Diary of a Network Geek

Okay, not quite, but it’s still fun!

Here’s a guy who’s used magnets from old hard drives to build a generator. Cool.
And, yeah, it’s got to be more expensive to run that any savings one might get from the generated electricity. Still, might be a good science project. And, besides, it was FUN! It made me laugh anyway!

No, really, I’m not being racist or anything!

According to this story on Wired News, the North Korean government has set up a school for hackers. Suddenly that whole “Axis of Evil” isn’t quite so funny. I mean, these people are aggresively anti-American and they’re training to hack the Internet. Since the US is the birth-place of the Internet, and the largest user of the Internet, we are their most likely target. So, how long before we see the signs of Neo pointing at us like Uncle Sam, with the slogan, “I want YOU to hack for your country!”, eh?
The really funny thing is, I can actually picture this happening. And, I’m just patriotic enough to think it’s a good idea!

Of course, they may not have enough IP addresses to do any real damage, base on that story the other day. Though, after what I’ve said about the H1B1 visa situation, maybe I need to watch out!!

Okay, so I know that it’s actually duct tape not duck tape, but it was funnier.

Regardless, there’s something better now…. Gecko Tape! Apparently, some scientists with a lot of curiosity and an eye on the tape market have figured out how geckos manage to climb walls. Now, they’ve also managed to make a tape based on this technology. The article is here.
Actually, the next application they have for this (sticky gloves, tires, etc.) are what I find interesting. Imagine a gecko suit that lets spys walk up buildings. Or cling to ceilings. Or, better yet, imagine robotic listening devices that can climb walls. Now that is what I call a bug!

Okay, I have to admit, this sounds cool.

You might have tonnes of MP3s that you ripped from your own, personal CDs, but what about all that old vinyl you’ve got? I mean, you spent a fortune on it and now it sits, lovingly cared for, on a shelf, unused. Well, what if you could make all that vinyl into digital? Now, you can, thanks to a program called Gramofile.

Now, if I can just get something that will update my tapes and 8Tracks….

Oh, boy, this looks like it’s going to get ugly.

At least, I sure hope so! Let’s get Novell’s name in the media as much as possible, eh? Let them talk about their product and how they plan to use Linux as much as they can stand. Let’s keep the love alive.
Really, the latest volley is that SCO is going to sue Novell. And, so far, that seems okay with Novell. Oh, and SCO has finally agreed to specify what code is in question so experts can look at it.
Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, has suggested Chris DiBona of Slashdot.org and The Screen Savers fame, as a third-party expert to evaluate the code. You can see what he has to say about it on his blog.

Oh, this is so cool.

And, I’m glad I haven’t gotten a new Palm yet! According to this article on Wired News, Palm is buying Handspring. Now, to me, that’s cool because I hope to see some of the better features in the Handspring products integrated into the Palm. I like the look and feel of the Palm better than Handspring, but I think they had the right idea when it came to add-ons. This is a killer move by Palm, as far as I’m concerned. I really look forward to seeing what this means to the future of Palm.

Ok, so it’s a thrid-party product that’s currently not supported, but still…

It exists! Really, truly, I have seen it. There is such an animal.
The GTK Client for Netware has its very own website. A word of warning, though, don’t bother to try and download it from the link at the bottom of the page. Instead, go to the “Downloads” section and get it from there.
With Novell’s new strategy of Linux support, I wonder how long it will be before they have their own client? I wonder why they don’t just grab this guy’s Novell client and “brand” it for themselves? Anyway, I thought it was cool.

Hmm, is there a market here?

It seems, according to an article on ZDnet, that Aisa is running out of TCP/IP addresses. Interesting and, frankly, not that suprising. After all, there are a limited number of IP addresses but an ever growing population. And, I can’t imagine a country with more issues in this regard than China.
Of course, the article pushed moving from IPv4 to IPv6, but I’m thinking along different lines. (Heh, heh, heh. Remember, I have a degree in Marketing!) Why not “broker” some of the dormant IP addresses here in the States? I mean, I know I pay for 5 static IPs, but I’m only using 3. That means I have have 2 I can “loan” to someone out there in “I-need-an-IP-address” land. So, why not make a profit off it, eh? How much is an IP addres worth per month? $5, $10? Hmm, now, why hasn’t someone like SBC picked up on this?

I’m really enjoying my Linux+ certification.

So, last week I installed RedHat version 9. Which, incidentally, is the best version I’ve used yet. The installer is really easy and detected my hardware very well. And, the end result of the install was more than satisfactory.
But, the thing is, I do most of my work on a Windows 2000 Pro workstation and I hate having those damn switchboxes. So, what to do? I started looking around for an XWindows client that would let me have a remote desktop. Well, there were lots of pricey solutions and we have a copy of Exceed, but I wanted something free and, if possible, Open Source. There ended up being just one answer: Cygwin/XFree86. Now, I’m not going to lie and say it was a cinch to install and configure, but it didn’t take me all day. And, in fact, the trickiest part of the whole thing was getting the settings right on my RedHat machine. So, now, I have a remote desktop to my Linux machine. All this and I get paid, too! I love my job!

Okay, so now, we’re hitting close to home.

I don’t have anything against people seeking the American Dream, no matter where they’re from. But, there are a lot of American Citizens that are out of work and we still give jobs to “visitors” from other countries. Why? My wife basically lost her job because she was more expensive than someone else who was here on an H1B1. Frankly, it made both of us a bit angry. Well, guess what? We’re not the only ones. Here’s an article at Wired News about the H1B1 backlash. I hope the legislature is paying attention to this.