Mark's Two Cents Worth

Happy New Year

2004-12-31T08:47:00.000-06:00

I hope this was a good year for you, I know it was for me. As I think back over the past year, as good as it was, I look forward to this next year with great expectations. This will be the last post I make to this blog, as you might know I have recently purchased my own Domain Name and Web Hosting with pMachine. This gives me more flexibility, hundreds of megabytes of webspace to store pictures, php support, my own domain name, and POP3 e-mail addresses. I'm very happy with the change and hope you'll stop by and read me at my new site www.markshortridge.net. I basically have the content the way I want it and will be tweaking the page design the way I like over the next few months.

Happy New Year and God Bless

Until next time...

$500 Dollar Mac

2004-12-29T13:04:00.000-06:00

I was just reading through some blogs and found were Think Secret has been informed that Apple will soon unveil a sub-$500 Mac. It’s thought that it will be shown at the Macworld Expo on January 11. It does not come with a monitor and will be very small, similar form as the Apple Xserve. I can't wait to see one, I want to get a Mac but I need to see if this is very configurable, upgradeable. I'm guessing not since the form that it’s going to take. But still it’s a cool idea, aimed at all those iPod Windows users, a very smart move on Apples part. You can better bet I'll be checking this out as soon as it's public. Might even find I need to buy a Mac, who knows.

Until next time...

Mindawn offers Music Download Service to Linux

2004-12-22T10:19:00.000-06:00

Mindawn claims to provide CD-quality songs and almost no digital rights management restrictions. A choice of vorbis or flac file format downloads means you have high quality songs that you can easily convert into mp3 or any other format you want. This makes the first music download store to target the Linux desktop, but also caters to Windows and Mac OX. I downloaded and installed the Mindawn player on Windows and found it to not be very impressive at all. I downloaded the player for Linux and found that I needed all kinds of dependency libraries, after seeing the Windows version I found myself not compelled to work at installing the Linux version. Although, the Mars application installed on Windows and Linux without a hitch.

I also searched the music service for songs I might want to buy and found I didn't recognize any of the artists. I'm not that old, in the rock and alternative rock section which I search through I couldn't tell you who any of the artist where. I'm glad that there is a Music Download Store for Linux now but if they want any of my business they need to get a better selection of songs, maybe so artist that I've at least heard of, and make the Linux player easier to install.

Until next time...

Who says there's no MONEY in Linux?

2004-12-21T11:02:00.000-06:00

For any one who thinks there is no money in Linux, maybe this article in Information Week will change your mind. I found this reading through slash dot, and found the figures to be quite impressive. Maybe now some major software makers will take a serious look at Linux. A friend of mine says that he likes tinkering around with Linux but wouldn't consider using it seriously unless you could get some major commercial products for it like Photoshop. He's a web developer and so needs these programs for work. I on the other hand, don't need these super powerful programs and can find open source alternatives that work just fine for me. But still, it would be nice if the pc gaming industry would start making games for Linux. I just recently got World of Warcraft, (Computer Geek Cocaine), and have to boot into my Windows XP partition in order to play it. I do have a few cool games that have ports to Linux, like Return to Castle Wolfenstien, and Soldier of Fortune. If any body knows of others let me know.

Until next time...

Open Office 2.0 Preview

2004-12-20T13:24:00.000-06:00

Open Office has released the 2.0 preview version today. Version 2.0 will be ready for official release probably early this spring. It offers better MS Office compatibility and a new separate Access clone called base. StarOffice began offering an Access clone back in StarOffice 7, StarOffice 8 should be released soon after the official Openoffice 2.0 release.

I downloaded the preview version and installed it, excited about the possibility of have a true Access alternative, I tried to open a Access database file. I quickly found that it didn't work. It looks good though, and it looks a lot like MS Office, only you can only save a database in an Openoffice file format. I don't now if they are planning to add Access compatibility by the final release or not. Without Access compatibility I can't use base for my Access database files, I guess I can hope.

I can add to my wish list an MS Outlook clone with full compatibility with exchange, just in case any Openoffice or StarOffice developers are reading.

Here's a good review with screenshots from the Inquirer.

Until next time...

