System i Addict

I am sure you are wondering what I am talking about. The other day I noticed while eating that the crown on my left side upper (number 13) was a little pressure sensitive.  The dentist yesterday referred me a specialist about a root canal. Not that she thought I needed one, but she thought the tooth might have cracked under the crown and a root canal could solve the issue.

I was able to get into the root canal doc yesterday too and he did some digital x-rays, which is way cool, rather than having to developed the film, and it showed that I might need that root canal.

Most people hear the words root canal and think PAIN and SUFFERING! Which at this point, some 12 hours later I am OK. My gums are sore from the injections, but nothing to bad. I had to take a Tylenol last night just to make sure I was not chasing pain later in the night, plus I had a headache.

With that said I am sure there are some ROOT CANAL horror stories out there but so far mine has been pretty good. They showed a video before the procedure that was funny, informative and had a guy in it that I knew in the Navy.

My insurance paid for most of it, not a bad day $800, I would have rather spent that on my Volvo or other crap but teeth are important.

This is not the video they showed me, but it does explain the root canal process a bit and shows it’s nothing to worry about. I did not get a post and the Dr. had a big microscope that he could look into the tooth with which was pretty neat.

So Christophe and I know each other, kind of, he is one smart dude. I was looking around his site and found this and thinking I will add it to my collection of commands I need to remember.

windelen.be - Linux Shell tips and tricks

“Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Bourdais has found himself outperformed by team mate Sebastian Vettel at recent races. Bourdais, however, believes he is gradually getting a grip on the main cause - the mismatch between his driving style, and the handling characteristics of the team’s car.

Bourdais made a strong start to his rookie campaign, scoring at the season opener in Australia, but ever since the introduction of Toro Rosso’s new STR3 machine at May’s Monaco Grand Prix, the four-time Champ Car champion has struggled to match Vettel.” F1.com

I would disagree with Mr. Boudias. He is a marginal driver who from some reason continues to get rides from big sponsors. He is taking up a seat in a car that someone with actual talent could be using to get better. I realize that someone has to be at the bottom of F1, not everyone and be P1, but the truth of the matter is he stunk here in the US driving Champ Car and now he somehow worked his way into F1 and is still bad, and consistently bad.

““I somewhat regret the time I’ve spent over these last few weeks looking for grand ideas on how to adapt the car to my driving style,” he said. “Now I am concentrating on a few details, I’m taking small steps, and it seems to be paying off. But it’s still complicated. That’s just how it is… ”” F1.com

He used the same excuses in the states when he ran and then you ask how did he win the Championship then smarty pants? A couple of things happen, Paul Tracy who is a talented driver made mistakes and while I don’t think Paul could run in F1 either he does not try to. F1 and Champ Car are very different. The tracks are not the same, the cars are worlds apart and drivers who move from Champ or Indy to F1 don’t do so well.

Plus I think Champ car the years Mr. Boudais won were just years when everyone else was starved for money and parts. So many of the teams in Champ Car didn’t have sponsors willing to pay big money because they got no return. Again like in Karting if you have more money you win and beat those with less money. I think his Champ Car wins came from equally spend wads of cash. He was on the most well sponsored team in the league.

Lastly Mr. Boudias is a smug and always has his nose in the air kind of jerk. I am not going to lump him in and call him French, because that would be rude to the French. He does not like his fans, he does not like people. He does not interview well. None of the others drivers are “tight” with him and his just looks the part of a prick.

Maybe next year they will find a driver that can drive, not make excuses and let Mr. Boudais come run NASCAR where you only have to turn left, mostly. That would be fitting.

Link to Story on F1.com

NOTE: If you are going to post comments about the blog and such, make sure you are a real person, not some hack whiner behind a bogus email with a fake name, Race Fan! More like Coward! Oh and if you don’t like what I am saying make sure you actually have the “******” to post who you really are and not some fake name and bogus email address. How pathetic, oh and you and my 9th grade English teach now both know I can’t write….what a surprise!

