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Posts
Trip to Frankfort with the Lightning
TL;DR Great test run with the Airstream cut short by a sick kiddo. Stats and thoughts are below!
F-150 Lightning towing stats
TL;DR - Towing my 23fb Airstream with the lightning basically cuts range in half.
BlueCruise, Charging, and Trip Stats
Charging networks are just as strategic as battery suppliers. Everyone who isn’t Tesla needs to focus on build-out. What we have today is not acceptable to t...
Prep for our first road trip in the F-150 Lightning
It made big news yesterday, but for the sake of posterity, we are the first F-150 Lightning Owner in the world at this point. The timing was great as we have...
Steam Deck Review
I have struggled a little to collect my thoughts around the Steam Deck. The Linux geek in me is astonished that I sat on an aeroplane and played Halo on an A...
Prague Spring
Prague is a familiar location for our marriage; we have found ourselves here for my work. We were here often enough to have made friends, had favourite local...
Connecting the Generator to the Brain
My generator was an island of mystery in my home data pool. The Overview
Optimise Later
One of our design philosophies at Blueprint Power is that you don’t spend too much time optimising code early on but instead focus on writing maintainable co...
It is all energy
I have had the fantastic opportunity the past few years to learn the energy space inside and out at Blueprint Power. Everything from regulatory frameworks to...
Frogger and Young Nick
My Father was stationed at Comiso Air Station when I was around two years old and was our home until kindergarten. The air station has since closed, but it h...
The disappearing digital divide?
I live in a beautiful town called Standish, Michigan. Our total population is around 1400 people, and the majority of our population are farmers. That is to ...
Haiku OS on a Lenovo T480
BeOS Love & Haiku OS Beta 3 Hot Takes
Open Source On the Go
Is there a more prominent sign of being a geek than wanting to have your special OSS tooling at hand 24x7? I started writing this post as a review of the Pin...
Not everything new is sucky
Our team had a lively discussion yesterday around Kubernetes and the fallacy of innovation & ROI from tech. I am usually the curmudgeon old grey beard, b...
Fleet EV Charging in NYC
I landed at LGA Airport yesterday and, for the first time, had a Tesla Uber Model 3 I was a bit surprised to see. We lived in Brooklyn and drove a Model 3, a...
Thoughts on Rural Energy Transition
In between calls, I decided to split some wood. I find it incredibly relaxing, and it’s a great workout. I was thinking about a conversation I had with a bud...
Migrating a ZFS Pool with Snapshots
Background
Unifi Security Gateway Dual WAN Policy Routing
Background I live in the boonies of Michigan, and my only option for unmetered and unlimited internet is SpeedConnect. The company is a smaller WISP that, fo...
Kinderlevel Deutsch - Keeping Current
TL;DR There is a reason, despite spending an abundant amount of hours in Tcl/Tk and Perl, I can only barely read the codebases of years past. I lost it. Germ...
Where I Get My News
Introduction I value my time abroad at all stages of my life. While making me not only a better and more curious person, it has changed the way I consume and...
Istanbul
It was 2013, and there I sat in Istanbul International waiting for my third flight of the day. Beaten up from the multiple timezones and airline meals that e...
Headless Steam Big Picture Streaming
Introduction In both of our homes I have a Unix server for a variety of uses, but something that has been on interest for awhile was Steam in Home Streaming....
Migration from Wordpress to Jekyll
TL;DR - Migrated 11 year old Wordpress blog to Jekyll. Wouldn’t recommend at all to multi-user, beginner, or corporate entities. Was a fun and geeky experime...
Surface Book, Windows 10, and WSL: A year in review from a UNIX Geek
TL;DR Unix geek tries Windows 10 for a year. For the most part it works, but lots of growing pains. Going back to the land of GNU.
Microsoft in 2016: A review from a UNIX Geek
New laptop purchase seems like a good time to give Microsoft another chance.
OpenWRT and PIA
I use an OpenWRT travel router to deal with public WiFi access security and geolocation concerns. I have written extensively prior and ran into an issue wit...
Ring Doorbell Security
The Ring Doorbell has been invaluable as we travel the world. The reactions of people are often times pretty funny as the doorbell they just pressed begins t...
Apache and HTTP Headers with Underscores
Starting with Apache 2.4, headers were dropped that contained items to include underscores and expects dashes instead. Red Hat backported this change into th...
Lenovo Yoga Tab 3 Pro Review
After the unfortunate loss of my 2014 Nexus 7 tablet I was on the prowl for a replacement. I prefer to keep an Android tablet due to the flexibility to use i...
You are dev to me
Introduction
Liquorice Stick and Memories
“Mom, I don’t want to play clarinet! It is for girls!” I remember yelling at my Mother as I prepped for band my middle school years. We were poor growing up ...
Withings Home Camera Review
I am always in search of products that help me automate and secure my home. I have run a mix of Foscam, D-Link, and Panasonics cameras dumping to a Linux ser...
Smitten with the Mitten – 6 Months in Michigan
Say Yes! to Michigan
Traffic Control on Linux with FireQOS
In order to make full use of my half-duplex WiMAX link, I started looking for anything and everything I could use to optimize it. Linux has some pretty decen...
The machine is self aware…
I live in the boonies now, but thankfully we have some semblance of broadband with SpeedConnect. It is a WiMax setup with a modem that needs to be reset once...
What do I want to do when I grow up?
Circumstances were such that I could not make a more public notification when it actually occurred, but I am now able. I have sold my portion of Spec Ops Tec...
ADS-B Receiver and Plotter with Arch Linux
I love aviation and love software defined radios so building an ADS-B receiver and plotter was high on the lists of to-do. In Standish Michigan there are not...
Spiffy Schmidts one year on…
Today marks the 365th day we have been blissfully married. It is hard to believe as it feels like yesterday we were standing on top of the mountains in the C...
Celebrate Geekiness Day
I was asked by SingleHop to write a blog post about being a geek. I imagine they found my name through the URL which is hard to ignore when looking for geeks...
