Posts

Floppy trick.

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Quick floppy trick. To fix an old floppy that will not turn inside, can possibly rectified by gently running the rib on the edge of a desk or the like.

Open source

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Having been an administrator, my job was to keep software updated and running. At the time the OS we used was just upgraded and many applications no longer worked. Of course you were on the phone with the vendor. The answer we got most was we have to wait an see what the OS vendor was going to do. That is not the answer students want to here when not being able use the software to get their class es done. One particular vendor had software I could fix if they would let me modify it. The application vendor threatened to sue my employer an me if any changes were made. Between a rock and a hard place. All was eventually worked out but quite a few students wanted to strangle the IT team. That really happens with proprietary software. With open source software in most cases it is not a problem. You can modify the source code to solve issues quickly and effectively. Most of all the major distros have source code repositories for just that. Also to consider:

A thought about linux.

The one thing, I like about linux is that it is on so many hardware platforms. Source code can easily in most cases used on all the platforms. Also known as portability of code. That gives you a lower cost of software and it's support. Another company that used to brag about its return on investment (aka ROI) has fallen silent on the subject. I can still run up to date software on my older machines via linux and bsd without in most cases getting new hardware. That is great for keeping it IT budget controllable. Now that 32 bit systems are being phased out that may not be so true, but I can keep cranking a bit longer with my so called obsolete systems.

Gui Web

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Tim Berners-Lee was the real inventor of the gui (www) internet. NOT I REPEAT NOT Al Gore. Source code: ------------------------------------------------------ Cern web server  Browser advanced Browser original?

To do this weekend.

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Out of Micro sd cards so it is time to get a few more.  Finally have my rpi 0 w to play with. Finally have Pimoroni hammer headers. They do not come with instructions, but that was finally figured out.  Nice they gave you a choice of either female or male headers. Also have the speaker bonnets, but they do not come with speakers so the ad is misleading, Only have a few atmel368 chips left. Have a project or two for them. Have the rpi zero w teathered to my nexus 7 2012. ---- Using the spi version of the ethernet interface with the rpi zero. Your connection may vary. ---- Set up a Raspberry Pi Zero headless If you are using the GUI (Raspian full download) and want to connect your RPi Zero to a keyboard and monitor there are probably easier ways to do this. These notes are for people that want to use a headless (no monitor and GUI) setup ready to connect to your RPi after first boot via SSH from another terminal. Download Raspb

Odd monitors for the Raspberry Pi.

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If you do not have access to hdmi based monitors, any old monitor with composite input used with the old eight bit computers should do fine. You may have to purchase a special cabIe. I like to use my old c=1701. You can even add a digital tuner and use it as a tv. Some old TV's that do not have composite but do have rf input can be used with a vcr My favorite is to use an old dvdrom player with composite and audio input. You can always attach a Raspberry Pi to the back of the unit to make it super portable. Even an old portable tv with composite input can be a choice! In the case though it is only black and white. Then again you can use your tablet via xrdp to act as a screen for your raspberry Pi. Last but not least is the old Trs-80 monitor. No sound and is only black and white. You also have to provide a +5 volts line externally.. There is always those inexpensive mini portable monitors, but they may require 12 volts to work. Normally use

Starting slackware 14.2 in a virtual machine.

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Started with Slackware linux and decided to go back and look at it.  In this case, I plan to use qemu to build a virtual machine. You will need to have a stable internet access for this project. You also need to have a fast machine with over a gig of memory.  You will not need to download and burn a cd or dvd.  You will need a floppy, usb, cd, or a network interface card that supports gpxe (ipxe). You will want to go to romomatic,net to build your image to put on your boot device. Though with Qemu you can just use the image without creating boot media,  Though I do recommend using 256 megabytes of ram. Be sure to set up the virtual drive for your install. Once you have everything the way you want then you can launch the install. Eventually you will get to a login and the you can start the the good old install; AAh, at home again. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Slackware pxeboot script: