Ordinary Man

Cisco AnyConnect in Linux Mint 12 64bit

ed — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 01:44:33 +0000

I had posted before how I used VPNc at my last company. I have since moved on to a different company where they use Cisco AnyConnect as the VPN client. For the past few months I have been using AnyConnect for Windows not really thinking I could get the client for Linux. Out of the blue this evening I decided to search for an alternative I could use and I found this post, which was very helpful. To break it down, this is how it is done.

From the terminal type:

sudo apt-get install openconnect network-manager-openconnect

Once installed, go into Network Connections and add a new VPN connection:

From there you enter the information provided by your IT department. In most cases you will only need to enter information in the VPN tab, specifically the IP address, or host name, in the Gateway field:

Once that is configured you should have a VPN selection in your network icon in the panel, select it to connect to VPN. Red meaning disconnected, green for connected.

To establish a connection a window will open for the VPN connection displaying the IP (or host name) of the VPN gateway. Select the connect button indicated in the red circle in the picture below.

Once a successful connection is established a prompt for you to accept the certificate will open (should only prompt once). Once you accept you should then be prompted to enter your username and password. Provided you entered the correct credentials, you will then be connected.

Aside from having to figure out the correct means of entering the gateway information my company provided to me the configuration was surprisingly simple.

Free Asset Management Database

ed — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 15:38:43 +0000

If you are not aware, I work in IT. Recently, my company was looking for a good asset management software. In my research I came across a large choice of free solutions. In that free allotment I came across one that would be perfect for a small office business or even home office; it’s called IT Items Database and can be found here. The only issue is that it is web based and requires a web server to be running at all times. Luckily for me that was not an issue. I have a media PC I use for watching movies, mostly, that is up all the time and not used on a daily basis and on this machine I run VMware Server. I believe the product has reached end of life but I am sure it can still be found somewhere on the internet. Well on that machine I have a dedicated Linux Mint server. I use Linux Mint 12 on a daily basis on my home desktop machine also but I use the virtual server within VMware for dedicated services, like a web server. Well, because I have so many devices in my home (what home doesn’t these days?) that I decided to test out the ITDB for my own assets. Here is what I did.

First, I followed this guide to install LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP). Basically, in Linux Mint, at the terminal you type:

sudo apt-get install lamp-server^

Then, if you want to manage MySQL, install phpmyadmin by typing:

sudo apt-get install libapache2-mod-auth-mysql phpmyadmin

For a complete guide just check out the link above.

Next, I went to Sivann’s software and downloaded IT Items Database and followed his installation instructions. For Linux Mint I copied the ITDB folder to /var/www and renamed the database file per his instructions. Thereafter I had to give the database file and the directory permissions so that Apache could have access to it. Here is what I performed:

sudo chown www-data itdb.db; chmod u+w itdb.db sudo chmod u+w itdb.db sudo chown www-data /var/www/itdb/data sudo chmod u+w /var/www/itdb/data/ sudo chown www-data /var/www/itdb/data/files/ sudo chmod u+w /var/www/itdb/data/files/

Once that was completed I then browsed to http://localhost/itdb within my browser. The web page didn’t load for me due to an error, this is what I got:

Open database Error!: could not find driver

After further research I found I needed to install sqlite and php5-sqlite. I did so with the following command at the terminal:

sudo apt-get install sqlite php5-sqlite

Then restarted Apache with the following command:

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Hit refresh on my browser and all was working.

So far, I have been really impressed with IT Items Database. It’s super easy to use and very effective for keeping track of all your devices. I highly recommend it.

Happy Halloween 2012

ed — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 09:06:37 +0000

Phone Swimming

ed — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 10:29:52 +0000

I dropped my Samsung Galaxy Nexus in orange juice yesterday morning. And though it may sound bad, there is, somewhat, a happy ending to this tale.

So to start things off lets first state that my fiance’s car died last Thursday. Since we did not get it fix but decided to go car shopping over the weekend and had no luck finding a car I had to take her to work yesterday morning. Being that it was so early in the morning she decided to fix breakfast to eat on the way to work (we live about a good 30 minute drive from her employment), which included a cup a orange juice. My usual practice when I drive my car is to plug my phone into the car charge and place it in the cup holder between the driver seat and the passenger seat. Being that it was so dark at 6:00 in the morning, and wasn’t paying attention, I did not notice that she had put her cup of orange juice in the usual spot I put my phone. Needless to say I dunked my phone in the cup and did not realize it until almost a minute later. Luckily, the entire phone did not submerge, just the top half. Well, of course, I immediately removed it from the cup, unplugged it from the charger, and pulled the battery while at the same time pulling every fast food restaurant napkin from my glove box to dry the phone off. I wasn’t expecting a good ending to my favorite phone.

Almost two hours later after arriving to work (I had to drive back home, pick up my 13 year old, and take him to school before I could get to work) I disassemble the phone and soaked up the remaining juice with napkins that was hanging out on the circuit board. At this point I was definitely thinking I would need to buy a new phone. I let it sit on my desk for most of the day completely exposed to help dry any remaining juice that was inaccessible in the cracks. At lunch I decided to pop the battery back in and power it on to gauge the state of the phone. A gamble, I know, as you are not supposed to give power to a soaked electronic gadget. The phone powered on completely however, because I lock my phone with the swipe method on Android 4.1, the swipe was not working, I could not unlock my phone. I pulled the battery and let it dry some more. Again, around mid-afternoon I tried giving power to it; unfortunately it was in the same state. By this time, since it was during my mid-afternoon break, I started searching eBay and Craigslist to see if I could find an inexpensive refurb, of which I was able to find at no less than $250 on average.

Finally, just before leaving for the day at work, I decided to try giving it power one more time; I had a little bit of hope left in me. I placed the battery in and powered it up, tried to swipe the unlock, and what do you know, it unlocked. My level of hope rose from the bottom of the drum to the half empty mark. I removed the battery, wrapped up all the parts and left work to pick up the family from work and school.

Since I did not have a lot of time last evening to troubleshoot it some more I left it on my desk in my home office over night to dry some more. This morning I put it all back together, powered it up and what I have found, so far, is that everything seems to be working at about 97%. The touch screen is not as responsive as it used to be, I find I have to press a little bit harder than usual. The power button is a little stiff so awaking the phone with the power button requires a little more effort. And, finally, the ear speaker is dead, I think. I can hear out it a little so it can’t be completely dead it’s just not as loud as it used to be. I’m thinking that there may be some dried orange juice in the slots on the cover of the phone that is not allowing direct sound to come through to my ear. I may have to troubleshoot this some more or learn to live with a Bluetooth earpiece in my ear every time I want to talk on the phone, at least until I can afford to buy a refurbished Galaxy Nexus to replace what I have. I don’t want to buy another phone but I may have no choice. We’ll see.

Out of all this the optimist in me can say, at least the orange juice was the no pulp kind of orange juice. I can’t imagine it would have been easy to clean out all those chunks of orange on and in my phone. And, it could have been a different outcome.

Adventures in the Working World

ed — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 16:14:11 +0000

Today was my last day at Attorneys’ Title Fund Services as a Systems Administrator having worked there for almost 4 years. I have accepted a position as Systems Administrator with ABC Fine Wine & Spirits corporate location and will start this coming Monday, and I am excited. The position was discussed quite thoroughly between myself and my fiance and found that ABC presented better opportunities for me and my family. Hopefully, it will prove to be a good choice.

Learning a Language

ed — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 10:57:42 +0000

Call me crazy but I decided to try to learn some programming. And in this search for a language to learn it was recommended by a co-worker that I learn C#. Well, my thoughts were that I should focus on a specific project that may help motivate me to learn a specific language. A friend of a friend publishes a web comic, Ace Kilroy, that I thought would be neat to read on a mobile platform in app form so I started heading toward making Android app development my specific project so that I could create a web app for his web comic. However, that same co-worker who first suggested C# stated that it may be better to go with iOS development since there aren’t as many devices with different form factors. So now I am trying to learn Objective-C on my MacBook. BUT I have run into a roadblock.

Since I will be using my MacBook from 2006 that can’t upgrade to Mountain Lion – I’m still on Snow Leopard – I have found that I need the latest Xcode, Apple’s IDE for application development, that is only available for Mountain Lion, unless I pay the $99 Apple Developer’s fee. If I pay the $99 fee I then have access to the latest Xcode version available for Snow Leopard; which is full of crap since it used to be available for free before Mountain Lion came along. It’s stupid for someone like me who has no programming experience to pay that kind of fee when I am still learning.

AAAAAIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

That’s me shaking my fist to the sky and yelling to the top of my lungs. Thanks Apple.

Because of this I may ignore my co-worker’s suggestion and head over to Android app development where I am sure I will not run into any roadblocks…except for that device fragmentation issue.

In all honesty, I would really like to buy a new iMac. It’s been a dream of mine for the past four years but I just haven’t been able to afford it due to the job situation and the economy. So, I can’t stay angry with Apple too long.

Setting Up TFTP Server in Linux Mint 12

ed — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 23:30:55 +0000

I am in the process (and actually have been for the past 5 years) of studying for my Cisco certification, specifically now, the CCENT. One of the labs I wanted to familiarize myself with was copying a config from a switch or router to a TFTP server. Eventually, I want to test the boot of an IOS on that TFTP server too. I had purchased an old Catalyst 2950 on Amazon a little over a year ago and recently had to start using it full time as one of my switches in my LAN because my DLink died a little over a week ago. No problem there except for the noise and heat that the 2950 puts out. But the advantage of it is that I can use it as a live lab. No worries there also since it doesn’t really have high traffic devices connected to it, just my Xbox 360, Media PC, and NAS; those are devices I don’t use all the time.

Well, since I use Linux Mint 12 on my desktop I needed to setup TFTP server on it so that I could backup my switch config to it for practice. Trying to find the best setup of TFTP server in Linux Mint wasn’t the easiest find. After numerous searches and a couple of failed How-To’s I finally came across this blog post for Ubuntu.

How to Setup TFTP on Ubuntu 11.10

There was a couple of changes in my configuration though that I had to make for my personal preference, nothing big, and I found that I didn’t need the following:

sudo chown -R nobody:nobody /var/lib/tftpboot

However, if you are using Ubuntu, or other like distribution, you still may need it so I would not skip it if I were you.

Here is the entire post just in case at the time of reading my post the external link no longer exist.

———————————————————————————————————-

First, let’s install all the necessary packages:

sudo apt-get install xinetd tftpd tftp -y

Next, we need to create a configuration file:

sudo nano /etc/xinetd.d/tftp

Put the following content into the file.

service tftp
{
   protocol = udp
   port = 69
   socket_type = dgram
   wait = yes
   user = nobody
   server = /usr/sbin/in.tftpd
   server_args = var/lib/tftpboot -s
   disable = no
}

In the server_args, I have var/lib/tftpboot, which represents the location of the tftp root, i.e., /var/lib/tftpboot. Notice that I skip the root /.

Now let’s change the ownership of the directory:

sudo mkdir /var/lib/tftpboot
sudo chown -R nobody:nobody /var/lib/tftpboot
sudo chmod -R 777 /var/lib/tftpboot

and start the TFTP service:

sudo service xinetd stop
sudo service xinetd start

Verify the TFTP is running correctly or not:

netstat -na | grep LIST | grep 22

You should see something like this:

tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:22              0.0.0.0:*     LISTEN

Test: Upload a file to TFTP Server

Now let’s test the TFTP server by logging into the server first:

tftp localhost

and upload a file:

tftp> put myfile.jpg
Sent 56733279 bytes in 5.7 seconds

Quit:

Make sure that file has been uploaded:

ls -l /var/lib/tftpboot

Test: Download a file from TFTP Server

Now, let’s go to a different directory and download the file we just upload.

cd some_other_directory

and log in to the tftp server again:

tftp localhost

and get the file:

tftp> get myfile.jpg
Received 56733279 bytes in 5.7 seconds

You are done.

Troubleshooting (e.g., Error code 2: Access violation)

If you see a message like: Error code 2: Access violation

Make sure that you:
- Follow the exact procedure in this tutorial
- Make sure that the tftp is started with -s flag.
- Check the permission of the directory, i.e., 777
- After you’ve made any changes to the TFTP configuration, make sure that you stop and start the inet service again.
- Don’t forget to quit tftp before retrying the command.

————————————————————————————————-

Thanks to Derrick over at Icesquare for the very informative post.

Linksys E2000 Router Dead

ed — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 23:04:28 +0000

Well, for a little over a year I have been using a Linksys E2000 running DD-WRT with no issues, until last Tuesday. I came home and had no internet connection. Even attempting to connect to wireless was pointless, the SSID I had setup over a year ago didn’t even appear. I tried rebooting the router but still had no access to the internet. Even rebooting my cable modem didn’t help. I then attempted the 30/30/30 reset per the DD-WRT guide to get to the default setup. Once this was completed I plugged in my laptop and was able to get an IP address, so this indicated DHCP was working on the router. I tried pinging the router and came up with “Destination Host Unreachable”, then a couple of “Request timed out” and then “Destination Host Unreachable” again. So, based on this I assumed there was some issue with the router and not DD-WRT, since DHCP was working. I posted to the DD-WRT forum but, unfortunately, did not get a lot a feedback.

In the meantime, I had an old Linksys router I had received from being a Vonage customer years ago and plugged it in just so the household could get on the internet. Unfortunately, it did not have Wi-Fi so there were some limitations in our household LAN, mostly not being able to print to our wireless printer.

So, needless to say, I had to order a new router. I shopped around doing research as I went along and found the best option for me was the Cisco (Linksys) EA2700. I found and ordered it on Amazon for $84. Luckily for me, I had just joined Amazon Prime so I was able to get it next day for just $4 for shipping.

As of today, DD-WRT does not have an image for the EA2700, which I am fine with. I think I will keep it running the Cisco image just in case a year down the road I have hardware issues again. That way, maybe, Cisco will be able to assist me with getting the router functioning again, if there is an issue like I had with the E2000.

Linux Mint 13 Cinnamon on Dell Vostro V130

ed — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 10:35:01 +0000

I installed Mint 13 Cinnamon on my Vostro this past week while still keeping the dual boot of Windows 7 intact. I first used Clonezilla to make an image of my entire laptop with Mint 12 and Windows 7 and then booted into the Mint 13 USB thumb drive I created using the Universal USB Installer and the Mint 13 .iso I downloaded. From within the Live Mint 13 boot I used GParted to delete the Mint 12 partition and proceeded to install Mint 13 alongside Windows 7. A very simple install.

So far everything on my Vostro has worked right out of the box. Nothing to configure or tweak. I haven’t decided yet if I am going to also install Mint 13 on my Dell XPS 410 desktop since I not long ago installed Mint 12. I believe I just may skip Mint 13 and wait until Mint 14 is released to install on my desktop.

