Ghost6Shell

Twitter account

2010-02-15T22:24:00.001-08:00

my Twitter account:

Name change

2010-02-15T22:22:00.001-08:00

I have changed the name, of this Blog from Nex6, to Ghost6Shell. I also, have a matching twitter account. for now, the URL will

stay the same in nex6.blogspot.com

-Nex6

Argotic Syndication Framework

2009-12-27T02:30:00.000-08:00

for Dot NET devs: Argotic Syndication Framework

Damn good RSS framework.

Have not posted in a while

2009-10-23T16:14:00.001-07:00

I have not posted in a while, I should be back shortly....

the really random password generator (Powershell)

2009-02-04T10:55:00.001-08:00

ok,

Here is a powershell script I wrote awhile back. thought Id post it. its a really random password generator:

$pwdlength = [int]
$pwdlength = Read-Host "please provide desired password length"
$bytes = [byte[]][byte]1
$pwd = [string]""
$rng = New-Object System.Security.Cryptography.RNGCryptoServiceProvider
for($i=1;$i -le $pwdlength;$i++)
{
$rng.getbytes($bytes)
$rnd = $bytes[0] -as [int]
$int = ($rnd % 74) + 48
$chr = $int -as [char]
$pwd = $pwd + $chr
}
write $pwd

enjoy.

maybe later, I will modify it to control special characters. or if someone wants to figure it out, I will repost the code.

-Nex6

using powershell to reslove a host name to IP

2009-02-04T10:33:00.001-08:00

ok,

Here is the best part you'll need:

$rs = [System.Net.Dns]::GetHostAddresses($i)|select-object IPAddressToString -expandproperty IPAddressToString

now, I wrote this and tested it using powershell v2 ctp3, and it should work on the Lower versions but have not tested it.

with that line, you will have just an IP address in the var, $rs. from there you can do other things and fancy stuff, all aglore.

the select statement cleans up the output of: [System.Net.Dns]::GetHostAddresses($i) otherwise the output is not really useable as the output is formated in its own colums, with outher propertys. the select-object strips everything out except the IP address.

-Nex6

Daemon, by Daniel Suarez

2009-02-03T13:42:00.001-08:00

This book, Daemon, is really good. its a techo-thriller and if you like

cyber, and techo types of books this book is one for you.

-Nex6

basic ruby script

2008-08-09T00:13:00.001-07:00

I have been playing with Ruby, thought id post a basic hello world style script....

/code

#!/usr/bin/ruby

print "what do you want to print on screen: "
str = gets
exit if str.nil? or str.empty?
str.chomp!

print "\n"
print str

/end code

-Nexus6

going forward

2008-08-05T23:07:00.001-07:00

Everyone always likes to speculate on the future of IT and computers / tech in general. One thing for sure, there will be changes because. There always is changes, the trick is to stay current and technical enough to have it not matter. weather thats getting a mac, or a linux desktop or if your a mac user getting a windows machine. using all of the different OS's and at least playing with many of the different languages and other objects / items as yo can will help you in the long run.

-Nex6

random bilthering

2008-08-05T22:51:00.001-07:00

In the dawn, of the information age indecision and lack of clarity would hamper innovation. The large guilds, would all vi for power and control of that information. The cyberjockys that can
wield it. All of the large guilds, would have there own cyber warriors, each battling each other across the empty space of the NET. With, the mundane users and peoples all plugged into this this massive power.

and, unwittingly the mundane become fodder in this new age.

-Nex6

Productivity

2008-06-10T21:58:00.001-07:00

A lot of people on blogs all over the NET always say, OS [ insert type ] gives me more productivity. Things like, I switched to OSX or Linux etc and it made me 100% more productive.

My opinion is, that the OS you know. gives you, more productivity. say for example, a long time windows user who is productive on windows. switches to Linux, FreeBSD or even OSX.

now, said windows user who has many years of experience on windows. starts using Nix, he/she will be far less productive for a long time until such a time as he/she. gets

very used to the new OS. though some users will get used to the OS faster the others...

Though, all that said; some OS's like OSX or Linux (running E17 -enlightenment {shamefull plug}) can, make some more productive due to Virtual desktops, unix shell etc. though

now, Microsoft has powershell. which is shaping up pretty darn good.

I am all for open standards, and open standardized formats.

things like ODF files, and firefox plugins. that let you read the files nativity in the browser, will change things.

-Nex6

Fedora 9 and E17 - Enlightenment

2008-06-04T08:18:00.001-07:00

http://optics.csufresno.edu/~kriehn/fedora/repository.html

enjoy

-Nex6

E17 - Enlightenment installs updated

2008-05-23T12:28:00.001-07:00

There is a new repo for Fedora E17 installs (yum), and in genral for installing E17. its located at:
http://optics.csufresno.edu/~kriehn/fedora/fedora_files/f8/howto/e17-installation.html

lots of good information.

-Nex6

Damn good Perl artical

2008-05-07T22:14:00.001-07:00

http://perlbuzz.com/2008/05/perl-decentralize-diversify-colonize.html

Here is a pretty damn good Perl, article over at perlbuzz. he makes some very good points about things Perl at large
can do to increase mind share. I have blogged about the many scripting languages and the amount of job postings, of which
Perl is king. so; Perl is not dying anytime so. and in fact there are major places building new stuff with Perl, like amazon.

Nex6

programming language data mining and tracking

2008-05-04T13:38:00.001-07:00

way back in January I posted this:
http://nex6.blogspot.com/2008/01/perlpythonphp.html

which details all thw job posting form monster about alot of different computer related jobs. here a few months later is anther one:

Perl 4326
Ruby 647
C# 5000+
Java 5000+
Python 1257
Ruby on rails 258
Asp.net 4437
Vbscript 883
Powershell 81
C++ 5000+
Flash 3634
Sliverlight 2
Bash 360
Zsh 0
Ksh 235
Php 2586
Javascript 5000+
Applescript 19
Osx 164
Linux 5000+
Windows 5000+
Freebsd 115
Xml 5000+
Cobol 745

if you notice, some stayed excatly the same others, change a bit the only one to dramaitcly change is c++, which i dont have answer for, other then
one of the querry maybe wrong. will have the moniter, and look into the C++ thing.

enjoy.

-Nex6

mac OSX HIG and keyboard short list

2008-04-27T23:25:00.001-07:00

http://developer.apple.com/referencelibrary/API_Fundamentals/UserExperience-fund-date.html

two very good pdf's for mac users and the HIG PDF at the end has a complete listing of every OSX keybaord shortcut.

very cool...

