Posts by khess

Yesterday Sun Microsystems officially released OpenSolaris and suggested that it's going to go head-to-head with Linux as a Desktop Operating System. Solarisx86 is nothing new and has been around about as long as Linux but it is historically proprietary and closed source. It was also very hardware-finicky and performance was slothlike.

OpenSolaris is a new way of thinking for Sun who've just purchased MySQL and VirtualBox--two of my favorite pieces of software--being sucked-up by perhaps my least favorite tech company next to Microsoft. Although Sun, unlike Microsoft, sees the writing on the wall for traditional operating systems like Solaris.

I think it's too late for a newcomer like OpenSolaris to make any significant contribution to the Desktop OS market. 10 years ago--for sure, 5 years ago--maybe, but now? It's just too little too late. Traditional Desktop computing is changing too quickly for a fledgling OS to gain any ground unless it's embedded or gadget-related.

OpenSolaris is cute, free, x86-based, and open source but a contender for the firmly established Linux market? Nope. Not a chance. Though it may have an easier time seeping into the propeller-headed geek's basement network, don't expect to see it in stores near you anytime soon. Sorry Sun, your supernova is no more than a white dwarf.

[Author's Note: OpenSolaris also hopes to compete in the Server space with Linux but here I am addressing the Desktop issue exclusively.]

Just when you thought it was safe to forget SCO and their ridiculous notions about suing IBM and others for infringing on their copyright ownership of UNIX, it isn't. It's been 5 years since SCO sent out its threatdown letters to large companies telling them that they may owe money to SCO for using illegal software. Today, SCO is in bankruptcy.

SCO CEO, Darl McBride, still believes that SCO owns UNIX in some form. Novell never transferred the copyrights to SCO in the sale of UnixWare but yet the dream lives on. This week the trial began that determines how much money may be owed to Novell from SCO (Up to $20 million). A strange turn of events indeed.

Novell probably has no desire for any monetary compensation from SCO but most likely wants what we all want: For SCO to just go away.

The conflicting testimonies given by Senior SCO VP Chris Sontag and Darl McBride certainly doesn't help SCO's case. Sontag stated that he didn't know if any UNIX code is actually in Linux or not. McBride, on the other hand, is convinced that there is.

Someone needs to explain clearly to Mr. McBride that SCO doesn't own UNIX, never did, never will, and that he needs to retire and write his memoirs. Or perhaps he can pursue a suite against Cisco Systems because they obviously stole the "SCO" part of CISCO and made it their own. Not convincing enough? He could sue McDonald's …

I have a personal vendetta against the RIAA and posted this http://tech.blorge.com/Structure:%20/2007/10/21/riaa-launches-ninth-wave-against-music-sharing-criminals about it.

Hans Reiser, creator of the ReiserFS, is found guilty of murdering his ex-wife, Nina. Described as odd, strange, and narcissistic by the prosecuting attorneys and having Asperger's Syndrome by his attorney; the jury decided against him. Unfortunately, the evidence against him was significant and damning. The prosecutors gave Reiser's ongoing custody battle as motive for the killing.

Reiser was somewhat of a child prodigy having entered into The University of California at Berkeley at 14. He created his own personalized degree plan and earned his BA degree in Systematizing.

The ReiserFS and Reiser4 filesystems, that bear his name, break from traditional block allocation filesystems and are generally faster and more efficient than traditional filesystems such as ext2 and ext3. The ReiserFS and Reiser4 filesystems are considered to be noteworthy technological contributions to Linux.

Some see this as a blemish on the face of the Linux community but many disagree. He is an individual who made a serious error in judgement but he, in no way, represents the entire Linux community--or even the totality of the ReiserFS project.

The ReiserFS and Reiser4 projects will continue and have been given space at kernel.org to continue.

Guilty or not, I don't believe his fate will in any way deter users, corporate or personal, from leveraging and embracing Linux as their Operating System of choice.

Ever pine away for a car for months, or even years, then when you finally get it—you have buyer’s remorse? You should have taken a test drive. Sure, you say, testing a car with a chatty salesperson next to you isn’t ownership but it does give you an idea of the look and feel of the car from the inside out. You can do the same with Linux—take it for a test drive before you commit!

