I usually buy my media (books, DVDs and CDs) online, it's
cheaper, and the selection is considerably better than any
local physical retailer. Buying online isn't as much fun
and you can't browse or make spontaneous purchases like you
can when in a real shop.
Today I foolishly tried to buy a technology book from the
best local bookshop at my disposal. It use to be a passable
bookshop, now it's an utter joke. Not only did they have very
little in the computing section, even what they did have was
very minimal, eclectic and poorly organised.
Suffice to say I shall be making an online purchase later this
week.
posted 20:37 ::
/stuff ::
permalink ::
^
It may be in my career best interests to learn how to program
Java, and in particular Java in relation to SAP R/3. Being
a mostly Perl programmer, using a static low-level language
like Java is going to be a real culture shock.
Off to the book shop I suppose...
posted 21:12 ::
/perl ::
permalink ::
^
To counter the widely discredited but oft' reported Microsoft studies that falsely claim
that Windows is cheaper to run than Linux the Open Source Development Labs have carried out their own study.
Unlike the Microsoft studies they make no bones of their bias, however unlike Microsoft
they do actually try to report the figures in a fair light, even using Microsoft's own
figures.
The report concludes what most people have known for years. Linux is cheaper than Windows:
- Linux costs less to buy - even Microsoft now acknowledge that.
- Linux costs less to deploy and it's quicker to deploy.
- Linux is much easier to maintain - like Windows it has bugs but the they are easier
and quicker to patch.
- Linux admins are marginally more expensive than Microsoft admins to hire but
they are able to maintain more systems and users than their Microsoft
contemporaries.
- Linux is easier to automate, on many sites skilled admins were easily able to
automate most tasks, significantly improving their efficiency - something still
largely impossible on Windows.
posted 17:29 ::
/unix ::
permalink ::
^
This weekend has seen big upgrades to Debian testing "Etch". In has come
a new xorg subsystem, a brand spanking new version of KDE, and a host
of other patches and fixes. After a few MB of downloads I had my system
it a set of nasty circular dependency problems. A few ruthless package
removals later, and it's was mostly running - but without the Nvidia
accelerated graphics drivers.
A bit more prodding today has now got later Nvidia drivers installed and
running, but now I've lost my audio subsystem. For the joys of living
of the technological edge...
posted 21:07 ::
/unix/debian ::
permalink ::
^
Both the French Gendarmerie and the Police Nationale are rolling out
a number of open source initiatives. Representative of both forces
have been speaking at the "Solutions Linux 2006" conference in Paris.
The Gendarmerie have migrated from MS Office to OpenOffice.org,
replacing 45 000 copies of MS Office (80% complete). This year they
plan to replace all copies of MS Internet Explorer with Firefox
and Outlook with Thunderbird - an upgrade of 70 000 machines.
Next year they will evaluate replacing all
Windows desktop systems with Linux.
Firefox's 18% market share in France is set to rise...
posted 12:57 ::
/web ::
permalink ::
^
Yesterday was a LUG meeting. I managed to
give away an old Compaq C-Series handheld computer to someone who wanted it more
than me. Even though Dean
managed to unlock the beast I was strong and instead of taking it home where
it would gather dust, the Compaq went to a better home.
I even managed to help Tim
fix a slightly odd GRUB configuration so
his server now boots properly.
After the meeting I went into town to forage for a birthday gift for my step father. I
now have slightly more than I intended, annoying as I now have to post it all off to him.
Life would be much easier if I could email socks and "Liquorice Allsorts"...
posted 15:54 ::
/unix ::
permalink ::
^
![[Valid RSS]](/i/valid-rss.png "Validate my RSS feed")
