Category: Science and Technology

  • ReactOS Revisited Part 2 (ReactOS 3.0)

    Ok, so with 3.0 there are still some major reliability issues. I blue screened a bunch of times just trying to get to this blog and it was quite slow. However, it did seem to work a bit better than 2.9. I will be testing installing some Windows programs to see just how far they…

  • ReactOS Revisited Part 1

    I decided to revisit ReactOS to see what had changed from 2.x that I reviewd before to the 2.9 release candidate. So I fired up VMWare and ran it. I was a bit dissapointed in the performance. I know it was VMWared and only had 128 MB, but Ubuntu was running beautifully VMWared with only…

  • Presenting…..xmessage!

    As I was reading the latest Linux Format Magazine, they had a great tip for a low tech way to remind yourself of different time-sensitive events. The best part is that it works under any window manager! (ie it doesn’t matter if you’re in Gnome, KDE, XFCE, Fluxbox, or any other) The trick is to…

  • Use Minix….create a free OS?

    As we all know, Linus Torvalds created Linux out of his frustration with the lack of features in Minix, a teaching OS meant to duplicate a POSIX-compliant Unix system. Well, as a great followup to Saturday’s Post, why not check out Minux yourself? A new group has begun developing Minix3, in the hopes of getting…

  • Late Happy 15th Birthday Linux!

    I’m a day late, but happy birthday Linux! Here’s the email that started it all! From: torvalds@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Linus Benedict Torvalds) Newsgroups: comp.os.minix Subject: What would you like to see most in minix? Summary: small poll for my new operating system Message-ID: <1991Aug25.205708.9541@klaava.Helsinki.FI> Date: 25 Aug 91 20:57:08 GMT Organization: University of Helsinki Hello everybody out…

  • Experimenting with Physics

    Man it feels good to be an engineer!

  • A fun quick customization

    tired of a terminal session that looks like user@computer> pretty boring right? So just a little command called PS1=”message” can liven things up. The man page intro suggests: PS1=”What’s next, master?”

  • The new server is up!

    This server is now running on a FreeBSD box instead of Fedora Core 1. It’s also 1 GHz instead of 300Mhz. Man, I have gone from being scared to install anything that wasn’t an RPM package a few years ago to where yesterday I compiled a custom kernel for the first time ever!! That is…

  • Setting up the FreeBSD server

    Well, I’ll tell you one thing – FreeBSD does NOT hold your hand like Linux does. This has had both frustrating and enlightening effects. On the one hand, it’s been very annoying to have to deal with all manner of config files I never had to deal with before. Apache and MySQL didn’t just work…

  • FreeBSD is here!

    I now have a FreeBSD 6.1 computer which will eventually take over the job of the server. It could take anywhere from a few hours to a few days to get everything set up correctly, but I’ll be sure to make a post when it’s ready.

  • Upgrade?

    Danielle’s job is getting rid of some old computers – all of which are way, way better than my current server. My current server is a P II 333 Hz computer!!! And it only has a 4 GB hard drive, most of which is full! By contrast, the cheapest computer they’re selling at Danielle’s work…

  • Newsbite

    AMD is buying ATI for $5.4 billion! This could completely change the landscape of things. If AMD goes M$, they could coerce MoBo makers to make AMD motherboards only use ATI or use ATI better than Nvidia. What’s next? Intel buying Nvidia?

  • Wall

    Wall is a great command if you’re intent on getting notoriety/kicked off the box you’re on. It broadcasts a message to every terminal open for every logged on user. For this reason, it may be turned off on the computer you’re on. This means every xterm, gnome-terminal, etc and every one of the 6 VTs…

  • Not my favorite installation screen

  • Children’s Book to teach them about DRM

    Paradigms are a battle of the mind that take place when we prepare our children with certain expectations about the world. Don’t let them grow up thinking there’s something right about Digital Restrictions Management! Have them read The Pig and the Box and let them learn about why software and culture need to be libre.…