KW1405 – Merging Your Operating Systems
Dec 29Sliding from operating system to operating system is always cool, but the borders between the different OS’es sometimes make things hard. What if we took those away? We show you how using Virtualbox to merge your machine’s, your applications and your files using Virtualbox.
Links
- Virtualbox
- Installing Guest Additions
- Sharing Folders with Guest OS
- Live Show
- Telegram Group
- Download Link
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Column : Single display Simplicity.
Feb 15If you ever watched the movie Wargames (I am showing my age here) or remember the scene inside the control room of the Nebuchadnezzar and you found your geek heart-rate quickening at the sight of all those screens … then you know what I mean when I say : “One display is never enough”.
Somehow, having a workstation with multiple computers blasting lines of random code onto several monitors surrounding a hyper-connected fast typing individual has something strangely appealing to it. More computers, more screens, more keyboards, more input, more data .. it somehow enhances our sense of power.
I remember the near fistfight scenario’s at the office where users would demand a dual-screen setup. They would vaguely think up scenario’s about the need to simultaneously run applications or compare data across the screen. The troglodyte rat-race that had prefaced this situation featured the urge to get “the biggest screen” in the office. Now there was a new kind of ‘hip’ in town .. the need to have TWO screens. Never mind if they needed it .. their neighbour had two .. so one screen was just not enough.
The domestic geek in the confounds of his own private dungeon is very much the same. ONE computer cannot be enough… you need SEVERAL machines. And since we are well on a roll on tilting the number of devices per user quota , lets add some tablets and smartphones to the mix .. shall we ?
So what you end up with is a complete over-connected bat cave with plenty of systems that you need to maintain. More screens then you can encompass, each displaying a separate part of your information streams (or each redundantly displaying the SAME information streams). Giant “waves” of notifications across all the different systems whenever you get a new reply on Twitter. Plenty of of keyboard-swapping and a dizzying amount of chair-swivelling. Yes : You have built a veritable mission control centre with enough machines to keep 5 people occupied, but you have a staff of one.
So what if we go back to simplicity ? Last week, I had to confine myself to our kitchen table downstairs so I could keep my wife (who had the flu) company as she was sleeping on the couch. My “Mission Control Centre” sat unmanned upstairs. The only thing I had was my laptop, a notebook riser, an external keyboard and mouse .. and a pair of earphones. My geek universe shrunk to ONE 13 INCH screen. Can you imagine the horror ?
So was it horrible ? Did I suffer information deprivation ? Did my fingers grasp the empty air where otherwise secondary (or tertiary) keyboards used to be ? Initially the answer was : YES. It took me quite to squeeze all of my workflows onto one machine/display but after a couple of hours I started to enjoy it. I have to admit , my personal digital architecture ( the way I have organised my Cyber Lifestyle) highly favours “sliding” from OS to OS , from machine to machine so I seldom have data or workflows locked down to one specific machine. I could cope with using just ‘one machine’ for a short time, but would it last ?
To my own surprise I actually started enjoying it ! The “one machine” approach meant that I could focus on what I was doing. The distractions were kept down to a minimum (Windows that I did not need simply remained closed) and notifications just came in ONCE on ONE system. When I closed down my email client, I did not get any mail notifications. I didn’t have to fight the urge to “check Twitter at a glance”. With fewer monitors and fewer systems I gained more focus then ever before.
On top of that, I got back some “intimacy” with my system. When there was a problem, or I needed to figure out how to do stuff , it was just on that ONE machine. It had been a long time since I experienced the feeling of having “one” computer that was “MY” computer and not just “A” computer. This kind of “human-device” intimacy resulted in me taking extra good care of that machine. I tweaked it to my liking. It took me 25 minutes to find the right wallpaper and really ‘settle in’ on my machine, instead of just ‘passing by’ and quickly rap on the keyboard before moving on. That one little computer became my ‘home’.
So I have learned something : More is not always better. I admit it is quite hard to do full screen video editing on a single 13 inch laptop but it does help you focus on the content. More machines means more maintenance, more distractions and more ‘distance’ from the machine. We loose not only the intimacy with “OUR computer”, we also lose the intimacy with the applications we have because we “bounce around” so much. We hop from phone to web interface, from mail client to tablet and loose any ‘deep knowledge’ of an OS or an application. We don’t seem to the time anymore, or better said : We don’t TAKE the time.
