Free book/podcast : When sysadmins ruled the earth.

Jan 21

“Reading” : Aside from reading green text on a black terminal background of a remote SSH connections, most system administrators don’t do a lot of reading. Yet you should consider withdrawing from the screen and keyboard from time to time just to relax with a nice cup of tea and .. do some reading. But about what ? Vampires ? Wizards ? 50 shades of greyscale ? Most popular ‘books’ that line the bestseller que at the bookstores don’t appeal to us. So lets find something that does.

It has to be about something that interests us, something that is geeky and techie enough to keep your massive brains entertained, but also short and fast enough to outrun our ADD brain .. (oh look : Squirrels ! )

Cory Doctorow’s books have always checked those boxes. For those of you who have not read “Little Brother” and “Homeland” : You are missing out. 2 great books that SHOULD be fiction, but considering what the NSA is doing to day .. feel more like a reality soap. The books are free, you have no excuse but to download and read them. 

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Cory also regularly writes short stories like “When sysadmins ruled the earth” Exiting easy to read short stories about the oompa loompa”s who make the internet work !  You can download the stories individually over at Cory’s website (as a podcast if you are too lazy to read) or download them as a complete book in .ePub or .mobi format.  Its free .. there is no excuse …  Read … you fools ! 🙂

Download the separate chapters here.

Download the entire book as an ePub or mobi here.

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Control auto-starting applications on your Android device (or Android media center)

Jan 04

The MK802 is just one example of Android “hopping over” to more different kinds of devices then the phones and tablets it was designed for. In essence the MK802 is a little computer that comes with a couple of USB ports and an HDMI port so you can hook it up to any TV/Monitor and instantly turn that machine into a ‘smartscreen’. With devices like the MK802, you can easily turn your television into a media center using applications like PLEX or Boxee who let your Android ‘stick’ become your media front end.

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The only thing that is missing is that those applications should ‘start up’ automatically whenever your android device of choice boots. In order to make that work we found the free app called “Startup Manager” (how DO they come up with these original names). 

You can either tweak your Android device by removing applications that run on startup (nice way to clean out some branded cruft) OR add some auto starting applications of your own. (perfect for launching VLC, Boxee or Plex at bootup). 

Startup manager is free, does not require root and is available in the Android Marketplace.

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Podcast week : Free Photography lessons with Konrad and Bart.

Dec 17

Perhaps this Christmas you will receive the gift of a digital camera. Maybe its a point and shoot, maybe its a big DSLR camera with lots of buttons, dials, settings and configuration menus … on which you are absolutely clueless on how to correctly operate. If you want to join the herd of brainless mammals that only uses their super expensive Nikons or Canons on “Full auto” mode (while taking dramatic poses to shoot boring snapshots of their ugly spouses … ) so be it. But not if the two gentlemen below will have any say in it. Strap in for a podcast (and a website) to get you ready for the next pulitzer prize. 

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Let’s talk Photography podcast.

If he was not an Irish-Belgian living in what can only be described as the coldest, wettest place on the Northern hemisphere .. Bart Busschots would have been a brilliant addition to the Big Bang Theory cast. Unlike Sheldon he is not an antisocial condescending Texan with an IQ the size of the Belgian national debt .. He is a charming entertaining and brilliant person ( He has Belgian roots .. go figure) with an unfathomable knowledge about a wide variety of subjects. Whether those be astronomy (You can find a brilliant explanation of the Higgs Boson in a way your GRAN would get it) computer science (Check out the ‘taming the terminal’ series on the Nosillacast) OR photography. When faced with the choice of pouring this fantastic volume of knowledge in a podcast or just plain exploding, Bart has done the latter. The result : Another brand new budding podcast from the Brain of Busschots (We just refer to it as “The brain of B.”) teaching you how to become a better photographer. Subscribe, download, listen, learn.  (And practice your most annoying, condescending laugh next time you meet a dork who still has his expensive camera set to ‘Full Auto’).

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Konrad Makes Photos.

Stepping up into the realm of the professionals we encounter good friend of the show Konrad Dwojak. His recent move to the US have given him the time, the inspiration and the wisdom to finally start producing audio and video content on a regular basis. Its not technically a podcast yet, but you CAN find Konrad on OUR podcast from time to time too. Aside from Konrads excellent portfolio, the site also features great blogposts and videotips on photography for those who are novice or more advanced in photography. Something you should not miss out on. 

 

 

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kw705 : Reviewing the Samsung Galaxy Gear

Nov 23


Its Go-go-gadget review time again as we get our greedy little geek hands on the latest gadgets from Samsung. We do an in depth review of their new Phablet the “Note 3” and turn ourselves into Michael Knight (from Knightrider .. remember ?) as we slap on the worlds most advanced smart watch : The Galaxy Gear.

Shownotes

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CMD.FM : The geekiest way to stream high quality music for free.

Nov 20
I very frequently leave the house without having enough music in my pocket. As an avid podcast consumer who loves to listen to a broad range of podcasts about an even broader range of topics, tunes are quite rare on whatever mobile device i’m packing. But thanks to the wonders of streaming, a nice set of notes is never far away. This week listener Sharky suggested a very very geeky way to do just that. With streaming services like Pandora and Spotify abundant on the desktop of the average mouse jockey, its time to “set yourself apart” from the crowds. The ultimate way to do this is to use cmd.fm. Its a streaming music interface combined with something that resembles a chat room .. in a command line interface. All you need is a computer (duh) a browser and a sound card and you are good to go. In a command line interface you can choose from a variety of genres and listen to whatever tickles your fancy (from Punk Rock to Choir music). If you sign up for an account you can leave comments and “chat” with the other users while listening to the streams. Play, Pause, Genres, … All the commands are entered via the keyboard; We love the service because it has a high sound and content quality, because there are no (or almost no) adds and because its the geekiest way to stream music ever. 
 
 
 

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