Link to post

earn these 10 tricks and you’ll be the most powerful Linux® systems administrator in the universe…well, maybe not the universe, but you will need these tips to play in the big leagues. Learn about SSH tunnels, VNC, password recovery, console spying, and more. Examples accompany each trick, so you can duplicate them on your own systems.

I like this post…..it warms my heart!

Link to Ubuntu on Best Buy for $19.99

Ubuntu Linux offers all the power of Linux in a package that’s simple to use and easy to learn, even for users who’ve never used Linux before. The OpenOffice complete office productivity suite includes word processing, spreadsheet and presentation software to provide you with all the key desktop applications you need for success, while still allowing you to open, edit and share files with users of Microsoft Office, WordPerfect, KOffice or StarOffice. Surf the Web with ease using Mozilla FireFox, which features tabbed browsing, pop-up blocking and more. Easily instant message people on your AIM, MSN, Napster and Yahoo buddy lists from a single window with Gaim instant messaging. Manage e-mail, photos, music and more easily, and keep your computer safe with powerful firewall and antivirus programs. With Ubuntu Linux, your computer operates smoothly and efficiently, saving you time and preserving your peace of mind.

I was reading Bill Higgins blog post about converting from Windows to Ubuntu on his work desktop. While I am impressed with his little write up I would like to offer him a little something if he has not already found it.

WINE or Codeweavers Crossover Office :: Crossover for Linux

I like to post things like this. Seeing and hearing people talk about using Linux for the first time. Of course when I say “Some Guy” I am not being mean, I just seemed to fit my mood today.

“To my surprise, I found the experience pretty good.” - Erik Huggers

Link

You have to love it that Microsoft is shooting itself in the foot.

Link to Article

“You gotta love it. Microsoft has decided that it will ho ahead and kill off easy access to XP on June 30th. On behalf of desktop Linux users everywhere, and our first cousins, the Mac fans, thanks. You’ve given us the best shot we’ll ever have of taking the desktop.”

I have a standard updated as of today version of Ubuntu 8.04 running on a DELL Optiplex 755. It’s a pretty good little second machine. I have installed the Lotus Notes client on the Ubuntu desktop and have take a few screen shots to share with all of you.

As for the install, it’s easy and that is how you do software. There are a few things out of place in the client but all seems to be working. Still tinkering but I wanted to get these posted.

Installing from DEBs that came right from IBM. I didn’t have to make them!

Part of the Wizard

Lotus Notes Wizard looking for the ID file

Lotus 8.5 DB properties. Sorry for the black outs. Had to for my purposes.

FIle Menu

Lotus 8.5 Open Menu

Lotus 8.5 displaying an Image and it worked first time. No problems there.

A little image of what you get when you download the TAR files from IBM. Hope that all makes sense. Looks like a football play?

Side Notes: I am excited as to the future of Lotus Notes. I really am. A Linux/Ubuntu install and the new Mac client is well and good, but when am I going to be able to trash my Windows desktop as an Administrator or a Designer? How far out is that? I know I can use the Web Administration but that creates overhead on my servers and if one of them is down it spoils the works. I really want IBM to build a Lotus Administration Client for Linux and if you are felling cheeky a MacOSX version too. I would also like to see a clear path to Eclipse and how that is coming. IMHO it should have been out years ago, but again it’s not here and we are all kind of stuck in the middle again with Notes 8.5 for Linux and for Mac but no way to build new applications or administer them. If Microsoft wants to take pot shots at you this is the way they are going to do it. Point out that Lotus is only delivering some of the tools on some of the OSes and playing favorites. It may be FUD but it’s what they have to work with.

Lotus needs to step it up and stop playing delivery man all the time and just give me what I have been requesting going on five or nine years now. I want my Administration Client and my Designer Client on Mac and Linux (Ubuntu) and I want it now. I don’t want crying about numbers or statistics, I just want it delivered and I expect it from a company as large as IBM who cries all the time about how poor Windows is and then forces it’s customer base to keep using it. You can’t have it both ways.

