Amazon WishlistI’m happy to see that the Rite Group still has their page up on how to set up a Solaris DHCP client. This works and it is very useful. I always would point field engineers who needed to accomplish this task to this page, and I used it myself for any in house Solaris machines that had to be set up as DHCP clients. Find this useful method HERE.
Solaris is Sun Microsystems’ version of UNIX. For non NIS/NIS+ Solaris machines, the things necessary to add it to an IP network are:
I agree with Google that the outlook for Android is VERY good since they are doing with mobile phones what Microsoft did with PC operating systems. It’s funny that Microsoft was there first and failed horribly at the PDA/mobile phone OS market. Android is one OS that is running on the devices from multiple manufacturers, and in time there will be so many more Android devices than iPhones. It’s just the Law of Averages at work. The article mentions that Microsoft is entering the fray by attacking HTC over patent violations, but another story states that HTC cut a deal with Microsoft, which would mean Microsoft sticking it to Apple by giving HTC a pass of sorts through a royalty agreement. The software business is once again looking like a soap opera script. It’s fun though. :)
HTC is licensing Microsoft patents as they are facing patent lawsuits and possible injunctions by Apple, who wants the HTC phones banned from the US market. Sorry, but IMO this is just another illustration how these micro patented features are just a bad idea. It hobbles creative freedom and results in less choice for consumers. If Apple’s iPhone is so great, then let it compete for the hearts and mind of consumers based on the whole Apple aura that surrounds it, rather than Apple using these patented features to force HTC to stop selling what seems like great phones in the US market. This is just Apple afraid of Android, IMO.
The article also proposes a fun conspiracy angle claiming that maybe Microsoft is “throwing HTC a life preserver” in it’s pending battle with Apple. i.e. Microsoft sticking it to Apple. That is funny, and very possible.
I just read an interesting Wired article about how an unnamed FaceBook employee told a reporter that the CEO doesn’t believe in privacy. While this is merely one employee’s off the record opinion, FaceBook actions and policies seem to bear this out. I didn’t realize how much information was being shared out by FaceBook, and it is true that they are littered with hackers and social engineering types who cause all sorts of havoc for account holders. What’s your opinion on that?
I was trying to install CentOS Linux 5.4 on an old Dell 2400 server and I opted for the netinstall to avoid having to burn 6 CD iso images. I get to the part where you enter the remote web server and directory where the install images are and it keeps putting an extra slash in the URL string thus preventing the thing from working. I searched on it and found a thread out there claiming that this happens when you hit Enter in the text fields to proceed, but I didn’t and it still happens. I guess I am going to have to burn those ISO’s to CDR after all. Sigh.
Verizon is set to release the HTC Droid Incredible to great fanfare. It figures that I just switched to Verizon from AT&T and got a shiny new Motorola Droid. I wasn’t told about the pending release of this new HTC unit when I was at the Verizon store, so I got the Droid. The Droid is a great machine, but the Incredible has twice the CPU speed and more main memory, as well as what seems to be a better camera. The Incredible also comes with an OLED type of video display, which I read is not very good in direct sunlight, so maybe the Droid is better for me since I hate when you can’t read a phone display outside. The Incredible does not have a real keyboard the way the Droid does. When I was shopping for my phone I thought a real slide out keyboard was a necessity, but now I feel otherwise. Most of the time I opt for the on screen virtual keyboard on the Droid. It’s just easier and more convenient to use, and when I eventually upgrade the real keyboard will no longer be a necessity for me.
From the linked article:
Specifications for the HTC DROID Incredible include the following:
- Android 2.1 with HTC Sense experience
- 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor
- Integrated 8GB flash drive (6.6 GB usable) with microSD expansion card slot
- 8 megapixel camera with dual LED flash for crisp, detailed images
- 3.7 inch WVGA (480×800) AMOLED capacitive touch display
- Optical joystick for smooth navigation
- Dedicated, touch-sensitive Home, Menu, Back and Search keys
- Proximity sensor, light sensor and digital compass
- Integrated GPS
- Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g)
- 3.5 mm headset jack
- Friend Stream for unified Flickr, Facebook and Twitter updates
- Leap view for quick access to all seven home screen panels
- Dimensions: 4.63 x 2.30 x 0.47 inches and 4.59 ounces
Ever wonder how to use your smart phone’s Internet connection as a modem for your notebook or laptop computer while unable to connect to another WiFi hot spot? While WiFi hot spots are available at an increasing rate, sometimes you are in a place where an unsecured public access one just is not available. Now, if you are out and about one might wonder can’t you just use the phone’s web browser to look something up? Well, yes, to a degree. Sometimes there is just no replacement for a full computer for your Internet needs. There are several programs out there, and there are also methods that involve rooting your phone, but a non root convenient method is to use a nifty application called PDAnet on your PC and phone. Simply install PDAnet to the computer and it will also install the driver. Once you connect your Android phone to the computer via the USB charging cable, the phone side app will be installed and you can now use the phone as a modem for the computer. You have to turn on USB debugging mode, which was already enabled on my phone. Once everything is up and running, you will have full Internet access on the computer via the phone and your unlimited data plan. I wouldn’t use it as my sole connection or to download vast amounts of data, but it is great in a pinch. Case in point, you want to use your computer with Internet access at a friend’s house where there is no WiFi hot spot to connect to. You need to show them something on the computer which requires Internet access. This solution is the solution to that conundrum. PDAnet has a trial period and after that you need to pay a modest one time $29 fee for continued full access. You can continue to use it free of charge but secure HTTPS sites will not be able to be accessed from the free version after the trial expiration. You can still use it for regular HTTP access however.
As most tech heads know by now, Gizmodo got it’s hands on an Apple iPhone prototype which Apple wants back. The unit is very nice, and it sports many improvements, most notably a 16% larger battery and a front facing video camera, presumably for video chatting and calling. It also contains a extra microphone for better voice calling clarity. I wish my Motorola Droid had a front facing camera for this purpose so that it could mimic my notebook computer and let me Skype and video chat via mobile phone. Oh well, perhaps one day. The back of the new iPhone is not a mound of plastic, and it reportedly feels less like a toy than previous versions.
Once upon a time I was called on by a software developer to assist him in a problem where he had to code a solution to a bug in the enterprise software that our employer was a vendor of, but the client had their network interface cards combined into a single virtual device, also known as link aggregation. Why would you want to do this? Aggregating the nics allows the throughput to be higher for the server. So, aggregating two Gbit nics will essentially create a 2 Gbit connection, although the individual line speeds are still the 1 Gbit speeds. It also provides failover since the physical connections are aggregated into a virtual connection which uses one IP address, so if one fails the connection is still active. This is good fault tolerance, to a point. I had to figure out how to make one of our AIX servers into a machine with an aggregated nic setup. It wasn’t so hard once I found the documentation on how to do it. He was able to work on this machine once I combined the two physical network connections into one virtual device using one IP address, and he was able to then verify the issue the customer was having and code a fix. This is how a sysadmin in a software company assists the software development and fix process. I did this for years and it was very interesting and rewarding work, although it was only a small portion of my daily repertoire.
I don’t have to explain it here since the good folks at IBM were kind enough to outline how to do this on their documentation site. Also, a good overview is available on Wikipedia’s link aggregation page.
