a heavy concept to process.
Rich Mullins…
I’ve been listening to alot of Rich Mullins music lately and thought I would share. This is one of the few Christian artists who I believe actually get it. So many, it seems, have been caught up in the secular aspect of music. Enjoy! This is the first of a series that covers the entire concert.