-nex6

Mac thoughts ( Random blithering)

2008-04-27T16:52:00.001-07:00

ok, (longish) :)

I have had my new mac for a little while now. in the order of 3 months or so, Mac for sure has a different work flow and user flow.
They are not necessarily bad or wrong just different. Mac has its own way of doing things. like many things tend to by mousy like drag and drop to install software, drag and drop to remove. though, there is a fair number of keyboard jocky stuff also like real UNIX and iterm/shell (am a zsh user). one of the first things i did was switch the shell to zsh, and load my dot files for zsh.

the 'feel' of the laptop (MBP aka macbook pro) is pretty good, tho there is a bug in the sleep when shutting the lid. this is a known
issue and on the apple forums there is tons and tons of posts about it. work around is the use the menu to put to sleep. tho, once of the theory's
is having external USB devices plugged in while closing the lid. which for me is true (external USB mouse). so now i just use the menu. when i get arround to it, I think i will figure out how to make shortcut/alais or script something and have it on the dock and just click there to send it to sleep.

noticed, on the right click menu there is no "rename" for most things. though I can use the shell. i wonder what the reason for this is?

I really like the user switching in OSX, where one user is logged one and you "switch" to another user leaving the other user logged on. this is really
first class. one click enter password and your in. in fact this is really cool for dev stuff. i can have test users set up and flip to them very fast.

the photo stuff is way better period, its not even close. and know with the new Microsoft RDP client, connecting to work machines is a breeze and works just like a native client. (tho, Linux has an RDP client also I think the Mac client is a little better)

The touchpad, is anther thing that's way better, the touchpad once you setup the non default options like tap to click, it way way better then any other touchpad period. two finger scrolling two finger tap for right clicking etc very nice.

I am waiting for my copy from work of vmware fusion so i can load all my Windows, Linux and FreeBSD vm's.

Vim is there so life is good on that front, and macports and fink allow installing in a more BSD/Linux way of some someware. tho, i wish mc(midnight commader) had a mac version. though i may still install the source version.

hmmmmm thats good for now...

-Nex6

Apple and P.A Semi

2008-04-25T21:54:00.001-07:00

here is a pretty good artical about Apple and PA Semi, which I agree with:
http://www.macworld.com/article/133191/2008/04/pasemi.html

-Nex6

Windows Preformance tools

2008-04-23T11:56:00.001-07:00

Here are some links to windows preformance tools:

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/sysperf/perftools.mspx

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/sysperf/default.mspx

enjoy,

-Nex6

Cost of modern software development

2008-04-21T08:04:00.001-07:00

Here is a poston osnews:

http://www.osnews.com/story/19662/The_Cost_of_Modern_Software_Development

now, the orig artical and many of the posters have gone back and forth on this. I think,

computing is an evolutionary field. I don't think C/C++, ASM and other low level or close to the metal

languages will ever go away. OS's, and other high performance type software will always need to

be written in lower languages. (at least for now).

but;

There are productivity gains, by using managed code. For business and enterprise

software, managed code is best. because; its all about being productive period. that said, there are

many exceptions to this rule. but the trend is for enterprise shops to move to managed code. well, really its

mixed. As some shops will create there own C/C++ library's and use managed code on top of that...

In the long run, this is a good trend as software moves up the stack. the OS will change too. and what

will happen is you will have a computer and a platform, that handles all your software. the OS will be far less important

as most of the work will be by frameworks and vm's.

OOXML and the ISO vote

2008-04-02T07:43:00.001-07:00

well, looks like OOXML is approved:

slashdots linkage:

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?no_d2=1&sid=08/04/01/2229207

and groklaws linkage:

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080402003610230

When you read through those threads you'll notice allot of comments about how Microsoft must have cheated somehow. and that OOXML is flawed, and

should have been rejected. my take is this;

maybe OOXML is not perfect, but neather is PDF or ODF. hell the only really clean standard is probley HTML. Microsoft has the disadvantage of having tons and tons of functionality

that must be supported. where as ODF did not. also, pdf is also pretty ugly. ever try to create a PDF based app? good luck in having it not break from adobe reader version to version and from the different broswer versions. and if we accepted PDF? why not OOXML? and one thing Miguel de Icaza has commented alot about OOXML both on his blog and in slashdot threads about OOXML.

and he and some of his team had been invloved during some of the early stages. Now remember Miguel and his team wrote Gnumeric and worked alot with the Microsoft formats. and they thought more documentation was better, and would help in the long run. so many of the 6000 pages are samples etc see the below links for a run down.

I for one think OOXML in the long run is a good thing.

here are some of Miguel de Icaza's posts: (about OOXML)

http://tirania.org/blog/archive/2008/Mar-26.html

and a really good post about ODF and OOXML in general:

http://tirania.org/blog/archive/2007/Jan-30.html

-Nex6

FreeBSD 7.0 install On DC7100 F1 prompt error

2008-02-28T09:27:00.001-08:00

I did a fressh install of FreeBSD on a DC7100 and got a f1 prompt with beeping.

i used this post to fix it:

http://osdir.com/ml/os.freebsd.devel.mobile/2002-11/msg00163.html

in short use the install CD to switch boot loaders to standard.

-Nex6

FreeBSD &.0 Released!!!!!

2008-02-27T15:01:00.001-08:00

http://docs.freebsd.org/cgi/getmsg.cgi?fetch=3236+0+current/freebsd-announce

FreeBSD Project has release FreeBSD 7.0. geat work guys!

-Nex6

Mac - (got a mac)

2008-02-14T12:15:00.001-08:00

Got my first mac about a week or so ago. I got my work to pay for it. its a macbookpro 15 w/4gb ram. over all

I am pretty impressed hardware is first class, as is power management. Now as a long time IT pro, I used only Windows and Linux

(some freeeBSD) It came with "tiger' and an upgrade CD to leopard, i left "tiger" and figured i would use tiger first for awhile then upgrade to leopard.

I upgrade once the recent patches for leopard came out (10.5.2) so I had about 2 weeks maybe less with tiger. now as a "power user" or developer,

I am fine in the shell, and learning new stuff is just part of what I do. I noticed, that mac has what i call "macisms" things that only mac does.

like fior example: alt-tab in windows cycles through all open apps weather there minimsed or maximised, not so in mac. if an app is minimised to the dock.

and you try an cmd -tab (just like windows and linux alt-tab) only open apps cycle, like wise if you have more then one safri session open it will

not cycle thru each one only the top one.

lots of little stuff like that, but overall i like the mac. power management is first class. better then Xp, vista and linux.

(i am a heavy laptop user so i use sleep alot)

and, I am still putting it thru its paces, in the future i will writeup a macisms post with alot of the macisms i find.

-Nex6

Time-Warner Considers Per-Gigabyte Service Fees

2008-02-05T07:31:00.001-08:00

the Slashdot linkage:
http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/02/05/1322213

I think this is so not the way to go. I think they should instead reward those customers that use less then the 5Gb cap. sort of like going green, now we know they don't want to lower
the existing bills, so just think up some programs to reward people who use less bandwidth. simple, and for the big users give them more bandwidth and charge them for it. like 10MB/1mb for 99$

its not the hard. and i think it would hurt the economy, and the nature/culture for the Internet to not be open...