In the end I may end up being the smartest dude in technology. I have been calling for this move for years and while I know if I yelled and said it long enough over time it would eventually happen. With new leaked screen shots of Windows 7 out and looking more confusing than ever, and an even better release that Linux hackers are starting to move to MacOSX. Is this the shift Apple has been looking for? Is the failure of Vista and the silent, growing success of MacOSX finally put us at the tipping point.

While I would break my heart to see Linux fall short, it’s time for something other than Windows. Windows is garbage and it’s failed and disappointed us for years and I think the consumer is know waking up and seeing it for what it’s worth.

I sure do hope this is going the direction I think it is and time will only tell.

I can feel the downloads starting, the bit torrents are a buzzing and the next release is only a day away. I know this has nothing to do with the i or IBM but it’s important and needs to be talked about. The next version of Ubuntu is a day away! OSNews

Ubuntu 8.04RC

“All in all, this release packs some interesting new features and frameworks, some of which should have been part of any Linux distribution three years ago. It is quite clearly a beta though, and definitely not ready yet to be labeled as a ‘long term support’ release. Let’s hope they take their time to polish the rough edges, and deliver a stable release. It is needed.”

Lets just hope!

And despite his excitement about the possibilities now that the operating system is done, Ubuntu Linux founder Mark Shuttleworth said he knows there’s a lot of competition in the enterprise marketplace.

“We’re modest about where we stand,” Shuttleworth said. “We know we’re a new entrant in that game and that we have a long way to go still.”

In addition to releasing the new server edition of the operating system, Ubuntu also will release Version 8.04 desktop Linux on Thursday. Both versions will be available for free download at Ubuntu’s Web site. Both are LTS releases and will be supported by Ubuntu’s commercial sponsor, Canonical Ltd., for five years, much longer than Ubuntu’s standard 18-month support cycle, he said.

“The LTS [does] appeal to those who are making larger scale deployments,” such as businesses, that want to replace their systems again for a long time,” he said. “I think this is our most significant release ever.”

Link to Article 

Link to LotusonRedhat.com

“Lotus on Linux is a secure email, scheduling, calendaring, and messaging platform. It’s a simple, easy and affordable way for small and mid-sized business to enjoy enterprise performance and scalability with the rock-solid reliability, security and simplicity of linux. All at a substantially lower cost with no compromise.”

There are a new set of logos with a new set up web sites. I want to make sure you get an image and a Link to the new places.

LINK to Linux on POWER @ IBM

Since I started in this career path in 1990 I was constantly told by “others” the AS/400 is dead, then the iSeries is dead, after that the System i is dead. So now it’s dead right?

Wrong.

It’s larger than all the other systems in it’s space.Today during the Town Hall Meeting at COMMON, Mark Shearer released a gigantic can of industrial sized whoop ass on the competition. I know I have said it before and I meant it but this is the right move at the right time. The System p and System i become POWER. The i5/OS has become i, yeap just i. See it’s simple.

Mark showed a slide that was one of my favorites, where is showed IBM Power trending up while HP and SUN were both trending down and not even close to the number of installations or server IBM had. This gap is going to grow wider now and anyone thinking of moving off the i to Sun or HP should be sent home and consider a new line of work. IBM is the owner of the midrange space and now with a entry level server and a blade that runs any of three OSes, i, AIX, and Linux is just way to powerful a statement for the Solaris and HPUX people to ignore.

also showed off the Power blades for the “S” Blade Center. The idea some 18 years ago of running a i on a card about the size of an old SPD card or laptop was a silly thought. Now if I wanted to put my Websphere AIX server, my JD Edwards i server and my Linux File and print server all in one foot print with disk I can and I can do it with POWER. So what about Windows? You can place intel based bladed in the “S” and run it there too, right next to the i, AIX, and Linux.

What does David think about this move?

We now have a name that can work for the OS/400, i5/OS and it’s i, just i and it works for me. The i is for buisness logo is awesome. All the new logos are awesome and very nVidia like. I have been in the loop with IBM and nothing they have told me about today has made me think negative things at all. These changes are all what most of the forward thinking people in the community have been thinking all along.

