Stone wall - BW
Date: 11/14/2006
Views: 138
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Friday, 27 April 2007 |
It's been a while since I posted a mixed bag of interesting bits, so here goes...
netsh wlan
In Windows Vista, Microsoft added the ability to control the configuration of wireless network connections from the command line. The netsh command has been around for a while but could only control wired connections. See all the details on the command from Microsoft. It's a little confusing at first. You connect to profiles and profiles are defined in XML files. So to create a script that will configure a card you must first create an XML profile (the easiest way to do it is configure the card the way you want it, then use the netsh wlan export command to export it), import the profile, then issue a connect command using the profile.
For example, first configure a profile the way you want it, then run the following to get the name of the profile
netsh wlan show profiles
Now export it...
netsh wlan export profile="profile name here"
It will tell you the name of the XML file it dumps to. Now delete the profile so you can import it again to see that it works.
netsh wlan delete profile name="profile name here"
Aha! Finally! Now you can import the configuration and connect!
netsh wlan add profile filename="name of file.xml"
netsh wlan connect name="profile name here"
This is a great way to deploy wireless network settings to new computers, change configuration through a login script, update wep keys on client machines, or easily configure clients in an environment where the SSID is not broadcast.
Brazil
A sci-fi classic movie that I just got around to seeing. Here's the synopsis and the like at NetFlix. It's a tough movie to get through the first time - long, and there are a few gratuitous artsy scenes where the director got carried away - but it is worth the effort. The movie steers clear of the technology crutch and focuses on what I call psy-fi, that is the psychology of how we become who we are in the future and how we cope with it. It's a worthy viewing if you have the time and the themes are disturbingly relevant to today's world.
Buying the War
Speaking of disturbingly relevant... Bill Moyer is back reporting for PBS and is off to a running start with the first installment of Bill Moyer's Journal, Buying the War. He explores exactly how it is the media bought into and failed to question what was, in retrospect, a flimsy case for the grave decision to go to war.Write Comment (0 Comments) |
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Thursday, 19 April 2007 |
The final release of Ubuntu 7.04 is out today. I've been running the beta for several weeks and it's fantastic.
Go and get yours at http://www.ubuntu.com It's a damn good desktop operating system and it is completely free. And if you are a reader of the nerdier variety, it makes one groovy server too.
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Friday, 30 March 2007 |
Now that was easy. Just run "update-manager -d", wait a while and reboot.
Everything came right up and I was greeted by a nice new wireless network management utility, integrated desktop search, and a crisper graphical theme. It may be too early to declare victory, but the one part of my linux migration that hasn't thrilled me is replacing Outlook and this upgrade appears to have solved my problems. I'm using Evolution . Everything works , but the program was sluggish often and crashed occasionally. After the upgrade the program is much more stable.
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Wednesday, 28 March 2007 |
Ubuntu 7.04 beta is out. Check out the release announcement to see what's new . The releases are named by date, so 7.04 will be release in April 2007.
I've been running Ubuntu on my laptop as my "everyday" computer and I don't miss Windows XP one bit, nor do I long for Vista. Unfortunately, for day job reasons, I think I'll be stuck going back to Windows for everyday use on a Dell D620 running Vista. I'm in such a happy place with Ubuntu I'm tempted to just run Vista in a VM, but then you don't get to deal with and solve all the fun driver issues and the like. Maybe 7.04 will make my happy place even happier and I'll at least dual boot.
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Monday, 15 January 2007 |
After a series of recent frustrations with Fedora I decided to see if I could find a Linux distribution that better fit my needs. If have a few beefs with Fedora.
First, now that FedoraLegacy is out of business, the lifecycle of releases is too short. I recently completed an upgrade of this server from Fedora 4 to Fedora 6 and it was a considerable undertaking (restore the system to an offline server, practice the upgrade, fix all the stuff that breaks, document it all, then do the upgrade on the production box). Going forward, I'll have to go through the same process about once every 9 months.
Second, the updates to Fedora are not production quality, especially on less popular packages. I've never had an ssh update go bad, but I've had to rollback two upgrades on one Fedora server I have setup at home as a Xen server when the updated Xen kernels wouldn't boot. I've had similar problems running Fedora as a desktop OS, running yum-update broke enough stuff often enough that I always took snapshots before running yum (I was running Fedora as a desktop in VMWare). It was bad enough that I didn't run updates as often as I should.
Finally, I found I was uncomfortable with the positioning of Fedora with RedHat. They spin Fedora as their a "combination of stable and cutting-edge software". In practice, it's more a beta testing ground for the next version of RedHat Enterprise. RedHat will not provide support, even if you're willing to pay.
I decided to give Ubuntu a go. I tried it a while back, and while I was impressed with their approach I wasn't ready to make a move and didn't want to hop on the bandwagon of a new distro that might not be around in a year. Three releases and a year and half later, I decided it was time for another go.
I tried Ubuntu in three different capacities and it has met or exceeded my expectations in all three.
First, I tried it in a VMWare workstation VM. This is my "weekend computer" and was previously a Fedora 6 install. I downloaded the ISO, installed Ubuntu, and moved all my data from Fedora in about an hour. Ubuntu revealed a few advantages here. The install fits on one CD (Fedora spans 5 CDs), it is blazingly fast, the pace of updates are bearable and don't break stuff.
Second, I downloaded the server build and used it to create my homebrew NAS. Again, the whole thing fits on one CD, installs fast, and just works. With a bit of reading I now have a 600GB raid 5 array!
After that I was pretty impressed and feeling lucky so I decided to try it as an everyday operating system installed on a laptop. I happened to have access to a Dell D620 for at least a few weeks and dove right in. I was a little bummed out when X windows crashed as the install started, but a quick google around bailed me out and also included instructions to install support for the video card and widescreen display. MP3 support was a few more clicks away, and in less than an hour I was able to setup QEMU to create a virtual machine to run XP when I need it (alas, my day job requires it and I still reluctantly rely on Microsoft Money). I haven't switched from my regular laptop (a Lenovo T60 with Windows XP), but with the XP VM running now, a complete switch may not be too far away...
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