Monthly Archive for November, 2009

ComputerWorld: Ubuntu 9.10 Better Than Windows 7

Published on November 30, 2009 in Info Tech, Opinions and Solutions. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

[Gachie, Kenya]
I OWE A LOT to ComputerWorld back in my high school days and in the 1990s for really keeping me up to date on all the important IT developments back then. Boy, I almost forgot about them, but I was pleasantly surprised with this favourable analysis of Ubuntu Linux 9.10 (Karmic Koala) against Windows 7.

5 Reasons why Ubuntu 9.10 is better than Windows 7

Wow, there are 263 comments in response to the article so far. No doubt some addicted Windoze (er Windows) users are going to try to make Linux look bad. But Linux cheerleaders don’t sit on the sidelines any more. They’ll defend their OS of choice until Hell freezes over (not gonna happen with this global warming thingy going on).

So, what’s your take?

ComputerWorld cover - December 1996

Remembering the good ol’ days…
By reading ComputerWorld religiously, I was able to keep abreast of the latest trends with regards to: DB2, Informix, IBI’s PC-FOCUS 4GL, COBOL (gasp!), PowerBuilder, Oracle, VAX/VMS, Windows (unfortunately), Sybase, Unix, Texas Instruments IEF (Information Engineering Facility), Cognos PowerHouse, Lotus’ bad mis-steps with 1-2-3, DEC’s powerful Alpha AXP chip et al. Heck, this magazine used to magically disappear — for a few days or permanently — whenever I visited someone’s IT shop. After all, they weren’t that serious about IT I thought; it’s just that it was “the IT magazine” you had to have in your office if you wanted to look good. BTW, Byte, PC /Computing, and PC Magazine kept me up to date in the DOS/Windows era of computing and all the battles for market dominance between Intel/AMD, and Borland/Microsoft. ComputerWorld on the other hand was more for CIOs and high-end IT decision makers.

ComputerWorld cover- May 1998

A new Information era…
Today, I don’t even read the above magazines in print any more. Thanks to the Internet, I get my full dose of IT news by visiting sites like Linux.com, DesktopLinux.com, LinuxPlanet.com, ZDNet.com, OSNews.com, Oreilly.com, CNet.com, ServerWatch.com, Internet.com along with the granddaddy of all FREE Open Source Software projects, SourceForge.net.

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10 Important Linux Developments

Published on November 29, 2009 in Info Tech, Opinions and Solutions. 0 Comments Tags: .

[Gachie, Nairobi, Kenya]
NOW THAT I’VE become a Linux whore, I thought I’d share a really important post that highlights some key Linux developments courtesy of IBM’s DeveloperWorks website.

10 important Linux developments
everyone should know about

the Linux mascot, Tux, the penguin, is looking to uproot Windows installations -- everywhere!

Are you looking for an amazing Linux Desktop experience? Well, I highly recommend the latest releases of the following FREE Linux distros:

To conclude, you simply can’t go wrong using one of the highly acclaimed Linux distributions listed above. Just download the .iso file, burn it to a blank CD, and reboot your PC. In my opinion, they all put Windows XP and Vista to shame.

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Microsoft’s top coders prefer Old Skool

Published on November 28, 2009 in Info Tech. 0 Comments Tags: .

[Gachie, Kenya]
SOMETIMES WHEN YOU make things too difficult, and try to “advance” certain tried and true practices for the sake of “progress”, sh!t happens. I kind of feel that things have gotten so advanced when it comes to developing software that we’ve forgotten the old ways of doing things. In this case, some of Microsoft’s elite programmers have stated that they don’t fancy all the “UML-GUI-easy-as-pie” coding mantra that has come to dominate the computer industry. In other words, it holds them back. Check this out:

But during a revealing and often humorous panel discussion on the future of programming at last week’s Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles, Microsoft’s own superstar developers espoused their loyalty to old-school methods of coding software.
“I will fight you if you try to take away my text editor,” said Don Box, a Microsoft distinguished engineer.
“Do people want to draw pictures [to program]? Sure, I guess,” continued Box, who works on creating declarative languages and tools for Microsoft. “But if you grew up programming when I did, you did it in text. And I think we lose that at our peril.”
“Graphical programming environments are usable when they are useless, but unusable when they would be useful,” said Jeffrey Snover, another Microsoft distinguished engineer and creator of Microsoft’s PowerShell scripting tool for Windows. “When there are five things on the screen, you can burp that out [in text]. But when there are 500 things, [graphical programming] is completely unusable. You zoom in and zoom out and you lose all context. I think it’s just smokin’ dope.” {source}

Read more…

The Delphi C++ Builder 2009 IDE splash screen. Has development environments like this been a benefit or not?

