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The tech and other cents

The tech and other cents
A blog with opinions and reviews on anything

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A dream that slowly comes true
2008-01-16 08:15:00
No, I'm not speaking about becoming insanely rich. That would take a while longer.I'm talking about my dream of a small and light computer, that I can take with me everywhere and one that could connect to resources I need (read, Internet) from anywhere in the world. And that's all of course thanks to the EeePC 701 and other similar devices. I wrote a piece on it a couple of months ago, but the subject is still hot and is becoming hotter every day.I just read nice post in NY Times, which describes in funnny humor the way that Asus went. The author says that Asus "didn't get the memo" about how our laptops should be huge, inefficient, expensive and bloated with versions of Windows - and software that vendors like to load on laptops so very much. It should be slow, and its startup time should be long enough to have a cup of coffee.I'm on the contrary, and as the author says, enjoy fast computing. And if you'd question what 'fast' means for me, then it's subjectively simple: wh...
More About: Dream , True

Fashion Shots
2008-01-13 20:03:00
Last Friday I was walking down the center of the city I live in, and suddenly I was approached by a girl. She said she's from one of the 3 main national newspapers, and that she would like to take a photo of me for the fashion article they are making. That's nice, isn't it? Me for the fashion photos....She wrote the brand names of everything I wore that day (including my hand bag). I'll wait for photos now :-)
More About: Fashion , Shots , Fash

Hidden Cost of Enterprise Computing
2008-01-09 12:24:00
I'm really fascinated sometimes how many people talk about Linux. This definitely includes your truly - we often talk with our emotions and with some sort of will to make to a headlines. It is not bad to be passionate about something, but it leads sometimes to overvaluing the issue on hand. I make such an error myself at times.Take for example the article I just read. Adrian Kingsley-Hughes from Datamation (IT Management publication) wrote an essay, in which he discusses the hidden costs of using Linux operating system. What he does though, is mixing quite a few things in one bag, and not the good way. He mixes the problems that home users might have and implementing them to enterprise users, which is wrong. There's quite different approach in enterprise IT departments to computing and infrastructure. Here are the things that author is quoting as "hidden costs", that are not reflected in "free" Linux:UncertaintyTime (whatever that means)Support issuesChoosing the distribution to u...
More About: Cost , Computing , Hidden , Enterprise

Most Hated Company
2008-01-08 22:15:00
I just read a post by Mike Elgan, in which he argues that Asus is the most hated company in the computer business right now. And all this just because they made it first to market very cheap laptop with Linux on it (that being Asus eee701 PC).So here's the breakdown of reasons why it is most hated (mmm, right ):1. Apple , Dell and HP hate Asus. That's because they've out a subnotebook earlier than an expected (and, in my opinion, while really possible, still highly speculative) Apple subnotebook, which supposedly will be announced on MacWorld in a week, and will probably cost much more than $400.2. Microsoft hates Asus. That's because there's no version of Microsoft Windows is installed in Asus laptop. It's a Xandros Linux (with some Asus' tweaks). And its light and great!3. Intel is very happy with Asus Because Asus used their chips in the laptop.But somehow, I think that industry is just fine with Asus on all this. There are few reasons for that:1. Asus (or, Asustek) is t...
More About: Company

The dark side of open wireless
2008-01-06 18:00:00
JürgenIt's an interesting thought. When I was thinking about it, it came to me that there's another thing that should be considered with open wireless hotspots - honeypots.Just imagine, a business person, on the go, gets a phone call, opens his laptop and gets connected to his email with an open WiFi access point he found floating "around". But such a hotspot could be left open on purpose - say it traces everything that goes in the open and records everyone who's connected to it. While I'm not able to tell exactly the scenario right now, I just have intuitive feeling that such a thing would pose a risk to an occasional user, who probably would not even remember where exactly he got connected. You know, somewhere in the neighborhood...So in any case, I think it's a two-edge sword - both sides should be careful. Those that live their APs open should get educated and fully understand what that means, and and those connecting should know how to use the widely open APs as well. I do...
More About: Wireless , Open , Dark , The Dark , Side

Is OLPC team crossing the lines?
2008-01-06 14:24:00
And if they would've, what would those lines be?Hello dear reader. I've just been reading an article on News.com, which explains in some detail the exit of Intel from an OLPC alliance. It happened after some few years of disagreements and heat between the teams; and after they seemingly made up and OLPC started developing an Intel-based model (which I would love to see). What's going on then? Why road is not all that slick and easy for the project, which took the pledge to help all the poor kids in the world (sort of)?It seems that while everyone agrees with the goal, many disagree on the way that goal is to be achieved. Here comes the question I asked at the beginning:The OLPC project is made to help educating children, and they are doing so by letting children laptop computers. Choosing to use the technology to solve some of the hardest problems existing right now, is great act. But the world of technology is very well advanced in developing world. So, would it be fare to ask o...
More About: Team , Lines , Crossing , Gentoo