Microsoft acquired Giant Antispyware

2004-12-20T10:31:00.000-06:00

I just read on /. that on December 16th, Microsoft acquired Giant AntiSpyware. It's about time Microsoft made a move in the fight against spyware. After the much hyped Service Pack 2, which did little if anything to my computer to stop this security nightmare. I have to routinely run Ad-aware and Spybot to keep my machine clean, and I don't usually go to untrusted sites or install software I'm not sure of. And I'm Still Plagued!

I never had any spyware or adware on my Suse 9.2 box until I installed IE 6.0 with CrossOver Office. It took some time to get rid of it all. So I'm reminded that your computer is only as secure as the least secure peace of software you install on it. I thought I was safe and secure from all that Windows stuff until a browser hijack launched and an ad window popped up, I was quite shocked to see this kind of behavior on Linux box. Moral, don't install Microsoft software on anything.

Until next time...

New Hosting and Domain Name

2004-12-09T11:10:00.000-06:00

Well, it had to happen. I wanted bigger and better. I just signed up for web hosting with pMachine and my very own Domain Name. www.markshortridge.net I have it up already, but all that's there is a template so I could have it up quickly. I'll be setting it up the way I want it, hopefully by the first of the year. I won't be using two different blogs, so you might want to bookmark the new one for future use. I'll be using blogger untill the end of the year, it'll take me a while to get moved over, with work and all, not much time these days. I'm using Expression Engine to run my new site, so I'll have Atom and RSS feeds. Let me know what you think of the change.

Oh, by the way, I still have three gmail invites if anyone wants one.

Until next time...

Cross Over Office 4.0 - Now with iTunes Support!!!

2004-11-16T21:07:00.000-06:00

Cross Over Office 4.0 is out, and with iTunes Support!!! I just upgraded my Cross Over Office and installed iTunes, it's a little buggy and the FAQ on Code Weavers website says that there is no support for CD Ripping and Burning with iTunes, but its cool to see it on Linux. I've already been to the iTunes store and played some mp3's, it seems to use a lot system resources when it's playing music. I wish Apple would port over Quick Time and iTunes to Linux, but I guess this is close enough for now. So if Steve Jobs is reading this, hurry it up already!!! Anyway, I purchased Cross Over Office a couple of months ago for $39.95, not a bad deal if you ask me.

Until next time...

Hotmail Storage Now 250MB!!!

2004-11-11T21:03:00.000-06:00

I just checked my hotmail account and found that the storage size has gone from 2 Megabytes to 250 Megabytes. It's been so long since Hotmail promised the increase in e-mail capacity to 250 Megabytes that I had forgotten. Nice surprise, although I like Gmail a lot better. So why do I still have a Hotmail account? Because I want to keep my MSN messenger active, and it’s free.

Until next time...

KVM and Mouse Troubles

2004-10-28T21:47:00.000-05:00

I just got back from Office Depot and I bought a two port KVM so I can reduce all the stuff on my desk. A KVM is a switch that allows you to use one monitor, keyboard, and mouse for two different computers. One of the machines is running Windows XP, the other running Suse 9.1, everything works fine except the mouse. It works for windows, but freaks with linux. The box, the belkin kvm came in said it was linux compatible, oh well. Right now I just have to use two mice, that still frees up alot of space on my desk. I hope Belkin makes a fix for this soon.

Until next time...

Why Windows Sucks

2004-09-29T20:54:00.000-05:00

About two weeks ago I was given the task of installing zip drives and creating a Ghost Image for seventy new computers at work. It is part of a one-third annual pc replacement program to keep all computers at work up to date. The installation of the zip drives while long and boring went with little trouble after I got longer ribon cables to reach the new drives. After much thought and research, me and another coworker decided to go with the Service Pack II for windows XP because of security conserns and the fact that it is seventy five megabytes and takes over an hour to down load and install, even on our high speed network connection and on new up to date computers. We could just see our users taking hours installing this service pack when they had plenty better things to do. So service pack two it is, I ghosted all seventy computers and I was all set to begin deploying the computers out in the field. When we got to the field, me and two other co-workers, we found that some of the users programs had problems working. The worst problem was that the computers, after about fifteen minutes after the user took possesion of the machines, windows would popup a window and tell the user that an emergency update was being installed and that windows needed to reboot. Thats all fine and dandy, BUT, after the user rebooted the machine, windows gave the same message and rebooted again. AND AGAIN, AND AGAIN, AND AGAIN. Luckily, when I first began the ghosting process, I made a Sevice Pack One Ghost Image, which we had to get and go back and reimage all seventy of the machines again. What did I learn from this, that security is no good if the computer will no longer work because of it, and that Windows and there developers suck.