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Ubuntu Linux rocks!!!

Published on November 15, 2009 in Info Tech, Opinions and Solutions. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

[Gachie, Kenya]
NOW THAT I’VE abandoned Windows XP — I’m not really interested in Windows  7, and I wasn’t that stupid to give Vista a chance! — my computing life is so much more serene. Why? Because I’m running the latest FREE Ubuntu Linux (ver 9.10 – aka Karmic Koala) on a Toshiba L305 lappie. And ya know what? “Like Hell I’m going back to headaches a la Windoze. Nope, I’m done — for good.” I just have one thing to say to myself: “Max, you idiot!!! What took you sooo long? Moron!” :-(

Ubuntu 9.10 Feature Tour

Now, I can’t live one second without my fabulous and FREE IrfanView graphics app from my good Net pal, Irfan Skiljan, all the way from former Yugoslavia. He’s such a kool dude who now resides in Austria. Anyhow, he was way ahead of his time back around the mid 1990s when he developed what was then a landmark program. I’ve been using it for about 10 years now.

IrfanView was the first Windows graphic viewer WORLDWIDE with Multiple (animated) GIF support. One of the first graphic viewers WORLDWIDE with Multipage TIF support. The first graphic viewer WORLDWIDE with Multiple ICO support. {source}

The only problem I have with Irfan is that his addictive program only works on Windows. Doh!!! No worries though. Thanks to Sun Microsystems’ unbelievable FREE VirtualBox application, I can run Windows, various flavours of BSD Unix (ie. FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD), various Linux distros, and more as though they were installed on separate computers — all on my laptop. This, folks, is called virtualization and in this particular market, big names like VMWare, Parallels Desktop, Xen and others reign supreme. But VirtualBox holds it own against all of them. And did I mention its FREE, FREE, FREE? Heck, it seems like the best things in computing these days are FREE.

With my dual core Pentium processors, I can run XP via VirutalBox inside the protective confines of Ubuntu Linux and NOT ever have to worry about all the crap that goes with running XP on a standalone machine. Now, if I “catch” a nasty virus on my USB flash drive, no worries. I merely insert it on the Linux side in the Nautilus file explorer and delete em. Try that on Windoze!

Screenshot
Take a peek at my Ubuntu Linux desktop (as the host operating system) running Windows XP (as a guest operating system). You see, XP is just another program. I can suspend it and restart it later or take a snapshot for backup purposes. I’m loving this!!!

Max The IT Pro's Ubuntu Linux desktop with Windows XP running as a guest via VirtualBox

* Update *

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DJ Vibe & Victor Calderone on YouTube

Published on November 7, 2009 in Music, Parties and Videos. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

[Kiambu, Kenya]
WHY DO I LOVE Dark Progressive House so much? Well, it just gets you pumped up to the point that you have to dance. In addition, world class DJs like Victor Calderone and DJ Vibe are masters of this genre. I was doing a little YouTubing today, and decided to see what I’d find if I did a search on said genre. Lo and behold, I saw lots of video results…so I had to peek a few of them. Can you feel the pulsating progressive sounds in this video at the Shelborne Pool Party which is part of the 2008 Winter Music Conference festivities held in Miami, Florida? The fun really begins at the 20 second mark when the DJ literally changes gears — and revs up the BPMs (beats per minutes). Wicked!!!!

I just wished I was there to dance my behind off. I sooo miss that “dark proggy sound.” Let’s just say that you have to be “part of the scene” to appreciate these beats that DJ Vibe and Calderone are unleashing at the moment. By the way, when I came to Kenya, I brought my only “paid for” Resonate CD by Victor Calderone. Suffice to say, it magically disappeared out of my possession in less than a year. So much for sharing my passion for House music. :-)

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