GNS3 0.6 Beta

GNS3 0.6 beta came out a few days ago.  Pretty stoked, not a great deal of feature adds...except for a few new features.  One of the best of these and something I have been waiting for is the ability to view the interfaces on the diagram.  Just like in Visio you can now see your interface names right on the screen.  There are a few more front end tweaks but other than that its still the same great open source software.

Don't forget to check out GNS3 Labs for the future stuff and workable labs.

Nights in Rodanthe

Rant

Yes, I saw Nights in Rodanthe...I can admit that I saw yet another chick flick. What makes it better I saw the movie with my wife...so I can at least say I didn't go alone.

Review

The movie itself was pretty good. Diane Lane and Richard Gere are excellent actors and have impeccable chemistry on screen. The movie is based off of the Nicholas Sparks novel "Nights in Rodanthe". This is the same author who wrote the "NoteBook", as well as several other chick books that were made into movies.

Surprisingly enough I was satisfied with the movie. The plot is enough to keep you interested and everyone crying around you, to make you feel a little weird that your the only one not.

Go take a lady friend, your wife to see this movie...The after affects are well worth it :).

Amazon MP3 for Linux

Tonight I was looking up some music on amazon.com, I wanted to buy some music, which normally means I have to load up my Windows VM for the amazonmp3 down loader software.

To my surprise when I went to the page, Amazon had Linux versions of the down loader software. Finally a company that recognizes another OS is out there.

Kudos to you Amazon.

I had a little trouble with getting the rpm installed on my Fedora9 box.

This site helped me out: fedoraforum.org

Here are the commands from the website if you don't want to go there:

Super thanks to GoneSouth on the fedoraforums for posting this:

1. download the fedora 8 rpm (amazonmp3.rpm) from the amazon site
2. cd to your download dir
3. su -c 'rpm -i --nodeps amazonmp3.rpm' (this tells rpm to ignore dependencies)
4. cd /lib
5. su -c 'ln -s libssl.so.7 libssl.so.6'
6. su -c 'ln -s libcrypto.so.7 libcrypto.so.6'

The last two steps just soft link the .7 version of the libraries that come with F9, to the .6 file names that amazonmp3 is looking for. You should now be able to download amazon mp3s on your F9 install. Cheers !

Hope you guys enjoy the Amazon down loader as much as I did.

Moving to gOS 2.9

Ubuntu 8.04 is great...but I love to try distros that are new and doing different things. Yes, gOS 2.9 is based on Ubuntu 7.10. So under the hood there is much of difference, but in this case its on the outside that counts.

gOS 2.9 is the "Space" upgrade to gOS 2.0 Rocket. Instead of Enlightment this time they go with Gnome and the Avant Dock Bar.

I will be installing on the trusted Dell 9300 1.6 Ghz, 1 GB RAM, 60 GB HD, 128 MB Ati Radeon Mobile. We will see if she can handle it.

I will also be redoing my Desktop Compaq 1.5 Ghz 1.25 GB RAM, 40 GB HD, 128 MB Ati.

Ubuntu 8.04...Good Stuff

Ubuntu 8.04 just came out and I am so stoked. Been using it at home and can't wait to upgrade my work machine tomorrow.

Internet Down

Yeah, so I don't know how many people out there go through this but here is what happened to me. Sunday out of the blue at around noon my Internet connection went out. I called Comcast. They stated they would send someone out at the earliest convenience which would be on Tuesday.

I write this not because they didn't fix the issue but if at my work if we didn't fix an outage like this in 3 days, I would be fired. Not to mention millions upon millions of dollars would stop flowing.

As the day approaches for AT&T to come into the Cable market I say to them....Welcome. Although I am not to sure how much better their service would be any way.

