Technology

Tech In The Valley

Steve Hanson — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 17:01:01 -0500

New local web site covering technology in the Chippewa Valley. Come visit.

Barcamp Chippewa

World's worst Botnet

Steve Hanson — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 10:01:49 -0500

Here at the farm we've been being pelted with an astounding amount of spam backscatter for the last week or so - at levels I've never seent. Now we know why.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/07/kraken_botnet_menace/

TCTEKS Customer Computer Video on WEAU Technology Spot

TheTodd — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 19:04:47 -0500

Original posted at: http://www.TheToddToday.com

On Fridays episode of WEAU’s Technology Sport is a segment of myself doing a custom computer build , check it out and let me know what you think in the comments: http://tinyurl.com/4akz2a

Looking for Chippewa Valley Web Sites

Steve Hanson — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 13:27:35 -0500

We're on the lookout for web sites in the Chippewa Valley. If you have a favorite site, or you publish a site, let us know. If the site has an RSS feed and you'd like to see it aggregated in with our Local Blogs section, that's even better.

In general, if you know about anything interesting going on in the Chippewa Valley, we want to know about it and spread the word. So please fee free to send us anything of interest through the contact form, or just email us at sales [at] chippewaguide [dot] com

Keep in touch!

The future of the seamless Internet & the computer as I see it.

TheTodd — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 11:29:25 -0500

Originally posted on: http://www.TheToddToday.com

So I was talking to one of the Clearwire technicians that my company deals with and we discussed a variety of things from the future of internet connection to the future of the computer. One of the biggest things that the computers of the future will need is a non-stop connection to the internet. As the Clearwire technician stated this is the basic idea of what they are trying to do.

Currently it appears that Clearwire is working on partnering with Sprint as well as cable providers. By doing this you will be able to package your Cable, Cellphone, Internet connection into one package. By combining these services in the future you will be able to seamlessly hand off from your home internet connection to your wireless internet connection without seeing the transition.

As for the future of the computer I believe it will all be based off of Apple iPhone type devices. The Apple iPhone is the perfect device for mobile computing when you do not need to have a big screen or a full keyboard. This leads me into what I believe the future of the computer will look like.

I do not believe there will be desktop or laptop computers as separate devices as we have them now. The desktop will basically be a large screen, keyboard, and mass storage all connected to a small dock, once you get home you simply dock your hand held device and use it on the large screen with your large keyboard. You will also have a laptop type device but it will simply be a shell containing a larger screen and a full keyboard, you will simply slide your hand held device into the side like a PCMCIA card does currently and you would then have a laptop computer system.

So in conclusion I believe that everything will be centered around one small hand held device. You will not need to worry about having separate devices for everything as we currently do. This one device will simply dock with your desktop shell at home and your laptop shell on the roa, providing amazing convenience.

Let me know if you think I’m right on or if you think I’m crazy in the comments bellow!

ECLUG (Eau Claire Linux User Group)

TheTodd — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 10:34:48 -0500

Tags: ECLUG, Eau Claire Linux User Group, Ubuntu Linux, Cafe 420, Hulu.com, Microsoft, Netbeans, Gnome, Open source, technology

Attended my first ECLUG (Eau Claire Linux User Group) today and it was very enjoyable. ECLUG is a group for people in the Eau Claire area that are into Linux and open source. Check out the website for a little more information on the group.: http://eclug.homelinux.org/ There ended up being 9 people at the meeting tonight all snuggled together into the back room at the Cafe 420 down town Eau Claire. The room worked fine as it has a projector to hook a laptop up for easy display of items that are talked about.

The meeting started off with two minute introductions where you got to introduce yourself and tell a little bit about your past week or so. I stated my name and that I was the owner of TCTEKS as well as that my week mostly consists of fixing hundreds of other peoples computers (I love my job). This is a very good way to start off the meeting as in addition to me there was a few other new people attending. After the introductions it broke down into random chatting about different subject that people brought up such as podcasts, network, and Linux of course. This lasted for a good 10 - 20 minutes and was very interesting as everyone is very into technology and Linux.

Once the chatting slowed down then we got into the meat of the meeting (60 minutes+) which is going over the weekly newsletter which can be found on the website. This was very interesting and had a wide range of targeted topics such as Gnome 2.2 now available, Don't trust Microsoft, Netbeans, Hulu.com, etc... The discussion was very lively, spirited, and involved everyone.

After the newsletter discussion is over the meeting once again broke down into random chatting about technology subjects, Many based on what we just talked about in the newsletter as well as many others such as Cantenas, dd-wrt, etc... This goes on until one at a time people started leaving with the meeting coming to a close around 9:15pm.

Overall this was a very positive meeting and I will definitely be making this a weekly event on my calendar. Feel free to drop me a line if you have any questions as well as feel free to join the meeting next week as its a very welcoming atmosphere.

--
Todd Welch
-----------------------
Parter @ TCTEKS
-Affordable Computer Sales, Service & Repair
-Clearwire High Speed Wireless Internet

127 N. Barstow St.
Eau Claire, WI 54703

Phone: 715-559-4177
Website: WWW.TCTEKS.COM

http://twitter.com/http://twitter.com/TC...
http://pownce.com/toddw81/
http://www.facebook.com/people/Todd_Welc...

Windows Vista and why we recommend staying away

TheTodd — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 10:34:24 -0500

Tags: Windows Vista, Windows XP, Ubuntu Linux, Mac OS X

I am currently writing this blog on a Windows Vista computer because being a computer store we need to learn the new interface. After a few months of using it I can safely say stay away if you can, as the over all experience for us has not been good.