As I get more details I will share them, the event was worth the price of admission. I am a proud member of the i community and today was what most people call an industry earthquake. IBM took it’s most powerful assets and leveraged them into POWER!

We hop to see many many more combined advertising and educational activities in the future, while IBM promised it I still don’t know if they have a plan. This was all very fuzzy and very PC at the same time. I would have liked to have seen a plan for advertising, and after years of being blasted for not doing much you would have thought they would have shown up with a marketing plan. That would be my only comment about the new release.

Lastly someone at IBM needs to take the i OS and find all the places where it says AS/400, OS/400, iSeries, System i, or anything other than POWER or i to remove it. The i needs a clean up.

IBM also released what has to be some of the best looking logos to date and I will post them all soon.
Thanks IBM for a great COMMON!

Sorry Ken no Video Card, but I can tell you this is way better!

Maxed Out - Please head over and read what Chris has written. He puts it all in such wonderful words.

So as you may have read I did my first session yesterday. I have the day off today. So I have spent a fair amount of time practicing my session and at the same time have been rewriting them. I think I was trying to pack to much into them and in the end I am cheating the people who showed up for my session. I don’t want to do that.I have 3 sessions left to give and I am working on all three. The “Do you Ubuntu?” session is pretty much in the bag and I am making sure it flows right. The other two Linux Administration and Shell Scripting are in a huge state of flux right now. Hours before they are being delivered and I am nervous. I know I should have done this months ago, but with a new job, travel almost every week, moving from Denver to Charlotte, and a six year old I have been a bit busy and while I try to make time to work on them it’s never enough time. Wish me luck! 

I agree with this article: LINK

I love a good desktop fight. PCMAG.com has posted an interesting read about Ubunut vs. WindowsXP vs. Windows Vista vs. Mac. Read and take note.

I am a Mac & Ubuntu fan. I have a distain for Windows that is more than just the normal “Hate the biggest company”.

This review is using 7.10 of Ubuntu and 8.04 is right around the corner. I think it would do much better in some areas if they were to place the full 8.04 vs. the others. Will have to wait for that one.

Summery:

Price: Ubuntu
Installation: MacOSX
Interface: MacOSX
Bundled Software: MacOSX
Third Party Softwar: WindowsXP
Drivers & Hardware: WindowsXP
Networking: WindowsXP (WTF  - MacOSX Networking is seemless?)
Security: Ubuntu & MacOSX
Winner: MaxOSX

“In our First Looks review of Leopard, we gave it a great score (4.5), and despite some disagreement —you expected complete unanimity?—we again found it worthy (with a final score of 4). Mac OS 10.5.1 is the product to pick for our mythical average user who wants something secure, easy to install, and easy to master. That you can also run Windows and Ubuntu on today’s Intel-based Macs—enabling you to use all these OSs on the same PC—is just gravy.”

My opinion if anyone cares:

I know PCMAG.com is a Microsoft leaning MAG. I have read them for years and they always lean to Microsoft when they have the chance. The only reason you leave in WindowsXP is so that you don’t leave Windows out in the cold. Hell for that matter let’s include BeOS  and MacOS9 as well. It’s just as old? I would take issue with the decision to leave in what is now n 8 year old and tired, flawed, and patched OS. Why not just deal with new OSes?

Next is the networking, I don’t agree at all with then completely leaving out the justification for why MacOSX 10.5.1 losses out to WindowsXP in the networking area. My MacOSX 10.5.1 is a networking beast. I don’t have to think about it, it just works. WindowsXP networking didn’t get decent until that SP2 came out some 5 years into it’s life.  WiFi on Mac just works and so easy my wife can do it over the phone without much problem. WindowsXP would have driven and did drive her crazy. Shame on PCMAG for not being fair.

I do agree with the winner and would like to see this done again in 6 months with WindowsXP out of it, let Windows Vista stand on it own (LOL), and put Ubuntu 8.04.1 in the mix and we wont see Windows winning much at all.

MacOSX as I have said for years is my favorite OS by far. Ubunut is getting there.

I was doing my morning reading and Ubuntu 8.04 is out in the open. Here is a link to a link on ARS Technica