Categories
Off-Topic

Moved from AWS to Digital Ocean

Wow… this site still exists? Amazing! This old thing still sees a good bit of traffic, despite not seeing an update in a good many years. I’m very, very impressed with Digital Ocean, to be honest. Here’s why they’re really good:

It takes about 3 minutes to signing up, putting in billing information to having a shiny new SSD VM up and running, starting at a very reasonable $5.
To compare them with my previous hosting companies, Dreamhost gave me cheap ass shared hosting for $10. An Amazon T1.Micro instance and storage is $15 and change.
Security features all over. Upload your public key, root password disabled by default. 2-Factor-Authentication? Setup in seconds.
The control panel has a pretty uncluttered look, because they took off all the shitty knobs that everyone else plasters all over the place and never touches.
Want more knobs? Use their sweet API.

If you wanna give it the ‘ol heave ho, here’s a referral link that’ll put $10 in my pocket.
https://www.digitalocean.com/?refcode=b748068dd135

In the meantime, stay thirsty my friends.

Categories
Off-Topic

Moving from Dreamhost to AWS.

As it is with everything in the world, good things can’t last forever. Dreamhost was great and has seen me through millions and millions of page views with just a few pennies thrown their way in return.

To scratch my own itch, I’ve moved this blog to Amazon on a micro instance. The bonus is that it’s a real, virtualized machine, and I can run my own stack on it however I please. CloudFlare seems nice, they’ll host my DNS records for free and cache bunches of stuff… Varnish is pretty damn brilliant, let’s turn that on. WordPress/W3TC, Apache and PHP APC round out the regular suspects. Giving MySQL some breathing room. Done! Seems like I should start writing again so that I can see if my machine can survive a good Reddit attack.

feelsgoodman.jpg

Categories
Off-Topic

Started something new this week.

I’ve started a small new place for my thoughts to reside, which aren’t necessarily related to Linux. Visit my new blog about coding and such called importflying, totally infected with malware. It’s somewhere I’ll do nothing with for months.

Same style of humor and writing as you’ve always enjoyed at Fsckin w/ Linux, but a totally different topic. It just feels like there’s not a lot to write about anymore, because I’m able to find the answers I look for pretty easily.

Categories
Microsoft Rant

The GPLv3 in Plain English – The Parts Microsoft Worries About

Awhile back I read the small print about Microsoft’s Moonlight software distribution. It specifically mentions the stuff they don’t like about the GPLv3. Interesting. Let’s see what they are worried about.

“Any other license or contract that includes terms similar to the terms in paragraphs 6 or 7 of Section 11 of the GNU General Public License version 3.

How bad could it be?

Continue reading “The GPLv3 in Plain English – The Parts Microsoft Worries About”
Categories
Linux Windows

VMWare Workstation 7 and Ubuntu 9.10 Easy Install – Too easy?

I’ve got a company laptop for the weekend and wanted to take Ubuntu 9.10 for a spin. Using wubi (and then later uninstalling it) would probably have worked, but I haven’t used the latest version of VMWare, so let’s have a look at how well the new VMWare 7 handles the equally new Ubuntu distro with Easy Install.

Based on the disk image I chose, VMWare Workstation already knew I was installing Ubuntu. It prompted me for my full name, desired username, and password. Next thing I know VMWare Workstation is blowing past any of the usual prompts during the bootup process of a Ubuntu install and formatting the partition.

Wait… what just happened? Easy Install makes a new installation almost too easy, so far!

Continue reading “VMWare Workstation 7 and Ubuntu 9.10 Easy Install – Too easy?”
Categories
Humor Linux Off-Topic

The Most Interesting README File Ever?

Another linux zealot at my old job gave me the heads up on this, it’s directly from gnome-cups-manager, and I thought you would all enjoy it. If you’re not aware, the readme file is for a Gnome graphical front-end for a tool used to manage print queues and adding printers/etc.

The only question is what illicit substances were not consumed during the writing of this file.

gnome-cups-manager
——————

Once upon a time there was a printer who lived in the woods. He was a lonely printer, because nobody knew how to configure him. He hoped and hoped for someone to play with.

One day, the wind passed by the printer’s cottage. “Whoosh,” said the wind. The printer became excited. Maybe the wind would be his friend!

“Will you be my friend?” the printer asked.

