Category Archives: General

Apr 28 0 comments
F/OSS, Geek Stuff, General

My Non-Open Source (Proprietary) Guilty Pleasures

Being an “Open Source” guy there is a certain stigma that goes along with that title, one being that everything you use has to be Open Source. Where I take great pride in the knowledge there isn’t really any aspect of my digital life I couldn’t do without an Open Source solution, I personally don’t necessarily make Open Source a “requirement”. I always look for the best solution and tool for a particular task, for me freedom and access to the code weighs heavily in that decision but is not the only parameters in picking a solution.

In the interest of full discloser, and because there are people who enjoy pointing out when they “catch me” not using Open Source (as if I don’t know), I present to you a list of my Non-Open Source guilty pleasures that I use frequently (with some justification for using them)

Note: with the exceptions of OSX and the Microsoft products all solutions below do offer free versions of their products though I typically pay for the upgraded products.

Desktop

  • Evernote (http://www.evernote.com) – There are several alternatives to Evernote, including Open Sources ones such as Tomboy but they all seem to lack either features or cross platform compatibility. Evernote does have a OSX and Windows client but no client for Linux which has always been a huge draw back. Evernote does have a pretty good web interface, which continues to improve and this helps a lot when I am on my Linux desktops. Evernote also have a lot of open APIs and there has been some activity to writing alternative Evernote clients that will run on Linux desktops including one I’ve checked out called Nevernote (http://nevernote.sourceforge.net/)
  • Navicat (http://www.navicat.com/) – I simple like this tool. The user interface and feature set is wonderful. There are tons of Open Source GUI clients to connect to MySQL database and even though 99% on my database activity is connecting to a MySQL backend every now and then I need to connect to MSSQL, Oracle, or PostgreSQL and my Navicat Premium allows me to do this in one client. It also has a wonderful feature of establishing my MySQL connections over SSH which I love when I need to work on my Windows boxes. It’s baked in so I don’t have to establish my own separate SSH tunnel. They also have clients for Windows, OSX, and Linux
  • Dropbox (http://db.tt/AyOLUYV) – I have to be honest, I’ve used Dropbox for several years but it is always on my hit list to move to an alternative Open Source solution. There seems to be a new one that drops every month. When I get comfortable with the staying power and feature set that Dropbox offer, I will probably drop Dropbox.
  • OSX (http://www.apple.com/macosx/) – This is really a decision of convince than anything else. There are typically a greater number “vendor support” desktop application that are not support on Linux desktops such as the previously mentioned Evernote. However OSX is BSD at heart and lets me retain a lot of the Open Source tools I am accustomed to on my Linux desktop including a very power command line and scripting ability. My OSX desktop also affords me the unique benefit of running virtualization software such as Virtualbox (http://www.virtualbox.org/) and allow me to run Windows, several Linux distributions, and OSX all on one physical machine. This is really nice especially when needing to do testing.

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Apr 28 0 comments
General

Jimi continues to dominate my #Last.fm library

Shocms_music_profile__users_at_last

http://www.last.fm/user/Shocm

 

Posted via email from shocm

Apr 01 0 comments
Development, General

Powerful Validation from Respect

All developers have had to, and one time or another, write a validation class. Over the years, I’ve personally tweaked my own validation class and it has become a pretty standard part of all my coding project; However that may all change now.

Respect is not the first PHP validation class to hit the tubes of the Net but it does appear to be one of the better implemented and flexible ones out there.

More powerful Validation from Respect – http://pulsene.ws/1atzk

Posted via email from shocm

Jan 12 0 comments
General

Goodbye OpenOffice, Hello LibreOffice

After years of being an advocate for the for the Open Source approach and philosophy behind OpenOffice, which for years lead the way as a alternative solution to more proprietary office suites, I’ve forced to reevaluate my recommendation of the OpenOffice suite. After Sun was acquired by Oracle, Oracle’s direction for the OpenOffice suite seemed shaky and not really inline with the community. This is where the power of Open Source shines, the OpenOffice was forked and a new project was started by the name of LibreOffice (http://www.libreoffice.org/ / http://www.documentfoundation.org/download/)

There is a good step by step on how to remove OpenOffice and install LibreOffice on your Ubuntu box on the txwikinger Blog http://goo.gl/PF9T6

 

Posted via email from shocm

Dec 23 0 comments
General

Darwin’s Finches, 20th Century Business, and APIs: Evolve Your Business Model

via blog.apigee.com

This is a really good talk about APIs and their place as a real business model. It’s a little long but has a lot of great point and examples for both the very geeky and the very business minded individuals.
I’ve often had discussion around the open API approach vs Open Source approach and if open API’s might not be a good substitution for a business who, for whatever reason, don’t want to go Open Source with their model.
Sam Ramji does a great job of outlining exactly how you should think of yourself in an API world as a business. He touches on how to iterate the growth of an API model and listen to the users of it.
Great talk in general, if this type of stuff interest you please give it a watch. It’s about 45 minutes long. He also made the slides and content available through Creative Commons.

