LincolnBlogs

From the twisted mind of me!

Aug 26

I am a man!

By linc Friends, Home Life, Humor No Comments »

razor
Oh yeah, I have been busy, but I promised myself I would post some stuff as soon as I got a chance. One of the things I wanted to mention was my recent purchase of a straight razor. I bought this shave set from Amazon a few weeks ago and have finally learned how to shave with it without slitting my throat. Really, though, the reason I bought this was I have freakishly sensitive skin and get horrible razor burn just walking past the razor display in a store. The only decent shave I ever had was when I went to a barber and he shaved me with a straight razor. Combine that with Allan bragging about his wickedly cool badger hair shave brush and I was all of the sudden buying a straight razor.

Once I received the razor, I hit youtube for a couple straight razor shaving tutorials (hey I am not stupid), I put in a brand new blade and I was off to the proverbial races. Although I did nick myself a couple times (the worst was on the second shave) this really is not at all difficult and you get fantastic shaves. I highly advocate at least trying this, you will like it, and I can see no easier and inexpensive way to start than with the set I bought. Check it out!

Jun 07

Excessive?

By linc Apple/Mac, Gear, Hardware, Home Life, Humor, Linux, Linux Mint 3 Comments »

laptops

How many is too many? Is this excessive or have I just been watching too many episodes of Hoarders?

Top – Dell Inspiron 15 – My “desktop” machine.
Far left – Macbook 5,2 – Use when I am relaxing in bed with my feet propped up. Pisses me off that I cannot get Linux shoehorned on this properly yet.
2nd left – Acer Aspire One – netbook I use for TLLTS work.
Bottom middle – Acer Aspire 3680 – my main livingroom machine – always tethered to the power cord because I have had it so long the battery only lasts 11 seconds.
2nd right – HP Mini 110 – new netbook and daily carry.
Far right – Thinkpad X31 – dev/test/slush box.

And, of course, these are not *all* my computers. I also have a couple ESXi boxes which run a few virtual servers and an old G3 (upgraded to G4) Blue and White that mostly is a nightstand.

So, what computers do you all have kicking around?

Jun 02

Grassman

By linc Hardware, Home Life, Linux, Linux Mint, S.E.L.F. No Comments »

HP-Mini-110-1125NR

Why Grassman? Well, my preferred method of computer naming is to use Cryptids. You guessed it. That means I got a new (to me at least) computer. I did a little side work in exchange for a 10″ netbook and another Western Digital 1TB MyBook World Edition. I left the choice of netbook open and got a really nice refurbished HP Mini 110-1125NR.

This thing is a sweet little netbook! I was a little hesitant at first because, as you’ll notice in the picture, the trackpad buttons are on the sides, much like my Acer Aspire One. I really really hate that “feature” on the Acer and suspected much the same here as well. Much to my delight, these buttons feel way nicer and are quite comfortable to use. The computer/netbook itself came with 1gb of ram, a 140gb hdd and Windows 7 (somethingorother) pre-installed. Well, that didn’t last long. In fact, it never got booted. I immediately slapped in my USB stick with Linux Mint 9 that had been put on there with unetbootin. I am sure you have all ready reviews about Mint 9 by now, but if you haven’t actually *tried* it, you are surely missing out. In a few minutes, I had Mint 9 on the HP and the only thing I really had to adjust was getting wireless networking working. This is not as difficult as you may think. I clicked the icon on the task bar for restricted drivers and told the machine to install and use the STA driver (yes, I had to initially connect it via ethernet). A quick reboot later and wireless was working perfectly. This machine runs very well, feels quite quick, it feels solid and of good quality unlike some netbooks which are very toyish (?) feeling. It is very sleek and pretty and, in my opinion, the difference between 10 inch and 9 inch display in a netbook is enormous. The only thing I believe i will change about this netbook is to upgrade the ram to the full 2gb. Not insomuch as it needs it, because it runs very well on 1gb, but just because I can and because it is very likely that I will use this computer as a lot more than just a “netbook”.

