Wednesday, January 29

Tech Tips

Tech tips and tricks to help you.

Nov122018 by EPHNo Comments

Chocolatey Goodness

Windows, Blog, Software, Tech Tips
One of the reasons I prefer Linux over Windows is the ease of package management.Apt, Yum, and Pacman depending on your distribution (Debian:Ubuntu, RedHat/Fedora or Arch) just seem much more logical than the Microsoft App Store or even Apple’s software store. I don’t use the GUI interfaces available on any system if I can carry out the same goal from a terminal. I realize all these systems have a “terminal/Command line” available, but a lot of users have grown accustomed to a graphical point and click method. I haven’t, nor do I enjoy navigating around the screens pointing and clicking - it seems like a waste of time. This is the section that was cutoff PowerShell on the Windows System is an exception. I’ve gotten used to using the Windows command prompt and netshell when po
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Aug112018 by EPHNo Comments
Weather Data

Weather Data

Recent Posts, Tech Tips
Weather alerts, weather Alerts, notifications everywhere. The iPhone notifications from multiple weather apps are handy, and when you hear the notification alerts from other people’s phones going off around you, you’re going to look at your screen. Something is going on, or soon will be. In the old days, we listened to our radios for weather forecasts, often the local television station weather broadcast. Later on, the soothing sounds of the Weather Channel’s greatest hits played while our local forecast rolled across the screen in between weather people pointing to a green screen and looking off camera to create a less confusing presentation illusion. It all worked very nicely. Now we can view the weather in our computer browsers or on a phone app.You can easily view the weather in
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Jan72018 by EPHNo Comments
Meltdown – How much will your CPU be affected?

Meltdown – How much will your CPU be affected?

Software, Tech Tips
Meltdown and Spectre were a hot topic this week for anyone who uses a computer. That would be a huge number of affected systems mainly because Intel chips were highlighted as having a design flaw (apparently for many years) that presents a “potential” Security weakness that could be capitalized on for some malicious activity. ARM and AMD chips also are identified as having the same or similar problems. The issue is how the CPU passes control to the kernel operations, then takes control back. Speculative execution is used to increase performance, but due to the CPU vulnerabilities, sensitive data may be exposed. Meltdown affects the isolation between applications and the operating system. This requires hardening the system against any exploits that could leverage these vulnerabilities. Anyw
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Nov172017 by EPHNo Comments
Nigel’s performance Monitor for Linux (nmon)

Nigel’s performance Monitor for Linux (nmon)

Tech Tips, Software
Linux has many available tools that simply just work. That’s why I prefer it over other operating systems. I can get things done, usually faster and much simpler from a command line in a terminal, or multiple terminals. Windows has useful and powerful shells, and I use them when I need to work on that OS, but I prefer to work in bash. I make use of simple, but elegant installation applications, most notably Apt and PacMan - depending on which of my two preferred distros I have installed. I can install simple, but powerful tools to pull out information about my system’s operation and performance. nmon: One of my goto tools is nmon. (Nigel’s performance Monitor for Linux) - originally used by IBM and released as open source in 2009. I wouldn’t categorize “nmon” as old school, but it
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Nov62017 by EPHNo Comments
Linux type solutions on Windows

Linux type solutions on Windows

Tech Tips
The “Microsoft” Ubuntu command line “App” Sometimes you find yourself working on a Windows-based machine, have to perform a quick task that might normally be very straightforward on a LINUX machine, and you don’t want to spend too much time fumbling through the GUI pointing and clicking until you stumble across what you’re looking for. My first gut instinct usually is to get to the command line quickly and work from there. I installed the “Microsoft” Ubuntu command line “App” on a Windows 10 test machine recently hoping it would become the perfect solution to such situations, but it has been a disappointing experience so far. Maybe I’ll have a better opinion after I spend more time with it, but I doubt I’ll see this installed on too many machines I run into – at least for a while. Lucki
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