Top 11 Pet Peeves of Hotels
We live in hotels most of the year. Last year we “lived” in our house for less than 30 days if you don’t count our frequent reminiscing via home security cam...
iPad Mini – an agnostic mobile user review
If you glance around my computer museum (I mean office) you will see the following mobile devices:
Best things and stuff from 2013
Contents 0.1 News 0.2 Music 0.3 Moving Images 0.4 Tech...
Thinkpad x230 Thoughts
My requirements for the next laptop were pretty simple:
2013 Investment Recap
I like to look back at the year and see how good (or bad) my investments were in stocks for the year. As the rest of the year is going to be crazy busy I wan...
BASH Profile Calculator and Extractor
Most likely my favourite addition to my otherwise untouched BASH profile is the calc function. From the shell on my Linux box I can simply type “calc 2*10+10...
The Great Illusion
I started my day with a run and was lost in the writings of Norman Angell. A month or so ago I read his book, Great Illusion, and was awe-struck on how much...
Simulating WAN Links with Linux and TC
Simulating WAN links used to be a difficult process. I would load FreeBSD with a dummynet driver and play with the settings to tweak where I needed it for th...
Travel Tips from a Frequent Traveler
“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears!” This year alone I have been in 12 countries and accumulated over 500k miles of travel and want to share my ...
Microsoft Lync on Linux
Microsoft Lync is prevalent through the corporate world. Honestly its a pretty decent product on a Windows machine. On Linux and Mac though it is really a ha...
1965
—- Cross Post from the Spec Ops Technology Blog —-
Dual Time Machine Locations
Apple must have been reading my blog when I wrote-up how to use two locations for Time Machine. Now in Mountain Lion it is built in and is much more seamless...
Race to the median travel screen…
TL;DR – Sometimes the smallest laptop isn’t the best option for a traveler. If you live on one machine then maybe sucking up the weight for power isn’t a bad...
Dreamhost was hacked
It is highly infuriating to be a security person and have your own house knocked down. This was the case if you visited my site as of late and found broken l...
iOS Apps for Business Owners and Travelers
Contents 1 Home Screen: 2 Productivity: 3 Finance: 4 Travel: 5 Tr...
Best things and stuff from 2011
Contents 0.0.1 Events 0.0.2 News ...
International Phones and Plans
Contents 0.1 GR&A 0.2 General Findings 0.3 Rankings by price per month ...
Dual Time Machine Wielding Backups!
Contents 0.1 The Ingredients: 0.2 Secret Magic Scripts: 0.3 Letting the Peng...
Apple Thunderbolt Display Review
Contents 0.1 Display 0.2 Cables 0.3 Ports 0.4 Speakers...
Travel Gear for the Globe Trotting Geeks
Contents 1 Laptop 2 Tablet 3 Security 4 Power on the Go 5 Creat...
Starting a Company – Tips and Tricks from our first month
Starting a company (as I understand it from my older peers) once required a great deal of coordination and assistance. The stories of polyester suit visits t...
TL; DR – I am starting a company.
TL; DR – I am starting a company.
Man the sinking ship! Why I bought a n900 in 2011
The problem with a Sprint phone is that CDMA is as American as Apple Pie. The lack of SIM slot and GSM frequency bands relegates it to CONUS use only. On top...
Don’t Mess with Momma Bear
Usually the text posted to this website is related to some technology or recent hack, but today it will be a little different. My tenacious personality and d...
Tools of the Connected Geek Trade
As we move up the food chain of life, our free-time becomes more and more precious. There are only so many hours in the day and my generation utilizes them t...
Verified Accounts or “Don’t let your friends steal your name”
I have a great friend (who may not agree with that “great” part after this) who refused to have a facebook page. I can’t disagree with the idea of being the ...
My Home Burglary and what it means for your enterprise
My house in DC was broken into. More specifically my garage, which is behind my house, was broken into and a few things stolen. Other than the asshole move o...
Need no more – Gifts and Holidays
There comes a time when we realize there is too much stuff in our lives. I have been blessed to not need for anything beyond a smile and love. As many of my ...
OpenBSD Laptop mini-HOWTO
Awhile back I wanted a fully supported laptop to use as my OpenBSD development machine. I ended up with a Lenovo u150 which has worked out great and the pric...
Why is my /dev/sda missing?!?!
I am in the midst of testing some of the latest Linux kernels and realized that my old kernel config was wiped. In my desire to finish the build I forgot to ...
Tor != VPN – A Simple Explanation
Shameless exploit of meme I know...
Geolocation and Force Protection
OMG THIS DUDE IS AT THINK COFFEE!
Virtualization Tool Support Matrix
I would argue it is pretty sad that the tools needed to abstract the OS from hardware are tied to specific platforms. Companies that pride themselves on deli...
Advice for new ISSO or ISSM
Someone in /r/netsec posted a question about what advice us old sages would have for a new ISSO. The below was my response that I hope is useful to my reader...
An iron fist in an iron glove – Mac/Linux Keymapping
This post will serve to upset both sides of the coin.
Configuring OpenBSD svnd for Encrypted Volumes
I have covered just about everything possible for drive encryption in OpenBSD. My last post is on using the least recommended option for encrypted volumes. I...
Your new CAC, Linux, Mac, and You
Earlier posts outlined howto utilize OpenSC to ensure your CAC worked in Linux or Mac. The problem is that there are new 144k CAC being passed out that do no...
Configuring OpenBSD softraid for encryption
My original idea was to post a dual how-to for both softraid and svnd, but due to the size of the posts with screenshots, I have decided against that. Since ...
Closed Network != Security
To this day I am flabbergasted by the assertion that because your network is not connected to the big “I” Internet you can practice lax security. Countless p...
WAMU{.org/.com}
WAMU, our local NPR station in DC, left me with a cliff hanger as I rushed back from the grocery store. In the days prior to the streaming web I would have j...
OpenBSD Drive Encryption Benchmarks
Let me start by saying I am not a benchmarker. At all…so these results are posted for friendly banter and I make no claim to their validity. Consider this th...
OpenBSD Disk Encryption Options – softraid and svnd
It is unfortunate, but the OpenBSD disk encryption tool-sets are no where near as mature as those found in FreeBSD or Linux. You would think with such a secu...
