Diary of a Network Geek

Looks like I’m going to be a Unix admin!
Yeah, it definately looks like we’ll be using some form of Linux at the new place. If not Novell’s Open Enterprise Server on Linux, then Red Hat Advanced Server. Of course, I’ll end up running SMB as a Windows PDC, for the login scripts, but, hey, at least I can do it! And, it almost sounded like the boss was actually leaning toward Novell’s solution. It actually worked out to be about the same, cost-wise, as Red Hat. Though, the Novell pricing doesn’t include any support if anything went wrong. But, I suppose we could pay by incident. I mean, I hardly ever call Novell anyway these days. Their online knowlegebase has most of the answers I need.
And, of course, there’s all the Mac and OS X stuff, too. That’s BSD, essentially, with a Mac X Windows front end. Funny, it all comes around to that GUI, doesn’t it? All point and click. Oh, for the good, old days when all we had was a command prompt and we were darn lucky when we got that! These kids today don’t have any appreciation for what a good command prompt can do. Why, I remember, back in the “before time”, messing around on an old HP-UX system and figuring out how to read mail from reading the man file! So, here I am, again, back where I started, about to become a Unix admin again.

Cool.

You know, sometimes my silly Friday Fun Links have themes.
Lately, it’s been a casemod theme. I guess, I’ve been feeling creative lately or something and the way cool casemods have caught my imagination. In any case, my freakish, albiet subconscious, obsession is your gain. This week, two links to freaky, fun casemods, both of which come to us via Gizmodo.
The first is cool because, well, it just is. I don’t quite know where this is from in the many worlds of science-fiction, but it would fit right in on almost any Kubrick set. And, you can even buy it! “It”, in this case, is the ACON 5 Limited Edition Isotope system from 3XS Systems. It looks like something right out of “2001: A Space Oddessy”.
The other casemod is a little more, well, whimsical. It’s my favorite robot, Bender from Futurama. The Bender CaseMod Project page is in some Nordic language that I don’t speak, but the pictures are cool. Still, if you’re put off by the language barrier, you can always go to the Gizmodo Bender CaseMod page and see a picture there.

And, hey, they’re all fun links, so, go ahead and click on them. It’s Friday, you deserve it!

Wow, German engineering at its finest.
Okay this came to me via Boing Boing and I translated it via Babelfish, but here’s a cool link to the German CaseMod Contest. These are some intense cases. Everything from the all wood case, which looked like a winner to a simple collection of colored, lighted exhaust fans, this article had some really cool pictures of casemods. The best, though, was not in the article, but on the Boing Boing page that referenced the article.

Really cool stuff. I’m so inspired I might just do a casemod of my own!

Okay, this is a little stale, but…
WOW! According to this press release on Adobe’s website, Adobe plans to acquire Macromedia via a massive stock purchase. The plan is for them to buy all the stock at the Friday 4/15 price.
If you’re not aware of these two companies, you’ve not been paying attention. And, the implications of them becoming a single entity is, well, massive. Adobe will, quite simply, become the largest graphics and design software company ever to exist. This will mean that one company will be responsible for Acrobat, Photoshop, Flash, and Dreamweaver. Think about how many top-shelf graphics and design programs that puts under the control of one company. That’s almost frightening.

Maybe I should have saved this for Halloween…
Nah! For those of you who know me, you know that I love Clive Barker. As an author, you pervy freaks, as an author! Anyway, when I first read his stuff in college it was a startling eye-opener. It was truly like nothing I’d ever read before. And, when I saw the Hellraiser movies, well, you can imagine the impact it made on me.
I felt similar impact when I saw this casemod: PuzzleBox. The bizarre, translucent case with the infamous “Pinhead” looking out is just way too cool for words. You have got to see it for yourself! (Here’s a link to the completed project, by the way.)

Anyway, it’s some freaky fun for a Friday, so click the link! You know that morbid curiosity will get to you sooner or later!