Until next time...

Linux Gains a foot hold at Work

2004-09-10T20:47:00.000-05:00

I've been looking for uses for Linux at work now for a while and I finally got two projects that may allow me to set up and run two apps from a Linux box. One is an In/Out Board for work and the other is a blog setup internally for management to brain storm and comment on issues at work. Not major applications, but it's a start, a good place for Linux to prove it's self in a real world work situation. For the In/Out Board I am going to try to setup and run Ryan’s In/Out Board that I found on Freshmeat.net, it's open source and it's free under the GPL. FREE!!! The blog I will use is Wordpress, I got it from Wordpress.org, and it's also open sourced under the GPL. Do you see a trend, Mandrake 10.0 downloaded free from their FTP site, Ryan’s In/Out Board free from Freshmeat.net, and Wordpress free from Wordpress.org. The hardware is old too, 650 MHz box with 256Mgs of ram, more than enough to run these two programs and then some. We weren't using the old box so basically it's of very little cost to the company, mostly time to pay me to research and set it all up, very cool. Maybe I'll blog about how these projects turn out.

Until next time...

GmailFS - Gmail Filesystem

2004-08-29T14:28:00.000-05:00

Reading through blogs that I subscribe to, I ran across someone predicting that we will someday use services like Gmail as virtual file systems for our computers. That was when Google had first begun offering its new e-mail service, Gmail. Today I was reading through blogs that I read daily and what did I find, an article about how to use GmailFS - Gmail Filesystem with your Linux system. And it sounds easy, I plan on trying this as soon as I get the free time. Check out the link, and try it for your selves, the author executes Firefox from his GmailFS partition. I would appreciate it if anyone tries this if they would e-mail me with their successes or failures with sitting this up.

Untill next time...

Where Have I Been?

2004-08-13T16:45:00.000-05:00

It's been over a month since my last post, so what happened to me? A new job, that's what. I started a new job on July 6th and it has taken up most of my time here lately. But now that I am a little more settled with this new job maybe I can find the time to blog more often. The change is for the better, more money, better hours 8 - 5, much better benefits, and a spiffy new job title: Computer Support Specialist. So far I have only been able to install one machine with linux, that's a start. I hope to show them the value that linux and open source can bring to an organization. Anyway, I also wanted to point out something that I've been watching lately, a new open source intiutive called Mono. Keep your eyes on it, I have a feeling that it could get to be really big.

Until next time...

Are Linux Users Spoiled?

2004-07-03T19:01:00.000-05:00

I just read this great article from NewsForge and thought I'd pass it on to you and see what you think of it. NewsForge | Linux users are spoiled I run both Linux and Windows at home and never thought about all the time I take to install software on Windows. After a complete install of Mandrake 10, which took me about two hours, I had almost everything I needed. (Two hours is configure time and install time total.) And very seldom do I install anything on my Linux box, if I do it's usually the newest nVidia drivers or just an update to one of my favorite apps. The last time I reloaded my laptop with WinXP it took almost two day to put back all the software that I use. So check out the link, it's short and I think you'll enjoy it.

Until next time...

Yet Another Way Linux Can Save Money

2004-07-03T16:59:00.000-05:00

C3SL, a research group from UFPR University in Brazil has made one Linux box running Debian run four terminals at once. They set up a computer lab for sixty people with just 15 computers. That's four monitors, keyboards, and mice per machine. Using a kernel patch, 2 PS/2 ports, 6 USB ports and four video cards four people can log on and use the computer without knowing that anyone else is sharing the computer. This is a great money saving idea for Linux, the os is free and now their cutting down on the hardware cost. However, if one computer goes down, four users could be affected. This looks to be a good option for organizations that are trying to keep cost low or for lab areas where users are not using much of the computers resources like surfing the web, checking e-mail or light weight apps. More information can be found at the FourHead project website: http://www.c3sl.ufpr.br/fourhead.