Herodotus and your Digital Tattoo – A comparison of the many anonymous email providers
Letter Written in Cipher on Mourning Paper by Rose Greenhow
What happens when you use TOR and Facebook
Facebook for all the lack of privacy controls and bad press, does in fact keep an eye on users. A few times since I started connecting to their jabber chat s...
Placebos and Security
There was recently a study that found when people knew that they were taking a placebo, it still helped. The common idea in the past was that you could utili...
BitlBee and OTR … then add some TOR!
With the release of 3.0.1 of BitlBee you can now chat from your favorite IRC client with the peace of mind that your protected. Since the OTR portion is stil...
-fno -fno -fno stack protection
2 days straight now on IRC (##security on irc.freenode.net if you want to say hi) I have had to help someone compiling a program deal with it failing mid-str...
Yubikey and my desire to beat the Feds to HSPD12 Compliance
During my Air Force days I was involved with the roll-out of the “CAC” for Air Mobility Command at MacDill. No one could understand why the military would pu...
Geeks, Charity, and the impact of Reddit
When Digg migrated to Microsoft for advertising a few years ago, I took a personal stand and left. I was desperate to find a home on the internet again and c...
Google ChromeOS Cr-48 Review
It seems everyone is posting their review after a few days of working with the laptop. I decided to take a different perspective with the initial review. Whe...
Using TOR on your Android Device
In my continuation of howto secure your phone habits while on the go, we have come to anonymizing your traffic. There are a few reasons to do this:
CR-48 ChromeOS Security Posture
Since everyone is talking about the fit and finish (which is great other than the battery) I thought I’d talk about the security of the device. Google has al...
Field Marshal Nick
I always have thought personality tests were somewhat goofy and inaccurate. I took one this morning and it was scary right:
SABI, TSABI, and WASABI
[](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasabi)WASABI is ugly and spicy
GPG on your Android Phone
All the traffic coming off your phone, if unencrypted, is clear for the telco to see. With the advent of sniffing using RF or IP based solutions it is becomi...
Have you been using my CAC?
For there record if you say "CAC Card" in my presence you will be "SOL Luck" talking again soon.
No Shave November – Aftermath Report
Men in my Family either grow kickass beards or what amounts to patchy peach fuze. Having been military and in the corporate world my whole life I was unable ...
Left Boeing
This morning I gave my badge back to the Boeing FSO. Lots of smiles and hand shakes, but a sad day all the same. Leaving anything you have been with for 3 ye...
How NOT to Dispose of a LoveSac
The LoveSac or Oscars Bed
Civ V for Mac = Borked with Black Screen
I purchased Civ V for Mac the day it was released. LOVE…LOVE…LOVE Civilization. I had this issue after the 4GiB Download on 3 different machines and configur...
Boeing Acquisitions 2008-2010
My twitter feed once again signals a Boeing acquisition. Cutting lots of fat internally while buying more companies doesn’t compute, but oh well. I decided t...
Updated Stable
Since a lot of my fellow nerds have mentioned they are looking at the stables page, I updated the computers as well as providing some insight into why each m...
Multi-core Security
A question from a distinguished colleague of mine:
5 Years Since Katrina
Contents 1 Katrina 1.1 The Move 1.2 The Storm 1.3 Th...
“Netcraft confirms PGP Email Encryption is Dead!”
Rakkhi posted a great Lessons Learned on implementing email encryption:
Log File Size
I struggle with ROM for log file storage. It is one of those things that no one EVER looks at, but everyone covers their asses. As an example DHS requires 90...
Happy 17th Birthday Debian!
I love Debian (looks over lovingly @ the fileserver) and look forward to many more years of stable releases. Debian was my first distro when I ran 1.3 at th...
Going Agile
Agile Software Development using SCRUM is one of best force multipliers a team can utilize to speed-up cycles.
Fix for “sha1sum mismatch! Rename” winetricks on Mac
Winetricks is a WONDERFUL tool for those of us relegated to a few windows programs on alternate platforms. I have never had issues on Linux, but on Mac the t...
Private Browser Cleaner
There is so much hoopla about Private Mode browsing not actually keeping you private. Most of it is due to your addons for Flash and Java. Here are the exten...
Teaching takes patience
</p> Posted via email from It should be illegal to be this geeky </p>
Switching to Android
A few months ago I started compiling the iPhone libraries for Linux to allow syncing without WIFI. I thought I was king of the world as I bypassed all of the...
Software Project Mgmt Reading and Blogs…
As I learned in a sink vs. swim situation, I wanted to share some books and blogs that helped me. UP FRONT LET ME STATE: I am still learning and screw-up ...
Ubuntu 10.04 on Sony Vaio P
With the latest poulsbo hack for 10.04:
Juniper Connect 64bit Debian
These are the steps needed to get Juniper Connect working on Ubuntu 10.04 64bit. Some of the steps will work in 32, other than the ia32 package install. G...
Intel GMA500 Support Matrix
First a few things:
Sony Vaio P788K Ubuntu 9.10 Load
Ubuntu 9.10 is the last usable version of Linux for use with the GMA500 craptasic video card. As it stands today I cannot recommend using Linux full-time on ...
Sony Vaio P 788k Review
I hate long reviews, but the good gist below:
Fix for GNOME Keyring prompt on Autologin
Autologin in Ubuntu 9.10 would not default unlock your keyring for security I assume. If I am using autologin, chances are security isn’t high on the list an...
OpenVPN Install Ubuntu 9.10
A good buddy of mine, Trevor, had mentioned wanting to bridge his Brother‘s and his networks. Having done an OpenVPN install many moons ago it had resonated ...
N900 Banshee Fix
You can compile the latest builds from Banshee if you’d like, but for those of you on older non-bleeding edge machines here is the .is_audio_player needed fo...
Tomboy SSH Fix on Ubuntu 10.1 Lucid
I was getting the following error when trying to sync:
Test from n900
MaStory is a nice little blogging app. Testing xmlrpc with it
Google Reader Share for Monday
[recreading]
Running Comic
I am up at the crack of dawn and off to run. Found this quote and made me giggle.
