Category: Software
A Proud Dad
March 16th, 2011, 11 Comments
I saw this on my computer screen the other day, and I’ve got to say it really warmed my heart. I’ll explain below if it doesn’t provoke that reaction for you. So here’s why that made me happy. Well for one, it was the first time Jacob had left stuff on my computer that I [...]
Unix Password and Authority Management
January 31st, 2011, 6 Comments
One of the things that everyone seems to do different is managing passwords. We haven’t looked at that in quite some time, despite growth both of the company and the IT department. As I look to us moving some things to the cloud, and shifting offsite backups from carrying tapes to a bank to backups [...]
rdiff-backup, ZFS, and rsync scripts
January 25th, 2011, 17 Comments
rdiff-backup vs. ZFS As I’ve been writing about backups, I’ve gone ahead and run some tests with rdiff-backup. I have been using rdiff-backup personally for many years now — probably since 2002, when I packaged it up for Debian. It’s a nice, stable system, but I always like to look at other options for things [...]
Research on deduplicating disk-based and cloud backups
January 20th, 2011, 18 Comments
Yesterday, I wrote about backing up to the cloud. I specifically was looking at cloud backup services. I’ve been looking into various options there, but also various options for disk-based backups. I’d like to have both onsite and offsite backups, so both types of backup are needed. Also, it is useful to think about how [...]
Wikis, Amateur Radio, and Debian
January 3rd, 2011, 10 Comments
As I have been getting involved with amateur radio this year, I’ve been taking notes on what I’m learning about certain things: tips from people on rigging up a bicycle antenna to achieve a 40-mile range, setting up packet radio in Linux, etc. I have long run a personal, private wiki where I put such [...]
Jacob: 4 Years Old, and Troubleshooting PCs
December 12th, 2010, 2 Comments
Back in April, I wrote about Jacob and I building his first computer together and how it’s running just the Linux command-line interface — no graphics at all. And he loves it. Well, as is often the case with him, his interest in various things waxes and wanes over time. He hadn’t spent much time [...]
Debconf10
August 16th, 2010, No Comments
Debconf10 ended a week ago, and I’m only now finding some time to write about it. Funny how it works that way sometimes. Anyhow, the summary of Debconf has to be: this is one amazing conference. Despite being involved with Debian for years, this was my first Debconf. I often go to one conference a [...]
A Debconf Thanks
August 11th, 2010, No Comments
There was something at Debconf10 in NYC that I owe a huge thank-you to the entire community for. I was completely surprised at how many people made a point to say hi to me, comment that they liked reading about my blog, and encouraged me to keep posting. It was dozens for sure. I had [...]
The Best Place of Ever
August 1st, 2010, 5 Comments
Jacob and Oliver have enjoyed our recent train trip, and our stay, from Kansas to New York City for Debconf. All told, that’s a 40-hour trip, including the layover in Chicago. When we got on the train, in the middle of the night as usual, Jacob couldn’t stop chattering about how “great”, “fun”, and “exciting” [...]
Time to learn a new language
May 18th, 2010, 53 Comments
I have something of an informal goal of learning a new programming language every few years. It’s not so much a goal as it is something of a discomfort. There are so many programming languages out there, with so many niches and approaches to problems, that I get uncomfortable with my lack of knowledge of [...]
