Degen.Net – “Get Your Geek On”

As a parent of three teenagers it seams like every time I turn around I’m paying for something, couple this with the fact I’m turning into a real miser these days – and I’m all for any bargain I can find! With this in mind, it was less then thrilling when my son came begging for a new notebook for his birthday, but after a couple of weeks of working mom and myself over, we succumbed to the pressure, and off to the Best Buy we went.

Good Greif that’s Cheap!

Sometimes a good slap in the face is what a jaded IT guy like myself needs, and the trip to a big box retailer to purchase a prebuilt system, rather then the Fry’s do it yourself approach, was indeed enlightening. Illuminating that is, as to just how clueless the average retail sales guy is; but he was efficient enough to take my money and get us out of the store with a shiny new HP/Compaq. It was a Compaq Presario C751NR to be exact, with decent specs – AMD X2 Mobile chip, 1 Gig of Ram, and an ample 120 GB HD. But the shocker – Out the door under $500!

Just Say No – to Vista that is

On the drive home my son began to question which OS he should run on the new system. Of course it was preloaded with some Vista Home Shit edition, and I suggested that we reload it; figuring on a version of XP Pro. He heartily agreed, say that he (my non-geek son) had heard nothing but bad things about Vista. But he shocked me when he asked, ”Dad, I want that cool looking one you run, what’s it called… Ubeny?” I grinned on both the inside and out, as I corrected him, Ubuntu, to which quickly agreed that was the one he wanted, as it, “Just looks so cool!”

What the Duce? Wireless always just works…

Now at home the hard drive wiped of the vile interloper, Vista, we quickly loaded Gutsy, Ubuntu 7.10 (possibly the most gorgeous release of any distro, I’ve ever used.) Install was uneventful and all the hardware was detected on this very new model notebook, but no WiFi. Not that the Atheros nic was not detected – it appeared in the Restricted Drivers – but just didn’t work. However, after about an hour of searching around on Ubuntuforums I did find a solution (Click here if you are interested.) This was a bit surprising though as device detection has been on of Ubuntu’s strong points.

All and all this has been a Win/Win/Win. Junior has his new notebook and is happy, I got out of the deal relatively unscathed in the pocket book, and perhaps best of all there is one less system out there running Vista.

Thanks to the OLPC initiative’s XO device rolling out to emerging markets, you can look forward to some changes on your desktop even if you never own one yourself.

The Good, The Bad and the Slender?

There is no doubt that getting technology into the hands of impoverished, and developing youths in these markets will empower a new generation to strive for a prosperity that families and whole villages have never know – that’s certainly good. But while this technology is inherently neutral, these new found skills and tools will present individuals with the opportunity to employ them for positive or nefarious purposes!

“The lure of easy money has a very strong appeal”, Glenn Frey mused in the 80′s classic, Smugglers Blues. And while the illicit activity might be different, in the case of these SPAMtop syndicates compared to that of the crime lords on Miami Vice, the motive to exploit hapless users is strikingly similar. Armed with new found knowledge, computing power, free time and an untraceable “mess” internet connection, just mix in some abject poverty, lack of social morals and two bit governments with no principals, ethics or will to enforce local laws, much less international ones, and you have all the ingredients necessary for a new wave of fishing and bot-nets the likes of which we have never seen before.

If you think that assertion is a bit alarmist consider this; they don’t call them Nigerian scams for nothing. Heck forget automated spam attacks as we know them today, these can be detected, intercepted and prevented. But not this new generation of attacks, with this kind of man-power, organized cyber-crime rings can just pay kids with XOs to write personal emails to their unsuspecting marks around the world. Not to be overly dourer, but imagine the pour souls that will be duped by these young scammers with the time and tools to not just email, but build phony web sites, hack credit cards, employ social network sites, even hold IM conversations all with the goal of building up the trust of the victim. Mercy, and we thought the Islamo-terrorist where a threat to Western Civilization!

What about the Slender?

Take heart, its not all bad. Another positive upside is the recent availability of affordable and innovative mini and micro sized notebooks. In addition to XOs offering, there are Intel’s classmate PC initiative, and the very well received Asus EEEpc, which unlike the OLPC is targeting the retail market directly with a sub $500 all flash based unit. But more then these specific units, there are new incentives to bring down prices on this segment of the market; which has been very pricy in the past.

So the next time you delete a get rich quick scam email or are contacted by a member of a foreign royal family, enjoy it on your inexpensive sub-notebook and just remember to say thanks OLPC!

