Posted on

KW1102 Thinking Inside the Box

It’s time to get virtual.

On this installment of the podcast Knightwise delves into the topic of virtualization and talks about how to make the most of a single piece of hardware by letting it do the job of multiple different machines.

We are also joined by special guest Matthew Williams of Open FOSS Training who tells us about his new video tutorial and provides some tips for working with VirtualBox on Windows 10.

Links

Music

Credits

Related Posts

Posted on

Raspberry Pi Week : Start learning Python with this free tutorial.

“There is an app for that ! “. How many times have you heard that phrase, probably uttered by some smartphone waving geek who instantly shows you how to fix problem Xyz in your life using a pre-packaged app. And there is nothing wrong with that.. as long as there IS an app. But what if there is not ? What if you spend hours online looking for an app that doesn’t exist or doesn’t quite do what you want it to do ? Wouldn’t your wish to be able to TELL your computer exactly what to do ? Well there is ! It’s called programming. Don’t worry if it sounds weird but before the time of beard-sporting iphone hipsters with 5997 apps on their smartphones we used to PROGRAM our machines to work for us.

python code

A great way to start to learn how to program is by using a raspberry pi. The inexpensive mini computer is a great place to start when you want to learn how to program. The Pi is geared heavily towards the Python language and offers great tools which you can use when you want to learn how to code (or teach your kid on how to code). But where do you start ?

The Full Circle magazine has been running a series on “how to program in python” for quite some time. They have collected all these articles into 3 PDF Issues of their magazine that you can download for free. Its a great way to start your first baby steps into Python scripting and discovering you don’t always need an “app for that”. Even with a few basic programming skills you can upstage those app-jockeys by saying ” I WROTE a script for that !”. So download the tutorial, grow a beard, put on sandals and start screaming profanities towards closed source software, because you’re on your way to becoming a Python Programmer !

Links :

Related Posts

Posted on

Podcast week : Free Photography lessons with Konrad and Bart.

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. 

Screenshot 2013-12-15 18.02.01

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’).

Screenshot 2013-12-15 18.02.55

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. 

 

 

Related Posts

Posted on

KW Videoblog for 7-6 : Cyberpunk Librarian tells us about cross platform sliding at work.

Together with some great community content from viewer Cyberpunk Librarian who is showing us “How he uses cross platform technology at work” we also have a guesthost for this weeks videoblog.

Shownotes

Related Posts

Posted on

Taking the Gimp one step further.

Getting back from a week in a cottage near the Dutch coast, I have an SD card with plenty of pictures waiting to be edited. Of course you are never quite satisfied with the shots you made and a “liitle editing” is never a bad thing. Whether you just want to quickly crop the image and fiddle with the contrast , or paste aunt Irma’s head onto a giraffe .. the possibilities are endless. 

If you have money to burn (and own a mac or a PC) you might want to go for cool applications like Aperture or Photoshop … and then again, maybe you don’t ! 

So there is “The Gimp” which, in all honesty used to be a typical “old school Linux” application. A terrible user interface, poor documentation and you did get a fair chance of getting flamed whenever you asked a question on how to use it. Luckily those times have changed. The Gimp became a “native” Mac application, cleaned up its interface and is now easily one of the most powerful applications for the cross-platform photog on a budget. 

Video Tutorials : In order to get started we have found some excellent video tutorials on the “basics” of using the gimp. Standard image editing and basic picture manipulations : You can find some tutorials HERE. 

Pdf tutorials : The official Gimp tutorial can be found on the Gimp website. Some quick reference cards for the Gimp and its many keyboard shortcuts can be found HERE.   

Podcasts : Over at “Meetthegimp.org” you can find an extended video podcast about using the Gimp. With over 150 episodes this is truly a plethora of information on using the Gimp. You can subscribe directly in iTunes. 

Magazines : Why not get your very own Gimp Magazine. An interactive free and open source magazine for Gimp newbies and hardcore ninja’s. Much like Ubuntu’s Full Circle magazine this is an interactive magazine that relies on the contributions from the community. You can download the latest version here.

And of course : If you haven’t installed “The Gimp” yet .. why not get it first .. its free, open and completely cross platform compatible. Download it here.

 

Related Posts

Posted on

kw504 : Sliders Academy Part One : Installing your Ubuntu system.

We start out a new series of Video tutorials on Knightwise.com called “Sliders Academy” where we give you step by step guides to ‘learn how to slide’. We start out with chapter one of Sliders Academy where we show you how to setup a central Ubuntu system that will serve as the nervecenter for your upcoming slider activities. In this episode we show you how to download and install Ubuntu, Partition your drive, update your system and install some alternative desktop interfaces. 30 minutes of educational edu-tainment coming right up.

Shownotes.

Download the video HERE.

Related Posts

Posted on

Learn Office (and open office) essentials "in pictures".

” Darn dude ! You slow or something ? Do I NEED to draw you a Picture ? ? ? ” If the answer to the first question is Yes .. I’ll try to type more slowly. If the answer to the SECOND question is yes .. then we have a solution for you. The downside in not regularly using office applications is that you forget how to do things. But of course you can always go and read the manual. The manual ! Yes .. like you have the “dummies guide to excel” at the corner of your desk. Who has time to READ all that stuff. We all know that visual information is a lot easier to comprehend and faster to get through ?

Enter “Inpics.net” a great site with “screen by screen” howto’s on how to do things in Office, Openoffice and some web coding lingo’s too. The tutorials are horribly easy to comprehend and give you a blow-by-blow guide on helping you out. Although the latest versions of Microsoft Office are not included, its not all that bad. A subtraction is a subtraction after all.

Now we can replace RTFM* (Read the fabulous manual) with JGWTP* ( ‘Just go watch the pictures ‘ )  and visit Inpics.net

Related Posts

Posted on

The live cds you cannot live without : Gparted and Clonezilla.

Partitioning your harddrive when you have some data on it, is like doing brain surgery on your own best friend .. with blunt scissors, blindfolded, hanging upside down .. in the subwaycar .. while playing pingpong .. well , you catch my drift.  With your precious data on the drives, having to resize, move and add partitions is pretty dangerous. Of course you backed up all your data ( you ARE a ‘Wiseguy’ are you not ?) but still. A great tool that has always helped me in these precarious times is Gparted. Back in the days I had a “Copy” of Partition Magic (from Symantec) to do this. But that was because I was oblivious from the fact that Gparted existed. This free live cd (which is also a Linux app) helps you repartition any system without having to boot into the os. Get your copy here.

The other classic I remember was Symantecs Ghost !. When I had freshly installed a system I would make an image using Ghost for quick reinstalls should it be required. I even remembering re-imaging entire classrooms with Ghost, multicasting the data over the network. When I showed my skills to my colleagues at the time they thought it to be black magic ! A free (and much more powerful) “clone” of Ghost (no pun intended) is Clonezilla. A free and open source solution to do JUST that and more. Their website might make Geocities blush but, Get your copy here.

I have copies of these two disks lying around in my car and on a Usb stick along with some other essentials. Whenever you come across this one friend that needs brain surgery .. you will be happy you have them.

To help you along, Ive found some great tutorials on Youtube. The Gparted tutorial is a little dated but very well explained.

Related Posts