Nvidia’s Older Driver on Linux Mint running Cinnamon

ed — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 00:32:24 +0000

Thanks to those participating in Google+, I was able to find a way to revert back to a previous working Nvidia driver (see previous post of issues with the Nvidia driver update). I found this post on Google+ and the outcome made me very happy. I simply downloaded Nvidia driver version 295.33 from Nvidia’s site, booted into recovery mode, logged into ‘su’ and ran the following command from the directory the driver resided in:

sh ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-295.33.run

And now I am able to boot into Cinnamon again, which makes me super happy. I’ve been working in Mate for over a week and have really missed working in Cinnamon. All is well, now.

Nvidia’s Newest Driver Update on Linux Mint running Cinnamon

ed — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 09:53:51 +0000

Last Wednesday, the 11th, Nvidia sent a driver update to my machine and since then I’ve been forced to run Mate instead of my preference for Cinnamon. However, I didn’t notice a problem until the following day after I had rebooted. After the reboot and logging into to Cinnamon I first noticed that it was taking an unusual amount of time to load the Cinnamon environment. When it finally loaded is when the headache started. Moving the mouse just a little bit caused the whole desktop to freeze, and it didn’t end there. It would freeze for about 2 minutes and then allow me to work again for about 5 seconds and freeze again for 2 minutes, rinse and repeat. Just so I could get out of the environment in a decent time I had to Ctrl-Alt-F1 to get to a terminal so I could send a shutdown command. It was then that I tested the other environments and found that I did’t have any issues with Gnome, Gnome Classic, and Mate. I then started browsing the Linux Mint Forums searching for recent updates to Cinnamon thinking Cinnamon was the issue but at the same time having that minor itch in the back of my head that I had remembered only updating Nvidia. I found this thread here and found that others were having issues with Cinnamon too, again, thinking Cinnamon was the issue. I started using Mate as my working environment until I found the cause and could get a fix.

Finally, someone posted in the thread yesterday an article that finds the Nvidia driver the culprit after all. Here is the article from Phoronix. If you read the article you’ll notice it list a few cards that are affected, mine is one of them; I have the GeForce 8800GTX. Now I have to wait, while using Mate when I would rather be using Cinnamon, until Nvidia fixes the driver issue.

More On Linux Mint 12 using Cinnamon and Conky

ed — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 22:31:25 +0000

From previous post I have stated that I had an issue with the Conky theme running under Cinnamon in Mint 12. I am glad to announce that I have found a fix. I posted my problem over at the Linux Mint forums but unfortunately no one posted a reply to my particular issue. I then decided to see if the Ubuntu community could help me so I posted over at their forum here. Luckily, someone was able to help me. The main issue that needed to be changed in the Conky config file was this:

own_window_type override

to this:

own_window_type normal

I’m not sure why the Cinnamon environment would cause this particular Conky config to act this way. I’m just glad someone was able to assist in the fix.

Since then I’ve made some updates to the configuration from the last time I posted my Conky desktop. Here is a screenshot from my primary monitor.

And here is a screenshot from my second monitor.

I found the above Conky weather config from Teo Bigus Geekus post over at the Ubuntu forums. I have to give much credit to Teo Bigus Geekus for being so helpful in getting my configuration exactly like I wanted it based off his original script.

Something else I wanted to state an improvement from Linux Mint 10 to Linux Mint 12 is the dual monitor setup. Before, I had an issue in Mint 10 with dual monitors that every time I wanted to view something full screen, be it a You Tube video or any other video, it would always expand to the second monitor, never the primary monitor. This no longer occurs in Mint 12. I’m not sure if it is a fix in Mint, the kernel, the video drivers, or Flash. Whatever it is I’m excited it’s not a problem any longer.

HP Printing and Scanning in Linux Mint 12

ed — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 17:08:59 +0000

So I found out that in order for my all-in-one wireless HP OfficeJet J4680 to be able to print AND scan in Mint 12, like I was able to do in Mint 10, that I had to add the printer a different way than I normally did in the past. In the past I simply open the Printer GUI and added my wireless network printer that way and the printer and scanner was added flawlessly. When I did that in Mint 12 it added the printer just fine, but not that scanner. After further research online (man, the Linux community is amazing), I found out the better way to add the printer and the scanner was to run the following command in the terminal:

system-config-printer

After, the printer and scanner were added and all is well.

Linux Mint 12 on Dell XPS 410

ed — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 11:54:26 +0000

Well, I gave in. I loved Mint 12 with Cinnamon so much on my laptop I decided to install it on my desktop replacing Mint 10. On initial install everything worked, no configurations needed. I still kept the dual boot of Windows 7 for gaming (as explained here) and what was wonderful was the ease of installing Linux Mint and keeping that Windows 7 install in pristine condition. I simply created a bootable USB thumb drive with Mint 12 64-bit using Universal USB Installer, booted into Live Mint 12 from the USB thumb drive, deleted the Mint 10 swap and partition using GParted from within the Live Mint 12 and ran the Mint 12 installer from the Live boot. Mint 12 simply took it from there giving me the option to install side-by-side with Windows 7. Simple.

The only minor problem I am having now with Mint 12 on both my laptop and desktop is with Conky. I was running a custom Conky theme called Conky Lunatico Rings, as explained here, but completing the same setup in Mint 12 running Cinnamon doesn’t produce the same results. I get a bunch of garbage spit out within the terminal and nothing displayed on the desktop. I’ve been in investigative mode for the past couple of days but so far I haven’t found a fix, yet.

I have to say, though, that Linux Mint 12 is far superior to Mint 11. The alternative Cinnamon interface is so much better than Gnome 3. I love it.

Linux Mint 12 on Vostro V130 – Wireless fixed

ed — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 22:59:34 +0000

If you read the last post you will know that I had an issue with the wireless card on my Dell Vostro V130 in Linux Mint 12. After visiting the Linux Mint forums and posting my wireless card information I was able to find the solution. The direct link to the thread can be found here.

To sum up, I found out my integrated wireless card was a Atheros AR9285 using this command in the terminal:

sudo /usr/lib/linuxmint/mintWifi/mintWifi.py

When I posted it on the thread someone was kind enough to refer me to a different thread where, apparently, you have to run this command as su:

echo “options ath9k nohwcrypt=1″ > /etc/modprobe.d/ath9k.conf

I rebooted my computer and it works perfectly now. Interestingly enough some people have had to run that command in Linux Mint 10 & 11 in which I found that my wireless card worked perfectly under Mint 11 without having to run that command.

Interesting beast is Linux.

Linux Mint 12 on Dell Vostro V130, in the Works

ed — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 11:40:14 +0000

Linux Mint 12, code name ‘Lisa’, was released back in November. I put off trying it because of Gnome 3 that is included in the build. I haven’t been too pleased with the progression of Gnome in the past couple of updates so that is why I scorn the release of Mint 12. I did, however, give Mint 12 a chance in a virtual machine and that is as far as I gave it at that time.

Well the introduction of the Cinnamon interface that was announced back in January peaked my interest and opened the door to me giving Mint 12 another chance. So, at the beginning of the week I cloned my Vostro V130 with Clonezilla that had a dual build of Windows 7 and Mint 11 and decided to try the Mint 12 release on it. I loaded it side by side again with Windows 7, completed the updates as soon as it finished installing and then immediately installed Cinnamon. And, I love it. I love the Cinnamon interface. It is a vast improvement over Gnome 3.

I haven’t had too much time within Mint 12 itself as I am still in the process of troubleshooting a wireless card issue. It works but not well. My assumption is that the driver for my integrated wireless card that comes with Mint 12 is either corrupt or not a good driver. I have extremely slow performance using it. The integrated wired card works fine, no issues there so trying to fix this issue is top priority since I use wireless most of the time. Everything else on the laptop in Mint 12, so far, seems to work just fine.

I’ll post more later if and when I find a solution for the wireless issue.

Chrissstmasss

ed — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 14:40:34 +0000

It’s that time of year. It’s that time of year when I am always reminded of the movie Better Off Dead with John Cusack. Yes, I know it’s strange to think of that movie during the holidays when most people think of the classic stop-motion animated classics of Santa Claus is Coming to Town and Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer. But here’s why I think of Better Off Dead.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I hope each and everyone of you that read this have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

ICE! ICE! Baby

ed — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 10:29:02 +0000

I took the family to Gaylord Palms in Orlando this past weekend to see the ICE! experience that they hold each year during the holidays. Because the price has always been so expensive, I have not had the opportunity to see this wonderful exhibit in the past. This year I was able to get a deal through work that was close to half off for all three of us. It was an neat experience and good time well spent with the family.

From Gaylord Palms ICE 2011

Since Gaylord Palms claims the temperature is 9 degrees F, I had to pull my winter clothes out of storage that I only wear, maybe, once every five years. And, on top of that they require you to wear a big thermal coat. It’s been, probably, more than twenty years since I’ve been in weather that was below 15 degrees F so my memory is a little foggy on the matter but to me it didn’t feel any colder than 25 degrees.

As you can see from the Photo Gallery and the web site link, the theme this year was Shrek. Not being a Shrek fan it was kind of annoying going through the whole exhibit and seeing nothing but Shrek scenes. My partner and her nephew had visited the exhibit in the past and they stated it was never like this and has been better in the past. For me, I would have definitely enjoyed something like A Charlie Brown Christmas theme or just plain old ice sculptures as seen at the end of the exhibit. But, I can’t complain too much since I hadn’t paid full price.

If you are in the Central Florida area this holiday season and enjoyed the Shrek movies, then this exhibit will be worth the visit. If you are not a Shrek fan, like me, then I would recommend checking it out next year and hope they have something different.

Tricks But No Treats

ed — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 14:04:32 +0000

This year has turned out to be a pretty bad Halloween season for me. I was in pain for most of last week leading up to the holiday with possible gallstones (I say possible because the doctor was not quite sure but gave me medicine for gallstones that seemed to fix it) and right now it is warm and rainy in Central Florida.

To add to the tricks, I’ll leave you with a clip from a pretty horrible Halloween movie.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Happy Halloween!

Dead Island Vacation

ed — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 10:42:34 +0000

The video game Dead Island came out last month so I placed it in my Gamefly queue in hopes to have it in before Halloween and finally received it last Friday. I spent a good portion of Friday night and Sunday afternoon playing this game and fell in love with it. If you are familiar with Borderlands it’s very much the same game concept. Sort of like a role playing game set on an island hacking up zombies.

At the beginning of the year we got a glimpse of the game through a teaser trailer. A completely amazing teaser trailer. It was one of those types of trailers that actually made my eyes a little damp from the sadness. If you haven’t seen it, here it is.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Amazing, right? Well, while I was playing the game over the weekend my 12 year old was watching me play it and searching up tips on You Tube at the same time when he came across this parody video. It’s pretty funny.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Maddening Images

ed — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 10:09:04 +0000

Here’s another attempt at an animated gif from one of my favorite horror movies. John Carpenter’s In the Mouth of Madness. When I first saw this film in the theaters back in 1994 it kind of creeped me out. And I don’t scare easily from films.

My only issues so far with creating these animated images is that I haven’t found a way yet to fine tune the clarity. The image you see above is not as clean and crisp as the source.

Let’s All Go To The Cinemagraph

ed — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 11:10:06 +0000

After searching around the internet for other cool animated gifs I found out that there is an actual artistic term for some of the really superb motion images. It’s called cinemagraph. Just do a Google search for the word and you’ll find some really interesting images. I guess that new favorite site of mine can be seen as cinemagraphs while the few images I have created can simply be called animated gifs.

High class animated images = cinemagraphs

Low class animated images = simple animated gifs

Even Lifehacker recently posted a pretty extensive, and difficult to follow, How To on how to create a cinemagraph.

Trick ‘r Treat

ed — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 09:00:31 +0000

I mentioned this last Halloween as one of my new recent favorite Halloween movies, Trick ‘r Treat. Here is an animated gif I created from that movie.

Neverending Story Scenes

ed — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 23:38:57 +0000

I recently discovered a really cool Tumblr blog that has some extremely clever and crafted animated gifs from movie scenes and has now become my new favorite site. The site can be found here:

If We Don’t, Remember Me.

This motivated me to find out how to create my own animated gifs. It took some digging but I finally found a forum post over at the Ubuntu forums that has some really good steps on how to create an animated gif. The thread can be found here.

I am laying out the steps below, basically, the same as in the thread mainly so that in the future, if that thread disappears, I will have this post to reference again. So really, this post is mostly for my benefit.

To break it down this is what I do, keeping in mind that I am doing it from Linux Mint. I take a DVD, or ISO that is created from a DVD, and export it using Handbrake. Then using the steps from the forum I ran this from the terminal:

mplayer -ao null -ss 0:57:32 -endpos 5 movie.m4v -vo jpeg:outdir=moviedirector

Then I open Gimp and select and open the first .jpg file I want to use in my clip. After, I then open the remaining files I want in my clip as layers in Gimp. If you want to resize the animated clip to something smaller this is when you scale the image after all the layers have been added. The next step is to save the file as a .gif selecting to save as an animation in the process. Immediately after in the export area I enable it to ‘loop forever’ and set the delay between frames anywhere between 55 to 75 ms, depending upon the scene. Then under frame disposal, ‘One frame per layer’ is selected from the drop down and ‘Use delay entered above for all frames’ and ‘Use disposal entered above for all frames’ are enabled. Then select Save.

Here is the first clip I created from 12 Monkeys.

And my second clip from one of my all time favorite movies, Blade Runner.

For the rest of the month of October, you can expect to find more animated gif scenes from horror movies here on my blog.

If you want to create your own animated gif and are not on Linux, I found quite a few helpful videos on You Tube of people creating animated gifs on Windows and OS X.

RIP Steve Jobs

ed — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 10:21:28 +0000

It was a little after 8:00pm EST last night when I got the news that Apple co-founder Steve Jobs had passed away at the young age of 56. I spent the rest of the night watching Leo Laporte live on live.twit.tv discussing the tech life of Steve Jobs.

Being a tech geek/enthusiast I am very familiar with Apple products having owned several iPods, an iPhone, a Mac Mini, and a MacBook. If you don’t know me you should know, however, that I am not a Apple Fanboy being biased to no operating system or tech product in particular. However, I understand and have experienced the impact Steve Jobs had at Apple and most importantly the tech industry as a whole. He was a pioneer and will be historically immortal like Leonardo da Vinci, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison and many more.

Steve Jobs 1955 – 2011

GUVCViewer Settings

ed — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 10:38:58 +0000

I’ve had some people asking a few questions about GUVCviewer over at You Tube. One of the questions was what my settings were. To be honest, if I remember correctly, I didn’t change any of the default settings. But, for those needing to know what exact settings I have, here are screenshots:

Please note that the quality of your viewing and recording in GUVCviewer is going to be dependent on a combination of hardware. I believe I mentioned my hardware in the video I posted on GUVCviewer back in July but here it is in text format:

Dell XPS 410 with 4GB RAM, Intel Core 2 Duo 2.13GHz, Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB, Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi, and Logitech C400 webcam.