-Nex6

PERL/Python/php

2008-01-23T06:12:00.001-08:00

thought I'd touch on the PERL is dead long live python debate...

on monster.com, The following stats (not very scientific the tho very telling)

job postings for:

PERL: 4443
Python: 1185
PHP: 2471
c#: 5000+
vb.net: 3181
Ruby: 649
Ruby on rails: 248
asp.net: 4868
lisp: 45
Cobol: 46
XML: 5000+
C++: 387
fortran: 225
haskell: 8
vbscript: 51
powershell: 66
bash: 353
zsh: 0
ksh: 193
tcsh: 3
Java: 5000+
javascript: 5000+
applescript: 12
sed: 119
awk: 137
Linux: 5000+
Windows: 5000+
FreeBSD: 117
OSX: 165
flash: 3626
sliverlight: 0

you can look through the list and see for your self where the current trends are, at least for current job postings.

-Nex6

MacBook Air

2008-01-16T06:18:00.000-08:00

There are lots of posts and threads everywhere on the NET about the new Macbook AIR. Here are some:

http://www.osnews.com/story/19168/MacBook_Anorexic:_Where_Apple_Went_Wrong

http://www.osnews.com/story/19166/Apple_Launches_MacBook_Air

http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/01/15/1842211

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/01/15/high_quality_macbook_air_superdrive_photos_notes_on_remote_disc.html

Ok, that done;

I have seen, posts about how this will fail or its to expensive etc. First to the detractors, these types of devices eg ultra-notebooks, are aimed
at people who want a super light bare bones notebook for traveling, and other on the go needs. The big goals are:

light
battery life
looks good
usable

That said, I know lots of people who would like one. Most people don't need all the features a typical laptop comes with anyways. And, some people who carry there laptops with them everywhere, would like one of these. Especially if there a mac user.

-Nex6

My Email setup

2007-12-21T10:42:00.001-08:00

Just a random blog post here, i use Gmail and alpine with Imap for all my
email. i works great, alpine is very good for mailing lists. over the
weekend i will post howto setup alpine with gmail and get all your labels
and folders.

-Nex6

Mark Russinovich: On Working at Microsoft, Windows Server 2008 Kernel, MinWin vs ServerCore, HyperV, Application Virtualization [Video]

2007-12-15T21:33:00.001-08:00

http://channel9.msdn.com/showpost.aspx?postid=365911

a very good video interview with Mark Russinovich go goes over alot of ground and whiteboards windows server 2008, hyperVisor and some other stuff.
very cool.

-Nex6

Windows 7

2007-12-14T06:55:00.001-08:00

here a post about Windows 7:
http://apcmag.com/7668/beyond_vista_windows_7_what_we_know_so_far

alot of people are complaining about vista, and are not happy with it. Tho from a Windows point of view, i kinda like vista. more Unixy in the way
it starts to handle the home directory/Profile. etc but that all said with XPs support being very long, and many ppl not happy about vista it would not surprise me in the least if many users and companys kept XP till windows 7 and jumped to it.

Windows Vista SP 1 change log posted

2007-12-10T06:02:00.001-08:00

Hi All,

here is a post to and about the Vista changelog:
http://www.istartedsomething.com/20071208/vista-sp1-changelog/

some very good stuff, should improve vista by a noticeable hit. and thats a good thing.

-Nex6

Enlightenment [E17 themes part 2

2007-12-06T21:45:00.000-08:00

here is the main location for E17 themes:
http://www4.get-e.org/

installing a theme is pretty easy, like I said in my last post about themes. just download the theme you want. save it in your home directory somewhere
tho I created a directory called E17_themes and save all themes there.

then in your main menu goto configuration and then themes. change theme, logout and log back in. do the same for the panel/shelf.

-Nex6

Enlightenment [E17] keyboard short cuts -Bug?

2007-12-05T22:04:00.001-08:00

I noticed that ctrl + alt + arrow does not work in vmware. but does work when using a real machine.

more to follow if I get it to work.

-Nex6

Enlightenment [E17] new EWL released (core compont)

2007-12-05T21:41:00.001-08:00

looks like the enlightenment team has been hard at work and has released and update EWL.

what it is here: http://wiki.enlightenment.org/index.php/EWL

and the news post:
http://www.enlightenment.org/p.php?p=news/show&l=en&news_id=14

looks like from the change list, lots of major changes and as EWL handles themes I would not be surprised if some themes have issues.

Hopefully a production release of E17 just got a step closer.

-Nex6

Enlightenment [E17] themes

2007-12-05T21:16:00.001-08:00

some more tidbits on E17,

I really like the way themes work, you download a file. and in the config menu under themes just tell E17 to use that theme. and bang thats it, tho you have to change the panel/start menu on its own.

the Enlightenment ecosystem likes to say the E17 is not a window manager but more of a framework or a desktop shell. I think this is realy the case E17, is really well done. and provides many very good parts to develop on. and is pretty fast and very stable.

-Nex6

Fedora 7 to Fedora 8 upgrade with Enlightenment [E17] installed

2007-11-28T08:45:00.001-08:00

I upgraded my Fedora 7 with E17 to Fedora 8. I downloaded the Fedora 8 DVD iso and ran an 'upgrade'. everything worked fine.
no problems as of yet. Enlightenment works fine, and Gnome seems a tad bit better and a tad bit more responsive.

in order what I did:

*make sure system is fully updated.
*make sure no major errors in the logs or and funky software is installed that will muck it up.
*boot off install DVD select upgrade.

thats it.

-Nex6

powerscripting podcast Mow

2007-11-27T05:49:00.001-08:00

http://powerscripting.wordpress.com/2007/11/26/powerscripting-podcast-episode-13/

powershell podcast featuring Mow.

-Nex6

More Enlightenment [E17]

2007-11-27T05:46:00.001-08:00

was trying to create a Kiosk out of Enlightenement, which *I* think it would be very well suited for. but at this time the only menu editing
is the ones you have in the configs. and no lock down. I emailed the devs and the menu is not modular its all hard coded in: e_int_menus.c

and if you down load the source, its a huge file. :)

though I went thru a pretty long email exchange and they seem to be open to something for editing or locking down the menu for kiosk use. we will have to see when and
where it fits in. and I am pretty sure it way down the list...

tho, I think E17 is bvery stable and very responsive and would make for a very fine kiosk. the man challanage is the menu and controlling icons etc. once this is handled
E17 would make for a really fine kiosk.

-Nex6

Installing Enlightenment [E17] On fedora 7

2007-11-06T19:16:00.001-08:00

Hi,

I have E17 running pretty stable on Fedora 7, here is how I did it:

Frist here a site with lots of different ways to install it:
http://optics.csufresno.edu/~kriehn/fedora/fedora_files/f7/howto/e17-installation.html

and the one I used is here:
http://sps.nus.edu.sg/~didierbe/index.html

-Nex6

PowerShell v2.0 CTP to be released!!

2007-11-05T12:13:00.000-08:00

http://blogs.msdn.com/powershell/archive/2007/11/02/ctp-ctp-beta.aspx

looks like microsoft is releasing a CTP of powershell 2.0 soon, very cool....

