fak3r

Posted October 10, 2007 by phil & filed under commerce, geek, linux, music.

Stock laptop image It’s time for a new laptop, as I’ve detailed, I’ve ripped apart, inserted coins and duct-taped the old iBook back together again enough times, and it’s no longer viable. It’ll work fine on a flat surface, but if you try to use it as a laptop the minor flexing must loosen the video chip, because you quickly find your video locked, with a hard reboot the only fix. The wildcards are me as a buyer, since I’m hardly ordinary with my expectation that any laptop or desktop I’m going to buy is only going to run Linux, and the recent announcements by HP, IBM/Lenovo and Dell about their Linux support (some even pre-installed), I knew I’d finally have choices to consider. In the end I came up with a pretty current system, that Debian or Ubuntu will be 100% compatible with, and will be proud to call home. The detailed specs:

Intel Core 2 Duo T5470, 1.6GHz, 800Mhz FSB, 2M L2 Cache
15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA LCD display
1GB, DDR2, 667MHz 2 DIMM
128MB NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS
120G 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
Integrated 10/100 Network Cardand Modem
8X DVD+/-RW with double-layer DVD+R write capability
Integrated High Definition Audio 2.0
Intel 3945 WLAN (802.11a/g) Mini Card
Integrated 2.0 mega pixel webcam
Integrated Bluetooth
85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery

This is more system that I originally spec’d out, but the price was right, so I’m very happy. Before I reveal which brand I picked, I’ll tell the interesting story of how I ended up with the ‘top I did, and how things compare for laptop Linux options these days, it’s an interesting ride.

NOTE: feel free to Digg this article if you like it.

Posted by phil & filed under music.

The Shins ‘Wincing the Night Away’ After months with it, I now appreciate The Shins current release, Wincing the Night Away, on a much higher level. It’s a fantastic release and displays a perfect cross section of light and dark pop that their earlier releases barely hinted at; it’s a great/solid listen. With critics, including my wife, in almost universal agreement of this releases’ merits, many don’t see anything better coming out this year. But of course with this being only October, don’t call it the album of the year…yet.

Posted by phil & filed under geek, howto.

Looking over the Debian own harden-doc guide online, (which is a monster of a resource) as well as Debian Help’s security page gave me some excellent new ideas on how to secure Debian and Linux in general. Also today i found a netstat command with some nice switches to help you figure out what is listening on each port in an easy to read layout, -plunt:

netstat -plunt

Plus it’s fun to say, ‘plunt’. Lastly there’s a good overview of deborphan (which assists you in keeping your system clear of unneeded packages) with coverage on how to use it at Debian Adminstrator.org. But in the comments a thread talks about how it’s better to use aptitude, as this does it automatically.

Posted October 5, 2007 by phil & filed under General.

Wii Fit Another article extolling the virtues of playing the Wii for fitness, this time not only for the body, but for the mind. “Physical therapists are turning to the Nintendo Wii to help the injured and infirm get their grooves back while increasing flexibility and strength. [...]Nintendo’s Brain Age series is popularly prescribed to help elderly patients stay sharp as a sort of “exercise” for the mind. therepy schedules [...] The Wii, though, is moving gaming out of niche applications and into the mainstream because the console is so accessible to such a wide variety of players. (You should see my four-year-old play Wii Carnival Games.) The upcoming Wii Fit could be a real killer in this category for those who don’t have the sense of rhythm that Dance Dance Revolution requires” Hmmm…I’ve looked at the Brain game available for the Wii with the idea that it would be cool for the kids, but now I have Carnival Games in mind too! They have more coverage on the topic in their Games for Health page, all nice to see, and check out the video of the action here. Again, I’d much rather the kids (and me) play some Wii games that make us think versus just watching TV.

Posted October 3, 2007 by phil & filed under blah.

This past weekend I met up with an old friend from college who I haven’t seen or talked to in many years. Back in the day we took a two hour road trip together to see R.E.M. on their Document tour, and another time saw The Replacements on their very last tour. I credit him for getting me into other bands that remain favorites to this day like The Smiths (<3), The Cure and X. Now he’s living in Amsterdam covering soccer for a website, and loving life. He came back to visit a friend in Chicago last week, he’s in St. Louis this week, and will be in Italy in a few weeks before heading back home from there. At one point he bemoaned that, “…at this point, I don’t know if I’ll ever have kids”, but everyone is different, and needs to find their own way in life. I think he’s carved out a really interesting one while staying true to what is important to him and in the end he’ll have kids, if that’s what he wants out of life; that he’s made it this far assures me of that. Very cool to see him, makes me smile.