Remote Desktop Musings

I am a fan of remote computer access. Huge fan, in fact. I use the crap out of it at work on our Windows XP boxes to access the Load and Performance boxes. I too fire upremote access software at home on my Linux machines…primarily to help D-Rock troubleshoot his Ubuntu set-up. Both scenarios have proven to be quite important, and almost a necessity any more.

dude
+1 Full House

Whereas my scenarios are quite secure and specific, there exists a need for more secure, wide ranging remote access solutions. How about some 256-bit encryption? Like industry leading [link removed]

With a secure system like that, you can troubleshoot other people’s computers remotely, with confidence for both the client and operator. Same is true for work collaboration. The flow of ideas is far easier to channel via a remote connection, be it a single user driving the discussion, or even with multiple users rolling simultaneously. Another use is a little less conventional. You can utilize the remote desktop set-up to act as a file share system. Multiple users, remotely rolling files in and out of a ‘server’ machine remotely via the interwebs. Not too bad of an idea at all, if you ask me.

Hit one of those links to read more. I’m going to attempt to remotely access Katie’s notebook, through a remote connection from my netbook, from a remote connection to my notebook.

+1 bonus degree of separation

Woot FAIL

Once again, I almost got a bag-o-crap on yesterday’s woot-off. Got to this point…

boc
hip hop hurray....awwwwww

Entered my card security code….and nothing.

I hate woot.

Awesome T-Shirt Time!

My little sister is pretty funny.

Long story short, I bought a suit for my upcoming wedding. Elizabeth’s response was “You bought a black suit? Wow. You never have to shop for clothes again.”

You know what? She is pretty much right. I replied “Yep…that about does it. I guess I can pick up some Levis and wifeys every now and then, and that is that.” Awesome.

Aside from that, I have an urge to grab a custom tshirt every now and then. Like my “I’m Hungary for Turkey” tee…classy. Out of curiosity, I ended up trolling around to see if there were any good Lost shirts on the webs. It turns out I need to check out stuff of this nature more often. There are all sorts of amazing products that I have been oblivious to.

There is a whole world of Eclipse merchandise that I found. Check this guy…

eclipse
I beg to differ

Bold claim. I’m not sure that is 100% accurate.

I saw this while browsing some FIFA t-shirts

no hands
no hands? what?

Always a sucker for math-based humor, I thought that was pretty clever.

On to the Lost stuff, the original focus of my search. I guess I’m a little nostalgic, but remember the countdown clock from season two? How much more awesome were the early days of the series than the last two seasons? Good times. Check this out:

epicness
4-8-15-16-23-42, yo

This was also available in t-shirt form, but I though the detail on the plaque was better. And for the record, Desmondo’s failure to enter the code was an epic fail.

I might have to get that shirt in the mail. Or the Twilight shirt…imagine walking into a biker bar with that bad boy on. And then ordering a whisky, neat. Or a Mike’s Hard Lime.

Best News on the Interwebs

I spend a fair amount of time blathering on about technology and current events. I figured I should put together a post to divulge some of my sources. Think of this either as a master “works cited” reference, or as a “read like Joe” document, of sorts.

holy smokes
holy smokes indeed

Take note, I have not had a newspaper or magazine subscription for years. Years and years, actually. All of my sources are online…for better or worse.

I’m all about my news…the more varied, the better. I typically begin by checking local online sources, namely the Bozeman Daily Chronicle and Billings Gazette. The Bozeman Police Reports alone make the Cronicle worth checking, for comedic value alone.

When it comes to national news sources, I typically stick to drudgereport.com and news.google.com. Drudge is fairly conservative, (some might argue that he is uber-conservative, but I disagree) but fairly thorough. I have Google filtered to give me a ton of national and science-based stories. All in all, these both serve to collect news from a large variety of sources. It serves to keep the reader on his or her toes, by keeping fresh points of view present.

I have a few more specialized news sources I check on a daily basis as well. I keep up with our neighbors across the pond with euro news, and stay current with my nerd news via slashdot. Euro News fills in the spaces missed by mainstream media regarding Europe, and slashdot fills in the things that media deems too obscure on which to report.

I also check a few other random sites on a frequent basis. The Onion is the best, and their sister site AV Club offers some good reviews of music, games, movies, etc. Geekologie is quickly becoming a favorite as well…sort of like swantron, oddly enough. I keep up on my beloved Chicago Cubs on viewfromthebleachers.com, and to a lesser extent cubs.com.

Consider yourselves warned…but please don’t cut out the middleman and stop checking this site out. swantron.com FTW!

Choosing an ISP

How times change. I can remember a time in the not-so-distant past where AOL disks would show up in the mail on a daily basis. Flash forward less than a decade, and here we are with a bevy of internet service provider options. You name it, DSL…cable…satellite, mobile wireless, and even ol’ clunky, dial-up can be tracked down in 2010. The question is: where to start?

How about right here at this link about internet providers. ISPcompared.com has a bunch of slick content on their site. Here is the one that jumped out at me. They have a tool with which you can gauge your internet speed. Here is the result of my test.

graph
graphs are c00l

Oh snaps! I’m closer to the T2 than to the T1, you Bresnan suckaz!
~~Note: I don’t care for Bresnan much…between the spotty cable “reception” and the broken HDMI out on my DVR, I am not a proponent of Bresnan. The internet connection is screaming fast, however. Moreover, venting about Bresnan is good times~~

Anyhow, the above link has some other good material. Using the Broadband Internet Service Lookup Tool, I managed to plug my info for Bozeman in and see my options. Unfortunately, looks like the Verizon deal might be worth a second look. Unfortunate, since Verizon’s customer service is actually worse than that of Bresnan. Tech support FTL.

On a lighter note, check this out…

dialup
Dial-up Fail

It is completely Martian to me when I see or hear about somebody using dial-up. But…a ton of people do. God only knows why…with prices like those. Also, I assumed my parents were the only people left in the world not using webmail. That list made me laugh…I wonder if swantron@juno.platinum.com is taken?

I couldn’t be that fortunate…I’d probably end up with robot_ninjaaa69@juno.platinum.com. Which is very awesome.

Domain Name Change

Testing the new uploads…I have made the 100% switch from bouncerblog…images might be jacked up, but the indexing appears to be working. webmastering ftw