-Nex6

Enlightenment E17 keyboard short cuts

2007-11-05T06:12:00.001-08:00

hmm,

seems like many of the ones in gnome or standardized ones all work.

alt + tab = flip between windows
ctrl + alt + arrow keys (left and right) = flip between virtual desktops
ctrl + alt+ d = minimize desktop / show desktop

more to follow, as I explore. :)

-Nex6

Enlightenment [E17]

2007-11-04T18:49:00.001-08:00

First let me have a disclaimer that this is no review and is just some of my random thoughts.

ok that said:

Let me start by saying wow, No I mean it. the font and window rendering are first class. I work from Virtual machines alot, and I use Gnome alot but I have also used KDE, FVWM, Blackbox etc.
I always end up back at gnome for some odd reason. Enlightenment E17 is first class, tho its called a lightweight window manager and not a desktop environment like Gnome and KDE. that
in no ways means its a lesser force. and, its not really trying to copy anyone or anything they (enlightenment team) are just doing there own thing.
the way themes are applied, are first rate the Enlightenment environment was aware of the file when i justed clicked on it.

and, since I tend to work mostly form VMs, how the desktop preforms is a big deal. but I like candy, and decent functionality.

I did get E17 to kinda hang alittle, I was moving xchat from inside the pager from virtual desktop 1 to Virtual desktop 2, and the window redraw start going crazy. the good thing was it never crashed and toke down the entire desktop. I was able to fire up xterm and restart.

anther thing I like is the work flow, and the snappiness of E17, it feels snappy, and modern. when you move a window you don't really see the window and font redraws.

overall, pretty good. will post more about E17 as I come across it.

-Nex6

Microsoft Finanical results

2007-10-26T14:24:00.001-07:00

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/all-hype-aside-microsofts-mainstays/story.aspx?guid=%7B3668AFD0-E002-41FC-B431-131DFFFF35A0%7D

looks like Microsoft may be around for awhile after all. there increased profits say so :)

-Nex6

Analog to Digital society

2007-10-25T08:15:00.001-07:00

Here is a post, which Tho I think is a good thing:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/25/149202

is just baby steps til we get to a point where most things are "online" or in some kind of digital form.
as we move from a analog to digital society and into an "information age" storing data is more and more important.
in the near future, having 500GB flash/solid state types of hard drives are not out of the possibility. even having normal drives
that are 5TB could also happen in the near future. I look forward to the day when we have light/crystal based storage and have huge storage capacity's.
where stuff like a small 'chip' gives 5TB of data storage at speed of like 25,000 rpm. all based on light/crystal and no moving parts, very stable.

where you could even carrey your storage with you and boot any PC with your device, and all your data.software ect will all be there.

future looks very bright indeed....

-Nex6

windows command line/shell

2007-10-22T06:25:00.001-07:00

Here is a post I did on this thread:
http://www.osnews.com/comment.php?news_id=18796

on the NT side of things that is, NT/2k/XP/Vista;

cmd, and a host of tools have long been available for scripters. in corp land this stuff is used pretty often.

large cmd scripts, vbs scripts with all sorts of wsh, or just pure wsh. there are also tons of cmd/shell based tools available for scripters, things like ifmember for parsing nt and ad groups of cusrmgr the comand line user manager.

and on the vbs/Perl side of things there is tons of native calls you can do.

this is not rocket science, windows admins have been scripting since day one. (at least good admins do)

its not unlike good Unix admins, script everything. just becuase some people did not know, its possiable in windows does not mean you can do it. there is ven rysnc for windows, and most of the GNU tools have all been ported also. things like sed, etc are all there if you want them.

sheesh....

-Nex6

blog about a blog: 13 reasons Linux....

2007-10-17T07:04:00.001-07:00

Here is the link:
http://www.digg.com/linux_unix/13_reasons_why_Linux_should_be_on_your_desktop

Now, its more or less a blog about a blog about a blog kind of thing. :)
that said, alot of people blog and write articles about these types of things.
and I am of the opinion that Linux/BSD/Mac will gain market share. but Microsoft
will not just fall down dead one day. Microsoft will evolve just like the market is
evolving. but, Microsoft's day of 90% and above market share across the board
are; more or less, almost over. you cant beat Microsoft will marketing or politics. you have to produce
a better product, period. thats what will win in the end, becuase geeks, and corps alike respect that
thats what will win the day. here are some general thought of my rambling mind can jot down that *I*
think would help OSS (Linux and BSDs).

For the desktops:
its all about the apps,

Browser that works, and can play video streams and access all information users need like there banking sites etc.
Email, stable email client that can handle loads of email with filtering and sorting.
IM Clients, that work with all the major IM networks.
Video players, be able to play all the different videos that ploat arround the web
music, be able to play all the different codecs.
3rd party support for required items like the cisco VPN client (does not work well if you can get it installed )
polished supported drivers and utilitys, things like the new network mgr( http://liquidat.wordpress.com/2007/10/05/networkmanager-07-feature-list/)
maybe somekind of device mgr like windows has, to make it easy for users to manage and see all there drivers, etc
power management, that works and is stable.

thats it, but as you read the list. many will notice that most of that list is already here. and for many most or all of the list. I think we are pretty close.

-Nex6

Broswer stats

2007-10-09T14:11:00.001-07:00

here is a link to some interesting broswer stats:
http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp

-Nex6

SilverLight on Linux!!!

2007-10-07T21:20:00.001-07:00

here is a post on Microsoft's port 25 about silverlight on linux:

http://port25.technet.com/archive/2007/09/05/silverlight-on-linux.aspx

to sum it up, it will be fully supported down to the codecs which is a very good thing.

-Nex6

Why do we use the Operating Systems we use? [part 1]

2007-10-04T21:49:00.001-07:00

As an IT geek, I get to use and develop with lots of different OS's. and I think that gives me some perspective on some things.

some people get pretty defensive about the OS they use. and some just use what's in front of them. Most people want there Computer to just work,

and they want there devices to just work when they connect them to there computer.

what makes someone a "Mac user" or a "Windows user" or even a "Linux user"?

I think really it is a combination of things, that determine what a person is....

There are factors like the following:

First computers use and trained on.
Computer used at work.
software used.
hobbies.

I think there are more, and maybe even sub category's of those. but thats a good start. People also want access to all there data and there software. so, people tend to gravitate toward the OS that seems to suit them, or that they 'like" and fits.

also, within IT companys use all sorts of OS's for many reasons. I like to say, "use the best tool for the job". and in that companys are expaning into using

more OS's in there data centers. and intergrating them all.

thats all for now more later

-Nex6

Paul Thurrott post on Vista SP1

2007-10-01T13:17:00.001-07:00

Here is a post by Paul Thurrott see here:

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/winvista_sp1_inside.asp

Overall not a bad post;

What I have to say is though, is that though Vista is getting allot of flak in all corners of the web. And, I tend to think most of the antiVista-ers either most likely have not used Vista or have not used it for long. Though Vista is far form perfect, and there are some issues that need to be dealt with. Vista overall is much better then XP. though right *now* XP is far more mature. and drivers wise, that's a big deal. and as Vista's Driver model is different it will take time for all the different drivers to catch up and get stable on Vista.

