VOTD

I must say, this guy has the coolest job.... EVER!

I have been slowly working on getting a Web server running on my home connection. Insight recently upgraded all of our town to 10Mbps up/1Mbps Down for free, which will make a web server somewhat feasible now. I have a FTP server and domain name and such configured, but I cannot tell you any details just yet.

Bad Blood?

I recently ran across a FSF site called Badvista. It's aim (I always type this in CAPs first, then must correct thanks to AOL IM) is to inform consumers of some of the stuff that is happening in Vista that most of not heard, and to recommend free alternatives . I have to say, seeing as I have not had the chance to play around with Vista, yet I will have to support it (both personally and professionally), that this is a great resource.

While a lot of the info is whining and just common sense, and general Microsoft-Bashing, some useful information can be gleaned from articles like this: (check out the ad in the top right hand corner of this page, pretty inventive and not too intrusive)
"1. SMB2
Vista introduces a new variant of the SMB protocol called SMB2, which may pose problems for those connecting to non-Microsoft networks, such as Samba on Linux"

I never heard about this happening. Or this, which sounds awesome, as long as it doesn't require some ludicrous licensing scheme like so many other "standard" technologies recently:
"20. HHD
Hybrid Hard Drives. These are potentially a huge performance booster, but there's little information and support is available (even though should be available)."

Or this:
"25. WordPad
Ability to open .doc files has been removed."

This really sucks, because I've had a need to do this often. I can't imagine a legitimate reason why this functionality could not be moved to Vista. Just looks like a means to push "customers" to buy Office, which sure isn't cheap. Most of the Other articles right now seem to be Microsoft bashing, and are just cherry picked articles that contain speculation about what could be bad things about Vista. But I do hope they update with some more legitimate useful tech articles that will help me integrate Vista into existing diverse networks which contain anything from DOS,Linux, to XP.

On another note, is has been oddly warm the past week (Highs in the low-to-mid 60's in Mid December!). This has given me the chance to ride my motorcycle a few times, but I have not had a chance to ride anything longer that commuting due to other activities. I did manage to add a Flickr Badge to my profile info, as well as setup a Linux file, SSH, and FTP server at home. I chose Ubuntu server, and I must say this was pretty much a piece of cake if you know your way around the command line. I also have been playing around with TiddlyWiki, which I must say is pretty cool once you adjust to it, but confusing as can be when you first (attempt!) to use it. I think it will work great as a note-taking application for school, so I will experiment with it next semester.

This is why I love mobile phone companies.

I know I've had the run-around on the phone with these people, but this guy's call truely takes the cake.

VOTD

This looks like the coolest and most dangerous thing I have ever seen. I definately want one. Here's another video.