It’s doubtful that anyone really likes having to upgrade, but at some point it has to be done. For those particularly adverse to the upgrade — like enterprise users, with good reason — there are extra-long windows, but eventually even those windows close. Last week, Red Hat announced that the oldest of its supported platforms has officially entered the homestretch.

Believe it or not there is a guy in my lug that still swears by this version oh well all good things must come to a end. Baldy

The End Is In Sight For RHEL 3

Learn how to install, upgrade, and manage packages on your Linux® system. This article focuses on the Advanced Packaging Tool, or APT, which is the package management system used by Debian and distributions derived from Debian, such as Ubuntu. You can use the material in this article to study for the LPI 101 exam for Linux system administrator certification, or just to explore the best ways to add new software and keep your system current.

A good read for those new to Debian and it’s off shoots like Mepis or Ubuntu, Baldy

Learn Linux, 101: Debian package management

Turn on an Android OS phone, and that little yellow robot pops up all over the touchscreen like R2D2 on bionic steroids. A mini-chorus line of them shows up first, then just one robot decides to play hide and seek with you; there he is peeking out from the left side of the screen. Now he’s upside down, waving at you with a tiny cyber-arm. The impression is that this Android sure gets around, and it must have seemed that way to consumers doing their smartphone shopping from January through March of this year, if NPD Group’s data is any indication.

Oh good some one else not happy with Mr Jobs, I’m not sure but there has to be a reason he seems to be the only one that can make everyone mad at once and for different reasons, Baldy

Strategy Wars: Android’s Wide-Open Assault vs. Apple’s Tight Grip

Speed, power and user control are Mozilla’s top three goals for Firefox 4, according to early product plans released Monday. Specifically, the browser will be fast — “super-duper fast,” according to Firefox director Mike Beltzner — while also enabling new open-standard Web technologies such as HTML5 and putting users in full control of their browser and Web experience. For developers, Firefox 4 will likely offer bidirectionally connected apps, an HTML5 parser, a full-screen API, CSS3 compatibility, and faster 2-D drawing.

Things are getting interesting folks, Baldy

Firefox 4 Steps Out of the Shadows

Much as I hate to admit it, Microsoft does some things better, much better, than Linux. Number one with a bullet is how Microsoft helps programmers and ISVs (independent software vendors). MSDN (Microsoft Software Developer Network) is a wonderful online developer resource. Linux has had nothing to compare. True, there is the Linux Developer Network, which, when it began, looked like it would be the Linux equivalent of MSDN, but it hasn’t lived up to its promise. And, I can’t overlook the Linux Foundation’s Linux training classes. But, if I’m an ISV and I want to write software for Linux, I’m still going to need to piece together a lot of it by myself.

I could not have said it better myself, Baldy

Linux needs to do more for programmers

I have been humbled over the last two weeks by the over whelming out pouring of offers of help in ways that have left me shocked and totally humbled. From friends that I had not heard from in years came out of the woodwork in ways I can not put into words.And from the everyday friends even more has been offered and for all of you there is no way I will ever be able to repay you or even come close to doing so. I have always said I am picky over those to whom I call friend and each and everyone of you will always have a special place in my life, as it seemed that you are all the best choices for the title of friend I could ever have chosen and I have no idea how I got this lucky in life to be able to call you all my friend. I only wish that everyone had a list of friends that I seem to have collected through out the years, for you are all the heros a person needs at time and you all have come through with flying colors.

As you all know I am on the list and have been moved up so it is a sit and wait for now and yes you all will be notified of any changes that happen, and of that I promise. Until then once again I have to say thank you all and if you every need anything trust me I will be there for you all.

In Humbled and Heartfelt thanks.

Baldy aka John

Linksys used to be a great company before Cisco bought it. I have a Linksys RV082. A couple of months ago Cisco released a firmware “upgrade” that has made the router barely usable. Version 2.0.0.19tm is poison. If you are running an earlier version – DON’T UPGRADE. Once you upgrade you can’t go back to an earlier version.

After upgrading, web access is very slow. If a page has multiple images on it many of the images don’t load. However if the RV082 is removed and I connect directly to the cable modem it works normally. I have been hoping that Cisco would fix the problem but so far nothing.

This I think is an example of what happens sometimes when a big company buys up a good smaller company and then manages to destroy it through stupidity. Linksys has really gone downhill and I’m just not going to buy any more of their products. I’m now looking to replace my broken dual wan router with something that actually works. Cisco sucks.

---

Cisco Destroys Linksys RV082 with Upgrade

Most Linux distributions include attractive graphical interfaces, but you can do a lot more from the command line interface once you know your way around. For tasks like controlling and monitoring the distro’s underlying system, the command line remains indispensable.

Yuppers another list for the beginner to learn and grow as they dabble in Linux,  Baldy

10 Linux commands for beginners

A currently ongoing ransomware campaign is using a novel approach to extort money from end users whose PCs have been locked down.

By pretending to be the fake ICPP Foundation (icpp-online.com), the ransomware locks down the user’s desktop issuing a “Copyright violation: copyrighted content detected” message, which lists torrent files found on the infected PC, and forces the user to pay $400 for the copyright holder’s fine, emphasizing on the fact that “the maximum penalties can be five years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines.
[...]
Gullible end users who fall victim to the scam, will then be asked to pay $399.85 for a “Legal license purchase“, “Copyright holder fine“, a “Copyright protection organization fee for the use of software tracking illegal file downloads” and a “Traffic fee“.

Basically, you’ve got a profit margin driven ransomware business model, that’s ironically charging you a fee for the development of ransomware “software” itself.

Pay attention folks this is another attempt by idiots to take advantage of you, Baldy

---

Ransomware Taking A Novel Approach To Extortion

What happened to the old “sysadmin” of just a few years ago? We’ve split what used to be the sysadmin into application teams, server teams, storage teams, and network teams. Now look at what we’ve done — knowledge is so decentralized we must invent new roles to act as liaisons between all the IT groups.

Now this I personally have first hand experience the old idea of one admin to rule them all is now a part of history as much as windows 3.1, Baldy

IT Strangled by Overspecialization