It might not be the smallest, but it’s close!
Thanks to my recovered Bloglines feed to Gizmodo, I bring you Picotux! The site claims that it’s the smallest device actually running a Linux kernel in existance and, frankly, I can believe it. It’s not any bigger than a freaking ethernet jack! Man, that is cool.

Hey, if you’re reading this, you’re either a stalker or a geek like me, or both, so, click the link. You know you want to. Even if you’re just the stalker. After all, what else are you going to do on a Friday? Work?

Well, your laptop at least.
I’m sure most of you have seen these by now, but, as you can tell from how much I’ve been posting lately, I haven’t had time to find a “funky fesh” Friday Fun Link. So, I bring you the Transparent Desktops Screens Gallery, by way of Gizmodo.
They’re really cool, so if you get the chance, check them out.

It is, after all, Friday and not everyone has been working as hard as I do!

Yo, we upgraded!
Yeah, that’s right, we finally upgraded to the latest, greatest version of WordPress. You won’t see much of a difference on the viewing end of things, but, trust me, the backend has got it going on. The interface is much nicer, even though I liked it before. And there are some handy new features, like themes and better comment spam management. Trust me, it’s very cool. If you run WordPress and you haven’t upgraded, do it.

Ever wonder what’s on that magnetic stripe on your credit card?
Well, there are ways of finding out. Or, as they say in Wilwauke, “we have ways of making you talk”! (That’s an old joke from Boy Scout camp in Pierson, Wisconson.) Interestingly enough, a gentleman with the prestigious name “Billy Hoffman” has developed a little project called StripeSnoop that is all about getting at the information. The link first came to my attention via an article at Slashdot, so if his site is down, give it a couple of days for the “new” to wear off and the Slashdotters to get over it, then go back. Mr. Hoffman’s site has information on everything you’ll need from the software to building the hardware reader. Pretty cool!
Now, some of you may be asking, “Uh, isn’t this illegal or something?” Well, as far as I know, no, it’s not. Reproducing what you read off these magstripes would definately be illegal, but just read ing it shouldn’t be a problem. Of course, the credit card companies might not want you to know what they encode on their cards, but I doubt that it’s illegal. And, what is encoded on those cards is pretty interesting. For instance, did you know that your ATM card has your PIN encoded on it? That’s why you have to go get a new card and reassign it a PIN when you lose your old one. Now, that may have changed recently, but I doubt it since banks generally fear change. And, I have to admit, I’ve always wanted to know just what that magstripe on the back of my driver’s license has on it.
In any case, it’s an interesting project and I thought I’d post it. Oh, by the way, this project is not connected with either my father, William F. Hoffman, Jr., my brother, William F. Hoffman, III, or my eldest nephew, William Thomas Hoffman. Just thought I’d clear that up. Though, you can see why the name caught my attention!

Wow, classic, retro computing!
Hey, this brings back memories…. I was in high school when the Apple first hit significant production. In fact, we had an Apple I in our fledgling computer lab when I was a Freshman, though it was quickly replaced with an Apple IIe. (Yeah, I’m poor-folk, but I grew up in a pretty affluent neighborhood. Thanks, Mom and Dad!) That was back in the days when there weren’t such things as “floppy drives” or “CD-ROM drives”. Nope, you loaded your programs from tape. Audio tape! Yep, it was the Dark Ages, allright. And I was there to see it. God I feel old all of a sudden….
Anyway, now you can relive those glory days of yesteryear with your very own, home-built AppleI. Yessirree, according to this article on Wired News, there is now a book out that teaches you how to build your very own Apple I. It’d be a challenge for most of us, now that we’ve gotten used to all the fancy bells and whistles, but it could be fun. A neat learning project, or even a science fair project for someone. And, you never know, it might just inspire someone to invent the Next Big Thing in computing!

Besides, it’s Friday and if you’re reading this blog you’re geeky enough to think building your Apple I is cool. Just like me. So, go ahead, indulge your guilty geek pleasure and click the link.