Hope that helps.

Cloud Music

ed — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 11:38:22 +0000

Okay. I’ve tried using Amazon Cloud/Player and really like the features especially for Android. I especially like the fact that when I buy music from Amazon, which I have been doing for a couple of years now, it is automatically added to my Amazon Cloud storage and made available to me to play through the cloud player on my computer and my Android device and gives me the option to download it later to my computer. I can also upload songs that I did not purchase from them from my computer without having to upload my entire library. I can select a specific song or even an entire album. It’s pretty convenient.

I decided to give Google Music a try and I wasn’t happy with the Music Manager. While with Amazon I have the option of just uploading certain albums, Google Music Manager wants to upload my entire library without giving me the option to only upload what I want to upload. Yes, I could probably just point it to a folder that only has a specific album or albums but that’s retarded. I do like the Google Music Player for Android though. It’s actually a very nice looking application. I haven’t found anything wrong with the Amazon Music Player. It’s really just a basic player.

I know it may be convenient to just upload the entire library in one sitting but not for me. I have over 10,000 songs that equals close to 50GB and an upload pipe of only 1.85Mps. One, trying to upload all the data clogs my pipe. Two, it would take easily 4 to 6 days to upload my entire library. And using up all that bandwidth in those days would be quite annoying. Now, if Google wants to come over to my house and give me their Google Fiber it would make everything so much better.

I think for now, until Google makes some changes to their music manager, I will stick with Amazon’s Cloud music service.

VPN Client on Linux Mint

ed — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 10:42:10 +0000

I’ve been meaning to post this for a while. This is more for me than for the public so that I will remember what I did to get a VPN client running on my Linux Mint 10.

Since I am a Systems Administrator a lot of my work can be done from my desk, when I am not building new servers or troubleshooting hardware issues. Thanks to the powers where I work I am allowed to work from home from time to time. In the past, before I made the switch to Linux full-time, I used the Cisco VPN client on my Windows machine. Since moving to Linux, I needed a VPN client that worked with our Cisco ASA 5500 and then a good Windows RDP client to remote into my work computer once connected to my work network.

I searched around for a while and finally found a good client for Linux Mint called VPNC. You can find it in the Software Manager or by typing the following at the terminal:

sudo apt-get install vpnc

Of course after installing this I had to work with the Network Engineers in my IT department to configure my profile on the Cisco ASA. Once that was done I needed to edit the config file for VPNC found here:

/etc/vpnc/default.conf

The configuration looked something like this (excerpt of my file):

IPSec gateway IP address goes here IPSec ID identification goes here IPSec secret secret password goes here #IKE Authmode hybrid Xauth username username goes here #Xauth password password goes here

Of course, the hash tags comment out the lines. I hashed the password so that I would be prompted once I connected to my corporate network for additional security. Then once I had a connection, validated by having a tun0 interface, I use Gnome-RDP for my remote connection to my work PC. That simple. The only problem is DNS on my personal computer. Since I am on Linux and not Windows my personal machine’s DNS does not get updated to the DNS at work. There are ways to fix this but I know the dynamic IP address of my computer at work so once that Gnome-RDP profile is created with that IP address, I don’t have to remember it. Also, if the IP address of my computer ever changes I know the IP address of our domain controllers/DNS/DHCP servers at work so I can connect to them to get the updated IP address of my workstation.

One issue I found with Gnome-RDP is that there is no clear way to exit out of full screen view of the RDP session. I found you have to select, on your keyboard, Ctrl-Alt-Enter to exit and enter full screen mode of Gnome-RDP.

Calling From The Future

ed — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 16:30:51 +0000

Since my childhood I’ve been a fan of Star Trek. I remember as far back as 1978 watching reruns of The Original Series with my Dad. I was always fascinated with the technology from that show, and other sci-fi TV shows and movies, of being able to talk to someone via a video call. Well, whether you use it or not, the technology is here, the future is here, and I’m loving it.

For about five years now I’ve been using Skype for PC-to-PC calls with family and friends however I remember being able to make video calls as far back as 1999 with NetMeeting on Windows 98. I still use Skype for video calls frequently and sometimes switch between that service and Google’s Video Chat via Gmail. Video chat has been available for a few years now on computers but technology has advanced so much that we now have the capability to have video calls on our mobile phone. That just blows my mind. I’m mean, come on, it’s not science fiction today it’s science fact and that is the coolest thing to me being a fan of science fiction. The iPhone 4 came out last year with a front-facing camera and the ability to make video calls via Facetime. In recent months you also have the option to purchase an Android phone (I think it’s just the Nexus S for now) with a front-facing camera to video chat via Gtalk with more Android phones coming out with the same ability in the coming months.

Currently, I do not own a phone with a front-facing camera (still hauling around the Motorola Droid 1) but I can tell you that my next purchase will be an Android phone with a front-facing camera that will have the ability to video chat. Because I encourage my friends and family to call me on Skype and Gtalk on the computer today I also would like to have that option on my mobile phone too. It’s so Star Trek, man.

So, I’m wondering: If you were to buy a phone with a front-facing camera today, or in the future, would you use the video chat function? I would love to see your vote and read your comments below.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Video Capture in Linux Mint Using GUVCViewer

ed — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 21:34:40 +0000

GUVCViewer in Linux Mint 10

http://guvcview.berlios.de/

Click here to view the embedded video.

An Explanation About Things

ed — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 17:07:43 +0000

So, as you have probably noticed, I have been posting a few things about Linux Mint lately here on my blog. I probably should have informed you through this blog, if you are a frequent reader, that I was switching to Linux Mint full time on my main desktop. This happened about three months ago. As most of you know by reading this blog I am a tech enthusiast (geek). I love everything about technology and am not biased to any particular operating system as they are all generally the same, they all have their own weaknesses and strengths.

I’ve used Windows most of my tech life since version 3.11. I finally stepped out of my shell and tried Linux about 9 years ago. I first started using Redhat, before it became Fedora, and even setup a Redhat server back in 2004 running a web server out of my house to host a forum for me and some buddies of mine. Other than that Linux server, I’ve never been a full time Linux user. Don’t get me wrong, I have tried quite a few flavors – Fedora, SUSE, Mandriva, FreeBSD, TurboLinux, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, and many more – but have never completely used Linux for my day-to-day use.

In 2006 when Apple changed the architecture to Intel processors, I decided to try Mac OS X by buying a Mac Mini and immediately fell in love. Finding that I was using the Mini more and more and needing more power, I sold the Mini six months later and purchased a black MacBook. I still use that MacBook to this day and it has been involved in my day-to-day computer operations.

Even though I have that MacBook, I still use my Windows desktop (Dell XPS 410) for other day-to-day computer operations as well as PC gaming. Well, three months ago I came to the conclusion that I really need to learn Linux, to be more of a intermediate to advance user rather than a amateur user as I have always been these past 9 years. I figured that the only way to really get into the core of the operating system and to learn everything about it was to use it full time on my desktop. That led to creating a dual boot of Windows 7 and Linux Mint 10; the booting of Windows 7 for PC gaming on the occasion I want to game and the booting of Linux Mint to use in my day-to-day computer operations. I chose Linux Mint because I fell in love with it about two years ago after being a Ubuntu fan. There were things that Ubuntu did with the color scheme and Gnome that I just grew tired after awhile which led me to Linux Mint. Now Ubuntu incorporates the Unity interface and I am glad I switched to Linux Mint before that came along.

For those that don’t know me personally, along with being a tech enthusiast, I also work in the tech industry as a Systems Administrator in a Windows environment. I first received my A+ and Microsoft certification 10 years ago and have been working in IT for that same period of time. I know Windows and I know it pretty well. However, working in the IT field I know it is also advantageous to be more diverse in all aspects of technology, that is why I wanted to experiment with Linux those many years ago. But because of needing to stay up-to-date with Windows for my field it has been difficult to dive right into Linux. I have contemplated getting a Linux certification but never have had the money to achieve that schooling. So, that is why I came to the decision of moving to Linux on my main desktop, so that I can use it and learn it. I learn better by getting my hands dirty.

So, from time to time you will continue to see me post newly discovered tweaks and tips in Linux, particularly Linux Mint.

Linux Mint 10 Alternate Login Screen

ed — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 01:23:50 +0000

As those of you that use Linux Mint 10 with Gnome and the default GDM are aware, the login screen is just plain out ugly. Since going full time Linux Mint 10 on my main desktop a couple of months ago, I have been on a mission to change that. After searching everywhere and posting on the Linux Mint forum, the experts had made me aware that we are pretty much stuck with this bland login screen.

Well, finally someone came along on the forum and pointed me to SLiM – Simple Login Manager. The link he pointed me to that gave a step-by-step guide to setting it up was over at Ubuntuguide.net. After installing it and testing it on a Linux Mint 10 virtual machine in VirtualBox, I liked what I saw. In fact I liked it so much I decided to try to create my own SLiM theme. I took elements from this GDM splash login that, apparently, only works on Mint prior to version 10 and this is what I came up with.

If you are interested in downloading this theme and using it, you can get it from here.

After much research, though, I have found that the project doesn’t seem to be in development any longer, which is unfortunate. You can find out more on SLiM at the wiki too here. One of the things I found pretty neat about SLiM is this:

To launch a terminal, enter console as the username (defaults to xterm which must be installed separately… edit /etc/slim.conf to change terminal preference)
For shutdown, enter halt as the username
For reboot, enter reboot as the username
For suspend, enter suspend as the username
To exit to the shell, enter exit as the username

So, if you are using my theme those tips may come in handy if you need to reboot or shutdown for whatever reason. You’ll need to provide the root password for those steps to work.

Please note (as per comments on the Ubuntuguide.net post) that there have been some people who have had issues with SLiM, so use it at your own risk. Also note that I have also tested SLiM in Linux Mint 11 virtual machine and it works, with some minor issues. The minor issue I have found, so far, is that once you log into your session, in order to shutdown or reboot you will have to send that through the terminal as the option is grayed out when you select Quit in the menu. I haven’t found a fix for this yet but I am still searching.

New RSS Feeds

ed — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 08:42:54 +0000

I didn’t realize this until a gentleman pointed out to me on a comment in a recent post that I didn’t have a RSS feed link visible on my site. I changed the WordPress theme default a few months back and never realized it wasn’t visible. I’ve since remedied that.

On the right side you will see a Subscribe section to add the RSS Feed to the RSS Reader of your choice. I have also added a means of email subscription so that every time I have a new post an email can be sent to you with the contents of my post.

If you decide to subscribe, thanks.

Desktop System Monitor on Linux Mint 10 and OS X

ed — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 00:53:02 +0000

Hello. My name is Ed and I’m a tech geek.

I thought I would get that confession out of the way first. Of course, those close to me already know that about me. This post will be evidence enough that I really am a tech geek. Desktop system monitoring is something that can be used as a badge to show off just how geeky you are but in all actuality, it can be very useful. Behold the badge of my geekiness with this screenshot of my MacBook OS X desktop using GeekTool.

And more recently:

As you can see there are some useful monitors on my desktop that gauge my memory, CPU and drive space. Just in the past few months since that last Tron Legacy screenshot I have also added a fan speed monitor of my MacBook. The calendar portion at the bottom, though, is not part of GeekTool and can be found here as a free download. The easiest way I have found to configure GeekTool is by installing Geeklets. Basically, they are preconfigured scripts to add to GeekTool to give you the monitors you see on those screenshots. Now as you see above I have a pretty basic desktop on my MacBook. There are some guys and gals out there that have done some AMAZING desktops as evident on this page. I especially like the comic book strips toward the middle; more so, the desktop monitor story as told by the Buffy comic. Look closely at the dialog.

Now over on the Linux side we have something called Conky. I had heard of the utility before but had never used it until today. The guys over at Web Upd8, the Ubuntu/Linux blog, posted a really cool article on Conky Lunatico Rings that someone created over at Gnome-look.org. I followed the instructions posted on Web Upd8 and configured my own version with a green color scheme instead of the orange using Andrew’s ‘no wireless’ tweak found in the post and posted a brief video to display my desktop.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The video quality isn’t so great, I know, so I apologize. Here is a closer screenshot to get a better view.

Other than the color, I was also able to change the position as the default was more toward the middle of my display and I changed the disk monitor from used space to free space.

For Windows users out there you are probably wondering if there is anything like this for you, and there is. I’ve not used them so I’m not too familiar with them but go check out Rainmeter and Samurize.

Bluetooth Fix In Linux Mint 11/Ubuntu 11.04

ed — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 23:30:01 +0000

In the video in my last post on the Dell Vostro V130 with Linux Mint 11 I mentioned that everything worked except for Bluetooth. Well, apparently this was a known bug and was fixed back in April. Here is a direct link to the bug (#714862):

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/714862

The section to pay attention to is comment #10 here:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/714862/comments/10

Be sure to download and install both packages attached to the bug list on the right side. I will also provide direct links to the downloads below.

Atheros dkms driver

Dell dkms driver

Here are the simple steps from the bug link:

1. install the latest kernel image and kernel header sudo apt-get install linux-image-2.6.38-8-generic linux-headers-2.6.38-8 2. download dkms packages from the right column and install them (after downloaded ar3011-dkms_1.1ryu2.3_all.deb and dell-laptop-dkms_1.4_all.deb) sudo dpkg -i ar3011-dkms_1.1ryu2.3_all.deb dell-laptop-dkms_1.4_all.deb 3. run "dkms status" to see if there are the following info(or just paste the result here) dell-laptop, 1.4, 2.6.38-8-generic, x86_64: installed ar3011-dkms, 1.1ryu2.3, 2.6.38-8-generic, x86_64: installed 4. you don't need this step if you have the info that step 3 describes (paste the result of the following commands here) 1. cat /proc/version_signature 2. dpkg -l | grep linux- | grep ^ii 3. ls /usr/src

The steps worked for me without needing to proceed to step 4 and I was able to connect to my OG Droid and transfer files.

Good luck.

I should also give credit to Joe who posted the link in my last post in the comments.

My New Dell Vostro V130 With Linux Mint 11

ed — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 15:41:38 +0000

It’s been long enough after using it to now blog about it. Recently, I decided to try to buy a thin and lightweight laptop that is more practical than a netbook to use for my technical consulting business (more info found at http://ectech.info). The Dell Mini 9 netbook I had purchased back in 2008 has been a very useful computer for basic internet browsing but it wasn’t practical for work use. Most of my work functions involve some word processing when composing contracts, invoices and such; network troubleshooting on routers and switches; and other various tools needed for troubleshooting computers and servers. The ideal candidate I had found for the job was, originally, the Dell Vostro V13. However, Dell came out with its successor, the Dell Vostro V130, that is a little more powerful and added functionality with an HDMI port and an additional USB port while still staying within the same price range as the V13. I shopped the Dell outlet store waiting for the perfect price point since my budget wanted me to stay under $450. The only issue with this is that in order to stay under that price I needed to avoid the new i3/i5 processor and stick with the lesser powered Celeron processor. After waiting for several days the Dell outlet never produced what I was looking for. So, instead, I searched eBay and found what I was looking for at an affordable price of $390 in a refurbished model originally purchased from the Dell outlet. Below I decided to post a brief video of the Vostro v130. My apologies ahead of time for the shaky camera.

