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By admin, October 28, 2010 19:43

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Well it’s good to know that updates bring change.

Many times change brings about a better way of doing things.  Other times it may bring change to old familiar ways and we may not like them.  Take the moving of the Gnome window buttons for minimize, maximize, and close.

The latest version of Ubuntu decided to move these buttons to the left side of the window.  This isn’t so strange.  Many OS’s over the years have had the close button on the top left, but rarely the other buttons.  I understand that Microsoft Windows has set the position on the right and when I adopted Windows as a OS I quickly became quite familiar with this method and today, take for granted their position since both KDE and Gnome Desktops for Linux did the same thing.   However as of Ubuntu 10.04 it’s now on the left.

Continue reading 'Move Buttons Back To The Right – Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx'»

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By admin, October 25, 2009 13:11

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Released to the public on October 22 Canonical’s latest and greatest Ubuntu yet “Karmic Koala 9.10“.  For many folks using a Linux distribution probably ranks up there with a visit to the dentist, but I have to say that as the kernel keeps improving in leaps and bounds the software wrapped around it can just work on the majority of hardware without issue.

Sure many folks may try it out and find out that it ‘does not work’ with their specific hardware, but compared with last years 8.10 the numbers are down with the sad exception of two particular vendors; ATI and Intel.  ATI recently dropped support for much of their older hardware, but then released a new series of drivers that do support.  Thankfully using the older drivers or using the open source communities versions can at least get them working, if you have problems with the more supported drivers.  Intel on the other hand has basically thrust it’s middle finger up at the linux community with a blatant refusal to provide open source to allow many distributions to be able to integrate support, so for many it means booting to a broken system, and downloading proprietary drivers and praying it works.  Obviously this isn’t the end of the world, but from my perspective a seriously ‘good’ reason to avoid using Intel hardware,  especially if you want to use wine to run Windows games or applications, you’d do so much better with non-Intel chipsets.  nVidia has the best support out of the box for most people not only linux users, but also windows users that it’s becoming a staple requirement.  Don’t get me wrong, Intel does provide drivers, but do not expect them to work directly from installation.  In some cases the generic drivers get installed and it works, in other cases you’re faced with non-working hardware and off to the various support forums seeking a solution.  Thankfully they are available.

In my situation I decided to get a new laptop and specifically bought a Compaq CQ60 which features NO Intel or ATI hardware, simply so I could avoid any hassles.  I’m pretty good at fixing these issues, but if I am spending money and the amount is equal, why buy something with hardware that will not work?    So without further adieu, I release my notes on installing Ubuntu 9.10 x64 on this laptop.

Continue reading 'Ubuntu 9.10 “Karmic Koala” Release Candidate – Installation Notes'»

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By admin, September 20, 2009 18:45

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How many times have you discovered that your hard disk is filling up even though you are not installing any applications.  You think ‘do I really have that much data’, or you store your data on a separate drive from your OS and applications (something we recommend to all clients and friends) and cannot understand why your OS or application drive keeps filling up.

Chances are its because of the applications themselves either downloading content into it’s application directory, or it uses the windows ‘Application Data’ directory to store temporary or cached data, some cases even permanent data remains in these directories.

A good example of this is Google Earth that keeps it’s cache database in your Apps Data directory, and can easily exceed several gigabytes in size.

Or maybe you love the convenience of the “My Documents” directory and accessing it directly from the start menu, but don’t have enough room for your data.

Continue reading 'Moving Directories In Windows — Using Junctions'»

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By admin, August 31, 2009 13:05

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Thanks for browsing!  I am a Canadian born in Calgary.  Having lived here most of my life it’s more than just a home.  I am a certified computer programmer, low-voltage technician, security expert with decades of experience.  I currently am looking for the right company to call my employer, and work the rest of my time as a freelance computer consultant and general ‘fix it’ guy.  I’m well versed in numerous  computer programming languages incluing BASIC, COBOL, JCP, C, C++, PHP, Python, Perl, and some tiny java and ruby in my blood too.

I speak many OS’s not limited to the full gambit of Microsoft Windows (anything since ’98 including a MCSE in NT, but right up to date with Windows Server 2008, and Windows 7 Ultimate), many of the GNU/Linux Distro’s although Debian is my favorite, and am also familiar with FreeBSD.

Hardware is no challenge for this geek pornstar and enjoy taking older hardware and making new systems as well as fiddling around with network IDS/IPS monitoring and solutions. Building out small networks or expanding existing ones I’ve worked on , WiFi solutions but I spend most of my time here learning about network security monitoring the most.

If you’re in the Calgary area and need someone, send me an email telling me you read it here.  I’m always happy to have a new client, whether it’s only for a couple hours work, or more permanent arrangements.

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By Admin, December 23, 2008 09:49

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From my family to yours, I wish you the best of the holiday season. Please drink responsibly and compute responsibly!

Merry Christmas

and

Happy New Year

As part of our holiday spirit we are offering 50% off our computer repair services (see our new site in the new year which will link to this site). Yes, that means $30.00 instead of our regular $60 for in-house work and $35.00 for our mobile services instead of $70.00 Offer ends January 15th, so call or email before then and book your appointment!! So some people ask, what do I do?

First I am a A+ certified, MCSE carrying computer expert. I am familiar with most operating systems including several of the popular linux distributions.

I am also a certified low-voltage technician who specializes in security and networking. Any wired (or wireless) product I support. I am proficient with security systems, surveillance systems, telephone systems, in addition to your typical computer systems. My company sells a fully integrated solution that marries all your systems to work together, improve automation, reduce false alarm issues, improves legal documentation, and helps you sleep better. Serious solutions that WORK.

I do hardware diagnostics and repair. From laptops to servers, any computer can be diagnosed and fixed from our in-house repair depot. Even if the PC DOES NOT BOOT, we can diagnose the problem.

I also do data backup, recovery and restoration. We can recover deleted files and filesystems. If you use our restoration services, I will also provide you with a custom backup solutions, so that you never have to worry about losing your data EVER. Many folks do not pay much attention to this service but we have saved many important pictures from being lost forever.

I also do malware discovery and removal. I have spent the last several years studying malware and how to remove it. We also provide effective security products to eliminate the risk of infection. We rather spend time making your computer do more things than fixing these issues, so we do NOT just clean it and forget it.

I also design and provide Intrusion detection systems for individual networks. Whether your a small home network with a few users, to large data centers with hundreds of users, are products are designed to not impact your network performance and provide you with the information to enforce policies, and ensure your networks are not being used by the bad guys.

Additionally I have built many custom computers for various needs, from personal video recorders, to network accessible storage, home theatre PCs, to high end gaming rigs, dedicated process servers (file servers, streaming servers, digital video recorders, etc.)

No problem is too big and no request is impossible. Contact me via email for any questions you may have.