Yes, through the magic of Live CDs, a CD that holds an entire Linux Operating System that boots and acts like it’s installed on a hard drive, you can try before you buy. It’s easy enough to do. Try these simple steps to try out that new Linux Desktop you’ve heard so much buzz about.

1. Go to LWN’s Distribution Page or Distrowatch and select from any of the distributions that have a Live CD available.
2. Download the ISO image and burn it to a CD/DVD.
3. Reboot your computer with the CD/DVD. (You may have to change your BIOS settings to allow you to boot from the CD/DVD drive—get help with this part if you don’t understand it.)
4. Enjoy your new Linux computer without overwriting any of your current Operating System, hard drive, or settings.
5. When finished, remove the CD, and reboot to your old system.

A word of warning: Sometimes applications don’t behave well when on a Live …

If you run sendmail, you're running an open source technology--same with DNS (BIND), same with TCP/IP.
Bugs and fixes are found because it is open source and that's a good thing...the software keeps getting improved. OTOH, proprietary systems have as many flaws but some of the "improvements" are actually worse than the original problem.

I don't usually respond to responses but here I have to make an exception. No, I am not behind the times, I am, in fact, with the times. The time is now right for all good people to come to the aid of their pocketbooks and make the switch to Linux.

Linux Desktop performance is fine now...in the past, to which you refer, I would have agreed, but it is you who are mistaken--not me.

There are many companies and countries converting by the thousands to Linux in the Data Center and on the Desktop. The time is now right for the US to follow in this path instead of being held for ransom by Microsoft and the ever-bloating desktop and the never-ending hardware upgrades for every new OS that comes out.

Now, having said that, I actually like XP. It is the best OS ever produced by Microsoft and they should keep it and improve on it. But, yes, the time is coming when our own folk will see the light and convert...and that time is soon my friend...very soon.

This is the first post in my new series called Crystal Ball Sunday. These Sunday posts are where I take out my Linux, and related technology, crystal ball and give you my predictions for the coming months. This week I am focusing on corporate conversion to Linux.

I foresee companies starting to take a serious look at Linux for their corporate server and desktop infrastructures. As our economy slides quietly into recession, corporate check writers are going to engage to CIOs and technical managers to find ways to lower costs for power, cooling, software, and hardware. Turning to Linux will be a natural part of that mission.

Linux will gain ground in the File Server, Application Server, and Mail Server spaces as costlier solutions fade in favor of those offering more bang for the buck. In turn, those IT staff members with diverse skills will continue to find gainful employment over those who are Operating System “specialists.”

Virtualization will also play a large role in this cost-lowering shift. VMware, VirtualBox, Xen, KVM, Qemu, and other solutions will lose their niche status to become standard, mainstream staples in server rooms and data centers alike. Linux is the clear choice as a virtual host Operating System—regardless of guest Operating System—due to its stability and low operating cost.

Linux-based thin client and terminal server computing will also be thrust into a new era of interest. Traditional desktop and laptop computers hosting their own ever-bloating, high-maintenance Operating Systems will fall …

I am disappointed to hear that the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative may be changing its original focus of providing a low-cost laptop to the world’s poorest children. Originally, the small device was to enter the market at $100 USD but had a production release price of $188 USD. It is still low-cost by any standard. It may take a huge jump in price if the OLPC group changes from the free Sugar OS, based on Linux, to the costly, proprietary, and soon to be unavailable Windows XP.

The cost of Windows XP is not the only factor in this equation. The hardware requirements are also higher for XP than for a Linux-based OS. And what happens when there are no more patches, fixes, and support available for the potentially hundreds of thousands of OLPC users? They will have an attractive doorstop or worse they will end up in landfills.

Chairman of the OLPC program, Nicholas Negroponte, is taking some heat over this whole “switch to Windows” suggestion. He claims that Sugar isn’t perfect and a switch to Windows would broaden its appeal. Walter Bender, president of software and content, has bailed-out of the project for sketchy reasons but many suggest that it is due to this XP scuttlebutt. Whatever Bender’s reason was for leaving the project, I feel confident that he will pick up a similar project or continue to work on the open source version of the OLPC project.

