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Behind These Eyes Graphic Novel

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Losing Respect, it seems to be the "in" thing

chaptereight (Photo credit: grasshopperkm)

Lately I've been fascinated by the stupidity of some companies in their little "power trips", mostly Monster Energy Drink and Apple.

For those of you that aren't aware, I'll quickly recap, Monster Energy Drink has submitted a cease and desist order against a small organization called MonsterFishKeepers.com a group who is about keeping, breeding and raising larger hobby fish, like Oscars.

In that cease and desist, Monster Energy demands that MFK stop using the word "Monster", the letter "M", and the color green among some other stupid requests. You can read more about it here.

Also in the court of stupidity is Apple vs. Samsung where apparently it's boiled down to Apple claiming that they patented the "rectangle" and now Google, Samsumgs longtime business partner is getting into the act with trying to stop all imports of Apple products to the U.S.

I'll be honest, both companies are being dumbasses. I mean really? the letter "M" and the rectangle? What next, the air that we breathe? I used to love Monster's Java Monster drinks and I did want an iPhone but not anymore.

I can understand where both companies are coming from, they want to maintain that competitive edge and be on top, it's what companies strive for, to be successful and make a profit. However for me, when a company does stupid things like this it drives me away from them, I don't want anything to do with that company or support them in any way.

Another example of this is the case where a man was awarded $1.5 million because the Ryobi table saw he was using didn't have the SawStop technology and he cut his hand. With this one, it was a contract worker whom wasn't trained properly on the use of the saw, and all the existing safety features were removed by his boss. His boss wasn't sued and came out smelling like roses and Ryobi had to pay the money. Needless to say, the majority of my power tools are Ryobi brand.

What is it that drives companies or people to create ridiculous law suits? It ties up the courts and resources that should be used for more important and bigger issues. It costs both parties a lot of money which we, the consumer, end up paying for in higher prices, and it makes the company lose credibility. I guess this is partly why I switched to using Linux and open source. Those whom are in it for the better and development of, instead of making a profit is more appealing to me and I'm more willing to use their products and support them. I know my choice doesn't really matter much in the overall future/bottom line of these companies but as consumers, we do have the ability to work together and send a message to those companies.

From Chick to Adult. Linux, you're growing up nicely.

Screenshot of a sample Bash session, taken on an old release of Gentoo Linux. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Linux Mint 11 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I've been dabbling in Linux for the past few weeks now and I have to say it's a whole new critter than it was when I first tried it several years ago, it's matured quite well. After my experience with JoliOS I thought I would explore a little more and see what the state of Linux is from a Windows user perspective.

I began looking at different distros of linux starting with the jauggernaut, Ubuntu. Ubuntu is a very well done and good operating system but I didn't care for the Unity interface. I found it's "simplicity" well, not so simple. I had difficulty finding things until I found out that you use the search feature to find your applications. Maybe it was from my comfort zone of having my icons on my desktop like Windows but the lack of icons or an easy menu to access them from messed with me. Needless to say I didn't go with Ubuntu. One thing to note, I did discover that you can change the interface and use another one like Cinimon which has more of a Windows look.



I also played around with a few others like Mandrake, KDE, and Xubuntu. I love the KDE desktop, it's pretty, slick, and easy to navigate. Maybe a little to easy. I found that there were a few areas that I struggled in to locate basic things. Xubuntu is still one of my favorites because it's a "lite" version of linux designed for lesser powered machines if you desire a desktop and not strictly command line interface.

I still hadn't settled on a distro to sit down with and learn until a friend of mine introduced me to Linux Mint. Upon installing it on a VM I have to say I fell in love. This easily was the distro that I felt instantly comfortable with from the start. It had a solid feel, easy to navigate and work with. I felt at home with it. Installation of software was easy through the package manager, locating the newly installed software was easy, it just had a good flow and feel to it.

I decided to load it up onto my netbook as I needed something a little more powerful than JoliOS was. The app interface was cool and all but I needed to be more productive with it. My netbook is my go to tool for on the road access of the internet, email, social networking and some blogging. (I'm actually writing this entry from it.) Linux Mint fit that role perfectly. I was able to find the linux equivilant to the software I use on Windows (with a few exceptions) and get it set up. Now my netbook is my little road warrior.

