Blogs

I have a freenas box and I like to periodically check the smart status on my drives to make sure everything’s OK. I just figured out a really sweet way to do it without lifting a finger.

You can run commands though SSH by using ' around the commands.

I have been an openSUSE user for many years. Because of this I have gotten quite attached to KDE. I have spent very little time using Ubuntu because of my preference to KDE over Gnome. I have however installed Kubuntu on many occasions. My netbook to this day even runs an older version of Kubuntu. I have always found it to be a great KDE distribution. However, apparently it has not been the success that Canonical had hoped for and after 7 years of financial support they have decided that as of version 12.04 this support will end. This isn't necessarily a bad thing though.

Back when Netflix only rented DVD's I thought it was cool to get DVD's in the mail. However, the coolness whore off quick and I found better and quicker ways to get my content. About a year ago I looked at Netflix again because of their streaming service. I had read the rumors that Netflix was coming to Linux eventually and the idea of being able to legally stream movies and TV shows with no hassle perked my interest. So being a Linux user I dealt with the same BS all Linux users have had to deal with. Mostly trying to run Netflix in a Windows VM. It worked but it was a hassle. I was holding out for the native client that was rumored as being in development hoping that it would not take much longer.

Linux based systems are the most secure operating systems in existence. one of the reason for this is the way they handle permissions. Permissions are rules that describe what can be done with a file and by who. Permissions are also one of the biggest mysteries to many new users as well as the cause of many problems. Working with permissions is not difficult, its honestly quite easy once you understand the basics behind why it works the way it does.

Being an open source software user sometimes I forget what other people have to go though. When we want something we just download it, install it and start playing with it. Theres no running to Wall-Mart or Newegg and forking over a large amount of money for a disk. Then spending an hour entering license numbers and confirming blood types for each user, just to end up calling support because the DRM has some bug that will not allow us to use our last name in the registration / activation form. We simply see something we like and use it, some of us even like it so much we decide to get involved and volunteer our time to improve it for others.