Perhaps companies like Microsoft should …

Offshoring is dangerous and I am hopeful that the next President will see past short-term returns and thing long-term about the economic health of our country. Offshored workers don't pay U.S. taxes, they don't buy our products, and their job performance is lackluster. It's a very bad thing and I want heavy taxes and punishments on companies that do it.

Last night on Craig Crossman’s Computer America, America’s longest-running nationally syndicated radio talk show about computers, Craig and crew interviewed Jason Perlow (rhymes with Merlot) about all things Linux. You may recognize Jason from his long-running stint as a regular columnist for Linux Magazine, his popular food blog site offthebroiler.com, or his now famous (or infamous) ZDNet blog.

His relaxed, unassuming style drew me in from his first introduction to his sign-off. His non-evangelical demeanor was also refreshing. In spite of many long commercial breaks and news bits scattered throughout the two-hour broadcast, Jason’s interview was spot on.

In it, he mentioned the Ubuntu distribution and how he perceives its Desktop version as the “one to beat Windows.” This single statement intrigued me, in light of recent news and my posts about how Novell and RedHat are shying away from creating a contending Desktop version, to the point that I sought out my own interview with him.

I briefly spoke to Jason this morning about his take on the Desktop Dilemma facing computers users around the globe. After pointing him to my blog posts on the subject, we discussed how Linux could become the Desktop OS of choice. Here is that part of the interview:

KH: You mentioned last night on the radio show that you see the Ubuntu Desktop as the one to unseat Windows; do you really think that’s possible?

JP: Yes, the new Hardy …

A new deal struck between Microsoft and its Linux ally Novell (SuSE Linux) is headed for mainland China. Microsoft claims now that Linux violates 42 of its patents (down from over 200 a year ago) and that purchasing SuSE Linux will indemnify Linux users from lawsuits for patent infringement.

Thanks Microsoft but no thanks.

Who knew that when Novell signed their pact with the Evil Empire that it would mean an all-out attack on emerging markets like China, India, and Brazil? Hey Microsoft, haven’t you heard that the median income in China is about $3,400 per year and in India, it’s about $2,000? China is also primary target for Microsoft extortion because it’s at the top of their software piracy list.

I think it’s odd that Microsoft is pushing Linux to the Chinese instead of its flagship Vista software. They hope to convert Linux users—who are violating their patents—to SuSE Linux.

The scenario goes something like this:

Microsoft: Hi, we’re Microsoft and Novell and we want you to buy our Operating System. It’s Linux and it protects you from violating our patents.

China: But we get Linux free under the GPL. Moreover, we rip off your software anyway because we don’t recognize or care about your patents or copyrights.

Microsoft: But we’re Microsoft and you should compensate us for using our patented technology. Purchasing SuSE Linux will do that for you.

China: We’re China. We don’t care.

Microsoft: You can’t use …

There is a recent trend amongst those who’ve implemented virtualization solutions: Complaints about the costs. Why, they wonder, have they spent more on virtualization when it's supposed to be cheaper? Virtualization is greener in terms of power consumption, space, and cooling but don’t look for a lot of green to be returned in terms of personnel cuts.

You don’t save money on licensing the commercial Operating Systems you run in virtual machines. You don’t save money on the host hardware—it is typically a very high-end server running into significant money territory. And you won’t save any money by getting rid of system administrators—since those virtualized systems still need patching, software installation, user account maintenance, security sweeps, and so on.

Some business owners want to save money by having fewer employees and sought virtualization as an answer to that end. While it’s true that 90% of your racking, cabling, and physical provisioning is now done via a product console, your high-dollar systems administrators aren’t likely to be trimmed in the process.

So, if you can’t save money, why all the hype about saving money with virtualization? Can any money be saved with it at all?

