Blog Feed: Technology & Life Integration: Fiction or Future

Who is the biggest control freak of them all?

Published on 2012-05-16 01:59:25

When it comes to computing, especially operating systems, the trend seems to reducing the amount of control the end users have over their operating system environments [stares hard at garden gnomes]. Of course with any Linux based system you can always pop the hood to access the internals however, some distributions, along with proprietary operating systems, seem intent on making it harder and harder. > read more

Has Microsoft ruined computer education?

Published on 2012-05-02 23:59:42

I have noticed that as the years have gone by there are less and less computer savy people around. Sure they know how to "use" computers and electronic equipment but they do not know how to make the computers do what they want. They are more of a "monkey see, monkey do" mentality. This is not from people who wore long shorts when televisions were black and white. This is from people who have never known a life without computers. > read more

How to be a top ten blogger.

Published on 2012-04-16 01:13:12

You may have noticed that I am one of 2011's top ten bloggers. If you didn't know then you sure do now. Not one for blowing my own horn or anything (much!) but I thought I would mention what works for me to become a top blogger. > read more

Time is slipping into the future.

Published on 2012-04-12 11:09:19

If you are any sort of an old fogey like me then you probably have the esoteric lyrics related to the title running through your head right now. I also cannot believe I managed to slip in the word esoteric. Anyhoo, back to the future. Er, ok, no more, I promise to be reasonably good. > read more

A wild ride last month.

Published on 2012-03-31 22:20:14

Wow! Has the time gone by that quickly? I just looked at when I last posted and it was in February. It only seems like yesterday. I do have a reason for this silence though which I will explain. > read more

Phone, phablet and tablet. Whats next?

Published on 2012-02-18 21:22:13

I was reading some news the other day and was not surprised to learn a new word. Nooooo, I do not mean a new word as in "This is Spot. Spot has a ball" type kindergarten (actually a German word meaning childs garden) reader :) I mean a new word created by an increasingly common method to describe new types of gadgets. The mashing together of syllables of two words to create a new one. In this case "phablet". This word is the child of the joining of phone and tablet. By > read more

Is Apple the next Microsoft?

Published on 2012-02-13 00:30:30

I have come to expect lawsuits and patent claims from microsoft. They have years and years of examples I can pick and choose from. Generally for silly little things which anybody with half of a brain would realise is just common sense and should not need to be patented. Unfortunately, we all know that the mighty bank balance and the growing thereof is of an ultimate concern for these companies. Apple never used to be too concerned with such things as I remember. They si > read more

The Pi is almost cooked.

Published on 2012-02-07 03:44:43

As I have been regularly checking the pages at the Raspberry Pi organisation I was pleased to see that they now have a release date. Just as I was starting to despair that these tiny morsels of computing power were never going to be finished. According to the article the first batch of ten thousand boa > read more

It is the fine points which count.

Published on 2012-02-03 02:12:50

Modern operating systems are pretty much equal in terms of functionality nowadays. It doesn't matter what operating system you use there are programs for that operating system which give you the ability to do anything you wish on a computer. Naturally the way in which your computing goals can be achieved will possibly be different. For example. Perhaps you wish to make a table and you have two carpenters to choose from. The first carpenter grabs his wood (clean minds he > read more

Do you live in mole city?

Published on 2012-01-31 00:31:36

According to this I do, even though I do come out occasionally and squint at the big bright day star. I just happened to be browsing through youtube and came across this very funny video of a guy going by the name of WhatYouOughtToKnow expounding on his experience with Linux. W > read more

No more Danger Will Robinson

Published on 2012-01-25 20:56:00

This is really dating myself now but growing up as a child one of the most influential shows I watched was Lost In Space. That show captured my imagination and was the main reason I became interested in space and science/fiction. I never forgot that show and even revisited that series as an adult and watched the whole series again, every show, to make sure I didn't miss out on any episode :) It is a pity they do not make shows like that any more. Of course the real star > read more

Have you taken your drugs today?

Published on 2012-01-17 09:32:00

If you have or ever had a need to take medicine on a regular basis then you would undoubtedly ask yourself if you have forgotten to take it. Not only that, I am sure you have often missed taking them at the correct time. With my latest program this is now a thing of the past. > read more

The Pi is in the oven.

