One Man's Anthology

OpenBSD 5.1 was released yesterday. You can get the i386 ISO here and the 64 bit ISO here. I am a huge BSD fan so I typically follow most of the BSD derivatives. Download it and enjoy.

Fedora 17 is coming. Get your beta here



Screen shots are in the extended article

With the release of Ubuntu 12.04 LTS last friday there has been and will continue to be a flurish of derivative releases. So there are new version's of kubuntu, edubuntu, mythbuntu, xbuntu, lubuntu, ubuntu studio, ubuntu rescue remix.

So just a litlle heads up. Ubuntu has finally released their next LTS(Long Term Support) Version. you can get the it here

This site has languished for some time. There just is not enough time in the day to get everything done and get blogging done.

Well the long awaited openSUSE 12.1 was finally released today. You can head on over to the download page and get your copy or your can head over here or there for screenshots

Fedora 16 was released a bit early this week. What a nice surprise. I have been using Fedora 16 since I could get my hands on an installable functional nightly build. I happen to really like it. you can read a little bit here and here. You can download the ISO's here.

So I thought I would post a few pictures taken with an iPhone 4S. I have found the iPhone 4S camera to be quite exceptional for a cellphone camera. This will in no way out perform your DSLR but it may just out perform or equal your point and shoot camera with a fixed lense. The pictures are in the extended article.

I have been using a Nikon D7000 lately and absolutely love it. Its a spectacular camera with ergonomics that are a perfect fit for me.

here are some notable features

16.2MP CMOS sensor (oh how I love this sensor)
1080p HD video (I don't use DSLR's for video so I cannot really coment)
ISO 100-6400 (plus H1 and H2 equivalent to ISO 12,800/25,600) (The high gain low noise aspect of this camera is awesome)
39-point Auto Focus with 3D tracking (I generally manually focus but this system works great)
New 2016 pixel metering sensor (I usually am in full on manual but the metering does work well)
Twin SD card slots (yes this feature rocks)
3.0 inch 921k dot LCD screen (simply beautiful)
New Live View/movie shooting switch (I don't use but it will be popular with some people)
Full-time AF in Live View/movie modes (see above)
Up to 6fps continuous shooting (It's definitely fast enough for me)

Again I cannot say enough really nice things about this camera it simply rocks... and the price is quite reasonable also.

iOS 5 is out in the wild. The download is 774.4MB. Once you get it downloaded it will take 15 minutes or so to unpack and install on a iPhone 4. More info can be found here. iTunes 10.5 is a prerequisite.

So the third beta is out for FreeBSD 9.0 and while it may be a bit over a month late, progress is still being made. As the old adage goes Rome was not built in a day. The 500 MB I386 CD ISO is here and the 610 MB AMD64 CD ISO here.

GhostBSD 2.5, a user-friendly, GNOME-based FreeBSD distribution was released the other day. It is still in beta as is FreeBSD 9.0 which it is based off of so it's still a bit buggy. It comes in two flavors GhostBSD lite(CD) and GhostBSD(DVD). As one would expect the CD version is a tad bit smaller and does not include all that is on the DVD . You can get the 32 bit versions (CD) here or the (DVD) here or the 64 bit versions of the (CD) here or the (DVD) here

TC 4 was released yesterday. I got around to working with it today.
From their release

Updated kernel to 3.0.3, udev to 173, glibc to eglibc-2.13, e2fsprogs base libs to 1.41.14, gcc base libs to 4.6.1, util-linux base libs to 2.19.1, eglibc for 486/586 support, base Xlibs (microcore users need to get new Xlibs.tcz). Updated all the custom core utilities to use the new repository area. New loadcpufreq to handle module loading. Updated ondemand for console based extensions via Freedesktop Exec=cliorx prgname, tce-load & tce-audit for dynamic KERNEL dependency processing. Adjusted .xsession to handle X startup failure. Adjusted .setbackground colors for wallpaper handling. Updated AppBrowser Search and Keyword as described below. Updated ab Search and Keyword. Updated search.sh internal script support for new search method shared by AppBrowser & ab New keyword.sh internal script support for new keyword method shared by AppBrowser & ab. Updated loadcpufreq ( C rewrite for speed), busybox 1.19.2 with latest patches and nbd-client, rebuildfstab, tc-config, & rc.shutdown for nbd-client support. Updated getTime.sh for random selection of time servers (atl chi sj). Updated Luxi fonts to disable hinting.

Download it here 4.0 or head on into the extended article for a couple quick screen shots

Tails is short for "The Amnesic Incognito Live System". According to their site the system was inspired by tje Incognito LiveCD and the Privatix Live-System. Tails is a debian distro that aims at making you truly anonymous. So you can use a system with out leaving a trace. It's a great tool to have in your tool bag. I really like this little distro. Run it off of a usb stick or burn the 581MB ISO to a CD and pop it in a computer somewhere. I really like this distro. Head into the extended article for screen shots.

From NASA - Head's up! And if it hits nere you don't touch!

