tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21193521713038228312011-07-28T23:39:17.045-07:00Random thoughts on computing, systems administration, and programming - including tutorials and example code in Perl, PHP, and VBS - and anything else that wanders into mind.Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06871828550629252076noreply@blogger.comBlogger141100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2119352171303822831.post-57690501916944917322009-10-13T18:26:00.000-07:002009-10-13T19:54:04.865-07:00

You know… a long time ago, we told people to “just ignore” spam. Answering it, we said, would just get them to send more to us. If we ignore it, it will eventually go away. History has proven us wrong, very wrong indeed. We didn’t factor in that even a 0.01% idiocy rate is profitable when millions of people are tagged. Now, we’re telling them to just ignore phishing, like it will go away. It's

Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06871828550629252076noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2119352171303822831.post-73867383715383321982009-07-15T14:26:00.000-07:002009-09-11T10:46:48.291-07:00

There is an old adage: If you take a barrel of sewage and add a teaspoon of wine, you get a barrel of sewage; if you take a barrel of wine and add a teaspoon of sewage, you get a barrel of sewage.Digital Rights Management (DRM) is crap. A good part of my living is made setting up computers for end-users, making sure everything "just works" for them. I make a good living so I shouldn't complain

Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06871828550629252076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2119352171303822831.post-48430238120230607932009-03-06T20:16:00.000-08:002009-07-31T23:00:51.752-07:00

Sorry, I've moved this post to the Keliso blog: HEREGoogle search indexing will catch up eventually.

Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06871828550629252076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2119352171303822831.post-91020435127529071812009-03-06T20:11:00.000-08:002009-07-31T22:59:19.792-07:00

Sorry, I've moved this post to the Keliso blog: HEREGoogle search indexing will catch up eventually.

Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06871828550629252076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2119352171303822831.post-26753212619085525722009-01-09T16:43:00.000-08:002009-01-28T13:05:51.657-08:00

I've recently purchased a Nokia N810 Internet Tablet. I spent a lot of time reviewing the reviews, checking the spec's, comparing it to other devices, and it came out on top. The deciding factor was a little application that can be downloaded and installed. It's called "I-am-free" and is maintained by Owen Williams. This application displays a picture of a shiny gem, nothing more. Now, I've

Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06871828550629252076noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2119352171303822831.post-10734229504561486992008-08-01T15:45:00.000-07:002010-07-30T11:49:06.354-07:00

I'm an old-school computer tech, started out PIPing around in CP/M but basically grew up with DOS. Yes, I'm a Microsoft OS expert, I do it for a living. However, on my own time, I've become a convert to Linux. So, when the drive failed on my home computer, I took it as an excellent opportunity to learn data recovery, Linux style. What follows are my notes; please be aware that I'm just

Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06871828550629252076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2119352171303822831.post-64146019473384954702007-02-08T18:28:00.000-08:002007-08-15T18:24:13.071-07:00

Have you ever wondered where those strange computer numbers come from: numbers like 8, 16, 256, 1024? Have you ever wondered why these same numbers keep coming up over and over again? Well, the answer is really quite simple. Computers are binary machines. This means that, unlike humans, they work in a “base-2” number system. Humans generally do math in base-10, or decimal. Decimal means that

Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06871828550629252076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2119352171303822831.post-61912267407370692592007-02-08T18:22:00.000-08:002007-08-15T18:20:02.754-07:00

Now that you have a basis for understanding where these strange computer numbers come from, we can apply that knowledge to colour systems. Back in the old days, monitors were black and white only. Okay, they were black and green, or maybe amber, white didn't come along for a while. But hey, if you want to get picky, the really old systems were lines of blue text on white paper. But, in any

Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06871828550629252076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2119352171303822831.post-83882342293947236352007-02-08T18:20:00.000-08:002008-09-03T21:56:50.002-07:00

First off, file types, in the Microsoft world, are the three letter designations that go after the period on file names. Examples are filename.gif, filename.jpg, or filename.txt. The computer uses those designations to figure out what program created the file. Thus, when you double-click on a .txt file, notepad (a text editor) opens up the file. If you click on a .jpg file, then a graphics

Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06871828550629252076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2119352171303822831.post-52663056345879792912007-01-18T18:17:00.000-08:002007-01-18T18:19:36.117-08:00

Is Microsoft the evil corporate empire that so many people profess it is? Well, I'm a tech, I help people use computers running that OS those people seem to hate so much. Windows sucks, it crashes, it confuses, it contains countless examples of frilly yet useless features, and this is a good thing. I owe my job to Microsoft. I don’t work for them but I am one individual in an army of techs that

Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06871828550629252076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2119352171303822831.post-5916211191602301682007-01-10T00:05:00.000-08:002007-01-10T22:08:21.733-08:00

I've put another page of example code on the linked website. This one covers basic date and time functions including epoch seconds, converting to normal dates, converting back, and how to get a date in a useful log format (yyyy-mm-dd) .The standard DISCLAIMER applies. You can see the code HERE.Similar Articles

Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06871828550629252076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2119352171303822831.post-83039744694924757382007-01-09T13:54:00.000-08:002007-01-10T22:09:12.271-08:00

When learning a programming language, I often create little example files to demonstrate different ways I've learned to do things. I am in the process of putting them up on the website that's attached to this blog (via the Navigator panel).The first example is in Perl and describes general things like printing, variables, comments, basic string handling, if/then/else constructs, loops, and

Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06871828550629252076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2119352171303822831.post-87444252330400401002007-01-04T21:36:00.001-08:002007-01-10T22:11:48.263-08:00

Being a dirt bike rider, of some skill, I've chuckled while watching video clips of the DARPA Grand Challenge participants bouncing around, especially the bike and quad. While it amazes me that they can get a computer to "ride" a motorcycle, the results really are pathetic from a riding point of view. There is no finesse, no anticipation, and only rudimentary control. Very beginner stuff. But,

Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06871828550629252076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2119352171303822831.post-59257738281901842252007-01-04T21:27:00.001-08:002007-02-13T21:57:23.499-08:00

If computer companies made cars, the Mac car would be clean and stylish with classic lines. The Windows car would seat 7, be all-wheel drive with variable-height suspension, have vintage '50s Cadillac fins and pneumatic gull-wing doors. The Linux car would be anything you wanted, there are a lot of models to choose from. If you weren't happy with the available Linux models, you could take the

Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06871828550629252076noreply@blogger.com0