Review 
Speaker Windows
I have been working on a personal project to organize my preaching illustrations. Whereas one could use a tool such as Notion, Evernote, or Obsidian, I have had a desire to keep my data in an easy to use interface. I should not have to spend 10 minutes to find that illustration I need. Plus, those services might charge me more than $3/month to acce…
Asking ChatGPT to define love
As programmers develop new text generation methods, what can come as a result is interesting. Recently, ChatGPT responses have been propagating to Twitter, with many asking the AI text generator for common paradigms with known human solutions. Some posts have been insightful about how the chatbot was instructed to learn and associate words. However…
ReMarkable 2 Review
At first glance, the reMarkable seemed expensive for a one show pony. Replacing a pad of paper for notes was its only selling point and truly main focus. Could it really fit my use case and deliver an experience I needed?
As one who regularly types notes and prints them for use in public speaking, I sought out a replacement for physical pape…
Use the same Dockerfile - please
As Containers have progressed, Docker has stood out as the defacto standard. As many of the laggards are coming up to speed, Dockerfiles can be seen in many open source repositories. With the addition to that, I have seen a few repos with a Dockerfile-prod, Dockerfile-dev, Dockerfile-test, etc.
Addition…
Why Jesus and Easter Matters
There is a God and He loves you. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
Everyone is a sinner and our sin separates us from the love that God wants to express toward us “For all have sinned, and come short…
My tablet history and Kindle Fire (7th Gen) review
My first tablet was an Acer A500 which ran Honeycomb (Android 3.0). I used that laptop for everything - reading, pictures, studying, and using it to project games in the children's class I taught at the time. It was used more than my laptop, phone, and desktop combined. It served its purpose until my wife accidentally knocked it off the kitchen cou…
Moving to Desktop GNU/Linux from Windows/Mac
There are many curious individuals who tinker with GNU/Linux as a Server OS and want to experience what it is like as a Desktop OS. The switch is often hindered by two obstacles:
- Some daily use programs are not available. (i.e. Photoshop, iTunes, etc.)
- The unknown of what to do if something goes wrong or what do I do to get my… Read more →
Tupperware announces new container platform
Today, in a surprise move into technology, Tupperware has released a new container platform competing with Docker and rkt. Tupperware’s new platform - named Bowl - has been in alpha for the past 6 months, but now has achieved public beta status.
Read more →
Jumping the ship on Evernote
Read more →I am a long time user of Evernote. Currently it has the best browser extensions, a wide range of supported operating systems, and it has a free tier; however, I am getting frustrated with it. In the past year, they have changed plans twice - now the free tier is only supported on 2 platforms. This has cost me to re-evaluate my use of Evernote. Late…
I do not use the kuerig - here is why...
Read more →The kuerig device is a visually pleasing design. It appears to belong in the modern kitchen. A few months ago, I was given a kuerig first generation with a reusable filter and used it as my primary coffee consumption device. It gave me a sense of faster coffee delivery in the morning - I was happy until I discovered these flaws:
Flaw #1 - I …
2016 behind, 2017 forward
Read more →With a year drawing to a close, I have a habit of looking back at my goals I set for myself, see how I have done, and set goals for the new year. My new year's resolution for 2017 will be 1920x1080 (same as last year). I wish I could upgrade it to 5k, but it will have to do for now.