Freakonomics
2008-01-05 19:02:00
Hi allI got a great book as a new years present. It is a "Freakonomics " book by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. It's a marvelous piece of work. The book (I got to about a 1/4) is easily read and fascinating. I like the way it causes me to rethink my attitude and understanding of information; and even more so the sources I get information from.Levitt is a brilliant economist. He's one of the youngest people to receive an honorary John Bates Clark Medal (which is a kind of a Nobel Price for young economists). He says that's he's not a much of a mathematician, so likes to employ economy tools on other aspects of life. At the top of his list is "crime". He likes asking questions which seem unrelated, such as "What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common?".Maybe reading this book will help me to develop understanding regarding incentives for Gentoo developers and community. Who knows?So far, the book is very interesting and easy to read an comprehend. So far - ver...

December 2007 blog results
2008-01-03 16:00:00
Hi allAs I said earlier, I'm building this blog and also explain how I do it. So, this time I'll provide a little information about what I have done until now and provide also a little statistics information.So, I will start with statistics. Statistic data I provide here is for the month of December , 2007. The main achievement last month was definitely due to getting on the (almost) front page of Digg. I've posted an essay there and it got at the moment of writing this post 788 diggs (which led to 16K visits in December), which is surprising and nearly destroys an assumption I had before (and even started a poll here on this blog. It's at a top right, please vote!). The effect of all these diggs accounts to nearly 73.5% of visits to my blog (and, in fact, almost all the earnings) in December. The surprise is that the same digg effect influenced other referring sites:digg.com 73.47%Stumbleupon.com 7% (this is the surprise. I though Linux Today will be higher ranking refferal)Linu...
More About: Results , Blog , December 2007

OLPG, or One Laptop Per Grown-up
2008-01-02 13:50:00
Dear reader,As the year of "Mobile is Linux (TM)" has now come, I foresee many devices that will be created this year that will run a variant of a Linux-based operating system. Current choices vary from embedded environments, such as Open Embedded (which is the basis for such operating systems as Maemo and OpenMoko), and to the big named platforms, such as Motorola's Platform and Android. All this leads me to hope and believe that there will be great products made this year, which makes a choice of one even more complicated and difficult (there will be some many great products, how can a person choose one?).But there's a little thing that keeps me occupied: I like the OLPC. It was built using open source software from bottom up, and the whole idea of creating it was that every single part of it will be open to the public. While I'm not in the right place to argue whether they did it well or not, I know one thing: the software developments and improvements that were made during th...
More About: Laptop , Grown

Hello to year 2008; 2007 resolutions
2008-01-02 09:08:00
Hello allA new year arrived, and with it all the new hopes of things we haven't got yet. I used a second to see what is it that I wanted a year ago. I written it on my old blog, and here's the list in the nutshell:Learn Gentoo even more than I do now.Pass Gentoo dev quiz. All of it. Not to become a developer, but to create a cause for my own learning.Find alternative source of income. Blog/writing-based is preferred.Get a better job or make the current one much better than it is.Make Gentoo User Representatives a worthy project, so it will continue further on.Visit Europe.So, as for 1 - I do know Gentoo still, but it has changed a lot since the last year, and I'm not so sure it is as good as it used to be. On my laptop, emerge lately takes ages to just calculate dependencies. What the hell? It takes much less on other computers, but my laptop is in now way Pentium I - it's an AMD 1.8Ghz machine.I haven't passed the Gentoo devs quiz as I lost the interest. Besides, many great fo...
More About: Year , Resolutions , 2008

Happy new year!
2007-12-31 17:02:00
Hi folksAs the time passes by, this year is too in my time zone. It's only few hours left, but I'll be definitely busy with family, so here my wishes to you all before I turn the computer off:Be you all more healthy next year.Be you all happier.Become richer.And, using the words from the movie, "Let the best of you past, be the worst of your future".Happy new year 2008 everyone! See you next year.
More About: New Year , Happy New Year , Year

