Choosing notebooks is becoming difficult to do because of so many choices and options to weigh. And if choosing hardware is not hard enough, notebook manufacturers bundle their products with softwares that are usually junk or something that you do not need.

One very common example is Windows Vista OS. Vista comes with every notebook, or computer for that matter, and buyers usually have to pay for it even if they do not want it. Some prefer to downgrade to Windows XP while some just have no other choice but to purchase the OS license only to wipe it off from their notebooks and replace it with Linux.

As a consumer, we have the right to choose which products we want to buy. And in some cases, notebook manufacturers do not seem to give buyers to choose if they want to buy OS or not. That really sucks because Vista OS licenses can cost at least $100, and customers are only paying for the license, therefore do not own the software. Why would you want to pay for something that you do not, and will never, own?

Fortunately, there are some people who actually read the End User License Agreement or EULA of Windows licenses and use it to their own advantage. Take for example uncle_benji, the author of equiliberate.org, who bought an HP notebook bundled with Vista. He chose to waive his purchase of Windows Vista license in favor of using Linux, and got his money back, almost the same amount of the retail price of Vista.

Read his full story here.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Nintendo Wii is a spectacular gaming console that revolutionized how console gaming works by using remote controllers, giving the players more variety than the ordinary controls. And many technology buffs like to research and experiment different other uses with the Wii Remote, other than as a game controller.

Researcher Johnny Lee takes a $40 Wii Remote and cheap hardware, and turns it to a digital whiteboard and a 3D viewer eye-glasses, among other things. That is how flexible the Wii Remote is.

Watch this video as Johnny demonstrates the Wii Hacks:

Source: www.ted.com

The great thing about the Wii remote lies in its design. The motion sensors inside each Wii remote (or Wiimote) makes it flexible for other uses other than just being a game controller. As a game controller, it can be a golf club or a bowling glove and makes a game more interactive and puts more ‘real action rather than pressing buttons. Put in a modified hardware, which is available from any hobby or electronic shop, slap in some free software and you got yourself a whole new gadget.

One thing I can think of as another use for the Wiimote is how you can use it as navigation system for visually impaired people. Since the Wiimote uses motion sensors, it can be modified to use as a simple navigation system and alerts the user for possible road obstacles like passing cars. I tried searching if there are any available documents on the net about this, but nothing came up yet. Maybe I ought to contact Johnny Lee about my idea.

Popularity: 10% [?]

While not everyone is into ‘IT’, everyone is now involved in Information Technology age whether we like it or not. Everyday things have little computers in them that do many things aside from adding and subtracting numbers. Cars have little computers that control gas and air mixture to achieve that perfect driving experience, mobile phone have tiny microchips that receives signals from telecommunication companies connecting us to people all around the world, even animals in the wildlife are using computers.

Admit it, computers are everywhere. And being an IT System Administrator makes me a part of this ever growing industry. Do you know that System Administrators like me work around the clock to make sure your email gets sent? Yes, we are not as popular as the software developers but hey, everyone must work in harmony so we can achieve our goals. The line between developers and system administrators are blurred anyway. System administrators are developers in a way and developers are system administrators.

There are a lot of things that I like about geeky stuff (read: computers and technology). Like it still amazes me how two people can communicate over instant messaging even if they are thousands of miles apart or how your car knows when to deflate the airbags. Behind those everyday things, there are IT people working on it who went to school and took special trainings like Cisco certification to be able to create such amazing things.

I myself went to special school that teaches a lot of things about computers and technology and took Cisco Certification training as well. Although I never finished the training course, it helped me add ‘bling’, if I may say so, to my resume. And I saw a couple of friends who finished the training and took the certification exam and how their career growth boosted afterwards. That made me think that having experience is already a big plus, but having a certification to prove that years of expertise is really big.

In a way, IT professionals are like doctors: one must put in time to learn and explore things. But being certified in one field like networking technology or software engineering is a big, big plus. And if you are thinking that IT is already saturated with jobless professionals, then think again. There are lots of career opportunities in every country whether it is just designing the company website, or making sure that planes don’t go crashing into mountains.