In 2016, I set a goal to post to my blog every week - I met…
GlusterFS overview
Read more →GlusterFS is a distributed file system. Think of it as a replacement of traditional file storage (a single NFS/samba server), an alternative to Microsoft's DFS, or a modern implementation of SAN. It really shines when you have multiple locations and need a file server which must have the same data and be continually in sync. It is also superb for v…
A journey to LFCE
Read more →I began my Linux hobby in 1999. I was given a CD of RedHat Linux which I installed on an old computer. At first use, it was slow and buggy and uninstalled in favor of Windows 98. I installed Debian a few months later and discovered I could install a different desktop environment - KDE which looked like Windows, but was different. After playing with…
Hobby vs responsibility
Read more →One of my hobbies is video gaming. In my teen years, I would spend on average of 60-80 hours a week playing either Counter Strike, Team Fortress 2, or any other Valve software title. It was not until I went to college and got a job when my average went to 30-40 hours a week. After being married and having children, my average is now down to 8-12 ho…
Repercussions from a 1.1 Tbsp DDoS
Read more →In case you missed it, the largest recorded Direct Denial of Service (DDoS) occurred. While under DDoS, a victim's server (or servers) is under high load and cannot complete all requests that are requested by it. Basically, a DDoS victim is someone the attacker wants silen…
Signs you are doing IT wrong
- You still use FTP
- You use SFTP
- You have a single server hosting 1 website, MySQL, and PHP. It has 4+ GB of RAM and you only have ~2,000 visitors a day.
- You login via root
- You don't use version control
- You use a control panel for servers which you have SSH access.
- It takes you over an ho… Read more →
Iced coffee is the best
Read more →I am not a very big fan of hot drinks, but I enjoy drinking a cup/glass/thermos/pot/gallon of coffee. I especially drink it more when my taste buds dance around and say, "Wow! That was some good, quality coffee!" A few weeks ago I set out to find a better way to make my favorite drink - iced coffee. In my opinion, the best method of procuring coffe…
Avoiding Catastrophic Failure
Read more →You may have already heard the news about Delta Airlines catastrophic failure. Ars Technica reports the true cau…
The future without Microsoft Office products
Read more →I recently submitted a proposal to remove Microsoft Office from off my network and switch to Google Apps for Work and LibreOffice. This would incur a cost savings of ~$17.50 per user per month (GAFW $5 plan versus Office 2016 Professional Plus, Corporate, Open License, License Only). Some may argue that there are better license options with Microso…
Why I went with Puppet over other CMEs
Read more →Configuration management engines (CME) have increased in popularity over the past several years. When I evaluated all the potential options, I needed one to be free in cost, work on Mac and Windows, and be easy to set up and use. At the time, only Chef, CFEngine, and Puppet had Windows clients so I tested them all out. Puppet came the victor for se…
Learn GNU/Linux the easy way
Read more →Let's face it, Linux is a kernel and no matter what distribution you use, it is all the same. You have a repository of packages, you get a package manager to manage your packages, you get a desktop environment, and you get freedom to tinker down to the lowest level of the kernel to configure things like IP routing and forwarding.
Differences…
Why I can't use Ubuntu on Production Servers
Read more →Do not get me wrong - I use Ubuntu and try to contribute to bugs (making and fixing). In fact, I am testing out 16.04 on my Chromebook and work computer right now (Fedora 23 is on my Home Desktop). However, I can't find myself placing an Ubuntu server in production for one simple reason:
Security
While Ubuntu has a good security team,…
5 Things to do after installing X
Read more →Congratulations, you have installed X! Here are 5 things to do right now:
- Change your background
- Install needless software
- Customize your font size
- Take a screenshot
- Share about your experience on social media!
This post is mainly a response to all of those 10 things to do after install…
The Linux Academy (review)
Read more →I recently received a subscription to Linux Academy. Linux Academy has courses in Linux, AWS, DevOps, and OpenStack to help users achieve professional certificates such as the LFCS, LFCE, RHSCA, RHCE, and others. Since my LFCS is expiring this year (and I hope to achieve a RHCE), Linux Academ…
How to get users to switch from X to X and use it
Read more →There are many free, open source programs available which are equal (if not better) than paid counterparts, but the biggest hurdle to overcome is getting people to switch. It is imperative that you remember what caused you to switch and realize the two reasons for change:
"You change for two reasons: Either you learn enough that you want to,…
My Review of Arch
Read more →After my minimal install of Arch, I was greeted by a terminal console upon booting the kernel. With 5,013 packages in the 32 bit stable repositories (compare tha…