10 beautiful female hackers in the movies
2007-12-31 14:27:00
I've read the famous post on Drivl and even dugg it on the Digg.But I think that female characters got little to no attention at all there. So, with the help of mighty commenters, I've made my own list of female hackers in movies. Its hard to classify women, of course, so the specific order may vary in other classifications.8. The Puppet Master, Ghost in the shell (1995)Presumably female. Takes place 10 as she's not even real human, although quite pretty by inception.7. Chloe O'Brain, 24 SeriesNot very social, but very skilled computer scientist. Was able to hack the kernel of CTU-own government agency system to stop the malicious software from spreading.6. Chloe Sullivan, Smallville seriesVery social. In love with Superboy. Although she's just a journalist, she seems to able to hack any system in the world. From her personal computer.5. Angela Bennet, The Net (1995)Sandra Bullock.4. Mystique, X-Men seriesShe can get anywhere and hack any system. Literally.3. Rachel Gibson , ...
More About: Movies , Female , Beautiful , Hackers , The Movies

iPod nano or Sandisk View?
2007-12-30 14:43:00
Hi allI really need an advice. I'm picking the new years present, and I chose to give an MP3 player. I now need an advice. The choice came down to 2 possible players: an Apple iPod nano (3rd generation) or the new Sandisk View . I would buy each of the players with 8Gb of memory. Here are the pro's and cons of each:Apple iPod nano: Pros'Excellent designSmall and lightExcellent user interfaceAcceptable quality with good earphones Cons'Slightly more expensive than SansaMuch smaller screenWorks only with iTunesSandisk Sansa View: Pros':Slightly cheaper than an iPodBig screenNice designIn-built FM radio and voice/radio recorderMicroSD expansion slotAdding stuff into the player manually (without any additional software) Cons':Much bigger and heavier than an iPodQuite old user interfaceHeavyIt is not intended to be a bashing contest, just asking for help for choosing the better one.Thanks a bunch.
More About: Ipod , Ipod nano , Nano

Expanding my blog - make the money by blogging
2007-12-30 11:11:00
Hello all. In this post I will explain some step I make to make some cash with this blog.After lots of reading on "making the money blogging" issue, I decided that I need the following things done:Create a quality content that interests people.Make sure to supply that content with high frequencyMake sure I have a my own domain.Host the blog with Wordpress.Create the social network around the blogMonetize the appropriateSo, as the quality of the content is the most important and on-going thing, I just keep it at my best. Now, I've also started in different attempts to gain social networking going, and I will keep results posted here as they come.For the domain name - I've registered one I use now. I don't use Wordpress hosting still, because I can't yet afford it, and I'm not yet convinced that I can just use my own money for that.And, for the monetizing I currently use Google AdSense, WidgetBucks, Kontera and Amazon, and I don't have enough statistics yet, as I just started. G...
More About: Money , Blogging , Blog

Olive branch to all Free Operating systems users
2007-12-30 10:07:00
Hello my dear readers,A little statistics part first. WHAT A RUSH!!!! That's my response on what happened after I posted my opinion on Ubuntu and Linux. At the beginning there were few responses from Planet Larry where I'm syndicated, as I mostly use Gentoo. Then I submitted it to digg and Linux Today, and until the end of the day in my time zone, it got 424 diggs and more than 5000 visits, which was about a total on this blog until this day from the start. That feels great. Then it came ~5000 more visits the next day, and about 1500 visits the day after that. It have received ~100 comments on my blog, and about 200 on digg. So its cool.There are few things that I wanted to share about this. The comments are generally split into 3 categories, and they are:Yea, exactly!!! My favorite distro rules! And its better than Ubuntu!!!! Ubuntu sucks!!!!Yea!!! Ubuntu rules!!! We're here to get you all!!!!Who cares?And, to my own surprise, I agree with those who are in group 3. Let me explai...
More About: Free , Operating Systems , Fedora , Branch , Systems

There's more to Linux than Ubuntu
2007-12-26 21:49:00
Dear readerI've told a million times by now, that I am a Linux person. I like the operating system, the tools, the applications, the works. I like the process. I like the community. I like the people. And all these positive feelings are not distribution-specific, or "KDE vs. Gnome" or "Is Amarok the best media player?" kind - its genuine people-to-people kind of a thing, and the love for the technology.Recently I got to read more and more stories about Linux in general (at least that what it was insinuated by the name of the article) where term "Linux" is quite replaced by Ubuntu . The latest one was from the LifeHacker blog, which I follow frequently (I have it in my RSS reader) and respect greatly. But why Ubuntu is the Linux chosen all the time? I know that this is the most spread and used distribution (or maybe 2nd most), but there's still no reason for it to be a solely used in such an article. It really makes me sad that media uses term "Ubuntu" and that there are no mentions...
More About: Gentoo

Make money by blogging
2007-12-25 09:21:00
Dear reader,I've been using computers since I was 9, and that makes a little more than 20 years in total. I've been internet junkie for as long as I got my first broadband connection 10 years ago. But what I've been unable to do is to earn any considerable amount of money doing so. That's why I decided to change this blog a little bit, which potentially should help me build an additional source of income.I was reading so many blogs for the last year, where authors explain how they make money, that it seems so easy to do. It's not - when I try to do the same on my own blogs, it just provides me with pale $0.01 of income on a good day.So I made a decision. I am going to read and research on every source I can find regarding what can I do with my blog. And this is what this blog will be about. I will build this blog with 2 types of content: a Linux and technology related as it has been until now (and especially my take on Linux/Technology and its effects on society and enterprise ...
More About: Money , Make Money , Blogging , Make