An odd funny story here is that 1 year ago when Allan and I were at the South East Linux Fest, we went to BestBuy to waste a little time. There I bought a neoprene netbook sleeve for my Acer Aspire One. The only decent one they had was this black one with some designs on the outside for a 10 inch HP netbook. Imagine my surprise when it occurred to me that that netbook sleeve is the one that actually matches my new refurbed 10 inch HP netbook. Reunited at last!

Apr 11

Linux at the BBQ

By linc F/OSS, Home Life, Linux No Comments »

Jimmys BBQ

How do you know that Linux is becoming main stream? You start running into it in the strangest places.

I just took my kid out to get some food at a BBQ place that I have passed several times. The place is called Jimmy’s BBQ in Malvern, PA. Man oh man, this place has got some good BBQ and the Mac-n-Cheese is to die for! While I was placing my order at the counter, the proprietor looked at my Official TLLTS T Shirt (buy one now) and says, “Hey, do you know Eric Raymond?” I said that in fact, I have met him before and he says that Eric likes to frequent the place as well. Well, after having some of the BBQ there I can see why (yummy).

Unfortunately, Eric didn’t show up while I was there or I would have bought him a sandwich, but my daughter and I enjoyed ourselves anyway. Perhaps sometime Eric will take me up on that sandwich offer (Whatcha think Eric?). Until then I will continue to go to Jimmy’s for some good BBQ, and continue to be impressed that not only did those guys know something about Linux, but were even familiar with Eric too (although I suspect he may have had something to do with the former)

Apr 10

New NAS

By linc Gear, Hardware, Home Life No Comments »

WD 1Tb MyBook World Edition

Wow! Long time no post! I didn’t realize it had been so long. Lots of things have happened since I last wrote here. I had a little vacation time where I did pretty much nothing, I had a great belated birthday party that many of my friends attended, and I finally got my new NAS.

I really needed a new NAS. I keep running out of room on my old 500Gb NAS, which holds all my backups and media files and such. I have been putting off getting a new one for a long long time (I am a great procrastinator). Finally I broke down and picked up a Western Digital 1TB MyBook World Edition. I quite like it!

This NAS, priced around $170 depending on where you buy it, is actually pretty featureful. It offers cifs, afs and nfs filesharing, has optional ssh login ability and serves an itunes share and streaming media share. This NAS uses green technology, so not only does it automatically go into powersaving mode when not in use, but it uses a low power drive as well, so very little heat, no fan noise, and very low power draw. The gigabit ethernet affords decent speed on data transfers and the built in software is easy to setup and use and will let you get things like individual user accounts running quickly.

All in all, not a bad NAS for the price. In fact, this is probably the most inexpensive NAS I looked at with the featureset I needed. I have never yet been disappointed by Western Digital and that holds true on this purchase as well.

Mar 16

Wireless anyone?

By linc Gear, Home Life, Linux Mint 1 Comment »

Belkin-G

A while back I was talking about wireless problems with my wife’s Compaq laptop. That laptop’s wireless card has never worked well and I mentioned that I was now in the market for a USB wireless dongle for it as I couldn’t find a replacement mini pci-e wireless card that would work.

This weekend while laptop shopping I ran across a Belkin Wireless G USB Dongle at a Target store. I decided to bring it home and try it and it works perfectly. The only issue I had is I needed to remove the old wireless pci-e card because network manager kept switching between the two randomly.

If you are looking for a wireless USB dongle that works, at least, on Mint 8, this is it and it was only $30 at Target. Honestly, I should have just went this route long ago and forgone the hassle of trying different mini pci-e cards.

Mar 16

LackRack

By linc Gear, Home Life No Comments »

lackrack

So you have some servers at home like I do. What do you put them on? Where do you put them? Well, for quite a while I had them sitting on a table, out in the open, right at ear level. Obviously this is not an optimum placement. In fact, it can get downright annoying with the noise and all. Servers really should be in a rack, but what if you dont have the space or can’t afford one? Enter the LackRack.