Tourist in my Life
I love Parks and Recreation. What started as Office knockoff has really grown into its own. A clip on last week’s episode made me stop and go hmmmm….
Nokia N900 Demo Unit
I think in part to my tweets of N900 lust and desire, Nokia contacted me to see if I was interested in a demo unit. After validating the email was NOT from N...
Top Romantic Songs
I was going through and creating a Valentines Playlist for dinner tonight. We have friends coming over and I struggled to make this list. It seemed every goo...
Bearded Nick
Being a military brat and dude I really never had the chance to grow facial hair. This past holiday break, while not serving to provide the full 2 weeks as p...
Decade in Review
2000-2009 A life in Nick
The quest for a Media Center Machine
With the synergy (ugh manager talk, sorry) of media and television I often find myself wanting to consume laying down or on the couch. Currently I slap a lap...
What Linux/UNIX do you use?
At work I often get asked what UNIX/Linux I use. Truth of the matter is I am an OS harlot :) I run NeXTStep and Rhapsody for fun. When I buy systems I force ...
Clearwire Review – Richmond Metro
I was in a bit of a predicament for the past few months. I live in DC and the girlfriend lives in Richmond. Being a somewhat busy dude (60 hours a week the u...
Show Desktop
One of my favorite features with GNOME/KDE is the show desktop button. Expose is great, but I am always clicking around on the dock. This morning the RSS fee...
Mandriva Linux 2010 is a hot mess
Real quick review of the desktop in pro’s and con’s
I failed Algebra three times…
Below is an excerpt from an email exchange between Mom and I. Love that lady
Flickr
This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.
9.10 UNR mini-review
Just wanted to post some thoughts on UNR 9.10 –
Defining Security
A great post from W. Mark Brooks asks when did Information Security become IT Security? The point is very much in line with my triangle theory, that security...
PGP for Mac Whole Disk Encryption Review
Wanted to share a quick “how does it work” about PGP WDE for Mac.
Systems Engineering and Redundancy
I posted this to ServerFault.com today. Folks loose site of requirements and systems engineering and it drives me batty. Here was my response to the guys que...
Open Source Security Professionals
In economic times such as these it is imperative that architects and leads alike look beyond the glossy software catalog and instead to the web. In the past ...
Weekend Update
What appears to be a world littered with twitter messages and facebook status message updates, I thought it appropriate to update those who care enough to re...
The Family at Work
As we move into a fully connected world there is a bigger expectation that we allow intrusions into our personal lives. While it may be a blackberry or a pag...
Lexmark Drivers for Ubuntu/Debian
Lexmark provides subpar Linux drivers for any distro, but Ubuntu/Debian is horrible. At work we moved from HP Printers to Lexmark. The situation reminds me o...
Error in Service Module
If you are on a OpenSuSE or SuSE SLES/SLED machine and have recently mounted /var to a new parition, you might get the following error:
Here is a quarter
I am a quarter way through my life. Assuming of course that I live to 100 years old, but that doesn’t seem unreasonable considering the rate of life expectan...
Conky Setup
I love me some eye candy that is actually useful. Conky falls into this category for me. In the olden days it was either gkrellm or a WindowMaker plugin. I h...
Long Time
It has been awhile since I have posted here since work started blocking my website (BLOCKED FOR HACKING TUTORIALS – Seriously!) and I wanted to make sure I c...
Jig
I was thinking back to one of my favorite comics this morning as I danced around the room. There are certain songs that make me just dance around like there ...
Fix for Songbird showing songs still on iPod
I formatted my iPod recently and noticed that Songbird still thought the Library had media on it. Loading up a factory restore didn’t help. To clear the iPod...
Travel Days for 2008
Why stop a geeky tradition?! Here is 2008’s travel graphs. This year I did hit the 2 full trips around the Earth. I am not sure what 2009 holds, but I had a ...
Securing MySQL
Here is my quick secure guide for MySQL:
Fix for Songbird and iPod
I LOVE SONGBIRD, but it wouldn’t recognize my iPod Shuffle. I use this one to workout and need hopping tunes to keep my miles time down. If you have an iPod ...
Keeping on my Toes – Mac to Linux and back
I love my MacBook Pro more than I love my motorcycle. There I said it. When I don’t get a chance to ride my motorcycle I get cranky and irritable, but when I...
Similarities between Santa and System Administrators
__Santa is bearded, corpulent, and dresses funny. __ __When you ask Santa for something, the odds of receiving what you wanted are infinitesimal. _...
FIPS 140-2 Open Source SSL/IPSEC – Thanks Red Hat!
I always keep my eyes on what modules are undergoing FIPS validation. Here is an email sent to my teams…
Move from Physical to Virtual with CloneZilla
Just a side note for when I forget how I fixed this…
Machiavellian Leadership
Contents 1 Defense and Military 2 Reputation of a Prince 3 Generosity vs. Parsimony ...
I use a microscope to read maps…
Or in other words I am shortsighted. I watched outside the CRJ700 as Tucson appeared. Flying into Tucson I was surprised they had finally finished the renova...
Passion
What is your passion? The collegiate response is that passion is an intense desire or enthusiasm for something. Passion is a word that posses a meaning that ...
Funniest read today…
From the wonderful bash.org:
South of Mason Dixon and North of Farmers Market
The cracks are too numerous to skip them as a child would. To attempt would be feeble and your poor mothers back would be broken in half a city block. Osc...
Parking
The morning was clear as Oscar and I made our way down the elevator for the new morning routine. We walked past the water fountain on path to the doggie walk...
Kicking it old school
I setup the Cube in the living room today. After hooking it up to the Xbox controller and big screen I am ready for some Mario Kart throw down. Now if you wi...
I have one hand in my pocket
I rarely carry cash around (as evident by the many lunches I owe coworkers) and often times find bones of it in pockets. Tonight as I threw on my jacket from...
Leaving for the city
This morning with my lungs pressed up against the cool morning air I ran through the country. Past the cows in the pasture and up the hill where the horses d...