Click here to view the embedded video.

This is what came with the Vostro:

Vostro V130 UltraSleek Laptop 0.65″ at thinnest point (0.78″ at thickest) & 3.5lbs
Color: Aberdeen Silver
2 GB Memory (1x2GB), 1333MHz Dual Ranked RDIMM
Dell Wireless 1702 802.11n/BT3.0 Networking Combo Card
320 GB SATA Hard Drive (7200RPM)
2.0MP Webcam
Keyboard on Notebook
6 Cell Primary Battery
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium
Trend Micro 16.6 PC-cillin 30 Day
64BIT Operating System
65W AC Adapter
13.3 inch Widescreen HD (1366×768) with Anti-Glare
125V Power Cord
VGA & HDMI Port
Processor: Intel Celeron Processor ULV U3600 (2M Cache, 1.2GHz, 800 MHz FSB)
Dimensions & Weight:
Width: 13″ / 330mm
Height: (front/back) 0.65-0.78inches/16.5-19.7mm
Depth: 9.06″ / 230mm
Starting weight: 3.5lbs/1.59kg (with 6-cell battery)

As mentioned in the video, Linux Mint 11 works really well installed on the Vostro V130. Since Ubuntu moved, a few versions ago, to using Unity as its primary interface, I started using Linux Mint as my preferred Linux distribution. It’s basically a branch of Ubuntu but leaning more toward Debian based without the annoyance of Unity. It’s definitely an operating system I would recommend to anyone especially since it is free to download, install and use without any cost to you. Below is a screenshot of the elegant desktop and menu of Linux Mint 11 Main Edition.

Some of you that know me know that I also own a MacBook and are probably wondering why I just don’t use that for my consulting. I was using it for a while but since it is getting a little long in the tooth – I purchased it way back in 2006 – I was afraid of it getting thrown around too much in my duties that it would die sooner than I would like it to (I LOVE my MacBook). Also, if you have ever held the black MacBook from that line you know that those aren’t too lite, especially compared to the Vostro V130.

I have been really impressed, so far, with the performance and mobility of the Vostro V130. And benefiting from the installation of Linux Mint 11 is just an added bonus. Those that may have some apprehension of buying something like this and losing performance will be as surprised as I. The only issue with the Vostro V130 that most reviews have mentioned is the battery life. On average, like others, I’ve gotten about 2 hours worth of battery power. But, in most cases for me, that is enough to work off of onsite when working with my clients before having to plug it in at home to recharge.

Go Away, 3D

ed — Fri, 27 May 2011 10:04:09 +0000

I am really sick of all the 3D movies Hollywood is shoving down our throats. It’s just a gimmick that attempts to draw more money out of our pockets, it’s “snake oil”. What’s worse is that the mainstream public hasn’t caught on to the trick and are handing over extra money that Hollywood doesn’t deserve. And when the mainstream public continues to be blind, Hollywood will not get the clue and will go right on selling “snake oil”.

I will admit that there have been some movies that I have paid extra money for the 3D experience, but lucky for me they were actually good 3D movies. The first was back in 2007 for the all CGI story of Beowulf. And I will have to also admit that it was a pretty decent experience. The other worthy experience was Avatar in 2009 – although the story was really weak but the visuals were really breathtaking. I guess the point I am making is that maybe 1% of the 3D movies out there are possibly worth the experience, if you have the extra money to throw away. Those movies that were filmed or created originally in 3D and not in post-production can be worthy of consideration for viewing.

A friend of mine over at The Unique Geek listserv found a really good article at Tech Republic that sums up the Hollywood scam better than I ever could. I encourage you to read this article and stop being duped, as the article is so aptly named.

Read it here: Stop being duped by the 3D scam

EC Technology Consulting update

ed — Fri, 20 May 2011 10:06:07 +0000

For those that actually read my blog on a regular basis, I just wanted to inform you that I started a blog section over at my business web site where from time to time I will be posting tech tips, maybe some tricks but mostly just some tech information to hopefully draw more traffic to my site, and in turn, maybe, draw more potential clients needing some consulting. I will still post tech stuff here from time time also but that will mostly be personal tech.

If you are not already aware, my business site can be found here:

http://ectech.info

Just visit the blog section, or add it to your RSS reader, and watch out for new post.

Origami Unicorn

ed — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 16:13:15 +0000

A few days late but I wanted to post my winning a free t-shirt from Last Exit to Nowhere.

A couple of weeks ago I ordered two Blade Runner t-shirts from them. If you’ve never heard of Last Exit definitely check out their site catalogue of movie t-shirts. I love their stuff. I had already ordered their Nexus 6 t-shirt last year so this time around I ordered the red Off World Colonies and Origami Unicorn shirts.

Last week on Twitter Last Exit to Nowhere held a contest to post pictures of customers in their t-shirt.

Here is what I submitted:

Lucky for me I won. Since I already had a few t-shirts from Last Exit I let Techie Jr. choose the free t-shirt. He chose a shirt from High Fidelity only because the shirt had a monkey on it, he has never seen the movie.

Huge thanks to the guys at Last Exit to Nowhere. Check out their site and follow them on Twitter.

Secure Shell to Linux Server from Motorola Droid 1

ed — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 18:08:27 +0000

I posted on my Twitter account this past Friday that I had accomplished a pretty geeky thing. Here is the exact post and a question, just below, on how to set it up:

In response to @larryfretz on Twitter, it is really quite simple. I’m a Linux Mint fan and even though I have been using Linux for about 10 years I still consider myself a newbie. So, I had to find a guide to assist me in installing and configuring SSH on my Mint 10 machine since it is not installed and configured by default. I did a Google search and found this very useful and easy to follow guide:

Basic SSH Setup On Linux Mint 10 Using OpenSSH Server

To keep my LAN at home relatively secure, I decided to change the TCP port from 22 to something else in the SSH config file. Using the standard list of ports at Wikipedia listing I chose a port that is not a standard used port by the IANA. The router that I use at home is the Apple AirPort Extreme Base Station. I simply setup a NAT to point to my Linux Mint machine on that particular TCP port configured in the SSH config file. Once I got that configured I downloaded ConnectBot from the Android Market to my Motorola Droid 1 to use for the SSH connection to my Linux Mint machine remotely. It really is that simple.

A few things to note: Make sure you have a really good password for the account you use on your Linux machine for the SSH connection and that you change it regularly. Also, for those interested, I would not recommend the Apple Airport Extreme Base Station for a router. It’s not that I’ve had issues with it (except for once when I completed a firmware update from Apple that had a bug in it and had to revert back to the previous firmware) or that it is not secure, I just think there are other wireless N routers out there that are less expensive and can be just as reliable and secure – I’m actually considering selling my AirPort Extreme and finding something newer. Also, I don’t know if this is standard on all home routers these days but every time I make a change on my Apple Airport router it requires a reboot, which is REALLY annoying as everyone at home loses connection for about 2 minutes.

If you have any comments or additional tips on this please post below. If you have any questions you can email me directly from the Contact page of this blog or just post them in the comments also.

Rooting and ROM’ing on the Motorola Droid

ed — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 12:57:02 +0000

Well, it’s been almost a year and a half and I have finally mustered the courage to root my phone and install a custom ROM. For those of you reading this and wonder what I am talking about, to root a device, like a phone, means to give yourself superuser privilege so that you can do things that the manufacturer never intended a normal user to do. Without going into too much detail on the subject I will refer you to the Wikipedia entry on Rooting the Android OS that will explain it much better than I. Bypassing my explanation will give me more time to explain to you the details I went through to root and install a custom Android ROM.

Disclaimer: These are the steps I went through to root and ROM my Motorola Droid 1 and complete it successfully. If you try these steps and brick your phone, I cannot be held responsible for your actions or the outcome of your device. Be it known that if you try these steps you will void your warranty.

First of all know that I am new to this and this was the first time I had ever rooted my phone and installed a custom ROM. I researched a lot of forums and websites to piece together all the steps necessary to get to where my phone is now. It is one of the reasons why I decided to write up these steps because in all my searching I couldn’t find one source that had step-by-step on how to root a Motorola Droid 1 and install a custom ROM.

Rooting your phone

I had Android 2.2.1 Build FRG83D installed. From what I had found there is a way to root your phone manually and a way to do it automatically with rooting utilities some very talented developers had created on their own. Since I am new to the Android OS, I wanted to do it the easy way with a utility. There are quite a few out there and a couple of the most popular are z4root found here and SuperOneClick found here. I didn’t choose either one because after reading those forum pages I had seen a lot of people state that neither worked on the specific build on my phone. After reading other forums and sites I found out that a couple of people had success with Soup or Root found here for my specific build. After seeing the site and noticing the utility was still in beta and had not been updated since October of 2010 I was first a bit hesitant. However it was a very easy utility to use and it worked. The instructions given on the site are very straightforward and easy to follow. If you use that method you may have to do it more than once to be successful as I had experienced and also once you finish the process you will need to update the Superuser application from the Google Market that Soup or Root installs during the process. The Superuser application is used, after you root, to tell other applications that they can have root privileges to do what they need to do so don’t uninstall it.

After I rooted my phone I installed some very useful applications that I highly recommend. One of them I used to install a custom ROM called ROM Manager. There others you can see listed here.

Installing a custom ROM

Long before I had the guts to root my phone and consider installing a custom ROM I had heard of the very stable ROM called Sapphire by Crystal Clear ROMs for the Motorola Droid, and other devices. Having a stable and snappy device was one of the reasons I had looked into installing a custom ROM. Since updating to Android 2.2 I had noticed a performance decrease in my phone, most in UI refreshes when I close an application or change the orientation of the phone from portrait to landscape and vice versa. Hearing so many people rave about how fast Sapphire was I had to try it out. If you decide to install this ROM, even though you have tons to choose from out there, know that there are two files to download from their site; the straight, stripped down ROM (sapphire-2.0.2-update.zip) and the file that has the Google apps that normally come with Android devices come separately (sapphire-2.0.2-gapps-update.zip). But first things first: You need to backup your device before installing a custom ROM and the utility I used with ease, as mentioned above, was ROM Manager. Once you install it you should get the prompt to also enable ClockworkMod Recovery, which I highly recommend. You use this portion of ROM Manager to backup your current ROM in case of any major issues. To help me with this critical step and install a ROM I found these two articles to be very helpful from the Android Police site.

Backup and Restore
http://www.androidpolice.com/2010/04/16/complete-guide-how-to-fully-back-up-and-restore-your-android-phone-using-nandroid-backup-and-clockworkmod-rom-manager/

Flashing a custom ROM
http://www.androidpolice.com/2010/05/08/complete-guide-how-to-flash-a-custom-rom-to-your-android-phone-with-rom-manager-full-backup-restore/

I was able to follow those very informative steps to backup my device then use ROM Manager to install the Sapphire 2.0.2 ROM. Now, this is where it got tricky for me. See, I ran into a sort of Catch 22 after installing the Sapphire ROM; since it was just a very slimmed down version of Android without the Google Market, I had no way of installing applications, that’s where the sapphire-2.0.2-gapps-update.zip file came into play. But, again, I needed ROM Manager on my device to install the Google apps and no way of installing it, even though the file was copied to my SD card. This is the part where I needed to learn how to use the adb.exe tool in the Android SDK. Since I was on Windows I installed the SDK using the instructions and used adb.exe under the platform tools. One thing you should know that I had to figure out is that you need to install the Motorola drivers for Windows in order for adb to recognize the device when you plug it in via USB, so I extracted the drivers from the Soup or Root utility and installed it on my machine. However, if you had used the Soup or Root utility to root the device those drivers should already be installed. When I rooted my device I had completed it from my Windows MacBook (dual booted with Boot Camp) so I was a little confused at first as to why adb wasn’t seeing my device on my desktop. If you still need the drivers and not sure how to extract them from the Soup or Root utility you can download them from here.

http://www.edwardcrosby.com/Moto_Drivers.exe

But, of course, if you still have the Soup or Root utility you can also just launch that utility and install the drivers from there.

Once you install the drivers the next step is to plug in your device via USB (make sure you have USB debugging enabled under Menu>Applications>Development), open command prompt under Windows (Start>Run>cmd) and navigate to the Android SDK installation under Platform-Tools to get to the adb utility (instructions from the links above on how to install the SDK and Tools). Since I just needed to install the ROM Manager after already copying over the sapphire-2.0.2-gapps-update.zip to my SD card I simply made sure adb server was running with this command:

adb start-server

and then confirmed my device was listed with this command:

adb devices

and then with the ROM Manager apk (which can be found here) in the same directory as adb I issued this command to install it on my device:

adb install RomManager.apk

You can find all these commands plus more over at the adb page.

Once I got ROM Manager installed I just selected sapphire-2.0.2-gapps-update.zip to be installed from the SDcard from within ROM Manager and was able to get all the Google apps installed onto the Sapphire ROM.

Now, for those that may be reading this who are ROM installing pros I am sure I missed some steps that could have saved me some headaches or may have done something wrong that required the long way around but I am still learning and consider myself a newbie in this field. I’m just stating here my own experience on how to root your device and install a custom ROM.

One thing that I have not done yet that I may do is purchase the premium version of ROM Manager as it gives you the option of downloading custom ROMs via the app to install instead of going out and searching for custom ROMs to copy over to my SD card. It’s make things simple.

If you have any questions or comment on these steps just let me know. If you get stuck at a step or need any other assistance I will try my best to assist you. I don’t claim to be an expert but I will try to help you. Also, there are tons of resources out there on how to do this stuff. The only problem I found is that most of it is stuck in pages and pages of forum post over at XDA Developers and over at Droid Forums so there is usually a lot of digging to find what you need. That is one of the reasons why I created this post in hopes to help someone who hasn’t completed this to avoid having to go through all those post like I did.

One last thing I will state is that I am impressed with the Sapphire ROM. It seems to be pretty fast so far and I would recommend to anyone. The only caveat with the ROMs from Crystal Clear is that they may have halted and no support continued due to the developer moving over to CryanogenMod. The details can be found here.

I hope this helps you. Good luck.

UPDATE: I was corrected on a forum by someone who knows a lot more about this than I do that I did go the long way around. The thread can be found here and his direct quote is as follows:

Stelv: “I think you are going through too much trouble to do this, all you have to do is to boot into clockwork recovery. Wipe data and cache. Select install zip from sdcard. Then select rom zip file. Then tap power button to go back to main clockwork menu. Select install zip from sdcard again. Select Gapps file. Then reboot. Thats it.
Nothing is done through Rom manager except for flashing recovery and booting into recovery.”