Hospatilization...but I am still kicking

Easter weekend, went home and was enjoying the days off from work and having a good time with family and friends. Sunday morning, I woke up with tingling, numbness, and chest pressure all on my left side. At 22 you don't think about stroke, heart attack, or feeling bad. Needless to say I was scared, I woke my wife up and we made a trip to the ER. After a 2 day stint I was sent home on Tuesday, with what the doctors could only explain as Belles Palsy without the Palsy. After the stay in Ky, I came back to TN where I went back to work on Wed. probably too soon. I worked both Wed and Thursday, by Thursday night I was back in the ER with the same symptoms. The doctors ran the same tests and found the same results, nothing. Again, it was hopefully it will pass in a few days. Right now I am getting stronger and feeling better, I think the big key is more rest and not getting right back into things.

Lets hope for a better rest of the year.

If I had...the ultimate computer

Imagine, 16 Gigs of RAM, Quad-core, 4 x 1 Terabyte drives, 768 MB SLI Video Cards, 2 x 24 Inch flat panels, with this hardware, what would you have? My current dream workstation. I have been wanting to buy a new computer/laptop/workstation for the past year, money right now is a little tight so its out of the question, but I still like to spec out what is out there now.

I am looking to replace all the crape PCs I currently have with one monstrous machine. The way I think about it is if I had this workstation with enough power to virtualize all my other desktops I would be in business.

Now, is this practical...I have right now 6 desktops each one below 1 Ghz, I have one laptop at 1.6 Ghz all are rather old and slow, but I did not spend anything for them except the laptop. Now if I spend $2,000 - $4,000, I could replace them all and still have expandability.

I love virtualization and with that kind of machine I could have as many as I needed and wanted and still be able to do some serious computing.

I am going to have to break out the old calculator and see if it is financially in my best interest.

Any thoughts would be huge.

V-day

My wife is awesome...I got coffee. Kick ass coffee and a new cup to go with. Now the guys at the office don't stand a chance with me wired all the time.

Gnupod

What the Program is?

Gnupod is a program that allows a Linux user to access the iPod in a more Linux way, wait I don't want to say Linux way. But what I mean is you don't need a UI to use your iPod or put music on your iPod with Gnupod.

Usages or How I use it?

I think I wrote a month ago about podget a great little CLI program that goes and gets your podcasts. Gnupod puts those podcasts over to your iPod or your music however you want it.

I set mine in a script to run and move my podcasts over to my iPod.

Here is my script:

#!/bin/bash
IPOD="/media/MyIPOD"
iTunesDB="iPod_Control/iTunes/iTunesDB"
#GnuPod add songs
rm -rvf $IPOD/$iTunesDB
wait
rm -Rvf $IPOD/iPod_Control/Music
wait
gnupod_INIT -m $IPOD
wait
find ~/Podcasts -type f -name '*.mp3' -exec gnupod_addsong -m $IPOD {} \;
wait
mktunes -m $IPOD

Gnupod has a set of tools that help to work with your iPod. I won't go into much detail but there are sites out there that do explain it.

Installation in Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy)

Open a terminal pop-in the below commands:

$sudo aptitude install gnupod-tools

of if you want to

$sudo su
[your password]
#aptitude install gnupod-tools

Movie Weekend...Dresses, Earrings, and Translation

Sometimes going to see movies or staying in and watching movies is just something you need to do in a weekend. Especially on a long weekend. Movies watched this weekend were:

• 27 dresses ( with the wife)
• Catch and Release
• Girl with a Pearl Earring
• Lost in Translation

So four movies over a 3 day weekend. Now before you think dang this guy needs to check his testosterone. I have a wife its a requirement to watch chick flicks.

27 Dresses

This movie was pretty good, sold out every showing at the theatre I was attending. The majority of the audience was women, a rough estimate 80% with 20% being the guys that got drug to the movie. Although a chick flick the movie was funny, I can see why it would sell out theaters.

Catch and Release

Funny, with Jennifer Garner as the lead female role and a decent plot. This was a bearable movie.

Girl with a Pearl Earring

If you like Scarlett Johansson and who doesn't, this movie is for you. An old world classic based on the painting "Girl with a Pearl Earring". Check it out if you have the time and patience.

Lost in Translation

Bill Murray and bring back some more Scarlett Johansson for a film about two people in a different place who don't relate to their surrounding only each other.

Any way check those out if you have time.