I hate Windows
I run Windows XP in a virtual machine for those few programs that lack Linux and Mac clients. I booted my FULLY PATCHED, FIREWALLED, and Windows XP Service P...
NetBackup with RHEL5 – CentOS IPTables
First you need to open the iptables firewall settings:
Dress Code
I dress like a big geek sometimes. It isn’t uncommon to see me roll into work with jeans on and an untucked Polo shirt. On really bad days (the ones where I ...
Loki Games Fix
export _POSIX2_VERSION=199209
McAfee buys Secure Computing
The most beautiful firewall I have ever come into contact with is Sidewinder. The first day I learned about Blurbs in the military was the day I began to jum...
So true
Everyone makes fun of me because my phones have the classic ringer. You know, like Grandma’s old phone that could take down a robber. As always XKCD hits it ...
Multipath and Redhat Linux 5
As many of you know, multipath was finally integrated into Redhat Linux with the 5 series. This is great when you have multipath enabled during an install as...
bin2iso for Leopard 10.5
I compiled bin2iso from source for all the mac users out there. For some reason bin2iso is not in macports. Link below:
Schmidts Around the World!!!!
Interesting Stats:
Bittersweet Day
I looked up at the calendar resting in my SuSE box tray (oooh shinny!) and it occurred to me that today is a weird one. To the majority of America today repr...
PPC Loki Games
Here is a blast from the past…way back past…
SheepShaver on Ubuntu
I wanted to run MacOS 9 in my Ubuntu Intrepid dev box so I went ahead and grabbed CVS. Problem was the autogen script never dumped a config.sub. Instead I to...
Airborne Warfare
The mark of a good system administrator is laziness. I mean this in the sense that laziness in the computing world fuels automation and thereby lower costs. ...
Fallacy of Distance
As we progress down the road of technological advance we must learn to remove from our minds the grasps of time and space. It is in the advancement of techno...
Smart People
One of the greatest benefits to working with bright people is bright conversations. There are people in this world who I yearn to be near for no other reason...
Memoirs are Dead
In a world of twitter and 140 character posts, how will the world change in the realm of memoirs? My memoirs are here, each blog a cross section of my intell...
Government Planning Perfection
I was allowed to leave the Air Force with no strings attached in 2003. I found this slightly odd as I had a special security code attached to my AFSC making ...
Centrally locate iTunes and iPhoto Libraries
You took the bite, you bought two Macs. It is a dirty feeling that you can’t wash off as you had the fact you now I contemplating purchasing a Steve Jobs bla...
Drobo for me
Oh darn Dad! Looks like I got your Drobo :)
Change your device alias in Open Firmware
If you happen to have a G4 Cube or another system with a MCE upgraded superdrive, you have the issue of dealing with the Master/Slave mappings. You loose the...
The iPhone saga continues
AT&T Customer for 5 years or more — Check
6am to DC
I don’t care how often I take this flight, 330 rolls around quick. The world is eerily quiet this early.
Trying out WordPress on iPhone
Hello from the kitchen
Inversion of Schedule and Process
Programs are held to rigid standards by the very nature of the word. “A planned series of future events and items” accurately portrays the course of action w...
Storm Racing
“Looks like rain today” my Mother commented as we shared an after Mass lunch. “Yesterday was a mess with all that storming” I agreed. Rain it seemed was my w...
Just say “NO” to OS Level Virtualization
Microsoft Patch 955020
History Books
Did you know that Saint Paul was actually a woman? I bet you didn’t realize that Columbus was really from Germany and not Genovese.
Reason and Imagination
Bearing your soul in words is a dangerous proposition. Admitting to yourself in a permanent fashion is much more difficult than simply bypassing it with nons...
Bought a Kindle
I love books. I actually love reading but hate the one aspect of being a traveling reader…carrying them all. A few reference computer manuals and a college b...
Beagle Travelers
Oscar only whines when he is wanting to go play outside with another dog or he is upset. Luckily he is a pretty happy dog and does neither with any sort of r...
Joy of Flushing
I live in an old home. Over 70 years old at least. I don’t know the exact date, but I know that this whole area is named for the original owners. Th...
Muster
We all stood in line this morning which seemed the perfect crowning to the definition of military efficiency. The middle aged officer (she had the officer lo...
Geek and Backup Pride
Geeks pride themselves on the ability to institute good backup routines. We laugh in the faces of those poor souls who scream and yank hair as they watch the...
PPC Linux
Why Linux and which one? Let me take a second to review:
The air I breathe
I have my chillout playlist on as I sit comfortably in the Sky Harbor Airport. Today I packed up all my things and put the mini cooper on the back of a truck...
Personality Test
Alright my friends, is this right?
The Scientist and the Eye Ball
I am reading through Theology of the Body again after many of times. I now use it more as reference material than actual reading, but tonight I started Chris...
NEXTSTEP 3.3 RISC SparcStation 5
I finally found a copy of NEXTSTEP 3.3 and got it installed on a SparcStation5. I am rocking retro 1993 style. Screenshot for street cred:
login: Looking Back on Debian 1.3
Back at the tender age of 12 I picked up a magazine at the Base Exchange. This magazine contained a CD. This CD contained Debian 1.3. All was well in the wor...
OpenSolaris Shortcomings
I want to like OpenSolaris. I love compiling away on my Sun Machines at the house. The simple fact is though the “Open” is a misnomer of great proportions. W...
I want a pony and a nintendo…
I remember growing up I would pray with such fervor for things. This morning as I was driving to work I did the same thing! You would think after 23 years I ...
GBA PSP Emulator SDTV
Load up the emulator Plug in the Composite Cable Without getting a wretched headache, get into the Graphics and Sounds menu option Set Video to: Sca...
Workout and Food Log
Let me start by saying I **LOVE** thedailyplate.com and use the thing (as the name suggests) daily. Recently they added an option to export all your data to ...
Fix for Skype
For all those running the Skype 2.0 Beta on Ubuntu Gutsy.
Hey Ya
I am not one for rap usually, but this rendition rocks my socks. Turns the pop-rap into this dramatic song about life :)
Brrrr
I ran this morning in 20 degree weather…with snow! It was pretty chilly and I am hoping when I awake in the morning the run will be much more enjoyable.
