Technical Reviews and Geek Toys

Vista Business to Windows 7 Pro Upgrade

2009-11-09T21:33:28Z

It has been awhile since I have had the time to write something. A lot has happened... Ubuntu 9.10 was released as well as Windows 7. I have installed Edubuntu 9.10 and was impressed at the bootup as well as shutdown time. The look is clean and Edubuntu has the additional software for kids.

But this article is about Windows 7 Pro. I received a Vista Business to Windows 7 Pro upgrade CD and found the time to install it. Well, there wasn't much to it. I booted up on the CD and told it I want a fresh install, and selected the partition that I wanted to install to. It put my existing Windows XP installation as well as the old Documents and Settings into a folder titled Windows.old. That was pretty much it. I must have missed the part where I could repartition the hard drive... The system rebooted a couple of times and prompted me to enter my Key Code. It didn't even ask for my Vista CD.

I opened up the Windows.OLD folder and found my profile and copied my files into my new Documents and Pictures folders.

Whoa.... my display just went wacko... oh a little popup saying an update was just performed, on my display chipset. odd....

Pretty uneventful... For now it will be the only OS on this machine.

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

Sharing Internet Connection Using Ubuntu Server

2009-09-07T21:50:24Z

As I mentioned in Sharing My New 3G Internet Connection With The Rest Of The Office I have a new Alltel 3G air card. In that article I configured my workstation to share the connection and having used it this way for a couple of days it isn't really working as well as I would like it. The air card does not stay connected all of the time and it is a bit of a pain to get it to reconnect if I am using my netbook in the other room. So I decided to scrap the connection on my workstation and move it to the server.

The steps to set this up is actually pretty much the same as the above referenced article with some of the article before it thrown in. I am using wvdial to actually discover the air card and dial into the Alltel network. The DHCP server can live anywhere on the network. For me it makes sense to put everything on the server.

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

Sharing My New 3G Internet Connection With The Rest Of The Office

2009-09-06T04:55:48Z

Today dawns a new chapter in my Internet connectivity.... well maybe not so drastic. In my my last article I mentioned my purchasing an Alltel 3G wireless internet card to replace my Wildblue Satellite Internet service. I have been using the air card for a couple of days now and am pleased enough with it that I canceled my Wildblue account. Now comes the fun part.... sharing the Internet connection with the rest of the machines in my office.

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

Using the Alltel 3G Network With Linux Mint

2009-09-03T21:58:23Z

I live in Rural America.... just far enough out that I have not been able to get DSL or Cable Internet. Therefore I have been using WildBlue Internet for several years now and have been very happy with it's performance. Ok, it uses satellite communications so there are a couple of things that takes some getting use to. First of all there is the latency issue.... It takes around 3 seconds for the signal to get to the satellite and then back to earth so when I click on a link it is going to take around 6 seconds before anything happens. Next is a matter of Fair Use. There is only so much bandwidth and because of the plan I was paying for, I was able to download 17GB and upload 5GB of data over a 30 day period. That seems like a lot but it gets used up fast.

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

KDE 4.3 to Mint To ?

2009-08-24T05:28:48Z

It is no longer news that KDE 4.3.0 was released on the 4th of August. I followed instructions on how to install KDE 4.3 on Kubuntu and after a short time my KDE had been upgraded. A lot of really cool new features.

Well, when Ubuntu 9.04 was released, I decided to do a upgrade instead of a new install. The upgrade seemed to work fine... everything seemed to work OK. But I then noticed some upgrades were being held back. After some research I discovered I could get these upgrades installed by doing a apt-get upgrade-dist. After installing KDE 4.3 I started experiencing system freezes. It wasn't KDE as everything locked up. The only way out was a hard reboot. Sorry, I don't have patience for that.

I have been playing with Linux Mint and have been pleased with it so I decided to install it on my main machine. The Linux Mint download page suggests using the i386 version instead of the 64 bit version as it is "usually more stable" so that is what I installed.

The install went fine... no problems and I have been using it for a couple of weeks now. I have noticed on my Acer that very often I will be working with an application and it will kind of fade to black apparently because it is not responding. I figured it was due to the power of the A1 but it is also doing the same thing on my PC. My PC just doesn't seem to have the pep I think it should have so I'm thinking about trying something else. Any suggestions? I have been running Ubuntu for years and there is really no reason to change other than to improve performance. If I can find a big pipe maybe I'll download SUSE.

UPDATE: I had forgotten about the questionable arrangement between Microsoft and Novell. So I won't be trying out SUSE. Still looking for ideas.

UPDATE: There has been quite a few patches over the last couple of weeks and it seemed to have fixed something. I experience applications fade occasionally but not as often as when I first installed Mint.

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

Linux Mint - Elegance On A Proven Platform

2009-07-28T19:17:39Z

I have been using the Kubuntu Linux distribution for a number of years. I am very happy with it. It works and allows me to do everything I have wanted to do. Bella, however has often made comments that Kubuntu is not easy for her to work with. She grumps that every time she gets on my machine I have changed something and she can't find what she is looking for. (Imagine that...)

Linux Mint 7, codename "Gloria" was released on 7/18/09 and I have been playing with the Live CD on VirtualBox on my Acer. I have been so impressed I burned the Live CD and fired up the Laptop to let Bella play with it. Her first comment is "I like it! I can find stuff on it." Cool...

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

Critical Javascript Vulnerability in FireFox 3.5

2009-07-16T22:45:26Z

I am a strong advocate for FireFox and suggest it's use over Internet Explorer when ever I get a chance. It just goes to show that nothing is perfect. A Critical JavaScript Vulnerability in the newly released web browser was announced last week. The vulnerability can be exploited by an attacker who tricks a victim into viewing a malicious Web page containing the exploit code. What is the chance of an individual being affected by this vulnerability? How does this vulnerability affect Linux/OS-X users compared to Windows users? Good questions. There are steps that one can take to protect one's self:

One can install the No Script Addon - Probably the easiest solution.
One can start Firefox in Safe Mode - A little bit harder. Windows users can select "Mozilla Firefox (Safe Mode), Linux users can type "firefox -safe-mode" in a Terminal window. In the Safe Mode Window will need to select the "Disable All Add-Ons" and press the "Continue in Safe Mode" button.
One can disable JIT in the JavaScript Engine - The most difficult solution.

The fix has been slated for FireFox 3.5.1 originally scheduled to be released the end of July. Due to the critical nature of this bug, the release has been moved up.

Update: The new version has been released and can be installed from Mozilla's download site or by selecting "Check for Updates" in the Help menu.

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

Grow It Yourself - My Experiences

2009-07-16T21:11:04Z

I believe I first saw the Mantis Tiller some twenty odd years ago. I was younger then and was looking for a "manly man" tiller. Something with power (virtual grunting here). Well I had a big job to do and the Mantis Tiller looked like a toy to me. I purchased a Troy Built Horse instead and have tilled a lot of ground with it over the years. But I tell you what, taking a look at the Mantis I can see where it would be a whole lot easier to use and would really do a better job than the Horse in many instances.

Original post blogged on b2evolution.