With the ease and new confidence in Linux, I have dabbled even farther into the world of the penguin and have tried my hand at some customizing of my install. I got Konky installed and set up, set up remote desktop (which was a huge factor for me.) and of course a few games to entertain myself when I'm waiting for a flight. A lot of the customizing stuff I did was found on the net. There's a wealth of information out there, you just have to weed through the uber users and tech talk and you'll find an easy to follow how to. I just have to resist the urge to try and do too much with my little netbook and push it past it's limits. It's also boosted my confidence level to where I'm now in the process of setting up a headless Ubuntu server to run the Amahi home server on it!

As for Windows, I still like 7 and it serves me well, however as I have expressed on this blog several times I'm not a fan of Windows 8. I'm also a little apprehensive about Miocrosoft's intentions or direction they are taking with Windows 8. They are really pushing it and offering some great deals on upgrades. From a desktop perspective I don't like it and don't think it will fair well. This has been a big motivator for me to try out and learn linux. With Mint, I have become more confident in the operating system and with virtual technology so previlant I have been seriously considering switching. I'll still keep my Windows 7 but probably confine it to a VM instance. This way I can still use those Windows applications that I can't get running under Linux using wine. I'm still not quite ready to make that leap yet but it's real close. With the economy the way it is and no sign of relief in the near future, Going open source and free is a very appealing option.

If you have thought about giving Linux a try, load up Linux Mint in a VM and give it a whirl. I think you'll like it and hopefully get that excited, tingly feeling when you start using it like you did when you got your Windows system. Take the time to experiment and play with it. Install stuff, uninstall, and learn. You'll still have some command line stuff to do but you'll get the hang of it.

Linux, I'm really digging you these days!

HP Discover 2012: the Takeaways

HP Discover 2012 Las Vegas edition is over and I’m home recuperating from the trip. (My wife and I drove out this year.) My brain started popping with blog ideas so I sat down and began composing this entry.

Conferences are one of those things that can be something different to many people. One person may be there just to nerd out and see all the new tech, another may only be there to try and pick up some new customers, someone else may be there to actually learn something or get certified, and another person may be there just to network and hopefully land a better job.

I ran into several of that while out there. Me, I was there to learn and get certified. As the admin for our instances of HP ALM 11 and Performance Center I like to learn as much as I can so I can apply that knowledge at my job and help provide a better user experience for the users. I did do some networking but it wasn’t in the sense of looking for a better job, it was to further get to know my peers and others that work with ALM and Performance Center. I figure the best learning is from those whom actually work with the applications. Sure, the Product Manager and sales guys can tell you about it but what about actually using it? You know, real life scenarios.

This years conference was good, I won’t say it was great from the aspect of presentation. As you know I attended last year’s event and was really blown away by it. Granted that may be reminisces of it being my first real conference I’ve ever been to (as opposed to ChaserCon) so there were some unspoken expectations I had of this years conference.

Layout

Let’s start with the layout, I wasn’t too impressed. It was an L shape like last year but I think it was reversed compared to last year. As you walked into the Discover Zone, you were immediately presented with a lounge area. similar to last years but it was more condensed. Then the various vendor booths were the first things you walk into followed by all the main HP products and sponsors areas. The other booths like Vivit’s, Connect and blogging area was all tucked away back in the back. I believe this area was the area where they had all the vendors last year. The biggest feeling I got was that it wasn’t as open as it was last year, it seemed really enclosed.

Sessions

The sessions were in their normal place utilizing all the conference rooms located on the 1st through 5th floors and were pretty easy to locate. I figured out halfway through that if the room was say, 4202 this was also the floor number (4th floor). The general sessions when they had keynote speakers was pretty good. last year it seemed the seating was slightly inclined so the farther back you got, the better chance you had of seeing what was on stage. This year it was all flat so you hoped no one really tall sat in front of you. They did have several large screens for the folks in the back so they could see as well. The audio was a little lacking toward the back but you could still hear ok.

Meals

I would like to start by thanking HP for providing breakfast and lunch as I know they don’t really have to do that. I also want to thank thank the food services company that was hired to do them as those folks did a really good job and worked really hard. To me, they were the unsung heroes of the conference. the meals were not like they were last year, there really was a spread laid out last year. This year they consisted of fresh fruit (which is good), and pre-packaged items like sandwiches, salads, and things like that. Again though, it was free so I can’t really complain.