Yes, but the problem is that business owners are looking in the wrong places for the savings. Significant power and cooling savings are realized with virtualization. Leased rackspace is cut to a minimum by housing 8 or more systems in the same physical space as one. Big money can be saved by …

There is an old saying that goes something like this: If you put 1,000 monkeys in a room with 1,000 typewriters (the things people used before computers), they would come up with the works of Shakespeare. Could the same be true of a great Desktop OS? No, but give me 1,000 well-paid developers and I'll give you a great Desktop OS.

My first two posts were responses to news articles concerning the fate of Desktop Linux. I think that Linux is ready for the Desktop in spite of the opinions of Novell and RedHat. Unfortunately, corporations want guarantees, support, and compatibility for their Operating Systems and applications. Unless there is a commercial entity behind a Linux Desktop OS, it isn't likely to see a lot of activity on corporate hardware.

There are some great Linux Desktop OSs out there; Ubuntu, CentOS, Fedora, DSL, Linspire, and others. The biggest barrier to their widespread use in the corporate world, or the home, is support. Most home-based Linux Desktops are either self-supported by Linux enthusiasts or by a handful of Linux consultants for corporations.

The problem with Linux on the Desktop? You can't have it both ways. If you want a well-supported, well-maintained, sought-after OS on the Desktop, it probably won't be free. It may not even be cheap.

The beauty and the ugly of Linux is the same: Volunteer Labor. Give me 1,000 well-paid programmers and I'll build you a damn fine Linux Desktop OS. I can probably …

Neither RedHat nor Novell feel the need to push for a Linux Desktop that competes with the ubiquitous Windows OS. So the two largest commercial Linux vendors are throwing in the towel in the Desktop arena. There it is. Now go by yourselves a copy of Windows Vista--and while you're at it, buy a new computer to run it.

The grand, unified user displeasure with Windows Vista should have given our beloved Linux companies a boost in the right direction--should have--but didn't. The campaign to keep Windows XP has had some effect on Microsoft's plan to stop supporting the best OS Microsoft has produced to date. Microsoft realized that it would lose a significant market share to the low cost and ultra low cost PC market if it didn't revise it's plan to halt production and support of Windows XP.

The fact is that Vista won't work on those PCs. Microsoft can produce all the cute videos they want but Vista will still join the ranks of Windows Me as a great failure and the greatest potential opportunity for Linux to make ground in the once highly-prized desktop space.

I am disappointed, to say the least, at this latest turn of events from the leaders in the Linux market. Linux doesn't have to be great at everything but to submit at this point is admitting defeat at one of the most significant turning points in computing history: The mobile desktop revolution. Ultra low …

When he took the reins almost two years ago, new Novell President and CEO Ronald Hovsepian, was going to lead the charge in driving the Linux acceptance and conversion. Recently he said that the Desktop Linux market, in the next 3 to 5 years, is mainly enterprise-related and that the consumer market will take longer to develop.

While acceptance and conversion to Desktop Linux may occur more slowly in the U.S. than in other parts of the world, I think it sends a negative message for the CEO of a company that produces a product to make such a statement about that product. You don’t hear the president of the Dairy Association saying that he predicts that people are going to drink less milk. Instead, you see commercials supporting milk’s advantages and positive aspects. Have you ever seen a Linux commercial?

What, it seems, has not changed is Novell’s inability to change with a changing market. When they had the lion’s share of the server market from the mid-80’s to the mid-90’s, they didn’t change their strategy. They stuck with the same old tired file and printer sharing operating system that they always had. Sure, they made some improvements to it over time, but in the end, it is now thankfully extinct.

Novell has now opted to move to Linux servers, desktops, and virtualization for its bread and butter but they still haven’t changed their marketing methods. I don’t necessarily disagree with what he said but I …

Well it isn't elegant but one way is to first direct the user to the ad page, then in the meta refresh section of the ad page, put in the number of seconds you want the user to stay on the ad page until they are redirected to the second page.

You'll have to query both tables with a WHERE clause and set the indexes equal to each other:

SELECT table1.blah, table2.blahz FROM table1, table2 WHERE table1.tag = table2.tag1;

Sorry, I didn't pay attention to your column names, etc. but you get the idea.