But I have to say, I cant wait for Sp1 I use Vista on my laptop. and use Virtual machines for several vm images, like so:

Virtual machines

windows 2000
windows XP with VS 2003
windows XP with VS 2005
windows XP basic setup
Ubuntu
freeBSD
Fedora 7

I tend to do most of my work in VMs, :)

-Nex6

Threat modeling

2007-10-01T12:46:00.001-07:00

Here is an excelent post by Bruce Schneier on Threat model:

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/10/threat_modeling.html

Threat Modeling is a very good thing to do with a systems.

-Nex6

obfuscated exploits

2007-10-01T09:48:00.001-07:00

Here is a SANS ISC post about obfuscated exploit

http://isc.sans.org/diary.html?storyid=3439

In short it talks about vbscript and javascript that excapes detection from AV scanners. there is lot of malware research on avoiding detection, and even once detected not being able to be removed. thats why UAC and protected mode types of sandboxing are so important. read only broswing is a good thing.

-Nex6

Iran and Iraq

2007-10-01T08:07:00.001-07:00

Here is an intresting Piece by Seymour M. Hersh of the new yorker:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/10/08/071008fa_fact_hersh?printable=true

It brings up an interesting point, which is. with the Iraq war going so badly, and with the world economy almost ready go into shambles. is it the resonsible thing to not only prevoke iran. but prevoke the islamic world and have even more people hate us? and with us having a buget defiect, owing some ungodly amount that will never be paid off.

wouldn't a strong econmic policy and heathly econmy be much better? wouldn't spending the 190 Billion on R&D for altertnive fuels have been better? now I am just asking questions here, just sort of thinking out loud.....

-Nex6

2007-09-30T11:30:00.001-07:00

well, this makes the case for offsite backup:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7019644.stm

Update: its stuff like this that make for using somekind of proccess that auto backs up to a offsite storage. there are wb services that can do this now. I think, if you have really important data at home you need to have a multi layer backup plan that includes offsite.

-Nex6

Windows XP Power Profiles

2007-09-30T11:09:00.001-07:00

a very interesting writeup on XP and Windows power schemes.

http://www.orthogonalthought.com/blog/index.php/2007/09/intel-speedstep-windows-xp-and-confusing-power-profiles/

-Nex6

Gingrich not running in 2008

2007-09-30T09:47:00.001-07:00

Well, I am sorry.... /sarcasm

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/la-na-gingrich30sep30,1,6209028.story?coll=la-news-politics-national

one less, I for one am glad he is not running. we need a moderate who can clean up this mess not more of the same.

-Nex6

2007-09-30T01:02:00.001-07:00

in just about the funnest thing ive seen, Iran labels CIA and US army as terrorist organizations. link here:

now I have seen everything.

-Nex6

I finally setup technorati

2007-09-30T00:57:00.001-07:00

I finally got around to setting up technorati. thats in addition to the new look which should make everything more readable.

-Nex6

2007-09-30T00:48:00.001-07:00

technorati post:
Technorati Profile

Crypto key lengths

2007-09-28T12:53:00.001-07:00

Here I am again,

and here is a pretty good site on crypto key lengths:

http://www.keylength.com/en/

Lots of very good info, and recomendations and key lengths and such.

-Nex6

Future of the desktop

2007-09-27T12:57:00.001-07:00

Well, the "future of the desktop" is one of the most hotly debated things on the net. in one corner you have Microsoft the current champ weighing in at 800lbs. in anther

corner you have Apple, weighing in at about 250lbs. and last but not least you have OSS (Linux/FreeBSD etc) weighing in at 225lbs.

I think the Future of the desktop is a very murky place, and what i mean by that is. generally what we now have and can now 'see' probley will not happen in the way we think.

just think, in 1995 would you think the OSX would be as good as it is or that apple would have such a great turn around? orm the OSS/Linux would be as strong as it is?

I think people want a couple of things;

1) Access to there data, and by that I mean read and write and assurance of there data.

2)access to there software, and by that I mean everything; there online banking, online videos, local software whatever.

And, I think with sliverlight, being available on all three platforms and even flash is now kinda support on all three. the future looks good. and with standards coming down the

Pike for all things like office (odf/ooxml) its a good thing.

I think device, software, and *service* integration are where everything is going. where you have a device, that sync's/intergrates with your desktop which in turn also syncs to

a web service of some kind. is more or less the future model.

and the future desktop, is the one that provides those services to the masses.....

-Nex6

2007-09-26T16:22:00.001-07:00

link:
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9785337-7.html?tag=yt

I was going to add my comments to the 'talkback' but there where already some there that called this article for what is.
FUD,

and a very poor article from a respected site. it's very sad. that these sites dont vet out there articles more.
this, article is so full of it, it's just not funny. and it's articles, like this that keep the antiVista FUD going by feeding the flames.

sure,
Vista is not perfect, but *overall* it's a big improvement over XP, and; XP *did* have *more* hardware requirement's then 2000 did. and thats a fact,
so reason stands that vista will have more requirements then XP. and Vista has a totally different driver model, whereAS XP used the same one that 2000 and NT did. so of course it will take the many hardware venders some time to catch up.

and as far as security goes, there are many many changes most of them are under the hood. and most of them are good. and you can not start saying microsoft copyed becuase let me clue you in for some news. the entire IT industry copys from itself, which is good becuase that's how some of the standards get arround. things like ctrl + C and ctrl + V that work on Linux.

sure, i love to bash MS when they deserve it. but a blanket bash with no facts or reasons is just pathetic.

-Nex6

Compuer usage and UI

2007-09-26T12:52:00.001-07:00

been awhile since I posted,

Saw a pretty good video on microsofts channel 9:

http://channel9.msdn.com/Showpost.aspx?postid=335046

its Bill Hill, lots of really interesting stuff in the video.

he makes some really good points, about some things.

-Nex6

Linux "winning the desktop"

2007-08-17T19:07:00.001-07:00

I see lot of articals and "posts" about how microsoft the great beast will fall, and how the golden halo 'Linux' will

win the day. as much as I like Linux/FreeBsd etc, this is not going to happen in the near future. sure, Linux is making great

improvemnts on the desktop, both Gnome and KDE are doing some really great things, but that does not change the fact that

microsoft and 'Windows' will own the desktop for the forseeable future. but;

as, time goes on, and technologys like silverlight which are cross platform, and such and things are more "webized"

things may change, but for now many many companys and bissness have tons of windows based software that can not be run on

Linux.

-Nex6

Microsoft, Linux, GPLv3 and the future...

2007-07-06T10:27:00.001-07:00

Haven't posted in a while,

I see alot of posts recently about Microsoft and GPLv3, and how it somehow "hooked" 'the great beast'.

