A retraction ... of sorts ...

    Yes, it's true. Back in August of this year I posted my disdain for the Linux Desktop environment. In my post titled "Did Linux miss the boat? or did it take the train instead?"I hammered the Linux community for not living up to its potential, for being the ugly kid at the back of the classroom. You know the type, the loner, the kid who plays games in his mom's basement until he's in his mid-thirties. "Those guys".

The future of the PC

    This post is all about the current state of personal computer. Recently windows domination slipped a few factions of a percentage point, but does it really mean anything to the average user? Does anyone other than the geeks really care? The answer to both of these is probably a big fat "not really". But it is the geeks, nerds and tech-heads that shape and define the digital world for the average user, so perhaps its only fitting that the architects of the future care more than its tenets.

Did Linux miss the boat? or did it take the train instead?

    This post is all about Linux. This post is not about Mac vs. PC vs. Linux, or any combination therein. No, this is just about Linux and where I feel it is doing great, still failing, and where I think its headed. At least, where I think it should be headed.

Rethinking XFDL

    As many of you know, I not only have a MacBook Pro, I also work with XFDL files. As so many people do, I usually work on these files at work on a MicroSoft Windows based PC. I also have a venerable version of the IBM Forms Viewer for osX, but the last time that was updated was in 2006. Many of the newer forms, and incompatibility issues with newer versions of Apple's operating system, crash the aged program. So, I started working on this problem myself.

Cutting the cable ... revisited

    Yes, I know. It's been a long time since I have made a blog post, and for that I apologize. No, I have not given up on this blog, and yes I still plan to update regularly. If I could make a living running a blog, I would. Still bills need to paid, and with a son in collage those bills add up fast. Work comes first, and unfortunately for the blog, it has paid a heavy price for my absence. After more than a month, i'm back!

XBMC and Plex Media Server revisited ...

    A little over a week ago I wrote about using Plex and XBMC on the same machine. After having a few days to play around with it I have decided that its time for a revisit to this subject.

XFDL Viewer for Mac

    Today I decided to revisited a project that I had dropped almost a year ago; to write an XFDL viewer for Mac osX. The last time I tried this, it was a disaster. The forms sort of exploded all over the window and being unfamiliar with RealStudio, I was unable to figure out control arrays. Basically, when ever I opened  a second form, it would also write all of that data onto the first one. It as a less than stellar first attempt.

Commodore Amiga is back ... well, not really

    Today I read an interesting article that peaked my interest. It seems that Commodore USA, LLC is producing a new line of Commodore and Amiga branded computers. As a former Amiga user, I was initially wary of the news. You see, the death throws that costumed the original Commodore company took a very long time. For years no one was certain if there would be support or not. That is until the company was liquidated and sold for spare parts. Until now ... sort of ...

XBMC, Plex Media Server, Airplay and Ubuntu 11.10 ...

     After spending a few days looking for a solution that would fit into my existing setup, I have almost found a solution that works. What I am looking for sounds really simple, the ability to watch any and all of media when and where I want and on the device that I want to watch it on. Due to conflicting standards, closed source software and the restriction of the MPAA this is much harder than needs to be. 

How to add files plex media server on ubuntu 11.10

    It occurred to me, while reviewing some of my previous posts, that I haven't yet covered some very basic "to-do's" about the Plex Media Server. So this post will cover, among other things, how to add files to the Plex Library on Linux.

Ubuntu Media Server ... whats next?

    If you have been following my blog, then you already know that I use Ubuntu 11.10 and the Plex media server software as a "Media Center PC". The Ubuntu PC also functions as file server and has two 500GB partitions for Time Machine Backup from my two Mac's. I have also managed to get Netatalk 2.2.2 and Avahi to play nice with the default Samba file sharing software. I wanted to keep Samba available for when friends with Microsoft Windows laptop's came to visit.

    So far, this setup has been working out much better than expected. The server (which is really just plain Jane Ubuntu 11.10 for desktops) is more stable than I could have hoped for and everything integrates well enough into my network that even my "non-techie" wife can use it regularly from her Mac or from the Roku without any trouble. The real question is, where do I go from here?

Practical Linux ... just my thoughts

    Ever since the early 90's, when I built my first Salckware Linux distribution from source code I have been fascinated with the idea of a free, open-source operating system. When you consider the very idea of an entire planet of free thinking people all coming together, without pay, to make something truly great it staggers the mind. That is, until you really get to the nuts and bolts of it.

Netatalk on Ubuntu 11.10, one last thing to do ...

    In my last post, I gave a nice (at least I thought so) tutorial on Netatalk 2.2.2 on Ubuntu 11.10 so you can share files and even use Apples' very own Time machine for back up.  Since that writing I have found a couple of things. Really, just one, so this post should be a great deal shorter than the last one, but no less important.

Setting up Time Machine and Netatalk 2.2.2 on Ubuntu 11.10

    This was the biggest pain to setup and get working that I have yet encountered with Ubuntu 11.10. There is a small mountain information available on the internet on how to do this, yet none if it worked. I followed all of the guides and searched "man pages" for almost two weeks before I found the the proverbial keys to the kingdom. What follows is everything I learned from weeks of trial and error.

Your smart phone may be your new PC

This is not going to be your typical rundown of who has what, or who does this or that better. No, this is something a bit less ... tangible. It is time for some speculation. Specifically, is Android poised to wipe the virtual walls of the internet with iOS?