So on or about Friday September the 23rd we should have a rather large satellite burn up in our atmosphere. But about 1,100 pounds of it will make it to earths surface. At this point no one is sure where that impact is going to happen. JSOC is tracking the satellite. The debris pattern should be about 500 miles wide and fall somewhere between the 57 degrees north latitude and the 57 degrees south latitude. The odds of one of the surviving pieces hitting a human being is 1 in 3,200. More information on the can be had here

Again from NASA - "The satellite was launched in 1991 by the Space Shuttle Discovery. It is 35 feet long, 15 feet in diameter, weighs 13,000 pounds, and carries 10 instruments. UARS orbits at an altitude of 375 miles with an orbital inclination of 57 degrees. Designed to operate for three years, six of its ten instruments are still functioning. UARS measures ozone and chemical compounds found in the ozone layer which affect ozone chemistry and processes. UARS also measures winds and temperatures in the stratosphere as well as the energy input from the Sun. Together, these help define the role of the upper atmosphere in climate and climate variability."

So if it happens during the daylight it could be a really pretty show so long as it doesn't land on you.

OpenIndiana is a fork of the OpenSolaris operating system. Which came about when Oracle in all of its wisdom pulled the plug on OpenSolaris. Recently they released their next build "OpenIndiana build 151a" which is capable of running on either 32 bit or 64bit X86 systems. I booted up the ISO in virtualbox to get a look at it. My first thought was that I really like the way it looks.

Photography has always been a passion. However it has also always been a passion on a budget. I make due with what I have. I have a pair of film camera's which I still use to this day. Both of them have been with me for quite some time. my 35mm Minolta was my first semi serious film camera and works great to this day. My SEAGULL rolli has been my 120mm camera for quite some time also. It is very low tech but for landscape and portrait work it functions quite well. My digital camera's are also on the low end of the spectrum. I use two Nikon's a D40 and a D3000. The D40 is a 5 mega pixel camera while the D3000 is a 10.2 mega pixel camera. While I realize there is a large difference in size of the images in raw format I don't feel there is a huge perceived difference in the quality of the image under ideal conditions. With that said what I do like about the D3000 is the 11 point auto focus for those who would use auto focus and I like the larger LCD screen. Both Nikon's come with the Nikkor 18-55 mm lens. This may not be the best lens but it is a good cheap all around lite lens. Normally my D3000 has a Nikkor 18-200 mm VR II lens setting on it. I would say that it is a great all around lens that costs more than the camera but really delivers nice photo's. If I am using this lens out doors and I have the freedom to get close to the subject then I tend to use it at 18mm a lot and use my feet to zoom. This lens is large enough that you need an external flash if you wish to use this lens indoors at 18mm. Also the 18-200 lens is a bit stiff when zooming because it has a two stage zoom I presume. The D40 usually has a Nikkor 50mm Prime lens on it. It's a great lens for portraits. I did add a couple pictures of my gear in the extended article. I used the D40 to shoot the picture of the D3000 and vice versa.

So ArchBang is one of my perennial favorites, its based on Arch Linux and uses the Openbox window manager. It's wicked fast and very usable. It's a great choice for running under virtualbox on a windows system. I keep the ISO handy and boot it on my macbook pro occasionally when I need it. You can download the 32 bit ISO here and the 64 bit ISO here. Screen shots are in the extended article.

Over the weekend the good people over at BlackBox.org released blackbox linux 2. Blackbox is an Ubuntu based security distro running XFCE 4 aimed at providing a platform to run pentest's and security audits from. Not to be confused with the term blackbox from the old telcom phreaking days or the Black box corporation which has lots of cool stuff. You can download it here. From their mirror list here is the 32 bit and here is the 64 bit. Screenshots as usual are in the extended article.

So iOS 5 beta 7 came out last night. I downloaded and installed it via wifi this morning. Everything installed as it should and the entire ordeal was rather uneventful which is just as it should be when you are getting close to a release of software.

So for grins today I booted up the Fedora 16 Alpha gnome 64 bit live media on a HP DL385G7 I was wanting to burn in. It was nice to see all 24 processor cores come up correctly. At this point the machine only has 16G of ram but there should be another 48GB of ram show up tomorrow. You talk about a quick booting machine! Fedora 16 absolutely screams on a 24 core machine. Screen shots are in the extended article.

W00t W00t - Mandriva 2011 is finally out! Downloads are available here and screen shots are here and here. The release announcement can be found here.

So I just noticed that Dream Studio Linux 11.04 is out. I will most likely do a fresh install of it on my home A/V workstation which is currently running Dream Studio 10.10. I am very happy with Dream Studio Linux, It does everything I need it to do and more. You can get the live media here, it's roughly a 2 GB image. Check it out and let me know what you think! The website for this distribution is here

So I got t use a Verizon Wireless mobile hotspot today. All I can say is WOW! It's smoking fast. Seriously I was very impressed with the speed. It was faster than the wifi where I was at. A screenshot of the speed test is in the extended article. You can get more information about the device I was using here

BacTrack 5 R1 is out. get it now 32 bit or 64 bit or KDE 64 bit. You can read the release announcement here