In later threads, he also pointed me to a site that has some really good informational steps on backing up with Titanium Backup and wiping and installing a ROM found here:

http://www.moddedlogic.com/pe/howto.php

C-beams Glitter in the Dark

ed — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 01:37:33 +0000

For those that don’t know me, I am a huge Blade Runner fan. If you look back on this blog you will get a few hints of just how much of a fan. Well today I received a package in the mail of an item I have been wanting to get for myself from Think Geek for a very long time; the Blade Runner LED umbrella. Here is picture of myself holding it.

The only problem with the LED in this umbrella is that it is not as bright as was portrayed in the film, as seen in this shot.

But, I really don’t have a lot to complain about since it was free. Think Geek has a program that as you buy items you accumulate points to use toward merchandise. Well, having purchased a lot for Christmas presents this past year, I accrued enough points to get the umbrella.

Now, if only I could get the Rick Deckard blaster prop I would then be a very, very happy Blade Runner fan.

On the subject of Blade Runner fans, check out this fan made video I found by Onur Yeldan.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Finally, I have an Android tablet

ed — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 23:48:28 +0000

Well, I finally purchased an Android tablet. I’ve been on a search for a few months for an adequate Android tablet to read digital novels and digital comic books. Last summer I purchased a B&N Nook and absolutely love it, however it’s not the all-in-one device I have been looking for. When I want to read a digital comic book I’ve been having to read it on my Dell Mini 9 netbook. Last week I heard of a deal through Kohl’s that you can purchase the white 7″ Pandigital Novel ereader for $60. I was familiar with the product, it was not the best choice for an Android tablet out there and Kohl’s had previously been selling it for around $200. Since the price had dropped to $60 it was a deal I could not pass up for an inexpensive Android tablet that I could test the waters with, and hack.

It took a while to find a Kohl’s in my area that still had them in stock but I finally found a location that had two left. Since I have an 11 year old boy in the house that wants the same tech gadgets I get I decided to buy one for him too. Unfortunately for me, one of the two was defective right out of the box, the calibration of the touchscreen was off by about a quarter of an inch. I gave the 11 year old, Techie Jr., the good one while I have to suffer empty handed. But, that is not the end to that story, I’ll tell you more in a moment. For now I will state that I was able to get in contact with Pandigital customer service and they will be sending me out a replacement to swap out in which I should receive within the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, I have to suffer a little bit longer without a tablet to read comic books on.

As for the Pandigital Novel Techie Jr. has in his possession, I have been researching around for means of loading custom made Android flavors to install on his device. Most of the information I had found is on slatedroid.com. If you are not familiar with the Pandigital Novel, it comes with a OEM version firmware that comes with a generic Barnes & Noble ereader user interface with no access straight into Android. It looks something like this:

Where the standard interface of Android looks something like this:

The difference is that with a straight Android experience I can install applications (like B&N Nook and Droid Comic Viewer) whereas with Pandigital’s ereader interface I cannot.

I will have to be patient a little longer as I wait for the replacement to arrive. Once it does I will then try to post some videos of it running the Nook application and Droid Comic Viewer application.

But, I want to state, that this is not exactly the Android tablet I am looking for. The ideal Android tablet I want is one with a 10″ capacitive screen (where the Pandigital has a resistive), is relatively fast and is under the $300 price tag. I don’t think that will happen anytime soon so I will try to enjoy this cheap product until that time comes.

Selling Stuff

ed — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 01:11:06 +0000

I read Lifehacker quite regularly and found this article on selling items without using eBay or Craigslist from this past week pretty interesting. So I decided to start a site on WordPress, instead of Tumblr as the article recommended, to see how well it worked. You can find my site, Ed’s House of Wares, over here. So, go check it out and buy something.

New Page of Pictures

ed — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 01:44:56 +0000

I don’t know why I didn’t add this to my blog years ago but as you can see above I now have a photo gallery page. This photo gallery is made up of albums from my Picasa Web Album.

Enjoy.

I’m A Winner

ed — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 19:52:15 +0000

I’ve never won a contest nor been picked randomly in a lottery drawing but recently I participated in a simple forum post over at CC2K and won a free book, 999: Twenty-nine Original Tales of Horror and Suspense, and a $15 gift card to Barnes & Noble in their All Hallow’s Read Scary Book Giveaway. Now I can buy some digital books for my B&N Nook I got a few months back. I’m pretty excited about reading the analog book too.

My thanks to Beth Woodward and the gang over at CC2K for this fabulous prize. Go check out their site and participate in their forum.

Happy Halloween

ed — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 16:52:04 +0000

I believe I may have mentioned before that October is my favorite month of the year and Halloween my favorite holiday. Traditionally, I tend to watch horror movies and classic TV shows that I have grown up watching. I recently purchased the classic Fat Albert Halloween Special and relived the memories just this morning while watching it. I’ll also get around to seeing It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown sometime today. Right now, I am about to watch a hidden treasure that not many people have heard of and I just discovered last year; a movie called Trick ‘r Treat from way back in 2007. This movie has been added to a great choice of my yearly Halloween traditions. If you haven’t seen it, check it out. It really is a lot of fun and perfect for the Halloween season.

Here is the trailer

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here is a really cool clip from the movie

Click here to view the embedded video.

Happy Halloween!

Replacement Droid Received

ed — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 22:22:02 +0000

I just received my Motorola Droid 1 replacement (see previous post). Unfortunately, it wasn’t a Motorola Droid 2.

Oh well…

Replacement Droid On the Way

ed — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 15:20:59 +0000

For a little over a week I have had a hardware issue with my Motorola Droid 1, it started flickering, almost like a mini-strobe light. I could still use it as it wouldn’t blackout completely but at times the flickering would become so bad that I fear of seizure. The following video shows a brief example of the display flickering a little. At times it can be worse than what is seen in this video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Since I am still in my 1 year warranty, Verizon is sending me a replacement that I should see arriving on Tuesday. I have not had any other issues with this device and actually have fallen in love with it. However, I am hoping they send me a Droid 2 as a replacement since it has some keyboard and hardware improvements and is supposed to be faster. I doubt it will happen but I can still hope.

Xbox Live Requires Higher MTU

ed — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 21:02:13 +0000

I just found out from Xbox Live support that Xbox Live now requires an MTU of 1364 or higher. Unfortunately, my Apple Airport Extreme has no way of changing that setting. This is total crap. Now I literally have to choose between Apple or Microsoft; doing away with my Airport Extreme router or canceling my Xbox Live. And to be honest with you, I believe Microsoft will be winning this battle.

Update – 10/07/2010 6:50pm: I just got off the phone with Apple support to find out if they could tell me the default MTU value on the Airport Extreme since you can’t change it. After waiting on hold for a few minutes for the support technician to research the information they stated the default value is 1492. Stupid Microsoft.

Update – 10/07/2010 7:00pm: I just fixed it myself. Believe it or not, it was a DNS issue. I use OpenDNS on my home network. I have never, EVER had an issue with OpenDNS. I simply went into my Xbox NIC and change the DNS to my ISP’s DNS IP instead of using my router DNS, since it has the OpenDNS IPs, and I was able to log into Xbox Live. Crazy. Although, now that I think of it, I probably could have just put an Allow rule in the OpenDNS settings and it would have fixed it too. Stupid OpenDNS

New Social Tools

ed — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 10:33:43 +0000

I know I don’t really have an audience for my blog but I thought I would add this to my site anyhow.

It’s a tool you can use to share my blog post in your favorite social media site.

Edward Prostate

ed — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 02:02:29 +0000

I kid you not when I tell you this was a transcribed voicemail to me courtesy of Google Voice this evening.

Dragon*Con 2010

ed — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 15:11:44 +0000

Click here to view the embedded video.

Pictures from previous Dragon*Con visits.

Some friends and myself at my last Dragon*Con attendance in 2007.

Prefix too long?

ed — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 02:10:45 +0000

Again the last post to Twitter did not include a link. I shortened the prefix to see if that fixes the problem.

It’s not working

ed — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 02:09:15 +0000

The last two post to Twitter did not include a link back to the post. Hopefully this one will.

Sorry again…

ed — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 02:06:44 +0000

The last post to Twitter did not include a link back to the post. I think it ran out of room so I removed some stuff from the prefix.

Hopefully this post will work right this time.

Sorry…

ed — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 02:03:35 +0000

That last post worked to my liking, I just needed to add a dash to the end of the prefix to display when the prefix ends and the blog title begins.

Sorry for all the tweets.

That last test worked

ed — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 01:59:21 +0000

Okay, that last test seemed to work but the Twitter tweet was a little common and didn’t explain much, just posted a link back to the blog post without description. I changed a setting in the plugin to add a prefix. Hopefully this works to my liking.

This is a test

ed — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 01:56:07 +0000

I’ve been looking for a good tool that will automatically post a link to my Twitter account every time I create a new blog post.

This is my first test using little-wp-to-twitter.

Android Apps

ed — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 01:26:41 +0000

Like the iPhone apps post from last year, I am going to post a list of applications I have installed on my Droid at the request of some friends.

To make it easy, I installed AppBrain application management tool. You can actually see a list of my apps on their site here. And I also have embedded in the right sidebar their neat little widget.

Below is my list of apps. I’m not going to go into each one of them as the post could be quite a few pages. So if you have any questions about an individual application, just contact me.

A very important tip regarding apps in the Android Market: Read the comments. They can be very helpful when you are trying to decide if it is worth it or not.

ecrosby’s Apps on the phone

Phone: Motorola Droid
53 total, 53 free (100%), 0 paid (0%), 55MB total size, $0 total price

View this app list on AppBrain

Cat Attacks the World Cup

ed — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 23:20:05 +0000

As you see in my last post, we recently got a new cat in the household. Oreo has proven to be a pure delight to our family. I never thought I would own a cat but she is awesome.

We have found that our camera and video recorder is filling up with some of the kooky things she does. You can see some of the photos over at my web album here.

I was watching the World Cup on Sunday and caught this on video. I labeled the video Cat Reacts to the World Cup but my friend Jon had a better title. Cat Attacks the World Cup.

Enjoy!

Meet Oreo

ed — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 10:20:49 +0000

Well, after months without a pet, since our 13 year old dog Roxy died back in September, we have a new addition to the family. Meet Oreo.

I’ve never been much of a cat person having been raised with dogs all my life but I don’t mind cats too much. Correction: We had a cat once when I was in high school but it was an outside cat that never came inside, and I don’t remember us having it too long either.

At first, I protested us acquiring a cat since I didn’t think we were ready for a new pet but since meeting the cute little bugger I gave in. She’s been a delightful distraction from the stress of life.

Here’s a HD video of little miss Oreo I took with my new Flip UltraHD:

Click here to view the embedded video.

eReader on a Netbook

ed — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 12:18:34 +0000

With the upcoming release of the iPad tomorrow, everyone is going iPad crazy. Debates and discussions are flying everywhere about what is good and bad about the product; most of those I have been involved with have been over at The Unique Geek discussion group. Well, I honestly have no want for the iPad or any other tablet-like device in the immediate future. I am going to try to be patient to see what other manufacturer comes out with in the coming years. The ones I will actually be looking closer at will be those running Android. Having recently switched from an iPhone to the open platform of an Android powered device that is the Droid, I have been really impressed with that operating system. With the flux of tablet devices hitting the market recently, and in the coming months, I have high expectations that these devices will only get better, and cheaper, over time. Right now I just see no need to own a tablet device. The only need I have seen is the ability to read electronic books.

As mentioned previously, I have been on this mission to reduce space in my house with the elimination of books and other media. Well, recently I have started using the eReader application on my Droid and Dell Mini netbook and I have to say, for now, it does what I need it to do. If you have never used the eReader application, try it out, it’s free. The only issue I have found so far is that the electronic book prices in their market are a little higher than the rest of the market, as compared to Amazon’s and Barnes & Noble ebooks. If you are curious, here is what the eReader looks like on a netbook turned to portrait mode:

The advantage I have on this netbook is that the computer came with an Intel graphics card that has the ability to rotate 90, 180 and 270 degrees. All that I have to do is launch the eReader application and then hit a keyboard shortcut combination of CTRL+ALT+LEFT and the display rotates. As you see in the above picture, I can then hold my netbook almost like a standard size hardback book. Granted, this is not a perfect solution but for now this will work perfectly until 1.) I can find a practical need for a tablet device, 2.) devices advance technologically, and 3.) the devices and the media for the devices become more competitive and affordable.

Flip UltraHD Battery Charging Issue

ed — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 16:22:18 +0000

In case you do not follow my Twitter account, I posted a short video from my Motorola Droid on Qik regarding the purchase of a Flip UltraHD back in January. Here is the video:

Well, after owning my second Flip product, I’ve run into a pretty common issue with the UltraHD that a lot of other people have run into. It took me a while to find the solution online so I thought I would post it again on my blog. Here are the steps:

1) remove the battery pack from the camcorder
2) connect the camcorder to a powered USB port on your computer
3) when the “Connected” indicator comes on, insert the battery pack into the camcorder
4) safe eject your camcorder from your computer
5) reconnect your camcorder to your computer
6) the battery pack should now begin to charge within the camcorder

Some people who have attempted these steps have stated that it did not work for them. At first, it did not work for me either but I found one owner who stated that they had to perform the steps more than once before the problem was fixed. I tried the steps again myself and the problem was fixed. So, if those steps don’t work for you try it more than once.

Good luck.

Data Backup – Part 2

ed — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 00:15:20 +0000

In part one of my two part article on backups I submitted an old post on backups. In this post, part 2, I will discuss my research on online backup services, like Dropbox, Carbonite and others. I will also discuss my final choice of service and why I chose it.

First, lets start with an old favorite I was using for a couple of years, Box.net. I believe this is one of the few first online backup service that offered the option to upload your files for data storage and data sharing. I first tried their 1 GB free service almost three years ago, mainly to share files with friends and family, and for times I needed to post videos and such to this blog (before I discovered Vimeo). But then I found out that their free service only allowed a 10 MB file upload limit – they have since changed that to 25 MB. Due to that limitation I decided to sign up for their 5 GB storage for $5 a month; I used that service up until a month ago, for over two years. To keep this article relatively short, I will only post the key features of Box.net and the other services I researched.

Box.net

Good: Web link to private files for sharing; files accessible from anywhere via web; online drag and drop files; 1 GB free
Moderate: folder sharing, but only with another Box.net user
Bad: No desktop client synchronization; no security for personal edition (business edition only); $5/month for 5 Gb; $10/month for 10 GB with 1 GB file limit

One of the few reasons I left Box.net was because they do not have a desktop client for easy uploading and synchronization. I’ve contacted their customer service about this and they stated that there is no plan in the near future to offer a desktop client.