Overall Impressions

A conference is what you make it to be. last year it was all about learning for me. This year, it was a combination of both learning and a little networking with the various vendors we do business with. I didn’t get to do as much networking or talk with the vendors as I would have liked to as my schedule was really booked with sessions on Performance Center. So to all our vendors out there (ZAP, Orasi, PerfectoMobile, Assure and Go2Group) I apologize if I didn’t get much of a chance to spend some time or as much time with you as I would have liked. We’ll make up for that next year!

As for the events put on by HP, They weren’t as fancy as in the past and I felt like it was more of a “Ok, here ya go now leave me alone” sort of thing. I did keep reminding myself that HP has gone through some shakeups as of late and made some major changes so there probably wasn’t as much effort put into this conference like there was last year and I can understand that.

HP Discover is still one of the premiere events to go to if you are in the IT industry whether you use HP products or not. There is a lot of great information available there plus you get to chat with actual users of the various applications or technologies. HP does have a lot of offerings and I found a few new ones that I feel my company could benefit from. It’s also a good way to gauge how your organizations is doing compared other companies, are you headed in the right direction? Are you utilizing your applications or hardware to it’s fullest potential? Are you experiencing the same issues others are having?

If you do get the opportunity to go, please do. You (and your company) will thank you for it.

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Linux, I think I have finally adopted you

As some of you may recall, in the past I did a article about JoliOS (Now known as JoliCloud) and how it really made linux more appealing to those of us (like me) that have had a somewhat difficult time adopting the OS. JoliCloud brought the familiar and simplistic interface similar to the iPhone/iPad and Android systems to the desktop. It was clean, easy to use and best of all you didn’t have to mess with the command line!

Plus, how can you not resist that cute little penguin!

I still like JoliCloud and think it’s a great version of Linux but recently, my job took me in the direction of full on linux. I acquired our Jira instance into my HP ALM farm. This had a positive and negative impact on me; the positive was that I was administrating our Jira instance which allowed me the ability to better maintain it and work out the issues we were having with the communication between it and HP ALM. The negative was that it was on a linux server. now, I’m primarily a Windows guy so this definitely made me a little uneasy. I really don’t know that much about linux, especially the command line. What am I going to do if it crashes? What about updates? what about… and the list went on and on.

I’m not bragging here but I think I’m a smart guy, I catch on to things pretty fast and I’ve just been avoiding the inevitable. So over the Memorial Day holiday, I decided I’m going to start learning linux. I tried a few distributions out and settled on Linux Mint. I was pleasantly surprised and very impressed with it. mint is based on Ubuntu, the reigning king of Linux distros and vastly becoming the base for all others out there. I set it up in a VirtualBox instance and then on my Compaq Mini 110. I had zero hardware issues on both. it recognized my video card on my desktop and my wireless card on my mini. These were the two problem areas I had with most linux distros. (Except JoliCloud) the other main area of issues I always had was setting up VPN and remote desktop. I could never get those to work. With mint I was able to easily set up VPN and RDP and can now work from home through linux.

At this point I was really digging linux and what it had to offer. I still have to work a little more with the office application that it comes with but other than that, I’m really liking it! So much that I’m actually considering doing a dual boot system now with Mint as my primary OS. I do have a lot of Windows based applications I still use so I’m not quite ready to make the move yet. once I can get them to work in Wine then I’ll be ready.

If you’ve been thinking about trying out linux, I highly recommend Linux Mint! Set it up in a VM or an old PC that’s just sitting around gathering dust. I’m sure you’ll be like me and find it a refreshing breath of minty fresh air!

Related articles

• Introduction To Linux Mint 13 (Video) (essayboard.com)

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Visual Studio 11 Express–No Mas Desktop

In an article written on PCWorld it appears that in the Express versions of Visual Studio 11 there will be no support for creating desktop applications, everything is geared toward the new Metro interface in Windows 8.

For those of you that know me or have read some of my postings about Windows 8 either here or on Facebook, you know I’m not a huge fan of Windows 8. I appreciate the fact Microsoft is trying to expand and grow out from their desktop centric world but this really adds another slap in the face to existing users. Users that are desktop based and not mobile based.