Twitter Updates for 2008-01-21
Moving to DC in a few weeks, wondering where to live! Lots to do #
Moment in Time
Sometimes when we leave a place we know it isn’t forever. Yet you still look around with deep breath and soak it in. What is “it” that we need to soak?I had...
Twitter Updates for 2008-01-19
I did a fricken pushup! Less than a month after a motorcycle I am back to running 6 miles and pushups. Victory Dance! #
Food Time!
On airplanes it is really funny to watch the stewardess get the drink cart ready. In complete unison trays on the back of seats drop for their yummy infant p...
I diet geeky style
From the DailyPlate website I track my food for keeping my weight (steady, not trying to loose) and today after working out I was given this little note:
Speechless
Other than the language and video games, it is so so true…
What Geek am I?
This is a picture someone published online that shows all the different types of geeks. I figured I would quickly look at the image and find, THE NICK. My ...
Best Man Toast
I want to look back on this with my Brother. Here it is for the world to mirror!
Dead Poetic – Vices Lyrics
I love this song, it is a little hard rock but the lyrics hit me so hard. It is refreshing to hear Christian music that talks about the true struggle.
Absolution
God, the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of his Son has reconciled the world to himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgi...
WOOT! Arm in sweater
Since the accident I have been rocking a lot of short sleeve shirts. That is great if it was summer, but winter is killing me. The past few mornings I made t...
What I need Recap 2
In a fight recently, I wrote down a list of needs. The boat had done sailed by time these were written down but I left them on my fridge (along with what Nic...
Living Room
If you are clicking here you know what this is… Living Room For the whole house… Click Here
Water
I ran my hand through the water on the banks of the pond that day. As I sat under the golden crisp light beaming down on me, I knew the time was not for deci...
I fought the road and the road won
I have been out of the loop the past few days and I wanted to let everyone know I was okay.
Short vs Long
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It is often in the course of life that we are put to the test of our faith. My little brother just txt’ed me saying “Shotgun is at mom’s...
Encyclical Letter Spe Salvi
Pope’s Note!
VMware Server Beta 2 Review
The Good:
Working from home because no o…
Working from home because no one showed up at work to open the door. Oh well.
Working from home because no o…
Working from home because no one showed up at work to open the door. Oh well.
Linux and Skype – NOW WITH VIDEO!
Skype (or ebay) have been killing me for years now. I am a huge Skype user and always loved the video chat option. I have gone back and installed webcams for...
New Exhaust RC51
For a heck of a steal on ebay, I picked up a new exhaust system for the bike. Ready for the price…wait for it…wait for it…125 dollars pl...
up late designing networks!
up late designing networks!
Apple Mail.app and TimeMachine
I love Leopard! Single best upgrade I have done this year for operating systems. Vista was obviously a waste of time and Gutsy was incremental over Feisty. O...
Xgrid and Multiplatform Clients
This allows you to setup a Xgrid controller without mac server edition. What is nifty is that the clients can run on other platforms such as Linux and Window...
For all the apple haters: http…
For all the apple haters: http://tinyurl.com/2dbp2k [http://tinyurl.com/2dbp2k]
NNTP will forever rock my sock…
NNTP will forever rock my socks
tinc maybe my opensource repla…
tinc maybe my opensource replacement for hamachi, we will see
Project Indiana (Ian’s OpenSol…
Project Indiana (Ian’s OpenSolaris) and OpenBSD 4.2 released with Leopard in the same week?!?! How can I be expected to work!?
upgrade to 10.5 on mac…sweet…
upgrade to 10.5 on mac…sweet! time machine might actually make me backup stuff
Back from Stone Mountain, grea…
Back from Stone Mountain, great trip, pics to follow
This is me…sitting in an air…
This is me…sitting in an airport…getting on a plane after 40 days in the desert
OpenSuSE 10.3 < Ubuntu Gutsy
I am done dealing with OpenSuSE 10.3. Before anyone starts I realize that it is a beta release candidate “blah blah blah.” I expect simple things to work wit...
OpenSuSE 10.3 is great so far….
OpenSuSE 10.3 is great so far…had I not screwed up my Ubuntu install I might not be here but oh well
House Inspection Link
Click Here Dad
i am typing this from BeOS+BON…
i am typing this from BeOS+BONE im_kit, gosh I love Be :(
Ericca and I are off to tucson…
Ericca and I are off to tucson!
Securing your iPhone
NICKS STIG:
3 OS on a 1996-era machine…
I always wanted an SGI machine after watching Jurassic Park as a kid.Its a UNIX system. I know this!
Dorky Nerd God
NerdTests.com has confirmed what we all knew…I am a Dorky Nerd God…stop the presses!
6.5.22 Overlays on SGI suck. I…
6.5.22 Overlays on SGI suck. I hate SGI but love my cute O2, so torn!
iPhone + Mini Cooper = Super Hotness
I am happy to report that usingthe ICE Link for my Mini works great with the mini. I now have a mini computer in my mini car. It even fades when calls come i...
I sure do wish some ppl would …
I sure do wish some ppl would buy 2 seats on a plane rather than shove me like a sardine to the window
I want a Mac SE/30 BAD, playin…
I want a Mac SE/30 BAD, playing with 7.5.5 in vMac = hotness
I want a SE/30…80 bucks I wa…
I want a SE/30…80 bucks I was outbid on ebay! WTC!
I really like Sauce. Good plac…
I really like Sauce. Good place if you are ever in Tucson
Oh how the times have changed…
Thanks to Joy of Tech for a great comic!
In spite of divisions among Ch…
In spite of divisions among Christians, all those justified by faith through baptism are incorporated into Christ, brothers and sisters in J
Pope Quote…
In spite of divisions among Christians, all those justified by faith through baptism are incorporated into Christ…brothers and sisters in the Lord – Pope Joh...
My First Embedded Google Map
How Nick gets to work!
after a few day delay, I am of…
after a few day delay, I am off on travel again
Military Men — WHOORAH!
