Category Archives: Tech News

Debian and Ubuntu Sources List Generator

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That title sounds pretty cool doesn’t it?  Yes, it sure does!  I found this nifty little tool and saw right away that I just had to share it with everyone.   It’s a really cool web interface to a tool that lets you point and click your release information as well as your resource/branch preferences, and then BLAMMO, a new source list is made, just right for your Debian or Ubuntu box!  In case someone reading this doesn’t know what a source list is, in Debian (and releases based on Debian, like Ubuntu) it is the file that tells the package manager (apt, dpkg, aptitude, etc) where to look for software you want to install, upgrade, and maintain automatically.  The file name is:

/etc/apt/sources.list

Having a good source file can go a long way towards helping with easy and simple system administration.  The URL for the site is:

http://debgen.simplylinux.ch/  for the Debian Generator and
http://repogen.simplylinux.ch/ for the Ubuntu Generator

So, go check it out and see what you think.  I thought it was really cool and I got some good information from it.

Geek Squad Confessions

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<a href="http://www best and safest weight loss pills.solarum.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/geek-squad-1.jpg” target=”_blank”>One of the websites out there that I just love is The Consumerist.  Probably many of you are going to already be familiar with this site, but if not, allow me to digress for a moment.  This site is not only funny as heck based on the writers they have and the wonderful work they do, but also the stories and subject matter that they cover.  It’s humorous, informative, educational, and usually gives the reader a good heads up about something to be wary of.  Another reason I dig the site, is that like me they don’t sell ads or anything like that, they are donation supported, but even more importantly they are there for the consumer.  These guys are in your corner finding out information and exposing scams and fighting for the little guy (you know, us!) all over.  As someone who has always been a huge proponent of good customer service, I have nothing but respect for these folk, so go check ’em out.  Plus they dig up some great dirt on people LOL

This leads me to the purpose of this post, I just had to share this link:

Confessions Of A Former Geek Squad Geek

Check it out, see what you think, then go read some more over there … but don’t forget to come back 🙂

By the way, in case you missed it in previous posts, if you notice the links and logos I have there in the Good Stuff box and a few other places that look a lot like ads when I just said that I don’t sell ads.  Those are links to products and/or services that I use or have used that I endorse because I found them to be of superb value.  No one is paying me to put those there, they are there because I found something good and I wanted to pass it on!

HP kills TouchPad, looks to exit PC business

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Hp-ceoIt looks like the CEO at HP is smoking the crack and not sharing the recipe with the rest of us.  A month after their TouchPad debuts they kill the product because it’s not selling like they want.  OK, it wasn’t selling well at all from what I read, but come on you launched the thing when Apple was releasing the iPad2, what the hell do you expect!?  You have a new and untested product going up against the most wanted toy on the market.  Let’s not put any thought or … I don’t know, work into making the sales of that product better or maybe realizing that you picked the worst time ever to release it.  Just dump that chump and blow through more cash on something else.

Next they are talking about ditching their PC business, which generates 1/3 or their annual income at HP.  I mean, what crazy idea is that, especially when at the same time you talk about buying a database search software company for $10 billion in cash.  What in the world is CEO Apotheker thinking of??  Just by talking about the stuff after kill the TouchPad HP’s stock dropped 12%!  Can you say OUCH!

Read more here …

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Solarum’s Open Source Project – nix32

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I thought I would post some information about a project that I started a few months ago called nix32.  It’s hosted on SourceForge for the most part, with a handy website that I host myself mainly because it’s just easier to manage that way.  The basic goal of this project is to create native command line tools for Windows that operate much like the commands that we know and love from Linux and UNIX.  Things like ls, mv, cp, df and so on.  I have become so used to, comfortable with and productive with the UNIX/Linux command line environment, that when I have to leave it behind on Windows, it’s pretty tough.  Not just changing from what I am used to, but also because I think the command line of a UNIX/Linux server is much more powerful and flexible than the Windows command line, even including the power shell.

I have been working on the more popular commands, and I have a few basics out now with basic functionality.  I hope to have more and better (improved) tools in the future.  I am writing everything in PERL and then compiling each one on Windows as a standalone exe using tools from ActiveState, and so far, they run very nicely.  It’s all completely open source, you can download the PERL scripts as well as the executable files if you want to take a look or help improve them.

Now, I know you can get similar results with other projects and products out there, CYGWIN comes to mind first.  However, that’s a whole separate shell and almost a little mini-Linux setup in and of itself, especially looking at the directory structure after it’s installed.  Here with the nix32 project I wanted to have native Windows executables that you can stick in your path somewhere and call right from the Windows Command Prompt, without ever leaving the Windows environment and without having to install anything.  So far that is exactly what we have, just copy the files somewhere, make sure it’s within or added to your PATH variable, and you are good to go!