For those of you whom have not tried Windows 8 yet or are aware of the changes it brings, Windows 8 has changed the interface from the normal that you are used to. It now uses what is called “Metro” which is a block icon style layout. It does look cool I will give Microsoft that and does somewhat eliminate that messy old desktop.

“That is cool! What’s wrong with that?” you may ask. Nothing, if you’re on a mobile device. Anyway, I won’t get into why I don’t like Window 8 for desktops here.

In the new express version of Visual Studio 11 (The free versions of Microsoft’s development platform) they have removed the support for building desktop applications. Instead, developers will be forced to design strictly for the Metro interface. Now if you’re all into designing for the mobile world, this is great news, you now have a dedicated Microsoft IDE in which to do that. But if you’re like me and develop primarily for desktop applications, then you’re out of luck. Luckily Microsoft is still making the previous versions available but they won’t contain all the libraries for Windows 8. Luckily in the VS11 Web builder edition, you can still do good old fashioned HTML and Java script development without having to be forced to the Metro only interface.

This move by Microsoft is another huge gamble on their belief that Windows 8 will be adopted by the public like Ralphie on Christmas morning finding his Red Ryder BB gun. Will I stop developing because of this? Probably not. In fact, I may start developing more for the mobile market than before but I will continue to develop for the desktop world as well. Let’s just hope Microsoft doesn’t shoot their eye out with this move.

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Related articles

• Free Windows 8 desktop app development is dead (go.theregister.com)
• Free Desktop Software Development Dead In Windows 8 (developers.slashdot.org)
• When Windows Runs Only on Old Form Factors (Desktops) (techrights.org)

HP Discover 2012 - An epic event

HP Discover 2012, my registration is done, my hotel reservations are done and my tracks and sessions are all lined up. All I have left to do is pack my bags and head out!

 

Last years Discover event was mind blowing, well at least to me as it was my first one. All of HP’s products and services under one roof, all the people and sessions were just simply awe inspiring. I’ll admit I was a little (ok, a lot) overwhelmed as I treated this as the one and only conference I’ll probably ever get to go to. I loaded up my days with sessions around Quality Center and attempts at certifications. I was exhausted by the time I got home and my brain hurt!

This year I’m a lot more relaxed as I have a feel for how things will go and I have a more narrowed track session. I’m still focused on Quality Center/ALM but more along the lines of HP’s Performance Center. I survived the upgrade and have gotten a lot of ALM experience under my belt, Performance Center is next on the list. I’m also set up to be more involved in the community and working the Vivit booth.

One of the sessions I have is the Vivit presented “Deep Dive into ALM”. I have a lot of experience from the admin side of ALM but not as much as I would like in regards to the actual use of it. I know enough to get myself in trouble but some of the deeper aspects like scripting the workflow, cross project reporting and sharing of recourses between projects and the OTA still elude me. A lot of my users are asking for things like this and I can’t always deliver what they want, I’m hoping that the deep dive will address some of these issues I have and help me to be a better admin.

I’m also attempting my certification for ALM administration this year. I’m optimistic it will go well, better than last year. There is a new test provider which I feel good about as I walked away from last years tests feeling I really wasn’t given the right tests or the test I signed up for.

I also signed up for the free membership in HP Connect. I’m not sure if it will benefit me any but I’ll check it out.

I’ve been pretty active in the HP Forums and the various QC/ALM groups on LinkedIn and I look forward to meeting some of the folks I’ve talked with. I’m curious to see if the assistance I offered helped them and to get some feed back on things I could do better on. I’m not a consultant or charge for my help, I’ve been down the road of where some of those folks are now and know how confusing or frustrating things can be. If I can offer my help and help them get through their issues that’s payment enough for me. I’m happy where I am and maybe someday I might explore the consulting side of things but I’m in no hurry.

If you’re going to be at Discover this year, look me up! I would love to talk shop with you!

What:	HP Discover 2012 Learn about HP Discover 2012 in Las Vegas, Nevada - June 4-7, the ultimate showcase technology event for business and IT professionals to learn, connect, and grow.
When:	Monday, June 4, 2012 (all day)
Where:	The Venetian 3355 Las Vegas Blvd South Las Vegas, Nevada 89109   United States

 

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