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Hands On with the ZaReason Zeto Compact Gaming PC | OMG! Ubuntu!

 

Heat is back!

Have been fighting with my new heater in my shop...

Thinking the near zero temps were affecting my tanks ability to gasify... I purchased a heating blanket for my tank...

Worked throughout the next DAY... but that night the fire went out...

Thanks for electric back-up heater for keeping things from freezing.

Thought maybe the tank was still not warm enough... placed insulation around it.

Still couldn't keep the heater lit, matter of fact... it got worse.

Last step... remove regulator

Placed over heater and watched the water pour from the vent hole.... LOL!

 After three days of fighting I am nice and toasty in the shop once again!

Placement of Chimneys

Engineers and local code enforcement should know better!

I know of several people about the area that awoke this moring to an aweful reality as to what the melting ice had done over night. My Brother among them found out that the ice as it melted and slid off the roof had taken his chimney down to the ground with it. For older houses like his and many around the area there may be no choice for placement of the chimney (although it might be a wise decision to look into it), luckily mine is at a gable end where sliding snow and ice has no effect on it... and that is precisely where they should be placed at any possible cost. People looking at homes in the colder climates should keep things like this in mind when buying or building... likewise the architects and code enforcement officers should demand as much also.

2014 Moving In Fast

Only 3 days left in 2013!  

Where did it go?

Ransomware

BBC News - Cryptolocker ransomware has 'infected about 250,000 PCs'

Once more my move/push to Linux seems to have been properly executed.

No worries here! Could possibly give me a lot of work though. Thanks Bill!

Make the move to Linux and leave the trouble behind.

 

Holiday Wishes

The Weather Outside....

A Favorite Artist Strikes Again!

I love her work.   LOL   There are just sooo many ways this could be interpreted!

See the full size version Here

Merry Christmas

Danger Danger!

How is it that people can be awake and out about their day and not have a clue as to what they are doing... or the danger they are putting themselves (and others) in?
- Start the car early to let it warm up before taking the kids to school.... check!
- Get the kids into the car and drive them to school... check!
- Pull out of the school parking lot and proceed to next destination... check!
-Car stopped in front of you with left hand turn signal on waiting to make a left hand turn... pull into left lane to go around them... look up in time to see a school bus directly in front of you in the oncoming lane of travel which is why the car in front of you was stopped in the first place... check, check and... check!
If thinking is that distracting to you please... by all means... pull over until you stop thinking!!!   LOL.

Development Release: SteamOS 1.0 Beta

News I Just Have to Share!

Valve has announced the availability of the much-awaited first public beta release of SteamOS, a Debian-based gaming distribution that includes the Steam client and some Steam games: "We've been hard at work to deliver on out promise of a new kind of living romm entertainment environment - one that is accessible, powerful and open. In making the SteamOS Beta available to you, we're excited to take the next major step towards that goal." This early beta release is designed for developers and experienced Linux users; there is no easy-to-install ISO image - just a zipped file that needs to be decompressed onto a USB storage medium and a basic installer tha will take over the computer's hard disk. SteamOS 1.0 is based on Debian GNU/Linux 7.0, but it ships with a newer kernel (3.10.11), proprietary graphics drivers (ATI 13.11 and NVIDIA 331.20), and Gnome 3 desktop which must be manually enabled. See the SteamOS home page, the FAQs and the installation instructions for further information.

EOL for Windows XP

Support ends in 2014 for Windows XP and Office 2003!

April 8th, 2014 marks the end date for all Microsoft support of the aged XP Operating System.  If you have not made the change to Windows 7 or 8 or an alternative Operating system of your choice, there is no better time than the present. There are many alternatives to Proprietary Operating Systems, most can be found HERE. 

LibreOffice 4

Really liking the New LibreOffice... It has the ability to use Firefox Personas & Themes... Neat!

Time Mix-Up

Why is it that there are so many people (an apparently whole companies) that don't understand that 12:00 AM is MIDNIGHT and 12:00 PM is NOON ! I have my new Netgear router set to email its logs to me at 12:00AM and just recieved it at 12:01 PM ... FCOL  Seems to be a lot of this recently as others I know have commented on this idiocy as well.

Disney's Frozen

Took Rylea to see Frozen on Black Friday... Lots of people had the same idea, it was totally worth going to see. See the trailer here...

Frozen TRAILER YouTube

Personally I like Sven the best.

WordPress

http://www.wordpress.org/download/

Been experimenting with this a bit and have it up and running on Ubuntu 12.04 on an ancient Dell Dimension 4500S. So far this is looking really good, and is a bit more user friendly than  Barracuda, but I'm not so sure it is worth messing around trying to transfer everything from my other server... hmmm.  At any rate, anyone interested in hosting thier own Blog/Site WordPress is sertainly worth a look, so far everything I have tried is working without a hitch. From a bare PC with a fresh install of Ubuntu it took me just over 1 hour before posting my first blog entry into the WP server, keeping in mind that I had never before installed anything as in-depth as this, it was a snap with plenty of on-line tutorials to walk you through the process.  For now. however, I suppose I will stick with Barracuda and Blogger, but I will continue to experiment locally with WordPress.

Great Place to Find Helpful Information

Download MakeUseOf Guides

How Much Snow

Can you pile onto a clothesline?

Dr. Who, 50 Years and Going Strong!

BBC News - Doctor Who fans watch 50th anniversary special

HAPPY 50th !!!