Try include_path="C:\PHP_includes";

instead of what you have in your php.ini. Remember after you change your php.ini, you have to restart the web service.

And there should only be one brand of gasoline, cracker, printer, car, etc.

This is an intro tutorial that is supposed to be placed in the tutorial section and not here. Sorry for the intrusion.

Programming in PHP is fun and easy. It is a very powerful scripting language that takes simple HTML and turns it into a fully-interactive experience for the web user. Let's get started!

Note: These tutorials assume that you have a working web server that's capable of displaying PHP code and that you have PHP installed on that web server system or that you're using a server that is equipped and ready.
You can run PHP on Windows. You can even use PHP with IIS (The Windows Web Server) so you don't necessarily need Unix/Linux and Apache.

PHP Reference

Your best reference for all things PHP is the PHP web site: www.php.net. Go there and bookmark it--you'll refer to it often.

PHP Speaks HTML

The first thing you have to learn and always remember is that if you use even one line of PHP code in an HTML file, you must name the file with a .php extension. The .php extension tells the web server that this file is special and needs special handling by the PHP executable and related libraries.

Delimit Your PHP

Second, all PHP functions and code must be inserted between the following delimiters

<? php code ?>

--the less than question mark opens the code and the question mark greater than close. You must always use delimiters in pairs--an opening delimiter and closing delimiter. Delimiters are symbols that tell the web server what kind of content follows …

Try F7. If that doesn't work, try the Fn key down near the left ALT key plus F7.

Make sure in your bios it doesn't allow to boot from removable drives or USB.

Since Windows NT 4, Windows has become very picky about memory. The memory has to be of very good quality and the DIMMS must match. The other thing you might try is putting the newest memory chip in the DIMM0 slot and put the older one in DIMM1.

See if changing

header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=$name");

to

header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=" $name);

works for you.

Try:

define ("base_url", "http://mysite.com/login");
$link = 	base_url . 'activate.php?x=' . urlencode($e) . "&y=$a";

Never mind, I found the answer...

define("base_url", "http://foo.com");

$filepath = base_url."/foo.gif";

Try changing all instances of BASE_URL to $BASE_URL and see if that works.

like

BASE_URL="http://www.mysite.com/login";

I need to see the actual code line, sorry.

What does BASE_URL equal? Can you put in that line of code?

Your problem is BASE_URL. It isn't in a usable format. It needs to look like a variable.

I have kind of a different take on the concept of global warming. I believe that, yes, there is global climate change but not global warming. There is no global temperature. Temperatures fluctuate everywhere on the earth and there are periodic warming and cooling trends. Climate change is a different story but not necessarily a bad one. For example, Saudia Arabia was once a thriving forest full of animal life--a vast tropic forest--think Madagascar on a very large scale. That's where the oil came from.

The second law of thermodynamics states that everything tries to reach a state of equilibrium. The earth is a closed system and will keep everything in balance--temperatures, CO2 levels, etc.

Every bit of carbon that exists now on the earth, has always existed--now it exists as people, animals, trees, oil, natural gas, and CO2. Eons ago, that same carbon existed as dinosaurs, mammoths, trees, etc.

The earth will compensate for any changes. If the CO2 level rises beyond a comfortable level, the earth will grow more trees to maintain the balance. It may melt the polar ice caps to maintain the ocean's pH or create Hurricanes to drench areas along coastlines to foster the growth of plants, trees, and promote the growth of certain types of animal life.

Remember: The Earth Maintains a Balance.

Only if external forces such as meteors work on the earth, will you have conspicuous changes to the climate that are unexpected but even these subside …

That's a very tall order. You should look into Quickbooks Simple Start (still free, I think), Quicken, or if you need/want something free, try Nola Pro.

You can use a ReWrite or a Redirect if you are talking about Apache config. I would need more detail to help you for sure.

Check on sourceforge.net or nonags.com. You can search for something like restaurant or POS (Point of Sale).

Nonags actually rates their programs and provides links to the developer's website.