This is so not true, you can read massive posts about it on Slashdot and OSnews and even Groklaw. Some how;

some people have this sort of fantasy where Microsoft just sort of implodes or falls down dead one day. At best its wishfull thinking

at worst its mental. I am all for criticizing Microsoft where its needed, and on *how* that comes back like improved security and OOXML.

and when Microsoft does something well, Like Visual studio or .NET we should stand up and say so.

Now, dont get me wrong. I like Linux/FreeBSD but I just dont think one day we will wake up and there will be no

Microsoft. In the enterprise world Microsoft is pretty entrenched, and for good reasons. A windows 2003 domain,

and well seup desktops are pretty nice to manage. not to mention the loads of 3rd party tools and software that all intergrates

into AD. sure, Nix can do it, *but* nix has always been more focused on the server side. and it shows. for an enterprise setup

where desktops, etc come into play. AD *is* pretty nice. and thats not to mention all the windows based apps that enterpise

folks need that they cant get on Nix. stuff like Photoshop, Visio, autoCAD etc are all windows only.

I my work we have *tons* of nix, but its all server stuff. none on the desktop, all the desktops are Windows.

Not only these things; *but* Microsoft with every version *is* getting better. Something the OSS folks are not even realizing.

becuase many of the *most* hardcore OSS/Linux/bsd.ers are very behind in their Microsoft Knoweldge, and refer to stuff that was NT or windows 98. not XP or even vista or 2003 server.

Personally, I love vmware and Virtual machines. they are *the* way in the future. I can have a Basic host machine that i some my most basic stuff on. then, i can have VMs (Virtual machines) for each task, example: vm for Visual studio 2003 and a VM for VS2k5, and a VM for a freeBSD and a VM for Linux. ALL on the same machine.

This is much better, and I can back up my VMs witha copy and paste or a job that backs them up. not if a VM has issues I just restore

a clean copy. simple.

with large Hard drives, and massive ram this is the future.

my take....

-Nex6

2007-05-01T17:07:00.000-07:00

Back up IE7 rss feeds:

here

there is a pretty good blog post about backing up IE7 RSS feeds....

2007-04-09T13:52:00.000-07:00

well,

here is another Vista post, this time about symbolic links:
Sym links

As the post says symlinks have been in Unix systems for a long time. and they have had there fair share of issues. and I am sure Vista and upcomming longhorn will too.

-Nex6

2007-04-09T12:35:00.000-07:00

Windows security,

I see lots of posts online involving Windows security. And, some are not that flatering. but the truth be told, Windows Security has a lot to offer. like:
you have local and domain Policys and can not only help secure your machine. but control, which rights users have inlcuding 'access this computer form the network'

The right 'access this computer form the network' by defualt has 'everyone' in it. if you remove this right then no-one can connect to your PC, even if you turn the firewall off.

windows main problem is """backwards compatibility"""" Microsoft has the best backwards compatibility of any vender. now on one hand thats a good thing, on the other: it can be bad, as design descions you made 20 years ago when security was a different game come back to haunt you. :)

malware:

alot gets said, about windows and malware/Virus's. some say, well its cuz windows is more populer. And others say cuz windows is full of holes.

I think the truth is a little of both and then some:
for one, I think Windows *IS* the biggest target by far not only that, windows has very strong compatibility. And that makes windows very very desireable too write and research malware for.

in addition to that, there are pretty good tools *for* writting malware and Virus's on Windows. and with backwards compatibility ensuring your new shiny code will run on every box. you can see why is this a problem.

now on Vitsa, Microsoft has UAC which wil help alot with this. I am sure there will be updates to UAC. as all the feedback goes into microsft. and then they will work on some updates to it. we will have to see what happens in the future.

a secure working enviroment:
if as a user you wanted a secure working enviroment. you have a pretty good machine say a core2 with 2 GB ram.

*make sure you dont have your machine directly connected to the internet use a router of some kind

*use a webmail service for email: like yahoo,gmail or hotmail.

* stay away from untrusted stuff and sites.

*use antivirus and 100% updated at all times

*make sure your machine is 100% patched.

*use some of the security stuff that comes with windows, like: in local security Policy, access this computer from then network' and remove all groups and users except administrators. also set a password to your account and to administrator and all other accounts you create.

*in local security policy set auditing to at least fialures for all policys.

*install virtualPC 2007, and install XP or 2k in it that you had before, once you have a solid setup. make a copy of it. do not save anything in this VM(virtual machine) use this for stuff thats questionable, if it blows up your PC, delete the VM and restore the copy, simple. :)

*do not install anything on your PC, no google bar or anthing thing. all those search bars and all kinds of crap you have. who knows where it comes from and some of them are infested.

thats it for now

-Nex6

Reserved file names and Vista

2007-04-09T09:45:00.000-07:00

Here is a pretty good post:
Reserved file names and Vista
It talks about reserved file names and Vista, has some decent info.

-Nex6

TRON ordered to be surrendered

2007-04-09T09:06:00.000-07:00

Its Pretty funny that after 25 yeats and lots of permits that:

http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2007/3/28/132751/380

will Happen, whats next wargames? war games shows hacking so lets scope it up and burn it. oh, and

while where at it. how about: hackers, goodfellas, and james bond movies along with all the mission impossible movies.

sheeesh.....thats takes the cake.

-Nex6

Vista Part 2

2007-03-21T17:41:00.000-07:00

In this 2nd part about Vista, we will talk about how vista is different and to "use" Vista in the manner it was designed. Fist of all, UAC was designed for 2 Phases. phase 1 is configuration phase, that is when you will and should see allot of UAC popups. Phase 2, is the user phase, you *should* see very little or no UAC popups, if you do then either your doing something wrong or the app, function your doing requires admin. and in that case: it may be different.

the 2nd thing is the home directory, you may notice that there is no more "my documents" there is now just a home directory and that has a documents folder in it. this is alot better, and more Unixy. So, you work from your home directory.

ram and ram cache, in Vista ram works very differently then in XP or win2k. Vista will cache aka prefetch stuff for you. so it will be using far more ram upon appearance then in XP. and that's Ok really....

make sure you have about 1 GB of ram or more for vista, on my VM images i set it to 768 and it was fine, i also have a workstation on 1GB of ram and it likewise is fine.

you can customise the GUI in advanced properties, for either best performance or best look, if you choose best performance the last check box allows for aero.

thats it for now.

-Nex6

Vista Part 1

2007-03-09T13:23:00.000-08:00

This is the First in a multi part post about "Vista". let start of with, "what is Vista?"

and to answer that: Its Microsoft's New Desktop Operating System.

Some people claim that Vista is just XPsp3 that can't be farther from the case. As much as there, maybe

things that annoy people about vista. The truth is: vista has alot of major work done "under the hood"

that is to say: things like driver framework running in userspace, superfetch, UAC, and improved kernel. are all major factors.

Is Vista, a 100% secure 100% bullet proof OS? no becuase no OS is. but: Vista is an improvement over XP just as XP was an improvement

over 2000. and that is what people need to look at. and as Vista moves along, vender driver support and application support will get better.

and if you look at the history of Computers no OS, started out prefect. mainframes nowadays are are considered secure and really really stable.

but that was not always the case. and even with windows look a recent releases like SQL 2005 and windows 2003 server RC2. how many problems have thay had? not too many.

we cant keep comparing modern Microsoft OS's to win95 and win98.