Published on 2012-01-11 00:49:56

You may remember in a previous post how I wanted some Raspberry Pi. Well the latest news is that the Pi is now in the oven and being baked as we speak. In other words manufacturing of these little Linux morsels is in action as you are reading this. This means that it won' > read more

Understanding the Safari Cookies.binarycookies file format.

Published on 2012-01-07 06:15:32

I recently had a need to parse the Safari browser Cookies.binarycookies file in which Safari stores it's cookies. This file is (as the name suggests) a binary file where the cookies are stored. This is different from Firefox or Chrome browsers where the cookies are stored in an sqlight database or Internet Explorer and Navigator where the cookies are stored in text files. The Opera browser also stores it's cookies in a binary file format and that format is described in the Opera website. Unfo > read more

Should Android and Linux marry?

Published on 2012-01-04 22:04:49

There have been thoughts and speculation floating around the web recently of Android and Linux merging again. What gets me is that everybody seems to be speaking and thinking of Android as a separate operating system. It is not! Android is just as much Linux based as the Linux based distribution you are using right now. Admittedly it has the Linux internals locked away from the average Joe Citizen. However, any free shell program allows you to explor > read more

Bit for byte, Linux is still best value!

Published on 2012-01-01 21:59:08

There is a saying I once heard which goes like this. No matter how big your hard drive is you never have enough space. Lets face it. Humans are pack rats and information junkies. When it comes to computers we never want to delete anything. Who knows, maybe one day in the future I will want to read that ten year old email about member enlargement again :) As you know however, emails do not take up a large amount of space. From all the people I know the most amount of spa > read more

GNU/Linux is out Java/Linux is in.

Published on 2011-07-05 21:54:19

With most of my articles (well pretty much all of them :) I use the word Linux to refer to the GNU/Linux distributions. That is because until now that was pretty much all there was. What exactly is GNU/Linux? It is simply the Linux kernel with GNU us > read more

Should you give a rats ring about Open or Closed Source?

Published on 2011-06-22 03:20:58

No matter what side of the fence you're (take that grammer nazi's :) on, any talking about computers always seems to end up as an Open Source, Closed Source argument. I reckon that people are looking at computer software in an old, outdated po > read more

Just how hard is Linux to use?

Published on 2011-06-20 00:23:35

The question in this title may seem to be a hard one to answer. I think it is an easy one to answer. Linux is as hard to use as you want it to be. It is as simple as that. Note I am not talking about installing or configuring. I am talking about dail > read more

What computer users should know, but don't.

Published on 2011-06-01 23:05:43

As has been hotly debated in my previous article I am of the opinion that a computer is not an appliance and needs a certain amount of proficiency to be able to be used in a safe and effective manner. As most of us who deal with end users know this i > read more

A computer is not a toaster!

Published on 2011-05-27 01:24:45

There is a problem I see, about what a computer should or should not be. A toaster it is not, nor is it a clock. It can send ships to the moon, or show videos that make you swoon. It works on an electronic trick, of making numbers spin real quick. Bu > read more

Oracle, the hurry up and wait application.

Published on 2011-05-25 23:36:08

This is a rant. Be warned :) If you would like to read about me dissing Oracle then continue on. If you're an Oracle lover then you may or may not agree with what I write, whatever, you don't have to read this :) I have been involved with serv > read more

PEBKAC and ID 10 T errors are coming to Linux.

Published on 2011-05-23 04:04:46

Perhaps these errors are already here, perhaps they have been here all along. These ubiquitous (like my choice of big word? :) errors which are so common in the mainstream desktop world now appear to be showing their faces more and more frequently in > read more

Linux, a slice of heaven for programmers.

Published on 2011-04-29 03:40:00

I have just read among one of the pc news articles which I browse every day, that gartner has finally, officially, stated that Linux is one of the fastest growing operating systems available today. Faster than microsoft even. According to gartner, Li > read more

Clash of the Titans! Or meeting of the minds?

Published on 2011-04-25 03:13:40

It seems that this Gary who threatened to come all the way over to Turkey and viciously attack me with a tube of Vegemite did actually keep his word. After regailing me with what I thought were empty threats of train timetables and arrival times I de > read more

Microsoft now forcing developers to force customers to upgrade.

