Monday, February 18, 2008

Turn your computer into an internet TV

Miro ROCK'S under LINUX! And, yes there is a Windows Version...

Play virtually any type of video file - Quicktime, WMV, MPEG, AVI, XVID, and more. Browse your collection, make playlists, stay organized.

Your computer screen is a high-definition display. Miro gives you access to more free HD content than any other video player. Sit back and watch gorgeous HD video fullscreen.

Subscribe to any video RSS feed, podcast, or video blog. Explore and subscribe to over 2,500 free channels with the built-in Miro Guide. New channels added daily.

Download and save videos from YouTube, Google Video, Dailymotion, and more. You can even save a search term and automatically get new videos as they are posted.

"Free and open-source, because open media matters."

Get it here: http://www.getmiro.com
Lunar Eclipse: This Wednesday..

A total eclipse of the Moon will occur this Wednesday, February 20/21, 2008. The entire event will be visible from South America and most of North America (on Feb. 20) as well as Western Europe, Africa, and western Asia (on Feb. 21). During a total lunar eclipse, the Moon's disk can take on a dramatically colorful appearance from bright orange to blood red to dark brown and (rarely) very dark gray.

Details at NASA's Website :
http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/LEmono/TLE2008Feb21/TLE2008Feb21.html

Friday, February 15, 2008

How to recover your boot password under Linux

you can recover using the following steps

Turn on computer

Press ESC at the grub prompt

Press e for edit

Highlight the line that begins kernel ………, press e

Go to the very end of the line, add rw init=/bin/bash

press enter, then press b to boot your system.

The system will boot up to a password-less root shell

Type in passwd username

Set your password

Type in reboot

That's it.... It's fixed...

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Google intros Team Apps edition to bypass the IT department..

Google released a new edition of its hosted applications suite that end-users can bring into the workplace without the involvement of their IT department.

The new release, called Google Apps Team Edition, is available for free. It is aimed at employees who are interested in using Google Apps but whose employers haven't signed up for it.

So far, more than 500,000 mostly small organizations have signed up for Google Apps, but the other versions -- Standard, Education, Partner and Premier -- require IT to implement the suite because its services are linked to an organization's Internet domain.

Once signed up with Team Edition, people can see who else in their organization's Internet domain is also a user, and invite those who aren't.

Read more here:
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/020708-google-intros-apps-edition-to.html

Check it out here:
http://www.google.com/apps/business/index.html

Monday, February 11, 2008

Firefox: a toolbar trinity.

Firefox rocks because it acts like a Lego set -- you have your base module, and then you can stick extensions on it. Some of the most obvious extensions are toolbars. Unlike the embedded-application extensions like Chatzilla or FireFTP, toolbars actually modify your interface.

A toolbar can contain search engine interfaces, bookmarks, RSS feeds, or extra tools for managing content. A lot of toolbars are very specialized -- tools for multimedia producers, musicians, and even Mormon theology students. Here are three more general toolbars that any net junkie will find useful.

Read more here: http://www.linux.com/feature/126291

Friday, February 08, 2008

10 secrets you should know about being in IT...

10.) The pay in IT is good compared to many other professions, but since they pay you well, they often think they own you...

9.) It will be your fault when users make mistakes...

8.) You will go from hero to zero multiple times within any given day...

7.) Certifications won't always help you become a better IT person, but they can help you land better pay...

6.) Your nontechnical co-workers, friends and family will use you as their own personal technical support pee-on for their home and business systems...

5.) Most vendors will take all the credit when things work well and then blame you when things screw up...

4.) You'll spend far more time babysitting old technologies (can you say XP) than implementing new ones (can you say Linux)...

3.) Veteran IT (Old Warhorse) professionals are often the biggest roadblock to implementing new technologies (can you say XP again)...

2.) Some IT professionals deploy technologies that do more to consolidate their own power than to help the business (not me)...

1.) IT frequently use jargon to confuse nontechnical business people to hide the fact that they screwed up (can you say not me again)...

Friday, February 01, 2008

A few stories about the Microsoft embrace and extend Yahoo nightmare..

Euro lawyers see tortuous road ahead for Microsoft's Yahoo! bid..
Microsoft is likely to face a torrid time from European regulators before it can even think of closing its proposed takeover of Yahoo!. A leading UK competition lawyer told the Reg today: "Any big Microsoft acquisition is likely to be looked at very carefully, especially if it is in an area where they have been complaining about their rivals - I wonder if there is anything in the documents Microsoft filed in its complaint to the EU about Google which they are now regretting."

Read more about here:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/01/ms_yahoo_competition

Yahoo! buy would give Microsoft ownership of open source e-mail & projects. Ugh.
Let’s forget about search for a moment, and Microsoft’s obvious need to buy a leading online company or face extinction. Microsoft’s proposed $45 billion buy of Yahoo would give the Redmond, Wash company control over a top open source e-mail company, open source projects and an open source infrastructure. On September 17 of 2007, Yahoo bought Zimbra for $350 million. Yahoo’s infrastructure is built on BSD. Yahoo has released a myriad of software to the open source community and even sponsors some open source projects. So this deal would put Microsoft directly into the open source software business.

Read more about here:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=1962

Will The Open Source World Welcome Microsoft-Yahoo Combo?
Microsoft has confirmed that it’s seeking to acquire Yahoo! Some folks — you know, the open source crowd — will likely bash a proposed Microsoft-Yahoo combo. The VAR Guy, however, is willing to give Microsoft a chance to explain the proposed business combo. Here’s why. First, a little background. Search engine giants like Google and Yahoo rely heavily on Linux, the LAMP stack and custom open source projects. And Microsoft has been trying to re-invent the LAMP stack with WAMP (Windows, Apache, MySQL, and related tools), notes Mary Jo Foley’s Microsoft Watch blog.

Read more about here:
http://www.thevarguy.com/2008/02/01/will-open-source-world-welcome-microsoft-yahoo-combo

Zimbra Proponents Fear Microsoft-Yahoo Combo
When Yahoo acquired Zimbra in September 2007, some Zimbra backers worried Yahoo would mismanage the open source email asset. Fast forward to the present, and some Zimbra proponents have gone from concern to outright panic over Microsoft’s bid to acquire Yahoo (and, by attachment, Zimbra).

Read more about here:
http://www.thevarguy.com/2008/02/01/zimbra-proponents-fear-microsoft-yahoo-combo


Our only hope is that the EU will kill this deal.....