Until next time...

Signs of Linux's Maturity

2004-06-29T00:19:00.000-05:00

As you can probably tell I'm a Linux nut. Lately I've noticed more commercial software being ported to or made for Linux. The other day I noticed that Skype.com has made a version of its windows telephony software for Linux, the site states that the high amount of demand for a Linux version was the reason. Also on Slashdot I read that Real Player is going to make Realplayer 10 for Linux. Novell and RedHat have already announced that it will be installed by default on their future distros. And forget about Microsoft Excel, a new Excel clone called PlanMaker has been released, and is said to be better at running Excel documents than OppenOffice, of course for a small fee of $49.95. I've just been seeing all sorts of new software for Linux here lately. The writing's on the wall, Linux is here to stay. And it's about time, with Linux numbers at or above that of Macs; commercial developers have to notice the Mighty Penguin. I just hope the trend continues, my biggest wish is that the gaming industry will wise up and start making more video games available that run on Linux natively. I also wish Apple would recognize Linux and start making its software available to Linux like QuickTime and iTunes. It couldn't be hard, Mac OSX is UNIX based like Linux. Anyway, enough of that for now, if you know of any newly available Linux apps let me know.

Until next time...

Is Webmonkey Back From The Dead?

2004-06-22T01:40:00.000-05:00

My first e-mail account was with Lycos, when I signed up I was allowed to sign up for several newsletters published by various branches of Terra Lycos to be sent to my e-mail account. I signed up for Wired News and Webmonkey; Wired magazine is now delivered to my mail box monthly by the way. I'd been reading Webmonkey for several years getting ideas, tips and good tutorials until the first of this year when it was announced that they were shutting down. No more newsletters in my inbox, no more updates to the site, but wait, now there's a notice on the site that reads:

"Today's Monkey Bite
We're totally back! Webmonkey is alive and kicking, serving up new articles all hot-n-fresh like a stack of banana pancakes. With syrup."

There are no updates to the site or blog as far as I can tell, so is Webmonkey back from the dead? I guess time will tell, if anyone’s knows anything about this I sure would appreciate you letting me know something.

Until next time...

Hotmail Blocks Gmail Emails (and Invites)

2004-06-22T01:38:00.000-05:00

While surfing the web I came across an interesting article on Slashdot about Hotmail Blocking Gmail. Slashdot | Hotmail Blocks Gmail Emails (and Invites) The writer claims that Gmail and Gmail invites are disappearing, they don't bounce back or show up when sent to Hotmail accounts. Also, Gmail is put into the bulk mail folder when sent to Yahoo accounts. So you might want to check that bulk mail folder before you delete what's inside. I don't know about all this, I sent my mother a Gmail invite to her Hotmail account and she got it I know. Being use to 2Megs of space with Hotmail or having to pay $19.95 for 20Megs of space which sadly she had paid, she was with out saying very happy to get the Gmail invite. As far as Hotmail purposely doing away with Gmail e-mails I don't know, but it sure wouldn't surprise me. That's just the kind of underhanded thing I would expect from Microsoft.

Until next time...

SUSE 9.1 Personal ISO Available For Free Download

2004-06-21T00:19:00.000-05:00

Reading through some blogs I came across an article on Slashdot:SUSE 9.1 Personal ISO Available For Free Download. It seems that Suse has finally decided to offer ISO images of their Linux distro. I would have tried Suse before but they never offered ISO images. Instead,they offered some complicated ftp install, only suited for those with a fast internet connection. Also it's nice to have the images on CD so you can share with friends. I've wanted to try Suse for a while now. From what I've heard, Suse and Mandrake are the top two Linux distros as far as being user friendly and having a complete and useful Desktop. I use Mandrake at home now and it rocks, if Suse lives up to it rep it should rock as well.

Until next time...

Want a Gmail Invite?

2004-06-18T20:07:00.000-05:00

In my last post I said that I got a Gmail invite, well it looks like it's my turn to invite someone. The other day I checked my Gmail and found that I had three invites to give away. I have one left and I will give it away to the first person who asks for it, just think of it as a thank you for reading my blog. Remember to include your e-mail address, because the invite will be e-mailed to you.

