Daily Cup of Tech

The USB drive systems that I have been writing are all based on Windows and are aimed at running specific applications groups from a USB drive. But the Pen Drive Linux looks at things slightly differently.

First, they are not looking a Windows but (duh) Linux. This is a completely different take on how computers work.

Secondly, they are not using the Linux system that is installed on the computer. Rather, they are creating and entire Linux system on a single bootable USB drive. This means that you could theoretically plug one of these USB drive systems into a computer with no hard drive and still be able to work just fine! Or, if you are somewhere you need some tools that just don’t run on Windows, then you can boot from your Linux USB drive and away you go!

You gotta like what people are doing with Linux these days.  And this is yet another way that Linux will gain more popularity.

Now, there is a down side.  You need to have a system that is new enough to be able to boot from a USB drive.  But, this is getting to be less and less of a problem as time goes on.

So, I highly recommend popping over to their site with USB drive in hand and see what you think of these systems!

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2007/01/30/usb-drive-linux-systems/trackback/

Many of us have been building workstations and servers for years. Really, it was quite simple. All you need to do is get the components, snap everything together, and presto! you had a computer!

But, if you said that you wanted to build a laptop, that was a whole different story! All of the components were proprietary. Getting everything in to a small package was a huge task. Very few seemed up to the challenge.

Then came Torquil Harkness. Here was a man that was willing to accept this challenge and, in true hacker form, did not disappoint! In The “ITX-Laptop”, Torquil walks through the process he used to create his own laptop! Now, lets keep in mind that Torquil did this as an exercise to see if this could actually be done. He has no aspirations of putting HP or Toshiba out of business anytime in the near future.

What is amazing is that the completed laptop look pretty good! It has a bit of a Terminator feel to it which I think is really cool! This is a good article to read if you are looking to do something like this for yourself or just to see some of the techniques that Torquil used. I highly recommend it.

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2007/01/22/diy-laptop/trackback/

Some things you do for the money. Like keeping a job. Most people that I know have a very strong likeness for eating and being warm.

Other things you do for the experience. Like bungee jumping into the Grand Canyon. You will pay good money to put yourself at risk just so that you can say you’ve done it.

Well, the second category is where make your own MP3 player firmly sits. When you can but a cheap MP3 player these days for under $50, many people would say that you are crazy to dish out $115 for a pile of parts that you still need to put together and get working.

The kit is and open source kit from Make Magazine called the Daisy. Of course, if you do not want to pay for the kit and you can source the parts by yourself, you can build everything from information at the designer’s website.

I think that this would be a great learning experience, especially when my soldering skills are pretty limited at this point. I also like the fact that you can download the code that runs the MP3 player and then modify it to work the way you want it to work. The ability to fine tune something to my specifications has always been a big plus.

I don’t know if I will be doing anything with this in the near future but I will be definitely keeping it in the back of my mind.

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2006/12/31/diy-open-source-mp3-player/trackback/

I was once talking with a friend of mine about wireless networking and I indicated that my company had no plans to deploy it within the company. He looked me square in the eye and said a sentence that chilled me to the bone:

“Either prepare to deploy this technology for your company’s employees or they will deploy it for you!”

The truth of the matter is that he is right, and not just about wireless networking. There is a history of technologies gaining popularity out side the enterprise and then creeping into the corporation. A good example is e-mail.

This is why it is so important to not only know and understand new technology but be in control of it in your enterprise. Arguably, the most critical component to this is the sandbox. According to Wikipedia, a sandbox is:

… a testing (or virtual) environment that isolates untested code changes and outright experimentation from the production environment or repository, in the context of software development including web development and revision control, and by extension in web-based editing environments including wikis.

Nemertes Research has written an excellent article entitled Build an Open Source and Web 2.0 Sandbox. It talks about the importance of the sandbox as part of your testing and control management process along with some important considerations when setting up a sandbox.

I believe that it is important for every company, regardless of how small it is, to have access to a sandbox. This can be something as small as an old desktop no longer in use or as large as an entire server room running several virtual servers. Regardless of the size, make sure that you are segregating the sanctioned from the unsanctioned to protect your company’s IT assets.

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2006/12/30/prepare-for-todays-test-box-to-become-tomorrows-critical-server/trackback/

I’ve always been impressed by people who know enough about the Linux operating system to build their own distribution or LiveCD. I have been struggling through building Linux from scratch but I haven’t had the time to work on it as of late. I think it would be cool to have your own customized distribution or at least version of a Linux distribution.

Well, I just happened to stumble upon Reconstructor today. It give you the ability to create a custom distribution of Ubuntu so that it runs the way you want it to out of the box.

From their website:

Reconstructor is a Live CD creator for Ubuntu Linux.

It uses the Ubuntu Linux Live CD as a base, and then allows customization of boot screens (usplash), gnome settings, and software (you can also use the chroot environment to make other changes before creating the live cd).

Reconstructor uses the solid Ubuntu foundation, and allows for extensive customization. For example, create a custom Live CD with blender, inkscape, etc. included for a friend in graphics, or simply use econstructor to re-brand your environment (wallpaper, fonts).

It’s a pretty simple program to use. The screenshots tell you exactly what to expect.

The current version of Reconstructor is 2.1-1 and there are several modules available for it.

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2006/12/25/diy-custom-ubuntu-livecd/trackback/