More Random Geekery

 Techno Geek  3 Responses »
Sep 132007
 

First off, Synergy is a fantastic application – if you have more than one monitor and more than one machine, then get it and love it – since i got it set up I can’t figure out how I lived without it.  You can see it here (writing this very post) running on 3 machines and 4 screens (counting the laptop) – for the record that is on 2 Macs and one Linux machine, though it will work with windows too.

I have a single desktop across all 4 – to switch between machines I just drag the mouse to that screen.  Copy and paste works between the machines, with no problems.  There is very occasional lag between the server (linux) and the clients (the 2 Macs) but nothing that would cause me to reconsider using it – the benefits are far too great.

For more on the geek front, I came across this story, “The case of the 500 mile e-mail” which made me laugh and shows exaclty the kind of random crap that can end up coming in when you are in my line of work, although I must admit that my problems have never been quite as interesting or had quite as novel an explanation :)

 Posted by at 4:52 pm

Random Geekery

 Rant/Ramble, Techno Geek  No Responses »
Aug 242007
 

I found an excellent article describing how to analyze a cracked Linux machine – I’ve had some experience with similar efforts on Windows in the past, but (so far) have been lucky enough not to have to do it on a Linux/Unix host.  Serves as a good guide on how to break down a crack step by step, though the elementary mistakes made by the cracker certainly made things easier – it would not have been hard to do this in a way that would have been far more difficult to detect/correct.

So, for all of those people that think that non-Windows machines are bullet proof, take note.

Technorati Tags: , , ,

 Posted by at 3:20 pm

360 Arrival and Jenny Departure

 Techno Geek  5 Responses »
Aug 162007
 

Well, the Amazon delivery fairies have arrived and delivered my XBox 360 Elite, hence it’s tough to justify staying in work :)   I can’t wait to plug this into the new TV and see the 1080p HDMI output in all its glory, since that was my main reason for choosing one of the true next-gen consoles over the Wii – I am one of the few people that can actually use the greater capabilities.  I’m also pretty curious about the XBox Live service that comes with it since it is the most commonly touted “superior” feature  over the PS3.

I bought it to keep me company while Jenny is away – she got to Dublin safely and was pretty pleased with the new Aer Lingus direct flight from Dulles – they have a nice new Airbus 330, decent service and it knocked a good 4 hours off the total travel time.  Matt also arrived back in Seattle safely, so good news all around, though the house does now feel a little empty.

Technorati Tags: , , ,

 Posted by at 1:34 pm

More Bluedouche-ery

 Pics, Techno Geek  2 Responses »
Jun 282007
 

Yes, I know it is not a word, blame Joe for the portmanteau (ooh, that rhymes).  I had to order a new charger for my phone, having left the old one in London, and I broke down and bought a bluetooth headset as well. As you can see for the nice blurry picture, it is pretty small…..

I had to do something to satiate my gadget buying instincts so that I don’t end up buying an iPhone – I try to stay away from the first generation of Apple products.  In this case I expect the 2nd generation to have 3G and a far higher storage capacity, so I think I will wait.

Technorati Tags: , , , ,

 Posted by at 11:56 am

Make Children Behave

 Techno Geek  1 Response »
May 082007
 

Just show them this comic, that bad ass Santa will scare them into obedience in no time :)

For the those unfamiliar with VG Cats, the references can be a bit obscure so for a little more explanation, try Wikipedia.

Technorati Tags: , , , ,

 Posted by at 2:50 pm

VG Cats

 Techno Geek  3 Responses »
Apr 252007
 

I play some computer games, I read Penny Arcade religiously and I generally follow the gaming news but I have to admit that sometimes I don’t get VG Cats.  This offering did not cause any comprehension problems or furrowed brows :)

 Posted by at 4:40 pm

It’s Pi Day!!

 Pics, Techno Geek  No Responses »
Mar 142007
 

Apparently even irrational numbers get their own day now.  Well, there is a reason – today (in the US at least) is 3/14 so at 1.59 am or pm you can celebrate Pi day.  For those that don’t have it memorized, Pi = 3.14159 – get it?

Unfortunately, since most of the rest of the world does not use the mm/dd convention or really care about Pi I don’t see this becoming a major event, though I could see “e day” (which could be July 2nd or January 27th depending on your date convention) catching on with a certain group of people :)

In any case, enough geekery but out of respect for the day, I thought I would re-post this picture from Seattle:

mmmmmm..........Pi

The caption was (of course) mmmmmmm……Pi :)

Technorati Tags: , , , ,

 Posted by at 9:57 am

New Guide: Printing at Home when Connected to a VPN

 Techno Geek  5 Responses »
Mar 052007
 

A lot of the things I end up turning into “guides” start life as an e-mail or a forum post where I try to help someone with a technical issue. Once you get past a certain point, the effort needed to transform the post/e-mail/whatever into a more generic guide becomes quite small. Such was the case with this one – this started as a verbal explanation, then morphed into an e-mail and now finally becomes a general guide on the subject. Hopefully someone will find it useful – if so, I may even improve and perhaps illustrate it :)

Printing at Home when Connected to a VPN

Technorati Tags: , , , , , , ,

 Posted by at 1:49 pm

Signing in with OpenID

 Techno Geek  No Responses »
Feb 232007
 

With AOL enabling OpenID for anyone with a screen name, I decided to try it out – it represented almost zero work on my part and my AOL account is quite secure because I have to use 2-factor authentication.  So, I added the required 2 lines to the source code of this blog and attempted to log in to Livejournal.  The result?  Worked like a charm, as you can see from this cropped screen shot (click for larger):

Live Journal Screen Shot

I could see myself using this, though I would have to have a way to migrate all those existing logins I have to OpenID – why go through switching to OpenID if moving all your history and such is more work than is saved by having a single login?

In terms of managing my logins and passwords, I already have a system – it’s called Oubliette :)

Technorati Tags: , , , ,

 Posted by at 10:35 am

MySpace is Addictive

 Techno Geek  No Responses »
Feb 082007
 

While I was waiting for Jen to get home from carousing with her workmates I started playing around with my page (space?) on MySpace.  The attraction to it has always puzzled me, I mean the interface is terrible, most of the pages look awful and you get a lot of Spam…..

However, after playing around a bit I think I can see the attraction – it is very easy to play around with, the picture uploader is very simple and they make it easy to integrate a nice slideshow for your pictures.  Blogging is a cinch and even video and audio embedding can be done without too much hassle.

I know I can do all these things on my own site, so it’s not attractive to me, but then I am not really their target demographic.  They want all the kids with no programming skills whatsoever to be able to these things too, and I guess it levels the playing field somewhat.  I uploaded some pictures, played with the layout a bit and suddenly an hour had gone by….

While Flickr has managed to supplant my homegrown picture efforts, I don’t think MySpace will ever be my main blog or website, but I’ll keep a presence there because of its popularity.  For similar reasons I have a Bebo page because that is the most popular service back in Ireland.

 Posted by at 12:26 am
 Older Entries  Newer Entries
© 2011 Adam's R&R Suffusion theme by Sayontan Sinha