Until next time...

I Got A Gmail Invite

2004-06-13T02:46:00.000-05:00

A friend of mine Chris, who has had a Gmail account for about a week or two gave me a Gmail invite today. I quickly signed up and began using the account. So far I like it, the layout and interface are clean and clear of useless crap, and so far I haven't seen any ads. Isn't that how it’s supposed to make it free? Maybe since it's still in beta there are no ads. I'd like to see it with the ads to see how cluttered that might or might not make it. Maybe I'll have some invites to give away soon.

Until next time...

How to make a favicon.ico

2004-06-07T00:29:00.000-05:00

Have you ever wondered how some websites get those little icons on the URL field or get that icon next to their name when you add the site to you favorites in Internet Explorer? Well I have. While surfing through some blogs I found a post with a link on how to do this, Chami.com FavIcon from Pics. All I had to do was direct the site to an image that I wanted to become a favicon.ico and it made it for me. Then follow the instructions on the page and you’re done, it's that easy. Although I haven't yet decided on one for this blog, I don't think it will be long until I do. I have a design in my head, now someone just needs to show me how to create it.

Until next time...

Linux on iPod

2004-06-06T00:24:00.000-05:00

While surfing on the web I ran across something unexpected, an article about Linux on the iPod. Curious, I began searching and didn't find much of interest, but I did find a forum about it. The forum rightly named Linux on iPod had some surprising information about the state of the project and some screenshots of the iPod with an experimental Linux kernel made for the iPod. It's said that the Linux version has more functionality than the original Mac version of firmware. It looks like the Linux community has found yet another device to put Linux on. I've already been wanting to put Linux on an Xbox ever since I saw it done on Adam Cecchettiweb site. Now I want an iPod to try out Linux on one of those.

Until next time...

HTML Validation

2004-05-30T03:49:00.000-05:00

I've been learning about web design and have a personal website started, although it's not pretty, as I'm still learning. Anyway, I keep hearing a friend of mine Chris talking about web standards and how important they are. I heard him talk about a validator for his code so he could check his site for standards compliance. So I got curious and decided to check it out. I went to http://validator.w3.org it's a free Markup Validation Service from W3C.org. All you have to do is put the URL of your site or get it a path to a file on your pc and it validates the code for compliance with web standards and displays the results. First, I gave it the URL of this blog. I was amazed to find that it found eleven errors in the code of this site. I assumed that since the main underlying code for this blog was created by the pros at blogger.com it would comply with standards completely. I was wrong, oh well. Next I checked out the code for the website that I have been creating while learning about web design. There are four main pages; they all had many errors at first. But I began fixing problems until I had only a few problems that I had no idea how to fix. I think they were CSS related but, I only just started reading a book on CSS. So maybe sometime soon I'll be able to fix it all. On one page though I was able to fix 100%, the page on Shady Lake. The validator gave me some code to put on that page, a small emblem that I put at the bottom of the page showing W3C XHTML 1.1 Standards Compliance. All in all I found it to be pretty neat to validate my code and an eye opener to proper coding. If you’re into coding your own html I recommend you check it out.

Until next time...

Bloglines, my new blog aggregator.

2004-05-24T00:41:00.000-05:00

Reading through wired news, I found an interesting article about RSS aggragators, A Scan of the Headline Scanners. Being brand new at the whole blog world, I've just been visiting my friends' websites or just browsing the internet searching for things of interest. But I decided to try one of the RSS aggregators, I tried Bloglines | Free, Web-Based News Aggregator. I chose Bloglines over the other aggregators because it's web based and free. I use Windows and Linux at home so it's nice to get to use the same program on all machines. After setting it up and subscribing to a couple of blogs I found it to be a most usefull tool. It's a big time saver, all of the sites that I usaully visit are brought together in one place. It's very simple and straight forward, that's good for me being as I just got into this whole blog thing a little over a week ago. One of my friend's, Chris, is the one who talked me into creating this blog in the first place, is a web developer and mantains his own site and blog. He told me that he reads about 80 to 85 blogs a day using his RSS aggregator. To me that seems like alot but he insist that if I continue blogging I'll get hooked and start reading more blogs. How nows, maybe he's right.

Until next time...