-Nex6

Windows VISTA newly-revised retail license

2006-11-03T13:08:00.000-08:00

http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsvista/archive/2006/11/02/news-revision-to-windows-vista-retail-licensing-terms.aspx

Microsoft has revised its Vista retail license in a good way. please check it out.

-Nex6

Microsoft vs "the Others"

2006-10-27T13:09:00.000-07:00

On every Blog, Forum and Tech/Geek site you find the many fractions
of geekdom fighting it out. MS this, Linux that. freeBSD this etc......

Sure I like "free" software as much or more then the next person and as a professional geek
I have greater need the most. But I also realize that Microsoft's place in the ecosystem is ensured.

Windows, and Microsoft will not ever go away, Microsoft Office and its sister applications will not go away. It much better to learn to integrate these systems. To: use the best tool for the job, period.

I admin, and develop Windows and Linux stuff. and I find, that in some or even many cases. a well Nix steeped person
is almost a rookie when it comes to how to admin/dev on the windows side.(and sometimes the reverse is true) they also tend to compare modern Nix to old style win98/NT technologys. (had a redhat demo really happened)

and I see this online line and at LUG meetings all the time, if i say i have x app that cant be ported to Linux. the asnwer
will come back it could be rewritten. I know their are many ways to skin a cat. but sheesh, and its even worse
online.

even within the Linux/BSD communities themselves you can see it. where you have debian users and Redhat/Suse users saying stuff about each other tho that's very very minor compared to the MS vs Nix stuff.

Going forward, I see .NET, C# and WPF/E playing a big part of the IT future on both windows and Linux as these are all standards
and MS is developing a MacOSX version of WPF/E and is going a farm out the Linux version and allow it to happen. (so i hear via channel9 )

which is a good thing.

I think as all the web services and technology's mature they will be better support on all platforms.

not that i see Java, and or LAMP stuff going away......

just something to think about.

-Nex6

Microsoft Office and Fat client Office installs

2006-10-27T12:42:00.000-07:00

There is a decent article:

here

Where as the Arthur makes some decent points about a web based office suite replacing
MS office or any fat client local install of an Office application.

I don't think local installs of office software will disappear anytime soon. I think, they will augment, even supplement Office installs
but not replace. I think Office software integrated into a web based service is inevitable. Where as you write your documents local and sysnc them to a webservice. Where you can sync or open them from any NET connnected computer or device.

This model is far more likly and makes far more sense. Sure web based stuff like googles will be arround and be used for some stuff but:
Office software both Microsofts and others will be arround for the long haul.

-Nex6

Apple + Sun

2006-08-31T12:59:00.000-07:00

http://www.digg.com/tech_news/Sun_Apple_Snapple

altho, big mergers and buyouts of this level dont always work. the "buy" company useally gains

longterm advantages such as technogloys and talent. even patents.

that said, I think a apple buying Sun, would be good if steve Jobs headed the new combined

company. steve is a visionary and could make the deal work and keep the new company afloat.

apple would gain all the sun engineers and stuff like ZFS, and other sun tech into OSX, and sun would gain all of apple user friendlyness

and marketing knowlege.

overall I think it would be good if steve job did it and headed the new company.

-Nex6

Sensitive data on laptops

2006-07-11T12:22:00.000-07:00

Recently, there have been many laptop thefts with huge amounts of data
on them. like the VA laptop with like 26 million records.

People just don't realize that laptop thefts can and do happen. and that
the data on it is far more valuable then the laptop itself. Granted
most of the time laptops are stolen just for the hardware itself.

but: Once the laptop is stolen weather or not they access the data or not
it still is huge. people need to take responsibility for not only the data on there laptops
but for the laptops themselfs. people need to be very careful with laptops like:

*never leave unattended
*get a strong 3rd party crypto for data
-->* windows EFS is very weak and easly gotten arround

-Nex6

Future and economys

2006-04-21T15:52:00.000-07:00

As I sit here the china president just visited bill gates on his way into see president bush.

and I can't help but think: That we are entering a new stage where globalization and where everything

is connected to everything. And as nano technologys and genitics combined for some real and major changes

in our everyday life.

and if we look back 25 years to say 1980 and compare the progress we have made. now, technoloy builds apon itself and moves at faster rates. so what took us the last 25 years we will be able to do in the next twelve. so our progress (in 25 years) should be about the same as our progress in the last 50 (1955). so now you see my point, we will have major changes both economic and social.

-Nex6

More on Crypto

2006-04-05T19:38:00.000-07:00

I am a firm believer of using crypto and having good backups. I think, crypto with digital signatures
adds a strong layer to any security model, and even for the home user protects you from basic things like
identity theft.

And by using crypto for things like Email it makes sure only the person whom it was intended reads it.
becuase anything that goes across the 'net' is unencrypted by default.

and, if you have a laptop and you lose it or it gets stolen. all your data is protected becuase you have strong crypto
so noone can get your data(use strong passphrase).

RSA FAQ ->http://www.rsasecurity.com/rsalabs/node.asp?id=2152

-Nex6

Encrypting data and Kremlin

2006-03-12T00:00:00.000-08:00

If you use a laptop, you should really really encrypt all your valuable data on your computer.

and should make it a good practice to do it on all the computers you use.

with the rise of identity theft, and stolen data. The only real defence is encryption (in addition to all the good security practices)

and on that note:

with Microsoft Windows 2000 and XP pro. you have 'EFS' which is build in crypto. With Windows 2000

based EFS being very weak and breakable. Windows XP pro SP2 based EFS configured correctly (no local recovery agent) is pretty secure. but has limitations and weakness's.

other then windows based EFS you have 3 basic choices:

Kremlin ->http://www.kremlinencrypt.com/

PGP -->http://www.pgp.com/

GPG -->http://www.gnupg.org/

with GPG being an an open source version of pgp and is a command line version with some Gui front ends and plug ins. it cipher strength is generally weaker then pgp and kremlin.

Kremlin crypto strength is very strong symmetric crypto and is what is considered "Military grade" with the added bonus's of a secure text writer, and a security "sentry" that secure deletes, wipes free memory and free hard drive space etc.

PGP is asymmetric and is based on the openPGP protocal is pretty secure and is also feature rich.

-Nex6

2006-03-03T07:50:00.000-08:00

Yellowstone Volcano Grows as Geysers Reawaken

wow, watch a movie will come out next year about this. hehe

2006-03-01T07:20:00.000-08:00

Microsft Security advisory posted, and RSA thoughts.

title says it all, but its non security and contains all the recent internet explorer updates.

2006-03-01T07:17:00.000-08:00

Hiring Is Up in Silicon Valley for High-Skill Jobs

Well, looks like things are getting better for some of our brothers and sisters.