Posted via email from shocm

Dec 14 0 comments
General

Whisky Rocks look cool (pardon the pun) Going to have try them in my Lagavulin

via i.imgur.com

Saw this on Reddit and had to track down where I can buy some. Looks like I might be making a Amazon order. Perfect as a stocking stuffer http://www.amazon.com/Rocks-Whiskey-Stones-Set/dp/B002GZX2DE

Posted via email from shocm

Dec 10 0 comments
General

The wife’s holiday “Skittle Popcorn” making process has begun

It has become somewhat of a holiday tradition around our house that the wife makes her famous "Skittle Popcorn" in which she infuses the wonderful taste of Skittles onto light and fluffy popcorn. It's all sorts of goodness I assure you. This year she is channeling the "mad scientist" in her and will experiment with other candy and popcorn combinations such as Red Hots. Should be interesting. 

Posted via email from shocm

Dec 03 0 comments
General

Two of my favorite things in life, Sony and Batman

Nice article posted on the Sony Electronics Blog  ( http://blog.discover.sonystyle.com/interview-with-comic-book-legend-jim-lee ) that has an interview with Jim Lee from DC Universe Online  which is going to be a cool game that lets you be a hero (and maybe even a villain) in the DC Universe. I am a huge Batman fan so there is no question I will be giving this a look. The trailer moves on the sites are pretty intense http://www.dcuniverseonline.com/

Posted via email from shocm

Nov 30 0 comments
General

Another “Seized Property”

These notices are showing up more and all over the Internet. This one comes courtesy of TVshack.cc I think it’s only a matter of time before we begin to see a backlash from this

via tvshack.cc

Posted via email from shocm

Oct 13 0 comments
General

iPhone Set Up (with power) on my Motorcycle

The SetUp My Helmet

DSC03575 DSC03576 No iPhone

I knew when I bought my Yamaha V-Star motorcycle, I wanted to figure out a way to tie my iPhone into it in such a manner where it was functional. It seemed like a perfect device for motorcycle riding. Before I go much further let me just say, “Always ride Safe”. I honestly believe that nothing I did here jeopardizes my safety on the motorcycle and this system was implemented with safety in mind.

I was surprised to see very few systems out there that allowed you to incorporate your iPhone onto your motorcycle. I came across several people who kind of winged it and threw something together but nothing I wanted to do. My criteria was simple, it had to be clean, functional, and safe.

My first purchase was the most expensive one. I purchased two ChatterBox XBi systems at around $200 for each unit. The ChatterBox system ties into your iPhone’s bluetooth system and allows you to listen to music and even take phone calls (again please use your head and be safe). I purchased two systems because I wanted to leverage the intercom system but this was not needed for the iPhone integration so you can save some money here.

The ChatterBox addressed around 90% of my needs. I could start some music up, throw my iPhone in my pocket and life was good. But I was really looking for more, I wanted my iPhone accessible while I was riding. My next purchase was a RAM handlebar mount (RAM-B-149ZU) and a RAM iPhone cradle (RAM-HOL-AP6U) that ran me about another $40 from Ram Mounts Web site. This combination made a wonderful product. Extremely simple to install and very sturdy. The iPhone latches in there pretty snug and I have never had any problems or concerns about it coming loose. Just a great product. This got the iPhone out of my pocket and it was now accessible and visible. Now I could listen to my music and if someone called I was able to tell who it was and if I need to take the call. I could also start to use other application such as the TomTom navigation app.

I still had one problem, long bike rides listening to music, using the navigation, and taking pictures really drained the battery. I didn’t want to end up in a situation where it was late at night, broken down, and the iPhone with no charge because I was listening to music. I needed power. Took me awhile, but I found Pashnit Moto who offered a couple of solutions of which I settled on the Apple 3G, 3Gs and iTouch Battery Harness PPC-026-DB which ended up running me around $43.

That was all it took and it completely changed my riding experience. I now have music and navigation all in one small device. There are a few drawbacks. For example, the way you have to manually connect the ChatterBox and the iPhone is kind of a pain, seems like they could do a better job with that. Also, when its all said and done, your iPhone is still exposed to the elements. I happen to have a windshield but if you didn’t then it would be exposed to all the elements at 80MPH which is probably risky and generally not good for the device. Also certain situations, like navigation, where it would be nice to turn the iPhone to landscape, the RAM mount does allow for this, it isn’t as simple as just twisting it back and forth, there is a lot of tightening and loosing that needs to happen.Also, the RAM mount is so snug on the iPhone that there is no room to accommodate and additional case that you might have on the iPhone. But all and all I am very happy with what I have.

Besides the built in applications such as music, mail and camera, here are a couple of other applications I have found beneficial while riding;

  • TomTom Navigation – I debated a long time on this because of the hefty $100 price tag but it is nice having navigation when you are not 100% where you are going.
  • Pandora / iheartradio – I have a pretty good collection of music but these apps allow me to listen to other things when I want.
  • Trapster – Just so I know.
  • OSMTrack – Good for capturing routes taken.
  • TrafficInfo – For when I am heading into town
  • Brightkite – The social networking guy in me. I like to pictures and location of where I am.
  • AutoStitch / Flickr – If I am going to take picture of the wonderful landscapes might as well make them panoramic and upload them to Flickr
  • AAA Roadside – Just in case.

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