This website is a great resource for the LackRack, but essentially, it’s an Ikea “Lack” endtable, which just happens to be the correct size to fit rack-mountable equipment between the legs of the table.

lackrack

In my case, my servers were a little longer than would fit inside the endtable version. Luckily enough, Ikea makes a “Lack” coffeetable too! This is what the LackRack people refer to as a LackRack Enterprise Edition

As you can see, the Enterprise Edition has a middle rack drawer board that comes in handy for your first couple U worth of servers. It’s surprisingly sturdy too! For the grand sum of $20, I purchased my LackRack and set it up in just a few minutes and I think the results speak for themselves. The look is stunning in comparison to what it was before (wish I had pictures of the ugly mess to show) and the new rack cuts down on the noise considerably. I think having the servers closer to the floor and having a surface above them to deflect the sound helps quite a bit.

All in all, this is a wonderful way to inexpensively rack some equipment. Do check it out and if you get a LackRack for your house, share some pics!

Mar 16

A Yeti of a different color.

By linc Hardware, Home Life, Linux, Linux Mint No Comments »

So I sold my Mac Mini and my old Linux desktop machine burns up (cpu temp over 100 celcius). I need a new computer right? Well, the Best Buy run didn’t work out so well, so I started looking at other local stores for somewhere that had a decent laptop / desktop replacement that appeared to be, or mostly to be Linux compatible.

What I found, while browsing through store ads online was that Staples had a Dell Inspiron 15 for sale for just over $500. This machine sports a dual core proc at 2.2ghz, 15.6 inch widescreen with the Intel GMA 4500, 350gb hdd, 4gb ram and a Dell wireless card (rebadged Broadcom). The best part was I actually knew a friend who ordered 3 of these and had Ubuntu on at least one of them. Viola! Instant Linux Laptop!

Of course, these things are never that easy…

I ran out and picked one of these up and *just* as I was about to press enter to start formatting the drive, I notice that there is 1 dead pix3el in the middle right-hand side of the screen. Back it goes and I grab another (this one sans dead pixel). Mint 8 looks beautiful on this machine as I install it. Everything is peaches until I go for configuring the wireless. Now I am intending on using this machine as a desktop replacement, hooked to ethernet, but hey, if I have wireless, it should work. Right?

Well, I had a dandy of a time getting things to go like they are supposed to. Wireless on this laptop seems to be added under the “Hardware Drivers” or “Restricted Drivers” modules. What popped up was an STA driver and another that I cannot seem to remember at the moment. I, unfortunately, did NOT chose the STA driver. This started the maddening process where I fiddled with things and cussed at my computer for HOURS and could not get the wireless to work. After obtaining a sore throat that way, I decided to try the STA drivers. Well, once you installed the other drivers, whether or not you KEEP them installed, you CANNOT get the STA drivers installed. Each install failed, frustrating me even further. Eventually, I just did a clean reinstall and picked the STA drivers. Wireless worked perfectly after that.

After all that, it was time to put my desk back together with the new laptop. I really like the clean look of the desk now. Not as much screen realestate, but it’s tidy looking and feeling. I also purchased a Logitech wireless kb/mouse combo and I absolutely love it. And did I mention that this new machine absolutely smokes the previous two combined?

I named this monster Yeti, which is a re-use of the name of my Mac Mini. This machine, however, is black, so I guess it really is a Yeti of a different color. Hey, who says Yeti have to be white anyhow right?

Mar 16

Best Buy?

By linc Customer Service, Home Life, Linux, Linux Mint No Comments »

More like goodbye…

Friday night I go to Best Buy to check out their 17″ Gateway laptop. I bring my trusty Mint Live cd so I can check things out real quick like before I buy the thing.

When I get into the store, I am, greeted by one of the blueshirts who asks if he can help. I explain I am there for a laptop, I brought my Live cd there to do a hardware compatability check before I buy it. He says just don’t install anything on the demo machines and I say no problem, it should only take me a coupe mins to check things out.

