technology

technology

A little busy today

load average: 139.66, 112.91, 59.18

But not too busy to post this. The machine is still responding great.

top - 10:27:11 up 2 days, 3:02, 3 users, load average: 139.66, 112.91, 59.18
Tasks: 461 total, 6 running, 454 sleeping, 0 stopped, 1 zombie
Cpu(s): 8.4%us, 10.1%sy, 44.1%ni, 36.6%id, 0.7%wa, 0.1%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st
Mem: 8077204k total, 7940096k used, 137108k free, 150324k buffers
Swap: 1911608k total, 139204k used, 1772404k free, 3818652k cached

Gmail as the KDE default email client

I just got GMail working as the default email client for KDE. To do this, go to KDE Menu -> Computer -> System Settings and click on Default Applications.

There are plenty of notes on getting this working out there, but getting the subject and body working can be tricky. Select the radio button next to Use a different email client: and enter the following:

/opt/google/chrome/chrome https://mail.google.com/mail/?view=cm&fs=1&tf=1&to=%t&su=%s&%u

replacing /opt/google/chrome/chrome with the command for your browser.

The farce of "unlimited" storage and bandwidth

I run a web hosting, programming, and design business. I use my skills in programming, and the skills of others, to design and build dynamic, cool websites and host them on a server, which I manage.

When comparing hosting plans, many people look at disk space and bandwidth, which is good. However, some people make the mistake of getting sucked into the unlimited storage and transfer trap.

Uptime

top - 10:51:06 up 733 days, 18:37, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
Tasks: 59 total, 1 running, 58 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
Cpu(s): 0.0% us, 0.0% sy, 0.0% ni, 100.0% id, 0.0% wa, 0.0% hi, 0.0% si
Mem: 1020096k total, 963936k used, 56160k free, 234152k buffers
Swap: 2104504k total, 10536k used, 2093968k free, 598820k cached

Government control of private networks

A bill introduced in the Senate on April 1, 2009, the Cybersecurity Act of 2009, seems to expand the federal governments control and power over the private sector, if that entity is deemed part of the nations critical information infrastructure.

CNet and others are reporting this bill would give authority to the President, or the President's designees, to classify and control private business.

My new laptop and the frustration of Windows

I'm typing this on the second laptop I've ever owned, and the first one that actually shows the color red on the screen. I purchased an IBM Thinkpad R51e on craigslist for $150.00. There's nothing really special about it. It's a very solid machine, has a 2.6 GHZ Pentium M with over a gig of RAM, a CDRW drive, and a 15" screen. It does have a 4200 RPM, 40 GB hard drive, but I can buy a 5400 RMB, 120 GB hard drive for less than $70.00 new.