The digital home is here, and to feed a hungry media rich world you need a terabyte or more; at least that’s what NAS vendors (Network Attached Storage) are banking on this year. Large hard drives are nothing new, what’s novel for 2008 is the appearance high capacity, inexpensive, consumer friendly NAS systems for the home.

Despite CES 2008 being largely unimpressive, with regards to new innovative product launches, there was one interesting theme that persistent all over the show floor; the appearance of RAID based NAS boxes for the home. In the past home based storage has been limited to external USB or Firewire boxes, but not any more. Thanks to the raise of home networking and the digital lifestyle, every member of the family from parents to teens and even little ones have storage needs.

Here are a few of the standouts in the home storage arena:

Netgear – Ready NAS Duo

HP – MediaSmart Server

Lacie Ethernet Disk mini – Home Edition

The truly unique aspect about these offerings if just how consumer friendly they are! No need to be a network admin or have your local geek force out to install them.

If you have been looking to add storage to your home computer this is the method you should employ, any of the above products will do wonderfully.

I’ll gladly concede that backend web server technology is about as sexy as a 1980s’ Volvo 240GL. But having said that, the good folks at Apache friends are making a hot rod out of these mundane, but critical applications.

The XAMPP project is an easy to install and configure bundle containing the Apache web server, MySQL, PHP and Perl. The emphasis here is on EASY! If that does not sound appealing, then you have not experienced the full pain of trying to deploy these services individually. XAMPP eliminates these wows with an all inclusive package for Linux, Mac, Windows and Solaris. Oh, and did I forget to mention you get all this for free.

Recently I deployed the Linux package onto a Ubuntu 7.10 server in my office. The process was painless, and I was able to deliver web services to my designer in less then 30 minutes.

So next time you are setting up a web server do yourself a favor – install XAMPP!

Now I realize I’m not the target demographic for high end gaming systems, but is it a prerequisite that all of the fastest systems on the planet be enclosed in oversized hideous, demonic or blingified cases? Judging from Cooler Master and many other high end system builders the answer is still a responding – Yes!

While the gamers or going after the seriously “over-the-top” look others like upstarts LimePC and DMP are going green and thinking small and thin. One of DMP’s models is pictured below – bear in mind this fully functioning computer is about the same size as a couple of decks of playing cards.

Lime PC is looking to offer compact form factor systems running a Debian based distro called, you guessed it, LimeOS. But interestingly they will feature not only a fully functioning PC (similar in size to DMPs pictured above) , but a couple of smaller touch screen based models, one a sub 2 pound tablet style system and the other an iPhone/iTouch size system. Lime does not expect to ship till later this year, but keep an eye on them for new systems looking to challenge the conventional PC marketplace.

What happens when you take one part Irish Spring soap, a tin of Altoids and the latest Ubuntu distro? You get Mint Linux – and yummy it is indeed!

No doubt the Linux landscape is full of options – this is perhaps one of the reasons that Linux adoption on the desktop has stalled – So I’m not quick to endorse new comers to the party. With the ease of use, solid performance and growing traction of Ubuntu; I’ve not needed to look to others for most of my needs.

But having said this, I do want to shine the spotlight on Linux Mint. This great distro coming out of the Emerald Isle features an earthy green theme, pleasant for sure and in some ways superior to its parent distro, Ubuntu. With Mint you get the best of many worlds, innovate design and artwork, bundled closed source drivers/apps and the same great repositories that power Ubuntu revs.

One of the best features of Mint, that really sets it apart form its parent Ubuntu, is the inclusion of many must haves like Codecs, Adobe Flash, and proprietary wireless/Nvidia/ATI drivers just to cite a few. Some purists object to the presence of these closed-source packages, but most users find it a great time saver when installing.

So if you what to try something a little spicy and fresh give Mint a try.

As the one year anniversary of Windows Vista rolls around many people will be buying new computers this holiday season, and it seams an appropriate time to post this little Vista buying guide.

Occasionally, I am forced to explain the Vista SKU landscape for customers who are contemplating an upgrade. While I try to explain to them that friends don’t let friends buy Vista – some insist, if you are in a similar position, I’ve prepared this short guide to assist you in your selection process.

Vista Barely Basic – This ships on most low end systems and is designed to force users into immediate hardware upgrades as they discover anything less then 4 Gig of Ram on a multi-core processor will result in performance worse then a 386SX/25 running Windows 95.