Are linux distribution names should be locked?
2007-12-24 21:58:00
I just read a post by Lucas Nussbaum, where he complains about the fact, that there are some Ubuntu deviations, which have different names. I find this irrational. There were times, when we only had sort of one Linux operating environment. Then, as the time passed, it became the GNU/Linux OS, and then, as it is regarded today, it is a base for many different flavors of Linux Operating systems.There are many people who ask the question: is there too many Linux distribution s? But the answer to that question is bordering with the definition of Open itself: as long as one allows openness and provides means, there always will be someone who will customize the product to his/her own needs. And that includes the name change.Why the author has no complains to Linux Mint distribution, which is largely based on Ubuntu? Who should decide when to provide new distribution name? I don't think it really matters.What matters is that people use Linux, in any form and shape, and under any name they ...
More About: Locked , Distribution , Names

New Domain name
2007-12-24 18:32:00
Hi allIt is starting!! I have a new domain now, The Tech And Cents, which will be hosting my blog from now on.Bought at GoDaddyNext investment - hosting purchase. Need something cheap and stable :-)
More About: Domain , Domain Name

Moving to Wordpress
2007-12-24 17:24:00
Well, lads, its happening. As I'm really interested in blogging, and actually and possibly making something out of it, I've decided to move to a Wordpress world. It means, that my blog will probably change a lot in coming weeks, but I hope you'll love it at the end.I will start with a question of course - did anyone successfully moved from Blogger to the own-hosted blog? How was it done? How all the data is preserved? Is it hard?I would be very appreciative for any information.Thanks a bunch.Alex.
More About: Moving

Mobile really likes Linux (supported by ArsTechnica)
2007-12-22 20:15:00
As a prove for what I've been preaching for a while: The Eee PC will likely have a noticeable influence on future mobile computing development. Companies are increasingly adopting Linux in the mobile space, and Linux developers and distributors are embracing this trend and accommodating rapid development. Intel is also pushing forward Linux-based budget mobile computing with the Silverthorne architecture.It is becoming increasingly obvious to hardware makers that Windows simply isn't flexible enough to meet the requirements of the rapidly-evolving mobile market and that open-source software provides a clear path forward. The Eee PC is a stunning example of what a hardware maker can accomplish when mixing a highly compact form factor with a custom open-source Linux platform. With the Eee PC, consumers can get a taste of the future today.Read on ArsTechnic a, in Asus Eee701 PC review
More About: Mobile

Top Best 50 Ubuntu Opensource Applications For Design
2007-12-20 16:56:00
I just seen this post on digg, List of the 50 best opensource applications for Ubuntu , Xubuntu, Kubuntu and Fluxbuntu.It got hundreds of diggs, but I wonder, why is it the Ubuntu list? I run almost all of these in Gentoo as well.So I wonder, why is it the author defines it with some distro name?I'm afraid that Linux might go the pass of podcasting, when people believe that they need an iPod to listen to one. It may happen with Ubuntification of Linux.The future will tell.
More About: Design , Applications , Opensource

New projects
2007-12-20 08:40:00
Hi allAs I recently became an unemployed, and until I find a job (please keep your fingers crossed for me), I have few ideas to work on.As many readers could figure out already, I'm really interested about Linux and technology, and an effect of technology on society. So I've decided to build a new blog on this issue, and add some more sweets to it. The main idea is to have some research done on there.I'll keep you updated on how it goes :-) Technorati : blog
More About: Projects , Blog

TabletBlog.com by ThoughtFix: Internet Tablet OS2008 Review
2007-12-19 16:26:00
ThoughtFix just posted a review of OS2008 for Nokia's tablets n800 and n810. Read here
More About: Internet , Review , Tablet

That Which we call free
2007-12-17 19:45:00
I just read a reference to RMS' post to OpenBSD maillist. It is very him in the nature and the language, and I will not post anything here.But I started thinking then, how important nowadays the "openness" of the products? How the fact, that the product I use has a non-free parts impact its use?I'm not sure anymore it does. I see more tendencies in many market niches to move to open systems, open protocols and open implementations. And Linux is, of course, a part of that. Open architectures allow changing in a very convenient ways. For example, I worked in a company which created a NAS solutions. We took standard harware and put a Linux-based software on it. Then, it is connected to a network, and here you go - you have a network storage.There are 2 ways of creating such a product. A first one, is to create everything from the scratch - the operating system, the services, the protocols implementations, etc. The second one - the one many vendors choose these days - is to take some ...
More About: Free , Call , Gentoo

More articles from this author:
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