Continue reading “The Most Interesting README File Ever?”
Categories
Linux

Linux Carputer Guide 101

Building a carputer the most difficult, expensive and rewarding do-it-yourself (DIY) projects I have ever completed.  If you own a car manufactured in the last 20 years, the chances are it has a specialized computer inside – the Electronic Control Unit (ECU) is a computer which originally only controlled fuel injection.  In today’s cars, the ECU is responsible for more than just controlling the powertrain.  Many standard features of cars produced today are monitored by the ECU, including emissions control, fuel saving, airbags, ABS braking systems, climate control, and many more.  In a few short weeks I’ve found it to be the best investment I have made in my car.  On the surface, the idea is simple, just take a computer put it in the car.  In reality, it is several times more difficult than installing a car alarm or replacing a factory head unit with an aftermarket radio.  Before you start, you need to ask yourself six questions:

How much can you spend?
What computer hardware do you need?
How will you interact with the computer?
How will the computer be powered?
Do you want any special features?
Where is everything going to fit inside the car?
Let’s find out.

Continue reading “Linux Carputer Guide 101”
Categories
Humor Linux

What happens when you ask a software pirate for Ubuntu?

We’ve all seen the email scams, where software pirates offer amazing deals on software through email. In fact I got one such message today:

From: michaell260@hotmail.com
Date: Fri, May 23, 2008 at 6:22 PM
Subject: Software

Software up to 75% off retail.

Most of the major programs are to expensive for most of us to justify buying. Now you can. Your opportunity is here.

Operating Systems, Business Software, Internet Security Suites. If I don’t have it, I’ll get it. Tell me what program you need.

Here are some examples:

Vista Ultimate w/SP1
QuickBooks Pro 2008
Microsoft Office Professional
Adobe Acrobat 8 Standard
Rosetta Stone Spanish Level 1-2-3 for Mac/PC
Chief Architect Better Homes & Gardens
Macromedia Flash Pro v8.0 PC/Mac

These are just a few. Let me know the program you want.

Shipping is free.
Michael

Those are some fantastic deals! His claims of up to 75 percent off retail is amazingly quite accurate. If I were to buy a copy of each piece of software he is offering for a mere $655, I would have spent right about $2800. By shopping with Michael, I would have saved 76.6%.

The problem is, I didn’t want any of the software he was offering. He says in his email that if he doesn’t have it, he’ll get it. I’ve been needing to get a copy of Ubuntu 8.04 64-bit Server Edition, but haven’t quite got around to it yet, so I sent our new buddy Michael an email asking if he could provide a legal copy for me.

Date: Fri, May 23, 2008 at 6:40 PM
Subject: Re: Software

Michael,

I’m not very technical so please bear with me. My technical support said I need several legal copies (very important they are legal because this is for my business) of Ubuntu 8.04 64-bit Server Edition.

Can you supply that? You have very good prices, so hopefully you can get me a good deal.

-Wayne

Strangely enough, I got a reply just a short while later!

I don’t have that in house so will have to go shopping. Get back to you soon.

In a short 15 minutes he found what I needed and helpfully provided a download location for me.

Yes, I can supply it and you are going to like the price. It is 100% legal.

http://releases.ubuntu.com/8.04/

It’s all yours.
Michael

Haha! I absolutely love playing the village idiot screwing around with folks… in other news, I’ve been extremely busy for the last few weeks. I’m moving 1500 miles to Texas for a new job. I’ll be the IT ninja for an amazingly kickass game developer in Austin.

The last bit of news I have is that fsckin w/ linux is going to see its 1 millionth unique visitor today! As of this moment we’re right about 3,000 away, which is not much at all, should happen by about lunchtime. I was planning to throw a party in celebration, but unfortunately I’ll be finishing up packing instead of having a few beers with friends and family.

Ahh well. I’d rather have a new job than a silly party.

Thanks to everyone who has ever promoted my site in any way, whether it be a digg here, a comment there, or a link with a quick blurb — without you I’d never see a million visitors in a paltry 9 months. I’m absolutely astounded by how many opportunities fsckin w/ linux has given me on a professional and personal level. Thank you again, and have a few beers for me, alright?

-Wayne

Categories
Linux

gimpsvn.sh — Install or update to GIMP 2.5 from SVN on Ubuntu 8.04

I’ve been wanting to try out GIMP 2.5 for quite some time now, and plenty of other folks are certainly looking forward to the new interface, among other things. In my somewhat limited observations of the GIMP development team, I’ve found that the volunteers who manage the project are what some would call “anal retentive.”

Continue reading “gimpsvn.sh — Install or update to GIMP 2.5 from SVN on Ubuntu 8.04”
Categories
Linux

Reporting from the fsckin trenches – Novell v. SCO trial

Ladies and germs, it’s been too long since I’ve got anything up here, so I figured it would be good to post a short update on what I’ve been up to this week. The Novell v. SCO trial is ending tomorrow, and I’ve been attending it the last couple days.

It’s pretty damn interesting, to say the least. If you’ve never heard one of the old guys talking about UNIX, you’re missing out. There’s so much public information available, but to actually hear things explained by the perpetrators and see and hear evidence that has never been made public before is really eye opening.

Continue reading “Reporting from the fsckin trenches – Novell v. SCO trial”