Gundeep Hora thinks that Microsoft should acquire Linux. Well that just makes perfect sense…wait, what?
Although you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, that method seems to work with guys named “Gundeep”. (via Daring Fireball)
Step By Step: How To Get Free WiFi at Cheap Hotels
I was recently talking to someone at work about how you can get around the wall of cheapness at those hotels that make you pay $30 dollars for wireless internet access. After that conversation I thought it would be a good idea to write up a tutorial, fully explaining the process. Like most of my ideas though, I forgot about it. However, after a looking around at some old bookmarks I stumbled across the fact that Ray Haque had done the work for me and had posted a walk-through for getting free access to hotel WiFi entitled: “Never Pay For WiFi Again” This tutorial won’t be for you Computer Science graduates out there, but for those somewhat computer literate and able to follow instructions this should be right up your alley and make your friends start to call you “Zero Cool” Here’s a sample…
Sure, I have been stuck in a hotel for a few days with absolutely nothing to do. Left alone with my thoughts, one HBO that only plays shit, and a hotel that charges for WiFi access … I have resorted to network violence. Even as I record this post I am starving some poor victim of bandwidth and leaving a trail of utter confusion. Allow me to explain, and before long YOU TOO can steal all of your paid WiFi access.
What you need:
* A WiFi card and an OS that allows you to change the MAC address
* A hotel that charges upwards of $200 a night, and still wants 10 bucks more for WiFi.
Like all handsome, smart and never smelly people, Ray is a “Mac Guy” so his tutorial is OS X centric, but for you Windows folks just download any of the LiveCD versions of Linux and follow the steps he gives and you should be ripping off hotels in no time.
Thanks Ray! Your blog has earned a stay of execution in my bookmark list.
An OS From Google Will Probably Suck
With news breaking today that Google confirmed that it is indeed making “its own OS” that will be called, ‘Goobuntu’. I can’t figure out why everyone is so excited. Let me elaborate…
Of course, they aren’t really making their own OS, they are just tweaking and retrofitting the popular Ubuntu linux distribution to their needs. So although Ubuntu is nice, its still linux and Google would have to do A LOT of work to get any version of linux ready for the masses to use as their desktop OS.
Secondly, whether you believe it or not, at least 50% of what makes an OS useable is the interface. Yeah, we all like features and stability, and you can’t have a good OS without ease of use, a decent features list, and stability, but the GUI interface is a big step to a making widely used OS. The reason I bring this up as “Reason I’m Not Psyched #2″ is because Google tends to make some crappy interfaces. Yes, for the most part GMail works fine, but its interface sucks. We all used to marvel at the simplicity of the Google search page, but can you really give me an example of a good, solid interface that Google has created (Not counting Picasso, because that wasn’t originally Google.)? Stop thinking about it. You can’t.
The third and last reason why this news completely unimpressed me is that the core “computer user group” in the world (I’m talking from Technorati to script kiddies.) sometimes tend to forget that Google is a business. A business that’s goal is to make money. A business that, up till now, has gotten very good at accomplishing that goal. So a “Google OS” isn’t going to be all gum-drops and candy canes. There’s going to be a way to for them to make money off of this. Of course that way will be with ads. Thats all Google does, in case you haven’t noticed, they print ads. So will be the ads be on the desktop? Will the ads be on your file search? Will the video your about to watch be brought to you by Target? Face it. Ads will be in there at some capacity, and if thats the case why would you use their OS as opposed to OS X, or Windows, or any of the hundreds of free, ad-free linux distros?
I know every time Google farts, the IT community stands up and takes a deep breath, but I’m not the least bit excited about this news. Sure they could do something amazing with it, they could change the face of the modern OS, but more than likely, they’ll just revolutionize the advertising business.