So check it out, see what you think, spread the word and maybe even help out a bit and crunch a little code too.  Do whatever you feel and keep both feet on the wheel … or, keyboard maybe.  🙂

Don’t count on Corel for support

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Thought I would pass this along for anyone wishing to part with some of their hard earned duckets for some software and expected some type of semblance of support from the company that makes it.  I purchased a product for video editing from Corel called Ulead Video Studio (I guess they bought Ulead like they bought Jasc with Paint Shop Pro).  Now, the product is pretty nice when it works, I say when it works because it’s always been fairly buggy but reliable enough that I didn’t complain.  At the very least it always installed fine when I had to rebuild my machine after Windows decided eating itself was a good idea or something of that nature.  That is until today … when the actual install completes, but it will not accept my product key saying that it is incorrect.  At first I thought it was just one of those situations where I have installed it enough times that I have to have a counter reset somewhere before it will activate again or something like that.  I noticed also though, that no patches would install either, saying that it couldn’t find the product installed on my system anywhere.  That was pretty odd I thought, maybe it’s a Windows 7 thing, who knows.  Either way, even though my product is a couple years old, it wasn’t cheap and we aren’t talking in depth support here (at least on the surface), I just need to activate the thing.  So, I go to Corel’s web site and log in, go to the support section, fill out the long ass form with technical details, hardware specs, screen shots, and lots of other stuff.  It was a pretty involved form, but that’s OK, it will help get the problem resolved right?  Wrong.  I couldn’t even submit the form to get an email to the support staff, I was instead immediately presented with a message that any product that is too old, which they define as more than two versions back, cannot be supported.  That’s it, zip, nada, nil, nothing.  I can’t even ask the damn question.  All I want to do is activate my software that I bought and paid for, and instead I get snubbed and told to go away.  I can tell you one thing for sure, aside from the fact that I will figure this out on my own, and that is I won’t be purchasing any more products that have anything to do with Corel again.  They put out new versions at a frenetic pace, and now I know why.  I had wondered in the past why they released new versions of their software with only seemingly minor changes at the rate of one to three per year.  I think I have my answer you could check here.  That being said, beware you don’t get stuck like I did.

Best Buy: Names Were Changed To Protect The Guilty

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Best Buy has long forced pushed sold offered a computer “Optimization” service when you buy a new pc/laptop, or take one in for repair check that.  In fact, they have gone so far as to “pre optimize” pc’s and laptops that are on sale so you are left with no choice but to pay the $39 fee because by the time you come along to buy your computer, all of the non-optimized ones are already gone.  How convenient.  Never mind the fact that if this were really true, that in every case the non-optimized units flew out the door before the optimized ones, that alone should tell Best Buy that this service offering is ridiculous.  But, I digress.

Before we go any further, let me explain and get you up to speed (if you don’t already know, that is).  The “Optimization” service that Best Buy is forcing down peoples throats is nothing but some basic maintenance tasks that almost anyone can do, especially with a little direction from a friend, Google or a handy dandy cheat sheet, etc.  We aren’t talking hard core hacking here, instead it’s along the lines of running Windows Update, removing the trial ware garbage that seems to get preloaded on all new PC’s these days, stuff like that.  Stuff that would get done anyway and that is definitely not hard to do, not complicated and NOT worth $39 bucks!

So, nowadays, after getting loads of bad press for these shoddy practices, thanks in no small part to The Consumerist who has been educating consumers for a long time now, Best Buy has finally decided to do something about this sham of a service.

  • Have they stopped doing it?  No.
  • Have they started offering it for free since it’s something any chimpanzee (Read: Geek Squad) can do?  No.
  • Have they decided the customer is just as well off doing it themselves and even printed up some handy instructions on 3×5 note cards?  No.
  • Have they decided to keep the crappy service and ridiculous price the same and just change the name hoping no one will notice? DING DING DING DING

Let’s tell them what they have won Al!  Well, we would tell you what you won if we had Al, and if you had actually won anything, and if this were really a game show of some kind.  Again, I digress.  The point is that instead of fixing the problem and making changes that are good for the customer, Best Buy and their Geek Squad have simply changed the name of the problem in hopes of confusing people, thinking that maybe the customer won’t notice or that they might trick them into thinking they aren’t actually ripping anyone off.  Alas, that isn’t the case, and Best Buy/Geek Squad will keep on taking advantage of the masses that don’t know any better.

This is where you come in folks, spread the word and tell everyone you know, let’s make sure that big stores like Best Buy know that we aren’t going to take their crap anymore.  Fighting back with your wallet or pocket book is the only way to make them take notice.  Thank you Consumerist for looking out for us little guys and helping to keep us from getting reamed.

Read more about the “Optimization” service here.

Read the article about changing the service name here.