Microsoft Live Mesh

Good: 5 GB free; desktop client; files accessible from anywhere via the web
Moderate: N/A
Bad: Adds Live Desktop remote desktop (mirror drivers installed) without the option to deselect; no security; No web link to private shared files

I was using Live Mesh for close to a year until I ran into an issue with the mirrored drivers that are installed when you install the Live Mesh client. As mentioned above, these drivers are used for the remote desktop feature that allows you the ability to remote into your computer from anywhere you have an internet connection. I believe the service is still in beta so I hope in the future they change this so that you have the choice to install the remote desktop client when you install the Live Mesh Client. Also, since I use Logmein Free to access my computers remotely, there was no need to continue using Live Mesh.

Microsoft Skydrive

Good: 25 GB free; folder sharing; online drag and drop files; files accessible from anywhere via web
Moderate: Desktop client synchronization via third party tools (SDExplorer)
Bad: no security; No web link to private files

Dropbox

Good: 2 GB free with the ability to gain extra storage with every referral; desktop client; files accessible from anywhere via web; sync files of any size; secure transfer and online encryption; use on unlimited devices; works on Windows, Mac and Linux
Moderate: folder sharing, but only with another Dropbox user; Public folder with web link to files; $10/month for 50 GB
Bad: No web link to private files

For most people who want online storage and have less that 2 GB of data, I would highly recommend Dropbox. The ease of use alone is one of the main reasons I would recommend. For someone like my Dad who only has a few documents but has more than a 100 MB of photos, this was the perfect choice for him. I’ve used it (and still use it from time to time), mainly, for purposes of sharing files with my family.

Spideroak

Good: 2 GB free; folder sharing; desktop client as a Windows Explorer view; $10/month for 100 GB; sync files of any size; use on unlimited devices; works on Windows, Mac and Linux; secure transfer and online encryption
Moderate: sharing folders is a little difficult to setup
Bad: No web link to private files

Before a friend’s recommendation, I had never heard of Spideroak. I first signed up with Spideroak’s free service to check out their desktop client and was immediately impressed. With services like Live Mesh and Dropbox, their client is a predetermined folder that is installed on your computer. To backup files you have to dump your data into this folder. However with Spideroak’s desktop client you have a explorer-like interface that will show you the folder structure. If you want to backup a folder or file all you need to do is make a checked selection on that folder or file for it to be backed up. Very simple.

Carbonite

Good: desktop client that encompasses the entire computer; $55/year unlimited; works on Windows and Mac; sync files of any size
Moderate: N/A
Bad: only sync one machine; no web access to files; no sharing of files or folders

With Carbonite, its only function is to backup your computer, at that’s it. Once you install the client all you need to do is right click on a folder or file and enable Carbonite to back it up to the “cloud“. Its really straight forward and nothing fancy about the service.

Dell DataSafe

Good: $60/year for 100 GB
Moderate: N/A
Bad: client – after installing I couldn’t create the free 2 GB account they advertised because it would not allow me to choose a storage package. Also, it minimizes to the system tray but has no option to close without killing the process in Task Manager; works only on Windows

After trying all of these services, I finally chose Spideroak, mainly, because of the desktop client, but the pricing wasn’t too bad either. This past Monday, after trying their free service for a day or so, I signed up for their $10 a month for 100 GB plan as I have about 65 GB of data to backup. I started the backup process that night before I went to bed and by Friday night the backup finished. This time rate is based on my 1.9 Mps upload speed through my internet service provider. Overall, I am happy with the choice I made. Based on the $5 a month for 5 GB I use to pay through Box.net I am getting a much better deal now with Spideroak. The only thing I have found so far about Spideroak that I can’t forget, or those of you that decide on Spideroak, that if you delete a file or folder on your computer that is being backed up to their service don’t expect it to automatically get deleted from their servers, which isn’t a bad thing. You just have to remember to log into their site to manually delete that folder or file or your storage could fill up over time. But the good thing about this is that if you lose it on your computer and can’t retrieve it for some reason, at least you will have it backed up to your Spideroak storage to retrieve.

At the end of it all, I highly recommend giving Spideroak a try. Again, they have a free service with 2 GB so there is always the option to try before you make a decision. No matter what you do, or how you do it, backup your data. Do it now rather than later because, for all you know, your computer may be getting ready to die on you right now while you are reading this. And if you don’t have your data on a second hard drive or backed up using one of these online services you will lose your data forever.

Data Backup – Part 1

ed — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:21:42 +0000

I haven’t posted for quite some time so I thought it appropriate to submit my recent research on online data backup. I wrote an article on the Technical Difficulties Podcast a little over a year ago so I will post that first as part one of this two part segment. Some of the information in this article is a little out dated but most of it still applies.
You can find the original article here: http://www.techdiffpodcast.com/?p=12
Update: The original site is having some technical difficulties (pun intended) right now so I will point you to the temporary WordPress site until the issue is resolved: Backups: Everybody Is Doing It. Why Don’t You?

Backing up your personal computer data is probably the most important weekly task you probably are not doing right now. All those photos of your family and friends, that video of your child’s football game, that spreadsheet you created of your personal financial budget, even some of those work files that you may have saved on your personal computer while working from home one day is just sitting there on your hard drive awaiting that one time when your hard drive crashes and everything is lost forever. That is all it takes, just one time for your hard drive to crash – and it will crash at any time – that will cause all that personal data to be wiped out.

Many people do not realize it but we have been backing up our personal data since the beginning of time; this ancient form I am speaking of is handwriting. If you think about it, when we write down that grocery list, or take notes in class, at church, or in business meetings, handwriting is a form of backup. It is taking the data from our brain and transferring it to another form of media storage so that it will not get lost just in case our brain wipes it out by forgetting. Backing up our personal data is just as easy as handwriting. If we own a computer, another type of brain, and are storing personal data on that computer we should be doing what we do every day when we write on a piece of paper.

There are many ways to backup your personal data on your computer. Some of them inexpensive and some of them free. First, I will tell you what I do in my personal backup strategy. Most of the data I own that is vital and precious to me are my photos and videos of my friends and family. I have other data in the form of documents and also some applications that are not available online any longer. I store all this data on the hard drive that came with my computer. Knowing that this was my only copy, and knowing I needed to backup my data, I went to the local retail store that sells computer equipment (Best Buy, CompUSA, Staples, OfficeMax, etc.) and bought a Western Digital 500GB MyBook USB external hard drive to plug into an available USB port on my computer. You can get this item, pretty much, anywhere for less than $100. If you want to save money on an item like this, it would not hurt to search online on a site like pricewatch.com for bargains. Once I got this external hard drive home and plugged it in, I then copied all my personal data that was under one folder (a.k.a. My Documents in Windows) to a folder I created on the external hard drive. Now, every time I add data to my computer, be it a transfer of photos from my digital camera or a document I created, I also copy those files to my external hard drive. As a safety precaution, I also use Microsoft’s SyncToy to synchronize my local folder to the external hard drive once a week. That way if I forgot to copy the files in that first stage when I originally created them, then a confirmed copy would take place with SyncToy in the second phase. Another precaution was to buy a small portable 160GB USB external hard drive in the form of a Western Digital My Passport drive so that I could carry around a third copy of my data in my laptop bag. In the extreme, if my house were to burn down while I am away from home I still have all my personal data with me in my laptop bag and nothing is lost.

Some of this, you may say, is a little extreme or too much. Actually, if I were to go a step further and actually bought another 160GB USB external hard drive to copy my data to and store at a family member’s house or in a safe deposit box would be labeled as extreme, but not insane. I have heard many experts state that this “extreme” step of storing your personal data off site is actually the only true means of ensuring valid backups. Corporations do it for all their business data to ensure they stay in business in case of any major catastrophes. Why shouldn’t a home user do the same thing when their personal data can be classified as just as critical?

There are so many ways of backing up your data; my strategy was just one example. Separate from completing backups to a local storage, you can also backup your data to online storage. There are quite a few online sites that offer this service at a cost and for free. Box.net is a service that offers both free and pay service. I actually use a paid box.net service for some of my storage so that I can get to the data I need at any time when I have a internet connection. Here are a few other services that offer online storage: Amazon’s Jungle Disk, Dell’s DataSafe, and Carbonite. The beauty about these online backups is that they usually have an application that you can download, install, point to your data folder, and schedule it to backup your data in the background once a day. This way is all automatic and no extra steps are needed by you to complete a backup versus completing a manual backup to a local hard drive.

No matter how you do it, it is really important that you backup your data. Do your research first and find out what suits you best in your weekly, or daily, backup task; local backups to a hard drive or remote backup to an online service. Either way, you can’t go wrong.

Since writing this article I decided that local backups to external drives is just not enough for me, especially in the case of natural disasters. With the increase in popularity of online backups I decided to do some research to find an online solution that works for me. In part two I plan on discussing some of these services, what I have found in my research and the personal choice I have made.

Stay Tuned.

2009, YOU SUCK!

ed — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 18:46:57 +0000

Today is New Years Eve and I can’t tell you enough how happy I am the year 2009 is almost over. Be warned that this post will be negative and a little morbid.

The year 2009 was the worst year ever in my 38 years of living, and I am not exaggerating. Here are just a few things that happened that really made the year pretty horrible: First, the economy sucked so bad that the company I worked for was forced to reduce the hours for all employees, which meant for me that I lost a month of pay spread out over the year. Second, there were a lot of deaths this past year. Along with the numerous celebrity deaths that occurred, I lost my 13 year dog, Roxy, at the end of September then my Grandmother two weeks later. In addition there were quite a few personal issues in my household that made the year pretty stressful.

But, I can say that there are positives from these tragedies. First, at least I had a job. I have known quite a few people who were unemployed for most of 2009, so I am fortunate to have been employed. Second, even though I will miss my dog and my grandmother, I know that they are not suffering any longer and are in a better place. Finally, I have good health, all my limbs are in good working order and I have a roof over my head. God has been good to me and my family and I don’t take that for granted. I thank Him everyday for all that He has done for me.

Even though the year 2009 was pretty horrible, I am optimistic about 2010 and I look forward to the future and all the adventures it brings.

Happy New Year!

My Ramblings on the Motorola Droid

ed — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:32:38 +0000

My apologies for the blurry, amateur video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

iPhone Apps

ed — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 01:45:01 +0000

I’ve had a few family members and friends inquire about what applications I have on my iPhone. I figured it was past due posting this anyhow so here goes.

1. The Simplify Media app is best if you want to have access to your music library everywhere you go without having to load everything on your iPhone. Using the desktop application, I installed it, created an account and pointed the application to my music library. Now, I can listen to my music everywhere, even on the Edge network. What is also great about this is that I talked my sister into signing up for Simplify Media. We added each other to our friend contact list so, now, not only do I have access to my music library, I have access to hers also, and vice versa. Current Price: $5.99 (I paid $2.99 when it first came out for a temporary promotion)

2. Shopper is just a simple shopping list to remind me of items I need to buy at the supermarket or Target. One of the great features about this application, though, is that it has the capability to email your list to another person. Very handy when you need your significant other to pick up something for you. Current Price: $.99

3. Evernote is just that, a note taking application. Yes, the iPhone has its own notes application but Evernote is a hundred times more powerful. Evernote has the ability to sync your notes to the “cloud” so it’s safe from data loss. Not only does it sync your text notes, but it can also sync your voice notes and picture notes. I use Evernote quite regularly on my iPhone but the great thing about Evernote is that it is everywhere; I also have it on my iGoogle launch page on my browser to access. I’ve never used it before but there is also an application you can install on your computer. Current Price: Free

4. Tweetdeck is for people who use Twitter and has been ranked as the best Twitter client out there. Current Price: Free

5. Facebook, of course, is for Facebook users. Although I have a Facebook account I rarely visit. Most of my status information is fed from Twitter. I mostly use this application for when people comment on my status on Facebook and I need to comment back. Current Price: Free

6. Skype is an application that allows you to make VoIP calls and instant message to all your Skype friends, however it only works on a wi-fi connection. Current Price: Free

7. Tip Calculator is great for people who suck at math. I use it every time I eat out. Current Price: $.99

8. Google Mobile is perfect if you use a lot of the Google services. I use the Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Talk in this application quite regularly, and they work really well. I was especially shocked at how well the Google Talk portion worked. Current Price: Free

9. Flixster is for the movie fan who likes to check out film trailers and times at your local theater. Current Price: Free

10. I mostly use the Free RSS application to read my friends blogs. Mostly. Current Price: Free

11. RSS Player is perfect for listening to podcast. I love listening to tech podcast. There have been times when I have listened to all the podcast on my iPod in my car and do not have the newest episode of my favorite podcast that I then use RSS Player on my iPhone to begin listening the to next episode. Current Price: $.99

12. Backgrounds is something my sister introduced me to. It just allows you to download wallpaper backgrounds for your iPhone. My sister found this background for me from the application. Current Price: Free

13. WordPress application is for when I want to post a quick blog to this blog site. Current Price: Free

14. Audioboo is great for audio blogging. I have my Audioboo account tied to my Twitter account so that when I have no time to type a Tweet, I talk a Tweet. Current Price: Free

15. The Sims 3 is self explanatory. I don’t know why I bought it. I’ve played it just a few times and then lost interest. Current Price: $6.99

16. Wolfenstein 3D is a port of the classic first-person shooter game. Same for this, I’ve played it a few times and lost interest. It’s pretty difficult to play a FPS game on the iPhone. Current Price: $1.99

17. Sportacular is a fantastic application for sports fans. I use this quite often to check on NCAA Football scores, to see who is ahead in the current PGA tournament, or to see how the NCAA Basketball teams are fairing during March Madness. Current Price: Free

18. Air Hockey is also self explanatory. This is a great two player game when you are waiting in queue somewhere with a family member or friend. Current Price: $.99

When the Apple iPhone (and iPod Touch) application store first came out, I told myself that I would never buy an application for my iPhone, especially since most everything that was out then was free. Well, I seem to have given in to quite a few pay applications since, especially the $.99 apps as they have seemed so compelling.

For those of you that read this, and have an iPhone or iPod Touch, I would love to hear what you have on your device. Just post your list in the comments below.

The Software Solution of Synergy

ed — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 14:17:57 +0000

I apologize for the quality of this video recording. I still haven’t acquired the skill.

This is just a video explanation of using a software KVM solution instead of a hardware solution.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Snow Leopard is Here

ed — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 18:12:10 +0000

I pre-ordered Snow Leopard on Wednesday and received it through FedEx on its release day yesterday. Here is the upgrade process.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I found out after the install that the reason I was having audio problems is because my speaker plug was not in all the way.

EC Technology Consulting

ed — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 13:23:04 +0000

It’s been a long time since I last posted so I thought I would give an update as to what has happened since I last posted. Surprisingly, I think this is the longest post gap since starting this blog.