2006-02-28T11:23:00.000-08:00

chance to crack unbroken Nazi Enigma ciphers

Pretty cool, stuff crack old codes with your old idle PC's

2006-02-28T09:19:00.000-08:00

Microsoft’s ‘Origami’

Microsofts about to release a new "device" stay tuned....

2006-02-24T17:37:00.000-08:00

Enzyme Computer KurzweilAI.net

Very cool, this kind of technology combined with nono and DNA research could very well change our
everyday lives.

-Nex6

2006-02-23T07:37:00.000-08:00

Yahoo! Search - Web Search

Yahoo's basic search page very google esk... i like it. much better then there portal
for search at yahoo.

-Nex6

2006-02-23T07:34:00.000-08:00

IEBlog : Internet Explorer Administration Kit and Group Policy in IE7

I link, to the Microsoft internet explorers team: about IE7 and the IE7 eask and gpo stuff.

some good stuff in there.

-Nex6

2006-02-23T07:31:00.000-08:00

Official Google Blog: And now, News

Google takes google news out of beta, woo hoo. hopefully more google stuff comes out of beta.

-Nex6

mental

2006-02-07T17:24:00.000-08:00

You sit in the shadow following your instinct. Command after command, coding line after line.

you sit halfway between the shadow and the light. always one side calls, always tempting

still, you sit. designing software knowing this code you write, the creation. could and will be used by

millions. yet, as you 'create' others look at you funny, like your not a person. but still you

create code that makes the net go. you sit in your own personal shadow always creating always

there remains the the aspect of mental warrior and the war of light and darkness.

-Nex6

Internet Communications and convergence

2006-02-07T17:12:00.000-08:00

Email Instant Messaging, chat etc all all converging in a Communications medium. which will end up

more and more unified. we will start to see it with the new gmail with intergated chat.

and I am sure Yahoo's next generation Email client will have some of this eventually. This is a natural evolution of this Communication medium. even blackberrys have gogletalk now, and most phones have IM and SMS, email etc.

we are seeing a convergence of internet Communications. it will only get better...

-Nex6

Human 1.0 vs Human 2.0

2006-01-20T08:40:00.000-08:00

current humans have been relatively unchanged for over a 1000 years, with the comming of nano technology and Gentics Human 2.0 will emerge. with this "human 2.0"

you will have things like better health, longer life spans, and other things we can only speculate about like intergration with computers.

over all the beginnings of Human 2.0 will be within 20 to 30 years, so many of us will see the early part.

-Nex6

mynd

2006-01-20T07:52:00.000-08:00

In the depths of our minds we seek freedom from ourselfs. we search, we ponder as there

remains the depth of our knowledge. we seek both the light and the darkness and always

there is the balance.

-Nex6

IE safe broswing tips

2005-12-09T21:20:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to put down a couple of safe broswing tip for internet explorer (IE)

for winXP sp2 and IE6+

1:>keep IE patched -->goto windowsupdate often

2:>becareful what you click on

3:>set internet zone to 'high" -->tools>intenet options>security>internet>select drop down "high" and click reset

4:>put some of your "safe" sites like your webmail or yahoo etc in trusted sites, they will run at the lower security and you will not get prompts

and things will run correctly. BUT!!! be very careful with this!! only add very safe sites....

-Nex6

Happinings

2005-11-18T07:52:00.000-08:00

Well, its been awhile since I posted. Been pretty busy with work / family and such. came accross a cool site for those that are

into future technologies such as nano.

it is here:

http://www.kurzweilai.net/index.html?flash=1

tons of good stuff there it really makes you think, about the future and how we (as in humans) will change. the kind of technologies that,

are kids and us as older adults will be using may be mind boggling.

it really makes all the stuff like: OS wars, like: Windows vs Linux vs OSX seem like pretty small potato's. Ray Kurzweil the sites founder and owner

is into AI and stuff and as a book out called: http://www.singularity.com/

pretty scary stuff and very cool as a geek :)

looks like the new intel based apple machines *may* start appearing at the begining of 2006 after macworld.

http://www.osnews.com/comment.php?news_id=12697

but its all rumor so take everything with a grain of salt until it comes out of Steve jobs :)

also looks like the new Pentium M based chips will start appearing next year dual core, etc very cool the Pent M is a very good chip.

id like to have a pent M based dual core laptop :) with a 3+ hour battery life....

well i think thats enough ramblings for now...

-Nex6

2005-10-11T09:10:00.000-07:00

woo hoo Dual core Xeons arrive Here

-Nex6

unseen

2005-09-27T15:55:00.000-07:00

unseen

The unseen forces that bind us, Force us to our Given fates. All around us, it binds us together forcing us to live.
With the Tribal nature of humans, as always keeping us in the shadows of mental warfare. For some, this mental warfare
is the stuff of legend and myth with which to be distant. For others others.. its a call to the shadows where by the challenge
of the unseen forever challenging us.

-Nex6

Opendocument

2005-09-27T10:31:00.000-07:00

Here is a summary of OpenDocument
here

here is some info on MA going to Open standards for all documents.
Here

I think, the more we have standards based Information systems which include, programming languages, office file formats, etc the better thens will be and the more compatiable thing will be with future systems. as less "leagacy" types of things will come along and things can be archived
without much trouble. its a brave new world.....

-Nex6

Linux Desktops

2005-09-14T17:40:00.000-07:00

As, a longtime IT profissional I have been using and supporting computers for over 10 years. Below are some thoughts
On desktops and Linux. Now, I know everyone jumps on this bandwagon and spews out all sorts of junk.
this is not an atemp to do anything other then place a few thoughts down.

1:) Is Linux ready for the desktop/laptop?
well, this greatly depends on your needs. I have been using it for many years so i am not your typical user. I am an admin/programmer. but, my kids use it fine :)

I think the main thing, people need to keep in mind is. there is more then one "Linux Desktop". there are desktop
enviroments like Gnome and KDE, and more lightwieght ones like blackbox,FVWM and IceWM. all have there good points.

the thing is for software: which apps do you use and are they available for Linux? or are there Linux replacements?

2:)Is it more secure?
the zelots would always say yes to this, but I'll say. it can be, by a far margian. but it depends on how it is setup and weather it is pacthed.

more: /dev/random

I think for kiosks types of uses and custamer service and other cookie cutter basic user Linux is ready by far today and would
help IT support staff support them by far. but for power users who use all sorts of windows apps and god knows what else
would be far more difficult to replace. not impossible but would take time to map out al the apps and there replacements

the other thing is for activeX based web services, internal pages based on this should be reworked to be standard based.

Email, IM are all available as are web,mainframe etc.

-Nex6

Vint Cerf

2005-09-11T18:39:00.000-07:00

Linkage

above is a link to a C|NET posting about Vint cerf and geographicaly index'd data. and a blarb about
a common space based communctions protocal ala tcp/ip but for space net. all very cool stuff.

imagine the abilitiy to open up your blackberry or Ipaq/Palm whatever, and ask it where the nearest restraunt is? now thats cool.

-Nex6