It felt refreshing to be back upstairs after a couple of days. Basking in the glow of all three 24inch displays, overlooking my digital horizon while leaning back with my hot cup of tea .. but somehow I missed my little excursion. Going back to the basics of one simple machine reminded me .. that sometimes less .. is so much more.
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Geek Guide to Aachen.
Nov 12Oh glorious days between friday and monday. Days we look forward to, days we enjoy, and days we mourn when monday comes and takes them away. So this weekend was a little different. Belgium celebrated 'Truce Day' where we remember the end of the first world war in 1918. Suffice the fact that the weather sucked, on saturday Belgium was drenched in autumn rain and devote of any economical activity, cause all the shops where closed. So we skipped the border and went for a little daytrip to Aachen.
One of the nice things of living in the nook of the country is that one is very very close to the "aussland" as we could say. 30 km's is the distance that devides us from one of the major Dutch cities of Maastricht, and a small 80 kilometers seperate us from the German city of Aachen. So we pop over regularly. Aachen USED to be the one stop shop place for all my hardware needs. Back in those days the VAT in Germany on computer parts was a only 16% (as opposed to 21% in .Be) and they had some excellent cash-and-carry computer shops to get ones hardware. So we used to order on line, take the car at 9am in the morning , drive to Aachen , arrive at 10, pick and pay our order and be back before dinner. (actually we had dinner in Vaals, in holland, before we came back home) What was nice was the whole international flavor, carrying three kinds of currency and having to speak Dutch, German and occasionally some French before the Saturday afternoon had started.
But these days things are different. The VAT in Germany went up , making it no longer interesting to buy computerparts, OEM systems are soooo cheap it isn't worth the while and of course the Euro has chased away the Gulden and the Demark. But i'm going to give you a little overview of where we went , so if you ever feel like going .. you know where to go.
When going to the city of aachen. The best place to park is probably beneath the Media Markett in the town centre. It offers safe and cheap underground parking ,but the cool stuff is , the general multimedia geek-out-paradise is right above you. So no need to "shlepp" around that 50" plasma cross town.
If you exit the parking lott , go to the main "AlexanderGraben" and turn right to stroll down to the center of the town. By then you have probably gotten hungry you can endulge yourself in BratWurst and stuff , but for us a great place to eat is the LOUISIANNA. This very American restaurant offers great ribs, chicken wings , all in a southern flavour. Downright excellent food. But the shop is strategically placed between 2 major points of interests for geeks like us.
At the entrance of the gallery there is the DATEC computer shop . A very small shop that sports a wide aray of hardware, but is very well known for the MIRAI screens they sell. Getting ones hands on one of their wopping widescreen displays (1440*900 resolution) for 257 Dollars US is a bargain. I personally have bought two over the last two months and absolutely LOVE Them. Looking at an apple cinema display (20" widescreen) for more then double the price, its not worth the hassle.
But at the end of the gallery, you walk straight into the SATURN MEDIA STORE . When it comes to getting a cheap bargain and a lot of hardware, software, dvd's, music and what have you to browse through , this is sheer heaven. When going shopping for your geeky gear, be sure to COMPARE the prices from the Media Market and the Saturn shop. These two shops are regularly at each others throats and that results in getting a price difference of 80 euro's or more , just by strolling through town.
And of course, no geek is complete without his dose of coffee. 2 excellent locations pop to mind. First of all , the spectacular "Glass Cubus" A coffeehouse on the top of Aachens major shopping street. Sporting a wide variety of coffee's and Java's its a bit on the pricy side, but worth the while. Where it only to be sitting inside , watch the world go by and having the comforting thought that nobody can look IN. (but be careful not to walk past it just like that. As you can see on the picture .. it can appear quite invisible.) There is also a Vodaphone shop inside the building, you'll find directions on their site
But if you are into American Coffee , be sure to walk up to the town square and (walk by the LUST FOR LIFE store ) and visit the local Starbucks . Since we don't have one of those here and we are big big Java sluts, you can mostly find the Knights perched up behind one fracking big cappuccino to round up the day. Mac
So next time you go over to the German side of the border, you might be interested in our little tourist tour. For all I know , we surely had a swell day. 🙂
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America's next top model.