To be honest, there really hasn’t been a whole lot that has happened since the last post. The only thing major to report is that I started my own business back in May to attempt to make some extra money on the side. This year’s economy has sucked so much that work has cut down on my hours since the beginning of the year so I had to start cutting a lot of cost in my life. The only problem is that cutting back didn’t really help out a lot; it helped but not so much that I’ve had my head way above water. I’ve been treading the water just fine but I’ve been close to nose deep so I started working on the side to get back to my comfort zone.

In May I started advertising my IT (Information Technology) services on Craigslist, and someone found me. A retail store in Winter Garden hired me to help them with the servers and point of sale computers in their environment. It was then that I decided it best to form a LLC. Thus begin EC Technology Consulting LLC.

http://ectech.info

Its actually taken me this long to get that logo and site setup. Thanks to a good friend of mine with the design talents to help me with the logo, EC Technology Consulting now has a stamp.

Now, I just need more clients to get the flow started. So far, it’s been an interesting experience having to be my own accountant and such but hopefully I can make this successful so that I can make some steady income on the side to help keep my head, comfortably, above water. The goal is just to keep it on the side, I don’t really want to make it a full time business, unless it develops into something much bigger.

Pray for me and wish me luck.

The Big Bang Theory – Captain Future is Coming

ed — Fri, 29 May 2009 21:58:39 +0000

For you fans of the show The Big Bang Theory, you may have noticed some of the cool geek items in Leonard and Sheldon’s apartment. There are quite a few that I found really cool, like the Firestorm figure and the Green Lantern collectibles on the shelves. Well one of the items that is hanging on the wall kept catching my eye every time I watched an episode this past season (I’m new to the show), a poster with a robot and a man that had similarities to Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers. You can see the poster I am referring to in this clip at about 2:15, over the right shoulder of Penny:

I finally found out a little background on this poster this past week.

The poster is from a cover of a pulp book that was published in the early 40′s called Captain Future. Thanks to that show and the total awesomeness of that poster, I became intrigued with the character and backstory, especially after reading about it here. Some of those covers are just plain brilliant. I had never heard of Captain Future before starting my search but instantly became fascinated by the information that I found. I started looking online to see if I could find any of the original pulp books to buy but, of course, they are rare and in some cases pretty expensive. I found out today, though, that the hardcover of the collected works is coming out in July.
http://www.captainfuture.us.com/
http://www.haffnerpress.com/cf1.html

I’m actually excited. I may still look for the original books though.
Thanks The Big Bang Theory.

Technology Support

ed — Mon, 18 May 2009 21:23:57 +0000

I’m going to try something new called CrossLoop that will assist me with connecting with people who need computer assistance, be it simple support on a home computer or server support for a small business.

You can check out my profile and/or contact me there at the following link:

Edward Crosby on CrossLoop

Or, just check out the CrossLoop badge on the sidebar of this site.

Space Needed

ed — Thu, 14 May 2009 14:00:17 +0000

I’ve been on this project for the past three years that involves getting rid of stuff to free up space. It first started out with selling my comic book collection. I had over 3000 comics in 14 long boxes that took up a lot of (needed) space. If you have never seen long comic book boxes then you should at least know that having 14 of these easily filled up a closet, and then some.
Next, a little over a year ago, I finished transferring all my CDs to my computer hard drive (with backups, of course). I had already been in the process of doing this for the past 10 years. Every time I bought a new CD I would transfer it to my computer so that I could listen to my music without having to grab a CD and inserting it into my CD-ROM. Well, since buying a iPod about three years ago and using it in my vehicle, I realized thereafter that I never touched any of my CDs, they were just taking up space and collecting dust. So I finished transferring the rest of my collection to my computer last year, boxed up all my CDs and went to the local buy/trade CD store and sold my collection for a decent amount. Problem solved. A 300 plus CD collection was no longer taking up space. Now, when I want music I just go to the MP3 download section of Amazon, buy and download the files straight to my music library on my computer.
And now my next two task is getting rid of all my books and DVDs. I have a pretty hefty book collection and easily over 250 DVDs. I had already started stacking books I have read that I know I will never read again to sell either on Amazon or at my next yard sale but I decided yesterday that I should just donate them since there is no telling how long it will take me sell them; they’ve already been sitting in a stack on the floor for the past couple of months collecting dust, I need the space. All the other books that I have not read I may attempt to sell on Amazon. One thing I failed to realize is that there is a such thing as a library. I haven’t been to a library in over 15 years but there is one near my house that I can visit anytime I want to read a book; I’ll let them store the books for me. As far as my DVD collection’s future, I figure I will try to sell them on Amazon or to friends and family (my collection is on the right if you are interested in buying). I’ve spent far too much money on them to just donate them.
With movies and music, the rise of online digital media has become so easily available there is really no need for physical ownership any longer; I honestly believe this is the future. Slowly, it is becoming the same for books. Services like Netflix and Amazon Unbox for movies, iTunes and Amazon for music download, and now Amazon’s Kindle, along with other electronic book readers, are so much easier to access these days with the increase of internet bandwidth (I’m clocking 30Mbps down and 1.8Mps up now). The only thing I need to worry about is hard drive storage and backup. But, with the price of hard drives so affordable these days there are no worries there.
Hopefully, within the next year or so, the only thing in my bedroom will be my bed, my TV, my desk and computer surrounded by hard drives with all my media in digital format.

New Dell Studio Hybrid

ed — Sat, 09 May 2009 22:23:15 +0000

I bought a Studio Hybrid from Dell’s outlet section this week for less than $400. It was a deal I couldn’t pass up for a project that involved setting up a media center to play all my videos, music, view pictures, watch Hulu and so much more from my TV. Eventually, I have a plan of getting rid of all my DVDs and replacing them with media on a hard drive to free up space in the house. Having over 250 DVDs in my collection takes up a lot of room.

The Studio Hybrid came with a 2.0GHz Pentium Dual Core Penryn, 3GB of memory, 160GB 5400RPM SATA drive and a integrated Intel GM965 video card.

Here is a video of the setup.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Update: One thing I failed to mention about XBMC in this video that should be noted is the plugins available in the wild. There are Hulu and You Tube plugins that will allow you to watch their content from within XBMC. The only plugin that came with XBMC preloaded is a Apple Trailers plugin that will allow you to download all the movie trailers from Apple to view within XBMC.

Journey Will Never Die

ed — Sat, 02 May 2009 11:56:42 +0000

I don’t know if it’s just me or what but I’ve noticed a recent trend in Journey songs becoming really popular now in current TV commercials, TV shows and movies.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I want the world to know that I’ve been a Journey fan for about 25 years now and have listened to their music non-stop since then. So, when all these youngsters start listening to Journey and make it a trend or something (it could happen), I never stopped believin’.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Of course, Journey isn’t Journey without Steve Perry.

Talking Devices in Blade Runner

ed — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 18:07:36 +0000

I found this over at Engadget taken from the SciFi channel and thought it worthy of posting. I found it amusing.

You can find the Engadget post here.

Trek Geekiness

ed — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 16:56:50 +0000

Everyone has reacquired Trek madness with the new Star Trek movie coming out next month. Today I saw someone on Twitter I am following post this fun from the Cheez-It Star Trek promotion web site.

This is me as a Romulan.

Moving On Up

ed — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 11:04:43 +0000

Well, this is it. I’ve kept quiet for long enough that I can’t keep it in any longer. This will be the first time I have revealed this secret to anyone. My family nor any of my friends have been informed of my secret search and finding. Since mostly my friends and family are the only ones who read my blog, I thought I would let the secret out publicly to everyone.

As most of my close friends and family know, I have been wanting to move out of Florida for a few years. I’m a native Floridian of 38 years and have felt it time to see a change of scenery outside the southeast. Since 2003, I have been visiting one of my friends in Brooklyn at least twice a year, so for the past two years or so I have had the intention of moving to New York. Well, that has changed.

More information that my friends and family know is that I was unemployed for a few months last summer. During that time, toward the end of my severance, I began submitting my resume to companies outside of Florida; again, something I kept private. Some of those companies I submitted my resume to were located in California. San Francisco and the Los Angeles area were two other city choices I wanted to move to outside of New York. Well, after more than 6 months, and two jobs later, I finally got a bite from a company outside of San Francisco recently. I got a call from an HR recruiter from this company a few days ago and we both have exchange emails and phone calls since then trying to arrange interviews. I had my phone interview last Friday with the recruiter and another HR person. The phone interview must have gone pretty well, even though I was nervous and felt it didn’t go so well. I got an email late last night from the recruiter stating that he wanted to schedule a face-to-face interview next week. I don’t know the details completely yet but I will be flying to San Francisco for a couple of days, maybe more, for the interview, all expenses paid by the company.

I don’t know about you but this sounds extremely promising to me if they are paying for the trip for the interview. What is even better is that I have the week off from work next week. Perfect timing. I’m super excited. This is something I have been hoping and praying would come along for the past two years. I haven’t told my roommate yet, and I know she doesn’t read my blog, so I will be informing her tonight. It should be an interesting conversation.

I hope to be speaking more with HR today on the exact details of the trip and interview.

Happy April Fools Day!

Amazing Stories in the Twilight Zone

ed — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 02:37:07 +0000

I’ve been reliving my childhood for quite sometime thanks to Netflix. For the past couple of years or so I’ve been renting 80′s shows like Miami Vice, The Greatest American Hero, and V: The Series. Some of those shows are really bad and I ask myself while re-watching them how I could have watched a show like that at the time. I just finished watching season 2 of Amazing Stories via the Netflix streaming and have thoroughly enjoyed it though. That entire series was just plain awesome. Yeah, there were a few cheesy episodes that only the 80′s could produce but overall the series still held up to today.
Check out this tubular promo I found on You Tube that will definitely flood you with nostalgia.

Click here to view the embedded video.

While I was watching the final season (unfortunately, Amazing Stories only lasted two seasons) it reminded me of another 80′s series of the same genre I had to checkout, the 80′s version of The Twilight Zone. Remember this?

Click here to view the embedded video.

It was one of my favorite shows at the time; unfortunately, Netflix only has season 1, so far. I remember during those years looking forward to Friday nights when this show used to air. Mom would usually just arrive home from the supermarket just before the episode would start which would ensure tasty treats and soda pop while I watched a thrilling episode. It was a magical time that produced wonderful memories today. I’m about halfway through the season and I am enjoying it all over again.

I just finished watching a pretty good episode I had to post on Vimeo. If you remember watching the show, it was an hour long but would have either two 20 minute episodes or sometimes one really long episode with a really short episode to help fill up the hour long slot. The video I posted is one of those short ones lasting only 8 minutes or so. It’s actually an episode I don’t remember seeing when it originally aired but really enjoyed watching this time around. It stars Sherman Hemsley and a very young Ron Glass. I think the main reason why I enjoyed this episode so much was the message it delivered at the very end. It’s witty but very true.

I hope Vimeo doesn’t pull it so try to watch it as soon as you can. Enjoy!

*Note: Pay attention to the Devil’s t-shirt throughout the episode.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Minor updates

ed — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 02:14:47 +0000

There hasn’t been a whole lot going on lately with my life, so this will be a short one.

I realized recently that I didn’t post about the new podcast that I participate in, and sometimes host, called Technical Difficulties. It’s a spin-off podcast of The Unique Geek podcast, another podcast I used to, and still on occasion, participate in. Technical Difficulties podcast usually revolves around recent tech news, but we also include a couple of segments for all listeners. The specific segments entitled Tech Breakdown and Tech Tip are usually on subjects where we explain certain technologies for the technically impaired and tips to help you survive this digital age.

So, please, go check us out at: http://www.techdiffpodcast.com/ You can either listen or download the episodes from our site or directly from iTunes.

Here is the most recent episode for your listening enjoyment, but please check out our site too:

Also, I just added a plugin to the site so that you can now subscribe to comments. Which means if you leave a comment on a post and select subscribe, you will receive an email notification when someone else post a comment thereafter. I’ve mentioned this before in previous post, but I still have the plugin enabled for leaving audio or video comments. So please don’t be afraid to leave me a audio or video comment.

WordPress Update to 2.7

ed — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 04:55:12 +0000

So I finally updated. What prompted me to finally update was I decided to redesign my entire site with a new theme and other changes and thought that it was time to finally upgrade WordPress to 2.7.
If you’ve never managed WordPress for your site/blog, then you must know that in the past it has always been a huge chore to upgrade as it’s all a manual process; you have to backup the database, backup all the WordPress files, download the update, disable plugins, delete the old files, upload the new files, re-enable the plugins, and hope that it all runs smoothly thereafter.
Well, this time, I wanted to try some automation. I heard a few months back on a discussion board somewhere that there was an automatic upgrade plugin for WordPress that someone had design. I searched, found it, loaded it on my server on GoDaddy and used it. The process was pretty simple, I just had to click links every so often after an automatic task had been completed, sort of like a wizard. But, I had a glitch at the very final stage. The upgrade finished without any issue, it just locked me out, I wasn’t able to log back in. Well, I used the ‘forgot your password?’ option and it emailed me a new password. Only issue was that the new password didn’t work. I finally attempted to clean all my Firefox data: the browser data, form data, history, cache, cookies, saved passwords, everything. Once I did this and closed Firefox I was then able to open it back up and log in with the new password. Wooooh! I was freaking out there for a couple of minutes. If you can’t log in, you can’t administer the site (plugins still needed to be reactivated since the automation didn’t do that at the end) or write new blog post.
What I have seen so far in the update seems to have been worth it. Once I logged in I went to the plugins section to reactivate everything and found that most of them had updates also that I needed to install. Well, this new version of WordPress has the automation built in now that it will go out to the various plugin web sites, download the updates and install them for me. I also see quite a few other changes to 2.7, like a brand new revamped dashboard.
I think I will like this upgrade a lot.

Disco Ed

ed — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 17:15:49 +0000

The video explains it all.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Late Christmas

ed — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 18:47:26 +0000

I got a late Christmas present in the mail yesterday; I’m pretty excited about this one. It’s a Dell 22” widescreen flat screen monitor for my computer. Dell had a deal on the monitor a week after Christmas and it was something I just couldn’t pass up. At the time of this posting, I see on their site now that the price has jumped up to $270; my girlfriend got it for me for $200.

I really wasn’t looking into upgrading anytime soon. I had a Samsung 19” flat screen CRT in good working order that I have had for about 6 years now. In the past 15 years that I have owned a computer, I never upgraded the monitor unless it blew out on me. This time, because it was such a good deal, and my girlfriend really wanted to get me something big for Christmas, I decided, why not.

Now that I have this beauty, I decided to try my luck with Craigslist on selling my old Samsung monitor. At the same time, I had an old Panasonic flat screen CRT TV and JVC DVD player lying around collecting dust that I posted to Craigslist also. I’ve only listed a couple of items in the past on Craigslist and only had luck selling one of those items. Hopefully, I will sell these with no problem as I believe I’ve offered a pretty good deal on both.