Via: The Register
Why I’m Tired Today: Fedora 4 and Samba
[ Attention: Geeky post ahead! ]
So I wiped out my last machine running Windows Saturday night and turned it into my primary Linux server, which now runs Fedora Core 4. Everything was great, except for Samba. I couldn’t get Samba to work at all. I set up the configs the same way I did on the old server, I added the users correctly, I did everything but my iMac just couldn’t connect. It kept returning “Username or password not correct.” or “Share not found.” I had other things to do, but I couldn’t get to them because of this stupid issue hanging over my head!
To make a long story short (and less boring) I finally ran accross something that sovled my problem. Actually there were two problems. In Fedora 4 there is an issue with Samba where the permissions on the /etc/samba/smbpasswd file can not be read. It looksl like the permissions are fine, but the server can’t read that file, and thus can’t find the user information. Problem one solved by touching a file in the root directory (Sorry, I’ll find the exact file when I get back home.) Problem 2 is that, unbeknownst to me, in Fedora 4 directs samba traffic by default through the security module SELinux. So I either had to mark everyfile I wished to share via samba or I could just turn the selinux intergration with Samba off with a command (That I will share when I get home.)
Finally it works…and I only wasted 2 – 3 hours total.
Needed: OS X Backup Program That Doesn’t Suck
A while back, Dan asked for a little technological present and he later got it…kinda. Ok, now its my turn to get stuff I want.
Remember my failed attempt to con Apple’s (.Mac subscriber only) Backup app to work on my iBook? I failed. Twice. Even after a tutorial update to include Tiger, that method is too much work…I’ll do it if I have to, but I want an open source mac backup program. I know there is an open source disk imaging app, and I don’t want disk imaging. I want an open source version of Apple’s Backup app. Here are my requirements:
1. Have pre-loaded locations for the main backup-ed items on a Mac: Preferences, Documents, Safari, Mail, Movies, iPhoto, etc…and have the ability to add locations too.
2. Backup to DVD, CD, and of course WebDAV drives.
3. Multiple Schedules
4. Clean interface.
Is that so hard? Thats all I want. If anyone could make this, they would be my hero. There’s an ever so slight chance that I might get motivated to learn to program for OS X and try to make this myself, but lets me real….thats just not going to happen. Backup software is the one area that the open source area really doesn’t have much to offer. A few mac and windows disk imaging programs, Amanda, which is still stuck on using tapes, and a few other “not ready for prime-time” players. Some wonderfull person should make me a backup program and fill one of the much needed open source backup holes.
…Actually, if someone wanted to make a better version of Amanda, that has a nice interface and isn’t stuck on tapes, to run on linux, I would be ok with that too!
Is Windows A Necessary Evil?
So I’ve pretty much decided that I will be taking the plunge and buying one of the new G5 iMacs when they hit stores here in St. Louis on October 25. Rest assured I will give a full review in a week once I’ve set it up and gotten a chance to play with it a bit. I realize the fact that I’m buying a new computer is not news-worthy, but I think the problem I’m having might be worth a read. The question I have been turning over in my head the past few days is: Should I have at least one Windows machine?
In my current home networking setup, I have: 1 iBook, 1 Windows XP machine, 1 Linux server. When I get my shiny new iMac, my plan was to bump the XP machine to another (faster) Linux server, and move my media files off the older computer to the faster Linux server and then use the older Linux server as a web / asterisk / whatever server. After the initial euphoria of the thought of living in a Windows free house, I got a little worried that I might, at some point need a Windows server. What if I can’t open some a file or a friend’s hard drive? What if I need to run a program that is only on Windows? …etc. Do I really need at least one Windows box or am I just nervous about that annoying yet comfortably easy to use Windows box not being around for the first time in 10 years?
What do you think? If I got with a *nix (fedora and OS X) based world at home (I still have to use Windows at the office), will I be a fool or finally liberating myself? Please, do try to keep the” Windows sux” comments to a minimum, I know it sucks, but the majority of the computing world runs on it, so will I be screwing myself by taking it away?