First off lets start with the interface which is the only thing that I think Microsoft partially got right. I have come to really like the new start menu as well as the control panel and other little improvements. The only down falls of the interface that I have found is the lack of the ability to see a thumbnail of your images in the Vista Home Premium which seems to be the most popular to install on new computers. This was a basic feature in Windows XP.

What I do not like about the interface is that if you leave it at its automagically configured settings then it is painfully slow. Unless your computer is running 2GB's of RAM (ours is running 1GB) then it just seems to slow to a crawl and lets not forget the random lockups. If you turn off all the graphical enhancements then it really speeds up and is mostly usable.

Some other issues are the constant barrage of pop-ups asking are you sure you want to do this? and then after say ok it asks again are you really sure? Just to delete an icon it takes three clicks and two pop-ups which is just crazy. I know this is in the name of security but take a look at Ubuntu Linux and Mac OS X if you want to see a good handle on security. Security can be attained while not being completely annoying.

So all that talk brings me to the point of trying to stay away from Vista if at all possible. I know Microsoft is going to be and currently is pushing Vista on people and XP machines are becoming hard to find but I would search high and low for them if you have the time. Currently we have all XP machines (new and used) and are staying away from Vista as long as possible. This is also a good time to try out Ubuntu Linux (which has come a long way and is a very viable option) or give Mac OS X a shot which is a proven alternative to windows.

Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Todd Welch
-----------------------
Parter @ TCTEKS
-Affordable Computer Sales, Service & Repair
-Clearwire High Speed Wireless Internet

127 N. Barstow St.
Eau Claire, WI 54703

Phone: 715-559-4177
Website: WWW.TCTEKS.COM

http://twitter.com/http://twitter.com/TC...
http://pownce.com/toddw81/
http://www.facebook.com/people/Todd_Welc...

IP COP Firewall / Router

TheTodd — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 10:33:53 -0500

We finally have our IPCOP box setup and running as our Firewall / Router. So far it has been working great as it allows us to have a true hardware firewall basically for free.

If your not sure what IPCOP is check out: http://ipcop.org/index.php?module=pnWikk...

We have also added Update Accelerator to the IPCOP box which allows us to cache Windows Updates locally for future windows updates. Check it out: http://www.advproxy.net/update-accelerat...

So far it has been working great accept for it having an issue with windows genuine advantage. Working on finding a fix for this so hopefully it will be working in the near future.

Barcamp? Here? Why Not?

Steve Hanson — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 14:23:51 -0500

I've seen some discussion lately and have had some conversations with people revolving around the question - If this is the "tech corridor" of Wisconsin, why don't we have the kinds of web interactions and tech events that tech areas usually have?"

You'll ask yourself - what the heck does he mean by that?

I'm a web developer, and I build interactive web sites as a freelancer, mostly for nonprofits. This site is actually a pretty good example of what I do. Almost all of my clients are from outside of the area - in fact, one of the reasons I built this site was to try to have a local client - myself. I get clients on the coasts, clients in the Twin Cities, but in the Chippewa Valley, the general response I get is a blank stare. I'm beginning to believe that the Chippewa Valley isn't ready for Web 2.0.

This site is a good example. When I approach local businesses, they often think that this is a great idea, but they don't seem very much interested in participating, despite the fact that it's a great source of free publicity. Nonprofits that I approach in the area seem very wary of building a web presence that lets their constituents talk back to them. The idea that the Internet is inherently interactive seems to be lost on most people here, and I don't know why. I long for kindred tech geek spirits, and I'd love to meet you. I know you're out there.

I also edit a political web site, Uppity Wisconsin . It's based in Downsville (well, I'm based in Downsville so --). I have lots of politically active friends in the area, none of whom participate. They usually say that they're too shy to express an opinion that is publicly available - yet they write letters to the editor, they go to rallies, and they participate in lots of other ways. There are quite a few participants, but they're almost all from Madison or Milwaukee. Isn't there a possibility for web interaction in the rest of the state?

Likewise, I participate in lots of tech activities - Barcamps in other areas, Drupal Camps, nonprofit tech organizations, and more. The one thing all of this has in common is that none of it happens here.

So I have been asking myself - can we do something about that? Which finally brings me to the point. - Why not have a Chippewa Valley Barcamp? It would be a great way for people who are involved in net technologies to meet, and should provoke some interesting discussion. It also will give us all a chance to show off a little and demonstrate what we're doing.

What the heck is a BarCamp, I hear you cry? According to Wikipedia, it is

BarCamp is an international network of user generated conferences — open, participatory workshop-events, whose content is provided by participants — often focusing on early-stage web applications, and related open source technologies, social protocols, and open data formats.

For more information you can look at http://www.barcamp.org

I'm suggesting that Chippewa Guide and my consulting company Cruiskeen Consulting LLC get together with some other local organizations, and we organize a Chippewa Valley Barcamp. As a first stab, I suggest that we should make it be a smaller affair than a lot of them, and that we should go for a little broader audience than most - let's open it up to technologists of all sorts in the area, including talks on nanotechnology, web applications, the Internet as a communications tool, and more.

So Chippewa Valley, what do you think? I think that a Barcamp some time this summer would be great fun and a wonderful chance to bring together like-minded people. We're willing to organize it if you're willing to participate. Let us know you're willing to help out. A camp in Menomonie, Eau Claire, or Chippewa Falls would be great.

To give you a little better idea what BarCamp is like, here is a video from last year's BarCamp in Milwaukee.

PDF Hammer

Steve Hanson — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 09:18:59 -0600

I just ran across this great new web site that I think might be helpful to a lot of people. Ever have a PDF file that you need to change? PDF Hammer is a web site that lets you edit PDF files online, right on the web. No software to install, works on any computer with a web browser. Check it out!