Wish me luck.

Happy New Year – 2008 Recap

ed — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 04:01:48 +0000

The year of 2008 was one of the best years I have had in a long time. The reason I state that is because it has been, for the most part, full of excitement. I will admit that the first part of the year was dull; the excitement didn’t actually start until I was released from the company I had been with for over five years. It was just after that when I started a very exciting summer full of trips and thereafter a prosperous autumn.

It began as a trip to New York to act in an off-Broadway play. You can see the entries of those exciting times from archives of the month of July here, here, and here.

Immediately after that, at the end of the month of July, I made a trip to Richmond, VA and Washington D.C.
Then, only a couple weeks later, I made another trip to New York for some leisure time to enjoy the city and some of the tourist areas I had never visited.

Once I returned from my second New York trip is when I resumed my career at a new job working for IBM at Disney’s data center. It was only a couple of months before I realized that job was not suited for me.
The remaining year was filled with new tech gadgets, catching up with old friends after making a trip to Tampa for Halloween (pictures here and here) and a trip to Tallahassee for a FSU football game (picture here and here), and then, of course, the holidays.

It seemed halting my career in the first half of the year was a life changing event. Since then I’ve started a second job that has already proven unstable, so there is no telling what 2009 will hold. I hope 2009 is just as adventurous but a little more stable. It is true what some state though, that chaos is exciting and 2008 sure was an unstable and fun year for me.

I hope your 2009 is just as exciting and more prosperous than my 2008.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Lay Some Skin On Me

ed — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 23:25:04 +0000

Being the tech/computer geek (dork) that I am, I bought myself an early Christmas present…actually, I bought it for a new friend, my Dell Mini 9. Since it is winter time, I thought it about time that I put some skin on my Mini 9 to keep it warm(er). I went to Skinit, looked for my device, and customized. I browsed their designs first but I couldn’t find anything that I liked. Then I saw that you can upload your own image for the customization and immediately smiled, I knew exactly what I wanted. I browsed my computer’s hard drive of Blade Runner images that I had collected over the years and found what I wanted. Uploaded, ordered, and $35 later, after shipment delivery, this is the finished product:

When I first saw the skin before I applied it to my netbook I was a little upset that there was a hole in the middle that, once applied, would still display the Dell logo. I was hoping I could cover this up; not because I am ashamed it’s a Dell but because it would look totally lame to have a big Dell logo over Rick Deckard’s crotch. I called Skinit customer service to find out if I could return this to get one without the hole in the middle but due to their agreement with Dell that allows them to actually sell a customized skin for the Dell product, they could not send me one without the hole. However, after application, I have to say that I still dig it.

By the way, for those of you reading this that may not know me, I am a HUGE Blade Runner fan, hence the reason I chose a Rick Deckard silhouette.

Employee Reduction Bullet Time

ed — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 00:41:10 +0000

I don’t normally like to blog about work but what happened today shouldn’t go unmentioned.

We all have been hearing about corporate layoffs around the country for the past month or so now; companies like Sun Microsystems laying off 6,000, Palm laying off over 1,000, AT&T laying off 12,000, and Yahoo laying off over 1,500. Well the company I work for can be added to the list. I’m not sure how many total employees were laid off, I just know that my entire team was let go today, except for me. I’m really bummed about it being that I am the only single male without a wife and children that was left with a job in my team. Another reason is because these guys I have been working with had been with the company for almost two years or more and know more about the environment, so you would think that I would be the one they cut, but that wasn’t the case. Apparently, the order was the last to hire was the first to fire. See, the other guys had been contractors since their inception into the company. When they hired me in October, I was hired as a full time exempt employee, whereas they were hired as full time exempt employees a week after I started. It’s something that I don’t completely understand but I have to find the grateful attitude somehow. It’s tough to see the brighter side of it and to be grateful when these other guys that have spent the past two months training me on the procedures of the company were released and I was not.

I guess you can say this is definitely the sign of the times and my time may not be far behind…again (*see Unemployment post). If things do not get better in the economy you, the reader, may be next also. I’m just saying is that we may not see the end of these woes for a long time.

The recommendation I can give to you is pray more, save, keep your resume updated, and your mind open to changes.

Christmas Lights

ed — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 11:55:19 +0000

Seeing the Osborne Lights at Disney’s Hollywood Studios each year has become a holiday tradition for my household.

Here is a video I recorded from last night’s visit using my fabulous Flip Mino. One good thing for me that helped enforce the holiday cheer is that it was actually cold last night; cold enough to even drink hot chocolate while watching the spectacle.

Enjoy.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Give Thanks

ed — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 16:40:43 +0000

As we all know, today is Thanksgiving. I want to wish everyone and their family a safe and Happy Thanksgiving.

Unfortunately for me, I will be spending it in bed this year. I’ve been sick with a cold since last Friday however, since Monday, I have gotten worse; I may have the flu. Even though the health benefits at the new job do not kick in until after the first of the year, I had no choice but to call in sick on Tuesday and Wednesday. I was even supposed to drive up to St. Augustine Wednesday evening to be with the family for Thanksgiving day then drive to Alabama to be with my Grandma on Friday and Saturday but I just couldn’t get healthy enough quickly enough.

However, despite this current grief, I have so much to thank God for. I may be sick now but I still am in good health. We may be in an economic downslope but I have a job. I have a loving family and good friends. And I have so much more. Like I stated, I have a lot to be thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Night Shuttle Launch

ed — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 23:23:14 +0000

I know it is a little overdue but I thought I would post a video I took of the shuttle launch from last Friday. I recorded this from my front yard using a Canon miniDV camcorder. On a night like this, I wish I had an HD camcorder because the quality would have been so much better. It would have been closer to what I saw with my eyes; a gorgeous view of the shuttle flying brightly with the full moon in the background.

Enjoy!

Click here to view the embedded video.

It’s a jolly holiday

ed — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 20:26:29 +0000

Happy Halloween!

Lets Try This One More Time

ed — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 03:23:39 +0000

Tonight is my last night working for IBM at the Disney contract.

I wasn’t happy with the job, nor enjoyed the 45 minute trek to the site, nor the night shift I was scheduled. So, I interviewed with a company called The Fund (http://www.thefund.com), they hired me and I gave my two weeks notice to IBM. There are a lot more reasons for quitting IBM but I won’t bore you.

My first day at The Fund starts next week so hopefully everything will work out for me there. One of the best things about this companies location is that it is only 5 miles away from where I live and no tolls. I was spending close to $10 a week on tolls alone traveling to the Disney site.

Pray and wish me luck that I will be as happy as I was at The Ginn Company.

It’s Here – Dell Mini 9

ed — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 23:23:27 +0000

I received the Dell Mini 9 one day earlier than expected. The original ship date was the 13th with an arrival date of the 14th, but, due to reasons unknown it was shipped earlier. I’m not complaining.

I stated in previous post that I would post a video of the unboxing of the product. I did record it but it was unuseable footage that I couldn’t post. However, I do have a video that can be posted that shows, briefly, the netbook and the Ubuntu user interface of the new flavor called Ubuntu Netbook Remix.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I even found a video online that has a good video substitute of the unboxing of the Dell Mini 9, if you really wanted to see it.

I am typing this post on the Mini 9 now and so far I have to say that I really like it. The keyboard is a little something to get used to since I seem to keep bumping the very sensitive trackpad with my thumbs so the cursor keeps orienting itself someplace else as I type. And the position of some of the keys are a little different from your standard keyboard so I will need to relearn some things as I type, but those are no big deals, it just means a change of habits.

Update (10/13/08 20:20): Something interesting I noticed that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense on Dell’s behalf. I ordered the 16GB SSD drive to go with the machine. They, for some reason, created a 8GB partition to install everything on which gave me a little bit over 1GB of available space and left an unalocated 11GB partition just sitting there doing nothing. I ended up installing Gparted, created a 11GB partition and mounted the drive. Now I have 12GB available.
Eventually, I just may blow the thing away and start over and partition it correctly.
There’s some crazy stuff going on over there at Dell.

OpenDNS For Your Home Network

ed — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 14:54:36 +0000

I’ve been using OpenDNS on my home router for a long time but have never, until now, used the advanced features it has to offer. For those of you with children who are now surfing this new wave called the internet, then OpenDNS would be perfect for you and your children. But, it’s not just for parents; it has quite a few other features to enable that will help filter out any phishing scams or other malicious sites.

If you are not familiar with OpenDNS, then go here:

http://www.opendns.com/

To put it simple, it’s an alternate DNS server you can input into your home router’s (and I pray that all of you reading this that have broadband have a home network router) DNS settings instead of your ISP’s DNS. If you go to the above site and select Home Network at the bottom, it will explain easily how to configure your home router to use OpenDNS.

Once you configure your router to start using OpenDNS, create a free account with them, download the OpenDNS utility and install. Then go back to your account settings on the site and start setting up your network. I’m not exactly sure if the utility is really necessary as its only function is to notify OpenDNS when your external IP address has changed.

I really do encourage you, dear reader, to use this, especially if you are a parent. It enforces safe browsing without you having to be conscious of it all the time. For those of you that are a little more tech savvy, it basically has some proxy filter enabled when you set OpenDNS as your DNS server and create an account but all the proxy filtering is done on all their DNS servers.

I don’t have it included in the photos below but you can even create a custom message that will be displayed when a page has been blocked and a way for your network clients to email you the site they are trying to visit so that you can mark the site safe in your OpenDNS settings, if you so desire. Just like an anti-virus being needed on a Windows machine, this is just as important, if not more so.

If any of you have any questions about this, feel free to email me.

Below are a few photos of some of my basic account settings to show you what can be set and how powerful it can be.

It’s Almost Here

ed — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 19:03:48 +0000

I know most of you that read my blog could care less about this but I am getting excited. I updated my site to the right (for LiveJournal readers, the counter is on my main site – see link above) to include a countdown timer to when I will receive my Dell Mini 9. Once I receive it, I plan on posting a video entry of the unboxing and use of the item, then, possibly, a review.

I think the main reason why I am so excited is because I have had to wait over a month to receive the darn thing. My patience has been tried. If you don’t know me well, then you should know that I have absolutely no patience. So, it’s been agonizing to wait for such a cool product. Also, I really can’t wait to do this: Dell Mini 9 OS 10.5 Hack

October 14th will be like Christmas. I may even take the day off from work, decorate the Halloween tree and put out the witch’s stockings.

Wonderful Time of the Year

ed — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 22:12:44 +0000

I’m pumped. It’s autumn. My favorite time of the year. Now that it’s autumn, that means cooler weather is getting closer and Halloween is almost here.

Screw Christmas. Halloween is my favorite holiday and the most wonderful time of the year.

I Love Leapfrog

ed — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 00:01:30 +0000

This is awesome!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Dell Inspiron Mini 9 Ordered

ed — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 16:57:02 +0000

As most of you know, Dell announced the Inspiron Mini 9 sub-notebook this past week. This has been a much anticipated laptop from Dell for a few months now. I honestly didn’t find out about it until last week.
I’ve been in the market for a sub-notebook for a couple of months, looking at and researching the Asus Eee PC 900 preloaded with Linux and the 16GB SSD. I even put the item in my Amazon Wish List with plans to buy it as soon as I could raise the $400 it cost. However, these past few weeks have been tight financially with trips and unemployment weighing me down. I finally got a new job but some other road blocks got in the way of purchasing it so I placed the purchase on hold for a little longer. One of those road blocks was assisting my best friend pay for some major car repairs recently so that she could get her car rolling again. Well, this dilemma worked out well for me in the end.
After I found out that Dell was coming out with a sub-notebook to compete with companies like Asus, HP and Acer, who already had a strong foot print in this market, I decided to do some research on Dell’s version. Everything I read about the Inspiron Mini 9 had pretty good reviews. Since I was shopping it and since my friend owed me, and had Dell credit, I asked her to buy this for me, and, luckily for me, she did.
I ordered the following yesterday:

Inspiron 910 Intel Atom processor N270, 1.6GHz, 533Mhz512K L2 Cache
Obsidian Black Color with Gloss Finish
1GB,DDR2,533MHZ,1 DIMM
8.9 inch Wide Screen WSVGA TL
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 950
16GB Solid State Drive (mini-card Module/PATA)
Mini OS powered by Ubuntu 8.04
Wireless 802.11g Mini Card
Integrated 1.3M Pixel Webcam
32WHr 4-cell Battery

Price: $475
I know what you are thinking. What do I need this for? Well for…stuff. I like the idea of mini-computing. I’ve been a fan of it for quite some time. One of the items I had previously that allowed mini-computing, to a certain extent, was my HP iPaq Pocket PC. I sold that about three years ago and have missed it immensely. I’ve had a couple of substitutions since from a Samsung Blackjack and now my iPhone but there are limitations to what these gadgets have to offer compared to a sub-notebook. With this I can carry it around everywhere very easily and have access to all standard computing applications, like email (which I can do with my iPhone),internet browsing (which I can sort of do with my iPhone), word processing (which I can’t easily do with my iPhone), and so much more without having to lug around my standard notebook all the time.
Like I stated, I ordered it yesterday. What sucks is that it will not be delivered until October 13th. I just found out today that the Linux version, the one I ordered, doesn’t begin shipping out country wide until October 9th. So what I ordered was more like a pre-order. The Windows XP version begins shipping country wide September 18th. Why does Windows get all the privileges?
I’ll post once I have received and used it for a while to give you my hands on opinion.

The Leopard Has Spots

ed — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 03:34:29 +0000

So I finally upgraded to OS 10.5 Leopard on my Macbook, even though I stated when it came out last year that I would not upgrade. I had every intention to only use Leopard if I decided to buy a iMac in the future. Well, I gave in.

I have plans to upgrade the hard drive in my Macbook to a 250GB drive since I found 100GB wasn’t enough; the drive doesn’t arrive until tomorrow. Since I was upgrading the drive I thought it would be the perfect time to upgrade to Leopard since I would be rebuilding my Macbook after all. Well, I couldn’t wait. I bought Leopard this evening with every intention to wait to install the OS when I installed the hard drive tomorrow evening but my impatience got the better of me and I just finished upgrading.

So far as I can tell it’s just pretty. Yes, there are some minor improvements to some of the integrated applications that come with OS 10 like Mail, the Address Book, and iCal but what I am most interested in trying out, and should be using the most of, is Spaces. Spaces is the utility that allows you to have multiple desktops giving you the power to have multiple applications open in separate desktops. Example: I can have two desktops setup. One would have my web browser and iTunes open and the other would have a word processing application and a dictionary application open. It gives you the ability to work in several applications without cluttering up one desktop.

I still plan to install it again. Once I get the new hard drive in the mail I will be completing a fresh install of Leopard on my Macbook instead of an upgrade.

I love technology!