While there was much talk about the Army raising the maximum age for new recruits from 35 to 42, the lesser-known development is that the Pentagon managed no...
Wine in MacOSX
Macports now has the latest wine. What this means is that X11+Wine = steam hotness! I will post more info as I figure stuff out.
Dang you Apple! Why must you p…
Dang you Apple! Why must you put iPhone commercials on when I watch TV, I am doing my best to NOT get one…sheesh!
I love days when you can do no…
I love days when you can do nothing
Why I am a geek
I love nmap, one the greatest network security tools ever created. My favorite part of nmap is the hidden geek easter eggs. For example while I was compiling...
Home sweet home
Home sweet home
2 hour delay, sometimes I wond…
2 hour delay, sometimes I wonder if it is worth shooting for 5am flights
The glass is neither half-full…
The glass is neither half-full nor half-empty: it’s twice as big as it needs to be.
sheesh the storms in Tucson ar…
sheesh the storms in Tucson are amazing, everything with a bowl becomes a river
There is hope for us all…
Linus Torvalds, creator of Linux, while in college. This is what he did on top of designing a great Operating System. There is hope for us all. I find it fun...
Seedless Grapes
Todays reading is Matthew 13:18. I read something like that and think of being a seed…what a feeling?! Can you help but go through today’s gospel and figure ...
Misguided revolts
I can’t image what he would think if he saw this shirt for sale at the Gap. I think it is funny how misguided and idealistic my generation is. Embrace the ga...
VMWare Server + Gutsy Gibbon = Houston its a-go
Just make sure to download the latest vmware-any-any patches to deal with the new 2.6.22 and all should be well:
Another day, off to the DMV to…
Another day, off to the DMV to try to register my car AGAIN in Alabama. Welcome to the country
Patchstick AppleTV Hack
I was really excited to have SSH on the AppleTV…why? No Clue. I am a geek. I use my Logitech remote for my roomba. This is simply something I do. Here is the...
Jr. High Review
Some people call Jr. High yearbooks humiliating. I call them perspective makers. I look back at the pictures and remember all the concerns I had in life and ...
My Parents are coming up this …
My Parents are coming up this way in a few hours. Be great to see them, hope Dad finds a job this way
GOING HOME!! Flight is 40 minu…
GOING HOME!! Flight is 40 minutes delayed due to the killer storm last night in Tucson, I care not…just get me home
T-Minus One day till take-off …
T-Minus One day till take-off back home to Arab! My Mom and Dad are visiting this Friday
Why are cats with subtitles so…
Why are cats with subtitles so funny?
sitting in a meeting…getting…
sitting in a meeting…getting paid…tired…such is life
I am loving verizon card
I am loving verizon card
40 hours of work in 2 days. Ye…
40 hours of work in 2 days. Yep, I slept 8 hours in two days. Gosh I love meetings and troubleshooting :)
The story of my life…
I do a lot of online shipping. I love UPS and FEDEX tracking via Google (Thanks for being able to just to type into Search Google Friends) and watching the b...
I am close to be done with the…
I am close to be done with the house, it has taken a lot. Feels great to rock out to music @ 2200 knowing the nearest neighbor is 2 acres
filter = [ “a/sda[1-9]$/” “a/e…
filter = [ “a/sda[1-9]$/” “a/emcpower.*/” “r/.*/” ] This fixes problems with EMC PowerPath and LVM
Wow I am sitting at my desk in…
Wow I am sitting at my desk in Huntsville! What a shock to be working @ the place I live. Had a long day of moving yesterday. Almost done!
I am typing this from the new …
I am typing this from the new house! Very exciting! Will post pictures soon
I think everyone forgets somet…
I think everyone forgets something when we talk WWDC…developers…developers not users. I think we all get really excited for nothing
Wow iPhone SDK, didn’t see tha…
Wow iPhone SDK, didn’t see that coming. Wonder what the community will do with it all
Please oh please let there be …
Please oh please let there be a ultraportable macbook pro. I miss my 12″ powerbook. If it doesn’t drop today I am off to pickup a sony tx
I love WWDC, it is an exciting…
I love WWDC, it is an exciting look at technology as a whole. Steve still has it! Safari on XP/VISTA is a huge move’
What is the most days someone …
What is the most days someone can work straight without collapsing? Good thing Ericca came to visit me out here
Pictures to follow
Pictures to follow
Having fun @ the Mona Boat Doc…
Having fun @ the Mona Boat DockM
Still stuck in Houston…shees…
Still stuck in Houston…sheesh I hate airlines
Airports and Standby
Let me quickly speak of airports and booking flights. Why in the world would a company book a flight 10 people over. I know 10 doesn’t sound like a lot but o...
Last day in the desert, day 39…
Last day in the desert, day 39 I guess you can call it
Testing Google Picasa Slideshow
Just wanted to see how it works:
Etsy.com is a great site! I lo…
Etsy.com is a great site! I love what people do with their imagination
Cold in the desert today
Cold in the desert today
i really hate Tucson, i cannot…
i really hate Tucson, i cannot wait to get home to my beautiful girlfriend and dog
The desert is really hot. Go f…
The desert is really hot. Go figure, new pictures uploaded soon
Heading out to Tucson, early f…
Heading out to Tucson, early flight this morning. Road tested the mini to get here :)
Verizon evdo card + linux = ss…
Verizon evdo card + linux = ssh hotness
The stars in Arab are amazing!…
The stars in Arab are amazing! Love not seeing city lights
Jabber Mix Client 1.3 Beta
I am wanting to OTA because BlackBerry refuses to open up to Linux Machines. If you need to install JMC 1.3 to your blackberry/nokia OTA then use the links b...
Thanks Continental! My red eye…
Thanks Continental! My red eye flight is delayed an hour but failed to update tracking times…they knew since last night
I visited Sassabe today, one o…
I visited Sassabe today, one old lady owns the whole town, not that it says much
My drivers license came in fin…
My drivers license came in finally! Now I can be legal again
Tucson is windy and stinky
Tucson is windy and stinky
Travel again! I will be in Tuc…
Travel again! I will be in Tucson again this week, sure will miss Ericca and Oscar
Woohoo I just landed in Huntsv…
Woohoo I just landed in Huntsville. Feels great to see the Boeing Jetplex and to know Ericca is a skip away
Finally on the plane and ready…
Finally on the plane and ready to go…5 more hours till I see my beautiful g/f and tough dog
Tucson airport is SO SLOW to g…
Tucson airport is SO SLOW to get things moving, waiting to checkin now for 20 minutes
16 hour day of work yesterday….