Published on 2011-04-06 22:33:28

This is shocking news and is a complete turn about of microsofts mantra regarding backwards compatibility. They have intentionally changed some programmy thingamabob and as a consequence poked just about every microsoft loving developer in the eye. A > read more

Major security hole found in Linux kernel

Published on 2011-03-31 23:06:47

It is not often I get to break some news but I disovered this myself while writing a graphic driver for my poorly supported netbook graphics card. If you remember I had to do the same thing a couple of years ago for the ATI Rage card when it first ca > read more

Clickety clack, Linux won't bite back.

Published on 2011-03-13 23:25:31

It seems to be human nature to fear the unknown. Sure there are a lot of brave souls who love to go out in to the unkown and learn new things. To those we are greatfull. Without those types of people we would not have the technological toys that are > read more

Hello, is this what you're looking for?

Published on 2011-03-09 21:11:40

What do you look for in a computer? Far from the old days when computers were single purpose machines these modern day new fangled contraptions are capable of being pressed into many different roles. They can do far more than what they are act > read more

As Linux becomes easier it can be more dangerous.

Published on 2011-02-15 02:33:39

Over the last several years I have seen great leaps and bounds in terms of ease of use for Linux based operating systems (have to keep the purists happy :) which I will refer to as simply Linux. Because I am lazy and don't want to write Linux based o > read more

Social Networking can save lives!

Published on 2011-02-10 00:02:00

This is a bit off topic for me as I am not going to mention Linux (oops, just did :) at all. I do however feel that it is important and will serve a good purpose for those less fortunate than us. This is a true story. I play an online game cal > read more

Linux gets work done!

Published on 2011-02-06 23:11:57

Situation:- Add a new hard disk to a windows computer. Copy the files from the second partition of the first hard disk to the new hard disk. Back up the files from the first partition in case something goes wrong. Then repartition the first hard disk > read more

Welcome to Linux city

Published on 2011-01-30 22:29:28

Ever since Neanderthal times people have lived together in groups. They would roam around foraging for this and foraging for that. Then they started settling down in one place and created villages, towns and now the cities we have > read more

Transferring Linux over the network.

Published on 2011-01-11 22:08:27

It finally happened. I managed to get my hands on a superseded workstation that had been replaced by a newer model. This workstation also had a brother of the same model in which the motherboard had failed. So I did what any good Borg would do and ma > read more

Evangelistic Linux

Published on 2011-01-02 21:33:35

Step right up! Step right up! Come one, come all. I am reverend Locutus and the Linux train is about to take off. If you are not on board then you will be left behind in the boon docks. For those of you who are still with us then welcome to the LINUX > read more

It's too hard is no excuse.

Published on 2010-12-22 20:57:14

Linux is too hard. Linux is too different. Linux doesn't have this or that program. Linux is not compatible with x or y or z. Linux is blah blah blah.... People come up with all of these reasons to explain why they don't use Linux. But really > read more

What do we need? Vendors or Users?

Published on 2010-12-14 22:36:05

Which came first? The chicken or the egg? According to the big headed boffins we call scientists, the egg came first. This is succinctly explained by Professor David Papineau, of King's College London, using a uniquely Australian animal, where he sta > read more

Linux without a command line. Is it possible?

Published on 2010-12-07 21:11:39

I have to admit. I do like the command line and one of my favourite programs is Tilda. A drop down shell which allows me to run commands quicker than any mouse happy click lover. More often than not I run a quick command to do file operations, system > read more

Where does Linux want to go these days?

Published on 2010-12-02 20:06:11

Linux is one of the most flexible and suitable operating system for just about any purpose that I know of. It can be found everywhere from phones to toasters, supercomputers to computers smaller than a pack of cigarettes. It handles large amounts of > read more

In war, diplomacy is the hardest battle.

Published on 2010-11-30 01:47:43

Wars are terrible things, people are hurt and empires are crumbled. Assets are lost or destroyed and credibility, as well as trust, is damaged. Wars are not just fought with guns and cannons. They are also fought with words and the ammunition is our > read more

From stability comes stagnation.

Published on 2010-11-09 23:03:32

Picture this, you are on walkabout (an Aussie term for travelling, roughly speaking) and your throat is parched. The big bright day star is pounding on you with heat waves far greater than the blast of heat that hits you in the face when you open the > read more

It's clamfs chowder time!

Published on 2010-11-08 22:46:17

Over the years I have heard about clam chowder. I have never had it but it is supposed to be scrumptious. However, this is not a blog about food but about technology and the clam I am going to munch on is none other than clamfs which is a virtual fil > read more