And the best part of being an IT administrator? I get to play around with computers and get paid for it. Although, I think that being a game tester is a more satisfying job. I would love to try that.

Popularity: 5% [?]

This is how your favorite cup of coffee looks like in a cross-section view, whether it is espresso or cafe latte. SO next time you drop by Starbucks, you know how your coffee looks like inside.

Credits: coffee.info

Popularity: 5% [?]

Here is a nice way to hide your secret stash of anything. I am always fond of making things like ordinary stuff lying around the house, fooling everyone into thinking that it is just a piece of junk.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Remember the post I created about Linus Torvalds’s comment about OpenBSD developers being a bunch of masturbating monkeys?

Well, Linus just released another one, and I quote:

“PS. And to get wider distribution for this message: Digg users - you’re all a bunch of Wanking Walruses. And you can quote me on that.”

That was a PS to his email to a mailing list and indeed, the comment became popular in Digg in just four hours.

Mark Shuttleworth just got two possible Ubuntu release names from Linus.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Even geeks know how to outsmart beauties. They aren’t called geeks for nothin’!

Enjoy this funny albeit banned, commercial

Popularity: 7% [?]

The network connection at office keeps my SSH session from running smoothly. Well, it means I keep on being disconnected from the server when my SSH session turns idle for a certain period of time. It gets annoying especially if I am in the middle of a script running silently.

One alternative I have written before here is using screen command or by editing the SSH config file to prevent SSH from disconnecting its connection.

The process is very simple: your SSH session consistently sends packets over the connection to let the remote computer know that the session is still active and there is no need for termination. This is what they call Keep Alive packets. For me, it means Keep My Sanity packets.

Anyway here is what you need to do. Edit your ssh_config file, usually in /etc/ssh/ directory:

# vi /etc/ssh/ssh_config

And put this line in the file:

ServerAliveInterval 60

Save and exit.

Open the ~/.ssh/config file (or create it if not present) and put this line in it:

Host *
ServerAliveInterval 60

Don’t forget the indent at the second line. Save and exit.

Lastly, reload your new SSH config file by doing:

# /etc/init.d/sshd reload

This should do the trick of fooling the remote server into thinking that your SSH connection is active, even if it is not.

Did this tip worked for you? Let me know in the comments section.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Here is an excerpt from Linus Torvalds that should keep everyone involved in Open Source communities moving. Once again, a lovely quote from Linus himself:

From: Linus Torvalds linux-foundation.org>
Subject: Re: [stable] Linux 2.6.25.10
Newsgroups: gmane.linux.kernel
Date: 2008-07-15 16:13:03 GMT (4 days, 17 hours and 27 minutes ago)

Linus

Thanks to http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel/706950

Popularity: 8% [?]

There are more than a few ways how a person’s IQ is measured. There are some who measure it by academic performance like how book smart a person is. People under this category are usually either rocket scientists or Google programmers, either way, geeks are uber sexy! On the other side, there people who are not so good with books but are ultimately the royalties of being street-smart. These people know may not be able to build a quantum gravity replicator (if there is such a word) but knows their way when it comes to budgeting finances or getting their life goals in their own way. There are also sexy smart, those who are both physically and mentally attractive and people who are dumb smart, those who are neither dumb nor smart.

Ideally, I am kind of in the dumb smart category simply because you cannot survive as an administrator if you are not one, and at the same time I tend to make mistakes which I consider as dumb. Take for example my financial status. I am earn well for my age, but still I think I am not earning enough. In reality, I just spend a lot time and money and my excuse is, I am just enjoying the fruits of my labor. It is not easy to work as system administrator, you know!

And so I stumbled upon BillsIQ which gave me a fair idea of how knowledgeable I am with my financial IQ and when I tried their online IQ test, it gave me 80% as my score. It is below average according to their report, but the great thing about BillsIQ is they give advice and helpful reminders to help you remain in control of your finances. It sure helped me in being more financially smart about my expenses because their tips are straight to the point and simple to understand.

The only thing left for me is to take into action what I have learned.

Popularity: 7% [?]