16 hour day of work yesterday…hopefully 8 today
The Indian Reservation @ A’yo …
The Indian Reservation @ A’yo in AZ is an interesting place, a write-up will be on my site
Tucson Graveyard
While on business travel in Tucson I came across the Air Forces’ graveyard for old airplanes. A very fascinating place! I will upload the pictures en masse l...
I am in a Mexican market in Tu…
I am in a Mexican market in Tucson, the place stood still when I (aka El Gringo) walked in…
Working on Sunday…fun fun in…
Working on Sunday…fun fun in the sun
Tucson is amazing @ 70 degrees…
Tucson is amazing @ 70 degrees. To bad it will be a 100 in a week
AppleTV and Extreme
I geeked up this weekend and purchased an AppleTV and matching router. Stay tuned for review!
Posted from my n800
A program came out called Maemo Blog…and I am using it. Hooked up to my bluetooth keyboard I am able to type a post that would have taken ages with the other...
New motorcycle – Honda RC51
I debated and thought about it a lot before deciding on this bike. The money it cost to buy a used bike was enough to purchase a run-of-the-mill 600/1000cc I...
Ian Murdock leaves Debian
The Sun folks are sounding the alarm that this is the end of Linux! I think what they fail to reailize is the state of Debian and his original project leads....
I dislike Delta Airlines
Yep it is true. The story goes like this:
I am the computer man!
I sent this out to prove that I wasn’t as geeky as everyone made me out to be. Proof that I maybe a geek…but I will never be the “THE COMPUTER MAN!”
Crazy Mac Mini People
For some reason in the twilight zone a G4 Mac Mini is still worth near it’s asking price. Why? I cannot for the life of me understand who is paying these pri...
Testing out Journler
Test, beats the crap out of me if this is working :)
Bluetooth GPS GPT-801 / Quick Review
I purchased the generic GPT-801 bluetooth GPS after being put-off by the high price of others. Basically the device works. It does everything a bluetooth GPS...
Evolution tip
~/.evolution/mail/exchange/$mailbox/favorites
Linux Map
One poster and one page to explain Linux. You decide :)
ARRR!! I am a software pirate
And it is easier…I do my best to use opensource software at all times but there are times when I need, specifically, Windows XP. I just purchased a 24″ iMac ...
I am getting an iMac…
Just which one?! I mean really all that seperates them is the following things:
Nokia E61 – Initial Thoughts
Having now spent the better part of a day with the device I wanted to post a few thoughts:
Bye Bye Treo…
The Treo 650 is a great phone. I purchased it after a horrible experince with Windows Mobile and decided to go the Palm route for the excellent Linux support...
One command to rule them all!
sudo apt-get install nmap tcpdump ngrep etherape ethereal ettercap kismet aircrack john airsnort dsniff hping3 fragroute arpwatch nessus nessusd openssh-serv...
Ich speak Deutsch und English
I was watching a documentary on the Vatican tonight and they were interviewing the Swiss Guars, who obviously, speak mostly German. Maybe because I have been...
Binary for Dad
The Binary Song – Popple
My UNIX Adventure Timeline
1984 I was born grunting binary, ugh and ahh. Parents knew no better.
Rocks Cluster
Rocks Cluster rocks my socks. After battling with their FTP to grab the latest ISO, I was finally able to do a VMWare Install of version 4.2. The key for doi...
Electricity makes me giggle
And tingly for that matter. I was on the phone last night with Kade when I began to troubleshoot the broken TV. Let me walk you through this slowly so you ca...
DoD Security? Is that like pretty ugly?
I can’t take you seriously…
Bought a Mini Cooper
I will post some pictures soon promise!!
DS Lite Loving
I broke down ladies and gentlemen. For months I have been working hard now on my GP2x from Korea. While the device runs linux and many emulators well it lack...
Chuck Norris Facts – My Favorites
I am sure you have seen them all. Kris and I laugh at these all the time. Here is my top list:
Cheap Geek
I woke up this morning when Google Calendar sent a txt to my phone informing me that I had been paid today! “What?! I just got paid 2 weeks ago!” I looked in...
Ruby vs Python
I am going to attempt once again to learn a programming language. I wanted to look at the pro’s and con’s of each language in my work enviroment, military/DO...
Futurama Renewed for 13 New Episodes
This may possibly be the happiest thing to happen to me all day, and I won the lottery. So yeah…love this show!
GUI Babies
While discussing security and such with the awesome TSgt. Harkleroad, he used my now favorite phrase: GUI Babies. This made me giggle. The problem with techn...
Geek Code
Geek Code is almost a necessary addition to any website dealing with techie crap. After many years of NOT putting one on I decided to cave in. I now will be ...
Asus M5n ACPI Fan
I am posting this so I can later go search and find it. Stupid fan was driving me nuts!
Sansa e260 and Linux
I broke down and purchased a new MP3 player after the trusty iPod Mini bit the dust. Thank you Apple for including a wonderful 6GiB CF Drive though :) Moving...
Check out HOWTO’s
I have started to centralize all my tutorials and howto’s I have written over the years. Take a look and let me know what you think!
Using Gmail as GNOME’s default mailer
As a security expert I have to say that this is total hogwash with all the uproar over his script. I sure hope these same people practice AWESOME security ev...
Super Mario Galaxy (HUGE) Boss Battle Video
Video from the upcoming Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii featuring a boss battle on the scale of Shadow of the Colossus boss battles.
Motorcycles
I hate motorcycles. I do. I can’t stand the fact that I am chronically cheap to the point that I won’t consider a new one. I told Kade about the Ducati I saw...
Live from my phone!
Yep I am now able to post from my phone. officially a dork now :)