Try reversing those / to \ or using two if that doesn't work:
D:\whatever\bbb.doc or
D:\\whatever\\bbb.doc or
D:\/whatever\/bbb.doc

The first \ is ignored and tells the interpreter to accept what comes next as OK.

Use the LIKE keyword in your SELECT statement.

SELECT Model FROM Table WHERE Model LIKE '%00';

Experiment with that. You may also be able to use regular expressions in the LIKE constraint.

You have an open " in the img src = "
but no closed quote.

Probably the power supply. If it were some component, the machine would power on and you'd get beeps or some other failure. Try installing a new power supply. Get a higher end one so that it lasts a while.

Have you tried using the Function key and pressing the Monitor button on the keyboard...you may have inadvertently switch to external monitor only.
The function key is down near the left Ctrl key (usually blue letters) and the Monitor switch key is on the Function Keys (F1-F12) above the number keys. Hold the function key down while pressing the appropriate one of the FX keys. There are little icons on the FX keys ...use the Monitor one.

Sounds like the computer is ok but either the video card or monitor is failing. Open the case, remove and reseat the video card. Disconnect the monitor first from the video card. Make sure that you use the card screw to secure the video card into the case.
Reconnect (securely) the monitor to the video card. Boot cold and see what happens.

Have you looked through the support pages for Spyware Doctor to see if others have had this problem?
I would remove it by booting into Safe Mode and uninstalling it. This will tell you if Spyware Doctor is the culprit.

First try updating the BIOS with the updated manufacturer's BIOS update. Look at the motherboard and determine the mfg. and current version to see if there is an update.
Usually, but not always, BIOS updates are specific to a machine type and you'll be warned that the BIOS is not for your machine. There is some risk but there are some safeguards in place. If given the option to backup your current BIOS before flashing, do so...this may be your only recovery.

Try the following to see if it is a Windows problem (driver) or a physical hardware problem (a bad drive). Reboot your computer, press DEL, F1, or whatever to go into your systems BIOS settings. Find the page that shows your hardware and see if your drive is detected. Make sure that all drives are set to AUTO. Save and allow the machine to reboot. When booting, notice the drives that are detected...press the PAUSE button on your keyboard to stop the boot process if you can't see them as they run by.
If you see the drive, then the drive is OK. If you don't see it, you either have a bad drive or you may need to check the jumpers on the drive (they tell the system whether or not the drive is a Master or Slave). CD drives are generally set to Slave but if you have only one Hard Drive and one CD/DVD drive, put your hard drive on one IDE cable and set it to Master. Put the CD drive on the other IDE cable and jumper it to Master.
If your drive is determined to be good before you go into Windows then allow your system to boot into Windows. Remove the device in Device Manager (you may have to be in Safe Mode) and allow your computer to find the hardware again. This may require a reboot or two.

Open IE, assuming you're using IE...open Tools, Internet Options, Connections, LAN Settings...make sure nothing is clicked since you aren't using a proxy...probably. Close and reopen the browser.

If that isn't your problem, open Tools, Internet Options, Security, Custom Level, and change to Medium, or Low. Restart the browser and see if you can now view other sites.

Maybe I'm not getting it but it seems simple enough to open the code and surround the menu code with <CENTER></CENTER> tags.

First, make sure that phpinfo is allowed in your php.ini file. If you make any changes to the php.ini, you have to restart the apache web server for them to be picked up.

You also may need the module reference or php reference in your apache's httpd.conf file. Check that file for the word, php.

To get the settings you need, refer to the INSTALL document in the php source. It will give you the correct module entries and php entry so that apache can recognize php. Remember to restart apache after you make any changes to the httpd.conf file too.

This is a BIOS setup change that you'll need to make. When booting, press DEL, F1, or whatever to go into Setup and find the Power Management section. In there, you'll see options for powering off. It may take an experiment or two to get it to power off. Be sure to only make one change at a time so you'll know which one does it.

If there are no errors but no results are displayed, check your code that displays the results. Chances are you aren't seeing the results because you don't have an "echo" statement to display them. It would help if I could see your code.