A few minutes later (still booting the live cd) the “supervisor” whiteshirt guy comes storming over to me saying “you can’t do that!”. Do what? Install “stuff” on computers… (Mind you I already have permission) I am not installing anything, just checking hardware compat for Linux – I need to buy a laptop. Supervisor says “Linux will run fine on it”. I look at the screen and I X is trying to start so I say it’s almost done. Supervisor steps in between me and laptop, rips out cd, pushes it at me and says “you can’t do this and if you don’t like it I can get someone to escort you out of the store”.

Needless to say I didn’t buy a laptop from Best Buy that night – or any other. What I *DID* do, when I got back home was to send nastymails to everyone at Best Buy I could find an email address for. I simply cannot deal with mean and nasty customer service people anymore and I do not have a problem writing emails to complain about it. Honestly, if this guy would have pulled his attitude with my wife while I was watching, someone would have had to bail me out of jail. You all know the type – I have even had the misfortune to have to work with the Joe Powertrip people like this before. Further, I did a little research on the Laptop I was unable to complete looking at in the store and found that there are some Linux issues with the i3 procs and perhaps even the Atheros wlan and Intel HD video too. This means that the “supervisor” guy was not only a butthead but was giving bad technical advice too. As a technical guy myself, that is not cool. If you don’t know the answer and do not understand the technology, at least be man enough to cop to it and go find the correct answer.

It’s unfortunate that this all went down like it did because I have a best buy store credit card and have previously been quite happy with my purchase experience there. It is, however, difficult to want to go shopping at a store that the manager threatened to throw you out of though.

Update: I was called on monday evening by the store manager who apologized profusely. He asked if I felt my experience had negatively impacted my decision to shop there in the future. No kidding, he really asked that.. DUH. Anyhow, I told the store manager there that I thought this guy should be, at least, retrained, that he was intentionally mean and that the technical people there should indeed be technical people. He asked if there was anything he could do to make my experience better. There isn’t, just make sure this crap doesn’t happen again. This morning I started getting emails from Best Buy Corporate. Who says the pen is not mightier than the sword?

I will probably not shop there, at least for a while, but maybe this whole debacle can turn out to be a win for Linux users who want to check hardware compatibility? Maybe…

Mar 16

Hard (mostly) Weekend.

By linc Home Life No Comments »

Wow. Where do I even begin….

A little while back I was talking about getting a new desktop machine, or buying a laptop for a desktop replacement perhaps. Well, I procrastinated and, sure enough, my old desktop machine burned itself up on friday evening and would no longer stay running for more than a few seconds at a time. To top that off, I thought that I could use a little extra cash for my new machine so friday afternoon I decided to sell my mac mini, the only other desktop machine I had, and it sold almost immediately. Therefor, I had, in essence, no desktop machine by friday night. I had to reformat, reinstall OSX on the mini to get it shipped out on saturday morning.

I decided to go to best buy to check out this 17″ Gateway Laptop they had, for a desktop replacement. That turned out the be a debacle and giant time suck. More on this in a later post.

I ended up getting a new laptop (or should I say two) at Staples the next day (again, more in a later post), mailing off the Mac Mini, preping for a house warming party I was going to (made some of my yummie macaroni salad). Did some config of the new laptop and cleaning/reorg of my desk.

This is the good part. I went to friends house warming party and had a good time there for a few hours. Found out I really like home brewed Maple Mead. Mmmmmm Delicious!

Sunday is when I found out that the mechanic was going to rip me off. Took the car to the shop for a little rip in the sidewall of a tire and figured might as well do oil change, inspection (due next month), etc. at the same time. Well, the car’s tire was fine but needed a new brake hose and new shocks and parts not available until monday.

Monday had to mail my Nokia n800 I sold over the weekend and then wait around all day to pay for and pick up my car. I kept calling the garage to get updates on my car, as it was talking them en exceedingly long time, and had to deal with the snippy counter guy there. Finally put my Lackrack together to clean up my livingroom a bit too.

Whew, I am glad it’s tuesday