Koozie Notes

Xandros: Linux for the SMB User?

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols thinks Xandros might be the answer for SMB users who want to ditch Windows in favor of Linux.

One reason I do that is that Xandros comes ready to work with both NT PDC (Primary Domain Controller) domains and W2K and Server 2003 AD (Active Directory) networks. This isn't just hype. I currently run Xandros on my main laptop and a secondary workstation on my hybrid Windows network, and I have no trouble working with NT, W2K and Server 2003 drive and printer resources. You'll have endlessly more trouble trying to get XP Home working with either PDC or AD-style networks.

I guess I need to take Xandros for a spin. I'm still a big fan of debian on servers.

-Chris

iChat AV

Tonight my kids and I enjoyed a video conference with their grandparents using the iSight web cam. I purchased two of them at the local Apple store and gave one to the grandparents.

Before we began this evening, we ran into one snag. I had to open up some ports on my Linksys firewall. With the help of google, I found an article that covers the topic of opening ports on your firewall for iChat AV.

Chat uses the following ports:
* 5060 (UDP)
*aol 5190 (TCP) File Sharing and/or America-Online
* 16384-16403 (UDP) To video conference with other clients

-Chris

Paul Graham on Hackers

(via Slashdot) Paul Graham published a new essay on "Great Hackers."

The cartoon strip Dilbert has a lot to say about cubicles, and with good reason. All the hackers I know despise them. The mere prospect of being interrupted is enough to prevent hackers from working on hard problems. If you want to get real work done in an office with cubicles, you have two options: work at home, or come in early or late or on a weekend, when no one else is there. Don't companies realize this is a sign that something is broken? An office environment is supposed to be something you work in, not something you work despite.
...
One big company that understands what hackers need is Microsoft. I once saw a recruiting ad for Microsoft with a big picture of a door. Work for us, the premise was, and we'll give you a place to work where you can actually get work done. And you know, Microsoft is remarkable among big companies in that they are able to develop software in house.

ESR wrote another good piece on hacking titled, "How to become a Hacker."

-Chris

Update 29 July 2004
Nice thread on PerlMonks covering Graham's eassy.

Update 5 AUG 2004
Eric Sink opines on Graham's piece. Good points made. I also had a chance to hear Eric speak at Gnomedex 3.0 last year.

JibJab Lawsuit?

(via Darren Barefoot) Hard to believe that JibJab might face legal trouble for its use of the song, "This Land is Our Land."

"We consider it a case of political satire and parody and therefore entitled to the fair use exemption of the copyright act," said Jibjab attorney Ken Hertz.

-Chris

Update 29 July 2004
EFF tracks down original writer of "This Land is Our Land." Let me chuckle on this for a bit.

Update 25 August 2004
Looks like the Ludlow Music, Inc. is backing off their lawsuit. Three cheers for EFF!

SysAdmin Day - 30 JUL 2004

SysAdmin day will be on Friday, 30 Jul 2004, this year. I love their collection of photographs. It reminds me when the A/C unit in my server room froze.

-Chris

Splitting Names with Excel

Today I helped a coworker with some MS Excel97 functions to split out a full name in one cell into two separate cells for first and last name. So if cell A1 contains "Doe, John", then cell B1 should display "Doe" and cell C1 should display "John".

Code for cell B1: Last Name
=MID(A1,1,FIND(", ",A1,1)-1)
Code for cell C1: First Name
=MID(A1,FIND(", ",A1,1)+2,LEN(A1))

Too bad Excel doesn't have the perl split function.

-Chris

This Land

I watched a piece on ABC News about Jib Jab, a company that produced a humorous policital cartoon with Bush & Kerry titled, "This Land." Funny Stuff.

-Chris

9/11 Report

via BoingBoing. Everything I need to know about getting my hands on the 9/11 commission report.

• Boing Boing's PDF Link
• iTunes Audio files of 9-11 testimonies
• Buy the report on Amazon

-Chris

SCO Trounced

I enjoyed reading these two articles on GrokLaw last night about DaimlerChrysler's victory against SCO.

At 1000 Judge Chabot issued her orders:

Summary disposition is granted except on the matter of breach of section 2.05, in that DC did not submit their response in a timely manner. All other claims were dismissed and she acknowledged that the contract doesn't require certifications that are outside the language of the contract. . . .

At this point, the court session was concluded and the judge left the room. I headed toward the door and proceeded to congratulate the DC attorneys. The SCO attorneys all looked rather discomfitted by the Judge's rulings, realizing that she just gutted their case. I could almost hear the screaming all the way from Utah.

-Chris

Guide to Solving Any Perl Problem

I enjoyed perusing brian d foy's article, "Guide to Solving any Perl Problem" on Perl Monks. I already implement many of his recommendations, but the "use diagnostics" clause was new to me.

If you do not understand a warning, you can look up a verbose version of the warning in perldiag or you can use the diagnostics pragma in your code.

use diagnostics;

Another funny section of his post includes explaining your problem out loud.

Explain your problem aloud. Actually say the words.

For a couple of years I had the pleasure of working with a really good programmer who could solve almost anything. When I got really stuck I would walk over to his desk and start to explain my problem. Usually I did not made it past the third sentence without saying ``Never mind---I got it''. He almost never missed either.

Since you will probably need to do this so much, I recommend some sort of plush toy to act as your Perl therapist so you do not annoy your colleagues. I have a small bear that sits on my desk and I explain problems to him. My wife does not even pay attention when I talk to myself anymore.

This has happened to me so many times. I call up a IT buddy and while I'm explaining my problem, ding,the answer hits me like a ton of bricks.

-Chris