Vista Home Worthless – in an effort to target the home market and highlight the new Aero interface, Vista Home Worthless and it’s Media Center equipped sibling, Vista Home Pathetic, boast reduced networking capabilities compared to every previous version of windows and a new 99% game incompatibility mode.

Vista Business Incomplete – Business runs on Windows and what better way to distract employees and reduce worker productivity than to introduce them to this exciting new OS! With new security features like the UAC (Uncontrollable Anytime Crashing) and a new massively incompatible driver model – it will leave both your users and IT support staff in a quandary.

Vista Ultimate (a.k.a. Ubuntu) – The Ultimate edition is simply put, the one you want – and I’m not talking about the $399 dollar one, I’m instead encouraging you to download the latest Free Ubuntu distro. Chalked full of “Eye-Candy” that exceeds the capabilities of any version of Vista, superior driver compatibilities and best of all you will enter a blue screen of death free zone.

Vista Robbins – 31 Flavors of Vista?

Needless to say, its a pretty sad state of affairs when you have practically as many flavors of a Windows operating system as a major ice cream parlor has options for a double cone! Even sadder still when you consider all the offerings of Vista are fundamentally broken.

One year into this latest remake of Windows and I continue to ask where is the Wow? Vista has done it predecessors proud, that is if you count it as the latest member of the Windows ME and MS BOB family tree!

Its month three since I jettisoned Microsoft Word and Excel, and switched to Open Office as my full-time spreadsheet and document editor. And while the experience has been overall very positive, I’m quite disappointed with the spell checker correction algorithm.

Good spell check has always been a big part of my word-processing needs – Yes, I’m a horrific speller – and the heuristics for the auto-correction is just not on par with Microsoft Word.

Also lacking is the facility for managing custom dictionaries. I was unable to easily port my existing Word compatible dictionary; and by easily I mean the ability to do it in under an hour!

I’ll have more updates on my experiences switching in future posts, but for now I need to mind my spelling.

Happy Gutsy Gibbon day! October 18th marks the release of the latest version of the free Linux based Ubuntu distribution. I’m providing the a direct link to the X86 version of the bittorrent images here – as of this writing it’s a little difficult to get the disk any other way due to load.

I’ve been using the 7.10 (Gutsy) Beta/RC for about a month now and find it to be very stable and usable.

Perhaps one of the most exciting new features of this version is the inclusion of Compiz Fusion by default, with Halloween close at hand think of this as a little candy for your eyes! If you are unfamiliar with the Compiz/Beryl/Fusion saga, suffice it to say the new combine efforts of the Fusion team are looking great and it’s nice to see them being included in major distros – Leopard/Vista visuals have nothing on Compiz Fusion.

At any rate this latest release of Ubuntu is a wonderful starting point for those who might be looking to experiment with Linux, and a must have for existing Feisty (7.04) users.

I’ve had an epiphany; not everyone on the internet uses Skype yet, and some of these people are even in my family! If you are now shaking your head in disgust; you feel me, there is no need for you to keep reading. If on the other hand you don’t know of this “Skype” I speak of? Read on – your diligence will be rewarded.

Every now and then a program comes along the so redefines or expands how we use computers that it is termed a Killer App. WordStar and VisiCalc where some of the first such, defining and practically inventing the word processing and spreadsheet markets. In the 80s’ PageMaker, Photoshop and Illustrator did it for desktop publishing. More recently, Mosaic (and its predecessors Netscape, Internet Explorer and Firefox) redefined the way we think of the Internet.

Simply put, Skype is the “Killer App” of today’s internet. For its millions of current users, Skype is an indispensable part of daily life. What does it do? In addition to being a really good text IM client, Skype delivers excellent quality voice/video chat, and it does it for free. Computer to computer calls feature gorgeous clarity with support for up to 10 callers. Solid multi platform support, in addition to the Windows version, the Mac and Linux versions interoperate seamlessly – so no one is left out based on their OS. And for mere pennies a minute you can dial out from your computer to international phones. In fact you can buy a year of unlimited computer to domestic telephone service for a flat $30 – And you thought services like Vonage were a deal!

In addition to superb call quality and free or very discounted phone service, its one of the best VoIP (Voice over IP – or the whole idea of talking over the internet) clients I’ve ever used, due to tight integration with Programs like Outlook, IE and Firefox.

So what are you waiting for, go download it free now – I’m waiting to hear from you.