Cloud Storage that makes sense

An interesting article about Ubuntu One cloud storage. One possible application: A bookmarks app, which allows your Firefox bookmarks to be shared and managed among all the computers you use.

Supercomputing the Opteron way

Interesting article regarding Cray Computing's capture of "top dog" of the supercomputer list.

I really like the performance of the AMD x64 dual-core processor in my Compaq V3000CTO notebook, it's still fast after all those Win XP and MS Office patches.

VirtualBox rocks!

I suppose I'm the last one to board the train, but I've recently been test driving VirtualBox and found it to be a slick freeware virtualization solution. It rocks!

A couple of fun articles

Here's a couple of fun articles (with useful information to boot!)

1. Feature-By-Feature: Ubuntu 9.10 Vs. Windows 7 (Tip: Just click past the opening ad).


2. Buy A New Windows 7 System, But Please Don't Upgrade

Enjoy :-)

Forgiveness

Sometimes, I hear things so remarkable that I have to share them with others, so bear with me.

In today's church service, the pastor shared this statement:

If you withhold forgiveness, it's like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die!

Wow; that's profound! It was a great sermon; if you'd like to check it out, visit the WVPC website and select the Sep 20, 2009 message, "Six Words that will Change Your Life".

The Perfect City

I like David Byrne's quirky way of looking at things. Check out his article on "the Perfect City", it's an enlightening and enjoyable read.

Getting Sun Java and Groovy Working on CentOS 5.3

I had a devil of a time getting Sun Java, Groovy, and the GraphicsRenderer class working on CentOS 5.3. Furthermore, Google searches for tips on the Internet failed to turn up any directly relevant results.

Therefore, by research, trial and error, I came up with this simple method which WORKS:

1. Download the Sun Java JDK RPM and install it.
2. Download the unofficial Groovy binary RPM from Codehaus.org and install it.
3. Download the GraphicsBuilder module from Codehaus, too.
4. Unzip GraphicsBuilder in /tmp.
5. export GROOVY_HOME=/usr/share/groovy
6. Drop all the GraphicsBuilder jar files into $GROOVY_HOME/lib.
7. Copy or move the GraphicsBuilder bin directory to $GROOVY_HOME.
8. Add the following lines to your .bashrc:

# Java setup for CentOS

export GROOVY_HOME=/usr/share/groovy
export JAVA="sun"
export JPATH="/usr/java/default"
export JAVA_HOME="$JPATH"
export CLASSPATH="$JPATH/lib:/usr/share/groovy/lib"

*THEN* make sure you add /usr/java/default/bin BEFORE /usr/bin in the shell PATH!

NOW you can use groovy from a bash command prompt (at last!)

What's Going on with CentOS?

Realizing that it's been a while since there's been a CentOS release beyond 5.3, I popped over to the centos.org website and was surprised to read that there have been some project management changes in the wind.

You might want to check it out, too.

Firefox 3.5 vs. IE 8

For me, Firefox v3.5.2 wins hands down vs. Internet Explorer 8.

Here's why:

• FF is more reliable than IE. I've had IE crash and lock up on various occasions, never seen it happen with Firefox.
• The vast number of useful FF plug-ins vs. those for IE is like comparing the selection of iPhone apps vs. the inventory for the Palm Pre. MS has a lot of work to do to catch up.

For now, Firefox is my preferred browser!

The Printed Media Revolution

Something's going on in the world of publishing and reading the written word. Maybe not nearly as big as the printing press at the beginning, but a revolution's brewing never less.

For example, check out the discussion about the Amazon Kindle on C|Net's site, and you'll come away with the feeling of a pending "change in the wind".

I believe the shift to digital publication and reading has the potential to turn the whole concept of printed media on its ear. But the jury's still out on how it will unfold, and the price tag is too high to make paper "yesterday".

What strikes me about the overall discussion are the novel ideas voiced by the end users. Being able to scan a UPC or ISBN from your own library for access on a digital reader, or checking out books from a library website for immediate download, or searching your entire on-board library, etc. Now those are really interesting ideas *:-)