Technical Reviews and Geek Toys

As a follow up to Dual Booting Kubuntu and Windows I used the same procedure to install Kubuntu Jaunty Alpha 6 to my laptop in place of Kubuntu 8.10.

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My Compaq laptop incorporates 'Quick Launch' keys above the keyboard to adjust the volume, turn the wireless radio on/off, etc.. When I removed XP and installed Kubuntu on my laptop all of these keys reliably worked except the one that turns the wireless radio on/off. I didn't really mess with it because when I booted up the radio came on and stayed on and it worked. A couple of days ago I got a 'wild hair' and decided to see if there was a bios update for the laptop and sure enough there was. I downloaded the version that created a bootable USB key and installed the update without a problem. However when I booted up the machine the wireless radio didn't stay on and of course the 'button' doesn't work...... major frustration. So I backed up my home directory and ran the recovery DVDs to reinstall XP. I am currently downloading the last of the Microsoft updates.

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In How To Build A Headless Server I wrote about building a Ubuntu server that hosts my web development as well as Windows 2000 Advanced server running in a virtual server. The box that I used to build the server is a Compaq D51C (P2.4GHz, 40G HD, 256M RAM) box that I purchased at a auction from a local school district. I added a couple of Gig of RAM and tried to run W2K as well as XP in the virtual server but it maxed out the CPU and really slowed down the performance. So I dropped the RAM to 1.23GB and am just runing LAMP and the W2K server.

Since the 40GB hard drive quickly filled up and one can never have enough storage I purchased a 320GB hard drive. In this article I'll walk through adding this second hard drive to the server.

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Recently I needed to develop a custom map showing the location of the Twin Angels Ruin, a Chaco World Heritage Site administered by the Bureau of Land Management in North West New Mexico. I knew the approximate location and I had photos taked by some individuals that had recently visited the site. With this information I was able to pinpoint the location of the Ruins and build the custom map. Here is how you can build your own custom Google map including a couple of sample files and instructions how they can be used.

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I have a Windows 2000 Server running ColdFusion connected to a Microsoft SQL Database. I use this to run the company inventory database as well as for web development. I also have Apache, PHP and mySQL running on my Kubuntu workstation. Also on my Kubuntu workstation is a virtual server with Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 beta installed. I have been thinking it is time to consolidate to free up some resources on my workstation as well as take advantage of moving W2K to a virtual server.

I decided to build a Ubuntu LAMP (Linux/Apache/mySQL/PhP) Server with VirtualBox installed on it. Since Ubuntu Server does not have a desktop installed, the virtual server would have to be headless; which means anything running on the virtual server would have to be accessed via Remote Desktop.

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