Sep 03
I hate TV, any form of mainstream digital entertainment that involves none time-shifting entertainment and is pre-chewed for the masses is sure to send me reeling for my laptop or otherwise nukes me to level 5 of the coma scale. Especially reality tv is extremely unnerving. But since there is only room for either my laptop OR my tv dinner , sometimes I get caught in the crossfire and have to watch an entire episode of this crap while having lunch. So enter "America's Next Top Model" where 12 arrogant good-for-nothings get selected to walk and jump around for none other then catwalk washup number one : Tira Banks. With molecular precision we are introduced to the world of the beginning model and the challenges it brings. Like for example : Living together. The daunting task of having to share a luxury apartment, (jacuzzi and all included) with other people is quite hard (so we learn)… Oh my .. model X touched the mascara of model Y, Model Z said that model A was fat , Model A said that model Z said that model U said model X doesn't know her alphabet. In short : There is more gossip going on then in an old Basic program.
But there are more challenges to come. Riding the bus to get to a photoshoot is extremely difficult. In includes reading timetables and .. god forbid : Watching the clock. That means time lost commuting and not shopping. And of course : The hardest challenge for any model : Simply showing up on time for work … Oh my .. The horror ! And once they get there they have to " Work it " (that means: put one foot in front of the other when traversing the catwalk .. veeeerrry hard !I) Or they get other taks like ' Show us your Bonestructure'' and .. " More P-zazz honey' . Meanwhile this infamous cesspool of entertainment revolves around Tyra Banks fading career like spacedust encircles a black hole. Incredible ! I swear some of these girls are so shallow an fly could not even drown in the pools of their minds. And all along this stupid contest they get voted of one by one ( I personally think that the losers should work in a refugee camp in Soudan for two weeks straight , cleaning toilets ) because they constantly tell us (along with miss Banks) its "'soooo haaaard" being a model. If it indeed is , you would be cut out for a job at the camp in Soudan.. Here is your plane ticket .. But the worst is … The voting of ceremony. The girls that stay have to walk up to Tira where she hands them some kind of token or picture ( to get the message across the dirty blond hair into the hollow head) and Tira sais : "Congratulations, you're still in the running to becoming america's next top model" .. Now that would not annoy me if she just said it ONCE .. NOOOOO … The malicious model has to say it EVERY time to EVERY girl. Either SHE is autistic or I'm having problems with my short term memory. I think its the latter. People spontaneously have a brain hemorrhage after watching 20 minutes of this .. disease of a TV show.
But .. here comes the internet to save us all. With graphic cards getting stronger and stronger, CGI machines going into near infinite resolutions , the days of the model are OVER . Instead of having to work with the likes of Tira and here America's Top Model goons with all their flimsyness : Break out the Digital Model. She can BE however you want , WEAR whatever you want .. Work IT like YOU want it to. And perhaps she is shallow .. but thats OK. as long as she fits on an DVD. Look HERE for the fullsize picture and astound yoursellf that THIS IS a computer generated image. Congratulations.. you are still in the running to become America's next Digital model.
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Why you never see me outside on a saturday morning.
Aug 26
This is my idea of an average Saturday morning.
Time
About Half past nine.
up and at this since 5 30 am.
Systems.
One Mac G3 running Ubuntu Linux (command line only)
One Mac Mini running Mac OSX (controlled through the macbook via a remote secure shell)
One Macbook remote controlling 2 secure shell sessions on the G3 and one on the mini.
Project
Testing remote sync software to securely backup files off site without eating all my bandwith.
Number of tasks running.
About four , File transfer, setting up IRC client on remote machine, Listening to music, Writing article for the site.
Literature
About 12 browser windows with information and one book "Linux for Windows System Administrators" by Mike Minasi
Music :
Itunes streaming MP3's from central server over encrypted wifi connection. Cygnus X : Collected works.
Drink :
Earl Grey tea , two lumps of sugar.
Means of communication :
Skype : Online MSN: Online Mail :Online.
Learned :
A lot about the Rsync Command , About public and private keys in encryption and that I no longer need a graphical user interface on my Ubuntu machine.
State :
Hyped up because its working and yet wonderfully relaxed because this is my idea of fun.
