Building The Net

Change is hard.

After a few unexpected road blocks, we are moving forward. The client has been working with the Ubuntu install we provided, and has come back to us with a list of questions.

• How do I print to PDF?
• I need to use MSN Instant Messaging, how do I do that?
• I need a 3270 emulator, the windows one we bought won’t work.
• I need a password manager.
• I can’t seem to make Go To My PC work with Linux.
• I really need a quick tutorial on basic navigation, I’m finding things like creating shortcuts and attaching to network shares challenging.

So, after a quick install of CUPS PDF, Pidgin, x3270, KeePass, and VNC-Server, as well as a 30 minute tutorial on desktop operation, we were back on track.

The next step.

Once the client is comfortable with the desktop, we will be moving to the next stage of testing. This will be a full operational test of Linux on his desk full time. I had hoped to be at this point already, but many things go into testing, and we need to get this right the first time if we have any hope of total conversion.

Check back soon, I’ll have more in a few weeks.

— Stu

Turning a small business into a Windows Free environment.

With many of our customers looking at yet another Microsoft upgrade, and all the costs associated with it, we are encouraging our customers to evaluate “other” solutions. In the current economic downturn, it is no surprise that we are seeing positive responses to this idea.

One company has expressed interest in evaluating a new solution. Over the upcoming weeks and months, I’ll be reporting on the progress of this project. This is the first post in this series.

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The temptation of the cloud…

In today’s everything digital world, it seems like a natural thing to store your data where you can get to it from anywhere. But who is insuring that all those photos, contacts, videos, calendar entries, and other digital info will be there in ten years? Or in five years? Or even next year? Actually, who is making sure it will be there and accessible tomorrow? With Microsoft/Danger’s announcement of a total data storage failure on the T-Mobile Sidekick Network:

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This story might not be for everyone.

I often have trouble thinking of things to write about that will fit in to the “Everyone can benefit from” category. This little blog post is really aimed at IT folks and their families. It is an effort in explaining some of the strange thought processes we as IT people need to use in our jobs, and how they leak into our home and social lives sometimes.

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Microsoft training, where the fear begins.

A recent blog story from Daily Finance tells of leaked slides from Microsoft’s Expert Zone training class used to train Best Buy employees, contains out and out lies regarding security and compatibility comparisons between Windows 7 and Linux. For many Linux advocates, this is equivalent to a smoking gun in regards to Microsoft’s unethical methods of promoting it’s products. They point to the fact that Microsoft uses it’s technical training and certification programs to spread false information. WELL DUH!

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This can’t be right. It’s going to cost $1000.00 just for software?

I must admit, this is quite a surprise, even for me. While pricing a PC for a client, I was shocked when I calculated the total cost of the software that they are required to use for their business.

The cost of software is one of those things that most business owners understand, but very few employees grasp. While there are open source alternatives available for these software packages, chances are that the client will elect to purchase this software, but as always, I’ll sure give him the option to try something different.

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Thousands report receiving health care email from White House without requesting it.

Over the last few days, news agencies have been reporting that the office of the president used a third party email service to deliver a political email to email accounts that were not subscribed or ever requested government email. This has lead to all sorts of questions regarding if tax payer money was used, or if the White House over stepped it’s bounds by sending what many are calling “SPAM” emails under the presidential umbrella.

This event has brought to the forefront a company that is engaged in managing mass emails for different government agencies called Gov Delivery. Caught in the middle of this whole thing, Gov Delivery is doing it’s best to protect both it’s clients, and it’s own back end. But I think everyone is missing the real story here.

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Who’s really behind the idea.

First off, let me be clear that this was not my idea. I was told about this whole concept by Mike Rubel @ Cal Tech. He’s the rocket scientist behind this whole idea. Now that we have our “Credit Where Credit is Due” portion out of the way, let’s get into the whole rsync backup concept.

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Linux Firewall Presentation Notes…

Here are the notes regarding what I covered in my presentation to the Simi Conejo Linux User Group. The actual presentation covered these subjects in more detail then I was able to fit in here, but you should get the general idea of the concepts covered by reading this all the way through. If you would like me to present this presentation for your organization or group, please contact me via email.

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What exactly is a DoS Attack?

In simple terms, a DoS or Denial of Service attack is when a system or group of systems, create traffic to a web site or network service, that causes an overload of the equipment and forces the web site or network service to drop or ignore real requests.

What we know at this time.

At the time or my writing, Twitter had gotten some control over this problem, and can now display web pages again, but are not accepting posts.

Facebook appears to have slowed down as well, but this is being attributed to the increased traffic to Facebook due to the Twitter problem.

— Stu