Do you need a new computer?

Easy as Pi The Raspberry Pi.... a fully functioning micro computer Under $60

See it here!  

Attention Now Shifting Back Toward The Shop

Now that the Kitchen is essentially finished... I am getting some stuff finished up to make the shop a bit more user friendly.

No, that countertop is NOT sitting on the speaker! lol.

Surrounded by some of my favorite Artists work as well.

 

Cool!

Pipe cleaner artist

Project "Enlighten"

Currently working on getting four older pc's up and running on Ubuntu 12.04LTS to be able to offer them for trial use to my clients so they may try Ubuntu Linux without concern of messing up their own computers (although that would not happen). There is a certain security and willingness to experiment with something if there is no danger to one's own equipment.

Any-hoo... anyone in the local area that is interested, drop me a line.

World War II

Lest We Forget, Our Nations Defenders

Fair Week

Just archiving photos from the last year and came across this one I had planned to upload...

So... here it is!  It never seems to fail that the weather turns bad for at least part of the County Fair.

Trouble Brewing

 

Max?

Who to hell is Max?... and why does he have to fill my Keurig?

OctoBrrrr.... 23rd

Wasn't looking forward to starting the wood fire in the furnace...

...But I'm happy I did.

YAY! Counter-Top is IN!

This nearly finishes the Kitchen remodel...

Only a few odds and ends left to do now.

First Piece of the Counter-Top in Place!

I Like It!

Lst Pic Before The Counter-top

Everything is set for the install on Tuesday!

Kitchen Update for Blogger

For those that can't seem to connect to my private server (for whatever reason?) These are the latest Pics of the new Kitchen.

Success

I was finally able to link Both my private server and my Blogger together in Scribefire.... now I can post to both blogs at once.

Test from Scribefire

Hi

A Prayer for the Heroes

Our Father in Heaven,

      I offer a prayer in your name to remember and honor all those souls who lost their lives Twelve Years Ago today. With special thanks to those heroes who stood up to the atrocity on Flight 93 to save countless more, and to the brave crews of the emergency services whose job it was to help those in need, and all of the untold heroes that were in the midst of the chaos itself.

      As a veteran of foreign war myself, it saddens me terribly to see the ruthless actions of the uncivilized unleashed on my native soil for which I have fought for. Although the land may be trespassed upon, they will never dampen my memory, respect, and honor of all those who have given their lives for and stood beside me to defend it.

      Thank you for remembering and caring.

Jesus Christ is my Lord & Savior

and in His name I pray, AMEN!

New Kitchen In The Works

Failed to get proper "before" Photos, but I have a decent start on the Wall cabinets. I do like the Denver Hickory, especially the more I look at it, lots of character. The Cabinets around the Stove are the originals... I hate that dark look. The Stove will actually be getting turned and placed close to the tall cabinet in the foreground.

Lots more cabinet space with actual corner cabinets.

 The new location for the Microwave next to the refrigerator.

What A Wonderful Little Device

Just picked up one of these Sandisk Wireless Flash Drives from Newegg for review.

I can really see these things taking off big time, allowing you to share and stream any media to multiple iOS, Android and Windows devices and not taking up the valuable and limited space on them. There is no real support for Linux for streaming content, but as a general purpose file server it also works with Linux through the web browser interface. It is only USB 2.0 but if this catches on I would imagine that the USB 3.0 version would be just around the corner. Pick up an additional two or three 32GB MicroSD cards and take all your favourite Pictures, Videos, and Movies with you.

A Year For Spending

New Entry Door,

New Computer,

New Shop,

New Server,

New Kitchen Window,

...NEXT...

New Kitchen Cabinets,

New Kitchen Countertops,

New Kitchen Floor....

When will it stop?

lol...

Spend it now... you can't take it with you! 

Ineptocracy

hmmmmm......

Doesn’t that sound like it is hitting close to home????? #wake-up call

Server UP!

Looks kinda lonely... the new server being the only piece of equipment on the rack at the moment... not even a proper shelf for the Blu-Ray dvd drive. 

All in All it's running well.

WIP

No Pics yet, but... I have just put another day of work and $200 into materials on the shop. I will be able to get the shelving installed now and start sorting out the mess.
     * Insulation------- Check.

     * Wall board-----  Check

     * Shelf mounts--  Check

     * Thwarted attempt by Lowes to charge me $130 more than needed--- Check.


Now nearing a place for the permanent home for the server.

Asus Up and Running

Gotta love the NVidia Graphics... so much better than the Intel Graphics. Along with the Solid State drive, this machine is up-and-running only 11 seconds after the post.

Saying Good-bye

My old server, it seems, has simply seen better days. I cannot complain as I have had a good solid 7 years of service from an otherwise useless old dell Dimension that was out of date when I placed it in service as a server in the first place.

On to newer and more energy efficient equipment... and a bit faster.  I am making the move to a rack mount system as a server, and being a fan of the small and energy efficient Atom... this choice from SuperMicro seemed a logical choice to me.

I have all ready upgraded my LAN to Gigabit and am looking forward to a server that can utilize that speed as well. I have a 40GB Solid State Drive for the Operating System (Ubuntu Server 64bit) and have two Seagate 3TB drives ready for installation.

If I was able to get 7 years of 24-7 use from the old Dimension... I will hope to be able to top 10 years with this one... I fear my expectations may be a bit too high... we'll see.

For now, I just need to sit back and wait for the UPS man to deliver.