I just got back from my son’s school where we’ve been rolling out LTSP thin clients into the classrooms. Eventually we’ll be converting almost all of the computers in both buildings (200+ PCs) into thin clients.
Why Thin Clients?
Let’s get one thing straight: 200+ Windows 2000 desktops in a K-12 setting is a Gong Show. There are no other words to describe it. Continue reading
Bye-bye Windows! My three-month Macintosh trial has ended, but my permanent gig with the Mac is just getting started. Apple’s MacBook Pro and Mac OS X are now my computer and operating system of choice.If you give the Mac three months, as I did, you won’t go back either. The hardest part is paying for it — everything after that gets easier and easier. Perhaps fittingly, it took me the full three-month trial period to pay off my expensive MacBook Pro. But the darn thing is worth every penny.Windows expert to Redmond: Buh-bye
I can’t say that I’m terribly surprised.
Almost everyone I know who has spent any quality time with Mac OS X has bought one (or developed a serious case of Mac Envy) in relatively short order.
Unless you’re a hard-core 3D gamer, the combination of Mac X and Parallels running Windows XP (when absolutely necessary!) is a very tough combination to beat.
Before the FreeBSD veterans jump down my throat, I know that the “freebsd-update” command (and its accompanying unofficial binary security updates) has been available in the ports collection for ages.
However, as a relatively recent FreeBSD convert, I think its a pretty big deal that it is now offically supported as part of the base install. You see, a lot of Linux folks have gotten pretty used to typing “aptitude update” and then “aptitude upgrade” in order to install security updates. As a result, the idea of moving to FreeBSD and having to deal with source code, patches, compiling, etc. seems pretty old school and even a little scary. I know its not (if you can read the handbook) but it is certainly a barrier to entry for some. Continue reading
I was just reading an article on setting up an XHTML sitemap over at Pearsonified (Use an XHTML Sitemap for Better Indexing) and remembered something that I had read recently on the Google Webmaster Guidelines:
Keep the links on a given page to a reasonable number (fewer than 100).
Before you say it: I’ve already got the XML sitemap and it has been submitted to Google and it does list all the pages on my site. I’ve also submitted it to Yahoo! Continue reading
Getting your legitimate email through the maze of SPAM filters is a tricky business. Many of the “gotchas” are the result of an improperly configured technical details on your end of things (eg. your server, your DNS, your mail client, etc.). The problem for 99% of email senders is they have very little control over these details but they can control the content of their emails. Here is where the common sense kicks in: If you email looks like SPAM then it is going to get treated like SPAM!
SPAM filtering 101
Most good SPAM filters use some form of Bayesian Analysis to do statistical analysis on the text content of your email. I’ll spare you the gory details, but essentially these filters learn common text patterns from SPAM email and then use that information to filter out SPAM.
If you send email that contains “spammy” content then there is a much better chance that your message will end up getting blocked. Continue reading
My home network is based on a Wireless Distribution System (WDS) that runs on two Linksys WRT54G wireless routers that have been flashed with OpenWRT open source firmware (currently Whiterussion RC5).
Last year I was forced to move up to the second floor of the house due to the noise generated by 3 kids under the age of 7. Yeah, the house is noisy. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the foresight to run ethernet cable upstairs back in 1999 so I had a bit of a problem: How do I get my Shaw cable modem connection from the basement ot the second floor? (I’ve had it with Telus – DSL was not an option) Continue reading
Wondering who is linking to your site?
You now have an awesome new way to find out via a new feature in Google Webmaster Tools. Essentially it shows every page (in the Google index) on the internet that links to any page on your site. Way better than typing the “link:” operator into a Google search. Very handy!
Here’s the blog entry that describes the new feature in full: Discover Your Links
