Category Archives: Linux

Linux

Macbook + Coffee = Bad

By Dougal | Published: August 12, 2008

Everybody knows that you shouldn’t keep beverages too close to the computer, right? The reason is because eventually, your toddler is going to run up to give you a big hug before she leaves for daycare, and is going to bump your leg. Your leg, in turn, is going to bump the TV tray where you set your coffee cup. The cup is going to tip over and spill several ounces of coffee directly onto the keyboard of your Macbook. And as a consequence, the Macbook is going to cease to function.

Yes, that’s what happened here at Castle Campbell last Friday morning. I tried to disconnect power and battery as quickly as possible, tried using a blowdryer on it, sat it out in direct sunlight for about an hour, and continued to let it air out for quite a while after that. [...]

Also posted in Hardware, Operating Systems, Personal, Software, Tech | Tagged Apple, Coffee, Hardware, Linux, mac, macbook, metacity, repair, Ubuntu, window managers, xfce, xfce4 | 15 Comments

Whither Spam?

By Dougal | Published: June 14, 2008

When I switched to my new Slicehost server, I spent a while trying to decide what I wanted to do about email for my domains. I contemplated using Google’s domain email service, or some other third-party email hosting. But I just hated giving up that much control of my email setup. [...]

Also posted in Hardware, Servers, Services, Software, Spam, Tech | Tagged antivirus, clamav, Email, email spam, fighting spam, Linux, mail, mailscanner, mailwatch, Servers, slicehost, smtp, Spam, spamassassin, spamsnake, Ubuntu | 4 Comments

Drinking the Ubuntu Kool-Aid

By Dougal | Published: September 18, 2006

For quite a while, I had considered nuking Windows from my laptop and starting fresh. A few weeks ago, I finally took the plunge. I started with a full backup (two, actually — a file-by-file backup, and a partition image). I toyed with the idea of dual-booting, but finally decided that I’d try to go completely non-Windows, and see how well I could get by.

After hearing one of my co-workers rave about how impressed he was with Fedora Core, I was going to give that a try. But the DVD he burned for me wouldn’t install for some reason. [...]

Also posted in Browsers, Open Source, Operating Systems, Tech | Tagged Firefox, InternetExplorer, Laptops, Microsoft, Perl, PHP, Ruby, Ubuntu, Unix, Windows | 7 Comments

Microsoft Wireless Network: Powered by Linux

By Dougal | Published: November 4, 2005

Microsoft puts out a lot of FUD claiming that Linux is inferior to Windows. But their new company-wide wireless network will be driven by Linux-based equipment.

Aruba Networks was selected to provide the networking equipment for what is considered to be one of the world’s largest next-generation wireless LANs, serving more than 25,000 simultaneous users a day in some 60 countries. [...]

Also posted in Networking | Tagged Microsoft, PHP, WiFi, Wireless | 11 Comments

Zend Core for IBM

By Dougal | Published: June 8, 2005

Cool, IBM and Zend have announced Zend Core for IBM. Basically, it’s an officially supported version of PHP with tight integration into IBM’s DB2 and Cloudscape database servers, and some web services stuff. This is probably going to grab some new eyeballs for PHP from some IBM-based businesses who have probably never heard of it before.

If I was still working at my previous employer back in Alabama, I would be all over this. [...]

Also posted in News, Software, Tech | Tagged Apache, IBM, Microsoft, Perl, PHP, Programming, Ruby, Web, WebSphere, Zend | 3 Comments

Dvorak stirs the pot

By Dougal | Published: June 7, 2005

John Dvorak seems to thrive on controversy (much like the rest of journalism). His latest claim is that while Apple’s switch to Intel processors could threaten Microsoft, it also “could actually be most dangerous to the emerging Linux OS environment.”