Gas Prices

2004-05-22T01:58:00.001-05:00

As I was getting gas today before going to work, and I realized that I was going to pay the most per gallon that I ever have. Remember that I live in Arkansas and not California, I paid $1.959 per gallon. I drive an hour to and from my job and that adds up to a lot of gas, 60-70 dollars a week. That's a big chunk of my well deserved pay check! And it only looks to be getting worse, I figure that at the rate gas is going, it's only going to be another week until I'm paying over $2.00 a gallon. I know that it's worse in some parts of the country, but the cost of living and the pay scale here is much lower too. I was watching MSNBC and saw bit about the major US oil makers, they are all reporting high earnings this year, some as high as 90 percent gains this year. I'm outraged! How on earth can they be earning so much if not for making a huge profit on gas. It just makes me angry. And I've been thinking that with elections coming up in November that Washington would put some pressure on them to not price gouge us so badly. I remember hearing some time back about the government looking into what was causing the gas prices to go up so steeply, but I don't know what happened with that. I know that the price per barrel of oil has gone up some, but not at the same proportion as the price of gas, so what gives. I think the gas manufactures have found an excuse that most of us would buy into to raise prices really high. Making them some really big profits, and that's the reason why the price is so high. I have no doubt that gas would have gone up as the barrel of oil goes up, but not as high as it is right now. As of right now, the price of a barrel of oil, (from a google search), is about $37 a barrel.

I would like to see one of the Presidential hopefuls come up with a good solution to this problem for the upcoming presidential election, I think I'd have to give serious consideration in voting for the one that I thought had the best fix for the problem. After all, this problem effects the whole US economy and needs to be dealt with. Anyway, the whole gas price thing just makes me mad.

Until next time...

Fedora Project releases Fedora Core 2

2004-05-18T09:38:00.000-05:00

At 10:00 a.m. EDT the Fedora Project released the much anticipated final release of Fedora Core 2 linux. I've been using Fedora Core 1 since December of 2003 and love it. But I plan to upgrade to Fedora Core 2 just as soon as I can get all four disc downloaded. The new Fedora Core 2 takes advantage of the new linux 2.6 kernel for better performance and stability. Some other nice improvements include: Gnome 2.6, KDE 3.2.2, SELinux, and more Java tools and support. After trying the latest test release before this final release I'm very excited about installing it on my pc. I tested the latest test release on an old machine that I more or less just play with. I was shocked, in Gnome, the desktop seemed to run smoother and faster, it was more organized than before and they added a My Computer Icon to the desktop that brings all of your drives together in one place, very nice. If your thinking about trying a linux distro then you might want to give Fedora a shot.

Until next time...

Leaving Lycos Web Mail

2004-05-16T03:29:00.000-05:00

My first ever e-mail address was with Lycos. I was away at College and needed something free and Lycos was the first place I found. I've had my Lycos account for over five years and have been reluctant to totally do away with it because some old freinds from college may still have it. Anyway, a few months ago the Lycos home page changed, for the worst. It looks unprofessional, the organization is bad, and now theres an Adult Ad right there on the home page, usually labeled Adults 18+. If that weren't enough, popup windows now bomb bard me as soon as the page comes up. And forget about checking e-mail, I know that the free mail has ads but I think they may have sold my address to the porn industry. Since the change, every time I click on something while trying to see any legit e-mail multiple popup windows come up, some are even blank. My friend Chris told me to just get an account with hotmail or yahoo and e-mail everyone the new address I get and be done with it, but it's not that easy, I've lost some addresses, or others are no longer valid anymore. You can tell that I keep up with my old friends can't you. I don't know what happened to Lycos but it's not good. I have recently moved all of my stuff away from Lycos to Hotmail were I'm much happier.

Until next time...

My First Post

2004-05-12T13:05:00.000-05:00

To start things off I would like to thank anyone who takes the time to read any of my post. I would also like to let you know that if you find any errors in my post that I am not good at writing, spelling, and I am not good at expressing my self in words. I hope to improve though, through this blog. I've always believed practice make perfect. With that said, I would like for my blog to be about subjects that really matter to me, and to be my soapbox for political evens. Any comments are welcome, and I hope to post about once or twice a week. That's all for now.